On MSNBC Today, in the 'Joy Reid Show', Joy pointed-out that both Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel are Immigrants from Countries without a Deep Democratic Tradition... Neither believes in Democratic Discourse, but rather in a $$$ defined Autocracy... They both believe that they have SuperHuman Intelligence... I suspect that in the Event of a DJT Victory, they expect 'Multiples' on their $$$ Investments in a DJT/Vance Victory...
Both of them are products of Apartheid South Africa, which is why they are fascists and racists. I'd be fine with cancelling their citizenship papers and deporting them.
TC, I was living in the Cape and not yet 9 years old in June 1948 when Malan and his Herstigte Nasionale Party came to power. I left South Africa with my parents over a year later.
I have often wondered what would have become of me if I had grown up there. The more so as my love of the land went deep -- it took me six years to accept that I would not be returning.
Simple. Either acceptance of the conditioning a white kid could expect there, even if his parents and schooling were unconnected with Afrikaner nationalism; or jail... or worse.
Even at age 8, I was thinking for myself, questioning, questioning, but skeptical about many of the answers I was receiving from adults. The most important teaching I had received from my mother, and even if I found it hard to understand the religious aspect of what she told, I took the message to heart:
We are all the children of the one God, so we human beings are all brothers and sisters; regardless of our differences, we are family, and so we must behave towards one another as brothers and sisters. The worst crime possible is to harm or kill others because they look different or have different beliefs.
My mother called this "the crime against God".
I know now what caused her to say these things to me in a darkened room. My parents had just received from my Dad's first cousin, a senior officer in the British medical corps who opened two Nazi concentration camps in 1945, documents and photographs of the second camp: Bergen-Belsen.
Given this message, my skepticism and my feelings about what I saw all around me, I came away deeply opposed to what I saw as the petty tyranny of Apartheid, and the conviction of all humans' deep underlying equality has stayed with me ever since.
I'm not sure that Apartheid conditioning is responsible for Thiel's and Musk's belief in their own superiority, but the combination of intellectual and material wealth makes for the most potent of delusions. These men are titans who take themselves for gods.
ADDENDUM: Christ's warnings about the inherent dangers of wealth apply to ALL acquisitions that are less than essential. These include intellectual wealth, social status and all forms of power in this world, including spiritual power. The problem is not with wealth in itself but with its effect upon us, how we relate to it, for attachment to all the things "added unto" us can so gum us up that we're no longer free to become what we really are. Things, money, status, power come to possess us, not we them...
Uneducated white men are the bulk of Trump's supporters. They believe Trump, Musk, Thiel and the other billionaires who blast their Fascism uninterrupted throughout much of the media.
CNN, the Washington Post and even The NY Times are beginning to report on Trump's mental instability and his Fascist comments, but is it too late to affect the election?
Gary, I thought all the white guys sitting behind death star in Latrobe thought his remarks about Palmer were funny as they all had locker room talk grins. So many have his same views about the world and that include female MAGAs as well. Peter reminds us too of why these people have no idea of what Jesus taught. I have reported here that quote of the week, maybe year, from a MAGA. "Jesus is wrong". The need for carte blanche (provided by death star) for expressing hatred is truly strong.
I give these media no credit. I feel they are reacting to reader blow back, plus the level of ugly crazy getting so high they simply have been embarrassed (not shamed) into reporting, along with a soupcon of hedging bets although that's an uneven game since one side will extract retribution for criticism if they win and the other won't.
DJT's Minions can Receive Information, but are they capable of assimilating it, and changing their Minds? I am Skeptical... I would Venture that they 'Feel', not 'Reason' thru Life... They 'Follow' rather then Question...
The Melting Pumpkin says.."I like the uneducated"...and does the "accordian hands rapist" routine.....Heritage 2025 Cult plans want to eliminate the Department of Education..
The set up for dictataorship is up front and centre.
Yes. It's too late. Brainwashed humans simply cannot mentally any process information that doesn't match their programming. We in the USA promote this conversion of human minds with our liberal definition of free speech and the invention of technology that makes speech with negligible cost. Then we add a a legal system that is unsuited for modern life due to it's archaic "due process".
The stones hanging around our necks chokes our breath and then breaks our backs.
And these pompous media "giants"? The high windows are waiting. Their one dollar sales pitches will soon be gone.
I find difficult to find reliable numbers, but most likely a small plurality of white women voted for Trump. Pretty close to an even split compared to the proportion of white men who voted for Trump, but enough white women voted for him that they don't get to be absolved of responsibility.
Jennifer, so did I. We could not go to South Africa during the summer break while we were in the Peace Corps because of apartheid. We went to Egypt instead and were actually at that time able to go into Tut's tomb. Much later we won a trip to South Africa from all classical radio in Portland. We saw lots of black people living in poverty still and I thought the white South Africans were lucky to have Nelson Mandela as the first president after apartheid ceased to be official policy. We went past a large multistoried building where people had been put into various racial categories.
Peter: What differentiates Musk and Thiel from Mark Cuban? Cuban's background is not South African but Romanian Jewish and Lithuanian, but the wealth is there. I think Heather's article that includes the description by Dorothy Thompson about the characteristics of those who turn Nazi hits the nail on the head. However, the issue is that you can't prevent people from having those characteristics unless there is a long-term plan to revamp the educational system to include critical thinking skills and civics info. I am just hoping the election will turn out positively.
I think what you wrote may have the answer. Cuban's background is Lithuanian, Romanian (talk about Ceausescu being a deterrent to being fascist!), and Jewish. His wonder Cost Plus company is (literally) saving my daughter close to $4,200 for one of her medications! God bless Mark Cuban!
I believe & think that your analysis & prescription for mitigating the vast numbers of people likely to тАЬturn NaziтАЭ is spot on.
Alas, the extreme right wing (God Bless them, for arenтАЩt they our wayward brothers & sisters?)MAGA-Nazis are too thin-skinned to allow тАЬcritical thinking & civics infoтАЭ to pierce the grievance filled racist bubbles in which they live, and their psyches dwell, fester, and mutate.
They donтАЩt want their kids to learn civics info and critical thinking skills that will set them free, and alienate their kids from their cherished White Supremacist & unapologetic cultural traditions.
If a miracle were to happen and thereby standardize тАЬcritical thinking skills & civics,тАЭ the Nazi incubator parents would homeschool their kids or find/found a parochial school.
тАЬThe issue is that you can't prevent people from having those characteristics unless there is a long-term plan to revamp the educational system to include critical thinking skills and civics info.тАЭ
Yes. Although perhaps rather than writing "spiritual power", would a better way to express it be "religious power"? Jesus certainly had spiritual power, as does H.H. the Dalai Lama, as did Mahatma Gandhi, and countless other great spiritual leaders past and present, women and men.
kdsherpa, I do see what you're getting at but, first, distinctions between the two aren't always obvious and, more to the point, what could be more grave than the abuse of spiritual power?
This does happen, as with all forms of power.
Maybe, Saying no. 44 in the Gospel of Thomas addresses this.
Jesus said:
"Whoever blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven."
Hi Peter, knowing you originated in South Africa, IтАЩll tell you a story. Before I settled in Florence, Italy in 1977, while traveling on my student Euro pass one hot day as many passengers often stood by opened windows on the trains fro catch a breeze, I began chatting with a man standing next to me. By his accent, I knew he was from South Africa. We were just shooting the breeze when he asked me why not move to South Africa. I asked him why and he to,d me the labor was cheap. After a brief pause, I quietly returned to my seat without answering him and reflected on his natural racism.
After spending days in a pensioni in Florence having gotten the lay of the land and I knew where the cheap places to eat were, I invited two dorm mates out to the university of Florence cafeteria dinner being about 40 cents American. One boy was Dutch and the other Rhodesian. When we took our trays, it was crowded and no tables were available. I saw one in the distance with a Nigerian boy eating by himself and walked over and asked him if we could join him. Yes he said I I sat down, the Dutch boy sat down but when the Rhodesian neared he paused, looked around and suggest we sit at another table already occupied. I resisted but he went over to another table. I k ew what was happening. I never knew if the Nigerian picked up on it but after a short few minutes, the African boy finished eating and left and at that moment, the Rhodesian came over to sit down. I immediately told him he wasnтАЩt welcomed at our table. The Dutch boy asked to forgive but I refused and told him he had insulted my hosting them. The next morning I arose early to pee and I noticed the bunk bed where the Rhodesian boy slept was carefully made up and he left.
I recall feeling sad that day because I had this notion that us young generation were going to resist the biases of the older generation and the reality was that it wasnтАЩt going to happen. At least it didnтАЩt for me that day. And I wondered if that Rhodesian boy finally learned right from wrong all these years later.
I could tell you quite a few, but no, I wasn't born in South Africa, I spent three years there with my parents -- Dad, a naval officer -- as a kid, from late 1946 to late 1949. Those years marked my life.
I find myself agreeing with much of what you say, but I'm not sure what you mean by intellectual wealth. If you mean gifted with intelligence, then while Musk for instance seems perhaps average or a bit above average (which is pretty low apparently), he has not achieved his wealth by powering himself up there through sheer intellectual ability. He began with advantages of funding and blew past obstacles others might have been slowed down by like laws and morals and ethics while amassing to himself wealth which eventually itself begat wealth. Just looking at Xitter, one sees that past a certain point of wealth one no longer needs to be smart or choose wisely because the margin for error and stupidity is just so large.
If by intellectual wealth you mean access to formal education and the real absorption of education's gifts, or a wealth of high quality information through informal channels, then I would propose that it is a dearth of these types of personal wealth that produces petty men with petty (yet grandiose) goals of power.
If you mean these guys were sent to the best schools to acquire the mechanical tools for gathering wealth while skipping classes that might have enriched their spirits and given them a broader education, then okay... I think I'd call that access to opportunities others are restricted from accessing. I'd have to think hard to come up with a succinct way of saying that phrase. Entitlement comes close but isn't specific enough.
I'd like to come back to you on this, but it is very late here in Europe and I'm tired.
Maybe "intellectual wealth" is not an ideal term for what I'm referring to, but isn't it obvious that there is something vain and beside the point about the accumulation of knowledge for its own sake, especially when no wisdom accrues to the inveterate collector? Typically, some people accumulate knowledge as a means to power. Again, power for its own sake, at best to free oneself so that one can do whatever one likes without let or hindrance. At worst, to manipulate others.
Because of the information work I did as a young man, I developed a magpie's instincts. But... did I, do I really need to carry so much junk around with me?
The main point is surely to avoid accumulating what is not useful to anyone and, rather, to accumulate only what will help free oneself of conditioning and make for inner freedom.
Plainly, there's nothing wrong with being knowledgeable, nothing wrong with expertise, but the current popular rejection of experts is not entirely a matter of violent ignorance on the part of those who rubbish them, it is also -- more important -- a response to those who shut themselves up in ivory towers and allow their professional mask to take over from their human face.
It's not so much what we do as how we relate to our actions and whether they free us to find our true selves or simply feed bad habits.
Usually, I feel happy when one or two people for whom I have special respect express a liking for something I have written, or add a perceptive comment of their own.
I want to say I am rather surprised, and most gratified, that something like the considerations in this Addendum, which may seem abstruse to people today, should apparently touch quite a few members of this community, where we are concerned primarily with current events in historical context.
But is this not a time that compels us all to get back down to basics?
As some one who тАЬlovesтАЭ South Africa I want to comment. How could I not тАЬloveтАЭ South Africa ? Posh resorts, magnificent animals, fantastic scenery, great food and wine ! Rolling and scheduled power outages, crumbling townships and infrastructure and the malaise of a Mandelian promise gone frighteningly wrong. I had a high school friend who met and married a South African Boer she met at UCLA in the 60s. She was an orphan and we all paid for her 6 week tramp steamer sea voyage to Durban so she could meet his family and get married. She went on to have 6 children and a very interesting life- sending the amah out to search the yard for poisonous snakes before the children went out, being robbed one New Years Eve while in Formal dress by a gang in their driveway, and being widowed in a foreign land. My husband and I were in the wine country and met her youngest son who was a student at the University in Stellenbosch for a drink. It was chilling. He was a very handsome, half American тАжтАжтАж. nazi. Our friend was still alive but very ill so I could never ask herтАЭ howтАЭ ? I have been alive and have seen it all - the great promises and the thudding reality. Maybe, one more time, I can live in a time of great promise.
Seems to me that I find a steady correlation between some god lovers who handily interpret their supposed love for the supreme aspect of it that they translate into being one on earth i.e. if Jesus could be half god why not them?
And then be godlike because of their dominance with money.
The problem's with people's acquired IDEA of God, which they confuse with the object of their belief. Only, the very idea of God as an object of anything or anyone makes no sense. Some may, of course, take your last two phrases literally -- which I've just said in another way. Delusion.
I don't call myself "Christian", yet I take exception to the very idea of "half god", both in general and in relation to Christ. Having flesh, blood and a human form doesn't make one half anything. It is we who make ourselves into caricatures of what we are.
This is no place in which to develop discussion of man's limitless greed, for which, as Seneca remarked, all Nature is too small. But it may be useful to challenge the shards of an idea that some like to present as "Great"; too often the ultimate pretext for crime.
As a little girl, we used to sing this song each week in Sunday School: "God is Love, God is Love". Ever since then, that is how I have perceived "God". (Although prior to that, at age 3 and learning to read, I ran to my mother shouting excitedly, "Mommy! I know who God is!!" "Who?" she asked. "God is a dog!! G-O-D, D-O-G!" She was not impressed. Having said that, I sometimes wonder...
"the combination of intellectual and material wealth makes for the most potent of delusions." Wow. Thank you for that truth, Peter. Your words ring of so much authenticity. I had a similar, though less intensely consequential journey in losing my (Catholic) religion. And at the time, I knew nothing of their covering up of crimes against children.
Hiro, she was Jewish, not Christian. She was a good and wise woman who practiced love and kindness and avoided harmful actions, and what else is religion if not that? For my part, I am not formally Christian, but revere Christ.
Barbara, Bill Adair, founder, or one of them, of Politifact, has a new book, "Beyond the Big Lie", which I'm currently reading. He talks about Murdock, how he bought up the Aussie papers, then the tabloid press in the UK and we know what he did here. According to an examination by the Times, "his influence has given him influence over world affairs, in a way few private citizens have ever had" I'll say!
Yeah, another rich guy know-it-all. DidnтАЩt the UK give him a drubbing some years back over some of his tabloid тАЬnewsтАЭ tactics? Like TFFFG & Elon, if he didnтАЩt have lots & lots of money, heтАЩd be selling timeshares in Boca Roton.
Musk has made himself virtually indispensable to NASA and the Pentagon with Space X and Starlink. We simply have no viable alternatives. HeтАЩs actually a Canadian citizen who apparently prefers our tax structure and hopes to тАЬimproveтАЭ it further with TrumpтАЩs election.
Agreed. We haven't even begun to fully explore what is at the bottom of the sea. The expense of space exploration is hard to justify when so many issues need to be addressed on terra firma.
Defund NASA and shift the money to alternate sources of sustainable energy. With enough money, geothermal and fusion can help us with the self-inflicted Climate Catastrophe.
And why is "Starlink" a private company when millions rely on it for all manner of communications including defense and national security?
Tesla - well, I know people who back in the day would never buy a Ford because Henry Ford was an antisemite fascist....
Ah, I seem to agree with you 99.9% of the time, but I do support our funding NASA. We have, in fact, privatized too much of our space presence and thus we get Starlink which has put too much power in Musk's hands. Look at what he (did or didn't) do over the Black Sea. Toss aside whether he did or didn't - consider how trustworthy he would be if Putin were ever to request data from satellites over the US or were ever to threaten the next European nation. Could we be sure we'd be favored in any cold or hot conflict? We need to direct some funding to get more of our own communication satellites up there.
I take comfort from the fact that Luddites have been trying to quash spaceflight and other technologies since the 1960s. In the first place, freeing up that money would in no way guarantee its wise use elsewhere, and in the second place, the work of those building technologies for space exploration has delivered enormous benefits in medicine, communications, and weather forecasting.
I knew someone would say that. OK - "freeing up that money would in no way guarantee its wise use elsewhere, " maybe not, but if the guy using the money is a threat to America, why give it to HIM? Use it wisely OR unwisely on something that isn't.
And if "the work of those building technologies for space exploration has delivered enormous benefits in medicine, communications, and weather forecasting." how much of the sum total of the cost of building those technologies went on just the space side? Do you think if there had been no space side, and the money had been available for alternative research, that the "enormous benefits in medicine, communications, and weather forecasting." wouldn't have been found? After every war people remark on the enormous beneficial discoveries in medicine etc - but the war still costs an unnecessary fortune. And it all comes out of the taxpayers pocket.
Being the richest man in the world is not enough. Maybe we should rethink our priorities. Do we really have to suck up to evil, now that he has removed his mask. This applies to more than Elon.
Thank you for saying that. I would think that the Telsa is doomed since most climate change-minded people, ie, democrats would be his market not republicans. Written with a prayer.
I agree, Linda, especially since he interfered with Ukraine's communication system on at least one occasion. Like many oligarchs, he seems to aspire to power, including that of other nations' dictators.
I agree. That was when I first noticed what a right wing danger he was. Then he started supporting Putin's goals as a means to ending the war. Traitor, traitor, traitor.
I disagree. According to Matt Stoller of the Substack Big, one of the reasons planes are falling apart is because of outsourcing of maintenance, another is that they no longer have engineers in their management. Maybe 1 or 2 still.
So, no engineering considerations in their decision making. Also, tendency to shut them up if their pointing out problems costs money.
You can search through his articles on Boeing if you like. Here are some.
When it comes to national security, outsourcing so much to people like Musk, who is a fascist, is a big problem and other than forcing him to sell it to some other fascist oligarch I see no other way around his ownership of these and access to highly sensitive information I would not share with my high schooler, let alone anyone else whose frontal cortex is not fully developed, usually between 24-30.
Boeing was run from the beginning by engineers. Boeing was moved out of Seattle, into Chicago by the financial people who were getting out of the constant oversight of retired Boeing engineers, that ruined the company.
In 1950, Truman nationalized railroads, in anticipation of a strike that he said would reduce America's ability to maintain it's security, in particular with the impeding Korean War looming into full out conflict. Truman used the army to keep the railroads running. I'm not saying the situation is the same with Musk and his control over vital space access machinery, don't know about Thiel other than he's Vance's puppet master, but the incident illustrates the fact that thinking out of the box and standing up to bullies who endanger the security of our nation shouldn't be tolerated and there are things we can do as a nation, with a good leader (like Kamala Harris) to see the truth and do the right thing for the good of the country.
Truman didnt nationalize the railroads, he just put the military in temporary control of their operations. In a year or so the unions and the companies settled under terms put down by Truman.
I can only Hope that Kamala can stand up to the big boys. Her history as a prosecutor gives credibility, but God, what a list of greedy guys she's up against.
Very true. Boeing Aircraft has become a second rate company unfortunately. It needs to be run by engineers not super high paid bonus administrators who probably donтАЩt work inside the very plants that manufacture planes and rockets.
i think his Canadian side was a relatively brief passage, before emigrating to the US. He sounds like an Ayn Rand enthusiast. Eg Greenspan. Many others, I'm sure, and male.
Diane, probably the war on the regulatory state is also more attractive here. Not to mention the corruption of sufficient numbers of elected representatives who can be bought and lobbied by those oligarchs.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
тАЬMy fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. тАжI do not share these fears.тАЭ
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
тАЬMy friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
тАЬYou people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf HitlerтАЩs proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. IтАЩm pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
тАЬI also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
тАЬMy first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
тАЬI know IтАЩve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And thereтАЩs nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
тАЬThis concludes the first of my fireside chats. I canтАЩt wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.тАЭ
(I don't dispute anything of what Heather has written. Nor the quotes from Dorothy Thompson. What I do find myself apparently in conflict here with other opinions is how we got to this place and time. I tend on the contrarian and I sense the divisions in our society, the blame game mixed with the sins of our past, The iconic Supreme Court 2010 decision Citizens United opening up unlimited corporate campaign financing where "We, the People' are no longer competitive, the corrupting influencer on all who partake of this poison wine, and now we have AI distorting reality. There is now a difficult path ahead to extend American Democracy as we have known it. Only the Good Witches of the North can save us now.)
Bill, I agree with you about Citizens United. Obama warned us about the dangers of unlimited cash. It's hard to believe that Margaret Chase Smith attempted to run for the Presidency offering to accept no donations from anyone-- corporate or private.
Sadly, it can't be done on almost every level of government.
But another loud influential voice we tend to overlook are the myriad lobbyists supported by the well heeled corporations and the ultra wealthy.
Gary, I think the oligarchy has decided to replace civil service workers with lobbyists. By cutting the regulatory departments to the point that they can no longer do their jobs, the administrative state now relies on self-policing by corporations (like Boeing) to assure safety.
And since the expertise of federal employees is being sidelined by Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, legislators are free to rely on lobbyists to write the rules governing their own business practices.
The courts have also been complicit and/or overwhelmed by sophisticated lobbying. Anti-monopoly laws were no longer even taught in law schools and BidenтАЩs resurrection of intervening in monopolies is no doubt one reason the corporate money is flooding into the campaign of the Former Grifter-in-Chief.
I despair that the rebuilding of healthy, honest checks and balances is even possible unless the GOP is strangled and new laws, new enforcement mechanisms and new staffing are implemented. Not sure even the democrats are willing to bite the corporate hands that fund them.
I remember when dems self-policed dems over any Trump/Hitler comparisons. Yet here we are. We let our fear of appearing alarmist, manipulative, and partial hobble the ability to stop this nightmare before it became inevitable.
The Wizard of Oz said North only, lol. My favorite all time movie. If I could die watching a movie, it would be that movie. We waiting every season for the movie to be shown on TV.
There is nothing quaint about Trump. He is growing nastier and nastier in his desperation to get the ugly people out to the polls. He gets help from his Russian Bots, and the MAGAs in office. Andra Watkins spoke to Democrats Abroad about Christian Nationalists, and since Trump is apparently planning on implementing their document for government Project 2025, and turning us into a Christian Nationalist Theocracy, we need to make sure he does not get in by each of us doing our part.
TC, the irony is that its UnAmerican to expel UnAmericans, right? We used to trust our neighbors to ostracize them, render them ineffective
Money has bought the propaganda that has infected their thinking. Money has bought a Court that advocates the destruction of individual rights Money in such Smaug-like hoarding that spending a pittance of it means nothing
The Dragon is awake and circling above
The vote is our last and only sword. There is no Frodo
ItтАЩs more like paradoxical than ironic. Related to the intolerance paradox. Intolerance, if tolerated, will eliminate tolerance, so a civilized society must not tolerate intolerance. Too bad, in a way, but there is no other solution.
WoW both of them ?!!! IтАЩve understood that somehow itтАЩs ┬л┬аnot quite possible to expel them from our (country, planet, societyтАж pick one) because of their $$$тАж.
Just in case you're not joking, the planet has become quite small with all the technology we have and more to come. We have to figure out other ways of banning them.
Agreed. They are part of the тАЬenemy withjnтАЭ that we could put out with the trash. IтАЩm not a fan of deportation on any level, but if those naturalized folks are undermining democracy, their traitorous actions deserve nothing less than expulsion.
Hi Marge! For the record-I agree with you 100%. That being said, if a legitimate threat is posed by people against our Constitution and democracy, against the very foundation of our United States, there needs to be some accountability for unAmerican activities. Maybe expulsion is the wrong answer-it probably is-but what recourse is available? Domestic terrorists, and I believe Thiel, musk, Murdock and others fall into that category, must not be allowed to continue their rampage of hatred, intentional misinformation, and attempts to murder democracy. Prosecution? Incarceration? How do we deal with them in order to preserve this precious institution?
Yesterday I happened to watch an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver from 10 months ago. It is all about Elon Musk. This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo3zORUGCbM
I purchased my first Tesla in 2014 and upgraded in 2018. I love my Tesla, but in the last few years have wondered what happened to Musk. My son-in-law sold his Tesla and all his Tesla stock because of who Musk has become. To date I am remiss to sell mine, and I have been confused and wondering what happened to him, that is until I watched Oliver's show. Now I realize why he is pouring money into the Trump/Vance campaign. He wants to be able to do what he wants, buy who and what he wants, control who and what he wants, without our government's intervention in any way. And he will spend billions to accomplish that. He and Theil will control Vance and run our country however they want. I think if Trump wins Republicans will immediately invoke the 25th amendment, and put Vance in power which will allow M & T to control an awful lot from behind the scenes. Please tell me I'm wrong about this.
I confess to the same thought, TC. But then I might be part of the problem. I would contribute to Trump's deranged expulsion of all foreign-born citizens. The task, which will require an FDR-type leader, is to reign in the extreme profiteering by a few in the oil and tech businesses...the oligarchs. At a minimum, Musk must be removed from the government-X partnership. That is where the danger lies.
Peter Thiel is from Germany, and moved to the US, but his family spent time in South Africa too, so he has absorbed his ugly ideas in more than one place. Apartheid.
I don't know very much about the government at the time, but I think it was a toxic environment that was rife with cruelty, prejudice, injustice, and violence perpetrated by white settlers, the term Boers or Afrikaners was used. I did not know that about Musk and Thiel. Thank you.
While Peter Thiel is from Germany and came as a child with his parents, I would not say that Germany has a "deep democratic tradition." Germany first had democracy for 15 years during the Weimar Republic leading from the end of WWI to 1933 when the Nazis took over. Then, in 1945 began another period of democracy for part of Germany but the other part was in an authoritarian state until 1990. So, from 1990 until now. That is not such a long time. In fact, there are many people living who have lived under an authoritarian regime, and some still who lived under 2. While Peter grew up in the US after his family immigrated, that is his family's background. Elon Musk comes from South Africa, the land of Apartheid. I don't consider it to have a long tradition of democracy either. Both of them come from countries with strong White Supremacist non-egalitarian societies and both are White Supremacists by their actions, beliefs and rhetoric. We might say it is in their DNA.
Elon Musk is not a great person. He is emotionally and socially immature like a lot of the GenZ men that Trump is trying to reach, and the Millennial men. Good luck with the latter group. All of the millennial men I worked with did not read books, were over focused on YouTube, making money, raising their children and did not vote. Their wives vote though. Given how immature these men were, perhaps that is a good thing. I spent years trying to get one of them to vote. To no avail. Basically he did not feel that the good quality of his life or that which he intends to provide for his young children will be affected either way, so why get off his routine to go out and vote.
I guess. IтАЩm far removed from trends which is why I sometimes rub people here the wrong way. IтАЩm a traditionalist and I feel comfortable in that skin. TV? It comes on for the 6-8 news programs maybe Frontline sometimes. No cable. Reading? IтАЩve been slacking but I need to start reading again my literary mentor, Mark Twain, who I have a great affinity for. I was recently almost kicked out of a Methodist church open mic for bringing my book to read a passage instead of singing my songs. The short story I recited was titled тАЬMy Cat Babe and Donald Trump Have Something in CommonтАЭ and the story revolved around keeping my cat Babe from licking the oil in the frying pan least he splat diarrhea all over my house like Donald Trump did crap on the nation while in office . OMG, you should have seen what happened next. One woman stood up and tried to shout me down but I pointed out that I had two more sentences to recite and proceeded to finish how it was important to prevent Trump from gaining the White House. I felt the spirit of Mark Twain within as I walked off the stage. I got a big applause. Even sold a book and I had prepared to give them a partial donation to the good church cause but I recinded that offer. They almost banned me but they didnтАЩt. I guess it was their generous Christian side that restrained them, lol.
It does factor in,тАЩhow one is raisedтАЩ whether itтАЩs the county/country/parent/peer groups. All influences meld and mold one.
There is without doubt too many factors -negative too as people who are тАШunhappyтАЩ stir inwardly seeking peace, love, comfort for sure.
With the hoards of money available seems we could be a lot better off as a whole. ButтАж
I heard another oligarch fell out a window today, and few believe it was тАШa suicideтАЩ, catching on in Russia perhaps тАж
How many read this marvelous HCR тАШLetterтАЩ? How many can read? Germany didnтАЩt heed the warning, nor few of the other countries who have been тАШtakenтАЩ down that road.
I do know I will disappear if Trump winsтАжperhaps to start another underground RailRoad if time permits ..a definite issue..IтАЩve fought for the underdog since I was old enough to careтАжas have the many here. They called us тАШhippiesтАЩ but I was bit older. Back-to-the-landers fit too. The Silent Generation , AF Dad killed just at the end of the тАШwarтАЩ. Baby Boomers. Some are now Ex-Pats, my first trip abroad opened my eyes how the Americas see themselves. Trump wasnтАЩt the first who brought out the cracks in the system. It still needs a lot of work.
This election is pivotal. As well as тАШ26 & тАШ28тАжand and and..Blue is the hue and expect of them more carefully, my sisters and brothersтАж
ЁЯТЩЁЯТЩЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕VOTE.THE.BLUE.STOP.THE.COUP.ITS UP TO YOU.ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕ЁЯТЩЁЯТЩ
I disagree with your reading. The German Federal Republic is 75 yearsтАЩ old and after the fall of the wall, it absorbed the much smaller GDR. There has been tensions with the old East German areas for many reasons- mostly cultural and economic- but the majority of the country has been democratic since Adenauer , who had been a democratic politician during the Weimar Republic, became its first post-war Chancellor. More importantly, Germans are culturally attached to democracy and human rights - and far more than many Americans.
I am a member of Democrats Abroad in Germany, which is a very democratic American group. I am also a Brown-skinned dual German and American citizen currently living in Germany. I am surrounded by Germans who are not fully democratic in my mind, nor are they that historically aware of their privilege and who paid for it. At the same time I know Germans who are very Democratic. Many of them have lived in the US and taken on US citizenship as well.
I see commitment to Democracy in both countries, and those who are fascist. There are those who are being manipulated by Russian and other Bots, leading their on a string to think in certain ways. Both governments need to make better legislation to protect us from the manipulation on line.
Regardless if it's in their DNA, they belong in this country. We're a country that believes in Democracy and a democratic system and the rule of law. Let them go to Russia and be on Putin's cabinet.
Nazis got a bad reputation in the wake of WWII, but it seems like Republicans have canonized $$$ defined Autocracy (and aristocracy) since at least Reagan, not quite as blatantly as in the present.
Besides being Horrible Ciminals, and Insane, the Nazis lost thankfully... If DJT, and his Minions Win Power, and stay in Power... Guess how the $$$ Aristocracy will define themselves? OBW: Reagan was a B-List Actor who, once Elected, thought He & Nancy were Aristocracy...
First of all, the Nazis did not lose, they were defeated by the efforts of allied opponents.
Leonard Leo, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts Jr. Samuel Alito Jr., Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett were all raised Catholic. Which would have hobbled their rise (as would've being Black, female, and of Italian and Irish heritage) were it not for the liberalization of American society and US law achieved by progressive activists. The liberalization they are hell bent on rolling back, the civil rights laws they are turning the Constitution on its head to overturn, and the progressives they have immunized demagogue and would be dictator Donald Trump to officially persecute. Would they turn Nazi? Ha! Their Black robes barely hide their white sheets and brown shirts. While their upbringing may have instilled a taste for absolutism and authoritarianism (antithetical to the Constitution) rather than allegiance to the Golden Rule translated to civil society as "caring for the general welfare" they have a bent for greed and are draining American law of justice in order to obstruct government's ability to administer equitable taxation and reasonable regulation of industry. After the defeat of Hitler, at the Nuremberg, there were special trials for German jurists who had drained German law of justice to legalize Nazi bigotry and establish Nazi rule with its attending atrocities.
But on the front end, when Hitler's coup failed he went legit and won power through the electoral process. A victory achieved in large part by Stalin directing German Communists to split off from the German Center Right. Just as Putin aligned Jill Stein is splitting the American Leftish from the American Center Left as represented by the Democratic Party - in order to elect Trump, institute Project 2025, and establish a corporate ChristoFascist Christian Nationalist state - in which along with her fellow Trump enabler Stephen Miller, as a Jew she would be denied the very rights which have enabled her rise. (Thanks to KKK Grand Wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke's early salesmanship to his base, Putin is the avatar of American White Christian Nationalism. Duke prepared the way for Trump's allegiance to Putin and the Right's promotion of Viktor Orban. Just as American racism against Black persons prepared the way for Hitler's racist theories and atrocities.)
One wonders, as these hypocrites hollow out the foundations of democracy, what makes them think they'll survive the roof caving in?
We at least are allied and our coalition is in the struggle to defeat this American iteration of fascism.
And what is Catholicism if not a patriarchy. They pretend to honor "Mother Mary" when she is just a tool to cover up their admission of women into the power structure of the church.
Compare the number of Saints that are women to men in the Catholic Church. Just try to imagine a female priest or heaven forbid a female Pope.
The changes they would try to make can't even be imagined.
Political campaigns are intrinsically partisan and win/lose. American politics has evolved to be a two party system - that is not intrinsic to our democratic republic, but no other parties have evolved from the ground up to effectively challenge the two parties (showing up once every four years as a spoiler candidate isn't party building.) There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a two party system - while non partisan districting, campaign finance reform, ending the Electoral College, and Ranked Choice Voting would go a long way to improve it.
That said, governing ought not be primarily partisan and win-lose. Legislating should be coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence - that is freed of party, religious, and ideological creed. This is possible.
"We at least are allied, and our coalition is in the struggle to defeat this American iteration of fascism." We damn well better be. Just today, Trump called for "the kind of generals that Hitler had." This goes back to his usual Trumpian stand saying that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" If he loses, and I suspect he will do so, law enforcement, I hope, will have a plan to tamp down in forceful fashion, the traitorous actions of Trump's minions. Assuming Trump loses, the left, alongside the Constitutionally faithful right, should have much to study and question much of the Trump right's posture during these last four years. This may well be a delicate balancing act as one has to decide where freedom of speech ends, and insurrectionist talk and action begin. We can start with Mike Johnson as he tries to explain his honest "disagreements" with Liz Cheney, who didn't buy a dime's worth of his statements.
"... the left, alongside the Constitutionally faithful right, should have much to study and question much of the Trump right's posture during these last four years."
The Trump right's posture during these last four years is the coming to fruition of the Republican posture since the time Ronald Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed - Movement Conservatism with Religious Extremism. And before that the Southern Strategy.
MAGA is the ideological heir and the blood heir of the Confederacy. In his musing on his sentimental journey home, The American Scene, ex-pat Henry James writes of his visit to Richmond, Virginia. It is worth looking up. James is prescient in his observations of a society in denial of historical fact and received ethics. In order to defend the slave scheme, talk of anything and everything else must be banned from the public sphere - from political speech, news media, libraries, schools, the pulpit. In short, James describes the social apparatus of creating 'alternative facts.' Add to the rewriting of history as hagiography (Southern traitors elevated in every town square as Heritage Heroes), the intrusion of faith based irrational habits of mind - and you have a body politic which can be convinced to see Trump "as a good family man with a good heart"
- as I heard one man from Nebraska say on CSpan this morning.
The Nazis were not stupid or insane what they were proficient in their ability to RATIONALIZE. They had science, i.e. eugenics to rationalize iliminating Jews et al.
Go read Jacob Heilbrunn's "America Last: The Right's Century Long Romance With Foreign Dictators." The Republicans have been scum for a long time. Only $18 at Amazon delivered tomorrow.
I want to read this. Unfortunately, itтАЩs not new for some influential people to admire dictators. Some wealthy people admired Hitler and Mussolini, other famous people admired Stalin, and all of them left millions of dead in their wake.
I try to avoid Amazon. IтАЩll look for it at my local independent bookstore. Yep, it will cost more, but Amazon and Walmart are both on my boycott list (which is very very short! LOL).
The left has its share of foibles on this topic. We all have to remember Biden's love affair with that of Netanyahu and the billions he promotes to rain down on the IDF war machine against Gazans. Although the republicans likely take the cake on this issue, some democrats also have enough blood on their hands.
What has helped Trump rise to power has been the social media, and the tacit cooperation of the legacy press. The legacy press lost its readers to all sorts of siloed media. Murdoch helped spread fascist lies. Now, unless you make an uncomfortable effort, you never know what the other side is thinking. Having a real national dialogue has become impossible. Both sides live in totally separate worlds.
I agree that the rise of fascism was expedited by social media. The spreading of lies to people who were hungry/starving for lies to satisfy their fears and hatred.
Slave owners were autocrats and dictators who established laws to increase and maintain their power. They shaped the Constitution to favor their positions and declared a civil war to maintain their way of life. What Reagan and the Rs have done is not new. Unfortunately tyranny, autocracy, dictatorship are part of AmericaтАЩs legacy.
Note that MuskтАЩs Space X gets much of its funding from NASA and Tesla is dependent on tax credits to its buyers to sell cars. Both of those companies rely on government funding that they supposedly despise!
You can have all the money in the world but you can't buy the majority of the American people in this country who believe in Democracy. With the power of our vote, nothings is impossible.
A student at Stanford, Julie Lythcott-Haims, following a speech he gave to students at that university, told her that apartheid was "economically sound". Any moral issues were irrelevant. The point тАУ a common one made by apologists of the apartheid state at the time тАУ seemed to be that South Africa was much more developed than its neighbours and that life there, even for those who were systematically denied their rights, was better than it was in, say, Ethiopia or Burundi. (From "The Contrarian" by Max Chafkin)
Like the Nazis, the anti-fascists, too, would be from all walks of life. That is the value of the tour, now underway, of joint appearances of former Representative Liz Cheney and Vice President Kamala Harris. тЪЦя╕П
Ned, I may be old, but I can still lace up my boots, get out there and make some тАЬgood troubleтАЭ to resist the erosion of our democracy. Despite its flaws (we CAN & MUST do better for all Americans) I will stand at the ramparts to defend it & encourage its тАЬgrowthтАЭ. тШоя╕ПЁЯЧ╜ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕
P.S., Important essay by Joyce Vance; tucked inside it is an arresting and inspiring profile of courage. Such normally unseen displays of principle over preference -- of the means sullying or ennobling the ends -- need more air-time. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/first-amendment-rights-for-everyone
The Harris and Cheney townhall moderated by Charlie Sykes on 10/21/24 in Waukesha, Wisconsin had impressive statements by both of them. Very interesting to hear Liz Cheney discuss anti-abortion laws such as in Texas. Their townhall moderated by Maria Shriver on the same day in Oakland County, Michigan was also impressive:
Both town halls yesterday were good. Fortunately I was working from home editing photos and was able to catch them both in their entirety. I like how they had a Democratic moderator for one event and a Republican moderator for the other.
I watched those town halls also. There were lengthy discussions on National Security. There were also intelligent questions from the audience on important issues. These small events calm me. Volunteering with other Democrats here is also helping to alleviate election anxiety.
One thing that crosses my wretched little my wretched, little mind every time I hear Senator Vance take questions from the crowd -- in apparent contrast to Vice President Harris supposedly avoiding the press -- remains: ┬бDAMNATION! Are these questions and reporters planted ┬┐or what? It seems so rehearsed.
Yes, the fascist movement filters down from the national level to state level to city & county level. ItтАЩs composed of people from all levels! It a political plague!
Yesterday, at my early voting site, there was a man in the bed of a truck (with his companyтАЩs emblem on the side) with a huge sign that said, save America, vote Trump, blah, blah. He screamed, Took a break, and screamed some more. I said, to nobody in particular, isnтАЩt that against the law. The man in Front of me said, I think so, they are supposed to stay so far away, donтАЩt remember exactly how far. He was ignored. But laws donтАЩt really stop the devoted cretins.
In Ohio, election signs and electioneering are restricted within 100 feet of a polling location, and just about every state has similar restrictions. MuskтАЩs payments and contests in Pennsylvania are in blatant violation of Federal election law, but the SCOTUS majority would look the other way. They want to make corruption and bribery legal again.
No police, no objection. I tried to get his plates to make a complaint. May go back tomorrow to see if heтАЩs still there. The guy in front of me was not impressed. Yea
Trump has proven that the law is not applied equally. Why is he still walking around after being convicted of crimes? Justice delayed is justice deniedтАжand SCOTUS supposedly the highest law makers in the land have clearly demonstrated that applying the law to benefit their benefactors is more important than liberty and justice for all.
Important essay by Joyce Vance; tucked inside it is an arresting and inspiring profile of courage. Such normally unseen displays of principle over preference -- of the means sullying or ennobling the ends -- need more air-time. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/first-amendment-rights-for-everyone
Exactly ! When Dorothy Thompson wrote about anti-fascists being those who have something in them, тАЬbe it breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modernтАЭ, she cast her net wide and she was a keen observer of the anti-fascists of her era. Who could have imagined that Generals de Gaulle and de Hautecombe (aka Leclerc), those pillars of ultra-conservatism, would come to lead the Free French Forces against the Nazis? Liz Cheney is of that mould.
Love the fertile context in which you place this emergent unity to push back fascism, Sophie; thank you. You live up to your name . . . wise. All anti-bodies to this vilely violent virus are created equal but we are not carbon copies of each other.
Mary, precisely!!!!!!!!!!! Indeed chilling. Many on this letter know that it can happen here and will happen here if the monster is elected. He is nothing more than a shill. He is too ignorant/stupid but his fascist backs know that JD is their Hitler.
True - chilling. If we lose and Trump wins, democracy falls. Can we recover it from within? Given the military power held by those in control, probably not. As with Germany, it would require a defeat from outside forces. And, pray tell, where are those forces today? They don't exist. This is why this is the most important election not just here in the U.S., but in the history of the world. I don't feel that this is hyperbole.
Mary, I agree. IтАЩm so glad that Heather shared ThompsonтАЩs history. Hopefully, the US public that voted for Trump in the past is now listening to people like Liz Cheney when those Republicans warn about Trump (and JD Vance).
Mary-I was glad to be introduced to Thompson. Our history and the people who fought to help us тАЬperfect our unionтАЭ reveal so much to us about the courage, love and humanity that has brought us this far against people who as Melanie said тАЬdonтАЩt careтАЭ about others or our nation.
My thoughts, too, Mary. This newsletter is Heather at her finest: how history has examples of marvelous people who stand up against the maddening crowd and perverse individuals and who give us a compass for our times.
Chilling indeed. The parallels are terrifying... If Trump and Vance win the election, they'll have Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Barack Obama dangling from a gallow faster than you can say the word "unconstitutional".
Incredibly chilling and well written history lesson.
On MSNBC Today, in the 'Joy Reid Show', Joy pointed-out that both Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel are Immigrants from Countries without a Deep Democratic Tradition... Neither believes in Democratic Discourse, but rather in a $$$ defined Autocracy... They both believe that they have SuperHuman Intelligence... I suspect that in the Event of a DJT Victory, they expect 'Multiples' on their $$$ Investments in a DJT/Vance Victory...
Both of them are products of Apartheid South Africa, which is why they are fascists and racists. I'd be fine with cancelling their citizenship papers and deporting them.
TC, I was living in the Cape and not yet 9 years old in June 1948 when Malan and his Herstigte Nasionale Party came to power. I left South Africa with my parents over a year later.
I have often wondered what would have become of me if I had grown up there. The more so as my love of the land went deep -- it took me six years to accept that I would not be returning.
Simple. Either acceptance of the conditioning a white kid could expect there, even if his parents and schooling were unconnected with Afrikaner nationalism; or jail... or worse.
Even at age 8, I was thinking for myself, questioning, questioning, but skeptical about many of the answers I was receiving from adults. The most important teaching I had received from my mother, and even if I found it hard to understand the religious aspect of what she told, I took the message to heart:
We are all the children of the one God, so we human beings are all brothers and sisters; regardless of our differences, we are family, and so we must behave towards one another as brothers and sisters. The worst crime possible is to harm or kill others because they look different or have different beliefs.
My mother called this "the crime against God".
I know now what caused her to say these things to me in a darkened room. My parents had just received from my Dad's first cousin, a senior officer in the British medical corps who opened two Nazi concentration camps in 1945, documents and photographs of the second camp: Bergen-Belsen.
Given this message, my skepticism and my feelings about what I saw all around me, I came away deeply opposed to what I saw as the petty tyranny of Apartheid, and the conviction of all humans' deep underlying equality has stayed with me ever since.
I'm not sure that Apartheid conditioning is responsible for Thiel's and Musk's belief in their own superiority, but the combination of intellectual and material wealth makes for the most potent of delusions. These men are titans who take themselves for gods.
ADDENDUM: Christ's warnings about the inherent dangers of wealth apply to ALL acquisitions that are less than essential. These include intellectual wealth, social status and all forms of power in this world, including spiritual power. The problem is not with wealth in itself but with its effect upon us, how we relate to it, for attachment to all the things "added unto" us can so gum us up that we're no longer free to become what we really are. Things, money, status, power come to possess us, not we them...
Uneducated white men are the bulk of Trump's supporters. They believe Trump, Musk, Thiel and the other billionaires who blast their Fascism uninterrupted throughout much of the media.
CNN, the Washington Post and even The NY Times are beginning to report on Trump's mental instability and his Fascist comments, but is it too late to affect the election?
You mentioned what the problem is....."beginning to report".....
Gary, I thought all the white guys sitting behind death star in Latrobe thought his remarks about Palmer were funny as they all had locker room talk grins. So many have his same views about the world and that include female MAGAs as well. Peter reminds us too of why these people have no idea of what Jesus taught. I have reported here that quote of the week, maybe year, from a MAGA. "Jesus is wrong". The need for carte blanche (provided by death star) for expressing hatred is truly strong.
Many many people have already voted. I doubt there are that many undecided who could sway the election. They are reporting on Trump too late.
I give these media no credit. I feel they are reacting to reader blow back, plus the level of ugly crazy getting so high they simply have been embarrassed (not shamed) into reporting, along with a soupcon of hedging bets although that's an uneven game since one side will extract retribution for criticism if they win and the other won't.
DJT's Minions can Receive Information, but are they capable of assimilating it, and changing their Minds? I am Skeptical... I would Venture that they 'Feel', not 'Reason' thru Life... They 'Follow' rather then Question...
The Melting Pumpkin says.."I like the uneducated"...and does the "accordian hands rapist" routine.....Heritage 2025 Cult plans want to eliminate the Department of Education..
The set up for dictataorship is up front and centre.
Why not deport the Magat enimies of America?
Yes. Too little, too late.
NO!!! Many have not voted yet, so we still have time! Never give up!
Yes. It's too late. Brainwashed humans simply cannot mentally any process information that doesn't match their programming. We in the USA promote this conversion of human minds with our liberal definition of free speech and the invention of technology that makes speech with negligible cost. Then we add a a legal system that is unsuited for modern life due to it's archaic "due process".
The stones hanging around our necks chokes our breath and then breaks our backs.
And these pompous media "giants"? The high windows are waiting. Their one dollar sales pitches will soon be gone.
I find difficult to find reliable numbers, but most likely a small plurality of white women voted for Trump. Pretty close to an even split compared to the proportion of white men who voted for Trump, but enough white women voted for him that they don't get to be absolved of responsibility.
Finally, right?
Peter, I appreciate your powerful personal story including and not limited to you being raised to embody inclusion.
Jennifer, so did I. We could not go to South Africa during the summer break while we were in the Peace Corps because of apartheid. We went to Egypt instead and were actually at that time able to go into Tut's tomb. Much later we won a trip to South Africa from all classical radio in Portland. We saw lots of black people living in poverty still and I thought the white South Africans were lucky to have Nelson Mandela as the first president after apartheid ceased to be official policy. We went past a large multistoried building where people had been put into various racial categories.
Likewise
Peter: What differentiates Musk and Thiel from Mark Cuban? Cuban's background is not South African but Romanian Jewish and Lithuanian, but the wealth is there. I think Heather's article that includes the description by Dorothy Thompson about the characteristics of those who turn Nazi hits the nail on the head. However, the issue is that you can't prevent people from having those characteristics unless there is a long-term plan to revamp the educational system to include critical thinking skills and civics info. I am just hoping the election will turn out positively.
Dorothy Thompson saw Nazis up close and personal and her account of who "goes Nazi" seems to me to be spot on. HCR's article is powerful.
I think what you wrote may have the answer. Cuban's background is Lithuanian, Romanian (talk about Ceausescu being a deterrent to being fascist!), and Jewish. His wonder Cost Plus company is (literally) saving my daughter close to $4,200 for one of her medications! God bless Mark Cuban!
Musk, Thiel and Cuban are Randians. ItтАЩs a truly destructive philosophy.
Re: Critical Thinking Skills & Civics Info
Janan
I believe & think that your analysis & prescription for mitigating the vast numbers of people likely to тАЬturn NaziтАЭ is spot on.
Alas, the extreme right wing (God Bless them, for arenтАЩt they our wayward brothers & sisters?)MAGA-Nazis are too thin-skinned to allow тАЬcritical thinking & civics infoтАЭ to pierce the grievance filled racist bubbles in which they live, and their psyches dwell, fester, and mutate.
They donтАЩt want their kids to learn civics info and critical thinking skills that will set them free, and alienate their kids from their cherished White Supremacist & unapologetic cultural traditions.
If a miracle were to happen and thereby standardize тАЬcritical thinking skills & civics,тАЭ the Nazi incubator parents would homeschool their kids or find/found a parochial school.
тАЬThe issue is that you can't prevent people from having those characteristics unless there is a long-term plan to revamp the educational system to include critical thinking skills and civics info.тАЭ
Yes. Although perhaps rather than writing "spiritual power", would a better way to express it be "religious power"? Jesus certainly had spiritual power, as does H.H. the Dalai Lama, as did Mahatma Gandhi, and countless other great spiritual leaders past and present, women and men.
kdsherpa, I do see what you're getting at but, first, distinctions between the two aren't always obvious and, more to the point, what could be more grave than the abuse of spiritual power?
This does happen, as with all forms of power.
Maybe, Saying no. 44 in the Gospel of Thomas addresses this.
Jesus said:
"Whoever blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven."
Mammon comes in many forms.
Hi Peter, knowing you originated in South Africa, IтАЩll tell you a story. Before I settled in Florence, Italy in 1977, while traveling on my student Euro pass one hot day as many passengers often stood by opened windows on the trains fro catch a breeze, I began chatting with a man standing next to me. By his accent, I knew he was from South Africa. We were just shooting the breeze when he asked me why not move to South Africa. I asked him why and he to,d me the labor was cheap. After a brief pause, I quietly returned to my seat without answering him and reflected on his natural racism.
After spending days in a pensioni in Florence having gotten the lay of the land and I knew where the cheap places to eat were, I invited two dorm mates out to the university of Florence cafeteria dinner being about 40 cents American. One boy was Dutch and the other Rhodesian. When we took our trays, it was crowded and no tables were available. I saw one in the distance with a Nigerian boy eating by himself and walked over and asked him if we could join him. Yes he said I I sat down, the Dutch boy sat down but when the Rhodesian neared he paused, looked around and suggest we sit at another table already occupied. I resisted but he went over to another table. I k ew what was happening. I never knew if the Nigerian picked up on it but after a short few minutes, the African boy finished eating and left and at that moment, the Rhodesian came over to sit down. I immediately told him he wasnтАЩt welcomed at our table. The Dutch boy asked to forgive but I refused and told him he had insulted my hosting them. The next morning I arose early to pee and I noticed the bunk bed where the Rhodesian boy slept was carefully made up and he left.
I recall feeling sad that day because I had this notion that us young generation were going to resist the biases of the older generation and the reality was that it wasnтАЩt going to happen. At least it didnтАЩt for me that day. And I wondered if that Rhodesian boy finally learned right from wrong all these years later.
I could tell you quite a few, but no, I wasn't born in South Africa, I spent three years there with my parents -- Dad, a naval officer -- as a kid, from late 1946 to late 1949. Those years marked my life.
I find myself agreeing with much of what you say, but I'm not sure what you mean by intellectual wealth. If you mean gifted with intelligence, then while Musk for instance seems perhaps average or a bit above average (which is pretty low apparently), he has not achieved his wealth by powering himself up there through sheer intellectual ability. He began with advantages of funding and blew past obstacles others might have been slowed down by like laws and morals and ethics while amassing to himself wealth which eventually itself begat wealth. Just looking at Xitter, one sees that past a certain point of wealth one no longer needs to be smart or choose wisely because the margin for error and stupidity is just so large.
If by intellectual wealth you mean access to formal education and the real absorption of education's gifts, or a wealth of high quality information through informal channels, then I would propose that it is a dearth of these types of personal wealth that produces petty men with petty (yet grandiose) goals of power.
If you mean these guys were sent to the best schools to acquire the mechanical tools for gathering wealth while skipping classes that might have enriched their spirits and given them a broader education, then okay... I think I'd call that access to opportunities others are restricted from accessing. I'd have to think hard to come up with a succinct way of saying that phrase. Entitlement comes close but isn't specific enough.
I'd like to come back to you on this, but it is very late here in Europe and I'm tired.
Maybe "intellectual wealth" is not an ideal term for what I'm referring to, but isn't it obvious that there is something vain and beside the point about the accumulation of knowledge for its own sake, especially when no wisdom accrues to the inveterate collector? Typically, some people accumulate knowledge as a means to power. Again, power for its own sake, at best to free oneself so that one can do whatever one likes without let or hindrance. At worst, to manipulate others.
Because of the information work I did as a young man, I developed a magpie's instincts. But... did I, do I really need to carry so much junk around with me?
The main point is surely to avoid accumulating what is not useful to anyone and, rather, to accumulate only what will help free oneself of conditioning and make for inner freedom.
Plainly, there's nothing wrong with being knowledgeable, nothing wrong with expertise, but the current popular rejection of experts is not entirely a matter of violent ignorance on the part of those who rubbish them, it is also -- more important -- a response to those who shut themselves up in ivory towers and allow their professional mask to take over from their human face.
It's not so much what we do as how we relate to our actions and whether they free us to find our true selves or simply feed bad habits.
Usually, I feel happy when one or two people for whom I have special respect express a liking for something I have written, or add a perceptive comment of their own.
I want to say I am rather surprised, and most gratified, that something like the considerations in this Addendum, which may seem abstruse to people today, should apparently touch quite a few members of this community, where we are concerned primarily with current events in historical context.
But is this not a time that compels us all to get back down to basics?
Yes, indeed! Very much so.
Absolutely Peter.
I would argue that the first 3 of the Ten Commandments tell us the same thing, and Jesus just spelled out what false Gods were.
I shared your post to Facebook. It was too good not to share with my friends.
Once again thank you
Tevye of "Fiddler on the Roof" тАЬIf I Were a Rich Man,тАЭ including this exquisite line: тАЬWhen youтАЩre rich, they think you really know.тАЭ
As some one who тАЬlovesтАЭ South Africa I want to comment. How could I not тАЬloveтАЭ South Africa ? Posh resorts, magnificent animals, fantastic scenery, great food and wine ! Rolling and scheduled power outages, crumbling townships and infrastructure and the malaise of a Mandelian promise gone frighteningly wrong. I had a high school friend who met and married a South African Boer she met at UCLA in the 60s. She was an orphan and we all paid for her 6 week tramp steamer sea voyage to Durban so she could meet his family and get married. She went on to have 6 children and a very interesting life- sending the amah out to search the yard for poisonous snakes before the children went out, being robbed one New Years Eve while in Formal dress by a gang in their driveway, and being widowed in a foreign land. My husband and I were in the wine country and met her youngest son who was a student at the University in Stellenbosch for a drink. It was chilling. He was a very handsome, half American тАжтАжтАж. nazi. Our friend was still alive but very ill so I could never ask herтАЭ howтАЭ ? I have been alive and have seen it all - the great promises and the thudding reality. Maybe, one more time, I can live in a time of great promise.
Joan, I'm thinking you have some writing skills you haven't shared before; At least to my recollection. Brava ~
WOW!!! The way you wrote this, the two extremes belong together existing together, HIT ME so hard, Thank you more than words can say.
Seems to me that I find a steady correlation between some god lovers who handily interpret their supposed love for the supreme aspect of it that they translate into being one on earth i.e. if Jesus could be half god why not them?
And then be godlike because of their dominance with money.
Dorothy Thompson summed up Trump in one fell swoop of a sentence. He "is no longer a man. He is a religion."
The problem's with people's acquired IDEA of God, which they confuse with the object of their belief. Only, the very idea of God as an object of anything or anyone makes no sense. Some may, of course, take your last two phrases literally -- which I've just said in another way. Delusion.
I don't call myself "Christian", yet I take exception to the very idea of "half god", both in general and in relation to Christ. Having flesh, blood and a human form doesn't make one half anything. It is we who make ourselves into caricatures of what we are.
This is no place in which to develop discussion of man's limitless greed, for which, as Seneca remarked, all Nature is too small. But it may be useful to challenge the shards of an idea that some like to present as "Great"; too often the ultimate pretext for crime.
John Lennon wrote "God is a concept by which we measure our pain." Song title, Yoko and Me.
As a little girl, we used to sing this song each week in Sunday School: "God is Love, God is Love". Ever since then, that is how I have perceived "God". (Although prior to that, at age 3 and learning to read, I ran to my mother shouting excitedly, "Mommy! I know who God is!!" "Who?" she asked. "God is a dog!! G-O-D, D-O-G!" She was not impressed. Having said that, I sometimes wonder...
Thank you, Peter. This is a powerful comment.
Great comment Thank you.
Thank you for this poignant statement, Peter. Simply stunning.
What a beautiful person your mother was. Such a blessing to have such a wise person for your parent.
Thank you. She was my first spiritual teacher and I wish I'd been more worthy of her; but needed to learn by trial and error.
I'm sure she was thrilled by the person she saw you grow up to be. (And we all have to learn by trial and error -- for better and for worse!)
Thank you for your moving story.
"the combination of intellectual and material wealth makes for the most potent of delusions." Wow. Thank you for that truth, Peter. Your words ring of so much authenticity. I had a similar, though less intensely consequential journey in losing my (Catholic) religion. And at the time, I knew nothing of their covering up of crimes against children.
Your mother is a true Christian. Thank you for this comment.
Hiro, she was Jewish, not Christian. She was a good and wise woman who practiced love and kindness and avoided harmful actions, and what else is religion if not that? For my part, I am not formally Christian, but revere Christ.
I hope my response did not seem unkind or ungrateful. After all, yours was a true compliment.
LetтАЩs add Rupert and make it a trio sent to Rio!
Barbara, Bill Adair, founder, or one of them, of Politifact, has a new book, "Beyond the Big Lie", which I'm currently reading. He talks about Murdock, how he bought up the Aussie papers, then the tabloid press in the UK and we know what he did here. According to an examination by the Times, "his influence has given him influence over world affairs, in a way few private citizens have ever had" I'll say!
Yeah, another rich guy know-it-all. DidnтАЩt the UK give him a drubbing some years back over some of his tabloid тАЬnewsтАЭ tactics? Like TFFFG & Elon, if he didnтАЩt have lots & lots of money, heтАЩd be selling timeshares in Boca Roton.
тАжcuteтАж
Musk has made himself virtually indispensable to NASA and the Pentagon with Space X and Starlink. We simply have no viable alternatives. HeтАЩs actually a Canadian citizen who apparently prefers our tax structure and hopes to тАЬimproveтАЭ it further with TrumpтАЩs election.
"Musk has made himself virtually indispensable to NASA and the Pentagon with Space X and Starlink."
Do we NEED to reach for the stars, if down here we're struggling to get out of the mud?
Priorities, people!
Agreed. We haven't even begun to fully explore what is at the bottom of the sea. The expense of space exploration is hard to justify when so many issues need to be addressed on terra firma.
Defund NASA and shift the money to alternate sources of sustainable energy. With enough money, geothermal and fusion can help us with the self-inflicted Climate Catastrophe.
And why is "Starlink" a private company when millions rely on it for all manner of communications including defense and national security?
Tesla - well, I know people who back in the day would never buy a Ford because Henry Ford was an antisemite fascist....
Ah, I seem to agree with you 99.9% of the time, but I do support our funding NASA. We have, in fact, privatized too much of our space presence and thus we get Starlink which has put too much power in Musk's hands. Look at what he (did or didn't) do over the Black Sea. Toss aside whether he did or didn't - consider how trustworthy he would be if Putin were ever to request data from satellites over the US or were ever to threaten the next European nation. Could we be sure we'd be favored in any cold or hot conflict? We need to direct some funding to get more of our own communication satellites up there.
I know of people who still wonтАЩt buy a Volkswagen.
I take comfort from the fact that Luddites have been trying to quash spaceflight and other technologies since the 1960s. In the first place, freeing up that money would in no way guarantee its wise use elsewhere, and in the second place, the work of those building technologies for space exploration has delivered enormous benefits in medicine, communications, and weather forecasting.
I knew someone would say that. OK - "freeing up that money would in no way guarantee its wise use elsewhere, " maybe not, but if the guy using the money is a threat to America, why give it to HIM? Use it wisely OR unwisely on something that isn't.
And if "the work of those building technologies for space exploration has delivered enormous benefits in medicine, communications, and weather forecasting." how much of the sum total of the cost of building those technologies went on just the space side? Do you think if there had been no space side, and the money had been available for alternative research, that the "enormous benefits in medicine, communications, and weather forecasting." wouldn't have been found? After every war people remark on the enormous beneficial discoveries in medicine etc - but the war still costs an unnecessary fortune. And it all comes out of the taxpayers pocket.
Lady Emsworth -- Some of us could say that reaching for the stars does help to pull us out of the mud!
Thank you, Charlotte Vale!
Being the richest man in the world is not enough. Maybe we should rethink our priorities. Do we really have to suck up to evil, now that he has removed his mask. This applies to more than Elon.
I for one shall not buy his cars
Thank you for saying that. I would think that the Telsa is doomed since most climate change-minded people, ie, democrats would be his market not republicans. Written with a prayer.
Nor I. .Even if a solar model comes out.
So true.
IтАЩd do without a lot to live in a sane world
I like the suggestion that someone I read made yesterday, that the government appropriate Space X and Starlink. I am all for that.
I agree, Linda, especially since he interfered with Ukraine's communication system on at least one occasion. Like many oligarchs, he seems to aspire to power, including that of other nations' dictators.
I agree. That was when I first noticed what a right wing danger he was. Then he started supporting Putin's goals as a means to ending the war. Traitor, traitor, traitor.
Oh please, but the SC would stop such. Unless they got a slice
There ya go. Give the Supremes a cut. Better, allow Uncle Thom and Alito a free ride to outer space one direction. That auta do it. lol.
That not realistic, Linda. No, Boeing needs to be reimagined and they need to be run not by non-engineers.
I disagree. According to Matt Stoller of the Substack Big, one of the reasons planes are falling apart is because of outsourcing of maintenance, another is that they no longer have engineers in their management. Maybe 1 or 2 still.
So, no engineering considerations in their decision making. Also, tendency to shut them up if their pointing out problems costs money.
You can search through his articles on Boeing if you like. Here are some.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/its-time-to-nationalize-and-then?utm_source=publication-search
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-nationalization-of-boeing-begins?utm_source=publication-search
When it comes to national security, outsourcing so much to people like Musk, who is a fascist, is a big problem and other than forcing him to sell it to some other fascist oligarch I see no other way around his ownership of these and access to highly sensitive information I would not share with my high schooler, let alone anyone else whose frontal cortex is not fully developed, usually between 24-30.
Boeing was run from the beginning by engineers. Boeing was moved out of Seattle, into Chicago by the financial people who were getting out of the constant oversight of retired Boeing engineers, that ruined the company.
You are not alone my friend!!!
In 1950, Truman nationalized railroads, in anticipation of a strike that he said would reduce America's ability to maintain it's security, in particular with the impeding Korean War looming into full out conflict. Truman used the army to keep the railroads running. I'm not saying the situation is the same with Musk and his control over vital space access machinery, don't know about Thiel other than he's Vance's puppet master, but the incident illustrates the fact that thinking out of the box and standing up to bullies who endanger the security of our nation shouldn't be tolerated and there are things we can do as a nation, with a good leader (like Kamala Harris) to see the truth and do the right thing for the good of the country.
Truman didnt nationalize the railroads, he just put the military in temporary control of their operations. In a year or so the unions and the companies settled under terms put down by Truman.
I can only Hope that Kamala can stand up to the big boys. Her history as a prosecutor gives credibility, but God, what a list of greedy guys she's up against.
Very true. Boeing Aircraft has become a second rate company unfortunately. It needs to be run by engineers not super high paid bonus administrators who probably donтАЩt work inside the very plants that manufacture planes and rockets.
i think his Canadian side was a relatively brief passage, before emigrating to the US. He sounds like an Ayn Rand enthusiast. Eg Greenspan. Many others, I'm sure, and male.
тАЬNever put all of your eggs in one basketтАЭ, is how the saying goes.
Diane, probably the war on the regulatory state is also more attractive here. Not to mention the corruption of sufficient numbers of elected representatives who can be bought and lobbied by those oligarchs.
Why to take such enormous risk by depending on a such unstable and genius guy?
Agree with you there. While his mum was from Canada, it seems like the values he most internalized were those of Apartheid.
A Fireside Chat
(From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums")
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
тАЬMy fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. тАжI do not share these fears.тАЭ
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
тАЬMy friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
тАЬYou people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf HitlerтАЩs proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. IтАЩm pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
тАЬI also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
тАЬMy first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
тАЬI know IтАЩve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And thereтАЩs nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
тАЬThis concludes the first of my fireside chats. I canтАЩt wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.тАЭ
(I don't dispute anything of what Heather has written. Nor the quotes from Dorothy Thompson. What I do find myself apparently in conflict here with other opinions is how we got to this place and time. I tend on the contrarian and I sense the divisions in our society, the blame game mixed with the sins of our past, The iconic Supreme Court 2010 decision Citizens United opening up unlimited corporate campaign financing where "We, the People' are no longer competitive, the corrupting influencer on all who partake of this poison wine, and now we have AI distorting reality. There is now a difficult path ahead to extend American Democracy as we have known it. Only the Good Witches of the North can save us now.)
Bill, I agree with you about Citizens United. Obama warned us about the dangers of unlimited cash. It's hard to believe that Margaret Chase Smith attempted to run for the Presidency offering to accept no donations from anyone-- corporate or private.
Sadly, it can't be done on almost every level of government.
But another loud influential voice we tend to overlook are the myriad lobbyists supported by the well heeled corporations and the ultra wealthy.
Gary, I think the oligarchy has decided to replace civil service workers with lobbyists. By cutting the regulatory departments to the point that they can no longer do their jobs, the administrative state now relies on self-policing by corporations (like Boeing) to assure safety.
And since the expertise of federal employees is being sidelined by Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, legislators are free to rely on lobbyists to write the rules governing their own business practices.
The courts have also been complicit and/or overwhelmed by sophisticated lobbying. Anti-monopoly laws were no longer even taught in law schools and BidenтАЩs resurrection of intervening in monopolies is no doubt one reason the corporate money is flooding into the campaign of the Former Grifter-in-Chief.
I despair that the rebuilding of healthy, honest checks and balances is even possible unless the GOP is strangled and new laws, new enforcement mechanisms and new staffing are implemented. Not sure even the democrats are willing to bite the corporate hands that fund them.
And with their Immunity ruling, the SCOTUS has prepared the ground nicely for Donald's fever dreams to be realized.
I wrote and published my book 4 years ago before Trump had been compared to Adolf Hitler.
It's shocking how in America in the 2020s, the comparisons of Trump to Hitler become truer every day, not less true.
I remember when dems self-policed dems over any Trump/Hitler comparisons. Yet here we are. We let our fear of appearing alarmist, manipulative, and partial hobble the ability to stop this nightmare before it became inevitable.
Not just of the North. East West and South and the middle.
The Wizard of Oz said North only, lol. My favorite all time movie. If I could die watching a movie, it would be that movie. We waiting every season for the movie to be shown on TV.
There is nothing quaint about Trump. He is growing nastier and nastier in his desperation to get the ugly people out to the polls. He gets help from his Russian Bots, and the MAGAs in office. Andra Watkins spoke to Democrats Abroad about Christian Nationalists, and since Trump is apparently planning on implementing their document for government Project 2025, and turning us into a Christian Nationalist Theocracy, we need to make sure he does not get in by each of us doing our part.
TC, the irony is that its UnAmerican to expel UnAmericans, right? We used to trust our neighbors to ostracize them, render them ineffective
Money has bought the propaganda that has infected their thinking. Money has bought a Court that advocates the destruction of individual rights Money in such Smaug-like hoarding that spending a pittance of it means nothing
The Dragon is awake and circling above
The vote is our last and only sword. There is no Frodo
ItтАЩs more like paradoxical than ironic. Related to the intolerance paradox. Intolerance, if tolerated, will eliminate tolerance, so a civilized society must not tolerate intolerance. Too bad, in a way, but there is no other solution.
If there is deporting to be done they willl be doing the deport if their monster* is elected.
*JD is who they have their money on. DJT is their shill. If elected you can bet the tRump will be shoved asside or get sick, and or conveniently die.
Can we add Rupert
WoW both of them ?!!! IтАЩve understood that somehow itтАЩs ┬л┬аnot quite possible to expel them from our (country, planet, societyтАж pick one) because of their $$$тАж.
Just in case you're not joking, the planet has become quite small with all the technology we have and more to come. We have to figure out other ways of banning them.
Damn shame our side is so unattractive to murderous loonies.
Agreed. They are part of the тАЬenemy withjnтАЭ that we could put out with the trash. IтАЩm not a fan of deportation on any level, but if those naturalized folks are undermining democracy, their traitorous actions deserve nothing less than expulsion.
Jen, I donтАЩt want to see us set a precedent by de-naturalizing or expelling people. You know where that leadsтАж
Hi Marge! For the record-I agree with you 100%. That being said, if a legitimate threat is posed by people against our Constitution and democracy, against the very foundation of our United States, there needs to be some accountability for unAmerican activities. Maybe expulsion is the wrong answer-it probably is-but what recourse is available? Domestic terrorists, and I believe Thiel, musk, Murdock and others fall into that category, must not be allowed to continue their rampage of hatred, intentional misinformation, and attempts to murder democracy. Prosecution? Incarceration? How do we deal with them in order to preserve this precious institution?
Yesterday I happened to watch an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver from 10 months ago. It is all about Elon Musk. This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo3zORUGCbM
I purchased my first Tesla in 2014 and upgraded in 2018. I love my Tesla, but in the last few years have wondered what happened to Musk. My son-in-law sold his Tesla and all his Tesla stock because of who Musk has become. To date I am remiss to sell mine, and I have been confused and wondering what happened to him, that is until I watched Oliver's show. Now I realize why he is pouring money into the Trump/Vance campaign. He wants to be able to do what he wants, buy who and what he wants, control who and what he wants, without our government's intervention in any way. And he will spend billions to accomplish that. He and Theil will control Vance and run our country however they want. I think if Trump wins Republicans will immediately invoke the 25th amendment, and put Vance in power which will allow M & T to control an awful lot from behind the scenes. Please tell me I'm wrong about this.
I confess to the same thought, TC. But then I might be part of the problem. I would contribute to Trump's deranged expulsion of all foreign-born citizens. The task, which will require an FDR-type leader, is to reign in the extreme profiteering by a few in the oil and tech businesses...the oligarchs. At a minimum, Musk must be removed from the government-X partnership. That is where the danger lies.
I didn't know this - it explains a lot. And not in a good way.
I agree they are not humans nor fit to live in our country the way they behave!
No Republican is fit to live in our country.
Can we legally do that? I've always thought that naturalization was for life.
Peter Thiel is not from South Africa. He is from Frankfort, Germany. Perhaps you were thinking of Rupert Murdoch.
Peter Thiel is from Germany, and moved to the US, but his family spent time in South Africa too, so he has absorbed his ugly ideas in more than one place. Apartheid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
He is a White Supremacist who expects his money to protect him from the fact that he is supporting virulently anti-gay people into taking power.
https://theintercept.com/2023/03/23/peter-thiel-jeff-thomas/
Exactly. I do not think foreign born should be able to own more than 25% of any US media in total.
I don't know very much about the government at the time, but I think it was a toxic environment that was rife with cruelty, prejudice, injustice, and violence perpetrated by white settlers, the term Boers or Afrikaners was used. I did not know that about Musk and Thiel. Thank you.
While Peter Thiel is from Germany and came as a child with his parents, I would not say that Germany has a "deep democratic tradition." Germany first had democracy for 15 years during the Weimar Republic leading from the end of WWI to 1933 when the Nazis took over. Then, in 1945 began another period of democracy for part of Germany but the other part was in an authoritarian state until 1990. So, from 1990 until now. That is not such a long time. In fact, there are many people living who have lived under an authoritarian regime, and some still who lived under 2. While Peter grew up in the US after his family immigrated, that is his family's background. Elon Musk comes from South Africa, the land of Apartheid. I don't consider it to have a long tradition of democracy either. Both of them come from countries with strong White Supremacist non-egalitarian societies and both are White Supremacists by their actions, beliefs and rhetoric. We might say it is in their DNA.
ItтАЩs truly perplexing. Elon Musk could do such great things with his wealth.
Elon Musk is not a great person. He is emotionally and socially immature like a lot of the GenZ men that Trump is trying to reach, and the Millennial men. Good luck with the latter group. All of the millennial men I worked with did not read books, were over focused on YouTube, making money, raising their children and did not vote. Their wives vote though. Given how immature these men were, perhaps that is a good thing. I spent years trying to get one of them to vote. To no avail. Basically he did not feel that the good quality of his life or that which he intends to provide for his young children will be affected either way, so why get off his routine to go out and vote.
I guess. IтАЩm far removed from trends which is why I sometimes rub people here the wrong way. IтАЩm a traditionalist and I feel comfortable in that skin. TV? It comes on for the 6-8 news programs maybe Frontline sometimes. No cable. Reading? IтАЩve been slacking but I need to start reading again my literary mentor, Mark Twain, who I have a great affinity for. I was recently almost kicked out of a Methodist church open mic for bringing my book to read a passage instead of singing my songs. The short story I recited was titled тАЬMy Cat Babe and Donald Trump Have Something in CommonтАЭ and the story revolved around keeping my cat Babe from licking the oil in the frying pan least he splat diarrhea all over my house like Donald Trump did crap on the nation while in office . OMG, you should have seen what happened next. One woman stood up and tried to shout me down but I pointed out that I had two more sentences to recite and proceeded to finish how it was important to prevent Trump from gaining the White House. I felt the spirit of Mark Twain within as I walked off the stage. I got a big applause. Even sold a book and I had prepared to give them a partial donation to the good church cause but I recinded that offer. They almost banned me but they didnтАЩt. I guess it was their generous Christian side that restrained them, lol.
Musk has reported that he has Aspergers, or, these days, the term is neurodivergent.
Musk does not need to report that for me to recognize that. A lot of people I know, who are not fascists at all, in the Aspergers spectrum as well.
More to the point, Musk has also reported that he uses ketamine.
Much of his wealth came from the American taxpayers with.his government contracts.
I totally agree. Imagine using all of that money to destroy our democracy when it could be put to such good use like advocating for peace on earth.
It does factor in,тАЩhow one is raisedтАЩ whether itтАЩs the county/country/parent/peer groups. All influences meld and mold one.
There is without doubt too many factors -negative too as people who are тАШunhappyтАЩ stir inwardly seeking peace, love, comfort for sure.
With the hoards of money available seems we could be a lot better off as a whole. ButтАж
I heard another oligarch fell out a window today, and few believe it was тАШa suicideтАЩ, catching on in Russia perhaps тАж
How many read this marvelous HCR тАШLetterтАЩ? How many can read? Germany didnтАЩt heed the warning, nor few of the other countries who have been тАШtakenтАЩ down that road.
I do know I will disappear if Trump winsтАжperhaps to start another underground RailRoad if time permits ..a definite issue..IтАЩve fought for the underdog since I was old enough to careтАжas have the many here. They called us тАШhippiesтАЩ but I was bit older. Back-to-the-landers fit too. The Silent Generation , AF Dad killed just at the end of the тАШwarтАЩ. Baby Boomers. Some are now Ex-Pats, my first trip abroad opened my eyes how the Americas see themselves. Trump wasnтАЩt the first who brought out the cracks in the system. It still needs a lot of work.
This election is pivotal. As well as тАШ26 & тАШ28тАжand and and..Blue is the hue and expect of them more carefully, my sisters and brothersтАж
ЁЯТЩЁЯТЩЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕VOTE.THE.BLUE.STOP.THE.COUP.ITS UP TO YOU.ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕ЁЯТЩЁЯТЩ
She said тАЬcountries WITHOUT a deep Democratic tradition.тАЭ
I disagree with your reading. The German Federal Republic is 75 yearsтАЩ old and after the fall of the wall, it absorbed the much smaller GDR. There has been tensions with the old East German areas for many reasons- mostly cultural and economic- but the majority of the country has been democratic since Adenauer , who had been a democratic politician during the Weimar Republic, became its first post-war Chancellor. More importantly, Germans are culturally attached to democracy and human rights - and far more than many Americans.
I am a member of Democrats Abroad in Germany, which is a very democratic American group. I am also a Brown-skinned dual German and American citizen currently living in Germany. I am surrounded by Germans who are not fully democratic in my mind, nor are they that historically aware of their privilege and who paid for it. At the same time I know Germans who are very Democratic. Many of them have lived in the US and taken on US citizenship as well.
I see commitment to Democracy in both countries, and those who are fascist. There are those who are being manipulated by Russian and other Bots, leading their on a string to think in certain ways. Both governments need to make better legislation to protect us from the manipulation on line.
Regardless if it's in their DNA, they belong in this country. We're a country that believes in Democracy and a democratic system and the rule of law. Let them go to Russia and be on Putin's cabinet.
Nazis got a bad reputation in the wake of WWII, but it seems like Republicans have canonized $$$ defined Autocracy (and aristocracy) since at least Reagan, not quite as blatantly as in the present.
Besides being Horrible Ciminals, and Insane, the Nazis lost thankfully... If DJT, and his Minions Win Power, and stay in Power... Guess how the $$$ Aristocracy will define themselves? OBW: Reagan was a B-List Actor who, once Elected, thought He & Nancy were Aristocracy...
First of all, the Nazis did not lose, they were defeated by the efforts of allied opponents.
Leonard Leo, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts Jr. Samuel Alito Jr., Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett were all raised Catholic. Which would have hobbled their rise (as would've being Black, female, and of Italian and Irish heritage) were it not for the liberalization of American society and US law achieved by progressive activists. The liberalization they are hell bent on rolling back, the civil rights laws they are turning the Constitution on its head to overturn, and the progressives they have immunized demagogue and would be dictator Donald Trump to officially persecute. Would they turn Nazi? Ha! Their Black robes barely hide their white sheets and brown shirts. While their upbringing may have instilled a taste for absolutism and authoritarianism (antithetical to the Constitution) rather than allegiance to the Golden Rule translated to civil society as "caring for the general welfare" they have a bent for greed and are draining American law of justice in order to obstruct government's ability to administer equitable taxation and reasonable regulation of industry. After the defeat of Hitler, at the Nuremberg, there were special trials for German jurists who had drained German law of justice to legalize Nazi bigotry and establish Nazi rule with its attending atrocities.
But on the front end, when Hitler's coup failed he went legit and won power through the electoral process. A victory achieved in large part by Stalin directing German Communists to split off from the German Center Right. Just as Putin aligned Jill Stein is splitting the American Leftish from the American Center Left as represented by the Democratic Party - in order to elect Trump, institute Project 2025, and establish a corporate ChristoFascist Christian Nationalist state - in which along with her fellow Trump enabler Stephen Miller, as a Jew she would be denied the very rights which have enabled her rise. (Thanks to KKK Grand Wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke's early salesmanship to his base, Putin is the avatar of American White Christian Nationalism. Duke prepared the way for Trump's allegiance to Putin and the Right's promotion of Viktor Orban. Just as American racism against Black persons prepared the way for Hitler's racist theories and atrocities.)
One wonders, as these hypocrites hollow out the foundations of democracy, what makes them think they'll survive the roof caving in?
We at least are allied and our coalition is in the struggle to defeat this American iteration of fascism.
And what is Catholicism if not a patriarchy. They pretend to honor "Mother Mary" when she is just a tool to cover up their admission of women into the power structure of the church.
Compare the number of Saints that are women to men in the Catholic Church. Just try to imagine a female priest or heaven forbid a female Pope.
The changes they would try to make can't even be imagined.
One of the American paradoxes is the
win-lose/lose-win cultural mindset which is constantly getting us into political hot water never mind other kinds of hot water too, a bipolar nation
Political campaigns are intrinsically partisan and win/lose. American politics has evolved to be a two party system - that is not intrinsic to our democratic republic, but no other parties have evolved from the ground up to effectively challenge the two parties (showing up once every four years as a spoiler candidate isn't party building.) There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a two party system - while non partisan districting, campaign finance reform, ending the Electoral College, and Ranked Choice Voting would go a long way to improve it.
That said, governing ought not be primarily partisan and win-lose. Legislating should be coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence - that is freed of party, religious, and ideological creed. This is possible.
Lin, powerful post! Thanks
"We at least are allied, and our coalition is in the struggle to defeat this American iteration of fascism." We damn well better be. Just today, Trump called for "the kind of generals that Hitler had." This goes back to his usual Trumpian stand saying that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" If he loses, and I suspect he will do so, law enforcement, I hope, will have a plan to tamp down in forceful fashion, the traitorous actions of Trump's minions. Assuming Trump loses, the left, alongside the Constitutionally faithful right, should have much to study and question much of the Trump right's posture during these last four years. This may well be a delicate balancing act as one has to decide where freedom of speech ends, and insurrectionist talk and action begin. We can start with Mike Johnson as he tries to explain his honest "disagreements" with Liz Cheney, who didn't buy a dime's worth of his statements.
"... the left, alongside the Constitutionally faithful right, should have much to study and question much of the Trump right's posture during these last four years."
The Trump right's posture during these last four years is the coming to fruition of the Republican posture since the time Ronald Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed - Movement Conservatism with Religious Extremism. And before that the Southern Strategy.
MAGA is the ideological heir and the blood heir of the Confederacy. In his musing on his sentimental journey home, The American Scene, ex-pat Henry James writes of his visit to Richmond, Virginia. It is worth looking up. James is prescient in his observations of a society in denial of historical fact and received ethics. In order to defend the slave scheme, talk of anything and everything else must be banned from the public sphere - from political speech, news media, libraries, schools, the pulpit. In short, James describes the social apparatus of creating 'alternative facts.' Add to the rewriting of history as hagiography (Southern traitors elevated in every town square as Heritage Heroes), the intrusion of faith based irrational habits of mind - and you have a body politic which can be convinced to see Trump "as a good family man with a good heart"
- as I heard one man from Nebraska say on CSpan this morning.
The Nazis were not stupid or insane what they were proficient in their ability to RATIONALIZE. They had science, i.e. eugenics to rationalize iliminating Jews et al.
Theology too. See Gerhard Kittel.
Go read Jacob Heilbrunn's "America Last: The Right's Century Long Romance With Foreign Dictators." The Republicans have been scum for a long time. Only $18 at Amazon delivered tomorrow.
https://www.amazon.com/America-Last-Century-Long-Romance-Dictators/dp/1324095679/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GC2IOU5SE58G&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.09BcG5yLmuYCpzuSLsS6r80gT0-y2bPCiD9baTbPbeUCsTD9pQBzlrNv9M3bi9g0._eadT17NNmnzqlsg04fO5z4YwX1q1w_ctRCnya9h2DE&dib_tag=se&keywords=america+last+jacob+heilbrunn&qid=1729580604&sprefix=America+Last%2Caps%2C612&sr=8-1
I want to read this. Unfortunately, itтАЩs not new for some influential people to admire dictators. Some wealthy people admired Hitler and Mussolini, other famous people admired Stalin, and all of them left millions of dead in their wake.
Yeah all those millions dead, in their wake, besides those who died defeating fascism, were the OTHER. The target of our home grown fascists.
I try to avoid Amazon. IтАЩll look for it at my local independent bookstore. Yep, it will cost more, but Amazon and Walmart are both on my boycott list (which is very very short! LOL).
The left has its share of foibles on this topic. We all have to remember Biden's love affair with that of Netanyahu and the billions he promotes to rain down on the IDF war machine against Gazans. Although the republicans likely take the cake on this issue, some democrats also have enough blood on their hands.
What has helped Trump rise to power has been the social media, and the tacit cooperation of the legacy press. The legacy press lost its readers to all sorts of siloed media. Murdoch helped spread fascist lies. Now, unless you make an uncomfortable effort, you never know what the other side is thinking. Having a real national dialogue has become impossible. Both sides live in totally separate worlds.
I agree that the rise of fascism was expedited by social media. The spreading of lies to people who were hungry/starving for lies to satisfy their fears and hatred.
Slave owners were autocrats and dictators who established laws to increase and maintain their power. They shaped the Constitution to favor their positions and declared a civil war to maintain their way of life. What Reagan and the Rs have done is not new. Unfortunately tyranny, autocracy, dictatorship are part of AmericaтАЩs legacy.
And Murdoch is Australian. That's a lot of foreigners controlling America.
Imagine how Musk could benefit his 5 corporations should he become the "efficiency expert" Trump wants.
Musk, Thiel, and Vance are acolytes of Yarvin . Yarvin believes the U.S. government too sclerotic to govern, and in need of a national CEO.
тАЬAnd a national CEO is called a dictator. The U.S. needs to get over its dictator phobia.тАЭ
Note that MuskтАЩs Space X gets much of its funding from NASA and Tesla is dependent on tax credits to its buyers to sell cars. Both of those companies rely on government funding that they supposedly despise!
Apache. Again CHILLING
WeтАЩre ALL immigrants, other than the honorable Native Americans. I just donтАЩt get why someone would deny that fact.
You can have all the money in the world but you can't buy the majority of the American people in this country who believe in Democracy. With the power of our vote, nothings is impossible.
Hopefully we can got vote them! However, it is easy to buy votes even if that is illegal!
A student at Stanford, Julie Lythcott-Haims, following a speech he gave to students at that university, told her that apartheid was "economically sound". Any moral issues were irrelevant. The point тАУ a common one made by apologists of the apartheid state at the time тАУ seemed to be that South Africa was much more developed than its neighbours and that life there, even for those who were systematically denied their rights, was better than it was in, say, Ethiopia or Burundi. (From "The Contrarian" by Max Chafkin)
Like the Nazis, the anti-fascists, too, would be from all walks of life. That is the value of the tour, now underway, of joint appearances of former Representative Liz Cheney and Vice President Kamala Harris. тЪЦя╕П
https://www.c-span.org/video/?539382-1/vice-president-harris-campaigns-liz-cheney-wisconsin
Ned, I may be old, but I can still lace up my boots, get out there and make some тАЬgood troubleтАЭ to resist the erosion of our democracy. Despite its flaws (we CAN & MUST do better for all Americans) I will stand at the ramparts to defend it & encourage its тАЬgrowthтАЭ. тШоя╕ПЁЯЧ╜ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕
Hooray, Barbara Keating!
P.S., Important essay by Joyce Vance; tucked inside it is an arresting and inspiring profile of courage. Such normally unseen displays of principle over preference -- of the means sullying or ennobling the ends -- need more air-time. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/first-amendment-rights-for-everyone
I am with you a 100%
The Harris and Cheney townhall moderated by Charlie Sykes on 10/21/24 in Waukesha, Wisconsin had impressive statements by both of them. Very interesting to hear Liz Cheney discuss anti-abortion laws such as in Texas. Their townhall moderated by Maria Shriver on the same day in Oakland County, Michigan was also impressive:
https://www.youtube.com/live/TmOb1fRR4X4?si=mpsP7TofUBTgri2s
Both town halls yesterday were good. Fortunately I was working from home editing photos and was able to catch them both in their entirety. I like how they had a Democratic moderator for one event and a Republican moderator for the other.
The one at noon-time in Pennsylvania was quite good, too.
I watched those town halls also. There were lengthy discussions on National Security. There were also intelligent questions from the audience on important issues. These small events calm me. Volunteering with other Democrats here is also helping to alleviate election anxiety.
Linda,
One thing that crosses my wretched little my wretched, little mind every time I hear Senator Vance take questions from the crowd -- in apparent contrast to Vice President Harris supposedly avoiding the press -- remains: ┬бDAMNATION! Are these questions and reporters planted ┬┐or what? It seems so rehearsed.
What interests me, here, is that two women lead the charge. One basic lesson I learned in Afghanland.
┬┐Change the street? Negotiate with the men.
┬┐Change the culture? ┬бWork with the women!
Yes, the fascist movement filters down from the national level to state level to city & county level. ItтАЩs composed of people from all levels! It a political plague!
Yesterday, at my early voting site, there was a man in the bed of a truck (with his companyтАЩs emblem on the side) with a huge sign that said, save America, vote Trump, blah, blah. He screamed, Took a break, and screamed some more. I said, to nobody in particular, isnтАЩt that against the law. The man in Front of me said, I think so, they are supposed to stay so far away, donтАЩt remember exactly how far. He was ignored. But laws donтАЩt really stop the devoted cretins.
In Ohio, election signs and electioneering are restricted within 100 feet of a polling location, and just about every state has similar restrictions. MuskтАЩs payments and contests in Pennsylvania are in blatant violation of Federal election law, but the SCOTUS majority would look the other way. They want to make corruption and bribery legal again.
They pretty much are all in on it. Still want to know about Kennedy and his son and the German bank. Body blow for me. Forgotten now,
The dismiss the law as something that doesnтАЩt apply to them, like the orange narcissistic sociopath!
No police, no objection. I tried to get his plates to make a complaint. May go back tomorrow to see if heтАЩs still there. The guy in front of me was not impressed. Yea
Thank you for not saying "yay".
Trump has proven that the law is not applied equally. Why is he still walking around after being convicted of crimes? Justice delayed is justice deniedтАжand SCOTUS supposedly the highest law makers in the land have clearly demonstrated that applying the law to benefit their benefactors is more important than liberty and justice for all.
Alert the lead person at that voting site. The lead would know the rules about electioneering and be responsible for upholding them.
Should have done that, will if heтАЩs still there when I go back
Perhaps a cultural plague.
Important essay by Joyce Vance; tucked inside it is an arresting and inspiring profile of courage. Such normally unseen displays of principle over preference -- of the means sullying or ennobling the ends -- need more air-time. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/first-amendment-rights-for-everyone
Yes , that may be true but we by the power of our vote can stop it.
Exactly ! When Dorothy Thompson wrote about anti-fascists being those who have something in them, тАЬbe it breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modernтАЭ, she cast her net wide and she was a keen observer of the anti-fascists of her era. Who could have imagined that Generals de Gaulle and de Hautecombe (aka Leclerc), those pillars of ultra-conservatism, would come to lead the Free French Forces against the Nazis? Liz Cheney is of that mould.
Love the fertile context in which you place this emergent unity to push back fascism, Sophie; thank you. You live up to your name . . . wise. All anti-bodies to this vilely violent virus are created equal but we are not carbon copies of each other.
Mary, precisely!!!!!!!!!!! Indeed chilling. Many on this letter know that it can happen here and will happen here if the monster is elected. He is nothing more than a shill. He is too ignorant/stupid but his fascist backs know that JD is their Hitler.
Oh, yes!!
True - chilling. If we lose and Trump wins, democracy falls. Can we recover it from within? Given the military power held by those in control, probably not. As with Germany, it would require a defeat from outside forces. And, pray tell, where are those forces today? They don't exist. This is why this is the most important election not just here in the U.S., but in the history of the world. I don't feel that this is hyperbole.
No hyperbole. Where goes USA, goes the world.
The tension in the air is palatable.
And Mary, also a dark reminder of how history can repeat. Trump is holding a rally this weekend at Madison Square Garden.
Mary, I agree. IтАЩm so glad that Heather shared ThompsonтАЩs history. Hopefully, the US public that voted for Trump in the past is now listening to people like Liz Cheney when those Republicans warn about Trump (and JD Vance).
Mary-I was glad to be introduced to Thompson. Our history and the people who fought to help us тАЬperfect our unionтАЭ reveal so much to us about the courage, love and humanity that has brought us this far against people who as Melanie said тАЬdonтАЩt careтАЭ about others or our nation.
My thoughts, too, Mary. This newsletter is Heather at her finest: how history has examples of marvelous people who stand up against the maddening crowd and perverse individuals and who give us a compass for our times.
Chilling indeed. The parallels are terrifying... If Trump and Vance win the election, they'll have Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Barack Obama dangling from a gallow faster than you can say the word "unconstitutional".
Yes, Mary, I agree wholeheartedly with you.
What have we become?
ItтАЩs so ironic MaryтАжit seems HistoryтАЩs lesson are to be forgottenтАжand nowтАжwe find ourselves at the brink again! ItтАЩs unimaginable!!
Terrifying.....