My father-in-law, who barely got out of Germany before the war began, used to say, "The Nazis could take everything away from us except our knowledge that they were wrong." Dictatorships, particularly those run by insecure people, as most are, can never stand to have people tell the truth about them.
Decisions and remarks straight from the gut instead of from their prefrontal cortex is a Republican brain trait. It has gotten so bad lately that no one's rights are of any concern to them.
The best revenge Mehdi can get is to grow his audience. He does his show on an independent media organization called Zeteo, and it can be found on YouTube.
Yesterday we got a buzz word speech from Hegseth on the war. He sounds like he's reading from a bad script. We got a crazy lecture from the President about drapes and saving money. They are exhausting and boring. Listen to Thom and Medhi, you will feel smarter. See you in the streets.
Seems that every time things get hot re Epstein, Trump attacks.
In January, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, five Republican senators—Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Todd Young (R-IN), and Josh Hawley (R-MO)—initially voted to advance a resolution to restrain military action.
But “...should the President determine that he needs to introduce US Armed Forces into hostilities in major military operation in Venezuela, he would seek congressional authorizations in advance (circumstances permitting),” Rubio told them and as a result, Young and Hawley switched their votes to oppose Trump.
Surely they won't fall for it this time.
We need to pressure them and Wicker and the other members of Armed Services and other Senate committees that deal with national security.
Along with this publication and many others, I'm also a subscriber to Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan's independent news media company. They are a vital source of news that the general public needs to keep control of the country against authoritarianism. We're heading for a new era where the U.S. is no longer a democratic republic, and becoming an oligarchy. Maybe even a theocratic oligarchy if the Project 2025 people get their way.
As I watch and read more everyday, I'm seeing the people lose ground more and more every week. While we're watching WWIII start up in the middle east, we're not seeing much coverage anymore of the paramilitary ICE soldiers who are still terrorizing American citizens, naturalized citizens, immigrants and others. The independent news media is still covering this though. But now, they're having to compete with what's going on in the gulf. With our attention diverted overseas, the abuses continue apace, now without much pushback. This is how they win.
There is relief, Christopher Armitage has pointed it out, the power of the Governors, if they will only use it. The several states are sovereign entities, and the Federal government only has the power the states have given it. Governors can reclaim power, through interstate compacts, but also by issuing executive orders: https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/does-an-authoritarian-takeover-of
There is also help from abroad, but it means tanking the economy, but no pain no gain
The Trump trade is dead. Long live the anti-Trump trade. Wherever you look in financial markets, you see signs that global investors are going out of their way to avoid Donald Trump’s America.
For a long time I kept thinking... Don't these new conservatives understand they are destroying our democracy? Doesn't SCOTUS understand what they are doing by gutting the voting rights act? Then it dawned on me - as expressed in this article -- that's exactly what they want. We aren't on the same page at all -- they don't want democracy! We are no longer one country... with the same aspirations. I don't know how do we come together over such hatred, racism, and vile thought.
Our democracy gives them the right to be hateful, racist, and vile. It also gives us the right to expose and oppose everything rotten thing they say and do.
Doctor Najarian, this is just another chapter in the same American book. Progress has been made, but these steps backward are a real wake-up call. Time to answer it. Minneapolis did. See you in the streets.
They only stand for "free speech"* when it is them speaking. In the competition of ideas, they have already lost, and they know it, but can't admit it. So they use the power of their money to attenuate our message, or cancel it completely.
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Jefferson believes that the "opinion of the people" will correctly guide, because the people form opinions organically and rationally and with intelligence when adequately informed and autonomous. Is that the case with the people today? Opinion is molded by myriad forces many being motivated by money, greed, xenophobia, mythology or superstition and pathological ideological beliefs and religion, foreign interests, and pure ignorance. The people have not been trained to choose which sources and ideas can be trusted. They have been conditioned and behavior-modified, propagandized and molded by influencers, advertisers, and con artists and they generally lack the core capabilities and instincts and intuition needed to sort out truth from fiction. They have been removed from life and placed in authoritarian institutions where obedience and passivity are drilled into their consciousness for twelve years, whether they like it or want it, or not. Democracy is mouthed while it is betrayed. Bureaucratic operatives, reactionary and religious individuals and radical right-wing billionaires decide what will be their intellectual diet. The best we can hope for is that enough minds have been resistant to the onslaught, enough spirits have rejected the indoctrination, enough rebels were encouraged by independence-minded parents and teachers, and enough defiant souls have dropped out or mentally withdrawn to have retained their appreciation for freedom and autonomy to maintain the fight and to inspire others. Thankfully, the mind-control has been less than totalitarian - so far. Opinions may still favor sanity. We will soon discover which way the wind will blow.
The late Hunter Thompson, who wrote several best-selling critiques of the Republican party, reminded readers that the GOP thrives on fomenting "fear and loathing." The Alt-Right knows that they are nearly always in the minority because they have been socially feared and loathed by peers their whole lives. Many were the playground bullies - the not-nice classmates. So they turned their antisocial traits into a cult of salvation, promising to protect voters from others they labeled as dangerous to them and their families. It is a subtle form of extortion, and it works.
Evangelicals do not have a system of saints like Catholics do. The best they can do is treat their Charlie Kirks as saints. Seldom does anybody mention that Charlie was a self-made multimillionaire in his early 20s, making money off political prostheletizing - i.e., scamming. They strive to attract new bullies to serve as a political militia to convince voters that only they can save them from the onslaught of cultural diversity infesting their nation.
Of course, it is ironic that America created the illusion that our Democracy embraces diversity. We even put a big green statue welcoming European immigrants entering the NYC harbors. And as kids in the 1950's we were compelled to make a pledge of allegiance to a red, white, and blue cloth hanging in the classroom while asserting "liberty and justice for all." We were also taught that "all" meant white people like us.
I was 12 before I learned the word "exclusive." I told my mom that I had played golf at a classy club where my friend's parent were members. We should tell the G---bergs as they might want to join that club. "No, dear. Don't bother. It is exclusive." "What does that mean, too expensive?" I asked. "No, they do not accept Jews as members," she replied.
The day I learned Mehdi Hassan had been relieved of his duties at MSNBC I became a paid subscriber at Zeteo. His voice, like Mr. Harmann’s, is invaluable in these times, which is why they and those like them are vilified by the democracy-haters. Half the population is of below-average intelligence, but they share our freedoms. Pandering to them is ill-advised.
I also subscribe to Zeteo, and have a problem with it. Mehdi was essentially pro HAMAS, in that his loyalty, his partisanship, was to the ummah. He couldn't admit that HAMAS was responsible for the source of the carnage against the people.
By Analogy 380,000 French were killed by allied bombing, and 600,000 German civilians were killed by Allied bombing. So was America and Britain guilty of genocide?
Who was really responsible for the death of theose civilians. The alies or the NAZIs.
Same for Gaza.
Not to let Israel off the hook, what the Israel government, not only permits,but participates in, as settlers are killing people, aided by the IDF to drive people off their land is a crime against humanity.
Unfortunately, racial prejudice is a scourge that has plagued all races both as perpetrators and receivers.
This present administration and those who support it, are all about resurrecting something that was slowly dying in popular opinion which allowed the majority of us to both embrace and believe that the vast majority of American people were actually willing to let this trait go. I feel like the clock is ticking backwards on more than one issue, now.
My father-in-law, who barely got out of Germany before the war began, used to say, "The Nazis could take everything away from us except our knowledge that they were wrong." Dictatorships, particularly those run by insecure people, as most are, can never stand to have people tell the truth about them.
Hasan is brilliant, which is why he’s feared by the regime and its sycophants.
Buzz words and drapes.....
Decisions and remarks straight from the gut instead of from their prefrontal cortex is a Republican brain trait. It has gotten so bad lately that no one's rights are of any concern to them.
The best revenge Mehdi can get is to grow his audience. He does his show on an independent media organization called Zeteo, and it can be found on YouTube.
Yesterday we got a buzz word speech from Hegseth on the war. He sounds like he's reading from a bad script. We got a crazy lecture from the President about drapes and saving money. They are exhausting and boring. Listen to Thom and Medhi, you will feel smarter. See you in the streets.
Seems that every time things get hot re Epstein, Trump attacks.
In January, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, five Republican senators—Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Todd Young (R-IN), and Josh Hawley (R-MO)—initially voted to advance a resolution to restrain military action.
But “...should the President determine that he needs to introduce US Armed Forces into hostilities in major military operation in Venezuela, he would seek congressional authorizations in advance (circumstances permitting),” Rubio told them and as a result, Young and Hawley switched their votes to oppose Trump.
Surely they won't fall for it this time.
We need to pressure them and Wicker and the other members of Armed Services and other Senate committees that deal with national security.
Along with this publication and many others, I'm also a subscriber to Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan's independent news media company. They are a vital source of news that the general public needs to keep control of the country against authoritarianism. We're heading for a new era where the U.S. is no longer a democratic republic, and becoming an oligarchy. Maybe even a theocratic oligarchy if the Project 2025 people get their way.
As I watch and read more everyday, I'm seeing the people lose ground more and more every week. While we're watching WWIII start up in the middle east, we're not seeing much coverage anymore of the paramilitary ICE soldiers who are still terrorizing American citizens, naturalized citizens, immigrants and others. The independent news media is still covering this though. But now, they're having to compete with what's going on in the gulf. With our attention diverted overseas, the abuses continue apace, now without much pushback. This is how they win.
Actually hearings inthe Senate today.....
I'm waiting to see what she says or will they just ask a bunch of non-sensical questions.
As Stephen Colbert said: The senate voting on the war powers of the President is basically rubber stamping of an action.
Basically, we're all fecked.
There is relief, Christopher Armitage has pointed it out, the power of the Governors, if they will only use it. The several states are sovereign entities, and the Federal government only has the power the states have given it. Governors can reclaim power, through interstate compacts, but also by issuing executive orders: https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/does-an-authoritarian-takeover-of
There is also help from abroad, but it means tanking the economy, but no pain no gain
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/the-anti-trump-trade-critical-mineral
Long live the anti-Trump trade
On influence:Contact your state Attorney General: https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/on-influence
The Trump trade is dead. Long live the anti-Trump trade. Wherever you look in financial markets, you see signs that global investors are going out of their way to avoid Donald Trump’s America.
Agreed. We all need to start preparing for a global depression.
For a long time I kept thinking... Don't these new conservatives understand they are destroying our democracy? Doesn't SCOTUS understand what they are doing by gutting the voting rights act? Then it dawned on me - as expressed in this article -- that's exactly what they want. We aren't on the same page at all -- they don't want democracy! We are no longer one country... with the same aspirations. I don't know how do we come together over such hatred, racism, and vile thought.
They're not "conservatives." They're MAGATs.
MAGAts are conservatives, there is a straight line from Nixon' to Reagan, to the Tea Party, to Bush to MAGA to Trump.
The father of MAGA is William F. buckley Jr.
Tell it to Luttig, Mitt Romney, Darth Vader's daughter.
Another non sequitur. They and MAGA are all children of Buckley
You don't even know what it means.
Your comment does not follow from my comment.
Is there a Daniel Solomon outside of google AI? A question I ask myself constantly.
Our democracy gives them the right to be hateful, racist, and vile. It also gives us the right to expose and oppose everything rotten thing they say and do.
Doctor Najarian, this is just another chapter in the same American book. Progress has been made, but these steps backward are a real wake-up call. Time to answer it. Minneapolis did. See you in the streets.
The only thingimportant to conservatives is owning the libs.
They only stand for "free speech"* when it is them speaking. In the competition of ideas, they have already lost, and they know it, but can't admit it. So they use the power of their money to attenuate our message, or cancel it completely.
*may not be available in your area.
Thom quotes Jefferson:
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Jefferson believes that the "opinion of the people" will correctly guide, because the people form opinions organically and rationally and with intelligence when adequately informed and autonomous. Is that the case with the people today? Opinion is molded by myriad forces many being motivated by money, greed, xenophobia, mythology or superstition and pathological ideological beliefs and religion, foreign interests, and pure ignorance. The people have not been trained to choose which sources and ideas can be trusted. They have been conditioned and behavior-modified, propagandized and molded by influencers, advertisers, and con artists and they generally lack the core capabilities and instincts and intuition needed to sort out truth from fiction. They have been removed from life and placed in authoritarian institutions where obedience and passivity are drilled into their consciousness for twelve years, whether they like it or want it, or not. Democracy is mouthed while it is betrayed. Bureaucratic operatives, reactionary and religious individuals and radical right-wing billionaires decide what will be their intellectual diet. The best we can hope for is that enough minds have been resistant to the onslaught, enough spirits have rejected the indoctrination, enough rebels were encouraged by independence-minded parents and teachers, and enough defiant souls have dropped out or mentally withdrawn to have retained their appreciation for freedom and autonomy to maintain the fight and to inspire others. Thankfully, the mind-control has been less than totalitarian - so far. Opinions may still favor sanity. We will soon discover which way the wind will blow.
Yes—a dilemma that is steadily ballooning.
How lucky to have had a father like that....
The late Hunter Thompson, who wrote several best-selling critiques of the Republican party, reminded readers that the GOP thrives on fomenting "fear and loathing." The Alt-Right knows that they are nearly always in the minority because they have been socially feared and loathed by peers their whole lives. Many were the playground bullies - the not-nice classmates. So they turned their antisocial traits into a cult of salvation, promising to protect voters from others they labeled as dangerous to them and their families. It is a subtle form of extortion, and it works.
Evangelicals do not have a system of saints like Catholics do. The best they can do is treat their Charlie Kirks as saints. Seldom does anybody mention that Charlie was a self-made multimillionaire in his early 20s, making money off political prostheletizing - i.e., scamming. They strive to attract new bullies to serve as a political militia to convince voters that only they can save them from the onslaught of cultural diversity infesting their nation.
Of course, it is ironic that America created the illusion that our Democracy embraces diversity. We even put a big green statue welcoming European immigrants entering the NYC harbors. And as kids in the 1950's we were compelled to make a pledge of allegiance to a red, white, and blue cloth hanging in the classroom while asserting "liberty and justice for all." We were also taught that "all" meant white people like us.
I was 12 before I learned the word "exclusive." I told my mom that I had played golf at a classy club where my friend's parent were members. We should tell the G---bergs as they might want to join that club. "No, dear. Don't bother. It is exclusive." "What does that mean, too expensive?" I asked. "No, they do not accept Jews as members," she replied.
The day I learned Mehdi Hassan had been relieved of his duties at MSNBC I became a paid subscriber at Zeteo. His voice, like Mr. Harmann’s, is invaluable in these times, which is why they and those like them are vilified by the democracy-haters. Half the population is of below-average intelligence, but they share our freedoms. Pandering to them is ill-advised.
I also subscribe to Zeteo, and have a problem with it. Mehdi was essentially pro HAMAS, in that his loyalty, his partisanship, was to the ummah. He couldn't admit that HAMAS was responsible for the source of the carnage against the people.
By Analogy 380,000 French were killed by allied bombing, and 600,000 German civilians were killed by Allied bombing. So was America and Britain guilty of genocide?
Who was really responsible for the death of theose civilians. The alies or the NAZIs.
Same for Gaza.
Not to let Israel off the hook, what the Israel government, not only permits,but participates in, as settlers are killing people, aided by the IDF to drive people off their land is a crime against humanity.
Unfortunately, racial prejudice is a scourge that has plagued all races both as perpetrators and receivers.
This present administration and those who support it, are all about resurrecting something that was slowly dying in popular opinion which allowed the majority of us to both embrace and believe that the vast majority of American people were actually willing to let this trait go. I feel like the clock is ticking backwards on more than one issue, now.