It feels so hopeless at times. So many people do not know what is going on. Republicans and many democrats think it’s the usual political divisiveness.
That thought occurred to me too. I wonder what all of this looks like to people that just live every day in a bliss of ignorance about what is going on? Those are the folks that mindlessly vote for Republicans because it's "what they've always done." Scary!
I hope everyone realizes that banning abortion and gay rights are only the first two steps. Next will be criminalizing non-marital sex and the sale of condoms. This will end with criminalizing “spilled seed.” Or haven’t others read the Old Testament? Meanwhile, the anarchists in the GOP oppose every piece of meaningful legislation. Not a single Republican supported the women’s Health act. It’s unbelievable, really, that anybody listens to these dick heads. Fascism is too tame a word to describe the kind of radical Catholic fundamentalism they want. Well done, Greg. Thanks
Agree. The collective mental health of the nation is suffering greatly because of historical trauma of the genocide and enslavement our colonization wrought, ongoing racism and classism resulting in there really never being a time is this country when all people could feel protected, valued, SAFE. Then the bullshit wars fomented by the military industrial complex and the mass incarceration of Blacks, for as long as Africans have been here. Our being gaslit by TFG, the atrocities he and his henchmen and women perpetrated against our government (dismantling entire agencies; gutting working protections), the trauma of refugees and our seeing what was happening to innocent children and families risking their lives to escape the same kind of oppression and political corruption we’re barreling toward. Then throw in the Damndemic and the associated LIES, loss, inequities, injustices. Always the injustices. Our long-overdue “racial reckoning” that has changed far too little, far too late. As the racism continues unabated. Searingly secured by the MAGA side in their successful assaults on voting rights, women, people of any gender or belief other than the great white patriarchs.
And criminalizing all forms of contraception. There’s no limit to how far ideologues will go to “purify” the culture. We are on the cusp of a cultural revolution like China’s.
Greg, Jill Biden could better deliver the speech you seek than Joe. As could Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Of course your column once again points out that the sleeping population prefers a Tony Soprano to thinking. Isn't that why gods exist?
Thousands of times i recall hearing how you could ensure a place in Hell just by jerking off.
Yep. Fear is the power invoked by those seeking control. At 82 i figure i won't go to hell until the 2024 elections. Thats when likely it will be "Hell on Earth."
"Alternately, the legislative branch can be so weakened, and the executive branch become so strong, that it hardly matters who wins control of the legislature." I feel like this has already happened to the Executive Branch. It seems like the legislature has so much control that it almost doesn't matter what the President wants to do, unless he uses executive orders. Republican's figured this out and have been instilling their candidates at every level of government to keep that minority rule.
She's right about the direction we're heading, and you also Mr Olear. I offer a quote from a former president:
“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.” -- Ulysses S. Grant
Greg, I always share your articles on Twitter and FB. I usually lead with a "hook" - a direct quote, hoping that this will entice followers to read. Today, I used this one:
"The Republican Party, as currently constituted, is a fascist outfit, full stop. There are no messages of hope. There are no promises to govern better. There are no proposals to make life better for all Americans. There is only vassalage to a crooked, thieving, mobbed-up dementia patient, looted money for cronies, and a naked grab for permanent minority rule. If achievement of those aims means sacrificing the LGBT community, and the disabled, and immigrants, and people of color, and women at the authoritarian altar, so be it."
This pot has been boiling for many years, but the temperature was turned WAY up when the Orange Menace TOOK office. To stretch the metaphor, the water is almost gone, and at the bottom of the pot is: "We have six months to right the ship, or the Return of the MAGA King will spell the end of American democracy."
I would MUCH rather be living in a time where a sentence like that was the height of hyperbole, but here we are.
We have to VOTE, we have to work to get candidates elected that can stop THIS. Whether it's in the streets or online, CRUSH every opposition you see because right now, every opposition to Democrats, Joe Biden, or even, as I found out yesterday, Jen Psaki (!), is support for these ugly fascists who're trying their best to push themselves into the U.S. government and daily life. "Competitive authoritarianism" -- NO!!
In support of my above post that many do not want to think:
"If you live long enough, and haven’t been lobotomized, you’ll change a lot of your views and opinions. Life does that. The world changes; you change; and for most people, who don’t air their views publicly for a living, the process is murky." For the rest of us, the hacks/public intellectuals, I think there’s another standard: if you change your mind on an issue, at some point, explain why. What principles or ideas have you now abandoned? Which have you now embraced? What new facts have you learned? It’s a basic form of intellectual hygiene."
Thank you, Greg. The GOP are dinosaurs, desperate to hang onto old white power, and they will happily burn America to the ground to get that. Nothing else matters to them but power.
It feels so hopeless at times. So many people do not know what is going on. Republicans and many democrats think it’s the usual political divisiveness.
That thought occurred to me too. I wonder what all of this looks like to people that just live every day in a bliss of ignorance about what is going on? Those are the folks that mindlessly vote for Republicans because it's "what they've always done." Scary!
I hope everyone realizes that banning abortion and gay rights are only the first two steps. Next will be criminalizing non-marital sex and the sale of condoms. This will end with criminalizing “spilled seed.” Or haven’t others read the Old Testament? Meanwhile, the anarchists in the GOP oppose every piece of meaningful legislation. Not a single Republican supported the women’s Health act. It’s unbelievable, really, that anybody listens to these dick heads. Fascism is too tame a word to describe the kind of radical Catholic fundamentalism they want. Well done, Greg. Thanks
Agree. The collective mental health of the nation is suffering greatly because of historical trauma of the genocide and enslavement our colonization wrought, ongoing racism and classism resulting in there really never being a time is this country when all people could feel protected, valued, SAFE. Then the bullshit wars fomented by the military industrial complex and the mass incarceration of Blacks, for as long as Africans have been here. Our being gaslit by TFG, the atrocities he and his henchmen and women perpetrated against our government (dismantling entire agencies; gutting working protections), the trauma of refugees and our seeing what was happening to innocent children and families risking their lives to escape the same kind of oppression and political corruption we’re barreling toward. Then throw in the Damndemic and the associated LIES, loss, inequities, injustices. Always the injustices. Our long-overdue “racial reckoning” that has changed far too little, far too late. As the racism continues unabated. Searingly secured by the MAGA side in their successful assaults on voting rights, women, people of any gender or belief other than the great white patriarchs.
And yet I have hope. More to come.
Yes
I know enough Old Testament to, when I see the OANN network spelled out, always think of ONAN. Spilled seed, indeed.
And criminalizing all forms of contraception. There’s no limit to how far ideologues will go to “purify” the culture. We are on the cusp of a cultural revolution like China’s.
Greg, Jill Biden could better deliver the speech you seek than Joe. As could Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Of course your column once again points out that the sleeping population prefers a Tony Soprano to thinking. Isn't that why gods exist?
Thousands of times i recall hearing how you could ensure a place in Hell just by jerking off.
Hell is a concept useful for frightening small children and fools of any age
Yep. Fear is the power invoked by those seeking control. At 82 i figure i won't go to hell until the 2024 elections. Thats when likely it will be "Hell on Earth."
Some say thrill seeking is a flaw; let us dare to know, thrills better than torpor
"Alternately, the legislative branch can be so weakened, and the executive branch become so strong, that it hardly matters who wins control of the legislature." I feel like this has already happened to the Executive Branch. It seems like the legislature has so much control that it almost doesn't matter what the President wants to do, unless he uses executive orders. Republican's figured this out and have been instilling their candidates at every level of government to keep that minority rule.
"Agitprop" - thank you for the word of the day, Professor Olear!
I liked "vassalage" too. Word for tomorrow!
That's a good one!
She's right about the direction we're heading, and you also Mr Olear. I offer a quote from a former president:
“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.” -- Ulysses S. Grant
Greg, I always share your articles on Twitter and FB. I usually lead with a "hook" - a direct quote, hoping that this will entice followers to read. Today, I used this one:
"The Republican Party, as currently constituted, is a fascist outfit, full stop. There are no messages of hope. There are no promises to govern better. There are no proposals to make life better for all Americans. There is only vassalage to a crooked, thieving, mobbed-up dementia patient, looted money for cronies, and a naked grab for permanent minority rule. If achievement of those aims means sacrificing the LGBT community, and the disabled, and immigrants, and people of color, and women at the authoritarian altar, so be it."
This pot has been boiling for many years, but the temperature was turned WAY up when the Orange Menace TOOK office. To stretch the metaphor, the water is almost gone, and at the bottom of the pot is: "We have six months to right the ship, or the Return of the MAGA King will spell the end of American democracy."
I would MUCH rather be living in a time where a sentence like that was the height of hyperbole, but here we are.
We have to VOTE, we have to work to get candidates elected that can stop THIS. Whether it's in the streets or online, CRUSH every opposition you see because right now, every opposition to Democrats, Joe Biden, or even, as I found out yesterday, Jen Psaki (!), is support for these ugly fascists who're trying their best to push themselves into the U.S. government and daily life. "Competitive authoritarianism" -- NO!!
In support of my above post that many do not want to think:
"If you live long enough, and haven’t been lobotomized, you’ll change a lot of your views and opinions. Life does that. The world changes; you change; and for most people, who don’t air their views publicly for a living, the process is murky." For the rest of us, the hacks/public intellectuals, I think there’s another standard: if you change your mind on an issue, at some point, explain why. What principles or ideas have you now abandoned? Which have you now embraced? What new facts have you learned? It’s a basic form of intellectual hygiene."
Andrew Sullivan in the Weekly Dish
Thank you, Greg. The GOP are dinosaurs, desperate to hang onto old white power, and they will happily burn America to the ground to get that. Nothing else matters to them but power.
Likely i will not be around to see the unintended consequences of a overturning of Roe vs Wade but i suspect it will get ugly.
No need to worry about Putin we will destroy ourselves.
Google: A Woodstock for Right Wing Legal Activists kicked off the 40 year plot to undo Roe vs Wade by Ityse Hogue.
Republicans always should win the race to the bottom:
https://youtu.be/R0nY33UgHmo
The horror! Thanks, J.