โThe windows to the soul.โ Look at their eyes, Steve. Governor Newsomโs eyes are bright. They betray the fact that ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ ๐ข๐๐ฃ ๐ก๐๐ช๐๐๐จ. ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ง๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐๐ก๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฎ๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐๐จ. ๐๐ ๐๐จ ๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ช๐จ. He is human, fallible, knows it, revels in it, and has learned from it all. DeSantisโ eyes are steely, predatory, and emotionless. If they have twinkled with laughter, it was at someone else's expense. His smile is a sneer worthy of an overplayed silent movie character. He runs for president at the taxpayersโ expense as the nominal governor of a state in which fascism is called freedom and the enemy of all is โwoke,โ whatever that is. Newsom peddles hope and ideas; DeSantis spews division, derision, and destruction. Just look in their eyes.
For those prestigious Ivy League graduates, Doc Sanctus, the throat slitter, and Der Cruz, the spineless boot licker to the kings, must be a cause for a reevaluation of the moral values, ethics, and principals these honored institutions of Higher Learning have always claimed to embrace.
Steve, explain the euphoria felt by the people that voted for Obama and believed in him and supported him for eight years in spite of the constant vitriol from the Republicans, led by the callow McConnell? I fear you are painting the entire nation with a paintbrush of hatred that must be owned by the Republicans who called the monster and the mini monsters to represent them. I enjoy reading these articles but you keep escaping to the past to look for decency, scruples, and high ideals. I submit to you that many of us that voted for Obama and Biden are looking at a bright, dignified age of decency. Let the poo smearers go. Your revulsion will not change them. I agree, it was most disheartening that there are so many that have not progressed culturally in the country, who see everything in terms of themselves but look around at the whole world, look to the past ..it is not a new phenomenon. Yet not very many words of support from you for Biden who is a very principled man that cares deeply for his country and the world and has shown us through action, following what he always believed would repair the damage the Reagonites and Trumpites inflicted on our society.
Martha, I 100% agree: "...many of us who voted for Obama and Biden are looking at a bright, dignified age of decency." Yes, Biden is a very principled man, cares deeply for this country, which has been shown through ACTION, not drama or negativity. He has modeled 'better'!
I agree with Martha andJenn (below) that Biden and Obamaโs principled leadership should be commended because of its contrast with the MAGAtty shirking of duty and honor and their perversion of the rule of law.
Thank you for these comments! I am tired of Democrats, and others, complaining that Biden-or Obama- didn't deliver everything on the progressive wishlist...or that they want a different candidate in 2024!
The news media, and many others, talk about Biden's age and Hunter Biden, when, IF THEY CARED ABOUT PRESERVING DEMOCRACY would talk about all of the legislation that the Biden administration has been able to get passed without control of the Senate and House.
Legislation that is already bringing back manufacturing and reducing inflation.
Bottom line for the 2024 election is a vote for democracy or fascism!
Yes, the Democrats could improve their messaging on what the Biden team has put into motion, domestically and globally, and will continue to do. If the administration needs to change, it is possible that Biden is already working on that. He knows what he is doing!
Martha, I wish I could 'like' your comment 10 times! I think it is still challenging for many of the reformed Republicans to see the energy and yes, hope that Obama brought to so many of us. It was such a hopeful, forward looking time, and frankly, I think many of us felt a huge sense of relief that we were finally on a positive path. I feel the same with Biden, who has accomplished even more in a short time.
Yea, verily, but we dare not let go the poo-smearers and those who called them to arms. Mr. Schmidtโs articulate revulsion at the fascist turn of the Republican Party is not only thoroughly deserved, but a most necessary point. His disgust with what used to be his own preferred party ought to be shared by all true patriots, and especially by Republican leaders. Part of the crap smeared on the Capitolโs walls was a very ugly, irrational backlash against Presidents Obama and Biden. But part was an even uglier American Brown Shirt movement that Trump and his comrades have publically embraced and are fertilizing with their lies.
I agree with you 100%. The fascists started letting us know they are there with Norquist and his no new tax oath that they all couldn't wait to sign. Watch what they do, not what they say. But i think Steve is spitting in the wind if he thinks good Republicans can reclaim their party from the likes of MTG, the poo smearer in chief. I also think his posts are fantastic and I do not think we should let the good Republicans forget what their party did on Jan 6. It was disgusting and horrifying, dangerous and sad and it went all the way to the top. It is time to start pressuring AG Garland to go after the likes of Cruze if he isn't already...that is the conspiracy and insurrection I want to see revealed...the poo smearers sure had a lot of help that day.
I believe the "fear of mean tweets" actually has some background behind it. A few months back, DJT mad a comment to the R's in Congress reminding them he had some stuff in the vault to hold over them--just not sure how many and of what quality. If you remember the whole David Pecker / National Inquirer "catch and hold" for Trump, there may be a similar vault of info on members that DJT would not hesitate to employ.
This is how Trump has operated for decades. He's a bully who uses this and other tactics. Kudos to Newsome and others who have enough courage to stand up to Trump/MAGA and punch back hard. I predict DeSantis will debate and will get clobbered. ๐ค
It is quite shameful that the decrepit โActs of destructionโ of Jan. 6th left the excrements of MAGA โpoo pooโ behind in the likes of todays Republican Party leaders. It will take Americanโs holding their breath and voting like hell to flush out the remaining smell and stains of the Freedom Caucus. America must take up its armor to protect its might at the voting booth. We must be at the ready to assist our democratic institutions and support our military leaders by flushing out the rotted nobilities of Tommy Tuberville, Mitch McConnell, Rick Scott, Krysten Sinema, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Marsha Blackburn, John Thune, Ted Cruz, Joe Manchin and all the remaining Moscow Mules. This is the staining excrement left behind on Jan 6 and continue the desecration of the Capitol of the United States of America.
On another note in regards to your essay today; I like your supportive approach to appeal to America to rally to ballot box through the majestic Faith of our countryโs past leadership and selfless sacrifices for freedom. A collective appeal through the lens of our historical values in our core democratic principles and institutions. All of it placed squarely into voters arms today. It is our duty and our strength to understand our righteous calls to actions at the ballot Box. We can sanitize our nation from this MAGA stench and set our countryโs future back on track. Real Hope in the American dream.
We are not finished with Jan 6 America. The job is not done. Humility is indeed a great negotiator, so grab a mop. ATTENTION AMERICA: REGISTER AND VOTE. Clean up at the Capitol from Jan. 6 still needs your help.
Choosing. Inflection point. Or to use Robert Frostโs image of two roads in a yellow wood. Which path: the more common one to autocracy or the less traveled democracy. It should be the less traveled wanting wear democracy, and it will make all the difference
Last night I was following the happenings of the threatening post from Trump, the DOJ rapid response and the response by the Judge. I wondered who the hell thinks this man is presidential, competent, a representative of the ideals of America. Ok, we know the answer to that, but it felt really bad last night. it was insane.
Here is my biggest concern and has been. Is Biden and the Democrats up to this challenge? Has nothing to do with age, but has everything to do with fighting for truth, messaging truth, understanding that this is not business as usual. You can only ignore the actions of a depraved bully for so long. There is a point where one must take a stand, a strong stand and put the bully down.
It appears that Newsom understands this. I like that he is not afraid, we need unafraid people. I like that he speaks truth, we need unrestrained truth, I like that he stands, seemingly unaffected by the bully. You are right, Steve he is a fighter. Dear God we need a fighter right now. Maybe the Democrats will learn from Newsom and actually build a strong response team. A rapid response team, taking the fight to the bully. They could also take a lesson from Smith and the DOJ. They were on it yesterday and the bully backed down, if only for a bit. It is my belief that voters need this right now, they need a leader guiding them to shed the fear, the intimidation and to show them how to stand, saying enough!
Please understand I like Biden and believe he was exactly who we needed after Trump. His faithful qualities, his belief in people, his vision for the country and he has done an exceptional job. I am just wondering if it is enough, now. My hope is that it is, because to a certain extent we cannot rely upon the voters. After all they put Trump in office the first time.
I could not agree more with loving trump makes it impossible to live America. I worked for real estate franchises for over twenty years. All franchisees signed franchise agreements yet in many cases they expected the franchise to provide different services. This seems to be a norm. Read the same thing, get a different opinion.
I suppose there has always been moments of love/hate for America... but now the hate seems to be more persistent and louder. Enter the Golden Fleecer. He saw some raw land with development potential. You could never pin him down about a political party, he just looked for the best opportunity and landed on the Republican side. Lucky them. So he built on the Regan foundation of โthe government is the problemโ saw the Tea Party crowd, the rise of militias and moved on it.
So really, as you have pointed out and asked, why is the soil so fertile for this viscous discontent? Changes to norms seem to be in the mix for discontent. Questions about inequalities, โBLMโ, antisemitism โJews will not replace usโ , Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay are in here somewhere,more power in the hands of non white citizens. So an upset of the Status Quo raises up. A dream of Ward, June, Wally and the Beave being challenged by The Simpsons and Archie.
Rush, Alex and the line... do the Golden Fleecer saw an opportunity and seized it. And Americans gave it to him and are willing to scrap our great experiment and now want to turn the clock back.
Now, instead of fighting Nazis, we are fighting with Mickey and Goofy. America, we got some splainen to do....
I fear that even if Trump loses, he will declare it was rigged and we'll go through the same bullshit we are going through now; we won't be rid if him any time soon. And his MAGA followers will ride in his wake. I think the republican party will continue to capitulate. We are likely in this for a long time yet.
The same thing is being said about Putinโs War against Ukraine. Putin<=>Trump. Putin destroying Ukraine. Trump destroying USA. Where is the outrage to stop T. Ukraine Citizens reject Putin and fight like hell. USA citizens < Ukraine fight for their country. The Rot has been identified which is QDJT. Get rid of the beast and calm the rot.
Thank you Steve. Somehow, the American people need to wake up and understand how close we are to losing our democracy. How many donโt care? How many donโt understand the threat? Who can be the Roosevelt or Churchill needed to rally this country?
Nailed it. I know a few people who are Trump/GOP supporters and not one fact over the past 2 plus years has shaken their belief, not ONE. Other people, don't read, listen to sound bites on news stations, don't really think about the real dangers today because they don't pay attention to history or believe anything. They can't decipher what truth is and are easily influenced by their cavernous ignorance. A perfect storm to change a country. It is stunning and terrifying to talk to Americans today. I really do believe today that life could be very different in this country in the not-too-distant-future.
We needed "someone" to reveal to us the depth of political and societal degradation being pitched to us by media, pundits, politicians and polls.
We the people, foolishly, forgot it is up to us to discern the bullshit from the truth. If we are to restore our democracy we must first own our failures.
"Trump simply does not get elected to the presidency of a stable and healthy country. He is a marker of decay and a catalyst for it." Decay, almost as soon as the experiment started, sadly.
Quote: "The American people have lost faith in their society, and become estranged from the nationโs most important institutions. They disdain the media, politics, politicians, political parties, powerful tech companies, billionaires, corporations, and a system where there seems to be one set of rules for people at the top, and one for everyone else.
Trumpโs rise is a symptom, not the cause, of Americaโs current cancer." End quote.
Steve, this is one of your better, even poetic, pieces. Yet, you know as well as I do that this moment in history began with Reagan and Gingrich. Reagan, ever the phony glad-hander and Gingrich ever the insidious agent of nastiness and meanness. Gingrich's "Contract for America" was more like a contract AGAINST America -- at least the 99% of us who keep this country rolling.
I have followed American and international politics since my days in the 1960s as a very young U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant. Logically, I have not followed as closely as some; but, more closely than others. Our nation is at a precipice, one where the forces of consummate evil want to demoralize us so that they can snare us at our weakness. Donald J. Trump is nothing more than a bloviating untethered destructive pre-adolescent in an adult male body. He offers NOTHING of substance. He appeals to the darker, evil aspects of the human psyche. Mean, nasty salvo-tossing crud, Trump is the master at being the worst of us. He thrives on the disdain about which you speak. He seeks to gin up unbridled, blind hate among his base. They will go willingly as his foot soldiers for tyranny and violence. Yet, in the end they will be the biggest losers of all.
You speak of our ancestors. My sire side, the Turners, arrived along the shores of what is now known as the Chesapeake in the 1600s. We were not royalty. We were not rich. We were (and, are) Scots/ Scots-Irish farming folk; people of the soil. My distant paternal grandfather fought with the Virginia 9th Regiment as a Private at Brandywine and Germantown; discharged out of Valley Forge. His reward: Poverty and destitution. But we survived. Trump has no such honorable legacy. His grandfather was driven out of his village in Germany because he advocated for the Nazis. His father was a racist grifter and member of the KKK. His legacy is putrid, stained with the darkness of treason and malfeasance. We the people must get beyond this moment and preserve what our ancestors fought for. The Trumps in this world are evil agents, the devil's own. If we accept that as the inevitable status quo, we will have lost; our nation to become the eternal victim of tyranny.
As most complete a picture of pure revulsion that is Trump, he is indeed a symptom, a product of our degradation, our precipitous plummet from the nobility of purpose as demonstrated when we separated from nobility of cloth.
But as we stretch, as we become more as a society, as a species, it is not unthinkable or even unexpected that we encounter moments of unseemly resistance, floods of repugnancy, stoppers formed of rancid substance representing the worst of us- within evolution of a people the horrid stuff will come to rest at the top, so that is may be recognized, adjudicated, banished, so that we may genuinely dispense with our rot rather than once again plow it under, and, finally, move into a future unencumbered and more truly free.
There are times when we, as individuals or collectively, must make a decision for our future. Steve, youโre exactly right. That time is now! If Trump should win, the next โreign of terrorโ will begin!
As we as a people continue to struggle with our fears and hopes regarding the paths our country has taken in the past and those we may embark upon in the future perhaps it is important to pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that today, August 6th is the anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima. August 9th is the the anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki. I would recommend the movie "Oppenheimer" and the book from which it was taken, "American Prometheus".
โThe windows to the soul.โ Look at their eyes, Steve. Governor Newsomโs eyes are bright. They betray the fact that ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ ๐ข๐๐ฃ ๐ก๐๐ช๐๐๐จ. ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ง๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐๐ก๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฎ๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐๐จ. ๐๐ ๐๐จ ๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ช๐จ. He is human, fallible, knows it, revels in it, and has learned from it all. DeSantisโ eyes are steely, predatory, and emotionless. If they have twinkled with laughter, it was at someone else's expense. His smile is a sneer worthy of an overplayed silent movie character. He runs for president at the taxpayersโ expense as the nominal governor of a state in which fascism is called freedom and the enemy of all is โwoke,โ whatever that is. Newsom peddles hope and ideas; DeSantis spews division, derision, and destruction. Just look in their eyes.
DeSantis eyes also show cowardice. The debate will never happen.
If DeSantis watched Newsom's recent interview with Hannity, he'll never debate him.
For those prestigious Ivy League graduates, Doc Sanctus, the throat slitter, and Der Cruz, the spineless boot licker to the kings, must be a cause for a reevaluation of the moral values, ethics, and principals these honored institutions of Higher Learning have always claimed to embrace.
Steve, explain the euphoria felt by the people that voted for Obama and believed in him and supported him for eight years in spite of the constant vitriol from the Republicans, led by the callow McConnell? I fear you are painting the entire nation with a paintbrush of hatred that must be owned by the Republicans who called the monster and the mini monsters to represent them. I enjoy reading these articles but you keep escaping to the past to look for decency, scruples, and high ideals. I submit to you that many of us that voted for Obama and Biden are looking at a bright, dignified age of decency. Let the poo smearers go. Your revulsion will not change them. I agree, it was most disheartening that there are so many that have not progressed culturally in the country, who see everything in terms of themselves but look around at the whole world, look to the past ..it is not a new phenomenon. Yet not very many words of support from you for Biden who is a very principled man that cares deeply for his country and the world and has shown us through action, following what he always believed would repair the damage the Reagonites and Trumpites inflicted on our society.
Martha, I 100% agree: "...many of us who voted for Obama and Biden are looking at a bright, dignified age of decency." Yes, Biden is a very principled man, cares deeply for this country, which has been shown through ACTION, not drama or negativity. He has modeled 'better'!
I agree with Martha andJenn (below) that Biden and Obamaโs principled leadership should be commended because of its contrast with the MAGAtty shirking of duty and honor and their perversion of the rule of law.
Thank you for these comments! I am tired of Democrats, and others, complaining that Biden-or Obama- didn't deliver everything on the progressive wishlist...or that they want a different candidate in 2024!
The news media, and many others, talk about Biden's age and Hunter Biden, when, IF THEY CARED ABOUT PRESERVING DEMOCRACY would talk about all of the legislation that the Biden administration has been able to get passed without control of the Senate and House.
Legislation that is already bringing back manufacturing and reducing inflation.
Bottom line for the 2024 election is a vote for democracy or fascism!
Nothing else matters if we lose our democracy!
For anyone who needs a reminder or who doesn't know about the stunning and already historical Biden Team accomplishments, please read the following: https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/#:~:text=Nearly%2011%20million%20jobs%20have,since%20President%20Biden%20took%20office.
Yes, the Democrats could improve their messaging on what the Biden team has put into motion, domestically and globally, and will continue to do. If the administration needs to change, it is possible that Biden is already working on that. He knows what he is doing!
Excellent link!
Martha, I wish I could 'like' your comment 10 times! I think it is still challenging for many of the reformed Republicans to see the energy and yes, hope that Obama brought to so many of us. It was such a hopeful, forward looking time, and frankly, I think many of us felt a huge sense of relief that we were finally on a positive path. I feel the same with Biden, who has accomplished even more in a short time.
Yea, verily, but we dare not let go the poo-smearers and those who called them to arms. Mr. Schmidtโs articulate revulsion at the fascist turn of the Republican Party is not only thoroughly deserved, but a most necessary point. His disgust with what used to be his own preferred party ought to be shared by all true patriots, and especially by Republican leaders. Part of the crap smeared on the Capitolโs walls was a very ugly, irrational backlash against Presidents Obama and Biden. But part was an even uglier American Brown Shirt movement that Trump and his comrades have publically embraced and are fertilizing with their lies.
I agree with you 100%. The fascists started letting us know they are there with Norquist and his no new tax oath that they all couldn't wait to sign. Watch what they do, not what they say. But i think Steve is spitting in the wind if he thinks good Republicans can reclaim their party from the likes of MTG, the poo smearer in chief. I also think his posts are fantastic and I do not think we should let the good Republicans forget what their party did on Jan 6. It was disgusting and horrifying, dangerous and sad and it went all the way to the top. It is time to start pressuring AG Garland to go after the likes of Cruze if he isn't already...that is the conspiracy and insurrection I want to see revealed...the poo smearers sure had a lot of help that day.
The moral cowardice, mental gymnastics and nauseating whataboutism are getting tiresome.
That is their objective; goal.
I love โthe fear of mean tweets.โ This was needed. Cannot thank you enough for your defense of democracy.
I believe the "fear of mean tweets" actually has some background behind it. A few months back, DJT mad a comment to the R's in Congress reminding them he had some stuff in the vault to hold over them--just not sure how many and of what quality. If you remember the whole David Pecker / National Inquirer "catch and hold" for Trump, there may be a similar vault of info on members that DJT would not hesitate to employ.
This is how Trump has operated for decades. He's a bully who uses this and other tactics. Kudos to Newsome and others who have enough courage to stand up to Trump/MAGA and punch back hard. I predict DeSantis will debate and will get clobbered. ๐ค
It is quite shameful that the decrepit โActs of destructionโ of Jan. 6th left the excrements of MAGA โpoo pooโ behind in the likes of todays Republican Party leaders. It will take Americanโs holding their breath and voting like hell to flush out the remaining smell and stains of the Freedom Caucus. America must take up its armor to protect its might at the voting booth. We must be at the ready to assist our democratic institutions and support our military leaders by flushing out the rotted nobilities of Tommy Tuberville, Mitch McConnell, Rick Scott, Krysten Sinema, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Marsha Blackburn, John Thune, Ted Cruz, Joe Manchin and all the remaining Moscow Mules. This is the staining excrement left behind on Jan 6 and continue the desecration of the Capitol of the United States of America.
On another note in regards to your essay today; I like your supportive approach to appeal to America to rally to ballot box through the majestic Faith of our countryโs past leadership and selfless sacrifices for freedom. A collective appeal through the lens of our historical values in our core democratic principles and institutions. All of it placed squarely into voters arms today. It is our duty and our strength to understand our righteous calls to actions at the ballot Box. We can sanitize our nation from this MAGA stench and set our countryโs future back on track. Real Hope in the American dream.
We are not finished with Jan 6 America. The job is not done. Humility is indeed a great negotiator, so grab a mop. ATTENTION AMERICA: REGISTER AND VOTE. Clean up at the Capitol from Jan. 6 still needs your help.
A very eloquent post. Thank you.
Thank you.
Choosing. Inflection point. Or to use Robert Frostโs image of two roads in a yellow wood. Which path: the more common one to autocracy or the less traveled democracy. It should be the less traveled wanting wear democracy, and it will make all the difference
Last night I was following the happenings of the threatening post from Trump, the DOJ rapid response and the response by the Judge. I wondered who the hell thinks this man is presidential, competent, a representative of the ideals of America. Ok, we know the answer to that, but it felt really bad last night. it was insane.
Here is my biggest concern and has been. Is Biden and the Democrats up to this challenge? Has nothing to do with age, but has everything to do with fighting for truth, messaging truth, understanding that this is not business as usual. You can only ignore the actions of a depraved bully for so long. There is a point where one must take a stand, a strong stand and put the bully down.
It appears that Newsom understands this. I like that he is not afraid, we need unafraid people. I like that he speaks truth, we need unrestrained truth, I like that he stands, seemingly unaffected by the bully. You are right, Steve he is a fighter. Dear God we need a fighter right now. Maybe the Democrats will learn from Newsom and actually build a strong response team. A rapid response team, taking the fight to the bully. They could also take a lesson from Smith and the DOJ. They were on it yesterday and the bully backed down, if only for a bit. It is my belief that voters need this right now, they need a leader guiding them to shed the fear, the intimidation and to show them how to stand, saying enough!
Please understand I like Biden and believe he was exactly who we needed after Trump. His faithful qualities, his belief in people, his vision for the country and he has done an exceptional job. I am just wondering if it is enough, now. My hope is that it is, because to a certain extent we cannot rely upon the voters. After all they put Trump in office the first time.
I hope this will lead to a speedy trial. It should, as the behaviors are beyond what is normative.
LOCK. HIM. UP. YES!!
I could not agree more with loving trump makes it impossible to live America. I worked for real estate franchises for over twenty years. All franchisees signed franchise agreements yet in many cases they expected the franchise to provide different services. This seems to be a norm. Read the same thing, get a different opinion.
I suppose there has always been moments of love/hate for America... but now the hate seems to be more persistent and louder. Enter the Golden Fleecer. He saw some raw land with development potential. You could never pin him down about a political party, he just looked for the best opportunity and landed on the Republican side. Lucky them. So he built on the Regan foundation of โthe government is the problemโ saw the Tea Party crowd, the rise of militias and moved on it.
So really, as you have pointed out and asked, why is the soil so fertile for this viscous discontent? Changes to norms seem to be in the mix for discontent. Questions about inequalities, โBLMโ, antisemitism โJews will not replace usโ , Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay are in here somewhere,more power in the hands of non white citizens. So an upset of the Status Quo raises up. A dream of Ward, June, Wally and the Beave being challenged by The Simpsons and Archie.
Rush, Alex and the line... do the Golden Fleecer saw an opportunity and seized it. And Americans gave it to him and are willing to scrap our great experiment and now want to turn the clock back.
Now, instead of fighting Nazis, we are fighting with Mickey and Goofy. America, we got some splainen to do....
*โlove America....
I fear that even if Trump loses, he will declare it was rigged and we'll go through the same bullshit we are going through now; we won't be rid if him any time soon. And his MAGA followers will ride in his wake. I think the republican party will continue to capitulate. We are likely in this for a long time yet.
The same thing is being said about Putinโs War against Ukraine. Putin<=>Trump. Putin destroying Ukraine. Trump destroying USA. Where is the outrage to stop T. Ukraine Citizens reject Putin and fight like hell. USA citizens < Ukraine fight for their country. The Rot has been identified which is QDJT. Get rid of the beast and calm the rot.
Thank you Steve. Somehow, the American people need to wake up and understand how close we are to losing our democracy. How many donโt care? How many donโt understand the threat? Who can be the Roosevelt or Churchill needed to rally this country?
Nailed it. I know a few people who are Trump/GOP supporters and not one fact over the past 2 plus years has shaken their belief, not ONE. Other people, don't read, listen to sound bites on news stations, don't really think about the real dangers today because they don't pay attention to history or believe anything. They can't decipher what truth is and are easily influenced by their cavernous ignorance. A perfect storm to change a country. It is stunning and terrifying to talk to Americans today. I really do believe today that life could be very different in this country in the not-too-distant-future.
We needed "someone" to reveal to us the depth of political and societal degradation being pitched to us by media, pundits, politicians and polls.
We the people, foolishly, forgot it is up to us to discern the bullshit from the truth. If we are to restore our democracy we must first own our failures.
"Trump simply does not get elected to the presidency of a stable and healthy country. He is a marker of decay and a catalyst for it." Decay, almost as soon as the experiment started, sadly.
Because it was all built on the backs of stolen lives and labor.
Quote: "The American people have lost faith in their society, and become estranged from the nationโs most important institutions. They disdain the media, politics, politicians, political parties, powerful tech companies, billionaires, corporations, and a system where there seems to be one set of rules for people at the top, and one for everyone else.
Trumpโs rise is a symptom, not the cause, of Americaโs current cancer." End quote.
Steve, this is one of your better, even poetic, pieces. Yet, you know as well as I do that this moment in history began with Reagan and Gingrich. Reagan, ever the phony glad-hander and Gingrich ever the insidious agent of nastiness and meanness. Gingrich's "Contract for America" was more like a contract AGAINST America -- at least the 99% of us who keep this country rolling.
I have followed American and international politics since my days in the 1960s as a very young U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant. Logically, I have not followed as closely as some; but, more closely than others. Our nation is at a precipice, one where the forces of consummate evil want to demoralize us so that they can snare us at our weakness. Donald J. Trump is nothing more than a bloviating untethered destructive pre-adolescent in an adult male body. He offers NOTHING of substance. He appeals to the darker, evil aspects of the human psyche. Mean, nasty salvo-tossing crud, Trump is the master at being the worst of us. He thrives on the disdain about which you speak. He seeks to gin up unbridled, blind hate among his base. They will go willingly as his foot soldiers for tyranny and violence. Yet, in the end they will be the biggest losers of all.
You speak of our ancestors. My sire side, the Turners, arrived along the shores of what is now known as the Chesapeake in the 1600s. We were not royalty. We were not rich. We were (and, are) Scots/ Scots-Irish farming folk; people of the soil. My distant paternal grandfather fought with the Virginia 9th Regiment as a Private at Brandywine and Germantown; discharged out of Valley Forge. His reward: Poverty and destitution. But we survived. Trump has no such honorable legacy. His grandfather was driven out of his village in Germany because he advocated for the Nazis. His father was a racist grifter and member of the KKK. His legacy is putrid, stained with the darkness of treason and malfeasance. We the people must get beyond this moment and preserve what our ancestors fought for. The Trumps in this world are evil agents, the devil's own. If we accept that as the inevitable status quo, we will have lost; our nation to become the eternal victim of tyranny.
As most complete a picture of pure revulsion that is Trump, he is indeed a symptom, a product of our degradation, our precipitous plummet from the nobility of purpose as demonstrated when we separated from nobility of cloth.
But as we stretch, as we become more as a society, as a species, it is not unthinkable or even unexpected that we encounter moments of unseemly resistance, floods of repugnancy, stoppers formed of rancid substance representing the worst of us- within evolution of a people the horrid stuff will come to rest at the top, so that is may be recognized, adjudicated, banished, so that we may genuinely dispense with our rot rather than once again plow it under, and, finally, move into a future unencumbered and more truly free.
.....so let it be written...
There are times when we, as individuals or collectively, must make a decision for our future. Steve, youโre exactly right. That time is now! If Trump should win, the next โreign of terrorโ will begin!
Bob Fuchs
As we as a people continue to struggle with our fears and hopes regarding the paths our country has taken in the past and those we may embark upon in the future perhaps it is important to pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that today, August 6th is the anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima. August 9th is the the anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki. I would recommend the movie "Oppenheimer" and the book from which it was taken, "American Prometheus".