This is off topic, Joyce, but I want to say it. The right leaning SCOTUS wanted so much to frame the Liberal Justices with the "leak" of Alito's brief on Roe v Wade. You and I both know this is true. So, today they had everyone answer sworn affidavits to include the law clerks who work for the Justices. Apparently, they were reminded that they could be charged if they were not truthful, so some amended to say that they did talk to their spouses about Alito's brief. Here is my firm belief: The leaker was NOT from the Liberal side. Why? Because if it was, they'd have had Alito screaming about it on Fox News tonight. So, it was Ginni Thomas and some others on the Conservative side, and of course they weren't about to toss them under the bus. Someone NEEDS to point this out and hold them to task! I nominate you with my blessing. Boom! Yes, we are all in this together, but some of us have more to lose than others. Carry on.
Robert Reich pointed out in his essay today that “everyone was told there could be dismissed if found to be the leaker”. He also pointed out that justices can’t be dismissed - ergo, the leak was likely one of them because they were probably not even interviewed. He saw nothing to indicate that they were.
When the report of the Supreme Court Marshal came out, it became apparent that while all the full-time & part-time employees were questioned & their phones examined, none of the Justices were examined. The Court was asked directly if that is true, but an answer has not yet been forthcoming. (See The Law Dork’s substack post yesterday.)
Not a real investigation. Justices (spouses) weren’t interviewed, QED. They Hobby Lobby case was talked about at dinner with Alito and wife at dinner of hosted by the Bob-profit thar provides access to (conservative justices. Roberts knows this, he’s a coward and ineffectual leader ... letting the extremists run the court. He’s the McCarthy of the court, a gavel vs. doing the best for country and the constitution.
The "Leak" is the message. The world is so riven by immoral competing factions that there can be no hope of a "liberal democratic" process to bring about any sort of meaningful consensus at these times. This concept runs throughout Mein Kampf. Whether or not liberal parliamentary democracy worked in the pre-industrial age, in modern times, it cannot, said the little corporal.
I'm so glad I get to read, on a regular basis, that we're all in this together because with all the crazy things going on I'd think it was me that was going nuts if I had no validation! And living in Louisiana, that's pretty hard to find! The GQTP is going crazy but with people like Santos , MTG, Gosar, Bobart and so many others I think they're shedding voters! They managed to make some of my trump relatives, just a few so far, tune TFG out and start questioning others -- no easy feat! And if the GQTP concentrate on ending SSI & Medicare/Medicaid, 23% tax and investigations Bengazi (sp?) style etc., I think they're handing us another win in 2024!!! Cathy
Yes and don’t fall for that 23% tax line. It’s a 30 % tax. 23 is when they take the percentage from 130 instead of 100. Tricky, eh? It’s our job not to repeat their misleading number.
Hah, more than misleading! It’s nonsensical, unless we are in an oligarchy where the same person receives both the money for the produce or service and the tax money. The customer pays 100% of the price for the product or service and an additional 30% as tax. The oligarch’s bonus is 23% of the pile of money they just took in. Ratios are about perspective. The 23% number may be saying the quiet stuff out loud, I think.
Lordy, Lordy. Mtg won’t sign a clean bill to raise the debt limit. Someone please explain to the gentlewoman from Georgia that representatives VOTE for or against bills. The executive SIGNS bills, or vetos them. Perhaps she means she will not SIGN ON to a clean bill as in she will. It become a sponsor or co-sponsor. Once again mtg displays her ignorance of how government works.
Congratulations on your award! You are providing a great service, and we genuinely are appreciative. The issue that has been plaguing me, and I write this with all due respect and I don't mean to put you on the spot, is that we are where we are because the DOJ hasn't done their job. We are constantly being told that it is our responsibility to solve all these problems, but where is the DOJ?
Attorney General Merrick Garland was sworn in on March 11, 2021, and the DOJ hasn't indicted one Congressional Republican for their participation in the Insurrection and coup, and for trying to overturn the 2020 election. All of the people you mention who are now in leadership positions in the House were allegedly involved in many seditious activities. Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, and Scott Perry all ignored the subpoenas that the January 6 Select Committee issued in June of 2021, and in December, Rep. Raskin said the committee couldn't issue criminal referrals, and sent referrals to the Ethics Committee, which will do nothing.
Most of the people I know feel that if the DOJ had done their job, Republicans wouldn't have won a majority in the House, and we wouldn't be where we are today.
The January 6 committee issued a criminal referral for Mark Meadows to the DOJ in December, 2021, and AG Garland sat on it for six months and then quashed it. Eleven members of the Freedom Caucus attended the December 21, 2021 White House Meeting with Trump, Pence, Meadows, and Giuliani (which you mentioned in your last post) to discuss overturning the 2020 election, and it would seem as if nothing has been done about it in a year.
The list goes on and on. I have voted in almost every election for 51 years. I volunteer. I contribute money to campaigns. I write letters to GOTV. I have signed more petitions in the last six years than in the preceding 45 years. I write emails to my democratic senators and representative. I have written 30 emails to President Biden, and almost every single one of my concerns about the lack of effort from the very beginning to pass voting rights legislation, and the lack of forward movement by the DOJ to hold Republican politicians responsible for the Insurrection and Coup, and for overturning the 2020 election, has fallen on deaf ears.
Democratic voters are working throughout the country to protect our voting rights. They have stood in long lines to vote. The bottom line is that we are losing the battle, because no Republicans politicians have not been punished for their criminality and sedition. I would genuinely appreciate your writing a post on this issue.
Thank you SusanB for writing exactly what I was going to write - although you did so much more eloquently than I could have mustered this morning.
Everyone says for those of us not wanting to live in a theocratic fascist state to do more, to make ourselves heard, to vote harder and so on. We have been and look where we are.
I can’t count the emails I’ve have sent to the WH on everything from Garland’s complicity with trump to DeJoy still destroying the USPS to Biden’s flat out refusal to accept reality on the Afghanistan withdrawal and publicly disrespecting every service member who contributed to the DOD’s report on the same by saying he didn’t believe any of it. (I am a veteran and that bullshit really pissed me off.) I donate what I can to organizations doing what I can’t. I used to vote split ticket but after 2016 will never do so again. I can’t go door to door here in the trump loving small town in crimson red Indiana where I unfortunately live to ask if people want to discuss politics. One, I’m immune compromised and the pandemic isn’t over and two, as soon as I even suggest a different way of looking at politics I would either be invited to depart the front porch while staring down a loaded weapon or I’d just be shot.
So, as SusanB asks - when those in positions of power and authority aren’t doing their jobs and are not taking this moment as deadly serious as they should be, exactly how else are we - non-power holding citizens - supposed to bring about change?
Thank you so much for your response! I awakened this morning,--having stayed up until 4:00 in the morning writing my comment--and knowing that my concerns about the DOJ probably wouldn't be acknowledged, and wondering why I continue writing so much about this, when I get very few written responses (except yours in this case, which made it worthwhile). I must apologize in advance for the length of what I'm writing, and the negativity.
When I read your first sentence, at least I knew that there is one other person who feels as strongly about this as I do. In fact, we agree about everything. It is the large issues as well as the smaller ones, which actually are very important as well because they suggest that nobody is in charge. Like you, I wrote to Biden about DeJoy working to destroy the post office, and then later wrote how disappointed I was when the FBI investigation into his campaign finance violations was dropped. Now, I believe DeJoy can be replaced, and Biden still is doing nothing. I also wrote with rage about the Afghanistan withdrawal and ignoring the information in the DOD report. (Thank you for your service. I can't even imagine how angry were.)
In terms of Garland, at first I believed he was protecting Trump because he mistakenly believed that protecting the "presidential office" was more important than protecting our democracy. Then I read a long article about what a difficult decision it is to decide on indicting a president, although Nixon would have been impeached if he hadn't resigned. And, much later, I read that Speaker Pelosi never was in favor of either impeachment, eventually agreed to both, but didn't strategize with Republicans who might have helped us, and that's why we botched them. The argument is best stated in the book, Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress's Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump by Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian.
In terms of Garland, I no longer care what motivates him, I just want him replaced. But, Biden, like Pelosi, didn't want Trump impeached the second time. He was too busy doing the Bipartisan Shuffle, and worrying Republicans wouldn't vote for his legislative agenda, which in most cases, they didn't anyway. And, while we can criticize Garland, Biden could have fired him at any time, and didn't.
I also was highly distressed that Biden never told every single department head, particularly in the 19 Intelligence Agencies, to "clean house" and vet Trump appointees whom we knew committed crimes because they were reported. Also, there were a flurry of appointments during Trump's last days in office, which could have been undone if Biden had acted. Now, these folks are embedded.
Since September 2021, I had stopped hoping that the January 6th Committee would do anything about seditious Congressional Republicans when they didn't issue the Interim Report, as they had promised, which should have name names and alleged crimes, and been issued before the midterms. The only explanation that makes sense is that Democratic members of the committee didn't have the courage to disagree with Liz Cheney, whose only goal, at which she failed, was to prevent Trump from ever running for office again.
And, all of this leads into your final question about our politicians not taking this as seriously as they should, and how we can bring about change. The short answer is that I don't know. When Trump was president and lost the election, he spent the entire time after that (and before, from what we subsequently learned) planning the Insurrection and Coup, working to overturn the 2020 election, and doing everything humanly possible to continue destroying our democracy and democratic institutions. And, Garland did nothing about it.
After the midterms, when we lost the House, Democrats spent most of their time taking victory laps because we didn't lose as badly as we might have, and passing a few important bills. But, what we needed to accomplish was to pass legislation about the debt ceiling (Schumer should have cancelled the recess until the bill was passed), and find a way to stop Republicans from being seated in January. Our leaders should have met with the best Constitutional law professors and prosecutors in the country to determine a course of action, but undoubtedly didn't. And, Biden needed to replace his press secretary and the entire department, and hire people with more gravitas and experience, who knew how to develop and could wage a campaign against the seditionists, who are now in charge of the House. And he did nothing.
Possibly, we should have filed lawsuits against every single Congressional Republican who allegedly was involved in sedition, as MTG's constituents had filed a lawsuit against her, trying to stop her from being on the ballot. MTG prevailed, despite "failing to remember anything." But, there was a lot of important press. While she won her seat, it was in one of the reddest gerrymandered areas.
I am writing all of this...because it probably will be the last comment I make here. As far as I am concerned, what I want is action, not words. After two years of the Biden presidency, we are in worse shape domestically than I ever imagined, because aside from the lower level trials, and those against the domestic terrorist groups, the seditionists are running the show. And, they are emboldened because we have proven that our politicians doesn't have the guts "to do" anything, but talk. Biden's Attorney General has not indicted one Congressional Republican. And Biden said he was willing to work with McCarthy before McCarthy even was elected as Speaker. I guess he learned nothing from his willingness to work with Manchin and Sinema, and all the Congressional Republicans who waylaid the first part of his presidency.
I'm tired of reading that the wheels of Justice move slowly. I'm tired of reading that voters will flock to the Democratic Party in 2024 because they don't like what Republicans are doing. Doesn't anyone ask themselves, by what margin did Senator Warnock win Georgia, when he was running against a brain-damaged candidate, who said nothing intelligible? The answer is: Warnock won 58.1% to 48.6%. It wasn't a sweep at all, and 79 million dollars was spent in TV ads during a four-week campaign. And, a few days later, Senator Sinema changes parties, and yet retained all of her committee assignments, for which we can thank Chuck Schumer.
My only hope now is that Jack Smith will prevail...and hopefully the sooner the better, because if he waits too long, there might not be a Democracy to protect. I apologize for my negativity. I need to try and come up with a possible plan of action because I can't live without hope. But, right now, I'm tapped out. I could point to all the positives of the midterms, and I am well aware of them, but what bothers me is that I don't think we learned anything from the election that will translate to the next one. And, if we spend the next two years, whining about Republican abuses, it's not a winning strategy.
When we had the power, we didn't effectively use it. And, while there are different leaders, there is already a questionable decision by Hakeem Jeffries, who endorsed and campaigned for an anti-abortion judge to lead the New York Court of Appeals. And, Pete Aquilar, who is now the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, showed absolutely no leadership qualities whatsoever as a member of the January 6th Committee. Go figure!
Hi Susan. You are welcome. Also, no need to apologize for the length of your reply or for what you called “my negativity”. You aren’t being negative at all - you are being realistic. I agree with everything you have written here. I will look into the book “Unchecked”. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
To touch on a few things you mention - Biden could have replaced DeJoy from the beginning. As I understand it there are two ways for the President to do that. One, you have to install your own people on the board when the positions open up and then they remove him. Or, the President can fire the entire board for incompetence or underhanded dealings and then start over. Biden could have done the latter at any time - the incompetence was quite clear - but chose to wait until last year to fill the two slots that opened up. Nothing has been done since then. I don’t believe anything will be. Biden doesn’t care. Why would he? He’s a career politician. Taking it down to the smallest point - when was the last time he opened his own mail? Why would he care that the mail has been slowed down and costs more for poorer service? Biden is also a corporate politician - he will side with big business and the CEO’s every time. His record proves this. I imagine the USPS will continue to be dismantled until DeJoy gets his way and has it privatized - which he will grow richer from. A once reliable public service that reached everyone will become out of reach except for those who can afford it.
The Afghanistan withdrawal was an absolute disgrace. There was no reason to stick to whatever bs plan trump put into action before he left. Biden could have directed the State Dept to begin negotiations again. The withdrawal should have been meticulously planned with several layers of backup plans in place before it was implemented. Every Afghan who assisted us during our time there should have been taken care and gotten out of the country instead of being left to hide, to find their own way out or to die at the hands of the Taliban. It was a complete disaster - except for all those servicemembers who busted their asses helping as many people as possible with what little direction and support they were given and those who died and were injured doing so - AND not one person who was responsible for the shit show was reprimanded or lost their command. In fact, Biden made a very public statement that he wasn’t going to fire anyone - he said that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. What the hell? What kind of a Commander in Chief is that? And when he snapped at the reporters that he didn’t believe one word of the DOD report? He threw every single service member who told the truth under the bus. The Commander in Chief called them all liars - in public. Several times. I know what it takes to stand up and tell the truth when in uniform, especially when it concerns a disaster like that and doing so means calling out the top brass. Biden showed a complete lack of leadership and personal character when he did that.
Pelosi has always been a corporate politician. She sided with her donors - corporations and individuals - every time. She wasn’t the end all/be all people say. That she dragged her feet on the impeachments says everything. That she mocked the progressive Democrats in public, repeatedly, showed - in my opinion - just how petty and vindictive she was and what a rotten leader. A good leader doesn’t mock their subordinates or the people on their team in front of everyone. If you have a problem you handle it one on one. If you need to dress down a subordinate in front of others you do so carefully and to the point of what they’ve done and why it needs to be called out. Her stunt of ripping up trump’s speech and clapping mockingly was childish, not a show of strength.
Schumer is weak and unable to make strong decisions. Hakeem Jeffries - yeah, not the right choice. His backing the disaster of a judge for New York says it all.
Garland is worst than useless. He let trump stonewall and lie and bullshit for two full years on the documents he stole. Two full years! He is, through the DOJ, actually backing/representing trump in multiple lawsuits against him. Biden and the DOJ stopped the lawsuit against MSB for having Jamal Kashogi murdered. (Excuse my misspellings.) As you mentioned, seditionists were allowed to run for office and are now in Congress. That should not have been allowed. Every single person at the Jan 6th insurrection should be behind bars and should have been put there on Jan 6th. No bail. Every single person should have been charged with sedition and attempting to overthrow our government; others charged with treason as well. Every single person who fomented and funded the insurrection, including Ginny Thomas, should be behind bars waiting for their trial. I think Garland is compromised. Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa have done a great deal of research on this (and other subjects) on Gaslit Nation and are worth a read/listen. But a warning - it is all negative and can be overwhelming.
The day after Biden took office the DOJ should have opened a wide-ranging investigation into every crime the entire trump administration committed. They certainly weren’t hiding. I am so sick of each President allowing the previous administration go unpunished for their crimes (when crimes were committed). When people aren’t held legally accountable to the fullest extent of our laws they know they can keep on doing whatever the hell they want. Jan 6th was a practice run that showed exactly how spineless our government and DOJ are. The next insurrection will succeed because it will be based on the lessons learned.
I know exactly what you mean about coming up with a possible plan of action for yourself. I’ve been working on the same. I have decided to do what I can within the realm of my small life. If I can make a difference by how I live and those I interact with that is what will matter - the small, day to day actions. I will donate what I can to organizations I trust that are working to hold off the Republican takeover. I will always vote of course - at least until we lose the right. But, I no longer write or call my Congressional reps - all 3 are trump lapdogs and throwing my effort away on them isn’t worth it. I doubt I’ll contact the White House again. I won’t be voting for Biden or Harris in 2024 but I will vote for others on the Democratic ticket. I had to make myself vote for them the first time and I did so because they weren’t trump but I won’t do it again. I can’t. I look at the headlines in the morning and then get on with my day. During trump’s time in the WH I had to start blood pressure medicine because it all became too much and was directly affecting my health. I knew then I had to pay attention to what I can do myself, to help where I personally can, to reach out only to those who are trying to help and to take care of myself so I can continue to do those things.
You aren’t alone in your anger or grief. I wish you only the best as you figure out what path to take for yourself. ~Kasumii
Hi Kasumii! Just want you to know that it's taking me forever to write my response to what you've written, which I totally agree with, and am awed by your honesty. I've been having vision problems, and things are getting blurry, but I will be responding tomorrow. So please check back them.
Hi Kasumii! I just spent an hour writing you a lengthy response and lost it when I tried to find an article I wanted to recommend at the very end. The problem is that I can't rewrite the first part, which was about how I responded to the parts of your comment about DeJoy and Afghanistan. I agreed with everything else you wrote. But I wanted to let you know how passionately I felt about the terrible tragedy that was the Afghanistan withdrawal and that you brought a new perspective to it that I couldn't have known about, and truly appreciated. I am unable to to rewrite this part because it was/is such an emotional issue for me.
What I wrote about DeJoy was far less important, but I did want you to know I never imagined that Biden didn't care, but you must be right. And, perhaps Democrats don't realized it, but if he is willing to allow DeJoy to privatize the post office, it is so much worse. For a president who allegedly represents the working class, the postal union has repeatedly spoken out about DeJoy who eliminated 657 postal sorting machines, which are described as "multi-million dollar machines" by August 2020, and they will not be replaced. In my email to Biden about that, I also said that I didn't understand why the FBI dropped their case against DeJoy. What I learned today is that USPS has been sued by dozens of states and organizations because of the slower delivery of mail, which has impacted mail-order ballots and mail delivery in general. Once, again, we taxpayers will foot the bill for these lawsuits, which are due to gross incompetence. It's the same with the billions of dollars of COVID relief money, which Republican governors have misspent, and as far as I know, Garland has filed no lawsuits against them.
What I explained after these paragraphs was that in my first draft, I was writing about topic after topic that you had written about in support of what you wrote, and adding additional information. But, it wasn't just my eyes that were hurting last night. I started feeling very depressed. And, what I realized this morning was this is what happens when I start writing about anything that happened during the Trump administration.
The problem is that my husband of 40 years died on July 3, 2020. And, a psychiatrist recently told me that she thinks that when I write about or think about the Trump presidency, I get terribly depressed because my husband's five-year decline and death is interrelated, and what occurs is like PTSD, and brings up all kinds of bad feelings and memories, that I am unable to stop.
It wasn't so bad last night because I realized what was happening and listened to music instead. But, this morning, I deleted the draft I had saved, started anew, and then lost everything. All I can say is that I agree with everything...from how Biden should have handled the Insurrectionists to what you wrote about him, Garland and Pelosi, and truly everything else.
For the last five years, I was active on another political site, but found that everything changed once Biden was sworn in, and any criticism of how he handled things or how Garland did, received so many negative responses that I stopped writing about both men. I don't write to argue. I write express my point of view, and "to learn." If someone presents a different point of view, or something that I haven't thought about, I genuinely appreciate it. When I don't like an article, I stop reading it. But, there are people who truly love arguing, which isn't my cup of tea.
When I took a break from the other site and came here, it was because I was angry all the time. It had gotten to the point where there was little I agreed with. Before Trump entered the 2016 presidential race, I wasn't an angry person. But I feel like I have been since. Still, I was so busy taking care of my husband, that I only spent a limited time online.
After my husband, who was my best friend, died, I haven't adjusted very well to widowhood. He was homebound and mostly bedridden for five years, and while I initially could go out, once he started falling, I couldn't. And, then there was COVID, and then he died. And, suddenly, I was disinterested in all my hobbies, interests, and friends.
But, I retained my interest in politics...which probably wasn't healthy, given the amount of time I started spending online. And, despite Biden's accomplishments, I have remained angry about all of the things he does that I believe are wrong. He had months to act on Roe v Wade because we knew when the decision would reach SCOTUS, he did nothing, and suddenly it was a big surprise when they overturned it. He had known from day 1 that the only play he's got about SCOTUS is to expand it, and won't do it. He should have brought forth voting rights bills during the first few weeks of his presidency, but was doing the Bipartisan Shuffle instead. He knew about Trump for years, and did nothing about him until he made the Labor Day speech, and didn't follow through afterwards. He knew that Garland was accomplishing nothing, and didn't fire him. And, there is so much more, which I can't remember right now. While he has access to the smartest people in the United States and the world, either he truly doesn't believe in seeking advice from them, believes he knows everything, or is unable to make decisions.
In any event, I took a break from the other site because I was spending too much time there, and getting too angry. Things finally began changing in the last two weeks, and I decided to join this site. But, after a few weeks, I finally realized that Joyce, for whom I have great respect, will never write about Garland's role in what's going on, which I believe is the key to everything that has happened and continues to happen. She probably won't write about the breakdown of the legal system, and possibly about the fact that an adherence to the Constitution may not be able to solve our problems, when SCOTUS has gone rogue and the Republican are a lawless fascist cult. And, given her background, it's understandable, but not satisfying.
There have been a few people besides you, whom I've connected with. Still, from what you wrote, it is extraordinarily that we agree on everything, and we both are passionate about our beliefs.
But, what I learned from you that will be life-changing is this, although I have edited for my own needs. "I have decided to do what I can within the realm of my small life. If I can make a difference by how I live and those I interact with that is what will matter - the small, day to day actions. I will donate what I can to organizations I trust that are working to hold off the Republican takeover. I will always vote of course - at least until we lose the right. But, I no longer will write or call my Congressional reps. I doubt I’ll contact the White House again. I won’t be voting for Biden or Harris in 2024 but I will vote for others on the Democratic ticket. I look at the headlines in the morning and then get on with my day."
And, that is a path I can take, although I know I'll vote for Biden or Harris if I have no other choice. My problem was that I felt if I walked away from the discussion, I would be "part of the problem, not the solution" (a sixties mantra I learned in college, although I didn't agree with Eldridge Cleaver about anything else).
But, I realize now that I have used politics as an excuse. It's intellectually stimulating, something I always have cared about, and I enjoy political research. But, the world isn't a better place because of the political articles I have written or the comments I have made. I didn't have a big enough audience to influence people or change their minds.
The truth is that these communities have helped me, while I have dealt with my loss and grief. But, the news makes me angry despite that fact that I am not angry by nature. I always was a "glass is half-full" person, and need to become that person again. And, it is time to interact with people in person, and make a real difference.
But, I couldn't seem to figure that out until I read what you had written. It may be that I don't have to leave this community to do that. But, I'll have to think about it! Still, I can't thank you enough!
Joyce I have great respect for you, I feel the legal education I receive from you is unmatched, I love the chicken stories and pictures. Your remarks on the issues we are facing are always delivered with such acumen..
I’m certainly not trying to take a shoot the messenger tone..
However, this offering details all of the ways the Crazies of the GOP have succeeded to maneuver themselves into running our House of Representatives, passing voter suppression laws, all across the country, causing, an evaporating voice at the ballot box, even with Marc Elias and his group doing their best..
With this paragraph “Early talk of using the 14th Amendment to disqualify them didn’t pan out. Now there seems to be tacit acceptance that they are here to stay.” I see an unacceptably weak, vapid, almost indifferent attitude and effort from Democracy’s leaders to do anything about it.. I’m left wanting for the desperate measures so needed to fight back in these desperate times..
Dems are giving them rope to hang themselves. The Rs still haven’t learned despite another losing election that could have given them 20-30 seats as McCarthy boasted, but only got slim line of losing bills by 5 votes. So now they give prime committee seats to the worst clowns among them and think they will keep their slim majority in 2024 - especially after trashing the economy and trying hard to get rid of Social Security and Medicare!
Why aren't the democrats educating the ignorant Republicans? No one mentions this, or covers Congressional sessions that I have seen on MSNBC. All I hear are how ignorant or psychopaths that are the extreme conservatives. I agree with your assessments, and thank you for them, however, Democrats should be filibustering the heck out of the Republicans till they get the message that they are trying to destroy our country, economy and psyche's. From California and feel like I need to know how to talk to these people and let them know what they are doing. Also, pleased that maybe FOX will straighten up a little as they face a suit by voting machine manufacturer! As pointed out today, the only thing that the ignorant right wing listens to is money and power. Losing enough money might help...Thanks again for your research and informative information on Civil Discourse. (Hard to stay Civil these days...that from a 76 year old grandmother! who has lived through so much, but nothing as crazy as the ignorance and selfishness of the current Republican Party. ie. missed the Civil war...))
“Democrats should be filibustering the heck out of the Republicans till they get the message that they are trying to destroy our country, economy and psyche's.”
EXACTLY! I guess I don’t understand why that’s not happening.
As 57yr equestrian, "Heads Up!" has a potent meaning. The application of "heads down" in the context of our broken country is spot on. Barb McQuaid said on Deadline WH we are suffering as a country from loss of shame. I agree although I would point to the very slim margins by which democrats won in 2022 as evidence nearly half of this country want us to be 1923 and not 2023. Until good people like the Sisters In Law and those who follow them give Brandi Lee's tweets their full merit, we will continue to suffer Santoses as an anomoly when they are not. From that place there will be no moving the majority of the country toward healing and wholeness. There will definetly be more Penas and their violence.
I believe assumptions are dangerous and by staying focused and tuning out the obliteration of all our sensibilities by the babies on the right, we might just have a chance to get through this and save ourselves.
Santos can't even use what he claims as his first language (English) correctly - but then, neither can any of the other semi-literate uneducable morons in the Confederate White People's Treason Party.
So grateful to greet you on your “tell it like it is” moment this evening Joyce. As disturbing as things appear, I see all this as a turning point in strengthening our efforts and determination to tune out the mod squad rhetoric and focus. Hello to your chicks and thanks again 🇺🇸
This just hit me. When I first was able to vote many years ago (I am 75) I voted gop mainly because my parents. Being raised in conservative Orange County Ca. It was a given. We had A mix of opinions in my family.Holiday dinners always ended in nearly shouting matches. My Great Uncle would have voted for Mickey Mouse if they had a “R” . My uncle was a great debater, a educator whose field was history. He was the DEM. Somewhere in very early 20 really started to listen to what was being said that’s when a became a democrat. Now register as independent so do not get so many calls,mail etc. what I am trying to say is many people do not have the good fortune to really listen to both sides so if good enough for mom,dad, grandpa, good enough for them. How do you get these people to open their eyes ? This is the reason I believe that all the nut jobs got elected once again.
When I read, "Don't Look Up," I thought of Chicken Little and, "The sky is falling." But it has been real and going on for years but I don't trust any house "republican" who gaslight instead of legislate. McConnell also did a great job screwing us (as did his wife) but doesn't get enough credit for it.
I saw Ben-Ghiat's comment about those who will seek out the party will attract criminals (like the malignant narcissist did), like Gingrich did, like Gosar, Bohbert, and the other nuts.
Oy vey. Love seeing the newsletters and wish I were an ostrich.
OK, starting on page 18... "...Ohioans appearing at a polling place to vote in-person have been able to prove their identity by offering any of the following: (1) a current and valid photo identification, (2) a military identification, (3) a copy of a current utility bill, (4) a copy of a bank statement, (5) a copy of a government check, or (6) a copy of any other “government document”" Utility bill, bank statement, government check - that's a lot of personal information being subjected to scrutiny just to vote.
Page 19-20.... "Meanwhile, it eliminates public-college students’ existing ability to use grade reports and other school documents containing their addresses as valid forms of identification at the polls." There, again, that's a fair amount of personal information just to vote.
I kept reading. Indeed, "an eye-opener" and stomach-churning. Not only is it voter-suppression but it seems to be quite an invasion of privacy.
“Voting truly is the answer, possibly the only one. That means we’ve got to work hard to protect the process.”
Voting is critically important, yes. But in a democracy, citizen participation needs to go on all year round. Many of your engaged and informed readership are possibly active in good government advocacy groups. These groups are pressing for change on many important issues. My group is working to end gerrymandering in my state and I have seen legislator eyebrows rise when informed of how many of their constituents are on our mailing list. Among other things, we facilitate calls between constituents and their legislator. Such conversations makes a difference. People can, at minimum, be on the mailing list of groups working on issues they care about and get in the habit of communicating with their legislators at relevant times. Those with more energy can help organize!
This is off topic, Joyce, but I want to say it. The right leaning SCOTUS wanted so much to frame the Liberal Justices with the "leak" of Alito's brief on Roe v Wade. You and I both know this is true. So, today they had everyone answer sworn affidavits to include the law clerks who work for the Justices. Apparently, they were reminded that they could be charged if they were not truthful, so some amended to say that they did talk to their spouses about Alito's brief. Here is my firm belief: The leaker was NOT from the Liberal side. Why? Because if it was, they'd have had Alito screaming about it on Fox News tonight. So, it was Ginni Thomas and some others on the Conservative side, and of course they weren't about to toss them under the bus. Someone NEEDS to point this out and hold them to task! I nominate you with my blessing. Boom! Yes, we are all in this together, but some of us have more to lose than others. Carry on.
Of course the leak was not on the liberal side. And did Justice Thomas sign an affidavit as well??????
Robert Reich pointed out in his essay today that “everyone was told there could be dismissed if found to be the leaker”. He also pointed out that justices can’t be dismissed - ergo, the leak was likely one of them because they were probably not even interviewed. He saw nothing to indicate that they were.
When the report of the Supreme Court Marshal came out, it became apparent that while all the full-time & part-time employees were questioned & their phones examined, none of the Justices were examined. The Court was asked directly if that is true, but an answer has not yet been forthcoming. (See The Law Dork’s substack post yesterday.)
My hair stood on end when I read this lame report on the search for the leaker. Tin pot SCOTUS.
lol. you are a comedian.
Not a real investigation. Justices (spouses) weren’t interviewed, QED. They Hobby Lobby case was talked about at dinner with Alito and wife at dinner of hosted by the Bob-profit thar provides access to (conservative justices. Roberts knows this, he’s a coward and ineffectual leader ... letting the extremists run the court. He’s the McCarthy of the court, a gavel vs. doing the best for country and the constitution.
I believe it was Alito himself.
The "Leak" is the message. The world is so riven by immoral competing factions that there can be no hope of a "liberal democratic" process to bring about any sort of meaningful consensus at these times. This concept runs throughout Mein Kampf. Whether or not liberal parliamentary democracy worked in the pre-industrial age, in modern times, it cannot, said the little corporal.
Exactly.
I'm so glad I get to read, on a regular basis, that we're all in this together because with all the crazy things going on I'd think it was me that was going nuts if I had no validation! And living in Louisiana, that's pretty hard to find! The GQTP is going crazy but with people like Santos , MTG, Gosar, Bobart and so many others I think they're shedding voters! They managed to make some of my trump relatives, just a few so far, tune TFG out and start questioning others -- no easy feat! And if the GQTP concentrate on ending SSI & Medicare/Medicaid, 23% tax and investigations Bengazi (sp?) style etc., I think they're handing us another win in 2024!!! Cathy
Yes and don’t fall for that 23% tax line. It’s a 30 % tax. 23 is when they take the percentage from 130 instead of 100. Tricky, eh? It’s our job not to repeat their misleading number.
Hah, more than misleading! It’s nonsensical, unless we are in an oligarchy where the same person receives both the money for the produce or service and the tax money. The customer pays 100% of the price for the product or service and an additional 30% as tax. The oligarch’s bonus is 23% of the pile of money they just took in. Ratios are about perspective. The 23% number may be saying the quiet stuff out loud, I think.
“Product”, which could be “produce” sometimes!
Indubitably 👏👏👏👏👏
Lordy, Lordy. Mtg won’t sign a clean bill to raise the debt limit. Someone please explain to the gentlewoman from Georgia that representatives VOTE for or against bills. The executive SIGNS bills, or vetos them. Perhaps she means she will not SIGN ON to a clean bill as in she will. It become a sponsor or co-sponsor. Once again mtg displays her ignorance of how government works.
You think Madame Potato Face has a brain??? That's most definitely "a fact not in evidence."
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
I see she spent the last 2 years without tasked with any committee work NOT learning a damn thing about government. So like TFG.
Congratulations on your award! You are providing a great service, and we genuinely are appreciative. The issue that has been plaguing me, and I write this with all due respect and I don't mean to put you on the spot, is that we are where we are because the DOJ hasn't done their job. We are constantly being told that it is our responsibility to solve all these problems, but where is the DOJ?
Attorney General Merrick Garland was sworn in on March 11, 2021, and the DOJ hasn't indicted one Congressional Republican for their participation in the Insurrection and coup, and for trying to overturn the 2020 election. All of the people you mention who are now in leadership positions in the House were allegedly involved in many seditious activities. Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, and Scott Perry all ignored the subpoenas that the January 6 Select Committee issued in June of 2021, and in December, Rep. Raskin said the committee couldn't issue criminal referrals, and sent referrals to the Ethics Committee, which will do nothing.
Most of the people I know feel that if the DOJ had done their job, Republicans wouldn't have won a majority in the House, and we wouldn't be where we are today.
The January 6 committee issued a criminal referral for Mark Meadows to the DOJ in December, 2021, and AG Garland sat on it for six months and then quashed it. Eleven members of the Freedom Caucus attended the December 21, 2021 White House Meeting with Trump, Pence, Meadows, and Giuliani (which you mentioned in your last post) to discuss overturning the 2020 election, and it would seem as if nothing has been done about it in a year.
The list goes on and on. I have voted in almost every election for 51 years. I volunteer. I contribute money to campaigns. I write letters to GOTV. I have signed more petitions in the last six years than in the preceding 45 years. I write emails to my democratic senators and representative. I have written 30 emails to President Biden, and almost every single one of my concerns about the lack of effort from the very beginning to pass voting rights legislation, and the lack of forward movement by the DOJ to hold Republican politicians responsible for the Insurrection and Coup, and for overturning the 2020 election, has fallen on deaf ears.
Democratic voters are working throughout the country to protect our voting rights. They have stood in long lines to vote. The bottom line is that we are losing the battle, because no Republicans politicians have not been punished for their criminality and sedition. I would genuinely appreciate your writing a post on this issue.
Thank you SusanB for writing exactly what I was going to write - although you did so much more eloquently than I could have mustered this morning.
Everyone says for those of us not wanting to live in a theocratic fascist state to do more, to make ourselves heard, to vote harder and so on. We have been and look where we are.
I can’t count the emails I’ve have sent to the WH on everything from Garland’s complicity with trump to DeJoy still destroying the USPS to Biden’s flat out refusal to accept reality on the Afghanistan withdrawal and publicly disrespecting every service member who contributed to the DOD’s report on the same by saying he didn’t believe any of it. (I am a veteran and that bullshit really pissed me off.) I donate what I can to organizations doing what I can’t. I used to vote split ticket but after 2016 will never do so again. I can’t go door to door here in the trump loving small town in crimson red Indiana where I unfortunately live to ask if people want to discuss politics. One, I’m immune compromised and the pandemic isn’t over and two, as soon as I even suggest a different way of looking at politics I would either be invited to depart the front porch while staring down a loaded weapon or I’d just be shot.
So, as SusanB asks - when those in positions of power and authority aren’t doing their jobs and are not taking this moment as deadly serious as they should be, exactly how else are we - non-power holding citizens - supposed to bring about change?
Thank you so much for your response! I awakened this morning,--having stayed up until 4:00 in the morning writing my comment--and knowing that my concerns about the DOJ probably wouldn't be acknowledged, and wondering why I continue writing so much about this, when I get very few written responses (except yours in this case, which made it worthwhile). I must apologize in advance for the length of what I'm writing, and the negativity.
When I read your first sentence, at least I knew that there is one other person who feels as strongly about this as I do. In fact, we agree about everything. It is the large issues as well as the smaller ones, which actually are very important as well because they suggest that nobody is in charge. Like you, I wrote to Biden about DeJoy working to destroy the post office, and then later wrote how disappointed I was when the FBI investigation into his campaign finance violations was dropped. Now, I believe DeJoy can be replaced, and Biden still is doing nothing. I also wrote with rage about the Afghanistan withdrawal and ignoring the information in the DOD report. (Thank you for your service. I can't even imagine how angry were.)
In terms of Garland, at first I believed he was protecting Trump because he mistakenly believed that protecting the "presidential office" was more important than protecting our democracy. Then I read a long article about what a difficult decision it is to decide on indicting a president, although Nixon would have been impeached if he hadn't resigned. And, much later, I read that Speaker Pelosi never was in favor of either impeachment, eventually agreed to both, but didn't strategize with Republicans who might have helped us, and that's why we botched them. The argument is best stated in the book, Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress's Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump by Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian.
In terms of Garland, I no longer care what motivates him, I just want him replaced. But, Biden, like Pelosi, didn't want Trump impeached the second time. He was too busy doing the Bipartisan Shuffle, and worrying Republicans wouldn't vote for his legislative agenda, which in most cases, they didn't anyway. And, while we can criticize Garland, Biden could have fired him at any time, and didn't.
I also was highly distressed that Biden never told every single department head, particularly in the 19 Intelligence Agencies, to "clean house" and vet Trump appointees whom we knew committed crimes because they were reported. Also, there were a flurry of appointments during Trump's last days in office, which could have been undone if Biden had acted. Now, these folks are embedded.
Since September 2021, I had stopped hoping that the January 6th Committee would do anything about seditious Congressional Republicans when they didn't issue the Interim Report, as they had promised, which should have name names and alleged crimes, and been issued before the midterms. The only explanation that makes sense is that Democratic members of the committee didn't have the courage to disagree with Liz Cheney, whose only goal, at which she failed, was to prevent Trump from ever running for office again.
And, all of this leads into your final question about our politicians not taking this as seriously as they should, and how we can bring about change. The short answer is that I don't know. When Trump was president and lost the election, he spent the entire time after that (and before, from what we subsequently learned) planning the Insurrection and Coup, working to overturn the 2020 election, and doing everything humanly possible to continue destroying our democracy and democratic institutions. And, Garland did nothing about it.
After the midterms, when we lost the House, Democrats spent most of their time taking victory laps because we didn't lose as badly as we might have, and passing a few important bills. But, what we needed to accomplish was to pass legislation about the debt ceiling (Schumer should have cancelled the recess until the bill was passed), and find a way to stop Republicans from being seated in January. Our leaders should have met with the best Constitutional law professors and prosecutors in the country to determine a course of action, but undoubtedly didn't. And, Biden needed to replace his press secretary and the entire department, and hire people with more gravitas and experience, who knew how to develop and could wage a campaign against the seditionists, who are now in charge of the House. And he did nothing.
Possibly, we should have filed lawsuits against every single Congressional Republican who allegedly was involved in sedition, as MTG's constituents had filed a lawsuit against her, trying to stop her from being on the ballot. MTG prevailed, despite "failing to remember anything." But, there was a lot of important press. While she won her seat, it was in one of the reddest gerrymandered areas.
I am writing all of this...because it probably will be the last comment I make here. As far as I am concerned, what I want is action, not words. After two years of the Biden presidency, we are in worse shape domestically than I ever imagined, because aside from the lower level trials, and those against the domestic terrorist groups, the seditionists are running the show. And, they are emboldened because we have proven that our politicians doesn't have the guts "to do" anything, but talk. Biden's Attorney General has not indicted one Congressional Republican. And Biden said he was willing to work with McCarthy before McCarthy even was elected as Speaker. I guess he learned nothing from his willingness to work with Manchin and Sinema, and all the Congressional Republicans who waylaid the first part of his presidency.
I'm tired of reading that the wheels of Justice move slowly. I'm tired of reading that voters will flock to the Democratic Party in 2024 because they don't like what Republicans are doing. Doesn't anyone ask themselves, by what margin did Senator Warnock win Georgia, when he was running against a brain-damaged candidate, who said nothing intelligible? The answer is: Warnock won 58.1% to 48.6%. It wasn't a sweep at all, and 79 million dollars was spent in TV ads during a four-week campaign. And, a few days later, Senator Sinema changes parties, and yet retained all of her committee assignments, for which we can thank Chuck Schumer.
My only hope now is that Jack Smith will prevail...and hopefully the sooner the better, because if he waits too long, there might not be a Democracy to protect. I apologize for my negativity. I need to try and come up with a possible plan of action because I can't live without hope. But, right now, I'm tapped out. I could point to all the positives of the midterms, and I am well aware of them, but what bothers me is that I don't think we learned anything from the election that will translate to the next one. And, if we spend the next two years, whining about Republican abuses, it's not a winning strategy.
When we had the power, we didn't effectively use it. And, while there are different leaders, there is already a questionable decision by Hakeem Jeffries, who endorsed and campaigned for an anti-abortion judge to lead the New York Court of Appeals. And, Pete Aquilar, who is now the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, showed absolutely no leadership qualities whatsoever as a member of the January 6th Committee. Go figure!
Hi Susan. You are welcome. Also, no need to apologize for the length of your reply or for what you called “my negativity”. You aren’t being negative at all - you are being realistic. I agree with everything you have written here. I will look into the book “Unchecked”. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
To touch on a few things you mention - Biden could have replaced DeJoy from the beginning. As I understand it there are two ways for the President to do that. One, you have to install your own people on the board when the positions open up and then they remove him. Or, the President can fire the entire board for incompetence or underhanded dealings and then start over. Biden could have done the latter at any time - the incompetence was quite clear - but chose to wait until last year to fill the two slots that opened up. Nothing has been done since then. I don’t believe anything will be. Biden doesn’t care. Why would he? He’s a career politician. Taking it down to the smallest point - when was the last time he opened his own mail? Why would he care that the mail has been slowed down and costs more for poorer service? Biden is also a corporate politician - he will side with big business and the CEO’s every time. His record proves this. I imagine the USPS will continue to be dismantled until DeJoy gets his way and has it privatized - which he will grow richer from. A once reliable public service that reached everyone will become out of reach except for those who can afford it.
The Afghanistan withdrawal was an absolute disgrace. There was no reason to stick to whatever bs plan trump put into action before he left. Biden could have directed the State Dept to begin negotiations again. The withdrawal should have been meticulously planned with several layers of backup plans in place before it was implemented. Every Afghan who assisted us during our time there should have been taken care and gotten out of the country instead of being left to hide, to find their own way out or to die at the hands of the Taliban. It was a complete disaster - except for all those servicemembers who busted their asses helping as many people as possible with what little direction and support they were given and those who died and were injured doing so - AND not one person who was responsible for the shit show was reprimanded or lost their command. In fact, Biden made a very public statement that he wasn’t going to fire anyone - he said that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. What the hell? What kind of a Commander in Chief is that? And when he snapped at the reporters that he didn’t believe one word of the DOD report? He threw every single service member who told the truth under the bus. The Commander in Chief called them all liars - in public. Several times. I know what it takes to stand up and tell the truth when in uniform, especially when it concerns a disaster like that and doing so means calling out the top brass. Biden showed a complete lack of leadership and personal character when he did that.
Pelosi has always been a corporate politician. She sided with her donors - corporations and individuals - every time. She wasn’t the end all/be all people say. That she dragged her feet on the impeachments says everything. That she mocked the progressive Democrats in public, repeatedly, showed - in my opinion - just how petty and vindictive she was and what a rotten leader. A good leader doesn’t mock their subordinates or the people on their team in front of everyone. If you have a problem you handle it one on one. If you need to dress down a subordinate in front of others you do so carefully and to the point of what they’ve done and why it needs to be called out. Her stunt of ripping up trump’s speech and clapping mockingly was childish, not a show of strength.
Schumer is weak and unable to make strong decisions. Hakeem Jeffries - yeah, not the right choice. His backing the disaster of a judge for New York says it all.
Garland is worst than useless. He let trump stonewall and lie and bullshit for two full years on the documents he stole. Two full years! He is, through the DOJ, actually backing/representing trump in multiple lawsuits against him. Biden and the DOJ stopped the lawsuit against MSB for having Jamal Kashogi murdered. (Excuse my misspellings.) As you mentioned, seditionists were allowed to run for office and are now in Congress. That should not have been allowed. Every single person at the Jan 6th insurrection should be behind bars and should have been put there on Jan 6th. No bail. Every single person should have been charged with sedition and attempting to overthrow our government; others charged with treason as well. Every single person who fomented and funded the insurrection, including Ginny Thomas, should be behind bars waiting for their trial. I think Garland is compromised. Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa have done a great deal of research on this (and other subjects) on Gaslit Nation and are worth a read/listen. But a warning - it is all negative and can be overwhelming.
The day after Biden took office the DOJ should have opened a wide-ranging investigation into every crime the entire trump administration committed. They certainly weren’t hiding. I am so sick of each President allowing the previous administration go unpunished for their crimes (when crimes were committed). When people aren’t held legally accountable to the fullest extent of our laws they know they can keep on doing whatever the hell they want. Jan 6th was a practice run that showed exactly how spineless our government and DOJ are. The next insurrection will succeed because it will be based on the lessons learned.
I know exactly what you mean about coming up with a possible plan of action for yourself. I’ve been working on the same. I have decided to do what I can within the realm of my small life. If I can make a difference by how I live and those I interact with that is what will matter - the small, day to day actions. I will donate what I can to organizations I trust that are working to hold off the Republican takeover. I will always vote of course - at least until we lose the right. But, I no longer write or call my Congressional reps - all 3 are trump lapdogs and throwing my effort away on them isn’t worth it. I doubt I’ll contact the White House again. I won’t be voting for Biden or Harris in 2024 but I will vote for others on the Democratic ticket. I had to make myself vote for them the first time and I did so because they weren’t trump but I won’t do it again. I can’t. I look at the headlines in the morning and then get on with my day. During trump’s time in the WH I had to start blood pressure medicine because it all became too much and was directly affecting my health. I knew then I had to pay attention to what I can do myself, to help where I personally can, to reach out only to those who are trying to help and to take care of myself so I can continue to do those things.
You aren’t alone in your anger or grief. I wish you only the best as you figure out what path to take for yourself. ~Kasumii
Hi Kasumii! Just want you to know that it's taking me forever to write my response to what you've written, which I totally agree with, and am awed by your honesty. I've been having vision problems, and things are getting blurry, but I will be responding tomorrow. So please check back them.
Hi Kasumii! I just spent an hour writing you a lengthy response and lost it when I tried to find an article I wanted to recommend at the very end. The problem is that I can't rewrite the first part, which was about how I responded to the parts of your comment about DeJoy and Afghanistan. I agreed with everything else you wrote. But I wanted to let you know how passionately I felt about the terrible tragedy that was the Afghanistan withdrawal and that you brought a new perspective to it that I couldn't have known about, and truly appreciated. I am unable to to rewrite this part because it was/is such an emotional issue for me.
What I wrote about DeJoy was far less important, but I did want you to know I never imagined that Biden didn't care, but you must be right. And, perhaps Democrats don't realized it, but if he is willing to allow DeJoy to privatize the post office, it is so much worse. For a president who allegedly represents the working class, the postal union has repeatedly spoken out about DeJoy who eliminated 657 postal sorting machines, which are described as "multi-million dollar machines" by August 2020, and they will not be replaced. In my email to Biden about that, I also said that I didn't understand why the FBI dropped their case against DeJoy. What I learned today is that USPS has been sued by dozens of states and organizations because of the slower delivery of mail, which has impacted mail-order ballots and mail delivery in general. Once, again, we taxpayers will foot the bill for these lawsuits, which are due to gross incompetence. It's the same with the billions of dollars of COVID relief money, which Republican governors have misspent, and as far as I know, Garland has filed no lawsuits against them.
What I explained after these paragraphs was that in my first draft, I was writing about topic after topic that you had written about in support of what you wrote, and adding additional information. But, it wasn't just my eyes that were hurting last night. I started feeling very depressed. And, what I realized this morning was this is what happens when I start writing about anything that happened during the Trump administration.
The problem is that my husband of 40 years died on July 3, 2020. And, a psychiatrist recently told me that she thinks that when I write about or think about the Trump presidency, I get terribly depressed because my husband's five-year decline and death is interrelated, and what occurs is like PTSD, and brings up all kinds of bad feelings and memories, that I am unable to stop.
It wasn't so bad last night because I realized what was happening and listened to music instead. But, this morning, I deleted the draft I had saved, started anew, and then lost everything. All I can say is that I agree with everything...from how Biden should have handled the Insurrectionists to what you wrote about him, Garland and Pelosi, and truly everything else.
For the last five years, I was active on another political site, but found that everything changed once Biden was sworn in, and any criticism of how he handled things or how Garland did, received so many negative responses that I stopped writing about both men. I don't write to argue. I write express my point of view, and "to learn." If someone presents a different point of view, or something that I haven't thought about, I genuinely appreciate it. When I don't like an article, I stop reading it. But, there are people who truly love arguing, which isn't my cup of tea.
When I took a break from the other site and came here, it was because I was angry all the time. It had gotten to the point where there was little I agreed with. Before Trump entered the 2016 presidential race, I wasn't an angry person. But I feel like I have been since. Still, I was so busy taking care of my husband, that I only spent a limited time online.
After my husband, who was my best friend, died, I haven't adjusted very well to widowhood. He was homebound and mostly bedridden for five years, and while I initially could go out, once he started falling, I couldn't. And, then there was COVID, and then he died. And, suddenly, I was disinterested in all my hobbies, interests, and friends.
But, I retained my interest in politics...which probably wasn't healthy, given the amount of time I started spending online. And, despite Biden's accomplishments, I have remained angry about all of the things he does that I believe are wrong. He had months to act on Roe v Wade because we knew when the decision would reach SCOTUS, he did nothing, and suddenly it was a big surprise when they overturned it. He had known from day 1 that the only play he's got about SCOTUS is to expand it, and won't do it. He should have brought forth voting rights bills during the first few weeks of his presidency, but was doing the Bipartisan Shuffle instead. He knew about Trump for years, and did nothing about him until he made the Labor Day speech, and didn't follow through afterwards. He knew that Garland was accomplishing nothing, and didn't fire him. And, there is so much more, which I can't remember right now. While he has access to the smartest people in the United States and the world, either he truly doesn't believe in seeking advice from them, believes he knows everything, or is unable to make decisions.
In any event, I took a break from the other site because I was spending too much time there, and getting too angry. Things finally began changing in the last two weeks, and I decided to join this site. But, after a few weeks, I finally realized that Joyce, for whom I have great respect, will never write about Garland's role in what's going on, which I believe is the key to everything that has happened and continues to happen. She probably won't write about the breakdown of the legal system, and possibly about the fact that an adherence to the Constitution may not be able to solve our problems, when SCOTUS has gone rogue and the Republican are a lawless fascist cult. And, given her background, it's understandable, but not satisfying.
There have been a few people besides you, whom I've connected with. Still, from what you wrote, it is extraordinarily that we agree on everything, and we both are passionate about our beliefs.
But, what I learned from you that will be life-changing is this, although I have edited for my own needs. "I have decided to do what I can within the realm of my small life. If I can make a difference by how I live and those I interact with that is what will matter - the small, day to day actions. I will donate what I can to organizations I trust that are working to hold off the Republican takeover. I will always vote of course - at least until we lose the right. But, I no longer will write or call my Congressional reps. I doubt I’ll contact the White House again. I won’t be voting for Biden or Harris in 2024 but I will vote for others on the Democratic ticket. I look at the headlines in the morning and then get on with my day."
And, that is a path I can take, although I know I'll vote for Biden or Harris if I have no other choice. My problem was that I felt if I walked away from the discussion, I would be "part of the problem, not the solution" (a sixties mantra I learned in college, although I didn't agree with Eldridge Cleaver about anything else).
But, I realize now that I have used politics as an excuse. It's intellectually stimulating, something I always have cared about, and I enjoy political research. But, the world isn't a better place because of the political articles I have written or the comments I have made. I didn't have a big enough audience to influence people or change their minds.
The truth is that these communities have helped me, while I have dealt with my loss and grief. But, the news makes me angry despite that fact that I am not angry by nature. I always was a "glass is half-full" person, and need to become that person again. And, it is time to interact with people in person, and make a real difference.
But, I couldn't seem to figure that out until I read what you had written. It may be that I don't have to leave this community to do that. But, I'll have to think about it! Still, I can't thank you enough!
Susan
Joyce I have great respect for you, I feel the legal education I receive from you is unmatched, I love the chicken stories and pictures. Your remarks on the issues we are facing are always delivered with such acumen..
I’m certainly not trying to take a shoot the messenger tone..
However, this offering details all of the ways the Crazies of the GOP have succeeded to maneuver themselves into running our House of Representatives, passing voter suppression laws, all across the country, causing, an evaporating voice at the ballot box, even with Marc Elias and his group doing their best..
With this paragraph “Early talk of using the 14th Amendment to disqualify them didn’t pan out. Now there seems to be tacit acceptance that they are here to stay.” I see an unacceptably weak, vapid, almost indifferent attitude and effort from Democracy’s leaders to do anything about it.. I’m left wanting for the desperate measures so needed to fight back in these desperate times..
Dems are giving them rope to hang themselves. The Rs still haven’t learned despite another losing election that could have given them 20-30 seats as McCarthy boasted, but only got slim line of losing bills by 5 votes. So now they give prime committee seats to the worst clowns among them and think they will keep their slim majority in 2024 - especially after trashing the economy and trying hard to get rid of Social Security and Medicare!
Max, I would very much like to see them do as you suggest with that rope..
Such a powerful piece. Thank you, Joyce + perfect use of the word “jingoistic”. Brava!!
Why aren't the democrats educating the ignorant Republicans? No one mentions this, or covers Congressional sessions that I have seen on MSNBC. All I hear are how ignorant or psychopaths that are the extreme conservatives. I agree with your assessments, and thank you for them, however, Democrats should be filibustering the heck out of the Republicans till they get the message that they are trying to destroy our country, economy and psyche's. From California and feel like I need to know how to talk to these people and let them know what they are doing. Also, pleased that maybe FOX will straighten up a little as they face a suit by voting machine manufacturer! As pointed out today, the only thing that the ignorant right wing listens to is money and power. Losing enough money might help...Thanks again for your research and informative information on Civil Discourse. (Hard to stay Civil these days...that from a 76 year old grandmother! who has lived through so much, but nothing as crazy as the ignorance and selfishness of the current Republican Party. ie. missed the Civil war...))
“Democrats should be filibustering the heck out of the Republicans till they get the message that they are trying to destroy our country, economy and psyche's.”
EXACTLY! I guess I don’t understand why that’s not happening.
There's no filibuster in the House.
maybe wrong word, but are you saying they shouldn't stand up and be heard?
As 57yr equestrian, "Heads Up!" has a potent meaning. The application of "heads down" in the context of our broken country is spot on. Barb McQuaid said on Deadline WH we are suffering as a country from loss of shame. I agree although I would point to the very slim margins by which democrats won in 2022 as evidence nearly half of this country want us to be 1923 and not 2023. Until good people like the Sisters In Law and those who follow them give Brandi Lee's tweets their full merit, we will continue to suffer Santoses as an anomoly when they are not. From that place there will be no moving the majority of the country toward healing and wholeness. There will definetly be more Penas and their violence.
In the world of motorcycling, the operative admonition is to “look far ahead.”
I believe assumptions are dangerous and by staying focused and tuning out the obliteration of all our sensibilities by the babies on the right, we might just have a chance to get through this and save ourselves.
Santos can't even use what he claims as his first language (English) correctly - but then, neither can any of the other semi-literate uneducable morons in the Confederate White People's Treason Party.
So grateful to greet you on your “tell it like it is” moment this evening Joyce. As disturbing as things appear, I see all this as a turning point in strengthening our efforts and determination to tune out the mod squad rhetoric and focus. Hello to your chicks and thanks again 🇺🇸
This just hit me. When I first was able to vote many years ago (I am 75) I voted gop mainly because my parents. Being raised in conservative Orange County Ca. It was a given. We had A mix of opinions in my family.Holiday dinners always ended in nearly shouting matches. My Great Uncle would have voted for Mickey Mouse if they had a “R” . My uncle was a great debater, a educator whose field was history. He was the DEM. Somewhere in very early 20 really started to listen to what was being said that’s when a became a democrat. Now register as independent so do not get so many calls,mail etc. what I am trying to say is many people do not have the good fortune to really listen to both sides so if good enough for mom,dad, grandpa, good enough for them. How do you get these people to open their eyes ? This is the reason I believe that all the nut jobs got elected once again.
When I read, "Don't Look Up," I thought of Chicken Little and, "The sky is falling." But it has been real and going on for years but I don't trust any house "republican" who gaslight instead of legislate. McConnell also did a great job screwing us (as did his wife) but doesn't get enough credit for it.
I saw Ben-Ghiat's comment about those who will seek out the party will attract criminals (like the malignant narcissist did), like Gingrich did, like Gosar, Bohbert, and the other nuts.
Oy vey. Love seeing the newsletters and wish I were an ostrich.
OK, starting on page 18... "...Ohioans appearing at a polling place to vote in-person have been able to prove their identity by offering any of the following: (1) a current and valid photo identification, (2) a military identification, (3) a copy of a current utility bill, (4) a copy of a bank statement, (5) a copy of a government check, or (6) a copy of any other “government document”" Utility bill, bank statement, government check - that's a lot of personal information being subjected to scrutiny just to vote.
Page 19-20.... "Meanwhile, it eliminates public-college students’ existing ability to use grade reports and other school documents containing their addresses as valid forms of identification at the polls." There, again, that's a fair amount of personal information just to vote.
I kept reading. Indeed, "an eye-opener" and stomach-churning. Not only is it voter-suppression but it seems to be quite an invasion of privacy.
New to your column and loving it. Thank you!
“Voting truly is the answer, possibly the only one. That means we’ve got to work hard to protect the process.”
Voting is critically important, yes. But in a democracy, citizen participation needs to go on all year round. Many of your engaged and informed readership are possibly active in good government advocacy groups. These groups are pressing for change on many important issues. My group is working to end gerrymandering in my state and I have seen legislator eyebrows rise when informed of how many of their constituents are on our mailing list. Among other things, we facilitate calls between constituents and their legislator. Such conversations makes a difference. People can, at minimum, be on the mailing list of groups working on issues they care about and get in the habit of communicating with their legislators at relevant times. Those with more energy can help organize!
OMG, Joyce. The "not a witch" comment made my morning!
Thank you Joyce for the work you do to keep us informed. Congratulations on the award. Well
earned.