98 Comments

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust surviver, quotes:

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”

“Action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all.”

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Expand full comment

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Sir Edmund Burke

Expand full comment

This Burke quote needs to be shared far and wide for Democracy to prevail. Thanks.

Expand full comment

Always loved that quote. Defines the Trump era. Hope everyone will stand up this Election Day (Which has already begun in some places) and stop this evil once and for all!!!

Expand full comment

Well said Lisa!! I feel the same. I will be silent no more. Not even with my own family.

Expand full comment

Thank you for reposting Elie Wiesel’s quote. It was unfamiliar to me but I am glad that your posts often reflect what others have said that bear repeating in this day and age. Canada isn’t close to being bombarded by our wannabe trump, but everyday his disgraceful diatribes become more virulent. Yes, I’m tired of Justin Trudeau, but right now we’re caught between a rock and a hard place.

Expand full comment

Neutrality can be an enemy. Neutrality by the press is not a virtue when faced by a MAGA threat. At long last, Trump is finally being fact checked in real time, when it counts most. The recent presidential debate gave us moderators who boldly fact checked Trump two or three times, to great effect. It's no surprise that they were accused by the MAGA crowd for a lack of neutrality, as if exposing lies was somehow unfair. We have a corrupt and dishonest Supreme Court that threatens our country. Their decisions are ruining our democratic processes, filling our streets with guns, causing our children to be slaughtered in schools, and forcing physicians to watch women die from failed pregnancies. Neutrality of the press in the face of these depredations is unconscionable. The six justices responsible need to be made infamous for defiling their sacred trust, not wealthy from the rewards of those who ceded them such power.

Expand full comment

I 100% Agree! The SCOTUS needs to be called out for corruption, as do MAGA leaders.

Our children are being traumatized and slaughtered in their schools! Action is a must!

Expand full comment

Yes!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Expand full comment

Yes!

Expand full comment

“This is the warning. I can see Trump and Vance. Can you?”

Sadly Steve, I can, which is more than disturbing, and bordering on very creepy!

Some of it is sheer ignorance and stupidity by a large swath of our electorate. However, some of this nonsense are unforced errors; like Biden playing right into Bibi’s hands (supporting him with impunity), or the Teamster’s refusing to endorse Kamala, even though she was the only VP in US history to walk a picket line in solidarity with union members.

I’m not saying the Teamster’s are filled with pathetic fascists and racists, but did I mention Kamala is black, and Trump is an authoritarian kleptocratic PIG?

That said, I often wonder how Trump supporters can actually keep a straight faces. Miss Sassy’s owner said she found her cat unharmed, and apologized to the Haitian family that she accused of kidnapping and eating her cat. All I saw from the MSM is how apologetic this cat lady was, and that Trump and Vance could learn a thing or two about humility. Seriously, that’s their takeaway????????

So let me get this straight! Her cat disappears, and her first thought out of her mind is to call the police and claim that her Haitian neighbors stole her cat, and ate it for dinner? Seriously?

There’s a reason Miss Sassy’s owner is a Trump supporter, since only Trump and Vance supporters could seriously make this shit up!

And she’s a cat lady nonetheless. Vance has been calling her essentially less than human for months, and yet, she still supports these guys? INCREDIBLE, or more accurately INCREDULOUS!

This lady reminds me of a couple that was featured on 60 Minutes during COVID. They were interviewed because they were being evicted from their Baltimore apartment by Kushner’s family during the lockdown, which was illegal.

Bottom line: they still supported Trump and Kushner because the couple thought they were good businessmen. Seriously, they were being unfairly evicted, and they still support Trump? They’re like all the rubes that got ripped by Trump University and still voted for the guy.

So yes Steve, I can see Trump and Vance, but more importantly, and more disturbingly, I can see their supporters, and they scare me even more!….:)

Expand full comment

To be clear, the cat owner posted on Facebook. I don't think it started with a police report. I'm not sure. Obviously racist. Possibly a Trump supporter. I'm not sure anyone knows. But that is the point. Someone says it on Facebook. People believe it. It goes viral. And here we are, with neo nazis from all over the country marching openly in the streets of Springfield, schools and government buildings closed because of bomb threats -- as if school kids and government employees have anything at all to do with any of this. And, of course, Trump wants to go there to further inflame things even though officials are begging him stay away. This is exactly the kind of thing Vance and Trump hoped would happen as a result of this lie. A race war.

Expand full comment

Christa, it was reported in the WSJ. A reporter found that a cat lady had initially made a police report. That reporter went to Springfield and knocked on the victims door. She answered and admitted that it was she, who made the claim on Facebook, calling the police and blaming it on her Haitian neighbors.

Oh, and when she opened the door to the reporter, she was wearing a Trump “make America great again” shirt and hat…..:)

You can look it up!

Expand full comment

Thank you for providing a source, Robert. My main point is about social media. Somebody said it. So, it must be true. And now the city is engulfed in a race war over something that never happened.

Expand full comment

Fully understand and agree…:)

Expand full comment

I agree, it very disturbing to know very Ignorant, sick in Mind and Spirit MAGA Nutjobs are out there supporting Liars & Traitors Trump and Vance who support them with $$ and violence.

Expand full comment

Robert,

You have posed one of the most perplexing questions that seems to go without any logical answer, and has been since at least 2016, “Why do these people continue to support men like Trump and Vance when the evidence of their unfitness and dishonesty has been so Clearly displayed ?”

It’s like trying to understand why there are Still people who believe the earth is flat. I used to believe it was just a case of low intelligence or a poor education….or just plain gullibility….., one that could be rectified with facts and evidence that clearly show where their understanding is flawed. I no longer think that is the case with most of these folks. I Used to think it was just a case of a lack of intellectual curiosity. But that’s not it either.

I have sadly come to believe that many of these MAGA supporting citizens absolutely understand what trump and Vance, and all of their cronies, have in store for our nation. And rather than pushing back or defending our democracy, they seem to applaud their authoritarian and fascist leaning policies.

We keep shining a spotlight on Proj 2025 as if in doing so, these people will recoil and rethink their loyalty to the trump/Vance ticket. We should stop pretending that anything listed in that 900+ page playbook for destroying American Democracy will be anything but cheered on by MAGA voters.

Expand full comment

Steve. Love your blog. How do you expand it outside your subscribers. Papers should carry some of the things you bring up.

Expand full comment

You are my sherpa hero Steve. Only some man with your knowledge of history, the human condition, and a total love for freedom would sit constantly writing warnings to the American people. I watch for your writing every day.

I rarely look at FB, but I did today. Nothing had changed. One of my neighbors posted a meme of TFG with numerous battle ready dressed angels protecting him. Comments were sickening.

It had 44 likes, 10% of which are my neighbors. I can't help but think these folks, mostly women, who define themselves as Christian, are just political abuse victims. I don't like thinking they are that stupid or hateful.

So, as with all other days since mid August, I will gird myself as a volunteer canvasser for Harris in NC, spending many hours canvassing and hoping it will make a difference in my swing home state.

Wish us luck, Dems. 💗

Expand full comment

I hope so too Sandra and all here, today Steve’s words were particularly ominous. But his points have rightful place in this discussion and our collective futures. I’m a lifelong Democrat for thoughtful reasons, starting the country over makes no sense. We are pushing that rock up that mountain and it’s enough for some ‘never ‘Democrat’ right wing loons to puke up all that we have gained, let them puke. They have never changed the core beliefs they have and 30% of the country think times were better or they can quit dialog and start the ovens. I say it can’t happen here rhetorically as I now believe there are evil ones that don’t think in the ways and price paid for with the lives of so many that know the actual goodness in others, they have a target on all of our backs. I’m voting tomorrow and it’s going to be easy. SCOTUS must be drastically realigned.

Expand full comment

Good Luck. Praying for all of you. Especially in the Swing states. 🙏🙏🙏

Expand full comment

Thank you!

Expand full comment

Precisely right. You lay out what has been the design of the trump/vance campaign, desensitization. This is a 'must' to be able to roll-out next steps if given the reigns of power. They'll start with the 'others' to begin with, those people who we 'do not know'. However, it never ends there. Remember, each of us are people who 'others' do not know. Think about this, YOU are not exempt.

Expand full comment

We have to beat this poisonous mindset as decisively as possible in the ballot box and then the real work begins to realign the country to better values for the benefit of all. Can we make it shameful to spout the lies and hatred again? Can we get it to the point where a cult like this no longer has the numbers and blind following to assault our capital again? Can we bring back the law struck down by Reagan to require truth and responsibility in news and advertising again?

After the election the US no rest. There can be a restful pause, then the real work begins.

Expand full comment

If Trump loses the election on November 5th there will likely begin a period when the "real work begins." Hopefully that period will be over on January 20th, 2025.

Expand full comment

Why 60 days interim between Election Day and Inaugural? Most countries move newly elected officials into office within days or a couple weeks. Mishegas Is Afoot

Expand full comment

This waiting period is such a bunch of crap. Left over from when it took a month to get from Kansas ( or further) to DC. Can’t we demand our Democrat lawmakers ( once we own all the real estate), to fix our archaic systems?

Expand full comment

I too want your words to be heard and read to anyone thinking it’s no big deal. I cannot imagine how so many people will feel once they realize what they have done if Trump is in the WH again. I’ll be working on Election Day. And frankly I’m frightened. I’ll fight with my last breath to save our freedom.

Expand full comment

Same here Pam!!!

Expand full comment
Sep 19Liked by Steve S

Again, Steve minces no words and pushes the truth into bright daylight. Great observations.

For background, I would also recommend Rachel Maddow's ULTRA podcasts, which go deeply into fascism in the United States and how it took root in the 1930s and remained am embedded threat for two decades thereafter, at least in part because it infiltrated Congress. Rachel and several other insightful MSNBC anchors/hosts started dissecting Project 2025 right after it came to light, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Anne Applebaum -- both scholars and analysts of "strongmen" and fascist movements -- have become regular guests on their shows. They often have helpful perspectives on current events.

I still shudder recalling the moment earlier this year when Rachel Maddow first looked deliberately into the camera and said, in so many words, "Let's not kid ourselves. Project 2025 isn't just a plan for future authoritarian governance if Trump wins. It is nothing less than a blueprint for dismantling the modern multi-cultural, multi-racial democracy the United States has become, and the effort is already well underway. Electing a Democrat as President is not going to silence or defeat Trump and his followers. On the day after the election, we will wake up to find there are still 80 million Americans filled with hate and primed for violence against the rest of us in the name of their leader."

Steve's message today is equally prescient, and it updates and expands Rachel's trenchant insights. Many thanks.

Expand full comment

We must convince those not totally under Trump's spell that a better future is possible only by adhering to our traditional values; tolerance for people who are culturally different from the majority, or of a different race, religion, ethnic background or sexual/gender preference must grow into respect for individuals based on their character not popular prejudices or fear of the unknown; freedom is a virtue when we are free to be ourselves and make our own decisions, as long as they don't infringe on the more fundamental freedoms of the general population. Allowing others to carry military weapons or wantonly pollute the air, water, and land is not freedom, it is a license to kill; democracy is not the unification of all under the rule of a supposedly "enlightened leader," "a unified executive," or "chosen one." It is respect for the human rights of all people, respect for the results of properly conducted elections and the peaceful transfer of power, it is the rejection of violence and embrace of bipartisanship and compromise.

Expand full comment

Anthony: To borrow your words, it appears that millions of Americans are "totally under Trump's spell." There were other peoples in times and places who came under some leader's maniacal spell. I found many examples from the past by searching "mass hysteria" on the internet. A recent example that is widely known is the German people in the 1930s and early 1940s who came under the spell of Hitler. Maybe it's a mass psychiatric event of some kind. Clearly, much research needs to be done (if it has not already been done) that explains it. We just don't understand enough about how people's minds tick.

Expand full comment

Someone should ask Trump and Vance how many cats and dogs they eat every day. You know, since they always accuse everyone else of doing what they are actually doing.

Expand full comment

Or how many abortions Trump has paid for. I’m certain it’s not just one.

Expand full comment

Oh, he ordered them. I doubt he paid for them. Or for the NDA.

Expand full comment

That’s even better, Pam!

Expand full comment

I looked in my dictionary for the word "disinformation" which I didn't expect to find. Well, it was there! Here's my dictionary's definition of "disinformation": False information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. We now know that Vance and Trump knew before the debate that there was no evidence that Haitians were eating cats and dogs. So, they were not spreading "misinformation." They were clearly spreading "disinformation." And it wasn't spread "covertly" but "overtly". It is the BIG LIE of our time.

Expand full comment

Vance is proud of his lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets. He justified them by saying this during a Dana Bash interview:

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast..."

In other words, it's ok to vilify and endanger innocent people, Haitian immigrants and others who may be around them when a Maga terrorist decides to set off a bomb or shoot some people, if that is necessary to get people to hate immigrants and go along with Trump's plan to round them up, put them in concentration camps and deport them. You can be certain that political "enemies" and truthful journalists will be treated the same way; that is, if they aren't tried by a military tribunal and publicly executed.

GOD THESE PEOPLE ARE FUCKING UNBEARABLR!!!!

Expand full comment

Yes, and TFG blocked the bipartisan border bill. What a dangerous racket this is.

Expand full comment

So JD Vance is supposed to represent all his constituents in Ohio since he is a US Senator but instead he demonizes them. If Springfield was such a mess why didn’t he do something about it? He’s got a pretty powerful job as that US Senator. 10 days ago there were no threats against the people and institutions of Springfield. Now it’s a mess. Just coincidental? I don’t think so

And BTW. Trump extols how he loves NY but leaves to have his legal residency in Florida to avoid paying state income taxes. What a Guy - Not

Expand full comment

It was very disturbing to read the Bret Stephens NY Times editorial about how he doesn’t know if he can lower himself sufficiently to vote for Kamala Harris. If Trump is elected and he is successful in going after immigrants, who will be next? When will they stop? Think about it, Bret. There will be others. If you are incapable of caring about the Haitians in Ohio, perhaps you are part of the problem.

Expand full comment

Hate begets hate, trump and maga are a hateful bunch, likely deplorable, as Hillary proclaimed in 2016. But they do not care how hateful they are. What has happened in Springfield is deplorable and should never be tolerated. Trump/vance are a poison on our country, our democracy, our way of life, our continued place in the world of humanity. Not sure if any of you recall the show “the Americans”? A family, imitating americans, but who are actually Russian, living in the United States doing Russia’s bidding. I am beginning to think, that some so called “americans” might have infiltrated maga, and along with trump, who I have long though of as a Russian asset, if not in actuality, in practice. What better way for Putin to destroy us, than from within, by an American who will do almost anything to promote himself, to make himself king, and to hand over the keys to our democracy to autocracy. My faith lay in the good people of this country to vote in an overwhelming numbers, to show the world that the trump way of life is not the American way of life, and we choose freedom over tyranny!

Expand full comment

Here here!!

Expand full comment

Right On, Janet! Thanks.

Expand full comment

Your ominous essays are always on point.

Expand full comment

We are Ukraine. We are thwarting the same threat. Putin believed he could take Ukraine in 3 days. Gamers started flying drones to watch Russian movements. Now they have stealth drones, not easily spotted.

This election is shaking out as men against women. Any man who votes for Trump is voting against women’s freedom. Why would any man do that? I don’t think gamers will do that. There are 1.3 billion of us. No knuckle dragging. Rawr.

Expand full comment

The race is so tight, barring an epiphany, I do not see how to break the hold that MAGA has on 35% of the diehards but the potential 15-20% of others. I am really sick over this post…..

Expand full comment

I live in NYC and it petrified me to hear on the news that 60K people had registered for the 16K tickets that were available. I guess he could have filled MSG just like Lindbergh. And if you want a reminder, watch The Plot Against America on MAX - the 6 part limited series that came out in the spring of 2020 that many people missed because Covid exploded at the same time. It is based on the Philip Roth novel -alternate history / historical fiction novel that looks more and more as if could easily come true!

Expand full comment