MAGA Republicans are now lying about the federal response to Hurricane Helene in much the same way they lied about Haitian migrants bringing chaos and disease to Springfield, Ohio.
Again, right out of the fascist playbook, circa 1930s Germany:
''The firehose of lies is designed to make it impossible for voters to figure out the truth. The technique is designed so that eventually voters give up trying to engage, conclude everyone is lying, throw up their hands, and stop voting. Holding on to facts combats the effects of the storm of lies.''
Solution? We keep refuting them with the truth using an even bigger hose!
Almost all the comments below yours now speak confidently of "endorsements pouring in" for Kamala and Tim (Barbara Mullen), Orwell's vision still apt, pertinent (Natalie Burdick), predictability of "Trump's common pattern" (KSC), and other ways more calmly to negotiate the fire hoses of lies.
I don't feel this confidence. The liars just grow more brazen, bolder, outrageous -- as if counting on tens of millions craving even more monstrosity out of their MAGA.
Very, very frightening, partly for what it exposes as what long before now I'd believed were great American schools. (They were, from the Justin Morrill land grant legislation of 1862 to the Powell memo of 1971.) Partly, too, we can see the horror side to all our beautiful tech as well as more horror in how most media show themselves routinely blind to the novels, histories, memoirs, and other arts in fact still there, largely disregarded even as many are so well in touch with the American people.
It's massive, this disease across the land.
And U.S. billionaires bankroll it, people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, plus dictators Putin, Netanyahu, Orban, and many more rooting (and organized-paying) for the orange savage.
True, that. Looking at his face is like looking into a moral vacuum. An endless series of reflections in mirrors - with nobody at either end. Musk could have been the main protagonist in a "Twilight Zone" episode.
What I call "Trump's lizard face." His resemblance to a lizard in a lot of his photos is striking. I wouldn't be surprised to find he had a third eyelid - and to see his tongue dart out and lick Stephen Miller's head. . .
Unfortunately, Lady Emsworth, the word "personality" implies a person in there.
Could we say instead serious moral problems?
Or do we need some totally new English to account for that savage mix of vacuity -- rage -- racism -- abysmally educated -- entitlement -- self-pity -- victimization scenarios?
Musk is a narcissist (not quite as bad as Trump, but bad enough) and he also has antisocial personality disorder, as do many in C suites who treat their lower level workers contemptuously as cost centers.
What I've learned from reading HCR's publications is that there is an eternal strife between Labor and Capital. Without political intervention, capital will eventually horde all or most of a nation's wealth. We're seeing that now here in the U.S. where 806 billionaires (including Musk) have accumulated as much wealth as one-half of the American population (163,000,000.) A poorly educated populace can fairly easily be conned into voting against their own best interests, as has happened here in the U.S. beginning with the "Reagan Revolution.) We are now an oligarchy, where the wealthiest individuals control the economy and the government. We need a new New Deal.
She does make that very clear. It's in the Constitution.
Today we see it in the pablum that ROI for shareholders is the most important thing for corporations. It's nonsense: shareholders simply put in money and can haul it out on any whim and flee.
Those who actually matter are STAKEHOLDERS. These are the employees, the customers, the vendors, involved in a commercial enterprise. They are the true "investors", not those who have more cash than they need.
Changing this business philosophy (and it's embedded in the legal system) would work wonders in improving how the country functions.
Relying on money to show value is a lazy way of doing things. See GDP calculations.
Richard, yes we have an oligarchy where dark and open money is taking over our lives. Consolidation in the consumer industries has eliminated competition, driven up prices, and reduced quality. It also controls much of our news channels, and floods the social media with lies. Corruption of our top court is out in the open. Our children are drugged by a fake digital world. Authenticity is buried. They are nature deprived and have lost the experiences that helps develop social skills. Political discourse is replaced by entertainment. We are played by the orange savage, who sows anger, fear and confusion.
Twin narcissists, no wonder they are circling the drain together, and want to take us with them. No surprise that Steven Miller is in the mix, more Elon’s twin, smarter crazy…
Stephen Miller is Trump's brain as far as I can see. He thinks up evil lies that wind up the base. And appeal to Trump's instincts, honed by Trump's years on the Apprentice. Trump recognizes a good line when he hear's one. And Trump appears unbothered by lying.
The "new English to account for that savage mix of vacuity -- rage -- racism -- abysmally educated -- entitlement -- self-pity -- victimization scenarios" can be summed up in one word - "MAGAnation"
"Moral idiocy is the inability to differentiate between right and wrong, or to understand how moral values apply to oneself and others. It can also be used to describe amoral behavior in institutions, and is sometimes seen as a cultural flaw that can lead to violence.
Some say that moral idiocy is a psychological concept that has been around for over a century. Others say that the main cause of moral idiocy is a deficiency in humans' ability to engage in moral reasoning. "
My Ph.D. is in Chinese history. The Chinese were grappling with these very issues 2500 years ago. Clearly this is not a case of first impression. The question is: How are we going to handle it?
Isn’t love supposed to drive out hate? In theory anyway? Or is that just a cute little saying? There’s so, so much hate right now. And, to be perfectly honest, I’m guilty of it, too. I’ve been flabbergasted, astonished, repulsed, appalled, terrified, and beside myself with fury and fear for nearly a decade now because of the way these people behave, the horrid lies they endlessly spew, the MAGA cult that laps it all up like a dog heartily eating its own vomit. And you know what?
I HATE IT. I hate…them. I don’t care how that sounds anymore. I do. I hate them. And I’m tired. I shouted from the rooftops that Trump was a dangerous fascist well ahead of my peers. And I was ridiculed for it. My husband had conservative friends who would pull him aside and quietly say “your wife…I mean…isn’t she taking this a bit far?” NO! No! I am TELLING THE TRUTH.
I didn’t want to be this right, this on the nose, this accurate. But here we are. I’ve expedited my passport (it expires in a couple months). My husband and I have talked about leaving our beloved country if we must, if the Opus Dei Leonard Leo Elon Musk Peter Thiel Federalist Society monstrous theocratic fascists overtake it all. We will leave, with heavy but hopeful hearts, for a place that won’t round people up into camps (the horror of that thought alone), vilify, belittle, and wholly disempower women, immigrants, LGBTQ+, and any person who’s not white, “Christian,” or heteronormative. We will be OUT OF HERE. We won’t wait around for the horror. People have said to me “you can’t give up - you must stay and fight!” I’ve been fighting. Don’t you see? Passionately. For the past 9 years. It’s all I’ve done. If he “wins,” if these horrible people gain the power they’ve been trying so disgustingly hard to force upon us all, I will have lost this fight. We will all have lost.
I will vote like hell on November 5th as Dan Rather put it. In these remaining 30+ days I will remain cautiously hopeful, but ready to leave, too.
What will you do? Will you stay to witness the camps? The rights of those you love stripped away? How much “fight” do you have left in you?
Jesse - I'm glad you clarified that you will continue fighting until the election, as we all must. But like you, I am disgusted that so many seem to be at least considering the tRump ticket. I'm not sure where I'd go, and if I could actually leave my beloved home, but it has certainly been contemplated. Truly hoping that we vastly outnumber them.
I totally get it. I alternate myself between the idea of staying to fight (or at least hide), and the idea of leaving. When I look at the details, emigrating sounds overwhelmingly difficult, and not many countries seem to want a retired person moving there....
Everyone has an unconscious circle of concern and an actual circle of influence. "Mature" is the characteristic of an individual with a circle of influence encompassed within the individual's circle of concern. As an individual grows up, the individual's circle of influence expands in a stepwise fashion. An insufficiently mature individual has a circle of influence that has expanded beyond the individual's circle of concern.
The most serious personality problem is a "me, myself, and I" circle of concern in combination with a global circle of influence. Little Elon has that serious problem, along with donOld, JDV, Speaker Mike, Minority Mitch, six of the nine SCOTUS justices, Putin, etc.
All the money in the world, repubs let it happen. Give the money to the people at the top and they will let some trickle down. Biggest joke ever. Do we need more proof..,
Will Rogers said it best. Nov 26, 1932. “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr Hoover …didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellows hands.” Mr. Hoover maybe didn’t know but our cretins surely do…
Lady Emsworth and other commenters, I haven't read every comment on this thread, so my comment could be superfluous. Elon Musk has Asperger's Syndrome. This is not meant to be a description of all people with Asperger's, but when you combine this issue with owning a huge social media outlet and being one of the wealthiest people on Earth, it logically follows that the combination of being on the autism spectrum and having the world as your stage opens the door to the possibility that a person will use their position to influence world opinion, but not have the filters available to temper their instincts. Apparently, like Trump, Elon craves notoriety and adulation, and this makes him even more dangerous than the Orange Menace.
Elon Musk is a South African racist. Does anyone else out there remember Apartheid? I knew British South African social workers forced to flee because they tried to help get milk to Africans in camps. Musk and Miller are a pair.
I am so utterly emotionally exhausted by the circus that Trump and his team keep creating. I am terrified as well, I don’t feel the optimism that I felt during the convention. I still have so many people in my life, who I have respect and like, who continue to believe the garbage they are being fed by their “alternative facts”! How is it possible that this election is close??? What does it say about this country where so many millions of people consider this insanity acceptable??? How is this country going to move past this moment? Recently traveled to Kenya, through Paris and every single person I have encountered is afraid of what will happen if somehow Trump ends up as the president! Also since the VP debate, I realize JD Vance is even scarier. Kenyans know corruption and abuse of power but even for them, this is a new level! They are glued to the news, hoping for Harris like their lives depend on her and who knows, it might! I equally can’t wait for Nov 5 and I am terrified of that date approaching! I lost the ability of saying, whatever happens, it will be ok! I don’t believe it will be! I just hope I am wrong! I believe and love Kamala Harris with all my heart, I’ve known her since 2004, she is amazing, she would make an amazing president! She cares and mostly she is amazingly human. I can almost feel how exhilarating would feel to find out she won! So intensely joyful, hopeful, inspiring and historic. But… I am so afraid of the feeling if Trump gets his way, I am afraid for this country, I am afraid for myself…
Does "misery love company" help in any way? I didn't think so. I have a relative that has been having cardiac issues of late. She told me yesterday, that she thinks the stress of the election is adding to her high blood pressure and stress.
There have to be millions more experiencing Trump related health issues.
As a reminder, if you live in ME, in person voting starts on Monday, October 7th.
I'm not sure where you are camping, but along the coast there are way more Harris/Walz signs than Trump signs. I mean way more.
Not to sound snobbish, but in Hancock County, the Trump signs seem to be way fewer than in 2016 and 2020 and there are virtually no Trump hats, flags or 4'x8' Trump signs. Also, most of the people in our town that proudly displayed Trump signs, banners, etc. in 2016 and 2020 have nothing displayed.
And the snobbish part is, those that do have Trump signs are the ones in smaller homes with no easy access to the ocean. I don't mean to offend anyone here but let's just call them what they are, "white uneducated trailer trash."
Gary, I have a friend (progressive-conservative) who was looking to buy property & purposely bought land in a “red” area of Michigan. Part of his acreage runs alongside a small rural highway & he has erected a series of Burma Shave-type election signs in support of Harris/Walz. Tho’ there are a few detractors, he has been heartened by the overwhelming positive response of passersby. He laughed when we last spoke recently (telco) when I told him of a picture of a yard sign I’d seen online—it said “I’m a Republican, but I’m not stupid!”. 🤣
Don't be horrified. It may be a lot of signs but is likely the work of a very few activists. If a MAGAt came to my door and asked if he could put a sign on my lawn, I'd tell him where to head in but a lot of less-involved people in small towns might be afraid to say no, no matter how they plan to vote.
Jane, reading these comments here, hearing/seeing the “reasons” he is supported & admired (🤮), my mind recalls a scene from the movie “Cowboys & Aliens” where captured humans are transfixed, zombie-like & catatonic, gazing at a large globe-like light in the ginormous alien ship. Maybe it’s like that? I really can’t wrap my head around the fact that real people support/admire/worship him. BTW, the movie is a fun & well done mashup of a cowboy western and sci-fi…set in the old west.
Early voting in MA starts October 19. The Dems don't have to worry about our bright blue state - although there are pockets of Trumpers in every region.
There is a lot on the ballot here besides saving democracy from an old fart fascist. Four citizens petitions. Including:
"Should Uber drivers be able to unionize?"
"Should magic mushrooms be legal?"
"Should the infamous "MCAS" statewide test for high school graduation be eliminated?"
"Should the state auditor be allowed to audit the state legislature?"
This is the stuff we should be talking about - not whether a wannabe dictator convicted felon rapist con man wife cheating pussy grabbing tax cheat failure businessman bigot liar thief of Top Secret documents insurrectionist climate change denying coup creating Russian asset...should return to the White House where he can again deny the existence of the next pandemic leading to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I agree, Bill, that there is SO much that needs our attention & that TFFFG sucks all the oxygen out of the efforts to address them….BUT, he is such a real threat it does take priority 🤬. Maybe if we built a lifelike movie set of the WH and gave him a TV show “The Pretendadent” he would have his “power plaything” & the theme music could be “Hail To The Thief”. Too bad he’s had the taste of the real thing after years of faux business mogul success on the TeeVee.
Gary, maybe a new ailment will be coined PTTSD—Post Trump Traumatic Stress Disorder. I especially like the “Post” part ‘cuz I assume that it would mean “after”, as in the guy would be gone gone gone kaput rear-view mirror shrinking image left in the dust buh-bye sayonara adios out of sight out of mind don’t let the door hit you on your way out…. Wow, just writing that made me smile 😊 and relax a bit in this predawn hour!
This won't cure the problem, but try Simon Rosenberg just one example, to keep up your spirits, even some MSNBC, needless to say, we know how you ARE going to vote, and this is likely an election where getting out the vote is a very big deal with margins seeming to be tight as they are, whatever the actual truth of the matter.
Thank you, Luca. You said beautifully everything that is roiling inside me - the hope and the terror. And I feel raging anger that so many could be so ignorant as to believe the lies of the proven liars and cast their votes to destroy our democracy. If that should happen, I won't want to live here to see the destruction first hand, but I don't have the resources to move to another country where my medicare healthcare won't be accepted. I think we're all going to need extended therapy for PTSD after the election regardless of the outcome. Meanwhile, I will keep writing the postcards that help me feel useful.
The antidote to despair is to do something. Be the citizen you want to see. There are a thousand ways to push goodness forward in spite of the zone being flooded with shit. This is OUR time to hold on to the American Experiment. Despair can be overwhelming and frightening. I am not diminishing what you are genuinely feeling. It’s real and the other side has hoped to get you to that feeling. I started following not only Heather’s excellent newsletter, but also Jessica Craven’s “Chop Wood, Carry Water” , and Simon Rosenberg’s “Hopium Chronicles” substacks to get positive, actionable ideas on what to do, AND most importantly , additional credible information about what’s going on ( especially with Hopium Chronicles, about polling). These have been sanity-savers for me. If you check them out, you may find they give you the oxygen you need to get through this next season of our fight. Peace.
I am right there with you Luca. I love my country but I don’t know who many of my fellow Americans are anymore. Just as you feel, I am flabbergasted that MILLIONS buy these lies. This must be how it felt to live in 1930s Germany with Joseph Goebbels drumming up endless lies for Hitler to spew, knowing it was nonsense but watching your friends and family fall for it. The horror.
I hope and pray (I’m not religious but I am putting all that energy towards this) that Harris wins. I’m a Californian and I think she’s fantastic! I would be overjoyed and so hopeful if she wins! Will you stay if Harris does not win? I have a plan to leave, to move away from this country, if not. I won’t stick around for the evil these people have planned. I’ve lived too long and worked too hard and had a great life to be rounded up into a camp and have all my rights taken away. Oh. Hell. No.
What will you do if we lose? I’m so scared.
But I remain hopeful, I remain hopeful, too. Wow, what a time in our country. I wish you well. ❤️
An excellent synopsis of the state of political affairs. The outrageousness of the current lies is jaw dropping and downright laughable if the stakes weren't so high. It is not immigrants who are poisoning the blood and minds of Americans, it is Trump and his white boy cult of Fascists, Nazis, white supremists, 90% of Republicans in Congress, his very own fledgling Brown Shirts Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, multi billionaires like Musk and Thiel and sadly MAGA everyday citizens who have swallowed the Trump con hook, line and sinker.
What should be done is not necessarily what can be done under current law. The instruments of mass deception, lies and trickery need to be deemed illegal. Everyone can accept a fair fight for political office, but we need to define what constitutes a fair fight - managing voting rolls, determining district boundaries, voting identification requirements, advertising, number of polling sites per population, etc. Governments must give notice to people they intend to purge from the voting roll. State governments must have a system where everyone born in the US and everyone who has been granted citizenship automatically receives a government ID # that can be used as voter ID. All these should be federal to avoid partisan political manipulation at the state level. This is the UNITED States, after all.
In the age of AI, social media and cyber communication, we need to rethink what constitutes treason and define regulations and laws to penalize treason. We need to define what behaviour warrants the removal of US citizenship by those not born on America, like Elon Musk for example. We need to define what behaviour constitutes a threat to the survival of the democratic republic of the USA. We need to redefine rules of what constitutes political donations and spending so that billionaires cannot aid in spreading and creating lies. We need to reexamine what constitutes fair and legal local election practices such as equal representation of both parties on decision making bodies and committees. The broadcast licences of the media must require that to qualify for a licence, news organizations may speak to difference of opinion, but may not broadcast outright lies. The Electoral College needs to go. True representation in a democracy = one person, one vote.
All of this needs to be done with an agreement as to constitutes freedom of speech, an immense task lest the democracy becomes an autocracy.
We have been remiss in shoring up the framework for democracy as incremental changes began to eat away at it. Now we are at an inflection point. This election in 2024 is not about policy choices. Make no mistake. On November 5, we are voting for a democratic Republic or a dictatorship.
And just as it was Biden’s job to steer the economy out from the devastation of the Covid pandemic, it should be President Harris’s job to rescue our democracy from the damage of MAGA-style populism.
None of you will like this but the suggestions you make like revoking citizenship and "cracking down" sound so fascistic it truly scares me.
You need to settle down and think slowly and carefully before you make outrageous suggestions. I don't love every bit of it (2nd amendment particularly) but tearing down the Constitution to come up with convenient ways to impose your will on the rest of the country is NOT a good look. In fact, sorry for this analogy, but it is downright Trumpian.
Is that what you REALLY want? To just be the opposite side of the coin using the same outrageous behavior to "fix" things?
Sorry. That is not good for any of us let alone our country. We need to have faith that we can get through this and fix it correctly, not create a DIFFERENT kind of dictatorship thst can be imposed on the people we don't like. That would end our democracy just as quickly as Trump would.
You're quite right, Jon - and that is one of the main reasons we need a properly functioning Republican Party. You can agree with every Democratic viewpoint if you like - but a country where there is only one viable political party is a dictatorship - a benevolent dictatorship, maybe, but still a dictatorship. The problem is, as been noted so many times - how do you win a fight when you wield a pillow and the other guy is happy to use an AK47? I honestly believe that there are at least 70 million Americans out there who could REALLY use a decent education (no matter how rich they are, and what Ivy League schools they went to) The poorest of the nation are uneducated, and the wealthiest are shielded from truth. The ongoing degradation of the American education system has been working for at least the last fifty years. Not WHAT people learn - the three R's etc - but how to think. How to analyse. How to question. This is a problem that the Harris administration should look at as a priority when it is in place.
Lady Emsworth, if i may add a small detail to the "decent education" arena..: Learn how to speak english, not jack-speak. Meaning, to be able to articulate sans "I be.. You be.. You know.., Like.., F-n this., etc.. Ughhh! And, I better add that I'm not referring to Melania's broken english during her book interview. New York or Southern or foreign accents are not what I'm referring to. Maybe call it 'bro-speak'. I call it jack-speak. It's annoying.
You're making sense and I, sounding simplistic will make an analogy to a design process I discovered as a child cleaning my room. After a certain point of layered mess and chaos it was difficult to create updated and relevant order. What worked was to take everything and remove it, except furniture and then one by one, sort things and categories became clear to guide me. Sometimes moving the underlying structure (furniture) made sense. NOW, in the face of our constitution, politics and voting, state and local laws, disinfo, education, healthcare, human services, disaster management, defense and on and on *obviously* we cannot invite the disruption stage of suspending operations while we sort BUT . . . .
We can scenario plan, while engaging everyone. We can prioritize the mission to use our best resources to overview history and distill out the essential principles and re-articulate in simple language, what makes sense for the world as it is. It challenges how we have collaborative conversations, how we recognize contributors, allocate resources to design and renovation.
Your words, "Think hard and reconsider" make sense but we don't know how to do that discernment effectively and perhaps it's an organizational design problem that needs to be tackled by everyone at all scales. Nature is a good guide.
My admittedly cynical guess is that Musk, Thiel and co. know perfectly well that the DTs is a contempable fool, and think he'll be putty in their hands once he's taken power. If they had learned any history, they might realize that their position is analogous to that of the smug national conservatives who thought the same of Hitler. No, the DTs is NOT even close to Hitler, but he IS intent on winning at any cost. Chaos and destruction will be the result.
Sounds like a great plan. I agree. It’s the “HOW” part that worries me. These things are all common sense items, but we are dealing with a bunch of MAGAts. How do we accomplish these things…or any of these things…
"All the money in the world cannot buy enough lipstick for That pig."
They don't need to spend a cent gilding the golden calf of the MAGA cult. They have a multitude of bullhorns.
Recently, media personality Matt Taibbi, on CSpan, making Musk's deregulation claims. Taibbi argued that: the most trustworthy media is the media that is most trusted; fact checking is misinformation; and that the First Amendment prohibits government regulation. This deregulation assertion is that of those misreading the Constitution to put absolutist creed and irrational habits of mind above coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence. In service of their lust for power and unconscionable greed. Looking at you Leonard Leo and the Charles Koch Supremes. The deregulation argument was debunked by John Oliver. Who countered a clip of Neil Gorsuch ridiculing regulations on mattress labels with a clip of a news alert on the recall of flammable crib mattresses.
I understand your fear. The rise of authoritarianism, emboldened by billionaires and dictators, is deeply concerning. But it’s crucial not to lose hope. Progress comes from standing firm in our values: truth, democracy, and justice. We’ve seen resistance before—and we will prevail.
Eventually lying gets to the point where it's beyond believable. While diehards will continue down the rabbit hole, if you listen to GOP/Indy discussion groups more and more are finding the absence of common sense in Trump/Vance lying, reason enough to vote for Kamala even though they are not on board with everything she's said.
For us either we cower in fear hoping for the least worst, or we stand up to lies which does much more to convince fence-sitters which side is best for the future.
Phil, your posts are always worth reading for their educational value and much else. I share your fear most days because the consequences of another Trump victory would be so damaging to our country that after another term we might not have the means to dislodge him again. That is, after all, the game plan spelled out in Project 2025.
But, I still have good days when the hope, energy, enthusiasm, honesty, positivity, optimism, competency and liberal orientation of Kamala Harris are more than enough to cheer me up and to regain some composure and some optimism of my own. May you have some days like that!
You are right and it’s too late to undo Powell before Nov 5. It’s hard to believe that so much money is backing such evil, but that is reality. If there is a treatment for the disease, I don’t know it. There isn’t another America with Ike on the horizon.
Phil, you're caught in a web of negativity. So much so that the good stuff can't be acknowledged. Trump has wormed his way into your head. Root him out.
I hope every teacher in America is thinking civics and history this year. From Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 (second grade), we in my small public school were engulfed in history and civics. This is the same emergency. Stephen Miller is a reincarnation of Adolph Hitler.
Fear and hate sells. And there is always a scapgoat to loath. For a change it is not the Jews, except tRump has blamed them if he loses which he will. It is always the Jews.
Senator shady J.D. is worse than candidate Trump. 🤢 At least the latter is, per the play '1776', "obnoxious and disliked." 😃 Senator Vance comes across as telling the truth when he spews his scheiße about a non-existent Harris Admin.👎Meanwhile the extant Biden Admin. has done quiet well, thank you very much. 😇
The link is for "The Racist AI Deepfake that fooled and divided a community."
Is that the clip you intended to share?
When people say they resent being considered racist for being MAGA, it reminds me of this: "Trump may not think he's a Nazi, but the Nazis think he is."
Remember: Joe Biden decided to run for President because of the 2017 events in Charlottesville, VA where Trump said "there were very fine people on both sides."
Examples:
*Ivana said Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bedside in a 1990 Vanity Fair interview.
*Trump wants to end NATO and let Putin conquer Ukraine, then Poland.
*When he announced his campaign in the summer of 2015, a since-deleted Twitter post included "Make America Great Again" with photoshopped WWII re-enactors in Nazi uniforms behind him.
*Rioters on January 6, 2021 included Nazi Swastikas and messaging. Notably, Robert Keith Packer wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt over an "SS" t-shirt.
*"Unified Reich" was in a post on his "minor social media platform."
*He uses the same language, such as "poisoning the blood" or referring to groups as "animals" or "vermin."
*He craves crowds at his "speeches" and "rallies" much like Hitler drew in the 1930s-1940s.
*He praises Hitler and other "strong men." His former Chief of Staff John Kelly confirmed specific instances.
*He is amassing his own "brown shirts" with militia-type anti-government groups such as The Proud Boys - "Stand back and Stand By". During the unrest in 2020, uniformed groups without identification or name tags showed up outside of the White House.
Recently he has been calling for violence (by authorities against civilians) compared to "The Purge" or more strikingly to "Kristallnacht."
I also recommend EVERYONE read Isabel Wilkerson's CASTE.
Unfortunately, “the truth” for much of the population is that they are barely scraping by economically. That is fertile ground for demagogues when Democrats continue to brag about how good the economy is doing.
Both parties have been focused on campaign donors since at least the mid—1990s when Clinton gutted welfare and unleashed the dogs of banking.
The result is half the population close to voting for Trump.
Please, Heather, urge Harris/Biden to stop talking about the damn stock market! The voters they (WE!) need have no stock and no way to retire with dignity. Openly acknowledging that things are really, really tough for many should be the start.
A large dose of Mea Culpa would go a long way.
Along with a practical way to give REAL political power back to ALL voters, not just those successful enough to be donors. That is why I push campaign finance vouchers and other voting reforms
"Unfortunately, “the truth” for much of the population is that they are barely scraping by economically”
And how is that the fault of the Biden administration? Likely most them were in the same boat under Trump and O’Bama and all the way back as far as we choose to go. This constant drum beat about the President being the sole person able to command the economy is rubbish, and any decent economist not in thrall to the Republican ‘disaster’ mongers knows it.
First most voters are NOT "decent economists", especially the ones who are in fact barely scraping by.
Second, you should remember that President Harry Truman had a desk sign that said "The buck stops here" and whether or not that is reality, it is what most people believed and still do.
Politics is ALL ABOUT what people believe, rightly or wrongly, and so it is about how those in power communicate that to the people. And sadly, that is why I was so upset at Biden choosing to run again as it had been clear for several years that he is no longer able to effectively communicate with the people, the ONE thing ANY president has to be able to do. It is so important that Trump s handlers who saw how his failure to communicate cost him the election in 2020, smartly made sure he stayed as far OUT of the spotlight as they could keep him, but of course Trump will always be his own worst enemy. But Biden's failures (not actual ones but percieved ones) have let people, especially his 2020 supporters, forget how atrocious things actually were under Trump.
All of this just to say that Harris needs to get much stronger in the final days and we need to mobilize as many voters in every state that we can. Hopefully she can put together enough votes in the key seeing states to win this and enough total votes to give her such a margin that the victory won't be contestable.
I also felt that Biden badly overreached in his decision to run again. And, yes, I know about Harry Truman’s desk sign. Indeed, I was alive (just barely) when he put it there. And yes, most voters are not decent economists (in fact I myself damn near failed Economics in a Wharton School classroom as a Penn freshman, only a year ahead of Donald Trump - who has since claimed to have done so well there - although that was more about my own academic laziness at the time than anything else). The result of that laziness in several of my classes was ultimately four years active service in the army before I finally got back to school and finished as I ought originally to have done. The lesson of that abdication of responsibility was not lost on me. Fortunately, unlike over 50,000 of my generation at a time when, as a nation, we should have known better, I lived to learn it.
As voters, one of our primary responsibilities is to work to discover at least enough truth about what is happening in our world and about the character and aims of those in positions of political leadership or legislative responsibility as we can. And in that, a vast number of us have failed miserably. Putting that failure off on Biden’s growing inability to communicate clearly, regardless of where anyone thinks the buck stops, is an abdication of that most crucial individual responsibility, and Biden is not responsible for that abdication.
American citizenship is hard work, and if enough of us aren’t willing to do it, we have no one to blame for the result but ourselves.
Yes, Trump needs to be soundly beaten in November, and Ms Harris needs to do a better job at communicating her aims, but the hard.fact here is that Trump needs to lose not because Harris hasn’t done her best, but because if he does win, even having been the worst president we’ve ever had (possibly barring Andrew Johnson) , far too many of us have not fulfilled that responsibility as citizens and voters.
The GOP at its best is nothing more than a peanut gallery, a bunch of armchair critics. More often it resembles the dastardly evil plotters in kids cartoons, whose sole mission is to foil the hero's selfless deeds in the most ridiculous and childish ways - the kind of stuff that appeals to six year olds. 'They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats...' and such like, boomed into a megaphone from on high by an evil orange buffoon with a wave on his head, echoed by a side-kick named 'Elon Musk' is B-grade kids movie gold. You couldn't make that sh*t up.
Anyone who's not busy dueling banjo's, would see this charade for what it is. Surely.
The “solution” was the physical defeat of the AXIS powers and the DEATHS of ADOLF HITLER and Benito Mussolini. Over 600,000 Americans lost their lives implementing THAT solution during WW2. Liar Fraud Con Felon Grifter Scum Traitor Putin’s puppet Trump is, today, the most disgusting and dangerous person on Planet Earth. He will continue to be a danger to Planet Earth even if he is soundly defeated in Nov 2024.
Michael Corthell, another good suggestion is to watch the newly releases film “War Game”. It’s a documentary about a gathering of former government/military/ intellignce /national security personnel from across the last five presidential administrations. They gather to role-play as a simulated national security exercise of a coup attempt on January 6th 2025’s election certification event. It covers the six hours the team assembled had to get the vote legitimately certified, and the oppositions actions against them. It’s nail-biting, but must-see-tv to understand what we are up against with domestic terrorism. I watched it on Prime, but it’s on many other streaming services and opening in selected theaters nationwide. Here a link to the homepage: https://wargamefilm.com/
Maybe it's already being done but that bigger hose needs to be used on Fox News, X, and other MAGA-favored communication sources. Fox needs money...so make big ad buys to directly counter the misinformation with the truth. Buy big, prominent ads in predominately red areas using local media. Craft the ads with hooks that will entice people to pay attention, read or view them. Surely a big percentage of those supporting Trump have a moral compass but have just been led astray by the misinformation. Those smarter than me need to find a way to direct the bigger hose of truth at those people.
It's so discouraging that the fire house of lies just gets louder everyday because that is the only way they see to stay in power! At this point, it's about right vs wrong, truth vs lies, decency vs name-calling...policy issues are secondary, ignoring the fact that Trump can't articulate them anyway.
Let's talk about the Harris/Walz campaign. Endorsements are pouring in. Her rallies continue to inspire. The honeymoon period people predicted would end has not. We are witnessing the Harris/Walz campaign like Obama's was.
The mainstream media is beginning to call out his lies. The economy is roaring. The Biden Administration is providing ample support for Harris with Joe's continued successes.
The number of Republicans endorsing Harris is historic. Absolutely historic.
Let's win this. I refuse to let the other side ruin this historic campaign.
It is really ok to enjoy what Harris and Walz are doing.
You sound surprised?!! There is a great deal to love about America - and it's not just loved by Americans. What has been happening to you over the last eight or nine years has caused people around the world to feel distressed for a good friend.
These lying, desperate, and deranged idiots in the Domestic Terrorist Party are in what i would call, ''extreme desperation mode'' now. I just wished we could deport all of them to Russia where their extreme authoritarian views are widely accepted with TUMP, MUSK, and especially that vile SOB Stephen Miller leading the way. Like i have said before, these are bad people and they are not welcome here in the United States. I think i understated what i just said, these are HORRIBLE people that is evident in a despicable effort to utterly destroy our great nation. I am sick of all of them and want them out of the United States!! They are rotten to the core.
Unfortunately I think it is absolutely disgusting to say that you think Americans no matter how you detest what they say should be deported. You are saying exactly what THEY are saying except in their case they justify it because the prior they want to deport are "illegals". You say you want to deport them even thought they have every right to be here and to speak their minds just like you.
Sorry you are just as bad as they are if you truly believe this and you certainly sound like you meant it. If they break the law, fine, send them to prison. But if all they are doing is speaking their mind, I remind you that at least for now we still have free speech in this country. "I may hate what my opponents may say but I will defend to the death their right to say it. " Voltaire
Believe what you wish but lies unless they provoke an immediate threat to the lives or safety of others are protected speech. Yelling fire in a crowded theatre presents a threat to people who might get trampled in a stampede. But otherwise lies are just as protected as truths. We as citizens can contest the lie with law suits but the person who told it can't be imprisoned or deported for it. That's why it's called FREE speech and FREE press. The Constitution GUARANTEES that those freedoms "shall not be abridged".
So MANY threats by these dangerous and hateful people. Death threats to gov't officials, to the Haitian people in OH, to election workers and on and on and on.... Their lies DO provoke immediate threats!
To carry this further, if Trump/Vance win because people believe their lies, our democracy--and therefore us--will get trampled in a stampede outlined explicitly in Project 2025.
Just like the Greatest Generation, we must rise to this occasion! The endorsements and the crescendo of energy is there. Thank you HCR for exposing lies, projections, and these negative people. I love how the ignorance about history as in the swimming pool…speaking of FDR…gets exposed! I’m diving into my GOTV postcards right now!
Thank you Barbara! 👏. Wonderful and we must focus on the good by filling our American spirits with the inspiration gifting us thru Harris and Walz. Post your signs! Wear your USA spirit wear! Gleam with pride! Raise your American flags for they are ours as well!
Thank you Barbara for sharing your positive perspective on this. Let's go to work and win this.. We each need to do something. We need to make our support for Harris loud and visible
The election is one month from today. The fact that the mainstream media are "beginning" to call out his lies may be too little, too late--especially in the face of the continued and outrageous lies fomented by Trump, Vance, Musk, Miller, Bannon, et al and circulated by social media, X, Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, Q Anon, and more.
Bravo Barbara Mullen for binging us back to the joy! Yesterday I came across this conversation between Politics Girl, Leigh McGowen and domestic-terrorism expert, Elisabeth Neuman. They talk about her new book “Kingdom of Rage” and details the depth and attraction of MAGA’s cult-like effect on many Americans. This I found helpful to understand the other side. They are Americans we will have to continue dealing with when Harris wins. They are being used and lied to. It’s going to be a long road, but it is possible. https://youtu.be/Qg27_ijug68?feature=shared
As an Archivist I take the long view. We will need to heal as a Country. We need to be willing to work for that to happen and be patient with the process.
About the lies floating out there regarding FEMA efforts for the aftermath of Hurricaine Helene, FEMA has created a webpage SOLELY to address the lies and rumors.
Bookmark it to have it handy for rebutting any nonsense you may see out there.
Also, LOVED learning the story behind the swimming pool remark, as I had never heard of it before, and it's a great tidbit of info to bring out when your MAGAt friends or relatives try to use it as more "proof" of President Biden's "mental decline."
North Carolina, hurricane devastation, and the down ballot:
The hurricane damage in North Carolina is devastating, and once again, a Republican controlled state legislature has contributed to untold harm. Just in the past year, it passed two laws prioritizing short-term profits over longer-term building codes. When Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed those laws, the Republican supermajority overrode them. See "How the North Carolina Legislature Left Homes Vulnerable to Helene" NY Times gift article:
The Tending to Democracy Giving Circle has already been fundraising to break NC's supermajority for at least two other very good reasons. The right wing Republican state legislature had passed an abortion ban that severely restricts access for 2.4 million North Carolinians, and it eliminated widely popular background checks on gun sales, making communities and children less safe.
The States Project has vetted a North Carolina slate of very good Democratic state legislature candidates. NC needs them to win to break the one-seat Republican supermajority and support NC's next Governor Josh Stein. As we know from David Pepper, what happens in the states does not stay in the states.
Thank you for supporting North Carolina through the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle:
I remember 2012 when North Carolina "tried to Outlaw Sea Level Rise," The NYT article mentions some of that and updates a lot of the results of politics interfering with science.
"...A new North Carolina regulation on development permits restricts all sea-level predictions used to influence state policies in the upcoming four years to those based on "historical data. Officials claim that the projection map would put permits of numerous development projects in the coastal areas in jeopardy. New flood zone areas should be designed, new waste treatment plants should be built and roads should be raised and insurance premiums would dramatically rise for home owners.
However, Gov. Bev Perdue asked lawmakers to come up with a coherent approach to sea-level rise:
"North Carolina should not ignore science when making public policy decisions. House Bill 819 will become law because it allows local governments to use their own scientific studies to define rates of sea level change," Perdue stated..."
Really? Just let idiot legislators make up their own science for their little area?
Back n 2012 we were concerned mostly about Sea Level Rise vs Subsidence with me looking at Elizabeth City, NC. Further looking into it seems to show the northern coastal area has an extra set of risks beyond those shown at:
“…The wild and beautiful coastal system of North Carolina (Figure 2) has always had a magical draw for human occupation and, most recently, has become an essential component for ever increasing economic growth and development. However, continued expansion in a dynamic coastal system dominated by high energy storms and change has set economic growth and community development on a collision course with natural processes…”
What it leaves out is the more recent impact of higher moisture in the warmer air that makes a lot more rain in a shorter period of time that overwhelms the pace at which we are adding better flood control and some great looking aquifer recharging to slow the pace of water draining too fast, not to mention the 9-fold increase in Category 5 storms as we see the real impacts of this new “Hockey Stick” era of ever less insurable climate change costly physical damage and impact on expected revenue loss. North Carolina seems way behind other areas in readiness for what is shown as better understanding, and adaptation to, the observed results vs scientific predictions of a dozen years ago. The rates of change in intense rainfall are beyond earlier predictions and better computer capacity (along with years of observation and analysis), shows how much more it is (and could be), accelerating.
Not in 1066--he had been dead for a very long time--and the whole "commanded the tide to turn thing is a myth developed centuries after his death. Cnut, son of Svein Forkbeard was king of Denmark and Norway as well as king of the Danelaw and Greater Wessex, aka "England" (from 1016) (I'm being pedantic but accuracy is important) until his death in 1035. The silliness of the "tried to turn back the tide" was designed as a warning to political leaders whose hubris was overtaking them. Cnut, who married the widow, Emma of Normandy, of his rival, King Aethelred II (d. 1016) to establish his legitimacy as king of "England," was a spectacularly successful monarch (also polygamous and a Christian when he was in England and not a Christian when he was in Scandinavia). His reign contains more documentary sources than any of his predecessors, which is helpful to those of us who deal with 11th-century Britain before the Conquest. Cnut's and Emma's son, Harthacnut, who succeeded him briefly, was not as successful, which is how Emma's son from her first marriage, Edward "the Confessor", who had been in exile in Normandy hanging out with Emma's brother, Duke Robert, and his son, William, was able to return in 1042. He ruled until 1066.
Gov. Bill Lee called for a day of fasting and prayer, but he didn’t seem like he was in a big hurry to call out rescue workers or arrange for other help for residents of storm damaged areas of Tennessee. If you get on X you see posts that attack FEMA and falsely accuse the agency of assisting undocumented people instead of citizens. This is the power of lies. They often get ahead of the truth, and far too many believe the lies for me to be complacent about the outcome of the election. We are also in need of serious constitutional reform, but it will never occur without the cooperation of Trump’s own party.
We are giving up our wisdom for a pittance. NYT article says building associations gave $4.3 million over THREE DECADES. In 2023 N.C. GDP was a bit south of $800 billion suggesting a real N.C. GDP over those decades of $20 TRILLION or so.
Compare $4.3 million to that.
Campaign finance vouchers, where all voters use small amounts of tax money to become political donors, like Seattle uses, would utterly transform politics.
It won't help that much of corporations and PACs are still entitled to give billions without restriction. Unfortunately changing Citizens United will take a constitional amendment or a completely revamped Supreme Court, neither of which seems highly likely in the next 2 decades.
I'm usually in agreement with you, Jon, but here, not so much. I sense an overwhelming Dem victory next month, including on the state levels. One of the first orders of business will be revamping the SC, including a couple of impeachments! With that, We The People will need to be extra vigilant two years from now, and insure we maintain the Dem majority. Then, we can get busy undoing the damage done by the SC over the past 20+ years. I hope the confidence level of you, and others, stays up here with me!
I wish I had your optimism on the outcome of this election. I think/hope we win the Presidency. My best take is that it will be by fewer electoral votes than Biden got in 2020 but that Harris will win. I think/ hope we win the House. I doubt we hold the Senate but we might if Texas kicks Cruz in the *ss. That would be great but very low percentage. My best guess is the Senate will be 51-49 favoring the GOP.
In any case no impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice will result in any change because it takes 67 votes to convict in the Senate. That simply is NOT going to happen.
The BEST CHANCE for any meaningful change is enlarging the court to 13-15 justices which COULD happen if we manage to hold the Senate and the House but that is a low probability.
I love your enthusiasm but I am a very realistic observer of political trends and will I think we won't be utterly defeated this election it is NOT going to be done big democratic sweep.
Also Ellie Kona, there is a very good conversation with Robert Hubbell and NC dem organizer, Drew Komer on his substack today. Drew heads the Mecklenberg, NC dems. He makes the case that victory in NC is clinched by the efforts under taken in Mecklenberg. I have heard him speak before and the case he lays out is very, very convincing. So, another targeted way to help North Carolina is to donate to Mecklenberg Dems. https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/mecklenburg-county-north-carolina?r=5g9ew&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
True, but I like the idea that there is often more to an allegedly "true" account than is covered by the part that is presented to us. Sometimes it's just more than our human capacities can handle, at least for a given instance, and sometimes it's part of deliberate deception.
The only thing that's going to be resolved on November 5 is that Trump won't be going to the White House again and will be spending the rest of what days he has left till he makes America truly great again with his permanent departure in courtrooms being brought to justice for his treason.
The cold civil war will continue in this country until MAGA is defeated and the Confederate White People's Treason Party (aka the GOP) is destroyed, and the MAGAts are back under their rocks in Flyover Loserville where they belong.
Agree. We need to wipe MAGA off the political map for good. I like to think we have an opening to do just that this election. Their leader is falling apart, the media is beginning to call out the lies and the American people are sick to death of him.
As Saul Alinsky noted in his book "Reville for Radicals," the real fight starts AFTER you win the election. MAGA is not going to fold their tents and steal away into the desert at night after they lost this election or likely any election until they have been defeated in every election between now and 2040.
That "fix" at least IMHO, would be worse than the disease. You want to make internet providers accountable for every statement made on their "wires"? You realize that would kill this Substack totally? Why? Because such opportunities to have open discussion would have to be taken down if the internet providers could be held accountable for every comment made that might be a lie or libelous or slander.
Section 230 is what makes an open internet even possible.
One United States Court of Appeal panel has effectively done that as I warned Substack Inc back in 2022.
I am one of the few Readers that took Substack Inc to mediation at JAMS per their own choice of law Terms of Use over troll defamation & misinformation on their Platform.
Substack Inc hired very good counsel & tightly held on to Section 230 like a life raft. That raft is losing air & sinking.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, essential command”
~Orwell, 1984
We must recognize and call out the ‘sanewashing’ and false equivalences of a media unable to break out of their horse race political coverage. Too many journalists are consumed by ‘mad poll disease’ and conflict-driven narratives about the ‘odds’ of who will win, rather than reporting that explains the ‘stakes’ to us, our families, our futures, and our freedoms—if the MAGA party of the convicted felon wins because their disinformation, lies, projections and gaslighting are normalized.
As Heather again so astutely notes:
“ The firehose of lies is designed to make it impossible for voters to figure out the truth. The technique is designed so that eventually voters give up trying to engage, conclude everyone is lying, throw up their hands, and stop voting. Holding on to facts combats the effects of the storm of lies.”
So, not only must we call out the lies to distract and divide—we must also vote, encourage others to vote, and do so in such numbers that we finally overwhelm their election denials and attacks on our democracy.
In my work with detained youths, I have noted that addressing bad behaviors always makes them worse (sometimes much worse) before they get better. Almost invariably, with fair and consistent expectations, the behaviors do improve. Trump, et al., are just starting to be held accountable, so they're panicking and acting out. I'm afraid this phase may last until well after they lose the election, but it will improve if we can collectively keep saying "no" to their lies and offer a better way to be.
who is the most trusted person we can put out there to counter the lies ? To be the beacon of truth ? While Walter Cronkite was with us, it would have been him. In this day and age it might take 5 or 10 people with large followings. You see the lies all over Facebook being repeated by old friends and family. Republicans who used to just spin things have witnessed how Trump uses lies and gets away with it...and they have joined in. It's VERY sad because a lot of them know they are lies.
That's a recent development, albeit a positive one.
It's only recently that the major news outlets started actually using the word "LIE" instead of any other euphemism or synonym within reach to soften reality. (That is, if they didn't just report it all as legitimate news.) Donald got a lot of assistance he didn't deserve.
Sorry I have to disagree with you on this one. Neither O'Donnell nor Ms. Richardson represent anything like Cronkite. He was a journalist. They are not. Heather is a historian and has a semi biased view in her comments. It's a view I respect but it is NOT a journalistic view. As for o'Donnell the less I say the better. He isn't even a historian, and he is certainly not a journalist. He is a commentator, essentially a spruced to editorial writer and IMHO a hack. He is the ONE MSNBC host I turn off. I like most of the rest, I even tolerate Joy Reid, but O'Donnell is the most egotistical insufferable jerk I've ever watched other than those of Fox. He is the Tucker Carson of the left wing. Ugh
the more people who keep pointing directly at Trump and Vance saying "liar, liar"...the better for the next month. Maybe they need to tag some TV spots with Gomer Pyle saying "shame, shame, shame" after their lies.
"Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness." Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
As it becomes increasingly clear and undeniable that America under Biden is doing indeed very well, the lies will become even wilder. At this point if trump told his supporters the moon is made of cheese they would believe it and Fox News would enthusiastically repeat it.
Let’s not forget this spectacle is being watched all over the world with dismay, fear and utter shock.
Spot on: I have friends in Europe and Australia who are writing to me about their fear for America. They are in shock the felon may win and question what has happened to the American people.
Well, a Delaware Court has ordered the CCO of Truth [Anti] Social out! I'm pretty sure Jack Smith's Team (like me) monitors state court orders binding against MAGAts particularly Trump operatives such as the nailed CCO, Andrew Northwall, of TruthSocial who has resigned.
Per Michelle Chapman, Associated Press, yesterday 10/4 at 4:54 pm Pacific, in the wake of a Delaware Court Order the CCO was ordered to turn over 785,825 shares of Truth Social to ARC Global Investments II.
State Court court orders & judgments are admissible throughout country in other courts. Warring corporate actors sometimes make excellent cooperating witnesses for Jack in his other cases against the lying felon. And, smarty pants Jack has cleverly sought alternative rulings from Judge Chutkan. If it fits you must indict.
As of yesterday 1,795,890 citizens have mailed in their 2024 ballots and/or voted-early-in-person. Also, I love Gov Gretchen Whitmer's camoflaugue garb at Kam's Michigan rally yesterday. She has been out front & on point for a long period of time.
There is no way to do that. He's a US citizen with all the rights that pertain. He has a platform that Father Conglin could only dream of. He's rich, he's unhinged and, as far as I can tell, unstoppable.
Nobody is above the law. And nobody has the unchecked power to spread harmful lies and misinformation. If he becomes a threat to national security, which he already is, I’m quite sure there are means to at least contain the damage he is doing.
Is defaming people against the law? He has repeated debunked lies about innocent Haitian people that have lead to death threats, bomb alerts and schools closing for fear of violence. I’m not a lawyer but it’s possible some of the stuff he writes could amount to breaking the law.
Musk isn't above the law but he has to BREAK the law before you can discipline him. What laws do you think he has broken? He may be an insufferable idiot but that doesn't mean he is a criminal.
Father Coughlin was bad enough. President Roosevelt had to appeal to Coughlin’s superior, Archbishop Gallagher, to order Coughlin off the air. Coughlin had to obey Gallagher’s orders.
I agree but that doesn't make him a criminal. This thread started out as an attack on him demanding he be deported. You can't deport American citizens unless they commit treason on behalf of an enemy. Musk SUCKS but I don't think he has broken any laws. If certainly want some proof of that before I'd attack him.
The press? Where? Get your facts straight. Ignoring Fox (which goes without saying) show me examples of the mainstream media lying outright. I do not believe you can present any evidence of that.
I wish to alert you to an extraordinary investigative article in the New York Times that describes, in great detail, how Trump, as president, was played by Putin on Ukraine.
As a former Foreign Service Officer, I was astonished by Trump’s ignorance and naïveté. Evidently, he bought Putin’s Ukraine story hook, line, and sinker.
At one time Putin, playing on Trump’s good feelings about FDR, spoke of Russia’s historic relationship with Ukraine being similar to FDR’s ‘Monroe Doctrine’ Latin American policy.
The article dwells on the nefarious role of Lev Parnas, Paul Malafort’s ‘secret ledgers,’ the machinations of Guliani, and the infamous “perfect” ‘arms for info on the Bidens’ Trump phone call with Zelensky that resulted in an impeachment hearing.
Government sources, including SecState Tillerson and NSC rep Fiona Hill, as well as other anonymous sources, spoke of government professionals’ effort to support Ukraine against Trump’s Putinesque view of a corrupt Ukraine that was part of the Russian sphere of influence.
As I read this voluminous investigative report, I became extremely upset. At a time that Biden has orchestrated a broad, NATO-based alliance to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine against Putin’s invasion, Trump has been—and is—Putin’s patsy.
Trump has publicly said that he has an excellent relationship with Putin and, as president, could resolve the Ukrainian situation in a single day.
Seems MAGA’s modus operandi has always been to tell half the story. For those with no knowledge of history, too incurious to explore further, those half stories are accepted as fact. SMH.
Thank you for such a thorough refutation of the lies I have been hearing and reading about the hurricane response. I did not believe them, but I just did not know how to verify or fact-check so many things I have heard. Thank you for helping put things straight. I know I am not alone in appreciating the service you provide in keeping us well informed.
Exactly what I was about to post. What a chore it must be to call out the unceasing lies from the fascists (no more Republicans)! And no doubt these are just the biggest ones. I certainly don't have the energy.
Tonight’s substack was my first thumb’s down HCR article. Reading about immature Republicans disinformation (again) is worse than scrapping gum off the bottom of your shoes.
The NY Times runs a story in today’s edition on Trump’s FEMA lies, but you have to scroll down past several other stories to get to it. And the story failed to mention Trump’s diverting FEMA funds to deal with immigrants when he was president.
Trump and MAGA lies should be at or near the top of the news media every day. They should never go unchallenged.
Thank you HCR, and others, I.e. Meidas Touch Network, for doing just that.
In a world in which the journalism industry took its collective jobs seriously (in recognition of the fact the Founding Fathers enshrined Freedom on the Press in the Constitution because they considered “a well-informed citizenry” critically important)… The only profession given such an honor), headlines across the country would be screaming “One Lie Too Far: Trump Disqualifies Himself For Consideration to be POTUS”.
We cannot elect someone who is so committed to winning that he denies economic reality, catastrophe recovery reality, and sociological reality…. all on the same day!
I ask this community (what are we… 3 million strong?) to contact every print and TV news organization in America … and add in foreign publications like The Guardian and The Economist… and demand they recognize Trump as the “cornered animal he is” (with Steven Miller his racist enabler)… and report on one story and only one story from now until Election Day:
Trump Will Lie About Any And Everything To Try And Gain Control Of The Government And Of Your Lives!
A journalistic article could NEVER have a headline like you suggest. Newspapers are supposed to REPORT news, not make proclamations or draw editorial conclusions. If a newspaper published an article like the one you proposed, no one should ever read that rag again. They could run such an article in their editorial section but that probably wouldn't satisfy you because you would still hate their objective reporting. Sigh...
As a main headline, absolutely! As an editorial headline, they have every right, and in today's world, a moral obligation. THAT is what is so sorely l lacking, for me.
But that's my point. People are complaining about the "mainstream media" and most of them have avidly endorsed Harris on their editorial pages. The complaints here are that the news articles don't "editorialize" against Trump. My point is that the papers DO support Hartis but the news articles are still trying to maintain balance which is their job and many of the commenters see that as a problem.
It's NOT the "mainstream media's" job to express opinions. They are supposed to report news. A lot of people here either missed a few of their civics classes or forgot the lessons because few seem to be able to differentiate what a news story is supposed to be versus as editorial. Most of the complaints leveled against the media here sre either frivolous or libelous which is sad for a group of people who purport to be intelligent liberals (mostly).
Identifying lies as lies is not expressing an opinion. To paraphrase, when one side says it’s raining and the other says it isn’t, the media’s job is not to report both statements as true, but rather to look out the window and see if it’s raining or not.
Even when the media reports well, the crafting of headlines (and clickbait) and the placement of stories, both in print and online, influences their reach. This matters.
Your argument is right. But most here are NOT asking for that neutral observation type of reporting. One of the commenters said an article should declare that Trump must now be barred from running for office because they identified another lie. That is NOT reporting, that is editorializing.
- Pulled Quote -
Again, right out of the fascist playbook, circa 1930s Germany:
''The firehose of lies is designed to make it impossible for voters to figure out the truth. The technique is designed so that eventually voters give up trying to engage, conclude everyone is lying, throw up their hands, and stop voting. Holding on to facts combats the effects of the storm of lies.''
Solution? We keep refuting them with the truth using an even bigger hose!
Vote.
I hear you, Michael, but I fear November 5.
Almost all the comments below yours now speak confidently of "endorsements pouring in" for Kamala and Tim (Barbara Mullen), Orwell's vision still apt, pertinent (Natalie Burdick), predictability of "Trump's common pattern" (KSC), and other ways more calmly to negotiate the fire hoses of lies.
I don't feel this confidence. The liars just grow more brazen, bolder, outrageous -- as if counting on tens of millions craving even more monstrosity out of their MAGA.
Very, very frightening, partly for what it exposes as what long before now I'd believed were great American schools. (They were, from the Justin Morrill land grant legislation of 1862 to the Powell memo of 1971.) Partly, too, we can see the horror side to all our beautiful tech as well as more horror in how most media show themselves routinely blind to the novels, histories, memoirs, and other arts in fact still there, largely disregarded even as many are so well in touch with the American people.
It's massive, this disease across the land.
And U.S. billionaires bankroll it, people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, plus dictators Putin, Netanyahu, Orban, and many more rooting (and organized-paying) for the orange savage.
Elon Musk has some serious - and I mean SERIOUS - personality problems.
He -has- no personality.
True, that. Looking at his face is like looking into a moral vacuum. An endless series of reflections in mirrors - with nobody at either end. Musk could have been the main protagonist in a "Twilight Zone" episode.
Chump has those dead eyes also. I used to post a pic of his dead eyes on FB.
What I call "Trump's lizard face." His resemblance to a lizard in a lot of his photos is striking. I wouldn't be surprised to find he had a third eyelid - and to see his tongue dart out and lick Stephen Miller's head. . .
Unfortunately, Lady Emsworth, the word "personality" implies a person in there.
Could we say instead serious moral problems?
Or do we need some totally new English to account for that savage mix of vacuity -- rage -- racism -- abysmally educated -- entitlement -- self-pity -- victimization scenarios?
Musk is a narcissist (not quite as bad as Trump, but bad enough) and he also has antisocial personality disorder, as do many in C suites who treat their lower level workers contemptuously as cost centers.
What I've learned from reading HCR's publications is that there is an eternal strife between Labor and Capital. Without political intervention, capital will eventually horde all or most of a nation's wealth. We're seeing that now here in the U.S. where 806 billionaires (including Musk) have accumulated as much wealth as one-half of the American population (163,000,000.) A poorly educated populace can fairly easily be conned into voting against their own best interests, as has happened here in the U.S. beginning with the "Reagan Revolution.) We are now an oligarchy, where the wealthiest individuals control the economy and the government. We need a new New Deal.
She does make that very clear. It's in the Constitution.
Today we see it in the pablum that ROI for shareholders is the most important thing for corporations. It's nonsense: shareholders simply put in money and can haul it out on any whim and flee.
Those who actually matter are STAKEHOLDERS. These are the employees, the customers, the vendors, involved in a commercial enterprise. They are the true "investors", not those who have more cash than they need.
Changing this business philosophy (and it's embedded in the legal system) would work wonders in improving how the country functions.
Relying on money to show value is a lazy way of doing things. See GDP calculations.
Richard, yes we have an oligarchy where dark and open money is taking over our lives. Consolidation in the consumer industries has eliminated competition, driven up prices, and reduced quality. It also controls much of our news channels, and floods the social media with lies. Corruption of our top court is out in the open. Our children are drugged by a fake digital world. Authenticity is buried. They are nature deprived and have lost the experiences that helps develop social skills. Political discourse is replaced by entertainment. We are played by the orange savage, who sows anger, fear and confusion.
Kathy what scale are you using for "not quite as bad as Trump?"
I wish Musk would hurry up with his mission to Mars because he wants to be on it.
Twin narcissists, no wonder they are circling the drain together, and want to take us with them. No surprise that Steven Miller is in the mix, more Elon’s twin, smarter crazy…
Stephen Miller is Trump's brain as far as I can see. He thinks up evil lies that wind up the base. And appeal to Trump's instincts, honed by Trump's years on the Apprentice. Trump recognizes a good line when he hear's one. And Trump appears unbothered by lying.
Discovering Musk and Miller have teamed together casts an image to the adage, 'Birds of a feather flock together'.
And some things come straight from Hell, the Dark Side, or whatever you'd like to call it. Musk, trump, vance, ad nauseum , are puppets of evil.
The "new English to account for that savage mix of vacuity -- rage -- racism -- abysmally educated -- entitlement -- self-pity -- victimization scenarios" can be summed up in one word - "MAGAnation"
He, she or they "MAGAnate"
He suffers from "MAGAnation"
Good one! And, if we're not lucky enough, we will all end up living in MAGA NATION. So the term can be use two ways.
Phil, excellent adjectives to describe MAGA.
I think she meant like as in a personality disorder - he is clearly a narcissist.
The 19th century word for psychopathy was “moral idiocy”, and that is the perfect term to describe both Musk and Trump.
I would say weaponized imbecility
Wow that's severe. Accurate though
AI on moral empathy:
"Moral idiocy is the inability to differentiate between right and wrong, or to understand how moral values apply to oneself and others. It can also be used to describe amoral behavior in institutions, and is sometimes seen as a cultural flaw that can lead to violence.
Some say that moral idiocy is a psychological concept that has been around for over a century. Others say that the main cause of moral idiocy is a deficiency in humans' ability to engage in moral reasoning. "
and a lack of empathy
My Ph.D. is in Chinese history. The Chinese were grappling with these very issues 2500 years ago. Clearly this is not a case of first impression. The question is: How are we going to handle it?
Amoral!
After the election Biden's should sign a couple of "official" executive orders.
1) Deport the legal immigrants Elon Musk
2) Deport the legal immigrant Rupert Murdoch and his progeny
3) Shut down Fox News, the New York Post and the WSJ
Of course this is tongue in cheek, but this is what Trump proposed two days ago with legal immigrants in Ohio and Aurora, CO.
Ala the Supreme Court, he would be acting in the interest of the citizens of the country, ie official capacity!
Don't forget Melania....
Isn’t love supposed to drive out hate? In theory anyway? Or is that just a cute little saying? There’s so, so much hate right now. And, to be perfectly honest, I’m guilty of it, too. I’ve been flabbergasted, astonished, repulsed, appalled, terrified, and beside myself with fury and fear for nearly a decade now because of the way these people behave, the horrid lies they endlessly spew, the MAGA cult that laps it all up like a dog heartily eating its own vomit. And you know what?
I HATE IT. I hate…them. I don’t care how that sounds anymore. I do. I hate them. And I’m tired. I shouted from the rooftops that Trump was a dangerous fascist well ahead of my peers. And I was ridiculed for it. My husband had conservative friends who would pull him aside and quietly say “your wife…I mean…isn’t she taking this a bit far?” NO! No! I am TELLING THE TRUTH.
I didn’t want to be this right, this on the nose, this accurate. But here we are. I’ve expedited my passport (it expires in a couple months). My husband and I have talked about leaving our beloved country if we must, if the Opus Dei Leonard Leo Elon Musk Peter Thiel Federalist Society monstrous theocratic fascists overtake it all. We will leave, with heavy but hopeful hearts, for a place that won’t round people up into camps (the horror of that thought alone), vilify, belittle, and wholly disempower women, immigrants, LGBTQ+, and any person who’s not white, “Christian,” or heteronormative. We will be OUT OF HERE. We won’t wait around for the horror. People have said to me “you can’t give up - you must stay and fight!” I’ve been fighting. Don’t you see? Passionately. For the past 9 years. It’s all I’ve done. If he “wins,” if these horrible people gain the power they’ve been trying so disgustingly hard to force upon us all, I will have lost this fight. We will all have lost.
I will vote like hell on November 5th as Dan Rather put it. In these remaining 30+ days I will remain cautiously hopeful, but ready to leave, too.
What will you do? Will you stay to witness the camps? The rights of those you love stripped away? How much “fight” do you have left in you?
Jesse - I'm glad you clarified that you will continue fighting until the election, as we all must. But like you, I am disgusted that so many seem to be at least considering the tRump ticket. I'm not sure where I'd go, and if I could actually leave my beloved home, but it has certainly been contemplated. Truly hoping that we vastly outnumber them.
I totally get it. I alternate myself between the idea of staying to fight (or at least hide), and the idea of leaving. When I look at the details, emigrating sounds overwhelmingly difficult, and not many countries seem to want a retired person moving there....
Everyone has an unconscious circle of concern and an actual circle of influence. "Mature" is the characteristic of an individual with a circle of influence encompassed within the individual's circle of concern. As an individual grows up, the individual's circle of influence expands in a stepwise fashion. An insufficiently mature individual has a circle of influence that has expanded beyond the individual's circle of concern.
The most serious personality problem is a "me, myself, and I" circle of concern in combination with a global circle of influence. Little Elon has that serious problem, along with donOld, JDV, Speaker Mike, Minority Mitch, six of the nine SCOTUS justices, Putin, etc.
And he has all the money in the world. You'd think, himself being an immigrant, that Musk would 1) tone it down, or 2) move away. Either would be OK.
All the money in the world, repubs let it happen. Give the money to the people at the top and they will let some trickle down. Biggest joke ever. Do we need more proof..,
Speaking of Trickle Down Econ: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/trickle-economics-flood-drip/
Will Rogers said it best. Nov 26, 1932. “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr Hoover …didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellows hands.” Mr. Hoover maybe didn’t know but our cretins surely do…
Wharton…hummm. Is that trump’s…???
Oh right….he’s smarter than everyone…..🤮🤮
Illusions of grandeur, sort of like some major destroyers of the past 100 years.
Lady Emsworth and other commenters, I haven't read every comment on this thread, so my comment could be superfluous. Elon Musk has Asperger's Syndrome. This is not meant to be a description of all people with Asperger's, but when you combine this issue with owning a huge social media outlet and being one of the wealthiest people on Earth, it logically follows that the combination of being on the autism spectrum and having the world as your stage opens the door to the possibility that a person will use their position to influence world opinion, but not have the filters available to temper their instincts. Apparently, like Trump, Elon craves notoriety and adulation, and this makes him even more dangerous than the Orange Menace.
Yes! It fits with his racism perfectly.
Elon Musk is a South African racist. Does anyone else out there remember Apartheid? I knew British South African social workers forced to flee because they tried to help get milk to Africans in camps. Musk and Miller are a pair.
Revoke his government contracts, let's see how great a business man he is sans Uncle Sam.
I am so utterly emotionally exhausted by the circus that Trump and his team keep creating. I am terrified as well, I don’t feel the optimism that I felt during the convention. I still have so many people in my life, who I have respect and like, who continue to believe the garbage they are being fed by their “alternative facts”! How is it possible that this election is close??? What does it say about this country where so many millions of people consider this insanity acceptable??? How is this country going to move past this moment? Recently traveled to Kenya, through Paris and every single person I have encountered is afraid of what will happen if somehow Trump ends up as the president! Also since the VP debate, I realize JD Vance is even scarier. Kenyans know corruption and abuse of power but even for them, this is a new level! They are glued to the news, hoping for Harris like their lives depend on her and who knows, it might! I equally can’t wait for Nov 5 and I am terrified of that date approaching! I lost the ability of saying, whatever happens, it will be ok! I don’t believe it will be! I just hope I am wrong! I believe and love Kamala Harris with all my heart, I’ve known her since 2004, she is amazing, she would make an amazing president! She cares and mostly she is amazingly human. I can almost feel how exhilarating would feel to find out she won! So intensely joyful, hopeful, inspiring and historic. But… I am so afraid of the feeling if Trump gets his way, I am afraid for this country, I am afraid for myself…
Does "misery love company" help in any way? I didn't think so. I have a relative that has been having cardiac issues of late. She told me yesterday, that she thinks the stress of the election is adding to her high blood pressure and stress.
There have to be millions more experiencing Trump related health issues.
As a reminder, if you live in ME, in person voting starts on Monday, October 7th.
I have been camping in Maine all week.
Perhaps it is my Vermont roots but I have been horrified by number of Trump signs along the road.
How can anyone live in the beautiful state of Maine and support a climate change denier?
Just another lie to add to all the rest.
Sickening, sad and at times terrifying.
I'm not sure where you are camping, but along the coast there are way more Harris/Walz signs than Trump signs. I mean way more.
Not to sound snobbish, but in Hancock County, the Trump signs seem to be way fewer than in 2016 and 2020 and there are virtually no Trump hats, flags or 4'x8' Trump signs. Also, most of the people in our town that proudly displayed Trump signs, banners, etc. in 2016 and 2020 have nothing displayed.
And the snobbish part is, those that do have Trump signs are the ones in smaller homes with no easy access to the ocean. I don't mean to offend anyone here but let's just call them what they are, "white uneducated trailer trash."
Gary, I have a friend (progressive-conservative) who was looking to buy property & purposely bought land in a “red” area of Michigan. Part of his acreage runs alongside a small rural highway & he has erected a series of Burma Shave-type election signs in support of Harris/Walz. Tho’ there are a few detractors, he has been heartened by the overwhelming positive response of passersby. He laughed when we last spoke recently (telco) when I told him of a picture of a yard sign I’d seen online—it said “I’m a Republican, but I’m not stupid!”. 🤣
Don't be horrified. It may be a lot of signs but is likely the work of a very few activists. If a MAGAt came to my door and asked if he could put a sign on my lawn, I'd tell him where to head in but a lot of less-involved people in small towns might be afraid to say no, no matter how they plan to vote.
Jane, reading these comments here, hearing/seeing the “reasons” he is supported & admired (🤮), my mind recalls a scene from the movie “Cowboys & Aliens” where captured humans are transfixed, zombie-like & catatonic, gazing at a large globe-like light in the ginormous alien ship. Maybe it’s like that? I really can’t wrap my head around the fact that real people support/admire/worship him. BTW, the movie is a fun & well done mashup of a cowboy western and sci-fi…set in the old west.
Early voting in MA starts October 19. The Dems don't have to worry about our bright blue state - although there are pockets of Trumpers in every region.
There is a lot on the ballot here besides saving democracy from an old fart fascist. Four citizens petitions. Including:
"Should Uber drivers be able to unionize?"
"Should magic mushrooms be legal?"
"Should the infamous "MCAS" statewide test for high school graduation be eliminated?"
"Should the state auditor be allowed to audit the state legislature?"
This is the stuff we should be talking about - not whether a wannabe dictator convicted felon rapist con man wife cheating pussy grabbing tax cheat failure businessman bigot liar thief of Top Secret documents insurrectionist climate change denying coup creating Russian asset...should return to the White House where he can again deny the existence of the next pandemic leading to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I agree, Bill, that there is SO much that needs our attention & that TFFFG sucks all the oxygen out of the efforts to address them….BUT, he is such a real threat it does take priority 🤬. Maybe if we built a lifelike movie set of the WH and gave him a TV show “The Pretendadent” he would have his “power plaything” & the theme music could be “Hail To The Thief”. Too bad he’s had the taste of the real thing after years of faux business mogul success on the TeeVee.
Gary, maybe a new ailment will be coined PTTSD—Post Trump Traumatic Stress Disorder. I especially like the “Post” part ‘cuz I assume that it would mean “after”, as in the guy would be gone gone gone kaput rear-view mirror shrinking image left in the dust buh-bye sayonara adios out of sight out of mind don’t let the door hit you on your way out…. Wow, just writing that made me smile 😊 and relax a bit in this predawn hour!
This won't cure the problem, but try Simon Rosenberg just one example, to keep up your spirits, even some MSNBC, needless to say, we know how you ARE going to vote, and this is likely an election where getting out the vote is a very big deal with margins seeming to be tight as they are, whatever the actual truth of the matter.
It says that money has bought lies, the deceit, and the moral bankruptcy that is driving Repubs
I am right there with you. A roller coaster of emotions. I am very concerned about democracy future.
Thank you, Luca. You said beautifully everything that is roiling inside me - the hope and the terror. And I feel raging anger that so many could be so ignorant as to believe the lies of the proven liars and cast their votes to destroy our democracy. If that should happen, I won't want to live here to see the destruction first hand, but I don't have the resources to move to another country where my medicare healthcare won't be accepted. I think we're all going to need extended therapy for PTSD after the election regardless of the outcome. Meanwhile, I will keep writing the postcards that help me feel useful.
The antidote to despair is to do something. Be the citizen you want to see. There are a thousand ways to push goodness forward in spite of the zone being flooded with shit. This is OUR time to hold on to the American Experiment. Despair can be overwhelming and frightening. I am not diminishing what you are genuinely feeling. It’s real and the other side has hoped to get you to that feeling. I started following not only Heather’s excellent newsletter, but also Jessica Craven’s “Chop Wood, Carry Water” , and Simon Rosenberg’s “Hopium Chronicles” substacks to get positive, actionable ideas on what to do, AND most importantly , additional credible information about what’s going on ( especially with Hopium Chronicles, about polling). These have been sanity-savers for me. If you check them out, you may find they give you the oxygen you need to get through this next season of our fight. Peace.
I am right there with you Luca. I love my country but I don’t know who many of my fellow Americans are anymore. Just as you feel, I am flabbergasted that MILLIONS buy these lies. This must be how it felt to live in 1930s Germany with Joseph Goebbels drumming up endless lies for Hitler to spew, knowing it was nonsense but watching your friends and family fall for it. The horror.
I hope and pray (I’m not religious but I am putting all that energy towards this) that Harris wins. I’m a Californian and I think she’s fantastic! I would be overjoyed and so hopeful if she wins! Will you stay if Harris does not win? I have a plan to leave, to move away from this country, if not. I won’t stick around for the evil these people have planned. I’ve lived too long and worked too hard and had a great life to be rounded up into a camp and have all my rights taken away. Oh. Hell. No.
What will you do if we lose? I’m so scared.
But I remain hopeful, I remain hopeful, too. Wow, what a time in our country. I wish you well. ❤️
Luca van Dam, thank you for expressing my terror if Trump wins again
Hope! Never let it flee from your psyche!
An excellent synopsis of the state of political affairs. The outrageousness of the current lies is jaw dropping and downright laughable if the stakes weren't so high. It is not immigrants who are poisoning the blood and minds of Americans, it is Trump and his white boy cult of Fascists, Nazis, white supremists, 90% of Republicans in Congress, his very own fledgling Brown Shirts Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, multi billionaires like Musk and Thiel and sadly MAGA everyday citizens who have swallowed the Trump con hook, line and sinker.
What should be done is not necessarily what can be done under current law. The instruments of mass deception, lies and trickery need to be deemed illegal. Everyone can accept a fair fight for political office, but we need to define what constitutes a fair fight - managing voting rolls, determining district boundaries, voting identification requirements, advertising, number of polling sites per population, etc. Governments must give notice to people they intend to purge from the voting roll. State governments must have a system where everyone born in the US and everyone who has been granted citizenship automatically receives a government ID # that can be used as voter ID. All these should be federal to avoid partisan political manipulation at the state level. This is the UNITED States, after all.
In the age of AI, social media and cyber communication, we need to rethink what constitutes treason and define regulations and laws to penalize treason. We need to define what behaviour warrants the removal of US citizenship by those not born on America, like Elon Musk for example. We need to define what behaviour constitutes a threat to the survival of the democratic republic of the USA. We need to redefine rules of what constitutes political donations and spending so that billionaires cannot aid in spreading and creating lies. We need to reexamine what constitutes fair and legal local election practices such as equal representation of both parties on decision making bodies and committees. The broadcast licences of the media must require that to qualify for a licence, news organizations may speak to difference of opinion, but may not broadcast outright lies. The Electoral College needs to go. True representation in a democracy = one person, one vote.
All of this needs to be done with an agreement as to constitutes freedom of speech, an immense task lest the democracy becomes an autocracy.
We have been remiss in shoring up the framework for democracy as incremental changes began to eat away at it. Now we are at an inflection point. This election in 2024 is not about policy choices. Make no mistake. On November 5, we are voting for a democratic Republic or a dictatorship.
And just as it was Biden’s job to steer the economy out from the devastation of the Covid pandemic, it should be President Harris’s job to rescue our democracy from the damage of MAGA-style populism.
One hell of a rescue operation.
Voting roll, thanks APPLE spell check
Amen! We must crack down on all these lies and revoke citizenship if necessary.
None of you will like this but the suggestions you make like revoking citizenship and "cracking down" sound so fascistic it truly scares me.
You need to settle down and think slowly and carefully before you make outrageous suggestions. I don't love every bit of it (2nd amendment particularly) but tearing down the Constitution to come up with convenient ways to impose your will on the rest of the country is NOT a good look. In fact, sorry for this analogy, but it is downright Trumpian.
Is that what you REALLY want? To just be the opposite side of the coin using the same outrageous behavior to "fix" things?
Sorry. That is not good for any of us let alone our country. We need to have faith that we can get through this and fix it correctly, not create a DIFFERENT kind of dictatorship thst can be imposed on the people we don't like. That would end our democracy just as quickly as Trump would.
Please think hard and reconsider.
You're quite right, Jon - and that is one of the main reasons we need a properly functioning Republican Party. You can agree with every Democratic viewpoint if you like - but a country where there is only one viable political party is a dictatorship - a benevolent dictatorship, maybe, but still a dictatorship. The problem is, as been noted so many times - how do you win a fight when you wield a pillow and the other guy is happy to use an AK47? I honestly believe that there are at least 70 million Americans out there who could REALLY use a decent education (no matter how rich they are, and what Ivy League schools they went to) The poorest of the nation are uneducated, and the wealthiest are shielded from truth. The ongoing degradation of the American education system has been working for at least the last fifty years. Not WHAT people learn - the three R's etc - but how to think. How to analyse. How to question. This is a problem that the Harris administration should look at as a priority when it is in place.
I agree with We could use a better education system. Seems like a daunting task.Especially when Maga R’s are/have been stacking the deck
Lady Emsworth, if i may add a small detail to the "decent education" arena..: Learn how to speak english, not jack-speak. Meaning, to be able to articulate sans "I be.. You be.. You know.., Like.., F-n this., etc.. Ughhh! And, I better add that I'm not referring to Melania's broken english during her book interview. New York or Southern or foreign accents are not what I'm referring to. Maybe call it 'bro-speak'. I call it jack-speak. It's annoying.
I think you're right, but understand it's the voice of helpless frustration saying this.
It all boils down to money, after all. We value it so much more than anything else, and it's a sickness.
You're making sense and I, sounding simplistic will make an analogy to a design process I discovered as a child cleaning my room. After a certain point of layered mess and chaos it was difficult to create updated and relevant order. What worked was to take everything and remove it, except furniture and then one by one, sort things and categories became clear to guide me. Sometimes moving the underlying structure (furniture) made sense. NOW, in the face of our constitution, politics and voting, state and local laws, disinfo, education, healthcare, human services, disaster management, defense and on and on *obviously* we cannot invite the disruption stage of suspending operations while we sort BUT . . . .
We can scenario plan, while engaging everyone. We can prioritize the mission to use our best resources to overview history and distill out the essential principles and re-articulate in simple language, what makes sense for the world as it is. It challenges how we have collaborative conversations, how we recognize contributors, allocate resources to design and renovation.
Your words, "Think hard and reconsider" make sense but we don't know how to do that discernment effectively and perhaps it's an organizational design problem that needs to be tackled by everyone at all scales. Nature is a good guide.
My admittedly cynical guess is that Musk, Thiel and co. know perfectly well that the DTs is a contempable fool, and think he'll be putty in their hands once he's taken power. If they had learned any history, they might realize that their position is analogous to that of the smug national conservatives who thought the same of Hitler. No, the DTs is NOT even close to Hitler, but he IS intent on winning at any cost. Chaos and destruction will be the result.
Thanks for that thoughtful essay, Cindy!
Sounds like a great plan. I agree. It’s the “HOW” part that worries me. These things are all common sense items, but we are dealing with a bunch of MAGAts. How do we accomplish these things…or any of these things…
All the money in the world cannot buy enough lipstick for That pig.
"All the money in the world cannot buy enough lipstick for That pig."
They don't need to spend a cent gilding the golden calf of the MAGA cult. They have a multitude of bullhorns.
Recently, media personality Matt Taibbi, on CSpan, making Musk's deregulation claims. Taibbi argued that: the most trustworthy media is the media that is most trusted; fact checking is misinformation; and that the First Amendment prohibits government regulation. This deregulation assertion is that of those misreading the Constitution to put absolutist creed and irrational habits of mind above coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence. In service of their lust for power and unconscionable greed. Looking at you Leonard Leo and the Charles Koch Supremes. The deregulation argument was debunked by John Oliver. Who countered a clip of Neil Gorsuch ridiculing regulations on mattress labels with a clip of a news alert on the recall of flammable crib mattresses.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?538925-5/matt-taibbi-challenges-free-speech-america
John Oliver, Federal Judges
https://youtu.be/j3w8-d_fnqE?si=wZkUiypteSGL4P7X
Poor Matt Taibbi. Lost relevance and now worships at that alter.
But the press keeps doing homage
John Oliver has a great monolog on Musk. I added a link to it here: https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-iks-factor.html
I understand your fear. The rise of authoritarianism, emboldened by billionaires and dictators, is deeply concerning. But it’s crucial not to lose hope. Progress comes from standing firm in our values: truth, democracy, and justice. We’ve seen resistance before—and we will prevail.
It’s so pernicious here in the path of Helene because not only will it confuse voters, it will make the recovery effort so much more difficult.
Eventually lying gets to the point where it's beyond believable. While diehards will continue down the rabbit hole, if you listen to GOP/Indy discussion groups more and more are finding the absence of common sense in Trump/Vance lying, reason enough to vote for Kamala even though they are not on board with everything she's said.
For us either we cower in fear hoping for the least worst, or we stand up to lies which does much more to convince fence-sitters which side is best for the future.
Phil, your posts are always worth reading for their educational value and much else. I share your fear most days because the consequences of another Trump victory would be so damaging to our country that after another term we might not have the means to dislodge him again. That is, after all, the game plan spelled out in Project 2025.
But, I still have good days when the hope, energy, enthusiasm, honesty, positivity, optimism, competency and liberal orientation of Kamala Harris are more than enough to cheer me up and to regain some composure and some optimism of my own. May you have some days like that!
You are right and it’s too late to undo Powell before Nov 5. It’s hard to believe that so much money is backing such evil, but that is reality. If there is a treatment for the disease, I don’t know it. There isn’t another America with Ike on the horizon.
Phil, you're caught in a web of negativity. So much so that the good stuff can't be acknowledged. Trump has wormed his way into your head. Root him out.
Joseph in Fairport
I hope every teacher in America is thinking civics and history this year. From Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 (second grade), we in my small public school were engulfed in history and civics. This is the same emergency. Stephen Miller is a reincarnation of Adolph Hitler.
What are you doing to see that we can celebrate on November 6th? If you’re not in the game already, there’s still time to join those I of us who are.
I am sitting in the Berlin airport reading this and trying hard not to weep.
After spending time in Berlin and trying to get my mind around the Nazis and what they wrought and no seeing this. Do we ever learn, I guess not!
Fear and hate sells. And there is always a scapgoat to loath. For a change it is not the Jews, except tRump has blamed them if he loses which he will. It is always the Jews.
Question is what does he do to Jared and Ivanka and their kids? They are all Jews. So is Stephen Miller. Strange bedfellows.
Just like with Melania. She is not an immigrant. Blind spots all over…
Senator shady J.D. is worse than candidate Trump. 🤢 At least the latter is, per the play '1776', "obnoxious and disliked." 😃 Senator Vance comes across as telling the truth when he spews his scheiße about a non-existent Harris Admin.👎Meanwhile the extant Biden Admin. has done quiet well, thank you very much. 😇
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5135497/user-clip-liar-liar-vance-fire
This works though.
People believe what they want to believe.
Anchoring bias and confirmation bias.
Look at this.
“maybe it's not true, but that's what I think they think" (quote)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg9k5dv1zdo
Cowering is what the right wants us to do. NO! We will not cower!
THAT BBC SHARE IS GREAT ----- and terrifying about the risks we all face from an unregulated AI world
The link is for "The Racist AI Deepfake that fooled and divided a community."
Is that the clip you intended to share?
When people say they resent being considered racist for being MAGA, it reminds me of this: "Trump may not think he's a Nazi, but the Nazis think he is."
Remember: Joe Biden decided to run for President because of the 2017 events in Charlottesville, VA where Trump said "there were very fine people on both sides."
Examples:
*Ivana said Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bedside in a 1990 Vanity Fair interview.
*Trump wants to end NATO and let Putin conquer Ukraine, then Poland.
*When he announced his campaign in the summer of 2015, a since-deleted Twitter post included "Make America Great Again" with photoshopped WWII re-enactors in Nazi uniforms behind him.
*Rioters on January 6, 2021 included Nazi Swastikas and messaging. Notably, Robert Keith Packer wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt over an "SS" t-shirt.
*"Unified Reich" was in a post on his "minor social media platform."
*He uses the same language, such as "poisoning the blood" or referring to groups as "animals" or "vermin."
*He craves crowds at his "speeches" and "rallies" much like Hitler drew in the 1930s-1940s.
*He praises Hitler and other "strong men." His former Chief of Staff John Kelly confirmed specific instances.
*He is amassing his own "brown shirts" with militia-type anti-government groups such as The Proud Boys - "Stand back and Stand By". During the unrest in 2020, uniformed groups without identification or name tags showed up outside of the White House.
Recently he has been calling for violence (by authorities against civilians) compared to "The Purge" or more strikingly to "Kristallnacht."
I also recommend EVERYONE read Isabel Wilkerson's CASTE.
Yes it is the link I wanted to share.
It explains the irrational effect of misinformation.... which is being wesponised right now in the US
Rupert knows all that. Has known for 40+ years
That’s a great share, Christopher Colles. Thank You!
That's a true thing. And the converse is true: people don't believe lies unless they want to.
Unfortunately, “the truth” for much of the population is that they are barely scraping by economically. That is fertile ground for demagogues when Democrats continue to brag about how good the economy is doing.
Both parties have been focused on campaign donors since at least the mid—1990s when Clinton gutted welfare and unleashed the dogs of banking.
The result is half the population close to voting for Trump.
Please, Heather, urge Harris/Biden to stop talking about the damn stock market! The voters they (WE!) need have no stock and no way to retire with dignity. Openly acknowledging that things are really, really tough for many should be the start.
A large dose of Mea Culpa would go a long way.
Along with a practical way to give REAL political power back to ALL voters, not just those successful enough to be donors. That is why I push campaign finance vouchers and other voting reforms
"Unfortunately, “the truth” for much of the population is that they are barely scraping by economically”
And how is that the fault of the Biden administration? Likely most them were in the same boat under Trump and O’Bama and all the way back as far as we choose to go. This constant drum beat about the President being the sole person able to command the economy is rubbish, and any decent economist not in thrall to the Republican ‘disaster’ mongers knows it.
First most voters are NOT "decent economists", especially the ones who are in fact barely scraping by.
Second, you should remember that President Harry Truman had a desk sign that said "The buck stops here" and whether or not that is reality, it is what most people believed and still do.
Politics is ALL ABOUT what people believe, rightly or wrongly, and so it is about how those in power communicate that to the people. And sadly, that is why I was so upset at Biden choosing to run again as it had been clear for several years that he is no longer able to effectively communicate with the people, the ONE thing ANY president has to be able to do. It is so important that Trump s handlers who saw how his failure to communicate cost him the election in 2020, smartly made sure he stayed as far OUT of the spotlight as they could keep him, but of course Trump will always be his own worst enemy. But Biden's failures (not actual ones but percieved ones) have let people, especially his 2020 supporters, forget how atrocious things actually were under Trump.
All of this just to say that Harris needs to get much stronger in the final days and we need to mobilize as many voters in every state that we can. Hopefully she can put together enough votes in the key seeing states to win this and enough total votes to give her such a margin that the victory won't be contestable.
I also felt that Biden badly overreached in his decision to run again. And, yes, I know about Harry Truman’s desk sign. Indeed, I was alive (just barely) when he put it there. And yes, most voters are not decent economists (in fact I myself damn near failed Economics in a Wharton School classroom as a Penn freshman, only a year ahead of Donald Trump - who has since claimed to have done so well there - although that was more about my own academic laziness at the time than anything else). The result of that laziness in several of my classes was ultimately four years active service in the army before I finally got back to school and finished as I ought originally to have done. The lesson of that abdication of responsibility was not lost on me. Fortunately, unlike over 50,000 of my generation at a time when, as a nation, we should have known better, I lived to learn it.
As voters, one of our primary responsibilities is to work to discover at least enough truth about what is happening in our world and about the character and aims of those in positions of political leadership or legislative responsibility as we can. And in that, a vast number of us have failed miserably. Putting that failure off on Biden’s growing inability to communicate clearly, regardless of where anyone thinks the buck stops, is an abdication of that most crucial individual responsibility, and Biden is not responsible for that abdication.
American citizenship is hard work, and if enough of us aren’t willing to do it, we have no one to blame for the result but ourselves.
Yes, Trump needs to be soundly beaten in November, and Ms Harris needs to do a better job at communicating her aims, but the hard.fact here is that Trump needs to lose not because Harris hasn’t done her best, but because if he does win, even having been the worst president we’ve ever had (possibly barring Andrew Johnson) , far too many of us have not fulfilled that responsibility as citizens and voters.
Agreed
You think you're only scrapping by wait till Trump takes away social security and your kids have to help support you
The GOP at its best is nothing more than a peanut gallery, a bunch of armchair critics. More often it resembles the dastardly evil plotters in kids cartoons, whose sole mission is to foil the hero's selfless deeds in the most ridiculous and childish ways - the kind of stuff that appeals to six year olds. 'They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats...' and such like, boomed into a megaphone from on high by an evil orange buffoon with a wave on his head, echoed by a side-kick named 'Elon Musk' is B-grade kids movie gold. You couldn't make that sh*t up.
Anyone who's not busy dueling banjo's, would see this charade for what it is. Surely.
The problem is that about 70 million or more people out there are dueling banjos and worse.
Simple, that’s what I thought til the cretin won, not funny anymore
The “solution” was the physical defeat of the AXIS powers and the DEATHS of ADOLF HITLER and Benito Mussolini. Over 600,000 Americans lost their lives implementing THAT solution during WW2. Liar Fraud Con Felon Grifter Scum Traitor Putin’s puppet Trump is, today, the most disgusting and dangerous person on Planet Earth. He will continue to be a danger to Planet Earth even if he is soundly defeated in Nov 2024.
“Solution”?
And where is that bigger firehose, clogged with both sides bull Schitt.
Michael Corthell, another good suggestion is to watch the newly releases film “War Game”. It’s a documentary about a gathering of former government/military/ intellignce /national security personnel from across the last five presidential administrations. They gather to role-play as a simulated national security exercise of a coup attempt on January 6th 2025’s election certification event. It covers the six hours the team assembled had to get the vote legitimately certified, and the oppositions actions against them. It’s nail-biting, but must-see-tv to understand what we are up against with domestic terrorism. I watched it on Prime, but it’s on many other streaming services and opening in selected theaters nationwide. Here a link to the homepage: https://wargamefilm.com/
Where is the bigger hose???????????????????????????
Maybe it's already being done but that bigger hose needs to be used on Fox News, X, and other MAGA-favored communication sources. Fox needs money...so make big ad buys to directly counter the misinformation with the truth. Buy big, prominent ads in predominately red areas using local media. Craft the ads with hooks that will entice people to pay attention, read or view them. Surely a big percentage of those supporting Trump have a moral compass but have just been led astray by the misinformation. Those smarter than me need to find a way to direct the bigger hose of truth at those people.
It's so discouraging that the fire house of lies just gets louder everyday because that is the only way they see to stay in power! At this point, it's about right vs wrong, truth vs lies, decency vs name-calling...policy issues are secondary, ignoring the fact that Trump can't articulate them anyway.
Let's talk about the Harris/Walz campaign. Endorsements are pouring in. Her rallies continue to inspire. The honeymoon period people predicted would end has not. We are witnessing the Harris/Walz campaign like Obama's was.
The mainstream media is beginning to call out his lies. The economy is roaring. The Biden Administration is providing ample support for Harris with Joe's continued successes.
The number of Republicans endorsing Harris is historic. Absolutely historic.
Let's win this. I refuse to let the other side ruin this historic campaign.
It is really ok to enjoy what Harris and Walz are doing.
When, in the history of our country, have so many luminaries of one party banded together to endorse the candidate of the opposing party?
I know!! It is an amazing thing to witness. People really love Amerca.
"It is amazing. . . . People really love America"
You sound surprised?!! There is a great deal to love about America - and it's not just loved by Americans. What has been happening to you over the last eight or nine years has caused people around the world to feel distressed for a good friend.
David Sea and I are celebrating America. Join in or not.
I’m 78 and not in my lifetime
Never? I think that’s right.
These lying, desperate, and deranged idiots in the Domestic Terrorist Party are in what i would call, ''extreme desperation mode'' now. I just wished we could deport all of them to Russia where their extreme authoritarian views are widely accepted with TUMP, MUSK, and especially that vile SOB Stephen Miller leading the way. Like i have said before, these are bad people and they are not welcome here in the United States. I think i understated what i just said, these are HORRIBLE people that is evident in a despicable effort to utterly destroy our great nation. I am sick of all of them and want them out of the United States!! They are rotten to the core.
Unfortunately I think it is absolutely disgusting to say that you think Americans no matter how you detest what they say should be deported. You are saying exactly what THEY are saying except in their case they justify it because the prior they want to deport are "illegals". You say you want to deport them even thought they have every right to be here and to speak their minds just like you.
Sorry you are just as bad as they are if you truly believe this and you certainly sound like you meant it. If they break the law, fine, send them to prison. But if all they are doing is speaking their mind, I remind you that at least for now we still have free speech in this country. "I may hate what my opponents may say but I will defend to the death their right to say it. " Voltaire
Their lies are the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater when there is no fire--not, in my opinion, the equivalent of free speech.
Believe what you wish but lies unless they provoke an immediate threat to the lives or safety of others are protected speech. Yelling fire in a crowded theatre presents a threat to people who might get trampled in a stampede. But otherwise lies are just as protected as truths. We as citizens can contest the lie with law suits but the person who told it can't be imprisoned or deported for it. That's why it's called FREE speech and FREE press. The Constitution GUARANTEES that those freedoms "shall not be abridged".
Their lies HAVE created threats and danger to many. My goodness, surely you are aware of that.
So MANY threats by these dangerous and hateful people. Death threats to gov't officials, to the Haitian people in OH, to election workers and on and on and on.... Their lies DO provoke immediate threats!
and the fact that 'hate' speech is a violation of the 1st ammendment. MAGA is FULL of hate speech.
To carry this further, if Trump/Vance win because people believe their lies, our democracy--and therefore us--will get trampled in a stampede outlined explicitly in Project 2025.
As a former Marine, and a life-long Democrat, I have used the Voltaire quote often.
Putin could use them for canon fodder instead of Russian youth 🤷♂️💥
Hear Hear, Barbara!
Morning, Lynell. Hear, hear indeed!
Morning, Ally! Happy Saturday!
And to you. Finishing up my annual sister’s trip with my sister and we’re heading to my house today before she heads home tomorrow.
Fun times for sure!
Thanks Lynell
Right on @BarbaraMullen! As FDR said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself!”
Postcard, #VoteDayOne #FriendsDontLetFriendsNotVote
Just like the Greatest Generation, we must rise to this occasion! The endorsements and the crescendo of energy is there. Thank you HCR for exposing lies, projections, and these negative people. I love how the ignorance about history as in the swimming pool…speaking of FDR…gets exposed! I’m diving into my GOTV postcards right now!
Thank you Barbara! 👏. Wonderful and we must focus on the good by filling our American spirits with the inspiration gifting us thru Harris and Walz. Post your signs! Wear your USA spirit wear! Gleam with pride! Raise your American flags for they are ours as well!
Thanks Anne. Let's enjoy this and work really hard.
Thank you Barbara for sharing your positive perspective on this. Let's go to work and win this.. We each need to do something. We need to make our support for Harris loud and visible
Well said!
Thanks! Have a great time with your Sister.
Right on, Barbara. The bad guys know the only way the bad guys win is when the good guys give up.
Thanks James! Let's do this.
The election is one month from today. The fact that the mainstream media are "beginning" to call out his lies may be too little, too late--especially in the face of the continued and outrageous lies fomented by Trump, Vance, Musk, Miller, Bannon, et al and circulated by social media, X, Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, Q Anon, and more.
Bravo Barbara Mullen for binging us back to the joy! Yesterday I came across this conversation between Politics Girl, Leigh McGowen and domestic-terrorism expert, Elisabeth Neuman. They talk about her new book “Kingdom of Rage” and details the depth and attraction of MAGA’s cult-like effect on many Americans. This I found helpful to understand the other side. They are Americans we will have to continue dealing with when Harris wins. They are being used and lied to. It’s going to be a long road, but it is possible. https://youtu.be/Qg27_ijug68?feature=shared
As an Archivist I take the long view. We will need to heal as a Country. We need to be willing to work for that to happen and be patient with the process.
About the lies floating out there regarding FEMA efforts for the aftermath of Hurricaine Helene, FEMA has created a webpage SOLELY to address the lies and rumors.
https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response
Bookmark it to have it handy for rebutting any nonsense you may see out there.
Also, LOVED learning the story behind the swimming pool remark, as I had never heard of it before, and it's a great tidbit of info to bring out when your MAGAt friends or relatives try to use it as more "proof" of President Biden's "mental decline."
North Carolina, hurricane devastation, and the down ballot:
The hurricane damage in North Carolina is devastating, and once again, a Republican controlled state legislature has contributed to untold harm. Just in the past year, it passed two laws prioritizing short-term profits over longer-term building codes. When Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed those laws, the Republican supermajority overrode them. See "How the North Carolina Legislature Left Homes Vulnerable to Helene" NY Times gift article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/03/climate/north-carolina-homes-helene-building-codes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.WL_m.AXB0qdlX6n73&smid=url-share
The Tending to Democracy Giving Circle has already been fundraising to break NC's supermajority for at least two other very good reasons. The right wing Republican state legislature had passed an abortion ban that severely restricts access for 2.4 million North Carolinians, and it eliminated widely popular background checks on gun sales, making communities and children less safe.
The States Project has vetted a North Carolina slate of very good Democratic state legislature candidates. NC needs them to win to break the one-seat Republican supermajority and support NC's next Governor Josh Stein. As we know from David Pepper, what happens in the states does not stay in the states.
Thank you for supporting North Carolina through the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle:
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/Tending-to-Democracy
I remember 2012 when North Carolina "tried to Outlaw Sea Level Rise," The NYT article mentions some of that and updates a lot of the results of politics interfering with science.
For the earlier 2012 story see https://www.preventionweb.net/news/new-law-north-carolina-bans-latest-scientific-predictions-sea-level-rise
"...A new North Carolina regulation on development permits restricts all sea-level predictions used to influence state policies in the upcoming four years to those based on "historical data. Officials claim that the projection map would put permits of numerous development projects in the coastal areas in jeopardy. New flood zone areas should be designed, new waste treatment plants should be built and roads should be raised and insurance premiums would dramatically rise for home owners.
However, Gov. Bev Perdue asked lawmakers to come up with a coherent approach to sea-level rise:
"North Carolina should not ignore science when making public policy decisions. House Bill 819 will become law because it allows local governments to use their own scientific studies to define rates of sea level change," Perdue stated..."
Really? Just let idiot legislators make up their own science for their little area?
Back n 2012 we were concerned mostly about Sea Level Rise vs Subsidence with me looking at Elizabeth City, NC. Further looking into it seems to show the northern coastal area has an extra set of risks beyond those shown at:
https://ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/coastwatch/a-brief-history-of-sea-level-rise-in-north-carolina/
“…The wild and beautiful coastal system of North Carolina (Figure 2) has always had a magical draw for human occupation and, most recently, has become an essential component for ever increasing economic growth and development. However, continued expansion in a dynamic coastal system dominated by high energy storms and change has set economic growth and community development on a collision course with natural processes…”
What it leaves out is the more recent impact of higher moisture in the warmer air that makes a lot more rain in a shorter period of time that overwhelms the pace at which we are adding better flood control and some great looking aquifer recharging to slow the pace of water draining too fast, not to mention the 9-fold increase in Category 5 storms as we see the real impacts of this new “Hockey Stick” era of ever less insurable climate change costly physical damage and impact on expected revenue loss. North Carolina seems way behind other areas in readiness for what is shown as better understanding, and adaptation to, the observed results vs scientific predictions of a dozen years ago. The rates of change in intense rainfall are beyond earlier predictions and better computer capacity (along with years of observation and analysis), shows how much more it is (and could be), accelerating.
See the new season of Weathered (6 episodes released on Oct 2, and the TRILLIONS of impact coming ), at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdjcOXoajvE
Reality always wins. It's not always pretty.
King Canute tried to command the tide in 1066. That didn't work, either - and he had A LOT less science to ignore :)
King Canute was also spectacularly unsuccessful in his attempt to control the tide.
Not in 1066--he had been dead for a very long time--and the whole "commanded the tide to turn thing is a myth developed centuries after his death. Cnut, son of Svein Forkbeard was king of Denmark and Norway as well as king of the Danelaw and Greater Wessex, aka "England" (from 1016) (I'm being pedantic but accuracy is important) until his death in 1035. The silliness of the "tried to turn back the tide" was designed as a warning to political leaders whose hubris was overtaking them. Cnut, who married the widow, Emma of Normandy, of his rival, King Aethelred II (d. 1016) to establish his legitimacy as king of "England," was a spectacularly successful monarch (also polygamous and a Christian when he was in England and not a Christian when he was in Scandinavia). His reign contains more documentary sources than any of his predecessors, which is helpful to those of us who deal with 11th-century Britain before the Conquest. Cnut's and Emma's son, Harthacnut, who succeeded him briefly, was not as successful, which is how Emma's son from her first marriage, Edward "the Confessor", who had been in exile in Normandy hanging out with Emma's brother, Duke Robert, and his son, William, was able to return in 1042. He ruled until 1066.
Pedantic is good for this 76 year old student; accuracy -- that's why we are all here to read the Professor. :---)
Gov. Bill Lee called for a day of fasting and prayer, but he didn’t seem like he was in a big hurry to call out rescue workers or arrange for other help for residents of storm damaged areas of Tennessee. If you get on X you see posts that attack FEMA and falsely accuse the agency of assisting undocumented people instead of citizens. This is the power of lies. They often get ahead of the truth, and far too many believe the lies for me to be complacent about the outcome of the election. We are also in need of serious constitutional reform, but it will never occur without the cooperation of Trump’s own party.
Constitutional reform is on the Koch wish list.
Yeah but I don't think those reforms are the ones we want LOL!
Exactly
We are giving up our wisdom for a pittance. NYT article says building associations gave $4.3 million over THREE DECADES. In 2023 N.C. GDP was a bit south of $800 billion suggesting a real N.C. GDP over those decades of $20 TRILLION or so.
Compare $4.3 million to that.
Campaign finance vouchers, where all voters use small amounts of tax money to become political donors, like Seattle uses, would utterly transform politics.
That is what I write about in my Substack
It won't help that much of corporations and PACs are still entitled to give billions without restriction. Unfortunately changing Citizens United will take a constitional amendment or a completely revamped Supreme Court, neither of which seems highly likely in the next 2 decades.
I'm usually in agreement with you, Jon, but here, not so much. I sense an overwhelming Dem victory next month, including on the state levels. One of the first orders of business will be revamping the SC, including a couple of impeachments! With that, We The People will need to be extra vigilant two years from now, and insure we maintain the Dem majority. Then, we can get busy undoing the damage done by the SC over the past 20+ years. I hope the confidence level of you, and others, stays up here with me!
I wish I had your optimism on the outcome of this election. I think/hope we win the Presidency. My best take is that it will be by fewer electoral votes than Biden got in 2020 but that Harris will win. I think/ hope we win the House. I doubt we hold the Senate but we might if Texas kicks Cruz in the *ss. That would be great but very low percentage. My best guess is the Senate will be 51-49 favoring the GOP.
In any case no impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice will result in any change because it takes 67 votes to convict in the Senate. That simply is NOT going to happen.
The BEST CHANCE for any meaningful change is enlarging the court to 13-15 justices which COULD happen if we manage to hold the Senate and the House but that is a low probability.
I love your enthusiasm but I am a very realistic observer of political trends and will I think we won't be utterly defeated this election it is NOT going to be done big democratic sweep.
I sure hope I am wrong.
Thanks, Ellie.
Thanks Ellie!
Here’s another demonstration of how Americans come together to help one another…teamwork not lies!
Pack mules!
https://www.axios.com/2024/10/01/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-mules-aid
Thanks, Ellie.
Also Ellie Kona, there is a very good conversation with Robert Hubbell and NC dem organizer, Drew Komer on his substack today. Drew heads the Mecklenberg, NC dems. He makes the case that victory in NC is clinched by the efforts under taken in Mecklenberg. I have heard him speak before and the case he lays out is very, very convincing. So, another targeted way to help North Carolina is to donate to Mecklenberg Dems. https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/mecklenburg-county-north-carolina?r=5g9ew&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
thank you for documenting this, Ellie Kona! Facts matter.
I have dusty memories of Paul Harvey saying "And now you know the rest of the story".
They were entertaining but not always the useful "Truth"
True, but I like the idea that there is often more to an allegedly "true" account than is covered by the part that is presented to us. Sometimes it's just more than our human capacities can handle, at least for a given instance, and sometimes it's part of deliberate deception.
Trump lived in the White House for four years. What else does he not know about it?
Thanks for FEMA heads up and link
The only thing that's going to be resolved on November 5 is that Trump won't be going to the White House again and will be spending the rest of what days he has left till he makes America truly great again with his permanent departure in courtrooms being brought to justice for his treason.
The cold civil war will continue in this country until MAGA is defeated and the Confederate White People's Treason Party (aka the GOP) is destroyed, and the MAGAts are back under their rocks in Flyover Loserville where they belong.
Agree. We need to wipe MAGA off the political map for good. I like to think we have an opening to do just that this election. Their leader is falling apart, the media is beginning to call out the lies and the American people are sick to death of him.
As Saul Alinsky noted in his book "Reville for Radicals," the real fight starts AFTER you win the election. MAGA is not going to fold their tents and steal away into the desert at night after they lost this election or likely any election until they have been defeated in every election between now and 2040.
liminate Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act
Will add a bit more info here and put in a link please?
Google says:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230
Thank you Officer. Note, the statutory exception for privacy per Section 230 (c)(4). Use it folks.
That exception is a is a powerful tool for us Californians that enjoy our state Constitutional Right of Privacy. Thank you Willie Brown.
That "fix" at least IMHO, would be worse than the disease. You want to make internet providers accountable for every statement made on their "wires"? You realize that would kill this Substack totally? Why? Because such opportunities to have open discussion would have to be taken down if the internet providers could be held accountable for every comment made that might be a lie or libelous or slander.
Section 230 is what makes an open internet even possible.
Be careful what you wish for, it might come true!
One United States Court of Appeal panel has effectively done that as I warned Substack Inc back in 2022.
I am one of the few Readers that took Substack Inc to mediation at JAMS per their own choice of law Terms of Use over troll defamation & misinformation on their Platform.
Substack Inc hired very good counsel & tightly held on to Section 230 like a life raft. That raft is losing air & sinking.
Eliminate 🤷♂️
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, essential command”
~Orwell, 1984
We must recognize and call out the ‘sanewashing’ and false equivalences of a media unable to break out of their horse race political coverage. Too many journalists are consumed by ‘mad poll disease’ and conflict-driven narratives about the ‘odds’ of who will win, rather than reporting that explains the ‘stakes’ to us, our families, our futures, and our freedoms—if the MAGA party of the convicted felon wins because their disinformation, lies, projections and gaslighting are normalized.
As Heather again so astutely notes:
“ The firehose of lies is designed to make it impossible for voters to figure out the truth. The technique is designed so that eventually voters give up trying to engage, conclude everyone is lying, throw up their hands, and stop voting. Holding on to facts combats the effects of the storm of lies.”
So, not only must we call out the lies to distract and divide—we must also vote, encourage others to vote, and do so in such numbers that we finally overwhelm their election denials and attacks on our democracy.
In my work with detained youths, I have noted that addressing bad behaviors always makes them worse (sometimes much worse) before they get better. Almost invariably, with fair and consistent expectations, the behaviors do improve. Trump, et al., are just starting to be held accountable, so they're panicking and acting out. I'm afraid this phase may last until well after they lose the election, but it will improve if we can collectively keep saying "no" to their lies and offer a better way to be.
But what if they win? What then?
who is the most trusted person we can put out there to counter the lies ? To be the beacon of truth ? While Walter Cronkite was with us, it would have been him. In this day and age it might take 5 or 10 people with large followings. You see the lies all over Facebook being repeated by old friends and family. Republicans who used to just spin things have witnessed how Trump uses lies and gets away with it...and they have joined in. It's VERY sad because a lot of them know they are lies.
Lawrence O'Donnell is doing an incredible job. People like Dr. Richardson are gaining more and more national attention as is Simon Rosenberg.
I have actually seen main stream pundits laugh in some MAGA faces this week and call out their lies.
That's a recent development, albeit a positive one.
It's only recently that the major news outlets started actually using the word "LIE" instead of any other euphemism or synonym within reach to soften reality. (That is, if they didn't just report it all as legitimate news.) Donald got a lot of assistance he didn't deserve.
We are making incredible progress in an amazingly short time. I take the wins as they come and don't let how it was get in my way.
What matters most is the media are changing, we are waging an incredible campaign and the lies are being called out.
Sorry I have to disagree with you on this one. Neither O'Donnell nor Ms. Richardson represent anything like Cronkite. He was a journalist. They are not. Heather is a historian and has a semi biased view in her comments. It's a view I respect but it is NOT a journalistic view. As for o'Donnell the less I say the better. He isn't even a historian, and he is certainly not a journalist. He is a commentator, essentially a spruced to editorial writer and IMHO a hack. He is the ONE MSNBC host I turn off. I like most of the rest, I even tolerate Joy Reid, but O'Donnell is the most egotistical insufferable jerk I've ever watched other than those of Fox. He is the Tucker Carson of the left wing. Ugh
Dan Rather and even Wallace Jr have tried…yet Jesse Waters and Tucker are the Antichrists who wag the dog.
the more people who keep pointing directly at Trump and Vance saying "liar, liar"...the better for the next month. Maybe they need to tag some TV spots with Gomer Pyle saying "shame, shame, shame" after their lies.
Jessica Tarlov on Faux News.Love how she handles Jesse Watters when he tries to interrupt.
The look on their faces…
https://www.mediaite.com/news/jessica-tarlov-hits-back-hard-at-fox-news-co-hosts-bashing-biden-harris-praising-trump-on-hurricane-helene-response/
"Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness." Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Yea that’s annoying
That is a powerful quotation. Thank you for sharing it.
As it becomes increasingly clear and undeniable that America under Biden is doing indeed very well, the lies will become even wilder. At this point if trump told his supporters the moon is made of cheese they would believe it and Fox News would enthusiastically repeat it.
Let’s not forget this spectacle is being watched all over the world with dismay, fear and utter shock.
Russia, China and Iran are watching as well!
The heck with them
Spot on: I have friends in Europe and Australia who are writing to me about their fear for America. They are in shock the felon may win and question what has happened to the American people.
Boot.Musk.Out.
Well, a Delaware Court has ordered the CCO of Truth [Anti] Social out! I'm pretty sure Jack Smith's Team (like me) monitors state court orders binding against MAGAts particularly Trump operatives such as the nailed CCO, Andrew Northwall, of TruthSocial who has resigned.
Per Michelle Chapman, Associated Press, yesterday 10/4 at 4:54 pm Pacific, in the wake of a Delaware Court Order the CCO was ordered to turn over 785,825 shares of Truth Social to ARC Global Investments II.
State Court court orders & judgments are admissible throughout country in other courts. Warring corporate actors sometimes make excellent cooperating witnesses for Jack in his other cases against the lying felon. And, smarty pants Jack has cleverly sought alternative rulings from Judge Chutkan. If it fits you must indict.
As of yesterday 1,795,890 citizens have mailed in their 2024 ballots and/or voted-early-in-person. Also, I love Gov Gretchen Whitmer's camoflaugue garb at Kam's Michigan rally yesterday. She has been out front & on point for a long period of time.
There is no way to do that. He's a US citizen with all the rights that pertain. He has a platform that Father Conglin could only dream of. He's rich, he's unhinged and, as far as I can tell, unstoppable.
Nobody is above the law. And nobody has the unchecked power to spread harmful lies and misinformation. If he becomes a threat to national security, which he already is, I’m quite sure there are means to at least contain the damage he is doing.
Is defaming people against the law? He has repeated debunked lies about innocent Haitian people that have lead to death threats, bomb alerts and schools closing for fear of violence. I’m not a lawyer but it’s possible some of the stuff he writes could amount to breaking the law.
Musk isn't above the law but he has to BREAK the law before you can discipline him. What laws do you think he has broken? He may be an insufferable idiot but that doesn't mean he is a criminal.
Father Coughlin was bad enough. President Roosevelt had to appeal to Coughlin’s superior, Archbishop Gallagher, to order Coughlin off the air. Coughlin had to obey Gallagher’s orders.
No one is unstoppable, Mis
NOW.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/03/elon-musk-rightwing-political-donations
Musk behaves like a weirdo
I agree but that doesn't make him a criminal. This thread started out as an attack on him demanding he be deported. You can't deport American citizens unless they commit treason on behalf of an enemy. Musk SUCKS but I don't think he has broken any laws. If certainly want some proof of that before I'd attack him.
Maybe that’s why the press is referred to as the press pool?😊
Seriously, the incredulity and volume of their lies increases daily. They must be very desperate. So many lies, so little time…
The press? Where? Get your facts straight. Ignoring Fox (which goes without saying) show me examples of the mainstream media lying outright. I do not believe you can present any evidence of that.
I wish to alert you to an extraordinary investigative article in the New York Times that describes, in great detail, how Trump, as president, was played by Putin on Ukraine.
As a former Foreign Service Officer, I was astonished by Trump’s ignorance and naïveté. Evidently, he bought Putin’s Ukraine story hook, line, and sinker.
At one time Putin, playing on Trump’s good feelings about FDR, spoke of Russia’s historic relationship with Ukraine being similar to FDR’s ‘Monroe Doctrine’ Latin American policy.
The article dwells on the nefarious role of Lev Parnas, Paul Malafort’s ‘secret ledgers,’ the machinations of Guliani, and the infamous “perfect” ‘arms for info on the Bidens’ Trump phone call with Zelensky that resulted in an impeachment hearing.
Government sources, including SecState Tillerson and NSC rep Fiona Hill, as well as other anonymous sources, spoke of government professionals’ effort to support Ukraine against Trump’s Putinesque view of a corrupt Ukraine that was part of the Russian sphere of influence.
As I read this voluminous investigative report, I became extremely upset. At a time that Biden has orchestrated a broad, NATO-based alliance to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine against Putin’s invasion, Trump has been—and is—Putin’s patsy.
Trump has publicly said that he has an excellent relationship with Putin and, as president, could resolve the Ukrainian situation in a single day.
Personally, I call this TREASON.
I agree, counselor.
Seems MAGA’s modus operandi has always been to tell half the story. For those with no knowledge of history, too incurious to explore further, those half stories are accepted as fact. SMH.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/us/politics/trump-putin-ukraine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.s1zs.GDqLa1RhT2Q-&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
Thank you!
Always go to the case law:
1794 Whiskey Rebellion
1799 Fries' Rebellion
2020-2024 "It will be wild" ... "from Day 1". [seditious].
Thank you for such a thorough refutation of the lies I have been hearing and reading about the hurricane response. I did not believe them, but I just did not know how to verify or fact-check so many things I have heard. Thank you for helping put things straight. I know I am not alone in appreciating the service you provide in keeping us well informed.
Professor ⭐ thank you for putting this together and being a beacon of factual information.
Exactly what I was about to post. What a chore it must be to call out the unceasing lies from the fascists (no more Republicans)! And no doubt these are just the biggest ones. I certainly don't have the energy.
It’s the little things you can do that add up 🙂
Tonight’s substack was my first thumb’s down HCR article. Reading about immature Republicans disinformation (again) is worse than scrapping gum off the bottom of your shoes.
I appreciated the Professor’s info on fighting the hurricane lies.
I took down a few strutting chickens last night. It’s amazing what some people will accept as valid with no further study.
Read “Chop Wood Carry Water” instead
The NY Times runs a story in today’s edition on Trump’s FEMA lies, but you have to scroll down past several other stories to get to it. And the story failed to mention Trump’s diverting FEMA funds to deal with immigrants when he was president.
Trump and MAGA lies should be at or near the top of the news media every day. They should never go unchallenged.
Thank you HCR, and others, I.e. Meidas Touch Network, for doing just that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/us/politics/trump-helene-fema-fact-check.html
In a world in which the journalism industry took its collective jobs seriously (in recognition of the fact the Founding Fathers enshrined Freedom on the Press in the Constitution because they considered “a well-informed citizenry” critically important)… The only profession given such an honor), headlines across the country would be screaming “One Lie Too Far: Trump Disqualifies Himself For Consideration to be POTUS”.
We cannot elect someone who is so committed to winning that he denies economic reality, catastrophe recovery reality, and sociological reality…. all on the same day!
I ask this community (what are we… 3 million strong?) to contact every print and TV news organization in America … and add in foreign publications like The Guardian and The Economist… and demand they recognize Trump as the “cornered animal he is” (with Steven Miller his racist enabler)… and report on one story and only one story from now until Election Day:
Trump Will Lie About Any And Everything To Try And Gain Control Of The Government And Of Your Lives!
A journalistic article could NEVER have a headline like you suggest. Newspapers are supposed to REPORT news, not make proclamations or draw editorial conclusions. If a newspaper published an article like the one you proposed, no one should ever read that rag again. They could run such an article in their editorial section but that probably wouldn't satisfy you because you would still hate their objective reporting. Sigh...
As a main headline, absolutely! As an editorial headline, they have every right, and in today's world, a moral obligation. THAT is what is so sorely l lacking, for me.
But that's my point. People are complaining about the "mainstream media" and most of them have avidly endorsed Harris on their editorial pages. The complaints here are that the news articles don't "editorialize" against Trump. My point is that the papers DO support Hartis but the news articles are still trying to maintain balance which is their job and many of the commenters see that as a problem.
If only the main stream media would report this and keep repeating it. They don’t. And I don’t trust they will.
It’s against free speech to yell fire in a crowded theater, and yet these dangerous lies get a pass to continue destroying us.
I wish I didn’t feel helpless.
liminate Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. James Hawley
It's NOT the "mainstream media's" job to express opinions. They are supposed to report news. A lot of people here either missed a few of their civics classes or forgot the lessons because few seem to be able to differentiate what a news story is supposed to be versus as editorial. Most of the complaints leveled against the media here sre either frivolous or libelous which is sad for a group of people who purport to be intelligent liberals (mostly).
Sigh...
Identifying lies as lies is not expressing an opinion. To paraphrase, when one side says it’s raining and the other says it isn’t, the media’s job is not to report both statements as true, but rather to look out the window and see if it’s raining or not.
Even when the media reports well, the crafting of headlines (and clickbait) and the placement of stories, both in print and online, influences their reach. This matters.
Your argument is right. But most here are NOT asking for that neutral observation type of reporting. One of the commenters said an article should declare that Trump must now be barred from running for office because they identified another lie. That is NOT reporting, that is editorializing.
And please don't be confused, I agree he is the worst candidate and I WISH he were barred from running but that isn't how our system works.
My comment was about the skewed way they report news and their failure to let readers know important events occurring.