I am just having a really hard time. HOW is this, per the NYT this morning, “the tightest race in HISTORY” as they put out a ‘BREAKING NEWS’ bulletin this morning that polls say Trump is ahead of Harris In Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. I read that and then yours was my next message. I need to either cancel my subscription to the NYT or talk to you and this group about the nauseating whiplash these sources like NYT WaPo and others, ones I’ve always relied upon, have been giving me since 2015. Ramped up when they decided to make money off of bashing Joe Biden as he ran against Trump the first time. That was bad. And I swear they were almost disappointed that he secured the nomination and ultimately won. NOW I have seen nothing but the worst from them both toward Biden - they (NYT) were one of the first ‘journalistic sources’ to demand (as if they have the right or say) that he remove himself from the race. Then they got what they wanted and immediately started in on VP Harris and all the ways she was failing. I am watching Morning Joe and they are touting a national lead for Harris 49% to 44%. But not a mention of this in the BREAKING NEWS from the Times. How, after all that has gone on with the TRUMP-SELECTED-ROBINSON choice for Republican nominee for NC Governor is Harris supposedly ‘losing’ NC? Same w AZ and Georgia?
All that Trump and Vance have done the last two weeks? You all know the list.
Yet Bret Stephens on Bill Maher this weekend WAS ATROCIOUS. He said Harris should ‘tone down the rhetoric’ about Trump being the end of democracy. Saying he just doesn’t know about Harris - she doesn’t HAVE SPECIFIC PLANS. This is a person with vast and valuable real estate in the NYT and he’s on nighttime shows sowing multiple seeds of doubt about HARRIS !!??!! And Janet Jackson is telling INTERNATIONAL MEDIA that Harris isn’t black because she heard they found out her father is white!!! And then the supposed ‘walk back’ from that stunningly ignorant comment from a fellow black woman, didn’t even come from her camp. She isn’t apologizing for spreading lies and disinformation. What world are we living in? What world are we IN that Donald Trump, twice impeached, coup inciter, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual assaulter and racist galore who to this day is still saying the 2020 election was rigged and doing everything possible to RIG 2024 for himself is positioned to with strong possibility, BEAT the (arguably) most qualified person ever to run for President. A brilliant, strong, sharp, prepared, experienced, caring, amazing person who also would be making history as the first woman President of the United States - and YES, the first Black woman President as well.
I feel like crying.
I know we are all ‘doing something’. I’m doing what I can. But I don’t want to be going through this again. And he’s so much worse than even 4 years ago. LOOK at what has happened since then! MILLIONS DEAD OF COVID and we are back up over 1000 dying a week in the US with zero preventative measures in place TODAY! You all know the list that never ends.
But it’s THE CLOSEST RACE IN HISTORY?
How am I living among half of a country that thinks this convict whom couldn’t be hired (per my daughter’s summer application) at HOME DEPOT because he’s a felon … yet has millions of Americans swooning at his feet. His racist, rapist, xenophobic, power salivating, traitorous fraudster’s feet.
And even our free press - top of the heap - New York Times seems hell bent on helping him win this WORLD CHANGING ELECTION.
Dr Joanie Tool- I feel the same way. Depressed, anxious, in disbelief everyday at my family and friends that still support Trump. As far as the NYT, will it help if more and more people unsubscribe to them? I am doing what I can here in MI to help Harris/Walz, but it’s extremely frustrating and disheartening to hear from some formerly reliable news sources how they insist on reporting in favor of Trump , and so against President Biden, and now Kamala Harris.
Don’t you guys know Brett Stephens he’s an Always GOP dork, no matter what. Stick to your core beliefs Stephens has always sounded smart but he’s a schill with one goal no matter. Somebody needs to ask him if he invested in Trump public company, he didn’t and why, loser record lost everything and he will lose this November too.
Read Arthur Sulzberger’s column in the WAPO which decries the possibility that Freedom of the Press might be in danger, yet allows his own newspaper, The NYT, to kowtow to Trump and his ilk by referring to bogus research to discredit Harris and embolden Trump. I wrote a letter to the NYT stating my feelings about this. Perhaps there are others who feel as I do and will also let them know how you feel, too. It may be the only way to neutralize this once example of great journalism that’s now a smelly mess.
Dr. Tool, don’t count on that egomaniac, Sulzberger, to read any letters. I actually feel sorry for many of the writers because their work is being highly scrutinized by their editorial board which means they have to produce far right rhetoric. Stick with the independent authors, like Steven, on Substack because they have a lot to say. Today, by the way, almost all of Robinson’s staff quit. This is progress. Republicans are coming out in favor of Kamala. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is only 4 points behind Gov. Rick Scott in Florida. Josh Stein will win the NC governorship and hopefully flip that state to BLUE. A key Nebraska Republican today, opposed changing how the state awards electoral votes which is blocking Trump’s actions. Please read not only Steven who nails very single topic but also, Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce White Vance, Robert Hubbell, Lucian Truscott, to name a few.
You are in good and numerous company, Richard. We have been writing to WAPO and NYT at least every few weeks for the last year, making comments specifically about their lack of fairness and asymetricality of their political coverage. The changes we've seen from them have been in only the tiniest of increments. Do write—and write often citing specific examples as you're motivated to do so! Thanks for fighting the fight.
I feel as you. I do not believe the polls, yet I feel we are being set up for another steal by gop. When elections must be decided in the courts, the People's voice has lost.
"What world are we living in?" I echo your sentiment! I, also, cannot bear to go through this again. It is killing. And it could get so much worse. Reading books about life under Ceausescu and Franco -- fascist dictators who absolutely DESTROYED life for people in Romania and Spain for many decades. When I read Sinclair Lewis's book, "It Can't Happen Here" many years ago, I realized that, yes, it CAN happen here. I was always very aware of that fact.
Dr. Joanie Tool, I know of a substack that would be good to read to help you feel better about what the polls by NYT, WaPo and others that are out there. The name of the substack is Hopium Chronicles by Simon Rosenburg. He is one of the few people was writing how there was not going to be a red wave in 2022. He knows we have to still work to get Harris/Walz elected, but we do it with hope and we do something.
NYT is not a friend of Democrats. I am not a subscriber, but it seems like they repeatedly write misleading or untruthful headlines and opinions and also cite Republican-skewed polls.
If you are looking for a dose of reality and “ do more, worry less”, please check out Simon Rosenberg’s Substack, Hopium Chronicles.
The GOP has its power through fraud: the manipulation of the voting districts, rolls and judicial system. Orwell has an on-point observation: “A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial. That is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.”
And Fox “News” is and has been for three decades the GOP’s most powerful instrument. It caters to the uninformed, uneducated voters who feel victimized by our government and believe every lie Fox spews. Many of them are also religious fundamentalists who don’t think for themselves, don’t criticize, and accept everything they’re told from the pulpit.
One correction there to your post, they a well saturated with ‘information’ so to speak but rather a litany of disinformation you know alternative facts and plenty of it. They must be knocked down too.
A correction? I put “News” in quotes when referring to Fox because it is anything but. I think most people know that, rational people that is. Yes, they should be taken down and it should’ve happened years ago.
Don’t forget that Faux News is blaring on every base and VA waiting room tv. They are actively poisoning the military against democracy and the rule of law.
Many years ago now a trusted older friend told me to read the book "Night" by holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. I remember the counsel embedded in it that we must never forget, even when those who experienced the horrors and those who fought against the evil had passed on from this life. And now here we are, nearly at that point of losing our memory keepers. Perhaps that is the perceived crack in goodness that the GOP is seeking to enter and destroy. But you know who doesn't forget? Those who were liberated. They remember. Their gratitude is a bulwark against the darkness.
My Uncle Keith, whom I never knew, died in WWII toward the end of the conflict. His body was buried in the American cemetery at Margraten, Netherlands. Such was the underlying force of gratitude of the Dutch people that upon the opening of the cemetery their families adopted American graves for perpetual care. Over 8000 graves. There is a waiting list for that honor. What tiny fragment remains of my family is now in close contact with the third generation of caretakers. In fact, he came on a visit to the US to Minneapolis this year specifically to visit me. He posts reminders on Facebook of the Dutch people's gratitude for their liberation. He reminds us, his American friends, of the goodness of America's sacrifice on behalf of democracy. And what it means to the Netherlands and beyond.
The current GOP has become an abomination. They are trying to take this nation on a pathway of death. But we can recall the stories of sacrifice and liberation. We can tell them to each other. We know the truth. We can recognize evil when we see it with our own eyes. When we waver in hope and courage we can listen to our friends who know first hand the power of having been liberated.
It's impossible not to think of "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
As a retired teacher of writing and thinking, I find it heartbreaking to see that politicians who use false allegations (about pets, for example) can turn around and abuse that same idea by saying other allegations (about politicians they endorse) might not be true because they are allegations. Even more heartbreaking, nothing gets done.
The hardest thing for me are the trump people who are not the media stereotypes, the people always interviewed at rallies and “man on the street” encounters. The people I struggle with are the ones with college degrees, whether Ivies or not, who are successful, community oriented, run companies and send their kids to private schools. They invest in the stock market and are happy to get the profits all while disparaging the people who are making their rise to wealth possible. I feel like these people are the really insidious danger and I know quite a few. It’s disheartening.
These upstanding members of the community, most likely quite wealthy and white, care about two things CFDT promises: large tax cuts and the permission to exhibit quietly implied bigotry, ie, “I’m not a racist, but…”
The media stereotypes perpetuated by political analysts are not helpful. The reinforce the stereotype of Dems: elitists idiots who enjoy demeaning people. I’m guessing the folks with money to burn lean more libertarian.
They are not the angry folks who were watching their economic security evaporate during the ‘Great Recession” and again during Covid. Some abandoned him in 2020 in suburban areas where jobs / the economy had improved. According to an after election analysis they may have tipped the balance to Biden in swing states.
Is there a good explanation as to why the market hasn't downgraded companies run and owned by executives backing Trump?
I would think rational investors would question the judgement of business leaders who backing a candidate declared manifestly irrational by 741 national security leaders including over 230 general and flag officers, ten cabinet secretaries, 15 retired four-star generals and admirals, and 148 ambassadors from across the political spectrum.
What we can all say, and this has been thoroughly documented in the new book “Lucky Loser”, is that Trump has consistently lied and cheated his way through his life, has been like a chameleon who changes his colors but at his basest is still a liar and cheater. It’s incomprehensible how people can suck up to him, like moths to a flame, many to get burned in the process. Kamala Harris is the perfect antidote to this disgusting excuse for a human being. Once in office she will demonstrate the stark differences between the candidates beginning on Day One. Trump must be solidly rejected. VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot.
The following is true but does require your getting into the Wayback Machine for a moment.
Steve, please join me for dinner at a nice California restaurant in 2015. Across the table is an acquaintance from high school who, despite not having a college degree has started and built a successful small business.
All his news and information comes from watching the Fox news channel. He does not read any of the six local or regional daily newspapers that can be found on local newsstands or on the internet.
As discussion starts and develops about the 2016 presidential election, it becomes apparent that no matter how many truths, how many undisputed facts can be thrown at him, he believes everything about Trump that the maga movement preaches.
As the third person there, it is embarrassing to you to have to sit at the table and listened as the two sides grow louder and red-faced angry. Finally, you leave, wondering how someone who had been so successful in business could be so ignorant of reality.
It must be blamed on Fox and the propaganda onslaught it shoves into the ears of its viewers. If that’s all you hear, that is your window on the world
That is unregulated free speech. Something to be desired in theory – many voices in some sort of public square -- but how does one inject truth into that flood of lies, when there is no public square, just a myriad of electronic channels?
An argument at a restaurant won’t solve it. Or at the Thanksgiving family get together. And keep in mind that the FCC’s Fairness Docrine, repealed in 1987, never applied to cable channels or the internet. Ideas, anyone?
Thank you for your comment putting this whole discussion in the context you have outlined. Your scenario might be dated 2015, but the needle hasn’t moved much since then. If you have a chance to watch Bill Maher’s tv program that aired last Friday, I’d have to say that one of the guests, Bref Stephen’s from the NYT explains his position vis-a-vis Trump with bravado, albeit not in a convincing way. The pushback by both Bill and his other guest Stephanie Rhule from MSNBC made watching it not only entertaining, but provided insights into what has transpired with mass media.
Those attracted to today's Republican party will be with us long after Trump is gone. Candidates like him, and worse, will be seeking public offices from President down to local school boards for years to come. We can not lose focus on our democracy and we must be energized to thwart those candidates.
Early voting certainly can be affected by current events, but I don't believe there will be a 2020 level of that this time. Remember, in November of 2020 we were at the height of Covid-19, people were dying by the thousands each month, and we had no vaccine. States enacted many temporary ways to vote early without having to be in a crowd.
What if we paid no attention to the man behind the curtain in garish make-up, and instead focused on what we can do to get our candidate elected? Writing postcards to progressive voters in battleground states feels good! (We're writing 500 to Michigan voters through turnoutpac.org/postcards.)
This week I'll be door-knocking in Michigan, even though it's a 2-hour drive from where I live.
The best ever found here in my opinion. Almost every separate concept should be shared again and again everywhere…..!
EXERPT from this incredible essay:…
“”Maybe you’ll want to mention that, just yesterday, 741 national security leaders endorsed Kamala Harris for president. That list—comprised of Democrats, Republicans and Independents—includes over 230 general and flag officers, ten cabinet secretaries, 15 retired four-star generals and admirals, and 148 ambassadors.
Their signed letter notes that they did not come to their decision lightly. “We are trained to make sober, rational decisions,” they said, adding, “This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.””
Last week, my son in law flew to Nebraska for a meeting of his company's head sales managers of various sections of the country. With the way my mind works, my first thought was of the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 put forth to allow the building of a transcontinental railroad. It caused rancor among southerners, for the Missouri Compromise had forbidden slavery in that area. Heated exchanges and violence in Kansas led to the repeal of the latter and now allowed states to decide the slavery issue. Since the northern Whig Party was against its southern brothers on this issue, the Act led to the demise of the Whig Party and the beginning of the Republican Party which at that time stood for abolition of slavery and led to America's greatest President, Abraham Lincoln. It also was a factor that would push toward the Civil War.Time and events and the twists of history have led to the Democrats being the champions of democracy, while the Republican Party has evolved into what could become a mirror image of 1930s Nazi Germany and Italy, its egregious behavior led by a new devil incarnate, donald trump and the fact of a divided country with the possibility of a new civil war.
To come upon this aberration of a black man whose ancestors suffered in the inhuman dregs of an ocean crossing ship, whipped till backs were scarred, worked to death, were sold like cattle to lately advocate for such a system and combine it with thoughts of a filthy mind goes even beyond Kellyanne Conway's fantasy of alternate facts. Surely, North Carolinians will live up to their motto, Esse Quam Videri, to be a state of rational, proud Tar Heels rather than to seem like a wacky bunch of trump lovers.
You're so right that the example of Mark Robinson is emblematic of what the Republican Party has become...the more extreme the better. What's more alarming for me is that so many Americans and the media seem to have normalized that kind of behavior. What will break the fever dream
It's important for us regular folks to try to spread the word and make an impact in our own small way. It's more important for people with a large megaphone to step up to protect our democracy. It was disappointing to see George W Bush take the cowardly approach to this responsibility.
The GOP goes from bad to worse; and they seem to be candidates selected by and/or endorsed by the 45th president. There is no place for hate, anti-semitism, prejudice, violence, restricting the right to choose, disavowing the Constitution, cheating on elections, spreading conspiracy theories in this country. Vote for honesty, justice, peace, and always remember that in the greatest country in the world we are all equal under the law. God Bless America🇺🇸
I am just having a really hard time. HOW is this, per the NYT this morning, “the tightest race in HISTORY” as they put out a ‘BREAKING NEWS’ bulletin this morning that polls say Trump is ahead of Harris In Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. I read that and then yours was my next message. I need to either cancel my subscription to the NYT or talk to you and this group about the nauseating whiplash these sources like NYT WaPo and others, ones I’ve always relied upon, have been giving me since 2015. Ramped up when they decided to make money off of bashing Joe Biden as he ran against Trump the first time. That was bad. And I swear they were almost disappointed that he secured the nomination and ultimately won. NOW I have seen nothing but the worst from them both toward Biden - they (NYT) were one of the first ‘journalistic sources’ to demand (as if they have the right or say) that he remove himself from the race. Then they got what they wanted and immediately started in on VP Harris and all the ways she was failing. I am watching Morning Joe and they are touting a national lead for Harris 49% to 44%. But not a mention of this in the BREAKING NEWS from the Times. How, after all that has gone on with the TRUMP-SELECTED-ROBINSON choice for Republican nominee for NC Governor is Harris supposedly ‘losing’ NC? Same w AZ and Georgia?
All that Trump and Vance have done the last two weeks? You all know the list.
Yet Bret Stephens on Bill Maher this weekend WAS ATROCIOUS. He said Harris should ‘tone down the rhetoric’ about Trump being the end of democracy. Saying he just doesn’t know about Harris - she doesn’t HAVE SPECIFIC PLANS. This is a person with vast and valuable real estate in the NYT and he’s on nighttime shows sowing multiple seeds of doubt about HARRIS !!??!! And Janet Jackson is telling INTERNATIONAL MEDIA that Harris isn’t black because she heard they found out her father is white!!! And then the supposed ‘walk back’ from that stunningly ignorant comment from a fellow black woman, didn’t even come from her camp. She isn’t apologizing for spreading lies and disinformation. What world are we living in? What world are we IN that Donald Trump, twice impeached, coup inciter, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual assaulter and racist galore who to this day is still saying the 2020 election was rigged and doing everything possible to RIG 2024 for himself is positioned to with strong possibility, BEAT the (arguably) most qualified person ever to run for President. A brilliant, strong, sharp, prepared, experienced, caring, amazing person who also would be making history as the first woman President of the United States - and YES, the first Black woman President as well.
I feel like crying.
I know we are all ‘doing something’. I’m doing what I can. But I don’t want to be going through this again. And he’s so much worse than even 4 years ago. LOOK at what has happened since then! MILLIONS DEAD OF COVID and we are back up over 1000 dying a week in the US with zero preventative measures in place TODAY! You all know the list that never ends.
But it’s THE CLOSEST RACE IN HISTORY?
How am I living among half of a country that thinks this convict whom couldn’t be hired (per my daughter’s summer application) at HOME DEPOT because he’s a felon … yet has millions of Americans swooning at his feet. His racist, rapist, xenophobic, power salivating, traitorous fraudster’s feet.
And even our free press - top of the heap - New York Times seems hell bent on helping him win this WORLD CHANGING ELECTION.
I am so confused and so sad.
Dr Joanie Tool- I feel the same way. Depressed, anxious, in disbelief everyday at my family and friends that still support Trump. As far as the NYT, will it help if more and more people unsubscribe to them? I am doing what I can here in MI to help Harris/Walz, but it’s extremely frustrating and disheartening to hear from some formerly reliable news sources how they insist on reporting in favor of Trump , and so against President Biden, and now Kamala Harris.
I unsubscribed back in June. Many more have been doing so, according to fellow readers of several substacks to which I subscribe.
I definitely can’t and wont renew. Everything about life has changed and I think the subscription ends before the election. So that’s good.
Don’t you guys know Brett Stephens he’s an Always GOP dork, no matter what. Stick to your core beliefs Stephens has always sounded smart but he’s a schill with one goal no matter. Somebody needs to ask him if he invested in Trump public company, he didn’t and why, loser record lost everything and he will lose this November too.
Stephanie Ruehl was brilliant in her backhand that she served Stephens. I don’t think he knew what hit him.
Read Arthur Sulzberger’s column in the WAPO which decries the possibility that Freedom of the Press might be in danger, yet allows his own newspaper, The NYT, to kowtow to Trump and his ilk by referring to bogus research to discredit Harris and embolden Trump. I wrote a letter to the NYT stating my feelings about this. Perhaps there are others who feel as I do and will also let them know how you feel, too. It may be the only way to neutralize this once example of great journalism that’s now a smelly mess.
I find myself writing multiple letters to the Times and WaPo calling out all I’m seeing - will continue. Wish I was seeing changes for the better.
Dr. Tool, don’t count on that egomaniac, Sulzberger, to read any letters. I actually feel sorry for many of the writers because their work is being highly scrutinized by their editorial board which means they have to produce far right rhetoric. Stick with the independent authors, like Steven, on Substack because they have a lot to say. Today, by the way, almost all of Robinson’s staff quit. This is progress. Republicans are coming out in favor of Kamala. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is only 4 points behind Gov. Rick Scott in Florida. Josh Stein will win the NC governorship and hopefully flip that state to BLUE. A key Nebraska Republican today, opposed changing how the state awards electoral votes which is blocking Trump’s actions. Please read not only Steven who nails very single topic but also, Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce White Vance, Robert Hubbell, Lucian Truscott, to name a few.
You are in good and numerous company, Richard. We have been writing to WAPO and NYT at least every few weeks for the last year, making comments specifically about their lack of fairness and asymetricality of their political coverage. The changes we've seen from them have been in only the tiniest of increments. Do write—and write often citing specific examples as you're motivated to do so! Thanks for fighting the fight.
What an SOB!
I feel as you. I do not believe the polls, yet I feel we are being set up for another steal by gop. When elections must be decided in the courts, the People's voice has lost.
"What world are we living in?" I echo your sentiment! I, also, cannot bear to go through this again. It is killing. And it could get so much worse. Reading books about life under Ceausescu and Franco -- fascist dictators who absolutely DESTROYED life for people in Romania and Spain for many decades. When I read Sinclair Lewis's book, "It Can't Happen Here" many years ago, I realized that, yes, it CAN happen here. I was always very aware of that fact.
The NYT is morally bankrupt.
You've spelled out how mind-blowing our predicament is, Joanie. We're living in a nightmare. When will we wake up?
Dr. Joanie Tool, I know of a substack that would be good to read to help you feel better about what the polls by NYT, WaPo and others that are out there. The name of the substack is Hopium Chronicles by Simon Rosenburg. He is one of the few people was writing how there was not going to be a red wave in 2022. He knows we have to still work to get Harris/Walz elected, but we do it with hope and we do something.
NYT is not a friend of Democrats. I am not a subscriber, but it seems like they repeatedly write misleading or untruthful headlines and opinions and also cite Republican-skewed polls.
If you are looking for a dose of reality and “ do more, worry less”, please check out Simon Rosenberg’s Substack, Hopium Chronicles.
The GOP has its power through fraud: the manipulation of the voting districts, rolls and judicial system. Orwell has an on-point observation: “A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial. That is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.”
And Fox “News” is and has been for three decades the GOP’s most powerful instrument. It caters to the uninformed, uneducated voters who feel victimized by our government and believe every lie Fox spews. Many of them are also religious fundamentalists who don’t think for themselves, don’t criticize, and accept everything they’re told from the pulpit.
One correction there to your post, they a well saturated with ‘information’ so to speak but rather a litany of disinformation you know alternative facts and plenty of it. They must be knocked down too.
A correction? I put “News” in quotes when referring to Fox because it is anything but. I think most people know that, rational people that is. Yes, they should be taken down and it should’ve happened years ago.
Don’t forget that Faux News is blaring on every base and VA waiting room tv. They are actively poisoning the military against democracy and the rule of law.
Many years ago now a trusted older friend told me to read the book "Night" by holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. I remember the counsel embedded in it that we must never forget, even when those who experienced the horrors and those who fought against the evil had passed on from this life. And now here we are, nearly at that point of losing our memory keepers. Perhaps that is the perceived crack in goodness that the GOP is seeking to enter and destroy. But you know who doesn't forget? Those who were liberated. They remember. Their gratitude is a bulwark against the darkness.
My Uncle Keith, whom I never knew, died in WWII toward the end of the conflict. His body was buried in the American cemetery at Margraten, Netherlands. Such was the underlying force of gratitude of the Dutch people that upon the opening of the cemetery their families adopted American graves for perpetual care. Over 8000 graves. There is a waiting list for that honor. What tiny fragment remains of my family is now in close contact with the third generation of caretakers. In fact, he came on a visit to the US to Minneapolis this year specifically to visit me. He posts reminders on Facebook of the Dutch people's gratitude for their liberation. He reminds us, his American friends, of the goodness of America's sacrifice on behalf of democracy. And what it means to the Netherlands and beyond.
The current GOP has become an abomination. They are trying to take this nation on a pathway of death. But we can recall the stories of sacrifice and liberation. We can tell them to each other. We know the truth. We can recognize evil when we see it with our own eyes. When we waver in hope and courage we can listen to our friends who know first hand the power of having been liberated.
It's impossible not to think of "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
We can do this.
Beautiful words and with gratitude to the Netherlands a brutal pogrom there, thanks to them and you it needs repetition yearly and more.
As a retired teacher of writing and thinking, I find it heartbreaking to see that politicians who use false allegations (about pets, for example) can turn around and abuse that same idea by saying other allegations (about politicians they endorse) might not be true because they are allegations. Even more heartbreaking, nothing gets done.
Mr Beschloss, thank you for this article today as always. We must keep up the fight against lies, disinformation and total corruption of the GOP.
Thank you, Helen. Yes, we must.
The hardest thing for me are the trump people who are not the media stereotypes, the people always interviewed at rallies and “man on the street” encounters. The people I struggle with are the ones with college degrees, whether Ivies or not, who are successful, community oriented, run companies and send their kids to private schools. They invest in the stock market and are happy to get the profits all while disparaging the people who are making their rise to wealth possible. I feel like these people are the really insidious danger and I know quite a few. It’s disheartening.
These upstanding members of the community, most likely quite wealthy and white, care about two things CFDT promises: large tax cuts and the permission to exhibit quietly implied bigotry, ie, “I’m not a racist, but…”
The media stereotypes perpetuated by political analysts are not helpful. The reinforce the stereotype of Dems: elitists idiots who enjoy demeaning people. I’m guessing the folks with money to burn lean more libertarian.
They are not the angry folks who were watching their economic security evaporate during the ‘Great Recession” and again during Covid. Some abandoned him in 2020 in suburban areas where jobs / the economy had improved. According to an after election analysis they may have tipped the balance to Biden in swing states.
Is there a good explanation as to why the market hasn't downgraded companies run and owned by executives backing Trump?
I would think rational investors would question the judgement of business leaders who backing a candidate declared manifestly irrational by 741 national security leaders including over 230 general and flag officers, ten cabinet secretaries, 15 retired four-star generals and admirals, and 148 ambassadors from across the political spectrum.
What we can all say, and this has been thoroughly documented in the new book “Lucky Loser”, is that Trump has consistently lied and cheated his way through his life, has been like a chameleon who changes his colors but at his basest is still a liar and cheater. It’s incomprehensible how people can suck up to him, like moths to a flame, many to get burned in the process. Kamala Harris is the perfect antidote to this disgusting excuse for a human being. Once in office she will demonstrate the stark differences between the candidates beginning on Day One. Trump must be solidly rejected. VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot.
The following is true but does require your getting into the Wayback Machine for a moment.
Steve, please join me for dinner at a nice California restaurant in 2015. Across the table is an acquaintance from high school who, despite not having a college degree has started and built a successful small business.
All his news and information comes from watching the Fox news channel. He does not read any of the six local or regional daily newspapers that can be found on local newsstands or on the internet.
As discussion starts and develops about the 2016 presidential election, it becomes apparent that no matter how many truths, how many undisputed facts can be thrown at him, he believes everything about Trump that the maga movement preaches.
As the third person there, it is embarrassing to you to have to sit at the table and listened as the two sides grow louder and red-faced angry. Finally, you leave, wondering how someone who had been so successful in business could be so ignorant of reality.
It must be blamed on Fox and the propaganda onslaught it shoves into the ears of its viewers. If that’s all you hear, that is your window on the world
That is unregulated free speech. Something to be desired in theory – many voices in some sort of public square -- but how does one inject truth into that flood of lies, when there is no public square, just a myriad of electronic channels?
An argument at a restaurant won’t solve it. Or at the Thanksgiving family get together. And keep in mind that the FCC’s Fairness Docrine, repealed in 1987, never applied to cable channels or the internet. Ideas, anyone?
Thank you for your comment putting this whole discussion in the context you have outlined. Your scenario might be dated 2015, but the needle hasn’t moved much since then. If you have a chance to watch Bill Maher’s tv program that aired last Friday, I’d have to say that one of the guests, Bref Stephen’s from the NYT explains his position vis-a-vis Trump with bravado, albeit not in a convincing way. The pushback by both Bill and his other guest Stephanie Rhule from MSNBC made watching it not only entertaining, but provided insights into what has transpired with mass media.
See my comment below!
Those attracted to today's Republican party will be with us long after Trump is gone. Candidates like him, and worse, will be seeking public offices from President down to local school boards for years to come. We can not lose focus on our democracy and we must be energized to thwart those candidates.
Early voting certainly can be affected by current events, but I don't believe there will be a 2020 level of that this time. Remember, in November of 2020 we were at the height of Covid-19, people were dying by the thousands each month, and we had no vaccine. States enacted many temporary ways to vote early without having to be in a crowd.
What if we paid no attention to the man behind the curtain in garish make-up, and instead focused on what we can do to get our candidate elected? Writing postcards to progressive voters in battleground states feels good! (We're writing 500 to Michigan voters through turnoutpac.org/postcards.)
This week I'll be door-knocking in Michigan, even though it's a 2-hour drive from where I live.
As Michelle Obama said, "Do Something!"
As for the other guy, ignore-ance is bliss...
Absolutely phenomenal article here Steven!
The best ever found here in my opinion. Almost every separate concept should be shared again and again everywhere…..!
EXERPT from this incredible essay:…
“”Maybe you’ll want to mention that, just yesterday, 741 national security leaders endorsed Kamala Harris for president. That list—comprised of Democrats, Republicans and Independents—includes over 230 general and flag officers, ten cabinet secretaries, 15 retired four-star generals and admirals, and 148 ambassadors.
Their signed letter notes that they did not come to their decision lightly. “We are trained to make sober, rational decisions,” they said, adding, “This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.””
Last week, my son in law flew to Nebraska for a meeting of his company's head sales managers of various sections of the country. With the way my mind works, my first thought was of the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 put forth to allow the building of a transcontinental railroad. It caused rancor among southerners, for the Missouri Compromise had forbidden slavery in that area. Heated exchanges and violence in Kansas led to the repeal of the latter and now allowed states to decide the slavery issue. Since the northern Whig Party was against its southern brothers on this issue, the Act led to the demise of the Whig Party and the beginning of the Republican Party which at that time stood for abolition of slavery and led to America's greatest President, Abraham Lincoln. It also was a factor that would push toward the Civil War.Time and events and the twists of history have led to the Democrats being the champions of democracy, while the Republican Party has evolved into what could become a mirror image of 1930s Nazi Germany and Italy, its egregious behavior led by a new devil incarnate, donald trump and the fact of a divided country with the possibility of a new civil war.
To come upon this aberration of a black man whose ancestors suffered in the inhuman dregs of an ocean crossing ship, whipped till backs were scarred, worked to death, were sold like cattle to lately advocate for such a system and combine it with thoughts of a filthy mind goes even beyond Kellyanne Conway's fantasy of alternate facts. Surely, North Carolinians will live up to their motto, Esse Quam Videri, to be a state of rational, proud Tar Heels rather than to seem like a wacky bunch of trump lovers.
You're so right that the example of Mark Robinson is emblematic of what the Republican Party has become...the more extreme the better. What's more alarming for me is that so many Americans and the media seem to have normalized that kind of behavior. What will break the fever dream
Powerful essay Steven. Even better advice.
It's important for us regular folks to try to spread the word and make an impact in our own small way. It's more important for people with a large megaphone to step up to protect our democracy. It was disappointing to see George W Bush take the cowardly approach to this responsibility.
The GOP goes from bad to worse; and they seem to be candidates selected by and/or endorsed by the 45th president. There is no place for hate, anti-semitism, prejudice, violence, restricting the right to choose, disavowing the Constitution, cheating on elections, spreading conspiracy theories in this country. Vote for honesty, justice, peace, and always remember that in the greatest country in the world we are all equal under the law. God Bless America🇺🇸