“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” — Hannah Arendt
Adolf Eichman never pulled a trigger but his willingness to be a functionary of a criminal regime made his lack of empathy and in
ability to use morality as a factor in his capacity to think critically a dangerous personal trait. This turned his organizational skills into a weapon of mass destruction. Making his pen just as deadly as the weapons used by those who don’t mind getting their hands dirty.
Listening to Fishback is like taking yet another deep dive into the depths of narcissistic sociopathy. When will we learn that people like him should never be given public power?
People like Fishback are repellent but still allowed in polite company. And that’s one of the things that brings forth people like him and the Lord of Lies: the news media treats them cordially and provides a platform for their abhorrent views. Two examples (as if any were needed). Interviewing the Lord of Lies is a predictable disaster: a cornucopia of lies. Yet the station that airs the interview considers it a ratings triumph. Then there are the Lindsey Grahams: Why interview them? What they says is predictable and useless. But chalk up another ratings triumph in someone’s ledger. All Republican politicians should be excluded from mainstream media or otherwise treated with contempt. Let them look for publicity in the netherworld of Fox and its imitators.
Steve, this was one of your best articles yet. I understand you live here in NJ. If you are ever presenting anyplace in the state, let us know. I would love to meet you and talk about ways to energize the electorate to learn from history and stay committed to Democracy above all else.
Avner Less interrogated Adolf Eichmann for 275 hours and learned one thing: democracies keep monsters latent; dictatorships activate them instantly. The Wannsee Conference took 90 minutes to plan industrial-scale murder.
When violence becomes acceptable political currency, when one party abandons free elections and equality under law, that's a documented pattern. Democracy isn't guaranteed. It's defended, or it dies. We're watching whether Americans remember that lesson, or whether we're arrogant enough to believe "it can't happen here.
Florida decided that Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott and Pam Bondi and Marco Rubio were good people. All have won elections in Florida. I was reminded of Buggs Bunny taking a saw to the panhandle area, and off Florida went floating away into MAGA’s Gulf of America. It was beautiful.
It would appear that someone thinks the Epstein files are a greater threat to this coup attempt more than anything else. It is notable, that today, material surfaced which indicates that Epstein died on two different days if I read that right. The question there is simple and well buried. Who ordered the murder of Epstein and who carried it out.
If more than one person is involved and it seems likely, then the conspiracy could be broken. This could be an individual who Trump is threatened by, or it could simply be Trump himself. It does appear that covering up Epstein's murder is far more important to the White House group than the murder of civilians in Minneapolis streets. Watergate began with a simple break in.
The insipid orange turd would never actually kill anyone, he’s a coward and has been one his entire life. That doesn’t mean that he was not responsible, far from it, he’s responsible for everything that happens under his watch, period! A public hanging would do much to put in a needed correction, not because killing him would be good in it’s end, but because to watch him quake with fear unable to walk would show him for who he really is, a coward. The maggots hero would be shown to be a true piece of shit.
I agree that trump could never do anything like that himself, unless of course it was to a smaller woman.
I think he ordered it or hinted that it should happen, but the person who planned & arranged it was Bill Barr. He had opportunity, he had motive (he’s in the files) he had control of the Bureau of Prisons, & he had control of whether or not to investigate, & control of closing an investigation. Hell, he could have done it all on his own without any direct order from above.
If demented Donnie already tried to steal one election, why would anyone believe he won't try to steal another? His pronouncements on federalizing elections suggest that he's already started and is making an organized effort, of course with the assistance of "criminal" lawyers.
I would pay big bucks to hear of Steven Miller and his ghastly ICE cohorts swinging from a rope.
Steve, thank you for this. Your examination of your former party is spot on. As a deeply frustrated and disappointed Democrat, I’ll add that establishment corporate Democrats, unwilling to similarly address the truth and upset their wealthy donors or key single-focus pacs, share a substantial chunk of the blame for our rush to the brink. When Peter Thiel observes that democracy and capitalism are incompatible, he’s right. I’ll take democracy, thank you, with its constraints on the appeal of greed, hatred, and victimhood.
This is just outstanding! I am so grateful for you, and others like you, who stand so strongly for our country, America, and help us all together find a way forward. Thank you!
If you were a 60 year-old Midwestern steel worker, who lost his job, his pension, and his house before his wife became addicted to fentanyl, which ate up the savings that were to put his daughter through college – and the government did not a SINGLE THING to help, then you might be a little angry.
The collapse of the US industrial heartland in the 1980s left millions in an economic depression. They weren't inner city minorities, so the Democrats ignored them. They weren't middle class businessmen, so the Republicans ignored them. Most of them don't love Trump - but they utterly HATE the Government.
That might have been valid for those who supported him the first time, and (it’s a stretch, but still possible) a second time. But a third? No excuse or reason possible.
Their hate should be with the corporations of the steel industry. Also I do not buy for one instant, that the steel worker is a moron. They damned well knew that trump was a stain, a cockroach and a racist. And they loved that because they are too. I care not the least for the out of work steel worker who decided that the source of his bitter rage is black and brown people.
That’s sort of a stereotype that doesn’t really fit the midwestern reality. Deindustrialization started in the 70’s as factories moved south to right to work states, labor productivity increased as wages decreased because unions were broken and small businesses disappeared as the family farms that supported them became factory farms. Meth was much more popular with alienated workers because it gave them the energy they needed.
I suspect probably both, and that what began in the 70s came to completion in the 90s. It's a large region – Western PA, Ohio, Indiana, parts of West Virginia, Michigan, Illinois among others. I am most familiar with Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh, US Steel (now owned by Nippon steel), essentially went out of the steel business in the late 1980s, when it became more of an energy company. In eastern PA, Bethlehem Steel closed in 1986. Fentanyl is a later development, beginning around 2000 in the Northwest US and spreading East particularly in Ohio and Appalachia. So it looks as if there are many decades of misery.
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” — Hannah Arendt
Adolf Eichman never pulled a trigger but his willingness to be a functionary of a criminal regime made his lack of empathy and in
ability to use morality as a factor in his capacity to think critically a dangerous personal trait. This turned his organizational skills into a weapon of mass destruction. Making his pen just as deadly as the weapons used by those who don’t mind getting their hands dirty.
Listening to Fishback is like taking yet another deep dive into the depths of narcissistic sociopathy. When will we learn that people like him should never be given public power?
People like Fishback are repellent but still allowed in polite company. And that’s one of the things that brings forth people like him and the Lord of Lies: the news media treats them cordially and provides a platform for their abhorrent views. Two examples (as if any were needed). Interviewing the Lord of Lies is a predictable disaster: a cornucopia of lies. Yet the station that airs the interview considers it a ratings triumph. Then there are the Lindsey Grahams: Why interview them? What they says is predictable and useless. But chalk up another ratings triumph in someone’s ledger. All Republican politicians should be excluded from mainstream media or otherwise treated with contempt. Let them look for publicity in the netherworld of Fox and its imitators.
Steve, this was one of your best articles yet. I understand you live here in NJ. If you are ever presenting anyplace in the state, let us know. I would love to meet you and talk about ways to energize the electorate to learn from history and stay committed to Democracy above all else.
Avner Less interrogated Adolf Eichmann for 275 hours and learned one thing: democracies keep monsters latent; dictatorships activate them instantly. The Wannsee Conference took 90 minutes to plan industrial-scale murder.
When violence becomes acceptable political currency, when one party abandons free elections and equality under law, that's a documented pattern. Democracy isn't guaranteed. It's defended, or it dies. We're watching whether Americans remember that lesson, or whether we're arrogant enough to believe "it can't happen here.
Mika-
Florida decided that Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott and Pam Bondi and Marco Rubio were good people. All have won elections in Florida. I was reminded of Buggs Bunny taking a saw to the panhandle area, and off Florida went floating away into MAGA’s Gulf of America. It was beautiful.
It would appear that someone thinks the Epstein files are a greater threat to this coup attempt more than anything else. It is notable, that today, material surfaced which indicates that Epstein died on two different days if I read that right. The question there is simple and well buried. Who ordered the murder of Epstein and who carried it out.
If more than one person is involved and it seems likely, then the conspiracy could be broken. This could be an individual who Trump is threatened by, or it could simply be Trump himself. It does appear that covering up Epstein's murder is far more important to the White House group than the murder of civilians in Minneapolis streets. Watergate began with a simple break in.
The insipid orange turd would never actually kill anyone, he’s a coward and has been one his entire life. That doesn’t mean that he was not responsible, far from it, he’s responsible for everything that happens under his watch, period! A public hanging would do much to put in a needed correction, not because killing him would be good in it’s end, but because to watch him quake with fear unable to walk would show him for who he really is, a coward. The maggots hero would be shown to be a true piece of shit.
I agree that trump could never do anything like that himself, unless of course it was to a smaller woman.
I think he ordered it or hinted that it should happen, but the person who planned & arranged it was Bill Barr. He had opportunity, he had motive (he’s in the files) he had control of the Bureau of Prisons, & he had control of whether or not to investigate, & control of closing an investigation. Hell, he could have done it all on his own without any direct order from above.
8 hours later, the story seems to have vanished in any media.
I saw the story on You Tube Meidas Touch today. Titled Trump has 1 AM Meltdown as Horrors Uncovered. It is still up.
I watched 5 mins. got sick, poor Tara taking this guy rhetoric, it's appalling, the tenacity!
A fine article.
If demented Donnie already tried to steal one election, why would anyone believe he won't try to steal another? His pronouncements on federalizing elections suggest that he's already started and is making an organized effort, of course with the assistance of "criminal" lawyers.
I would pay big bucks to hear of Steven Miller and his ghastly ICE cohorts swinging from a rope.
100% accurate
100% eloquent
100% frightening
Resist! Freedom is not a matter of attainment. It is at the start and end of time - but it needs to be claimed. If it is not claimed you are not free.
Steve, thank you for this. Your examination of your former party is spot on. As a deeply frustrated and disappointed Democrat, I’ll add that establishment corporate Democrats, unwilling to similarly address the truth and upset their wealthy donors or key single-focus pacs, share a substantial chunk of the blame for our rush to the brink. When Peter Thiel observes that democracy and capitalism are incompatible, he’s right. I’ll take democracy, thank you, with its constraints on the appeal of greed, hatred, and victimhood.
I think we had a reasonable combination of democracy and capitalism until Citizens United, the death knell for a working democracy.
This is just outstanding! I am so grateful for you, and others like you, who stand so strongly for our country, America, and help us all together find a way forward. Thank you!
If you were a 60 year-old Midwestern steel worker, who lost his job, his pension, and his house before his wife became addicted to fentanyl, which ate up the savings that were to put his daughter through college – and the government did not a SINGLE THING to help, then you might be a little angry.
The collapse of the US industrial heartland in the 1980s left millions in an economic depression. They weren't inner city minorities, so the Democrats ignored them. They weren't middle class businessmen, so the Republicans ignored them. Most of them don't love Trump - but they utterly HATE the Government.
Try these two docustory music videos:
Uptown Steel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4CjL32Lyes&list=PLFAPDUvh6V3raRTT7AdlF6ikekJVPFWbB&index=9&pp=iAQB8AUBsAgC
Tinkers Damn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30zIB3D3okM&list=PLFAPDUvh6V3raRTT7AdlF6ikekJVPFWbB&index=7&pp=iAQB8AUB0gcJCZEKAYcqIYzvsAgC
Trump, Miller, Vought - hang 'em. But don't confuse "MAGA", a Trump created PR label, with the people who supported him out of desperation.
That might have been valid for those who supported him the first time, and (it’s a stretch, but still possible) a second time. But a third? No excuse or reason possible.
Their hate should be with the corporations of the steel industry. Also I do not buy for one instant, that the steel worker is a moron. They damned well knew that trump was a stain, a cockroach and a racist. And they loved that because they are too. I care not the least for the out of work steel worker who decided that the source of his bitter rage is black and brown people.
That’s sort of a stereotype that doesn’t really fit the midwestern reality. Deindustrialization started in the 70’s as factories moved south to right to work states, labor productivity increased as wages decreased because unions were broken and small businesses disappeared as the family farms that supported them became factory farms. Meth was much more popular with alienated workers because it gave them the energy they needed.
I suspect probably both, and that what began in the 70s came to completion in the 90s. It's a large region – Western PA, Ohio, Indiana, parts of West Virginia, Michigan, Illinois among others. I am most familiar with Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh, US Steel (now owned by Nippon steel), essentially went out of the steel business in the late 1980s, when it became more of an energy company. In eastern PA, Bethlehem Steel closed in 1986. Fentanyl is a later development, beginning around 2000 in the Northwest US and spreading East particularly in Ohio and Appalachia. So it looks as if there are many decades of misery.
"The Bonfire of the Murdochs" is a fine new book on Trump's colleague in evil.
Rupert.
Unrelated, but thanks for having Turek on. I was impressed with him and donated!
Terrific writing, terrifying terrain.