Inside William Barr’s Breakup With Trump
In the final months of the administration, the doggedly loyal attorney general finally had enough.
Excerpt:
Barr, Levi, and Cipollone walked to the president’s personal dining room near the Oval Office. Trump was sitting at the table. Meadows was sitting next to him with his arms crossed; the White House adviser Eric Herschmann stood off to the side. The details of this meeting were described to me by several people present. One told me that Trump had “the eyes and mannerism of a madman.”
He went off on Barr.
“I think you’ve noticed I haven’t been talking to you much,” Trump said to him. “I’ve been leaving you alone.”
Barr later told others that the comment was reminiscent of a line in the movie Dr. Strangelove, in which the main character, Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, says, “I do not avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence.”
Trump, Barr thought, was saying that he had been denying him his essence.
Trump brought up Barr’s AP interview.
“Did you say that?”
“Yes,” Barr responded.
“How the fuck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?”
“Because it’s true.”
The president, livid, responded by referring to himself in the third person: “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump.”
Barr thought that the president was trying to control himself, but he seemed angrier than he had ever seen him. His face was red.
Barr’s AP interview was dominating every cable news channel except the one Trump was watching. The television in the room was tuned to the right-wing, pro-Trump network One America News, which was broadcasting a committee hearing of the Michigan legislature. The hearing featured disproven allegations of massive election fraud, including the testimony of a woman named Melissa Carone, who had worked at the counting location in Detroit and told the committee, “Everything that happened at the TCF Center was fraud. Every single thing.” The next day, Carone would testify again, next to Rudy Giuliani, during which time she slurred her words and appeared to be drunk. (Carone later denied that she had been drunk.)
“They saw the boxes going in!” Trump yelled, referring to the stories about boxes of illegal ballots being counted.
“You know, Mr. President, there are 662 precincts in Wayne County,” Barr said. Trump seemed taken aback that he knew the exact number. “It’s the only county with all the boxes going to a central place, and you actually did better there this time around than you did last time. You keep on saying that the Department of Justice is not looking at this stuff, and we are looking at it in a responsible way. But your people keep on shoveling this shit out.”
As Trump ranted about other examples of fraud, Meadows continued to sit silently with his arms crossed, his posture suggesting that he, too, was upset by what Barr had done.
“You know, you only have five weeks, Mr. President, after an election to make legal challenges,” Barr said. “This would have taken a crackerjack team with a really coherent and disciplined strategy. Instead, you have a clown show. No self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it. It’s just a joke. That’s why you are where you are.”
Interestingly, Trump didn’t argue when Barr told him that his “clown show” legal team had wasted time. In fact, he said, 'You may be right about that.' "
Everybody who isn't in the cult knows that Trump is insane with his incessant braying about a "stolen election."
The election wasn't stolen. Trump lost. By a lot. And no amount of his post-presidency rallies or his lies are going to change that fact.
Why it's important to have a POTUS who knows the laws and isn't an ignorant dictator wannabe, as was the odious Trump:
Axios has a passage from the forthcoming book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election," from the Situation Room during the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
Trump had announced he had put Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley “in charge.”
TRUMP: I said you’re in fucking in charge!
MILLEY: Well, I’m not in charge!
TRUMP: You can’t fucking talk to me like that!
MILLEY: Goddamnit. There’s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?
BARR: He’s right, Mr. President. The general is right.
Trump's ignorance got a pushback from General Milley and AG Barr, but this exchange shows us how close we came to having a military intervention against civilian Americans.
This is how dictatorships operate, and Trump was all in with it!
42 comments:
Shaw... you wrote "Trump's ignorance got a pushback from General Milley and AG Barr, but this exchange shows us how close we came to having a military intervention against civilian Americans."
It also shows how little respect President Trump had for the rule of law, the Constitution, the US Military and America.
It shows how little work the former president was willing to do to understand what his job entailed.
It also shows just how untethered from reality Trump and his supporters are from reality as they continue to cite debunked conspiracy theories, outright lies and total bulls*#t in their efforts to steal the 2020 election.
Apparently if you just scream America First, some people will support you for president no matter what.
As I've said before, the silence from former Trump aides, the lack of anyone pushing back on the narratives now coming out about the Trump Admin, and the corroboration of most of the details of this story from Mitch McConnell is chilling.
Despite their pushback, the dead people voted but Italy and Venezuela rigged the Dominion machines with space lasers before the votes were stolen in suitcases and replaced with bamboo laced ballots all because the Clintons killed GOP poll watchers story line has been shown by none other than Trump sycophant Bill Barr to be nothing but "bullshit."
Dave, The facts are out there for anyone to read, and yet Trump's cultists are still loyal to him, which leads me to understand that they don't know our Constitution or even what American democracy means.
We had an election. The Republican AG said there was no discernable fraud that could have changed the outcome; Trump's own cyber security guy said the 2020 election was one of the safest, and Republican secretaries of state, where Joe Biden won, certified the election results that Joe Biden legally won.
But Trump and his cultists STILL don't accept that truth. Among those cultists are the folks on the Mother Ship. They are absolutely convinced the election was stolen despite all the evidence to the contrary. They believe a known liar, cheat, and fraud, and not the Republican constitutional officers of Republican states when those officers clearly state that THERE WAS NO FRAUD! What that shows me is that those folks are stubbornly loyal to a cult leader, not to their country.
For Trumpers to stay loyal to a man who so cruelly and callously destroys American political, legal, and cultural norms shows me how disloyal they are to their country. And for what? A man who's been impeached twice, whose Trump Organization is under criminal investigation, whose 3 personal lawyers all lost their license to practice law, and who incited an insurrection against his own government which threatened death to his own vice president.
Every time I type those words I understand how broken Trump's cultists are because they either cannot see or refuse to see so clearly what they've chosen to be loyal to.
I pity them for the reckoning that is coming to them very soon.
We as a nation are witnessing the aftermath of the tragic, probably avoidable collapse of a condo-tower in Seaside, Florida with the loss of life and property. An engineer had reported in 2018 that the building had serious structural flaws that needed immediate attention. The flaws were not corrected. Now, thousands of people are engaged in trying to find survivors and the dead among the ruins. The building collapsed in eleven seconds!
Is this a metaphor for our democracy? Millions of us have suspected that the former president was not only corrupt and incapable of governing but that he sought to hide his failings and blame the professionals in our federal government as members of a “deep state”. We saw warning signs during the 2016 campaign. We were warned that the Russians were supporting Trump and seeking to undermine Clinton through a robust disinformation campaign and hacking into Democratic party computers. Millions gave him passes for his corrupt acts and misogyny.
The near-collapse of our government came on January 6 as thousands of Trump supporters, many armed, stormed into the Capitol to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden. This was as close as we have thus far come to losing our democratic government to a craven, power-hungry man. And still Sen. McConnell and other GOP leaders are making excuses about the election. McConnell has admitted he knew there was no fraud. Barr has done the same.
McConnell spent weeks refusing to acknowledge Trump's loss while knowing this was hurting the country. Totally corrupt, the Senate leader telling the AG to lie and commit fraud with Trump! They should all be thrown in jail!
It's pretty clear to me and millions of other Americans that Trump will never get over losing to Biden and having to wear that "L" on his big fat orange forehead.
“You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump.”
This toddler tantrum is from the leader of the Republican Party. Their loyalty to the toddler shows how rotten to the core the entire party has become.
Not only are they enemies of democracy, but they're corrupt enemies of truth and basic human decency.
Can our system of government survive this massive rancid rot? Prognosis: Negative.
I suspect what Barr has said to be true. However, his sudden, desperate attempt at rehabbing his image does nothing to erase the fact that he was the most partisan, criminal-enabling front for the most criminal joke of an 'administration' we've ever had. Sorry Barr, in my world you'd get 50 years in the slammer but, for finally being honest, I would give you the one soap on a rope available to all of the Trump sleaze parade that I'd send to prison. The rest of them can give Big Bubba a worried look when shower time comes around.
Paula, Anon, Dave Dubya, Bluebullamerica,
"Trump’s insurrection seems to be facing the same waning enthusiasm that Confederate leaders faced. Saturday night, at his first large rally since January 6, Trump spoke at Wellington, Ohio, about 35 miles west of Cleveland. While attendees responded to his complaints about the election, many left early.
Today Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “there's a growing recognition that this is a bit like [professional wrestling]. That it's entertaining, but it's not real. And I know people want to say, yeah, they believe in the 'Big Lie' in some cases, but I think people recognize that it's a lot of show and bombast. But it's going nowhere. The election is over. It was fair….let's move on."
Rather than inspiring continued resistance, Trump increasingly looks like President Richard M. Nixon, whose support eroded as more and more sordid information about his White House came to light. Exposés of the Trump White House recently have shown his cavalier approach to the pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans, and his willingness to employ force against peaceful protesters in summer 2020.
Last week, news broke that the Manhattan district attorney is considering criminal charges against the Trump Organization—news that will likely hurt the organization's ability to borrow money—and prosecutors have given the Trump Organization’s lawyers until Monday afternoon to finish their arguments about why the organization should not be charged. Further, we know a special grand jury is set to meet three times a week until November, suggesting that more information may be forthcoming.
And the ground seems to be giving way under the Big Lie, as well. Last week, the Republican-led Michigan Senate Oversight Committee threw out claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and reiterated that President Joe Biden won fairly. A Georgia judge threw out most of the lawsuit calling for another inspection of ballots from Fulton County. And a New York court suspended Trump’s lawyer Rudy Guiliani from practicing law after it concluded that Giuliani made "demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump's failed effort at reelection in 2020." -- Historian Heather Cox Richardson
Maybe, just maybe, Trump's lies will wither on the vine of his other twisted lies. His con is getting weaker, not stronger.
I wish someone could convince SOMEBODY that all those witnesses were right about wrongdoing during the election…….just SOMEONE, to SOMEBODY, PLEASE.
Otherwise, it’s made anybody who agrees with Trump look like a TOTAL MORON….
On CNN, they’ll say things like “What about AG Barr saying Trump’s BIG LIE is ‘BS’?”
It’s the BIG LIE….all over this country to people who might have voted Republican another time….
The ballot situation was enough for ANY sane person to KNOW there was fraud…
YET NOBODY CAN CONVINCE A SOUL WHO MATTERS.
JUST PLAIN ODD.
None of the this, not one iota, is the lest bit surprising. It was anticipated by those paying close atteention to the pathetic Orange Turd.
What is oddest of all things to me is Trumpsters claim fraud for the Biden election but Republicans winning on the same ballot are no issue. Can't have it both ways Trumpsters.
Also odd is the number of voter fraud cases (under 50 I've found so far and mostly attributed to Republicans) around the country of humans voting for their dead spouse/parent/child. If other fraudulent activities had occurred they would have been brought up during the 50+ lawsuits filed by the former guys legal team. To a person the lawyers decided not to perjure themselves at court. Funny how that works.
Colorado uses the Gold Standard for voting to ensure everyone has an opportunity to vote. Using paper ballots which can be dropped off (24/7 video monitoring for security), mailed in, or a voter can attend one of many in person voting stations. Colorado voted on this issue a while ago to prove to Coloradans their elections are safe and accountable.
As I see it the trouble with lies is the amount of labor it takes to prop them up. The former guy just doesn't strike me as the working type.
Trumper
I'm guessing that comment was copied and pasted by someone who's NOT a Trumper. I've seen enough of that sort of thing at this blog.
But for whomever actually stated "The ballot situation was enough for ANY sane person to KNOW there was fraud…" the answer is abundantly clear to everyone but you: THERE WAS NO FRAUD! It's Trump who can't accept his defeat and who continues to lie to his cultists who, in turn, refuse to believe the facts. There's nothing anyone can do to convince them of the fact that Trump is using them for his own corrupt means to an end.
This is what happens when people buy into a Big Lie and refuse to see hard, clear evidence that is put before them. They just refuse to accept the truth, so they continue to be fooled by Trump's relentless con.
It's pitiful and dangerous to our democracy.
Anonymous @5:40 Yes. Sad and true.
Grey One talks sass, It is clear that even when Trump's own AG calls his claims that the election was stolen "b.s." Trump's cultists won't accept that truth.
You can provide all the evidence and facts to Trumpers, but it won't matter a wit because they're in what I call a mass psychosis (a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.)
They've lost contact with external reality. No amount of evidence will dissuade their belief in Trump's claims of fraud.
"TRUMP: You can’t fucking talk to me like that! "
We've had a few mayors with attitudes like that in the small (8500) suburb where I live. They get a little power and think everyone should bow down to them. What I found out is if they holler at you, holler back only louder. They run away. Every time.
These Trump Haters took Rudy Giuliani's Law license away because he dared to say that the election was “Rigged”? And over false Trump election claims.. Are You Kidding? This is their NAZI tactics!
This “SHAFT” was a one-sided decision and not based on any evidence. Only because of the fact that Rudy was Donald Trump’s Lawyer, and they wanted to get Something, Anything on Donald Trump because they are as SCARED AS HELL that he will come back and win again.
The leftist are DERANGED, they tried everything to get rid of Trump, with Hoax’s, Lies, Fake Dossiers, Hollywood “Washed Up” Celebrities calling him Dirty, Filthy Names, and ever TWO Impeachments, and nothing worked. So the Gestapo Rigged the election.
Frank, Nothing worked?
Joe Biden got 7+ million more votes than Trump and won an electoral landslide. Also, Georgia and Arizona turned blue for Biden. So, I'd say THAT worked.
JANURARY 18, 2021: Trump will end his historically unpopular presidency with lowest approval eveR BY GREGORY KORTE AND BLOOMBERGJanuary 18, 2021 10:14 PM EST
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 34% in a Gallup poll released Monday, the low point of a presidency that already had the weakest average approval rating of any of his predecessors since the survey began in the 1940s.
And more GQPers want DeSantis instead of Trump to run in 2024.
You need to get out of your bubble and face reality: Trump will NOT be president again! And I thank the good sense of the American people for throwing his corrupt posterior to the gutter where he and his grifter family belongs!
Mike, Trump is the quintessential bully. He imagined he could push Gen. Milley around with his hollow threats. In the end, Trump lost, and Milley is still there.
Amd DeSantis will be not much better than tRump. If he runs and wins in 2024. The lot of em stink like the NYC sewers.
Not off topic at all. Here's some extremist commentary with my comments attached.
"I wish someone could convince SOMEBODY that all those witnesses were right about wrongdoing during the election…….just SOMEONE, to SOMEBODY, PLEASE.
What the people believing in 2020 election fraud cannot understand is that people simply asserting something is not evidence. It is simply people saying stuff. The president's lawyers, Rudy included, said in court that they were not alleging fraud. They had over 60 attempts in various courts and no evidence was presented. NONE.
...it’s [the Big Lie] made anybody who agrees with Trump look like a TOTAL MORON….
Look, you extremists have no evidence, your lawyers have admitted in court there was no fraud, the US AG said there was no fraud, GOP Governors across the land certified there was no fraud, Secs of State, from both parties across the country said there was no fraud and the presidents own national advisor for cyber security said the 2020 election was the most secure in US history. If you think you have proof that will refute all of this factual evidence... well, if the shoe fits!
On CNN, they’ll say things like “What about AG Barr saying Trump’s BIG LIE is ‘BS’?” It’s the BIG LIE….all over this country to people who might have voted Republican another time….
Not just CNN. Every news channel. Because it is true. And AG Barr knew it. So did McConnell. So did Liz Cheney. So did Kevin McCarthy. As was said in the classic movie, "A Few Good Men" sadly, "You can't handle the truth!"
The ballot situation was enough for ANY sane person to KNOW there was fraud… YET NOBODY CAN CONVINCE A SOUL WHO MATTERS. JUST PLAIN ODD.
What's odd is the inability of the right wing to bring some real evidence, beyond affidavits. To allege that GOP Governors across the country, including Ron DeSantis of Florida, are insane and unable to see "fraud" in their own states, is beyond oddness. It's willful stupidity.
Shaw... these folks are on a journey where they are told everyday "Don't Stop Believin'". I have no idea what we can do if people have decided they will not accept evidence as fact if they don't agree with the conclusion.
Absent evidence for decades, this is the same crowd that believes the Clintons are murdering enemies to this day. As they've noted, it's moronic.
Or as Barr said, it's BS.
It does appear that with trump being gone and the democrats have no one to blame for everything they are now turning to blame the GOP for everything. The leader says he has a deal then turns around and wants to spend another three trillion or so. Oops he lied about the deal so he walks it back. Now the progressive members are all over him because he told them he was going to appoint bernie as his policy maker. AOC is protesting joey because he is not as socialistic as he promised, doubt if he remembers promising that.
The democrats screamed about kids in cages so what did they do but put kids in cages. They supported open borders and some to eliminate ICE. Now we have thousands of youths entering with no parents, hundreds dying in the desert and the borders under siege. They appoint cruella to be the border czar and she has been a total embarrassment. The democrats ran a de-fund police campaign because the police are pigs but violence is up so they are blaming the republicans for the de-funding efforts. The democrats laughed and ridiculed the republicans over saying china developed covid and now that there is evidence of that being fact madam botox won't bring an investigation to a vote.
Both parties blame each other for the state of the country while we sit and bicker instead of throwing ALL of them out.
"It does appear that with trump being gone"
I wake up every morning and thank God that trump is gone!
And with that awful rally in Ohio it looks like he'll be gone permenantly! Good riddance to a piece of garbage!
Skud... I'm sharing a few of your comments with my replies...
"[Biden] says he has a deal then turns around and wants to spend another three trillion or so."
If you remember, Biden has been saying since his campaign and since he took office that he wanted a large, multi trillion, bill to address both traditional infrastructure [bridges and roads] and non traditional infrastructure [internet access and]. This deal was always seen to be a two part process. First, the low hanging fruit of roads and bridges and then the bigger bill to include additional infrastructure to benefit our economy.
"Now the progressive members are all over him because he told them he was going to appoint bernie as his policy maker."
Not sure Biden Biden ever said this, to anyone. Do you have a link, or like Trump, is this just a "Someone said" comment?
"The democrats screamed about kids in cages so what did they do but put kids in cages. They supported open borders and some to eliminate ICE."
Well... you've got a lot in this one. First, you always refuse to let us libs characterize your views, or the views of politicians you support using the statements of a few conservatives. Has something changes in your philosophy? As for the cages, hold on to your hat... Yes the Obama Admin built the cages. But what most libs are angry about is not the cages per se, it is how the Trump Admin has used them. They systematically separated children from parents [different from the Obama Admin] and left the kids alone in those cages. As opposed to with their family members.
Addiationally, after separating those families, the Trump Admin kept no records of who belonged to who, and where they sent separated families. This resulted in some kids needlessly being separated from their families forever.
Because the Trump Admin enunciated that their stated goal was to make the options here so onerous and cruel that families would choose not to come.
Finally, as for VP Harris, [I've never been a fan of childish name calling for our president and VP] I 100% agree that she is not the right person to be working on border politics. But I am not sure anyone in politics today is that person either.
But I am open to suggestions. However, no one is going to solve this unless and until both parties decide they WANT a compromise.
Why don’t you just tell the truth for a change, and admit that you are AFRAID of Donald Trump running again and winning again?
Diseased garbage at that!
Dave Thanks for answering skud. I just didn't have the energy to do it.
Frank, Trump was defeated in his bid for re-election (first time that's happened to a sitting president in almost 30 years!) Trump left the presidency with only a 34% approval by the American people. 7+ million more people voted for Biden than vote for Trump. Trump lost not only the presidency, but the House and Senate, and he turned Georgia and Arizona BLUE!
Trump was impeached TWICE. He incited mobs of armed thugs to attack his own government and threaten the life of his own vice president. Trump is under criminal investigation, as is his Trump Organization. He is losing supporters, not gaining them.
In what delusional world would you ever, ever, EVER think that I or any other sane person would be "AFRAID" of Trump running and winning again?
Thanks for the laugh.
Once again Skidmark spews lies and nonsense and expects us to believe him. He and this Frank character have seriously overdosed on the kool-aid and need some rehab.
Just a few of the more obvious lies that Skid spread ; When exactly did Biden promise to be a socialist? That would be bizarre with him being a moderate and all. Still, if you can provide a video of him saying it or a quote in a real newspaper (no, newmax doesn't count), I'll be happy to admit that I am wrong, but I know that you can't find anything of the sort because it never happened.
Apparently, you've been living in a cave somewhere without wifi or cable or you'd know that once it became obvious that the obstructionist Republiscum party would do everything in their power to hamper the American worker by not backing comprehensive infrastructure legislation, the president has been talking about breaking it into two bills. The first encompasses roads, bridges, dams and airports - the basic nuts and bolts of the country. The second would tackle much needed human infrastructure needs such as child care so poor mothers and fathers can dig out of poverty without spending most of their income on child care. High speed wireless needs to blanket the country and high tech energy solutions are critical to the very future of our country. Not that the GQP scum worry about things like that. If they think their billionaire funders might have to pay 25% like they did until 3 years ago, then they'll dance and shimmy for the 1% and show their backside to the rest of us.
I could go on and on but really, what's the point. It's not like Skid or Frank or any of the other slack-jaws on the radical right are going to bother with anything except worshiping King Clorox and wrapping themselves in the flag and proclaiming themselves the 'real Americans'. Ugh.
There is sand everywhere to bury ones head in. skudrunner must take full advantage of the sand.
Rev, You are correct about the cages. Once the media had some access they moved them from cages to hotels. We treat illegals far better than we do the homeless or street residents.
Biden campaigned on being moderate but not he is fearful of progressives attacking him so he is moving left of his mentor and we have seen how that is working.
Blueballs, how did child care become part of infrastructure. The biggest billionaires who avoid taxes are democrats, unless you think bezos and zuckerberg are conservative.
Bluebull, not to step on your toes but I have an answer for skud's childcare question.
skud, it is obvious to me that you've never been a single parent as you express no empathy for another citizen who has a need that can't always be met in a capitalistic market. Childcare costs sometimes are equal to a single persons salary leaving nothing for other basic expenses of survival.
It makes sense to subsidize childcare to ensure our future investment - Our Children - making Childcare an item to be funded in infrastructure.
Here's the lesson from the past - It's the poem For the Lack of a Halfpenny nail.
For the lack of the nail the shoe was lost.
For the lack of the shoe the horse was lost.
For the lack of the horse the rider was lost.
For the lack of the rider the message was lost.
For the lack of the message the battle was lost.
For the lack of the battle the war was lost.
For the lack of the war the kingdom was lost, all for the lack of a halfpenny nail.
Infrastructure of old had too many places where citizens fell through the cracks which is not an efficient method of running a country - so why are you against this idea skud? Isn't making sure those who need help receive it what so many Christians believe? I'm pretty sure that was the subject of a few lectures.
Oh, and before you pull out the old chestnut of people being lazy... UGH OK - some people are lazy and will take advantage but there is nothing one can do to change that. They are who they are.
For the rest of the population - humans need something to do. They need a job, a purpose, a focus and when they don't have any of those things they do stupid things like act out, usually in inappropriate ways. (This by the way is Mental Health 101).
People need Something To Do and the two bills coming our way will help get We The People up on our feet, however that manifests for each person. Celebrate skud! You're going to get what you've been whining about forever - a community of humans gainfully employed with good wages so they don't have to rely on governmental programs.
You're Welcome
Grey One talks sass, very admirably put. Child care IS infrastructure, but not the kind many folks understand. Without affordable child care, how can a single mom/dad work? How can a mother and father earn money to feed, clothe, and educate their children? This isn't the '50s when one parent working could support a family and provide college. Those days are long gone since the upper 1% got enough lawyers and legislators in D.C. to help them get out of paying their fair share in taxes. THAT'S when we began to lose the middle class.
The GQP idolizes a man who is an east coast elite who was born into wealth and knows nothing about the struggles of the poor or the middles classes and cares only for feeding his insatiable ego and pocketbook. Everyone else on the planet see that, but not the Trump cultists. I guess that's the very definition of a cultist.
Standing up and applauding the very wise Grey One Talk Sass. Perfectly stated, my friend.
Hear Hear Grey One Talks Sass! Exquisitely stated
Thank you Grey One! I worked for over 30 years in the largest professional association for child care workers/early childhood educators before being laid off last August, along with a third of the staff. I've seen first hand child care workers quitting to get a better paying job (like a parking lot attendant). Most workers start at 10 dollars an hour. The cost of running a child care center is huge, no one is getting rich caring and working with children. Children staying with relatives and/or parked in front of the tv all day as their babysitter are starting kindergarten/elementary school at a huge disadvantage. There are many studies out that the benefits of early childhood education stay with students well into high school and beyond. It just makes good economic sense to federally subsidize the cost. As usual, we are WAY behind other western nations regarding this.
Possumlady
Grey, Very well thought out presentation and I applaud you. You are correct I was never a single parent. Both of us worked, managed the household, attended activities and watched what we spent. We both raveled for work but made sure one was home every night.
The country has been in need of a massive infrastructure plan for several decades and joey, or his handlers, should be applauded for his efforts to make that happen. The democrat plan of ensuring re-election by providing cradle to grave living for the working class needs to be titled correctly, I will buy your vote.
The country was founded on providing opportunity for all not government control for all. If the political elite want to pass a bill for social programs, child care would fall into that category, they should call it what it is or they could just call it social infrastructure.
The idea that the top 1% don't pay their fair share fits the political dialog but in fact it is not true. Yes there are a number of 1% who do not pay their fair share, zuckerberg, bezos, soros, the majority of 1% pay far more than their Fair Share.
The top 1% pay 40% of FIT paid and the bottom 50% pay 3% of FIT paid. How do you determine the top 1% don't pay their Fair Share. Do they take advantage of our tax code, they didn't get to be rich by being stupid so of course. Change the tax code to a Fair Tax or go with a flat tax of 15% for everyone with zero deductions. That way Everyone would pay their Fair Share. Our tax codes favor the rich and penalize the middle class.
skud: "The country was founded on providing opportunity for all not government control for all."
Not exactly. Just ask the descendants of slaves, Native Americans, and women.
One example of many of not "providing opportunity" for women is in our own lifetime:
"In 1970, Eleanor Holmes Norton represented 60 female employees of Newsweek who had filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that Newsweek had a policy of only allowing men to be reporters. The women won, and Newsweek agreed to allow women to be reporters. The day the claim was filed, Newsweek's cover article was "Women in Revolt", covering the feminist movement; the article was written by a woman who had been hired on a freelance basis since there were no female reporters at the magazine."
Barring women from practicing law was prohibited in the U.S. in 1971,
There are dozens and dozens of cases that were hard fought and won for "equal opportunity for all under the law." Our founding fathers did not believe that women, African-Americans, and Native Americans were "equal" under the law. This country was founded on equal rights for white, property-owning males.
Women, African-Americans, Native Americans and 'other minorities had to fight tooth and nail for their "opportunities." Luckily, we had a system where legal minds could petition the judicial branch of the government to right the wrongs against non-white property owning males.
We're still fighting for opportunities. See, Health Care, Universal, since without universal health care, there is no freedom to stresslessly pursue life, liberty, and happiness. Just ask anyone who has had a catastrophic illness or accident and has had to deal with it under the for-profit health care system in the U.S.
You may want to check your idea of this country being founded on "providing opportunity for all." It actually wasn't. But we're getting there inch by inch.
Ms Shaw, Thank you for confirming that there is opportunity for all some just have to work little harder for it. Have you ever read the constitution because it does say for all. It is the politicians who have not followed the constitution because it interferes with their mission of being important.
Universal healthcare is a government controlled and taxpayer paid for seizure of the healthcare system. Since 30 million are without healthcare your plan is to make the 310 million pay for it. There are solutions to providing healthcare to those without but our incompetent politicians can't figure it out. They are all to busy grandstanding to do anything for the American people.
Skud said... "The country was founded on providing opportunity for all..."
No Skud, it was not. And that is the problem. Conservatives and Libertarians like yourself believe that and state it every chance you get. But it is simply not true.
What opportunities were provided at our founding to black people? Native Americans? Women?
Were they given a vote? A chance to own property? Freedom to eat where they wanted, when they wanted?
The answer to all of the above is of course, NO.
But you and people like you continue to share the fiction that from our founding we provided equal rights to all.
And that is one of the major problems facing us today. People from those groups are still behind the curve because of decisions made years ago that have had and continue to have lasting impact.
Valuable land, property and belongings were taken from those groups, based on the "inferior" status, color, or race, time and time again throughout our history up until very recently.
And then we've continued to call them lazy slackers because their wealth has not risen at the same level and as fast as wealth for white people. Gee... I wonder why that is?
Maybe black folks in New York would have more wealth if the city had not taken their land for Central Park. Maybe black folks in Tulsa would not have lost everything and would be rich today had not a race riot massacred them and burned their churches and businesses to the ground. Maybe Native Americans who were resettled on oil rich land would be better off today if once oil was discovered we didn't take that land from them too. And maybe Native Americans might be doing better had we not waited until the 1920's to grant them citizenship.
Maybe if people from these groups had a vote for our first 175 years, things might be different.
Equal opportunity for all.
You're living with fictional history Skud...
Ah Skud... let's look at it like this.
You get to run a 400 meter race [it's an Olympic year after all] against a group of people just like you. But they all get a 20 second head start. Everyone has to run the same 400 meters.
The first people there get all the prize money.
Who's gonna win? Certainly not you unless you happen to be the occasional world record holder who gets in the race. Then you might have a chance. But mostly, you will run just as hard as everyone else, the same distance as everyone else as well.
And you know what? You'll lose every time, even though you may be trying harder. Because they all had head starts, an advantage.
Because the race was rigged. From the start.
Because of the structures of racism throughout our history, people of color are expected to run the same race and try just as hard, yet never really win because the rest of the runners all had head starts.
The Constitution was flawed from Day 1.
As was our approach to people of color.
Rev, So what you are saying is the constitution was framed on equal opportunities and the politicians screwed everything up. It is the politicians who implemented the constitution and since the beginning they exercised their own bias and looked after only two things, their power base and corruption.
We are not the only country who has a corrupt government but this is where we live so it is what we are concerned with. There has always been racism and perhaps it was systemic. Today we still have racism but not systemic. Remember it was the Southern Democrats who passes Jim Crowe. Because of politics we cannot raise above race being the main reason for everything yet it was and is the democrats who want to make minorities wards of the state by providing payouts instead of opportunities.
((Sprays Troll Away)) Phew!! Skid really leaves an odor after spewing such ancient tropes as the whole "the Democrats are the real racists," and the ever popular " Welfare is the same as slavery for those people." ((looks down glasses for effect.))
Apparently, no radical right parent ever taught their children about something called the 1960's ((use spooky sound effects here)) and Tricky Dick Nixon's 'Southern Strategy'. It was highly effective, actually and it brought all those smug racist Southern and midwestern whites away from the Democratic Party and into Nixon's (and later Ronny Raygun's) Republican Party. They even had a name for themselves by the time poor senile old Raygun came along "Reagan Democrats". Clever, huh? Anyway, these same voters were already po'd that LBJ and Kennedy had worked on passing the civil rights act so it was an easy push to get them to become what is today, the GQP. I hear from people that the righties don't teach actual history, though, so pssst - this will just be our little secret, okay? Poor things can barely keep from drowning when they brush their tooth. Let's not complicate their little lives with actual facts and knowledge.
Okay Skidmark - carry on with your stale, leftover talking points. Hey, how about that Teapot Dome? Some scandal, right?
Skud said... "Rev, So what you are saying is the constitution was framed on equal opportunities and the politicians screwed everything up."
No Skud, I never said that. Here's the exact quote...
"No Skud, it was not.
The USA, good as it is, was founded constitutionally as a racist, slaveholding country that demied equal rights to women and people of color, under the authority of that constitution.
And until people hear that, learn that, accept that and publicly proclaim that, the people who are still suffering the vestiges of that reality, will never feel like they are 100% in.
Are we the only country with these problems? Of course not.
But the "We are not as bad as them" is not a great defense, especially for America. We've always strived, imperfectly, to be better. We should continue on that path.
Blue... let's not forget Nixon campaign manager Pat Buchanan worrying publicly that the racist George Wallace was "stealing our", meaning GOP, voters.
One has to wonder why the GOP was worried about losing the southern racist white vote in 1968.
Maybe it's because by then the GOP was well into the transition to the racist party they are now.
But people like Skud have to deny that reality and keep charging the Dems, who saw the error of their ways and reformed, or else they have have to acknowledge their own racism.
Exactly right, Dave. Well said.
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