It is time to start using the word traitor to describe Trump and those who would destroy our democracy. Back in 2016, the media shied away from calling out lies. Saying "misinformation" or "disinformation" distorts the truth and allows lies to flourish unchallenged. This damages the fabric of our society. If Trump is re-elected, he will …
It is time to start using the word traitor to describe Trump and those who would destroy our democracy. Back in 2016, the media shied away from calling out lies. Saying "misinformation" or "disinformation" distorts the truth and allows lies to flourish unchallenged. This damages the fabric of our society. If Trump is re-elected, he will go after the cowardly cya media, so they have an incentive to speak the truth and prevent his re-election. Words matter, and we have to start using words again that don't obfuscate but that express what we mean, that speak truth.
Cowardly is right,Betsy. It took 2 years before any reporters used the L word. It’s still rare for any of them to say liar and it’s way past time. Words do matter. The Cowardly Liar.
Biden needs to call him a coward all the time. Say that for someone who is innocent he sure spends a lot of time hiding things. Repeat his words back to him. Like a candidate under an indictment should not be running, like saying the mishandling of classified documents should result in the death penalty. The coward has a lot to hide and needs to be painted as such. I think that is one mistake all opponents of autocrats make is not calling them what they most fear - WEAK.
First, Biden probably did not attend a school where middle school age boys talk seriously nasty trash to each other like the private school for troubled, nasty boys, that Trump attended. This is important because middle schools like that are the origin of the Trump's ability to talk trash constantly. I acquired that skill in my own middle school (public school in East Texas, not private school), but, I have not used it since I left East Texas. Well, maybe three times.
Second, Biden was probably not raised by a psychopath, evil, Nazi father like Trump was. Trump's dad was literally a member of the Ku Klux Klan in NY in the 1920's so real, hard, HATE is in Trump's heart from his earliest days.
Last, but not least, Biden has actually attended Church routinely throughout his life, although it was the Catholic Church, which has promulgated much evil. As a church goer Biden may have been exposed to the actual ethics of Christianity by a good priest (there are a few that are not chasing little boys around the alter).
So, Biden is just not equipped to be nasty all day long like Trump. And?
I am actually quite happy he cannot compete in the realm of the truly nasty use of the language of hate.
Our problem is NOT that Biden cannot compete in a mud pit in his underwear like Trump.
Our problem is that Americans are attracted to those who CAN do mud wrestling with their fat arse showing to everyone through hate talk and nasty talk.
Solving the root cause problem: Americans have now spent so many years watching trash TV, listening to trash talk in their daily lives and growing up with trash talk that if a potential President does not do "Trash Talk' they think he is a "P*ssy".
And? They think Trump is a Raeel Maen. (translation, real man).
Bingo. I also would point out our "love affair" of outlaws and crooks. Jesse James hideout, Billy the Kid, of the past, All Capone of the depression era, Gotti. T..p is the same except he has decided that he wants to be king.
As a former educator, I observed a lot of students who loved someone who defied authority. In a sad footnote, the class clown in one of my classes committed suicide and at one point was nearly killed in a drug dispute. It must be his birthday this week because his sisters are remembering the good times.
Thank you Mike. I grew up in Carbondale,Pa just east of Joe Biden’s Scranton. I agree with your description of how “normal “ boys are raised. Donald Trump would not do well in my hometown in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Many of my friends were rough around the edges but they had integrity and a sense of shame and we tried to do and be better. The “ reality “ tv behavior would not be acceptable. Uncle Joe may be full of malarkey at times but he is a good and decent person.
Yes. Dichotomizing the sexes and defining masculinity as opposite of femaleness, with shaming boys for exhibiting "feminine" characteristics, helps to ensure we'll have generations of men who seem without compassion and who resort to violence in the face of anything they fear or don't like. If maleness is the opposite of femaleness, boys and men have to continually work to maintain their masculinity by squelching everything in themselves that doesn't fit and stamping it out where ever they see it in other men. This of course also means dominating women and children who of course, aren't "real men". If the father shames the boy for being human, the boy will probably grow into a man who feels shame for being human.
@Mike S, I'd add one more to your excellent list of Trump's influences. Biden didn't have an amoral, self-loathing lawyer to teach him from an insider's perspective how to break the law and get away with it.
Roy Cohn joins the pantheon of people who have or had no compunction about destroying the country for personal advantage, a group that includes Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich. He completes the education of Donald Trump as a hateful, feral bigot with the tools to impose his hate on anyone he chooses and the narcissism to feel good about doing so.
Trump was a just a sociopath waiting for a mentor. Most normal people would turn away from someone like that, or destroy themselves (I suspect Mary Trump's dad was in that category).
Trump doesn't have one quality in him worth admiring. We now know even his kids are a mess--at least his first 3. I don't know anything about the other 2. Hopefully their mothers will shield them from his horribleness.
Don't leave off the "which has promulgated much evil" part of that sentence. That, to me (a non-theist) explains the first part "although it was the Catholic Church".
Right now we have no reason to think that Trump wins and Biden is the loser, except that Trump and the media constantly tell us. It was BIDEN who won the election in 2020, receiving more votes for president than any candidate before him.
I also must point out that “going to church” is not a guarantee of moral superiority. A person does not need to fear eternal damnation to act for the good of society. The Catholic Church is no better or worse than any other religion considering that all religions are run by humans who are flawed to different degrees. Morality is learned through example first of all.
Mike, now ordinary public middle schoolers have completely joined the trash talk groups. We live down the street from a middle school and hear all the nasty talk as they walk past our house. This is a diverse neighborhood, so I don't know how much of it is racial.
My middle school, from 1970-1974 was nearly all white and the worst trash talkers, by far, were white. Also, the meanest kid in the school was white. The trash talk was profound and centered around the F***
Biden has made it clear that he Comes from a loving, working family. If I remember correctly, his sister was his first and subsequent campaign chairman.
I agree. A real gentleman doesn’t know how to act like a thug. But I do think Biden needs to call DT out on every single lie. All of them. Every misdeed, in particular those relating to our National Security.
My husband and I were just having this very conversation last night. We were watching a program on commercial TV and there were repeated commercials for some "non-reality, reality" program where "Real Housewives" were very aggressive and nasty to each other. I have never watched any of these programs but millions of people do and they think that behavior is okay and it is being normalized. What does that say about us and our society? It was like mud wrestling in social settings. I found just the commercial for it disgusting.
It is said that trump attended church 14x while in office. It was said that his presence was more of a media event rather than worship. He also declined to name a favorite Bible verse even though the Bible is his favorite book. At some point he said "eye for eye" was a favorite. Figures. In an interview trump said that he has never asked God for forgiveness and questioned his need to do so. That about sums it up.
Mike, most priests were not "chasing little boys"... what is true is the RCC, like just about every other organization, systemically suppressed the stories with intimidation and denial. Wiki's take. "John Jay report indicated that some 11,000 allegations had been made against 4,392 priests in the USA. This number constituted approximately 4% of the 110,000 priests who had served during the period covered by the survey (1950–2002).
Yes, Biden needs to take off the gloves. For all his tireless behind-the-scenes work to improve the economy and protect our basic rights he has flubbed in foreign affairs. Aside from the Afghanistan debacle, declaring 100% support for "my friend Bibi" after the October 7 Hamas butcher shop of Israel has diminished him. Our youth are watching the Israeli army callously annihilate the Palestinians in Gaza and are crouching in disgust. Biden is trying to walk it back with half a spine. When it comes to disparaging trump and his vitriol he does so like Wonder Bread without the wonder. If he doesn't start launching missiles at the idiot SOON, I'm afraid he'll be toast....
You are on the right track. Trump is the master of finding a cute/nasty nickname to disarm his opponent. We must hone that skill, and turn that tool back on him. IMHO, our nasty nickname for him: * must include alliteration (over-used, but still effective), * must fall off the tongue mellifluously, & * must include the idea of Traitor. And yes, Coward and Liar if possible. But too many concepts might spoil the mellifluous-ness.
It could be a fun contest. Perhaps built up as a media event where teams promote their preferred nasty nickname, and hold rallies featuring intense debates on the pros and cons of competing nicknames, with big prizes raised via raffle tickets. Winners get tidbits, but the big pot goes to "the cause". To support The Big Blue Tent that we're all under for this critical round.
these could be fun media events where debaters use humor to argue in favor of their favorite nasty nickname -- but they use facts, figures, law and history to provide critical education. Folded into a debate format.
Hopefully great talent (educating while entertaining) will emerge from the sheer urgency of this moment.
It’s hard to reach back to hitler/mussolini because his followers appear to be historically brain dead. And, I’m not sure they understand what the terms nazi or fascist actually mean.
I actually think such a tactic could backfire. It seems too obvious. Too contrived. Have you ever heard or seen a scientist confront a religious extremist rep or talented special interest rep? A mismatch. I have seen that in spades with evolution denial and climate denial. They are skilled at the Gish Gallop and other such nefarious responses and are skilled at making their adversary look foolish. I do not advocate "when they go low, we go high" as my heroine Michelle Obama once said, but I also do not advocate getting sucked into a childish name-calling game. I think it possible to call out the idiocy of MAGA Trumpism without being childish about it.
I think melonhead gets way too much publicity and infects our days way too much already. He doesnt deserve any more attention - actually he doesnt "deserve" ANY attention - period! I'm just fed up & tired of him.
having grown up in an area where everyone was 'connected', I've felt that the Mafia wouldn't want him. A narcissist isn't their idea of a good mob candidate. Plus the guy can't keep his mouth shut. They know he'd rat out everyone to save his skin.
Ms. Richardson, Hungary has only 15 million people and they are fleeing their country in large numbers. Orban needs money from the EU and they are withholding it. Eventually he will cave and democracy will return just like in Polen.
I visited Hungary just before the pandemic and was lectured unpleasant young men about the evils of immigration and the need for racial purity, the superiority of the Hungarian government.
The problem with the GQP is they know Agent Orange is a toxic dump. But being humility and integrity are not something that is valued in their party. They are guilty of enabling the fat ass for their own self-centered greed. They can't stuff him back in the bottle. So now what? Wait at Starbucks for Jesus and JFK jr to show up and hand Mike Johnson a plan? They normalized gun violence, they normalized an insurrection, they normalized bigotry, the normalized misogyny, they normalized having blood on their own hands. And now they don't know how to clean it up. So, they won't.
Those that were fired but continue to speak out, like Liz Cheney, will be held up as true patriots. More Republicans should have chosen to be fired rather than remain silent. They will be seen as complicit in trying to destroy our democracy.
I agree and just posted a similar frustration. Any marketing person will tell you that the first thing you say has to create an emotional response, then the brain will get involved and add the logic. I would add authoritarian to your example. It took months for the dems to say dictator. These people like Andrew Bates talk like they are in a college seminar instead of being the first line of defense.
"The first thing you say has to create an emotional response."
Correct, David Haddick.
But then you produce one word, one euphemism -- much bandied about by educated people -- that CANNOT produce an emotional response. And I have made this point here ad nauseam.
You cannot use a long word -- 5 or 6 syllables of it! -- as a slogan, least of all a word many won't understand.
"Nazi" happens to be true, literally true, and far far better for getting the message across than "Fascist", an insult when used by those on the left, a badge of honor for right-wing people so insulted. The insult falls flat because neither side really understands it. Mussolini and his at first brutally effective movement lie forgotten.
Agent Orange uses schoolyard bullies' insults, so, throwing back the same, "TRAITOR-DICTATOR" fits the bill. But the word Nazi, alone or in combination is both powerful and true, without being self-demeaning. And it's easy to call on the memory of the many thousands of Americans who died fighting Hitler's Germany.
*
Seven years ago, in December 2016, I wrote:
*
Great again?
*
Democracy? Democracy? Where's that? I see only oligarchy.
Chances are DT will bankrupt oligarchy, as he's bankrupted all he touches, and try for the only thing he (thinks he) understands: dictatorship.
Or... as Hillary said and the Muller report demonstrated a Russian agent...Putin’s Boy... overthrowing our democracy to please (or pay back) his boss lest he pay with his own life or that of his children and grandchildren. Which may cause paranoia. 😏
"But people did not take Hitler seriously until it was too late."
Peter, if that had been the root problem, Hitler would still have been stopped before it was too late.
The real problem in Germany and here was and is: The majority of Germans and, possibly Americans (we will find out), WANTED/WANT Hitler's/Trump's hate in office to guide them to a new promised land.
When Trump starts putting people into camps you will see how many Americans will cheer. "Yeah, baby, those "b....ards" got what they deserved. Burn 'em baby!"
Exactly like what happened in Germany.
6 million people don't get carted off to extermination without a huge majority of the people fully enthusiastic about that.
Mike, I think your analysis is absolutely correct. There are far, far too many people who want, with all their hearts, to rid our country of those "different" from them; gayfolk, people who are not of their particular flavor of sky pilot worship, people who are different races/skin tones, women who want independence from men.
Rather than merely inventing rude nicknames for a man so patently, pathetically, grotesquely ridiculous—but who still has an unbroken hold on his supporters so strong that his movement is continuing to grow, while the President’s political action and its effects remain almost totally unknown and misunderstood—isn’t it about time for a range of strong, well-coordinated nationwide actions to show people, especially the MAGA mob, what is really really in it for THEM? Show what is really in it for America. Show what is really in it for the planet.
Hold the collective mutt’s snout to its own shit…
So. How about ideas for practical actions throughout society?
Targeting, shaming the media and media bosses with noisy, embarrassing demonstrations against those who have undermined public information and journalism by making short-term profits accruing to billionaire owners and corporate shareholders the exclusive criterion for publication;
HCR has shown us the immediate relevance of history when it comes to tackling current political, social and economic challenges—can we not then push, as I have suggested here, for a barrage of film material showing up the dangers we now face in terms of the colossal disasters of the 20th century… which we now risk repeating… ON A FAR LARGER SCALE??? This time, in America too, spared from direct damage in all the wars of the past century and a half. Spared since America’s terrible Civil War…
This ain’t just education, ain’t just information, there’s plenty of gripping entertainment in the hell and heaven of the 20th century. And, as I keep saying, if it’s well presented, fanatical MAGAts and their ilk will just leuurve the rise and rise of Benito Mussolini, of Adolf Hitler, Goebbels’ magnificent scenarios, the Nuremberg Rallies, , the 1936 Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl’s great images, Blitzkrieg, triumph upon triumph…
Then, the London Blitz, Dunkirk, the long hard fight back, Pearl Harbor, all the Axis forces declaring war on America. The cost. The horrendous cost. Death, death and hell on earth for a hundred million and more—I don’t forget what was done to Africa, I don’t forget Asian history, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, I don’t forget Soviet history, nor do I forget North America at a time when GIs and Canadian soldiers, sailors, airmen were fighting and dying to preserve their countries’ way of life at home…
Targeting, shaming all those who have made the same fast buck the be-all-and-end-all of absolutely everything in society—public health, education at all levels, the provision, maintenance and improvement of essential infrastructures, transport, housing, the provision of all social services, policing, prisons, investment and industrial development, the military, both manpower and materiel, deployment at home and worldwide, both war and peace…
*
One thing we are observing every day, yet not realizing, is how very contagious mass psychosis can be, affecting even those who are not directly caught up in it. The most horrendous thing about great evil is how it stains the hearts and minds of those who encounter or even hear of it, often including the hitherto innocent. It can be dangerous even to witness deeds of extreme evil, when we are tempted to blind vengeance, adding crime to heinous crime.
*
Hitler was not brought to power by a majority of Germans but he did not have to wait long until the Reichstag fire gave him the pretext he needed to implement his plans and seize total power. Now that the people were effectively powerless yet borne on the Nazi tide, the fact of going along with it fatalistically, because inured to obeying those in authority, does not necessarily signify any real enthusiasm for what is being done. Discretion is the better part of valor—you protect yourself and your family by silencing your doubts and questioning, knowing full well that it would be dangerous to do otherwise.
When Hitler held his great Berlin victory parade in July 1940, observers may have been taken in by the crowd’s applause, but Hitler himself was not. Hitherto, the drug that had sustained him was crowd adulation. On that day, it failed him, and from then on he switched to other drugs, a cocktail of amphetamines. With consequences for his judgment.
*
Mike, the people were fed on the spectacle of military might, Nuremberg Rallies, Goebbels’ masterly propaganda. Later, many will have taken part in the regime’s constant celebrations, merging into culture wars, organized hatred, demonstrations, book burnings, and many will have witnessed or even taken part in Kristallnacht, pogrom and orgy of destruction, the ultimate violent vengeance visited on chosen scapegoats for the humiliation of defeat in the Great War and the economic ruin brought on by the Versailles Treaty.
Nevertheless, the SS Einsatzgruppen that carried out the regime’s first trial run of mass murder, that of psychiatric patients and the physically and mentally handicapped, were sworn to secrecy and the deaths of patients were released in a constant trickle so as to avoid direct suspicions. Those who had doubts about what was happening dared not express them publicly… until the Bishop of Münster spoke out in a strong sermon in August 1941. The scandal was naturally stifled but when in January of the following year the Wannsee Conference decided “the final solution to the Jewish question” the event and the policy were shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Mass shooting by the same Einsatzgruppen of over a million victims, primarily Jews and gypsies, mainly in the eastern territories conquered by Germany, now gave way to the secret establishment of death camps in Polish territory and to the massive rail transport to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Chelmno of those to be worked to death or gassed directly.
[When a student around 1960, I was friendly with a young Pole who, with his once well-to-do family, had worked as slave laborers in the IG Farben chemical factory at Auschwitz-Buna. Interesting that Bayer, now owners of Monsanto with its awful reputation as producers of pesticides dangerous to human health and the life of the soil, should be a salvaged survivor of the giant IG Farben complex, which produced poison gas for the war machine including the Zyklon B used to kill millions in the death camps. The pesticides industry is, of course, a “peaceful” development of chemical warfare technology…]
What I am getting at in all this is the extreme secrecy of the Final Solution, which—understandably—was unimaginable even to vast numbers of its victims, despite the obvious hatred and cruelty shown by the invaders and their local helpers. Yes, these were to be found, often in large numbers, wherever the Nazis’ reach extended. But then, so were individuals and organizations that protected Jews.
The exceptions, large and small, run directly counter to your negative view of human nature and show up cultural differences, both in the treatment of minorities and in attitudes to powerful authorities. In Denmark, the king donned a yellow star and the people saved the Jewish population, spirited out to neutral Sweden. In Albania, the puppet government successfully obstructed deportation, refusing to provide lists of Jews, and villagers everywhere protected them. In Bulgaria, despite antisemitic policies, politicians, church leaders and the population prevented the deportation of the Jews. Italian Fascism may have turned antisemitic to please Hitler, but many Italians put on a show while actively protecting Jews. There was, of course, nothing doing in the areas controlled by Germany and the rump Fascist puppet State after Italy switched sides…
What is particularly interesting is the nature and extent of resistance to Nazi policies in the Third Reich, both in Germany itself, where there were significant regional, religious and social differences in attitudes to the regime itself and in particular to antisemitic propaganda, and in post-Anschluss Austria, where serious anti-Nazi activities continued into the postwar period, despite the country’s relative failure to take responsibility for its participation in the Hitlerian adventure.
Particularly inspiring for American women, the successful activism of German wives of Jews in defense of their husbands late in the war, even after the decisive defeat at Stalingrad—the Rosenstrasse Protests…
I take strong exception to your final paragraph, Mike S., and even more so to your “hypothesis” that “WE ALL, in our heart of hearts, want to feel superior to someone else so we can feel better about ourselves. Some kind of evolved thinking/behavior.”
I am 10 000% with Larry Levy when he warns you against such sweeping, opinionated generalizations. I am sure that this is not your intention, yet the view of human nature you are setting forth is so profoundly negative that it closely resembles that of Nazi-Fascists themselves—believing the worst, expecting the worst of our fellow-men, accordingly basing one's outlook and actions on that assumption and ending up by justifying the foulest of foul means. All conservatives who view human nature as intrinsically bad, including those with an inculcated belief in “original sin”, run the risk of losing their footing and sliding into the evil behavior they like to ascribe to others.
To these points I want to add an important one: pessimism in the face of a prospective Trump victory in November must be harnessed productively to imagine, coordinate and implement effective preventive actions. Yet all that you are offering is a deeply negative view of America’s ability, both innate and actual, to rise to the occasion and mount an effective defense of the country’s democratic institutions. You speak of deeply ingrained fecklessness and ignorance yet propose nothing that could awaken the country and make it sound as though nothing could ever achieve that. In so doing you are in effect promoting fecklessness…
*
This response comes too late. Everything that needs to be said -- and there is far far more to this, all this and far more will have to be gone over again. The sole advantage to you is that you'll have, for the time being, been spared a more public attack.
*
Still, while we're about it, I'm giving you -- SEPARATELY -- the rest of the work in progress that I wasn't able to produce today -- other activities, other obligations...
This amounts to something of a ragbag, but fresh minds could marshal and align valid material while pruning what's unnecessary.
HERE THEN. ENJOY. OR DETEST. It's all there for you.
Meanwhile, I'll not be there tomorrow! Other business calls...
Very true, Peter. I ask, however, to whom are we giving this "measure of the danger"? My MAGA family are convinced they are the patriotic Americans, practicing democracy. If their leader needs to be "Hitleresque" to keep their country for them, they are all for it.
Just like many Nazis liked to think of themselves as patriotic Germans...
But, like Hitler, their beloved guide promises to overthrow democracy.
Like Putin, this man's boss and exemplar, who never permitted any but the most superficial appearances of democracy and now totally bans all diversity. The autocrat has a monopoly of thought and decision...
For most of America, democracy MEANT "white cis guys in charge of everything". And that remains their definition. Just like freedom of religion means freedom of Christian religion to go and do whatever it wants.
But Ann, democracy is not possible on a basis of bottomless ignorance about the world we live in.
If our media had 0.001% of the competence and sense of responsibility necessary to do their basic job -- informing the public -- we'd be seeing films daily of the horrendous 20th Century.
Film, because people today understand only images.
What's more, the MAGA mob will love the irresistible rise and rise of Mussolini, then Hitler...
Parades. Nuremberg Rallies. Military might. War. Blitzkrieg.
Until Stalingrad. Until downfall. Until they see total destruction, the camps, the endless millions dying horribly. Hitler's suicide. Goebbels' suicide with wife and children, Mussolini's corpse hanging upside down in Milan.
"But Ann, democracy is not possible on a basis of bottomless ignorance about the world we live in."
Fixing the profound ignorance that a huge number of Americans find themselves fully ensconced within is no easy task.
Add the fact that the ignorance they/we have plays into a stronger desire to sort things out with the rules that whatever white man preacher at the front of the church tells them.
The combination of ignorance and leveraging nuts/preachers with poor judgement to tell them what to do?
We should add that no one has ever called their child Hiltler. Furthermore, what happened to the Nazi supporters? They disappeared and hid. Americans that support Trump will be looked down as a Trump enabler and it will of be a good look.
“ And there in lies the rub”, as we (not they) say. We talk in thought-provoking, complicated sentences, while Trump is shouting sound-bites triggering emotional responses that need no thought or time to consider.
It’s like going to war with a story about a cannon instead of the cannon itself.
Excellent choice of words describing the both the Dems and MSMs “explanatory” responses versus the radical right’s emotion-provoking statements. And what about our failure to have short, punchy SPECIFICS versus lengthy, snooty college-like responses. Shouldn’t we have a “messaging squad” who’ve been trained in hard core debating tactics and strategies to have direct statements (versus messages) about exactly how any of these radicals are subverting democracy rather than just calling them out for doing so. Even in the cited JRB statement, there was too much of that tired, old strategy of “when they take the low road, we take the high road.” Sounding ethically superior has been ineffective for 10+ years now!!! It may make the elitista in the Dem party feel good about themselves, but it certainly prompts many others to feel like they’re being insulted and then rationalize: they think they’re better than us...we have to elect folks who don’t disrespect us.
David, I agree with you on this. The Dems have and are failing miserably to launch a verbal campaign against the MAGA/KKK Republicans. We could have photos of Trump and Hitler together, Trump and Putin, with simple words to make the point.
I hear you, Ms. Smith, although I would ask what audience you expect to address. I recall some survey results from the Braver Angels group a few years back that tallied the language each side -- "Red" vs. "Blue" -- uses to describe the other. I can't remember the favorite epithet used by us "Blues" (whatever it is, I'm sure we've seen it hundreds of times here), but the "Red's" favorite name for us is "traitor." To them, we are the traitors, traitors to our race, to our society, to the Christian god. (Of course, I disagree but they don't seem to care what I think.)
Somehow, I don't think more inflamed language is going to convince anyone. Please, let's just stick with the facts, ma'am, just the facts. It that's not enough, then there's not much else we can do except become like them, i.e., violent, irrational, murderous, and terribly shortsighted.
In my last conversation with my MAGA sister who tried to convince me of the great things she thought he had done for the country, I stopped her with these words: "He's just a grifter."
What does your sister think that Trump did so well? Does any of it check out? The only thing I can think of is the $11 billion fast-track Covid vaccine development, and that was only after the most amazingly corrupt gyrations trying to convince us that Covid was a hoax.
Is anyone besides me nervous about that new movie coming out in the spring titled, "Civil War"? It looks like an action-packed glorification of a second U.S. civil war, where people die heroically for something or another. Just like some people look at "Handmaid's Tale" and think, "Hey, that's not a bad idea..." I suspect that too many people will look at "Civil War" and think of it as a solution.
Truth be told, Dirk, I tuned out what she was saying because I stubbornly insisted - and still do - that he really is nothing more than a grifter. That's all I need to know about him. Just so you know, it's rare in my family when I get the last word.
Using words like fascist instead of Nazi is one. Use words to get to the point and that “common folk” know well. Slang is OK. Them back up with facts if need be.
Dirk, I respectfully disagree. You can use an insult to get attention, and then back it up with facts and a good argument. Remember, we elected an Internet troll in 2016.
I hope you're right. Just for my own part, when someone starts off a conversation with an insult, I'm generally too pissed to hear their facts and arguments. I'm more interested in beating them, not understanding them. Not that I ever really have conversations on these topics -- I kinda wish I had a MAGA sister who apparently believes that Trump did "great things," like Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC) above, and wanted to convince me of the same. What do these people think he did so well?
Zero election deniers and supporters I come across do not have facts to back up their claims. They are just similar to Fred Trump, Sr. In that they enjoy the entertainment that Jr. has been able to get away with it. But of course with Daddies money.
Trump is a madman and a huckster. We need to call him out on his bs. For a sociopath like Putin to claim either Christian or family values is ludicrous. We must all push back against these bullies and call them out. Pull back the curtain on the empty Wizard of Oz.
TFG (Donald J. Trump - just in case there’s anyone here reading these comments and HCR’s letter) is now in the mode of a desperate man who has pulled back the covers and dropped the kkk robe and realized that the American government and our court systems are down right serious and his dad has been probably rolling over and twisting in his grave or wherever he maybe witnessing his favored son ruin his name and businesses!!!
You have so much material to work with. MAGANAZI, white faux-Christian Nationalist, Traitor, Murderer, serial immigration supporter, liar, rapist, grifter.
Jim, I agree. The more desperate he becomes, the louder he is going to spew his dangerous rhetoric. The louder and more unhinged HE becomes, the louder and more unhinged his supporters and cronies-in-crime become. They will fight for him no matter the outcome. Mob mentality will win out if they cannot be convinced that he cares nothing for the little people.
They will fight for HIM. They think he would fight for THEM.
If only they could or would see.
I often think of the invasion of the Capitol and wonder if, had the mob found Pence, they really would have hung him. Many people think so.
That's why we are in danger of losing our individual identity. Trump's mob of misguided men and women will protect him and do everything in their power to carry out his commands.
When mobs become desperate, it only takes a few mentally deranged people to start the mob charging forward in defense of their beliefs. They will plow down anyone or anything who gets in their way. Could be any one of us.
When Pence was in Congress they called him dense Pence. Who would ever support a man like TFFG would threatened to have him killed and darn near succeeded?
Do we have that many stupidly clueless, hatefully racist and/or low-informed people who are voters [and non-voters] in America - whether they’re the far-right, conservative people who are for the most part labeled as republicans who have become cult-members following a twice-impeached, narcissistic wannabe dictator among us?
Jim, that's what has been a shock to me. Realizing that there ARE so many Americans who have fallen for his lies and who identify with him.
Every day I shake my head in disbelief. Dissolutionment has taken over me, although I try to stay positive. I'm positive that Trump will cause his followers to help him overthrow our democratic way of life.
Yes, we do. Hateful, not just racially, but also of women's independence, gender expression, sexual orientation, and of "other" religions (because don't you all have the "one, true God"?)
Exactly! The 'Pinocchio ' rating was ineffective. Used to seethe about the soft pedaling of all the lies, across the GOP spectrum; that moral cowardice to call out the lies for what they were (are) helped create the trump cult.
People just say, "All politicians lie", then they pick and choose what he means and what is just "joking", and they call his opponents' unfulfilled predictions or mistakes "lies".
I couldn't get dick-tater past the WaPo word-police computer. They printed "MAGANAZI Party" and "Critical Fascist Theory" and "Ku Klux Don" and "Adolf Huckster," so I give them some credit. The NYT, too, frowns on any comment that mentions body parts, especially the ones "down there," and they don't print my nicknames... for instance... Jim Jordan is Jiminy Crackpot.
Steve Brant offer this warning on FB ... in response to HCR post today:
Dear Heather,
I think the American people will ultimately owe Trump a debt of gratitude for "saying the quiet part out loud". By overtly and unambiguously aligning himself with Putin, Kim, and Orban he has cast the choice we have next November in the starkest terms possible. There is no grey area any more. While Trump initially learned to be a "professional" authoritarian from the Mafia in Queens, NYC (and from Roy Cohn), running for and then becoming POTUS made him a much bigger player than I think even he dreamed of being when he began flirting with politics many years ago.
I pray that the Biden administration responds in MUCH stronger terms than they did tonight, because these statements make it as clear as it ever will be that we are at war with fascism here at home. The American people were mobilized to fight the global fascist threat roughly 78 years ago. I hope President Biden turns what would have been a traditional political campaign into what it now needs to be: the MOBILIZATION of the American people to defeat fascism here at home. Biden can use the history lesson told in Rachel Maddow's amazing book "Prequel" to tell the story of how democracy was almost destroyed here at home before WWII... a critically important "forgotten" history lesson.
We have always had an element in American society that prefers to dominate others by claiming "they" are evil. What I learned from Rachel's book about how Henry Ford promoted antisemitism with a Detroit newspaper he bought for that purpose turned my stomach.
Thank you, as always, for making clear the facts of these historic times. Let's pray that history repeats itself ... that We the People defeat fascism here at home again... and then starting in January 2025 declare war on fascism around the world... not using missiles and bombs, but using the POWER OF OUR EXAMPLE. We must show the world that democracy can help us fulfill dreams that will never be achieved by fascism!
Thank-you Betsy. I also think describing the type of government DT, et. al., are trying to foist upon us as a DICTATORSHIP, rather than an autocracy or some other academic-sounding term would be more accurate and reach more of the public who need to know what the MAGA movement truly is.
Steve, I agree. Dictator and dictatorship are words that must be used, along with nazi, to convey the seriousness of the moment. Autocracy is too complex a theory for many people, and they shut it out of their consciousness.
I agree with you that authoritarian lacks meaning and context of most of the MAGANAZIs. Call it what it is -- a dictatorship.
We already know that if anyone in his administration disagrees with him they are immediately fired via Twitter or text. Or if, heaven forbid, someone is praised for any reason in his administration they are fired or else they need to do some serious boot licking.
Betsy, I agree entirely that words matter and the media hasn’t done their job well for decades. However, regardless how the media talks about Trump, we the people are the ones with the power to prevent him from regaining the White House.
Gigantic efforts by Democrats (and Independents) in recent elections have born fruit (Virginia, Jacksonville, Fl, Fort Collins, CO, and dozens if not hundreds of school board elections preventing Moms for Liberty candidates from gaining seats) And to your point, Letters to the editor, subscription cancellations and truly significant pushback from readers on recent editorial bs in NYT and WaPo (among others) appears to be having an effect.
The media has significant obligations in protecting democracy. But in the end, it is We the People who will determine our fate and the fate of our precious experiment in democracy.
And by all means, let’s use the word traitor to describe Trump!!
But there's another group that we need to reach: Independents, or, as we call them in MA, Unenrolled. We need to get both Dems and Independents to vote, even when voting has been made difficult or seems to be useless. In 2016, when I was canvassing, too many people just shrugged and said that it made no difference whom they voted for, blahblahblah. We can't let that happen again.
And reach the independent voters and let them know how much voting for a third party candidate such as "No Labels" would hurt the Democratic candidate.
I tend to worry about "Americans for Prosperity" right now. You should pay attention to the ads from these Koch sycophants. All Hail the petroleum Industries, they're here to save the day by increasing the supply to fund our planetary addiction to such.
Traitor? Absolutely. I’ve been calling him one for years, and continue to be baffled that are government can’t lock him away. And that includes the high level crooks that are with him. These columns by HCR are very informative, but also very alarming. I would love to know whether the good doctor believes we can overcome the attack on our democracy through nonviolent means.
FOLLOW the MONEY!! Elitists and their corporate disguise, (the men behind the curtain) manipulate the legal system and circumvent their fair share of the national burdens so that they can play while the rest of the working people PAY (Taxes)!
Instead of calling tRump’s words “lies” we should call them “propaganda”. tRump has the largest microphone in the world with which he can spew hateful rhetoric and propaganda. The media breathlessly recounts each stupid thing he says; which makes it impossible to keep up with. Unfortunately it is pure evil genius- this man has done more in a few short years to destroy the America we all love and made us enemies; we forget that we are on the same team and should be working together to make our country better.
It is time to start using the word traitor to describe Trump and those who would destroy our democracy. Back in 2016, the media shied away from calling out lies. Saying "misinformation" or "disinformation" distorts the truth and allows lies to flourish unchallenged. This damages the fabric of our society. If Trump is re-elected, he will go after the cowardly cya media, so they have an incentive to speak the truth and prevent his re-election. Words matter, and we have to start using words again that don't obfuscate but that express what we mean, that speak truth.
Cowardly is right,Betsy. It took 2 years before any reporters used the L word. It’s still rare for any of them to say liar and it’s way past time. Words do matter. The Cowardly Liar.
How about Cowardly Lying Traitor?
Biden needs to call him a coward all the time. Say that for someone who is innocent he sure spends a lot of time hiding things. Repeat his words back to him. Like a candidate under an indictment should not be running, like saying the mishandling of classified documents should result in the death penalty. The coward has a lot to hide and needs to be painted as such. I think that is one mistake all opponents of autocrats make is not calling them what they most fear - WEAK.
Rickey,
First, Biden probably did not attend a school where middle school age boys talk seriously nasty trash to each other like the private school for troubled, nasty boys, that Trump attended. This is important because middle schools like that are the origin of the Trump's ability to talk trash constantly. I acquired that skill in my own middle school (public school in East Texas, not private school), but, I have not used it since I left East Texas. Well, maybe three times.
Second, Biden was probably not raised by a psychopath, evil, Nazi father like Trump was. Trump's dad was literally a member of the Ku Klux Klan in NY in the 1920's so real, hard, HATE is in Trump's heart from his earliest days.
Last, but not least, Biden has actually attended Church routinely throughout his life, although it was the Catholic Church, which has promulgated much evil. As a church goer Biden may have been exposed to the actual ethics of Christianity by a good priest (there are a few that are not chasing little boys around the alter).
So, Biden is just not equipped to be nasty all day long like Trump. And?
I am actually quite happy he cannot compete in the realm of the truly nasty use of the language of hate.
Our problem is NOT that Biden cannot compete in a mud pit in his underwear like Trump.
Our problem is that Americans are attracted to those who CAN do mud wrestling with their fat arse showing to everyone through hate talk and nasty talk.
Solving the root cause problem: Americans have now spent so many years watching trash TV, listening to trash talk in their daily lives and growing up with trash talk that if a potential President does not do "Trash Talk' they think he is a "P*ssy".
And? They think Trump is a Raeel Maen. (translation, real man).
Bingo. I also would point out our "love affair" of outlaws and crooks. Jesse James hideout, Billy the Kid, of the past, All Capone of the depression era, Gotti. T..p is the same except he has decided that he wants to be king.
Idk. I revere Carl Sagan.
As a former educator, I observed a lot of students who loved someone who defied authority. In a sad footnote, the class clown in one of my classes committed suicide and at one point was nearly killed in a drug dispute. It must be his birthday this week because his sisters are remembering the good times.
Yep
Thank you Mike. I grew up in Carbondale,Pa just east of Joe Biden’s Scranton. I agree with your description of how “normal “ boys are raised. Donald Trump would not do well in my hometown in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Many of my friends were rough around the edges but they had integrity and a sense of shame and we tried to do and be better. The “ reality “ tv behavior would not be acceptable. Uncle Joe may be full of malarkey at times but he is a good and decent person.
Yes. Dichotomizing the sexes and defining masculinity as opposite of femaleness, with shaming boys for exhibiting "feminine" characteristics, helps to ensure we'll have generations of men who seem without compassion and who resort to violence in the face of anything they fear or don't like. If maleness is the opposite of femaleness, boys and men have to continually work to maintain their masculinity by squelching everything in themselves that doesn't fit and stamping it out where ever they see it in other men. This of course also means dominating women and children who of course, aren't "real men". If the father shames the boy for being human, the boy will probably grow into a man who feels shame for being human.
@Mike S, I'd add one more to your excellent list of Trump's influences. Biden didn't have an amoral, self-loathing lawyer to teach him from an insider's perspective how to break the law and get away with it.
Roy Cohn joins the pantheon of people who have or had no compunction about destroying the country for personal advantage, a group that includes Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich. He completes the education of Donald Trump as a hateful, feral bigot with the tools to impose his hate on anyone he chooses and the narcissism to feel good about doing so.
Trump was a just a sociopath waiting for a mentor. Most normal people would turn away from someone like that, or destroy themselves (I suspect Mary Trump's dad was in that category).
Trump doesn't have one quality in him worth admiring. We now know even his kids are a mess--at least his first 3. I don't know anything about the other 2. Hopefully their mothers will shield them from his horribleness.
“Biden has actually attended Church routinely throughout his life, although it was the Catholic Church …” That counts, though? ☺️
That was a pretty offensive sentence...
And I’m a lapsed Catholic.
Don't leave off the "which has promulgated much evil" part of that sentence. That, to me (a non-theist) explains the first part "although it was the Catholic Church".
Right now we have no reason to think that Trump wins and Biden is the loser, except that Trump and the media constantly tell us. It was BIDEN who won the election in 2020, receiving more votes for president than any candidate before him.
I also must point out that “going to church” is not a guarantee of moral superiority. A person does not need to fear eternal damnation to act for the good of society. The Catholic Church is no better or worse than any other religion considering that all religions are run by humans who are flawed to different degrees. Morality is learned through example first of all.
True. Biden just happens to be a guy who tries to take his faith seriously, unlike so many other churchgoers.
Trump's "Christians' have really destroyed Christianity for me.
And a “good Christian” according to some.
‼️⁉️
Mike, now ordinary public middle schoolers have completely joined the trash talk groups. We live down the street from a middle school and hear all the nasty talk as they walk past our house. This is a diverse neighborhood, so I don't know how much of it is racial.
Social media have rewarded the skill of middle school trash talking
None of it is racial.
My middle school, from 1970-1974 was nearly all white and the worst trash talkers, by far, were white. Also, the meanest kid in the school was white. The trash talk was profound and centered around the F***
Wow. You definitely tell the truth about it all. Thank you. Sad but true.
Trash talk is ALL too common.
Biden has made it clear that he Comes from a loving, working family. If I remember correctly, his sister was his first and subsequent campaign chairman.
I agree. A real gentleman doesn’t know how to act like a thug. But I do think Biden needs to call DT out on every single lie. All of them. Every misdeed, in particular those relating to our National Security.
My husband and I were just having this very conversation last night. We were watching a program on commercial TV and there were repeated commercials for some "non-reality, reality" program where "Real Housewives" were very aggressive and nasty to each other. I have never watched any of these programs but millions of people do and they think that behavior is okay and it is being normalized. What does that say about us and our society? It was like mud wrestling in social settings. I found just the commercial for it disgusting.
It is said that trump attended church 14x while in office. It was said that his presence was more of a media event rather than worship. He also declined to name a favorite Bible verse even though the Bible is his favorite book. At some point he said "eye for eye" was a favorite. Figures. In an interview trump said that he has never asked God for forgiveness and questioned his need to do so. That about sums it up.
Mike, most priests were not "chasing little boys"... what is true is the RCC, like just about every other organization, systemically suppressed the stories with intimidation and denial. Wiki's take. "John Jay report indicated that some 11,000 allegations had been made against 4,392 priests in the USA. This number constituted approximately 4% of the 110,000 priests who had served during the period covered by the survey (1950–2002).
Yes, Biden needs to take off the gloves. For all his tireless behind-the-scenes work to improve the economy and protect our basic rights he has flubbed in foreign affairs. Aside from the Afghanistan debacle, declaring 100% support for "my friend Bibi" after the October 7 Hamas butcher shop of Israel has diminished him. Our youth are watching the Israeli army callously annihilate the Palestinians in Gaza and are crouching in disgust. Biden is trying to walk it back with half a spine. When it comes to disparaging trump and his vitriol he does so like Wonder Bread without the wonder. If he doesn't start launching missiles at the idiot SOON, I'm afraid he'll be toast....
Remember the “you`re the puppet” exchange with Hillary Clinton? Classic!
Well said
The latest is that trump is calling Biden a fascist!
You are on the right track. Trump is the master of finding a cute/nasty nickname to disarm his opponent. We must hone that skill, and turn that tool back on him. IMHO, our nasty nickname for him: * must include alliteration (over-used, but still effective), * must fall off the tongue mellifluously, & * must include the idea of Traitor. And yes, Coward and Liar if possible. But too many concepts might spoil the mellifluous-ness.
It could be a fun contest. Perhaps built up as a media event where teams promote their preferred nasty nickname, and hold rallies featuring intense debates on the pros and cons of competing nicknames, with big prizes raised via raffle tickets. Winners get tidbits, but the big pot goes to "the cause". To support The Big Blue Tent that we're all under for this critical round.
Traitorous Dick Tator
these could be fun media events where debaters use humor to argue in favor of their favorite nasty nickname -- but they use facts, figures, law and history to provide critical education. Folded into a debate format.
Hopefully great talent (educating while entertaining) will emerge from the sheer urgency of this moment.
I used to like "comrade chaos," back when trump was "president" and everything was in disarray. Now, that's way too tame.
Lani, how about Putin-toady?
It’s hard to reach back to hitler/mussolini because his followers appear to be historically brain dead. And, I’m not sure they understand what the terms nazi or fascist actually mean.
Trumputin
Putin pet poodle.
these are cool: Putin-toady. Trumputin. Putin Pet Poodle.
Cowardly Lyin' Lion
I actually think such a tactic could backfire. It seems too obvious. Too contrived. Have you ever heard or seen a scientist confront a religious extremist rep or talented special interest rep? A mismatch. I have seen that in spades with evolution denial and climate denial. They are skilled at the Gish Gallop and other such nefarious responses and are skilled at making their adversary look foolish. I do not advocate "when they go low, we go high" as my heroine Michelle Obama once said, but I also do not advocate getting sucked into a childish name-calling game. I think it possible to call out the idiocy of MAGA Trumpism without being childish about it.
You have taken my 3 words of the dump and elaborated beyond! I like where this is going.....
deadbeat donnie
I think melonhead gets way too much publicity and infects our days way too much already. He doesnt deserve any more attention - actually he doesnt "deserve" ANY attention - period! I'm just fed up & tired of him.
My names for him have long been death star and mafia don.
having grown up in an area where everyone was 'connected', I've felt that the Mafia wouldn't want him. A narcissist isn't their idea of a good mob candidate. Plus the guy can't keep his mouth shut. They know he'd rat out everyone to save his skin.
Yes, but he is a criminal and his name is don.
That's what surrogates are for. Biden needs a really good attack dog. Pres Obama? He triggers Trump all the time.
What is IMHO?
In My Humble Opinion
Melanie Moor, how about The Traitorous Cowardly Liar?
YES!
Turd Mouth Trump. Bloviating Bone Spur.
Cowardly Lyin' Traitor?
Ms. Richardson, Hungary has only 15 million people and they are fleeing their country in large numbers. Orban needs money from the EU and they are withholding it. Eventually he will cave and democracy will return just like in Polen.
I visited Hungary just before the pandemic and was lectured unpleasant young men about the evils of immigration and the need for racial purity, the superiority of the Hungarian government.
Better!
too many words how about
Lying Traitor
Traitor trump. All day everyday.
For years I've referred to him as "the dump" - now that's sounding too nice....
“A lying liar who lies.” (Credit to Al Franken)
Hey, "fascist" now makes it into the NYT and WaPo, so there's that.
I got put in YT jail 6-7 years ago for saying that!
So “we” are making some progress at least?
YT jail ??
Faint praise but hope springs eternal. Let’s keep the momentum going.
The problem with the GQP is they know Agent Orange is a toxic dump. But being humility and integrity are not something that is valued in their party. They are guilty of enabling the fat ass for their own self-centered greed. They can't stuff him back in the bottle. So now what? Wait at Starbucks for Jesus and JFK jr to show up and hand Mike Johnson a plan? They normalized gun violence, they normalized an insurrection, they normalized bigotry, the normalized misogyny, they normalized having blood on their own hands. And now they don't know how to clean it up. So, they won't.
There were those that did and they promptly were censored or fired.
Those that were fired but continue to speak out, like Liz Cheney, will be held up as true patriots. More Republicans should have chosen to be fired rather than remain silent. They will be seen as complicit in trying to destroy our democracy.
Insipid Cowardly Liar
They’d have to look up insipid and they done have a dictionary app on their phone.
I agree and just posted a similar frustration. Any marketing person will tell you that the first thing you say has to create an emotional response, then the brain will get involved and add the logic. I would add authoritarian to your example. It took months for the dems to say dictator. These people like Andrew Bates talk like they are in a college seminar instead of being the first line of defense.
"The first thing you say has to create an emotional response."
Correct, David Haddick.
But then you produce one word, one euphemism -- much bandied about by educated people -- that CANNOT produce an emotional response. And I have made this point here ad nauseam.
You cannot use a long word -- 5 or 6 syllables of it! -- as a slogan, least of all a word many won't understand.
"Nazi" happens to be true, literally true, and far far better for getting the message across than "Fascist", an insult when used by those on the left, a badge of honor for right-wing people so insulted. The insult falls flat because neither side really understands it. Mussolini and his at first brutally effective movement lie forgotten.
Agent Orange uses schoolyard bullies' insults, so, throwing back the same, "TRAITOR-DICTATOR" fits the bill. But the word Nazi, alone or in combination is both powerful and true, without being self-demeaning. And it's easy to call on the memory of the many thousands of Americans who died fighting Hitler's Germany.
*
Seven years ago, in December 2016, I wrote:
*
Great again?
*
Democracy? Democracy? Where's that? I see only oligarchy.
Chances are DT will bankrupt oligarchy, as he's bankrupted all he touches, and try for the only thing he (thinks he) understands: dictatorship.
But will the Republic survive the attempt?
Putin’s poodle. Putin’s pool boy. Putin’s patsy.
Or... as Hillary said and the Muller report demonstrated a Russian agent...Putin’s Boy... overthrowing our democracy to please (or pay back) his boss lest he pay with his own life or that of his children and grandchildren. Which may cause paranoia. 😏
TRAITOR DICK TATOR
If you add TOT at the end then it perfectly captures the spoiled child that is Trump.
And describes the size of his brain, atrophied by disuse.
To my mind, Peter, he first and foremost was and is a grifter. That one word takes the politics out of it, IMO.
True.
But people did not take Hitler seriously until it was too late.
And "grifter", "conman" etc. may be true but fail to give the measure of the danger.
Extreme, unprecedented danger.
A would-be Hitler who could get his hands on material power Hitler never dreamed of. That of the United States of America.
"But people did not take Hitler seriously until it was too late."
Peter, if that had been the root problem, Hitler would still have been stopped before it was too late.
The real problem in Germany and here was and is: The majority of Germans and, possibly Americans (we will find out), WANTED/WANT Hitler's/Trump's hate in office to guide them to a new promised land.
When Trump starts putting people into camps you will see how many Americans will cheer. "Yeah, baby, those "b....ards" got what they deserved. Burn 'em baby!"
Exactly like what happened in Germany.
6 million people don't get carted off to extermination without a huge majority of the people fully enthusiastic about that.
I think you're right. And I will never understand how easy so many people find it to hate others and cheer on their persecution and suffering.
Mike, I think your analysis is absolutely correct. There are far, far too many people who want, with all their hearts, to rid our country of those "different" from them; gayfolk, people who are not of their particular flavor of sky pilot worship, people who are different races/skin tones, women who want independence from men.
I've got 4 of those targets on me...
SO HERE'S SAID RAGBAG!
Rather than merely inventing rude nicknames for a man so patently, pathetically, grotesquely ridiculous—but who still has an unbroken hold on his supporters so strong that his movement is continuing to grow, while the President’s political action and its effects remain almost totally unknown and misunderstood—isn’t it about time for a range of strong, well-coordinated nationwide actions to show people, especially the MAGA mob, what is really really in it for THEM? Show what is really in it for America. Show what is really in it for the planet.
Hold the collective mutt’s snout to its own shit…
So. How about ideas for practical actions throughout society?
Targeting, shaming the media and media bosses with noisy, embarrassing demonstrations against those who have undermined public information and journalism by making short-term profits accruing to billionaire owners and corporate shareholders the exclusive criterion for publication;
HCR has shown us the immediate relevance of history when it comes to tackling current political, social and economic challenges—can we not then push, as I have suggested here, for a barrage of film material showing up the dangers we now face in terms of the colossal disasters of the 20th century… which we now risk repeating… ON A FAR LARGER SCALE??? This time, in America too, spared from direct damage in all the wars of the past century and a half. Spared since America’s terrible Civil War…
This ain’t just education, ain’t just information, there’s plenty of gripping entertainment in the hell and heaven of the 20th century. And, as I keep saying, if it’s well presented, fanatical MAGAts and their ilk will just leuurve the rise and rise of Benito Mussolini, of Adolf Hitler, Goebbels’ magnificent scenarios, the Nuremberg Rallies, , the 1936 Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl’s great images, Blitzkrieg, triumph upon triumph…
Then, the London Blitz, Dunkirk, the long hard fight back, Pearl Harbor, all the Axis forces declaring war on America. The cost. The horrendous cost. Death, death and hell on earth for a hundred million and more—I don’t forget what was done to Africa, I don’t forget Asian history, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, I don’t forget Soviet history, nor do I forget North America at a time when GIs and Canadian soldiers, sailors, airmen were fighting and dying to preserve their countries’ way of life at home…
Targeting, shaming all those who have made the same fast buck the be-all-and-end-all of absolutely everything in society—public health, education at all levels, the provision, maintenance and improvement of essential infrastructures, transport, housing, the provision of all social services, policing, prisons, investment and industrial development, the military, both manpower and materiel, deployment at home and worldwide, both war and peace…
*
One thing we are observing every day, yet not realizing, is how very contagious mass psychosis can be, affecting even those who are not directly caught up in it. The most horrendous thing about great evil is how it stains the hearts and minds of those who encounter or even hear of it, often including the hitherto innocent. It can be dangerous even to witness deeds of extreme evil, when we are tempted to blind vengeance, adding crime to heinous crime.
*
Hitler was not brought to power by a majority of Germans but he did not have to wait long until the Reichstag fire gave him the pretext he needed to implement his plans and seize total power. Now that the people were effectively powerless yet borne on the Nazi tide, the fact of going along with it fatalistically, because inured to obeying those in authority, does not necessarily signify any real enthusiasm for what is being done. Discretion is the better part of valor—you protect yourself and your family by silencing your doubts and questioning, knowing full well that it would be dangerous to do otherwise.
When Hitler held his great Berlin victory parade in July 1940, observers may have been taken in by the crowd’s applause, but Hitler himself was not. Hitherto, the drug that had sustained him was crowd adulation. On that day, it failed him, and from then on he switched to other drugs, a cocktail of amphetamines. With consequences for his judgment.
*
Mike, the people were fed on the spectacle of military might, Nuremberg Rallies, Goebbels’ masterly propaganda. Later, many will have taken part in the regime’s constant celebrations, merging into culture wars, organized hatred, demonstrations, book burnings, and many will have witnessed or even taken part in Kristallnacht, pogrom and orgy of destruction, the ultimate violent vengeance visited on chosen scapegoats for the humiliation of defeat in the Great War and the economic ruin brought on by the Versailles Treaty.
Nevertheless, the SS Einsatzgruppen that carried out the regime’s first trial run of mass murder, that of psychiatric patients and the physically and mentally handicapped, were sworn to secrecy and the deaths of patients were released in a constant trickle so as to avoid direct suspicions. Those who had doubts about what was happening dared not express them publicly… until the Bishop of Münster spoke out in a strong sermon in August 1941. The scandal was naturally stifled but when in January of the following year the Wannsee Conference decided “the final solution to the Jewish question” the event and the policy were shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Mass shooting by the same Einsatzgruppen of over a million victims, primarily Jews and gypsies, mainly in the eastern territories conquered by Germany, now gave way to the secret establishment of death camps in Polish territory and to the massive rail transport to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Chelmno of those to be worked to death or gassed directly.
[When a student around 1960, I was friendly with a young Pole who, with his once well-to-do family, had worked as slave laborers in the IG Farben chemical factory at Auschwitz-Buna. Interesting that Bayer, now owners of Monsanto with its awful reputation as producers of pesticides dangerous to human health and the life of the soil, should be a salvaged survivor of the giant IG Farben complex, which produced poison gas for the war machine including the Zyklon B used to kill millions in the death camps. The pesticides industry is, of course, a “peaceful” development of chemical warfare technology…]
What I am getting at in all this is the extreme secrecy of the Final Solution, which—understandably—was unimaginable even to vast numbers of its victims, despite the obvious hatred and cruelty shown by the invaders and their local helpers. Yes, these were to be found, often in large numbers, wherever the Nazis’ reach extended. But then, so were individuals and organizations that protected Jews.
The exceptions, large and small, run directly counter to your negative view of human nature and show up cultural differences, both in the treatment of minorities and in attitudes to powerful authorities. In Denmark, the king donned a yellow star and the people saved the Jewish population, spirited out to neutral Sweden. In Albania, the puppet government successfully obstructed deportation, refusing to provide lists of Jews, and villagers everywhere protected them. In Bulgaria, despite antisemitic policies, politicians, church leaders and the population prevented the deportation of the Jews. Italian Fascism may have turned antisemitic to please Hitler, but many Italians put on a show while actively protecting Jews. There was, of course, nothing doing in the areas controlled by Germany and the rump Fascist puppet State after Italy switched sides…
What is particularly interesting is the nature and extent of resistance to Nazi policies in the Third Reich, both in Germany itself, where there were significant regional, religious and social differences in attitudes to the regime itself and in particular to antisemitic propaganda, and in post-Anschluss Austria, where serious anti-Nazi activities continued into the postwar period, despite the country’s relative failure to take responsibility for its participation in the Hitlerian adventure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_resistance_to_Nazism
Particularly inspiring for American women, the successful activism of German wives of Jews in defense of their husbands late in the war, even after the decisive defeat at Stalingrad—the Rosenstrasse Protests…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenstrasse_protest
I take strong exception to your final paragraph, Mike S., and even more so to your “hypothesis” that “WE ALL, in our heart of hearts, want to feel superior to someone else so we can feel better about ourselves. Some kind of evolved thinking/behavior.”
I am 10 000% with Larry Levy when he warns you against such sweeping, opinionated generalizations. I am sure that this is not your intention, yet the view of human nature you are setting forth is so profoundly negative that it closely resembles that of Nazi-Fascists themselves—believing the worst, expecting the worst of our fellow-men, accordingly basing one's outlook and actions on that assumption and ending up by justifying the foulest of foul means. All conservatives who view human nature as intrinsically bad, including those with an inculcated belief in “original sin”, run the risk of losing their footing and sliding into the evil behavior they like to ascribe to others.
To these points I want to add an important one: pessimism in the face of a prospective Trump victory in November must be harnessed productively to imagine, coordinate and implement effective preventive actions. Yet all that you are offering is a deeply negative view of America’s ability, both innate and actual, to rise to the occasion and mount an effective defense of the country’s democratic institutions. You speak of deeply ingrained fecklessness and ignorance yet propose nothing that could awaken the country and make it sound as though nothing could ever achieve that. In so doing you are in effect promoting fecklessness…
*
This response comes too late. Everything that needs to be said -- and there is far far more to this, all this and far more will have to be gone over again. The sole advantage to you is that you'll have, for the time being, been spared a more public attack.
*
Still, while we're about it, I'm giving you -- SEPARATELY -- the rest of the work in progress that I wasn't able to produce today -- other activities, other obligations...
This amounts to something of a ragbag, but fresh minds could marshal and align valid material while pruning what's unnecessary.
HERE THEN. ENJOY. OR DETEST. It's all there for you.
Meanwhile, I'll not be there tomorrow! Other business calls...
Melanoma said he kept a book of Hitlers speeches in his nightstand. Which no one believes because then you’d have to assume he reads.
Very true, Peter. I ask, however, to whom are we giving this "measure of the danger"? My MAGA family are convinced they are the patriotic Americans, practicing democracy. If their leader needs to be "Hitleresque" to keep their country for them, they are all for it.
Thanks for reading!
Just like many Nazis liked to think of themselves as patriotic Germans...
But, like Hitler, their beloved guide promises to overthrow democracy.
Like Putin, this man's boss and exemplar, who never permitted any but the most superficial appearances of democracy and now totally bans all diversity. The autocrat has a monopoly of thought and decision...
For most of America, democracy MEANT "white cis guys in charge of everything". And that remains their definition. Just like freedom of religion means freedom of Christian religion to go and do whatever it wants.
People of certain generations understand "Nazi" and all that word means, but younger people may not.
But Ann, democracy is not possible on a basis of bottomless ignorance about the world we live in.
If our media had 0.001% of the competence and sense of responsibility necessary to do their basic job -- informing the public -- we'd be seeing films daily of the horrendous 20th Century.
Film, because people today understand only images.
What's more, the MAGA mob will love the irresistible rise and rise of Mussolini, then Hitler...
Parades. Nuremberg Rallies. Military might. War. Blitzkrieg.
Until Stalingrad. Until downfall. Until they see total destruction, the camps, the endless millions dying horribly. Hitler's suicide. Goebbels' suicide with wife and children, Mussolini's corpse hanging upside down in Milan.
"But Ann, democracy is not possible on a basis of bottomless ignorance about the world we live in."
Fixing the profound ignorance that a huge number of Americans find themselves fully ensconced within is no easy task.
Add the fact that the ignorance they/we have plays into a stronger desire to sort things out with the rules that whatever white man preacher at the front of the church tells them.
The combination of ignorance and leveraging nuts/preachers with poor judgement to tell them what to do?
Disastrous outcomes.
I've been saying similar things about the media for many months now.
Donald Dictator
Love it.
Trump campaign writes comments like that.
Todd Swanson,
Which/whose comment do you refer to?
Totally unclear... Both which, whose and why...
We should add that no one has ever called their child Hiltler. Furthermore, what happened to the Nazi supporters? They disappeared and hid. Americans that support Trump will be looked down as a Trump enabler and it will of be a good look.
“ And there in lies the rub”, as we (not they) say. We talk in thought-provoking, complicated sentences, while Trump is shouting sound-bites triggering emotional responses that need no thought or time to consider.
It’s like going to war with a story about a cannon instead of the cannon itself.
Excellent choice of words describing the both the Dems and MSMs “explanatory” responses versus the radical right’s emotion-provoking statements. And what about our failure to have short, punchy SPECIFICS versus lengthy, snooty college-like responses. Shouldn’t we have a “messaging squad” who’ve been trained in hard core debating tactics and strategies to have direct statements (versus messages) about exactly how any of these radicals are subverting democracy rather than just calling them out for doing so. Even in the cited JRB statement, there was too much of that tired, old strategy of “when they take the low road, we take the high road.” Sounding ethically superior has been ineffective for 10+ years now!!! It may make the elitista in the Dem party feel good about themselves, but it certainly prompts many others to feel like they’re being insulted and then rationalize: they think they’re better than us...we have to elect folks who don’t disrespect us.
Well said Margaret, brief and succinct. I like it !!
Love the metaphor!
David, I agree with you on this. The Dems have and are failing miserably to launch a verbal campaign against the MAGA/KKK Republicans. We could have photos of Trump and Hitler together, Trump and Putin, with simple words to make the point.
We could even have a photo of W and Putin at his ranch with W “looking into” Putin’s soul. Need I continue?
W looking into Putin's soul!! I love it. What an absolute travesty for so many to have G.W. Bush and TFFG as Presidents.
Sometimes a picture does indeed beat a thousand words!
Trump and Putin both use social media as their bread and butter.
Manipulate it on an "industrial scale."
The democrats need to collaborate together! It’s like herding cats to get a group of Dems to do anything together!
Good point.
Yes. It's how I remember what Lying Ted's last name is.
Who’s “Lying Ted?”
Cruz. Tfg’s nickname for him.
I hear you, Ms. Smith, although I would ask what audience you expect to address. I recall some survey results from the Braver Angels group a few years back that tallied the language each side -- "Red" vs. "Blue" -- uses to describe the other. I can't remember the favorite epithet used by us "Blues" (whatever it is, I'm sure we've seen it hundreds of times here), but the "Red's" favorite name for us is "traitor." To them, we are the traitors, traitors to our race, to our society, to the Christian god. (Of course, I disagree but they don't seem to care what I think.)
Somehow, I don't think more inflamed language is going to convince anyone. Please, let's just stick with the facts, ma'am, just the facts. It that's not enough, then there's not much else we can do except become like them, i.e., violent, irrational, murderous, and terribly shortsighted.
In my last conversation with my MAGA sister who tried to convince me of the great things she thought he had done for the country, I stopped her with these words: "He's just a grifter."
Reminds me of my own words: "I wouldn't vote for him as dog catcher."
I'd be happy to vote for Trump. As in, "Juror #4 votes 'Guilty!'" T'would be a genuine highlight of my life, it would.
Very good, Dirk!
You nailed it. Huckster, grifter, bully, creep.
What does your sister think that Trump did so well? Does any of it check out? The only thing I can think of is the $11 billion fast-track Covid vaccine development, and that was only after the most amazingly corrupt gyrations trying to convince us that Covid was a hoax.
Is anyone besides me nervous about that new movie coming out in the spring titled, "Civil War"? It looks like an action-packed glorification of a second U.S. civil war, where people die heroically for something or another. Just like some people look at "Handmaid's Tale" and think, "Hey, that's not a bad idea..." I suspect that too many people will look at "Civil War" and think of it as a solution.
Truth be told, Dirk, I tuned out what she was saying because I stubbornly insisted - and still do - that he really is nothing more than a grifter. That's all I need to know about him. Just so you know, it's rare in my family when I get the last word.
Morning, Lynell. Nicely done with that turn of phrase.
Morning, Ally! Thanks!
Either way, drop the political correctness (it’s too high-brow) and be genuinely righteous
What was the politically correct part?
I use the term “white trash” actually
Using words like fascist instead of Nazi is one. Use words to get to the point and that “common folk” know well. Slang is OK. Them back up with facts if need be.
Dirk, I respectfully disagree. You can use an insult to get attention, and then back it up with facts and a good argument. Remember, we elected an Internet troll in 2016.
I hope you're right. Just for my own part, when someone starts off a conversation with an insult, I'm generally too pissed to hear their facts and arguments. I'm more interested in beating them, not understanding them. Not that I ever really have conversations on these topics -- I kinda wish I had a MAGA sister who apparently believes that Trump did "great things," like Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC) above, and wanted to convince me of the same. What do these people think he did so well?
I’m wondering the same. I know he takes credit for things he did not do 💁🏻♀️
I believe there's an old saying about mud wrestling with a pig and that is that the pig loves it!
Zero election deniers and supporters I come across do not have facts to back up their claims. They are just similar to Fred Trump, Sr. In that they enjoy the entertainment that Jr. has been able to get away with it. But of course with Daddies money.
Trump is a madman and a huckster. We need to call him out on his bs. For a sociopath like Putin to claim either Christian or family values is ludicrous. We must all push back against these bullies and call them out. Pull back the curtain on the empty Wizard of Oz.
Both use social media as their main tool/weapon.
TFG (Donald J. Trump - just in case there’s anyone here reading these comments and HCR’s letter) is now in the mode of a desperate man who has pulled back the covers and dropped the kkk robe and realized that the American government and our court systems are down right serious and his dad has been probably rolling over and twisting in his grave or wherever he maybe witnessing his favored son ruin his name and businesses!!!
Lock him up!!!
I put a ‘ lock him up ‘ sign on our rural, very red ‘ highway. Used 3” screws and solid wood and waited to see how long it would last.
Made it about 3weels. Never had so much fun.
Any suggestions for my next sign.
Three people never to trust:
A religious leader who tells you how to vote.
A political leader who tells you how to pray.
A draft dodger who tells you how to be patriotic.
(If you have enough land, you could do it like Burma Shave! ).
Trump = Dictator for Life
Dump Trump
I'll work on some more when the magic bean juice kicks in better.
You have so much material to work with. MAGANAZI, white faux-Christian Nationalist, Traitor, Murderer, serial immigration supporter, liar, rapist, grifter.
Sure. Crowdfund a laser projector, install it deep in your own property (atop your house?), and project "Lock him up!" directly onto the roadway.
How many bullet holes did you count???
Jim, I agree. The more desperate he becomes, the louder he is going to spew his dangerous rhetoric. The louder and more unhinged HE becomes, the louder and more unhinged his supporters and cronies-in-crime become. They will fight for him no matter the outcome. Mob mentality will win out if they cannot be convinced that he cares nothing for the little people.
They will fight for HIM. They think he would fight for THEM.
If only they could or would see.
I often think of the invasion of the Capitol and wonder if, had the mob found Pence, they really would have hung him. Many people think so.
That's why we are in danger of losing our individual identity. Trump's mob of misguided men and women will protect him and do everything in their power to carry out his commands.
When mobs become desperate, it only takes a few mentally deranged people to start the mob charging forward in defense of their beliefs. They will plow down anyone or anything who gets in their way. Could be any one of us.
When Pence was in Congress they called him dense Pence. Who would ever support a man like TFFG would threatened to have him killed and darn near succeeded?
Do we have that many stupidly clueless, hatefully racist and/or low-informed people who are voters [and non-voters] in America - whether they’re the far-right, conservative people who are for the most part labeled as republicans who have become cult-members following a twice-impeached, narcissistic wannabe dictator among us?
Jim, that's what has been a shock to me. Realizing that there ARE so many Americans who have fallen for his lies and who identify with him.
Every day I shake my head in disbelief. Dissolutionment has taken over me, although I try to stay positive. I'm positive that Trump will cause his followers to help him overthrow our democratic way of life.
Positively unbelievable.
Jim, yes we do. And it appears 💯 % of the GOP House is behind him now.
Yes Jim, we do.
Yes, we do. Hateful, not just racially, but also of women's independence, gender expression, sexual orientation, and of "other" religions (because don't you all have the "one, true God"?)
yes
Exactly! The 'Pinocchio ' rating was ineffective. Used to seethe about the soft pedaling of all the lies, across the GOP spectrum; that moral cowardice to call out the lies for what they were (are) helped create the trump cult.
People just say, "All politicians lie", then they pick and choose what he means and what is just "joking", and they call his opponents' unfulfilled predictions or mistakes "lies".
Donald Trump could pull out his dictator on Fifth Avenue and not lose a vote.
Dick- tater
I couldn't get dick-tater past the WaPo word-police computer. They printed "MAGANAZI Party" and "Critical Fascist Theory" and "Ku Klux Don" and "Adolf Huckster," so I give them some credit. The NYT, too, frowns on any comment that mentions body parts, especially the ones "down there," and they don't print my nicknames... for instance... Jim Jordan is Jiminy Crackpot.
I don't know why, they print "Dick Cheney" and "Dick Army". What's wrong with "Dick Tater"?
Ok that’s really funny!
🤣🤣🤣
Steve Brant offer this warning on FB ... in response to HCR post today:
Dear Heather,
I think the American people will ultimately owe Trump a debt of gratitude for "saying the quiet part out loud". By overtly and unambiguously aligning himself with Putin, Kim, and Orban he has cast the choice we have next November in the starkest terms possible. There is no grey area any more. While Trump initially learned to be a "professional" authoritarian from the Mafia in Queens, NYC (and from Roy Cohn), running for and then becoming POTUS made him a much bigger player than I think even he dreamed of being when he began flirting with politics many years ago.
I pray that the Biden administration responds in MUCH stronger terms than they did tonight, because these statements make it as clear as it ever will be that we are at war with fascism here at home. The American people were mobilized to fight the global fascist threat roughly 78 years ago. I hope President Biden turns what would have been a traditional political campaign into what it now needs to be: the MOBILIZATION of the American people to defeat fascism here at home. Biden can use the history lesson told in Rachel Maddow's amazing book "Prequel" to tell the story of how democracy was almost destroyed here at home before WWII... a critically important "forgotten" history lesson.
We have always had an element in American society that prefers to dominate others by claiming "they" are evil. What I learned from Rachel's book about how Henry Ford promoted antisemitism with a Detroit newspaper he bought for that purpose turned my stomach.
Thank you, as always, for making clear the facts of these historic times. Let's pray that history repeats itself ... that We the People defeat fascism here at home again... and then starting in January 2025 declare war on fascism around the world... not using missiles and bombs, but using the POWER OF OUR EXAMPLE. We must show the world that democracy can help us fulfill dreams that will never be achieved by fascism!
Hear Here !! Extremely well put Fred. I Like It!!
Thank-you Betsy. I also think describing the type of government DT, et. al., are trying to foist upon us as a DICTATORSHIP, rather than an autocracy or some other academic-sounding term would be more accurate and reach more of the public who need to know what the MAGA movement truly is.
Steve, I agree. Dictator and dictatorship are words that must be used, along with nazi, to convey the seriousness of the moment. Autocracy is too complex a theory for many people, and they shut it out of their consciousness.
I agree with you that authoritarian lacks meaning and context of most of the MAGANAZIs. Call it what it is -- a dictatorship.
We already know that if anyone in his administration disagrees with him they are immediately fired via Twitter or text. Or if, heaven forbid, someone is praised for any reason in his administration they are fired or else they need to do some serious boot licking.
Betsy, I agree entirely that words matter and the media hasn’t done their job well for decades. However, regardless how the media talks about Trump, we the people are the ones with the power to prevent him from regaining the White House.
Gigantic efforts by Democrats (and Independents) in recent elections have born fruit (Virginia, Jacksonville, Fl, Fort Collins, CO, and dozens if not hundreds of school board elections preventing Moms for Liberty candidates from gaining seats) And to your point, Letters to the editor, subscription cancellations and truly significant pushback from readers on recent editorial bs in NYT and WaPo (among others) appears to be having an effect.
The media has significant obligations in protecting democracy. But in the end, it is We the People who will determine our fate and the fate of our precious experiment in democracy.
And by all means, let’s use the word traitor to describe Trump!!
The only people that will listen are Democrats. The Republicans lost it when they elected Trump. Those words don't mean a thing to them.
But there's another group that we need to reach: Independents, or, as we call them in MA, Unenrolled. We need to get both Dems and Independents to vote, even when voting has been made difficult or seems to be useless. In 2016, when I was canvassing, too many people just shrugged and said that it made no difference whom they voted for, blahblahblah. We can't let that happen again.
And reach the independent voters and let them know how much voting for a third party candidate such as "No Labels" would hurt the Democratic candidate.
I tend to worry about "Americans for Prosperity" right now. You should pay attention to the ads from these Koch sycophants. All Hail the petroleum Industries, they're here to save the day by increasing the supply to fund our planetary addiction to such.
Wonder if you asked them again -- would they still say it made (makes) no difference? That apathy is what we need to overcome.
Words matter—and truer words were never spoken (or typed). Trump’s words are the ravings of a lunatic. Tell a friend.
Traitor? Absolutely. I’ve been calling him one for years, and continue to be baffled that are government can’t lock him away. And that includes the high level crooks that are with him. These columns by HCR are very informative, but also very alarming. I would love to know whether the good doctor believes we can overcome the attack on our democracy through nonviolent means.
FOLLOW the MONEY!! Elitists and their corporate disguise, (the men behind the curtain) manipulate the legal system and circumvent their fair share of the national burdens so that they can play while the rest of the working people PAY (Taxes)!
Instead of calling tRump’s words “lies” we should call them “propaganda”. tRump has the largest microphone in the world with which he can spew hateful rhetoric and propaganda. The media breathlessly recounts each stupid thing he says; which makes it impossible to keep up with. Unfortunately it is pure evil genius- this man has done more in a few short years to destroy the America we all love and made us enemies; we forget that we are on the same team and should be working together to make our country better.
UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL.
Excellent articulation of the need for clear language that isn’t mis- or dis- or other obfuscation.
I look forward to reading your Substack posts.