Republican candidates are not only pushing Trump's big lie, but three others. In these last days before the midterms, let's continue to spread the truth
Truth, hence trust, hence legitimacy, are the foundation of a nation's democracy. The Republicans today betray the truth, betray our trust, and are dismantling and betraying the legitimacy of institutions. If they prevail, our democracy will be in gravest peril, even worse than at the time of our historical Civil War!
That is not true. Our democracy is in danger but NOT from republicans but from democrats. Just look at the last years since Biden took office. Down hill completely. We had peace and prosperity. Now we don’t. Don’t listen to democrat lies.
Troll enablers—anyone who responds—become trolls themselves by engaging. I come here hoping for informed conversation, leave frustrated by fools on both sides.
If you want to convince us, back up your claims with some facts. Inflation is worldwide, caused by the pandemic, which causes supply problems. It’s also caused by Putin’s war, which drives fuel and food shortages. Read Prof. Reich’s posts for a starter.
I am a regular reader of Prof. Reich and have read his posts for a long time! You list some facts and suggest some implications and consequences. These are not problems created by the Democrats! Rather, they refer to problems for which the Dems are desperately attempting to provide beneficial and progressive solutions, blocked at every turn by Republican governors, senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen.
Could you please list specific Trump policies that forwarded equality and equity for all which is the goal of democracy and the Biden policies that have done this. I agree both parties have done damage, but not equally.
It's always helpful to encourage the lost on how to find their way.
Requiring the smallest bit of evidence from them may lead them to the truth. Not that they want to know how they've been fooled, on nearly everything... While they reject the verified proof we offer.
We can try to at least show them how to do better research from multiple & better sources.
If democracy( rule by the bully majority) is under attack, please at the very least, admit it is from both ends of the political spectrum. And morphs not into left vs right but us vs the bully which is an overpowering government.
Hungary seems to be the roadmap for the gop. Let’s hope that the majority come out to vote for sanity. There’s so many that needs to be done, especially with North Korea/Ukraine & Russia/China pushing further in different ways. We cannot become either a authoritarian or isolationism form of government (nor a theocracy).
Janet, because DeSantis was open to the Barrington Declaration I listened to him. Because he is willing to protect children from an experimental treatment, he is the reason I listened further. Orban is someone I opposed always because he attacked the professor with whom I wrote my dissertation in philosophy. But right now, I have to acknowledge that he is one of the only European leaders opposing WWIII and nuclear apocalypse. DeSantis unfortunately is a neocon.
The idea that DeSantis is protecting children in this regard is laughable and patently incorrect.
He's legislating away the rights of parents to pursue the AMA recommended treatments their doctors would otherwise recommend for children facing gender dysphoria.
What protects children more? Allowing them (after already rigorous interviews and therapy that take place) to have access to the care options that allow them to accept themselves and live comfortably in their own body?
Or stigmatizing them and their families and denying them treatments, when we already know kids in these circumstances are already 7.8 times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
Nothing is more tragic than *pretending* these people care about kids, when this is really just a fascist weather balloon policy meant to give Florida voters an "other" to freak out about and allows DeSantis (and Republicans at large) to further experiment with limiting other people's human rights and protections based on what Christians White Nationalists feel about them.
You know it was Applebaum's husband who thanked the US for blowing up the Nordstream pipeline via twitter, right? You know that Applebaum has been 100% wrong about everything regarding the Ukraine war? You realize that she runs a propaganda machine from Johns Hopkins and is hugely responsible for the unbelievable belligerence within which we are trapped. Unless you are as evil as Applebaum,, I have to assume that you are simply ignorant. She began proslethetizing the Iraq war and has never found an imperialist conquest for which she is not prepared to cheer. She is evil, pure evil.
LOFL you should take a break a look up AA's hubby. AA, Bilderberg, national security state spook propagandist, member of the Robert Reich community, says everything we need to know about WWIII and why the Democrats MUST LOOSE.
If the gop/q/right wing evangelical conservatives were to win, WWIII will be so much closer. The possibility of our democracy possibly destroyed by those wrapped up in the speeches that the koch family probably approved, is saddening
gosh Kevin, I'm on the side against NAZIS. I was in Germany in the 1990s. I remember the promises not to expand NATO. I saw Gorbachev speak in person. I remember what was said back in the day. And you think that the Democratic Party is not 1000% owned by warmongers? I know that the GOP is also evil, but you cannot say that there is any peace part of the Democratic Party today. They are owned.
You can say every politician is owned. Everyone has an agenda. I see the gop/maga/q as making things worse, not only for our country but on the world stage. Curious who you consider a democrat war monger at the moment?
if you don't think it perverse for a participant in Bilderberg to speak in Hannah Arendt's name, you might want to read a book. You are brainwashed if you automatically assume that the ruling elites are all benevolent and dismiss the possibility of evil. Grow up.
Janet, you are delightful. Have you read Origins of Totalitarianism? Did you know that Arendt argued for a multipolar rather than unipolar world? Did you know that Full Spectrum Dominance, which is the official Pentagon posture toward the universe, is conceptually identical with "total domination," the raison d' etre of totalitarianism according to Hannah Arendt? Or are you just a shitlib windbag who thinks that the ability to form complete sentences after listening to NPR means that you are informed?
Donald was an old pal of Vince McMahon of pro wrestling. The Republican Party is recklessly playing a stunt for the rubes, and it is working for them. They are carelessly putting the match to whatever is precious in American politics, and it entertains them when it causes us anguish.
In pro wrestling, the bad boys - who tend to have more fans than the good guys, or "babyfaces" - act in the most atrocious way towards other wrestlers, and the crowd eats it up. The wrestlers remain scrupulously in-character whenever they are in public-called kayfabe. Donald is a bigger-than-life bad guy, a "heel." I can't tell if he comprehends what a fake he is. But the party members don't care, they scream with delight.
The late Andy Kaufman loved pro wrestling "guerrilla theater." All of his notoriously nasty appearances in the ring were staged. The news media presented it as though he were being a real jerk, and was getting threatened and pounded by offended pro wrestlers. But it all was a stunt, even the pretend injuries. He kept the illusion for entertainment purposes.
Once Kaufman wrestled in Nashville. Before the match, he insolently showed a video to the Nashville audience on how to use soap, and performed to deafening screams of hate from the crowd. They sent him to the hospital with a broken neck - that was part of the script. The crowd didn't know it was phony. They loved it.
The not-so-bright MAGA crowd is using American politics for entertainment the same way. The crowd is delirious that Paul Pelosi was bonked by a hammer. "It was his gay lover!" It’s all as believable and real to them as wrestling, the neck-shattering piledrivers that are carefully rehearsed by the pro wrestlers before the show. These physical actors portray the illusion of physical harm while protecting the "opponent" actor from getting hurt. If the wrestlers are good, nobody really gets hurt.
This is the Republican game for delirious voters. They don’t want to hear about inflation or crime or Herschel Walker’s aborted fetuses. It’s just a game to them. They will tell you that Shoah (the Holocaust) was a hoax. They will tell you that the Democrats eat babies. They relish in their illusion that their guy will righteously crush the bad guy.
Wrestling makes money off the intellectual flaccidity and massive egos of these losers. So does the Republican Party. They've brought the Big Show to the big ring, and their followers are orgasmic with delight.
The idiot truly has the matches, and they will burn the house down. They really might get us killed. This is not a phony stunt by skilled actors, although professional liars like Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene seem to believe that they all belong to a wrestling stable that allows them to preen and strut for the crowd, in order to get the big payoff.
Honestly, that is why they won't budge when faced with the truth. They have paid for their tickets, and expect a show. They are vicious, indifferent losers who play with our country like it's a stunt.
It is very entertaining to injure helpless things and watch them die. The childhood of most psychopaths is replete with animal cruelty.
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
― D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature
I wish to dispute D.H. Lawrence, but I have no grounds to do so.
Like others, I think your analysis is excellent. Wrestling is a good metaphor but so is boxing and that blood-sport is one that Trump loves.
There is video of him from some years back in which he discusses his love of conflict and fights - among/between others - that he likes to provoke fights, incite conflicts, and watch how they play out, who is strongest, who wins.
A cruel sadistic manipulator and provocateur and voyeur of violence, that is whose name appears on big banners all across the country, even today in November 2022, as having "won" something that he lost, a name that flies on flags on the back of pick-up trucks looking for all the world like the Nazi flags flying on the cars of Hitler's retinue. The flags and banners shout "Trump" and one feels assaulted and violated just by seeing them.
Is he the greatest danger or are those who promote the ideas and behaviors that he and they embody, those who "vote" for him and his cult?
If they vote for him and his like-minded cult, is American democracy already destroyed? And if so, what do we do on November 9th and going forward?
O'Cally, well stated! As an amateur actor myself I have often noted "everyone needs to be entertained." Count the number of entertaining films and how those numbers have exploded since television was introduced...and exponentially since the internet. The entertainment industry is really multiple industries moving billions of dollars and minds. If opium was the opiate of the people and if the poor Russians were distracted with vodka, then entertainment today is an addiction that draws people away from study, analysis, productivity, true joy and awareness of reality.
See the afterword to Delia Owens' book "Where the Crawdads Sing"- she discusses the primative "unevolved human" vs the "evolved human". I believe the "not so bright MAGA crowd consists of unevolved humans. Understand- "unevolved human" is not necessarily a pejorative designation, and the unevolved nature very likely is the reason the human race did not become extinct early in its history. The GOP is busily engaged in profitably utilizing this unevolved nature to achieve it's own agenda.
That's awfully kind of you, thanks. I started the newsletter because I tend to chatter on and on here, so if my comments get overly long, I stuff the rest in the Desert Meditations.
Where I am is south to Durango, then down into the Land of Enchantment. I like Rocky Mountain folks. You know what a New Mexico Liberal is? Someone who goes hunting SOBER.
Robert Reich is one of the few people formerly in power with the Democrats who is able to articulate very complicated issues clearly and with great FORCE. Oh, how we need that!
If corporate media was more concerned with discussing and presenting the actual facts rather than pleasing their conservative owners, the GOP would be unmasked for who they really are: facists, liars and violent thugs.
Corporate media is responsible to shareholders, not the public, now that it’s poorly regulated. They are in business to make money. This is a built-in, structural problem, especially when mega-rich people can own an entire media giant.
Since the Fairness Doctrine was destroyed by the Reagan administration in 1985, there is no law requiring TV news from presenting both sides of an issue. Thus, the owners of corporate media are allowed to make money by pandering to the highest bidder, Truth be damned. And these owners are not necessarily conservative. Look at Les Moonves, former president of CBS news. In 2016 he said this re the Orange Sadist's campaign (I was literally SICK when I read what he'd said), "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS ... Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ... The money's rolling in and this is fun ... I've never seen anything like this, and this [is] going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going."[28] He added, "Donald's place in this election is a good thing."
But it is not the left that is subject to censorship. And dissent is only happening on the right at this time in history. I write this as a formerly lifelong Democrat who identified as an ecosocialist feminist. Who on the left is being presently censored?
Re the issue of WWIII, most of Fox, as far as I understand it, is prowar, not different than msnbc, cnn. But anti-war voices do appear on Tucker and are occasionally indicated in Gutfield. Judge Napolitano is not on Fox anymore, but he has a show in which McGregor and Ritter often appear.
Corporate ownership is a problem, but I also think that reporters are lazy. It is a lot easier for the media to cover polls and interview random voters (= horse race) than to delve deeply into issues, to explain what the two parties are proposing in their platforms, and to analyze which proposals make sense so that voters have the information to make informed choices.
Authoritarians figure out how people feel and construct messages they repeat. They use “alternative facts” to back up their messages.
Liberals (broadly defined) start with facts about complex situations so they can govern well. Difficult problems like climate change have many causes. So liberals sound the alarm with many different, uncoordinated messages. Those messages often don’t connect with voters’ immediate feelings. Or they may require an inconvenient solution. We are losing the messaging war.
We need to do this differently while still telling the truth. But we’re all over the place, so we’re not getting traction.
Yes, confirmation bias is at play. And, as a whole, Republicans score higher in the RWA (Right Wing Authoritarian) scale by Bob Altemeyer, who says the RWA scale also applies to left-wing extremists. Also, Jonathan Haidt finds that liberals only appeal to two universal moral foundations, while conservatives appeal to all six. We’re in a world of trouble because we haven’t applied messaging that gains traction outside our tent.
Very confused. "Haidt finds that...conservatives appeal to all six" universal moral principles? Huh? As I read it, those principles are: 1. Care 2. Fairness 3. Loyalty
4. Authority 5. Sanctity (didn't see the sixth), on the only principle I see that current "conservatives" could possibly appeal to is #4. Care? Fair? Loyal? Sanctity? (maybe pseudo-sanctity with ending Roe v. Wade?) Please explain. Thank you!
These aren’t what I’m worried about. These subjects aren’t what’s tearing our country apart.
What is wrong with the reasoning power of these people? Where is their head? If they think that these are the most important issues that are at steak here, then we ARE in big trouble.
Our country is not only divided as to the actual issues at hand, but also in reasoning power in general. I wish these were the only things that divide us; I would be truly grateful. Our problems go much deeper perhaps right down to humanity’s ability to change and grow with time. We appear to be the same old species that we were perhaps thousands of years in the past.
We are still fighting amongst ourselves.
We are still killing each other because our leaders tell us to.
We are still hoarding what we have.
The .05% are still controlling and enslaving us while they get rich off of our labors and at the same time, succeeding on making us grateful to be screwed.
Humanity in general behaves as if they were suspicious of those who seem different.
The majority of the humans are prejudice against someone based upon race, religion or ethnicity.
And many, if not most, still have issues about sex, or sexual orientation.
Yes, some have awakened from at least a few of these nightmarish beliefs and have decided to grow beyond, but how many? And how long will it take for the majority of humanity to get beyond these issues? We keep doing the same things over and over and over, and act as if we just don’t notice! A relative hand full of people will routinely kick up some dust over their favorite issues, but no one can even focus on what it is we’re all mad about at any given time! It’s as if some magician points in the opposite direction when he’s hiding the disappearing objects in his coat pocket. And the disappearing objects that are being hidden are our mind and heart.
Excellent point about all the lies. Also time to emphasize the hurt.
IMHO, in their closing messages, Dems need to publicize and emphasize to people (especially through targeted marketing) all the ways that Republican control of government will explicitly hurt them. Let’s start with Biden’s plan for college student debt relief. Over 22 million people have already applied, and up to 37 million people are eligible. The Repugs want to cancel that program, and 6 Republican states have already sued to stop it. If the Repugs succeed, that’s at least a $10,000 loss (and for many $20,000). That is a very tangible, and easily documentable, harm. (Note that this URL provides a CNBC site that shows the surprisingly large number of people eligible for student debt relief by state. Folks with active senate election contests might want to check that out.) https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/20/how-many-people-will-get-student-loan-forgiveness-in-each-state.html
Next up is the Republican plan to cut Social Security and Medicare. At a minimum, they want to raise the retirement age to 70. So for the tens of millions of people in their early 60’s, that would be a direct hit of easily tens of thousands of dollars lost. In their wildest dreams, Repugs want to end the guarantees of Social Security and Medicare, which would economically devastate many more tens of millions of people. (And of course the Social Security/Medicare hit also has direct implications for any younger people who care about parents that receive Social Security and Medicare.)
There are many other specific examples that would require more effort to specifically quantify (e.g., reversing the cap on insulin costs and on senior drug costs that Democrats passed; the economic impact on federal program recipients and other federal taxpayers of eliminating the 15% minimum corporate tax that Democrats passed; etc.). I fear that Dems can’t just rely on appeals to nice concepts like “saving Democracy”. Dems need to get in the trenches and show people how Republicans will HURT THEM!
Thank you to Inequality Media for publishing this online, I just hope it is reaching the MAGA population, I would think most Democrats are well aware of these lies.
Funny how the right never stops trying to sell supply side BS. It never worked, it was debunked upon arrival. But they keep repeating it and those who don't engage in critical thinking go for the bait.
It's a giveaway to the rich that bumps up the deficit. Programs in education, housing, health care and infrastructure provide jobs and shore up the tax base, knocking down the deficit.
I believe you are “preaching to the choir”. Those of us that will read of your valued thoughts are likely to be in full agreement. Surely, when we encounter such rhetoric, most thinking citizens have read enough to present argument but it seldom has any effect on the weak minded opposition.
Thanks for the video ... just one little thing: for me personally it would be better without background music ... as I get older I find it harder to catch the spoken text when their is background "noise"
Not enough people are politically informed. All around the board. We need to educate with our messaging. Uneducated voters are playing right into the republicans hands.
Truth, hence trust, hence legitimacy, are the foundation of a nation's democracy. The Republicans today betray the truth, betray our trust, and are dismantling and betraying the legitimacy of institutions. If they prevail, our democracy will be in gravest peril, even worse than at the time of our historical Civil War!
Done. Posted on Facebook, Field Team 6,
I find that this is most effective on MAGATs in my demographic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJWvvmSrOVw
Also https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/04/dan-crenshaw-election-deniers/?fbclid=IwAR2rkTMQktx7fLjwPhlXuoAxpdnxKZrk67lp3zxn9CQsDln6L757xe-KdPU
That is not true. Our democracy is in danger but NOT from republicans but from democrats. Just look at the last years since Biden took office. Down hill completely. We had peace and prosperity. Now we don’t. Don’t listen to democrat lies.
Sadly, you have become a zombie, hypnotized by the extreme right media. I hope that you wake up before it's too late!
Troll enablers—anyone who responds—become trolls themselves by engaging. I come here hoping for informed conversation, leave frustrated by fools on both sides.
Uhhh did you even read the post? Also, Democrat is a noun, not an adjective.
If you want to convince us, back up your claims with some facts. Inflation is worldwide, caused by the pandemic, which causes supply problems. It’s also caused by Putin’s war, which drives fuel and food shortages. Read Prof. Reich’s posts for a starter.
I am a regular reader of Prof. Reich and have read his posts for a long time! You list some facts and suggest some implications and consequences. These are not problems created by the Democrats! Rather, they refer to problems for which the Dems are desperately attempting to provide beneficial and progressive solutions, blocked at every turn by Republican governors, senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen.
Could you please list specific Trump policies that forwarded equality and equity for all which is the goal of democracy and the Biden policies that have done this. I agree both parties have done damage, but not equally.
Ask Professor Reich, who knows his facts and speaks the truth!
It's always helpful to encourage the lost on how to find their way.
Requiring the smallest bit of evidence from them may lead them to the truth. Not that they want to know how they've been fooled, on nearly everything... While they reject the verified proof we offer.
We can try to at least show them how to do better research from multiple & better sources.
You are so wrong..just like the MAGA coven
If democracy( rule by the bully majority) is under attack, please at the very least, admit it is from both ends of the political spectrum. And morphs not into left vs right but us vs the bully which is an overpowering government.
Democracy is at stake.
Apologize for the insurrection!
And the ones supporting this madness will be the ones that suffer the most.... eventually.
And Democrats are pure? I think not.
NOT traitors, insurrectionists and abject liars.
Hungary seems to be the roadmap for the gop. Let’s hope that the majority come out to vote for sanity. There’s so many that needs to be done, especially with North Korea/Ukraine & Russia/China pushing further in different ways. We cannot become either a authoritarian or isolationism form of government (nor a theocracy).
Janet, because DeSantis was open to the Barrington Declaration I listened to him. Because he is willing to protect children from an experimental treatment, he is the reason I listened further. Orban is someone I opposed always because he attacked the professor with whom I wrote my dissertation in philosophy. But right now, I have to acknowledge that he is one of the only European leaders opposing WWIII and nuclear apocalypse. DeSantis unfortunately is a neocon.
Would you also ask DeSantis how to treatment a cancer if you had one? Suspect reasoning at best.
The idea that DeSantis is protecting children in this regard is laughable and patently incorrect.
He's legislating away the rights of parents to pursue the AMA recommended treatments their doctors would otherwise recommend for children facing gender dysphoria.
What protects children more? Allowing them (after already rigorous interviews and therapy that take place) to have access to the care options that allow them to accept themselves and live comfortably in their own body?
Or stigmatizing them and their families and denying them treatments, when we already know kids in these circumstances are already 7.8 times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
Nothing is more tragic than *pretending* these people care about kids, when this is really just a fascist weather balloon policy meant to give Florida voters an "other" to freak out about and allows DeSantis (and Republicans at large) to further experiment with limiting other people's human rights and protections based on what Christians White Nationalists feel about them.
https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/icymi-watch-jon-stewart-debunk-anti-trans-myths-about-gender-affirming-care
Could happen here?
You know it was Applebaum's husband who thanked the US for blowing up the Nordstream pipeline via twitter, right? You know that Applebaum has been 100% wrong about everything regarding the Ukraine war? You realize that she runs a propaganda machine from Johns Hopkins and is hugely responsible for the unbelievable belligerence within which we are trapped. Unless you are as evil as Applebaum,, I have to assume that you are simply ignorant. She began proslethetizing the Iraq war and has never found an imperialist conquest for which she is not prepared to cheer. She is evil, pure evil.
LOFL you should take a break a look up AA's hubby. AA, Bilderberg, national security state spook propagandist, member of the Robert Reich community, says everything we need to know about WWIII and why the Democrats MUST LOOSE.
Your bullying style only hardens our resolve to oppose you and the MAGA movement.
This person is only posting to get us worked up. This is not an attempt to convince us of anything. Let’s not feed the troll.
Indeed. Thanks for your good advice.
If the gop/q/right wing evangelical conservatives were to win, WWIII will be so much closer. The possibility of our democracy possibly destroyed by those wrapped up in the speeches that the koch family probably approved, is saddening
gosh Kevin, I'm on the side against NAZIS. I was in Germany in the 1990s. I remember the promises not to expand NATO. I saw Gorbachev speak in person. I remember what was said back in the day. And you think that the Democratic Party is not 1000% owned by warmongers? I know that the GOP is also evil, but you cannot say that there is any peace part of the Democratic Party today. They are owned.
You can say every politician is owned. Everyone has an agenda. I see the gop/maga/q as making things worse, not only for our country but on the world stage. Curious who you consider a democrat war monger at the moment?
Not a single Democrat has opposed funding for the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. They are ALL warmongers.
Bilderberg?! Are you serious??? Hahahaha.
if you don't think it perverse for a participant in Bilderberg to speak in Hannah Arendt's name, you might want to read a book. You are brainwashed if you automatically assume that the ruling elites are all benevolent and dismiss the possibility of evil. Grow up.
Janet, you are delightful. Have you read Origins of Totalitarianism? Did you know that Arendt argued for a multipolar rather than unipolar world? Did you know that Full Spectrum Dominance, which is the official Pentagon posture toward the universe, is conceptually identical with "total domination," the raison d' etre of totalitarianism according to Hannah Arendt? Or are you just a shitlib windbag who thinks that the ability to form complete sentences after listening to NPR means that you are informed?
I think you are a TROLL who should not be given the courtesy of posting on this site!
Donald was an old pal of Vince McMahon of pro wrestling. The Republican Party is recklessly playing a stunt for the rubes, and it is working for them. They are carelessly putting the match to whatever is precious in American politics, and it entertains them when it causes us anguish.
In pro wrestling, the bad boys - who tend to have more fans than the good guys, or "babyfaces" - act in the most atrocious way towards other wrestlers, and the crowd eats it up. The wrestlers remain scrupulously in-character whenever they are in public-called kayfabe. Donald is a bigger-than-life bad guy, a "heel." I can't tell if he comprehends what a fake he is. But the party members don't care, they scream with delight.
The late Andy Kaufman loved pro wrestling "guerrilla theater." All of his notoriously nasty appearances in the ring were staged. The news media presented it as though he were being a real jerk, and was getting threatened and pounded by offended pro wrestlers. But it all was a stunt, even the pretend injuries. He kept the illusion for entertainment purposes.
Once Kaufman wrestled in Nashville. Before the match, he insolently showed a video to the Nashville audience on how to use soap, and performed to deafening screams of hate from the crowd. They sent him to the hospital with a broken neck - that was part of the script. The crowd didn't know it was phony. They loved it.
The not-so-bright MAGA crowd is using American politics for entertainment the same way. The crowd is delirious that Paul Pelosi was bonked by a hammer. "It was his gay lover!" It’s all as believable and real to them as wrestling, the neck-shattering piledrivers that are carefully rehearsed by the pro wrestlers before the show. These physical actors portray the illusion of physical harm while protecting the "opponent" actor from getting hurt. If the wrestlers are good, nobody really gets hurt.
This is the Republican game for delirious voters. They don’t want to hear about inflation or crime or Herschel Walker’s aborted fetuses. It’s just a game to them. They will tell you that Shoah (the Holocaust) was a hoax. They will tell you that the Democrats eat babies. They relish in their illusion that their guy will righteously crush the bad guy.
Wrestling makes money off the intellectual flaccidity and massive egos of these losers. So does the Republican Party. They've brought the Big Show to the big ring, and their followers are orgasmic with delight.
The idiot truly has the matches, and they will burn the house down. They really might get us killed. This is not a phony stunt by skilled actors, although professional liars like Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene seem to believe that they all belong to a wrestling stable that allows them to preen and strut for the crowd, in order to get the big payoff.
Honestly, that is why they won't budge when faced with the truth. They have paid for their tickets, and expect a show. They are vicious, indifferent losers who play with our country like it's a stunt.
It is very entertaining to injure helpless things and watch them die. The childhood of most psychopaths is replete with animal cruelty.
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
― D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature
I wish to dispute D.H. Lawrence, but I have no grounds to do so.
Like others, I think your analysis is excellent. Wrestling is a good metaphor but so is boxing and that blood-sport is one that Trump loves.
There is video of him from some years back in which he discusses his love of conflict and fights - among/between others - that he likes to provoke fights, incite conflicts, and watch how they play out, who is strongest, who wins.
A cruel sadistic manipulator and provocateur and voyeur of violence, that is whose name appears on big banners all across the country, even today in November 2022, as having "won" something that he lost, a name that flies on flags on the back of pick-up trucks looking for all the world like the Nazi flags flying on the cars of Hitler's retinue. The flags and banners shout "Trump" and one feels assaulted and violated just by seeing them.
Is he the greatest danger or are those who promote the ideas and behaviors that he and they embody, those who "vote" for him and his cult?
If they vote for him and his like-minded cult, is American democracy already destroyed? And if so, what do we do on November 9th and going forward?
He evokes the racist collective subconscious.
Excellent post, and sadly, terrifyingly accurate.
O'Cally, well stated! As an amateur actor myself I have often noted "everyone needs to be entertained." Count the number of entertaining films and how those numbers have exploded since television was introduced...and exponentially since the internet. The entertainment industry is really multiple industries moving billions of dollars and minds. If opium was the opiate of the people and if the poor Russians were distracted with vodka, then entertainment today is an addiction that draws people away from study, analysis, productivity, true joy and awareness of reality.
See the afterword to Delia Owens' book "Where the Crawdads Sing"- she discusses the primative "unevolved human" vs the "evolved human". I believe the "not so bright MAGA crowd consists of unevolved humans. Understand- "unevolved human" is not necessarily a pejorative designation, and the unevolved nature very likely is the reason the human race did not become extinct early in its history. The GOP is busily engaged in profitably utilizing this unevolved nature to achieve it's own agenda.
That's awfully kind of you, thanks. I started the newsletter because I tend to chatter on and on here, so if my comments get overly long, I stuff the rest in the Desert Meditations.
Where I am is south to Durango, then down into the Land of Enchantment. I like Rocky Mountain folks. You know what a New Mexico Liberal is? Someone who goes hunting SOBER.
Lies = The Republican Party platform.
Robert Reich is one of the few people formerly in power with the Democrats who is able to articulate very complicated issues clearly and with great FORCE. Oh, how we need that!
If corporate media was more concerned with discussing and presenting the actual facts rather than pleasing their conservative owners, the GOP would be unmasked for who they really are: facists, liars and violent thugs.
Corporate media is responsible to shareholders, not the public, now that it’s poorly regulated. They are in business to make money. This is a built-in, structural problem, especially when mega-rich people can own an entire media giant.
Since the Fairness Doctrine was destroyed by the Reagan administration in 1985, there is no law requiring TV news from presenting both sides of an issue. Thus, the owners of corporate media are allowed to make money by pandering to the highest bidder, Truth be damned. And these owners are not necessarily conservative. Look at Les Moonves, former president of CBS news. In 2016 he said this re the Orange Sadist's campaign (I was literally SICK when I read what he'd said), "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS ... Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ... The money's rolling in and this is fun ... I've never seen anything like this, and this [is] going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going."[28] He added, "Donald's place in this election is a good thing."
But it is not the left that is subject to censorship. And dissent is only happening on the right at this time in history. I write this as a formerly lifelong Democrat who identified as an ecosocialist feminist. Who on the left is being presently censored?
Re the issue of WWIII, most of Fox, as far as I understand it, is prowar, not different than msnbc, cnn. But anti-war voices do appear on Tucker and are occasionally indicated in Gutfield. Judge Napolitano is not on Fox anymore, but he has a show in which McGregor and Ritter often appear.
Corporate ownership is a problem, but I also think that reporters are lazy. It is a lot easier for the media to cover polls and interview random voters (= horse race) than to delve deeply into issues, to explain what the two parties are proposing in their platforms, and to analyze which proposals make sense so that voters have the information to make informed choices.
Deborah, Kari Lake, who will be the next governor of Arizona, got 100% negative coverage from the MSM.
Authoritarians figure out how people feel and construct messages they repeat. They use “alternative facts” to back up their messages.
Liberals (broadly defined) start with facts about complex situations so they can govern well. Difficult problems like climate change have many causes. So liberals sound the alarm with many different, uncoordinated messages. Those messages often don’t connect with voters’ immediate feelings. Or they may require an inconvenient solution. We are losing the messaging war.
We need to do this differently while still telling the truth. But we’re all over the place, so we’re not getting traction.
Yes, confirmation bias is at play. And, as a whole, Republicans score higher in the RWA (Right Wing Authoritarian) scale by Bob Altemeyer, who says the RWA scale also applies to left-wing extremists. Also, Jonathan Haidt finds that liberals only appeal to two universal moral foundations, while conservatives appeal to all six. We’re in a world of trouble because we haven’t applied messaging that gains traction outside our tent.
Very confused. "Haidt finds that...conservatives appeal to all six" universal moral principles? Huh? As I read it, those principles are: 1. Care 2. Fairness 3. Loyalty
4. Authority 5. Sanctity (didn't see the sixth), on the only principle I see that current "conservatives" could possibly appeal to is #4. Care? Fair? Loyal? Sanctity? (maybe pseudo-sanctity with ending Roe v. Wade?) Please explain. Thank you!
Read Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind. Also there’s a moral foundations website where he participates.
https://moralfoundations.org/
The sixth moral foundation is Liberty and is more recent and is being validated.
Got it! It's all in perspective, not in absolute Truth. Thanks.
Republicans are great at bitching and blaming but they pose NO SOLUTIONS to any problem facing this nation.
11-6-22
Inflation, taxes, and crime? Really??
These aren’t what I’m worried about. These subjects aren’t what’s tearing our country apart.
What is wrong with the reasoning power of these people? Where is their head? If they think that these are the most important issues that are at steak here, then we ARE in big trouble.
Our country is not only divided as to the actual issues at hand, but also in reasoning power in general. I wish these were the only things that divide us; I would be truly grateful. Our problems go much deeper perhaps right down to humanity’s ability to change and grow with time. We appear to be the same old species that we were perhaps thousands of years in the past.
We are still fighting amongst ourselves.
We are still killing each other because our leaders tell us to.
We are still hoarding what we have.
The .05% are still controlling and enslaving us while they get rich off of our labors and at the same time, succeeding on making us grateful to be screwed.
Humanity in general behaves as if they were suspicious of those who seem different.
The majority of the humans are prejudice against someone based upon race, religion or ethnicity.
And many, if not most, still have issues about sex, or sexual orientation.
Yes, some have awakened from at least a few of these nightmarish beliefs and have decided to grow beyond, but how many? And how long will it take for the majority of humanity to get beyond these issues? We keep doing the same things over and over and over, and act as if we just don’t notice! A relative hand full of people will routinely kick up some dust over their favorite issues, but no one can even focus on what it is we’re all mad about at any given time! It’s as if some magician points in the opposite direction when he’s hiding the disappearing objects in his coat pocket. And the disappearing objects that are being hidden are our mind and heart.
Harsh posting but also undeniably true. Thanks for your observations.
The National Debt Clock is a Lie!
It’s the bigger lie, maybe the biggest. Rs are getting played, and the rest of us are collateral damage.
We have $135 Trillion net household wealth. Net.
$31 Trillion on the ‘debt clock’ is not even close.
This is what it’s all about: Hiding our wealth in plain sight to get lower taxes.
How? Cannot conceive.
Please, finally, get it out there!
best luck to US, b.rad
( source US Federal Reserve, quarterly, ‘distribution of household wealth’ plus many other very pertinent super pro web pages )
ps see http://uswealthclock.com -- with retro web page formatting, no less . . .
Disgraceful behavior of the Media. Sharing away!
Excellent point about all the lies. Also time to emphasize the hurt.
IMHO, in their closing messages, Dems need to publicize and emphasize to people (especially through targeted marketing) all the ways that Republican control of government will explicitly hurt them. Let’s start with Biden’s plan for college student debt relief. Over 22 million people have already applied, and up to 37 million people are eligible. The Repugs want to cancel that program, and 6 Republican states have already sued to stop it. If the Repugs succeed, that’s at least a $10,000 loss (and for many $20,000). That is a very tangible, and easily documentable, harm. (Note that this URL provides a CNBC site that shows the surprisingly large number of people eligible for student debt relief by state. Folks with active senate election contests might want to check that out.) https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/20/how-many-people-will-get-student-loan-forgiveness-in-each-state.html
Next up is the Republican plan to cut Social Security and Medicare. At a minimum, they want to raise the retirement age to 70. So for the tens of millions of people in their early 60’s, that would be a direct hit of easily tens of thousands of dollars lost. In their wildest dreams, Repugs want to end the guarantees of Social Security and Medicare, which would economically devastate many more tens of millions of people. (And of course the Social Security/Medicare hit also has direct implications for any younger people who care about parents that receive Social Security and Medicare.)
There are many other specific examples that would require more effort to specifically quantify (e.g., reversing the cap on insulin costs and on senior drug costs that Democrats passed; the economic impact on federal program recipients and other federal taxpayers of eliminating the 15% minimum corporate tax that Democrats passed; etc.). I fear that Dems can’t just rely on appeals to nice concepts like “saving Democracy”. Dems need to get in the trenches and show people how Republicans will HURT THEM!
Thank you to Inequality Media for publishing this online, I just hope it is reaching the MAGA population, I would think most Democrats are well aware of these lies.
Funny how the right never stops trying to sell supply side BS. It never worked, it was debunked upon arrival. But they keep repeating it and those who don't engage in critical thinking go for the bait.
It's a giveaway to the rich that bumps up the deficit. Programs in education, housing, health care and infrastructure provide jobs and shore up the tax base, knocking down the deficit.
I believe you are “preaching to the choir”. Those of us that will read of your valued thoughts are likely to be in full agreement. Surely, when we encounter such rhetoric, most thinking citizens have read enough to present argument but it seldom has any effect on the weak minded opposition.
Thanks for the video ... just one little thing: for me personally it would be better without background music ... as I get older I find it harder to catch the spoken text when their is background "noise"
Not enough people are politically informed. All around the board. We need to educate with our messaging. Uneducated voters are playing right into the republicans hands.