Sure wish that you were still on the air, Dan At least we would know that we were getting “real” news.
I haven’t had the TV “news” on for three days now and don’t miss it. Got tired of hearing all the shootings and vehicles accidents and deaths here in the Phoenix area. The it followers now have their wildest dreams come true. Their idiotic gun laws now have a wild West going on here. And combine that with no investments in public transit, instead they add lanes to the streets and highways, only adds to the carnage.
Luckily we still have the short term right to move so I am leaving here to go where there is water. Minnesota.
Who knows what the elites will try to do to our rights in the coming months? Maybe just a Christian Nationalist rule?
Maybe some of his cohorts, the Trillionaire club, should visit Southern California and help the victims and first responders, in stead of running to Mar-a-lago to dine with President Felony who I’m sure has many many illegals working at his hotels, golf courses and residential buildings.
My memories of that time are just fine, thanks. I think maybe I may have been a little too oblique in my comments. We do not NEED to send people to Mars - or Saturn - or anywhere off planet. What we NEED is the support for the scientific efforts to do exactly that. Collateral benefits from our moonshot days are still with us, if a bit dusty with time and ubiquity.
The point, I think is that without a stated goal easily understood by fourth-graders, we will simply not do the big things - the ones that provide all that spin-off scientific payoff. Sadly, we as Americans have been bred by our consumer-driven economy to comfort and ease over search and new frontiers of learning and discovery. Madison Avenue and Big Business have driven us into a corral of ease and consumerism, buying new phones, new cars and new clothes, in spite of the fact that we've barely used the ones that we bought last year. What happened to "Use it up - Wear it out - Make it do - Or do without."? Consumerism is slowly killing us - and dulling our brains.
Substitute another goal for "Send men to Mars." Make it as exciting and sexy as that idea, whip up the sort of popular frenzy that makes taxpayers open their checkbooks (if they still have them!), children select science courses over self-esteem-boosting seminars, and homeowners petition their local governments to reduce and re-target nighttime lighting in their towns so people can see the sky again. Nobody currently cares about what might be in the Mariana Trench. It is (they think) irrelevant to their lives. Find a way to combat the rampant misinformation currently stalling disease prevention and cures across the planet (like COVID, TB (which was pretty much unheard of in my middle-youth). Make stretching the limits of current knowledge as sexy and desirable as winning the Super Bowl. Then and only then will you have the backing you will need to build space ships which do not carry men into that new frontier. Then and only the will you have created the mechanisms which will make continued R&D in medicine, our planet's geology and biota, even our own bodies as exciting and needed as ... well, YOU pick the comparison.
We will not do any of these things without being shaken out of our comfortable little ruts, until we have leadership with the vision and selflessness to plant trees under whose shade they will never sit. Mars is sufficiently far away, sufficiently difficult and yet possibly attainable, to serve as a goal. I am entirely willing to consider another which would have the same overall effect.
I predict that the presidency of the B.O.T will be an overwhelming disaster. If clear thinking people who see the B.O.T for what he really is were not also subject to the hurt this country is going to feel, I would wish that Trump voters would get what they deserve.
It is so ironic that the bulk of his followers are just regular hard-working people, because he actually hates hard working people and thinks they are suckers (same way he feels about our military personnel). He realistically hasn't done a hard day's work in his life and was born with the old silver spoon. I pray for our country and hope God will bless us, because we are going to need it.
Hopefully, this country can survive the next four years without tearing itself apart. A lot of people just want simple answers to our complex problems.
This is a big unruly world with a simmering WW3 in the making. (North Korea has sent Russia 10,000 troops to throw at Ukraine- Iran has signed a long term alliance with Russia even though Russia has been driven out of Syria). Just two examples. America's domestic agenda will be affected and it is worrisome for there are so few competent people being placed in high levels of government. The stock markets seem to care less. But then, that system is run almost entirely on computer trading programs. Not people. Please do not be fooled by Biden's reassurances. The situation is far more fragile than many believe.
I will never understand how Americans could have been stupid enough to elect the professional criminal not once but twice. Many would rather believe lies than truth. It may be end of democracy. It will if trump and his super rich buds have their way.
I was delighted to see in print (finally!) what I have been saying for almost 10 years now - we're receding rapidly into the bad old days of the Robber Barons - the Carnegies, the Rockefellers, the Goulds, the Vanderbilts, Mellons, Astors, Morgans, Dukes, Schwabs, Hearsts, Fields' - their names are familiar to many today simply because they used their money to print themselves indelibly on American business - and life in general. The tail is most definitely wagging the dog - the government - because it carries so much weight. No legislation strongly opposed by or inimical to today's "barons" will pass, either nationally or on the state level. Monopolies by other names will arise - as if they have not already. After all, 3 or 4 conglomerates now control all food production and distribution. Your candy, cereal, crackers, baked goods, floor wax and fertilizer all come from one of maybe 3 mega-corporations, which encompass dozens and dozens of brand names which we are led to believe are independent companies. And in the press, so much to-do is made over not allowing two grocery store chains to merge because "it would be anti-competitive", and cost customers more! Hah! As if this weren't already happening!
The next four years, if Trump has anything to do about it, will rival the golden days of the old barons. The new barons are far more rapacious, greedy and overt, and with a compliant press and politicians will move as fast as they can to sew up every aspect of American life, limiting choices, funneling purchases and punishing opposition. You will live where and in what housing they choose, work where and for what wage they choose, watch what television programs and movies and read they approve of. This control is made much simpler by the holding of so much national wealth - and the withholding of it from those ideas, books, movies and news they don't like (read: which might cost them money).
This is their game plan: to make Americans dependent on their companies, corporations, etc. for as many aspects of life as they can - housing, food, education, jobs, entertainment, etc. - and thus control them. It is our responsibility to refuse to let them. Nobody is coming to save us - we have to save ourselves. Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg are just men with money, and can be stopped if people are alert and brave enough to refuse to be bought, refuse to sell their children's futures for a box of cheap crackers. We CAN do this. We MUST. Democracy = Freedom - don't let them take it away.
The next chapter in our national narrative will be a long, dark slog through an increasingly dense and murky swamp. We saw hints of that in the first term of the corrupt, corruptible, and corrupting Dunceald J. (the “J.” Is for “jagoff”) Drumpf, an individual so craven and loathesome, it is difficult to stack pejoratives sufficiently vile to capture the sick, twisted nature that is the core of their being.
It’s called the AMERICAN PIE way to slice up the country between all the active Republican Billionaires. Democracy has ended as of Monday Jan 20 2025. Those who voted for this monster won’t even be accountable for their action steps. I would hate to be their children and heirs. What a mess and what egomania. Good luck 🇺🇸because you’re gonna need it. In 2028 the Olympics are to be held in Los Angeles. Now the city gets to clean up and build new for that event. What next?
While what you wrote about a few people with a hell of a lot of money is absolutely true and terrifying I beg to differ about you putting all the bad on the incoming president. It was just two months ago we found out the democrats went thru a BILLION dollars and ended up in debt. If the VP had won do you really think her cabinet would have been just normal people with a 9 to 5 job. Do you seriously want to tell us that they would not want anything for their million dollar checks. Please. It's ALL of the politicians not one side only
Until the people who voted for "MAGA" become directly negatively impacted, nothing will change. And it likely will take a some time. The Pain of Reality Will Eventually Get to Them.
I trust Dan Rather, his comments, his assessments. I will search out many others, Scott Dworkin immediately, Democracy 2025, The Contrarian, all good people loving democracy, working to reclaim it.
Sure wish that you were still on the air, Dan At least we would know that we were getting “real” news.
I haven’t had the TV “news” on for three days now and don’t miss it. Got tired of hearing all the shootings and vehicles accidents and deaths here in the Phoenix area. The it followers now have their wildest dreams come true. Their idiotic gun laws now have a wild West going on here. And combine that with no investments in public transit, instead they add lanes to the streets and highways, only adds to the carnage.
Luckily we still have the short term right to move so I am leaving here to go where there is water. Minnesota.
Who knows what the elites will try to do to our rights in the coming months? Maybe just a Christian Nationalist rule?
Are crypto currency exchanges subject to sales tax?
Maybe some of his cohorts, the Trillionaire club, should visit Southern California and help the victims and first responders, in stead of running to Mar-a-lago to dine with President Felony who I’m sure has many many illegals working at his hotels, golf courses and residential buildings.
My memories of that time are just fine, thanks. I think maybe I may have been a little too oblique in my comments. We do not NEED to send people to Mars - or Saturn - or anywhere off planet. What we NEED is the support for the scientific efforts to do exactly that. Collateral benefits from our moonshot days are still with us, if a bit dusty with time and ubiquity.
The point, I think is that without a stated goal easily understood by fourth-graders, we will simply not do the big things - the ones that provide all that spin-off scientific payoff. Sadly, we as Americans have been bred by our consumer-driven economy to comfort and ease over search and new frontiers of learning and discovery. Madison Avenue and Big Business have driven us into a corral of ease and consumerism, buying new phones, new cars and new clothes, in spite of the fact that we've barely used the ones that we bought last year. What happened to "Use it up - Wear it out - Make it do - Or do without."? Consumerism is slowly killing us - and dulling our brains.
Substitute another goal for "Send men to Mars." Make it as exciting and sexy as that idea, whip up the sort of popular frenzy that makes taxpayers open their checkbooks (if they still have them!), children select science courses over self-esteem-boosting seminars, and homeowners petition their local governments to reduce and re-target nighttime lighting in their towns so people can see the sky again. Nobody currently cares about what might be in the Mariana Trench. It is (they think) irrelevant to their lives. Find a way to combat the rampant misinformation currently stalling disease prevention and cures across the planet (like COVID, TB (which was pretty much unheard of in my middle-youth). Make stretching the limits of current knowledge as sexy and desirable as winning the Super Bowl. Then and only then will you have the backing you will need to build space ships which do not carry men into that new frontier. Then and only the will you have created the mechanisms which will make continued R&D in medicine, our planet's geology and biota, even our own bodies as exciting and needed as ... well, YOU pick the comparison.
We will not do any of these things without being shaken out of our comfortable little ruts, until we have leadership with the vision and selflessness to plant trees under whose shade they will never sit. Mars is sufficiently far away, sufficiently difficult and yet possibly attainable, to serve as a goal. I am entirely willing to consider another which would have the same overall effect.
I predict that the presidency of the B.O.T will be an overwhelming disaster. If clear thinking people who see the B.O.T for what he really is were not also subject to the hurt this country is going to feel, I would wish that Trump voters would get what they deserve.
It is so ironic that the bulk of his followers are just regular hard-working people, because he actually hates hard working people and thinks they are suckers (same way he feels about our military personnel). He realistically hasn't done a hard day's work in his life and was born with the old silver spoon. I pray for our country and hope God will bless us, because we are going to need it.
Hopefully, this country can survive the next four years without tearing itself apart. A lot of people just want simple answers to our complex problems.
God Bless America💙🇺🇸💙
This is a big unruly world with a simmering WW3 in the making. (North Korea has sent Russia 10,000 troops to throw at Ukraine- Iran has signed a long term alliance with Russia even though Russia has been driven out of Syria). Just two examples. America's domestic agenda will be affected and it is worrisome for there are so few competent people being placed in high levels of government. The stock markets seem to care less. But then, that system is run almost entirely on computer trading programs. Not people. Please do not be fooled by Biden's reassurances. The situation is far more fragile than many believe.
I will never understand how Americans could have been stupid enough to elect the professional criminal not once but twice. Many would rather believe lies than truth. It may be end of democracy. It will if trump and his super rich buds have their way.
I credited you (and Peter Yarrow) for inspiring my Substack a week ago.
I was delighted to see in print (finally!) what I have been saying for almost 10 years now - we're receding rapidly into the bad old days of the Robber Barons - the Carnegies, the Rockefellers, the Goulds, the Vanderbilts, Mellons, Astors, Morgans, Dukes, Schwabs, Hearsts, Fields' - their names are familiar to many today simply because they used their money to print themselves indelibly on American business - and life in general. The tail is most definitely wagging the dog - the government - because it carries so much weight. No legislation strongly opposed by or inimical to today's "barons" will pass, either nationally or on the state level. Monopolies by other names will arise - as if they have not already. After all, 3 or 4 conglomerates now control all food production and distribution. Your candy, cereal, crackers, baked goods, floor wax and fertilizer all come from one of maybe 3 mega-corporations, which encompass dozens and dozens of brand names which we are led to believe are independent companies. And in the press, so much to-do is made over not allowing two grocery store chains to merge because "it would be anti-competitive", and cost customers more! Hah! As if this weren't already happening!
The next four years, if Trump has anything to do about it, will rival the golden days of the old barons. The new barons are far more rapacious, greedy and overt, and with a compliant press and politicians will move as fast as they can to sew up every aspect of American life, limiting choices, funneling purchases and punishing opposition. You will live where and in what housing they choose, work where and for what wage they choose, watch what television programs and movies and read they approve of. This control is made much simpler by the holding of so much national wealth - and the withholding of it from those ideas, books, movies and news they don't like (read: which might cost them money).
This is their game plan: to make Americans dependent on their companies, corporations, etc. for as many aspects of life as they can - housing, food, education, jobs, entertainment, etc. - and thus control them. It is our responsibility to refuse to let them. Nobody is coming to save us - we have to save ourselves. Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg are just men with money, and can be stopped if people are alert and brave enough to refuse to be bought, refuse to sell their children's futures for a box of cheap crackers. We CAN do this. We MUST. Democracy = Freedom - don't let them take it away.
The next chapter in our national narrative will be a long, dark slog through an increasingly dense and murky swamp. We saw hints of that in the first term of the corrupt, corruptible, and corrupting Dunceald J. (the “J.” Is for “jagoff”) Drumpf, an individual so craven and loathesome, it is difficult to stack pejoratives sufficiently vile to capture the sick, twisted nature that is the core of their being.
It’s called the AMERICAN PIE way to slice up the country between all the active Republican Billionaires. Democracy has ended as of Monday Jan 20 2025. Those who voted for this monster won’t even be accountable for their action steps. I would hate to be their children and heirs. What a mess and what egomania. Good luck 🇺🇸because you’re gonna need it. In 2028 the Olympics are to be held in Los Angeles. Now the city gets to clean up and build new for that event. What next?
Mr. Rather
While what you wrote about a few people with a hell of a lot of money is absolutely true and terrifying I beg to differ about you putting all the bad on the incoming president. It was just two months ago we found out the democrats went thru a BILLION dollars and ended up in debt. If the VP had won do you really think her cabinet would have been just normal people with a 9 to 5 job. Do you seriously want to tell us that they would not want anything for their million dollar checks. Please. It's ALL of the politicians not one side only
Until the people who voted for "MAGA" become directly negatively impacted, nothing will change. And it likely will take a some time. The Pain of Reality Will Eventually Get to Them.
I trust Dan Rather, his comments, his assessments. I will search out many others, Scott Dworkin immediately, Democracy 2025, The Contrarian, all good people loving democracy, working to reclaim it.