Should be mandatory reading for every college student, voter, government official, government employee, all media & podcasters or just anyone interested in democracy!
I can only imagine how incandescently angry Trump must be over the withdrawal of Goetz. Never one who takes any responsibility, in this case for a monumentally stupid decision to nominate Gaetz in the first place, Trump will undoubtedly direct some of his ire toward Vance. Mr. Vance was clearly one of the principle people entrusted with bullying Republican Senators into voting for Goetz. Mr. Vance will take the rebukes silently, like the stalwart soldier he is, but this will harden his inward resolve to torch Trump sooner rather than later and “rid himself of this meddlesome man.”
I think you left out the hoax of Climate Change. When all our houses have been burned down or washed away or blown out to sea, it'll be much too late to notice the lack of expertise at NOAA and FEMA and Dept of Interior.
Two years ago I started a substack newsletter called "Neo-Fascism: A Warning" - later renamed "Kamala4Prez"
My very first posting was a review of Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis's novel "It Can't Happen Here" - which in hindsight reads like an incredibly prescient prophecy:
-Lewis describes the anxious social, economic and political times,
-the rise of charismatic leader “Buzz” Windrip (a power-hungry demagogue with populist slogans and simple solutions for "The Forgotten Americans"),
- his inner circle of sycophantic enablers and apologists,
-the widespread dissemination of lies and disinformation,
-riling up hatred against the perennial scapegoats ("foreigners")
-his violent armed pseudo-militia of angry young men.
-even a big election-eve rally at Madison Square Garden!
-And all swathed in patriotic flag-waving and hyper-nationalism.
Sound familiar in 2024? That was written in 1935!
And how about this: no sooner is Buzz in the White House than he's assassinated (supposedly by "foreigners") and then his VP (and the VP's inner circle) take over, suspend civil liberties in this "national emergency", and implement the full Nazification of America.
So, the question we're facing now is: what are we going to do about it?
At the end of Lewis's novel (spoiler alert) the mild-mannered Vermont newspaper editor who narrated the tale (and calmed everyone's fears with "it can't happen here") ends up working for an underground resistance movement planning an armed overthrow of the fascist government.
Well, it CAN and DID happen here. It's happening right in front of our faces, and a Vance/Thiel takeover is a distinct possibility.
As for the novel's ending (preparing for an armed resistance) well, before we get to that point, maybe "It Can't Happen Here" is a book that needs to be re-considered.
Here's my very first post, and for all the difference it made, I probably could have stopped there:
I'm starting to wonder what happens when all of these crazy "policies" start hurting their people, white people, white cis-het male people. Will Stephen Miller and the rest of the Five Head Corps make any changes? Or will they tuck in behind RFK while the white babies they are crying about now die of measles and whooping cough?
I have been watching (engaged) in current events for all of my adult life and have voted for over 60 years. I always considered myself to be "middle of the road" hardly veering very far left or right of center. I voted for individuals and issues rather party. Perhaps it is my age, but I find myself becoming more "liberal" ( who really knows what these terms mean anymore) while many of my contemporaries seem to be going the other way. And I seem to take the current state of affairs much more seriously than much of the population. I suppose I have more time to think and opine and conjecture, but I can see eyes rolling backwards when I try to explain the danger we are in as a country.
Every since the election I have been gobsmacked! Almost every day a new low is reached. It's one thing for t to play with his various bankrupt companies, but this is whole world at which he is thumbing his nose (to be it politely.) I am reminded of the Charlie Chaplin scene where he is dressed as Hitler, playing with a large balloon made to look like the planet. That was a movie....this is real. It's hard for any normal person to understand that his need for revenge and retribution is so overwhelming that he is willing to destroy the world. Hyperbole? I don't think so.
This is slightly off topic because the point is where do we go from here. Maybe I'm showing my ideological priors as a lefty, but I'm beginning to think that Kamala made a catastrophic strategic mistake in trying to tack so hard to the center-right. Turns out we lost more Democrats and left-Independents than we gained with Trump-soured Republicans and right-Independents. That the turnout was so much lower than in '20 is a severe indictment of Kamala's theory of the case.
This is not a tactical indictment of Kamala or her campaign, which was extraordinarily well-run and she was a great candidate in terms of the mechanics of being a candidate. It's an indictment of strategy.
I immediately winced hard when I saw this happening; bringing the Cheneys so closely on board, not just Liz but also her father, was a colossal mistake. The Cheneys do not evoke gauzy boomer nostalgia for sunny Reaganite optimism; they evoke the reasons so many people loathe the GOP. It was an absolute kick in the nuts to everyone concerned about Palestine, and you don't have to be a campus activist giving Jewish students a hard time or call it "genocide" to care about Gaza. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were catastrophic failures and Dick Cheney was their biggest cheerleader.
And Liz, gods love and preserve her for her work with the J6 Committee and for sticking to her guns, is a climate denier and a covid truther. Take their endorsements and run, don't feature them, sheesh.
It was a grave insult to the left, and I mean leftier people than Yours Truly. Who vote. Or didn't.
Watching the woodies 'n' wetties over the Cheneys père et fille here and at the Bulwark gave me a terrible premonition about this. You don't resurrect liberal internationalism with neocons.
Bob, I listened to a good take on the election, done by a person of color whose name I didn't catch. He ran across many of the theories, but his ending conclusion was a simple one. It's the 900lb gorilla as well. Kamala lost because she was a woman of color. That's probably a synergistic combination and we'll never really know the breakdown on whether it was misogyny or bigotry, since most people won't admit that was a factor in their vote.
To your point, and if it's true, it shows us perhaps the left is no more intelligent than the right that we denigrate. Elections are binary; there is no "C" option or none of the above. Doesn't take too many smarts for people to figure the consequences of their action or inaction. I don't care how far left you are, where do you have a better chance of making gains? With Trump or Harris?
Obama got elected comfortably twice against two Republicans who ran competent campaigns. Misogynoir was definitely a factor, but I think an even bigger one is that she highlighted her life story as the successful child of immigrants. To people like us, this is an incredibly inspiring and typically American story, but I think it scared the hell out of the heartland who saw her as the child of a blue city in a blue state who was helped by programs for immigrants and no amount of campaigning for everyone could change the perception that _those_ were the people she wanted to help and not _them._ She is exactly the sort of woman who strikes terror in the heart of a mediocre white guy. Not because she's a "DEI candidate" but because she's smarter, hungrier and more qualified.
All the lefties I know would have voted for a crusty gym sock over Trump. But there are a ton of people out there who just aren't that politically sophisticated and campaigns have to figure out ways to engage and motivate them as well. Trump does that in spades.
I do not have the answers, but throwing in the towel should not, and cannot, be a solution. I have been around for 61 years, soon to be 62, and I have no desire to become either a slave or a prisoner, even if there are no iron bars or chains. I wish to live my remaining time free in body, in mind, in spirit, in heart.
So let's sacrifice him! Works for me.
You before me
Should be mandatory reading for every college student, voter, government official, government employee, all media & podcasters or just anyone interested in democracy!
I can only imagine how incandescently angry Trump must be over the withdrawal of Goetz. Never one who takes any responsibility, in this case for a monumentally stupid decision to nominate Gaetz in the first place, Trump will undoubtedly direct some of his ire toward Vance. Mr. Vance was clearly one of the principle people entrusted with bullying Republican Senators into voting for Goetz. Mr. Vance will take the rebukes silently, like the stalwart soldier he is, but this will harden his inward resolve to torch Trump sooner rather than later and “rid himself of this meddlesome man.”
I think you left out the hoax of Climate Change. When all our houses have been burned down or washed away or blown out to sea, it'll be much too late to notice the lack of expertise at NOAA and FEMA and Dept of Interior.
Boris Epshteyn is Bebe Rebozo.
Scary stuff
Keith O is on fire today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZrdjGHfS_0
Clownsourcing, epic level
Two years ago I started a substack newsletter called "Neo-Fascism: A Warning" - later renamed "Kamala4Prez"
My very first posting was a review of Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis's novel "It Can't Happen Here" - which in hindsight reads like an incredibly prescient prophecy:
-Lewis describes the anxious social, economic and political times,
-the rise of charismatic leader “Buzz” Windrip (a power-hungry demagogue with populist slogans and simple solutions for "The Forgotten Americans"),
- his inner circle of sycophantic enablers and apologists,
-the widespread dissemination of lies and disinformation,
-riling up hatred against the perennial scapegoats ("foreigners")
-his violent armed pseudo-militia of angry young men.
-even a big election-eve rally at Madison Square Garden!
-And all swathed in patriotic flag-waving and hyper-nationalism.
Sound familiar in 2024? That was written in 1935!
And how about this: no sooner is Buzz in the White House than he's assassinated (supposedly by "foreigners") and then his VP (and the VP's inner circle) take over, suspend civil liberties in this "national emergency", and implement the full Nazification of America.
So, the question we're facing now is: what are we going to do about it?
At the end of Lewis's novel (spoiler alert) the mild-mannered Vermont newspaper editor who narrated the tale (and calmed everyone's fears with "it can't happen here") ends up working for an underground resistance movement planning an armed overthrow of the fascist government.
Well, it CAN and DID happen here. It's happening right in front of our faces, and a Vance/Thiel takeover is a distinct possibility.
As for the novel's ending (preparing for an armed resistance) well, before we get to that point, maybe "It Can't Happen Here" is a book that needs to be re-considered.
Here's my very first post, and for all the difference it made, I probably could have stopped there:
https://kamala4prez.substack.com/p/it-cant-happen-here
I fucking hate these people.
I'm starting to wonder what happens when all of these crazy "policies" start hurting their people, white people, white cis-het male people. Will Stephen Miller and the rest of the Five Head Corps make any changes? Or will they tuck in behind RFK while the white babies they are crying about now die of measles and whooping cough?
PS I am grateful for a site such as this where I can express my opinions knowing there are others who share them
I have been watching (engaged) in current events for all of my adult life and have voted for over 60 years. I always considered myself to be "middle of the road" hardly veering very far left or right of center. I voted for individuals and issues rather party. Perhaps it is my age, but I find myself becoming more "liberal" ( who really knows what these terms mean anymore) while many of my contemporaries seem to be going the other way. And I seem to take the current state of affairs much more seriously than much of the population. I suppose I have more time to think and opine and conjecture, but I can see eyes rolling backwards when I try to explain the danger we are in as a country.
Every since the election I have been gobsmacked! Almost every day a new low is reached. It's one thing for t to play with his various bankrupt companies, but this is whole world at which he is thumbing his nose (to be it politely.) I am reminded of the Charlie Chaplin scene where he is dressed as Hitler, playing with a large balloon made to look like the planet. That was a movie....this is real. It's hard for any normal person to understand that his need for revenge and retribution is so overwhelming that he is willing to destroy the world. Hyperbole? I don't think so.
I feel the same, Sarah. I really was hoping that the old ladies could save democracy and get Kamala elected. A lot of us tried but nope.
This is slightly off topic because the point is where do we go from here. Maybe I'm showing my ideological priors as a lefty, but I'm beginning to think that Kamala made a catastrophic strategic mistake in trying to tack so hard to the center-right. Turns out we lost more Democrats and left-Independents than we gained with Trump-soured Republicans and right-Independents. That the turnout was so much lower than in '20 is a severe indictment of Kamala's theory of the case.
This is not a tactical indictment of Kamala or her campaign, which was extraordinarily well-run and she was a great candidate in terms of the mechanics of being a candidate. It's an indictment of strategy.
I immediately winced hard when I saw this happening; bringing the Cheneys so closely on board, not just Liz but also her father, was a colossal mistake. The Cheneys do not evoke gauzy boomer nostalgia for sunny Reaganite optimism; they evoke the reasons so many people loathe the GOP. It was an absolute kick in the nuts to everyone concerned about Palestine, and you don't have to be a campus activist giving Jewish students a hard time or call it "genocide" to care about Gaza. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were catastrophic failures and Dick Cheney was their biggest cheerleader.
And Liz, gods love and preserve her for her work with the J6 Committee and for sticking to her guns, is a climate denier and a covid truther. Take their endorsements and run, don't feature them, sheesh.
It was a grave insult to the left, and I mean leftier people than Yours Truly. Who vote. Or didn't.
Watching the woodies 'n' wetties over the Cheneys père et fille here and at the Bulwark gave me a terrible premonition about this. You don't resurrect liberal internationalism with neocons.
Bob, I listened to a good take on the election, done by a person of color whose name I didn't catch. He ran across many of the theories, but his ending conclusion was a simple one. It's the 900lb gorilla as well. Kamala lost because she was a woman of color. That's probably a synergistic combination and we'll never really know the breakdown on whether it was misogyny or bigotry, since most people won't admit that was a factor in their vote.
To your point, and if it's true, it shows us perhaps the left is no more intelligent than the right that we denigrate. Elections are binary; there is no "C" option or none of the above. Doesn't take too many smarts for people to figure the consequences of their action or inaction. I don't care how far left you are, where do you have a better chance of making gains? With Trump or Harris?
Obama got elected comfortably twice against two Republicans who ran competent campaigns. Misogynoir was definitely a factor, but I think an even bigger one is that she highlighted her life story as the successful child of immigrants. To people like us, this is an incredibly inspiring and typically American story, but I think it scared the hell out of the heartland who saw her as the child of a blue city in a blue state who was helped by programs for immigrants and no amount of campaigning for everyone could change the perception that _those_ were the people she wanted to help and not _them._ She is exactly the sort of woman who strikes terror in the heart of a mediocre white guy. Not because she's a "DEI candidate" but because she's smarter, hungrier and more qualified.
All the lefties I know would have voted for a crusty gym sock over Trump. But there are a ton of people out there who just aren't that politically sophisticated and campaigns have to figure out ways to engage and motivate them as well. Trump does that in spades.
Followed you! Feel free to follow back
I do not have the answers, but throwing in the towel should not, and cannot, be a solution. I have been around for 61 years, soon to be 62, and I have no desire to become either a slave or a prisoner, even if there are no iron bars or chains. I wish to live my remaining time free in body, in mind, in spirit, in heart.