Either the GOP will be crushed to near irrelevance in the 2024 elections, or they will win enough power to end the American experiment. Which will it be?
Let’s say we stop Trump in ’24. How do we disassemble the huge fascist machine behind this mess? Without that, the billionaires will continue to feed the fire.
The billionaires feed the fire in both political parties thus allowing fascism to take hold. Just like you don't stop the war in Ukraine by sending more weapons, you don't stop fascism by alienating those who ostensibly support it. You stop it by having a government that actually serves the people and does not do the precise opposite (Republicans) or pretend they are trying to help while they serve their donors (Democrats). Our current political system is corrupted and unsustainable, and without serious systemic change AND a media with integrity (eg journalism) theocratic fascism will take the reins from the imperialist oligarchy.
Bullshit, that is Putin's card, Kim Jong Un and Xi as well. You show yourself.
As regards your nuclear threat. Russia has none. It is well known that the Russian armed forces are led by Generals and Admirals that are corrupt and divert funds to themselves.
It takes constant maintenance and production of vital parts to service the nuclear arsenal
Our defense department is hard pressed to keep up it's own arsenal, imagine a corrupt Russian military.
I treat 25 patients a day many of them indigent, so I'm positive in the sense that we all can do things to help one another. I am not positive when I see people being propagandized to fight against their fellow human beings and for the very warmongers and imperialists who have caused the problems we are supposed to be fighting against. Exhibit A: https://medium.com/@barrykaufman/roe-v-wade-democrats-cry-wolf-one-time-too-many-4aa22af92412
As I have championed Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen, all victims of our brutal war crimes and aggression, although few have listened. As for our European brothers and sisters in Ukraine, better to pursue diplomacy than use them as canon fodder for our war profiteers and the corporate media they run. I will not be engaging with you in the future as you are hostile and religiously bound to a system of beliefs that is dangerous and dehumanizing (as you have evidenced by your language towards me).
Diplomacy requires honesty and compromise and Putin and the right wingers don't do that. I'm sure Biden would welcome diplomacy I don't think Trump would though.
While I do not adopt your strategy of personal attack and defamation of character to distract from the issues at hand, that "perfect is the enemy of the good" axiom only works if something "good" is actually being accomplished. That is where we differ. Most of what Democrats are doing is not "good." And evidently you didn't read the article on Obama lying to Planned Parenthood in order to get elected and then failing to codify Roe v Wade into law when he had a supermajority in Congress. I just don't see that as "good."
On that we agree, however your championing of Putin (which you persistently do, with your anti Ukraine tropes, and your both sides ism, makes me think, that you are resorting to proven Russian psyops, and your target is progressives.
Agreed. I do the best I can as well, many sites have software that filter out certain words or phrases that prevent posting a particular comment completely. But we can't substitute for the power of a media that actually represents our interests.
And what is your interest exactly. Come out bold and spit it out, instead of being oblique, by attacking Democrats as the same as "Republicans". That was true (BB) Before Bush and Trump, but not so in 2023, where there is a clear difference. Sell outs like Menendez are indeed found in both sides of the aisle in Congress, but to a lesser percent in the Democratic party,, than in the Republican party, then again that is a 250 year old problem, where money buys power and influence, and one can not get elected on principles, ethics, ideology alone.
I have, many times, you probably have skipped over my comments. I have criticized Biden for being a compromiser , stuck in the bipartisan past, fully aware of his voting record as a senator.
But finally he has grown a spine, and gone on the attack, because until now the Democrats have also been on the defensive and touted their economic agenda, which does't count so much with the voting public, who sees the advances of racism, misogyny and homo/trans phobia
The comments sections in the WAPO are huge............just a few people adding truth is all it takes to put a kernel of "what if...' in people's minds.
I make comments on WAPO daily, on numerous articles, but usually I get a ‘pop-up’ immediately that says something to the affect that “the language in this post does not confirm to the rules of WAPO, and has been removed”.
So, a lot of mine aren’t there. I guess a person isn’t allowed to speak their mind!
Whether it's the tribalists on the Trump side or the Biden side it's clear that personal attacks and defamation of character are the tactics utilized to distract from the truth that is being told. You might notice I never attack anyone personally because I do not have to cover up the guilt of being on the side of imperialist oligarchy or fascist theocracy. The language you are using is precisely that of McCarthy and his HUAC hearings that ruined the careers of great filmmakers and authors in the 1950s.
Who is assassinating your character. Stop playing victim. You are judged on your statements and your positions. If it walks like, talks like, then it is..........
You assess liberals as weak minded fools, who can beguiled into your agenda.
True enough for some, there are many weak minded, but well meaning people in the world, and Russian Trolls know very well how to suck them in.
Paul your question is the crucial one we all face. I content that the answer, at least in part, is that we must stop fighting among ourselves and recognize we the people are not the enemy. We need to focus our total efforts on defeating the oligarchs/billionaires that are at the heart of the attack against us. The people must shift our focus to calling them out by name and deed, pointing a finger at their puppets, and taking action to arrest their actions, be it physical or intellectual. Regardless we need to take the fight to them.
I’d love to hear some ideas for accomplishing that.
I really don’t think the political and economic fools who would dismantle the very democracy which enables their existence realize that the replacement government would not include them and all their wealth would be transferred to the families of foreign oligarchs. They would be excluded from the resulting fascist royalty.
Maybe someday more liberals and progressives will get it through their heads that economic power is in effect the fourth branch of government, and that thanks to decisions like Citizens United it has more power than ever? I'm not holding my breath. All a Republican has to do is cry "Socialist! Commie!" when the subject comes up and all those liberals and too many self-styled progressives go running for cover. They've been doing this since the mid/late 19th century. Gutless wonders, the lot of 'em.
Here's the thing: The Republicans are no longer even a Party.
They are off-site employees, corporate tools, 87% owned by "Dark Money" ever since Clarence and the Supremes said money is free speech.- Which makes absolutely NO sense.- That's like saying an Almond Joy is a football game.
So, what we have here is the complete failure of 2-party democracy.
The GOP is jointly "owned" by billionaires who wish to pay less than 0% in taxes, they now pay 3.4%. Republicans are wholly owned subsidiary of their corporate overlords, who want neither regulations nor taxes.
These bimbos want to set up strongman rule, which FOX aids with Putin's & Zuckerberg's able assistance.
Once up and running they will have built a South African-style apartheid . . . a police state.
One where Blacks, Browns, Reds, Yellows, and lower and middle-class Whites work cheap and buy unnecessary stuff till death. Their kids will replicate their parents, having been indoctrinated in theocratic schools to believe myths and counterfactuals.
Every Congress person who voted for the coward Trump's re-installation should now be rotting in SIng Sing. For LIFE!!! Esp. the traitor Tuberville.
Not enough Dems on the Hill, seem to really get the stakes.
What few moderate Republicans still exist are Randian sociopaths, the rest are racist, misogynistic, homophobic fascists, who have utter disdain for Democracy.
And unlike Boris Kaufman, true democrats (small d not big D intentional), see the enemy with clear, unjaundiced eyes. and the threat Putin holds to world peace, as his gold is to neuter NATO and gobble up the old Soviet Empire, then proceed to western Europe.
The situations is sadly such, that if you aren't against Putin, then you are for Putin.
The networks gloss over Trump, and only cover his legal travails because it I is clickbait, and attracts advertisers. The corporate media is owned by its investors, which are the same people and corporations that detest Democracy, because Democracy, inhibits their ability to control the economy, and maximize profits at the expense of the people.
There are a handful of advertising companies, which handle all ads that you see on TV, Newspapers and the internet. They use rating companies like Nielsen, to determine where to place their ads.
The networks are also owned by investors, billionaires and corporations, who have a vested interest in the Republican, and now the No Labels party, even the Green party and other third parties, because they will further cut their taxes, and lift or neuter regulators or like Trump put representatives of the polluting, filth rich in offices like FDA, EPA, Labor as cabinet heads.
I’ve said it more than once. A broken clock is right twice a day, and in many cases so was Trump.
Trump said that the very industry or people, that put him in office, like CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, are the enemy of the people, and they are, because they are at it once again, giving Trump millions of free publicity, by covering his every fart, and turning a blind eye to the racist and totalitarian comments of Trump, focusing instead on the news that harms Biden, like the travails of his son, Hunter
Thom was absolutely correct the media, buries stories that are really harmful to Trump,focusing on the horse race, and bullshit polls that make it neck and neck.
Americans are half asleep, The media did the same thing in 2020, even declaring a red wave, and focusing on bull shit polls.
The polling companies are phony right wing oriented corporations.
Example they ask the leading question, do you approve of Biden’s presidency or some such.
Progressives are indeed disappointed, because he has folded and submitted to right wing terrorism.
And they use that response, as yes and no, and then publish the horse race results, which the corporate media is waiting for to keep the readers hooked on the horse race. No Trump, and profits go down.
Polling companies never ask why people disapprove of Biden, Only that they disapprove and they don’t ask, who will you vote for? Trump? Or Biden? Because that won’t perpetuate the money making horse race.
In fact everything you watch, on screen or in the news, is about a horse race or competition.
I’m watching Walking dead: Daryl Dixon, and like everything even Dark Winds, there is a villain, who can’t be stopped, not until the end, when he or she is finally killed. Even putting them in prison doesn’t end the show, because he eventually escapes and continues his reign of terror
And that is our fault, because they (producers, media, production companies) are making money off our fascination with deadly drama. And that is why Freddie Kruger and Trump can’t be killed, if they die they can’t milk the public.
Their worldview is that we the people, workers and consumers, exist for one thing, to serve them and their greed and need for luxury, toys and social status.
"How do we disassemble the huge fascist machine behind this mess?"
Thom, you have a platform. Ask every head of everery veterans' organization whether they condemn Trump's position that vets are suckers and losers. Do a press release for each. If they won't castigate him, that's news too.
Yesterday, I asked to you to help replicate Taylor Swift. Young voters will constitute 40% of the electorate. We can outregister and outvote them.
Here you go, a partial list of people and financial institutions that want a right wing dictatorship
No Labels’ 501(c)(4) dark-money group and its affiliated 501(c)(3) charitable arm." The group received large donations from top executives running hedge funds and private equity firms, including Bain Capital, Centaurus Advisors, Oaktree Capital Management, Trian Fund Management, and Apollo Global Management." The group has also solicited donations from prominent Trump supporters, "including PayPal founder Peter Thiel, businessman Foster Friess, and Home Depot founder Ken Langone." The New Republic, citing an internal document, reported that between 2019 and 2021, No Labels received $130,000 from right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow.
I've done some digging into these enemies of Democracy and what I have found is that they come in to categories, trad rad Catholics and Calvinists, and Israel firsters like Rupert Murdoch. On after thought there are Billionaires who consider themselves libertarians, because that is the pathway to shed the threat of government interference with their need for gold and power, and include David Koch and, incredibly a gay billionaire Peter Thiel.
That’s a really tough question. It’s a good thought experiment, if nothing else. Imagine what elections would be like without it. Imagine then what other problems would be solved if it just magically weren’t there anymore. We’re stuck with a very bad process, and it might take a constitutional convention, in the end, and that would create worse problems. Unintended consequences are a bitch.
Communist…fascist…ultra-nationalist (Putin)…while these labels can have strong economic implications, politically in some ways they don’t matter. It is all about power and control, which Orwell laid out so well in "1984". After World War 2 many of the workers who had been soldiers, police or bureaucrats for regimes under Hitler’s people simply switched to those under Stalin’s. The slogans may have changed but the authoritarianism was the same. So when Republicans imagine Nazis to be on the left they’re wrong, but if they held up a mirror they might be surprised by what they see. The party does not have death camps and gulags (yet). But at heart it’s just a tool for those who are really running it and want to grasp power by any means necessary. But then they are doing it in the name of “the people” and for “the nation”, of course.
Maybe it is time for liberals to arm themselves like the fascists. It is inevitable that the well armed fascists will be coming for their neighbors. They have said so, loud and clear, meanwhile liberals and independents (if there truly such a thing) have been hiding their heads in the sand, while the threat is becoming bolder and louder.
Which reminds me of something. Trump says the FBI and DOJ are the enemy of the people, and again the broken clock, because the FBI and DOJ, as well as the SecretService, are staffed and led by conservatives, who are anti democrat and pro Trump.
Example, While Trump and the right were threatening Democracy, and the FBI had full knowledge of the planned attempt to overthrow the election, they were focused on Black Lives Matter and other progressive movements. Same with DOJ.
In fact DOJ is still a Trump humping organization, and Garland is a conservative,how far right I can't say, but can ascertain by who he has and has not investiate and prosecute.
He was shamed into appoint Jack Smith, but was glad to appoint Weiss to investiage and prosecute Hunter. Matt Gaetz walks free, and single handedly threatening our national security and democracy. obviously a Putin asset, not one malefactor in Congress has been even investigated much less indicted (Comer, Jordan, Beobert,MTG,Hawley) yet he is all over Democrat Menendez and Hunter while the real criminals, Ivanka and Jr walk free(their crimes were far worse than Hunter's), and BTW, the corporate media also ignores the Ivanka and Jr, sadly even the best hosts on MSNBC.
The idea of America devolving into armed camps ready to shoot each other is a pretty grim recipe for the end of this country. We went down that path in a big way in 1861 and the immediate results were not so good. Anyway in Congress the members have more latitude than most citizens to be loud mouthed jerks, as this "right" is written into the Constitution. That was to prevent them being arrested on trumped-up treason charges. Charles I broadly used the idea to close down Parliament in the chaos leading up to the English Civil War and other monarchs had applied the term as a way to get rid of troublesome people at court (and collect their wealth). Also, it lets the members have freedom of expression on the floor, though obviously this can be abused.
Paul, that's a good question to ask. We'll need to amend the Constitution and fix that fixed court with those damn Supreme Injustices. It's a heavy lift, but it seems the only solution. We're running out of time though.
NC’s law runs afoul of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. They are obviously copying the example of Ron DeSantis, who had the cops raid the home of a woman who was formerly a state employee who stated DeSantis was undercounting COVID-19 deaths. We need to stop this rush for a Caesar. There is no justification for fascist rule in this country.
So Jenny, I'm trying to do my part, but the truth is that I cannot do that alone.
You claimed my comment means nothing, yet you responded and that prompted me to reply. I hope that was more meaningful to you. I suppose I need to spell out a list of actions that should be taken, eh? Perhaps you might be so kind as to offer a few suggestions of your own.
"Those with the privilege to know have the responsibility to act" Albert Einstein
Things are only as meaningful or meaningless as you choose to perceive. It is a choice...
I've offered my suggestions and efforts in more detail at integrativeactivism.com. Specifically about amending the Constitution is within the 7/4/2026 page. There are many who are working in effort to build a movement to amend. I am one, Ziggy is another with his work at endthebribesystem.com and Thom does his thing. There are groups like movetoamend.org, represent.us, endcitizensunited.? that are contributing...
What I offer that others do not is chronological context. I set a goal, a time and a timeline with a schedule. 7/4/2026 will be this country's 250th birthday and will also be the 50th year of the Buckley/Valeo decision when the Supreme Injustices first established the
$= freespeecr bullshit. So, that gives us 2 and a half year to get all the pertinent players on the same page.
Along with the organizations I listed above should be all the climate change activists and gun reform activists etc. etc... Thom's rant Friday (10/27/2023) was a good summary of why all these groups should be working together coordinating efforts. Add all that effort together and make the timing synchronize. Timing is everything...
“Fascism” – The festering wound rooted solely on the crumbling tip of the far right.
“They” – The few, the loud, the terminally wealthy and power hungry. Represented almost exclusively by traitors to democracy within the GOP.
When a mere handful of truly bad seeds use their voice to drown out the voices of the many, they have acquired undue power. And when this power begins to speak the quiet part (of their intent) out loud, they are either supremely confident in nearing their objective – or in the death throes of nearing their end. Either way, they are close to the finish line. Our voices and actions are absolutely essential in determining just what that finish line is. Will it be a green light to incinerate democracy as we know it? Or will it be a collective “Hell No” to 21st century fascism, and in so doing, usher in a renewed appreciation of and commitment to democracy?
Side note: Anyone notice Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Green are missing some “A’s” in their initials? Just saying.
Seems delusion and insanity are a bit contagious. This "Red Caesar" information also seems bat-shit crazy, but I am watching it in real-time. Trump is just one of many that think he can do anything or say anything and there will be no consequences. How's that working out for him in the court in NY?
Thank goodness late-night is back, because they will continue to point-out just how nuts he really is. John Oliver and other comedians have been turned into political pundits whether they meant to become one or not.
Thanks for putting the pieces together of the "plan", Thom. It gives us an idea of what we might be able to work on in our own state. I want to do something on the purge issue.
McCarthy dared them and guess what, he just went down in flames. From Reuters: "The 216 to 210 vote marked the first time in history that the House removed its leader, driven by a relatively small group of right-wing Republicans." Consequences---they really don't know when to stop, just like Trump their would be Caesar.
Everyone needs to read this, and think very seriously about what Ron DeSantis has done in Florida with the gerrymandering of the voting districts. He, and his super majority Republican legislators changed the voting map of Florida just before the midterm election. He, and a super-majority legislature was re-elected. He only has one or two dominant democratic districts in the state, and in those districts he’s made it extremely difficult for the people to vote.
Ron DeSantis has made it very clear that he will make every state in this country the likeness of Florida. People really, truly, need to think about this.
Trump has made it extremely clear he intends to have all government agencies, federal and state, answer only to him. He will be the ultimate head of everything. He also made it clear he will do away with all federal, and state, law enforcement agencies. There will be no FBI, CIA, or state law enforcement agencies. No DOJ, or state investigating agencies. All courts will be answering to him.
People need to read this. This is exactly what the likes of Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramasway have clarified this is their type of government. A Dictatorship.
Take heart, Thom. The more ridiculous they get the closer they get to being irrelevant. Do you really really really think that Trump, a year from now, is going to have power? I wonder if setting up a baseline of fascism vs. democracy is doing what Facebook has been reveled as doing, getting attention by making controversy.
Our institutions are in dire need of a rework. Much of the present imbalance is imbedded in our laws, so there's going to be hell to pay. But nature abhors excess and she's on our side.
Let’s say we stop Trump in ’24. How do we disassemble the huge fascist machine behind this mess? Without that, the billionaires will continue to feed the fire.
The billionaires feed the fire in both political parties thus allowing fascism to take hold. Just like you don't stop the war in Ukraine by sending more weapons, you don't stop fascism by alienating those who ostensibly support it. You stop it by having a government that actually serves the people and does not do the precise opposite (Republicans) or pretend they are trying to help while they serve their donors (Democrats). Our current political system is corrupted and unsustainable, and without serious systemic change AND a media with integrity (eg journalism) theocratic fascism will take the reins from the imperialist oligarchy.
When your gravity fails, negativity won't pull you through.
Here in the real world, Fascism is the immediate (and only imminent) threat.
And there are myriad other imminent threats, here is just one of them: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-nuclear-war-radiation-zone-drills-ld5kp762k
Bullshit, that is Putin's card, Kim Jong Un and Xi as well. You show yourself.
As regards your nuclear threat. Russia has none. It is well known that the Russian armed forces are led by Generals and Admirals that are corrupt and divert funds to themselves.
It takes constant maintenance and production of vital parts to service the nuclear arsenal
Our defense department is hard pressed to keep up it's own arsenal, imagine a corrupt Russian military.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2023/09/20/this-is-what-its-like-to-maintain-the-us-nuclear-arsenal/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=air-dnr
Global warming is definitely an imminent threat that the right wingers are also denying.
I treat 25 patients a day many of them indigent, so I'm positive in the sense that we all can do things to help one another. I am not positive when I see people being propagandized to fight against their fellow human beings and for the very warmongers and imperialists who have caused the problems we are supposed to be fighting against. Exhibit A: https://medium.com/@barrykaufman/roe-v-wade-democrats-cry-wolf-one-time-too-many-4aa22af92412
Then by your lights, you should be championing Ukraine, a victim of naked aggression and brutal war crimes.
As I have championed Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen, all victims of our brutal war crimes and aggression, although few have listened. As for our European brothers and sisters in Ukraine, better to pursue diplomacy than use them as canon fodder for our war profiteers and the corporate media they run. I will not be engaging with you in the future as you are hostile and religiously bound to a system of beliefs that is dangerous and dehumanizing (as you have evidenced by your language towards me).
Diplomacy requires honesty and compromise and Putin and the right wingers don't do that. I'm sure Biden would welcome diplomacy I don't think Trump would though.
Sometimes, need to prioritize. If you have an amygdala, it's fear vs flight. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Therapy may help.
While I do not adopt your strategy of personal attack and defamation of character to distract from the issues at hand, that "perfect is the enemy of the good" axiom only works if something "good" is actually being accomplished. That is where we differ. Most of what Democrats are doing is not "good." And evidently you didn't read the article on Obama lying to Planned Parenthood in order to get elected and then failing to codify Roe v Wade into law when he had a supermajority in Congress. I just don't see that as "good."
On that we agree, however your championing of Putin (which you persistently do, with your anti Ukraine tropes, and your both sides ism, makes me think, that you are resorting to proven Russian psyops, and your target is progressives.
Well said Barry. With William you have to tread on 'tippy toe' because he so loves Biden.
Yes. But if you look at comments like I do on WAPO there is no hope.
I think a lot of the readers on substack SHOULD now make comments on mainstream media (which I do) and hope they are not taken down.
I got a tshirt made and signs in my car because they r taking Democrats comments down.
Agreed. I do the best I can as well, many sites have software that filter out certain words or phrases that prevent posting a particular comment completely. But we can't substitute for the power of a media that actually represents our interests.
And what is your interest exactly. Come out bold and spit it out, instead of being oblique, by attacking Democrats as the same as "Republicans". That was true (BB) Before Bush and Trump, but not so in 2023, where there is a clear difference. Sell outs like Menendez are indeed found in both sides of the aisle in Congress, but to a lesser percent in the Democratic party,, than in the Republican party, then again that is a 250 year old problem, where money buys power and influence, and one can not get elected on principles, ethics, ideology alone.
Maybe you should look at the donors for Biden and then look at his voting record?
I have, many times, you probably have skipped over my comments. I have criticized Biden for being a compromiser , stuck in the bipartisan past, fully aware of his voting record as a senator.
But finally he has grown a spine, and gone on the attack, because until now the Democrats have also been on the defensive and touted their economic agenda, which does't count so much with the voting public, who sees the advances of racism, misogyny and homo/trans phobia
I don't agree.
The comments sections in the WAPO are huge............just a few people adding truth is all it takes to put a kernel of "what if...' in people's minds.
I guess I must be positive tonight!
I make comments on WAPO daily, on numerous articles, but usually I get a ‘pop-up’ immediately that says something to the affect that “the language in this post does not confirm to the rules of WAPO, and has been removed”.
So, a lot of mine aren’t there. I guess a person isn’t allowed to speak their mind!
Ah the defeatist Barry the Putinist rears up again and again. Always playing the both sides card, in defense of Putin, by attacking Ukraine.
Give it up we are onto you.
Whether it's the tribalists on the Trump side or the Biden side it's clear that personal attacks and defamation of character are the tactics utilized to distract from the truth that is being told. You might notice I never attack anyone personally because I do not have to cover up the guilt of being on the side of imperialist oligarchy or fascist theocracy. The language you are using is precisely that of McCarthy and his HUAC hearings that ruined the careers of great filmmakers and authors in the 1950s.
Who is assassinating your character. Stop playing victim. You are judged on your statements and your positions. If it walks like, talks like, then it is..........
You assess liberals as weak minded fools, who can beguiled into your agenda.
True enough for some, there are many weak minded, but well meaning people in the world, and Russian Trolls know very well how to suck them in.
https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-history-rooting-out-subversives-paranoia-and-patriotism-mccarthy-era
Identifying the problem(s) is a good start. What can be done to correct the situation?
Paul your question is the crucial one we all face. I content that the answer, at least in part, is that we must stop fighting among ourselves and recognize we the people are not the enemy. We need to focus our total efforts on defeating the oligarchs/billionaires that are at the heart of the attack against us. The people must shift our focus to calling them out by name and deed, pointing a finger at their puppets, and taking action to arrest their actions, be it physical or intellectual. Regardless we need to take the fight to them.
I’d love to hear some ideas for accomplishing that.
I really don’t think the political and economic fools who would dismantle the very democracy which enables their existence realize that the replacement government would not include them and all their wealth would be transferred to the families of foreign oligarchs. They would be excluded from the resulting fascist royalty.
Maybe someday more liberals and progressives will get it through their heads that economic power is in effect the fourth branch of government, and that thanks to decisions like Citizens United it has more power than ever? I'm not holding my breath. All a Republican has to do is cry "Socialist! Commie!" when the subject comes up and all those liberals and too many self-styled progressives go running for cover. They've been doing this since the mid/late 19th century. Gutless wonders, the lot of 'em.
In fact, they are a large part of that fire.
Here's the thing: The Republicans are no longer even a Party.
They are off-site employees, corporate tools, 87% owned by "Dark Money" ever since Clarence and the Supremes said money is free speech.- Which makes absolutely NO sense.- That's like saying an Almond Joy is a football game.
So, what we have here is the complete failure of 2-party democracy.
The GOP is jointly "owned" by billionaires who wish to pay less than 0% in taxes, they now pay 3.4%. Republicans are wholly owned subsidiary of their corporate overlords, who want neither regulations nor taxes.
These bimbos want to set up strongman rule, which FOX aids with Putin's & Zuckerberg's able assistance.
Once up and running they will have built a South African-style apartheid . . . a police state.
One where Blacks, Browns, Reds, Yellows, and lower and middle-class Whites work cheap and buy unnecessary stuff till death. Their kids will replicate their parents, having been indoctrinated in theocratic schools to believe myths and counterfactuals.
Every Congress person who voted for the coward Trump's re-installation should now be rotting in SIng Sing. For LIFE!!! Esp. the traitor Tuberville.
Not enough Dems on the Hill, seem to really get the stakes.
What few moderate Republicans still exist are Randian sociopaths, the rest are racist, misogynistic, homophobic fascists, who have utter disdain for Democracy.
And unlike Boris Kaufman, true democrats (small d not big D intentional), see the enemy with clear, unjaundiced eyes. and the threat Putin holds to world peace, as his gold is to neuter NATO and gobble up the old Soviet Empire, then proceed to western Europe.
The situations is sadly such, that if you aren't against Putin, then you are for Putin.
Black and white...there is always a grey zone.
"If you aren't against Putin, then you are for Putin."
'Every Congress person who voted for the coward Trump's re-installation should now be rotting in SIng Sing."
Potentially some can be removed using the 14th Amendment solution. The Colorado/Trump hearing is October 30.
Read this during breakfast, before coffee. I would like to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.
Stop the world! I want to get off!!
But.
Like everyone else, I will soldier on.
I lived in NC for 5 years. Voted there for Obama who carried the state in 2008. Couldn’t live there now.
I am shocked by the gestapo law. How is that possibly legal?
Onward through the fog.
How could this
The networks gloss over Trump, and only cover his legal travails because it I is clickbait, and attracts advertisers. The corporate media is owned by its investors, which are the same people and corporations that detest Democracy, because Democracy, inhibits their ability to control the economy, and maximize profits at the expense of the people.
There are a handful of advertising companies, which handle all ads that you see on TV, Newspapers and the internet. They use rating companies like Nielsen, to determine where to place their ads.
The networks are also owned by investors, billionaires and corporations, who have a vested interest in the Republican, and now the No Labels party, even the Green party and other third parties, because they will further cut their taxes, and lift or neuter regulators or like Trump put representatives of the polluting, filth rich in offices like FDA, EPA, Labor as cabinet heads.
I’ve said it more than once. A broken clock is right twice a day, and in many cases so was Trump.
Trump said that the very industry or people, that put him in office, like CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, are the enemy of the people, and they are, because they are at it once again, giving Trump millions of free publicity, by covering his every fart, and turning a blind eye to the racist and totalitarian comments of Trump, focusing instead on the news that harms Biden, like the travails of his son, Hunter
Thom was absolutely correct the media, buries stories that are really harmful to Trump,focusing on the horse race, and bullshit polls that make it neck and neck.
Americans are half asleep, The media did the same thing in 2020, even declaring a red wave, and focusing on bull shit polls.
The polling companies are phony right wing oriented corporations.
Example they ask the leading question, do you approve of Biden’s presidency or some such.
Progressives are indeed disappointed, because he has folded and submitted to right wing terrorism.
And they use that response, as yes and no, and then publish the horse race results, which the corporate media is waiting for to keep the readers hooked on the horse race. No Trump, and profits go down.
Polling companies never ask why people disapprove of Biden, Only that they disapprove and they don’t ask, who will you vote for? Trump? Or Biden? Because that won’t perpetuate the money making horse race.
In fact everything you watch, on screen or in the news, is about a horse race or competition.
I’m watching Walking dead: Daryl Dixon, and like everything even Dark Winds, there is a villain, who can’t be stopped, not until the end, when he or she is finally killed. Even putting them in prison doesn’t end the show, because he eventually escapes and continues his reign of terror
And that is our fault, because they (producers, media, production companies) are making money off our fascination with deadly drama. And that is why Freddie Kruger and Trump can’t be killed, if they die they can’t milk the public.
Their worldview is that we the people, workers and consumers, exist for one thing, to serve them and their greed and need for luxury, toys and social status.
Agree.
"How do we disassemble the huge fascist machine behind this mess?"
Thom, you have a platform. Ask every head of everery veterans' organization whether they condemn Trump's position that vets are suckers and losers. Do a press release for each. If they won't castigate him, that's news too.
Yesterday, I asked to you to help replicate Taylor Swift. Young voters will constitute 40% of the electorate. We can outregister and outvote them.
Here you go, a partial list of people and financial institutions that want a right wing dictatorship
No Labels’ 501(c)(4) dark-money group and its affiliated 501(c)(3) charitable arm." The group received large donations from top executives running hedge funds and private equity firms, including Bain Capital, Centaurus Advisors, Oaktree Capital Management, Trian Fund Management, and Apollo Global Management." The group has also solicited donations from prominent Trump supporters, "including PayPal founder Peter Thiel, businessman Foster Friess, and Home Depot founder Ken Langone." The New Republic, citing an internal document, reported that between 2019 and 2021, No Labels received $130,000 from right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow.
I've done some digging into these enemies of Democracy and what I have found is that they come in to categories, trad rad Catholics and Calvinists, and Israel firsters like Rupert Murdoch. On after thought there are Billionaires who consider themselves libertarians, because that is the pathway to shed the threat of government interference with their need for gold and power, and include David Koch and, incredibly a gay billionaire Peter Thiel.
Now do it for the Dems?
Get rid of the Electoral College.
....and who pray is going to do this and how?
That’s a really tough question. It’s a good thought experiment, if nothing else. Imagine what elections would be like without it. Imagine then what other problems would be solved if it just magically weren’t there anymore. We’re stuck with a very bad process, and it might take a constitutional convention, in the end, and that would create worse problems. Unintended consequences are a bitch.
Communist…fascist…ultra-nationalist (Putin)…while these labels can have strong economic implications, politically in some ways they don’t matter. It is all about power and control, which Orwell laid out so well in "1984". After World War 2 many of the workers who had been soldiers, police or bureaucrats for regimes under Hitler’s people simply switched to those under Stalin’s. The slogans may have changed but the authoritarianism was the same. So when Republicans imagine Nazis to be on the left they’re wrong, but if they held up a mirror they might be surprised by what they see. The party does not have death camps and gulags (yet). But at heart it’s just a tool for those who are really running it and want to grasp power by any means necessary. But then they are doing it in the name of “the people” and for “the nation”, of course.
Well the people are uneducated. So what do you do?
Maybe it is time for liberals to arm themselves like the fascists. It is inevitable that the well armed fascists will be coming for their neighbors. They have said so, loud and clear, meanwhile liberals and independents (if there truly such a thing) have been hiding their heads in the sand, while the threat is becoming bolder and louder.
Which reminds me of something. Trump says the FBI and DOJ are the enemy of the people, and again the broken clock, because the FBI and DOJ, as well as the SecretService, are staffed and led by conservatives, who are anti democrat and pro Trump.
Example, While Trump and the right were threatening Democracy, and the FBI had full knowledge of the planned attempt to overthrow the election, they were focused on Black Lives Matter and other progressive movements. Same with DOJ.
In fact DOJ is still a Trump humping organization, and Garland is a conservative,how far right I can't say, but can ascertain by who he has and has not investiate and prosecute.
He was shamed into appoint Jack Smith, but was glad to appoint Weiss to investiage and prosecute Hunter. Matt Gaetz walks free, and single handedly threatening our national security and democracy. obviously a Putin asset, not one malefactor in Congress has been even investigated much less indicted (Comer, Jordan, Beobert,MTG,Hawley) yet he is all over Democrat Menendez and Hunter while the real criminals, Ivanka and Jr walk free(their crimes were far worse than Hunter's), and BTW, the corporate media also ignores the Ivanka and Jr, sadly even the best hosts on MSNBC.
The idea of America devolving into armed camps ready to shoot each other is a pretty grim recipe for the end of this country. We went down that path in a big way in 1861 and the immediate results were not so good. Anyway in Congress the members have more latitude than most citizens to be loud mouthed jerks, as this "right" is written into the Constitution. That was to prevent them being arrested on trumped-up treason charges. Charles I broadly used the idea to close down Parliament in the chaos leading up to the English Civil War and other monarchs had applied the term as a way to get rid of troublesome people at court (and collect their wealth). Also, it lets the members have freedom of expression on the floor, though obviously this can be abused.
William you are so obsessed with Putin..............get of whatever you are taking and look at the big picture.
I'm writing from the GOPstapo state of NC.
Paul, that's a good question to ask. We'll need to amend the Constitution and fix that fixed court with those damn Supreme Injustices. It's a heavy lift, but it seems the only solution. We're running out of time though.
NC’s law runs afoul of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. They are obviously copying the example of Ron DeSantis, who had the cops raid the home of a woman who was formerly a state employee who stated DeSantis was undercounting COVID-19 deaths. We need to stop this rush for a Caesar. There is no justification for fascist rule in this country.
Again a comment which means nothing.............pray tell me how are you going to do this?
So Jenny, I'm trying to do my part, but the truth is that I cannot do that alone.
You claimed my comment means nothing, yet you responded and that prompted me to reply. I hope that was more meaningful to you. I suppose I need to spell out a list of actions that should be taken, eh? Perhaps you might be so kind as to offer a few suggestions of your own.
"Those with the privilege to know have the responsibility to act" Albert Einstein
I really appreciate your reply Elmenstraw
I am not American.......left years ago when GWB got in.
The only suggestion is: Vote in a 3rd party
Dems. and Repubs. are the same. Owned by money.
I personally think it is too late and you are headed for a Civil War.
Dear Jenny,
Things are only as meaningful or meaningless as you choose to perceive. It is a choice...
I've offered my suggestions and efforts in more detail at integrativeactivism.com. Specifically about amending the Constitution is within the 7/4/2026 page. There are many who are working in effort to build a movement to amend. I am one, Ziggy is another with his work at endthebribesystem.com and Thom does his thing. There are groups like movetoamend.org, represent.us, endcitizensunited.? that are contributing...
What I offer that others do not is chronological context. I set a goal, a time and a timeline with a schedule. 7/4/2026 will be this country's 250th birthday and will also be the 50th year of the Buckley/Valeo decision when the Supreme Injustices first established the
$= freespeecr bullshit. So, that gives us 2 and a half year to get all the pertinent players on the same page.
Along with the organizations I listed above should be all the climate change activists and gun reform activists etc. etc... Thom's rant Friday (10/27/2023) was a good summary of why all these groups should be working together coordinating efforts. Add all that effort together and make the timing synchronize. Timing is everything...
I don't know whether you know this BUT not all people on here are American?
NO idea what you are talking about.
I really mean this: Good luck with hugs.
Terms used in my comment:
“Fascism” – The festering wound rooted solely on the crumbling tip of the far right.
“They” – The few, the loud, the terminally wealthy and power hungry. Represented almost exclusively by traitors to democracy within the GOP.
When a mere handful of truly bad seeds use their voice to drown out the voices of the many, they have acquired undue power. And when this power begins to speak the quiet part (of their intent) out loud, they are either supremely confident in nearing their objective – or in the death throes of nearing their end. Either way, they are close to the finish line. Our voices and actions are absolutely essential in determining just what that finish line is. Will it be a green light to incinerate democracy as we know it? Or will it be a collective “Hell No” to 21st century fascism, and in so doing, usher in a renewed appreciation of and commitment to democracy?
Side note: Anyone notice Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Green are missing some “A’s” in their initials? Just saying.
I see it and its not good.
Seems delusion and insanity are a bit contagious. This "Red Caesar" information also seems bat-shit crazy, but I am watching it in real-time. Trump is just one of many that think he can do anything or say anything and there will be no consequences. How's that working out for him in the court in NY?
Thank goodness late-night is back, because they will continue to point-out just how nuts he really is. John Oliver and other comedians have been turned into political pundits whether they meant to become one or not.
Thanks for putting the pieces together of the "plan", Thom. It gives us an idea of what we might be able to work on in our own state. I want to do something on the purge issue.
McCarthy dared them and guess what, he just went down in flames. From Reuters: "The 216 to 210 vote marked the first time in history that the House removed its leader, driven by a relatively small group of right-wing Republicans." Consequences---they really don't know when to stop, just like Trump their would be Caesar.
Everyone needs to read this, and think very seriously about what Ron DeSantis has done in Florida with the gerrymandering of the voting districts. He, and his super majority Republican legislators changed the voting map of Florida just before the midterm election. He, and a super-majority legislature was re-elected. He only has one or two dominant democratic districts in the state, and in those districts he’s made it extremely difficult for the people to vote.
Ron DeSantis has made it very clear that he will make every state in this country the likeness of Florida. People really, truly, need to think about this.
Trump has made it extremely clear he intends to have all government agencies, federal and state, answer only to him. He will be the ultimate head of everything. He also made it clear he will do away with all federal, and state, law enforcement agencies. There will be no FBI, CIA, or state law enforcement agencies. No DOJ, or state investigating agencies. All courts will be answering to him.
People need to read this. This is exactly what the likes of Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramasway have clarified this is their type of government. A Dictatorship.
Prescott Bush was a fascist and his son and grandson became POTUS. Go figure.
Take heart, Thom. The more ridiculous they get the closer they get to being irrelevant. Do you really really really think that Trump, a year from now, is going to have power? I wonder if setting up a baseline of fascism vs. democracy is doing what Facebook has been reveled as doing, getting attention by making controversy.
Our institutions are in dire need of a rework. Much of the present imbalance is imbedded in our laws, so there's going to be hell to pay. But nature abhors excess and she's on our side.