Trump’s threat to use the military on “the enemy within,” along with the recent statements of General John Kelly and other members of Trump’s administration who say he is a fascist, have fed growing concern that Trump’s reelection could spark a deadly conflict between MAGA Republicans and those they perceive as their enemies.
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...”
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?
It is strange how we pick and choose, and think we are being smart…our economy floats of the work of immigrants, always has! And their desire and drive…for something more. Of course you must remember the genocide and displacement from lands of the NA community, from which we actually learned a lot about how to share and build our constitution based on enlightened self interest. And the Arab traders selling humans to the Dutch and the British. These too are the stories we need to tell.
These stories are horrible and beyond our comprehension! But we should never duck out from their telling…they still color Donny-John’s hate and the deceit of the Steves…
But we have always had the leaders who thought the actually were smarter, well before genetics, who were the Pure Bloods. PayPals Musk and Thiel are in this camp for sure! As are too many libertarians…isolated, better, smarter. Like they earned it…
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.
She will win if we all vote! I have voted for her! And watch her rallies and see the love and energy...the people she will bring to the table! Joe got a great start…look at the tow NA women in leadership! Wow!
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.
It’s really the combo of Silicone stupid..fake it till you make it meatheads meets disruptions…the are the destroyers and the disrupters. And they like it! Little boy with toys.
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."
Mitch McConnell is a vile, cynical, despicable sham of a political leader, starting with his "Obama must be a one term president" comment through his cynical engineering the federal judiciary, especially SCOTUS, his two acquitals of Trump's impeachments, and his deafening silence as MAGA took over the Republican Party. His denouncement of Trump at this late date, after all the damage done to this country's body politic, is....staggering. One is left speechless, that any human being, let alone a party leader, could be so lacking in any personal integrity or sense of decency or honor or any other positive personal character that exists above political expediency. There are some things a decent person just won't do, no matter what.
You are a horrible human being, Mitch McConnell, and nothing you do from this point on can redeem you in the eyes of many, especially me.
He believes that the end justifies the means and that is a heartless, despicable motto to govern by that runs counter to many ethical values, not to mention governmental precedents. Unfortunately, he is not the only government official who ascribes to that Machiavellian notion.
He will go down in history as one oof the worst, who actively destroyed this country for power and money and nothing else. A horrible creature indeed. ( not sure he really is human)
Just think of all of the legislation he blocked during his time as Speaker and also his far-right theocratic Supreme Court Justices he ushered into SCOTUS.
He is as despicable as Leonard Leo and Donald Trump.
He is directly responsible for the women who have died and will die because they can't get the basic health care they have been denied by legislation.... McConnell and every politician and judge who has supported the legislation restricting "abortion" which is, as we always knew, reproductive healthcare. I really wonder if those politicians understand that by their hand, their work, their votes, they have killed women. The same applies to everyone who ever voted for them. They are women killers.
So one can only assume that he just doesn’t care. Sacrifice the women to keep the base. And those/we uppity women need to be knocked down a peg or two anyway.
Even if Mitch voted for Harris, which is totally not happening, the damage he has done in molding the SCOTUS into a trump puppet department can not be repaired with his one vote for Harris (if in a fantasy world that would ever happen)
Excellent interview with Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBCtonight, Heather. They ought to make you a regular contributor since you brought more actual information to the table than all the others today combined.
Thank you, TC. The phrase “actual information” has become the motivator behind acceptance of new media, as I call it. Moving forward, I credit the very idea of Substack and its now several authors, like yourself and Professor Richardson, unafraid of history and “actual information”, as being a lead in the rescue and saving of our democracy. I sincerely believe such authors frame moving forward with a word that Greg Olear has used so succinctly…“prevail”.
I have a plan to make Humans Great Again. The Bonobos is a none aggressive primate branch found only in the Congo. Estimated number of this endangered species is 5,000. It a matriarchal society that controls males and when they get feisty, the females come together and deny sex to the males and this calms them right down. Wouldn’t it calm you down, Mr. Male if you suddenly were locked out of conjugal relations?
The Bonobos are 98.7 genetically similar to that other rambunctious crowd of primates known as Humans. I recommend that humans mate with Bonobos. It will raise civility of the Human but to the detriment of the Bonobo. And there will eventually be peace in the world and cessation of fighting over the ballot box.
Wonderful suggestion. I have an article somewhere about a troop of bonobos that was interesting. The males had first dibs on a site where food was thrown out. It was bad and the males were poisoned and died. Long story short. Females took over and raised the young males as more compassionate. Haven’t seen an update, but it gives a message to greedy males who want the trough as their own.
I have long held the thought that if women withheld sex in relation to abortion banning, the patriarchal society would cave within the month and give women their body autonomy back.
Republicans, backed by their corporate billionaires, simply want government to dismantle itself in every way in which it is not handing over money to people who already have it, or in which it is not promoting the historic homophobia, patriarchy, and white Christian nationalism of pre-21st Century America. They should replace the elephant with a monkey wrench.
Please help flip some of them. Please repeatedly post "not suckers or losers" comments in social media. According to Facebook, there are 4 million veterans and active duty members on Facebook, as well as 12.5 million family members and 242 million friends with veterans or active duty members. Military sites, veterans' organizations, historical sites.
Vote vets has already flipped many 2016 and 2020 Trump voters.
It's up to people like you who are on social media.... when you comment you'll see what I mean. Many of the people involved are dependents, family members, friends and neighbors who are interested in the military and or national security and for whom this is news. Takes repetition and substantiation by people they trust.
I am a Vietnam combat veteran -- probably the lone survivor from my units. I have been a "veteran" since Jan 21, 1968. The grandchildren (or great-grandchildren) of my late colleagues want to hear from someone like you.
When you post on say a FB history site, you may start a conversation with potential who may flip on this basis.... Yesterday was a big day.... positive comments.
I commend you for your service and fighting for our rights and freedoms. I saw a poll yesterday on PBS News Hour that indicate 63% of Veterans are voting for TFG. Needless to say, I was shocked because I find that incredibly hard to believe. If you polled your fellow vets, what would the result be?
We can hope that a Republican loss today will lead to the kind of transformation Dr. Heather describes the Democratic Party underwent in 1880s. But the last time the Republicans had a big loss, they did soul-searching and realized that they needed to reach out more effectively to minorities and women. But what they did instead was Trump. There is a zealotry there that refuses to accept defeat, like Southerners after the Civil War. I'm very afraid that a lot of people are going to be hurt no matter the outcome of the election.
Yes, I remember, they put out a soul searching report the GOP had to widen its franchise, instead the Tea Party morphed into Maga with a doubling down on abortion et al. "a zealotry that refuses to accept defeat" indeed.
Big page 1 article in Le Monde today about Tucker Carlson's activities. Orban, it says, has been pouring money into the Trump campaign, and 2025 is largely based on Orban's methods for his takeover of Hungary. Some parts are a straight copy. And on "one of his visits to Hungary", Kevin Roberts has just been decorated with the Hungarian Order of Merit. (Son président, Kevin Roberts, a été décoré, lundi 7 octobre, de l’ordre du Mérite hongrois.)
Thank you, Anne-Louise for this from Le Monde! Today’s page 1 article about Tucker and Hungary and 2025. In French, for people in France who might want to know about it!
Americans speak a language known around the world, and we don’t think we need to learn other languages. We don’t see that we are handicapped by our linguistic dominance. It contributes to our unfortunate sense of American exceptionalism, and the idea we have nothing to learn from other cultures, no reason to be interested in them.
The readers of Le Monde are very interested to know about it - and they don't hesitate to point out errors in translation! In fact, Le Monde runs an English-language edition for those who might prefer it. What struck me about this coverage was that I haven't seen anything about it elsewhere.
I was also struck that the Guardian report on Musk’s talks with Putin (from the Wall Street Journal) was not headline news.
There’s a story that early computers translated “hydraulic ram” as “water goat” in Russian. It’s much better now, but humans are the final authority on translation. So far.
For whatever Mitch now openly thinks about Trump and Maga, the horse has long since left the barn. He had the chance to kick Trump out and take his chances with renewing the GOP, but didn't take it. I'm not sure even him saying Dont Vote for Trump would make an iota of difference with the Maga base. Wither all the "moderate" RINOs? Let alone the "Independents"? You want to hope there are enough "blue rider" among all those fine folks! I'd even settle for "more than enough"!
I have pure contempt for McConnell -- it's because of him we have an ultra conservative court - since he blocked one Obama nominee and pushed through a Republican one, ignoring his own reasons for blocking the former. He is a coward and could have come forward with his views years or even months ago. But now -- in order to sell a book, when for the last 9+ years he has sold out the country.
Could you imagine being married to someone that you love dearly, and having that person being denigrated by the insipid orange turd. How would you react, would you defend your spouse’s honor, I know I would, the fact that McConnell instead chose to kiss the orange turd’s ass is a telling statement about his character, or lack there of, he’s despicable. 💥
These descriptive words from Mitch McConnell about trump seem to apply quite well to Mitch himself: “not very smart, irascible, nasty, just about every quality you would not want somebody to have.” Once they had control of the Supreme Court they could and should have jettisoned trump … they had two opportunities but decided to keep him … now look at the mess - not just their party - but that the country is in. And if for some reason trump gets back into the White House - all hell will break loose!
They couldn’t jettison him - he’d built a cult following among his base - which is often their base- and their candidates were being primaried all over the country. They created a monster and will pay dearly for it.
Whether the orange monster gets into our WH again or not, I think we’re in for trouble for some time for as we have seen, toddlers cannot accept defeat.
I remember in 1992 the Republicans could not believe or accept Bill Clinton's victory. The ultimate results was, 2 years later, Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" (aka "War on America."). Trump is the natural sequence. Fascism is the net step. Let's hope he is once again a loser.
The steep decline started with Reagan. He’s the one who got roughly 70% of the white working class to embrace their racism and throw their unions down the drain to put trickle-down deregulators in charge because Reagan promised to preseve the systemic advantages of white Americans.
Leave us not forget Nixon's War on (some) Drugs that was explicitly a war on political opponents and dark-skinned people. Reagan's handlers saw how that worked to put them behind bars so they could not vote (and so they could be forced to legal slave labor for cronies).
Yes. Nixon and Atwater brought racism out in the open as a campaign tactic. They learned how well it works from George Wallace. But it was Reagan who convinced the white working class to abandon their labor unions and elect a government that promised to continue the oppression of black people.
I will soon be publishing a piece on "The true enemy within: how to slay a democracy" which mirrors much of your writing and important historical perspective. Here's an (yet unedited) excerpt:
"While Putin and others continue their efforts to weaken and divide the United States, there’s been much talk about “the real enemy” or “the enemy within”. While adversary and criminal piece of human garbage Putin directs State actors to “light a fuse” on the powderkeg that has become America it is the “enemy within” who is largely culpable in this attack upon our institutions and democracy. There are plenty of issues which readily divide the United States today. What are the internal forces which have built the powderkeg and happily provided the fuse to Putin and others? The reality is a relatively small group of obscenely wealthy individuals who view the pool of public funds and/or value in the Social Security and Medicare funds, housing, healthcare, defense, and anyplace where they see a massive pool of funds that could allow them to concentrate more wealth and power. The following is a brief look at the coordinated (and at times accidental) forces who share a common idea -that they are the “chosen” anointed because they have been clever enough to amass billions of dollars -and that you and I -whether we wear a MAGA hat or a “Harris/Walz” shirt, whether we mistakenly believe all political parties are equally corrupt -as Jill Stein might say while enjoying a State dinner with Putin (and one look at the current “Supreme” Court provides a very real case study in why that’s not true), read banned books, or are in a bowling league -we are simply viewed as pawns in a vast chess game the obscenely wealthy play with one another. "
George, given the power and influence of America, what takes place there on November 5th will have crucial worldwide repercussions.
The issue of demented oligarchy is now universal. The whole world is infected with this disease, which has now developed to the stage of life-or-death crisis.
Unfortunately, most voters are blind to their responsibilities as citizens and completely unaware of the consequences of their actions for the whole world. Unaware, simply, of the consequences of their actions or inaction.
Democracy is no magic pill.
Like a great tree, democracy develops gradually over centuries. Like a great tree, it can be maimed or cut down overnight; or suffer like any other living thing from the careless or neglectful actions of human beings. Trees suffer from drought, both natural and artificially induced, they suffer from pollution of soil, groundwater and the atmosphere. Democracy is undermined by poor education, especially the absence or neglect of civic education.
For a democracy to function, the rule of law must be upheld; especially the basic principle of equality before the law—and in America, both have been undermined; crucially, by the appointed guardians of the law, the Supreme Court.
Underlying this grave failure, a collapse into oligarchy…
What this entails was made clear by Louis Brandeis, one of the great jurists of the 20th century:
“You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both.”
*
Go back now to China, a thousand years ago...
"Reduction
Profiting those below at the expense of those above is called increase or gain; taking from those below to profit those above is called reduction or loss. In human terms, when those in higher positions are generous to those in lower positions, this is gain. When they take from those below to fatten themselves, this is loss.
To use a simile, when you are piling up earth to make a wall, if you take from the top to build up the base, then both top and bottom will be secure. Is this not gain? If you take from the bottom to increase the height of the top, there is the danger it will fall. Is this not loss?
Therefore loss means loss below, increase above; gain is the opposite of this. [….]
Increase
When those below are rich, those above are secure. Therefore benefiting those below is called increase.”
Cheng Yi – China, 11th century A.D.
From The Tao of Organization, Cheng Yi, translated by Thomas Cleary, published by Shambhala, 1988, pp. 131-132 and 136
Mr. Polisner, your title leads to the thought that "enemy within" is the ultimate Trump projection. Perhaps Trump's use of it (suggesting retribution as a response) has tainted it's use against him and the leaders of MAGA. We DON'T need "retribution": that is inherently self-corrupting. But we DO need the objective application of law. If we are spared a second Trump Presidency, his prosecution Must continue, as well as that of his accomplices. The Gerald Ford pardon of Nixon did not "heal" the nation: It set the dangerous precedent of someone being above the law. Future President Harris, please don't even Think of issuing a pardon to Donald Trump: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
Thank you Peter. Something I repeat through much of my content is:
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society; and democracy cannot co-exist with an extreme concentration of wealth. The historical context you’ve provided underscores the historical importance of these fundamental principles.
Not sure i could follow all that, George, esp with the double parentheses. Recommend you simplify that prose. If you're saying that the parties are beholden to wealth, i think that's always been true. Is there a greater level of activism with so much more wealth having gone to the top, I suspect that may be the case indeed.
Thanks Frank -will definitely review, edit, rinse, and repeat. It will make more sense (allegedly) in context with the rest of the article. It’s not truly about both parties drinking from the same trough, however it does make the connection that extreme wealth concentration is an absolute enemy within.
Excellent - a truly superb synopsis of the predicament - of not just our country, but mostly of what a real mess that Mitch McConnell has gotten his party in … talk about divide and conquer - Moscow Mitch made it easy for trump - he and a few others (Lindsey Graham, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz to name a few) just basically handed the Republican Party over to trump, the two Steve’s (Bannon and Miller) and the MAGA-cult!!!
May the current day 'mugwumps' come out in droves to vote for Kamala, and the Swifties too. All of us that want a democracy and believe in the ideals, hope, possibilities that our Nation aspires to be; the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution & Bill of Rights, this 'republic if we can keep it'...
Let us prove the polls wrong and make it a landslide election by voting for Harris/Walz on November 5, 2024 and the Democrats winning both chambers of Congress!
I have done the word "mugwumps" a great disservice. I have used it in place of other, less polite words, indicating someone for whom I have little respect. NO LONGER!!
A very concerning reality in America is that there are some 250+ MILLION guns owned by some 80+ million residents. Those are very dangerous statistics. I’m grateful for the historical context that Heather provides in her daily letters but, I fear the prominence of the gun culture in America could lead to an uncomfortable level of post election domestic violence. My hope is that sanity will prevail but I am not convinced that sanity will be the outcome.
I agree all the guns are concerning, but am reassured after a discussion with a former partner and friend ,who is anticipating a weekend of pheasant hunting, deciding which of his dozen or so shot guns he will take on his trip. There are many responsible gun owners in this country who are not intent on revolution. It is also reassuring that the events of Jan. 6th 2020, although appalling, did not erupt across the country even while 45 still held the reins of office. I hope any attempt to instigate such violence will be recognized and nipped in the bud this time around. I also hope to see a day when Mitch is out of the news and I don't have to cringe at the association of my family name with such despicable policies.
Do I remember you telling us about your neighbor packing his car with weaponry before Jan 6? That was a scary report….. I recommend leaving a camera pointed his direction before you leave😬🙁.
If saneness or sanity isn’t shown by the losers - and hopefully it should be the MAGA-cult party - the commander-in-chief of our armed forces will continue to be Joseph R. Biden until noon on January 20, 2025, to be succeeded by Kamala D. Harris, for a 4-year term … they should be able to help put some sanity into those who may seem to have or who might be losing theirs!
Let’s hope that that approximately one-third of the American population of legally-registered voters who tend not to participate or fulfill their civic duty is reduced to something less than a quarter of the American electorate by more or a greater number of them participating in the voting process … this would tend to reduce the probability of people losing their sanity and to spare our country of further embarrassment!
With so many Republicans so obviously backing Harris, both public figures and poll respondents, I have a hard time believing any polls showing this as a close race. Something just doesn’t add up.
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.
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?
"...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."
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?
It is strange how we pick and choose, and think we are being smart…our economy floats of the work of immigrants, always has! And their desire and drive…for something more. Of course you must remember the genocide and displacement from lands of the NA community, from which we actually learned a lot about how to share and build our constitution based on enlightened self interest. And the Arab traders selling humans to the Dutch and the British. These too are the stories we need to tell.
These stories are horrible and beyond our comprehension! But we should never duck out from their telling…they still color Donny-John’s hate and the deceit of the Steves…
But we have always had the leaders who thought the actually were smarter, well before genetics, who were the Pure Bloods. PayPals Musk and Thiel are in this camp for sure! As are too many libertarians…isolated, better, smarter. Like they earned it…
On whose backs!?
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?
Musk will want the very phallic Washington Monument, for sure. He is definitely obsessed with spreading his seed.
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.
She will win if we all vote! I have voted for her! And watch her rallies and see the love and energy...the people she will bring to the table! Joe got a great start…look at the tow NA women in leadership! Wow!
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.
It’s really the combo of Silicone stupid..fake it till you make it meatheads meets disruptions…the are the destroyers and the disrupters. And they like it! Little boy with toys.
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.
Mitch McConnell is a vile, cynical, despicable sham of a political leader, starting with his "Obama must be a one term president" comment through his cynical engineering the federal judiciary, especially SCOTUS, his two acquitals of Trump's impeachments, and his deafening silence as MAGA took over the Republican Party. His denouncement of Trump at this late date, after all the damage done to this country's body politic, is....staggering. One is left speechless, that any human being, let alone a party leader, could be so lacking in any personal integrity or sense of decency or honor or any other positive personal character that exists above political expediency. There are some things a decent person just won't do, no matter what.
You are a horrible human being, Mitch McConnell, and nothing you do from this point on can redeem you in the eyes of many, especially me.
He believes that the end justifies the means and that is a heartless, despicable motto to govern by that runs counter to many ethical values, not to mention governmental precedents. Unfortunately, he is not the only government official who ascribes to that Machiavellian notion.
He will go down in history as one oof the worst, who actively destroyed this country for power and money and nothing else. A horrible creature indeed. ( not sure he really is human)
Just think of all of the legislation he blocked during his time as Speaker and also his far-right theocratic Supreme Court Justices he ushered into SCOTUS.
He is as despicable as Leonard Leo and Donald Trump.
He is directly responsible for the women who have died and will die because they can't get the basic health care they have been denied by legislation.... McConnell and every politician and judge who has supported the legislation restricting "abortion" which is, as we always knew, reproductive healthcare. I really wonder if those politicians understand that by their hand, their work, their votes, they have killed women. The same applies to everyone who ever voted for them. They are women killers.
So one can only assume that he just doesn’t care. Sacrifice the women to keep the base. And those/we uppity women need to be knocked down a peg or two anyway.
I agree.
But trump will protect women so he says. And when women die during pregnancy complications, Not my fault-it is the states' fault. They made the laws.
He wasn’t Speaker, that’s the House leader, he was the Majority leader of the Senate, other than that you are spot on Gary 🙏
Reptilian, sorry other reptiles
Nothing else? There was a brilliant two-term president who once dared to wear a suit of the wrong colour.
If there is a history and who writes it
Agreed! McConnell is responsible for too much of this horror we face-Trump, SCOTUS, Republican Nazis-he’s a traitor to the Constitution.
Mitch is the epitome of the man who should have been careful what he asked for. Haha. His permanent republican majority may leave him in the dust.
The one word that best describes McConnell is TRAITOR!
Kentucky could have voted Mitch out.
Exactly! At this late date in a "biography"!? Hell is waiting for Mitch McConnell. In many ways he's already made it here on earth for us.
No worries.....they eat their own.
Even if Mitch voted for Harris, which is totally not happening, the damage he has done in molding the SCOTUS into a trump puppet department can not be repaired with his one vote for Harris (if in a fantasy world that would ever happen)
This comment is gold.
Amen!
Excellent interview with Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBCtonight, Heather. They ought to make you a regular contributor since you brought more actual information to the table than all the others today combined.
Here’s Heather’s interview by Stephanie Ruhle:
https://youtu.be/La9-ipd_A94?si=hZYay8qRbf7YeMkt
Thank You, Ellie! Shared.
Wow!!! Thank you, Ellie!
thank you!
Thank you Ellie
Wow! Thank you for posting the link!
Thanks, Ellie.
Thank you, TC. The phrase “actual information” has become the motivator behind acceptance of new media, as I call it. Moving forward, I credit the very idea of Substack and its now several authors, like yourself and Professor Richardson, unafraid of history and “actual information”, as being a lead in the rescue and saving of our democracy. I sincerely believe such authors frame moving forward with a word that Greg Olear has used so succinctly…“prevail”.
You will always have my gratitude and admiration.
Salud!
🗽💜
Lordy, she needs an outlet that transcends the morass.
AGREE!!
What a dynamic pairing of brilliant women🤗🤗!
I love the history lessons. I hope with all my might that the pendulum will start swinging back toward FDR.
I have a plan to make Humans Great Again. The Bonobos is a none aggressive primate branch found only in the Congo. Estimated number of this endangered species is 5,000. It a matriarchal society that controls males and when they get feisty, the females come together and deny sex to the males and this calms them right down. Wouldn’t it calm you down, Mr. Male if you suddenly were locked out of conjugal relations?
The Bonobos are 98.7 genetically similar to that other rambunctious crowd of primates known as Humans. I recommend that humans mate with Bonobos. It will raise civility of the Human but to the detriment of the Bonobo. And there will eventually be peace in the world and cessation of fighting over the ballot box.
Humans have already employed this tactic.
https://www.inclusivesecurity.org/2012/07/31/how-liberian-women-organized-a-sex-strike-and-helped-end-a-war/
There are other lessons to be learned from Liberia: https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2023/11/an-exemplary-president.html
And there’s Lysistrata…
Had to look that one up. I should have known; I majored in classical languages (long ago).
Try The Gate To Women’s Country by Sherri S Tepper as an alternative.
You mean matted with Bonobos?
Haha. I could have been more specific..
Wonderful suggestion. I have an article somewhere about a troop of bonobos that was interesting. The males had first dibs on a site where food was thrown out. It was bad and the males were poisoned and died. Long story short. Females took over and raised the young males as more compassionate. Haven’t seen an update, but it gives a message to greedy males who want the trough as their own.
I have long held the thought that if women withheld sex in relation to abortion banning, the patriarchal society would cave within the month and give women their body autonomy back.
Republicans, backed by their corporate billionaires, simply want government to dismantle itself in every way in which it is not handing over money to people who already have it, or in which it is not promoting the historic homophobia, patriarchy, and white Christian nationalism of pre-21st Century America. They should replace the elephant with a monkey wrench.
Please help flip some of them. Please repeatedly post "not suckers or losers" comments in social media. According to Facebook, there are 4 million veterans and active duty members on Facebook, as well as 12.5 million family members and 242 million friends with veterans or active duty members. Military sites, veterans' organizations, historical sites.
Vote vets has already flipped many 2016 and 2020 Trump voters.
It's up to people like you who are on social media.... when you comment you'll see what I mean. Many of the people involved are dependents, family members, friends and neighbors who are interested in the military and or national security and for whom this is news. Takes repetition and substantiation by people they trust.
I am a Vietnam combat veteran -- probably the lone survivor from my units. I have been a "veteran" since Jan 21, 1968. The grandchildren (or great-grandchildren) of my late colleagues want to hear from someone like you.
When you post on say a FB history site, you may start a conversation with potential who may flip on this basis.... Yesterday was a big day.... positive comments.
I commend you for your service and fighting for our rights and freedoms. I saw a poll yesterday on PBS News Hour that indicate 63% of Veterans are voting for TFG. Needless to say, I was shocked because I find that incredibly hard to believe. If you polled your fellow vets, what would the result be?
That's why we need your help.
Most do not get the news. It's up to you to educate them.
The Republicans are aware they are losing the active military vote and attack VBM. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/20/nx-s1-5150095/overseas-voters-military-lawsuit-pennsylvania-republican
I've seen campaign signs around my town like "Veterans for Trump" and, hilariously, "Trump for Peace." I don't get it.
Or that ad with three (rather obviously) Jewish women concluding the "Trump will keep us safe." Really?
I haven't seen that one. What a joke.
Replace it with a pile of excrement!
Perhaps a corona virus. During the pandemic they seemed to be allies.
We can hope that a Republican loss today will lead to the kind of transformation Dr. Heather describes the Democratic Party underwent in 1880s. But the last time the Republicans had a big loss, they did soul-searching and realized that they needed to reach out more effectively to minorities and women. But what they did instead was Trump. There is a zealotry there that refuses to accept defeat, like Southerners after the Civil War. I'm very afraid that a lot of people are going to be hurt no matter the outcome of the election.
Yes, I remember, they put out a soul searching report the GOP had to widen its franchise, instead the Tea Party morphed into Maga with a doubling down on abortion et al. "a zealotry that refuses to accept defeat" indeed.
I remember 2012, repubs turned to chump. And here we are
Big page 1 article in Le Monde today about Tucker Carlson's activities. Orban, it says, has been pouring money into the Trump campaign, and 2025 is largely based on Orban's methods for his takeover of Hungary. Some parts are a straight copy. And on "one of his visits to Hungary", Kevin Roberts has just been decorated with the Hungarian Order of Merit. (Son président, Kevin Roberts, a été décoré, lundi 7 octobre, de l’ordre du Mérite hongrois.)
This election has been tainted green for decades, awash in foreign money and influence.
Isn't foreign financing of campaigns against the law? But when has that stopped MAGA?
Thank you, Anne-Louise for this from Le Monde! Today’s page 1 article about Tucker and Hungary and 2025. In French, for people in France who might want to know about it!
Americans speak a language known around the world, and we don’t think we need to learn other languages. We don’t see that we are handicapped by our linguistic dominance. It contributes to our unfortunate sense of American exceptionalism, and the idea we have nothing to learn from other cultures, no reason to be interested in them.
The readers of Le Monde are very interested to know about it - and they don't hesitate to point out errors in translation! In fact, Le Monde runs an English-language edition for those who might prefer it. What struck me about this coverage was that I haven't seen anything about it elsewhere.
I was also struck that the Guardian report on Musk’s talks with Putin (from the Wall Street Journal) was not headline news.
There’s a story that early computers translated “hydraulic ram” as “water goat” in Russian. It’s much better now, but humans are the final authority on translation. So far.
For whatever Mitch now openly thinks about Trump and Maga, the horse has long since left the barn. He had the chance to kick Trump out and take his chances with renewing the GOP, but didn't take it. I'm not sure even him saying Dont Vote for Trump would make an iota of difference with the Maga base. Wither all the "moderate" RINOs? Let alone the "Independents"? You want to hope there are enough "blue rider" among all those fine folks! I'd even settle for "more than enough"!
I have pure contempt for McConnell -- it's because of him we have an ultra conservative court - since he blocked one Obama nominee and pushed through a Republican one, ignoring his own reasons for blocking the former. He is a coward and could have come forward with his views years or even months ago. But now -- in order to sell a book, when for the last 9+ years he has sold out the country.
Could you imagine being married to someone that you love dearly, and having that person being denigrated by the insipid orange turd. How would you react, would you defend your spouse’s honor, I know I would, the fact that McConnell instead chose to kiss the orange turd’s ass is a telling statement about his character, or lack there of, he’s despicable. 💥
These descriptive words from Mitch McConnell about trump seem to apply quite well to Mitch himself: “not very smart, irascible, nasty, just about every quality you would not want somebody to have.” Once they had control of the Supreme Court they could and should have jettisoned trump … they had two opportunities but decided to keep him … now look at the mess - not just their party - but that the country is in. And if for some reason trump gets back into the White House - all hell will break loose!
They couldn’t jettison him - he’d built a cult following among his base - which is often their base- and their candidates were being primaried all over the country. They created a monster and will pay dearly for it.
We will pay dearly for it, my grands more than old me
Whether the orange monster gets into our WH again or not, I think we’re in for trouble for some time for as we have seen, toddlers cannot accept defeat.
You’re right. But every battle won in the war against fascism is worth celebrating.
I remember in 1992 the Republicans could not believe or accept Bill Clinton's victory. The ultimate results was, 2 years later, Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" (aka "War on America."). Trump is the natural sequence. Fascism is the net step. Let's hope he is once again a loser.
The steep decline started with Reagan. He’s the one who got roughly 70% of the white working class to embrace their racism and throw their unions down the drain to put trickle-down deregulators in charge because Reagan promised to preseve the systemic advantages of white Americans.
Leave us not forget Nixon's War on (some) Drugs that was explicitly a war on political opponents and dark-skinned people. Reagan's handlers saw how that worked to put them behind bars so they could not vote (and so they could be forced to legal slave labor for cronies).
Yes. Nixon and Atwater brought racism out in the open as a campaign tactic. They learned how well it works from George Wallace. But it was Reagan who convinced the white working class to abandon their labor unions and elect a government that promised to continue the oppression of black people.
Ah Ronnie the cheerleader in charge, all mouth no substance!
Thank you Professor Richardson.
I will soon be publishing a piece on "The true enemy within: how to slay a democracy" which mirrors much of your writing and important historical perspective. Here's an (yet unedited) excerpt:
"While Putin and others continue their efforts to weaken and divide the United States, there’s been much talk about “the real enemy” or “the enemy within”. While adversary and criminal piece of human garbage Putin directs State actors to “light a fuse” on the powderkeg that has become America it is the “enemy within” who is largely culpable in this attack upon our institutions and democracy. There are plenty of issues which readily divide the United States today. What are the internal forces which have built the powderkeg and happily provided the fuse to Putin and others? The reality is a relatively small group of obscenely wealthy individuals who view the pool of public funds and/or value in the Social Security and Medicare funds, housing, healthcare, defense, and anyplace where they see a massive pool of funds that could allow them to concentrate more wealth and power. The following is a brief look at the coordinated (and at times accidental) forces who share a common idea -that they are the “chosen” anointed because they have been clever enough to amass billions of dollars -and that you and I -whether we wear a MAGA hat or a “Harris/Walz” shirt, whether we mistakenly believe all political parties are equally corrupt -as Jill Stein might say while enjoying a State dinner with Putin (and one look at the current “Supreme” Court provides a very real case study in why that’s not true), read banned books, or are in a bowling league -we are simply viewed as pawns in a vast chess game the obscenely wealthy play with one another. "
George, given the power and influence of America, what takes place there on November 5th will have crucial worldwide repercussions.
The issue of demented oligarchy is now universal. The whole world is infected with this disease, which has now developed to the stage of life-or-death crisis.
Unfortunately, most voters are blind to their responsibilities as citizens and completely unaware of the consequences of their actions for the whole world. Unaware, simply, of the consequences of their actions or inaction.
Democracy is no magic pill.
Like a great tree, democracy develops gradually over centuries. Like a great tree, it can be maimed or cut down overnight; or suffer like any other living thing from the careless or neglectful actions of human beings. Trees suffer from drought, both natural and artificially induced, they suffer from pollution of soil, groundwater and the atmosphere. Democracy is undermined by poor education, especially the absence or neglect of civic education.
For a democracy to function, the rule of law must be upheld; especially the basic principle of equality before the law—and in America, both have been undermined; crucially, by the appointed guardians of the law, the Supreme Court.
Underlying this grave failure, a collapse into oligarchy…
What this entails was made clear by Louis Brandeis, one of the great jurists of the 20th century:
“You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both.”
*
Go back now to China, a thousand years ago...
"Reduction
Profiting those below at the expense of those above is called increase or gain; taking from those below to profit those above is called reduction or loss. In human terms, when those in higher positions are generous to those in lower positions, this is gain. When they take from those below to fatten themselves, this is loss.
To use a simile, when you are piling up earth to make a wall, if you take from the top to build up the base, then both top and bottom will be secure. Is this not gain? If you take from the bottom to increase the height of the top, there is the danger it will fall. Is this not loss?
Therefore loss means loss below, increase above; gain is the opposite of this. [….]
Increase
When those below are rich, those above are secure. Therefore benefiting those below is called increase.”
Cheng Yi – China, 11th century A.D.
From The Tao of Organization, Cheng Yi, translated by Thomas Cleary, published by Shambhala, 1988, pp. 131-132 and 136
Mr. Polisner, your title leads to the thought that "enemy within" is the ultimate Trump projection. Perhaps Trump's use of it (suggesting retribution as a response) has tainted it's use against him and the leaders of MAGA. We DON'T need "retribution": that is inherently self-corrupting. But we DO need the objective application of law. If we are spared a second Trump Presidency, his prosecution Must continue, as well as that of his accomplices. The Gerald Ford pardon of Nixon did not "heal" the nation: It set the dangerous precedent of someone being above the law. Future President Harris, please don't even Think of issuing a pardon to Donald Trump: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
Thank you Peter. Something I repeat through much of my content is:
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society; and democracy cannot co-exist with an extreme concentration of wealth. The historical context you’ve provided underscores the historical importance of these fundamental principles.
Not sure i could follow all that, George, esp with the double parentheses. Recommend you simplify that prose. If you're saying that the parties are beholden to wealth, i think that's always been true. Is there a greater level of activism with so much more wealth having gone to the top, I suspect that may be the case indeed.
Thanks Frank -will definitely review, edit, rinse, and repeat. It will make more sense (allegedly) in context with the rest of the article. It’s not truly about both parties drinking from the same trough, however it does make the connection that extreme wealth concentration is an absolute enemy within.
Excellent - a truly superb synopsis of the predicament - of not just our country, but mostly of what a real mess that Mitch McConnell has gotten his party in … talk about divide and conquer - Moscow Mitch made it easy for trump - he and a few others (Lindsey Graham, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz to name a few) just basically handed the Republican Party over to trump, the two Steve’s (Bannon and Miller) and the MAGA-cult!!!
May the current day 'mugwumps' come out in droves to vote for Kamala, and the Swifties too. All of us that want a democracy and believe in the ideals, hope, possibilities that our Nation aspires to be; the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution & Bill of Rights, this 'republic if we can keep it'...
Let us prove the polls wrong and make it a landslide election by voting for Harris/Walz on November 5, 2024 and the Democrats winning both chambers of Congress!
We need more Mugwumps! Where are the supposed moderate Republicans?
For the name alone….
I have done the word "mugwumps" a great disservice. I have used it in place of other, less polite words, indicating someone for whom I have little respect. NO LONGER!!
A very concerning reality in America is that there are some 250+ MILLION guns owned by some 80+ million residents. Those are very dangerous statistics. I’m grateful for the historical context that Heather provides in her daily letters but, I fear the prominence of the gun culture in America could lead to an uncomfortable level of post election domestic violence. My hope is that sanity will prevail but I am not convinced that sanity will be the outcome.
I agree all the guns are concerning, but am reassured after a discussion with a former partner and friend ,who is anticipating a weekend of pheasant hunting, deciding which of his dozen or so shot guns he will take on his trip. There are many responsible gun owners in this country who are not intent on revolution. It is also reassuring that the events of Jan. 6th 2020, although appalling, did not erupt across the country even while 45 still held the reins of office. I hope any attempt to instigate such violence will be recognized and nipped in the bud this time around. I also hope to see a day when Mitch is out of the news and I don't have to cringe at the association of my family name with such despicable policies.
Post election domestic and "civic" violence. With a proud boy on my street, I will be watching the elections in a safer neighborhood.
How sad to have to leave your home MaryPat. 😢🤬
That is such a sad statement, MaryPat. I am so sorry you've got that in your neighborhood.
Otherwise a wonderful place. And, he may be medicated now.
Mary Pat, I too am leaving my state (Arizona) for safer parts for a week or more. Safe travels to you.
Do I remember you telling us about your neighbor packing his car with weaponry before Jan 6? That was a scary report….. I recommend leaving a camera pointed his direction before you leave😬🙁.
Walz is a gun owner and keen hunter. He’s unlikely to use it in an attempted coup.
If saneness or sanity isn’t shown by the losers - and hopefully it should be the MAGA-cult party - the commander-in-chief of our armed forces will continue to be Joseph R. Biden until noon on January 20, 2025, to be succeeded by Kamala D. Harris, for a 4-year term … they should be able to help put some sanity into those who may seem to have or who might be losing theirs!
Let’s hope that that approximately one-third of the American population of legally-registered voters who tend not to participate or fulfill their civic duty is reduced to something less than a quarter of the American electorate by more or a greater number of them participating in the voting process … this would tend to reduce the probability of people losing their sanity and to spare our country of further embarrassment!
With so many Republicans so obviously backing Harris, both public figures and poll respondents, I have a hard time believing any polls showing this as a close race. Something just doesn’t add up.
I think Harris will be our next president. My hope is that voters will also elect a congress she can work with.
Yes! I wish that were mentioned more often!
My ballot (completed, submitted, authenticated, and acknowledged by the county) was Blue all through!
Propaganda
I am using this Keb’ Mo’ song “Put a Woman in Charge” to keep me sane. The video is excellent.
https://youtu.be/FciQeRGYFlw?si=NYFwNr1Fmb6RB8PP
Yes! I love this video, too, and its great lyrics! Very meaningful at this moment in our history!
Thank you! Love this! ❤️