Geez, what a jaded, partisan post GK! Voter suppression? You gotta be kidding me? There is so much solid, verified evidence of vote tampering by democrats in the last election - voter suppression is your bag - and you need to fix that. Timing out aged congressmen and women at age 62 is NOT a good thing. You want wokeness to rule our country? Then eliminate those who never lived through or fought in a war by getting rid of them... C'mon. I know you never served in the military. Would be better if you weren't so obviously and unapologetically blue...
WOW!! You’ve got it ALL backwards. Why do think Republicans do gerrymandering? Why didn’t they leave the states alone? I cannot believe you think Democrats are tampering with votes. Our governor here in Iowa is taking people off the voting rosters for little more than they didn’t vote in the last election. People will go to the polls next November and find out they cannot vote because she decided they can’t. YES…she is a republican.
There will be some anecdotal evidence, but it may be in response to what happened in 2020. Facebook's Zuckerberg made a $400 million dollar investment to insure democrat victories as reported in Time magazine: Zuckerberg’s help to Democrats is well known when it comes to censoring their political opponents in the name of preventing “misinformation.” Less well known is the fact that he directly funded liberal groups running partisan get-out-the-vote operations. In fact, he helped those groups infiltrate election offices in key swing states by doling out large grants to crucial districts.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an organization led by Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla, gave more than $400 million to nonprofit groups involved in “securing” the 2020 election. Most of those funds—colloquially called “Zuckerbucks”—were funneled through the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)which proceeded to disburse large grants to election officials and local governments across the country.
According to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), Georgia received more than $31 million in Zuckerbucks, one of the highest amounts in the country. The three Georgia counties that received the most money spent only 1.3 percent of it on personal protective equipment. The rest was spent on salaries, laptops, vehicle rentals, attorney fees for public records requests, mail-in balloting, and other measures that allowed elections offices to hire activists to work the election. Not all Georgia counties received CTCL funding. And of those that did, Trump-voting counties received an average of $1.91 per registered voter, compared to $7.13 per registered voter in Biden-voting counties.
I didn't say it, it was a Time Magazine story. He is absolutely a democrat whose Facebook fake "fact checkers," many of which are bozos from foreign countries (easy to check) show a completely liberal bias.
it would be easy to check if you included a link / zuckerberg's facebook by the way facilitated a scam (cambridge analytica) that gave information about millions of users to trump's campaign in order to manipulate voters in the 2016 presidential race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal that's semi-illegal but politics is a dirty game / giving 'sensitive polling data' to a known russian agent is totally illegal and paul manafort (trump's campaign manager) was serving time for doing exactly that until trump pardoned him https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-employee-kilimnik-gave-russia-election-data.html that's besides the point but i don't think zuckerberg's political affinities lie with the democrats
Open your eyes Mary Ann - looks like you're glued to CNN or something. Check "Ad Fontes" for an unbiased graphic of how biased the media is. Those were not MY words, they actually came from a relatively liberal news magazine who exposed Zuckerberg for his meddling. Now tell me about "voter suppression." Gimme a break.
Denny, I grant you a break. You're welcome. I'm not a fan of Zuckerberg, no doubt he has meddled. I read a number of high-quality newspapers. I don't need to have the news read to me by a person, left or right. Lighten up, Denny, we are all Americans, you and me.
My only point being that many of my liberal friends refuse to triangulate news-sources and never hear "the other side." It is nice every now and then when a liberal, relatively neutral news source does an audit and exposes behind-the-scenes efforts to sabotage democracy. Blessings.
what would be really nice my friend is if someday we somehow drop the labels and deal with the issues / for example government is supposed to be for the people and by the people (i think it actually says that somewhere) in other words it's purpose is to serve the people of the nation to assure their prosperity and happiness not the military industrial complex / not big business / not big money / people
I love your "If programmers can’t design a more capable U.S. senator than Ted Cruz, then my name is Kyrsten Sinema." We thought moving sidewalks were a great idea until my husband fell on one in the Detroit airport in December, on our way back from Paris. (Some people might say that's what we deserved, flying off to more reasonable places in the middle of a pandemic). Also somebody wrote a book "Death by GPS", I think it was called, about people misdirected into deserts and losing their way. But your main points are good - voter suppression is rampant - and we're all losing our way unless we can get it stopped.
Thank you for introducing me to the beautiful rendition of “This is My Song." I viewed more renditions and then looked for information about the hymn and about the original composition of "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius. I was moved to learn of its importance as a national song of Finland, words by Finnish poet, Veikko Antero Koskenniemi. We live in an anxious state with the pandemic and war games. Thank you for a moment of respite. I'd like to offer this link to a rendition with English and Finnish lyrics, https://youtu.be/5WPmSv-TBy0.
I loved this! From the first very very long sentence which I read out loud to my husband of 49 years to the other parts which made me laugh out loud. And to making me realize how the verbal directions available now help immigrants do a hard job. And especially the idea of a constitutional convention to stop the ridiculous things happening (or NOT happening) in congress. Keep it up, Mr. Keillor! You may or may not be making a big difference, but you give me hope and a laugh, which is more than any news source is doing these days!
What wonderful recommendations you've given us! GK for Senate!!!! (Oops! If we lowered the age ceiling to 62, we'd miss out on an immense amount of accumulated wisdom in that case!)
I'm not sure those specific consolidations of current states will work out well, though! My "raised in Oklahoma" Dad worried that his "still Oklahoman" sister was beginning to sound too much like a Texan. And it's hard for me to see much middle ground between Nevadans and residents of Utah. But I do like the concept of expanding the Supreme Court to a point in which they're actually demographically representative!
As to gender representation, perhaps that will work itself out in a decade or two. When I bring the topic up with "Gen-Xers" and those more recently matured, I find a lot of "To Each His(Her) Own" acceptance - male tellers, nurses and librarians, -- female stock brokers and engineers.
It seems to me, one of the biggest governmental problems we're facing in this Millennium is the "Either/Or" paradigm. Self-definition by party loyalty to one of two choices really seems to curtail folks ability to look openly at the world around them, and to consider consequences to specific actions.
To cite a personal experience - a few months ago a friend asked for a loan of several thousand dollars to repair the transmission on his personal pickup truck. He's an immigrant who has only been in the US for a few years. As someone who used to work for a giant corporation, I pointed out that his transmission was worn out because his employer required him to travel over a hundred miles daily to his work site, and to tow a heavy trailer loaded down with construction equipment each way. "Your employer should be providing a "fleet" vehicle for such long commutes, or at the minimum give "cents per mile" and "repairs," I said.
On my advice, this friend spoke to his boss. They met halfway - the boss paid for the transmission itself, while my friend paid the repairman for the installation. Time passed. The year-end financial audit indicated that this small businessman wasn't making enough to stay in business. The result was that the company folded. My friend lost that job and is scrambling to find enough work to keep gas in his pickup!
In my "big business" mindset, it never occurred to me that the cost of a single pickup truck transmission might be enough to force a small businessman to close his enterprise. I'm sure there were probably other factors as well. Struggling to find jobs within a reasonable commute would also factor in, for sure, when "Big City" competitors can easily outbid startup enterprises.
What you're writing about, Dear Host, seems to me to be the concept of "True Representation." Even the women and ethnic Justices we've had on the Supreme Court have probably been among the "Financially Advantaged" of this world. I agree wholeheartedly about taking the Constitution back to the drawing board! At the time of the nation's founding, our population was small enough that, say, New Englanders could hold their governmental meetings in the basements of their white, wooden Congregational town churches. People knew each other. They knew about each other's life-styles and financial situations. We've lost that intimate awareness over the intervening two centuries. It surely is time to reconsider governmental institutions, in the light of mega-corporations, mega-population, double previous life-expectancy, and so forth.
Here, Here, Truth Speaker! Thanks again for your fantastic insight and direction! Long May You Keep us all on track! [P.S. - and when you're thinking Great Thoughts, who really cares if you spill your coffee???]
If Republicans are trying to suppress the vote, they are really bad at it. 2020 would serve as Exhibit A. And if you are suggesting that requiring an ID to vote in a Presidential election is racist and wrong, consider the fact that Black Americans overwhelmingly support it as do most reasonable people. Good Grief, what a partisan hack job (this column). How does this marvel of whimsicality help anyone?
Not sure I see anything unconscionable about it unless you have really low expectations for people's ability to function at a basic human level. Does this mean you are against the need for an ID to vote? If so, Why? Seems like a really smart way to go.
It's about much more than IDs> It's about politicizing the state electoral boards and local election officials. eliminating drop-in boxes. reducing polling place hours. so that people may need to stand in line for six or eight hours, etc etc, it's an attempt by a minority to hold onto power.
I disagree. People like Zuckerberg make some type of change necessary. You see it as bad, I see it has good. Plenty of people agree with you, and plenty of people agree with me. Still say an ID is a good starting point. Without that (which is required in most countries), you get chaos.
The question, sir, is: do you believe we have chaos? I say we do not. The 2020 election was not a Republican landslide stolen by massive fraud, and that is the Great Lie on which voter suppression is based.
Says you. Many others believe otherwise. Though perfectly legal, Zuckerberg’s shenanigans raise a great deal of doubt as to how our elections are conducted. There is much that needs to be cleaned up and linking an ID to a vote is simply a commonsensical start. I know you don’t like that and that is odd.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to open the session of Congress everyday with America the Beautiful? Men and women who sing about brotherhood might take it to heart and recall they work for a spacious country, not a beltway of political intrigue and animosity unattached to the rest of us citizens. And I also seriously doubt that being required to show my ID is a menacing threat to citizens voting. I can’t get into a theater to watch the symphony right now without showing who I am. Just sayin’ more singing and some common sense would be simpler
Thank you for your instructions, we Northerners are well-suited to Cold, Ice, and Snow. Everything that goes with it. Peace and Joy,Garrison. Thank you for your Posts.
Garrison, I am 76 and enjoying life, especially our 6 Grandchildren, two in Florida and 4 here in South Carolina.
When I learned that NPR news(noise) was funded by facebook I quit listening to so-called news. Come to Greenville, SC and put on a show for us. Thank you.
Never thought you be biting into the same brownies as Dame Maureen Dowd. Her brother makes a lot more sense to those in the middle, where the more menable can be found and a tip taken instead of a bite or a draw.
Mark Twain said commonsense isn’t near as common as most folks think. Why pull all the plugs? Let’s find some new parties that can think straight from some new premises and promises. New parties pledged to no more than two terms, without all the bennies and big bucks and back-scratching. What would a country be like if more woe was gone. A place where all kids aren’t required to be above average, only improving, like you. Actor Jimmy Smits on “West Wing” was running for President and he addressed the delegation wit, “I’m not going to tell you what you want to hea. I’m here to tell you what you need to hear.” We need two new different parties that can find consensus. Give some. Get some. Serve the people! You can do better. Harmonize.
Better to revisit post-Civil War return to the Union of most of the Confederacy, beginning with Texas. Let 'em enjoy TedCruz by them selves.
Geez, what a jaded, partisan post GK! Voter suppression? You gotta be kidding me? There is so much solid, verified evidence of vote tampering by democrats in the last election - voter suppression is your bag - and you need to fix that. Timing out aged congressmen and women at age 62 is NOT a good thing. You want wokeness to rule our country? Then eliminate those who never lived through or fought in a war by getting rid of them... C'mon. I know you never served in the military. Would be better if you weren't so obviously and unapologetically blue...
WOW!! You’ve got it ALL backwards. Why do think Republicans do gerrymandering? Why didn’t they leave the states alone? I cannot believe you think Democrats are tampering with votes. Our governor here in Iowa is taking people off the voting rosters for little more than they didn’t vote in the last election. People will go to the polls next November and find out they cannot vote because she decided they can’t. YES…she is a republican.
There will be some anecdotal evidence, but it may be in response to what happened in 2020. Facebook's Zuckerberg made a $400 million dollar investment to insure democrat victories as reported in Time magazine: Zuckerberg’s help to Democrats is well known when it comes to censoring their political opponents in the name of preventing “misinformation.” Less well known is the fact that he directly funded liberal groups running partisan get-out-the-vote operations. In fact, he helped those groups infiltrate election offices in key swing states by doling out large grants to crucial districts.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an organization led by Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla, gave more than $400 million to nonprofit groups involved in “securing” the 2020 election. Most of those funds—colloquially called “Zuckerbucks”—were funneled through the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)which proceeded to disburse large grants to election officials and local governments across the country.
According to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), Georgia received more than $31 million in Zuckerbucks, one of the highest amounts in the country. The three Georgia counties that received the most money spent only 1.3 percent of it on personal protective equipment. The rest was spent on salaries, laptops, vehicle rentals, attorney fees for public records requests, mail-in balloting, and other measures that allowed elections offices to hire activists to work the election. Not all Georgia counties received CTCL funding. And of those that did, Trump-voting counties received an average of $1.91 per registered voter, compared to $7.13 per registered voter in Biden-voting counties.
So you are saying Zuckerberg is a Democrat? That’s ridiculous.
I didn't say it, it was a Time Magazine story. He is absolutely a democrat whose Facebook fake "fact checkers," many of which are bozos from foreign countries (easy to check) show a completely liberal bias.
it would be easy to check if you included a link / zuckerberg's facebook by the way facilitated a scam (cambridge analytica) that gave information about millions of users to trump's campaign in order to manipulate voters in the 2016 presidential race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal that's semi-illegal but politics is a dirty game / giving 'sensitive polling data' to a known russian agent is totally illegal and paul manafort (trump's campaign manager) was serving time for doing exactly that until trump pardoned him https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-employee-kilimnik-gave-russia-election-data.html that's besides the point but i don't think zuckerberg's political affinities lie with the democrats
You've discovered that obscenely wealthy elites do things like influence (buy) politicians and elections. The trick is keeping them bought.
Denny you gotta be kidding me
Open your eyes Mary Ann - looks like you're glued to CNN or something. Check "Ad Fontes" for an unbiased graphic of how biased the media is. Those were not MY words, they actually came from a relatively liberal news magazine who exposed Zuckerberg for his meddling. Now tell me about "voter suppression." Gimme a break.
Denny, I grant you a break. You're welcome. I'm not a fan of Zuckerberg, no doubt he has meddled. I read a number of high-quality newspapers. I don't need to have the news read to me by a person, left or right. Lighten up, Denny, we are all Americans, you and me.
My only point being that many of my liberal friends refuse to triangulate news-sources and never hear "the other side." It is nice every now and then when a liberal, relatively neutral news source does an audit and exposes behind-the-scenes efforts to sabotage democracy. Blessings.
what would be really nice my friend is if someday we somehow drop the labels and deal with the issues / for example government is supposed to be for the people and by the people (i think it actually says that somewhere) in other words it's purpose is to serve the people of the nation to assure their prosperity and happiness not the military industrial complex / not big business / not big money / people
yes
A smart and funny analysis of where America has gone wrong followed by a national hymn that asks blessings on all nations. You still got it.
I love your "If programmers can’t design a more capable U.S. senator than Ted Cruz, then my name is Kyrsten Sinema." We thought moving sidewalks were a great idea until my husband fell on one in the Detroit airport in December, on our way back from Paris. (Some people might say that's what we deserved, flying off to more reasonable places in the middle of a pandemic). Also somebody wrote a book "Death by GPS", I think it was called, about people misdirected into deserts and losing their way. But your main points are good - voter suppression is rampant - and we're all losing our way unless we can get it stopped.
Thank you for introducing me to the beautiful rendition of “This is My Song." I viewed more renditions and then looked for information about the hymn and about the original composition of "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius. I was moved to learn of its importance as a national song of Finland, words by Finnish poet, Veikko Antero Koskenniemi. We live in an anxious state with the pandemic and war games. Thank you for a moment of respite. I'd like to offer this link to a rendition with English and Finnish lyrics, https://youtu.be/5WPmSv-TBy0.
I loved this! From the first very very long sentence which I read out loud to my husband of 49 years to the other parts which made me laugh out loud. And to making me realize how the verbal directions available now help immigrants do a hard job. And especially the idea of a constitutional convention to stop the ridiculous things happening (or NOT happening) in congress. Keep it up, Mr. Keillor! You may or may not be making a big difference, but you give me hope and a laugh, which is more than any news source is doing these days!
What wonderful recommendations you've given us! GK for Senate!!!! (Oops! If we lowered the age ceiling to 62, we'd miss out on an immense amount of accumulated wisdom in that case!)
I'm not sure those specific consolidations of current states will work out well, though! My "raised in Oklahoma" Dad worried that his "still Oklahoman" sister was beginning to sound too much like a Texan. And it's hard for me to see much middle ground between Nevadans and residents of Utah. But I do like the concept of expanding the Supreme Court to a point in which they're actually demographically representative!
As to gender representation, perhaps that will work itself out in a decade or two. When I bring the topic up with "Gen-Xers" and those more recently matured, I find a lot of "To Each His(Her) Own" acceptance - male tellers, nurses and librarians, -- female stock brokers and engineers.
It seems to me, one of the biggest governmental problems we're facing in this Millennium is the "Either/Or" paradigm. Self-definition by party loyalty to one of two choices really seems to curtail folks ability to look openly at the world around them, and to consider consequences to specific actions.
To cite a personal experience - a few months ago a friend asked for a loan of several thousand dollars to repair the transmission on his personal pickup truck. He's an immigrant who has only been in the US for a few years. As someone who used to work for a giant corporation, I pointed out that his transmission was worn out because his employer required him to travel over a hundred miles daily to his work site, and to tow a heavy trailer loaded down with construction equipment each way. "Your employer should be providing a "fleet" vehicle for such long commutes, or at the minimum give "cents per mile" and "repairs," I said.
On my advice, this friend spoke to his boss. They met halfway - the boss paid for the transmission itself, while my friend paid the repairman for the installation. Time passed. The year-end financial audit indicated that this small businessman wasn't making enough to stay in business. The result was that the company folded. My friend lost that job and is scrambling to find enough work to keep gas in his pickup!
In my "big business" mindset, it never occurred to me that the cost of a single pickup truck transmission might be enough to force a small businessman to close his enterprise. I'm sure there were probably other factors as well. Struggling to find jobs within a reasonable commute would also factor in, for sure, when "Big City" competitors can easily outbid startup enterprises.
What you're writing about, Dear Host, seems to me to be the concept of "True Representation." Even the women and ethnic Justices we've had on the Supreme Court have probably been among the "Financially Advantaged" of this world. I agree wholeheartedly about taking the Constitution back to the drawing board! At the time of the nation's founding, our population was small enough that, say, New Englanders could hold their governmental meetings in the basements of their white, wooden Congregational town churches. People knew each other. They knew about each other's life-styles and financial situations. We've lost that intimate awareness over the intervening two centuries. It surely is time to reconsider governmental institutions, in the light of mega-corporations, mega-population, double previous life-expectancy, and so forth.
Here, Here, Truth Speaker! Thanks again for your fantastic insight and direction! Long May You Keep us all on track! [P.S. - and when you're thinking Great Thoughts, who really cares if you spill your coffee???]
If Republicans are trying to suppress the vote, they are really bad at it. 2020 would serve as Exhibit A. And if you are suggesting that requiring an ID to vote in a Presidential election is racist and wrong, consider the fact that Black Americans overwhelmingly support it as do most reasonable people. Good Grief, what a partisan hack job (this column). How does this marvel of whimsicality help anyone?
you obviously don't live in texas https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/01/texas-voting-bill-greg-abbott/ "SB 1 makes up Republicans’ third attempt to pass a far-reaching law that restricts how and when voters cast ballots. It takes particular aim at voting initiatives used in diverse, Democratic Harris County in the 2020 election." similar situations in other states like alabama https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/us/politics/voting-rights-alabama.html and georgia https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/georgias-voter-suppression-law i could go on but do your own research if you're really interested
IDs are the least of it. Look at what Republican legislatures are proposing to make it more difficult for working people to vote. It's unconscionable.
Not sure I see anything unconscionable about it unless you have really low expectations for people's ability to function at a basic human level. Does this mean you are against the need for an ID to vote? If so, Why? Seems like a really smart way to go.
It's about much more than IDs> It's about politicizing the state electoral boards and local election officials. eliminating drop-in boxes. reducing polling place hours. so that people may need to stand in line for six or eight hours, etc etc, it's an attempt by a minority to hold onto power.
I disagree. People like Zuckerberg make some type of change necessary. You see it as bad, I see it has good. Plenty of people agree with you, and plenty of people agree with me. Still say an ID is a good starting point. Without that (which is required in most countries), you get chaos.
The question, sir, is: do you believe we have chaos? I say we do not. The 2020 election was not a Republican landslide stolen by massive fraud, and that is the Great Lie on which voter suppression is based.
Says you. Many others believe otherwise. Though perfectly legal, Zuckerberg’s shenanigans raise a great deal of doubt as to how our elections are conducted. There is much that needs to be cleaned up and linking an ID to a vote is simply a commonsensical start. I know you don’t like that and that is odd.
This is a great Friday afternoon piece, it made me laugh and marvel at the universe. Thanks much.
Right on!
And listen to the Minnesota Orchestra's Osmo Vänskä's rendition of "Finlandia" from YouTube
: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ybHbxTxbu-M .
Wouldn’t it be lovely to open the session of Congress everyday with America the Beautiful? Men and women who sing about brotherhood might take it to heart and recall they work for a spacious country, not a beltway of political intrigue and animosity unattached to the rest of us citizens. And I also seriously doubt that being required to show my ID is a menacing threat to citizens voting. I can’t get into a theater to watch the symphony right now without showing who I am. Just sayin’ more singing and some common sense would be simpler
Than redrafting the US Constitution.
Thank you for your instructions, we Northerners are well-suited to Cold, Ice, and Snow. Everything that goes with it. Peace and Joy,Garrison. Thank you for your Posts.
Garrison, I am 76 and enjoying life, especially our 6 Grandchildren, two in Florida and 4 here in South Carolina.
When I learned that NPR news(noise) was funded by facebook I quit listening to so-called news. Come to Greenville, SC and put on a show for us. Thank you.
Never thought you be biting into the same brownies as Dame Maureen Dowd. Her brother makes a lot more sense to those in the middle, where the more menable can be found and a tip taken instead of a bite or a draw.
Mark Twain said commonsense isn’t near as common as most folks think. Why pull all the plugs? Let’s find some new parties that can think straight from some new premises and promises. New parties pledged to no more than two terms, without all the bennies and big bucks and back-scratching. What would a country be like if more woe was gone. A place where all kids aren’t required to be above average, only improving, like you. Actor Jimmy Smits on “West Wing” was running for President and he addressed the delegation wit, “I’m not going to tell you what you want to hea. I’m here to tell you what you need to hear.” We need two new different parties that can find consensus. Give some. Get some. Serve the people! You can do better. Harmonize.
awright garrison / i like your attitude / i suspect the constitutional convention will happen after the civil war tears this country limb from limb