“During the fight to vanquish the MAGA threat, you’ll have to tolerate differences in tactics and policy with other democracy defenders. Bringing everyone into the big tent for democracy and the rule of law is the singular challenge for 2024.” ✍🏻 Jennifer Rubin, WAPO
Well damn, I got banned from “X” and FB in late 2020 for saying that chump, Rupert and repubs were boarding the Goebbels propaganda train. I was right and got skewered when people should have “woke” up. Now he/they have traveled the Hitler path to our next election, where their propaganda juggernaut has got 40% mesmerized. Do you believe chump or your lying eyes?
Social media MAGA infiltrators also harassed, suspended and attacked me on Twitter and Fakebook. I’m only subscribing and commenting on WAPO and Substack now. I keep reporting the trolls on both.
For the life of me, I don't get how folks didn't see this coming.
I had a very average high school education and am hardly some intellectual giant, but I knew about Hitler's rise to power and the tactics he used (scapegoating, us/them, extreme nationalism, etc) and how, first, Germans thought Hitler was a joke they could control. When he announced for president in '15, I told my friends he was going to win; they thought I was nuts.
Did they stop teaching WWII in high school? No Anne Frank? How can kids today NOT know 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust? Along with gypsies, homosexuals, and handicapped individuals. Something - no, lots of things - are very off in our country right now.
If only Hollywood made more movies about WW2 that showed how bad Nazis were...oh, wait...
I don't get it, either. The only logical explanation is that most of the primary sources, the people who lived through those horrors, are very old or dead. I remember Hannity suggesting that Stalin was peachy b/c he was our ally in the war. Which, on its face, someone might believe, if they glance at the Wiki entry. It's discouraging.
The thing that blows my mind is the number of people fascinated by apocalypse and those *wanting* a Trump dictatorship. (Autocorrect capitalized his name; I didn’t.) Don’t those henchmen have grandchildren whose future they care about? The only motivation I can think of for wanting to help usher in a dictatorship is hoping that they themselves will thereby achieve unlimited power. Please … VOTE BLUE!
Most of the are libertarians, and libertarians are constitutionally incapable of viewing the world beyond their own individual experience. It's a political POV based on selfishness. They don't care about anyone else, because they wrongly believe they are not connected to everything.
It’s been a long disgusting road since Trumps escalator ride down to a group of white nationalists and media enthusiasts. At some point his demise is a certainty, it’s a bitch waiting! Great piece Greg!!
Bannon is at the center of tRump's political universe from the beginning. In 2015, a former client of my ad agency related a story about luncheon after a video shoot. Bannon was the host. I never revealed this because I was concerned...
The meeting was a round table luncheon at a local HV golf club in 2014, as I recall. In attendance was tRump, Bannon and few others. At the time, I believe tRump (before his name was spelt 😉 as today 🤣) was considering running for Governor of NYS. Bannon suggested the Whitehouse. As the meeting came to a close, Bannon asked the presumable millionaire candidate for a check as a "deposit."
The Donald took a blank check, made it out for one million dollars, left the signature blank, folded it into an empty water glass, and handed it back to him, who put it in his jacket pocket. They set a date to meet again for a year later... I wasn't sure whether to believe it, but my client insisted it was true, as told to him by a close friend who was local "politician."
At this lunch he told me tRump was going to announce... I didn't believe him. I remember him wink! A week or two or more (I can't recall) later came the RNC, w Manafort etc. I've only hinted at this story verbally, and vaguely. This is the first time I've written about it. Crazy?
Thanks for sharing that. I believe it, of course. Bannon's grubby fingers are in all kinds of nasty pies, and he views Trump as an agent of destruction. And they had to have met at some point, right? Why not there and then?
One of my major concerns is that way too many people from the Progressive "Purity, Perfection, and a Pony" brigade will concoct and latch on to any reason to avoid voting for Biden. I understand their frustrations but I really reject their expectations that Biden implement their policy positions immediately while ignoring what he's accomplished against scorched earth tactics from right-wing lunatics. Blaming Biden for the Israel-Hamas war (as if he started it) or not instantly succeeding in waiving all student loan debt in the face of RW obstructionism (RW judges on the federal courts, Repug AG's filing suits, etc.) is lunacy. I keep thinking "half a loaf, a quarter loaf, even a tenth of a loaf is better than the clowns who want to burn down the entire effing bakery".
Sorry for the rant but watching these people who mean well but potentially screw all of us because of their idealizations is sometimes too much to bear. I struggle to witness how they're willing to gamble our democracy and freedoms because of some putative policy holy grail. I hope they and others vote wisely for Biden instead voting for someone who simply can't win or not voting at all.
Peace everyone and Happy New Year....because 2024 will be a definite sh!tshow for sure.
Thanks, Thornton. I agree with you completely. I was young and idealistic and dumb once, too. I voted for Nader in 2000 (but I lived in New York, so I knew it would be okay). I have to hope Gen Z is savvy enough to wise up faster than I did.
If they don't like how Biden has handled Bibi, wait until Trump just lets him do whatever he wants.
Straight up clarity about this. When I read that people are angry at Biden for not stopping the Israeli-Hamas war or not restraining Netanyahu for the carnage in Gaza, I keep wondering do they not understand that under Dump, the Israelis might have dropped nukes by now? Supposedly the Israelis had planes in the air to preemptively attack Hezbollah right after October 7. Biden placed a call to Bibi to stop them and thereby prevented a wider conflict. But somehow Biden's "not doing anything" and shouldn't be re-elected. WTF??
Some people think all Biden needs to do is tell Netanyahu to stop the invasion, everything will end immediately and truly believe that's a realistic scenario. What's crazy is that Biden administration military and state department people are publicly saying the Israeli strategies are overkill and turning public sentiment against them, yet Biden is STILL the bad actor here.
The consistent inability by naive progressives to identify clearly the side of Right vs. the side of Evil and thereby vote smartly is one avenue for how autocrats and fascists slime their way to power in democratic societies. I'm truly enraged at seeing this lunacy unfold because I'm witnessing the same bad movie of what happened in Germany in the late 1920's and early 1930's, what happened with Bolsonaro in Brazil, and what's going on in Hungary right now. God help us if too many people get on their delusional high horse of blaming Biden for the things they hate and blindly increase the electability of fascist regime which will destroy us all.
Well said, and I agree completely. I could watch the movements and protests be subverted in realtime. The bad actors know exactly what to do with wedge issues, no matter what they are. Biden reined Bibi in...things are horrific, but I've no doubt they would have been worse.
Omg this frightens me so much Greg. But it all will happen , like they are clearly telling us, if Trump is elected. Like you said , we have an honorable president in Joe Biden, who we must do our best to re-elect.
Thanks, Helen. I don't mean to frighten you or anyone. But people who are not plugged in have to be made aware of the stakes, and these are the stakes.
Here's to a 2024 resurrection of Generals, George Washington, Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower. May Donald Trump and Leo Lenard soon move into past history.
Can the courts take the company away from Murdoch, nationalize it, cannibalize it, dissolve it, put the funds from the sale of it's assets into NPR? It sounds rather autocratic. Who can tell us?
Yes, I am very, VERY late to reading and getting to the podcast -- I didn't even know there was a Five-8 last night and had to watch the show "live on tape." It was a busy day for me.
The Trump/Hitler comparison problem may be the lesson of the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. There have been so many people through so many years, that others have blithely labeled "Hitler," that now when it's REALLY happening, a lot of folks either dismiss it outright or need SO MUCH evidence for it that it becomes a useless label. I mean, there is NO DOUBT this time for anyone who has even a casual relationship with history, and yet we have experts in the field still having to qualify with, "“I know I sound crazy[.]” No, it is NOT crazy, not anymore. I expect 2024 to be a good year simply because it's not 2023, but either way this goes it's going to be a bloodbath and I'm all for watching Trump drown in it.
TGIF🎉🎉🎉 Thanks for an exceptional 52 weeks of work. Happy New Year🍾⚖️🥂
Thanks, Lisbeth. You too!
“Yes, he’s old but look at what he’s gotten done. And if that’s not enough, then look at the alternative.” - Hillary Clinton
#BidenHarris2024 🌊
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5hsum8PpnFs
“During the fight to vanquish the MAGA threat, you’ll have to tolerate differences in tactics and policy with other democracy defenders. Bringing everyone into the big tent for democracy and the rule of law is the singular challenge for 2024.” ✍🏻 Jennifer Rubin, WAPO
I really hope young people get how the system works, that it's binary, and that a vote for anyone other than Biden is a vote for Trump.
True believers are scary. Maybe I’m one of them. Forgiveness is my passion both personally and publicly.
The world is a better place now that we’ve forgiven Japan and Germany.
Happy and better new year all.
Billserle.com
Be careful about forgiving an active shooter
After he’s in custody away rehab.
Forgiveness is something I strive for, but I don't get there in all cases and with all people.
Well damn, I got banned from “X” and FB in late 2020 for saying that chump, Rupert and repubs were boarding the Goebbels propaganda train. I was right and got skewered when people should have “woke” up. Now he/they have traveled the Hitler path to our next election, where their propaganda juggernaut has got 40% mesmerized. Do you believe chump or your lying eyes?
Social media MAGA infiltrators also harassed, suspended and attacked me on Twitter and Fakebook. I’m only subscribing and commenting on WAPO and Substack now. I keep reporting the trolls on both.
Dedicated evil, but cults seem to be a combination of dedication and evil.
Well put, Jeri!
Trump has ‘cult’-like support, Hillary Clinton says
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JFfB15EOfg4
Ugh. I hate when that happens. I've been blocking and not engaging.
That's how they mushroom.
Well, you pegged them correctly. And now X itself teems with Nazis.
I don't think the True Believer percentage is anything close to 40, though. It's enough to worry about, certainly, but we have a comfortable majority.
Lordy, I hope you are right, just not in Texas, sad to say
Great call to arms
Thanks, Richard!
For the life of me, I don't get how folks didn't see this coming.
I had a very average high school education and am hardly some intellectual giant, but I knew about Hitler's rise to power and the tactics he used (scapegoating, us/them, extreme nationalism, etc) and how, first, Germans thought Hitler was a joke they could control. When he announced for president in '15, I told my friends he was going to win; they thought I was nuts.
Did they stop teaching WWII in high school? No Anne Frank? How can kids today NOT know 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust? Along with gypsies, homosexuals, and handicapped individuals. Something - no, lots of things - are very off in our country right now.
If only Hollywood made more movies about WW2 that showed how bad Nazis were...oh, wait...
I don't get it, either. The only logical explanation is that most of the primary sources, the people who lived through those horrors, are very old or dead. I remember Hannity suggesting that Stalin was peachy b/c he was our ally in the war. Which, on its face, someone might believe, if they glance at the Wiki entry. It's discouraging.
The thing that blows my mind is the number of people fascinated by apocalypse and those *wanting* a Trump dictatorship. (Autocorrect capitalized his name; I didn’t.) Don’t those henchmen have grandchildren whose future they care about? The only motivation I can think of for wanting to help usher in a dictatorship is hoping that they themselves will thereby achieve unlimited power. Please … VOTE BLUE!
Most of the are libertarians, and libertarians are constitutionally incapable of viewing the world beyond their own individual experience. It's a political POV based on selfishness. They don't care about anyone else, because they wrongly believe they are not connected to everything.
It’s been a long disgusting road since Trumps escalator ride down to a group of white nationalists and media enthusiasts. At some point his demise is a certainty, it’s a bitch waiting! Great piece Greg!!
Seriously. These last few years have been...loooooog. Thanks, Patrick!
Bannon is at the center of tRump's political universe from the beginning. In 2015, a former client of my ad agency related a story about luncheon after a video shoot. Bannon was the host. I never revealed this because I was concerned...
The meeting was a round table luncheon at a local HV golf club in 2014, as I recall. In attendance was tRump, Bannon and few others. At the time, I believe tRump (before his name was spelt 😉 as today 🤣) was considering running for Governor of NYS. Bannon suggested the Whitehouse. As the meeting came to a close, Bannon asked the presumable millionaire candidate for a check as a "deposit."
The Donald took a blank check, made it out for one million dollars, left the signature blank, folded it into an empty water glass, and handed it back to him, who put it in his jacket pocket. They set a date to meet again for a year later... I wasn't sure whether to believe it, but my client insisted it was true, as told to him by a close friend who was local "politician."
At this lunch he told me tRump was going to announce... I didn't believe him. I remember him wink! A week or two or more (I can't recall) later came the RNC, w Manafort etc. I've only hinted at this story verbally, and vaguely. This is the first time I've written about it. Crazy?
Thanks for sharing that. I believe it, of course. Bannon's grubby fingers are in all kinds of nasty pies, and he views Trump as an agent of destruction. And they had to have met at some point, right? Why not there and then?
One of my major concerns is that way too many people from the Progressive "Purity, Perfection, and a Pony" brigade will concoct and latch on to any reason to avoid voting for Biden. I understand their frustrations but I really reject their expectations that Biden implement their policy positions immediately while ignoring what he's accomplished against scorched earth tactics from right-wing lunatics. Blaming Biden for the Israel-Hamas war (as if he started it) or not instantly succeeding in waiving all student loan debt in the face of RW obstructionism (RW judges on the federal courts, Repug AG's filing suits, etc.) is lunacy. I keep thinking "half a loaf, a quarter loaf, even a tenth of a loaf is better than the clowns who want to burn down the entire effing bakery".
Sorry for the rant but watching these people who mean well but potentially screw all of us because of their idealizations is sometimes too much to bear. I struggle to witness how they're willing to gamble our democracy and freedoms because of some putative policy holy grail. I hope they and others vote wisely for Biden instead voting for someone who simply can't win or not voting at all.
Peace everyone and Happy New Year....because 2024 will be a definite sh!tshow for sure.
Thanks, Thornton. I agree with you completely. I was young and idealistic and dumb once, too. I voted for Nader in 2000 (but I lived in New York, so I knew it would be okay). I have to hope Gen Z is savvy enough to wise up faster than I did.
If they don't like how Biden has handled Bibi, wait until Trump just lets him do whatever he wants.
Straight up clarity about this. When I read that people are angry at Biden for not stopping the Israeli-Hamas war or not restraining Netanyahu for the carnage in Gaza, I keep wondering do they not understand that under Dump, the Israelis might have dropped nukes by now? Supposedly the Israelis had planes in the air to preemptively attack Hezbollah right after October 7. Biden placed a call to Bibi to stop them and thereby prevented a wider conflict. But somehow Biden's "not doing anything" and shouldn't be re-elected. WTF??
Some people think all Biden needs to do is tell Netanyahu to stop the invasion, everything will end immediately and truly believe that's a realistic scenario. What's crazy is that Biden administration military and state department people are publicly saying the Israeli strategies are overkill and turning public sentiment against them, yet Biden is STILL the bad actor here.
The consistent inability by naive progressives to identify clearly the side of Right vs. the side of Evil and thereby vote smartly is one avenue for how autocrats and fascists slime their way to power in democratic societies. I'm truly enraged at seeing this lunacy unfold because I'm witnessing the same bad movie of what happened in Germany in the late 1920's and early 1930's, what happened with Bolsonaro in Brazil, and what's going on in Hungary right now. God help us if too many people get on their delusional high horse of blaming Biden for the things they hate and blindly increase the electability of fascist regime which will destroy us all.
Well said, and I agree completely. I could watch the movements and protests be subverted in realtime. The bad actors know exactly what to do with wedge issues, no matter what they are. Biden reined Bibi in...things are horrific, but I've no doubt they would have been worse.
Omg this frightens me so much Greg. But it all will happen , like they are clearly telling us, if Trump is elected. Like you said , we have an honorable president in Joe Biden, who we must do our best to re-elect.
Happy New Year- I hope. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks, Helen. I don't mean to frighten you or anyone. But people who are not plugged in have to be made aware of the stakes, and these are the stakes.
Methinks the New Year WILL be a happy one...
Can the Eliists that have Pancho Villas head keep Trump from a win.
Donald is mad as he wanted to get tapped so he could lie in a coffin and brag about his sex life and be assured a forever income.
Here's to a 2024 resurrection of Generals, George Washington, Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower. May Donald Trump and Leo Lenard soon move into past history.
And Steven Miller exiled to Mexico.
Amen, Cal!
An aside...
Can the courts take the company away from Murdoch, nationalize it, cannibalize it, dissolve it, put the funds from the sale of it's assets into NPR? It sounds rather autocratic. Who can tell us?
I don't know, but if they lose the Dominion case and the other one, and the damages are such that it bankrupts the company...who knows?
The First Amendment doesn't protect against malicious lies.
OligarchMassMedia is helping Trump to be reinstalled 👿
As best they can, yep.
Yes, I am very, VERY late to reading and getting to the podcast -- I didn't even know there was a Five-8 last night and had to watch the show "live on tape." It was a busy day for me.
The Trump/Hitler comparison problem may be the lesson of the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. There have been so many people through so many years, that others have blithely labeled "Hitler," that now when it's REALLY happening, a lot of folks either dismiss it outright or need SO MUCH evidence for it that it becomes a useless label. I mean, there is NO DOUBT this time for anyone who has even a casual relationship with history, and yet we have experts in the field still having to qualify with, "“I know I sound crazy[.]” No, it is NOT crazy, not anymore. I expect 2024 to be a good year simply because it's not 2023, but either way this goes it's going to be a bloodbath and I'm all for watching Trump drown in it.