I am sending Steve’s brilliantly written piece to my MAGA cousins. If they send me back hackneyed tripe from some idiot they read, okay. But at least I made another effort.
Sitting in my Silo (Anderson Cooper) drinking coffee and reading this. Great piece, Steve. My favorite line, “ CNN produced its first snuff film”. Brilliant.
Another fantastic piece. The Murrow quotes are remarkable, and am grateful now to know that he possessed Orwell-like insight.
Please, Chris Licht, Anderson Cooper, and the other defenders: the high dudgeon and pathetic rationalizations only magnify your broken moral and intellectual compass. The CNN spectacle wasn't politics or public service; it was a ratings-driven WWE-level love fest for a corrupt despot-wannabe and his addicted, addled, rage-and-fear-fueled cult.
Those E.R. Murrow quotes are indeed so very relevant. For anyone not aware, a tremendous b&w feature film was made about Murrow and his colleagues going up against destructive US senator Joe McCarthy-- with David Strathairn as Murrow and George Clooney as his news-segment producer Fred Friendly (Clooney also directed and co-wrote the script with Grant Heslov). Titled *Good Night, and Good Luck* (2005). Very incisive.... critically acclaimed and well rated (93% at RottenTomatoes).
How anyone could think Kaitlan could be other than the incompetent she demonstrated she is amazes me. She got her start at that launch pad of fifth-rate morons, The Daily Caller.
I’m wondering if Licht helped Anderson see things from his perspective or maybe he didn’t need any help at all? Perhaps I’ve given Anderson too much credibility for being insightful & smart.
Steve, your writing is my morning read, every day. Sometimes, actually many, many times, I want to comment but can't find the words. Today is one of those days. You leave me speechless.
Please don't ever stop writing. Your voice is so spot on, accurate. We need it.
Steve I did not watch it but from the snippets that I have seen it was exactly the kind of destructive piece of propaganda that we have all come to know as Maga bullshit.
What is to be done other than gird ourselves for the coming 17 months of campaigning for the '24 election as if it is life or death because it seems lime it is.
Hopefully DJT solidified those against him as he was at his worst and CNN at their newly found "Low" point.
No one could have watched that fake town hall and walked away in favor of voting Republican. Many may just say guck it and choose to not vote but to vote for that person and his minions?? Never
I am glad many more are finding their voice of outrage towards CNN. My wife called their "hotline" to complain and got a sterile, recorded response. Shows you they were prepared for the negative reaction. I want them to go bankrupt or at the very least fully become another faux FOX news channel which they truly are.
Agree 100%. On CNN’s decision fail its core mission to report news. You wrote about Murrow in London. I was thinking about the first Iraq war and CNN’s on-site reporting
Today’s CNN is closer to the Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land news outlet, where sensationalism is the goal, not news
There were German "journalists" that aided and abetted the rise of Hitler. CNN's disgraceful conduct is no different. CNN, for profit, is nurturing fascism. For CNN to caution is about remaining in our "silos" legitimatizes that fascism by implying Trumpism is simply an alternative political choice when in fact it is entirely incompatible with Madisonian democracy. CNN seems to believe that if a swath of the electorate likes vicious rights crushing autocracy then CNN's job is to provide it a platform. I am sure German journalists rationalized their coverage of Hitler's rise in precisely the same manner.
Just remember that in 2016 Jeff Zucker was asked about CNN giving Trump all the free airtime of covering his rallies, and his comment was "Donald brings high ratings."
We always have to be careful to compare 1933 Germany but the comparisons are eerie. Hitler did try a coup that failed ended up in jail and afterwards was enabled by money and special interests. They thought they could use him for their ends. He was able to rally the people Make Germany Great Again!
Yes CNN's fall to the depths of depravity with their hand selected audience of sycophants applauding a mentally ill monster who they are cheering on to turn American into an autocracy. CNN engineered this travesty solely for ratings and profit without any consideration to the damaging lies and calls to violence against individuals and democracy. The laughter and encouragement the audience gave to him as he belittled the host and the woman he had just been found guilty of sexually assaulting is proof that his millions of supporters are hungry for violence and brutality and the retribution he promises to deliver.
This is it - Murrow’s words - that coalesced my thinking and emotions this gloomy morning. That I am privileged to have lived in a time of Murrow with parents (z”l) who, tho I never asked nor learned why, insisted I, too young to grasp it all, watch Murrow’s broadcasts.
I didn’t watch the CNN debacle this week. And other than in airports, didn’t watch CNN ever so I know not their highlights. [Those who with Steve know, please list. I’m curious.]
News - hard news and analysis - with some arts, human interest thrown in - I had on PBS. This, what you wrote, Steve, made me realize why my discomfort now too with them as my trusted news source: the new anchors are both bright and engaging. The balance of stories seems a bit off. It is the ‘making of celebrities’ [relatable personalities? Was Murrow relatable?] by clearly a choice that is interfering with my perception of them - the NewsHour and co-anchors - and the news via PBS as my nonCNN or network source. (If not familiar, they both feature their often glamorous lives on social media, that seems at odds with news delivery. I am not the “market share” they want tho one I’d hope they’d want to retain. It does seem to align with what CNN did tho not to the same degree - yet??)
What would my parents say? Neither a college grad (WWII, young parents post-War, never time or resources) they were readers and watchers of real news.
We can’t return or can we to better? CNN set the tone. Here with your commentary, guests and community, I feel safer and informed.
With few exceptions the people bringing you the news back then seemed trusted and took the same responsibility that the written papers did to get it right. Opinion was separate. Were the stories biased based on the culture of the day? Likely, but curious minds wanted truth. They were tired of the propaganda fest of the 40’s and 50’s.
As I read your comments, @Jeff Rosenblatt, I wondered how much gravitas was given to older white men’s words and how that played into perception. Women were relegated to fluff or commercials. I wonder then at my own views and how they were shaped...
Having had the privilege of meeting Walter Cronkite and talking at length about things, he really was the serious person of integrity he was thought as.
News wasn't considered a profit center back then. When Paddy Chayevsky wrote "Network" he was asked if he was predicting the future; he replied, "No, I was writing about today." That was 40 years ago. Go rewatch it with that comment in your mind and you can indeed see what happened to Da meeeeedeeeyaaaaaa.
News should not be a performance art but that was what happened at the CNN townhall by all accounts. My mind has been troubled for the past few days and I am having difficulty finding peace. Letting Trump rewrite history to a live audience is a massive mistake. He is incapable of telling the truth and lies spew out of his corrupt mouth like an open badly infected untreated sore. CNN could not have done more damage than they did by giving him a worldwide audience to spread his grievances and demented vision. I thought I was done with Trump but like a bad case of malaria he is again invading my thoughts with delirium. I hope and pray our salvation lies in the wisdom of our Justice system and they are building an iron trap case against this poor excuse for a human being.
I can't imagine calling myself the "most trusted name in news" and showing that circus act to the world as a representation of America. If Biden can continue to build global coalitions after that, he will be pulling off a Herculean feat. CNN didn't just hurt the media, it damaged America even more.
Advertising dollars and the adverts we then had to tolerate were the price paid for newsrooms that answered to none (for the most part) but the news. The news business -- as it evolved here in America from newsprint to radio to TV -- was not to soil itself by selling itself for those advertising dollars. Read again Murrow’s words about 8 to 11 in the evening. That paid for us to have a Murrow or a Cronkite or a Huntley and Brinkley. Twenty-four-hour networks and websites that allow us all to fetishize our digital days with only what we want or what some algorithm has found for us means that this American, née world, population is moving away from a free exchange of ideas and exposure to to any sort of objective reality as quickly as it can. The news was never envisioned as the product itself! Sixty Minutes showed that news could be sold. CNN made a bet that people would tune in for the headlines on their schedules, not only at 6 p.m. or 11 p.m. The news business and news reporters had solemnity and purpose and a mission to inform, to shine light where darkness had fallen. If we are reading and writing here with Mr. Schmidt, we are our own news editors, looking for information and synthesizing what we find from the places and sources we have decided are deserving of our trust and can provide us with the headlines we need. When every town could support a newspaper, when the FCC put conditions and requirements on our airwaves, we all stood a chance that we could find a news source or two that curated enough reality that democracy could breathe, perhaps not easily, but enough to live. It gasps now. I constantly ponder how this information cacophony can be tuned so that we get what we need to make decisions as a body politic. I remain overwhelmed without an answer.
My life-long "Reagan Republican" parents warned that TV was going to "dumb down" America and unravel our societal fabric. I thought they were nuts. Now I realize social media (espec. Twitter, "Truth Social") are the same threat, as TV frantically tries to hang on to any viewer they can trick into watching. Click bait replaced the remote control.
One of America's former premiere networks is now a veritable Jerry Springer show, center ring of course. Did Chris Licht think the Fox viewers they pulled in just to see Trump were going to stay with them? They clicked off as soon as anyone called out his lies. How do they top this? "Kari Lake Tonight"?
When the fifth estate starts to crumble, our democracy is in real trouble.
Too late -it has already started to crumble. There are huge cracks in the foundation, the pipes are leaking, shingles are flying off the roof, and the windows are beginning to shatter.
Steve, I read each and every one of your posts and I almost always agree with your distillation of current events. Your writing style just captures your feelings and mine as well, and always challenges me to think. I have to look up at least one word a day—and I was an English major at an excellent liberal arts college. I really appreciate the Edward R. Murrow quotes today; what prescient thinking! Thank you for stretching my comprehension every day and giving me a new heavy metal band name!
We here did not watch CNN, with trump lies. We seen this bullshit from the entitled little man, sexual assaulter, propagandist for Putin, too many times. So over the Republican games. It's disgusting the way they bring the worst of people to represent the Wealthy. I'm pretty sure Congress has broken with the American People. Nothing to bring them up, just plug the holes of desperation in the country. Where's the humanity? Uneducated Red States to keep the classes separated, and hangry. Dumb and Dumber in the 60s, is what held me hostage, This old lady seen trump from the 70s on the screen gonna be the runner for President, I started my 101 into politics. It's a farce. Too many lies and gerrymandering, add trmp and we had a recipe for Hitler actions in America. We lost over a million Americans, due to his inability to see these Americans as he sees himself Human. trump is a Hitler reincarnated and he will continue to tear down the fabric of America.
I don't trust courts, any longer. I'm so disappointed in the so called leaders.
In the environment I grew up in, we slammed trump on Donahue tv for being a creep. I see we were right. Ahahaha hahaha what people won't do for cash on hand. I'd rather be poor than to be a phony, plenty scammers down here, you can see them coming.
Earn your way honestly and live to bring hope to the poorest among us. My take on living out my human existence. When you start off at the dirt level, you are always reminded of where you came from.
I believe in a free and fair election.
Unity by the people for the people.
Time to bring enmasse to the streets peacefully and united. Count me in, I'm practicing for a long walk.
Never knew we had so many cowards in charge till trump.
Excellent piece, Steve. Perfect creation of the destruction of Democracy by the voice of “bullhorn liar in chief” Trump,
given the opportunity and encouragement of CNN for a few dollars more. We all knew what it would be, but the laughter aimed dead ahead to the loss of our freedoms? Every person on the planet knows the outcome of giving that despot a bullhorn 📢 and yet they do it anyway. Does no one envision the depths to which we have fallen as a society, a culture? Where have decency and morals gone? Is there any hope of resurrecting a nation of which we could be proud citizens again or will we just burn 🔥 it all down, ignoring the efforts and lives of so many patriots who got us this far, now so relevant we’ll take the world down with us? The absence of any empathy whatsoever for our collective futures, our children, no worry about theirs; there won’t be any. We’re running as fast as we can straight into Armageddon without a care in the world. It’s as if we’ve all taken the kool-aid Jim Jones passed out so many years ago. Remember the bodies all askew in that wreckage? I do. My persistent question is why? The only answers are, of course, power and greed, the lust for more. To what end? A massive nuclear meltdown? Or just let Climate Change continue on its current course toward 2030? Will no one call out Trumpism for what it is? One man’s ego, as despicable as Hitler if not worse. I fear we are doomed. The more airtime he gets, the quicker we get to the point of no return. No God created this man; Satan surely did and is ever so proud of his handiwork. Trump is a savage. Some say he will become irrelevant. And how will that happen when idiot outlets like CNN hand him the microphone to spew the hatred, stir the cauldrons of Hell? Fire needs air and that’s exactly what CNN gave him and all the reporting that has followed has just added to the blaze (no criticism intended). I admire greatly the faith that Joe Biden carries with him daily in this fight for our future. I can only pray he continues on course with Gen Z who have the most to lose and the immortality of youth to carry them forward in this outrageous battle, brother to brother, citizen against citizen. I’m too old to matter in the grand scheme of this war, I’ll be long gone, dust by the time it all plays out. But my heart grieves for those left behind fighting to retain a modicum of decency. And I suppose I’ll never know how all this truly came to be in a free country where choices are made and lives lived and lost in the shadow of that very sick mind. ❤️🇺🇸🌎🕊️
In the fragmented and perverse mediascape it is likely that not a single person who needs to read this will read this.
I am sending Steve’s brilliantly written piece to my MAGA cousins. If they send me back hackneyed tripe from some idiot they read, okay. But at least I made another effort.
Bravo !! I have a few MAGA cousins too. One is showing signs of MAGA fatigue. Perhaps there is more ways to deepen these cracks...
Sitting in my Silo (Anderson Cooper) drinking coffee and reading this. Great piece, Steve. My favorite line, “ CNN produced its first snuff film”. Brilliant.
Another fantastic piece. The Murrow quotes are remarkable, and am grateful now to know that he possessed Orwell-like insight.
Please, Chris Licht, Anderson Cooper, and the other defenders: the high dudgeon and pathetic rationalizations only magnify your broken moral and intellectual compass. The CNN spectacle wasn't politics or public service; it was a ratings-driven WWE-level love fest for a corrupt despot-wannabe and his addicted, addled, rage-and-fear-fueled cult.
Those E.R. Murrow quotes are indeed so very relevant. For anyone not aware, a tremendous b&w feature film was made about Murrow and his colleagues going up against destructive US senator Joe McCarthy-- with David Strathairn as Murrow and George Clooney as his news-segment producer Fred Friendly (Clooney also directed and co-wrote the script with Grant Heslov). Titled *Good Night, and Good Luck* (2005). Very incisive.... critically acclaimed and well rated (93% at RottenTomatoes).
p.s.-- Steve, thanks for bringing forth the Murrow excerpts-- and of course your own insights and comments.
One CORRECTION: the CNN anchor / interviewer's first name is spelled *Kaitlan,* not Kaitlin.
How anyone could think Kaitlan could be other than the incompetent she demonstrated she is amazes me. She got her start at that launch pad of fifth-rate morons, The Daily Caller.
Timothy haven’t seen film but when I get back to FL I’ll try to
Find it…sure you know George
Clooney’s father was a newsman and Rosemarie Clooney his Aunt ..admire you
You’re knowledgeable about
Diverse subjects and you enrich
My Soul ty, Marsha 🌹
I’m wondering if Licht helped Anderson see things from his perspective or maybe he didn’t need any help at all? Perhaps I’ve given Anderson too much credibility for being insightful & smart.
I wonder, too. For what it's worth, I've always felt that Cooper is way over-rated.
Steve, your writing is my morning read, every day. Sometimes, actually many, many times, I want to comment but can't find the words. Today is one of those days. You leave me speechless.
Please don't ever stop writing. Your voice is so spot on, accurate. We need it.
May the country hear you.
I leave comments
I'm on the lower rung and I voice my
Opinions.
You have a voice, and you don't have to be a writer to post.
Love Steve's work
Be you. 🙂
Antonia loved your comment🌹
Thank you, Marsha
Sandra Holloway we are blessed to
Be able to read and understand the
Writing and reporting that Steve
And The Warning and responses
Give to us each day Blessings and
Safety for our Democracy Marsha
Sandra please keep responding love reading your comments Ty
Blessings heartfelt soulful feelings
May the country hear you, Marsha
Steve I did not watch it but from the snippets that I have seen it was exactly the kind of destructive piece of propaganda that we have all come to know as Maga bullshit.
What is to be done other than gird ourselves for the coming 17 months of campaigning for the '24 election as if it is life or death because it seems lime it is.
Hopefully DJT solidified those against him as he was at his worst and CNN at their newly found "Low" point.
No one could have watched that fake town hall and walked away in favor of voting Republican. Many may just say guck it and choose to not vote but to vote for that person and his minions?? Never
I am glad many more are finding their voice of outrage towards CNN. My wife called their "hotline" to complain and got a sterile, recorded response. Shows you they were prepared for the negative reaction. I want them to go bankrupt or at the very least fully become another faux FOX news channel which they truly are.
Thanks Steve once again
Agree 100%. On CNN’s decision fail its core mission to report news. You wrote about Murrow in London. I was thinking about the first Iraq war and CNN’s on-site reporting
Today’s CNN is closer to the Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land news outlet, where sensationalism is the goal, not news
Dana believe TED TURNER is
Heartbroken in Heaven! Sadly
CNN is watched throughout the entire world more than other cable channels…NATO Allies
Must be panic stricken ,Marsha
And if the reporters are truly decent people & good journalists they will leave. I really don’t see it any other way.
There were German "journalists" that aided and abetted the rise of Hitler. CNN's disgraceful conduct is no different. CNN, for profit, is nurturing fascism. For CNN to caution is about remaining in our "silos" legitimatizes that fascism by implying Trumpism is simply an alternative political choice when in fact it is entirely incompatible with Madisonian democracy. CNN seems to believe that if a swath of the electorate likes vicious rights crushing autocracy then CNN's job is to provide it a platform. I am sure German journalists rationalized their coverage of Hitler's rise in precisely the same manner.
Just remember that in 2016 Jeff Zucker was asked about CNN giving Trump all the free airtime of covering his rallies, and his comment was "Donald brings high ratings."
Tom ty didn’t realize that Jeff
Zucker was asked about all the free Air Time covering his Rallies.. couldn’t ever watch they reminded me of Hitler’s
Rallies AND why after losing the Civil War we’re the Southern
States allowed to keep their
Confederate Flags waving in our country ??? the KKK formed after the Civi War was lost !!
Doesn’t make common sense
Charlottesville’s marches
Brought together the NAZI’s
The confederate flag and Jews
Will Not Replace us FULL STOP
Maybe you have insight I don’t
Love your writing Ty, Marsha
Mina don’t know where common sense has gone but this is insane!
We as re in such trouble of losing our democracy scares me! Marsha
We always have to be careful to compare 1933 Germany but the comparisons are eerie. Hitler did try a coup that failed ended up in jail and afterwards was enabled by money and special interests. They thought they could use him for their ends. He was able to rally the people Make Germany Great Again!
Daniel Kudos for your thoughts
What an amazing response..
Bless you, Marsha
Yes CNN's fall to the depths of depravity with their hand selected audience of sycophants applauding a mentally ill monster who they are cheering on to turn American into an autocracy. CNN engineered this travesty solely for ratings and profit without any consideration to the damaging lies and calls to violence against individuals and democracy. The laughter and encouragement the audience gave to him as he belittled the host and the woman he had just been found guilty of sexually assaulting is proof that his millions of supporters are hungry for violence and brutality and the retribution he promises to deliver.
Steve your writing today would have made
Edward R Murrow & Walter Cronkite proud
Thank You for the truthful reporting…
Unless Americans wake up to this news
and work hard to save our country from
The despotic Authoritarian Dictatorship
We are Done as a Democracy Our USA
Needs Everyone to Vote!!! Ty Marsha
Kate Anderson you are thoughtful
To comment and heartfelt ty
Blessings, Marsha
Kris Gandee ty for your kind gesture of response,Marsha 🌹
Thank you Cheryl you’re very kind
To respond, Marsha
Tom thanks for being so considerate and honest
You’re great, hugs Marsha
This is it - Murrow’s words - that coalesced my thinking and emotions this gloomy morning. That I am privileged to have lived in a time of Murrow with parents (z”l) who, tho I never asked nor learned why, insisted I, too young to grasp it all, watch Murrow’s broadcasts.
I didn’t watch the CNN debacle this week. And other than in airports, didn’t watch CNN ever so I know not their highlights. [Those who with Steve know, please list. I’m curious.]
News - hard news and analysis - with some arts, human interest thrown in - I had on PBS. This, what you wrote, Steve, made me realize why my discomfort now too with them as my trusted news source: the new anchors are both bright and engaging. The balance of stories seems a bit off. It is the ‘making of celebrities’ [relatable personalities? Was Murrow relatable?] by clearly a choice that is interfering with my perception of them - the NewsHour and co-anchors - and the news via PBS as my nonCNN or network source. (If not familiar, they both feature their often glamorous lives on social media, that seems at odds with news delivery. I am not the “market share” they want tho one I’d hope they’d want to retain. It does seem to align with what CNN did tho not to the same degree - yet??)
What would my parents say? Neither a college grad (WWII, young parents post-War, never time or resources) they were readers and watchers of real news.
We can’t return or can we to better? CNN set the tone. Here with your commentary, guests and community, I feel safer and informed.
With few exceptions the people bringing you the news back then seemed trusted and took the same responsibility that the written papers did to get it right. Opinion was separate. Were the stories biased based on the culture of the day? Likely, but curious minds wanted truth. They were tired of the propaganda fest of the 40’s and 50’s.
As I read your comments, @Jeff Rosenblatt, I wondered how much gravitas was given to older white men’s words and how that played into perception. Women were relegated to fluff or commercials. I wonder then at my own views and how they were shaped...
Having had the privilege of meeting Walter Cronkite and talking at length about things, he really was the serious person of integrity he was thought as.
News wasn't considered a profit center back then. When Paddy Chayevsky wrote "Network" he was asked if he was predicting the future; he replied, "No, I was writing about today." That was 40 years ago. Go rewatch it with that comment in your mind and you can indeed see what happened to Da meeeeedeeeyaaaaaa.
News should not be a performance art but that was what happened at the CNN townhall by all accounts. My mind has been troubled for the past few days and I am having difficulty finding peace. Letting Trump rewrite history to a live audience is a massive mistake. He is incapable of telling the truth and lies spew out of his corrupt mouth like an open badly infected untreated sore. CNN could not have done more damage than they did by giving him a worldwide audience to spread his grievances and demented vision. I thought I was done with Trump but like a bad case of malaria he is again invading my thoughts with delirium. I hope and pray our salvation lies in the wisdom of our Justice system and they are building an iron trap case against this poor excuse for a human being.
I can't imagine calling myself the "most trusted name in news" and showing that circus act to the world as a representation of America. If Biden can continue to build global coalitions after that, he will be pulling off a Herculean feat. CNN didn't just hurt the media, it damaged America even more.
Patrick P ..if our Justice System react ASAP then we no longer have
A functioning Justice System…
So Each of the important columns
Of our Democracy are crumbling
Now please Stop realize what we are losing ! Marsha
Patricia Meister you are genuinely
Thoughtful to take time to respond
Ty Blessings, Marsha
Advertising dollars and the adverts we then had to tolerate were the price paid for newsrooms that answered to none (for the most part) but the news. The news business -- as it evolved here in America from newsprint to radio to TV -- was not to soil itself by selling itself for those advertising dollars. Read again Murrow’s words about 8 to 11 in the evening. That paid for us to have a Murrow or a Cronkite or a Huntley and Brinkley. Twenty-four-hour networks and websites that allow us all to fetishize our digital days with only what we want or what some algorithm has found for us means that this American, née world, population is moving away from a free exchange of ideas and exposure to to any sort of objective reality as quickly as it can. The news was never envisioned as the product itself! Sixty Minutes showed that news could be sold. CNN made a bet that people would tune in for the headlines on their schedules, not only at 6 p.m. or 11 p.m. The news business and news reporters had solemnity and purpose and a mission to inform, to shine light where darkness had fallen. If we are reading and writing here with Mr. Schmidt, we are our own news editors, looking for information and synthesizing what we find from the places and sources we have decided are deserving of our trust and can provide us with the headlines we need. When every town could support a newspaper, when the FCC put conditions and requirements on our airwaves, we all stood a chance that we could find a news source or two that curated enough reality that democracy could breathe, perhaps not easily, but enough to live. It gasps now. I constantly ponder how this information cacophony can be tuned so that we get what we need to make decisions as a body politic. I remain overwhelmed without an answer.
My life-long "Reagan Republican" parents warned that TV was going to "dumb down" America and unravel our societal fabric. I thought they were nuts. Now I realize social media (espec. Twitter, "Truth Social") are the same threat, as TV frantically tries to hang on to any viewer they can trick into watching. Click bait replaced the remote control.
One of America's former premiere networks is now a veritable Jerry Springer show, center ring of course. Did Chris Licht think the Fox viewers they pulled in just to see Trump were going to stay with them? They clicked off as soon as anyone called out his lies. How do they top this? "Kari Lake Tonight"?
When the fifth estate starts to crumble, our democracy is in real trouble.
Too late -it has already started to crumble. There are huge cracks in the foundation, the pipes are leaking, shingles are flying off the roof, and the windows are beginning to shatter.
Your best commentary yet. Thank you for the Edward R. Murrow quotes. He was a wise and prescient man.
Steve, I read each and every one of your posts and I almost always agree with your distillation of current events. Your writing style just captures your feelings and mine as well, and always challenges me to think. I have to look up at least one word a day—and I was an English major at an excellent liberal arts college. I really appreciate the Edward R. Murrow quotes today; what prescient thinking! Thank you for stretching my comprehension every day and giving me a new heavy metal band name!
We here did not watch CNN, with trump lies. We seen this bullshit from the entitled little man, sexual assaulter, propagandist for Putin, too many times. So over the Republican games. It's disgusting the way they bring the worst of people to represent the Wealthy. I'm pretty sure Congress has broken with the American People. Nothing to bring them up, just plug the holes of desperation in the country. Where's the humanity? Uneducated Red States to keep the classes separated, and hangry. Dumb and Dumber in the 60s, is what held me hostage, This old lady seen trump from the 70s on the screen gonna be the runner for President, I started my 101 into politics. It's a farce. Too many lies and gerrymandering, add trmp and we had a recipe for Hitler actions in America. We lost over a million Americans, due to his inability to see these Americans as he sees himself Human. trump is a Hitler reincarnated and he will continue to tear down the fabric of America.
I don't trust courts, any longer. I'm so disappointed in the so called leaders.
In the environment I grew up in, we slammed trump on Donahue tv for being a creep. I see we were right. Ahahaha hahaha what people won't do for cash on hand. I'd rather be poor than to be a phony, plenty scammers down here, you can see them coming.
Earn your way honestly and live to bring hope to the poorest among us. My take on living out my human existence. When you start off at the dirt level, you are always reminded of where you came from.
I believe in a free and fair election.
Unity by the people for the people.
Time to bring enmasse to the streets peacefully and united. Count me in, I'm practicing for a long walk.
Never knew we had so many cowards in charge till trump.
Well said Antonia, well said 🙏
Excellent piece, Steve. Perfect creation of the destruction of Democracy by the voice of “bullhorn liar in chief” Trump,
given the opportunity and encouragement of CNN for a few dollars more. We all knew what it would be, but the laughter aimed dead ahead to the loss of our freedoms? Every person on the planet knows the outcome of giving that despot a bullhorn 📢 and yet they do it anyway. Does no one envision the depths to which we have fallen as a society, a culture? Where have decency and morals gone? Is there any hope of resurrecting a nation of which we could be proud citizens again or will we just burn 🔥 it all down, ignoring the efforts and lives of so many patriots who got us this far, now so relevant we’ll take the world down with us? The absence of any empathy whatsoever for our collective futures, our children, no worry about theirs; there won’t be any. We’re running as fast as we can straight into Armageddon without a care in the world. It’s as if we’ve all taken the kool-aid Jim Jones passed out so many years ago. Remember the bodies all askew in that wreckage? I do. My persistent question is why? The only answers are, of course, power and greed, the lust for more. To what end? A massive nuclear meltdown? Or just let Climate Change continue on its current course toward 2030? Will no one call out Trumpism for what it is? One man’s ego, as despicable as Hitler if not worse. I fear we are doomed. The more airtime he gets, the quicker we get to the point of no return. No God created this man; Satan surely did and is ever so proud of his handiwork. Trump is a savage. Some say he will become irrelevant. And how will that happen when idiot outlets like CNN hand him the microphone to spew the hatred, stir the cauldrons of Hell? Fire needs air and that’s exactly what CNN gave him and all the reporting that has followed has just added to the blaze (no criticism intended). I admire greatly the faith that Joe Biden carries with him daily in this fight for our future. I can only pray he continues on course with Gen Z who have the most to lose and the immortality of youth to carry them forward in this outrageous battle, brother to brother, citizen against citizen. I’m too old to matter in the grand scheme of this war, I’ll be long gone, dust by the time it all plays out. But my heart grieves for those left behind fighting to retain a modicum of decency. And I suppose I’ll never know how all this truly came to be in a free country where choices are made and lives lived and lost in the shadow of that very sick mind. ❤️🇺🇸🌎🕊️
Judith Bless You ty …Marsha