The silence is damning. Protest. Shun them all. Make it unacceptable to normalize these monsters. “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere....Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.” - Elie Wiesel
"The silence is damning." Yes it is! We must protest! Thank you, Al, for your post today. The Elie Wiesel quote and the 1941 Dorothy Thompson article say it all -such important writings for these times. Thank you Steve Schmidt for The Warning! We must be vigilant and make some noise.
With a few exceptions, the Republican Party in power. Those who speak up now are focused on one thing, i.e. their political futures. What is disgusting is how a Kevin McCarthy will call out the behavior of Gosar and MTG for appearing with Fuentes at AFPAC (Nick Fuentes who "will push the envelope" for outing Republican bigotry), but remains mute about the Mar-a-Lago meet with the Trump operative present, Karen Giorno, and the anti-Semites Trump, Fuentes and Kanye West. Is Karen Giorno an anti-Semite? Yes, for not objecting to the meet. Is Kevin McCarthy an anti-Semite? Yes, by not repudiating the meet among anti-Semites, because he needs the votes of anti-Semites Gosar and MTG to ascend to power in the House.
I read the Thompson essay. It’s brilliant. Read it if you haven’t. It’s so sad what we are seeing. The grifter from Queens holding court with those dangerous men. He must be stopped. He must not get air. Media has to stop giving him air. Thx Steve for the reminder.
The article is as applicable today as it was in 1941: "But Mr. C is not a born Nazi. He is the product of a democracy hypocritically preaching social equality and practicing a carelessly brutal snobbery. He is a sensitive, gifted man who has been humiliated into nihilism." This is so powerful.
I am still astonished that those who used to be Repuglicans do not denounce this rampant anti-Semitism. I am feeling increasingly unsafe. So many of my fellow Jews (looking at you David Friedman) still seem to believe that it can't happen here. A shofar needs to be blown to awaken us all to the danger!
It can happen here. It is happening slowly as it did in Germany...turning people one by one against one group or another.....We need to wake up....we need to be very vocal...and not stop. I post ALL this relevant information on my FB still. A close friend said "are you sure you want to do that." I said I am damn sure. I call them out at every opportunity....to help them recognize themselves.
Jews who still support T astonish me more. Any T supporting Jew paying attention would have jumped ship in 2017 after T appointed infamous antisemite Steve Bannon WH chief strategist. T response to "Jews will not replace us" (Charlottesville 2017) was confirmation of his overt antisemitism if there was ever any doubt.
I am fascinated by a comment by, of all people, Steve Bannon, who believes they were let into Thanksgiving Dinner by those wanting to discredit Trump. Quite to the contrary, Trump can now show his true intent.
There is a recent clip showing Fuentes calling for Congress to be disbanded and a Dictator installed. Can imagine this was discussed over dinner.
We have the responsibility to call them out. Loud long and direct. No more clutching of pearls the lessons Trump and his crowd leaned are those from the 1930s. Our role is to call the question to every R-do you refute? No response is affirmation of support
Holy moly, I read the Dorothy Thompson essay. It connected several dots for me in my thoughts about our current events. It also struck me that what she wrote contradicts those folks today who believe that these beliefs and positions are something new that has just spontaneously arisen within the US in the past decade or so. These folks scratch their heads, mumble about, wringing their hands, acting as if there are no known solutions to this “new” dilemma. Or maybe, if I’m being completely honest, the dithering mumbling person is me because while I knew those attitudes and beliefs existed, I naively thought they were part of history, part of Dorothy Thompson’s era but certainly not mine. While as a woman, I’ve directly experienced discrimination, as a straight, white woman, I haven’t been exposed to all of the horrors our current system routinely expresses toward POC and the LGBTQ+ community. I realize I’ve been lucky and and privileged to live in that fantasy world. Over the past few decades, my blinders have come down periodically but I always thought those were isolated incidents not actual products of our current system. When Trump won in 2016, it shook me to the core. Almost 63 million people voted for him! How could they not see him for what he was? How could they ignore his hateful rhetoric? Finally, I fully comprehended- “ it’s a feature not a bug”. Those 63 million people voted for him BECAUSE he was hateful and they were okay with that. In fact they were not only okay with it, they enthusiastically supported it. As the comic strip character Pogo said, “I have seen the enemy, and it is us.” Maybe the one ray of hope or optimism could be just that - it isn’t new. There are solutions. It can be pushed back. It can be suppressed. But because it’s in our DNA, complacency is extremely dangerous. Vigilance is required. It seems that once the generation that directly fought and won the war against fascism dies off, the following generation forgets, or believes that the threat was entirely eliminated and there in lies the danger of loosening the constraints. Because it will always be present within humans. This type of cancer is never cured. The best we can hope for is to knock it back into remission. But we must then remain ever vigilant and protect against the next recurrence.
After reading your brilliant ( as always ) essay this morning reminding us about the silence of all those who will not speak out about these atrocities it dawned on me that I understand Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence” in a brand new way. “Hello darkness” and “creeping visions” indeed.
Very interesting. It came like an epiphany just today after reading Steve ~ have known and sung that song for years. Prophetic right? It even mentions the prophets in the lyrics
P.S. Just as Art and Sandy made a pledge to help each other at any time of their lives that they were needed, so did Robin Williams and Christopher Reeves (like Art and Sandy, roommates in college). After Reeves became paraplegic following his horrific riding accident, Robin quietly moved in and paid for the millions of dollars of care after Reeves's health insurance ran out. He made sure that Christopher's widow, Dana, and their three children were taken care of. This was done with no publicity. Robing was another truly great, great man.
Wow, amazing! These kinds of stories which we never hear remind us of all the good that is going on in everyday life despite what we are hearing on the news!
Out of curiosity, I went back and reread the lyrics. Then I came across an article which told about the inspiration for this song: Art Garfunkel's college roommate was suddenly was blinded in college and went into deep despair. The way Art cared for, encouraged, and financially supported his best friend is truly awesome. I'm so glad that the "darkness" they wrote about has it's origin in the immense compassion of Garfunkel. I had no idea what a truly great man he is.
I’ve been worried about where America was going since Newt Gingrich. He, DeLay and Rove were not subtle in their message and goals. But because they accompanied their goals with dog whistles and civil language, no one seemed to be understanding their real message and goals...especially Democrats. 🤦🏼♀️ Leaders who shouldn’t have been complacent about where the extremists in the GOP were going, did nothing. Once a full-blown Trump became the GOP nominee, the traditionalists thought THEY could control him and all the deplorables he awakened, just like Von Papen, et. al., thought they could control Hitler. I’ve finally come to the conclusion, unfortunately, that this horror may have been inevitable, especially since the South NEVER evolved from being anti-federal slave owners. They took over the GOP and horror has ensued ever since. It’s disappointing that America had to come to this crisis for good people to wake up. But we have, and the extremists’ full message has been exposed, I’m more hopeful than I was in the early 90’s.
Trump’s 2015 escalator descent was a symbolic harbinger of things to come. The majority of the GOP followed him down. Some were eager sycophants, some spineless cowards. The GOP’s lust for power outweighs any morals, ethics, or fealty to the COTUS. Trump is & always will be a demolition man.
Because DJT has not been held accountable for inciting a brutal attack on our capital and on our democracy, he continues to wreak havoc in our country. This is a glaring problem in our justice system. DJT must be indicted, he must be held accountable, or the message to the GOP and all of the fringe-crazies is that this is all just okay...this is a huge problem and we must protest.
The Republican Party is deficit in courage, morals and patriotism. Instead of protecting their county as they swore to do, they protect themselves first, their party second then maybe the country and least of all the people. What an amazing, sad and scary transformation to know no more than one or two republicans may stand up to a person who would burn down the country. He is a racist, antisemitic who has a diminishing following of about 35% of the republican base. That of course is more frightening. And religious right nationalists are the core of that 35% Republican office holders have to wake up and smell the rancid roses. They will continue to lose elections until they rid themselves of Trump and those who follow him. History will certainly not treat him well and all you know in office will not be viewed favorably as well. Time to think about how you want your kids and grandkids to think about you.
I think Trump will be mostly gone by the post 2024 election. MAGA however will remain in some form for a while to come but will diminish as they lose races, which they will. So, I think we will have to live with them for another 6 to 8 years before they are completely defeated. History. Well it will be at least a decade or two before historians look back at this decade. For me, it means I won't be reading the history myself, but my kids will as will their kids and on into the future in the hope that we have learned not to let that happen again.
I have read Harper’s (it’s America’s oldest literary magazine) for 40 years. One of my undergrad Profs assigned it - and I’ve been reading it ever since.
But, Steve (and all of us readers) already know you will not get 1 elected Republican to say 1 public thing about any of this. You’ll notice not 1 Elected has even dared to say “He’s a Loser”. In fact, I can guarantee they are planning their self-referential Endorsements right now.
Appreciate the succinct points with back story links! I hope you keep up this style of informative, powerful writing.
The Greeks have a concept ‘deus ex machina’ the timely arrival of God at precisely the 13th hour.
We are proving as citizens of the modern world that we have not learned much in 5000 years, still expecting to be saved, and doing nothing to save ourselves.
This is the whole point of the times we live in, from Nazis to alternate facts to ruckus feral malignant narcissists involved in power plays and burning the house down with us in it--we have the muscle, we just need to be willing to use it to save ourselves.
I would be nice if we had a functioning town Square, I’ve been on many different platforms over the last four weeks. Some have better discourse and a nicer people , functionality, bugs, are a plague leaving a functioning town square yet to be had.
I also think it’s a difficulty that many prominent individuals need to monetize their work (yes, I understand everyone needs to make money and I support that.) so their voice is limited, their engagements on Twitter are taking on a new look of only their monetized feeds, that’s greatly diminishing their voice, and thereby diminishing the town square.
Based on Michael Cohen’s book where he tells us about DT having file cabinets of dirt on people and DT’s obsession with finding dirt on people… it seems to me, once he was president, his access to dirt was increased. I make up they don’t speak up because he may have dirt on them.
I had not thought of that before. Like nixon's "enemy list". We know that the Orange Sadist ordered a "criminal" (Laurence Tribe) "intensive audit" of Andrew McCabe's and Comey's taxes. I can only imagine what dirt he imagined on repugnicants which shames so many into silence.
It seems one must have the capacity to feel shame in order to stop hurting others. DT has been giving many disconnected people an endless master class on shamelessness.
Sociopathic narcissists are incapable of feeling guilt or shame. He fits the diagnosis, Malignant Narcissist, to a T. So did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and so do Kim Jung Un and pukin.
there is literally nothing he can do that will alarm the crazies, but we live in a state of alarm. Steve, what, what, what can we do to be rid of him. If charged by the DOJ, would there be a way to shut him down until all is settled. Someone has to stop the constant onslaught of madness. You call it out like no other, so maybe you have an idea?
While we can no longer be shocked by any overtly anti-Semitic act committed by Trump, it is beyond sick that a man with three Jewish grandchildren would cavort with the likes of West and Feuntes. Let us not forget that the most virulent Nazis among us remain sickened and bothered by the fact that Ivanka declares herself an Orthodox Jew.
Beware. It will all reach a frightening new level should we learn of an impending Kushner divorce.
And a daughter who converted to Judaism, and a Jewish son-in-law. They are silent about father's/grandfather's/FIL's anti-Semitism. I wonder what they say to one another in private.
Nepotism Barbie converted to Judaism in addition to being allegedly Shomer Shabbos (strictly observing the Sabbat) She never challenged antisemitism and or the fact that abortion is legal under Jewish law. Her silence continues to speak volumes.
The silence is damning. Protest. Shun them all. Make it unacceptable to normalize these monsters. “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere....Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.” - Elie Wiesel
"The silence is damning." Yes it is! We must protest! Thank you, Al, for your post today. The Elie Wiesel quote and the 1941 Dorothy Thompson article say it all -such important writings for these times. Thank you Steve Schmidt for The Warning! We must be vigilant and make some noise.
Al Bellenchia …thank you … silence isn’t golden it implies agreement..
What a courageous man Elie Wiesel was and so are you Al you speak truth
To power and you consistently teach
Through referencing important quotes with historical context amazing ! Thank you 🌹
Thank you, Marsha. ✌️
"We must take sides." We must take sides. I wonder who it is that takes sides. Truly.
Those who refuse to speak up are taking the wrong side with their silence.
With a few exceptions, the Republican Party in power. Those who speak up now are focused on one thing, i.e. their political futures. What is disgusting is how a Kevin McCarthy will call out the behavior of Gosar and MTG for appearing with Fuentes at AFPAC (Nick Fuentes who "will push the envelope" for outing Republican bigotry), but remains mute about the Mar-a-Lago meet with the Trump operative present, Karen Giorno, and the anti-Semites Trump, Fuentes and Kanye West. Is Karen Giorno an anti-Semite? Yes, for not objecting to the meet. Is Kevin McCarthy an anti-Semite? Yes, by not repudiating the meet among anti-Semites, because he needs the votes of anti-Semites Gosar and MTG to ascend to power in the House.
Yes, because they are silent, they are complicit, and they ARE anti-Semites. This must be shouted out loud! Their silence is damning!
I read the Thompson essay. It’s brilliant. Read it if you haven’t. It’s so sad what we are seeing. The grifter from Queens holding court with those dangerous men. He must be stopped. He must not get air. Media has to stop giving him air. Thx Steve for the reminder.
The article is as applicable today as it was in 1941: "But Mr. C is not a born Nazi. He is the product of a democracy hypocritically preaching social equality and practicing a carelessly brutal snobbery. He is a sensitive, gifted man who has been humiliated into nihilism." This is so powerful.
I'm so glad you posted those important lines here from "Who goes Nazi?" Thanks.
I am still astonished that those who used to be Repuglicans do not denounce this rampant anti-Semitism. I am feeling increasingly unsafe. So many of my fellow Jews (looking at you David Friedman) still seem to believe that it can't happen here. A shofar needs to be blown to awaken us all to the danger!
It can happen here. It is happening slowly as it did in Germany...turning people one by one against one group or another.....We need to wake up....we need to be very vocal...and not stop. I post ALL this relevant information on my FB still. A close friend said "are you sure you want to do that." I said I am damn sure. I call them out at every opportunity....to help them recognize themselves.
Jews who still support T astonish me more. Any T supporting Jew paying attention would have jumped ship in 2017 after T appointed infamous antisemite Steve Bannon WH chief strategist. T response to "Jews will not replace us" (Charlottesville 2017) was confirmation of his overt antisemitism if there was ever any doubt.
When he descended symbolically into Hell, with all of the paid onlookers clapping, I said, "He is another Hitler". My friends laughed. But he is.
I am fascinated by a comment by, of all people, Steve Bannon, who believes they were let into Thanksgiving Dinner by those wanting to discredit Trump. Quite to the contrary, Trump can now show his true intent.
There is a recent clip showing Fuentes calling for Congress to be disbanded and a Dictator installed. Can imagine this was discussed over dinner.
We have the responsibility to call them out. Loud long and direct. No more clutching of pearls the lessons Trump and his crowd leaned are those from the 1930s. Our role is to call the question to every R-do you refute? No response is affirmation of support
Holy moly, I read the Dorothy Thompson essay. It connected several dots for me in my thoughts about our current events. It also struck me that what she wrote contradicts those folks today who believe that these beliefs and positions are something new that has just spontaneously arisen within the US in the past decade or so. These folks scratch their heads, mumble about, wringing their hands, acting as if there are no known solutions to this “new” dilemma. Or maybe, if I’m being completely honest, the dithering mumbling person is me because while I knew those attitudes and beliefs existed, I naively thought they were part of history, part of Dorothy Thompson’s era but certainly not mine. While as a woman, I’ve directly experienced discrimination, as a straight, white woman, I haven’t been exposed to all of the horrors our current system routinely expresses toward POC and the LGBTQ+ community. I realize I’ve been lucky and and privileged to live in that fantasy world. Over the past few decades, my blinders have come down periodically but I always thought those were isolated incidents not actual products of our current system. When Trump won in 2016, it shook me to the core. Almost 63 million people voted for him! How could they not see him for what he was? How could they ignore his hateful rhetoric? Finally, I fully comprehended- “ it’s a feature not a bug”. Those 63 million people voted for him BECAUSE he was hateful and they were okay with that. In fact they were not only okay with it, they enthusiastically supported it. As the comic strip character Pogo said, “I have seen the enemy, and it is us.” Maybe the one ray of hope or optimism could be just that - it isn’t new. There are solutions. It can be pushed back. It can be suppressed. But because it’s in our DNA, complacency is extremely dangerous. Vigilance is required. It seems that once the generation that directly fought and won the war against fascism dies off, the following generation forgets, or believes that the threat was entirely eliminated and there in lies the danger of loosening the constraints. Because it will always be present within humans. This type of cancer is never cured. The best we can hope for is to knock it back into remission. But we must then remain ever vigilant and protect against the next recurrence.
After reading your brilliant ( as always ) essay this morning reminding us about the silence of all those who will not speak out about these atrocities it dawned on me that I understand Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence” in a brand new way. “Hello darkness” and “creeping visions” indeed.
https://youtu.be/RZYpzXjdtwg ... Sound of Silence Simon and Garfunkel with lyrics
Oddly enough, someone on another letter which I read daily, posted the lyrics on her post. Hearing your interpretation is breath-taking, awful.
Very interesting. It came like an epiphany just today after reading Steve ~ have known and sung that song for years. Prophetic right? It even mentions the prophets in the lyrics
P.S. Just as Art and Sandy made a pledge to help each other at any time of their lives that they were needed, so did Robin Williams and Christopher Reeves (like Art and Sandy, roommates in college). After Reeves became paraplegic following his horrific riding accident, Robin quietly moved in and paid for the millions of dollars of care after Reeves's health insurance ran out. He made sure that Christopher's widow, Dana, and their three children were taken care of. This was done with no publicity. Robing was another truly great, great man.
Wow, amazing! These kinds of stories which we never hear remind us of all the good that is going on in everyday life despite what we are hearing on the news!
Yes. We can hang on, remembering so many beautiful stories of Love.
Out of curiosity, I went back and reread the lyrics. Then I came across an article which told about the inspiration for this song: Art Garfunkel's college roommate was suddenly was blinded in college and went into deep despair. The way Art cared for, encouraged, and financially supported his best friend is truly awesome. I'm so glad that the "darkness" they wrote about has it's origin in the immense compassion of Garfunkel. I had no idea what a truly great man he is.
Thank you for sharing this kdsherpa! Very heartwarming story
We sure can use all of the warmth possible during these painful times. <3
Whew!
I’ve been worried about where America was going since Newt Gingrich. He, DeLay and Rove were not subtle in their message and goals. But because they accompanied their goals with dog whistles and civil language, no one seemed to be understanding their real message and goals...especially Democrats. 🤦🏼♀️ Leaders who shouldn’t have been complacent about where the extremists in the GOP were going, did nothing. Once a full-blown Trump became the GOP nominee, the traditionalists thought THEY could control him and all the deplorables he awakened, just like Von Papen, et. al., thought they could control Hitler. I’ve finally come to the conclusion, unfortunately, that this horror may have been inevitable, especially since the South NEVER evolved from being anti-federal slave owners. They took over the GOP and horror has ensued ever since. It’s disappointing that America had to come to this crisis for good people to wake up. But we have, and the extremists’ full message has been exposed, I’m more hopeful than I was in the early 90’s.
Trump’s 2015 escalator descent was a symbolic harbinger of things to come. The majority of the GOP followed him down. Some were eager sycophants, some spineless cowards. The GOP’s lust for power outweighs any morals, ethics, or fealty to the COTUS. Trump is & always will be a demolition man.
Because DJT has not been held accountable for inciting a brutal attack on our capital and on our democracy, he continues to wreak havoc in our country. This is a glaring problem in our justice system. DJT must be indicted, he must be held accountable, or the message to the GOP and all of the fringe-crazies is that this is all just okay...this is a huge problem and we must protest.
Totally agree Lisa! It is long past due. Makes me very nervous about it ever getting done
The Republican Party is deficit in courage, morals and patriotism. Instead of protecting their county as they swore to do, they protect themselves first, their party second then maybe the country and least of all the people. What an amazing, sad and scary transformation to know no more than one or two republicans may stand up to a person who would burn down the country. He is a racist, antisemitic who has a diminishing following of about 35% of the republican base. That of course is more frightening. And religious right nationalists are the core of that 35% Republican office holders have to wake up and smell the rancid roses. They will continue to lose elections until they rid themselves of Trump and those who follow him. History will certainly not treat him well and all you know in office will not be viewed favorably as well. Time to think about how you want your kids and grandkids to think about you.
But how long, and what must we endure, to finally read that History has not treated him well. That is what concerns me.
I think Trump will be mostly gone by the post 2024 election. MAGA however will remain in some form for a while to come but will diminish as they lose races, which they will. So, I think we will have to live with them for another 6 to 8 years before they are completely defeated. History. Well it will be at least a decade or two before historians look back at this decade. For me, it means I won't be reading the history myself, but my kids will as will their kids and on into the future in the hope that we have learned not to let that happen again.
Your comment makes me feel so good! Thank you for taking the time.
I have read Harper’s (it’s America’s oldest literary magazine) for 40 years. One of my undergrad Profs assigned it - and I’ve been reading it ever since.
But, Steve (and all of us readers) already know you will not get 1 elected Republican to say 1 public thing about any of this. You’ll notice not 1 Elected has even dared to say “He’s a Loser”. In fact, I can guarantee they are planning their self-referential Endorsements right now.
Appreciate the succinct points with back story links! I hope you keep up this style of informative, powerful writing.
The Greeks have a concept ‘deus ex machina’ the timely arrival of God at precisely the 13th hour.
We are proving as citizens of the modern world that we have not learned much in 5000 years, still expecting to be saved, and doing nothing to save ourselves.
This is the whole point of the times we live in, from Nazis to alternate facts to ruckus feral malignant narcissists involved in power plays and burning the house down with us in it--we have the muscle, we just need to be willing to use it to save ourselves.
I would be nice if we had a functioning town Square, I’ve been on many different platforms over the last four weeks. Some have better discourse and a nicer people , functionality, bugs, are a plague leaving a functioning town square yet to be had.
I also think it’s a difficulty that many prominent individuals need to monetize their work (yes, I understand everyone needs to make money and I support that.) so their voice is limited, their engagements on Twitter are taking on a new look of only their monetized feeds, that’s greatly diminishing their voice, and thereby diminishing the town square.
Deus ex machina, indeed.
Based on Michael Cohen’s book where he tells us about DT having file cabinets of dirt on people and DT’s obsession with finding dirt on people… it seems to me, once he was president, his access to dirt was increased. I make up they don’t speak up because he may have dirt on them.
I had not thought of that before. Like nixon's "enemy list". We know that the Orange Sadist ordered a "criminal" (Laurence Tribe) "intensive audit" of Andrew McCabe's and Comey's taxes. I can only imagine what dirt he imagined on repugnicants which shames so many into silence.
That may be. But failure is much worse.
Agreed-it seems to me many people fear facing shame. It’s easier for some to sell their soul.
It seems one must have the capacity to feel shame in order to stop hurting others. DT has been giving many disconnected people an endless master class on shamelessness.
Sociopathic narcissists are incapable of feeling guilt or shame. He fits the diagnosis, Malignant Narcissist, to a T. So did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and so do Kim Jung Un and pukin.
there is literally nothing he can do that will alarm the crazies, but we live in a state of alarm. Steve, what, what, what can we do to be rid of him. If charged by the DOJ, would there be a way to shut him down until all is settled. Someone has to stop the constant onslaught of madness. You call it out like no other, so maybe you have an idea?
While we can no longer be shocked by any overtly anti-Semitic act committed by Trump, it is beyond sick that a man with three Jewish grandchildren would cavort with the likes of West and Feuntes. Let us not forget that the most virulent Nazis among us remain sickened and bothered by the fact that Ivanka declares herself an Orthodox Jew.
Beware. It will all reach a frightening new level should we learn of an impending Kushner divorce.
And a daughter who converted to Judaism, and a Jewish son-in-law. They are silent about father's/grandfather's/FIL's anti-Semitism. I wonder what they say to one another in private.
Nepotism Barbie converted to Judaism in addition to being allegedly Shomer Shabbos (strictly observing the Sabbat) She never challenged antisemitism and or the fact that abortion is legal under Jewish law. Her silence continues to speak volumes.
That daughter is his favored child, too. So deep runs his hate, she's even sacrificial in the end. Whatever necessary, for his ego.