You have to acknowledge that the current cabinet would just dominate if there was an Olympic event for butt-snorkeling. We have the best butt-snorkelers in the world!
I've always liked knowing the difference between ass-kissers and brown-nosers was depth perception, but now I wonder how far a classic butt-snorkeler will go?
I'm not sure how one puts the attempted firing of a black Fed governor into the proper context without mentioning race.
Is the Democratic party now to avoid mention of race when confronting the actions of an administration focused on attacking anyone "not white"?
I agree that the Dems need to start talking normal again, but it's not like anyone is going to decide to oppose fascism just because the Democrats learn to use different words.
This is a time when I thought Andrew was wrong in what he wrote. It is absolutely critical to keep in mind WHO Trump is targeting: Powell (the Chair) and Cook (the only Black female committee member). Trump hates powerful, smart Black women, that much is clear. It's also important to take into consideration that her early work at Michigan State involved expanding and refining a database of lynchings in the US to, in part, understand the economic impact of lynchings. Also, she mentors minority students in an American Economics Association summer program. And for good measure, she is is an expert on the Russian economy. Her sex and her race and her scholarship absolutely matter here. Sorry, Andrew, Jeffries was right to bring up the fact that Cook is a Black woman, and he has certainly not been the only one to state this.
I'm sorry, but Donald Trump is not trying to get rid of Lisa Cook because her early work at Michigan State involved expanding and refining a database of lynchings in the U.S. That might be a reason she is worthy of respect and praise, but it has zilch to do with Trump's attempted takeover of the Fed.
"But to hear Jeffries tell it, the most outrageous thing about Cook’s attempted firing is that he’s trying to undo her historic appointment as the first black woman on the board."
I know eggers is a bad writer, but what the hell is he talking about. The entire statement is perfectly anodyne. Jeffries mentions her race once, that's hardly framing the attempted firing as all about race
Egger's real objection is that that main point is lost. The power grab is the true danger and messaging about that reaches more people. We're trying to EXPAND the tent, not preach to the choir.
I don't believe the main point was lost on anyone who didn't want to lose it. I am tired of the nonsense about how people experience messages.
I have had people explain to me in all seriousness that they rejected mRNA vaccines simply because they didn't like how they were presented. That sounds to me like an utter BS way of saying that they found a reason to dislike the vaccines that were rejected by their cult.
I do not believe that mentioning that Trump is trying to fire the first female Black Fed governor is going to turn anyone away from the Democratic party, or tip the scales to voting for Trump.
I don't think that Democrats' messaging style is going to change minds. But I do think it may cause people to lose interest and be drawn to the next shiny object Trump tosses out.
The Democrats need to learn to connect with the low-information morons in our country, or we will continue to be governed by low-information morons.
"I don't believe the main point was lost on anyone who didn't want to lose it"--if this is true, it's no thanks to Jeffries, who didn't mention the main point at all!
I see nothing wrong with mentioning Cook’s race, because it’s an important point. My gripe with Jeffries is that he omitted the main point of why Trump wants to fire her. And people need to know why he wants to fire her, because it’s a dangerous reason.
Every message has to have a dominant and secondary point. That's what I'm talking about. Where is the energy? What's being pushed hard? It needs to be the one that has the most universal buy-in.
I like Jeffries, but I think he is not angry enough for this moment in history. His messaging is calm, and he wants his words to carry the weight, so he says his piece and expects his listeners to process his message.
I don't like the emotional approach, but Dems need to start messaging to the heart instead of the head.
Yeah, I'm also not a fan of appeal just to emotion and it's sad that facts and history carry so little weight (because Trump, social media etc have made it impossible to even agree on basic facts). We live in a time when emotions are the main driver. Trash talking is seen as a sign of strength. Etc. We play the game or we lose.
This is true except that the MAGAsphere media will amplify anything that makes Dems look out of touch. And those 'undecideds' will find about him there.
I'm here to tell you that "Democrats' messaging style" *has* changed minds. Specifically, the excessive focus on identity has changed the minds of at least some people who would otherwise vote Democratic, while making many other lifelong Democrats feel that none of the parties represents their interests. I don't think this fact is a revelation.
Oh my, nothing like giving the brutal truth - however, it's true. Instead of telling it like it is, we look like we agree with their reasoning by not refuting their trash talk.
No, but it is the aggregation of many "woke"* tweets that can change opinion against the Dems. It is a mistake to discount this. I know from experience it is what helped drive people from Hilary to Trump in 2016
* I am using that term because that's how MAGA sees it.
It's not woke to me because I understand where the term came from.
You have to understand the MAGA brain. To them, Jeffries played the race card. Of that message from him, that is the only thing most of them will see. That is their conditioning. I guarantee most of the MAGA base who saw the tweet rolled their eyes - not because they don't think Jeffries is right, but because he pulled race into the comment.
past is prologue. It's not the isolated tweet, it's what the leadership thinks should be the dominant talking point. Republicans are masters at deciding on a message and being relentless. Dems need to get on the stick. And we don't really have until November 2026. If Trump is not stopped before then, we are sunk.
Why does race have to be mentioned at all? Trump doesn't care that she is the first black woman on the board, he just cares that a black woman is there. He knows he can't get rid of Powell, so he will try and get rid of other people to weaken Powell. The threat to the independence of the Fed and putting monetary control under the president is more than enough of an issue. Bringing race into it is a distraction from the real big issue of checks and balances.
I don't know, if we're not in this for inalienable rights for all, I'm in the wrong place. If we can't see what is being done to Black people by Trump's Admin right now and criticize it, I'm in the wrong place.
I'm trying to approach this from the mindset of people outside of The Bulwark. How do we sound to people who don't understand the chaos like we do? I'm not saying it isn't important - but when we put up something like first black woman Fed Governor, that just isn't an important detail to so many people. People barely understand what the Federal Reserve does itself, the fact that it has Governors - a term that the vast majority of people associate with state leadership is likely to make them shrug and say, "I guess that is important..."
I'm trying really hard to step outside of myself and see things from a different perspective these days. You and I and everyone else here knows what is happening and the importance of inalienable rights for all - but that is preaching to the choir, and we need to focus on the pews.
Oh, I get it, I do. It's just that I don't think people outside the Bulwark understand what the Fed does at all. Is it independent? Should it be independent? You're trying to teach pigeons to play chess.
Jeffries might also be recognizing that black women are as reliable a democratic base as exists. Whether this particular stmt resonates, I'm not sure--I would also have thought that the impact a Fed takeover could have on the interest rates of ordinary households, including those helmed by black women, might also have resonated/resonated more widely.
Then send that message. Don't make it out to be some historic slight about "the first black woman" to do X is being fired. Say that again, the administration is firing minorities first because he is a racist. We have to stop with all of the "firsts" otherwise a lot of people will just tune out the democrats.
send what message? you want the minority leader to give an econ lecture in a tweet? if he did then people like you and egger would complain about dems being out of touch/too educated/too elite
this is a wild thing to get upset about. its a standard statement, idk what youre getting spun up about
Many if not most regular people are perfectly capable of understanding and caring about Fed independence (and the possible economic ramifications if it's lost) AND the racial aspect that is likely present. It's not either/or (imho).
I don’t think he’d care if she was a white man, as long as he didn’t think his agenda wasn’t being backed. He still lacks the nerve to fire Powell. When you can’t punch the boss, you go home and kick the dog as a substitute.
He’s already tried to fire Powell. Then his pretext fell apart. Another person (white woman) mysteriously resigned—probably after being threatened with firing on some or other pretext.
Both things can be true. He wants to take power over the fed so he can do what he wants. The fact that the person he fires is black is just icing on the cake for the MAGA base.
Maybe the fact she was a Biden appointee is as relevant. The only thing that's really relevant is Trump couldn't get Jerome Powell and she's collateral damage. In the end, I'm just glad she's going to fight the bastard and eventually win.
Okay I'm late but what the heck? "...Eggers is a bad writer..."? How am I the only one who didn't know this? (Cuz it's FAKE NEWS I tell you!)
Meanwhile, whilst I'm back at a keyboard, how about slathering a little Solzhenitsyn (true or not) on the crazy sycophancy of the cabinet -- "Don't ever be the first person to stop applauding Stalin!"
The fundamental matter here is that 47 seeks to stifle independent analysis and opinion in all governmental activities. The ethnographic characteristics of any targeted Fed member are secondary. Leader Jeffries' error is not in mentioning Ms. Cook's ethnicity, but putting it up front, not after noting that 47's action threatens the truthfulness and independence of the Fed.
So now we're gong to dissect and dispute the ordering of mentions of every statement? I don't know what's worse, the scary "woke" or this kind of speech policing.
Jeffries' statement was perfectly fine. However, the old ways of speaking no longer translate. Not in this current moment. He could have said less and intoned just as much, with simpler language, while driving home Ms. Cook's qualifications and ethics, without reducing her to simply her gender and color.
The fact that both these things were written in the very first line of his statement will make all of those who are tired of this general rhetoric from Dems, roll their eyes and forgo reading the rest of what he had to say - and I say this as a woman myself. So, if a larger portion of the American population is indeed reading at a 6th-grade level, as statistics present, yes, Dems DO need to change the way they speak and refocus their message entirely.
Yes, I have been saying this for some time now. Jeffries is boring. If Dems really want to make a point, send out someone who speaks with passion, enthusiasm, and authenticity. It's not "what" Jeffries is saying, it's "how" he is saying it that turns people off. He may make an excellent Speaker of the House, but he is a terrible Public Speaker. If his fellow Dem politicians cannot see this for themselves and adjust to the times, then they are doing all of us a terrible disservice. They need to speak boldly and try to reach MAGA voters through MAGA media sites. Get with it !!
We already know "they" are "anti-fairness". However, some reading, not viewing photos, may not have understood the game played. Giving identity once is enough, with "..qualifications and ethics" FAR MORE IMPORTANT.
Economics, philosophy, knowing stats, etc, of lynching? It's no wonder these "Klan wannabes" are afraid of this Fed Reserve member refusing to step down.
Why be afraid? This is not the first scandal of "their kind". Indiana Klan had its peak in 1925 when their "misguided leader" went after literacy teacher, Madge Oberholzer, a case of misleading her about her job, followed by her kidnap and vicious rape and re-rape. The perp wanted to hide the crime of his bitemarks by forcing her to marry him. (Believing wives can't testify?)
Ms Oberholzer tried to commit suicide, causing her release, but signed a statement for police before she died, naming the perpetrator and two enablers. The perp went to prison. Denied a pardon in 1926, he did name names first.
REPUBLICANS? The Wiki article on Oberholtzer says, "The state of Indiana finally indicted several high-ranking officials, including Governor Edward L. Jackson and the head of the Republican Party in Marion County. Other local officials resigned when facing charges. "
Targeting Germanics and others, the Indiana Klan went from 250,000 in 1925, to 4000, by Feb. 1928. They lost 98% of their members.
Four active newspapers opposing the Klan were in Indianapolis (Indiana Catholic and Record, Indianapolis Freeman, Indiana Jewish Chronicle, and the Indianapolis Times). The Times "battled the Klan throughout the 1920s and received a Pulitzer Prize in 1928 for its detailed reports on the Klan’s involvement in bribery and corruption in city, county, and state politics". (Source: https://IndyEncyclopedia.org/ku-klux-klan/)
Exactly that. It goes without saying that I believe in civil liberties, but I still want opportunities, a livable wage, housing, and a safe city to live in. Dems wrap themselves in performative acts and language and do nothing. And I've been voting for them for the last 2 decades.
They need to refocus what they say and do, because if even a reliably blue voter like me is frustrated with them, the moderate voter won't even look their way.
Yes, Trump wants to take over the federal reserve. But the 1st person of this body he fired was a black woman. Not because he is racist, (he'll totally is) but because MAGA will totally support his firing of a back women more than firing a random male member of the federal reserve.
The point for me, Dan, is that Jeffries did not make any reference whatsoever to the larger issue of subversion of the Fed, which if successful would have catastrophic consequences.
In referencing only that the target of this attack is Black, Jeffries made this exclusively about race. That to my mind is the error.
1st female black fed governor to be clear. Jeffries didn’t spend anytime attributing anything special to her ethnicity, but merely used as a descriptor for who she is. I agree that we can get to caught up in some of the language we use, and minutiae, but he was just using it as to describe who Ms. Cook is that’s it. It’s not like Trump doesn’t use race to his advantage either. I thought that was a poor example on Andre’s part.
You nailed it, Dan. No fancy words would be needed. "Today, Donald Trump affirmed that he's got a real cob stuck up his ass when it comes to Black women who dare not to submit", a senator could have said. Pretty frank and certainly honest.
I've been thinking about that. At least some of the problem is the way we have conversations has gotten so "flattened." When I was a philosophy grad student, I'd talk very differently with my fellow academics, my students, and my family and friends. And that was fine, it was good even - specialists use specialized meanings that can be offputting to people just wetting their toes in the topic, or who couldn't care less about determinist vs. compatibilist understandings of freedom and really just wanted the thirty-second version of how work was going while we waited to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.
Maybe those spaces still exist and we just don't see them from the outside. Maybe it is as simple as people needing to get better to talking to people without that background. But I've noticed a lot of expert-to-expert talk shared with the general public, either because the news decided some DNC planning group's annual meeting was news-worthy or because two experts in the same field used a podcast as the way to catch up. It just feels like a lot of people are having normal conversations that just mismatch the other people listening in, that would be fine if it was just them. And that seems to be happening more these days than I remember before.
I found it very interesting Third Way left off not-normal-sounding words people use to talk about economics. Oligarchy doesn't appear on the list (https://www.thirdway.org/memo/was-it-something-i-said), nor does kleptocracy or plutocrats. Unless I missed them? I guess we're still allowed to talk about them because they're kitchen-table issues.
I understand the push not to be divisive, to appeal to the issues focus groups tell us could convince people to vote against MAGA-ism next time. Especially to not make normal people feel looked down on when we use overly-complicated, academic-type words. But damn if I'm not tired of feeling like I can only care about what's in my wallet. :(
Exactly. What would they propose if, for example, it was the 1940s and Trump would have asked for the firing of Jackie Robinson from the Brooklyn Dodgers? Really? You don't mention the fact the only person he's firing is the first African American woman to sit on the Fed? #ComeOnNow
I think Trump picked this woman to harass because she was the first fed governor he found a good pretext to fire. It's the same one he's using to go after Sen. Adam Schiff—presumably not, in that case, for racist reasons.
I want to live in a world where the Nobel Committee give this year's Peace Prize to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Andry José Hernández Romero, and the other men who were illegally deported to Secot, who endured torture and yet still retained their humanity and peace-loving natures. THAT is who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize this year!
I've only seen Mr. Garcia and Mr. Romero speak in interviews so far. But their grace and forgiveness towards their torturers impressed me so much. And, come on, it would REALLY piss off Trump!
This administration is developing world class butt snorkelers, if it was an Olympic sport we'd be right up there with North Korea battling for the gold.
What happens when the Oval Office walls are completely covered in gold-look plastic appliqués and every surface is covered wall to wall with gold trophies?
He called the opposition party “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”
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Politics aside, it's a very hard title to win, but this pretty much seals his victory in my books in the competition for Least Likeable Person in America. Literally everything that tumbles out of his mouth for public consumption is deeply rooted in anger, hatred, grievance, and misery. I can't fathom what it is like to live that way, and how much energy it requires to always be against someone or something as a life mission. I also can't imagine someone like that having pets or otherwise showing any evidence of human warmth or empathy toward other living creatures. And, gross though the thought is, I utterly can't envision waking up next to someone like that and looking forward to spending the rest of the day -- egad, the rest of one's life -- with such a miserable human life form. As a rule such people never should be allowed to come anywhere near any real power over anyone else. But here we are. That much says even more about the rest of us than it does about him.
I also couldn't imagine giving someone like that a free and unfettered platform with no pushback whatsoever when they spew such hatred and lies. It's completely reckless and irresponsible and highly dangerous. But, I'm not FoxNews.
I believe the word you are looking for is loathsome. At least it's the one I use in reference to Miller. A man with a black heart and a black soul. And he's married and has a child! But then so did many of the National Socialists.
That so many people refused to believe that Trump would be a dictator and that they would do the things they are doing; that these people whined about the price of eggs (while secretly hoping he would get rid of "those people, but only the bad ones), speaks volumes for sure.
The AP reported today that most people think that cities are crime ridden—because they don't live there and their local news "if it bleeds it leads." Americans' ignorance is destroying us.
Agreed. It was all so predictable. I don't envy that child for the psychological issues he/she likely will face someday, as the weight of the father's sins eventually come to awareness.
I'm betting on it. He knows what he is doing, and it is largely psychological. The words are intentionally and carefully chosen for impact, as a means to specific ends. The manipulation is ongoing.
Of course they are targeting democrats! Calling us names and dehumanizing us makes it easier for the minions to accept incarceration of large swaths of Americans. They will be fine with imprisoning terrorists and anti-American stooges. This is the Stephen Miller playbook.
LHS, you noted earlier, L Cook's personal history, "early work at Michigan State involved expanding and refining a database of lynchings in the US to, in part, understand the economic impact of lynchings."
If "they" are doing a test run on DC, if "they" plan on rounding up their opposition, this makes L. Cook fearsome to them?? "They" admire philandering party boys, too many coming from states never apologetic for sending all those young man to fight in the Civil War.
Those guilty never apologized for the Klan' revival of the early 1920's. "They" sponsored Klan pyramid schemes (multi-level marketing, their recruiters made money selling masks, bibles, burnable crosses and "special outfits" and by recruiting more recruiters). The northern newspaper editors beat them back as they tried to move toward Canada. As the north had owned few slaves, "they" had to find other targets, in Indiana, going after German-Americans, rhetoric deeply anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, other targets as well.
The north push ended with the nature of things revealed, the kidnap-rape of young teacher by Indiana's "big shot Kluxer".
It's his reason for living. So for him it's not an energy sink. It energizes him and he gets the positive willies when things work out the way he wants them to. He is adored by 40+ million people. That energizes him. He is hated by 200+ million people. That energizes him. He is a shitty human being. The fact that we think so, energizes him.
Well said. And when he talks he gets more and more enraged, talks faster and faster, his voice getting screechy and higher -- enraged and sick dude, that Stephen Miller is.
"As for the idea that an opposition to the president and his agenda has some sort of right to exist, the Trump administration rejects that too. On Monday night, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, appeared on Fox News. He called the opposition party “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”"
Is it me or does it sound like Stephen has been trying to get even with the guys that shoved him into a locker in high school for the past twenty years?
Also, keep in mind what Umberto Eco wrote about fascistic movements:
"For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a “final solution” implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament."
IIRC, Miller is a graduate of Santa Monica High School. I doubt that Santa Monica is or ever was a hotbed of conservatism, so it's likely that he was shunned in the usual ways for wearing his conservatism on his sleeve and has been seeking revenge ever since.
I don't want to get into a "no true Scotsman" sort of debate, but Stephen is not a conservative. There is nothing he wishes to conserve, which is why it's highly amusing to me when he talks about saving "Western Civilization". The United States was once upon a time an imperfect example of the best attributes of Western Civilization: equal justice under the law, due process, the right of free expression, individual liberty, and so on. Because Stephen is reactionary, he wants to do away with all of that because he considers disagreement with him treason.
There is something else I find amusing. The reactionary right view liberals as weak and effeminate, while Stephen views liberals as a "domestic extremist organization". How does one square that circle? Does Stephen think the barista with the purple hair, nose ring, and rainbow pin on her apron at the Starbucks he goes to will suddenly pick up an AR-15 and storm a government building?
"Does Stephen think the barista with the purple hair, nose ring, and rainbow pin on her apron at the Starbucks he goes to will suddenly pick up an AR-15 and storm a government building?"
That's EXACTLY what he wants the MAGA base to believe, and many of them are already there.
I agree that the Dems should drop (most of) the language that makes them sound like over-educated (like me!) elites (not like me), but Hakeem may be onto something about which particular Fed board governor Trump went after. She's a Black woman. Trump's firings of generals, threatening cities with uninvited National Guard invasions, all involve a substantial number of Black targets. Hakeem could have pointed this out differently, and maybe as his secondary point, but there's a clear pattern.
Please give me names of Dem electeds who talk like this. My senators and rep never used these words. Obama, Biden, Harris, Schumer, Pelosi—NONE of them talked or talk like this.
If Hakeem instead would have just used Black and left out woman Andrew would have had the same complaint. Of course there is a clear pattern wit these goons. Look at the military leaders who were purged; all the women and Black men, not to mention the chief librarian of the Library of Congress. Hegseth does not believe women should be in the military at all, and Project 2025—you know the architects of this administration—wants women subservient and back in the house having babies and looking after their breadwinner husbands.
Women are half the population and we deserve to be recognized.
so why are we seeing & reading re so many 'beautiful' women in his cabinet, agencies, as advisors? & running ads to 'self deport' with a woman in charge too.
You forget the he already tried to fire Powell (his pretext fell apart). Then another woman resigned mysteriously. She was likely threatened. A white woman.
Racist Republicans: the woke Dems are so lame and sad. They are ashamed of the genocide that we committed to claim this land for God and the White Man. We are superior! We kill everyone who says different. Stop saying we should treat everyone equally you fucking liberal snowflake cucks! You will not replace us! USA! White and straight! USA! White and straight!
Re your comments on the Democratic 'message,' what would be wrong with creating a bald statement of the Party's agenda for 2026, 2028 and beyond, inclusive of all, so that the entire voting population would be able to visualize the nation's rebirth?
Fixating on the powerless present, the pathetic thrashing and flailing, neglects the hopeful future. It need not be long. A New Constitution for a Great Nation: the next 250 years.
Sensible voters would support a sane approach to government, and would reject the obvious destruction of what has taken 250 years to build.
Well, we had that for many decades. I may not have voted for Reagan or the Bushes, but they believed in a professional civil service; we just disagreed on the size of it.
Yes indeed. It has worked for decades, for most of the people most of the time, just since the world-saving WWII response by government. No human organization can resist bloat, empire building, money-wasting and other such activities.
Absolutely. If Dems want to win, they need to develop and SELL solid, easy-to-understand plans and substantive policies that are going to help Americans. They can start with the bipartisan immigration bill that got dumped by Trump. And they HAVE to do something to motivate contractors to build more housing - maybe a 5-year subsidy or tax credit to builders for the excessive permits they have to acquire. Flood the country with housing and prices will go down as supply finally starts to meet demand. And emphasize that they are going to return experts to head government departments - maybe pass a law requiring the head of HHS to be a licensed physician, or the head of Education to have worked in the education field. To put it simply, Dems need to PUT IN THE WORK that is required to win elections - and that is to develop policies that appeal to the majority of voters. Yes, of course we need to fight for minorities with fair laws and practices, too. But win the damned elections first, then work on the other important issues. And the plans designed to win elections need to be in place way before the campaign season - they should have committees working on it right now. It takes time, effort, and dedication, but isn't that what we are paying them for?
Its always good to talk about the economy because that's where people are. That's what Trump did in spite of the fact the economy was in the toilet when he left his first term, got better with Biden, and is getting bad again now.
And where do we find all these "sensible voters"? How do we reach them? Where were they in 2024? I thought there were enough of them then to reject what was obvious (at least to me), but I was so wrong.
Flood MAGA social media sites and Facebook pages and Tik Tok with positive, simple Democratic messages that appeal to everyday people. Gently point out the flaws of Trump and his minions. Go where they are ! And feed Democrat voters with truth and positive messages that are specific in what changes they are going to make. We need younger voters - go on Adam Mockler, Brian Tyler Cohen, David Pakman, Joe Rogan !! But be prepared! Anticipate questions and have the answers ready. Preparation and hard work are required. Are Dems up to it?
Beth, many of (us, them?) were disillusioned by some of the ingrained missteps of the past (say) fifty years and embraced change, any change. But we know that improving an ossified system takes careful, informed analysis and gradual improvement vs. the violent destruction. The independent-disillusioned segment went along with change for change's sake, and threw the baby out with the bathwater. Dumb, but it happened.
Hard disagree on Andrew's assertion that Native land acknowledgements are a "sideshow". This kind of ahistorical blindness, not uniquely American, but definitely ascendant, is what creates the through line from our nation's founding to our current situation. It's also what renders the Mideast chaos and Russian perfidy so inexplicable to Americans, blithely overlooking centuries of conflict. How did we get here? Start with what we did to Indigenous peoples, way back when, then jump right to slavery. Everything bad today ties directly back to these founding American facts.
Every American should know the history of America's poor treatment of the land's native populations. That's a different thing than believing you need to kick off every gathering with a land acknowledgment.
Most voters don't want to have to do penance for the actions of people who died over a hundred years ago. This is a political party conference that needs to attract new voters, not repel them with weird performance art.
Land Acknowledgements are performative. Whatever the value of them in certain settings, as a political project writ large, they scream vote Republican.
Yes, that is my primary objection. No one is seriously considering giving any land back. LAs are the quintessential virtue signaling. I find them as nauseating as watching our cabinet give Trump a tongue bath.
Yep. I'm as anti-Trump as they come and have a solid interest in how the Dem Party moves forward to defeat MAGA, so I plugged in to that convention and then the minute the LA started I was like "newp" and turned it off and said to my wife, the Dem Party hasn't learned a damn thing.
Thank you for saying this better than I did. Hard agree! We go on and on, decade after decade, making no amends, not even talking about it in any real way. We just expect native peoples and decendents of enslaved people to get over it. They should not. We must make amends.
Ultimately I don't think it's performative if that's what the native peoples requested. I know in Australia, that's what they do before public meetings because that's what the indiginous people want. It is their choice, and it is our job to give that to them.
These responses pretty much make my point. Sure, Americans should know their own history, but they don't. Calling these activities "performative" sounds a lot like "doesn't mean anything to me, so I don't care" How familiar is everyone with the Morrill Act? It created most of the Land Grant universities. There are A LOT of them in the U.S. right now. Guess where the land came from that was "granted"? Taken/bought/stolen from tribes, usually in the aftermath of warfare. This started during the Civil War, as part of Lincoln's plan for rebuilding the country after the war. Provide public education for all! Economic development! Yet, the whole enterprise was born out of the linkage between the two original sins of America. Try to recover from the war over slavery by building an educational system with assets taken from indigenous peoples.
Look, if this still means nothing to you, super, but don't wring your hands and whine about "how can we win over the 44% of the country who want authoritarianism?" Every generation of Americans has the same amnesia in service of their self image as Respectable White People, born fresh and innocent into the world, wide eyed and full of wonder, with no responsibilities for anything that went before them, ready to drink and eat at the wonderful American bounty set before them, which miraculously appeared without any antecedents. To quote Cousin Ellis in No Country for Old men: "It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."
Robert, with all due respect, life is hard, even for seemingly well-off people. They have jobs, mortgages, health issues, family conflict, health issues, aging parents, etc., not to mention the current administration. We are human and thus have trouble giving primacy to wrongs committed while we were not alive. Plus, I am not aware of any country who did not acquire their present circumstances without some conquest or another. Human rights, if you will, are a modern concept. It's not as if native Americans never fought each other over land and resources.
Perhaps I should be more concerned about the fate of the American Indian (I've driven through the reservations around Glacier NP in the recent past and its quite dreadful)). Good on you if you can, but you border on sanctimoniousness from my perspective. I do not really follow you as to how those of us here who don't see a lot of value in Land Acknowledgements can't whine about convincing the 44 % of voters who want authoritarianism...as if calling for more gestures or even reparations will make the scales fall from thine eyes.
All I'd ask is that you recognize that your priorities are not that politically popular in the moment.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Yes, I have a tendency to sanctimony, and I fully realize my priorities aren't popular. They never have been. My frustration, which sounds like sanctimony, is born out of my own shortcomings as an Old White Guy suddenly realizing this late in the game there is, and was, a LOT more going on in this country, and this world, that I was ever told or anyone wanted me to learn. At the risk of sounding like a RW fundamentalist, our American crisis, baked in from the very beginning, is a moral crisis. The American Experiment will end soon if we collectively don't figure out how to tell right from wrong at a very basic level, and then act on it, personally, in our communities, and politically across the country. None of this comes across well or effectively in this format, so I'll bring it to a close here. Thanks for listening and I will continue working on this, one step at a time.
I think Pritzker is on to something big when he puts Trump's minions on notice in his recent great speech. He's helping them start thinking about the idea that there will be accountability somewhere down the road if they "hurt" his people. That's got to be one of Trump's weak points; the sycophantic schemers he has surrounded himself with. He is nothing without them. They are vulnerable. Attack them at will.
I found Bill Kristol's piece to be quite powerful, but Andrew Egger's reminded me of why I am a Democrat visiting a website published by disaffected Republicans. So a word to Andrew:
Hey, dude, it's not all about you all the time. Jeffries helps to lead a party where a major bloc of support is from Black Americans. Noting that Dr. Lisa Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve was entirely appropriate, particularly when her targeting by the Trump administration is partly a reflection of its seething white nationalism.
And if you are going to complain about a brief DNC ceremonial acknowledgement about the country's Native American heritage, then I look forward to your broadsides against Republicans for starting meetings with religious prayers.
I think it is a good thing for the Democrats to take on the role of a big-tent, pro-democracy movement. However, I don't think that means that you, Mr. conservative white guy, get to swagger into the room and make everything all about you. Grow up.
Those brief ceremonial acknowledgements are virtue theater. And making it a racial issue, rather than about a power grab to control the nation's monetary policy for political ends and misses the entire point of why the administration is digging up dirt on Fed Governors in the first place. He is doing it to this particular person because the FHA head, Bill Pulte, has people going through files on Trump's "enemies" and Biden appointees looking for ways to get rid of them or bring charges against them to give Trump maximum power over everything. I think they just happened to find dirt on Lisa Cook, because she did likely claim primary residence on two different properties. (of course, this is a small abuse compared to having people scour mortgage records to find dirt on political enemies). Messaging about how this is a gross abuse of power, to me, seems more effective at getting non-democrats to hear the message. Of course, the Democrats can continue what worked so well the last few years and brought us Trump 2.0.
"Those brief ceremonial acknowledgements are virtue theater. " So are opening prayers outside of church. Jesus said to hide in a closet to pray, and not pray in public like the hypocrites. I could happily lose both performances.
Well, Cracker Barrel largely caters to the geriatric, interstate roving sect, a sect that largely supports Trump.
I'm not geriatric, but I've eaten in a few Cracker Barrels.
Cracker Barrels are all the same-the food, the decor, the kitschy junk shop you gotta walk through on your way in and out.
They'll do fine without my dollars.
It was pretty stupid, tho, of Cracker Barrel to cave to the outcry of their logo change.
Maybe that old logo is the tastiest thing Cracker Barrel has to offer...
We all know why Trump fired Ms. Cook, the Fed Governor. It's because she's Black.
Democrats are right to point that out.
Now they can lay out, to the Cracker Barrel food-induced coma crowd, the potential damage Trump's firing of Ms. Cook will do to our economy.
They can tell grandma and grandpa that they won't be able to afford to cruise the nation's interstates, much less afford to eat at Cracker Barrel, if Trump gains control of the Fed.
They can point out how Trump is doing his best to crash our nation's economy, and that he's getting close to achieving his goals.
Trump is screwing Ukraine as best as he can.
His diddling around, non-committal battlefield support of Ukraine is helping Russia more than Ukraine.
True. What I'm suggesting is avoiding the culture war nonsense by agreeing the logo change sucked, even if for different reasons. The only way we recover as a country is by finding (at the moment EXTREMELY small) areas of agreement rather than everything having to be polarized. Putting the lie to the idea that Cracker Barrel was being PC. And frankly, I prefer the old logo. Doesn't make me a Trumpian in the least.
Who started the culture war? I sure didn't, but I have to witness it every damned day.
Shouldn't those 'warriors' be called out whenever they turn into whiny bitches, in this case, over a restaurant's logo?
Where I'm from, if you don't agree with a businesses policies, or their logos, or the stuff they put on your plate, you simply find another place to spend your money.
Money talks, bullshit walks, right?
You don't scream from the highest mountain, or beg a nitwit president, to compel a company to resurrect their freshly retired 56-year old logo.
This is what MAGA does.
This is what MAGA has become.
How do you find any agreement with a group as petty as that when, in the back of your mind, they're the ones who's bullshit put all of us in this place.
There's a Cracker Barrel about 4 miles from my home. It's been there for several years now. Never have been in it. Having eaten at a few CBs during my infrequent road trips, I know the chain is consistent in its mediocrity. Now that its management has gotten its collective nose north of Trump's anal sphincter, I see no reason for me to break my record of non-patronization of their fine establishment.
'On Monday night, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, appeared on Fox News. He called the opposition party “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”'
And this sort of rhetoric is how pogroms start. I don't know what you do with this. There is an audience for this, it's pretty large, and they nod in agreement to stuff like this. This is how you get illiberal democracy, and illiberal democracy is how you get fascism. We're in the midst of plenty of fascism already. But if the voters vote for fascists, and they vote to kill democracy, the voters will get what they voted for, and so will the voters who didn't vote for it. But, fascism seems like a pretty good deal when you're on team fascist, and Fox and now alternative media have certainly brought out the inner fascist in a lot of terrible people in this country.
And as for people who had no choice but to become fascists because of land acknowledgements and "birthing people" and declaring pronouns, you people really were fascist the whole time, you just needed an excuse. Pick your outrage; if it wasn't one thing, it would be another. Culture wars are silly things that people take way too seriously when it gives them cover to take off the mask. Am I crazy about land acknowledgements and saying pregnant people? No. But I know who the fascists are, and I'll pick the Democrats over the fascists every time, because I'm not glued to Fox News every waking hour.
It has to be asked: What administration before Trump has ever talk like this about roughly 1/3 to half the population (1/3 because not all Democratic-thinking people are actually registered as Democrats)? Somehow the population just gives Trump et al a pass.
“Such arguments have rung hollow for a while.2 But they truly fall apart in the face of a story like this. Sorry, guys. Had to bomb that hospital—and then bomb it again when the rescue workers came in. Better for a couple dozen innocents to die in terror and agony than for one Hamas camera to go free. And, no, we don’t actually have evidence for our claims. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack a “tragic mishap.” That’s one way to describe it.”
I’ve said this before, but this is exactly what I suspected would happen if Trump was reelected; Israel UNHINGED and on CRACK! There aren’t any legitimate justifications for this war. And each and every day this war is prolonged, anti-semitism around the world grows tenfold.
Bottom line: Trump essentially handed them the keys to the Kingdom since Netanyahu helped Trump get elected by prolonging the war; not that Netanyahu didn’t have his own reasons and interests for doing so (criminal charges pending).
What’s interesting though is how Israel is also falling deeper into the authoritarian abyss. There are so many similarities between the two nations: Both are led by Authoritarian Kleptocrats who were under criminal indictments. Both governments have been taken over by the most extreme religious zealots in the nation, trying to force the secular people to live under their religious values. And both nations are becoming pariahs of the world. Not to mention, both nations are on the verge of losing their democracies.
Andrew, does it not seem odd that of *all* the members of the Board of Governors they could have gone after, they chose the black woman? Or that they spend months working themselves up to firing a white guy, only to cut said black woman almost immediately after targeting her?
True, he always goes after the person belonging to the group with the least overall support. Immigrants. But they are the trial baloons. The threat is to ALL of us. And that is was needs to be emphasized above everything else.
This is what I would do if I were them, knowing how their base thinks and reacts. Race and immigration are the key culture wars right now. That will shift depending on what's hot or not with his base.
The evidence seems to suggest that Bill Pulte (FHA Head) has people going through mortgage documents from people that Trump wants to target --- and he found that Lisa Cook had two primary residence mortgages. I think they are looking for any justification to remove members of the Fed Board of Governors who aren't MAGA loyalists. I agree that Trump regularly speaks disrespectfully about black women, but I don't think that is why Lisa Cook has been targeted. I am confident that Bill Pulte has looked over Jerome Powell's documents as well.
NO. Trump already tried to fire Powell but his pretext fell apart. Then a (white) woman resigned mysteriously (probably after being threatened). So Cook was the THIRD person.
I believe we should model ourselves after Canada: Mark Carney's speech in Kyiv, deals with Poland and Germany, speaking in English and French, and yes, treating indigenous tribes in Canada with respect after years of attempted destruction. But the US is not Canada- never has been , never will be.
And we are not simply staring into the abyss we are in the abyss. Of course Canada has problems but Thank God one of my sons is getting Permanent Residency there.
Also, as an American jew we should all listen to Many Patimkin's emotional speech about Israel and Gaza. My mother was a nurse-anesthetist in the 48 war and I believe, and I think she would have as well, that Israel, Netanyahu and his "Proud Boys" as Thomas Friedman called them, are all war criminals.
Butt snorklers is A+++
Now I need to find ways to use butt-snorkeler in everyday conversation
You'll have plenty of opportunities.
Even in non-political situations.
You have to acknowledge that the current cabinet would just dominate if there was an Olympic event for butt-snorkeling. We have the best butt-snorkelers in the world!
Team America - f**k, yeah.
American exceptionalism
I always preferred "asshole spelunking" personally
You’ve obviously never had to do it . . . In a clinical setting, or course.
Can't say I have lol
Ruined my breakfast though.
Why? Did you spit out your breakfast laughing?🤣
No; unfortunately it was the “ick”factor. I wasn’t a nurse for nothing . . .
Truly, a term of art.
Witkoff freedives to previously unreachable depths, some say he has developed gills.
Or the bends
I prefer tonsil ticklers from down under!
I've always liked knowing the difference between ass-kissers and brown-nosers was depth perception, but now I wonder how far a classic butt-snorkeler will go?
Stay tuned for the next few cabinet meetings, and you'll find out.
I think I'll pass, Frau Morgenstern.
I'm not sure how one puts the attempted firing of a black Fed governor into the proper context without mentioning race.
Is the Democratic party now to avoid mention of race when confronting the actions of an administration focused on attacking anyone "not white"?
I agree that the Dems need to start talking normal again, but it's not like anyone is going to decide to oppose fascism just because the Democrats learn to use different words.
This is a time when I thought Andrew was wrong in what he wrote. It is absolutely critical to keep in mind WHO Trump is targeting: Powell (the Chair) and Cook (the only Black female committee member). Trump hates powerful, smart Black women, that much is clear. It's also important to take into consideration that her early work at Michigan State involved expanding and refining a database of lynchings in the US to, in part, understand the economic impact of lynchings. Also, she mentors minority students in an American Economics Association summer program. And for good measure, she is is an expert on the Russian economy. Her sex and her race and her scholarship absolutely matter here. Sorry, Andrew, Jeffries was right to bring up the fact that Cook is a Black woman, and he has certainly not been the only one to state this.
I'm sorry, but Donald Trump is not trying to get rid of Lisa Cook because her early work at Michigan State involved expanding and refining a database of lynchings in the U.S. That might be a reason she is worthy of respect and praise, but it has zilch to do with Trump's attempted takeover of the Fed.
Please see my comment above, Andrew.
"But to hear Jeffries tell it, the most outrageous thing about Cook’s attempted firing is that he’s trying to undo her historic appointment as the first black woman on the board."
I know eggers is a bad writer, but what the hell is he talking about. The entire statement is perfectly anodyne. Jeffries mentions her race once, that's hardly framing the attempted firing as all about race
Egger's real objection is that that main point is lost. The power grab is the true danger and messaging about that reaches more people. We're trying to EXPAND the tent, not preach to the choir.
I don't believe the main point was lost on anyone who didn't want to lose it. I am tired of the nonsense about how people experience messages.
I have had people explain to me in all seriousness that they rejected mRNA vaccines simply because they didn't like how they were presented. That sounds to me like an utter BS way of saying that they found a reason to dislike the vaccines that were rejected by their cult.
I do not believe that mentioning that Trump is trying to fire the first female Black Fed governor is going to turn anyone away from the Democratic party, or tip the scales to voting for Trump.
I don't think that Democrats' messaging style is going to change minds. But I do think it may cause people to lose interest and be drawn to the next shiny object Trump tosses out.
The Democrats need to learn to connect with the low-information morons in our country, or we will continue to be governed by low-information morons.
"I don't believe the main point was lost on anyone who didn't want to lose it"--if this is true, it's no thanks to Jeffries, who didn't mention the main point at all!
I see nothing wrong with mentioning Cook’s race, because it’s an important point. My gripe with Jeffries is that he omitted the main point of why Trump wants to fire her. And people need to know why he wants to fire her, because it’s a dangerous reason.
That's a crucial omission. Means that he missed the point and does not know how to engage the moment.
Every message has to have a dominant and secondary point. That's what I'm talking about. Where is the energy? What's being pushed hard? It needs to be the one that has the most universal buy-in.
On this we agree.
I like Jeffries, but I think he is not angry enough for this moment in history. His messaging is calm, and he wants his words to carry the weight, so he says his piece and expects his listeners to process his message.
I don't like the emotional approach, but Dems need to start messaging to the heart instead of the head.
Yeah, I'm also not a fan of appeal just to emotion and it's sad that facts and history carry so little weight (because Trump, social media etc have made it impossible to even agree on basic facts). We live in a time when emotions are the main driver. Trash talking is seen as a sign of strength. Etc. We play the game or we lose.
I know Jeffries is the minority leader, but who in America is paying attention to what he says?
The Republicans, if they can make him look bad with a sound bite.
The Democrats, if they catch him on MSNBC (he shows up sometimes, but I just get pissed off when I see him).
People who are anywhere in the "undecided" camp? Nah. Those low-information folks aren't looking to Jeffries for anything.
This is true except that the MAGAsphere media will amplify anything that makes Dems look out of touch. And those 'undecideds' will find about him there.
I'm here to tell you that "Democrats' messaging style" *has* changed minds. Specifically, the excessive focus on identity has changed the minds of at least some people who would otherwise vote Democratic, while making many other lifelong Democrats feel that none of the parties represents their interests. I don't think this fact is a revelation.
Oh my, nothing like giving the brutal truth - however, it's true. Instead of telling it like it is, we look like we agree with their reasoning by not refuting their trash talk.
absolutely zero people will decide to vote for democrats in the midterms because of a tweet in August 2025
No, but it is the aggregation of many "woke"* tweets that can change opinion against the Dems. It is a mistake to discount this. I know from experience it is what helped drive people from Hilary to Trump in 2016
* I am using that term because that's how MAGA sees it.
what makes this tweet 'woke'
Mentioning race when it’s not the issue—the issue is 100% her view that the Fed should be independent of Trump.
It's not woke to me because I understand where the term came from.
You have to understand the MAGA brain. To them, Jeffries played the race card. Of that message from him, that is the only thing most of them will see. That is their conditioning. I guarantee most of the MAGA base who saw the tweet rolled their eyes - not because they don't think Jeffries is right, but because he pulled race into the comment.
past is prologue. It's not the isolated tweet, it's what the leadership thinks should be the dominant talking point. Republicans are masters at deciding on a message and being relentless. Dems need to get on the stick. And we don't really have until November 2026. If Trump is not stopped before then, we are sunk.
Why does race have to be mentioned at all? Trump doesn't care that she is the first black woman on the board, he just cares that a black woman is there. He knows he can't get rid of Powell, so he will try and get rid of other people to weaken Powell. The threat to the independence of the Fed and putting monetary control under the president is more than enough of an issue. Bringing race into it is a distraction from the real big issue of checks and balances.
I don't know, if we're not in this for inalienable rights for all, I'm in the wrong place. If we can't see what is being done to Black people by Trump's Admin right now and criticize it, I'm in the wrong place.
I'm trying to approach this from the mindset of people outside of The Bulwark. How do we sound to people who don't understand the chaos like we do? I'm not saying it isn't important - but when we put up something like first black woman Fed Governor, that just isn't an important detail to so many people. People barely understand what the Federal Reserve does itself, the fact that it has Governors - a term that the vast majority of people associate with state leadership is likely to make them shrug and say, "I guess that is important..."
I'm trying really hard to step outside of myself and see things from a different perspective these days. You and I and everyone else here knows what is happening and the importance of inalienable rights for all - but that is preaching to the choir, and we need to focus on the pews.
Oh, I get it, I do. It's just that I don't think people outside the Bulwark understand what the Fed does at all. Is it independent? Should it be independent? You're trying to teach pigeons to play chess.
Trump is firing all Black women, that people get.
You're not in the wrong place. Everybody counts or nobody counts.
ICE doesn't count. They just round up.
And if they did count, they'd have to take off their shoes to get past 10.
So says Harry Bosch, and he's not wrong.
It’s not relevant here. (In this case.)
I cant speak for black people, which Hakeem Jeffries is one of, but they might care
the congressional black caucus might care, which jeffries is also a member of
regular people dont understand how fed independence can impact their lives
they can understand another example of 'trump is trying to run another black person out of government'
Um, this old white chick cares. Anyone who pays attention to the history of Jim Crow in this country should care.
Yes, thank you.
Jeffries might also be recognizing that black women are as reliable a democratic base as exists. Whether this particular stmt resonates, I'm not sure--I would also have thought that the impact a Fed takeover could have on the interest rates of ordinary households, including those helmed by black women, might also have resonated/resonated more widely.
Then send that message. Don't make it out to be some historic slight about "the first black woman" to do X is being fired. Say that again, the administration is firing minorities first because he is a racist. We have to stop with all of the "firsts" otherwise a lot of people will just tune out the democrats.
send what message? you want the minority leader to give an econ lecture in a tweet? if he did then people like you and egger would complain about dems being out of touch/too educated/too elite
this is a wild thing to get upset about. its a standard statement, idk what youre getting spun up about
no regular people care about this
Trump doesn’t care about race in this particular case.
Many if not most regular people are perfectly capable of understanding and caring about Fed independence (and the possible economic ramifications if it's lost) AND the racial aspect that is likely present. It's not either/or (imho).
I don’t think he’d care if she was a white man, as long as he didn’t think his agenda wasn’t being backed. He still lacks the nerve to fire Powell. When you can’t punch the boss, you go home and kick the dog as a substitute.
He’s already tried to fire Powell. Then his pretext fell apart. Another person (white woman) mysteriously resigned—probably after being threatened with firing on some or other pretext.
Race is irrelevant here.
I don’t know if it really matters. I mean, these people are ok will all the egregious and hateful things Trump and Miller say.
Both things can be true. He wants to take power over the fed so he can do what he wants. The fact that the person he fires is black is just icing on the cake for the MAGA base.
Especially when the Trump administration has bent over backwards to show that's all they are about is targeting racial minorities.
Here's another clue for Andrew. Detroit has magically disappeared from the crime infested shit hole cities because the mayor is white.
I agree they’re racially prejudiced but in this particular case it’s not relevant.
More than one fact can be relevant at a time.
Maybe the fact she was a Biden appointee is as relevant. The only thing that's really relevant is Trump couldn't get Jerome Powell and she's collateral damage. In the end, I'm just glad she's going to fight the bastard and eventually win.
Being a Biden appointee is definitely a negative.
Don’t forget the woman who resigned a few days ago for no stated reason. She was probably threatened.
Okay I'm late but what the heck? "...Eggers is a bad writer..."? How am I the only one who didn't know this? (Cuz it's FAKE NEWS I tell you!)
Meanwhile, whilst I'm back at a keyboard, how about slathering a little Solzhenitsyn (true or not) on the crazy sycophancy of the cabinet -- "Don't ever be the first person to stop applauding Stalin!"
Although it probably is. Trump is a total racist.
The fundamental matter here is that 47 seeks to stifle independent analysis and opinion in all governmental activities. The ethnographic characteristics of any targeted Fed member are secondary. Leader Jeffries' error is not in mentioning Ms. Cook's ethnicity, but putting it up front, not after noting that 47's action threatens the truthfulness and independence of the Fed.
Well-said.
Exactly.
So now we're gong to dissect and dispute the ordering of mentions of every statement? I don't know what's worse, the scary "woke" or this kind of speech policing.
Jeffries' statement was perfectly fine. However, the old ways of speaking no longer translate. Not in this current moment. He could have said less and intoned just as much, with simpler language, while driving home Ms. Cook's qualifications and ethics, without reducing her to simply her gender and color.
The fact that both these things were written in the very first line of his statement will make all of those who are tired of this general rhetoric from Dems, roll their eyes and forgo reading the rest of what he had to say - and I say this as a woman myself. So, if a larger portion of the American population is indeed reading at a 6th-grade level, as statistics present, yes, Dems DO need to change the way they speak and refocus their message entirely.
I agree. We can talk about these important things but we need to do it differently.
Yes, I have been saying this for some time now. Jeffries is boring. If Dems really want to make a point, send out someone who speaks with passion, enthusiasm, and authenticity. It's not "what" Jeffries is saying, it's "how" he is saying it that turns people off. He may make an excellent Speaker of the House, but he is a terrible Public Speaker. If his fellow Dem politicians cannot see this for themselves and adjust to the times, then they are doing all of us a terrible disservice. They need to speak boldly and try to reach MAGA voters through MAGA media sites. Get with it !!
We already know "they" are "anti-fairness". However, some reading, not viewing photos, may not have understood the game played. Giving identity once is enough, with "..qualifications and ethics" FAR MORE IMPORTANT.
Economics, philosophy, knowing stats, etc, of lynching? It's no wonder these "Klan wannabes" are afraid of this Fed Reserve member refusing to step down.
Why be afraid? This is not the first scandal of "their kind". Indiana Klan had its peak in 1925 when their "misguided leader" went after literacy teacher, Madge Oberholzer, a case of misleading her about her job, followed by her kidnap and vicious rape and re-rape. The perp wanted to hide the crime of his bitemarks by forcing her to marry him. (Believing wives can't testify?)
Ms Oberholzer tried to commit suicide, causing her release, but signed a statement for police before she died, naming the perpetrator and two enablers. The perp went to prison. Denied a pardon in 1926, he did name names first.
REPUBLICANS? The Wiki article on Oberholtzer says, "The state of Indiana finally indicted several high-ranking officials, including Governor Edward L. Jackson and the head of the Republican Party in Marion County. Other local officials resigned when facing charges. "
Targeting Germanics and others, the Indiana Klan went from 250,000 in 1925, to 4000, by Feb. 1928. They lost 98% of their members.
Four active newspapers opposing the Klan were in Indianapolis (Indiana Catholic and Record, Indianapolis Freeman, Indiana Jewish Chronicle, and the Indianapolis Times). The Times "battled the Klan throughout the 1920s and received a Pulitzer Prize in 1928 for its detailed reports on the Klan’s involvement in bribery and corruption in city, county, and state politics". (Source: https://IndyEncyclopedia.org/ku-klux-klan/)
Exactly that. It goes without saying that I believe in civil liberties, but I still want opportunities, a livable wage, housing, and a safe city to live in. Dems wrap themselves in performative acts and language and do nothing. And I've been voting for them for the last 2 decades.
They need to refocus what they say and do, because if even a reliably blue voter like me is frustrated with them, the moderate voter won't even look their way.
It was Hakeem's statements which only focused on Trump firing her because she's a black woman and nothing else.
When the real issue is Trump trying to end the Feds independence which would have serious negative effects on all Americans.
She's not just a random civil servant who faces a personal tragedy because of Trump's racism.
Yes, Trump wants to take over the federal reserve. But the 1st person of this body he fired was a black woman. Not because he is racist, (he'll totally is) but because MAGA will totally support his firing of a back women more than firing a random male member of the federal reserve.
The point for me, Dan, is that Jeffries did not make any reference whatsoever to the larger issue of subversion of the Fed, which if successful would have catastrophic consequences.
In referencing only that the target of this attack is Black, Jeffries made this exclusively about race. That to my mind is the error.
Agree.
1st female black fed governor to be clear. Jeffries didn’t spend anytime attributing anything special to her ethnicity, but merely used as a descriptor for who she is. I agree that we can get to caught up in some of the language we use, and minutiae, but he was just using it as to describe who Ms. Cook is that’s it. It’s not like Trump doesn’t use race to his advantage either. I thought that was a poor example on Andre’s part.
You nailed it, Dan. No fancy words would be needed. "Today, Donald Trump affirmed that he's got a real cob stuck up his ass when it comes to Black women who dare not to submit", a senator could have said. Pretty frank and certainly honest.
He can’t stand ANYONE who won’t submit. This should be crystal clear by now.
His objection to her wasn’t based on race. If she was in favour of Trump doing whatever he wanted with interest rates, Trump would be fine.
We can't ban words. Banning words is bad. The list of proposed banned words is designed to stop people from discussing social justice.
Let's all agree that banning words, concepts, and books is not the way to go.
I think the point is not to ban words, but to use words more appropriate to the target audience.
When a doctor talks to other doctors, he might describe a patient's contusion and ecchymosis.
When a doctor talks to the patient, he says, "You got a bruise and it turned purple."
Don't ban words, just consider your audience.
I've been thinking about that. At least some of the problem is the way we have conversations has gotten so "flattened." When I was a philosophy grad student, I'd talk very differently with my fellow academics, my students, and my family and friends. And that was fine, it was good even - specialists use specialized meanings that can be offputting to people just wetting their toes in the topic, or who couldn't care less about determinist vs. compatibilist understandings of freedom and really just wanted the thirty-second version of how work was going while we waited to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.
Maybe those spaces still exist and we just don't see them from the outside. Maybe it is as simple as people needing to get better to talking to people without that background. But I've noticed a lot of expert-to-expert talk shared with the general public, either because the news decided some DNC planning group's annual meeting was news-worthy or because two experts in the same field used a podcast as the way to catch up. It just feels like a lot of people are having normal conversations that just mismatch the other people listening in, that would be fine if it was just them. And that seems to be happening more these days than I remember before.
That. Consider your audience.
Third Way probably should've considered their audience better. But yes, we need people who at least sound like they speak from their hearts.
I found it very interesting Third Way left off not-normal-sounding words people use to talk about economics. Oligarchy doesn't appear on the list (https://www.thirdway.org/memo/was-it-something-i-said), nor does kleptocracy or plutocrats. Unless I missed them? I guess we're still allowed to talk about them because they're kitchen-table issues.
I understand the push not to be divisive, to appeal to the issues focus groups tell us could convince people to vote against MAGA-ism next time. Especially to not make normal people feel looked down on when we use overly-complicated, academic-type words. But damn if I'm not tired of feeling like I can only care about what's in my wallet. :(
I'm a citizen not a consumer, dammit.
Exactly. What would they propose if, for example, it was the 1940s and Trump would have asked for the firing of Jackie Robinson from the Brooklyn Dodgers? Really? You don't mention the fact the only person he's firing is the first African American woman to sit on the Fed? #ComeOnNow
You think Trump picked this woman to harass for some other reason than that she was black? Trump hates blacks. Learned it from his father.
I think Trump picked this woman to harass because she was the first fed governor he found a good pretext to fire. It's the same one he's using to go after Sen. Adam Schiff—presumably not, in that case, for racist reasons.
Who’d have thought there was such a devastating number of serious butt snorkeling going down. No wonder we’re so fucked up.
It kills me that Trump's Nobel Prize is the *only* thing Witkoff wishes for. No pony?
I want to live in a world where the Nobel Committee give this year's Peace Prize to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Andry José Hernández Romero, and the other men who were illegally deported to Secot, who endured torture and yet still retained their humanity and peace-loving natures. THAT is who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize this year!
I have to disagree. I don;t know that much about Abrega Garcia. It's due process that would allow me to find out more.
I've only seen Mr. Garcia and Mr. Romero speak in interviews so far. But their grace and forgiveness towards their torturers impressed me so much. And, come on, it would REALLY piss off Trump!
What gift do you get for the man that has everything?
Taken bodily into Heaven... .?
"He is Risen!!"
What's he going to do, wish for peace? In today's economy?
Proctologists should protect their professional livelihoods from amateurs.
This administration is developing world class butt snorkelers, if it was an Olympic sport we'd be right up there with North Korea battling for the gold.
USA will be the world champion hands down.
What happens when the Oval Office walls are completely covered in gold-look plastic appliqués and every surface is covered wall to wall with gold trophies?
And here I thought you were going to make a comment about the walls having splatter and debris from the Butt-snorkeling expeditions!
The butt snorkels have splash guards.
Well, so much for whomever runs OSHA these days. Gotta get rid of the splash guards. Creeping socialism, y'know.
Butt snokelers gotta be free to butt snorkel as they choose!
All the best authoritarian regimes supply the top of the line in torture devices, including splash guards.
https://youtu.be/ldswXPRjyMg?feature=shared
They may have splash guards, but it’s still going to be quite the mess when you exit that hole!
He called the opposition party “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”
-----
Politics aside, it's a very hard title to win, but this pretty much seals his victory in my books in the competition for Least Likeable Person in America. Literally everything that tumbles out of his mouth for public consumption is deeply rooted in anger, hatred, grievance, and misery. I can't fathom what it is like to live that way, and how much energy it requires to always be against someone or something as a life mission. I also can't imagine someone like that having pets or otherwise showing any evidence of human warmth or empathy toward other living creatures. And, gross though the thought is, I utterly can't envision waking up next to someone like that and looking forward to spending the rest of the day -- egad, the rest of one's life -- with such a miserable human life form. As a rule such people never should be allowed to come anywhere near any real power over anyone else. But here we are. That much says even more about the rest of us than it does about him.
I also couldn't imagine giving someone like that a free and unfettered platform with no pushback whatsoever when they spew such hatred and lies. It's completely reckless and irresponsible and highly dangerous. But, I'm not FoxNews.
I believe the word you are looking for is loathsome. At least it's the one I use in reference to Miller. A man with a black heart and a black soul. And he's married and has a child! But then so did many of the National Socialists.
That so many people refused to believe that Trump would be a dictator and that they would do the things they are doing; that these people whined about the price of eggs (while secretly hoping he would get rid of "those people, but only the bad ones), speaks volumes for sure.
The AP reported today that most people think that cities are crime ridden—because they don't live there and their local news "if it bleeds it leads." Americans' ignorance is destroying us.
Agreed. It was all so predictable. I don't envy that child for the psychological issues he/she likely will face someday, as the weight of the father's sins eventually come to awareness.
I wonder about anyone who willingly chose to marry him. How? Why? And that poor child. Poor society when s/he grows up. It's so sad.
Loathsome. I love that word for him.
I wonder if that "domestic extremist" language is laying the ground for Democrats being rounded up and imprisoned? Would not surprise me.
I'm betting on it. He knows what he is doing, and it is largely psychological. The words are intentionally and carefully chosen for impact, as a means to specific ends. The manipulation is ongoing.
Of course they are targeting democrats! Calling us names and dehumanizing us makes it easier for the minions to accept incarceration of large swaths of Americans. They will be fine with imprisoning terrorists and anti-American stooges. This is the Stephen Miller playbook.
LHS, you noted earlier, L Cook's personal history, "early work at Michigan State involved expanding and refining a database of lynchings in the US to, in part, understand the economic impact of lynchings."
If "they" are doing a test run on DC, if "they" plan on rounding up their opposition, this makes L. Cook fearsome to them?? "They" admire philandering party boys, too many coming from states never apologetic for sending all those young man to fight in the Civil War.
Those guilty never apologized for the Klan' revival of the early 1920's. "They" sponsored Klan pyramid schemes (multi-level marketing, their recruiters made money selling masks, bibles, burnable crosses and "special outfits" and by recruiting more recruiters). The northern newspaper editors beat them back as they tried to move toward Canada. As the north had owned few slaves, "they" had to find other targets, in Indiana, going after German-Americans, rhetoric deeply anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, other targets as well.
The north push ended with the nature of things revealed, the kidnap-rape of young teacher by Indiana's "big shot Kluxer".
Klan then, party boys with big secrets now?
Oh, he is definitely going to try.
It's his reason for living. So for him it's not an energy sink. It energizes him and he gets the positive willies when things work out the way he wants them to. He is adored by 40+ million people. That energizes him. He is hated by 200+ million people. That energizes him. He is a shitty human being. The fact that we think so, energizes him.
Well said. And when he talks he gets more and more enraged, talks faster and faster, his voice getting screechy and higher -- enraged and sick dude, that Stephen Miller is.
I see that sentiment CONSTANTLY by MAGAs at the WSJ. They jump into the comments and don’t mention the article topic, just start criticizing Dems.
"As for the idea that an opposition to the president and his agenda has some sort of right to exist, the Trump administration rejects that too. On Monday night, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, appeared on Fox News. He called the opposition party “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”"
Is it me or does it sound like Stephen has been trying to get even with the guys that shoved him into a locker in high school for the past twenty years?
Also, keep in mind what Umberto Eco wrote about fascistic movements:
"For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a “final solution” implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament."
He's bald because of all the noogies he got in high school.
IIRC, Miller is a graduate of Santa Monica High School. I doubt that Santa Monica is or ever was a hotbed of conservatism, so it's likely that he was shunned in the usual ways for wearing his conservatism on his sleeve and has been seeking revenge ever since.
I don't want to get into a "no true Scotsman" sort of debate, but Stephen is not a conservative. There is nothing he wishes to conserve, which is why it's highly amusing to me when he talks about saving "Western Civilization". The United States was once upon a time an imperfect example of the best attributes of Western Civilization: equal justice under the law, due process, the right of free expression, individual liberty, and so on. Because Stephen is reactionary, he wants to do away with all of that because he considers disagreement with him treason.
There is something else I find amusing. The reactionary right view liberals as weak and effeminate, while Stephen views liberals as a "domestic extremist organization". How does one square that circle? Does Stephen think the barista with the purple hair, nose ring, and rainbow pin on her apron at the Starbucks he goes to will suddenly pick up an AR-15 and storm a government building?
"Does Stephen think the barista with the purple hair, nose ring, and rainbow pin on her apron at the Starbucks he goes to will suddenly pick up an AR-15 and storm a government building?"
That's EXACTLY what he wants the MAGA base to believe, and many of them are already there.
Well, that's because the MAGAe have the critical thinking skills of a piece of lint. For Stephen, thinking is a form of emasculation.
Their lives are self-contradictory. Which explains the mass mental illness? Isn’t unresolvable conflict a precursor to many mental health crises?
Stephen still wants revenge for being the victim of atomic wedgies.
He's the guy who paid flunkies to write flowery inscriptions in his high school yearbook.
I agree that the Dems should drop (most of) the language that makes them sound like over-educated (like me!) elites (not like me), but Hakeem may be onto something about which particular Fed board governor Trump went after. She's a Black woman. Trump's firings of generals, threatening cities with uninvited National Guard invasions, all involve a substantial number of Black targets. Hakeem could have pointed this out differently, and maybe as his secondary point, but there's a clear pattern.
Please give me names of Dem electeds who talk like this. My senators and rep never used these words. Obama, Biden, Harris, Schumer, Pelosi—NONE of them talked or talk like this.
If Hakeem instead would have just used Black and left out woman Andrew would have had the same complaint. Of course there is a clear pattern wit these goons. Look at the military leaders who were purged; all the women and Black men, not to mention the chief librarian of the Library of Congress. Hegseth does not believe women should be in the military at all, and Project 2025—you know the architects of this administration—wants women subservient and back in the house having babies and looking after their breadwinner husbands.
Women are half the population and we deserve to be recognized.
so why are we seeing & reading re so many 'beautiful' women in his cabinet, agencies, as advisors? & running ads to 'self deport' with a woman in charge too.
they are women all over those places- notice ?
You forget the he already tried to fire Powell (his pretext fell apart). Then another woman resigned mysteriously. She was likely threatened. A white woman.
Like sending troops to Chicago, whose mayor is black.
Racist Republicans: the woke Dems are so lame and sad. They are ashamed of the genocide that we committed to claim this land for God and the White Man. We are superior! We kill everyone who says different. Stop saying we should treat everyone equally you fucking liberal snowflake cucks! You will not replace us! USA! White and straight! USA! White and straight!
There. I fixed it.
Exactly this
Re your comments on the Democratic 'message,' what would be wrong with creating a bald statement of the Party's agenda for 2026, 2028 and beyond, inclusive of all, so that the entire voting population would be able to visualize the nation's rebirth?
Fixating on the powerless present, the pathetic thrashing and flailing, neglects the hopeful future. It need not be long. A New Constitution for a Great Nation: the next 250 years.
Sensible voters would support a sane approach to government, and would reject the obvious destruction of what has taken 250 years to build.
"The Next 250 Years". I like that idea very much.
Thanks for your comment, Kass. I hope the Big Bulwark Brains will devise the document. j2
And, what exactly, is a "sane approach" to government?
One that is constructive, for the benefit of all of the people, prepared by capable and experienced administrators. Is that too much to ask?
Well, we had that for many decades. I may not have voted for Reagan or the Bushes, but they believed in a professional civil service; we just disagreed on the size of it.
Yes indeed. It has worked for decades, for most of the people most of the time, just since the world-saving WWII response by government. No human organization can resist bloat, empire building, money-wasting and other such activities.
We can start by restoring the Bill of Rights.
Absolutely. If Dems want to win, they need to develop and SELL solid, easy-to-understand plans and substantive policies that are going to help Americans. They can start with the bipartisan immigration bill that got dumped by Trump. And they HAVE to do something to motivate contractors to build more housing - maybe a 5-year subsidy or tax credit to builders for the excessive permits they have to acquire. Flood the country with housing and prices will go down as supply finally starts to meet demand. And emphasize that they are going to return experts to head government departments - maybe pass a law requiring the head of HHS to be a licensed physician, or the head of Education to have worked in the education field. To put it simply, Dems need to PUT IN THE WORK that is required to win elections - and that is to develop policies that appeal to the majority of voters. Yes, of course we need to fight for minorities with fair laws and practices, too. But win the damned elections first, then work on the other important issues. And the plans designed to win elections need to be in place way before the campaign season - they should have committees working on it right now. It takes time, effort, and dedication, but isn't that what we are paying them for?
Its always good to talk about the economy because that's where people are. That's what Trump did in spite of the fact the economy was in the toilet when he left his first term, got better with Biden, and is getting bad again now.
On target, JMP. No excuses. No evasions. Most important: NOW is the time.
And where do we find all these "sensible voters"? How do we reach them? Where were they in 2024? I thought there were enough of them then to reject what was obvious (at least to me), but I was so wrong.
Flood MAGA social media sites and Facebook pages and Tik Tok with positive, simple Democratic messages that appeal to everyday people. Gently point out the flaws of Trump and his minions. Go where they are ! And feed Democrat voters with truth and positive messages that are specific in what changes they are going to make. We need younger voters - go on Adam Mockler, Brian Tyler Cohen, David Pakman, Joe Rogan !! But be prepared! Anticipate questions and have the answers ready. Preparation and hard work are required. Are Dems up to it?
Beth, many of (us, them?) were disillusioned by some of the ingrained missteps of the past (say) fifty years and embraced change, any change. But we know that improving an ossified system takes careful, informed analysis and gradual improvement vs. the violent destruction. The independent-disillusioned segment went along with change for change's sake, and threw the baby out with the bathwater. Dumb, but it happened.
Hard disagree on Andrew's assertion that Native land acknowledgements are a "sideshow". This kind of ahistorical blindness, not uniquely American, but definitely ascendant, is what creates the through line from our nation's founding to our current situation. It's also what renders the Mideast chaos and Russian perfidy so inexplicable to Americans, blithely overlooking centuries of conflict. How did we get here? Start with what we did to Indigenous peoples, way back when, then jump right to slavery. Everything bad today ties directly back to these founding American facts.
Every American should know the history of America's poor treatment of the land's native populations. That's a different thing than believing you need to kick off every gathering with a land acknowledgment.
Most voters don't want to have to do penance for the actions of people who died over a hundred years ago. This is a political party conference that needs to attract new voters, not repel them with weird performance art.
Land Acknowledgements are performative. Whatever the value of them in certain settings, as a political project writ large, they scream vote Republican.
Yeah, I think it's the performative aspect that's annoying: it's not like anyone is giving back any land, are they?
Yes, that is my primary objection. No one is seriously considering giving any land back. LAs are the quintessential virtue signaling. I find them as nauseating as watching our cabinet give Trump a tongue bath.
Yep. I'm as anti-Trump as they come and have a solid interest in how the Dem Party moves forward to defeat MAGA, so I plugged in to that convention and then the minute the LA started I was like "newp" and turned it off and said to my wife, the Dem Party hasn't learned a damn thing.
Thank you for saying this better than I did. Hard agree! We go on and on, decade after decade, making no amends, not even talking about it in any real way. We just expect native peoples and decendents of enslaved people to get over it. They should not. We must make amends.
Those land acknowledgements have nothing to do with making amends, though.
Are there any serious efforts to give back the land? No.
Are there any serious efforts to pay reparations? No.
Just the ceremonial words before any DNC event? Yes.
Do nothing materially, just say a few magic words. A perfect example of performative liberalism many people get annoyed with
Ultimately I don't think it's performative if that's what the native peoples requested. I know in Australia, that's what they do before public meetings because that's what the indiginous people want. It is their choice, and it is our job to give that to them.
Well said. Thank you.
These responses pretty much make my point. Sure, Americans should know their own history, but they don't. Calling these activities "performative" sounds a lot like "doesn't mean anything to me, so I don't care" How familiar is everyone with the Morrill Act? It created most of the Land Grant universities. There are A LOT of them in the U.S. right now. Guess where the land came from that was "granted"? Taken/bought/stolen from tribes, usually in the aftermath of warfare. This started during the Civil War, as part of Lincoln's plan for rebuilding the country after the war. Provide public education for all! Economic development! Yet, the whole enterprise was born out of the linkage between the two original sins of America. Try to recover from the war over slavery by building an educational system with assets taken from indigenous peoples.
Look, if this still means nothing to you, super, but don't wring your hands and whine about "how can we win over the 44% of the country who want authoritarianism?" Every generation of Americans has the same amnesia in service of their self image as Respectable White People, born fresh and innocent into the world, wide eyed and full of wonder, with no responsibilities for anything that went before them, ready to drink and eat at the wonderful American bounty set before them, which miraculously appeared without any antecedents. To quote Cousin Ellis in No Country for Old men: "It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."
Robert, with all due respect, life is hard, even for seemingly well-off people. They have jobs, mortgages, health issues, family conflict, health issues, aging parents, etc., not to mention the current administration. We are human and thus have trouble giving primacy to wrongs committed while we were not alive. Plus, I am not aware of any country who did not acquire their present circumstances without some conquest or another. Human rights, if you will, are a modern concept. It's not as if native Americans never fought each other over land and resources.
Perhaps I should be more concerned about the fate of the American Indian (I've driven through the reservations around Glacier NP in the recent past and its quite dreadful)). Good on you if you can, but you border on sanctimoniousness from my perspective. I do not really follow you as to how those of us here who don't see a lot of value in Land Acknowledgements can't whine about convincing the 44 % of voters who want authoritarianism...as if calling for more gestures or even reparations will make the scales fall from thine eyes.
All I'd ask is that you recognize that your priorities are not that politically popular in the moment.
Regards.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Yes, I have a tendency to sanctimony, and I fully realize my priorities aren't popular. They never have been. My frustration, which sounds like sanctimony, is born out of my own shortcomings as an Old White Guy suddenly realizing this late in the game there is, and was, a LOT more going on in this country, and this world, that I was ever told or anyone wanted me to learn. At the risk of sounding like a RW fundamentalist, our American crisis, baked in from the very beginning, is a moral crisis. The American Experiment will end soon if we collectively don't figure out how to tell right from wrong at a very basic level, and then act on it, personally, in our communities, and politically across the country. None of this comes across well or effectively in this format, so I'll bring it to a close here. Thanks for listening and I will continue working on this, one step at a time.
Its not a side show if your speaker is native American.
All talk, no action.
I think Pritzker is on to something big when he puts Trump's minions on notice in his recent great speech. He's helping them start thinking about the idea that there will be accountability somewhere down the road if they "hurt" his people. That's got to be one of Trump's weak points; the sycophantic schemers he has surrounded himself with. He is nothing without them. They are vulnerable. Attack them at will.
Pritzker's speech sure had a 'We'll hunt you down and bring you to justice no matter how long it takes.' tone to it, didn't it?
It warmed my heart a little.
Mine too.
Yes Pritzker is great and should be talked about because he reaches a large audience.
Unlike an Ohjibwe speaker at a small venue in MN.
I found Bill Kristol's piece to be quite powerful, but Andrew Egger's reminded me of why I am a Democrat visiting a website published by disaffected Republicans. So a word to Andrew:
Hey, dude, it's not all about you all the time. Jeffries helps to lead a party where a major bloc of support is from Black Americans. Noting that Dr. Lisa Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve was entirely appropriate, particularly when her targeting by the Trump administration is partly a reflection of its seething white nationalism.
And if you are going to complain about a brief DNC ceremonial acknowledgement about the country's Native American heritage, then I look forward to your broadsides against Republicans for starting meetings with religious prayers.
I think it is a good thing for the Democrats to take on the role of a big-tent, pro-democracy movement. However, I don't think that means that you, Mr. conservative white guy, get to swagger into the room and make everything all about you. Grow up.
Those brief ceremonial acknowledgements are virtue theater. And making it a racial issue, rather than about a power grab to control the nation's monetary policy for political ends and misses the entire point of why the administration is digging up dirt on Fed Governors in the first place. He is doing it to this particular person because the FHA head, Bill Pulte, has people going through files on Trump's "enemies" and Biden appointees looking for ways to get rid of them or bring charges against them to give Trump maximum power over everything. I think they just happened to find dirt on Lisa Cook, because she did likely claim primary residence on two different properties. (of course, this is a small abuse compared to having people scour mortgage records to find dirt on political enemies). Messaging about how this is a gross abuse of power, to me, seems more effective at getting non-democrats to hear the message. Of course, the Democrats can continue what worked so well the last few years and brought us Trump 2.0.
"Those brief ceremonial acknowledgements are virtue theater. " So are opening prayers outside of church. Jesus said to hide in a closet to pray, and not pray in public like the hypocrites. I could happily lose both performances.
Second. Religion is just another way to divide.
I think his intentions are good.
Preach Steve. Well said, wanted to say something similar.
Well, Cracker Barrel largely caters to the geriatric, interstate roving sect, a sect that largely supports Trump.
I'm not geriatric, but I've eaten in a few Cracker Barrels.
Cracker Barrels are all the same-the food, the decor, the kitschy junk shop you gotta walk through on your way in and out.
They'll do fine without my dollars.
It was pretty stupid, tho, of Cracker Barrel to cave to the outcry of their logo change.
Maybe that old logo is the tastiest thing Cracker Barrel has to offer...
We all know why Trump fired Ms. Cook, the Fed Governor. It's because she's Black.
Democrats are right to point that out.
Now they can lay out, to the Cracker Barrel food-induced coma crowd, the potential damage Trump's firing of Ms. Cook will do to our economy.
They can tell grandma and grandpa that they won't be able to afford to cruise the nation's interstates, much less afford to eat at Cracker Barrel, if Trump gains control of the Fed.
They can point out how Trump is doing his best to crash our nation's economy, and that he's getting close to achieving his goals.
Trump is screwing Ukraine as best as he can.
His diddling around, non-committal battlefield support of Ukraine is helping Russia more than Ukraine.
Trump's asskissers can go straight to hell.
The new logo was lame. No visual interest.
The outrage over the new logo wasn't because the new one has no visual interest.
The outrage came because someone opted to change out the old logo.
MAGA loathes change.
And Cracker Barrel folded.
True. What I'm suggesting is avoiding the culture war nonsense by agreeing the logo change sucked, even if for different reasons. The only way we recover as a country is by finding (at the moment EXTREMELY small) areas of agreement rather than everything having to be polarized. Putting the lie to the idea that Cracker Barrel was being PC. And frankly, I prefer the old logo. Doesn't make me a Trumpian in the least.
Who started the culture war? I sure didn't, but I have to witness it every damned day.
Shouldn't those 'warriors' be called out whenever they turn into whiny bitches, in this case, over a restaurant's logo?
Where I'm from, if you don't agree with a businesses policies, or their logos, or the stuff they put on your plate, you simply find another place to spend your money.
Money talks, bullshit walks, right?
You don't scream from the highest mountain, or beg a nitwit president, to compel a company to resurrect their freshly retired 56-year old logo.
This is what MAGA does.
This is what MAGA has become.
How do you find any agreement with a group as petty as that when, in the back of your mind, they're the ones who's bullshit put all of us in this place.
Because I won't let them polarize me unnecessarily. The new logo was lame. Should I defend it?
I'm not asking you to defend the new logo.
Who gives a shit if it's lame or not.
Cracker Barrel apparently caved to the president because Trump's MAGA minions eat there.
Over a stupid logo.
Think about it.
Top priority, right?
Oh, and they've polarized us.
We've put up with their shit, bit our tongues, offered help in their times of need.
How do they reciprocate?
They ladle it on thicker...
There's a Cracker Barrel about 4 miles from my home. It's been there for several years now. Never have been in it. Having eaten at a few CBs during my infrequent road trips, I know the chain is consistent in its mediocrity. Now that its management has gotten its collective nose north of Trump's anal sphincter, I see no reason for me to break my record of non-patronization of their fine establishment.
'On Monday night, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, appeared on Fox News. He called the opposition party “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”'
And this sort of rhetoric is how pogroms start. I don't know what you do with this. There is an audience for this, it's pretty large, and they nod in agreement to stuff like this. This is how you get illiberal democracy, and illiberal democracy is how you get fascism. We're in the midst of plenty of fascism already. But if the voters vote for fascists, and they vote to kill democracy, the voters will get what they voted for, and so will the voters who didn't vote for it. But, fascism seems like a pretty good deal when you're on team fascist, and Fox and now alternative media have certainly brought out the inner fascist in a lot of terrible people in this country.
And as for people who had no choice but to become fascists because of land acknowledgements and "birthing people" and declaring pronouns, you people really were fascist the whole time, you just needed an excuse. Pick your outrage; if it wasn't one thing, it would be another. Culture wars are silly things that people take way too seriously when it gives them cover to take off the mask. Am I crazy about land acknowledgements and saying pregnant people? No. But I know who the fascists are, and I'll pick the Democrats over the fascists every time, because I'm not glued to Fox News every waking hour.
It has to be asked: What administration before Trump has ever talk like this about roughly 1/3 to half the population (1/3 because not all Democratic-thinking people are actually registered as Democrats)? Somehow the population just gives Trump et al a pass.
“Such arguments have rung hollow for a while.2 But they truly fall apart in the face of a story like this. Sorry, guys. Had to bomb that hospital—and then bomb it again when the rescue workers came in. Better for a couple dozen innocents to die in terror and agony than for one Hamas camera to go free. And, no, we don’t actually have evidence for our claims. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack a “tragic mishap.” That’s one way to describe it.”
I’ve said this before, but this is exactly what I suspected would happen if Trump was reelected; Israel UNHINGED and on CRACK! There aren’t any legitimate justifications for this war. And each and every day this war is prolonged, anti-semitism around the world grows tenfold.
Bottom line: Trump essentially handed them the keys to the Kingdom since Netanyahu helped Trump get elected by prolonging the war; not that Netanyahu didn’t have his own reasons and interests for doing so (criminal charges pending).
What’s interesting though is how Israel is also falling deeper into the authoritarian abyss. There are so many similarities between the two nations: Both are led by Authoritarian Kleptocrats who were under criminal indictments. Both governments have been taken over by the most extreme religious zealots in the nation, trying to force the secular people to live under their religious values. And both nations are becoming pariahs of the world. Not to mention, both nations are on the verge of losing their democracies.
Good times!…:)
Andrew, does it not seem odd that of *all* the members of the Board of Governors they could have gone after, they chose the black woman? Or that they spend months working themselves up to firing a white guy, only to cut said black woman almost immediately after targeting her?
True, he always goes after the person belonging to the group with the least overall support. Immigrants. But they are the trial baloons. The threat is to ALL of us. And that is was needs to be emphasized above everything else.
This is what I would do if I were them, knowing how their base thinks and reacts. Race and immigration are the key culture wars right now. That will shift depending on what's hot or not with his base.
The evidence seems to suggest that Bill Pulte (FHA Head) has people going through mortgage documents from people that Trump wants to target --- and he found that Lisa Cook had two primary residence mortgages. I think they are looking for any justification to remove members of the Fed Board of Governors who aren't MAGA loyalists. I agree that Trump regularly speaks disrespectfully about black women, but I don't think that is why Lisa Cook has been targeted. I am confident that Bill Pulte has looked over Jerome Powell's documents as well.
NO. Trump already tried to fire Powell but his pretext fell apart. Then a (white) woman resigned mysteriously (probably after being threatened). So Cook was the THIRD person.
Andrew is naive and probably believes racism doesnt motivate Trump. His father was a slum landlord who cheated his mostly black renters.
I believe we should model ourselves after Canada: Mark Carney's speech in Kyiv, deals with Poland and Germany, speaking in English and French, and yes, treating indigenous tribes in Canada with respect after years of attempted destruction. But the US is not Canada- never has been , never will be.
And we are not simply staring into the abyss we are in the abyss. Of course Canada has problems but Thank God one of my sons is getting Permanent Residency there.
Also, as an American jew we should all listen to Many Patimkin's emotional speech about Israel and Gaza. My mother was a nurse-anesthetist in the 48 war and I believe, and I think she would have as well, that Israel, Netanyahu and his "Proud Boys" as Thomas Friedman called them, are all war criminals.
The third rule of war: The only war criminals that are not held accountable are on the winning side.