Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
lees1975
lees1975's Journal
lees1975's Journal
September 10, 2024
Tired of the back and forth, inconsistent polls? Then enjoy this.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/09/in-post-trump-era-four-battleground.htmlIn 2016, Hillary Clinton lost the election by failing to overcome razor thin Republican margins in the "blue wall" states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. There was too much counting on tradition, and too little money spent and campaign time devoted to those three states that had been reliable for Clinton's predecessor, and for Democrats going all the way back to 1992. A couple of rallies, a few campaign offices, and she would have been the first female President of the United States.
So it is no surprise that the focus, in 2020 and now again in 2024, is on those three states, along with four others that have flipped their past tradition and supported Democrats in recent election cycles, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.
There's a lot of talk about this election coming down to razor thin margins in these "battleground states" because of how close they were in 2016, and then again in 2020. But really? When it came down to it, Biden campaigned in all of them, and won Pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes, and Michigan by over 100,000. Wisconsin was close, just over 20,000, and that was the closest one that he actually needed to win the election. Arizona, Georgia and Nevada were closer, but he didn't really need them after Pennsylvania put him over 270.
The media is doing a lot of hollering and pointing attention to this microscopically close race in seven battleground states that will make the difference in who is elected President of the United States. "Razor thin" is the common phrase. And of course, they have their polls, those eternal polls, which, somehow always manage to fit the media's narrative better than they do the outcome of elections. They have their apologists, who will fine tune the numbers and twist the rhetoric to make it sound like the way to know how an election will turn out is to listen to them.
I have a slightly different take. It's based on reading between the lines, on data that we have and know how to interpret, on past voting patterns that polls often use to adjust their own numbers and it also contains some common sense. You're reading this as it is, a guess by an amateur who has a background teaching high school students government, economics and American History and who has watched, and observed trends and elections for 40 years. Take that for whatever it's worth
So it is no surprise that the focus, in 2020 and now again in 2024, is on those three states, along with four others that have flipped their past tradition and supported Democrats in recent election cycles, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.
There's a lot of talk about this election coming down to razor thin margins in these "battleground states" because of how close they were in 2016, and then again in 2020. But really? When it came down to it, Biden campaigned in all of them, and won Pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes, and Michigan by over 100,000. Wisconsin was close, just over 20,000, and that was the closest one that he actually needed to win the election. Arizona, Georgia and Nevada were closer, but he didn't really need them after Pennsylvania put him over 270.
The media is doing a lot of hollering and pointing attention to this microscopically close race in seven battleground states that will make the difference in who is elected President of the United States. "Razor thin" is the common phrase. And of course, they have their polls, those eternal polls, which, somehow always manage to fit the media's narrative better than they do the outcome of elections. They have their apologists, who will fine tune the numbers and twist the rhetoric to make it sound like the way to know how an election will turn out is to listen to them.
I have a slightly different take. It's based on reading between the lines, on data that we have and know how to interpret, on past voting patterns that polls often use to adjust their own numbers and it also contains some common sense. You're reading this as it is, a guess by an amateur who has a background teaching high school students government, economics and American History and who has watched, and observed trends and elections for 40 years. Take that for whatever it's worth
September 9, 2024
I begin with a confession. When I first hear of a school shooting, my initial instinct is to try not to process it very deeply. I try not to think about it. I try not to watch the news coverage or read the latest news stories.
I am not at all proud of this, but I can see that it is what I often do. The reason is that it hurts too damn much. I don’t wantto dive deeply into this new horror, this new murder of children and teachers, this new shattering of families and communities, this senseless evil on top of other senseless evils.
I say this as someone who spent three full years writing a dissertation about the Holocaust. While my children were very little, I was working all day at my paid job and then reading and writing at night about the often imaginatively sadistic Nazi murder of 1.5 million children — and those who tried and mainly failed to save those children. In today’s terms, I realize I have murder-of-children PTSD.
I hate that tremble of fear. I hate that I live in a country where that tremble of fear is perfectly rational — for grandparents and parents, for teachers and school staff and, most of all, for the children themselves. Our beloved children — who must go to school in fear, who must do shooter drills the way their grandparents did nuclear bomb drills, who every so often find themselves watching their classmates and teachers being shot to death during third period.
How does a 14-year-old get access to a weapon of war and manage to leave home with it to go to school? From the home side, how is that even possible? Were loaded assault weapons just lying around unsecured? Was no one paying attention to what this child took to school?
To those candidates running for office this year, I say this: People will truly begin to believe in our democracy and have hope in our future when our politicians actually begin to solve the greatest problems that afflict us. One of these is gun violence, especially when it takes the lives of our children.
Solve this. Solve this. Solve this. Now.
Apalachee High School: The Questions That Haunt Me at Night
https://baptistnews.com/article/apalachee-high-school-the-questions-that-haunt-me-at-night/I begin with a confession. When I first hear of a school shooting, my initial instinct is to try not to process it very deeply. I try not to think about it. I try not to watch the news coverage or read the latest news stories.
I am not at all proud of this, but I can see that it is what I often do. The reason is that it hurts too damn much. I don’t wantto dive deeply into this new horror, this new murder of children and teachers, this new shattering of families and communities, this senseless evil on top of other senseless evils.
I say this as someone who spent three full years writing a dissertation about the Holocaust. While my children were very little, I was working all day at my paid job and then reading and writing at night about the often imaginatively sadistic Nazi murder of 1.5 million children — and those who tried and mainly failed to save those children. In today’s terms, I realize I have murder-of-children PTSD.
I hate that tremble of fear. I hate that I live in a country where that tremble of fear is perfectly rational — for grandparents and parents, for teachers and school staff and, most of all, for the children themselves. Our beloved children — who must go to school in fear, who must do shooter drills the way their grandparents did nuclear bomb drills, who every so often find themselves watching their classmates and teachers being shot to death during third period.
How does a 14-year-old get access to a weapon of war and manage to leave home with it to go to school? From the home side, how is that even possible? Were loaded assault weapons just lying around unsecured? Was no one paying attention to what this child took to school?
To those candidates running for office this year, I say this: People will truly begin to believe in our democracy and have hope in our future when our politicians actually begin to solve the greatest problems that afflict us. One of these is gun violence, especially when it takes the lives of our children.
Solve this. Solve this. Solve this. Now.
September 9, 2024
To conservatives, anything that isn't favorable toward their preferred perspective and politicians, and which calls out and reports negative information about them is biased, as far as they are concerned. The idea of finding a "niche" among the population that is prone to believe conspiracy theories and that is lacking enough education and discernment to actually distinguish between facts and what they perceive as some kind of bias was exploited by Rush Limbaugh. He found his "niche audience" on AM radio, a medium with which he was familiar from his days of playing records and announcing song titles and artists as a disc jockey.
-------
I couldn't move forward here without mentioning Rupert Murdock. No links, no credit, and one paragraph to simply say that this is one of the biggest obstacles in America to a free press. If it were possible to sue and hold accountable one person for the damage done by decades of misinformation, it would be this man, and his Fox News empire. They were sued, by the way, in a crippling way, and I am praying that there's more of this on the way. That would be one magnificent way to help turn some of the lights back on. If that would extend to all of the right wing extremist wannabees who have followed Murdock's model and imitated his despicable character, like Newsmax and others of that ilk, we might have a free press again at some point. This is one big reason why we no longer do.
------
And that illustrates what's going on in America's "free press." It has grown into a system that has been made to work for its ownership's political interests. There is no interest anymore in defending Democracy or in protecting "we, the people" from tyranny. The "niche" audience of people on the political left is still large enough and effective enough to have some influence, and make a place for itself in the market, as we see in MSNBC, and to some extent, still has some influence in the corporate board rooms of the three major networks. But this is not a free press. That has died. This is now, like just about everything else in the United States, a commodity that can be bought and sold in the marketplace.
"Democracy dies in Darkness" says the Washington Post, as they help turn out the lights.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/09/democracy-dies-in-darkness-says-motto.htmlTo conservatives, anything that isn't favorable toward their preferred perspective and politicians, and which calls out and reports negative information about them is biased, as far as they are concerned. The idea of finding a "niche" among the population that is prone to believe conspiracy theories and that is lacking enough education and discernment to actually distinguish between facts and what they perceive as some kind of bias was exploited by Rush Limbaugh. He found his "niche audience" on AM radio, a medium with which he was familiar from his days of playing records and announcing song titles and artists as a disc jockey.
-------
I couldn't move forward here without mentioning Rupert Murdock. No links, no credit, and one paragraph to simply say that this is one of the biggest obstacles in America to a free press. If it were possible to sue and hold accountable one person for the damage done by decades of misinformation, it would be this man, and his Fox News empire. They were sued, by the way, in a crippling way, and I am praying that there's more of this on the way. That would be one magnificent way to help turn some of the lights back on. If that would extend to all of the right wing extremist wannabees who have followed Murdock's model and imitated his despicable character, like Newsmax and others of that ilk, we might have a free press again at some point. This is one big reason why we no longer do.
------
And that illustrates what's going on in America's "free press." It has grown into a system that has been made to work for its ownership's political interests. There is no interest anymore in defending Democracy or in protecting "we, the people" from tyranny. The "niche" audience of people on the political left is still large enough and effective enough to have some influence, and make a place for itself in the market, as we see in MSNBC, and to some extent, still has some influence in the corporate board rooms of the three major networks. But this is not a free press. That has died. This is now, like just about everything else in the United States, a commodity that can be bought and sold in the marketplace.
September 8, 2024
It's time to face facts.
We've come a long, long way from those days, just months ago, when Trump faced over 90 indictments for crimes he committed against "we, the people." From an insurrection aimed at overturning the Constitutional guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power, and the crimes committed in carrying that out, to stealing classified documents exposing our country to espionage, to intimidating and lying to poll workers and attempting to subvert election results in Georgia, to committing fraud in order to avoid having an affair with a porn star exposed prior to an election, it's all been lost in the incredible bureaucracy of various levels of the legal system that seem almost designed to protect political criminals like Trump from ever being brought to justice.
When all of this started happening, I really didn't want to listen to the few voices raised in doubt about whether any of this would ever come to anything more than just media talk. "Now we've finally got him!" was a phrase I heard and saw in multiple places, especially where Democrats gather to discuss politics.
---------------snip-------------
And here we are. Even the one case, in the State of New York, which took almost a decade to prosecute, where there was an actual trial before the election, concluding with 34 felony convictions, has been neutralized, weakened, and pushed off to the side, the sentencing postponed, and postponed again, now not to occur until weeks after the election is over.
And so, all of those who were once ridiculed and criticized for not believing in our justice system, for being critical of a Democratic-appointed Attorney General, for not believing that the system was powerful enough to endure, as it was intended, in spite of human error, to work on behalf of the people, have been vindicated.
The system is broken. Justice, in America, is dead.
Justice in America is dead.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/09/justice-in-america-is-dead.htmlIt's time to face facts.
We've come a long, long way from those days, just months ago, when Trump faced over 90 indictments for crimes he committed against "we, the people." From an insurrection aimed at overturning the Constitutional guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power, and the crimes committed in carrying that out, to stealing classified documents exposing our country to espionage, to intimidating and lying to poll workers and attempting to subvert election results in Georgia, to committing fraud in order to avoid having an affair with a porn star exposed prior to an election, it's all been lost in the incredible bureaucracy of various levels of the legal system that seem almost designed to protect political criminals like Trump from ever being brought to justice.
When all of this started happening, I really didn't want to listen to the few voices raised in doubt about whether any of this would ever come to anything more than just media talk. "Now we've finally got him!" was a phrase I heard and saw in multiple places, especially where Democrats gather to discuss politics.
---------------snip-------------
And here we are. Even the one case, in the State of New York, which took almost a decade to prosecute, where there was an actual trial before the election, concluding with 34 felony convictions, has been neutralized, weakened, and pushed off to the side, the sentencing postponed, and postponed again, now not to occur until weeks after the election is over.
And so, all of those who were once ridiculed and criticized for not believing in our justice system, for being critical of a Democratic-appointed Attorney General, for not believing that the system was powerful enough to endure, as it was intended, in spite of human error, to work on behalf of the people, have been vindicated.
The system is broken. Justice, in America, is dead.
September 7, 2024
As much as I dislike watching or reading news stories about rallies and stump speeches given by Trump and Vance, I've read enough to get a very clear picture of what they are promoting and where their idealism is going. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is the centerpiece of virtually everything they do, and it's interesting to note that, in spite of his vehement denials, Trump, Vance, and the entire GOP campaign for Congress has been tagged with it. People do seem to be paying attention.
I'm not making some earth-shattering observation here, though wading through Trump and Vance rhetoric is a good way to induce vomiting. They are betting that bigotry and racism, anti-Semitism, and separating people in America by race, ethnicity, personal wealth, religious beliefs and cultural identity, and favoring the bigots, racists, wealthiest, straight, white people by promising them all of the favor of government while discriminating against everyone else who doesn't fall in that category will get them enough votes to win.
And so, in the world's most prosperous, and ideologically and politically most free country, the fact that there are enough of these people to make an election as competitive as it seems, and might well be, is a damning indictment. The fact that, in spite of our freedom, in spite of our prosperity and our resources, in spite of our ideology, in spite of our Constitution and the groundwork laid by our founding fathers, in spite of the claims of the heavy influence of Christianity on the nation, this hideous, hateful, divisive, subversive ideology has as much of a following as it does is a sign of the failure of multiple government, cultural, social and religious institutions.
There are few words to describe the complete and total lack of any kind of humanity that Trump and Vance spew out every day. Total depravity is one term that comes to mind, from the theology developed by Jean Calvin during the Reformation to describe what he believed was the state of mankind apart from God.
Trump's "ideal America" is white supremacy.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-ideal-america-being-pushed-by-trump.htmlAs much as I dislike watching or reading news stories about rallies and stump speeches given by Trump and Vance, I've read enough to get a very clear picture of what they are promoting and where their idealism is going. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is the centerpiece of virtually everything they do, and it's interesting to note that, in spite of his vehement denials, Trump, Vance, and the entire GOP campaign for Congress has been tagged with it. People do seem to be paying attention.
I'm not making some earth-shattering observation here, though wading through Trump and Vance rhetoric is a good way to induce vomiting. They are betting that bigotry and racism, anti-Semitism, and separating people in America by race, ethnicity, personal wealth, religious beliefs and cultural identity, and favoring the bigots, racists, wealthiest, straight, white people by promising them all of the favor of government while discriminating against everyone else who doesn't fall in that category will get them enough votes to win.
And so, in the world's most prosperous, and ideologically and politically most free country, the fact that there are enough of these people to make an election as competitive as it seems, and might well be, is a damning indictment. The fact that, in spite of our freedom, in spite of our prosperity and our resources, in spite of our ideology, in spite of our Constitution and the groundwork laid by our founding fathers, in spite of the claims of the heavy influence of Christianity on the nation, this hideous, hateful, divisive, subversive ideology has as much of a following as it does is a sign of the failure of multiple government, cultural, social and religious institutions.
There are few words to describe the complete and total lack of any kind of humanity that Trump and Vance spew out every day. Total depravity is one term that comes to mind, from the theology developed by Jean Calvin during the Reformation to describe what he believed was the state of mankind apart from God.
September 6, 2024
Will Donald Trump ever be brought to justice for his crimes?
September 6, 2024
Lying, character assassination, mis-quoting and mis-interpreting public statements, failing to verify statements made that are used to undermine the integrity of someone else, I can't find any place in the inerrant, infallible Bible that makes these particular "attributes" identifying marks of a Christian. The apostle John does say they identify an attitude of being he calls "antichrist," but they bear no resemblance to the characteristics that identify true Christianity. Yet there is the exact strategy used by Basham to call out those within the Evangelical fold she believes to be "traitors" and "leftists."
I'm not going to repeat all of the infighting, accusations of lying, of being "leftist," or "traitors" or wolves in sheep's clothing that Basham slings around in her book. I wouldn't recommend reading it. The article that is referenced here more than makes the point.
But I will say this. Any Christian leader who claims that a Christian is identified by how they vote, and that true Christians cannot vote for Democrats is directly contradicting the words of the Bible's authors. Being a political leftist doesn't disqualify anyone from being Christian, and a political leftist who demonstrates love for God by loving his neighbor is far more Christian than a far right wing conservative Evangelical Republican who hates all of his neighbors who don't think like, act like and believe like he does.
Lacking in grace, Evangelicals have earned their bad reputation.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/09/lacking-in-grace-evangelicals-have.htmlA political leftist who demonstrates love for God by loving his neighbor is far more Christian than a far right wing conservative Evangelical Republican who hates all of his neighbors who don't think like, act like and believe like he does.
Lying, character assassination, mis-quoting and mis-interpreting public statements, failing to verify statements made that are used to undermine the integrity of someone else, I can't find any place in the inerrant, infallible Bible that makes these particular "attributes" identifying marks of a Christian. The apostle John does say they identify an attitude of being he calls "antichrist," but they bear no resemblance to the characteristics that identify true Christianity. Yet there is the exact strategy used by Basham to call out those within the Evangelical fold she believes to be "traitors" and "leftists."
I'm not going to repeat all of the infighting, accusations of lying, of being "leftist," or "traitors" or wolves in sheep's clothing that Basham slings around in her book. I wouldn't recommend reading it. The article that is referenced here more than makes the point.
But I will say this. Any Christian leader who claims that a Christian is identified by how they vote, and that true Christians cannot vote for Democrats is directly contradicting the words of the Bible's authors. Being a political leftist doesn't disqualify anyone from being Christian, and a political leftist who demonstrates love for God by loving his neighbor is far more Christian than a far right wing conservative Evangelical Republican who hates all of his neighbors who don't think like, act like and believe like he does.
September 5, 2024
I just wonder if anyone noticed that the shooter in Georgia
was not an immigrant petitioning for asylum. He was not a drag queen. He didn't cross the border illegally.
September 4, 2024
Dr. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, has just written a book entitled, America is a Christian Nation. For a pastor of one of the flagship churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, with an impressive list of degrees, including one from a credible university, he's not very capable of interpreting written history as far as his contention is concerned.
Jeffress is typically Southern Baptist on most social issues. He is vehemently opposed to women serving as church pastors or ordained leaders of any kind. He is also vehemently opposed to any kind of same sex marriage or LGBTQ rights, and he is a staunch defender of the anti-abortion activist position, desiring it to be eliminated as an option anywhere in the United States.
---------
According to Rodney Kennedy, author of the linked article from Baptist News Global says Jeffress' premise is flawed by a "false reading strategy." Jeffress, says Kennedy, is of the opinion that gathering snippets of sayings by founding fathers that include the words "God," "Christian," "Bible," and "belief," constitutes the proof necessary to declare their intentions to make America a Christian nation.
Another of Jeffress' flaws in making his point is his reliance on the work of David Barton, the founder of a group known as "Wallbuilders," dedicated to undoing the wall of separation that the Constitution establishes between church and state. Barton, who is not a historian, but holds a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University, is a Fundamentalist source of misinformation and of completely re-writing history. Jeffress almost completely relies on Barton as the source of his information for his book, which Kennedy calls "an extended version of one of Jeffress' sermons." Barton's historical interpretations have been debunked, to the point where many Evangelical Christian schools won't use his stuff.
If America was founded as a Christian nation, and specifically, if the writing of the Constitution is the result of a foundation of "Biblical truth," where, exactly, are the examples of Biblical truth in the Constitution and where are the citations of references from the Bible to support those Biblical principles? Use of the term "divine Providence" does not constitute a Christian confession of faith. It doesn't necessarily indicate the users actual belief in God in the same context as conservative Christians do.
The strongest evidence against the idea that the Founders intended to establish a Christian nation is the establishment clause of the First Amendment. This ended the existence of a state church in America, and it set all churches free from state oversight, regulation, approval of the appointment of its ministers and from dictating the content of the preacher's sermons. It also created a completely secular state, in which those who were in government service, as members of a legislative body, head of state, or in the judicial system as magistrates, mayors and other political leaders, were no longer required to hold membership in a church in order to serve in office.
America was NOT born as a Christian nation.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/09/america-was-not-born-as-christian-nation.htmlDr. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, has just written a book entitled, America is a Christian Nation. For a pastor of one of the flagship churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, with an impressive list of degrees, including one from a credible university, he's not very capable of interpreting written history as far as his contention is concerned.
Jeffress is typically Southern Baptist on most social issues. He is vehemently opposed to women serving as church pastors or ordained leaders of any kind. He is also vehemently opposed to any kind of same sex marriage or LGBTQ rights, and he is a staunch defender of the anti-abortion activist position, desiring it to be eliminated as an option anywhere in the United States.
---------
According to Rodney Kennedy, author of the linked article from Baptist News Global says Jeffress' premise is flawed by a "false reading strategy." Jeffress, says Kennedy, is of the opinion that gathering snippets of sayings by founding fathers that include the words "God," "Christian," "Bible," and "belief," constitutes the proof necessary to declare their intentions to make America a Christian nation.
Another of Jeffress' flaws in making his point is his reliance on the work of David Barton, the founder of a group known as "Wallbuilders," dedicated to undoing the wall of separation that the Constitution establishes between church and state. Barton, who is not a historian, but holds a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University, is a Fundamentalist source of misinformation and of completely re-writing history. Jeffress almost completely relies on Barton as the source of his information for his book, which Kennedy calls "an extended version of one of Jeffress' sermons." Barton's historical interpretations have been debunked, to the point where many Evangelical Christian schools won't use his stuff.
If America was founded as a Christian nation, and specifically, if the writing of the Constitution is the result of a foundation of "Biblical truth," where, exactly, are the examples of Biblical truth in the Constitution and where are the citations of references from the Bible to support those Biblical principles? Use of the term "divine Providence" does not constitute a Christian confession of faith. It doesn't necessarily indicate the users actual belief in God in the same context as conservative Christians do.
The strongest evidence against the idea that the Founders intended to establish a Christian nation is the establishment clause of the First Amendment. This ended the existence of a state church in America, and it set all churches free from state oversight, regulation, approval of the appointment of its ministers and from dictating the content of the preacher's sermons. It also created a completely secular state, in which those who were in government service, as members of a legislative body, head of state, or in the judicial system as magistrates, mayors and other political leaders, were no longer required to hold membership in a church in order to serve in office.
September 4, 2024
We have a media avoiding reporting almost anything negative about a candidate whose mental capacity is slipping fast,
turning everything on its ear, finding new ways to be critical of VP Harris and Gov. Walz. We have empty seats at Trump rallies and packed houses at Harris rallies, sometimes in the same city. We have a pathological liar, bathed in sweat, slurring, forgetting words, straying off topic and never talking about anything having to do with the Presidency, but no one reporting all of these gaffes and slip ups.
And Harris is still leading, and her lead is trending and growing.
Most college and university journalism departments have sure done a piss poor job haven't they?
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Tucson, Arizona
Current location: Chicago, Illinois
Member since: Wed Dec 25, 2019, 01:02 AM
Number of posts: 5,147