On Friday, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo locked in a $6.6 billion deal with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company for it to invest $65 billion in three state-of-the-art fabrication plants in Arizona.
In the parking lot of my local grocery store, a nice elderly man offered to put my cart in the rack for me. I thanked him, and he then asked how I was doing. I mentioned how lousy most of the produce looked and how high prices have gotten, and he then told me this: "Just you wait and see, EVERYTHING is going to get better very soon! HE is getting great people in all those cabinet positions, and they will be fantastic!" I told him I really didn't want to discuss that, and wished him a good night. Of course, what I really wanted to say was this: "Are you fucking kidding me? Do you have any fucking idea how brainwashed you are?!? The orange monster and his minions are going to destroy this country! Just YOU wait and see how bad things will get when you lose social security, Medicare, and have to pay so much more for pretty much everything!" This is what freaks me out the most: these people are hearing nothing but propaganda from their right-wing bullshit "news" sources, and that isn't going to change. They won't realize how screwed they are until it's too late, but they'll probably blame it on Democrats, or anything other than their CHOSEN ONE! Sorry for my rant......sometimes I just can't handle this shit.
I had a similar experience, guy with autistic child jewish wife, explain to me how Harris paid the celebrities to endorse her. It was a Fox Noise item that was proven totally false. Guy said he heard Democratic officials admit it! I said nothing. If 400,000 excess American deaths because of poor pandemic response did not 'break through', if Ivermectin and bleach work for you instead of a Nobel Prize winning vaccine, I cannot think of anything persuasive.
My sister lives in a red-neck backwater town in Missouri and survives on a widows pension and life-saving medications and medical care. I scream and shout to everyone about what this band of freebooting maniacal marauders are planning to do to America's most vulnerable, except her. She has no idea what is going on politically, thank God. May ignorance be bliss for some, I say.
I throw my hands up. The death of America is at hand. I have repeated to everyone’s distain here that I would put my trust in the good generals temporarily suspending the constitution and end the Trump MAGA era. But no one agrees. We don’t or won’t have a nation anyway so why not put our faith in our military to save us. The incoming trash will be worst than you could imagine.
Elected or not, Trump and co are domestic terrorists by their own admission and should be treated as such. I agree they should be stopped. If the shoe was on the other foot there’d be retaliation ‘to an extent never before seen before in this country’ to use Trump’s repeated throw away line.
Linda, it's true Trump is barely literate. He does not read, does not think, does not reason. I am thinking he is wearing an earpiece through which his handlers are feeding him just what to say. He is now getting better at using it, but was not good at the beginning. I thought there was something like that going on when he accused Kamala Harris of it. He always accuses others of what he is actually doing, and usually the others are not. So, nearly half of America voted for an ignoramus as president, this time even deeper into dementia than when he left office before. He has done nothing but plot, run for office, lie, cheat, commit insurrection, steal documents, consult with America's adversaries while out of office, and try to rig elections, yet people thought he was a good guy to be president again. What is wrong with people? Or is it that some shenanigans have been performed impacting the vote? It truly is a puzzle and certainly negates the concept of American exceptionalism.
So here’s a different view Linda while he may be the exaggerator in chief and I don’t disagree with that when he says the greatest of all time or never before this good or whatever he’s exaggerating it’s a lot different than lying about topics. That means something to every American here’s a few examples. of issues that are important rather than pointing them out for exaggerating why don’t you call these people out for lying and actually America did call them out for lying by throwing them out of office
THE BORDER IS SECURE CRIME IS DOWN BIDENOMICS IS WORKING AND TRUMP IS A RACIST, MISOGYNIST BIGOT XENOPHOBE FASCIST AS WELL AS HITLER. IN THE MEANTIME, JOE BIDEN INVITED HITLER TO THE WHITE HOUSE THE OTHER DAY AND JOE AND MIKA FROM MORNING. JOE WENT TOMORROW LAGO TO ACTUALLY MEET WITH HITLER AND THEY KNOW HITLER BECAUSE THEY’VE CALLED HIM THAT FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS
ANY HUMAN BEING THAT REFERS TO ANYBODY AS ADOLF HITLER IS IN TOTAL IGNORAMUS AND PERHAPS SHOULD GO VISIT PLACES LIKE AUSCHWITZ AND SEE THE OVENS AND THE PILES OF GLASSES AND BOOTS OF THE 11 MILLION PEOPLE THAT WERE KILLED DURING WORLD WAR III BY THE SAME MAN. USING HIS NAME IS SO EFFING IRRESPONSIBLE
Lololol. Should you really want to identify domestic terrorist just look at the current Weaponized department of so-called Justice? hasn’t been a better example of that since America was first founded
So you are saying that inciting an insurrection against our country is all made up, in spite of the entire riot and Trump’ obvious incitement. And you are saying that should be ignored and go unpunished? You are saying that the Justice department should just not punish a felon who stole highly classified material from the National Archives and refused to return them? And he has never disclosed who he sold that classified information to.
I am sick of the willful ignorance that you display.
What do you mean? Can you give an example of an investigation that was brought with no cause? Whenever I talk to people about this, they want good citations and I don’t have any, but I bet you do. Please help!
Wait til the military are mass deployed to extrade how many immigrants? as Heather rightly noted, are integral to the economy, and also report fewer crimes per capita than the general American population. Turns out crime rates run higher in poorer American states which lean Maga, educational and economic outcomes run lower, where Evangelicals rule the roost.
I just learned from a retired Navy friend with lots of Dept. of Defense work in his history, that Coast Guard is having trouble recruiting now because of re-missioning of their work. What was about serving safety/security of people and ships off United States coastlines has become about deploying people to faraway places to be on the front lines; this resulted from budgetary considerations. Navy couldn't fund the foreign front-line work so they began sending Coast Guard. Repurposing the tasks of the military . . . yikes!
Frank, people hear about crime ad nauseam. Many, like my parents had, have scanners. Then there is the constant reporting of crime and attributing to Ds on platforms like Nextdoor. Interestingly, lots of pictures from security cameras and most of them are white men and women. Do people really not know where their food comes from or do they think it magically appears at the grocery store. Scut job are done by immigrants who may be documented, but often not. Big project on our street for two and half years. One Hispanic who ran a machine. The rest of them did the landscaping and the smoothing out of cement on the sidewalk. Lots of white guys working on this project and complaining about Ds. It was Federal money that allowed it to happen.
Frank, I’m not against immigration. Both sides of my family were them. I was however, totally disgusted how Biden slept on the job for three years not doing a damn thing. He could have invoked the Insurrection Act. He could have created an executive order. He did shit for three years. I’m not saying this was the only reason Harris lost but it was a big one. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. I hate Trump with a passion. So much so that I put my first book on cats side to write about Trump. Now I must write Part II and add it into my 4 year old book. No nation on earth allows unmitigated rushing the border as we did. Stop deceiving yourselves you and others. And if you don’t believe me, read about UK and Brixit. Read about Pen almost winning in France. Read about the far right Germans now the 2nd most popular political group. And all of them on the topic of migration. Snap out of it. We lost largely on this issue. If I did t hate Trump so much I might have voted for the monster — the 2nd rate mafia wannabe. (Not really but so many did.)
Once again asking why you haven't castigated the GOP in the House that caved to Trump's demand that they not pass the bipartisan bill that addressed at least some of the immigration issues "because he didn't want to give Biden a 'win' in the campaign"?
Here's a long and a bit into the weeds take on immigration issues under Biden. This doesn't exactly line up with your "do nothing" comment, but it hardly ignores the problems involved. We might remember, too, that many if not most of the illegal or temporarily protected recent immigrants fill jobs most Americans would not, that for the past year or so the US has run at virtually "full employment", abt 4% unemployed, despite the immigration problems Americans esp MAGA rail at. The heart of it, according to the article authors, is a Congress which has failed to pass meaningful immigration reform legislation in a generation, gridlocked in partisan warfare I can only guess. Will the US military remove DACA too?
Ever hear of the bipartisan border bill that was almost passed until Trump had the Republicans kill it? What you’re saying about the Dems regarding this is simply not true.
Bill - what is your take on the bipartisan immigration bill that gave Republicans just about everything they were asking for - more border agents, more immigration judges - that Trump told House Republicans not to pass so close to an election because Trump wanted immigration to be an election issue? What do you make of that?
As others here have written in response to yours Bill, at a bare minimum, the GOP scuttled the most drastic immigration reform package in recent history, a piece of comprehensive legislation drafted by Republican Senator Lankford from the State whose nickname ("Sooners") is a folksy reminder of a true unmitigated rush to the border whereby land was taken by white Americans manifestly fueled by their ballyhooed destiny to emancipate same from the Indigenous peoples already there.
In so scuttling, any argument against Harris and the Democrats on the immigration issue was superseded by this cynical and cowardly cave in to Trump.
You’re misplacing blame Bill. You know full well that t stopped any attempt to mitigate the border crisis. I do agree however that no other country allows the flow of migrants that we do now; but our history includes immigrants from all over the world sailing into the NY harbor. It’s all in the messaging; indoctrination by maga demonizing desperate asylum seekers. Biden attempted to bolster those countries from which people are fleeing. It takes time and right now we are stuck in a cycle of “dismantling” and “reconstruction” of government. Biden accomplished much in his 4 short years. Let’s put credit where it is due.
Bill, mass migration from the poor nations to the advanced west is undermining ALL western countries. The human race has overwhelmed it's carrying capacity, BILLIONS are without work, food, shelter. What can they do. They have big families, their countries are corrupt and their leaders steal what limited assets are available. Forests are cut down, water is polluted, fished out, deserts are growing. Arable land is shrinking. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are riding across the earth. The momentum of global warming can not be reversed. Yes I am pessimistic.
You are aware that the Justice Department is a separate, and rightfully so, branch of the government? Biden has been very careful not to pressure DOJ to act. He knows what is correct. DJT most certainly does not.
I had that conversation last night with my husband. Trump is an autocrat our country has taken a turn against democracy and the MAGA’s, low info voters, sexists who would never vote for a woman and racists put him in office. Remember J6? Do you think he’ll leave peacefully in 4 years? He’ll leave when they carry him out feet first. With DOGE, aside from all of the suffering they will happen, why isn’t the MSM talking about the job loss? The Fed employs about 3 million people, so how many will be fired? 1 million? 2 million? And with the mass deportation of 10-20M and tax loss there, who’s going to take those jobs?
Do you think the Senators will really grow a pair and vote against Trump’s nominations? Gaitz was nominated for one purpose- to carry out Trump’s retribution, Hegseth will do with our military whatever Trump wants him to do, ie go after American citizens. We’re fu&@ed. Thanks for letting me rant. I pray to God I’m wrong.
Trump's not an autocrat, he just hasn't changed since he was a wilful toddler. Now he's being manipulated by autocrats who feed his need for flattering attention.
Mr Katz.....you sit in front of your computer screen all day.........what have you done to help plan and organize the resistance??? Would you go into the forests like they did in WW2? When the Orange Gestapo hit the streets.......what will you do??
Give me a break with the projection stuff.......Magats are the ones calling for blood , there......not going there...... hats off for the protest songs.
Just being a harbinger........things could get really ugly when the Orange stormtroopers take over the streets
If you people keep talking Putin, you’re gonna lose every election for the next 12 years. Stop the nonsense. Stop the nonsense. Don’t let Adam Schiff be your poster child
That is like your Mother used to say…..if everybody jumped off a cliff,would you jump too? Just because the crowd did? Have you ever considered that 76 million people….not quite half of voters are wrong? They have been propagandized by some very clever wordsmiths who skew facts by skewing language. Followers follow. Leaders Lead
Meanwhile here in Idaho dairy farmers fear how the mass deportation plan will negatively impact their industry. Our legislature has been overtaken by trumpf idjits. We were thrilled to read Simpsons comment. Fingers crossed he votes his conscience.
I hope their ignorance bites them in the a$$ and really hard. Perhaps the pain will wake them from their deep sleep. They consistently never get it … and look at where we are now. Except for the top 1%, we are all paying for it.
There’s two types of ignorance - the first where you believe the bullcrap, and don’t mind the drastic consequences as long as it’s happening to someone else. The second, the one which I’m referring to, is where your mental health or physical challenges or age etc prevent you from engaging in the state of the world, and you live with an inherent belief that hard won human rights and public services will always be there for you as the safety net they were created to be.
I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry about your sister. The entire situation has me sick. I have four grandchildren. Will they ever know the America I grew up in, warts and all.
Thank you Phyllis, it is dark times indeed. I sincerely hope that things right themselves for your dear grandchildren. I strongly believe that the good guys always win. We may have lost the battle but we’ll win the war.
She isn’t registered to vote and said there’s no point. I didn’t want to worry her so left it at that. I’d say she’d be totally saturated in fake news and surrounded by Trump supporters. Alternatively she’s one of the 93 million who don’t want to know. A lot of people I know find politics excruciatingly boring or of no interest, or think that not voting is a rebellious act 🤷♀️
People that are decent human beings don’t refer to other similar human beings as rednecks. And try to frighten them with things that will never happen.
Russian propaganda is demonstrably extremely effective. Clearly Putin has achieved his goal of bringing down the U.S. without firing a shot. Targeting the existing prejudices, fears and lack of critical thinking skills in much of the populace was more powerful than a nuke. It’s devastating.
Guaranteed anything and everything that goes wrong will be blamed on Biden. That's exactly what Trump did for at least the 1st two years of his failed, disastrous presidency. Everything was Obama's fault.
So right, 100, mean for me to say that covid didn't kill off "enough Republican voters. Sadly, that vaccine "hesitancy" also extended to Blacks, who also disproportionly died from Covid - likely men more than women.
Panthers, I kept hearing that if we just talked one to one with those brainwashed souls, we might be able to persuade them. I have seen no evidence of that. And, when even Republicans who told the brainwashed what Trump was really like and they ignored all of what they said and voted for him anyway, it is hard not to think they deserve what happens to them. The only problem is that all the rest of us will be hurt and some even killed too for their ignorance and unwillingness to put a little time into thinking and getting out of their bubble. Ugh!
I get this from my MAGAt cohort all the freaking time. One chowder head just posted "Hey, Tulsi Gabbard is a Mustang! OooRah!" She's also a Russian asset that wouldn't be able to pass a background check, but that doesn't matter to them.
For those unaware of MilSpeak, that is a former enlisted military person who becomes an officer.
And DonOLD DID pay those who attended his rallies, something he accused Kamala of doing. I was amazed at how little publicity the 15000 people he left stranded in the desert got. That story got quashed instantly.
Still waiting to hear about validity of the Greg Palast claim that 2.7 million votes were ditched. According to the Philly papers, where a hand recount is taking place, we lost Pa in Biden's home area, former Biden supporters. Not Gen Z. Not Blacks. Lost 2 Pa Dem house seats.
WOW! Harris claimed that she was prepared to address anything that appeared suspicious in the vote count. She folded even before all the votes were counted.
Another facet of the Trump Strategy that I think we're only seeing now: Democrats are now so afraid of becoming "conspiracy theorists" like the MAGA group that we shy away from anything that could make us like them.
It's like aversion therapy - except insidious and malicious.
Ally, the Bob Casey-McCormick Senate close vote tally was less than the 0.05% PENN statutory trigger. Thus, An official recount must start tomorrow 11/20 & be completed by11/26 & reported out on 11/27.
The PENN Senate race has already launched at least a 1/2 dozen lawsuits. The PENN Supreme Court has already ruled on 2 concerning Mail-Ins & Provisional ballots. McCormick withdrew 1 of his lawsuit over two(2) Ballots last Thursday. Dios Mio amiga.
Shall I say it? OK, ok I won't say it but, see an appropriate Yogi Berra Maxim ....
Right. But, if you read the article, he's not some conspiracy theorists, and he's not spouting a bunch of lies and misinformation. Maybe Rachal Maddow could shed some light.
Max, that is a question that MSM refuses to answer. They all have appeared to fold, including the VP. An important point that Spoonamore has included in his request for a hand count is the following: Harris probably checked the voting machines right before and right after the election. That's what Musk was counting on. They should have examined the machines when the polling places in the swing states were bombed. That was when Spoonamore says the dirty deed was done. People were distracted. That's where Musk's Starlink technology manipulated the vote. Why Harris refuses to do a simple hand count so far is a puzzle. No one on MSNBC, CNN so far, has been willing to take up the fight.
Daniel, Has this information been sent to main stream media? If so, is msm so afraid of being called "conspiracy theorists" that they are dragging their feet about making this public? Has the Harris campaign or the DNC responded to these claims by Mr Spoonamore? It feels like we are in a pool and drowning and the life guard can't see us, or if she/he does see us drowning, they just don't want to get wet. The data and FACTS in Mr Spoonamore's substack answer to persistent question "how the hell could this have possibly have happened?!?!" If this were true in Pennsylvania, what about Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan?? Look what happened when someone else named Merritt Garland dragged his feet in the interest of being "independent" and "fair and just" .
I've seen MSM address the 'conspiracy theories' to debunk specifically the allegation that Starlink satellites may have been involved in tampering with tabulator machines. Interestingly, it's clear they are aware of Spoonamore's allegation, but debunking a different allegation. We know that the vast majority of machines are isolated from the Internet, but Spoonamore's allegation is that it was the e Poll Books, which in many cases are connected OR that tabulator machines were interfered with in very limited circumstances, directly, by people. The theories Spoonamore advances are all plausible and require attention, even if to verify he is a real, human, American person who is not spreading disinformation. His letter could be simply that. We need verification and then investigation.
"They claim a mandate, although as final vote tallies are coming in, it turns out that Trump did not win 50% of the vote, and CNN statistician Harry Enten notes that his margin comes in at 44th out of the 51 elections that have been held since 1824."... Less than 50% is not a Majority... Kamala may have Capitulated too Early... I have also read that Kamala received about 10,000,000 Votes less than Joe Biden did 2020... Those 10,000,00+ Voters stayed Home... DJT received less than a 1,000,000 more Votes than he did in 2020... Per AOC, Kamala should have listened less to the Obama Era insiders, and more to the 'GrassRoots'.... Reuben Gallego impressed me by visiting all the Major Indigenous Enclaves in AZ during his Campaign... They Turned Out For Him... DJT is Mean, Vindictive, and Cruel.. DJT will try to undo all of Joe Biden's accomplishments... Failing that he will try to take Credit for them... DJT is deteriorating noticeably faster now... DJT will cause Chaos in order to mask his Ineptitude... DJT is the "Stable Genius" Businessman who declared Bankruptcy 5-Times... As long as DJT is on the Main Stage, he will cause Chaos... His Minions have been chosen for their Subservience to DJT, not their Competence...
The suppression included massive voter registration purges and dozens of lawsuits to make voting more difficult and/or to count fewer votes. The GQP has been shamelessly suppressing voting.
That as Well... Many of the Indigenous Communities were affected by that, Kristi Noem, Gov. of SD, is banned from many of Indigenous Communities in SD for Voter Suppression among other things there...
Abby, you make a good point and it makes one wonder why we haven't heard more about "the big purge."
The corporate media could care less about voter suppression. And there have been millions purged across the country. Does anyone think that these prunes haven't led to disenfranchisement among marginalized voters?
The group "anonymous" believe that there were votes in swing states that only voted for president, no judges, amendments etc. There were 60 bomb threats at polling stations were everyone except was forced to leave. During the last hurricane, Musk set up starlink satellite over those areas of the country and could have manipulated the vote. (Musk claimed victory before the votes were counted.) Normally, less than <1 would have voted for just president but some how 11% did. They claim the numbers do not make any sense. We need a hand count in all swing states. If the election was truly stolen, there will not be physical ballots bc it was done electronically. All ballots in swing states need to be hand counted. Musk brags that anything can be hacked. I think he's bragging about what he has done.
I feel like the claims of a "stolen election" in 2020 were really a longer game to discredit anyone else who tried to claim a stolen election later.
Think about it. We're trapped now between a rock an a hard place. Calling out our suspicious makes us look like the rabid 2020 deniers and decreases our legitimacy more, spreading more division. Sitting here and allowing it sets a precedent that we'll just roll over and allow ourselves to be played.
"I feel like the claims of a "stolen election" in 2020 were really a longer game to discredit anyone else who tried to claim a stolen election later."
Yup. Just like when my ex accused me of having an affair, so I would look silly when I told anyone what I found out about him and his affair. What he didn't realize is that there were so many other things he was doing that the affair was not important. I just hope there is more that trump and his co-conspirators will get caught doing, enough that the stealing of 2024 won't matter in the long run.
Tjb as I could not find one of your responses I will respond here hopefully you’ll get it.
Yes, I have plenty of time. I’ve retired 12 years ago very happily and very thankful to this America.
And just so you know, I have never been on any social media network until about four weeks ago or so didn’t do Facebook didn’t do. Twitter didn’t do Instagram or any of the others just happened to get a random email from somebody as I started reading more and more. I realize that there are too many people that are not seeing things from both sides of the aisle they are only getting one side of the story and I think it’s important that people see the whole story before they make an evaluation. And that’s it
Patty Dubin, I agree with you. Not because I am a sore loser, but because everyone knows, on its face, this election result made NO SENSE. I think this was the “surprise” that trump and Johnson shared cryptically with American. And I think it’s the reason Musk can have a tantrum, shouting match, or whatever else the hell he wants, with trump or his minions. He’s the guy who delivered the election by hook and apparently by crook. By time it gets proven we will be deep into the lower pits of hell - or as magas call it “trumps second administration”.
Patty, to your point, I agree with TJB in positing that Trump's "stop the steal" campaign served at least two purposes. If immediate success at overturning that election failed, it created a template against which Democrats would look like sore losers and foolish conspiracy theorists if they questioned any future election results. That would lay the groundwork for actually stealing the election without its being questioned. Trump is not that clever, but he surrounds himself with people who are, not the buffoons he places in plain sight but those he keeps in the shadows.
I may sound like a broken record, but it's important to note that Trump and his party have coopted the evangelical wing of Christendom. Evangelicals' whole raison d'être is the long game. They are willing to live a whole lifetime in misery to claim their reward of a "mansion on a gold-paved boulevard" AFTER they die. If that isn't playing the long game, I don't know what is. It also means that when Trump makes their lives a living hell, they will resign themselves to believing it's "God's will" that they suffer.
Patty, right on. When I said ‘stolen’ about the election a seemingly educated Dem woman remarked, ‘You sound like T’. I ought to have quickly responded that everything he ever says is about what he does or will do. Pure narcissistic on display.
So. Yes. Probably mush and push.
Thom Hartmann’s written a book about voting that he recently quoted from on a post. Simultaneously fascinating and deeply unsettling.
Seems to me that Kamala Capitulated to Soon.. Reminds me of Al Gore in 2000... Probably to avoid Civil UnRest by the MAGAs... Seeing Joe Biden Shake Hands with DJT reminded me of Hindenburg greeting Hitler... The Fascists in the Republican Party have demonstrated that they will do Anything For Power... The Dark Siths Are Smiling...
Trump and Musk are a match made in hell. But if Musk indeed delivered the battleground states to Trump, he will be hard-pressed to give Musk the heave-ho. As with so many of Trump's decisions, the JD choice was impulsive and expedient, one that Trump now regrets. JD has become invisible and will remain that way. As we've all heard, Trump believes "he alone can fix it." Pence showed him that he doesn't need or want a VP.
As for Melania, she has already made it very clear that she has no intention of being a First Lady on this go-round. The only time we'll see her is on the few occasions specified in her contract. Otherwise, she's a cougar on the prowl.
I read Musk hasn’t left Trump’s side since the election. Considering Trumps stage of dementia why aren’t people complaining that we have a shadow President like they did with Biden? No one voted for the illegal immigrant that bought his citizenship. I have not read one word on Vance, not even a line in a story.
Got that right Apache; we are officially not a 50-50 Nation. We are till counting votes in California. Also, 5 U.S. California House seats are still labeled "Toss-Ups".
Think 1930s Germany. This is going to be very bad. I'm waiting for opposition figures to start "falling" out of windows or getting into strange accidents.
We have know the Orange cult for years..........the big question is will people fight back with everything........putting our lives on the line or just roll over like Morning Joe and Redcoat Mika.
A data scientist, Stephen Spoonamore, strongly suspects a hack took place during the 2024 election. He speaks of tremendous numbers of “bullet votes” for Trump, occurring in just the swing states. A bullet vote is where there is only one selection in one race out of the entire ballot.
For example in Arizona and Nevada, 5% and 7% of the ballots were people who only voted for Trump.
He explains how easily it could occur particularly with the ability of Starlink, headed by Elon Musk. He also explains that a hand recount would clear this up.
Mr. Spoonamore is imploring Kamila Harris to request a HAND RECOUNT as only she can do. He states that a hand recount will determine the correct number of votes for the 2024 presidential election.
People interested in pushing for Harris to have a hand recount should contact SMARTELECTIONS.US
I sent his substack article to Senator Angus King. I'm sure all of the Senators are aware.
PA is doing a recount of their Senate race. If Shapiro can couple that with a PA Presidential recount, then perhaps some of the shenanigans mentioned by Spoonamore will come to light. And if they do in PA, then that could lead to recounts in the other swing states.
The answer is simple, look at the social media post for Trump, according to those lies everything from inflation to the stock market was described as horrible. Based on these lies the momentum went through the roof. If we don't change our message to small burst on social media we will not reach the majority of people. CBS, ABC news and maybe even HCR should have reposted the list of lies and exposed those Facebook post for what they were. Dems lost on economy and immigration. Biden has done a great job, with 7% interest rates but that info is not posted where most people can see it.
I have been making this point in NYT comment sections and they will not print my comments, except when I say anything but the media is complicit. Considering dropping the NYT for the Guardian now. What a shame, because some of their articles are beautiful.
I deleted Xitter apps from PC and phone. I use Threads and Substack. Need to try BlueSky. It may be beyond my limited capacity. If I can get news about Ukraine then it will be worth learning.
I read it and implore Harris to push for a recount. Don't really care if Republicans call us sore losers or whatever. They were prepared to completely contest the election if they lost. Why aren't Democrats prepared to do the same? The stakes are enormous.
A Risk-limiting audit (RLA) which is a randomized audit comparing paper result to tabulator is very effective in determining errors. If done by each state it would certainly call out any shenanigans. It is easy to do and statistically relevant. If errors are noted, then a more complete audit would be warranted. Here is more information. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/risk-limiting-audits. Here is a very good article about our election systems, their weaknesses and other interesting information. https://harpers.org/archive/2012/11/how-to-rig-an-election/.
> For example in Arizona and Nevada, 5% and 7% of the ballots were people who only voted for Trump.
I hate to say it guys, but some people really only did vote for Trump and no one else. Nothing was hacked, we are in the grief stage and trying to figure it out, but when stuff like this gains critical mass and we can't separate fact from fiction then we are 2 steps away from sounding like the MAGA folks back in 2020 right now. Let's be better.
Yes, PhillyT, some people voted only for Trump. According to Spoonamore, since 1980 that’s been about 1% of the vote. In Non-Swing states this time, it’s about the same. In North Carolina it was 11% of Trump’s vote. NC just elected Democrat, Josh Stein, for governor. If the stats are correct, a recount will show the situation.
We spend a lot of energy to avoid being seen as the same as MAGAts.
I’m right there with you, sister. I can’t believe how brainwashed my neighbors are, either. I’ve mentioned to a few of them the MAGA plan to cut SS and Medicare, and I get looks of incredulity.
The problem is they only listen to right wing news and blogs, etc. My brother is in deep into the cult and no amount of telling the truth gets through - it's all fake news to them. Very frustrating and scary.
Right there with you, Terry. It's frustrating, exhausting, and feels absolutely hopeless trying to talk to family who refuse any information other than what they already believe.
My grandfather, rest his soul, had a saying about how unreasonable people think: I've already made up my mind, don't try and confuse me with facts.
That is why we have to change our delivery method. Short list of what we are doing right and what they are lying about BTW, MAGA is not cutting social security they are going to defund it, same result. Bush took at 1.3 billion (someone can sure up that number) to cut tax for rich and pay for his war
Bush blew up the deficit by attempting to pay for a two theater war without raising extra revenue, and by instituting Medicare D without the ability to negotiate drug prices.
My dad is in the demographic you would think would support Trump, but my family and I all detest him and we voted for Kamala Harris. My dad watches Mika and Morning Joe and I’m disgusted at their capitulation to the Orange Menace.
With complete respect for your reaction to this gentleman who helped with your cart, may I suggest another road? I’ve had several experiences like this before and especially after the election….I guess just because I like to engage with people at grocery store lines, etc. When given a completely inaccurate, often bombastic statement as that gentleman gave you, I do not choose to refute it or politely disengage from the convo. I will usually say something like….”tell me more about that. Like what do you mean by it’s going to be better. What is going to be better? Please share.”
I find this is the start of road to get the state of misinformation out in the open and to put it in question for even the staunchest of Trump allies. To me, Trump has shown people that he will carry such lies as to make them feel perfectly ok about being misinformed. It’s truly the most wicked quality of a grifter. So when YOU ask with genuine interest to such a misinformed “believer” to explain or let you in on what they “know”, you create a space to allow Light to enter the interpersonal space between two people. And with that, can come realization and healing.
Forget thinking that “all these people that voted for (fill in name or issue) are going to get their asses whupped like the rest of us and won’t they be sorry.” Why in the world do we want retribution? I just do not want people to obey in advance. We must move forward together.
I continue to start each day and during these times, more than once a day, remind myself…We are all in this together. There is enough to go around. And “We” is We the People.
Love has no opposite. Light always prevails.
So be a beacon. And not a flashlight to point out “mistakes”.
Mistakes do not need to be pointed out or shamed. Merely a normal exercise in learning.
I like being the parking lot teacher. Wherever the parking lot pops up.
My standard reply to these buffoons is "I hope you get everything you voted for". Usually gets a momentary blank stare, a 'glitch', if you will, that is absolutely priceless.
My great grandmother (born during Grant's administration), told me, a 10 year old at the time, "Be careful what you ask for because you always get what you are asking for."
It was said in such a way that you knew she meant you were too often asking for a swat by a flyswatter by your behavior.
These threads are *terribly* organized too, especially when sorting by "Most Popular" cause everyone likes things so fast that it changes on a dime, so that doesn't help either. I'm sure by now you've found who they were talking about though, lol
Gary, I've heard Trump/Fox talking points coming out of my sister's mouth...and my sister is a lovely human being...and I ask her why she thinks that? She tells me friends or the TV...and I tell her what I believe is true and why. We will discuss it and she usually walks away with a new outlook. I'm just advocating that people try that approach rather than saying nothing, or yelling. It won't always work...but sometimes it does.
I find it much easier with strangers, at least in person. Strangers have this thin barrier of social propriety that keeps things civil (in person) for at least a bit.
Family hits you hard and where it hurts and doesn't care for civility.
"Maybe Not" is factual and especially heart-rending. One of my children completely gets it. The other looks at me like I have lost my "marbles" and smiles. My son who has passed away, understood who Trump and his minions were from the beginning. He was not afraid to share with his friends and family.
It depends on how "strange" the stranger is....A Universal truth that I believe is we are constantly co-creating with others. To not engage is a choice of one kind...to engage is another...and "success" is something else.
The propaganda has already shifted. For 4 yrs it was “the worst economy”. Now the Fox chirons have done a 180 already. They didn’t even wait until Jan 20. Everything good from here on out will be attributed to the upcoming arrival of their orange lord and savior, and anything bad attributed to the prior administration or those not even in power. The propaganda is just so powerful I don’t know how America ever gets fixed. And they know this. They know they have the cards. All we can do is focus on close ones around us and try to get into their universe, because on the mass public scale we’ve lost that war.
I would have said “no, you’re wrong. Prices will rise…” I’m not criticizing your response because we’re all exhausted, but refusing to discuss lets them believe they are right and others believe as they do. These are the people that exist in that bubble that elected tfg.
I just listened to a talk by Carol Off, a noted Canadian author and journalist, who showed how "how well the economy is doing" is strongly partisan and subjective, regardless of the state of the real economy. Great example, sad to say, you just provided, Jill. In a way , you might want to hope MAGA carries out its extreme social support cuts in order to finance its extension of tax cuts to the wealthy, with enough "buyers' remorse" come the mid terms, Trump will be isolated in the WH against Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Frank, I've also thought about the very same result. My belief is, come the midterms in this election cycle, republicans will be scrambling to explain their failures. For them, it may well be too little too late. I also believe the chances for a 3rd impeachment on tfg will be the charm. Even republicans may well say: "enough is enough!!"
I'm not sure "another" impeachment trial will be in anyone's best interest. Hamstringing Trump in his last 2 years would be best, I imagine. If that can indeed be pulled off.
I read an article recommended by another user here from the Journal of Democracy which was enlightening and spoke on the importance of perspective vs reality.
It doesn't fully focus on that topic, but it was a very intriguing read.
"Backsliding is less a result of democracies failing to deliver than of democracies failing to constrain the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders." We also need to remember that partisan perceptions are often assiduously cultivated and shaped by political elites.
My daughter had a apt response to a construction guy in an elevator who was happy about Trump getting elected. She said in response 'women are going to be f***ked, but not the way we like'.
It seems that there are many instances where ethics are sorely lacking. This Election cycle certainly illustrated the case regarding honest, unbiased media coverage and reporting. Of course… a stupid electorate are willing dupes for these unethical individuals.
I'm with you on that one. So many have worked hard for what rights we had. I don't know if it is possible for me to get over the anger and disappointment. I will be 78 by that time and I think it is time to jump ship and move to a country that respects their people...ALL their people!
As of now US bases, embassies, planes, ships, people are all less safe because we are going to totally lose the chain of command with intelligence, let alone access to intel from our allies. Stein said the day before that MI6 is thinking of not sharing intel. I am sure the EU is discussing that too.
Musk told the EU that if they ban X, the US will pull out of NATO. Well, Trump is going to play the NATO card, and he may move troops, or bring them back home, but he is not developing trade partners this way. China and India are going to benefit from this, as well as African and other Asian countries. Everyone is preparing for his tariffs too. Here is an article discussing Trump's international policy.
I know from reading Project 2025, that nothing I am reading about appointments is surprising. And, knowing from people like Prof. Timothy Snyder that Trump and Musk are Russian assets and in cahoots with Putin, it is clear to me that he wants to hand the US to Putin and Xi on a silver platter. The whole world got less safe.
I am living in Europe. My American friends and I are wondering how we can access media we are used to using if the platforms like Substack get shut down. Is there a non-US based platform that the people we follow will be able to write on? Also, most of my friends here in Germany have VPNs, and I am getting one too. Most of my friends use Signal and not What's App, or have both. That is what my family uses too, but still, we know that many of the founders of Signal were initial on WhatsApp (others were from Yahoo). So even though it is freeware, they sold it to Meta. They profited from the sale. The Signal guys also helped Meta create the same encryption on their platform, so the encryption is pretty much the same. Signal is also based in the US. There is a mutualistic relationship between the two companies. A friends says she thinks Signal is marginally better, but not much.
My friend here is also talking about trying out Threema. It’s a Swiss company. It’s a paid app. It’s $5.99. I like a paid app model. I am worried that Musk will get rid of competition for his platform, and he now owns Trump. It was used to spread a lot of disinformation. Here is Prof. Snyder talking about that too. https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-phantom-campaign
Robert Hubbell also talked about how as the votes continue to be counted Trump now has less than 50% of the votes cast. Which given that 93 million eligible voters did not vote in this past election is less than a third of the eligible voters.
I wouldn't share intel with us either if I was from any of those allied nations that are looking warily at this once inspiring nation that had so much promise and influence on the world stage. If the American century wasn't already over then it most certainly will be soon after January 20, 2025...
Agreed! In fact, the smart ones will be snapping up our Intel people. Next we will see what happens with the DOD. DT cannot take over and destroy the Constitution with the White Supremacist militias alone. I am waiting to see what happens with the military leadership because they also have their own intelligence department which is discussed as the one to lean on in Project 2025. If they resign that is it.
Which is why I have called for a military coup before it’s too late. I would take my chances with the good generals and staff before the good ones go and the bad ones rule. Most likely, it’s all too late.
I am not saying coup. I am saying that if they refuse to enforce what Trump is doing as it violates the constitution then we will see that they serve the constitution and not the man.
When the Intel Chiefs Resign, this is Bad... When informed Concerned Citizens have to Hide, that is Bad... DJT, and his Minions Flood the Zone with Bull*....
I am not on X or Facebook or any of those so I won't be going to Blue Sky, but a friend of mine got convinced to leave X to go to Blue Sky. However, Blue Sky's days could be numbered. It is a US based platform, and if Musk decides he does not like the Competition he can shut it down directly through Brendan Carr of FCC infamy, or if Trump gets the Republicans to pass HR 9495 they he can claim it is just a social danger picking apart some items and then it is gone. Read what Carr has to say about what social platforms have to be. https://newrepublic.com/post/188529/donald-trump-war-press-fcc-project-2025
Any US based platform is currently at risk. People should spend some energy looking for other sources, or creating them and basing them elsewhere.
Blue Sky is my first social media site. Preemptively not joining because it might be shut down is guaranteed to be a losing strategy by surrendering before attacked. What is needed is site that has enough followers to be effective. Obscure foreign sites will not be. If Blue Sky is shut down (unlikely, look at how difficult it has been to shut down Tik Tok), it can easily then just move its site overseas.
Right now my friends here and I are planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Here is what the Guardian says today about Brenden Carr, Trump's new FCC appointment. "Late Sunday, Trump announced he would nominate Brendan Carr as head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The conservative commissioner wrote a chapter on the furture of the FCC for Project 2025 (the infamous hard-right playbook for the second Trump administration), the only sitting government official to do so. Carr’s views on the US tech sector have mostly aligned with those of Trump and Musk. In recent months, they have all lambasted broadcast TV networks and public broadcasters.
Carr has advocated for going after Meta and Google, not to hem in monopolistic practices but to dismantle the “censorship cartel” of big tech companies that he believes are stifling conservative speech. Google, already reeling from the loss in its antitrust case against the US, may be a big loser in the incoming administration, as Trump has railed against it in campaign speeches. Carr has also supported banning TikTok over alleged national security threats.
Carr’s agency could be a political cudgel for Trump in his personal retribution against tech companies. The commissioner is a friend of the telecommunications industry and an enemy of Silicon Valley’s tech giants. Will he apply a hands-off approach to internet service providers, dismantling consumer protections in a boon to the industry’s large incumbents, and then apply scrutiny and harsh authority to the likes of Google and Facebook, sacrificing consistency in favor of political expediency?
“Brendan Carr has been campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press Action, a left-leaning media advocacy organization. “Carr doesn’t care about protecting the public interest; he got this job because he will carry out Trump and Musk’s personal vendettas.”
Carr could also turn the FCC into a commercial bludgeon for the “First Buddy”, as Musk has christened himself, against the billionaire’s tech rivals. A major beneficiary of the commissioner’s ascendance is likely to be Musk’s SpaceX, whose satellites and the internet service they provide are under the FCC’s purview. In his Project 2025 proposals for the FCC, Carr emphasizes his priority to “advance America’s space leadership”. He namechecks Starlink (SpaceX’s satellite internet firm) and says his agency will adopt as friendly a regulatory stance towards the company’s launch schedule as possible.
Lock up your phones
Yondr’s phone pouch
When everyone is digging for gold, sell shovels. That’s what a company called Yondr has found. As schools across the globe are implementing phone-free days and governments are discussing whether children should be banned from social media entirely, this brand has found a market opportunity. Founded in 2013, Yondr was one of the first companies to manufacture lockable phone pouches in which students (and others) can quarantine their devices. One million students use a Yondr pouch daily across 35 countries, CEO Graham Dugoni told the Guardian.
Dugoni said that when a principal, school district or state implements a phone-free policy, his company sees a spike in business. He was hesitant, however, to use the word “ban” when referring to schools’ policies towards phone usage. “No one’s doing anything wrong. And we’re not anti-tech as a company … It’s more how do we live with these tools in the future in a constructive way.”
Dugoni wants people to live in harmony with smartphones rather than prohibiting them, though he uses a flip phone and doesn’t maintain any social media profiles for himself or his company. “Creating a phone-free space is a positive move forward. It’s not trying to take something away or pull back into a world in the past. It’s how we create a framework and societal etiquette around something that’s radically new and everyone’s trying to appreciate the internet’s potential and possibilities.”
The wider TechScape
A bear in a field in Montana.
Why are wildlife biologists are chasing after bears with drones in the American west?
“First buddy” Elon Musk and failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were formally appointed as heads of Doge, or the Department of Government Efficiency, to carry out slash-and-burn cuts. And Musk wants volunteer “high-IQ revolutionaries” to help them.
The Wall Street Journal has the inside story (£) on how the tech industry, particularly Meta and Alphabet, has lobbied against the US Kids Online Safety Act.
The Guardian will no longer post on X from its official accounts.
And why are so many people leaving X for Bluesky? Tom Ambrose profiles the heavily moderated platform.
Trump’s incoming administration is planning to loosen restrictions on self-driving cars, a priority for Musk, Bloomberg reports.
Bitcoin and Dogecoin are going hog wild in the wake of Trump’s victory.
Mark Zuckerberg and T-Pain have released a cover of the rap song Get Low."
The Guardian has gone to Blue Sky too, but since I get it in my inbox, which is in gmail, so I plan to get a different email and transition all my accounts over the next 2 months.
Also, my family and friends and I use Signal, but since it is also platformed in the US, I am anticipating needing to use something else. We are looking at a Swiss one that we have to pay a monthly fee for, but it does a lot of the same things.
There are so many things to take care of now. I am in Europe. Most NATO countries don't want to be caught out like Ukraine. So, one we want to keep supporting it, but also prepare for Putin and Trump to ally and start attacking other countries as well. I am already talking with family and American friends living here about these plans. Like where to meet in case, or war, and where we might be safer. Scandinavian countries are preparing their populations for war by updating their plans. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr4zwj2lgdo
So, let us hope that Blue Sky does move overseas. I just think of how Meduza had to leave Russia and move to Estonia. I get their publication too.
The US and all of its bases, embassies, ships, planes, and citizens is less safe now than it was before they resigned. This is a gift from Musk and Trump to Putin.
So, if military leaders stay, I am going to hope and assume that they stand up to any requests to stray from the constitution. They also have an intelligence department, but Project 2025 plans to implode both the IC and the DOD, and remove the leadership and make new appointments and while they are doing this, who knows what bad actors will do. If I were Zelenskiy, I would be offering consulting positions for anyone that resigns now, as should NATO countries.
We will be 85. I wonder what number my husband's SS card holds. I don't get SS because of the type of teacher retirement I have from California. Drunk on power. They all are. And, sadly, I believe this is the tip of the iceberg. We'll see. The only dim light, is that we can flip thing in just two years. And "he" knows that. I don't know what the answer is for now. I am reading that resistanced doesn't work. We are acting locally - suiting up and showing up and being supportive of our City Council, County Commissioners and our School Boards.
I had to sign up for Therapy this time around - first time - 66 - I thought somehow these would be golden years - HAH...Joke was on me. I was in a mostly MSM blackout since 2016 which helped my mental health but after this election I had to go total MSM Blackout & get therapy. I keep telling myself that we're here at this time for a reason. Hang in there.
Actually you’ll be older than 80 before this is done. Because first of all this is gonna be the best years Of America has ever seen so you should live longer and I’ll give you a to even rejoice Trump could resign his presidency 2 1/2 for three years in JD Vance becomes president and does a good job and serves eight more years by which time you’ll be 88
Well, I’m guessing I’d hate to be your son and I’m not a bot which makes it worse for you because now you have to come up with some rational dialogue. Rather than just throwing insults and making stupid decisions about what America should do as far as Ukraine where we should’ve never been in the first place you’re obviously young and naïve, but you’ll learn and that’s coming very very soon
It’s only been less than two weeks and already the world is waking up. Optimistic burdens lifted off their shoulders and other governments are taking note.
Just today, the socialist leader of Canada Justin Trudeau announced he was making severe cuts in allowances of the number of immigrants into Canada. Uh oh. Berkeley has announced that it’s going to be cleaning up its homeless encampments Israel is cheering the entry of Trump as president and rightfully so Madison Square Garden gave him a roaring standing ovation right in the heart of the beast of Liberal dominance once upon a time
The ever insulting cast of morning Joe went tomorrow, Lago today and was welcomed by Hitler. He actually welcome them there after they called him every name in the book for the past year and a half and Joe and Mika who are now down to about 95,000 viewers and realizing they were on the wrong track have gone down there to try to save their careers and their program. The Trump dance is everywhere. Athletes politicians businessman, even the NFL players are now doing the Trump dance. And Colin Kaepernick will die in infamy
People are now putting Trump signs on their lawns after the election.
And even the New York Times is welcoming, Maha and said that this is a great thing that RFK Junior will be working to make children healthy again as Trump has installed not one but two Democrats in his cabinet. Even Cory Booker says the same thing. So get on board or get left behind insults aren’t working the basket of the portables. I’m sorry the basket of 76 million deplorable’s have spoken. The sun will begin to rise again on America and it’s greatness welcome to the New World
It took me a minute to translate "went tomorrow, Lago today". AI botspeak isn't improving. "Basket of the portables"??? No, no - da English no first language, think I. Worse than those captains. Er, captions.
Thank You, Anne-Louise! I wanted to be charitable about the broken English, but now I see that I was wrong. AI is getting better, I think, but there is still lots of room for improvement.
Obviously, and unfortunately, you’ve missed most of my earlier texts that indicate that I voice text all the time and I view most of the readers here are intelligence enough to figure out the content of what I’m saying. And demonstrably I am 99% content and one percent form whereas many people here are form over content. What a waste. I’m not writing my thesis here.
The strange phrasing, very uniform poor punctuation style, general cadence, and the order the grievances are listed - Ukraine first - leads me to believe this is a Russian bot we are dealing with.
Also, I counted 9 fairly long posts and 4 shorter ones, all with the same time stamp. A human could do this, but it isn't likely.
The reason I’m doing it is because I’m voice texting and I’m going from one response to the next. So it doesn’t take me a long time to speak probably a minute or so to do a very long text maybe two. But I crack up that people have this infection of Russia. What the hell is that and where is it coming from? Yikes as far as Ukraine is concerned, we should be nowhere near there. nowhere
For those of you who are too young to remember Vietnam, this is exactly what Vietnam looked like the only difference here is 60,000 Ukrainians have died versus 60,000 Americans and yet we pissed away $200 billion that could be used here for the homeless and the poor.
Steve And, I say this tongue in cheek so please understand that it is my attempt at humor. There’s a company that is now putting together a package deal for liberals. Trying to figure out why you lost the election. It’s two major components. it is a combination in a box crystal ball and a Ouija board
Optimism is what helps. The soul pessimism is a downer and being negative in advance is even worse. So await results and then judge. And if you judgment is correct, it will be just that correct
I’m sorry for that. I voice text everything and because I have so many responses to attend to I kind of focus on something that a lot of so-called educated people inappropriately prioritize. I’m a big believer in content over form. Missing a capital letter or a period at the end of a sentence or a word that can be spelled differently, or run into another word is immaterial minutia. I would like to respect the people here and therefore think that they could probably figure it out since they’re intelligent. And I’m guessing the little ditties that you mentioned above, you were able actually to figure out that I meant basket of deplorable and when I said, while voice texting, I went to Mar-a-Lago that the computer picked up the way it looks to you there but I have confidence and faith in you that you understood it and I’ll leave it at that. I continue to voice text and misspell or poorly punctuated sentence but I don’t look at that as important as getting the content across and I don’t necessarily have the time to go back and correct it like I’m in 10th grade English diagramming a sentence. I apologize if that’s not acceptable with you and you can certainly choose just to disregard any missive that I send but it’s more important that you understand the meaning and in fact, if you’d like to refute or dispute or to have a meaningful dialogue about it, I’m here
You should take a look at Berkeley cleaning up homeless encampments, Newsom has been working on this project for years and running to the go to that it’s being done suddenly because of Trump is laughable. Trump who famously claimed homelessness was a new thing 2 years before he took office and never existed before that. You know, just trying to blame it on Obama. You support the man who doesn’t care if you die and prefers it would be a bloody, gory death to satisfy his perversion for horrific things to happen to people.
A slightly disingenuous post to say the least. Trump never said that homeless is didn’t exist prior to that what he said was it didn’t exist to this extent before that, and he was correct unless you’re in communicator with the world, there are homeless encampments in every single major city, causing substantial inconvenience and cost of those cities in fact, removing tenants from hotels and buildings and placing illegal immigrants in them instead and giving them free debit cards and medical coverage when Americans can’t even afford it. And I will proceed now.
Gavin Newsom now presides over a state that I live in for over 30 yearsthat used to be the shining star of the United States. it’s now an armpit, including San Francisco crime ridden, drug ridden tent ridden, and I could write you some and Etal stories if you’d like to hear them we just went back to LA for the week to visit friends. The entire downtown city smells like urine. Restaurants that have been open 80 or 90 years are threatening to close because they can’t control the encampments in the criminal element. They just removed a district attorney, who is allowing felons to be let out of jail the following day, only to commit more heinous crimes the next day. Newsome will receive his due reward. Trust me. But it’s not what you think. And this is what really hysterical CALIFORNIA CONTINUES TO ESPOUSE THE FACT THAT IT HAS THE FOURTH OR FIFTH OR SIXTH HIGHEST GDP IN THE WORLD, BUT LEAVES THE REST OUT IT DOESN’T TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT’S ONE OF THE MOST HEAVILY TAXED STATES IN THE WORLD THAT HAS A HUGE DEFICIT AND KEEPS MISSING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT ON THESE ILLEGALS BUT THEY DON’T KNOW EVEN WHERE IT IS. WHY IF IT’S SUCH A PRODUCTIVE GDP STATE, ARE THEY WHAT ARE THE MOST TAX STATES IN THE COUNTRY? WHY ARE PEOPLE FLEEING IN MASS FROM CALIFORNIA FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PROBABLY 50 YEARS.
Please don’t even start with me on Obama, who was the most divisive and most racist president we’ve ever had in our lifetime
Even the history books, acknowledge, he didn’t do anything for the black community that he promised to do other than give them free phones, and insult the whites Trevon could’ve been, my son the police acted stupidly, and sat by wall organizations like BLM and antifa destroyed in the defaced cities
I’m not gonna waste my time talking about that, but I will address your other concerns above. Ok?
Try this and see if this helps you. Trump administration, accomplishments. He had the lowest unemployment for minorities in 60 years and the highest employment by minorities in 60 years back to the 60s. He also increase the income for middle class, workers buy an average of $6000 per year. Look it up.
He also did quite a bit to salvage the damage from a once a century, global pandemic he was able through his reducing regulations policy to get the vaccines to the public some 3 1/2 years before they normally take. And just by the way, the same number of people died from the effects of Covid under Trump as under Biden look it up and Biden had a two-year Headstart. Also you might want to look up this fact that today they’re approximating between 75 and 90% of people have died from Covid died from a secondary disease already present in the body which created a weekend immune system. Not that that matters but Covid wasn’t the only suspect.
AND LASTLY, I DO NOT SUPPORT THE MAN AND I WILL PROVIDE A QUOTE FOR YOU THAT MAYBE WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND.
ONE VERY PROMINENT CITIZEN STATED THE FOLLOWING I DO NOT NECESSARILY LIKE OR SUPPORT TRUMP. HOWEVER, I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE POLICIES HE’S INSTITUTED ON BEHALF OF ALL THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA. AND THERE IT IS IN A NUTSHELL. Thank you for joining in this conversation.
Blah blah blah denying things that aren’t too difficult to find recordings of show you are more interested in propping him up than actual facts. Sometimes facing reality is too hard for people, you seem to be one of them. I’m done responding to a bot/person/paid Russian troll who claims he wants the libs to face reality while sane washing the biggest liar of all.
Oh, and here’s a few other things you might want to know ever since he was elected things are changing in America for the better already. Zelenskyy thinks that Trump will end the war soon. The European Union has offered now to buy our natural gas instead of out of Russia. The New York Times, not a ration of Trump. Support has acknowledged the positive nature of RFK Junior’s involvement in helping America get healthy. As has a long time opponent Cory Booker said the same. And as a matter fact, Trump has done something that no other president has done. He has place to Democrats people of the opposite party in his cabinet and he has placed the first ever woman as the chief of staff in American history. What a misogynist. Lol
Pierre Trudeau, a hater of Trump, has just announced yesterday that he was going to start reducing the number of immigrants to Canada because it’s hurting his country. Hmmmm
Athletes and people everywhere have started to do the Trump dance in public and many people are placing from signs under yards after he was elected. He got a raucous welcome from Madison Square Garden where a few weeks ago according to your You’re lying media he was holding the Nazi rally. Omg. And the winner of the belt actually got the entire stadium to start chanting USA right in the belly of the beast of the Democrat party New York City. Morning Joe, which is lost an incredible number of yours has actually gone down to visit Hitler himself after they called him Hitler, and every other name of the book Trump opened his home to them and welcomed them in to have a discussion. And Joe Biden had a two hour meeting with Hitler himself. Incredible. Maybe I’ll stop believing by hyperbole and the histrionics now. Things are gonna be changing for the better welcome them is my best suggestion to you. And with that, I will leave you with a quote from Abraham Lincoln. Most people are as happy as a make up their mind to be. Your call.
Dude? You're in over you head and our of your league. Take a hike and on you way out? Apologize to your betters. Which would be everyone on this thread.
He’s here because he lives to agitate, antagonize and spread hatred. When he joins conversations of people that think like him he’s just another cog spewing the same nonsense and everyone ignores him. His profile claims he’s interested in facts and ending hate so he’s a typical hypocrite with no life and no one to listen to him. He’s a loser.
You see and that’s exactly why I’m here. Because otherwise, this would be nothing more than vast majority of liberal lemmings commiserating themselves because not only will Donald Trump be president that they hate for no reason, but they will have to see him every day just like when you break up with somebody and you have to see them anyway because they work in the same office, etc. I’m here as a Opposing view just like in a courtroom where you might think a man is guilty after the prosecution states their case until you hear that the perpetrator was somewhere else in the world and couldn’t have caused the crime A lot of you here need that view because for the next four years, you’re going to be seeing it every day and it be much happier for you to try to understand what just happened in this last election in four years when things are better, I’m hoping you’ll be open-minded enough to celebrate America and his and our success By the way, dude if I’m out of your league and I should take a hike is it because you don’t like what you’re hearing because you can’t refute and deal with the truth ? Governments and people all over the planet and in the US I’ve already recognized what Trump brings and I’m making changes almost immediately. Including the European Union Canada The Liberal networks and even Berkeley of all places places that is now commented that they’re going to start cleaning up their homeless in encampments. It’s a new day. When you only hear one side of a argument, you have nothing else to believe at least 76 million people don’t believe like you you might want to give that a thought 49 out of 50 states got redder. We’re in for a beautiful ride. Try to enjoy it. Don’t be a fatalist and don’t be prejudiced which means prejudging what will happen because you’ve obviously most of you are forgotten that Trump was already president and if not for Covid would still be an office today because of his policies and because prices were low there were no world wars crime was low cost of living was cheap, and the border was secure if you don’t like that, then you’re out of your own league
If you were really here as an "opposing view" (called "opposing counsel" in the courtroom, BTW) then you would be sharing an different understanding, backed by facts, attempting to have an honest and altruistic discourse.
So far, you have shared thoughts and feelings, which makes you as much a "snowflake" as the rest of us. Is this revenge? Did some libtard come into one of your discussion boards in 2020 and call you a lemming? Examine your motivations.
Show me facts, with sources. The burden of proof is on you for making the claim (also something from a courtroom).
Otherwise, it is my observed belief that you are here because it entertains you. You want to blame Democrats for being condescending and sanctimonious? Make sure you don't walk down the same path - though, you're more than half way there already.
TJB, yup, your last paragraph nails it. All the trolls that have appeared here over the years are like the old time landline heavy breathers. Even negative posts give him a......"thrill" so to speak. Don't feed him. Thanks!
Yeah I'm way past done and won't be responding to him further. I like to try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt - I'm always up for a good debate with respectful people.
This is obviously not one of them. Blocked and reported.
Well, I learned a long time ago. It’s probably not a good thing to try to put your head on someone else’s shoulders and trying to figure out my motivations you have miscalculated tremendously. Wow and thank you for teaching me those terms “ opposing counsel” and you don’t think you’re condescending… yikes.
Somebody on another blog, let’s call it. X sent me a message from an ardent. Trump hater, and it made its way back here. my certainly don’t need to be entertained, but what I noticed was what I said in many of my posts.
What I see here are a lot of TDS victims that were brought here through media lies and deception. What brought me further in was the constant miscalculation by the people who I’m referring to that use the terms such as racism, bigotry xenophobia misogyny fascism, and the most disgusting use of the word Hitler that I can’t even imagine that people are that stupid or that ignorant that they would actually use that word to compare anybody to that human being. It got me angry.
And what I saw was nothing more than people commiserating themselves with sympathy and Kleenex because we have a new president like we generally get every four or eight years Many of the people were let astray
By the lies deceptions and divisiveness of our once even keeled Legacy media, which no longer exists.
My motivation was simply to point out to people that there are people that do not think like them that are not crazy that are not lunatics that are not subversives that are not hateful people…. Just people that see things 180° different than most of the people here.
I don’t necessarily like using phrases like this, but I do believe that minds are like parachutes. They work better when they’re open. Most of the people here don’t seem to see it that way they want me to leave.
If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see that all the major media including ABC CBS NBC CNN MSNBC the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times, Facebook and even Google and up till very recently Twitter were all significantly left, leaning despite their ownership in some cases, but they all called for shutting down free speech Especially Twitter and if not for Elon Musk, one of the most ingenious human beings in history who has done things that even our government has not been able to accomplish, has risk his fortune to open that particular venue to be able to say what you want without your voice being squelched or eliminated.
One frightening example of Google if they really have no competition from a browsing perspective. so if you want to see how biased websites can be oracles as they’re so-called, I started to put a couple of words in my browser in Google and see how they came out They all came out the same and a list hear what I mean
One example that I will give you, I just put two words into my browser Gore/Bush. That was it and I wanted to see what links would come up. This wasn’t an isolated situation by the way and I’m sure that pretty soon they’re going to be competitors trying to develop alternative browsers although I believe that Google will start to realize what it’s done and what it’s doing
In any event when I put those two words into my browser and hit enter, I received obviously 1 million pieces of information. When I started examining the links to websites that were exposed by this query, I went through 22 pages and 216 links before I received any notable conservative links such as Newsmax or Fox News. Then I started doing that with other queries same same the funniest thing was all the links that led up to those search to go through all those pages and to go through all those links just to find a conservative one… there were probably 30 or 40 repetitive links of the same exact link for example CNN or MSNBC or MSN or CBS we’re listed a number of times over and over again with the same exact link before the conservative links were reached but even funnier than that, there were links for such websites that you’ve never heard of. Wouldn’t even think to visit with names of Podunk cities or newspapers Named dispatch or gazette
And when searching those names found their circulation to be minuscule.
Bottom line, sir I think it’s important for people to know that there’s other lives out there and while it’s fine to have friends too support you and put your head on their shoulder, etc. it’s just as important to realize that maybe you’re not thinking the way you should because all you’re seeing is one side of the story sorry for the run-on feel free to chime in
Oh AND TO YOUR LAST POINT ABOUT ALTRUISM, I BELIEVE I’M BEING VERY ALTRUISTIC BY TRYING TO HELP THOSE AROUND ME TO WIDEN THEIR SCOPE OF VISION AND OPEN THEIR MIND TO ALTERNATIVE VISIONS TO THOSE OF THEIR OWN.
Sorry, even the New York Times and Cory Booker, not exactly a Trump sycophant, have welcomed Trump’s placing RFK Junior in his post to make our food healthier. And none other than the Trump haters themselves on morning Joe we’re welcomed today by Hitler himself, despite the fact that all they did was call him names for the last two years and insult him, and now they went down there to talk to him face-to-face, and he opened his arms to them, despite their lies and hate and what they call a meaningful conversation in trying to salvage their careers and the network that has no more viewers. Not sure if this is accurate but I heard they only have 95,000 viewers now and of course you know that CNN and MSNBC lost 40% of reviewer ship the day after the election oops
Well that’s a pity. Because an old saying I learned in college was minds are like parachutes they work better if they’re open. I really don’t care if you listen or not I know how happy the world is right now optimistic hopeful and welcoming the freedom and the change that is coming. I’m sorry if you don’t feel that way and get left behind, but that’s certainly your choice.
Yes, they do seem to pop up like bad pennies, as the saying goes. I wish people would simply NOT REPLY to him! In the past, I've reported and even tried to block, but it is such a long, time consuming process and seems to take a few dozen reports from various readers. Ignoring him is best. Don't reply. Period. He WILL become more outrageous, like his idol Trump, and just like Trump he needs that attention.
It won’t take that long. You’ll see it almost immediately Someone pointed out to me today that I beginning to understand more about the freak out that you liberals are having right now it’s like somebody broke up with you in a long-term relationship and not only do you hate them now but you have to see them every day because they live or work near you Fatalism and pessimism does no good for the body or the soul or the mind worst of all is negative in advance because it usually doesn’t turn out as bad as you think and it might even turn out great 76 million people think it will
You seem to be having some kumbaya moment that you want us all to join in. But we've been continually bombarded by his hateful rhetoric and maniacal rantings for nearly a decade. We've already seen what a horror show the first trump term was. It would appear that some of those 76 million trump voters might be amnesiacs and I'm pretty sure many of them will not like how things turn out.
Have tried to explain it over and over. The adults are not talking the adults are commiserating, crying, weeping, using up boxes of tissues, etc. that’s what you’re doing. I’m here as a voice of reason to push back so that you realize there’s always two sides to an argument. And you don’t see the same vision as 76 million Americans. Deplorable didn’t work too well for Hillary or anyone else that tried anything similar. Even Bill Maher has a better understanding of what happened here but you don’t wanna listen. You don’t wanna open your mind. You don’t wanna think positive thoughts you just wanna be negative in advance and fatalistic not good for the soul mind or the body. I’m just here as a balance not trying to insult anybody or throw anybody under a bus just that it’s better when you know all the facts all the sides and why things happened as they just did and it doesn’t appear here that you’re willing to welcome the rationale behind Donald Trump’s return to the White House. we are all in for a great ride and then the process most everyone is going to win just like they did and Trump’s first term before Covid hit a once in a century global pandemic so smile, and be happy, and one thing you obviously haven’t learned by your lineup above it doesn’t do you any favors, talking down or condescending to somebody especially when you have no idea who they are
Personally, I've been free for my entire long life -- apart from the years in the Army, half a century ago. We've heard " 'Tis an ill wind that blows no good". I don't see any good coming from the 47th president.
The voters who put trump in are about to get a big surprise come Q1 of 2025. I expect to see a blue wave at the midterms and maybe the third impeachment of the orange Mussolini. Hopefully!!!
The M.A.G.A.s -- particularly those whose grandparents were Democrats -- vote against their interests. Pity that they did not recognize a Great Society President when one finally came into the 0val 0fiice.
" . . . . in September, Ramaswamy said as an example: 'If your Social Security number ends in an odd number, you’re out. If it ends in an even number, you’re in. There’s a 50 percent cut right there. Of those who remain, if your Social Security number starts in an even number, you’re in, and if it starts with an odd number, you’re out. Boom. That’s a 75 percent reduction done.'” What this simple bubble-head overlooks is that we and our employers paid into Social Security.
Ramaswamy's words strike me as issuing from a psychopath. Or sociopath at the very least. Talking about people's lives as though we are utterly worthless.
Absolutely! People with NPD, sociopaths, etc. are naturally drawn to positions of power. And people eat up their lies and charm like a chocolate donut. They have no empathy so it’s easy for them. We are chattel. Not human, but a means to an end.
It is also almost impossible to get rid of them once they have access to levers of power to abuse others with. They perceive all life as a series of simplistic black and white transactions. They can not comprehend love or empathy, experiencing the former as purely personal passion and the latter as weakness or cowardice. So whenever you try to talk to them with empathy or love they will perceive you as either a potential predatory threat out to get something from them (like they are to you) or as a troublesome burden to be caste off. One dimensional human beings.
There’s no recognition on the part of the sociopath that having millions of American suddenly homeless and starving is going to be a problem for the MAGAts.
"Problem"? No, no, it's their solution. The unenfranchised don't have time to worry about petty things like politics when they're just trying to survive.
Unbelievable that this kid has been listened to. Social Security is our money. It was held from our earnings. Maybe Vivek should visit the senior centers in central Ohio, starting in Upper Arlington where he lives, and tell those seniors his “simple” ideas . Listening to the people is always important. Taking their hard-earned Social Security , then Medicare next…?
I find people change their views when they have to sit down and listen to their neighbors. I served on our City Council and then County Commission. It can make a difference. He came to politics with no experience. Politics can be a game. Let’s help him see the situation from reality. Reports are he moved his financial business to Texas. So maybe he’s leaving Ohio.
I live in Upper Arlington. I don’t know how we got saddled with the trifecta of LaRose, Husted, and Ramaswami. And my poor daughter lives near Vance in Cincinnati! Her commute is often disrupted by his motorcade. I wonder where Ramaswami’s kids go to school, and if they will be moving to DC. Vance’s too, for that matter.
Ned I've got an odd number end...so I guess that I'm out. I hope that my AARP dues are good for some real lobbying and arm twisting from that nice office next to the Capitol.
I've worked AARP events in DC where they get a lot of folks together in a big venue, talk about a specific issue and then they go up to the Hill and start meeting with individual Senators and Congress people...many times it's their staff people and tell them why they want a specific vote on something. It's very impressive.
Vivek Ramaswamy: "Day 1, anybody in the federal bureaucracy who's not elected, whose Social Security number ends in an odd number, you're out. [Day 2], of those who remain, if your Social Security starts in an even number, you're in, and if it starts with an odd number, you're out. That's a 75%..."
It seems MSM is quoting the last part but not the full quote. I am very left along the lines of Bernie Sanders but the full picture is still important to show what their intentions are: gutting the Federal govt.
So many cuts, damages, attacks on the American people by the mob taking office in January.
Speaking of mobs, reckless, stupid ones, I've been reading Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s 1940 “The Oxbow Incident.”
Sometime in the 1950s I’d seen, as a boy, the 1943 movie version, directed by William Wellman, starring Henry Fonda.
It describes today. How mob stupidity can rule.
Then, in the fiction, 27 men and one woman from a western mountain town hunt, apprehend, and hang three men for rustling and murder.
The three hanged are all innocent, but the mob has ruled, just as in America today another mob has put criminality atop the U.S.
Travesties – the hanging in the novel and the movie, and the apparent majority voting for obvious rapist, con man, business fraud, hate monger, misogynist, and ally of the world’s most corrupt dictators, oligarchs, and election hackers.
Worse: how American schools now produce such mobs.
Phil, While you’re probably aware of this figure, I would note, based on a trusted source The New Yorker, the literacy index of over half of all adults in the States (presumably eligible voters) is below a 6th grade level. I note this statistic not only in response to your final statement but also because it’s included in the most illuminating post-election analysis I have encountered: Nathan Heller’s New Yorker piece titled Republican Victory and the Ambience of Information, “a must-read,” according to Lawrence O’Donnell, “about the election after the election.”
The foregoing notwithstanding, still, I see no choice but to hitch my wagon to a new pro-democratic organization “Governors Safeguarding Democracy,” a coalition intent on protecting an individual or citizen’s rights from the things the Trump Administration wants to do federally. I further would note I understand it’s been suggested that our Blue governors’ group develop its own democratic social media platform and base it outside the U.S. as an international platform for democratic governments everywhere.
Awesome article recommendation, Barbara. It was supremely illuminating and put into words what I feel a lot of us have been struggling to express: yes, the media failed us, but it also has never been *exploited* like this before, and we couldn't have been less prepared for it.
"the apparent majority voting for obvious rapist, con man, business fraud, hate monger, misogynist, and ally of the world’s most corrupt dictators, oligarchs, and election hackers" says it all. I have worn black every day since the day after the election.
I’d been thinking of wearing black as well, Susan, but haven’t quite pulled it off every day…. even thought of a black arm band to wear for the next 4 years. Sometimes I think I am sleeping and experiencing a nightmare. As Spock would say, TFFFG’s winning “is illogical”. And yet, here we are.
They are planning a "Peoples March on Washington" on Jan 18, 2025. I had similar thoughts of wearing a black arm band, and that seems just the place to do it.
It seems like 2017 again with it very hard to find affordable hotel rooms but we will find a way to be there if at all possible. Back in 2017 we were looking forward to Hillary being sworn in, but would have been happy to make it to the Women's March the next day (which I believe had around 400,000 join in).
We ended up going to one in Riverside California instead, so any next year in Washington DC have become an even higher priority to make a new record for the largest protest ever.
I feel that, Barbara. I keep vacillating between being too numb to process, a gritty kind of spite, and abject terror. Haven't slept well since the election and probably will continue not to.
"They claim a mandate, although as final vote tallies are coming in, it turns out that Trump did not win 50% of the vote, and CNN statistician Harry Enten notes that his margin comes in at 44th out of the 51 elections that have been held since 1824."... Less than 50% is not a Majority... Kamala may have Capitulated too Early... I have also read that Kamala received about 10,000,000 Votes less than Joe Biden did 2020... Those 10,000,00+ Voters stayed Home... DJT received less than a 1,000,000 more Votes than he did in 2020... Per AOC, Kamala should have listened less to the Obama Era insiders, and more to the 'GrassRoots'.... Reuben Gallego impressed me by visiting all the Major Indigenous Enclaves in AZ during his Campaign... They Turned Out For Him... DJT is Mean, Vindictive, and Cruel.. DJT will try to undo all of Joe Biden's accomplishments... Failing that he will try to take for them... DJT is deteriorating noticeably faster now... DJT will cause Chaos in order to mask his ineptitude... DJT is the "Stable Genius" Businessman who declared Bankruptcy 5-Times... As long as DJT is on the Main Stage, he will cause Chaos... His Minions have been chosen for their Subservience to DJT, not their Competence...
The 1943 version of "The Oxbow Incident" was one my mother made sure we saw as a young teenager. Wellman is well described in "Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick," (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOmJq7C67U0&t=724s ), and a few presentations by William Wellman Jr using it and what I learned a few times after the presentations with small gatherings to find out even more about his father and his own life experiences (playing baseball with Robert Redford as teenagers, for example).
Wellman Jr also remembered Ernie Pyle stopping by to discuss "The Story of GI Joe" movie then being made. Ernie Pyle was on his way to the war in the Pacific, and if memory serves had doubts about Burgess Meredith being cast as him until he met him at the Wellman's home. That was personal to me since I had a coworker who said he was Ernie Pyle's nephew (though I can't find proof of that).
William Wellman was a WWI pilot who's experience helped winning the first academy Award for Best Picture with "Wings" in 1927. His last movie was Lafayette Escadrille and particularly close to his own WWI experience. His son filled us in on a trip he took to Paris with his dad in which he hinted there was a woman he was involved with which might have been the Renee in the movie. He was not allowed by the studio to finish the movie the way he wanted to as it was seen as too depressing. On that trip, I think they stopped by the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church, where it seems two women known to his father (perhaps including the real Renee, whom he have actually been secretly married to) were killed by a shell from the Paris gun with a range of an incredible 75 miles. Wellman Jr left us with the impression that his father was so upset by not being able to finish the movie the way he wanted that he quit the industry completely.
He didn't always have a choice on the films he was contracted to make but he poured incredible passion into the ones he really wanted to make, to me like "The Oxbow Incident" and "The Story of GI Joe."
Now CONSeravtive legislatures are writing vigilante laws to create more chaos. They are using following the policies Lenin and Stalin used, then Hitler used. Turn the populous on itself while they pillage the public funds.
By an odd coincidence, I finally, at the age of seventy-two, read Ray Bradbury's classic, "Someting Wicked This Way Comes". It's the perfect book for Trump 2.0. I think I'll take a week or so and then start it again.
Our country is about to be tested as never before. As pointed out in tonight's newsletter, fewer than half of us voted for Trump, but he will do everything he can to convince us he is all-powerful. He isn't.
I'm lucky. Since I was born in 1952, I lived in the best United States that has ever been. Now I will, I hope, survive its worst.
See you there. On Whatever barricades we can construct, out of whatever art or craft or trade we are good at. I’ve heard it said recently that marches in the streets will do nothing, but seems like no doubt many are being organized, and the barricades will be thronged by us older folk along with the younger. We will see. I am still training my feet for marching and don’t see any reason to put heavy boots away for probably the next 5 years. Undoing, fixing the damage that will be done, and how to mitigate as much damage to the soul and spirit of the USA as it happens, to say nothing of the physical suffering of families torn apart, hardworking people tossed on the street, children dying from bad health advice.
Joel, I am ready to resist and persist! I am a few years older than you, but still have some piss & vinegar when my dander is up. I may not be able to kick ‘em in the ass anymore, but I can probably reach their shins! Living in a rural area in a mostly blue state, there is little “on the ground” engagement, so do what I can otherwise….still, it’s a helpless sort of feeling not to be in the streets once again shouting “hell no!”. ☮️🗽🇺🇸
In order to wrap our brains around the question "How is Trump getting away with this?," it's time for people to read systemic corruption expert Sarah Kendzior's two best selling books "Hiding In Plain Sight" and "They Knew". Like forensic psychiatrist Bandy Lee (who was banned from news interview shows for telling the truth about Trump's ability in infect all of society with his destructive form of mental illness), Sarah Kenzior was banned from MSNBC for telling too many hard truths.
Sarah knows there is a global effort to not just tear down democratic governments but to also crash America's economy... so that (just as hedge fund managers do with corporations) the extremely rich and powerful can break America up and sell off its parts. Here is an article about Sarah from 2022. She was 44 years old at the time and her book "They Knew" was just being released. She knows what she's talking about. It would be wise for the rest of us to know what she knows too. And you can find her on Substack.
I didn’t know she was banned by MSNBC but I gave them up awhile back. Sarah Kendzior thinks outside the box. Read all her books as soon as they were published. Great recommendations.
Thanks for the book references. I'm reading as much as I can to try to calm my brain and understand what's happening. I'm also getting a CCW license and will be putting in a lot of range time.
I appreciate that you're reading as much as you can... and getting a CCW license.
By the way, Sarah's Substack is worthwhile too... and gives you her latest thinking in smaller doses. But her books are the foundation for understanding how bad things really are. The bottom line for me (and her and others): No one is going to save us but us. Not Jack Smith, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Judge Chutkan, etc. No one but us.
Joel, I have a long time friend, now retired, who recently bought acreage in a “red” part of Michigan (he doesn’t mind being a voice in the wilderness!). He’s a conservative-progressive (I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it would make sense if you knew him). He was in Coast Guard and takes his oath to the Constitution VERY seriously. He went, in the late 90’s or early 2000’s to Palestine & Israel to see for himself what was going on….participated in a peace march in Gaza & was very moved by the Palestinian’s plight even then. He then traveled to a number of countries in South America to learn more about them. At one point, during a break in his travels, he called me to let me know he was taking a week long arms course in NV, AZ or NM (I forget which) which included active shooter drills, “clearing” or securing buildings, etc…..a whole gamut of scenarios, not unlike a police academy. He found it very interesting & instructive, but did note that most of the participants (who all happened to be male) fell to the right, sometimes the far right, of the political spectrum. Come to think of it, he has always reminded me of a Boy Scout….”always be prepared”. Haven’t seen him in many years…but we stay in touch via long phone calls.
I believe that would be ALICE training (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate).
I stopped by the college I worked at, soon after the Valentine's Day (Parkland High School) shootings, and talked to the Lab teaching assistant that replaced me about what I planned for any active shooter problems. I had told the Campus Police what I was doing and asked what they would support or recommend. They suggested the ALICE training but were not encouraged by the few that seemed to want to take the courses.
The new lab tech showed me the improved doors and locks they put in as one of the college's attempts to limit risks, and I showed him and some students the roll around displays I'd made of two jet engine compressor halves so each could be used as a mobile shield to protect any of us that would try to distract a shooter by charging the shooter to give others a chance to escape, or especially for the former Law Enforcement Officers or Veteran students, to grab objects I left distributed around the lab and throw them at the person to keep them from concentrating on just one of us. Fire extinguishers were pointed out as possible ways to limit the person's vision if the shooter got close enough or we could get close enough to physically disarm the person. I particularly advised our young women students to use the fire extinguishers as their defense especially since they were located by the exit doors so they would also be better able to escape. I would trust at least one or two others to work together to keep any shooter busy and most concerned by the best protected persons actively moving against the shooter while others helped everyone else escape.
I've been in a few situations in Vietnam and here where several of us were unarmed facing what turned out to be less threatening situations than those school incidents, but have always been determined to use whatever we could to prevent being relatively helpless in saving others and ourselves. We, singly or with others, all of us unarmed were able to pursuade people in 4 incidents that I was into hand over weapons voluntarily.
I'm inspired by the teachers that did whatever they could, and took bullets for their students as the least they could do with no other options. During the Virginia Tech shooting that left 32 dead, we had students and a relative that had graduated from there, and remembered Professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust Survivor who gave his life blocking the door to the room as he told students to get out through the windows. See rticles.latimes.com/2007/apr/18/nation/na-heroes18
P.S. I haven't kept any weapons after Vietnam and don't want to live in a country so bad that I might need them for protection from people.
Wow, Jim, thanks for sharing this. Enlightening, scary and heartbreaking all in one… My family never kept weapons & I never have after being on my own…the closest I came was as a kid with those metal pop-guns (that’s what we called them) when playing cops ‘n robbers with my sibs. My high school boyfriend’s (later my first husband…and always family to me) family kept rifles as they were occasional hunters, so he was used to handling them. Guns have always made me uncomfortable and hearing about so many shootings in our country alarms me at how many people now open or conceal carry them….so disturbing!
I'm not against people having guns for legitimate purposes the way our families kept them on farms, for hunting, and legitimate self protection (prosecutors, law enforcement, and other government positions, property protection, or sports, as long as they keep them safe from children or secured to keep others from stealing them. The only one I had besides in the military was a 1911A1 that was willed to me. I took it apart and had my son keep some of the parts until he could arrange to sell it through a licensed gun dealer to a Law Enforcement Officer.
My concern was children trying to play with it if it was ever left unsecured, or someone stealing it. I didn't want the responsibility of keeping it safely stored after I heard of 6 children, 5 or under, being killed in one year with guns they found unsecured. (I also noticed a bullet hole in the lower part of a friend's front door who, despite his knowledge of gun safety had accidentally have it go off while he was handling it.) To me a lot more people are killed by gun accidents and suicide than by other people they feel they need to protect themselves from.
Agree….such a quick and deadly “oopsie” to have happen by accident. No thanks. Tho now that I think of all the stabbings being reported worldwide (in countries w/ strict gun laws) kinda made me view my kitchen knife drawer a bit differently….tho’ being solo it’s unlikely I’d stab myself & my spunky dogger doesn’t have opposable thumbs to hold one!!!!
Joel, as someone who has taught survival skills, do not neglect the important mental preparation piece of using deadly force. It is an important element of that training, and is integral in preventing taking a life causing you to lose yours (in a mental/emotional sense.)
Thank you, Ally. I have already determined that I am quite capable of using deadly force under certain circumstances. I'd love to continue this discussion with you and pick your brain, but must go to work. Perhaps another time?
Memo to Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID): You're a fucking coward. Grow some balls. Stop whining. Step up to your oath of office. Do the job you're being paid handsomely to do.
To the rest of the Rs in the shambles that passes nowadays for Congress: If you do not uphold this country's most fundamental governing principles -- and you are showing many signs that you will not -- the injustices to follow and the blood that will be spilled will be on your hands. It will stain you forever. You will be traitors to your country and its ideals forever.
To everyone who voted for the incoming administration: This is on you. You abetted a gang of cruel, criminal, racist, misogynist fascists who are poised to ride roughshod over everything this country stands for, in the hope that the price of your eggs or the cost of your clothes would be slightly lower for a little while. You didn't apply even the slightest common sense to the information available, and you let yourself be gulled by the most obvious lies perpetrated by the most obviously self-interested liars. Don't come crying when you discover that the special-ed classes for your special-needs child have been cut, or your 12-year-old daughter or granddaughter who got pregnant via rape cannot get an abortion or reproductive-health medical care, or your health insurance has left you hung out to dry, or your government-provided support checks have dried up and blown away like tumbleweeds, or everything costs 20% more because of the tariffs your fraudulent rapist cult hero imposed, or you can't find half the meat and produce you usually buy because so many workers who bring those products to market have been deported. And that's just the start. There's going to be much more. And you brought it on. You own it.
Sadly, pts, at the moment, it is EXACTLY what they want. When they realize that they are targeted as much as every immigrant, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, woman and any other "other" I've forgotten it will be far, far too late.
DE, I find it interesting the reporting of the number of online searches for “how to change my vote”. Seems, for some, the remorse has already set in. And don’t get me started on those who chose TFFFG over Harris because of the current Admin’s stance on Israel/Gaza (not that I agree w/ their stance)….but come on….to think he’d somehow be better? His stance was plain as day & folks chose to ignore it. 🤦🏻♀️
"Ship of Fools" is a 1962 novel by Katherine Anne Porter. The movie was released in 1965. It received eight Oscar nominations and won two. The story takes place on an ocean liner bound for Germany from Mexico in 1933. (quotes from reviews) "Many of the passengers bound for Nazi Germany are happy, some are apprehensive, while others downplay the significance of Germany’s fascist politics." /// "Aboard ship, there is no sense at all of the potential for evil in the character of German nationalism, with its commitments not only to the purity of order but to the purity of chaos and self-immolation." /// "Running down the middle of this story, the road to Nazism soon becomes indistinguishable from the highway to hell."
Trump is putting on his “All Culture War, All the Time” show to distract voters from watching their tax dollars flow upwards into Elon’s and Jeff’s and other already wealthy pockets. We have to name it over and over and remind people to “Follow the Money!”
When Gaetz is out of the running, ( I hope, I hope), what crazy will come next? I have a hard time understanding why republicans think his luny appointments are good for anything except trump’s ego. It will be interesting to see if any of them stand up to Cheetolini. I have my doubts.
When I hit that heart, that’s just to send my appreciation to you. What I’m reading, though, is making me sick to my stomach! What were people thinking when they voted for him? Did they think it was a joke? If you know of any group or organization that is working to fight this, would you let me know? Do Republican senators and representatives need courage to fight this infection? If they heard from enough of us, do you think that could stop this? I live in Florida. The Republican leaders are mostly infected. They ban books. They’ve weaponized the courts. The governor spent tax money for ads that were political. They have decimated public schools in the name of choice. I wonder how they’d live if they didn’t have tourism funds.
I am so discouraged and angry!
Please keep writing. Please find some hope. And thank you.
Dana, all I can think of is the adherents to the Burn-It-Down-Bannonites who want the whole thing to implode/go up in flame/become toast…. Ah, the glory of Rome burning…what a spectacle….no one, really, thinks of the day(s) after.
Cutting Social Security benefits is going to create an AARP led grey rebellion this country has never seen before...and I will be on the ramparts. Trumps so called "Cabinet" has been described as a "Junk Drawer" by one of my friends. His AG, Sec Def and HHS nominees are beyond being a bad joke. They are absurd and totally unqualified. We all need to keep directly pressuring the Senate to do their jobs & not capitulate. As to mass deportations, the number of illegal immigrant agriculture workers is 42%. How do we operate with them gone ? These choices to run things and the proposals are insane.
In the parking lot of my local grocery store, a nice elderly man offered to put my cart in the rack for me. I thanked him, and he then asked how I was doing. I mentioned how lousy most of the produce looked and how high prices have gotten, and he then told me this: "Just you wait and see, EVERYTHING is going to get better very soon! HE is getting great people in all those cabinet positions, and they will be fantastic!" I told him I really didn't want to discuss that, and wished him a good night. Of course, what I really wanted to say was this: "Are you fucking kidding me? Do you have any fucking idea how brainwashed you are?!? The orange monster and his minions are going to destroy this country! Just YOU wait and see how bad things will get when you lose social security, Medicare, and have to pay so much more for pretty much everything!" This is what freaks me out the most: these people are hearing nothing but propaganda from their right-wing bullshit "news" sources, and that isn't going to change. They won't realize how screwed they are until it's too late, but they'll probably blame it on Democrats, or anything other than their CHOSEN ONE! Sorry for my rant......sometimes I just can't handle this shit.
I had a similar experience, guy with autistic child jewish wife, explain to me how Harris paid the celebrities to endorse her. It was a Fox Noise item that was proven totally false. Guy said he heard Democratic officials admit it! I said nothing. If 400,000 excess American deaths because of poor pandemic response did not 'break through', if Ivermectin and bleach work for you instead of a Nobel Prize winning vaccine, I cannot think of anything persuasive.
My sister lives in a red-neck backwater town in Missouri and survives on a widows pension and life-saving medications and medical care. I scream and shout to everyone about what this band of freebooting maniacal marauders are planning to do to America's most vulnerable, except her. She has no idea what is going on politically, thank God. May ignorance be bliss for some, I say.
I throw my hands up. The death of America is at hand. I have repeated to everyone’s distain here that I would put my trust in the good generals temporarily suspending the constitution and end the Trump MAGA era. But no one agrees. We don’t or won’t have a nation anyway so why not put our faith in our military to save us. The incoming trash will be worst than you could imagine.
Elected or not, Trump and co are domestic terrorists by their own admission and should be treated as such. I agree they should be stopped. If the shoe was on the other foot there’d be retaliation ‘to an extent never before seen before in this country’ to use Trump’s repeated throw away line.
So very tired of that crappy throw-away line. The man is barely literate.
Linda, it's true Trump is barely literate. He does not read, does not think, does not reason. I am thinking he is wearing an earpiece through which his handlers are feeding him just what to say. He is now getting better at using it, but was not good at the beginning. I thought there was something like that going on when he accused Kamala Harris of it. He always accuses others of what he is actually doing, and usually the others are not. So, nearly half of America voted for an ignoramus as president, this time even deeper into dementia than when he left office before. He has done nothing but plot, run for office, lie, cheat, commit insurrection, steal documents, consult with America's adversaries while out of office, and try to rig elections, yet people thought he was a good guy to be president again. What is wrong with people? Or is it that some shenanigans have been performed impacting the vote? It truly is a puzzle and certainly negates the concept of American exceptionalism.
So here’s a different view Linda while he may be the exaggerator in chief and I don’t disagree with that when he says the greatest of all time or never before this good or whatever he’s exaggerating it’s a lot different than lying about topics. That means something to every American here’s a few examples. of issues that are important rather than pointing them out for exaggerating why don’t you call these people out for lying and actually America did call them out for lying by throwing them out of office
THE BORDER IS SECURE CRIME IS DOWN BIDENOMICS IS WORKING AND TRUMP IS A RACIST, MISOGYNIST BIGOT XENOPHOBE FASCIST AS WELL AS HITLER. IN THE MEANTIME, JOE BIDEN INVITED HITLER TO THE WHITE HOUSE THE OTHER DAY AND JOE AND MIKA FROM MORNING. JOE WENT TOMORROW LAGO TO ACTUALLY MEET WITH HITLER AND THEY KNOW HITLER BECAUSE THEY’VE CALLED HIM THAT FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS
ANY HUMAN BEING THAT REFERS TO ANYBODY AS ADOLF HITLER IS IN TOTAL IGNORAMUS AND PERHAPS SHOULD GO VISIT PLACES LIKE AUSCHWITZ AND SEE THE OVENS AND THE PILES OF GLASSES AND BOOTS OF THE 11 MILLION PEOPLE THAT WERE KILLED DURING WORLD WAR III BY THE SAME MAN. USING HIS NAME IS SO EFFING IRRESPONSIBLE
Lololol. Should you really want to identify domestic terrorist just look at the current Weaponized department of so-called Justice? hasn’t been a better example of that since America was first founded
I agree the justice dept could do a better job, they should have locked Trump and his cronies up by now
So you are saying that inciting an insurrection against our country is all made up, in spite of the entire riot and Trump’ obvious incitement. And you are saying that should be ignored and go unpunished? You are saying that the Justice department should just not punish a felon who stole highly classified material from the National Archives and refused to return them? And he has never disclosed who he sold that classified information to.
I am sick of the willful ignorance that you display.
What do you mean? Can you give an example of an investigation that was brought with no cause? Whenever I talk to people about this, they want good citations and I don’t have any, but I bet you do. Please help!
Wait til the military are mass deployed to extrade how many immigrants? as Heather rightly noted, are integral to the economy, and also report fewer crimes per capita than the general American population. Turns out crime rates run higher in poorer American states which lean Maga, educational and economic outcomes run lower, where Evangelicals rule the roost.
I just learned from a retired Navy friend with lots of Dept. of Defense work in his history, that Coast Guard is having trouble recruiting now because of re-missioning of their work. What was about serving safety/security of people and ships off United States coastlines has become about deploying people to faraway places to be on the front lines; this resulted from budgetary considerations. Navy couldn't fund the foreign front-line work so they began sending Coast Guard. Repurposing the tasks of the military . . . yikes!
Joan L., could you site please? I've never heard of any of this.
Frank, people hear about crime ad nauseam. Many, like my parents had, have scanners. Then there is the constant reporting of crime and attributing to Ds on platforms like Nextdoor. Interestingly, lots of pictures from security cameras and most of them are white men and women. Do people really not know where their food comes from or do they think it magically appears at the grocery store. Scut job are done by immigrants who may be documented, but often not. Big project on our street for two and half years. One Hispanic who ran a machine. The rest of them did the landscaping and the smoothing out of cement on the sidewalk. Lots of white guys working on this project and complaining about Ds. It was Federal money that allowed it to happen.
Frank, I’m not against immigration. Both sides of my family were them. I was however, totally disgusted how Biden slept on the job for three years not doing a damn thing. He could have invoked the Insurrection Act. He could have created an executive order. He did shit for three years. I’m not saying this was the only reason Harris lost but it was a big one. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. I hate Trump with a passion. So much so that I put my first book on cats side to write about Trump. Now I must write Part II and add it into my 4 year old book. No nation on earth allows unmitigated rushing the border as we did. Stop deceiving yourselves you and others. And if you don’t believe me, read about UK and Brixit. Read about Pen almost winning in France. Read about the far right Germans now the 2nd most popular political group. And all of them on the topic of migration. Snap out of it. We lost largely on this issue. If I did t hate Trump so much I might have voted for the monster — the 2nd rate mafia wannabe. (Not really but so many did.)
Once again asking why you haven't castigated the GOP in the House that caved to Trump's demand that they not pass the bipartisan bill that addressed at least some of the immigration issues "because he didn't want to give Biden a 'win' in the campaign"?
Here's a long and a bit into the weeds take on immigration issues under Biden. This doesn't exactly line up with your "do nothing" comment, but it hardly ignores the problems involved. We might remember, too, that many if not most of the illegal or temporarily protected recent immigrants fill jobs most Americans would not, that for the past year or so the US has run at virtually "full employment", abt 4% unemployed, despite the immigration problems Americans esp MAGA rail at. The heart of it, according to the article authors, is a Congress which has failed to pass meaningful immigration reform legislation in a generation, gridlocked in partisan warfare I can only guess. Will the US military remove DACA too?
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-three-immigration-record
Ever hear of the bipartisan border bill that was almost passed until Trump had the Republicans kill it? What you’re saying about the Dems regarding this is simply not true.
Bill - what is your take on the bipartisan immigration bill that gave Republicans just about everything they were asking for - more border agents, more immigration judges - that Trump told House Republicans not to pass so close to an election because Trump wanted immigration to be an election issue? What do you make of that?
https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-deal-rejected-lankford-immigration-045fdf42d42b26270ee1f5f73e8bc1b0
What "unmitigated rush to the border"?!?
As others here have written in response to yours Bill, at a bare minimum, the GOP scuttled the most drastic immigration reform package in recent history, a piece of comprehensive legislation drafted by Republican Senator Lankford from the State whose nickname ("Sooners") is a folksy reminder of a true unmitigated rush to the border whereby land was taken by white Americans manifestly fueled by their ballyhooed destiny to emancipate same from the Indigenous peoples already there.
In so scuttling, any argument against Harris and the Democrats on the immigration issue was superseded by this cynical and cowardly cave in to Trump.
You’re misplacing blame Bill. You know full well that t stopped any attempt to mitigate the border crisis. I do agree however that no other country allows the flow of migrants that we do now; but our history includes immigrants from all over the world sailing into the NY harbor. It’s all in the messaging; indoctrination by maga demonizing desperate asylum seekers. Biden attempted to bolster those countries from which people are fleeing. It takes time and right now we are stuck in a cycle of “dismantling” and “reconstruction” of government. Biden accomplished much in his 4 short years. Let’s put credit where it is due.
Bill, mass migration from the poor nations to the advanced west is undermining ALL western countries. The human race has overwhelmed it's carrying capacity, BILLIONS are without work, food, shelter. What can they do. They have big families, their countries are corrupt and their leaders steal what limited assets are available. Forests are cut down, water is polluted, fished out, deserts are growing. Arable land is shrinking. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are riding across the earth. The momentum of global warming can not be reversed. Yes I am pessimistic.
You are aware that the Justice Department is a separate, and rightfully so, branch of the government? Biden has been very careful not to pressure DOJ to act. He knows what is correct. DJT most certainly does not.
Le Pen.
I had that conversation last night with my husband. Trump is an autocrat our country has taken a turn against democracy and the MAGA’s, low info voters, sexists who would never vote for a woman and racists put him in office. Remember J6? Do you think he’ll leave peacefully in 4 years? He’ll leave when they carry him out feet first. With DOGE, aside from all of the suffering they will happen, why isn’t the MSM talking about the job loss? The Fed employs about 3 million people, so how many will be fired? 1 million? 2 million? And with the mass deportation of 10-20M and tax loss there, who’s going to take those jobs?
Do you think the Senators will really grow a pair and vote against Trump’s nominations? Gaitz was nominated for one purpose- to carry out Trump’s retribution, Hegseth will do with our military whatever Trump wants him to do, ie go after American citizens. We’re fu&@ed. Thanks for letting me rant. I pray to God I’m wrong.
Trump's not an autocrat, he just hasn't changed since he was a wilful toddler. Now he's being manipulated by autocrats who feed his need for flattering attention.
Messing with the American Military has been a career-ender for mōfῠs before....remember Joe McCarthy.
Mr Katz.....you sit in front of your computer screen all day.........what have you done to help plan and organize the resistance??? Would you go into the forests like they did in WW2? When the Orange Gestapo hit the streets.......what will you do??
I spent 3 years agonizing writing a book. As a singer/songwriter, I’ve written and performed my 4 songs castigating him. Do you want blood, now?
Give me a break with the projection stuff.......Magats are the ones calling for blood , there......not going there...... hats off for the protest songs.
Just being a harbinger........things could get really ugly when the Orange stormtroopers take over the streets
Sometimes change doesn't happen until things reach rock bottom....
Bill, my husband and I actually discussed this only because of desperation. Lots of people are in for a big surprise.
Actually, America will just now come back to life. Thank you for your optimism. Over 76 million people don’t think like you imagine that. ?
Return to Sender.........Putin Plant picking up his rubles
How do we get him blocked, WJB?
If you people keep talking Putin, you’re gonna lose every election for the next 12 years. Stop the nonsense. Stop the nonsense. Don’t let Adam Schiff be your poster child
That is like your Mother used to say…..if everybody jumped off a cliff,would you jump too? Just because the crowd did? Have you ever considered that 76 million people….not quite half of voters are wrong? They have been propagandized by some very clever wordsmiths who skew facts by skewing language. Followers follow. Leaders Lead
Almost 74 million did, imagine that?
Meanwhile here in Idaho dairy farmers fear how the mass deportation plan will negatively impact their industry. Our legislature has been overtaken by trumpf idjits. We were thrilled to read Simpsons comment. Fingers crossed he votes his conscience.
I hope their ignorance bites them in the a$$ and really hard. Perhaps the pain will wake them from their deep sleep. They consistently never get it … and look at where we are now. Except for the top 1%, we are all paying for it.
There’s two types of ignorance - the first where you believe the bullcrap, and don’t mind the drastic consequences as long as it’s happening to someone else. The second, the one which I’m referring to, is where your mental health or physical challenges or age etc prevent you from engaging in the state of the world, and you live with an inherent belief that hard won human rights and public services will always be there for you as the safety net they were created to be.
I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry about your sister. The entire situation has me sick. I have four grandchildren. Will they ever know the America I grew up in, warts and all.
Thank you Phyllis, it is dark times indeed. I sincerely hope that things right themselves for your dear grandchildren. I strongly believe that the good guys always win. We may have lost the battle but we’ll win the war.
But she and many like her probably voted Red and Maga.
She isn’t registered to vote and said there’s no point. I didn’t want to worry her so left it at that. I’d say she’d be totally saturated in fake news and surrounded by Trump supporters. Alternatively she’s one of the 93 million who don’t want to know. A lot of people I know find politics excruciatingly boring or of no interest, or think that not voting is a rebellious act 🤷♀️
Let us know how she progresses through all of this upheaval.
People that are decent human beings don’t refer to other similar human beings as rednecks. And try to frighten them with things that will never happen.
R.D.
Russian propaganda is demonstrably extremely effective. Clearly Putin has achieved his goal of bringing down the U.S. without firing a shot. Targeting the existing prejudices, fears and lack of critical thinking skills in much of the populace was more powerful than a nuke. It’s devastating.
With cooperation from American oligarchs.
Panther, “there is nothing persuasive, no, not one”
Only when they feel the pain they “mischievously” wish on “others” will they struggle to figure iut how to blame their misery on Biden and the Libs
Guaranteed anything and everything that goes wrong will be blamed on Biden. That's exactly what Trump did for at least the 1st two years of his failed, disastrous presidency. Everything was Obama's fault.
Exactly, trump will turn his propaganda machine on, a la Josef Goebbels, & his minions will blame who ever the victim du jour is.
So right, 100, mean for me to say that covid didn't kill off "enough Republican voters. Sadly, that vaccine "hesitancy" also extended to Blacks, who also disproportionly died from Covid - likely men more than women.
Panthers, I kept hearing that if we just talked one to one with those brainwashed souls, we might be able to persuade them. I have seen no evidence of that. And, when even Republicans who told the brainwashed what Trump was really like and they ignored all of what they said and voted for him anyway, it is hard not to think they deserve what happens to them. The only problem is that all the rest of us will be hurt and some even killed too for their ignorance and unwillingness to put a little time into thinking and getting out of their bubble. Ugh!
I get this from my MAGAt cohort all the freaking time. One chowder head just posted "Hey, Tulsi Gabbard is a Mustang! OooRah!" She's also a Russian asset that wouldn't be able to pass a background check, but that doesn't matter to them.
For those unaware of MilSpeak, that is a former enlisted military person who becomes an officer.
And DonOLD DID pay those who attended his rallies, something he accused Kamala of doing. I was amazed at how little publicity the 15000 people he left stranded in the desert got. That story got quashed instantly.
I am I was shocked that many people truly believe he is going to fix it all.
We no longer have a government. We have a cult.
We have opposition Democrats. And they will stand tall. They must, and we must support them.
They need to read this and immediately ACT accordingly. https://substack.com/inbox/post/151721941?r=1nic41&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Still waiting to hear about validity of the Greg Palast claim that 2.7 million votes were ditched. According to the Philly papers, where a hand recount is taking place, we lost Pa in Biden's home area, former Biden supporters. Not Gen Z. Not Blacks. Lost 2 Pa Dem house seats.
WOW! Harris claimed that she was prepared to address anything that appeared suspicious in the vote count. She folded even before all the votes were counted.
I feel like that was the point of Musk calling the election early and the point of flaunting an statistically invisible "unprecedented mandate".
We all backed down too easy and too fast - but that was the point.
https://substack.com/@pjlela/note/c-76502086
Holy shit!! Why isn't this getting more coverage?
Places I've shared this say that it is "too much like" a conspiracy theory.
Another facet of the Trump Strategy that I think we're only seeing now: Democrats are now so afraid of becoming "conspiracy theorists" like the MAGA group that we shy away from anything that could make us like them.
It's like aversion therapy - except insidious and malicious.
Ally, the Bob Casey-McCormick Senate close vote tally was less than the 0.05% PENN statutory trigger. Thus, An official recount must start tomorrow 11/20 & be completed by11/26 & reported out on 11/27.
The PENN Senate race has already launched at least a 1/2 dozen lawsuits. The PENN Supreme Court has already ruled on 2 concerning Mail-Ins & Provisional ballots. McCormick withdrew 1 of his lawsuit over two(2) Ballots last Thursday. Dios Mio amiga.
Shall I say it? OK, ok I won't say it but, see an appropriate Yogi Berra Maxim ....
Right. But, if you read the article, he's not some conspiracy theorists, and he's not spouting a bunch of lies and misinformation. Maybe Rachal Maddow could shed some light.
Max, that is a question that MSM refuses to answer. They all have appeared to fold, including the VP. An important point that Spoonamore has included in his request for a hand count is the following: Harris probably checked the voting machines right before and right after the election. That's what Musk was counting on. They should have examined the machines when the polling places in the swing states were bombed. That was when Spoonamore says the dirty deed was done. People were distracted. That's where Musk's Starlink technology manipulated the vote. Why Harris refuses to do a simple hand count so far is a puzzle. No one on MSNBC, CNN so far, has been willing to take up the fight.
Daniel, Has this information been sent to main stream media? If so, is msm so afraid of being called "conspiracy theorists" that they are dragging their feet about making this public? Has the Harris campaign or the DNC responded to these claims by Mr Spoonamore? It feels like we are in a pool and drowning and the life guard can't see us, or if she/he does see us drowning, they just don't want to get wet. The data and FACTS in Mr Spoonamore's substack answer to persistent question "how the hell could this have possibly have happened?!?!" If this were true in Pennsylvania, what about Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan?? Look what happened when someone else named Merritt Garland dragged his feet in the interest of being "independent" and "fair and just" .
I've seen MSM address the 'conspiracy theories' to debunk specifically the allegation that Starlink satellites may have been involved in tampering with tabulator machines. Interestingly, it's clear they are aware of Spoonamore's allegation, but debunking a different allegation. We know that the vast majority of machines are isolated from the Internet, but Spoonamore's allegation is that it was the e Poll Books, which in many cases are connected OR that tabulator machines were interfered with in very limited circumstances, directly, by people. The theories Spoonamore advances are all plausible and require attention, even if to verify he is a real, human, American person who is not spreading disinformation. His letter could be simply that. We need verification and then investigation.
Wow
They said they had a plan and a little secret.
This. Isn't. Over.
"They claim a mandate, although as final vote tallies are coming in, it turns out that Trump did not win 50% of the vote, and CNN statistician Harry Enten notes that his margin comes in at 44th out of the 51 elections that have been held since 1824."... Less than 50% is not a Majority... Kamala may have Capitulated too Early... I have also read that Kamala received about 10,000,000 Votes less than Joe Biden did 2020... Those 10,000,00+ Voters stayed Home... DJT received less than a 1,000,000 more Votes than he did in 2020... Per AOC, Kamala should have listened less to the Obama Era insiders, and more to the 'GrassRoots'.... Reuben Gallego impressed me by visiting all the Major Indigenous Enclaves in AZ during his Campaign... They Turned Out For Him... DJT is Mean, Vindictive, and Cruel.. DJT will try to undo all of Joe Biden's accomplishments... Failing that he will try to take Credit for them... DJT is deteriorating noticeably faster now... DJT will cause Chaos in order to mask his Ineptitude... DJT is the "Stable Genius" Businessman who declared Bankruptcy 5-Times... As long as DJT is on the Main Stage, he will cause Chaos... His Minions have been chosen for their Subservience to DJT, not their Competence...
Many of the Dem voters didn’t “stay home “, they were prevented from voting by new voter suppression laws.
The suppression included massive voter registration purges and dozens of lawsuits to make voting more difficult and/or to count fewer votes. The GQP has been shamelessly suppressing voting.
That as Well... Many of the Indigenous Communities were affected by that, Kristi Noem, Gov. of SD, is banned from many of Indigenous Communities in SD for Voter Suppression among other things there...
Abby, you make a good point and it makes one wonder why we haven't heard more about "the big purge."
The corporate media could care less about voter suppression. And there have been millions purged across the country. Does anyone think that these prunes haven't led to disenfranchisement among marginalized voters?
so true.
The group "anonymous" believe that there were votes in swing states that only voted for president, no judges, amendments etc. There were 60 bomb threats at polling stations were everyone except was forced to leave. During the last hurricane, Musk set up starlink satellite over those areas of the country and could have manipulated the vote. (Musk claimed victory before the votes were counted.) Normally, less than <1 would have voted for just president but some how 11% did. They claim the numbers do not make any sense. We need a hand count in all swing states. If the election was truly stolen, there will not be physical ballots bc it was done electronically. All ballots in swing states need to be hand counted. Musk brags that anything can be hacked. I think he's bragging about what he has done.
I feel like the claims of a "stolen election" in 2020 were really a longer game to discredit anyone else who tried to claim a stolen election later.
Think about it. We're trapped now between a rock an a hard place. Calling out our suspicious makes us look like the rabid 2020 deniers and decreases our legitimacy more, spreading more division. Sitting here and allowing it sets a precedent that we'll just roll over and allow ourselves to be played.
How do we navigate this?
Truth is truth despite Goebbels rule to call them what you are and accuse them of what you do.
Yes, truth is truth, but does that matter when people don't listen? I fear the only way for them to truly *see* the truth is to get blindsided by it.
TJB, we navigate this by using discoverable facts and not merely theories or feelings.
"I feel like the claims of a "stolen election" in 2020 were really a longer game to discredit anyone else who tried to claim a stolen election later."
Yup. Just like when my ex accused me of having an affair, so I would look silly when I told anyone what I found out about him and his affair. What he didn't realize is that there were so many other things he was doing that the affair was not important. I just hope there is more that trump and his co-conspirators will get caught doing, enough that the stealing of 2024 won't matter in the long run.
You are so right.
Tjb as I could not find one of your responses I will respond here hopefully you’ll get it.
Yes, I have plenty of time. I’ve retired 12 years ago very happily and very thankful to this America.
And just so you know, I have never been on any social media network until about four weeks ago or so didn’t do Facebook didn’t do. Twitter didn’t do Instagram or any of the others just happened to get a random email from somebody as I started reading more and more. I realize that there are too many people that are not seeing things from both sides of the aisle they are only getting one side of the story and I think it’s important that people see the whole story before they make an evaluation. And that’s it
“Both sides” Really…. Like alternate facts
Patty Dubin, I agree with you. Not because I am a sore loser, but because everyone knows, on its face, this election result made NO SENSE. I think this was the “surprise” that trump and Johnson shared cryptically with American. And I think it’s the reason Musk can have a tantrum, shouting match, or whatever else the hell he wants, with trump or his minions. He’s the guy who delivered the election by hook and apparently by crook. By time it gets proven we will be deep into the lower pits of hell - or as magas call it “trumps second administration”.
Patty, to your point, I agree with TJB in positing that Trump's "stop the steal" campaign served at least two purposes. If immediate success at overturning that election failed, it created a template against which Democrats would look like sore losers and foolish conspiracy theorists if they questioned any future election results. That would lay the groundwork for actually stealing the election without its being questioned. Trump is not that clever, but he surrounds himself with people who are, not the buffoons he places in plain sight but those he keeps in the shadows.
I may sound like a broken record, but it's important to note that Trump and his party have coopted the evangelical wing of Christendom. Evangelicals' whole raison d'être is the long game. They are willing to live a whole lifetime in misery to claim their reward of a "mansion on a gold-paved boulevard" AFTER they die. If that isn't playing the long game, I don't know what is. It also means that when Trump makes their lives a living hell, they will resign themselves to believing it's "God's will" that they suffer.
Patty, right on. When I said ‘stolen’ about the election a seemingly educated Dem woman remarked, ‘You sound like T’. I ought to have quickly responded that everything he ever says is about what he does or will do. Pure narcissistic on display.
So. Yes. Probably mush and push.
Thom Hartmann’s written a book about voting that he recently quoted from on a post. Simultaneously fascinating and deeply unsettling.
Seems to me that Kamala Capitulated to Soon.. Reminds me of Al Gore in 2000... Probably to avoid Civil UnRest by the MAGAs... Seeing Joe Biden Shake Hands with DJT reminded me of Hindenburg greeting Hitler... The Fascists in the Republican Party have demonstrated that they will do Anything For Power... The Dark Siths Are Smiling...
Has anyone seen JD or Melania? Apparently Musk had a shouting match with one of Trump's advisors in Mar-a-Lago a couple of days ago.
Good-bye.advisor! And Musk? The inevitable Trump-Musk divorce can't happen soon enough.
Trump won’t be able to tolerate Musk. There can only be one Narcissist-In-Chief at a time. I give him till, say, March.
Maybe much sooner. He's already "joking" about the length of Musk's stay at Mar-a-Lago (stupid name).
It Is InEvitable... Ask Roger Stone, or Steve Bannon...
Well, Bannon appears to be back in T's good graces.
He never left T's good graces.
Trump and Musk are a match made in hell. But if Musk indeed delivered the battleground states to Trump, he will be hard-pressed to give Musk the heave-ho. As with so many of Trump's decisions, the JD choice was impulsive and expedient, one that Trump now regrets. JD has become invisible and will remain that way. As we've all heard, Trump believes "he alone can fix it." Pence showed him that he doesn't need or want a VP.
As for Melania, she has already made it very clear that she has no intention of being a First Lady on this go-round. The only time we'll see her is on the few occasions specified in her contract. Otherwise, she's a cougar on the prowl.
I read Musk hasn’t left Trump’s side since the election. Considering Trumps stage of dementia why aren’t people complaining that we have a shadow President like they did with Biden? No one voted for the illegal immigrant that bought his citizenship. I have not read one word on Vance, not even a line in a story.
Got that right Apache; we are officially not a 50-50 Nation. We are till counting votes in California. Also, 5 U.S. California House seats are still labeled "Toss-Ups".
I'm sorry, but for me, it's more like a junta in development.
Yes, an oligarchy run not on evidence or intelligence, but on greed and hubris. Hang on to your wallets, sanity, and loved ones.
My loved ones were the ones who voted for this. They're, at best, being held at arms length until I'm not so angry anymore.
I take your point, though; time to go make my own family.
Arms length, more like different planet
I wish I could relocate to a different planet... :/
Think 1930s Germany. This is going to be very bad. I'm waiting for opposition figures to start "falling" out of windows or getting into strange accidents.
Ideologues in red, MAGA red, that is.
We have know the Orange cult for years..........the big question is will people fight back with everything........putting our lives on the line or just roll over like Morning Joe and Redcoat Mika.
A data scientist, Stephen Spoonamore, strongly suspects a hack took place during the 2024 election. He speaks of tremendous numbers of “bullet votes” for Trump, occurring in just the swing states. A bullet vote is where there is only one selection in one race out of the entire ballot.
For example in Arizona and Nevada, 5% and 7% of the ballots were people who only voted for Trump.
He explains how easily it could occur particularly with the ability of Starlink, headed by Elon Musk. He also explains that a hand recount would clear this up.
Mr. Spoonamore is imploring Kamila Harris to request a HAND RECOUNT as only she can do. He states that a hand recount will determine the correct number of votes for the 2024 presidential election.
People interested in pushing for Harris to have a hand recount should contact SMARTELECTIONS.US
https://youtu.be/RJR5uQpweko?si=TkumDVYkuikthlKn
Stephen Spoonamore substack.com/@spoonamore
Stephen Spoonamore Twitter/Threads/BlueSky: @spoonamore SUBSCRIBE
I sent his substack article to Senator Angus King. I'm sure all of the Senators are aware.
PA is doing a recount of their Senate race. If Shapiro can couple that with a PA Presidential recount, then perhaps some of the shenanigans mentioned by Spoonamore will come to light. And if they do in PA, then that could lead to recounts in the other swing states.
Not to mention the money muskrat was passing around. How many $50 bills were given out to get those bullet ballots?
Never forget:
I don't need anymore votes, I have all the votes I need.
Said months before the election and then he proceeded to do things to turn voters away. Not logical for this result.
Muskrat and Miriam Adelson bought the election.
The answer is simple, look at the social media post for Trump, according to those lies everything from inflation to the stock market was described as horrible. Based on these lies the momentum went through the roof. If we don't change our message to small burst on social media we will not reach the majority of people. CBS, ABC news and maybe even HCR should have reposted the list of lies and exposed those Facebook post for what they were. Dems lost on economy and immigration. Biden has done a great job, with 7% interest rates but that info is not posted where most people can see it.
I Blame the media
I have been making this point in NYT comment sections and they will not print my comments, except when I say anything but the media is complicit. Considering dropping the NYT for the Guardian now. What a shame, because some of their articles are beautiful.
BBC seems reliable too.
I deleted Xitter apps from PC and phone. I use Threads and Substack. Need to try BlueSky. It may be beyond my limited capacity. If I can get news about Ukraine then it will be worth learning.
Substack and BlueSky seem to be where it is at imo.
I read it and implore Harris to push for a recount. Don't really care if Republicans call us sore losers or whatever. They were prepared to completely contest the election if they lost. Why aren't Democrats prepared to do the same? The stakes are enormous.
A Risk-limiting audit (RLA) which is a randomized audit comparing paper result to tabulator is very effective in determining errors. If done by each state it would certainly call out any shenanigans. It is easy to do and statistically relevant. If errors are noted, then a more complete audit would be warranted. Here is more information. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/risk-limiting-audits. Here is a very good article about our election systems, their weaknesses and other interesting information. https://harpers.org/archive/2012/11/how-to-rig-an-election/.
> For example in Arizona and Nevada, 5% and 7% of the ballots were people who only voted for Trump.
I hate to say it guys, but some people really only did vote for Trump and no one else. Nothing was hacked, we are in the grief stage and trying to figure it out, but when stuff like this gains critical mass and we can't separate fact from fiction then we are 2 steps away from sounding like the MAGA folks back in 2020 right now. Let's be better.
Yes, PhillyT, some people voted only for Trump. According to Spoonamore, since 1980 that’s been about 1% of the vote. In Non-Swing states this time, it’s about the same. In North Carolina it was 11% of Trump’s vote. NC just elected Democrat, Josh Stein, for governor. If the stats are correct, a recount will show the situation.
We spend a lot of energy to avoid being seen as the same as MAGAts.
True. But what if.
I’m right there with you, sister. I can’t believe how brainwashed my neighbors are, either. I’ve mentioned to a few of them the MAGA plan to cut SS and Medicare, and I get looks of incredulity.
The problem is they only listen to right wing news and blogs, etc. My brother is in deep into the cult and no amount of telling the truth gets through - it's all fake news to them. Very frustrating and scary.
Right there with you, Terry. It's frustrating, exhausting, and feels absolutely hopeless trying to talk to family who refuse any information other than what they already believe.
My grandfather, rest his soul, had a saying about how unreasonable people think: I've already made up my mind, don't try and confuse me with facts.
I miss him more and more with all this going on.
That is why we have to change our delivery method. Short list of what we are doing right and what they are lying about BTW, MAGA is not cutting social security they are going to defund it, same result. Bush took at 1.3 billion (someone can sure up that number) to cut tax for rich and pay for his war
Bush blew up the deficit by attempting to pay for a two theater war without raising extra revenue, and by instituting Medicare D without the ability to negotiate drug prices.
My dad is in the demographic you would think would support Trump, but my family and I all detest him and we voted for Kamala Harris. My dad watches Mika and Morning Joe and I’m disgusted at their capitulation to the Orange Menace.
They killed their audience
They've been got at. You don't forget the disgusting things he used to say about her on Twitter.
With complete respect for your reaction to this gentleman who helped with your cart, may I suggest another road? I’ve had several experiences like this before and especially after the election….I guess just because I like to engage with people at grocery store lines, etc. When given a completely inaccurate, often bombastic statement as that gentleman gave you, I do not choose to refute it or politely disengage from the convo. I will usually say something like….”tell me more about that. Like what do you mean by it’s going to be better. What is going to be better? Please share.”
I find this is the start of road to get the state of misinformation out in the open and to put it in question for even the staunchest of Trump allies. To me, Trump has shown people that he will carry such lies as to make them feel perfectly ok about being misinformed. It’s truly the most wicked quality of a grifter. So when YOU ask with genuine interest to such a misinformed “believer” to explain or let you in on what they “know”, you create a space to allow Light to enter the interpersonal space between two people. And with that, can come realization and healing.
Forget thinking that “all these people that voted for (fill in name or issue) are going to get their asses whupped like the rest of us and won’t they be sorry.” Why in the world do we want retribution? I just do not want people to obey in advance. We must move forward together.
I continue to start each day and during these times, more than once a day, remind myself…We are all in this together. There is enough to go around. And “We” is We the People.
Love has no opposite. Light always prevails.
So be a beacon. And not a flashlight to point out “mistakes”.
Mistakes do not need to be pointed out or shamed. Merely a normal exercise in learning.
I like being the parking lot teacher. Wherever the parking lot pops up.
Salud, Jill!
🗽💜
Beacon, not flashlight. Thanks, Christine.
Salud, Christine!
My standard reply to these buffoons is "I hope you get everything you voted for". Usually gets a momentary blank stare, a 'glitch', if you will, that is absolutely priceless.
"I hope you have the day you deserve" is my favorite customer service sign off. Same vibe, I love it.
My great grandmother (born during Grant's administration), told me, a 10 year old at the time, "Be careful what you ask for because you always get what you are asking for."
It was said in such a way that you knew she meant you were too often asking for a swat by a flyswatter by your behavior.
Love it.
I know we all want to yell...but just ask him why he believes that ? Based on what information ? and see what he says...then follow up
He's not real. Ignore.
who is not real ? There's too many people in this thread.
These threads are *terribly* organized too, especially when sorting by "Most Popular" cause everyone likes things so fast that it changes on a dime, so that doesn't help either. I'm sure by now you've found who they were talking about though, lol
I haven't and honestly I don't care...what difference does it make ?
Honeslty, not much unless you're looking for a fight which is going to kill brain cells.
Keep on keeping on, Mike.
Not all of them are real.
Mike, you're just being silly. After 10 years, we all know Trump doesn't do facts. Maybe alternative facts once in a while, but not real facts.
Gary, I've heard Trump/Fox talking points coming out of my sister's mouth...and my sister is a lovely human being...and I ask her why she thinks that? She tells me friends or the TV...and I tell her what I believe is true and why. We will discuss it and she usually walks away with a new outlook. I'm just advocating that people try that approach rather than saying nothing, or yelling. It won't always work...but sometimes it does.
I agree with you, though I get that it’s harder with strangers than with family. Or maybe not.
I find it much easier with strangers, at least in person. Strangers have this thin barrier of social propriety that keeps things civil (in person) for at least a bit.
Family hits you hard and where it hurts and doesn't care for civility.
MLMinET,
"Maybe Not" is factual and especially heart-rending. One of my children completely gets it. The other looks at me like I have lost my "marbles" and smiles. My son who has passed away, understood who Trump and his minions were from the beginning. He was not afraid to share with his friends and family.
It depends on how "strange" the stranger is....A Universal truth that I believe is we are constantly co-creating with others. To not engage is a choice of one kind...to engage is another...and "success" is something else.
The propaganda has already shifted. For 4 yrs it was “the worst economy”. Now the Fox chirons have done a 180 already. They didn’t even wait until Jan 20. Everything good from here on out will be attributed to the upcoming arrival of their orange lord and savior, and anything bad attributed to the prior administration or those not even in power. The propaganda is just so powerful I don’t know how America ever gets fixed. And they know this. They know they have the cards. All we can do is focus on close ones around us and try to get into their universe, because on the mass public scale we’ve lost that war.
I would say, yes Biden's policies are taking effect.
I would have said “no, you’re wrong. Prices will rise…” I’m not criticizing your response because we’re all exhausted, but refusing to discuss lets them believe they are right and others believe as they do. These are the people that exist in that bubble that elected tfg.
Remembering always that "a soft answer turneth away wrath".
Yeah, riding that line between compassion/goodness and truth/fact is going to be rough the next several years. Thanks for the reminder, though.
Nowadays we call it "diplomacy". If anyone still practises it.
I just listened to a talk by Carol Off, a noted Canadian author and journalist, who showed how "how well the economy is doing" is strongly partisan and subjective, regardless of the state of the real economy. Great example, sad to say, you just provided, Jill. In a way , you might want to hope MAGA carries out its extreme social support cuts in order to finance its extension of tax cuts to the wealthy, with enough "buyers' remorse" come the mid terms, Trump will be isolated in the WH against Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Frank, I've also thought about the very same result. My belief is, come the midterms in this election cycle, republicans will be scrambling to explain their failures. For them, it may well be too little too late. I also believe the chances for a 3rd impeachment on tfg will be the charm. Even republicans may well say: "enough is enough!!"
I'm not sure "another" impeachment trial will be in anyone's best interest. Hamstringing Trump in his last 2 years would be best, I imagine. If that can indeed be pulled off.
How optimistic you people are.
It's good to be optimistic.
As Churchill said, of what use is it to be anything else….
Let's say, creatively hopeful...
I say premature compliance is already afoot. Our guardrails are made of wet spaghetti
I read an article recommended by another user here from the Journal of Democracy which was enlightening and spoke on the importance of perspective vs reality.
It doesn't fully focus on that topic, but it was a very intriguing read.
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/misunderstanding-democratic-backsliding/
"Backsliding is less a result of democracies failing to deliver than of democracies failing to constrain the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders." We also need to remember that partisan perceptions are often assiduously cultivated and shaped by political elites.
When trumpists accost us with their faulty views, I think we’ll have to start responding. Silence implies agreement.
No apologies needed. Your take on this is right on the money!
My daughter had a apt response to a construction guy in an elevator who was happy about Trump getting elected. She said in response 'women are going to be f***ked, but not the way we like'.
It seems that there are many instances where ethics are sorely lacking. This Election cycle certainly illustrated the case regarding honest, unbiased media coverage and reporting. Of course… a stupid electorate are willing dupes for these unethical individuals.
I don't know if I can survive the daily barrage of Trump and Republican insanity again...I'll be 80 before this "administration" is done.
I'm with you on that one. So many have worked hard for what rights we had. I don't know if it is possible for me to get over the anger and disappointment. I will be 78 by that time and I think it is time to jump ship and move to a country that respects their people...ALL their people!
Collete, which country? I’ll follow you.
Oh darlin’ I am urging Canada to build a wall. We created this shit hole country perhaps we should live in it
Have you heard this joke?
What borders on insanity? Canada and Mexico.
To Canada and Mexico who for so many years have been good neighbors thank you so much. But save yourselves and build those walls.
It is going to be so much worse. First of all, the leaders in the Intelligence Community turned in their resignations. See Jeff Stein of Spy Talk. https://open.substack.com/pub/spytalk/p/breaking-top-intelligence-igs-resign?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&comments=true
As of now US bases, embassies, planes, ships, people are all less safe because we are going to totally lose the chain of command with intelligence, let alone access to intel from our allies. Stein said the day before that MI6 is thinking of not sharing intel. I am sure the EU is discussing that too.
Musk told the EU that if they ban X, the US will pull out of NATO. Well, Trump is going to play the NATO card, and he may move troops, or bring them back home, but he is not developing trade partners this way. China and India are going to benefit from this, as well as African and other Asian countries. Everyone is preparing for his tariffs too. Here is an article discussing Trump's international policy.
https://pardot.csis.org/webmail/906722/3169409788/7fb3790e127db1fea8017946c5ab47fd41a1bf3a700f6568ba7dba887d14a0e4
I know from reading Project 2025, that nothing I am reading about appointments is surprising. And, knowing from people like Prof. Timothy Snyder that Trump and Musk are Russian assets and in cahoots with Putin, it is clear to me that he wants to hand the US to Putin and Xi on a silver platter. The whole world got less safe.
I am living in Europe. My American friends and I are wondering how we can access media we are used to using if the platforms like Substack get shut down. Is there a non-US based platform that the people we follow will be able to write on? Also, most of my friends here in Germany have VPNs, and I am getting one too. Most of my friends use Signal and not What's App, or have both. That is what my family uses too, but still, we know that many of the founders of Signal were initial on WhatsApp (others were from Yahoo). So even though it is freeware, they sold it to Meta. They profited from the sale. The Signal guys also helped Meta create the same encryption on their platform, so the encryption is pretty much the same. Signal is also based in the US. There is a mutualistic relationship between the two companies. A friends says she thinks Signal is marginally better, but not much.
My friend here is also talking about trying out Threema. It’s a Swiss company. It’s a paid app. It’s $5.99. I like a paid app model. I am worried that Musk will get rid of competition for his platform, and he now owns Trump. It was used to spread a lot of disinformation. Here is Prof. Snyder talking about that too. https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-phantom-campaign
Robert Hubbell also talked about how as the votes continue to be counted Trump now has less than 50% of the votes cast. Which given that 93 million eligible voters did not vote in this past election is less than a third of the eligible voters.
I wouldn't share intel with us either if I was from any of those allied nations that are looking warily at this once inspiring nation that had so much promise and influence on the world stage. If the American century wasn't already over then it most certainly will be soon after January 20, 2025...
Agreed! In fact, the smart ones will be snapping up our Intel people. Next we will see what happens with the DOD. DT cannot take over and destroy the Constitution with the White Supremacist militias alone. I am waiting to see what happens with the military leadership because they also have their own intelligence department which is discussed as the one to lean on in Project 2025. If they resign that is it.
Which is why I have called for a military coup before it’s too late. I would take my chances with the good generals and staff before the good ones go and the bad ones rule. Most likely, it’s all too late.
I am not saying coup. I am saying that if they refuse to enforce what Trump is doing as it violates the constitution then we will see that they serve the constitution and not the man.
When the Intel Chiefs Resign, this is Bad... When informed Concerned Citizens have to Hide, that is Bad... DJT, and his Minions Flood the Zone with Bull*....
Try Blue Sky
I am not on X or Facebook or any of those so I won't be going to Blue Sky, but a friend of mine got convinced to leave X to go to Blue Sky. However, Blue Sky's days could be numbered. It is a US based platform, and if Musk decides he does not like the Competition he can shut it down directly through Brendan Carr of FCC infamy, or if Trump gets the Republicans to pass HR 9495 they he can claim it is just a social danger picking apart some items and then it is gone. Read what Carr has to say about what social platforms have to be. https://newrepublic.com/post/188529/donald-trump-war-press-fcc-project-2025
Any US based platform is currently at risk. People should spend some energy looking for other sources, or creating them and basing them elsewhere.
Blue Sky is my first social media site. Preemptively not joining because it might be shut down is guaranteed to be a losing strategy by surrendering before attacked. What is needed is site that has enough followers to be effective. Obscure foreign sites will not be. If Blue Sky is shut down (unlikely, look at how difficult it has been to shut down Tik Tok), it can easily then just move its site overseas.
Right now my friends here and I are planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Here is what the Guardian says today about Brenden Carr, Trump's new FCC appointment. "Late Sunday, Trump announced he would nominate Brendan Carr as head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The conservative commissioner wrote a chapter on the furture of the FCC for Project 2025 (the infamous hard-right playbook for the second Trump administration), the only sitting government official to do so. Carr’s views on the US tech sector have mostly aligned with those of Trump and Musk. In recent months, they have all lambasted broadcast TV networks and public broadcasters.
Carr has advocated for going after Meta and Google, not to hem in monopolistic practices but to dismantle the “censorship cartel” of big tech companies that he believes are stifling conservative speech. Google, already reeling from the loss in its antitrust case against the US, may be a big loser in the incoming administration, as Trump has railed against it in campaign speeches. Carr has also supported banning TikTok over alleged national security threats.
Carr’s agency could be a political cudgel for Trump in his personal retribution against tech companies. The commissioner is a friend of the telecommunications industry and an enemy of Silicon Valley’s tech giants. Will he apply a hands-off approach to internet service providers, dismantling consumer protections in a boon to the industry’s large incumbents, and then apply scrutiny and harsh authority to the likes of Google and Facebook, sacrificing consistency in favor of political expediency?
“Brendan Carr has been campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press Action, a left-leaning media advocacy organization. “Carr doesn’t care about protecting the public interest; he got this job because he will carry out Trump and Musk’s personal vendettas.”
Carr could also turn the FCC into a commercial bludgeon for the “First Buddy”, as Musk has christened himself, against the billionaire’s tech rivals. A major beneficiary of the commissioner’s ascendance is likely to be Musk’s SpaceX, whose satellites and the internet service they provide are under the FCC’s purview. In his Project 2025 proposals for the FCC, Carr emphasizes his priority to “advance America’s space leadership”. He namechecks Starlink (SpaceX’s satellite internet firm) and says his agency will adopt as friendly a regulatory stance towards the company’s launch schedule as possible.
Lock up your phones
Yondr’s phone pouch
When everyone is digging for gold, sell shovels. That’s what a company called Yondr has found. As schools across the globe are implementing phone-free days and governments are discussing whether children should be banned from social media entirely, this brand has found a market opportunity. Founded in 2013, Yondr was one of the first companies to manufacture lockable phone pouches in which students (and others) can quarantine their devices. One million students use a Yondr pouch daily across 35 countries, CEO Graham Dugoni told the Guardian.
Dugoni said that when a principal, school district or state implements a phone-free policy, his company sees a spike in business. He was hesitant, however, to use the word “ban” when referring to schools’ policies towards phone usage. “No one’s doing anything wrong. And we’re not anti-tech as a company … It’s more how do we live with these tools in the future in a constructive way.”
Dugoni wants people to live in harmony with smartphones rather than prohibiting them, though he uses a flip phone and doesn’t maintain any social media profiles for himself or his company. “Creating a phone-free space is a positive move forward. It’s not trying to take something away or pull back into a world in the past. It’s how we create a framework and societal etiquette around something that’s radically new and everyone’s trying to appreciate the internet’s potential and possibilities.”
The wider TechScape
A bear in a field in Montana.
Why are wildlife biologists are chasing after bears with drones in the American west?
“First buddy” Elon Musk and failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were formally appointed as heads of Doge, or the Department of Government Efficiency, to carry out slash-and-burn cuts. And Musk wants volunteer “high-IQ revolutionaries” to help them.
The Wall Street Journal has the inside story (£) on how the tech industry, particularly Meta and Alphabet, has lobbied against the US Kids Online Safety Act.
The Guardian will no longer post on X from its official accounts.
And why are so many people leaving X for Bluesky? Tom Ambrose profiles the heavily moderated platform.
Trump’s incoming administration is planning to loosen restrictions on self-driving cars, a priority for Musk, Bloomberg reports.
Bitcoin and Dogecoin are going hog wild in the wake of Trump’s victory.
Mark Zuckerberg and T-Pain have released a cover of the rap song Get Low."
The Guardian has gone to Blue Sky too, but since I get it in my inbox, which is in gmail, so I plan to get a different email and transition all my accounts over the next 2 months.
Also, my family and friends and I use Signal, but since it is also platformed in the US, I am anticipating needing to use something else. We are looking at a Swiss one that we have to pay a monthly fee for, but it does a lot of the same things.
There are so many things to take care of now. I am in Europe. Most NATO countries don't want to be caught out like Ukraine. So, one we want to keep supporting it, but also prepare for Putin and Trump to ally and start attacking other countries as well. I am already talking with family and American friends living here about these plans. Like where to meet in case, or war, and where we might be safer. Scandinavian countries are preparing their populations for war by updating their plans. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr4zwj2lgdo
So, let us hope that Blue Sky does move overseas. I just think of how Meduza had to leave Russia and move to Estonia. I get their publication too.
As much as I hate to say it, I strongly suspect that quite a few in the media and legislative branch are kompromat or willing conspirators. 🤔
One thing I'm watching is how the military responds to Trump's plans to purge the brass of those he thinks are threats or insufficiently loyal to him.
I am totally watching the military. The Intelligence Community leadership has given notice. https://open.substack.com/pub/spytalk/p/breaking-top-intelligence-igs-resign?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&comments=true
The US and all of its bases, embassies, ships, planes, and citizens is less safe now than it was before they resigned. This is a gift from Musk and Trump to Putin.
So, if military leaders stay, I am going to hope and assume that they stand up to any requests to stray from the constitution. They also have an intelligence department, but Project 2025 plans to implode both the IC and the DOD, and remove the leadership and make new appointments and while they are doing this, who knows what bad actors will do. If I were Zelenskiy, I would be offering consulting positions for anyone that resigns now, as should NATO countries.
Anyone see this story reported by Rolling Stone for one-
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ryan-walters-demands-oklahoma-school-pray-trump-1235170916/
The education secretary of OK is trying to force kids to watch a video of himself where he demands students to pray for Trump.
Support the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Make everyone aware of the Fascist Project 2025 plan to turn the US into a theocracy. It's happening.
...that is some special kind of power trip. I seriously don't understand it.
Always have been and always will be against a theocracy. Thank you for the resource, I'll look into them and most likely donate.
Gary, all you have to say is "Oklahoma". Sigh.
We will be 85. I wonder what number my husband's SS card holds. I don't get SS because of the type of teacher retirement I have from California. Drunk on power. They all are. And, sadly, I believe this is the tip of the iceberg. We'll see. The only dim light, is that we can flip thing in just two years. And "he" knows that. I don't know what the answer is for now. I am reading that resistanced doesn't work. We are acting locally - suiting up and showing up and being supportive of our City Council, County Commissioners and our School Boards.
I wouldn't rely on another election in 2 years. Remember trump said this is the last time you'll have to vote!
He doesn’t have that authority .
I had to sign up for Therapy this time around - first time - 66 - I thought somehow these would be golden years - HAH...Joke was on me. I was in a mostly MSM blackout since 2016 which helped my mental health but after this election I had to go total MSM Blackout & get therapy. I keep telling myself that we're here at this time for a reason. Hang in there.
Me too.
Same here kiddo
Actually you’ll be older than 80 before this is done. Because first of all this is gonna be the best years Of America has ever seen so you should live longer and I’ll give you a to even rejoice Trump could resign his presidency 2 1/2 for three years in JD Vance becomes president and does a good job and serves eight more years by which time you’ll be 88
Take a lap, son, and go out for the junior varsity bot team.
Well, I’m guessing I’d hate to be your son and I’m not a bot which makes it worse for you because now you have to come up with some rational dialogue. Rather than just throwing insults and making stupid decisions about what America should do as far as Ukraine where we should’ve never been in the first place you’re obviously young and naïve, but you’ll learn and that’s coming very very soon
It’s only been less than two weeks and already the world is waking up. Optimistic burdens lifted off their shoulders and other governments are taking note.
Just today, the socialist leader of Canada Justin Trudeau announced he was making severe cuts in allowances of the number of immigrants into Canada. Uh oh. Berkeley has announced that it’s going to be cleaning up its homeless encampments Israel is cheering the entry of Trump as president and rightfully so Madison Square Garden gave him a roaring standing ovation right in the heart of the beast of Liberal dominance once upon a time
The ever insulting cast of morning Joe went tomorrow, Lago today and was welcomed by Hitler. He actually welcome them there after they called him every name in the book for the past year and a half and Joe and Mika who are now down to about 95,000 viewers and realizing they were on the wrong track have gone down there to try to save their careers and their program. The Trump dance is everywhere. Athletes politicians businessman, even the NFL players are now doing the Trump dance. And Colin Kaepernick will die in infamy
People are now putting Trump signs on their lawns after the election.
And even the New York Times is welcoming, Maha and said that this is a great thing that RFK Junior will be working to make children healthy again as Trump has installed not one but two Democrats in his cabinet. Even Cory Booker says the same thing. So get on board or get left behind insults aren’t working the basket of the portables. I’m sorry the basket of 76 million deplorable’s have spoken. The sun will begin to rise again on America and it’s greatness welcome to the New World
It took me a minute to translate "went tomorrow, Lago today". AI botspeak isn't improving. "Basket of the portables"??? No, no - da English no first language, think I. Worse than those captains. Er, captions.
Thank You, Anne-Louise! I wanted to be charitable about the broken English, but now I see that I was wrong. AI is getting better, I think, but there is still lots of room for improvement.
Obviously, and unfortunately, you’ve missed most of my earlier texts that indicate that I voice text all the time and I view most of the readers here are intelligence enough to figure out the content of what I’m saying. And demonstrably I am 99% content and one percent form whereas many people here are form over content. What a waste. I’m not writing my thesis here.
The strange phrasing, very uniform poor punctuation style, general cadence, and the order the grievances are listed - Ukraine first - leads me to believe this is a Russian bot we are dealing with.
Also, I counted 9 fairly long posts and 4 shorter ones, all with the same time stamp. A human could do this, but it isn't likely.
Yep. "Maha" for "MAGA".
He's a troll. Don't feed him please.
The reason I’m doing it is because I’m voice texting and I’m going from one response to the next. So it doesn’t take me a long time to speak probably a minute or so to do a very long text maybe two. But I crack up that people have this infection of Russia. What the hell is that and where is it coming from? Yikes as far as Ukraine is concerned, we should be nowhere near there. nowhere
For those of you who are too young to remember Vietnam, this is exactly what Vietnam looked like the only difference here is 60,000 Ukrainians have died versus 60,000 Americans and yet we pissed away $200 billion that could be used here for the homeless and the poor.
Steve And, I say this tongue in cheek so please understand that it is my attempt at humor. There’s a company that is now putting together a package deal for liberals. Trying to figure out why you lost the election. It’s two major components. it is a combination in a box crystal ball and a Ouija board
Optimism is what helps. The soul pessimism is a downer and being negative in advance is even worse. So await results and then judge. And if you judgment is correct, it will be just that correct
he's a troll. Ignore him.
PS I am certainly not a bot. Sorry to disappoint you.
...said the bot
ha ha
🤦🏻♀️….sigh, don’t know which is worse.
Then read a book, any book.
I’m sorry for that. I voice text everything and because I have so many responses to attend to I kind of focus on something that a lot of so-called educated people inappropriately prioritize. I’m a big believer in content over form. Missing a capital letter or a period at the end of a sentence or a word that can be spelled differently, or run into another word is immaterial minutia. I would like to respect the people here and therefore think that they could probably figure it out since they’re intelligent. And I’m guessing the little ditties that you mentioned above, you were able actually to figure out that I meant basket of deplorable and when I said, while voice texting, I went to Mar-a-Lago that the computer picked up the way it looks to you there but I have confidence and faith in you that you understood it and I’ll leave it at that. I continue to voice text and misspell or poorly punctuated sentence but I don’t look at that as important as getting the content across and I don’t necessarily have the time to go back and correct it like I’m in 10th grade English diagramming a sentence. I apologize if that’s not acceptable with you and you can certainly choose just to disregard any missive that I send but it’s more important that you understand the meaning and in fact, if you’d like to refute or dispute or to have a meaningful dialogue about it, I’m here
said the bot
Thank you for apologizing. Now I think it's your nap time.
You should take a look at Berkeley cleaning up homeless encampments, Newsom has been working on this project for years and running to the go to that it’s being done suddenly because of Trump is laughable. Trump who famously claimed homelessness was a new thing 2 years before he took office and never existed before that. You know, just trying to blame it on Obama. You support the man who doesn’t care if you die and prefers it would be a bloody, gory death to satisfy his perversion for horrific things to happen to people.
A slightly disingenuous post to say the least. Trump never said that homeless is didn’t exist prior to that what he said was it didn’t exist to this extent before that, and he was correct unless you’re in communicator with the world, there are homeless encampments in every single major city, causing substantial inconvenience and cost of those cities in fact, removing tenants from hotels and buildings and placing illegal immigrants in them instead and giving them free debit cards and medical coverage when Americans can’t even afford it. And I will proceed now.
Gavin Newsom now presides over a state that I live in for over 30 yearsthat used to be the shining star of the United States. it’s now an armpit, including San Francisco crime ridden, drug ridden tent ridden, and I could write you some and Etal stories if you’d like to hear them we just went back to LA for the week to visit friends. The entire downtown city smells like urine. Restaurants that have been open 80 or 90 years are threatening to close because they can’t control the encampments in the criminal element. They just removed a district attorney, who is allowing felons to be let out of jail the following day, only to commit more heinous crimes the next day. Newsome will receive his due reward. Trust me. But it’s not what you think. And this is what really hysterical CALIFORNIA CONTINUES TO ESPOUSE THE FACT THAT IT HAS THE FOURTH OR FIFTH OR SIXTH HIGHEST GDP IN THE WORLD, BUT LEAVES THE REST OUT IT DOESN’T TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT’S ONE OF THE MOST HEAVILY TAXED STATES IN THE WORLD THAT HAS A HUGE DEFICIT AND KEEPS MISSING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT ON THESE ILLEGALS BUT THEY DON’T KNOW EVEN WHERE IT IS. WHY IF IT’S SUCH A PRODUCTIVE GDP STATE, ARE THEY WHAT ARE THE MOST TAX STATES IN THE COUNTRY? WHY ARE PEOPLE FLEEING IN MASS FROM CALIFORNIA FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PROBABLY 50 YEARS.
Please don’t even start with me on Obama, who was the most divisive and most racist president we’ve ever had in our lifetime
Even the history books, acknowledge, he didn’t do anything for the black community that he promised to do other than give them free phones, and insult the whites Trevon could’ve been, my son the police acted stupidly, and sat by wall organizations like BLM and antifa destroyed in the defaced cities
I’m not gonna waste my time talking about that, but I will address your other concerns above. Ok?
Try this and see if this helps you. Trump administration, accomplishments. He had the lowest unemployment for minorities in 60 years and the highest employment by minorities in 60 years back to the 60s. He also increase the income for middle class, workers buy an average of $6000 per year. Look it up.
He also did quite a bit to salvage the damage from a once a century, global pandemic he was able through his reducing regulations policy to get the vaccines to the public some 3 1/2 years before they normally take. And just by the way, the same number of people died from the effects of Covid under Trump as under Biden look it up and Biden had a two-year Headstart. Also you might want to look up this fact that today they’re approximating between 75 and 90% of people have died from Covid died from a secondary disease already present in the body which created a weekend immune system. Not that that matters but Covid wasn’t the only suspect.
AND LASTLY, I DO NOT SUPPORT THE MAN AND I WILL PROVIDE A QUOTE FOR YOU THAT MAYBE WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND.
ONE VERY PROMINENT CITIZEN STATED THE FOLLOWING I DO NOT NECESSARILY LIKE OR SUPPORT TRUMP. HOWEVER, I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE POLICIES HE’S INSTITUTED ON BEHALF OF ALL THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA. AND THERE IT IS IN A NUTSHELL. Thank you for joining in this conversation.
Blah blah blah denying things that aren’t too difficult to find recordings of show you are more interested in propping him up than actual facts. Sometimes facing reality is too hard for people, you seem to be one of them. I’m done responding to a bot/person/paid Russian troll who claims he wants the libs to face reality while sane washing the biggest liar of all.
Sorry, typo and voice texting very common with me. Should’ve said.Two democrats in his cabinet not to. My bad.
Please don't feed the troll. YOu won't change his mind and you only give him oxygen.
Oh, and here’s a few other things you might want to know ever since he was elected things are changing in America for the better already. Zelenskyy thinks that Trump will end the war soon. The European Union has offered now to buy our natural gas instead of out of Russia. The New York Times, not a ration of Trump. Support has acknowledged the positive nature of RFK Junior’s involvement in helping America get healthy. As has a long time opponent Cory Booker said the same. And as a matter fact, Trump has done something that no other president has done. He has place to Democrats people of the opposite party in his cabinet and he has placed the first ever woman as the chief of staff in American history. What a misogynist. Lol
Pierre Trudeau, a hater of Trump, has just announced yesterday that he was going to start reducing the number of immigrants to Canada because it’s hurting his country. Hmmmm
Athletes and people everywhere have started to do the Trump dance in public and many people are placing from signs under yards after he was elected. He got a raucous welcome from Madison Square Garden where a few weeks ago according to your You’re lying media he was holding the Nazi rally. Omg. And the winner of the belt actually got the entire stadium to start chanting USA right in the belly of the beast of the Democrat party New York City. Morning Joe, which is lost an incredible number of yours has actually gone down to visit Hitler himself after they called him Hitler, and every other name of the book Trump opened his home to them and welcomed them in to have a discussion. And Joe Biden had a two hour meeting with Hitler himself. Incredible. Maybe I’ll stop believing by hyperbole and the histrionics now. Things are gonna be changing for the better welcome them is my best suggestion to you. And with that, I will leave you with a quote from Abraham Lincoln. Most people are as happy as a make up their mind to be. Your call.
Um why are you here? You don’t see us over on your MAGA pages spewing ignorance. Go play with your friends. The adults are talking.
PLEASE don't feed the troll!
Dude? You're in over you head and our of your league. Take a hike and on you way out? Apologize to your betters. Which would be everyone on this thread.
He’s here because he lives to agitate, antagonize and spread hatred. When he joins conversations of people that think like him he’s just another cog spewing the same nonsense and everyone ignores him. His profile claims he’s interested in facts and ending hate so he’s a typical hypocrite with no life and no one to listen to him. He’s a loser.
Please don't feed the troll. Even negative attention feeds him.
You see and that’s exactly why I’m here. Because otherwise, this would be nothing more than vast majority of liberal lemmings commiserating themselves because not only will Donald Trump be president that they hate for no reason, but they will have to see him every day just like when you break up with somebody and you have to see them anyway because they work in the same office, etc. I’m here as a Opposing view just like in a courtroom where you might think a man is guilty after the prosecution states their case until you hear that the perpetrator was somewhere else in the world and couldn’t have caused the crime A lot of you here need that view because for the next four years, you’re going to be seeing it every day and it be much happier for you to try to understand what just happened in this last election in four years when things are better, I’m hoping you’ll be open-minded enough to celebrate America and his and our success By the way, dude if I’m out of your league and I should take a hike is it because you don’t like what you’re hearing because you can’t refute and deal with the truth ? Governments and people all over the planet and in the US I’ve already recognized what Trump brings and I’m making changes almost immediately. Including the European Union Canada The Liberal networks and even Berkeley of all places places that is now commented that they’re going to start cleaning up their homeless in encampments. It’s a new day. When you only hear one side of a argument, you have nothing else to believe at least 76 million people don’t believe like you you might want to give that a thought 49 out of 50 states got redder. We’re in for a beautiful ride. Try to enjoy it. Don’t be a fatalist and don’t be prejudiced which means prejudging what will happen because you’ve obviously most of you are forgotten that Trump was already president and if not for Covid would still be an office today because of his policies and because prices were low there were no world wars crime was low cost of living was cheap, and the border was secure if you don’t like that, then you’re out of your own league
If you were really here as an "opposing view" (called "opposing counsel" in the courtroom, BTW) then you would be sharing an different understanding, backed by facts, attempting to have an honest and altruistic discourse.
So far, you have shared thoughts and feelings, which makes you as much a "snowflake" as the rest of us. Is this revenge? Did some libtard come into one of your discussion boards in 2020 and call you a lemming? Examine your motivations.
Show me facts, with sources. The burden of proof is on you for making the claim (also something from a courtroom).
Otherwise, it is my observed belief that you are here because it entertains you. You want to blame Democrats for being condescending and sanctimonious? Make sure you don't walk down the same path - though, you're more than half way there already.
TJB, yup, your last paragraph nails it. All the trolls that have appeared here over the years are like the old time landline heavy breathers. Even negative posts give him a......"thrill" so to speak. Don't feed him. Thanks!
Yeah I'm way past done and won't be responding to him further. I like to try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt - I'm always up for a good debate with respectful people.
This is obviously not one of them. Blocked and reported.
Well, I learned a long time ago. It’s probably not a good thing to try to put your head on someone else’s shoulders and trying to figure out my motivations you have miscalculated tremendously. Wow and thank you for teaching me those terms “ opposing counsel” and you don’t think you’re condescending… yikes.
Somebody on another blog, let’s call it. X sent me a message from an ardent. Trump hater, and it made its way back here. my certainly don’t need to be entertained, but what I noticed was what I said in many of my posts.
What I see here are a lot of TDS victims that were brought here through media lies and deception. What brought me further in was the constant miscalculation by the people who I’m referring to that use the terms such as racism, bigotry xenophobia misogyny fascism, and the most disgusting use of the word Hitler that I can’t even imagine that people are that stupid or that ignorant that they would actually use that word to compare anybody to that human being. It got me angry.
And what I saw was nothing more than people commiserating themselves with sympathy and Kleenex because we have a new president like we generally get every four or eight years Many of the people were let astray
By the lies deceptions and divisiveness of our once even keeled Legacy media, which no longer exists.
My motivation was simply to point out to people that there are people that do not think like them that are not crazy that are not lunatics that are not subversives that are not hateful people…. Just people that see things 180° different than most of the people here.
I don’t necessarily like using phrases like this, but I do believe that minds are like parachutes. They work better when they’re open. Most of the people here don’t seem to see it that way they want me to leave.
If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see that all the major media including ABC CBS NBC CNN MSNBC the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times, Facebook and even Google and up till very recently Twitter were all significantly left, leaning despite their ownership in some cases, but they all called for shutting down free speech Especially Twitter and if not for Elon Musk, one of the most ingenious human beings in history who has done things that even our government has not been able to accomplish, has risk his fortune to open that particular venue to be able to say what you want without your voice being squelched or eliminated.
One frightening example of Google if they really have no competition from a browsing perspective. so if you want to see how biased websites can be oracles as they’re so-called, I started to put a couple of words in my browser in Google and see how they came out They all came out the same and a list hear what I mean
One example that I will give you, I just put two words into my browser Gore/Bush. That was it and I wanted to see what links would come up. This wasn’t an isolated situation by the way and I’m sure that pretty soon they’re going to be competitors trying to develop alternative browsers although I believe that Google will start to realize what it’s done and what it’s doing
In any event when I put those two words into my browser and hit enter, I received obviously 1 million pieces of information. When I started examining the links to websites that were exposed by this query, I went through 22 pages and 216 links before I received any notable conservative links such as Newsmax or Fox News. Then I started doing that with other queries same same the funniest thing was all the links that led up to those search to go through all those pages and to go through all those links just to find a conservative one… there were probably 30 or 40 repetitive links of the same exact link for example CNN or MSNBC or MSN or CBS we’re listed a number of times over and over again with the same exact link before the conservative links were reached but even funnier than that, there were links for such websites that you’ve never heard of. Wouldn’t even think to visit with names of Podunk cities or newspapers Named dispatch or gazette
And when searching those names found their circulation to be minuscule.
Bottom line, sir I think it’s important for people to know that there’s other lives out there and while it’s fine to have friends too support you and put your head on their shoulder, etc. it’s just as important to realize that maybe you’re not thinking the way you should because all you’re seeing is one side of the story sorry for the run-on feel free to chime in
Oh AND TO YOUR LAST POINT ABOUT ALTRUISM, I BELIEVE I’M BEING VERY ALTRUISTIC BY TRYING TO HELP THOSE AROUND ME TO WIDEN THEIR SCOPE OF VISION AND OPEN THEIR MIND TO ALTERNATIVE VISIONS TO THOSE OF THEIR OWN.
Sorry, even the New York Times and Cory Booker, not exactly a Trump sycophant, have welcomed Trump’s placing RFK Junior in his post to make our food healthier. And none other than the Trump haters themselves on morning Joe we’re welcomed today by Hitler himself, despite the fact that all they did was call him names for the last two years and insult him, and now they went down there to talk to him face-to-face, and he opened his arms to them, despite their lies and hate and what they call a meaningful conversation in trying to salvage their careers and the network that has no more viewers. Not sure if this is accurate but I heard they only have 95,000 viewers now and of course you know that CNN and MSNBC lost 40% of reviewer ship the day after the election oops
Rick, you have no hope of influencing anyone here. Your screed is like noise carried on the wind, drifting in from the street.
Don't feed the troll please.
A mosquito!
Well that’s a pity. Because an old saying I learned in college was minds are like parachutes they work better if they’re open. I really don’t care if you listen or not I know how happy the world is right now optimistic hopeful and welcoming the freedom and the change that is coming. I’m sorry if you don’t feel that way and get left behind, but that’s certainly your choice.
How is it that LFAA got rid of one Ashh0le and another apears like magic. At least he reminds us of the intellect of MAGAt voters
Hello Allen.
Yes, they do seem to pop up like bad pennies, as the saying goes. I wish people would simply NOT REPLY to him! In the past, I've reported and even tried to block, but it is such a long, time consuming process and seems to take a few dozen reports from various readers. Ignoring him is best. Don't reply. Period. He WILL become more outrageous, like his idol Trump, and just like Trump he needs that attention.
How indeed, Allen.
You. Are. Joking. Report back in a year.
Please don't feed the troll. No matter how tempting it is. You fall into his trap that way. He doesn't have a single opinion worth listening to.
It won’t take that long. You’ll see it almost immediately Someone pointed out to me today that I beginning to understand more about the freak out that you liberals are having right now it’s like somebody broke up with you in a long-term relationship and not only do you hate them now but you have to see them every day because they live or work near you Fatalism and pessimism does no good for the body or the soul or the mind worst of all is negative in advance because it usually doesn’t turn out as bad as you think and it might even turn out great 76 million people think it will
You seem to be having some kumbaya moment that you want us all to join in. But we've been continually bombarded by his hateful rhetoric and maniacal rantings for nearly a decade. We've already seen what a horror show the first trump term was. It would appear that some of those 76 million trump voters might be amnesiacs and I'm pretty sure many of them will not like how things turn out.
Please don't reply to him in the future. You're stroking his ego.
Dude. Why are you here?
He's a troll.
Have tried to explain it over and over. The adults are not talking the adults are commiserating, crying, weeping, using up boxes of tissues, etc. that’s what you’re doing. I’m here as a voice of reason to push back so that you realize there’s always two sides to an argument. And you don’t see the same vision as 76 million Americans. Deplorable didn’t work too well for Hillary or anyone else that tried anything similar. Even Bill Maher has a better understanding of what happened here but you don’t wanna listen. You don’t wanna open your mind. You don’t wanna think positive thoughts you just wanna be negative in advance and fatalistic not good for the soul mind or the body. I’m just here as a balance not trying to insult anybody or throw anybody under a bus just that it’s better when you know all the facts all the sides and why things happened as they just did and it doesn’t appear here that you’re willing to welcome the rationale behind Donald Trump’s return to the White House. we are all in for a great ride and then the process most everyone is going to win just like they did and Trump’s first term before Covid hit a once in a century global pandemic so smile, and be happy, and one thing you obviously haven’t learned by your lineup above it doesn’t do you any favors, talking down or condescending to somebody especially when you have no idea who they are
I am not condescending. I am dismissive.
It’s a free world in America. Especially now.
Personally, I've been free for my entire long life -- apart from the years in the Army, half a century ago. We've heard " 'Tis an ill wind that blows no good". I don't see any good coming from the 47th president.
🙄
🙄
You must be one of those well off top 5%.
🙄
Rick - The benefits you name are short-term fixes. They seem to work for a while but ultimately make things worse.
Please don't feed the troll.
You're seriously right, Miselle.
Good luck.
The voters who put trump in are about to get a big surprise come Q1 of 2025. I expect to see a blue wave at the midterms and maybe the third impeachment of the orange Mussolini. Hopefully!!!
The M.A.G.A.s -- particularly those whose grandparents were Democrats -- vote against their interests. Pity that they did not recognize a Great Society President when one finally came into the 0val 0fiice.
" . . . . in September, Ramaswamy said as an example: 'If your Social Security number ends in an odd number, you’re out. If it ends in an even number, you’re in. There’s a 50 percent cut right there. Of those who remain, if your Social Security number starts in an even number, you’re in, and if it starts with an odd number, you’re out. Boom. That’s a 75 percent reduction done.'” What this simple bubble-head overlooks is that we and our employers paid into Social Security.
Ramaswamy's words strike me as issuing from a psychopath. Or sociopath at the very least. Talking about people's lives as though we are utterly worthless.
Absolutely! People with NPD, sociopaths, etc. are naturally drawn to positions of power. And people eat up their lies and charm like a chocolate donut. They have no empathy so it’s easy for them. We are chattel. Not human, but a means to an end.
It is also almost impossible to get rid of them once they have access to levers of power to abuse others with. They perceive all life as a series of simplistic black and white transactions. They can not comprehend love or empathy, experiencing the former as purely personal passion and the latter as weakness or cowardice. So whenever you try to talk to them with empathy or love they will perceive you as either a potential predatory threat out to get something from them (like they are to you) or as a troublesome burden to be caste off. One dimensional human beings.
There’s no recognition on the part of the sociopath that having millions of American suddenly homeless and starving is going to be a problem for the MAGAts.
"Problem"? No, no, it's their solution. The unenfranchised don't have time to worry about petty things like politics when they're just trying to survive.
This is a culling, and it is targeted.
Hate to say it, but the Othering that Trump started ends with people considering the Others as subhuman. Our lives are worthless to them.
Nasty piece of work.
Unbelievable that this kid has been listened to. Social Security is our money. It was held from our earnings. Maybe Vivek should visit the senior centers in central Ohio, starting in Upper Arlington where he lives, and tell those seniors his “simple” ideas . Listening to the people is always important. Taking their hard-earned Social Security , then Medicare next…?
That would be great. One less Vivek in the world . . . in a hurry.
He doesn't care. None of them do.
I find people change their views when they have to sit down and listen to their neighbors. I served on our City Council and then County Commission. It can make a difference. He came to politics with no experience. Politics can be a game. Let’s help him see the situation from reality. Reports are he moved his financial business to Texas. So maybe he’s leaving Ohio.
I live in Upper Arlington. I don’t know how we got saddled with the trifecta of LaRose, Husted, and Ramaswami. And my poor daughter lives near Vance in Cincinnati! Her commute is often disrupted by his motorcade. I wonder where Ramaswami’s kids go to school, and if they will be moving to DC. Vance’s too, for that matter.
Private schools all the way.
Probably, I just wonder which one!
He doesn’t understand how SSN’s work. The first number is dependent on the state it was issued.
Christy, it’s kinda clear he doesn’t understand A LOT!!!!
True dat!
Or, he understands exactly, and the appearance of randomness is plausible deniability.
This would be a perfect way to get back at blue states.
Ned I've got an odd number end...so I guess that I'm out. I hope that my AARP dues are good for some real lobbying and arm twisting from that nice office next to the Capitol.
You and me, both, Mike.
I've worked AARP events in DC where they get a lot of folks together in a big venue, talk about a specific issue and then they go up to the Hill and start meeting with individual Senators and Congress people...many times it's their staff people and tell them why they want a specific vote on something. It's very impressive.
Vivek Ramaswamy: "Day 1, anybody in the federal bureaucracy who's not elected, whose Social Security number ends in an odd number, you're out. [Day 2], of those who remain, if your Social Security starts in an even number, you're in, and if it starts with an odd number, you're out. That's a 75%..."
It seems MSM is quoting the last part but not the full quote. I am very left along the lines of Bernie Sanders but the full picture is still important to show what their intentions are: gutting the Federal govt.
You just suggested a likely deterant to Trump - a likelihood of third impeachment in after 2026 election. DEMS should start planning for it now.
The cognitive dissonance….this is the zombie apocalypse.
So many cuts, damages, attacks on the American people by the mob taking office in January.
Speaking of mobs, reckless, stupid ones, I've been reading Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s 1940 “The Oxbow Incident.”
Sometime in the 1950s I’d seen, as a boy, the 1943 movie version, directed by William Wellman, starring Henry Fonda.
It describes today. How mob stupidity can rule.
Then, in the fiction, 27 men and one woman from a western mountain town hunt, apprehend, and hang three men for rustling and murder.
The three hanged are all innocent, but the mob has ruled, just as in America today another mob has put criminality atop the U.S.
Travesties – the hanging in the novel and the movie, and the apparent majority voting for obvious rapist, con man, business fraud, hate monger, misogynist, and ally of the world’s most corrupt dictators, oligarchs, and election hackers.
Worse: how American schools now produce such mobs.
Phil, While you’re probably aware of this figure, I would note, based on a trusted source The New Yorker, the literacy index of over half of all adults in the States (presumably eligible voters) is below a 6th grade level. I note this statistic not only in response to your final statement but also because it’s included in the most illuminating post-election analysis I have encountered: Nathan Heller’s New Yorker piece titled Republican Victory and the Ambience of Information, “a must-read,” according to Lawrence O’Donnell, “about the election after the election.”
The foregoing notwithstanding, still, I see no choice but to hitch my wagon to a new pro-democratic organization “Governors Safeguarding Democracy,” a coalition intent on protecting an individual or citizen’s rights from the things the Trump Administration wants to do federally. I further would note I understand it’s been suggested that our Blue governors’ group develop its own democratic social media platform and base it outside the U.S. as an international platform for democratic governments everywhere.
Remember the enlightenment? I'm calling the MAGA era the 'endarkenment'.
That's fantastic
Perhaps this link will work:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/republican-victory-and-the-ambience-of-information
Thank you for the link!
Awesome article recommendation, Barbara. It was supremely illuminating and put into words what I feel a lot of us have been struggling to express: yes, the media failed us, but it also has never been *exploited* like this before, and we couldn't have been less prepared for it.
"the apparent majority voting for obvious rapist, con man, business fraud, hate monger, misogynist, and ally of the world’s most corrupt dictators, oligarchs, and election hackers" says it all. I have worn black every day since the day after the election.
I’d been thinking of wearing black as well, Susan, but haven’t quite pulled it off every day…. even thought of a black arm band to wear for the next 4 years. Sometimes I think I am sleeping and experiencing a nightmare. As Spock would say, TFFFG’s winning “is illogical”. And yet, here we are.
I have that thought too, especially on J20th & J6th
They are planning a "Peoples March on Washington" on Jan 18, 2025. I had similar thoughts of wearing a black arm band, and that seems just the place to do it.
It seems like 2017 again with it very hard to find affordable hotel rooms but we will find a way to be there if at all possible. Back in 2017 we were looking forward to Hillary being sworn in, but would have been happy to make it to the Women's March the next day (which I believe had around 400,000 join in).
We ended up going to one in Riverside California instead, so any next year in Washington DC have become an even higher priority to make a new record for the largest protest ever.
I feel that, Barbara. I keep vacillating between being too numb to process, a gritty kind of spite, and abject terror. Haven't slept well since the election and probably will continue not to.
"They claim a mandate, although as final vote tallies are coming in, it turns out that Trump did not win 50% of the vote, and CNN statistician Harry Enten notes that his margin comes in at 44th out of the 51 elections that have been held since 1824."... Less than 50% is not a Majority... Kamala may have Capitulated too Early... I have also read that Kamala received about 10,000,000 Votes less than Joe Biden did 2020... Those 10,000,00+ Voters stayed Home... DJT received less than a 1,000,000 more Votes than he did in 2020... Per AOC, Kamala should have listened less to the Obama Era insiders, and more to the 'GrassRoots'.... Reuben Gallego impressed me by visiting all the Major Indigenous Enclaves in AZ during his Campaign... They Turned Out For Him... DJT is Mean, Vindictive, and Cruel.. DJT will try to undo all of Joe Biden's accomplishments... Failing that he will try to take for them... DJT is deteriorating noticeably faster now... DJT will cause Chaos in order to mask his ineptitude... DJT is the "Stable Genius" Businessman who declared Bankruptcy 5-Times... As long as DJT is on the Main Stage, he will cause Chaos... His Minions have been chosen for their Subservience to DJT, not their Competence...
The 1943 version of "The Oxbow Incident" was one my mother made sure we saw as a young teenager. Wellman is well described in "Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick," (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOmJq7C67U0&t=724s ), and a few presentations by William Wellman Jr using it and what I learned a few times after the presentations with small gatherings to find out even more about his father and his own life experiences (playing baseball with Robert Redford as teenagers, for example).
Wellman Jr also remembered Ernie Pyle stopping by to discuss "The Story of GI Joe" movie then being made. Ernie Pyle was on his way to the war in the Pacific, and if memory serves had doubts about Burgess Meredith being cast as him until he met him at the Wellman's home. That was personal to me since I had a coworker who said he was Ernie Pyle's nephew (though I can't find proof of that).
William Wellman was a WWI pilot who's experience helped winning the first academy Award for Best Picture with "Wings" in 1927. His last movie was Lafayette Escadrille and particularly close to his own WWI experience. His son filled us in on a trip he took to Paris with his dad in which he hinted there was a woman he was involved with which might have been the Renee in the movie. He was not allowed by the studio to finish the movie the way he wanted to as it was seen as too depressing. On that trip, I think they stopped by the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church, where it seems two women known to his father (perhaps including the real Renee, whom he have actually been secretly married to) were killed by a shell from the Paris gun with a range of an incredible 75 miles. Wellman Jr left us with the impression that his father was so upset by not being able to finish the movie the way he wanted that he quit the industry completely.
He didn't always have a choice on the films he was contracted to make but he poured incredible passion into the ones he really wanted to make, to me like "The Oxbow Incident" and "The Story of GI Joe."
Back in the 80s, first year teaching, I taught that. Today I'm not sure most younger teachers have even heard of it.
Now CONSeravtive legislatures are writing vigilante laws to create more chaos. They are using following the policies Lenin and Stalin used, then Hitler used. Turn the populous on itself while they pillage the public funds.
Wear a white ribbon, like the suffragettes to show solidarity , we wont go back
On a lighter note I think one of the hanged men was played by a very young DeForrest Kelly, the Doctor in Star Trek
By an odd coincidence, I finally, at the age of seventy-two, read Ray Bradbury's classic, "Someting Wicked This Way Comes". It's the perfect book for Trump 2.0. I think I'll take a week or so and then start it again.
Our country is about to be tested as never before. As pointed out in tonight's newsletter, fewer than half of us voted for Trump, but he will do everything he can to convince us he is all-powerful. He isn't.
I'm lucky. Since I was born in 1952, I lived in the best United States that has ever been. Now I will, I hope, survive its worst.
See you on the barricades.
See you there. On Whatever barricades we can construct, out of whatever art or craft or trade we are good at. I’ve heard it said recently that marches in the streets will do nothing, but seems like no doubt many are being organized, and the barricades will be thronged by us older folk along with the younger. We will see. I am still training my feet for marching and don’t see any reason to put heavy boots away for probably the next 5 years. Undoing, fixing the damage that will be done, and how to mitigate as much damage to the soul and spirit of the USA as it happens, to say nothing of the physical suffering of families torn apart, hardworking people tossed on the street, children dying from bad health advice.
Joel, I am ready to resist and persist! I am a few years older than you, but still have some piss & vinegar when my dander is up. I may not be able to kick ‘em in the ass anymore, but I can probably reach their shins! Living in a rural area in a mostly blue state, there is little “on the ground” engagement, so do what I can otherwise….still, it’s a helpless sort of feeling not to be in the streets once again shouting “hell no!”. ☮️🗽🇺🇸
I'll be there with you, Joel. You've got 6 years on me, but we are "of a vintage".
It was a very good year.
In order to wrap our brains around the question "How is Trump getting away with this?," it's time for people to read systemic corruption expert Sarah Kendzior's two best selling books "Hiding In Plain Sight" and "They Knew". Like forensic psychiatrist Bandy Lee (who was banned from news interview shows for telling the truth about Trump's ability in infect all of society with his destructive form of mental illness), Sarah Kenzior was banned from MSNBC for telling too many hard truths.
Sarah knows there is a global effort to not just tear down democratic governments but to also crash America's economy... so that (just as hedge fund managers do with corporations) the extremely rich and powerful can break America up and sell off its parts. Here is an article about Sarah from 2022. She was 44 years old at the time and her book "They Knew" was just being released. She knows what she's talking about. It would be wise for the rest of us to know what she knows too. And you can find her on Substack.
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/09/nonfiction-book-explains-the-oligarchs-plot-to-break-up-the-u-s-to-make-it-easier-to-sell-off-its-parts/
I didn’t know she was banned by MSNBC but I gave them up awhile back. Sarah Kendzior thinks outside the box. Read all her books as soon as they were published. Great recommendations.
I’m happy you also know her work.
Hi, Steve Brant -
Thanks for the book references. I'm reading as much as I can to try to calm my brain and understand what's happening. I'm also getting a CCW license and will be putting in a lot of range time.
You're welcome, Joel.
I appreciate that you're reading as much as you can... and getting a CCW license.
By the way, Sarah's Substack is worthwhile too... and gives you her latest thinking in smaller doses. But her books are the foundation for understanding how bad things really are. The bottom line for me (and her and others): No one is going to save us but us. Not Jack Smith, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Judge Chutkan, etc. No one but us.
https://substack.com/@sarahkendzior
Joel, I have a long time friend, now retired, who recently bought acreage in a “red” part of Michigan (he doesn’t mind being a voice in the wilderness!). He’s a conservative-progressive (I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it would make sense if you knew him). He was in Coast Guard and takes his oath to the Constitution VERY seriously. He went, in the late 90’s or early 2000’s to Palestine & Israel to see for himself what was going on….participated in a peace march in Gaza & was very moved by the Palestinian’s plight even then. He then traveled to a number of countries in South America to learn more about them. At one point, during a break in his travels, he called me to let me know he was taking a week long arms course in NV, AZ or NM (I forget which) which included active shooter drills, “clearing” or securing buildings, etc…..a whole gamut of scenarios, not unlike a police academy. He found it very interesting & instructive, but did note that most of the participants (who all happened to be male) fell to the right, sometimes the far right, of the political spectrum. Come to think of it, he has always reminded me of a Boy Scout….”always be prepared”. Haven’t seen him in many years…but we stay in touch via long phone calls.
I believe that would be ALICE training (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate).
I stopped by the college I worked at, soon after the Valentine's Day (Parkland High School) shootings, and talked to the Lab teaching assistant that replaced me about what I planned for any active shooter problems. I had told the Campus Police what I was doing and asked what they would support or recommend. They suggested the ALICE training but were not encouraged by the few that seemed to want to take the courses.
The new lab tech showed me the improved doors and locks they put in as one of the college's attempts to limit risks, and I showed him and some students the roll around displays I'd made of two jet engine compressor halves so each could be used as a mobile shield to protect any of us that would try to distract a shooter by charging the shooter to give others a chance to escape, or especially for the former Law Enforcement Officers or Veteran students, to grab objects I left distributed around the lab and throw them at the person to keep them from concentrating on just one of us. Fire extinguishers were pointed out as possible ways to limit the person's vision if the shooter got close enough or we could get close enough to physically disarm the person. I particularly advised our young women students to use the fire extinguishers as their defense especially since they were located by the exit doors so they would also be better able to escape. I would trust at least one or two others to work together to keep any shooter busy and most concerned by the best protected persons actively moving against the shooter while others helped everyone else escape.
I've been in a few situations in Vietnam and here where several of us were unarmed facing what turned out to be less threatening situations than those school incidents, but have always been determined to use whatever we could to prevent being relatively helpless in saving others and ourselves. We, singly or with others, all of us unarmed were able to pursuade people in 4 incidents that I was into hand over weapons voluntarily.
I'm inspired by the teachers that did whatever they could, and took bullets for their students as the least they could do with no other options. During the Virginia Tech shooting that left 32 dead, we had students and a relative that had graduated from there, and remembered Professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust Survivor who gave his life blocking the door to the room as he told students to get out through the windows. See rticles.latimes.com/2007/apr/18/nation/na-heroes18
P.S. I haven't kept any weapons after Vietnam and don't want to live in a country so bad that I might need them for protection from people.
Wow, Jim, thanks for sharing this. Enlightening, scary and heartbreaking all in one… My family never kept weapons & I never have after being on my own…the closest I came was as a kid with those metal pop-guns (that’s what we called them) when playing cops ‘n robbers with my sibs. My high school boyfriend’s (later my first husband…and always family to me) family kept rifles as they were occasional hunters, so he was used to handling them. Guns have always made me uncomfortable and hearing about so many shootings in our country alarms me at how many people now open or conceal carry them….so disturbing!
I'm not against people having guns for legitimate purposes the way our families kept them on farms, for hunting, and legitimate self protection (prosecutors, law enforcement, and other government positions, property protection, or sports, as long as they keep them safe from children or secured to keep others from stealing them. The only one I had besides in the military was a 1911A1 that was willed to me. I took it apart and had my son keep some of the parts until he could arrange to sell it through a licensed gun dealer to a Law Enforcement Officer.
My concern was children trying to play with it if it was ever left unsecured, or someone stealing it. I didn't want the responsibility of keeping it safely stored after I heard of 6 children, 5 or under, being killed in one year with guns they found unsecured. (I also noticed a bullet hole in the lower part of a friend's front door who, despite his knowledge of gun safety had accidentally have it go off while he was handling it.) To me a lot more people are killed by gun accidents and suicide than by other people they feel they need to protect themselves from.
Agree….such a quick and deadly “oopsie” to have happen by accident. No thanks. Tho now that I think of all the stabbings being reported worldwide (in countries w/ strict gun laws) kinda made me view my kitchen knife drawer a bit differently….tho’ being solo it’s unlikely I’d stab myself & my spunky dogger doesn’t have opposable thumbs to hold one!!!!
Joel, as someone who has taught survival skills, do not neglect the important mental preparation piece of using deadly force. It is an important element of that training, and is integral in preventing taking a life causing you to lose yours (in a mental/emotional sense.)
Thank you, Ally. I have already determined that I am quite capable of using deadly force under certain circumstances. I'd love to continue this discussion with you and pick your brain, but must go to work. Perhaps another time?
Indeed. Substack messenger works for me.
I can't blame you. I've thought about it.
And Naomi Klien the Shock Doctrine.
Memo to Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID): You're a fucking coward. Grow some balls. Stop whining. Step up to your oath of office. Do the job you're being paid handsomely to do.
To the rest of the Rs in the shambles that passes nowadays for Congress: If you do not uphold this country's most fundamental governing principles -- and you are showing many signs that you will not -- the injustices to follow and the blood that will be spilled will be on your hands. It will stain you forever. You will be traitors to your country and its ideals forever.
To everyone who voted for the incoming administration: This is on you. You abetted a gang of cruel, criminal, racist, misogynist fascists who are poised to ride roughshod over everything this country stands for, in the hope that the price of your eggs or the cost of your clothes would be slightly lower for a little while. You didn't apply even the slightest common sense to the information available, and you let yourself be gulled by the most obvious lies perpetrated by the most obviously self-interested liars. Don't come crying when you discover that the special-ed classes for your special-needs child have been cut, or your 12-year-old daughter or granddaughter who got pregnant via rape cannot get an abortion or reproductive-health medical care, or your health insurance has left you hung out to dry, or your government-provided support checks have dried up and blown away like tumbleweeds, or everything costs 20% more because of the tariffs your fraudulent rapist cult hero imposed, or you can't find half the meat and produce you usually buy because so many workers who bring those products to market have been deported. And that's just the start. There's going to be much more. And you brought it on. You own it.
Sadly, pts, at the moment, it is EXACTLY what they want. When they realize that they are targeted as much as every immigrant, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, woman and any other "other" I've forgotten it will be far, far too late.
Note to trump voters: We told you so.
I’m waiting for the inevitable schadenfreude.
DE, I find it interesting the reporting of the number of online searches for “how to change my vote”. Seems, for some, the remorse has already set in. And don’t get me started on those who chose TFFFG over Harris because of the current Admin’s stance on Israel/Gaza (not that I agree w/ their stance)….but come on….to think he’d somehow be better? His stance was plain as day & folks chose to ignore it. 🤦🏻♀️
It shows you the state of their ignorance if they even THINK they can change their vote! Buyer's remorse on steroids.
"Ship of Fools" is a 1962 novel by Katherine Anne Porter. The movie was released in 1965. It received eight Oscar nominations and won two. The story takes place on an ocean liner bound for Germany from Mexico in 1933. (quotes from reviews) "Many of the passengers bound for Nazi Germany are happy, some are apprehensive, while others downplay the significance of Germany’s fascist politics." /// "Aboard ship, there is no sense at all of the potential for evil in the character of German nationalism, with its commitments not only to the purity of order but to the purity of chaos and self-immolation." /// "Running down the middle of this story, the road to Nazism soon becomes indistinguishable from the highway to hell."
I remember seeing that movie and walking out not really understanding it, being too young at the time. Now I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
Trump is putting on his “All Culture War, All the Time” show to distract voters from watching their tax dollars flow upwards into Elon’s and Jeff’s and other already wealthy pockets. We have to name it over and over and remind people to “Follow the Money!”
When Gaetz is out of the running, ( I hope, I hope), what crazy will come next? I have a hard time understanding why republicans think his luny appointments are good for anything except trump’s ego. It will be interesting to see if any of them stand up to Cheetolini. I have my doubts.
"A dying mule kicks the hardest."
—South African Proverb
When I hit that heart, that’s just to send my appreciation to you. What I’m reading, though, is making me sick to my stomach! What were people thinking when they voted for him? Did they think it was a joke? If you know of any group or organization that is working to fight this, would you let me know? Do Republican senators and representatives need courage to fight this infection? If they heard from enough of us, do you think that could stop this? I live in Florida. The Republican leaders are mostly infected. They ban books. They’ve weaponized the courts. The governor spent tax money for ads that were political. They have decimated public schools in the name of choice. I wonder how they’d live if they didn’t have tourism funds.
I am so discouraged and angry!
Please keep writing. Please find some hope. And thank you.
Dana, all I can think of is the adherents to the Burn-It-Down-Bannonites who want the whole thing to implode/go up in flame/become toast…. Ah, the glory of Rome burning…what a spectacle….no one, really, thinks of the day(s) after.
Wondering when we'll hear that Trump's pick for Sec of Commerce is the "Pillow Guy?"
I thought he would get the nod for Surgeon General!
Why not?
Cutting Social Security benefits is going to create an AARP led grey rebellion this country has never seen before...and I will be on the ramparts. Trumps so called "Cabinet" has been described as a "Junk Drawer" by one of my friends. His AG, Sec Def and HHS nominees are beyond being a bad joke. They are absurd and totally unqualified. We all need to keep directly pressuring the Senate to do their jobs & not capitulate. As to mass deportations, the number of illegal immigrant agriculture workers is 42%. How do we operate with them gone ? These choices to run things and the proposals are insane.