The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Benjamin Cole]

17 minutes ago, Chris Barnard said:

 

Was the 25th amendment not put through in 64 or 65 so that they could remove a JFK type if need be? is it gave the “power elite” the option. In this case, it looks like they are propping up a guy with a few marbles rolling around. Is the Republican hierarchy also complicit in this? Are MSM? 

They have gotta start looking at younger candidates. No matter how well they’ve looked after themselves. 

I have often wondered what would happen is a US President said,

"The U.S. will not face a military invasion, even with half the military forces we have now. Ergo, I am proposing a 50% reduction in US military forces." 

Of course, such a President would be overruled by Congress and so on. 

But perhaps you are right. The 25th amendment offers a method for removing an "insane" President who cuts military outlays, or proposed the USDA be sunsetted. 

 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I have often wondered what would happen is a US President said,

"The U.S. will not face a military invasion, even with half the military forces we have now. Ergo, I am proposing a 50% reduction in US military forces." 

Of course, such a President would be overruled by Congress and so on. 

But perhaps you are right. The 25th amendment offers a method for removing an "insane" President who cuts military outlays, or proposed the USDA be sunsetted. 

 

In JFK’s case you had his special amphetamine cocktails from Dr Max Jacobsen. You had a case that the Addissons disease, Colitis, and chronic back pain could affect his judgment. you, of course, had the military-industrial complex claiming he was putting America at risk with his detente and rapprochement approach to the Soviets and pro-socialist/communist countries. We could argue any of this thing competently but, the timing is telling and a mechanism was put in place to remove a sitting president. The use of LSD by the CIA at the time also gave them another tool to create an episode of madness in an individual. JFK spent periods of the presidency in hospital and it was kept quiet. I think the motivation for the 25th amendment is clear. 

[Bill Fite]

Robert Reich has posted an interesting take on the Democratic Party:

Link to article

Bullet points are key sentences from post - italics & bold mine.

Quote

• Both Clinton and Obama stood by as corporations hammered trade unions, the backbone of the working class. 
• At the same time, Clinton and Obama allowed antitrust enforcement to ossify, enabling large corporations to grow far larger and major industries to become more concentrated. 
• Both Clinton and Obama depended on big money from corporations and the wealthy. Both turned their backs on campaign finance reform. 
• Throughout these years, Democrats drank from the same campaign funding trough as the Republicans – big corporations, Wall Street, and the very wealthy.  Democrats became financially dependent on big corporations and the Street.
• By the 2016 election, the richest 100th of 1 percent of Americans – 24,949 extraordinarily wealthy people – accounted for a record-breaking 40 percent of all campaign contributions. That same year, corporations flooded the presidential, Senate and House elections with $3.4 billion in donations. Labor unions no longer provided any countervailing power, contributing only $213 million – one union dollar for every 16 corporate dollars. 
• The Democratic Party still prioritizes the votes of the “suburban swing voter” – so-called “soccer moms” in the 1990s and affluent politically independent professionals in the 2000s – who supposedly determine electoral outcomes. And, as noted, the party depends on big money for its campaigns. Hence, it has turned it back on the working class. 

The most powerful force in American politics today is anti-establishment fury at a rigged system. There is no longer a left or right. There is no longer a moderate “center.” The real choice is either Republican authoritarian populism (see here, here, and here) or Democratic progressive populism. Democrats cannot defeat authoritarian populism without an agenda of radical democratic reform — an anti-establishment movement. Democrats must stand squarely on the side of democracy against oligarchy. They must form a unified coalition of people of all races, genders, and classes to unrig the system. Trumpism is not the cause of our divided nation. It is the symptom of a rigged system that was already dividing us. 

 

 

 

[Steve Thomas]

Russia hands down first prison term for anti-war remarks

By The Associated PressJuly 8, 2022

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-moscow-government-and-politics-235ad386cb40fe07357425fdfe6a80f2

“A court in Moscow sentenced a municipal council member to seven years in prison Friday for his remarks opposing the war in Ukraine. The unprecedented sentence raises the stakes for Kremlin critics in Russia who speak out against Moscow’s invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbor.

Alexei Gorinov was found guilty of spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian military, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison under a law the Russian parliament rubber-stamped a week after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.

The 60-year-old member of Moscow’s Krasnoselsky municipal council is the first person sentenced to serve time behind bars for a conviction on that charge, according to Net Freedoms, a legal aid group focused on free speech cases."

Lest we forget who we are dealing with.

Steve Thomas

Edited July 10, 2022 by Steve Thomas

[W. Niederhut]

2 hours ago, Bill Fite said:

Robert Reich has posted an interesting take on the Democratic Party:

Link to article

Bullet points are key sentences from post - italics & bold mine.

 

Well said.  And Robert Reich should know, since he served in the Clinton administration.

He remains, perhaps, the best spokesperson today for our progressive Democratic wing, along with Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, and AOC.

Overall, Bill Clinton was a far more effective, successful POTUS than most people realize-- a real policy wonk-- but one of his signature blunders was signing the GOP Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which led directly to the 2008 subprime mortgage debacle and Great Recession.

Clinton's legacy of policy success has been completely obscured by the GOP's five-year, Whitewater smear campaign.

Edited July 10, 2022 by W. Niederhut

[Douglas Caddy]

 

‘Operation Higher Court’: Inside the religious right’s efforts to wine and dine Supreme Court justices - POLITICO

[Steve Thomas]

 

 

Post deleted.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Steve Thomas

[Douglas Caddy]

 

[Richard Price]

Thank you, Douglas.  If this could be arranged, I will personally donate the 1st book for his cart.  Any Dr. Seuss book of his choice, since I'm pretty sure that is his reading comprehension level.

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Douglas Caddy said:

 

HOOOWWLLL!

[Joe Bauer]

5 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

 

Write your own caption...

Every teenage boy who has ever lived.

Steve Thomas

Oh Sarah, I've adored you since I first saw you making a fool out of Katie Couric about reading newspapers. I've adored you since I first saw you shooting at Mooses and making burgers out of them. I've adored you since you said you could see Russia from your front yard. Sarah, oh Sarah. Be my running mate in 2024 won't you?

[W. Niederhut]

"Sarah, I'll endorse you, but I need you to do a little favor for me and let me move on you like a bitch."

Edited July 11, 2022 by W. Niederhut

[Benjamin Cole]

14 hours ago, Bill Fite said:

Robert Reich has posted an interesting take on the Democratic Party:

Link to article

Bullet points are key sentences from post - italics & bold mine.

 

There is a lot of truth in what you have posted. 

Interestingly, former AG Barr recently said, "the Republicans have become a working-class party." 

You see some snootiness in tony left-wing circles about this, as in looking down on guys who work with their hands for a living and who drive pick-up trucks. When I see such snootiness, I see a party committing suicide, so that they win favor from the WaPo-style cadres. Or, they just cannot help themselves. 

A couple election cycles back it was trendy to posit that 'Phant  voters were voting against their own economic interests. I think there was a lot of truth in that also. 

Today, the picture is very mixed. Are Donk voters voting against their own economic interests also? How do open borders for immigration and trade help Donk voters? 

Reich surely know his stuff. He says, "Hence, it (the Donk party) has turned it back on the working class." 

Interesting times. 

There are huge fractures opening up in both parties---the establishment elites vs. the average voters. 

The NYT, WaPo, CNN, Fox et al are deep into bed with establishment-elites. 

Interesting times. 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Benjamin Cole

[Douglas Caddy]

 

[Douglas Caddy]