Greg, I got kicked off twitter for calling Elon a cunt when he said he would let Trump back on. Then I called him the same to "test" his "free speech." Amazing that one can call Rep Raskin a "hooked nosed jew", but "cunt" is over the top. Anyway! I am just dropping in to tell you that your essays bring me joy, from politics to prose. 🥰 Heather/aka Zorbathegirl.
A few years ago, I observed that people would go and say stuff about Tomi Lahren and Ann Coulter, and IMMEDIATELY get suspended or booted. I think it's a game these people play, where they try to say stuff to get us to say stuff to get us kicked off. So I try and avoid it.
I was proudly kicked off Twitter for three days for asking Candace Owens if she was a cunt in real life or just a character she played online. I don't even remember what she'd done, but she definitely deserved it. We should be using that word A LOT more than we do, like the British do, as there are SO MANY people to which it applies.
She just plays one online. Go back and look at what she used to say before she went to the dark side. It's all performative. Most of these far right chaos agents are failed actors who want to be famous.
Excellent wrap up, Greg. Thanks. Sharing far and wide.
It chapped me raw when some arrant fool in the chat during the last Five 8 disparaged you and LB for trivializing the hearings by comparing them to long-form episodic TV story telling. Television is the most powerful communication device ever invented. Period. The end.
That fool might well have been me, since I certainly had that opinion -- and I could well be wrong, and not for the first time, as befits a true fool -- reasoned thus:
0. The goal of everything is to significantly reduce the chances of a subsequent neo-fascist takeover of our fair country
1. If the end result of the hearings is to indict, try, convict, and significantly imprison the *principals* of this coup attempt and its associated movement, such that they aren't lurking in the undergrowth getting ready to succeed in 2022, 2024, or even 2028, then I, with Greg, am content.
2. If, in the other hand, the result of these easy-to-digest dramatic presentations is to sate the so-called easily-distracted American public so that, at the end everyone goes home satisfied w the narrative arc -- only to resent further attempts to complicate this wonderful comic strip w boring old legalisms that right-wing propaganda will spin into another conspiracy theory, then we are lost, and the effort was worse than useless.
Me, I would have pounded the "domestic terrorism", "1/6=9/11", "bin Laden=Trump" buttons from day 1, and to hell with "Oh, but maybe we don't know the full full story & the right wing will feel persecuted". They scream persecution when they're coddled, FFS. We know this, bc ... Jan 6.
No need. I'm sure if you (or anybody) had told me that, certainly if so verbatim, I'd remember it. Though if more gently -- as, for all I know, you're doing now -- it's entirely possible that I just didn't get the hint. But either way, I prefer to think it was some other fool entirely!
Oh re Josh Hawley, next is "send them back to the states" Ted Cruz (ala Eastman.) Re that liar Miller - I think/guess he is cooperating w the DOJ. The silence is telling. Likewise, I think the DOJ has better plans for Meadows than contempt: Clarke, Eastman type raid/arrests.
Meadows is also colossally complicit. He would do anything to stay in power. I still remember him being accused of racism (in the first impeachment?) and then trotting out his Black friend with tears in his eyes to show that he wasn't. Snakes have to look down to see him.
“January 6th was the worst attack on our democracy since Booth shot Lincoln.”
At first glance, I would argue “… since the CIA and mafia [or whoever was responsible] conspired to kill Kennedy.” But since JFK’s assassination is still shrouded in mystery, we continue to be uncertain of the exact nature of that attack on our democracy, so Lincoln’s assassination is the next most recent incident of comparable damage.
However, the assassination of one head of state might not even be a good comparison. Trump is the spearhead for a large revolt against the democratic functioning of the US. A large swath of reactionary accomplices, members of the J6 attack and Republican members of Congress and Republican legislatures, all conspired en masse to take down our institutions of democracy. Now the Supreme Court is jumping in too.
So I’m going with:
“January 6th was the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
“January 6th is also being investigated by the House of Representatives, in what will surely go down as the most important series of Congressional hearings in the history of the United States.”
Yes. Absolutely. Definitely.
I can tell I like this piece of Greg’s a whole lot, because I’m writing replies as I read.
The immediate result of JFK's assassination is, LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act.
The immediate result of Lincoln getting killed -- AFTER the Civil War was over -- is that Reconstruction went to Johnson, who bungled it, and we've never recovered. That's why I say it like that. That and the violence, and what must have been the absolute insanity of an ACTOR shooting him DURING A PLAY.
Andrew Johnson was a bitter, disgruntled Confederate, you can see it in his eyes in the photo. A man who was pissed off that slavery and blacks were being given autonomy and power.
Jul 26, 2022·edited Jul 26, 2022Liked by Greg Olear
Heather has talked about that he hated the southern plantation owners (prewar) because they looked down on him. Then he gets in as president and he ends up letting them come back to their former jobs as senators and reps, and pretty much coddling to them. I didn't get that part at all.
Have you read the book "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson. It is a real page-turner. Being a native to D.C., I could visualize the places he writes about after Booth escapes from Ford's Theater and wanders through the streets on his way to southern Maryland. Swanson also gives an account of the conspirators' capture, trial and execution.
And that is the fact of American life that I will never truly comprehend. In order to join the antebellum tradition of whites lording over blacks, you have to be ok with “Christians” chomping on their Sunday picnic while watching a black person get lynched. You have to agree with George Floyds being killed by cops daily around the country. You have to accept that your hero (Trump) is deeply racist and misogynist. Yes, these people saturate U.S. society. They are in every family, including mine, in every workplace (especially for a truck driver), and in every neighborhood.
Imagine being a white woman or man who needs to believe he is special and privileged for being white.
It truly requires a very low level of self-esteem and a deficit of I.Q. and E.Q. Certainly my dad qualifies, he never finished high school in Germany and both of his sisters and his mom considered him the dummy in the family.
Deplorables. Trailer trash. Without judgment, believe it or not, you have to view these people as the dregs of society, even if they have money. A white who thinks they are better than others not white is just not a stellar person. From Adolph to Musk to Murdoch to the Trumps to everyone who admires them, these people are insecure losers, and they need help.
Jul 26, 2022·edited Jul 26, 2022Liked by Greg Olear
Truly, Trump’s entire plan of action after Election 2020 begs comparisons to Adolf Hitler. A ruthless, power-hungry leader wants to run his racist version of a social order. He attacks every institution which does not conform to that racist model. He attacks every person who does not support that racist society.
The big difference in the stories between Hitler and Trump:
Hitler was attacking fledgling democratic institutions in a weakened country. Germany had just established a brand new democracy after World War I, prior to that time it was an autocracy of royalty like most European countries. So the legislature, the judiciary, all of it was fresh and new and relatively weak.
The United States has had its institutions for nearly 250 years. The momentum and weight and inertia of those institutions makes them far more durable, and more difficult to damage. Damage has definitely been done, but now, by the grace of the J6 committee, it is being repaired.
Remember also, Trump is by no means a lone figure.
“By attacking the House, then, Trump’s besiegers by extension attacked every single person in this country…”
*YES*
And here’s why I made the statement that the J6 Attack is the most important attack on the democratic institutions of the US since the Civil War:
Trump represents a large large swath of the American population, as I have said many times before, arguably nearly half of the US leans his way. 48% of the voters in the 2020 election voted for Trump. That explains why so many different elements of US officialdom (Republican officials at all levels) are contributing to the January 6 attack. Because Trump was our president, he represents all those Republicans and MAGA-ts and J6 attackers. He speaks for them, he acts for them. They want a fascist society which leaves whites in charge of everything, and men in charge of most things, to the exclusion of the members of society that those racists despise.
Trump IS those people. He speaks for them, he acts for them. During the period post the 2020 election, Trump was actively seeking means to stay in charge because that very large portion of the United States population which he represents WANTS the white-racist males-first Christian anti-gay society to remain. The John Eastmans and Jeffrey Clarks came out of the woodwork because Trump was actively looking for them.
In the US, the January 6 Attack on our Capitol is the worst damage our democracy has taken since the Civil War. But if you look elsewhere in the world, so many dictators have gone before. Hitler’s Germany certainly qualifies as an excellent comparison.
Finally, consider Putin. We know for a fact, especially here on Greg’s Channel, that Trump is in bed with Putin. Private discussions in Helsinki, etc. etc.
How much influence did Putin have in encouraging Trump to make that last ditch series of attacks after the 2020 Election?
Not that it really matters. Fuck Putin. Events will show that the USA’s institutions can recover perfectly well from some damage.
Now that I have made that statement about the head of the criminal Russian nation-state, watch who comes out of the cellar to reply here.
We get to look back on Hitler and his rise, and learn from it. Which too many Americans have not, despite WW2 saturating History channels and so much of our popular culture for 80 years.
Trump is a figurehead. He was a leader, the leader of a huge swath of America.
As a symbol for that huge swath of America, as a member of that enormous club, he was acting and speaking for them.
Trump did everything he could, turned over every stone, in his attempt to remain in charge. It’s true that he personally didn’t want to lose his position as president. But by no means is it all about The Donald.
The January 6 attack and all of the other attempts to keep him in power (from the election until the inauguration) are only the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg itself is the Old Social Order (Republican + MAGA + leftover Confederate ….) wanting to stay in power. Trump is just one member of that club. It’s the Whites First, Men-in-Charge, “Christian,” Heterosexuals-Only Club which has flocked to the Republican Party like flies to shit on a hot August day.
Trump is only one of those flies. He speaks for the entire pile of shit, and that pile constitutes something close to half of US society.
These days, the J6 committee hearings make it look like we are differentiating between the “good” Republicans and the “bad” Republicans. Adam Kinzinger. Liz Cheney. Rusty Bowers, Cassidy Hutchinson et al. Remember that these people are still diehard advocates for a Stone Age society where women, blacks, Latin Americans, non-Christians, and anyone who isn’t hetero are relegated to inferior status, with all the attendant lovely implications.
As a group, they elected Trump and Pence, and as a group their hopes and dreams were attempting to be realized through Trump’s actions.
Much better than the TV Guide (is that still around?) and fun to boot.
Speaking of Twitter I'll re-tweet this as soon as I get out of jail. All I said was if the Tangerine Turd gets the electric chair McConnell should be sitting on his lap...seven days in the hole
"As conceived by the Founders, the representatives in the House are exactly that—representatives; stand-ins for all of us, for We the People. By attacking the House, then, Trump’s besiegers by extension attacked every single person in this country—Democrat, Republican, Independent, third party. There were no exceptions." This realization is a gut-punch. If only every person in this country could understand the gravity of your statement.
I have come to the conclusion of why that bothered me so much. I have known deep down that this is the truth but I let myself be swayed by the Media’s telling of this story. They do not tell the story the way you have. They gloss over and minimize it on a daily basis. There have been some excellent, in depth analysis but those grab the “headlines” temporarily and then it’s back to the “gloss over” so as not to offend anyone. I lost my patience for “bothsidesism” and “whataboutism” on June 24, 2022.
A classic case of "pay no attention to that 'man' behind the curtain." I fell for it, too, Gail, for far too long. Then people like Greg come along and slap us upside the head with the real truth. We're like, "Thanks...I needed that!"
Shook me up! WE THE PEOPLE ARE REPRESENTED IN THE HOUSE. WE THE PEOPLE WERE ATTACKED ON JANUARY 6TH. I've been "political" since Jack, Martin, Bobby and Kent State, but I didn't make that powerful realization until you spelled it out, Greg. Thank You.
I'm late to the party again. There's really nothing I can add to the fantastic comments here.
I would point out though that yesterday, Garland was quoted as saying: "... a central tenant of the rule of law is that we do not do our investigations in public. This is the most wide-ranging investigation — and the most important investigation — that the Justice Department has ever entered into."
With no snark whatsoever, I do not mind that although AG Garland said the investigation is not for public consumption, he then confirmed that there is a HUGE investigation going on. That gives me some peace.
So, for the impatient, and I have been one of them, Garland IS investigating, and he MUST get this right. There must be no light between indicting Trump and convicting Trump. If I EVER have to hear Trump say, "TOTAL EXONERATION!!" again, just put a bullet in my head! Garland is AG until 01/20/2025. He has some time.
Lest we forget. TFG fashions himself a ‘mob boss’. He is also a malignant narcissist. DeSantis is beginning to get top billing by Faux news. TFG might be losing support. But…TFG is a malignant narcissist (and possibly drug impaired). He cannot take failure. His psychopathy prevents him from taking failure. I am certainly not an authority about mob dynamics, but lived through some mob wars growing up near Boston. Someone will be taken out and my bet is on TFG. He is too unstable and DeSantis is brainier. This will be destabilizing for the Republican right wing. Get your popcorn and favorite libation ready. Things may get interesting.
DeSantis doesn't have the cult that Trump does, though, or the benefit of being famous as a rich guy for decades. A lot of Americans know him as the inept governor of the weirdest state in the Union, who couldn't figure out how to wear a mask properly. Not to downplay the danger, because he's very VERy dangerous, but 2016 Trump was a perfect storm.
Overwhelmingly. The electric pulse of your righteous anger sparks through your writing. Well done. You know, just every once in a while, I wish Liz Cheney would refer to the private dining room in the White House as OUR private dining room we set aside for the executive, that he conducts OUR business in OUR Oval Office, and sleeps in OUR White House. None of it is his. Buckingham Palace is the queen’s. She actually owns it by inheritance. The White House and everything in it is OURS, and nothing in it ever belonged to Trump. He threw the food WE provided against OUR wall. He fought with OUR secret service agent. He screamed at OUR White House employees. He owned the administration because he chose them, but they were OUR employees. Of all Trump’s sins, his appropriation of OUR ownership puts him in the 8th ring of the Inferno, where thieves constantly steal one another’s identities.
Dang. Wish I saw this exquisite summary before I spent several hours this morning wrestling to "prettify" my own scribbled notes! Much appreciation to the team for your collaborative efforts.
If I could suggest squeezing almost-fired-newly-installed-AG-Jeffrey Rosen in between Barr and the never-got-installed Clark, that would complete the DOJ circle, to my understanding.
Soon the work of the committee will come to an end. When it does, We, the People, All of Us This Time, will be called to do our part by going to the polls. Hopefully, most of us will stand behind what this committee has accomplished. Hopefully, there'll be enough democracy left for a free and fair election.
"Laws are just words on paper. They mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the Rule of Law; and they are held accountable by a public who believes that oaths matter more than party tribalism or the cheap thrill of scoring political points." Adam Kinzinger, July 21, 2022
Thanks, Lynell. The timing here is critical, but it fells like more will come in Sept/Oct, and the DOJ is obviously making more noise than it has in ages. Then we will do our part and vote. Hopefully the disgust people feel about Trump will translate to the polls.
Greg, I got kicked off twitter for calling Elon a cunt when he said he would let Trump back on. Then I called him the same to "test" his "free speech." Amazing that one can call Rep Raskin a "hooked nosed jew", but "cunt" is over the top. Anyway! I am just dropping in to tell you that your essays bring me joy, from politics to prose. 🥰 Heather/aka Zorbathegirl.
Why would anyone find fault with calling Skunk a cunt? And Trump is the worst form of skank, any pejorative would stick. No wonder Tw repulses me.
I like your Twitter account.
A few years ago, I observed that people would go and say stuff about Tomi Lahren and Ann Coulter, and IMMEDIATELY get suspended or booted. I think it's a game these people play, where they try to say stuff to get us to say stuff to get us kicked off. So I try and avoid it.
Elon is the antichrist.
Let’s give some praise to Lorena Gonzalez
https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/10/elon-musk-democrat-rebukes-magnate-tesla-hq-california
I was proudly kicked off Twitter for three days for asking Candace Owens if she was a cunt in real life or just a character she played online. I don't even remember what she'd done, but she definitely deserved it. We should be using that word A LOT more than we do, like the British do, as there are SO MANY people to which it applies.
She just plays one online. Go back and look at what she used to say before she went to the dark side. It's all performative. Most of these far right chaos agents are failed actors who want to be famous.
Excellent wrap up, Greg. Thanks. Sharing far and wide.
It chapped me raw when some arrant fool in the chat during the last Five 8 disparaged you and LB for trivializing the hearings by comparing them to long-form episodic TV story telling. Television is the most powerful communication device ever invented. Period. The end.
Thanks. If they were NOT presented this way, many fewer people would watch or care. That's how it is, and they are smart to take advantage of it.
My wife told me they hired an ABC producer. I want to give that sucker a gold medal.
That fool might well have been me, since I certainly had that opinion -- and I could well be wrong, and not for the first time, as befits a true fool -- reasoned thus:
0. The goal of everything is to significantly reduce the chances of a subsequent neo-fascist takeover of our fair country
1. If the end result of the hearings is to indict, try, convict, and significantly imprison the *principals* of this coup attempt and its associated movement, such that they aren't lurking in the undergrowth getting ready to succeed in 2022, 2024, or even 2028, then I, with Greg, am content.
2. If, in the other hand, the result of these easy-to-digest dramatic presentations is to sate the so-called easily-distracted American public so that, at the end everyone goes home satisfied w the narrative arc -- only to resent further attempts to complicate this wonderful comic strip w boring old legalisms that right-wing propaganda will spin into another conspiracy theory, then we are lost, and the effort was worse than useless.
Me, I would have pounded the "domestic terrorism", "1/6=9/11", "bin Laden=Trump" buttons from day 1, and to hell with "Oh, but maybe we don't know the full full story & the right wing will feel persecuted". They scream persecution when they're coddled, FFS. We know this, bc ... Jan 6.
Did I tell you to shut the fuck up, Andrew? If so, I apologize.
No need. I'm sure if you (or anybody) had told me that, certainly if so verbatim, I'd remember it. Though if more gently -- as, for all I know, you're doing now -- it's entirely possible that I just didn't get the hint. But either way, I prefer to think it was some other fool entirely!
Agree!! Masterful!!
Oh re Josh Hawley, next is "send them back to the states" Ted Cruz (ala Eastman.) Re that liar Miller - I think/guess he is cooperating w the DOJ. The silence is telling. Likewise, I think the DOJ has better plans for Meadows than contempt: Clarke, Eastman type raid/arrests.
Meadows is so colossally dumb. It's astounding. I really do believe everyone went to Cassidy because she actually did everything.
Dude! On target 👊
Meadows is also colossally complicit. He would do anything to stay in power. I still remember him being accused of racism (in the first impeachment?) and then trotting out his Black friend with tears in his eyes to show that he wasn't. Snakes have to look down to see him.
Great approach. We'll done!
Thanks!
Greg's Cliff Notes! Well done.
Thanks!
“January 6th was the worst attack on our democracy since Booth shot Lincoln.”
At first glance, I would argue “… since the CIA and mafia [or whoever was responsible] conspired to kill Kennedy.” But since JFK’s assassination is still shrouded in mystery, we continue to be uncertain of the exact nature of that attack on our democracy, so Lincoln’s assassination is the next most recent incident of comparable damage.
However, the assassination of one head of state might not even be a good comparison. Trump is the spearhead for a large revolt against the democratic functioning of the US. A large swath of reactionary accomplices, members of the J6 attack and Republican members of Congress and Republican legislatures, all conspired en masse to take down our institutions of democracy. Now the Supreme Court is jumping in too.
So I’m going with:
“January 6th was the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
“January 6th is also being investigated by the House of Representatives, in what will surely go down as the most important series of Congressional hearings in the history of the United States.”
Yes. Absolutely. Definitely.
I can tell I like this piece of Greg’s a whole lot, because I’m writing replies as I read.
Keep 'em coming! : )
Yes, that's a good way to do it, Roland. By the time I got to the comments section, I forgot most of what I was going to say!
😘
The immediate result of JFK's assassination is, LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act.
The immediate result of Lincoln getting killed -- AFTER the Civil War was over -- is that Reconstruction went to Johnson, who bungled it, and we've never recovered. That's why I say it like that. That and the violence, and what must have been the absolute insanity of an ACTOR shooting him DURING A PLAY.
Andrew Johnson was a bitter, disgruntled Confederate, you can see it in his eyes in the photo. A man who was pissed off that slavery and blacks were being given autonomy and power.
Heather has talked about that he hated the southern plantation owners (prewar) because they looked down on him. Then he gets in as president and he ends up letting them come back to their former jobs as senators and reps, and pretty much coddling to them. I didn't get that part at all.
Have you read the book "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson. It is a real page-turner. Being a native to D.C., I could visualize the places he writes about after Booth escapes from Ford's Theater and wanders through the streets on his way to southern Maryland. Swanson also gives an account of the conspirators' capture, trial and execution.
No, I should check it out. I mean, if that happened today? We have known about it all our lives, but just the details of it are really astonishing.
And for many a good, ole' white boy, that war never ended.
And that is the fact of American life that I will never truly comprehend. In order to join the antebellum tradition of whites lording over blacks, you have to be ok with “Christians” chomping on their Sunday picnic while watching a black person get lynched. You have to agree with George Floyds being killed by cops daily around the country. You have to accept that your hero (Trump) is deeply racist and misogynist. Yes, these people saturate U.S. society. They are in every family, including mine, in every workplace (especially for a truck driver), and in every neighborhood.
Imagine being a white woman or man who needs to believe he is special and privileged for being white.
It truly requires a very low level of self-esteem and a deficit of I.Q. and E.Q. Certainly my dad qualifies, he never finished high school in Germany and both of his sisters and his mom considered him the dummy in the family.
Deplorables. Trailer trash. Without judgment, believe it or not, you have to view these people as the dregs of society, even if they have money. A white who thinks they are better than others not white is just not a stellar person. From Adolph to Musk to Murdoch to the Trumps to everyone who admires them, these people are insecure losers, and they need help.
It is all about grievance. False grievance, but grievance.
Solid analysis. I feel like we're watching a train wreck in slow motion
And we're on the freakin' train!
Oh yeah especially those of us who followed 1/6 closely. We must never forget or forgive the perpetrators, or the instigators
Truly, Trump’s entire plan of action after Election 2020 begs comparisons to Adolf Hitler. A ruthless, power-hungry leader wants to run his racist version of a social order. He attacks every institution which does not conform to that racist model. He attacks every person who does not support that racist society.
The big difference in the stories between Hitler and Trump:
Hitler was attacking fledgling democratic institutions in a weakened country. Germany had just established a brand new democracy after World War I, prior to that time it was an autocracy of royalty like most European countries. So the legislature, the judiciary, all of it was fresh and new and relatively weak.
The United States has had its institutions for nearly 250 years. The momentum and weight and inertia of those institutions makes them far more durable, and more difficult to damage. Damage has definitely been done, but now, by the grace of the J6 committee, it is being repaired.
Remember also, Trump is by no means a lone figure.
“By attacking the House, then, Trump’s besiegers by extension attacked every single person in this country…”
*YES*
And here’s why I made the statement that the J6 Attack is the most important attack on the democratic institutions of the US since the Civil War:
Trump represents a large large swath of the American population, as I have said many times before, arguably nearly half of the US leans his way. 48% of the voters in the 2020 election voted for Trump. That explains why so many different elements of US officialdom (Republican officials at all levels) are contributing to the January 6 attack. Because Trump was our president, he represents all those Republicans and MAGA-ts and J6 attackers. He speaks for them, he acts for them. They want a fascist society which leaves whites in charge of everything, and men in charge of most things, to the exclusion of the members of society that those racists despise.
Trump IS those people. He speaks for them, he acts for them. During the period post the 2020 election, Trump was actively seeking means to stay in charge because that very large portion of the United States population which he represents WANTS the white-racist males-first Christian anti-gay society to remain. The John Eastmans and Jeffrey Clarks came out of the woodwork because Trump was actively looking for them.
In the US, the January 6 Attack on our Capitol is the worst damage our democracy has taken since the Civil War. But if you look elsewhere in the world, so many dictators have gone before. Hitler’s Germany certainly qualifies as an excellent comparison.
Finally, consider Putin. We know for a fact, especially here on Greg’s Channel, that Trump is in bed with Putin. Private discussions in Helsinki, etc. etc.
How much influence did Putin have in encouraging Trump to make that last ditch series of attacks after the 2020 Election?
Not that it really matters. Fuck Putin. Events will show that the USA’s institutions can recover perfectly well from some damage.
Now that I have made that statement about the head of the criminal Russian nation-state, watch who comes out of the cellar to reply here.
We get to look back on Hitler and his rise, and learn from it. Which too many Americans have not, despite WW2 saturating History channels and so much of our popular culture for 80 years.
Putin had LOT$$$$ of influence on encouraging tRump's seditionist acts.
Exactly right
Greg, I just want to say that this piece of yours is simply excellent.
Thanks!
Bravo Greg!!!
Keep this in mind:
Trump is a figurehead. He was a leader, the leader of a huge swath of America.
As a symbol for that huge swath of America, as a member of that enormous club, he was acting and speaking for them.
Trump did everything he could, turned over every stone, in his attempt to remain in charge. It’s true that he personally didn’t want to lose his position as president. But by no means is it all about The Donald.
The January 6 attack and all of the other attempts to keep him in power (from the election until the inauguration) are only the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg itself is the Old Social Order (Republican + MAGA + leftover Confederate ….) wanting to stay in power. Trump is just one member of that club. It’s the Whites First, Men-in-Charge, “Christian,” Heterosexuals-Only Club which has flocked to the Republican Party like flies to shit on a hot August day.
Trump is only one of those flies. He speaks for the entire pile of shit, and that pile constitutes something close to half of US society.
These days, the J6 committee hearings make it look like we are differentiating between the “good” Republicans and the “bad” Republicans. Adam Kinzinger. Liz Cheney. Rusty Bowers, Cassidy Hutchinson et al. Remember that these people are still diehard advocates for a Stone Age society where women, blacks, Latin Americans, non-Christians, and anyone who isn’t hetero are relegated to inferior status, with all the attendant lovely implications.
As a group, they elected Trump and Pence, and as a group their hopes and dreams were attempting to be realized through Trump’s actions.
True, but we need them to put this seditious movement down. We didn't turn down Stalin's help in fighting Hitler.
Much better than the TV Guide (is that still around?) and fun to boot.
Speaking of Twitter I'll re-tweet this as soon as I get out of jail. All I said was if the Tangerine Turd gets the electric chair McConnell should be sitting on his lap...seven days in the hole
Wear it proudly! Twitter is a cesspool of inconsistency.
Nice! I use the term Orange Sewage.
Ha ha! Good one.
And thanks for subscribing!
HA! Love it!
"As conceived by the Founders, the representatives in the House are exactly that—representatives; stand-ins for all of us, for We the People. By attacking the House, then, Trump’s besiegers by extension attacked every single person in this country—Democrat, Republican, Independent, third party. There were no exceptions." This realization is a gut-punch. If only every person in this country could understand the gravity of your statement.
I found it very compelling, too, Gail.
Me, too.
Thanks. Weirdly, it only recently occurred to me, to frame it that way.
I have come to the conclusion of why that bothered me so much. I have known deep down that this is the truth but I let myself be swayed by the Media’s telling of this story. They do not tell the story the way you have. They gloss over and minimize it on a daily basis. There have been some excellent, in depth analysis but those grab the “headlines” temporarily and then it’s back to the “gloss over” so as not to offend anyone. I lost my patience for “bothsidesism” and “whataboutism” on June 24, 2022.
A classic case of "pay no attention to that 'man' behind the curtain." I fell for it, too, Gail, for far too long. Then people like Greg come along and slap us upside the head with the real truth. We're like, "Thanks...I needed that!"
Shook me up! WE THE PEOPLE ARE REPRESENTED IN THE HOUSE. WE THE PEOPLE WERE ATTACKED ON JANUARY 6TH. I've been "political" since Jack, Martin, Bobby and Kent State, but I didn't make that powerful realization until you spelled it out, Greg. Thank You.
I'm late to the party again. There's really nothing I can add to the fantastic comments here.
I would point out though that yesterday, Garland was quoted as saying: "... a central tenant of the rule of law is that we do not do our investigations in public. This is the most wide-ranging investigation — and the most important investigation — that the Justice Department has ever entered into."
With no snark whatsoever, I do not mind that although AG Garland said the investigation is not for public consumption, he then confirmed that there is a HUGE investigation going on. That gives me some peace.
So, for the impatient, and I have been one of them, Garland IS investigating, and he MUST get this right. There must be no light between indicting Trump and convicting Trump. If I EVER have to hear Trump say, "TOTAL EXONERATION!!" again, just put a bullet in my head! Garland is AG until 01/20/2025. He has some time.
The raids on Clark and Eastman are some of the first signs that we have action. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Garland and the DOJ suddenly making noise...it seems coordinated, no? It does give me hope.
Lest we forget. TFG fashions himself a ‘mob boss’. He is also a malignant narcissist. DeSantis is beginning to get top billing by Faux news. TFG might be losing support. But…TFG is a malignant narcissist (and possibly drug impaired). He cannot take failure. His psychopathy prevents him from taking failure. I am certainly not an authority about mob dynamics, but lived through some mob wars growing up near Boston. Someone will be taken out and my bet is on TFG. He is too unstable and DeSantis is brainier. This will be destabilizing for the Republican right wing. Get your popcorn and favorite libation ready. Things may get interesting.
This reviewer gives the show its highest rating of 5 popcorns
🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿
Same.
DeSantis doesn't have the cult that Trump does, though, or the benefit of being famous as a rich guy for decades. A lot of Americans know him as the inept governor of the weirdest state in the Union, who couldn't figure out how to wear a mask properly. Not to downplay the danger, because he's very VERy dangerous, but 2016 Trump was a perfect storm.
Overwhelmingly. The electric pulse of your righteous anger sparks through your writing. Well done. You know, just every once in a while, I wish Liz Cheney would refer to the private dining room in the White House as OUR private dining room we set aside for the executive, that he conducts OUR business in OUR Oval Office, and sleeps in OUR White House. None of it is his. Buckingham Palace is the queen’s. She actually owns it by inheritance. The White House and everything in it is OURS, and nothing in it ever belonged to Trump. He threw the food WE provided against OUR wall. He fought with OUR secret service agent. He screamed at OUR White House employees. He owned the administration because he chose them, but they were OUR employees. Of all Trump’s sins, his appropriation of OUR ownership puts him in the 8th ring of the Inferno, where thieves constantly steal one another’s identities.
Along with Greg and his Team's post, your comment is a must share. May I?
The same can be said when those rioters were screaming "This is our house," as they proceeded to trash it. It is our house as much as theirs.
Of course. Thanks for asking
Sharing too, John, along with Greg's. Powerful.
Thanks, John. Yes, we SHOULD be framing it that way. He's a squatter, basically.
A full-time grifter!
Yes.
Dang. Wish I saw this exquisite summary before I spent several hours this morning wrestling to "prettify" my own scribbled notes! Much appreciation to the team for your collaborative efforts.
If I could suggest squeezing almost-fired-newly-installed-AG-Jeffrey Rosen in between Barr and the never-got-installed Clark, that would complete the DOJ circle, to my understanding.
Soon the work of the committee will come to an end. When it does, We, the People, All of Us This Time, will be called to do our part by going to the polls. Hopefully, most of us will stand behind what this committee has accomplished. Hopefully, there'll be enough democracy left for a free and fair election.
"Laws are just words on paper. They mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the Rule of Law; and they are held accountable by a public who believes that oaths matter more than party tribalism or the cheap thrill of scoring political points." Adam Kinzinger, July 21, 2022
Thanks, Lynell. The timing here is critical, but it fells like more will come in Sept/Oct, and the DOJ is obviously making more noise than it has in ages. Then we will do our part and vote. Hopefully the disgust people feel about Trump will translate to the polls.