“Last night, my father killed another political dynasty, and that’s the Cheneys. He first killed the Bushes, then he killed the Clintons. Last night he killed the Cheneys.” So Eric Trump, former president Donald Trump’s son, interpreted the primary loss by Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) last night.
And there it is — as concise and accurate assessment of our dire plight as I've read, courtesy of the Financial Times writer:
“I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
May it echo over and over across the nation. If there are any "good" Republicans left in Congress besides Cheney and Kinzinger, they better speak loud and clear in rejecting Trumpism. Or history will remember them as complicit.
Complicit Susan Collins' cringeworthy bending herself into pretzels - TrumpYoga Susan going down dog for the Don - to justify stuff like the tax scam, embracing Jim Crow states rights arguments to vote against civil rights legislation and now dancing around defending Trump's attacks on the FBI. At a certain point mealy mouthed mumblings are effectively not all that different from full throated shout outs.
Liz isn't doing nothing; she's putting it all on the line. Can't stand her policies; love her courage and the kind of patriotism Lincoln and Eisenhower (both Republicans) would recognize.
Perhaps by many, but I have relatives who've transplanted from Massachusetts to Maine, and I can't repeat their affection for Ms. Collins - I'd be banned from posting here if I did.
After the most well-financed campaign to defeat her in 2020, she won by 10 points. I don’t like Susan Collins. But she knows what she is doing. So many here attack her, because she’s not a liberal. The liberals here don’t understand that 60% of Mainers are not liberal, and do support Collins. The myopia is strong in us liberals.
I agree. Many folks don't understand that New England isn't nearly as liberal as they think, and I'd guess that Maine is on a par with upstate New York in its conservatism. The fact that Collins has been a fixture for years takes her out of the current foaming-at-the-mouth crop of Republicans, too.
Shortly after the Kavanaugh confirmation, Ms Susan Collins was at Trump’s desk for some bill she sponsored, (which I believe she spent much time working on). I could tell you exactly the price of her vote. What Susan Collins didn’t get was that her name will be mud, no matter what bill she advanced.
That is the difference between Susan Collins and Liz Cheney. Liz gave up her position in the party and all her other assignments, because she is driven by what is right for America, not what is right for her political career.
JaneDough56, many will argue with me, but although I appreciate what Liz has done, and I admire her skill and determination, I suspect that she is feathering her nest for the future, whether it's a run for the presidency or some other high office (SCOTUS?) once the Trumpstorm finally ends. Don't forget who her father is, and whose advice she's listening to. Yes, she did the right thing, but her motivation could be much more complex. I can't imagine ever voting for a pro-life ultra conservative who voted with Trump over 90% of the time, regardless of her current motivation for taking on Trumpers.
I agree with you in the near term, and considering her constituency, I doubt that she'll make headway in the near future. Still, though, she's in her mid 50's, so she has a long time to see changes that would make a comeback possible.
And to add on - every “moral victory” comes with a moral price. So you get a “Pro-Life” America, and all it took was gerrymandering states, erasing voting rights, packing the courts with pro-life judges, and embracing a morally corrupt autocrat-wannabe. Was it really worth it?
What is ‘pro-life’? We have had this discussion ad ininitum!
Alleged group is dogmatic by nature, thus attracted to authoritarian, amoral creatures who co-opt their message in order to get elected. Reference little Frankie graham’s nation wide crusade to get the ‘believers’ to vote for the alleged ‘pro life ‘ candidate I. 2016!
Liz Cheney proves that the New England laptop ‘liberal’ class does not stand for anything other than despising Trump. Why don’t you guys pack up and go fight the next war that the current criminal regime is marching us towards?
What more is there to say? We have a proven, track-record-war-criminal, who certainly appears to be demented, lazily wandering us in at least the general vicinity of 2 nuclear wars and we want to keep the Trump banter going. All you Cheney-cheering propagandized dupes need to start packing because without a course correction, war is coming.
The war is coming from the same crowd that marched on the Capitol, only there will be more of them and better armed. There may be more regular military as well.
This is the most terrifying account of where we are that Professor Richardson has written. I would add to it the MSNBC reported that Grassley and Cruz both repeated the lie from the web that there are 187,000 armed IRS agents coming for US. If the DOJ cannot put a stop to unsealing the affidavit, we may be in big trouble fast. Putin must be puffing out his chest enjoying his power. Trump, Jr. should be officially reprimanded for giving “aid and comfort to the enemy.” Free speech to bring down by force a democratic government ?
As for Liz Cheney: yes, to her fight against Trump, but no to her backward-looking Republican Party. We need to keep our eyes on the EU (which is dealing with climate change more rapidly than we and taking better care of its citizens)and we must continue sending arms to Ukraine.
I for one would like some suggestions from you as to what you would do in Biden's place WRT Russia/Ukraine, and China/Taiwan. I assume those are the two areas of concern? Yes - nuclear war is worrisome to say the least. But it is not the USA that is being confrontational. Our positions (and BTW our allies as well including NATO) are in response to aggression from Russia and China. Again - what would you do?
Following this coup, the Eastern provinces, which are almost entirely inhabited by ethnic Russians, separated from the rest of Ukraine. In response to this, a civil war broke out that claimed at least 14,000 lives as the Ukrainian state attempted to reclaim this territory with US supplied weapons.
"Ukraine refused a dialogue with the separatists."
If I were Biden, I would stop the transfer of US weapons to Ukraine immediately and work to find a peace agreement before the situation worsens but good luck with that. Biden has a long record as a war-mongering maniac.
Kindly elucidate on these glittering generalities?
Ms. Cheney has exhibited courage and bravery worthy of our nations highest honor! The publisher of JFK’s ‘Profiles in Courage’ should have an editor add Ms Cheney’s fearless effort to save our democracy to that book!
Using sports as an analogy, several famous professional athletes remind themselves what counts is how effective will my next at bat be, my next throw in football, my next kick to goal in soccer, my next putt in golf! They motivate despite poor past performances.
Ms. Cheney likewise has shown that she has moved past Papa Cheney’s disastrous decisions, motivated by personal business interests, which qualify him as a war criminal.
Holy cow it is just so unbelievable watching you all fall all over yourselves defending LIZ CHENEY?!?! What happened to you guys? We used to be on the same page standing against the tyranny and lies of the Bush / CHENEY administration. I know what happened to you. In typical boomer fashion, you approach politics as if it were a soap opera which is therefore completely disconnected from reality. That explains why somehow, despite living through the LBJ Vietnam War you still equate being a good person with being a Democrat?? Trump and COVID came along and were a 1-2 punch that literally broke all of your brains. Now you are full-on pro-war, pro-censorship husks of your former selves.
May it be emblazoned on the front page of the Times. The WSJ. The washington Post and every news show’s headline story. And may every Republican senator and representative live forever in infamy and as an example of the shameful cowardice and GREED to which so called educated people people can stoop
I just happens. I think actual elephants a cool, but it seems to me (for me included) we see a lot that doesn't adequately register. It seems to me that successful, empowering leaders and movements work in part by calling attention to the hiding in plain sight.
We did not need Eric Trump to remind us of our associations of death with his father, the former president, or with right-wing extremist groups and many in the Republican Party.
‘Donald Trump's Racially Charged Advocacy of the Death Penalty’
‘The Republican frontrunner has long called for more executions—even when his proposals run afoul of the Constitution.’
‘Trump has a history of invoking the death penalty without regard for its limitations. After the brutal rape of a white jogger in Central Park in April 1989 received widespread media attention, and amid a rise in crime rates nationwide, Trump took out a full-age ad in four New York City newspapers with the title “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY! BRING BACK THE POLICE!”* He did not specifically reference the Central Park jogger attack in the ad, but its timing made the connection inescapable.’ (Atlantic)
‘Donald Trump has added a morbid new distinction to his presidency – for the first time in US history, the federal government has in one year executed more American civilians than all the states combined.’
‘Against that downward path, the actions of the Trump administration stand out as a grotesque aberration.’ (Guardian)
‘Inside Trump and Barr’s Last-Minute Killing Spree’
‘Private executioners paid in cash. Middle-of-the-night killings. False or incomplete justifications. ProPublica obtained court records showing how the outgoing administration is using its final days to execute the most federal prisoners since World War II.’
‘In its hurry to use its final days in power to execute federal prisoners, the administration of President Donald Trump has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical, according to court records that have not been previously reported.’
‘Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases. They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night.’
‘As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence’
‘Both threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life. Experts blame dehumanizing and apocalyptic language’
‘In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.’
‘While this welter of events may feel disparate, occurring at different times and places and to different types of people, scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.’
‘Several right-wing or Republican figures reacted to the search of Mar-a-Lago not only with demands to dismantle the F.B.I., but also with warnings that the action had triggered “war.”
“This just shows everyone what many of us have been saying for a very long time,” Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed House candidate in Washington State, said on a podcast run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief political strategist. “We’re at war.”
‘According to the F.B.I., there are now about 2,700 open domestic terrorism investigations — a number that has doubled since the spring of 2020 — and that does not include lesser but still serious incidents that do not rise to the level of federal inquiry. Last year, threats against members of Congress reached a record high of 9,600, according to data provided by the Capitol Police.’ (NYTimes) See gifted link to the article below.
The former president’s disregard for human life didn’t begin with his deadly mismanagement of the Covid pandemic, it is part of his nature. Our deep concern about Trump having power over the American people includes his advocates, the likes of DeSantis, right-wing extremists, and the Republican Party transformation into a cult of the personality. Our commitment to the principles of Democracy and the understanding that Democracy emphasizes the value of every human being speaks to our responsibility as citizens of the United States of America.
... so, how many years/decades passed before the 5 young men accused/convicted of the 1989 rape in Central Park were proven innocent,- and still, the sTrumpette insisted they were guilty and should have been executed ...?
And what about right-wing Republican calls to dismantle the FBI in response to the warrented search of Msr-a-Lago? Did those same voices rise in defense of black American movements for justice and equity in the sixties - or First Nations defense of sovereign treaty rights at Wounded Knee in the seventies? Of course not. Why not ...?
You ask some very good questions. The answer, sadly, imbedded in the mechanism for the founding of our country: genocide and slavery of people "different" that the white European settlers.
In my Pachamama book review group, we are reading "An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz - very revealing ... while I understand that different cultural groups may believe their own way is the best way, I do not see how anyone can justify domination through murder, rape and robbery - though it does seem to be a recurring theme through the ages of human hystery - so maybe it is 'our' turn to be 'on top' ... still, the wheel keeps turning, I do not believe we are the top of the food chain ... our time will come to succumb ... I truly hope we can find within our hearts a better way, and bring it forward in time ... the sooner the quicker ....
Including descriptions of how aggressive sociopathy (technically not the right term, but...) works. History is replete with presentations of it's consequences, but what does it look like as a system of thinking? I got a little of that in elementary school (for an hour or two) with respect to propaganda efforts of the Nazis (this a few years after WWII). It is one of the few lessons from my K-6 education I still recall in some detail.
Fern, you mentioned the brutal rape of the white jogger in Central Park in April 1989. Indeed, Trump did have those rotten ads published, but not long after that, without any evidence, businessman Donald J. Trump publicly said that all members of the falsely accused "Central Park Five", who were all black, should be put to death. As you know, they were all exonerated.
They were sentenced in 1989. It took many years of imprisonment before they were exonerated in 2002 and remunerated in 2013 to the tune of $41 million.
"Adding fuel to the fire, weeks after the attack, in May 1989, real estate developer (and future U.S. president) Donald Trump took out full-page ads in The New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post and New York Newsday with the headline, "Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!
[...]
In the years since their release, the five men accused in the Central Park case have moved on with their lives. Richardson lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. He works as an advocate for criminal justice reform. McCray lives in Georgia with his wife and six children. Santana also lives in Georgia with his teenage daughter and, in 2018, Santana started his own clothing company called Park Madison NYC. Wise lives in New York City, where he works as a public speaker and criminal justice reform advocate. Salaam is a published poet, public speaker and criminal justice reform advocate. He lives in George and is a father to 10 children."
Thanks, Mimi, for this! Those young men were so obnoxiously abused by the press and by The Don that when they were finally exonerated, I was thrilled. Let’s not forget that he was one of the loudest and original birthers regarding where Obama was born. He’s a louse, a racist, a mob boss, and the imaginary son of Hitler.
I am going to have to call my doctors for therapy, for heart meds after reading all that you posted, Fern. There is an abundance of deceit and untruths that make my blood boil and yet, these people walk free. I have no doubts now that Barr arranged Jeffrey Epstein’s death. After all, wasn’t he the last person to see him alive? Weren’t the so-called guards hands merely slapped for not checking on Epstein?
Trump unleashed the mob to do his bidding. He continues to try being relevant and he is succeeding. I don’t want to be at war but this is what our new reality is unless we hire tons and tons of people to deprogram the masses. That isn’t going to happen. Feel like we are on a terrifying roller coaster.
Marlene, We are justified in our fears about threats by Trump, the Republican Party and others make against the American people. I just skimmed the surface in listing a few their offences, without even mentioning Trump's response to violent protests in Charlottesville, Va. "you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides." It is difficult to put a cap on his, and Republicans incitement of political violence. Now they are going after IRS employees.
Senate Republican campaign chair Rick Scott, R-Fla., published an open letter encouraging job seekers not to pursue new IRS positions, vowing that Republicans, who hope to take control of Congress next year, will quickly "defund" those jobs.
Scott claimed the Biden administration will use the Democrats' newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act to create "an IRS super-police force" to "audit and investigate" ordinary Americans. "The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them," he wrote, referencing a job posting for the agency's Criminal Investigation division, which has been mischaracterized.'
'Scott's depiction of a new force of IRS agents targeting average Americans lacks basis in the text of the new law and has been dismissed by Democrats as a fabrication. It was debunked — indirectly — by formal guidance Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to the IRS.' (NBCnews). Scott is not alone.
'Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) even suggested on "Fox & Friends" last week that IRS workers armed with assault rifles would be deployed against taxpayers. He and other Republicans have falsely tossed around the number 87,000 as the size of this supposed army of agents.
"Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa?" the longtime senator asked.'. (CNN)
I don't know about accusations concerning Barr's role in Jeffry Epstein's death, Marlene. The facts are what count, and as you pointed out, the dehumanization and threats against us are not hidden, they are expressed openly as part of their propaganda of lies and intimidation.
The alarming rhetoric that you pointed out is what will bring our demise, Fern. It’s frightening but the gloves and the hoods have come off. We know what we are up against and still, we must fight fire with fire until the bitter end. My parents who were subjected to this hate by Germans emboldened by Hitler, loved this country so much. They were small business owners who were proud to pay their taxes and even have their two daughters educated in the South, in a small city, in schools that were funded by furniture industries. I am happy they are not alive to endure this pain again.
Who knows what he has but he’s evil! He’s very old and withered so maybe his brain is too. I shouldn't say that because I’m getting up in age, also. But I am not seeking to be cruel or mean like he is. Grassley, Feinstein, Mitch, Pelosi really should retire. Pelosi carried us through Covid and now, the very important J6 committee. Mitch is too much of a egomaniac and a Fed Society star to go anywhere, unfortunately. Feinstein is the one who may have dementia. Here, in CA., many want Gov. Newsom to replace her with a woman of color who is also younger. Feinstein vowed she will stay on. Ugh
It is clear that Feinstein has problems. I just find it hard to believe that someone would actually make this claim. I have long thought that Grassley should go out to pasture.
Anne-Louise, No. Trump/Republicans are making chaos, intimidation, threats. It is part of their strategy to destroy the country, which they call 'the deep state'.
I got called out for referring to death star as the occupant of the WH by a hyper aggressive MAGA who said she does refer to Mr. Biden as president which I guess says she really doesn't believe the big lie. My answer was that I don't refer to him by name or as former president. Don't know what she said after that as I blocked her.
Too kind, Sandra! I use myriad words, phrases, & symbols none of which include “President” (even lowercase) or any part of his name spelled out, such as evil agent 🟠 and ☢️. I’ve seen quite a few fiery ones here in our LFAA classroom.
Rose, HCR's letter today spurred my comment. DJT, the right-wing extremists, the Republicans et al., have caused me to think about death as my parents, grandparents, friends, teachers and history taught me. It is crucial that Americans recognize how deep and lethal this movement against us is.
Thank you, Rose. I, too, do not practice a religion, even so, I was born a Jew. Threats against the majority of Americans as well as those in and around Israel, India, et al,, strengthen my sense of being a Jew and a human being.
Hi again, Fern. I wanted to follow up on your comment sooner but had no internet access with my computer until now. I was raised Catholic; no longer practice it nor any other religion, but respect everyone else's religious freedom. When looking back at Western Civilization's history (the Just Wars, the Inquisition, the genocidal "evangelization" of the Americas, the Holocaust--just some examples), however, one cannot overlook the fact that religion itself does not determine human morality; in fact, all religions basically propose the same general tenets (such as the golden rule). On the other hand, one common thread of religious extremists, regardless of the faith they profess, is that they use their "faith" as justification for hatred and criminal behaviors. This renders them unrighteous, hypocritical, and amoral. Unfortunately, too much of this is going on lately, not only in the U.S., but throughout the world.
I just tried this with the article you posted above, and it worked. And I've been doing this for over a month now. Try it yourself. Cut it off at the question mark.
Excellent detective work, David. Who wants to be tracked, unless the newspaper does that keep 'track' of number of gifted articles per subscriber. Whether we like it or not, newspapers are operating in an endangered arena.
Dear Fern, it really just gets no less wretched, does it? All possible must be done to stop him ☢️, his ilk, and even worse ever happening!
“…scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.”
There is a place for public execution by the state, regardless of whether we are talking about ancient Greece, or the modern US. But there are couple of important things about this.
One of the first is that it needs to be a PUBLIC execution, and it needs to be an exemplary. The case should be clean, obvious justice to even the stupid, and a strong deterrent that says "Don't Ever Do This." If you disappear people in the shadows of night, it becomes a different thing altogether: it becomes a tool of state terrorism.
It should also be rare. If it is common, it argues for bad laws, corrupt courts, or a failed government.
What you describe having happened, above, is an atrocity.
I think that's a warning they are incapable of understanding. History? In the Bible, of which they are ignorant and on which they swear, there are three words spoken by a leader of the free Left who had been framed by the cult-bound Right and knew he was standing on the precipice. "What is truth?"
There seems to be two kinds of truth; the truth you know and the truth you tell. We don't ever get to know for sure, for sure, that we know the truth, or know all of it anyway; and we ( I ) probably pass along some measure of nonsense. But it is a conscious decision when we consider whether or not to tell the truth, and practice to deceive.
There is also some measure of due diligence in relation to what we choose to believe.
Jeri, deliberate ignorance is a widespread form of stupidity, especially in the USA and among the English. Many wear their ignorance as a badge of honor, thus exhibiting extreme arrogance.
This obnoxious attitude is especially prevalent among the highly privileged occupants of armor-plated mental bubbles who live and move only within gated communities, thought-free zones guarded by high walls of prejudice.
All too often the kind of misguided unfortunates who choose to believe that the material riches they have accumulated mean they are God's Chosen.
An interesting reply. And having weighed up the likely consequences and made that conscious decision to practise deceit, are we not lying? It reminds me of Kellyanne Conway's "alternative truth". Finding out that we've been deceived, even for what's fatuously called "our own good", that we've been lied to, delivers a cold shock.
Being lied to is dehumanizing, and some lies can be deadly. I don't mean trivial fudging on whether you like the sweater Grandma knitted for you, but lies that, once discovered, alter your relationship of trust of that person, even someone at a sales counter. Merited trust is essential to intimacy, and a certain degree of an environment of merited trust essential for an open society.
“To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.” - John Adams
Ari Melber is a news reporter and an attorney, He has a trusted daily program on MSNBC which is also available on Youtube broadcasted the next day. On his August 16, 2022 program he outlines in exquisitely clear logical detail how the GOP "Game" works. It is so very wonderful to see all the details and how they interact. Hopefully, now that the "Horses escaped the barn" such anti-American democracy treason mongers deceptions will forever be impossible to implement again.
His excellent analysis of the attempted coup was one of the best I've seen, with graphics illustrating how seemingly "legal" activities morphed into downright ILLEGAL activities, how they overlapped and worked in tandem and eventually culminated in what clearly is seditious conspiracy.
I lost my link to this program of Ari's and I was hoping you might be able to provide to me a way to access Ari's discussion illustrative graphics and all...please
FOUND IT! Remembered it was a Special Report so searched on that. It was on July 29 (repeated multiple times thus different memories of when it was broadcast!). Title: Inside Trump's Election Plot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2aWw-C27Rk
I will definitely do some digging and see what I can find. He did an entire show on it - a special report. I think it's probably on UTube. I'll work on it later today.
Actually, originally, July 29. It was a Special Report and broadcast multiple times subsequently. I finally found it after remembering it was a special report.
Joe McCarthy was cornered and had bit off more than he could chew, but Joseph Welch's "have you no decency" was considered fatal. Nixon was investigated primarily for "the coverup", and Republicans were inclined to vote with Democrats to impeach. It seems to me that in the decades since we have allowed the expectation of ethics and professionalism (not to mention blatant conflicts of interest) to sink back to Gilded Age levels. We have creeps like Trump and MTG, and former US attorney Sidney Powell arguing in court that political speech is inherently dishonest, and that that's OK, because we were somehow persuaded to greatly lower the bar for professional behavior in positions of great influence and responsibility.
Not only is it an excellent presentation of how the attempted coup evolved and progress, the program was repeated a number of times during the week it was broadcast, possibly more often but I only noticed about 4 times.
Tried to find it on MSNBC and Youtube without success. The Youtube link that came up seems to have been taken over by some Japanese(?) video game.... Apparently, The Beat also streams on Peacock but I don't subscribe.
FOUND IT! Remembered it was a Special Report so searched on that. It was on July 29 (repeated multiple times thus different memories of when it was broadcast!). Title: Inside Trump's Election Plot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2aWw-C27Rk
Michael, come January '23, both Cheney and Kinzinger will be out of office. As I see it, with mounting legal problems for Trump, I fear that sane people will begin to tune out the threat. Too many will feel that Trump is so damaged, and perhaps at least bankrupt, that he can no longer pose a real threat. However, he's just a symptom of the disease. There are many others who are more than willing to take his place, and the problem is not exclusive to this country. Authoritarianism is rampant world-wide, and the threat to this country remains. I believe that the Republicans remaining in politics will be more than happy to embrace a new "leader," perhaps smoother and intelligent, who will be glad to take up where the current crop left off.
Yes It is like a novel. Liz Chaney becomes the darling of the Dems and wins the presidency. Then all her policies, which were over 90% voting with Trump all these years are headed to fruition. Unequal distribution of wealth on steroids because she is s o smart, unlike He who shall not be named. then... we are in what Nancy referred to in her text as "the disease."
I refer to it as the Plague, but we are on the same page.
Joan, your analysis is amazing. Regardless of what Republicanism morphs into, it is unlikely to be good for the average person. They have always been centered around making the rich richer and more powerful, and usually at the expense of the rest of us. Unless there is a monumental change in our society, there will always be a party that is threatened by the masses, regardless of the fact that they'll have plenty to share. I bear no animus toward Liz Cheney, and in this case, she has been hugely beneficial in the effort to remove Trump from the stage. However, because of her likely upbringing, I doubt she'll ever understand the needs of the average person. The mere fact that she voted for Trump, and enabled his atrocities, speaks volumes, in my opinion. He never presented himself as anything but himself - everyone knew.
True, but let's try to keep them at bay, by whatever means, for at least another four years. The oldest will be gone, the young will be coming into their strength. Yes, there's an outcrop of authoritarianism worldwide, but in each case the rulers have imposed themselves contrary to the wishes of the majority. Something's got to give. But full many a gem of purest ray serene the dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear, and let us not forget that.
I agree, Anne-Louise. We can't permit a minute of inattention, and I'm impressed with our young voters. Like Ukraine, we have lived with relative freedom and democracy, and I doubt that authoritarianism will go over well with the populace. I hope I don't jinx us, but it wouldn't surprise me if we did much better in the midterms than is currently predicted.
Exactly. Authoritarianism coupled in this country with white supremacy and a truly terrifying arsenal of firearms. It's tempting to focus too much on Trump, but it's also very dangerous.
“We will be sifting through the wreckage of Trump's authoritarian presidency for years. This episode may one day be clarified but others will undoubtedly come to light, because everything is for sale in the strongman's world.” I would change “for years” to for decades, but Ruth Ben-Ghiat certainly enlightens on the Financial Times claim!!
As a regular listener to (and member of) Deep State Radio, where Ed Luce is a regular, I can testify that he is not given to hyperbole and exaggeration. That and his extensive experience make his statement all the more powerful.
In this episode of Letters from a Propagandist, Heather Cox Richardson laments the loss of war-criminal imperialist Liz Cheney, a character who deserves nothing but contempt from the American population which overwhelmingly desires peace in the world by virtue of an end to the nightmarish wars of which Cheney and her blood-thirsty vampire of a father are largely responsible.
While I prefer to ignore "Charles" and "David Carroll" I have reported to you all that in the last few days I'm seeing a very large uptick in trolls, and others who are "wolves in sheep's clothing:" As Sharon says, interesting that you pay to come on here. NO not a surprise to me: Biden is scoring big wins, Trump is digging his grave and the Conservatives are running scared. They THINK that planting seeds to sow discord on here will somehow help their side. I find this hilarious, actually, because I have seen many examples of people here having differences of opinions and respectfully debate each other, generally with links to genuine sources. The book "On Tyranny" addresses some of this I was told, (I have ordered it but it has not yet come) by stating that Conservatives are motivated by FEAR, and the GOP utilizes this to control them. That isn't going to work with this crowd, the likes of Sandy Lewis, TCinLA, Ellie Kona, Ellen Massey, Ally House, etc etc (can't name you all know who you are!)
I am truly enjoying seeing these trolls appear as it confirms my beliefs that they are getting pretty anxious.
I did not know about the ability to report trolls. I do like the feature of being able to mute people, wish it was here as well.
Interesting that you paid for a subscription to come out and attack the author. How many other writers do you pay so you can spread hate and conspiracies? No one here will take you seriously and I wouldn’t blame Heather for removing you because of personal attacks.
Many thanks, Ellen! I’ve done the same over this trolling nastiness he has spewed again and again. Our dear Fern is right, his bating of her seems quite stalkerish.
Only Heather, not that that is any of your business. By the way, how do you spread conspiracies? You mean conspiracy Theories? It's not a theory if the theory is true and right out in the open.
Right. But if you can’t debate and comment like an adult and feel the need to be abusive to the author you don’t deserve to be here. No one should be expected to deal with personal attacks and abuse. You have the right to state your opinion but abuse goes too far. I didn’t say anything about your first nonsensical reply I read but you went too far. The only point you have made here is that you are an abusive prepubescent bully not worthy of being allowed in this forum. It is my business when you abuse anyone. Verbal abuse leads to physical abuse.
"Abuse"? Get out of here with that BS. News flash Sharon, calling Heather a propagandist, which she is, is not abuse. Maybe you should consider the harm you are doing to real survivors of abuse by so lightly and irresponsibly throwing around that term. I recommend you pick your words a bit more carefully,
Now you’ll attack me. It’s the personal, targeted attacks that make you abusive.
Before you think I use the word lightly, I spent years working in abuse shelters and every single case started out with some jerk feeling it was his job to be verbally abusive and moved into being physically abusive. You find it easy to be abusive, abrasive and even now instead of taking it on board that this is how you come across you make weak excuses and double down. I’m not harming the survivors, I’m standing up for them.
Heather is a historian, show some respect for the work she puts in. The only reason you’re here is to be abusive. You admit you think, with no basis in fact, that you think she’s lying to you. Why would you pay for someone to lie to you?
TFG hasn't killed the Cheney dynasty, if it's even worthy of being called such. Liz Cheney hasn't retired from the political scene yet, probably won't. Eric has never shown himself to be anything other than a fool, yet he continues to find a way into the public ear. TFG IS the Trump Organization. It's a private company, and he administered it like the wannabe dictator he attempted to become over the USA. To restrict a civil suit to the organization and not it's owner-operator was a compromise from the start. Nothing happened in that organization without either the impetus or the assent of TFG.
What can conviction yield? Fines, requirements for future external audit/oversight? The company needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. The fines should exceed it's net worth. It's scion needs to be behind bars. It's assets need to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the US Treasury. Our justice system, on every level, has to demonstrate the courage to ignore his title and conduct itself according to the sum total of his actions pre-, during and post-presidency. Rising to the highest office in the land doesn't change the fact that he's a criminal. It's the height of embarrassment that our nation elected a criminal in spite of overwhelming information accurately predicting his subsequent behavior in office. We need to "cancel" the weight of that decision and it's innoculative effect on the wheels of justice. We need to own and conduct ourselves according to the quote "no man is above the law".
Nathan, you wrote “It's the height of embarrassment that our nation elected a criminal in spite of overwhelming information accurately predicting his subsequent behavior in office.” Yes! And what’s disturbing is that half the voters in this country, an estimate, would vote for him again.
JL, yes very interesting. And 2016! We should not be surprised. TFG’s ties to criminal elements was one more election story that repub voters ignored. Power corrupts.
Irenie, I might be nit-picking over word choice and, if so, apologies, but I think it was worse than ignoring his ties to organized crime. I think they knew every bit of that, knew exactly what he was, and made a very conscious, deliberate decision to choose him. And by "they" I mean the power brokers and the deep pockets in organizations like The Federalist Society with whom a man like McConnell made a devil's bargain. I am as far away from being a conspiracy theorist as it's possible to be, but the nearly invisible network of these people seem, in fact, to have been pulling the strings for quite a long time.
Yes. It seems VERY unlikely th e"powers that be" in the R party would not have known all about Trump in 2016 and his criminal activities. If we in the boonies knew, surely they did.
Dean, not nit-picking, but looking from a different angle. Perhaps the general public, the repubs who vote the party, just like it’s in the family, heritage to be a repub or Dem. They don’t always pay attention if they vote at all. Yes, the Federalist Society has been installing elected officials and SCOTUS behind the scenes. Plus there’s the Claremont Institute connection to Eastman. The behind the scenes “votes.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/24/claremont-john-eastman-trump/
Perhaps, more than family voting patterns (though I'm sure that figures into it) is kids who are taught by their parents that they have all the right answers and parents who see themselves as preparing kids for their own adventure. But Eisenhower Republicans seem very different from Reagan Republicans, let alone Lincoln Republicans, let alone Trump Republicans. Nixon was dishonest, but it seemed to me that party-wide, organized big lies began with Reagan, and somehow those lies were erosive of the common weal, yet a massive basket of goodies for those in position to initiate de facto bribery and market monopolies; the ultra rich.
It seems to me that as a nation that is identified with self-governance, we spend remarkably little time exploring, detailing, discussing as a national conversation, where we want/need to go to promote and protect the rights of individuals and the common good. Its more like commercial marketing, where we "buy" somebody else's shrink-wrapped product; and TV seems to have made this more so. Modern presidential "debates" seem more like TV game shows than the sort of depth one finds in Lincoln-Douglas, and yet out fates still hang in the balance.
Thanks for that J L. It just goes to show the depth of his despicable behavior. It appears that the connections run very deep. No wonder he gets away with all that he does.
That might not be all negative though. Now other countries know what the USA is and can proceed accordingly, knowing we are packed with a bunch of white supremacists and low-level complainers, neither of which wants to deal with the complexities of a democracy. To preserve the democracy, they need to recognize our pluralistic society and work together to make a decent country for law abiding citizens. At least other countrires now know the truth about America.
I can't avoid knowing that, although we aren't the Republicans and we aren't Trump or the stormers of the capitol and we certainly aren't Putin, I do bear some responsibility. We liberals (and that's not right--I can only say this liberal sitting here typing) tend to be self-righteous about our position on the moral high ground. We also have ignored over too many decades the growing economic divide in this country. Pogo. 1971 "We have met the enemy and he is us" Edmund Burke, 18th century England "The only thing required for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing." In 2016 we were too confident, we dismissed Trump, ignored all the signs, assumed the victory, underestimated the racist backlash.
I don't dwell on that, but I find it hard to look away from it.
"We need to own and conduct ourselves according to the quote "no man is above the law"."
"To restrict a civil suit to the organization and not it's owner-operator was a compromise from the start. Nothing happened in that organization without either the impetus or the assent of TFG."
Nathan, as far as I know, no black man in history has ever been accorded the amazing concept of owning a criminal enterprise but being exempt from prosecution and jail.
Not a single large crack dealer in Baltimore has ever had his business indicted while he was separated from prosecution personally. Not one. In fact, those black men were put in jail for 40 years in some cases.
Separating the owner from the business is an amazing concept that would only be accorded to a rich white man to ensure that he never spends time in jail no matter how criminal he is. A fundamental rule in America.
Recognizing these deals, which are common for white men and non-existent for the rest of America INCLUDING white women (remember Martha Stewart), is quite important.
Unless we understand how America is really organized and run, we cannot change it.
Possibly, it's that T. employs "fixers" a la the Mafia. He has a large team of shyster lawyers who wrangle and connive, while he keeps his hands umm, elsewhere. It all never quite touches him. And if at first they don't succeed in court, they appeal endlessly. One of the reasons the Mar a Lago investigation is so compelling is that it appears there is no one to stand in the way of a direct indictment of Trump this time.
Hope, excellent point! His modus operandi is to insulate himself with layers of people he can eventually disavow and scapegoat. People who eventually realize their loyalty was one-sided when they're callously discarded (a la Michael Cohen.)
He'll try the same for Boxgate. "Other people catalogued and chose the contents" and "I didn't know what was in there." But it won't work this time.
The Box Stops Here. Garland has him by the short ones.
indeed; look what it's doing for TFG's accountant. 15 felonies, 4 months in jail (probably time already served) and a fine. The guy should be locked up until his bones turn to dust.
Good morning, Mike, and thank you for stretching our perspective a little further by simply pointing out the facts about separation of organization and owner. My first response, honestly, was, "Well, s--t, of course there's racism!" There are very few constants in this young country of ours, built by wealthy white men on a foundation of genocide, but two that are readily identifiable are money and racism. At this moment in our history, I am horrified to observe that we sure didn't get very far forward before we started going backward. Some days I just think I've gotten too old to look at this. Where are Odessa and Baez when we need some songs?
I have become aware, over half a century of "making good trouble" that the one thing I cannot do, for all my liberal white good intentions, is to say to my black friends that I know how they feel. I don't. I know about pain, physical and emotional; I know about rejection because of the person I am and the choices I've made; I know there is a great deal I can do to tear down a few of the walls of racism in the country. But I have also learned that all that does not allow me to really know. To me, however, it is an "of course." Donald Trump, the power boys and the hard cash behind him, and the violence that flows in his wake, is not a sudden, bizarre accident that we will fix. One reason I think everybody is jumping on Joe Biden is that we believed he would put the evil genie back in the bottle and we could stop thinking about it. Too late. The monster that is our underbelly is out and roaming the countryside looking for fresh meat.
I'm getting a little melodramatic here so I'll stop.
It makes me so happy to find many kindred spirits here. I wonder if we, with much gratitude to the folks who contribute their wisdom to sub-stacks a la Heather Cox Richardson, are not forming a new "tribe?" I'm beginning to feel that keenly. It almost feels like birthing a child, or creating a synthesis. I am (on purpose) very slowly rereading The Dawn of Everything. I am drawn to the speculation that there were groups of people who had no societal hierarchy, did not evaluate women's "work" to be any less valuable than men's "work," and apparently made community decisions by consensus. A true democracy, albeit simple.
I love this, Hope. I'd say yes and yes to every word of it. It occurs to me that we are struggling to survive in a world gone entirely mad and what you describe is perhaps the only way. Rather than engage in battle with that world we are building our own small worlds within it. Maybe that's the sane way back to some kind of normalcy. Thank you so much. What a lovely way to start my day.
Will we ever do that? Not sure how generations of mass incarceration, lynchings, white terrorism can be overcome enough to make equal justice a reality.
Carol, today my answer to your question would have to be 'no.' I was reading this morning about all the states that are initiating some version of book banning for schools and a huge part of that is to stop the teaching of the facts of the history of slavery and violent racism in this country. We will never change what we refuse to admit. Book banning is on the road to book-burning. If we control what our children read, we control what they know and, ultimately, what they think. This is state-sponsored censorship. Read about any dictatorship in the world and the suppression of information is at the top of the list of how they start and how they operate. And they are starting with our children!!
Probably, but if it were only Florida and Texas, it would still be bad news but not a crisis. From what I've read, between 13-15+ states are sniffing around the edges of this kind of state-mandated insanity. And once all those states out there--the ones you can't quite remember--get on board, I think the domino effect will take over. It's the way every single dreadful and democracy-defeating event has occurred. There's such a mesmerizing show in the center ring that we don't notice the rather bland changes that will change the game before we know it. One of the basic principles of the successful creation of an authoritarian state. We have been bombarded with uninterrupted noise/lights/chaos for seven years now. It requires more and more effort to stay focused, to pay attention, to act.
That said, those are exactly the things we must do and I am determined to grab my cane and hobble out into the war.
Much of the 20th Century involved public empowerment by workers, women, minorities, anti-war, etc. Not that any of those battles were ever decisively won, but there was measurable progress, not all of which has been curtailed. We had a recent black president, and a female presidential nominee who won the popular vote by quite a bit. Gay rights seem stronger now than in the last century even with concerted resistance to them, which varies regionally. Recreational drug policies seem far saner in many states than in the past.
But the movement to use the law to undermine the democratic basis of the law appears stronger than ever, and much progress is being reversed or is under concerted attack. I am hoping the the Jan 6th Committee and other revelations of extreme, organized "GOP" criminality can be used a seed for organizing resistance and plotting a different course. There is a great deal at stake, including the ongoing livability of the planet, which seems unwise for anyone to just sit out.
Not sure, but just looking at nations around the globe, some seem, for the most part, more just and some decidedly less, so better-than-it-is seems possible, despite pervasive corruption. The despots are still a minority but big money is behind them, and that is a serious threat. I think there remains an opening for solidarity to triumph, if enough of us have it in us. I am hoping that at least some at the edges of politics are getting tired of hearing of all the posturing and lies and might be open to a different vision.
Nathan,your comment just triggered a thought. Perhaps there should be a movement to cancel the results of the 2016 election, and wipe the slate clean of his entire presidency due to Russian interference and the multiple crimes committed.
Better yet, wipe the pardons he gave to criminals like Stone and Manafort, off the records. Imprison them! Then go after Sessions, Stephen Miller, Barr, Nunes, Kavanaugh, Ginni Thomas and hubby, Coney Barrett, etc.
Hi Karen I think denying history and what is possible ( and has happened in fact) would never be the way to go. That's maybe how we got into the mess we are in now. As Faulkner said:
Hello, Joan, and thank you. On another day of horrors in the news and despair in many of the comments, stumbling on someone who quotes Faulkner might be the saving of my sanity for another 24 hours.
And just so you know, I'm considering ending my morning reading of Dr. Richardson's newsletter, making a cup of tea, and settling in to re-read a Faulkner novel.
One of the magic events in my long teaching life was when I taught a little Faulkner novel, The Unvanquished, to a class of h.s. sophomores. I started out with a truly obnoxious lit crit intro lecture about Faulkner, his importance in the blah blah blah and I realized I was looking out at a sea of 12-15 pairs of glazed eyes. One kid was actually asleep and, let me tell you, with Mommy and Daddy writing big checks every year, even teenagers manage to stay awake! And I was the recipient of pure grace when it became clear to me what the solution was. I said, basically, put your notebooks away, close your eyes, and listen. And I started on the first page and I read until the class ended. That novel turned out to be most students' favorite. Much of Faulkner is really difficult but this novel is a dream to teach if the teacher will just shut up :-)
You would’ve turned out to be one of my favorite teachers! This makes me think of Dead Poets Society a little bit. Thanks for sharing a literary moment with me!
Hi, Joan. I wasn't saying deny history, rather that it was an "illegitimate " presidency. I hate thinking about his having a presidential funeral, although that's the least of my worries. TFG has been a grifter, mobster and crook since childhood, as was his father.
" Today, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has recently been in the news for his defamation of the parents of a victim of the Sandy Hook shooting, announced on his show that he is switching his support to DeSantis."
With DeSantis you get to keep the MAGA floor show, but you skip all the legal song and dance routines and get a new version of American history forced on our school systems to boot.
DeSantis's new Florida school curriculum training reads like something created by the "Fascist Supreme Court Six." He's trying to train teachers to indoctrinate students with a Christian Nationalist rewriting of the founding of our country. He talked about keeping "woke indoctrination" out of schools in favor of his newly minted rightwing Christian fairytale version of our history: light on actual facts and heavy on pushing the mixing of Christianity and "State" as the "original" intention of our founding fathers, while white washing the sins of slavery. In a post truth political mob like the new Republican fascist party, you can select any facts you desire to start pounding into the country's school children. DeSantis appears to like the Viktor Orban/Vladimir Putin autocratic style of teaching history, i.e. history is whatever he says it was.
I think the J6 Committee and the DOJ plus the Fulton County District Attorney, among others, have started the former president down the drain simply by beginning to hold him accountable for some of his many criminal and anti-American behaviors.
It's now time to start holding Ron DeSantis's feet to the fire of Christian Nationalism that he's been stoking so diligently. Most of America does not want to live in a post-truth country run by cold-hearted autocrats who only care about themselves and their power. We don't want a dictator named Donald and we sure don't want a younger version named Ronald.
American school children have been told fairytales instead of history since the beginning of the nation's birth. Again (and I know I'm preaching to the choir) A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn) should replace all the fairytale "history" books in the US school systems.
By calling DeSantis's preferred history of America a "Christian fairytale," I was not commenting on the accuracy of the current school history books. I appreciate your point. Careful scholars could create educational materials for use across this country that more closely reflect the historical truth than current books. (And this could be done without "making white children ashamed of themselves" as far right wing Republicans claim it would.) To your point, starting out with that truth would be much better for the people of our country. However, to take what has been taught (at least in public schools) up until now and radically dismember it to rebuild our history to indoctrinate all children according to the Christian Nationalist "dream" of what Americans should believe, is much more existentially dangerous and as totally unacceptable to democracy (or to a republic) as is Trump's BIG LIE. That is my immediate concern.
Chris, I agree that both are worth reading. FWIW, the Nevins and Commager volume was knocked out hurriedly in 1942 by two esteemed historians of America. It was noted as being read by many armed forces members during the war. Its epigraph from Benét's "Listen to the People" includes the lines:
Agreed, but Jones is just jumping tracks from one train to another which has the prospect of selling more useless supplements. He'll have to be careful though because making additional profits might undermine his claims of bankruptcy.
"Most of America does not want to live in a post-truth country run by cold-hearted autocrats who only care about themselves and their power."
Unfortunately, CC, many Americans either explicitly or implicitly, in their own mind, DO want a "post-truth country run by cold-hearted autocrats who only care about themselves and their power".
There is a LOT of discomfort for those embedded in the religious "belief space" world when the "reality" world encrouches into their minds. That discomfort is removed under a single entity that tells them what they want to hear but does whatever he wants. It will be a he by the way.
Really, we have to understand how many Americans are uncomfortable in a free form America where folks tell the truth openly and question things like "Did Jesus Resurrection really occur or was it invented (for some reason)." A great question correct? One that I attempted to answer in my younger days through research, and, gave up. There is no real evidence of resurrection so it boils down to a choice we make for ourselves. But, just saying that will cause some Christians to pass out from stress associated with internal dissonance.
Because, long back, I struggled, mightily, with discomfort in these domains as the real world impinged on my belief world, I completely understand the level of discomfort with free form, open discussion truth. My level of discomfort was unbelievable. I grunted through it like a day in the watermelon fields and came out with a new perspective .... and into the world of reality and data. Really, it was not easy. It took time. It was stressful. Sometimes still is as I navigage my old friends and family.
Since that time, I have become inured to asking any question and applying data and rational underpinnings to the answer. But, many Americans reside where I once was: Belief Space.
MANY Americans would be very HAPPY indeed with someone telling them what they want to hear and robbing them blind. As long as what they believe is not questioned, not wondered about and not threatened by data or rational analysis.
I think your ability to question and explore authority is very healthy and led you in a deep search like working in the watermelon fields. I worked in those same fields and, fortunately, had a mother who was very open-minded a seeker of Truth. I feel much gratitude to her for our talks when I earnestly questioned the idea of being a "sinner" at 9 years old. She agreed and supported me completely and that set me to incorporating what feels right and Truth from many religions and beliefs and dumping the rest that felt like control or placation and just made up. I always pondered "Why Are We Here?" followed by "Why Death?" Appears to be me to be the Great Anxiety of being Human. As I entered the world of education and psychology it seems like such a primary factor we all must contend with. Our mortality. In working in the field of death, dying and grief, I saw how religious thought soothed some people and how near death experiences, reincarnation and the concepts of Big Daddy and heaven, or a Unified Field we are all part of, or parallel realities, and Quantum Physics--all can help different people contend with the mysteries life. And for others, I see how they just need someone to give them answers they can hold onto...it would have been so much easier if I just bought the Big Daddy and heaven idea. I just am one of those not wired that way. I love your words "Belief Space." That seems to be what I have been exploring most of my life. Belief Systems seem to be the placaters of our underlying human anxiety of being temporal beings. It would have been a lot easier in my life if I had just found a religion or belief system to placate that biological anxiety and just enjoy LIFE. And I sure explored and still am. Today, I am exploring that our anxiety might actually be within our nervous systems and purely biological. Doing things we love, music, art, dance, forest & garden bathing, or just being in water reduces our biological anxiety. And even focusing on deep breathing proves we can alter our anxiety in biofeedback.
Sorry for this morning dip... Some of us were born to be seekers or explorers. No rest for the wicked ;-) But there might be a message in there for all those dealing with our anxieties of our political/religious crisis. Immerse yourself in something that takes you into total present moment, or timelessness like listening/playing music, immerse yourself in painting, or having tea or something stronger with one of your favorite people. Learn something new. Or play with a child. May each of us find some peace and breathe away discomforts so we can re-enter each day or moment as a rejuvenated Self participating in the re-creation of our new country with others. As Ellie says, For All The People this time.
Bravo to your Mom! What I especially take away from your morning musing is the fact that you walked your journey -as uncomfortable as it was ( I have done it also ) BUT did not demand that the world conform to YOU. That’s the difference. I have no problem understanding someone’s belief space until it says it owns the decision about my uterus.
Absolutely! Do not put your belief system onto others! As a community, we have to agree on the rules in order to function. But then leave individual Belief Space to each person as long as it does not impinge on their lives. It does not belong in government, particularly in the Melting Pot as we are so lucky to live in. Diversity in all things should be celebrated and explored rather than compared and judged. Would it not be a boring country if we are all palefaces and one religion? Geeze.
I have a new litter of kittens. That is my balm and my salvation. The momma cat came to live with me and my partner and our dog in rural India. Just living here is a balm, away from big city noise, stress, illness, homelessness…..your reflections are wonderful and this forum is another place I find solace. Intelligent people, with hearts and compassion for all of us. All The People. Thank you, Pensa.
Oh, kitten balm! Yes, this community is such a lifeline during this turmoil. Aren't we so lucky that Heather created this and so many of us were ripe and ready to plunge in with her and one another? It is a great world in here.
Breaker! Breaker! Well, Peter, my name is really Penelope, but my Italian friends called me Pensa Positivo which I try to live up to! I have been tested greatly over the past 7 years in that kind of thinking, but I really strive to keep it above the fray! Thanks for your kind words, now Over and out!
"if I just bought the Big Daddy and heaven idea. I just am one of those not wired that way."
"Belief Systems seem to be the placaters of our underlying human anxiety of being temporal beings."
Pensa, first, thank you for one of the most thoughtful posts I have read anywhere in a long time. Second, thank you for sharing your own personal walk through very personal transitions.
Lastly, no apology needed, to me at least.
I like this sentence the best: "May each of us find some peace and breathe away discomforts so we can re-enter each day or moment as a rejuvenated Self participating in the re-creation of our new country with others"
An absolutely wonderful post. Thank you. And, my good wishes in your travel through mortality.
Mike, gee, many thanks for inspiring me to write by sharing your own thoughts. And ditto for good wishes for you own "travels through mortality" as well as other folks here.
Pensa, thank you for this honest and insightful post. You have reminded me of the value of meditation and the peace that can accompany it. I need to resume.
Thank you for your valuable perspective, Mike. I've been painfully aware that a minority of Americans believe exactly as you so thoughtfully explained. And I've long imagined how comforting it would be to believe as they do, if I didn't care about truth and facts. As I read your comment, I wondered what percentage of the fear and desire for an "all knowing father figure" on earth has been encouraged by certain segments of organized religion and politics. I have no idea. But I have read about many pastors who are leading their followers down the fascist path rolled out by the political far right wing...ignoring the idea of the separation of church and state. I have also heard how politicians have used this fear to claim that religious folks are somehow being attacked by the rest of society. I may have missed something, but I'm not aware of Christian churches being attacked or shut down in this country because of their beliefs. I still believe that the majority of Americans are less concerned with the religious belief of their neighbor than they are with the goodness in that neighbor's heart.
My question is, how much less fearful would this "autocrat-accepting" minority be if their awareness of changing times were not falsely exacerbated by the Republican party and various power hungry religious leaders?
I highly recommend the absolute best book ever written on the origin of (many) preachers: Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis.
This book is a walk through my early rural life and (a fair number) of the preachers I met. I think the book captures the reality of a preacher or leader of a church. Where the residents of the pew desire assurance and emotion......to part with their money.
"I still believe that the majority of Americans are less concerned with the religious belief of their neighbor than they are with the goodness in that neighbor's heart."
I am not sure CC. I know some folks that will get pretty nasty in the face of any uncertainty in another individual around that person's belief. OR, worse, begin a targeted process of "saving" your sorry unbeliever arse CC.
I'm sure there are PLENTY of determined, self-appointed "arse savers" out there, Mike. But if they correlate closely with the MAGA cult, then they aren't the majority.
I'm referring to the average person who has their own opinion about religion or lack thereof, but accepts that others may believe differently, isn't threatened by it (absent religious-based aggressive behavior by a neighbor) and doesn't bring up the subject in casual conversations.
The book banning in Florida is so extreme that some school districts are not buying new books for school libraries because they won’t have the screening process in place until after 2023 begins. The fascism is real in Florida, folks-a Governor who mask-shames children in television, punishes corporations who don’t now to him, and who has the deaths of countless citizens on his hands because of a refusal to endorse a mask-mandate in schools. I live here-it’s real.
What can we do to help? I lived on Singer Island for six years 2013-19. I know the place. There are many good Floridians. If I were a parent of children being subjected to stupidity I would become so active the school board would wish I were never born!
We need to vote him out. However, his war chest is beyond enormous and there are so very many rednecks who love his policies and so very many “Christians” who are devoted to his “Christian” Nationalistic policies-I try to remain hopeful, but it’s difficult. His brand of “Christianity” isn’t something I recognize. I’d like to think that if we could vote him out now it might temper his fevered race for the Oval which is already underway.
I have a question :) I think of “woke” as meaning anti-racist. So when someone like DeSantis uses it as a pejorative, is he not explicitly saying that his state will continue to support racism? Or can someone give me a more specific, brief definition of “woke”? Googling it provided things along the lines of being aware of the dangers of racism.
IMHO, "woke" is the right-wing's definition of anything remotely liberal--especially related to LGBTQ, gender equality, women's rights, transgender students' rights, separation of church and state, support for gun safety regulations, librarians who don't censor books, and the list goes on and on. Anything not in the right-wing's wheelhouse is automatically "woke," most assuredly including anti-racism.
The origins clearly had to do with racism. One thing about wiki is it can give a general consensus or a majority opinion (LOL) on the cultural meaning of a phrase frequently repeated. 🙂 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
“Trump has lost Alex Jones. He announces today he is off the Trump train: ‘I am supporting Desantis .. I can look into his eyes on HD video, and I see the real sincerity.’”
How in the sam heck does Alex Jones slavishly announce that he is now enamored with the “sincerity” in Desantis’s eyes when there is no reflection of that when he looks in a mirror.
That is utterly ridiculous. What a poser.
And by the way….what one sees looking in the eyes of the current guv of Florida is avarice and naive political spite.
Support in any way you can his opponents…Crist and/or Fried in November election.
Cannot black, Hispanic,LGBTQ, etc parents start sueing in FL for their child’s “history” lessons making them feel uncomfortable? All our daughters sitting in “history”class in FL can be assured of being “uncomfortable” about the lessons.
Any surprise that almost 10,000 vacancies existed at the beginning of the school year? And Ron's DOE has made it possible for veterans and their spouses...without a college education or teaching certificate... to fill those vacancies. Yesterday he announced he wants to do the same for retired "public servants" such as law enforcement, fire fighters, EMTs, and the like. And have the State pay for Associates Degrees and teacher certification. SMDH
I have a vision of the Taliban: The purpose of education is to teach reading and writing solely to read the (Bible) and never to question it is true. Not sure of any other subjects such as art and math or technology and medicine. Heaven forbid the study of astronomy lest it reveal other worlds than earth. Education for girls and women is optional in as much as they should marry early and never ever have an abortion. It is similar for children of other races and nationalities because their role is clearly (sarcasm) to support the world of business, which is the ultimate goal of the neo-Republicans, i.e. state sponsored capitalism.
Liz Cheney's speech conceding the primary included a vow to make sure that Trump is never again near the Oval Office. I asked for help finding her full speech because none of the major news outlets showed the full video. Rowshan Nemazee provided the link to the complete video. Thank you Rowshan!
Also today Robert Reich wrote about the demise of the Republican Party in his SubStack blog. He generously provided a full transcript of the Liz Cheney speech at the end of his blog post. Please share that transcript widely. It looks like the Cheney dynasty ain't dead yet.
It is indeed a magnificent speech! But it's important to remember that Cheney has voted against every major bill that Biden's gotten through Congress to help the American people (including the veterans poisoned by burn pits) and keep American industry inside our borders, and supports the right of each state to make and enforce it's own grotesque laws against female autonomy (including the Ohio law intended to force a 10-year old rape victim to give birth). She is, as she says, "a proud conservative." We can't afford that. I honor her courageous commitment to democracy. But Prof. Reich's former colleague Bob Kuttner has this warning in *The American Prospect*, a political magazine they co-founded: https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/liz-cheney-product-warning-label/
I don’t support her extreme conservative politics either, yet we need every advocate to help save our democracy, including those who are credible to conservatives and take their stand against a Trump coup. As is often said, this is a case where my enemy’s enemy is at least a key ally.
I watched Liz Cheney’s speech, which was excellent, but disingenuous. Her voting right along with most others of her party for stripping away reproductive healthcare for women, not protecting voting rights shows her lack of concern for ordinary people. I do applaud her courage in standing up for the truth regarding January 6. She lost the Republican primary. So did Lisa Murkowski at one point. Wonder how Liz Cheney would do as a write-in candidate? P.S. I’m not sure Liz Cheney and her father constitute a dynasty, only two people.
I found the full text of Cheny’s concession speech on Robert Reich’s substack also. Thank you for posting it here for the group. I can admire Cheny’s speech writing skills and also push back on the wisdom of her legislative philosophy and positions. As Democrats/Progressives/Liberals or simply “not conspiracy-loving-alternative-fact-baptized” individuals, we have to STOP looking for saviors. WE are the only ones who can save the Republic and have it reflect an open, tolerant society. That’s WE TOGETHER. Some will be in the limelight, most will not. But never again must we forget it is the WE we need to educate, consolidate, activate, and mobilize.
"Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
Let's not pretend that today's GOP has sprung full grown from Trump's deviant brain. Most immediately, Trump's Party of Nihilism grew out of McConnell's Party of No - and both are informed by the Evangelical apocalyptic wet dreams of GW Bush's Politics of Faith. And that's just for starts.
Nihilistic, contemptible, dangerous? Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney ...
.....Ronald Reagan, Lindsey Graham, Tom DeLay, Lee Atwater, GHWBush, Karl Rove...Richard Nixon. They and so many more members of the GOP, who have lost any moral or intellectual principle or allegiance to democracy, are the fathers of the current gang of fascist thugs and thieves. Thank you, lin.
And for 90% of his policies. She believes a woman’s uterus should be owned by the State. My Body, Her Choice. We laud Cheny for sitting on the J6 Committee. Yet in reality, sitting on a committee looking into the facts about an Insurrection and Disruption to the Peaceful Transition of Power, is something ALL members of congress should believe is important and fully support. That only two gop think this is important enough to soberly and respectfully cooperate with is shameful. Holding them up as exemplars of courage, says we are in a truly awful situation. Calling the gop/tump affiliates that after a year finally talk under oath to the J6 committee “Hero’s” is shameful, again. At every step they knew what trump was doing and they were okay with it. At every step they could have pushed back, but they did not. They could have outed him. But they did not. They could have put country over party. But they did not. Only under great pressure did any of them finally fess up. And all of them still support the policies of trump. So never forget that Cheny is doing the job she swore an oath to do. Nothing more. It’s like Dems are experiencing Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Liz.
I would say it's very much something "more." And she was not "OK with it at every step." But I agree with you 100% about her policy ideas and her voting record. And the Stockholm Syndrome aspect, yes--I was trying to think how it put it last night, this wash of sentimental gratitude, and that's exactly it. I'm grateful for her admirable work on the Committee and her willingness to give up power. But she's a Republican neoliberal hawk.
She is now merely out for revenge now against Trump. Her dad’s dynasty vs. Trump and Company. I will not fawn over Liz. She is doing the right thing by being a part of the J6 committee and for that, we are admiring her. She has disregarded women and our rights. That alone, makes her an unattractive presidential candidate, plus the fact that her dad is an outright criminal. Leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.
When his father is led from the courtroom in handcuffs after sentencing, please remind me to seek out Beavis for a quote, unless he himself is already in handcuffs.
Eric thinks this is Game of Thrones, but there’s one “dynasty” left to kill: his family’s. And what about the blond chick with the dragons? The one from Wyoming?? Not dead yet. Though I’m not seeing a lot of Dems voting for her in a presidential contest.
Going on looks, I'd say Butthead. I think Donny looks more like Beavis. Unless I have them backwards.
I have never watched enough to learn this. The funniest application of these two characters I have ever seen was in a PR-24 Instructor Trainer class I was in. One of my fellow deputies designed the "escalation of trauma"* chart with B&B as the heads on the diagrams.
*Because this is "in-group speak", the "escalation of trauma" chart showed various parts of the human body as colors (green for less trauma, yellow for more trauma and risk of additional injury, and red for the most trauma, with the warning that strikes to those areas could be viewed as deadly force i.e. the head and soft belly/kidney areas. In this class we had to design and present visual aids to show our acumen as instructors. I guess.
"Last night, my father killed another political dynasty, and that’s the Cheneys. He first killed the Bushes, then he killed the Clintons. Last night he killed the Cheneys.” So Eric Trump, former president Donald Trump’s son, interpreted the primary loss by Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) last night."
This is, perhaps, one of the most horrifying statements i have heard in my life. I grew up as a child of the 50s and 60s where hope for all, regardless of religion, color, ethnicity was a goal. We sang songs and marched about overcoming and arriving on another shore.Yet here we are in 2022 having an astonishing number of politicians ripping pages of the Constitution into shreds to satisfy the deranged vision of a madman. I am at a loss for words. My heart is in pieces. I am forlorn. Please, do not tell me to have hope, send another text or post card. The brutality of the Trump vision is mortally destructive for us all.
We are at a point where passivity is no longer appropriate. Going high has left us in a mud pit.
Passivity is never appropriate. Active resistance is. That the fight is hard and will get harder, I admit yes. Despair? I feel it and fight against it daily. We lived through a time when we believed in saviors. Not anymore. Facing this reality that only WE can save this Republic is a harsh bite. Acknowledging that bullies fight cruelly and toss out norms and rules, really shocks my system. But Daria, I MUST tell you to have Hope. I read your comments every day on this newsletter and get my second wind often by some comment or piece of wisdom you pass on. There are opportunities for us in all this smashing, and grinding up of civil discourse. I often sustain my courage and hope by the constructive comments, advice, and activity of our newsletter family.
I so get your feelings that you express in your next to the last paragraph, Daria! You are not, however, “at a loss for words”. Unless we Dems find a trojan horse to battle these evil forces, we will be unable to recognize one another. I want to put that horse in the present DOJ and in Garland’s hands.
"This is, perhaps, one of the most horrifying statements i have heard in my life." Agree! I couldn't continue reading the rest of the article until a couple of hours later. It is so destructive on so many levels - moral, psychological, philosophical, historical, visual, aural, digestive...
When will Trump set up the Kool-Aid tables for his faithful? There really is no difference between the two narcissistic psychopaths. Eventually it will all come crashing down because I can’t believe the rational Americans will allow our democratic republic to fall. I for one will fight for my country as did my father at Anzio, my uncle at the Battle of the Bulge, my grandfather in France, my cousins in Vietnam and their children in Afghanistan. I admire Liz Cheney being a congresswomen of principle; you don’t see too many of them.
I so understand. I have watched the slide of reasonable dialogue slip to bizarre memes and OAN links in my former colleagues. That Kool-Aid is mighty powerful.
"When will Trump set up the Kool-Aid for his faithful?
He has already done so. Many of them reside in jail and more are headed there. This fact has not slowed him down one bit.
My father faught in Korea. I will fight for my country IF it makes rational, data based sense. IF that fight is underpinned by lies (invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam), or, IF that fight appears to be unwinnable for people like me (who are not of the upper caste in America), then, I will think twice.
There is no reason to sacrifice oneself to a cause that has no hope. And, rational analysis can provide the answer to whether a war is winnable or weather it is another Vietnam. Or Afghanistan. Or Iraq. Or Korea.
My father fought in WWII. His family showed unbroken service from the Civil War to WWII. I am the only one of my generation that had any desire to serve in the military, but that pesky question 20 (are you homosexual) and my unwillingness to lie prevented that. Of course, that would have had the generational string broken with me, since my nephew not only "wears that hat" but is in no way, shape, or form cut out for the military.
Ally, you must have volunteered before Clinton's "Don't ask, Don't tell"??
OR, you decided that approach was beneath you. Which, it probably was.
At any rate, the vast majority of America's wealthiest families have few or no people in the military either today or in their past. IF they were in the military, they were not wading through swamps in Vietnam to be used for target practice.
Most of the folks that end up in combat? Are poor. Like my Dad, and like many of the folks in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Rich folks, like Trump, are never slogging through a live minefield to find mines so their platoon will be able to walk safely.
I think we were saved from WW III because Trump values (only) his own hide, and always craves a massive audience. But yeah, narcissism in a runaway state.
"Trump’s statement reflects the reality that today’s MAGA crowd rejects the ideology of Reagan’s Republican Party, which was based in the idea—if not the actual execution—that the government must not interfere with markets."
That may apply to the plutocrats who bet on Trump but not the populists who believe him. It may apply to those who funded the operatives - the Manaforts, Stones, and Atwaters - who crafted the Southern Strategy wedge issue politics which brought the GOP back into power, but not the voters it attracted. Personified by Reagan or Trump, the Republican party continues to be about throwing racist voters the sops of god and guns, with the real purpose of relieving the greedy wealthy of equitable taxation and government regulation. The coming together of slave state historic hatred of Federal government and traditional Republican ideological resentment of government in general.
Just as arriviste Trump is parvenu Reagan writ vulgar and writ loud, MAGA is the Party of Reagan without dog whistles and with not only rhetorical and procedural attacks on the federal government but actual armed bloody insurrection. Trump hasn't done anything original, he's merely ratcheted up Republican abuse and put his brand on it. A difference in style not substance. The consummately vulgarian Steve Bannon is not that far removed from the consummately effete William F. Buckley. But when Trumps speak of killing, it can no longer be considered merely rhetorical excess.
Tonight, I am writing about a little township, within the State of Michigan.
My family and I lived in the eastern part of Michigan for 27 years in a mostly Republican County. The county I was curious about is Ottawa County. Ottawa county is deep-red, with just one Democrat on its 11-member county commission It hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1864, when voters there favored Gen. George McClellan over President Abraham Lincoln. There is a story there of Republicans rejecting other republicans on the County Board because they are not Republican enough.
Within the County of Ottawa is the Township of Jamestown which has a population of ~9,900 people. In the recent primary votes in Michigan, Jamestown decided to defund the library over several books which were alternative lifestyle books. "Gender Queer, A Memoir," and a couple of other books.
The Township voters defeated the millage funding the library for the next fiscal year. In which case they will have to close. One voter voting against the millage stated; "it was “Satan’s goal” to 'groom and indoctrinate children' about 'homosexuality.'” Others said they hoped the library board would listen to “God’s truth.” Not sure what that truth is anymore.
Through unsolicited donations, supporters in and outside the township and the state and nation have raised $140,000 of the $240,000 needed to stay open till the next millage vote. We had similar actions in Livingston County where people were all for banning books like "Catcher in The Rye," "Black Boy," "The Bluest Eye," "The Freedom Writers Diary," etc. Livingston County is the whitest and richest county in the state of Michigan and the most constipated. It was fun discussing the facts with them.
As Prof. Heather states "the Republican Party has now been captured by extremists who reject the principles associated with that party" and might I add the common decency of humanity. Time to push back.
Michigan's Bridge magazine has the story as well as others. Not soliciting here, if you have a couple of loose dollars, I think they may take a donation or two. It is a good fight to win!
Thanks, Bill, for bringing to our attention the situation at Michigan’s Patmos Library. A PUBLIC library’s role is education and enlightenment, not indoctrination and obscurantism. I’ll donate to the Gofundme campaign first thing come daylight…
I was going to say 'Bill, it's time to move'...but I see you are Bill H from Arizona! A big part of one's happiness is their fit in their community...!
Thanks--I easily found both GoFundMe sites for the Patmos Library, donated pittances to both. They need around $240,000 to get through the next year, so far have a total of about $155,000 in donations. Donating won't just help this one lovely library--other Michigan small-town libraries are considering defunding them too and an effective backlash may have a sobering influence.
This local library issue is important on many levels. People are cutting off their nose to spite their face by defunding the library. Banning books is a tactic of autocracy to control what people say, starting with shaping young impressionable minds.
Kitchen table issues are commonly addressed in state legislatures. I invite you to check out how The States Project is focusing on changing the balance of power, including in Michigan and Arizona.
It is interesting here where I live, The informal HOA has a "yuge" under-current They make it pretty apparent in their conversations. The formal HOA is run by a Property Management company.
I also invite you to join your fellow Michiganders who are among the other HCR Substackers enhancing their powers of civic engagement through "Heather's Herd." For more info, email:
Thank you for posting this link, and for the story…it gives me hope that at least on this front (local libraries) victory will be possible. Grassroots actions can be very powerful!
6:17 AM and I am up. I am going to walk my German Shepard "shortly" while it is still 79 degrees. She likes her walks and I need to walk.
Voter turnout is important. There will be another millage vote in November and then the following year. Sixty-two percent voted and the vote was not so large as not to be overcome. They can still turn it around.
This is not unusual in Michigan and I am finding similar in where we are in Arizona. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth either. Bricklayer dad who never finished high school and a full blood and pretty Italian woman raised 4 of us who went on for Masters degrees in various disciplines.
These places are isolated and a library gives children a chance to dream of other places. There were always books in our house. When I left at 19 for the USMC in 68, my brothers and sister started to read the ones I left behind.
Who knows what will come from that little library in Michigan. Perhaps, another Prof. Heather?
Bill, I too am in AZ but not as diligent with dog walking as you! He waits patiently until 7 when I am finished reading the comments and have had enough coffee.
My parents also (dad a railroader and mom a “housewife”) encouraged reading and trips to the library, can’t imagine a world without both.
I am more hopeful going into the general election that I was….”cautiously optimistic” maybe. Am hoping the crazies here are actually TOO crazy to gain office, especially the Sec.State and other election officials. Carry on!
Among many other firsts for this ex-president, including his various crimes, is his tenacity to stay in the news and keep his name on so many lips, and on so many minds after leaving office. It's as if he is paid every time someone mentions his name. I'm wearied sick of it. And I can't fathom how he is still walking around as a free man. Cheering on the national archivists!
Why isn't Jones in jail yet? Why isn't junior in jail yet? Why isn't TFG in jail yet? Why did it take more than 1.5 years for DOJ to go after very sensitive TOP SECRET stolen documents.? Why haven't the coup leaders been charged yet? Why are the MAGA mob getting such light sentences? Why did Kushner get $2bn from Saudis? Why? Time's running out.
A country cannot be well run by stupid, lazy and dishonest people. Problems do not get solved with lies and enriching ones friends while enriching oneself. I imagine there is a contingent of Americans who are accepting of trauma informed living. That is what they get with Trump. Trump knows how to take advantage of those people like all grifters do. I am not someone who subscribes to the idea that all ideas are equally good. The ideas coming out of this party are categorically not. Under Hitler women were supposed to embody Kinder Küche, Kirche KKK, children--rewards for having at least 4, kitchen--your places in the home, and church. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxb8msg/revision/1
This sounds just like what Putin, Orban and the Republican party are standing for. So who really needs denazification?
TFG's sons have learned from their father, and now model him, by making outrageous statements with impunity. They dismiss criticism because they are applauded by the fawning MAGA cultists. Repugnant.
The Trumps HAVE TO be indicted. ALL of them and their lickspittles. America simply can’t have crooks and charlatans representing the American people. They have to be wholeheartedly brought down, rejected, punished for their rejection of the principles of democracy
And there it is — as concise and accurate assessment of our dire plight as I've read, courtesy of the Financial Times writer:
“I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
May it echo over and over across the nation. If there are any "good" Republicans left in Congress besides Cheney and Kinzinger, they better speak loud and clear in rejecting Trumpism. Or history will remember them as complicit.
Complicit Susan Collins' cringeworthy bending herself into pretzels - TrumpYoga Susan going down dog for the Don - to justify stuff like the tax scam, embracing Jim Crow states rights arguments to vote against civil rights legislation and now dancing around defending Trump's attacks on the FBI. At a certain point mealy mouthed mumblings are effectively not all that different from full throated shout outs.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." (Author unknown, many attributes).
...and good women like Liz Cheney...
Liz isn't doing nothing; she's putting it all on the line. Can't stand her policies; love her courage and the kind of patriotism Lincoln and Eisenhower (both Republicans) would recognize.
Heart button not working, so HEART!
Are you saying Liz Cheney is doing nothing?? Really? Please clarify.
Susan Collins has a special ring in hell.
The Circle of "Concern."
LOL
Very clever!!!
Now that's funny. And appropriate!!!
Oh, too funny...I was going to say hypocrisy, but her own word fits so well.
well done
She sure does.
“Collins' cringeworthy bending herself into pretzels… down dog for the Don.” Iin, the imagery of your post today is priceless—poetic! Bravo!
And forgot the alliteration: “mealy mouthed mumblings”! Hmmmm…
She has been what she is for a very long time, always with a meaningless promise to lure the fools
And it works. the fools keep re-electing her.
Can Maine voters recall her? She’s betrayed any Margaret Chase Smith legacy she might allude to
It is my sincerest wish to do so. She has brought embarrassment to our great state with her cringeworthy "concern".
That she has done.
Susan Collins is popular in Maine.
Perhaps by many, but I have relatives who've transplanted from Massachusetts to Maine, and I can't repeat their affection for Ms. Collins - I'd be banned from posting here if I did.
After the most well-financed campaign to defeat her in 2020, she won by 10 points. I don’t like Susan Collins. But she knows what she is doing. So many here attack her, because she’s not a liberal. The liberals here don’t understand that 60% of Mainers are not liberal, and do support Collins. The myopia is strong in us liberals.
I agree. Many folks don't understand that New England isn't nearly as liberal as they think, and I'd guess that Maine is on a par with upstate New York in its conservatism. The fact that Collins has been a fixture for years takes her out of the current foaming-at-the-mouth crop of Republicans, too.
Shortly after the Kavanaugh confirmation, Ms Susan Collins was at Trump’s desk for some bill she sponsored, (which I believe she spent much time working on). I could tell you exactly the price of her vote. What Susan Collins didn’t get was that her name will be mud, no matter what bill she advanced.
That is the difference between Susan Collins and Liz Cheney. Liz gave up her position in the party and all her other assignments, because she is driven by what is right for America, not what is right for her political career.
JaneDough56, many will argue with me, but although I appreciate what Liz has done, and I admire her skill and determination, I suspect that she is feathering her nest for the future, whether it's a run for the presidency or some other high office (SCOTUS?) once the Trumpstorm finally ends. Don't forget who her father is, and whose advice she's listening to. Yes, she did the right thing, but her motivation could be much more complex. I can't imagine ever voting for a pro-life ultra conservative who voted with Trump over 90% of the time, regardless of her current motivation for taking on Trumpers.
I’m not sure how successful she’ll be. Her best role in the next two elections is that of the spoiler, and that’s if she works very hard at it.
I agree with you in the near term, and considering her constituency, I doubt that she'll make headway in the near future. Still, though, she's in her mid 50's, so she has a long time to see changes that would make a comeback possible.
And to add on - every “moral victory” comes with a moral price. So you get a “Pro-Life” America, and all it took was gerrymandering states, erasing voting rights, packing the courts with pro-life judges, and embracing a morally corrupt autocrat-wannabe. Was it really worth it?
What is ‘pro-life’? We have had this discussion ad ininitum!
Alleged group is dogmatic by nature, thus attracted to authoritarian, amoral creatures who co-opt their message in order to get elected. Reference little Frankie graham’s nation wide crusade to get the ‘believers’ to vote for the alleged ‘pro life ‘ candidate I. 2016!
You can look it up!
That’s what mean by trading a democracy for what they believe is the moral high ground.
HEART.
The difference between the two representatives is as wide as the Pacific Ocean!
Exactly!
Fascists' woke...
She's quite a legend already. It must keep her warm at night.
No one as yet has come up with a sincere why? What is it that made Collins. Graham, etc start twisting?
Anything, anything to remain in office; to believe, and to some extent do, have power.
The Founding Fathers anticipated a demagogue. They never imagined Senators like these.
What a wonderful and accurate description of all talk and no walk Susie Q.
Hilarious!
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I wonder what Susan Collings likes with her pretzels - Yellow or brown mustard?
I have some honey pretzels....not those. Brown mustard tends to be spicier. I think yellow.
Liz Cheney proves that the New England laptop ‘liberal’ class does not stand for anything other than despising Trump. Why don’t you guys pack up and go fight the next war that the current criminal regime is marching us towards?
We do not want to be a nation of Christian and Catholic Nationals.
Amen, Sister. Signed -- another faith tradition
Please say more about your thoughts, Mr. Blundon.
What more is there to say? We have a proven, track-record-war-criminal, who certainly appears to be demented, lazily wandering us in at least the general vicinity of 2 nuclear wars and we want to keep the Trump banter going. All you Cheney-cheering propagandized dupes need to start packing because without a course correction, war is coming.
From where is this war coming?
The war is coming from the same crowd that marched on the Capitol, only there will be more of them and better armed. There may be more regular military as well.
This is the most terrifying account of where we are that Professor Richardson has written. I would add to it the MSNBC reported that Grassley and Cruz both repeated the lie from the web that there are 187,000 armed IRS agents coming for US. If the DOJ cannot put a stop to unsealing the affidavit, we may be in big trouble fast. Putin must be puffing out his chest enjoying his power. Trump, Jr. should be officially reprimanded for giving “aid and comfort to the enemy.” Free speech to bring down by force a democratic government ?
As for Liz Cheney: yes, to her fight against Trump, but no to her backward-looking Republican Party. We need to keep our eyes on the EU (which is dealing with climate change more rapidly than we and taking better care of its citizens)and we must continue sending arms to Ukraine.
NATO
I for one would like some suggestions from you as to what you would do in Biden's place WRT Russia/Ukraine, and China/Taiwan. I assume those are the two areas of concern? Yes - nuclear war is worrisome to say the least. But it is not the USA that is being confrontational. Our positions (and BTW our allies as well including NATO) are in response to aggression from Russia and China. Again - what would you do?
To understand where we are in Ukraine, you have to go back to the 2014 far right coup that was backed by the US under then president Joe Biden.
https://www.wsws.org/en/topics/event/2014-coup-ukraine
Following this coup, the Eastern provinces, which are almost entirely inhabited by ethnic Russians, separated from the rest of Ukraine. In response to this, a civil war broke out that claimed at least 14,000 lives as the Ukrainian state attempted to reclaim this territory with US supplied weapons.
https://www.voanews.com/a/what-are-the-minsk-accords-/6435211.html
"Ukraine refused a dialogue with the separatists."
If I were Biden, I would stop the transfer of US weapons to Ukraine immediately and work to find a peace agreement before the situation worsens but good luck with that. Biden has a long record as a war-mongering maniac.
“Laptop liberals…”, “Cheney cheering propagandizes dupes..”!
Kindly elucidate on these glittering generalities?
Ms. Cheney has exhibited courage and bravery worthy of our nations highest honor! The publisher of JFK’s ‘Profiles in Courage’ should have an editor add Ms Cheney’s fearless effort to save our democracy to that book!
Using sports as an analogy, several famous professional athletes remind themselves what counts is how effective will my next at bat be, my next throw in football, my next kick to goal in soccer, my next putt in golf! They motivate despite poor past performances.
Ms. Cheney likewise has shown that she has moved past Papa Cheney’s disastrous decisions, motivated by personal business interests, which qualify him as a war criminal.
Brava Liz and thank you!
Holy cow it is just so unbelievable watching you all fall all over yourselves defending LIZ CHENEY?!?! What happened to you guys? We used to be on the same page standing against the tyranny and lies of the Bush / CHENEY administration. I know what happened to you. In typical boomer fashion, you approach politics as if it were a soap opera which is therefore completely disconnected from reality. That explains why somehow, despite living through the LBJ Vietnam War you still equate being a good person with being a Democrat?? Trump and COVID came along and were a 1-2 punch that literally broke all of your brains. Now you are full-on pro-war, pro-censorship husks of your former selves.
HEART.
“How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just does not see?”
Bob Dylan.
"A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." - Paul Simon
Boomers had, IMHO, the best music
Trump keeps lying when he outta be truthin'
He don’t know “truthin”
True that...!
But he fears it.
Many times, it appears. May we ask for clear sight for them.
Bob Dylan
https://youtu.be/KpD26IoRLvA
🗽
"The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."
Bob Dylan
Apparently, many are infinitely capable.
May it be emblazoned on the front page of the Times. The WSJ. The washington Post and every news show’s headline story. And may every Republican senator and representative live forever in infamy and as an example of the shameful cowardice and GREED to which so called educated people people can stoop
Power and it's abuses is the elephant in the room of human suffering.
Nice, subtle tie in to the Republican Party's animal avatar
I just happens. I think actual elephants a cool, but it seems to me (for me included) we see a lot that doesn't adequately register. It seems to me that successful, empowering leaders and movements work in part by calling attention to the hiding in plain sight.
We did not need Eric Trump to remind us of our associations of death with his father, the former president, or with right-wing extremist groups and many in the Republican Party.
‘Donald Trump's Racially Charged Advocacy of the Death Penalty’
‘The Republican frontrunner has long called for more executions—even when his proposals run afoul of the Constitution.’
‘Trump has a history of invoking the death penalty without regard for its limitations. After the brutal rape of a white jogger in Central Park in April 1989 received widespread media attention, and amid a rise in crime rates nationwide, Trump took out a full-age ad in four New York City newspapers with the title “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY! BRING BACK THE POLICE!”* He did not specifically reference the Central Park jogger attack in the ad, but its timing made the connection inescapable.’ (Atlantic)
‘Donald Trump has added a morbid new distinction to his presidency – for the first time in US history, the federal government has in one year executed more American civilians than all the states combined.’
‘Against that downward path, the actions of the Trump administration stand out as a grotesque aberration.’ (Guardian)
‘Inside Trump and Barr’s Last-Minute Killing Spree’
‘Private executioners paid in cash. Middle-of-the-night killings. False or incomplete justifications. ProPublica obtained court records showing how the outgoing administration is using its final days to execute the most federal prisoners since World War II.’
‘In its hurry to use its final days in power to execute federal prisoners, the administration of President Donald Trump has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical, according to court records that have not been previously reported.’
‘Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases. They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night.’
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-trump-and-barrs-last-minute-killing-spree
‘As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence’
‘Both threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life. Experts blame dehumanizing and apocalyptic language’
‘In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.’
‘While this welter of events may feel disparate, occurring at different times and places and to different types of people, scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.’
‘Several right-wing or Republican figures reacted to the search of Mar-a-Lago not only with demands to dismantle the F.B.I., but also with warnings that the action had triggered “war.”
“This just shows everyone what many of us have been saying for a very long time,” Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed House candidate in Washington State, said on a podcast run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief political strategist. “We’re at war.”
‘According to the F.B.I., there are now about 2,700 open domestic terrorism investigations — a number that has doubled since the spring of 2020 — and that does not include lesser but still serious incidents that do not rise to the level of federal inquiry. Last year, threats against members of Congress reached a record high of 9,600, according to data provided by the Capitol Police.’ (NYTimes) See gifted link to the article below.
The former president’s disregard for human life didn’t begin with his deadly mismanagement of the Covid pandemic, it is part of his nature. Our deep concern about Trump having power over the American people includes his advocates, the likes of DeSantis, right-wing extremists, and the Republican Party transformation into a cult of the personality. Our commitment to the principles of Democracy and the understanding that Democracy emphasizes the value of every human being speaks to our responsibility as citizens of the United States of America.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/13/nyregion/right-wing-rhetoric-threats-violence.html?
... so, how many years/decades passed before the 5 young men accused/convicted of the 1989 rape in Central Park were proven innocent,- and still, the sTrumpette insisted they were guilty and should have been executed ...?
And what about right-wing Republican calls to dismantle the FBI in response to the warrented search of Msr-a-Lago? Did those same voices rise in defense of black American movements for justice and equity in the sixties - or First Nations defense of sovereign treaty rights at Wounded Knee in the seventies? Of course not. Why not ...?
... oh, right ... "We're at war."
So ..., who are WE, and what is US ...?
You ask some very good questions. The answer, sadly, imbedded in the mechanism for the founding of our country: genocide and slavery of people "different" that the white European settlers.
In my Pachamama book review group, we are reading "An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz - very revealing ... while I understand that different cultural groups may believe their own way is the best way, I do not see how anyone can justify domination through murder, rape and robbery - though it does seem to be a recurring theme through the ages of human hystery - so maybe it is 'our' turn to be 'on top' ... still, the wheel keeps turning, I do not believe we are the top of the food chain ... our time will come to succumb ... I truly hope we can find within our hearts a better way, and bring it forward in time ... the sooner the quicker ....
https://tahomahome.weebly.com/prayer-for-america.html
I think that book should be studied carefully in courses required in every American high school.
Including descriptions of how aggressive sociopathy (technically not the right term, but...) works. History is replete with presentations of it's consequences, but what does it look like as a system of thinking? I got a little of that in elementary school (for an hour or two) with respect to propaganda efforts of the Nazis (this a few years after WWII). It is one of the few lessons from my K-6 education I still recall in some detail.
Follow the money. That's not the whole answer but explains a lot.
That one haunts e too.
Fern, you mentioned the brutal rape of the white jogger in Central Park in April 1989. Indeed, Trump did have those rotten ads published, but not long after that, without any evidence, businessman Donald J. Trump publicly said that all members of the falsely accused "Central Park Five", who were all black, should be put to death. As you know, they were all exonerated.
They were sentenced in 1989. It took many years of imprisonment before they were exonerated in 2002 and remunerated in 2013 to the tune of $41 million.
"Adding fuel to the fire, weeks after the attack, in May 1989, real estate developer (and future U.S. president) Donald Trump took out full-page ads in The New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post and New York Newsday with the headline, "Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!
[...]
In the years since their release, the five men accused in the Central Park case have moved on with their lives. Richardson lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. He works as an advocate for criminal justice reform. McCray lives in Georgia with his wife and six children. Santana also lives in Georgia with his teenage daughter and, in 2018, Santana started his own clothing company called Park Madison NYC. Wise lives in New York City, where he works as a public speaker and criminal justice reform advocate. Salaam is a published poet, public speaker and criminal justice reform advocate. He lives in George and is a father to 10 children."
https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/central-park-five
Thanks, Mimi, for this! Those young men were so obnoxiously abused by the press and by The Don that when they were finally exonerated, I was thrilled. Let’s not forget that he was one of the loudest and original birthers regarding where Obama was born. He’s a louse, a racist, a mob boss, and the imaginary son of Hitler.
Agreed, Marlene.
(My name is Mim.)
Oops, Mim! My apologies! My fingers work faster than my brain sometimes.
I am going to have to call my doctors for therapy, for heart meds after reading all that you posted, Fern. There is an abundance of deceit and untruths that make my blood boil and yet, these people walk free. I have no doubts now that Barr arranged Jeffrey Epstein’s death. After all, wasn’t he the last person to see him alive? Weren’t the so-called guards hands merely slapped for not checking on Epstein?
Trump unleashed the mob to do his bidding. He continues to try being relevant and he is succeeding. I don’t want to be at war but this is what our new reality is unless we hire tons and tons of people to deprogram the masses. That isn’t going to happen. Feel like we are on a terrifying roller coaster.
Marlene, We are justified in our fears about threats by Trump, the Republican Party and others make against the American people. I just skimmed the surface in listing a few their offences, without even mentioning Trump's response to violent protests in Charlottesville, Va. "you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides." It is difficult to put a cap on his, and Republicans incitement of political violence. Now they are going after IRS employees.
Senate Republican campaign chair Rick Scott, R-Fla., published an open letter encouraging job seekers not to pursue new IRS positions, vowing that Republicans, who hope to take control of Congress next year, will quickly "defund" those jobs.
Scott claimed the Biden administration will use the Democrats' newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act to create "an IRS super-police force" to "audit and investigate" ordinary Americans. "The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them," he wrote, referencing a job posting for the agency's Criminal Investigation division, which has been mischaracterized.'
'Scott's depiction of a new force of IRS agents targeting average Americans lacks basis in the text of the new law and has been dismissed by Democrats as a fabrication. It was debunked — indirectly — by formal guidance Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to the IRS.' (NBCnews). Scott is not alone.
'Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) even suggested on "Fox & Friends" last week that IRS workers armed with assault rifles would be deployed against taxpayers. He and other Republicans have falsely tossed around the number 87,000 as the size of this supposed army of agents.
"Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa?" the longtime senator asked.'. (CNN)
I don't know about accusations concerning Barr's role in Jeffry Epstein's death, Marlene. The facts are what count, and as you pointed out, the dehumanization and threats against us are not hidden, they are expressed openly as part of their propaganda of lies and intimidation.
The alarming rhetoric that you pointed out is what will bring our demise, Fern. It’s frightening but the gloves and the hoods have come off. We know what we are up against and still, we must fight fire with fire until the bitter end. My parents who were subjected to this hate by Germans emboldened by Hitler, loved this country so much. They were small business owners who were proud to pay their taxes and even have their two daughters educated in the South, in a small city, in schools that were funded by furniture industries. I am happy they are not alive to endure this pain again.
Marlene, Thank you for your support. This 'particular hound dog' is no Elvis. Your kindness overcomes my annoyance.
Chuck Grassley has truly gone down a very deep rabbit hole. He has to have dementia.
Who knows what he has but he’s evil! He’s very old and withered so maybe his brain is too. I shouldn't say that because I’m getting up in age, also. But I am not seeking to be cruel or mean like he is. Grassley, Feinstein, Mitch, Pelosi really should retire. Pelosi carried us through Covid and now, the very important J6 committee. Mitch is too much of a egomaniac and a Fed Society star to go anywhere, unfortunately. Feinstein is the one who may have dementia. Here, in CA., many want Gov. Newsom to replace her with a woman of color who is also younger. Feinstein vowed she will stay on. Ugh
It is clear that Feinstein has problems. I just find it hard to believe that someone would actually make this claim. I have long thought that Grassley should go out to pasture.
Could this be humour? A Fox offshoot of The Onion?
Anne-Louise, No. Trump/Republicans are making chaos, intimidation, threats. It is part of their strategy to destroy the country, which they call 'the deep state'.
I know. Alas.
Wait. Whaaaaaat?!?!? IRS loaded and locked? Oy vé
Well, some of them may be loaded given the backlog and outdated systems...
I prefer to refer to djt as the ex-president...
Agree Sandra. I find it difficult to put any form of the word “president” in front of his name. His life has been a constant fall from grace.
🗽
And a taint on our nation
I got called out for referring to death star as the occupant of the WH by a hyper aggressive MAGA who said she does refer to Mr. Biden as president which I guess says she really doesn't believe the big lie. My answer was that I don't refer to him by name or as former president. Don't know what she said after that as I blocked her.
I find it more than difficult, I find it impossible. I only ever use tfg now. He was a fraud, a fake president.
disgraced grace...
he is the unpresidented...
Too kind, Sandra! I use myriad words, phrases, & symbols none of which include “President” (even lowercase) or any part of his name spelled out, such as evil agent 🟠 and ☢️. I’ve seen quite a few fiery ones here in our LFAA classroom.
Wow! Thanks, Fern, for this nightmarish compendium—except this is not a nightmare, but the real-life workings of evil incarnate!
Rose, HCR's letter today spurred my comment. DJT, the right-wing extremists, the Republicans et al., have caused me to think about death as my parents, grandparents, friends, teachers and history taught me. It is crucial that Americans recognize how deep and lethal this movement against us is.
Heart. And mind.
I am not religious but pray that your soul finds comfort in knowing that you are not alone. Wishing you all that is best, good and kind friend!
Thank you, Rose. I, too, do not practice a religion, even so, I was born a Jew. Threats against the majority of Americans as well as those in and around Israel, India, et al,, strengthen my sense of being a Jew and a human being.
Hi again, Fern. I wanted to follow up on your comment sooner but had no internet access with my computer until now. I was raised Catholic; no longer practice it nor any other religion, but respect everyone else's religious freedom. When looking back at Western Civilization's history (the Just Wars, the Inquisition, the genocidal "evangelization" of the Americas, the Holocaust--just some examples), however, one cannot overlook the fact that religion itself does not determine human morality; in fact, all religions basically propose the same general tenets (such as the golden rule). On the other hand, one common thread of religious extremists, regardless of the faith they profess, is that they use their "faith" as justification for hatred and criminal behaviors. This renders them unrighteous, hypocritical, and amoral. Unfortunately, too much of this is going on lately, not only in the U.S., but throughout the world.
To Fern and all: You can cut URLs off at the question mark (end of first line in this case) and they still work just fine. No need for clutter.
Gifted articles from the NYTimes are very long and will not work if not copied intact.
I just tried this with the article you posted above, and it worked. And I've been doing this for over a month now. Try it yourself. Cut it off at the question mark.
It turns out that these loooooooooonnnnggg URLs are for tracking. (I googled)
Excellent detective work, David. Who wants to be tracked, unless the newspaper does that keep 'track' of number of gifted articles per subscriber. Whether we like it or not, newspapers are operating in an endangered arena.
David, THANK YOU! I tried it, and as you suggested, IT WORKS!
You're welcome! (I am now wondering why they make the URLs so much longer than they need to be.)
I let my subscription lapse and the link would not let me read the article.
Try it now, Carol.
I terminated my subscription in irritation. Sometimes I can open an article, mostly I can't. WAPO hides behind a beautiful wall...
Oh! Fern...
Yet another tussle over your easily bruised ego.
Why the concern about others judgments of your comments, Eh!?
Stop arguing.
Be happy!
"If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life/Be happy!"
Thank you, Richard, but it may be hopeless. This hound dog isn't Elvis, but he 'believes' he's found his pigeon.
You seem obsessed with me, George. I hope you find some healing. Salud!
Dear Fern, it really just gets no less wretched, does it? All possible must be done to stop him ☢️, his ilk, and even worse ever happening!
“…scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.”
There is a place for public execution by the state, regardless of whether we are talking about ancient Greece, or the modern US. But there are couple of important things about this.
One of the first is that it needs to be a PUBLIC execution, and it needs to be an exemplary. The case should be clean, obvious justice to even the stupid, and a strong deterrent that says "Don't Ever Do This." If you disappear people in the shadows of night, it becomes a different thing altogether: it becomes a tool of state terrorism.
It should also be rare. If it is common, it argues for bad laws, corrupt courts, or a failed government.
What you describe having happened, above, is an atrocity.
Watch "Dead Man Walking."
I disagree with killing anybody.
Thank you, Fern.
I think that's a warning they are incapable of understanding. History? In the Bible, of which they are ignorant and on which they swear, there are three words spoken by a leader of the free Left who had been framed by the cult-bound Right and knew he was standing on the precipice. "What is truth?"
There seems to be two kinds of truth; the truth you know and the truth you tell. We don't ever get to know for sure, for sure, that we know the truth, or know all of it anyway; and we ( I ) probably pass along some measure of nonsense. But it is a conscious decision when we consider whether or not to tell the truth, and practice to deceive.
There is also some measure of due diligence in relation to what we choose to believe.
Deliberate ignorance is way worse than stupidity. The former is a choice while the latter describes a useful fool more often than not.
Borrowing this
Jeri, deliberate ignorance is a widespread form of stupidity, especially in the USA and among the English. Many wear their ignorance as a badge of honor, thus exhibiting extreme arrogance.
This obnoxious attitude is especially prevalent among the highly privileged occupants of armor-plated mental bubbles who live and move only within gated communities, thought-free zones guarded by high walls of prejudice.
All too often the kind of misguided unfortunates who choose to believe that the material riches they have accumulated mean they are God's Chosen.
Deliberate misleaders are another matter.
A very pressing matter at this time.
An interesting reply. And having weighed up the likely consequences and made that conscious decision to practise deceit, are we not lying? It reminds me of Kellyanne Conway's "alternative truth". Finding out that we've been deceived, even for what's fatuously called "our own good", that we've been lied to, delivers a cold shock.
The writings of Tennessee Williams help in understanding the seas of mendacity. Eg. "DJT On a Hot Tin Roof" or "A Street Car Named Greed".
Big Daddy in place of Big Brother...
Being lied to is dehumanizing, and some lies can be deadly. I don't mean trivial fudging on whether you like the sweater Grandma knitted for you, but lies that, once discovered, alter your relationship of trust of that person, even someone at a sales counter. Merited trust is essential to intimacy, and a certain degree of an environment of merited trust essential for an open society.
“To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.” - John Adams
Multiply that heart.
Silence is complicity-history has proven that again and again. The GOP aren’t just silent, they are actively participating in the murder of democracy.
That's worthy of the Lincoln Project.
They are seeking absolute power. It threads though everything they it's what the Constitution was meant to prevent.
Yes, but they seem to be out for an ironclad oligarchic restoration of the Articles of Confederation + the military.
When it's not pre-Magna Carta.
Ari Melber is a news reporter and an attorney, He has a trusted daily program on MSNBC which is also available on Youtube broadcasted the next day. On his August 16, 2022 program he outlines in exquisitely clear logical detail how the GOP "Game" works. It is so very wonderful to see all the details and how they interact. Hopefully, now that the "Horses escaped the barn" such anti-American democracy treason mongers deceptions will forever be impossible to implement again.
His excellent analysis of the attempted coup was one of the best I've seen, with graphics illustrating how seemingly "legal" activities morphed into downright ILLEGAL activities, how they overlapped and worked in tandem and eventually culminated in what clearly is seditious conspiracy.
Ellen Massey
Wonderful blessing!
I lost my link to this program of Ari's and I was hoping you might be able to provide to me a way to access Ari's discussion illustrative graphics and all...please
Thank you
FOUND IT! Remembered it was a Special Report so searched on that. It was on July 29 (repeated multiple times thus different memories of when it was broadcast!). Title: Inside Trump's Election Plot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2aWw-C27Rk
THANK YOU JUDITH SWINK!
I will definitely do some digging and see what I can find. He did an entire show on it - a special report. I think it's probably on UTube. I'll work on it later today.
I apologize for not responding yesterday. I am not sure if this is it, but this link might take you to that special: https://archive.org/details/MSNBCW_20220731_020000_The_Beat_With_Ari_Melber/start/60/end/120
Thank you for your kind help!
EXCELLENT!
Thank you.
Yes it was an entire show and I believe it was aired aug 16, 2022 or Aug 15
Actually, originally, July 29. It was a Special Report and broadcast multiple times subsequently. I finally found it after remembering it was a special report.
Title: Inside Trump's Election Plot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2aWw-C27Rk
Joe McCarthy was cornered and had bit off more than he could chew, but Joseph Welch's "have you no decency" was considered fatal. Nixon was investigated primarily for "the coverup", and Republicans were inclined to vote with Democrats to impeach. It seems to me that in the decades since we have allowed the expectation of ethics and professionalism (not to mention blatant conflicts of interest) to sink back to Gilded Age levels. We have creeps like Trump and MTG, and former US attorney Sidney Powell arguing in court that political speech is inherently dishonest, and that that's OK, because we were somehow persuaded to greatly lower the bar for professional behavior in positions of great influence and responsibility.
Not only is it an excellent presentation of how the attempted coup evolved and progress, the program was repeated a number of times during the week it was broadcast, possibly more often but I only noticed about 4 times.
Tried to find it on MSNBC and Youtube without success. The Youtube link that came up seems to have been taken over by some Japanese(?) video game.... Apparently, The Beat also streams on Peacock but I don't subscribe.
FOUND IT! Remembered it was a Special Report so searched on that. It was on July 29 (repeated multiple times thus different memories of when it was broadcast!). Title: Inside Trump's Election Plot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2aWw-C27Rk
I like Ari. Will look for that program. Thanks
Me too!
It is the best organization of facts making a powerful revelation about killing American democracy...a must see in my humble opinion.
And
You are most welcome.
If we finally learn from history.
Ari Melber’s program on August 16 was about Trump’s threat to DOJ:
https://youtu.be/tRLdm5loAkY
Were you referencing something different?
Michael, come January '23, both Cheney and Kinzinger will be out of office. As I see it, with mounting legal problems for Trump, I fear that sane people will begin to tune out the threat. Too many will feel that Trump is so damaged, and perhaps at least bankrupt, that he can no longer pose a real threat. However, he's just a symptom of the disease. There are many others who are more than willing to take his place, and the problem is not exclusive to this country. Authoritarianism is rampant world-wide, and the threat to this country remains. I believe that the Republicans remaining in politics will be more than happy to embrace a new "leader," perhaps smoother and intelligent, who will be glad to take up where the current crop left off.
Yes It is like a novel. Liz Chaney becomes the darling of the Dems and wins the presidency. Then all her policies, which were over 90% voting with Trump all these years are headed to fruition. Unequal distribution of wealth on steroids because she is s o smart, unlike He who shall not be named. then... we are in what Nancy referred to in her text as "the disease."
I refer to it as the Plague, but we are on the same page.
Joan, your analysis is amazing. Regardless of what Republicanism morphs into, it is unlikely to be good for the average person. They have always been centered around making the rich richer and more powerful, and usually at the expense of the rest of us. Unless there is a monumental change in our society, there will always be a party that is threatened by the masses, regardless of the fact that they'll have plenty to share. I bear no animus toward Liz Cheney, and in this case, she has been hugely beneficial in the effort to remove Trump from the stage. However, because of her likely upbringing, I doubt she'll ever understand the needs of the average person. The mere fact that she voted for Trump, and enabled his atrocities, speaks volumes, in my opinion. He never presented himself as anything but himself - everyone knew.
Nancy....exactly
True, but let's try to keep them at bay, by whatever means, for at least another four years. The oldest will be gone, the young will be coming into their strength. Yes, there's an outcrop of authoritarianism worldwide, but in each case the rulers have imposed themselves contrary to the wishes of the majority. Something's got to give. But full many a gem of purest ray serene the dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear, and let us not forget that.
I agree, Anne-Louise. We can't permit a minute of inattention, and I'm impressed with our young voters. Like Ukraine, we have lived with relative freedom and democracy, and I doubt that authoritarianism will go over well with the populace. I hope I don't jinx us, but it wouldn't surprise me if we did much better in the midterms than is currently predicted.
Exactly. Authoritarianism coupled in this country with white supremacy and a truly terrifying arsenal of firearms. It's tempting to focus too much on Trump, but it's also very dangerous.
We have a long way to go before we can safely be out of the woods.
“We will be sifting through the wreckage of Trump's authoritarian presidency for years. This episode may one day be clarified but others will undoubtedly come to light, because everything is for sale in the strongman's world.” I would change “for years” to for decades, but Ruth Ben-Ghiat certainly enlightens on the Financial Times claim!!
https://lucid.substack.com/p/for-strongmen-like-trump-everything
READ THIS BEN GHIAT PIECE!
What a smarmy bunch they are. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
This has been true for about half of my long life.
As a regular listener to (and member of) Deep State Radio, where Ed Luce is a regular, I can testify that he is not given to hyperbole and exaggeration. That and his extensive experience make his statement all the more powerful.
Shared it on FB and Twitter.
In this episode of Letters from a Propagandist, Heather Cox Richardson laments the loss of war-criminal imperialist Liz Cheney, a character who deserves nothing but contempt from the American population which overwhelmingly desires peace in the world by virtue of an end to the nightmarish wars of which Cheney and her blood-thirsty vampire of a father are largely responsible.
While I prefer to ignore "Charles" and "David Carroll" I have reported to you all that in the last few days I'm seeing a very large uptick in trolls, and others who are "wolves in sheep's clothing:" As Sharon says, interesting that you pay to come on here. NO not a surprise to me: Biden is scoring big wins, Trump is digging his grave and the Conservatives are running scared. They THINK that planting seeds to sow discord on here will somehow help their side. I find this hilarious, actually, because I have seen many examples of people here having differences of opinions and respectfully debate each other, generally with links to genuine sources. The book "On Tyranny" addresses some of this I was told, (I have ordered it but it has not yet come) by stating that Conservatives are motivated by FEAR, and the GOP utilizes this to control them. That isn't going to work with this crowd, the likes of Sandy Lewis, TCinLA, Ellie Kona, Ellen Massey, Ally House, etc etc (can't name you all know who you are!)
I am truly enjoying seeing these trolls appear as it confirms my beliefs that they are getting pretty anxious.
I did not know about the ability to report trolls. I do like the feature of being able to mute people, wish it was here as well.
Trolls are not welcome.
Then be gone with your bad self
Heather lists her sources which makes it hard to be a propagandist. And you?
You can list your sources and still be a propagandist, Kathy. It doesn't make it hard.
Interesting that you paid for a subscription to come out and attack the author. How many other writers do you pay so you can spread hate and conspiracies? No one here will take you seriously and I wouldn’t blame Heather for removing you because of personal attacks.
Sharon, if you click on the three dots below his comment, you can report him to Heather. I just did.
Many thanks, Ellen! I’ve done the same over this trolling nastiness he has spewed again and again. Our dear Fern is right, his bating of her seems quite stalkerish.
"Standing with Ukraine" (using US taxpayer $ to wage an endless proxy war) makes you a good person doesn't it!
Thank you, I didn’t know that.
Thanks.
Thank You, I didn't know that either.
Wait a minute, I'm still here. What am I doing here still? I'm here to tell you that your pro-war, pro-censorship views are dangerous and despicable.
Only Heather, not that that is any of your business. By the way, how do you spread conspiracies? You mean conspiracy Theories? It's not a theory if the theory is true and right out in the open.
Right. But if you can’t debate and comment like an adult and feel the need to be abusive to the author you don’t deserve to be here. No one should be expected to deal with personal attacks and abuse. You have the right to state your opinion but abuse goes too far. I didn’t say anything about your first nonsensical reply I read but you went too far. The only point you have made here is that you are an abusive prepubescent bully not worthy of being allowed in this forum. It is my business when you abuse anyone. Verbal abuse leads to physical abuse.
Bravo Sharon! I just reported him as well!
"Abuse"? Get out of here with that BS. News flash Sharon, calling Heather a propagandist, which she is, is not abuse. Maybe you should consider the harm you are doing to real survivors of abuse by so lightly and irresponsibly throwing around that term. I recommend you pick your words a bit more carefully,
Now you’ll attack me. It’s the personal, targeted attacks that make you abusive.
Before you think I use the word lightly, I spent years working in abuse shelters and every single case started out with some jerk feeling it was his job to be verbally abusive and moved into being physically abusive. You find it easy to be abusive, abrasive and even now instead of taking it on board that this is how you come across you make weak excuses and double down. I’m not harming the survivors, I’m standing up for them.
Heather is a historian, show some respect for the work she puts in. The only reason you’re here is to be abusive. You admit you think, with no basis in fact, that you think she’s lying to you. Why would you pay for someone to lie to you?
TFG hasn't killed the Cheney dynasty, if it's even worthy of being called such. Liz Cheney hasn't retired from the political scene yet, probably won't. Eric has never shown himself to be anything other than a fool, yet he continues to find a way into the public ear. TFG IS the Trump Organization. It's a private company, and he administered it like the wannabe dictator he attempted to become over the USA. To restrict a civil suit to the organization and not it's owner-operator was a compromise from the start. Nothing happened in that organization without either the impetus or the assent of TFG.
What can conviction yield? Fines, requirements for future external audit/oversight? The company needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. The fines should exceed it's net worth. It's scion needs to be behind bars. It's assets need to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the US Treasury. Our justice system, on every level, has to demonstrate the courage to ignore his title and conduct itself according to the sum total of his actions pre-, during and post-presidency. Rising to the highest office in the land doesn't change the fact that he's a criminal. It's the height of embarrassment that our nation elected a criminal in spite of overwhelming information accurately predicting his subsequent behavior in office. We need to "cancel" the weight of that decision and it's innoculative effect on the wheels of justice. We need to own and conduct ourselves according to the quote "no man is above the law".
Nathan, you wrote “It's the height of embarrassment that our nation elected a criminal in spite of overwhelming information accurately predicting his subsequent behavior in office.” Yes! And what’s disturbing is that half the voters in this country, an estimate, would vote for him again.
Well, we CERTAINLY couldn't elect that woman. I mean, I'd vote for a woman, just not THAT woman. Why, I'd vote for Elizabeth Warren! /s
Got it!
??
Dean, that's what a lot of people said in comments on articles, internet 'zines, etc. about Hillary Clinton when she ran against Trump.
thank you I did finally get it Hard to hear tone of voice
Interesting footnote: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910/
JL, yes very interesting. And 2016! We should not be surprised. TFG’s ties to criminal elements was one more election story that repub voters ignored. Power corrupts.
Irenie, I might be nit-picking over word choice and, if so, apologies, but I think it was worse than ignoring his ties to organized crime. I think they knew every bit of that, knew exactly what he was, and made a very conscious, deliberate decision to choose him. And by "they" I mean the power brokers and the deep pockets in organizations like The Federalist Society with whom a man like McConnell made a devil's bargain. I am as far away from being a conspiracy theorist as it's possible to be, but the nearly invisible network of these people seem, in fact, to have been pulling the strings for quite a long time.
Yes. It seems VERY unlikely th e"powers that be" in the R party would not have known all about Trump in 2016 and his criminal activities. If we in the boonies knew, surely they did.
Just as Putin knew.
Dean, not nit-picking, but looking from a different angle. Perhaps the general public, the repubs who vote the party, just like it’s in the family, heritage to be a repub or Dem. They don’t always pay attention if they vote at all. Yes, the Federalist Society has been installing elected officials and SCOTUS behind the scenes. Plus there’s the Claremont Institute connection to Eastman. The behind the scenes “votes.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/24/claremont-john-eastman-trump/
Fabulous. Thank you for this! One of the great things about HCR's Letters is they are just overflowing with things to learn and new points of view.
Perhaps, more than family voting patterns (though I'm sure that figures into it) is kids who are taught by their parents that they have all the right answers and parents who see themselves as preparing kids for their own adventure. But Eisenhower Republicans seem very different from Reagan Republicans, let alone Lincoln Republicans, let alone Trump Republicans. Nixon was dishonest, but it seemed to me that party-wide, organized big lies began with Reagan, and somehow those lies were erosive of the common weal, yet a massive basket of goodies for those in position to initiate de facto bribery and market monopolies; the ultra rich.
It seems to me that as a nation that is identified with self-governance, we spend remarkably little time exploring, detailing, discussing as a national conversation, where we want/need to go to promote and protect the rights of individuals and the common good. Its more like commercial marketing, where we "buy" somebody else's shrink-wrapped product; and TV seems to have made this more so. Modern presidential "debates" seem more like TV game shows than the sort of depth one finds in Lincoln-Douglas, and yet out fates still hang in the balance.
Thanks for that J L. It just goes to show the depth of his despicable behavior. It appears that the connections run very deep. No wonder he gets away with all that he does.
Yes, and no matter how this all shakes out, we will always be known as the country that elected Donald Trump.
As one anonymous European diplomat stated off the record: "We don't know if Trump is the anomaly or Biden is.
Neither do we.
I can only think not knowing is a step up from our previous assumption that we know everything.
That might not be all negative though. Now other countries know what the USA is and can proceed accordingly, knowing we are packed with a bunch of white supremacists and low-level complainers, neither of which wants to deal with the complexities of a democracy. To preserve the democracy, they need to recognize our pluralistic society and work together to make a decent country for law abiding citizens. At least other countrires now know the truth about America.
A chilling thought.
Dean, it happened, but I prefer to say putin made it so. So many hateful urchins played a role, yet not you and I.
I can't avoid knowing that, although we aren't the Republicans and we aren't Trump or the stormers of the capitol and we certainly aren't Putin, I do bear some responsibility. We liberals (and that's not right--I can only say this liberal sitting here typing) tend to be self-righteous about our position on the moral high ground. We also have ignored over too many decades the growing economic divide in this country. Pogo. 1971 "We have met the enemy and he is us" Edmund Burke, 18th century England "The only thing required for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing." In 2016 we were too confident, we dismissed Trump, ignored all the signs, assumed the victory, underestimated the racist backlash.
I don't dwell on that, but I find it hard to look away from it.
Very true and well said!
"We need to own and conduct ourselves according to the quote "no man is above the law"."
"To restrict a civil suit to the organization and not it's owner-operator was a compromise from the start. Nothing happened in that organization without either the impetus or the assent of TFG."
Nathan, as far as I know, no black man in history has ever been accorded the amazing concept of owning a criminal enterprise but being exempt from prosecution and jail.
Not a single large crack dealer in Baltimore has ever had his business indicted while he was separated from prosecution personally. Not one. In fact, those black men were put in jail for 40 years in some cases.
Separating the owner from the business is an amazing concept that would only be accorded to a rich white man to ensure that he never spends time in jail no matter how criminal he is. A fundamental rule in America.
Recognizing these deals, which are common for white men and non-existent for the rest of America INCLUDING white women (remember Martha Stewart), is quite important.
Unless we understand how America is really organized and run, we cannot change it.
Possibly, it's that T. employs "fixers" a la the Mafia. He has a large team of shyster lawyers who wrangle and connive, while he keeps his hands umm, elsewhere. It all never quite touches him. And if at first they don't succeed in court, they appeal endlessly. One of the reasons the Mar a Lago investigation is so compelling is that it appears there is no one to stand in the way of a direct indictment of Trump this time.
Hope, excellent point! His modus operandi is to insulate himself with layers of people he can eventually disavow and scapegoat. People who eventually realize their loyalty was one-sided when they're callously discarded (a la Michael Cohen.)
He'll try the same for Boxgate. "Other people catalogued and chose the contents" and "I didn't know what was in there." But it won't work this time.
The Box Stops Here. Garland has him by the short ones.
"Boxgate!" Good one, Cheryl!
The degree to which "rule of law" bows to money is a scandal. It is classic corruption in plain sight.
indeed; look what it's doing for TFG's accountant. 15 felonies, 4 months in jail (probably time already served) and a fine. The guy should be locked up until his bones turn to dust.
Good morning, Mike, and thank you for stretching our perspective a little further by simply pointing out the facts about separation of organization and owner. My first response, honestly, was, "Well, s--t, of course there's racism!" There are very few constants in this young country of ours, built by wealthy white men on a foundation of genocide, but two that are readily identifiable are money and racism. At this moment in our history, I am horrified to observe that we sure didn't get very far forward before we started going backward. Some days I just think I've gotten too old to look at this. Where are Odessa and Baez when we need some songs?
Dylan and Simon are standins.
Thank you Dean.
In fact, "of course there's racism" is not a universal "of course", or even a majority perspective in the US.
I have become aware, over half a century of "making good trouble" that the one thing I cannot do, for all my liberal white good intentions, is to say to my black friends that I know how they feel. I don't. I know about pain, physical and emotional; I know about rejection because of the person I am and the choices I've made; I know there is a great deal I can do to tear down a few of the walls of racism in the country. But I have also learned that all that does not allow me to really know. To me, however, it is an "of course." Donald Trump, the power boys and the hard cash behind him, and the violence that flows in his wake, is not a sudden, bizarre accident that we will fix. One reason I think everybody is jumping on Joe Biden is that we believed he would put the evil genie back in the bottle and we could stop thinking about it. Too late. The monster that is our underbelly is out and roaming the countryside looking for fresh meat.
I'm getting a little melodramatic here so I'll stop.
It makes me so happy to find many kindred spirits here. I wonder if we, with much gratitude to the folks who contribute their wisdom to sub-stacks a la Heather Cox Richardson, are not forming a new "tribe?" I'm beginning to feel that keenly. It almost feels like birthing a child, or creating a synthesis. I am (on purpose) very slowly rereading The Dawn of Everything. I am drawn to the speculation that there were groups of people who had no societal hierarchy, did not evaluate women's "work" to be any less valuable than men's "work," and apparently made community decisions by consensus. A true democracy, albeit simple.
I love this, Hope. I'd say yes and yes to every word of it. It occurs to me that we are struggling to survive in a world gone entirely mad and what you describe is perhaps the only way. Rather than engage in battle with that world we are building our own small worlds within it. Maybe that's the sane way back to some kind of normalcy. Thank you so much. What a lovely way to start my day.
"Equal Justice Under Law" is chiseled into the Supreme Court building. We need to be doing a better job of making it so.
Will we ever do that? Not sure how generations of mass incarceration, lynchings, white terrorism can be overcome enough to make equal justice a reality.
Carol, today my answer to your question would have to be 'no.' I was reading this morning about all the states that are initiating some version of book banning for schools and a huge part of that is to stop the teaching of the facts of the history of slavery and violent racism in this country. We will never change what we refuse to admit. Book banning is on the road to book-burning. If we control what our children read, we control what they know and, ultimately, what they think. This is state-sponsored censorship. Read about any dictatorship in the world and the suppression of information is at the top of the list of how they start and how they operate. And they are starting with our children!!
In Florida in particular.
Probably, but if it were only Florida and Texas, it would still be bad news but not a crisis. From what I've read, between 13-15+ states are sniffing around the edges of this kind of state-mandated insanity. And once all those states out there--the ones you can't quite remember--get on board, I think the domino effect will take over. It's the way every single dreadful and democracy-defeating event has occurred. There's such a mesmerizing show in the center ring that we don't notice the rather bland changes that will change the game before we know it. One of the basic principles of the successful creation of an authoritarian state. We have been bombarded with uninterrupted noise/lights/chaos for seven years now. It requires more and more effort to stay focused, to pay attention, to act.
That said, those are exactly the things we must do and I am determined to grab my cane and hobble out into the war.
Much of the 20th Century involved public empowerment by workers, women, minorities, anti-war, etc. Not that any of those battles were ever decisively won, but there was measurable progress, not all of which has been curtailed. We had a recent black president, and a female presidential nominee who won the popular vote by quite a bit. Gay rights seem stronger now than in the last century even with concerted resistance to them, which varies regionally. Recreational drug policies seem far saner in many states than in the past.
But the movement to use the law to undermine the democratic basis of the law appears stronger than ever, and much progress is being reversed or is under concerted attack. I am hoping the the Jan 6th Committee and other revelations of extreme, organized "GOP" criminality can be used a seed for organizing resistance and plotting a different course. There is a great deal at stake, including the ongoing livability of the planet, which seems unwise for anyone to just sit out.
Not sure, but just looking at nations around the globe, some seem, for the most part, more just and some decidedly less, so better-than-it-is seems possible, despite pervasive corruption. The despots are still a minority but big money is behind them, and that is a serious threat. I think there remains an opening for solidarity to triumph, if enough of us have it in us. I am hoping that at least some at the edges of politics are getting tired of hearing of all the posturing and lies and might be open to a different vision.
We do need to keep trying to live up to those words. Hasn't been true yet in the US
Nathan,your comment just triggered a thought. Perhaps there should be a movement to cancel the results of the 2016 election, and wipe the slate clean of his entire presidency due to Russian interference and the multiple crimes committed.
Better yet, wipe the pardons he gave to criminals like Stone and Manafort, off the records. Imprison them! Then go after Sessions, Stephen Miller, Barr, Nunes, Kavanaugh, Ginni Thomas and hubby, Coney Barrett, etc.
The Pandemonium Party. They rolled out the carpet for disaffected Dixiecrats, and sort of everything loose and terrible rolled in.
Hi Karen I think denying history and what is possible ( and has happened in fact) would never be the way to go. That's maybe how we got into the mess we are in now. As Faulkner said:
"the past is never dead, it is not even past"
Hello, Joan, and thank you. On another day of horrors in the news and despair in many of the comments, stumbling on someone who quotes Faulkner might be the saving of my sanity for another 24 hours.
Just so you know ...You are not alone feeling this way
And just so you know, I'm considering ending my morning reading of Dr. Richardson's newsletter, making a cup of tea, and settling in to re-read a Faulkner novel.
Go Dean! I am reading Frank Bruni memoir The Beauty of Dusk Inspiring and beautiful
This Faulknerian English major concurs, dear Dean!!
One of the magic events in my long teaching life was when I taught a little Faulkner novel, The Unvanquished, to a class of h.s. sophomores. I started out with a truly obnoxious lit crit intro lecture about Faulkner, his importance in the blah blah blah and I realized I was looking out at a sea of 12-15 pairs of glazed eyes. One kid was actually asleep and, let me tell you, with Mommy and Daddy writing big checks every year, even teenagers manage to stay awake! And I was the recipient of pure grace when it became clear to me what the solution was. I said, basically, put your notebooks away, close your eyes, and listen. And I started on the first page and I read until the class ended. That novel turned out to be most students' favorite. Much of Faulkner is really difficult but this novel is a dream to teach if the teacher will just shut up :-)
You would’ve turned out to be one of my favorite teachers! This makes me think of Dead Poets Society a little bit. Thanks for sharing a literary moment with me!
Hi, Joan. I wasn't saying deny history, rather that it was an "illegitimate " presidency. I hate thinking about his having a presidential funeral, although that's the least of my worries. TFG has been a grifter, mobster and crook since childhood, as was his father.
Karen the operant word...funeral
May he be the star of a cemetery ........ Somewhere.
LOL
His golf course at Bedminster, perhaps?
Heart.
The past is still unfolding in the present.
If only... I have been saying this all along. Especially the Supremes!
If only that could happen. Not that we'd ever forget.
Money recovered should be used to pay the small business guys who trump stiffed with remainder to treasury.
Fines for the rich and prison for the poor needs to be addressed.
Hopefully the DOJ will act as it must
The power of propaganda is well-known. What is unprecedented is that it made Schitt smell like roses to the extent that it may rule us all.
The power of propaganda may be well known by a few great scholars but nowhere near widely known enough to prevent us from wiping humanity from earth
" Today, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has recently been in the news for his defamation of the parents of a victim of the Sandy Hook shooting, announced on his show that he is switching his support to DeSantis."
With DeSantis you get to keep the MAGA floor show, but you skip all the legal song and dance routines and get a new version of American history forced on our school systems to boot.
DeSantis's new Florida school curriculum training reads like something created by the "Fascist Supreme Court Six." He's trying to train teachers to indoctrinate students with a Christian Nationalist rewriting of the founding of our country. He talked about keeping "woke indoctrination" out of schools in favor of his newly minted rightwing Christian fairytale version of our history: light on actual facts and heavy on pushing the mixing of Christianity and "State" as the "original" intention of our founding fathers, while white washing the sins of slavery. In a post truth political mob like the new Republican fascist party, you can select any facts you desire to start pounding into the country's school children. DeSantis appears to like the Viktor Orban/Vladimir Putin autocratic style of teaching history, i.e. history is whatever he says it was.
I think the J6 Committee and the DOJ plus the Fulton County District Attorney, among others, have started the former president down the drain simply by beginning to hold him accountable for some of his many criminal and anti-American behaviors.
It's now time to start holding Ron DeSantis's feet to the fire of Christian Nationalism that he's been stoking so diligently. Most of America does not want to live in a post-truth country run by cold-hearted autocrats who only care about themselves and their power. We don't want a dictator named Donald and we sure don't want a younger version named Ronald.
https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/florida-curriculum-trainings-show-teachers-how-to-make-students-desirable-citizens/
American school children have been told fairytales instead of history since the beginning of the nation's birth. Again (and I know I'm preaching to the choir) A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn) should replace all the fairytale "history" books in the US school systems.
By calling DeSantis's preferred history of America a "Christian fairytale," I was not commenting on the accuracy of the current school history books. I appreciate your point. Careful scholars could create educational materials for use across this country that more closely reflect the historical truth than current books. (And this could be done without "making white children ashamed of themselves" as far right wing Republicans claim it would.) To your point, starting out with that truth would be much better for the people of our country. However, to take what has been taught (at least in public schools) up until now and radically dismember it to rebuild our history to indoctrinate all children according to the Christian Nationalist "dream" of what Americans should believe, is much more existentially dangerous and as totally unacceptable to democracy (or to a republic) as is Trump's BIG LIE. That is my immediate concern.
Chris, I agree that both are worth reading. FWIW, the Nevins and Commager volume was knocked out hurriedly in 1942 by two esteemed historians of America. It was noted as being read by many armed forces members during the war. Its epigraph from Benét's "Listen to the People" includes the lines:
"We made it and we make it and it's ours.
We shall maintain it. It shall be sustained."
cheers
When a guy is too crazy, to destructive, too unhinged, too untruthful for Alex Jones...that in itself is a statement!
Agreed, but Jones is just jumping tracks from one train to another which has the prospect of selling more useless supplements. He'll have to be careful though because making additional profits might undermine his claims of bankruptcy.
"Most of America does not want to live in a post-truth country run by cold-hearted autocrats who only care about themselves and their power."
Unfortunately, CC, many Americans either explicitly or implicitly, in their own mind, DO want a "post-truth country run by cold-hearted autocrats who only care about themselves and their power".
There is a LOT of discomfort for those embedded in the religious "belief space" world when the "reality" world encrouches into their minds. That discomfort is removed under a single entity that tells them what they want to hear but does whatever he wants. It will be a he by the way.
Really, we have to understand how many Americans are uncomfortable in a free form America where folks tell the truth openly and question things like "Did Jesus Resurrection really occur or was it invented (for some reason)." A great question correct? One that I attempted to answer in my younger days through research, and, gave up. There is no real evidence of resurrection so it boils down to a choice we make for ourselves. But, just saying that will cause some Christians to pass out from stress associated with internal dissonance.
Because, long back, I struggled, mightily, with discomfort in these domains as the real world impinged on my belief world, I completely understand the level of discomfort with free form, open discussion truth. My level of discomfort was unbelievable. I grunted through it like a day in the watermelon fields and came out with a new perspective .... and into the world of reality and data. Really, it was not easy. It took time. It was stressful. Sometimes still is as I navigage my old friends and family.
Since that time, I have become inured to asking any question and applying data and rational underpinnings to the answer. But, many Americans reside where I once was: Belief Space.
MANY Americans would be very HAPPY indeed with someone telling them what they want to hear and robbing them blind. As long as what they believe is not questioned, not wondered about and not threatened by data or rational analysis.
Seriously folks. :-)
I think your ability to question and explore authority is very healthy and led you in a deep search like working in the watermelon fields. I worked in those same fields and, fortunately, had a mother who was very open-minded a seeker of Truth. I feel much gratitude to her for our talks when I earnestly questioned the idea of being a "sinner" at 9 years old. She agreed and supported me completely and that set me to incorporating what feels right and Truth from many religions and beliefs and dumping the rest that felt like control or placation and just made up. I always pondered "Why Are We Here?" followed by "Why Death?" Appears to be me to be the Great Anxiety of being Human. As I entered the world of education and psychology it seems like such a primary factor we all must contend with. Our mortality. In working in the field of death, dying and grief, I saw how religious thought soothed some people and how near death experiences, reincarnation and the concepts of Big Daddy and heaven, or a Unified Field we are all part of, or parallel realities, and Quantum Physics--all can help different people contend with the mysteries life. And for others, I see how they just need someone to give them answers they can hold onto...it would have been so much easier if I just bought the Big Daddy and heaven idea. I just am one of those not wired that way. I love your words "Belief Space." That seems to be what I have been exploring most of my life. Belief Systems seem to be the placaters of our underlying human anxiety of being temporal beings. It would have been a lot easier in my life if I had just found a religion or belief system to placate that biological anxiety and just enjoy LIFE. And I sure explored and still am. Today, I am exploring that our anxiety might actually be within our nervous systems and purely biological. Doing things we love, music, art, dance, forest & garden bathing, or just being in water reduces our biological anxiety. And even focusing on deep breathing proves we can alter our anxiety in biofeedback.
Sorry for this morning dip... Some of us were born to be seekers or explorers. No rest for the wicked ;-) But there might be a message in there for all those dealing with our anxieties of our political/religious crisis. Immerse yourself in something that takes you into total present moment, or timelessness like listening/playing music, immerse yourself in painting, or having tea or something stronger with one of your favorite people. Learn something new. Or play with a child. May each of us find some peace and breathe away discomforts so we can re-enter each day or moment as a rejuvenated Self participating in the re-creation of our new country with others. As Ellie says, For All The People this time.
Bravo to your Mom! What I especially take away from your morning musing is the fact that you walked your journey -as uncomfortable as it was ( I have done it also ) BUT did not demand that the world conform to YOU. That’s the difference. I have no problem understanding someone’s belief space until it says it owns the decision about my uterus.
Absolutely! Do not put your belief system onto others! As a community, we have to agree on the rules in order to function. But then leave individual Belief Space to each person as long as it does not impinge on their lives. It does not belong in government, particularly in the Melting Pot as we are so lucky to live in. Diversity in all things should be celebrated and explored rather than compared and judged. Would it not be a boring country if we are all palefaces and one religion? Geeze.
I have a new litter of kittens. That is my balm and my salvation. The momma cat came to live with me and my partner and our dog in rural India. Just living here is a balm, away from big city noise, stress, illness, homelessness…..your reflections are wonderful and this forum is another place I find solace. Intelligent people, with hearts and compassion for all of us. All The People. Thank you, Pensa.
Oh, kitten balm! Yes, this community is such a lifeline during this turmoil. Aren't we so lucky that Heather created this and so many of us were ripe and ready to plunge in with her and one another? It is a great world in here.
Thank you, Pensa -- and no few others here -- for the deep reassurance that thoughtful company brings.
You must have been told many times how well your name suits you.
Over and out.
Breaker! Breaker! Well, Peter, my name is really Penelope, but my Italian friends called me Pensa Positivo which I try to live up to! I have been tested greatly over the past 7 years in that kind of thinking, but I really strive to keep it above the fray! Thanks for your kind words, now Over and out!
Well, greetings, Elisabeth! My feelings too.
Your wonderful Mom launched a wonderful person. This is a beautiful comment. You radiate wisdom and compassion.
For All The People, this time - yes indeed.
Thank you, what a lovely thing to say. Much gratitude to friends here!
" saw how religious thought soothed some people"
"if I just bought the Big Daddy and heaven idea. I just am one of those not wired that way."
"Belief Systems seem to be the placaters of our underlying human anxiety of being temporal beings."
Pensa, first, thank you for one of the most thoughtful posts I have read anywhere in a long time. Second, thank you for sharing your own personal walk through very personal transitions.
Lastly, no apology needed, to me at least.
I like this sentence the best: "May each of us find some peace and breathe away discomforts so we can re-enter each day or moment as a rejuvenated Self participating in the re-creation of our new country with others"
An absolutely wonderful post. Thank you. And, my good wishes in your travel through mortality.
Mike, gee, many thanks for inspiring me to write by sharing your own thoughts. And ditto for good wishes for you own "travels through mortality" as well as other folks here.
Pensa, thank you for this honest and insightful post. You have reminded me of the value of meditation and the peace that can accompany it. I need to resume.
You are so welcome, Heather. We all need to remind one another in this wacky time!
Thank you for your valuable perspective, Mike. I've been painfully aware that a minority of Americans believe exactly as you so thoughtfully explained. And I've long imagined how comforting it would be to believe as they do, if I didn't care about truth and facts. As I read your comment, I wondered what percentage of the fear and desire for an "all knowing father figure" on earth has been encouraged by certain segments of organized religion and politics. I have no idea. But I have read about many pastors who are leading their followers down the fascist path rolled out by the political far right wing...ignoring the idea of the separation of church and state. I have also heard how politicians have used this fear to claim that religious folks are somehow being attacked by the rest of society. I may have missed something, but I'm not aware of Christian churches being attacked or shut down in this country because of their beliefs. I still believe that the majority of Americans are less concerned with the religious belief of their neighbor than they are with the goodness in that neighbor's heart.
My question is, how much less fearful would this "autocrat-accepting" minority be if their awareness of changing times were not falsely exacerbated by the Republican party and various power hungry religious leaders?
CC.
I highly recommend the absolute best book ever written on the origin of (many) preachers: Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis.
This book is a walk through my early rural life and (a fair number) of the preachers I met. I think the book captures the reality of a preacher or leader of a church. Where the residents of the pew desire assurance and emotion......to part with their money.
"I still believe that the majority of Americans are less concerned with the religious belief of their neighbor than they are with the goodness in that neighbor's heart."
I am not sure CC. I know some folks that will get pretty nasty in the face of any uncertainty in another individual around that person's belief. OR, worse, begin a targeted process of "saving" your sorry unbeliever arse CC.
But, that's just my experience. Others vary. :-)
I'm sure there are PLENTY of determined, self-appointed "arse savers" out there, Mike. But if they correlate closely with the MAGA cult, then they aren't the majority.
I'm referring to the average person who has their own opinion about religion or lack thereof, but accepts that others may believe differently, isn't threatened by it (absent religious-based aggressive behavior by a neighbor) and doesn't bring up the subject in casual conversations.
This reminded me of Ursula LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas."
Ronald is the REAL threat now, as you so beautifully laid out, CC. Thank you. I am ready to protest like mad……
The book banning in Florida is so extreme that some school districts are not buying new books for school libraries because they won’t have the screening process in place until after 2023 begins. The fascism is real in Florida, folks-a Governor who mask-shames children in television, punishes corporations who don’t now to him, and who has the deaths of countless citizens on his hands because of a refusal to endorse a mask-mandate in schools. I live here-it’s real.
It's terrifying to think this man could win a national election.
What can we do to help? I lived on Singer Island for six years 2013-19. I know the place. There are many good Floridians. If I were a parent of children being subjected to stupidity I would become so active the school board would wish I were never born!
We need to vote him out. However, his war chest is beyond enormous and there are so very many rednecks who love his policies and so very many “Christians” who are devoted to his “Christian” Nationalistic policies-I try to remain hopeful, but it’s difficult. His brand of “Christianity” isn’t something I recognize. I’d like to think that if we could vote him out now it might temper his fevered race for the Oval which is already underway.
I would work on registering all the non-voters. That is a large pool and needs to be tapped and delivered. It’s our only hope…..
Jen,
A wake up call to be sure. Thank you.
I have a question :) I think of “woke” as meaning anti-racist. So when someone like DeSantis uses it as a pejorative, is he not explicitly saying that his state will continue to support racism? Or can someone give me a more specific, brief definition of “woke”? Googling it provided things along the lines of being aware of the dangers of racism.
IMHO, "woke" is the right-wing's definition of anything remotely liberal--especially related to LGBTQ, gender equality, women's rights, transgender students' rights, separation of church and state, support for gun safety regulations, librarians who don't censor books, and the list goes on and on. Anything not in the right-wing's wheelhouse is automatically "woke," most assuredly including anti-racism.
The origins clearly had to do with racism. One thing about wiki is it can give a general consensus or a majority opinion (LOL) on the cultural meaning of a phrase frequently repeated. 🙂 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
Agree CC.
RonFilipkowski
“Trump has lost Alex Jones. He announces today he is off the Trump train: ‘I am supporting Desantis .. I can look into his eyes on HD video, and I see the real sincerity.’”
How in the sam heck does Alex Jones slavishly announce that he is now enamored with the “sincerity” in Desantis’s eyes when there is no reflection of that when he looks in a mirror.
That is utterly ridiculous. What a poser.
And by the way….what one sees looking in the eyes of the current guv of Florida is avarice and naive political spite.
Support in any way you can his opponents…Crist and/or Fried in November election.
🗽
Cannot black, Hispanic,LGBTQ, etc parents start sueing in FL for their child’s “history” lessons making them feel uncomfortable? All our daughters sitting in “history”class in FL can be assured of being “uncomfortable” about the lessons.
Yes, Michele! Let parents sue the bastards! Progressive whites also. OMG.
Any surprise that almost 10,000 vacancies existed at the beginning of the school year? And Ron's DOE has made it possible for veterans and their spouses...without a college education or teaching certificate... to fill those vacancies. Yesterday he announced he wants to do the same for retired "public servants" such as law enforcement, fire fighters, EMTs, and the like. And have the State pay for Associates Degrees and teacher certification. SMDH
KellyR...I noted in that same article provided by CC a link to this Fact Check: https://www.wfla.com/news/education/fact-check-no-florida-veterans-spouses-cant-just-pick-up-and-start-teaching/?ipid=promo-link-block2
I'm not in FL.
He has been waiting in the wings, preparing as in the best Shakespearean drama
I have a vision of the Taliban: The purpose of education is to teach reading and writing solely to read the (Bible) and never to question it is true. Not sure of any other subjects such as art and math or technology and medicine. Heaven forbid the study of astronomy lest it reveal other worlds than earth. Education for girls and women is optional in as much as they should marry early and never ever have an abortion. It is similar for children of other races and nationalities because their role is clearly (sarcasm) to support the world of business, which is the ultimate goal of the neo-Republicans, i.e. state sponsored capitalism.
Liz Cheney's speech conceding the primary included a vow to make sure that Trump is never again near the Oval Office. I asked for help finding her full speech because none of the major news outlets showed the full video. Rowshan Nemazee provided the link to the complete video. Thank you Rowshan!
https://youtu.be/sUGArGhLc9k
Also today Robert Reich wrote about the demise of the Republican Party in his SubStack blog. He generously provided a full transcript of the Liz Cheney speech at the end of his blog post. Please share that transcript widely. It looks like the Cheney dynasty ain't dead yet.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/liz-cheney-and-the-future-of-the?r=dpmrd&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Magnificent speech by Liz Cheney.
It is indeed a magnificent speech! But it's important to remember that Cheney has voted against every major bill that Biden's gotten through Congress to help the American people (including the veterans poisoned by burn pits) and keep American industry inside our borders, and supports the right of each state to make and enforce it's own grotesque laws against female autonomy (including the Ohio law intended to force a 10-year old rape victim to give birth). She is, as she says, "a proud conservative." We can't afford that. I honor her courageous commitment to democracy. But Prof. Reich's former colleague Bob Kuttner has this warning in *The American Prospect*, a political magazine they co-founded: https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/liz-cheney-product-warning-label/
I totally agree, but she acted on principle and I admire that.
Yep.
I don’t support her extreme conservative politics either, yet we need every advocate to help save our democracy, including those who are credible to conservatives and take their stand against a Trump coup. As is often said, this is a case where my enemy’s enemy is at least a key ally.
Please read Robert Kuttner's warning about Cheney's proposed run for the presidency: https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/liz-cheney-product-warning-label/
I watched Liz Cheney’s speech, which was excellent, but disingenuous. Her voting right along with most others of her party for stripping away reproductive healthcare for women, not protecting voting rights shows her lack of concern for ordinary people. I do applaud her courage in standing up for the truth regarding January 6. She lost the Republican primary. So did Lisa Murkowski at one point. Wonder how Liz Cheney would do as a write-in candidate? P.S. I’m not sure Liz Cheney and her father constitute a dynasty, only two people.
My sentiments exactly. And Bob Kuttner at The American prospect today has a potent warning about her plan to run for President: https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/liz-cheney-product-warning-label/
I found the full text of Cheny’s concession speech on Robert Reich’s substack also. Thank you for posting it here for the group. I can admire Cheny’s speech writing skills and also push back on the wisdom of her legislative philosophy and positions. As Democrats/Progressives/Liberals or simply “not conspiracy-loving-alternative-fact-baptized” individuals, we have to STOP looking for saviors. WE are the only ones who can save the Republic and have it reflect an open, tolerant society. That’s WE TOGETHER. Some will be in the limelight, most will not. But never again must we forget it is the WE we need to educate, consolidate, activate, and mobilize.
"Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
Let's not pretend that today's GOP has sprung full grown from Trump's deviant brain. Most immediately, Trump's Party of Nihilism grew out of McConnell's Party of No - and both are informed by the Evangelical apocalyptic wet dreams of GW Bush's Politics of Faith. And that's just for starts.
Nihilistic, contemptible, dangerous? Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney ...
.....Ronald Reagan, Lindsey Graham, Tom DeLay, Lee Atwater, GHWBush, Karl Rove...Richard Nixon. They and so many more members of the GOP, who have lost any moral or intellectual principle or allegiance to democracy, are the fathers of the current gang of fascist thugs and thieves. Thank you, lin.
Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, John Rutherford (my rep and former Sheriff of Duval County) . . .
Too many to post, but they were all in cahoots.
It's important to remember that despite her glorious speech and her courageous struggle on the Jan 6 Committee, Liz Cheney voted for Trump twice.
And for 90% of his policies. She believes a woman’s uterus should be owned by the State. My Body, Her Choice. We laud Cheny for sitting on the J6 Committee. Yet in reality, sitting on a committee looking into the facts about an Insurrection and Disruption to the Peaceful Transition of Power, is something ALL members of congress should believe is important and fully support. That only two gop think this is important enough to soberly and respectfully cooperate with is shameful. Holding them up as exemplars of courage, says we are in a truly awful situation. Calling the gop/tump affiliates that after a year finally talk under oath to the J6 committee “Hero’s” is shameful, again. At every step they knew what trump was doing and they were okay with it. At every step they could have pushed back, but they did not. They could have outed him. But they did not. They could have put country over party. But they did not. Only under great pressure did any of them finally fess up. And all of them still support the policies of trump. So never forget that Cheny is doing the job she swore an oath to do. Nothing more. It’s like Dems are experiencing Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Liz.
I would say it's very much something "more." And she was not "OK with it at every step." But I agree with you 100% about her policy ideas and her voting record. And the Stockholm Syndrome aspect, yes--I was trying to think how it put it last night, this wash of sentimental gratitude, and that's exactly it. I'm grateful for her admirable work on the Committee and her willingness to give up power. But she's a Republican neoliberal hawk.
She is now merely out for revenge now against Trump. Her dad’s dynasty vs. Trump and Company. I will not fawn over Liz. She is doing the right thing by being a part of the J6 committee and for that, we are admiring her. She has disregarded women and our rights. That alone, makes her an unattractive presidential candidate, plus the fact that her dad is an outright criminal. Leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.
You win, hands down
I forget, is Eric Beavis, or is he Butthead?
Beavis! No doubt.
When his father is led from the courtroom in handcuffs after sentencing, please remind me to seek out Beavis for a quote, unless he himself is already in handcuffs.
Yes
Butthole, TC.
Bbbbboth
I think they are interchangeable
TC, he reminds me of the words from “Erik the Awful!!”
🎶It was Erik and the bloodthirsty Horde!
Erik the Awful, the Brutal and Tenacious
Erik the Awful, the Ruthless and Courageous
Subtle as a chainsaw, lacking all the Social Graces
You can run, but you cannot hide!”🎶
Eric the dumb arse. Where is Junior, the hair apparent? Did DeSantis declaw him??
Oh, Jeri---- that is perfect and prophetic for Jr.'s future—the hair apparent!! Thanks for that much needed laugh after reading Heather's letter.
Pensa_VT I just wanted to applaud your response to our new troll yesterday. Your writing was spot on.
Thanks for reading that! It felt necessary for some reason. Maybe we will see in the future!
warmly,
Penelope
I'm gonna have to go look that up.
🤣👏
Jeri, 😂😂😂!
"Erik the Awful, the Ruthless and Courageous"
Not.
Eric Trump is BOTH Beavis AND Butthead.
Eric thinks this is Game of Thrones, but there’s one “dynasty” left to kill: his family’s. And what about the blond chick with the dragons? The one from Wyoming?? Not dead yet. Though I’m not seeing a lot of Dems voting for her in a presidential contest.
Grace, just a guess, but, Eric Trump could not concentrate long enough to play "Game of Thrones". :-)
Both, twin dumb
The best of both
asshat actually
Going by hair color, Eric is Beavis.
Thank you!
Going on looks, I'd say Butthead. I think Donny looks more like Beavis. Unless I have them backwards.
I have never watched enough to learn this. The funniest application of these two characters I have ever seen was in a PR-24 Instructor Trainer class I was in. One of my fellow deputies designed the "escalation of trauma"* chart with B&B as the heads on the diagrams.
*Because this is "in-group speak", the "escalation of trauma" chart showed various parts of the human body as colors (green for less trauma, yellow for more trauma and risk of additional injury, and red for the most trauma, with the warning that strikes to those areas could be viewed as deadly force i.e. the head and soft belly/kidney areas. In this class we had to design and present visual aids to show our acumen as instructors. I guess.
Eric thinks this is Game of Thrones. Oops, one more “dynasty” to destroy: the Trumps. Oh, and the blind chick with the dragon? The one from Wyoming??
Butthead, of course.
And so classically Trumpian. (Trumpean? However you spell it, it's classic - and emblematic. Jr. Mafiosa.)
Trumpeon.
Eric's verb choice tells all about he and his ilk.
I thought that immediately, Spooky! Omg.
"Last night, my father killed another political dynasty, and that’s the Cheneys. He first killed the Bushes, then he killed the Clintons. Last night he killed the Cheneys.” So Eric Trump, former president Donald Trump’s son, interpreted the primary loss by Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) last night."
This is, perhaps, one of the most horrifying statements i have heard in my life. I grew up as a child of the 50s and 60s where hope for all, regardless of religion, color, ethnicity was a goal. We sang songs and marched about overcoming and arriving on another shore.Yet here we are in 2022 having an astonishing number of politicians ripping pages of the Constitution into shreds to satisfy the deranged vision of a madman. I am at a loss for words. My heart is in pieces. I am forlorn. Please, do not tell me to have hope, send another text or post card. The brutality of the Trump vision is mortally destructive for us all.
We are at a point where passivity is no longer appropriate. Going high has left us in a mud pit.
Truth, the awful truth. But Eric is a moron, albeit with a MAGAt audience. I say kick his arse, by whatever means…
Daria, when I read what the dumb son said, my first thought was....Be careful about what you say about the "Cheney dynasty", because that woman will bring down the tRump regime." She has now turned her re-election committee into a PAC. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/17/cheney-launch-anti-trump-organization-after-defeat-00052344 She has only just begun.
I hope she splits the R vote right in two!
Passivity is never appropriate. Active resistance is. That the fight is hard and will get harder, I admit yes. Despair? I feel it and fight against it daily. We lived through a time when we believed in saviors. Not anymore. Facing this reality that only WE can save this Republic is a harsh bite. Acknowledging that bullies fight cruelly and toss out norms and rules, really shocks my system. But Daria, I MUST tell you to have Hope. I read your comments every day on this newsletter and get my second wind often by some comment or piece of wisdom you pass on. There are opportunities for us in all this smashing, and grinding up of civil discourse. I often sustain my courage and hope by the constructive comments, advice, and activity of our newsletter family.
I hope you find your second-wind. Peace.
Michele, thanks for your encouragement. I'm glad to know you are here!
I so get your feelings that you express in your next to the last paragraph, Daria! You are not, however, “at a loss for words”. Unless we Dems find a trojan horse to battle these evil forces, we will be unable to recognize one another. I want to put that horse in the present DOJ and in Garland’s hands.
A Trojan horse AND a poison pill, Marlene!
Heck yeah!!
"This is, perhaps, one of the most horrifying statements i have heard in my life." Agree! I couldn't continue reading the rest of the article until a couple of hours later. It is so destructive on so many levels - moral, psychological, philosophical, historical, visual, aural, digestive...
Honestly, all that family wants to do is destroy.
😘
When will Trump set up the Kool-Aid tables for his faithful? There really is no difference between the two narcissistic psychopaths. Eventually it will all come crashing down because I can’t believe the rational Americans will allow our democratic republic to fall. I for one will fight for my country as did my father at Anzio, my uncle at the Battle of the Bulge, my grandfather in France, my cousins in Vietnam and their children in Afghanistan. I admire Liz Cheney being a congresswomen of principle; you don’t see too many of them.
Molly, my sincerest thanks to all of the members of your family who served our country in the military. Army Strong. (And all the other Branches)
Where I live, people are too busy with Kardashian bull Schitt and republican lies
I so understand. I have watched the slide of reasonable dialogue slip to bizarre memes and OAN links in my former colleagues. That Kool-Aid is mighty powerful.
Molly,
"When will Trump set up the Kool-Aid for his faithful?
He has already done so. Many of them reside in jail and more are headed there. This fact has not slowed him down one bit.
My father faught in Korea. I will fight for my country IF it makes rational, data based sense. IF that fight is underpinned by lies (invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam), or, IF that fight appears to be unwinnable for people like me (who are not of the upper caste in America), then, I will think twice.
There is no reason to sacrifice oneself to a cause that has no hope. And, rational analysis can provide the answer to whether a war is winnable or weather it is another Vietnam. Or Afghanistan. Or Iraq. Or Korea.
My father fought in WWII. His family showed unbroken service from the Civil War to WWII. I am the only one of my generation that had any desire to serve in the military, but that pesky question 20 (are you homosexual) and my unwillingness to lie prevented that. Of course, that would have had the generational string broken with me, since my nephew not only "wears that hat" but is in no way, shape, or form cut out for the military.
Ally, you must have volunteered before Clinton's "Don't ask, Don't tell"??
OR, you decided that approach was beneath you. Which, it probably was.
At any rate, the vast majority of America's wealthiest families have few or no people in the military either today or in their past. IF they were in the military, they were not wading through swamps in Vietnam to be used for target practice.
Most of the folks that end up in combat? Are poor. Like my Dad, and like many of the folks in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Rich folks, like Trump, are never slogging through a live minefield to find mines so their platoon will be able to walk safely.
I pre-dated DADT by about 15 years. It was suggested that I could lie, which I nearly did. It came down to not being able to live a lie.
I meant to fight against Trump and his minions, literally and figuratively. Dumb wars fought for old mens egos are to be avoided.
I think we were saved from WW III because Trump values (only) his own hide, and always craves a massive audience. But yeah, narcissism in a runaway state.
"Trump’s statement reflects the reality that today’s MAGA crowd rejects the ideology of Reagan’s Republican Party, which was based in the idea—if not the actual execution—that the government must not interfere with markets."
That may apply to the plutocrats who bet on Trump but not the populists who believe him. It may apply to those who funded the operatives - the Manaforts, Stones, and Atwaters - who crafted the Southern Strategy wedge issue politics which brought the GOP back into power, but not the voters it attracted. Personified by Reagan or Trump, the Republican party continues to be about throwing racist voters the sops of god and guns, with the real purpose of relieving the greedy wealthy of equitable taxation and government regulation. The coming together of slave state historic hatred of Federal government and traditional Republican ideological resentment of government in general.
Just as arriviste Trump is parvenu Reagan writ vulgar and writ loud, MAGA is the Party of Reagan without dog whistles and with not only rhetorical and procedural attacks on the federal government but actual armed bloody insurrection. Trump hasn't done anything original, he's merely ratcheted up Republican abuse and put his brand on it. A difference in style not substance. The consummately vulgarian Steve Bannon is not that far removed from the consummately effete William F. Buckley. But when Trumps speak of killing, it can no longer be considered merely rhetorical excess.
It's never about the jackboots; it's always about the wingtips. But the jackboots propel the narrative and the execution...
You know our history
Brilliant, lin!
Tonight, I am writing about a little township, within the State of Michigan.
My family and I lived in the eastern part of Michigan for 27 years in a mostly Republican County. The county I was curious about is Ottawa County. Ottawa county is deep-red, with just one Democrat on its 11-member county commission It hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1864, when voters there favored Gen. George McClellan over President Abraham Lincoln. There is a story there of Republicans rejecting other republicans on the County Board because they are not Republican enough.
Within the County of Ottawa is the Township of Jamestown which has a population of ~9,900 people. In the recent primary votes in Michigan, Jamestown decided to defund the library over several books which were alternative lifestyle books. "Gender Queer, A Memoir," and a couple of other books.
The Township voters defeated the millage funding the library for the next fiscal year. In which case they will have to close. One voter voting against the millage stated; "it was “Satan’s goal” to 'groom and indoctrinate children' about 'homosexuality.'” Others said they hoped the library board would listen to “God’s truth.” Not sure what that truth is anymore.
Through unsolicited donations, supporters in and outside the township and the state and nation have raised $140,000 of the $240,000 needed to stay open till the next millage vote. We had similar actions in Livingston County where people were all for banning books like "Catcher in The Rye," "Black Boy," "The Bluest Eye," "The Freedom Writers Diary," etc. Livingston County is the whitest and richest county in the state of Michigan and the most constipated. It was fun discussing the facts with them.
As Prof. Heather states "the Republican Party has now been captured by extremists who reject the principles associated with that party" and might I add the common decency of humanity. Time to push back.
Michigan's Bridge magazine has the story as well as others. Not soliciting here, if you have a couple of loose dollars, I think they may take a donation or two. It is a good fight to win!
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/defunded-over-lgbtq-books-michigan-library-will-try-tax-again-november
Thanks, Bill, for bringing to our attention the situation at Michigan’s Patmos Library. A PUBLIC library’s role is education and enlightenment, not indoctrination and obscurantism. I’ll donate to the Gofundme campaign first thing come daylight…
I was going to say 'Bill, it's time to move'...but I see you are Bill H from Arizona! A big part of one's happiness is their fit in their community...!
Thanks--I easily found both GoFundMe sites for the Patmos Library, donated pittances to both. They need around $240,000 to get through the next year, so far have a total of about $155,000 in donations. Donating won't just help this one lovely library--other Michigan small-town libraries are considering defunding them too and an effective backlash may have a sobering influence.
This local library issue is important on many levels. People are cutting off their nose to spite their face by defunding the library. Banning books is a tactic of autocracy to control what people say, starting with shaping young impressionable minds.
Kitchen table issues are commonly addressed in state legislatures. I invite you to check out how The States Project is focusing on changing the balance of power, including in Michigan and Arizona.
https://statesproject.org/
ok, thanks. I will do so.
It is interesting here where I live, The informal HOA has a "yuge" under-current They make it pretty apparent in their conversations. The formal HOA is run by a Property Management company.
I also invite you to join your fellow Michiganders who are among the other HCR Substackers enhancing their powers of civic engagement through "Heather's Herd." For more info, email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
Thank you for posting this link, and for the story…it gives me hope that at least on this front (local libraries) victory will be possible. Grassroots actions can be very powerful!
Carol:
6:17 AM and I am up. I am going to walk my German Shepard "shortly" while it is still 79 degrees. She likes her walks and I need to walk.
Voter turnout is important. There will be another millage vote in November and then the following year. Sixty-two percent voted and the vote was not so large as not to be overcome. They can still turn it around.
This is not unusual in Michigan and I am finding similar in where we are in Arizona. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth either. Bricklayer dad who never finished high school and a full blood and pretty Italian woman raised 4 of us who went on for Masters degrees in various disciplines.
These places are isolated and a library gives children a chance to dream of other places. There were always books in our house. When I left at 19 for the USMC in 68, my brothers and sister started to read the ones I left behind.
Who knows what will come from that little library in Michigan. Perhaps, another Prof. Heather?
Bill, I too am in AZ but not as diligent with dog walking as you! He waits patiently until 7 when I am finished reading the comments and have had enough coffee.
My parents also (dad a railroader and mom a “housewife”) encouraged reading and trips to the library, can’t imagine a world without both.
I am more hopeful going into the general election that I was….”cautiously optimistic” maybe. Am hoping the crazies here are actually TOO crazy to gain office, especially the Sec.State and other election officials. Carry on!
Among many other firsts for this ex-president, including his various crimes, is his tenacity to stay in the news and keep his name on so many lips, and on so many minds after leaving office. It's as if he is paid every time someone mentions his name. I'm wearied sick of it. And I can't fathom how he is still walking around as a free man. Cheering on the national archivists!
His image and voice are nauseating to me, every time.
Me, too, Jeri.
Agree! But I'm tired of media condoning it.
Yes, exactly!
Why isn't Jones in jail yet? Why isn't junior in jail yet? Why isn't TFG in jail yet? Why did it take more than 1.5 years for DOJ to go after very sensitive TOP SECRET stolen documents.? Why haven't the coup leaders been charged yet? Why are the MAGA mob getting such light sentences? Why did Kushner get $2bn from Saudis? Why? Time's running out.
A country cannot be well run by stupid, lazy and dishonest people. Problems do not get solved with lies and enriching ones friends while enriching oneself. I imagine there is a contingent of Americans who are accepting of trauma informed living. That is what they get with Trump. Trump knows how to take advantage of those people like all grifters do. I am not someone who subscribes to the idea that all ideas are equally good. The ideas coming out of this party are categorically not. Under Hitler women were supposed to embody Kinder Küche, Kirche KKK, children--rewards for having at least 4, kitchen--your places in the home, and church. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxb8msg/revision/1
This sounds just like what Putin, Orban and the Republican party are standing for. So who really needs denazification?
Eric’s comment makes me sick to my stomach. The audacity of each of the members of this Trump family is disgusting!
Time to muzzle those inane tfg kids together with tfg himself! MSM must not give them so much attention!
It's a dilemma because they are still influential and they a still up to no good. And their crimes keep getting exposed.
That’s a dream
TFG's sons have learned from their father, and now model him, by making outrageous statements with impunity. They dismiss criticism because they are applauded by the fawning MAGA cultists. Repugnant.
The Trumps HAVE TO be indicted. ALL of them and their lickspittles. America simply can’t have crooks and charlatans representing the American people. They have to be wholeheartedly brought down, rejected, punished for their rejection of the principles of democracy