59 Comments
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Unlikely. We are PISSED OFF In the safe place to be that way is with those who are of like mind. In my mind F is fudge and P is peanut butter. I hope this helps.

Expand full comment

Oh for heaven's sake !!!!

Expand full comment
deletedFeb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
author

Since Reagan, if not since Nixon. We are so behind the curve.

Expand full comment

started it when Ford pardoned the first Dick.

Expand full comment

Well, it's Groundhog Day; again

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Thank you for being so direct, so succinct and so unassailable. Whenever I make comments about Trump failing as a Putin asset and having to fear retribution from crazy Vlad most of all, people roll their eyes and sigh.

You hate him so much, they say, you are letting your imagination get away from you. And these people are fairly sophisticated and well read. I’ve stopped arguing.

But friends, he is not the only American politician to spend copious amount of time in Russia during the 1980s when Putin and other up and coming KGB agents were developing assets in America. And they didn’t recruit solely from one particular party or spectre of society. They didn’t target just businessman or just small-town politicians with stars in their eyes or media or athletes or entertainers. They looked for future influencers. Look around my babies, and stop acting like I am the one with my head up my ass.

The ones with big mouths and empty eyes. The ones with sudden wealth they try to hide. Look for real estate empires in the name of family members. Look for an effort to drive the Chevy sedan around town while garaging the Maserati.

Be aware of those who seem to go out of their way to dress like bums and eschew any outward sign of success, leaving the good jewelry home with mama or tucked away in a safe deposit box.

These people are among us. They are in Congress. Their fat insouciant faces and roaring maws appear in the TV box we incessantly watch during Covid isolation. We pay good money during healthier times to see some of them perform artistry. Some of them have settled into careers in law enforcement and government. Some of them are teaching at your state college.

Think of who our CIA would have recruited from Russia: what professions and agencies would have given them a leg up in Russia? Who would have helped them undercut communist influence and bring down a nation?

Putin and his merry band of crazy makers did the exact same thing here. Look around. Don’t be paranoid and don’t start pointing accusing fingers. Yet.

But when they become so obvious about their mission and so direct about their game that they incite and launch a ragtag army of zealots to our capital to massacre those who stand in their way of their efforts to overthrow democracy, call them for what they are: Putin pansies. Insurrectionists. Traitors.

Get some balls about you! We need to weed them out and protect with every ounce of our heart, nerve and brawn, what is most precious and unique about being an American.

And stop rolling your eyes at me: they could freeze like that and you’d be stuck star-gazing forever.

You’re welcome. 💕

Expand full comment
author

Thank you for the great comment. Trump's presidency provided a glimpse into the underworld, the nebulous territory of mobsters and spies, that we were not really supposed to see.

Expand full comment

My mind instantly leaped to a lifetime appointee of recent times ..

Expand full comment

As usual Karen you are right exactly on target. I can only repeat my younger soul nation-older soul Olear Community refrain:

The entire fourth grade class (the nation as a whole) flunked the Mueller Report and 1st Impeachment test. Now the fourth grade class is facing their final exam, 2nd Impeachment, and there is a very decent chance that they will flunk that too. The teachers are having conferences, the teachers are trying to get the message across to the students, but the students aren’t up to the intellectual challenge and/or haven’t arrived yet at that level of emotional maturity. Looks like we’ll have to keep the entire class back and have them take the 4th grade again.

On the bright side, intelligent minds are taking notice. Over on Heather Cox Richardson the Tя☭mp as Russian stooge argument is getting traction. Dr. Richardson is even beginning to mention the parallels between the Trump and Hitler Administrations. I take joy and comfort in that.

When a certain percentage, a certain quorum, of a population or a society is strongly and deeply committed to something, change starts to happen. Something under 10%, if I’m not mistaken. When the tipping point arrives, when that critical percentage of the population becomes keenly aware, then it’s like the hundredth monkey syndrome and the whole society flips in fairly short order. So take heart. We’re getting there. The fourth graders will eventually make it to the fifth grade. We here are the messengers from the future, trying to get through to them. We will.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to reach everybody. You don’t even have to reach a majority. You don’t even have to reach a sizable minority. You just have to reach that critical mass of people, and it’s a lot smaller percentage than you would think.

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

I've been thinking about this for a while, as have you all. I suspect the ONLY thing that can save America is when #MangoWanker suddenly disappears from Mar-a-Wanko and a day later appears in Moscow, refusing extradition.

Expand full comment
author

Why? Snowden did that, and people still think that traitorous piece of shit's on the up and up.

Expand full comment
author

Note: This is INFURIATING, and my comment should be read with appropriate disgust.

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

🤮

Expand full comment

Yes, Greg. You're absolutely right. And sadly, I'm wrong. Nothing will make the Trump wankers give him up. 😥

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Professional deprogramming. Send in the psychiatrists who understand cult mind control. Fames Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee is ready with a plan. Hopefully the Biden crew is consulting with her and others who have been warning us of this need for over two years. Let these experts lead!

Expand full comment

Over on HCR I’ve been using exactly those terms: deprogramming, intervention and cult extraction, un-brainwashing. The mass hypnosis is a problem.

Expand full comment

How to reverse mass hypnosis and brainwashing.

Expand full comment

I do like the hashtag. [grin]

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

The needs to be a 12 step program for “news” organizations. Also reinstating the fairness doctrine would help.

Expand full comment
author

It's a complicated issue, with the media. So many reasons, all coming together. But we MUST fix it.

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Note to the real journalist out there trying to cover these bags of shit.

Media must self-police the way it is expected of the law and medical professions. It has begun in some small measures on CNN. Open your big audience media mouthpieces, and state with bluntness and alacrity your concern about being lumped in with the likes of Hannity, Carlson and the rest of the dime store pontificators passing themselves off as journalists.

Brian Stelter’s Sunday show about the media is a start. Do not hesitate. Do not pass go. Call them out. Shun and marginalize them. Clean up the airwaves.

You have a duty to keep your own media house clean. It is time to sweep and scrub.

As a starting point, go back and read the way that foreign journalist visiting press conclaves at the White House covered American journalists assigned to that presidency. They likened you to the herd of sheep who voted for the criminal and got sucked into the maze that surrounds and enables him.

Rage against the dying of the media light. Prove the public, who has lost trust and faith in you, to be wrong. Double dog dare you.

You are the Fourth Estate. The title confers more than status and protections. It demands duty and responsibility. Answer the damn call.

Expand full comment
author

"Rage against the dying of the media light." Yes!

Expand full comment

Another substack writer, Eric Boehlert, writes in PRESS RUN. For everyone who wants to pick at scabs, PRESS RUN will serve well.

Expand full comment

“We’ve reached the point in America where people no longer claim purchase over their own lives. They are, like Ms. Greene, mere sheep being herded by far more clever border collies like Donald Trump into pens held open by Fox News and OANN Network and NewsMax, where they are force-fed like geese by QAnon, Breitbart, the Daily Caller, RedsState and Epoch Times and similar right-wing outlets.”

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/the-gop-has-become-the-goq

Expand full comment

Thanks Greg. Sorry for the dump here, but I'm achy and feeling punk after my second moderna dose. I do not understand the institutional denial involved in all things Trump. The party, the media, the petty BS about the Democrats while they let Republicans get away with: her 75000 buck purse, phucking the birthday of their beloved Baby Geezus, separating families, caging kids, were they selling them too? Remember Acosta was in charge when all that phuckery got going. Deripaska set up an aluminum plant in Mitch's and Rand's back yard--he was sanctioned for the Crimea phuckery. Maybe people with dicks are just more vulnerable to kompromot. Eight congress people went to Russia on the Fourth of July--all poles and Kay Granger from Texas. Trump rubbed an Arab Orb. They said nothing about Jamal. They say nothing about the Big Lie. The media picked on his phucking watch? I want all the data. All the info. I'm sick as phuck of being treated like a third grader. What are they all so afraid of? We will find out that an international crime ring runs everything? Glad I never brought a child into this mess. Nero's fiddling will seem generous alongside all of the GOP action. I read the Swan piece about the fear and loathing meeting in the White House. #GovernmentOfPutin indeed. Nancy was right as the rain when she pointed out that all paths pervert to Putin. Comey can go phuck himself. His false equivalencies and lack of real vision from his perch as the head of the nation's police force got us into this tarbaby of a mess. Like Nelly sang #MustBeTheMoney. I cringe as I try to imagine just how deep the rot goes. Then lets focus on the Opus Dei BS running rampant on the top court in the land. Everybody gets their panties in a bunch when a President is a lic, but nobody says boo when Six of Nine on the court are. Talk about some crazy corrupt phuck . . .

again. thanks. thanks for the venue to go on about my thoughts. Being old in the midst of this shitstorm has made me add a chapter in my "Letters to my 15 Year Old Self"

Expand full comment
author

That is a high quality rant, and right on point. Thank you.

Expand full comment

Opus Dei is entrenched among the lifetime appointees like the Masons in cop-land ??

Good grief ! - there is zero hope of honest thought, on any topic.

Expand full comment

Great rant, Maureen A. Donnelly, thanks. What is a "lic"? I'm googling away and not having much luck.

Expand full comment

I believe it would stand for cat lickers other wise known as Catholics. The only reason I know this terminology is my cat licker husband.

Expand full comment

Thanks. Makes sense. Learn something new every time I read Greg's posts and from the great people who comment here as well.

Expand full comment

i never heard cat licker. i did grow up with guppy gobbler. i learned all derogatory slang at home . . .

Expand full comment

slang for Catholic

Expand full comment

“ Maybe people with dicks are just more vulnerable to kompromot.” We have these conversations in my house. There is a distinct IQ deficit. Not just “I for intelligence,” also “I for integrity.”

Expand full comment

We are a young soul nation. This forum is a hang-out for old souls.

Expand full comment

Very nice work Maureen. Hang in there. We love you. ❤️❤️❤️

Expand full comment

When I lived in NYC in the mid and late 80s it was an open secret about the mob and the Russian with Trump. During "Black Friday" when people were literally dying because of it he didn't miss a beat with projects and tabloid bullshit. If you said his name in polite company they would roll their eyes and spit on the ground like an angry gypsy. Reflected in his 2016 election numbers. Lost NYC by 80 some percent

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Barr really stained the connection to russia with his lies about the mueller report. And muellers own ethics screwed us further. I still have to stop myself from saying "Russian" to switch to "International" Organized Crime and to regular folks arguably lucky enough to not have immersed themselves in this mess, that sounds too immense and nebulous and "not the US" for them to care to understand.

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Get yourself a copy of American Kompromat, if you haven't already. I'm midway through, and I am learning that Barr installed Robert Hanssen to watch over the Russians in the 1980s. It probably goes much farther.

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Thanks! I might actually have the brain bandwidth to read a whole book this year now that Individual 1 is out of the office.

Expand full comment
Feb 2, 2021Liked by Greg Olear

Great point! A lot of us are also exhausted, not realizing how much energy we spent especially the last year. Wishing you good rest and happy reading!

Expand full comment

I've been following Malcolm Nance on this for years. He wrote a book that came out a month before the 2016 election. I am trying not to fall into giant conspiracy theories that include people like Comey, but REALLY. The evidence is right there.

Expand full comment

Or a Tom Cotton, Greg ..?

Expand full comment
author

I knew there was a traitor I was forgetting about....

Expand full comment

I reckon that's how he prefers to operate - being overlooked.

Expand full comment

As if you could overlook the guy with that neck. Sorry I know appearance digs are childish but some people are open season. He’s one.

Expand full comment

I'm often guilty of the appearances thing. It's my mother's fault. [grin]

Expand full comment

You are referring to Tom Cotton Balls, correct?😁

Expand full comment

Oh ! - I omitted the other barrell .. ;)

Expand full comment

Max Boot's column in WaPo yesterday contends that senators like Rob Portman are more harmful than Marjorie Taylor Green. An excerpt:

"Yet if we are to apportion responsibility for the Republican Party’s descent into irrationality and authoritarianism, I would argue that Portman is far more to blame than Greene. That’s because there are a lot more Portmans than Greenes in Congress. Greene’s kookiness resonates with many GOP voters (30 percent of Republicans expressed a positive view of QAnon in a recent poll), but there are only a few House members who are as flaky as she is. However, the House and especially the Senate are full of Portman types: long-serving, mainstream Republicans who pride themselves on being practical problem-solvers — but who did not lift a finger to stop the takeover of their party by the lunatic fringe."

I've maintained a similar belief for many years - that NPR, broadcast and cable "news" are in their way as harmful if not more so than Fox. I started noticing it in the 90's, when "news" casts would use Fox News framing when describing Democrats, particularly the Clintons. Then the New York Times pushed the Whitewater "scandal" without positing any evidence before going Full Metal Lewinsky. Ann Coulter was on the Today Show, Rush Limbaugh was anointed the go to for hearing what the Heartland was saying, etc. In other words they started uncritically "mainstreaming" right wing talking points, which is why I started calling the phenomenon the "Mainslime Media". Then NPR started incorporating more right wing commentators and injecting partisanship in their political coverage. Before I stopped listening to them in 2015 I never heard them interview a Clinton supporter. Never. I heard NPR "reporter" lambast Terry McAuliffe for giving felons the right to vote, accusing him of playing politics (and repeating it 3-4 times) because of an accusation by a Republican Virginia legislator. She got downright nasty because McAuliffe repeated why he thought the action had merit and didn't play her game ("but Republican said it's unfair"!)

I don't think I need to rehash 2016 but since I'm in Full Metal Rant mode I will say that Hillary was right about everything. The Deplorables. Trump being Putin's puppet. She being the last defense between democracy and chaos. I could go on and on. And the media pounded her mercilessly. I don't think I'll ever get over that (I'm a Libra and "Fairness" is in my DNA).

I agree with everyone here that something must be done. The first step is for Liberal/Democratic/Sane Independent people to recognize how the media shape the narrative to benefit the Republican/Fascist agenda, which is why I refer to it as "propatainment". People on "our side" are very reluctant to acknowledge it. But I don't have any ideas for how to solve it, other than speaking up on social media and not watching 99% of the "news" and political shows on broadcast or cable and following Greg, Erik Boehlert, Jay Rosen, Soledad O'Brien and Margaret Sullivan.

OK I'm done. To quote Sly and the Family Stone - "Thank you. For lettin' me. Be myself. Again."

Expand full comment

And Geminis demand justice, Kathleen. Let’s pair up!!

Expand full comment

I am all in!

Expand full comment

Time to send Rubio packing and foil Ivampa and Little lurch plans to run for Congress from a new Florida residence.

Expand full comment

Amen to that! Florida is worst than Ohio.

Expand full comment

Has anybody registered that the U.S. Capitol attack was a redneck riot run by racists and right-wing Russia-funded Republicans raking in roubles?

Expand full comment

Yet another outstanding piece Greg. Headline imagery is superb as usual. 🏆🏆🏆🏆

Clearly it’s an institutional breakdown in every department: the fifth estate, the intelligence community, James Comey, you name it. Considering how much Putin hates Hillary, from their rivalry when she was Secretary of State, you have to wonder just how much influence Putin was able to exert on Comey through the Russia-funded Congressmen we have.

Trump and Putin in Helsinki is all the evidence that any American needs. It’s all there in vivid color. Tя☭mp has been supporting Kremlin policy since changing the Republican Party platform at the convention in 2016. Every single American policy activity during Tя☭mp‘s administration that involves Russia, even if only obliquely, Tя☭mp consistently was on their side instead of our side. You had to have blinders on not to see it.

And that is precisely what Americans are doing: they have their blinders on. They treat Russia like the Evil Empire. What you fear, what intimidates you, you can’t look straight in the eye. Does the media have the same juvenile

Expand full comment

fear of Russia that the American people have? Is the media shaking in its boots, terrified that the big bad daddy is going to get them, unable to look at or acknowledge the boogeyman? Or has Putin been able to corrupt news media companies just as he has corrupted the American electorate, portions of the Republican Congress, and even holy smokes the US presidency.

You can’t make this stuff up. If the novel had been proposed to any publishing outfit in the country, they would’ve laughed the plot right out the door. Until now.

Expand full comment

That’s “fourth estate“ of course

Expand full comment

Reading this a year later, the chills it gives to think what might have happened had that mobbed up piece of shit been re-elected, with the war Russia is waging on Ukraine. Chills.

Expand full comment