Article III
Contempt of Congress and obstruction of congressional investigaton is the crucial charge in the impeachment litany. It ask the simple but central question: Does Congress matter?
Read More
Message-Making: The Biden Speech
The speech is a lesson in the tactics, large and small, that hold a message together and burn your ideas into your audience’s consciousness. Repetition. Litanies. Framing. Promoting your Values, naming the Villain, holding out a Vision.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
A favorite quotation from American founding documents is this partial quote: “We, the people.” Taken from the Preamble (and thus the first words) of the U.S. Constitution, “We, the people” is meant to illustrate the primacy of the people of the United States over other powers, especially the powers of the government formed by that same Constitution.
But this reading misses the mark. I take those opening words to reflect that the people and the government are one and the same.
This seems like an important point in the discussion of 2nd Amendment rights. It is also an important point in many other aspects of how the people and the government relate to one another. And understanding that point drives many of the policies we operate under, and advocate for or against, today.
If we hold that “the government” is some entity that exists outside of, separate from, and in enmity against, the people, then many of the policies of the Republican party follow quite naturally.
Guilty … but what’s the verdict?
A Matter of Fact On the fact question, there are three elements to the question of responsibility and one to the question of exculpation. These four elements, as questions, are: (1) did it happen? (2) did he cause it to happen? (3) did he intend to cause it to happen? (4) did he (try to)…
Step Away – Find Your Pathway
perhaps these months away from the job have allowed workers to think about the work they were doing, the pay, the benefits, the responsibilities, the supervision, the hours. Perhaps they took the time to examine the path they were on – to re-imagine the career path that they had once dreamed of, the one they were now too busy – too exhausted – to pursue at the end of the day.
Death Threats – Not Rhetoric – Words Matter
I’m watching the most anti-Trump of mainstream networks and, without exception, they are sane-washing Trump’s threats as “violent rhetoric”. Even Harris is shying away from the word “threat”. But there is no question about it. He threatened Cheney.
Candidates: How Do You Decide?
We elect people to do one thing only – to make decisions.
But we never ask them the fundamental question: ”How do you make a decision?”
When A Liar Admits He Lied…
was Trump Jr. lying when he denied having a meeting or is he lying now when he claims he did have a meeting?
If you were Trump, Sr., how would you discredit all of your critics? How would you prove that the press is lying? Here’s what I would do…
Who needs democracy?
For most people, democracy only exists on election day. And for many people, the vote itself was lost long ago. For them, democracy has no place in their lives. They feel that their vote and their voice already don’t matter.
For them, losing democracy isn’t something to worry about
THEIR own self-interest? Or ours?
I think people always operate in their own self-interest. Always.
And I think we rarely know what someone else sees as their own self-interest. Instead, we impose on them what we believe they should be interested in.