Jim, and what we who care need to do is get the young folks to see how much power they actually have and what they can do to stop the insanity of Republicans and the corrupt "Project 2025."
Hi, Abigail. I'm not a teacher, but very much value education and our teachers (My late mother was a teacher). Earlier this year, an issue of my Austin, TX community newsletter had as its cover story the huge budget deficit of AISD because of charter schools, so we've already reached the crisis stage. We shouldn't be surprised; as a practical matter, charter schools have been in the works since the Bush administration (I assume they were in the planning stage much earlier). I'm an autodidact historian and have a master's degree in historical musicology, so am most concerned about the humanities. Reading history brings such joy to me. It gives me a perspective on the current moment that I would otherwise not have had. And that is what scares me the most: If you read a lot of history you can recognize patterns that most nonhistorians can't. Their goal is to dumb us down. I, too, literally shudder when I think about what these people want to do not just to our physical bodies but to our minds.
“States Rights” has been used as an argument to suppress the enslaved population both before and after the Civil War. It was originally used to protect state populations from an overbearing central authority and in pre-revolutionary times, that signified the British royal government. Every political move today, every proposal such as Trump’s “for every new regulation, two previous regulations will be removed” speaks to redesigning government to funnel more wealth to the producer class. While I don’t disagree that all facets of government should be reviewed and revised if necessary and programs eliminated if a strong argument can be made to remove if the regulation that is no longer needed.
I can attest to a state law once made in the late 1960s in CT concerning redlining and how municipalities and private property interests purposely keep certain ethnicities from buying homes. And this wasn’t limited to racial discrimination. In the 1940s, a wealthy suburb of Hartford, CT, had legal structures to keep Jews from moving into selected areas. Imagine that. A reverend acquaintance once petitioned the state to create a non-profit to buy single family homes that have a land-lease in perpetuity attached to the deed. For example, I bought one such house two years ago as an investment but I had to pay the non profit a monthly fee for ownership. This program is totally without need today. Anti-discrimination housing laws are explicit in protecting any buyer if he or she has the financing to purchase. But this law will never be eliminated. I know I tried and when I asked the state library to research it, they couldn’t even find the law on the books. This is a small example of cleaning up a useless regulation. Often we toss out the tub along with the dirty bath water. I’m not making any subtle argument in favor of Project 2025. It’s pernicious. It’s threatening to the population. It’s a money grab just like everything the MAGA party formerly known as republicans attempts to achieve. They need to be marginalized down to a fringe party and the sooner the better. But let’s not throw out the baby along with the bath water on issues that need addressing.
The problem in politics as I see it is that we become so inflexible. And this inflexibility brings us to almost victory but not quite. And I cite once again this dumb border issue. Biden should have been laser focused in restricting or maybe the better said is ensuring legal means to enter the country not allowing hundreds of thousand and millions to rush in. This isn’t the way governments function. And no population wants nor accepts open borders ever. So will we lose the whole kitten kabuddle over this almost one issue? My question of the day. Please answer.
I thought that the flow of immigrants was caused by international laws for asylum, and that the US immigration has been unable to adjudicate each case in a timely way. I thought we use a sort of "tag and release" approach until a case can be heard. I am aware of one man who waited five years to be heard and I don't think he had snuck in.
Still, people flood across the border then live in hiding in the US. These people work, overwhelmingly. They do so illegally because employers hire them. In the early 90's, the private sector used the I-9 form to confirm a legal right to work but this is not done now.
I cannot say that stopping people physically at the border is the whole solution. It is nothing more than a political tool rather than a difficult policy issue.
One more point, please. The Department of Education policy forbids asking for proof of legal residency. The US educates the children of undocumented parents. The Department of Rehabilitation, which serves the vocational needs of disabled people is in the Ed Department and has this policy. I worked there. Absent a Dept of Ed, undocumented immigrants would most likely lose educational and disability services. There has been for years a belief that vocational services for disabled people could be taken over by Dept of Labor, where policies would likely reduce many services.
I’m not against immigration. I’m against losing an election to the worst monster ever in our history and if it meant keeping walls up and anything else, fine. Really I don’t care about what’s right and wrong. My desire is to save what’s left of a once great nation.
Abigail - "these" are NOT people - these are cockroaches that are not capable of anything but surviving for their own good at no matter what cost. A group of cockroaches are called an INTRUSION!! we can NOT let them destroy our country and take away freedom for all that do not look like/think like them!!! Lets keep the faith - Good WILL conquer evil!!
John Dewey states that Democracy only survives with a well educated citizenship and the truth. (I am paraphrasing). This project 2025 wants to destroy the foundation of our country so that it becomes the third world country. Joyce this is so important, thank you!
Well, there you go--do away with education so that democracy dies! I can't believe that they also want to do away with regulations (no USDA oversight to ensure your meat is safe), want children impregnated by family members to carry babies to term, and not to be able to leave marriages where you are physically abused...excuse me, can someone explain to me how I would be prevented from exiting such a marriage?
You'd have to "show cause" if your (abusive) spouse didn't agree to end the marriage.
Most people are unaware that the theocratic Fundiescum have the highest divorce rates of any group in the country. All those "servant leader" misogynistic paternalists want to keep their families under their control.
Well, presently a number of states don’t allow divorce while a woman is pregnant but don’t currently prevent it after the child is born. If you didn’t have the means to leave a marriage without alimony or child support, you’d be prevented from leaving in a financial sense. If you couldn’t split assets you would be left with nothing, so you could leave in the sense of moving out but have no funds or possibly even your clothes and other personal possessions. If there are children, you might not be able to take them with you.
Are you asking about states not allowing divorce while a woman is pregnant? That surprised me to learn too. The rest is speculation on what would happen if no fault divorce was eradicated but that first exists today. Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri and Texas don’t allow a divorce to be finalized while a woman is pregnant. The reasons and restrictions vary and I’m no lawyer but in part it has to do with paternity and child support. It’s still prohibitive and if there is abuse potentially dangerous.
I would think women would stop getting married but I'm sure there's something in P25 that reduces women's employment options or lowers there pay so that living on their own would become very challenging. Like in days long ago. If no fault divorce was abolished I can't think of was reason a woman would be able to get divorced under? Rape and incest may not be a valid reason, nor physical abuse of wife or kids. Maybe if the husband isn't the right kind of Christian or if they just abandoned you?
I'm curious - would that also mean the man is also unable to get a divorce? OR just the woman? I'm pessimistic enough to think that would be a whole different ballgame.
Imagine being physically abused while pregnant. This topic is pushing my buttons--I had "intimacy issues" and didn't want to get married. A therapist told me that my fears were "unreasonable!" I successfully avoided marriage until I was 45. Thank God I had a change of perception--am married to my ideal life companion. Can't stop thinking about the thousands of women in situations being physically abused....
I was not ready to get married (even though I wanted to at 24) until I was 63. In reading all these comments, and courtesy of Project 2025, I'm glad I waited so long. I found a wonderful spouse, but am not sure I would still be living had I gotten married when I thought I wanted to. In retrospect, not getting married young was a real blessing.
And its not "physical" abuse alone - being verbally abused may not be physically painful - but what it does to your emotions, confidence and child-rearing abilities is really bad.
Sioux, and those whiny white folks dare to call themselves christian. They are toddler-adults who want to control everyone around them the way a tired 3-year-old does. I would like to see any one of them trying to live under that fascist plan they have. There's not enough room at the top for all of them and their 100 organizations that supposedly support the "document." They would blame other people for their sad condition, their inability to do all the things they want to, to hurt all the people they whine have done something to them they don't like, but no matter how bad things were for me, I would have to delight in their plight, particularly if their home gets flooded and there is no federal help for them to pay to rebuild it due to global warming, you know, the hoax.
Sophia, the problem with the residents of Trumplandia, they don't know how to stop their downward slide. They started 50+ years ago with picking abortion as their issue de jour and used it to recruit a lot of pathetic almost-christians calling lots of folks anti-christian because they were "killing babies." They were sayhing ridiculous things like a fetus has the same rights as the woman who was carrying it. A lot of folks still believe that nonsense. They claim to be "pro life" when nothing they do is pro any life but their own.
The real aim was to control women and they thought they could do that by banning abortion. When it looked like that was not going to work completely, they went after birth control and then IVF which they don't really understand because, well, they don't think they have to. Those Heritage Found. guys really don't care what kind of havoc their plan would cause if it were to be implemented because they think as little as possible. They just keep coming up with ideas they think will enable them to control people they are scared of: women, Black people, other people of color, LGBTQ+ persons, immigrants (even though many of them are 2nd and 3rd generation Americans), and young people. They want to drill baby ddrill because the phrase sounds cool and the fossil fuelers will give them big bucks to let them do it. They pretend global warming is a hoax and that even if it were real, they will have enough money to protect them from whatever comes. That shows their complete ignorance of how the world works. These are not people used to working hard, so the question will be, where will they get their food, the tech they need? Where will they vacation? Where will their kids go to school? Will they make the desperate poor, slaves? There are so many things they haven't thought of because the document, or rather the parts I have seen and read about so far seem like the wet dreams of the ignorant elites who can't see beyond where they are right this moment in any field outside their own. So, that's where we are, a bunch of Hitler wannabees trying to figure out how to bamboozle enough Americans to let them install their cristofascist regime before anyone notices and stops them.
AND the Clean Air and Water regulations - they already are pushing to reduce/remove the regulations for that. But dont worry (?) it only affects people in the lower income brackets - certainly not those million & billionaires.
Wouldnt that be a question for Dems to possibly publicize? I mean, something constructive rather than publicizing their lack of "unity"? Frankly that makes me almost as disgusted as tffg! The lack of loyalty for someone who has actually brought the Democratic party quite a way forward the last few years.
I have to ask - WHY are these wussy Dems not standing up and telling people exactly WHAT the Repubs want to take from us - healthcare, social security, clean clean water and on & on. Its all right there - why the hell arent they talking about that when someone shoves a mic in front of them?
There are going to be a lot of pissed off democrats AND independents if they continue to run this whisper campaign against Biden.
The used to be news media? Worse than nothing at all.
I agree with you completely, Maggie. Maybe it's because I'm close to Biden in age, but I don't see a problem with him continuing as candidate or president. I do have a problem with what the republicans want to do.
But the Dems ARE waking up and talking about Project 2025, what's at stake, and Biden's achievements (that's how we know about them)...what I want to know is WHY it's not sticking! I think it's very unfair what is happening to him, but I guess the Dems are gripped by fear. I believe that the developing landscape is making it difficult for him to continue running. I was fully supporting him but began vacillating after he said "my Vice President Trump" and "when Obama asked me to be his running mate in 2020." But when the likes of Zoe Lofgren is asking him to step down, it's time....
If the only reason for stepping down is because of his "gaffes" - hes been making that kind of gaff for a decade - I watch Beau of the 5th Column. Hes not a Biden guy, but in this current time leans that way. He mentioned a couple days ago that one of the magazines (Time etc) had an article in 2010 listing Biden's 10 worst gaffes. Fourteen years ago! This is nothing new, plus hes old!!! (and I might add, so is Trump but no one talks about it-news wise) They sure do like to nitpit Biden, tho, dont they. He speaks softly (unlike tffg) and the stutter is giving him more problems I think. Consider the pressure hes under just doing his job, and then has to cope with msm, & anyone with a freaking phone right now getting a picture of the moment he trips or mispeaks.
On top of just gettng over a cold and now has Covid!
So yeah, Dems are finally talking a little about 2025 - about darn time.
If the DNC or higher ups there have decided they dont want Biden? I have to say its just a little late.
Seems to me that his VP is there to back him up & supposedly, so is his staff when they arent gossiping with reporters.
I agree its not fair and Dems ARE afraid - possibly of losing their own seats??
As in any good society that runs with a form of indentured workers, education just kills that bottom line. With the work that the Koch brothers initiated 50 years ago, we are barely holding on to a spot in the top 20 best educated countries in the world. We used to be in the top 3.
Project 2025 is just the culmination of all the "good" work started by the likes of the Koch family.
The only way to keep this country "blue" is to hammer home exactly what the Maga party is doing.
I agree. I went to a John Dewey School, studied John Dewey in grad school and then taught in a John Dewey School after teaching in the public schools. I too have read the section on The Dept. of Education. I am reading Project 2025 with a group of people and we are discussing it. We just started. In addition to what Joyce Vance says. More specifically the defunding of the DOE is supposed to give the money directly to families instead. This is a boon for Homeschoolers and Charter Schools, and Faith Based Private Schools, because now parents will have American tax dollars to fund their children's education however they choose to do it. I read the number $22,000 per pupil. So for families like the infamous Duggars with their umpteen children, I think 18, they do not need to even contribute to the economy other than breeding children, because at 22,000 a head that is a yearly income from the government of around $400,000. Now, of course the mom's role in this is to keep breeding, and to do the teaching, run the house, and whatever else the father deems necessary. What happens to the mom when she is not longer giving birth? I don't know but I assume she will be replaced with someone young again, and can help her with managing the children. Serial bigamy. What happens when children in Homeschooling, Charter Schools and Elite Private schools have special education needs? Well, they often get support from the public schools, which will be unfunded and not able to function. When I was first done with grad school I taught in an International school in the Dominican Republic. This was an island that had no public education, at least not back then. The condo complex where we lived was filled with retired men from the US, Canada and Europe who had 15-year-old Dominican girlfriends living with them who were with these men so they could be supported, but also so the men would pay school fees for their children, who generally did not live with them, but lived in the capitol city with the grandmothers. That's how life goes in countries where people do not have compulsory, free education provided for them. Even Hitler, Mussolini and Franco did not get rid of public education. So, this is worse then them for destroying a society. All sorts of quacky schools will spring up. Putting education in the Dept of Labor and in Health and Human Services which will be departments filled with fewer employees who have no training in the field, because Trump is firing 50,000 to replace with 20,000 loyalists who have no specialized training in the fields in which they will be working. If your child has a special learning need, which happens quite often, there will be no support for this. Then, let us look at colleges of Education. What will happen to them? Will there be funding? If we believe in home schoolers and charter schools, well then we don't think that schools of education need to exist. We don't think of funding their research. We don't think of making things better. And, there was absolutely no discussion of bilingual education. There is no discussion of teaching second language learners. How about discussion of teaching foreign languages? While children in other countries learn English, what will American children learn? Then there is the idea that there will be no government loans for secondary education, and the way universities will be accredited is awful. In the Dominican Republic the elite sent their children abroad for university. Typically the US, and France, at least among the people I knew. They had no universities themselves. Making people get loans opens up opportunities for Trump and his friends to grift again. Also, there will be zero tolerance for not paying back these predatory loans, so what happens to those who have debt they cannot pay? prison?military? I could go on with how these plans will play themselves out if given a chance. I hope you can see the nightmare of the direction in which they are going. They are doing more than Hitler, Putin and Mussolini to destroy their countries. It is a total third world model of education.
Linda, your diatribes are easier to read if you break them up into paragraphs. And you have made good points. I have a feeling that those of us who write extended pieces aren’t read as often as abbreviated comments. I’m in there with you.
Bill, I have been told this before. My daughter says that she will try to figure out paragraphing for me in Substack. Every suggestion I have gotten so far has not worked.
Linda, all good points and good questions, but of course, the Heritagers never thought of those things because none of this is about anything that will work. I think a bunch of them are waiting for the apocalypse and really don't care what happens here. They just don't want kids learning enough to get the ones in power, out. They don't care about competence because after all, the only thing their fearful leader is competent in is lying, cheating, making up stuff, doing as little work as possible, and siring kids who are just like him.
Why the hell can't the Democratic party put out a suffocatingly steady stream of everything you (and Heather Cox Richardson) present instead of defensively and divisively bickering, essentially, about who will or should be the nominee? Both of your wonderful Substacks are preaching to an adoring audience. The public, writ large, beyond us, needs to be assaulted, twenty-four hours a day, Trump-style, by a Democratic party unified with their shared talking points — just like the Republicans do. But how will that happen? The party is acting like the disorganized ship-hands screwing up launching the lifeboats on the Titanic.
I know this is an unpopular opinion here, but I do not think Biden should have decided to run for a second term. If he had gotten fully behind a younger candidate (and this is not ageist as I am 73 and recognize the declines that come with age!) we would be in a much better position now. He has done a great job - but he is no longer capable of that - as a final act of public service he needs to leave the race.
Well, sure back then it was possible, wasnt it? But then I wonder would we have the very good successful legislation that he put thru? He is responsible for all the good things done the last 3 and half years - most of it with Repubs
trying to prevent it! I wonder, could someone younger & less experienced have done that? And - who would it be?
None of the younger "candidates" that are being mentioned to replace him have this experience nor know how to deal in any way with the other party-which does not appear to be easy in any way.
Kamala is learning on the job so to speak. But I think throwing her out there right now might be what some Dems seem to want - then push her out in favor of someone they approve of. After all shes a POC and a WOMAN!!! Its not only Repubs that are inclined to feel that way.
To put anyone in thinking that their differences, color, age, gender, etc is a good idea is shortsighted and foolish. How will the voting public react to that? What he/she brings to the position and demonstrated ability are paramount as it is in any other job. Everything else is too superficial to benefit anyway one other than the individual, certainly not our country and others. President Biden has all of the qualifications that matter and we need what be brought to this huge US table. All else is irrelevant since what we need has been demonstrated over and above. As a country, we need someone with age to allow discrimination and unfair erroneous opinions against seniors to begin to end as it has with other federally protected groups. Every person has value, worth, and purpose no matter what makes them different. For now, this is still America. Ignorance can do irreparable lasting harm. There is no room for opinion etc over demonstrated evidence!
For the last three years, Biden could have been assigning Kamala to tasks where she was bound to succeed, make her look good and generally setting her up as his successor. This is how CEOs create their replacement. Instead, he gave her immigration - pretty much dooming her to failure.
On a slightly different point, what do his accomplishments over the past 3.5 years have anything to do with the next four years? Shouldn't it be his planned accomplishments over the next 4 years what we should be excited about?
And lastly, if in Jan 2024 he'd announced he was not going to stand again, how would that have made the difference to all the legislation he helped push through in the 3 years previous? It would still have been done.
How can they give up on any supporters? Without us Biden supporters they will never win! I am disgusted with them too, but we still have to stay loyal to Dem party and for me, loyal to President Biden!
To Cynthia: I too still believe in President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris. United we can win. I’ve never heard Biden complain but he has been working so hard for so long and keeps going because he believes in the decency of all Americans and our rights to healthy and happy lives. Much love to both of them tonight and for their dedication to saving our democracy and thank you Joyce for your hard work in saving our democracy 🇺🇸🗽🗳️🕯️🥁💙
I believe the Republican party is generally afraid of running against anyone but Biden. They want Biden to stay in because they perceive him as weak. I would not be surprised if Russia is interfering with the Dems right now with propaganda.
I thought that Reps didn't want to run against Biden rather than the other way around. I think that Russia may be influencing the poll numbers since that seems to be all the Dems are using as evidence of who is a good candidate etc. and they are acting on it! We have to smarter than that and consider that those numbers may not at all be accurate and support our best candidate! They seem to be shooting themselves in the foot again with all the effort to oust the best President we have had in decades,, but they take us all down too.
No Kay, the Reps **definitely** want to run against Biden. Many recent polls have confirmed this. Also it just makes sense: Trump has been battering Biden for 3 years, they'd have to throw all that out and start again.
I wonder where those polls are coming from. We know Russia is interfering. Media has been battering him too, and I am disgusted and angry and have lost all respect for all media even those I used for all of my news. I feel so bad for our President because of the abuse he has been subjected too by every source possible just because of his age and Not his great value to us! That's rather stupid if you think about it, but hey, there's a lot of that going around!
Well, it's not only Tfg battering him. All Media and millions of Agist people have been ripping him to shreds. Piccadores do the same to the strong bull trying to wear him down until he falls. Sounds way too familiar! Does media want him to fall? We know there are those who do. Can we let them succeed? What can we do before Nov?
I heard on MSNBC that the RNC wants to run against Biden because all their plans are directed at that specific opponent. They would have to redo their entire campaign if the dems have another candidate. Personally I still want to see Biden get 4 more years, even though throwing a cog in the works of the republicans' campaign has great appeal to me.
I just had that discussion with my husband!! The DNC Convention is a full month away and the Repugs are planning on Biden/Harris. Suppose Biden THEN releases his delegates and resigns at the end of his term. Dems then nominate someone else. for Pres. Pelosi, Schumer, Biden have years of experience and I'm hoping this is their game plan.
I think your idea is a good one, but I really wish they would just get behind Biden. Their dithering has probably affected polls, which I never believe anyway. Yes, he's old, but he still has the ability to do what is needed, still has good ideas, and from what I've seen still has the stamina to be president. Not that I want to go along with anything the RNC wants - I'd love to see them scrambling, but unless Biden dropping out at the convention would really screw up their plans, I'd still rather see Biden. I agree there are some good people out there, but I'm not sure who I see that is presidential material. I welcome any ideas, though.
And leaning into conspiracy theories - could that be exactly what they want us to think?
Of course Repubs want a less experienced candidate - why wouldnt they?
Voters listened to the "polls" back in 2016. Remember what happened that time"? And the Russian disinformation that ran rampant? The polls - most - dont mean diddly! And at this point neither does anyone pretending to be a "reporter".
Could be, I suppose, but of those Brutuses anxiously waiting in the wings, who do you think they truly fear? And Russian collusion with Trump, or the usual Russian interference? — well sure, but still, I emphasize that it is an unremitting avalanche of Dem talking points spouted by all Democratic senators and congress-people that can capture the undecideds' attention; that may provide them facts of serious enough weight to gain their votes.
As I recall, the 60’s Democratic Party was well known for their constant bickering. Unfortunately it was an inside/outside joke that the Dems “would eat their own” - not actually but in speech and, boy, did they ever. I remember because I had, proudly, registered as a Democrat in Oklahoma - it was real blue back then! I was grading tests in the History Dept (Dept secretary) when JFK was killed, I remember, in horror, when MLK Jr was shot and killed, and I was watching the returns from California when RFK was killed. I’m proud to have been able to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I will support the Democratic presidential nominee. MaybGod help,us all.
"As historian William Manchester wrote in his 1967 book The Death of a President, there were reports of celebrations in Texas when Kennedy was assassinated. Manchester described a scene of “rejoicing” high school students in the city of Amarillo, and he also wrote: “In Dallas itself a man whooped and tossed his expensive Stetson in the air, and it was in a wealthy Dallas suburb that the pupils of a fourth-grade class, told that the president of the United States had been murdered in their city, burst into spontaneous applause.”
I caught a snippet of Howard Dean's interview with Joy Reid this afternoon. I want to try to find the whole thing, but basically he seemed to be excoriating Dem leadership for 1) letting this go on and 2) for scheduling the convention so late and close to state qualifications for ballots, which leaves more room for Rs to play fast and loose.
The Neurologist who posted last week re aging wrote that Biden's handlers should be fired for allowing him to debate on that specific night due to his having other earlier engagements, They did not do a good job and make the best decision for him, and he has suffered greatly as we also have. We Dems and our President deserve so much better!
At this point - seeing all the "anonymous" "unsourced" information popping up - I hope this crap isnt really coming from the WH staff. Thats the impression given by far too many of the current "news" spreaders.
Biden should have fired at least some of his staff. Biden's reluctance to do so is another negative against Biden - he keeps thinking his mouth agape at the debate was no big deal.
This next sentence is just speculation, and unfair, but my take is that he and his aides are long accustomed to him spacing out, so they are inured to it. That would correlate with Biden's spin that it was just a bad night.
Thanks, I'll look for it. In the meantime, I'm sending a version of my comment to every Democratic member of Congress. It feels like a hopeless effort — I have no illusions it would be noticed or read, or acted upon if it were; but at least I'll have tried.
I woke up this am fretting about this very subject. Rural and inner city schools would hurt the most. States cannot replace the federal money they get. They would close schools. Rural school closures would mean many kids could not attend any school because of the distance and lack of transportation. Inner cities would also close schools, also curtail buses and force student-teacher ratios to untenable numbers. Many teachers would become unemployed. Suburban and exurban schools would lose extracurricular funding. I can’t even imagine what would happen to our kids. But we boomers would eventually be governed by these uneducated and undereducated students. That’s scary as shit!
I am still a Biden supporter. The Dems are self destructing.
Thanks Joyce for your steadfast commitment to educating us!
Kathi, I think that's their whole point - to make sure that especially inner city kids would not get educated. They'd make better slaves that way… I am of the same demographic as President Biden, and it's really scary for us, too.
If Biden is going to step down,* I hope the announcement comes during the last 5 minutes of El Cheeto's speech tonight, it would be a lovely way to rain on his parade. Having the media drop RNC coverage of him and focus entirely on the Democrat party would be enjoyable.
No they wouldn't they might make a brief announcement and go right back to praisng the trumpster/dumpster. Look at history WandaWoman. In 1968 we lost our only viable candidate, Bobby Kennedy to murder, in June 1968. We lost, hugely, to tricky Dick. You want that to happen again? Keep asking Joe (the Best President we've had in 70+ years) and enjoy your time in fascism.
Democrats are the adults in the room now. The other party has abandoned reality and truth in favor of denial. We can't afford to do the same. And if we do, we are not only just as bad as that party; we are sleepwalking into fascism, from which we will not recover in most of our lifetimes.
I just don’t see Biden continuing after the reports in the NYT and WP this morning. (Friday). Raskin’s letter is eloquent and, in my view (tho unpopular with this comment’s main thrust), spot on. (True confession: I suffered through that playoff game as a Red Sox fan.) https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/4642d21dd2af028f/43f44435-full.pdf
Resigning. Falling. Tripping. Floating. Descending. Receding. What verb would you choose? I hope he is allowed to go with dignity, but the more he lingers the nastier this is going to get. For sure the knives of Pelosi and Obama are barely hidden right now, with both Schiff and Londgren going public.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
__Martin Luther King, Jr.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
___Abraham Lincoln
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
I had a friend some years ago who told me an interesting story of growing up in Kentucky in the 1950's. His dad was a minister, and was interested in promoting literacy for poor children. He went to the bishop of an different denomination to ask if they would cooperate on this project. The bishop told my friend's father that he had no interest in promoting literacy because ignorant people could be more easily led to do what "leaders" wanted them to do. This is what MAGA Republicans want to take us back to.
As an out, queer, public high school teacher every word of this scares the shit out of me for all kids and especially for LGBTQ kids. We aren’t just facing the threat of going backward, but backward with the most ruthless added on consequences.
Already, even though I am near retirement age, I’m thinking “What can I, as a teacher, do to stem the onslaught of 2025 and Trump’s Nazi agenda?” As a teacher and as a sane human being.
But before I go all the way there…I will vote blue and encourage others to do the same and we will have another four years to figure this out because this is not going away.
I danced in the street in front of my house when Biden won in 2020 but clearly he wasn’t going to lead without that orange gnat buzzing and doing damage. He and Harris have done so much excellent work but there were always the orange maggots working to stop them.
I’m sad for Biden for one reason only… he has been an amazing president and that has been overshadowed too often by a narcissist and his band of sycophants.
Ok…I have so much more to say but I’ll stop and thanks for listening.
It's part of the white cis male fever dream to legislate the country back to the 1950s when only they had rights. If I were a young woman, I'd get sterilized right damn quick (never wanted kids anyway).
And I would hope that my body really had shut down so I couldn't get pregnant (I didn't even though I had plenty of opportunities to do so). Those men have those fever dreams because they are very insecure in who they are.
I’ve been reading project 2025 now for months, with breaks for libations to wash the taste out of my mouth. I missed the part where people who work overtime could get robbed of that if the employer could cut hours in subsequent weeks, so thank you Joyce. I think this is a valid talking point many of us could use when discussing this with skeptics. I’m retired and I worked as a salaried professional for most of my adult life but I have friends who have gone to work in the service sector by choice to give back. Some of them encounter supporters of Darth Rumpus who believe his BS about how they were better off under him. (Hello, Covid!). I will suggest they use this information as this overtime change would affect many of them drastically.
There won’t be any one big act that wins this for us but many small ones and this information can be one of those.
Re: supporting Biden, here’s a point I havent seen yet. Given that elite Democrats are kicking to the curb an immensely successful president who has worked with a difficult congress, what talented and principled person is going to run for the presidency as a Democrat in the future? I sure as heck wouldn’t trust that party that caves to the whims of the pundit class would have my back!
In rural areas of the country, there are not a selection of schools for parents to pick from so these students will be hurt as the funding for the public school option is reduced as more and more money goes to the private schools. In MO, most rural area public schools are in session only 4 days a week because of budget problems, and teacher salaries are too low. MO has also been pushing vouchers. Private schools don't have to accept your child and generally don't accept children with physical or learning disabilities. Every state that has heavily gone into vouchers has seen serious budget deficits and the research does not show better student learning outcomes, in fact, most research shows the opposite. Research has shown that most parents choosing vouchers where already sending their children to private schools. Now they get to let taxpayers pay some or all of the tuition. And, many private schools raised their tuition when their parents began to use vouchers. Its a grift taking taxpayer money and giving it to private parties, including religious groups. The wealthy aren't concerned because they can afford to send their children anywhere they want. As usual, everyone else pays the price. Off subject, but if you want to have some fun explain to the men in your lives that Project 2025 also wants to do away with condoms (along with all contraception) and porn. It has something for everyone.
Oh how wonderful it would be to have pornography sites gone. Our young boys would learn that this is Not the way women like to be treated. That being a bully is not going to win them true friendships or respect from women that they seem to want so desperately.
Bill Clinton has said América is great because every generation can do better than the one before. That advancement depends on education. And not every state will bear its responsibility if the federal government isn’t monitoring things.
All I can say is I need to put my life on hold and devote my energy to getting sensible informed voters out this November. We just have to wait out the outcome of the Democratic convention. Then get to work!
I agree with you that the media has not been kind to Biden, but I'm not holding my breath, waiting for them to be sorry for what they've done. (Trump has brought out my cynical side, along with my frustration.)
Yes. President Biden should have canceled the debate you’re right ! He loves democracy so much he thought he could stretch a sore throat and cold for just a few more hours. We all forget how devastating a cold can be.
People catch colds. If each cold knocks a person out for a week, that that is a "ding" on their candidacy for president. Not fatal, but not a positive thing when you are supposed to be on the job 24/7.
How do you educate 75 million people who in their lifetimes left themselves uneducated, between now and Nov? The repugnantkins have a highly polished messaging system that has those 75 million in their pocket and totally committed to being there. I don’t want to be in a state of despair but I know how to add.
Many of us and I’m assuming you are among them, know that the total doesn’t mean as much as where they are. The swing states, and I live in one, will determine the outcome because of the electoral count, those are the votes that count more than any others. They came very close to stealing the election in 2020, they didn’t pull it off because they hadn’t lined up all of their ducks, they are not stupid, that’s what they are doing as I type this. If any of us think that the SC will back us on this issue, they need to rethink it, they won’t, for them justice means just is, get over it and get used to it. We have been playing by the rules and they have been stacking the deck, Dobbs anybody?
I'm reminded that Biden didn't want to watch the debate either. That was the tipping point for me. If he is not willing to learn from his mistake..... if he's being advised by his aides that he doesn't need to learn.... Not to mention that none of his aides thought to mention any sickness before the debate started... It was perhaps salvageable the night of the debate, but Biden failed to salvage anything... It's all just a mess now - and all the fault of him and his team. There is too much at stake for Biden to continue. We can't afford to lose this election.
As a teacher of 25 years, I literally shudder. We simply can not let these horrendous people take over out country.
I was in for 31 years. I have faith in young people to bypass the stupidity of their elders.
29 years, math, El Camino College .Torrance Ca The last I saw was in 2019, but that crowd and going back five or so years gave me hope.
I'm really happy Joyce is adding her wisdom to the discussion of Project 2025. She is always a source of reliable analysis I trust.
When I read Project 2025 in March I made a list of 268 acronym contained in the text. It's helpful:
https://ki6mnk.substack.com/p/project-2025-glossary-of-acronyms
Thanks for the list!
My pleasure.
Jim, and what we who care need to do is get the young folks to see how much power they actually have and what they can do to stop the insanity of Republicans and the corrupt "Project 2025."
Project 2025 won't go away when CFDT loses. It's for any Republican president.
Let’s hope!
We need to take action too.
HOPE is a memory of the future. Lets keep HOPE ALIVE - we can and WILL PREVAIL!!
I hope so Jim! I do see it in my grands; common sense and kindness!
Haha, I so hope you’re right!
@ Abigail. FIGHT BACK. Register new Democrats' to send Republicans packing.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Yesterday, we sent out over 46K texts and we’ll be sending more tomorrow in the #textbanking https://www.fieldteam6.org/fund-the-mission
Hi, Abigail. I'm not a teacher, but very much value education and our teachers (My late mother was a teacher). Earlier this year, an issue of my Austin, TX community newsletter had as its cover story the huge budget deficit of AISD because of charter schools, so we've already reached the crisis stage. We shouldn't be surprised; as a practical matter, charter schools have been in the works since the Bush administration (I assume they were in the planning stage much earlier). I'm an autodidact historian and have a master's degree in historical musicology, so am most concerned about the humanities. Reading history brings such joy to me. It gives me a perspective on the current moment that I would otherwise not have had. And that is what scares me the most: If you read a lot of history you can recognize patterns that most nonhistorians can't. Their goal is to dumb us down. I, too, literally shudder when I think about what these people want to do not just to our physical bodies but to our minds.
“States Rights” has been used as an argument to suppress the enslaved population both before and after the Civil War. It was originally used to protect state populations from an overbearing central authority and in pre-revolutionary times, that signified the British royal government. Every political move today, every proposal such as Trump’s “for every new regulation, two previous regulations will be removed” speaks to redesigning government to funnel more wealth to the producer class. While I don’t disagree that all facets of government should be reviewed and revised if necessary and programs eliminated if a strong argument can be made to remove if the regulation that is no longer needed.
I can attest to a state law once made in the late 1960s in CT concerning redlining and how municipalities and private property interests purposely keep certain ethnicities from buying homes. And this wasn’t limited to racial discrimination. In the 1940s, a wealthy suburb of Hartford, CT, had legal structures to keep Jews from moving into selected areas. Imagine that. A reverend acquaintance once petitioned the state to create a non-profit to buy single family homes that have a land-lease in perpetuity attached to the deed. For example, I bought one such house two years ago as an investment but I had to pay the non profit a monthly fee for ownership. This program is totally without need today. Anti-discrimination housing laws are explicit in protecting any buyer if he or she has the financing to purchase. But this law will never be eliminated. I know I tried and when I asked the state library to research it, they couldn’t even find the law on the books. This is a small example of cleaning up a useless regulation. Often we toss out the tub along with the dirty bath water. I’m not making any subtle argument in favor of Project 2025. It’s pernicious. It’s threatening to the population. It’s a money grab just like everything the MAGA party formerly known as republicans attempts to achieve. They need to be marginalized down to a fringe party and the sooner the better. But let’s not throw out the baby along with the bath water on issues that need addressing.
The problem in politics as I see it is that we become so inflexible. And this inflexibility brings us to almost victory but not quite. And I cite once again this dumb border issue. Biden should have been laser focused in restricting or maybe the better said is ensuring legal means to enter the country not allowing hundreds of thousand and millions to rush in. This isn’t the way governments function. And no population wants nor accepts open borders ever. So will we lose the whole kitten kabuddle over this almost one issue? My question of the day. Please answer.
Bill Katz,
I thought that the flow of immigrants was caused by international laws for asylum, and that the US immigration has been unable to adjudicate each case in a timely way. I thought we use a sort of "tag and release" approach until a case can be heard. I am aware of one man who waited five years to be heard and I don't think he had snuck in.
Still, people flood across the border then live in hiding in the US. These people work, overwhelmingly. They do so illegally because employers hire them. In the early 90's, the private sector used the I-9 form to confirm a legal right to work but this is not done now.
I cannot say that stopping people physically at the border is the whole solution. It is nothing more than a political tool rather than a difficult policy issue.
One more point, please. The Department of Education policy forbids asking for proof of legal residency. The US educates the children of undocumented parents. The Department of Rehabilitation, which serves the vocational needs of disabled people is in the Ed Department and has this policy. I worked there. Absent a Dept of Ed, undocumented immigrants would most likely lose educational and disability services. There has been for years a belief that vocational services for disabled people could be taken over by Dept of Labor, where policies would likely reduce many services.
I’m not against immigration. I’m against losing an election to the worst monster ever in our history and if it meant keeping walls up and anything else, fine. Really I don’t care about what’s right and wrong. My desire is to save what’s left of a once great nation.
I am not either. The Pres needs to fight back
Abigail - "these" are NOT people - these are cockroaches that are not capable of anything but surviving for their own good at no matter what cost. A group of cockroaches are called an INTRUSION!! we can NOT let them destroy our country and take away freedom for all that do not look like/think like them!!! Lets keep the faith - Good WILL conquer evil!!
John Dewey states that Democracy only survives with a well educated citizenship and the truth. (I am paraphrasing). This project 2025 wants to destroy the foundation of our country so that it becomes the third world country. Joyce this is so important, thank you!
Well, there you go--do away with education so that democracy dies! I can't believe that they also want to do away with regulations (no USDA oversight to ensure your meat is safe), want children impregnated by family members to carry babies to term, and not to be able to leave marriages where you are physically abused...excuse me, can someone explain to me how I would be prevented from exiting such a marriage?
You'd have to "show cause" if your (abusive) spouse didn't agree to end the marriage.
Most people are unaware that the theocratic Fundiescum have the highest divorce rates of any group in the country. All those "servant leader" misogynistic paternalists want to keep their families under their control.
Well, presently a number of states don’t allow divorce while a woman is pregnant but don’t currently prevent it after the child is born. If you didn’t have the means to leave a marriage without alimony or child support, you’d be prevented from leaving in a financial sense. If you couldn’t split assets you would be left with nothing, so you could leave in the sense of moving out but have no funds or possibly even your clothes and other personal possessions. If there are children, you might not be able to take them with you.
Now, THAT makes me really angry!
WHAT???
Are you asking about states not allowing divorce while a woman is pregnant? That surprised me to learn too. The rest is speculation on what would happen if no fault divorce was eradicated but that first exists today. Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri and Texas don’t allow a divorce to be finalized while a woman is pregnant. The reasons and restrictions vary and I’m no lawyer but in part it has to do with paternity and child support. It’s still prohibitive and if there is abuse potentially dangerous.
I would think women would stop getting married but I'm sure there's something in P25 that reduces women's employment options or lowers there pay so that living on their own would become very challenging. Like in days long ago. If no fault divorce was abolished I can't think of was reason a woman would be able to get divorced under? Rape and incest may not be a valid reason, nor physical abuse of wife or kids. Maybe if the husband isn't the right kind of Christian or if they just abandoned you?
I am so old I remember when Catholic judges would not grant a divorce for fear that they would be excommunicated if they did.
I'm curious - would that also mean the man is also unable to get a divorce? OR just the woman? I'm pessimistic enough to think that would be a whole different ballgame.
Imagine being physically abused while pregnant. This topic is pushing my buttons--I had "intimacy issues" and didn't want to get married. A therapist told me that my fears were "unreasonable!" I successfully avoided marriage until I was 45. Thank God I had a change of perception--am married to my ideal life companion. Can't stop thinking about the thousands of women in situations being physically abused....
I was not ready to get married (even though I wanted to at 24) until I was 63. In reading all these comments, and courtesy of Project 2025, I'm glad I waited so long. I found a wonderful spouse, but am not sure I would still be living had I gotten married when I thought I wanted to. In retrospect, not getting married young was a real blessing.
And its not "physical" abuse alone - being verbally abused may not be physically painful - but what it does to your emotions, confidence and child-rearing abilities is really bad.
Sioux, and those whiny white folks dare to call themselves christian. They are toddler-adults who want to control everyone around them the way a tired 3-year-old does. I would like to see any one of them trying to live under that fascist plan they have. There's not enough room at the top for all of them and their 100 organizations that supposedly support the "document." They would blame other people for their sad condition, their inability to do all the things they want to, to hurt all the people they whine have done something to them they don't like, but no matter how bad things were for me, I would have to delight in their plight, particularly if their home gets flooded and there is no federal help for them to pay to rebuild it due to global warming, you know, the hoax.
Our future if we allow them back in our White House.
Sophia, the problem with the residents of Trumplandia, they don't know how to stop their downward slide. They started 50+ years ago with picking abortion as their issue de jour and used it to recruit a lot of pathetic almost-christians calling lots of folks anti-christian because they were "killing babies." They were sayhing ridiculous things like a fetus has the same rights as the woman who was carrying it. A lot of folks still believe that nonsense. They claim to be "pro life" when nothing they do is pro any life but their own.
The real aim was to control women and they thought they could do that by banning abortion. When it looked like that was not going to work completely, they went after birth control and then IVF which they don't really understand because, well, they don't think they have to. Those Heritage Found. guys really don't care what kind of havoc their plan would cause if it were to be implemented because they think as little as possible. They just keep coming up with ideas they think will enable them to control people they are scared of: women, Black people, other people of color, LGBTQ+ persons, immigrants (even though many of them are 2nd and 3rd generation Americans), and young people. They want to drill baby ddrill because the phrase sounds cool and the fossil fuelers will give them big bucks to let them do it. They pretend global warming is a hoax and that even if it were real, they will have enough money to protect them from whatever comes. That shows their complete ignorance of how the world works. These are not people used to working hard, so the question will be, where will they get their food, the tech they need? Where will they vacation? Where will their kids go to school? Will they make the desperate poor, slaves? There are so many things they haven't thought of because the document, or rather the parts I have seen and read about so far seem like the wet dreams of the ignorant elites who can't see beyond where they are right this moment in any field outside their own. So, that's where we are, a bunch of Hitler wannabees trying to figure out how to bamboozle enough Americans to let them install their cristofascist regime before anyone notices and stops them.
Sad but true....
AND the Clean Air and Water regulations - they already are pushing to reduce/remove the regulations for that. But dont worry (?) it only affects people in the lower income brackets - certainly not those million & billionaires.
What's going to happen when these poor ignorant MAGAs wake up one morning to no more social security check?
Wouldnt that be a question for Dems to possibly publicize? I mean, something constructive rather than publicizing their lack of "unity"? Frankly that makes me almost as disgusted as tffg! The lack of loyalty for someone who has actually brought the Democratic party quite a way forward the last few years.
I think/hope the reduction/removal of regulations will come back to bite them. They won't even be able to get good plastic-bottled water.
I have to ask - WHY are these wussy Dems not standing up and telling people exactly WHAT the Repubs want to take from us - healthcare, social security, clean clean water and on & on. Its all right there - why the hell arent they talking about that when someone shoves a mic in front of them?
There are going to be a lot of pissed off democrats AND independents if they continue to run this whisper campaign against Biden.
The used to be news media? Worse than nothing at all.
I agree with you completely, Maggie. Maybe it's because I'm close to Biden in age, but I don't see a problem with him continuing as candidate or president. I do have a problem with what the republicans want to do.
I'm four years older than Biden so I get it too.
Come to think of it - five years older! Math suffers with age too.
But the Dems ARE waking up and talking about Project 2025, what's at stake, and Biden's achievements (that's how we know about them)...what I want to know is WHY it's not sticking! I think it's very unfair what is happening to him, but I guess the Dems are gripped by fear. I believe that the developing landscape is making it difficult for him to continue running. I was fully supporting him but began vacillating after he said "my Vice President Trump" and "when Obama asked me to be his running mate in 2020." But when the likes of Zoe Lofgren is asking him to step down, it's time....
If the only reason for stepping down is because of his "gaffes" - hes been making that kind of gaff for a decade - I watch Beau of the 5th Column. Hes not a Biden guy, but in this current time leans that way. He mentioned a couple days ago that one of the magazines (Time etc) had an article in 2010 listing Biden's 10 worst gaffes. Fourteen years ago! This is nothing new, plus hes old!!! (and I might add, so is Trump but no one talks about it-news wise) They sure do like to nitpit Biden, tho, dont they. He speaks softly (unlike tffg) and the stutter is giving him more problems I think. Consider the pressure hes under just doing his job, and then has to cope with msm, & anyone with a freaking phone right now getting a picture of the moment he trips or mispeaks.
On top of just gettng over a cold and now has Covid!
So yeah, Dems are finally talking a little about 2025 - about darn time.
If the DNC or higher ups there have decided they dont want Biden? I have to say its just a little late.
Seems to me that his VP is there to back him up & supposedly, so is his staff when they arent gossiping with reporters.
I agree its not fair and Dems ARE afraid - possibly of losing their own seats??
As in any good society that runs with a form of indentured workers, education just kills that bottom line. With the work that the Koch brothers initiated 50 years ago, we are barely holding on to a spot in the top 20 best educated countries in the world. We used to be in the top 3.
Project 2025 is just the culmination of all the "good" work started by the likes of the Koch family.
The only way to keep this country "blue" is to hammer home exactly what the Maga party is doing.
I agree. I went to a John Dewey School, studied John Dewey in grad school and then taught in a John Dewey School after teaching in the public schools. I too have read the section on The Dept. of Education. I am reading Project 2025 with a group of people and we are discussing it. We just started. In addition to what Joyce Vance says. More specifically the defunding of the DOE is supposed to give the money directly to families instead. This is a boon for Homeschoolers and Charter Schools, and Faith Based Private Schools, because now parents will have American tax dollars to fund their children's education however they choose to do it. I read the number $22,000 per pupil. So for families like the infamous Duggars with their umpteen children, I think 18, they do not need to even contribute to the economy other than breeding children, because at 22,000 a head that is a yearly income from the government of around $400,000. Now, of course the mom's role in this is to keep breeding, and to do the teaching, run the house, and whatever else the father deems necessary. What happens to the mom when she is not longer giving birth? I don't know but I assume she will be replaced with someone young again, and can help her with managing the children. Serial bigamy. What happens when children in Homeschooling, Charter Schools and Elite Private schools have special education needs? Well, they often get support from the public schools, which will be unfunded and not able to function. When I was first done with grad school I taught in an International school in the Dominican Republic. This was an island that had no public education, at least not back then. The condo complex where we lived was filled with retired men from the US, Canada and Europe who had 15-year-old Dominican girlfriends living with them who were with these men so they could be supported, but also so the men would pay school fees for their children, who generally did not live with them, but lived in the capitol city with the grandmothers. That's how life goes in countries where people do not have compulsory, free education provided for them. Even Hitler, Mussolini and Franco did not get rid of public education. So, this is worse then them for destroying a society. All sorts of quacky schools will spring up. Putting education in the Dept of Labor and in Health and Human Services which will be departments filled with fewer employees who have no training in the field, because Trump is firing 50,000 to replace with 20,000 loyalists who have no specialized training in the fields in which they will be working. If your child has a special learning need, which happens quite often, there will be no support for this. Then, let us look at colleges of Education. What will happen to them? Will there be funding? If we believe in home schoolers and charter schools, well then we don't think that schools of education need to exist. We don't think of funding their research. We don't think of making things better. And, there was absolutely no discussion of bilingual education. There is no discussion of teaching second language learners. How about discussion of teaching foreign languages? While children in other countries learn English, what will American children learn? Then there is the idea that there will be no government loans for secondary education, and the way universities will be accredited is awful. In the Dominican Republic the elite sent their children abroad for university. Typically the US, and France, at least among the people I knew. They had no universities themselves. Making people get loans opens up opportunities for Trump and his friends to grift again. Also, there will be zero tolerance for not paying back these predatory loans, so what happens to those who have debt they cannot pay? prison?military? I could go on with how these plans will play themselves out if given a chance. I hope you can see the nightmare of the direction in which they are going. They are doing more than Hitler, Putin and Mussolini to destroy their countries. It is a total third world model of education.
Linda, your diatribes are easier to read if you break them up into paragraphs. And you have made good points. I have a feeling that those of us who write extended pieces aren’t read as often as abbreviated comments. I’m in there with you.
Bill, I have been told this before. My daughter says that she will try to figure out paragraphing for me in Substack. Every suggestion I have gotten so far has not worked.
Linda, all good points and good questions, but of course, the Heritagers never thought of those things because none of this is about anything that will work. I think a bunch of them are waiting for the apocalypse and really don't care what happens here. They just don't want kids learning enough to get the ones in power, out. They don't care about competence because after all, the only thing their fearful leader is competent in is lying, cheating, making up stuff, doing as little work as possible, and siring kids who are just like him.
Well known quote from the criminal "I love the undereducated" it's not just because they make him look less dumb.
My view is the dumber the people are, the more gullible and compliant. It's working pretty well so far.
TFG: "I love the poorly educated."
Why the hell can't the Democratic party put out a suffocatingly steady stream of everything you (and Heather Cox Richardson) present instead of defensively and divisively bickering, essentially, about who will or should be the nominee? Both of your wonderful Substacks are preaching to an adoring audience. The public, writ large, beyond us, needs to be assaulted, twenty-four hours a day, Trump-style, by a Democratic party unified with their shared talking points — just like the Republicans do. But how will that happen? The party is acting like the disorganized ship-hands screwing up launching the lifeboats on the Titanic.
I agree completely. The Dem party is giving up on the Biden SUPPORTERS, of which I am one. I am disgusted with the Dem “leadership”.
Agreed. It is undemocratic. The people chose President Biden in the primaries. Democracy is government “by the people”.
I know this is an unpopular opinion here, but I do not think Biden should have decided to run for a second term. If he had gotten fully behind a younger candidate (and this is not ageist as I am 73 and recognize the declines that come with age!) we would be in a much better position now. He has done a great job - but he is no longer capable of that - as a final act of public service he needs to leave the race.
Well, sure back then it was possible, wasnt it? But then I wonder would we have the very good successful legislation that he put thru? He is responsible for all the good things done the last 3 and half years - most of it with Repubs
trying to prevent it! I wonder, could someone younger & less experienced have done that? And - who would it be?
None of the younger "candidates" that are being mentioned to replace him have this experience nor know how to deal in any way with the other party-which does not appear to be easy in any way.
Kamala is learning on the job so to speak. But I think throwing her out there right now might be what some Dems seem to want - then push her out in favor of someone they approve of. After all shes a POC and a WOMAN!!! Its not only Repubs that are inclined to feel that way.
To put anyone in thinking that their differences, color, age, gender, etc is a good idea is shortsighted and foolish. How will the voting public react to that? What he/she brings to the position and demonstrated ability are paramount as it is in any other job. Everything else is too superficial to benefit anyway one other than the individual, certainly not our country and others. President Biden has all of the qualifications that matter and we need what be brought to this huge US table. All else is irrelevant since what we need has been demonstrated over and above. As a country, we need someone with age to allow discrimination and unfair erroneous opinions against seniors to begin to end as it has with other federally protected groups. Every person has value, worth, and purpose no matter what makes them different. For now, this is still America. Ignorance can do irreparable lasting harm. There is no room for opinion etc over demonstrated evidence!
I agree with you completely, Kay. From what I've seen President Biden's brain is just fine, when it comes to governing the country.
I completely agree, Maggie.
For the last three years, Biden could have been assigning Kamala to tasks where she was bound to succeed, make her look good and generally setting her up as his successor. This is how CEOs create their replacement. Instead, he gave her immigration - pretty much dooming her to failure.
On a slightly different point, what do his accomplishments over the past 3.5 years have anything to do with the next four years? Shouldn't it be his planned accomplishments over the next 4 years what we should be excited about?
And lastly, if in Jan 2024 he'd announced he was not going to stand again, how would that have made the difference to all the legislation he helped push through in the 3 years previous? It would still have been done.
Biden is just being selfish at this point.
And we are all entitled (in this respect) to our own opinion.
How can they give up on any supporters? Without us Biden supporters they will never win! I am disgusted with them too, but we still have to stay loyal to Dem party and for me, loyal to President Biden!
To Cynthia: I too still believe in President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris. United we can win. I’ve never heard Biden complain but he has been working so hard for so long and keeps going because he believes in the decency of all Americans and our rights to healthy and happy lives. Much love to both of them tonight and for their dedication to saving our democracy and thank you Joyce for your hard work in saving our democracy 🇺🇸🗽🗳️🕯️🥁💙
Dems were always lousy at falling into line when that is needed.
I believe the Republican party is generally afraid of running against anyone but Biden. They want Biden to stay in because they perceive him as weak. I would not be surprised if Russia is interfering with the Dems right now with propaganda.
I thought that Reps didn't want to run against Biden rather than the other way around. I think that Russia may be influencing the poll numbers since that seems to be all the Dems are using as evidence of who is a good candidate etc. and they are acting on it! We have to smarter than that and consider that those numbers may not at all be accurate and support our best candidate! They seem to be shooting themselves in the foot again with all the effort to oust the best President we have had in decades,, but they take us all down too.
No Kay, the Reps **definitely** want to run against Biden. Many recent polls have confirmed this. Also it just makes sense: Trump has been battering Biden for 3 years, they'd have to throw all that out and start again.
I wonder where those polls are coming from. We know Russia is interfering. Media has been battering him too, and I am disgusted and angry and have lost all respect for all media even those I used for all of my news. I feel so bad for our President because of the abuse he has been subjected too by every source possible just because of his age and Not his great value to us! That's rather stupid if you think about it, but hey, there's a lot of that going around!
https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_sPu9WiO.pdf
This is a recent one on the topic.
How were those numbers compiled and from what sources? Without all of that information, the same question remains.
Well, it's not only Tfg battering him. All Media and millions of Agist people have been ripping him to shreds. Piccadores do the same to the strong bull trying to wear him down until he falls. Sounds way too familiar! Does media want him to fall? We know there are those who do. Can we let them succeed? What can we do before Nov?
I heard on MSNBC that the RNC wants to run against Biden because all their plans are directed at that specific opponent. They would have to redo their entire campaign if the dems have another candidate. Personally I still want to see Biden get 4 more years, even though throwing a cog in the works of the republicans' campaign has great appeal to me.
I just had that discussion with my husband!! The DNC Convention is a full month away and the Repugs are planning on Biden/Harris. Suppose Biden THEN releases his delegates and resigns at the end of his term. Dems then nominate someone else. for Pres. Pelosi, Schumer, Biden have years of experience and I'm hoping this is their game plan.
I think your idea is a good one, but I really wish they would just get behind Biden. Their dithering has probably affected polls, which I never believe anyway. Yes, he's old, but he still has the ability to do what is needed, still has good ideas, and from what I've seen still has the stamina to be president. Not that I want to go along with anything the RNC wants - I'd love to see them scrambling, but unless Biden dropping out at the convention would really screw up their plans, I'd still rather see Biden. I agree there are some good people out there, but I'm not sure who I see that is presidential material. I welcome any ideas, though.
And leaning into conspiracy theories - could that be exactly what they want us to think?
Of course Repubs want a less experienced candidate - why wouldnt they?
Voters listened to the "polls" back in 2016. Remember what happened that time"? And the Russian disinformation that ran rampant? The polls - most - dont mean diddly! And at this point neither does anyone pretending to be a "reporter".
Could be, I suppose, but of those Brutuses anxiously waiting in the wings, who do you think they truly fear? And Russian collusion with Trump, or the usual Russian interference? — well sure, but still, I emphasize that it is an unremitting avalanche of Dem talking points spouted by all Democratic senators and congress-people that can capture the undecideds' attention; that may provide them facts of serious enough weight to gain their votes.
As I recall, the 60’s Democratic Party was well known for their constant bickering. Unfortunately it was an inside/outside joke that the Dems “would eat their own” - not actually but in speech and, boy, did they ever. I remember because I had, proudly, registered as a Democrat in Oklahoma - it was real blue back then! I was grading tests in the History Dept (Dept secretary) when JFK was killed, I remember, in horror, when MLK Jr was shot and killed, and I was watching the returns from California when RFK was killed. I’m proud to have been able to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I will support the Democratic presidential nominee. MaybGod help,us all.
When JFK was killed, celebrations throughout the south, fiestas in South Florida.
I was born and raised in NC. Was in 7th grade when JFK was assassinated. Not once did I see celebrations.
"As historian William Manchester wrote in his 1967 book The Death of a President, there were reports of celebrations in Texas when Kennedy was assassinated. Manchester described a scene of “rejoicing” high school students in the city of Amarillo, and he also wrote: “In Dallas itself a man whooped and tossed his expensive Stetson in the air, and it was in a wealthy Dallas suburb that the pupils of a fourth-grade class, told that the president of the United States had been murdered in their city, burst into spontaneous applause.”
Same was true in Miami's Cuban community....
I caught a snippet of Howard Dean's interview with Joy Reid this afternoon. I want to try to find the whole thing, but basically he seemed to be excoriating Dem leadership for 1) letting this go on and 2) for scheduling the convention so late and close to state qualifications for ballots, which leaves more room for Rs to play fast and loose.
The Neurologist who posted last week re aging wrote that Biden's handlers should be fired for allowing him to debate on that specific night due to his having other earlier engagements, They did not do a good job and make the best decision for him, and he has suffered greatly as we also have. We Dems and our President deserve so much better!
At this point - seeing all the "anonymous" "unsourced" information popping up - I hope this crap isnt really coming from the WH staff. Thats the impression given by far too many of the current "news" spreaders.
Biden should have fired at least some of his staff. Biden's reluctance to do so is another negative against Biden - he keeps thinking his mouth agape at the debate was no big deal.
This next sentence is just speculation, and unfair, but my take is that he and his aides are long accustomed to him spacing out, so they are inured to it. That would correlate with Biden's spin that it was just a bad night.
Thanks, I'll look for it. In the meantime, I'm sending a version of my comment to every Democratic member of Congress. It feels like a hopeless effort — I have no illusions it would be noticed or read, or acted upon if it were; but at least I'll have tried.
Trying to avoid a phantom iceberg
I woke up this am fretting about this very subject. Rural and inner city schools would hurt the most. States cannot replace the federal money they get. They would close schools. Rural school closures would mean many kids could not attend any school because of the distance and lack of transportation. Inner cities would also close schools, also curtail buses and force student-teacher ratios to untenable numbers. Many teachers would become unemployed. Suburban and exurban schools would lose extracurricular funding. I can’t even imagine what would happen to our kids. But we boomers would eventually be governed by these uneducated and undereducated students. That’s scary as shit!
I am still a Biden supporter. The Dems are self destructing.
Thanks Joyce for your steadfast commitment to educating us!
In the State of the Union address Biden said a raise for the teachers did he not?
That was such a sweet acknowledgement of our finest profession.
Thank you Joe.
Kathi, I think that's their whole point - to make sure that especially inner city kids would not get educated. They'd make better slaves that way… I am of the same demographic as President Biden, and it's really scary for us, too.
If Biden is going to step down,* I hope the announcement comes during the last 5 minutes of El Cheeto's speech tonight, it would be a lovely way to rain on his parade. Having the media drop RNC coverage of him and focus entirely on the Democrat party would be enjoyable.
*Facetious comment
No they wouldn't they might make a brief announcement and go right back to praisng the trumpster/dumpster. Look at history WandaWoman. In 1968 we lost our only viable candidate, Bobby Kennedy to murder, in June 1968. We lost, hugely, to tricky Dick. You want that to happen again? Keep asking Joe (the Best President we've had in 70+ years) and enjoy your time in fascism.
You're taking my facetious comment seriously.
Breathe.
Sorry. It is facetious and funny.
Sometimes humor is all I have left. Sigh.
I'll agree to that!
Agree
Biden is not stepping down.
This weekend. Mark my words.
Democrats are the adults in the room now. The other party has abandoned reality and truth in favor of denial. We can't afford to do the same. And if we do, we are not only just as bad as that party; we are sleepwalking into fascism, from which we will not recover in most of our lifetimes.
I just don’t see Biden continuing after the reports in the NYT and WP this morning. (Friday). Raskin’s letter is eloquent and, in my view (tho unpopular with this comment’s main thrust), spot on. (True confession: I suffered through that playoff game as a Red Sox fan.) https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/4642d21dd2af028f/43f44435-full.pdf
Wow! Jamie Raskin has captured it all, beautifully. I was on the edge of tears after reading it. Thank you for sharing this!
I really love Jamie Raskin, but was very disappointed to see him jump on that bandwagon.
Resigning. Falling. Tripping. Floating. Descending. Receding. What verb would you choose? I hope he is allowed to go with dignity, but the more he lingers the nastier this is going to get. For sure the knives of Pelosi and Obama are barely hidden right now, with both Schiff and Londgren going public.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
__Martin Luther King, Jr.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
___Abraham Lincoln
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
__Aristotle
Thank you for these reminders!
Thank for supporting our learning, the future of our children and democracy.
Good comments, Fern!
Thanks, Fern💟💙
That meal in your hands, Susan, made my mouth water. I'm now going to have a
very late lunch!
Onward we go!
A chili dog at a baseball game!! Onward, YES!🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙
I had a friend some years ago who told me an interesting story of growing up in Kentucky in the 1950's. His dad was a minister, and was interested in promoting literacy for poor children. He went to the bishop of an different denomination to ask if they would cooperate on this project. The bishop told my friend's father that he had no interest in promoting literacy because ignorant people could be more easily led to do what "leaders" wanted them to do. This is what MAGA Republicans want to take us back to.
It’s the way bully’s think about others.
I assumed it was still like that in many Southern states.
It is and it’s disgusting.
As an out, queer, public high school teacher every word of this scares the shit out of me for all kids and especially for LGBTQ kids. We aren’t just facing the threat of going backward, but backward with the most ruthless added on consequences.
Already, even though I am near retirement age, I’m thinking “What can I, as a teacher, do to stem the onslaught of 2025 and Trump’s Nazi agenda?” As a teacher and as a sane human being.
But before I go all the way there…I will vote blue and encourage others to do the same and we will have another four years to figure this out because this is not going away.
I danced in the street in front of my house when Biden won in 2020 but clearly he wasn’t going to lead without that orange gnat buzzing and doing damage. He and Harris have done so much excellent work but there were always the orange maggots working to stop them.
I’m sad for Biden for one reason only… he has been an amazing president and that has been overshadowed too often by a narcissist and his band of sycophants.
Ok…I have so much more to say but I’ll stop and thanks for listening.
🏳️🌈 🇺🇸♥️
Annie, what you've said so far (in case you add more later) really impressed me. Congratulations on your retirement, if you decide to go that route.
I appreciate what you've been doing and what you plan to do to help Biden win.
Scott Dworkin is promoting this hashtag to be spread as far and as much as possible and it goes perfectly with what Joyce has written tonight;
#TrumpVanceIsProject2025
They are thick as thieves and all in on it. Make them eat it!
It's part of the white cis male fever dream to legislate the country back to the 1950s when only they had rights. If I were a young woman, I'd get sterilized right damn quick (never wanted kids anyway).
And I would hope that my body really had shut down so I couldn't get pregnant (I didn't even though I had plenty of opportunities to do so). Those men have those fever dreams because they are very insecure in who they are.
I’ve been reading project 2025 now for months, with breaks for libations to wash the taste out of my mouth. I missed the part where people who work overtime could get robbed of that if the employer could cut hours in subsequent weeks, so thank you Joyce. I think this is a valid talking point many of us could use when discussing this with skeptics. I’m retired and I worked as a salaried professional for most of my adult life but I have friends who have gone to work in the service sector by choice to give back. Some of them encounter supporters of Darth Rumpus who believe his BS about how they were better off under him. (Hello, Covid!). I will suggest they use this information as this overtime change would affect many of them drastically.
There won’t be any one big act that wins this for us but many small ones and this information can be one of those.
I'm sure Republicans already have software programmed to schedule people's hours accordingly and cheat them out of overtime pay.
Re: supporting Biden, here’s a point I havent seen yet. Given that elite Democrats are kicking to the curb an immensely successful president who has worked with a difficult congress, what talented and principled person is going to run for the presidency as a Democrat in the future? I sure as heck wouldn’t trust that party that caves to the whims of the pundit class would have my back!
Yes! Thank-you.
In rural areas of the country, there are not a selection of schools for parents to pick from so these students will be hurt as the funding for the public school option is reduced as more and more money goes to the private schools. In MO, most rural area public schools are in session only 4 days a week because of budget problems, and teacher salaries are too low. MO has also been pushing vouchers. Private schools don't have to accept your child and generally don't accept children with physical or learning disabilities. Every state that has heavily gone into vouchers has seen serious budget deficits and the research does not show better student learning outcomes, in fact, most research shows the opposite. Research has shown that most parents choosing vouchers where already sending their children to private schools. Now they get to let taxpayers pay some or all of the tuition. And, many private schools raised their tuition when their parents began to use vouchers. Its a grift taking taxpayer money and giving it to private parties, including religious groups. The wealthy aren't concerned because they can afford to send their children anywhere they want. As usual, everyone else pays the price. Off subject, but if you want to have some fun explain to the men in your lives that Project 2025 also wants to do away with condoms (along with all contraception) and porn. It has something for everyone.
Do you read Jess Piper’s Substack? She’s a rural Democrat from Missouri who used to be a teacher. Wonderful!
Yes, and I follow her on Twitter. She's great and she's done a lot getting rural Democrats organized.
She is also a terrific writer.
Oh how wonderful it would be to have pornography sites gone. Our young boys would learn that this is Not the way women like to be treated. That being a bully is not going to win them true friendships or respect from women that they seem to want so desperately.
No condoms? Ouch! What about STD prevention? Are they crazy?
Yes they are crazy and they don't care about anyone.
Bill Clinton has said América is great because every generation can do better than the one before. That advancement depends on education. And not every state will bear its responsibility if the federal government isn’t monitoring things.
All I can say is I need to put my life on hold and devote my energy to getting sensible informed voters out this November. We just have to wait out the outcome of the Democratic convention. Then get to work!
You can be working NOW. Write letters to the paper about project 2025. Start deep canvassing. Write postcards.
UGH!
Heritage
A blazing orange over-heated flame
On July second set afire papers
We are still trying to read. Between
The light from the leaping flames
And the heats singeing our lashes
We grab at the growing pile of ashes
Trying to snatch some remnant of hope
As the words curl away in wisps of smoke.
The circle of flame worshippers grasp wrists
Their backs to the darkness of space
Previously enlightened by mere words
Adhered to by a civilization.
I support Biden. The problem is the uninformed who saw the debate. He should have cancelled that debate. He was sick.
I have talked to so many people. One man said he voted for Biden in 2020, but not now, “he’s senil”, he said.
A young girl characterized him as “he has lost his marbles .”
We cannot afford to lose this election. There is too much at stake: our DEMOCRACY.
We are being led to believe that Biden is senile…by members of the Democratic party no less… crazy, irresponsible, IMHO.
Really it’s the media that has been down on Biden. If they succeed in pushing him out, they will be sorry for what they have Done.
I agree with you that the media has not been kind to Biden, but I'm not holding my breath, waiting for them to be sorry for what they've done. (Trump has brought out my cynical side, along with my frustration.)
Yes. President Biden should have canceled the debate you’re right ! He loves democracy so much he thought he could stretch a sore throat and cold for just a few more hours. We all forget how devastating a cold can be.
Especially when you're my age, and Biden's. He's only a few years older than me. The last time I had a bad cold, it took a long time to get better.
People catch colds. If each cold knocks a person out for a week, that that is a "ding" on their candidacy for president. Not fatal, but not a positive thing when you are supposed to be on the job 24/7.
How do you educate 75 million people who in their lifetimes left themselves uneducated, between now and Nov? The repugnantkins have a highly polished messaging system that has those 75 million in their pocket and totally committed to being there. I don’t want to be in a state of despair but I know how to add.
Biden received 81 million votes last election. More votes than any other American had ever received.
Many of us and I’m assuming you are among them, know that the total doesn’t mean as much as where they are. The swing states, and I live in one, will determine the outcome because of the electoral count, those are the votes that count more than any others. They came very close to stealing the election in 2020, they didn’t pull it off because they hadn’t lined up all of their ducks, they are not stupid, that’s what they are doing as I type this. If any of us think that the SC will back us on this issue, they need to rethink it, they won’t, for them justice means just is, get over it and get used to it. We have been playing by the rules and they have been stacking the deck, Dobbs anybody?
I'm reminded that Biden didn't want to watch the debate either. That was the tipping point for me. If he is not willing to learn from his mistake..... if he's being advised by his aides that he doesn't need to learn.... Not to mention that none of his aides thought to mention any sickness before the debate started... It was perhaps salvageable the night of the debate, but Biden failed to salvage anything... It's all just a mess now - and all the fault of him and his team. There is too much at stake for Biden to continue. We can't afford to lose this election.