Another powerful statement is, "And citizens, regardless of how they voted, need now to check their attitudes. This is no longer a post-electoral moment. It is a pre-catastrophic moment."
God is invoked as a last resort out of exasperation and not knowing what to do. It seems like we are allowing ourselves to head off a cliff because we MUST inaugurate this law breaking, power grabbing, ill-willed conman. We MUST approve his picks because he's the president and (as Tubereville says) he has to have his helpers. So we say "God help us"... even if we know God, if one exists, isn't going to help us. My mother was a fatalist. I know how she felt. And there are people who go around saying "it was meant to be" ie even if this is bad there is a lesson we have to learn. Some say this as if there is some overarching plan. This is religion ( and why we have it). No, folks the planet is winding down because people are too busy getting and spending, wasting energy, arguing, power seeking. Maybe the end of this experiment on Earth is God's plan. This is the Tower of Babel; we have lost the way to communicate to each other if we had it once ( now that we have more means!) and we (in aggregate) have lost a common sense of what is good and moral versus what is bad and evil, if we ever knew how to battle it.
The biblical tale about Noah tells of a flood to cleanse the Earth.
When we feel stuck, like now, not knowing what to do this kind of thinking arises and hands are thrown up... to God.
I was thinking of going back under the bed myself.
Much appreciated, Professor Snyder. A new website, "lawyersagainstfascism.com," will be online this weekend. Hopefully we can pitch in, with you and lots of others, to help preserve American democracy.
Clear, blunt, harsh and well said. Many years of small steps has prepared MAGA to lower the curtain on democracy. The question is whether your insights and formulations will help Americans to develop a forceful opposition or whether it will take years of pain before citizens feel it in their gut and fight back.
Both. Some Americans, like me and Indivisible, are already working hard on developing a "forceful opposition," while the fools who voted for the turd will soon be feeling the pain of electing a nasty, narcissistic, cruel, incompetent fool to office. He's promised it on day 1 but he's already starting to try to dismantle the structure of government and the safety of citizens.
Ezra and Leah have worked tirelessly to organize ways to fight back. They are practical and hopeful, so I recommend that people who are discouraged watch the kickoff call. I was on that call, as were thousands of other concerned citizens. Join Indivisible! And while you're at it, get onto Bluesky. Get off twitter.
Yes, Philosopher. The call was practical and inspirational. 20K of the 50K who signed up attended. They encourage finding or starting a local group to organize around local priorities, talked generally about what blue, purple, and red areas can do. Senator Elizabeth Warren said a top priority for us is to pressure Democratic Senators to confirm judges for Courts of Appeals and District Courts. She pointed out that lots of cases get resolved there, and that these courts are/can be more balanced than SCOTUS. She also suggested we pressure Democratic Senators to confirm people in agencies that have “term of years,” where Trump can’t come in and fire them. Warren said there’s a list but I am fuzzy on that. Anyone else can jump in if you know.
Ha ha! The official count was 20K on the call. I signed up and had a conflict, but just listened to it and it was practical and inspirational. They are a great resource and quoted Tim extensively:) Indivisible supports local gro
Who is developing "a rhetoric of a better America"? [See Snyder's last paragraph.] I'm more interested in that than forceful opposition. The Far Left has done forceful opposition for decades and look at where it has gotten us.
That wasn't the Far Left. That was humanity expressing their outrage at the continuing oppression of women, blacks, indigenous, and immigrants. And right about now all of us should be in "forceful opposition" mode to show the world most of us in the good ole USA haven't completely lost our minds. And before it's too late.
Critical thinking skills are crucial in citizens of a democracy. I taught a lot of CT as a philosophy professor, and I saw what it meant to some students when they could fight back after bullies tried to squelch their ability to think. Determining which claims are false, and finding evidence to back up claims that are true, are necessary steps to being an informed citizen.
How many people actually voted to destroy the United States, to get rid of the Constitution? Is that a question that could be asked as a way to find some common ground? How many Senators, for instance, want to get rid of the Senate?
Agree about critical thinking skills and citizens of a democracy. Retired school librarian here, Mr. Philosopher. In my state, what were known as Teacher/Librarians [teaching credential AND librarian credential] were required to teach Information Literacy, which includes evaluating sources. It was my favorite subject. I know few adults who have this type of literacy.
You got me thinking, lin, and not just about gut feelings and brains, but also about bodies, including mine. This past year, working on electoral politics, I'll admit that I enjoyed the feeling of "making a difference," or having conversations that mattered, the hope of cause and effect. Now, in the process of recalibrating and trying to figure out how best to apply myself, I realize that good feelings about my own potential impact will be harder to come by and an unreliable measurement of the value of any action. Listening to the Indivisible call linked to elsewhere in this thread, I conclude that my balanced diet of activism needs to include a lot of just showing up for efforts that others have identified without having to put my own personal stamp on it. Aside from the benefit of larger numbers being more convincing to power and better protection against authoritarian backlash as yet to be seen to be believed.
"I conclude that my balanced diet of activism needs to include a lot of just showing up for efforts that others have identified without having to put my own personal stamp on it. "
ThankYou for your significant insight. Exactly. (I like to think of myself as a worker-bee.)
I've said that it is a mistake to treat voting as an individual exercise in personal expression. When it is actually a joint exercise in taking power. Through which we can bring our own lived experience to achieving our shared goals.
(This is what Republicans have done, while many on the Left have preferred purity tests, pipe dreams, and Pied Pipers. And sitting on one's hands don't keep them clean.)
Right wing extremists did not swallow the GOP whole, they ate the elephant bite by bite before spitting it out in their own image - a Trump administration. It took decades.
In 2020 we were able to pull together. This year, considering circumstances, Kamala Harris was able to pull together a remarkable work force. We have so much to build on for good during these next two years. Every personal stance in solidarity - such as your insight - is how we can win.
I found this the most important part of this essay: "Both inside and outside Congress, there will have to be simple defiance, joined with a rhetoric of a better America." I think "forceful opposition" is just more of the same. A rhetoric of a better America is not. This is something we in the pro-democracy coalition need to do. Now.
There’s no reason for shock here. That Trump would attempt something like this was clear at least from January 6th on, if not well before. Those like Senator Susan Collins who refused to vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial by suggesting that Trump had ‘learned his lesson’ are very much to blame for what’s happening now. They failed in their duty to the Constitution and the country as half of American voters have also done in re-electing Trump.
I’m very tired of all these excuses for Ms Harris’s loss. The first duty of any American citizen is to understand and to protect our Constitutional Republic from those who would break it for their own personal gain. Shirking that responsibility for the price of a dozen eggs (See Ann Telnaes’ cartoon in yesterday's Washington Post) shouldn’t be an option.
I suggest the Persian national epic, The Shahnameh or Persian Book of Kings (translation by Dick Davis.)
It tells of a king who wants to destroy a town, but his vizier says: If you destroy the town people will think ill of you. Instead appoint an ignorant loud mouth as governor and he will destroy it.
It also says: It was a bad time. The rich refused to pay taxes and only fought among themselves.
And relates: Suddenly a new beast appeared on the plains. It attacked the other beasts. Outwardly it was golden and shone like the Sun. But inside it was all corruption.
But I do not think the problem here is genius enemies. Republicans align themselves with our enemies because Republicans are already corrupt and see some advantage for themselves.
Oh the Persians play a long game. It is an astounding and beloved text. And one which exists in amazingly beautifully illustrated editions.
I was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art looking at some illustrated calligraphy sheets from this work. An elderly self identified Iranian man asked whether I knew what I was looking at and as we were speaking, tears came to his eyes that this work was enshrined in a Western museum and that someone such as myself knew something about it.
Tone down the rhetoric? How about Republicans tone down the hatefulness they are still spewing? Your body, my choice? That’s toning down the rhetoric? It seems to me that the Republican electorate is just as, if not more, hateful, and spiteful than ever. But, as ever, when called on it on it, someone blames Democrats. Toning down the rhetoric has to start with the Republicans.
Something constructive I'm going to do: Email every Republican senator with the warnings Prof. Snyder gives here. I will remind them the whole world is watching--including all our enemies (and frien-emies that wouldn't mind picking over the spoils of a destroyed America).
I saw a comment on Bluesky (which I highly recommend) by an older disabled citizen who was SO HAPPY to have an activity that s/he could do. Writing emails and calling Senators gave that voter a sense of efficacy and strength that was remarkable! I applaud that citizen for being so determined that even physical disability would not stand in the way of action for democracy!!
Thanks for reminding me; I have been so angry and in such despair today that I forgot that. I feel alone in my efforts to fight against the turd's attempts to destroy our democracy just because he's not satisfied with the amount of money ad power he has. So many voters are indifferent--and they will be until the chaos and pain begins to affect them.
Philosopher, you have commented several times today. I’m a newcomer to “TA” so don’t know if you do that regularly, but I find your comments to be helpful, informed and mostly positive, and I wanted to thank you for them.
Thanks, Alan: I am a retired philosophy professor and have made it my responsibility to point people to good books and sources, to encourage and exhort others to positive actions, etc. And TO THINK.
There is a phrase, a concept for a type of behavior for doing revolutionary kinds of things called "direct action". Might be worth looking up literature about that. It is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a government's laws or actions) or to solve perceived problems (such as social inequality). (from wikipedia)
I see: the nonviolent direct action is what I prefer. With a toddler in control of government, we will need to send him a clear message about what we won't tolerate. It doesn't matter if anyone tries to kiss his ass, as he'd just mock that person as stupid because internally he KNOWS he's a piece of shit. In other works, if anyone tries to kiss his ass, that person will end up with a mouthful of his shit.
Nice idea but I took it one step further. I sent a snail mail letter to every Republican senator after the school massacre in Texas in Uvalde. Not one responded.
Another suggestion call your senator & representative & tell them how disgusted you are with what's going on. It may not do much good but it will be on record so to speak.
We've been doing that. Anyone in Congress monitors constituents' responses because that's what gets them re-elected, so it does have some impact. Specifically demanding that your House Rep get the Ethics Committee report on Gaetz released is a good action, as is calling senators to demand that they not allow the Senate to go into recess after the inauguration (VOMIT) so that the turd can take over the Senate's Constitutionally-mandated role of advise and consent.
I don't understand. If it may not do much good, why do it? What will having it on record do? In fact, it might harm you to have it on a Republican record.
If you want to have self-respect, DO THESE GOOD THINGS. If we stop ourselves from acting against bad actors, we are actually inflicting greater harm on the Constitution. If you decide that your morals are based upon what's good for you, you have no morals.
Volume DOES help! And so does calling the office of Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who is busting his butt to get H.R. 9495 rejected. I've called his office twice to thank him and plan to contribute to his next campaign. THANK THE GOOD ONES.
I disagree. Republicans want to not be reminded of their hatefulness, misogyny, and cult like behavior. Now that Trump will be in office, they want Democrats to fall in line and be good little kids. Screw them. I don’t disagree with you when you say to do constructive things. I just don’t think the two were related.
I was thinking about the Gaetz appointment. Besides everything we know about him don't you think he was selected to slap women in the face AGAIN? You know show the ladies whose boss by selecting a disgusting "jock" type personality to throw in our faces.
This is it. Blitzkrieg has been launched. Those who would "let them have what they voted for" seem to think they can stand separate and wait for the conflagration to burn itself out and then return to their lives. Pundits still talk about Trump only having four years like nothing more than an unfortunate chapter in American politics as usual is going on here. This isn't going to just burn itself out and no one is coming to save us. If I was an adversary of the US I would be telling people we should just let MAGA have what they asked for. I would drive hopelessness. We have to fight that and drive solidarity and resistance. We can't just leave our home.
What worries me is that the planet has expected us to come to the rescue as we did in WWII, but we are not in any position to save anyone else right now. I just hope that Europeans understand that most Americans (the orange turd won LESS THAN 50% OF THE VOTE) are not that stupid and we are fighting. And I agree; this is not just a four-year blip on the radar screen of our history. It's a planned tyranny and end to democracy that will require us to re-earn the right to self-government.
What will happen when he dies is that Vance will assume the presidency, which may be even worse. And then there will be an internal war among MAGAS for power that will be a disaster as the stupid vie with the more-stupid for control. We need to kick maga to the curb.
You would think that Game of Thrones would have prepared us for this. But then...this is real life. It will reach out of the screen and grab you and your kids and your parents and your friends and then...
I am sorry so many let us get here by shifting the responsibility to others. Mueller and Garland come to mind, their small ignoble half and delayed steps. We must pick up the baton they neglected to pass into indictments. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/consider-this?r=3m1bs
Add to that the passivity of Joe Biden, whose penchant for bipartisanship blinded him to the fact that the Republicans are not interested in governing.
I believe Republicans are interested in governing once they have the power and governing for those who are on board with their agenda. Joe Biden was naive thinking if he just did good, it would show people who is on their side. In the meantime Trump was whipping up hate and division and had his media promoting "alternative facts".
If this is the comment which you suggested to me that I read, and I will, later this evening look for others, then I am studying this.
I don't know that I can say in how many ways Pres Biden was or has been naive in his political thinking and choosing. Within the many comment opportunities afforded for us here in 'Thinking about...', I am on record for offering questions to us and to him about assumptions, suggested alternative courses of actions, and about alternative outcomes, and in each of the latter, it was necessary to question and share our diverse perspectives and the obvious impacts on our democratic system as well as impacts on peoples' lives.
It is useful to recall how strong oppositions to his efforts provided real and significant impediments to a non-naive approach and to pragmatic programmatic democratic follow-throughs. I mean, as a matter of fact, the Biden Administration in the sense of him as President or as in the sense of him as person-office holder began 2021 and continues through this moment to be among the centers of significant vision [naive, informed, selfish or unselfish...] influence.
So, doing good may have been a 'not-enough' approach, and his 'bipartisan=democratic' outlook may have had extremely narrow limits and presented overly narrow likely outcomes, but it constituted his most clear and most sincere articulation of 'cooperative us', cooperative American spirit.
I am not excusing or apologizing. If one of the ways in which he showed somewhat of a too little insight into significant danger and obstacle, then perhaps it was his influence on the DOJ in re the DOJ being quite candid about the Jan 06 events and the political context out of which the events of Jan 06 emerged.
We cannot look back to long and too longingly for correctives in re naivete that any of us had. But, as Prof Snyder very clearly asserts in On Freedom [pp. 353-355 ], it is a responsibility of each of us to respect the mix of facts and our history if we have any real will and choice in moving together forward to both defend our constitutional democratic system and to defend real people against Trump's publicly proposed human atrocities and depredations .
[One more edit here. A curious condition of being consciously human, for me at least, is the difficulty of seeing myself in choosing and acting. To be outside myself looking at myself while being inside or being my choosing self is challenging and only so effective for perspective and in a self-critical and self-correcting sense. I would repeat what Prof Snyder has said to us in the above-noted pages in On Freedom; those persons who were part of the Founders group presented, each in her or his own way, a profound commitment from candidly seeing and learning from both the past and from their own immediate conditions and choices. We must make the same effort to reconstitute our vision as we move together forward.
It is probably, in the context of vision reconstitution, of great importance to work within a diverse and often unsettling diversity of opinion on history and responsibility WHILE we cooperative make an effort to put our values on the table in the context of discerning common values that permit us to agree while we manage unresolved perspectives and values-perspectives. By doing so, just as the Founders did, we offer ourselves a much more limited but much more democratically doable working plan to work together for.]
Please, give me more on your view and on your recommendations here.
I meant that Biden was naive to believe that if he did good things, which he certainly did, people would know somehow. All the while lies, misinformation, and hot button issues and Trump himself ( his legal issues) took up the oxygen in the public sphere.
We are struggling because so very many people each failed to act or to speak up along the way. A tyrant doesn't gain power all by himself (and I use that work advisedly--tyrants are all men, historically) but with the subservience, the silence, and the passivity of others who consider themselves decent people but just don't get around to standing up to the dictator. You may think you're safe because he's not going to come for you, but the truth is that the orange turd will come for ALL of us if we wait long enough.
I also visited hotbuttons.substack. Thanks. I will read carefully.
Making policy proposals is hard work, but when people learn to work, mutually respectfully, together, it is a source of very beneficial and practical alternatives.
The half-steps, as you word it, seem to reflect the dilemma decision-making in partisan isolation, as well as simple democratic process breakdown, meaning had we had a public conversation with the public coming forward to form a normative and legalistic base for more assertive pursuit of justice, then in that context we could have accomplished much justice and affirmed the rule of law and its democratic benefits to all. Pres Biden certainly needs to publicly explain how his own partisan pursuits weaken the necessary public civil and governmental resources; he needed to explicitly advocate for factual justice and full accountability, regardless of the minor immediate political inconveniences he imagined, repeat he imagined, might ensue.
What else would you suggest we study and organize to do now?
Move on the Christian nationalists as they are the miltiants behind every fascist demagogue. They are exploited and then inflamed by the vile rhetoric. Among those white women were called out by Jess Piper today. It is Carl, Bob.
Jess Piper is very smart in her analysis of what white women seem to think that undergirds their foolish votes for the orange turd. It's the ignorance that most bothers me, especially when it's willingly embraced.
But let me add: the idea that a pregnancy is god's will and we must not interfere with it is mind-boggling. Really?? Is pneumonia god's will? Is cancer? is Elon Musk's billions? If these are god's will we'd better STOP CURING PNEUMONIA WITH PENICILLIN and cancer with chemo--god knows whom he wishes to punish with foul disease and it's will that these sinful people die. And especially tiny kids with cancer--they must die. And Musk must continue to accrue billions because god LOVES elon. Do you see the contradiction there??
The militants of the Christian right are promoted through a closed ecosystem and a militant pulpit. Theirs is a mandate to destroy non believers. That is not much different than the Crusades. If in all these years things have not changed, what is the answer to turning them around? They undergird every fascist demagogue. Every one. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/christian-right-demands-dictatorship?r=3m1bs
Those who seek to grab power ally with groups like the Christian right, Trump is not religious, but look at how he pretends to be, invokes God. That is enough to prove he is one of them, even God sent.. and it's a formidable group of people who have abdicated who are voting accordingly. Power accrues more to the growing alliance using its media: white supremacists/ racists, misogynists, anti-abortion, anti gun laws, anti immigrants, blaming inflation. The alliance of power grabbers and malcontents becomes stronger. And has been happening for a while. Trump's majority has woken us up. The question now is "so now what?"
I see the contradiction, but I’m a rational person.
I fear most who believe in “God’s will” aren’t
rational on that particular subject.What people need to know is, the corrupt republican majority on the Supreme Court are either members of Opus Dei or
are close to members of Opus Dei. Opus Dei is an extremist Catholic sect some of whom practice self-harm as a manifestation of their devotion to God. Former AG Bill Barr and conservative mastermind Leonard Leo are members of Opus Dei. Amy Coney Barrett was born into and raised in a Christian cult called “People of Praise.” She married a man in “People of Praise” and they are raising their children in this extremist sect as well. I found this information
on the internet from what appear to be credible sources. Amy Coney Barrett’s history was on the Southern Poverty Law website at the time of her nomination to the Supreme Court. I don’t know if
it’s still there. I can’t help but think that if the
Senate had this info they wouldn’t have voted for
these Supreme Court nominees. At this point it’s water under the bridge, but if at some point it’s
possible to expand the Court, the religious zealotry
of the corrupt majority will be a good argument
in favor of expanding the Court with four more justices.
All info I knew and the point is, there have to be some of us who point out that contradiction and stick it in the faces of the christofascists who are ready to rule this country. We have to mock them and show their stupidity. And read _Opus_ by Gareth Gore, for much more information on Opus Dei. Ironic name, isn't it? Destroy freedom and decency in the name of god.
Sincere efforts to come together will be difficult, partially successful, but of essential value in many ways. Move together as well as we can, don't stop. Strive for inclusiveness, perhaps contributing together for the first time.
I don't remember a 'Thinking about...' that surprised and shocked me as Decapitation Strike. For those who paid attention to Trump's rally speeches and messages by other means knew his determination for revenge, his grievances, his enemies list, goal to bring down the US government, and the departments, which did not obey his wishes. Trump's most loyal advocates have also been known. The remainder of Decapitation Strike provided thoughtful advice.
It's a mistake to think it's only the "uneducated." At least a decade of Russian propaganda endlessly spewed internally via certain networks; sitting members of Congress; a sitting President (then Traitor, and now Traitor Elect); and a billionaire crackpot with Putin's ear and a platform to spread lies; has even well-educated people believing false information.
My point is, it’s not just about facts. We are underestimating the psychological manipulation going on. There’s a lot of systematic distortion and repetition of words and phrases. Psychological connections are made in a way that overwhelms factual information.
People are willingly subjecting themselves to the manipulations because it feeds a need they have. It could be a need for fellowship or belonging. Or, there are people who enjoy negative emotions like anger & fear. Some people have an overwhelming need to be “right.” Many people think they should be more “successful” than they are and are looking for scapegoats to blame for their lack of success. It could even be the need to have a “cause” that feels bigger than their individual needs. The bottom line is the psychological manipulation that no amount of factual information can overcome.
DT is a “natural” manipulator who effortlessly taps into peoples’ emotions. He often plays the part of a “victim,” when In reality he is always the victimizer. Victimization removes individual responsibility. In other words, people who feel “victimized” by others no longer feel responsible for their shortcomings. It’s an easy way out of guilt or feelings of inadequacy that may or may not be realistic.
When you are surrounded by others reacting to
the same psychological manipulations it makes
the manipulation more powerful. Religion often
does the same thing. Most of us have noticed the fear-mongering so often used by republicans to
manipulate their constituents. Fear naturally overwhelms logic for many people. So, it’s less about facts and more about psychological
Trump supporters who’ve had a steady diet of Fox news for the last 2 decades have been systematically brainwashed using Russian techniques developed by the now defunct KBG.
And please recall Rush Limbaugh on the airwaves. Rush 1984, antedated Fox "News" 1996. Fox News is viewed by some as an oxymoron. I certainly do. Limbaugh? Crafty as a fox but still just a moron. Championed the destruction of democracy.
We do not have agreed upon facts. It's an oxymoron to say freedom depends on of taking away free speech whose facts are wrong or partially wrong or right. Who decides? There is no law against lying. But democracy does depend on a politically educated well informed voting citizen, citizens that are depending on a responsible media. We have press freedom and this is also a problem. The media can promote lies and misinformation. So what is to be done?
Except when lies become facts. We say something is a fact. They say something different OR change the subject. The sound volume matters. We are so divided as to where we get our information. This is a major problem. We do not have agreed upon facts. We don't agree about where we get our facts... who or what is credible.
Agreed. We have tried civil discourse and rationale discussion. That didn't work out so well. Fear and grievance are far more powerful motivators of human psychology. Psychological warfare is the current conflict and lies are the foundation of this battle. A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on. I wish I could claim that aphorism but I would not be telling the truth.
When we had newspapers that were reliable fact-finders & reporters of facts we knew what the facts were. Every major city used to have at least one reliable source for news, every day. It seems to me the demise of the daily newspaper was also the demise of factual reporting. Social media online has more or less taken its place. Now, every journalistic attempt at reporting factual information is also a victim of “spin” meant to make it more interesting or even meant to curry favor politically. Everything is now politicized, and I mean everything!
What are we seeing so far? Cowardice and obedience for sure, from federal judges, politicians, business owners, corporate CEOs, journalists and media owners. But also acts of defiance from officials at the highest levels of national and state government, lawyers, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens. Alliances are being formed. Trump’s false narrative is being challenged. MAGA world is just beginning to perceive that Trump’s promises will bring them pain. Part of our job is to explain to Trump voters how they ended up voting for someone who will destroy their way of life. Many are frightened and do want answers. Education is the most important tool in preventing tyranny.
"the intention of these appointments is clear: to create American horror."
"We are confronted instead with a group of people who, were they to hold the positions they have been assigned, could bring an end to the United States of America. "
No, but I would say this: I have a financial advisor who cautions me to stick with where I have my IRA. We don't know what's going to happen, and there's no point in trying to outguess the morbidly rich about their next moves. If you have access to a financial advisor who is purely fee-based and who is a fiduciary--thus legally bound to give you advice that benefits YOU, not the advisor--I would ask that person. If not, maybe check with your local credit union, which is likely to have access to financial advice for its customers.
I am fortunate to have substantial savings, all invested. More than half of that is in my IRA. I asked my financial advisor if it made sense to move it into Money Market accounts to protect it. It still pays interest, but of course it wouldn’t earn nearly as much as it would in the market under normal circumstances. He thought that would be more risky, although he did not say why. The rest I don’t know what to do about. Selling it would be a huge tax hit. He also said that he hadn’t heard anything about what might be done to Social Security. If he hasn’t, he’s the only one. His reasoning was that no one would dare to hurt seniors, and that they were more likely to raise the retirement age. I’m 73 and can live the rest of my days without Social Security, or losing up to 40% of my savings, but not both. Trump and his cronies are trying to ruin all of us, of that I have no doubt. Would like to hear others’ thoughts.
I am not a financial advisor, but I have a good one who has invested my IRA in social and economic green and liberal causes. She has told me to stay the course. I don't think it makes sense to risk taking a huge hit by selling it all; ask your advisor TWF he means by "more risky." ASK HIM. Don't let him get away with bullshitting you!! And I do think that the House members, who would have to vote to cut or eliminate SS, know that they would never be re-elected if they did so, so CALL YOUR REP. MAKE HER/HIS LIFE MISERABLE BY CONSTANT CALLS TO SUPPORT SS. EXPLAIN YOUR SITUATION. LOOK AT YOUR STOCKS AND ASK YOURSELF IF THEY REFLECT YOUR VALUES. If they reflect your true values, leave them there; if not, fix it. I do not believe that you will live without SS AND lose that much of your savings!! I'm 75 and in the same position, and I am staying firmly in support of my investments in what I believe in. Yes, the orange turd is trying to destroy every thing and every citizen he can, because that's what he does.
There is one thing we have to keep in mind. You talked about the representatives worrying about re-election. I'm not sure that will be relevant if trump just disbands the legislature & sends them home. I have little to no doubt that he will try that, the Senate is about to cave already.
Also, I heard Sen. Amy Klobuchar speak last night on MSNBC and so I know the Dems are already on high alert. There are some decent Repubs, as well, and if there is a critical mass it will be hard to force them to leave, or arrest them en masse.
That is on my mind. I know there are lots of excellent legal authorities working on what could happen, and I think there would be enough resistance and action that the turd would not be able to do that permanently. If Congress refuses to leave, what can he do--send in all the National Guard? Think they would arrest and detain all of Congress? I don't.
The president doesn't have the authority to disband the Congress. That's what we rebelled against in 1775-83 and put into law in the Constitution. Can the Congress disband itself? That I don't know.
"The key to retaining democracy is to retain control over the levers of power and the military by declaring a national emergency." THIS is the only way. And time is running out.
You might check Paul Krugman to see what he has to say, as a Nobel economist. He should have clear, reasonable, evidence-supported claims to make about the future of our savings.
The most likely threat is that the markets crash, like in 2008. With massive deregulation, and possible wars in Taiwan or the Middle East, we are always at risk but more at risk if those in charge are not very smart and experienced, or only interested in how they will profit.
Not about likely scenarios (I have no clue) but about one additional possibility:
chances are that the engagement of Elon Musk in the whole Trump Revolution is because of Musk's Technocratic ideology. "Technocratic" (look the term up) is a fairly comprehensive ideology, like Marxism: it claims to recognize existing societal problems, it claims to understand their causes, it claims to have a solution, which requires changing the basic societal setup.
I will obviously not write here "what exactly the Technocratic ideology posits" (google it), but I will only note that one of Technocratic tenets is taking over the responsibility for universal basic income (including health care) by the State. Elon Musk actually declared this at the World Forum in Dubai, discussing "challenges ahead for the humanity".
In this contingency (Musk using Trump to steer the whole society towards Technocracy) "you do not have to worry" - at least according to Technocracy's declared goals.
In my opinion, knowing how "fixing humanity" through Marxism worked out, I would be a bit anxious though.
But what I wrote, while academically maybe interesting, has no practical use. Other than that one of the important actors (Musk) kept tweeting about some unspecified "revolution".
Interesting and good to know—I’ll look it up. It looks like both Putin and Musk are using Trump for their own purposes. I wonder who else is doing that. Thanks for writing about technocratic ideology.
Dictators all over the world are using Traitor for their own purposes because he's so obviously a dupe. Rex Tillerson had the correct assessment of Traitor - he is indeed a F***ing moron.
With all these power hungry egoistical amateurs populating the executive branch, I see a coming internecine war. Elon is the shadow POTUS, which pisses off JD because he’s supposed to be the power behind the throne. Peter then jumps to his paid shill’s defense, which Elon laughs off, but he feels threatened enough that he lets lose even more bizarre rants and proposals, which pisses off Vivek because he’s the organizational genius tasked with dismantling the government. Gaetz feels left out and insists that it’s the AG’s job to dismantle the government and tries to form a coalition with Tulsi who, following Putin’s directive, thinks Gaetz is a puny brat, but she plays along because *she’s* the one in charge of dismantling the government. Per Vlad.
On and on it goes. Nothing gets done except posturing and backstabbing, and maybe a few tariffs or 20. The price of a dozen eggs is now $23 - who knew so much chicken feed came from China? - and gasoline? Unbridled by any guardrails is now $12 per gallon nationwide.
The erstwhile Commander in Chef regales foreign heads of state with his greatest hits playlist and shares furtive glimpses of all those documents he “borrowed “ from his last great administration.
Disarray is a mild descriptor of the White House.
Meanwhile…what’s left of establishment Republicans and all the Dems in both houses come to a shaky accord. The Repubs know their brand is now toast, badly burnt with no butter, no jam. But they value their oath to uphold the Constitution more than allegiance to a blithering idiot. The Democrats regain control of both the House and the Senate. Hakeem Jeffries and Adam Schiff, Senate leader, create bipartisan working groups to right the country. Trump resigns and along with Elon (forget about those losers JD, Vivek and Melania) escapes to a country without an extradition treaty with the US. Gretchen Whitmer is elected President in 2028. And the world sighs with relief.
BTW, for those of you who don't know what a Doge is, it's an Italian "Duke" who was the highest official of the republic of Venice for more than 1,000 years. The Doge was both head of state and head of the Venetian oligarchy.... seems a more appropriate title for the current times than president
A thought that gives me hope is that the system has been perfected for the morbidly rich to the point that they don't really want much to change. That is why I believe we have had the legislative gridlock. They won't want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and won't want to totally destroy the economy.
“We might find bureaucracy annoying; its absence, though, is deadly.”
What a powerful quote and a powerful post. God Bless America!
Another powerful statement is, "And citizens, regardless of how they voted, need now to check their attitudes. This is no longer a post-electoral moment. It is a pre-catastrophic moment."
Perverse, to suggest that the mysticism of “god” would fix what, if actually in existence, allowed current events to exist.
Logic, knowledge and altruism are required.
Look through history. What data supports god blessing anything?
Good quote though….
God is invoked as a last resort out of exasperation and not knowing what to do. It seems like we are allowing ourselves to head off a cliff because we MUST inaugurate this law breaking, power grabbing, ill-willed conman. We MUST approve his picks because he's the president and (as Tubereville says) he has to have his helpers. So we say "God help us"... even if we know God, if one exists, isn't going to help us. My mother was a fatalist. I know how she felt. And there are people who go around saying "it was meant to be" ie even if this is bad there is a lesson we have to learn. Some say this as if there is some overarching plan. This is religion ( and why we have it). No, folks the planet is winding down because people are too busy getting and spending, wasting energy, arguing, power seeking. Maybe the end of this experiment on Earth is God's plan. This is the Tower of Babel; we have lost the way to communicate to each other if we had it once ( now that we have more means!) and we (in aggregate) have lost a common sense of what is good and moral versus what is bad and evil, if we ever knew how to battle it.
The biblical tale about Noah tells of a flood to cleanse the Earth.
When we feel stuck, like now, not knowing what to do this kind of thinking arises and hands are thrown up... to God.
I was thinking of going back under the bed myself.
Much appreciated, Professor Snyder. A new website, "lawyersagainstfascism.com," will be online this weekend. Hopefully we can pitch in, with you and lots of others, to help preserve American democracy.
A website may be necessary, but what is needed is visible resistance on the streets now, everywhere. IMO. Before a sense of doom engulfs too many.
Before the Insurrection Act is signed on 1/20/25 and demonstrations are no longer possible without mass casualties.
I tried to log on today but site was closed Hope it will open
Barry Coburn said they will launch this weekend. The weekend has barely started.
Yes. I got the same message today, Sunday, November 17.
I hope you will notify us here.
Clear, blunt, harsh and well said. Many years of small steps has prepared MAGA to lower the curtain on democracy. The question is whether your insights and formulations will help Americans to develop a forceful opposition or whether it will take years of pain before citizens feel it in their gut and fight back.
Both. Some Americans, like me and Indivisible, are already working hard on developing a "forceful opposition," while the fools who voted for the turd will soon be feeling the pain of electing a nasty, narcissistic, cruel, incompetent fool to office. He's promised it on day 1 but he's already starting to try to dismantle the structure of government and the safety of citizens.
Thank you, Philosopher.
Youtube transcript of Indivisible's kickoff call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-Pvqa5SQE
Link to Indivisible's Worth Fighting For: A Post-Election Community Gathering Guide:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1gSdFWIUpw41O5zbaxedVsr6Xik5XpPd9FwqvXYu40/preview?tab=t.0
Also, their homepage contains links to find a local group, create a group as needed, and find or register events. https://indivisible.org/
Ezra and Leah have worked tirelessly to organize ways to fight back. They are practical and hopeful, so I recommend that people who are discouraged watch the kickoff call. I was on that call, as were thousands of other concerned citizens. Join Indivisible! And while you're at it, get onto Bluesky. Get off twitter.
Quit X and got onto Bluesky a few days ago. I will check out Indivisible. Thank you.
me too!
Thank YOU!! Good work!
Yes, Philosopher. The call was practical and inspirational. 20K of the 50K who signed up attended. They encourage finding or starting a local group to organize around local priorities, talked generally about what blue, purple, and red areas can do. Senator Elizabeth Warren said a top priority for us is to pressure Democratic Senators to confirm judges for Courts of Appeals and District Courts. She pointed out that lots of cases get resolved there, and that these courts are/can be more balanced than SCOTUS. She also suggested we pressure Democratic Senators to confirm people in agencies that have “term of years,” where Trump can’t come in and fire them. Warren said there’s a list but I am fuzzy on that. Anyone else can jump in if you know.
I’m one of those 30k who had to just watch it later, best laid plans and all
50K signed up for the kickoff call.
And I think most were actually on it. That's what concerned citizens can do when we work together!
Ha ha! The official count was 20K on the call. I signed up and had a conflict, but just listened to it and it was practical and inspirational. They are a great resource and quoted Tim extensively:) Indivisible supports local gro
That's what I thought: 20k. They are the single best fighting organization working since 2016, I believe.
got cut off then I lost it.....I finished this elsewhere, P.
When the pain sets in and the objections start, they will find that Trump sees them as belonging to the "enemy within."
Who is developing "a rhetoric of a better America"? [See Snyder's last paragraph.] I'm more interested in that than forceful opposition. The Far Left has done forceful opposition for decades and look at where it has gotten us.
That wasn't the Far Left. That was humanity expressing their outrage at the continuing oppression of women, blacks, indigenous, and immigrants. And right about now all of us should be in "forceful opposition" mode to show the world most of us in the good ole USA haven't completely lost our minds. And before it's too late.
Well, humanity wasn't speaking for me.
But did you get my point, that all the outrage expressing got us to a Republican trifecta?
Feeling it in the gut is what got us here. Time to promote using our brains. That is to forgo emotionalism and embrace strategy.
Critical thinking skills are crucial in citizens of a democracy. I taught a lot of CT as a philosophy professor, and I saw what it meant to some students when they could fight back after bullies tried to squelch their ability to think. Determining which claims are false, and finding evidence to back up claims that are true, are necessary steps to being an informed citizen.
How many people actually voted to destroy the United States, to get rid of the Constitution? Is that a question that could be asked as a way to find some common ground? How many Senators, for instance, want to get rid of the Senate?
Agree about critical thinking skills and citizens of a democracy. Retired school librarian here, Mr. Philosopher. In my state, what were known as Teacher/Librarians [teaching credential AND librarian credential] were required to teach Information Literacy, which includes evaluating sources. It was my favorite subject. I know few adults who have this type of literacy.
You got me thinking, lin, and not just about gut feelings and brains, but also about bodies, including mine. This past year, working on electoral politics, I'll admit that I enjoyed the feeling of "making a difference," or having conversations that mattered, the hope of cause and effect. Now, in the process of recalibrating and trying to figure out how best to apply myself, I realize that good feelings about my own potential impact will be harder to come by and an unreliable measurement of the value of any action. Listening to the Indivisible call linked to elsewhere in this thread, I conclude that my balanced diet of activism needs to include a lot of just showing up for efforts that others have identified without having to put my own personal stamp on it. Aside from the benefit of larger numbers being more convincing to power and better protection against authoritarian backlash as yet to be seen to be believed.
"I conclude that my balanced diet of activism needs to include a lot of just showing up for efforts that others have identified without having to put my own personal stamp on it. "
ThankYou for your significant insight. Exactly. (I like to think of myself as a worker-bee.)
I've said that it is a mistake to treat voting as an individual exercise in personal expression. When it is actually a joint exercise in taking power. Through which we can bring our own lived experience to achieving our shared goals.
(This is what Republicans have done, while many on the Left have preferred purity tests, pipe dreams, and Pied Pipers. And sitting on one's hands don't keep them clean.)
Right wing extremists did not swallow the GOP whole, they ate the elephant bite by bite before spitting it out in their own image - a Trump administration. It took decades.
In 2020 we were able to pull together. This year, considering circumstances, Kamala Harris was able to pull together a remarkable work force. We have so much to build on for good during these next two years. Every personal stance in solidarity - such as your insight - is how we can win.
Thank you.
I found this the most important part of this essay: "Both inside and outside Congress, there will have to be simple defiance, joined with a rhetoric of a better America." I think "forceful opposition" is just more of the same. A rhetoric of a better America is not. This is something we in the pro-democracy coalition need to do. Now.
There’s no reason for shock here. That Trump would attempt something like this was clear at least from January 6th on, if not well before. Those like Senator Susan Collins who refused to vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial by suggesting that Trump had ‘learned his lesson’ are very much to blame for what’s happening now. They failed in their duty to the Constitution and the country as half of American voters have also done in re-electing Trump.
I’m very tired of all these excuses for Ms Harris’s loss. The first duty of any American citizen is to understand and to protect our Constitutional Republic from those who would break it for their own personal gain. Shirking that responsibility for the price of a dozen eggs (See Ann Telnaes’ cartoon in yesterday's Washington Post) shouldn’t be an option.
YUP. All it takes for evil to occur is for good people to do nothing--can't remember who said that but it's true.
Usually attributed to Edmond Burke. My father’s favorite quote.
THANKS for letting me know! Your father is a very smart man.
True. Except I would not call snarky and underhanded opportunists like Susan Collins "good people".
Definitely! I look forward to Collins being primaried.
as always, 100% clear from Timothy Snyder. What a genius stroke by our enemies to get America to decapitate itself.
I suggest the Persian national epic, The Shahnameh or Persian Book of Kings (translation by Dick Davis.)
It tells of a king who wants to destroy a town, but his vizier says: If you destroy the town people will think ill of you. Instead appoint an ignorant loud mouth as governor and he will destroy it.
It also says: It was a bad time. The rich refused to pay taxes and only fought among themselves.
And relates: Suddenly a new beast appeared on the plains. It attacked the other beasts. Outwardly it was golden and shone like the Sun. But inside it was all corruption.
But I do not think the problem here is genius enemies. Republicans align themselves with our enemies because Republicans are already corrupt and see some advantage for themselves.
That's remarkable--thanks! I didn't know about it. Sounds as politically astute as any work on how politics works.
Oh the Persians play a long game. It is an astounding and beloved text. And one which exists in amazingly beautifully illustrated editions.
I was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art looking at some illustrated calligraphy sheets from this work. An elderly self identified Iranian man asked whether I knew what I was looking at and as we were speaking, tears came to his eyes that this work was enshrined in a Western museum and that someone such as myself knew something about it.
Lin, boy that story made my eyes well up a bit!
The Cyrus Cylinder gets me every time.
Yes. Cuneiform. And clay tablets inside of clay 'envelopes'. And the failed experiments to 'open' them. And now using medical imaging technology.
Tone down the rhetoric? How about Republicans tone down the hatefulness they are still spewing? Your body, my choice? That’s toning down the rhetoric? It seems to me that the Republican electorate is just as, if not more, hateful, and spiteful than ever. But, as ever, when called on it on it, someone blames Democrats. Toning down the rhetoric has to start with the Republicans.
"Tone down the rhetoric" translates into "Stop blowing off steam and start doing something constructive."
Something constructive I'm going to do: Email every Republican senator with the warnings Prof. Snyder gives here. I will remind them the whole world is watching--including all our enemies (and frien-emies that wouldn't mind picking over the spoils of a destroyed America).
I saw a comment on Bluesky (which I highly recommend) by an older disabled citizen who was SO HAPPY to have an activity that s/he could do. Writing emails and calling Senators gave that voter a sense of efficacy and strength that was remarkable! I applaud that citizen for being so determined that even physical disability would not stand in the way of action for democracy!!
We're all in this together!
Thanks for reminding me; I have been so angry and in such despair today that I forgot that. I feel alone in my efforts to fight against the turd's attempts to destroy our democracy just because he's not satisfied with the amount of money ad power he has. So many voters are indifferent--and they will be until the chaos and pain begins to affect them.
Connecting with other people made a HUGE difference to me in 2017. We really are stronger together, and we tend to go nuts in isolation.
Philosopher, you have commented several times today. I’m a newcomer to “TA” so don’t know if you do that regularly, but I find your comments to be helpful, informed and mostly positive, and I wanted to thank you for them.
Thanks, Alan: I am a retired philosophy professor and have made it my responsibility to point people to good books and sources, to encourage and exhort others to positive actions, etc. And TO THINK.
There is a phrase, a concept for a type of behavior for doing revolutionary kinds of things called "direct action". Might be worth looking up literature about that. It is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a government's laws or actions) or to solve perceived problems (such as social inequality). (from wikipedia)
I see: the nonviolent direct action is what I prefer. With a toddler in control of government, we will need to send him a clear message about what we won't tolerate. It doesn't matter if anyone tries to kiss his ass, as he'd just mock that person as stupid because internally he KNOWS he's a piece of shit. In other works, if anyone tries to kiss his ass, that person will end up with a mouthful of his shit.
I will check it out--thanks!
Nice idea but I took it one step further. I sent a snail mail letter to every Republican senator after the school massacre in Texas in Uvalde. Not one responded.
Another suggestion call your senator & representative & tell them how disgusted you are with what's going on. It may not do much good but it will be on record so to speak.
We've been doing that. Anyone in Congress monitors constituents' responses because that's what gets them re-elected, so it does have some impact. Specifically demanding that your House Rep get the Ethics Committee report on Gaetz released is a good action, as is calling senators to demand that they not allow the Senate to go into recess after the inauguration (VOMIT) so that the turd can take over the Senate's Constitutionally-mandated role of advise and consent.
I don't understand. If it may not do much good, why do it? What will having it on record do? In fact, it might harm you to have it on a Republican record.
If you want to have self-respect, DO THESE GOOD THINGS. If we stop ourselves from acting against bad actors, we are actually inflicting greater harm on the Constitution. If you decide that your morals are based upon what's good for you, you have no morals.
Do it! Most of them won't listen to anything that's not from their constituents (or a wealthy donor, of course), but the volume should help.
Volume DOES help! And so does calling the office of Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who is busting his butt to get H.R. 9495 rejected. I've called his office twice to thank him and plan to contribute to his next campaign. THANK THE GOOD ONES.
I disagree. Republicans want to not be reminded of their hatefulness, misogyny, and cult like behavior. Now that Trump will be in office, they want Democrats to fall in line and be good little kids. Screw them. I don’t disagree with you when you say to do constructive things. I just don’t think the two were related.
I was thinking about the Gaetz appointment. Besides everything we know about him don't you think he was selected to slap women in the face AGAIN? You know show the ladies whose boss by selecting a disgusting "jock" type personality to throw in our faces.
Who is saying tone down the rhetoric? Not Snyder.
No, not Snyder. I was responding to another reply that has since been deleted.
OK. Thx for clarifying.
This is it. Blitzkrieg has been launched. Those who would "let them have what they voted for" seem to think they can stand separate and wait for the conflagration to burn itself out and then return to their lives. Pundits still talk about Trump only having four years like nothing more than an unfortunate chapter in American politics as usual is going on here. This isn't going to just burn itself out and no one is coming to save us. If I was an adversary of the US I would be telling people we should just let MAGA have what they asked for. I would drive hopelessness. We have to fight that and drive solidarity and resistance. We can't just leave our home.
What worries me is that the planet has expected us to come to the rescue as we did in WWII, but we are not in any position to save anyone else right now. I just hope that Europeans understand that most Americans (the orange turd won LESS THAN 50% OF THE VOTE) are not that stupid and we are fighting. And I agree; this is not just a four-year blip on the radar screen of our history. It's a planned tyranny and end to democracy that will require us to re-earn the right to self-government.
which is why they shouldn't be allowed to take office at all.
Just so.
He will. Unfortunately, this is bigger than him.
Or any more stable.
What will happen when he dies is that Vance will assume the presidency, which may be even worse. And then there will be an internal war among MAGAS for power that will be a disaster as the stupid vie with the more-stupid for control. We need to kick maga to the curb.
You would think that Game of Thrones would have prepared us for this. But then...this is real life. It will reach out of the screen and grab you and your kids and your parents and your friends and then...
If only . . .
and the likes of his VP is Traitor on steroids.
I am sorry so many let us get here by shifting the responsibility to others. Mueller and Garland come to mind, their small ignoble half and delayed steps. We must pick up the baton they neglected to pass into indictments. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/consider-this?r=3m1bs
Add to that the passivity of Joe Biden, whose penchant for bipartisanship blinded him to the fact that the Republicans are not interested in governing.
I believe Republicans are interested in governing once they have the power and governing for those who are on board with their agenda. Joe Biden was naive thinking if he just did good, it would show people who is on their side. In the meantime Trump was whipping up hate and division and had his media promoting "alternative facts".
Hi, Mr Potter.
If this is the comment which you suggested to me that I read, and I will, later this evening look for others, then I am studying this.
I don't know that I can say in how many ways Pres Biden was or has been naive in his political thinking and choosing. Within the many comment opportunities afforded for us here in 'Thinking about...', I am on record for offering questions to us and to him about assumptions, suggested alternative courses of actions, and about alternative outcomes, and in each of the latter, it was necessary to question and share our diverse perspectives and the obvious impacts on our democratic system as well as impacts on peoples' lives.
It is useful to recall how strong oppositions to his efforts provided real and significant impediments to a non-naive approach and to pragmatic programmatic democratic follow-throughs. I mean, as a matter of fact, the Biden Administration in the sense of him as President or as in the sense of him as person-office holder began 2021 and continues through this moment to be among the centers of significant vision [naive, informed, selfish or unselfish...] influence.
So, doing good may have been a 'not-enough' approach, and his 'bipartisan=democratic' outlook may have had extremely narrow limits and presented overly narrow likely outcomes, but it constituted his most clear and most sincere articulation of 'cooperative us', cooperative American spirit.
I am not excusing or apologizing. If one of the ways in which he showed somewhat of a too little insight into significant danger and obstacle, then perhaps it was his influence on the DOJ in re the DOJ being quite candid about the Jan 06 events and the political context out of which the events of Jan 06 emerged.
We cannot look back to long and too longingly for correctives in re naivete that any of us had. But, as Prof Snyder very clearly asserts in On Freedom [pp. 353-355 ], it is a responsibility of each of us to respect the mix of facts and our history if we have any real will and choice in moving together forward to both defend our constitutional democratic system and to defend real people against Trump's publicly proposed human atrocities and depredations .
[One more edit here. A curious condition of being consciously human, for me at least, is the difficulty of seeing myself in choosing and acting. To be outside myself looking at myself while being inside or being my choosing self is challenging and only so effective for perspective and in a self-critical and self-correcting sense. I would repeat what Prof Snyder has said to us in the above-noted pages in On Freedom; those persons who were part of the Founders group presented, each in her or his own way, a profound commitment from candidly seeing and learning from both the past and from their own immediate conditions and choices. We must make the same effort to reconstitute our vision as we move together forward.
It is probably, in the context of vision reconstitution, of great importance to work within a diverse and often unsettling diversity of opinion on history and responsibility WHILE we cooperative make an effort to put our values on the table in the context of discerning common values that permit us to agree while we manage unresolved perspectives and values-perspectives. By doing so, just as the Founders did, we offer ourselves a much more limited but much more democratically doable working plan to work together for.]
Please, give me more on your view and on your recommendations here.
I meant that Biden was naive to believe that if he did good things, which he certainly did, people would know somehow. All the while lies, misinformation, and hot button issues and Trump himself ( his legal issues) took up the oxygen in the public sphere.
I see. Thanks. Information space.
Thanks, Mr Schiff, for this important observation.
This is a matter of real use in doing a important political process, effective democratic political process improvement.
What are your thoughts on this and its importance to us in this moment?
Hi....see my above...
Thanks, Mr Potter, I will listen to your comment.
We are struggling because so very many people each failed to act or to speak up along the way. A tyrant doesn't gain power all by himself (and I use that work advisedly--tyrants are all men, historically) but with the subservience, the silence, and the passivity of others who consider themselves decent people but just don't get around to standing up to the dictator. You may think you're safe because he's not going to come for you, but the truth is that the orange turd will come for ALL of us if we wait long enough.
Thanks for this information, Mr Selfe.
I also visited hotbuttons.substack. Thanks. I will read carefully.
Making policy proposals is hard work, but when people learn to work, mutually respectfully, together, it is a source of very beneficial and practical alternatives.
The half-steps, as you word it, seem to reflect the dilemma decision-making in partisan isolation, as well as simple democratic process breakdown, meaning had we had a public conversation with the public coming forward to form a normative and legalistic base for more assertive pursuit of justice, then in that context we could have accomplished much justice and affirmed the rule of law and its democratic benefits to all. Pres Biden certainly needs to publicly explain how his own partisan pursuits weaken the necessary public civil and governmental resources; he needed to explicitly advocate for factual justice and full accountability, regardless of the minor immediate political inconveniences he imagined, repeat he imagined, might ensue.
What else would you suggest we study and organize to do now?
Move on the Christian nationalists as they are the miltiants behind every fascist demagogue. They are exploited and then inflamed by the vile rhetoric. Among those white women were called out by Jess Piper today. It is Carl, Bob.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/trumps-white-women?r=3m1bs
Jess Piper is very smart in her analysis of what white women seem to think that undergirds their foolish votes for the orange turd. It's the ignorance that most bothers me, especially when it's willingly embraced.
But let me add: the idea that a pregnancy is god's will and we must not interfere with it is mind-boggling. Really?? Is pneumonia god's will? Is cancer? is Elon Musk's billions? If these are god's will we'd better STOP CURING PNEUMONIA WITH PENICILLIN and cancer with chemo--god knows whom he wishes to punish with foul disease and it's will that these sinful people die. And especially tiny kids with cancer--they must die. And Musk must continue to accrue billions because god LOVES elon. Do you see the contradiction there??
The militants of the Christian right are promoted through a closed ecosystem and a militant pulpit. Theirs is a mandate to destroy non believers. That is not much different than the Crusades. If in all these years things have not changed, what is the answer to turning them around? They undergird every fascist demagogue. Every one. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/christian-right-demands-dictatorship?r=3m1bs
Those who seek to grab power ally with groups like the Christian right, Trump is not religious, but look at how he pretends to be, invokes God. That is enough to prove he is one of them, even God sent.. and it's a formidable group of people who have abdicated who are voting accordingly. Power accrues more to the growing alliance using its media: white supremacists/ racists, misogynists, anti-abortion, anti gun laws, anti immigrants, blaming inflation. The alliance of power grabbers and malcontents becomes stronger. And has been happening for a while. Trump's majority has woken us up. The question now is "so now what?"
I see the contradiction, but I’m a rational person.
I fear most who believe in “God’s will” aren’t
rational on that particular subject.What people need to know is, the corrupt republican majority on the Supreme Court are either members of Opus Dei or
are close to members of Opus Dei. Opus Dei is an extremist Catholic sect some of whom practice self-harm as a manifestation of their devotion to God. Former AG Bill Barr and conservative mastermind Leonard Leo are members of Opus Dei. Amy Coney Barrett was born into and raised in a Christian cult called “People of Praise.” She married a man in “People of Praise” and they are raising their children in this extremist sect as well. I found this information
on the internet from what appear to be credible sources. Amy Coney Barrett’s history was on the Southern Poverty Law website at the time of her nomination to the Supreme Court. I don’t know if
it’s still there. I can’t help but think that if the
Senate had this info they wouldn’t have voted for
these Supreme Court nominees. At this point it’s water under the bridge, but if at some point it’s
possible to expand the Court, the religious zealotry
of the corrupt majority will be a good argument
in favor of expanding the Court with four more justices.
All info I knew and the point is, there have to be some of us who point out that contradiction and stick it in the faces of the christofascists who are ready to rule this country. We have to mock them and show their stupidity. And read _Opus_ by Gareth Gore, for much more information on Opus Dei. Ironic name, isn't it? Destroy freedom and decency in the name of god.
Thank you, Mr Selfe, for this reply.
Noted.
Sincere efforts to come together will be difficult, partially successful, but of essential value in many ways. Move together as well as we can, don't stop. Strive for inclusiveness, perhaps contributing together for the first time.
I am game for anything to raise a crowd and a ruckus.
I don't remember a 'Thinking about...' that surprised and shocked me as Decapitation Strike. For those who paid attention to Trump's rally speeches and messages by other means knew his determination for revenge, his grievances, his enemies list, goal to bring down the US government, and the departments, which did not obey his wishes. Trump's most loyal advocates have also been known. The remainder of Decapitation Strike provided thoughtful advice.
It's a mistake to think it's only the "uneducated." At least a decade of Russian propaganda endlessly spewed internally via certain networks; sitting members of Congress; a sitting President (then Traitor, and now Traitor Elect); and a billionaire crackpot with Putin's ear and a platform to spread lies; has even well-educated people believing false information.
My point is, it’s not just about facts. We are underestimating the psychological manipulation going on. There’s a lot of systematic distortion and repetition of words and phrases. Psychological connections are made in a way that overwhelms factual information.
People are willingly subjecting themselves to the manipulations because it feeds a need they have. It could be a need for fellowship or belonging. Or, there are people who enjoy negative emotions like anger & fear. Some people have an overwhelming need to be “right.” Many people think they should be more “successful” than they are and are looking for scapegoats to blame for their lack of success. It could even be the need to have a “cause” that feels bigger than their individual needs. The bottom line is the psychological manipulation that no amount of factual information can overcome.
DT is a “natural” manipulator who effortlessly taps into peoples’ emotions. He often plays the part of a “victim,” when In reality he is always the victimizer. Victimization removes individual responsibility. In other words, people who feel “victimized” by others no longer feel responsible for their shortcomings. It’s an easy way out of guilt or feelings of inadequacy that may or may not be realistic.
When you are surrounded by others reacting to
the same psychological manipulations it makes
the manipulation more powerful. Religion often
does the same thing. Most of us have noticed the fear-mongering so often used by republicans to
manipulate their constituents. Fear naturally overwhelms logic for many people. So, it’s less about facts and more about psychological
baggage.
I don’t know what the answer is James. I wish I did.
Part of me thinks that life has become so easy here in America that people no longer have to think logically,
rationally or critically in order to survive, so it’s a skill
that has atrophied considerably.
James, I think it’s important to understand that
Trump supporters who’ve had a steady diet of Fox news for the last 2 decades have been systematically brainwashed using Russian techniques developed by the now defunct KBG.
Is the KBG actually defunct? Or has it simply been re-named. And expanded to include the latest digital weaponry?
And please recall Rush Limbaugh on the airwaves. Rush 1984, antedated Fox "News" 1996. Fox News is viewed by some as an oxymoron. I certainly do. Limbaugh? Crafty as a fox but still just a moron. Championed the destruction of democracy.
We do not have agreed upon facts. It's an oxymoron to say freedom depends on of taking away free speech whose facts are wrong or partially wrong or right. Who decides? There is no law against lying. But democracy does depend on a politically educated well informed voting citizen, citizens that are depending on a responsible media. We have press freedom and this is also a problem. The media can promote lies and misinformation. So what is to be done?
Except when lies become facts. We say something is a fact. They say something different OR change the subject. The sound volume matters. We are so divided as to where we get our information. This is a major problem. We do not have agreed upon facts. We don't agree about where we get our facts... who or what is credible.
Agreed. We have tried civil discourse and rationale discussion. That didn't work out so well. Fear and grievance are far more powerful motivators of human psychology. Psychological warfare is the current conflict and lies are the foundation of this battle. A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on. I wish I could claim that aphorism but I would not be telling the truth.
When we had newspapers that were reliable fact-finders & reporters of facts we knew what the facts were. Every major city used to have at least one reliable source for news, every day. It seems to me the demise of the daily newspaper was also the demise of factual reporting. Social media online has more or less taken its place. Now, every journalistic attempt at reporting factual information is also a victim of “spin” meant to make it more interesting or even meant to curry favor politically. Everything is now politicized, and I mean everything!
Thank you Professor Snyder for keeping us informed and focused. You are a gift to the free world.
What are we seeing so far? Cowardice and obedience for sure, from federal judges, politicians, business owners, corporate CEOs, journalists and media owners. But also acts of defiance from officials at the highest levels of national and state government, lawyers, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens. Alliances are being formed. Trump’s false narrative is being challenged. MAGA world is just beginning to perceive that Trump’s promises will bring them pain. Part of our job is to explain to Trump voters how they ended up voting for someone who will destroy their way of life. Many are frightened and do want answers. Education is the most important tool in preventing tyranny.
"the intention of these appointments is clear: to create American horror."
"We are confronted instead with a group of people who, were they to hold the positions they have been assigned, could bring an end to the United States of America. "
Does anyone know who is writing about how to protect our retirement savings?
No, but I would say this: I have a financial advisor who cautions me to stick with where I have my IRA. We don't know what's going to happen, and there's no point in trying to outguess the morbidly rich about their next moves. If you have access to a financial advisor who is purely fee-based and who is a fiduciary--thus legally bound to give you advice that benefits YOU, not the advisor--I would ask that person. If not, maybe check with your local credit union, which is likely to have access to financial advice for its customers.
I am fortunate to have substantial savings, all invested. More than half of that is in my IRA. I asked my financial advisor if it made sense to move it into Money Market accounts to protect it. It still pays interest, but of course it wouldn’t earn nearly as much as it would in the market under normal circumstances. He thought that would be more risky, although he did not say why. The rest I don’t know what to do about. Selling it would be a huge tax hit. He also said that he hadn’t heard anything about what might be done to Social Security. If he hasn’t, he’s the only one. His reasoning was that no one would dare to hurt seniors, and that they were more likely to raise the retirement age. I’m 73 and can live the rest of my days without Social Security, or losing up to 40% of my savings, but not both. Trump and his cronies are trying to ruin all of us, of that I have no doubt. Would like to hear others’ thoughts.
I am not a financial advisor, but I have a good one who has invested my IRA in social and economic green and liberal causes. She has told me to stay the course. I don't think it makes sense to risk taking a huge hit by selling it all; ask your advisor TWF he means by "more risky." ASK HIM. Don't let him get away with bullshitting you!! And I do think that the House members, who would have to vote to cut or eliminate SS, know that they would never be re-elected if they did so, so CALL YOUR REP. MAKE HER/HIS LIFE MISERABLE BY CONSTANT CALLS TO SUPPORT SS. EXPLAIN YOUR SITUATION. LOOK AT YOUR STOCKS AND ASK YOURSELF IF THEY REFLECT YOUR VALUES. If they reflect your true values, leave them there; if not, fix it. I do not believe that you will live without SS AND lose that much of your savings!! I'm 75 and in the same position, and I am staying firmly in support of my investments in what I believe in. Yes, the orange turd is trying to destroy every thing and every citizen he can, because that's what he does.
There is one thing we have to keep in mind. You talked about the representatives worrying about re-election. I'm not sure that will be relevant if trump just disbands the legislature & sends them home. I have little to no doubt that he will try that, the Senate is about to cave already.
Also, I heard Sen. Amy Klobuchar speak last night on MSNBC and so I know the Dems are already on high alert. There are some decent Repubs, as well, and if there is a critical mass it will be hard to force them to leave, or arrest them en masse.
That is on my mind. I know there are lots of excellent legal authorities working on what could happen, and I think there would be enough resistance and action that the turd would not be able to do that permanently. If Congress refuses to leave, what can he do--send in all the National Guard? Think they would arrest and detain all of Congress? I don't.
The president doesn't have the authority to disband the Congress. That's what we rebelled against in 1775-83 and put into law in the Constitution. Can the Congress disband itself? That I don't know.
"The key to retaining democracy is to retain control over the levers of power and the military by declaring a national emergency." THIS is the only way. And time is running out.
You might check Paul Krugman to see what he has to say, as a Nobel economist. He should have clear, reasonable, evidence-supported claims to make about the future of our savings.
What is the threat to our retirement savings?
The most likely threat is that the markets crash, like in 2008. With massive deregulation, and possible wars in Taiwan or the Middle East, we are always at risk but more at risk if those in charge are not very smart and experienced, or only interested in how they will profit.
Sandy, I’m not sure, but I definitely feel that if it’s
possible, money in individual retirement accounts
will be seized. Chances are it will be a few years before circumstances become that dire, but I wouldn’t put anything past these people. After all,
it’s well known that DT stole money that people donated to his “charity.” I guess people who donated didn’t realize DT was the intended recipient,
not the children the paperwork reflected as the recipients.
Not about likely scenarios (I have no clue) but about one additional possibility:
chances are that the engagement of Elon Musk in the whole Trump Revolution is because of Musk's Technocratic ideology. "Technocratic" (look the term up) is a fairly comprehensive ideology, like Marxism: it claims to recognize existing societal problems, it claims to understand their causes, it claims to have a solution, which requires changing the basic societal setup.
I will obviously not write here "what exactly the Technocratic ideology posits" (google it), but I will only note that one of Technocratic tenets is taking over the responsibility for universal basic income (including health care) by the State. Elon Musk actually declared this at the World Forum in Dubai, discussing "challenges ahead for the humanity".
In this contingency (Musk using Trump to steer the whole society towards Technocracy) "you do not have to worry" - at least according to Technocracy's declared goals.
In my opinion, knowing how "fixing humanity" through Marxism worked out, I would be a bit anxious though.
But what I wrote, while academically maybe interesting, has no practical use. Other than that one of the important actors (Musk) kept tweeting about some unspecified "revolution".
Interesting and good to know—I’ll look it up. It looks like both Putin and Musk are using Trump for their own purposes. I wonder who else is doing that. Thanks for writing about technocratic ideology.
Dictators all over the world are using Traitor for their own purposes because he's so obviously a dupe. Rex Tillerson had the correct assessment of Traitor - he is indeed a F***ing moron.
Maybe this is a fever dream…
With all these power hungry egoistical amateurs populating the executive branch, I see a coming internecine war. Elon is the shadow POTUS, which pisses off JD because he’s supposed to be the power behind the throne. Peter then jumps to his paid shill’s defense, which Elon laughs off, but he feels threatened enough that he lets lose even more bizarre rants and proposals, which pisses off Vivek because he’s the organizational genius tasked with dismantling the government. Gaetz feels left out and insists that it’s the AG’s job to dismantle the government and tries to form a coalition with Tulsi who, following Putin’s directive, thinks Gaetz is a puny brat, but she plays along because *she’s* the one in charge of dismantling the government. Per Vlad.
On and on it goes. Nothing gets done except posturing and backstabbing, and maybe a few tariffs or 20. The price of a dozen eggs is now $23 - who knew so much chicken feed came from China? - and gasoline? Unbridled by any guardrails is now $12 per gallon nationwide.
The erstwhile Commander in Chef regales foreign heads of state with his greatest hits playlist and shares furtive glimpses of all those documents he “borrowed “ from his last great administration.
Disarray is a mild descriptor of the White House.
Meanwhile…what’s left of establishment Republicans and all the Dems in both houses come to a shaky accord. The Repubs know their brand is now toast, badly burnt with no butter, no jam. But they value their oath to uphold the Constitution more than allegiance to a blithering idiot. The Democrats regain control of both the House and the Senate. Hakeem Jeffries and Adam Schiff, Senate leader, create bipartisan working groups to right the country. Trump resigns and along with Elon (forget about those losers JD, Vivek and Melania) escapes to a country without an extradition treaty with the US. Gretchen Whitmer is elected President in 2028. And the world sighs with relief.
A girl can dream, can’t she?
BTW, for those of you who don't know what a Doge is, it's an Italian "Duke" who was the highest official of the republic of Venice for more than 1,000 years. The Doge was both head of state and head of the Venetian oligarchy.... seems a more appropriate title for the current times than president
A thought that gives me hope is that the system has been perfected for the morbidly rich to the point that they don't really want much to change. That is why I believe we have had the legislative gridlock. They won't want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and won't want to totally destroy the economy.