The real stink is coming from inside the Evangelical community. Why are almost all the religious leaders condoning all of this ungodly thinking and behavior? Over pollution, overpopulation, unlimited greed... Instead of helping the human race evolve, most of the churches have been lining their pockets with all the money they can grab. Trillions of American taxpayer dollars have been wasted on them. And The ungrateful parasites want even more.
They are grifters like Trump. They have a permanent hold over those low-education voters who read National Enquirer & send money to televangelists who then become multi millionaires. They preach a false gospel & rely upon misogyny & anti-LGBTQ rhetoric all while harboring child abusers & pedophiles. Evangelicals cannot be redeemed any more than the current MAGA GOP can be redeemed. They are the true rot in our society.
The "hook" seems to be, feeding them what they want to hear. The tragedy is, appealing to the worst of human nature: race-hatred and above all other-blaming. I was struck by the gusto of Trump being evil to please Hannity's audience yesterday. He reveled in the calculated response of sad people who were needy to feel vicariously mean and somehow empowered.
You can turn the Bible on such hypocrites. Read in the words of Jesus and the book of Revelation and see about the coming of the Antichrist. Trump fits that description to a tee!
I am sympathetic. On my spiritual path, Foursquare Gospel pastor assigned me to read Book of John through 5 times, (Bless him/them!) after which I could not reconcile with "Church." You give no helpful references. What is there about calling forth the worst of human nature?
Yes, you're right. I don't have my Bible handy because I'm out of the country and I don't have verses memorized. I believe Jesus's account is in Matthew, in the twenties chapters. I should have given chapter and verse. Jesus talks about false prophets, and says they'll be able to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Christian Nationalism is rife with false prophets. But on this topic, it is necessary to give proper references. Forgive my sloppiness.
Gosh, no forgiving needed! Maybe the point is, there's so much "chapter and verse" foreboding Trump, the only question is, why can the blind not see? In there somewhere. Doesn't matter to the Trump Idol-worshippers.
What about the well-educated neofascists, who according to Greg Olear of the Substack Prevail, are also part of the group that wants Trump to be in power because they are elitist monarchists.
Geese, who fed you that weird script? Translated from Russian, maybe? I know you won't care, but I recommend to others to check out Chris Hayes on MSNBC today about Biden TOTALLY "rising to the challenges."
I write with absolute resolve in signing on to Thom Hartmann's open letter citing the irreversible abuse of our country that your gangrenous Republicult has intentionally inflicted, and continues to so with rancid zeal.
You are an open and festering embarrassment to humanity, lacking any measure of humility required in realizing that your violently ritualistic verbal gyrations before the altar of wealth and power are spinning you, and every other form of life, off the edge of existence - simply to pleasure your oligarchic pimps.
We are all casualties of the noxious gas that emanates from your predator-funded riddle-writing cartel known as ALEC.
We all suffocate in an agonizing slowing of time as we breathe the poisonous air rolling off your production lines at the Federalist Society - filling once honorable halls of justice with a lethal air of absolute servitude to your masters.
We will all perish by the putrefactive odor steaming vindictively from the corpse of democracy you so actively celebrate in perverse fervor as you crusade deeper into the abyss of willful Trumpian nihilism.
At this point, it might seem inevitable, and logical, for anyone writing this to say "rot in hell" GOP - but it would be redundant. Just reread this letter in its entirety - we're already there - thanks to you.
I believe there will come a time...in the not so distant future...(The loss of the phallic symbol Trump Tower?) when the lion will lie down with the lamb and followers of the orange antichrist will get ,religion.
Today's GOP is no longer a political party it is a terrorist organization not interested in the well-being of most Americans. It is backed by the billionaire globalist oligarchy. A few years ago the people the GOP voters claimed to hate. But now they are glad to usher in a new world order because they think the people they don't like are going to be the only ones that will be victimized. The plans of the billionaires does not include racism, just productivity. The non productive Trump supporters will be steamrolled over also. Anyone who draws a government check in my opinion, will be fair game. They care nothing for their children's future. How can they love thy neighbor?
Bob, your sentence composition gives the impression that those who draw a government check does not care about their children or their neighbor.
As regards the latter, if they are Trump humping slime, white Christian nationalists and apparently half of the nation are just that, then I could care less about them, for they are, then as far as I am concerned that can drown in their own excrement. They are irremedial, and there is no way of getting through to them,until the hammer comes down on them.
William, lam referring to the right wing oligarchs, I like socialism. It is also the cheapest way to keep the masses civilized. Sorry about my poor sentence structure.
Biden is trying to deal with another Putin in the person of Netanyahu. He has done his best to rein him in but right- wing dictators cannot not be swayed. Can you imagine if Trump were President, he would be saying blow them all up as he hates Muslims.
You have encapsulated the tragic lose/lose situation, for which Biden, utterly irrationally, is going to be blamed. Like he was blamed for finally heroically (I say) getting out of Afghanistan, because it was "bloody chaos", which is the English translation of "Afghanistan." Maybe you can access Chris Hayes on MSNBC today, evidencing Biden's successive successes somehow being held against him.
Sadly, none of his base believe any of this and many others will not see this and will vote for him. America is in serious jeopardy if everyone does not get out and vote for Biden.
"Despite his difficulties since he left office, about a third of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters still consider themselves supporters more of Trump than the Republican Party, according to a recent NBC News poll. Many of them aren’t going anywhere. Fully 28 percent of Republican primary voters are so devoted to the former president that they said they’d support him even if he ran as an independent, according to a national survey last month from The Bulwark and longtime Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Indeed, the “Always Trump” component of the party is so pronounced that it’s affecting how Trump’s opponents operate around him."
Mixed emotions on Venezuela. Whatever the situation is now, it was caused by Exxon Mobil using the CIA and government to overthrow the government, because Chavez had the temerity, to actually believe that Venezuelan oil belong to the people and not Exxon Mobil. Shades of Mossadegh being toppled by MI6 and the CIA in 1953, for the same reason, Mossadegh also had the temerity to believe that Iranian oil belonged to Iran, or Persia as it was then called), and the result is a Jew hating Islamic state that is at war with the west and especially Israel, and who is behind the HAMAS war.
The same situation with Cuba, Fidel was not a communist, an ally of Russia, until the mafia and wealthy who lost their property, power and control, used their money and power to have the media and government declare Fidel to be a communist, because he confiscated property of the criminal corrupt elite, and that set in motion the CIA to try and take down the government.
All of this misery in service to corporations and the financial elite.
We the People Jenny, the only tool we have is the vote. The right wing is armed to the teeth, the left has disarmed themselves (Yes there are exceptions, lots of liberals own guns, but not a personal armory as does the right)
Any law to restrict weapons and ammo, will only favor the right, as they will not obey, whereas liberals will.
Liberals, leftists, progressives are truly screwed because those who hates us are armed to the teeth, and Trump is set, if he wins, to turn them loose.
Sadly, half the population has either never acknowledged the stench or has become so accustomed to it that they don’t smell it anymore. If Trump is elected and institutes his draconian fascist promises, it will bring no solace to say, we told you so.
Hey, we can give each other high fives behind the chainlink fences! Anyway, "so accustomed" is covered almost every day on MSNBC, called "normalization." My only forlorn hope is that more than half the population is FEMALE, and Sleeping Beauty is WOKE!
Perfect! I'm glad we got that off our chests. That still leaves out a lot of sick stuff but to cover everything would take hundreds of pages just to summarize. Not many Republicans are listening or willing to face the reality. But, as I've said for months, we need to move on and look to the future. This skunk will NOT ever hold office again and we should be worrying about what Mikey J. is up to and what the other Christian Dominionists and a lot of seditious nutcases who want to dismantle democracy are strategizing.
Even if Trump does not hold office again, there is no GOP party left. Only fascists. Trump's a little too hard for the Koch and other billionaires to control anyway. I don't understand how the billionaires believe they are going to get richer by making the masses poorer? Where is that wealth going to come from? They must be counting on more births? But probably they know it's going to collapse and they'll have their own little kingdoms to keep the natives out.
To the hard core crackpots the party is just one of many tools. They want mind control and they are well on their way. Money is one facet of the power and control they crave. They have many sources of information, propaganda, and "knowledge" within their spheres of influence and a population primed for authoritarian rule by anti-intellectual and anti-democratic manipulation for the whole of childhood. None of it is rational or reality-based.
The way it works with the "elite" is that they have enough money to buy a nation, so if they lose a little it doesn't matter, so long as their peers lose too. Besides being addicted to wealth, their prime motivation is social status.
Elon Musk can throw away 44 billion dollars on Twitter, because it isn't money, but power, control and social status. What will really hurt him, is falling down off the top of the pyramid, slipping down many rungs on the ladder.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
I don't know what these people think. At present they are screaming about keeping immigrants out. Who, when the American people are killed by the thousands is going to do the work for them? Birth rates in Western countries is dropping not too surprising really.
Jenny I disagree, I think it will be by the millions that Americans will die if Biden does not perk up a little bit. Get off that bicycle and use some bully pulpit! Get some Adderall and some testosterone shots and eat some Big Macs. Or else withdrawal from the race and hope we get some sane democratic candidates. After the primaries it will be too late.
I hope Thom will address what the stink of genocide is going to do to the Democratic Party. That may not be how those here view it, but for huge and growing numbers, that is going to be the legacy of Joe Biden. And then there is the issue of the front groups that have been set up to do an end-run around the First Amendment. Both of these would be valuable topics for Thom to discuss.
I hope the slaughter of the Palestinians won't do to Biden what Vietnam did to LBJ. Biden needs to pull our Navy out of the area if Israel doesn't cease fire and pursue another strategy.
So it is OK to slaughter Jews, but not OK to slaughter Muslims. I got you.
HAMAS started this, just as Hitler and Tojo started WWII.
HAMAS is responsible for the destruction of Gaza and every life lost.
There is a solution. Take down HAMAS and get rid of Netanyahu and the power of the theocratic settlers. Unless that happens there will never be peace in that miserable speck of desert.
Why is it that western women, discount, disregard and brush off the rape of Jewish women in Israel by Muslims, even with the case of UN Women, and the Sec Gen of the UN has double standards and is a hypocrite. Could it be fear of Arab and Iranian oil?
Two wrongs don't make a right. I read that over 17,200 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children. I was taught that the original meaning of "an eye for an eye" meant no more than an eye for an eye. The best part of have the comments is that I don't have to be in the same room with two bullying men to have a conversation.
Gloria it is not the childish saying of two wrongs don't make a right. It is about the survival of a peoples and a nation (Jews and Israel). You have uncritically swallowed the lies and propaganda of HAMAS, but are in good company even Martin Griffiths, secretary general of the UN's Humanitarian affairs has done the same.
I watched Christiane Amanpour interview him. She is Iranian British, and culturally inclined towards Islam, though baptised Catholic by her mother, She has been quoting HAMAS "Health Ministry", without questions claims, but caveats Israel's statment as unverified. She never uses that word for HAMAS.
She interviewed Martin Griffths, in an attempt to redeem herself, because Martin has been accepting without caveat, the claims of HAMAS, when she asked why he accepted the claims, his evasive answer was "he triangulated", the word is meaningless and an evasion.
A politician which I voted for and admired, Pramila Jayapal,, was asked if she would condemn rape of Jewish women by HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, she evaded an answer by saying that she condemns all rape, when asked again and again, she said the same. She is a progressive, but won't condemn HAMAS and HAMAS is responsible for all the damage done to Gaza and all of the people killed.
Just like the NAZI's were responsible for the destruction and bombing of Germany.
No Jenny she was weaseling, because her caucus is mostly Muslim, and she doesn't want to alienate them, and the vapid bleeding heart "progressives"
I agree that the Orthodox Zionist Jews that constitute Yahoo's base, have made life for "Palestinians" impossible.
But I also know that Jews from Europe migrated to the region after WWI and bought the land, and when the Arabs saw the Jews make the desert bloom, and cleaned up what was a garbage dump named Jerusalem, they were filled with anger, envy and rage and tried to wipe the Jews off the face of the map. The Jews were too intelligent, industrious and motivated and the Arabs lost that war (1948) but it didn't stop them from coming back again and again, in 1956, 197, 1973, 2006 and and Oct 7, 2023. Each time the Jews beat them back, and in the process claimed more land as a security buffer.
So what do you demand the Jews do? Commit suicide for the Muslims.
The Muslims continuously provoke the Jews and when the Jews respond or take the initiative to beat them at the draw, they resort to whining, and idiots like you, professors, college students and even the UN fall in line and eat that shit up.
William F. - William, where do you see western women brushing off the rape of Jewish women by Muslims? The penalty for "those rapes" is now the imminent destruction of the best part of 2.3 MILLION people. When does the retribution stop for people like you? After all the Gazans are dead, are you then going to want to turn your Israeli guns on Egyptian Muslims? On American Muslims? How many dead children will satisfy you? What made you so bloodthirsty. Why can't Jews learn anything from history? When Muslim men on Oct. 7 committed the atrocities they did AFTER 50 YEARS OF BEING BOTTLED UP IN A TINY ENCLAVE WITHOUT FREEDOM OR THE ABILITY TO RULE THEIR OWN LIVES - why couldn't these damned democratic, social welfare based Jews turn the other cheek and admit that they were reaping what they had sown? Why couldn't they learn a humanistic lesson that their idea of bottling up people in a concentration camp was never going to work and they needed to treat their prisoners like people for a change? Why couldn't they apply the lovely humanistic lessons they had learned in all those Kibbutzes we heard so much about and ADMIT THAT THEY WERE AT FAULT AND HAD TO CHANGE. We didn't need this orgy of revenge! Jews should have been better than that. But they were not and they are not better than the Nazis who taught them to never admit error.
Well Paul, As regards your first question> I've seen it out of their own mouths on TV
As regards the rest of your rant. Retribution is none of it. I have no skin in the game. And I declare a pox on both houses
Gazans did have an ability to rule their own lives. They elected HAMAS and that was their last election, kind of like what Trump has in store for us.
The Muslims have the MidEast, Iran, the gulf, west Asia, Indonesica, Malyasia, North Africa, parts of Subsahara Africa, East Africa. Hindu have India, and you begrudge the Jews a sliver of what was, before they bought it (yes they did between 1920 and 1948, when the Muslims tried to genocide them and last (the Nakba which the Arabs caused by trying to genocide the Jews) a worthless piece of fallow desert
Christians have a whole continent called America, it is not a theocracy yet, but they outnumber every one else and have the power to model the continent after there beliefs and are doing it, by banning abortion, launching a crusade against queers, and they haven't really begun, but wait until Trump takes power.
All of your why, why, why's are not questions but anti semitic statements. You begrudge Jews t heir own land
All you have done is expose yourself.
You know little of history, nor do you know anything of Islam or Judaism.
Islam is the most misogynistic, homophobic religion that rules nations
American Evangelicals are wannabes, but will be if Trump is elected.
Israel is , with the exception of Bibi and the Orthodox right wing and settlers which is his base, a secular democracy that recognizes women's and gay rights.
Islamic countries don't, they subordinate women as objects, and they kill gays. Iran forces them into sexual reassignment surgery or death.
As regards the misery of Gaza, HAMAS is 100% to blame for that. Apparently you believe that the Jews got their just deserts, and that punishing the killers is not right, because they are Muslims.
What Israel is doing is defending itself against future attacks, because that is what HAMAS promises, that they are a nation of martyrs, and they rejoice martyrdom, and they will come back again and again, never stop until they kill or drive out all Jews.
Free Palestine from the river to the sea is a call to genocide.
The HAMAS covent is a plan for genocide of the Jews, preamble says to obliterate Israel.
Article 7 of the HAMAS Covenant is extracted from their sacred text, the haddith of al Bukhari and it calls for the obliteration of Jews.
Either you are grossly uniformed and ignorant or you are an antisemite.
Myself I am an atheists, my parents, grandparents were Christians. The difference beween you and I is that I am I am 84, have lived through all of this, I read, know my history and I form my own opinions, not acquire them from authority and peers.
In other words I know my shit, and have critical thinkiing skills. apparently you lack both.
How about the slaughter of Jews by Muslims., the slaughter of babies, infants and toddlers, and the rape of women. I guess that is OK because Jewish lives don't matter, do they.
This seems to be a new commandment on the left. Muslims are eternal victims and can do no wrong.
Gloria, you do not want to live under Islam, no western woman does, you are not even a person, just an object born to breed and provide sexual and domestic services to a man, the same thing as in America and it's Christians, male and female, to wit Boebert, MTG and their ilk.
Of course the slaughter of Jews was, and is, and always will be abhorrent. And I don't want to live in a Muslim country, or any country with a state religion.
Then where is the condemnation of HAMAS and Islam.
As a knowledgeable progressive, I am so disgusted for the idiots that pose as the left, or progressives, that I stopped contributing to the Intercept and Democracy Now, and won't subscribe to the Nation or any "liberal" publication anymore. They are de facto supporters of Putin (as is the likes of Noam Chomsky) and supporters of the horror that is Islam, while having no fear about charging at the Christian right.
I can not, and never will understand the leftist, especially woman and gay support for "Palestinians" and Islam, as it is the most oppressive and deadly religion, that has power over nations.
Women are objects, have to hide under head scarfts or bee keeper suits, gays , and atheists, and even polytheists like Hindu, are killed, Salafists like ISIS throw gays off roofs.
Not one bleeding heart liberal has studied Islams holy books, what they get it is the obfuscation (taqiyyah) from professors and friends. No different than the German American Bund in 1940, getting propaganda from Goebbels, or a Christian who takes the mouthings of a grifter, who uses something they call god or allah as a sock puppet.
Not only are people lazy, but are gullible (a sucker is born every minute), and lack critical reasoning skills, they take crap at face value, if it concurs with their emotions and instincts, and lay back and let others tell them what to think.
I am not presupposing anything and get off with that fake outrage, I have read enough of your crap to know you.
And what is that thing about bleeding heart liberals and the ARK. It makes no sense,none at all, it is a non sequitur. Look it up.it means does not follow,and has nothing to do with the subject at hand. What a stupid response.
Genocide? apparently Joy you have no idea what genocide is.
A genocide is wiping out an entire race or peoples.
Here is genocide.
The genocide of Jews is an obligation of Islam. Thus sayeth the haddith of al Bukhari and paragraph 7, article 7 of the HAMAS covenant, which quotes the haddith (Sahih 1295 and 1296, book 56, haddith 139 al Bukhari
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
Here is genocide, from the preamble to the HAMAS Covenant:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
But I have told you all of this before, and you choose to ignore it. Why is that, you a Muslim or just a garden variety Jew hater.?
"...corruption of the Coolidge and Hoover administrations...." Didn't you hear last night? Ron DeSantis, whose campaign is experiencing a meteoric fall, declared Coolidge the President most inspiring to him.
Tom, Your articles have already explored at least tangentially the idea that the Repubic Party stunk long before T-Rump entered politics. I would like to see you explore this idea more fully. Ray-Gun's campaign was a cruel ideology. How is it that T-Rump with only an idiotology has such a toehold on the Re-Pubicans? Clearly the Party was smelly before FDR. I am sure there is a common thread(s) tying Jackson, Johnson, Coolidge, Ray-Gun, and Bushbaby together. The obvious culprits are crony-capitalism and racism. FDR seemingly pulled that fabric apart for over a decade but crony-capitalism and racism are still stinking up our world. As the Koch, aka Crotch, brothers and other big money schemes start teeing up Haley, it is clear that T-Rump was merely their puppet.
It's not good, but fondly, that you remind me of my uncle who had creative nasty labels for every category. As daughter of a mother who was "Bircher but died a Birther," yup, the ol' stank is not new. Therapeutic book: "Conservatives Without Conscience," John Dean. That answers your "how is it?" question.
You've really nailed it this time Thom! I am sharing this one far and wide. It would be wonderful if this was submitted/shared as an opinion piece in every newspaper in the US! Seriously! If there is a way please do so. This frank recapture of events is so needed right now.
In reading everyone else's off topic comments, I couldn't help but think of my favorite song by Lennon, Imagine. I joined many years ago. Hate and religion sadly go hand in hand oftentimes. Please write your congress people, and once again demand separation of church and state be explicitly stated and codified.
The real stink is coming from inside the Evangelical community. Why are almost all the religious leaders condoning all of this ungodly thinking and behavior? Over pollution, overpopulation, unlimited greed... Instead of helping the human race evolve, most of the churches have been lining their pockets with all the money they can grab. Trillions of American taxpayer dollars have been wasted on them. And The ungrateful parasites want even more.
They are grifters like Trump. They have a permanent hold over those low-education voters who read National Enquirer & send money to televangelists who then become multi millionaires. They preach a false gospel & rely upon misogyny & anti-LGBTQ rhetoric all while harboring child abusers & pedophiles. Evangelicals cannot be redeemed any more than the current MAGA GOP can be redeemed. They are the true rot in our society.
The "hook" seems to be, feeding them what they want to hear. The tragedy is, appealing to the worst of human nature: race-hatred and above all other-blaming. I was struck by the gusto of Trump being evil to please Hannity's audience yesterday. He reveled in the calculated response of sad people who were needy to feel vicariously mean and somehow empowered.
You nailed it!
You can turn the Bible on such hypocrites. Read in the words of Jesus and the book of Revelation and see about the coming of the Antichrist. Trump fits that description to a tee!
I am sympathetic. On my spiritual path, Foursquare Gospel pastor assigned me to read Book of John through 5 times, (Bless him/them!) after which I could not reconcile with "Church." You give no helpful references. What is there about calling forth the worst of human nature?
Yes, you're right. I don't have my Bible handy because I'm out of the country and I don't have verses memorized. I believe Jesus's account is in Matthew, in the twenties chapters. I should have given chapter and verse. Jesus talks about false prophets, and says they'll be able to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Christian Nationalism is rife with false prophets. But on this topic, it is necessary to give proper references. Forgive my sloppiness.
Gosh, no forgiving needed! Maybe the point is, there's so much "chapter and verse" foreboding Trump, the only question is, why can the blind not see? In there somewhere. Doesn't matter to the Trump Idol-worshippers.
What about the well-educated neofascists, who according to Greg Olear of the Substack Prevail, are also part of the group that wants Trump to be in power because they are elitist monarchists.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/dark-enlightenment-part-one-the-cathedral
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/dark-enlightenment-part-two-the-origins
These scary wealthy Gen-Xers are crazy and evil with their ideology.
Geese, who fed you that weird script? Translated from Russian, maybe? I know you won't care, but I recommend to others to check out Chris Hayes on MSNBC today about Biden TOTALLY "rising to the challenges."
Dear Gasping On Putrid,
I write with absolute resolve in signing on to Thom Hartmann's open letter citing the irreversible abuse of our country that your gangrenous Republicult has intentionally inflicted, and continues to so with rancid zeal.
You are an open and festering embarrassment to humanity, lacking any measure of humility required in realizing that your violently ritualistic verbal gyrations before the altar of wealth and power are spinning you, and every other form of life, off the edge of existence - simply to pleasure your oligarchic pimps.
We are all casualties of the noxious gas that emanates from your predator-funded riddle-writing cartel known as ALEC.
We all suffocate in an agonizing slowing of time as we breathe the poisonous air rolling off your production lines at the Federalist Society - filling once honorable halls of justice with a lethal air of absolute servitude to your masters.
We will all perish by the putrefactive odor steaming vindictively from the corpse of democracy you so actively celebrate in perverse fervor as you crusade deeper into the abyss of willful Trumpian nihilism.
At this point, it might seem inevitable, and logical, for anyone writing this to say "rot in hell" GOP - but it would be redundant. Just reread this letter in its entirety - we're already there - thanks to you.
With vehement condemnation,
John F. Notabot
Great takedown!!
But for the most part, the people who need to hear it, won't.
I believe there will come a time...in the not so distant future...(The loss of the phallic symbol Trump Tower?) when the lion will lie down with the lamb and followers of the orange antichrist will get ,religion.
Today's GOP is no longer a political party it is a terrorist organization not interested in the well-being of most Americans. It is backed by the billionaire globalist oligarchy. A few years ago the people the GOP voters claimed to hate. But now they are glad to usher in a new world order because they think the people they don't like are going to be the only ones that will be victimized. The plans of the billionaires does not include racism, just productivity. The non productive Trump supporters will be steamrolled over also. Anyone who draws a government check in my opinion, will be fair game. They care nothing for their children's future. How can they love thy neighbor?
Bob, your sentence composition gives the impression that those who draw a government check does not care about their children or their neighbor.
As regards the latter, if they are Trump humping slime, white Christian nationalists and apparently half of the nation are just that, then I could care less about them, for they are, then as far as I am concerned that can drown in their own excrement. They are irremedial, and there is no way of getting through to them,until the hammer comes down on them.
Right. But they get religion...at sentence hearings.
William, lam referring to the right wing oligarchs, I like socialism. It is also the cheapest way to keep the masses civilized. Sorry about my poor sentence structure.
Biden is trying to deal with another Putin in the person of Netanyahu. He has done his best to rein him in but right- wing dictators cannot not be swayed. Can you imagine if Trump were President, he would be saying blow them all up as he hates Muslims.
He hates Muslims and his base hates Jews. I see a conflict coming if he wins.
You have encapsulated the tragic lose/lose situation, for which Biden, utterly irrationally, is going to be blamed. Like he was blamed for finally heroically (I say) getting out of Afghanistan, because it was "bloody chaos", which is the English translation of "Afghanistan." Maybe you can access Chris Hayes on MSNBC today, evidencing Biden's successive successes somehow being held against him.
Sadly, none of his base believe any of this and many others will not see this and will vote for him. America is in serious jeopardy if everyone does not get out and vote for Biden.
I will do what I did and have done since 2016, vote against Trump and his cult of bigots and theocrats.
Since 1934 apparently.
His base is shrinking.
"Despite his difficulties since he left office, about a third of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters still consider themselves supporters more of Trump than the Republican Party, according to a recent NBC News poll. Many of them aren’t going anywhere. Fully 28 percent of Republican primary voters are so devoted to the former president that they said they’d support him even if he ran as an independent, according to a national survey last month from The Bulwark and longtime Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Indeed, the “Always Trump” component of the party is so pronounced that it’s affecting how Trump’s opponents operate around him."
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23589424/230032-nbc-january-2023-poll-v2-129-release.pdf
Very well said, Thom.
Mixed emotions on Venezuela. Whatever the situation is now, it was caused by Exxon Mobil using the CIA and government to overthrow the government, because Chavez had the temerity, to actually believe that Venezuelan oil belong to the people and not Exxon Mobil. Shades of Mossadegh being toppled by MI6 and the CIA in 1953, for the same reason, Mossadegh also had the temerity to believe that Iranian oil belonged to Iran, or Persia as it was then called), and the result is a Jew hating Islamic state that is at war with the west and especially Israel, and who is behind the HAMAS war.
The same situation with Cuba, Fidel was not a communist, an ally of Russia, until the mafia and wealthy who lost their property, power and control, used their money and power to have the media and government declare Fidel to be a communist, because he confiscated property of the criminal corrupt elite, and that set in motion the CIA to try and take down the government.
All of this misery in service to corporations and the financial elite.
We have a corrupted CIA and FBI and I think they are actually helping overthrow democracy currently and it needs to be looked into, in my opinion.
All true Tom but who is going to do anything?
I ask this same question (maybe it's not possible to know)What do you think the Military will do with a Trump Presidency?
I really think this is an important topic and what can Biden do now, i.e warning the military if it's possible?
Many other countries have had military coups.
Fire Garland and the higher Kamala Harris to prosecute the GOP traitots.
And that my friend Bob, is the best use for Kamala, but ego gets in the way, that's why Senators and Judges hang on till they die in office. Ego.
We the People Jenny, the only tool we have is the vote. The right wing is armed to the teeth, the left has disarmed themselves (Yes there are exceptions, lots of liberals own guns, but not a personal armory as does the right)
Any law to restrict weapons and ammo, will only favor the right, as they will not obey, whereas liberals will.
Liberals, leftists, progressives are truly screwed because those who hates us are armed to the teeth, and Trump is set, if he wins, to turn them loose.
When Trump gets grounded if he gets elected, he will eventually take the guns, I call them pea shooters from his base, that is my prediction.
Sadly, half the population has either never acknowledged the stench or has become so accustomed to it that they don’t smell it anymore. If Trump is elected and institutes his draconian fascist promises, it will bring no solace to say, we told you so.
Hey, we can give each other high fives behind the chainlink fences! Anyway, "so accustomed" is covered almost every day on MSNBC, called "normalization." My only forlorn hope is that more than half the population is FEMALE, and Sleeping Beauty is WOKE!
Perfect! I'm glad we got that off our chests. That still leaves out a lot of sick stuff but to cover everything would take hundreds of pages just to summarize. Not many Republicans are listening or willing to face the reality. But, as I've said for months, we need to move on and look to the future. This skunk will NOT ever hold office again and we should be worrying about what Mikey J. is up to and what the other Christian Dominionists and a lot of seditious nutcases who want to dismantle democracy are strategizing.
Even if Trump does not hold office again, there is no GOP party left. Only fascists. Trump's a little too hard for the Koch and other billionaires to control anyway. I don't understand how the billionaires believe they are going to get richer by making the masses poorer? Where is that wealth going to come from? They must be counting on more births? But probably they know it's going to collapse and they'll have their own little kingdoms to keep the natives out.
To the hard core crackpots the party is just one of many tools. They want mind control and they are well on their way. Money is one facet of the power and control they crave. They have many sources of information, propaganda, and "knowledge" within their spheres of influence and a population primed for authoritarian rule by anti-intellectual and anti-democratic manipulation for the whole of childhood. None of it is rational or reality-based.
The way it works with the "elite" is that they have enough money to buy a nation, so if they lose a little it doesn't matter, so long as their peers lose too. Besides being addicted to wealth, their prime motivation is social status.
Elon Musk can throw away 44 billion dollars on Twitter, because it isn't money, but power, control and social status. What will really hurt him, is falling down off the top of the pyramid, slipping down many rungs on the ladder.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
For once Bob I agree.
I don't know what these people think. At present they are screaming about keeping immigrants out. Who, when the American people are killed by the thousands is going to do the work for them? Birth rates in Western countries is dropping not too surprising really.
Jenny I disagree, I think it will be by the millions that Americans will die if Biden does not perk up a little bit. Get off that bicycle and use some bully pulpit! Get some Adderall and some testosterone shots and eat some Big Macs. Or else withdrawal from the race and hope we get some sane democratic candidates. After the primaries it will be too late.
I'm not sure Trump will never hold office again that's why I didn't thumbs you up.
Nailed it Robert
I hope Thom will address what the stink of genocide is going to do to the Democratic Party. That may not be how those here view it, but for huge and growing numbers, that is going to be the legacy of Joe Biden. And then there is the issue of the front groups that have been set up to do an end-run around the First Amendment. Both of these would be valuable topics for Thom to discuss.
I hope the slaughter of the Palestinians won't do to Biden what Vietnam did to LBJ. Biden needs to pull our Navy out of the area if Israel doesn't cease fire and pursue another strategy.
So it is OK to slaughter Jews, but not OK to slaughter Muslims. I got you.
HAMAS started this, just as Hitler and Tojo started WWII.
HAMAS is responsible for the destruction of Gaza and every life lost.
There is a solution. Take down HAMAS and get rid of Netanyahu and the power of the theocratic settlers. Unless that happens there will never be peace in that miserable speck of desert.
Why is it that western women, discount, disregard and brush off the rape of Jewish women in Israel by Muslims, even with the case of UN Women, and the Sec Gen of the UN has double standards and is a hypocrite. Could it be fear of Arab and Iranian oil?
Two wrongs don't make a right. I read that over 17,200 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children. I was taught that the original meaning of "an eye for an eye" meant no more than an eye for an eye. The best part of have the comments is that I don't have to be in the same room with two bullying men to have a conversation.
Yep Gloria.
These 2 men continue on daily.
Gloria it is not the childish saying of two wrongs don't make a right. It is about the survival of a peoples and a nation (Jews and Israel). You have uncritically swallowed the lies and propaganda of HAMAS, but are in good company even Martin Griffiths, secretary general of the UN's Humanitarian affairs has done the same.
I watched Christiane Amanpour interview him. She is Iranian British, and culturally inclined towards Islam, though baptised Catholic by her mother, She has been quoting HAMAS "Health Ministry", without questions claims, but caveats Israel's statment as unverified. She never uses that word for HAMAS.
She interviewed Martin Griffths, in an attempt to redeem herself, because Martin has been accepting without caveat, the claims of HAMAS, when she asked why he accepted the claims, his evasive answer was "he triangulated", the word is meaningless and an evasion.
A politician which I voted for and admired, Pramila Jayapal,, was asked if she would condemn rape of Jewish women by HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, she evaded an answer by saying that she condemns all rape, when asked again and again, she said the same. She is a progressive, but won't condemn HAMAS and HAMAS is responsible for all the damage done to Gaza and all of the people killed.
Just like the NAZI's were responsible for the destruction and bombing of Germany.
Isn't that enough for you 2 guys to say she condemns rape anywhere?
If she came out on a long diatribe about what men do to women you would be like 'uneducated bulldogs' attacking her.
Hamas AND Israel are responsible for the damage. Takes 2 to tango!
No Jenny she was weaseling, because her caucus is mostly Muslim, and she doesn't want to alienate them, and the vapid bleeding heart "progressives"
I agree that the Orthodox Zionist Jews that constitute Yahoo's base, have made life for "Palestinians" impossible.
But I also know that Jews from Europe migrated to the region after WWI and bought the land, and when the Arabs saw the Jews make the desert bloom, and cleaned up what was a garbage dump named Jerusalem, they were filled with anger, envy and rage and tried to wipe the Jews off the face of the map. The Jews were too intelligent, industrious and motivated and the Arabs lost that war (1948) but it didn't stop them from coming back again and again, in 1956, 197, 1973, 2006 and and Oct 7, 2023. Each time the Jews beat them back, and in the process claimed more land as a security buffer.
So what do you demand the Jews do? Commit suicide for the Muslims.
The Muslims continuously provoke the Jews and when the Jews respond or take the initiative to beat them at the draw, they resort to whining, and idiots like you, professors, college students and even the UN fall in line and eat that shit up.
Amen.
William F. - William, where do you see western women brushing off the rape of Jewish women by Muslims? The penalty for "those rapes" is now the imminent destruction of the best part of 2.3 MILLION people. When does the retribution stop for people like you? After all the Gazans are dead, are you then going to want to turn your Israeli guns on Egyptian Muslims? On American Muslims? How many dead children will satisfy you? What made you so bloodthirsty. Why can't Jews learn anything from history? When Muslim men on Oct. 7 committed the atrocities they did AFTER 50 YEARS OF BEING BOTTLED UP IN A TINY ENCLAVE WITHOUT FREEDOM OR THE ABILITY TO RULE THEIR OWN LIVES - why couldn't these damned democratic, social welfare based Jews turn the other cheek and admit that they were reaping what they had sown? Why couldn't they learn a humanistic lesson that their idea of bottling up people in a concentration camp was never going to work and they needed to treat their prisoners like people for a change? Why couldn't they apply the lovely humanistic lessons they had learned in all those Kibbutzes we heard so much about and ADMIT THAT THEY WERE AT FAULT AND HAD TO CHANGE. We didn't need this orgy of revenge! Jews should have been better than that. But they were not and they are not better than the Nazis who taught them to never admit error.
Well Paul, As regards your first question> I've seen it out of their own mouths on TV
As regards the rest of your rant. Retribution is none of it. I have no skin in the game. And I declare a pox on both houses
Gazans did have an ability to rule their own lives. They elected HAMAS and that was their last election, kind of like what Trump has in store for us.
The Muslims have the MidEast, Iran, the gulf, west Asia, Indonesica, Malyasia, North Africa, parts of Subsahara Africa, East Africa. Hindu have India, and you begrudge the Jews a sliver of what was, before they bought it (yes they did between 1920 and 1948, when the Muslims tried to genocide them and last (the Nakba which the Arabs caused by trying to genocide the Jews) a worthless piece of fallow desert
Christians have a whole continent called America, it is not a theocracy yet, but they outnumber every one else and have the power to model the continent after there beliefs and are doing it, by banning abortion, launching a crusade against queers, and they haven't really begun, but wait until Trump takes power.
All of your why, why, why's are not questions but anti semitic statements. You begrudge Jews t heir own land
All you have done is expose yourself.
You know little of history, nor do you know anything of Islam or Judaism.
Islam is the most misogynistic, homophobic religion that rules nations
American Evangelicals are wannabes, but will be if Trump is elected.
Israel is , with the exception of Bibi and the Orthodox right wing and settlers which is his base, a secular democracy that recognizes women's and gay rights.
Islamic countries don't, they subordinate women as objects, and they kill gays. Iran forces them into sexual reassignment surgery or death.
As regards the misery of Gaza, HAMAS is 100% to blame for that. Apparently you believe that the Jews got their just deserts, and that punishing the killers is not right, because they are Muslims.
What Israel is doing is defending itself against future attacks, because that is what HAMAS promises, that they are a nation of martyrs, and they rejoice martyrdom, and they will come back again and again, never stop until they kill or drive out all Jews.
Free Palestine from the river to the sea is a call to genocide.
The HAMAS covent is a plan for genocide of the Jews, preamble says to obliterate Israel.
Article 7 of the HAMAS Covenant is extracted from their sacred text, the haddith of al Bukhari and it calls for the obliteration of Jews.
Either you are grossly uniformed and ignorant or you are an antisemite.
Myself I am an atheists, my parents, grandparents were Christians. The difference beween you and I is that I am I am 84, have lived through all of this, I read, know my history and I form my own opinions, not acquire them from authority and peers.
In other words I know my shit, and have critical thinkiing skills. apparently you lack both.
How about the slaughter of Jews by Muslims., the slaughter of babies, infants and toddlers, and the rape of women. I guess that is OK because Jewish lives don't matter, do they.
This seems to be a new commandment on the left. Muslims are eternal victims and can do no wrong.
Gloria, you do not want to live under Islam, no western woman does, you are not even a person, just an object born to breed and provide sexual and domestic services to a man, the same thing as in America and it's Christians, male and female, to wit Boebert, MTG and their ilk.
Of course the slaughter of Jews was, and is, and always will be abhorrent. And I don't want to live in a Muslim country, or any country with a state religion.
Then where is the condemnation of HAMAS and Islam.
As a knowledgeable progressive, I am so disgusted for the idiots that pose as the left, or progressives, that I stopped contributing to the Intercept and Democracy Now, and won't subscribe to the Nation or any "liberal" publication anymore. They are de facto supporters of Putin (as is the likes of Noam Chomsky) and supporters of the horror that is Islam, while having no fear about charging at the Christian right.
I can not, and never will understand the leftist, especially woman and gay support for "Palestinians" and Islam, as it is the most oppressive and deadly religion, that has power over nations.
Women are objects, have to hide under head scarfts or bee keeper suits, gays , and atheists, and even polytheists like Hindu, are killed, Salafists like ISIS throw gays off roofs.
Not one bleeding heart liberal has studied Islams holy books, what they get it is the obfuscation (taqiyyah) from professors and friends. No different than the German American Bund in 1940, getting propaganda from Goebbels, or a Christian who takes the mouthings of a grifter, who uses something they call god or allah as a sock puppet.
Not only are people lazy, but are gullible (a sucker is born every minute), and lack critical reasoning skills, they take crap at face value, if it concurs with their emotions and instincts, and lay back and let others tell them what to think.
How dare you presuppose what people have read and haven't.
I thought 'bleeding hear liberals' went out with the ARK.
I am not presupposing anything and get off with that fake outrage, I have read enough of your crap to know you.
And what is that thing about bleeding heart liberals and the ARK. It makes no sense,none at all, it is a non sequitur. Look it up.it means does not follow,and has nothing to do with the subject at hand. What a stupid response.
Navy and money and weapons for Israel.
Thus spake the antisemite.
Genocide? apparently Joy you have no idea what genocide is.
A genocide is wiping out an entire race or peoples.
Here is genocide.
The genocide of Jews is an obligation of Islam. Thus sayeth the haddith of al Bukhari and paragraph 7, article 7 of the HAMAS covenant, which quotes the haddith (Sahih 1295 and 1296, book 56, haddith 139 al Bukhari
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
Here is genocide, from the preamble to the HAMAS Covenant:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
But I have told you all of this before, and you choose to ignore it. Why is that, you a Muslim or just a garden variety Jew hater.?
"...corruption of the Coolidge and Hoover administrations...." Didn't you hear last night? Ron DeSantis, whose campaign is experiencing a meteoric fall, declared Coolidge the President most inspiring to him.
Dude, where's my country?
Tom, Your articles have already explored at least tangentially the idea that the Repubic Party stunk long before T-Rump entered politics. I would like to see you explore this idea more fully. Ray-Gun's campaign was a cruel ideology. How is it that T-Rump with only an idiotology has such a toehold on the Re-Pubicans? Clearly the Party was smelly before FDR. I am sure there is a common thread(s) tying Jackson, Johnson, Coolidge, Ray-Gun, and Bushbaby together. The obvious culprits are crony-capitalism and racism. FDR seemingly pulled that fabric apart for over a decade but crony-capitalism and racism are still stinking up our world. As the Koch, aka Crotch, brothers and other big money schemes start teeing up Haley, it is clear that T-Rump was merely their puppet.
It's not good, but fondly, that you remind me of my uncle who had creative nasty labels for every category. As daughter of a mother who was "Bircher but died a Birther," yup, the ol' stank is not new. Therapeutic book: "Conservatives Without Conscience," John Dean. That answers your "how is it?" question.
Thanks for the Dean reminder.
You've really nailed it this time Thom! I am sharing this one far and wide. It would be wonderful if this was submitted/shared as an opinion piece in every newspaper in the US! Seriously! If there is a way please do so. This frank recapture of events is so needed right now.
In reading everyone else's off topic comments, I couldn't help but think of my favorite song by Lennon, Imagine. I joined many years ago. Hate and religion sadly go hand in hand oftentimes. Please write your congress people, and once again demand separation of church and state be explicitly stated and codified.
"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one."
Stay strong and loving dear progressives! ❤️
"Separation of Church and State." How has that gone by the wayside? "the concept is enshrined in the very first freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." https://www.freedomforum.org/separation-of-church-and-state/#:~:text=The%20words%20%22separation%20of%20church,lines%20of%20the%20First%20Amendment
Now we have a Speaker of the House openly decreeing rule by religion.