Today, Facebook officials announced that they would continue former president Trump’s suspension for at least two years from his February 7 suspension, when he continued to praise the mob in the wake of the January 6 insurrection.
The former president, we are told, still has millions of avid, rabid, supporters. Republicans are publicly anyway, denying the reality of the last election trying to court these supporters believing, rightfully, their support is fundamental to the Republicans' political survival.
And the former president's blog, or whatever it was, folds up for lack of interest. What happened to those tens of millions of followers who lived for their Dear Leader's daily, hourly, verbal defications on Facebook and Twitter? Do they even exist?
Above it all, I am most heartened by the news that Cyrus Vance is hauling Trump people in to talk to the grand jury. Sing, sing, sing!
Paragraph 2 - Bingo. I visited his blog once. The very first thing I saw was an appeal for $$$. Are people wising up or did Brad Parscale manufacture the "millions" of followers to attract the attention of potential supporters and massage Donald's ego.
From a personal perspective, if a political candidate or group, of any stripe, hits me up for money right off the bat, I shut down instantly. Has Donald's constant begging turned some of his supporters off as well? Time will tell...
First thing I do when I fire up my Gmail in the morning is scan those classified as "Promotions" to see if any are incorrectly placed there (sometimes even comments on HCR's letter end up there) and delete them. They all end up asking for $$$. Then I move over to my duly sanitized "Inbox" to read my real Email.
Yes, I think that the cult followers require simple, short memes. They do not want to work too hard or read long blogs. Twitter was ideal as the followers of the orange Führer appear to have relatively short attention spans. A hypnotic trance cannot be maintained if you have to think too much beyond your memes programming. Hmmm, good book title for the current use of the internet's brainwashing phenomenon: Beyond Your Memes.
Perfect title! Please write the book. I'll buy it! I love the expression "Don't die with the song still inside you." You have a book inside you that needs to be written.
I just might! I am obsessively fascinated by cults and brainwashing. But it was stirred due in my childhood due to reading Anne Frank. I suppose Hitler had his memes as well.
Is it just being female and repulsively allergic to men who think they are God's gift to earth why I cannot fathom any attraction to the little mustachioed tyrant or his orange-hairpiece & skin devotee to Mein Kampf, physically or mentally? In fact, I have not seen or read about one authoritarian ruler that has attraction of any sort. Perhaps it is because
I can be one subject for you. I was brainwashed as a child by my Rush Limbaugh worshipping father. I never knew my Mom was a Democrat until after he passed away. I spent 50 years as a Conservative Republican and supported Trump. I am now a Democratic Socialist. Brainwashing is real and tragic.
Exactly. His 70 million plus voters haven’t simply disappeared. They will be back in force come midterms. Throw in some voter suppression and the House is lost.
Many of the 74 million who voted for Trump wouldn't show up at a football game if they knew there wouldn't be any cheerleaders there. But as Harry says, the still vote.
And more and more political gurus are saying that between control of state legislatures, gerrymandering, voter suppression , foreign interference and increased Republican turnout to overthrow the ‘socialists’, that once the Congress goes Republican, it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
The main difference between a blog and a tweet (or FB post), in my experience, is that for a blog to work, you have to continuously provide interesting -- nay, fascinating and well-written -- new content: you have to draw your readers, but then you have to HOLD them. In the Tweet environment, all you need to do is blurt out something. "Today, I'm wearing red jockey shorts," will do just fine. If you tweet this three days in a row, some people will pick it up, and next thing you know, you have a political movement started to enact "Red Jockey Short Day."
Social media "influencers" exist, not by the quality of their work, but as part of a self-reinforcing cycle that amplifies their "influence" as a function of their existing influence. A lot like capitalism, where the way to make wealth, is to have wealth. Both result in an exponential (I'm using that term mathematically) expansion that increases until either physical constraints, or entropy, put a cap on it.
TFO (The Former Occupant) has no capacity to run a blog. He's a one-tune pennywhistle. HCR runs a successful blog -- that's what these Letters are -- and she does it by leveraging current news, her extensive historical knowledge, her impressive writing skills, and her apparently endless capacity to stay awake. But you'll notice that her comment volume has flattened, somewhere around 400 comments a day. I don't know what her subscription returns look like, but I would guess they've also gone flat.
Perhaps it’s the identity and camaraderie of being a “Trump supporter” (pious, crass & aggressive bullies who hate libs, minorities and “socialism”) more than it is the man himself that they are wedded to
Belongingness as a human need follows physiological and safety needs according to Maslow. I suspect that being a Trumplican satisfies this basic need, as being in a cult would satisfy. The footage of those so-called "rallies" reminds me of historical gatherings in a Roman coliseum, where drooling fools (I stole this from another writer) cheered for the deaths of captors in the ring.
I so agree Ellen! Thank you! I wish every child would learn of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in kindergarten. Children are resilient if they have help knowing what they need.
This is my opinion also, although I'd say falsely pious. His fans have found a guy like themselves -- and they love that, not necessarily T himself but anyone who acts like that.
Mary, Thank you for your reply. I had to look up pious because I had only ever seen it used to indicate hypocritical devotion. What I also interestingly discovered is that Merriam Webster online has a section on the "complicated uses" of a word. I'll copy and paste a sentence here just to show I didn't make it up. What I found overall though was that many dictionaries did not include the definition as I had intended (hypocritical). So I thank you, mostly for sharing your similar thoughts, but also for leading me to knowledge. "Pious has a bit of an image problem. From the beginning of its use in the 15th century this Latin descendant has been used to describe those who are simply very religious—that is, who are deeply devoted to their religion—but it has for centuries also described those who make a show of their religiousness and use it to assert their superiority. We see both in literature"
Thanks, Christy. I confess — your clarification was once in my memory bank but had fallen off the back of my Rolodex, like a few other bits of long-ago acquired information. Thanks for jogging my memory!
I am in your camp, Ralph, of the doubters. I think it’s all bait and switch with the Repubs, I believe the big fanfare given to his military-like followers, and his very politically naive fan base is all a weakening force that the legislature, particularly the Senate, seriously OVERestimated.
And more importantly, they have underestimated the very large majority of citizens that trump anything that Trump comes up with. It’s pitiful. Dangerous, yes, in a sense of the bloated significance given to his threats.
But, we have the timeline is in OUR favor now with the electing of Pres Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris.
This is being made out to be such a big deal. But when I was growing up, newspapers chose which "Letters to the Editor" they would publish, and would sometimes even edit them for clarity. There were the "seven words you can't say on television," and my mother would have given me no end of grief for the mouth I have on me now. It seems perfectly obvious that these social media platforms are "broadcast advertising" sites -- that's how they make their money, and is the ONLY reason politicians use them -- and should be subject to at least the same truth-in-advertising and decency standards as any other medium.
As regards Facebook, I see no reason why they can't be held to the same responsibility standards required of your local neighborhood bar. FB's business model is to keep serving the ranting drunk at the end of the bar doubles of whatever they're drinking, and to disclaim all responsibility after the drunk staggers out to the parking lot, manages to open the car door and stick the key in the ignition.
To follow that stream of thought, then looks aghast at the carnage left behind when said drunk drives into a carful of teens who are coming home from a school event, killing them all.
I'm relieved that 45 won't have direct access to either Twitter or Facebook for the next few years, but those agitating on his behalf will still be able to organize and continue to spread misinformation. 45 will always "be a risk to public safety." Considering Flynn's remark that what happened in Myanmar should also happen here, I wonder how many more feel the same way and are just waiting for 45 to "strike the match" to set them off again, on a more local scale... and then there's the millions more who believe the Big Lie to be true. Some of those include distant relatives as well as current patients in my office, so it's been an interesting time since 2016, walking the fine line of diplomacy, and I chuckle thinking about the definition of diplomacy (paraphrased): "Telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they actually look forward to the trip."
Jen Psaki's response to a question about FB's ruling on Trump was classic: "Perhaps the zebra can change his stripes in two years." Hah! and Ha-ha! That worthless piece of shit has been a worthless piece of shit since the day he was born.
Hopefully, Rick Wilson will be proven completely right about "Everything Trump touches, dies." Most particularly the Trump Party. Let the doddering old duffer go rant and rave to the morons. With any luck he'll have his massive fatal myocardial infarction in front of them mid-rant. That would be perfect!
As regards Facebook, I see no reason why they can't be held to the same responsibility standards required of your local neighborhood bar. FB's business model is to keep serving the ranting drunk at the end of the bar doubles of whatever they're drinking, and to disclaim all responsibility after the drunk staggers out to the parking lot, manages to open the car door and stick the key in the ignition.
File under: How Scummy are the Scumballs? Richard Barnett is selling copies of the photo of him with his feet up on Pelosi's desk on 1/6. And he's making a killing.
I'm intrigued by this concept. I can't think of the colloquial term, something like taproom
rule. "No licensee shall sell or furnish alcoholic beverages to any individual displaying signs of
intoxication from alcoholic beverages or other drugs/ substances. No licensee shall allow alcoholic
beverages to be consumed on the licensed premises by any individual displaying such signs of intoxication.
No licensee shall allow any individual displaying such signs of intoxication to stay on the licensed premises,
except under direct personal supervision by a licensee or licensee employee in a segregated nonpublic area
when the patron’s immediate departure could be expected to pose a risk of bodily injury to the patron or ...
Trump's rantings have always been beyond the pale. He moved public discourse into the realm of TC's "ranting drunk." How do we put that toothpaste back in the tube?
Can’t get onboard with this picture. His untimely demise only changes him into a martyr for “his people” ultimately keeping him “alive” forever. Handcuffs and a nice loooong prison term is my preferred mental image.
Yes ...as in folks wishing to see TFG have a heart attack or something - as in unexpected- untimely - unforeseen. If he doesn’t live long enough to be charged with unconstitutional crimes or unlawful business practices I believe his followers will carry out whatever it is they think he would want them to do “in his name.”
As a person who works in public health I would suggest it’s a miracle he’s still alive given his reported diet and lifestyle and so I don’t feel a cardiac event or stroke would be an untimely event for him. People don’t live forever. But that said who knows what it would do for his cult. Untimely: “The most common use of this term is probably in discussing someone's untimely death, meaning they died young.”
I'd prefer to see Trump in Rikers Prison on the Island; 2nd place would be in a recently build Trump palace near Putin's Residence at Cape Idokopas, an Italianate palace complex located on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
Back in 2004-2005, I had a blog, "That's Another Fine Mess," which was good enough to come in second (behind Glenn Greenwald's blog, before he became "Glenn Greenwald") for the Koufax Award (Koufax being a "lefty" pitcher), which went away as I got into other things. People who remember it have been politely suggesting in recent months that it might be time for it to come riding back over the horizon. That will be happening, here on Substack. Not a competition with anyone (certainly not our superb host here). As to when, the answer is "soon." Hopefully it will interest discerning readers and knowledgeable people.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a thick document I was given in the early '80's about the plan of the republicans, masked under the "religious right," to infiltrate our systems in America in order to hold total power in all areas of our lives. And I feel that is what we have been witnessing for decades. No one from my life back then seems to remember this document. ?? So I did some research and found a paper from NOVA (Nova Southeastern University, FL) via their Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations. "The Rise of American Extremism: An Exploratory Analysis of American Religious and Political Extremism from Presidents Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama: 1977-2016" by Alwyn J. Melton (Doctorate of Philosophy) 2018.
This is the closest document I could find that relates what I have been concerned about for decades (since Reagan) as the rise of anti-American and anti-Democracy persons on our own shores reveal themselves. It is of course very long, but has a table of contents so you can pick and choose if you do not have time to read the entire dissertation. Eventually, I plan to read the entire document, but I am stumbling through Caste (with kleenex) right now. Small doses at a time. Same way I view films on the Holocaust. Never forget man's inhumanity against man.
Agreed Penelope. The Big Lie is anti-American, anti-Democratic and it is sedition. "Sedition is a serious felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison and it refers to the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it.Jan 8, 2021"
I am reading with you, Penelope. Thanks for the lead. I had not read three sentences of the dedication before this caught me up: “Learn all you can, whenever you can, regardless if the situation is positive or negative. Boy, don’t just live life! Learn life!” So saith A.J.'s grandmother, one of the strong women who bolstered him in his own life-long learning. May it ever be so, for all of us, for all.
I’m on page 83. It’s a tough read and I can only take it in small chunks, when I’m not tired. Keeping track of all those unfamiliar characters is a challenge, but I found it most interesting to find one or another of those names cited in letters to the editor in our local paper. Now to me, a signal to go back and carefully reread that letter.
I have to read these things with a notepad at hand. Noting new characters and events as I go along. It helps me pick up again where I left off without loosing the thread. My old brain needs the assist.
Yay for FB and I hope they extend the ban for life.
But this sentence really struck me: “ Republican officials are begging him to talk about policy and the 2022 election, but he appears to be focused on his conviction that he won in 2020, ...”
These republican officials are as delusional as iDJT if they think he will talk policy instead of replaying that scratchy old record of his perceived grievances. Have they learned nothing from past performances? They’re a bunch of Charlie Browns giving Lucy the football one more time and hoping she’ll change her ways for the sanctity of the game.
What policy? Other than kissing Putin’s ass at every opportunity and dismantling every common sense regulation effecting our environment, I don’t think he ever had a clue what the word policy meant.
Policy? Hah! His domestic policy is stirring up hatred of minorities and the marginalized. Granted his foreign policy is ever so slightly more nuanced: "Let us now praise ruthless autocrats"
BUT: not the Chinese so much, because they are Asian. Fiscal? Demonize the poor and push for larger tax breaks for the rich. A true giant in the history of public policy and good governance. Pardon the rant.
As are Democrats making bipartisanship primary even having endured a lengthy list of Republicans rescinding the support promised in exchange for meaningful changes.
Heather: Great 060421 newsletter! If you, or any of your very skillful critical analytical readers have the time to do so, I highly recommend exploring a brief book that I have been working my way through today. The authors are Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The title is HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE. The publication date was 2019. Levitsky and Ziblatt are both professors at Harvard University. I find the brief book very helpful because it strives to analyze not only the long history of authoritarianism, and anti-authoritarianism, in the U.S. but also tracks anti-fascist campaigns (some quite successful) over the past one hundred years. It is an invaluable analysis!
Hand-in-hand with states passing voter restriction laws is this terrifying stepping stone to Trumps vow to deconstruct our government, I.e. Democracy! Current GOP is in lock-step!
AP:
Permits won’t be needed to carry handguns in Tennessee
Iowa State Daily:
Iowa Governor signs bill allowing permitless purchase and carry of firearms
KTVH:
Permitless concealed carry of firearms is now legal in Montana, changes coming to university campuses
The Washington Post:
Texas is poised to allow people to carry handguns without a license, background check or training.
Nice that FB is “holding political figures” to a much higher standard than they had before but I still feel banning Fake45 for only up to two years isn’t enough. Maybe they are thinking either he won't be alive then or he will be in prison. I like either of those odds, quite frankly. Is that cruel of me?
An elderly friend of mine used to pray every night that 45 would end his presidency "of natural causes." Although most on this group may not openly admit it, most probably are betting on the same odds you've mentioned ;-) Relative to all the damage, pain and suffering he has caused, no one in their right mind could find you cruel.
Not to mention at least thousands of lives and destroyed families because he didn’t want the stock market to fall a single point because of Covid. The idea of “natural causes” is a beautiful way to put it. We have all entertained the wish.
The Big Lie that the former guy and his minions continue to tout could just as well be called the Big Scam. DJT, as well as Republican officials and future candidates, are amplifying the lies and illusions about the election as a fundraising tool. Millions of Trumplicans continue to open their wallets, buying into the Big Scam. Additionally, state Republican parties and legislatures are intentionally pushing the Big Scam, using it as an excuse for passing voting restrictions. Perhaps the former guy isn’t as addle-brained and delusional as many of us have believed. He and his Republican cohorts are raking in donations, dragging out the Big Scam with a clear end in mind: They want to line their own pockets and grab power to run the country into the ground. They will steal anything and everything to obtain that money and power. Taking away DJT’s social media megaphones is a win, albeit a small one, for the future of our democracy.
The most appropriate comment to the continued ban seems to me to be Nelson from the Simpsons crooning “ha-ha.” Bullies understand bullyese best. But all the comments in this section deploring Facebook’s power confuse me. What Zuckerberg created was a version of the Roman Forum, brilliant in its accessibility and generalized democratic possibilities. Any schmoe (who has access to a device and electricity and an internet connection, so it is not purely democratic, but public libraries in the US help narrow the gap domestically and libraries/mutual aid internationally) who wants to can open an account and broadcast a barbaric yawp -no editing like newspaper LTE, no tightly restricted access like radio/TV. That a grifting buffoon like Trump was able to amass numbers of followers (analogous to elites in the Forum gaining followings by dispensing largesse and making promises in exchange for bodies in support of them) by calling out “elites” in media who controlled narratives spoke to a visceral truth those economically left behind latched on to with fervor. Zuckerberg and co created a platform for such truths to be articulated and one hopes their attempts to appease government regulators holds off a state takeover of the platforms.
Laura, I totally agree with you that Zuckerberg (who has had 20 years, yes? to clean up his act) has no real interest in limiting hate speech or lies or propaganda or disinformation, but when faced with the possibility that he will lose ad revenue, he has been forced to make these changes. His sister, Donna Zuckerberg, is actually a professor of Classical Studies and is a very different kind of person. Her book, Not All Dead White Men, is brilliant: a takedown of the radical rightwing's use of classics to claim moral and intellectual legitimacy.
Thank you for this information. I've have an embarrassing pile of books to read, adding another causes hesitation, but this suggestion concerns a subject of great interest.
In the US, we have a severely immature concept of "state" that has been promoted by people like Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, etc, that as it is an entity that can creep up and take all of our rights away.
Meanwhile, its these very people and people like them, like Netanyahu, Putin, Hitler, Mussolini, etc, who use the laws and institutions of government, our public forms of communication, and now our social media as their Trojan horses to invade on consciousness and convert the state into a tool of their power and our destruction.
The "state" in good hands does good things. Things that as a collective society we need and cannot do alone. Things that serve all of our interests poor and rich alike. In the end, the German rich did not do all that well under Hitler. Israel is not doing all that well under Netanyahu, nor is Russia under Putin. And neither has the US under Trump and those who promote the power of a limited group. No nation does well as the poorest and most vulnerable are abused and blamed, while a minority, those at the top grow wealthier, and as conflict grows.
Agreed, rule by a minority by whatever name: apartheid, oligarchy, filibuster is inherently unjust and unstable.
“Free speech” has been weaponized. The means of communication have joined the means of production to further enrich the wealthy. We’ve been set against one another to fight endless culture wars while the wealthy quietly take their profits. How dystopian a world are they willing to create to stay on top?
Its a pity that our dear Zuckerbaby had to compensate the Vinklevoss twins to the tune of $65 million for stealing the idea in the first place. You start with a lie......
The lie metamorphoses by group action in to more lies and gallops across the country. Perhaps, the lie is a very early example of human communication -- not miscommunication -- but a natural consequence of the need to deceive?
it is always interesting to measure the extent and speed of dispersion and infection with lies as with rumours. Lies can be simple and just give a better or biased image of self and as such only harm or protect oneself and a small group with mostly minimum spread. Lies intended to weaponize the other however are entirely different and dangerous as they are both intended to change other's opinion of the emitter and to change the audience's attitude towards reality. Both are as you suggest part and parcel of the political process in general but normally they are not domininant. When lies are used to propagate an ideology the intent is to shut down capacity for personal reflection, the creation of a manipulable and targetable, destructive, amoebic mass.....and that's what we are now living through.
It's really the scale that hits us. It drives home both the crucialimportance of respect for tradition and often ephemeral good will in our system and the impossibility of dealing with bad faith in "reasonable" terms.
The late philosopher Michel Serres, writing about the University:
“When I get a dozen listeners, anybody speaking on TV nets three to five million. It’s a no brainer… And as they teach shit, it spreads far more than the qualities transmitted by university people.”
For this reason we must be committed to changing our education system. If people want to learn so badly from the bad actors it must be that they do want to learn. The good actors need to make their content readily available as the bad do!
And the very fact that it is fundamental explains why such efforts are being made on the right to restrict access to good education, to pay teachers starvation salaries, to defund public education. The right... like the Taliban. Some of what's to be taught in certain states is not too different from Taliban beliefs...
I'm reminded of the situation in South Africa when I left the country as a kid. A ceiling on educational opportunities for non-whites, thus ensuring jobs with minimum status even for barely employable white citizens...
There's an absolute need to learn from the most successful educational systems, e.g. Finland.
And universities need to recover their former status as something more than adjuncts providing for the corporate requirements of the moment.
For this alone I'm happy to see the development of business schools; the "Ecole de Commerce" states explicitly what it is about and happily go on producing their robotic clones. Universities are there to develop the human mind, improve society and not necessarily to fill the individual pocket book....and business studies have no place in them other than the study of manipulation in the Psychology Department.
I was a student at Boston University in the early 1980's when incoming university president Silber announced his intention to run the school as a business. He jacked up prices and prioritized profits. Unfortunately, he was part of a widespread trend.
At the same time in the UK you got a massive expansion of the flock of institutions called "University". Previous technical colleges saw the chance to "upgrade" and charge higher prices. Now the Tory government is imposing a comparative of student "earning power outcomes" to pre-judge the utility of both courses and institutions. Brexit has thrown a spanner in the works now as the highly profitable "foreign student" is becoming a little more rarified and the spotlight has been turned upon Universities' excessive salaries paid to their administrative as opposed to their academic leaders. The fallout of Covid on top of Brexit will winnow out the grain from the chaff but I'm not sure that it will lead to the emphasis of human development rather than money.
I said in certain states where pre-Darwinian, indeed pre-Copernican views are pushed by churches and politicians. But maybe I was too loose and spoke more of common beliefs than of formal teaching.
I'm always in difficulties with your comments on my posts, because they suggest what may be a justifiably negative view not just of what I write but of my person. The problem, however, is not the negative view but the total lack of context.
Maybe you've sussed out something in my attitude to teachers: at one and the same time, I see them as being among the most important figures in society, while being suspicious of... maybe just what's irritating you in me. (Except that I am decidedly not a teacher.) I'm referring to the way in which, even more than in many other professions, the teacher swallows up the human being.
I've had serious clashes with friends over this. We made it up, in depth, but after much pain.
A member of my family who was a very good teacher left the profession because she felt the work was warping her soul.
If you're irritated by some kind of "know-all" tone, you must be right. I'm sorry if you feel I'm a pain in the proverbial. But it will always help teach me if you can point out clearly what you're objecting to.
There's still, alas, another little bone to pick...
It’s not what is going to be taught in schools, Peter, as it relates to accurate rendering of history. It’s what is being demanded to be left out. In the guise of “making sure kids don’t hate each other and their country”. Ridiculous.
Emotions, the reptilian brain, authoritarian (shaming) parenting makes for brains with emotional blocks to learning. We need to make sure young parents have access to resources to nurture and grow healthy humans. Hillary Clinton wrote a book on this in 1996 and the current Fascists recognized it for the threat it was to their Fascist future and attacked her with everything they could throw at her.
I wrote a short book, "It Takes a School to Raise a Village" which outlined how our community schools programs made a wonderful difference far beyond the classrooms. But, after 5 successful years, that philosophy no longer fit with the school administrator's goals or budget...
Wow 🤩 🤩 sounds very interesting! With your lobbying experience and that on your resume I would think you might win an election??? As an aside, The Nurse-Family Partnership has a great track record also.
Thanks for the encouragement to run for office. I did, locally, and served my time, with superb people from several sides of the aisle. But I no longer have the stamina for public office. Done right it is a really tough job, and I cheer on those who do.
The Nurse-Family Partnership is EXCELLENT! We used it as our model when creating and lobbying for the Maternal and Infant Support Services programs in Michigan. My elderly Republican state senator thought all families still had a "good old public health nurse" making home visits to pregnant women and babies like when he was a kid, despite the fact that he and his cronies had gutted public health funding. A few tragic stories and a home visit changed his mind. My lobbyist boss always said, "The difference between a Democrat and a Republican is real experience." We literally showed them. Not sure todays's Republicans would go along for those rides.
I did share copies of my short book "It Takes a School to Raise a Village" with our Governor's Directors of Health, Education and Social Sevices (all of whom I knew) at one of our meetings with the governor on developing community schools in the state. So it served its purpose, and had some impact, even if the spirit of it got lost in the rush to make every student become a computer techie to support our new dream industry.
Oh, I love this: "If people want to learn so badly from the bad actors it must be that they do want to learn." Hope! But if I may twist your definition of "actor" a bit, our good actors are apparently not as good at "acting" as the bad former president who still can "rally" mindless crowds with his - hate to call it charisma, but at the very least, his better acting skills. We need compelling, fascinating and fun teachers and leaders to bring the good message.
Difficult for me to say, because I only read him in French and I don't know what's been translated into English.
He's an epistemologist, very much a philosopher of science, with a lively interest in the great scientific and technological issues of our time, but the last book he completed just before dying is a reflection on religion. An unusual one. He was a quiet Christian, too quiet for the noisy ones, too religious for atheist believers.
Some twenty years before he left us, some direct and very moving thoughts about the end of life. Quite a man.
Since he taught at Stanford, perhaps they can help you select good works in English. As his language is not too abstruse, I hope there will be good translations.
But I must be winding down a little. And I want to be at peace with everyone, with no exceptions, regardless of my role in some people's nightmares. (As Alice wondered, what happens if you're in someone's dream and they wake up?)
Your "Roman Forum" analogy is something I've thought about regarding today's social media for many months now, Laura. As to the rest of your post: Absolutely!
FB has banned the former president from its site for 2 years. Now, if only the major TV networks, and journalists would follow suit it would be great. Every mention of the former guy in the news gives him life. Shut down the life supports and may be he'll die. It's time....
George Orwell, "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Two who I find myself reading these days are Orwell and Thomas Payne; both so painfully relevant to our dangerous division today. The Communists ironically enabled the win of Franco in the civil war in Spain. The Russians are playing a major role in the success of the so called "Republicans" now. The DJT fellow-travelers in the name of patriotism may very well find themselves aligned with our most aggressive, long term enemy, facing the slow realization that it was they who were "hoaxed'.
While watching Rachel Maddow last night, there was an interesting segment; there was a national leader who said (and I grossly paraphrase here because of "dandelion brain"*) that the people being tried in the capitol riot were just good patriots** doing what they were told by their President. That national leader was Vladimir Putin. The next few days could be very interesting in that regard.
* Dandelion brain: Picture if you will, the colorful dandelion, now gone to seed. My brain. A puff of wind, and there goes half of it.
** In my dyslexia typing, I initially typed the word "patriot" as "patirot". This caused a puff of wind that noted that "patirot" was a bit more appropriate in that particular thought given the rot that runs through the Republiqan party today, although you can't have a patriot with out a riot.
I became worried a few weeks ago when Russian citizens or operatives were found to be involved with the cyber attacks. I don't doubt that Putin has directed them to be as disruptive as possible telling us that he's not at all happy Trump lost. We need to be paying much more attention to these disruptions.
It is not putting myself down; it is acknowledging some of how my brain works. There are really some hilarious things that happen in my experience of dyslexia.
Thank you for keeping us updated. It does indeed seem significant (and 100 years from now relevant) that a social media giant, which has so much influence over the world that it literally affects the wellbeing of entire countries, has chosen to hold political figures to same standards as average users.
I’m glad of their decision, but feel worried about their continued power over our lives. It used to be our biggest worry was who rich people and corporations were funding politically, but social media has become a wild card in that arena. Common people can affect change, but bad actors using disinformation tactics can steer the direction.
It is my belief that "bad actors" (and there are plenty of them, both foreign and domestic) have used social media to engineer the division that has taken place in this country.
Being smart doesn’t make anyone immune to the pitfalls of humanity.
In the now famous words of Alan Greenspan, “I didn’t anticipate the market’s inability to regulate itself.”
When people start saying things like “I can police myself” or that they’re “the chosen one”, alarm bells should go off, everywhere. When it comes to exercising power, within a Democracy, there must be “checks and balances”. When there are no “checks” on power, history has repeatedly proven it won’t work. I wouldn’t trust Mark Zuckerberg, anymore than I would mother Teresa or Donald Trump.
Good comment, Gregory. I figure if I were as smart as Alan Greenspan is reputed to be I wouldn't have needed to rely on Paul Krugman (and life's usual hard knocks) for everything I know about economics. That said, when first exposed to "laissez faire", the invisible hand and a certain Laffable curve, I quickly understood -- in my innocence -- that free markets are great at creating wealth, not so great at redistributing it. In fact, without serious government regulation, markets are an invitation to "white collar" criminality leading to early 21st Century America.
I wonder Gregory, whom would you trust? I certainly trusted Mother Teresa, as I trust Joe Biden. AND, I am not expecting anything other than their true humanness, with all of the messiness that great responsibility brings forth.
I think the idea that we all need checks on our power is a good one, no? Even Mother Theresa, though her power came from her love of others, so she gets a wide berth. From this book I love: “…when the ego becomes drunk with power and the shaman thinks it’s his power, he is open to being possessed by his own power, which becomes sorcery if acted out.” From Buddha in Redface by Eduardo Duran.
Great quote, Christy! Thanks for sharing. How enlightening to watch where leaders are pointing,..if mostly to themselves then pay very very close attention to what they are doing!!!
I am happy the social media bans are still in place,. Now if they don't hype his rallies and the legal system starts bringing cases to court I hope his followers will lose interest.
That there are millions of them is what is terrifying. They are Americans. Neighbors. Family members. The hatred and anger have been devloped and honed on talk radio. He is their cause célebre. They've tasted blood and will find a new, more lethal leader.
Yes, there are millions but only a small number showed up at the capital and of those only a small group went there with intent to harm. Yes, there is still reason to be watchful.
On this almost white-bright and very warm Saturday morning, Heather brought Donald J. Trump to my computer screen. She couldn't help herself. HE'S BACK. That's North Carolina, where he will address the Republican Party, tomorrow' Sunday night. It is a precursor to the rallies Trump plans to hold in Ohio, Alabama, and Florida next month. Soon after reading the Letter, I had to go elsewhere for relief.
'On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg finally dropped the hammer and declared that the former president would be barred from Facebook for at least two years — a lesser sentence than that handed down by Twitter, which has ejected him permanently. Facebook did, however, say that it would let Mr. Trump return only “if the risk to public safety has receded.”'
'Fat chance of that if you’ve seen how insistently and persistently Mr. Trump has continued to huff and puff on his sousaphone of lies. This has been his modus operandi since the minute he applied his thumbs to a mobile phone keyboard way back when — behavior that has gotten only scarier and more dangerous over time. That’s why it has not been easy to imagine that an often canny, prescient entrepreneur like Mr. Zuckerberg has been played for a chump by Mr. Trump.'
If you haven't met Kara Swisher (quoted above) on her podcast Sway, in her Opinions in The New York Times, in her books and podcast, Pivot, I have brought her here for levity, smarts and kicks in the asses of Kuckerberg and Trump. Swisher is the super powerful tech journalist and a contributing editor at New York Magazine.
'In my innumerable conversations with him over many years — often late at night over a phone, giving them the feel of a college-dorm jaw session — he maintained that he trusted Facebook’s larger community to clean out the vile, often-toxic dreck that flowed over his ever-larger platform.'
'Mr. Zuckerberg believes in the perfectibility of man. I have studied the use of propaganda in Nazi Germany and during China’s Cultural Revolution. I told him that there is no low that some people will not sink to if it is in their interests to do so'
This will not be the last word from Swisher as there is a link later on to her Opinion, 'The Terrible Cost of Mark Zuckerberg’s Naïveté'. For now: '... no one can turn the clock back on what Mr. Zuckerberg has wrought by indulging Mr. Trump, who never met a Facebook regulation he did not desecrate. The attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 should have been no surprise to anyone who was connecting the dots, which Mr. Zuckerberg stubbornly declined to do until now.'
In case you are not aware at this moment, the Trump/Fox News and the Republican Party's next scapegoat, is Anthony Fauci/Covid-19/China/The Democratic Party Syndrome or what's known in Canada's horse racing as a 'superfecta'. Their campaign has already begun on Fox News and probably elsewhere in the the far-right's media world. Trump's negligence, lies and responsibility for the avoidable deaths of many infected with Covid will be assumed by this 'superfecta'. I saw Mike Pompano making the case on Fox yesterday. The image of this very large man with little slits for eyes and a mouth is a picture that most of us wish to avoid. His mien is menacing, a thick wall of calumny. Oh, his lying eyes and mouth.
The true pain of this is 'superfecta' is the detritus they are throwing at Anthony Fauci.
We are in for ugliness on a grand scale, bigger and worse that we can remember.. Our goal is to keep our eye on Democracy. Whatever has come Fauci's way, he keeps his eye on science, the job at hand and our welfare. We have great models to follow.
If Zuckerberg was indeed naive in the beginning, once that naïveté was monetized, he was hooked. He will ultimately follow the money wherever it leads him. When the political tides change he will adjust course. There are no other guiding principles. $$$$$ and only $$$$$$
Diane, I thought your first sentence was sardonic. As sharp as Swisher is Zuckerberg covers his greed for power and money with a distinctly blank face. As often uttered, 'He's guilty as sin'; more reprehensible for his own BIG LIE. I don't believe that he fools anyone.
Agreed. His blank expression in response to questioning has given him away from the very beginning of seeing him at hearings. I'm no expert, but it's pretty plain to see. And for all his talk of providing a "democratic" platform on Facebook, clearly democracy is not first (or even genuine) goal. He's only in it for the money. Democracy be damned.
Another different point, I am wary of communicating with some for whom 'moderation' is incomprehensible. Any words are a form of encouragement, and targets are relentlessly tortured.
I'm experiencing a cognitive dissonance.
The former president, we are told, still has millions of avid, rabid, supporters. Republicans are publicly anyway, denying the reality of the last election trying to court these supporters believing, rightfully, their support is fundamental to the Republicans' political survival.
And the former president's blog, or whatever it was, folds up for lack of interest. What happened to those tens of millions of followers who lived for their Dear Leader's daily, hourly, verbal defications on Facebook and Twitter? Do they even exist?
Above it all, I am most heartened by the news that Cyrus Vance is hauling Trump people in to talk to the grand jury. Sing, sing, sing!
One needs to be able to read in order to follow a blog——
You took the words “right out of my mouth!” Thank you for a chuckle!
You've read my mind, Gwen.
😔
Paragraph 2 - Bingo. I visited his blog once. The very first thing I saw was an appeal for $$$. Are people wising up or did Brad Parscale manufacture the "millions" of followers to attract the attention of potential supporters and massage Donald's ego.
From a personal perspective, if a political candidate or group, of any stripe, hits me up for money right off the bat, I shut down instantly. Has Donald's constant begging turned some of his supporters off as well? Time will tell...
First thing I do when I fire up my Gmail in the morning is scan those classified as "Promotions" to see if any are incorrectly placed there (sometimes even comments on HCR's letter end up there) and delete them. They all end up asking for $$$. Then I move over to my duly sanitized "Inbox" to read my real Email.
My suspicion is that the problem was the platform (a blog) rather than a lack of followers.
Yes, I think that the cult followers require simple, short memes. They do not want to work too hard or read long blogs. Twitter was ideal as the followers of the orange Führer appear to have relatively short attention spans. A hypnotic trance cannot be maintained if you have to think too much beyond your memes programming. Hmmm, good book title for the current use of the internet's brainwashing phenomenon: Beyond Your Memes.
It would have been more apt to say, "Living Beyond Your Memes."
Perfect title! Please write the book. I'll buy it! I love the expression "Don't die with the song still inside you." You have a book inside you that needs to be written.
Write It!
I just might! I am obsessively fascinated by cults and brainwashing. But it was stirred due in my childhood due to reading Anne Frank. I suppose Hitler had his memes as well.
Is it just being female and repulsively allergic to men who think they are God's gift to earth why I cannot fathom any attraction to the little mustachioed tyrant or his orange-hairpiece & skin devotee to Mein Kampf, physically or mentally? In fact, I have not seen or read about one authoritarian ruler that has attraction of any sort. Perhaps it is because
misogyny and liars are simply repulsive?
Perhaps it is also because you are a mentally and emotionally healthy person. Write the book! Or at least the article.
I misread Mein Kamph as Meme Kamph. Hm. And the women who are attracted to such deplorable men have never been dear friends of mine.
I can be one subject for you. I was brainwashed as a child by my Rush Limbaugh worshipping father. I never knew my Mom was a Democrat until after he passed away. I spent 50 years as a Conservative Republican and supported Trump. I am now a Democratic Socialist. Brainwashing is real and tragic.
I think because they haven’t been able to get la*d. Heh heh
Love it!
Good point
Exactly. His 70 million plus voters haven’t simply disappeared. They will be back in force come midterms. Throw in some voter suppression and the House is lost.
Many of the 74 million who voted for Trump wouldn't show up at a football game if they knew there wouldn't be any cheerleaders there. But as Harry says, the still vote.
And more and more political gurus are saying that between control of state legislatures, gerrymandering, voter suppression , foreign interference and increased Republican turnout to overthrow the ‘socialists’, that once the Congress goes Republican, it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Midterms are just around the corner.
I think you are right.
The main difference between a blog and a tweet (or FB post), in my experience, is that for a blog to work, you have to continuously provide interesting -- nay, fascinating and well-written -- new content: you have to draw your readers, but then you have to HOLD them. In the Tweet environment, all you need to do is blurt out something. "Today, I'm wearing red jockey shorts," will do just fine. If you tweet this three days in a row, some people will pick it up, and next thing you know, you have a political movement started to enact "Red Jockey Short Day."
Social media "influencers" exist, not by the quality of their work, but as part of a self-reinforcing cycle that amplifies their "influence" as a function of their existing influence. A lot like capitalism, where the way to make wealth, is to have wealth. Both result in an exponential (I'm using that term mathematically) expansion that increases until either physical constraints, or entropy, put a cap on it.
TFO (The Former Occupant) has no capacity to run a blog. He's a one-tune pennywhistle. HCR runs a successful blog -- that's what these Letters are -- and she does it by leveraging current news, her extensive historical knowledge, her impressive writing skills, and her apparently endless capacity to stay awake. But you'll notice that her comment volume has flattened, somewhere around 400 comments a day. I don't know what her subscription returns look like, but I would guess they've also gone flat.
I think you may be right, but can't one subscribe to a blog?
Maybe he will show up on Substack! Ha ha ha ha...
Yes please sing canaries!
Perhaps it’s the identity and camaraderie of being a “Trump supporter” (pious, crass & aggressive bullies who hate libs, minorities and “socialism”) more than it is the man himself that they are wedded to
Perhaps both the man and his followers are illusory...
Belongingness as a human need follows physiological and safety needs according to Maslow. I suspect that being a Trumplican satisfies this basic need, as being in a cult would satisfy. The footage of those so-called "rallies" reminds me of historical gatherings in a Roman coliseum, where drooling fools (I stole this from another writer) cheered for the deaths of captors in the ring.
I so agree Ellen! Thank you! I wish every child would learn of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in kindergarten. Children are resilient if they have help knowing what they need.
This is my opinion also, although I'd say falsely pious. His fans have found a guy like themselves -- and they love that, not necessarily T himself but anyone who acts like that.
Mary, Thank you for your reply. I had to look up pious because I had only ever seen it used to indicate hypocritical devotion. What I also interestingly discovered is that Merriam Webster online has a section on the "complicated uses" of a word. I'll copy and paste a sentence here just to show I didn't make it up. What I found overall though was that many dictionaries did not include the definition as I had intended (hypocritical). So I thank you, mostly for sharing your similar thoughts, but also for leading me to knowledge. "Pious has a bit of an image problem. From the beginning of its use in the 15th century this Latin descendant has been used to describe those who are simply very religious—that is, who are deeply devoted to their religion—but it has for centuries also described those who make a show of their religiousness and use it to assert their superiority. We see both in literature"
Thanks, Christy. I confess — your clarification was once in my memory bank but had fallen off the back of my Rolodex, like a few other bits of long-ago acquired information. Thanks for jogging my memory!
I am in your camp, Ralph, of the doubters. I think it’s all bait and switch with the Repubs, I believe the big fanfare given to his military-like followers, and his very politically naive fan base is all a weakening force that the legislature, particularly the Senate, seriously OVERestimated.
And more importantly, they have underestimated the very large majority of citizens that trump anything that Trump comes up with. It’s pitiful. Dangerous, yes, in a sense of the bloated significance given to his threats.
But, we have the timeline is in OUR favor now with the electing of Pres Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris.
It literally has driven them insane.
This is being made out to be such a big deal. But when I was growing up, newspapers chose which "Letters to the Editor" they would publish, and would sometimes even edit them for clarity. There were the "seven words you can't say on television," and my mother would have given me no end of grief for the mouth I have on me now. It seems perfectly obvious that these social media platforms are "broadcast advertising" sites -- that's how they make their money, and is the ONLY reason politicians use them -- and should be subject to at least the same truth-in-advertising and decency standards as any other medium.
As regards Facebook, I see no reason why they can't be held to the same responsibility standards required of your local neighborhood bar. FB's business model is to keep serving the ranting drunk at the end of the bar doubles of whatever they're drinking, and to disclaim all responsibility after the drunk staggers out to the parking lot, manages to open the car door and stick the key in the ignition.
To follow that stream of thought, then looks aghast at the carnage left behind when said drunk drives into a carful of teens who are coming home from a school event, killing them all.
Agree!
I'm relieved that 45 won't have direct access to either Twitter or Facebook for the next few years, but those agitating on his behalf will still be able to organize and continue to spread misinformation. 45 will always "be a risk to public safety." Considering Flynn's remark that what happened in Myanmar should also happen here, I wonder how many more feel the same way and are just waiting for 45 to "strike the match" to set them off again, on a more local scale... and then there's the millions more who believe the Big Lie to be true. Some of those include distant relatives as well as current patients in my office, so it's been an interesting time since 2016, walking the fine line of diplomacy, and I chuckle thinking about the definition of diplomacy (paraphrased): "Telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they actually look forward to the trip."
Jen Psaki's response to a question about FB's ruling on Trump was classic: "Perhaps the zebra can change his stripes in two years." Hah! and Ha-ha! That worthless piece of shit has been a worthless piece of shit since the day he was born.
TCinLA, I love Jen Psaki, what a breath of fresh air after the propagandists that filled her position for the past four years.
I love Jen too.
Beautifully said, TC
Irish Wisdom!
Hopefully, Rick Wilson will be proven completely right about "Everything Trump touches, dies." Most particularly the Trump Party. Let the doddering old duffer go rant and rave to the morons. With any luck he'll have his massive fatal myocardial infarction in front of them mid-rant. That would be perfect!
As regards Facebook, I see no reason why they can't be held to the same responsibility standards required of your local neighborhood bar. FB's business model is to keep serving the ranting drunk at the end of the bar doubles of whatever they're drinking, and to disclaim all responsibility after the drunk staggers out to the parking lot, manages to open the car door and stick the key in the ignition.
File under: How Scummy are the Scumballs? Richard Barnett is selling copies of the photo of him with his feet up on Pelosi's desk on 1/6. And he's making a killing.
I'm intrigued by this concept. I can't think of the colloquial term, something like taproom
rule. "No licensee shall sell or furnish alcoholic beverages to any individual displaying signs of
intoxication from alcoholic beverages or other drugs/ substances. No licensee shall allow alcoholic
beverages to be consumed on the licensed premises by any individual displaying such signs of intoxication.
No licensee shall allow any individual displaying such signs of intoxication to stay on the licensed premises,
except under direct personal supervision by a licensee or licensee employee in a segregated nonpublic area
when the patron’s immediate departure could be expected to pose a risk of bodily injury to the patron or ...
Trump's rantings have always been beyond the pale. He moved public discourse into the realm of TC's "ranting drunk." How do we put that toothpaste back in the tube?
TC, I, too, have a mental image of the former guy clutching his chest and keeling over that calms me down when I get het up.
Can’t get onboard with this picture. His untimely demise only changes him into a martyr for “his people” ultimately keeping him “alive” forever. Handcuffs and a nice loooong prison term is my preferred mental image.
untimely?
Yes ...as in folks wishing to see TFG have a heart attack or something - as in unexpected- untimely - unforeseen. If he doesn’t live long enough to be charged with unconstitutional crimes or unlawful business practices I believe his followers will carry out whatever it is they think he would want them to do “in his name.”
As a person who works in public health I would suggest it’s a miracle he’s still alive given his reported diet and lifestyle and so I don’t feel a cardiac event or stroke would be an untimely event for him. People don’t live forever. But that said who knows what it would do for his cult. Untimely: “The most common use of this term is probably in discussing someone's untimely death, meaning they died young.”
Well, excuse me for my incorrect verbiage.
Raising money to pay his lawyers no doubt
I'd prefer to see Trump in Rikers Prison on the Island; 2nd place would be in a recently build Trump palace near Putin's Residence at Cape Idokopas, an Italianate palace complex located on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
As long as it is dark and dank and filled with rats, I’ll be happy
spiders, snakes, sinkholes and voices day and night. Happy now?
Delighted 🤩
That Barnett can sell that photo and be profiting from it is so despicable.
TC I love your way with words.
Thank you for that compliment.
I may as well make the announcement now, then.
Back in 2004-2005, I had a blog, "That's Another Fine Mess," which was good enough to come in second (behind Glenn Greenwald's blog, before he became "Glenn Greenwald") for the Koufax Award (Koufax being a "lefty" pitcher), which went away as I got into other things. People who remember it have been politely suggesting in recent months that it might be time for it to come riding back over the horizon. That will be happening, here on Substack. Not a competition with anyone (certainly not our superb host here). As to when, the answer is "soon." Hopefully it will interest discerning readers and knowledgeable people.
I had one too. Let us know when you relaunch. I’ll be there. You are an amazing and VERY entertaining writer.
And I mean entertaining in the best sense. Even when you are at your most serious, there is always a banter in your words that appeals to me.
Flattery *will* get you *everywhere,* :-)
Great— keep us in the loop.
Sizzling TC, sizzling.
Love your post!!
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a thick document I was given in the early '80's about the plan of the republicans, masked under the "religious right," to infiltrate our systems in America in order to hold total power in all areas of our lives. And I feel that is what we have been witnessing for decades. No one from my life back then seems to remember this document. ?? So I did some research and found a paper from NOVA (Nova Southeastern University, FL) via their Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations. "The Rise of American Extremism: An Exploratory Analysis of American Religious and Political Extremism from Presidents Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama: 1977-2016" by Alwyn J. Melton (Doctorate of Philosophy) 2018.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=shss_dcar_etd
This is the closest document I could find that relates what I have been concerned about for decades (since Reagan) as the rise of anti-American and anti-Democracy persons on our own shores reveal themselves. It is of course very long, but has a table of contents so you can pick and choose if you do not have time to read the entire dissertation. Eventually, I plan to read the entire document, but I am stumbling through Caste (with kleenex) right now. Small doses at a time. Same way I view films on the Holocaust. Never forget man's inhumanity against man.
Agreed Penelope. The Big Lie is anti-American, anti-Democratic and it is sedition. "Sedition is a serious felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison and it refers to the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it.Jan 8, 2021"
I am reading with you, Penelope. Thanks for the lead. I had not read three sentences of the dedication before this caught me up: “Learn all you can, whenever you can, regardless if the situation is positive or negative. Boy, don’t just live life! Learn life!” So saith A.J.'s grandmother, one of the strong women who bolstered him in his own life-long learning. May it ever be so, for all of us, for all.
Also, I looked up Alwyn J. Melton online and found his private twitter which I am requesting to read. Here are the quotes from his frontispiece:
Alwyn J. Melton, die Doktorwürde
“The cost of slavery is less than the price of repression.” —W.E.B. Du Bois
”The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?”
I was also very taken by that quote at the intro, too! So glad you are reading this dissertation!
Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean is a good history of the "plan" all the way back to U of VA in the 1950's.
That is a tough, terrifying one to read. I've been on page 139 for a year. Tell me how it ends.
It ends too soon....
She weaves a good narrative and it is tough reading. I read it after reading Dark Money...another scary, depressing narrative.
I’m on page 83. It’s a tough read and I can only take it in small chunks, when I’m not tired. Keeping track of all those unfamiliar characters is a challenge, but I found it most interesting to find one or another of those names cited in letters to the editor in our local paper. Now to me, a signal to go back and carefully reread that letter.
I have to read these things with a notepad at hand. Noting new characters and events as I go along. It helps me pick up again where I left off without loosing the thread. My old brain needs the assist.
Me, too.
Thanks for the tip. I'll try that.
Thank you-- that will be added to my HCR list!
Yay for FB and I hope they extend the ban for life.
But this sentence really struck me: “ Republican officials are begging him to talk about policy and the 2022 election, but he appears to be focused on his conviction that he won in 2020, ...”
These republican officials are as delusional as iDJT if they think he will talk policy instead of replaying that scratchy old record of his perceived grievances. Have they learned nothing from past performances? They’re a bunch of Charlie Browns giving Lucy the football one more time and hoping she’ll change her ways for the sanctity of the game.
What policy? Other than kissing Putin’s ass at every opportunity and dismantling every common sense regulation effecting our environment, I don’t think he ever had a clue what the word policy meant.
Policy? Hah! His domestic policy is stirring up hatred of minorities and the marginalized. Granted his foreign policy is ever so slightly more nuanced: "Let us now praise ruthless autocrats"
BUT: not the Chinese so much, because they are Asian. Fiscal? Demonize the poor and push for larger tax breaks for the rich. A true giant in the history of public policy and good governance. Pardon the rant.
As are Democrats making bipartisanship primary even having endured a lengthy list of Republicans rescinding the support promised in exchange for meaningful changes.
They fear they can't win an election without him, so they keep hoping he can be reined in a little.
Heather: Great 060421 newsletter! If you, or any of your very skillful critical analytical readers have the time to do so, I highly recommend exploring a brief book that I have been working my way through today. The authors are Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The title is HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE. The publication date was 2019. Levitsky and Ziblatt are both professors at Harvard University. I find the brief book very helpful because it strives to analyze not only the long history of authoritarianism, and anti-authoritarianism, in the U.S. but also tracks anti-fascist campaigns (some quite successful) over the past one hundred years. It is an invaluable analysis!
Hand-in-hand with states passing voter restriction laws is this terrifying stepping stone to Trumps vow to deconstruct our government, I.e. Democracy! Current GOP is in lock-step!
AP:
Permits won’t be needed to carry handguns in Tennessee
Iowa State Daily:
Iowa Governor signs bill allowing permitless purchase and carry of firearms
KTVH:
Permitless concealed carry of firearms is now legal in Montana, changes coming to university campuses
The Washington Post:
Texas is poised to allow people to carry handguns without a license, background check or training.
Only goes to reason these states will no longer require a license to drive, nor auto liability insurance. Wild wild west, them with the guns wins?
Nice that FB is “holding political figures” to a much higher standard than they had before but I still feel banning Fake45 for only up to two years isn’t enough. Maybe they are thinking either he won't be alive then or he will be in prison. I like either of those odds, quite frankly. Is that cruel of me?
An elderly friend of mine used to pray every night that 45 would end his presidency "of natural causes." Although most on this group may not openly admit it, most probably are betting on the same odds you've mentioned ;-) Relative to all the damage, pain and suffering he has caused, no one in their right mind could find you cruel.
Not to mention at least thousands of lives and destroyed families because he didn’t want the stock market to fall a single point because of Covid. The idea of “natural causes” is a beautiful way to put it. We have all entertained the wish.
Hundreds of thousands😔
Crimes against humanity.
Just finished⁹ Michael Lewis's "Premonition". Excellent. Makes the pandemic read like the murder thriller it is.
“I wish him a happy death.” Who could argue with that sentiment?
Forget the happiness part, his karma is going to leave little room for happiness
Every night, I continue pray he expire from natural causes without having said his, "Now I lay me down to sleep..."
There's nothing you can wish that's too bad for That Piece of Dreck.
The Big Lie that the former guy and his minions continue to tout could just as well be called the Big Scam. DJT, as well as Republican officials and future candidates, are amplifying the lies and illusions about the election as a fundraising tool. Millions of Trumplicans continue to open their wallets, buying into the Big Scam. Additionally, state Republican parties and legislatures are intentionally pushing the Big Scam, using it as an excuse for passing voting restrictions. Perhaps the former guy isn’t as addle-brained and delusional as many of us have believed. He and his Republican cohorts are raking in donations, dragging out the Big Scam with a clear end in mind: They want to line their own pockets and grab power to run the country into the ground. They will steal anything and everything to obtain that money and power. Taking away DJT’s social media megaphones is a win, albeit a small one, for the future of our democracy.
They have been pretty well organized.
The most appropriate comment to the continued ban seems to me to be Nelson from the Simpsons crooning “ha-ha.” Bullies understand bullyese best. But all the comments in this section deploring Facebook’s power confuse me. What Zuckerberg created was a version of the Roman Forum, brilliant in its accessibility and generalized democratic possibilities. Any schmoe (who has access to a device and electricity and an internet connection, so it is not purely democratic, but public libraries in the US help narrow the gap domestically and libraries/mutual aid internationally) who wants to can open an account and broadcast a barbaric yawp -no editing like newspaper LTE, no tightly restricted access like radio/TV. That a grifting buffoon like Trump was able to amass numbers of followers (analogous to elites in the Forum gaining followings by dispensing largesse and making promises in exchange for bodies in support of them) by calling out “elites” in media who controlled narratives spoke to a visceral truth those economically left behind latched on to with fervor. Zuckerberg and co created a platform for such truths to be articulated and one hopes their attempts to appease government regulators holds off a state takeover of the platforms.
Laura, I totally agree with you that Zuckerberg (who has had 20 years, yes? to clean up his act) has no real interest in limiting hate speech or lies or propaganda or disinformation, but when faced with the possibility that he will lose ad revenue, he has been forced to make these changes. His sister, Donna Zuckerberg, is actually a professor of Classical Studies and is a very different kind of person. Her book, Not All Dead White Men, is brilliant: a takedown of the radical rightwing's use of classics to claim moral and intellectual legitimacy.
Thank you for this information. I've have an embarrassing pile of books to read, adding another causes hesitation, but this suggestion concerns a subject of great interest.
thanks for the book suggestion!
Will read.
Oh! Adding it to my pile! Thank You.
In the US, we have a severely immature concept of "state" that has been promoted by people like Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, etc, that as it is an entity that can creep up and take all of our rights away.
Meanwhile, its these very people and people like them, like Netanyahu, Putin, Hitler, Mussolini, etc, who use the laws and institutions of government, our public forms of communication, and now our social media as their Trojan horses to invade on consciousness and convert the state into a tool of their power and our destruction.
The "state" in good hands does good things. Things that as a collective society we need and cannot do alone. Things that serve all of our interests poor and rich alike. In the end, the German rich did not do all that well under Hitler. Israel is not doing all that well under Netanyahu, nor is Russia under Putin. And neither has the US under Trump and those who promote the power of a limited group. No nation does well as the poorest and most vulnerable are abused and blamed, while a minority, those at the top grow wealthier, and as conflict grows.
Agreed, rule by a minority by whatever name: apartheid, oligarchy, filibuster is inherently unjust and unstable.
“Free speech” has been weaponized. The means of communication have joined the means of production to further enrich the wealthy. We’ve been set against one another to fight endless culture wars while the wealthy quietly take their profits. How dystopian a world are they willing to create to stay on top?
As much as is allowed.
This dystopian:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/world/europe/repression-uyghurs-belarus.html
Its a pity that our dear Zuckerbaby had to compensate the Vinklevoss twins to the tune of $65 million for stealing the idea in the first place. You start with a lie......
The lie metamorphoses by group action in to more lies and gallops across the country. Perhaps, the lie is a very early example of human communication -- not miscommunication -- but a natural consequence of the need to deceive?
it is always interesting to measure the extent and speed of dispersion and infection with lies as with rumours. Lies can be simple and just give a better or biased image of self and as such only harm or protect oneself and a small group with mostly minimum spread. Lies intended to weaponize the other however are entirely different and dangerous as they are both intended to change other's opinion of the emitter and to change the audience's attitude towards reality. Both are as you suggest part and parcel of the political process in general but normally they are not domininant. When lies are used to propagate an ideology the intent is to shut down capacity for personal reflection, the creation of a manipulable and targetable, destructive, amoebic mass.....and that's what we are now living through.
Bred in human fallibility and being institutionalized; yes, now we know it personally and how indomitable it seems.
It's really the scale that hits us. It drives home both the crucialimportance of respect for tradition and often ephemeral good will in our system and the impossibility of dealing with bad faith in "reasonable" terms.
'Good will' or weaknesses and a system more favorable to powerful interests?
Immaterial to the practical applications that now exist. Not like those two were going to starve anyway.
They may be "bitcoin kings" but it does say a little about Zuck's moral sense. I shouldn't think he has learned much since...why should he?
The late philosopher Michel Serres, writing about the University:
“When I get a dozen listeners, anybody speaking on TV nets three to five million. It’s a no brainer… And as they teach shit, it spreads far more than the qualities transmitted by university people.”
For this reason we must be committed to changing our education system. If people want to learn so badly from the bad actors it must be that they do want to learn. The good actors need to make their content readily available as the bad do!
YES. This is fundamental.
And the very fact that it is fundamental explains why such efforts are being made on the right to restrict access to good education, to pay teachers starvation salaries, to defund public education. The right... like the Taliban. Some of what's to be taught in certain states is not too different from Taliban beliefs...
I'm reminded of the situation in South Africa when I left the country as a kid. A ceiling on educational opportunities for non-whites, thus ensuring jobs with minimum status even for barely employable white citizens...
There's an absolute need to learn from the most successful educational systems, e.g. Finland.
And universities need to recover their former status as something more than adjuncts providing for the corporate requirements of the moment.
For this alone I'm happy to see the development of business schools; the "Ecole de Commerce" states explicitly what it is about and happily go on producing their robotic clones. Universities are there to develop the human mind, improve society and not necessarily to fill the individual pocket book....and business studies have no place in them other than the study of manipulation in the Psychology Department.
I was a student at Boston University in the early 1980's when incoming university president Silber announced his intention to run the school as a business. He jacked up prices and prioritized profits. Unfortunately, he was part of a widespread trend.
At the same time in the UK you got a massive expansion of the flock of institutions called "University". Previous technical colleges saw the chance to "upgrade" and charge higher prices. Now the Tory government is imposing a comparative of student "earning power outcomes" to pre-judge the utility of both courses and institutions. Brexit has thrown a spanner in the works now as the highly profitable "foreign student" is becoming a little more rarified and the spotlight has been turned upon Universities' excessive salaries paid to their administrative as opposed to their academic leaders. The fallout of Covid on top of Brexit will winnow out the grain from the chaff but I'm not sure that it will lead to the emphasis of human development rather than money.
Taliban? That never occurred to me once during 40 yrs in public education.
I said in certain states where pre-Darwinian, indeed pre-Copernican views are pushed by churches and politicians. But maybe I was too loose and spoke more of common beliefs than of formal teaching.
I'm always in difficulties with your comments on my posts, because they suggest what may be a justifiably negative view not just of what I write but of my person. The problem, however, is not the negative view but the total lack of context.
Maybe you've sussed out something in my attitude to teachers: at one and the same time, I see them as being among the most important figures in society, while being suspicious of... maybe just what's irritating you in me. (Except that I am decidedly not a teacher.) I'm referring to the way in which, even more than in many other professions, the teacher swallows up the human being.
I've had serious clashes with friends over this. We made it up, in depth, but after much pain.
A member of my family who was a very good teacher left the profession because she felt the work was warping her soul.
If you're irritated by some kind of "know-all" tone, you must be right. I'm sorry if you feel I'm a pain in the proverbial. But it will always help teach me if you can point out clearly what you're objecting to.
There's still, alas, another little bone to pick...
It’s not what is going to be taught in schools, Peter, as it relates to accurate rendering of history. It’s what is being demanded to be left out. In the guise of “making sure kids don’t hate each other and their country”. Ridiculous.
Differentials between ressources for girls' and boys' education for example either in money or subject terms.
Emotions, the reptilian brain, authoritarian (shaming) parenting makes for brains with emotional blocks to learning. We need to make sure young parents have access to resources to nurture and grow healthy humans. Hillary Clinton wrote a book on this in 1996 and the current Fascists recognized it for the threat it was to their Fascist future and attacked her with everything they could throw at her.
I wrote a short book, "It Takes a School to Raise a Village" which outlined how our community schools programs made a wonderful difference far beyond the classrooms. But, after 5 successful years, that philosophy no longer fit with the school administrator's goals or budget...
Sorry to hear that your book has fallen by the wayside. It sounds like a wonderful premise and promise.
Wow 🤩 🤩 sounds very interesting! With your lobbying experience and that on your resume I would think you might win an election??? As an aside, The Nurse-Family Partnership has a great track record also.
Thanks for the encouragement to run for office. I did, locally, and served my time, with superb people from several sides of the aisle. But I no longer have the stamina for public office. Done right it is a really tough job, and I cheer on those who do.
The Nurse-Family Partnership is EXCELLENT! We used it as our model when creating and lobbying for the Maternal and Infant Support Services programs in Michigan. My elderly Republican state senator thought all families still had a "good old public health nurse" making home visits to pregnant women and babies like when he was a kid, despite the fact that he and his cronies had gutted public health funding. A few tragic stories and a home visit changed his mind. My lobbyist boss always said, "The difference between a Democrat and a Republican is real experience." We literally showed them. Not sure todays's Republicans would go along for those rides.
Screw them. Go market it somewhere else that has willing ears.
I did share copies of my short book "It Takes a School to Raise a Village" with our Governor's Directors of Health, Education and Social Sevices (all of whom I knew) at one of our meetings with the governor on developing community schools in the state. So it served its purpose, and had some impact, even if the spirit of it got lost in the rush to make every student become a computer techie to support our new dream industry.
Oh, I love this: "If people want to learn so badly from the bad actors it must be that they do want to learn." Hope! But if I may twist your definition of "actor" a bit, our good actors are apparently not as good at "acting" as the bad former president who still can "rally" mindless crowds with his - hate to call it charisma, but at the very least, his better acting skills. We need compelling, fascinating and fun teachers and leaders to bring the good message.
...with his direct access to the sewers of the collective unconscious.
Thanks for this Peter. 🙏
I looked into him and he has multiple books. Might you make a recommendation on something I could start with?
Difficult for me to say, because I only read him in French and I don't know what's been translated into English.
He's an epistemologist, very much a philosopher of science, with a lively interest in the great scientific and technological issues of our time, but the last book he completed just before dying is a reflection on religion. An unusual one. He was a quiet Christian, too quiet for the noisy ones, too religious for atheist believers.
Some twenty years before he left us, some direct and very moving thoughts about the end of life. Quite a man.
Since he taught at Stanford, perhaps they can help you select good works in English. As his language is not too abstruse, I hope there will be good translations.
Peter, Happy to see that you have recovered and back in the stream.
Thank you, Fern.
But I must be winding down a little. And I want to be at peace with everyone, with no exceptions, regardless of my role in some people's nightmares. (As Alice wondered, what happens if you're in someone's dream and they wake up?)
Difference being quantity and quality. So, so what?
Your "Roman Forum" analogy is something I've thought about regarding today's social media for many months now, Laura. As to the rest of your post: Absolutely!
There is the probability that a number of those 'followers' were bots.
I’ve been waiting all day, kimceann, for someone to suggest that. I find it a strong possibility.
FB has banned the former president from its site for 2 years. Now, if only the major TV networks, and journalists would follow suit it would be great. Every mention of the former guy in the news gives him life. Shut down the life supports and may be he'll die. It's time....
Shut down his devotional, seditious flying monkeys as well.
Yes, they’ve become the present danger.
absolutely 100% agree
George Orwell, "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Two who I find myself reading these days are Orwell and Thomas Payne; both so painfully relevant to our dangerous division today. The Communists ironically enabled the win of Franco in the civil war in Spain. The Russians are playing a major role in the success of the so called "Republicans" now. The DJT fellow-travelers in the name of patriotism may very well find themselves aligned with our most aggressive, long term enemy, facing the slow realization that it was they who were "hoaxed'.
While watching Rachel Maddow last night, there was an interesting segment; there was a national leader who said (and I grossly paraphrase here because of "dandelion brain"*) that the people being tried in the capitol riot were just good patriots** doing what they were told by their President. That national leader was Vladimir Putin. The next few days could be very interesting in that regard.
* Dandelion brain: Picture if you will, the colorful dandelion, now gone to seed. My brain. A puff of wind, and there goes half of it.
** In my dyslexia typing, I initially typed the word "patriot" as "patirot". This caused a puff of wind that noted that "patirot" was a bit more appropriate in that particular thought given the rot that runs through the Republiqan party today, although you can't have a patriot with out a riot.
LOL Ally. Thanks for this, this beautiful morning as the dandelion seeds fly thru the air without a care all around me! 😍
I became worried a few weeks ago when Russian citizens or operatives were found to be involved with the cyber attacks. I don't doubt that Putin has directed them to be as disruptive as possible telling us that he's not at all happy Trump lost. We need to be paying much more attention to these disruptions.
Just love the dandelion analogy!
Stop putting yourself down. You are perfect just the way you are
It is not putting myself down; it is acknowledging some of how my brain works. There are really some hilarious things that happen in my experience of dyslexia.
Great. Your wordage sounds put downish.
More like acknowledging a different and changing experience in my brain. I thank you for your concern, and your commentary!
Exactly.
Good morning Sandy.
Dear Heather,
Thank you for keeping us updated. It does indeed seem significant (and 100 years from now relevant) that a social media giant, which has so much influence over the world that it literally affects the wellbeing of entire countries, has chosen to hold political figures to same standards as average users.
I’m glad of their decision, but feel worried about their continued power over our lives. It used to be our biggest worry was who rich people and corporations were funding politically, but social media has become a wild card in that arena. Common people can affect change, but bad actors using disinformation tactics can steer the direction.
It is my belief that "bad actors" (and there are plenty of them, both foreign and domestic) have used social media to engineer the division that has taken place in this country.
Hmmm, it seems a bit more than a personal belief when the FBI, particularly C Wray have reported exactly that to our Congress?
Being smart doesn’t make anyone immune to the pitfalls of humanity.
In the now famous words of Alan Greenspan, “I didn’t anticipate the market’s inability to regulate itself.”
When people start saying things like “I can police myself” or that they’re “the chosen one”, alarm bells should go off, everywhere. When it comes to exercising power, within a Democracy, there must be “checks and balances”. When there are no “checks” on power, history has repeatedly proven it won’t work. I wouldn’t trust Mark Zuckerberg, anymore than I would mother Teresa or Donald Trump.
Good comment, Gregory. I figure if I were as smart as Alan Greenspan is reputed to be I wouldn't have needed to rely on Paul Krugman (and life's usual hard knocks) for everything I know about economics. That said, when first exposed to "laissez faire", the invisible hand and a certain Laffable curve, I quickly understood -- in my innocence -- that free markets are great at creating wealth, not so great at redistributing it. In fact, without serious government regulation, markets are an invitation to "white collar" criminality leading to early 21st Century America.
The invisible hand needs some restraints.
4-point leathers, locked
aHa!
I wonder Gregory, whom would you trust? I certainly trusted Mother Teresa, as I trust Joe Biden. AND, I am not expecting anything other than their true humanness, with all of the messiness that great responsibility brings forth.
I think the idea that we all need checks on our power is a good one, no? Even Mother Theresa, though her power came from her love of others, so she gets a wide berth. From this book I love: “…when the ego becomes drunk with power and the shaman thinks it’s his power, he is open to being possessed by his own power, which becomes sorcery if acted out.” From Buddha in Redface by Eduardo Duran.
Great quote, Christy! Thanks for sharing. How enlightening to watch where leaders are pointing,..if mostly to themselves then pay very very close attention to what they are doing!!!
Wow.
Yes, Frederick, you can trust them. Their power is “checked”. ;^)
No.
You lost me at inclusión of Mother T in your list, Gregory.
I am happy the social media bans are still in place,. Now if they don't hype his rallies and the legal system starts bringing cases to court I hope his followers will lose interest.
That there are millions of them is what is terrifying. They are Americans. Neighbors. Family members. The hatred and anger have been devloped and honed on talk radio. He is their cause célebre. They've tasted blood and will find a new, more lethal leader.
Perhaps we should be glad that what has always been there festering beneath the surface has been exposed for what it is.
But what and where is the healing salve?
Mary Pat, I fear there may be no healing salve able to cure America's ills. My money is more on death and rebirth.
Yes, there are millions but only a small number showed up at the capital and of those only a small group went there with intent to harm. Yes, there is still reason to be watchful.
OAN abd Faux will be the only places that cover the hatealongs.
"Hatealongs" has a nice rhythm to it.
On this almost white-bright and very warm Saturday morning, Heather brought Donald J. Trump to my computer screen. She couldn't help herself. HE'S BACK. That's North Carolina, where he will address the Republican Party, tomorrow' Sunday night. It is a precursor to the rallies Trump plans to hold in Ohio, Alabama, and Florida next month. Soon after reading the Letter, I had to go elsewhere for relief.
'On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg finally dropped the hammer and declared that the former president would be barred from Facebook for at least two years — a lesser sentence than that handed down by Twitter, which has ejected him permanently. Facebook did, however, say that it would let Mr. Trump return only “if the risk to public safety has receded.”'
'Fat chance of that if you’ve seen how insistently and persistently Mr. Trump has continued to huff and puff on his sousaphone of lies. This has been his modus operandi since the minute he applied his thumbs to a mobile phone keyboard way back when — behavior that has gotten only scarier and more dangerous over time. That’s why it has not been easy to imagine that an often canny, prescient entrepreneur like Mr. Zuckerberg has been played for a chump by Mr. Trump.'
If you haven't met Kara Swisher (quoted above) on her podcast Sway, in her Opinions in The New York Times, in her books and podcast, Pivot, I have brought her here for levity, smarts and kicks in the asses of Kuckerberg and Trump. Swisher is the super powerful tech journalist and a contributing editor at New York Magazine.
'In my innumerable conversations with him over many years — often late at night over a phone, giving them the feel of a college-dorm jaw session — he maintained that he trusted Facebook’s larger community to clean out the vile, often-toxic dreck that flowed over his ever-larger platform.'
'Mr. Zuckerberg believes in the perfectibility of man. I have studied the use of propaganda in Nazi Germany and during China’s Cultural Revolution. I told him that there is no low that some people will not sink to if it is in their interests to do so'
This will not be the last word from Swisher as there is a link later on to her Opinion, 'The Terrible Cost of Mark Zuckerberg’s Naïveté'. For now: '... no one can turn the clock back on what Mr. Zuckerberg has wrought by indulging Mr. Trump, who never met a Facebook regulation he did not desecrate. The attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 should have been no surprise to anyone who was connecting the dots, which Mr. Zuckerberg stubbornly declined to do until now.'
In case you are not aware at this moment, the Trump/Fox News and the Republican Party's next scapegoat, is Anthony Fauci/Covid-19/China/The Democratic Party Syndrome or what's known in Canada's horse racing as a 'superfecta'. Their campaign has already begun on Fox News and probably elsewhere in the the far-right's media world. Trump's negligence, lies and responsibility for the avoidable deaths of many infected with Covid will be assumed by this 'superfecta'. I saw Mike Pompano making the case on Fox yesterday. The image of this very large man with little slits for eyes and a mouth is a picture that most of us wish to avoid. His mien is menacing, a thick wall of calumny. Oh, his lying eyes and mouth.
The true pain of this is 'superfecta' is the detritus they are throwing at Anthony Fauci.
We are in for ugliness on a grand scale, bigger and worse that we can remember.. Our goal is to keep our eye on Democracy. Whatever has come Fauci's way, he keeps his eye on science, the job at hand and our welfare. We have great models to follow.
Link to Swisher's Opinion:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/opinion/zuckerberg-trump-facebook-jan-6.html
If Zuckerberg was indeed naive in the beginning, once that naïveté was monetized, he was hooked. He will ultimately follow the money wherever it leads him. When the political tides change he will adjust course. There are no other guiding principles. $$$$$ and only $$$$$$
Diane, I thought your first sentence was sardonic. As sharp as Swisher is Zuckerberg covers his greed for power and money with a distinctly blank face. As often uttered, 'He's guilty as sin'; more reprehensible for his own BIG LIE. I don't believe that he fools anyone.
Exactly, his lack of character is well documented. His blank face and empty eyes remind me of Putin.
Agreed. His blank expression in response to questioning has given him away from the very beginning of seeing him at hearings. I'm no expert, but it's pretty plain to see. And for all his talk of providing a "democratic" platform on Facebook, clearly democracy is not first (or even genuine) goal. He's only in it for the money. Democracy be damned.
Another different point, I am wary of communicating with some for whom 'moderation' is incomprehensible. Any words are a form of encouragement, and targets are relentlessly tortured.
Agree
Adore Kara and her smart work! She feeds my head.