15 Comments
Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

happy new year steve im hoping it will be a much better year. our voting rights abortion and justice i cant tell you how badly i and all americans need it. heres hoping

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

My hopes for 2022:

-my family stays hale & hearty.

-covid makes us remember we all put

our pants on one leg at a time, no

matter wealth, job, looks or color.

-That "other guy" & his fine people all

get their due.

-Democrats retain Congress &

Manchin's head size shrinks as his

heart softens.

-Sawbones Oz gets walloped in my

home state of Pennsylvania, home of

the Liberty Bell.

-Penn State wins more football games🏈 ‼

And hoping for a Happier New Year for all. 🇺🇲

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Happy New Year. May we say goodbye to the Big Lie and the undermining of democracy. I am helped in the struggle by your perspective and clear-eyed interpretation of events, and your smiling face on MSNBC.

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

I, too, choose to be optimistic...and to stay on my toes, keeping an eye on the many factors and eventualities which will influence the enhancement or detriment to our democracy. We must all step up in whatever way we can. I love this imperfect country and you, my fellow Americans.

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Here’s to a focused ‘22 from our elected officials on securing the validity of our vote as our voice. One person, one vote never to be overturned by another.

Steve, thank you for being a voice of balance and having a focus on our future, while mindful of our past. My greatest fear is that we are in a battle, not over policy but principle.

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Here's wishing you and your family a wonderfully Happy New Year, Steven!

Please forgive a forced metaphor, but thank you for being the hub of the wheel that allows us to drive change together.

I would like you to know how greatly we appreciate the considerable amount of time and effort that it takes you to research and write your eloquent blogs.

Well, onward...

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Happy New Year and keep up the great work!

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Happy New Year to you, Steve! Be well. Karen

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Jan 3, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Happy New Year to you and yours. May we all have a better year.

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Jan 2, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Happy new year 🎆

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Jan 2, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

I too wish everyone a very Happy New Year! I’m really glad 2021 is over. I hate to be the proverbial fly in the ointment on this day but there’s something I need to get off my mind.

All of the people here may already know this so I’ll try to keep it short. It’s that there’s a definite & disturbing pattern being displayed by republicans.

Everyone knows we’re living through a time of unprecedented political & social upheaval in America. The unspoken rules of behavior in public that we once had have gone by the wayside. They’ve been replaced by appalling, even shocking acts of just plain mean aggression. Strangers have physically attacked other strangers for wearing face masks, employees whose job it is to tell those entering the premises they must wear masks have been beaten, a man minding his own business while jogging through a neighborhood was killed for being Black, a teenager with illegal possession of an assault rifle inserts himself into a volatile situation, kills two people, wounds a third, but is acquitted of wrongdoing and is then celebrated by political “conservatives.”

Even mainstream media no longer reports without bias. Before Trump, the role of the press was twofold: it both informed citizens as well as set up a feedback loop between the government and voters. In the past the media made government activity known to the public. If voters disapproved of a policy they could express their disapproval by how they voted in the next election. But if the press doesn’t report factually, the feedback loop is broken and that form of government accountability has been erased. All you have to do is remember Watergate to understand why the press is so important in a representative democracy.

But over the last decade right wing extremists have created tons of media websites that look legitimate, but actually “report” with extreme bias, deliberately misleading readers, much like FoxNews misleads people every day.

We also now have “click-bait” headline writers who write headlines on articles that imply the article is something other than what it is, in an effort to increase the number of people who read it. It also lures people into reading borderline truthful & blatantly untruthful articles. In the past, I doubt that media & editors would allow such ambiguity because they had reputations that were important to them. Now, it seems like all anyone cares about is how much money they’ll make.

What do the verbal attacks on Dr. Fauci, the current anti-abortion movement, the censoring of material being taught in history classes and the new law in Kansas saying that if even one parent objects to a particular book it will be removed from the school, have in common?

Control. Control is behind the anti-abortion enthusiasm. Religion, babies & the sanctity of human life have very little to do with it. It’s really about controlling women. What’s driving main stream media’s indifference to truth & censorship of both material taught and books available in schools? Control of information is what’s behind it. As far as Dr. Fauci is concerned, he’s being attacked because a fascist government can have only one expert, and that one expert has to be the fascist ruler/dictator. The attacks on Dr. Fauci are also warnings to other experts in any field to not make themselves known as experts or they’ll be mercilessly criticized.

Unchecked authority over ALL things is what republicans are trying to engineer, and that’s tyranny. (A pattern of harsh, cruel, and unfair control over other people.) In a country ruled by fascism the Dictator controls all information. Material taught in schools must be controlled in order to make sure children aren’t given information inconsistent with the Dictator’s “greatness.”

The easiest way to establish tyranny is to do it incrementally. Who’s easiest to control, men or women? Women are by their nature easier to control, and if they have children they very likely have to stay home to take care of them or they have to use most of their paycheck to pay someone else to take care of them. Children are another easy to control group. They don’t know what they don’t know. A curriculum that keeps them in the dark about many subjects is a form of control.

In addition, republicans deliberately create chaos. They do it by making something that’s not controversial, controversial. Arguing, accusing and confusing all of us

does a couple of things. It distracts us and it’s annoying. We want it to stop. It’s really just a huge manipulation, as is bullying. So I think it’s important for all of us to understand that these seemingly unrelated behaviors are indeed related. They are all “practice” for living under a fascist government.

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Happy New Year, Steven Beschloss! Pulling together in 2022 we can make some real progress to rebuild our nation, our democracy. Be well, be safe!

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Jan 1, 2022Liked by Steven Beschloss

Happy New Year! Your thoughts brighten my days. Thank you for being hopeful as it is frequently difficult to be hopeful these days.

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Jan 2, 2022·edited Jan 2, 2022

Happy New Year Steve!

We must put the BBB efforts on hold right now! Every efforts must be devoted to securing Manchin’s help in securing voting rights! Why piss him off while you need him. We must save our democracy first! To keep pushing BBB now is an exercise in catering to Biden’s ego and to the Trotsky like progressives who don’t care if the republicans take back Congress or the White House!

They just want to leave their mark and live on to protest!

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