March forward defeating the white Supremacist biblical kooks that would stone non Christians.
And send women back to the dark ages. They can be defeated. As soon they will fight among themselves while the Trump millionaires cult sack the planet with their survival of the fittest mentality.
I feel the baton is being passed to the next generations. Let’s hope they can get away from their cell phones and media apps long enough to even see what is before them or understand what has been lost. As long as Fox News is allowed to exist and other right wing podcasts etc., nothing is gonna change. Lies and conspiracy theories and hate will prevail. And the MSM as long as they focus on the negative and outlandish and not the positive and the good, nothing will change. Human nature is to block traffic so they can look at the wreck as they go by and see if there’s any blood and dead bodies and think "I’m glad it’s not me", instead of getting out of the way, thinking a small hope or prayer for the victims, so the emergency crews can do their job, clear the scene and try to make it safer for the future.
We definitely need new leadership. The old guard in DC lacks the imagination, the courage, and the will. Not good. I will cover this in more detail tomorrow...
Pearl Harbor made it easy to mobilize Americans for the fight ahead. But not one American governmental or national mass medium mind took notice that Russia had sneak-attacked the United States & that we were in a 21st Century, Putin jiu-jitsu type war in which our own strength was being used against us. Although the writing on the wall was clear by mid-2017; see, Timothy Snyder, Russia Defeats America, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej_D0YkDjy8 and America Defeats America, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQoXwIIbW8.
Now, like all of the clueless tribes of the Old Testament (Babylonians, Egyptians, etc. in addition to Israelites), the good people of America want there to be no catastrophic consequences despite having ignored, denied or condemned the prophets who'd spoken to us when there was still time for America to wake up and effectively fight back in the war against us.
Now, if we want to be true to ourselves and if truth is really kind of our god, I think that as part of doing whatever you or some others think we can still do to keep Americans on dry land between the river and the sea, and not under them, the first thing we'll have to tell our clueless multitudes once the suffering begins is, sorry, it don't work that way. You fucked up, now find out what a world of hurt you've landed us all in. And just in case, learn how to breath underwater when too late doesn't work out. That is the only legitimate voice in which the tongue of art can truthfully speak for now.
There are, of course, other means of still fighting back but those require strength & the actual physical courage to risk sending some of that hurt back toward from where it comes, qualities not usual among today's artists & wordsmiths.
"We knew that the Nazis were our enemies. But we didn't know what savage enemies they were."
ADDENDUM: Focusing forward from Trump's first installation in the White House makes it easy to forget or overlook the Russia's continuous probes into America's weak spots since the 1930s. In our time, I believe we can trace today's events all the way back to 1985, when Rupert Murdoch took US citizenship to enable him to own American TV stations. In fact the loutish, chip-on-the-shoulder sitcoms his network produced, like Roseanne, Married With Children, etc can be viewed as creative market research to locate the viewers who became the FOXNews audience when it launched in 10/96 & 4 years later turned the Bill Clinton majority into the Bush 2 victorious minority.
Thanks, Richard. All good points, and all horrifying. And: good God, the point about market research is terrifying and certainly true. We are so far on the downslide.
America rescued the West from fascism by opening a western front in Europe which gave the USSR its second wind to retake its own territory & actually beat Germany in Eastern Europe. Where is the US we need to rescue us today? It can be only China. Here we're in Chapter 2 of our real-life 1984. Oceana & the other two.
Oh, Greg: your first paragraph, although regretfully accurate, is purely poetic! Today’s page is another one of your masterpieces. Thank you for rendering the reading of nightmarish news a pleasurable experience.
Once again a wonderful Sunday literature lesson, so spot on.
Not to be a "downer" but will be, the most ominous sign is that there is no lame duck phase, rather a dead duck interregnum. The biggest effort, Hunter's pardon and possibly other friends and family pardons. There is no US government since the 5th November day of infamy. Thomas's maxim " Do not go gently into the night..." seems to be more like "sleep through the night, ye gentle, tired and spent soul, be it in peace or restlessly so, for it matters not".
Maybe we need to look abroad for inspiration, be it Abu Mohammad al-Jolani or Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Or perhaps at home one Greg Olear. Thanks for giving this extremely dejected soul an uplift, a shred of belief that in George VI unstuttered words "...we shall prevail".
Not a downer, Old Man. A realist. I like to think that, once people see what is going to happen, they will be harder to control and lie to, but that may be wishful thinking...and yet I still believe so.
I'm 100% onboard with "counter[ing] the piss-stream of MAGA lies with the mighty ocean of truth," but I also think I'm over "helpless Anger," and have moved on to RIGHTEOUS Anger. Democracy is right, fascism is wrong. It couldn't be simpler. History has shown this to be true over and over, and yet, like the child who MUST touch the stove to find out it's too hot to touch, here we are.
STAR TREK also says, regarding the Borg, that, "Resistance is futile." I'm here to say that it's not. MAGA is not the Borg, and neither is Orange, Inc. The Borg had no factions like MAGA does. MAGA will collapse from their own hubris. I'm not saying that damage won't be done before that, but it cannot sustain itself forever. MAGA, as other cancerous factions on the body politic have done, will eventually melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West. Trump may have won this battle, but not the war.
The Democrats need to take a long hard look at what they're doing also. I'm not trying to "both sides" this thing, but it's time for Democrats to start passing the torch to the next generation of resisters because this has been a constant, sustained war with Republicans since at least the 1960s, and I don't even need to count the number of years since then that have had Democrats in Congress and the White House to know that it's far fewer years than Republicans have wielded power. SOMETHING has kept Republicans beating the shit out of Democrats for decades, and Democrats have to decide what that is and fix it. It's not just one thing; it's many things that all add up to being relatively out of touch with the American people. Do they need to dumb things down to appeal to more people? Maybe. It won't make ME dumb, or other people I regularly interact with, but if that's what needs to be done, DO IT! The "high road" is apparently too much for some people -- start bring a GUN to a gun fight!
Anecdotally, I can't tell you how many times I've read over the past month, "Blah, blah, blah, and that's why you lost," or "... that right there is why you'll keep losing," or "Democrats have no power anymore. The party is collapsing!" Every one of those is a gut punch because if true, and right now it is, it means that fucking Republicans will be in power for a very long time. On the other hand, I also bristle when I see stupid shit like, "we'll get 'em in 2026," or "just wait until 2028!" Well, we can't wait, and nothing about those statements implies any kind of change on the part of the Democrats except some time spent Merrick Garlanding until the next election.
Democrats may not be out of touch with most of us, but they certainly aren't gaining any voters anymore, and in fact, if polls are true, are losing voters to Republicans. Stop it! Do the proverbial "autopsy" on this election and fix the issues. Those issues are why it is that although we may be "more" than Republicans in the country, we are NOT more VOTING people in the country. Why? You HAVE me, stop trying to appeal to me, and fix what's wrong with the people you're currently NOT appealing to. In the meantime, we can STILL resist the bullshit that's about to be installed in the White House. Don't obey in advance. We can all individually do that, and how that manifests in the real world, I don't know because what we have now is unprecedented, but we're still pretty smart, and can individually figure it out if and when it comes.
DON'T ABANDON HOPE -- That's the very first thing they want you to "obey in advance." Don't.
Thanks, Steve, for the great-as-always comment. The post mortem pieces drive me nuts, because it's like, democracy may be over, and the pundits seem to think it's a given that there will be a fair election in four years. My main hope is that, once Dems realize this, and are forced to abandon their Schumerism, they will get more creative and bolder.
I have thought all along that Trump was only running to stay out of jail, which is true, but now that glorious win comes with the weight of the Presidency, which he is too lazy for.
The Conspiracy Campaign is so loaded, the heaviness of that on top of trying to make Presidential decisions has rendered him with the attention span of a squirrel. His policy statements change daily. And dangerously.
He knows exactly what he started out to do, it is now strangling him. You can see it in his face, his eyes. He’s trying to keep up appearances but operating like a madman. He can’t control the monster he’s created. JD Vance has virtually disappeared, but he’s there, in the shadows ready to take over.
Reading the news from Syria and other God-forsaken countries makes me grateful for our America.
I recognize our flawed history and imperfect present. Still... We have done a lot of good as well as bad. We drift toward impossible perfection. Maybe just a few maga-like obstacles to clear.
Hooweee, that's a good one (Herbert). My bff just spent an hour on Zoom trying to get me to adopt a stand-in for my inner judge so I can let my artistic side roam the aisles. She suggested a bratty girl on the playground. I said, no, my inner judge is more like the Ayatollah. And, as the universe is wont to do, I found my answer as soon as I logged off and started reading my email, your post, in particular. Works for me, personally and politically.
*be courageous* when the mind deceives you be courageous
in the *final account only this is important*
and let your helpless Anger be like the sea
whenever you hear the voice of the insulted and beaten
One Independent's perspective: Wear team colors, don't associate with the morons on the other side, then be surprised at not getting their votes. Still, unless Putin tampered (!), one side did get a few more votes. Just imo, I hope Democrat leaders are reading news about the health insurance CEO slaying. Owning why the entire network of amateur, Internet sleuths aren't sleuthing that one might be a start for 2026 and '28, as might absorbing the news that LatinOs played a big part in electing Trump. Being borderline civilized, I prefer their humanity, but Democrat leaders must take top prize for naivete. My wealthy, sheltered Dem friend was sure Trump couldn't win. Now he's sure a Republican (!) Congress will stop Agent Orange from destroying the country. Me, I'm researching whether my 10.1 acres is enough to start a new country.
Thank you for that layer of perspective. It will help me get through another day. It already has.
Thanks, Silvia.
A gorgeous piece.
Thank you, Susan!
March forward defeating the white Supremacist biblical kooks that would stone non Christians.
And send women back to the dark ages. They can be defeated. As soon they will fight among themselves while the Trump millionaires cult sack the planet with their survival of the fittest mentality.
Let's defeat them, yes!
I feel the baton is being passed to the next generations. Let’s hope they can get away from their cell phones and media apps long enough to even see what is before them or understand what has been lost. As long as Fox News is allowed to exist and other right wing podcasts etc., nothing is gonna change. Lies and conspiracy theories and hate will prevail. And the MSM as long as they focus on the negative and outlandish and not the positive and the good, nothing will change. Human nature is to block traffic so they can look at the wreck as they go by and see if there’s any blood and dead bodies and think "I’m glad it’s not me", instead of getting out of the way, thinking a small hope or prayer for the victims, so the emergency crews can do their job, clear the scene and try to make it safer for the future.
We definitely need new leadership. The old guard in DC lacks the imagination, the courage, and the will. Not good. I will cover this in more detail tomorrow...
Pearl Harbor made it easy to mobilize Americans for the fight ahead. But not one American governmental or national mass medium mind took notice that Russia had sneak-attacked the United States & that we were in a 21st Century, Putin jiu-jitsu type war in which our own strength was being used against us. Although the writing on the wall was clear by mid-2017; see, Timothy Snyder, Russia Defeats America, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej_D0YkDjy8 and America Defeats America, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQoXwIIbW8.
Now, like all of the clueless tribes of the Old Testament (Babylonians, Egyptians, etc. in addition to Israelites), the good people of America want there to be no catastrophic consequences despite having ignored, denied or condemned the prophets who'd spoken to us when there was still time for America to wake up and effectively fight back in the war against us.
Now, if we want to be true to ourselves and if truth is really kind of our god, I think that as part of doing whatever you or some others think we can still do to keep Americans on dry land between the river and the sea, and not under them, the first thing we'll have to tell our clueless multitudes once the suffering begins is, sorry, it don't work that way. You fucked up, now find out what a world of hurt you've landed us all in. And just in case, learn how to breath underwater when too late doesn't work out. That is the only legitimate voice in which the tongue of art can truthfully speak for now.
There are, of course, other means of still fighting back but those require strength & the actual physical courage to risk sending some of that hurt back toward from where it comes, qualities not usual among today's artists & wordsmiths.
"We knew that the Nazis were our enemies. But we didn't know what savage enemies they were."
ADDENDUM: Focusing forward from Trump's first installation in the White House makes it easy to forget or overlook the Russia's continuous probes into America's weak spots since the 1930s. In our time, I believe we can trace today's events all the way back to 1985, when Rupert Murdoch took US citizenship to enable him to own American TV stations. In fact the loutish, chip-on-the-shoulder sitcoms his network produced, like Roseanne, Married With Children, etc can be viewed as creative market research to locate the viewers who became the FOXNews audience when it launched in 10/96 & 4 years later turned the Bill Clinton majority into the Bush 2 victorious minority.
Thanks, Richard. All good points, and all horrifying. And: good God, the point about market research is terrifying and certainly true. We are so far on the downslide.
America rescued the West from fascism by opening a western front in Europe which gave the USSR its second wind to retake its own territory & actually beat Germany in Eastern Europe. Where is the US we need to rescue us today? It can be only China. Here we're in Chapter 2 of our real-life 1984. Oceana & the other two.
Logic and reason can't penetrate the MAGA wall of ignorance or have much influence on the those living inside the MAGA alternate reality.
Music, poetry, and humor - these are the tools of the resistance.
Democracy may get the living shit beat out of it, but like the human spirit, I don't think it can ever really be defeated. We will prevail.
Thanks, Rick. Those things always prevail, always.
Oh, Greg: your first paragraph, although regretfully accurate, is purely poetic! Today’s page is another one of your masterpieces. Thank you for rendering the reading of nightmarish news a pleasurable experience.
Thanks, Rose! I am fond of the I-95 part...
Thanks, things look a little better after that.
Thanks, Wayne!
Once again a wonderful Sunday literature lesson, so spot on.
Not to be a "downer" but will be, the most ominous sign is that there is no lame duck phase, rather a dead duck interregnum. The biggest effort, Hunter's pardon and possibly other friends and family pardons. There is no US government since the 5th November day of infamy. Thomas's maxim " Do not go gently into the night..." seems to be more like "sleep through the night, ye gentle, tired and spent soul, be it in peace or restlessly so, for it matters not".
Maybe we need to look abroad for inspiration, be it Abu Mohammad al-Jolani or Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Or perhaps at home one Greg Olear. Thanks for giving this extremely dejected soul an uplift, a shred of belief that in George VI unstuttered words "...we shall prevail".
Amen Old One.
Not a downer, Old Man. A realist. I like to think that, once people see what is going to happen, they will be harder to control and lie to, but that may be wishful thinking...and yet I still believe so.
I'm 100% onboard with "counter[ing] the piss-stream of MAGA lies with the mighty ocean of truth," but I also think I'm over "helpless Anger," and have moved on to RIGHTEOUS Anger. Democracy is right, fascism is wrong. It couldn't be simpler. History has shown this to be true over and over, and yet, like the child who MUST touch the stove to find out it's too hot to touch, here we are.
STAR TREK also says, regarding the Borg, that, "Resistance is futile." I'm here to say that it's not. MAGA is not the Borg, and neither is Orange, Inc. The Borg had no factions like MAGA does. MAGA will collapse from their own hubris. I'm not saying that damage won't be done before that, but it cannot sustain itself forever. MAGA, as other cancerous factions on the body politic have done, will eventually melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West. Trump may have won this battle, but not the war.
The Democrats need to take a long hard look at what they're doing also. I'm not trying to "both sides" this thing, but it's time for Democrats to start passing the torch to the next generation of resisters because this has been a constant, sustained war with Republicans since at least the 1960s, and I don't even need to count the number of years since then that have had Democrats in Congress and the White House to know that it's far fewer years than Republicans have wielded power. SOMETHING has kept Republicans beating the shit out of Democrats for decades, and Democrats have to decide what that is and fix it. It's not just one thing; it's many things that all add up to being relatively out of touch with the American people. Do they need to dumb things down to appeal to more people? Maybe. It won't make ME dumb, or other people I regularly interact with, but if that's what needs to be done, DO IT! The "high road" is apparently too much for some people -- start bring a GUN to a gun fight!
Anecdotally, I can't tell you how many times I've read over the past month, "Blah, blah, blah, and that's why you lost," or "... that right there is why you'll keep losing," or "Democrats have no power anymore. The party is collapsing!" Every one of those is a gut punch because if true, and right now it is, it means that fucking Republicans will be in power for a very long time. On the other hand, I also bristle when I see stupid shit like, "we'll get 'em in 2026," or "just wait until 2028!" Well, we can't wait, and nothing about those statements implies any kind of change on the part of the Democrats except some time spent Merrick Garlanding until the next election.
Democrats may not be out of touch with most of us, but they certainly aren't gaining any voters anymore, and in fact, if polls are true, are losing voters to Republicans. Stop it! Do the proverbial "autopsy" on this election and fix the issues. Those issues are why it is that although we may be "more" than Republicans in the country, we are NOT more VOTING people in the country. Why? You HAVE me, stop trying to appeal to me, and fix what's wrong with the people you're currently NOT appealing to. In the meantime, we can STILL resist the bullshit that's about to be installed in the White House. Don't obey in advance. We can all individually do that, and how that manifests in the real world, I don't know because what we have now is unprecedented, but we're still pretty smart, and can individually figure it out if and when it comes.
DON'T ABANDON HOPE -- That's the very first thing they want you to "obey in advance." Don't.
Thanks, Steve, for the great-as-always comment. The post mortem pieces drive me nuts, because it's like, democracy may be over, and the pundits seem to think it's a given that there will be a fair election in four years. My main hope is that, once Dems realize this, and are forced to abandon their Schumerism, they will get more creative and bolder.
Righteous anger, yes!
"Instead, we are sending him again to the White House. "
What if that's the hell he deserves?
Right on, Sharon! Why anyone in their right mind wants to be U.S. President is beyond my ken.
ooo, I love that, Sharon.
I have thought all along that Trump was only running to stay out of jail, which is true, but now that glorious win comes with the weight of the Presidency, which he is too lazy for.
The Conspiracy Campaign is so loaded, the heaviness of that on top of trying to make Presidential decisions has rendered him with the attention span of a squirrel. His policy statements change daily. And dangerously.
He knows exactly what he started out to do, it is now strangling him. You can see it in his face, his eyes. He’s trying to keep up appearances but operating like a madman. He can’t control the monster he’s created. JD Vance has virtually disappeared, but he’s there, in the shadows ready to take over.
Thanks for making my Sunday.
Reading the news from Syria and other God-forsaken countries makes me grateful for our America.
I recognize our flawed history and imperfect present. Still... We have done a lot of good as well as bad. We drift toward impossible perfection. Maybe just a few maga-like obstacles to clear.
billserle.com
Thanks, Bill. Syria shows that the bad guys don't always win. That's hopeful for sure.
So beautiful. No needed. Thank you.
Thank you!
Hooweee, that's a good one (Herbert). My bff just spent an hour on Zoom trying to get me to adopt a stand-in for my inner judge so I can let my artistic side roam the aisles. She suggested a bratty girl on the playground. I said, no, my inner judge is more like the Ayatollah. And, as the universe is wont to do, I found my answer as soon as I logged off and started reading my email, your post, in particular. Works for me, personally and politically.
*be courageous* when the mind deceives you be courageous
in the *final account only this is important*
and let your helpless Anger be like the sea
whenever you hear the voice of the insulted and beaten
Thanks, Mindy. I love that poem. It moves in unusual directions but it works.
Thank you for continuing to “give testimony.”
Thanks, Earl!
One Independent's perspective: Wear team colors, don't associate with the morons on the other side, then be surprised at not getting their votes. Still, unless Putin tampered (!), one side did get a few more votes. Just imo, I hope Democrat leaders are reading news about the health insurance CEO slaying. Owning why the entire network of amateur, Internet sleuths aren't sleuthing that one might be a start for 2026 and '28, as might absorbing the news that LatinOs played a big part in electing Trump. Being borderline civilized, I prefer their humanity, but Democrat leaders must take top prize for naivete. My wealthy, sheltered Dem friend was sure Trump couldn't win. Now he's sure a Republican (!) Congress will stop Agent Orange from destroying the country. Me, I'm researching whether my 10.1 acres is enough to start a new country.
Is the new country accepting immigrants?
I read a really good piece about it that framed for profit health insurance as "an engine for human misery." And so it is.