It all traces back to billionaire-backed fearmongering in the 1960s—weaponizing panic around socialism and communism to crush unions, cut taxes, and hoard profits...
i find myself objecting to the constant misuse of the phrase cognitive dissonance, it has become a meme, people use it as if they knew something.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when a persons mouth and behavior is contradicted by their own beliefs and thoughts.
It is manifest in increased heart rate, palpitations, sweat, nervousness.
There is no way for anyone to know if a person is experiencing cognitive dissonance, because it is a personal feeling of discomfort.
Thus one can not tell if others are feeling cognitive dissonance, and the statement that cognitive dissonance has become normalized in the USA is ridiculous, unless the author has some kind of psychic powers.
For further explanation:
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that occurs when someone holds conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. It can cause people to feel uneasy, stressed, or anxious.
Signs of cognitive dissonance
Emotional discomfort: Feeling uneasy, stressed, or anxious without a clear reason
Self-justification: Making excuses to align actions with beliefs
Avoidance: Ignoring or dismissing information that challenges current beliefs
Guilt: Feeling guilty over past decisions
Shame: Feeling shame or embarrassment regarding a decision
Wanting to be healthy but not exercising regularly or eating a nutritious diet
Knowing that smoking is harmful but continuing to smoke
Skipping exercise and sitting at a desk all day, and later feeling guilty
Working in a meat factory while being a vegetarian
How people resolve cognitive dissonance
People often change, justify, or ignore the conflicting information to resolve the tension.
People may also try to change their behavior to reduce the discomfort.
I was thinking about cognitive dissonance when I said in another message we don't know what the military is thinking when they are faced with an order to obey the commander-in-chief if Trump uses the military against citizens. Soldiers are individuals, and resolving a soldier's cognitive dissonance might mean they will change their behavior to reduce the discomfort—decide not to obey—thereby influencing the members to join them.
As a retired member of a special ops unit, and enlisted then as team leader, I will tell you what the military thinks and feels..Nothing they obey orders.
Mutiny within the ranks is virtually unheard of.
if they obey orders there is no cognitive dissonance, if they refuse to obey orders, then they are guilty of either mutiny, if en masse, or a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and will be court martialed.
Here is a personal example of cognitive dissonance and how it is dealt with.
I converted to Catholicism to please my ex wife, she wanted to get married in the Iglesia San Jose, aka Church of the Golden Altar. I really didn't believe, but I became a fanatic traditional Catholic, a Knight of Columbus, and a member of a trad rad croup, that celebrated underground Latin Masses.. That was my way of dealing with cognitive dissonance. I had even flirted with becoming Greek Orthodox and attended their masses.
A soldier who is given orders to act against is own conscience and belief will experience all of the physical signs I mentioned., and suffer PTSD.
Mr. Farrar, when I was in ROTC training to become a lieutenant in the infantry, we learned from guys returning from Vietnam that the life of a lieutenant as short. The major cause of their death was murder by their own men. It was called "fragging." This was one of the bits of information which convinced me of the terrible power of the military to ruin the life of a young man. Having said that; I must add that the four most honorable men I have ever known were infantry, combat veterans. Two served in WW1 and two in Vietnam.
The actual incidents of fragging were few, from what I have heard, no more than two.
On the other hand there were a lot of troops, not just Lt's killed by friendly fire.
when yo are in combat, the last thing you want is to have your safety and mission compromised by some asshole, and a lot of people lose it under stress, and there is no stress like being under fire.
A smart Lt (butter bar), as soon as he is assigned a unit, will quickly glom onto the senior enlisted member, if in a platoon it would be the lst Sergeant
My Dad was a Warrant Officer and adjutant of the 1st Joint Assault signal company in the Pacific, (5th Amphib, 4th MarDiv). He was sent to Platoon Leaders Class in preparation for the invasion of Japan, but Japan surrendered, though commissioned he was RIFed (reduction in force) down to his enlisted rank which was MSgt) and as such he was called as cadre (lst Sgt) of the remobilized 1st MarDiv (Guadalcanal), Easy Company 2/7th. If he hadn't been riffed he would have been either a battalion commander or on the division staff.
But when he was a butter bar, he was just another butter bar, despite his part in winning the Solomon's and Marshall's.
I was an E-7 when I was commissioned, quite a let down, basically starting all over. no one not even the enlisted who knew me, considered me anything but an ignorant and naive butter bar. I had a Lt Col, who wanted me to marry his teenage daughter. gad I was recently divorced, had three children of my own, but he saw a young naive butter bar.
I led a small team, and my senior NCO treated me like a typical butter bar, I made the big decisions (of which there were really none) and me made the little ones, basically I sat behind a desk, while he ran the team.
After I got promoted to a silver bar, a fresh, untested, didn't know Jack Captain was assigned to my team for mentoring, he worked for me for a couple of months until he got his feet on the ground, and then took over command.
But I have o confess, that if I had ever parachuted into a really hot situation, there was one enlisted person on my team that would have died from friendly fire.
So grateful you're in this fight Thom. At the end of the day, the hardest part for me has been to accept that there really are evil people in the world like trump musk vance who would hurt others for their own gain. but keep in mind (she tells herself daily/hourly/ by the minute) that there are more good people (like you) than evil, and every person has a bit of good and bad in them. I'm a firm believer that our thoughts create reality, so when I'm not writing about the evils of the GOP (I used to be a republican) I try to train my mind on the positive... all the beautiful people working to make the world a better place for people and animals alike. it's neuroplasticity, the most powerful but untapped evolutionary skill we have, and it's the reason I'm alive.
For the Haake of it, I give you a thumbs up for your concise, accurate assessment of human beings. The problem is that so many people are sheep, and Trump depends on this.
Jan 6 was nothing other than pure unadulterated treason, which should have been dealt with as soon as it happened. The fact that that didn’t happen may grow into the demise of the American experiment
I was born in 1960. I remember the Civil Rights movement. I remember the assassinations of MLK and RFK. I remember how my father and my uncle used to fight about Nixon. My father was a teacher and my uncle was attending a Catholic college. I couldn’t understand how anyone could vote for Nixon. But he won a second term. Then he was impeached and resigned. I’ll never forgive Gerald Ford for pardoning him. Then Jimmy Carter was elected. I wasn’t able to vote in 1976. I really felt sorry for him inheriting such a mess. I did vote for him in 1980. But sadly the movie star won. I was in college then, studying economics and political science. I couldn’t believe how so many people were and still are fooled by him. Reagan destroyed unions and the middle class. He fired more than 11000 air traffic controllers! And months later we had the worst airline crash on American soil. It’s such a joke that they named the airport for him. It feels as if history is repeating itself. And now they’re trotting out the same old playbook.. They fired the people who are responsible for making our skies safer. And now we have another horrific crash. I could go on and on about why the current president is totally unfit, unworthy, etc. It’s so frustrating the stranglehold that the corporate media has on news.
It is and has been treason. The Constitution was written by people who valued freedom from monarchy and top-down rule. They did not intend for the Constitution to be hijacked by monarchist fascists, and they could not have foreseen how good ideas could be so completely turned inside out. It’s going to be a long slog to undo this, but we can, and will.
This one post is a good summation of the political history of the last 70 years of America. I would also include all the ways that court rulings, from Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad to the coup de grace of Citizens United, have assisted in the overthrow of popular government by the power of private capital.
Thank you for the succinct history of the oligarch’s gradual intended change in our economic system that has taken place. I’ve lived through some of it as all of us, but without a clear timeline of these changes it’s hard to see the big picture. The old social norms sucked but the new are no better. And, there was maybe an economic respite for the population during part of the 80’s and 90’s where the middle class were taking trips to Europe with the family and actually buying second homes, but that certainly didn’t last long.
You can also add the gradual dumbing down of our people by our eroding educational system that squashed the teaching of the humanities and arts and geared it instead to churning out tech worker bees. Education isn’t even allowed to light any true fires in the minds of the youth or teach true reasoning skills or even skills of observation and logic.
The billionaires do not want their paid servants in all levels of society to reason or think. After all, as far as they’re concerned, the middle class are supposed to merely support their genius, and the poor are merely “tools”. When people decide they want a clean environment to live and work in and a bright future they actually enjoy living for themselves and their children, this invariably takes money out of the pockets of the oligarchs who seem to control pricing of goods, yet cause the pollution and the global warming in the first place.
There is also another problem they didn’t think through, though. If incomes do not rise with cost of living, a one worker income can no longer support the family, so both must get a job and expensive daycare’s becomes the parent. It’s difficult to crank out babies and take care of a household when you’re working the same hours. Yet, shocker, these morbidly rich are talking of forcing people to have more children.
Divorce has been at an all time high for years and so is the constant stress and depression our present unworkable system is putting on us worker bees. Not only do we contend with 16+ years of mind crushingly boring education that eventually puts us and possibly our parents in debt, but we go directly to mind-numbing, unfulfilling jobs designed to support the same economic system that made these oligarchs in the first place. And the billionaires’ answer? Colonize Mars!
Here is a thought Th on the day that there is a vote for confimration of Trump's cabinet nominees, the Democrats don't show up.
The Constitution requires a majority of senators (51) and representatives (218) for a quorum. There are 53 Republicans, so they have a quorum, but the Democrats by their absence sends a statement, and those Dems that do show up, also send a statement as to who side they are really on.
At present there are 53 Republican Senators and 218 Republican Representatives, so they will have a quorum, but the Democratic party is sending a message loud and clear that they don't have the approval of almost half of the country.
It took 200 years of democratically refining the Constitution to make this country livable for those of us that do the work. Then it took exactly what you have described over the last 50 years to attempt to destroy it. It is treason when it is done at the behest of our rivals and enemies.
Our message needs to be that 250 f-ing years later and the tax breaks are being returned to the richest people and corporations. Meanwhile, the people doing the work can't afford health care, a home, or an education. It's not about communism or socialism---it's about what is right and what is wrong.
I was in my 20s during the 1960s. (I was born before Pearl Harbor) and if I may add, women who are not as old as I am really do not understand what’s happening to them right now. You have to have lived it to really comprehend the powerlessness. Along with shifting money to the wealthy, these people are shifting women, people of color and people who don’t hide their male/female gender differences successfully, back to abject poverty of being.
its an horrendous backward approach and utterly unrealistic in this life to stay barefoot and pregnant...for women childbearing and raising without support and a profession are doomed to poverty.
I had a couple years as a single mother working 3 jobs, with minimal support, then married again, 6 years w/one wk/yr vacation supporting my husband's graduate program. So can relate.
I agree with everything herein. But, I also want to track back even further. The U.S. is not a community oriented country. We don't have villages per se. We are mostly a "it's all about the individual and good luck with that mindset". So, community support mechanics are not really available on a general level. Our neighborhoods are not designed for communities. They are designed for fences. The colonialist brought this with them from Europe. They considered the tribal people to be "savages". The tribal people had the most advanced structure of community development in the world. However, you don't model your "civilized" opinions on "savages". Today we have the results of this original construct. The "lost and lonely" boys are searching for someone or some group to aim their anger and frustrations upon. So, we have racism. So, we have income inequality. So, we have fascism. The individual "lost and lonely" boys who have aligned their social dysfunctional social skills to technology have amassed fortunes unimaginable in years past. Now, like the characters in George Orwell's "Animal Farm" they are seeking to restructure a collective social structure that will respect and accept them. Unfortunately, they have not addressed the internal character fracture that they have suffered from this isolation and thus, they are not able to deliver "paradise". Any conservative grouping, of any nature, is usually formatted around money or fundamental religion. Neither of these addresses this internal character fracture...that is really not anyone's individual fault.
The Maga Lost Boys are stuck in a Lord of the Flies reality tv show or their battered women and patsy dads are circulating in a Jerry Springer loop.
A really fundamental internal character fracture comes direct from western theology and philosophy that demonized the female, and proclaimed thar domination over Nature (as female) was the birthright of pricks from the dawn of time. As we have seen with our new cadre of women haters and abusers who are so happy now they can be sleep walkers, cuss, and call people bad names, and act like they are 10 yrs old and Woke Mommy can't tell them to stuff it.
A related crack in head of character fracture is the xenophobic nature of isolation. England being an island there were only white people there. Geography and fear of invaders who didn't look like themselves. Only 25% of the population in the US is of British descent, but the system and the ideas are of British origin.
As to history we have a deep backbone of democracy for a young country. Being isolated on the edge of the wilderness, the early inland colonial villages of Concord and Sudbury (1635-1639) Massachusetts were the first towns to institute the Town Meeting form of government. Each town ran as its own Republic with people debating and compromising and voting. Our democratic system was born here. We still have our town meeting form of governance so have a built-in community system even though many of our villages are now bedroom commuter villes for the city. I find it difficult to imagine that New Englanders whose heritage is the Revolutionary war in a very personal way are going to give up that traditional form of Independence without a battle.
Note to Democrats: donvict’s elected supporters must all be held individually, unequivocally, responsible for, guilty of, his abuses, excesses, crimes.
Part of our current situation is that at their best the American ideals of equality and liberty have always been very fragile and constrained. I don't need to go over slavery, genocide, etc., or the institutional drags like the Electoral College, voting restrictions and now corporate personhood, but somehow as my father (1900-90) used to say, the country "staggered along." We were very lucky in the people who started it and got America through the crises of the 1860s and 1930s, but right now there is nobody, no group, no agenda widely seen to be carrying the torch.
Saying this should be done by "the people" sounds good and is true, but consider how such a nebulous group usually acts. Most will follow leaders and do what they are told, or stand back and let others do it. (Consider how the Korean people, united for all their history, were easily split into two groups that were led to fight each other.) After World War 2 many former Nazis turned into supporters of Communist East Germany (some went to capitalist West Germany and the scientists came to the U.S.), and they often got similar official positions. Their pasts were forgiven and forgotten. Communist, Fascist, Monarchist...the labels don't matter, taking care of yourself while being part of a cause is all that counts.
The Trump gang knows all this. Take a population where education and critical thinking are in decline, make them scared, push the right buttons with a leader who promises them everything and you can lead them anywhere. And of course it is treason, and they don't care.
Donnie the Traitor is the "Ultimate" NY shapeshifter. Not that he has a Lizard Brain. He IS a Lizard. He conforms to the current background by mirroring.
His voters are not unlike Major Bennet Marco's (Frank Sinatra's) lost platoon in the 1962 movie "The Manchurian Candidate." They've been thoroughly brainwashed to work against America.
Right-wing media is Dr. Yen Lo, the mustachioed leader of the Chinese brainwashing.
The platoon was not really lost, as they were led into a Commie trap by mole/scout Chunjin (Henry Silva) ably played by foreigner Rupert Murdoch and dozens of his $10,000 suited ilk.
On-air personnel are just wage slaves, albeit well-paid ones, who appear in a brothel scene as whores.
Trump is a groomed-by-Putin sap, who's just chasing shekels and is utterly manipulatable because he is merely an animatronic Dancing Bear who got nasty a while back whilst visiting Moscow and got caught on tape.
Just a banjo-strumming, Country Bear from Disneyland, with no clear mind of his own. An inchoate jumble of misfiring synapses. A doofus in other words.
A useful, idiotic, self-obsessed, and very highly programmable dementia patient. Trump is Sen. John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory) in the film.
Who's Vladimir Putin in the flick? Mrs Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury) who in the novel screws her son literally and figuratively.
And the assassin, Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is Russell Vought.
Who are the Democrats? They are Major Marco who has yet to snap out of his brainwashing.
But he will. At least in the movie he does. Link below.
nice review...chilling tale in a character studies mash up...if it just wasn't so close a twisted plot that we have to untangle in all its gruesome parts each glorious day they want to ruin with suffering of the masses as they drink champagne in gold plate or throw vodka glasses into the fireplace
Thank you Thom for your relentless work on behalf of all that is life, all that is decent and all that is, perhaps, possible. That work has inspired my life for the past 20 years - just a hair less than half of my entire time on Earth!
For what it's worth, to those whom it may concern, or just out of plain courtesy - I am saying farewell for now. I truly wish the best for all of us, and will continue in some capacity to care for the world - within my reach.
Finally! Thom, used the word "treason". He has been writing articles periodically which literally define the word treason, in my opinion, but for some reason he would not use the word "treason". Thom has the message, if we could only find a leader to deliver the message? Without a leader or leaders any unified strategy is doomed. The best I can say at this time, is something similar to what Hakeem Jefferies said. God is in charge. Sounds like a person who is defeated when that is the only thing you have to say. I would still say "God is in charge". That's why God will protect us when we come to kick yo gluteus maximus, for lack of a better word. Use our intellect and Fight, Fight, Fight (put your fist in the air when you say it).
I totally agree with you. That Project 2025 wasn’t called out more boldly in the mainstream press for what it is - Treason- boggles the mind.
Cognitive dissonance has become normalized as has the madness of MAGA.
i find myself objecting to the constant misuse of the phrase cognitive dissonance, it has become a meme, people use it as if they knew something.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when a persons mouth and behavior is contradicted by their own beliefs and thoughts.
It is manifest in increased heart rate, palpitations, sweat, nervousness.
There is no way for anyone to know if a person is experiencing cognitive dissonance, because it is a personal feeling of discomfort.
Thus one can not tell if others are feeling cognitive dissonance, and the statement that cognitive dissonance has become normalized in the USA is ridiculous, unless the author has some kind of psychic powers.
For further explanation:
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that occurs when someone holds conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. It can cause people to feel uneasy, stressed, or anxious.
Signs of cognitive dissonance
Emotional discomfort: Feeling uneasy, stressed, or anxious without a clear reason
Self-justification: Making excuses to align actions with beliefs
Avoidance: Ignoring or dismissing information that challenges current beliefs
Guilt: Feeling guilty over past decisions
Shame: Feeling shame or embarrassment regarding a decision
Wanting to be healthy but not exercising regularly or eating a nutritious diet
Knowing that smoking is harmful but continuing to smoke
Skipping exercise and sitting at a desk all day, and later feeling guilty
Working in a meat factory while being a vegetarian
How people resolve cognitive dissonance
People often change, justify, or ignore the conflicting information to resolve the tension.
People may also try to change their behavior to reduce the discomfort.
I was thinking about cognitive dissonance when I said in another message we don't know what the military is thinking when they are faced with an order to obey the commander-in-chief if Trump uses the military against citizens. Soldiers are individuals, and resolving a soldier's cognitive dissonance might mean they will change their behavior to reduce the discomfort—decide not to obey—thereby influencing the members to join them.
As a retired member of a special ops unit, and enlisted then as team leader, I will tell you what the military thinks and feels..Nothing they obey orders.
Mutiny within the ranks is virtually unheard of.
if they obey orders there is no cognitive dissonance, if they refuse to obey orders, then they are guilty of either mutiny, if en masse, or a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and will be court martialed.
Here is a personal example of cognitive dissonance and how it is dealt with.
I converted to Catholicism to please my ex wife, she wanted to get married in the Iglesia San Jose, aka Church of the Golden Altar. I really didn't believe, but I became a fanatic traditional Catholic, a Knight of Columbus, and a member of a trad rad croup, that celebrated underground Latin Masses.. That was my way of dealing with cognitive dissonance. I had even flirted with becoming Greek Orthodox and attended their masses.
A soldier who is given orders to act against is own conscience and belief will experience all of the physical signs I mentioned., and suffer PTSD.
Mr. Farrar, when I was in ROTC training to become a lieutenant in the infantry, we learned from guys returning from Vietnam that the life of a lieutenant as short. The major cause of their death was murder by their own men. It was called "fragging." This was one of the bits of information which convinced me of the terrible power of the military to ruin the life of a young man. Having said that; I must add that the four most honorable men I have ever known were infantry, combat veterans. Two served in WW1 and two in Vietnam.
The actual incidents of fragging were few, from what I have heard, no more than two.
On the other hand there were a lot of troops, not just Lt's killed by friendly fire.
when yo are in combat, the last thing you want is to have your safety and mission compromised by some asshole, and a lot of people lose it under stress, and there is no stress like being under fire.
A smart Lt (butter bar), as soon as he is assigned a unit, will quickly glom onto the senior enlisted member, if in a platoon it would be the lst Sergeant
My Dad was a Warrant Officer and adjutant of the 1st Joint Assault signal company in the Pacific, (5th Amphib, 4th MarDiv). He was sent to Platoon Leaders Class in preparation for the invasion of Japan, but Japan surrendered, though commissioned he was RIFed (reduction in force) down to his enlisted rank which was MSgt) and as such he was called as cadre (lst Sgt) of the remobilized 1st MarDiv (Guadalcanal), Easy Company 2/7th. If he hadn't been riffed he would have been either a battalion commander or on the division staff.
But when he was a butter bar, he was just another butter bar, despite his part in winning the Solomon's and Marshall's.
I was an E-7 when I was commissioned, quite a let down, basically starting all over. no one not even the enlisted who knew me, considered me anything but an ignorant and naive butter bar. I had a Lt Col, who wanted me to marry his teenage daughter. gad I was recently divorced, had three children of my own, but he saw a young naive butter bar.
I led a small team, and my senior NCO treated me like a typical butter bar, I made the big decisions (of which there were really none) and me made the little ones, basically I sat behind a desk, while he ran the team.
After I got promoted to a silver bar, a fresh, untested, didn't know Jack Captain was assigned to my team for mentoring, he worked for me for a couple of months until he got his feet on the ground, and then took over command.
But I have o confess, that if I had ever parachuted into a really hot situation, there was one enlisted person on my team that would have died from friendly fire.
Maybe in the Americale Division.
So grateful you're in this fight Thom. At the end of the day, the hardest part for me has been to accept that there really are evil people in the world like trump musk vance who would hurt others for their own gain. but keep in mind (she tells herself daily/hourly/ by the minute) that there are more good people (like you) than evil, and every person has a bit of good and bad in them. I'm a firm believer that our thoughts create reality, so when I'm not writing about the evils of the GOP (I used to be a republican) I try to train my mind on the positive... all the beautiful people working to make the world a better place for people and animals alike. it's neuroplasticity, the most powerful but untapped evolutionary skill we have, and it's the reason I'm alive.
For the Haake of it, I give you a thumbs up for your concise, accurate assessment of human beings. The problem is that so many people are sheep, and Trump depends on this.
Jan 6 was nothing other than pure unadulterated treason, which should have been dealt with as soon as it happened. The fact that that didn’t happen may grow into the demise of the American experiment
I was born in 1960. I remember the Civil Rights movement. I remember the assassinations of MLK and RFK. I remember how my father and my uncle used to fight about Nixon. My father was a teacher and my uncle was attending a Catholic college. I couldn’t understand how anyone could vote for Nixon. But he won a second term. Then he was impeached and resigned. I’ll never forgive Gerald Ford for pardoning him. Then Jimmy Carter was elected. I wasn’t able to vote in 1976. I really felt sorry for him inheriting such a mess. I did vote for him in 1980. But sadly the movie star won. I was in college then, studying economics and political science. I couldn’t believe how so many people were and still are fooled by him. Reagan destroyed unions and the middle class. He fired more than 11000 air traffic controllers! And months later we had the worst airline crash on American soil. It’s such a joke that they named the airport for him. It feels as if history is repeating itself. And now they’re trotting out the same old playbook.. They fired the people who are responsible for making our skies safer. And now we have another horrific crash. I could go on and on about why the current president is totally unfit, unworthy, etc. It’s so frustrating the stranglehold that the corporate media has on news.
It is and has been treason. The Constitution was written by people who valued freedom from monarchy and top-down rule. They did not intend for the Constitution to be hijacked by monarchist fascists, and they could not have foreseen how good ideas could be so completely turned inside out. It’s going to be a long slog to undo this, but we can, and will.
This one post is a good summation of the political history of the last 70 years of America. I would also include all the ways that court rulings, from Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad to the coup de grace of Citizens United, have assisted in the overthrow of popular government by the power of private capital.
Also MCarthy’s (Joe) blacklists and sham Congressional investigations
Not to mention election interference from foreign countries.
Thank you for the succinct history of the oligarch’s gradual intended change in our economic system that has taken place. I’ve lived through some of it as all of us, but without a clear timeline of these changes it’s hard to see the big picture. The old social norms sucked but the new are no better. And, there was maybe an economic respite for the population during part of the 80’s and 90’s where the middle class were taking trips to Europe with the family and actually buying second homes, but that certainly didn’t last long.
You can also add the gradual dumbing down of our people by our eroding educational system that squashed the teaching of the humanities and arts and geared it instead to churning out tech worker bees. Education isn’t even allowed to light any true fires in the minds of the youth or teach true reasoning skills or even skills of observation and logic.
The billionaires do not want their paid servants in all levels of society to reason or think. After all, as far as they’re concerned, the middle class are supposed to merely support their genius, and the poor are merely “tools”. When people decide they want a clean environment to live and work in and a bright future they actually enjoy living for themselves and their children, this invariably takes money out of the pockets of the oligarchs who seem to control pricing of goods, yet cause the pollution and the global warming in the first place.
There is also another problem they didn’t think through, though. If incomes do not rise with cost of living, a one worker income can no longer support the family, so both must get a job and expensive daycare’s becomes the parent. It’s difficult to crank out babies and take care of a household when you’re working the same hours. Yet, shocker, these morbidly rich are talking of forcing people to have more children.
Divorce has been at an all time high for years and so is the constant stress and depression our present unworkable system is putting on us worker bees. Not only do we contend with 16+ years of mind crushingly boring education that eventually puts us and possibly our parents in debt, but we go directly to mind-numbing, unfulfilling jobs designed to support the same economic system that made these oligarchs in the first place. And the billionaires’ answer? Colonize Mars!
Here is a thought Th on the day that there is a vote for confimration of Trump's cabinet nominees, the Democrats don't show up.
The Constitution requires a majority of senators (51) and representatives (218) for a quorum. There are 53 Republicans, so they have a quorum, but the Democrats by their absence sends a statement, and those Dems that do show up, also send a statement as to who side they are really on.
At present there are 53 Republican Senators and 218 Republican Representatives, so they will have a quorum, but the Democratic party is sending a message loud and clear that they don't have the approval of almost half of the country.
It took 200 years of democratically refining the Constitution to make this country livable for those of us that do the work. Then it took exactly what you have described over the last 50 years to attempt to destroy it. It is treason when it is done at the behest of our rivals and enemies.
Our message needs to be that 250 f-ing years later and the tax breaks are being returned to the richest people and corporations. Meanwhile, the people doing the work can't afford health care, a home, or an education. It's not about communism or socialism---it's about what is right and what is wrong.
Rise Up! We can, we have before, and we will.
Sic Semper Tyrannus!
I was in my 20s during the 1960s. (I was born before Pearl Harbor) and if I may add, women who are not as old as I am really do not understand what’s happening to them right now. You have to have lived it to really comprehend the powerlessness. Along with shifting money to the wealthy, these people are shifting women, people of color and people who don’t hide their male/female gender differences successfully, back to abject poverty of being.
its an horrendous backward approach and utterly unrealistic in this life to stay barefoot and pregnant...for women childbearing and raising without support and a profession are doomed to poverty.
Been there. Done that. Shopped around for doctors I didn’t owe money to for my two daughters health care.
I had a couple years as a single mother working 3 jobs, with minimal support, then married again, 6 years w/one wk/yr vacation supporting my husband's graduate program. So can relate.
I agree with everything herein. But, I also want to track back even further. The U.S. is not a community oriented country. We don't have villages per se. We are mostly a "it's all about the individual and good luck with that mindset". So, community support mechanics are not really available on a general level. Our neighborhoods are not designed for communities. They are designed for fences. The colonialist brought this with them from Europe. They considered the tribal people to be "savages". The tribal people had the most advanced structure of community development in the world. However, you don't model your "civilized" opinions on "savages". Today we have the results of this original construct. The "lost and lonely" boys are searching for someone or some group to aim their anger and frustrations upon. So, we have racism. So, we have income inequality. So, we have fascism. The individual "lost and lonely" boys who have aligned their social dysfunctional social skills to technology have amassed fortunes unimaginable in years past. Now, like the characters in George Orwell's "Animal Farm" they are seeking to restructure a collective social structure that will respect and accept them. Unfortunately, they have not addressed the internal character fracture that they have suffered from this isolation and thus, they are not able to deliver "paradise". Any conservative grouping, of any nature, is usually formatted around money or fundamental religion. Neither of these addresses this internal character fracture...that is really not anyone's individual fault.
The Maga Lost Boys are stuck in a Lord of the Flies reality tv show or their battered women and patsy dads are circulating in a Jerry Springer loop.
A really fundamental internal character fracture comes direct from western theology and philosophy that demonized the female, and proclaimed thar domination over Nature (as female) was the birthright of pricks from the dawn of time. As we have seen with our new cadre of women haters and abusers who are so happy now they can be sleep walkers, cuss, and call people bad names, and act like they are 10 yrs old and Woke Mommy can't tell them to stuff it.
A related crack in head of character fracture is the xenophobic nature of isolation. England being an island there were only white people there. Geography and fear of invaders who didn't look like themselves. Only 25% of the population in the US is of British descent, but the system and the ideas are of British origin.
As to history we have a deep backbone of democracy for a young country. Being isolated on the edge of the wilderness, the early inland colonial villages of Concord and Sudbury (1635-1639) Massachusetts were the first towns to institute the Town Meeting form of government. Each town ran as its own Republic with people debating and compromising and voting. Our democratic system was born here. We still have our town meeting form of governance so have a built-in community system even though many of our villages are now bedroom commuter villes for the city. I find it difficult to imagine that New Englanders whose heritage is the Revolutionary war in a very personal way are going to give up that traditional form of Independence without a battle.
Note to Democrats: donvict’s elected supporters must all be held individually, unequivocally, responsible for, guilty of, his abuses, excesses, crimes.
Part of our current situation is that at their best the American ideals of equality and liberty have always been very fragile and constrained. I don't need to go over slavery, genocide, etc., or the institutional drags like the Electoral College, voting restrictions and now corporate personhood, but somehow as my father (1900-90) used to say, the country "staggered along." We were very lucky in the people who started it and got America through the crises of the 1860s and 1930s, but right now there is nobody, no group, no agenda widely seen to be carrying the torch.
Saying this should be done by "the people" sounds good and is true, but consider how such a nebulous group usually acts. Most will follow leaders and do what they are told, or stand back and let others do it. (Consider how the Korean people, united for all their history, were easily split into two groups that were led to fight each other.) After World War 2 many former Nazis turned into supporters of Communist East Germany (some went to capitalist West Germany and the scientists came to the U.S.), and they often got similar official positions. Their pasts were forgiven and forgotten. Communist, Fascist, Monarchist...the labels don't matter, taking care of yourself while being part of a cause is all that counts.
The Trump gang knows all this. Take a population where education and critical thinking are in decline, make them scared, push the right buttons with a leader who promises them everything and you can lead them anywhere. And of course it is treason, and they don't care.
Donnie the Traitor is the "Ultimate" NY shapeshifter. Not that he has a Lizard Brain. He IS a Lizard. He conforms to the current background by mirroring.
His voters are not unlike Major Bennet Marco's (Frank Sinatra's) lost platoon in the 1962 movie "The Manchurian Candidate." They've been thoroughly brainwashed to work against America.
Right-wing media is Dr. Yen Lo, the mustachioed leader of the Chinese brainwashing.
The platoon was not really lost, as they were led into a Commie trap by mole/scout Chunjin (Henry Silva) ably played by foreigner Rupert Murdoch and dozens of his $10,000 suited ilk.
On-air personnel are just wage slaves, albeit well-paid ones, who appear in a brothel scene as whores.
Trump is a groomed-by-Putin sap, who's just chasing shekels and is utterly manipulatable because he is merely an animatronic Dancing Bear who got nasty a while back whilst visiting Moscow and got caught on tape.
Just a banjo-strumming, Country Bear from Disneyland, with no clear mind of his own. An inchoate jumble of misfiring synapses. A doofus in other words.
A useful, idiotic, self-obsessed, and very highly programmable dementia patient. Trump is Sen. John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory) in the film.
Who's Vladimir Putin in the flick? Mrs Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury) who in the novel screws her son literally and figuratively.
And the assassin, Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is Russell Vought.
Who are the Democrats? They are Major Marco who has yet to snap out of his brainwashing.
But he will. At least in the movie he does. Link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIm6Lslq-Y0
nice review...chilling tale in a character studies mash up...if it just wasn't so close a twisted plot that we have to untangle in all its gruesome parts each glorious day they want to ruin with suffering of the masses as they drink champagne in gold plate or throw vodka glasses into the fireplace
Thank you Thom for your relentless work on behalf of all that is life, all that is decent and all that is, perhaps, possible. That work has inspired my life for the past 20 years - just a hair less than half of my entire time on Earth!
For what it's worth, to those whom it may concern, or just out of plain courtesy - I am saying farewell for now. I truly wish the best for all of us, and will continue in some capacity to care for the world - within my reach.
-Semper Fidelis ad Populum
Finally! Thom, used the word "treason". He has been writing articles periodically which literally define the word treason, in my opinion, but for some reason he would not use the word "treason". Thom has the message, if we could only find a leader to deliver the message? Without a leader or leaders any unified strategy is doomed. The best I can say at this time, is something similar to what Hakeem Jefferies said. God is in charge. Sounds like a person who is defeated when that is the only thing you have to say. I would still say "God is in charge". That's why God will protect us when we come to kick yo gluteus maximus, for lack of a better word. Use our intellect and Fight, Fight, Fight (put your fist in the air when you say it).
Hakeem Jeffries is not a leader, and in my opinion he is lined up to play nice with Trump and Project 2025, he is looking out for No. 1
Here he is https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/hakeem-jeffries/summary?cid=N00033640&cycle=Career&type=I, the organizations and people that own him.