Of course one of the reasons that I chose some of the states that I did (besides geographical necessity) for my road trip was I really wanted to learn what made some of the states about to vote in the Democratic primaries tick.

This included both Indiana and West Virginia.

This is a map of Indiana being analyzed by MSNBC's Chuck Todd. In it, he's explaining through a blunt line, how northern Indiana likes to identify itself with the midwest and southern Indiana with the south.

This is, indeed, what I found on my trip.

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La ciudad de Nueva York reabrirá por completo el 1 de julio

New York City, which one year ago was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, will "fully reopen" for business on July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. The announcement marks a stirring rebound for a city that lost more than 10,000 people in just the first month of the pandemic.

"We are ready for stores to open, for businesses to open," de Blasio said on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Offices and theaters, he said, would be able to operate at "full strength."

City officials are confident that they can get life back to the normal level it was before the pandemic, De Blasio said.

"This is going to be the summer of New York City," the mayor said. "You're going to see amazing activities, cultural activities coming back. I think people are going to flock to New York City, because they want to live again."

La ciudad de Nueva York, que hace un año fue el epicentro de la pandemia de COVID-19, "reabrirá completamente" sus operaciones el 1 de julio, dijo el jueves el alcalde Bill de Blasio. El anuncio marca un repunte conmovedor para una ciudad que perdió a más de 10,000 personas en solo el primer mes de la pandemia.

"Estamos listos para que abran tiendas, para que abran negocios", dijo de Blasio en Morning Joe de MSNBC. Las oficinas y los teatros, dijo, podrían funcionar a "plena potencia".

Los funcionarios de la ciudad confían en que la vida puede volver al nivel normal que tenía antes de la pandemia, dijo De Blasio.

"Este será el verano de la ciudad de Nueva York", dijo el alcalde. "Vas a ver actividades increíbles, actividades culturales que regresan. Creo que la gente va a acudir en masa a la ciudad de Nueva York, porque quieren vivir de nuevo".

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Built in 1960 by its predecessor, MaryKnoll Seminary, the Logan University Bell Tower stands 80 feet tall in the center of campus. The University, then known as Locan College of Chiropractic, acquired the buildings and grounds from the former seminary in 1972. The campus sits on 112 acres located in Chesterfield, Missouri, and was included in MSNBC's list of “America’s Most Beautiful College Campuses” in 2007.

Shot with a 7artisans 9mm F5.6 Lens.

© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer, Mark S. Schuver.

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NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 26: MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle speaks onstage during the Building Brands People Love: A Fireside Chat with AOLs Tim Armstrong on the Times Center Stage during 2016 Advertising Week New York on September 26, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Advertising Week New York)

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President Joe Biden participates in an interview with Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle”, Friday, May 5, 2023, in the Map Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

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Date: 10/23/15 | Location:JFK Library in Boston, MA | Event: Know Your Value Boston

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Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director and Moderator of "Meet the Press;" Host of MSNBC's "MTP Daily"

Gavin Newsom, Governor, State of California

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Taken at the Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve in Abita Springs, LA, managed by The Nature Conservancy. This spider's between 4-5" long (inc. legs.)

Finalist, MSNBC's "It's a Snap" photo contest, 2009.

Finalist, Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 2010.

Nobody likes being conned. But that is exactly what’s happened. Donald Trump has laid the biggest con on all of us. Some knew what we were getting ourselves into. In fact, almost 3 million more people voted for his opponent in the 2016 election. Yet 42% of voters cast their ballots for the president. The head scratching from the other 58% has been constant ever since. We know people were sick of the status quo, sick of “politics as usual” and they appreciated what they saw as his straight talk. Many were enamored with his status as a successful businessman, hoping that would translate into a well-managed economy. We know Hillary Clinton had an image problem. And James Comey’s October letter bringing her emails back into question was a deciding factor.

We know all that. But there were clues sitting right under the surface that Trump was not as he advertised. We just couldn’t get to the facts or were stymied by his sycophants in the Republican Party. We tried for years to see his tax returns. He refused. What was he hiding?

Donald Trump was and is not a successful businessman. His businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times since 1991; he’s made poor investments, refused to pay contractors, and made money off his presidency. He’s leveraged his empire to the hilt. He says he owes $400 million but also says that’s a pittance next to his net worth. I doubt the accuracy of both his debt and his assets. Forbes reports he has $900 million in loans coming due in the next four years. And it stands to reason we should be concerned how that pressure to pay back those loans will translate into attempts to influence his political decisions in a second term. We read the transcript of his attempted extortion of the Ukrainian president to open investigations into Joe Biden. It was the basis for his impeachment. Yet it didn’t make any difference to the Republican Party. These enablers played a significant role in where we are now.

But what happens when Trump’s supporters realize his true nature? One of his most egregious acts was Trump University. It wasn’t a university at all, but a series of hotel room seminars. He bilked over 7500 people for these seminars costing between $1500 to $35,000. One of his “students,” Tarla Makaeff, called Trump U a scam and filed a class action suit to recoup some of the thousands of dollars she and others spent (Trump’s only appearance at these meetings was as a cardboard cutout). Trump countered by showing the positive reviews of these seminars by the same people who are now disgruntled. In their opinion, the Court of Appeals in the case of Makaeff v. Trump University stated, “As the recent Ponzi-scheme scandals involving one-time financial luminaries like Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford demonstrate, victims of con artists often sing the praises of their victimizers until the moment they realize they have been fleeced.”

As MSNBC’s Ari Melber said, “How does this relate to the election right now? It suggests that even die-hard Trump fans…can change their minds. It’s also a reminder of how Trump is different than other traditional politicians: because he engenders stronger emotional reactions and feelings. And that can make his fans more ardent when they like him and more scorching when they break from him.” According to Melber, Vice President Biden is leading by 43 points among people who are switching their vote in six key states: from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020. Trump promised to bring back coal and steel jobs. That never happened. He started a trade war with China, only to hurt American farmers. The president kept promising a better health care program than Obamacare. After four years, we have yet to see any plan. And he has asked the Supreme Court to nullify the program, potentially leaving 20 million Americans without health insurance.

When The New York Times reported in September 2020 that the president paid only $750 in federal taxes for 2016 and 2017 and paid no taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years, many of his supporters finally realized they had been conned. It took over 30,000 lies and exaggerations during his term, a pandemic ignored and mismanaged, and his continued efforts to minimize the virus, even after he contracted it, before the point started to tip.

Still, many are willing to excuse his toxic temperament: his penchant to expect unquestioned loyalty to him over the American Constitution, his crass exploitation of women and the physically challenged, and his racist and anti-Semitic statements. They continue to idolize him. Many believe the coronavirus is a hoax and many like his market-driven economy. For these people, self-interest trumps Trump’s con.

After the last presidential debate, to any undecided voters I would say this: the American people are suffering. We are suffering from COVID-19, from the loss of our loved-ones and friends, and from the economic fallout of the pandemic. But just as important, we are suffering from the divisiveness in this country. The debate was a study in contrasts. Donald Trump has refused to take this pandemic seriously, even though he knows how serious it is. He has made the disease a political issue. While the president attacked, Joe Biden made his pitch. He wants to unite Americans, not red-state or blue-state Americans, but all Americans so we can better fight this disease and get the economy on track again. The president thinks the coronavirus will magically disappear.

Joe Biden is not infallible. But neither is he toxic. And that is a critical point if we want to beat this disease as quickly as possible. When Trump speaks, don’t believe all of anything. We’re being conned.

Feel free to pass this poster on. It's free to download here (click on the down arrow just to the lower right of the image).

See the rest of the posters from the Chamomile Tea Party! Digital high res downloads are free here (click the down arrow on the lower right side of the image). Other options are available. And join our Facebook group.

Follow the history of our country's political intransigence from 2010-2018 through a six-part exhibit of these posters on Google Arts & Culture.

ZAIDON, Iraq - A Marine with 2nd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines pauses for some rest in a building during Operation Zaidon II on March 22nd, 2007.

This photo can be seen in the Washington Post, USA Today, and in MSNBC's Week in Photos for the week of April 5th-12th.

Date: 10/23/15 | Location:JFK Library in Boston, MA | Event: Know Your Value Boston

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Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director and Moderator of "Meet the Press;" Host of MSNBC's "MTP Daily"

Gavin Newsom, Governor, State of California

Built in 1960 by its predecessor, MaryKnoll Seminary, the Logan University Bell Tower stands 80 feet tall in the center of campus. The University, then known as Local College of Chiropractic, acquired the buildings and grounds from the former seminary in 1972. The campus sits on 112 acres located in Chesterfield, Missouri, and was included in MSNBC's list of “America’s Most Beautiful College Campuses” in 2007.

© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer, Mark S. Schuver.

The best way to view my photostream is on Flickriver: Nikon66's photos on Flickriver

Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have become anathemas to liberals, people of color, and anyone who believes all Americans deserve equal access to the institutions of this country. They aren’t the only ones, but they’re front and center for their refusal to change filibuster rules allowing a simple majority of the Senate to pass critical voting rights legislation.

Manchin and Sinema stand on the tip of a colossal iceberg of political posturing, spin, and dishonesty. At the end of last year, Washington Post opinion writer, Perry Bacon, Jr. wrote, “In basically every major institution in America, there are powerful figures who I doubt voted for Donald Trump but nonetheless play down the radicalism of the Republican Party, belittle those who speak honestly about it or otherwise act in ways that make it harder to combat that radicalism.” His list includes Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, NBC’s Chuck Todd, Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman, and even former acting Obama solicitor general Neal Katyal. All of them “elites” in their fields.

Bacon offers many reasons these and others are not calling out the Republican Party for their outlandish and overt power grabs, their lack of any substantial legislation (even when they were in power), and for their support of “The Big Lie.” But he culls it down to elites wanting to remain elites: to put their best interests above the American people’s.

When we talk about women’s rights (and the right to choose whether to have an abortion), institutional racism, and income inequality, the Republicans aren’t the only bad actors. The self-interest of the American aristocracy in academia, the judiciary, and the media is also problematic. We also have a systematic dilemma. Our founders designed our political system for compromise.

Here’s the Problem

During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, larger states wanted representation based on population, while smaller states wanted equal representation in Congress, fearful of abuses of power. Each side vowed to veto the Constitution if it didn’t get its way. Enter The Great Compromise, which is the foundation of our government today.

Proposed by Connecticut statesmen Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, they suggested a bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate. A state’s population would determine the number of its representatives. In contrast, regardless of its size, each state would have two senators chosen by its legislature (in 1913, the Constitution’s 17th Amendment changed that to allow voters to elect senators directly). In addition, voters wouldn’t elect presidents directly but through electors to the Electoral College.

Our founders never envisioned the considerable disparity in states’ populations we have today (California has 68 times the population of Wyoming, yet each has equal votes in the Senate). Smaller states have a disproportionately more significant say in Congress. This also skews the balance in the Electoral College since the number of electors in each state is based on their total number of representatives and senators. Also, when our country won its independence, only White landowners could vote, further skewing fair representation. The 15th Amendment gave Black men this right in 1870. But this is still being contested today by Gerrymandering and state laws that impede minority rights. And women weren’t given the right to vote until the 19th Amendment in 1920. And, like racial discrimination, we are still dealing with gender inequality.

Early decisions about states’ rights versus the federal government’s rights also affect our ability to pass legislation today. The 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” In disputes between the states and the federal government, the Supreme Court can upend this balance by its interpretations of the Constitution. And with many accusing justices of being political activists, the line between states’ and federal rights has become even more clouded. Texas’ law severely limiting abortion is on the Supreme Court’s schedule. And many are concerned that the conservative-leaning court will rule for Texas, even though Roe v. Wade has become established law. Our country’s balance of power has shifted in ways our founders could not have envisioned.

We the People

What do the American people want? In 2014, Princeton Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern Professor Benjamin Page conducted a study of almost 1800 instances between 1981 and 2002, where public opinion was clearly in favor of specific policies. Yet, “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests [had] substantial independent impacts on US government policy.” In contrast, “average citizens and mass-based interest groups [had] little or no independent influence.” Lobbyists and the wealthy have more leverage on policy than average Americans, even though they represent a small percentage of the population.

Matt Grossman, Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University, says, “We have status-quo-biased institutions that limit (even popular) policymaking without bipartisan support and wide interest group support.” And, with the Republican Party more interested in retaining power than in compromise, we’re going nowhere. As former Senator John Edwards made it clear during his 2008 presidential campaign, “You cannot negotiate with political thugs.”

Grossman states, “Democrats are closer than ever to supporting institutional changes that would make the status quo more vulnerable, but they would probably need a sustained large national majority (that isn’t forthcoming) to implement them because many of the pivotal elections are on conservative ground.” Without consensus, our arrested status quo remains. Politicians ignore the will of the people. This is the failure that Manchin and Sinema represent.

Are We Headed For a Civil War?

In his 1991 book, Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, sociologist Jack Goldstone compared “‘selfish elites’ who ‘protect their private wealth, even at the expense of a deterioration of state finances, public services, and long-term international strength,’ as a troubling parallel to the preconditions of the French Revolution, the English Civil War and similar examples of state breakdown.” Working with mathematician Peter Turchin, they have suggested that the United States could be heading towards a civil war.

As early as 2010, Turchin predicted that 2020 would be a chaotic and violent year. Writing in the publication Nature, Turchin said, “In the United States, we have stagnating or declining real wages, a growing gap between rich and poor, overproduction of young graduates with advanced degrees, and exploding public debt. Historically, such developments have served as leading indicators of looming political instability.”

Goldstone and Turchin suggest what is apparent to many of us: “inequality, selfish elites, and polarization have crippled the ability of the US government to mount an effective response to the pandemic, hampered our ability to deliver an inclusive economic relief policy, and exacerbated the tensions over racial injustice.” In mid-2020, Goldstone predicted that instability would increase if Republicans or Democrats contested the presidential election. And that’s precisely what happened. Trump continues to push “The Big Lie” of election corruption.

The non-profit Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index tracks these indicators and countries’ ability to cope with shocks to their systems. This index shows America’s ability to do so is deteriorating. Out of 179 countries studied, the US comes in at 143.

Looking Ahead

In Paul Rosenberg’s commentary, The center cannot hold: Manchin and Sinema are wrecking America — here’s how to beat them, he and Goldstone agreed, how can you achieve bipartisanship when the Republicans aren’t interested, and Senators Manchin and Sinema continue to say that bipartisanship must be achieved?

Progressives are getting the blame for this breakdown. But as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on MSNBC’s 11th Hour, “Biden has governed pretty much exactly the way [moderates] have asked him to. But the problem is that the way they have asked him to govern has been to slow down, not do too much, and we are now seeing the political consequences of not directly improving people’s lives quickly.” Manchin, she says, changes his mind every day. He and Sinema even blocked the voting rights bill, legislation they co-sponsored.

Former US secretary of labor Robert Reich asks why these two senators demand bipartisanship when they knew this wouldn’t happen? Why couldn’t they support a change in the filibuster rules to pass the voting rights bill when they had just agreed to change the rules the month before allowing Democrats to pass debt ceiling legislation? He says that part of the reason is a large amount of cash they’re receiving from special interests (much of Sinema’s coming from Republicans). But the most straightforward explanation is simply ego:

Before February of last year, almost no one outside West Virginia had heard of Manchin, and almost no one outside Arizona (and probably few within it) had ever heard of Sinema. Now, they’re notorious. They’re Washington celebrities. Their photos grace every major news outlet in America.

This sort of attention is addictive. Once it seeps into the bloodstream, it becomes an all-consuming force. I’ve known politicians who have become permanently and irrevocably intoxicated. I’m not talking simply about power, although that’s certainly part of it. I’m talking about narcissism—the primal force driving so much of modern America but whose essence is concentrated in certain places such as Wall Street, Hollywood, and the United States Senate.

Manchin and Sinema are blocking critical institutional change for their own selfish purposes.

So what can be done?

The Washington Post’s Perry Bacon, Jr. suggests three possibilities:

President Biden should issue as many executive actions as he can. David Roberts, author of a newsletter on clean energy and politics called Volts, suggests Biden should sign so many in quick succession, the right-wing media would have no time to make up lies about them, and the Supreme Court couldn’t hear them all.

Biden should use his informal power aggressively. “He can visit the headquarters of companies that pay their blue-collar workers a decent wage and offer parental and sick leave, encourage Americans to purchase products from these companies, and urge other businesses to emulate them. He can implore others to adopt and support initiatives that are meaningfully improving Americans’ lives right now, such as the privately funded universal basic income program happening in the Atlanta area or the historically Black colleges that are forgiving the loans of some students.”

Biden should leverage his popularity and influence in blue America. Forget bipartisanship. Stop trying to compromise with Republicans and conservative Democrats. “In many ways, Biden is the president of only blue America, but that’s more than half of American adults, 70 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product, the vast majority of its big cities, its most populous state (California) and virtually the entire industries of education, entertainment, Big Tech, and philanthropy. Instead, he suggests talking with people like “MacKenzie Scott, Melinda Gates, Ford Foundation head Darren Walker, LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, and others with money and influence who are likely to embrace causes that Biden points them toward.”

Both Senators Manchin and Sinema are gambling our lives away. If they continue to throw snake eyes, we’ll all lose. By refusing to pander to their egos, Biden can open the way for significant governmental change. Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2016 because his message was anti-establishment. We were sick of decades-old election promises that never materialized. The GOP isn’t interested in bettering Americans’ lives. They just want to win. But if we’re going to change the status quo, we’ll need to take a vastly different approach. And time is running out.

Feel free to pass this poster on. It's free to download here (click on the down arrow just to the lower right of the image).

See the rest of the posters from the Chamomile Tea Party! Digital high res downloads are free here (click the down arrow on the lower right side of the image). Other options are available. And join our Facebook group.

Follow the history of our country's political intransigence from 2010-2020 through a seven-part exhibit of these posters on Google Arts & Culture.

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On May 31, more than 250 guests gathered in support of the Parkinson’s Foundation’s 60th Anniversary Gala held at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY. More than $485,000 was raised for Parkinson’s research. Willie Geist, Host of NBC’s “Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist,” Co-host of NBC News’ “Today” and Co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” served as the Master of Ceremonies for the evening. The Page and William Black Humanitarian Award was awarded to Robin Anthony Elliott, retiring CEO Emeritus of the PDF division of the Parkinson’s Foundation. The James Parkinson Award was awarded to Heiko Braak, M.D., of the Center for Biomedical Research, University of Ulm, Germany, for his enormous contribution in focusing the science of Parkinson’s on the spread of alpha-synuclein as a major factor in the progression of the disease.

Learn more at www.pdf.org/gala

Photo Credit: Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan

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Date: 10/23/15 | Location:JFK Library in Boston, MA | Event: Know Your Value Boston

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Date: 10/23/15 | Location:JFK Library in Boston, MA | Event: Know Your Value Boston

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Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director and Moderator of "Meet the Press;" Host of MSNBC's "MTP Daily"

Larry Hogan, Governor, State of Maryland

Date: 10/23/15 | Location:JFK Library in Boston, MA | Event: Know Your Value Boston

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry settles into his chair in a studio at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., before appearing on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe" on July 17, 2015, to discuss the E.U./P5+1/U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

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WEEK 16 – Elsewhere around Greenville

(2/4)

WXVT and WABG quickly became rivals. Over time, Greenville’s population waned, ultimately reaching the point where having two separate local news operations didn’t really seem warranted anymore. But on they both went, even into the mid-2010s. In 2015, the two stations – and the Greenville market in general – hit the national spotlight, when truTV debuted the reality series “Breaking Greenville.”

Originally filmed as a pilot in 2013 focusing solely on WABG, the show eventually morphed into a showcase of the small-town rivalry between WABG and WXVT. WABG was the older of the two stations and also always the consistently higher-rated, but WXVT was creeping up on them. The series was to culminate with the reveal of which station won the ratings books for that period.

An interesting concept, but one sure to be full of mimicking and mocking, as it felt more like this would be a comedy than a true, heartfelt documentary. Indeed, in its review of the show, The New York Times wrote, “We’ve had mockumentaries that look almost exactly like the shows or movies they’re parodying, and now we have a reality show that looks almost exactly like a mockumentary.” It probably didn’t help that all of the newscasters featured in the program were, by their own admissions, a cast of characters in their own right. But hey, for a place like Greenville, any publicity is good publicity, right?

I’m guessing the show was not successful enough, as it lasted only the one season. Unfortunately, I only learned about it after the fact. I’d like to watch it one day, but I’m not ready quite yet to pay $15 for it. The best I could find otherwise was this TV interview about the show on MSNBC’s “Reporter’s Notebook,” which contains some clips from the series. (Even without the clips, though, that’s a must-watch interview.)

Read more reviews of “Breaking Greenville” from The Clarion Ledger, The Boston Herald, and The Wrap. Also check out “A brief history of Delta television,” as well as a 1987 newspaper article on the “battle for supremacy” between WXVT and WABG, but be warned of spoilers of my next descriptions in the former.

WXVT-TV (abandoned) // 3015 E Reed Road, Greenville, MS 38703

(c) 2020 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

MSNBC's Chris Matthews visits the JFK Library to discuss his new book, "Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit."

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