I'm not sure why Charlie posted the the Mencken piece on Jennings. Was it because it sounds so much like Trumpers? If so, this my comment: No wonder they (MAGA) think we (the educated) look down on them.
Mencken wrote that in 1925. Times were good and expansive for most. Then the Depression came and WWII, where we had a common enemy - that does wonders for uniting a people - and America's post WWII Golden Age, to about 1966. We were one America until then. What happened in the mid-60s? The Civil Rights Bill was passed in 1964, American cities exploded in racial injustice rage in 1967, and college students exploded in demonstrations against the Viet Nam War in 1968. THAT's when the culture war started. I was there then, on the Left side of it. As I've often said here, we the liberal/radical, educated college students on the Left STARTED it.
My question: Do you think if We the Educated stopped looking down on them and began understanding them, understanding how the US changing SO RAPIDLY looks to those who are uncomfortable with seeing people different from themselves would make a difference in our culture war? I'm not saying forgive them for their intolerance. In a pluralistic society, we MUST tolerate differences. But for some people it's hard. Maybe just give them a break for how hard this is for them, rather than use the power of your Left-wing righteousness of their intolerance against them, and have a conversation. They're not evil. They're just not that strong in their psychological and cognitive health to be able to tolerate so much difference. Further, they have bought into a sociopath who exploits their weaknesses, for his own purposes.
1. You are absolutely right that we were one united WHITE America until then. I don’t know how I left that out (my aging brain?). I’ve long said that. And yes, in the 1960s the dam burst.
2. Re your “No, absolutely not” response to my question whether “understanding how . . . the US changing SO RAPIDLY looks to those who are uncomfortable with seeing people different from themselves would make a difference in our culture war." You are talking about the MAGA elites, not the MAGAs themselves. The elites are all political entrepreneurs, as Anne Applebaum puts is (“Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism”). Tucker Carlson is an example. There’s lots of $$ to be made seducing Americans who fear difference. That’s the only understanding the MAGA elites deserve.
But the elites did not create the MAGA peeps. Political psychologist Karen Stenner says “(around a third) of humanity . . . harbor (relatively immutable) predispositions to favor 'oneness and sameness' over freedom and diversity . . . (they) come to find their societies and polities intolerable, and push back with a vengeance . . . some people will never live comfortably in a modern liberal democracy” (https://www.karenstenner.com/). So, they exist and always have. What brings their intolerance to the fore of our politics is changing societal conditions they feel threatened by, what she calls normative threat: “Mainstream authorities, leaders and institutions are seen as corrupt, faithless, self-serving and out of touch with those they’re meant to represent. They pander only to elites, minorities and dangerous ‘others’ while exploiting ‘the people’ (who are ‘pure’, ‘real’ and ‘true’) – thwarting their desires, depriving them of their voice and rights, and undermining their values and identity. Populist politicians then portray themselves as the “outsiders” who will reclaim the rights stolen away from ‘the people’” (https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/11/01/authoritarianism/).
They were always there. Carlson and Trump merely exploited them for their own purposes once the threat of changing social mores was present.
3. Yes, some of them “mooch” and don’t even realize it (“Hands off my Medicare!”). That’s been going on since the New Deal. What’s new is the change in social customs and, what I think upsets them the most, is the decline in Christianity and its Biblical sexual morality.
4. RE your your KKKer example, someone who is uncomfortable with and threatened by people who are different can be a good parent, except their authoritarian disposition is often expressed in authoritarian parenting which is recognized as not optimal for raising children. So I’m not sure your KKKer example is right.
5. I’m not blaming anybody. I’m just stating facts. We Lefties started the change the Righties have rebelled against since Nixon ran as the candidate for the silent majority in 1968. As you said, we were right to do so. But many Lefites’ rightness has become righteousness. What I mean by that is when social justice warriors seek to impose their beliefs on others and use the rightness of their cause as a weapon. The American People have to come to their own understanding of injustice. Forcing them to do so is tyranny.
We could have some humility and recognize that our righteousness has hurt the nation. Not excuse the MAGA peeps, just understand their fear, their preception of threat. That’s a very high order of human behavior. If our churches taught that, and modeled their own humility, a whole lotta people might participate and that, I think, would end the loneliness epidemic. (That’s a whole ‘nother topic.)
2 comments. 1. I am not apologizing for them. I'm understanding their perception (which is flawed) and their motivtion, which is driven by their upbringing, if Dr. Lee is correct, and I think she is. Do you understand the difference? 2. I hear your anger toward the Evangelicals, and I'm sure it's justified. So you, my fellow commenter, are probably not someone on the Left who should or could undertake such listening and understanding, and I don't expect you to.
Someone like me, a white aging boomer female who's only sin in their eyes is being educated, could.
I completely understand, Secular, that you are not prepared to be "too charitable towards them." I am so sorry that as an immigrant you encountered the most vile Americans in my country. I do not expect you to understand their fear of you. That is their problem, not yours. They were wrong to equate masking to slavery. That is part of their illness, IMO.
My best to you for your future happiness and acceptance in the USA. They are a minority and they - how can I say this kindly - will die off. Hang in there with the USA.♥️
This is: "The New York Times BREAKING NEWS Prosecutors added major new charges against Donald Trump, saying that he wanted a maintenance worker to delete security footage. Thursday, July 27, 2023 7:17 PM ET The new accusations were revealed in a superseding indictment that named a maintenance worker as a new defendant in the case."
“nearly half of black males and almost 40 percent of white males are arrested by the age 23.”
No other first world country in the world has statistics even remotely like this. The "business" of policing and incarceration has become more important than the business of teaching and rehabilitation. In many states once you have been arrested and jailed it is nearly impossible to get any kind of work. Instead of worrying about a few people getting extra food, maybe we ought to start worrying about this. Many of these men are arrested in high school particularly blacks.
Poor Mitch, unable just to quit since Kentucky's DEMOCRATIC governor would appoint his interim replacement.
If Beshear were really scheming, why not appoint his most likely Republican challenger for governor? Odds are a Republican would win a special election for senator, and one more Democratic senator for a few months wouldn't be enough to achieve cloture.
I believe Kentucky changed their law so that the governor has to appoint a member of the party of the replacement. Anyone know if I'm right about this?
Any requirement how long a 'Republican' would have needed to be registered as such?
If people can change their party affiliation at whim, this seems like a restriction Beshear and his potential interim senators could easily satisfy de jure while eviscerating in spirit.
I am certain of this, if it is like most states, the senators party presents the governor 2 or 3 candidates to pick from. NWIH his replacement would be anything but a republican
Commenting is disabled on Mr. From's article, so I'm posting here.
"IN 1968, SENATORS ROBERT F. KENNEDY AND EUGENE MCCARTHY dominated the Democratic primaries, but at the party’s convention in Chicago, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who did not compete in any primaries but had the support of party bosses, won the nomination. His nomination led to one of the most contentious conventions in American history, with riots in the streets of Chicago."
With all due respect to Mr. From and his credentials (founder DLC), how does this paragraph make it past an editor or even a fact checker? It so incorrect that it could be considered mendacious.
The 1968 Democratic Convention was certainly contentious. And I'm sure there were those who were unhappy with Humphrey's selection but the riots in Chicago were based on a variety of factors completely outside the nomination.
Further RFK and McCarthy may have dominated some primaries but RFK had been assassinated over two months before the convention so he was no longer a candidate. At the time of his death RFK (393.5) actually trailed Humphrey(561.5) but was leading McCarthy (258).
If Humphrey didn't compete in the primaries, it was due to two revealing factors. First, he was the sitting Vice President. It wasn't unheard of that a sitting VP seeking the nomination would lose it (it happened to Barkley in 1952, more due to concerns about his age than unpopularity) but it was rare. And second, the primary season had already begun by the time HHH declared on 4/27. He effectively inherited LBJ's mantle (for good or bad) and delegates.
RFK also didn't compete in every primary prior to his death. More telling is that Humphrey out polled Kennedy in Massachusetts, when both were write in candidates in that primary.
As Mr. From correctly notes, it was a different system. The nominations were often sown up at the convention thru horse trading of delegates that had been selected thru the primaries and caucuses. The conventioneers would have been less angry and prone to riot as the convention proceeded like it always had. There was nothing grossly out of the norm from prior conventions.
What Mr. From truly misses are the reasons for the rioting and disruptions outside the convention in Chicago in 1968.
To begin with, Mayor Daley had effectively created a war zone outside the convention to dispel and discourage any protest, by ringing the International Amphitheater with barbed wire. He added to this incendiary set up by calling up 6K National Guardsmen, and having 11K Chicago police with riot gear work 12 hour shifts. Add to that 6K Activity Duty soldiers, and thousands of CIA and MI personnel, and you have a recipe for a conflagration. The Walker Report later proved that Law enforcement initiated the violence and used excessive force.
The Yippies and SDS were in Chicago to protest against the Vietnam War and call for voting reform (you could be drafted at 18 but not vote until 21). They may have been put off by HHH's nomination but it certainly wasn't the cause of any rioting.
I daresay, we got better candidates than most anything we have seen from strictly primaries. For one thing the people that vote in the primaries are for the most part the activists from the extremes of the party. Biden is an example of that not happening, t***p 2016 is an example of it happening.
"Arguably, the passage in the Florida curriculum was clumsily worded. But to render it as 'slaves could benefit from being enslaved' or 'slavery helped slaves develop useful skills' is an extremely tendentious reading, or even misreading: the reference is to benefiting from skills, not from slavery."
REALLY Cathy?? I heard exactly the same kind of excuse from the very bright students I taught as a graduate-student TA in freshman composition classes at an Ivy League university. "But you know what I meant!!" was the constant complaint I got when clumsy writing earned a poor grade. Sorry, but the problem is with the curriculum as written, not with those who read it. The curriculum also appears to assume that enslaved people arrived here with no value other than as a source of raw physical labor like, say, mules or draught horses. Perhaps they came with high-level skills that were rendered useless by enslavement. Cathy, you really must do better than this.
"When I'm President I will only consider Pro-Life Americans to lead the FDA, CDC or HHS." Mike Pence
-----
You will be POTUS only in your wet dreams. A majority of Repubs say that they will *never* vote for you, and to Dems and independents you will always be associated with the administration of the Apricot Arthropod - therefore they (we) will not be casting our ballots for you either.
Good luck in your next career because your political life is over.
Charlie’s so right about there being no Plan B for the Democratic Party. They do know how old he is. It can’t be a sudden surprise but they wait til now, 16 months before the next election, to bring it up? But Biden also has the political smarts and experience to work miracles, like getting an agreement on the debt ceiling out of McCarthy and to sucker punch the Republicans on publically promising not to cut benefits as he did superbly during the State of the Union address. Is there anyone else on or off Capital Hill who could have done that? Republicans condemn themselves when they claim Biden is not mentally fit because Biden easily out-wits them time after time and what does that say about them?
Better than Trump? That is a very low bar. The belief that he was qualified to be president is pure ego. He has done almost as much damage to this country as Trump.
Excuse me, such as? Biden has miraculously repaired nearly all the damage t***p did internationally, he has deftly lead NATO and the west against Putin and China. In this country he has restored our economy, and finally at last moved us into the 21st century. I can only assume since you gave no examples that you are simply a troll.
Yeah but the comment wasn't about Biden. So instead of your own bit of trolling, maybe, that should have been your first question.
Now, I could have left it at that but I actually took time to find out what the problem was as it should have been plain that I was talking about Bernie Saunders. For some reason this comment didn't show as part of the original conversation but shows up as an original comment on its own. Why you jumped to the conclusion it was about Biden??
Ah, but it was in the discussion I was in when I posted it. As I said above, when something is as obviously unclear as that comment was, you ask questions, you don't just go off on whatever issue you want to apply it to. Unless you are trolling. But from your other comment it seems maybe you are trolling.
It wasn’t the symbol by itself though, it was the symbol accompanied by armed shock troops marching toward the Florida Fürher encased in the swirling nazi symbol
Sounds like Trump is a reincarnation of William James Bryan. And the Republicans elected him as POTUS in 2016 and fully support his re-elections of 2020 and 2024. Who are the ignoramuses?
Yesterday a 50 year old C&W song song sung by Bobby Bare and written by the genius Shel Silverstein popped into my head that I think perfectly describes the pickle Ronnie has gotten himself into and the only way he can extricate himself from his self-inflicted dilemma:
What desantis actually meant was he wanted RFK, Jr to "destroy" the FDA and the CDC, which says how he looks at things. Every time he opens his mouth he shows that he will never be qualified to be president or anything else for that matter.
I thought Cathy did a good job diving in on the Florida issue. Just because her article wasn’t 1000 words on how Florida is evil doesn’t mean the article isn’t fair. Anyone can write fan service which is boring and unhelpful. Cathy brought up an interesting topic which is how do we celebrate or acknowledge resilience without taking away from the suffering endured? She talks about how DeSantis made it worse by extrapolating what wasn’t there in the words but no doubt is in his heart. She covered what Florida did wrong.
This is how to counter all the whitewash. From Heather Cox Richardson July 26
"Today is the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of the armed forces by President Harry S. Truman in 1948, and the White House statement celebrating that anniversary did more than acknowledge it and praise today’s multicultural military. It recounted the history of Black service members from the American Revolution to the present."
This was quite extensive and coupled with the Emmet Till announcement a great way to make sure the truth is available all you need do is read.
I really hope McConnell is alright because right now he represents about all the sanity there is in higher echelons of the republican party. Biden takes a far harder beating from the media because of this age than Mitch or t***p especially. Biden is a very good president especially on the economy and the foreign stage and in some ways we have the insanity that was t***p to thank for giving us Biden. I do believe if before the primaries officially start it was insured that t***p could not run again, Biden would bow out for next year.
I think the thing that really bugs Black people is how we have to be so totally in tune to White American culture, because if we aren't, the results can be deadly. Every decision from how to speak dress, do your hair, etc. And yet, there is absolutely no reason for American White people to be in tune w/ any sort of Black culture. If there were, there wouldn't even be a debate over what FL (which is where I live) is doing. It gets old being whitesplained about your own life and experience. I am getting close to 50 and weekly I have to swat down some indignity that many of my acquaintances will utter. You should see the reaction to the simple sight of a Black man drinking a glass of Pinot Grigio (and holding said glass by the stem, because....doing it correctly!) gets on a regular basis.....
Preach!! It's also annoying how Black people (who aren't just telling white people what they want to hear) are not listened to, our POV is dismissed or explained away...Black people are not just canaries in a coal mine, we also see peoples true faces (not the polite niceties face but the face you show to someone you dont respect)...but you try to share that information with *some* white people and they just dismiss it..."everything isn't about race, class is more important, that was in the past..." le sigh
I'm not sure why Charlie posted the the Mencken piece on Jennings. Was it because it sounds so much like Trumpers? If so, this my comment: No wonder they (MAGA) think we (the educated) look down on them.
Mencken wrote that in 1925. Times were good and expansive for most. Then the Depression came and WWII, where we had a common enemy - that does wonders for uniting a people - and America's post WWII Golden Age, to about 1966. We were one America until then. What happened in the mid-60s? The Civil Rights Bill was passed in 1964, American cities exploded in racial injustice rage in 1967, and college students exploded in demonstrations against the Viet Nam War in 1968. THAT's when the culture war started. I was there then, on the Left side of it. As I've often said here, we the liberal/radical, educated college students on the Left STARTED it.
My question: Do you think if We the Educated stopped looking down on them and began understanding them, understanding how the US changing SO RAPIDLY looks to those who are uncomfortable with seeing people different from themselves would make a difference in our culture war? I'm not saying forgive them for their intolerance. In a pluralistic society, we MUST tolerate differences. But for some people it's hard. Maybe just give them a break for how hard this is for them, rather than use the power of your Left-wing righteousness of their intolerance against them, and have a conversation. They're not evil. They're just not that strong in their psychological and cognitive health to be able to tolerate so much difference. Further, they have bought into a sociopath who exploits their weaknesses, for his own purposes.
I look forward to any responses.
Thx for your response.
1. You are absolutely right that we were one united WHITE America until then. I don’t know how I left that out (my aging brain?). I’ve long said that. And yes, in the 1960s the dam burst.
2. Re your “No, absolutely not” response to my question whether “understanding how . . . the US changing SO RAPIDLY looks to those who are uncomfortable with seeing people different from themselves would make a difference in our culture war." You are talking about the MAGA elites, not the MAGAs themselves. The elites are all political entrepreneurs, as Anne Applebaum puts is (“Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism”). Tucker Carlson is an example. There’s lots of $$ to be made seducing Americans who fear difference. That’s the only understanding the MAGA elites deserve.
But the elites did not create the MAGA peeps. Political psychologist Karen Stenner says “(around a third) of humanity . . . harbor (relatively immutable) predispositions to favor 'oneness and sameness' over freedom and diversity . . . (they) come to find their societies and polities intolerable, and push back with a vengeance . . . some people will never live comfortably in a modern liberal democracy” (https://www.karenstenner.com/). So, they exist and always have. What brings their intolerance to the fore of our politics is changing societal conditions they feel threatened by, what she calls normative threat: “Mainstream authorities, leaders and institutions are seen as corrupt, faithless, self-serving and out of touch with those they’re meant to represent. They pander only to elites, minorities and dangerous ‘others’ while exploiting ‘the people’ (who are ‘pure’, ‘real’ and ‘true’) – thwarting their desires, depriving them of their voice and rights, and undermining their values and identity. Populist politicians then portray themselves as the “outsiders” who will reclaim the rights stolen away from ‘the people’” (https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/11/01/authoritarianism/).
They were always there. Carlson and Trump merely exploited them for their own purposes once the threat of changing social mores was present.
3. Yes, some of them “mooch” and don’t even realize it (“Hands off my Medicare!”). That’s been going on since the New Deal. What’s new is the change in social customs and, what I think upsets them the most, is the decline in Christianity and its Biblical sexual morality.
4. RE your your KKKer example, someone who is uncomfortable with and threatened by people who are different can be a good parent, except their authoritarian disposition is often expressed in authoritarian parenting which is recognized as not optimal for raising children. So I’m not sure your KKKer example is right.
5. I’m not blaming anybody. I’m just stating facts. We Lefties started the change the Righties have rebelled against since Nixon ran as the candidate for the silent majority in 1968. As you said, we were right to do so. But many Lefites’ rightness has become righteousness. What I mean by that is when social justice warriors seek to impose their beliefs on others and use the rightness of their cause as a weapon. The American People have to come to their own understanding of injustice. Forcing them to do so is tyranny.
We could have some humility and recognize that our righteousness has hurt the nation. Not excuse the MAGA peeps, just understand their fear, their preception of threat. That’s a very high order of human behavior. If our churches taught that, and modeled their own humility, a whole lotta people might participate and that, I think, would end the loneliness epidemic. (That’s a whole ‘nother topic.)
2 comments. 1. I am not apologizing for them. I'm understanding their perception (which is flawed) and their motivtion, which is driven by their upbringing, if Dr. Lee is correct, and I think she is. Do you understand the difference? 2. I hear your anger toward the Evangelicals, and I'm sure it's justified. So you, my fellow commenter, are probably not someone on the Left who should or could undertake such listening and understanding, and I don't expect you to.
Someone like me, a white aging boomer female who's only sin in their eyes is being educated, could.
I completely understand, Secular, that you are not prepared to be "too charitable towards them." I am so sorry that as an immigrant you encountered the most vile Americans in my country. I do not expect you to understand their fear of you. That is their problem, not yours. They were wrong to equate masking to slavery. That is part of their illness, IMO.
My best to you for your future happiness and acceptance in the USA. They are a minority and they - how can I say this kindly - will die off. Hang in there with the USA.♥️
This is: "The New York Times BREAKING NEWS Prosecutors added major new charges against Donald Trump, saying that he wanted a maintenance worker to delete security footage. Thursday, July 27, 2023 7:17 PM ET The new accusations were revealed in a superseding indictment that named a maintenance worker as a new defendant in the case."
“nearly half of black males and almost 40 percent of white males are arrested by the age 23.”
No other first world country in the world has statistics even remotely like this. The "business" of policing and incarceration has become more important than the business of teaching and rehabilitation. In many states once you have been arrested and jailed it is nearly impossible to get any kind of work. Instead of worrying about a few people getting extra food, maybe we ought to start worrying about this. Many of these men are arrested in high school particularly blacks.
Let's not overreact to a seniority moment.
Poor Mitch, unable just to quit since Kentucky's DEMOCRATIC governor would appoint his interim replacement.
If Beshear were really scheming, why not appoint his most likely Republican challenger for governor? Odds are a Republican would win a special election for senator, and one more Democratic senator for a few months wouldn't be enough to achieve cloture.
I believe Kentucky changed their law so that the governor has to appoint a member of the party of the replacement. Anyone know if I'm right about this?
Any requirement how long a 'Republican' would have needed to be registered as such?
If people can change their party affiliation at whim, this seems like a restriction Beshear and his potential interim senators could easily satisfy de jure while eviscerating in spirit.
Ha! Channeling Mitch McConnell, I see.
Fighting fire with fire may be unwise, but fighting cheating with cheating is expedient. Not to mention the karmic aura of hoisting on own petards.
I am certain of this, if it is like most states, the senators party presents the governor 2 or 3 candidates to pick from. NWIH his replacement would be anything but a republican
Commenting is disabled on Mr. From's article, so I'm posting here.
"IN 1968, SENATORS ROBERT F. KENNEDY AND EUGENE MCCARTHY dominated the Democratic primaries, but at the party’s convention in Chicago, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who did not compete in any primaries but had the support of party bosses, won the nomination. His nomination led to one of the most contentious conventions in American history, with riots in the streets of Chicago."
With all due respect to Mr. From and his credentials (founder DLC), how does this paragraph make it past an editor or even a fact checker? It so incorrect that it could be considered mendacious.
The 1968 Democratic Convention was certainly contentious. And I'm sure there were those who were unhappy with Humphrey's selection but the riots in Chicago were based on a variety of factors completely outside the nomination.
Further RFK and McCarthy may have dominated some primaries but RFK had been assassinated over two months before the convention so he was no longer a candidate. At the time of his death RFK (393.5) actually trailed Humphrey(561.5) but was leading McCarthy (258).
If Humphrey didn't compete in the primaries, it was due to two revealing factors. First, he was the sitting Vice President. It wasn't unheard of that a sitting VP seeking the nomination would lose it (it happened to Barkley in 1952, more due to concerns about his age than unpopularity) but it was rare. And second, the primary season had already begun by the time HHH declared on 4/27. He effectively inherited LBJ's mantle (for good or bad) and delegates.
RFK also didn't compete in every primary prior to his death. More telling is that Humphrey out polled Kennedy in Massachusetts, when both were write in candidates in that primary.
As Mr. From correctly notes, it was a different system. The nominations were often sown up at the convention thru horse trading of delegates that had been selected thru the primaries and caucuses. The conventioneers would have been less angry and prone to riot as the convention proceeded like it always had. There was nothing grossly out of the norm from prior conventions.
What Mr. From truly misses are the reasons for the rioting and disruptions outside the convention in Chicago in 1968.
To begin with, Mayor Daley had effectively created a war zone outside the convention to dispel and discourage any protest, by ringing the International Amphitheater with barbed wire. He added to this incendiary set up by calling up 6K National Guardsmen, and having 11K Chicago police with riot gear work 12 hour shifts. Add to that 6K Activity Duty soldiers, and thousands of CIA and MI personnel, and you have a recipe for a conflagration. The Walker Report later proved that Law enforcement initiated the violence and used excessive force.
The Yippies and SDS were in Chicago to protest against the Vietnam War and call for voting reform (you could be drafted at 18 but not vote until 21). They may have been put off by HHH's nomination but it certainly wasn't the cause of any rioting.
I daresay, we got better candidates than most anything we have seen from strictly primaries. For one thing the people that vote in the primaries are for the most part the activists from the extremes of the party. Biden is an example of that not happening, t***p 2016 is an example of it happening.
"Arguably, the passage in the Florida curriculum was clumsily worded. But to render it as 'slaves could benefit from being enslaved' or 'slavery helped slaves develop useful skills' is an extremely tendentious reading, or even misreading: the reference is to benefiting from skills, not from slavery."
REALLY Cathy?? I heard exactly the same kind of excuse from the very bright students I taught as a graduate-student TA in freshman composition classes at an Ivy League university. "But you know what I meant!!" was the constant complaint I got when clumsy writing earned a poor grade. Sorry, but the problem is with the curriculum as written, not with those who read it. The curriculum also appears to assume that enslaved people arrived here with no value other than as a source of raw physical labor like, say, mules or draught horses. Perhaps they came with high-level skills that were rendered useless by enslavement. Cathy, you really must do better than this.
"When I'm President I will only consider Pro-Life Americans to lead the FDA, CDC or HHS." Mike Pence
-----
You will be POTUS only in your wet dreams. A majority of Repubs say that they will *never* vote for you, and to Dems and independents you will always be associated with the administration of the Apricot Arthropod - therefore they (we) will not be casting our ballots for you either.
Good luck in your next career because your political life is over.
fnord
Charlie’s so right about there being no Plan B for the Democratic Party. They do know how old he is. It can’t be a sudden surprise but they wait til now, 16 months before the next election, to bring it up? But Biden also has the political smarts and experience to work miracles, like getting an agreement on the debt ceiling out of McCarthy and to sucker punch the Republicans on publically promising not to cut benefits as he did superbly during the State of the Union address. Is there anyone else on or off Capital Hill who could have done that? Republicans condemn themselves when they claim Biden is not mentally fit because Biden easily out-wits them time after time and what does that say about them?
Better than Trump? That is a very low bar. The belief that he was qualified to be president is pure ego. He has done almost as much damage to this country as Trump.
Excuse me, such as? Biden has miraculously repaired nearly all the damage t***p did internationally, he has deftly lead NATO and the west against Putin and China. In this country he has restored our economy, and finally at last moved us into the 21st century. I can only assume since you gave no examples that you are simply a troll.
Yeah but the comment wasn't about Biden. So instead of your own bit of trolling, maybe, that should have been your first question.
Now, I could have left it at that but I actually took time to find out what the problem was as it should have been plain that I was talking about Bernie Saunders. For some reason this comment didn't show as part of the original conversation but shows up as an original comment on its own. Why you jumped to the conclusion it was about Biden??
Ah, but it was in the discussion I was in when I posted it. As I said above, when something is as obviously unclear as that comment was, you ask questions, you don't just go off on whatever issue you want to apply it to. Unless you are trolling. But from your other comment it seems maybe you are trolling.
It wasn’t the symbol by itself though, it was the symbol accompanied by armed shock troops marching toward the Florida Fürher encased in the swirling nazi symbol
Sounds like Trump is a reincarnation of William James Bryan. And the Republicans elected him as POTUS in 2016 and fully support his re-elections of 2020 and 2024. Who are the ignoramuses?
Re: DeSantis's troubles
Yesterday a 50 year old C&W song song sung by Bobby Bare and written by the genius Shel Silverstein popped into my head that I think perfectly describes the pickle Ronnie has gotten himself into and the only way he can extricate himself from his self-inflicted dilemma:
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+winner+lyrics&rlz=1CAMFAZ_enUS1020US1020&oq=the+winner+lyrics&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRhAMgYIAhBFGEAyBggDEEUYQNIBCTQ5NTdqMGoxNagCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
It's also funny as hell in the bargain.
What desantis actually meant was he wanted RFK, Jr to "destroy" the FDA and the CDC, which says how he looks at things. Every time he opens his mouth he shows that he will never be qualified to be president or anything else for that matter.
I thought Cathy did a good job diving in on the Florida issue. Just because her article wasn’t 1000 words on how Florida is evil doesn’t mean the article isn’t fair. Anyone can write fan service which is boring and unhelpful. Cathy brought up an interesting topic which is how do we celebrate or acknowledge resilience without taking away from the suffering endured? She talks about how DeSantis made it worse by extrapolating what wasn’t there in the words but no doubt is in his heart. She covered what Florida did wrong.
This is how to counter all the whitewash. From Heather Cox Richardson July 26
"Today is the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of the armed forces by President Harry S. Truman in 1948, and the White House statement celebrating that anniversary did more than acknowledge it and praise today’s multicultural military. It recounted the history of Black service members from the American Revolution to the present."
This was quite extensive and coupled with the Emmet Till announcement a great way to make sure the truth is available all you need do is read.
I really hope McConnell is alright because right now he represents about all the sanity there is in higher echelons of the republican party. Biden takes a far harder beating from the media because of this age than Mitch or t***p especially. Biden is a very good president especially on the economy and the foreign stage and in some ways we have the insanity that was t***p to thank for giving us Biden. I do believe if before the primaries officially start it was insured that t***p could not run again, Biden would bow out for next year.
I think the thing that really bugs Black people is how we have to be so totally in tune to White American culture, because if we aren't, the results can be deadly. Every decision from how to speak dress, do your hair, etc. And yet, there is absolutely no reason for American White people to be in tune w/ any sort of Black culture. If there were, there wouldn't even be a debate over what FL (which is where I live) is doing. It gets old being whitesplained about your own life and experience. I am getting close to 50 and weekly I have to swat down some indignity that many of my acquaintances will utter. You should see the reaction to the simple sight of a Black man drinking a glass of Pinot Grigio (and holding said glass by the stem, because....doing it correctly!) gets on a regular basis.....
Preach!! It's also annoying how Black people (who aren't just telling white people what they want to hear) are not listened to, our POV is dismissed or explained away...Black people are not just canaries in a coal mine, we also see peoples true faces (not the polite niceties face but the face you show to someone you dont respect)...but you try to share that information with *some* white people and they just dismiss it..."everything isn't about race, class is more important, that was in the past..." le sigh
"We don't want our kids to be upset by learning these things! They will learn to hate themselves."
"Why are you upset? You are so sensitive! Why must it be about race?"
Facepalm.....