What we, as a nation, must face is approximately half of us on any given day, have zero idea of what kind of government we have been given to us by our Constitution and why it is imperative we have "government" at all. It is , yes, to provide for the common defense and the public good which, by definition requires ALL the public buy into that premise. And , that there is a process by which we, as a nation, get to live with or change what has been granted to us by our Founders and forefathers. It is called an election.
I find it more than illustrative that in this Congress a total of 175 GOP Representatives, which by my math works out to approximately 75% of those Republicans now seated in the House , are election deniers. And, that on January 6, 2021 139 GOP Representatives , more than half of the then sitting GOP Representatives including one Kevin McCarthy, denied the election of Joe Biden and voted against his certification. All in spite of a preponderance of evidence there was zero fraud and almost a 100% accurate count of all votes in every state. Also , add to this that it is now documented approximately 20 sitting House GOP members were actively involved in plans/plots to appoint, seat, and certify fraudulent electors to replace the legal ones on January 6. My point in raising these statistics is we now have more than enough proof the modern day GOP has made a conscious decison to become a fundamentally fascist organization where the will of the minority trumps (pardon the awful pun) the majority.
Yes, democracy and liberty are at stake but make no mistake about it a very large percentage of our own body politic, as many as 70 million if votes are any indication, are more than OK with that approach. Blame the GOP all we want the real problem is right next door, right down the street and, yes, working with you every day. It is that portion of our population which is aggrieved, afraid, biased, and, yes, terrified of adapting to change of any sort. They want to be protected against what they see as a loss of "their" America and have given the right in America license to "protect it" for them by, yes, seizing power and exercising it for them.
I am a former Republican. My old party of individual rights, liberties and freedom of expression is gone. Replaced by a party which feeds on fear and loathing and depends upon citizens deferring their minds to their worst instincts. And, now a party which knows full well how to leverage those weaknesses is in control of one of our legislative bodies. And, is going to spend two years pitting us against each other even more to reach its end game. Chaos and a call for some form of strong man or some strong party to put an end to the panic and crisis their way. Their way will not include free elections and equal rights. It will favor whatever those in power decide is best for us. Then and only then will the half of us who are now aiding and abetting these fascists understand the old saying; Be careful what you wish for.
Very well stated, Robert. The fact of the matter is the next two years will feature a non-stop cauldron of meaningless GQP House "investigations" and virtually zero meaningful governing. I don't quite know how the country will function under these circumstances.
I hope that Biden, Schumer, and Jeffries have a plan for the spending bills and other tasks that keep the government running as they come up on the calendar.
McCarthy, Biggs, Jordan and Perry have been referred to the House Ethics Committee for their refusal to answer subpoenas. So much for their support for Congressional oversight which seems to be at the top of the Republicans agenda. Hypocrisy abounds.
Given who is now likely to sit on the Ethics Committee you can bet that nothing will come of the referrals. And, by the way, if you have no Ethics, why do you need an Ethics Committee anyhow (my snark?
With each failed vote I could see another marionette string attached to Kevin by the insurrectionists. By the last vote his entire empty suit was dancing to their whim. Oh, I almost forgot.... they completed Kevin’s frontal lobotomy that previously was only a partial lobotomy.
I recognize that our form of government, and our Constitution that frames it, could use a thoughtful reorganization. Supreme Court term limits and enforceable ethics standards, no dark money in politics, national Election Day holiday, civil rights, gerrymandering, the list goes on. But the clowns in this Congress are embarrassingly dense, uneducated, and primed to cater to the very worst of their constituents, the proudly stupid. Nothing will happen in my remaining lifetime to change that. Sad.
Various probable aiders and abetters of, and co-conspirators with the seditious insurrectionists are working to try to defund the Jack Smith Special Counsel probe or otherwise hamper its progress.
Watch for that to be one of the next moves in this crazy chess game.
Richard, can the House crazies do anything to significantly obstruct a DOJ-appointed investigation? If so, what? I was hopeful that Jack Smith would be able to do his work unimpeded by GQP members of Congress.
They can obstruct and cause another massive crisis, which is what these scuttling sewer rats do best, I suppose. But it shouldn't succeed, just become another moving part of the overall machine.
What has the goddamn justice department been doing for two years? Yeah great they threw a bunch of the stupid little people in jail, the violent stupid little people but still not the planners not the movers and shakers not the people who have a very specific goal as you’ve lined out. There is video of some of our steamed Congress people leading guided tours the day before the interaction. I couldn’t find Nancy Pelosi’s office if my life depended on it, but somehow those fools did. And I am hearing once again they want to cut back Social Security and Medicare I want to just scream. I’m about your age Lucian and that to me is really dangerous. It’s basically saying let’s let all the older people die they’re a drain on this bogus economy. And I blame all the Americans who held their noses or didn’t think or voted with their spleens.
The GOP cannot "cut back" on anything unless Biden signs off on it. They don't have enough votes in either the House or the Senate to pass such major legislation. It's going to be two years of an ongoing congressional clusterf*ck.
I doubt she will. She stepped down and passed her support to Hakeem Jeffries. There will be a battle over raising the debt ceiling, but we're going to be seeing the GOP using committees and investigations as vendettas, and I'm already imagining the glee with which Jim Jordan will launch an "investigation" into his favorite subject, Hunter Biden. I wonder when Republican voters will ever get tired of this nonsense.
Men who think they should be excused from proper decorum are inherently childish whiners. I worked in the courts for over a decade, and men who argued their cases inside a courtroom were always required to wear a suit and a tie. Not wearing a jacket is disrespectful. Jordan participated in the voting for Speaker - in shirtsleeves. To me, ditching his jacket is no different than Nancy Pelosi showing up in bare feet. I have always thought of Jordan as arrogant and contemptuous of Congress.
I read something last night that said eventually the extremists will drive out the "moderate" Republicans. Too funny - there are no "moderate" Republicans.
Never going to pass the Senate nor be signed by Biden. Since it's a repeal of something already funded, it'll be sound and fury signifying nothing. And Jeffries will burn them to the ground over it. Whereas no one could count votes better than Nancy, no one can go for the jugular like Hakeem.
We are still very lucky Nancy is an active part of the House for the next 2 years. She is a wealth of information and a great negotiator, as we have witnessed. I see her further mentoring Hakeem and others until 2024.
The US has been an unstable country ever since Trump came down the escalator. He made crazy acceptable.
George Conway said it well when he pointed out that McCarthy is a fool for making concessions without getting anything in return. What a mess Congress has made. Again.
A fool yes, who felt being speaker was getting something in return, evidently ok to him at any price. One of his concessions made it easy for one person to challenge him even staying in the job.
Personally I think the US has been an unstable country ever since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 said that people of color were full citizens and deserved to vote. I wish I could trace instability to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, but white women (of whom I am one) have been a continual disappointment.
Maybe it's glass half empty/half full argument but I still think "if you want to heal the planet, empower women"is a slogan that actually makes great sense. Including all ethnic backgrounds, and many men too, of course. Anyone excluded is usually because they opt to fight every possible form of enlightenment and reasoned policy changes.
For some reason I am feeling The Skin of Our Teeth vibes of some optimism...maybe just the New Year being born.
Not all that amazing if you think about it. Even now plenty of straight women seem to think they're in a high-stakes competition for men. In the not-too-distant past, given the limited economic opportunities available for women, that wasn't far off. On the other hand, the power of women working together is community-sustaining and world-changing. One thing I loved about Hillary's campaign staff in 2016 was that over half of it, including the upper echelons, was female. IIRC the other campaigns hovered around 10% at best.
I consider the type of instability I was referring to, to be a threat to national security. Civil rights foment stability and strength among the people because of the economic and social inclusion they bring to people who were not allowed to vote, live in better neighborhoods, have better paying jobs and education.
Trump flung open the doors to instability. He got help from the Russians to get himself elected and was beholden to Putin. He embraced authoritarianism and was an enthusiastic "friend" to every strongman thug on the planet. He refused to protect the public from covid, causing hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and untold suffering. He shared top secret information with a known Russian spy.
Giving people their rights does NOT bring instability to a country.
But no one just "gives people their rights." People generally have to organize and either take them or persuade those in power to give them. Instability is almost inevitably involved. The slaveholding South was relatively stable, though not nearly as stable as slavery's apologists claimed. It took the instability of war to end it, followed by the less violent instability of Reconstruction -- before stability reasserted itself with Jim Crow. The South under Jim Crow was stable. Civil rights organizers and activists caused instability -- following John Lewis's example, one might call it "good instability," but nevertheless the costs were daunting.
Authoritarianism appeals to many people because it looks stable, whereas democracy can be loud and messy (like now). Those people would gladly trade some autonomy for promises of stability. During the Vietnam era, it was often argued that dissent was unpatriotic and "a threat to national security." Indeed, in wartime freedom of speech is often one of the first things to go, even in a self-styled democracy.
That applies to the more absolutist forms of religion too, the ones that offer stable structure and clear rules to follow. No surprise that political authoritarians and religious authoritarians have found a common home in today's GOP.
These Republican representatives are all puffed up with importance saying the people have spoken, and the people chose a Republican majority in the House during the last election. They are dead wrong! The people did not choose them. The people spoke loudly in 2018, 2020 and in 2022 in those races that gerrymandering played no part, and even the races that it did. The Democrats held control and even gained seats. The people chose to turn to the Democrats to right this ship. The thing that changed from 2020 to 2022 is more extreme gerrymandering with the help of our SC. That is the only reason the Republicans have a slim majority in the House, and will have the power to burn it all down. No, the majority did not choose them, but here we are.
It’s extremists all the way down with different extremists in different camps. Witness Rogers wanting to punch out Gaetz last night. I’d put money on there being physical altercations between Republicans before the 2 years is up. They have stronger animosity toward each other than they do toward the Dems.
None of them have any principles except of self-promotion. My rep is Stefanik and she would’ve been just as likely to be sitting there next to Gaetz and Boebert if that had been beneficial to her own interests.
If it could only stop at the one-off more or less definitive "settlement," maybe, but more likely is endless feuds, vendettas, revenge killings that expand into generational killings. It's a fast track to vigilante "justice."
Depends on the context, probably, e.g., how strong are the customs and conventions around it. Also dueling seems to have been a class-based thing. Do you have any examples of endless feuds, etc., resulting from a duel in the U.S. or any time/place where dueling was accepted?
Sure, first define "duel" and I will send you to practically endless examples, if it fits my definition.
I assume we can include duels between tribes and other ethnic groups, right? And any choice of weapons, or barefisted brawling counts too, of course.
The thing is we already have "duelling" rampant in America, it's just seen daily or hourly, in less formalized encounters than something out of Pierre's experience in War and Peace or some movie staging, but both sides know who they're shooting or knifing or whooping upside the head, and the rationales they can use to justify it.
Lol. Yes, "duel" has wider meanings, but they derive from the one-on-one kind. Think Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. It makes some sense to extend it to, say, pitchers' duels in baseball or two Thoroughbreds dueling for the lead down the homestretch.
Yeah but next we head straight into "Wittgenstein on Meaning," the family resemblances of words about duels and their evolution into feuds and vendettas, in discussions like this and, for one thing, I am still thinking about the episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs I watched just now --- got the whole series on DVD.
There can be extended duels between cultures and sub-cultures, when it comes to that.
Maybe all he wants is the pay raise, free airplane, and the gavel. Eunuch speaker. Empty suit. Welcome to chaos. We can only hope any moderates remaining join in coalition with Jeffries
I think indicting Trump will be a good step toward getting those traitors in the House ( and Senate) out in the open. That these people are still representing constituents when they don't even acknowledge that Biden is POTUS is ridiculous. I have stated earlier that I worry that many of the good accomplishments that the Biden administration has been able to do may be diminished if Trump and his henchmen are not held accountable. History may view Biden as "weak" or inept if he allows these fascists to go unpunished. I still hold hope that We The People may still see justice prevail but time is of the essence here. The clock is ticking.
The scariest part of all that has happened since 2015 when the putrid clown faced monster announced his run for office is the number of Americans who are still voting Republican. I’ve asked myself over and over again when will all the crimes and crap be enough to wake them out of their stupor. Will it be the pervert’s admitted pussy grabbing, putting nincompoop family in the highest positions, separating children from mothers at the border, will it be attempted bribing foreign leaders, will it be failing to help and protect us from Covid, suggesting huffing bleach, will it be joining a coup, or this week - will it be repeatedly shutting down a working Congress….The list is so frigging extensive that I have to refer to Amy Siskind or anyone who has kept track because it’s mind deadening to grasp. People have stopped believing their own eyes and ears and would rather listen like zombies to what they are being told. They are comfortable following orders and giving obeisance to the grifting wealthy class or simply the power mad, lying, incompetents. They’ve stopped asking questions and only repeat illogical non-explanations. This is what is worrying me. What, when, how, if we will extract good people from the GOP brain dead cult?
What is scariest to me is that my very reliably deep blue state of NY flipped four seats in the House from Democrat to Republican, and that Republican Lee Zeldin came within striking distance of taking the governor's office from Kathy Hochul. There were also some GQP gains in our state legislature. I live in the Upper West side of Manhattan, a neighborhood long considered a liberal bastion, yet the comments I read on several online bulletin boards make me feel as if Scotty beamed me to red state. If the crazies are making inroads here, I am truly terrified for our nation.
Jan, please read up on this. It has *a lot* to do with Andrew Cuomo's hatred of "progressive" Democrats and the ineptitude of the NY State Democratic Party. Those things can be fixed. You are not living in a red state. You are living in a blue state with a fucked-up Democratic Party. (Fwiw, I'm in neighbor Massachusetts, where the state Democratic Party is nothing to write home about, but the outgoing two-term governor was a moderate Republican and the just-inaugurated Maura Healey, a Democrat, is highly unlikely to ever pull that Cuomo crap.)
Believe me, I know all that. Cuomo kept control of the state legislature by dividing the democratic party; the "leadership" of the Democratic party sucks, and mysogyny played a role in Zeldin's near upset of Hochul. However, our current mayor, while supposedly a Democrat, is governing much more like a Republican, and he and Hochul are in lockstep. He has instituted a policy of police rounding up homeless and having them placed on indefinite involuntary psychiatric holds. Fortunately there are lawsuits fighting that policy, and even the NYPD is not in favor. Adams is gutting our award-winning free pre-k programs, he is cutting the education budget as well as budgets for all social services. And he has a lot of support. We are not the true blue state we once were.
Not to worry about braindead postings to any NYC bulletin board, Jan. Beavis & Butthead were already there when I got online pre-www. Supposed Democrat Eric Adams is a sometime Democrat who spent considerable time as a registered Republican, I think has also been a registered Independent. Like Bloomberg before him, he's a Democrat when that's politically profitable. (Unlike Mike, when elected Adams lived in Jersey.) Adams has never quite adjusted to being mayor, in his head still leads a police union. He and GOP golden boy Zeldin are tight; A. tried to sweet-talk Z. into his administration. Once the hasty redistricting had screwed up the midterms, nonstop Zeldin/nyPost screeching about NYC crime was alarmingly effective although the city's crime rates had fallen, I believe were still the lowest of any big U.S. city. A lot of the GOP turnout was thus scared, ill-informed sub/exurbanites irrationally voting to make the city safe again should they dare to take the bridge or tunnel into NYC. And then there's the blue district both parties and the media handed to Boutros Boutros Santos X. Hence we have GOP Congresscritters crowing over the changes voters have sent them to Washington to effect like ending Social Security and Medicare. Huh? —df
The top state court is the Appeals court, Marlene, all conservative Cuomo appointees. Everybody got excited when the top judge annouced she's retiring before her term ends. Then Hochul nominated a conservative to replace her. The senate needs to confirm him. We'll see how effective the opposition is. Dunno the timeline.
You just listed the very features that these nitwits consider in the orange-covered mud devil's favor. I think you have to reconsider your approach on this.
With the lunatic fringe in charge nothing good will come from the House unless vulnerable Republicans (whose ranks have grown exponentially this week) join with Democrats on discharge petitions to move important issues to the floor for a vote, the debt ceiling being the most critical. Should the nutters succeed in forcing a default the fallout for the country and the world will be severe, but it will be existential for Republicans. They will lose 50+ seats in the House and 20 in the Senate (even red state voters will be screwed by default, those rural white people need their gummit money to survive. Even Fox News will not be able to cover for the loons). And they will be not see a majority again in a generation or longer.
What we, as a nation, must face is approximately half of us on any given day, have zero idea of what kind of government we have been given to us by our Constitution and why it is imperative we have "government" at all. It is , yes, to provide for the common defense and the public good which, by definition requires ALL the public buy into that premise. And , that there is a process by which we, as a nation, get to live with or change what has been granted to us by our Founders and forefathers. It is called an election.
I find it more than illustrative that in this Congress a total of 175 GOP Representatives, which by my math works out to approximately 75% of those Republicans now seated in the House , are election deniers. And, that on January 6, 2021 139 GOP Representatives , more than half of the then sitting GOP Representatives including one Kevin McCarthy, denied the election of Joe Biden and voted against his certification. All in spite of a preponderance of evidence there was zero fraud and almost a 100% accurate count of all votes in every state. Also , add to this that it is now documented approximately 20 sitting House GOP members were actively involved in plans/plots to appoint, seat, and certify fraudulent electors to replace the legal ones on January 6. My point in raising these statistics is we now have more than enough proof the modern day GOP has made a conscious decison to become a fundamentally fascist organization where the will of the minority trumps (pardon the awful pun) the majority.
Yes, democracy and liberty are at stake but make no mistake about it a very large percentage of our own body politic, as many as 70 million if votes are any indication, are more than OK with that approach. Blame the GOP all we want the real problem is right next door, right down the street and, yes, working with you every day. It is that portion of our population which is aggrieved, afraid, biased, and, yes, terrified of adapting to change of any sort. They want to be protected against what they see as a loss of "their" America and have given the right in America license to "protect it" for them by, yes, seizing power and exercising it for them.
I am a former Republican. My old party of individual rights, liberties and freedom of expression is gone. Replaced by a party which feeds on fear and loathing and depends upon citizens deferring their minds to their worst instincts. And, now a party which knows full well how to leverage those weaknesses is in control of one of our legislative bodies. And, is going to spend two years pitting us against each other even more to reach its end game. Chaos and a call for some form of strong man or some strong party to put an end to the panic and crisis their way. Their way will not include free elections and equal rights. It will favor whatever those in power decide is best for us. Then and only then will the half of us who are now aiding and abetting these fascists understand the old saying; Be careful what you wish for.
In case anyone thinks the term "fascist" is a stretch, consider this interview from August, 2019:
www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/09/leading-civil-rights-lawyer-shows-20-ways-trump-copying-hitlers-early-rhetoric-and
Very well stated, Robert. The fact of the matter is the next two years will feature a non-stop cauldron of meaningless GQP House "investigations" and virtually zero meaningful governing. I don't quite know how the country will function under these circumstances.
I hope that Biden, Schumer, and Jeffries have a plan for the spending bills and other tasks that keep the government running as they come up on the calendar.
I think they do. We'll find five Republicans that want to avoid a global economic catastrophe.
McCarthy, Biggs, Jordan and Perry have been referred to the House Ethics Committee for their refusal to answer subpoenas. So much for their support for Congressional oversight which seems to be at the top of the Republicans agenda. Hypocrisy abounds.
Given who is now likely to sit on the Ethics Committee you can bet that nothing will come of the referrals. And, by the way, if you have no Ethics, why do you need an Ethics Committee anyhow (my snark?
All the reports say they "gutted" the ethics committee. It will be fun watching them when they get a crooked Democrat they want to get rid of.
With each failed vote I could see another marionette string attached to Kevin by the insurrectionists. By the last vote his entire empty suit was dancing to their whim. Oh, I almost forgot.... they completed Kevin’s frontal lobotomy that previously was only a partial lobotomy.
If the metaphor fits, employ it!
I think many members were lobotomized, possibly at birth!
Based on results!
I recognize that our form of government, and our Constitution that frames it, could use a thoughtful reorganization. Supreme Court term limits and enforceable ethics standards, no dark money in politics, national Election Day holiday, civil rights, gerrymandering, the list goes on. But the clowns in this Congress are embarrassingly dense, uneducated, and primed to cater to the very worst of their constituents, the proudly stupid. Nothing will happen in my remaining lifetime to change that. Sad.
Various probable aiders and abetters of, and co-conspirators with the seditious insurrectionists are working to try to defund the Jack Smith Special Counsel probe or otherwise hamper its progress.
Watch for that to be one of the next moves in this crazy chess game.
Richard, can the House crazies do anything to significantly obstruct a DOJ-appointed investigation? If so, what? I was hopeful that Jack Smith would be able to do his work unimpeded by GQP members of Congress.
They can obstruct and cause another massive crisis, which is what these scuttling sewer rats do best, I suppose. But it shouldn't succeed, just become another moving part of the overall machine.
I believe Bradley Moss stated that if they tried to do anything to laws that are already codified, they have another thing coming.
With the criminal insurrectionist inmates telling the Warden when and where to kiss it, 2023 isn't looking too good.
Grim and dark.
What has the goddamn justice department been doing for two years? Yeah great they threw a bunch of the stupid little people in jail, the violent stupid little people but still not the planners not the movers and shakers not the people who have a very specific goal as you’ve lined out. There is video of some of our steamed Congress people leading guided tours the day before the interaction. I couldn’t find Nancy Pelosi’s office if my life depended on it, but somehow those fools did. And I am hearing once again they want to cut back Social Security and Medicare I want to just scream. I’m about your age Lucian and that to me is really dangerous. It’s basically saying let’s let all the older people die they’re a drain on this bogus economy. And I blame all the Americans who held their noses or didn’t think or voted with their spleens.
The GOP cannot "cut back" on anything unless Biden signs off on it. They don't have enough votes in either the House or the Senate to pass such major legislation. It's going to be two years of an ongoing congressional clusterf*ck.
With Nancy guiding the loyal opposition! This period will be a best seller when documented.
I doubt she will. She stepped down and passed her support to Hakeem Jeffries. There will be a battle over raising the debt ceiling, but we're going to be seeing the GOP using committees and investigations as vendettas, and I'm already imagining the glee with which Jim Jordan will launch an "investigation" into his favorite subject, Hunter Biden. I wonder when Republican voters will ever get tired of this nonsense.
Never. Notice that Gym Jordan now has to wear a suit jacket to pretend to be an adult?
Men who think they should be excused from proper decorum are inherently childish whiners. I worked in the courts for over a decade, and men who argued their cases inside a courtroom were always required to wear a suit and a tie. Not wearing a jacket is disrespectful. Jordan participated in the voting for Speaker - in shirtsleeves. To me, ditching his jacket is no different than Nancy Pelosi showing up in bare feet. I have always thought of Jordan as arrogant and contemptuous of Congress.
I read something last night that said eventually the extremists will drive out the "moderate" Republicans. Too funny - there are no "moderate" Republicans.
When you see his gerrymandered district you realize what a joke he is!
Nihilists anarchists First target is IRS enforcement. Sadly KM sold his soul.
Never going to pass the Senate nor be signed by Biden. Since it's a repeal of something already funded, it'll be sound and fury signifying nothing. And Jeffries will burn them to the ground over it. Whereas no one could count votes better than Nancy, no one can go for the jugular like Hakeem.
We are still very lucky Nancy is an active part of the House for the next 2 years. She is a wealth of information and a great negotiator, as we have witnessed. I see her further mentoring Hakeem and others until 2024.
Yesssssssss!
But, that crew is a joke, fortunately!
The US has been an unstable country ever since Trump came down the escalator. He made crazy acceptable.
George Conway said it well when he pointed out that McCarthy is a fool for making concessions without getting anything in return. What a mess Congress has made. Again.
A fool yes, who felt being speaker was getting something in return, evidently ok to him at any price. One of his concessions made it easy for one person to challenge him even staying in the job.
That's the single concession that convinced me how desperate he was to become Speaker. He was riding a tiger and he just dropped the reins.
Nevertheless, McCarthy is second in succession to the presidency, which is the stuff of nightmares.
Personally I think the US has been an unstable country ever since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 said that people of color were full citizens and deserved to vote. I wish I could trace instability to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, but white women (of whom I am one) have been a continual disappointment.
Maybe it's glass half empty/half full argument but I still think "if you want to heal the planet, empower women"is a slogan that actually makes great sense. Including all ethnic backgrounds, and many men too, of course. Anyone excluded is usually because they opt to fight every possible form of enlightenment and reasoned policy changes.
For some reason I am feeling The Skin of Our Teeth vibes of some optimism...maybe just the New Year being born.
Isn't it amazing how many women hate other women? They are the true enemy to be feared, not the foolish old coots in the Congress.
Not all that amazing if you think about it. Even now plenty of straight women seem to think they're in a high-stakes competition for men. In the not-too-distant past, given the limited economic opportunities available for women, that wasn't far off. On the other hand, the power of women working together is community-sustaining and world-changing. One thing I loved about Hillary's campaign staff in 2016 was that over half of it, including the upper echelons, was female. IIRC the other campaigns hovered around 10% at best.
I consider the type of instability I was referring to, to be a threat to national security. Civil rights foment stability and strength among the people because of the economic and social inclusion they bring to people who were not allowed to vote, live in better neighborhoods, have better paying jobs and education.
Trump flung open the doors to instability. He got help from the Russians to get himself elected and was beholden to Putin. He embraced authoritarianism and was an enthusiastic "friend" to every strongman thug on the planet. He refused to protect the public from covid, causing hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and untold suffering. He shared top secret information with a known Russian spy.
Giving people their rights does NOT bring instability to a country.
But no one just "gives people their rights." People generally have to organize and either take them or persuade those in power to give them. Instability is almost inevitably involved. The slaveholding South was relatively stable, though not nearly as stable as slavery's apologists claimed. It took the instability of war to end it, followed by the less violent instability of Reconstruction -- before stability reasserted itself with Jim Crow. The South under Jim Crow was stable. Civil rights organizers and activists caused instability -- following John Lewis's example, one might call it "good instability," but nevertheless the costs were daunting.
Authoritarianism appeals to many people because it looks stable, whereas democracy can be loud and messy (like now). Those people would gladly trade some autonomy for promises of stability. During the Vietnam era, it was often argued that dissent was unpatriotic and "a threat to national security." Indeed, in wartime freedom of speech is often one of the first things to go, even in a self-styled democracy.
That applies to the more absolutist forms of religion too, the ones that offer stable structure and clear rules to follow. No surprise that political authoritarians and religious authoritarians have found a common home in today's GOP.
I was merely trying to clarify what I meant by instability. You are arguing for argument's sake.
I'm not arguing at all. I'm just pointing out that your understanding of how change happens is rather limited.
Gee, thanks. I'll check with you before I express my opinions, lest I come across as "rather limited."
These Republican representatives are all puffed up with importance saying the people have spoken, and the people chose a Republican majority in the House during the last election. They are dead wrong! The people did not choose them. The people spoke loudly in 2018, 2020 and in 2022 in those races that gerrymandering played no part, and even the races that it did. The Democrats held control and even gained seats. The people chose to turn to the Democrats to right this ship. The thing that changed from 2020 to 2022 is more extreme gerrymandering with the help of our SC. That is the only reason the Republicans have a slim majority in the House, and will have the power to burn it all down. No, the majority did not choose them, but here we are.
Minority rule has a problem. They're a minority.
Politicians lying, at it again. And it just never stops.
It’s extremists all the way down with different extremists in different camps. Witness Rogers wanting to punch out Gaetz last night. I’d put money on there being physical altercations between Republicans before the 2 years is up. They have stronger animosity toward each other than they do toward the Dems.
None of them have any principles except of self-promotion. My rep is Stefanik and she would’ve been just as likely to be sitting there next to Gaetz and Boebert if that had been beneficial to her own interests.
Anyone else wish dueling were still a thing?
If it could only stop at the one-off more or less definitive "settlement," maybe, but more likely is endless feuds, vendettas, revenge killings that expand into generational killings. It's a fast track to vigilante "justice."
Depends on the context, probably, e.g., how strong are the customs and conventions around it. Also dueling seems to have been a class-based thing. Do you have any examples of endless feuds, etc., resulting from a duel in the U.S. or any time/place where dueling was accepted?
Sure, first define "duel" and I will send you to practically endless examples, if it fits my definition.
I assume we can include duels between tribes and other ethnic groups, right? And any choice of weapons, or barefisted brawling counts too, of course.
The thing is we already have "duelling" rampant in America, it's just seen daily or hourly, in less formalized encounters than something out of Pierre's experience in War and Peace or some movie staging, but both sides know who they're shooting or knifing or whooping upside the head, and the rationales they can use to justify it.
Lol. Yes, "duel" has wider meanings, but they derive from the one-on-one kind. Think Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. It makes some sense to extend it to, say, pitchers' duels in baseball or two Thoroughbreds dueling for the lead down the homestretch.
Yeah but next we head straight into "Wittgenstein on Meaning," the family resemblances of words about duels and their evolution into feuds and vendettas, in discussions like this and, for one thing, I am still thinking about the episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs I watched just now --- got the whole series on DVD.
There can be extended duels between cultures and sub-cultures, when it comes to that.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/
Maybe all he wants is the pay raise, free airplane, and the gavel. Eunuch speaker. Empty suit. Welcome to chaos. We can only hope any moderates remaining join in coalition with Jeffries
McCarthy doesn't exactly exude a sense of purpose and gravitas, does he?
More like a guy who once ran a yogurt franchise shop in Bakersfield.
Bakersfield, believe me, is no metropolitan city. It’s the armpit of CA.
Exactly:
FAR AWAY EYES THE ROLLING STONES
{This is a first attempt so go easy on me.
I'm sure this is not the same key as the recorded version.
But I haven't been able to find this anywhere.
Corrections to ross@uleth.ca please.}
Far Away Eyes (M. Jagger/K. Richards)
GI was driving home early Sunday morning through BaCkersfield
GListening to gospel music on the colored radio Dstation
And the Gpreacher said, "You know you always haCve the
GLord by your Dside"
GAnd I was so pleased to be informed of this that I ran
Twenty reCd lights in his honor Thank youG Jesus, thank you Dlord
G C G D
GI had an arrangement to meet a girl, and I was kindC of late
GAnd I thought by the time I got there she'dD be off
GShe'd be off with the nearest truck driver she coCuld find
GMuch to my surprise, there she was sittin in the Dcorner
GA little bleary, worse for wear anCd tear
Was a Ggirl with Dfar away Geyes
-------------------------------------------------------------
CHORUS:
So if you're Cdown on your Dluck
And you Gcan't harmoniCze (2ND TIME: I KNOW YGOU ALL SYMPACTHIZE)
Find a Ggirl with Dfar away EGYES
And if you'reC downright diDsgusted
And life Gain't worth a Cdime
Get a gGirl with fDar away eGyes
--------------------------------------------------------------------
GWell the preacher kept right on saying that all I hadC to do was send
GTen dollars to the church of the sacred bleeding Dheart of Jesus
GLocated somewhere in Los Angeles,C California
GAnd next week they'd say my prayer on Dthe radio
GAnd all my dreams would come Ctrue
GSo I did, the next week, I got a prayer wiDth a girl
GWell, you know what kind Dof eyes she gGot
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n-2vgbk6w4
^^^^^ Girl With Faraway Eyes from "Some Girls" by the Rolling Stones (remastered)
The lyrics are one of the great satires of radio fundamentalist ranting ever sung.
Someone on Twitter wrote that the GQP has elected a eunuch as Speaker, which is the most "progressive" thing the GQP has ever done!
I think indicting Trump will be a good step toward getting those traitors in the House ( and Senate) out in the open. That these people are still representing constituents when they don't even acknowledge that Biden is POTUS is ridiculous. I have stated earlier that I worry that many of the good accomplishments that the Biden administration has been able to do may be diminished if Trump and his henchmen are not held accountable. History may view Biden as "weak" or inept if he allows these fascists to go unpunished. I still hold hope that We The People may still see justice prevail but time is of the essence here. The clock is ticking.
The scariest part of all that has happened since 2015 when the putrid clown faced monster announced his run for office is the number of Americans who are still voting Republican. I’ve asked myself over and over again when will all the crimes and crap be enough to wake them out of their stupor. Will it be the pervert’s admitted pussy grabbing, putting nincompoop family in the highest positions, separating children from mothers at the border, will it be attempted bribing foreign leaders, will it be failing to help and protect us from Covid, suggesting huffing bleach, will it be joining a coup, or this week - will it be repeatedly shutting down a working Congress….The list is so frigging extensive that I have to refer to Amy Siskind or anyone who has kept track because it’s mind deadening to grasp. People have stopped believing their own eyes and ears and would rather listen like zombies to what they are being told. They are comfortable following orders and giving obeisance to the grifting wealthy class or simply the power mad, lying, incompetents. They’ve stopped asking questions and only repeat illogical non-explanations. This is what is worrying me. What, when, how, if we will extract good people from the GOP brain dead cult?
What is scariest to me is that my very reliably deep blue state of NY flipped four seats in the House from Democrat to Republican, and that Republican Lee Zeldin came within striking distance of taking the governor's office from Kathy Hochul. There were also some GQP gains in our state legislature. I live in the Upper West side of Manhattan, a neighborhood long considered a liberal bastion, yet the comments I read on several online bulletin boards make me feel as if Scotty beamed me to red state. If the crazies are making inroads here, I am truly terrified for our nation.
Jan, please read up on this. It has *a lot* to do with Andrew Cuomo's hatred of "progressive" Democrats and the ineptitude of the NY State Democratic Party. Those things can be fixed. You are not living in a red state. You are living in a blue state with a fucked-up Democratic Party. (Fwiw, I'm in neighbor Massachusetts, where the state Democratic Party is nothing to write home about, but the outgoing two-term governor was a moderate Republican and the just-inaugurated Maura Healey, a Democrat, is highly unlikely to ever pull that Cuomo crap.)
Believe me, I know all that. Cuomo kept control of the state legislature by dividing the democratic party; the "leadership" of the Democratic party sucks, and mysogyny played a role in Zeldin's near upset of Hochul. However, our current mayor, while supposedly a Democrat, is governing much more like a Republican, and he and Hochul are in lockstep. He has instituted a policy of police rounding up homeless and having them placed on indefinite involuntary psychiatric holds. Fortunately there are lawsuits fighting that policy, and even the NYPD is not in favor. Adams is gutting our award-winning free pre-k programs, he is cutting the education budget as well as budgets for all social services. And he has a lot of support. We are not the true blue state we once were.
Not to worry about braindead postings to any NYC bulletin board, Jan. Beavis & Butthead were already there when I got online pre-www. Supposed Democrat Eric Adams is a sometime Democrat who spent considerable time as a registered Republican, I think has also been a registered Independent. Like Bloomberg before him, he's a Democrat when that's politically profitable. (Unlike Mike, when elected Adams lived in Jersey.) Adams has never quite adjusted to being mayor, in his head still leads a police union. He and GOP golden boy Zeldin are tight; A. tried to sweet-talk Z. into his administration. Once the hasty redistricting had screwed up the midterms, nonstop Zeldin/nyPost screeching about NYC crime was alarmingly effective although the city's crime rates had fallen, I believe were still the lowest of any big U.S. city. A lot of the GOP turnout was thus scared, ill-informed sub/exurbanites irrationally voting to make the city safe again should they dare to take the bridge or tunnel into NYC. And then there's the blue district both parties and the media handed to Boutros Boutros Santos X. Hence we have GOP Congresscritters crowing over the changes voters have sent them to Washington to effect like ending Social Security and Medicare. Huh? —df
And didn’t Hochul just appoint a rather conservative judge to a panel, against the Dems approval?
The top state court is the Appeals court, Marlene, all conservative Cuomo appointees. Everybody got excited when the top judge annouced she's retiring before her term ends. Then Hochul nominated a conservative to replace her. The senate needs to confirm him. We'll see how effective the opposition is. Dunno the timeline.
Oh okay so it’s not a done deal yet, right?
Oy veh!
Yes, that was astonishing!
You just listed the very features that these nitwits consider in the orange-covered mud devil's favor. I think you have to reconsider your approach on this.
With the lunatic fringe in charge nothing good will come from the House unless vulnerable Republicans (whose ranks have grown exponentially this week) join with Democrats on discharge petitions to move important issues to the floor for a vote, the debt ceiling being the most critical. Should the nutters succeed in forcing a default the fallout for the country and the world will be severe, but it will be existential for Republicans. They will lose 50+ seats in the House and 20 in the Senate (even red state voters will be screwed by default, those rural white people need their gummit money to survive. Even Fox News will not be able to cover for the loons). And they will be not see a majority again in a generation or longer.