On Sunday, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus forced a commercial airliner, operated by Ryanair, flying from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, out of the sky as it passed through the airspace over Belarus.
“ A new Gallup poll today finds that 53% of Republicans think that Trump won the 2020 election. But only 26% of Americans identify as Republicans. Journalist Richard Hine crunched the numbers and notes that those percentages boil down to about 14% of Americans who think Trump is still president. They are a minority, but they believe the former president, who continues to insist that he won the 2020 election despite all evidence to the contrary.”
Proof Albert Einstein was correct when he said, “ Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” I think he must have foreseen Trump Republicans.
Actually, my memory of human statistical measures is that both Yes and No will gather at least a 10% response, regardless of how batshit the question is. "Is the sky blue?" will get at least 10% No. "Should we destroy the world with nuclear bombs?" will get at least 10% Yes. I'm sure that 10% is not the exact value, but the point is that there's always noise at the fringe. So saying that 14% of the American public will say "Trump won the election" or "Trump is God" is not all that surprising.
A simply "ironic" version of the meaning, i assume. My definition here is Fern's. The word has totally lost its real meaning in the North American political context.
Part of the problem with Substack is that the original comment can be lost in the flurry of replies and subreplies and so on. She was referring to Albert Einstein.
And yet the R politicians in Congress are terrified of ticking off the 14%! And I agree, the amount of stupidity pertaining to anything IDJT is mind-boggling. Even after the last 5 years.
I tried to check the number of voters and their affiliation in the Gallup poll you refer to and could not find anything like the story you describe. It is lazy and incorrect for pollsters to talk about what Americans believe because millions do not vote.
Thank you for proving Einstein’s observation. Millions who don’t vote for whatever reason simply prove that stupidity is infinite. Although perhaps twinned in it's stretch by apathy and ignorance.
It may only be 14% of Americans who believe the Big Lie. The question remains: how many Americans does it take to exist in an alternate epistemological reality before the political structures begin to crumble? Maybe 14% is a dangerous number. Something to consider I think.
Kara posted link to a rather insightful opinion piece by Paul Krugman. His digging in to the “why” of the current character of a majority of the Repubs is spot on.
He contends it is the cowardice, not the craziness that is the threat to democracy.
that makes logical sense, but the situation may well be more like compromat (sp?). Hard to understand unless idjt has something on folks. Lindsay Graham comes to mind. Just doesn't make sense unless there is some money or secret being wielded.
And unfortunately they feel exactly the same about you...two sides of the same problem. Two parties that, in the view of "the other side", are moving towards the extremes and leaving the center bare...and available for new parties to emerge and better represent all of the people.
Though I agree with you in principle, I think the urge to declare that both sides are equally to blame is a dangerous one. The U.S. is not divided along progressive and conservative lines, not really. What we have is an extreme, radical right wing battling to pull the country ever further into their nihilistic vision with moderates and progressives resisting that pull. Practically speaking, the end result has been that the center is far from bare; rather, the extremity of the rightward pull exerted by Tea Party/Trumpists had dragged the entire debate to the center and away from true progressive values.
But you have to look also at the stresses and strains in the Democratic Party showing similar movements away from what was called the center. Biden is not a SuperHero with infinitly stretchable limbs enabling to hold the different sides together and keep a foot in both camps indefinitely on his own. Then I would say that, currently, the center is stretching thin in the elected sense and not in the electors sense of things. The largest part of the electorate will always huddle around the middle and thus the parties are leaving space for others to represent them more closely.
I disagree with that Stuart. Its a false equivalence to compare the fringes of both parties. One is full on pro voter suppression, rigging elections, gerrymandering, a big lie, promoting and passing laws to make it lawful to refuse to vote certification, and validating political violence as a means to do more than intimidate. While the other is working for equality before the law, the establishment of laws to protect citizens from extrajudicial killings (legal murder before being charged or taken to jail), stronger voting rights. These are not equivalent. One is working towards totalitarianism, the other towards individualism. We can not have both in this country.
Why should she be expected to? Despite her clarity of vision in regard to the ex-president and the "big lie," she is still a right wing Republican in full support of that party's anti-democratic agenda on both national, state and local levels.
If course she refused. She just wants Trump out of the way for her own run. Most Repubs these days “need” the voter suppression to win. Or do they think.
She certainly doesn't see herself remaining in the role of Woglunde, Wellgunda or Flosshilde.....rather as Erda, the earth mother! That however makes Trump into Wotan whom she warns to "foresake the ring". I would see Trump more in the role of Aberich corruptly obtaining the gold in the first place...and then losing it. The opera still has 3 operas to go to complete the Ring.....time for the "good gods" to sort out themselves and the world hopefully. in the meantime, the music is going to be highly "emotional".
The patron and financier of Wagner, the unfortunate Ludwig of Bavaria (and brother of Sissi the last Austro Hungarian Empress), came to a very sticky end when he really started to embarass the "powers that be" in Munich.
Much prefer Puccini and Verdi anyway! Not all the gods have gone of into the wild blue yonder however as we still have the god of money being worshiped everywhere.
I disagree only on your thoughts on Alberich. He paid for the gold fair and square. He was told to forsake love and he did. He never stole it. He played by the rules.
It is interesting to note, though, isn't it, that most of the Never Trump conservatives seem to be sitting this fight out and waiting to see what happens. They don't seem to realize that THEY are what is needed to make something happen. I have a bit of concern that inertia could allow that boisterous 14% to continue to control the party. The loud and aggressive almost always prevail in American politics.
Think of that same 43,000,000 may actually keep American society from reaching herd immunity by willfully refusing to vaccinate against COVID 19, and you get the idea how much influence they wield.
No they won't prevent herd immunity, but herd immunity is not a viable end to the pandemic due to ever changing virus. What they will do is provide bodies for more virulent strains to mutate. This group includes. Sen. Rand Paul.
43 M represents about 13% of the population. Most models assume "herd immunity" will be achieved with between 60 and 80% of the population resistant to the virus. Some studies (reported on PBS, for instance) suggest that 41% of Republicans are refusing the Covid jab. That leaves only 5% of the population who are total refusniks and as such they would not be a threat to their neighbours...at least for this...and the bug would not be able to maintain itself.
The vaccines do slow it down considerably but they don't stop it as they only partially protect against infection and transmission. Their true gift is to drastically reduce the need for hospitalization and the death rate. I think though that we can "look forward" to a seasonal bout with the disease as it wafts its way round the world year after year. Vaccinations will probably become annual...just like the Flu in its current "mature" state.
And just like the flu, the risk is in the variants. We only need to get a flu jab each year because of the rotating cast of different subtypes. Interesting research is going on for both flu and Covid vaccines to see if perhaps a more long-lasting immunity can be induced, I assume by targeting some antigen or another that all variants have in common. Science may save us yet!
I just saw last night that only 2% of Japan is vaccinated and they are experiencing a big surge, to the point of hospitals being overwhelmed. At present, the Tokyo Olympics are still planned to be held. There is serious concerns about it being a superspreader so I TRULY hope the IOC cancels it.
Not good fir Japan. Worse if it’s the new Indian and UK strains that are spreading. Seychelles had 62% vaxed and still had a crushing outbreak that overwhelmed their hospitals.
43 million zealots, led by the dictator wannabe. How many are already in our legislative and judicial branches? Percentages are closer to 50% there, eh?
Would you feel better if a more accurate headline began: 14% of 600 Republicans polled believe...
I believe you would feel better. In fact, maybe you wouldn’t bother reading the article. Polls can be wrong because they are a very small sampling. Just ask Hillary Clinton.
9% of the country think that 30million died of covid, a 100million think that Donald Trump was elected because of Russia, exponentially more people have been convinced of far bigger lies.
So you think there has been some turnaround in the press coverage in the last 10 months? Where have you been for the last 10 years, Hannity, Maddow, same thing they sell fear as a virtue, panic as logic and hate all day.
It's an opinion tracker. A poll. It measures people's responses to the press coverage, not the press coverage itself. Press coverage may or may not have changed significantly, but circumstances have definitely changed, to the point that I think there may have similar changes in the people's opinions in the last 10 months.
And where I've been for the past 10 years isn't watching some member of the talking herd on the boob tube.
No big surprise that the Mueller report confirms that Tя☭mp's campaign colluded with the Russians. Why else did AG Barr seek to scuttle the report? Why else was Manafort selected to be Tя☭mp's campaign chair??? Does Manafort's pardon cover this treasonous act?
Is it logical to deduce that Tя☭mp was elected illegally? Can Tя☭mp's judicial appointments be revoked, as a result?
It's time to bring accountability to those in government who protected Tя☭mp; to those who refused to impeach Tя☭mp. Accountability -- not South Africa-style truth and reconciliation.
Excellent questions. I doubt we'll have substantive answers, much less accountability. That said, imagine if the Trump children began providing evidence detailing the connections to Russia in return for lighter sentences.
Another intriguing question is why Manafort was intent on getting Trump to select Pence.
Pence fit the profile and demographic needed for the “christian fascism” strategy and tactics Manafort learned from Coach Putin’s philosopher Ivan Illyn. “The Road to Unfreedom”-Tim Snyder
Morning, cig!! All great questions here. I remember when the Mueller report came out. I did not see that by its wording it in any way exonerated TFG. I rejected then and still do Barr's spin.
I don't think those judicial appointments can be reversed. Though his election was almost certainly illegitimate in moral and ethical terms, constitutionally it is indisputably valid. Even if it weren't, I don't think there is any precedent for removing judges because they were nominated by an illegitimate President. For one thing, they were confirmed by the Senate and while they are abhorrent to us, the Senate Rs were constitutionally empowered to do so and they would also need to be overruled in order for any of the judges or justices they confirmed to have those confirmations reversed. Even then, the constitutionality of using anything other than impeachment to remove them would be suspect, I would imagine.
Kavanaugh should certainly be impeached. After his performance at his hearing he absolutely doesn’t belong. I would argue that Thomas should also be impeached. Neither one are of SCOTUS judicial fiber.
Kavanaugh has had some very shady financial windfalls. HCR has alluded to this before, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been following his smelly trail closely.
They were approved by the Senate and constitutionally they're the only ones a nominee has to satisfy as to their fitness. Now, if we can find some actual wrongdoing, that would be sweet, you're right!
As I have said before here, any weapon we use against them will eventually, inevitably, be used against us. Dems were the first to limit the filibuster for judicial appointments, a policy that was then extended by the Rs, for example. SCOTUS could be expanded by each party successively more or less forever.
Thank you so much, Dr. Richardson for providing the proper context to the “shocking” poll showing the 53% of Republicans believe Trump is President. The media, even the “liberal” media like MSNBC endlessly publicizes the raw number to scare the audience. I can’t think of another reason. But it’s 53% of 26%. Thanks for confirming what I thought to be the case.
But we should be scared! Whether we like it or not, the batshit fringe has control of the Senate and the Supreme Court. Those 14% are loud, aggressive, and highly motivated. And well-armed.
It’s not the batshit fringe that are dangerous. Well, I mean yes they are dangerous situationally. It’s the cowardly legislators that are the danger to our democracy.
I have this weird feeling today, Reid. I think President Biden is going to change course.
He has said so many times that he will not “do” inaction. I think PaJoe is about to flex some muscle.
Saturn opposing Uranus and the US’s Pluto return, all over the next two years will make for some very rough going. The turmoil is unfortunately not over.
Yes. I was just listening to something about the eclipse and the next two months and then the end of this year being particularly gnarly in the short term.
I hope you're right. He doesn't have a track record of political courage, but I get the sense he understands himself to be in a position to be a truly transformational President. As I have said before here, I am also very hopeful that he has surrounded himself with very bright political people and he listens to them.
I don't think of Biden's style as non-courageous. He is first a practical across-the-aisle negotiator, which is the natural tussle of a good democracy. Then, if that fails, he has a spine of stee to match the warmth of his heart. Watch.
I guess we'll see. In his career he has done a lot of gauging which way the wind blows before taking a position (see his tone deaf response to bussing, for instance). A politician doesn't last as long as Joe has without a lot of zigging and zagging. But he is in his last job and can afford to be bold and I believe he will be. Needs to be soon, though.
I couldn’t disagree more. It is shocking. It’s shocking because 1 in 7 adult Americans believe a pure and utter fantasy. It’s shocking because I’m sure that number is solidifying as people are being fed hope by widening election reviews - Alabama, Georgia, Wisconsin. ..
It’s shocking because if emboldens the Republican Party to believe that they are on the right track in their continuing obeisance to a lunatic.
It’s shocking because it promotes the disease of lying outrageously without fear of consequence. Morality is decaying at least at the edges in America.
It’s shocking because that small group is perpetrating acts of violence against Asians because Trump vilified them repeatedly. Now that that genie is out of the bottle, American Jews are becoming targets of random, violent attacks. Who can know the motivation. Maybe the recent conflict. Maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ratshit comparison of mask mandates to the Holocaust stirs up an old irrational anger.
It’s shocking because other Republicans who don’t believe the election was stolen, do not appear to be speaking up against it.
This is a moment when those with primally inhuman, nihilistic instincts feel that it’s time to see *how far they can go* (emphasis) in giving vent to evil. So a Lukashenko simply outwaits protesters and then when they have been worn down, pulls off a shocking attack on a commercial plane. A Samoan leader, ousted in an election, simply locks Parliament. Can I get away with this, he thinks.
That beast is loose among you. There have been no consequences for 1/6. Arrests yes, but no significant convictions and penalties. No commission with authority to subpoena witnesses. If this holds the foundations will shudder.
We must endure this time of waiting. The fundamental question of the survival of American democracy at this moment rests on the indictment, trial, conviction and sentencing of Trump. I pray that that they are using this time to make an airtight case against, as opposed to temporizing and trying to make a case that will sell to the other whatever% as to why they just can’t bring him to justice.
Hitler took power with only 36% of the vote in 1932. He was a legitimate (sort of) candidate. Here we have 14% who think on *zero evidence* that Trump was cheated out of victory. What number will that rise to when the Arizona audit “proves” that he was cheated there? When a Georgia audit does? We know that other states will jump into the queue with their own audits, as they have with enacting Draconian and breathtakingly stupid new legislation to restrict the vote.
*This* is the consequential moment. The 2022 election will either confirm the Republican grab for power or they will be routed.
No offense intended, but if you’re reassured that really it’s only 14% and the media shouldn’t be scaring us with numbers like 53%, I think you’re hiding behind the thinnest of fig leaves.
“I pray that that they are using this time to make an airtight case against, as opposed to temporizing and trying to make a case that will sell to the other whatever% as to why they just can’t bring him to justice.”
I’m convinced it’s airtight case.
The Arizona political stunt is being widely panned everywhere, including inside the justice system. The voting machines they’ve touched have already been identified as contaminated and unusable.
In the 2022 election, I believe the Republicans will be routed. I’ve been watching the trend for a year and a half now. The Republican Party is becoming marginalized. They are moving towards the fate of the California Republican Party, permanent minority status. That is the direction of travel. The speed of travel is anybody’s guess, but 2022 does not look good for the Republican Party.
As Annette and others have said, you are speaking for many many people. Here and abroad. I certainly understand the anxiety, the panic, there is some of that within my own family. The most shocking thing of all was January 6. Now post-election and post-1/6 we are witnessing the fallout, the fiasco of the old white racist society’s last wild attempts to cling to power. Their hold on power is disintegrating, as is their political party of choice. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as the English say.
Well, I will say that as soon as I saw so many of the Republican leadership DENOUNCE the violence and then AMPLIFY the lie, it reinforced to me that only truth will defuse this ticking bomb they have created.
So I believe their duplicity is their downfall. I feel it in the depths of my love for this country that our current president will do what is necessary to assure passage of the voting bills, the infrastructure bills.....basically all the action to guardrail and move our democracy out of the swamp, will happen. I’m actually pretty excited about it all.
Pres Biden strategically will always go bipartisan first, but don’t think for a minute he will get stuck there with a Dem majority to do the work and, as important, the majority of people that voted for him and are firmly behind him. A rather formidable group, if this stream serves as an example of that.
I choose to put my faith behind that. It’s my fuel for all the things we must do. There’s a lot of people to bring into the circle and off the caste ladder. Imagine the shame of it....400+ yrs.
I’ll repeat what I think was and is the original download from the Creator.
“We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.”
Roland, thank you for the link. It proves that there are at least some Republicans in the legislature who have decent intentions. My hopes for any moderation in the Republican party are quite low, but I still predict that the majority of voters will be able to place the blame squarely where it belongs, and that Biden will fulfill our confidence that he'll unequivocally support any and all efforts to eviscerate Trump and his acolytes, including Bill Barr, formerly described as "a lawyer's lawyer," prior to his elevation to AG. Quite the joke, right?
That’s OK. As I said, members of my family don’t feel it either. Maybe that’s why I’m around. I am fortunate to be seeing an optimistic trend.
Do I understand Eric’s feeling of being shocked? Hell yes. Do I understand the anxiety and the concern? Hell yes. We wouldn’t all be here on this channel otherwise.
Eric, you have aptly described how many of us are feeling. Shocked, yes, but outraged too. I am outraged at all the things you described. I am outraged that my local county's election supervisor and his family received such death threats (after saying that the election was not stolen) that he had to work with the county sheriff and Homeland Security for protection. I am outraged that my newspaper is covering pablum stories about construction in downtown instead of raising the alarm. I am outraged that all of these proposed election laws are designed with one purpose, to keep Republicans in power. I could go on and on.
It would be interesting to know, though, wouldn't it, how many of those "independents" also believe Trump won? And how many of them are never-Trumpers but also oppose a progressive agenda. My sense is that many, many of the 74 million who voted for Trump were actually holding their noses and voting against an even mildly progressive vision generally and Joe Biden specifically. 2022 may well be the most consequential election in our lifetimes.
Additional information in Timothy Snyder's essay on this arrest of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich by Pres. Lukashenko and the news agency Protasevich worked for, NEXTA, a Telegram channel that provided Belarusians with the facts about what was happening in their own country:
Thank you, Ellie. We have lost local news and desperately need more journalists here. I copied an except from Snyder's essay about reporters. They are a crucial element of the essay.
'Reporters are the heroes of our time, in eastern Europe and everywhere else. Watching the risks they take and the price they pay, we should be ashamed to have any association with anyone who would say that reporters are "enemies of the people." Reporters are the friends of the people. In fact, they are just about the only friends that we the people have.' (Snyder)
If we imagine that either Maddow or Snyder were taken from the sky and tortured, we would be closer to understanding the impact of such a horrendous operation.
Our own Sandy Lewis brought him up a couple of months ago. He wrote a great little book, (4" x 6") "On Tyranny: 20 lessons from the 20th Century" A great book for a civics class.
Fascinating, Ellie.... thanks for this article. It's eye-opening to realize that Russia was probably the instigator of this operation, given the intelligence tradecraft necessary to pull it off. Tie in the Paul Manafort story, and ТЯцм₽'s collusion, and it starts to seem like there's an international club of despots, like one of the elite casinos in Monte Carlo where the ugly rich gamble for millions after midnight. Sort of a parallel to the United Nations; the United Totalitarianisms. And you know that Tя☭mp joins Kim Jong Un and Putin there in the V.I.P. room to clink glasses and celebrate after a great day at the races.
Thanks, HCR, for always providing context to all the craziness flying around us. Belarus seems like exactly what Trump wanted America to become. Think about that for a second. Also, I wonder when we will ever get into the depths of treachery that the Trump Administration instigated during his reign! Every time you turn over another Trump rock, vermin crawls out. God bless Joe Biden and his team who are doing their best to return some sense of normalcy. Whatever that is.
With all the continuing stress in the world, still feel much calmer every day.
Yep, crazy autocrat who rigs elections, uses military and judicial system for his own purposes and against perceived enemies; and thinks he’s God. What did I miss?
Thank you, thank you, thank you for showing the math that only 14% of the electorate think DT won the election! Finally! To have meaningful statistics! I always mutter under my breath when I see the polls that show only Rs and Ds and leave out the 38% of the population which identify as Independents. I always want to know 26% of what? Or has the percent of Rs gone up or down since the last time the poll said 53% of Rs believe in the Big Lie. Let's stop using statistics that are meaningless! It is such a treat to see the full story!
One of the issues is that with Red State gerrymandering, it is nearly impossible for a Dem to be elected, even if every Dem voted. It's one of the reasons that those now holding the Senate hostage represent only 34% of voters.
The Letter went from President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus ordering a MiG-29 fighter jet to divert a commercial plane for the purpose of capturing 26-year-old Roman Protasevich (an opposition journalist) to news that the United States Commerce Department was turned into a rogue counterintelligence operation for the past few years.
' Lukashenko, who has been called “Europe’s Last Dictator,” has been president of Belarus since 1994 and claimed to be reelected on August 9, 2020, with 80% of the vote, although before the election the president’s security forces threw journalists, political opponents, activists, and human rights defenders in jail. After the election, security forces arrested almost 7000 people in four days, denying many food and water and torturing hundreds of them. By mid-November, the number arrested had climbed to more than 25,000 people.' (The Letter)
Our former president was a piece of cake compared to Lukashenko. (seven layer cake?)
In between the two bombshells that I noted from the Letter,, 'new documents unsealed in the Paul Manafort case today show that the Trump campaign chair did, indeed, collude with his partner Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian operative, before the 2016 election.' (The Letter) That piece of news won't surprise many, but I learned something tonight that may startle a few.
'Antigovernment provocateur Ammon Bundy filed papers to run for governor in Idaho next year, even though he's not currently registered to vote or legally allowed to set foot on Capitol grounds.'
'Secretary of State candidacy records show Bundy listing his address as a post-office box in Emmett, with a local contractor, Aaron Welling, acting as treasurer. He would be seeking the 2022 GOP nomination for the state's top post, currently held by Republican Brad Little. The governor had been unsuccessfully targeted for recall by anti-government activists unhappy with shutdowns he ordered in response to the pandemic.' (NBC News)
Bundy a 'car fleet manager by profession, gained widespread attention by leading the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.[7][8][9] He is the son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was the central figure in the 2014 Bundy standoff regarding unpaid grazing fees on federally-owned public land.'
'In August 2020, Bundy was arrested twice over a two-day period at the Idaho State Capitol after leading a large group of maskless protesters who were protesting the Idaho stay-at-home order and related Idaho COVID-19 legislation. He was first arrested on August 25, 2020, and charged with criminal trespass for actively disrupting legislative hearings and refusing to leave the building when directed to do so by the Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives. He was also charged with resisting arrest.' (Wikipedia) Bundy was arrested five more times after August, 2020.
How about this All American Nut'n better Crazy Pie?
Bundy's papers were rejected because he listed himself as the campaign treasurer. The treasurer has to be a registered voter. Unfortunately, he can resubmit. You should read up on their Lt. Gov who is running for governor. Another crazy!
Again, so much of my long personal history is brot up here. From the late 1960s with “Not a Crook” Richard Nixon keeping dossiers on political opponents. It was a bragging point if you were in one and it even went beyond J. Edgar Hoover’s liking who kept tabs on Martin Luther King Jr. and Sammy Davis Jr. for their defiance of the racial status quo. And from that paranoid time we have gone back to “a rogue counterintelligence operation over the past few years, collecting information on hundreds of people suspected of talking critically about the 2020 U.S. census” ... that “has been allowed to operate far outside the bounds of federal law enforcement norms and has created an environment of paranoia and retaliation.”
When I was in the U.S. Air Force in the mid 1960s, I was stationed in Turkey spying on the Soviet Union radio communications. When I left, I flew back on a Pan Am jet, an international carrier, which even in the Cold War landed in Moscow. I found it strange at that time being a U.S. military man with a Top Secret clearance and information sitting on a plane in the Soviet Union. We didn’t leave the plane and I was wearing civvies. Some women came on and cleaned the plane while we sat in our seats. Still surreal but apparently civil airlines were left alone in international travel. So, things may now be worse than during the Cold War.
BTW, that spelling confusion of Roman Protasevich (also spelled Raman Pratasevich) might be due to the strange pronunciation of “o” in Russian. It is pronounced “a.” I was taught a few words in Russian for radioprinter readouts, so it was written not verbal. I always pronounced спасибо (thanks) as it was spelled “spacibo.” It wasn’t until working with Russians in Miami that I learned it is pronounced “spaciba.” This is a problem here and I tried to convince my Russian boss that calling Fernando “Fernanda” might be insulting.
Now when rogue groups and regimes have nothing better to do, they target and down civilian aircraft passing overhead for "practice" or whatever using the ground to air missiles that the arms industry still finds a way to supply them. They are not necessarily all Russian, Chinese or "home-made" à la Hamas. Time to make these governments "a little more careful"for fear of the consequences.
Rob and TC are fascinating additions here. Each one of them alone is worth the price of admission. (The time investment of reading through Comments, not the paltry $5 a month)
Some people may call Lukashenko Europe's last dictator, but only those who leave Russia out of Europe. Otherwise, they'd and Putin to the list and describe Lukashenko as one of Europe's two remaining dictators. While we're considering European leaders, there is an aspirant to being Europe's third dictator -- Viktor Orban, whose title is Prime Minister of Hungary.
I just look back into the history of this land over the last few centuries. Alternately Russian and Polish....moving back and forwards with the wavering Austro-Russo-Prussian balance of power...and only a country since the Soviet Union finally imploded in 1991. The spirit of the people is amazing in the face of no democratic "tradition" whatsoever....just the reflection of their European neighbour's freedoms.
The problem sanctions are going to have evidently is with the long common border the country has with Putin's Russia. The European's could close off the road and rail access too, but everything will just be diverted via Moscow or Kalingrad. Means have to be found to free the people of this Russian puppet as in Ukraine before they are re-absorbed totally by the Bear.
Offenses against God, humanity and nature that have not yet lead fully either to the perpetrators downfall or to the full and public recognition of the crimes.
Not much difference between Trump and his gang of hoodlums and the Lukashenko "family". Same methods, same "mantra", same lies, same objectives......pillage of the people and the country and rape of the constitution...pirates indeed!
Pirates die out or are forced to the geographic margins once governments impose forcibly the rule of law irrespective of the popularity or influence of the pirate or when the societies and governments refuse absolutely to facilitate the monetization of the pirates "booty"...it has to cost them very dearly in every possible way to continue.
Isolation is a good place to start be it for Trump, Lukashenko, Putin.....or any other wouldbe terrorist. Then you can get down to the solid business of undermining both them and the backers , emptying their pockets and depriving them of the means to impose their will and spew their lies.
A wonderful thing that the effort to smear Biden failed so spectacularly though, isn't it? Our government may be dysfunctional, but it sometimes does function properly.
Our world is getting ever more dangerous as autocrats like Lukashenko see that they can commit acts of violence, terrorism and election interference with impunity.
Putin freely poisons his opponents, interfes in our elections and across the world, takes territory like the Crimea.
Netanyahu bombs Palestinian hospitals, schools, residential buildings, international news media offices and municipal utilities killing noncombatant men, women and children.
Trump creates a new Republican Party based on conspiracy theories, promoting hate crimes and attacks against his opponents and those who try to speak truth, calling our elections fraudulent when he doesn't win, inciting the January 6th insurrection until our democracy is in doubt on all sides.
None
All of the authoritarian figures in the 21st Century operate on a mob boss model with similar disinformation tools. Not all that different than the white supremacy leaders in the south that created a one party system with impunity with no effective Constitutional protections. Without a democratic citizenry with our own strong constitution to fight this, the world has no response.
Trump and all of his friends and cohorts around the world are out right criminals. Justice requires even stronger measures against their measures.
It would sure be nice if the mainstream news media would include "those percentages boil down to about 14% of Americans who think Trump is still president" in their reporting instead of using only the larger percentage numbers--terrifying the reasonable public into thinking there are many thousands more rabid Trump followers with an unshakeable belief in their hero's parallel-world concept of reality.
Yes. Yes. Yes. The incomplete reporting of the pollsters ( samples of only 1,000 people usually) embolden the crazed cult especially when the media reports a headline about what Americans think. I have said this for years, writing to politicians, columnists and pollsters. It’s a lonely soapbox.
I’m on the box with you. My annoyance with deceptive and simplistic headlines along with the constant misleading “Breaking News” tv bulletins has evolved to rage at the media’s decision to whip up every group against other groups and promote fear... all to increase viewership and $$. I continue to get my basic news from print, but that’s being decimated so fast it may not be an option for long.
And I'm second, just before bedtime. Thank you, Heather, for clarifying a(nother) complicated news story and for helping us make sense of a world that seems spinning out of control.
Surely the former (life) has improved; and as to the latter I find it immensely reassuring (from a distance) that you now have a President who is rational and committed to doing right.
I think things are improving, but the wheels of democracy grind exceedingly slow. I think we may see a reversion to R control of House and/or Senate in 2022, but those people in the mushy middle are beginning to wake up, which gives me hope for 2024. The 14% figure is very hopeful; we can afford to simply give up on them and focus our attentions on those who consider themselves independent, which is precisely what it seems to me Biden is doing. He is making life better for the average person and demonstrating what a functional, adult U.S. government can accomplish. Hopefully, it will have the salutary effect we are hoping for.
“ A new Gallup poll today finds that 53% of Republicans think that Trump won the 2020 election. But only 26% of Americans identify as Republicans. Journalist Richard Hine crunched the numbers and notes that those percentages boil down to about 14% of Americans who think Trump is still president. They are a minority, but they believe the former president, who continues to insist that he won the 2020 election despite all evidence to the contrary.”
Proof Albert Einstein was correct when he said, “ Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” I think he must have foreseen Trump Republicans.
Actually, my memory of human statistical measures is that both Yes and No will gather at least a 10% response, regardless of how batshit the question is. "Is the sky blue?" will get at least 10% No. "Should we destroy the world with nuclear bombs?" will get at least 10% Yes. I'm sure that 10% is not the exact value, but the point is that there's always noise at the fringe. So saying that 14% of the American public will say "Trump won the election" or "Trump is God" is not all that surprising.
“Noise at the fringe ...”. Fringe is exactly the correct characterization.
Turns out that 7% of Americans think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
It doesn’t?!?
He was a Socialist.
Fine w me
So what?
And?
Which bit is intrinsically "socialist"....the infinite nature of the universe or....
And which definition of "socialist" is being used here?
A simply "ironic" version of the meaning, i assume. My definition here is Fern's. The word has totally lost its real meaning in the North American political context.
Who? "he" doesn't specify which person you're referring to as being a Socialist..
Part of the problem with Substack is that the original comment can be lost in the flurry of replies and subreplies and so on. She was referring to Albert Einstein.
100% yeah Bruce!
And yet the R politicians in Congress are terrified of ticking off the 14%! And I agree, the amount of stupidity pertaining to anything IDJT is mind-boggling. Even after the last 5 years.
They fail the same mental competency test as the Trump base.
Yeah - even worse - sorry to say they likely know better! Jerks(I'm being polite).
you GO! Brother!
I tried to check the number of voters and their affiliation in the Gallup poll you refer to and could not find anything like the story you describe. It is lazy and incorrect for pollsters to talk about what Americans believe because millions do not vote.
Thank you for proving Einstein’s observation. Millions who don’t vote for whatever reason simply prove that stupidity is infinite. Although perhaps twinned in it's stretch by apathy and ignorance.
It may only be 14% of Americans who believe the Big Lie. The question remains: how many Americans does it take to exist in an alternate epistemological reality before the political structures begin to crumble? Maybe 14% is a dangerous number. Something to consider I think.
That’s 43,000,000 people who believe the big lie.
Has there ever been 1 million marchers for any cause just or unjust in DC before?
So I am not at ease with 13-14%. The threat to democracy remains concrete at 43 million deluded cultish followers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_in_the_United_States_by_size
If one were to include the whole world in the 2017 Women's March, the number would be 7,000,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Women%27s_March
OOh. That was fun. Thanks.
Kara posted link to a rather insightful opinion piece by Paul Krugman. His digging in to the “why” of the current character of a majority of the Repubs is spot on.
He contends it is the cowardice, not the craziness that is the threat to democracy.
Of course they’re all afraid of bully Cheeto and losing their power.
But if they all just got together and said, "Go away, Donald," they could diminish his power, I would think.
They’re just too afraid of him l think. He is vengeful.
that makes logical sense, but the situation may well be more like compromat (sp?). Hard to understand unless idjt has something on folks. Lindsay Graham comes to mind. Just doesn't make sense unless there is some money or secret being wielded.
Yes I see your point.
But happily not 74 million. It's a start and it leaves 31 million for Liz Cheney etc to chew on.
Yes, Stuart, but that makes me uneasy also. Just so hard to trust Liz or any other Repub.
And unfortunately they feel exactly the same about you...two sides of the same problem. Two parties that, in the view of "the other side", are moving towards the extremes and leaving the center bare...and available for new parties to emerge and better represent all of the people.
Though I agree with you in principle, I think the urge to declare that both sides are equally to blame is a dangerous one. The U.S. is not divided along progressive and conservative lines, not really. What we have is an extreme, radical right wing battling to pull the country ever further into their nihilistic vision with moderates and progressives resisting that pull. Practically speaking, the end result has been that the center is far from bare; rather, the extremity of the rightward pull exerted by Tea Party/Trumpists had dragged the entire debate to the center and away from true progressive values.
Yes. Well said. Sadly.
But you have to look also at the stresses and strains in the Democratic Party showing similar movements away from what was called the center. Biden is not a SuperHero with infinitly stretchable limbs enabling to hold the different sides together and keep a foot in both camps indefinitely on his own. Then I would say that, currently, the center is stretching thin in the elected sense and not in the electors sense of things. The largest part of the electorate will always huddle around the middle and thus the parties are leaving space for others to represent them more closely.
I disagree with that Stuart. Its a false equivalence to compare the fringes of both parties. One is full on pro voter suppression, rigging elections, gerrymandering, a big lie, promoting and passing laws to make it lawful to refuse to vote certification, and validating political violence as a means to do more than intimidate. While the other is working for equality before the law, the establishment of laws to protect citizens from extrajudicial killings (legal murder before being charged or taken to jail), stronger voting rights. These are not equivalent. One is working towards totalitarianism, the other towards individualism. We can not have both in this country.
I'm not comparing them, Ted, just saying they are pulling further apart.
Why should she be expected to? Despite her clarity of vision in regard to the ex-president and the "big lie," she is still a right wing Republican in full support of that party's anti-democratic agenda on both national, state and local levels.
If course she refused. She just wants Trump out of the way for her own run. Most Repubs these days “need” the voter suppression to win. Or do they think.
Liz Cheney is the nymphs that protect the gold in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. She guards the gold and despises the masses. No love lost for Liz
She certainly doesn't see herself remaining in the role of Woglunde, Wellgunda or Flosshilde.....rather as Erda, the earth mother! That however makes Trump into Wotan whom she warns to "foresake the ring". I would see Trump more in the role of Aberich corruptly obtaining the gold in the first place...and then losing it. The opera still has 3 operas to go to complete the Ring.....time for the "good gods" to sort out themselves and the world hopefully. in the meantime, the music is going to be highly "emotional".
The patron and financier of Wagner, the unfortunate Ludwig of Bavaria (and brother of Sissi the last Austro Hungarian Empress), came to a very sticky end when he really started to embarass the "powers that be" in Munich.
It would also behoove us to recall that, despite their erstwhile hegemony, the gods walk over the Rainbow Bridge into irrelevance.
Much prefer Puccini and Verdi anyway! Not all the gods have gone of into the wild blue yonder however as we still have the god of money being worshiped everywhere.
I disagree only on your thoughts on Alberich. He paid for the gold fair and square. He was told to forsake love and he did. He never stole it. He played by the rules.
a very bad deal nonetheless and he didn't keep it long. He ended up with no love and no gold!
I know, right? How far the country has fallen if we are looking to her to save us.
Liz is making a good bet. Numbers are on her side,
It is interesting to note, though, isn't it, that most of the Never Trump conservatives seem to be sitting this fight out and waiting to see what happens. They don't seem to realize that THEY are what is needed to make something happen. I have a bit of concern that inertia could allow that boisterous 14% to continue to control the party. The loud and aggressive almost always prevail in American politics.
Cowardice is why they APPEAR to be “sitting this fight out”.
Courage has rarely been the "forte" of the quiet and somewhat timerous!
If she's got the "chuzpah" . She's got the money.
Going off on a tangent... https://youtu.be/52YxdYmLq24
Yes sir! Yes it does
Think of that same 43,000,000 may actually keep American society from reaching herd immunity by willfully refusing to vaccinate against COVID 19, and you get the idea how much influence they wield.
No they won't prevent herd immunity, but herd immunity is not a viable end to the pandemic due to ever changing virus. What they will do is provide bodies for more virulent strains to mutate. This group includes. Sen. Rand Paul.
The most likely solution is natural selection.
Unfortunately, for that to work they have to die before they reproduce. 😁
Exactly.
43 M represents about 13% of the population. Most models assume "herd immunity" will be achieved with between 60 and 80% of the population resistant to the virus. Some studies (reported on PBS, for instance) suggest that 41% of Republicans are refusing the Covid jab. That leaves only 5% of the population who are total refusniks and as such they would not be a threat to their neighbours...at least for this...and the bug would not be able to maintain itself.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/as-more-americans-get-vaccinated-41-of-republicans-still-refuse-covid-19-shots
Need higher than 80% globally. As long as there is a reservoir, pandemic Continues. The rate of vax is also critically important.
The vaccines do slow it down considerably but they don't stop it as they only partially protect against infection and transmission. Their true gift is to drastically reduce the need for hospitalization and the death rate. I think though that we can "look forward" to a seasonal bout with the disease as it wafts its way round the world year after year. Vaccinations will probably become annual...just like the Flu in its current "mature" state.
And just like the flu, the risk is in the variants. We only need to get a flu jab each year because of the rotating cast of different subtypes. Interesting research is going on for both flu and Covid vaccines to see if perhaps a more long-lasting immunity can be induced, I assume by targeting some antigen or another that all variants have in common. Science may save us yet!
I just saw last night that only 2% of Japan is vaccinated and they are experiencing a big surge, to the point of hospitals being overwhelmed. At present, the Tokyo Olympics are still planned to be held. There is serious concerns about it being a superspreader so I TRULY hope the IOC cancels it.
Not good fir Japan. Worse if it’s the new Indian and UK strains that are spreading. Seychelles had 62% vaxed and still had a crushing outbreak that overwhelmed their hospitals.
But as a quick aside, when you add the folks who cannot get the vaccine, 43 M “refusniks” can change the outcome.
Yep.
Seychelles. 38% unvaccinated, kept epidemic going and overwhelmed their hospitals.
Yes. This is a very important thing to remember. We just don’t know enough about the virus and the vaccines yet.
43 million zealots, led by the dictator wannabe. How many are already in our legislative and judicial branches? Percentages are closer to 50% there, eh?
Primaries favour extremists when that much money is floating about.
No it’s not. At least a third of eligible voters in most states did not even vote.
13% of 331 million=?
Tears
What percentage of Congress is the thing to consider....
Would you feel better if a more accurate headline began: 14% of 600 Republicans polled believe...
I believe you would feel better. In fact, maybe you wouldn’t bother reading the article. Polls can be wrong because they are a very small sampling. Just ask Hillary Clinton.
Epistemological reality, really?
9% of the country think that 30million died of covid, a 100million think that Donald Trump was elected because of Russia, exponentially more people have been convinced of far bigger lies.
https://www.kekstcnc.com/media/2793/kekstcnc_research_covid-19_opinion_tracker_wave-4.pdf
The information in your link might be more persuasive if it wasn't ten months out of date.
So you think there has been some turnaround in the press coverage in the last 10 months? Where have you been for the last 10 years, Hannity, Maddow, same thing they sell fear as a virtue, panic as logic and hate all day.
It's an opinion tracker. A poll. It measures people's responses to the press coverage, not the press coverage itself. Press coverage may or may not have changed significantly, but circumstances have definitely changed, to the point that I think there may have similar changes in the people's opinions in the last 10 months.
And where I've been for the past 10 years isn't watching some member of the talking herd on the boob tube.
Best not to try to prove your points by being offensive and rude as you make your points.
As I've said elsewhere today, this might not be the forum for you.
May you find peace wherever you end up.
No big surprise that the Mueller report confirms that Tя☭mp's campaign colluded with the Russians. Why else did AG Barr seek to scuttle the report? Why else was Manafort selected to be Tя☭mp's campaign chair??? Does Manafort's pardon cover this treasonous act?
Is it logical to deduce that Tя☭mp was elected illegally? Can Tя☭mp's judicial appointments be revoked, as a result?
It's time to bring accountability to those in government who protected Tя☭mp; to those who refused to impeach Tя☭mp. Accountability -- not South Africa-style truth and reconciliation.
Excellent questions. I doubt we'll have substantive answers, much less accountability. That said, imagine if the Trump children began providing evidence detailing the connections to Russia in return for lighter sentences.
Another intriguing question is why Manafort was intent on getting Trump to select Pence.
Pence fit the profile and demographic needed for the “christian fascism” strategy and tactics Manafort learned from Coach Putin’s philosopher Ivan Illyn. “The Road to Unfreedom”-Tim Snyder
That is accurate. Pence has always made me shiver a bit.
Oh, he is horrifying. Only in contrast to the truly unhinged Trump does he appear to be a reasonable human being. One has only to recall his inaction during the HIV crisis when he was governor to understand his death cult leanings. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/pence-s-handling-2015-hiv-outbreak-gets-new-scrutiny-n1144786
A lot. He need not have worried about me (a woman) being in a room alone with him. Creepy.
me either! Except for the temptation to do harm!
He was supposed also to be supine and obediant to the "beloved leader's every wish....not quite fortunately, but very nearly.
Morning, cig!! All great questions here. I remember when the Mueller report came out. I did not see that by its wording it in any way exonerated TFG. I rejected then and still do Barr's spin.
Morning, Lynell! The handling of the Mueller Report will, I devoutly hope, see Bill Barr prosecuted and imprisoned as a traitor.
Hoping with you, Ally!!
If only
I don't think those judicial appointments can be reversed. Though his election was almost certainly illegitimate in moral and ethical terms, constitutionally it is indisputably valid. Even if it weren't, I don't think there is any precedent for removing judges because they were nominated by an illegitimate President. For one thing, they were confirmed by the Senate and while they are abhorrent to us, the Senate Rs were constitutionally empowered to do so and they would also need to be overruled in order for any of the judges or justices they confirmed to have those confirmations reversed. Even then, the constitutionality of using anything other than impeachment to remove them would be suspect, I would imagine.
Isn't the Supreme Court awfully small for a country of this size? Time to expand. (And investigate Kavanaugh).
Kavanaugh should certainly be impeached. After his performance at his hearing he absolutely doesn’t belong. I would argue that Thomas should also be impeached. Neither one are of SCOTUS judicial fiber.
Kavanaugh has had some very shady financial windfalls. HCR has alluded to this before, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been following his smelly trail closely.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a35853157/sheldon-whitehouse-brett-kavanaugh-debts/
Have you ever read Sen. Whitehouse's piece on the Federalist Society? https://medium.com/senator-sheldon-whitehouse/the-third-federalist-society-f8a3ff2e19fd
They were approved by the Senate and constitutionally they're the only ones a nominee has to satisfy as to their fitness. Now, if we can find some actual wrongdoing, that would be sweet, you're right!
Lying under oath at your own confirmation hearing should certainly count as “wrongdoing”? https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/15/20866829/brett-kavanaugh-perjury-confirmation-hearing-deborah-ramirez-new-allegations
I would support that, for sure! Pretty steep hill to climb, though.
http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/is-justice-clarence-thomas-guilty-of-felony-ethics-violations?news=842210
As I have said before here, any weapon we use against them will eventually, inevitably, be used against us. Dems were the first to limit the filibuster for judicial appointments, a policy that was then extended by the Rs, for example. SCOTUS could be expanded by each party successively more or less forever.
I agree. Also, aint gonna happen.
Thank you so much, Dr. Richardson for providing the proper context to the “shocking” poll showing the 53% of Republicans believe Trump is President. The media, even the “liberal” media like MSNBC endlessly publicizes the raw number to scare the audience. I can’t think of another reason. But it’s 53% of 26%. Thanks for confirming what I thought to be the case.
But we should be scared! Whether we like it or not, the batshit fringe has control of the Senate and the Supreme Court. Those 14% are loud, aggressive, and highly motivated. And well-armed.
It’s not the batshit fringe that are dangerous. Well, I mean yes they are dangerous situationally. It’s the cowardly legislators that are the danger to our democracy.
I have this weird feeling today, Reid. I think President Biden is going to change course.
He has said so many times that he will not “do” inaction. I think PaJoe is about to flex some muscle.
Agree with Christine. Hey, blood moon and Mercury in retrograde in the same week. Lookout kiddies the ship may hit the sand here soon.
Pluto squaring everything in sight is already wrecking havoc with all the worlds existing structures and institutions....the more the merrier!
Saturn opposing Uranus and the US’s Pluto return, all over the next two years will make for some very rough going. The turmoil is unfortunately not over.
Interesting. Thank you Stuart and Pamsy and everyone else for the readings.
1st Moon energy!
All my crystals will go outside in the moonlight tonight and stay there until moonset on Friday.
Yeeesssssssss!
Yes.. a lot going on “in the stars” over the next two months. Hang on.
More like 2 years than 2 months unfortunately.
Yes. I was just listening to something about the eclipse and the next two months and then the end of this year being particularly gnarly in the short term.
I know Charlie! I know that’s tied into the “feeling”! I have.
And the May full is also called the “flower” moon. “April showers bring May flowers.”
At least tomorrow morning's massive full moon will change the awful weather that we have been having here in May. The sunshine is coming back.
I hope you're right. He doesn't have a track record of political courage, but I get the sense he understands himself to be in a position to be a truly transformational President. As I have said before here, I am also very hopeful that he has surrounded himself with very bright political people and he listens to them.
They've got a fight on their hands. Time to get down to the rough stuff.
I don't think of Biden's style as non-courageous. He is first a practical across-the-aisle negotiator, which is the natural tussle of a good democracy. Then, if that fails, he has a spine of stee to match the warmth of his heart. Watch.
I guess we'll see. In his career he has done a lot of gauging which way the wind blows before taking a position (see his tone deaf response to bussing, for instance). A politician doesn't last as long as Joe has without a lot of zigging and zagging. But he is in his last job and can afford to be bold and I believe he will be. Needs to be soon, though.
TOTALLY AGREE MaryPat! Thank you.
Steel.
Interesting. We’ll see about the Bidenator.
Bidenator!
Hope you're right Christine. It's time.
Good point, Reid. Some of those in higher places are more than batshit crazy. They're scary!
I couldn’t disagree more. It is shocking. It’s shocking because 1 in 7 adult Americans believe a pure and utter fantasy. It’s shocking because I’m sure that number is solidifying as people are being fed hope by widening election reviews - Alabama, Georgia, Wisconsin. ..
It’s shocking because if emboldens the Republican Party to believe that they are on the right track in their continuing obeisance to a lunatic.
It’s shocking because it promotes the disease of lying outrageously without fear of consequence. Morality is decaying at least at the edges in America.
It’s shocking because that small group is perpetrating acts of violence against Asians because Trump vilified them repeatedly. Now that that genie is out of the bottle, American Jews are becoming targets of random, violent attacks. Who can know the motivation. Maybe the recent conflict. Maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ratshit comparison of mask mandates to the Holocaust stirs up an old irrational anger.
It’s shocking because other Republicans who don’t believe the election was stolen, do not appear to be speaking up against it.
This is a moment when those with primally inhuman, nihilistic instincts feel that it’s time to see *how far they can go* (emphasis) in giving vent to evil. So a Lukashenko simply outwaits protesters and then when they have been worn down, pulls off a shocking attack on a commercial plane. A Samoan leader, ousted in an election, simply locks Parliament. Can I get away with this, he thinks.
That beast is loose among you. There have been no consequences for 1/6. Arrests yes, but no significant convictions and penalties. No commission with authority to subpoena witnesses. If this holds the foundations will shudder.
We must endure this time of waiting. The fundamental question of the survival of American democracy at this moment rests on the indictment, trial, conviction and sentencing of Trump. I pray that that they are using this time to make an airtight case against, as opposed to temporizing and trying to make a case that will sell to the other whatever% as to why they just can’t bring him to justice.
Hitler took power with only 36% of the vote in 1932. He was a legitimate (sort of) candidate. Here we have 14% who think on *zero evidence* that Trump was cheated out of victory. What number will that rise to when the Arizona audit “proves” that he was cheated there? When a Georgia audit does? We know that other states will jump into the queue with their own audits, as they have with enacting Draconian and breathtakingly stupid new legislation to restrict the vote.
*This* is the consequential moment. The 2022 election will either confirm the Republican grab for power or they will be routed.
No offense intended, but if you’re reassured that really it’s only 14% and the media shouldn’t be scaring us with numbers like 53%, I think you’re hiding behind the thinnest of fig leaves.
I’m shocked.
Hello Eric. Your concerns are well founded.
“I pray that that they are using this time to make an airtight case against, as opposed to temporizing and trying to make a case that will sell to the other whatever% as to why they just can’t bring him to justice.”
I’m convinced it’s airtight case.
The Arizona political stunt is being widely panned everywhere, including inside the justice system. The voting machines they’ve touched have already been identified as contaminated and unusable.
In the 2022 election, I believe the Republicans will be routed. I’ve been watching the trend for a year and a half now. The Republican Party is becoming marginalized. They are moving towards the fate of the California Republican Party, permanent minority status. That is the direction of travel. The speed of travel is anybody’s guess, but 2022 does not look good for the Republican Party.
As Annette and others have said, you are speaking for many many people. Here and abroad. I certainly understand the anxiety, the panic, there is some of that within my own family. The most shocking thing of all was January 6. Now post-election and post-1/6 we are witnessing the fallout, the fiasco of the old white racist society’s last wild attempts to cling to power. Their hold on power is disintegrating, as is their political party of choice. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as the English say.
Well, I will say that as soon as I saw so many of the Republican leadership DENOUNCE the violence and then AMPLIFY the lie, it reinforced to me that only truth will defuse this ticking bomb they have created.
So I believe their duplicity is their downfall. I feel it in the depths of my love for this country that our current president will do what is necessary to assure passage of the voting bills, the infrastructure bills.....basically all the action to guardrail and move our democracy out of the swamp, will happen. I’m actually pretty excited about it all.
Pres Biden strategically will always go bipartisan first, but don’t think for a minute he will get stuck there with a Dem majority to do the work and, as important, the majority of people that voted for him and are firmly behind him. A rather formidable group, if this stream serves as an example of that.
I choose to put my faith behind that. It’s my fuel for all the things we must do. There’s a lot of people to bring into the circle and off the caste ladder. Imagine the shame of it....400+ yrs.
I’ll repeat what I think was and is the original download from the Creator.
“We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.”
I affirm it every day.
And this is why we love you Christine. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, Roland. I agree. Hopefully, we're correct.
Time will tell. Here’s some evidence:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/13/nancy-pelosi-gop-capitol-insurrection-denial-488039
Roland, thank you for the link. It proves that there are at least some Republicans in the legislature who have decent intentions. My hopes for any moderation in the Republican party are quite low, but I still predict that the majority of voters will be able to place the blame squarely where it belongs, and that Biden will fulfill our confidence that he'll unequivocally support any and all efforts to eviscerate Trump and his acolytes, including Bill Barr, formerly described as "a lawyer's lawyer," prior to his elevation to AG. Quite the joke, right?
From your lips Roland, but, I’m not feeling it right now, much as I want to.
That’s OK. As I said, members of my family don’t feel it either. Maybe that’s why I’m around. I am fortunate to be seeing an optimistic trend.
Do I understand Eric’s feeling of being shocked? Hell yes. Do I understand the anxiety and the concern? Hell yes. We wouldn’t all be here on this channel otherwise.
Eric, you have aptly described how many of us are feeling. Shocked, yes, but outraged too. I am outraged at all the things you described. I am outraged that my local county's election supervisor and his family received such death threats (after saying that the election was not stolen) that he had to work with the county sheriff and Homeland Security for protection. I am outraged that my newspaper is covering pablum stories about construction in downtown instead of raising the alarm. I am outraged that all of these proposed election laws are designed with one purpose, to keep Republicans in power. I could go on and on.
Yes thank you for this clarity about the true numbers of the batshit fringe.
I think of it as the batshit’s bullshit.
The thing about the bs is that it’s spread all over our country in pods— I think that’s because of the tweeting Cheeto.
I hope the media stats reporting the polls that way: 14% of America, or nearly x % of the shrinking R party believe...fill in the fantasy
It would be interesting to know, though, wouldn't it, how many of those "independents" also believe Trump won? And how many of them are never-Trumpers but also oppose a progressive agenda. My sense is that many, many of the 74 million who voted for Trump were actually holding their noses and voting against an even mildly progressive vision generally and Joe Biden specifically. 2022 may well be the most consequential election in our lifetimes.
Lest you give any unearned credit to Independents, you may want to read this article. Independents are part of the problem. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-18/political-party-independents-extremists-democrat-republican-insurgents
Yes, that's what I was trying to say in my comment. Lots of libertarians there, for one thing. Not exactly a progressive group.
Additional information in Timothy Snyder's essay on this arrest of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich by Pres. Lukashenko and the news agency Protasevich worked for, NEXTA, a Telegram channel that provided Belarusians with the facts about what was happening in their own country:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/terror-vs-the-truth-in-belarus
Thank you, Ellie. We have lost local news and desperately need more journalists here. I copied an except from Snyder's essay about reporters. They are a crucial element of the essay.
'Reporters are the heroes of our time, in eastern Europe and everywhere else. Watching the risks they take and the price they pay, we should be ashamed to have any association with anyone who would say that reporters are "enemies of the people." Reporters are the friends of the people. In fact, they are just about the only friends that we the people have.' (Snyder)
Now watching Rachel Maddow interview of Snyder. Will read his essay. He never fails to reveal the larger truths, much like HCR.
Almost easier to see the oligarchy abroad (Snyder) to understand its structure at home (HCR).
Well that was a brilliant tandem. Love you Ted Keyes.
Merci Christine! And me you!
If we imagine that either Maddow or Snyder were taken from the sky and tortured, we would be closer to understanding the impact of such a horrendous operation.
That is a stark, chilling reality check.
Many thanks for this "Snyder" source, Elie. I signed on.
Our own Sandy Lewis brought him up a couple of months ago. He wrote a great little book, (4" x 6") "On Tyranny: 20 lessons from the 20th Century" A great book for a civics class.
Timothy Snyder just came out with a 5 part series about Belarus a few weeks ago. You can catch the first of the series here:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/belarus-15-the-worst-war
Highly recommended.
Another expert on authoritarianism is Ruth Ben-Ghiat:
https://lucid.substack.com/p/when-exiles-become-targets?r=6pp8t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Fascinating, Ellie.... thanks for this article. It's eye-opening to realize that Russia was probably the instigator of this operation, given the intelligence tradecraft necessary to pull it off. Tie in the Paul Manafort story, and ТЯцм₽'s collusion, and it starts to seem like there's an international club of despots, like one of the elite casinos in Monte Carlo where the ugly rich gamble for millions after midnight. Sort of a parallel to the United Nations; the United Totalitarianisms. And you know that Tя☭mp joins Kim Jong Un and Putin there in the V.I.P. room to clink glasses and celebrate after a great day at the races.
Sadly true.
Thanks for the link.
Thanks for this Ellie.
Thank you, Ellie. Subscribed.
Thanks.
Thanks, HCR, for always providing context to all the craziness flying around us. Belarus seems like exactly what Trump wanted America to become. Think about that for a second. Also, I wonder when we will ever get into the depths of treachery that the Trump Administration instigated during his reign! Every time you turn over another Trump rock, vermin crawls out. God bless Joe Biden and his team who are doing their best to return some sense of normalcy. Whatever that is.
With all the continuing stress in the world, still feel much calmer every day.
Belarus seems like exactly what Trump wanted America to become? 🤦♂️
Yep, crazy autocrat who rigs elections, uses military and judicial system for his own purposes and against perceived enemies; and thinks he’s God. What did I miss?
You missed nothing. Your assessment is correct.
Yes. Of course. They bothe are coached by Putin.
Amen.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for showing the math that only 14% of the electorate think DT won the election! Finally! To have meaningful statistics! I always mutter under my breath when I see the polls that show only Rs and Ds and leave out the 38% of the population which identify as Independents. I always want to know 26% of what? Or has the percent of Rs gone up or down since the last time the poll said 53% of Rs believe in the Big Lie. Let's stop using statistics that are meaningless! It is such a treat to see the full story!
One of the issues is that with Red State gerrymandering, it is nearly impossible for a Dem to be elected, even if every Dem voted. It's one of the reasons that those now holding the Senate hostage represent only 34% of voters.
Cathy, I so agree!
The Letter went from President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus ordering a MiG-29 fighter jet to divert a commercial plane for the purpose of capturing 26-year-old Roman Protasevich (an opposition journalist) to news that the United States Commerce Department was turned into a rogue counterintelligence operation for the past few years.
' Lukashenko, who has been called “Europe’s Last Dictator,” has been president of Belarus since 1994 and claimed to be reelected on August 9, 2020, with 80% of the vote, although before the election the president’s security forces threw journalists, political opponents, activists, and human rights defenders in jail. After the election, security forces arrested almost 7000 people in four days, denying many food and water and torturing hundreds of them. By mid-November, the number arrested had climbed to more than 25,000 people.' (The Letter)
Our former president was a piece of cake compared to Lukashenko. (seven layer cake?)
In between the two bombshells that I noted from the Letter,, 'new documents unsealed in the Paul Manafort case today show that the Trump campaign chair did, indeed, collude with his partner Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian operative, before the 2016 election.' (The Letter) That piece of news won't surprise many, but I learned something tonight that may startle a few.
'Antigovernment provocateur Ammon Bundy filed papers to run for governor in Idaho next year, even though he's not currently registered to vote or legally allowed to set foot on Capitol grounds.'
'Secretary of State candidacy records show Bundy listing his address as a post-office box in Emmett, with a local contractor, Aaron Welling, acting as treasurer. He would be seeking the 2022 GOP nomination for the state's top post, currently held by Republican Brad Little. The governor had been unsuccessfully targeted for recall by anti-government activists unhappy with shutdowns he ordered in response to the pandemic.' (NBC News)
Bundy a 'car fleet manager by profession, gained widespread attention by leading the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.[7][8][9] He is the son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was the central figure in the 2014 Bundy standoff regarding unpaid grazing fees on federally-owned public land.'
'In August 2020, Bundy was arrested twice over a two-day period at the Idaho State Capitol after leading a large group of maskless protesters who were protesting the Idaho stay-at-home order and related Idaho COVID-19 legislation. He was first arrested on August 25, 2020, and charged with criminal trespass for actively disrupting legislative hearings and refusing to leave the building when directed to do so by the Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives. He was also charged with resisting arrest.' (Wikipedia) Bundy was arrested five more times after August, 2020.
How about this All American Nut'n better Crazy Pie?
.
beyond belief, or
truth is stranger than fiction, or
WTF?
Both! How about the pie?
you bakin'?
I'm slicin'
And I’m dicin’!
Well, we also have the joy of Kaitlin Jenner running for governor of California . . .
Another Bundy. Go figure.
Bundy's papers were rejected because he listed himself as the campaign treasurer. The treasurer has to be a registered voter. Unfortunately, he can resubmit. You should read up on their Lt. Gov who is running for governor. Another crazy!
Again, so much of my long personal history is brot up here. From the late 1960s with “Not a Crook” Richard Nixon keeping dossiers on political opponents. It was a bragging point if you were in one and it even went beyond J. Edgar Hoover’s liking who kept tabs on Martin Luther King Jr. and Sammy Davis Jr. for their defiance of the racial status quo. And from that paranoid time we have gone back to “a rogue counterintelligence operation over the past few years, collecting information on hundreds of people suspected of talking critically about the 2020 U.S. census” ... that “has been allowed to operate far outside the bounds of federal law enforcement norms and has created an environment of paranoia and retaliation.”
When I was in the U.S. Air Force in the mid 1960s, I was stationed in Turkey spying on the Soviet Union radio communications. When I left, I flew back on a Pan Am jet, an international carrier, which even in the Cold War landed in Moscow. I found it strange at that time being a U.S. military man with a Top Secret clearance and information sitting on a plane in the Soviet Union. We didn’t leave the plane and I was wearing civvies. Some women came on and cleaned the plane while we sat in our seats. Still surreal but apparently civil airlines were left alone in international travel. So, things may now be worse than during the Cold War.
BTW, that spelling confusion of Roman Protasevich (also spelled Raman Pratasevich) might be due to the strange pronunciation of “o” in Russian. It is pronounced “a.” I was taught a few words in Russian for radioprinter readouts, so it was written not verbal. I always pronounced спасибо (thanks) as it was spelled “spacibo.” It wasn’t until working with Russians in Miami that I learned it is pronounced “spaciba.” This is a problem here and I tried to convince my Russian boss that calling Fernando “Fernanda” might be insulting.
You are SO interesting, Rob. Every time I see a post by you I think, weeeeeeeeee, an interesting bit of a tangent. Thank you!
Yes!
🤗
Now when rogue groups and regimes have nothing better to do, they target and down civilian aircraft passing overhead for "practice" or whatever using the ground to air missiles that the arms industry still finds a way to supply them. They are not necessarily all Russian, Chinese or "home-made" à la Hamas. Time to make these governments "a little more careful"for fear of the consequences.
Well said. Controversial aside, the US military participated as well. TWA Flight 800 out of Kennedy in NYC (the old Idyllwild) heading to Europe.
Rob and TC are fascinating additions here. Each one of them alone is worth the price of admission. (The time investment of reading through Comments, not the paltry $5 a month)
And you hold a special place in my heart Roland. Both my husband and late father-in-law are Rolands so I always perk up when I see that famous name.
Oh my. You honor me. Your kindness moved me to tears.
Some people may call Lukashenko Europe's last dictator, but only those who leave Russia out of Europe. Otherwise, they'd and Putin to the list and describe Lukashenko as one of Europe's two remaining dictators. While we're considering European leaders, there is an aspirant to being Europe's third dictator -- Viktor Orban, whose title is Prime Minister of Hungary.
I just look back into the history of this land over the last few centuries. Alternately Russian and Polish....moving back and forwards with the wavering Austro-Russo-Prussian balance of power...and only a country since the Soviet Union finally imploded in 1991. The spirit of the people is amazing in the face of no democratic "tradition" whatsoever....just the reflection of their European neighbour's freedoms.
The problem sanctions are going to have evidently is with the long common border the country has with Putin's Russia. The European's could close off the road and rail access too, but everything will just be diverted via Moscow or Kalingrad. Means have to be found to free the people of this Russian puppet as in Ukraine before they are re-absorbed totally by the Bear.
Speaking of Timothy Snyder and his book Bloodlands...
"Lest we forget" Kipling's Recessional.
Offenses against God, humanity and nature that have not yet lead fully either to the perpetrators downfall or to the full and public recognition of the crimes.
Encourage democracy through freedom of the press and the right to peacefully protest.
And LePenne. And many others in every European right wingers.
Not much difference between Trump and his gang of hoodlums and the Lukashenko "family". Same methods, same "mantra", same lies, same objectives......pillage of the people and the country and rape of the constitution...pirates indeed!
Pirates die out or are forced to the geographic margins once governments impose forcibly the rule of law irrespective of the popularity or influence of the pirate or when the societies and governments refuse absolutely to facilitate the monetization of the pirates "booty"...it has to cost them very dearly in every possible way to continue.
Isolation is a good place to start be it for Trump, Lukashenko, Putin.....or any other wouldbe terrorist. Then you can get down to the solid business of undermining both them and the backers , emptying their pockets and depriving them of the means to impose their will and spew their lies.
Trump wanted Biden, Biden's son, and others arrested before the 2020 Election (from the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-urges-barr-to-initiate-investigation-into-joe-biden-and-son-11603220876 ). How different is this from what Belarus strongman Lukashenko did to Roman Protasevich? I feel it demonstrates how important what our government has to do to stop Trump and the the Retrumplicans.
A wonderful thing that the effort to smear Biden failed so spectacularly though, isn't it? Our government may be dysfunctional, but it sometimes does function properly.
Our world is getting ever more dangerous as autocrats like Lukashenko see that they can commit acts of violence, terrorism and election interference with impunity.
Putin freely poisons his opponents, interfes in our elections and across the world, takes territory like the Crimea.
Netanyahu bombs Palestinian hospitals, schools, residential buildings, international news media offices and municipal utilities killing noncombatant men, women and children.
Trump creates a new Republican Party based on conspiracy theories, promoting hate crimes and attacks against his opponents and those who try to speak truth, calling our elections fraudulent when he doesn't win, inciting the January 6th insurrection until our democracy is in doubt on all sides.
None
All of the authoritarian figures in the 21st Century operate on a mob boss model with similar disinformation tools. Not all that different than the white supremacy leaders in the south that created a one party system with impunity with no effective Constitutional protections. Without a democratic citizenry with our own strong constitution to fight this, the world has no response.
Trump and all of his friends and cohorts around the world are out right criminals. Justice requires even stronger measures against their measures.
It would sure be nice if the mainstream news media would include "those percentages boil down to about 14% of Americans who think Trump is still president" in their reporting instead of using only the larger percentage numbers--terrifying the reasonable public into thinking there are many thousands more rabid Trump followers with an unshakeable belief in their hero's parallel-world concept of reality.
I hadn't read your comment when I wrote mine (above.) We agree.
Yes. Yes. Yes. The incomplete reporting of the pollsters ( samples of only 1,000 people usually) embolden the crazed cult especially when the media reports a headline about what Americans think. I have said this for years, writing to politicians, columnists and pollsters. It’s a lonely soapbox.
I’m on the box with you. My annoyance with deceptive and simplistic headlines along with the constant misleading “Breaking News” tv bulletins has evolved to rage at the media’s decision to whip up every group against other groups and promote fear... all to increase viewership and $$. I continue to get my basic news from print, but that’s being decimated so fast it may not be an option for long.
And I'm second, just before bedtime. Thank you, Heather, for clarifying a(nother) complicated news story and for helping us make sense of a world that seems spinning out of control.
Wow. I think I’m first. I had hoped that life and democracy would improve after the last election. Alas, it has only become worse.
Surely the former (life) has improved; and as to the latter I find it immensely reassuring (from a distance) that you now have a President who is rational and committed to doing right.
Yes, both you note are wonderful
Don’t give up. Partly it is that we are more aware. A good thing.
I think things are improving, but the wheels of democracy grind exceedingly slow. I think we may see a reversion to R control of House and/or Senate in 2022, but those people in the mushy middle are beginning to wake up, which gives me hope for 2024. The 14% figure is very hopeful; we can afford to simply give up on them and focus our attentions on those who consider themselves independent, which is precisely what it seems to me Biden is doing. He is making life better for the average person and demonstrating what a functional, adult U.S. government can accomplish. Hopefully, it will have the salutary effect we are hoping for.
We must keep our eyes on the ball preparatory to our next "at bat" in 2022 and not count on a ninth inning rally in 2024. Play Ball!