Thank you Heather. Another important, informative, and inspiring LFAA.
I continue to worry that the violence committed on January 6th, 2021, this attack on the ideals of the United States, was just the surface of the horrific attack.
It is continuing to unfold, led by those GOP Members of Congress, a corrupt SCOTUS, and has infected State …
Thank you Heather. Another important, informative, and inspiring LFAA.
I continue to worry that the violence committed on January 6th, 2021, this attack on the ideals of the United States, was just the surface of the horrific attack.
It is continuing to unfold, led by those GOP Members of Congress, a corrupt SCOTUS, and has infected State and Local government from sea to shining sea.
We are constantly reminded that the US Constitution is sacrosanct (although the vigor to defend it seems to only be related to the misinterpretation of one of its Amendments). Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear in language and context. While there is no question that Trump should never be allowed to hold any public office, it clearly extends to all those who actively participated in the planning, and more importantly, all those who have continued to obstruct and impede a complete investigation as accessories after the fact.
Until all are held accountable and expelled from office, the thought of “and justice for all” will continue to be aspirational.
Agreed, George, We should not rest until all those who participated, either as a plotter or cheerleader are also charged and convicted. We need them out of office forever
Fay, I note that we seem constantly to be ignoring the financing of subversion, retracing both the original financiers and their modes of transmission, channeling money to political, social and especially judicial action.
In recent decades, organized crime has given ever greater priority to laundering its gains and maximizing material influence by investing in areas like real estate through the corruption of public officials.
There are signs of close alliances between foreign powers, domestic political string pullers and those who constitute their means of transmission, and mafias both on and offshore.
Show me a problem and what are the chances money is at the root. Humans are too easily corrupted. Pay their way and they will support the devil. When politicians know the truth and behave in opposition that is the definition of corruption, i.e. zero integrity. To justify supporting all the lies requires a talent that humans have perfected, i.e. the ability to rationalize anything!!
"Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of satisfying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money."
I'd add that since the abstract cannot satisfy, regardless of the quantity of zeros accumulated, dissatisfaction is guaranteed and, in its train, resentment, envy, hatred and other mind poisons.
The wealthy think themselves envied for their possessions. Surely, but that is because envy is often so active in them. The real problem is how wealth, both material and immaterial, can isolate us from others, from what's essential.
Sadly, I have to agree with a good deal of what you've said. A relative of mine stated once, that he knew many people who were friends, who were far wealthier than he was. He suggested overall, they were not a happy bunch.
One cause of my lifelong (and excessive) stand-offishness in relation to material wealth was seeing, as a child, the deep unhappiness that sometimes came with it for other children.
And how much worse that corruption has become since Himself told us, and also DEMONstrated, it was not only ok but admirable. He said people who cheated on their taxes were the smart ones. He’s the demon on your other shoulder whispering in your ear.
Trump identifies his personhood and success with the amount of money he has (real and imagined). It therefore gives me great smug satisfaction that Letitia James, a Black WOMAN increased his penalty for business misconduct from 250 to 370 mil. Psychologically, for him this is worse than going to prison, it's a death sentence. Having to pay E. Jean Carroll even one $ is the same. I consider the idea that this genetically deformed rapist narcissistic psychopath to again be president a death sentence....
Nice to remember. I have never forgotten Cassidy Hutchinson's portrait of him holed up in a White House dining room watching on television as the food splattered everywhere. Had we had a more vital Congress, the members who supported him would no longer serve.
Millions of TFFG followers never read a newspaper, book or even the crawler at the bottom of Faux News.
We need to display images of the 1/6 rioters beating policies officers.
We need to display pictures of TFFG's poorly designed and constructed wall with holes in it and patched and repatched.
We need to show Josh Hawley giving a fist pump to the rioters.
We need to show TFFG struggling to drink with both hands wrapped around the bottle.
We need to show TFFG's bathroom at Mara-Lago with boxes of Top Secret documents.
We need to show Federal agents in Lafayette Square shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at innocent people and TFFG hold the Bible upside down.
We need to show TFFG standing in church looking baffled and bewildered while everyone else is singing a well known him.
We need to show them Putin and TFFG standing together in solidarity and bombed out Ukranian cities.
We need to show....
MAGANAZIs and white faux-Christian nationalists are not readers. Sure, many of them don't believe their own eyes, but images are more likely to have an impact on most TFFG sycophants.
Correct, Trump himself is a well known coward where violence is relevant. He will incite all his self described "losers and suckers" to do his dirty work for him.
Nothing bothers TFFG more than being called a loser. He knows it's true and so do many of his devoted brain dead followers.
Your comment reminds me of one of my favorite political quotes from Adlai Stevenson.
When Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson was running for president in the 1950s, a supporter purportedly said to him: "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "I'm afraid that won't do — I need a majority."
Stevenson would have been a great choice for president. If you remember he was labeled "an egghead". A derogatory term for intellectuals. Ike would be hard to beat personality wise and his record as a winning general of the war just passed.
Here is the kicker for me, Fankom: The local law enforcement response was woefully inadequate and understaffed. I suspect there were machinations at the levels above the agency heads that made it so, but I cannot conceive of the situation where they did not have at least the same information that was "out there" that there would be trouble magnitudes of order higher than what they were prepared for.
In no way do I fault those who were on duty that day; Capitol Police, Metro PD, Park Police (the three jurisdictions around the Capitol and grounds); who I fault is those who did not give their agencies riot gear or have tactical units available for response.
That is what I am referring to when I refer to an utter command and control failure. As far as the units that I saw defending the Capitol, I think they did an excellent job with what they had. There may have been a handful of “sympathizers” (I recall one uniformed cop moving a portable barricade) but when the stuff hit the fan, I didn’t see anyone engaging in less that total commitment.
I remain to this day impressed with the bike cops from the Park Police who held the line (bike cops have substantially less protective gear than regular uniformed police) and Eugene Goodman, who by himself kept a group of rioters from achieving the upper offices where (I think it was Pence) were just a door away.
I had the opportunity to consider where my opinions/beliefs and duty stood several times during my career (policing the Occupy Movement, Planned Parenthood protesters, and taking reports from rabidly anti-gay people). Duty always won.
TFG is a clear and dangerous wacko and needs to be silenced. Does he remind you of the worst tyrants in history? Trying to scare people into submission with threats of violence. Those in Congress who fear for their safety are afraid not to support the wannabe dictator. WHERE ARE WE???? This has got to stop!!!
Dangerous wacko? That description really has the ring of truth. Their side has a lot of people backing him. But they have a weak foundation. It’s hard to fight or commit violence against your fellow man for a lie. We have much bigger numbers, a rock solid foundation, and the truth to guide us.
The only possible explanation about his approval rating going up commensurate to his rising indictments and monetary penalties is that he made a deal with the devil...and there's not much we can do about that but pray....
I noticed that was the headline. However the quote was actually “Our country is in big trouble”. I hate click bait headlines wherever they come from. Plus, many don’t read the news but scan only the headlines.
I read the whole article, in several different sites.
What is Trump--"will be wild" mean with his full statement? Trump is deliberately not using legally-actionable words. He's again signaling "stand back and stand by."
My deepest concern is that he will pull out all the stops for violence if he wins... his favorite statement of recent is that he will be a dictator on his first day in office...
We can’t act like his republican enablers who respond to his threats of violence and cower and just go along with him. If there is violence we are going to deal with it. We will not let his threats determine our actions. We will resist him all the way to victory.
Texas voter turnout fell from 2018. It was still higher than other midterms.
In Texas, 45.7% of the 17.7 million registered voters cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election. That’s 7.3 percentage points lower than the state’s total turnout in 2018 but higher than in every other midterm election in the last 20 years.
I agree. I am worried too that the electoral college slants to republicans. It’s gonna get ugly. I hope the democrats have their lawyers ready to go when the sh*t hits the fan.
For those of us "of a certain age", the Warren Court was what we knew as the SCOTUS. That court gave us Brown v. BoE in 1954, and throughout the 1960's made a ton of rulings that bolstered the rights of individuals. His term ended in 1969, and the Court swung back away from the more progressive rulings. What we have today is an abomination of what SCOTUS should be.
The indicted 45th president will lose again if our U.S. Supreme Court allows him to run. He ran twice. Each time he faced voters, his tally came up smaller than before. Those runs for President were before he was indicted for crimes against our Constitution.
I hope and expect SCOTUS will enforce the Constitution. If it doesn’t, resorting to another act of crime and violence by the 45th and his clique would be a another mistake with far more serious consequences. I offer for your consideration what happened in NYC, during the War of Rebellion (i.e. ‘civil’ war) when federal government troops put an end to the Draft Riots.
The indicted 45th will not be given the Constitutional right to run again by SCOTUS. There is no original language in our Constitution which would allow it.
In fact, there is original, self-executing language which prohibits him from running.
Read Section 3, XIV Amendment.
SCOTUS has no alternative but to enforce the U.S. Constitution. We all ought to get our heads around that fact.
“Congress does not need to pass impending legislation for Section Three’s disqualification provision to attach, and Section Three is, in that sense, self-executing.”
Agree! We have citizens who have benefited from our country and it's people and its government and the opportunities our country offers many (but not all) of our citizens.
Yet it is some of these powerful people, here and others in the world, who are breathing life and financial support into DT and his "gang".
I continue to be confounded with "church going" citizens who support this godless self-centered person.
I live in a red town that doesn't even have a stop light. But we have 8 churches, 4 bars and a gun range. These church members are aging and fighting spiritual warfare on the front lines. They love Agent Orange because he validated their hate. He said it's ok to abuse people. They are racists. They are misogynistic and homophobic. But they love Jesus. The guy that plows our driveway shows up and starts in on immigrants. He's an Elder in his church. We tried talking to him to no avail. I pointed out his hypocrisy but I just got the deer in the headlight look as usual. They hang hate flags on their properties. One guy has a 40 ft lighted cross with a Trump flag on it. Another has a fucking video screen in his yard flashing Trump. These are the community church members.
It’s also unfortunate the MAGA movement has co-opted the American flag. I used to proudly display it on appropriate major holidays and after 9/11 to show American unity. No more.
They CANNOT take my flag. I used to fly it along side a flag that was a black field with a blue stripe (not the thin blue line flag after I saw how it was corrupted) to honor fallen cops. It now flies all year with a pride flag to its right.
Me too Dave. The day after the insurrection my town had flags flying everywhere. It was creepy. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The KKK are now called Patriots for Liberty.
They do not own the American flag, any more than the word “patriot”, or religious symbols. They don’t decide what the words and symbols mean for the rest of us.
Do you have any ideas how we might redeem & save our flag from the desecrations of the maga-wave-wear -magnify gang? Thinking that HCR readers being smart-creative- & much more might have some brilliant ideas.
I love my 150 yr old farmhouse. We live on 10 acres and we got it cheap 14 yrs ago. We have put a ton of work it. I really didn't know that this town would be a better fit in Arkansas. I saw an article a few years ago where they did a study of the most drunk counties in the country. Mine was number 1 in Minnesota. I keep to myself. However, it's difficult when the crap comes out of their mouths it's hard for me to stay silent. Real hard. I don't like bullies.
Hello from a fellow Minnesotan (who happily lives in a liberal St Paul neighborhood)!
My family is mostly in Ohio and they are almost all Republicans. I still dislike Thanksgiving because of the years of racist table talk. As soon as I graduated to the “adult table” I started arguing with my Nazi uncle (truly a Nazi - as was confirmed by the Nazi magazines and newspapers in his home when he died). Years later my mother said “why are you arguing with him? That’s what he wants.”
That changed everything. I can’t/won’t give even tacit approval to racist talk. But now, I walk away - not angrily but clearly not willing to listen to such talk. It has resulted in family at least being alerted to my feelings. And by withholding reinforcement (yes, I did study behavior modification many years ago), that conversation has been extinguished in my presence. It’s all I can do but I think it helps!
I just finished my DBT therapy and moving on to my complex trauma therapy as a result of 64 years of narcissist abuse by numerous family members. I know better than to engage with them. But when I see injustice or bullying I don't back down. My therapist is trying to soften my edges. Good luck with that. I'm incapable of small talk. I tried. It breaks my heart in a million pieces when I see someone being abused. When they try to bully me it's game over. Narcissist abuse is in our faces everyday. Agent Orange normalized it. I'm always learning and I try to do better. Thank you for your comment.
Very true Emily. I think many (not all) churches sold their soul for George W. Bush’s faith-based initiatives which accelerated the erosion of separation of church and state. The flow of wealth has subverted the American experiment in many ways.
There are many evangelicals who are hoping for the end of the world, as they believe they will either be spared by being taken up in a "rapture" and/or that it is the fulfillment of biblical prophesy. They are fervently hoping this will be the case. They support Trump because they believe he is the one who is going to bring this about. He just might. Though it will reveal not Heaven but Hell.
The "church going" are in demographic decline. Abortion, gender diversity, trans, "god" removed from schools, "corrupted" libraries. This stuff is liquid nitro to them. "Better the devil we know". And this is not just the baptists. Add catholics of the right persuasion.
'How the GOP’s rewriting of Jan. 6 paved the way for Trump’s comeback' (Washington Post, excerpts)
'Pressure from family members and advocates for accused rioters was amplified by online influencers and right-wing media figures, leading lawmakers to minimize, excuse and deny the violence and rehabilitate Trump'
'Attempts to minimize, excuse or deny the violence of that day began with people returning home from the mob and intensified with family members of rioters, including the mother of a woman killed at the Capitol. Their cause became championed by pro-Trump writers Julie Kelly and Darren Beattie, and amplified by prominent right-wing media figures. The grass-roots and media pressure then spread from far-right lawmakers such as Reps. Paul A. Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene to take over the Republican mainstream.'
'Now, on the third anniversary of the nation’s first interruption to the peaceful transfer of power since the Civil War era, Republicans’ attitudes about Jan. 6 are increasingly unmoored from other Americans, and Trump holds a commanding lead in the race for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.'
'The share of Republicans who said the Jan. 6 protesters who entered the Capitol were “mostly violent” dipped to 18 percent from 26 percent in December 2021, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. More than half of independents and about three-quarters of Democrats, on the other hand, believe the protesters were “mostly violent,” numbers that have remained largely unchanged over time, the poll found.'
'The percentage of Republicans who hold Trump responsible for the attack dropped from 27 percent to 14 percent, compared with 56 percent of independents and 86 percent of Democrats. More than a third of Republicans said they believe the FBI definitely or probably organized and encouraged the attack — a conclusion contradicted by an extensive congressional investigation and more than 725 completed federal prosecutions.'
'At that time, even Trump was still denouncing the violence. In a Feb. 28 Fox News interview, he defended his rally before the riot as' “a love fest,” but as for the siege of the Capitol, he said, “I hate to see it. I think it’s terrible.”
'The biggest exception was Tucker Carlson, then the host of the nation’s most-watched cable news show, on Fox News. In March, he invited Kelly on to question what caused the death of Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died the day after fighting the mob, including being attacked with pepper spray. (The D.C. medical examiner later concluded that Sicknick died of natural causes after two strokes, but that “all that transpired on that day played a role in his condition.” Sicknick’s assailant, Julian Khater, pleaded guilty in 2022.)'
“The details of that day matter,” Carlson said, “because they’re being used as a pretext for changing this country.” Carlson did not respond to requests for comment.'
'Carlson also took an interest in another fatality connected to the attack: that of Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot trying to enter the lobby of the House chamber while lawmakers were evacuating. In the months after the riot, far-right communities online started portraying her as a martyr and trying to identify and harass the officer who shot her, according to Holt’s research for the Atlantic Council.'
'In June, Carlson brought on Babbitt’s widower, who repeated the call to identify the officer who killed her. “The silence is deafening,” he said.'
In early 2023, Trump allies began producing a track of the inmates singing the national anthem, mixed with a recording of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He played the finished song — “Justice for All,” featuring the “J6 Prison Choir” — to open the first campaign rally of his 2024 campaign, in Waco, Tex., in March 2023. The song jumped to No. 1 on iTunes.
The next month, Trump dropped into a diner while campaigning in Manchester, N.H. The crowd inside started calling out that there was a “J6er” present. She was Micki Larson-Olson, who had been recently released after serving a 180-day sentence for unlawful entry onto public property. Trump called her over, hugged her and signed the backpack she said she was wearing that day.
By May, Trump expanded his pardon pledge, now promising to “most likely” grant clemency to “a large portion” of Jan. 6 defendants. “And it’ll be very early on,” he said in a CNN town hall.
At a rally in Durham, N.H., last month, he went further than Kelly’s phrase for the Jan. 6 defendants.
“I don’t call them prisoners,” he said. “I call them hostages. They’re hostages.” (WAPO) See gifted link for entire article.
Great detail Fern. And the mainstream media is complicit, fueling the flames of “both-siderism” instead of continuing to deliver facts, evidence, and calling Trump, his co-conspirators, and accessories out for their crimes, obstruction, and blatant lies.
George, understanding why a large number of Americans are unmoored from reality -- the transfer of wealth; loss of communities; unions and local newspapers; the effects of technology -- there were major aspects of daily life that led to social cohesion, which are no longer part of our foundation.
These losses and others have led to our vulnerability to propaganda, conspiracy theories, mistrust in government. The lack of local journalistic sources and frequent exchanges with one another ups the challenge of bridging our differences.
If the figures are correct, that approximately 54% of American adults ( age 16- 74) read at a 6th grade level or best, think about how that impacts comprehension & critical thinking skills. How are most 6th graders respect to critical thinking? I would suggest, those are to a minimum. I was told my son, who's an adult now, in 3rd grade was reading & comprehending at an 11th grade level. He was always able to drill down to the facts, separating them from the fluff. Sadly, I couldn't say that about a good many of his friends. Seemed they were lost in the weeds, sadly. And those, would in all likelihood, be voting for a trump & subscribing to maga propaganda & conspiracy figures.
There are moments I am in despair, as to where we are going as a nation. I continue donating to worthy dem candidates, to President Biden's campaign, thinking in that there is a glimmer of hope. Yet still i think, thank God I am on the other side of 50.
Your point is well taken Bonnie. Can't always judge intellect on reading abilties though.
As a volunteer literacy tutor I am reminded of Tim a 60-ish year old big burly teddy bear like man. I tutored him weekly for a few years.
There was nothing dumb about Tim. He was never diagnosed with Dyslexia as a child. He was told he was stupid his entire life.
Tim was a life-long heavy equipment operator for the same large local company until a few months before his retirement date. He was let go with no pension. He could not read so he could not fill out job applications. It was at this point Tim decided to learn to read.
Like I say Tim was not stupid. He mistrusted the banking system so he bought houses instead. He owned 10 properties.
Agreed. And I don't mean to paint all with the same brush. But I am suggesting that a large swath of trump followers ( not the ones who are wealthy & hoping to benefit financially via a trump presidency) tend to be poorly educated & not inclined to fact check.
I recommend Timothy Snider’s book “On Tyranny”. He presents 20 ways to recognize tyranny and how to inoculate ourselves against it, using examples from the 20th century.
Fern, when you say "...there were major aspects of daily life that led to social cohesion, which ar no longer part of our foundation." you have said something profound, and on so many levels.
As a kid (b. 1958) we all watched the same cartoons. Our folks all watched the same news, albeit on one of 2 (later 3) channels. We all followed the same TV shows. As a young adult, we still watched the same shows, and had "water cooler conversations" at work/school about those shows (MASH, Mork and Mindy, Seinfeld, Dallas, Star Trek TNG) which led to a cohesion. There were times you knew not to call your friends because "their" show was on. We still watched the same news. With the advent of cable tv, we got to watch reruns of shows we'd seen as children (Gilligan's Island, Beverly Hillbillies). We all went to the same movies, at the same one-screen theaters.
Far, far different from today. I think that the unfettered propaganda spewed out by various sources, and the absolute lack of local journalistic sources has, as you state, makes bridging our differences hard, because we don't have a that social cohesion of shared experiences when it comes to viewing/movie watching/news perusal.
Ally, I had the chills, while reading your breakdown of our sharing in the past. It is about speaking the same language. We had our differences, preferences and arguments, but we knew what each other was talking about.
Fern and Ally, I appreciate your thoughts today especially. The idea of speaking a common language, and having a foundation of shared experiences. We are seeing the loss of real connection to others in the rise of addiction, anxiety, depression and premature death.
Building community and connecting ourselves to others is how we will make the positive changes we want. I’ve heard HCR say this very thing.
Fern, I wonder if we really knew what people different from ourselves were talking about. I never saw a Black person until high school (where one young man briefly attended). I never knew a LGBTQ person (at least one who was out) until I started working in human services. I never had conversations with people living in poverty or homelessness until after college. You and Ally really made me think: was my assumption that we had a shared experience a fantasy?
But much of our lives have been dominated by American propaganda. We’re the ‘good guys’. Really?
As to trust, do you trust the government? No one should.
Our milieu, imo, comes back, inevitably, to capital vs. labor, with race being an integral component of capital’s divide and conquer approach to keeping labor on the losing side of the ledger. When people are constantly economically stressed, they are ripe for all sorts of fallacious thinking to make it past the good sense firewall.
We’re in a dark place.
But not the darkest, at present. Not even close to the unspeakable horror taking place in Gaza.
Here's a quote worth thinking about as we hope for more light in the darkness:
"I painfully regret that in almost every political controversy of the last fifty years the leisured classes, the educated classes, the wealthy classes, the titled classes have been in the wrong. The common people-the responsible toilers, the men of uncommon sense-these have been responsible for nearly all of the social reform measures which the world accepts today". -William Gladstone (1884)
Gladstone was the Prime Minister of UK from 1808-1894. His father was one of the largest slaveholders in the British Empire (2,508 slaves, 9 plantations in the Caribbean). He was known as "The People's William".
Google him-he was an interesting guy who believed in equal opportunity and limited government.
We'll see which group of "common people" rise up to help us mend fences between laborers. Some recent union actions shined a spotlight on some of the issues. There's at least some hope...
Yes, Fern. I believe the marketing and advertising industry had a lot to do with normalizing being lied to. They made their public believe they lacked something and that they could provide the product to fill that lack. Their dishonesty became something we were beaten over the head with daily, for life. Most everyone bought it.
I’ve dropped my NYT subscription, but still get a page of headlines as I access the crossword puzzle. President Biden’s remarkable speech on January 5th seems to have been relegated to page 11. Trump sells, decency doesn’t. It’s disgusting.
Very true. I continue to write that any meaningful attempt at any form of democracy requires an informed, educated, and engaged society. All three pillars have been assailed since Reagan (who also accelerated the concentration of wealth and thus, power). The apathetic lack of engagement is disturbing to witness (and why I continue to build https://civ.works).
FDR: “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education…to prepare each citizen to choose wisely and to enable him to choose freely are paramount functions of the schools in a democracy.”
There are highly educated people backing Trump. They don’t trust anything they read from MSM or government backed info sources. Their doubt has only grown as Influence peddling has been uncovered or existed or even made up. They distrust Biden, who one points out has two wars during his campaign, while Dt had ‘none.’ Their disgust with the current system is strong. Dt sowed seeds of distrust— can’t trust anyone— and far right media plus internet posts amplify. There is deep distrust and even paranoia there. This isn’t going to be easy to heal.
There should be deep distrust of government, by everyone, regardless of political affiliation. The main purpose of the Founder’s ‘checks and balances’ paradigm was to prevent the concentration of power in government, because it wasn’t to be trusted.
America was sleepwalking through the past fifty years as a slow-moving corporate coup took place, with monied interests buying both political parties, and all of the checks and balances. We… are… owned.
We need our revolution, the one Jefferson referenced that is necessary when government ceases responding to the interests of the people. For all the hysteria about 1/6, some justified, some not, the fact remains that frustration over governing dysfunction leads, inexorably to rebellion. Ask those who threw the tea into Boston Harbor.
The men who threw the tea overboard had the right target, the East India Company, not King George. The failure of the people on 1/6 was targeting a government building owned by monied interests, instead of the corporate headquarters of Amazon, Raytheon, Boeing, ADM, etc. Wrong target, same frustration.
Until laser focus comes to ‘why Trump’ instead of’GOP sucks’, we’ll continue to circle the drain.
Tom, the "being owned" points right to oligarchs, billionaires, the KOCH and ALEK factions, the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, and others all pulling strings so their puppets will dance.
But that is not all that is going on. We have (at least at present) an EPA that makes a valiant effort to regulate environmental degradation. We have Social Security and Medicare and, at least in some states (I live in Minnesota), learned, inquisitive, compassionate, and excellent Senators whose vision is trained in the direction of greater freedom and ethical responsibility.
So I ask you: Will you only trust government if it achieves 100% of what you want? I do not think of trusting government at all. I expect people to act in ways that do damage to themselves and others. It's a fact of human life.
But I also see that I live in a country where in Florida the people who care about women's health care could work hard and get a measure on the ballot to ensure abortion when needed. That's just one example of what people do to re-balance the odds and right the wrong. The Florida Supreme Court might disallow the proposed law. . . but maybe not. Nothing is guaranteed. Still, they tried.
Sometimes I think the posture of "both sides are corrupt" results from wanting to be pissed off and veiling it with a mask of self-righteousness. Am I wrong? Is it really reasonable to see only what you don't like and not see what is encouraging and hopeful?
Yes-but King George legitimized the East India Company...and remember according to SCOTUS (a branch of government) corporations are people and "United Citizens" in America can make all the donations they want to buy politicians in the land of the free. Government has the power to sanction/regulate corporations, but we've gone down a dark hole as wealthy people play their games to maintain power and control.
That is the thesis of Al Gore’s book “The Assault on Reason.” The book cover: “Al Gore’s larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason’s enemies; to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds; and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future.”
Publication 2007, lots about GWB. I can imagine what he would say about DJT!
Yes, I totally agree with you. Trump is ineligible to hold public office for life due to his participation in an insurrection according to the letters of our Constitution. Likewise, those members of Congress who aided Trump are equally as ineligible to serve. These people have gotten away with a whole lot of bad sh*t. They are still being paid salaries that are taxpayer-funded. They are working against the American people whose livelihoods they vowed to protect. I resent this injustice very much. These people, along with Trump, need to be 14th Amendmented out of their jobs.
My favorite part of today's missive was about the three siblings who participated in the riot whose family owns the 'Rapture Guns and Knives, described on its Facebook page as a “christian owned Gun and Knife store” ' You can just picture Jesus rolling his eyes around....
I would hope that this time around, the court wil not consider ankle bracelets as part of the sentencing of those three fugitive criminal insurrectionists arrested in Florida, as reported by HCR. I note that they were connected with a knife and gun store that was 'christian-owned' according to its Facebook posting. I am suspicious of any business that uses the religion of its owners to solicit business from the general public. In an upcoming posting on my blog, I touch upon such subtle antisemitism, and racism as well, that can be found among too many of Donald Trump's right wing supporters.
Ally: I usually go a bit further on my blog than I do on here ... but here is a draft of how I will be posting this on my blog (Jackspotpourri) later this week.
"When Donald Trump talks about mass deportation of immigrants, some of whom he recently referred to as ‘vermin,’ retribution against those who have not shown loyalty to him, and using the military and the Department of Justice to carry out his punishment of them and those behind any civil or criminal charges against him, you get a picture of who he really is. And it is not a nice picture. It is that of a tin pot dictator.
But that picture appeals to a significant number of Americans who, although they will not readily admit it, includes those who feel that our government spends a disproportionate amount of its tax-funded resources to benefit people of color who number only between 13% and 14% of our population, and that too many of its decision-makers are Jews who number only a little more than 2% of our population.
They don’t come out and say these things. They don’t boast about their racism and antisemitism in public, but that’s what they mean when they talk of ‘welfare queens’ and disparage ‘Critical Race Theory’ and ‘Diversity-Equity-Inclusion’ ideas without even attempting to understand them, and repeatedly refer to our country’s ‘Christian’ founding, exemplified by the current House Speaker who puts his evangelical religious beliefs ahead of the Constitution that he is sworn to uphold. And of course, these folks always vote Republican."
Jack-I think a lot of the subtly is lost-racists are loud and proud now. People of color are actually about 41% of the U.S. population now. The Census category "White only non-Hispanic" is 58.9%. Trump's supporters are overwhelmingly in the White only category-and yes-the majority of them vote Republican because they've bought into racism. They're alarmed and their responses to our changing demographics are cruel. They "fear for their lives".
I'm keeping the faith that in 2024 enough people of goodwill will crush these folks who want to keep us divided.
Hear, hear. Indeed, the GOP or its MAGA frontispiece, has wrapped itself around the Big Lie, fronted by Trump and all too many astute operators and gullible citizens. It looks like a group of Jan 6 insurrections are reviving their efforts as part of the 2024 campaign, verbally reneging on their confessions.
You wrote: "While there is no question that Trump should never be allowed to hold any public office, it clearly extends to all those who actively participated in the planning, and more importantly, all those who have continued to obstruct and impede a complete investigation as accessories after the fact." I suspect that this is the primary motivation for those in Congress who clearly know they committed acts of treason before, during and after J6; talk about cleaning out the swamp!
Indeed Ellen. And they know since Nixon was not held accountable for his crimes, they feel they have license to act without recourse. Furthermore, the Trump/MAGA party (no longer the GOP) will just scream “look what America does to political opponents!”. The consistent response from the DOJ, the AG’s, and the DA’s working to prosecute the offenders should be: “No. This is what we do to criminals who betray their oath of office and act to undermine the very system they are supposed to be committed to defending.” And then they should all sign “Yours in Service”.
I love that "yours in service"! Plus, the reminder that the rule of law is applied to CRIMINALS who betray their oath of office. If these folk do not like the consequences of their actions, they have choices to make. Whining is not a very effective choice, as I see it.
If delusional hypocrisy was a crime, Heather just proved the guilt of the insurrectionists and their millions of followers.
And, FWIW, yesterday I saw five pickup trucks in convoy flying American flags and displaying Trump propaganda on I-5 in Oregon between Eugene and Portland. I guess for them Jan. 6 is a day to celebrate treason.
Thank you Heather. Another important, informative, and inspiring LFAA.
I continue to worry that the violence committed on January 6th, 2021, this attack on the ideals of the United States, was just the surface of the horrific attack.
It is continuing to unfold, led by those GOP Members of Congress, a corrupt SCOTUS, and has infected State and Local government from sea to shining sea.
We are constantly reminded that the US Constitution is sacrosanct (although the vigor to defend it seems to only be related to the misinterpretation of one of its Amendments). Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear in language and context. While there is no question that Trump should never be allowed to hold any public office, it clearly extends to all those who actively participated in the planning, and more importantly, all those who have continued to obstruct and impede a complete investigation as accessories after the fact.
Until all are held accountable and expelled from office, the thought of “and justice for all” will continue to be aspirational.
Agreed, George, We should not rest until all those who participated, either as a plotter or cheerleader are also charged and convicted. We need them out of office forever
Fay, I note that we seem constantly to be ignoring the financing of subversion, retracing both the original financiers and their modes of transmission, channeling money to political, social and especially judicial action.
In recent decades, organized crime has given ever greater priority to laundering its gains and maximizing material influence by investing in areas like real estate through the corruption of public officials.
There are signs of close alliances between foreign powers, domestic political string pullers and those who constitute their means of transmission, and mafias both on and offshore.
Show me a problem and what are the chances money is at the root. Humans are too easily corrupted. Pay their way and they will support the devil. When politicians know the truth and behave in opposition that is the definition of corruption, i.e. zero integrity. To justify supporting all the lies requires a talent that humans have perfected, i.e. the ability to rationalize anything!!
Boy, have I seen my smart friends and family turn into pretzels to choke down chump’s hate speech
Jeri, those people who I THOUGHT were friends have shocked me with their refusal to believe that Trump is a criminal.
Pam I am curious if you still have the patience to engage with these people you describe.
Some people report they just don't discuss politics with the supporters of the tfg.
I feel I want nothing to do with these racist, hateful, and unsmart people - so I detach.
Moral blindness.
Refusal to see what's staring us all in the face.
Yet good people are sometimes blind to forms of evil from which they themselves are free.
And not just evil. It seems that Queen Victoria, being so besotted with her Albert, was quite unable to imagine female homosexuality.
Maybe it's as well not to have too much insight into minds corrupted by the likes of Roy Cohn.
Schopenhauer:
"Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of satisfying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money."
I'd add that since the abstract cannot satisfy, regardless of the quantity of zeros accumulated, dissatisfaction is guaranteed and, in its train, resentment, envy, hatred and other mind poisons.
The wealthy think themselves envied for their possessions. Surely, but that is because envy is often so active in them. The real problem is how wealth, both material and immaterial, can isolate us from others, from what's essential.
Separation, divisions.
Sadly, I have to agree with a good deal of what you've said. A relative of mine stated once, that he knew many people who were friends, who were far wealthier than he was. He suggested overall, they were not a happy bunch.
One cause of my lifelong (and excessive) stand-offishness in relation to material wealth was seeing, as a child, the deep unhappiness that sometimes came with it for other children.
And how much worse that corruption has become since Himself told us, and also DEMONstrated, it was not only ok but admirable. He said people who cheated on their taxes were the smart ones. He’s the demon on your other shoulder whispering in your ear.
Trump identifies his personhood and success with the amount of money he has (real and imagined). It therefore gives me great smug satisfaction that Letitia James, a Black WOMAN increased his penalty for business misconduct from 250 to 370 mil. Psychologically, for him this is worse than going to prison, it's a death sentence. Having to pay E. Jean Carroll even one $ is the same. I consider the idea that this genetically deformed rapist narcissistic psychopath to again be president a death sentence....
So my republican friend told me that those whose seem to rationalize are not really doing that. They know the lies from the truth and dont care.
100% and not a new thing
If Trump loses the 2024 election, I believe he will pull out all the stops for violence.
He won’t. He will incite others. The “fine people” on the other side of both sides.
He'll cheer them on from a safe distance.
Exactly. In spite of all his bravado, he’s a real coward.
Nice to remember. I have never forgotten Cassidy Hutchinson's portrait of him holed up in a White House dining room watching on television as the food splattered everywhere. Had we had a more vital Congress, the members who supported him would no longer serve.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Millions of TFFG followers never read a newspaper, book or even the crawler at the bottom of Faux News.
We need to display images of the 1/6 rioters beating policies officers.
We need to display pictures of TFFG's poorly designed and constructed wall with holes in it and patched and repatched.
We need to show Josh Hawley giving a fist pump to the rioters.
We need to show TFFG struggling to drink with both hands wrapped around the bottle.
We need to show TFFG's bathroom at Mara-Lago with boxes of Top Secret documents.
We need to show Federal agents in Lafayette Square shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at innocent people and TFFG hold the Bible upside down.
We need to show TFFG standing in church looking baffled and bewildered while everyone else is singing a well known him.
We need to show them Putin and TFFG standing together in solidarity and bombed out Ukranian cities.
We need to show....
MAGANAZIs and white faux-Christian nationalists are not readers. Sure, many of them don't believe their own eyes, but images are more likely to have an impact on most TFFG sycophants.
George,
Correct, Trump himself is a well known coward where violence is relevant. He will incite all his self described "losers and suckers" to do his dirty work for him.
His support of Giuliani show the kind of "friend" he is
That’s called pulling out all the stops, the cowardly way.
I don't care if he does. He and his crew are all losers. I have faith in the good guys on our side, that they will squash the Trumpers.
Nothing bothers TFFG more than being called a loser. He knows it's true and so do many of his devoted brain dead followers.
Your comment reminds me of one of my favorite political quotes from Adlai Stevenson.
When Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson was running for president in the 1950s, a supporter purportedly said to him: "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "I'm afraid that won't do — I need a majority."
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/letters/ct-a-call-to-every-thinking-person-20170804-story.html
Love that quote, fits today.
By the way, do you listen to GasslitNation?
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9nYXNsaXRuYXRpb24ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/NmRhZWZlZWQtODdhZS00ODc1LWIzMDktY2E0MTI5OTgyZTc5?ep=14
I don't, haven't had time for podcasts in a while. Gasslit is what we are. Will give it a shot. Thanks
Stevenson would have been a great choice for president. If you remember he was labeled "an egghead". A derogatory term for intellectuals. Ike would be hard to beat personality wise and his record as a winning general of the war just passed.
I loved Ike but he was the war hero. Stevenson unlucky but better choice.
By the way, do you listen to GasslitNation?
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9nYXNsaXRuYXRpb24ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/NmRhZWZlZWQtODdhZS00ODc1LWIzMDktY2E0MTI5OTgyZTc5?ep=14
By the way, do you listen to GasslitNation?
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9nYXNsaXRuYXRpb24ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/NmRhZWZlZWQtODdhZS00ODc1LWIzMDktY2E0MTI5OTgyZTc5?ep=14
No, I have it on now. I like the lead-in with Ali Velshi.
Thanks for the link.
January 6 tide turned when well equipped solders arrived. If law enforcement does their job there is no need to fear.
Here is the kicker for me, Fankom: The local law enforcement response was woefully inadequate and understaffed. I suspect there were machinations at the levels above the agency heads that made it so, but I cannot conceive of the situation where they did not have at least the same information that was "out there" that there would be trouble magnitudes of order higher than what they were prepared for.
In no way do I fault those who were on duty that day; Capitol Police, Metro PD, Park Police (the three jurisdictions around the Capitol and grounds); who I fault is those who did not give their agencies riot gear or have tactical units available for response.
I agree. That was criminal and should be punished. If Capital Police had been allowed to prepare January 6 would not have gotten out of hand.
There needs to be a crackdown on anonymous threats as they are poisonous to society.
Biden will do a better job of preparing.
The big baby Donald was ensconced atop it all on Jan 6, so inadequate preparation was his play that day.
Sadly others went along with his bad guidance.
By the way, do you listen to GasslitNation?
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9nYXNsaXRuYXRpb24ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/NmRhZWZlZWQtODdhZS00ODc1LWIzMDktY2E0MTI5OTgyZTc5?ep=14
By the way, do you listen to GasslitNation? I'd really like to know what you think of this.
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9nYXNsaXRuYXRpb24ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/NmRhZWZlZWQtODdhZS00ODc1LWIzMDktY2E0MTI5OTgyZTc5?ep=14
Basically I agree, but I think there were insider insurrectionists in the police force that caused the delay.
That is what I am referring to when I refer to an utter command and control failure. As far as the units that I saw defending the Capitol, I think they did an excellent job with what they had. There may have been a handful of “sympathizers” (I recall one uniformed cop moving a portable barricade) but when the stuff hit the fan, I didn’t see anyone engaging in less that total commitment.
I remain to this day impressed with the bike cops from the Park Police who held the line (bike cops have substantially less protective gear than regular uniformed police) and Eugene Goodman, who by himself kept a group of rioters from achieving the upper offices where (I think it was Pence) were just a door away.
I had the opportunity to consider where my opinions/beliefs and duty stood several times during my career (policing the Occupy Movement, Planned Parenthood protesters, and taking reports from rabidly anti-gay people). Duty always won.
Amen
By the way, do you listen to GasslitNation?
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9nYXNsaXRuYXRpb24ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/NmRhZWZlZWQtODdhZS00ODc1LWIzMDktY2E0MTI5OTgyZTc5?ep=14
Trump is already issuing public warnings about "big trouble" if the SCOTUS does not find for him in the Colorado ballot case.
TFG is a clear and dangerous wacko and needs to be silenced. Does he remind you of the worst tyrants in history? Trying to scare people into submission with threats of violence. Those in Congress who fear for their safety are afraid not to support the wannabe dictator. WHERE ARE WE???? This has got to stop!!!
And as Biden questioned, “Who are we?”.
Dangerous wacko? That description really has the ring of truth. Their side has a lot of people backing him. But they have a weak foundation. It’s hard to fight or commit violence against your fellow man for a lie. We have much bigger numbers, a rock solid foundation, and the truth to guide us.
The only possible explanation about his approval rating going up commensurate to his rising indictments and monetary penalties is that he made a deal with the devil...and there's not much we can do about that but pray....
The polls are like most MSM, intentionally biased.
No surprise, threats and intimidations, lies, lies, lies wrapped in bombast
I noticed that was the headline. However the quote was actually “Our country is in big trouble”. I hate click bait headlines wherever they come from. Plus, many don’t read the news but scan only the headlines.
I read the whole article, in several different sites.
What is Trump--"will be wild" mean with his full statement? Trump is deliberately not using legally-actionable words. He's again signaling "stand back and stand by."
Mobster behavior, I've been told.
My deepest concern is that he will pull out all the stops for violence if he wins... his favorite statement of recent is that he will be a dictator on his first day in office...
We can’t act like his republican enablers who respond to his threats of violence and cower and just go along with him. If there is violence we are going to deal with it. We will not let his threats determine our actions. We will resist him all the way to victory.
That’s all it takes
I have seen a few "promises of violence" on the WH fb page. I reported them for what ever good it will do.
Actually, this will happen during the election, Anthony.
There will be guns at the polling stations. Why would there not be?
We will be prepared to stop the Trumper guns. VOTE!
Texas voter turnout fell from 2018. It was still higher than other midterms.
In Texas, 45.7% of the 17.7 million registered voters cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election. That’s 7.3 percentage points lower than the state’s total turnout in 2018 but higher than in every other midterm election in the last 20 years.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/10/texas-voter-turnout-2022/
Tell that to Texas. It's obviously not the MAGANAZI's in TX that aren't voting.
I did, but MAGAts never stay home
I agree. I am worried too that the electoral college slants to republicans. It’s gonna get ugly. I hope the democrats have their lawyers ready to go when the sh*t hits the fan.
I never, never thought SCOTUS would become politicized. For most of my adult life I thought of it as the place right would prevail. Not anymore.
For those of us "of a certain age", the Warren Court was what we knew as the SCOTUS. That court gave us Brown v. BoE in 1954, and throughout the 1960's made a ton of rulings that bolstered the rights of individuals. His term ended in 1969, and the Court swung back away from the more progressive rulings. What we have today is an abomination of what SCOTUS should be.
Yes, no more, and this adds is what adds an extra layer of scary.
This is the kind of fear that traps people in abusive relationships. No way to live, in my opinion.
The indicted 45th president will lose again if our U.S. Supreme Court allows him to run. He ran twice. Each time he faced voters, his tally came up smaller than before. Those runs for President were before he was indicted for crimes against our Constitution.
I hope and expect SCOTUS will enforce the Constitution. If it doesn’t, resorting to another act of crime and violence by the 45th and his clique would be a another mistake with far more serious consequences. I offer for your consideration what happened in NYC, during the War of Rebellion (i.e. ‘civil’ war) when federal government troops put an end to the Draft Riots.
https://johnadamsingram.substack.com/p/colorado-supreme-court-decision
hose runs for President were before he was indicted for crimes against our Constitution.
Exactly. That's why I doubt the poll numbers. I have several friends that gave up on TFFG after 1/6 and haven't gone back.
Don’t think so...tough to do from jail!
The indicted 45th will not be given the Constitutional right to run again by SCOTUS. There is no original language in our Constitution which would allow it.
In fact, there is original, self-executing language which prohibits him from running.
Read Section 3, XIV Amendment.
SCOTUS has no alternative but to enforce the U.S. Constitution. We all ought to get our heads around that fact.
“Congress does not need to pass impending legislation for Section Three’s disqualification provision to attach, and Section Three is, in that sense, self-executing.”
-- COLORADO SUPREME COURT
https://johnadamsingram.substack.com
I think you’re right and that some police and as much FBI as can are preparing for the possibilities.
George A. Polisner.
Agree! We have citizens who have benefited from our country and it's people and its government and the opportunities our country offers many (but not all) of our citizens.
Yet it is some of these powerful people, here and others in the world, who are breathing life and financial support into DT and his "gang".
I continue to be confounded with "church going" citizens who support this godless self-centered person.
I live in a red town that doesn't even have a stop light. But we have 8 churches, 4 bars and a gun range. These church members are aging and fighting spiritual warfare on the front lines. They love Agent Orange because he validated their hate. He said it's ok to abuse people. They are racists. They are misogynistic and homophobic. But they love Jesus. The guy that plows our driveway shows up and starts in on immigrants. He's an Elder in his church. We tried talking to him to no avail. I pointed out his hypocrisy but I just got the deer in the headlight look as usual. They hang hate flags on their properties. One guy has a 40 ft lighted cross with a Trump flag on it. Another has a fucking video screen in his yard flashing Trump. These are the community church members.
It’s also unfortunate the MAGA movement has co-opted the American flag. I used to proudly display it on appropriate major holidays and after 9/11 to show American unity. No more.
They CANNOT take my flag. I used to fly it along side a flag that was a black field with a blue stripe (not the thin blue line flag after I saw how it was corrupted) to honor fallen cops. It now flies all year with a pride flag to its right.
Me too Dave. The day after the insurrection my town had flags flying everywhere. It was creepy. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The KKK are now called Patriots for Liberty.
I won't let them co-opt the flag. It belongs to all of us, and I proudly fly it every day.
Same, Kathleen.
They do not own the American flag, any more than the word “patriot”, or religious symbols. They don’t decide what the words and symbols mean for the rest of us.
I think it’s telling that the fugitives’ website that Heather references capitalizes “Gun and Knives” but not “christian”.
Lisa et al,
Do you have any ideas how we might redeem & save our flag from the desecrations of the maga-wave-wear -magnify gang? Thinking that HCR readers being smart-creative- & much more might have some brilliant ideas.
I like what Ally said about hanging the Pride flag next to the American Flag.
I have a meme that says Pro America Flag anti trump
Despicable, but the rule of law depends on not averting our attention.
Tim Albert, listen to his interviews, I am waiting to read his book.
Disgusting and beyond my comprehension!
Can you move?
I love my 150 yr old farmhouse. We live on 10 acres and we got it cheap 14 yrs ago. We have put a ton of work it. I really didn't know that this town would be a better fit in Arkansas. I saw an article a few years ago where they did a study of the most drunk counties in the country. Mine was number 1 in Minnesota. I keep to myself. However, it's difficult when the crap comes out of their mouths it's hard for me to stay silent. Real hard. I don't like bullies.
Hello from a fellow Minnesotan (who happily lives in a liberal St Paul neighborhood)!
My family is mostly in Ohio and they are almost all Republicans. I still dislike Thanksgiving because of the years of racist table talk. As soon as I graduated to the “adult table” I started arguing with my Nazi uncle (truly a Nazi - as was confirmed by the Nazi magazines and newspapers in his home when he died). Years later my mother said “why are you arguing with him? That’s what he wants.”
That changed everything. I can’t/won’t give even tacit approval to racist talk. But now, I walk away - not angrily but clearly not willing to listen to such talk. It has resulted in family at least being alerted to my feelings. And by withholding reinforcement (yes, I did study behavior modification many years ago), that conversation has been extinguished in my presence. It’s all I can do but I think it helps!
I just finished my DBT therapy and moving on to my complex trauma therapy as a result of 64 years of narcissist abuse by numerous family members. I know better than to engage with them. But when I see injustice or bullying I don't back down. My therapist is trying to soften my edges. Good luck with that. I'm incapable of small talk. I tried. It breaks my heart in a million pieces when I see someone being abused. When they try to bully me it's game over. Narcissist abuse is in our faces everyday. Agent Orange normalized it. I'm always learning and I try to do better. Thank you for your comment.
Are you in AR or MN?
I'm in Minnesota. And I love Governor Walz. He's my hero these days.
Wow, that’s scary. Do you think about moving?
Very true Emily. I think many (not all) churches sold their soul for George W. Bush’s faith-based initiatives which accelerated the erosion of separation of church and state. The flow of wealth has subverted the American experiment in many ways.
Thanks to Rove in 2004
Yes. Rove, Murdoch, and Ailes.
Church-going citizens are used to hearing bull Schitt. Think Jimmy Swiggert.
Not just used to hearing, as Mike S says, programed to believe what the white guy standing up front on Sunday says, and do what he says to do.
There are many evangelicals who are hoping for the end of the world, as they believe they will either be spared by being taken up in a "rapture" and/or that it is the fulfillment of biblical prophesy. They are fervently hoping this will be the case. They support Trump because they believe he is the one who is going to bring this about. He just might. Though it will reveal not Heaven but Hell.
The "church going" are in demographic decline. Abortion, gender diversity, trans, "god" removed from schools, "corrupted" libraries. This stuff is liquid nitro to them. "Better the devil we know". And this is not just the baptists. Add catholics of the right persuasion.
TFG supports their vision of the apocalypse. They see him for what he is but he is their savior. They have their priorities.
Tim Albert gives a very clear explanation to those of us like you are scratching our heads in disbelief of anyone can be so blind
'How the GOP’s rewriting of Jan. 6 paved the way for Trump’s comeback' (Washington Post, excerpts)
'Pressure from family members and advocates for accused rioters was amplified by online influencers and right-wing media figures, leading lawmakers to minimize, excuse and deny the violence and rehabilitate Trump'
'Attempts to minimize, excuse or deny the violence of that day began with people returning home from the mob and intensified with family members of rioters, including the mother of a woman killed at the Capitol. Their cause became championed by pro-Trump writers Julie Kelly and Darren Beattie, and amplified by prominent right-wing media figures. The grass-roots and media pressure then spread from far-right lawmakers such as Reps. Paul A. Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene to take over the Republican mainstream.'
'Now, on the third anniversary of the nation’s first interruption to the peaceful transfer of power since the Civil War era, Republicans’ attitudes about Jan. 6 are increasingly unmoored from other Americans, and Trump holds a commanding lead in the race for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.'
'The share of Republicans who said the Jan. 6 protesters who entered the Capitol were “mostly violent” dipped to 18 percent from 26 percent in December 2021, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. More than half of independents and about three-quarters of Democrats, on the other hand, believe the protesters were “mostly violent,” numbers that have remained largely unchanged over time, the poll found.'
'The percentage of Republicans who hold Trump responsible for the attack dropped from 27 percent to 14 percent, compared with 56 percent of independents and 86 percent of Democrats. More than a third of Republicans said they believe the FBI definitely or probably organized and encouraged the attack — a conclusion contradicted by an extensive congressional investigation and more than 725 completed federal prosecutions.'
'At that time, even Trump was still denouncing the violence. In a Feb. 28 Fox News interview, he defended his rally before the riot as' “a love fest,” but as for the siege of the Capitol, he said, “I hate to see it. I think it’s terrible.”
'The biggest exception was Tucker Carlson, then the host of the nation’s most-watched cable news show, on Fox News. In March, he invited Kelly on to question what caused the death of Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died the day after fighting the mob, including being attacked with pepper spray. (The D.C. medical examiner later concluded that Sicknick died of natural causes after two strokes, but that “all that transpired on that day played a role in his condition.” Sicknick’s assailant, Julian Khater, pleaded guilty in 2022.)'
“The details of that day matter,” Carlson said, “because they’re being used as a pretext for changing this country.” Carlson did not respond to requests for comment.'
'Carlson also took an interest in another fatality connected to the attack: that of Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot trying to enter the lobby of the House chamber while lawmakers were evacuating. In the months after the riot, far-right communities online started portraying her as a martyr and trying to identify and harass the officer who shot her, according to Holt’s research for the Atlantic Council.'
'In June, Carlson brought on Babbitt’s widower, who repeated the call to identify the officer who killed her. “The silence is deafening,” he said.'
In early 2023, Trump allies began producing a track of the inmates singing the national anthem, mixed with a recording of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He played the finished song — “Justice for All,” featuring the “J6 Prison Choir” — to open the first campaign rally of his 2024 campaign, in Waco, Tex., in March 2023. The song jumped to No. 1 on iTunes.
The next month, Trump dropped into a diner while campaigning in Manchester, N.H. The crowd inside started calling out that there was a “J6er” present. She was Micki Larson-Olson, who had been recently released after serving a 180-day sentence for unlawful entry onto public property. Trump called her over, hugged her and signed the backpack she said she was wearing that day.
By May, Trump expanded his pardon pledge, now promising to “most likely” grant clemency to “a large portion” of Jan. 6 defendants. “And it’ll be very early on,” he said in a CNN town hall.
At a rally in Durham, N.H., last month, he went further than Kelly’s phrase for the Jan. 6 defendants.
“I don’t call them prisoners,” he said. “I call them hostages. They’re hostages.” (WAPO) See gifted link for entire article.
https://wapo.st/492hbIn
Great detail Fern. And the mainstream media is complicit, fueling the flames of “both-siderism” instead of continuing to deliver facts, evidence, and calling Trump, his co-conspirators, and accessories out for their crimes, obstruction, and blatant lies.
George, understanding why a large number of Americans are unmoored from reality -- the transfer of wealth; loss of communities; unions and local newspapers; the effects of technology -- there were major aspects of daily life that led to social cohesion, which are no longer part of our foundation.
These losses and others have led to our vulnerability to propaganda, conspiracy theories, mistrust in government. The lack of local journalistic sources and frequent exchanges with one another ups the challenge of bridging our differences.
If the figures are correct, that approximately 54% of American adults ( age 16- 74) read at a 6th grade level or best, think about how that impacts comprehension & critical thinking skills. How are most 6th graders respect to critical thinking? I would suggest, those are to a minimum. I was told my son, who's an adult now, in 3rd grade was reading & comprehending at an 11th grade level. He was always able to drill down to the facts, separating them from the fluff. Sadly, I couldn't say that about a good many of his friends. Seemed they were lost in the weeds, sadly. And those, would in all likelihood, be voting for a trump & subscribing to maga propaganda & conspiracy figures.
There are moments I am in despair, as to where we are going as a nation. I continue donating to worthy dem candidates, to President Biden's campaign, thinking in that there is a glimmer of hope. Yet still i think, thank God I am on the other side of 50.
Your point is well taken Bonnie. Can't always judge intellect on reading abilties though.
As a volunteer literacy tutor I am reminded of Tim a 60-ish year old big burly teddy bear like man. I tutored him weekly for a few years.
There was nothing dumb about Tim. He was never diagnosed with Dyslexia as a child. He was told he was stupid his entire life.
Tim was a life-long heavy equipment operator for the same large local company until a few months before his retirement date. He was let go with no pension. He could not read so he could not fill out job applications. It was at this point Tim decided to learn to read.
Like I say Tim was not stupid. He mistrusted the banking system so he bought houses instead. He owned 10 properties.
Agreed. And I don't mean to paint all with the same brush. But I am suggesting that a large swath of trump followers ( not the ones who are wealthy & hoping to benefit financially via a trump presidency) tend to be poorly educated & not inclined to fact check.
I recommend Timothy Snider’s book “On Tyranny”. He presents 20 ways to recognize tyranny and how to inoculate ourselves against it, using examples from the 20th century.
And so many things on his list are already in motion
Fern, when you say "...there were major aspects of daily life that led to social cohesion, which ar no longer part of our foundation." you have said something profound, and on so many levels.
As a kid (b. 1958) we all watched the same cartoons. Our folks all watched the same news, albeit on one of 2 (later 3) channels. We all followed the same TV shows. As a young adult, we still watched the same shows, and had "water cooler conversations" at work/school about those shows (MASH, Mork and Mindy, Seinfeld, Dallas, Star Trek TNG) which led to a cohesion. There were times you knew not to call your friends because "their" show was on. We still watched the same news. With the advent of cable tv, we got to watch reruns of shows we'd seen as children (Gilligan's Island, Beverly Hillbillies). We all went to the same movies, at the same one-screen theaters.
Far, far different from today. I think that the unfettered propaganda spewed out by various sources, and the absolute lack of local journalistic sources has, as you state, makes bridging our differences hard, because we don't have a that social cohesion of shared experiences when it comes to viewing/movie watching/news perusal.
Ally, I had the chills, while reading your breakdown of our sharing in the past. It is about speaking the same language. We had our differences, preferences and arguments, but we knew what each other was talking about.
Fern and Ally, I appreciate your thoughts today especially. The idea of speaking a common language, and having a foundation of shared experiences. We are seeing the loss of real connection to others in the rise of addiction, anxiety, depression and premature death.
Building community and connecting ourselves to others is how we will make the positive changes we want. I’ve heard HCR say this very thing.
Fern, I wonder if we really knew what people different from ourselves were talking about. I never saw a Black person until high school (where one young man briefly attended). I never knew a LGBTQ person (at least one who was out) until I started working in human services. I never had conversations with people living in poverty or homelessness until after college. You and Ally really made me think: was my assumption that we had a shared experience a fantasy?
Thank you, Fern.
So very true and eloquently stated
Agree with everything you say here, Fern.
But much of our lives have been dominated by American propaganda. We’re the ‘good guys’. Really?
As to trust, do you trust the government? No one should.
Our milieu, imo, comes back, inevitably, to capital vs. labor, with race being an integral component of capital’s divide and conquer approach to keeping labor on the losing side of the ledger. When people are constantly economically stressed, they are ripe for all sorts of fallacious thinking to make it past the good sense firewall.
We’re in a dark place.
But not the darkest, at present. Not even close to the unspeakable horror taking place in Gaza.
https://www.commondreams.org/further/all-this-for-a-myth-we-have-lost-everything-beautiful
Tom-
Here's a quote worth thinking about as we hope for more light in the darkness:
"I painfully regret that in almost every political controversy of the last fifty years the leisured classes, the educated classes, the wealthy classes, the titled classes have been in the wrong. The common people-the responsible toilers, the men of uncommon sense-these have been responsible for nearly all of the social reform measures which the world accepts today". -William Gladstone (1884)
Gladstone was the Prime Minister of UK from 1808-1894. His father was one of the largest slaveholders in the British Empire (2,508 slaves, 9 plantations in the Caribbean). He was known as "The People's William".
Google him-he was an interesting guy who believed in equal opportunity and limited government.
We'll see which group of "common people" rise up to help us mend fences between laborers. Some recent union actions shined a spotlight on some of the issues. There's at least some hope...
Yes, Fern. I believe the marketing and advertising industry had a lot to do with normalizing being lied to. They made their public believe they lacked something and that they could provide the product to fill that lack. Their dishonesty became something we were beaten over the head with daily, for life. Most everyone bought it.
So now many look for liars to follow. It sounds like what they’re used to.
I’ve dropped my NYT subscription, but still get a page of headlines as I access the crossword puzzle. President Biden’s remarkable speech on January 5th seems to have been relegated to page 11. Trump sells, decency doesn’t. It’s disgusting.
unmoored. perfect description
Thanks, Fern, I always appreciate the articles you share!
If anything, what we are seeing is how few people it takes to bring down a democracy. Democracy's worst enemy is apathy of citizens.
Very true. I continue to write that any meaningful attempt at any form of democracy requires an informed, educated, and engaged society. All three pillars have been assailed since Reagan (who also accelerated the concentration of wealth and thus, power). The apathetic lack of engagement is disturbing to witness (and why I continue to build https://civ.works).
FDR: “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education…to prepare each citizen to choose wisely and to enable him to choose freely are paramount functions of the schools in a democracy.”
There are highly educated people backing Trump. They don’t trust anything they read from MSM or government backed info sources. Their doubt has only grown as Influence peddling has been uncovered or existed or even made up. They distrust Biden, who one points out has two wars during his campaign, while Dt had ‘none.’ Their disgust with the current system is strong. Dt sowed seeds of distrust— can’t trust anyone— and far right media plus internet posts amplify. There is deep distrust and even paranoia there. This isn’t going to be easy to heal.
There should be deep distrust of government, by everyone, regardless of political affiliation. The main purpose of the Founder’s ‘checks and balances’ paradigm was to prevent the concentration of power in government, because it wasn’t to be trusted.
America was sleepwalking through the past fifty years as a slow-moving corporate coup took place, with monied interests buying both political parties, and all of the checks and balances. We… are… owned.
We need our revolution, the one Jefferson referenced that is necessary when government ceases responding to the interests of the people. For all the hysteria about 1/6, some justified, some not, the fact remains that frustration over governing dysfunction leads, inexorably to rebellion. Ask those who threw the tea into Boston Harbor.
The men who threw the tea overboard had the right target, the East India Company, not King George. The failure of the people on 1/6 was targeting a government building owned by monied interests, instead of the corporate headquarters of Amazon, Raytheon, Boeing, ADM, etc. Wrong target, same frustration.
Until laser focus comes to ‘why Trump’ instead of’GOP sucks’, we’ll continue to circle the drain.
Tom, the "being owned" points right to oligarchs, billionaires, the KOCH and ALEK factions, the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, and others all pulling strings so their puppets will dance.
But that is not all that is going on. We have (at least at present) an EPA that makes a valiant effort to regulate environmental degradation. We have Social Security and Medicare and, at least in some states (I live in Minnesota), learned, inquisitive, compassionate, and excellent Senators whose vision is trained in the direction of greater freedom and ethical responsibility.
So I ask you: Will you only trust government if it achieves 100% of what you want? I do not think of trusting government at all. I expect people to act in ways that do damage to themselves and others. It's a fact of human life.
But I also see that I live in a country where in Florida the people who care about women's health care could work hard and get a measure on the ballot to ensure abortion when needed. That's just one example of what people do to re-balance the odds and right the wrong. The Florida Supreme Court might disallow the proposed law. . . but maybe not. Nothing is guaranteed. Still, they tried.
Sometimes I think the posture of "both sides are corrupt" results from wanting to be pissed off and veiling it with a mask of self-righteousness. Am I wrong? Is it really reasonable to see only what you don't like and not see what is encouraging and hopeful?
Yes-but King George legitimized the East India Company...and remember according to SCOTUS (a branch of government) corporations are people and "United Citizens" in America can make all the donations they want to buy politicians in the land of the free. Government has the power to sanction/regulate corporations, but we've gone down a dark hole as wealthy people play their games to maintain power and control.
Maybe a big picture would help, not bits and pieces
That is the thesis of Al Gore’s book “The Assault on Reason.” The book cover: “Al Gore’s larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason’s enemies; to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds; and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future.”
Publication 2007, lots about GWB. I can imagine what he would say about DJT!
And social media where every pinhead is given a megaphone.
Yes, I totally agree with you. Trump is ineligible to hold public office for life due to his participation in an insurrection according to the letters of our Constitution. Likewise, those members of Congress who aided Trump are equally as ineligible to serve. These people have gotten away with a whole lot of bad sh*t. They are still being paid salaries that are taxpayer-funded. They are working against the American people whose livelihoods they vowed to protect. I resent this injustice very much. These people, along with Trump, need to be 14th Amendmented out of their jobs.
My favorite part of today's missive was about the three siblings who participated in the riot whose family owns the 'Rapture Guns and Knives, described on its Facebook page as a “christian owned Gun and Knife store” ' You can just picture Jesus rolling his eyes around....
So true Sophia! While unfortunately not covered in scripture, one wonders which assault rifle Jesus would prefer.
“Yes, I like the AK-47, but do keep a glock as a backup in case I heal the sick, but they are late 30 days on their invoice.”
I would hope that this time around, the court wil not consider ankle bracelets as part of the sentencing of those three fugitive criminal insurrectionists arrested in Florida, as reported by HCR. I note that they were connected with a knife and gun store that was 'christian-owned' according to its Facebook posting. I am suspicious of any business that uses the religion of its owners to solicit business from the general public. In an upcoming posting on my blog, I touch upon such subtle antisemitism, and racism as well, that can be found among too many of Donald Trump's right wing supporters.
Jack, that "Christian owned" or the fish symbol are surefire ways to get me to avoid that business like the plague.
Ally: I usually go a bit further on my blog than I do on here ... but here is a draft of how I will be posting this on my blog (Jackspotpourri) later this week.
"When Donald Trump talks about mass deportation of immigrants, some of whom he recently referred to as ‘vermin,’ retribution against those who have not shown loyalty to him, and using the military and the Department of Justice to carry out his punishment of them and those behind any civil or criminal charges against him, you get a picture of who he really is. And it is not a nice picture. It is that of a tin pot dictator.
But that picture appeals to a significant number of Americans who, although they will not readily admit it, includes those who feel that our government spends a disproportionate amount of its tax-funded resources to benefit people of color who number only between 13% and 14% of our population, and that too many of its decision-makers are Jews who number only a little more than 2% of our population.
They don’t come out and say these things. They don’t boast about their racism and antisemitism in public, but that’s what they mean when they talk of ‘welfare queens’ and disparage ‘Critical Race Theory’ and ‘Diversity-Equity-Inclusion’ ideas without even attempting to understand them, and repeatedly refer to our country’s ‘Christian’ founding, exemplified by the current House Speaker who puts his evangelical religious beliefs ahead of the Constitution that he is sworn to uphold. And of course, these folks always vote Republican."
Jack-I think a lot of the subtly is lost-racists are loud and proud now. People of color are actually about 41% of the U.S. population now. The Census category "White only non-Hispanic" is 58.9%. Trump's supporters are overwhelmingly in the White only category-and yes-the majority of them vote Republican because they've bought into racism. They're alarmed and their responses to our changing demographics are cruel. They "fear for their lives".
I'm keeping the faith that in 2024 enough people of goodwill will crush these folks who want to keep us divided.
Hear, hear. Indeed, the GOP or its MAGA frontispiece, has wrapped itself around the Big Lie, fronted by Trump and all too many astute operators and gullible citizens. It looks like a group of Jan 6 insurrections are reviving their efforts as part of the 2024 campaign, verbally reneging on their confessions.
You wrote: "While there is no question that Trump should never be allowed to hold any public office, it clearly extends to all those who actively participated in the planning, and more importantly, all those who have continued to obstruct and impede a complete investigation as accessories after the fact." I suspect that this is the primary motivation for those in Congress who clearly know they committed acts of treason before, during and after J6; talk about cleaning out the swamp!
Indeed Ellen. And they know since Nixon was not held accountable for his crimes, they feel they have license to act without recourse. Furthermore, the Trump/MAGA party (no longer the GOP) will just scream “look what America does to political opponents!”. The consistent response from the DOJ, the AG’s, and the DA’s working to prosecute the offenders should be: “No. This is what we do to criminals who betray their oath of office and act to undermine the very system they are supposed to be committed to defending.” And then they should all sign “Yours in Service”.
I love that "yours in service"! Plus, the reminder that the rule of law is applied to CRIMINALS who betray their oath of office. If these folk do not like the consequences of their actions, they have choices to make. Whining is not a very effective choice, as I see it.
Excellent George👏
I agree! Thank you. George!
If delusional hypocrisy was a crime, Heather just proved the guilt of the insurrectionists and their millions of followers.
And, FWIW, yesterday I saw five pickup trucks in convoy flying American flags and displaying Trump propaganda on I-5 in Oregon between Eugene and Portland. I guess for them Jan. 6 is a day to celebrate treason.