
Note: The order of comments has been changed to having the newest ones at the top.
This month I want to explore something that has been stuck in my mind for a while.
It’s the tribalism that has split the country into a fractured mess dividing states, communities and families.
There are several causes I can identify, and surely others I haven’t recognized, but I want to try to find ways to get past this. No, I’m not talking about going back to some visioned “good old days” era but rather how do we move forward.
It’s clear to me media has been the major player in creating this divide. By media I mean mainstream, freelance, independent and social. The explosion of the internet of the 90’s made it possible in ways we are just now beginning to understand.
Throughout the month I will be posing articles and doing some podcasts as well on the information I’ve found. The points of focus will be on Russian propaganda and how to to deal with its impact on Americans who have unknowingly been fooled into accepting it as fact.
It’s so easy to want to throw up your hands and retreat from the news but that cannot happen, especially now. So, I’m hoping this project will open some doors to finding solutions. I’m doing this as much for myself as I am for public consumption because I’m feeling an increasing fatigue to just say fuck it and let happen whatever it is on the dark horizon thanks to the 2016 Presidential Election, but I can’t quit when at last the media is reporting Russian interference did have an impact on the election.
Wrapping up, this month’s blog is still “freeform” so post whatever you like on any topic, I know I will. So keep smiling and laughing and enjoying your summer.
Here’s the first installment

The good/bad old days

©2019 Rob Rogers. Reprinted with permission. Support Rob’s cartoons at https://www.patreon.com/robrogers
Bigger is Not Always Better
The number of candidates is a major pain in the ass for Americans who only want to find the right person to beat Donald Trump.
It was no surprise that last night turned into a battle between Progressives and Moderates and that fight should boil over into tonight’s second round of the Democratic Hunger Games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.
We have to have this fight now and the sooner it’s settled, the better. As much as I’m for historic progressive changes, I realize that progressives are a minority in America and don’t stand a chance against the Republicans and mostly moderate to conservative mainstream media.
Absent Great Depression 2.0, the only way to the utopian programs we want to happen is to incrementally work back to dominating all 3 branches of government in DC. That is not going to happen with President Warren or Sanders because if they are elected, the electorate will put a check on them by electing Republican majorities in one or both Houses of Congress.
I don’t like it, but that’s the way it is. Today the math is not on our side, but it can be if we have the will accept more moderate leaders who can help restore normalcy to the country and bring economic security to the working/middle class. Once you get there, the leap to universal/single payer healthcare will be a small step, not a giant leap.
From Ezra Kline’s interview with Buttigieg in April
After Obama, Democrats need a new theory of change. Pete Buttigieg thinks he’s got it.
The most important debate in the Democratic primary is over how to make governing great again.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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It’s no longer Mueller Time

©2019 Rob Rogers. Reprinted with permission. Support Rob’s cartoons at https://www.patreon.com/robrogers
Pete Buttigieg had the most important answer at the Democratic debate
Buttigieg is right about why Democrats keep failing to pass their big plans.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Warren and Sanders give rivals Bonnie and Clyde treatment during fiery debate
Analysis: pair were dominant at event showcasing Democratic party’s split personality, pitting progressives against moderates
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From the “News We Missed” department
‘Our paychecks bounced’: US workers in limbo as coalmines suddenly close
Blackjewel files for chapter 11 in a move critics say is increasingly used to avoid paying workers what they are owed
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Gearing up for tonight’s debate…
The Democrats Should Stop Doing Trump’s Work for Him
Yes, the two-night, 20-candidate format is ludicrous, but can we please have a reasonable debate about America’s future?
Fox News may have been shut out of hosting any Democratic presidential debates, but the Fox Theater in Detroit will be the site of the second round of debates.CreditCreditErin Schaff/The New York Times
Read a pdf of this article or go behind the paywall.
Marketcraft: how government can beat inequality by reshaping markets
Liberals shouldn’t just compensate citizens for the market’s excesses. They should seek to reshape markets themselves.
The “Fearless Girl” statue stands facing the “Charging Bull” as tourists take pictures in New York on April 12, 2017. Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
The New Deal was marketcraft in action
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From the “In My Own Backyard” department
OHIO REPUBLICANS BALKED AT A NUCLEAR BAILOUT, SO THE INDUSTRY ELECTED NEW REPUBLICANS — AND WALKED AWAY WITH $1.1 BILLION
Plumes of steam drift from the cooling tower of FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, on April 4, 2017. Photo: Ron Schwane/AP
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Opinion
The 2018 Campaign Worked
Have Democrats forgotten?
A woman at a rally for Representative Abigail Spanberger and Senator Tim Kaine in Henrico, Va., on Nov. 5, 2018.CreditCreditErin Schaff for The New York Times
Read a pdf of this article or go behind the paywall.
Late Night with Vlad
Democrats and media condemn Trump’s racist Cummings attack
* Baltimore Sun: ‘Better to have some vermin than to be one’
* Mulvaney insists Trump not racist, just fighting back
* David Simon: Trump is a ‘simplistic, racist moron’
* Elijah Cummings delivers a press conference following Robert Mueller’s testimony this week. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images*
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