So now it’s largely up to us. You and me. People who value democracy and want to see a world safe from tyrants and wannabee tyrants like Putin, Xi, MBS, and Trump…
WOW Thom...we need this historical reminder of what tyrants in the past have promoted. Keep telling us and putting those facts out there. Seems it runs in families! :(
The Republicans are fascists and will stop at nothing to win by the rules of money , power and lies.
Blatant racism, hypocrisy, and hate are their main ingredients . Don’t let us forget constant misinformation.
Otherwise known as Lies, from Trumps mouth to their eager ears and then intimidation , threats, and attacks on anyone involved with the truth. They cannot abide the truth . It labels them as the miscreants that they are .
The monied and powerful spread this criminal agenda.
The corporate media is bought up for the purpose of spreading these same lies.
We must expose their fascism for what it is these people pushing for the end of democracy feed on corruption.
Back in 1949, Albert Einstein warned us about the rich owning all the media outlets and confusing the masses making democracy impossible. Guess he was right?
"So now it’s largely up to us. You and me. People who value democracy and want to see a world safe from tyrants and wannabee tyrants like Putin, Xi, MBS, and Trump…"
If it's up to me, find more Taylor Swifts. Demographics favor democracy. Young people consitute 40% of the elecorate. Wherre I live - even in red Florida- young people and renters trend Democratic by 70%. Concentrate on kids who will turn 18 by November 2024.
Michelle Obama’s has a group, When We All Vote, https://whenweallvote.org/. Too bi-partisan for my taste.
Tom should interview, Taylor, Olivia Ponton, Monica Kim, Labron James, who have been Democratic influencers. People like Juanita Monsalve, at United We Dream Action (UWDA), powered by immigrant youth, youth of color with immigrant family members. https://unitedwedreamaction.org/
Not only do they spead the word about democracy, they can spread the word about the Tom Hartmann Show.
This piece deserves more than 112 hearts. It cuts precisely to the "how" of why we find ourselves on the event horizon of an authoritarian blackhole.
For years I have been aware, and therefore sharing, the very real truth that war is literally being waged against democracy - not only here in the US, but the world over. Literally. It may not always resemble traditional warfare, but it is absolute warfare no less. Social media and the mass proliferation of targeted misinformation therein can achieve many of the same objectives as a full-on military assault - minus the atrocities that would surely unite a people and spur them to action. It is troubling that no matter how well reasoned or articulated this fact is, people generally don't seem to grasp it. I fear it is simply too inconvenient, and yet, not inconvenient enough. It is a truth many may feel - but absent the horror of bombs falling from the sky or the undeniable terror of an invading military force murdering and raping its way across our communities (obviously these grotesque and very real criminal assaults are being committed against the people and sovereignty of Ukraine, by Putin) - it will remain a truth exclusively felt, not confronted.
Irregular warfare is perhaps more dangerous and consequential than traditional warfare in the sense that it is extremely subtle and exceedingly complex. It seeks the same sinister objectives - only invading from within, by weaponizing people and institutions. Trump remains Putin's most dangerous (and most definitely dumbest) man on the inside.
As Thom so clearly reminds us, the spiral down goes gradually - then suddenly. I'll keep saying it for as long as I can speak: We can do this, we can turn the tide of authoritarianism back, we can build a stronger democracy. And we can only do it together. It is literally no less and no more up to all of us - right now.
In 2019 I gave a presentation on “The Fifth Column In America”
There was already a plethora of books by the likes of Jane Mayer’s fabulous book on the Koch and may others warning of illiberal practices, authoritarianism, and theocracy.
It was clear to me that Bush Jr. and his minions were not only out to wage a war on Iraq under false pretense, but that the Patriot Act was setting the stage for a parallel action like Hitler’s Enabling Acts (which ironically were created in the last days of the Weimar government, in a vain attempt to prevent revolutionary takeover from the very far right parties that used it like a mailed fist).
The issue today is what actions do we have the guts to do to stop the fascist takeover NOW.
BTW, Hitler’s end to the Emergency Declaration he used after the Reichstag burning only ended when the Russians found his charred remains outside the command bunker he was living in after 65 million people had died because of this efforts.
Thanks, Thom, for another cogent and holistic picture of what we're up against.
We need a conscious plan for how democracy survives. I'll start with a few basic thoughts:
1) Retain belief in our values - Inclusiveness, the rule of law, fair elections, a free press, and non-violent resolution of conflict, all make a happier, healthier society for the 99%. Tyrannies create terror on purpose. Violence is their primitive response to not getting what they want which is unassailable dominance.
2) Join and support groups working toward preserving these values wherever they're under attack: reproductive rights, the climate catastrophe, local and national politics, the media...whatever you have a passion to preserve, and
3) Spread information from Thom, Ruth Ben Ghiat, Dr, Bandy X. Lee, Glenn Kushner, The Meidas Touch, Michael Moore, and other progressive voices you follow who clearly recognize the fascist agenda and the psychopathology from which it emanates but who also remind us of the strengths of our own side. In our individual universes of influence we can spread information, register people to vote, answer their questions respectfully, protect and support workers at the polls, and educate others regarding the psychological damage done by tyrants who subordinate us, strip us of our rights, eradicate dissent, annihilate individuality, and force us to submit.
Tyrants in public office are just like abusive men (or women) in our lives. They use physical threats, gaslighting, and other forms of manipulation to subordinate their target, invalidate that person's reality, cut them off from sources of support, and reward total submission. The antidote is to retain connection to supportive others, retain belief in our own perceptions, and ultimately, get them out of our lives…vote them out of office.
It was not non violence that convinced the British to leave India, It was not non violence that convinced the government to modestly reform their treatment of minorities.
Mahtma Ghandi and non violence are the propaganda of the powers that be, they perceive them as they do our progressive boycotts, sit downs and marches as a pressure relief valve, like the Occupy movement. that let it simmer, wait till they get bored, hungry and worn out then go home and things go on as they always have, with no results.
In Seattle they let them occupy a street cops even set barricades to restrict access to outsiders, they even elected their own mayor and after a week or two with no response, they packed up and went home
It wasn't Ghandi who convinced Britain to leave India, though that is the myth they perpetuate, they and the Plutocrats who own everything.
It was the "ghost" (not literal) of Subra Chandra Bose, an Indian Nationalist who joined the Indian League of the Waffen SS(Germany;s foreign legion), for the training and experience and returned home to liberate India, and the Indian Natonal Army, who worked with the Japanese in trying to overthrow the British occupiers.The remnants of the INA, were well armed as were their recruits, that is that survived the treason trials held by the Brits after the war.. The Brits were alarmed, as they knew the INA was well armed and outnumbered them by 100,.000 to one, That is what convinced them to leave, not some skinny, fasting guru.
It was the aftermath of the murder of MLK, that forced the hand of the government, and earlier in LA it was the Watts Riot, after the Rodney King beating, that forced LA to initiate some reforms.
Hippies protesting the VN war didn't force Nixon's hand, it was middle America who was tired of seeing their sons, husbands, cousins and uncles coming home in body bags that did the trick and that is why Dubya, restricted access to Dover AFB, in Delaware where the C141's unloaded their coffins, and made sure that military funerals were not videoed and shown on TV.
Reference today's callers addressing WWI Germanophobia. My grandfather told me about agents in his German-language Lutheran Church in Nebraska required the sermons and hymns to be in English. Likewise, it was against the law to speak German in public or on the telephone; violators had their phone lines cut. He told me "In America you have 'Freedom of Speech' if you are speaking English; 'Freedom of Religion' if you worship in English, 'Freedom of the Press if you print in English." The U.S. Board of Geographic Names cleansed America's landscape of dozens of topographic features and towns with German or "German-sounding" names. Prohibition of the German language included restaurant menus: Sauerkraut became "Liberty Cabbage"; frankfurters became "hot-dogs"; Hamburger steak became Salisbury steak; even games were not immune, Sternalma became "Chinese Checkers" and "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" became "aggravation". Bi-lingual German-English language schools become "English only" and German-language private Lutheran schools were forced to teach in English. Thousands of German-American "Schmidts" became "Smiths, "Brauns" became "Browns" or adopted American (English) names and surnames. HAPAG passenger ships parked in neutral American ports were seized after war was declared and then sold to "real" Americans, including the (president) Bush family. German language books were removed from public and university libraries, and in some instances burned - this was years BEFORE the Nazi's burned books. A sign outside a German-American owned business that was compelled to sell war bonds displayed this sign: "Deutsch-Amerika tut sein Pflicht wenn dabei das Herz auch bricht" (German-American will do its duty even if it breaks our hearts). The end result of America's ethnic genocide campaign against German-Americans was quite successful -- I am the LAST member of my family who can still speak my heritage language.
Yes Mr. Siemens, I know what you are talking about. I recognize the
Siemens name from childhood. My father's business competed with Siemen and Peters. If you look up Dobbertin Abbey on line you will see where my father's family came from. There is evidence of human habitation in that vicinity for 10K years. I get it. I heard the anti-German stories from mein grossfatter in Milwaukee many years back. I am 81.
Thanks for the post. I've known about it for years. My first wife's paternal ancestors were German miners that moved to westernPennsylvania and anglicized their name for the same reason. Actually it was her fathers father, who at the time was working in a quarry in Trap Rock, NJ.
I also suggest a close reading of President Biden's speech in Arizona, but also General Milley's farewell speech on Friday. Both speeches summarize the essence of our democracy and threat to its continued existence. A close reading of both speeches are elaborations on a much shorter speech namely The Gettysburg Address. If the United States has a civil religion, as many contend, the I suggest the Lincoln's speech is its credo, and Biden and Milley's speeches are its Summa Theologica.
If you truly ascribe to the continuance of democracy, I suggest a daily recitation of and meditation on The Gettysburg Address.
The fascist inclined want fascism, it will rid them of the other, the enemy in their eyes.
apparently they revel in the idea of mass violence, to punish and exterminate liberals, people of color. They don't believe that there are any poor, homeless white people, and that those that are are black or furriners.
My avocation is genetic genealogist and since my family has roots in Ashley Co, AR from 1859, I bought a book, The History of Ashley County, Arkansas printed in 1954. At the very end the asshole (part of the ruling class of course) says that the War between the states was fought for states rights. (the right to own slaves). My great great grandfather, a great great uncle and a whole passel of c ousins, did not own slaves, they were dirt and pig farmers. They stupidly marched off and never came home, because these illiterate ancestors and relatives were swayed into being patriotic by the press and the pulpit, whose income and survival depended on the opinion and support of their betters, the press, pulpit, law, and merchants.
I believe it is the new battleground, especially after poorer folks and holdouts were somewhat coerced into getting internet service due to the pandemic. The social media sites and ZOOM became lifelines.
We all knew we're being jerked around by old-school advertising, but this ability to throttle, index and choose concerning websites and info is a whole new field of propaganda. So thanks, Thom, we really need to tell others what we know on the subject.
To borrow from Ross Perot, that giant sucking sound you hear now is from the rich, unrestrained media moguls sucking the life out of us. They want to promote fighting, dictators, and the misery of the world because it enhances their bottom line.
I have to repeat myself on this point concerning Ukraine---it's not our choice. They have proven to Putin it was not his choice either. We can choose to help or hurt. Hurting others is what makes Trump, his Republicans, and Putin feel powerful.
Propaganda is not Power. But it is Power's first cousin: Influence. Archimedes is claimed to have said "Give me a long enough lever and I will move the Earth." I say give me enough influence and everyone will voluntarily give me power.
"So now it’s largely up to us to carry the message forward. You and me." How's about a shoutout, Thom, so people look at my summary piece where I'm uniquely looking for what we-the-people can do now? "What's on A ROADMAP TO THE FUTURE?" https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/whats-on-a-roadmap-to-the-future? What does anybody think?
You've gone full out looney Thom. The propaganda war was not just the work of Bush and Cheney, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden enthusiastically and unapologetically joined the ranks. The Obama administration convinced us that Qaddafi was the next Hitler and along with Hillary Clinton transformed that country into another failed state. The Obama administration then turned to Assad in Syria as the next Hitler and proceed along with Russia to commit war crimes and accomplish nothing. The architects of our Ukraine strategy are many of the same individuals who spread propaganda about Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria to name a few. Despite your McCarthyist approach, one can be against following the same warmongers who were wrong about every single military intervention over the past 25 years and NOT be working for Putin. And how precisely when liberals are stumping for World War III is using social media and the internet going to help anyone at all? We should be joining forces on social media to push for a prioritization of education , housing and healthcare for all, and to call out our leaders for spending 55% of discretionary spending on blowing things up, not joining forces to promote the continuation of the Cold War escalating into nuclear war.
Barry, I certainly agree with your humanistic values yet I don't know what to do when Russia has been aggressive towards Ukraine since 2014. Was the United States and the United Nations blind to this encroachment? Do we need stricter sanctions and lots more diplomacy and mediation? Russia literally crosses boundaries with tanks and armies and weaponry and when it gets to that point, when Putin is targeting maternity wards, stealing children from their parents, brainwashing them and tormenting thousands and thousands of Ukrainian families, by that time what else can we do but oppose them with force? This has long been a conundrum of those of us who want a world without war, a world with a pentagons worth of diplomatic and preventative measures including psychoanalysis for those in office!
I am aware that successive United States governments have fomented wars and been drawn into wars. Everything's "a war" in this country… "The war on terror," "the war on drugs," even Thom talks about "the water cooler wars." This country has an unconscious preoccupation with the concept of war and that's something we need to reflect upon and become conscious of.
But just as with Hitler, by the time we get a megalomaniacal psychopath believing that he owns the world and will use any means to get it, what else can we do?
That's not a rhetorical question… It's really something we need to think about, brainstorm about and discuss.
Prevention is the better part of cure and we collectively need to prevent psycho pathic, tyrannical men and women from gaining political office anywhere on this planet. I believe we are inching in that direction… what do you think?
Barry's comments are not humanitarian, they are political and they are Putinist, the nukes that Putin has won't leave the silo,much less the submarine, because they require constant maintenance, and the Russian armed forces are led by corrupt Generals and Admirals. I've provided a link, read it, and see what the wealthy, well trained Air Force and Navy have to go through to maintain it's nuclear arsenal.
Thank you for your rational insight and response, but it is possible you might not be primed on the history of the region because unfortunately the media, including Thom who has shouted me off his program, is not telling the real story of our role in the region including the coup we staged in 2014. One person you need to look up is Victoria Newland who is Biden's Acting Deputy Secretary Of State and Under Secretary For Political Affairs. If you have the time, here is a non-partisan video by Jeffrey Sachs that pulls it all together in a rational and succinct way. Again, this is not making apologies for Putin, but he is far from the madman Thom and our media makes him out to be. The motivation for doing so is to make negotiations/diplomacy seem impossible, which is not the case at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGkz5czqGw
You really are a Putinista, deflecting from Putin to Obama and Biden. The both sides ism, except neither are responsible to launching rockets, missiles and artillery at hospitals, schools, apartments, kidnapping children and raping and murdering civilians.
Guess all those award winning journalists and scholars like Jeffrey Sachs and Chris Hedges who disagree with you because they were in the room at the time must be Commies! We do forget history including the McCarthy era when we have to double down on our shame and guilt for ignoring and repeating it. All in the interest of propping up our own imperialist heroes.
They are deluded, old line Marxists, and as such are nostalgic about the "Soviet Union". And FYI, Russia was a libertarian paradise, but became more so when Yeltsin sold it's trusts, to friends in the KGB, what we call oligarchs today.
Those at the top pre Yeltsin ate caviar, the proles ate feces.
Thank you, Barry...I'll definitely look at this when I get a break later today. I understand that what any of us comes to understand about any situation so far from our own involvement, is only ever a thin slice of the pie. Then you add in the subjectivity of various perspectives and what you get is a kaleidoscope rather than one, coherent picture. I listen to all perspectives and filter them through my own subjectivity to arrive at a temporary hypothesis. I only conclude something, such as TFG's psychopathologies, when I feel really confident. And even then, I keep my mind open to other perspectives. So thanks for this one...I'll check it out. :)
Here you go again Barry. A disinfo agent trying his best to neutralilze and diminish Thom.
Get the message, no one wants you here, fuck off and be gone Putinista.
The Putin troll farms are getting more nervous as the election nears. He must having an erotic ejaculation, as Gaetz and the MAGGots are grabbing headlines to defund Ukraine.
As regards a Nuclear war, Russia's missiles are a dud. It takes constant preventive maintenance, with highly trained technicians to service these missiles they are not put in silos or hangers and forget like ordinary explosives and even ordinary explosives start to corrode, and become unstable or duds.
This is what it is like to maintain the US Nuclear arsenal, imagine what it is like in Russia, with all of their corruption and untrained and unreliable technicians.
WOW Thom...we need this historical reminder of what tyrants in the past have promoted. Keep telling us and putting those facts out there. Seems it runs in families! :(
Thank you for this timely reminder.
The Republicans are fascists and will stop at nothing to win by the rules of money , power and lies.
Blatant racism, hypocrisy, and hate are their main ingredients . Don’t let us forget constant misinformation.
Otherwise known as Lies, from Trumps mouth to their eager ears and then intimidation , threats, and attacks on anyone involved with the truth. They cannot abide the truth . It labels them as the miscreants that they are .
The monied and powerful spread this criminal agenda.
The corporate media is bought up for the purpose of spreading these same lies.
We must expose their fascism for what it is these people pushing for the end of democracy feed on corruption.
Back in 1949, Albert Einstein warned us about the rich owning all the media outlets and confusing the masses making democracy impossible. Guess he was right?
Smart cookie!
Having just escaped Hitler and a Death Camp vacation, Yeah, he could see the handwriting on the proverbial wa;;
"So now it’s largely up to us. You and me. People who value democracy and want to see a world safe from tyrants and wannabee tyrants like Putin, Xi, MBS, and Trump…"
If it's up to me, find more Taylor Swifts. Demographics favor democracy. Young people consitute 40% of the elecorate. Wherre I live - even in red Florida- young people and renters trend Democratic by 70%. Concentrate on kids who will turn 18 by November 2024.
Attached is a list of influencers. https://klear.com/influencers/Democracy
Michelle Obama’s has a group, When We All Vote, https://whenweallvote.org/. Too bi-partisan for my taste.
Tom should interview, Taylor, Olivia Ponton, Monica Kim, Labron James, who have been Democratic influencers. People like Juanita Monsalve, at United We Dream Action (UWDA), powered by immigrant youth, youth of color with immigrant family members. https://unitedwedreamaction.org/
Not only do they spead the word about democracy, they can spread the word about the Tom Hartmann Show.
This piece deserves more than 112 hearts. It cuts precisely to the "how" of why we find ourselves on the event horizon of an authoritarian blackhole.
For years I have been aware, and therefore sharing, the very real truth that war is literally being waged against democracy - not only here in the US, but the world over. Literally. It may not always resemble traditional warfare, but it is absolute warfare no less. Social media and the mass proliferation of targeted misinformation therein can achieve many of the same objectives as a full-on military assault - minus the atrocities that would surely unite a people and spur them to action. It is troubling that no matter how well reasoned or articulated this fact is, people generally don't seem to grasp it. I fear it is simply too inconvenient, and yet, not inconvenient enough. It is a truth many may feel - but absent the horror of bombs falling from the sky or the undeniable terror of an invading military force murdering and raping its way across our communities (obviously these grotesque and very real criminal assaults are being committed against the people and sovereignty of Ukraine, by Putin) - it will remain a truth exclusively felt, not confronted.
Irregular warfare is perhaps more dangerous and consequential than traditional warfare in the sense that it is extremely subtle and exceedingly complex. It seeks the same sinister objectives - only invading from within, by weaponizing people and institutions. Trump remains Putin's most dangerous (and most definitely dumbest) man on the inside.
As Thom so clearly reminds us, the spiral down goes gradually - then suddenly. I'll keep saying it for as long as I can speak: We can do this, we can turn the tide of authoritarianism back, we can build a stronger democracy. And we can only do it together. It is literally no less and no more up to all of us - right now.
In 2019 I gave a presentation on “The Fifth Column In America”
There was already a plethora of books by the likes of Jane Mayer’s fabulous book on the Koch and may others warning of illiberal practices, authoritarianism, and theocracy.
It was clear to me that Bush Jr. and his minions were not only out to wage a war on Iraq under false pretense, but that the Patriot Act was setting the stage for a parallel action like Hitler’s Enabling Acts (which ironically were created in the last days of the Weimar government, in a vain attempt to prevent revolutionary takeover from the very far right parties that used it like a mailed fist).
The issue today is what actions do we have the guts to do to stop the fascist takeover NOW.
BTW, Hitler’s end to the Emergency Declaration he used after the Reichstag burning only ended when the Russians found his charred remains outside the command bunker he was living in after 65 million people had died because of this efforts.
Usually we only ban people when they are abusive toward our call screener. What will Mark tell me if I ask him why he banned you?
Thanks, Thom, for another cogent and holistic picture of what we're up against.
We need a conscious plan for how democracy survives. I'll start with a few basic thoughts:
1) Retain belief in our values - Inclusiveness, the rule of law, fair elections, a free press, and non-violent resolution of conflict, all make a happier, healthier society for the 99%. Tyrannies create terror on purpose. Violence is their primitive response to not getting what they want which is unassailable dominance.
2) Join and support groups working toward preserving these values wherever they're under attack: reproductive rights, the climate catastrophe, local and national politics, the media...whatever you have a passion to preserve, and
3) Spread information from Thom, Ruth Ben Ghiat, Dr, Bandy X. Lee, Glenn Kushner, The Meidas Touch, Michael Moore, and other progressive voices you follow who clearly recognize the fascist agenda and the psychopathology from which it emanates but who also remind us of the strengths of our own side. In our individual universes of influence we can spread information, register people to vote, answer their questions respectfully, protect and support workers at the polls, and educate others regarding the psychological damage done by tyrants who subordinate us, strip us of our rights, eradicate dissent, annihilate individuality, and force us to submit.
Tyrants in public office are just like abusive men (or women) in our lives. They use physical threats, gaslighting, and other forms of manipulation to subordinate their target, invalidate that person's reality, cut them off from sources of support, and reward total submission. The antidote is to retain connection to supportive others, retain belief in our own perceptions, and ultimately, get them out of our lives…vote them out of office.
It was not non violence that convinced the British to leave India, It was not non violence that convinced the government to modestly reform their treatment of minorities.
Mahtma Ghandi and non violence are the propaganda of the powers that be, they perceive them as they do our progressive boycotts, sit downs and marches as a pressure relief valve, like the Occupy movement. that let it simmer, wait till they get bored, hungry and worn out then go home and things go on as they always have, with no results.
In Seattle they let them occupy a street cops even set barricades to restrict access to outsiders, they even elected their own mayor and after a week or two with no response, they packed up and went home
It wasn't Ghandi who convinced Britain to leave India, though that is the myth they perpetuate, they and the Plutocrats who own everything.
It was the "ghost" (not literal) of Subra Chandra Bose, an Indian Nationalist who joined the Indian League of the Waffen SS(Germany;s foreign legion), for the training and experience and returned home to liberate India, and the Indian Natonal Army, who worked with the Japanese in trying to overthrow the British occupiers.The remnants of the INA, were well armed as were their recruits, that is that survived the treason trials held by the Brits after the war.. The Brits were alarmed, as they knew the INA was well armed and outnumbered them by 100,.000 to one, That is what convinced them to leave, not some skinny, fasting guru.
It was the aftermath of the murder of MLK, that forced the hand of the government, and earlier in LA it was the Watts Riot, after the Rodney King beating, that forced LA to initiate some reforms.
Hippies protesting the VN war didn't force Nixon's hand, it was middle America who was tired of seeing their sons, husbands, cousins and uncles coming home in body bags that did the trick and that is why Dubya, restricted access to Dover AFB, in Delaware where the C141's unloaded their coffins, and made sure that military funerals were not videoed and shown on TV.
He learned many lessons from Nixon.
Why does no one ever bring up the following
Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and the UK
signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 treaty
that assured Ukraine it would be safe from attack
as long as it gave up its massive stockpile of nukes
The nukes were sent to Russia
It was formal recognition of Ukraine as an 'equal and sovereign state'
In 2009, Russia and the U.S. announced that the assurances
in the Budapest Memorandum would continue to remain in effect in the future.
But Russia first violated the memorandum in 2014,
when it sent its military into Crimea and annexed it.
The other three nations named in the Budapest Memorandum
invoked the treaty’s sixth assurance, or the agreement
to consult each other in the event the treaty’s commitments came into question,
and met in Paris to discuss the invasion.
Russia did not attend the meeting.
So why do the Democrats bring up the fact
the US is honour bound to help Ukraine
I know it will not move the needle on the ultra-right-cult followers
but at least the mainstream would be able to see that this is a matter of honouring
signed commitments.
then it will become disgraced
Which leads us to the next conclusion
why does anyone think there can be a diplomatic ending to the war
when Russia not only broke that treaty
but multiple other treaties just like Hitler did.
Maggots have no honour.
Reference today's callers addressing WWI Germanophobia. My grandfather told me about agents in his German-language Lutheran Church in Nebraska required the sermons and hymns to be in English. Likewise, it was against the law to speak German in public or on the telephone; violators had their phone lines cut. He told me "In America you have 'Freedom of Speech' if you are speaking English; 'Freedom of Religion' if you worship in English, 'Freedom of the Press if you print in English." The U.S. Board of Geographic Names cleansed America's landscape of dozens of topographic features and towns with German or "German-sounding" names. Prohibition of the German language included restaurant menus: Sauerkraut became "Liberty Cabbage"; frankfurters became "hot-dogs"; Hamburger steak became Salisbury steak; even games were not immune, Sternalma became "Chinese Checkers" and "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" became "aggravation". Bi-lingual German-English language schools become "English only" and German-language private Lutheran schools were forced to teach in English. Thousands of German-American "Schmidts" became "Smiths, "Brauns" became "Browns" or adopted American (English) names and surnames. HAPAG passenger ships parked in neutral American ports were seized after war was declared and then sold to "real" Americans, including the (president) Bush family. German language books were removed from public and university libraries, and in some instances burned - this was years BEFORE the Nazi's burned books. A sign outside a German-American owned business that was compelled to sell war bonds displayed this sign: "Deutsch-Amerika tut sein Pflicht wenn dabei das Herz auch bricht" (German-American will do its duty even if it breaks our hearts). The end result of America's ethnic genocide campaign against German-Americans was quite successful -- I am the LAST member of my family who can still speak my heritage language.
Yes Mr. Siemens, I know what you are talking about. I recognize the
Siemens name from childhood. My father's business competed with Siemen and Peters. If you look up Dobbertin Abbey on line you will see where my father's family came from. There is evidence of human habitation in that vicinity for 10K years. I get it. I heard the anti-German stories from mein grossfatter in Milwaukee many years back. I am 81.
Thanks for the post. I've known about it for years. My first wife's paternal ancestors were German miners that moved to westernPennsylvania and anglicized their name for the same reason. Actually it was her fathers father, who at the time was working in a quarry in Trap Rock, NJ.
I also suggest a close reading of President Biden's speech in Arizona, but also General Milley's farewell speech on Friday. Both speeches summarize the essence of our democracy and threat to its continued existence. A close reading of both speeches are elaborations on a much shorter speech namely The Gettysburg Address. If the United States has a civil religion, as many contend, the I suggest the Lincoln's speech is its credo, and Biden and Milley's speeches are its Summa Theologica.
If you truly ascribe to the continuance of democracy, I suggest a daily recitation of and meditation on The Gettysburg Address.
Imagine if we could find the right string of words to promote democracy.
The election is simple: democracy or fascism.
The fascist inclined want fascism, it will rid them of the other, the enemy in their eyes.
apparently they revel in the idea of mass violence, to punish and exterminate liberals, people of color. They don't believe that there are any poor, homeless white people, and that those that are are black or furriners.
My avocation is genetic genealogist and since my family has roots in Ashley Co, AR from 1859, I bought a book, The History of Ashley County, Arkansas printed in 1954. At the very end the asshole (part of the ruling class of course) says that the War between the states was fought for states rights. (the right to own slaves). My great great grandfather, a great great uncle and a whole passel of c ousins, did not own slaves, they were dirt and pig farmers. They stupidly marched off and never came home, because these illiterate ancestors and relatives were swayed into being patriotic by the press and the pulpit, whose income and survival depended on the opinion and support of their betters, the press, pulpit, law, and merchants.
I believe it is the new battleground, especially after poorer folks and holdouts were somewhat coerced into getting internet service due to the pandemic. The social media sites and ZOOM became lifelines.
We all knew we're being jerked around by old-school advertising, but this ability to throttle, index and choose concerning websites and info is a whole new field of propaganda. So thanks, Thom, we really need to tell others what we know on the subject.
To borrow from Ross Perot, that giant sucking sound you hear now is from the rich, unrestrained media moguls sucking the life out of us. They want to promote fighting, dictators, and the misery of the world because it enhances their bottom line.
I have to repeat myself on this point concerning Ukraine---it's not our choice. They have proven to Putin it was not his choice either. We can choose to help or hurt. Hurting others is what makes Trump, his Republicans, and Putin feel powerful.
Propaganda is not Power. But it is Power's first cousin: Influence. Archimedes is claimed to have said "Give me a long enough lever and I will move the Earth." I say give me enough influence and everyone will voluntarily give me power.
"So now it’s largely up to us to carry the message forward. You and me." How's about a shoutout, Thom, so people look at my summary piece where I'm uniquely looking for what we-the-people can do now? "What's on A ROADMAP TO THE FUTURE?" https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/whats-on-a-roadmap-to-the-future? What does anybody think?
Correct
But Americans love to be talked to and talked about as if America did have honour
and at the very least the Democrats are their own worst enemy
for not tapping into that and stop the bleeding from war fatigue which is exactly what Putin is counting on.
You've gone full out looney Thom. The propaganda war was not just the work of Bush and Cheney, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden enthusiastically and unapologetically joined the ranks. The Obama administration convinced us that Qaddafi was the next Hitler and along with Hillary Clinton transformed that country into another failed state. The Obama administration then turned to Assad in Syria as the next Hitler and proceed along with Russia to commit war crimes and accomplish nothing. The architects of our Ukraine strategy are many of the same individuals who spread propaganda about Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria to name a few. Despite your McCarthyist approach, one can be against following the same warmongers who were wrong about every single military intervention over the past 25 years and NOT be working for Putin. And how precisely when liberals are stumping for World War III is using social media and the internet going to help anyone at all? We should be joining forces on social media to push for a prioritization of education , housing and healthcare for all, and to call out our leaders for spending 55% of discretionary spending on blowing things up, not joining forces to promote the continuation of the Cold War escalating into nuclear war.
Barry, I certainly agree with your humanistic values yet I don't know what to do when Russia has been aggressive towards Ukraine since 2014. Was the United States and the United Nations blind to this encroachment? Do we need stricter sanctions and lots more diplomacy and mediation? Russia literally crosses boundaries with tanks and armies and weaponry and when it gets to that point, when Putin is targeting maternity wards, stealing children from their parents, brainwashing them and tormenting thousands and thousands of Ukrainian families, by that time what else can we do but oppose them with force? This has long been a conundrum of those of us who want a world without war, a world with a pentagons worth of diplomatic and preventative measures including psychoanalysis for those in office!
I am aware that successive United States governments have fomented wars and been drawn into wars. Everything's "a war" in this country… "The war on terror," "the war on drugs," even Thom talks about "the water cooler wars." This country has an unconscious preoccupation with the concept of war and that's something we need to reflect upon and become conscious of.
But just as with Hitler, by the time we get a megalomaniacal psychopath believing that he owns the world and will use any means to get it, what else can we do?
That's not a rhetorical question… It's really something we need to think about, brainstorm about and discuss.
Prevention is the better part of cure and we collectively need to prevent psycho pathic, tyrannical men and women from gaining political office anywhere on this planet. I believe we are inching in that direction… what do you think?
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2023/09/20/this-is-what-its-like-to-maintain-the-us-nuclear-arsenal/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=air-dnr
Barry's comments are not humanitarian, they are political and they are Putinist, the nukes that Putin has won't leave the silo,much less the submarine, because they require constant maintenance, and the Russian armed forces are led by corrupt Generals and Admirals. I've provided a link, read it, and see what the wealthy, well trained Air Force and Navy have to go through to maintain it's nuclear arsenal.
Thank you for your rational insight and response, but it is possible you might not be primed on the history of the region because unfortunately the media, including Thom who has shouted me off his program, is not telling the real story of our role in the region including the coup we staged in 2014. One person you need to look up is Victoria Newland who is Biden's Acting Deputy Secretary Of State and Under Secretary For Political Affairs. If you have the time, here is a non-partisan video by Jeffrey Sachs that pulls it all together in a rational and succinct way. Again, this is not making apologies for Putin, but he is far from the madman Thom and our media makes him out to be. The motivation for doing so is to make negotiations/diplomacy seem impossible, which is not the case at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGkz5czqGw
Actually it is pro Putin propaganda. Sachs is certainly as partisan as it gets. Putin is a friggin' war criminal.
And for the record, Obama and Biden are war criminals as well: https://harvardpolitics.com/obama-war-criminal/
You really are a Putinista, deflecting from Putin to Obama and Biden. The both sides ism, except neither are responsible to launching rockets, missiles and artillery at hospitals, schools, apartments, kidnapping children and raping and murdering civilians.
Guess all those award winning journalists and scholars like Jeffrey Sachs and Chris Hedges who disagree with you because they were in the room at the time must be Commies! We do forget history including the McCarthy era when we have to double down on our shame and guilt for ignoring and repeating it. All in the interest of propping up our own imperialist heroes.
Jeff Sachs is no journalist. He was a Russophile and is blind to war crimes. https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/03/20/open-letter-to-jeffrey-sachs-on-the-russia-ukraine-war
To accept that BS is to capitulate to Putin, who interfered in the 2016 qand 2020 elections and cherishes your support.
They are deluded, old line Marxists, and as such are nostalgic about the "Soviet Union". And FYI, Russia was a libertarian paradise, but became more so when Yeltsin sold it's trusts, to friends in the KGB, what we call oligarchs today.
Those at the top pre Yeltsin ate caviar, the proles ate feces.
Thank you, Barry...I'll definitely look at this when I get a break later today. I understand that what any of us comes to understand about any situation so far from our own involvement, is only ever a thin slice of the pie. Then you add in the subjectivity of various perspectives and what you get is a kaleidoscope rather than one, coherent picture. I listen to all perspectives and filter them through my own subjectivity to arrive at a temporary hypothesis. I only conclude something, such as TFG's psychopathologies, when I feel really confident. And even then, I keep my mind open to other perspectives. So thanks for this one...I'll check it out. :)
Here you go again Barry. A disinfo agent trying his best to neutralilze and diminish Thom.
Get the message, no one wants you here, fuck off and be gone Putinista.
The Putin troll farms are getting more nervous as the election nears. He must having an erotic ejaculation, as Gaetz and the MAGGots are grabbing headlines to defund Ukraine.
As regards a Nuclear war, Russia's missiles are a dud. It takes constant preventive maintenance, with highly trained technicians to service these missiles they are not put in silos or hangers and forget like ordinary explosives and even ordinary explosives start to corrode, and become unstable or duds.
This is what it is like to maintain the US Nuclear arsenal, imagine what it is like in Russia, with all of their corruption and untrained and unreliable technicians.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2023/09/20/this-is-what-its-like-to-maintain-the-us-nuclear-arsenal/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=air-dnr
Pulling out that trope about Putin's nuclear phallus, is the sure give away, that you, if nothing are a Putin troll, paid or unpaid.