My family is originally from Eastern Europe. We have always used humor to cope with everything from the absurd to the frightening. So this article is medicine for my Slavic-American soul.
Slavic-American here! My Mom's family came from Zdair (I think that's how it is spelled). They emigrated in the 1880's I think. My grandmother travelled alone at age, 13 & came through Ellis Island. I come from strong stock! It's not easy to travel across the sea, alone & not speaking English. Thanks Gramma & Grampa for coming here!
I thank my Great Great Grandparents for bringing my German Great Grandmother here at age 17 right before WWI broke out. It's wierd to think how in alternative universes my great grandmother and alternative grandparents could have experienced Nazi Germany.
Dear Dr. Snyder. My favorite lecture that you have shared is your homage to paganism within the ancient age. Amazons, different societal architecture, Vikings, etc. - I listen to this lecture periodically to gain a "feel good" moment.
However, I think you may have topped yourself with this piece. I am in awe of your imagination and sense of humor. I always felt that "Gilligan" represented the pure idiocy of American entertainment, which is a high mantle, edging out "The Beverly Hillbillies, "Green Acres", and other shows too numerous to mention.
What I perceive from your message is, sometimes when events are at their most desperate, with future prospects looking most bleak, our only alternative is to turn to humor. Humor is derived from "humus", the bottom level of soil, which is in reality decay of plants, leaves, and other organic materials. Frankly, you can't get much lower than humus, which I fear many of us our feeling currently.
However, take heart. The world, and events, have a tendency to turn on a dime. The chaos and destruction win if we succumb. Be courageous, strong, and fearless. The struggle is the downpayment for lasting success.
I think we could come up with a whole other analogy involving the Beverly Hillbillies. But we would cast them as Democrats. Granny is Nancy Pelosi, working hard in the kitchen on her potions, behind the scenes, but emerging occasionally to put all the men in their place. Who is Jed? Obama maybe? The wise but humble patriarch. Jethro is clearly Bill Clinton. Ellie Mae? We need somebody completely fearless and also beautiful while being a kind of tomboy. Michelle Obama fits. The banker (Mr Drysdale) is Mike Bloomberg, who sucks up to the Clampetts but secretly thinks they're stupid. Miss Jane, his secretary, has a crush on Jethro (Bill Clinton) and just can't quit him. That's Hillary. It's humiliating but it is what it is. Miss Jane is smart and solves some of the problems that the guys can't figure out, but while flattering the men.
There's this one scene where Jed dances really well, and Granny says, "You're almost as good as Buddy Ebsen." Of course Buddy Ebsen was the actor and dancer who played Jed. Obama too had hidden entertainer skills that sometimes emerged and dazzled. (The Washington Press Club comedy hour, for instance.) I could go on and on, but I have to find a Democrat who is like Aunt Pearl. "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, why won't you be my girl?" (Flatt and Scruggs appearance on the Hillbillies. Like when famous people entertained at the White House during the Obama years.)
I am hoping that global warming overtakes this island, the sea rises and swamps them -- and they all drown. It would be such a fitting end to these horrible, horrible people.
As people have heard me say; “Timothy Snyder is my intellectual hero.” This piece of comic genius only reinforces that sentiment.
Happy to see Thiel’s name appear as my theory that he is the backroom ringleader primarily the brains of all this. He funded some real research based on Rene’ Girard’s work, and I think the results of that were directly applied into the USA body politic. I’m just a plumber and recovered addict from a terribly unstable childhood. I have literally lost my freedom in the past (rightly so). By the Grace of God, I’m here now with enough courage to write and post this.
In 2013 I felt “called” to drive to Stanford U to the 1st Inagural Girard conference. Guess who the speaker was?
And now I can thank my hero and encourage him to be diligent about his and his family’s safety. Literally. Please be fucking careful going forward! This is the way ex-con plumbers say it.
I believe Timothy Snyder can help us keep our interior selves intact. His very distinct voice can help us tend our values and maintain our courage and our insistence on exercising collective freedom, when this burlesque of brutality and inane menace tempts us to coarsen, blunt, isolate and shut down who we each are as individuals, together.
I wish more people were familiar with Timothy Snyder. He raised money with appeals for landmine removal in Ukraine. Also defensive technology invented in Ukraine to shoot down Russian missiles before they hit. United24 is the name of the appeal.
I, too, wish more people knew of him. I have an American friend who lives here in Germany. Her husband was German. We were together the day after the election trying to sooth our souls in a beautiful, nearby town. She is tuned in to the politics in the U.S. and votes. I was surprised she had not heard of Timothy Snyder. I sent her a couple of his posts and tried to explain who he is. I've give other friends in the States copies of On Tyranny.
Oh, no! Poor them if that is true. Food in Gaza up more than 300%, if anyone can get it, per PBS Nov. 11.
The Biden Administration got ours down to about 2% per year, though food isn’t down again to 2019 prices. I have read that inflation in Hungary also is or was horrendous, 80%. I wonder if Tucker Carlson knows this? If so, he certainly will not be telling anyone. I imagine that knowledge of life in other countries will be controlled more closely than previously.
My husband and I were in Poland in 1980 to visit a friend in Warsaw, a theoretical physicist, who I had met while traveling in 1973. It was a great shock to us to go into stores and find the shelves empty. Tomatoes? So few and so high in price, who would buy them? Meat, only on certain days of the week. I'm grateful life has gotten a lot better in Poland. We now see this friend here in Bonn where they live part time to babysit their grandchildren, as we do while we are visiting. It will be strange to experience what is in store for us in 2025. I think we will be growing more vegetables in our garden next summer.
WEST PALM BEACH — Donald Trump's landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election means Palm Beach County will return to the center of the political world. And with it a much more intense security presence than when he first employed his Mar-a-Lago residence and private club as the "Southern White House."
Mar-a-Lago is on Palm Beach, and Palm Beachers have become accustomed to road barricades and other security measures around the property during Trump's 30-plus weekend and holiday visits to Palm Beach.
Incoming and outbound flights at PBIA were diverted so the flight path did not cross over Mar-a-Lago. Other flight restrictions meant the occasional sonic boom over the county from Air Force jets summoned to shoo away aircraft that infringed on the restricted airspace. Also, a missile battery was stationed at a local airfield throughout his stays in Palm Beach County.
Those visiting Palm Beach can expect to see an abundance of security going forward, like Richard Steele who was visiting from Houston, Texas, this week.
"I was expecting security, but this is a lot," Steele said. - Palm Beach Post 🏝️
The Palm Beach Post is incorrect that Trump won in a landslide. In US history, there have been 42 presidential elections in which the victor won by a greater margin, including six in the modern era: FDR, Nixon, Reagan, Bush 2, Clinton and Obama-. Generally, a landslide has been defined as a margin of electoral college victory greater than 90%.. Reagan and Nixon won one election each with much greater than a 90% margin. Trump's recent win was by a margin of 57.99%, decisive, but not a landslide by anyone's definition but, apparently, Trump's and the gushing Palm Beach Post's.
None of this matters because they will call it a landslide and it will therefore be a landslide in the minds of those who don't ask questions, or those who need it to be.
Also, 125,000 more Democratic votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania would have shifted the Electoral College to Harris. Trump won with less than 50% of the popular vote, with more people voting for someone other than him overall.
ONLY SNYDER. I could only break the reverse vow of silence I took when Pennsylvania fell, with Timothy Snyder's voice. This excellent piece Oligarch's Island is about the only thing I have chosen to read in the shock-wake of 11/5, just as Snyder's precision words on MSNBC with Ali Velshi were the first "news" activity of any kind I dared touch. So grateful. Meanwhile, I have "On Freedom" marked up so much I can barely loan it. Planning to reread Road to Unfreedom now. Grateful, grateful, grateful.
I echo the thanks for both links, and the reading of only these items. As I said in an earlier comment on another post, if only the money-grubbers on the Dem side could temper their greed with offers for rolled up socks to throw at the tv -- for the seldom-times we're watching.
Yes, I heard it online. I must thank Ali Velshi, too, who I think is underrated. When hardly anyone had Ruth Ben-Ghiat as a guest, he had her regularly on Saturday mornings, then I saw her in the evenings. I have moved away (literally and figuratively) from Cable news but there is the occasional interview, like this one, that is so worth watching.
Well I wasn't expecting Gilligan's Island from you after I rolled out of bed this morning, but this analysis is superb. Now its theme song will be an earworm I won't be able to rid myself of today.
You may have already learned what Dima Medvedev said yesterday: "He [Trump] won't be able to stop the war. Not in a day, not in three days, not in three months. And if he really tries, he could become the new JFK." https://x.com/JayinKyiv/status/1855968440416145443
And this from TASS via Julia Davis: "Meanwhile in Russia: Putin's presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev said, 'To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.'" https://x.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1856121278597320825https://tass.com/politics/1870713
Last week Americans sent the Red Mafiya to the White House.
Yep. You get into bed with the Red Mafiya, and the only way out is death. Remember that look on Trump's face in Helsinki in 2018 after he got out of that meeting with Putin? It was pretty clear to everyone who was paying attention that Putin had threatened him. A US president never goes into a meeting with another head of state or government without advisors, Joint Chiefs, etc. I found it shocking at the time.
One minor plot twist that seems sure to come - unlike Gilligan's Island whose cast remained stable through the 3 seasons, the cast of the 2025-29 series will likely change in the episodes titled Night of the Long Knives 1, 2 and 3 as the Professor whispers in Ginger's beautifully small ears who shall stay and who shall be "replaced." We will need a lot of humor and gummies to get through this . . . . hopefully both will still be readily available . . . .
Surprised that the media doesn't point out to the smug pro-Trump commentators that they won by cheating. The big lie is obviously cheating in the political game, never mind modeling oneself not only on Hitler but Stalin. But this is American, horse trader, business "ethics" on full display. (If I can fool the buyer I'm smart.) Also, I was thinking today why the Right got the social media strategy right while we, Democrats, were still literally on the ground.
Remember how Brexit was strategized by former CIA (as I recall) analysts who learned from Putin's massive disinformation campaigns? So the Right has adopted the big lie/psychological manipulation techniques of the former and yet apparently "undead" Soviet Union. You just lost the Cold War you morons! You surrendered democracy. But even sadder you don't even know that you've been duped by the "smarter" and even less ethical horse trader. He's not even that smart . . . he just inherited Soviet mind f*** technology we never really understood.
I have a totally true story that is funny and tragic. A boy I knew as a teenager studied Russian in high school and maybe Chinese in college. He was gay and got AIDS. This was 1980s. He decided to visit China before he got too sick. He got really sick and had to be evacuated by the US Airforce because no airline would take him home. He died a few days after he got home. A Ukrainian newspaper claimed he was a biological weapon who had been sent to China by the CIA to kill Russians because China has a long border with the Soviet Union. Only really, really, smart people laugh at the last sentence. That's really sad, too. We know where to find the Russians if we want to.
I used to watch Gilligan's Island as a kid, too. In middle-age, I had major surgery and was on a morphine drip, I could hardly wait to watch Gilligan every day for two weeks at 9 AM in the hospital. It's really better on drugs.
I got banned by Twitter. It might be because I said that Trump is a Russian agent. I can't even read it much to see what smart people like you are saying.
The Trump regime is going to kill a lot of people. Just their health policies are insane. Right now, I feel like Americans deserve what they voted for. I don't really think that.
Trump will help Putin steal everything and alienate us from our allies just as we all need to work together. If people think food is too expensive now, just wait until the immigrants who pick the food, butcher the meat, and milk the cows are in concentration camps. They may end up killing them just like the Germans did when they couldn't manage all the Jews they were rounding up in Poland and Belorussia.
The tariffs are described as covering all imports. I have not heard that food was to be excluded. On top of that, there will be the missing human labor in food production with mass deportations.
Regarding the mass deportations, they admit it can’t be done all at once. They will start with criminals. I wonder how they will find these criminals.
Undocumented people convicted of crimes are already being deported, are they not? Would we sentence someone here illegally to life in prison here, at our expense? ( Sorry, I forgot about Guantanamo, but that is different.) Undocumented people commit fewer crimes than other people because they fear deportation. They rarely report crimes committed against themselves because contact with police could lead to being deported.
And Trump had to pay farmers for their losses, because they were his voters, but it was not enough to make them whole. (Taxpayer money, of course, not his money.)
I have also read that undocumented people commit fewer crimes than Americans.
Sometimes the Russians weaponize immigration to encourage strife in other countries. I don't know if that is going on at our border, but the Russians often hire criminals so they don't show their hand. The idea of trying to deport millions of people will take away from our economy. Also, I am afraid a lot of these people might not be taken care of well and would die.
Trump tries to scare people about dangerous immigrants just like Hitler scared Germans that Jews were perverts who would rape their daughters, steal their money, and poison their blood.
I read an excellent book about Julius Streicher who published an infamous anti-Semitic newspaper called Der Sturmer: "Julius Streicher: Nazi Editor of the Notorious Anti-semitic Newspaper Der Sturmer" (Randall Bytwerk). Der Sturmer was really crude propaganda for the lower-class, uneducated people. Even NAZIS wanted him to tone it down.
Undocumented people absolutely commit crimes at a lower rate than American citizens. There is ample data backing this up.
Put yourself in their shoes — you came here for a better life for yourself and your family. You want to work, provide for your family, and keep your head down. You don't want to make yourself a target.
And then I heard that comrade Kim Jong Un will offer Trump his North Koreans to replace those immigrants deported or killed. And Trump, under orders from the "Professor", will take them.
The release of Melania’s nudes makes me wonder if there’s a point at which Professor Putin starts releasing the kompromat that he has on Ginger Trump and details of meetings like Helsinki. Not that any of it could be accepted as true.
The Russians are clearly trying to scare Trump with the possibility of releasing kompromat so he will continue to serve Putin; however, it may be that Jack Smith is holding a few cards, too.
I think we got Trump because Putin wanted Ukraine, and Putin wanted Ukraine because a Ukrainian/Russian-speaking democracy on his border is subversive of Putin's dictatorship.
Putin's operatives are trying to overthrow several little nations who want to join the EU like Montenegro, Georgia, and Moldova. Putin is scared this will destabilize Russia.
I'm afraid Musk told Selensky that he will turn off the satelites if Ukraine does not give in to Russian demands for a peace with territorial concessions and a neutrality pledge.
My family is originally from Eastern Europe. We have always used humor to cope with everything from the absurd to the frightening. So this article is medicine for my Slavic-American soul.
Slavic-American here! My Mom's family came from Zdair (I think that's how it is spelled). They emigrated in the 1880's I think. My grandmother travelled alone at age, 13 & came through Ellis Island. I come from strong stock! It's not easy to travel across the sea, alone & not speaking English. Thanks Gramma & Grampa for coming here!
I thank my Great Great Grandparents for bringing my German Great Grandmother here at age 17 right before WWI broke out. It's wierd to think how in alternative universes my great grandmother and alternative grandparents could have experienced Nazi Germany.
Ukrainian here, yup, being able to laugh at ourselves and situations is our superpower!
I feel really ashamed that we aren't protecting Ukraine better. I read that US officials are worried about the Kremlin's nuclear sabre-rattling.
JV, have you read and savored these writings from a Russian prison? Navalny's humor is exquisite and life-giving.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/21/alexei-navalny-patriot-memoir
Yes, I have. I agree with you, they are life-giving!
Paywall
Dear Dr. Snyder. My favorite lecture that you have shared is your homage to paganism within the ancient age. Amazons, different societal architecture, Vikings, etc. - I listen to this lecture periodically to gain a "feel good" moment.
However, I think you may have topped yourself with this piece. I am in awe of your imagination and sense of humor. I always felt that "Gilligan" represented the pure idiocy of American entertainment, which is a high mantle, edging out "The Beverly Hillbillies, "Green Acres", and other shows too numerous to mention.
What I perceive from your message is, sometimes when events are at their most desperate, with future prospects looking most bleak, our only alternative is to turn to humor. Humor is derived from "humus", the bottom level of soil, which is in reality decay of plants, leaves, and other organic materials. Frankly, you can't get much lower than humus, which I fear many of us our feeling currently.
However, take heart. The world, and events, have a tendency to turn on a dime. The chaos and destruction win if we succumb. Be courageous, strong, and fearless. The struggle is the downpayment for lasting success.
I think we could come up with a whole other analogy involving the Beverly Hillbillies. But we would cast them as Democrats. Granny is Nancy Pelosi, working hard in the kitchen on her potions, behind the scenes, but emerging occasionally to put all the men in their place. Who is Jed? Obama maybe? The wise but humble patriarch. Jethro is clearly Bill Clinton. Ellie Mae? We need somebody completely fearless and also beautiful while being a kind of tomboy. Michelle Obama fits. The banker (Mr Drysdale) is Mike Bloomberg, who sucks up to the Clampetts but secretly thinks they're stupid. Miss Jane, his secretary, has a crush on Jethro (Bill Clinton) and just can't quit him. That's Hillary. It's humiliating but it is what it is. Miss Jane is smart and solves some of the problems that the guys can't figure out, but while flattering the men.
There's this one scene where Jed dances really well, and Granny says, "You're almost as good as Buddy Ebsen." Of course Buddy Ebsen was the actor and dancer who played Jed. Obama too had hidden entertainer skills that sometimes emerged and dazzled. (The Washington Press Club comedy hour, for instance.) I could go on and on, but I have to find a Democrat who is like Aunt Pearl. "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, why won't you be my girl?" (Flatt and Scruggs appearance on the Hillbillies. Like when famous people entertained at the White House during the Obama years.)
Outstanding, Shannon!
I am hoping that global warming overtakes this island, the sea rises and swamps them -- and they all drown. It would be such a fitting end to these horrible, horrible people.
Would that be a comedy for us to watch, but a tragedy in reality? But yes, highly likely.
Tim Snyder answers the age-old question: "Are we having fun yet?"
The Soap Opera goes on and on 🙄
As people have heard me say; “Timothy Snyder is my intellectual hero.” This piece of comic genius only reinforces that sentiment.
Happy to see Thiel’s name appear as my theory that he is the backroom ringleader primarily the brains of all this. He funded some real research based on Rene’ Girard’s work, and I think the results of that were directly applied into the USA body politic. I’m just a plumber and recovered addict from a terribly unstable childhood. I have literally lost my freedom in the past (rightly so). By the Grace of God, I’m here now with enough courage to write and post this.
In 2013 I felt “called” to drive to Stanford U to the 1st Inagural Girard conference. Guess who the speaker was?
And now I can thank my hero and encourage him to be diligent about his and his family’s safety. Literally. Please be fucking careful going forward! This is the way ex-con plumbers say it.
“Just a plumber” makes indoor plumbing possible. I would rather my grandson grow up to be a plumber than a hedge fund manager.
Amen to that.
I believe Timothy Snyder can help us keep our interior selves intact. His very distinct voice can help us tend our values and maintain our courage and our insistence on exercising collective freedom, when this burlesque of brutality and inane menace tempts us to coarsen, blunt, isolate and shut down who we each are as individuals, together.
I wish more people were familiar with Timothy Snyder. He raised money with appeals for landmine removal in Ukraine. Also defensive technology invented in Ukraine to shoot down Russian missiles before they hit. United24 is the name of the appeal.
I, too, wish more people knew of him. I have an American friend who lives here in Germany. Her husband was German. We were together the day after the election trying to sooth our souls in a beautiful, nearby town. She is tuned in to the politics in the U.S. and votes. I was surprised she had not heard of Timothy Snyder. I sent her a couple of his posts and tried to explain who he is. I've give other friends in the States copies of On Tyranny.
You really write well!
I like the coming apart Happy End 😊
Meanwhile, Russia’s inflation is so bad that potatoes cost 64% more than they did at the start of the year. #ProtectDemocracy ✌🏻
Oh, no! Poor them if that is true. Food in Gaza up more than 300%, if anyone can get it, per PBS Nov. 11.
The Biden Administration got ours down to about 2% per year, though food isn’t down again to 2019 prices. I have read that inflation in Hungary also is or was horrendous, 80%. I wonder if Tucker Carlson knows this? If so, he certainly will not be telling anyone. I imagine that knowledge of life in other countries will be controlled more closely than previously.
The pandemic and war profiteers keep inflation high.
Record profits keep prices high in some places while inflation itself is low.
Bird flu doesn't help chicken prices.
Bird flu is becoming more serious: seals are dying, wild birds are disappearing, people are getting bird flu -- although not from each other....
I read now that Viktor Orban responded to soaring food prices in Hungary by putting on price controls. Supermarket shelves emptied as a result.
My husband and I were in Poland in 1980 to visit a friend in Warsaw, a theoretical physicist, who I had met while traveling in 1973. It was a great shock to us to go into stores and find the shelves empty. Tomatoes? So few and so high in price, who would buy them? Meat, only on certain days of the week. I'm grateful life has gotten a lot better in Poland. We now see this friend here in Bonn where they live part time to babysit their grandchildren, as we do while we are visiting. It will be strange to experience what is in store for us in 2025. I think we will be growing more vegetables in our garden next summer.
WEST PALM BEACH — Donald Trump's landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election means Palm Beach County will return to the center of the political world. And with it a much more intense security presence than when he first employed his Mar-a-Lago residence and private club as the "Southern White House."
Mar-a-Lago is on Palm Beach, and Palm Beachers have become accustomed to road barricades and other security measures around the property during Trump's 30-plus weekend and holiday visits to Palm Beach.
Incoming and outbound flights at PBIA were diverted so the flight path did not cross over Mar-a-Lago. Other flight restrictions meant the occasional sonic boom over the county from Air Force jets summoned to shoo away aircraft that infringed on the restricted airspace. Also, a missile battery was stationed at a local airfield throughout his stays in Palm Beach County.
Those visiting Palm Beach can expect to see an abundance of security going forward, like Richard Steele who was visiting from Houston, Texas, this week.
"I was expecting security, but this is a lot," Steele said. - Palm Beach Post 🏝️
The Palm Beach Post is incorrect that Trump won in a landslide. In US history, there have been 42 presidential elections in which the victor won by a greater margin, including six in the modern era: FDR, Nixon, Reagan, Bush 2, Clinton and Obama-. Generally, a landslide has been defined as a margin of electoral college victory greater than 90%.. Reagan and Nixon won one election each with much greater than a 90% margin. Trump's recent win was by a margin of 57.99%, decisive, but not a landslide by anyone's definition but, apparently, Trump's and the gushing Palm Beach Post's.
Yes, I just read this in WAPO.
Add that Trump's victory falls at about the 50th percentile in American elections ranked by electoral college margin.
None of this matters because they will call it a landslide and it will therefore be a landslide in the minds of those who don't ask questions, or those who need it to be.
Also, 125,000 more Democratic votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania would have shifted the Electoral College to Harris. Trump won with less than 50% of the popular vote, with more people voting for someone other than him overall.
ONLY SNYDER. I could only break the reverse vow of silence I took when Pennsylvania fell, with Timothy Snyder's voice. This excellent piece Oligarch's Island is about the only thing I have chosen to read in the shock-wake of 11/5, just as Snyder's precision words on MSNBC with Ali Velshi were the first "news" activity of any kind I dared touch. So grateful. Meanwhile, I have "On Freedom" marked up so much I can barely loan it. Planning to reread Road to Unfreedom now. Grateful, grateful, grateful.
I share your 11/5 reading un-habit
Yes. There is no way I am doing the usual. Did you see this wonderful thing? I promise there is no damage to be had, hearing it: https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/timothy-snyder-you-have-to-be-in-the-moment-in-order-to-get-through-the-moment-224024645792
Thank you for posting the link!
I echo the thanks for both links, and the reading of only these items. As I said in an earlier comment on another post, if only the money-grubbers on the Dem side could temper their greed with offers for rolled up socks to throw at the tv -- for the seldom-times we're watching.
Yes, I heard it online. I must thank Ali Velshi, too, who I think is underrated. When hardly anyone had Ruth Ben-Ghiat as a guest, he had her regularly on Saturday mornings, then I saw her in the evenings. I have moved away (literally and figuratively) from Cable news but there is the occasional interview, like this one, that is so worth watching.
Musk should get off the Island immediately...and fulfill his dream of blasting off for Mars. One way ticket. The sooner the better.
America has betrayed Ukraine. I feel so ashamed about that.
Well I wasn't expecting Gilligan's Island from you after I rolled out of bed this morning, but this analysis is superb. Now its theme song will be an earworm I won't be able to rid myself of today.
You may have already learned what Dima Medvedev said yesterday: "He [Trump] won't be able to stop the war. Not in a day, not in three days, not in three months. And if he really tries, he could become the new JFK." https://x.com/JayinKyiv/status/1855968440416145443
And this from TASS via Julia Davis: "Meanwhile in Russia: Putin's presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev said, 'To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.'" https://x.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1856121278597320825 https://tass.com/politics/1870713
Last week Americans sent the Red Mafiya to the White House.
Read Bill Browder's two books. And the Magnitsky Act. Which Donnie will likely suspend by Executive Order. It comes after his pals.
I read what Medvedev said about Trump becoming the "new JFK." I think he was threatening that Trump could be assassinated like JFK.
Yep. You get into bed with the Red Mafiya, and the only way out is death. Remember that look on Trump's face in Helsinki in 2018 after he got out of that meeting with Putin? It was pretty clear to everyone who was paying attention that Putin had threatened him. A US president never goes into a meeting with another head of state or government without advisors, Joint Chiefs, etc. I found it shocking at the time.
One minor plot twist that seems sure to come - unlike Gilligan's Island whose cast remained stable through the 3 seasons, the cast of the 2025-29 series will likely change in the episodes titled Night of the Long Knives 1, 2 and 3 as the Professor whispers in Ginger's beautifully small ears who shall stay and who shall be "replaced." We will need a lot of humor and gummies to get through this . . . . hopefully both will still be readily available . . . .
You mean, popcorn and coke.
Good to have a code name for the president-elect: Ginger. Thank you
As I should have pointed out, the Russians actually call him that on state television. Missed an easy one there.
If you like you some occasional swampy rock and roll then listen to Cracker’s “Sweet Thistle Pie”. “…knows my name but calls me Ginger…”
I can’t wait for Gilligan’s Island to morph into Lord of the Flies!
Surprised that the media doesn't point out to the smug pro-Trump commentators that they won by cheating. The big lie is obviously cheating in the political game, never mind modeling oneself not only on Hitler but Stalin. But this is American, horse trader, business "ethics" on full display. (If I can fool the buyer I'm smart.) Also, I was thinking today why the Right got the social media strategy right while we, Democrats, were still literally on the ground.
Remember how Brexit was strategized by former CIA (as I recall) analysts who learned from Putin's massive disinformation campaigns? So the Right has adopted the big lie/psychological manipulation techniques of the former and yet apparently "undead" Soviet Union. You just lost the Cold War you morons! You surrendered democracy. But even sadder you don't even know that you've been duped by the "smarter" and even less ethical horse trader. He's not even that smart . . . he just inherited Soviet mind f*** technology we never really understood.
I have a totally true story that is funny and tragic. A boy I knew as a teenager studied Russian in high school and maybe Chinese in college. He was gay and got AIDS. This was 1980s. He decided to visit China before he got too sick. He got really sick and had to be evacuated by the US Airforce because no airline would take him home. He died a few days after he got home. A Ukrainian newspaper claimed he was a biological weapon who had been sent to China by the CIA to kill Russians because China has a long border with the Soviet Union. Only really, really, smart people laugh at the last sentence. That's really sad, too. We know where to find the Russians if we want to.
I used to watch Gilligan's Island as a kid, too. In middle-age, I had major surgery and was on a morphine drip, I could hardly wait to watch Gilligan every day for two weeks at 9 AM in the hospital. It's really better on drugs.
I got banned by Twitter. It might be because I said that Trump is a Russian agent. I can't even read it much to see what smart people like you are saying.
The Trump regime is going to kill a lot of people. Just their health policies are insane. Right now, I feel like Americans deserve what they voted for. I don't really think that.
Trump will help Putin steal everything and alienate us from our allies just as we all need to work together. If people think food is too expensive now, just wait until the immigrants who pick the food, butcher the meat, and milk the cows are in concentration camps. They may end up killing them just like the Germans did when they couldn't manage all the Jews they were rounding up in Poland and Belorussia.
The tariffs are described as covering all imports. I have not heard that food was to be excluded. On top of that, there will be the missing human labor in food production with mass deportations.
Regarding the mass deportations, they admit it can’t be done all at once. They will start with criminals. I wonder how they will find these criminals.
Undocumented people convicted of crimes are already being deported, are they not? Would we sentence someone here illegally to life in prison here, at our expense? ( Sorry, I forgot about Guantanamo, but that is different.) Undocumented people commit fewer crimes than other people because they fear deportation. They rarely report crimes committed against themselves because contact with police could lead to being deported.
When we put some tariffs on China, they didn't buy our soybeans, and that was bad for our farmers.
And Trump had to pay farmers for their losses, because they were his voters, but it was not enough to make them whole. (Taxpayer money, of course, not his money.)
I have also read that undocumented people commit fewer crimes than Americans.
Sometimes the Russians weaponize immigration to encourage strife in other countries. I don't know if that is going on at our border, but the Russians often hire criminals so they don't show their hand. The idea of trying to deport millions of people will take away from our economy. Also, I am afraid a lot of these people might not be taken care of well and would die.
Trump tries to scare people about dangerous immigrants just like Hitler scared Germans that Jews were perverts who would rape their daughters, steal their money, and poison their blood.
I read an excellent book about Julius Streicher who published an infamous anti-Semitic newspaper called Der Sturmer: "Julius Streicher: Nazi Editor of the Notorious Anti-semitic Newspaper Der Sturmer" (Randall Bytwerk). Der Sturmer was really crude propaganda for the lower-class, uneducated people. Even NAZIS wanted him to tone it down.
Undocumented people absolutely commit crimes at a lower rate than American citizens. There is ample data backing this up.
Put yourself in their shoes — you came here for a better life for yourself and your family. You want to work, provide for your family, and keep your head down. You don't want to make yourself a target.
And then I heard that comrade Kim Jong Un will offer Trump his North Koreans to replace those immigrants deported or killed. And Trump, under orders from the "Professor", will take them.
So what! I read that Trump announced that Lauren Boebert is going to be Secretary of Education. (/s because we can't tell anymore)
The release of Melania’s nudes makes me wonder if there’s a point at which Professor Putin starts releasing the kompromat that he has on Ginger Trump and details of meetings like Helsinki. Not that any of it could be accepted as true.
The Russians are clearly trying to scare Trump with the possibility of releasing kompromat so he will continue to serve Putin; however, it may be that Jack Smith is holding a few cards, too.
I think we got Trump because Putin wanted Ukraine, and Putin wanted Ukraine because a Ukrainian/Russian-speaking democracy on his border is subversive of Putin's dictatorship.
Putin's operatives are trying to overthrow several little nations who want to join the EU like Montenegro, Georgia, and Moldova. Putin is scared this will destabilize Russia.
I'm afraid Musk told Selensky that he will turn off the satelites if Ukraine does not give in to Russian demands for a peace with territorial concessions and a neutrality pledge.