Hey, this is Tim Snyder, and I just wanted to say a word about panic and fact. So I still have in mind this so-called roundtable on Antifa last week. That roundtable is about trying to organize a panic. The people who took part in that roundtable at the White House are people who have
taken part in and benefited from panics. Some people who were at that roundtable took part in or benefited from the Pizzagate panic, the idea that somehow Hillary Clinton and her associates were organizing a pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza parlor. Those people were at that meeting.
Most of the people at that meeting took part in the campus free speech panic, the idea that somehow right-wing speech is being banned from college campuses. That's not true. I was there for 20 years plus. That just never happened. There was no such thing. And most of the individual incidents were manufactured or manipulated beyond recognition.
The one campus free speech problem we really have is that students are banned from assembling to speak about the things they want to speak about. That's the real problem. So the whole campus free speech thing, that was an organized panic. And many of the people who took part in this White House roundtable, so-called,
were organizers of that panic. The panic that we're talking about now is Antifa. And it's important to see that it is a panic. Antifa is not really a thing in the U.S. Of course, there are lots of people who are against fascism and the right to be so. But there is no large-scale, massive, underground...
You know, it's a thing called Antifa. There's no underground organized connection between these liberal non-governmental organizations and assassination attempts. That is all made up. That is all a panic. And the reason I stress that it's a panic is that a panic is a thing. It's a fact. And the politics of panic are a thing. They're a fact.
The things that people say when they organize panics are not facts. And so it's really important that when media cover this, media cover this in a way that makes this distinction, that we recognize that we don't have to write the things that people say when they're organizing a panic. just to do so.
Just writing down their words, that's not journalism. It's not about facts. In fact, it's about fantasies. What is a fact, though, is that people, and these people in particular, try to organize panics. That's real. That's a fact. And that's how we should report. Thanks for listening. This is Tim Snyder talking for my sub stack.
Think about sharing this. Subscribe if you like to. There are buttons at the bottom. Thank you very much. Thanks for being with me.
Thank you for the transcripts, very appreciated. Although I immensely enjoy listening to Prof. Snyder and appreciate his calm demeanor, it's not always possible when other people are sharing the room, so thank you again, Karen.
I really like listening to his calming, civilised voice too. And it's always quite comical how the Substack-generated transcript slows down and starts a new paragraph or puts in a row of dots if Prof Snyder pauses to sigh heavily or roll his eyes!
Hi Karen. Whenever I hear Prof. Snyder talk I hear a voice who knows, a person who studied and understands the topic he's passionate about. A voice of knowledge and reason.
I'm in the UK - Prof Snyder seems to post his videos just at a convenient time when I'm catching up with emails! I'm glad there's something useful I can do. Things get a bit overwhelming at times.
My sign for this Saturday will say: The Greatest Generation beat the Nazis. It's our turn to beat the snot out of the Trump fascists. And on the back: Of course I'm anti-fascist!
Mine as well. He landed at Utah Beach, like most American GIs. He left from occupied Germany. That was going to be my NoKings sign until I realized that it was going to rain at least 2" and that my sign would be an illegible cardboard puddle (I took a sturdy cloth flag instead).
The biggest obstacle to saving democracy from fascism in America is the ignorance in America that has failed to recognize the ongoing criminal felony insurrection led by Trump and has caused the failure to save democracy. What’s happened in America is an insurrection by Trump, his administration, ICE agents, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court. The insurrection started on January 6, 2021, was planned in PROJECT 2025, and continues as planned in 2025. The authoritarian illegal war attacking Americans redefined as enemy combatants, is defined as a felony crime in federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2383) in language that is clear and easy to understand:
“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Ignorance drives the failure to recognize crimes and enforce the law which threatens democracy. The threat is supported by the weak and corrupt federal legal system. The weak federal legal system includes the corrupt Supreme Court which is now controlled by Trump and the wealthy. Will the weak federal legal system stop Trump? No. The states controlled by Democrats must act to stop Trump using the legal system in the states which is protected and given authorization by the Constitution.
From January 6, 2021, through 2024, the weak federal legal system enabled the illegal election of Trump who should have been convicted of the felony crime of insurrection and imprisoned. Trump should have been prevented from being on the ballot in 2024, but Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that prohibited him from holding office was not enforced by the corrupt Supreme Court. In 2025, Trump is exploiting the weak legal system to engage in his many illegal actions such as illegally ignoring court orders, illegally canceling funding authorized and directed for specific purpose by Congress, illegally creating and collecting tariffs, and illegally putting military into city streets with false claims of “fighting crime”. Trump has renamed the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of War, and is raging war against Democrat controlled states and cities.
Don’t listen to the news media to understand what happened to America, and why democracy is not working. “We the people must save democracy.
Read my Post #4 in the series, Creating Solutions to Core Problems in America, The Weak Legal System Destroys Democracy.
Another failure of the US news media is its Pavlovian response to every utterance from the Republicans, with scarcely any thought given to what is being said, and thus lacking in follow up. Why is it that nobody stood up and asked the simple question, " Does your condemnation of Antifa mean that you are pro-fascism?"?
Panic is unstable because it can be preparatory to violence — often directed against the most vulnerable and defenseless. Panic is unstable because it also suppress expression and thought, sometimes creating what looks like passivity, despair, or quietude, but which is actually MUCH more like the seething, straining forces constrained within a pressure cooker.
I doubt the US is all that much more susceptible to panics than many other societies. We’ve had our share of red scares (in the 20s and 50s. We’ve had our nativist scares that preceded our Constitution, never mind the French Commune of the 1870s or the French Revolution of the 1790s. We’ve had genuine witch hunts, the most famous in the 1690s in Massachusetts. We’ve had pink scares and cult scares and sex scares.
The planned Antifa scare depends on the extent to which the mass media plays into it. Trump can count on Fox News and a wide biosphere of right wing outlets. Who knows the extent to which CBS news will amplify Trump’s dangerous fantasies? But remember that Trump himself is also being driven by panic. Right now, this unstable torment is focused around perceptions of the Epstein ring of pederasty.
The best idea may be to avoid (as much as possible) the language of scapegoating, panic, and conspiracy theories. Sure, the Epstein files should be released. But more important is holding the media corporations accountable to accuracy, balance, and the freedoms that make their corporate existence worth defending. FDR said it best when he spoke about “Fear itself” because panic is always far too unstable and too dangerous for freedom lovers as well as for despots and those pawns and fools who would support them.
I believe that essentially all of the former "mainstream" (non-FOX) corporate media has been captured by the Trump administration. I don't watch them, and I am trying to avoid all products in their conglomerates. Why the media can't headline "Trump claims non-existent organization is threatening the US" or publish "Trump states repeatedly that he signed acts during Biden's term"? Why can't they come right out and question his mental competency (dementia), give examples of his bizarre tweets and egregiously factually wrong assertions, and demand that he take a full 2-day-long neurocognitive test performed in public by a panel of independent experts?
I’m sure you have your own plethora of alternative news sources that you might share. There is a radio station in Tampa (WMNF 88.5) that I’ve know about for a long time because my parents went to Saint Pete (Gulfport) every year and sometimes I would visit them. My girlfriend and I spent a winter down there a year ago and found that the station is much an improved powerhouse with Democracy Now, Richard Wolf, and a tone of locally produced shows that present alternative views. It does have NPR news breaks too and it is the radio station we have on most of the time now that there are “smart speakers”.
I try to read “The Nation”. The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and the London Review in addition to a number of online newsletters. I also check out the New York Times every day. (If Noam Chomsky could take it, so can I.)
It’s important to know what people are seeing, so I do check out Fox News once in a while too. I’d rather read because I’m a fast reader. I prefer the radio to TV because I can do housework or yard work with my ear pads and not be glued to a screen. Audio podcasts and YouTube’s (Timothy Snyder and Ivan Krastev etc)
Substack Journalists need to use this tactic this as well…. I’m pretty tired of folks just regurgitating what they do, with no analysis or actionable items, it’s redundant and infuriating. Get past the noise to action folks.
Thank you, Professor Snyder. Your remarks about "panic" are an essential treatment and clearing of the frequent, daily lies. Your recommendations have a calming effect on this roiling moment in and on American lives. This 'roiling' is felt in the 'free' world.
Well done, as always. I wonder if there is any literature or research on how we differentiate forms of propaganda with a consideration of how regimes and movements create moral panics through conspiracy theories. Not all propaganda works in that way but how are they used? I have my own thoughts, and have need of more sources on this question.
Great point. Professor Snyder's clarity is greatly needed, especially with regard to the US Media, it seems to me.
It angers me when the (US media especially) regurgitate verbatim some nonsense being pushed by some unscrupulous persons with an axe to grind. And then the media FAIL to STATE FACTUAL POINT OF VIEW IMMEDIATELY afterward.
This leaves unwary listeners with the impression that what they have just heard is factual, not just clever propaganda, as it really is.
My hypothesis for why this happens repeatedly, almost always in fact, is that the media in the US are at least in good part, paid by Corporate money. So the media dont rattle the cages of their food supply.
Which is why in my view it makes more sense to subscribe to The Guardian (UK) which sends a weekly roundup magazine format, by mail to your door, and also posts their main coverage of events on-line. In the US there is also a good small magazine called The Week.
As an English person, I absolutely recommend The Guardian. It has been in my house every day of my life (75 years) I get the print copy delivered daily but also read online. The motto of one of their great editors, CP Scott, was "Facts are sacred, but comment is free."
Thanks for this reply. So happy to hear from an English person! Where are you from?
I lived in Yorkshire (getting British Horse Society Degree), and in Holmes Chapel via Crewe (training with coach, dressage horses) , and also studied at University of St Andrews Scotland (Med Hist).
In America our family always got Punch. I remember one Page Break which read, (apropos of nothing in the article that the page break was breaking into two halves)
"Rearrange these words into a well-known phrase or saying: Stuffed Get." :-)
There is nothing funnier or wittier than a razor sharp slice of British wit. :-)
I just read the Guardian piece; It is hilarious, in its deadpan delivery of such incredible stupidity by the Great Man Himself ("Which is greatly to his credit, For he himself has said it", as the G&S song goes).
I do have one query: Did it occur to anyone else that with all the mention, and visible evidence of, thumbs, has anyone else also wondered where, possibly, those thumbs usually were kept by the Great Men?
Glad you appreciate it! It made me laugh out loud. And Patrick Wintour is such a serious correspondent! The contemptuous attitude to Trump is very refreshing.
Where in Yorkshire? I lived in low Bentham via Lancaster. The slanted light on the moors near Ingleboro are perhaps the most beautiful natural sight I have ever seen.
I am going to look at the https thing you kindly sent. Let's talk again.
Thank you for shedding light on the expression :-)
Re paid subscriptions, I wish I could. Like many, many other people, on fixed income, what until this year was barely adequate for survival (Roof, Food, Home Insurance, Medical insurance, School Taxes, Property Taxes, Mortgage, Car insurance, Utilities (the highest in the NATION are here in NJ) no longer covers even these basic costs.
Since Consumer Watchdogs in the US Government were fired by Trump/Musk, the home insurance increase, in my case more than 5 times (I made one claim in a35 years and ws dumpted), Utilities PSEG has more than doubled, school taxes voted an enormous referendum addition to the already sky-high taxes paid, even by people on fixed income in their 70s and 80s.
I am eating rice and beans,. I cannot make the Social Security and tiny Army pension stretch to cover the necessities they have for the past 30 years, since my husband died (a WW II Hero, Silver Star for Valor on Omaha Beach) covered, barely, until this so-called Administration. The electric company is going to cut off my utilities for non payment. The Township has been paid part of last quarter, but not all, and this new quarter is due. What the HELL are we supposed to do?
Baffled, and very, very angry. Meanwhile mr trumpf puffs his way around, stealing vast sums from shady entities being poured into his personal Crypto Scam pockets of himself and his family.
This country is in really AWFUL straits. There is nowhere to turn unless laws are passed for a decent safety net that allows us all to live frugally, but at least to live. Friends who have the money are leaving our beloved country for foreign countries, unwilling to accept the demolishing of the United States of America, in fact, and in reputation all over the world. Shocking, Unbelievable what is unfolding on a daily basis.
The first sentence is just an Americanism for "Brilliant" in the UK sense - a thumbs up. The rest should be explanatory. If you like it, help pay for it even though it is voluntary to do so.
I think humor is a powerful way to fight back. The chicken suits in Portland are great. And on Saturday I will proudly wear my Grantifa (Grandmothers against Fascism) T shirt.
More proof of Trump’s lies is that there’s no where to donate to “Antifa”. You can’t join, no membership dues, no pesky fundraising texts or emails asking for support. Nope, no central mastermind combatting the fascist regime. There is no single face of Antifa. The movement is far too big for that.
General Mark Milley (September 29, 2023): “We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion, we don’t take an oath to a king or to a queen or a tyrant, or to a dictator, or to a wanna-be-dictator, or an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution and we’re willing to die to protect it.”
Transcript:
Hey, this is Tim Snyder, and I just wanted to say a word about panic and fact. So I still have in mind this so-called roundtable on Antifa last week. That roundtable is about trying to organize a panic. The people who took part in that roundtable at the White House are people who have
taken part in and benefited from panics. Some people who were at that roundtable took part in or benefited from the Pizzagate panic, the idea that somehow Hillary Clinton and her associates were organizing a pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza parlor. Those people were at that meeting.
Most of the people at that meeting took part in the campus free speech panic, the idea that somehow right-wing speech is being banned from college campuses. That's not true. I was there for 20 years plus. That just never happened. There was no such thing. And most of the individual incidents were manufactured or manipulated beyond recognition.
The one campus free speech problem we really have is that students are banned from assembling to speak about the things they want to speak about. That's the real problem. So the whole campus free speech thing, that was an organized panic. And many of the people who took part in this White House roundtable, so-called,
were organizers of that panic. The panic that we're talking about now is Antifa. And it's important to see that it is a panic. Antifa is not really a thing in the U.S. Of course, there are lots of people who are against fascism and the right to be so. But there is no large-scale, massive, underground...
You know, it's a thing called Antifa. There's no underground organized connection between these liberal non-governmental organizations and assassination attempts. That is all made up. That is all a panic. And the reason I stress that it's a panic is that a panic is a thing. It's a fact. And the politics of panic are a thing. They're a fact.
The things that people say when they organize panics are not facts. And so it's really important that when media cover this, media cover this in a way that makes this distinction, that we recognize that we don't have to write the things that people say when they're organizing a panic. just to do so.
Just writing down their words, that's not journalism. It's not about facts. In fact, it's about fantasies. What is a fact, though, is that people, and these people in particular, try to organize panics. That's real. That's a fact. And that's how we should report. Thanks for listening. This is Tim Snyder talking for my sub stack.
Think about sharing this. Subscribe if you like to. There are buttons at the bottom. Thank you very much. Thanks for being with me.
I'm quite startled by the number of people who appreciate the transcripts - thank you for letting me know.
Thank you for the transcripts, very appreciated. Although I immensely enjoy listening to Prof. Snyder and appreciate his calm demeanor, it's not always possible when other people are sharing the room, so thank you again, Karen.
I really like listening to his calming, civilised voice too. And it's always quite comical how the Substack-generated transcript slows down and starts a new paragraph or puts in a row of dots if Prof Snyder pauses to sigh heavily or roll his eyes!
Hi Karen. Whenever I hear Prof. Snyder talk I hear a voice who knows, a person who studied and understands the topic he's passionate about. A voice of knowledge and reason.
I agree absolutely, Marc. And whenever there is danger of hearing the voice of Trump, I grab the remote to mute it instantly!
They are wonderful. I don't always have time to watch so many videos so the transcript is great. Thank you so much.
You're so welcome. There have been quite a lot of videos recently haven't there! So I'm relieved that today's Snyder post is words!
Thank you, Karen Lewton. That's very thoughtful of you.
I'm in the UK - Prof Snyder seems to post his videos just at a convenient time when I'm catching up with emails! I'm glad there's something useful I can do. Things get a bit overwhelming at times.
We Yanks need all the help we can get these days. Many thanks!
Yes, thank you for the transcript. If the lights go out it will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for this transcript! I could not get the sound to come on, using my desktop computer.
Thank you for the transcript.💕
🗽🇺🇲🇺🇦
And the pizza place in reality had NO basement.
My sign for this Saturday will say: The Greatest Generation beat the Nazis. It's our turn to beat the snot out of the Trump fascists. And on the back: Of course I'm anti-fascist!
My dad was antifa when he went to Germany in 1944.
Mine as well. He landed at Utah Beach, like most American GIs. He left from occupied Germany. That was going to be my NoKings sign until I realized that it was going to rain at least 2" and that my sign would be an illegible cardboard puddle (I took a sturdy cloth flag instead).
I like it. Mine will say: I'm anti-fascist. So arrest me.
My sign has a picture of my father in his US Army uniform and the words: He was Antifa from 1941-1946.
Love it!
The biggest obstacle to saving democracy from fascism in America is the ignorance in America that has failed to recognize the ongoing criminal felony insurrection led by Trump and has caused the failure to save democracy. What’s happened in America is an insurrection by Trump, his administration, ICE agents, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court. The insurrection started on January 6, 2021, was planned in PROJECT 2025, and continues as planned in 2025. The authoritarian illegal war attacking Americans redefined as enemy combatants, is defined as a felony crime in federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2383) in language that is clear and easy to understand:
“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Ignorance drives the failure to recognize crimes and enforce the law which threatens democracy. The threat is supported by the weak and corrupt federal legal system. The weak federal legal system includes the corrupt Supreme Court which is now controlled by Trump and the wealthy. Will the weak federal legal system stop Trump? No. The states controlled by Democrats must act to stop Trump using the legal system in the states which is protected and given authorization by the Constitution.
Read my post.
https://williamlmiller.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-trump-republicans-and
From January 6, 2021, through 2024, the weak federal legal system enabled the illegal election of Trump who should have been convicted of the felony crime of insurrection and imprisoned. Trump should have been prevented from being on the ballot in 2024, but Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that prohibited him from holding office was not enforced by the corrupt Supreme Court. In 2025, Trump is exploiting the weak legal system to engage in his many illegal actions such as illegally ignoring court orders, illegally canceling funding authorized and directed for specific purpose by Congress, illegally creating and collecting tariffs, and illegally putting military into city streets with false claims of “fighting crime”. Trump has renamed the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of War, and is raging war against Democrat controlled states and cities.
Don’t listen to the news media to understand what happened to America, and why democracy is not working. “We the people must save democracy.
Read my Post #4 in the series, Creating Solutions to Core Problems in America, The Weak Legal System Destroys Democracy.
https://williamlmiller.substack.com/p/post-4-the-weak-legal-system-destroys
To learn more, read my recent post, Core Problems in America and the Barriers Blocking Solutions,
https://williamlmiller.substack.com/p/post-5-core-problems-in-america-and
Another failure of the US news media is its Pavlovian response to every utterance from the Republicans, with scarcely any thought given to what is being said, and thus lacking in follow up. Why is it that nobody stood up and asked the simple question, " Does your condemnation of Antifa mean that you are pro-fascism?"?
Prof. Snyder -- your short videos and the transcripts Karen provides -- are fabulous. Please keep 'em coming to us.
Panic is infectious.
Panic is transformative.
Panic is not just dangerous. Panic is unstable.
Panic is unstable because it can be preparatory to violence — often directed against the most vulnerable and defenseless. Panic is unstable because it also suppress expression and thought, sometimes creating what looks like passivity, despair, or quietude, but which is actually MUCH more like the seething, straining forces constrained within a pressure cooker.
I doubt the US is all that much more susceptible to panics than many other societies. We’ve had our share of red scares (in the 20s and 50s. We’ve had our nativist scares that preceded our Constitution, never mind the French Commune of the 1870s or the French Revolution of the 1790s. We’ve had genuine witch hunts, the most famous in the 1690s in Massachusetts. We’ve had pink scares and cult scares and sex scares.
The planned Antifa scare depends on the extent to which the mass media plays into it. Trump can count on Fox News and a wide biosphere of right wing outlets. Who knows the extent to which CBS news will amplify Trump’s dangerous fantasies? But remember that Trump himself is also being driven by panic. Right now, this unstable torment is focused around perceptions of the Epstein ring of pederasty.
The best idea may be to avoid (as much as possible) the language of scapegoating, panic, and conspiracy theories. Sure, the Epstein files should be released. But more important is holding the media corporations accountable to accuracy, balance, and the freedoms that make their corporate existence worth defending. FDR said it best when he spoke about “Fear itself” because panic is always far too unstable and too dangerous for freedom lovers as well as for despots and those pawns and fools who would support them.
I believe that essentially all of the former "mainstream" (non-FOX) corporate media has been captured by the Trump administration. I don't watch them, and I am trying to avoid all products in their conglomerates. Why the media can't headline "Trump claims non-existent organization is threatening the US" or publish "Trump states repeatedly that he signed acts during Biden's term"? Why can't they come right out and question his mental competency (dementia), give examples of his bizarre tweets and egregiously factually wrong assertions, and demand that he take a full 2-day-long neurocognitive test performed in public by a panel of independent experts?
I’m sure you have your own plethora of alternative news sources that you might share. There is a radio station in Tampa (WMNF 88.5) that I’ve know about for a long time because my parents went to Saint Pete (Gulfport) every year and sometimes I would visit them. My girlfriend and I spent a winter down there a year ago and found that the station is much an improved powerhouse with Democracy Now, Richard Wolf, and a tone of locally produced shows that present alternative views. It does have NPR news breaks too and it is the radio station we have on most of the time now that there are “smart speakers”.
I try to read “The Nation”. The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and the London Review in addition to a number of online newsletters. I also check out the New York Times every day. (If Noam Chomsky could take it, so can I.)
It’s important to know what people are seeing, so I do check out Fox News once in a while too. I’d rather read because I’m a fast reader. I prefer the radio to TV because I can do housework or yard work with my ear pads and not be glued to a screen. Audio podcasts and YouTube’s (Timothy Snyder and Ivan Krastev etc)
Substack Journalists need to use this tactic this as well…. I’m pretty tired of folks just regurgitating what they do, with no analysis or actionable items, it’s redundant and infuriating. Get past the noise to action folks.
Everyone needs to use this tactic.
Thank you, Professor Snyder. Your remarks about "panic" are an essential treatment and clearing of the frequent, daily lies. Your recommendations have a calming effect on this roiling moment in and on American lives. This 'roiling' is felt in the 'free' world.
Panic.
Authoritarianism is grounded in Emotion: don't think; Feelings, not Facts.
Fascism can't ever present a sellable rationale for itself--it's all about incite, not insight.
Well done, as always. I wonder if there is any literature or research on how we differentiate forms of propaganda with a consideration of how regimes and movements create moral panics through conspiracy theories. Not all propaganda works in that way but how are they used? I have my own thoughts, and have need of more sources on this question.
Great point. Professor Snyder's clarity is greatly needed, especially with regard to the US Media, it seems to me.
It angers me when the (US media especially) regurgitate verbatim some nonsense being pushed by some unscrupulous persons with an axe to grind. And then the media FAIL to STATE FACTUAL POINT OF VIEW IMMEDIATELY afterward.
This leaves unwary listeners with the impression that what they have just heard is factual, not just clever propaganda, as it really is.
My hypothesis for why this happens repeatedly, almost always in fact, is that the media in the US are at least in good part, paid by Corporate money. So the media dont rattle the cages of their food supply.
Which is why in my view it makes more sense to subscribe to The Guardian (UK) which sends a weekly roundup magazine format, by mail to your door, and also posts their main coverage of events on-line. In the US there is also a good small magazine called The Week.
As an English person, I absolutely recommend The Guardian. It has been in my house every day of my life (75 years) I get the print copy delivered daily but also read online. The motto of one of their great editors, CP Scott, was "Facts are sacred, but comment is free."
Thanks for this reply. So happy to hear from an English person! Where are you from?
I lived in Yorkshire (getting British Horse Society Degree), and in Holmes Chapel via Crewe (training with coach, dressage horses) , and also studied at University of St Andrews Scotland (Med Hist).
In America our family always got Punch. I remember one Page Break which read, (apropos of nothing in the article that the page break was breaking into two halves)
"Rearrange these words into a well-known phrase or saying: Stuffed Get." :-)
There is nothing funnier or wittier than a razor sharp slice of British wit. :-)
Hello Kate - I’m in Newcastle upon Tyne, but originally from “God’s own county” of Yorkshire!
A thing I love about the Guardian is its highly characteristic humour on serious subjects - here’s a fine example from today’s paper!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/14/donald-trump-gaza-summit-praise-insults-world-leaders
I just read the Guardian piece; It is hilarious, in its deadpan delivery of such incredible stupidity by the Great Man Himself ("Which is greatly to his credit, For he himself has said it", as the G&S song goes).
I do have one query: Did it occur to anyone else that with all the mention, and visible evidence of, thumbs, has anyone else also wondered where, possibly, those thumbs usually were kept by the Great Men?
(just asking for a friend :-)
Glad you appreciate it! It made me laugh out loud. And Patrick Wintour is such a serious correspondent! The contemptuous attitude to Trump is very refreshing.
Yes. The Guardian has some of the best journalists anywhere ever. I love the VEN circles too. :-)
Where in Yorkshire? I lived in low Bentham via Lancaster. The slanted light on the moors near Ingleboro are perhaps the most beautiful natural sight I have ever seen.
I am going to look at the https thing you kindly sent. Let's talk again.
Kate Delano-Condax Decker
Sheffield, and Doncaster - South Yorkshire, the industrial area when I was a child - all mining and steel.
Very happy to know you! , Karen Lewton.
BingBingBing - winner, winner, chicken dinner
As an American, that's my #1 news site
It's free online, but chip in a bit if you can, American readers.
Thank you for shedding light on the expression :-)
Re paid subscriptions, I wish I could. Like many, many other people, on fixed income, what until this year was barely adequate for survival (Roof, Food, Home Insurance, Medical insurance, School Taxes, Property Taxes, Mortgage, Car insurance, Utilities (the highest in the NATION are here in NJ) no longer covers even these basic costs.
Since Consumer Watchdogs in the US Government were fired by Trump/Musk, the home insurance increase, in my case more than 5 times (I made one claim in a35 years and ws dumpted), Utilities PSEG has more than doubled, school taxes voted an enormous referendum addition to the already sky-high taxes paid, even by people on fixed income in their 70s and 80s.
I am eating rice and beans,. I cannot make the Social Security and tiny Army pension stretch to cover the necessities they have for the past 30 years, since my husband died (a WW II Hero, Silver Star for Valor on Omaha Beach) covered, barely, until this so-called Administration. The electric company is going to cut off my utilities for non payment. The Township has been paid part of last quarter, but not all, and this new quarter is due. What the HELL are we supposed to do?
Baffled, and very, very angry. Meanwhile mr trumpf puffs his way around, stealing vast sums from shady entities being poured into his personal Crypto Scam pockets of himself and his family.
This country is in really AWFUL straits. There is nowhere to turn unless laws are passed for a decent safety net that allows us all to live frugally, but at least to live. Friends who have the money are leaving our beloved country for foreign countries, unwilling to accept the demolishing of the United States of America, in fact, and in reputation all over the world. Shocking, Unbelievable what is unfolding on a daily basis.
-- Kate Delano-Condax Decker
Please explain further? Having trouble with the message...?
The first sentence is just an Americanism for "Brilliant" in the UK sense - a thumbs up. The rest should be explanatory. If you like it, help pay for it even though it is voluntary to do so.
Thank you
I think humor is a powerful way to fight back. The chicken suits in Portland are great. And on Saturday I will proudly wear my Grantifa (Grandmothers against Fascism) T shirt.
More proof of Trump’s lies is that there’s no where to donate to “Antifa”. You can’t join, no membership dues, no pesky fundraising texts or emails asking for support. Nope, no central mastermind combatting the fascist regime. There is no single face of Antifa. The movement is far too big for that.
General Mark Milley (September 29, 2023): “We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion, we don’t take an oath to a king or to a queen or a tyrant, or to a dictator, or to a wanna-be-dictator, or an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution and we’re willing to die to protect it.”
Thank you so much, for this and everything you teach us.
I love how exasperated Professor Snyder sounds in this video. It was the perfect tone for addressing some of these stupidities like Pizzagate.