I know it wasn't the most popular, but I had to vote for the shrimp because, every time I hear that story, I start hearing the Spiderman cartoon theme playing in my head! :-)
A friend of mine tells me that comparisons between today in the US and the early days of Hitler's rule in Germany are far-fatched and inappropriate. I suppose that the Germans of those days did not imagine what would happen to their country in a few years. I see rampant racism and the calumniation of the brown and Black "others." I see a large and growng secret police (recruited from the worst) snatching people off the streets and disappearing them. I see coordinated attacks on the bastions of civil society (the courts, the legal profession, universities, schools, scientific and medical research, etc.). I see the creation of concentration camps. I see rampant corruption and vulgar excess. I see the formation of an axis of dictators. I see armed troops patrolling the nation's capital and soon perhaps the streets of Chicago. I see the suppression of dissent and the banning of books. All that and more makes me wonder what the Germans of 1935 thought their country would be like in 1939,
The speed at which all this is happening is staggering to me. It's only been seven months. I shudder to think where we'll be a year from now, let alone by 2028.
Not naive at all and history repeats itself. Hitler promised the German people "guns and butter" after what was considered the disastrous treaty that ended World War I, followed by the Great Depression, which didn't just happen in the US. How many Germans, including the best and brightest, and all those that voted for Hitler had any idea what he would turn out to be? The US has had its periods of turbulence. But how many, even the best and brightest, knew, when Trump was just a TV reality star, just what a dictator he would turn out to be? In a country that has had great periods of freedom and democracy, even with its flaws, who could have predicted Trump?
As an aside, it's interesting that the people who said Kamala Harris didn't do anything in her term as VP seem to have nothing to say about JD Vance taking eight vacations in those first seven months.
Trump's handlers (Vought and Stephen Miller) know that they have very little time to accomplish all of their fascistic plays, as by the midterms roll around, many of the horrific effects of Trump's/their stupidity, cruelty and venality will have emerged - tariffs trashing the economy, immigrant deportations driving up prices on MANY consumer products (fruits/vegetables) as well as construction/housing, police-state tactics hitting voters' loved ones, anti-vax policies harming the population, etc. They know full well that ordinarily they'd lose the House (and probably the Senate); therefore they needed to strike quickly while they have both houses of Congress rubber-stamping their idiotic Big Beautiful Bill and other ridiculousness.
I am also still betting that when the tech bros/oligarchs get tired of Trump, they'll have Vance stage a 25th Amendment takeover so that they can swap Vance in for Trump.
Far fetched and inappropriate? Tell your friend to read some history. It has not been at all uncommon for authoritarians to start out by trying to sound reasonable to reduce opposition. Trump has an excuse for everything to explain his drive for control. Take for instance, his use of executive orders. The Supreme Court has ruled on a number of occasions that flag burning is covered by the First Amendment. But that doesn't seem to bother the orange stain.
I agree, but in fairness I need to point out that, as far as I can tell, we are a minority and my friend is in the majority, both in this country and even in countries in which large majorities loathe trump. I think the thing is that comparisons to the complete history of Hitlerian Germany make 2025 trump look like a piker. She thinks it is to early to tell. I think that you don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing and that this level of lawlessness is extremely foreboding.
Agree. Mark made the comment about being amazed what Trump has done in a mere 7 months. We are stuck with him for another 3 and a half years. I am not holding out high hope for the 2026 elections. Democrats have been screaming long and loud about Trump’s actions. What do they plan to do about it? I have yet to see a coherent plan and, much like prewar Germans, I don’t see MAGAs changing their minds.
He was also in on the joke about his taste. Unlike the demented, deranged, fat, fascist traitor who not only thinks it all looks great, but believes whole heartedly that we should admire his gilding of the Oval Office into the front parlor of the Everleigh Club!
Trump thinks his best friend is Putin. Putin views him as THE most "useful idiot" in all of history. Think about it, the leader of the world's most powerful country and (arch-rival of Russia) self-sabotaging his own country - and severely (and permanently?) hobbling the US both internally and in terms of international relations - all for Putin's (insincere) approval?
Growing up in Michigan it was law that public schools could not start until after Labor Day. It helped the tourism industry, supposedly, and helped keep kids from cooking in unairconditioned schools. I don't know about tourism, but keeping kids from cooking in unairconditioned schools is still a concern. For several years my kids' school in La Grange would have ambulances called the high school in August due to kids passing out from the heat. You get up to the third floor in a building from the 1890s and it is just brutally hot. I had some rough Meet the Teacher nights where I went home drenched in sweat. I miss schools not starting until Labor Day for that reason alone. (Lyons Twp High School is adding more A/C all the time - eventually it may be comfortable in there)
They've made A LOT of progress adding A/C in the 15 years we've lived in the district but it is still ongoing. My kids made it through -older child was in special ed mostly and their classrooms were all air-conditioned because some kids had physical disabilities as well. Younger child was at least somewhat prepared to go to college where the dorms are not air-conditioned (starting in August there is just cruel, IMO). Classrooms have A/C, but the dorms do not. Every construction project at LT has cost and time overruns. The new south campus cafeteria was supposed to be done for the 2024-2025 school year. It's STILL NOT DONE as the 2025-2026 school year starts. They worked constantly for an extra YEAR and it is still not done. Kids still eating in an interior gym with no A/C.
I grew up in Michigan before that law went into effect; and based on the reading I've done, it has had a measurable (positive) effect on tourism. Seasonal businesses have their summer help for the entire season, enabling tourist-serving vendors to stretch their season out for the entire summer. (Minnesota is the same.)
Nope, two of my grandkids in Minnesota started school this week. Minnesota used to have a Prohibition on school starting before Labor day, but not anymore.
Melinda, Minnesota had the same pre-Labor Day school prohibition years ago to support the Lake cottage industry which at the time was predominantly family-owned. Alas, over time the majority of these small resorts have gone out of business with the buildings being sold on an individual basis as private cabins. The law has changed and now two of my four grandchildren up there are already in school.
My parents owned a frozen custard shop and loved being able to keep students during the day through August (big lunch business). I went to Michigan State which didn't start until late September back then (1980s). Employers loved Spartans come mid-August since we were still there after all the other college kids went back to school. Trade-off was we didn't get out until late May and sometimes had trouble finding jobs since students who got out earlier snapped them up.
6 of 1, half a dozen of the other. There is something to merit in trying to get the first semester over before Christmas break. The real question is why the school year starts when it does in the first place. At the beginning of this country when 90% of the population was rural, school need to wait for the fall harvest and be over before the spring planting as many kids worked in the fields alongside their parents. That equation has changed somewhat in the past few centuries. We Americans have had our priorities screwed up for a long time. How many schools have tried the idea of year around schools with spaced out breaks? But that ended with arguments about summer heat, summer jobs for kids, family vacations, the summer tourism industry and a host of other issues. Some of our local districts put it to a vote a number of years ago. Year around school was solidly voted down by parents. I doubt the student vote would have been much different. It is educationally unsound to take several months off from education. Many teachers spend the first month of school adjusting kids back to learning mode, not to mention reteaching concepts already taught. It's a major time waster. But I don't see things changing any time soon. We're just too used to the way things are. Year around school never would have bothered me. I have worked every summer since a teen, anyway.
Here are my thoughts on starting school after Labor Day, and these thoughts are backed after 45 years as a teacher in both public and private schools, in the classroom as well as the administrative office. First, the 180 days that now constitute the school year should be changed. So many of our students should be enrolled in school year-round. And year-round does not mean the 180 day spread over 12 months, but a school session lasting at least 225 days per year. Sure, this extra time will be expensive (approximately 25% more just for teacher salaries), but it is hoped this increase in school time will result in better student achievement, which will reduce crime, social welfare expenses, and fewer people in prisons - all more expensive than educating students. But lacking that aggressive reform, starting school in August makes sense because the students are ready to return to school. Having had two months or more away from school - and experiencing summer-learning-loss - the kids are bored with summer and are ready to meet up with their classmates. On the other hand, with Spring/Easter break in March and early April, once students return from this 7 to 10 day vacation, their focus on rigorous curriculum is greatly diminished. Also, the heat of summer in schools is no more a concern with so many schools now air conditioned. To summarize all of this: the kids are ready to get back in August and are ready to leave school in May - tradition be damned. And if we're really going to put the students' best interests first, year-round schools are the way to go.
I must assume you weren't in any non-air conditioned schools in Chicago? Late June was hell when I was there in the 1950s & 60s & now the ones with big window air conditioners are so noisy, you can't even hear anyone else or think. Why they aren't installing split system heat pumps is baffling! They're very quiet inside.
I went to a Chicago Public School in the 1950's. When I was in 5th grade, my sister and I both got new plaid wool dresses. We were poor, and rarely got new clothes. I was so excited to wear that new dress on the first day ....despite the fact that it was very hot and humid. My main memory of that day is of extreme discomfort. Arghh....wool + heat + humidity! I went home at lunch time (most kids did in those days) and ripped that dress off, went back in the afternoon in another dress. A summer dress.
Lack of A/C is still a big concern for some schools. Here in Western Springs/La Grange ours is not exactly an "underserved" district, but we still have kids passing out from the heat every August in the high schools - the third floor in LG is especially brutal. Adding A/C to a building built in the 19th century has been a challenge. First you need a year or two of summer work to update the electricity to handle the added load and another year or two of summer work to add the A/C units - oh, and you might find that the roof structure needs updating to hold the additional A/C, and on and on. It's an ongoing project between the two high schools (fr/soph in Western Springs, jr/sr in La Grange) here to make it comfortable to go to school. No learning is happening when it's 100°+F in the building.
I note that Eric's poll arguments supporting a pre-Labor Day start are practical scheduling reasons that presumably benefit kids' education, and practical scheduling that benefits kids' (presumably high school aged) summer job prospects. The arguments against a pre-Labor Day start are all emotional, warm and fuzzy concepts of "summer" feels.
I thought the change in the CPS schedule (during Rahm Emanuel's reign) was about adding actual days of schooling to the year because Illinois' students were considerably behind other states and the national average of days/hours spent in the classroom. I vote for whatever is best for kids' education.
Emanuel changed the start date to get back teaching days/hours that were lost in multiple previous CTU contracts. And the CTU had a conniption about getting increased pay to cover the time. For the kids.
Thank you Edward for your very well reasoned position on this. I have long been a supporter of a longer school year as is the case in the majority of other Western countries, and a much shorter summer break so that the first month of each school year is not spent on remedial teaching. (Of course, this would necessarily contemplate air conditioning in the classrooms utilized during the warmer months.) It would also be a much more efficient use of the massive school brick and mortar infrastructure.
This would appear to represent a huge benefit to students and our society overall. It makes so much sense that it is difficult to understand why this has not occurred a long time ago as our country transitioned out of a primarily agrarian economy well over a century ago. Oh wait... there is that very large and politically powerful union group that has come to believe that public education is about them and not the kids, and they will fight tooth and nail against losing their cherished 3 months of summer off. So I guess we'll keep doing what we're doing now and continuing to fall behind other countries in our children's academic achievement.
While it's true teachers' unions have played a part in opposing this change, it's not fair to pin all the blame on them. Plenty of parents have been just as vocal against such a change for decades, even in places where teachers' unions either don't exist or have far less power.
Since the pandemic most schools have had options for remote learning, and maybe that's a way to keep kids engaged during the long summer break -- even just an hour each weekday reinforcing the lessons from the previous year would be better than nothing.
Hi John - your first point is totally valid and certainly a big part of the equation. And I love your suggestion for limited remote learning over the summer months. The problem is in many cases a lack of parental support for education - witness the abysmal rate of kids logging into online learning during covid. When I was growing up, there were such things as truant officers who would be following up on unexcused children absences from schools, and the parents would face consequences if they did not ensure their kids got to school regularly. Too bad that went by the wayside a long time ago, because it sure seems needed today.
We didn't have the Internet when I was in school (I'm guessing you didn't either) but we did have a summer reading list - you had to choose three books from a list of about fifteen or twenty, so about one book per month of summer break. Of course, as you say, it was up to parents being engaged to ensure we actually did the reading.
You are entirely correct that parents are the difference makers. When we fostered Judiesha through her junior year of high school, we were horrified to hear her tell us that she had never done homework in her life and that no one had ever attended a parent teacher conference with her teachers. That gave a lot of context to our subsequent sad discovery that she read at about a 3rd grade level and could not do even the 2's of her multiplication table. Despite our best efforts throughout that year to help her catch up, I fear that this egregious failure of family support for her education is going to impair her for her entire life.
In stark contrast was the inner city young man we mentored through high school in the Boys Hope program. He struggled a great deal in his freshman year at Loyola Academy after coming out of CPS, but through his hard work he received the award for the most academically improved student his sophomore year, and he continued on to graduate with honors and receive a full academic scholarship at Drake which he has since also successfully completed. The secret sauce for this young man? A mother who is fiercely determined that he was going to work very hard at his education and be successful in life.
We can very legitimately lament the deplorable state of education in many CPS schools and the disadvantage this creates low income people who do not have other educational opportunities for their children. But absent strong support in the home for education, it is an uphill battle for any child.
When #47 was elected I thought that his plan for immigration would be to deport people in areas that his supporters were big in. And let the blue areas suffer because they didn’t agree. And that at the midterms people would be able to see which areas were better. But I realize that he doesn’t do things to fix things; he does things out of spite, and to get back at those who don’t bow to him. I would think that if #47 really believed that illegals were a problem he’d let Illinois fester and then be able to point to it at the midterms. I think that most of us remember in 2017 and 2019 when he said that he could ‘fix’ Chicago in a couple of days. The words coming out of his mouth are nonsense. (I just thought as I wrote this that someone should make a Trump Mad Libs book. I asked Grok to give me a sample.)
" Folks, nobody does [verb] better than me, nobody. I’ve got the best [noun], tremendous [noun], and we’re going to make [place] great again. The [group of people] love me, they really do, because I’m fighting for them against the [adjective] [group of people]. We’re going to [verb] so much, you’ll be tired of [verb ending in -ing]. Believe me, it’s going to be [adjective]! "
Another idea that would be easy for a more creative person is an illustrated version of The Emperor's New Clothes. I just don’t know who the hero would be at the end to finally convince people that the emperor is naked.
Regarding the go low or go high debate I will share what I told my son when he played basketball. During a game, adjust your playing style to how the refs are calling fouls. If they are not calling them, play more physically; if they are calling everything then play with less contact. The electorate has shown that it is not calling fouls against the president, and complaining about it doesn’t work. If the other side plays too soft it will lose.
They did change the law, sadly. I grew up with that and it was nice. Only problem was when you had a lot of snow days school could go until late June (just a few years ago my nephew was in school until June 20-something after a brutal snow year on the shores of Lake Michigan). Now with online-learning instead of snow days, hopefully that would be less of an issue.
I laughed at the visual Gorilla playing saxophone with balloons’ because 35 years ago my wife hired a singing telegram for my birthday and a guy in a purple gorilla suit with balloons came to my office (no sax). I believe singing telegrams are a thing of the past. Anyone seen any recently?
Our friend (retired from the Lyric Opera) takes commissions to go to people's homes and sing to them! Happy birthday or anything else you choose. She started during the pandemic and has had so much fun that she's kept doing it :-)
She's the best. My husband sings in church choir with her and she's his voice teacher. She and her daughter even took care of our 6 pets over the December holidays last year.
Janet and her daughter are doing a concert on September 6 at the church. Their "Favorite Things" concerts are wonderful. They are taking a free will offering for Girls, Inc in Chicago.
Depends on "recently." Ten or so years ago I had a company send a singer to my mother-in-law's retirement home for her 89th birthday. The facility feared the guy would be a stripper, but no -- just a pleasant man in a polo shirt and khakis who sang Happy Birthday and flirted a little with the birthday girl and senior ladies playing cards. They were delighted! Reportedly one leaned over to my mother-in-law and whispered "He's so cute! Think we can keep him?"
Re: What's ailing Democrats, I listened to an interview with Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author of the new book "Moral Ambition" about how societal change and progress is effected by individuals and groups. I haven't read the book, but it sounds fascinating, there is a review and summary here: https://sekarwrites.com/review-and-summary-moral-ambition/
Two things in particular struck me as very relevant to answering why Democrats have been so ineffective the past several years:
1 - Coalitions are paramount to building successful movements. Seemingly disparate groups need to unite around a single goal. The reason Republicans have had success is they have groups like Evangelical Christians aligned with free market capitalists and others who back similar agendas even if for different reasons. Democrats, on the other hand, are fractured by purity tests. The different factions are very quick to turn on each other, like Muslims in Michigan turned on Kamala Harris over Israel. Bregman points out how the civil rights movement in the 60's was built out of very diverse groups, focused on common goals, not differences.
2 - Progress happens incrementally. Groups need to focus on pragmatic, short term, small steps, rather than a long term grand final goal. Bregman points to the abolitionist movement in the UK in the early 1800s, where they focused on stopping the trans Atlantic slave trade first and saving the lives of British sailors who frequently died during these voyages, because that resonated better with the British public at the time. Democrats shouldn't be trying to appeal to empathy or some high moral ideal, but focus instead on concrete practical effects of the carnage that Trump is wreaking and concrete steps with quick effects to reverse them if they ever get back to power.
Also related, he mentioned how protests in the 60's were much more effective than today because back then it was very hard to put them together and it was understood that for something like that to happen, many large and powerful groups would need to join together and organize, as opposed to today when social media makes it very easy to organize them and just as easily to forget it ever happened.
Don't forget those stupid Muslims in Michigan then voted for the demented, deranged fat fascist traitor who immediately told Israel to go all out in destroying Hamas, Hezbollah & the Houthis. Their support for him was for naught as he double crossed them instantly!
I went to that site, and, according to the descriptions of the different tribes, I am a Progressive Activist. Which is strange to me because I don’t think of myself as an activist. I thought the descriptions of the different tribes were interesting and enlightening.
(1) Are political movements the right lens through which to evaluate Democratic folly and the way forward? After all, the Democrats are not a movement but rather a party, one of just the two. It would seem to me that the lessons to be drawn are less from bottom-up movement successes than from party successes. There are salient differences. Successful movements focus like a laser on a particular set of goals. Democrats (and other movements) can surely learn from the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s, insofar as it made an intentional effort to appeal to shared values rather than to challenge them, but ultimately the party has to be a big tent. Its goal, in other words, should be to serve as a home, a "safe space," a congenial landing spot for the larger share of voters. As you say, the Republicans are appealing these days to a highly diverse set of constituents who come to it from many different places. This is nothing new -- it was the diabolical political genius of the Reagan revolution, which successfully wed white working class resentment, religious fundamentalism, and free market fundamentalism, surely the most insidious and destructive menage a trois in modern American history.
In that regard, I tend to think of Clinton's rather dramatic turn to the center, which brought the Dems back from the wilderness, as a worthy lesson. Some argue that he sacrificed a great deal substantively. I don't see it that way. I think his biggest moves were rhetorical, cultural. His Democratic Party said abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." It said yes to both "path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants and a "secure border." It said yes to both gun regulation and more police. It said yes to welfare limits and health care reform (though the latter had to await Obama and his razor-thin supermajorities to, even then, just barely make it across the finish line). He forcefully distanced himself from the crazy on his own side, giving us the first "Sister Souljah moment." All of these positions had the virtue of seeming like just so much common sense to solid majorities, rendering the other fella the crazy one or out-of-touch one. I'm not saying that these exact positions and this exact rhetoric translate perfectly to the current moment. The lesson is that his *approach* was a winning one, and we'd do well to draw from it.
(2) Even to the extent we do focus on past protest movements, I think we have to take off the rose-colored glasses that lead us to view the youth-oriented activism of the '60s and '70s as a great success worthy of emulation. There's a pretty strong argument that it was nothing of the sort and that it inspired the same sort of dramatically harmful backlash we've seen more recently. The civil rights movement was brilliant. The later, more radical approaches were failures. Malcolm X and Black Power, in my view, got in the way. The hippies alienated the "silent majority," failing to end the Vietnam War and handing us the most corrupt presidential administration before Trump. I'm contrasting here Rosa Parks, freedom riders, "I AM A MAN," and MLK on the one hand (a movement that had its origins in the now-un-romanticized 50's) with, say, the '68 DNC on the other, which should not be taught or remembered as anything other than a political catastrophe *for the good guys*. My point is that, contra the idea that activism is too easy and lazy today in a wired world, it was mostly lousy then too! The most successful movement to emerge from the '60s and '70s, as I've said before, is the movement of Buckley, Reagan, Schlafly, and Scalia, the modern conservative movement, a depressing conclusion but one we ignore at our peril.
The lesson of both my (1) and (2) seems straightforward -- you gotta meet the voters where they're at and figure out how to say what they want to hear. That's not selling one's soul -- after all, our substance, I believe, mostly aligns with majority preferences anyway -- but rather doing the necessary work.
A few Trump hotels survived due to financing by Russian oligarchs, some with direct connections to Putin. On the other hand, Trump hotels failed miserably in Canada, his name taken off the building. That explains current foreign policy decisions in a nutshell.
To answer the question at the end of Eric’s response to my comment about endemic out-of-wedlock childbirth, yes, it certainly would. I have always said that there should be more abortions, not fewer of them.
Assuming the issue of non-air-conditioned schools can be resolved, increasing the school year is the right thing to do. Studies have shown that kids retain more after shorter summer breaks than longer breaks, so why stick to the outdated summer schedule? Most kids these days are not spending their summers harvesting crops on the family farm...
Having experienced Post-Labor Day Start as a participant and Pre-Labor Day Start as a parent, I think starting earlier is better.
Down here, we get a week-long Fall Break around Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day, which allows for an extra vacation if you have the means. Thanksgiving Break is also the whole week, which makes sense because young kids aren't really focused knowing they have a 4-day weekend coming up.
The early start also mitigates snow days (yes we have snow in Mississippi -- it used to be rare, but it now a yearly occurrence, but Climate Change ain't real y'all). When I was going to CPS, between annual teacher strikes and snow days, we practically went until July!
As for year-round school, besides educating young minds, school is basically daycare with an elaborate game of Trival Pursuit with lunch, gym and socialization thrown in. I don't think it would be a bad idea as long as sufficient breaks are thrown in. Perhaps follow the college model where the summer session is treated like a separate semester. It could be limited to 1-2 course in the morning or afternoon per a student's choice so they could still get a summer job.
In short, it's time to stop following the 19th Century Model in the 21st Century.
In the case of Gavin Newsom using his mockery of Trump to springboard his presidential aspirations; Keep it up Gav!
He’s been successful in running the largest state economy in the nation and 4th largest in the world.
To some he’s a slick old school politician. But he has the knack of how to make deals that benefit both parties involved and the people of California.
I relish the fact that he’s a thorn in the side of Trump and his MAGA cultists if only for the fact that no other Democrat is doing anything similar right now. And so by using his position to criticize Trump administration, his is fulfilling the demands of so many voters who are asking; “Where are the Democrats?”
Well, JB had a hell of a speech recently where he tore Trump a new one. I would say he’s probably running for the presidency in 2028. Newsom gets the headlines cause he’s high profile. Pritzker tends to keep a lower profile. But both men absolutely detest Donald Trump and MAGA.
3 VERY FUNNIES in the VQotWs today 😂
I actually laughed out loud at a couple of them for the first time!
Care to share which ones tickled your funny bone?
I laughed at #1, thought sure it would get my vote.
Then I looked at #2, and laughed harder.
Then I looked at #3, and busted a gut!
I just couldn't decide among them which to vote for - a fun quandary. But I finally sucked it up and cast my vote.
Numbers 2 and 3 had me laughing out loud! Usually, I’m mildly amused, but this time laughed out loud.
EffYou In Particular and Stool Sample being the 2 best, obviously. (I voted for the lightning strike.)
I know it wasn't the most popular, but I had to vote for the shrimp because, every time I hear that story, I start hearing the Spiderman cartoon theme playing in my head! :-)
A friend of mine tells me that comparisons between today in the US and the early days of Hitler's rule in Germany are far-fatched and inappropriate. I suppose that the Germans of those days did not imagine what would happen to their country in a few years. I see rampant racism and the calumniation of the brown and Black "others." I see a large and growng secret police (recruited from the worst) snatching people off the streets and disappearing them. I see coordinated attacks on the bastions of civil society (the courts, the legal profession, universities, schools, scientific and medical research, etc.). I see the creation of concentration camps. I see rampant corruption and vulgar excess. I see the formation of an axis of dictators. I see armed troops patrolling the nation's capital and soon perhaps the streets of Chicago. I see the suppression of dissent and the banning of books. All that and more makes me wonder what the Germans of 1935 thought their country would be like in 1939,
The speed at which all this is happening is staggering to me. It's only been seven months. I shudder to think where we'll be a year from now, let alone by 2028.
What bothers me is how easy they were able to enforce this authoritarian takeover of every aspect of our government and individual rights.
I would've thought this is the most unlikely country where such a thing could happen.
How naive of me.
Not naive at all and history repeats itself. Hitler promised the German people "guns and butter" after what was considered the disastrous treaty that ended World War I, followed by the Great Depression, which didn't just happen in the US. How many Germans, including the best and brightest, and all those that voted for Hitler had any idea what he would turn out to be? The US has had its periods of turbulence. But how many, even the best and brightest, knew, when Trump was just a TV reality star, just what a dictator he would turn out to be? In a country that has had great periods of freedom and democracy, even with its flaws, who could have predicted Trump?
As an aside, it's interesting that the people who said Kamala Harris didn't do anything in her term as VP seem to have nothing to say about JD Vance taking eight vacations in those first seven months.
Also, as VP, saying "WE are going after John Bolton." Was VP Harris involved in Garland's DoJ and its prosecution of suspected malefactors?
Trump's handlers (Vought and Stephen Miller) know that they have very little time to accomplish all of their fascistic plays, as by the midterms roll around, many of the horrific effects of Trump's/their stupidity, cruelty and venality will have emerged - tariffs trashing the economy, immigrant deportations driving up prices on MANY consumer products (fruits/vegetables) as well as construction/housing, police-state tactics hitting voters' loved ones, anti-vax policies harming the population, etc. They know full well that ordinarily they'd lose the House (and probably the Senate); therefore they needed to strike quickly while they have both houses of Congress rubber-stamping their idiotic Big Beautiful Bill and other ridiculousness.
I am also still betting that when the tech bros/oligarchs get tired of Trump, they'll have Vance stage a 25th Amendment takeover so that they can swap Vance in for Trump.
To learn a bit what Germany was like in the 1930s I recommend “In the Garden of the Beast” by Erik Larson. Scary story, especially in our times.
Excellent book. Also "The Nazi mind: twelve warnings from history" by the historian Laurence Rees.
Far fetched and inappropriate? Tell your friend to read some history. It has not been at all uncommon for authoritarians to start out by trying to sound reasonable to reduce opposition. Trump has an excuse for everything to explain his drive for control. Take for instance, his use of executive orders. The Supreme Court has ruled on a number of occasions that flag burning is covered by the First Amendment. But that doesn't seem to bother the orange stain.
I agree, but in fairness I need to point out that, as far as I can tell, we are a minority and my friend is in the majority, both in this country and even in countries in which large majorities loathe trump. I think the thing is that comparisons to the complete history of Hitlerian Germany make 2025 trump look like a piker. She thinks it is to early to tell. I think that you don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing and that this level of lawlessness is extremely foreboding.
Agree. Mark made the comment about being amazed what Trump has done in a mere 7 months. We are stuck with him for another 3 and a half years. I am not holding out high hope for the 2026 elections. Democrats have been screaming long and loud about Trump’s actions. What do they plan to do about it? I have yet to see a coherent plan and, much like prewar Germans, I don’t see MAGAs changing their minds.
Liberace was the epitome of taste and discretion compared to this guy.
He was also in on the joke about his taste. Unlike the demented, deranged, fat, fascist traitor who not only thinks it all looks great, but believes whole heartedly that we should admire his gilding of the Oval Office into the front parlor of the Everleigh Club!
and he was on Batman!
Trump’s best friend is Putin. Ukraine is toast.
Trump thinks his best friend is Putin. Putin views him as THE most "useful idiot" in all of history. Think about it, the leader of the world's most powerful country and (arch-rival of Russia) self-sabotaging his own country - and severely (and permanently?) hobbling the US both internally and in terms of international relations - all for Putin's (insincere) approval?
Growing up in Michigan it was law that public schools could not start until after Labor Day. It helped the tourism industry, supposedly, and helped keep kids from cooking in unairconditioned schools. I don't know about tourism, but keeping kids from cooking in unairconditioned schools is still a concern. For several years my kids' school in La Grange would have ambulances called the high school in August due to kids passing out from the heat. You get up to the third floor in a building from the 1890s and it is just brutally hot. I had some rough Meet the Teacher nights where I went home drenched in sweat. I miss schools not starting until Labor Day for that reason alone. (Lyons Twp High School is adding more A/C all the time - eventually it may be comfortable in there)
I went to LT!
They've made A LOT of progress adding A/C in the 15 years we've lived in the district but it is still ongoing. My kids made it through -older child was in special ed mostly and their classrooms were all air-conditioned because some kids had physical disabilities as well. Younger child was at least somewhat prepared to go to college where the dorms are not air-conditioned (starting in August there is just cruel, IMO). Classrooms have A/C, but the dorms do not. Every construction project at LT has cost and time overruns. The new south campus cafeteria was supposed to be done for the 2024-2025 school year. It's STILL NOT DONE as the 2025-2026 school year starts. They worked constantly for an extra YEAR and it is still not done. Kids still eating in an interior gym with no A/C.
I grew up in Michigan before that law went into effect; and based on the reading I've done, it has had a measurable (positive) effect on tourism. Seasonal businesses have their summer help for the entire season, enabling tourist-serving vendors to stretch their season out for the entire summer. (Minnesota is the same.)
Nope, two of my grandkids in Minnesota started school this week. Minnesota used to have a Prohibition on school starting before Labor day, but not anymore.
I stand corrected. My sister teaches in the Rochester School District and told me of the post Labor Day rule.
Melinda, Minnesota had the same pre-Labor Day school prohibition years ago to support the Lake cottage industry which at the time was predominantly family-owned. Alas, over time the majority of these small resorts have gone out of business with the buildings being sold on an individual basis as private cabins. The law has changed and now two of my four grandchildren up there are already in school.
My parents owned a frozen custard shop and loved being able to keep students during the day through August (big lunch business). I went to Michigan State which didn't start until late September back then (1980s). Employers loved Spartans come mid-August since we were still there after all the other college kids went back to school. Trade-off was we didn't get out until late May and sometimes had trouble finding jobs since students who got out earlier snapped them up.
My mind immediately went to how nice it would have been to be friends with someone whose family owned a frozen custard shop! 🍦😋
6 of 1, half a dozen of the other. There is something to merit in trying to get the first semester over before Christmas break. The real question is why the school year starts when it does in the first place. At the beginning of this country when 90% of the population was rural, school need to wait for the fall harvest and be over before the spring planting as many kids worked in the fields alongside their parents. That equation has changed somewhat in the past few centuries. We Americans have had our priorities screwed up for a long time. How many schools have tried the idea of year around schools with spaced out breaks? But that ended with arguments about summer heat, summer jobs for kids, family vacations, the summer tourism industry and a host of other issues. Some of our local districts put it to a vote a number of years ago. Year around school was solidly voted down by parents. I doubt the student vote would have been much different. It is educationally unsound to take several months off from education. Many teachers spend the first month of school adjusting kids back to learning mode, not to mention reteaching concepts already taught. It's a major time waster. But I don't see things changing any time soon. We're just too used to the way things are. Year around school never would have bothered me. I have worked every summer since a teen, anyway.
Here are my thoughts on starting school after Labor Day, and these thoughts are backed after 45 years as a teacher in both public and private schools, in the classroom as well as the administrative office. First, the 180 days that now constitute the school year should be changed. So many of our students should be enrolled in school year-round. And year-round does not mean the 180 day spread over 12 months, but a school session lasting at least 225 days per year. Sure, this extra time will be expensive (approximately 25% more just for teacher salaries), but it is hoped this increase in school time will result in better student achievement, which will reduce crime, social welfare expenses, and fewer people in prisons - all more expensive than educating students. But lacking that aggressive reform, starting school in August makes sense because the students are ready to return to school. Having had two months or more away from school - and experiencing summer-learning-loss - the kids are bored with summer and are ready to meet up with their classmates. On the other hand, with Spring/Easter break in March and early April, once students return from this 7 to 10 day vacation, their focus on rigorous curriculum is greatly diminished. Also, the heat of summer in schools is no more a concern with so many schools now air conditioned. To summarize all of this: the kids are ready to get back in August and are ready to leave school in May - tradition be damned. And if we're really going to put the students' best interests first, year-round schools are the way to go.
I must assume you weren't in any non-air conditioned schools in Chicago? Late June was hell when I was there in the 1950s & 60s & now the ones with big window air conditioners are so noisy, you can't even hear anyone else or think. Why they aren't installing split system heat pumps is baffling! They're very quiet inside.
I spent K-12 in un-A/C rooms - very warm, but nobody died.
I remember the skin on my arms sticking to the desk in June.
I went to a Chicago Public School in the 1950's. When I was in 5th grade, my sister and I both got new plaid wool dresses. We were poor, and rarely got new clothes. I was so excited to wear that new dress on the first day ....despite the fact that it was very hot and humid. My main memory of that day is of extreme discomfort. Arghh....wool + heat + humidity! I went home at lunch time (most kids did in those days) and ripped that dress off, went back in the afternoon in another dress. A summer dress.
Lack of A/C is still a big concern for some schools. Here in Western Springs/La Grange ours is not exactly an "underserved" district, but we still have kids passing out from the heat every August in the high schools - the third floor in LG is especially brutal. Adding A/C to a building built in the 19th century has been a challenge. First you need a year or two of summer work to update the electricity to handle the added load and another year or two of summer work to add the A/C units - oh, and you might find that the roof structure needs updating to hold the additional A/C, and on and on. It's an ongoing project between the two high schools (fr/soph in Western Springs, jr/sr in La Grange) here to make it comfortable to go to school. No learning is happening when it's 100°+F in the building.
I note that Eric's poll arguments supporting a pre-Labor Day start are practical scheduling reasons that presumably benefit kids' education, and practical scheduling that benefits kids' (presumably high school aged) summer job prospects. The arguments against a pre-Labor Day start are all emotional, warm and fuzzy concepts of "summer" feels.
I thought the change in the CPS schedule (during Rahm Emanuel's reign) was about adding actual days of schooling to the year because Illinois' students were considerably behind other states and the national average of days/hours spent in the classroom. I vote for whatever is best for kids' education.
Emanuel changed the start date to get back teaching days/hours that were lost in multiple previous CTU contracts. And the CTU had a conniption about getting increased pay to cover the time. For the kids.
Amen Monica!
Thank you Edward for your very well reasoned position on this. I have long been a supporter of a longer school year as is the case in the majority of other Western countries, and a much shorter summer break so that the first month of each school year is not spent on remedial teaching. (Of course, this would necessarily contemplate air conditioning in the classrooms utilized during the warmer months.) It would also be a much more efficient use of the massive school brick and mortar infrastructure.
This would appear to represent a huge benefit to students and our society overall. It makes so much sense that it is difficult to understand why this has not occurred a long time ago as our country transitioned out of a primarily agrarian economy well over a century ago. Oh wait... there is that very large and politically powerful union group that has come to believe that public education is about them and not the kids, and they will fight tooth and nail against losing their cherished 3 months of summer off. So I guess we'll keep doing what we're doing now and continuing to fall behind other countries in our children's academic achievement.
While it's true teachers' unions have played a part in opposing this change, it's not fair to pin all the blame on them. Plenty of parents have been just as vocal against such a change for decades, even in places where teachers' unions either don't exist or have far less power.
Since the pandemic most schools have had options for remote learning, and maybe that's a way to keep kids engaged during the long summer break -- even just an hour each weekday reinforcing the lessons from the previous year would be better than nothing.
Hi John - your first point is totally valid and certainly a big part of the equation. And I love your suggestion for limited remote learning over the summer months. The problem is in many cases a lack of parental support for education - witness the abysmal rate of kids logging into online learning during covid. When I was growing up, there were such things as truant officers who would be following up on unexcused children absences from schools, and the parents would face consequences if they did not ensure their kids got to school regularly. Too bad that went by the wayside a long time ago, because it sure seems needed today.
We didn't have the Internet when I was in school (I'm guessing you didn't either) but we did have a summer reading list - you had to choose three books from a list of about fifteen or twenty, so about one book per month of summer break. Of course, as you say, it was up to parents being engaged to ensure we actually did the reading.
You are entirely correct that parents are the difference makers. When we fostered Judiesha through her junior year of high school, we were horrified to hear her tell us that she had never done homework in her life and that no one had ever attended a parent teacher conference with her teachers. That gave a lot of context to our subsequent sad discovery that she read at about a 3rd grade level and could not do even the 2's of her multiplication table. Despite our best efforts throughout that year to help her catch up, I fear that this egregious failure of family support for her education is going to impair her for her entire life.
In stark contrast was the inner city young man we mentored through high school in the Boys Hope program. He struggled a great deal in his freshman year at Loyola Academy after coming out of CPS, but through his hard work he received the award for the most academically improved student his sophomore year, and he continued on to graduate with honors and receive a full academic scholarship at Drake which he has since also successfully completed. The secret sauce for this young man? A mother who is fiercely determined that he was going to work very hard at his education and be successful in life.
We can very legitimately lament the deplorable state of education in many CPS schools and the disadvantage this creates low income people who do not have other educational opportunities for their children. But absent strong support in the home for education, it is an uphill battle for any child.
When #47 was elected I thought that his plan for immigration would be to deport people in areas that his supporters were big in. And let the blue areas suffer because they didn’t agree. And that at the midterms people would be able to see which areas were better. But I realize that he doesn’t do things to fix things; he does things out of spite, and to get back at those who don’t bow to him. I would think that if #47 really believed that illegals were a problem he’d let Illinois fester and then be able to point to it at the midterms. I think that most of us remember in 2017 and 2019 when he said that he could ‘fix’ Chicago in a couple of days. The words coming out of his mouth are nonsense. (I just thought as I wrote this that someone should make a Trump Mad Libs book. I asked Grok to give me a sample.)
" Folks, nobody does [verb] better than me, nobody. I’ve got the best [noun], tremendous [noun], and we’re going to make [place] great again. The [group of people] love me, they really do, because I’m fighting for them against the [adjective] [group of people]. We’re going to [verb] so much, you’ll be tired of [verb ending in -ing]. Believe me, it’s going to be [adjective]! "
This is genius. I can't believe Dave Barry or Rex Huppke hasn't already done this. Bravo.
Another idea that would be easy for a more creative person is an illustrated version of The Emperor's New Clothes. I just don’t know who the hero would be at the end to finally convince people that the emperor is naked.
I think it would have to be one of his grandchildren. Or a juvenile Putin.
I remember him quoting a Chicago motorcycle cop on how to fix Chicago. The only problem is, Chicago has had any motorcycle cops for years now!
Regarding the go low or go high debate I will share what I told my son when he played basketball. During a game, adjust your playing style to how the refs are calling fouls. If they are not calling them, play more physically; if they are calling everything then play with less contact. The electorate has shown that it is not calling fouls against the president, and complaining about it doesn’t work. If the other side plays too soft it will lose.
Excellent analogy!
I don't know if it's still in effect, but it used to be a law in the state of Michigan that school cannot begin until after Labor Day.
They did change the law, sadly. I grew up with that and it was nice. Only problem was when you had a lot of snow days school could go until late June (just a few years ago my nephew was in school until June 20-something after a brutal snow year on the shores of Lake Michigan). Now with online-learning instead of snow days, hopefully that would be less of an issue.
I laughed at the visual Gorilla playing saxophone with balloons’ because 35 years ago my wife hired a singing telegram for my birthday and a guy in a purple gorilla suit with balloons came to my office (no sax). I believe singing telegrams are a thing of the past. Anyone seen any recently?
Our friend (retired from the Lyric Opera) takes commissions to go to people's homes and sing to them! Happy birthday or anything else you choose. She started during the pandemic and has had so much fun that she's kept doing it :-)
I know her!
She's the best. My husband sings in church choir with her and she's his voice teacher. She and her daughter even took care of our 6 pets over the December holidays last year.
I sing with the Tower Chorale. We rehearsed in your church last year.
Janet and her daughter are doing a concert on September 6 at the church. Their "Favorite Things" concerts are wonderful. They are taking a free will offering for Girls, Inc in Chicago.
Depends on "recently." Ten or so years ago I had a company send a singer to my mother-in-law's retirement home for her 89th birthday. The facility feared the guy would be a stripper, but no -- just a pleasant man in a polo shirt and khakis who sang Happy Birthday and flirted a little with the birthday girl and senior ladies playing cards. They were delighted! Reportedly one leaned over to my mother-in-law and whispered "He's so cute! Think we can keep him?"
Re: What's ailing Democrats, I listened to an interview with Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author of the new book "Moral Ambition" about how societal change and progress is effected by individuals and groups. I haven't read the book, but it sounds fascinating, there is a review and summary here: https://sekarwrites.com/review-and-summary-moral-ambition/
Two things in particular struck me as very relevant to answering why Democrats have been so ineffective the past several years:
1 - Coalitions are paramount to building successful movements. Seemingly disparate groups need to unite around a single goal. The reason Republicans have had success is they have groups like Evangelical Christians aligned with free market capitalists and others who back similar agendas even if for different reasons. Democrats, on the other hand, are fractured by purity tests. The different factions are very quick to turn on each other, like Muslims in Michigan turned on Kamala Harris over Israel. Bregman points out how the civil rights movement in the 60's was built out of very diverse groups, focused on common goals, not differences.
2 - Progress happens incrementally. Groups need to focus on pragmatic, short term, small steps, rather than a long term grand final goal. Bregman points to the abolitionist movement in the UK in the early 1800s, where they focused on stopping the trans Atlantic slave trade first and saving the lives of British sailors who frequently died during these voyages, because that resonated better with the British public at the time. Democrats shouldn't be trying to appeal to empathy or some high moral ideal, but focus instead on concrete practical effects of the carnage that Trump is wreaking and concrete steps with quick effects to reverse them if they ever get back to power.
Also related, he mentioned how protests in the 60's were much more effective than today because back then it was very hard to put them together and it was understood that for something like that to happen, many large and powerful groups would need to join together and organize, as opposed to today when social media makes it very easy to organize them and just as easily to forget it ever happened.
Don't forget those stupid Muslims in Michigan then voted for the demented, deranged fat fascist traitor who immediately told Israel to go all out in destroying Hamas, Hezbollah & the Houthis. Their support for him was for naught as he double crossed them instantly!
Regarding coalitions and selling, the Hidden Tribes study breaking down seven political profiles is worth a look: https://hiddentribes.us/profiles/
I went to that site, and, according to the descriptions of the different tribes, I am a Progressive Activist. Which is strange to me because I don’t think of myself as an activist. I thought the descriptions of the different tribes were interesting and enlightening.
Interesting! Two thoughts:
(1) Are political movements the right lens through which to evaluate Democratic folly and the way forward? After all, the Democrats are not a movement but rather a party, one of just the two. It would seem to me that the lessons to be drawn are less from bottom-up movement successes than from party successes. There are salient differences. Successful movements focus like a laser on a particular set of goals. Democrats (and other movements) can surely learn from the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s, insofar as it made an intentional effort to appeal to shared values rather than to challenge them, but ultimately the party has to be a big tent. Its goal, in other words, should be to serve as a home, a "safe space," a congenial landing spot for the larger share of voters. As you say, the Republicans are appealing these days to a highly diverse set of constituents who come to it from many different places. This is nothing new -- it was the diabolical political genius of the Reagan revolution, which successfully wed white working class resentment, religious fundamentalism, and free market fundamentalism, surely the most insidious and destructive menage a trois in modern American history.
In that regard, I tend to think of Clinton's rather dramatic turn to the center, which brought the Dems back from the wilderness, as a worthy lesson. Some argue that he sacrificed a great deal substantively. I don't see it that way. I think his biggest moves were rhetorical, cultural. His Democratic Party said abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." It said yes to both "path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants and a "secure border." It said yes to both gun regulation and more police. It said yes to welfare limits and health care reform (though the latter had to await Obama and his razor-thin supermajorities to, even then, just barely make it across the finish line). He forcefully distanced himself from the crazy on his own side, giving us the first "Sister Souljah moment." All of these positions had the virtue of seeming like just so much common sense to solid majorities, rendering the other fella the crazy one or out-of-touch one. I'm not saying that these exact positions and this exact rhetoric translate perfectly to the current moment. The lesson is that his *approach* was a winning one, and we'd do well to draw from it.
(2) Even to the extent we do focus on past protest movements, I think we have to take off the rose-colored glasses that lead us to view the youth-oriented activism of the '60s and '70s as a great success worthy of emulation. There's a pretty strong argument that it was nothing of the sort and that it inspired the same sort of dramatically harmful backlash we've seen more recently. The civil rights movement was brilliant. The later, more radical approaches were failures. Malcolm X and Black Power, in my view, got in the way. The hippies alienated the "silent majority," failing to end the Vietnam War and handing us the most corrupt presidential administration before Trump. I'm contrasting here Rosa Parks, freedom riders, "I AM A MAN," and MLK on the one hand (a movement that had its origins in the now-un-romanticized 50's) with, say, the '68 DNC on the other, which should not be taught or remembered as anything other than a political catastrophe *for the good guys*. My point is that, contra the idea that activism is too easy and lazy today in a wired world, it was mostly lousy then too! The most successful movement to emerge from the '60s and '70s, as I've said before, is the movement of Buckley, Reagan, Schlafly, and Scalia, the modern conservative movement, a depressing conclusion but one we ignore at our peril.
The lesson of both my (1) and (2) seems straightforward -- you gotta meet the voters where they're at and figure out how to say what they want to hear. That's not selling one's soul -- after all, our substance, I believe, mostly aligns with majority preferences anyway -- but rather doing the necessary work.
A few Trump hotels survived due to financing by Russian oligarchs, some with direct connections to Putin. On the other hand, Trump hotels failed miserably in Canada, his name taken off the building. That explains current foreign policy decisions in a nutshell.
After 1995, no bank would loan him any money, except for Deutsche Bank. But they were backed by Putin's cash guaranteeing the loans.
To answer the question at the end of Eric’s response to my comment about endemic out-of-wedlock childbirth, yes, it certainly would. I have always said that there should be more abortions, not fewer of them.
Assuming the issue of non-air-conditioned schools can be resolved, increasing the school year is the right thing to do. Studies have shown that kids retain more after shorter summer breaks than longer breaks, so why stick to the outdated summer schedule? Most kids these days are not spending their summers harvesting crops on the family farm...
It might be worth investing in solar panels on those school rooftops to mitigate the cost of AC.
Having experienced Post-Labor Day Start as a participant and Pre-Labor Day Start as a parent, I think starting earlier is better.
Down here, we get a week-long Fall Break around Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day, which allows for an extra vacation if you have the means. Thanksgiving Break is also the whole week, which makes sense because young kids aren't really focused knowing they have a 4-day weekend coming up.
The early start also mitigates snow days (yes we have snow in Mississippi -- it used to be rare, but it now a yearly occurrence, but Climate Change ain't real y'all). When I was going to CPS, between annual teacher strikes and snow days, we practically went until July!
As for year-round school, besides educating young minds, school is basically daycare with an elaborate game of Trival Pursuit with lunch, gym and socialization thrown in. I don't think it would be a bad idea as long as sufficient breaks are thrown in. Perhaps follow the college model where the summer session is treated like a separate semester. It could be limited to 1-2 course in the morning or afternoon per a student's choice so they could still get a summer job.
In short, it's time to stop following the 19th Century Model in the 21st Century.
In the case of Gavin Newsom using his mockery of Trump to springboard his presidential aspirations; Keep it up Gav!
He’s been successful in running the largest state economy in the nation and 4th largest in the world.
To some he’s a slick old school politician. But he has the knack of how to make deals that benefit both parties involved and the people of California.
I relish the fact that he’s a thorn in the side of Trump and his MAGA cultists if only for the fact that no other Democrat is doing anything similar right now. And so by using his position to criticize Trump administration, his is fulfilling the demands of so many voters who are asking; “Where are the Democrats?”
Well, Governor Pritzker has some pretty choice words for the Orange Menace.
Well, JB had a hell of a speech recently where he tore Trump a new one. I would say he’s probably running for the presidency in 2028. Newsom gets the headlines cause he’s high profile. Pritzker tends to keep a lower profile. But both men absolutely detest Donald Trump and MAGA.
And that’s OK with me.