The NYT is scaring me with their article 10/07/2022 on Ron DeSantis's wife and her fund-raising for Florida hurricane victims. Does the NYT know what the DeSantises are really like? The article says not one critical thing about the couple. This is how strongmen get their path to power eased, by the press laying back and not saying anything bad about them.
“When paramilitary and police begin to work together the end is near. When you can no longer tell the difference, the end is here.”- Tim Snyder, on Tyranny, 20 lessons from the twentieth century.
As Ruth adroitly pointed out, we are living in troubled times. Right wing and paramilitary groups should take notice of the $ billions our DOD has spent on non-lethal weaponry. Regardless of how flawed our judicial system has become, we shall survive this insanity!
Barbara F. Walter, a soul sister of Ruth's, in her book How Civil Wars Start, and how to stop them, highlights various factors too numerous to summarize here that ignite civil wars. I recall the chants of the Nazis marching in Charlotte, whites worried about immigrants and blacks and Asians replacing them. That's one grievance; another is the inequality of factions. Trump giving billions to the 1% is an example. Biden's three bills to do projects that benefit common people, like various construction projects and money to develop homegrown industries, and especially the provision that corporations pay a 15% tax--all serve to tamp down the impulses for civil war. I don't know why Biden's poll numbers are so low. Can't ordinary people see he's for them?
What, short of war or civil war, can mitigate what we are facing. Apparently extremists have or will infiltrate most of our institutions. When most of the restraints implied by the rule of law are no longer recognized by a large chunk of Americans…what is left?
I’ll try to keep it simple. Can a member of an extremist organization lose their job? Especially a civil service job or a military position? How about a private sector job? Does it matter at all?
All of our paramilitary groups in society these days reminds me of the Freikorps in Germany after WWI. They were also a right wing group that did battle with the left. It was the beginning of fascism in Germany. We seem to be going down the same path that Germany was on 100 years ago. We have the same belligerent far right ultra-nationalism. The symptoms are being ignored by far too many.
Currently, with an unemployment rate of 3.5% (possibly at or beyond full-employment), raising interest rates may not be something the Federal Reserve should be doing. Chairman Powell? Hello?
When verifiable information is dismissed…reasoning will not work…at least not with the core extremists…they are the puppets and they are being manipulated by the puppet masters…most of them are not really believers…but they want the chaos and violence as a path to power…I am at a loss as to what to actually Do differently than the paths that are in progress…enforcing the rule of law (correctly)…demanding accountability…etc…even if are able we avoid a meltdown in the next few years, this is going to be a long, long struggle …I wish us luck, I fear we will need it…
“Shall we follow Hamlet and the ghost into the dark night?” …………..from Shakespear’s “Hamlet”
The ghost is a premonition for Denmark and the greater theme of the connection between the moral legitimacy of the ruler and the health of the state overall. The ghost is a symptom of the rottenness of Denmark created by Claudius’s crime.
[……….Sorry Denmark, I really do love you so much!]
The root cause of any sort of “inflation” we are currently dealing with is due to the excessive corporate profits, like we have never seen before, that is facilitating excessive price gouging, like we have never seen before, and that is all the result from the kind of “consolidation” everywhere -- media, energy, healthcare, industry -- in every sector like we have never seen before!!!
The Federal Reserves’ “monetary policy” (e.g. raising interest rates) efforts isn’t going to get at what is needed and certainly isn’t going to be enough to do much where it is indeed needed.
But we must continue to put measures in place to a degree like we’ve never seen before! Such as:
**President Biden’s imposing a billionaire taxation plan.
**President Biden’s efforts to push the FTC to investigate Oil companies.
**Important Senate Legislation that needs to be greatly expanded.
** Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) legislation that will support federal agencies and state attorneys general to enforce and expand bans on price gouging.
**Since the Reagan years the federal government has abandoned antitrust legislation and its enforcement but Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is greatly and effectively pushing for and much needed expansion.
**and much more.....
Vote Blue all the way down the ballot ticket and especially to gain significant Democratic control over the Senate to further expand the above measures and more!!!
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to the former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben S. Bernanke, who used his stellar Great Depression work to revitalize the U.S. economy after the 2007/08 financial crisis, as well as awarded to Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig for their research on banks, financial crises, and bank failures. “Their findings in the early 1980s laid the foundations for regulating financial markets,” the Nobel Prize panel said.
[On a related note] I have always found Ben Bernanke’s “Macroeconomics” textbooks to be superb and have quite often used aspects of his books in my upper division Macro Theory classes. Also, Bernanke has done some great work on "inequality" and currently presents some methods for taxing billionaires (a wealth tax) that differs from what President Biden is moving toward. There is much debate on the factors of a wealth tax and Bernanke suggests the following:
**raise capital gains taxes.
**tax realized capital gains.
**eliminate the provision that when you pass appreciated assets on to your heirs, any appreciation in the assets is not taxed at any time.
[I feel President Biden’s wealth tax (tax on billionaires) has much greater potential than what Bernanke is saying but we need to move more quickly to it perhaps in a new and expanded Senate come Nov 8th :) ]
Jennifer Rubin (Lawyer and Columnist “The Washington Post”) gives the following succinct description at the end of the Mary Trump show today (without Mary being there) right out of Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen Playbook…..
[“The Mainstream Media allows this to go on by continually normalizing Republicans who are not normal. They are a Fascist Party. They are seeking to undermine democracy. They are seeking to undermine the rule of law. They are openly, unabashedly racist and misogynistic and the press for the sense of a cordial Sunday morning Talk Show treat these people as normal. They do this refusing to confront and interrogate these people. The lawyers in here could take a better deposition and could push these people into a corner far more effectively than anyone in the media.
But, at 30 thousand feet, this is what fascism is. Every aspect of this is equivalent to, is reminiscent of fascist movements of the past. Number One is the propaganda sight. Number Two is the dehumanization and the othering of people. Number Three is the web of lies that they use. Number Four is the institutionalization of violence. We’re not Germany of 1939 but we are Germany of 1933. We are at the point where the Weimar Republic is teetering.
People are whistling through the graveyard of democracy and they do not realize that at every aspect, this is what fascist movements do. In all respects, whether it’s a language, whether it’s bastardization of professions. Corruption of professions in order to make them allies of the state, whether it’s international alliances. This is the playbook. And if you think this is anything new. Look at Viktor Orban. Look at Europe in the 1930s. Look at Brazil….”]
The NYT is scaring me with their article 10/07/2022 on Ron DeSantis's wife and her fund-raising for Florida hurricane victims. Does the NYT know what the DeSantises are really like? The article says not one critical thing about the couple. This is how strongmen get their path to power eased, by the press laying back and not saying anything bad about them.
“When paramilitary and police begin to work together the end is near. When you can no longer tell the difference, the end is here.”- Tim Snyder, on Tyranny, 20 lessons from the twentieth century.
As Ruth adroitly pointed out, we are living in troubled times. Right wing and paramilitary groups should take notice of the $ billions our DOD has spent on non-lethal weaponry. Regardless of how flawed our judicial system has become, we shall survive this insanity!
Barbara F. Walter, a soul sister of Ruth's, in her book How Civil Wars Start, and how to stop them, highlights various factors too numerous to summarize here that ignite civil wars. I recall the chants of the Nazis marching in Charlotte, whites worried about immigrants and blacks and Asians replacing them. That's one grievance; another is the inequality of factions. Trump giving billions to the 1% is an example. Biden's three bills to do projects that benefit common people, like various construction projects and money to develop homegrown industries, and especially the provision that corporations pay a 15% tax--all serve to tamp down the impulses for civil war. I don't know why Biden's poll numbers are so low. Can't ordinary people see he's for them?
What, short of war or civil war, can mitigate what we are facing. Apparently extremists have or will infiltrate most of our institutions. When most of the restraints implied by the rule of law are no longer recognized by a large chunk of Americans…what is left?
I’ll try to keep it simple. Can a member of an extremist organization lose their job? Especially a civil service job or a military position? How about a private sector job? Does it matter at all?
Regarding employment, are Oaths now a moot point?
All of our paramilitary groups in society these days reminds me of the Freikorps in Germany after WWI. They were also a right wing group that did battle with the left. It was the beginning of fascism in Germany. We seem to be going down the same path that Germany was on 100 years ago. We have the same belligerent far right ultra-nationalism. The symptoms are being ignored by far too many.
Currently, with an unemployment rate of 3.5% (possibly at or beyond full-employment), raising interest rates may not be something the Federal Reserve should be doing. Chairman Powell? Hello?
When verifiable information is dismissed…reasoning will not work…at least not with the core extremists…they are the puppets and they are being manipulated by the puppet masters…most of them are not really believers…but they want the chaos and violence as a path to power…I am at a loss as to what to actually Do differently than the paths that are in progress…enforcing the rule of law (correctly)…demanding accountability…etc…even if are able we avoid a meltdown in the next few years, this is going to be a long, long struggle …I wish us luck, I fear we will need it…
“Shall we follow Hamlet and the ghost into the dark night?” …………..from Shakespear’s “Hamlet”
The ghost is a premonition for Denmark and the greater theme of the connection between the moral legitimacy of the ruler and the health of the state overall. The ghost is a symptom of the rottenness of Denmark created by Claudius’s crime.
[……….Sorry Denmark, I really do love you so much!]
The root cause of any sort of “inflation” we are currently dealing with is due to the excessive corporate profits, like we have never seen before, that is facilitating excessive price gouging, like we have never seen before, and that is all the result from the kind of “consolidation” everywhere -- media, energy, healthcare, industry -- in every sector like we have never seen before!!!
The Federal Reserves’ “monetary policy” (e.g. raising interest rates) efforts isn’t going to get at what is needed and certainly isn’t going to be enough to do much where it is indeed needed.
But we must continue to put measures in place to a degree like we’ve never seen before! Such as:
**President Biden’s imposing a billionaire taxation plan.
**President Biden’s efforts to push the FTC to investigate Oil companies.
**Important Senate Legislation that needs to be greatly expanded.
** Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) legislation that will support federal agencies and state attorneys general to enforce and expand bans on price gouging.
**Since the Reagan years the federal government has abandoned antitrust legislation and its enforcement but Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is greatly and effectively pushing for and much needed expansion.
**and much more.....
Vote Blue all the way down the ballot ticket and especially to gain significant Democratic control over the Senate to further expand the above measures and more!!!
Pro democracy
Vote Blue!
Vote Blue!
Vote Blue!
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to the former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben S. Bernanke, who used his stellar Great Depression work to revitalize the U.S. economy after the 2007/08 financial crisis, as well as awarded to Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig for their research on banks, financial crises, and bank failures. “Their findings in the early 1980s laid the foundations for regulating financial markets,” the Nobel Prize panel said.
[On a related note] I have always found Ben Bernanke’s “Macroeconomics” textbooks to be superb and have quite often used aspects of his books in my upper division Macro Theory classes. Also, Bernanke has done some great work on "inequality" and currently presents some methods for taxing billionaires (a wealth tax) that differs from what President Biden is moving toward. There is much debate on the factors of a wealth tax and Bernanke suggests the following:
**raise capital gains taxes.
**tax realized capital gains.
**eliminate the provision that when you pass appreciated assets on to your heirs, any appreciation in the assets is not taxed at any time.
[I feel President Biden’s wealth tax (tax on billionaires) has much greater potential than what Bernanke is saying but we need to move more quickly to it perhaps in a new and expanded Senate come Nov 8th :) ]
Vote Blue!
Pro-democracy!
Jennifer Rubin (Lawyer and Columnist “The Washington Post”) gives the following succinct description at the end of the Mary Trump show today (without Mary being there) right out of Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen Playbook…..
[“The Mainstream Media allows this to go on by continually normalizing Republicans who are not normal. They are a Fascist Party. They are seeking to undermine democracy. They are seeking to undermine the rule of law. They are openly, unabashedly racist and misogynistic and the press for the sense of a cordial Sunday morning Talk Show treat these people as normal. They do this refusing to confront and interrogate these people. The lawyers in here could take a better deposition and could push these people into a corner far more effectively than anyone in the media.
But, at 30 thousand feet, this is what fascism is. Every aspect of this is equivalent to, is reminiscent of fascist movements of the past. Number One is the propaganda sight. Number Two is the dehumanization and the othering of people. Number Three is the web of lies that they use. Number Four is the institutionalization of violence. We’re not Germany of 1939 but we are Germany of 1933. We are at the point where the Weimar Republic is teetering.
People are whistling through the graveyard of democracy and they do not realize that at every aspect, this is what fascist movements do. In all respects, whether it’s a language, whether it’s bastardization of professions. Corruption of professions in order to make them allies of the state, whether it’s international alliances. This is the playbook. And if you think this is anything new. Look at Viktor Orban. Look at Europe in the 1930s. Look at Brazil….”]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NlrIv3Mjvc&list=PLIMaYVqnSs692EEOUueK9-r812AJxxBGZ
Mary Trump’s “Nerdavengers” The Debates Have Begun today…