Excellent framing! You’re right that corruption has become America’s operating system, but I’d add that its source code was written decades ago. The deregulation ethos and market-worship born in the Reagan era taught power to monetize everything, including government itself. Trump just stripped away the polite fictions.
I wrote this week about how our nostalgia for Reagan’s ‘Morning in America’ still blinds the center to that continuity. Sharing here for anyone who wants to read on how myth, not malice, keeps the rot alive.
Reagan wasn't religious, but it breaks down to those who believe we are all born in sin and those who don't.
IMHO Reagan was elected via corruption regarding Iranian complicity in an October suprise, and his record was that he was so farblonget (according to his own family, demented) he coluldn't recall his complicity in Iran Contra.
At the time, my wife worked in the DOJ fraud and public corruption section. I don't know this as a fact but it looked like the foxes were in charge of the henhouse. E.G. Ed Meese, Attorney General Edwin Meese III was investigated multiple times for his conduct in office. The investigations concerned allegations of financial impropriety and ethical misconduct related to his involvement in the Wedtech scandal and the Iran-Contra affair. While independent counsels ultimately chose not to pursue criminal charges, they issued critical reports about his ethics.
Trump is Reagan on streroids on this issue.
If there is a flip side, IMHO these crooks are exposed and in the end right beats wrong.
Hi Stew: I love your substack. I totally agree. Corruption has been the lifeblood of America since the outset. We have ritualized and formalized it with campaign contributions, even the vote is a quid pro quo. I'll give you my vote if you give me this.
Almost nothing happens if a palm doesn't get greased, I'm talking of stuff like the Indian Removal act, slavery, slaughter of the buffalo-railroads-western expansion under the euphemism of Manifest Destiny, to building a shack for lawnmower storage, bribe the municipality or county to get a permit.
Yes Mr. Farrar. "since the outset." I had colleagues who travelled the globe for decades and they all reported the same demands for bribes in certain countries, that Mr. Hartman describes.
However, it is not necessary to leave the U.S. in order to be abused by police or administrative officials. I grew up in Detroit and I can assure you that it is not necessary to go to Mexico or Uganda to look down the barrel of a cop's gun. I was forced to look down the barrel of a .38 revolver by the police in my home town as a young man, TWICE and Ann Arbor once. I am not even talking about the times I had carbines pointed at me during riots in 1967 Detroit.
I had many friends who were not White and they were forced to live with such fear and danger from the authorities much more frequently than I was. They were Black or queer or Native American. That's why we called police officers PIGS in those days.
It was standard practice for the police of the 13th precinct in Detroit to demand free fellatio from the prostitutes on Cass Avenue. The police in the same precinct were supplied free cocktails from the bartenders at the Willis Show Bar, one block off Woodward Ave. This was to guarantee freedom from police raids on the bar's naked female pole-dancers.
You are correct. The corruption is not new today. It has currently reached a stage of maturity under the Trumpsters, and is now openly displayed; so the nice White liberals living in their suburban safety can no longer ignore it.
I was not happy with the level of corruption in my home town. But I was surprised at the level of brazen corruption I saw when I first visited Louisiana and Florida. New Orleans and Tampa can outdo Detroit any time.
On my first visit to Portland, Oregon about a decade ago I was saddened to read in the news paper about the police tendency to gun down Black men at traffic intersections in the wonderfully wierd city of PDX. The history of race relations in the town is disappointing. From the corrupt treatment of the Black residents of Vanport who were flooded out of their homes in 1948; to the cruel way the Black residents were displaced from their homes in order to make way for the construction of Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
The corruption is not new. But I do thank Mr. Hartmann for pointing it out.
The biggest issue with corruption is that it has been normalized. Trump has made a fetish of it, and his happy throngs bow before it with all due reverence.
You do realize that your are preaching to the choir, Mr Dobbertin?
Cops still hustle the streets, get sex from prostitutes, pocket cash from drug busts,take bribes
Corruption is US. If Diogenes were alive today, he would slit his own throat.
As regards Oregon:Oregon voters removed the state constitutional clause that prohibited Black people from owning property in 1926.
Washington State was conservative until major transformations occurred during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, influenced by changing demographics and economic shifts
.
major transformations occurred during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, influenced by changing demographics and economic shifts.
Deceased Sen Scoop Jackson was the father of neo conservatism, basically a cold war anti communist liberal, the Seattle area being he home of Boeing,particularly Paine Field, outside of Everett, Renton and Kent, Lots of defense contracts there.
And the most notorious neo cons started out in his office.
Today the suburbs to the west of Seattle are Silicon Valley North,centered on Redmond, WA, home to Microsoft and ancillary corporations, Bill Gates and other billionaires own homes in Medina, sited on a Peninsula that sticks out into Lake Washington.
Just kibbutzing but I find it interesting that Meca, TX and Medina , Tx are home to some serious redneck Christians, and Medina, WA is the home of some serious billionaires.
Medina was where Muhammad lived when he had the Jewish tribe Quaryza slaughtered and where he die. Mecca or Makka, was where he was born, both are holy sites in which no kufr can tread.
William,after reading your post,why the hell would anyone want to live in the US if they had other options or maybe all civilized societies are corrupt. Sure glad I'm not raing any kids in this era.
I bemoan the fact that I was stupid enough to have three kids, which produced 11 grand kids, some of which are Trump idiots, 9 great grand kids and two great great grand kids (the family likes to fuck like everyone else)
But, hey, I was born into a world not of my making, and had to survive and prosper in spite of odds stacked against me. They will have to do the same.
Unlike my fellow critter, I do not suffer the illusion that I live on after meeting my mortality, The essence of me, who I am, my identity, my memories vanish with my last breath.
As a genetic genealogist, I am aware of the selfish gene, but that gene does not carry the essence of me, except perhaps in epigenetics, even then that is not me, not my consciousness, my memories. Those go kaput, and the descendants of my DNA, press on with the banality of their lives, like I did, with scarcely a thought of me.
You weren't stupid, William. It was a different world when you were growing up. There was optimism and a positive vision of the future, at least for a little bit. And our enemies — there always needs to be enemies — were "them", exterior to us, not ourselves. And as for losing all of those faculties with your last breath, not so! Look at Trump.
Mr. Farrar, start right now writing your memoirs. Your progeny will be delighted to read them after you are gone. You are good with the written word. Have somebody edit it, nevertheless. They will have a thought of you.
Thanks for the good thought, but my kids don't care. Honestly, they are self absorbed and only care about what they can gather here and now.
Their mother and I divorced (she divorced me, didn't believe she was officers wife material, the other officers wives patronized her, my kids were
14, 12,9 now 64, 62, 59.
My hobby is genetic genealogy,.they laugh at me, not interested in what I have found, only interested in what resources they can gather. Their mothers influence. I diligently provided child support and alimony,stopped the alimony when she remarried though, payment made by military allotment.
I do have a grand daughter who cares, so I share vignettes with her.
Thanks for the link. Completely agree, especially with the following from your piece:
"We need a new center.
One not built on defending ghosts, but on building policies for real people. Policies that aren’t afraid to admit that maybe the consensus of the last 40 years failed more people than it helped. That perhaps the small-town ideal wasn’t destroyed by “identity politics,” but by bipartisan worship of deregulated trade and capital. "
For Whom the Outrages Toll. Let us not forget the Epstein Files, first. I mean we know a pedophile when we see one dodge, duck, shuck, and jive. For some reason we need the files. I rather think we do not, and we already know what is there. The outrages toll for you as a distraction. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/too-much-two-buckets-to-sanity?r=3m1bs
I keep posting. According to Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Trumpepstein may cause an "Epstein bomb" causing over 100 Republican members to "jailbreak" from Trump.
Well actually, no, I'm not. My comment has to do with the likelihood that Republicans are going to vote on whether or not they support "preverts" is highly unlikely. If you expect them to do so and actually condemn perversion you better be patient because it is going to be a long, long time. Hence "Best to be patient" in that it ain't going to happen. If the Epstein Files were to be released they would be so heavily redacted that they would like carbon paper.
Daniel,I would like to think all the names of the Epstein scandal are still there,but I 'm sure many names have been deleted. BTW,if we think the " NO KIngs Rallies" are making difference,you can see what the " Nazi" thinks abut them.
I don't think they've been "deleted." Redacted does not mean they've been lost to history. Besides that I was involved in many cases where "deleted" digital data was retrieved.
I'm guessing that based on what I see in the Miami Herald and hear on Youtube, that about 800 victims have not yet come forward.
I also think that there are a hell of a lot more than the 7 mil reported.
Curious whether anyone watched the recent episode of Law and Order which aired Thursday night. Wolf took on corruption multiple corruption issues that accurately portray our current situation. I take my hat off to the producers of this show for having the guts to dramatize our new reality.
I saw it and I agree. The murder was a son of the Emir of Qatar or the UAE, IIRC, he claimed diplomatic immunity, because it extends to children, but this dude was 43 years old.
The US Government stepped in because the Emir was holding a billion dollar arms deal over their head. And IIRC although the jury found him guilty, the judge (looking of course for a federal seat) vacated the sentence, even after they reduced the charge from murder to manslaughter.
Corporations commit murder, like Union Carbide in Bhopal, India, and they don't even get the death penalty, revocation of their charter, and the officers walk away with either a bonus or a golden parachute.
The only time a rich and famous person goes to jail, is if they piss off the wrong people,like Bernie Madoff, and Martha Stewart, or Sam Bankman Fried.
It is not the crime that gets you in trouble,but the identity of the victims.
TRump really thought that the extortion would be much harder.....
He's expressed how easy it has been. The Tech-Bros JUMPED on the Trump-train. Everything they developed has come from government research. What they produced was meant to be sold to the government. They depend on our system to let them build monopolies and over-price the products and services. The biggest pig at our trough is Musk.
Tech-Bros and their oligarch friends are not content with just the USA. While expanding their kingdom, they've used TRump to ensure rigged markets. They have kept funds and interests safe by bribing the despot with the best funded armed forces ever.
Every goddamn thing we are interested in is now dependent on tech. The Technate of America is outlined in the notes of a map in Cornell University's archive. It shows Canada and Greenland all the way down through Venezuela and Columbia. Musk's grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman was part of this movement before WWII. IT'S ALL BACK, INCLUDING THE NAZIs. Trump and his syndicate want a whole lot more than the oil, rare earth minerals, and the resources of all those countries. They want CONTROL of everybody.
I too applaud Thom calling out the blatant corruption. It's not that we all don't see it, but everyone with a platform should use it as a loudspeaker to keep laying out bare the openly illegal behavior so that it doesn't become normalized....
Sadly, American culture is central to enabling the spread of Trumpruption. As children, Americans are taught that capitalism is the fairest, most moral, and Christian economic system in history. Teachers and textbooks often conflate capitalism with democracy, asserting that in America, if you knuckle down and work hard, you will be rewarded with wealth. This latter confusion causes Americans to conflate communism (aka Marxism or socialism) with dictatorship an unfair, immoral, evil system of government servitude that is the enemy of democracy.
The end result of the incorrect conflation of economic systems with governance is manifested in the bogus belief that the richer one is, the more successful they are, and the more morally deserving they are of power over others.
As a child, I used to hear classmates on the playground challenge arguments by asking; "Oh yeah? Well, if you're so smart, how come you're not rich?" Thus, today, we still see evidence that this is a common element of our culture. MAGA Republicans willingly and serially have ceded government power to a notorious scammer and conman with a long history of business failures and brazen immorality, because, being a billionaire, Trump is entitled. In their view, he clearly has been chosen by God to lead America. Just look at all the evangelical pastors praying for him. Never mind that Trump and most of those pastors got their money through lying, cheating, and stealing. Ignore that his economic policies and practices have made the majority of MAGA voters less economically secure.
Yes. These are very old worn out beliefs that keep our society—civilization—embedded with untruths that encourage citizens to bend at the knee to those with power and money. To revere those who have power as deserving of power. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is not true power. This is the belief that power is finite and you must steal it from others in order to obtain it under the guise that God is somehow smiling in you alone. But, this is merely power obtained from draining one for another.
True power is from our understanding of innate oneness and working for a common good. Until we are able to grasp this as a people, we are doomed to keep bending our heads and back to follow the lack of the undeserving.
Tomonthebeach. I spent 4 decades teaching students the difference between the institution of GOVERNMENT and the ECONOMIC institution. Also the difference between the social control mechanism of INFLUENCE and the control mechanism of POWER. You are correct. These things are all too often, conflated. I see it in the comments made to Mr. Hartmann's writing.
Yeah, Trump didn’t kill the American Dream. He rebranded it. Turned the land of opportunity into the land of invoice. Every handshake became a contract. Every sermon became a side hustle. Every flag came pre-tagged for resale.
We used to dream about freedom. Now we dream about getting in on the scam before the music stops.
This isn’t corruption anymore. It’s customer service for the damned.
By the looks of it, America ceased to be a democracy a while back.
Corruption has been part of this country for a very, very long time. On some levels it has become so interwoven with the political structure that it can be hard to differentiate it from the laws of the country as put forth in the Constitution. An early example, one still in the forefront today, is gerrymandering, which goes back to 1812. Denying free and fair elections by geographical chicanery is corruption. Countenancing slavery in order to form a less perfect union is corruption. Counting slaves as 3/5 of a man is corruption. Jim Crow, poll taxes, denying women the right to vote and now denying them the right to make their own choices, corruption. Our invasions of countries who have done us no harm, getting into bed with despots, creating banana republics for the benefit of our corporations, are all corruption. The denial of medical services, or clean water, or access to quality education for all is corruption. And allowing billionaires to circumvent fair taxes, to the detriment of everyone else is corruption. Corruption is an old game in these United States.
Yes, Trump is a grifter, the Grifter-in-Chief. He revels in it. There seem to be no boundaries that are sacrosanct, or at least none that he recognizes. Grift is a subset of corruption. Rubes are its normal targets Theoretically all the machinations are to be performed under the table. Not anymore: there are millions of Americans who consider being screwed over by him to be a divine blessing. (If grift is performed in the light of day, is it still grift?)
I have always loved Democracy, my dad taught me to. His favorite words were honesty and integrity and he DID NOT LIE ever.
I'm glad he has passed on because this would have killed him. But another thing he taught me was how to "hunker" down and stay strong. And that's what I and my children and their children will do.
As I read and listen to smart people like you, I think it's a waste of time. All that you have said or will say has been said before, to no avail. We are just another herd of buffalo stampeding over a cliff. The myth of Sisyphus is the story. Emotion makes me demonstrate. Emotion makes me pass out flyers in my neighborhood. Emotion makes me write and call my congressman. Read, The Great Leveler~Walter Scheidel. Read Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum, or Masha Gessen. We are just another buffalo in a stampeding herd - some will survive. Sisyphus understood.
David,great post. Making statements on this substack without participating in rallies,passing out flyers or doing something is just a time waste. We could be boycotting cos on CNBC,Fox,any tech co,but "No"we're not going to do that,its takes more effort than posting here. I think an increasing # of Americans who dislike what the " Nazi Republic" has brought us do not bvelieve this will end peacefully.
THIS IS WHAT THE MAGATS VOTED FOR. This needs to be megaphoned from the highest rooftops in every state. This is the type of people they are or they would be recalling their own deceiving elected officials and un-voting all this shit. They love it, still love it despite any inconvenience, or lack of, or need of, or loss of almost anything I can imagine - because it makes the least among them feel that they OWN THE LIBS. And they've fallen for every lie the Great Satan, the Great Deceiver has showered upon them. The obscenely wealthy are just the delivery system with all the "goodies" that can be bought that stuffs their pockets with money.
Yes, our transactional president and family are for sale to the highest bidder. We the people, due to inflation caused in part by tariffs have less money to spend. Consumer spending accounts for around 76% of GDP. I did a few Internet searches asking such questions as are grocery prices up, are home, auto and health insurance costs up. These and many more queries all resulted in yes answers. So how is it that most economists tell us that inflation is only up modestly, unemployment stats are good, and consumer spending is holding steady. And the stock market is at record levels. I smell a rat. How can all of those cost driven downsides equate to a healthy economy?
In case you've forgotten Thom, this nation was built on grift and genocide, the latter of which you seem not to grasp in its definition. The floundering fathers you continuously lionize were largely torturers and rapists, building their fortunes and our nation the easy way--upon the backs of stolen labor. Nothing has fundamentally changed (as Biden promised the billionaires it wouldn't when he was campaigning in 2019). Democrats backed policies that undermined the working class and outsourced manufacturing, at the same time whittling away at social programs like welfare and creating a carceral/mass surveillance state. As far as I can remember when it comes to our political system and the notions of peace and equality, honesty has always been punished, power has always been bought, and every rule was made to be broken by those in power. You have supported those who ascribe to the ideology of malignant power and greed, from pretending the Affordable Care Act was not a privatization of the health care system to ignoring a genocide. You really can't go much further Thom.
Excellent framing! You’re right that corruption has become America’s operating system, but I’d add that its source code was written decades ago. The deregulation ethos and market-worship born in the Reagan era taught power to monetize everything, including government itself. Trump just stripped away the polite fictions.
I wrote this week about how our nostalgia for Reagan’s ‘Morning in America’ still blinds the center to that continuity. Sharing here for anyone who wants to read on how myth, not malice, keeps the rot alive.
https://www.stewonthis.com/p/the-ghost-of-reagan-haunts-the-future
Reagan wasn't religious, but it breaks down to those who believe we are all born in sin and those who don't.
IMHO Reagan was elected via corruption regarding Iranian complicity in an October suprise, and his record was that he was so farblonget (according to his own family, demented) he coluldn't recall his complicity in Iran Contra.
At the time, my wife worked in the DOJ fraud and public corruption section. I don't know this as a fact but it looked like the foxes were in charge of the henhouse. E.G. Ed Meese, Attorney General Edwin Meese III was investigated multiple times for his conduct in office. The investigations concerned allegations of financial impropriety and ethical misconduct related to his involvement in the Wedtech scandal and the Iran-Contra affair. While independent counsels ultimately chose not to pursue criminal charges, they issued critical reports about his ethics.
Trump is Reagan on streroids on this issue.
If there is a flip side, IMHO these crooks are exposed and in the end right beats wrong.
Hi Stew: I love your substack. I totally agree. Corruption has been the lifeblood of America since the outset. We have ritualized and formalized it with campaign contributions, even the vote is a quid pro quo. I'll give you my vote if you give me this.
Almost nothing happens if a palm doesn't get greased, I'm talking of stuff like the Indian Removal act, slavery, slaughter of the buffalo-railroads-western expansion under the euphemism of Manifest Destiny, to building a shack for lawnmower storage, bribe the municipality or county to get a permit.
Yes Mr. Farrar. "since the outset." I had colleagues who travelled the globe for decades and they all reported the same demands for bribes in certain countries, that Mr. Hartman describes.
However, it is not necessary to leave the U.S. in order to be abused by police or administrative officials. I grew up in Detroit and I can assure you that it is not necessary to go to Mexico or Uganda to look down the barrel of a cop's gun. I was forced to look down the barrel of a .38 revolver by the police in my home town as a young man, TWICE and Ann Arbor once. I am not even talking about the times I had carbines pointed at me during riots in 1967 Detroit.
I had many friends who were not White and they were forced to live with such fear and danger from the authorities much more frequently than I was. They were Black or queer or Native American. That's why we called police officers PIGS in those days.
It was standard practice for the police of the 13th precinct in Detroit to demand free fellatio from the prostitutes on Cass Avenue. The police in the same precinct were supplied free cocktails from the bartenders at the Willis Show Bar, one block off Woodward Ave. This was to guarantee freedom from police raids on the bar's naked female pole-dancers.
You are correct. The corruption is not new today. It has currently reached a stage of maturity under the Trumpsters, and is now openly displayed; so the nice White liberals living in their suburban safety can no longer ignore it.
I was not happy with the level of corruption in my home town. But I was surprised at the level of brazen corruption I saw when I first visited Louisiana and Florida. New Orleans and Tampa can outdo Detroit any time.
On my first visit to Portland, Oregon about a decade ago I was saddened to read in the news paper about the police tendency to gun down Black men at traffic intersections in the wonderfully wierd city of PDX. The history of race relations in the town is disappointing. From the corrupt treatment of the Black residents of Vanport who were flooded out of their homes in 1948; to the cruel way the Black residents were displaced from their homes in order to make way for the construction of Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
The corruption is not new. But I do thank Mr. Hartmann for pointing it out.
The biggest issue with corruption is that it has been normalized. Trump has made a fetish of it, and his happy throngs bow before it with all due reverence.
You do realize that your are preaching to the choir, Mr Dobbertin?
Cops still hustle the streets, get sex from prostitutes, pocket cash from drug busts,take bribes
Corruption is US. If Diogenes were alive today, he would slit his own throat.
As regards Oregon:Oregon voters removed the state constitutional clause that prohibited Black people from owning property in 1926.
Washington State was conservative until major transformations occurred during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, influenced by changing demographics and economic shifts
.
major transformations occurred during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, influenced by changing demographics and economic shifts.
Deceased Sen Scoop Jackson was the father of neo conservatism, basically a cold war anti communist liberal, the Seattle area being he home of Boeing,particularly Paine Field, outside of Everett, Renton and Kent, Lots of defense contracts there.
And the most notorious neo cons started out in his office.
Today the suburbs to the west of Seattle are Silicon Valley North,centered on Redmond, WA, home to Microsoft and ancillary corporations, Bill Gates and other billionaires own homes in Medina, sited on a Peninsula that sticks out into Lake Washington.
Just kibbutzing but I find it interesting that Meca, TX and Medina , Tx are home to some serious redneck Christians, and Medina, WA is the home of some serious billionaires.
Medina was where Muhammad lived when he had the Jewish tribe Quaryza slaughtered and where he die. Mecca or Makka, was where he was born, both are holy sites in which no kufr can tread.
William,after reading your post,why the hell would anyone want to live in the US if they had other options or maybe all civilized societies are corrupt. Sure glad I'm not raing any kids in this era.
I bemoan the fact that I was stupid enough to have three kids, which produced 11 grand kids, some of which are Trump idiots, 9 great grand kids and two great great grand kids (the family likes to fuck like everyone else)
But, hey, I was born into a world not of my making, and had to survive and prosper in spite of odds stacked against me. They will have to do the same.
Unlike my fellow critter, I do not suffer the illusion that I live on after meeting my mortality, The essence of me, who I am, my identity, my memories vanish with my last breath.
As a genetic genealogist, I am aware of the selfish gene, but that gene does not carry the essence of me, except perhaps in epigenetics, even then that is not me, not my consciousness, my memories. Those go kaput, and the descendants of my DNA, press on with the banality of their lives, like I did, with scarcely a thought of me.
You weren't stupid, William. It was a different world when you were growing up. There was optimism and a positive vision of the future, at least for a little bit. And our enemies — there always needs to be enemies — were "them", exterior to us, not ourselves. And as for losing all of those faculties with your last breath, not so! Look at Trump.
You are right it was a different world, I had no inkling of an idea, that the future would be so dystopic.
Mr. Farrar, start right now writing your memoirs. Your progeny will be delighted to read them after you are gone. You are good with the written word. Have somebody edit it, nevertheless. They will have a thought of you.
Thanks for the good thought, but my kids don't care. Honestly, they are self absorbed and only care about what they can gather here and now.
Their mother and I divorced (she divorced me, didn't believe she was officers wife material, the other officers wives patronized her, my kids were
14, 12,9 now 64, 62, 59.
My hobby is genetic genealogy,.they laugh at me, not interested in what I have found, only interested in what resources they can gather. Their mothers influence. I diligently provided child support and alimony,stopped the alimony when she remarried though, payment made by military allotment.
I do have a grand daughter who cares, so I share vignettes with her.
So sorry to hear that Mr. Farrar. Guess I should count my lucky stars.
Thanks for the link. Completely agree, especially with the following from your piece:
"We need a new center.
One not built on defending ghosts, but on building policies for real people. Policies that aren’t afraid to admit that maybe the consensus of the last 40 years failed more people than it helped. That perhaps the small-town ideal wasn’t destroyed by “identity politics,” but by bipartisan worship of deregulated trade and capital. "
For Whom the Outrages Toll. Let us not forget the Epstein Files, first. I mean we know a pedophile when we see one dodge, duck, shuck, and jive. For some reason we need the files. I rather think we do not, and we already know what is there. The outrages toll for you as a distraction. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/too-much-two-buckets-to-sanity?r=3m1bs
I keep posting. According to Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Trumpepstein may cause an "Epstein bomb" causing over 100 Republican members to "jailbreak" from Trump.
Massive Congressional visits November 18.
https://www.instagram.com/flare.usa/p/DP_mdOyjdiG/
Visit Congressional Republicans.https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/851451/
But when?
Maybe when House Republicans have to vote whether or not they support preverts.
Best be patient.
Robert,be patient? How much more crap do we have to tolerate form a " Nazi" ?
Well actually, no, I'm not. My comment has to do with the likelihood that Republicans are going to vote on whether or not they support "preverts" is highly unlikely. If you expect them to do so and actually condemn perversion you better be patient because it is going to be a long, long time. Hence "Best to be patient" in that it ain't going to happen. If the Epstein Files were to be released they would be so heavily redacted that they would like carbon paper.
Daniel,I would like to think all the names of the Epstein scandal are still there,but I 'm sure many names have been deleted. BTW,if we think the " NO KIngs Rallies" are making difference,you can see what the " Nazi" thinks abut them.
I don't think they've been "deleted." Redacted does not mean they've been lost to history. Besides that I was involved in many cases where "deleted" digital data was retrieved.
I'm guessing that based on what I see in the Miami Herald and hear on Youtube, that about 800 victims have not yet come forward.
I also think that there are a hell of a lot more than the 7 mil reported.
Curious whether anyone watched the recent episode of Law and Order which aired Thursday night. Wolf took on corruption multiple corruption issues that accurately portray our current situation. I take my hat off to the producers of this show for having the guts to dramatize our new reality.
I saw it and I agree. The murder was a son of the Emir of Qatar or the UAE, IIRC, he claimed diplomatic immunity, because it extends to children, but this dude was 43 years old.
The US Government stepped in because the Emir was holding a billion dollar arms deal over their head. And IIRC although the jury found him guilty, the judge (looking of course for a federal seat) vacated the sentence, even after they reduced the charge from murder to manslaughter.
Corporations commit murder, like Union Carbide in Bhopal, India, and they don't even get the death penalty, revocation of their charter, and the officers walk away with either a bonus or a golden parachute.
The only time a rich and famous person goes to jail, is if they piss off the wrong people,like Bernie Madoff, and Martha Stewart, or Sam Bankman Fried.
It is not the crime that gets you in trouble,but the identity of the victims.
Wolf and Trump went to Penn and he has always been considered to be a Trump supporter.
TRump really thought that the extortion would be much harder.....
He's expressed how easy it has been. The Tech-Bros JUMPED on the Trump-train. Everything they developed has come from government research. What they produced was meant to be sold to the government. They depend on our system to let them build monopolies and over-price the products and services. The biggest pig at our trough is Musk.
Tech-Bros and their oligarch friends are not content with just the USA. While expanding their kingdom, they've used TRump to ensure rigged markets. They have kept funds and interests safe by bribing the despot with the best funded armed forces ever.
Every goddamn thing we are interested in is now dependent on tech. The Technate of America is outlined in the notes of a map in Cornell University's archive. It shows Canada and Greenland all the way down through Venezuela and Columbia. Musk's grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman was part of this movement before WWII. IT'S ALL BACK, INCLUDING THE NAZIs. Trump and his syndicate want a whole lot more than the oil, rare earth minerals, and the resources of all those countries. They want CONTROL of everybody.
Let's stop them. See you in the streets.
I still think those tech bros are also marks and Trump will grift them.
He'll think he is, but they know pretty soon they will be around and he will not.
Thank you "Fearless Thom"
Great connections of the FACTS.
My friend calles the Felon "The Enema of America"
We need to douche him (and his cronies) out.
I too applaud Thom calling out the blatant corruption. It's not that we all don't see it, but everyone with a platform should use it as a loudspeaker to keep laying out bare the openly illegal behavior so that it doesn't become normalized....
Just remove their testosterone producing organs and the resulting delivery system. Where's Loreena Bobbitt?
LOVE THIS! It seems that the upper portion is already in serious decline - just wish the mouth would disappear!
Sadly, American culture is central to enabling the spread of Trumpruption. As children, Americans are taught that capitalism is the fairest, most moral, and Christian economic system in history. Teachers and textbooks often conflate capitalism with democracy, asserting that in America, if you knuckle down and work hard, you will be rewarded with wealth. This latter confusion causes Americans to conflate communism (aka Marxism or socialism) with dictatorship an unfair, immoral, evil system of government servitude that is the enemy of democracy.
The end result of the incorrect conflation of economic systems with governance is manifested in the bogus belief that the richer one is, the more successful they are, and the more morally deserving they are of power over others.
As a child, I used to hear classmates on the playground challenge arguments by asking; "Oh yeah? Well, if you're so smart, how come you're not rich?" Thus, today, we still see evidence that this is a common element of our culture. MAGA Republicans willingly and serially have ceded government power to a notorious scammer and conman with a long history of business failures and brazen immorality, because, being a billionaire, Trump is entitled. In their view, he clearly has been chosen by God to lead America. Just look at all the evangelical pastors praying for him. Never mind that Trump and most of those pastors got their money through lying, cheating, and stealing. Ignore that his economic policies and practices have made the majority of MAGA voters less economically secure.
Yes. These are very old worn out beliefs that keep our society—civilization—embedded with untruths that encourage citizens to bend at the knee to those with power and money. To revere those who have power as deserving of power. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is not true power. This is the belief that power is finite and you must steal it from others in order to obtain it under the guise that God is somehow smiling in you alone. But, this is merely power obtained from draining one for another.
True power is from our understanding of innate oneness and working for a common good. Until we are able to grasp this as a people, we are doomed to keep bending our heads and back to follow the lack of the undeserving.
Tomonthebeach. I spent 4 decades teaching students the difference between the institution of GOVERNMENT and the ECONOMIC institution. Also the difference between the social control mechanism of INFLUENCE and the control mechanism of POWER. You are correct. These things are all too often, conflated. I see it in the comments made to Mr. Hartmann's writing.
Yeah, Trump didn’t kill the American Dream. He rebranded it. Turned the land of opportunity into the land of invoice. Every handshake became a contract. Every sermon became a side hustle. Every flag came pre-tagged for resale.
We used to dream about freedom. Now we dream about getting in on the scam before the music stops.
This isn’t corruption anymore. It’s customer service for the damned.
WOW! Fortunately, I still dream of freedom ~ with a heavy dose of nightmares. . .
I clicked "like" to get to this page, but we need to add a choice, a very frowny face!
By the looks of it, America ceased to be a democracy a while back.
Corruption has been part of this country for a very, very long time. On some levels it has become so interwoven with the political structure that it can be hard to differentiate it from the laws of the country as put forth in the Constitution. An early example, one still in the forefront today, is gerrymandering, which goes back to 1812. Denying free and fair elections by geographical chicanery is corruption. Countenancing slavery in order to form a less perfect union is corruption. Counting slaves as 3/5 of a man is corruption. Jim Crow, poll taxes, denying women the right to vote and now denying them the right to make their own choices, corruption. Our invasions of countries who have done us no harm, getting into bed with despots, creating banana republics for the benefit of our corporations, are all corruption. The denial of medical services, or clean water, or access to quality education for all is corruption. And allowing billionaires to circumvent fair taxes, to the detriment of everyone else is corruption. Corruption is an old game in these United States.
Yes, Trump is a grifter, the Grifter-in-Chief. He revels in it. There seem to be no boundaries that are sacrosanct, or at least none that he recognizes. Grift is a subset of corruption. Rubes are its normal targets Theoretically all the machinations are to be performed under the table. Not anymore: there are millions of Americans who consider being screwed over by him to be a divine blessing. (If grift is performed in the light of day, is it still grift?)
Why are any of us surprised?
Robert,great post.Maybe you can repeat this everyday until people wake up an get really pissed off.
I have always loved Democracy, my dad taught me to. His favorite words were honesty and integrity and he DID NOT LIE ever.
I'm glad he has passed on because this would have killed him. But another thing he taught me was how to "hunker" down and stay strong. And that's what I and my children and their children will do.
As I read and listen to smart people like you, I think it's a waste of time. All that you have said or will say has been said before, to no avail. We are just another herd of buffalo stampeding over a cliff. The myth of Sisyphus is the story. Emotion makes me demonstrate. Emotion makes me pass out flyers in my neighborhood. Emotion makes me write and call my congressman. Read, The Great Leveler~Walter Scheidel. Read Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum, or Masha Gessen. We are just another buffalo in a stampeding herd - some will survive. Sisyphus understood.
David,great post. Making statements on this substack without participating in rallies,passing out flyers or doing something is just a time waste. We could be boycotting cos on CNBC,Fox,any tech co,but "No"we're not going to do that,its takes more effort than posting here. I think an increasing # of Americans who dislike what the " Nazi Republic" has brought us do not bvelieve this will end peacefully.
I fear you are probably right
THIS IS WHAT THE MAGATS VOTED FOR. This needs to be megaphoned from the highest rooftops in every state. This is the type of people they are or they would be recalling their own deceiving elected officials and un-voting all this shit. They love it, still love it despite any inconvenience, or lack of, or need of, or loss of almost anything I can imagine - because it makes the least among them feel that they OWN THE LIBS. And they've fallen for every lie the Great Satan, the Great Deceiver has showered upon them. The obscenely wealthy are just the delivery system with all the "goodies" that can be bought that stuffs their pockets with money.
It’d be helpful for Andrew Cuomo’s Democratic supporters to read this piece.
America has become a Banana . . . not even a Banana Republic, a friggin' Banana Plantation.
We are just a notch above 19th-century Black sharecroppers.
The price of race hate [Donald] is too damn high.
Shades of his first wife: We'll ALL be buried in one of his unkempt golf courses before he's done.
Yes, our transactional president and family are for sale to the highest bidder. We the people, due to inflation caused in part by tariffs have less money to spend. Consumer spending accounts for around 76% of GDP. I did a few Internet searches asking such questions as are grocery prices up, are home, auto and health insurance costs up. These and many more queries all resulted in yes answers. So how is it that most economists tell us that inflation is only up modestly, unemployment stats are good, and consumer spending is holding steady. And the stock market is at record levels. I smell a rat. How can all of those cost driven downsides equate to a healthy economy?
In case you've forgotten Thom, this nation was built on grift and genocide, the latter of which you seem not to grasp in its definition. The floundering fathers you continuously lionize were largely torturers and rapists, building their fortunes and our nation the easy way--upon the backs of stolen labor. Nothing has fundamentally changed (as Biden promised the billionaires it wouldn't when he was campaigning in 2019). Democrats backed policies that undermined the working class and outsourced manufacturing, at the same time whittling away at social programs like welfare and creating a carceral/mass surveillance state. As far as I can remember when it comes to our political system and the notions of peace and equality, honesty has always been punished, power has always been bought, and every rule was made to be broken by those in power. You have supported those who ascribe to the ideology of malignant power and greed, from pretending the Affordable Care Act was not a privatization of the health care system to ignoring a genocide. You really can't go much further Thom.