the Republican National Committee promptly tweeted footage of House Oversight Committee chair Representative James Comer (R-KY) suggesting that the “Biden family” has engaged in “a pattern of bribery, where payments would be made through shell accounts and multiple banks,” in a system of “money laundering.”
the Republican National Committee promptly tweeted footage of House Oversight Committee chair Representative James Comer (R-KY) suggesting that the “Biden family” has engaged in “a pattern of bribery, where payments would be made through shell accounts and multiple banks,” in a system of “money laundering.”
Politicians can affect millions of of lives, and even lives of generations yet to come. Why is it that they can tell egregious lies with impunity? If we believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people, and we citizens can get in serious trouble in many ways for lying to our own government, how is that that those we hire to manage the government get to lie outrageously to us?
Seems to me the ones in the Fascist/GQP party can lie, tell another lie, and then back that lie up with another lie. When they start in with these false accusations of the Biden family, does anyone ever ask them, '' do they have PROOF of what the Biden family is doing? Many times they go silent when they are asked this, or start to make up some absurd lies that they got from an unnamed fictional source. These cretins have serious mental problems and it seems they don't know right from wrong... it's outrageous that these nutso despots are members of our Congress and running for President. It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous;
The Fall of 2016 saw my wife's caseload (she is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice) increase to beyond full, and stay that way throughout fpotus's term. It did not ablate during Covid. She's worn out.
Anxiety is the disease of the 21st century. I was in practice for almost fifty years, ending in 2017 when I got cancer. When I began no one would admit they were in therapy — and a lot of therapy then was psychoanalytic, which is bullshit. Now, everyone is looking for a therapist. The politics are only one part of it. Most of the problems come from the uncertainty and instability that people feel due to the rapid changes in how the world works. Jobs are unstable, big companies fail, older people get laid-off, companies get bought. There is much less of any feeling of loyalty of the company to the workers and the workers to the company. Yet, work can take up much more time. This has affected family life. Schools are also suffering as there are so many more skills to learn, yet the social pressures have interrupted everything. It has led to at least half the country feeling financial insecurity. The Republicans just want people to work for low wages with no safety net. Billionaires have taken over both parties to some extent, but the Republicans have committed themselves to only the specific billionaires who support them. They rest of the population is there to work for low wages and fight wars. People are exhausted and don't have the time or energy to care about each other.
I hit "like," although there's not much to like there. Now we need someone to list all the positive things going for the world, but not me, I'm off to listen to my favorite Jerry Garcia album, "Old and In the Way."
OAITW, you, my friend, have said a mouthful. And every bit if it is gospel.
I spent over 26 years in firefighting and law enforcement. I was medically forced to retire at 45. I’m now 71, soon to be 72, and yo this very day I have extremely bad nightmares of crap I went through, did, had to do. After I was forced to retire, I had to sell my gun collection to pay bills.
The state of Florida, in all of its glory refused my medical, even though the doctor called them, sent them my records, and informed them I would not be back to work once he released me from the hospital. All this before he told me I was through.
My first check from the state was a whopping $236! They cut my retirement 78% because I was only 45 years old, even though I had over 25 years invested in the retirement under hazardous duty. The state Retirement Board sent me a letter informing me that my medical had been denied because they deemed I was able to gain other employment and work.
So, married, raising 4 children (2 in elementary school, 2 in diapers at home) my income was $236 a month until my doctor finally got my social security started in 2002.
I’m basically telling this because I am one of those that you speak about. I am one of those that should have tried to go to a therapist. I refused. I was stubborn. I was foolish. And today, I’m alone, broken down, broken, and just came out of living in the woods, and under a bridge for over two months. The only reason I’m not still there is my youngest son learned about my homelessness and came up here and found me. Put me in a motel two nights while he and his wife located this apartment they put me in. I have nothing, but things are just that. Material dust collectors.
OAITW, your are spot on with that assessment. My wife does not want a 50 year career; she's been licensed for 30 years and wants to retire at 62. Another constant in her practice is the toxic work environment of one of our city's largest employers; she's on the State provider panel and gets a fair number of state employees in her caseload.
The dysfunction of the medical industrial complex is in part why I have opted out. Churn of providers and churn of patients, just like churn in jobs and churn of low-paid co-workers preclude stable and supportive relationships. Humans are evolutionarily wired to thrive in communities, and they're all fragmenting. All except the billionaires' club. (They have paid communities of sycophants).
Why didn't anyone anticipate that the combined "World Wars" was an unavoidable reality update that globalization was already here, and had been unfolding for a long while, at least since the French and USAmerican Revolutions? Change is not new, and will continue. People trained on Chinese Checkers are very disturbed when they are brought to the chess board. So, what's new. Our "reality community", or community of responsibility, is not USAmerican isolationism, which MTG and her gang know nothing about. Community is constituted by a common need to confront common dangers and opportunities. Climate change, the atom, world-level movement of populations, and super-charged global market capitalism, are beyond the competence level national institutions. In post-pioneer USAmerica, Congress governed and the president executed. We now live in at least an extra-national reality—chess and dominoes are played differently—where the president of the USA is functionally a representative standing between our national community and the global community. Our governing institutions designed to have Congress govern according to the "will of the (national) people", now depend perversely upon a constitutionally built executive ill suited to "represent" the will of the US citizen as members of the global people. New or evolved institutions take time to accommodate new conditions, but institutions of self-governance are adapting by confronting the postwar condition and the frank reality (in the information age) that people generally want to consent to how they are governed. Game-changers are what games do.
Not surprisingly, too many of us are looking for individual solutions rather than collective political action. Yes, plenty of us manage to combine the two, but individualism is a national flaw and I hope it doesn't kill us. (Paradoxically enough, the party that champions individualism has been out-organizing the Democrats, aka "the left of center," for decades.)
Ally, in 2016, my physician, when I told her how depressed I was, told me that every psychiatrist and psychologist that she knew was overwhelmed with patients, and that prescriptions for antidepressants had skyrocketed. For me, even with Biden in office and knocking it out of the park, I'm locked in a state of agitation, because of the continued slide of this country toward fascism. The fact that the "No Labels" party is ginning up enthusiasm for third party candidates, potentially handing the presidency back to tFg, just worsens the situation.
I totally agree, that is an extremely concerning--and disconcerting--development. I've been sharing articles about their (true) purpose and the source of their funding: Koch, Mercer...all funds from RW sources 😤🤬🤬. The Rs are clearly worried and going all out to win by any means necessary.
Why doesn't the MSN point out the true reason for this move? Any fool should know that a third-party candidate doesn't stand a chance of winning, so the only purpose would be to swing the race in a generally unintended direction. Unfortunately, Americans tend to be naive about who's behind these schemes. If they weren't, tFg would never have been elected in the first place, and by the time the '24 election occurs, he'll more than likely be a convicted felon.
When I went for my annual in 2017, I mentioned how I felt to my doctor and she said she had heard many say the same thing. Thankfully, your wife has been doing good work for all those upset by death star and the pandemic...partly his fault for downplaying it. Kudos to her and hope for some rest.
The bloodless coup of 2000. We’ve been through this before, the only difference was Bush is not insane. He’s for sure a criminal, but like all the Republican POTUS’s in our lifetime, they’re not held accountable. It’s like after they leave office they walk away with a clean slate, no worries. Meanwhile, Democrat POTUS’s bear a great deal of wasted scrutiny from their Republican counterparts.
You can bet there’s no way Republicans are going to escape the wrath of pro-choice voters. Which overwhelmingly vote to restore access to abortion unfettered.
This single issue is what people are voting on. It’s unconstitutional to deny access to medical care due to their sex. Then heap a good scoop of self-righteousness, sprinkle of fascism and a dollop of willful ignorance, you’ve got yourself a Nazi sundae. Hope the fascists choke on it. 🍨
Years ago, while on a boat ride around Lake Tahoe, we passed the multi-structure lakefront compound of an extremely wealthy Bay Area real estate developer. I asked, more rhetorically that seriously, why would he build such a huge vacation home. A friend replied, “Because he can.” That’s been a catch phrase for my husband and me ever since.
Why does Comer lie with impunity? Because he can. He’s a member of Congress, after all.
That seems so foreign to me. Whenever I think of what my life would be if I were really rich, that's the image that come to me -- drifting from beautiful room to beautiful room of a huge house, alone, pestering the servants for conversation and a sense of connection. The vision make me shiver, and explains to me why so many rich people have such odd social/political obsessions.
In all honesty, the gentleman who built this compound was a genuine philanthropist who was a 1st or 2nd generation America, attended Stanford on a full scholarship and, through his successful business, gave back to the community three-fold through the foundation he and his wife created.
I was using the comment "Because he can" not as criticism of him, but as criticism of Comer.
Nor was I criticizing him, either, although the concept of "do it bigger merely because I can" seems designed to create a lot of waste in many circumstances. And I'm sure there are many people with lives and personalities big enough to fill mansions.
But that's not me, and I suspect that's not like a lot of rich people. Like so many things, I bet some "do" rich better than others.
That's when I got involved in electoral politics as I never had before (even though I live in relatively sane Massachusetts), switched my voter registration from Unenrolled to Democrat, and became active in the local Democratic group.
It looks like a religion exactly to the extent that it relies on faith instead of evidence. Since it's really hard to rationally convince people to kill themselves and others, they have to turn to religion-style techniques to persuade them. It's a very time-honored tool and also explains why both government and religion have been struggling for centuries with how to accommodate the new guy, science.
Do not forget that Sen. Chuck Grassley was an active participant in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and if Pence had gotten into the Secret Service limo and disappeared, Grassley would have taken over as President pro tem of the Senate, and would have carried out the conspiracy by overturning the certification of the official electoral votes from the states, in cooperation with the 147 Republicans who went along with this ploy. I hope Jack Smith rounds up all of them and truly cleans house.....
I know yesterday afternoon, those three Trump attorneys that left the meeting in the federal building didn’t look happy at all. I hope that Smith told them to go suck on a bottle of buttermilk because their client was going to prison for a very long time!
Beth, I don't believe for a minute that Biden has done anything wrong, especially since the only "source" of the accusations is the insane, lying right wing. They are lying, and it's nothing new. Dirty politics has been their gameplan ever since McCarthy/Cohn ruined careers and lives during the Communist Scare.
You're very right, but please change your posture slightly. I don't believe anything they say either, but if they find any real corroborated evidence, I'll look at it. I no longer listen to them, but I like evidence, wherever it comes from. I'm not going to be a Republican.
Dirk, my posture will not change unless the right wing is able to demonstrate that actual wrongdoing occurred. If that happens, I'll certainly inform myself and make a decision at that point. Remember, the accusations regarding Hunter and the rest of the Bidens have been circulating for several years, with no concrete evidence, just vague allegations. Especially considering the source of these allegations, it would be terribly naive to take them at face value. If concrete evidence can be presented, I'll take it into consideration. I do recognize that Hunter used very poor judgment to take a position in the then-corrupt Ukrainian machine, using his father's position as capital. If that's all that is revealed, then the right wing could have pointed out the obvious and dropped it. Either way, like you, I won't be voting for any Republicans.
So I'm sorry, Ms. Fleming, because my first comment, I see now, is poorly phrased, I didn't mean to imply a criticism. Much of our current political discourse seems to be little more than operatives hoping to present information, even verifiable facts, in such a way as to make an unprepared listener to leap to a desired conclusion on the basis of non-rational prejudices. I can't reasonably imagine this practice is limited to Republicans, since it's really just an extension of common persuasive techniques. What's frightening is that this common, pandering-to-prejudice technique is so dangerously effective in the hands of skilled, morals-free, influencers in such an interconnected environment.
You hit their technique spot on. After all, I seen lots of "evidence" about Hunter Biden from his detractors -- about his addictions, his struggle, his wealth, too, and his directorships -- he's clearly been a busy boy, just like the rest of his family.
What they never seem to give is evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, they just tell you facts about Hunter's life and then look at you, hoping your prejudices will take it from there. It's a technique that works very well on those who don't constantly challenge their own prejudices, and I despair at ever finding and challenge all of my own.
He and Feinstein both! For her to continue "be there" when there could be someone put in place of her IF she would retire? Thats just wrong. Only seeing what the news is saying - she shouldnt be there. Its really sad. But certainly someone should be able to rectify this!
I have to really question what in the world are her constituents thinking? In California, for Petes sake - considering its mainly Democratic. Wouldnt you think they would want someone mentally capable of representing them? Puzzling.
There needs to be limits they can serve. The president is two terms, the House and Senate should be the same. This serving 6-8 terms is stupid. Look at the South Carolina senator that served until he died, or died right after he finally retired. Strom Thurmond.
It’s a deliberate strategy. Cause as much pain as possible for the other side. In the USA, it is issues of Identity Politics. In Russia/Ukraine it’s artillery.
No doubt it’s deliberate. All the experts on authoritarianism and political violence have been warning repeatedly that the road to fascism is paved with deterioration of TRUTH.
It seems the US just got a later start, but lately we’re on the same road as Russia. Hoping we succeed in flushing the 💩 into the fiery magma and elevating the TRUTH 🙏🤞🏼
That's exactly what they're doing and Bannon is the major contributor and proponent of this strategy. It is one he called "flooding the zone with 💩." It worked in '16 and they're hoping to win with it again in '24. We can't let them. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote.
I’m not sure about “funny”. Look what happened when we allowed them to gain control of the House. Could you imagine where this country will be if they get the Senate, and White House, again? It will become the United Communist States. Under dictatorship, the likes of Trump, or even worse, Robert Kennedy, Jr., whose a Democratic presidential candidate, but is farther right than Trump!
Geeze! What the hell is happening to the people???
Yep....all the nastiness has been around for a long time....and death star gave carte blanche for people to be openly awful. Now rudeness rules everywhere.
Fine. Take names and remember who and where they are, for the future. They have exposed themselves and we do not have to let them crawl back under their rocks.....
Just out of curiosity, why did you predict that it would be called the "United Communist States," as opposed to something else. If that was a mistype, that's fine, too.
Dirk, actually, it wasn’t a misprint. It was meant to show that if we don’t get out and get our jobs done, the Trumpublicans will regain majority in the Senate, keep the House, and regain the Presidency in 2024. And, if we aren’t careful, they’ll get supermajority in the House and Senate. Plus gain state legislative seats, more so than they have now.
If that happens, 2024 could very well be the last election this country ever sees. It will be converted to a dictatorship first thing, and every right we have now is gone.
This is what Trump wants. This is what he’s fighting for.
Oh, I think there's an unpleasantly high chance that you are correct in all particulars, and that's exactly their plan. I was merely wondering why you thought they would change the name to the "Communist" states, instead of something like the "Republican Federation," "Beulahland," or maybe even the "National Socialist American Worker's Party."
Dirk, you have great suggestions on the new name, but I don’t see the last one you suggested. They don’t give a damn about the American working class of people. Plus, they will have nothing more to do with anything titled anything close to “America”, “American”, or any semblance of freedom.
We taught the same thing in law enforcement academy. But, now, in this situation it seems with the Trumpublicans the saying may have altered just a bit. “The absence of evidence is good. That’s evidence of wrongdoing needing to be investigated.” Dumbest bunch of sheep I’ve ever seen. What’s worse, most all of them are graduates of Ivy League universities as lawyers, doctors, and the like. Geeze!!!
I think their training and education is really evidence that all the innuendo and misinformation from such sources is deliberate. I wish I could file a Bar complaint against lawyers for lying outside the courtroom, not just inside.
To answer your question "... does anyone ever ask them ..." That is the job of JOURNALISTS, who unfortunately have been taught that they must be impartial to the point of not confronting Repugnant Party Right Wing LIES.
I totally agree with you, and it's sickening to me too that they are keeping things from the voters like that. The Rethuglicans know they can't win elections if they are fully exposed to their lying and deceitful ways. Disgusting is what it is..
As I first read that section of Heather’s letter, I reacted just like you. I thought Biden should sue tfg snd the Republican Party for libel! Something has to stop this egregious trend!!! Freedom of speech does not convey the right to damage the reputation of political opponents with falsehoods.
LOL Harvey,it’s funny anyhow ...but the example so marvelously being continued by ‘our President’ is let’s focus on the real issues as he rolls up his sleeves each day ( BRAVO!) .
Those falling off the cliff...you know , the ones with all the holes in their feet from their last shots/still smoking guns....won’t benefit much with damage control. Let them keep loading up ...
...we have better things to do , mates...better things to do ☺️
I rarely go on Twitter these days, but did see Professor Richardson push back on the "Biden family" suggestion, reminding in her tweet that 45 had his family "engaged."
You aren’t kidding. I bet she spilled her guts. With the stuff her hubby pulling with Saudi Arabia, it wouldn’t surprise me if the two of them didn’t move over there to get the hell away from “daddy”.
But, he’s already got in bed with the Saudi’s and created this professional golf thing that’s now teamed up with the professional golf organization here in the United States.
This is a really tough one. "how is that that those we hire to manage government get to lie outrageously to us?"
I don't think it is illegal to lie in most cases of sending out a lie outside of being on a stand in a courtroom as a witness.
Perfectly legal. And, moreover, Trump lied with every sentence while he was President and is not being charged with lying. He is being charged with stealing apparently.
Lying is legal.
Lastly, the American people have shown a huge appetite for consuming lies as Fox News readily proves on a daily basis.
Whoda thunk the “Space Alien in you cookie jar” headlines that screamed at us in the grocery store would become mainstream practice?
When I was a kid and saw an adult reading that claptrap while they waited in line at the checkout counter I thought “this is how I separate serious people from the buffoons”
I remember in high school a rumor about one of my female classmates circulated that she was pregnant. This was back in a place and time where girls were required to drop out of school if they got pregnant.
Turns out she was not pregnant, BUT, after the mess the rumor made of her life, she dropped out of school anyway.
I remember how everyone was talking about it. I cannot say I participated by talking because, I was mostly surprised since she was well outside the circle of girls who were well known as accessible. But, I sure did listen with interest and no I did nothing to tamp the rumors down.
When the girl stopped showing up at school I felt bad for, umm, the rest of my life.
But I remember how everyone flocked to the lie and grew it into the truth even though, in the end, it was a lie.
I’d like to go back in time and shake some compassion into the kid I was sometimes. The bad stuff can be haunting. The good news is, I can recognize some of it now. Maturity can encourage wisdom, huh?
I can only say I did not participate in spreading any rumor because the girl was totally outside those known as accessible. However, I did not contest the rumor when I heard it either.
I stayed out of it. Which, makes me guilty. I did not actually believe the lie and I did nothing to put a stop to it or support her. I was a coward.
Maturity comes with regrets Dave, for me. I try not to let it bother me too much, and, it is one reason I never drink alcohol. For some reason, if I drink alcohol, the stuff I did in the past haunts me.
I had an exercise I used to do back when I was instructing law enforcement officers at the state academies. I had a single sentence written in a piece of paper. I showed it to the first officer on one side of the class. I had them disperse it to the officer behind them until it travelled through the entire class (usually 25-30 officers). At the other end, I had the final officer write in the board exactly what he was told. I then wrote what the original sentence was.
You’d be really shocked to know the difference in the two. Absolutely no comparison at all.
Mike, that is exactly the danger ⚠️ of ‘hearsay’. I was fortunate to sit on a grand jury in NYC for a long stretch, and the first thing we were told was about that term. Inadmissible as evidence.
I heard a story about myself that had circulated in the MA town I live in now that was twisted into an unrecognizable braid. The village mentality adores gossip. And that is now the viscous, mo even more, the deadly trademark of the Republican Party.
Not at all! Villages really are a bunch of nice folks trying to help each other. It's just that villages are so boring that you have to burn somebody at the stake every now and then just to liven things up.
Ages ago we would buy a couple of these hilarious rags, tuck them in our backpacks as “reading material” before a days-long hike into the wilderness…..in the evening around a campfire (if allowed) or camp stove, we would read the stories and howl with laughter.
I recall laughing my butt off because I saw on the cover of Weekly World News that Clinton (I THINK it was him) was with the same space alien as Ross Perot!!
When I was in high school I took an elective summer school class, Language and Persuasion. I learned about Dale Carnegie, “it’s possible to change other people’s behavior by changing one’s behavior towards them.”
Subliminal messages, Vance Packard, “The Hidden Persuaders” 1961. I graduated in 1964 and was fascinated by the way hidden messages can affect behavior. I pictured a subliminal message scrolling across the movie screen making me do something unethical or immoral or just making me hungry for popcorn. I was too naive to be scared until I watched “The Manchurian Candidate.” All these books and movies must be on the DeSatin’s Banned list. What people think without a foundation of understanding. They might be stuck in childhood problem solving and thinking.
Hmmm. Mike I don't believe lying is legal. There are an awful lot of lawyers who would tell you differently.
It does appear that, beginning with Newt Gingrich and Reagan lying became the accepted norm for the Republican Party. The MAGAs in true "1984" (the book) fashion now believe there is no such thing as truth.
I thought about trying to draft a retired-lawyer type response to Mike S's assertion, going down all the situations where lying is expressly illegal, usually by statute, none of which apply to public statements. Sure defamation and slander may apply, but very difficult to prove and you run into governmental immunity. Quantum meruit could conceivably apply, but again, you'd have to get around immunity and their habitual lying actually hurts your case.
And that's when I stopped, because I realized that as disgusting as it is, Mike S. is essentially correct: unless a specific law forbids it, lying is generally legal in the U.S.
IF lying is illegal, outside of being on a witness stand, then the law is essentially never enforced that I can perceive anyway.
Right now Jamie Dimon is claiming he never heard of Epstein before 2019 even though Epstein was a JP Morgan client from 2012 or so. Do you think the gov will arrest the guy they go to to bail out banks for them….for lying?
It is human to love confirmation bias and righteous superiority. I love it myself. My awareness of it allows me (mostly) not to get sucked in and insist upon evidence.
J.L., you make the point: "Politicians can affect millions of of lives, and even lives of generations yet to come." You are sooooo right, and the person who comes to my mind is Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and the architect of the New Deal (though FDR gets the credit.) Perkins' philosophy of government is to the point: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life." All the people. Amen to that. This is also posted in my home office.
We have an inadequate press, which is so worried about bottom line that they forgot to care about the truth. The ownership of the press is a big problem. That is something that needs fixing if we are to have a democracy.
Very true. One big difference between Watergate and now was more frequent, more robust and more fearless investigative journalism, or so it seems to me. The post Reagan/Friedman governmental bias toward facilitating profit over people is blatant and profoundly anti-democratic. The former CEO of CBS put it in a nutshell; https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/leslie-moonves-donald-trump-may-871464/
Sadly, all too sadly, under the right emotional circumstances, outright lying works, esp for audiences already prone to believe. GOP has been running this for a very long time. Straight out of the Nazi, but hardly only the Nazi, politics 101 playbook.
Lies, bribes and terror have kept despots in power for eons. Substantive lies are weapons that can enslave and kill. Democracy can survive lies, but only when they are exposed, and shown for what they are. Isn't that key to what genuine justice does?
Back in the 1950s Joe McCarthy attracted a formidable following, intimidating even Ike. When McCarthy attacked the military, that was the last straw, and he was brought to heel. It seems like modern "Republicans" and their wealthy patrons dusted off "Tailgunner Joe's" modus operandi as well as time tested "Divide and Rule" ever advancing despotic corruption in the intervening years.
J. L. It’s all projection. “Let’s accuse Biden of something “. “Why not say that his family accepts bribes through shell companies. I know some people who do that “. “Great! That sounds credible.”
We have had decades of ad hominem attacks against liberals of all kinds and rank. It comes from elected officials, TV personalities, radio hosts, and in print. These are overwhelmingly lies purely to ruin people's reputations. Is there no recourse, no accountability? I really think these people should be taken to court. I would support a legal fund created by the Democratic Party, and anyone else who favors decency. This unpunished vitriol contributes significantly to the political divide. That is the intention. Prince Harry has called the Mirror publishers to account. I wish him a good outcome. Long overdue.
The Republican National Committee and the House Oversight Committee's chair it quotes are the ones who lie outrageously to us. We didn't hire them, but some of us may have voted for them. Expect no less when Republicans are elected to office. Remedy this when next you vote.
As slavery was once considered "normal", even by US presidents, subjugation of women was "normal", as was genocide against native people and quasi-serfdom imposed on workers. "Republicans" have initiated, "normalized" and ratcheted corruption for more that 40 years. Reviewing their latest exploits, at least on their side of it is like reading about one of "those" countries spiraling toward despotism. Yes, we must vote for democracy and integrity, and yes, we must make a bigger thing out of all lies, all the time. Have they no sense of decency?
There was a time when members of Congress risked censure, even from their own party, for making such statements. That said, the Constitution’s speech and debate clause protects them from lawsuits for slander, which Republicans increasing engage in as part of legislative speech.
Regardless, those who lie with abandon to accuse their political opponents of dastardly acts are morally bereft cretins.
Free speech, especially "objectionable speech" is essential, yet presents a conundrum. Perhaps the ultimate problem for governance is how to deal with those who use their share of rights and power abusively. That easy when it's a common thief but thievery can be subtle and like computer code, the law is full of "security flaws' that can be exploited, you patch one and another turns up. It is hard, probably impossible, to maintain a just society on law alone; there must be a preponderant societal commitment to dealing in good faith.
Nixon was impeached for a pattern of abuse of power the "Coverup", and important Republicans went along with it. Nixon's offenses seem almost quaint by today's standards. We became increasingly inured to dishonest, unprofessional public sphere behavior, and have not pushed back against it nearly strongly enough, in my opinion; though current and emerging "Stop the Steal" indictments are strong medicine. We the people are fools if we continue to tolerate the creeping, demonstrable, and worsening use blatant, weaponized lies in the court of public opinion.
the Republican National Committee promptly tweeted footage of House Oversight Committee chair Representative James Comer (R-KY) suggesting that the “Biden family” has engaged in “a pattern of bribery, where payments would be made through shell accounts and multiple banks,” in a system of “money laundering.”
Politicians can affect millions of of lives, and even lives of generations yet to come. Why is it that they can tell egregious lies with impunity? If we believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people, and we citizens can get in serious trouble in many ways for lying to our own government, how is that that those we hire to manage the government get to lie outrageously to us?
Seems to me the ones in the Fascist/GQP party can lie, tell another lie, and then back that lie up with another lie. When they start in with these false accusations of the Biden family, does anyone ever ask them, '' do they have PROOF of what the Biden family is doing? Many times they go silent when they are asked this, or start to make up some absurd lies that they got from an unnamed fictional source. These cretins have serious mental problems and it seems they don't know right from wrong... it's outrageous that these nutso despots are members of our Congress and running for President. It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous;
I stopped laughing about the Spring of 2016…
That was when I started crying.
The Fall of 2016 saw my wife's caseload (she is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice) increase to beyond full, and stay that way throughout fpotus's term. It did not ablate during Covid. She's worn out.
Anxiety is the disease of the 21st century. I was in practice for almost fifty years, ending in 2017 when I got cancer. When I began no one would admit they were in therapy — and a lot of therapy then was psychoanalytic, which is bullshit. Now, everyone is looking for a therapist. The politics are only one part of it. Most of the problems come from the uncertainty and instability that people feel due to the rapid changes in how the world works. Jobs are unstable, big companies fail, older people get laid-off, companies get bought. There is much less of any feeling of loyalty of the company to the workers and the workers to the company. Yet, work can take up much more time. This has affected family life. Schools are also suffering as there are so many more skills to learn, yet the social pressures have interrupted everything. It has led to at least half the country feeling financial insecurity. The Republicans just want people to work for low wages with no safety net. Billionaires have taken over both parties to some extent, but the Republicans have committed themselves to only the specific billionaires who support them. They rest of the population is there to work for low wages and fight wars. People are exhausted and don't have the time or energy to care about each other.
I hit "like," although there's not much to like there. Now we need someone to list all the positive things going for the world, but not me, I'm off to listen to my favorite Jerry Garcia album, "Old and In the Way."
Here's another little positivity for you:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/invest/?utm_source=invest.gov&utm_medium=email
Yes, it was a great record and we all miss Jerry, Did you know that there was a song years before that by Charlie Poole: Old and Only in the Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr8c1UNVZcM
Love the title!
OAITW, you, my friend, have said a mouthful. And every bit if it is gospel.
I spent over 26 years in firefighting and law enforcement. I was medically forced to retire at 45. I’m now 71, soon to be 72, and yo this very day I have extremely bad nightmares of crap I went through, did, had to do. After I was forced to retire, I had to sell my gun collection to pay bills.
The state of Florida, in all of its glory refused my medical, even though the doctor called them, sent them my records, and informed them I would not be back to work once he released me from the hospital. All this before he told me I was through.
My first check from the state was a whopping $236! They cut my retirement 78% because I was only 45 years old, even though I had over 25 years invested in the retirement under hazardous duty. The state Retirement Board sent me a letter informing me that my medical had been denied because they deemed I was able to gain other employment and work.
So, married, raising 4 children (2 in elementary school, 2 in diapers at home) my income was $236 a month until my doctor finally got my social security started in 2002.
I’m basically telling this because I am one of those that you speak about. I am one of those that should have tried to go to a therapist. I refused. I was stubborn. I was foolish. And today, I’m alone, broken down, broken, and just came out of living in the woods, and under a bridge for over two months. The only reason I’m not still there is my youngest son learned about my homelessness and came up here and found me. Put me in a motel two nights while he and his wife located this apartment they put me in. I have nothing, but things are just that. Material dust collectors.
OAITW, your are spot on with that assessment. My wife does not want a 50 year career; she's been licensed for 30 years and wants to retire at 62. Another constant in her practice is the toxic work environment of one of our city's largest employers; she's on the State provider panel and gets a fair number of state employees in her caseload.
The dysfunction of the medical industrial complex is in part why I have opted out. Churn of providers and churn of patients, just like churn in jobs and churn of low-paid co-workers preclude stable and supportive relationships. Humans are evolutionarily wired to thrive in communities, and they're all fragmenting. All except the billionaires' club. (They have paid communities of sycophants).
Many MAMMONITES ! You came, into the World , with NOTHING YOU Will GO OUT, of the World ....with NOTHING ! WAKE UP ! MANKIND !!
Why didn't anyone anticipate that the combined "World Wars" was an unavoidable reality update that globalization was already here, and had been unfolding for a long while, at least since the French and USAmerican Revolutions? Change is not new, and will continue. People trained on Chinese Checkers are very disturbed when they are brought to the chess board. So, what's new. Our "reality community", or community of responsibility, is not USAmerican isolationism, which MTG and her gang know nothing about. Community is constituted by a common need to confront common dangers and opportunities. Climate change, the atom, world-level movement of populations, and super-charged global market capitalism, are beyond the competence level national institutions. In post-pioneer USAmerica, Congress governed and the president executed. We now live in at least an extra-national reality—chess and dominoes are played differently—where the president of the USA is functionally a representative standing between our national community and the global community. Our governing institutions designed to have Congress govern according to the "will of the (national) people", now depend perversely upon a constitutionally built executive ill suited to "represent" the will of the US citizen as members of the global people. New or evolved institutions take time to accommodate new conditions, but institutions of self-governance are adapting by confronting the postwar condition and the frank reality (in the information age) that people generally want to consent to how they are governed. Game-changers are what games do.
Not surprisingly, too many of us are looking for individual solutions rather than collective political action. Yes, plenty of us manage to combine the two, but individualism is a national flaw and I hope it doesn't kill us. (Paradoxically enough, the party that champions individualism has been out-organizing the Democrats, aka "the left of center," for decades.)
Ally, in 2016, my physician, when I told her how depressed I was, told me that every psychiatrist and psychologist that she knew was overwhelmed with patients, and that prescriptions for antidepressants had skyrocketed. For me, even with Biden in office and knocking it out of the park, I'm locked in a state of agitation, because of the continued slide of this country toward fascism. The fact that the "No Labels" party is ginning up enthusiasm for third party candidates, potentially handing the presidency back to tFg, just worsens the situation.
I totally agree, that is an extremely concerning--and disconcerting--development. I've been sharing articles about their (true) purpose and the source of their funding: Koch, Mercer...all funds from RW sources 😤🤬🤬. The Rs are clearly worried and going all out to win by any means necessary.
Why doesn't the MSN point out the true reason for this move? Any fool should know that a third-party candidate doesn't stand a chance of winning, so the only purpose would be to swing the race in a generally unintended direction. Unfortunately, Americans tend to be naive about who's behind these schemes. If they weren't, tFg would never have been elected in the first place, and by the time the '24 election occurs, he'll more than likely be a convicted felon.
When I went for my annual in 2017, I mentioned how I felt to my doctor and she said she had heard many say the same thing. Thankfully, your wife has been doing good work for all those upset by death star and the pandemic...partly his fault for downplaying it. Kudos to her and hope for some rest.
She has scaled back quite a bit this past year. It has been delightful.
Good.
"The Fall of 2016"
Sounds like the title to a tragedy.
It does indeed.
seriously!
I stopped laughing in 2000 when the SC decided Dubya Bush should be president.
The bloodless coup of 2000. We’ve been through this before, the only difference was Bush is not insane. He’s for sure a criminal, but like all the Republican POTUS’s in our lifetime, they’re not held accountable. It’s like after they leave office they walk away with a clean slate, no worries. Meanwhile, Democrat POTUS’s bear a great deal of wasted scrutiny from their Republican counterparts.
You can bet there’s no way Republicans are going to escape the wrath of pro-choice voters. Which overwhelmingly vote to restore access to abortion unfettered.
This single issue is what people are voting on. It’s unconstitutional to deny access to medical care due to their sex. Then heap a good scoop of self-righteousness, sprinkle of fascism and a dollop of willful ignorance, you’ve got yourself a Nazi sundae. Hope the fascists choke on it. 🍨
Years ago, while on a boat ride around Lake Tahoe, we passed the multi-structure lakefront compound of an extremely wealthy Bay Area real estate developer. I asked, more rhetorically that seriously, why would he build such a huge vacation home. A friend replied, “Because he can.” That’s been a catch phrase for my husband and me ever since.
Why does Comer lie with impunity? Because he can. He’s a member of Congress, after all.
That seems so foreign to me. Whenever I think of what my life would be if I were really rich, that's the image that come to me -- drifting from beautiful room to beautiful room of a huge house, alone, pestering the servants for conversation and a sense of connection. The vision make me shiver, and explains to me why so many rich people have such odd social/political obsessions.
In all honesty, the gentleman who built this compound was a genuine philanthropist who was a 1st or 2nd generation America, attended Stanford on a full scholarship and, through his successful business, gave back to the community three-fold through the foundation he and his wife created.
I was using the comment "Because he can" not as criticism of him, but as criticism of Comer.
Nor was I criticizing him, either, although the concept of "do it bigger merely because I can" seems designed to create a lot of waste in many circumstances. And I'm sure there are many people with lives and personalities big enough to fill mansions.
But that's not me, and I suspect that's not like a lot of rich people. Like so many things, I bet some "do" rich better than others.
That's when I got involved in electoral politics as I never had before (even though I live in relatively sane Massachusetts), switched my voter registration from Unenrolled to Democrat, and became active in the local Democratic group.
And I, in the Spring of 2015.
Didn't you see where grassass and gomer said they don't care if they have any proof.
This is all show to make Biden numbers go down.
Remember that howdy doody guy (faux) said it was all a ploy to make Hilary unelectable and it worked.
And that is what we are fighting against.
We may not have any proof that Biden did anything wrong, but we feel like he did.
Everything rePUKES say is nothing but projection.
They have to keep feeding their base what they know they need to hear out of fear of them waking up.
Yeah, they certainly don't want any of them becoming "woke".
And they are certainly do not want educated people....only those believers!
And there are a fair number of "educated" believers, too--as strange as that seems.
Mr. Kravetz, you hit the nail fair and square on the head!!!
It looks like a religion exactly to the extent that it relies on faith instead of evidence. Since it's really hard to rationally convince people to kill themselves and others, they have to turn to religion-style techniques to persuade them. It's a very time-honored tool and also explains why both government and religion have been struggling for centuries with how to accommodate the new guy, science.
They are bringing in the bucks as they tell lies to the public!
Do not forget that Sen. Chuck Grassley was an active participant in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and if Pence had gotten into the Secret Service limo and disappeared, Grassley would have taken over as President pro tem of the Senate, and would have carried out the conspiracy by overturning the certification of the official electoral votes from the states, in cooperation with the 147 Republicans who went along with this ploy. I hope Jack Smith rounds up all of them and truly cleans house.....
I know yesterday afternoon, those three Trump attorneys that left the meeting in the federal building didn’t look happy at all. I hope that Smith told them to go suck on a bottle of buttermilk because their client was going to prison for a very long time!
I hope so too.
Beth, I don't believe for a minute that Biden has done anything wrong, especially since the only "source" of the accusations is the insane, lying right wing. They are lying, and it's nothing new. Dirty politics has been their gameplan ever since McCarthy/Cohn ruined careers and lives during the Communist Scare.
You're very right, but please change your posture slightly. I don't believe anything they say either, but if they find any real corroborated evidence, I'll look at it. I no longer listen to them, but I like evidence, wherever it comes from. I'm not going to be a Republican.
Dirk, my posture will not change unless the right wing is able to demonstrate that actual wrongdoing occurred. If that happens, I'll certainly inform myself and make a decision at that point. Remember, the accusations regarding Hunter and the rest of the Bidens have been circulating for several years, with no concrete evidence, just vague allegations. Especially considering the source of these allegations, it would be terribly naive to take them at face value. If concrete evidence can be presented, I'll take it into consideration. I do recognize that Hunter used very poor judgment to take a position in the then-corrupt Ukrainian machine, using his father's position as capital. If that's all that is revealed, then the right wing could have pointed out the obvious and dropped it. Either way, like you, I won't be voting for any Republicans.
So I'm sorry, Ms. Fleming, because my first comment, I see now, is poorly phrased, I didn't mean to imply a criticism. Much of our current political discourse seems to be little more than operatives hoping to present information, even verifiable facts, in such a way as to make an unprepared listener to leap to a desired conclusion on the basis of non-rational prejudices. I can't reasonably imagine this practice is limited to Republicans, since it's really just an extension of common persuasive techniques. What's frightening is that this common, pandering-to-prejudice technique is so dangerously effective in the hands of skilled, morals-free, influencers in such an interconnected environment.
You hit their technique spot on. After all, I seen lots of "evidence" about Hunter Biden from his detractors -- about his addictions, his struggle, his wealth, too, and his directorships -- he's clearly been a busy boy, just like the rest of his family.
What they never seem to give is evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, they just tell you facts about Hunter's life and then look at you, hoping your prejudices will take it from there. It's a technique that works very well on those who don't constantly challenge their own prejudices, and I despair at ever finding and challenge all of my own.
grassass and gomer!
Not only projection. When this “stuff comes out
I always think they are telling us something they did or they are themselves in a takes one to know one way.
Great names. It is beyond nuts to say that they don't care about proof. Gassy should have been put out to pasture long ago.
He and Feinstein both! For her to continue "be there" when there could be someone put in place of her IF she would retire? Thats just wrong. Only seeing what the news is saying - she shouldnt be there. Its really sad. But certainly someone should be able to rectify this!
Agree.
I have to really question what in the world are her constituents thinking? In California, for Petes sake - considering its mainly Democratic. Wouldnt you think they would want someone mentally capable of representing them? Puzzling.
The same goes for some other fossilized Senate specimens--both Republican AND Democrat, I'm sorry to say.
Agreed.
There needs to be limits they can serve. The president is two terms, the House and Senate should be the same. This serving 6-8 terms is stupid. Look at the South Carolina senator that served until he died, or died right after he finally retired. Strom Thurmond.
ZERO integrity!!! The press needs to a better job calling these wackos out for their blatant BS.
Jennifer Rubin just published a terrific article about how the press should treat their lies. (gifted) https://wapo.st/3NfCBJM
Thank you! What a great article -- but will the media follow any of Rubin's suggestions. :/
I sure hope so. If not, we all need to call them out for it. (And not just to each other on this forum.)
As always she hits every single nail on the head! One of the commenters had a really good list of questions to ask Requbs. If only.....
They just make up more 💩 that never existed. It goes beyond lying. It’s as if they are psychotic, living in a delusional world of their own making.
It’s a deliberate strategy. Cause as much pain as possible for the other side. In the USA, it is issues of Identity Politics. In Russia/Ukraine it’s artillery.
No doubt it’s deliberate. All the experts on authoritarianism and political violence have been warning repeatedly that the road to fascism is paved with deterioration of TRUTH.
It seems the US just got a later start, but lately we’re on the same road as Russia. Hoping we succeed in flushing the 💩 into the fiery magma and elevating the TRUTH 🙏🤞🏼
YES !! " The TRUTH ! WILL ! SET YOU FREE ! Read it & Believe! THE HOLY BIBLE ! Thank You ! Christy ! BLESSINGS !
Yes, but we are being drowned in their vomit! Tell the DOJ to earn their money... scour the country of lies!!!
Eww, that hit my gag reflex.
I suspect you’re right. What a mess.
That's exactly what they're doing and Bannon is the major contributor and proponent of this strategy. It is one he called "flooding the zone with 💩." It worked in '16 and they're hoping to win with it again in '24. We can't let them. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote.
I’m not sure about “funny”. Look what happened when we allowed them to gain control of the House. Could you imagine where this country will be if they get the Senate, and White House, again? It will become the United Communist States. Under dictatorship, the likes of Trump, or even worse, Robert Kennedy, Jr., whose a Democratic presidential candidate, but is farther right than Trump!
Geeze! What the hell is happening to the people???
What the hell is happening to the people???
People haven't changed sadly, knucklehead just gave them permission to say it out loud.
Exactly, Marj! Knucklehead hates the same people they hate and he says so out loud. Permission granted! So frustrating!
Yep....all the nastiness has been around for a long time....and death star gave carte blanche for people to be openly awful. Now rudeness rules everywhere.
Fine. Take names and remember who and where they are, for the future. They have exposed themselves and we do not have to let them crawl back under their rocks.....
Just out of curiosity, why did you predict that it would be called the "United Communist States," as opposed to something else. If that was a mistype, that's fine, too.
Dirk, actually, it wasn’t a misprint. It was meant to show that if we don’t get out and get our jobs done, the Trumpublicans will regain majority in the Senate, keep the House, and regain the Presidency in 2024. And, if we aren’t careful, they’ll get supermajority in the House and Senate. Plus gain state legislative seats, more so than they have now.
If that happens, 2024 could very well be the last election this country ever sees. It will be converted to a dictatorship first thing, and every right we have now is gone.
This is what Trump wants. This is what he’s fighting for.
Oh, I think there's an unpleasantly high chance that you are correct in all particulars, and that's exactly their plan. I was merely wondering why you thought they would change the name to the "Communist" states, instead of something like the "Republican Federation," "Beulahland," or maybe even the "National Socialist American Worker's Party."
Dirk, you have great suggestions on the new name, but I don’t see the last one you suggested. They don’t give a damn about the American working class of people. Plus, they will have nothing more to do with anything titled anything close to “America”, “American”, or any semblance of freedom.
I think United Fascist States would be more apt.
"or start to make up some absurd lies that they got from an unnamed fictional source" or Donald Trump
“People are saying . . .”
A favorite saying in law school, "the absence of evidence is not evidence." That seems to be a really novel concept for a lot of people.
We taught the same thing in law enforcement academy. But, now, in this situation it seems with the Trumpublicans the saying may have altered just a bit. “The absence of evidence is good. That’s evidence of wrongdoing needing to be investigated.” Dumbest bunch of sheep I’ve ever seen. What’s worse, most all of them are graduates of Ivy League universities as lawyers, doctors, and the like. Geeze!!!
I think their training and education is really evidence that all the innuendo and misinformation from such sources is deliberate. I wish I could file a Bar complaint against lawyers for lying outside the courtroom, not just inside.
To answer your question "... does anyone ever ask them ..." That is the job of JOURNALISTS, who unfortunately have been taught that they must be impartial to the point of not confronting Repugnant Party Right Wing LIES.
I totally agree with you, and it's sickening to me too that they are keeping things from the voters like that. The Rethuglicans know they can't win elections if they are fully exposed to their lying and deceitful ways. Disgusting is what it is..
Agreed and I really like your last line. Putting liars and paranoid people in charge of anything is never good.
As I first read that section of Heather’s letter, I reacted just like you. I thought Biden should sue tfg snd the Republican Party for libel! Something has to stop this egregious trend!!! Freedom of speech does not convey the right to damage the reputation of political opponents with falsehoods.
Sue the bastards!!
LOL Harvey,it’s funny anyhow ...but the example so marvelously being continued by ‘our President’ is let’s focus on the real issues as he rolls up his sleeves each day ( BRAVO!) .
Those falling off the cliff...you know , the ones with all the holes in their feet from their last shots/still smoking guns....won’t benefit much with damage control. Let them keep loading up ...
...we have better things to do , mates...better things to do ☺️
I rarely go on Twitter these days, but did see Professor Richardson push back on the "Biden family" suggestion, reminding in her tweet that 45 had his family "engaged."
Engaged?? What an understatement!
LOL, indeed, Maggie!
TFG might have his family “engaged”, but his dear daughter has thrown daddy’s ass under a big bus. She was questioned under a subpoena, wasn’t she?
Yes, she was, but whatever did she say is what I'd like to know.
You aren’t kidding. I bet she spilled her guts. With the stuff her hubby pulling with Saudi Arabia, it wouldn’t surprise me if the two of them didn’t move over there to get the hell away from “daddy”.
But, he’s already got in bed with the Saudi’s and created this professional golf thing that’s now teamed up with the professional golf organization here in the United States.
Stunning development with PGA caving. Seems like money always wins.
Yes, telling lies early gives time for them to spread like wildlife. We’ve seen this before. With and without tfg, it’s a red epidemic.
If it bleeds, it leads. So we remain one of the least informed of all developed countries.
J L,
This is a really tough one. "how is that that those we hire to manage government get to lie outrageously to us?"
I don't think it is illegal to lie in most cases of sending out a lie outside of being on a stand in a courtroom as a witness.
Perfectly legal. And, moreover, Trump lied with every sentence while he was President and is not being charged with lying. He is being charged with stealing apparently.
Lying is legal.
Lastly, the American people have shown a huge appetite for consuming lies as Fox News readily proves on a daily basis.
Americans love, love, love to be lied to.
Whoda thunk the “Space Alien in you cookie jar” headlines that screamed at us in the grocery store would become mainstream practice?
When I was a kid and saw an adult reading that claptrap while they waited in line at the checkout counter I thought “this is how I separate serious people from the buffoons”
Dave,
I remember in high school a rumor about one of my female classmates circulated that she was pregnant. This was back in a place and time where girls were required to drop out of school if they got pregnant.
Turns out she was not pregnant, BUT, after the mess the rumor made of her life, she dropped out of school anyway.
I remember how everyone was talking about it. I cannot say I participated by talking because, I was mostly surprised since she was well outside the circle of girls who were well known as accessible. But, I sure did listen with interest and no I did nothing to tamp the rumors down.
When the girl stopped showing up at school I felt bad for, umm, the rest of my life.
But I remember how everyone flocked to the lie and grew it into the truth even though, in the end, it was a lie.
I’d like to go back in time and shake some compassion into the kid I was sometimes. The bad stuff can be haunting. The good news is, I can recognize some of it now. Maturity can encourage wisdom, huh?
I can only say I did not participate in spreading any rumor because the girl was totally outside those known as accessible. However, I did not contest the rumor when I heard it either.
I stayed out of it. Which, makes me guilty. I did not actually believe the lie and I did nothing to put a stop to it or support her. I was a coward.
Maturity comes with regrets Dave, for me. I try not to let it bother me too much, and, it is one reason I never drink alcohol. For some reason, if I drink alcohol, the stuff I did in the past haunts me.
:-)
Acts of omission can be as damaging as acts of commission. Your brain knows this. Thank you for being good to your brain.
I had an exercise I used to do back when I was instructing law enforcement officers at the state academies. I had a single sentence written in a piece of paper. I showed it to the first officer on one side of the class. I had them disperse it to the officer behind them until it travelled through the entire class (usually 25-30 officers). At the other end, I had the final officer write in the board exactly what he was told. I then wrote what the original sentence was.
You’d be really shocked to know the difference in the two. Absolutely no comparison at all.
Mike, that is exactly the danger ⚠️ of ‘hearsay’. I was fortunate to sit on a grand jury in NYC for a long stretch, and the first thing we were told was about that term. Inadmissible as evidence.
I heard a story about myself that had circulated in the MA town I live in now that was twisted into an unrecognizable braid. The village mentality adores gossip. And that is now the viscous, mo even more, the deadly trademark of the Republican Party.
Yep. The village is not a bunch of nice folks trying to help each other. Sometimes anyway.
Not at all! Villages really are a bunch of nice folks trying to help each other. It's just that villages are so boring that you have to burn somebody at the stake every now and then just to liven things up.
Yikes!
Ages ago we would buy a couple of these hilarious rags, tuck them in our backpacks as “reading material” before a days-long hike into the wilderness…..in the evening around a campfire (if allowed) or camp stove, we would read the stories and howl with laughter.
Barbara,
Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/76-a-lie-can-travel-half-way-around-the-world-while
Who was responsible for putting that crap in our faces while we waited in line???
Right next to the Enquirer was Mad Magazine. The smart adults were reading that
The people who owned the grocery store chain who made money selling it.
Making money on lies is the American way Christy. No doubt.
Well, how else was I to learn about Hillary raising her alien baby and midgets training to be astronauts by tumbling in dryers??
I recall laughing my butt off because I saw on the cover of Weekly World News that Clinton (I THINK it was him) was with the same space alien as Ross Perot!!
And who can ever forget Bat Boy???? :D
When I was in high school I took an elective summer school class, Language and Persuasion. I learned about Dale Carnegie, “it’s possible to change other people’s behavior by changing one’s behavior towards them.”
Subliminal messages, Vance Packard, “The Hidden Persuaders” 1961. I graduated in 1964 and was fascinated by the way hidden messages can affect behavior. I pictured a subliminal message scrolling across the movie screen making me do something unethical or immoral or just making me hungry for popcorn. I was too naive to be scared until I watched “The Manchurian Candidate.” All these books and movies must be on the DeSatin’s Banned list. What people think without a foundation of understanding. They might be stuck in childhood problem solving and thinking.
Still true - there just seem to be far more buffoons these days.....
But Mike. Defamation can be costly. E. Jean Carroll proved that.
Yes,
Defamation can be costly. You are correct Bill. No doubt.
But, the cost of suing for defamation is, generally, well outside the financial wherewithal of, say, folks like me.
E. Jean Carroll probably had some financial help from someone who looked at her case and thought it might be worth funding.
Good point, Mike. Perhaps there should be a "Go Fund me" for the "Biden family" defamation lawsuit?
People have a need to hear that which will justify their bias.
It is also a way to keep the mind-controlled programming going so the cult members do not Wake Up. Woke is bad in the alternate universe.
Hmmm. Mike I don't believe lying is legal. There are an awful lot of lawyers who would tell you differently.
It does appear that, beginning with Newt Gingrich and Reagan lying became the accepted norm for the Republican Party. The MAGAs in true "1984" (the book) fashion now believe there is no such thing as truth.
I thought about trying to draft a retired-lawyer type response to Mike S's assertion, going down all the situations where lying is expressly illegal, usually by statute, none of which apply to public statements. Sure defamation and slander may apply, but very difficult to prove and you run into governmental immunity. Quantum meruit could conceivably apply, but again, you'd have to get around immunity and their habitual lying actually hurts your case.
And that's when I stopped, because I realized that as disgusting as it is, Mike S. is essentially correct: unless a specific law forbids it, lying is generally legal in the U.S.
Dirk, I am very sorry to be right. Very seriously.
Thanks for the post though.
Barbara.
IF lying is illegal, outside of being on a witness stand, then the law is essentially never enforced that I can perceive anyway.
Right now Jamie Dimon is claiming he never heard of Epstein before 2019 even though Epstein was a JP Morgan client from 2012 or so. Do you think the gov will arrest the guy they go to to bail out banks for them….for lying?
Naw. C’mon.
It is human to love confirmation bias and righteous superiority. I love it myself. My awareness of it allows me (mostly) not to get sucked in and insist upon evidence.
J.L., you make the point: "Politicians can affect millions of of lives, and even lives of generations yet to come." You are sooooo right, and the person who comes to my mind is Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and the architect of the New Deal (though FDR gets the credit.) Perkins' philosophy of government is to the point: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life." All the people. Amen to that. This is also posted in my home office.
And even a commenter on here seems to buy the Biden crime family bull Schitt. WTF
Those are the paid shills that show up as “Little Donald Segretti” clones
He's not a paid shill. In this case, he's got a different opinion and perhaps a perspective that we need to pay attention to.
We have an inadequate press, which is so worried about bottom line that they forgot to care about the truth. The ownership of the press is a big problem. That is something that needs fixing if we are to have a democracy.
Very true. One big difference between Watergate and now was more frequent, more robust and more fearless investigative journalism, or so it seems to me. The post Reagan/Friedman governmental bias toward facilitating profit over people is blatant and profoundly anti-democratic. The former CEO of CBS put it in a nutshell; https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/leslie-moonves-donald-trump-may-871464/
Sadly, all too sadly, under the right emotional circumstances, outright lying works, esp for audiences already prone to believe. GOP has been running this for a very long time. Straight out of the Nazi, but hardly only the Nazi, politics 101 playbook.
Lies, bribes and terror have kept despots in power for eons. Substantive lies are weapons that can enslave and kill. Democracy can survive lies, but only when they are exposed, and shown for what they are. Isn't that key to what genuine justice does?
Back in the 1950s Joe McCarthy attracted a formidable following, intimidating even Ike. When McCarthy attacked the military, that was the last straw, and he was brought to heel. It seems like modern "Republicans" and their wealthy patrons dusted off "Tailgunner Joe's" modus operandi as well as time tested "Divide and Rule" ever advancing despotic corruption in the intervening years.
J. L. It’s all projection. “Let’s accuse Biden of something “. “Why not say that his family accepts bribes through shell companies. I know some people who do that “. “Great! That sounds credible.”
I think of projection as a narcissistic delusion, but this is treachery.
Remember 2020 and the lies delivered during that election campaign? Buckle up... 2024 will be magnitudes worse.
How long can a nation's people choose to sit in an imaginary chair before it falls?
We have had decades of ad hominem attacks against liberals of all kinds and rank. It comes from elected officials, TV personalities, radio hosts, and in print. These are overwhelmingly lies purely to ruin people's reputations. Is there no recourse, no accountability? I really think these people should be taken to court. I would support a legal fund created by the Democratic Party, and anyone else who favors decency. This unpunished vitriol contributes significantly to the political divide. That is the intention. Prince Harry has called the Mirror publishers to account. I wish him a good outcome. Long overdue.
The Republican National Committee and the House Oversight Committee's chair it quotes are the ones who lie outrageously to us. We didn't hire them, but some of us may have voted for them. Expect no less when Republicans are elected to office. Remedy this when next you vote.
As slavery was once considered "normal", even by US presidents, subjugation of women was "normal", as was genocide against native people and quasi-serfdom imposed on workers. "Republicans" have initiated, "normalized" and ratcheted corruption for more that 40 years. Reviewing their latest exploits, at least on their side of it is like reading about one of "those" countries spiraling toward despotism. Yes, we must vote for democracy and integrity, and yes, we must make a bigger thing out of all lies, all the time. Have they no sense of decency?
I so agree with you..you and I would be in jail already
And there are plenty of real world examples.
There was a time when members of Congress risked censure, even from their own party, for making such statements. That said, the Constitution’s speech and debate clause protects them from lawsuits for slander, which Republicans increasing engage in as part of legislative speech.
Regardless, those who lie with abandon to accuse their political opponents of dastardly acts are morally bereft cretins.
Free speech, especially "objectionable speech" is essential, yet presents a conundrum. Perhaps the ultimate problem for governance is how to deal with those who use their share of rights and power abusively. That easy when it's a common thief but thievery can be subtle and like computer code, the law is full of "security flaws' that can be exploited, you patch one and another turns up. It is hard, probably impossible, to maintain a just society on law alone; there must be a preponderant societal commitment to dealing in good faith.
Nixon was impeached for a pattern of abuse of power the "Coverup", and important Republicans went along with it. Nixon's offenses seem almost quaint by today's standards. We became increasingly inured to dishonest, unprofessional public sphere behavior, and have not pushed back against it nearly strongly enough, in my opinion; though current and emerging "Stop the Steal" indictments are strong medicine. We the people are fools if we continue to tolerate the creeping, demonstrable, and worsening use blatant, weaponized lies in the court of public opinion.