I think it’s very important to remember the relationship between new levels of extremism and egregiousness by MAGA and the degree to which they feel their ship sinking. We should be prepared for all good news for us to be followed shortly thereafter by something shocking and unprecedented by them because they are heading into an increasingly desperate situation. It is undoubtedly scary and they are clearly getting more dangerous, but we MUST keep our heads down and continue the work because if it wasn’t working they wouldn’t be reaching for more obvious and blatant anti democratic “solutions” for their problems. They’re going to get worse before this gets better, but the solution is for us to stay focused on defeating them soundly......in short, the democracy they are trying to destroy is the ONLY cure for the disease they have become. Proud to be arm in arm with all of you.....we are winning and we’re going to keep winning for as long as it takes for the MAGA movement to implode and collapse on itself and be relegated to the fringes where it belongs.
Yes, thank you so much for highlighting this, PianoManSteve. Desperate people are dangerous people. The American people are clearly with us. Just keep talking to people about the work that's getting done. Occasionally, bring up that some tried to disregard the will of the people, as evidenced in the GA Grand Jury votes.
Joe Biden has been a good president. Americans are better off. I feel like even MAGA voters are relieved to have some days with a president fighting for them rather than billionaires. My friends and family who voted MAGA are still interested and engaged when I talk about the accomplishments Joe Biden and the Democratic lead Congress got that have helped average Americans. Keep up the great work, PianoManSteve! I appreciate you. 😁
First, I'd like to recommend Robert Reich's newsletter today on bringing back the common good. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-common-good-chapter-6-the-decline This is talking about how we got Trumpism and lost the common good. Bottom line: income disparity! I agree that that is the root of all the anger that allowed Trumpism to take hold. We must make people very aware of how President Biden is fixing this by focusing on jobs and cutting costs for individuals and families. We need to re-elect Biden and give him a Congress that will support his vision of a country where everyone has well-being. My second topic today is that I'm shutting off the news media at least on a trial basis. I was sick of seeing DT's ugly mug so started to listen to the news on audio only (radio we use to call it). Yesterday even that was way too much DT and all the trivia of the indictments etc. etc. etc. I don't want a law degree. I don't care one iota to follow every sick twist and turn the co-conspirators are taking. So, I think I am totally done with the news media that gives all this far too much coverage to the detriment of making sure people know what President Biden and his administration are doing. Haven't they learned their lesson yet!!!!!! I was so happy to see Heather Cox Richardson do her piece yesterday on Vice President Harris's trip to the Asian Pacific conference as an example of something I do want to hear about. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-6-2023 In turning off MSNBC, perhaps permanently, I decided to look for another media source. So, I thought OK BBC World news might have better coverage. I am not making this up that the first word I heard on BBC World was Trump! So, my next decision is that I won't listen to any of the media that is so enamored with the negative and hurtful coverage of DTs. Instead, I will read the daily newsletters that give me the important news with enough detail to be helpful and a bit of optimism unlike the media where the negative gets attention and therefore makes more money. To hell with the impact on the country and its citizens! So, I will now get my news from Robert Hubbell, Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson and Simon Rosenberg. If I need to know more about the legal issues I'll read Joyce Vance's newsletter but probably not daily. I do like the commentators on MSNBC but they need to branch out and do a much better job of covering President Biden and the world we live in. I have tended to watch the commentators that have something more to offer than DTs. Jose Diaz-Balart, Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell and Simone Sanders-Townsend and Al Sharpen on weekends are good examples. So this will be a thirty day try-out period and see if I'm better informed and less stressed! I'll be listening to a lot of classical music which always helps my well-being. We, the People, ALL OF US THIS TIME! Thank you, Robert, Robert, Heather and Simon. You are much appreciated!
Yes, I like Nicole as well. I wrote what I said above to Rachel Maddow and asked her to share it with Rashida Jones, the President of MSNBC News. I think they need to examine whether they are doing what is easy rather than what is important! Hours of coverage in front of the Fulton County jail. What for? Nothing. An historic event. Not hardly. Let the historians of the next century tell people what is historic. There was one time I felt I was sensing history being made. That was being at the Berlin Wall the June after it fell and a month before the two Germanies reunite. The anxiety was palpable. The people of the East were looking at the West and seeing how much more they had. The West was looking at the East and saying how are we going to support all those people. Gorbashev and Bush were having a summit meeting. What was going to happen felt inevitable and up to the German people not Gorbashev and Bush although I learned when Bush died how much he had done to make it happen and in a peaceful manner.
Thanks for that background info Cathy. I love most of MSNBC stuff but tire of any djt coverage; just don’t want to see or hear so much about the guy. I enjoy most hearing how the great attorneys like Jack Smith, Fani Willis or Letitia James or Jeanne Carrols attorney ( Kaplan) are fighting him and his cronies off! Joyce Vance and Jay Kuo really provide great up to date info there!
The “ rule of law” finally at work. Love hearing from Weismann ( sp?) on MSNBC analyzing the different indictments. And I do wish MSNBC would show much much more of the Biden administration successes!
Your plan is really good. I, too, have been focusing more on substack newsletters and the people you’ve mentioned, and much less on MSNBC news. I really enjoy Joyce Vance and her legal analysis. I’m glad to learn something new. Her newsletters are good companions to HCR. I, too, feel the gravity of the situation increasing. Not doom and gloom, just the incredible awfulness of exactly what the Republicans and the magas have been doing for years and observing their desperation now.
Agree 100% about Joyce Jance- love hearing her discussion on MSNBC and then reading her subscription since she started writing it.
She writes in a thoughtful, ruminative, factual manner that I’ve enjoyed before from the best of my professors.
I have been following Jay Kuo lately though and highly recommend his sharp speedy style peppered with many insightful musings. These two excellent writers feel like opposite bookends for me with very different styles but both wonderfully informative. I have been pleasantly surprised and deeply appreciative of Kuo.
Love enjoying the similarities to Joyce and differences in styles.
I completely agree. I follow him, too. I’m a paid subscriber to everyone that’s been mentioned here. The information and analysis is valuable, and I feel subscribing is also a sign of respect.
Cathy, thank you for sharing your journey. I also appreciate you highlighting a few names I had not heard yet. I also love the We, the People, reference and refocusing us on being "US" this time. I actually have written a few poems inspired by that.
Thank you, Matthew! What a wonderful poem that makes you want to sing in harmony. The People United Shall Never Be Defeated is my favorite song, originally a Childean revolutionary song but now used all over the world to unite people against oppression. Hope you have or will publish your poetry to unite us all.
Thank you so much for the encouragement, Cathy. Publishing has been something I’ve considered, but I have not pursued it yet. Just keep feeling like I’m not quite there, yet. I have been sharing my writing more openly and getting positive feedback, so I may in the near future. Thank you for the song suggestion; I will definitely check it out 😊
Cathy, great idea on the media cleanse and I bet you will extend after 30 days. I subscribe to same Subs and have been reading all my news for awhile..Good for my mental health…and the tv as I’m far less likely to hurl something 🥾at it !
I literally laughed out loud reading "...I’d vote for a 100 year old who got results like that." And in the background of these historic results is an elephant in a corn field, chaos trying to trample progress for average Americans.
Thanks to you, we are now well-aware that polling is a chaotic, unfiltered vector of diseases - easily manipulated to support disinformation. When I read your Hopium today, I had just glanced at the top 3 headlines of today's Real Clear Politics "Front Page" trash which really captures the manipulation of polling: "Biden Is Weak Against Every 2024 GOP Candidate," "Trump Is on Trial & Biden Is Old. Will Anything Else Matter?" and "Media Can't Wave Away the Biden Scandals Anymore." The people who move on to read their polling aggregation have to get past that first!
Then I see Dana Bash earnestly spinning the CNN outlier poll this way "There Is No Way To Spin This, America Is Deeply Unhappy With Joe Biden." The notion that the malevolent media is spinning anything to help Biden - or our democracy - is hilarious.
As you said, we have to keep our heads down and do the work! Registering voters (especially young voters) and giving them the info & confidence they need to vote is at the top of the list. It's not that we're skating to the 11/5 finish line, but only an elite tier of us are thinking about the Presidential election 423 days away.
Yeah, Susan, I wholeheartedly agree. Registering young people and having meaningful conversations with our neighbors about what is going on is so important. Remembering to keep all the chaos in the context of the Hopium we see and create is paramount.
This amount would cover 20% of Simons goal of 100 million he’d like to see used for youth voter registration. Wonder if that will be its target group? A fabulous start!
As noted in the article, it is an "initial" $20 million investment.
The House Majority Forward voter registration program will be focused on "young people," as well as Black, Latino, AAPI, and Native American communities. They will also focus on mobilizing the newly registered and prioritize outreach to "youth, with an emphasis on college campuses," as well as communities of color.
( according to listed areas) the focus is upon swing states and key districts in states like California . This kind of focus cold be so effective. Thanks for passing this info on Natalie!
True, and there aren’t many nice things that I can find to say about his presidency.....but at least he put forth the effort to win more votes than his opponent in his reelection, and I never questioned that he would have left office peacefully if he had lost.....that shouldn’t be enough to earn you a smiley sticker on your homework, but it’s pretty important these days
“...I’d vote for a 100 year old who got results like that” LOVE David Brooks comment! Says it all😀
I know, I thought this was hilarious and insightful. I'm probably going to end up using this line in Sowing Hope soon...😁
I think it’s very important to remember the relationship between new levels of extremism and egregiousness by MAGA and the degree to which they feel their ship sinking. We should be prepared for all good news for us to be followed shortly thereafter by something shocking and unprecedented by them because they are heading into an increasingly desperate situation. It is undoubtedly scary and they are clearly getting more dangerous, but we MUST keep our heads down and continue the work because if it wasn’t working they wouldn’t be reaching for more obvious and blatant anti democratic “solutions” for their problems. They’re going to get worse before this gets better, but the solution is for us to stay focused on defeating them soundly......in short, the democracy they are trying to destroy is the ONLY cure for the disease they have become. Proud to be arm in arm with all of you.....we are winning and we’re going to keep winning for as long as it takes for the MAGA movement to implode and collapse on itself and be relegated to the fringes where it belongs.
Yes, thank you so much for highlighting this, PianoManSteve. Desperate people are dangerous people. The American people are clearly with us. Just keep talking to people about the work that's getting done. Occasionally, bring up that some tried to disregard the will of the people, as evidenced in the GA Grand Jury votes.
Joe Biden has been a good president. Americans are better off. I feel like even MAGA voters are relieved to have some days with a president fighting for them rather than billionaires. My friends and family who voted MAGA are still interested and engaged when I talk about the accomplishments Joe Biden and the Democratic lead Congress got that have helped average Americans. Keep up the great work, PianoManSteve! I appreciate you. 😁
First, I'd like to recommend Robert Reich's newsletter today on bringing back the common good. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-common-good-chapter-6-the-decline This is talking about how we got Trumpism and lost the common good. Bottom line: income disparity! I agree that that is the root of all the anger that allowed Trumpism to take hold. We must make people very aware of how President Biden is fixing this by focusing on jobs and cutting costs for individuals and families. We need to re-elect Biden and give him a Congress that will support his vision of a country where everyone has well-being. My second topic today is that I'm shutting off the news media at least on a trial basis. I was sick of seeing DT's ugly mug so started to listen to the news on audio only (radio we use to call it). Yesterday even that was way too much DT and all the trivia of the indictments etc. etc. etc. I don't want a law degree. I don't care one iota to follow every sick twist and turn the co-conspirators are taking. So, I think I am totally done with the news media that gives all this far too much coverage to the detriment of making sure people know what President Biden and his administration are doing. Haven't they learned their lesson yet!!!!!! I was so happy to see Heather Cox Richardson do her piece yesterday on Vice President Harris's trip to the Asian Pacific conference as an example of something I do want to hear about. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-6-2023 In turning off MSNBC, perhaps permanently, I decided to look for another media source. So, I thought OK BBC World news might have better coverage. I am not making this up that the first word I heard on BBC World was Trump! So, my next decision is that I won't listen to any of the media that is so enamored with the negative and hurtful coverage of DTs. Instead, I will read the daily newsletters that give me the important news with enough detail to be helpful and a bit of optimism unlike the media where the negative gets attention and therefore makes more money. To hell with the impact on the country and its citizens! So, I will now get my news from Robert Hubbell, Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson and Simon Rosenberg. If I need to know more about the legal issues I'll read Joyce Vance's newsletter but probably not daily. I do like the commentators on MSNBC but they need to branch out and do a much better job of covering President Biden and the world we live in. I have tended to watch the commentators that have something more to offer than DTs. Jose Diaz-Balart, Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell and Simone Sanders-Townsend and Al Sharpen on weekends are good examples. So this will be a thirty day try-out period and see if I'm better informed and less stressed! I'll be listening to a lot of classical music which always helps my well-being. We, the People, ALL OF US THIS TIME! Thank you, Robert, Robert, Heather and Simon. You are much appreciated!
Understand completely Cathy,
but I can’t imagine an information life without Nicole Wallace! 😂
Good luck with peace filled VaCay from media💃!
Yes, I like Nicole as well. I wrote what I said above to Rachel Maddow and asked her to share it with Rashida Jones, the President of MSNBC News. I think they need to examine whether they are doing what is easy rather than what is important! Hours of coverage in front of the Fulton County jail. What for? Nothing. An historic event. Not hardly. Let the historians of the next century tell people what is historic. There was one time I felt I was sensing history being made. That was being at the Berlin Wall the June after it fell and a month before the two Germanies reunite. The anxiety was palpable. The people of the East were looking at the West and seeing how much more they had. The West was looking at the East and saying how are we going to support all those people. Gorbashev and Bush were having a summit meeting. What was going to happen felt inevitable and up to the German people not Gorbashev and Bush although I learned when Bush died how much he had done to make it happen and in a peaceful manner.
Thanks for that background info Cathy. I love most of MSNBC stuff but tire of any djt coverage; just don’t want to see or hear so much about the guy. I enjoy most hearing how the great attorneys like Jack Smith, Fani Willis or Letitia James or Jeanne Carrols attorney ( Kaplan) are fighting him and his cronies off! Joyce Vance and Jay Kuo really provide great up to date info there!
The “ rule of law” finally at work. Love hearing from Weismann ( sp?) on MSNBC analyzing the different indictments. And I do wish MSNBC would show much much more of the Biden administration successes!
Your plan is really good. I, too, have been focusing more on substack newsletters and the people you’ve mentioned, and much less on MSNBC news. I really enjoy Joyce Vance and her legal analysis. I’m glad to learn something new. Her newsletters are good companions to HCR. I, too, feel the gravity of the situation increasing. Not doom and gloom, just the incredible awfulness of exactly what the Republicans and the magas have been doing for years and observing their desperation now.
Bitsy,
Agree 100% about Joyce Jance- love hearing her discussion on MSNBC and then reading her subscription since she started writing it.
She writes in a thoughtful, ruminative, factual manner that I’ve enjoyed before from the best of my professors.
I have been following Jay Kuo lately though and highly recommend his sharp speedy style peppered with many insightful musings. These two excellent writers feel like opposite bookends for me with very different styles but both wonderfully informative. I have been pleasantly surprised and deeply appreciative of Kuo.
Love enjoying the similarities to Joyce and differences in styles.
I completely agree. I follow him, too. I’m a paid subscriber to everyone that’s been mentioned here. The information and analysis is valuable, and I feel subscribing is also a sign of respect.
Cathy, thank you for sharing your journey. I also appreciate you highlighting a few names I had not heard yet. I also love the We, the People, reference and refocusing us on being "US" this time. I actually have written a few poems inspired by that.
Thank you again for sharing!
Please share one of your poems with us!
I'm not sure if this is the final form, but the title of this one is The Scarlet Hat.
We the People, forging a band of union
free from binding mitres and forced crosses, first
pledge allegiance with gold ring from sea to sea.
Four score and seven years you’d been slaving
after thirty pieces of silver. She keyed that ring;
still I pursued our more perfect union.
Though your off key notes shot harmony apart,
reconciliation united US more perfect, but oh Captain—
my Captain slept, patchwork quilt still stained red,
not washed white.
With our new unity we billowed through depression
and world ending wars, yet today you smashed open my dome
with Stars and Stripes and the sword…the word of God,
shattering shards into my halls—
you pepper sprayed my protection blind
and smeared feces on the walls.
Still while you’re yelling at clouds, “Make US
great again”, I’ll keep heaving both our crosses,
repairing broken bridges, and praying the chorus through.
Let’s sing harmony,
together this time.
The formatting is a little broken, so here is the link to the correctly formatted version if you'd like. https://docs.google.com/document/d/12ZPyGuDMRNTqUZTymGPScvmLxh2IJ3HNQRJdeboPRZg/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you, Matthew! What a wonderful poem that makes you want to sing in harmony. The People United Shall Never Be Defeated is my favorite song, originally a Childean revolutionary song but now used all over the world to unite people against oppression. Hope you have or will publish your poetry to unite us all.
Thank you so much for the encouragement, Cathy. Publishing has been something I’ve considered, but I have not pursued it yet. Just keep feeling like I’m not quite there, yet. I have been sharing my writing more openly and getting positive feedback, so I may in the near future. Thank you for the song suggestion; I will definitely check it out 😊
I stopped watching tv news after 2016 election and it was so helpful for my well being!
Cathy, great idea on the media cleanse and I bet you will extend after 30 days. I subscribe to same Subs and have been reading all my news for awhile..Good for my mental health…and the tv as I’m far less likely to hurl something 🥾at it !
I literally laughed out loud reading "...I’d vote for a 100 year old who got results like that." And in the background of these historic results is an elephant in a corn field, chaos trying to trample progress for average Americans.
This is the quite strength of a true leader.
Thanks to you, we are now well-aware that polling is a chaotic, unfiltered vector of diseases - easily manipulated to support disinformation. When I read your Hopium today, I had just glanced at the top 3 headlines of today's Real Clear Politics "Front Page" trash which really captures the manipulation of polling: "Biden Is Weak Against Every 2024 GOP Candidate," "Trump Is on Trial & Biden Is Old. Will Anything Else Matter?" and "Media Can't Wave Away the Biden Scandals Anymore." The people who move on to read their polling aggregation have to get past that first!
Then I see Dana Bash earnestly spinning the CNN outlier poll this way "There Is No Way To Spin This, America Is Deeply Unhappy With Joe Biden." The notion that the malevolent media is spinning anything to help Biden - or our democracy - is hilarious.
As you said, we have to keep our heads down and do the work! Registering voters (especially young voters) and giving them the info & confidence they need to vote is at the top of the list. It's not that we're skating to the 11/5 finish line, but only an elite tier of us are thinking about the Presidential election 423 days away.
Yeah, Susan, I wholeheartedly agree. Registering young people and having meaningful conversations with our neighbors about what is going on is so important. Remembering to keep all the chaos in the context of the Hopium we see and create is paramount.
Hey Simon -- did you see this??? And more importantly, were you behind it? Either way, looks like 55, here we come...
"House Majority Forward Announces $20 Million Voter Registration and Grassroots Mobilization Campaign"
https://www.housemajorityforward.org/news/house-majority-forward-announces-20-million-voter-registration-and-grassroots-mobilization-campaign
This amount would cover 20% of Simons goal of 100 million he’d like to see used for youth voter registration. Wonder if that will be its target group? A fabulous start!
As noted in the article, it is an "initial" $20 million investment.
The House Majority Forward voter registration program will be focused on "young people," as well as Black, Latino, AAPI, and Native American communities. They will also focus on mobilizing the newly registered and prioritize outreach to "youth, with an emphasis on college campuses," as well as communities of color.
Wonderful to hear. I’ll be sure and review article; didn’t intend to make more work for you but appreciate info!
Reviewed article. What’s impressive is how
( according to listed areas) the focus is upon swing states and key districts in states like California . This kind of focus cold be so effective. Thanks for passing this info on Natalie!
I'll start believing the polls a month before the election, in the meantime there is the fact that politics is not life.
Interesting that the GW Bush Institute expressed concern about our democracy considering Bush "won" the presidency by undemocratic means.
True, and there aren’t many nice things that I can find to say about his presidency.....but at least he put forth the effort to win more votes than his opponent in his reelection, and I never questioned that he would have left office peacefully if he had lost.....that shouldn’t be enough to earn you a smiley sticker on your homework, but it’s pretty important these days