492 Comments

“The person, however, said no alerts have been raised by the administration over possible security breaches by Musk.”

Why the hell not, Merrick (the Meek)?!

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Bill, as you correctly point out, right eventually wins over wrong. However, there are those times in history where wrong triumphs for a time. I would point to the Spanish Inquisition as one example. Another would be the Dark Ages. And a final example would be the 1930s in Germany, Italy and Japan.

Sadly, we may be living through another such time in history and will just have to work through it. Unfortunately, it take time for people to become enlightened and understand that they picked the wrong side in a discussion. Sometimes that means suffering through a dark time for that to happen.

I know those of us enlightened would like to avoid such moments, but sometimes that is just not possible.

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"Carlson—and all the Trump fans who wildly applauded and cheered him—view the president’s relationship to America; or Blue America, at least. Trump is the macho authoritarian father, they’re the disobedient kids who must be pummeled and terrorized into submission. For their own good, of course."

The reality, of course, is that Trump is NOT the authoritarian father, but rather the spoiled, spiteful child who has never known consequences for his bad actions. But he has ~75 million hyper-protective "fathers and mothers" who not only let hm say and do whatever he wants, but help and encourage it. Many of those "parents" are GOP politicians, shamelessly opportunistic lawyers and billionaires, and the ultimate forgiver of evil - SCOTUS justices.

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Agreed. Don't blame Kamala.

Ultimately, the people of the United States will get the candidate that the majority (of the Electoral College electors) vote for. And they, aka we, will deserve what they and we get.

As dangerous and problematic as Donald Trump is, he is a symptom, a pimple on the ass, of a society with tens of millions of citizens who think he should be president.

He has been this symptom long before 2016, and in that year he became the perfect manifestation of what many of us deny about the United States.

1. The collective national shadow (what we deny) of the U.S. is characterized by at least these nine traits: ignorance, arrogance, fear, bigotry, violence, greed, excess, bullying, and untrustworthiness.

2. Donald Trump embodies all nine traits of the collective national shadow of the United States.

3. His rise to power is both a threat (obviously) and a gift (inviting to the surface what has always been there, but hidden and denied).

4. These traits are evident in the three foundational subjugations upon which the country was built: of women; Indigenous Peoples; Africans and African-Americans.

5. These traits are evident in the Vietnam War and in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

6. These traits are evident in everything from our national ambivalence about the planet, a lack of health and caring, a culture of daily violence--both with and without guns--and an increasing but understandable level of anxiety and depression among our children (and many conscious adults).

Yes, Trump has to be stopped, but this stuff's been simmering for several centuries, and we have a lot of work to do. If we all go back to sleep in the case of a Harris victory, we deserve what we get.

As Krishnamurti said, "It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

https://healingamericasnarratives.com/

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No, I won't blame Kamala. She explained the choices as well as she could. I don't really blame the 30% of the voting public that represents the hard-core MAGA tribe. They're either gullible fools who who can't think past Trump's huckster persona or they're simply using Trump's "truths" as pretexts to "watch lib'rul heads 'splode" or carry an even more evil role to establish a truly authoritarian state of the Handmaid variety. That chunk of the population has always been with us in the form of sheer bigotry and/or stupidity. In the past 60 years, both parties had been able to keep them more or less on the fringes.

Who I will blame are 20% of independents or reasonable Republicans who are willing vote for Trump despite the ample evidence he himself has provided that makes it clear he's unfit for office. They're the ones who should be able think through the issues and make a decision that would steer the country to normalcy. If Kamala loses, it's on their shoulders. To keep it short and simple, I'll just say "Fuck 'em."

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I’m really not sure I agree. While she has done as well as expected, she hasn’t shown herself to be willing to make tough decisions. She’s shown herself to be a good listener, but not a good chief executive. Like it or not the American public seems to have a terror of being attacked, and their primary choice seems to be will this president kill for me. I support her wholeheartedly and yet I still see her as someone seeking consensus with people who have no appetite for consensusbuilding.

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I sympathize with a lot of Bill's points, but I do have one apprehension that i am afraid we're going to rue in hindsight. Up until Mid-October, Harris was the "freedom" candidate. It was an affirmative agenda to restore the liberties Donald Trump had taken away. She had the "Change" mantle. When the conversation shifted here in Late October to "Trump is Dangerous and Unfit", she became the defender of the status quo, and Trump became "Change". And thus, we see his late momentum.

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It’s not “THE hoi polloi,” Bret. Please note that.

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The Dictionary begs to differ. "the masses; the common people." Example: "avoid mixing with the hoi polloi" It's considered a noun.

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Technically that's true, and "the polloi" would be more accurate. But once the term is absorbed into the English language, there's a case to be made for adjusting the grammar in a way that sounds natural in that context.

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“Hoi” is “the.” There’s no need to change it to English. It’s just sloppy, like “less” instead of “fewer.” Bret is supposed to be a writer.

I’d have let it go in someone I can stand.

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Bret is correct - please see a dictionary. In writing for people who read English, "hoi polloi" is a noun.

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Bret is only correct if it’s what the style book says. I prefer the OED, and per that he’s wrong.

Reading English isn’t an excuse to say things incorrectly. In OH we have LY-mah and CARE-oh. Drives me insane.

In MO we had ver-SALES.

People need to be better educated, not chew up the language. I can’t write “they/them” without my eye twitching. I do it but I hate it.

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Bret, you’re supposed to be a journalist but you use so many fillers I want to tear my hair out.

You’ve got a lot of nerve criticizing “halting” in anybody.

Target has already cut its prices. Twice. Thousands of items. If you think there wasn’t price gouging in retail and oil you’re innumerate. That’s a national problem.

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Our assignment this weekend: VOTE, get everyone we know to VOTE (including young people), sign up for a volunteer phone bank or door knock for the Harris Team. All gas, no brakes.

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This situation will not be fixed until we actually restructure some things in our institutions and culture. We will be facing critical elections until that happens... or until the fascists win. After that you won't have to worry about winning elections anymore.

And if the fascists are smart enough to slow roll THEIR changes (so as to not introduce a major shock), people will put up with it for a long time and a lot of open oppression won't be needed. You can see that just by looking around at the current regimes and the historical ones. It will outlast my lifetime.

But I doubt that they will be THAT smart, so they will end up resorting to the open oppression.

Changing the culture will be the work of generations and it will be fought tooth and nail all the way. The major fight now (for most of the MAGAts/reactionaries) is the culture fight. Everything else is in support of either that or of the plutocrats/oligarchs cementing their wealth and power.

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Trump was reported to have a book of Hitler's speeches by his bedside table. Comparing his talk to Mein Kampf is the wrong place to look. The comparison should be the speeches. This clip from the Daily Show has the basic idea that could be used for an ad that could hopefully be spread and have an impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTot3YQ16fI

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Even being guardedly optimistic that VP Harris wins I still wonder how the mayhem ends.

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Meanwhile in small town USA, Donald works one hour at McDonalds and another epidemic starts.

E Coli at fast food restaurants.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

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That Tucker Carlson spanking thing was disturbingly specific. Like it's something he thinks about a lot.

Still if you watch the whole thing it's disturbing on a meta level because he is a much younger and magnitudes more intelligent and articulate demagogue than Trump. I'm calling it now, he is the heir to the throne. Not JD Vance.

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America- we are forever doomed by the most ignorant among us.

This is the same fever as the people who wanted us to go into Iraq and get Saddam Hussein because 9/11.

We are doomed by frickin' morons.

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