I am reminded of Marat Sade, in which the issue was whether the inmates or the insane asylum custodians were the crazy ones.
Looking at Trump, Vance, Musk, and Jim Jordan, I’d say that all them are nuts: Trump for feeding such egotistical rubbish to the masses and the MAGATS who suck it up from cultist ‘Jesus.’
I am reminded of Marat Sade, in which the issue was whether the inmates or the insane asylum custodians were the crazy ones.
Looking at Trump, Vance, Musk, and Jim Jordan, I’d say that all them are nuts: Trump for feeding such egotistical rubbish to the masses and the MAGATS who suck it up from cultist ‘Jesus.’
For me, there is a special place in hell for the billionaires and other fat cats who knowingly finance this bull shit. $100,000,000 here, $100,000,000 there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
I am puzzled as to what they think they are buying: Low taxes? Soggy federal regulations? A desire to manipulate an anti-democratic authoritarian movement? I have been unable to get any of these fat cats to explain specifically why they seek to destroy the soul of America, including the Constitution and the judiciary system.
When I was in Egypt and a Foreign Service Officer in Congo, I could be appalled by the antics of authoritarian governments with the smug satisfaction that such carnal manipulations could never happen in the United States
PSHAW! They are happening. It is entirely possible that Trump and his MAGATS will occupy the White House with a Project 2025 handbook that could enable the crippling of the judicial system and the civil service. The Senate is likely to go Republican, with authority to approve Federal judges, justices, senior military personnel, and others.
At 91 I have never been so frightened by what could be occurring in the country that I wish my grandchildren to inherit.
I FERVENTLY HOPE THAT I AWAKE FROM THIS NIGHTMARE ON NOVEMBER 5TH!
As for the likes of Musk and Thiel, many have noted that power tends to corrupt, and that too much is never enough for those who hunger for absolute power, over everyone and every thing.
"Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump are tied at 48 percent in the final New York Times/Siena College national poll of the cycle today.
When minor party candidates are included, Mr. Trump leads by one percentage point."
Nate Cohn, The Tilt, NYTimes
The only minor party candidate giving Trump the advantage is Jill Stein. As an academic and physician, she is reportedly sitting pretty on her TIAA Wall Street driven pension and her privilege. So I don't think greed is Stein's pathology/sin. I'd say power is Stein's kink. Specifically, a nihilistic compulsion to destroy. As John Milton said of Satan, he thought it is 'better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven.' OK, Stein is not the devil, but there is an analogy of splitting the vote. Stalin helped Hitler win, by keeping German Communists from voting with the German Center Left. This is exactly the role Stein is playing. Stalin lived to regret his support for Hitler. How much play would Stein have in the Christian Nationalist fascist state she is helping to institute? Ha!
Watching Mehdi Hassan's interview of Stein & Ware was very informational! Look for it - the two of them have NO clue! NONE whatsoever. It was disturbing to listen & realize she was a big part of the Trump win in 2016! And sees nothing wrong with being that kind of a catalyst this time! She believes it would force Dems & Repubs to change their ways?????
Unfortunately, this seems to have become a rarity -- which may go some way towards explaining why someone intelligent, educated, and supposedly campaigning for the most important cause of all, should make such deeply perverse decisions.
Alas, in today's world there are vast numbers at every level of society who can't tell a hawk from a handsaw.
They may have no ambition to rule in hell, yet everywhere ambitious men with feral instincts are drawn to service in hell's hierarchy, and everywhere they come with a train of slavering followers.
In our societies, when they come to the high road, so many, probably most, take the wrong direction. The false goals are so attractive, and so, masses turn away from the way to what we truly are and opt for all that we are not.
Whenever I hear Milton's comment about reigning in hell I think of Zapata's "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees." And I think of Alexei Navalny who went back to Russia, knowing he'd be killed, because he wouldn't abandon his cause. Resistance to tyranny is our ambit.
I had never considered Stalin's role in enabling Hitler to get just enough control to make the major leap to total control, "by keeping German Communists from voting with the German Center Left". I was thinking about Hitler's taking over the judiciary, though, and comparing it to the seemingly less noticed, seemingly pro-fascist aspects of the Federalist Society Judges hinted at by the latest SCOTUS rulings on Presidential extreme immunity/impunity. It has me examining the idea of voting against approval of any and all Judges in or recommended by the Federalist Society.
The willing embrace of perjury and grotesque financial corruption to load and direct the Supreme Court is a humiliation to us and complete betrayal of the Constitution and of the outlined principles of the Declaration of Independence, not to mention Superman's stirring mission statement, which was holy writ in my childhood.
"...As part of DC FanDome, DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee announced Superman has a new mission statement aimed at better reflecting the modern day. His new mission statement? “Truth, Justice and A Better Tomorrow...”
After writing the above I was thinking about where that came from and why "Truth" would head the list. I'd read that Superman came out during WWII, and it hit me that the fascists had flooded the world with toxic lies before the cruelties and violence began. Maybe that was the author's gut response and that lying is a kind of ur-evil that poisons community fatally. So, to defend truth defends all. Makes sense to me. Listening, JD Vance?
She might take a gander at Serena Joy from the Handmaid's Tale... powerful for a minute, then just another wife of no particular value until she gets pregnant.
Doug, humans have been the same since they became human enough to have organized cities and governments. Only the technology has changed, making us more lethal than ever.
Seneca the Stoic, YES, YES, YES. See Brittany Polat STOICISM FOR HUMANS here on Substack. The Stoics offer a terrific alternative to what we have been reading. I've become more peaceful since I found the Stoics some years ago. Enjoy the peace you may find there.
To Thiel and Musk you forgot to add Rupert Murdock, by the way, all immigrants to this country and with money enough to buy it.
One of them grooming the Manchurian Candidate, the other plugging all the financial holes in the campaign and the last one brain washing millions of Americans. Don't call them billionaires, call them oligarchs. They might be after more money but their real goal us power. Pls be aware!!!!
Thiel and musk are the true elitists. They believe that their accumulated money makes them better than the rest of us and gives them the right to “rule”. They look down on everyone who works for a living.
The immigrants to really fear. Enough wealth to buy the world's oldest democracy and change it to their liking. America the trophy where Trump and Vance are the gullible caretakers of the manse. To which of these will the Lincoln bedroom be renamed? Or rename the White House? Or maybe three of our favorite national monuments?
Well, what Europeans did to American Indigenous people is being played out in the issue in Israel. Of course the original inhabitants try to fight off the colonialists - in the US, Israel, Africa - far too many countries.
At this point - the US needs to wake up! How many countries is Netanyahu going to be allowed to invade & destroy? And at the same time, how many NEW terrorists will he create?
Yes it is. For all the demonizing of folks daring to come here for a better life, I find it sad that a few of the wealthiest Americans are immigrants, but the good kind, who Trump et al so value.
I think Musk, and probably Thiel as well, like thinking of themselves as the smartest person in the room. That is why they are not democrats or Democrats :)
Steve, unfortunately for us, they are not the smartest guys in the room, just the richest. They may have had some good ideas once, but they warped that out of shape and now just whine, complain, blame, suck up to Trump and Vance, and whine some more that they are the victims of something and the courts seem to agree with them because, well, they are rich and the judges and adjudicators bow to money too, bribes and favors, of course and they can pay their way out of anything, even riping off their companies for outrageous sums they clearly don't deserve, but Toddler-Musk must be placated, you know.
Most successful people have enough self awarness and humility to know that LUCK is a major factor in one success and in ones failures. No one makes light of hard work, but most successes requires luck on some level.
J L, you are right. Those billionaires are more deeply addicted to their wanting, their grabbing, their doing harm, their whining and complaining, their stealing, their cheating, and their accumulating than any opioid-addicted human. They just don't hang out in the streets, and they don't face constant scorn, because their addiction gives them the wealth that Americans have been trained to bow to. It really is disgusting!
You certainly are not alone Mr. Wheelock! I am working to be more positive and believe that Kamala Harris will win and be a great president. We are well warned and I think (hope) are prepped for a second attempt to steal. I think Trump will go to jail when he is sentenced on 11/26. There will be violence but the FBI and loyal National Guard will be able to preempt anything more serious.
It must be very frustrating for your generation (and my parents - who are buried at Arlington) after all that was achieved after WW2. For now, it is good to communicate with friends, family, neighbors and extend to making calls on behalf of the Harris/Walz campaign. Maybe play some Congolese and/or Haitian music.
James Carville (I'm not a fan), 91 y/o now, on NPR yesterday agreed that Harris will win but it's very important for her and others to project a positive, will-win attitude. Be certain, be tough. He can't believe over half the country is so blind as to vote for an obvious fascist. And if he's wrong about his fellow Americans, he will have to reasess and figure out how it all happened. Gotta love the guy for his spunk!!
I just don’t believe that “over half” the country wants Trump. He lost the last Presidential election! And since then, many many prominent and ordinary Republicans have stated they DO NOT want him back in the White House. Something seems off with this constant news of the polls being nearly equal. Kamala Harris will win!
That's the way I see it, too, Annie. It's hard to believe he has made any new friends and he is losing many from his own party. I'm suspicious of the polls-- wondering who they poll. Liz Cheney said recently that she knows many Rs who said they can't go public but they will vote for Harris.
Mr. Wheelock. You are spot on. Not sure everyone has such clarity of mind. It seems we are not playing the long game when it comes to MAGAnuts. As a Black American I tend to agree with author Heather McGhee that this is a zero-sum game and an us versus them fight. And we must use every tool in our “shed” to be more anticipatory around the zero-sum model in order to protect democracy. You have Such an extraordinary background Mr. Wheelock. Appreciate you being on Substack and supporting our girl Heather Cox Richardson who seems to work daily on how to awaken democracy. Heather’s ties back to understanding slave state motivation and its alignment to where we are to date is what I see and feel here in the old North State of Carolina where I currently live. Thank you for serving our country so admirably.
So glad you are working for sanity in N Car. As the state of my birth and youth, I remember good people who have been gobsmacked by the carnival barker. Your post is a bright spot.
Josh Stein will be our next governor for sure! I was born in Washington, DC - albeit segregated warped in the late 50s) and maintain a residence in Annapolis but have been living in North Carolina for 4 years required by my job. My father was born in South Carolina in 1928 and I am acutely aware of what he experienced as well as my grandparents, I did drive back to Maryland to cast my vote at the elections office on 10/7 for Harris and watched the elections officials stamp it received ( already in MD State as received). I must tell you NOTHING has brought me to my knees like Canvassing. Going door to door for Harris in very wealthy neighborhoods like Myers Park (I live in Myers Park). “Go to Hell”/ “Get off my porch with that s*it. I don’t want to live in a world like this where folks hate me for what I look like. So what can I do? Do more! I will commit to doing more! Can I be as courageous as Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, Septima Clark? Trying everyday!!!
You’re an inspiration Pam. Be safe! We’re about the same age and I was shocked in Richmond’s West End last week. I was there for a doctors appointment (I live about 1 1/2 hrs away) and have a Harris sticker on my car. A younger man in a Trump sticker festooned “mom car” pulled beside me and through his rolled down window started pumping his fist and yelling “Trump!Trump! Trump! The rest of his tirade was lost on me but I was shocked at his anger. WTF.
You are amazing. I can imagine what you go thru, having seen first hand hatred for hatred’s sake. “There but for the grace of God, go I.” An idiom that should be on everyone’s lips. These haters did nothing to feel superior, yet they hate. I did nothing to be white. It’s visceral fear, when the danger is coming from the lips of haters.
I assume you live in or near the research triangle. I’m from near High Point, and the haters are in full force. I too, am “trying everyday.” My liberal niece, a prof at U of MD, is working in MD. I donated to Dem senate race there. Sad that the haters have such a stash of green…
Pam Fannie Lou Hamer and Bernice Reagan Johnson are two of my heroes. Fannie Lou was unimaginable as a fighting lady. I particularly enjoyed her, when she told VP Humphrey to shove it at the 1964 Democratic convention.
Hey Keith thanks. Yes Bernice is amazing. I was lucky enough to volunteer with Bob Moses on his Algebra 2 project before he passed. But he, Bernice so many forever inspirations. Joan Mulholland and Jane Elliott are still at it using their voices!
He had a wide appeal to the working classes. The rich, who had largely lost touch with the common people, backed him with money and political support. By doing this they thought they could control him and regain the influence over the general population they had lost (and quell their fears of labor strikes, and the threat of Socialism). But when he took power, Hitler turned against them. He then went on to reduce Germany, a country formally celebrated for it's progress and technological advances, to ruins.
Very well put. I too fear for what our nation has become. I take solace in the push by Republicans themselves to finally balk at the insane hold by Trump and his minions on a substantial portion of the electorate. Lord knows how many elected and appointed officials nationwide are under some form of increased security due to the threats posed by the MAGA cult. Our worship of guns magnifies the problem tenfold.
Our nation is literally the envy of the free world today, but the trends of totalitarian leadership are troubling here and abroad. Strongmen are admired by many because they promise quick solutions to perceived issues. Issues exacerbated by constant internet pounding through the rewarding of posts, blogs and media celebrating intolerance and violence. Lynch mob mentality thinly disguised in politically legal clothing.
I pray that history will look back on America and say “how close we came to fascism” and not “what the hell happened”.
Heather, thank you for finally pointing out the deadly violence that will take place when Maggots-Heritage start working on Donable Lectors Hate-Retaliation list.
Do these brainwashed morons think that people are going to go easily....they are going to fight back full stop......to protect their familys, home.everything they have worked for......because their lives on the line!!
"The Oxbow Incident" illustrates how vulnerable people are to "mob rule". The Trumplican's have doubled-down on their disinformation campaign and have rallied their mob. Innocents will suffer the consequences.
The misogynists have turned it into an anti-female campaign. The are soft types, who have wives, daughters and friends, but that core of men are better is buried deep, well, was buried deep. I am seeing it all over
Gee Keith, my nightmare is one that keeps you awake as well. I have watched this for decades, thinking that our system would hold firm, but I have watched one institution after another cave. I have watched Rupert Murdoch, along with other Reagan apostles, run roughshod over every warning from Orwell, and use every rule for lying in Mein Kampf. I have watched friend and foe alike become attracted to racism, misogyny, religion concocted by evil, and greed. It’s been a long and painful road, and I’m grateful for any Repubs who are fighting the internal battle for the soul of the R party. Mugwumps rise. The astonishing accomplishments of Joe and Kamala are hardly acknowledged, as the failures of chump are lauded as great policies to be repeated. We ain’t seen nothing yet, sad to say. Musk is literally buying votes for chump. Hitler never had it so good.
Never again Amazon. How I would like to see Amazon and his Penis-shaped rocket blow up and make the Amazon addicts go cold-turkey. I know some well, sad to say.
". . . why they seek to destroy the soul of America," Keith?
We'll all keep our souls, fine, Keith, if we have minimal skills to see others as individuals, and we actually enjoy getting together with others, varieties of others. We can be comfortable with each other as people, not as members of groups. Remember, the groups always get constructed by nationalists, racists, demagogues, advertisers, the sectarian religious intolerant, and neutered standardized testers with their abstracted, numbered, unit-driven categories.
Enjoy getting together with others, as in reading and commenting positively, generously to others here on Heather's site? Yes. As in going out to cafes, bars, restaurants, and other public spaces? Yes. As in cutting back, way back, on social media aloneness? Yes.
One more activity which ought to occasion many more a "yes" -- quoting, aptly citing some humanities from time to time, as if our arts live, thrive, by the human. Or as if we thrive, we live, by frequent resort to dictionaries, as Joseph Brodsky urged as the best mental health corrective of all (in "Speech at the Stadium").
But can we do this, if our schools, at all levels, have been taken over by the billionaires, the standardized testers, and all the similarly neutered, similarly dehumanized text packagers?
I do the same. Repeating the same things for years, thinking it will make a difference. No consolation that so many are now seeing the truth that I spoke years ago. So much time has been wasted, and the sand has about run out.
Keith, I am continuously astonished that Billionaire business people are not concerned with what happens to the economy after a Trump induced collapse
Don’t they NEED consumers with expendable incomes to serve their cash flow driven stock holdings? Don’t they need reliable supply chains to move their goods in “just in time” efficiency model? Don’t they need a reliable work force to serve as their house keepers, cooks, gardeners, and helicopter pilots?
What do they can by returning America to the Gilded Age? Do they somehow believe they won’t be effected? Just “business as usual” after Trump/Putin lock up the “enemy within”?
Aren’t they concerned about being tossed out a 15th story window when they refuse to pay Trump real tribute in dollars or the loss of their business to a more powerfully connected Oligarch?
I think it's related to Bannon's decree to "burn the United States to the ground and start over," believing that once the American people are on their hands and knees as a result of these cruel economic policies, they can be completely controlled and manipulated.
Maybe they are not going to openly show any support for him, out of fear. In the voting booth they may go against him. Supposedly business people are well-informed and good judges of character.
Dave, I remember thinking about how globalization opens world-wide markets so that many U.S. businesses don’t really need American consumers any longer. Thus they don’t have to pay their workers enough to buy the company’s products. In my mind, this triggered the race to the bottom.
The reason they are supporting them probably lies in AI. Both are heavily invested and they need unregulated power sources to support the data centers that underpin it. If not generated in the US they will be placed in the Middle East - putting the code behind AI generation at risk. Check out a book (free online) by one of the founders of OpenAI called “Situational Awareness”. It makes the big tech money behind Trump/ Vance MUCH clearer.
Wow thanks I hadn’t seen this. Shocking “When the supercomputer gets to full capacity, the local utility says it’s going to need a million gallons of water per day and 150 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 100,000 homes per year”
Seems there are numerous lawsuits flying under the radar regarding future water usage by AI. We need to win in November and make this danger to our water systems, as well as lakes and rivers, known.
Ironic that the greatest xenophobe in our times is being handed his policy positions by three immigrants: Musk, Thiel, and Murdoch. And, tragically for our country, it's easy for these three to steer him where they want. For, as HCR notes, "Earlier this month, 230 doctors publicly called on Trump to release his medical records, “Trump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity," they wrote. Today, 233 mental health professionals organized by conservative lawyer George Conway’s Anti-Psycho PAC warned both that Trump “appears to be showing signs of cognitive decline that urgently cry out for a full neurological work-up,” and that his malignant narcissism makes him “grossly unfit for leadership.” "
Keith, those billionaires who are buying this election for Trump are forgetting that their efforts will tank our economy, an economy that is better now, even for them, than it has been in decades. That is a kind of insanity I don't understand. Trumpers and Trumpettes I can understand because they have primed themselves to be fed whatever nonsense Trump and Kump dish out to them, without questionning any of it because, why should they, didn't those guys tell them things would be better under Trump and wouldn't those immigrants I know nothing about be deported? My grandparents came to this country the "right" way, don't you know! That does not explain the Musks and crew except that they want to take over our country for their own benefit, like toddlers wanting to rule the house, having no idea what they are asking for. Yep, Toddler-Trump and his toddler-crew. Why does anyone want to be governed or ruled by toddlers? I don't get it!!
Today’s strong economy being unappreciated reminds me of my father’s opinion in the 1930s. Business people opposed FDR’s actions to end the Great Depression. They benefited, along with everyone else, but they were angry that they were no longer fully in charge, as they used to be.
Well said. I like your reference to Everett Dirksen, but only $100 million? Back in his day, it was “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
AMERICAN ARMAGEDDON
I am reminded of Marat Sade, in which the issue was whether the inmates or the insane asylum custodians were the crazy ones.
Looking at Trump, Vance, Musk, and Jim Jordan, I’d say that all them are nuts: Trump for feeding such egotistical rubbish to the masses and the MAGATS who suck it up from cultist ‘Jesus.’
For me, there is a special place in hell for the billionaires and other fat cats who knowingly finance this bull shit. $100,000,000 here, $100,000,000 there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
I am puzzled as to what they think they are buying: Low taxes? Soggy federal regulations? A desire to manipulate an anti-democratic authoritarian movement? I have been unable to get any of these fat cats to explain specifically why they seek to destroy the soul of America, including the Constitution and the judiciary system.
When I was in Egypt and a Foreign Service Officer in Congo, I could be appalled by the antics of authoritarian governments with the smug satisfaction that such carnal manipulations could never happen in the United States
PSHAW! They are happening. It is entirely possible that Trump and his MAGATS will occupy the White House with a Project 2025 handbook that could enable the crippling of the judicial system and the civil service. The Senate is likely to go Republican, with authority to approve Federal judges, justices, senior military personnel, and others.
At 91 I have never been so frightened by what could be occurring in the country that I wish my grandchildren to inherit.
I FERVENTLY HOPE THAT I AWAKE FROM THIS NIGHTMARE ON NOVEMBER 5TH!
As for the likes of Musk and Thiel, many have noted that power tends to corrupt, and that too much is never enough for those who hunger for absolute power, over everyone and every thing.
"For greed, all Nature is too small."
Seneca
"Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump are tied at 48 percent in the final New York Times/Siena College national poll of the cycle today.
When minor party candidates are included, Mr. Trump leads by one percentage point."
Nate Cohn, The Tilt, NYTimes
The only minor party candidate giving Trump the advantage is Jill Stein. As an academic and physician, she is reportedly sitting pretty on her TIAA Wall Street driven pension and her privilege. So I don't think greed is Stein's pathology/sin. I'd say power is Stein's kink. Specifically, a nihilistic compulsion to destroy. As John Milton said of Satan, he thought it is 'better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven.' OK, Stein is not the devil, but there is an analogy of splitting the vote. Stalin helped Hitler win, by keeping German Communists from voting with the German Center Left. This is exactly the role Stein is playing. Stalin lived to regret his support for Hitler. How much play would Stein have in the Christian Nationalist fascist state she is helping to institute? Ha!
Maybe a good idea to post routinely a photo of her at dinner with Flynn and Putin! She’s not even talking climate change. Green?
Watching Mehdi Hassan's interview of Stein & Ware was very informational! Look for it - the two of them have NO clue! NONE whatsoever. It was disturbing to listen & realize she was a big part of the Trump win in 2016! And sees nothing wrong with being that kind of a catalyst this time! She believes it would force Dems & Repubs to change their ways?????
Stein is, apparently, a devotee of Putin. There seems to be a good deal of evidence on this.
I've sort of gathered as much.
Good psychology, Lin.
Unfortunately, this seems to have become a rarity -- which may go some way towards explaining why someone intelligent, educated, and supposedly campaigning for the most important cause of all, should make such deeply perverse decisions.
Alas, in today's world there are vast numbers at every level of society who can't tell a hawk from a handsaw.
They may have no ambition to rule in hell, yet everywhere ambitious men with feral instincts are drawn to service in hell's hierarchy, and everywhere they come with a train of slavering followers.
In our societies, when they come to the high road, so many, probably most, take the wrong direction. The false goals are so attractive, and so, masses turn away from the way to what we truly are and opt for all that we are not.
Whenever I hear Milton's comment about reigning in hell I think of Zapata's "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees." And I think of Alexei Navalny who went back to Russia, knowing he'd be killed, because he wouldn't abandon his cause. Resistance to tyranny is our ambit.
I had never considered Stalin's role in enabling Hitler to get just enough control to make the major leap to total control, "by keeping German Communists from voting with the German Center Left". I was thinking about Hitler's taking over the judiciary, though, and comparing it to the seemingly less noticed, seemingly pro-fascist aspects of the Federalist Society Judges hinted at by the latest SCOTUS rulings on Presidential extreme immunity/impunity. It has me examining the idea of voting against approval of any and all Judges in or recommended by the Federalist Society.
The latest Supreme Court rulings restate and update a central Nazi tenet: Führerprinzip.
The willing embrace of perjury and grotesque financial corruption to load and direct the Supreme Court is a humiliation to us and complete betrayal of the Constitution and of the outlined principles of the Declaration of Independence, not to mention Superman's stirring mission statement, which was holy writ in my childhood.
William Where’s the kryptonite when you need it?
I'd want the antimatter form of kryptonite in that case.
William First show me your cape.
"...As part of DC FanDome, DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee announced Superman has a new mission statement aimed at better reflecting the modern day. His new mission statement? “Truth, Justice and A Better Tomorrow...”
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/superman-just-got-a-new-mission-statement-truth-justice-and-a-better-tomorrow
Used to be, "and the American Way."
After writing the above I was thinking about where that came from and why "Truth" would head the list. I'd read that Superman came out during WWII, and it hit me that the fascists had flooded the world with toxic lies before the cruelties and violence began. Maybe that was the author's gut response and that lying is a kind of ur-evil that poisons community fatally. So, to defend truth defends all. Makes sense to me. Listening, JD Vance?
She might take a gander at Serena Joy from the Handmaid's Tale... powerful for a minute, then just another wife of no particular value until she gets pregnant.
“Too much is never enough.”
Mary Trump on Donald Trump.
Truer words were never spoken, Peter, despite the lapse of a few thousand years.
Doug, humans have been the same since they became human enough to have organized cities and governments. Only the technology has changed, making us more lethal than ever.
Seneca the Stoic, YES, YES, YES. See Brittany Polat STOICISM FOR HUMANS here on Substack. The Stoics offer a terrific alternative to what we have been reading. I've become more peaceful since I found the Stoics some years ago. Enjoy the peace you may find there.
Thanks for the recommendation; I'm going to check that out.
Thank you for reminding US of ancient wisdom.
Thank you Peter Burnett!!!
To Thiel and Musk you forgot to add Rupert Murdock, by the way, all immigrants to this country and with money enough to buy it.
One of them grooming the Manchurian Candidate, the other plugging all the financial holes in the campaign and the last one brain washing millions of Americans. Don't call them billionaires, call them oligarchs. They might be after more money but their real goal us power. Pls be aware!!!!
Call Musk and Thiel. robber barons. They steal from everyone else.
Jenn The Robber Barons had an imperious style—Musk and Thiel are simply arrogant financial thugs.
Thiel and musk are the true elitists. They believe that their accumulated money makes them better than the rest of us and gives them the right to “rule”. They look down on everyone who works for a living.
And social Darwinians, believing they have evolved better than the rest of us and the evidence is their wealth.
Arrogant financial thugs, KEITH SAID IT BEST
There was a Mellon listed as a Trump backer. Wondered if he was a forebear of the Mellon of libraries fame.
The immigrants to really fear. Enough wealth to buy the world's oldest democracy and change it to their liking. America the trophy where Trump and Vance are the gullible caretakers of the manse. To which of these will the Lincoln bedroom be renamed? Or rename the White House? Or maybe three of our favorite national monuments?
Musk will want the very phallic Washington Monument, for sure. He is definitely obsessed with spreading his seed.
Well, what Europeans did to American Indigenous people is being played out in the issue in Israel. Of course the original inhabitants try to fight off the colonialists - in the US, Israel, Africa - far too many countries.
At this point - the US needs to wake up! How many countries is Netanyahu going to be allowed to invade & destroy? And at the same time, how many NEW terrorists will he create?
That’s why they come here isn’t it? Everything is for sale, even democracy now.
Plutocrats, not oligarchs. Oligarchy is rule by the few. Plutocracy is rule by the rich. Of course, "rich" and "the few" are vaguely synonymous.
It is ok to be immigrants.
Yes it is. For all the demonizing of folks daring to come here for a better life, I find it sad that a few of the wealthiest Americans are immigrants, but the good kind, who Trump et al so value.
I think Musk, and probably Thiel as well, like thinking of themselves as the smartest person in the room. That is why they are not democrats or Democrats :)
Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof "When you’re rich, they think you really know.”
Well - with tffg that seems to be the main MAGA belief.
Steve, unfortunately for us, they are not the smartest guys in the room, just the richest. They may have had some good ideas once, but they warped that out of shape and now just whine, complain, blame, suck up to Trump and Vance, and whine some more that they are the victims of something and the courts seem to agree with them because, well, they are rich and the judges and adjudicators bow to money too, bribes and favors, of course and they can pay their way out of anything, even riping off their companies for outrageous sums they clearly don't deserve, but Toddler-Musk must be placated, you know.
Most successful people have enough self awarness and humility to know that LUCK is a major factor in one success and in ones failures. No one makes light of hard work, but most successes requires luck on some level.
OR inheriting a few million dollars as a young person.
JL, i penned an essay a while back titled Enough Is Never that explored these people.
Musk and Thiel are amateur (to put it mildly) philosophers with money.
Philosophers?? Seriously? Simply obscenely rich creatures whose reckless pursuit of greed puts our planet in danger!
Tim Snyder's TED talk speaks to this danger. Authoritarianism and fossil fuel use go together to threaten our existence.
Amateur “philosophers,” then.
J L, you are right. Those billionaires are more deeply addicted to their wanting, their grabbing, their doing harm, their whining and complaining, their stealing, their cheating, and their accumulating than any opioid-addicted human. They just don't hang out in the streets, and they don't face constant scorn, because their addiction gives them the wealth that Americans have been trained to bow to. It really is disgusting!
JL I recall General Colin Powell saying “Power. corrupts. Absolute power is delightful.” When I asked him if he were serious, he simply smiled.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/26/elon-musk-immigration-status/
Elon Musk was an illegal worker in US. Can our country deport him and seize his illegal assets?
You certainly are not alone Mr. Wheelock! I am working to be more positive and believe that Kamala Harris will win and be a great president. We are well warned and I think (hope) are prepped for a second attempt to steal. I think Trump will go to jail when he is sentenced on 11/26. There will be violence but the FBI and loyal National Guard will be able to preempt anything more serious.
It must be very frustrating for your generation (and my parents - who are buried at Arlington) after all that was achieved after WW2. For now, it is good to communicate with friends, family, neighbors and extend to making calls on behalf of the Harris/Walz campaign. Maybe play some Congolese and/or Haitian music.
James Carville (I'm not a fan), 91 y/o now, on NPR yesterday agreed that Harris will win but it's very important for her and others to project a positive, will-win attitude. Be certain, be tough. He can't believe over half the country is so blind as to vote for an obvious fascist. And if he's wrong about his fellow Americans, he will have to reasess and figure out how it all happened. Gotta love the guy for his spunk!!
I just don’t believe that “over half” the country wants Trump. He lost the last Presidential election! And since then, many many prominent and ordinary Republicans have stated they DO NOT want him back in the White House. Something seems off with this constant news of the polls being nearly equal. Kamala Harris will win!
That's the way I see it, too, Annie. It's hard to believe he has made any new friends and he is losing many from his own party. I'm suspicious of the polls-- wondering who they poll. Liz Cheney said recently that she knows many Rs who said they can't go public but they will vote for Harris.
Mr. Wheelock. You are spot on. Not sure everyone has such clarity of mind. It seems we are not playing the long game when it comes to MAGAnuts. As a Black American I tend to agree with author Heather McGhee that this is a zero-sum game and an us versus them fight. And we must use every tool in our “shed” to be more anticipatory around the zero-sum model in order to protect democracy. You have Such an extraordinary background Mr. Wheelock. Appreciate you being on Substack and supporting our girl Heather Cox Richardson who seems to work daily on how to awaken democracy. Heather’s ties back to understanding slave state motivation and its alignment to where we are to date is what I see and feel here in the old North State of Carolina where I currently live. Thank you for serving our country so admirably.
So glad you are working for sanity in N Car. As the state of my birth and youth, I remember good people who have been gobsmacked by the carnival barker. Your post is a bright spot.
Josh Stein will be our next governor for sure! I was born in Washington, DC - albeit segregated warped in the late 50s) and maintain a residence in Annapolis but have been living in North Carolina for 4 years required by my job. My father was born in South Carolina in 1928 and I am acutely aware of what he experienced as well as my grandparents, I did drive back to Maryland to cast my vote at the elections office on 10/7 for Harris and watched the elections officials stamp it received ( already in MD State as received). I must tell you NOTHING has brought me to my knees like Canvassing. Going door to door for Harris in very wealthy neighborhoods like Myers Park (I live in Myers Park). “Go to Hell”/ “Get off my porch with that s*it. I don’t want to live in a world like this where folks hate me for what I look like. So what can I do? Do more! I will commit to doing more! Can I be as courageous as Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, Septima Clark? Trying everyday!!!
You’re an inspiration Pam. Be safe! We’re about the same age and I was shocked in Richmond’s West End last week. I was there for a doctors appointment (I live about 1 1/2 hrs away) and have a Harris sticker on my car. A younger man in a Trump sticker festooned “mom car” pulled beside me and through his rolled down window started pumping his fist and yelling “Trump!Trump! Trump! The rest of his tirade was lost on me but I was shocked at his anger. WTF.
Yes Gail! It - people’s racism is live and in color so to speak! Be safe and do not fear we got this! Your bumper sticker means so much! In gratitude!
lol, I also sport a OMG GOP WTF . ❤️
Texas is that crazy all day every day. It’s worse than covid
FYI - 2 million votes cast in North Carolina as of 8 am yesterday which is 26% of the population ( 7 million North Carolinians).
You are amazing. I can imagine what you go thru, having seen first hand hatred for hatred’s sake. “There but for the grace of God, go I.” An idiom that should be on everyone’s lips. These haters did nothing to feel superior, yet they hate. I did nothing to be white. It’s visceral fear, when the danger is coming from the lips of haters.
I assume you live in or near the research triangle. I’m from near High Point, and the haters are in full force. I too, am “trying everyday.” My liberal niece, a prof at U of MD, is working in MD. I donated to Dem senate race there. Sad that the haters have such a stash of green…
Pam Fannie Lou Hamer and Bernice Reagan Johnson are two of my heroes. Fannie Lou was unimaginable as a fighting lady. I particularly enjoyed her, when she told VP Humphrey to shove it at the 1964 Democratic convention.
As for Bernice, Sweet Honey and the Rock!
Hey Keith thanks. Yes Bernice is amazing. I was lucky enough to volunteer with Bob Moses on his Algebra 2 project before he passed. But he, Bernice so many forever inspirations. Joan Mulholland and Jane Elliott are still at it using their voices!
Meant “segregated hospital ward”-
You're already way more courageous than I am, Pam! You are an inspiration.
As a UNCCH grad, thank you for speaking up for the NC I remember.
Very well said, Pam.
He had a wide appeal to the working classes. The rich, who had largely lost touch with the common people, backed him with money and political support. By doing this they thought they could control him and regain the influence over the general population they had lost (and quell their fears of labor strikes, and the threat of Socialism). But when he took power, Hitler turned against them. He then went on to reduce Germany, a country formally celebrated for it's progress and technological advances, to ruins.
A great hero for chump…
Very well put. I too fear for what our nation has become. I take solace in the push by Republicans themselves to finally balk at the insane hold by Trump and his minions on a substantial portion of the electorate. Lord knows how many elected and appointed officials nationwide are under some form of increased security due to the threats posed by the MAGA cult. Our worship of guns magnifies the problem tenfold.
Our nation is literally the envy of the free world today, but the trends of totalitarian leadership are troubling here and abroad. Strongmen are admired by many because they promise quick solutions to perceived issues. Issues exacerbated by constant internet pounding through the rewarding of posts, blogs and media celebrating intolerance and violence. Lynch mob mentality thinly disguised in politically legal clothing.
I pray that history will look back on America and say “how close we came to fascism” and not “what the hell happened”.
“Lynch mob mentality thinly disguised in politically legal clothing.” Best comment of the whole election morass
Heather, thank you for finally pointing out the deadly violence that will take place when Maggots-Heritage start working on Donable Lectors Hate-Retaliation list.
Do these brainwashed morons think that people are going to go easily....they are going to fight back full stop......to protect their familys, home.everything they have worked for......because their lives on the line!!
People have been reluctant to believe that the hate is not directed at “others,” when it includes us and our loved ones.
"The Oxbow Incident" illustrates how vulnerable people are to "mob rule". The Trumplican's have doubled-down on their disinformation campaign and have rallied their mob. Innocents will suffer the consequences.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Ox-Bow-Incident-novel-by-Clark
The misogynists have turned it into an anti-female campaign. The are soft types, who have wives, daughters and friends, but that core of men are better is buried deep, well, was buried deep. I am seeing it all over
Well said. I related a recent experience in another post here. The man who accosted me would surely join an active mob. Disgusting.
Gee Keith, my nightmare is one that keeps you awake as well. I have watched this for decades, thinking that our system would hold firm, but I have watched one institution after another cave. I have watched Rupert Murdoch, along with other Reagan apostles, run roughshod over every warning from Orwell, and use every rule for lying in Mein Kampf. I have watched friend and foe alike become attracted to racism, misogyny, religion concocted by evil, and greed. It’s been a long and painful road, and I’m grateful for any Repubs who are fighting the internal battle for the soul of the R party. Mugwumps rise. The astonishing accomplishments of Joe and Kamala are hardly acknowledged, as the failures of chump are lauded as great policies to be repeated. We ain’t seen nothing yet, sad to say. Musk is literally buying votes for chump. Hitler never had it so good.
Peter Goodman's "Davos Man--How Billionaires Devoured the World", comes to mind. https://www.amazon.com/Davos-Man-Billionaires-Devoured-World/dp/0063078309?dplnkId=36a3b30b-bf22-491c-81cd-097dcffedddd&nodl=1
You mean Bezos will sell this on his outlet. WOW
He hasn't sold anything to me since I found out what he was doing. I'll find that book/CD elsewhere, never again Amazon.
Never again Amazon. How I would like to see Amazon and his Penis-shaped rocket blow up and make the Amazon addicts go cold-turkey. I know some well, sad to say.
I hope we will all wake up from this nightmare on the 5th! A second Trump term is too frightening to contemplate.
It’ll be the 6th at the earliest.
The 7th here. Except that I can scramble in through the internet.
How optimistic you are, do you remember 2000
I thought we wouldn’t survive the first one, we still haven’t…
". . . why they seek to destroy the soul of America," Keith?
We'll all keep our souls, fine, Keith, if we have minimal skills to see others as individuals, and we actually enjoy getting together with others, varieties of others. We can be comfortable with each other as people, not as members of groups. Remember, the groups always get constructed by nationalists, racists, demagogues, advertisers, the sectarian religious intolerant, and neutered standardized testers with their abstracted, numbered, unit-driven categories.
Enjoy getting together with others, as in reading and commenting positively, generously to others here on Heather's site? Yes. As in going out to cafes, bars, restaurants, and other public spaces? Yes. As in cutting back, way back, on social media aloneness? Yes.
One more activity which ought to occasion many more a "yes" -- quoting, aptly citing some humanities from time to time, as if our arts live, thrive, by the human. Or as if we thrive, we live, by frequent resort to dictionaries, as Joseph Brodsky urged as the best mental health corrective of all (in "Speech at the Stadium").
But can we do this, if our schools, at all levels, have been taken over by the billionaires, the standardized testers, and all the similarly neutered, similarly dehumanized text packagers?
Why ask if you just answered…
Because it eases Phil's pain to know he's said it.
I do the same. Repeating the same things for years, thinking it will make a difference. No consolation that so many are now seeing the truth that I spoke years ago. So much time has been wasted, and the sand has about run out.
Keith, I am continuously astonished that Billionaire business people are not concerned with what happens to the economy after a Trump induced collapse
Don’t they NEED consumers with expendable incomes to serve their cash flow driven stock holdings? Don’t they need reliable supply chains to move their goods in “just in time” efficiency model? Don’t they need a reliable work force to serve as their house keepers, cooks, gardeners, and helicopter pilots?
What do they can by returning America to the Gilded Age? Do they somehow believe they won’t be effected? Just “business as usual” after Trump/Putin lock up the “enemy within”?
Aren’t they concerned about being tossed out a 15th story window when they refuse to pay Trump real tribute in dollars or the loss of their business to a more powerfully connected Oligarch?
Why isn’t someone writing this dystopian story?
I have wondered about this as well. Why would anyone support a man whose economic policies are likely to cause a recession?
I think it's related to Bannon's decree to "burn the United States to the ground and start over," believing that once the American people are on their hands and knees as a result of these cruel economic policies, they can be completely controlled and manipulated.
Just like Hitler
He's due to get out of jail in the next few days. ("He can't not win", said he with that smirk.)
Grrrrr....
Maybe they believe that they can eat power for breakfast
Maybe they are not going to openly show any support for him, out of fear. In the voting booth they may go against him. Supposedly business people are well-informed and good judges of character.
Dave, I remember thinking about how globalization opens world-wide markets so that many U.S. businesses don’t really need American consumers any longer. Thus they don’t have to pay their workers enough to buy the company’s products. In my mind, this triggered the race to the bottom.
The reason they are supporting them probably lies in AI. Both are heavily invested and they need unregulated power sources to support the data centers that underpin it. If not generated in the US they will be placed in the Middle East - putting the code behind AI generation at risk. Check out a book (free online) by one of the founders of OpenAI called “Situational Awareness”. It makes the big tech money behind Trump/ Vance MUCH clearer.
Thanks, Kate, for recommending https://situational-awareness.ai
That's cutting-edge analysis.
OMG
Look what Musk is doing to Memphis. https://www.npr.org/2024/09/11/nx-s1-5088134/elon-musk-ai-xai-supercomputer-memphis-pollution
Wow thanks I hadn’t seen this. Shocking “When the supercomputer gets to full capacity, the local utility says it’s going to need a million gallons of water per day and 150 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 100,000 homes per year”
Seems there are numerous lawsuits flying under the radar regarding future water usage by AI. We need to win in November and make this danger to our water systems, as well as lakes and rivers, known.
Ironic that the greatest xenophobe in our times is being handed his policy positions by three immigrants: Musk, Thiel, and Murdoch. And, tragically for our country, it's easy for these three to steer him where they want. For, as HCR notes, "Earlier this month, 230 doctors publicly called on Trump to release his medical records, “Trump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity," they wrote. Today, 233 mental health professionals organized by conservative lawyer George Conway’s Anti-Psycho PAC warned both that Trump “appears to be showing signs of cognitive decline that urgently cry out for a full neurological work-up,” and that his malignant narcissism makes him “grossly unfit for leadership.” "
Correction….3 white skinned immigrants.
You know…..the good kind…..
may need to add the former 'first lady', who sneaked into the country on an Einstein visa...
wasn't that an Epstein visa?
From the photographs, that looks very possible.
Thank you for your sarcasm, and clarity.
And the one in Hungary.
Just got a begging email from Kellyanne Conway. George has had a rough row to hoe. He has my admiration.
Mine too. He's never stopped. For a long time, the Lincoln Project was our only solace.
Is there another now?
LFAA.
True, for her audience
With you, Keith. And thank you for your service to our country in the Foreign Service. Diplomacy matters, allies matter, and democracy matters.
Keith, those billionaires who are buying this election for Trump are forgetting that their efforts will tank our economy, an economy that is better now, even for them, than it has been in decades. That is a kind of insanity I don't understand. Trumpers and Trumpettes I can understand because they have primed themselves to be fed whatever nonsense Trump and Kump dish out to them, without questionning any of it because, why should they, didn't those guys tell them things would be better under Trump and wouldn't those immigrants I know nothing about be deported? My grandparents came to this country the "right" way, don't you know! That does not explain the Musks and crew except that they want to take over our country for their own benefit, like toddlers wanting to rule the house, having no idea what they are asking for. Yep, Toddler-Trump and his toddler-crew. Why does anyone want to be governed or ruled by toddlers? I don't get it!!
Today’s strong economy being unappreciated reminds me of my father’s opinion in the 1930s. Business people opposed FDR’s actions to end the Great Depression. They benefited, along with everyone else, but they were angry that they were no longer fully in charge, as they used to be.
I 100 percent agree.
Well said. I like your reference to Everett Dirksen, but only $100 million? Back in his day, it was “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
James I remember when a millionaire had a million in assets and the head of aTT earned about. $250,000.
Exactly! Back when CEO pay was a reasonable multiple of a line worker's pay... 30 or so, not 300.
I noticed that. He was my fav republican. And the last one with integrity most likely.