Ok, Jim! you're in DC - Why don't you lead several hundred people and surround the Kennedy Center? Who cares if it is somehow blocked off. I'll bet you could start a movement, by reporting right from there and have thousands of people from all over American lock arms around the Center, so that no one can try to bulldoze the building (which is probably what The Felon will try to do). He has already bulldozed the WH. I'd like to see a nation-wide action to physically save the Kennedy Center by putting American bodies in front of it. This is what we did in the 60's. They will have a very hard time arresting thousands of people at the same time and can you imagine the news it will make? The cable stations have to pick it up!
Thank you, Rep. Beatty, for standing up to Trump and calling him out. Also, thank you, Jim Acosta, for speaking up and calling Trump out for what he is. I have another description of Trump: "A Spoiled Big Overgrown Baby, who needs to be given a Time Out and put back in his Crib".
Perhaps someone should go chisel their own name into his father's headstone so he will understand why we don't add another name to a person's MEMORIAL. (Just kidding - I know he's not capable of understanding an analogy.)
I am always thinking about ways to preserve my way of life in America. I believe that even with the Democrats taking back control of both houses in the November election, we are still in the weeds. The best scenario I can envision is extensive and convoluted. Imagine that most Democrats are social democrats and take control of Congress; they would still not be able to pass any meaningful laws because of the Senate. Even if they could change the House to be more responsive to state populations, they still couldn’t bypass the Senate.
The problem is how to remove the Senate’s authority. The Senate is a ridiculous and irrational structure intended to co-opt the slave owners in the Southern states into signing the Constitution. The idea that small states with small populations can control larger states is unbelievable. I would disband the Senate, but that may never happen; maybe we could make it an advisory adjunct group with no voting power.
Next, abolish the Electoral College; the president will be elected by popular vote.
We must pass a law to eliminate dark money from our political system.
Most importantly, change from first-past-the-post to PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. We have a winner-take-all mentality, which means that in any election, half of the voters go unrepresented. Most European countries use proportional representation to elect representatives, allowing many candidates to gain representation. At the time of an election, if a new party gains voters’ support, it appears on the ballot. This means many parties can appear on the ballot, and a voter will select their first, second, and third choices; the results will select many parties, and these parties will be allocated seats in Congress; therefore, there will not be a party that is the dominant party and able to control Congress. As in many European countries, these parties must form alliances with other minor parties to establish a parliamentary leader.
Also, state representatives can be re-evaluated and recalled by the state if citizens decide they are dissatisfied with their performance.
We must reconfigure the Supreme Court. It should have an age limit of 70 and be selected through a process, perhaps by a special counsel, rather than by the Federalist Society. The court’s responsibility would be to review only a lower court’s decision to determine whether it violated legal precedent, not to review the case decision. The state’s supreme court will be the final word on cases tried in state court, not the federal Supreme Court.
We must constantly safeguard states’ rights and citizens’ power and make them the determining factor in government decisions. We must ensure unions have a place in the president’s decisions. Now, there have been calls for a soft secession, and that may be an emergency measure, but it would only regulate Trump’s craziness and would not provide a way to implement the needed changes to our government. Even with a Democrat-controlled Congress, it would be impossible to make the changes needed to create a safe environment. Remember also that the money-hungry billionaires will wage an unrelenting war to stop these changes.
I have stated, and will state again, that the only way to bring about these changes is for the democratic states to secede from the Union. I know and have read many researchers who have written about secession, and they have also stated that nothing else will change any of the ideas I have expressed above.
With respect to the Electoral College, there has been a National Popular Vote initiative floating through the states for some time and we're inching closer to approval. We have 222 of the 270 votes needed for it to come into law.
Hendrik Hertzberg at one time proposed a revamping of the Senate, giving one Senator to each state and having the other 50 be "at large" senators, since our interests do not necessarily align with geographic borders. This would allow disparate groups that are scattered across the country be represented by senators who have their actual interests at the front of mind, rather than as a campaign strategy to attract the small groups within a state but with no intention of following through.
Love it. Yo, hey leaders, can you please get your heads out of your asses, think creatively and not with yourselves front of mind, as we shrug off the burdens of 250-year old inequitable and archaic approach to managing what might have been a great nation?
Those poor next gens; look what we’re passing to them — a steaming bag of shit.💩😵💫😱🤬
Love so many of your ideas; they are spot on. The Senate and the Electoral College are both vestiges of slavery and evidence of America’s extremely inequitable systemic failures. We must be rid of both.
This girl’s wish list: pack SCOTUS, repeal Buckley, repeal Citizens United, remove money and media advertising minutes from elections, no lobbyists, yes term limits, yes age limits, unwind gerrymandering (return to basic block grid) and so much more.
We are failing, failed and, basically, the corrupt fascist oligarchy has taken over this nation. For 25-ish years, I’ve wrung my hands over our national debt. It is terrifying to consider in its current state. I firmly believe an event connected to this terror will crash our economy down to the ground. I’m very concerned. No matter how things go in the midterms or who rises to power, I do not feel optimistic. The hour, it is so very, very late.
My newest worry, and it keeps me up at night: January 3, 2027, DB Vance and Little Mikey Johnson will refuse to swear in our new Democrat election winners. Then, we’ll really be in a pickle.
This situation brings tears to my eyes. How can one man be so vicious and revengeful. This is nothing but revenge for not getting him name on the Center. He is totally a lunatic and mentally deranged. SOMEONE - please stop this man and his actions. He will cause this building to be demolished just to get his way. Plus, as an historian/preservationist, I know the building will begin to deteriorate if closed and not attended. This will support his mental state to tear it down. He thinks he can force people to give in to him by this revengeful approach. Either my way or nothing. What is the obsession with having his name on this building? And why is he being supported by his "people". A sad situation. And that includes the signs at the Smithsonian. He says he is making Washington beautiful but he has ruined the city with everything he touches. When will it stop.
It’ll stop when that arterial vessel in his brain throws a big clot and he drops dead. Now, I really would rather he suffer a lot first but at this stage I don’t think anybody would be disappointed with a sudden d&ath.
I'd say "unbelievable," but nothing about this sorry excuse for a President stymies my belief meter anymore. He either needs to (a) keel over because it's time his body finally rebelled against whatever experimental drug is keeping him alive; or (b) Congress needs to impeach the SOB. Given that (b) is highly unlikely, let's hope (a) is around the corner.
Trump is acting exactly like an abuser. We know that he beat his first wife so his actions are true to form.
"If I can't have you, nobody can."
He wants ownership of the memorial building to John F. Kennedy in another disgusting act of "stolen valor", and if he's stopped from getting what he wants, he'll try to tear the whole thing down.
Honestly, let him shut it down. At least then he won't do any more damage to it.
And let them try to put it into bankruptcy. I doubt very much that the center doesn't have sufficent assets to meet its obligations as they come due. And to the extent funds are waning, it's entirely due to Trump (and its obligations are waning, too, as the orchestra leaves and all the event are cancelled).
Let's put signs all over it that say, the words of Stonewall Jackson (as memorialized by Whittier):
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
Here's a link to the full poem, in which elderly Barbara stands up against the Confederate soldiers to the shame of Stonewall Jackson. I like the analogy. https://poets.org/poem/barbara-frietchie
Disgusting, disturbing, and pathetic beyond words. Poor little Donnie, who knows that when he leaves the stage no one will miss him or honor him, so he is forced into the degrading posture of trying to honor himself. And the thing is...it's not worth succumbing to his whiny, grasping, hostage-taking Kennedy Center tantrum. Okay, shutter it until the creepy toddler is gone. Let him take his marbles and leave (although, honestly, I don't think he has any marbles left) and then renovate and reopen when he leaves office . (And Jim, yeah, I'm with you that the 25th should be invoked but egads, Vance is in the wings. Actually, I'm guessing that Trump will cut a deal and bow out before his term is done in exchange for J.D. pardoning him for all of his crimes).
MESSAGE TO TRUMP: Buddy, you are a LOSER! You are the biggest LOSER this country has ever seen. You are the number one LOSER in the world right now, and here's a little bulletin for you: EVERYONE knows it (which is why Canada is dissing you, Iran is publicly spanking you, European leaders are ignoring you, and Melania looks like she can't wait to wash her hands every time you try to grab them). All Hail to our LOSER -IN-CHIEF!! 🤮 Oh...and that fantasy of yours that you're some great builder? Oh please, the rats that patrol DC have better taste, and they're more competent to boot.
Way to go Rep Beatty!!! Don’t let that disgusting POS call you names! And for her to come back and throw the truth in his face!!! Love her!!!
Trumpler is insane and we (at least enough of us propagandized rubes) are enabling him.
This is America’s “1930’a Germany moment.”
So far, we have been failing to the horror of our former friends around the world.
NOVEMBER BLUENAMI! 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 Then, CHECK POWER CONGRESS!!! FIX IT!!!
Ok, Jim! you're in DC - Why don't you lead several hundred people and surround the Kennedy Center? Who cares if it is somehow blocked off. I'll bet you could start a movement, by reporting right from there and have thousands of people from all over American lock arms around the Center, so that no one can try to bulldoze the building (which is probably what The Felon will try to do). He has already bulldozed the WH. I'd like to see a nation-wide action to physically save the Kennedy Center by putting American bodies in front of it. This is what we did in the 60's. They will have a very hard time arresting thousands of people at the same time and can you imagine the news it will make? The cable stations have to pick it up!
Thank you, Rep. Beatty, for standing up to Trump and calling him out. Also, thank you, Jim Acosta, for speaking up and calling Trump out for what he is. I have another description of Trump: "A Spoiled Big Overgrown Baby, who needs to be given a Time Out and put back in his Crib".
I hate him and anyone who supports him or his fascist kakistocracy. ENOUGH!!!!
Six bankruptcies for trump. Now he and his team of idiots are trying to bankrupt our country!
Perhaps someone should go chisel their own name into his father's headstone so he will understand why we don't add another name to a person's MEMORIAL. (Just kidding - I know he's not capable of understanding an analogy.)
Batshit crazy. Lots of loose screws in there. Just rolling around and around.
I am always thinking about ways to preserve my way of life in America. I believe that even with the Democrats taking back control of both houses in the November election, we are still in the weeds. The best scenario I can envision is extensive and convoluted. Imagine that most Democrats are social democrats and take control of Congress; they would still not be able to pass any meaningful laws because of the Senate. Even if they could change the House to be more responsive to state populations, they still couldn’t bypass the Senate.
The problem is how to remove the Senate’s authority. The Senate is a ridiculous and irrational structure intended to co-opt the slave owners in the Southern states into signing the Constitution. The idea that small states with small populations can control larger states is unbelievable. I would disband the Senate, but that may never happen; maybe we could make it an advisory adjunct group with no voting power.
Next, abolish the Electoral College; the president will be elected by popular vote.
We must pass a law to eliminate dark money from our political system.
Most importantly, change from first-past-the-post to PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. We have a winner-take-all mentality, which means that in any election, half of the voters go unrepresented. Most European countries use proportional representation to elect representatives, allowing many candidates to gain representation. At the time of an election, if a new party gains voters’ support, it appears on the ballot. This means many parties can appear on the ballot, and a voter will select their first, second, and third choices; the results will select many parties, and these parties will be allocated seats in Congress; therefore, there will not be a party that is the dominant party and able to control Congress. As in many European countries, these parties must form alliances with other minor parties to establish a parliamentary leader.
Also, state representatives can be re-evaluated and recalled by the state if citizens decide they are dissatisfied with their performance.
We must reconfigure the Supreme Court. It should have an age limit of 70 and be selected through a process, perhaps by a special counsel, rather than by the Federalist Society. The court’s responsibility would be to review only a lower court’s decision to determine whether it violated legal precedent, not to review the case decision. The state’s supreme court will be the final word on cases tried in state court, not the federal Supreme Court.
We must constantly safeguard states’ rights and citizens’ power and make them the determining factor in government decisions. We must ensure unions have a place in the president’s decisions. Now, there have been calls for a soft secession, and that may be an emergency measure, but it would only regulate Trump’s craziness and would not provide a way to implement the needed changes to our government. Even with a Democrat-controlled Congress, it would be impossible to make the changes needed to create a safe environment. Remember also that the money-hungry billionaires will wage an unrelenting war to stop these changes.
I have stated, and will state again, that the only way to bring about these changes is for the democratic states to secede from the Union. I know and have read many researchers who have written about secession, and they have also stated that nothing else will change any of the ideas I have expressed above.
With respect to the Electoral College, there has been a National Popular Vote initiative floating through the states for some time and we're inching closer to approval. We have 222 of the 270 votes needed for it to come into law.
If you're not familiar with the proposed compact, here's a link to the official site. https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
The electoral college is way beyond time to abolish and I hope I live long enough to see that.
Thx for sharing. This move to “one person, one vote” is way, way overdue.
Hell YEAH it is!
Hendrik Hertzberg at one time proposed a revamping of the Senate, giving one Senator to each state and having the other 50 be "at large" senators, since our interests do not necessarily align with geographic borders. This would allow disparate groups that are scattered across the country be represented by senators who have their actual interests at the front of mind, rather than as a campaign strategy to attract the small groups within a state but with no intention of following through.
Love it. Yo, hey leaders, can you please get your heads out of your asses, think creatively and not with yourselves front of mind, as we shrug off the burdens of 250-year old inequitable and archaic approach to managing what might have been a great nation?
Those poor next gens; look what we’re passing to them — a steaming bag of shit.💩😵💫😱🤬
Love so many of your ideas; they are spot on. The Senate and the Electoral College are both vestiges of slavery and evidence of America’s extremely inequitable systemic failures. We must be rid of both.
This girl’s wish list: pack SCOTUS, repeal Buckley, repeal Citizens United, remove money and media advertising minutes from elections, no lobbyists, yes term limits, yes age limits, unwind gerrymandering (return to basic block grid) and so much more.
We are failing, failed and, basically, the corrupt fascist oligarchy has taken over this nation. For 25-ish years, I’ve wrung my hands over our national debt. It is terrifying to consider in its current state. I firmly believe an event connected to this terror will crash our economy down to the ground. I’m very concerned. No matter how things go in the midterms or who rises to power, I do not feel optimistic. The hour, it is so very, very late.
My newest worry, and it keeps me up at night: January 3, 2027, DB Vance and Little Mikey Johnson will refuse to swear in our new Democrat election winners. Then, we’ll really be in a pickle.
Bravo!
This situation brings tears to my eyes. How can one man be so vicious and revengeful. This is nothing but revenge for not getting him name on the Center. He is totally a lunatic and mentally deranged. SOMEONE - please stop this man and his actions. He will cause this building to be demolished just to get his way. Plus, as an historian/preservationist, I know the building will begin to deteriorate if closed and not attended. This will support his mental state to tear it down. He thinks he can force people to give in to him by this revengeful approach. Either my way or nothing. What is the obsession with having his name on this building? And why is he being supported by his "people". A sad situation. And that includes the signs at the Smithsonian. He says he is making Washington beautiful but he has ruined the city with everything he touches. When will it stop.
It’ll stop when that arterial vessel in his brain throws a big clot and he drops dead. Now, I really would rather he suffer a lot first but at this stage I don’t think anybody would be disappointed with a sudden d&ath.
Joyce Beatty for president!
I second that. She’s the super woman we all needed in that room; she took him on one two three and won.
Thank you Rep Beatty!
I'd say "unbelievable," but nothing about this sorry excuse for a President stymies my belief meter anymore. He either needs to (a) keel over because it's time his body finally rebelled against whatever experimental drug is keeping him alive; or (b) Congress needs to impeach the SOB. Given that (b) is highly unlikely, let's hope (a) is around the corner.
Eagerly waiting for that obit. 😂💙💙💙
Trump is acting exactly like an abuser. We know that he beat his first wife so his actions are true to form.
"If I can't have you, nobody can."
He wants ownership of the memorial building to John F. Kennedy in another disgusting act of "stolen valor", and if he's stopped from getting what he wants, he'll try to tear the whole thing down.
Just like the abuser Trump is.
Honestly, let him shut it down. At least then he won't do any more damage to it.
And let them try to put it into bankruptcy. I doubt very much that the center doesn't have sufficent assets to meet its obligations as they come due. And to the extent funds are waning, it's entirely due to Trump (and its obligations are waning, too, as the orchestra leaves and all the event are cancelled).
We'll fix it in the next administration.
What if he has it torn down in the dead of night like he did with the East Wing???
Let's put signs all over it that say, the words of Stonewall Jackson (as memorialized by Whittier):
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
Here's a link to the full poem, in which elderly Barbara stands up against the Confederate soldiers to the shame of Stonewall Jackson. I like the analogy. https://poets.org/poem/barbara-frietchie
Disgusting, disturbing, and pathetic beyond words. Poor little Donnie, who knows that when he leaves the stage no one will miss him or honor him, so he is forced into the degrading posture of trying to honor himself. And the thing is...it's not worth succumbing to his whiny, grasping, hostage-taking Kennedy Center tantrum. Okay, shutter it until the creepy toddler is gone. Let him take his marbles and leave (although, honestly, I don't think he has any marbles left) and then renovate and reopen when he leaves office . (And Jim, yeah, I'm with you that the 25th should be invoked but egads, Vance is in the wings. Actually, I'm guessing that Trump will cut a deal and bow out before his term is done in exchange for J.D. pardoning him for all of his crimes).
MESSAGE TO TRUMP: Buddy, you are a LOSER! You are the biggest LOSER this country has ever seen. You are the number one LOSER in the world right now, and here's a little bulletin for you: EVERYONE knows it (which is why Canada is dissing you, Iran is publicly spanking you, European leaders are ignoring you, and Melania looks like she can't wait to wash her hands every time you try to grab them). All Hail to our LOSER -IN-CHIEF!! 🤮 Oh...and that fantasy of yours that you're some great builder? Oh please, the rats that patrol DC have better taste, and they're more competent to boot.
Well said thank you
Thanks for this Tommy. I cheered when I saw Rep. Beatty telling us how she told Trump he was incompetent.