Fascism been here all the time. Just declining degrees of cover has been provided over the years by only four networks and a couple of radio news shows until the internet booted up.
"The inertial force of media normalcy bias may kill us all. And just like last time, the powerful cultural forces in Washington — normalcy bias is among the most potent — will pretend this isn’t real. That it isn’t happening."
Remember the snake poem? He was telling us what he was. "You knew I was a snake when you took me in."
Y'all--even if you are not people of faith. You do not need to believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. He could have just been an ordinary guy who was insightful, but all of his warnings about the Father of Lies should guide us. Lies are seductive,and Trump is expert at probing weakness and delivering the lies that give otherwise decent people a permission structure to participate in his evil. Christians call "permission structures" temptation.
In the Bible, Satan is sometimes called the father of lies. The father of lies in our world today is one Donald J. Trump.
These people are reaching back into the 17th century religious wars in order to get their way. Our founding fathers were refugees from those wars and students of all the shit that was going down in Europe at the time. Separation of church and state is there for a reason. Sorry not sorry if a bunch of latter-day Puritans can't ban anything that doesn't conform to their cramped and heretical version of Christianity.
Fascists want us to be hopeless and despondent. WE are the damn majority!! We don’t have the luxury of despair.
Get people registered to vote, volunteer, write postcards, donate. Keep supporting Rick, and the Lincoln Project! Donate to CREW, and voting rights advocates.
And we will be ready. No one who loves this country is ignoring Trump. We saw it and lived it in real time. We know what he’s capable of. Never again. Never, never again.
Everything in this post has already been stated countless times, but Rick strips away the BS and gets right to the black heart of the matter: These motherfuckers are evil, they're determined, and they don't give a damn. I know the fire is five-alarm level when I start harboring thoughts that eradicating this crew by any means necessary, starting with the fake-haired head of the snake, should actually be allowed in the arena of legitimate discourse. God help me, and us.
I’m wondering whether the portrait of the Capitol burning is supposed to be reminiscent of Nero ruling Rome when the city burned to the ground?
I suppose it’s the perfect metaphor. Nero’s mother Agrippina schemed to get her son in succession to the throne and succeeded. However, she wore out her welcome after Nero consolidated power and was murdered; the same will be done to the right-wing media if they ever cross Trump and his fascist acolytes. News flash Fox; he almost destroyed your network once; in a second Trump term, there will be no second chances.
I do, however, wonder how Hannity can ask with a straight face whether Trump intends to rule like an autocrat? That’s a rhetorical question if I ever heard one, and Hannity looked all so shocked when the audience laughed; as though the joke was on him.
Could Hannity actually be this stupid, or is it part of his charm? That’s a rhetorical question as well!
That said, one thing is clear, it doesn’t end well for anyone including Nero and his family!...:)
I interpreted the "first day" answer as "On the first day I'm going to executive order the constitution into oblivion and after that, everything I do is by definition legal."
Trump and his cohorts have been crystal clear about the future of America under a Trump authoritarian regime. The GOP have all bent the knee/kissed the ring/dropped all pretense of principle or governance.
Even the media seems to be waking from its 8 year stupor, as it contemplates its own irrelevance in a dictatorship.
And yet, Democratic leadership continues to behave as though we aren't facing an imminent Constitutional and societal crisis.Where is the national messaging? Where is the explanation about the impact of authoritarianism on the average person?
The silence is tantamount to reverse gaslighting.
Can anyone explain the passivity that we are witnessing?
hw, Starting at “And yet” Have you anything to compare it to? Have you lived through a crisis like this one? This IS how people behave in these circumstances. I believe that millions upon millions of citizens have known what they were going to do since the insurrection and probably before. They’re going to vote. They’re spreading the word. Just because you haven’t seen a bunch of people running around screaming from the mountaintops doesn’t mean nothing is being done. If we see Election Day and it is run as it should be, we will annihilate them.
Even if you simply listened to Rick's interview with Jon Ralston, this is clear. There's automatic registration of voters in Nevada, and the non-voters are still expected to refuse to vote...per Ralston.
Most people are not aware of the stakes, particularly young and minority voters. For non-voters, it's just another election.
The souring of GenZ, the erosion on the margins of Black and Hispanic voters, the malaise around the economy, etc. is a huge concern, since Democrats aren't gaining with any demographic.
At any rate, you didn't address my question, which was about leadership, not the public.
If no one in leadership is explaining the ramifications of a 2nd/permanent Trump term, or a GOP Senate, they'll assume it's just another election.
We're less than a year out, and there's no unified messaging, no articulation of the stakes, no vision for the future.
Biden barely won in 2020, Democrats lost the House in 2022. This is not a good trajectory.
Grassroots efforts are spectacular, but not sufficient in the absence of national leadership. Look at what happened in the Netherlands...less than half the population voted, and a Trump-like figure won the majority of votes.
My mother grew up under Hitler and always predicted his clone would come to America.
Fascism been here all the time. Just declining degrees of cover has been provided over the years by only four networks and a couple of radio news shows until the internet booted up.
And on Day 1, he'll declare martial law & put the 2025 plan into action...
"The inertial force of media normalcy bias may kill us all. And just like last time, the powerful cultural forces in Washington — normalcy bias is among the most potent — will pretend this isn’t real. That it isn’t happening."
Remember the snake poem? He was telling us what he was. "You knew I was a snake when you took me in."
Y'all--even if you are not people of faith. You do not need to believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. He could have just been an ordinary guy who was insightful, but all of his warnings about the Father of Lies should guide us. Lies are seductive,and Trump is expert at probing weakness and delivering the lies that give otherwise decent people a permission structure to participate in his evil. Christians call "permission structures" temptation.
In the Bible, Satan is sometimes called the father of lies. The father of lies in our world today is one Donald J. Trump.
I implore all of you to read Tim Alberta's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Power-Glory-Evangelicals-Extremism/
These people are reaching back into the 17th century religious wars in order to get their way. Our founding fathers were refugees from those wars and students of all the shit that was going down in Europe at the time. Separation of church and state is there for a reason. Sorry not sorry if a bunch of latter-day Puritans can't ban anything that doesn't conform to their cramped and heretical version of Christianity.
It isn't a "poem". It's a song from Al Wilson.
https://youtu.be/ULx9k2QkL94
Fascists want us to be hopeless and despondent. WE are the damn majority!! We don’t have the luxury of despair.
Get people registered to vote, volunteer, write postcards, donate. Keep supporting Rick, and the Lincoln Project! Donate to CREW, and voting rights advocates.
We can do this!
One of your best!
Keep up the good fight, at least I have your back.
This is not about voting or election.
And we will be ready. No one who loves this country is ignoring Trump. We saw it and lived it in real time. We know what he’s capable of. Never again. Never, never again.
Thank you Rick!
A wonderful/necessary piece!
That’s the comment!
Everything in this post has already been stated countless times, but Rick strips away the BS and gets right to the black heart of the matter: These motherfuckers are evil, they're determined, and they don't give a damn. I know the fire is five-alarm level when I start harboring thoughts that eradicating this crew by any means necessary, starting with the fake-haired head of the snake, should actually be allowed in the arena of legitimate discourse. God help me, and us.
I’m wondering whether the portrait of the Capitol burning is supposed to be reminiscent of Nero ruling Rome when the city burned to the ground?
I suppose it’s the perfect metaphor. Nero’s mother Agrippina schemed to get her son in succession to the throne and succeeded. However, she wore out her welcome after Nero consolidated power and was murdered; the same will be done to the right-wing media if they ever cross Trump and his fascist acolytes. News flash Fox; he almost destroyed your network once; in a second Trump term, there will be no second chances.
I do, however, wonder how Hannity can ask with a straight face whether Trump intends to rule like an autocrat? That’s a rhetorical question if I ever heard one, and Hannity looked all so shocked when the audience laughed; as though the joke was on him.
Could Hannity actually be this stupid, or is it part of his charm? That’s a rhetorical question as well!
That said, one thing is clear, it doesn’t end well for anyone including Nero and his family!...:)
Excellent subhed. So to speak.
I interpreted the "first day" answer as "On the first day I'm going to executive order the constitution into oblivion and after that, everything I do is by definition legal."
Exactly right.
Exactly the scenario I imagine playing out with Donny 2.0.
The fire is coming faster and only a monsoon of voters for democracy can snuff out the flames. It's America or Trump.
Excellent piece. 👏
It all seems very surreal.
Trump and his cohorts have been crystal clear about the future of America under a Trump authoritarian regime. The GOP have all bent the knee/kissed the ring/dropped all pretense of principle or governance.
Even the media seems to be waking from its 8 year stupor, as it contemplates its own irrelevance in a dictatorship.
And yet, Democratic leadership continues to behave as though we aren't facing an imminent Constitutional and societal crisis.Where is the national messaging? Where is the explanation about the impact of authoritarianism on the average person?
The silence is tantamount to reverse gaslighting.
Can anyone explain the passivity that we are witnessing?
hw, Starting at “And yet” Have you anything to compare it to? Have you lived through a crisis like this one? This IS how people behave in these circumstances. I believe that millions upon millions of citizens have known what they were going to do since the insurrection and probably before. They’re going to vote. They’re spreading the word. Just because you haven’t seen a bunch of people running around screaming from the mountaintops doesn’t mean nothing is being done. If we see Election Day and it is run as it should be, we will annihilate them.
I completely disagree.
Even if you simply listened to Rick's interview with Jon Ralston, this is clear. There's automatic registration of voters in Nevada, and the non-voters are still expected to refuse to vote...per Ralston.
Most people are not aware of the stakes, particularly young and minority voters. For non-voters, it's just another election.
The souring of GenZ, the erosion on the margins of Black and Hispanic voters, the malaise around the economy, etc. is a huge concern, since Democrats aren't gaining with any demographic.
At any rate, you didn't address my question, which was about leadership, not the public.
If no one in leadership is explaining the ramifications of a 2nd/permanent Trump term, or a GOP Senate, they'll assume it's just another election.
We're less than a year out, and there's no unified messaging, no articulation of the stakes, no vision for the future.
Biden barely won in 2020, Democrats lost the House in 2022. This is not a good trajectory.
Grassroots efforts are spectacular, but not sufficient in the absence of national leadership. Look at what happened in the Netherlands...less than half the population voted, and a Trump-like figure won the majority of votes.
Ok. I am thinking about what you said. I’ll reread both.