A clip of Roseanne Barr on Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast denying the deaths of six million murdered Jewish children, women and men has gone viral. According to Von, as well as her son, the comments — in which she calls for the murder of six million more Jews — were
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it - always.”
Many of us are struggling to understand who MAGA is, their pain, how they got in this position, their fears and their hopes, and how we align them with our own needs and fears as Americans so we can live together and make this a more perfect union. On the news and on social media, I see a clear denominator of MAGA being referred to as “the other” – a group of Americans that is so vile, so hostile, so horrible, that it’s not even worth our time to speak to them or understand them.
With the recent arraignments and legal indictments against Donald Trump, and the arrests of his most ardent supporters from the January 6th insurrection, now seems to be the best time to extend an olive branch or two, or 200, to his MAGA supporters, and get to know who they are and how we can shorten the divide between American citizens. And if the politicians won’t do it for us, now is the time for us, every one of us, to do it ourselves.
My husband and I recently had to walk to Synagogue on the declared "Day of Hate" by white nationalist groups and kept our children home as a precaution. I turned to my husband and said what is next week "Day of Death." We drop our kids off at school past police and armed security guards. We go to synagogue weekly past a swat team to protect us. This is being Jewish in America and has been since Donald Trump became President.
You ask where are we? We are here doing our best to survive like you. We have one big thing in common with MAGA, we too live and are called the "other" but for us it has been 2000 years of hate and blame for the world ills. MAGA has been lied to and manipulated and grifted upon their entire lives so please do not blame them, blame the lies coming from FOX and their Politicians.
I am but one small voice. You have a mega phone Steve and can turn the tide on this subject. Happy to discuss anytime and help however I can.
There was a group of white American Nazis with giant Swastika flags in front of a Jewish synagogue in Georgia over the weekend. Where were the counter demonstrators? Read the history. Silence is deadly. Nazis must be shamed and publicly humiliated for the horror they represent.
After two Gen-Z boys, 14 and 22, told me that adult outrage over Roseanne's comments was ridiculous and embarrassing, as she was clearly kidding, I watched the complete version. There is nothing remotely funny or facetious in the way she said what she said. It's ugly, cold, incoherent word salad. Not even Theo knows that the hell she's getting at. Even if she were, in fact, joking, to put something this ugly into the world is stupid and indecent. Roseanne battles mental illness, so I guess she gets a pass, but I wish Theo, whom I like, had shown more wisdom. He didn't need to release it.
Wow. Powerful stuff. So I am wondering--- how much did Hitler's supporters (anyone who cheered for him) fess up to supporting him and showing contrition for doing so? My hope is that some day my Trump supporting friends/extended family members will say--- I can't believe I supported that guy, I wish I had actually listened to you and the lame stream media which I guess wasn't so lame in hindsight.
“Only a sick society would elect a man like Trump.“ And only the Idiocracy we are currently living within would have such a high disapproval rating of a president who has accomplished so much under the most difficult of circumstances, as President Biden has done.
However, to this end, we like Gandhi, must speak up; we must work and support those who are doing the "hard stuff" like running for office, researching for the truth, and holding Judases accountable for their traitorous actions. Keep speaking out every day. I like to say, instead of fighting over what is right, put your "shoulder to the wheel" and work for justice and peace. Thank you for speaking out every day!
Authoritarians that hold power by stoking fear with those around them, surrounding themselves with yes, men, and destroying the guard rails of institutions that create restraints on them, cannot hold that power for long. Once the rule of law is destroyed, all it takes is someone smarter more driven and calculating to take your place. Democracy is a messy business, but it is the best we have for the human race if we can hang onto it.
Many are concerned Donald may somehow wriggle out of the justice that is due him. That’s not possible even if he is not imprisoned.
His punishment has already begun. It will continue every day from now on until he dies. It is torture for this kind of man to be caught, to be guilty and to have it be known by the majority of people in the US and in the world.
Everyone is either against him or they are deluded. To a man for whom image is the only thing that is real, this will not be survived. It’s breaking him even now.
The indictments, the court dates and the perception of guilt most people see when they look at him or think of him is weakening him gradually every single day. It’s a death curse for a man like Donald Trump.
It’s interesting that it’s happening to Putin at the same time.
Roseanne Barr is an ignorant attention seeking media whore which is a toxic brew.
Her history speaks for itself, portraying an ignorant Archie type until her genuine racism and intolerance doomed her to irrelevance doing podcasts with some sycophantic piece of garbage.
As to the history of despots, yes it always ends the same way, however before their fall they take so many people with them, death, mayhem and destruction is the common thread, and yet even after the hangings, suicides and torture of these “strongmen” they always seem to leave a portion of themselves for years to come:
Italy has a fascist clone in power, France is next, India, turkey, hungry and so many others already in the grip of fascist leaders, just a little more charming and a bit less cartoonist!!
So i agree, it ultimately ends badly for them, however just looking at America today, with a full 30% supporting an ignorant strong man, our pain is far from over, 2024 is key and only a washout of lost presidential, 10 seats in senate and 50 seats in house will expunge the gop of its racist, fascist grievance based appeal
I am in shock after listening to Roseanne Barr and the yahoo she was talking garbage with. So sickening!! After my father passed, (he was a WWII veteran) I found a scrapbook of many of the places my father went to during the war. He had pictures of his war buddies also. The picture of Musilini hanging with the others is in his scrapbook. I never knew who those people were. The Holocaust happened my father, uncles and a lot of other brave men and women fought. So many died. I am sickened that anyone would think differently.
That will be one person, the one that rose on the backs of the many. But what happens to them? Do they find another? or do they crawl back under their rocks, waiting for another day to rise up?
If Trump has done anything GOOD for this country, it is to uncover all the hidden truths and the loopholes in laws for those that don't give a shit about the law. I hope we recover stronger than ever with laws in place to prevent a lot of what he has done to ever happen again.
a few that come immediately to mind. Please add others as you see fit
◙ If "criminals" cannot vote, they should not be allowed to run for office
◙ MUCH stronger controls over classified information handling in Federal Government regarding national security ( I realize this can be a very slippery slope and thoughtful study needs to occur)
◙ Supreme Court Justices need to be held to same scrutiny as all government employees and those that have not followed the rules, should be ousted.
◙ Elimination of corruptible Electoral College System and revert to one person, one vote for Federal Election.
◙ ALL presidential candidates have laws to abide by or they are OUT. PERIOD. Make discovery of financials law not a request
◙ oh yeah, Overturn Citizens United and make unlimited donations illegal again and that includes NO DARK MONEY to campaigns
There is so much more, but that is what comes to mind right now. But I gotta go clean off deck for a donation run this afternoon.
While I do not want to see Trump hanging by his feet being beat to death; I do want to see him in prison for the remainder of his life.
Thank you for this. Since I am a historian who has researched, studied and written about dictators and monarchical despots, you are spot on. Very few live and those that do go into ignominious exile. Trump is too ignorant of history to understand this, as you pointed out he is mesmerized by the parades and endless lines of sycophants willing to do the dictator’s bidding that he never sees the end. Your indictment of the American people for electing him, especially the GOP sycophants that still support him reminds me of part of Milton Meyer’s book “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945. Meyer wrote of one of his colleagues in the 1950s when he was teaching in Germany:
“And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jew swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.
Have a great day. Thank you for writing this and your insights into Trump and the American people. How many of we former Republicans didn’t see this coming. I think I did when Sarah Palin came along after my time in Iraq and listening to Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, and others when I realized that the GOP was losing it, especially how these people treated John McCain. It was so embarrassing. To see or hear Palin now makes me nauseous. I think that the Christian Nationalists and all of their leaders and organizations are largely responsible for the GOP’s moral implosion.
Yevgeny Prigozhin polled the oligarchs of Russia and had a number of them tell him that they would support him in a coup. They were fed up with the loss of freedom of travel, the loss of their financial power, and the loss of their toys, so why not.
Time for a change except, they never showed up at the party, and Yevgeny realized that he was marching to his own demise. When offered a way out, he took it.
The dictators' end
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it - always.”
----MAHATMA GANDHI
Many of us are struggling to understand who MAGA is, their pain, how they got in this position, their fears and their hopes, and how we align them with our own needs and fears as Americans so we can live together and make this a more perfect union. On the news and on social media, I see a clear denominator of MAGA being referred to as “the other” – a group of Americans that is so vile, so hostile, so horrible, that it’s not even worth our time to speak to them or understand them.
With the recent arraignments and legal indictments against Donald Trump, and the arrests of his most ardent supporters from the January 6th insurrection, now seems to be the best time to extend an olive branch or two, or 200, to his MAGA supporters, and get to know who they are and how we can shorten the divide between American citizens. And if the politicians won’t do it for us, now is the time for us, every one of us, to do it ourselves.
My husband and I recently had to walk to Synagogue on the declared "Day of Hate" by white nationalist groups and kept our children home as a precaution. I turned to my husband and said what is next week "Day of Death." We drop our kids off at school past police and armed security guards. We go to synagogue weekly past a swat team to protect us. This is being Jewish in America and has been since Donald Trump became President.
You ask where are we? We are here doing our best to survive like you. We have one big thing in common with MAGA, we too live and are called the "other" but for us it has been 2000 years of hate and blame for the world ills. MAGA has been lied to and manipulated and grifted upon their entire lives so please do not blame them, blame the lies coming from FOX and their Politicians.
I am but one small voice. You have a mega phone Steve and can turn the tide on this subject. Happy to discuss anytime and help however I can.
There was a group of white American Nazis with giant Swastika flags in front of a Jewish synagogue in Georgia over the weekend. Where were the counter demonstrators? Read the history. Silence is deadly. Nazis must be shamed and publicly humiliated for the horror they represent.
After two Gen-Z boys, 14 and 22, told me that adult outrage over Roseanne's comments was ridiculous and embarrassing, as she was clearly kidding, I watched the complete version. There is nothing remotely funny or facetious in the way she said what she said. It's ugly, cold, incoherent word salad. Not even Theo knows that the hell she's getting at. Even if she were, in fact, joking, to put something this ugly into the world is stupid and indecent. Roseanne battles mental illness, so I guess she gets a pass, but I wish Theo, whom I like, had shown more wisdom. He didn't need to release it.
Wow. Powerful stuff. So I am wondering--- how much did Hitler's supporters (anyone who cheered for him) fess up to supporting him and showing contrition for doing so? My hope is that some day my Trump supporting friends/extended family members will say--- I can't believe I supported that guy, I wish I had actually listened to you and the lame stream media which I guess wasn't so lame in hindsight.
“Only a sick society would elect a man like Trump.“ And only the Idiocracy we are currently living within would have such a high disapproval rating of a president who has accomplished so much under the most difficult of circumstances, as President Biden has done.
However, to this end, we like Gandhi, must speak up; we must work and support those who are doing the "hard stuff" like running for office, researching for the truth, and holding Judases accountable for their traitorous actions. Keep speaking out every day. I like to say, instead of fighting over what is right, put your "shoulder to the wheel" and work for justice and peace. Thank you for speaking out every day!
Authoritarians that hold power by stoking fear with those around them, surrounding themselves with yes, men, and destroying the guard rails of institutions that create restraints on them, cannot hold that power for long. Once the rule of law is destroyed, all it takes is someone smarter more driven and calculating to take your place. Democracy is a messy business, but it is the best we have for the human race if we can hang onto it.
Many are concerned Donald may somehow wriggle out of the justice that is due him. That’s not possible even if he is not imprisoned.
His punishment has already begun. It will continue every day from now on until he dies. It is torture for this kind of man to be caught, to be guilty and to have it be known by the majority of people in the US and in the world.
Everyone is either against him or they are deluded. To a man for whom image is the only thing that is real, this will not be survived. It’s breaking him even now.
The indictments, the court dates and the perception of guilt most people see when they look at him or think of him is weakening him gradually every single day. It’s a death curse for a man like Donald Trump.
It’s interesting that it’s happening to Putin at the same time.
Where to begin,
Roseanne Barr is an ignorant attention seeking media whore which is a toxic brew.
Her history speaks for itself, portraying an ignorant Archie type until her genuine racism and intolerance doomed her to irrelevance doing podcasts with some sycophantic piece of garbage.
As to the history of despots, yes it always ends the same way, however before their fall they take so many people with them, death, mayhem and destruction is the common thread, and yet even after the hangings, suicides and torture of these “strongmen” they always seem to leave a portion of themselves for years to come:
Italy has a fascist clone in power, France is next, India, turkey, hungry and so many others already in the grip of fascist leaders, just a little more charming and a bit less cartoonist!!
So i agree, it ultimately ends badly for them, however just looking at America today, with a full 30% supporting an ignorant strong man, our pain is far from over, 2024 is key and only a washout of lost presidential, 10 seats in senate and 50 seats in house will expunge the gop of its racist, fascist grievance based appeal
I am in shock after listening to Roseanne Barr and the yahoo she was talking garbage with. So sickening!! After my father passed, (he was a WWII veteran) I found a scrapbook of many of the places my father went to during the war. He had pictures of his war buddies also. The picture of Musilini hanging with the others is in his scrapbook. I never knew who those people were. The Holocaust happened my father, uncles and a lot of other brave men and women fought. So many died. I am sickened that anyone would think differently.
The harm that Trump has done to the American body politic is incalculable...............and possibly incurable.
defenestrating - I had to look that word up and it was so worth it.
𝐝𝐞·𝐟𝐞𝐧·𝐞𝐬·𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞
𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛
1.RARE
throw (someone) out of a window.
"she had made up her mind that the woman had been defenestrated, although the official verdict had been suicide"
2. remove or dismiss (someone) from a position of power or authority.
"the overwhelming view is that he should be defenestrated before the next election"
**********************************************************************************************
That will be one person, the one that rose on the backs of the many. But what happens to them? Do they find another? or do they crawl back under their rocks, waiting for another day to rise up?
***********************************************************************************************************
If Trump has done anything GOOD for this country, it is to uncover all the hidden truths and the loopholes in laws for those that don't give a shit about the law. I hope we recover stronger than ever with laws in place to prevent a lot of what he has done to ever happen again.
a few that come immediately to mind. Please add others as you see fit
◙ If "criminals" cannot vote, they should not be allowed to run for office
◙ MUCH stronger controls over classified information handling in Federal Government regarding national security ( I realize this can be a very slippery slope and thoughtful study needs to occur)
◙ Supreme Court Justices need to be held to same scrutiny as all government employees and those that have not followed the rules, should be ousted.
◙ Elimination of corruptible Electoral College System and revert to one person, one vote for Federal Election.
◙ ALL presidential candidates have laws to abide by or they are OUT. PERIOD. Make discovery of financials law not a request
◙ oh yeah, Overturn Citizens United and make unlimited donations illegal again and that includes NO DARK MONEY to campaigns
There is so much more, but that is what comes to mind right now. But I gotta go clean off deck for a donation run this afternoon.
While I do not want to see Trump hanging by his feet being beat to death; I do want to see him in prison for the remainder of his life.
Steve,
Thank you for this. Since I am a historian who has researched, studied and written about dictators and monarchical despots, you are spot on. Very few live and those that do go into ignominious exile. Trump is too ignorant of history to understand this, as you pointed out he is mesmerized by the parades and endless lines of sycophants willing to do the dictator’s bidding that he never sees the end. Your indictment of the American people for electing him, especially the GOP sycophants that still support him reminds me of part of Milton Meyer’s book “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945. Meyer wrote of one of his colleagues in the 1950s when he was teaching in Germany:
“And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jew swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.
I wrote about this on Substack a month ago: https://dundas.substack.com/p/maga-thinks-they-are-free
Have a great day. Thank you for writing this and your insights into Trump and the American people. How many of we former Republicans didn’t see this coming. I think I did when Sarah Palin came along after my time in Iraq and listening to Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, and others when I realized that the GOP was losing it, especially how these people treated John McCain. It was so embarrassing. To see or hear Palin now makes me nauseous. I think that the Christian Nationalists and all of their leaders and organizations are largely responsible for the GOP’s moral implosion.
Anyway, I have said enough. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Steve Dundas
My naive analysis of the Wagner uprising is this:
Yevgeny Prigozhin polled the oligarchs of Russia and had a number of them tell him that they would support him in a coup. They were fed up with the loss of freedom of travel, the loss of their financial power, and the loss of their toys, so why not.
Time for a change except, they never showed up at the party, and Yevgeny realized that he was marching to his own demise. When offered a way out, he took it.
VOTE PEOPLE.