"Among the more disturbing conclusions she [Hannah Arendt] reached were those about Eichmann himself: “Despite all the efforts of the prosecution, everybody could see that this man was not a ‘monster,’ but it was difficult indeed not to suspect that he was a clown.” He was not the incarnation of evil, she wrote; he was “thoughtless,” unable to reflect on the fact that what he was doing was wrong. “The longer one listened to him, the more obvious it became that his inability to speak [in anything but clichés] was closely connected with an inability to think, namely, to think from the standpoint of somebody else.” https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-trial-hannah-arendt "It cannot be forgotten in any discussion of Adolf Eichmann’s criminality that he relied on a staff of dedicated Nazis in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the center of the Third Reich’s terror apparatus, to carry out the monstrous directives of Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Heinrich Müller. Overshadowed by Eichmann himself, most of these men have escaped the attention of the American public. They include Theodor Dannecker (1913-1945), Dieter Wisliceny (1911-1948), Franz Novak (1913-1983), Rolf Günther (1913-1945), and Alois Brunner (1912- c. 2010). Slightly younger than Eichmann—none of them had reached the age of 35 when World War II ended—they exhibited a terrifying combination of attention to detail and steadfast commitment to the core ideas of Nazism." https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/organizing-genocide-theodor-dannecker-eichmanns-deportation-specialist I wonder whether Musk's young employees have any ideological commitment at all. In campaigning for causes and candidates, I have encountered something it is hard for me to put a word on. Perhaps a frivolous nihilism. In this case, perhaps opportunists at the center of power romanticizing themselves as rebels.
I know this attitude in young folk, especially young men it seems, of which you write. I spoke with several young guys about voting prior to this last election and got a "What's the point?" kind of answer. I also wonder what's motivating these kids working with Musk. I think I've assumed it's misguided hero worship. I can imagine that it's pretty heady getting to stick your fingers in the big government systems though. Interesting and appalling.
Excellent analysis, Lin, and excellent point, Steve.
I used to be a young man myself, and still consider myself to be young at heart (although I would leave it to others to issue the final decision). I simply don't understand why so many young men, usually but not exclusively young white men, seem incapable of dropping the booster rocket of nihilistic and crass posturing, and dumb dick wagging, and allow the main capsule of maturity to propel them to more noble pursuits.
Just a little while ago, the phrase "Your body, my choice" was bandied around by a seemingly wide spread cross-section of these American young men, riffing on the worst of European soccer hooligans. At Lauren Boebert's victory party last November, one of her supporters sported a placard that read, "Life's a bitch, Don't vote for one!".
I certainly didn't expect the Periclean funeral oration from these folks, but is this type of crude and cruel misogyny the stuff that truly tickles their funny bones?! If so, we have far more problems than we might want to admit.
With this in mind, I would add an eleventh point to Prof. Snyder's Trump CASH employment checklist.
11. I routinely mock and belittle all those who by dint of disability, dearth of political power, or demonstrable otherness, dare to seek a place on the deck of the Good Ship America, and affirm that their true residence should be on the ever crowded lifeboats on a cold sea.
We can connect even extreme pathological behavior to ordinary behavior of humans and animals on a spectrum.
For those of us with empathy and a healthy capacity for theory of mind, understanding even a serial killer's behavior is not terribly difficult. Instead of making friends and influencing others in the range of ordinary sociability, the serial killer displaces stress through acts of violence and develops a hankering for causing pain and suffering in victims.
You and I may displace stress with humor. We may seek the human equivalent of grooming partners among baboons; for humans, conversation is a form of social interaction which can alleviate anxiety.
What we are looking at, I have started to conclude, partly from reading Tim's On Freedom among many disparate sources, centers on identity in the broadest sense. I see identity as the focus of human social relationships.
It has been pointed out that facts do not change people's minds. Change occurs to us when we change who we are. We define ourselves as individuals and groups against others, the concept of schismogenesis in anthropology. The opposite happens when we identify with characteristics of others and seek to emulate them.
We are living in a time of great confusion because of so much change. It is by no means the first time changes have caused disruption and confusion, but we see the same reactions as if it were unprecedented and novel because they are not the same as before.
For instance, "DEI" replaces "Jew" as the problem. Hannah Arendt pointed out how the "emancipation" of the Jews (i.e., extended the same rights under the law in European nations as other citizens) coincided with aristocrats losing their privilege and also clashed with the rising bourgeoisie. In our time, we see "white" males feeling they have lost something because other groups are extended equality.
This also aligns with the research showing if our ingroup (Us) does better has the same psychological boost as if the other (Thems) do worse or suffer. Professor Snyder points this out in terms of health care. People oppose policies that would help them because they would also help those others.
As a final note, Arendt noted in South Africa and Europe, one group could elevate itself by inflicting violence against another group, oppressing them and asserting superiority. We are seeing something of these things here. Others in these comments have pointed out some of the causes, and Professor Snyder's On Freedom does a good job of laying out the contrast between negative and positive freedom, getting away from understanding each other as living bodies and also tending to see complex challenges as soluble by eliminating something (e.g., Marxists, private property).
There evidently must be many who need this type of leader to reduce their stress in this way: dragging other people down to feel elevated. Above all else that might work in one's psyche/character that would work against this i.e. upbringing, education, religion (do unto others), this need prevails. *This* leader emphasizes that need because of his own great needs. Trump has a magnetism that draws and it's how he got here. He says the most awful mean-spiritedness things, poisonous lies. It is shocking and disgusting to many of us but he does it with a lullaby, a sing-song delivery to the audiences that he soothes. It makes some people feel better at least temporarily, to pull down others. Facts, may not awaken people when they are in that zone and being constantly nurtured there. That is why people say cult.
I think about this failure of young men to form caring relationships. Could it be that our newfangled 'bread and circuses', eg video games, pornography, hyper-sports and sports betting, substance abuse have resulted in a persistent adolescence with its all-or-nothing judgment and 'cliques' that define themselves by whomever they hate? This may have a lot to do with the dearth of well-paying jobs, as AI and robotics have eliminated a lot of them, more's the pity. When my daughter was trying to find a partner she was appalled by the slim pickings on the dating scene for a very long time. Many experts in the behavioral sciences have bemoaned this problem and made suggestions to address it. I suspect that the combination of social media with all of the above is uniquely toxic. We may not know how to fix it, but we need to try our best to get these man-children out of their silos and back into the arms of loving families and educational/skill training institutions from which they will hopefully mature into responsible adults.
I think young 'tech bros' can add a peculiar kind of arrogance to the mix. They seem to believe that the ability to code at speed makes them better than the rest of us.
That is, no books in whole. No novels, no histories, no memoirs, no biographies.
Schools present them now with tests whose only "reading" involves very short snippets all void of any larger context.
The language in these tests come shorn of anything personal, regional, or anything other than the neutered Diane Ravitch traces in "The Language Police." School admin (not teachers in the trenches) love the neutered, the corporate, the dehumanized.
I know we hear a lot about the degenerated nature of education these days. (mostly referring to public education. Who knows what happens in home schooling and private schools?) I wonder, is that actually the case? I would love to hear from some actual public school teachers about the current reality of the teaching of reading and of literature in US public schools. My 9 years old grandson is being introduced to actual books. I wonder if his experience is unusual in any way. Maybe the attitude we call "nihilistic" sources in the felt effects of a system that only serves rich people and not so much from a lack of education, although I can see the trend is now to de-emphasize education, mostly in service to religio-authoritarianism. That will surely make things worse.
This administration is taking aim at education, public education, higher education. They want the ignorance. They cater to, nurture and abuse and use, the ignorant. They need the ignorant.
Education is our ground resistance... very important. Hope is to be found there. My granddaughters now are getting an excellent education in the public schools.... as I did. But this varies according to where you live and the local culture.
is this a dessicated variant of Cliff Notes, but instead of an abbreviated version of a novel, they exist in a sound bite? A sound bite life? There is no nuance, there is no character development, there is no consideration of what it means to live the good life as in eudaemonia. The essence of human existence is "We be powerful. . . tech bros". Is there nothing else?
What you say reminds me of a line in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off which goes something like “ Fascism, communism what’s the difference, I still don’t own a car.”
The "frivolous nihilism" is the same as Clockwork Orange. They do not follow any transcendent purpose and instead amp up their sense of importance by showing their power over others in a cruel and sadistic manner.
Civilization has "evolved" technically, but we, not as much. This is not the first generation of the *increasingly widening* gap between generations because of the pace of things. The adults and parents and of the last gave this generation. An easy explanation of this evinced in the turn of this century, the madness expected: y2k, millennial, post millennial....nihilism, frivolousness, with doom looming. If you think then you are in trouble. You (we) are headed into it.
My understanding of lack of empathy has less to do with teenage years, and more to do with earlier childhood experiences. Key childhood traumas that attribute to the creation of narcissists include neglect, over controlling authoritarian practices and overindulgence with privilege and possessions.
The line between physical and mental causes has all but disappeared as the biological sciences have advanced. Consider addiction which used to be considered a lack of will power and a character defect. Psychopaths have differences in their brains. I appreciate your contribution here. I am encouraged by you and this Hubbell fellow.
Trump and Musk may have intersecting views of humanity. "Frivolous nihilism" may be what these young employees were attracted to, to use their talents. And vice versa..Trump/Musk to them. Young soldiers go to war without knowing or understanding.
I remember the first three names (interesting to see Kaltenbrunner, a memorable name for a child as I was during WWII, and am fascinated by the dates of the rest. As for Hannah Arendt, thank you for your quotation. It allows me to understand fully for the first time who Eichmann (and contemporary publicans and DT) are.
Good, lin, that you've gotten so many thoughtful replies.
I want to thank you most for your quote noting on his "inability to think, namely, to think from the standpoint of somebody else.”
Being personal above all invokes skills in seeing "others," as individuals, in their contexts. It's where humanities figure -- or would, if our schools cared for anything but the machine-set quantifying and categorizing of all life, or what machines, incels, and our living dead portend as life.
Thanks for that summary. I found it to be informative. As for the young techies with Musk, from what’s been written about them, they ‘re quite impressed with themselves and the description “legends in their own minds” seems to apply.
Musk provides a model for that as well as an inspiration to accumulate obscene wealth through the
least amount of physical effort. I suspect that like their boss and mentor, they may have psychological issues related to childhood, genetics and parenting .
Sadly, I think from my own observations and limited online research, that a lot of these young men, much like Trump, blame everyone but themselves for problems that they alone are completely responsible for creating for themselves.
They come off to me as gullible, callow, and disgruntled youngins; social recluses and misfits, and basement computer dorks who have no athletic ability and no nothing about sports, probably because they look at porn websites and play video games on their computers all day instead of playing sports or even watching them on TV; have no ability to think critically, no friends, and lack any semblance of self-discipline, self-worth, and direction in their lives. “Big Balls“ and to some degree VP JD seem like the perfect example of this.
And this is where the Musk and to some extent Trump come in. They give these young lost souls a sense of purpose in their lives, however misguided and warped it may be.
It's just me, I know, but I'm past the point of finding anything even slightly amusing about the US and its government. For this Canadian, it could be the threat of annexation or economic ruin by Trump that killed my sense of humour. You guys carry on being you.
It’s tough to find anything amusing, yes. But they are a thin-skinned bunch overall (malicious, malevolent, lacking in morals - all true and just the start of what would be a very long list) and often make mistakes, inadvertently tell the truth when under any pressure - and they loathe being mocked or laughed at. We carry on here most days to try to laugh and not cry (or scream). Motto for years has been to not leave the house without a sense of humor.
There is a LOT to worry about, for all of us.
Grateful that we have supporters in Canada and elsewhere - you’re here on this thread - and I appreciate it.
My take on everything for a long time is that we all have to row together, but also take turns - rest, regroup as we need to - and get someone to help (throw you the figurative floatation device) if we can. There are more days that I'm just incandescent with rage - but that's not sustainable or healthy.
I've always liked Arthur Ashe's "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can" as a reminder for myself and clients (retired therapist here).
Some days that's harder to remember than other days.
You must have been a wonderful therapist. Not a shred of patronization or judgement or impatience. You deserve such a better government. My mechanism is retreat; but that's not much more useful than rage, in the end. I do think, though, that we are near the point when some unbridled anger might be more helpful than substacks. Canadians wonder if Americans would stand by and let your country be destroyed. So far, we have seen no lines in the sand.
Thank you for the compliment. My response is that I tried (and continue to try) and truly did benefit and continue to benefit from some wonderful mentors and supports. Which is why I feel “sort-of” sane… most days.
It’s channeling the anger that is often the challenge.
I think we deserve a better government but I also agree with a blogger and author (Jim Wright, writes as “Stonekettle” /“Stonekettle Station”) that if we want a better nation, if we want a better future, then we have to be better citizens. I live in a university town - voter turn out is often very low.
I’ve had a lot of conversations with my adult children’s friends who contend (still, today) that “voting doesn’t matter”, among other statements.
Thank you, Emily Elliot! That's some terrific writing (typical of Solnit) that reaches so many thoughts and emotions around this time. Extremely helpful and very kind!
As an American, I am New Yorker, I wonder if so many of the maganats would never wake up. It surely appears they are asleep and if awake they already fell for the lies. Save our Souls.
Keep going, Canadians! You're resisting well (Even Doug Ford is beginning to sound like a nice, normal sensible bloke) I'm in England and scared out of my senses most of the time. But the wit and wisdom of Timothy Snyder and his like remind me that there is another reality.
I feel exactly like you do Terence. This is a gut punch like I’ve never felt after believing that our 200+ years of friendship, and best trading partner was one of the world’s best alliance. And then this ignoramus through lies and deceitful actions elected by a small margin of those who bothered to vote, wants to seize our peaceful nation in an attempt to raid our minerals, our plentiful water and an unfettered access to the north. It’s hard to fathom, but yes, this is where we are.
Yes, as do I. But my plan of action has already been started - buy Canadian goods only. If I can’t decipher where some good is made, it’s going back on the shelf. Oh and my American stocks, adios it was nice dealing with you. And some will say I’m chewing off my nose to spite my face. No, actually; I’m doing it to spite trumpet the invader.
Trump is showing off his power to reward and to punish—our allies! (Especially our allies?) Even if he backs down on a threat, it had power. He uses his unpredictability to frighten. Being unfathomable is the point. Or it could be that stupidity is all it is.
I think too many of us respond better to humor than other forms of information because we are thoroughly sick of our current POTUS and his cadre of dangerous clowns. So sorry. Feel free to boo him at will. It's not us, though. Please keep that in mind. He never got a majority of Americans to vote for him.
I am deeply saddened by what MAGA is doing — and the influence it is having — on our neighbors to the north. I love Canada deeply as my father and many generations of my ancestors are from there. We find ourselves here because of racism, misogyny, and the fact that millions of progressives didn’t vote to protest our military aid to Israel (throwing out the baby with the bathwater; the new president has horrific ideas for Gaza). I’m filled with rage and despair and feel completely helpless.
Trump’s interest also extends to Mexico. Not to annex, but to unleash the US military to bomb drug and corruption targets. Mexicans have historical memory of our invasions and the seizure of half of Mexico. This is a real threat. Mexican president Sheinbaum has masterfully handled Trump so far (along with Trudeau) but he continues to ruminate about attacking Mexico. I live on the border and worry about this.
They never answer truthfully or directly. If you haven’t seen the clip of Jim Acosta questioning a DOGE supporter, it’s worth a look as the guy being interviewed does what I've now come to view as the standard R “dance” - not respond directly, smirk (always with the smirk), and bring up the list of talking points. Acosta does well but these folks are slimy, slippery.
I tried to watch some of these as they were going on and had to stop as my head hurt and I felt like I was on the verge of going full on Carol Kane as Valerie in The Princess Bride - even though I know that screaming at the screen won’t help.
The Trump/Musk crowd would not fare well under your application form.
How is it possible that congressmen can be refused entry into government buildings such as USAID and the Department of Education? Certainly this cannot be legal!? What practical remedies are available? Does Congress have no teeth at all? This outrage demands a better, more forceful response than mere hand-wringing!
Never have the following words been more true than they are today:
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Similar, John S, to Dr. Snyder's Lesson 20 in On Tyranny, "Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny."
What stops some janitor from slamming and locking the door against these Congressmen faces? If the janitor will be not disciplined by his/her superiors (that chain leads to Trump, so forget it), then the Congressman needs a court order backed by police force. And that court order will be fought for all the way to SCOTUS, which we know takes OVER 4 years and there is a serious chance that SCOTUS will rule against the Congressmen. And even then, which police has jurisdiction over federal buildings, isn't it the federal police, where the chain of command also leads to Trump?
Meanwhile, the Executive can do whatever it wants behind those slammed door.
Also, note that the US voters VOTED exactly FOR this. Congress did put Trump twice on the Senate trial for similar things. And the US voters confirmed "this behavior by the Executive is what we want".
I guess this is a similar thing as with the transitional period in Rome, when the Roman Senate still functioned with some say, but was already intimidated, scared and largely bypassed by the growing Emperor's power. To an acclaim by Roman street, who had enough of them Senate elites and were sure that the benevolent Emperor will rule for their benefit.
Which is how the Russian Tsardom (officially the Third Rome, I am serious, it is their claim) has been ruled for centuries (and now).
Dems, remember, Piotr, have no plans, no strategy, out of touch from working classes.
Of course this malaise -- Republicans have it much worse -- owes to U.S. schools long ago having dehumanized -- everything personal, all humanities deferred to testing's neutered units, abstractions and categories.
So Dems were only pulling a stunt, arriving en masse like that at Dept. of Ed HQ.
I hate them. They could have invoked the Constitution's Article 14, Section Three. If either house of Congress held a vote and that vote failed to get 2/3 to clear the orange felon of insurrection, he would have been -- by that vote -- legally disqualified from any public office.
The Senate could have done that. But Dems, though they held Senate majority, failed to do what they should have, could have done.
Impotent. Stupid. Celebrities and money obsessed. Reliant on stunts.
I am more sympathetic to Dem politicians. They are like dinosaurs superbly adapted to a mesosoic environment, reigning supreme as long as that environment lasts. The post-Covid recovery engineered by Biden's men is probably the pinnacle of skill in handling the economy. To reign in inflation without forcing people into mass unemployment was believed before to be impossible. And those men have set up the US economy to be MUCH better performing than EU for example. Plus have laid out really good-looking long-term plans.
But, precisely because they are so well adapted to the rule-of-law environment, they are helpless against Trump deliberately taking it down and recruiting a MAJORITY of US voters into this project. I repeat, Dems are too much creatures of the rule-of-law compact to have skills to defend it. In part because they cannot even think of acting a tiny bit out of those traditions, sportsmanship rules etc.
Yes, Dems ALSO have a lot of "celebrity and money obsessed" baggage, but so do Republicans, these weaknesses were not decisive I think.
I cannot comment on "out of touch", I am not anywhere along the "working class - their reps" line.
Is it possible to create a coup to counter the coup? I realize there are legal efforts to try to stop what is happening - but funds are still frozen. Trump has held himself above the law forever so while there are efforts to stop him using the courts he and his minions don’t appear phased by this and continue to carry out their Project 2025. Demonstrations are growing but may have limited effect and at some point I anticipate a military and police response. Can there be an organized coup to take back the computer systems, the buildings, kick out the Republican Congress and Scotus? Where are the Cheneys, Clintons, Obamas, retired military and wealthy film, music, left wing tech people, Mark Cubans of the US? Or maybe they have taken their excessive money and moved out of the US and left the rest of us non millionaires to live out this nightmare on our own.
It is becoming ever more clear that a counter coup is the only way to stop the illegal takeover of our government. Please see the Vaclav Havel quote that I posted elsewhere in this thread. Once their anti-democratic regime is firmly in place, which is happening more rapidly than many of us had expected, it will be too late to reverse the damage.
Hmm this Piotr seems to have missed responding to you. Wonder why. He surely jumped on me. I’m just posting questions. Not an expert. Just a woman who has lived through a life time of bring discriminated against and suppressed along with my ancestors. I miss your prior post re Vaclav Havel..sorry
I've been asking about a coup by us -- not a bloody one -- but it's like I'm talking to the wind. Does acting lawfully, as our fair-mindedness has us doing, and losing our country make sense?
You have to study history of countries like Eastern Europe or India. Basically, a non-violent resistance works against rulers who are capable of self-reflection, like UK government of 20th century or Gorbachev's Politburo. It does not work against rulers who are
- cynical or
- self righteous, and, even better, anointed by God or something, or
- fanatical about their revolutionary goals
Siberian frozen deserts are littered with bones of unfortunates who were born into the "does not work" setups.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us all, Ms Baras.
Very definitely no to the possible counter-coup coup choice. No, no.
We have the Constitution to enforce among ourselves and with the remaining governance structures that the constitutional federal system puts in place. We also continue, as Prof Snyder has elsewhere described, the 'unwritten Constitution' of public or we the people practices that, often, take an institutional form, such as the independent and protect press, non-governmental civil protections and democratic rule of law organizations, and so on.
Note too the recent turn outs by members of us, we the people, at public actions peaceably conducted by organizations e.g., Indivisible, and the lawsuits advanced by organizations such as the ACLU, State Democracy Defense, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and others.
The Constitution is the structure that is the democratic alternative to monarchy, to autocracy, .... You may know of the substack publication Simple Politics by Kim Wehle. In addition to Prof Snyder, Ms Wehle makes these points very compellingly.
in sum, these constitutional tools act more gradually and demand focused sustained effort, and so the social costs appear great.... However, there is not any lesson of human history more clear than that a coup of the sort that quickly inaugurates an alternative regime always has immediate unwanted social harms but also has very real and destructive social and cultural costs that persist and impair, in the case of rule of law, the confidence in our collective and inclusive efforts to inform and enforce the rule of law as a better format of mutual agreement and self-governance.
Sorry brother but I disagree. The Constitution, written for white men, isn’t being followed by Project 2025. The rule of law isn’t holding them back. My great grands and grand parents, Jews fleeing Stalin in Russia, moved to the US for democracy. It is my heritage to fight for what is illegally taken. What did S Koreans do and Poland to get their democracy back? Too many people sat back while Hitler and the Nazis murdered millions. Do you Expect the rules of the Constitution to work now that Trumps minions are blowing up the government and rule of law? Dems have played nice and passive for too long and it’s not working. Brown shirt equivalents are already happening. Musk is openly displaying his Nazi uprising support. Trump declared the US will favor White (male) Christians. This is the Nazi uprising in plain site. If you want to play nice guy go ahead but I for one will not. Maybe you are a white male wealthy Christian from a non Southern state who doesn’t feel this like a Boomer senior living solely on Social Security with a family decimated in Ukraine.. dunno
I am in your camp Ms. Baras (also with great grandparents having emigrated from Kharkiv, then part of Russia). How do citizens oppose a lawless government that has captured the major components of the police and justice system (DOJ investigators and prosecutors and the major appellate courts)? We see how it is done in South and Central America. The resistance moves into the jungles, lives off the land (the civilian peasant farmers) and strikes at the power structure opportunistically. Kind of a Red Dawn scenario that can go on for years and decades. I believe that the billionaires' won't stop unless they experience fear, declining business prospects, and loss that is up close and personal. They must not be allowed to believe that they alone have the right to act outside the law. We have rights of self-defense and can use deadly force when reasonably necessary to protect against immediate threats of harm and/or violence toward us and others. I think we need to adopt strategies and techniques adopted by Ukrainian soldiers in their efforts to turn back the illegal invasion of the Russian monster. They use drones retrofitted to carry armaments and then guided to specific targets by other drones. Such armaments might be firebombs. Such targets might be factories, clubs and vacation retreats, homes, their societies and think tanks devoted to autocratic and oligarchic rule. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." Not as eloquent as Frederick Douglass, but maybe it captures the moment.
I will give your reply better consideration later this evening [I need to prepare and be off to work].
For now, I agree that public resistance is clearly necessary, and so I refuse to go along with the lawless and hateful choices and actions of Trump et al. My confidence in the Constitution and its governance has more to do with the emerging realizations that formed it, the actions that have only gradually and in increments improved it, and the careful and full application of it now to continue to demonstrate its effective potential IF we the people choose it and use it.
I will stand within the environment of hopeful confidence that the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg did [and that, beginning in the early 1900s my maternal grandmother did], and I will not back down in the face of Trump, Musk, any of their kind.
The Constitution is an open-ended reminder of our human capacity, of who we can choose to be and, socially, become in concert and in working to improve our mutual cooperation and mutual security.
It's not propitious to talk about "a coup of the sort that quickly inaugurates an alternative regime always has immediate unwanted social harms" when we are in uncharted waters. Trust ourselves to be the good guys who would not be abusing us but saving us. We need all hands on deck to deal with nature, and we could be eclipsing humanity politely waiting for our democratic processes to slowly wend their way.
Rule-of-law is a VOLUNTARY compact of all citizens. That is, individuals and SMALL society subgroups can be forced into it (we call it "work of judiciary and law enforcement"), but there is no effective mechanism to preserve rule-of-law system if a large subset of society WITHDRAWS from this compact.
What happened in the US, last elections, is that majority VOTED to ditch rule-of-law. A felon and insurrectionist, and lawmakers supporting that, were voted for.
You, as someone who wants to live in the rule-of-law setup, have to face the reality - most of the US citizens do not want the rule-of-law.
You have the option of trying to stay within the laws which from now on are laid and arbitrarily applied by the President (this is the Russian eternal setup BTW), a civil war with several options to choose of restraint (what you call a counter-coup is simply a non-violent civil war variant), or some (perhaps naive, hard to tell) propaganda effort to check if people ditched the rule-of-law knowing what they are doing and hoping these people come to their senses.
All the time remembering that any form of a civil war will be welcome and used by US geopolitical adversaries. You still might support the imperial setup because of that, many will. Isn't all this nice, if it was even a tiny bit engineered/helped by the said adversaries? A nice work, you have to admit.
Have you read the many responses to Snyder’s previous post, “Of course it’s a coup?” Many other ideas from folks with much more political and legal experience writing options of what to do.
No one knows if a majority voted as many strange and things happened during the voting process but the he is in legally or not and majority or not.
I don’t think what is happening is voluntary but a forced submission.
But I’m just a person a woman who grew up in the South during Civil Rights seeing what happened, being discriminated against my entire life in many ways.I’m not an academic expert or political expert. And I will do what I can to restore those rights and Democracy, whether you call them naive I don’t care. I am simply asking questions.
No doubt, you see that I am more than concerned and not just content to talk, I am firmly doing opposition work, but as you realize from my comments, work in within the legal arenas and with elected representatives.
Thank you for the personal background experiences you cite; these are experiences that not any us want to have repeated; and we want to restore and strengthen constitutional democracy as rapidly as is humanly possible and by means which will contribute to durability of that restored system and genuine respect for it that leads to more cooperation.
I am reading and studying all of our comments and replies with a kind of urgency, respect, and care that point to my intention to see, as you note, our 'rights and Democracy' restored and improved. That is our collective intention and our goal.
I need to be honest with you Bob. I subscribe to several substack authors. The others have a different feel to how readers respond to each other. There is a more open, non-confrontational, welcoming atmosphere than what I’m finding here. Your initial post replying to me contained repeated no, no, no to a simple question I posed about whether there is a way to counter the coup. I wasn’t suggesting any particular type of rebellion just hoping for some unaggressive dialogue. When I read your repeated no’s I felt like I was hearing someone scolding a puppy for peeing on the floor or a parent using verbal commands disciplining a child.
Your intent may have been to arouse a different response but it felt dismissive, demonstrative and a bit hostile. That may not have been your intention but this is how I felt.
I am reconsidering whether this substack group is a place I want to continue interacting with. As another person commented it doesn’t feel welcoming but divisive, a bit hostile and aggressive. This isn’t what I’m looking for.
Thank you, Ms Baras, for your candid remarks here.
I was not intending to do other than share another point of view, and so I don't want you to feel disrespected or uncomfortable.
Please know that I am sincere in saying that you sharing of view is important to us, me and everyone. I welcome your participation more than I can say.
Please stay. I hope we can read each other's posts with interest, as contributions to striving for better, more inclusive understanding.
Beth, OF COURSE one should use to the utmost the legal framework means in the support of the rule-of-law which is being threatened. Then the non-violent civil disobedience methods. Of course, no matter what next, organizing is paramount. Ditto an informational/propaganda (in a good sense) effort.
This is not naive and certainly more sane than instantly grabbing an AK-15 and searching for black helicopters to shoot at.
The problem this time is that while the 1950+ US was aspiring to be a rule-of-law country, I think that the Musk-Trump's US does not. Which is a VERY different situation from the times of MLK. I do not think that this happened before in the US history. So a lot of unknowns.
I am writing because I wanted to share my feelings as I recently joined this group along with several other substack authors. I initially posted my question as a response to Snyder’s previous posting as well as many others asking the same question- what else can we do now to stop the coup. I wasn’t advocating violence. I was hoping for some ideas and a welcoming atmosphere dialogue.
To me some of the responses in this group feels like it tends to have an aggressive, almost hostile and assuming air where everyone should be some sort of expert in history or political policy.
The other groups have a very different response, civil respectful tone and quality.
I have had difficulty with the way I have read your responses to me. I feel uncomfortable, unwelcome to express from a place very different than yours.
I’m considering whether I will continue to be a part of this group.
On Blue Sky and in other Substack groups I read of many others like me, seniors fearful that our Social Security and Medicare, our means of existence are being taken away. Women seeing our rights ripped away. People who fear this uprising of the KKK/Nazi white Christian extreme. We are asking what do we do. I asked that same thing because breaking the outright breaking of laws and takeover by Musk and Project 2025 is so rapid and huge. My question echoed what I read from hundreds of others asking the same thing.
To be quite blunt, I don’t need any more aggressive, hostile feelings, or online places that reinforce these feelings. That is what I have felt in reading your responses. I am uncomfortable and feel unwelcome.
Beth, if you felt I am hostile, sorry. This was not my intention, to be personally hostile. Part of the problem might be cultural - I am Polish living in Poland, though a have spent half my life in the US. We interact differently here, a separate topic. Say, all foreigners arriving in Poland are "Why nobody smiles here?!? Why do I feel people are hostile or indifferent at best?!?". Yes, I was positively shocked when I first interacted with strangers in the US MidWest. But all this is no excuse for me making you feel uncomfortable, sorry, I should have been more careful.
Thank you. Apology accepted. I’m sorry your experiences in the Midwest have been disappointing. I’ve lived all over the US including the Mid West. I can say living now in Vermont people who don’t know each other wave to each other driving by. We have struggles in this State but people will help anyone in trouble.
My experience with Midwesterners was very positive. Was surprised me was their openness to me, a stranger. Readiness to help. And yes, this openness is, my perception, a universal American thing.
Thank you, Ms Baras, for your candid remarks here.
I was not intending to do other than share another point of view, and so I don't want you to feel disrespected or uncomfortable.
Please know that I am sincere in saying that you sharing of view is important to us, me and everyone. I welcome your participation more than I can say.
Please stay. I hope we can read each other's posts with interest, as contributions to striving for better, more inclusive understanding.
And on the alternate form quaintly known as PAROL (Preserve Amendment 1 & Rule of Law)” please take action as needed:
1. If your US passport is nearing expiry, or you do not have one, make an expedited application immediately, before the Regime stops issuing them to people designated as “Other.”
2. If you have a website, Substack, blog, or other web content with your personal reflections, positions or designations, make sure they are archived now, on an air-gapped device.
3. For any information found on a governmental website that has not yet been banished, download now, and follow instructions in #2, above.
4. With the firing yesterday of the head of the National Archives, expect to see vast troves of historical documents and information altered or destroyed. Physical copies of said documents will become increasingly rare, and may be seized at any time. Said documents should be maintained in secure locations to the extent possible. This applies especially to repositories such as libraries, museums and bookstores.
Honestly, I bet this form actually exists. It's Springtime for Hitler. Mel Brooks understood the power of laughter as a form of resistance. They want us to cower and cry. When we point our fingers and laugh at them (and really, they are completely ridiculous buffoons), it makes us stronger and them weaker. While I am terrified and sad, humor truly is a lifeline. If I can laugh, I am not destroyed. I can renew my resolve to resist by any means at my disposal. Thank you, Tim.
I know I keep on harping on this but we MUST begin to teach Civics in our schools again. Oh, I forgot: The Bloated Yam is doing away with the Department of Education.
A very appropriate pic of Ben Franklin at the end of your piece. And who do we send to negotiate alliances who can help us in this war against the oligarchy
Send in the clowns! With advanced IT degrees. The Cyber Warriors. Calling all the leftist hackers and dedicated civil servants who still have access. Stop the backdooring and downloading! Crash their coding. Put up every firewall possible. Can we send in the DC police??
——Here's a list of US products and their Canadian equivalents you can keep handy for your next trip to the grocery store. Sorry, not sorry US friends.——
***Dairy Products***
Instead of Kraft (cheese, dairy) → Try Saputo, Black Diamond, Armstrong
Instead of Philadelphia (cream cheese) → Try Lactantia, Tre Stelle, Agropur
Instead of Yoplait (yogurt) → Try Astro, Olympic, Liberté
Instead of Land O'Lakes (butter) → Try Lactantia, Natrel, Gay Lea
***Soft Drinks & Beverages
Instead of Coca-Cola, Pepsi → Try Canada Dry, PC Cola, Great Value (Walmart)
Instead of Tropicana (juice) → Try Oasis, SunRype, Arthur’s
Instead of Gatorade, Powerade → Try BioSteel (Canadian sports drink)
Instead of Starbucks bottled drinks → Try Tim Hortons, Second Cup ready-to-drink beverages
***Packaged & Snack Foods***
Lay's (chips) → vs Old Dutch, Covered Bridge, Hardbite
"The problem is not that Mr. Musk is unelected, it’s that he is breaking the law. Not even a full-time government employee, he is trying to unilaterally shut down or dismantle entire federal agencies and departments, ignoring congressional mandates — this is prohibited by the Constitution."
– From a New York Times editorial today,
titled "Now Is Not the Time to Tune Out"
***
A citizen who believes in the rule of law reacts: *Then why the hell hasn't he been arrested?*
Well, we all know the answer, don't we?
This is what happens when we have two co-presidents, and both of them are wanton criminals.
Look at this from Elon's point of view. Which is the only perspective that matters now.:
"I am the Master of the Universe. The Emperor of the World. I have Russia and Hungary and Saudi and China on my side. I bought the loyalty and obeisance of the new President of the United States. My $290 million election campaign tricks got him back into the White House and he owes me now. I own him.
I look at the United States Federal Government and see my opportunity to wipe out the Constitution and Self Rule Democracy. The Executive Branch bends to my wishes. The armed forces are under my control, including nuclear weapons and hyper sonic missiles. I control the FBI and the US Marshalls and the Secret Service. Who is left to arrest me for law breaking?
I will remake the government in the manner I choose. Eliminate the Legislative Branch. Exert control over the Judicial Branch. As I learned from Putin, judges who oppose me will take an elevator to a high window.
Since artificial intelligence and algorithms are efficient, and under my control, I will replace humans in the government with computers and robots. I will install Skylink into the Internet and the world's reality will manifest from my mind. The New Dark Enlightenment. (Thanks to Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel and JD Vance for their inspiration.)
Eliminate the Free Press. All communications will be controlled as they are in Russia and China and Hungary. Any humans with opposing views will be taken out and shot.
340 million American citizens will be my serfs. Their labor will be the source for my tax money sources. To spend as I wish. And there is nothing any of them can do about it."
So what do you call a billionaire who has taken control of the government without an oath to protect the Constitution? An invader? A destroyer? A usurper? A first in world history that’s for sure.
"Among the more disturbing conclusions she [Hannah Arendt] reached were those about Eichmann himself: “Despite all the efforts of the prosecution, everybody could see that this man was not a ‘monster,’ but it was difficult indeed not to suspect that he was a clown.” He was not the incarnation of evil, she wrote; he was “thoughtless,” unable to reflect on the fact that what he was doing was wrong. “The longer one listened to him, the more obvious it became that his inability to speak [in anything but clichés] was closely connected with an inability to think, namely, to think from the standpoint of somebody else.” https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-trial-hannah-arendt "It cannot be forgotten in any discussion of Adolf Eichmann’s criminality that he relied on a staff of dedicated Nazis in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the center of the Third Reich’s terror apparatus, to carry out the monstrous directives of Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Heinrich Müller. Overshadowed by Eichmann himself, most of these men have escaped the attention of the American public. They include Theodor Dannecker (1913-1945), Dieter Wisliceny (1911-1948), Franz Novak (1913-1983), Rolf Günther (1913-1945), and Alois Brunner (1912- c. 2010). Slightly younger than Eichmann—none of them had reached the age of 35 when World War II ended—they exhibited a terrifying combination of attention to detail and steadfast commitment to the core ideas of Nazism." https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/organizing-genocide-theodor-dannecker-eichmanns-deportation-specialist I wonder whether Musk's young employees have any ideological commitment at all. In campaigning for causes and candidates, I have encountered something it is hard for me to put a word on. Perhaps a frivolous nihilism. In this case, perhaps opportunists at the center of power romanticizing themselves as rebels.
I know this attitude in young folk, especially young men it seems, of which you write. I spoke with several young guys about voting prior to this last election and got a "What's the point?" kind of answer. I also wonder what's motivating these kids working with Musk. I think I've assumed it's misguided hero worship. I can imagine that it's pretty heady getting to stick your fingers in the big government systems though. Interesting and appalling.
Excellent analysis, Lin, and excellent point, Steve.
I used to be a young man myself, and still consider myself to be young at heart (although I would leave it to others to issue the final decision). I simply don't understand why so many young men, usually but not exclusively young white men, seem incapable of dropping the booster rocket of nihilistic and crass posturing, and dumb dick wagging, and allow the main capsule of maturity to propel them to more noble pursuits.
Just a little while ago, the phrase "Your body, my choice" was bandied around by a seemingly wide spread cross-section of these American young men, riffing on the worst of European soccer hooligans. At Lauren Boebert's victory party last November, one of her supporters sported a placard that read, "Life's a bitch, Don't vote for one!".
I certainly didn't expect the Periclean funeral oration from these folks, but is this type of crude and cruel misogyny the stuff that truly tickles their funny bones?! If so, we have far more problems than we might want to admit.
With this in mind, I would add an eleventh point to Prof. Snyder's Trump CASH employment checklist.
11. I routinely mock and belittle all those who by dint of disability, dearth of political power, or demonstrable otherness, dare to seek a place on the deck of the Good Ship America, and affirm that their true residence should be on the ever crowded lifeboats on a cold sea.
"If so, we have far more problems than we might want to admit." We do.
We can connect even extreme pathological behavior to ordinary behavior of humans and animals on a spectrum.
For those of us with empathy and a healthy capacity for theory of mind, understanding even a serial killer's behavior is not terribly difficult. Instead of making friends and influencing others in the range of ordinary sociability, the serial killer displaces stress through acts of violence and develops a hankering for causing pain and suffering in victims.
You and I may displace stress with humor. We may seek the human equivalent of grooming partners among baboons; for humans, conversation is a form of social interaction which can alleviate anxiety.
What we are looking at, I have started to conclude, partly from reading Tim's On Freedom among many disparate sources, centers on identity in the broadest sense. I see identity as the focus of human social relationships.
It has been pointed out that facts do not change people's minds. Change occurs to us when we change who we are. We define ourselves as individuals and groups against others, the concept of schismogenesis in anthropology. The opposite happens when we identify with characteristics of others and seek to emulate them.
We are living in a time of great confusion because of so much change. It is by no means the first time changes have caused disruption and confusion, but we see the same reactions as if it were unprecedented and novel because they are not the same as before.
For instance, "DEI" replaces "Jew" as the problem. Hannah Arendt pointed out how the "emancipation" of the Jews (i.e., extended the same rights under the law in European nations as other citizens) coincided with aristocrats losing their privilege and also clashed with the rising bourgeoisie. In our time, we see "white" males feeling they have lost something because other groups are extended equality.
This also aligns with the research showing if our ingroup (Us) does better has the same psychological boost as if the other (Thems) do worse or suffer. Professor Snyder points this out in terms of health care. People oppose policies that would help them because they would also help those others.
As a final note, Arendt noted in South Africa and Europe, one group could elevate itself by inflicting violence against another group, oppressing them and asserting superiority. We are seeing something of these things here. Others in these comments have pointed out some of the causes, and Professor Snyder's On Freedom does a good job of laying out the contrast between negative and positive freedom, getting away from understanding each other as living bodies and also tending to see complex challenges as soluble by eliminating something (e.g., Marxists, private property).
There evidently must be many who need this type of leader to reduce their stress in this way: dragging other people down to feel elevated. Above all else that might work in one's psyche/character that would work against this i.e. upbringing, education, religion (do unto others), this need prevails. *This* leader emphasizes that need because of his own great needs. Trump has a magnetism that draws and it's how he got here. He says the most awful mean-spiritedness things, poisonous lies. It is shocking and disgusting to many of us but he does it with a lullaby, a sing-song delivery to the audiences that he soothes. It makes some people feel better at least temporarily, to pull down others. Facts, may not awaken people when they are in that zone and being constantly nurtured there. That is why people say cult.
It's evil.
I think about this failure of young men to form caring relationships. Could it be that our newfangled 'bread and circuses', eg video games, pornography, hyper-sports and sports betting, substance abuse have resulted in a persistent adolescence with its all-or-nothing judgment and 'cliques' that define themselves by whomever they hate? This may have a lot to do with the dearth of well-paying jobs, as AI and robotics have eliminated a lot of them, more's the pity. When my daughter was trying to find a partner she was appalled by the slim pickings on the dating scene for a very long time. Many experts in the behavioral sciences have bemoaned this problem and made suggestions to address it. I suspect that the combination of social media with all of the above is uniquely toxic. We may not know how to fix it, but we need to try our best to get these man-children out of their silos and back into the arms of loving families and educational/skill training institutions from which they will hopefully mature into responsible adults.
I think young 'tech bros' can add a peculiar kind of arrogance to the mix. They seem to believe that the ability to code at speed makes them better than the rest of us.
Remember, too, Leigh, that they don't read.
That is, no books in whole. No novels, no histories, no memoirs, no biographies.
Schools present them now with tests whose only "reading" involves very short snippets all void of any larger context.
The language in these tests come shorn of anything personal, regional, or anything other than the neutered Diane Ravitch traces in "The Language Police." School admin (not teachers in the trenches) love the neutered, the corporate, the dehumanized.
I know we hear a lot about the degenerated nature of education these days. (mostly referring to public education. Who knows what happens in home schooling and private schools?) I wonder, is that actually the case? I would love to hear from some actual public school teachers about the current reality of the teaching of reading and of literature in US public schools. My 9 years old grandson is being introduced to actual books. I wonder if his experience is unusual in any way. Maybe the attitude we call "nihilistic" sources in the felt effects of a system that only serves rich people and not so much from a lack of education, although I can see the trend is now to de-emphasize education, mostly in service to religio-authoritarianism. That will surely make things worse.
This administration is taking aim at education, public education, higher education. They want the ignorance. They cater to, nurture and abuse and use, the ignorant. They need the ignorant.
Education is our ground resistance... very important. Hope is to be found there. My granddaughters now are getting an excellent education in the public schools.... as I did. But this varies according to where you live and the local culture.
The truth of your comment cannot be underestimated, Potter. Trump said, "I love the uneducated!" for a reason.
is this a dessicated variant of Cliff Notes, but instead of an abbreviated version of a novel, they exist in a sound bite? A sound bite life? There is no nuance, there is no character development, there is no consideration of what it means to live the good life as in eudaemonia. The essence of human existence is "We be powerful. . . tech bros". Is there nothing else?
What you say reminds me of a line in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off which goes something like “ Fascism, communism what’s the difference, I still don’t own a car.”
Devoid of anything we call the humanities
Totally.
Exactly thus.
The "frivolous nihilism" is the same as Clockwork Orange. They do not follow any transcendent purpose and instead amp up their sense of importance by showing their power over others in a cruel and sadistic manner.
Civilization has "evolved" technically, but we, not as much. This is not the first generation of the *increasingly widening* gap between generations because of the pace of things. The adults and parents and of the last gave this generation. An easy explanation of this evinced in the turn of this century, the madness expected: y2k, millennial, post millennial....nihilism, frivolousness, with doom looming. If you think then you are in trouble. You (we) are headed into it.
Lacking any empathy is a mental defect brought about in adolescence . https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/white-house-psychopathy?r=3m1bs
Actually, the deficit starts in the attachment period, birth to age 3. See my initial post for details.
My understanding of lack of empathy has less to do with teenage years, and more to do with earlier childhood experiences. Key childhood traumas that attribute to the creation of narcissists include neglect, over controlling authoritarian practices and overindulgence with privilege and possessions.
The line between physical and mental causes has all but disappeared as the biological sciences have advanced. Consider addiction which used to be considered a lack of will power and a character defect. Psychopaths have differences in their brains. I appreciate your contribution here. I am encouraged by you and this Hubbell fellow.
Trump and Musk may have intersecting views of humanity. "Frivolous nihilism" may be what these young employees were attracted to, to use their talents. And vice versa..Trump/Musk to them. Young soldiers go to war without knowing or understanding.
I remember the first three names (interesting to see Kaltenbrunner, a memorable name for a child as I was during WWII, and am fascinated by the dates of the rest. As for Hannah Arendt, thank you for your quotation. It allows me to understand fully for the first time who Eichmann (and contemporary publicans and DT) are.
Good, lin, that you've gotten so many thoughtful replies.
I want to thank you most for your quote noting on his "inability to think, namely, to think from the standpoint of somebody else.”
Being personal above all invokes skills in seeing "others," as individuals, in their contexts. It's where humanities figure -- or would, if our schools cared for anything but the machine-set quantifying and categorizing of all life, or what machines, incels, and our living dead portend as life.
Thank you again.
This inability to think from the standpoint of somebody else is a huge handicap and has consequences.
Thanks for that summary. I found it to be informative. As for the young techies with Musk, from what’s been written about them, they ‘re quite impressed with themselves and the description “legends in their own minds” seems to apply.
Musk provides a model for that as well as an inspiration to accumulate obscene wealth through the
least amount of physical effort. I suspect that like their boss and mentor, they may have psychological issues related to childhood, genetics and parenting .
The banality of evil. 💯
Sadly, I think from my own observations and limited online research, that a lot of these young men, much like Trump, blame everyone but themselves for problems that they alone are completely responsible for creating for themselves.
They come off to me as gullible, callow, and disgruntled youngins; social recluses and misfits, and basement computer dorks who have no athletic ability and no nothing about sports, probably because they look at porn websites and play video games on their computers all day instead of playing sports or even watching them on TV; have no ability to think critically, no friends, and lack any semblance of self-discipline, self-worth, and direction in their lives. “Big Balls“ and to some degree VP JD seem like the perfect example of this.
And this is where the Musk and to some extent Trump come in. They give these young lost souls a sense of purpose in their lives, however misguided and warped it may be.
It's just me, I know, but I'm past the point of finding anything even slightly amusing about the US and its government. For this Canadian, it could be the threat of annexation or economic ruin by Trump that killed my sense of humour. You guys carry on being you.
It’s tough to find anything amusing, yes. But they are a thin-skinned bunch overall (malicious, malevolent, lacking in morals - all true and just the start of what would be a very long list) and often make mistakes, inadvertently tell the truth when under any pressure - and they loathe being mocked or laughed at. We carry on here most days to try to laugh and not cry (or scream). Motto for years has been to not leave the house without a sense of humor.
There is a LOT to worry about, for all of us.
Grateful that we have supporters in Canada and elsewhere - you’re here on this thread - and I appreciate it.
Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I guess I'm drowning, not waving.
It is very easy to feel like we're drowning.
My take on everything for a long time is that we all have to row together, but also take turns - rest, regroup as we need to - and get someone to help (throw you the figurative floatation device) if we can. There are more days that I'm just incandescent with rage - but that's not sustainable or healthy.
I've always liked Arthur Ashe's "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can" as a reminder for myself and clients (retired therapist here).
Some days that's harder to remember than other days.
You must have been a wonderful therapist. Not a shred of patronization or judgement or impatience. You deserve such a better government. My mechanism is retreat; but that's not much more useful than rage, in the end. I do think, though, that we are near the point when some unbridled anger might be more helpful than substacks. Canadians wonder if Americans would stand by and let your country be destroyed. So far, we have seen no lines in the sand.
Thank you for the compliment. My response is that I tried (and continue to try) and truly did benefit and continue to benefit from some wonderful mentors and supports. Which is why I feel “sort-of” sane… most days.
It’s channeling the anger that is often the challenge.
I think we deserve a better government but I also agree with a blogger and author (Jim Wright, writes as “Stonekettle” /“Stonekettle Station”) that if we want a better nation, if we want a better future, then we have to be better citizens. I live in a university town - voter turn out is often very low.
I’ve had a lot of conversations with my adult children’s friends who contend (still, today) that “voting doesn’t matter”, among other statements.
It’s mind boggling.
Yes, we need some lines in the sand.
Take a break and come back when you can. Solnit offers solace: https://meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io/welcome-to-meditations-in-an-emergency/
Thank you, Emily Elliot! That's some terrific writing (typical of Solnit) that reaches so many thoughts and emotions around this time. Extremely helpful and very kind!
Thank you for the link, Emily. I went, read, and subscribed! Now I need to share link with friends!
She’s one of my favorites!
As an American, I am New Yorker, I wonder if so many of the maganats would never wake up. It surely appears they are asleep and if awake they already fell for the lies. Save our Souls.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
-- T. Roosevelt
"Be as brave as you can be."
T. Snyder
Keep going, Canadians! You're resisting well (Even Doug Ford is beginning to sound like a nice, normal sensible bloke) I'm in England and scared out of my senses most of the time. But the wit and wisdom of Timothy Snyder and his like remind me that there is another reality.
I feel exactly like you do Terence. This is a gut punch like I’ve never felt after believing that our 200+ years of friendship, and best trading partner was one of the world’s best alliance. And then this ignoramus through lies and deceitful actions elected by a small margin of those who bothered to vote, wants to seize our peaceful nation in an attempt to raid our minerals, our plentiful water and an unfettered access to the north. It’s hard to fathom, but yes, this is where we are.
Thank you for your response. One good thing though; this has made me more Canadian, and prouder.
Yes, as do I. But my plan of action has already been started - buy Canadian goods only. If I can’t decipher where some good is made, it’s going back on the shelf. Oh and my American stocks, adios it was nice dealing with you. And some will say I’m chewing off my nose to spite my face. No, actually; I’m doing it to spite trumpet the invader.
Trump is showing off his power to reward and to punish—our allies! (Especially our allies?) Even if he backs down on a threat, it had power. He uses his unpredictability to frighten. Being unfathomable is the point. Or it could be that stupidity is all it is.
The latter I think.
I think too many of us respond better to humor than other forms of information because we are thoroughly sick of our current POTUS and his cadre of dangerous clowns. So sorry. Feel free to boo him at will. It's not us, though. Please keep that in mind. He never got a majority of Americans to vote for him.
I am deeply saddened by what MAGA is doing — and the influence it is having — on our neighbors to the north. I love Canada deeply as my father and many generations of my ancestors are from there. We find ourselves here because of racism, misogyny, and the fact that millions of progressives didn’t vote to protest our military aid to Israel (throwing out the baby with the bathwater; the new president has horrific ideas for Gaza). I’m filled with rage and despair and feel completely helpless.
Take heart and help jam the switchboards of our representatives. It is something that we can do.
I just learned about the 5 Calls app. I love it. I had been making calls the hard way.
Trump’s interest also extends to Mexico. Not to annex, but to unleash the US military to bomb drug and corruption targets. Mexicans have historical memory of our invasions and the seizure of half of Mexico. This is a real threat. Mexican president Sheinbaum has masterfully handled Trump so far (along with Trudeau) but he continues to ruminate about attacking Mexico. I live on the border and worry about this.
"Please answer the following questions truthfully with a yes or a no."
Ha! They never answer truthfully.
They never answer truthfully or directly. If you haven’t seen the clip of Jim Acosta questioning a DOGE supporter, it’s worth a look as the guy being interviewed does what I've now come to view as the standard R “dance” - not respond directly, smirk (always with the smirk), and bring up the list of talking points. Acosta does well but these folks are slimy, slippery.
Always.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray
questions Russell Vought
https://youtu.be/Qv_lF0q7rbI?si=cIBLNOcAtr6gibjK
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley questions Vought
https://youtu.be/5g0-lz8sqJw?si=XlSvuFh7gqM1sEKX
Thanks for posting the links.
I tried to watch some of these as they were going on and had to stop as my head hurt and I felt like I was on the verge of going full on Carol Kane as Valerie in The Princess Bride - even though I know that screaming at the screen won’t help.
Liars. Smug, condescending liars.
https://youtu.be/zg0xBjegI7A?si=_WLnwu8gxNK-irHa
Jim Acosta (who is now on substack) excerpt that I had referred to above.
https://substack.com/@jimacosta/note/c-91311955?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1oh6iv
The Trump/Musk crowd would not fare well under your application form.
How is it possible that congressmen can be refused entry into government buildings such as USAID and the Department of Education? Certainly this cannot be legal!? What practical remedies are available? Does Congress have no teeth at all? This outrage demands a better, more forceful response than mere hand-wringing!
Never have the following words been more true than they are today:
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
— Frederick Douglass, August 3, 1857
Similar, John S, to Dr. Snyder's Lesson 20 in On Tyranny, "Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny."
"How it is possible that Congressmen cannot..."
What stops some janitor from slamming and locking the door against these Congressmen faces? If the janitor will be not disciplined by his/her superiors (that chain leads to Trump, so forget it), then the Congressman needs a court order backed by police force. And that court order will be fought for all the way to SCOTUS, which we know takes OVER 4 years and there is a serious chance that SCOTUS will rule against the Congressmen. And even then, which police has jurisdiction over federal buildings, isn't it the federal police, where the chain of command also leads to Trump?
Meanwhile, the Executive can do whatever it wants behind those slammed door.
Also, note that the US voters VOTED exactly FOR this. Congress did put Trump twice on the Senate trial for similar things. And the US voters confirmed "this behavior by the Executive is what we want".
I guess this is a similar thing as with the transitional period in Rome, when the Roman Senate still functioned with some say, but was already intimidated, scared and largely bypassed by the growing Emperor's power. To an acclaim by Roman street, who had enough of them Senate elites and were sure that the benevolent Emperor will rule for their benefit.
Which is how the Russian Tsardom (officially the Third Rome, I am serious, it is their claim) has been ruled for centuries (and now).
Dems, remember, Piotr, have no plans, no strategy, out of touch from working classes.
Of course this malaise -- Republicans have it much worse -- owes to U.S. schools long ago having dehumanized -- everything personal, all humanities deferred to testing's neutered units, abstractions and categories.
So Dems were only pulling a stunt, arriving en masse like that at Dept. of Ed HQ.
I hate them. They could have invoked the Constitution's Article 14, Section Three. If either house of Congress held a vote and that vote failed to get 2/3 to clear the orange felon of insurrection, he would have been -- by that vote -- legally disqualified from any public office.
The Senate could have done that. But Dems, though they held Senate majority, failed to do what they should have, could have done.
Impotent. Stupid. Celebrities and money obsessed. Reliant on stunts.
I am more sympathetic to Dem politicians. They are like dinosaurs superbly adapted to a mesosoic environment, reigning supreme as long as that environment lasts. The post-Covid recovery engineered by Biden's men is probably the pinnacle of skill in handling the economy. To reign in inflation without forcing people into mass unemployment was believed before to be impossible. And those men have set up the US economy to be MUCH better performing than EU for example. Plus have laid out really good-looking long-term plans.
But, precisely because they are so well adapted to the rule-of-law environment, they are helpless against Trump deliberately taking it down and recruiting a MAJORITY of US voters into this project. I repeat, Dems are too much creatures of the rule-of-law compact to have skills to defend it. In part because they cannot even think of acting a tiny bit out of those traditions, sportsmanship rules etc.
Yes, Dems ALSO have a lot of "celebrity and money obsessed" baggage, but so do Republicans, these weaknesses were not decisive I think.
I cannot comment on "out of touch", I am not anywhere along the "working class - their reps" line.
Is it possible to create a coup to counter the coup? I realize there are legal efforts to try to stop what is happening - but funds are still frozen. Trump has held himself above the law forever so while there are efforts to stop him using the courts he and his minions don’t appear phased by this and continue to carry out their Project 2025. Demonstrations are growing but may have limited effect and at some point I anticipate a military and police response. Can there be an organized coup to take back the computer systems, the buildings, kick out the Republican Congress and Scotus? Where are the Cheneys, Clintons, Obamas, retired military and wealthy film, music, left wing tech people, Mark Cubans of the US? Or maybe they have taken their excessive money and moved out of the US and left the rest of us non millionaires to live out this nightmare on our own.
It is becoming ever more clear that a counter coup is the only way to stop the illegal takeover of our government. Please see the Vaclav Havel quote that I posted elsewhere in this thread. Once their anti-democratic regime is firmly in place, which is happening more rapidly than many of us had expected, it will be too late to reverse the damage.
Hmm this Piotr seems to have missed responding to you. Wonder why. He surely jumped on me. I’m just posting questions. Not an expert. Just a woman who has lived through a life time of bring discriminated against and suppressed along with my ancestors. I miss your prior post re Vaclav Havel..sorry
I've been asking about a coup by us -- not a bloody one -- but it's like I'm talking to the wind. Does acting lawfully, as our fair-mindedness has us doing, and losing our country make sense?
You have to study history of countries like Eastern Europe or India. Basically, a non-violent resistance works against rulers who are capable of self-reflection, like UK government of 20th century or Gorbachev's Politburo. It does not work against rulers who are
- cynical or
- self righteous, and, even better, anointed by God or something, or
- fanatical about their revolutionary goals
Siberian frozen deserts are littered with bones of unfortunates who were born into the "does not work" setups.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us all, Ms Baras.
Very definitely no to the possible counter-coup coup choice. No, no.
We have the Constitution to enforce among ourselves and with the remaining governance structures that the constitutional federal system puts in place. We also continue, as Prof Snyder has elsewhere described, the 'unwritten Constitution' of public or we the people practices that, often, take an institutional form, such as the independent and protect press, non-governmental civil protections and democratic rule of law organizations, and so on.
Note too the recent turn outs by members of us, we the people, at public actions peaceably conducted by organizations e.g., Indivisible, and the lawsuits advanced by organizations such as the ACLU, State Democracy Defense, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and others.
The Constitution is the structure that is the democratic alternative to monarchy, to autocracy, .... You may know of the substack publication Simple Politics by Kim Wehle. In addition to Prof Snyder, Ms Wehle makes these points very compellingly.
in sum, these constitutional tools act more gradually and demand focused sustained effort, and so the social costs appear great.... However, there is not any lesson of human history more clear than that a coup of the sort that quickly inaugurates an alternative regime always has immediate unwanted social harms but also has very real and destructive social and cultural costs that persist and impair, in the case of rule of law, the confidence in our collective and inclusive efforts to inform and enforce the rule of law as a better format of mutual agreement and self-governance.
Sorry brother but I disagree. The Constitution, written for white men, isn’t being followed by Project 2025. The rule of law isn’t holding them back. My great grands and grand parents, Jews fleeing Stalin in Russia, moved to the US for democracy. It is my heritage to fight for what is illegally taken. What did S Koreans do and Poland to get their democracy back? Too many people sat back while Hitler and the Nazis murdered millions. Do you Expect the rules of the Constitution to work now that Trumps minions are blowing up the government and rule of law? Dems have played nice and passive for too long and it’s not working. Brown shirt equivalents are already happening. Musk is openly displaying his Nazi uprising support. Trump declared the US will favor White (male) Christians. This is the Nazi uprising in plain site. If you want to play nice guy go ahead but I for one will not. Maybe you are a white male wealthy Christian from a non Southern state who doesn’t feel this like a Boomer senior living solely on Social Security with a family decimated in Ukraine.. dunno
I am in your camp Ms. Baras (also with great grandparents having emigrated from Kharkiv, then part of Russia). How do citizens oppose a lawless government that has captured the major components of the police and justice system (DOJ investigators and prosecutors and the major appellate courts)? We see how it is done in South and Central America. The resistance moves into the jungles, lives off the land (the civilian peasant farmers) and strikes at the power structure opportunistically. Kind of a Red Dawn scenario that can go on for years and decades. I believe that the billionaires' won't stop unless they experience fear, declining business prospects, and loss that is up close and personal. They must not be allowed to believe that they alone have the right to act outside the law. We have rights of self-defense and can use deadly force when reasonably necessary to protect against immediate threats of harm and/or violence toward us and others. I think we need to adopt strategies and techniques adopted by Ukrainian soldiers in their efforts to turn back the illegal invasion of the Russian monster. They use drones retrofitted to carry armaments and then guided to specific targets by other drones. Such armaments might be firebombs. Such targets might be factories, clubs and vacation retreats, homes, their societies and think tanks devoted to autocratic and oligarchic rule. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." Not as eloquent as Frederick Douglass, but maybe it captures the moment.
Thank you, Ms Baras, for this reply.
I will give your reply better consideration later this evening [I need to prepare and be off to work].
For now, I agree that public resistance is clearly necessary, and so I refuse to go along with the lawless and hateful choices and actions of Trump et al. My confidence in the Constitution and its governance has more to do with the emerging realizations that formed it, the actions that have only gradually and in increments improved it, and the careful and full application of it now to continue to demonstrate its effective potential IF we the people choose it and use it.
I will stand within the environment of hopeful confidence that the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg did [and that, beginning in the early 1900s my maternal grandmother did], and I will not back down in the face of Trump, Musk, any of their kind.
The Constitution is an open-ended reminder of our human capacity, of who we can choose to be and, socially, become in concert and in working to improve our mutual cooperation and mutual security.
It's not propitious to talk about "a coup of the sort that quickly inaugurates an alternative regime always has immediate unwanted social harms" when we are in uncharted waters. Trust ourselves to be the good guys who would not be abusing us but saving us. We need all hands on deck to deal with nature, and we could be eclipsing humanity politely waiting for our democratic processes to slowly wend their way.
Totally agree. Thank you, very well put.
Sorry, the basics first.
Rule-of-law is a VOLUNTARY compact of all citizens. That is, individuals and SMALL society subgroups can be forced into it (we call it "work of judiciary and law enforcement"), but there is no effective mechanism to preserve rule-of-law system if a large subset of society WITHDRAWS from this compact.
What happened in the US, last elections, is that majority VOTED to ditch rule-of-law. A felon and insurrectionist, and lawmakers supporting that, were voted for.
You, as someone who wants to live in the rule-of-law setup, have to face the reality - most of the US citizens do not want the rule-of-law.
You have the option of trying to stay within the laws which from now on are laid and arbitrarily applied by the President (this is the Russian eternal setup BTW), a civil war with several options to choose of restraint (what you call a counter-coup is simply a non-violent civil war variant), or some (perhaps naive, hard to tell) propaganda effort to check if people ditched the rule-of-law knowing what they are doing and hoping these people come to their senses.
All the time remembering that any form of a civil war will be welcome and used by US geopolitical adversaries. You still might support the imperial setup because of that, many will. Isn't all this nice, if it was even a tiny bit engineered/helped by the said adversaries? A nice work, you have to admit.
Have you read the many responses to Snyder’s previous post, “Of course it’s a coup?” Many other ideas from folks with much more political and legal experience writing options of what to do.
No one knows if a majority voted as many strange and things happened during the voting process but the he is in legally or not and majority or not.
I don’t think what is happening is voluntary but a forced submission.
But I’m just a person a woman who grew up in the South during Civil Rights seeing what happened, being discriminated against my entire life in many ways.I’m not an academic expert or political expert. And I will do what I can to restore those rights and Democracy, whether you call them naive I don’t care. I am simply asking questions.
Again, thank you, Ms Baras.
No doubt, you see that I am more than concerned and not just content to talk, I am firmly doing opposition work, but as you realize from my comments, work in within the legal arenas and with elected representatives.
Thank you for the personal background experiences you cite; these are experiences that not any us want to have repeated; and we want to restore and strengthen constitutional democracy as rapidly as is humanly possible and by means which will contribute to durability of that restored system and genuine respect for it that leads to more cooperation.
I am reading and studying all of our comments and replies with a kind of urgency, respect, and care that point to my intention to see, as you note, our 'rights and Democracy' restored and improved. That is our collective intention and our goal.
Let's keep informing each other, please.
I need to be honest with you Bob. I subscribe to several substack authors. The others have a different feel to how readers respond to each other. There is a more open, non-confrontational, welcoming atmosphere than what I’m finding here. Your initial post replying to me contained repeated no, no, no to a simple question I posed about whether there is a way to counter the coup. I wasn’t suggesting any particular type of rebellion just hoping for some unaggressive dialogue. When I read your repeated no’s I felt like I was hearing someone scolding a puppy for peeing on the floor or a parent using verbal commands disciplining a child.
Your intent may have been to arouse a different response but it felt dismissive, demonstrative and a bit hostile. That may not have been your intention but this is how I felt.
I am reconsidering whether this substack group is a place I want to continue interacting with. As another person commented it doesn’t feel welcoming but divisive, a bit hostile and aggressive. This isn’t what I’m looking for.
Regards
Beth
Thank you, Ms Baras, for your candid remarks here.
I was not intending to do other than share another point of view, and so I don't want you to feel disrespected or uncomfortable.
Please know that I am sincere in saying that you sharing of view is important to us, me and everyone. I welcome your participation more than I can say.
Please stay. I hope we can read each other's posts with interest, as contributions to striving for better, more inclusive understanding.
Beth, OF COURSE one should use to the utmost the legal framework means in the support of the rule-of-law which is being threatened. Then the non-violent civil disobedience methods. Of course, no matter what next, organizing is paramount. Ditto an informational/propaganda (in a good sense) effort.
This is not naive and certainly more sane than instantly grabbing an AK-15 and searching for black helicopters to shoot at.
The problem this time is that while the 1950+ US was aspiring to be a rule-of-law country, I think that the Musk-Trump's US does not. Which is a VERY different situation from the times of MLK. I do not think that this happened before in the US history. So a lot of unknowns.
Piotr -
I am writing because I wanted to share my feelings as I recently joined this group along with several other substack authors. I initially posted my question as a response to Snyder’s previous posting as well as many others asking the same question- what else can we do now to stop the coup. I wasn’t advocating violence. I was hoping for some ideas and a welcoming atmosphere dialogue.
To me some of the responses in this group feels like it tends to have an aggressive, almost hostile and assuming air where everyone should be some sort of expert in history or political policy.
The other groups have a very different response, civil respectful tone and quality.
I have had difficulty with the way I have read your responses to me. I feel uncomfortable, unwelcome to express from a place very different than yours.
I’m considering whether I will continue to be a part of this group.
On Blue Sky and in other Substack groups I read of many others like me, seniors fearful that our Social Security and Medicare, our means of existence are being taken away. Women seeing our rights ripped away. People who fear this uprising of the KKK/Nazi white Christian extreme. We are asking what do we do. I asked that same thing because breaking the outright breaking of laws and takeover by Musk and Project 2025 is so rapid and huge. My question echoed what I read from hundreds of others asking the same thing.
To be quite blunt, I don’t need any more aggressive, hostile feelings, or online places that reinforce these feelings. That is what I have felt in reading your responses. I am uncomfortable and feel unwelcome.
Regards
Beth
Beth, if you felt I am hostile, sorry. This was not my intention, to be personally hostile. Part of the problem might be cultural - I am Polish living in Poland, though a have spent half my life in the US. We interact differently here, a separate topic. Say, all foreigners arriving in Poland are "Why nobody smiles here?!? Why do I feel people are hostile or indifferent at best?!?". Yes, I was positively shocked when I first interacted with strangers in the US MidWest. But all this is no excuse for me making you feel uncomfortable, sorry, I should have been more careful.
Thank you. Apology accepted. I’m sorry your experiences in the Midwest have been disappointing. I’ve lived all over the US including the Mid West. I can say living now in Vermont people who don’t know each other wave to each other driving by. We have struggles in this State but people will help anyone in trouble.
Best
Beth
My experience with Midwesterners was very positive. Was surprised me was their openness to me, a stranger. Readiness to help. And yes, this openness is, my perception, a universal American thing.
Thank you, Ms Baras, for your candid remarks here.
I was not intending to do other than share another point of view, and so I don't want you to feel disrespected or uncomfortable.
Please know that I am sincere in saying that you sharing of view is important to us, me and everyone. I welcome your participation more than I can say.
Please stay. I hope we can read each other's posts with interest, as contributions to striving for better, more inclusive understanding.
And on the alternate form quaintly known as PAROL (Preserve Amendment 1 & Rule of Law)” please take action as needed:
1. If your US passport is nearing expiry, or you do not have one, make an expedited application immediately, before the Regime stops issuing them to people designated as “Other.”
2. If you have a website, Substack, blog, or other web content with your personal reflections, positions or designations, make sure they are archived now, on an air-gapped device.
3. For any information found on a governmental website that has not yet been banished, download now, and follow instructions in #2, above.
4. With the firing yesterday of the head of the National Archives, expect to see vast troves of historical documents and information altered or destroyed. Physical copies of said documents will become increasingly rare, and may be seized at any time. Said documents should be maintained in secure locations to the extent possible. This applies especially to repositories such as libraries, museums and bookstores.
5. This is not a drill.
Honestly, I bet this form actually exists. It's Springtime for Hitler. Mel Brooks understood the power of laughter as a form of resistance. They want us to cower and cry. When we point our fingers and laugh at them (and really, they are completely ridiculous buffoons), it makes us stronger and them weaker. While I am terrified and sad, humor truly is a lifeline. If I can laugh, I am not destroyed. I can renew my resolve to resist by any means at my disposal. Thank you, Tim.
Five alarm fire. Stay strong. Stay sane.
OMG -- YES, this is where we are!
I know I keep on harping on this but we MUST begin to teach Civics in our schools again. Oh, I forgot: The Bloated Yam is doing away with the Department of Education.
Civics and critical thinking skills!
Ethics.
A very appropriate pic of Ben Franklin at the end of your piece. And who do we send to negotiate alliances who can help us in this war against the oligarchy
Send in the clowns! With advanced IT degrees. The Cyber Warriors. Calling all the leftist hackers and dedicated civil servants who still have access. Stop the backdooring and downloading! Crash their coding. Put up every firewall possible. Can we send in the DC police??
Do you claim to be a Christian while ignoring or violating Christ's teachings?
Key note!
FOR CANADIANS !!! 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦
——Here's a list of US products and their Canadian equivalents you can keep handy for your next trip to the grocery store. Sorry, not sorry US friends.——
***Dairy Products***
Instead of Kraft (cheese, dairy) → Try Saputo, Black Diamond, Armstrong
Instead of Philadelphia (cream cheese) → Try Lactantia, Tre Stelle, Agropur
Instead of Yoplait (yogurt) → Try Astro, Olympic, Liberté
Instead of Land O'Lakes (butter) → Try Lactantia, Natrel, Gay Lea
***Soft Drinks & Beverages
Instead of Coca-Cola, Pepsi → Try Canada Dry, PC Cola, Great Value (Walmart)
Instead of Tropicana (juice) → Try Oasis, SunRype, Arthur’s
Instead of Gatorade, Powerade → Try BioSteel (Canadian sports drink)
Instead of Starbucks bottled drinks → Try Tim Hortons, Second Cup ready-to-drink beverages
***Packaged & Snack Foods***
Lay's (chips) → vs Old Dutch, Covered Bridge, Hardbite
Instead of Doritos, Cheetos → Try Neal Brothers, Hardbite tortilla chips
Instead of Kellogg's (cereal) → Try Nature’s Path, Barbara’s, Quaker (some products Canadian-made)
Instead of Nabisco (cookies/crackers) → Try Dare, Leclerc, Voortman
Instead of Campbell's (soups) → Try Habitant (by Loblaws), President’s Choice soups
Heinz (ketchup, sauces) made in Ontario → Try French's (Canadian-made ketchup), President’s Choice
***Meat & Processed Foods***
Instead of Oscar Mayer (deli meats) → Try Maple Leaf, Schneiders, Pillers
Instead of Hormel (bacon, ham) → Try Olymel, Grimm’s
Instead of Tyson Foods (chicken products) → Try Lilydale, Maple Lodge Farms
Instead of Beyond Meat (plant-based) → Try Yves Veggie Cuisine, Gardein
***Condiments & Sauces***
Instead of Hellmann’s (mayonnaise) → Try President's Choice, Compliments
Instead of French's (mustard) → Try Kozlik’s, President's Choice
Instead of Hidden Valley (salad dressing) → Try Renee’s, Kraft (Canadian-made varieties)
Instead of Tabasco (hot sauce) → Try Dawson's, Piri Piri by PC, No Name hot sauce
***Baking Products***
Instead of Pillsbury (flour, baking mixes) → Try Robin Hood, Five Roses, Compliments
Instead of Betty Crocker (cake mixes) → Try President’s Choice, No Name
Instead of Hershey’s (chocolate chips) → Try Camino, Laura Secord, PC chocolate chips
Instead of Domino (sugar) → Try Redpath (Canadian brand)
***Frozen Foods***
Instead of Green Giant (vegetables) → Try Arctic Gardens, Compliments, No Name
Instead of Stouffer’s (frozen meals) → Try President’s Choice, M&M Food Market
Instead of Eggo (waffles) → Try Nature’s Path, President’s Choice
Instead of DiGiorno (frozen pizza) → Try Dr. Oetker (some made in Canada), President’s Choice
***Coffee & Tea***
Instead of Starbucks → Try Tim Hortons, Second Cup, Van Houtte
Instead of Folgers → Try Nabob, Kicking Horse Coffee
Instead of Lipton (tea) → Try Red Rose, Tetley (some products Canadian-made)
Instead of Nestlé (coffee creamers) → Try International Delight (Canadian-made), Beatrice creamers
***Personal Care Products (found at grocery stores)***
Instead of Colgate (toothpaste) → Try Green Beaver, Tom’s of Maine (some Canadian-made)
Instead of Dove (soap, shampoo) → Try Live Clean, The Green Beaver Company
Instead of Head & Shoulders → Try Attitude, The Unscented Company
Instead of Gillette (razors, shaving cream) → Try Schick (some Canadian-made), Personna
PLEASE SHARE
"The problem is not that Mr. Musk is unelected, it’s that he is breaking the law. Not even a full-time government employee, he is trying to unilaterally shut down or dismantle entire federal agencies and departments, ignoring congressional mandates — this is prohibited by the Constitution."
– From a New York Times editorial today,
titled "Now Is Not the Time to Tune Out"
***
A citizen who believes in the rule of law reacts: *Then why the hell hasn't he been arrested?*
Well, we all know the answer, don't we?
This is what happens when we have two co-presidents, and both of them are wanton criminals.
Look at this from Elon's point of view. Which is the only perspective that matters now.:
"I am the Master of the Universe. The Emperor of the World. I have Russia and Hungary and Saudi and China on my side. I bought the loyalty and obeisance of the new President of the United States. My $290 million election campaign tricks got him back into the White House and he owes me now. I own him.
I look at the United States Federal Government and see my opportunity to wipe out the Constitution and Self Rule Democracy. The Executive Branch bends to my wishes. The armed forces are under my control, including nuclear weapons and hyper sonic missiles. I control the FBI and the US Marshalls and the Secret Service. Who is left to arrest me for law breaking?
I will remake the government in the manner I choose. Eliminate the Legislative Branch. Exert control over the Judicial Branch. As I learned from Putin, judges who oppose me will take an elevator to a high window.
Since artificial intelligence and algorithms are efficient, and under my control, I will replace humans in the government with computers and robots. I will install Skylink into the Internet and the world's reality will manifest from my mind. The New Dark Enlightenment. (Thanks to Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel and JD Vance for their inspiration.)
Eliminate the Free Press. All communications will be controlled as they are in Russia and China and Hungary. Any humans with opposing views will be taken out and shot.
340 million American citizens will be my serfs. Their labor will be the source for my tax money sources. To spend as I wish. And there is nothing any of them can do about it."
Truly scary. How to oppose that kind of control? Sabotage his rockets and cars - oh they do that on their own.
So what do you call a billionaire who has taken control of the government without an oath to protect the Constitution? An invader? A destroyer? A usurper? A first in world history that’s for sure.
11. I hate women and consider them less. 🥷🏻 #Msogynist