I’ve often wondered why the United States is heading toward a society that subjugates women. That pastor and the former Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina both said the 19th Amendment was a mistake.
In Arizona, a woman running for State Senate said that if we can take away the female vote, it will end blue states. These statements make me wonder why, and another tragic aspect is that there are many women who support such sentiments.
Marsha Blackburn won the female vote in Tennessee by 60 percent even though she opposes equal pay for women. We live in a bizarre country.
My grandmother didn't get the vote until she was twenty. Those of us who grew up in the time when we were the only or part of a handful of women in our profession, who remember when Harvard was only men, when only men could be Rhodes Scholars, cops, firefighters, soldiers, engineers, doctors, when there were plenty of rules about what being a "woman" meant. many of which meant lost opportunities and lost contributions to society...Well, these women are never going back. And neither are our granddaughters.
I remember listening to my grandmother, born in 1904, talk about all the schools, jobs, etc. closed to women. Even when I graduated from high school I 1968, I wanted to take shop instead of home economics, and the administration was 100% opposed. Most of the girls went on to be educators, nurses, secretaries, or got married. Today, I would have gone to medical school (like my granddaughter), but I did eventually become a nurse practitioner.
In Maine, when I became the legal age to drink, we had “BlueLaws” that prohibited women from sitting at a bar, so if you were were waiting for a table, you were left standing!
I’m 10 years older than you and I would’ve liked to career but I graduated high school in 1958. I went to college and ended up changing my major from home economics to political science and history I loved my subjects and then I didn’t have a job so I ended up going back for a teaching certification I taught for only a couple of years because I didn’t want to stay home with my kids when I had them at 29 and 31 but boy, am I a liberal now
A cousin and I, both in our late 70s, US Midwestern born, have great interests in archaeology. We wondered, in a recent email exchange, why we knew not of the profession. “Girls” weren’t exposed to or encouraged to be other than teachers, nurses, secretaries or librarians. We’ve had rich fulfilling careers and lives and wonder what might have been.
Yes, they have; but, in general, in my 61 years of voting since I was 21 and being an activist, I find that men are reluctant and don't like competition. At 82, I don't have a lot of sympathy -- and I have tried to help my grandsons understand.
I’m one of those women who remember. But sadly, many of our daughters and granddaughters take for granted the rights we fought for and they enjoy. I would not hold my breath waiting for people to rise up and take back their rights. We are going backwards and people are afraid and cowed. Only the wealthy will be able to insulate themselves from what’s coming.
The right’s inflammatory and misleading rhetoric is what is leading to the violence. With incensing hyperbole, the right is enraging its following so much they are now killing each other. The entire out of control cult can no longer separate fact from fiction. Let no one gloss over the inflammatory Charlie Kirk’s years of fueling culture wars, his amplifying white nationalist talking points, and his pointedly vitriolic, extreme racism and antisemitism.
Charlie Kirk wasn’t felled by any leftist enemy. He was taken down by a right-wing soul misguided by the toxic virtual reality cesspool that Kirk himself helped to create. Kirk fed and stroked the extreme right-wing cult.
From age 19 on, that is the business Charlie Kirk left college early to pursue. He took up and fed that business, and he profited from that greatly. His estate has grown to $12 million in value, excluding the value in Turning Point USA. There is good money in hate, if you can stomach it.
I have to agree with you about “female stupidity” and in general anybody that voted for Trump in the 2024 election against their own interest, including young men of color and youth in general who backed unwittingly the destruction/unraveling of this country - much less for any opportunities being available to them in the near future!
Yes and no: talented and far more deserving to win than what we got (I don’t want to say his name right before retiring tonite), Kamala was set up by the establishment and the Bidens, to fail.
So we’ll never know if she or another properly vetted Democrat would have won, although as in 2000 and 2016, the country was given a good economy to be wrecked three times by Republicans!
However, as we all do know, the Democrats have been bought and sold out to the same corporate interests as Republicans: they just sound nicer and more humanely polite.
Maybe this is the only way we’ll evolve to a better system of governance in this country, hopefully, and who knows?
I realize I am preaching to the choir here about this crap, but it is one thing for these idiots to espouse such ideas, but quite another that they are getting elected.
If Republican men want to share their vote with their wives and cast only one vote I have no problem with them doing it - in fact, I encourage it. It seems the easiest, laziest, cheapest, and legal way for Dems to win back Congress and the Presidency.
We've been here before. The ERA was helped to its death by her. An amendment that would have helped women. Just like herself. She was snubbed by the Reagan admin after working for it and expecting a dept or cabinet position. Get back in the kitchen baby!
Sadly, I feel our nation's Puritan Pilgrim roots still haunt us. Women are suppose to be good moms, great wives, sexy and smart. But, not allow anyone else to care for their children ( bad mom! ) never disagree with their husbands, be attractive but not slutty ( based on what we say slutty is ) , smart but not too smart as to show up their husbands or other males.
Brian Kilmeade announced on Fox yesterday that homeless people should be executed, so need to make sure he’s fired as well. Those camps are not just for immigration purposes.
Thank you, Mike! I have been on the war path with these bastards. Same with Sen. Mike Lee who joked about the killing of Melissa Hortman, her husband and dog. But who was in deep mourning over Kirk. Total BS.
Your work is commendable. You might think of joining The Dworkin Report on Substack where there’s a boatload of role that would take that information and also run with it. 👍
The dissonance between the reaction to Brian Kilmeade's call for the execution of the homeless and Matthew Dowd's comment about the relationship between hateful thought, words, and actions is stunning.
Reading my local paper today, I found more dissonance between America's stated view of the sanctity of all human life and our actual reaction to killing:
On the front page of the Opinion section, The Sunday Gazette, Schenectady NY, printed an editorial from the Dallas Morning News which opened with this sentence:
"There is only one appropriate reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk and that is horror and anger at the taking of a human life." (Section C, p. 1)
In section A, p. 11, I found a very short article headlined "Israel ramps up Gaza strikes," which included the following sentence:
"The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought."
A total of 32 people were killed. Where is the "horror and anger" in reaction to the taking of these innocent lives?
I don’t know much about Kilmeade, but I bet he’s “pro-life” when it comes to abortion, just not when it pertains to already existing people, apparently.
I saw the Kilmeade video. What disturbed me the most was the offhand way he said what he said and the offhand way Ainsley Earhardt received it. Like it is perfectly normal to talk about murdering people.
"The tragic loss of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father, husband, and advocate for open debate, whose faith was important to him, reminds us of the fragility of life and the urgent need for unity in our nation."
What Charlie Kirk could not comprehend was that people of other faiths, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims, for example, also view their religion as important to them. Those of us who are freethinkers, not affiliated with any religion, consider the right to live our lives and speak our minds freely as important to us. Kirk and other Christian nationalists seemed unable to appreciate that the first right in the first amendment enshrines the value of freedom of religion, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Americans value the right to follow the religion of their choice or none. That right is what unites us. That value is what makes us Americans. Combining the power of the state with the power of religion. a Christian theocracy, would force millions of us to deny who we are and what we believe. It would force an arbitrary morality on all of us. And that is just plain wrong.
Which is the point. Kirk knew this, he’s a shrewd political strategist. And the reason he was a promoter of The Great Replacement Theory.
What’s more unnerving to these people is that White Christians are becoming a minority/majority for the first time, so they are running scared. Yet, just like with desegregation, you can’t galvanize more than just the base when your policies are based on racism, so you find legitimate grievances and amplify them to extend to a larger portion of the population.
In the 60’s and 70’s it was desegregation, but the core issue became abortion. Now it’s The Great Replacement Theory, but since it’s racist, you use illegal immigration and the crime these people bring.
If you’re wondering why they’re targeting the Hispanic population, it’s because Hispanics now make up over 20% of the entire US population. White Christians are at 40%. Get my point!…:)
Kirk and his Christian nationalist supporters never understood the concept of America as a unique culture achieving greatness through weaving together a new and vibrant way of life. They believe white Christians are superior to the adherents of other faiths comprised mostly of non-white Europeans. Hence Black and Brown people threaten them.
My family life has revealed to me the beauty and advantage of diversity. All of my grandparents were immigrants from Italy. However, their grandchildren have married and had children with people of Korean, Jewish, English, and Scottish descent as well as others of Italian descent. Some are LGBTQ. With the exception of a handful of far-right Christian bigots we all love and respect each other.
I don't think it's lack of comprehension, but rather an unyielding certainty that only they have the truth, the "right" answer. Their mission, therefore, is a crusade against those of us who haven't seen the light. The unique danger today is that this extremism has now taken control of a major American political party, which happens to be the one holding the power in all branches of government, not to mention the military. They are spreading their poison beyond our country's borders, making this an international threat. Of course the leader of this movement is not a believer, but a greedy, power-hungry opportunist who has seized the moment.
All the more reason to boycott the slop being pushed on us by corporate media. I am reminded again that corporations are fictions, legal artifices, nothing more. They exist in America for one reason: (Very) short term maximization of profit. Let’s be clear that there is no such thing as societal responsibility in corporate media. The elevation of Charlie Kirk to some sort of diety demonstrates that as clearly as anything. And as for Ezra Klein, how Charlie Kirk was doing “politics” the right way? I don’t recall Charlie standing for election to public office. He never offered any service whatsoever. But I guess to Ezra, the right way is saying anything that will garner an audience.
For Ezra the right way to conduct debates is to fan the flames, promote violence without actually saying the words; implying violence or incompetence. For example, “if there’s a black man flying the plane, I wonder if he’s qualified.” He’s planting the seeds of doubt as to a black man’s qualifications without calling him an affirmative action hire. Or as Tucker Carlson would say, “I’m just asking questions.”
I guess this is a step up from Trump’s passive/aggressive style. “I want peace and unity for this nation, but we must first destroy all the democratic EVILDOERS!”
Yup, it’s “quite the right way,” and when I say “RIGHT,” the Fox and Fiends way!…:)
“You may have seen that MSNBC recently ended its association with a contributor who made an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event. That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions. We should be able to disagree, robustly and passionately, but, ultimately, with respect. We need to do better.”
This is what shook me to the core: “That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions.”
Seriously, “listen to both sides?” The just canned Dodd for telling the truth; how is this listening to both sides? And now they’re giving legitimacy to a bunch of self professed “fascists” as though their point of view is equal to the words of our constitution. Or defending the principles of American exceptionalism: E Pluribus Unum!
You don’t need to be clairvoyant or Einstein to figure out that this was “capitulation” plain and simple. These people are doing Trump’s work for him. And MSNBC isn’t alone.
Furthermore, by this weekend, hundreds of people were fired from their jobs in government, the media and in business, for having the audacity to express their first amendment rights and write social media posts critical of Kirk’s politics; they’re self censoring and firing everyone who has a spine, and is willing to speak truth to power.
This isn’t democracy. All we’re doing is enabling this movement to get what it wants without having to lift a finger and look like the fascists they are. Fox and their adjacent news networks have already gone off the deep end.
Moreover, Kilmeade has already called for the death of the homeless and he is still employed. Many of their political contributors have called on democrats to be fired and arrested and the Democratic Party to be crushed; they’re all still employed.
Bottom line: the Fourth Estste is a myth, and most of the people working in the media; useless invertebrates, afraid of losing their jobs.
What happened to Kirk was truly a tragedy and my heartfelt sympathy’s go out to his family, but even his wife came out and said, “you have no idea what you just have unleashed.” Was this a threat?
And sadly, she may be right. MAGA will use this event to crack down on all free speech on college campuses. All professors with differing opinions will be silenced by firing or by self censoring out of fear. And Trump’s invisible army of violent stormtroopers and online trolls are just getting started.
Therefore, stay vigilant and fight back with words. Not to mention, we need a plan of attack. Any suggestions?
Well said. We certainly do need a plan of attack, or put another way, a plan of knowledge. That's a tough assignment given the power of the disinformation noise wall coupled with general apathy.
Steve's excellent essay this morning underscores perfectly what we're up against, not just from propagandists but the capitulating capitulators in corporate media.
I read Steve's essay earlier this morning and just finished HCR's illuminating perspective on everything happening at once all around us. It's also on Substack and highly recommended.
HCR is the first thing I read every morning or the last thing I read at night. All of the contributors I subscribe to (including Steve) are great at explaining the significance of current events, but HCR puts them in an historical context that really helps me understand that there may be a light at the end of this very long, nightmarish tunnel.
I actually subscribe to HCR, she’s great, hadn’t read this one yet, but I did now. Excellent summary of these events. Thanks again for pointing this out….:)
"What Charlie Kirk excelled at was propaganda and cynicism — not reasoned debate. He was a performance artist, skilled at the art of humiliation and debasement who punched down, not up."
"Art imitates Life" as been inverted.
Old works of fiction now dictate reality. Willie Stark, a fictional ambitious politician corrupted by fame and power served as a striking warning to readers and movie-goers of the time. Now, we have all three branches of government brimming with Willie Stark's.
We have a president, the former star of a fictitious reality TV show, that employs Orwellian newspeak every time he moves his lips. Black is white. White is black.
Paddy Chayefsky's "Network" doesn't seem like satire now. Fox News is Network on steroids.
Charlie Kirk really didn’t want to debate. He wanted to be right. He figured out how to grift off of the people who donated to whatever his organization was. Let’s call it like it really is he was a charlatan with an evil mouth. Just another snake oil salesman.
Cindy, "Why not run just Charlie Kirk’s own words with no commentary?"
That is one great idea. In discussing the murder of Kirk, I have found that many have no idea what he stood for. They think he was a man who represented "family values," and an advocate of free speech and debate.
3. Appearing on Jubilee's internet show Surrounded, Kirk insisted Black people were "better" in the 1940s under Jim Crow laws.
While debating a college student, Kirk said, "They were actually better in the 1940s. It was bad. It was evil. But what happened? Something changed. They committed less crimes." The person he debated responded, "4,000 Black men, women, and children were killed in violent lynch mobs. Racial terror permeated American culture for hundreds of years. You don't think that affected the generational psyche of an entire group of people?" "Black America is worse than it has been in the last 80 years," he interrupted. https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexalisitza/viral-charlie-kirk-quotes
Read the other 13 quotes to find out what Charlie Kirk really represented.
With all due respect, Lawrence O'Donnell is a better "truth teller" than Rachel Maddow, in my opinion. She just does not have the guts to directly take on the lies, as O'Donnell does.
Rachel and Lawrence are both great truth tellers. Rachel sticks to facts and context while Lawrence is also factual but with much more opinion and emotion thrown in. That’s why together they are the go-to people for the truth (along with Chris Hayes and Nicole Wallace), IMHO.
I am hoping that they will record and broadcast their program in October, since most of their followers won't be there. They sure will have a lot other talk about! I think it will be quite interesting!
You are 100% correct, but lately, Maddow has become a dullard (perhaps, she has lost that crack "research" team that she indeed had, ever since she went "part-time"; and she has, mostly, been one-topic "narrator." O'Donnell is also, mostly, single-issue- or two-issue - "commentator". Frankly, in my opinion, they really need to show "emotion"; otherwise, it is just like our reading a newspaper. Nicolle Wallace is okay, but her vapid demeanor belies her asserted "pugnacity," if she has any. CHris Hayes is good, but sufficiently blunt and gutsy (in my opinion).
And MSNBC is firing "analysts," who do not get in line with their blind, cowardly vision of theiir sense of decency, morality, norms, etc. (Hey, MSNBC, kiss my ass!) To make matters even worse, all the craven riffraff/ersatz moron "reporters" from the Washedup Past (the former, glorious Washington Post - when it was managed by Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham) are moving into MSNBC (much to my chagrin). This is a horrible move by MSNBC and will not end well for itself and the democracy.
Most of all, MSNBC incompetent, asshole-bosses need to take a powder and let the newspersons do their jobs, without being hamstrung. Otherwise, they will die, just like the Washedup Past is going through its death throes, resulting from a death by thousand cuts.
Ah, I was afraid that you would kick my ass, but thank you for not doing that! 🙏.
"Why not run just Charlie Kirk’s own words with no commentary?"
Lawrence O'Donnell is the master at the expression of contempt, when he plays idiotic ramblings (with all the thoroughly uncoordinated gesticulations) by that Orange-a-tan Bonobo Chumpanzee. I am sure that he can do a good job on Gnarly Quirk, as well.
You are absolutely correct. That Orange-a-tan Bonobo Chumpanzee apparently sued him for defamation and quickly folded, or lost - since the Obama "birther" bullshit. I feel that he is a good human being, although he almost never mentions anything about Gaza massacre (much to my dismay).
These pusillanimous NBC snooze executives are sleepwalking their viewers into American fascist terror. While Trump’s minatory martinets smash the glass of civility and freedom all around them, they fearfully and obligingly extend their hand with a proffered gift to the rampage’s orchestrator: “Another hammer, sir?”
Until we meet the collective Hate with collective Resistance, Americans will quiver and cower which is the goal of MAGA and specifically his so called Cabinet. The death of Kirk is a sad event whether planned and sold or not and that killing took the First Amendment of the Constitution with it: we can now be arrested and tortured for speaking out. Trump has broken our Constitution and is making Kirk the Hero he wasn’t at taxpayers expense.
We stopped Cable News a few years back when Trump was in Office the first time-we could see the bias toward him and the changes in the media from Absolute Truth based on True events to make believe brainwashing. My family has never watched FOX News and never will-we don’t call that entertainment-we call it what it is: propaganda. America long ago sold its soul for dollars with Citizens United which opened the door to destruction, decay, amorality, corruption, and desiccation of the American Dream. Those dollars purchased Hate, violence, propaganda, the purchase of who gets into Congress and negated the values of a nation with a heart for humanity including its own. I too will always stand up for what is honest and ethical and decent and moral even in the midst of a Hate Blizzard and I will bet those are the values that will keep me standing. Thank you for the encouragement of truth and courage! Most of US need a good dose of both!
There is something wrong with human beings. Though we’re capable of being wise and learned, there is still the hardwiring of fear of others.
This may have been useful when “others” threatened members of our tribe but it means, we can be triggered to fear, loathe and kill to protect ourselves against those of us who even within our own tribe threaten these fears that we conveniently call beliefs. Stress seems to help this triggering. For those of us who follow a different path, one of enlightenment, it’s wearying, frustrating and confusing. Sometimes the path forward leads us to war, WWII, Civil War, etc. All we can do is drag all of our human relations along trying to make existence better for all. Be strong. Act conscientiously. Act decisively against the powerful who want it their way. Remember who you are and who you want us to become.
Yes, to the consciousness you’re speaking of and that I fully subscribe to/practice.
Walking the talk, besides taking personal responsibility for my actions, includes creating “bubbles of love” wherever I go - all the time and in all ways!
Dowd gets fired for telling the truth on MSNBC while these nazis get an “attaboy” for openly and gleefully discussing killing homeless people. We are clearly not playing by the same rules which is why they have the power and we don’t.
It’s a terrifying time in our country. Steve, thank you again for your conviction and brilliance in telling the cold, hard truth of what is happening. I am sure that your writings will be used years from now when history is written.
When the meaning of freedom changed from the right to elect our own leaders and pursue one’s dreams and talents to the right to lie, cheat, steal and abuse, we debased our very own American experiment. When all we value is wealth, the more the better, we become marks for every charlatan who comes along.
The first time I heard the term “prosperity gospel” I knew we were in trouble.
I’ve often wondered why the United States is heading toward a society that subjugates women. That pastor and the former Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina both said the 19th Amendment was a mistake.
In Arizona, a woman running for State Senate said that if we can take away the female vote, it will end blue states. These statements make me wonder why, and another tragic aspect is that there are many women who support such sentiments.
Marsha Blackburn won the female vote in Tennessee by 60 percent even though she opposes equal pay for women. We live in a bizarre country.
My grandmother didn't get the vote until she was twenty. Those of us who grew up in the time when we were the only or part of a handful of women in our profession, who remember when Harvard was only men, when only men could be Rhodes Scholars, cops, firefighters, soldiers, engineers, doctors, when there were plenty of rules about what being a "woman" meant. many of which meant lost opportunities and lost contributions to society...Well, these women are never going back. And neither are our granddaughters.
I remember listening to my grandmother, born in 1904, talk about all the schools, jobs, etc. closed to women. Even when I graduated from high school I 1968, I wanted to take shop instead of home economics, and the administration was 100% opposed. Most of the girls went on to be educators, nurses, secretaries, or got married. Today, I would have gone to medical school (like my granddaughter), but I did eventually become a nurse practitioner.
In Maine, when I became the legal age to drink, we had “BlueLaws” that prohibited women from sitting at a bar, so if you were were waiting for a table, you were left standing!
I’m 10 years older than you and I would’ve liked to career but I graduated high school in 1958. I went to college and ended up changing my major from home economics to political science and history I loved my subjects and then I didn’t have a job so I ended up going back for a teaching certification I taught for only a couple of years because I didn’t want to stay home with my kids when I had them at 29 and 31 but boy, am I a liberal now
A cousin and I, both in our late 70s, US Midwestern born, have great interests in archaeology. We wondered, in a recent email exchange, why we knew not of the profession. “Girls” weren’t exposed to or encouraged to be other than teachers, nurses, secretaries or librarians. We’ve had rich fulfilling careers and lives and wonder what might have been.
White men, apparently, do not like any competition, be it from women, POC or non-Christians
I suspect it’s all shades of men not just white ones who look down on women!
Look at the countries (many non-white) outside the US where male chauvinism is extremely strong!!!
And, all that does not wipe out the sting of white racism, entitlement, etc., since 1619!
White men have also been allies. I would try not to over-generalize.
Yes, they have; but, in general, in my 61 years of voting since I was 21 and being an activist, I find that men are reluctant and don't like competition. At 82, I don't have a lot of sympathy -- and I have tried to help my grandsons understand.
I’m one of those women who remember. But sadly, many of our daughters and granddaughters take for granted the rights we fought for and they enjoy. I would not hold my breath waiting for people to rise up and take back their rights. We are going backwards and people are afraid and cowed. Only the wealthy will be able to insulate themselves from what’s coming.
The right’s inflammatory and misleading rhetoric is what is leading to the violence. With incensing hyperbole, the right is enraging its following so much they are now killing each other. The entire out of control cult can no longer separate fact from fiction. Let no one gloss over the inflammatory Charlie Kirk’s years of fueling culture wars, his amplifying white nationalist talking points, and his pointedly vitriolic, extreme racism and antisemitism.
Charlie Kirk wasn’t felled by any leftist enemy. He was taken down by a right-wing soul misguided by the toxic virtual reality cesspool that Kirk himself helped to create. Kirk fed and stroked the extreme right-wing cult.
From age 19 on, that is the business Charlie Kirk left college early to pursue. He took up and fed that business, and he profited from that greatly. His estate has grown to $12 million in value, excluding the value in Turning Point USA. There is good money in hate, if you can stomach it.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/bilious-hate-mongering?r=3m1bs
Male insecurity and female stupidity are the reasons?
We do not know yet. The experts are still sifting the data. I do know political party and sexual orientation are not linked.
Thank you; I have no idea, either, but that was my poor attempt at levity.
I have to agree with you about “female stupidity” and in general anybody that voted for Trump in the 2024 election against their own interest, including young men of color and youth in general who backed unwittingly the destruction/unraveling of this country - much less for any opportunities being available to them in the near future!
Kamala Harris did not help her case, either. Sad; is it not?
Yes and no: talented and far more deserving to win than what we got (I don’t want to say his name right before retiring tonite), Kamala was set up by the establishment and the Bidens, to fail.
So we’ll never know if she or another properly vetted Democrat would have won, although as in 2000 and 2016, the country was given a good economy to be wrecked three times by Republicans!
However, as we all do know, the Democrats have been bought and sold out to the same corporate interests as Republicans: they just sound nicer and more humanely polite.
Maybe this is the only way we’ll evolve to a better system of governance in this country, hopefully, and who knows?
I realize I am preaching to the choir here about this crap, but it is one thing for these idiots to espouse such ideas, but quite another that they are getting elected.
If Republican men want to share their vote with their wives and cast only one vote I have no problem with them doing it - in fact, I encourage it. It seems the easiest, laziest, cheapest, and legal way for Dems to win back Congress and the Presidency.
Phyliss Schlafly.
We've been here before. The ERA was helped to its death by her. An amendment that would have helped women. Just like herself. She was snubbed by the Reagan admin after working for it and expecting a dept or cabinet position. Get back in the kitchen baby!
Sadly, I feel our nation's Puritan Pilgrim roots still haunt us. Women are suppose to be good moms, great wives, sexy and smart. But, not allow anyone else to care for their children ( bad mom! ) never disagree with their husbands, be attractive but not slutty ( based on what we say slutty is ) , smart but not too smart as to show up their husbands or other males.
It's a weird American paradox.
Fucking crazy!
Brian Kilmeade announced on Fox yesterday that homeless people should be executed, so need to make sure he’s fired as well. Those camps are not just for immigration purposes.
I emailed the people below. I didn't get a reply of course, but my email didn't bounce back either. So the emails may be good.
Irena.Briganti@fox.com [Senior Executive VP, Corporate Communications] Suzanne.Scott@fox.com [Chief Executive Officer of FOX News]
brian.kilmeade@gmail.com
ainsley.earhardt@gmail.com [She was on the air with Kilmeade]
lachlan.murdoch@gmail.com [Chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation]
Keep spreading the word. Great job!
Thank you, Mike! I have been on the war path with these bastards. Same with Sen. Mike Lee who joked about the killing of Melissa Hortman, her husband and dog. But who was in deep mourning over Kirk. Total BS.
Your work is commendable. You might think of joining The Dworkin Report on Substack where there’s a boatload of role that would take that information and also run with it. 👍
Thanks, Mike - I will check it out!
The dissonance between the reaction to Brian Kilmeade's call for the execution of the homeless and Matthew Dowd's comment about the relationship between hateful thought, words, and actions is stunning.
Reading my local paper today, I found more dissonance between America's stated view of the sanctity of all human life and our actual reaction to killing:
On the front page of the Opinion section, The Sunday Gazette, Schenectady NY, printed an editorial from the Dallas Morning News which opened with this sentence:
"There is only one appropriate reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk and that is horror and anger at the taking of a human life." (Section C, p. 1)
In section A, p. 11, I found a very short article headlined "Israel ramps up Gaza strikes," which included the following sentence:
"The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought."
A total of 32 people were killed. Where is the "horror and anger" in reaction to the taking of these innocent lives?
I don’t know much about Kilmeade, but I bet he’s “pro-life” when it comes to abortion, just not when it pertains to already existing people, apparently.
I saw the Kilmeade video. What disturbed me the most was the offhand way he said what he said and the offhand way Ainsley Earhardt received it. Like it is perfectly normal to talk about murdering people.
Thank You Anthony..my heart is broken .. We have this blind spot when it comes to what is happening in Gaza..
THIS IS IMPORTANT. KILMEADE CANNOT BE GIVEN A PASS ON THIS HEINOUS COMMENT. HE MUST BE FIRED.
"The tragic loss of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father, husband, and advocate for open debate, whose faith was important to him, reminds us of the fragility of life and the urgent need for unity in our nation."
What Charlie Kirk could not comprehend was that people of other faiths, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims, for example, also view their religion as important to them. Those of us who are freethinkers, not affiliated with any religion, consider the right to live our lives and speak our minds freely as important to us. Kirk and other Christian nationalists seemed unable to appreciate that the first right in the first amendment enshrines the value of freedom of religion, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Americans value the right to follow the religion of their choice or none. That right is what unites us. That value is what makes us Americans. Combining the power of the state with the power of religion. a Christian theocracy, would force millions of us to deny who we are and what we believe. It would force an arbitrary morality on all of us. And that is just plain wrong.
Which is the point. Kirk knew this, he’s a shrewd political strategist. And the reason he was a promoter of The Great Replacement Theory.
What’s more unnerving to these people is that White Christians are becoming a minority/majority for the first time, so they are running scared. Yet, just like with desegregation, you can’t galvanize more than just the base when your policies are based on racism, so you find legitimate grievances and amplify them to extend to a larger portion of the population.
In the 60’s and 70’s it was desegregation, but the core issue became abortion. Now it’s The Great Replacement Theory, but since it’s racist, you use illegal immigration and the crime these people bring.
If you’re wondering why they’re targeting the Hispanic population, it’s because Hispanics now make up over 20% of the entire US population. White Christians are at 40%. Get my point!…:)
Kirk and his Christian nationalist supporters never understood the concept of America as a unique culture achieving greatness through weaving together a new and vibrant way of life. They believe white Christians are superior to the adherents of other faiths comprised mostly of non-white Europeans. Hence Black and Brown people threaten them.
My family life has revealed to me the beauty and advantage of diversity. All of my grandparents were immigrants from Italy. However, their grandchildren have married and had children with people of Korean, Jewish, English, and Scottish descent as well as others of Italian descent. Some are LGBTQ. With the exception of a handful of far-right Christian bigots we all love and respect each other.
Well said, and agree. 👍
I don't think it's lack of comprehension, but rather an unyielding certainty that only they have the truth, the "right" answer. Their mission, therefore, is a crusade against those of us who haven't seen the light. The unique danger today is that this extremism has now taken control of a major American political party, which happens to be the one holding the power in all branches of government, not to mention the military. They are spreading their poison beyond our country's borders, making this an international threat. Of course the leader of this movement is not a believer, but a greedy, power-hungry opportunist who has seized the moment.
All the more reason to boycott the slop being pushed on us by corporate media. I am reminded again that corporations are fictions, legal artifices, nothing more. They exist in America for one reason: (Very) short term maximization of profit. Let’s be clear that there is no such thing as societal responsibility in corporate media. The elevation of Charlie Kirk to some sort of diety demonstrates that as clearly as anything. And as for Ezra Klein, how Charlie Kirk was doing “politics” the right way? I don’t recall Charlie standing for election to public office. He never offered any service whatsoever. But I guess to Ezra, the right way is saying anything that will garner an audience.
For Ezra the right way to conduct debates is to fan the flames, promote violence without actually saying the words; implying violence or incompetence. For example, “if there’s a black man flying the plane, I wonder if he’s qualified.” He’s planting the seeds of doubt as to a black man’s qualifications without calling him an affirmative action hire. Or as Tucker Carlson would say, “I’m just asking questions.”
I guess this is a step up from Trump’s passive/aggressive style. “I want peace and unity for this nation, but we must first destroy all the democratic EVILDOERS!”
Yup, it’s “quite the right way,” and when I say “RIGHT,” the Fox and Fiends way!…:)
Ezra Klein is FOS.
“You may have seen that MSNBC recently ended its association with a contributor who made an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event. That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions. We should be able to disagree, robustly and passionately, but, ultimately, with respect. We need to do better.”
This is what shook me to the core: “That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions.”
Seriously, “listen to both sides?” The just canned Dodd for telling the truth; how is this listening to both sides? And now they’re giving legitimacy to a bunch of self professed “fascists” as though their point of view is equal to the words of our constitution. Or defending the principles of American exceptionalism: E Pluribus Unum!
You don’t need to be clairvoyant or Einstein to figure out that this was “capitulation” plain and simple. These people are doing Trump’s work for him. And MSNBC isn’t alone.
Furthermore, by this weekend, hundreds of people were fired from their jobs in government, the media and in business, for having the audacity to express their first amendment rights and write social media posts critical of Kirk’s politics; they’re self censoring and firing everyone who has a spine, and is willing to speak truth to power.
This isn’t democracy. All we’re doing is enabling this movement to get what it wants without having to lift a finger and look like the fascists they are. Fox and their adjacent news networks have already gone off the deep end.
Moreover, Kilmeade has already called for the death of the homeless and he is still employed. Many of their political contributors have called on democrats to be fired and arrested and the Democratic Party to be crushed; they’re all still employed.
Bottom line: the Fourth Estste is a myth, and most of the people working in the media; useless invertebrates, afraid of losing their jobs.
What happened to Kirk was truly a tragedy and my heartfelt sympathy’s go out to his family, but even his wife came out and said, “you have no idea what you just have unleashed.” Was this a threat?
And sadly, she may be right. MAGA will use this event to crack down on all free speech on college campuses. All professors with differing opinions will be silenced by firing or by self censoring out of fear. And Trump’s invisible army of violent stormtroopers and online trolls are just getting started.
Therefore, stay vigilant and fight back with words. Not to mention, we need a plan of attack. Any suggestions?
Well said. We certainly do need a plan of attack, or put another way, a plan of knowledge. That's a tough assignment given the power of the disinformation noise wall coupled with general apathy.
Steve's excellent essay this morning underscores perfectly what we're up against, not just from propagandists but the capitulating capitulators in corporate media.
I read Steve's essay earlier this morning and just finished HCR's illuminating perspective on everything happening at once all around us. It's also on Substack and highly recommended.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-13-2025
HCR is the first thing I read every morning or the last thing I read at night. All of the contributors I subscribe to (including Steve) are great at explaining the significance of current events, but HCR puts them in an historical context that really helps me understand that there may be a light at the end of this very long, nightmarish tunnel.
I actually subscribe to HCR, she’s great, hadn’t read this one yet, but I did now. Excellent summary of these events. Thanks again for pointing this out….:)
Well said, and thank you. I’ll read this asap.
"What Charlie Kirk excelled at was propaganda and cynicism — not reasoned debate. He was a performance artist, skilled at the art of humiliation and debasement who punched down, not up."
"Art imitates Life" as been inverted.
Old works of fiction now dictate reality. Willie Stark, a fictional ambitious politician corrupted by fame and power served as a striking warning to readers and movie-goers of the time. Now, we have all three branches of government brimming with Willie Stark's.
We have a president, the former star of a fictitious reality TV show, that employs Orwellian newspeak every time he moves his lips. Black is white. White is black.
Paddy Chayefsky's "Network" doesn't seem like satire now. Fox News is Network on steroids.
Right on about the movie Network, which TCM plays often!
Chayefsky was brilliant from his first film, Marty, and then on: that’s what great artists do. They predict the future!
Charlie Kirk really didn’t want to debate. He wanted to be right. He figured out how to grift off of the people who donated to whatever his organization was. Let’s call it like it really is he was a charlatan with an evil mouth. Just another snake oil salesman.
Where is truth teller Rachel Maddow? Rachel, we need you!! What will you say Monday night?
Why not run just Charlie Kirk’s own words with no commentary?
Cindy, "Why not run just Charlie Kirk’s own words with no commentary?"
That is one great idea. In discussing the murder of Kirk, I have found that many have no idea what he stood for. They think he was a man who represented "family values," and an advocate of free speech and debate.
3. Appearing on Jubilee's internet show Surrounded, Kirk insisted Black people were "better" in the 1940s under Jim Crow laws.
While debating a college student, Kirk said, "They were actually better in the 1940s. It was bad. It was evil. But what happened? Something changed. They committed less crimes." The person he debated responded, "4,000 Black men, women, and children were killed in violent lynch mobs. Racial terror permeated American culture for hundreds of years. You don't think that affected the generational psyche of an entire group of people?" "Black America is worse than it has been in the last 80 years," he interrupted. https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexalisitza/viral-charlie-kirk-quotes
Read the other 13 quotes to find out what Charlie Kirk really represented.
With all due respect, Lawrence O'Donnell is a better "truth teller" than Rachel Maddow, in my opinion. She just does not have the guts to directly take on the lies, as O'Donnell does.
Rachel and Lawrence are both great truth tellers. Rachel sticks to facts and context while Lawrence is also factual but with much more opinion and emotion thrown in. That’s why together they are the go-to people for the truth (along with Chris Hayes and Nicole Wallace), IMHO.
Now is the moment of truth for all of them, no?
100% correct, but that takes guts (without seeking any glory; ain't it?). 👌.
I am hoping that they will record and broadcast their program in October, since most of their followers won't be there. They sure will have a lot other talk about! I think it will be quite interesting!
You are 100% correct, but lately, Maddow has become a dullard (perhaps, she has lost that crack "research" team that she indeed had, ever since she went "part-time"; and she has, mostly, been one-topic "narrator." O'Donnell is also, mostly, single-issue- or two-issue - "commentator". Frankly, in my opinion, they really need to show "emotion"; otherwise, it is just like our reading a newspaper. Nicolle Wallace is okay, but her vapid demeanor belies her asserted "pugnacity," if she has any. CHris Hayes is good, but sufficiently blunt and gutsy (in my opinion).
And MSNBC is firing "analysts," who do not get in line with their blind, cowardly vision of theiir sense of decency, morality, norms, etc. (Hey, MSNBC, kiss my ass!) To make matters even worse, all the craven riffraff/ersatz moron "reporters" from the Washedup Past (the former, glorious Washington Post - when it was managed by Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham) are moving into MSNBC (much to my chagrin). This is a horrible move by MSNBC and will not end well for itself and the democracy.
Most of all, MSNBC incompetent, asshole-bosses need to take a powder and let the newspersons do their jobs, without being hamstrung. Otherwise, they will die, just like the Washedup Past is going through its death throes, resulting from a death by thousand cuts.
Then Lawrence would be great.
Ah, I was afraid that you would kick my ass, but thank you for not doing that! 🙏.
"Why not run just Charlie Kirk’s own words with no commentary?"
Lawrence O'Donnell is the master at the expression of contempt, when he plays idiotic ramblings (with all the thoroughly uncoordinated gesticulations) by that Orange-a-tan Bonobo Chumpanzee. I am sure that he can do a good job on Gnarly Quirk, as well.
He’s not afraid of losing his job.
You are absolutely correct. That Orange-a-tan Bonobo Chumpanzee apparently sued him for defamation and quickly folded, or lost - since the Obama "birther" bullshit. I feel that he is a good human being, although he almost never mentions anything about Gaza massacre (much to my dismay).
I agree totally with you and am disappointed that Lawrence doesn’t speak about Gaza. It’s a big mistake.
Right on! Sad.
These pusillanimous NBC snooze executives are sleepwalking their viewers into American fascist terror. While Trump’s minatory martinets smash the glass of civility and freedom all around them, they fearfully and obligingly extend their hand with a proffered gift to the rampage’s orchestrator: “Another hammer, sir?”
Until we meet the collective Hate with collective Resistance, Americans will quiver and cower which is the goal of MAGA and specifically his so called Cabinet. The death of Kirk is a sad event whether planned and sold or not and that killing took the First Amendment of the Constitution with it: we can now be arrested and tortured for speaking out. Trump has broken our Constitution and is making Kirk the Hero he wasn’t at taxpayers expense.
We stopped Cable News a few years back when Trump was in Office the first time-we could see the bias toward him and the changes in the media from Absolute Truth based on True events to make believe brainwashing. My family has never watched FOX News and never will-we don’t call that entertainment-we call it what it is: propaganda. America long ago sold its soul for dollars with Citizens United which opened the door to destruction, decay, amorality, corruption, and desiccation of the American Dream. Those dollars purchased Hate, violence, propaganda, the purchase of who gets into Congress and negated the values of a nation with a heart for humanity including its own. I too will always stand up for what is honest and ethical and decent and moral even in the midst of a Hate Blizzard and I will bet those are the values that will keep me standing. Thank you for the encouragement of truth and courage! Most of US need a good dose of both!
There is something wrong with human beings. Though we’re capable of being wise and learned, there is still the hardwiring of fear of others.
This may have been useful when “others” threatened members of our tribe but it means, we can be triggered to fear, loathe and kill to protect ourselves against those of us who even within our own tribe threaten these fears that we conveniently call beliefs. Stress seems to help this triggering. For those of us who follow a different path, one of enlightenment, it’s wearying, frustrating and confusing. Sometimes the path forward leads us to war, WWII, Civil War, etc. All we can do is drag all of our human relations along trying to make existence better for all. Be strong. Act conscientiously. Act decisively against the powerful who want it their way. Remember who you are and who you want us to become.
Yes, to the consciousness you’re speaking of and that I fully subscribe to/practice.
Walking the talk, besides taking personal responsibility for my actions, includes creating “bubbles of love” wherever I go - all the time and in all ways!
This is the key to my “resistance”!
Dowd gets fired for telling the truth on MSNBC while these nazis get an “attaboy” for openly and gleefully discussing killing homeless people. We are clearly not playing by the same rules which is why they have the power and we don’t.
Dowd out Kilmeade in. One speaking the si.ple truth and one calling for euthanizing the homeless. "Just kill them."
It’s a terrifying time in our country. Steve, thank you again for your conviction and brilliance in telling the cold, hard truth of what is happening. I am sure that your writings will be used years from now when history is written.
When the meaning of freedom changed from the right to elect our own leaders and pursue one’s dreams and talents to the right to lie, cheat, steal and abuse, we debased our very own American experiment. When all we value is wealth, the more the better, we become marks for every charlatan who comes along.
The first time I heard the term “prosperity gospel” I knew we were in trouble.
Cudo’s for the truth ❤️