having lived through this fiasco, and its aftermath, I am still gobsmacked that the MSM failed us in such a grotesque manner. The fact that chump labeled them "the enemy of the people" made people who loved him, doubt any truth. As MSM failed us by dropping the story, Rupert burnished his bull schitt. And the cretins took over the narrative.
Billions of dollars buys a lot of lies. Lying is an incredibly lucrative business for Fox "News" (lol), GOP "legislators" (also lol), and other enablers. What I keep wondering is why at least a third of Americans appear like THEY ACTUALLY WANT TO BE LIED TO. How do we respond when major cultural shifts cause people to give up on reality? Your work has been great for revealing more and more to those of us who are still able to think, but what do we do with the MAGA zombies?
Excellent points, Rick. I think some segment of the MAGA zombies are lost and gone forever; it's a matter of making the rest of the country see them as pariahs, so they take their hate and go away. Because of the siloization of news, we like to hear stuff that confirms our own biases, and we hate to be wrong. I'm aware of this and always re-examining what I think might be true, looking for the opposing view and so on. It's hard to do, and the media doesn't do it for us, like they are supposed to. It's exhausting.
Bill Maher had some interesting comments about the trump voters recently: He believes that there is a group of people in the US who are so disenchanted with the way the people in government have ignored them and their issues for so long, as evidenced by their current economic woes, as well as the derision with which they are treated by the "elites," that they will vote for a candidate--any candidate--who will figuratively stick a thumb in the eye of the current political structure. The more outrageous the candidate, i.e., MTG, H Walker, L Boebert, et al, the better they are to send their message of rejection. So while some of us (the "elites?") wonder how and why people can vote against their own interests (as we see them) and elect candidates who have no qualifications or intentions of serving their communities, these voters believe no one is serving their interests now, so why not give the System a great big F*&k You when they can. This makes a lot of sense to me.
We need to find a way to get the current leaders to realize that they can't take this group of people for granted anymore; we need to figure out how to have reasonable conversations with them. We, individually, need to reconnect with people with whom we share many, many common beliefs and not write them off as uneducated clods. They are our fellow countrymen, and we need to recognize them as such. I think.
Bill knows too many “elites.” I don’t. Nobody gave a “tinker’s damn” about my parent’s woes back in the day. But they would never have stooped to the level of these whiners. Always was “get an education” so you can do better than we were able to do. Bill makes too many comments that Fox loves to put front and center. My opinion, even though I know and love some of these whiners…
Thanks, Lexine. I think that's true to some extent. But, like, Biden has been GREAT for Red America. Broadband to rural communities. The inflation/build back better stuff. He is actively helping the working class. ANd what is the result? Let's Go Brandon flags. So I think also that some people love to hate other groups of people more than they like to survive. LB has long maintained that the racists in this country will lose their homes and shit in a Folgers can as long as they are free to express their racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, etc. It's a little of both, I think.
Russia not only helped Trump - it helped Sanders as well. Hillary was under attack by the Right and Left plus their Russian proxies, as well as the media. These were coordinated, vicious and well funded attacks. Yet she prevailed with the popular vote. I think it's important that we understand the magnitude of the dynamics that fueled the 2016 election because they will remain regardless of Trump's fate.
Your interview with Kristin was a treat. Like her, I enjoy observing people making decisions and marveling at the depth of their knowledge of a process which creates the path and informs the choices. I also love to listen to people describe their process, whether they're a musician, writer, painter, baseball player, director. This is way OT but I recommend Stud Terkel's book "Working" which is comprised of people talking about their jobs. Great stuff. Long winded way of saying I appreciated her observations of what she experienced.
I have a Dick Cheney story courtesy of my cousin in Wyoming who attended a reunion and celebration honoring the renovation and restoral of historical Natrona County High School in Casper. While chatting with her husband in a hallway, she happened to look up and saw Dick Cheney, a graduate of the school accompanied by Liz, sans security or an entourage, just blending in. Next thing she knew her husband had engaged Cheney in a long, animated conversation which surprised her, and when she asked her husband what they talked about he said he wanted to make sure Cheney understood how important federal funding had been to the project.
Thanks, Kathleen. Great Dick Cheney story! I loved the story Kristin told about the coffee. You really get a sense of who he is and how he operates. I will check out that book! I actually really like watching people do a job well. When I worked in the city, there was a pizzeria that, at lunchtime, was a thing of beauty to watch. One guy twirling the dough, and on down the line. Like a dance. I loved watching them work.
I loved Kristin's story also. Working was written in the 70's so interestingly enough while many of the jobs are now obsolete the workers' stories are still relevant. I believe Working was also made into a musical.
Love your pizzeria story. I've seen baggers at Kroger who bring a flair to opening the bags and packing them. I also marveled while watching my father, a veteran radio broadcaster, do his show. He was the least technical person I know but he ran an AM board with PSA's and commercials on carts, cuts to news and traffic, turntable for vinyl records which he cued for music and special effects for his comedy sketches and the POTS while keeping his eye on the minute hand on the clock with flair like a maestro leading a symphony.
The truth is that the media, staggering from losses due to news (free) on the internet, were desperate to keep a tight race FOR MONEY. THEY are to blame for promoting Trump for months, even though anyone who was living in New England for the preceeding 30 years would have KNOWN TRUMP WAS A MOBSTER.
This was not a grotesque failure, this was PLANNED for PROFIT.
Every time I think about it, I get too angry to write, so in this case, I read Greg and Kristin 2 days ago, and have only been able to vomit here on this page, without actually vomitting in RL.
'...On January 21, 2017—his first full day as POTUS—Trump gave a speech at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. It was one of the rambling, off-the-cuff, inappropriate speeches the nation would come to know so well. ...'(article)
having lived through this fiasco, and its aftermath, I am still gobsmacked that the MSM failed us in such a grotesque manner. The fact that chump labeled them "the enemy of the people" made people who loved him, doubt any truth. As MSM failed us by dropping the story, Rupert burnished his bull schitt. And the cretins took over the narrative.
It's really extraordinary. And there are a lot of reasons, not all of them overtly evil. But man, what a trainwreck.
Billions of dollars buys a lot of lies. Lying is an incredibly lucrative business for Fox "News" (lol), GOP "legislators" (also lol), and other enablers. What I keep wondering is why at least a third of Americans appear like THEY ACTUALLY WANT TO BE LIED TO. How do we respond when major cultural shifts cause people to give up on reality? Your work has been great for revealing more and more to those of us who are still able to think, but what do we do with the MAGA zombies?
Hope they die out without reproducing.
Let's go Darwin...
I guess you didn't see "Idiocracy"...
Cults don’t deprogram themselves, but no need to join their tribe. Call them what they are….
Excellent points, Rick. I think some segment of the MAGA zombies are lost and gone forever; it's a matter of making the rest of the country see them as pariahs, so they take their hate and go away. Because of the siloization of news, we like to hear stuff that confirms our own biases, and we hate to be wrong. I'm aware of this and always re-examining what I think might be true, looking for the opposing view and so on. It's hard to do, and the media doesn't do it for us, like they are supposed to. It's exhausting.
Just today, the WaPo reports of yet another illegal Russia connection: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-strategist-pardoned-by-trump-now-convicted-of-illegally-funneling-him-russian-cash-report/ar-AA14eOtb?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W000&cvid=ae12f25134aa449982f1f87814f8beb0
But I was told there was NO COLLUSION and EXONERATION?
Bill Maher had some interesting comments about the trump voters recently: He believes that there is a group of people in the US who are so disenchanted with the way the people in government have ignored them and their issues for so long, as evidenced by their current economic woes, as well as the derision with which they are treated by the "elites," that they will vote for a candidate--any candidate--who will figuratively stick a thumb in the eye of the current political structure. The more outrageous the candidate, i.e., MTG, H Walker, L Boebert, et al, the better they are to send their message of rejection. So while some of us (the "elites?") wonder how and why people can vote against their own interests (as we see them) and elect candidates who have no qualifications or intentions of serving their communities, these voters believe no one is serving their interests now, so why not give the System a great big F*&k You when they can. This makes a lot of sense to me.
We need to find a way to get the current leaders to realize that they can't take this group of people for granted anymore; we need to figure out how to have reasonable conversations with them. We, individually, need to reconnect with people with whom we share many, many common beliefs and not write them off as uneducated clods. They are our fellow countrymen, and we need to recognize them as such. I think.
Bill knows too many “elites.” I don’t. Nobody gave a “tinker’s damn” about my parent’s woes back in the day. But they would never have stooped to the level of these whiners. Always was “get an education” so you can do better than we were able to do. Bill makes too many comments that Fox loves to put front and center. My opinion, even though I know and love some of these whiners…
I stopped watching years ago, because I really hate how he talks over the women.
Thanks, Lexine. I think that's true to some extent. But, like, Biden has been GREAT for Red America. Broadband to rural communities. The inflation/build back better stuff. He is actively helping the working class. ANd what is the result? Let's Go Brandon flags. So I think also that some people love to hate other groups of people more than they like to survive. LB has long maintained that the racists in this country will lose their homes and shit in a Folgers can as long as they are free to express their racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, etc. It's a little of both, I think.
Russia not only helped Trump - it helped Sanders as well. Hillary was under attack by the Right and Left plus their Russian proxies, as well as the media. These were coordinated, vicious and well funded attacks. Yet she prevailed with the popular vote. I think it's important that we understand the magnitude of the dynamics that fueled the 2016 election because they will remain regardless of Trump's fate.
Good point. Bernie running again in 2020, despite knowing this, is inexcusable, in my book. Pure ego. Disgusting.
I agree.
Your interview with Kristin was a treat. Like her, I enjoy observing people making decisions and marveling at the depth of their knowledge of a process which creates the path and informs the choices. I also love to listen to people describe their process, whether they're a musician, writer, painter, baseball player, director. This is way OT but I recommend Stud Terkel's book "Working" which is comprised of people talking about their jobs. Great stuff. Long winded way of saying I appreciated her observations of what she experienced.
I have a Dick Cheney story courtesy of my cousin in Wyoming who attended a reunion and celebration honoring the renovation and restoral of historical Natrona County High School in Casper. While chatting with her husband in a hallway, she happened to look up and saw Dick Cheney, a graduate of the school accompanied by Liz, sans security or an entourage, just blending in. Next thing she knew her husband had engaged Cheney in a long, animated conversation which surprised her, and when she asked her husband what they talked about he said he wanted to make sure Cheney understood how important federal funding had been to the project.
Thanks, Kathleen. Great Dick Cheney story! I loved the story Kristin told about the coffee. You really get a sense of who he is and how he operates. I will check out that book! I actually really like watching people do a job well. When I worked in the city, there was a pizzeria that, at lunchtime, was a thing of beauty to watch. One guy twirling the dough, and on down the line. Like a dance. I loved watching them work.
I loved Kristin's story also. Working was written in the 70's so interestingly enough while many of the jobs are now obsolete the workers' stories are still relevant. I believe Working was also made into a musical.
Love your pizzeria story. I've seen baggers at Kroger who bring a flair to opening the bags and packing them. I also marveled while watching my father, a veteran radio broadcaster, do his show. He was the least technical person I know but he ran an AM board with PSA's and commercials on carts, cuts to news and traffic, turntable for vinyl records which he cued for music and special effects for his comedy sketches and the POTS while keeping his eye on the minute hand on the clock with flair like a maestro leading a symphony.
322 Skull and CrossBones
Sailed the Adriatic with a Movie Star
Where is Pancho Villas Head?
The CIA is a huge problema
Just like JEGH Was.
Remember: ...
The purpose of The Media is to MAKE MONEY.
Truth, not so much.
The truth is that the media, staggering from losses due to news (free) on the internet, were desperate to keep a tight race FOR MONEY. THEY are to blame for promoting Trump for months, even though anyone who was living in New England for the preceeding 30 years would have KNOWN TRUMP WAS A MOBSTER.
This was not a grotesque failure, this was PLANNED for PROFIT.
Every time I think about it, I get too angry to write, so in this case, I read Greg and Kristin 2 days ago, and have only been able to vomit here on this page, without actually vomitting in RL.
Thank you, Greg and Kristin, a fine article.
(Pardon the second post)
FBI report on Russian Transnational Organised Crime
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/organized-crime
Wake up. The big picture. From Greg 18 months ago.
Trump has been owned by Moscow for 25 years, and owned by FBI & CIA before that
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/give-me-secrecy-and-give-me-death
'...On January 21, 2017—his first full day as POTUS—Trump gave a speech at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. It was one of the rambling, off-the-cuff, inappropriate speeches the nation would come to know so well. ...'(article)