totally understand the reluctance to assume bad faith on the part of Garland, however his inactions, and his actions, lead in that direction.
I don't think that he was waiting on the J6 committee to do his job, because Congress does not have the power, to indict and prosecute. And it wasn't until Nov 18, 2022 that he (reluctantly in my opinion) appointed Jack Smith as special counsel. The J6 committee was formed on Jul 1, 2021, and IIRC it was more than 3/4's of the way into it's session, when Garland asked for it's records. In my suspicious mind his purpose was to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings and apparently the chair, Bennie Thompson agreed because he refused to until the proceedings were over. And still he has not even considered indicting the ringleaders in the Congress, nor Matt Gaetz, who clearly violated federal law regarding violation of the Mann Act..
But looking for a savior is the weakness of liberals, like the high hopes placed on the Mueller investigation which turned out to be a nothing burger. in my opinion a cover up by Trump humping Barr and Mueller.
It took over a year for Garland to appoint Smith, and he only did so, after he was receiving criticism from his peers, and the press.
And there is the first savior , this one is completely glossed over by our chauvinistic historians.
The French, who pulled our bacon out of the fire at Yorktown, by showing up with a well armed fleet
blocking Chesapeake bay, from the British fleet , resulting in Cornwall's surrender to Washington.
Were it not for the French, would there even be a Constitution and a United States of America.
All who support ot supported insurrection, aided, abetted or gave comfort to terrorists are vulnerable. Our first line of defense should have been the criminal law, but Garland is a wuss.
All of the above who are candidates for re election should be vulnerable under the 14th Amendment solution.
Looking for a savior? False mesiahs violate the general order "I am the Lord thy God and ye shall have no other gods before me."
A better analogy was the Civil War. Linooln became the "unitary executive." Is this a crisis, an "emergerncy" and if so can Biden take over until we are fit to resume our experiment in democracy?
Totally agree. I have complained before and will complain again about the wuss, Joe Biden, he has the constitutional authority to declare a national emergency and save our democracy, but is obviously afraid o use it. I blame his upbringing the senate were he was mentored by racist Dixiecrats.
Garland waited one year and 10 months until after the mid term elections that could have ousted the Republicans completely if he had prosecuted right away. The Democrats lost control of the house and supreme Court thanks to Garland and Biden.
That's because I have actually explored history, from the viewpoint of people who lived through it, and am a critical thinker, I notice the details that slip through the consciousness of the majority of the population, because they have been told, over and over, through teachers, media and books what to think, as we lionize our "patriotic" founding fathers.
Problem is that our "founding fathers" cobbled together a constitution and government, that fulfilled their needs as a ruling elite, whether Northern Merchants or Southern Planters.
And it is subsequent generations that expanded them to include people who were not even an afterthought in 1789. And the literature and myths surrounding the times, are tailored to reinforce the heroism of the ruling class, and facilitate their ability to secure a future for themselves and their mini mes.
There is an organization called The First Families of Virginia, it has been in existence since the Revolution. 12 of our Presidents are of the FFV.
And those First Family's descend not from the early settler, the adventurers of purse and person, that were stock holders in the Virginia Company, but the royalists who fled England when the Royalists (Cavaliers) fled in the wake of the Roundheads (Parliamentarians) victory.
And Governor William Berkeley, welcomed them with open arms, as he wanted fellow Royalists to help him administer the colony. He didn't trust the "old money", those who sailed to Virginia, seeking their fortune, by buying stock and paying the fare for indentured servants.
I think the gist of Thom's article is to simply say WE must do the hard work and keep our eyes focused on the prize of a new nation steeped in Democracy.
You seem to be a smart person. Write about what we CAN and Should do rather than why we are so unable to do anything please. Failure will be our fault alone not anyone else. Would love to have you our side Mr. Farrar.
I am on your side, but I am not an orphan Annie. I am a fighter. What we can do is fight and vote and put a fire under the DNC and Biden's advisers to do the same. Rather than continue to mutter about GDP, which we the people don't understand or care (financial institutions and wall street does)
.
The Republicans are not campaigning on the economy. A chicken in every pot died with FDR and since there is a chicken in every pot.
Inflation is not helping, but the Fed is responsible for that, not the Democrats, nor government spending, but how does one explain that to the public. I tried and can't explain that to you and other readers, because it is complex and can't be put on a bumper sticker, and it bumps up against financial institutions which benefit from inflation, and which also happen to be megadonors to both parties. Example the Consumer Financial Bureau (CFB), which cut into business and profits.
Authoritarians don't win by educating and explaining, they win through slogans, and making people fear.
The German people could have cared less about socialists, communists, Jews, queers, Slavs until the man with the mustache, the industrialist and financial capitalist funded newspapers made them THE issue.
Since Reconstruction, the root cause of our democracy's decay has only been strengthened with a series of legal fictions (like in 1886, 1976, 1978, and 2010) that have cemented oligarchic control over our public sector decision-makers. Whether it was the slave masters and robber barons in the 19th Century, or those who have accumulated monopolistic power in subsequent centuries, oligarchs will continue to exploit their powers of corporate personhood to control our government. There are a few fundamental elements in their strategy to exploit our democracy and it starts with being able to manipulate enough poorly educated citizens to vote for their chosen public sector corporate whores. First, Americans pay for almost half of our public education with property taxes, thus ensuring a huge discrepancy of the quality of education between the haves and the have-nots, and the have-nots are pissed (making them easily flimflammed-especially the white ones). Second, with millions of Americans getting the smelly end of a crap education, they learned to be bad at learning thus making them great targets for the grifters that use wrath, racism (and the rest of the wedgies) to control their perception of our country. Third, the reach and immediacy of 21st Century IT and social media coupled with an ill-educated electorate have turbocharged the power of the oligarch’s propagandists and now they can control academia as well. How to stop it? Like Thom says, we need to do it ourselves and, I have started a project, (website currently under construction but can be ready for prime time in a week) with what I believe to be the simplest-to-use process to engage enough citizens that will compel our elected officials to satisfy their Constitutional purpose. Basically, first we need 12 million citizens to send email petitions to every one of their elected officials and candidates for office, and ask them 1) do they agree that their Constitutional purpose is to do their best to promote our general welfare? And 2) do they agree that we must nullify the powers of corporate personhood, or our democracy will continue to backslide into autocracy? That’s how we can seize the framing and messaging for how we address the relationship between our citizens and our elected officials. As the project evolves, I plan to donate it and any subscription or donation revenues to the Substack writers and progressive influencers (and any other collaborators) who will make the project a success. And then we can move on to phase 2, sustained nonviolent resistance with a strategy. For this to work, I would love to have you look at my website and provide your thoughtful criticisms and ideas, just send a request with your email ID and I’ll send you the link.
This and other ideas are truly what we need now. What we do not need is continued criticism of our past failures in an effort just to show us all who read Substack how smart you are!
Please just help with positive ideas not self bluster!
True! But apathy must be overcome and with a media atmosphere so fragmented it is difficult to coordinate efforts. I would argue that is their plan. Divide and conquer.
IF I lived in the US right now I would be terrified to go out on the streets to take back the country. You seem to forget that you are awash in guns and nutcases.
Well said and I agree, mostly. See last few sentences.
But.....
What can we do?
Vote of course.
Give money and/or time to candidates and causes we believe in.
Coalesce behind candidates we agree with even if they are not our first choice.
Educate ourselves.
Call out untruths when we see them, even if we don’t think anyone will see or hear. Because the more that people write/say their opinion as if it is fact, the more people come to assume it is fact.
So to that point I am calling you out Thom for your statement about Merrick Garland.
I too was upset/worried that he didn’t seem to be going after Trump.
However, I now believe that the DOJ was in fact strategically building a case against the former president from the very beginning.
First, in the aftermath of Jan 6, it was not at all clear that the actions of the members of the crowd would meet the definitions of serious charges. By bringing various charges against those present that day and gaining convictions, it established precedent.
Second, there was and still is grave concern about public reaction to indictment, conviction, and incarceration of a former President, especially one with the fervent support of a large percentage of our citizens, many of not most are slaves to Fox News and also own guns.
So by building a case from the bottom up and utilizing the work of the Jan 6th committee, the case was made in the court of public opinion. By doing so, I think the DOJ has set the scene for the best outcome. And hopefully has decreased the possibility of widespread violence and insurrection.
I did not make this up by the way.
I read it from at least two authors on SubStack. I think one was Joyce Vance, but I don’t really remember.
Thank you Sky; I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the difficulties in forming a legal case against the likes of criminal Trump. His whole life has been one of dodging the law. We all saw, as Cassidy Hutchison's testimony evolved, how Trump used lawyers to obfuscate the testimony of witnesses, mostly by directing them to plead ignorance through lack of memory. For anyone who underestimates the wiliness of a Trump, just observe how he's managed to get himself to become the Repub's frontrunner - something which should be unthinkable. We have several AG's and a special counsel forming cases against him, yet he still dodges and squirms, and may even use enough delaying tactics to do what he managed to do in 2016. Garland is a capable man, but he's up against the slimiest of creatures.
When he was sworn the Mueller cases for obstruction were viable. He let the stautes of limitations run. Easy cases. All of the activity occurred during the election, so Trump could not plead presidential immunity.
Manafort, Flynn, Bannon were pardoned by Trump. That means they have no 5th Amendment right to rebut questions about the circumstancces surrounding the pardons. Pay to play?
All of the Republicans involved in obstructing the Jack Smith prosecutions like Gym Jordan need to see a grand jury ASAP.
He might be the 'slimiest of creatures' but he has not been imprisoned for anything.
I am sure if he killed someone on 4th ST'5th street he WOULD get away with it. He knows this. How is it that he is still running for President.
What I see very clearly is that the US is trying to avoid a Civil War?
As it is you are making it worse. The world is watching and I see BRICS becoming more interesting because you won't go ahead and put this man in prison.
Sky,, I totally disagree with you assessment of Garland. He is not building a case, nor will he.
He was shamed by peers and media who called him out for sitting on his hands.
He has ignored the crimes of Matt Gaetz, who is now immune and wreaking havoc.
He never appointed a special counsel to investigate and prosecute the ring leaders of the insurrection in the house. For example: Boebert who have the go signal of 1776 to charge the Capitol, MTG, Hawley, Comer, Jordan, Biggs all were in on it yet their Garland sits like a stone wall.
That's for starts, and by the way He chose Aileen Cannon as the judge in the documents case, and also chose the venue of Aileen Cannon, under the most transparent of excuses.,that was the location of the crime. Actually the location was D.C., which is where the crime occurred as it is where the documents were loaded by Nauta and cronies, on his plane.
Garland also claims that Cannon's name came up because of the "wheel" (named after the wheel of fortune, but he can claim anything because he controls "the wheel".
The man is a right winger, vetted to Obama by Orrin Hatch (at the time the most radical right of senators), and he also served as moderator for the Federalist Society. And yes judges like Brennan did, but that was 67 to 33 years ago, and the Federalist society of today is not the federalist society of yesterday, besides many that sat on Scotus, came in as conservatives, but no longer dependent on the largess of corporations and millionaires, became more liberal, not so today, when we have the very best court that right wing billionaires can buy.
Don't worry, Trump or his type will make everything all better? Even though they are all clueless and sit around fomenting hatred and rage all day in the hopes of stealing everybody's stuff.
Off topic. I am sick at what HAMAS has done and is doing. I once had some sympathy for the Palestinians who had been dispossessed by the extreme right wing of Israeli politics (they have the same problem we do, but apparently even worse)l
Also HAMAS has created it's own problem, it's goal is to obliterate Israel, Hezbollah and Iran also, it is also in the Quran and haddiths. According to sacred Islamic scriptures they will be a final battle, involving even rocks, as a rock calls out "there is a Jew behind me, slay him"
And then confined within GAZA, they can't help but breed, to the point that it is the most densely populated region in the world..
My question is how were these 2,200 missiles and missile launchers, the paraglider, able to get into Gaza without being noticed, not to mention the weapons and munitions.?
But what has turned me totally against them is the slaughter of 220 kids at a concert, the murder of over 400 more, including women and possibly children, and some of them were beheaded. (what a horrific and slow way to die, only a psychopath could do that. Reminding me of the Coptic Christians led into the surf in Libya and beheaded in front of cameras. all done in the name of Islam, which leads me to believe it is a religion that breeds hatred and psychopaths.
Israel, for all of it's faults is a diverse, multi cultural,liberal democracy, or was until the religious right grabbed power (same problem in America only Christian right). Islam not so, In an Islamic country, raped women are considered adulteresses and stoned or hung, I suspect beheaded in the Kingdom.
Atheists and gays thrown off roofs, beheaded, stoned or hung.
The Israeli right brought this calamity down on itself, by reducing Palestine to essentially walled enclaves scattered throughout the west bank, and publicly stated plans to eliminate Palestinians from the West Bank.
For all of their faults, I never heard of an Israeli, massacring 220 Jewish kids, beheading people, kidnapping women and children.
I admired Chris Hedges until he showed his colors as a Putinist. I tried to wrap my head around it, and the only thing I can come up with is that many lefties still equate Russia and Putin with the old Marxist Russia, and there is word for them used in England at the time of the Hungary Revolution when Soviet Tanks rolled through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
I am not a leftist, though some equate progressives with Marxists, but Marx was not a leftist, he was a proto libertarian. He was a free trader, a gold bug (where paper money was simply a convenient replacement for gold, but was totally backed by gold, and could be redeemed for gold. The USSR followed Marx, and as a result a permanent depression. He also believed that if you don't work you don't eat, again the USSR. He lectured the slave owners to free the slaves and hire them back at market wages, that way the planters could produce cheaper cotton, for his partner Frederick Engles, a textile manufacturer who, to compete, had to import cheaper and lower quality Egyptian cotton.
He also virulently opposed Englands Corn Laws, Laws that imposed tariffs on imported grain and goods. They laws that Henry VII enacted that forced the English, like my family of wool producers and merchants, to earn their living by processing wool into textiles, instead of exporting raw wool to the Netherlands
He was not a champion of the common man (proletariat), his enemy was the middle class (the bourgeoisie, hated by the financiers and capitalists (as they are today), who financed him known as the League of Just Men..
The middle class(bourgeoisie) is a rung on the social ladder that threatens the ruling elite, as it is a way for us "unworthies" to climb up and displace them, and a way down the social ladder for those displaced.
Well done Thom. This should be required reading for us all. But unfortunately it isn’t, and I share the concern that apathy, ignorance and disinformation will be difficult to overcome.
But – But Thom, You are forgetting what you have been teaching us for the past 20-plus years. There IS salvation for us right down the street. You have said it many times. Our schools will save us. All we need to do is pump more money into the systems, change the funding mechanism to achieve equality between geographic locations, and innovate big time.
Once we do some serious trimming around the edges and fix these nettlesome problems, and once we make parents understand that they are responsible to get behind teachers with assignments and homework, and especially to impose more firm discipline on those distracted and indolent kids of theirs, our schools will create a near-Utopia.
Your premise today is 99% right. Waiting for Superman is a fool’s errand. But how did you forget that one exception that you have referred to so many times. Put civics classes back into the curriculum, and like magic, all our problems will disappear overnight. Get more butts into those seats and keep them there until those rowdy brats decide that they should stop obsessing about why they are stupid or why mom and dad are getting divorced and instead figure out why they must get busy studying for that exam that they know is looming in a few days.
There is a reason you left off the one most fundamental and enduring issue from your list of things which have “…brought us to the verge of fascism…” and which we are ignoring every day. You have placed in inordinate faith in one institution and have harbored a desperate hope that it will somehow, miraculously, repair itself and finally start providing authentic education.
Am I being facetious? Or am I merely pointing to an incongruity that is completely irrational and unfortunately, very harmful? Refusing to even begin to look at how miserably these institutions have failed in their stated missions and expecting them to change after endless attempts at reform is stubborn, illogical, and self-defeating.
If we have gone to great lengths to establish ourselves as serious thinkers using a scientific approach, then we cannot simply blow off facts and evidence because they do not support our comfortable or familiar prejudices. If schools could save more than a few of us, we wouldn’t be watching our democracy go down in flames and hundreds of people dying in the middle east for no good reason.
You are 100% right that salvation is up to the people. The first thing the people must do is stop miseducating their children. That will not be a panacea but it will reverse a catastrophic trend.
Yes, the prospects for 2024 are looking great right now. I believe we have a good chance of coming back from the brink, temporarily - politically. One hopes that democracy, at least in the US, will be preserved, for now. However, that is not necessarily the "salvation" that can be sustained if there is not a paradigm shift in how people think and behave more broadly. Schooling did not create a fundamental shift in the beliefs and attitudes of the young. It did not even create a solid foundation. Indeed, it weakened the foundation for many. A false sense of security is a trap, as the Israelis just discovered. We are still in deep dodo. Our schools are doing more damage than good. The forces of evil are not going away. We need real education, not conditioning, programming, indoctrination, and mind-control.
It pains me too - immensely. Much of my own upbringing was steeped in the assurance that somewhere, someone was surely doing something to make everything "OK". This blind confidence assumes "others" - not those of us comprising society - are surely taking care of our most important matters. It's a sad irony that since the early 80's forward, here in the cradle of global democracy, we the people have not participated in our own governance - at least as much as we needed to. And I place the heavy end of this shortcoming at the feet of Ronald Reagan as well as concerted oligarchic cultural propaganda - most of which was conceived of and perpetrated by privately funded counter-progressive front groups, euphemistically referred to as "think tanks".
The point is, America had been lulled to sleep. Reagan's supply-side economic time bomb filled our stores with shiny garbage, and in so doing, filled our hearts and minds with a deeply false sense of security. We have all experienced the deceptively warm feeling that comes from having "stuff" - we feel whole, we feel validated, we feel - safe. It's bizarre and illogical, but somewhere inside we have a deep remembering of times in our evolution when having stuff meant the difference between eating, or being eaten. Preying on this psychological phenomena is certainly not, and never has been, lost on those who gluttonously seek power over the many.
I guess this is my defense (at least in part) of our seemingly indifferent and under-involved participation in the world's most influential democracy. I know there's far more to the story, but honesty, I don't think it matters at the moment. What does matter is what we do now. This is it, right now. This is us, right now. The future is ours, for better or worse. Let's be the very people we think are "out there somewhere" making everything "OK". Because the truth is, we are. There is no one else, and there never has been.
I'm optimistic that we will, without a doubt, rise to the occasion of strengthening democracy - and in so doing, levy the tide of fascism washing over our civilization - once again.
Your diagnosis of the cause being Trump and Republicans is way off as is evidenced by what both parties have wrought in the Middle East, a topic you barely mention that shows the complete void of moral and spiritual integrity regardless of political party. The powderkegs that we have filled to the brim around the world are coming back to haunt us, and broadcasters like you who claim that Hillary Clinton was a "brilliant" Secretary of State are part of the reason there is zero accountability for our war crimes and hegemony.
Lay the eff off Thom. He has never ever claimed that Hillary was a brilliant secretary of state.
The sins of the Democratic party are well known, but you appear to stand with Putin, especially when ascribing false motives and facts to Thom and other liberals.
I am not a democrat, have no loyalty to the party and am a progressive and am critical of the party when it caves to the money powers, but at least they are not authoritarian, not racist, not misogynist, not anti semitic, like the Republican party, thus you constantly conflate the two parties into one, there is one inhuman bad actor that you don't come down on, and that is the murderous, war criminal and genocidalist Vladimir Putin.
And more outrageous, not a word about the inhumanity and crimes of HAMAS, murdering, beheading and kidnapping innocent civilians,. If it was an assault on Israel's Defense Force, that is one thing, but waging a war of terror and killing over 1,000 civilians kidnapping over 100, well that is another story. Where is your outrage?
Nay, you take the opportunity to impune the Democratic party (yeh I know you included Republicans) but your main thrust is the Democrats. You really must hate Democracy.
Do you spend time on Right wing sites, throwing sand in their eyes. I believe not.
Oh yes he did, I discussed it on a podcast specifically. He said Hillary was a brilliant Secretary of State and that as a presidential candidate she was "practically identical" to Bernie Sanders! He has also said that Joe Biden is like FDR and Zelensky like Churchill. I am disappointed with Democrats because they are supposed to be doing the right thing and constantly fail and lie, allowing Republicans to take hold and Trumpism to flourish. The failure to directly discuss the fundamental problems plaguing a society for fear of "circling the wagons" (Thom again) or offending a political party or its followers is indeed the prescription for the death of democracy. As for Hamas, your neoliberalism is showing and the fact that you are woefully uninformed (listening to Thom will not help you on the Palestinian conflict) and/or inhumane: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-israel-war-dispatch/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20%2010.9.2023&utm_term=daily
OK I stand corrected. I have no tolerance for podcasts,and am wondering who has the time and disposition to listen to hours of people bloviating, with ear buds in their ears. I certainly don't I can barely sit though an hour of a TV host, like Rachel or Joy (both of whom I admire)
So I never heard that podcast. What I know of Hillary is that she has been politically motivated, apparently all her adult life. So much so that she ignored the satyrism of Bill. There are a lot of conspiracy theories about Bill, but I do believe the Jennifer Flowers story, because it fits with a lonley man in the Oval Office, being seduced by a young intern, that was star struck and placed in front of him, to seduce him (I don't think she was aware), then after losing to Obama, the DNC, which is it's own enemy, instructed Obama to make her Sec of State, that she could acquire the foreign service credentials, which were all important to the oligarchs and international trade and finance, at the time. So when Obama left his second term, she jumped in the ring and the DNC put its thumb on the scale for her, especially because Bernie and his tax the rich agenda, posed a serious threat to the money powers that run this country.
As far as me being a neo liberal. I call bullshit. Neo liberals are economic royalists, and neo liberalism is all about unfettered free trade.
As regards my opinion on the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Instead of throwing out vague charges, like calling me a neo loberal and woefully uninformed. Give examples for your charges.
Otherwise what you say is of no consequence. Defend yourself, what am I woefully uninformed about and what about my comment is "neo liberal"
Meanwhile,all one has to do is browse your comments on Thom's pages, and you will see a constant defense of Putin, rather obliquely (which is typical of an expert), playing the both sides card. Not defending Putin, but attacking Zelensky's supporters
I suggest that you William look at the US History of war crimes?
Tell me something Thom: If you were constantly threatened/no good drinking water/little food/houses being blown up even though you had lived in the neighbourhood for years ...would you not be looking for someone to defend you?
I am well aware of our history of war crimes, invasion, exploitations, lies and aggression, most in the service of miliionaires and corporations.
However as regards the problem with HAMAS. It is a problem of HAMAS and Islam's making.
I will have to quote again the Covenant of HAMAS
On the destruction of Israel:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)
The exclusive Moslem nature of the area:
"The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it." (Article 11)
"Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be." (Article 13)
The call to jihad:
"The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." (Article 15)
"Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: 'Hail to Jihad!'. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah's victory comes about." (Article 33)
Rejection of a negotiated peace settlement:
"[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility." (Article 13)
Condemnation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty:
"Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle [against Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in order to bring them outside the circle of struggle. ...Leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who perpetrates such an act." (Article 32)
Anti-Semitic incitement:
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." (Article 7)
That statement about killing the Jews is from the bloodcurdling hadith that reads as follows: “Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say, oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him.”
And that is what HAMAS did in Israel.
So what do you expect the Jews in Israel to do? Commit suicide, walk into the sea, board planes and fly to America and Europe. How would America and Europe react to a sudden flood of angry Jews forced out of their home
Whatever happens to Gaza, HAMAS is responsible and to blame. Either Israel eradicates HAMAS or HAMA eradicates Israel.
And while I once sympathized about the dispossessed Arabs, I no longer do, the women were ulating and the kids and men jumping with joy at pictures of massacred Jewish women, girls, babies.
Gaza is HAMAS, HAMAS is Gaza and they brought hell onto itself, even with the horrors Israel is committed to saving not so innocent lives (remember the women were ulating and the kids celebrating when video's and photos of the carnage were broadcast.
HAMAS swims in the sea of the Gazans, the Gazans support, motivate, love and assist HAMAS.
The Kibbutz that were raided, were targeted by Gazan workers who took notes, maps and reported by to HAMAS as they accepted their employees shekels.
Yet Israel restored the water, and told the people to move to south Gaza, as HAMAS is rooted in the north, and HAMAS has told them not to move, even set up toadblocks to turn back civilians.
This game of justifying HAMAS savagery and butchery on the basis of the sins of the Israel transgressions doesn't hack it.
The problem in Israel and Palestine (including HAMAS, and Hexbollah and their financier, supplier and mentor Iran, is religious extremists.
We have that problem in America, times ten. It is the settlers, the rabid extremist Orthodox right wing settlers who are killing and dispossessing Arabs.
Historically. Theodore Herzel and his early Zionists bought land from the Arabs, as did the refugees from war torn and NAZI Europe.
The Arabs watched as the Jews transformed the land into a productive nation, with jealousy and an inferiority complex, because they couldn't do the same, though they lived there thousands of years.
So in 1948, The attacked and Israel with a makeshift Airport, cobbled together from British planes that had been disabled by the Brits, and making their own ammo out of lipstick cases, beat them back in the process claimed territory, the Arabs call the Nakba (catastrophe) a catastrophe they caused, and have waged an eternal war against the Jews ever since.
And each time Israel annexed a piece of Arab territory to, among other things to secure their border and safety of the citizens.
The excesses of late are caused by orthodox Jews, and Israel has the problem that we have, the political power of religious extremists. (Most of the Republican party, Trump is Americas Bibi.
However the majority of Jews are actually secular, not religious extremists, they recognized gay marriage long before we did. And even a very healthy pro Palestine contingent. Now find something like that in Gaza. Arabs lived and worked in Israel, find me a Jew who could survive in Gaza.
Your poor victim Palestinians doesn't fly, and you know why? HAMAS and the support it gets and got from its citizens.
Those of us that grew-up in unstable circumstances learned at an early age.that no one was coming to save us. Life is expensive emotionally and financially, but at least in this democracy you might make it tolerable and be able to pursue some happiness. I am one grateful American.
It's great to revere the people who created and improved our democracy, especially the ones that risked or gave it all, but picking up where they left off is the only way to truly honor them.
Onward and upward. Speak, teach, and vote---it all counts. You are an excellent example, Thom.
totally understand the reluctance to assume bad faith on the part of Garland, however his inactions, and his actions, lead in that direction.
I don't think that he was waiting on the J6 committee to do his job, because Congress does not have the power, to indict and prosecute. And it wasn't until Nov 18, 2022 that he (reluctantly in my opinion) appointed Jack Smith as special counsel. The J6 committee was formed on Jul 1, 2021, and IIRC it was more than 3/4's of the way into it's session, when Garland asked for it's records. In my suspicious mind his purpose was to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings and apparently the chair, Bennie Thompson agreed because he refused to until the proceedings were over. And still he has not even considered indicting the ringleaders in the Congress, nor Matt Gaetz, who clearly violated federal law regarding violation of the Mann Act..
But looking for a savior is the weakness of liberals, like the high hopes placed on the Mueller investigation which turned out to be a nothing burger. in my opinion a cover up by Trump humping Barr and Mueller.
It took over a year for Garland to appoint Smith, and he only did so, after he was receiving criticism from his peers, and the press.
And there is the first savior , this one is completely glossed over by our chauvinistic historians.
The French, who pulled our bacon out of the fire at Yorktown, by showing up with a well armed fleet
blocking Chesapeake bay, from the British fleet , resulting in Cornwall's surrender to Washington.
Were it not for the French, would there even be a Constitution and a United States of America.
All who support ot supported insurrection, aided, abetted or gave comfort to terrorists are vulnerable. Our first line of defense should have been the criminal law, but Garland is a wuss.
All of the above who are candidates for re election should be vulnerable under the 14th Amendment solution.
Looking for a savior? False mesiahs violate the general order "I am the Lord thy God and ye shall have no other gods before me."
A better analogy was the Civil War. Linooln became the "unitary executive." Is this a crisis, an "emergerncy" and if so can Biden take over until we are fit to resume our experiment in democracy?
Totally agree. I have complained before and will complain again about the wuss, Joe Biden, he has the constitutional authority to declare a national emergency and save our democracy, but is obviously afraid o use it. I blame his upbringing the senate were he was mentored by racist Dixiecrats.
NO
Garland waited one year and 10 months until after the mid term elections that could have ousted the Republicans completely if he had prosecuted right away. The Democrats lost control of the house and supreme Court thanks to Garland and Biden.
At last someone actually pointing out that the French came to America's aid.
That's because I have actually explored history, from the viewpoint of people who lived through it, and am a critical thinker, I notice the details that slip through the consciousness of the majority of the population, because they have been told, over and over, through teachers, media and books what to think, as we lionize our "patriotic" founding fathers.
Problem is that our "founding fathers" cobbled together a constitution and government, that fulfilled their needs as a ruling elite, whether Northern Merchants or Southern Planters.
And it is subsequent generations that expanded them to include people who were not even an afterthought in 1789. And the literature and myths surrounding the times, are tailored to reinforce the heroism of the ruling class, and facilitate their ability to secure a future for themselves and their mini mes.
There is an organization called The First Families of Virginia, it has been in existence since the Revolution. 12 of our Presidents are of the FFV.
And those First Family's descend not from the early settler, the adventurers of purse and person, that were stock holders in the Virginia Company, but the royalists who fled England when the Royalists (Cavaliers) fled in the wake of the Roundheads (Parliamentarians) victory.
And Governor William Berkeley, welcomed them with open arms, as he wanted fellow Royalists to help him administer the colony. He didn't trust the "old money", those who sailed to Virginia, seeking their fortune, by buying stock and paying the fare for indentured servants.
I think the gist of Thom's article is to simply say WE must do the hard work and keep our eyes focused on the prize of a new nation steeped in Democracy.
You seem to be a smart person. Write about what we CAN and Should do rather than why we are so unable to do anything please. Failure will be our fault alone not anyone else. Would love to have you our side Mr. Farrar.
I am on your side, but I am not an orphan Annie. I am a fighter. What we can do is fight and vote and put a fire under the DNC and Biden's advisers to do the same. Rather than continue to mutter about GDP, which we the people don't understand or care (financial institutions and wall street does)
.
The Republicans are not campaigning on the economy. A chicken in every pot died with FDR and since there is a chicken in every pot.
Inflation is not helping, but the Fed is responsible for that, not the Democrats, nor government spending, but how does one explain that to the public. I tried and can't explain that to you and other readers, because it is complex and can't be put on a bumper sticker, and it bumps up against financial institutions which benefit from inflation, and which also happen to be megadonors to both parties. Example the Consumer Financial Bureau (CFB), which cut into business and profits.
Authoritarians don't win by educating and explaining, they win through slogans, and making people fear.
The German people could have cared less about socialists, communists, Jews, queers, Slavs until the man with the mustache, the industrialist and financial capitalist funded newspapers made them THE issue.
Since Reconstruction, the root cause of our democracy's decay has only been strengthened with a series of legal fictions (like in 1886, 1976, 1978, and 2010) that have cemented oligarchic control over our public sector decision-makers. Whether it was the slave masters and robber barons in the 19th Century, or those who have accumulated monopolistic power in subsequent centuries, oligarchs will continue to exploit their powers of corporate personhood to control our government. There are a few fundamental elements in their strategy to exploit our democracy and it starts with being able to manipulate enough poorly educated citizens to vote for their chosen public sector corporate whores. First, Americans pay for almost half of our public education with property taxes, thus ensuring a huge discrepancy of the quality of education between the haves and the have-nots, and the have-nots are pissed (making them easily flimflammed-especially the white ones). Second, with millions of Americans getting the smelly end of a crap education, they learned to be bad at learning thus making them great targets for the grifters that use wrath, racism (and the rest of the wedgies) to control their perception of our country. Third, the reach and immediacy of 21st Century IT and social media coupled with an ill-educated electorate have turbocharged the power of the oligarch’s propagandists and now they can control academia as well. How to stop it? Like Thom says, we need to do it ourselves and, I have started a project, (website currently under construction but can be ready for prime time in a week) with what I believe to be the simplest-to-use process to engage enough citizens that will compel our elected officials to satisfy their Constitutional purpose. Basically, first we need 12 million citizens to send email petitions to every one of their elected officials and candidates for office, and ask them 1) do they agree that their Constitutional purpose is to do their best to promote our general welfare? And 2) do they agree that we must nullify the powers of corporate personhood, or our democracy will continue to backslide into autocracy? That’s how we can seize the framing and messaging for how we address the relationship between our citizens and our elected officials. As the project evolves, I plan to donate it and any subscription or donation revenues to the Substack writers and progressive influencers (and any other collaborators) who will make the project a success. And then we can move on to phase 2, sustained nonviolent resistance with a strategy. For this to work, I would love to have you look at my website and provide your thoughtful criticisms and ideas, just send a request with your email ID and I’ll send you the link.
This and other ideas are truly what we need now. What we do not need is continued criticism of our past failures in an effort just to show us all who read Substack how smart you are!
Please just help with positive ideas not self bluster!
True! But apathy must be overcome and with a media atmosphere so fragmented it is difficult to coordinate efforts. I would argue that is their plan. Divide and conquer.
IF I lived in the US right now I would be terrified to go out on the streets to take back the country. You seem to forget that you are awash in guns and nutcases.
Well said and I agree, mostly. See last few sentences.
But.....
What can we do?
Vote of course.
Give money and/or time to candidates and causes we believe in.
Coalesce behind candidates we agree with even if they are not our first choice.
Educate ourselves.
Call out untruths when we see them, even if we don’t think anyone will see or hear. Because the more that people write/say their opinion as if it is fact, the more people come to assume it is fact.
So to that point I am calling you out Thom for your statement about Merrick Garland.
I too was upset/worried that he didn’t seem to be going after Trump.
However, I now believe that the DOJ was in fact strategically building a case against the former president from the very beginning.
First, in the aftermath of Jan 6, it was not at all clear that the actions of the members of the crowd would meet the definitions of serious charges. By bringing various charges against those present that day and gaining convictions, it established precedent.
Second, there was and still is grave concern about public reaction to indictment, conviction, and incarceration of a former President, especially one with the fervent support of a large percentage of our citizens, many of not most are slaves to Fox News and also own guns.
So by building a case from the bottom up and utilizing the work of the Jan 6th committee, the case was made in the court of public opinion. By doing so, I think the DOJ has set the scene for the best outcome. And hopefully has decreased the possibility of widespread violence and insurrection.
I did not make this up by the way.
I read it from at least two authors on SubStack. I think one was Joyce Vance, but I don’t really remember.
Thank you Sky; I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the difficulties in forming a legal case against the likes of criminal Trump. His whole life has been one of dodging the law. We all saw, as Cassidy Hutchison's testimony evolved, how Trump used lawyers to obfuscate the testimony of witnesses, mostly by directing them to plead ignorance through lack of memory. For anyone who underestimates the wiliness of a Trump, just observe how he's managed to get himself to become the Repub's frontrunner - something which should be unthinkable. We have several AG's and a special counsel forming cases against him, yet he still dodges and squirms, and may even use enough delaying tactics to do what he managed to do in 2016. Garland is a capable man, but he's up against the slimiest of creatures.
Cases against low hanging fruit, like those who admit guilt in a book (Navarro), those who asked Trump for a pardon, are easy.
Low hanging fruit that leads to bigger things. Classic way to build cases such as these.
None of us can know what’s in the mind of Garland. We can only draw conclusions based on our observations.
When he was sworn the Mueller cases for obstruction were viable. He let the stautes of limitations run. Easy cases. All of the activity occurred during the election, so Trump could not plead presidential immunity.
Manafort, Flynn, Bannon were pardoned by Trump. That means they have no 5th Amendment right to rebut questions about the circumstancces surrounding the pardons. Pay to play?
All of the Republicans involved in obstructing the Jack Smith prosecutions like Gym Jordan need to see a grand jury ASAP.
He might be the 'slimiest of creatures' but he has not been imprisoned for anything.
I am sure if he killed someone on 4th ST'5th street he WOULD get away with it. He knows this. How is it that he is still running for President.
What I see very clearly is that the US is trying to avoid a Civil War?
As it is you are making it worse. The world is watching and I see BRICS becoming more interesting because you won't go ahead and put this man in prison.
Sky,, I totally disagree with you assessment of Garland. He is not building a case, nor will he.
He was shamed by peers and media who called him out for sitting on his hands.
He has ignored the crimes of Matt Gaetz, who is now immune and wreaking havoc.
He never appointed a special counsel to investigate and prosecute the ring leaders of the insurrection in the house. For example: Boebert who have the go signal of 1776 to charge the Capitol, MTG, Hawley, Comer, Jordan, Biggs all were in on it yet their Garland sits like a stone wall.
That's for starts, and by the way He chose Aileen Cannon as the judge in the documents case, and also chose the venue of Aileen Cannon, under the most transparent of excuses.,that was the location of the crime. Actually the location was D.C., which is where the crime occurred as it is where the documents were loaded by Nauta and cronies, on his plane.
Garland also claims that Cannon's name came up because of the "wheel" (named after the wheel of fortune, but he can claim anything because he controls "the wheel".
The man is a right winger, vetted to Obama by Orrin Hatch (at the time the most radical right of senators), and he also served as moderator for the Federalist Society. And yes judges like Brennan did, but that was 67 to 33 years ago, and the Federalist society of today is not the federalist society of yesterday, besides many that sat on Scotus, came in as conservatives, but no longer dependent on the largess of corporations and millionaires, became more liberal, not so today, when we have the very best court that right wing billionaires can buy.
Your opinion to which you are entitled differs from mine, to which I am entitled.
Same set of facts, observations, and impressions; resulting in different conclusions.
Very important explanations and spot on Sky 777!
I can agree with a lot of this BUT my question is: What is the problem in the US with the Justice Dept. Why does it take so long to hold a trial?
Why is it that DT can walk about as a free man (already indicted) and run for President?
Thank You . It is exactly what we need to do , in whatever manner we can, to make our best effort to save what is good and just.
Don't worry, Trump or his type will make everything all better? Even though they are all clueless and sit around fomenting hatred and rage all day in the hopes of stealing everybody's stuff.
Off topic. I am sick at what HAMAS has done and is doing. I once had some sympathy for the Palestinians who had been dispossessed by the extreme right wing of Israeli politics (they have the same problem we do, but apparently even worse)l
Also HAMAS has created it's own problem, it's goal is to obliterate Israel, Hezbollah and Iran also, it is also in the Quran and haddiths. According to sacred Islamic scriptures they will be a final battle, involving even rocks, as a rock calls out "there is a Jew behind me, slay him"
And then confined within GAZA, they can't help but breed, to the point that it is the most densely populated region in the world..
My question is how were these 2,200 missiles and missile launchers, the paraglider, able to get into Gaza without being noticed, not to mention the weapons and munitions.?
But what has turned me totally against them is the slaughter of 220 kids at a concert, the murder of over 400 more, including women and possibly children, and some of them were beheaded. (what a horrific and slow way to die, only a psychopath could do that. Reminding me of the Coptic Christians led into the surf in Libya and beheaded in front of cameras. all done in the name of Islam, which leads me to believe it is a religion that breeds hatred and psychopaths.
Israel, for all of it's faults is a diverse, multi cultural,liberal democracy, or was until the religious right grabbed power (same problem in America only Christian right). Islam not so, In an Islamic country, raped women are considered adulteresses and stoned or hung, I suspect beheaded in the Kingdom.
Atheists and gays thrown off roofs, beheaded, stoned or hung.
The Israeli right brought this calamity down on itself, by reducing Palestine to essentially walled enclaves scattered throughout the west bank, and publicly stated plans to eliminate Palestinians from the West Bank.
For all of their faults, I never heard of an Israeli, massacring 220 Jewish kids, beheading people, kidnapping women and children.
HAMAS has proven itself to be the equal of Putin.
Yes, the Israeli right brought this down on itself.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/palestinians-speak-the-language-of?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=778851&post_id=137781140&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2g7cs&utm_medium=email
I admired Chris Hedges until he showed his colors as a Putinist. I tried to wrap my head around it, and the only thing I can come up with is that many lefties still equate Russia and Putin with the old Marxist Russia, and there is word for them used in England at the time of the Hungary Revolution when Soviet Tanks rolled through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
I am not a leftist, though some equate progressives with Marxists, but Marx was not a leftist, he was a proto libertarian. He was a free trader, a gold bug (where paper money was simply a convenient replacement for gold, but was totally backed by gold, and could be redeemed for gold. The USSR followed Marx, and as a result a permanent depression. He also believed that if you don't work you don't eat, again the USSR. He lectured the slave owners to free the slaves and hire them back at market wages, that way the planters could produce cheaper cotton, for his partner Frederick Engles, a textile manufacturer who, to compete, had to import cheaper and lower quality Egyptian cotton.
He also virulently opposed Englands Corn Laws, Laws that imposed tariffs on imported grain and goods. They laws that Henry VII enacted that forced the English, like my family of wool producers and merchants, to earn their living by processing wool into textiles, instead of exporting raw wool to the Netherlands
He was not a champion of the common man (proletariat), his enemy was the middle class (the bourgeoisie, hated by the financiers and capitalists (as they are today), who financed him known as the League of Just Men..
The middle class(bourgeoisie) is a rung on the social ladder that threatens the ruling elite, as it is a way for us "unworthies" to climb up and displace them, and a way down the social ladder for those displaced.
This is what libertarianism is all about.
Well done Thom. This should be required reading for us all. But unfortunately it isn’t, and I share the concern that apathy, ignorance and disinformation will be difficult to overcome.
I send Many of Thoms writings and thoughts to 15-20 friends with each article that I like. Building an army from the ground up without weapons.
But – But Thom, You are forgetting what you have been teaching us for the past 20-plus years. There IS salvation for us right down the street. You have said it many times. Our schools will save us. All we need to do is pump more money into the systems, change the funding mechanism to achieve equality between geographic locations, and innovate big time.
Once we do some serious trimming around the edges and fix these nettlesome problems, and once we make parents understand that they are responsible to get behind teachers with assignments and homework, and especially to impose more firm discipline on those distracted and indolent kids of theirs, our schools will create a near-Utopia.
Your premise today is 99% right. Waiting for Superman is a fool’s errand. But how did you forget that one exception that you have referred to so many times. Put civics classes back into the curriculum, and like magic, all our problems will disappear overnight. Get more butts into those seats and keep them there until those rowdy brats decide that they should stop obsessing about why they are stupid or why mom and dad are getting divorced and instead figure out why they must get busy studying for that exam that they know is looming in a few days.
There is a reason you left off the one most fundamental and enduring issue from your list of things which have “…brought us to the verge of fascism…” and which we are ignoring every day. You have placed in inordinate faith in one institution and have harbored a desperate hope that it will somehow, miraculously, repair itself and finally start providing authentic education.
Am I being facetious? Or am I merely pointing to an incongruity that is completely irrational and unfortunately, very harmful? Refusing to even begin to look at how miserably these institutions have failed in their stated missions and expecting them to change after endless attempts at reform is stubborn, illogical, and self-defeating.
If we have gone to great lengths to establish ourselves as serious thinkers using a scientific approach, then we cannot simply blow off facts and evidence because they do not support our comfortable or familiar prejudices. If schools could save more than a few of us, we wouldn’t be watching our democracy go down in flames and hundreds of people dying in the middle east for no good reason.
You are 100% right that salvation is up to the people. The first thing the people must do is stop miseducating their children. That will not be a panacea but it will reverse a catastrophic trend.
70% of young voters, and where I live 70% of renters trend Democratic. 40% of the 2024 electorate will be young. Channel Taylor Swift.
Yes, the prospects for 2024 are looking great right now. I believe we have a good chance of coming back from the brink, temporarily - politically. One hopes that democracy, at least in the US, will be preserved, for now. However, that is not necessarily the "salvation" that can be sustained if there is not a paradigm shift in how people think and behave more broadly. Schooling did not create a fundamental shift in the beliefs and attitudes of the young. It did not even create a solid foundation. Indeed, it weakened the foundation for many. A false sense of security is a trap, as the Israelis just discovered. We are still in deep dodo. Our schools are doing more damage than good. The forces of evil are not going away. We need real education, not conditioning, programming, indoctrination, and mind-control.
I would not call education in the US education?
And before you all shit on me I lived there for 23yrs and had my daughter in school in the LA School District. She learned NOTHING!
Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in every class. NO Geography. No World History!
It pains me too - immensely. Much of my own upbringing was steeped in the assurance that somewhere, someone was surely doing something to make everything "OK". This blind confidence assumes "others" - not those of us comprising society - are surely taking care of our most important matters. It's a sad irony that since the early 80's forward, here in the cradle of global democracy, we the people have not participated in our own governance - at least as much as we needed to. And I place the heavy end of this shortcoming at the feet of Ronald Reagan as well as concerted oligarchic cultural propaganda - most of which was conceived of and perpetrated by privately funded counter-progressive front groups, euphemistically referred to as "think tanks".
The point is, America had been lulled to sleep. Reagan's supply-side economic time bomb filled our stores with shiny garbage, and in so doing, filled our hearts and minds with a deeply false sense of security. We have all experienced the deceptively warm feeling that comes from having "stuff" - we feel whole, we feel validated, we feel - safe. It's bizarre and illogical, but somewhere inside we have a deep remembering of times in our evolution when having stuff meant the difference between eating, or being eaten. Preying on this psychological phenomena is certainly not, and never has been, lost on those who gluttonously seek power over the many.
I guess this is my defense (at least in part) of our seemingly indifferent and under-involved participation in the world's most influential democracy. I know there's far more to the story, but honesty, I don't think it matters at the moment. What does matter is what we do now. This is it, right now. This is us, right now. The future is ours, for better or worse. Let's be the very people we think are "out there somewhere" making everything "OK". Because the truth is, we are. There is no one else, and there never has been.
I'm optimistic that we will, without a doubt, rise to the occasion of strengthening democracy - and in so doing, levy the tide of fascism washing over our civilization - once again.
Well said notabot!
Thanks for this Thom. I needed this pep talk today. I really appreciate all that you do.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret Mead
Your diagnosis of the cause being Trump and Republicans is way off as is evidenced by what both parties have wrought in the Middle East, a topic you barely mention that shows the complete void of moral and spiritual integrity regardless of political party. The powderkegs that we have filled to the brim around the world are coming back to haunt us, and broadcasters like you who claim that Hillary Clinton was a "brilliant" Secretary of State are part of the reason there is zero accountability for our war crimes and hegemony.
Lay the eff off Thom. He has never ever claimed that Hillary was a brilliant secretary of state.
The sins of the Democratic party are well known, but you appear to stand with Putin, especially when ascribing false motives and facts to Thom and other liberals.
I am not a democrat, have no loyalty to the party and am a progressive and am critical of the party when it caves to the money powers, but at least they are not authoritarian, not racist, not misogynist, not anti semitic, like the Republican party, thus you constantly conflate the two parties into one, there is one inhuman bad actor that you don't come down on, and that is the murderous, war criminal and genocidalist Vladimir Putin.
And more outrageous, not a word about the inhumanity and crimes of HAMAS, murdering, beheading and kidnapping innocent civilians,. If it was an assault on Israel's Defense Force, that is one thing, but waging a war of terror and killing over 1,000 civilians kidnapping over 100, well that is another story. Where is your outrage?
Nay, you take the opportunity to impune the Democratic party (yeh I know you included Republicans) but your main thrust is the Democrats. You really must hate Democracy.
Do you spend time on Right wing sites, throwing sand in their eyes. I believe not.
Who the eff are you really?
Oh yes he did, I discussed it on a podcast specifically. He said Hillary was a brilliant Secretary of State and that as a presidential candidate she was "practically identical" to Bernie Sanders! He has also said that Joe Biden is like FDR and Zelensky like Churchill. I am disappointed with Democrats because they are supposed to be doing the right thing and constantly fail and lie, allowing Republicans to take hold and Trumpism to flourish. The failure to directly discuss the fundamental problems plaguing a society for fear of "circling the wagons" (Thom again) or offending a political party or its followers is indeed the prescription for the death of democracy. As for Hamas, your neoliberalism is showing and the fact that you are woefully uninformed (listening to Thom will not help you on the Palestinian conflict) and/or inhumane: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-israel-war-dispatch/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20%2010.9.2023&utm_term=daily
OK I stand corrected. I have no tolerance for podcasts,and am wondering who has the time and disposition to listen to hours of people bloviating, with ear buds in their ears. I certainly don't I can barely sit though an hour of a TV host, like Rachel or Joy (both of whom I admire)
So I never heard that podcast. What I know of Hillary is that she has been politically motivated, apparently all her adult life. So much so that she ignored the satyrism of Bill. There are a lot of conspiracy theories about Bill, but I do believe the Jennifer Flowers story, because it fits with a lonley man in the Oval Office, being seduced by a young intern, that was star struck and placed in front of him, to seduce him (I don't think she was aware), then after losing to Obama, the DNC, which is it's own enemy, instructed Obama to make her Sec of State, that she could acquire the foreign service credentials, which were all important to the oligarchs and international trade and finance, at the time. So when Obama left his second term, she jumped in the ring and the DNC put its thumb on the scale for her, especially because Bernie and his tax the rich agenda, posed a serious threat to the money powers that run this country.
As far as me being a neo liberal. I call bullshit. Neo liberals are economic royalists, and neo liberalism is all about unfettered free trade.
As regards my opinion on the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Instead of throwing out vague charges, like calling me a neo loberal and woefully uninformed. Give examples for your charges.
Otherwise what you say is of no consequence. Defend yourself, what am I woefully uninformed about and what about my comment is "neo liberal"
Meanwhile,all one has to do is browse your comments on Thom's pages, and you will see a constant defense of Putin, rather obliquely (which is typical of an expert), playing the both sides card. Not defending Putin, but attacking Zelensky's supporters
All anyone needs to do is put themselves in other people's shoes!
I suggest that you William look at the US History of war crimes?
Tell me something Thom: If you were constantly threatened/no good drinking water/little food/houses being blown up even though you had lived in the neighbourhood for years ...would you not be looking for someone to defend you?
I am well aware of our history of war crimes, invasion, exploitations, lies and aggression, most in the service of miliionaires and corporations.
However as regards the problem with HAMAS. It is a problem of HAMAS and Islam's making.
I will have to quote again the Covenant of HAMAS
On the destruction of Israel:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)
The exclusive Moslem nature of the area:
"The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it." (Article 11)
"Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be." (Article 13)
The call to jihad:
"The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." (Article 15)
"Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: 'Hail to Jihad!'. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah's victory comes about." (Article 33)
Rejection of a negotiated peace settlement:
"[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility." (Article 13)
Condemnation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty:
"Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle [against Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in order to bring them outside the circle of struggle. ...Leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who perpetrates such an act." (Article 32)
Anti-Semitic incitement:
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." (Article 7)
That statement about killing the Jews is from the bloodcurdling hadith that reads as follows: “Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say, oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him.”
And that is what HAMAS did in Israel.
So what do you expect the Jews in Israel to do? Commit suicide, walk into the sea, board planes and fly to America and Europe. How would America and Europe react to a sudden flood of angry Jews forced out of their home
Whatever happens to Gaza, HAMAS is responsible and to blame. Either Israel eradicates HAMAS or HAMA eradicates Israel.
And while I once sympathized about the dispossessed Arabs, I no longer do, the women were ulating and the kids and men jumping with joy at pictures of massacred Jewish women, girls, babies.
Gaza is HAMAS, HAMAS is Gaza and they brought hell onto itself, even with the horrors Israel is committed to saving not so innocent lives (remember the women were ulating and the kids celebrating when video's and photos of the carnage were broadcast.
HAMAS swims in the sea of the Gazans, the Gazans support, motivate, love and assist HAMAS.
The Kibbutz that were raided, were targeted by Gazan workers who took notes, maps and reported by to HAMAS as they accepted their employees shekels.
Yet Israel restored the water, and told the people to move to south Gaza, as HAMAS is rooted in the north, and HAMAS has told them not to move, even set up toadblocks to turn back civilians.
This game of justifying HAMAS savagery and butchery on the basis of the sins of the Israel transgressions doesn't hack it.
The problem in Israel and Palestine (including HAMAS, and Hexbollah and their financier, supplier and mentor Iran, is religious extremists.
We have that problem in America, times ten. It is the settlers, the rabid extremist Orthodox right wing settlers who are killing and dispossessing Arabs.
Historically. Theodore Herzel and his early Zionists bought land from the Arabs, as did the refugees from war torn and NAZI Europe.
The Arabs watched as the Jews transformed the land into a productive nation, with jealousy and an inferiority complex, because they couldn't do the same, though they lived there thousands of years.
So in 1948, The attacked and Israel with a makeshift Airport, cobbled together from British planes that had been disabled by the Brits, and making their own ammo out of lipstick cases, beat them back in the process claimed territory, the Arabs call the Nakba (catastrophe) a catastrophe they caused, and have waged an eternal war against the Jews ever since.
And each time Israel annexed a piece of Arab territory to, among other things to secure their border and safety of the citizens.
The excesses of late are caused by orthodox Jews, and Israel has the problem that we have, the political power of religious extremists. (Most of the Republican party, Trump is Americas Bibi.
However the majority of Jews are actually secular, not religious extremists, they recognized gay marriage long before we did. And even a very healthy pro Palestine contingent. Now find something like that in Gaza. Arabs lived and worked in Israel, find me a Jew who could survive in Gaza.
Your poor victim Palestinians doesn't fly, and you know why? HAMAS and the support it gets and got from its citizens.
Those of us that grew-up in unstable circumstances learned at an early age.that no one was coming to save us. Life is expensive emotionally and financially, but at least in this democracy you might make it tolerable and be able to pursue some happiness. I am one grateful American.
It's great to revere the people who created and improved our democracy, especially the ones that risked or gave it all, but picking up where they left off is the only way to truly honor them.
Onward and upward. Speak, teach, and vote---it all counts. You are an excellent example, Thom.
If the US really wants a solution get Blinken out. He is a disaster.
I see no difference in this diatribe from any other country on earth.
It's just politician 'speak.!'
I liked what you wrote Tom but American colonialism is dead.
How can people rise up and be brave in a country awash with guns and ignorance?