The numbers are in. The evidence is overwhelming. And the silence is deadly. It’s time Democrats started calling this what it is: a decades-long criminal conspiracy to seize power by any means…
In every one of these incidents or actions by corrupt and lying Republicans, the objective has always been to deceive, mislead, or hide from the public damning information. However, even when the truth is publicized and when media bias is temporarily overcome to some extent, the public do not become moved sufficiently to organize and support the truthtellers to fully expose and defeat the scoundrels. Why is that? What is wrong with the American people or what prevents us from becoming agitated enough and active enough to become effective against such corruption and greedy ambition? What makes the people so obtuse, passive, and apathetic? Why is the outrage of a few not more contagious? Many of us have heard these facts before. Why is it so impossible to get the word out to a much larger number of people? Or do people care? Or are they capable of understanding or accepting the reality? There is a piece of the puzzle missing. It's about time we figured that out and looked a bit harder for that one crucial piece.
I will appear presumptuous to claim to know what that missing piece is, and no one seems to be genuinely willing to even contemplate what I have insisted that it is on innumerable occasions on many platforms or in many venues. But the plainly obvious fact is that the ideal of universal education or "mass education", or even achieving some minimal degree of intellectual sophistication, critical thinking capability, common literacy which leads to elevated levels of curiosity and enlightenment, or widespread education as it has traditionally been perceived has completely eluded us. Thom will not admit it or even speak about it. He has nothing but praise for our schools and suggests that anyone who points out the massive deficiencies is trying to privatize or destroy "public education". That is the problem, of course. There can be no such thing as Public education". Let your mind dwell on the term. "Compulsory school attendance". In a free democratic republic. The five-year-old starts out with an awareness that he or she is being compelled to do what until that point was natural, normal, and pleasurable. I refuse to put the words "compulsory" and "education" together. They are antithetical and in direct opposition to each other. Yet, this is what we accept as the norm and what everyone defends and supports and refuses to put a stop to. The result is way less than mediocrity or mere indoctrination. It is anti-intellectualism and mythology. The result is th biggest lie of all. The result is that we have a scary contingent in our midst who have developed a mindset that it is better to be told what to do by a great teacher in the driver's seat rather than to practice democratic principles. We cannot do the hard thing because it is hard, and we are not powerful or intelligent enough. We cannot accept that the narrative we have been told for going on two hundred years is simply wrong and misanthropic.
The Democrats are just as bad as you Tim? I doubt it, they do have their faults, and problems, but Republicans, and people like you, are self absorbed sociopaths with no empathy, and Democrats for all of their failings, do something that self professed Christians don't do, have a social conscience and care about there fellow humans.
You don't see any Republicans, much less Christains, advocating for or demonstrating on behalf of the starving and dying Sudanese, Gazans or Ukrainians,nay you see them cheering for and supporting death and destruction.
It is the Democrats who support and demonstrate for the down trodden, be it a Gazan child, a transgendered person, the poor, the homeless, the disenfranchised, the marginalized,.
No Tim, in fact it is Republicans and Christians that marginalize and disenfranchise people, who let people starve and suffer because they don't belong to their tribe.
And when the get involved, like missionaries, it is with strings attached, they only seek to gain conversions to their tribe.
YOU ARE WRONG: Samaritan's Purse and others are in Sudan! Sergei and Luda -- my friends -- live in western Ukraine and minister daily to the needy!
IT IS HAMAS who is responsible for the tragedy in Gaza and YOU support them!
I issued a challenge not long ago: If you know of anyone who is starving, I will make a phone call and get them food ASAP! It is probably there or nearby.
I am wrong? How many Christians are militating to feed the millions that are starving in Sudan? I see ads on TV all of the time, to buy food for cats and dogs, or to feed children, or this or that cause, but none of them for the starving children of Sudan, or the raped and murdered women of Sudan.
Yeh you got friends all of the world, and are personally connected to everything, a Chinese Wife (doesn't mean you aren't racist by the way), Hispanic Friends (same thing) and Now Ukraine,your are a regular Walter Middy.
Oh no I don't support HAMAS, you are obviously unfamiliar with my stream of comments. I have been accused of being a Zionist, for saying the same thing.
I live in America, and I donate to the local Food Bank,but still I don't know anyone who is starving, so your answer is a non starter.
The voting process is made unnecessarily complicated on purpose by creating so many hoops for people to jump through, making them take time off work to remain in compliance. People shouldn't have to fight for the right to vote, but under this regulatory regime, they have to--and Democrats should be right there to offer help, because this is where the battle is.
Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation, was known for his controversial views on voting, particularly his support for voter suppression. He famously stated in 1980, 0: "I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
What you so rightly describe is the Republican plan. Dems do fight this and help voters. One result is five states have mail-in/drop-off options with a couple of weeks to do research and decide. The result is people talk to each other and help to get to know the issues and candidates. Once you register, you must keep your county informed if you move. They check signatures.
People do not want to face this history. Because we have been thwarted every time we tried, we are now living with this insanity of Trump and his cult. In essence, they built a better mouse trap.
Along the way, keeping the voting machines not connected to the internet was addressed. We pretty much won the battle for paper ballots. What about the tabulation machines used to do the paper counts and to report the counts? Has that process left a door open for hackers?
Palast is simply the best at getting to the truth, and Thom you really know how to condense the history and his facts to open our eyes. Laws, decorum, and morals mean absolutely nothing to the Republicans. Turn on C Span. See for yourself.
I have found that when it finally is evident that so much of the “system” is either so corrupt, stuck in the past, assailed with conflicting opinions, etc., it becomes painfully apparent that we as a species need to look critically at ourselves and our tendencies for preservation of the status quo, even when this stagnation is killing us. Unfortunately, overhaul, the thing that is absolutely necessary, can only seem to happen with time, and a consensus.
Change cannot be about just isolated things, like our education system or protecting our voting system, it’s about the beliefs and attitudes that promote our whole unjust economic system. It’s our attitude toward those we perceive as “different”, fear of survival, and mistrust of each other. Ongoing attitudes based on our deep past as a species that seems daunting and way beyond what one person can inspire to change. However, it must continue to be brought up so that time can do its work.
Dems do want to move onward and upward THOUGHTFULLY. The conservative attitude you describe was bad enough to deal with, these psychos just want to move fast and break things. They also want to break PEOPLE.
Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution:
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Plus “It’s going to be hard for the admin to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and obliterate Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah when Qatar funds the Muslim Brotherhood, harbors HAMAS, and the US just accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar,” Loomer wrote. “The biggest lobby in DC is the Qatar lobby. We are watching an Islamic takeover of our country in real time.”
Qatar has been a significant financial supporter of Hamas, channeling aid to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, for years. Qatar has given amnesty to Hamas political leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, in Doha. It held itself out an a mediator but that is baloney.
Mark Levin, a MAGA radio host and a member of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security advisory board, joined Loomer in criticizing the move. But other usual Qatar critics on the Hill remained quiet, at least for now.
Doug Heye, a GOP strategist, said Republicans would have criticized any Democratic move to accept such a significant gift from Qatar. “The ethical problems with this are so obvious that even some of the most ardent Trump defenders are saying, ‘wait a sec,’” he said.
Bondi worked as a foreign lobbyist for the nation of Qatar, earning $115,000 a month in the role which she held in 2020 and in the run up to the World Cup in 2022. In this role, she lobbied Congress on behalf of Qatari interests. She also worked in a separate lobbying position for the Washington, D.C.-based firm Ballard Partners, where she also lobbied on behalf of Qatari interests and several conglomerates including Amazon.
Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Jared Kushner's private equity firm.
2. From today's Tyranny Tracker.
🔥 In Corruption News
A VIP Seat at Trump’s Crypto Dinner Cost at Least $2 Million
What Happened: The top 220 holders of Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin secured dinner invitations with Trump by spending and holding millions of his $TRUMP memecoin, some spending over $19 million. The top 25 will get VIP access and a White House tour. Some dumped their coins right after qualifying.
Why It Matters: Another blatant pay-to-play scheme, letting anonymous investors, including foreign entities, buy access to Trump while posing a national security risk. Meanwhile, Trump deregulates crypto as he and his family profit.
Source: WIRED
Eric Trump’s American Bitcoin Goes Public in Latest Crypto Move by President’s Family
What Happened: Eric and Donald Trump Jr.’s bitcoin mining company, American Bitcoin, is going public via a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. The Trump sons will retain 98% ownership of the new Nasdaq-listed firm, trading under the ticker “ABTC.”
Why It Matters: This deepens the Trump family’s grip on the U.S. crypto sector. As Eric Trump pushes U.S. bitcoin dominance and Trump deregulates the industry, it raises serious red flags about corruption, self-enrichment, and unchecked conflicts of interest.
Source: CNBC
Foreign Investors May Have Won Access to Trump Gala Through Meme Coin Contest
What Happened: The top 220 holders of Trump’s meme coin secured invitations for a dinner with Trump. Some wallets appear tied to foreign entities, including a Chinese billionaire and Trump ally previously sued by the SEC—a case dropped after Trump took office.
Why It Matters: Trump’s coin is a pay-to-play access scheme. Foreign investors may be buying influence, while Trump’s family stands to profit tens of millions. National security, ethics, and regulatory integrity are all at risk.
Source: ABC News
Elon Musk’s Boring Company in Talks With Government Over Amtrak Project
What Happened: The Federal Railroad Administration is consulting Musk’s Boring Company to potentially take over parts of Amtrak’s $8.5 billion Frederick Douglass Tunnel project.
Why It Matters: Musk’s dual role as Trump adviser and federal contractor poses a major conflict of interest. As he helps gut agencies that oversee his businesses, his companies continue to cash in on federal contracts.
Recent Republican budget reconciliation efforts have faced significant dissension within the party, particularly regarding the extent of spending cuts and the potential impact on popular programs.
Areas of Republican Dissension:
Spending Cuts: A major point of contention lies in the differing targets for spending cuts between the House and Senate.
The House initially aimed for $1.5 trillion in cuts, while the Senate proposed a floor of only $4 billion.
This discrepancy highlights a fundamental divide between fiscal hawks and more moderate Republicans.
Medicaid: Proposed changes to Medicaid, including work requirements and potential benefit reductions, have sparked strong opposition from some Republicans, according to NPR.
A group of House Republicans warned against any cuts to Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.
Tax Cuts: While there's broad support for extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the specifics of how to offset the cost of these extensions have led to disagreements.
Some Republicans prioritize deficit reduction, while others are more focused on maintaining the tax cuts, notes KBKG.
Defense Spending: Disagreements have also emerged regarding the level of defense spending, with some Republicans pushing for increases while others advocate for fiscal restraint.
Procedural Issues: Even the process of passing the budget resolution has faced challenges, with some House Republicans expressing frustration over a lack of transparency and consultation, according to Government Executive httpsorganisations.
Impact of Dissension:
The deep divisions within the Republican party have made it difficult to reach a consensus on a budget reconciliation bill. This has the potential to:
Delay or derail the reconciliation process: Without Republican unity, it may be challenging to pass a bill through both the House and Senate.
Force compromises: To gain enough support, Republican leaders may have to make concessions on certain provisions, potentially weakening the overall impact of the bill.
Undermine public confidence: The inability to agree on a budget can damage the party's reputation for fiscal responsibility.
The ongoing negotiations and compromises will determine the final shape of the Republican budget reconciliation bill.
This is a window of opportunity. If they can't get a budget, the 2017 tax cuts expire December 31, 2025.
Qatar is Iran's window to the world, they sponsored and shielded and still do HAMAS and Hezbollah.
The majority of Qatar's population are virtually enslaved immigrants.,The rulers are putatively Sunni,and a handful of them sit atop a mountain of impoverished. If you aren't driving a gold plated Mercedes you are poor.
All driven by the quarterly P&E report. Just like now. Wall Street, corporations know that global climate change is heating up the Earth. There response is not to do something to remediate the problem, but to invest in HVAC, to capitalize on disaster, make money out of suffering.
They don't think far enough ahead, except to build luxury survival bunkers(for which they need more billions). And it isn't just capitalists that will sell the rope to hang themselves, Tom, Dick and Harriet will as well, that they can get enough money to buy the food,clothing shelter, SUV Playstation 6, iPhone 16 that they think they need.
These billionaires, CEO's, board of directors don't even think of the disaster and suffering they cause, they could care less about anything except the next quarterly P&E, which affects their pocketbook, hence social status and power.
To rise to the top in society, one truly has to be a psychopath, for to get there you have to crawl over bodies.
And these are our, or most of our, role models, it is they that the masses celebrate, glorify and seek so hard to emulate. Go to college, get an MBA and maybe you will be the next Jamie Dimon,or Pete Peterson or Jerome Powell or Janet Yellen.
While I completely agree about the Republicans, it is not a question of "messaging" or Democrats not calling out Trump. That's literally all they do. Cory Booker spent a whole day doing it. The problem that you refuse to acknowledge in your partisan bid for subscribers and listeners is that Democrats have done just as much rigging, and in the elections since 2016 likely more. So they have no answer because they subvert democracy just as much as Republicans do. Add to that their Zionist propaganda justifying genocide, warmongering, Islamaphobia, deregulation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, supporession of free speech, support for militarized politicing and ICE (until Trump gets in office) and embrace of Dick and Liz Cheney and you have the merging of two political mafias battling over donor dollars. Democrats will not save us. We need a solidarity movement of the working class, mass strikes, and a rebellion that is more than people marching through the streets on a Saturday (although it's a good thing to have people in the streets it cannot be a the convenience of the establishment). If you think for a minute Thom that Republicans are more subversive to democracy than Democrats, or more power hungry, then you have no chance of stopping the decay of the American empire. https://barryjkaufmando.substack.com/p/the-un-democratic-party-and-their
I agree that the whole system is fucked. As much as I liked Kennedy, he was also an illegitimate president thanks to Mayor Daley in Chicago. We need to have a national strike that brings everything to a grinding halt. Hurting the power brokers (on both sides) financially is the only way to get their compliance.
The story that Daley stole the election for Kennedy has been debunked a number of times. Possibly he swung Illinois, though there is no definitive proof of that, but even so it wouldn't have changed the final electoral totals enough for Nixon to win. See https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/12/16/22176920/jfk-stolen-1960-election-chicago-illinois I agree though that the Democrats have cheated, like LBJ's early senatorial "win". But to my mind the real problem with them is that they have no clear message beyond "Trump bad". And the money is so big maybe the people at the top really don't care if they win or not since they stay in power. That's very cynical but see https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-much-of-the-harris-campaign-was-a-scam
What we really need is a Socialist party with a solid agenda that reaches the people who feel they were left behind and hence voted for a pathological liar who promised they weren't forgotten. Separating out the smoke and mirrors of a "cultural war" from the genuine "class war" issues could be part of that. Now given that too many people seem to think that Socialism=Marxism, the insanity of Citizens United and the consolidation of the media how is it possible to get such a message out there, and make it stick?
I agree with you doc, but the culture war is embedded in the American psyche because of race,, religion and patriarchal insecurity.
Gen Y and Z males are living in their mothers basement, playing Warcraft or some such, and they and their mothers are told to blame, DEI.
That is why Trump has focused on expunging any mention of blacks, women, gays, history from text books, libraries, schools.. and it started with Rhonda Santis.
It has never been about the price of eggs. Inflation is going up,and will go higher, but even as the polls show disappointment with policies, the support of Trump has not waverred.
I voted for Nixon in 1960, because my step father was a friend of Grace Kelley's father,John B Kelley, and he was a member of the Irish mafia, and I heard stories around the dinner table of the philandering horn dog of a congressman named John Kennedy
Barry if you spent your energy criticizing and kvetching about Putin's threat to Europe, Democracy and the world, instead of Zionists and Israel, you might have some credibility, but as is you come off as a troll for Putin. It is quite obvious that you don't see him as the threat that he is, that he has twice invaded and unarmed neighbor (Ukraine) he did the same thing to Chechnya, but found a thug that would kiss his ass. The man is a mass murderer, a war criminal, he purposefully wages war on children and civilians as policy to terrorize the Ukrainians into submission. He murders and imprions dissenters. Oppose him and you fall out of windows, are poisoned or die in airplane "accidents" He downed a whole airplane and all of its passengers just to get to one person, and he has done it twice.
Yet you have singular focus on the Democrats and Israel.
The Democrats are not in power
Here is my off the cuff assessment of you. You are an old unrehabbed Marxist, a 21st Century Tankie, that has an affection for Russia and Putin as heir to the USSR (and he is, he is is a Stalinist. And in that I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, other wise you are Putin Troll.
Strange is that you constantly claim that the Democrats are actually more of a threat to Democracy than the Republicans. Now why would that be.
“They say in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king, well in the land of the skunk the man with half a nose is king!”- Chris Farley -("Jimmy" from the Dirty Work movie)
I remember each and every one of these frauds. Could this be one reason we have now elected the most corrupt, ill-informed, greedy,... (add your own adjective here) president of them all? One shudders to think who will be the Republican nominee after Trump.
In retrospect it really is shocking to see how the GOP got us to Trump. I didn’t leave it until 2008 though I realized by 2003 that we were being lied to by G.W. Bush, it took seeing those lies in person and to come home to the xenophobic GOP attacks of Barack Obama to get me to leave.
Thank you for encapsulating this trail of maleficence back to where it began. I cannot believe that for all of those years that I closed my eyes to their traitorous and criminal actions at home and abroad.
The problem is that the ignorati so carefully created by the morbidly rich in their assaults on public education and journalists neither know nor care. They are consumed by indignation at their plight, intent on blaming anyone but themselves for it, basking in the glow of the attacks on perceived elites by the Mump maladministration, blind to the mass hara kiri they are committing by supporting the felon in chief and his puppet masters and minions. Maybe a new nation or group of nations can pick up the torch of freedom and humanity this country has not merely dropped but thrown away. This country, as I once knew it in its aspirations at least, is gone, and I believe irretrievably so. Tragic and humiliating at the same time, but a strong indicator of the fatal flaws in our species. We abhor what is good. We embrace darkness and ugliness and evil. We may pay the ultimate price for that sooner than we realize. Because history suggests that our better natures flower only briefly, while our reptile brains inevitably reassert themselves, as they are doing today around the world.
Mr. Shults, I agree with what you said, until you say "We abhor what is good." This seems to imply that abhorrence of the good is all we are capable of. This is not how Humans are built. There are as many morally correct, humane acts in this world as there are morally repulsive acts. It is the repulsive acts which make the headlines and titillate or outrage the public.
And I’ve lived through all of this! Reading this, I’m sickened by the evil demonstrated on the part of the Republican Party. Will we ever be free of this!? Thank you Thom for shining the light in the dark places.
Love the recitation of crimes committed to put GOP candidates into the Presidency. However, you've missed several very important ones. First, G. W. Bush's election didn't just occur because of the stopped vote count. As documented in a book ("Stolen Future") by Steven Singular some of the punch card ballots were apparently designed to fail. And, because ballots have to be specific to the races they are trying to document (different for each precinct) manufacturers knew the precise precinct each ballot was headed to. With this knowledge sending punch cards that were insufficiently scored to be properly punched out to heavily Democratic precincts was easy. In the days just following the election Singular sold his story to a major media company who then buried it.
Further, 9/11 wasn't just a happy accident that saved George, Dick, and Rummy from George's failing popularity in his first year as President. It was an inside job. The proof of that is visible on all the videos of the collapsing buildings of the World Trade Center on 9/11. These first three steel-superstructure high-rises to ever (in the over 100 years of building this kind of building) supposedly collapse from fires, all collapse symmetrically and at (or very near in the case of the Twin Towers) free fall acceleration. Those are not characteristics of building destructions caused by fire, they are prima facia evidence of controlled demolition.
So, GOP crimes against Americans is even worse that the picture you've painted. Finally, I would note that a group call Election Truth Alliance is already examining 2024 voting in swing states and has published statistical anomalies they have discovered in election data in Pennsylvania that is highly suggestive of electronic election fraud. By the way, the evidence of electronic election fraud may very well be easily proven by recounts of a few critical counties in swing states with hand-marked paper ballot voting.
What is a Qanon freak doing posting on Thom's substack?
This bullshit about the fall of the towers has been thoroughly debunked by structural engineers, but it gets no where with true believers, the more it is debunked they more they entrench
9/11 was not an inside job, though in my opinion, Bush knew that something big was coming that day, and that they could use the event to their benefit, but they didn't know what, when and to what degree.
He made sure he was in Florida when it happened.
And Yes the Saudis and bin Laden family were friends and patrons of Bush, the bin Ladens even financed his purchase of the Rangers.
But it was not an inside job.
I've seen the "documentary" Loose Change, and it is full of fantasy. By perpetuating this conspiracy theory you are actually doing the real perps a favor, it is called deflection.
You are deflecting any serious investigation away from the real perps, to an easily disproved and thus irrational conspiracy theory.
It is bad enough that Bush, et al knew this was coming, but hauling shit like "loose change" is a red herring.
Yep, expected response. I gather you are another of the conspiracy theorist, that posit the towers were rigged to collapse.
Here is the situation. Almost impossible to convert a Muslim to Christianity even harder to Judaism.
A believer is a believer, a cultist, and will not be dissuaded they come armed with statements and arguments such as yours.
It is a waste of one's time trying to have a rational discussion with a true believe, Eric Hoffer wrote a a book about it. So why bother, dismiss and press on.
As regards you personal opinion of me. I don't give a shit, learned that lesson the hard way when I was 12, and was conned into smoking.
Sorry, Bill, the physical evidence is very visible to anyone who has looked at videos of the collapsing buildings of the World Trade Center. Forgetting that no steel-superstructure building has ever collapsed due to fire (the official reasons for all three collapses), consider the odds of three tall buildings collapsing perfectly symmetrically all the way to the ground. Every randomly broken support had to break at exactly the right time and in the right direction. Can't happen.
And, even though NIST had to admit the free fall of Building Seven they made no effort to explain how that defiance of the laws of nature could happen. Free fall (and symmetry of collapse) of a steel building could only happen with explosives. So, plenty of very visible evidence (although lots of nothing-to-see-here-move-along propaganda too), but no actual explanations.
Hope you are having success with your battle with cancer. Obviously, you have plenty of fight left in you!
Mr. Farrar the 911 buildings were undoubtedly demolished by controlled explosions. Whether or not it was an "inside job" is another story altogether. It is likely that Bush did not want the public to realize how incompetent or unwilling his administration was at protecting the public. But this does not constitute an "inside job." It constitutes incompetence or treason.
And while we are on the topic; how does one explain the straight down collapse of building number 7? No airplanes hit that building. Did the CIA, or other intelligence agency, see a great opportunity to destroy dangerous [to them] revealing documents? Building 7 was a storage location for security documents. Or is building number 7 just another example of incompetence on the part of the Bush people? Their incompetence was their failure to discover that the buildings had been wired to blow down by some foreign actor connected to Bin Laden and/or Saudi Arabia. Bush perhaps simply turned a blind eye. After all, his family was doing millions of dollars of business with the Saudis.
As for your claim that the demolition claim has been debunked. I remember an "expert," a physicist who claimed on national television that it was possible for John Kennedy's head to be hit by a bullet arriving from behind him, yet his head would move TOWARD the bullet, not AWAY from it. And claim that a fragment of Kennedy's head could land on the road BEHIND the car, not in front of the president's body. There are always some ''experts" willing to prostitute themselves for money or approval of the powerful.
There is also the failure of the camera footage of the Pentagon parking lot to display an airliner striking the building. Something obviously struck the building. But it was not an airliner as was claimed. Why the attempt at deception?
From time to time terrible, harmful events occur which are so public that the national political leaders cannot deny that those events actually happened. There is no way the leaders can hide the event. The public all saw it. If that event can also, in any way impugn the political leaders, cast them in a bad light; they will do what George Orwell describes. They will tell the public: "Do not trust your own eyes. Follow the party line." We have witnessed this more than once in modern America. Mr. Elliott has been saying that many of our problems with authoritarianism can be attributed to our faulty education system, our "schools." Perhaps there is an element of truth to his claims. We do not trust ourselves. But we bow to the authorities.
Harry Truman began it all with his undeclared war on the Korean people. We have never looked back since then.
You disappoint me Gerald. You really do. I know that we disagree but I didn't think that you fell into the muck.
Let's talk about a controlled demolition. Do you have any idea what it takes to prep a building for a controlled demolition? To do it without anyone ,knowing. It is impossible
There was the collapse of the steel girders. Loose Change and others made much of that. Well it wasn't just jet fuel burning, but the furnishings, carpets desks and of course the kinetic energy of the impact.
Building 7 of the World Trade Center (WTC 7) collapsed on September 11, 2001, due to structural failures initiated by uncontrolled fires.
Here's a breakdown of the key factors that led to the collapse:
1. Debris Damage and Fires:
Falling debris from the collapsing WTC 1 (North Tower) struck WTC 7, causing structural damage and igniting fires on several lower floors.
The fires burned uncontrolled for hours, weakening the steel structure.
The building's sprinkler system, crucial for fire suppression, failed due to the loss of city water supply, further exacerbating the fire's spread and intensity.
2. Structural Failure:
Thermal Expansion: The intense heat from the fires caused steel floor beams and girders to expand, putting stress on the connections to supporting columns.
Girder Walk-off: A critical girder on Floor 13, supporting long floor spans on the east side, was pushed off its connection to Column 79 due to thermal expansion and fire-induced damage.
Column 79 Failure: The loss of the girder connection and subsequent floor collapses weakened Column 79, leaving it insufficiently supported and causing it to buckle.
Progressive Collapse: The buckling of Column 79 initiated a progressive collapse, where the failure of one structural element triggered a chain reaction of failures in adjacent columns and floors.
Global Collapse: The cascading failures led to the eventual collapse of the entire building, as the core columns and then the perimeter columns succumbed to the increasing loads and weakening from the fires.
In essence, the collapse of WTC 7 was a complex interplay of debris damage, uncontrolled fires, thermal expansion of steel members, and subsequent
progressive structural failure, culminating in the total collapse of the building.
If you want to see a conspiracy, you will see it and not be dissuaded anymore than a Christian can be dissuaded from their beliefs or a Marxist or Muslim from their beliefs.
You do a disservice though, you refocus attention from the important to the unprovable and frankly debunked and destroyed your own credibility in the meanwhile.
It is my opinion, that Bush knew that something was coming, but not exactly what, where and how deadly.
In the same way, Netanyahu knew all about Oct 7th, and saw an opportunity to use it for his purposes, he just didn't know the breadth and scope.
Part of my opinion is based on the testimony of female guards in the Gaza watch tower, all of them were female, and they replaced males who left taking the weapons with them, leaving them unarmed.
Mr. Farrar, you have demonstrated once again how you get so caught up with unimportant, irrelevant details that you do not see the forest for the trees. I too viewed those highly detailed diagrams about girders collapsing onto one another. An important detail left out of that hypothetical reconstruction of collapse, was the all important topic of temperature. Neither jet fuel nor anything else in those buildings can burn hot enough
at standard temperature and pressure [STP] to structurally damage steel. Furthermore there are many examples of sky scrapers in many parts of the world which burned continuously for weeks, without collapsing. The old Empire State building was hit at speed by a WWll bomber. But he building did not fall and the damage was repaired in a few weeks. Jet fuel burning in air barely reaches 900 degrees while the melting point of steel is about 1600 or 1800 degrees higher. Structural engineering professors at my school scoffed at the notion that an open fire could destroy a steel braced building. Hundreds of American architectural engineers signed a joint letter saying the same thing. And sent the letter to the 911 commission. They ignored that letter. My colleagues and I used the commission's report in our lectures for while. We also conducted public seminars on the whole topic.
As for building 7, I distinctly remember the holder of the lease on the buildings, Larry Weinstein, an Israeli saying immediately after the collapse, that he "decided to pull it on building number 7," in other words he decided to blow it down. What does that mean?
Where is the picture of the huge airliner hitting the pentagon? The military agreed to release only an expurgated video of the Pentagon parking lot. What was expurgated? Why?
Perhaps you are a beautiful example of the schooled but not educated American that Mr. Elliott talks about. You see but do not believe your own eyes. Instead you go with the Party Line. Your head is in Orwell's 1984. You are still the obedient infantryman you were when you were twenty. You say you were all for the Vietnam war until you came home and lived in the Bay area where all the young people around you were opposed to the war. So you went along with them and agreed that the war was a mistake. You did not have the courage to maintain your conviction that the war was OK.
Today you are a bitter old man full of anger and hatred. You saw nothing wrong with Biden sending weapons to those Zionist Fascists in Israel so they could commit genocide against the Palestinians. Your body is on an island in the Sound. But your head is still in VietNam.
You did it again Gerald. What is your problem? And you do have one. I'm purposefully getting personal, because you did, and you inevitably always do, indicating that you have a problem, because something I have said has dug into your sense of self.
You commenced your comment with"Mr. Farrar, you have demonstrated once again how you get so caught up with unimportant, irrelevant details that you do not see the forest for the trees." Rather than deal with the issue the situation, you go on the offense and make it personal, and in so doing assume the role of a parent talking to a child.
Ever hear of transactional analysis, try it, try adult to adult, not parent to child, when the correspondent is an adult.
Needless to say I see no need to read the rest of your diatribe, most certainly pseudo scientific rationalizations.
It's likely that attack scenario was presented correctly---the terrorists tried before. That may have led to fail-safe measures in those buildings, a means to pull them down. IMHO they fell because of that system.
It was a botched evacuation. The powers that be would NEVER admit it. But in one way they did; they paid the victims.
Cold warrior here that studied and saw terrorism. Obama got the right guy. Not sure he got the whole story. Although, he and W are friends now. Wonder if this secret and others has bound them.
All in all, Richard Clarke told the truth, hell he tried to tell them BEFORE it happened. Terrorists caused this and so much more. W loved the Saudis and was asleep at the wheel by CHOICE. Then Afghanistan, Iraq, and so many lives lost. Bush and Cheney better hope there isn't a God.
Brilliant stuff Thom. I never fully realised the extent of GOP voter rigging and for how long it has been going on! It begs the question - how has this been allowed to happen. I am no expert but GOP have always had more money behind them to create the situations.
Am I the only boomer who feels that presidential elections have always been a matter of selecting the lesser of two marginal candidates?
Voter rolls hanky-panky risks losing votes on both sides. But voters, in most cases, enable the fraud themselves by not being conscientious about registering and re-registering. I had a mail-in vote rejected several years back because somebody asserted that my signature was a bad match. But I always mail in early. So when notified, I resubmitted with a fresh signature, and my vote counted anyway. People who wait till the last minute to mail in are more vulnerable to losing their vote over a challenge.
In my view, it is the weakness of candidates that enables tinkering with outcomes. If there is a clear winner, then it is very hard to cheat at the last minute.
In every one of these incidents or actions by corrupt and lying Republicans, the objective has always been to deceive, mislead, or hide from the public damning information. However, even when the truth is publicized and when media bias is temporarily overcome to some extent, the public do not become moved sufficiently to organize and support the truthtellers to fully expose and defeat the scoundrels. Why is that? What is wrong with the American people or what prevents us from becoming agitated enough and active enough to become effective against such corruption and greedy ambition? What makes the people so obtuse, passive, and apathetic? Why is the outrage of a few not more contagious? Many of us have heard these facts before. Why is it so impossible to get the word out to a much larger number of people? Or do people care? Or are they capable of understanding or accepting the reality? There is a piece of the puzzle missing. It's about time we figured that out and looked a bit harder for that one crucial piece.
Very well said! I wonder all those things too. The task seems so overwhelming 😥
Exactly! What is the missing piece of the puzzle?
I will appear presumptuous to claim to know what that missing piece is, and no one seems to be genuinely willing to even contemplate what I have insisted that it is on innumerable occasions on many platforms or in many venues. But the plainly obvious fact is that the ideal of universal education or "mass education", or even achieving some minimal degree of intellectual sophistication, critical thinking capability, common literacy which leads to elevated levels of curiosity and enlightenment, or widespread education as it has traditionally been perceived has completely eluded us. Thom will not admit it or even speak about it. He has nothing but praise for our schools and suggests that anyone who points out the massive deficiencies is trying to privatize or destroy "public education". That is the problem, of course. There can be no such thing as Public education". Let your mind dwell on the term. "Compulsory school attendance". In a free democratic republic. The five-year-old starts out with an awareness that he or she is being compelled to do what until that point was natural, normal, and pleasurable. I refuse to put the words "compulsory" and "education" together. They are antithetical and in direct opposition to each other. Yet, this is what we accept as the norm and what everyone defends and supports and refuses to put a stop to. The result is way less than mediocrity or mere indoctrination. It is anti-intellectualism and mythology. The result is th biggest lie of all. The result is that we have a scary contingent in our midst who have developed a mindset that it is better to be told what to do by a great teacher in the driver's seat rather than to practice democratic principles. We cannot do the hard thing because it is hard, and we are not powerful or intelligent enough. We cannot accept that the narrative we have been told for going on two hundred years is simply wrong and misanthropic.
The Democrats are just as bad!
The Democrats are just as bad as you Tim? I doubt it, they do have their faults, and problems, but Republicans, and people like you, are self absorbed sociopaths with no empathy, and Democrats for all of their failings, do something that self professed Christians don't do, have a social conscience and care about there fellow humans.
You don't see any Republicans, much less Christains, advocating for or demonstrating on behalf of the starving and dying Sudanese, Gazans or Ukrainians,nay you see them cheering for and supporting death and destruction.
It is the Democrats who support and demonstrate for the down trodden, be it a Gazan child, a transgendered person, the poor, the homeless, the disenfranchised, the marginalized,.
No Tim, in fact it is Republicans and Christians that marginalize and disenfranchise people, who let people starve and suffer because they don't belong to their tribe.
And when the get involved, like missionaries, it is with strings attached, they only seek to gain conversions to their tribe.
YOU ARE WRONG: Samaritan's Purse and others are in Sudan! Sergei and Luda -- my friends -- live in western Ukraine and minister daily to the needy!
IT IS HAMAS who is responsible for the tragedy in Gaza and YOU support them!
I issued a challenge not long ago: If you know of anyone who is starving, I will make a phone call and get them food ASAP! It is probably there or nearby.
I am wrong? How many Christians are militating to feed the millions that are starving in Sudan? I see ads on TV all of the time, to buy food for cats and dogs, or to feed children, or this or that cause, but none of them for the starving children of Sudan, or the raped and murdered women of Sudan.
Yeh you got friends all of the world, and are personally connected to everything, a Chinese Wife (doesn't mean you aren't racist by the way), Hispanic Friends (same thing) and Now Ukraine,your are a regular Walter Middy.
Oh no I don't support HAMAS, you are obviously unfamiliar with my stream of comments. I have been accused of being a Zionist, for saying the same thing.
I live in America, and I donate to the local Food Bank,but still I don't know anyone who is starving, so your answer is a non starter.
The voting process is made unnecessarily complicated on purpose by creating so many hoops for people to jump through, making them take time off work to remain in compliance. People shouldn't have to fight for the right to vote, but under this regulatory regime, they have to--and Democrats should be right there to offer help, because this is where the battle is.
There are 22 countries where voting is mandatory https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/22-countries-voting-mandatory
On the other hand: AI Overview
Learn more
Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation, was known for his controversial views on voting, particularly his support for voter suppression. He famously stated in 1980, 0: "I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
What you so rightly describe is the Republican plan. Dems do fight this and help voters. One result is five states have mail-in/drop-off options with a couple of weeks to do research and decide. The result is people talk to each other and help to get to know the issues and candidates. Once you register, you must keep your county informed if you move. They check signatures.
According to Der Fuhrer, nevermore.
The psychopath(s) that cannot shut-up. He never quite explained that, not that you could believe it if he did.
People do not want to face this history. Because we have been thwarted every time we tried, we are now living with this insanity of Trump and his cult. In essence, they built a better mouse trap.
Along the way, keeping the voting machines not connected to the internet was addressed. We pretty much won the battle for paper ballots. What about the tabulation machines used to do the paper counts and to report the counts? Has that process left a door open for hackers?
Palast is simply the best at getting to the truth, and Thom you really know how to condense the history and his facts to open our eyes. Laws, decorum, and morals mean absolutely nothing to the Republicans. Turn on C Span. See for yourself.
https://youtu.be/6G8fu50VRXo?si=CBtgQdCjwwIFaxPh
Thanks Mary Pat. This is very important to follow, and support. I believe he’s onto something.
A really well done piece, Thom, and extremely important. Thanks for writing it.
I have found that when it finally is evident that so much of the “system” is either so corrupt, stuck in the past, assailed with conflicting opinions, etc., it becomes painfully apparent that we as a species need to look critically at ourselves and our tendencies for preservation of the status quo, even when this stagnation is killing us. Unfortunately, overhaul, the thing that is absolutely necessary, can only seem to happen with time, and a consensus.
Change cannot be about just isolated things, like our education system or protecting our voting system, it’s about the beliefs and attitudes that promote our whole unjust economic system. It’s our attitude toward those we perceive as “different”, fear of survival, and mistrust of each other. Ongoing attitudes based on our deep past as a species that seems daunting and way beyond what one person can inspire to change. However, it must continue to be brought up so that time can do its work.
Dems do want to move onward and upward THOUGHTFULLY. The conservative attitude you describe was bad enough to deal with, these psychos just want to move fast and break things. They also want to break PEOPLE.
Oh, we got the attitude! See you in the streets.
Water under the dam.
What can we do? We don't control any of the 3 branches.
Ans. The Jerry Weiss scenario. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
1. I never thought I'd ever agree with Laura Loomer, but she called out Trump on the "gift."
Laura Loomer: Qatari jet gift a ‘stain’ on Trump presidency. https://thehill.com/homenews/5295240-laura-loomer-criticizes-trump-qatari-gift/
Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution:
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Plus “It’s going to be hard for the admin to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and obliterate Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah when Qatar funds the Muslim Brotherhood, harbors HAMAS, and the US just accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar,” Loomer wrote. “The biggest lobby in DC is the Qatar lobby. We are watching an Islamic takeover of our country in real time.”
Qatar has been a significant financial supporter of Hamas, channeling aid to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, for years. Qatar has given amnesty to Hamas political leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, in Doha. It held itself out an a mediator but that is baloney.
Also implicated is Pam Bondi. Pam Bondi's Qatar Links Under Scrutiny Over Trump's Luxury Plane Gift https://www.newsweek.com/pam-bondi-qatar-links-under-scrutiny-over-trump-luxury-plane-gift-2070774
Mark Levin, a MAGA radio host and a member of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security advisory board, joined Loomer in criticizing the move. But other usual Qatar critics on the Hill remained quiet, at least for now.
Doug Heye, a GOP strategist, said Republicans would have criticized any Democratic move to accept such a significant gift from Qatar. “The ethical problems with this are so obvious that even some of the most ardent Trump defenders are saying, ‘wait a sec,’” he said.
Bondi worked as a foreign lobbyist for the nation of Qatar, earning $115,000 a month in the role which she held in 2020 and in the run up to the World Cup in 2022. In this role, she lobbied Congress on behalf of Qatari interests. She also worked in a separate lobbying position for the Washington, D.C.-based firm Ballard Partners, where she also lobbied on behalf of Qatari interests and several conglomerates including Amazon.
Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Jared Kushner's private equity firm.
2. From today's Tyranny Tracker.
🔥 In Corruption News
A VIP Seat at Trump’s Crypto Dinner Cost at Least $2 Million
What Happened: The top 220 holders of Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin secured dinner invitations with Trump by spending and holding millions of his $TRUMP memecoin, some spending over $19 million. The top 25 will get VIP access and a White House tour. Some dumped their coins right after qualifying.
Why It Matters: Another blatant pay-to-play scheme, letting anonymous investors, including foreign entities, buy access to Trump while posing a national security risk. Meanwhile, Trump deregulates crypto as he and his family profit.
Source: WIRED
Eric Trump’s American Bitcoin Goes Public in Latest Crypto Move by President’s Family
What Happened: Eric and Donald Trump Jr.’s bitcoin mining company, American Bitcoin, is going public via a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. The Trump sons will retain 98% ownership of the new Nasdaq-listed firm, trading under the ticker “ABTC.”
Why It Matters: This deepens the Trump family’s grip on the U.S. crypto sector. As Eric Trump pushes U.S. bitcoin dominance and Trump deregulates the industry, it raises serious red flags about corruption, self-enrichment, and unchecked conflicts of interest.
Source: CNBC
Foreign Investors May Have Won Access to Trump Gala Through Meme Coin Contest
What Happened: The top 220 holders of Trump’s meme coin secured invitations for a dinner with Trump. Some wallets appear tied to foreign entities, including a Chinese billionaire and Trump ally previously sued by the SEC—a case dropped after Trump took office.
Why It Matters: Trump’s coin is a pay-to-play access scheme. Foreign investors may be buying influence, while Trump’s family stands to profit tens of millions. National security, ethics, and regulatory integrity are all at risk.
Source: ABC News
Elon Musk’s Boring Company in Talks With Government Over Amtrak Project
What Happened: The Federal Railroad Administration is consulting Musk’s Boring Company to potentially take over parts of Amtrak’s $8.5 billion Frederick Douglass Tunnel project.
Why It Matters: Musk’s dual role as Trump adviser and federal contractor poses a major conflict of interest. As he helps gut agencies that oversee his businesses, his companies continue to cash in on federal contracts.
Source: New York Times
From AI today
Recent Republican budget reconciliation efforts have faced significant dissension within the party, particularly regarding the extent of spending cuts and the potential impact on popular programs.
Areas of Republican Dissension:
Spending Cuts: A major point of contention lies in the differing targets for spending cuts between the House and Senate.
The House initially aimed for $1.5 trillion in cuts, while the Senate proposed a floor of only $4 billion.
This discrepancy highlights a fundamental divide between fiscal hawks and more moderate Republicans.
Medicaid: Proposed changes to Medicaid, including work requirements and potential benefit reductions, have sparked strong opposition from some Republicans, according to NPR.
A group of House Republicans warned against any cuts to Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.
Tax Cuts: While there's broad support for extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the specifics of how to offset the cost of these extensions have led to disagreements.
Some Republicans prioritize deficit reduction, while others are more focused on maintaining the tax cuts, notes KBKG.
Defense Spending: Disagreements have also emerged regarding the level of defense spending, with some Republicans pushing for increases while others advocate for fiscal restraint.
Procedural Issues: Even the process of passing the budget resolution has faced challenges, with some House Republicans expressing frustration over a lack of transparency and consultation, according to Government Executive httpsorganisations.
Impact of Dissension:
The deep divisions within the Republican party have made it difficult to reach a consensus on a budget reconciliation bill. This has the potential to:
Delay or derail the reconciliation process: Without Republican unity, it may be challenging to pass a bill through both the House and Senate.
Force compromises: To gain enough support, Republican leaders may have to make concessions on certain provisions, potentially weakening the overall impact of the bill.
Undermine public confidence: The inability to agree on a budget can damage the party's reputation for fiscal responsibility.
The ongoing negotiations and compromises will determine the final shape of the Republican budget reconciliation bill.
This is a window of opportunity. If they can't get a budget, the 2017 tax cuts expire December 31, 2025.
Hope springs eternal.
Thanks for giving us the highlights of what’s going on!
A brief history of Trump and Qatar https://gregolear.substack.com/p/dirty-riyals-a-brief-history-of-trumpqatar, the Kushners play a big role here too.
Qatar is Iran's window to the world, they sponsored and shielded and still do HAMAS and Hezbollah.
The majority of Qatar's population are virtually enslaved immigrants.,The rulers are putatively Sunni,and a handful of them sit atop a mountain of impoverished. If you aren't driving a gold plated Mercedes you are poor.
All driven by the quarterly P&E report. Just like now. Wall Street, corporations know that global climate change is heating up the Earth. There response is not to do something to remediate the problem, but to invest in HVAC, to capitalize on disaster, make money out of suffering.
They don't think far enough ahead, except to build luxury survival bunkers(for which they need more billions). And it isn't just capitalists that will sell the rope to hang themselves, Tom, Dick and Harriet will as well, that they can get enough money to buy the food,clothing shelter, SUV Playstation 6, iPhone 16 that they think they need.
These billionaires, CEO's, board of directors don't even think of the disaster and suffering they cause, they could care less about anything except the next quarterly P&E, which affects their pocketbook, hence social status and power.
To rise to the top in society, one truly has to be a psychopath, for to get there you have to crawl over bodies.
And these are our, or most of our, role models, it is they that the masses celebrate, glorify and seek so hard to emulate. Go to college, get an MBA and maybe you will be the next Jamie Dimon,or Pete Peterson or Jerome Powell or Janet Yellen.
While I completely agree about the Republicans, it is not a question of "messaging" or Democrats not calling out Trump. That's literally all they do. Cory Booker spent a whole day doing it. The problem that you refuse to acknowledge in your partisan bid for subscribers and listeners is that Democrats have done just as much rigging, and in the elections since 2016 likely more. So they have no answer because they subvert democracy just as much as Republicans do. Add to that their Zionist propaganda justifying genocide, warmongering, Islamaphobia, deregulation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, supporession of free speech, support for militarized politicing and ICE (until Trump gets in office) and embrace of Dick and Liz Cheney and you have the merging of two political mafias battling over donor dollars. Democrats will not save us. We need a solidarity movement of the working class, mass strikes, and a rebellion that is more than people marching through the streets on a Saturday (although it's a good thing to have people in the streets it cannot be a the convenience of the establishment). If you think for a minute Thom that Republicans are more subversive to democracy than Democrats, or more power hungry, then you have no chance of stopping the decay of the American empire. https://barryjkaufmando.substack.com/p/the-un-democratic-party-and-their
I agree that the whole system is fucked. As much as I liked Kennedy, he was also an illegitimate president thanks to Mayor Daley in Chicago. We need to have a national strike that brings everything to a grinding halt. Hurting the power brokers (on both sides) financially is the only way to get their compliance.
The story that Daley stole the election for Kennedy has been debunked a number of times. Possibly he swung Illinois, though there is no definitive proof of that, but even so it wouldn't have changed the final electoral totals enough for Nixon to win. See https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/12/16/22176920/jfk-stolen-1960-election-chicago-illinois I agree though that the Democrats have cheated, like LBJ's early senatorial "win". But to my mind the real problem with them is that they have no clear message beyond "Trump bad". And the money is so big maybe the people at the top really don't care if they win or not since they stay in power. That's very cynical but see https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-much-of-the-harris-campaign-was-a-scam
What we really need is a Socialist party with a solid agenda that reaches the people who feel they were left behind and hence voted for a pathological liar who promised they weren't forgotten. Separating out the smoke and mirrors of a "cultural war" from the genuine "class war" issues could be part of that. Now given that too many people seem to think that Socialism=Marxism, the insanity of Citizens United and the consolidation of the media how is it possible to get such a message out there, and make it stick?
I agree with you doc, but the culture war is embedded in the American psyche because of race,, religion and patriarchal insecurity.
Gen Y and Z males are living in their mothers basement, playing Warcraft or some such, and they and their mothers are told to blame, DEI.
That is why Trump has focused on expunging any mention of blacks, women, gays, history from text books, libraries, schools.. and it started with Rhonda Santis.
It has never been about the price of eggs. Inflation is going up,and will go higher, but even as the polls show disappointment with policies, the support of Trump has not waverred.
I voted for Nixon in 1960, because my step father was a friend of Grace Kelley's father,John B Kelley, and he was a member of the Irish mafia, and I heard stories around the dinner table of the philandering horn dog of a congressman named John Kennedy
Barry if you spent your energy criticizing and kvetching about Putin's threat to Europe, Democracy and the world, instead of Zionists and Israel, you might have some credibility, but as is you come off as a troll for Putin. It is quite obvious that you don't see him as the threat that he is, that he has twice invaded and unarmed neighbor (Ukraine) he did the same thing to Chechnya, but found a thug that would kiss his ass. The man is a mass murderer, a war criminal, he purposefully wages war on children and civilians as policy to terrorize the Ukrainians into submission. He murders and imprions dissenters. Oppose him and you fall out of windows, are poisoned or die in airplane "accidents" He downed a whole airplane and all of its passengers just to get to one person, and he has done it twice.
Yet you have singular focus on the Democrats and Israel.
The Democrats are not in power
Here is my off the cuff assessment of you. You are an old unrehabbed Marxist, a 21st Century Tankie, that has an affection for Russia and Putin as heir to the USSR (and he is, he is is a Stalinist. And in that I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, other wise you are Putin Troll.
Strange is that you constantly claim that the Democrats are actually more of a threat to Democracy than the Republicans. Now why would that be.
“They say in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king, well in the land of the skunk the man with half a nose is king!”- Chris Farley -("Jimmy" from the Dirty Work movie)
I remember each and every one of these frauds. Could this be one reason we have now elected the most corrupt, ill-informed, greedy,... (add your own adjective here) president of them all? One shudders to think who will be the Republican nominee after Trump.
Thom,
In retrospect it really is shocking to see how the GOP got us to Trump. I didn’t leave it until 2008 though I realized by 2003 that we were being lied to by G.W. Bush, it took seeing those lies in person and to come home to the xenophobic GOP attacks of Barack Obama to get me to leave.
Thank you for encapsulating this trail of maleficence back to where it began. I cannot believe that for all of those years that I closed my eyes to their traitorous and criminal actions at home and abroad.
Thank you again,
Steve Dundas
The problem is that the ignorati so carefully created by the morbidly rich in their assaults on public education and journalists neither know nor care. They are consumed by indignation at their plight, intent on blaming anyone but themselves for it, basking in the glow of the attacks on perceived elites by the Mump maladministration, blind to the mass hara kiri they are committing by supporting the felon in chief and his puppet masters and minions. Maybe a new nation or group of nations can pick up the torch of freedom and humanity this country has not merely dropped but thrown away. This country, as I once knew it in its aspirations at least, is gone, and I believe irretrievably so. Tragic and humiliating at the same time, but a strong indicator of the fatal flaws in our species. We abhor what is good. We embrace darkness and ugliness and evil. We may pay the ultimate price for that sooner than we realize. Because history suggests that our better natures flower only briefly, while our reptile brains inevitably reassert themselves, as they are doing today around the world.
Mr. Shults, I agree with what you said, until you say "We abhor what is good." This seems to imply that abhorrence of the good is all we are capable of. This is not how Humans are built. There are as many morally correct, humane acts in this world as there are morally repulsive acts. It is the repulsive acts which make the headlines and titillate or outrage the public.
And I’ve lived through all of this! Reading this, I’m sickened by the evil demonstrated on the part of the Republican Party. Will we ever be free of this!? Thank you Thom for shining the light in the dark places.
Love the recitation of crimes committed to put GOP candidates into the Presidency. However, you've missed several very important ones. First, G. W. Bush's election didn't just occur because of the stopped vote count. As documented in a book ("Stolen Future") by Steven Singular some of the punch card ballots were apparently designed to fail. And, because ballots have to be specific to the races they are trying to document (different for each precinct) manufacturers knew the precise precinct each ballot was headed to. With this knowledge sending punch cards that were insufficiently scored to be properly punched out to heavily Democratic precincts was easy. In the days just following the election Singular sold his story to a major media company who then buried it.
Further, 9/11 wasn't just a happy accident that saved George, Dick, and Rummy from George's failing popularity in his first year as President. It was an inside job. The proof of that is visible on all the videos of the collapsing buildings of the World Trade Center on 9/11. These first three steel-superstructure high-rises to ever (in the over 100 years of building this kind of building) supposedly collapse from fires, all collapse symmetrically and at (or very near in the case of the Twin Towers) free fall acceleration. Those are not characteristics of building destructions caused by fire, they are prima facia evidence of controlled demolition.
So, GOP crimes against Americans is even worse that the picture you've painted. Finally, I would note that a group call Election Truth Alliance is already examining 2024 voting in swing states and has published statistical anomalies they have discovered in election data in Pennsylvania that is highly suggestive of electronic election fraud. By the way, the evidence of electronic election fraud may very well be easily proven by recounts of a few critical counties in swing states with hand-marked paper ballot voting.
What is a Qanon freak doing posting on Thom's substack?
This bullshit about the fall of the towers has been thoroughly debunked by structural engineers, but it gets no where with true believers, the more it is debunked they more they entrench
9/11 was not an inside job, though in my opinion, Bush knew that something big was coming that day, and that they could use the event to their benefit, but they didn't know what, when and to what degree.
He made sure he was in Florida when it happened.
And Yes the Saudis and bin Laden family were friends and patrons of Bush, the bin Ladens even financed his purchase of the Rangers.
But it was not an inside job.
I've seen the "documentary" Loose Change, and it is full of fantasy. By perpetuating this conspiracy theory you are actually doing the real perps a favor, it is called deflection.
You are deflecting any serious investigation away from the real perps, to an easily disproved and thus irrational conspiracy theory.
It is bad enough that Bush, et al knew this was coming, but hauling shit like "loose change" is a red herring.
* Belittle the other person through name-calling.
* Don't offer any real response to the other person's logic.
* Use a defensive script almost as old as the event itself.
Not really elements of an effective response.
Yep, expected response. I gather you are another of the conspiracy theorist, that posit the towers were rigged to collapse.
Here is the situation. Almost impossible to convert a Muslim to Christianity even harder to Judaism.
A believer is a believer, a cultist, and will not be dissuaded they come armed with statements and arguments such as yours.
It is a waste of one's time trying to have a rational discussion with a true believe, Eric Hoffer wrote a a book about it. So why bother, dismiss and press on.
As regards you personal opinion of me. I don't give a shit, learned that lesson the hard way when I was 12, and was conned into smoking.
Again, no response to the evidence. Only fained effort to insult and to appear insulted. Sorry about the tobacco.
There is nothing to respond to, your evidence is not evidence and has been debunked, why should I waste my time on a cult of conspiracy theorists.
Gave up smoking nine years before I found out I had lung cancer.
Sorry, Bill, the physical evidence is very visible to anyone who has looked at videos of the collapsing buildings of the World Trade Center. Forgetting that no steel-superstructure building has ever collapsed due to fire (the official reasons for all three collapses), consider the odds of three tall buildings collapsing perfectly symmetrically all the way to the ground. Every randomly broken support had to break at exactly the right time and in the right direction. Can't happen.
And, even though NIST had to admit the free fall of Building Seven they made no effort to explain how that defiance of the laws of nature could happen. Free fall (and symmetry of collapse) of a steel building could only happen with explosives. So, plenty of very visible evidence (although lots of nothing-to-see-here-move-along propaganda too), but no actual explanations.
Hope you are having success with your battle with cancer. Obviously, you have plenty of fight left in you!
Mr. Farrar the 911 buildings were undoubtedly demolished by controlled explosions. Whether or not it was an "inside job" is another story altogether. It is likely that Bush did not want the public to realize how incompetent or unwilling his administration was at protecting the public. But this does not constitute an "inside job." It constitutes incompetence or treason.
And while we are on the topic; how does one explain the straight down collapse of building number 7? No airplanes hit that building. Did the CIA, or other intelligence agency, see a great opportunity to destroy dangerous [to them] revealing documents? Building 7 was a storage location for security documents. Or is building number 7 just another example of incompetence on the part of the Bush people? Their incompetence was their failure to discover that the buildings had been wired to blow down by some foreign actor connected to Bin Laden and/or Saudi Arabia. Bush perhaps simply turned a blind eye. After all, his family was doing millions of dollars of business with the Saudis.
As for your claim that the demolition claim has been debunked. I remember an "expert," a physicist who claimed on national television that it was possible for John Kennedy's head to be hit by a bullet arriving from behind him, yet his head would move TOWARD the bullet, not AWAY from it. And claim that a fragment of Kennedy's head could land on the road BEHIND the car, not in front of the president's body. There are always some ''experts" willing to prostitute themselves for money or approval of the powerful.
There is also the failure of the camera footage of the Pentagon parking lot to display an airliner striking the building. Something obviously struck the building. But it was not an airliner as was claimed. Why the attempt at deception?
From time to time terrible, harmful events occur which are so public that the national political leaders cannot deny that those events actually happened. There is no way the leaders can hide the event. The public all saw it. If that event can also, in any way impugn the political leaders, cast them in a bad light; they will do what George Orwell describes. They will tell the public: "Do not trust your own eyes. Follow the party line." We have witnessed this more than once in modern America. Mr. Elliott has been saying that many of our problems with authoritarianism can be attributed to our faulty education system, our "schools." Perhaps there is an element of truth to his claims. We do not trust ourselves. But we bow to the authorities.
Harry Truman began it all with his undeclared war on the Korean people. We have never looked back since then.
You disappoint me Gerald. You really do. I know that we disagree but I didn't think that you fell into the muck.
Let's talk about a controlled demolition. Do you have any idea what it takes to prep a building for a controlled demolition? To do it without anyone ,knowing. It is impossible
There was the collapse of the steel girders. Loose Change and others made much of that. Well it wasn't just jet fuel burning, but the furnishings, carpets desks and of course the kinetic energy of the impact.
Building 7 of the World Trade Center (WTC 7) collapsed on September 11, 2001, due to structural failures initiated by uncontrolled fires.
Here's a breakdown of the key factors that led to the collapse:
1. Debris Damage and Fires:
Falling debris from the collapsing WTC 1 (North Tower) struck WTC 7, causing structural damage and igniting fires on several lower floors.
The fires burned uncontrolled for hours, weakening the steel structure.
The building's sprinkler system, crucial for fire suppression, failed due to the loss of city water supply, further exacerbating the fire's spread and intensity.
2. Structural Failure:
Thermal Expansion: The intense heat from the fires caused steel floor beams and girders to expand, putting stress on the connections to supporting columns.
Girder Walk-off: A critical girder on Floor 13, supporting long floor spans on the east side, was pushed off its connection to Column 79 due to thermal expansion and fire-induced damage.
Column 79 Failure: The loss of the girder connection and subsequent floor collapses weakened Column 79, leaving it insufficiently supported and causing it to buckle.
Progressive Collapse: The buckling of Column 79 initiated a progressive collapse, where the failure of one structural element triggered a chain reaction of failures in adjacent columns and floors.
Global Collapse: The cascading failures led to the eventual collapse of the entire building, as the core columns and then the perimeter columns succumbed to the increasing loads and weakening from the fires.
In essence, the collapse of WTC 7 was a complex interplay of debris damage, uncontrolled fires, thermal expansion of steel members, and subsequent
progressive structural failure, culminating in the total collapse of the building.
If you want to see a conspiracy, you will see it and not be dissuaded anymore than a Christian can be dissuaded from their beliefs or a Marxist or Muslim from their beliefs.
You do a disservice though, you refocus attention from the important to the unprovable and frankly debunked and destroyed your own credibility in the meanwhile.
It is my opinion, that Bush knew that something was coming, but not exactly what, where and how deadly.
In the same way, Netanyahu knew all about Oct 7th, and saw an opportunity to use it for his purposes, he just didn't know the breadth and scope.
Part of my opinion is based on the testimony of female guards in the Gaza watch tower, all of them were female, and they replaced males who left taking the weapons with them, leaving them unarmed.
Mr. Farrar, you have demonstrated once again how you get so caught up with unimportant, irrelevant details that you do not see the forest for the trees. I too viewed those highly detailed diagrams about girders collapsing onto one another. An important detail left out of that hypothetical reconstruction of collapse, was the all important topic of temperature. Neither jet fuel nor anything else in those buildings can burn hot enough
at standard temperature and pressure [STP] to structurally damage steel. Furthermore there are many examples of sky scrapers in many parts of the world which burned continuously for weeks, without collapsing. The old Empire State building was hit at speed by a WWll bomber. But he building did not fall and the damage was repaired in a few weeks. Jet fuel burning in air barely reaches 900 degrees while the melting point of steel is about 1600 or 1800 degrees higher. Structural engineering professors at my school scoffed at the notion that an open fire could destroy a steel braced building. Hundreds of American architectural engineers signed a joint letter saying the same thing. And sent the letter to the 911 commission. They ignored that letter. My colleagues and I used the commission's report in our lectures for while. We also conducted public seminars on the whole topic.
As for building 7, I distinctly remember the holder of the lease on the buildings, Larry Weinstein, an Israeli saying immediately after the collapse, that he "decided to pull it on building number 7," in other words he decided to blow it down. What does that mean?
Where is the picture of the huge airliner hitting the pentagon? The military agreed to release only an expurgated video of the Pentagon parking lot. What was expurgated? Why?
Perhaps you are a beautiful example of the schooled but not educated American that Mr. Elliott talks about. You see but do not believe your own eyes. Instead you go with the Party Line. Your head is in Orwell's 1984. You are still the obedient infantryman you were when you were twenty. You say you were all for the Vietnam war until you came home and lived in the Bay area where all the young people around you were opposed to the war. So you went along with them and agreed that the war was a mistake. You did not have the courage to maintain your conviction that the war was OK.
Today you are a bitter old man full of anger and hatred. You saw nothing wrong with Biden sending weapons to those Zionist Fascists in Israel so they could commit genocide against the Palestinians. Your body is on an island in the Sound. But your head is still in VietNam.
Get it yet?
You did it again Gerald. What is your problem? And you do have one. I'm purposefully getting personal, because you did, and you inevitably always do, indicating that you have a problem, because something I have said has dug into your sense of self.
You commenced your comment with"Mr. Farrar, you have demonstrated once again how you get so caught up with unimportant, irrelevant details that you do not see the forest for the trees." Rather than deal with the issue the situation, you go on the offense and make it personal, and in so doing assume the role of a parent talking to a child.
Ever hear of transactional analysis, try it, try adult to adult, not parent to child, when the correspondent is an adult.
Needless to say I see no need to read the rest of your diatribe, most certainly pseudo scientific rationalizations.
It's always the cover-up.
It's likely that attack scenario was presented correctly---the terrorists tried before. That may have led to fail-safe measures in those buildings, a means to pull them down. IMHO they fell because of that system.
It was a botched evacuation. The powers that be would NEVER admit it. But in one way they did; they paid the victims.
Cold warrior here that studied and saw terrorism. Obama got the right guy. Not sure he got the whole story. Although, he and W are friends now. Wonder if this secret and others has bound them.
All in all, Richard Clarke told the truth, hell he tried to tell them BEFORE it happened. Terrorists caused this and so much more. W loved the Saudis and was asleep at the wheel by CHOICE. Then Afghanistan, Iraq, and so many lives lost. Bush and Cheney better hope there isn't a God.
Brilliant stuff Thom. I never fully realised the extent of GOP voter rigging and for how long it has been going on! It begs the question - how has this been allowed to happen. I am no expert but GOP have always had more money behind them to create the situations.
Am I the only boomer who feels that presidential elections have always been a matter of selecting the lesser of two marginal candidates?
Voter rolls hanky-panky risks losing votes on both sides. But voters, in most cases, enable the fraud themselves by not being conscientious about registering and re-registering. I had a mail-in vote rejected several years back because somebody asserted that my signature was a bad match. But I always mail in early. So when notified, I resubmitted with a fresh signature, and my vote counted anyway. People who wait till the last minute to mail in are more vulnerable to losing their vote over a challenge.
In my view, it is the weakness of candidates that enables tinkering with outcomes. If there is a clear winner, then it is very hard to cheat at the last minute.