I propose a secular view one step closer to reality, Thom....and that it is, instead of "good vs. evil," what's at issue here is "love vs. hate" as manifested by the human ego....with the very real implications of their roots in the development of the human ego in childhood. Your have in the past discussed Trump's origins in his very dysfunctional German family....and I'm sure you know about Adolf Hitler's early life as well....yes? Point made?
Whether you believe Trump is the Antichrist, or a psychopath, or a malignant narcissist, or just the biggest asshole that’s ever lived (my personal choice), his behavior is yet another distraction that helps us ignore why our democracy is backsliding into autocracy. At the risk of really oversimplifying the situation, I believe that our public sector decision-makers fall into three categories. First, we have Constitutional-oath-satisfying progressives who work to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm (e.g., Senator Sanders). Second, we have the Constitutional-oath-flouting Republicans who will do anything to serve their oligarchic masters in order to get reelected or at least score a great Billy Tauzin kind of job in the private sector. These folks will never support anything the progressives want because they are afraid of getting Tuckered (there are too many examples to list here, but you can guess who they are). Third, we have a hybrid population of elected officials (like the “Problem Solvers Caucus”) who also choose not to meet their Constitutional oaths because they are also in thrall to the oligarchs that get them reelected. However, they will vote with Progressives when the oligarchs allow them to do it (like Manchin and Sinema). We need to replace the category 2 and 3 officials with category 1 folks to stop the slide, or at least elect enough progressives that we would have an amendment passing majority to end corporate personhood. A huge plurality of Progressives (aka, those who would do their best to meet the six objectives in the Preamble) is necessary to reform the systems and processes that the oligarchs have created for their own lethally selfish reasons. As long as our laws and elections remain the same (voter suppression, gerrymandering, money equaling speech, corporations enjoying the rights of citizens, etc.) and the oligarchs have use of the greatest ever propaganda organizations, people of the caliber of Trump (and the rest of his cultic kakistocrats) will continue to infest our government, and we will continue our devolution to autocracy. The obstacles to turning America into the quality of democracy that we require might seem insurmountable, but there is a proven strategy and plan to make it happen. Otherwise, the oligarchs who wield the powers of corporate personhood will continue to suck our country dry and then move on to the next host. And Trump will move on to his next grift.
I agree with all you say here. I am wondering what your "proven strategy and plan" is to "turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." ?? I find that "obstacle" the key issue facing us today--aka: "The 4th Turning --Crisis" that the authors of "The Fourth Turning" foresaw in a general way in their 1997 book.
Glen, thank you for your comment and question. It’s nice to share a common understanding of our status quo especially concerning the "proven strategy and plan" for “turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." I think the best way to answer your question about how to make this happen is by first answering the most basic questions, 1) What’s our government’s purpose?, 2) Is it on purpose?, and 3) If not, how do we compel our elected officials to meet their purpose (i.e., satisfy their Constitutional oaths)? As a thought experiment, let’s assume that the Preamble is the mission statement for our democracy and can be summarized (and contemporized) as follows, “to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm.” Or we can use Alexander Hamilton’s even pithier description, “to abolish factions and unite for the general welfare.” (If anyone has a better way to define our government’s purpose, please share it if only because it is the foundation of almost every disagreement). In addition, let’s assume that such a democracy would be considered a role model democracy and the kind of government we require because I also assume that it’s the kind of government we are entitled to, for it seems silly to argue that we are entitled to less than role model quality government. Because our oligarch-controlled public sector decision-makers are continually doing things adverse to our citizens’ rights and our communities’ interests, I also assume that we have to stop them before we can get on with building a role model democracy. And that’s where the strategy and plan come into play. Several years ago Professor Erica Chenoweth revealed some remarkable results in her studies of governments that did things adverse to their citizens’ rights and communities’ interests. Chenoweth put out a book about a year ago (Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know) that explains the strategy for how to make our elected officials collaborate with our citizens to promote our general and not that of the oligarchs. She discovered that we would need 3.5% of our population to engage in persistent nonviolent resistance, in order to elect enough progressives that will pledge to meet their Constitutional purpose. Obviously, the hard part of the plan is to inspire 12 million people to engage in the strategic application of persistent nonviolent resistance. However, with contemporary knowledge and technology, how hard can it be? The oligarchs use a version of persistent “nonviolent” resistance to get their elected officials to do their bidding, and have been doing it for years. They just use different modes of coercion to get their public sector toadies elected. Rather than peaceful assemblies, petitions, and expressing ideas in a free press, they just use extortion, bribery, and propaganda.
Well, Old Dave, I agree with your analysis once more....and note that you arrive at the remedy of "persistent nonviolent resistance" via a slightly different route than the one I have taken. Recently I contemplated what the democratic, progressive response should be if the MAGA crowd attempt to steal the 2024 Presidential election. Storm the Capitol like on Jan. 6th?
No. Encircle both Congress and the White House with a very persistent, non-stop, nonviolent march around both "Houses of Government" until the will of the voters is accurately conveyed to the Electoral College count. If we work hard enough between now...and then...we may (with the boost of the new Millennials voting en mass) have a large enough progressive majority to pass laws to change the course that our country has been on for at least 4 decades--the "extortion, bribery, & propaganda".....yeh?
Glen, I was thinking of a more inclusive and strategic application of 4/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights (plus leveraging our unenumerated right to vote) to collaborate with our elected leaders and advise them how to meet their constitutional purpose. As far as the other 1/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights, the oligarchs have been leveraging the powers of religion for a long time to make our poorly educated toe the line, and I don’t expect that will change any time soon.
Thanks for reminder about that book- got a copy around somewhere. Only thing that worries me, it was my Mom's copy, she adored that book, and what it meant to her was that Obama was the Crisis and she would have welcomed Trump as her messiah. (predeceased T. election, but believe me, I know!)
Quibble with what view may be "closer to reality." So much mystery and strangeness in this universe... I tend strongly in favor of nature over nurture. Your phrase "very dysfunctional German family" fit me like a glove, yet I'm a "lover" to the point of, well, dysfunctional wimp.
Some quirk of sweetness recessive on my father's side defied all the Bircher-to-Birther conditioning on the other. Don't give me power: I'd beg half the shirt off your back to share with somebody.... On the other hand, I can take advice, and I know there's a happy medium in principle. I have no idea why. My authoritarian bullies background did not presage my bleeding heart evolution. Huh.
Sounds to me, Daphne, that you very luckily dodged a very lethal bullet....as did I... thanks to my mother. My older brother & sister weren't so lucky....as they have duplicated father....
1983 M. Scott Peck: "People of the Lie." Famously devoutly Christian M.D. Psychiatrist, author of huge best seller "The Road Less Travelled," takes on the development of a set of criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis of "evil." "People of the Lie" is a pretty striking read in the aftermath of the Trump presidency, to say the least. p. 177: "...suppose she had been the employer rather than the employee. Suppose she had inherited...a whole corporation to manage with her devious destructiveness....At one point I defined evil as "The exercise of political power...in order to avoid...spiritual growth." (Give her a husband, a child...ugly tragedy.) "GIVE HER A NATION and she would likely have been a Hitler or an Idi Amin." Caps mine. ff, like, goosebumps. Then there's the question, why does my skin crawl at a glimpse of T., and roughly 4 out of ten people are numb to his flagrant creepiness? Dr. Peck calls it the "revulsion" response to evil, and identifies it as a survival instinct.
i dont think you have to believe that J Cis god. He was a man of principle and compassion and justice. and he wanted all of us to live that way. I cannot find those qualities in Trump. Therefore he is the anti-Christ.
In a literal sense, the former president is a piker compared to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and many other historical figures since Christ.
In a political sense, the former president is the anti everything; some of what comes to mind is truth, decency, and knowledge. He is not equipped to do the right thing. It is the tragedy of the Republicans surrendering to him. And, that's exactly what they have done, handed their party over to a creature without a conscience. They mean nothing to him, no one does. He owns them, and he uses them. I can picture the antichrist as a psychopath but not as a dumb-ass!
Of course Trump is the “Antichrist!” For all the reasons laid out above. Whatever works.
Viewed through the wider lense of empirical facts in an observable world, the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life according to our more narrow personal viewpoints, such as religion and politics, are not that important. As long as outward reality is not denied and the proper response is not suppressed, what someone might believe or the terminology they might use, metaphorically or not, doesn’t really matter.
So, the larger question remains: Will we as a society through our agreed-upon, established, Constitutional institutions — Congress, courts, media — hold powerful, rich, white people, virtually all male, accountable for their ubiquitous, murderous crimes against democracy and humanity, obvious for all to see?
If not, what good are we? And what good is our so-called “democracy” when it fails its most crucial test? If we can’t even bring our own authoritarians to account, how will we ever cope with the rise of autocracy around the world?
How many “good” Germans, during Hitler’s rise to power, wish they would not have succumbed to the right-wing propaganda of their time, which stripped an established democracy from them and plunged the world into war, while they basically sat by and did nothing, trusting their god-like leader to do the right thing in the end?
In response to your "larger question": As I see it, there is only one way to "hold the powerful, rich, white people...accountable..." and that is through the DOJ, the AG, and rest of the legal system. No justice there after all that's occurred since 1-20-2017....then there's nothing left of our country worth saving. I wouldn't even advise a civil war !
Answer to "larger question:" highly unlikely, given historical lifespan of "democracy." But maybe look more into economic pre-conditions to rise of Hitler. Treaty of Versailles sanctions post WWI. Democracy wasn't on their minds: paying a wheelbarrow-full of cash for a loaf of bread was.
Authoritarian leaders always exploit the negative conditions "their" people are suffering to consolidate a power base, usually by scapegoating the "other" people who are responsible for all the misery. It's the standard playbook: Convince your base that the old government (i.e., democracy) does not work to address their issues and that the new, "I alone can fix it" autocracy is the way to go. This only works on the ignorant and is why the "lying" press is attacked so viciously.
Trump is unquestionably evil, in my view. Read Peck, M. Scott, "People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil." Peck defines evil as "lazy narcissism." If Peck were still alive today, he would have made Trump his number 1 example of evil. Additionally, Peck participated in numerous exorcisms, which he describes in the last part of his book. He believes that the "devil" is an "it," a process. Notably, he states that "the" devil is constantly preoccupied with preventing being discovered and is constantly focused on DESTRUCTION. Its glaring weakness is "extraordinary demonic stupidity." Peck: "Were it not for its extraordinary pride and narcissism, Satan would probably not reveal itself at all. Its pride overcomes its intelligence, so that the demon of deceit is also a showoff. .... It [cannot] allow itself to lose." Remind you of anybody? In a second book, Peck goes into much more detail about exorcisms. One of the clues about the 'presence' of Satan (evil) is it will speak about itself in the 3rd person. Look up the conversation that Bill Barr, Attorney General, had with Trump after Barr told Trump that there was no evidence that the 2020 election had been rigged - According to Barr, Trump got a look on his face of pure rage and said to Barr: "I guess you don't like Trump." I could go on.
More Trumpsploitation. Yes, we know how awful Trump and the Republicans are, the echo chamber is deafening. Now what can we do about the incompetent Democrats who were unable to protect us from his presidency and are currently unable to protect us, particularly immigrants and the more vulnerable among us, against anything.
Trump was "selected" president via the outdated, undemocratic Electoral College--not the Democratic Party. Hillary won some 3 million more votes than Donald. Thom has been detailing for months now how corporate power & bought-off Senators Manchin & Sinema are sabotaging the Democrats. What's your remedy? Drive them into the arms of the Republicans and destroy Joe Biden's entire administration?
That is the razor's edge. I can be pretty down on Schumer, but it comes back to your question. No shame. Manchin and Sinema have no shame. Like Aaron Rodgers pouring gas on the Covid mass-suicide in his home town of Chico, what do you do with people who have no shame?
With all due respect, Biden was "selected" by the Democrats as their nominee. And as for the electoral college, I don't see it going anywhere soon so perhaps you are going to have to deal with the reality that Thom and the Democrats promoted a candidate who was a lying member of the ruling class just like her piggish opponent and she lost the election in the system that we have. Biden's administration was destroyed the moment he was elected, as he is in the early stages of dementia and even without it has rarely shown good judgment. His leadership is milktoast and his public health policy boils down to speeches telling people to get vaccinated in various tones and pitches while he scolds those who aren't getting vaccinated and further divides Americans. Manchin and Sinema are not the problem, the system that Biden has helped to promote and create is the problem and he is so entrenched within it he has no clue as to how to remedy it. Apparently, Manchin is the president as it is HIS voting rights bill being considered and HIS inftrastructure bill that passed and so on. Finally, your MSNBC pretzel logic has me driving Manchin and Sinema into the arms of the Republicans when I have no such power and they are making precious little if any meaningful contribution to the change that is needed to confer power to the Democrats. Stop cowering in the corner with Thom and trying to make someone look good who is not good, stand up and start fighting for what is right. We are not millionaire pundits, we should not be fighting among ourselves, spending endless hours in useless speculation and tearing our hair out over the Republicans and Trump. I would argue that strategy, and fearing losses instead of fighting for gains, has put us in this precarious position.
Well, Barry, given that you have written off Joe Biden as demented and clueless, I'm wondering what party or planet you think we should escape to ? However, if the remedy is to "stand up and start fighting,"...well...I was hoping we might be able to deal with this huge mess without resorting to our reptilian "fight or flight" brain....yeh?
Before I reply to your message, Barry Kaufman, may I ask: Are you an author of books on autism? (I read one or more several decades back...authored by one Barry Kaufman. ). Thanks, in advance, for your reply. --Glen B.
I propose a secular view one step closer to reality, Thom....and that it is, instead of "good vs. evil," what's at issue here is "love vs. hate" as manifested by the human ego....with the very real implications of their roots in the development of the human ego in childhood. Your have in the past discussed Trump's origins in his very dysfunctional German family....and I'm sure you know about Adolf Hitler's early life as well....yes? Point made?
Whether you believe Trump is the Antichrist, or a psychopath, or a malignant narcissist, or just the biggest asshole that’s ever lived (my personal choice), his behavior is yet another distraction that helps us ignore why our democracy is backsliding into autocracy. At the risk of really oversimplifying the situation, I believe that our public sector decision-makers fall into three categories. First, we have Constitutional-oath-satisfying progressives who work to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm (e.g., Senator Sanders). Second, we have the Constitutional-oath-flouting Republicans who will do anything to serve their oligarchic masters in order to get reelected or at least score a great Billy Tauzin kind of job in the private sector. These folks will never support anything the progressives want because they are afraid of getting Tuckered (there are too many examples to list here, but you can guess who they are). Third, we have a hybrid population of elected officials (like the “Problem Solvers Caucus”) who also choose not to meet their Constitutional oaths because they are also in thrall to the oligarchs that get them reelected. However, they will vote with Progressives when the oligarchs allow them to do it (like Manchin and Sinema). We need to replace the category 2 and 3 officials with category 1 folks to stop the slide, or at least elect enough progressives that we would have an amendment passing majority to end corporate personhood. A huge plurality of Progressives (aka, those who would do their best to meet the six objectives in the Preamble) is necessary to reform the systems and processes that the oligarchs have created for their own lethally selfish reasons. As long as our laws and elections remain the same (voter suppression, gerrymandering, money equaling speech, corporations enjoying the rights of citizens, etc.) and the oligarchs have use of the greatest ever propaganda organizations, people of the caliber of Trump (and the rest of his cultic kakistocrats) will continue to infest our government, and we will continue our devolution to autocracy. The obstacles to turning America into the quality of democracy that we require might seem insurmountable, but there is a proven strategy and plan to make it happen. Otherwise, the oligarchs who wield the powers of corporate personhood will continue to suck our country dry and then move on to the next host. And Trump will move on to his next grift.
I agree with all you say here. I am wondering what your "proven strategy and plan" is to "turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." ?? I find that "obstacle" the key issue facing us today--aka: "The 4th Turning --Crisis" that the authors of "The Fourth Turning" foresaw in a general way in their 1997 book.
Glen, thank you for your comment and question. It’s nice to share a common understanding of our status quo especially concerning the "proven strategy and plan" for “turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." I think the best way to answer your question about how to make this happen is by first answering the most basic questions, 1) What’s our government’s purpose?, 2) Is it on purpose?, and 3) If not, how do we compel our elected officials to meet their purpose (i.e., satisfy their Constitutional oaths)? As a thought experiment, let’s assume that the Preamble is the mission statement for our democracy and can be summarized (and contemporized) as follows, “to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm.” Or we can use Alexander Hamilton’s even pithier description, “to abolish factions and unite for the general welfare.” (If anyone has a better way to define our government’s purpose, please share it if only because it is the foundation of almost every disagreement). In addition, let’s assume that such a democracy would be considered a role model democracy and the kind of government we require because I also assume that it’s the kind of government we are entitled to, for it seems silly to argue that we are entitled to less than role model quality government. Because our oligarch-controlled public sector decision-makers are continually doing things adverse to our citizens’ rights and our communities’ interests, I also assume that we have to stop them before we can get on with building a role model democracy. And that’s where the strategy and plan come into play. Several years ago Professor Erica Chenoweth revealed some remarkable results in her studies of governments that did things adverse to their citizens’ rights and communities’ interests. Chenoweth put out a book about a year ago (Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know) that explains the strategy for how to make our elected officials collaborate with our citizens to promote our general and not that of the oligarchs. She discovered that we would need 3.5% of our population to engage in persistent nonviolent resistance, in order to elect enough progressives that will pledge to meet their Constitutional purpose. Obviously, the hard part of the plan is to inspire 12 million people to engage in the strategic application of persistent nonviolent resistance. However, with contemporary knowledge and technology, how hard can it be? The oligarchs use a version of persistent “nonviolent” resistance to get their elected officials to do their bidding, and have been doing it for years. They just use different modes of coercion to get their public sector toadies elected. Rather than peaceful assemblies, petitions, and expressing ideas in a free press, they just use extortion, bribery, and propaganda.
Well, Old Dave, I agree with your analysis once more....and note that you arrive at the remedy of "persistent nonviolent resistance" via a slightly different route than the one I have taken. Recently I contemplated what the democratic, progressive response should be if the MAGA crowd attempt to steal the 2024 Presidential election. Storm the Capitol like on Jan. 6th?
No. Encircle both Congress and the White House with a very persistent, non-stop, nonviolent march around both "Houses of Government" until the will of the voters is accurately conveyed to the Electoral College count. If we work hard enough between now...and then...we may (with the boost of the new Millennials voting en mass) have a large enough progressive majority to pass laws to change the course that our country has been on for at least 4 decades--the "extortion, bribery, & propaganda".....yeh?
Glen, I was thinking of a more inclusive and strategic application of 4/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights (plus leveraging our unenumerated right to vote) to collaborate with our elected leaders and advise them how to meet their constitutional purpose. As far as the other 1/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights, the oligarchs have been leveraging the powers of religion for a long time to make our poorly educated toe the line, and I don’t expect that will change any time soon.
Thanks for reminder about that book- got a copy around somewhere. Only thing that worries me, it was my Mom's copy, she adored that book, and what it meant to her was that Obama was the Crisis and she would have welcomed Trump as her messiah. (predeceased T. election, but believe me, I know!)
Quibble with what view may be "closer to reality." So much mystery and strangeness in this universe... I tend strongly in favor of nature over nurture. Your phrase "very dysfunctional German family" fit me like a glove, yet I'm a "lover" to the point of, well, dysfunctional wimp.
Some quirk of sweetness recessive on my father's side defied all the Bircher-to-Birther conditioning on the other. Don't give me power: I'd beg half the shirt off your back to share with somebody.... On the other hand, I can take advice, and I know there's a happy medium in principle. I have no idea why. My authoritarian bullies background did not presage my bleeding heart evolution. Huh.
Sounds to me, Daphne, that you very luckily dodged a very lethal bullet....as did I... thanks to my mother. My older brother & sister weren't so lucky....as they have duplicated father....
1983 M. Scott Peck: "People of the Lie." Famously devoutly Christian M.D. Psychiatrist, author of huge best seller "The Road Less Travelled," takes on the development of a set of criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis of "evil." "People of the Lie" is a pretty striking read in the aftermath of the Trump presidency, to say the least. p. 177: "...suppose she had been the employer rather than the employee. Suppose she had inherited...a whole corporation to manage with her devious destructiveness....At one point I defined evil as "The exercise of political power...in order to avoid...spiritual growth." (Give her a husband, a child...ugly tragedy.) "GIVE HER A NATION and she would likely have been a Hitler or an Idi Amin." Caps mine. ff, like, goosebumps. Then there's the question, why does my skin crawl at a glimpse of T., and roughly 4 out of ten people are numb to his flagrant creepiness? Dr. Peck calls it the "revulsion" response to evil, and identifies it as a survival instinct.
i dont think you have to believe that J Cis god. He was a man of principle and compassion and justice. and he wanted all of us to live that way. I cannot find those qualities in Trump. Therefore he is the anti-Christ.
In a literal sense, the former president is a piker compared to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and many other historical figures since Christ.
In a political sense, the former president is the anti everything; some of what comes to mind is truth, decency, and knowledge. He is not equipped to do the right thing. It is the tragedy of the Republicans surrendering to him. And, that's exactly what they have done, handed their party over to a creature without a conscience. They mean nothing to him, no one does. He owns them, and he uses them. I can picture the antichrist as a psychopath but not as a dumb-ass!
Of course Trump is the “Antichrist!” For all the reasons laid out above. Whatever works.
Viewed through the wider lense of empirical facts in an observable world, the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life according to our more narrow personal viewpoints, such as religion and politics, are not that important. As long as outward reality is not denied and the proper response is not suppressed, what someone might believe or the terminology they might use, metaphorically or not, doesn’t really matter.
So, the larger question remains: Will we as a society through our agreed-upon, established, Constitutional institutions — Congress, courts, media — hold powerful, rich, white people, virtually all male, accountable for their ubiquitous, murderous crimes against democracy and humanity, obvious for all to see?
If not, what good are we? And what good is our so-called “democracy” when it fails its most crucial test? If we can’t even bring our own authoritarians to account, how will we ever cope with the rise of autocracy around the world?
How many “good” Germans, during Hitler’s rise to power, wish they would not have succumbed to the right-wing propaganda of their time, which stripped an established democracy from them and plunged the world into war, while they basically sat by and did nothing, trusting their god-like leader to do the right thing in the end?
“Ignore” is the root meaning of ignorance.
In response to your "larger question": As I see it, there is only one way to "hold the powerful, rich, white people...accountable..." and that is through the DOJ, the AG, and rest of the legal system. No justice there after all that's occurred since 1-20-2017....then there's nothing left of our country worth saving. I wouldn't even advise a civil war !
Answer to "larger question:" highly unlikely, given historical lifespan of "democracy." But maybe look more into economic pre-conditions to rise of Hitler. Treaty of Versailles sanctions post WWI. Democracy wasn't on their minds: paying a wheelbarrow-full of cash for a loaf of bread was.
Authoritarian leaders always exploit the negative conditions "their" people are suffering to consolidate a power base, usually by scapegoating the "other" people who are responsible for all the misery. It's the standard playbook: Convince your base that the old government (i.e., democracy) does not work to address their issues and that the new, "I alone can fix it" autocracy is the way to go. This only works on the ignorant and is why the "lying" press is attacked so viciously.
Trump is unquestionably evil, in my view. Read Peck, M. Scott, "People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil." Peck defines evil as "lazy narcissism." If Peck were still alive today, he would have made Trump his number 1 example of evil. Additionally, Peck participated in numerous exorcisms, which he describes in the last part of his book. He believes that the "devil" is an "it," a process. Notably, he states that "the" devil is constantly preoccupied with preventing being discovered and is constantly focused on DESTRUCTION. Its glaring weakness is "extraordinary demonic stupidity." Peck: "Were it not for its extraordinary pride and narcissism, Satan would probably not reveal itself at all. Its pride overcomes its intelligence, so that the demon of deceit is also a showoff. .... It [cannot] allow itself to lose." Remind you of anybody? In a second book, Peck goes into much more detail about exorcisms. One of the clues about the 'presence' of Satan (evil) is it will speak about itself in the 3rd person. Look up the conversation that Bill Barr, Attorney General, had with Trump after Barr told Trump that there was no evidence that the 2020 election had been rigged - According to Barr, Trump got a look on his face of pure rage and said to Barr: "I guess you don't like Trump." I could go on.
More Trumpsploitation. Yes, we know how awful Trump and the Republicans are, the echo chamber is deafening. Now what can we do about the incompetent Democrats who were unable to protect us from his presidency and are currently unable to protect us, particularly immigrants and the more vulnerable among us, against anything.
Trump was "selected" president via the outdated, undemocratic Electoral College--not the Democratic Party. Hillary won some 3 million more votes than Donald. Thom has been detailing for months now how corporate power & bought-off Senators Manchin & Sinema are sabotaging the Democrats. What's your remedy? Drive them into the arms of the Republicans and destroy Joe Biden's entire administration?
That is the razor's edge. I can be pretty down on Schumer, but it comes back to your question. No shame. Manchin and Sinema have no shame. Like Aaron Rodgers pouring gas on the Covid mass-suicide in his home town of Chico, what do you do with people who have no shame?
With all due respect, Biden was "selected" by the Democrats as their nominee. And as for the electoral college, I don't see it going anywhere soon so perhaps you are going to have to deal with the reality that Thom and the Democrats promoted a candidate who was a lying member of the ruling class just like her piggish opponent and she lost the election in the system that we have. Biden's administration was destroyed the moment he was elected, as he is in the early stages of dementia and even without it has rarely shown good judgment. His leadership is milktoast and his public health policy boils down to speeches telling people to get vaccinated in various tones and pitches while he scolds those who aren't getting vaccinated and further divides Americans. Manchin and Sinema are not the problem, the system that Biden has helped to promote and create is the problem and he is so entrenched within it he has no clue as to how to remedy it. Apparently, Manchin is the president as it is HIS voting rights bill being considered and HIS inftrastructure bill that passed and so on. Finally, your MSNBC pretzel logic has me driving Manchin and Sinema into the arms of the Republicans when I have no such power and they are making precious little if any meaningful contribution to the change that is needed to confer power to the Democrats. Stop cowering in the corner with Thom and trying to make someone look good who is not good, stand up and start fighting for what is right. We are not millionaire pundits, we should not be fighting among ourselves, spending endless hours in useless speculation and tearing our hair out over the Republicans and Trump. I would argue that strategy, and fearing losses instead of fighting for gains, has put us in this precarious position.
Well, Barry, given that you have written off Joe Biden as demented and clueless, I'm wondering what party or planet you think we should escape to ? However, if the remedy is to "stand up and start fighting,"...well...I was hoping we might be able to deal with this huge mess without resorting to our reptilian "fight or flight" brain....yeh?
Before I reply to your message, Barry Kaufman, may I ask: Are you an author of books on autism? (I read one or more several decades back...authored by one Barry Kaufman. ). Thanks, in advance, for your reply. --Glen B.