“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.” - Frederick Douglass, 1857.
Professor Frankfurt speaks to our times: "Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."
The whole Cabinet is engaged in not just lying but bullshitting. As if there is no truth. The lethality thereof is already manifesting and it will get worse.
I was gobsmacked by Joni Ernst’s town hall comment, which she topped off with that acerbic and cruel Snidely Whiplash video. Never in all my years have I seen a member of congress be so callous, cruel and sarcastic. Is this the new normal? She wasn’t even ‘owning the libs’. She was insulting her own constituents with her “let them eat cake” video. She didn’t even need a powdered wig during that performance. We all got the message. Trouble is, the message was for Trump…but one of these days she’s going to wake up to Trump trying to salvage his political reputation by gaslighting the many and contradicting her. He’ll say, “I don’t know what happened to Joni Ernst! She’s gone a little CRAZY!” She’ll be caught in the Trump Paradox….where she misreads the Trump tea leaves that brew nothing but trouble. Then, and only then, will she and others like her be sent down the drain for good and the rest of us will spend a lifetime getting the bitter taste of her and those like her out of our mouths.
Somehow she missed the memo on ‘owning the libs.’ If she’s still angling for Hegseth’s job, this won’t do it. I think we have seen or heard worse, especially during the pandemic. But as you say, not aimed at their own constituents. The follow up made matters worse & lacked not only compassion but an ounce of cleverness. I hope IA voters are fed up.
I’m still scratching my head over what exactly she was trying to do. She certainly did not think about how this video depicts her as a singularly cruel person. She also branded herself now and for all time as a one-dimensional, heartless, dismissive and opportunistic politician. If this is who she really is, then God help her because it is very likely that the religiosity she threw out in this video rang hollow with many of her constituents. Or maybe she was trying to sell ‘a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down’?
It was just so bad. Not funny; no energy; not clever. The tooth fairy thing, dumb. Her religiosity shows up like an afterthought. The video blinks when the tooth fairy ends and begins again.
We’ll see if this, tariffs and lost income from food programs are a trifecta that changes her voters’ behavior.
Steve. your essay rings out like a church bell somewhere in the distance, especially when you quote Gov. Walz, “it’s time for us to be a little meaner … it’s time for us to be a little more fierce … because we have to ferociously push back on this.”
On June 14, Americans will protest trump in communities of every size in every corner of the country even as the would-be king watches his $75 million military parade in Washington, much like his hero Putin watches such parades in Moscow.
Our bells of warning much be louder — much, much louder — than the propaganda blaring forth from state TV (Fox) and right wing radio. We must drown out the ocean of lies, if only for part of one day.
Might that be enough to, as you quote Frederick Douglass’ words spoken 173 years ago during a similar divisive time, to finally get the “feeling of the nation …quickened; the conscience of the nation … roused; the propriety of the nation … startled.”
And while we have daily, if not hourly reports of the crimes committed by trump and associates, they seem to have failed to rouse enough of the nation to revolt against this constant exposure of the “hypocrisy of the nation.” The final, and perhaps most important question is, “Why?”
Our alarm bell must drown out the alarum and iron bells of Edgar Allen Poe's masterful poem. Here are the final two stanzas, which according to literary critics are metaphors for maturity (alarum bells) and death (iron bells).
But during this current regime, Poe's words read differently-- their subject is not a person's life, but a nation's:
"Hear the loud alarum bells—
Brazen bells!
What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now—now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling.
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—
Of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV.
Hear the tolling of the bells—
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
Excellent post Steve, thank you! I remember the cruelty when it was advised for the elderly to just die so that the economy could flourish. There are people with a heart of stone and they were handpicked to be in this administration. So all of their abominable behavior does not surprise me but saddens me to see the depths we’ve sunk to. And yet through it all, I have optimism that we will survive this and grow stronger appreciating what we seem to have lost - that our stony hearts will be replaced by fleshy natural hearts restoring empathy and decency in all of our dealings with others and that we remove any tolerance in our society for behavior to the contrary.
Your words, and the others you quote, should be a warning to everyone that the regime’s intentions and actions are clear; Democracy must end. We need to make June 14th the day that the American people stood up and screamed out, “the destruction of our Democracy stops today”.
Get out there and keep making noise. Do not give up. Pick up your friends, family, neighbors and urge them along. If Frederick Douglass could move the populace, so can we, though we lack his oratorial skills: “The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
Voters gave the reins for 2 of the 3 branches of our government to those who are trying to destroy it. Our voices are the way we show Americans do not approve of what they are doing. We must be loud and consistent.
I suspect the administration is taking notice and trying to pushback. Homeland Security going to Nadler’s office, Joanie and her foolishness, the House all but ending public meetings with constituents, doubling down on tariffs & deportation despite court rulings.
Decency: conformity to standards of taste, propriety, or quality.
Decency is subjective—its meaning and use is subject to whoever is using it. Margaret Chase Smith was brilliant (and decent) in 1950 Am.
Today, in 21st century America, DJT and his administration are taking us beyond indecency: there are no “standards” to violate in a full blown kleptocracy. Trump mocks decency, shreds it, and will toss it into the dustbin of history…if we do not check it.
Amen bro… And also, from Heather Cox Richardson Substack, comes the following quote: “framer of the Constitution James Madison, who warned: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Yep, it couldn’t be any clearer, time to get to the streets and make some noise.
Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" deftly puts the hideous puzzle together from the civil war to her publication date of 2010... I hold it dear to me ...this regime is super charged to continue the opression ..... he is beneath contempt
I kept waiting for Joanie Ernst to say, "Then let them die and decrease the surplus population," as Scrooge said to the people collecting money for the poor. While she may call herself a Christian, she is a wolf in sheep's clothing. By their words and their deeds shall ye know them. She has revealed what she is.
I have bought a "RESIST" t-shirt from Penzey's, which I plan to wear on June 14.
The level of cruelty simply astounds me. The number of people who support that cruelty astounds me, as does the number of people who blindly follow the perpetrators of the cruelty, thinking they are safe from it. I don't feel sorry for those people when they discover they are not immune from it, and it saddens me profoundly that I can now even feel that way about others. I was raised to not hate, and I rarely have...so at my advanced age, it's a sad revelation !
The protests across the nation on June 14 had better be massive. We need to swamp that figure of 12 million participants to send a clear signal. But even that will not be enough to dislodge this regime. We need to render this country ungovernable through general strikes and mass civil disobedience until the regime falls.
Here, however, is my sad refrain: we still do not have a united body of leaders to spearhead the charge as well as to be in place to pick up the reins once the fascists are driven from power.
Was Joni Ernst trying to be clever? That’s how she addresses her constituents? The never back down, never admit wrongs ethos must be part of this gangster shakedown of America. And it seems every R official is in on it, holding their breath that Donald won’t pick on them. And of course proclaiming that Dems are just as corrupt
“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.” - Frederick Douglass, 1857.
Silence=assent=complicity. Rage…rage…rage!
Professor Frankfurt speaks to our times: "Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."
The whole Cabinet is engaged in not just lying but bullshitting. As if there is no truth. The lethality thereof is already manifesting and it will get worse.
https://www2.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f12/frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf
I was gobsmacked by Joni Ernst’s town hall comment, which she topped off with that acerbic and cruel Snidely Whiplash video. Never in all my years have I seen a member of congress be so callous, cruel and sarcastic. Is this the new normal? She wasn’t even ‘owning the libs’. She was insulting her own constituents with her “let them eat cake” video. She didn’t even need a powdered wig during that performance. We all got the message. Trouble is, the message was for Trump…but one of these days she’s going to wake up to Trump trying to salvage his political reputation by gaslighting the many and contradicting her. He’ll say, “I don’t know what happened to Joni Ernst! She’s gone a little CRAZY!” She’ll be caught in the Trump Paradox….where she misreads the Trump tea leaves that brew nothing but trouble. Then, and only then, will she and others like her be sent down the drain for good and the rest of us will spend a lifetime getting the bitter taste of her and those like her out of our mouths.
Somehow she missed the memo on ‘owning the libs.’ If she’s still angling for Hegseth’s job, this won’t do it. I think we have seen or heard worse, especially during the pandemic. But as you say, not aimed at their own constituents. The follow up made matters worse & lacked not only compassion but an ounce of cleverness. I hope IA voters are fed up.
I’m still scratching my head over what exactly she was trying to do. She certainly did not think about how this video depicts her as a singularly cruel person. She also branded herself now and for all time as a one-dimensional, heartless, dismissive and opportunistic politician. If this is who she really is, then God help her because it is very likely that the religiosity she threw out in this video rang hollow with many of her constituents. Or maybe she was trying to sell ‘a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down’?
It was just so bad. Not funny; no energy; not clever. The tooth fairy thing, dumb. Her religiosity shows up like an afterthought. The video blinks when the tooth fairy ends and begins again.
We’ll see if this, tariffs and lost income from food programs are a trifecta that changes her voters’ behavior.
Steve. your essay rings out like a church bell somewhere in the distance, especially when you quote Gov. Walz, “it’s time for us to be a little meaner … it’s time for us to be a little more fierce … because we have to ferociously push back on this.”
On June 14, Americans will protest trump in communities of every size in every corner of the country even as the would-be king watches his $75 million military parade in Washington, much like his hero Putin watches such parades in Moscow.
Our bells of warning much be louder — much, much louder — than the propaganda blaring forth from state TV (Fox) and right wing radio. We must drown out the ocean of lies, if only for part of one day.
Might that be enough to, as you quote Frederick Douglass’ words spoken 173 years ago during a similar divisive time, to finally get the “feeling of the nation …quickened; the conscience of the nation … roused; the propriety of the nation … startled.”
And while we have daily, if not hourly reports of the crimes committed by trump and associates, they seem to have failed to rouse enough of the nation to revolt against this constant exposure of the “hypocrisy of the nation.” The final, and perhaps most important question is, “Why?”
We are learning our nation is not easily roused, Douglas. That’s why we need to keep ringing the alarm bell.
Our alarm bell must drown out the alarum and iron bells of Edgar Allen Poe's masterful poem. Here are the final two stanzas, which according to literary critics are metaphors for maturity (alarum bells) and death (iron bells).
But during this current regime, Poe's words read differently-- their subject is not a person's life, but a nation's:
"Hear the loud alarum bells—
Brazen bells!
What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now—now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling.
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—
Of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV.
Hear the tolling of the bells—
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people—ah, the people—
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone—
They are neither man nor woman—
They are neither brute nor human—
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A pæan from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the pæan of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the pæan of the bells—
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells—
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells—
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells—
Bells, bells, bells—
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells."
Excellent post Steve, thank you! I remember the cruelty when it was advised for the elderly to just die so that the economy could flourish. There are people with a heart of stone and they were handpicked to be in this administration. So all of their abominable behavior does not surprise me but saddens me to see the depths we’ve sunk to. And yet through it all, I have optimism that we will survive this and grow stronger appreciating what we seem to have lost - that our stony hearts will be replaced by fleshy natural hearts restoring empathy and decency in all of our dealings with others and that we remove any tolerance in our society for behavior to the contrary.
Thank you. We will overcome this.
Your words, and the others you quote, should be a warning to everyone that the regime’s intentions and actions are clear; Democracy must end. We need to make June 14th the day that the American people stood up and screamed out, “the destruction of our Democracy stops today”.
The cruelty is the point.
Get out there and keep making noise. Do not give up. Pick up your friends, family, neighbors and urge them along. If Frederick Douglass could move the populace, so can we, though we lack his oratorial skills: “The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
Voters gave the reins for 2 of the 3 branches of our government to those who are trying to destroy it. Our voices are the way we show Americans do not approve of what they are doing. We must be loud and consistent.
I suspect the administration is taking notice and trying to pushback. Homeland Security going to Nadler’s office, Joanie and her foolishness, the House all but ending public meetings with constituents, doubling down on tariffs & deportation despite court rulings.
Decency: conformity to standards of taste, propriety, or quality.
Decency is subjective—its meaning and use is subject to whoever is using it. Margaret Chase Smith was brilliant (and decent) in 1950 Am.
Today, in 21st century America, DJT and his administration are taking us beyond indecency: there are no “standards” to violate in a full blown kleptocracy. Trump mocks decency, shreds it, and will toss it into the dustbin of history…if we do not check it.
Amen bro… And also, from Heather Cox Richardson Substack, comes the following quote: “framer of the Constitution James Madison, who warned: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Yep, it couldn’t be any clearer, time to get to the streets and make some noise.
Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" deftly puts the hideous puzzle together from the civil war to her publication date of 2010... I hold it dear to me ...this regime is super charged to continue the opression ..... he is beneath contempt
I kept waiting for Joanie Ernst to say, "Then let them die and decrease the surplus population," as Scrooge said to the people collecting money for the poor. While she may call herself a Christian, she is a wolf in sheep's clothing. By their words and their deeds shall ye know them. She has revealed what she is.
I have bought a "RESIST" t-shirt from Penzey's, which I plan to wear on June 14.
Re: Ernst and Scrooge's economic plan...exactly.
Penzey’s sent us a box of their Resist spice blend. I should give a couple of packets to my Trumper brother. I’ll look up their t-shirts.
Penzey’s is awesome.
The level of cruelty simply astounds me. The number of people who support that cruelty astounds me, as does the number of people who blindly follow the perpetrators of the cruelty, thinking they are safe from it. I don't feel sorry for those people when they discover they are not immune from it, and it saddens me profoundly that I can now even feel that way about others. I was raised to not hate, and I rarely have...so at my advanced age, it's a sad revelation !
The protests across the nation on June 14 had better be massive. We need to swamp that figure of 12 million participants to send a clear signal. But even that will not be enough to dislodge this regime. We need to render this country ungovernable through general strikes and mass civil disobedience until the regime falls.
Here, however, is my sad refrain: we still do not have a united body of leaders to spearhead the charge as well as to be in place to pick up the reins once the fascists are driven from power.
Was Joni Ernst trying to be clever? That’s how she addresses her constituents? The never back down, never admit wrongs ethos must be part of this gangster shakedown of America. And it seems every R official is in on it, holding their breath that Donald won’t pick on them. And of course proclaiming that Dems are just as corrupt
Time to take the gloves off, Dems and climb into the ring!