I woke up before sunrise yesterday, and headed down the Pacific Coast Highway thinking about the CNN abomination in New Hampshire. What is it that America saw on Wednesday night? What did the world see? CNN built a set for Donald Trump, and filled a room with his voters and sycophants. Next, CNN introduced Donald Trump and he walked out onto the set to rapturous applause. Then the tsunami hit.
Well said as always but I don’t think Trump’s main goal in running is political. He never cared for the job when he had it: it was too hard, too much work and detail and focus required. He wants to be President again only to save his sorry hide from all the crimes he has committed that will put the treasonous narcissist in prison. I hope his orange jumpsuit is being fitted for him right now - counting on ya, Fanni Willis and Jack Smith. Counting on ya. And please take his enablers out with him.
As they say, “right on” as you pretty much summed up what the rest of us are feeling about the train wreck that CNN engineered with Trumps big political rally on the air. I’m still stunned at what happened and shaken to the core with what turned out to be a massive failure and another blow below the belt for broadcast journalism in the era of Trumpism in America.
Thanks for another insightful piece. I stopped watching CNN years ago and this travesty just confirmed my decision. I now will never click on its website. The silver lining is that Trump's statements during the Town Hall likely will get him in more legal hot water. According to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirchner: "CNN decided to give Donald Trump a microphone and a platform to spout his endless lies. During the course of the town hall meeting, Donald Trump gave prosecutors and plaintiffs directly incriminating evidence that undoubtedly will be used against him in future prosecutions."
I thought I couldn't loathe him more...until I read this essay. I loathe him more than I did before.
I would love to be a person who says that I don't hate anyone. I am sorry, I do hate Donald Trump. I feel like the nameless voices of Rs who say they are just waiting for him to die.
The Book of Job comes to mind. Man is tested by God and the Devil. Thanatos in Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. We’ve met the enemy in Manchester, New Hampshire. We experienced the enemy. Death to our Republic in Manchester on CNN. MSM created this monster. Entertainment is the enemy and Trump is loved by the white mob assembled by CNN. Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC reacted. He was accurate.
The Manchester Mob of CNN is the message. Trump’s love of Putin and his dislike of Zelenskyy and Ukrainians is classic fascism. His antisemitism is repulsive and dangerous and the CNN mob loved it and loved him.
DOJ’s Jack Smith and other prosecutors will prosecute, charge, try, convict and sentence Trump et al - or Putin and totalitarianism wins.
A Republic if you can keep it, said Ben Franklin.
Can we? Court is out. I have known survivors of Auschwitz and the Death March in the Philippines.
This is the ball game. And it’s the last of the 9th.
Everything is on the line. We are the frog 🐸 in the water rising to boil.
Manchester New Hampshire is the Republican Party, the mob of Hitler.
Where are the Democrats, where are the good guys?
I am sick with worry. Is democracy a short sale? Are we finished?
Steve, are we in the majority? Can decency prevail?
Is our experiment going to work?
Thucydides understood Sparta and Athens and reported on Pericles Oration.
Once again, thank you for giving words to a phenomenon that's been and is happening.
"Whatever Trump’s crowd may be like one-on-one is besides the point. It is their collective intent and their leader’s malice that are the issue. It always has been, and it always will be." It's too easy for individuals to give away their agency for a collective, malevolent cause.
Both analogies are spot on Steve. CNN should be ashamed but the head of CNN has already said he is proud of Kaitlin Smith and doubled down saying "America was served well by this town hall".
We are in for more blatant, out in the open, far right, nazi extremism. Wasting no time, the Reawaken America tour is this weekend hosted by Eric Trump and his wife. They and a host of former Trump officials AND pro nazis will convene for God knows what, today and tomorrow. Here is Rachel Maddow's breakdown of this meeting on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onh42TXYYtk&t=128s
I'm so sorry about the state of affairs down there in the US. And so fearful of the spread north, which may or may not happen (successfully - as it's on its way). Am a 20C historian by training and the US situation always reminds me of the DC Holocaust Museum's exhibit of the endless of scroll of Jewish rights being removed - maybe Jews could no longer drive on Tuesdays - oh well, there were still other days. Maybe they couldn't subscribe to a newspaper on Thursdays - oh well, at least they could read it on Monday. The boiled frog approach. In the US it's gerrymandering, redistricting. Lordy, it's birth control now - how bananas is that! I've made this Holocaust scroll comment so many times over the years on so many sites and it kills me that I still think of this exhibit all the time and frankly, I've got faith in the young 'uns but know there's a tough road ahead in the meantime and one that honestly, I'm relieved I'll not live through. How could Margaret Atwood have been so prescient? Boggles the mind.
Some of us are not running away from anything. We are not descendants of fearful people. It is now our turn to do our part in saving our republic from forces both foreign and domestic.
Steve - I love your analogy and this one was excellent !! My experience watching the town hall became very dark and twisted in a hurry. I instantly understood what was happening. It made my blood boil. I started thinking about the movie Conspiracy with Kenneth Branaugh, Stanley Tucci, and Colin Forth. My God - I felt so manipulated - as if CNN shoved me into a boxcar headed for extermination along with thousands of other American citizens. How many CNN executives, investors, or whoever the hell is behind all of this sat in a room like Hitler's generals and came up with this plan? Who listens to this and does not STAND up and say STOP?
This entire evening was the most disturbing thing I have watched since Jan 6 riots. Giving this insane man the spotlight was unforgivable. Listening to Trump and his plans to continue to destroy our democracy is like hearing fingernails scrap over a blackboard. I can't handle 5 minutes of him.
Watching his endless joy as the audience fawned all over him was disgusting. He gloated over his role in the Roe vs. Wade decision & how he would end the Ukraine/Russia war, The separation of families at the border. Shocking !! My God the impact on young women's lives as he works to "finish the job" on the abortion decision and ends NATO and gives Ukraine to Russia. Immigration - separation of families. Pardon Jan 6 rioters. Good Lord. And then to top it all off Chris Licht has the nerve to scold viewers for not liking or understanding the need to put this on the air. And he then used one of his star women anchors to do his dirty work. THAT !!! is abusive. And Anderson Cooper - WTH. Get out of that boxcar before it's too late.
Unfortunately, as you all know, presidential elections are won or lost in a small number states by razor thin margins. Until we eliminate the electoral college, we now get to face the very real prospect of a fascist - Trump, DeSantis, pick your poison - winning the presidency every four years. It’s mind blowing and exhausting.
Exactly. For news networks it's not the "red" or "blue" but about green money. Entertainment , slapstick sell. Many don't want to leave the comfort of funny web videos showing fuzzy cats or jerks failing homemade challenges. Dems are seen as party poopers - lamenting the enviorment, taking our gas fueled beloved autos, welcoming destitutes over the southern border, and allowing women and minorities to claim equality. Today the lifeboats are filled with white men armed and sharing locker room jokes. No thinkers allowed.
One of your best, Steve! Your analogies are stark, riveting. Will they move your readers (including me) to use every muscle in our bodies to crawl across the flooded, splintered deck to save ourselves and others? The lifeboat is there but can we summon the strength to run to safety? Can we rise above the crush of looming authoritarianism to turn words into action?
They aren't called the Cretin news Network for no reason.
The good news is, E. Jean Carroll is ready with a third defamation suit, one that will include WBD honcho David Zaslav and major WBD stockholder John Malone - who ordered CNN to "become more Republican-friendly" as well as collection of clucks at CNN, and Trump, whose defamation they all enabled.
Trumps first act in office will be to fire everyone in the justice department, including the FBI and dismantle our institutions. Nobody will stop him. He’ll appoint an acting Attorney General that will do what he asks. There is already a Schedule F plan to dismantle the “administrative state”. This is not hyperbolic speculation. It’s what they want to do. It’s scary and conceivable.
Vote! Not 80+ million. Vote 90, or 100 million strong in ‘24. Kill this monster with our votes.
Well said as always but I don’t think Trump’s main goal in running is political. He never cared for the job when he had it: it was too hard, too much work and detail and focus required. He wants to be President again only to save his sorry hide from all the crimes he has committed that will put the treasonous narcissist in prison. I hope his orange jumpsuit is being fitted for him right now - counting on ya, Fanni Willis and Jack Smith. Counting on ya. And please take his enablers out with him.
As they say, “right on” as you pretty much summed up what the rest of us are feeling about the train wreck that CNN engineered with Trumps big political rally on the air. I’m still stunned at what happened and shaken to the core with what turned out to be a massive failure and another blow below the belt for broadcast journalism in the era of Trumpism in America.
Thanks for another insightful piece. I stopped watching CNN years ago and this travesty just confirmed my decision. I now will never click on its website. The silver lining is that Trump's statements during the Town Hall likely will get him in more legal hot water. According to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirchner: "CNN decided to give Donald Trump a microphone and a platform to spout his endless lies. During the course of the town hall meeting, Donald Trump gave prosecutors and plaintiffs directly incriminating evidence that undoubtedly will be used against him in future prosecutions."
I thought I couldn't loathe him more...until I read this essay. I loathe him more than I did before.
I would love to be a person who says that I don't hate anyone. I am sorry, I do hate Donald Trump. I feel like the nameless voices of Rs who say they are just waiting for him to die.
The Book of Job comes to mind. Man is tested by God and the Devil. Thanatos in Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. We’ve met the enemy in Manchester, New Hampshire. We experienced the enemy. Death to our Republic in Manchester on CNN. MSM created this monster. Entertainment is the enemy and Trump is loved by the white mob assembled by CNN. Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC reacted. He was accurate.
The Manchester Mob of CNN is the message. Trump’s love of Putin and his dislike of Zelenskyy and Ukrainians is classic fascism. His antisemitism is repulsive and dangerous and the CNN mob loved it and loved him.
DOJ’s Jack Smith and other prosecutors will prosecute, charge, try, convict and sentence Trump et al - or Putin and totalitarianism wins.
A Republic if you can keep it, said Ben Franklin.
Can we? Court is out. I have known survivors of Auschwitz and the Death March in the Philippines.
This is the ball game. And it’s the last of the 9th.
Everything is on the line. We are the frog 🐸 in the water rising to boil.
Manchester New Hampshire is the Republican Party, the mob of Hitler.
Where are the Democrats, where are the good guys?
I am sick with worry. Is democracy a short sale? Are we finished?
Steve, are we in the majority? Can decency prevail?
Is our experiment going to work?
Thucydides understood Sparta and Athens and reported on Pericles Oration.
Who will report on us?
Once again, thank you for giving words to a phenomenon that's been and is happening.
"Whatever Trump’s crowd may be like one-on-one is besides the point. It is their collective intent and their leader’s malice that are the issue. It always has been, and it always will be." It's too easy for individuals to give away their agency for a collective, malevolent cause.
Both analogies are spot on Steve. CNN should be ashamed but the head of CNN has already said he is proud of Kaitlin Smith and doubled down saying "America was served well by this town hall".
We are in for more blatant, out in the open, far right, nazi extremism. Wasting no time, the Reawaken America tour is this weekend hosted by Eric Trump and his wife. They and a host of former Trump officials AND pro nazis will convene for God knows what, today and tomorrow. Here is Rachel Maddow's breakdown of this meeting on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onh42TXYYtk&t=128s
I'm so sorry about the state of affairs down there in the US. And so fearful of the spread north, which may or may not happen (successfully - as it's on its way). Am a 20C historian by training and the US situation always reminds me of the DC Holocaust Museum's exhibit of the endless of scroll of Jewish rights being removed - maybe Jews could no longer drive on Tuesdays - oh well, there were still other days. Maybe they couldn't subscribe to a newspaper on Thursdays - oh well, at least they could read it on Monday. The boiled frog approach. In the US it's gerrymandering, redistricting. Lordy, it's birth control now - how bananas is that! I've made this Holocaust scroll comment so many times over the years on so many sites and it kills me that I still think of this exhibit all the time and frankly, I've got faith in the young 'uns but know there's a tough road ahead in the meantime and one that honestly, I'm relieved I'll not live through. How could Margaret Atwood have been so prescient? Boggles the mind.
Some of us are not running away from anything. We are not descendants of fearful people. It is now our turn to do our part in saving our republic from forces both foreign and domestic.
Steve - I love your analogy and this one was excellent !! My experience watching the town hall became very dark and twisted in a hurry. I instantly understood what was happening. It made my blood boil. I started thinking about the movie Conspiracy with Kenneth Branaugh, Stanley Tucci, and Colin Forth. My God - I felt so manipulated - as if CNN shoved me into a boxcar headed for extermination along with thousands of other American citizens. How many CNN executives, investors, or whoever the hell is behind all of this sat in a room like Hitler's generals and came up with this plan? Who listens to this and does not STAND up and say STOP?
This entire evening was the most disturbing thing I have watched since Jan 6 riots. Giving this insane man the spotlight was unforgivable. Listening to Trump and his plans to continue to destroy our democracy is like hearing fingernails scrap over a blackboard. I can't handle 5 minutes of him.
Watching his endless joy as the audience fawned all over him was disgusting. He gloated over his role in the Roe vs. Wade decision & how he would end the Ukraine/Russia war, The separation of families at the border. Shocking !! My God the impact on young women's lives as he works to "finish the job" on the abortion decision and ends NATO and gives Ukraine to Russia. Immigration - separation of families. Pardon Jan 6 rioters. Good Lord. And then to top it all off Chris Licht has the nerve to scold viewers for not liking or understanding the need to put this on the air. And he then used one of his star women anchors to do his dirty work. THAT !!! is abusive. And Anderson Cooper - WTH. Get out of that boxcar before it's too late.
Unfortunately, as you all know, presidential elections are won or lost in a small number states by razor thin margins. Until we eliminate the electoral college, we now get to face the very real prospect of a fascist - Trump, DeSantis, pick your poison - winning the presidency every four years. It’s mind blowing and exhausting.
Exactly. For news networks it's not the "red" or "blue" but about green money. Entertainment , slapstick sell. Many don't want to leave the comfort of funny web videos showing fuzzy cats or jerks failing homemade challenges. Dems are seen as party poopers - lamenting the enviorment, taking our gas fueled beloved autos, welcoming destitutes over the southern border, and allowing women and minorities to claim equality. Today the lifeboats are filled with white men armed and sharing locker room jokes. No thinkers allowed.
One of your best, Steve! Your analogies are stark, riveting. Will they move your readers (including me) to use every muscle in our bodies to crawl across the flooded, splintered deck to save ourselves and others? The lifeboat is there but can we summon the strength to run to safety? Can we rise above the crush of looming authoritarianism to turn words into action?
They aren't called the Cretin news Network for no reason.
The good news is, E. Jean Carroll is ready with a third defamation suit, one that will include WBD honcho David Zaslav and major WBD stockholder John Malone - who ordered CNN to "become more Republican-friendly" as well as collection of clucks at CNN, and Trump, whose defamation they all enabled.
Trumps first act in office will be to fire everyone in the justice department, including the FBI and dismantle our institutions. Nobody will stop him. He’ll appoint an acting Attorney General that will do what he asks. There is already a Schedule F plan to dismantle the “administrative state”. This is not hyperbolic speculation. It’s what they want to do. It’s scary and conceivable.