I keep asking myself “Self, at what % Presidential approval rating, will GOP politicians jump the USS MAGA?”
I cannot fathom the horror of the two people clinging to a piece of wreckage offshore of Venezuela in the middle of the night. They were survivors until they weren’t. No investigation. No trial. Nothing…..
I cannot help but wonder what the operator on the demolition hoe at the East Wing felt when the foreman gave him his orders…..
I do not know at what point in time so many of us became the monsters….
Good lord Mary! Your ability to keep all the threads straight is astounding. I want to say I feel better but actually I’m just gobsmacked by the sheer gravity of the news. Yet your words also shine a tiny glimmer of light showing a way forward. Hoping for war crimes investigations and accountability. Clear skies in Ashland this morning but stupidly cold. We all just carry on.
Excellent piece. Let's hope this does not become part of an obituary for the US. What is the way forward? Actual adherence (which has been AWOL for the last few years) to the Constitution? A Velvet Revolution a la Václav Havel? A Nuremberg-like tribunal (see Rebecca Gordon, American Nuremberg (about the post-911 criminals))?
I have a slightly different response to the haunting question of why Trump's base is so base. Suppose you're a MAGA guy who can't hold a job or get a date. Your friends and family might think you a loser, but Trump paints a different picture. For one thing, you've got white skin and male genitalia, things that have been devalued over the past few decades, but not anymore. You have American citizenship, something Trump's gold and platinum cards for foreigners have helpfully valued to be worth at least a million. Trump also punishes his enemies and helps his supporters, so as a loyal member of Team Trump, your card isn't just platinum. It's at least diamond.
This, at least, would explain why MAGA supporters continue to back a man who, by conventional economic measures, is making their lives worse. Trump may be raising their grocery prices and taking away their health care, but he's making them feel better about themselves. And that apparently trumps everything.
"Adam Kinzinger released a video that lays out the stakes with remarkable clarity. The “kill everybody” directive, if issued, is not a close call. It’s illegal. It’s immoral"
This illegal boat strike on "suspected" narco-terrorists is going to have serious legs. Reports are coming out that the occupants in the boat were simple fishermen whose families were being held hostage and threatened with death. If the first strike wasn't as war crime, shooting the survivors certainly is. They weren't just survivors -- they were witnesses!
After 88 years of living next to what was thought of as a trustworthy big brother during which we always relied on it to DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING, I now tremble at the daily news coming from
what we always secretly feared..........clowns are scary.
The cruel joke was a recurrent dream I woke from for many years , disassociated from reality, scared, confused. I thought over the years it would reveal the conflict I fought . It was premonition. Again.
And here we are.
I thought how do people get so duped to think because their bomb is bigger than others ..they win ?!!!! The answer came when I realized -overhearing a conversation at the annual fall Fest we had- the men folk all standing around the fire were discussing theirs….who had the biggest …….yea bomb ..or was that a gun? oh maybe it was ‘something else’.
It was a moment I understood all things …better than I immediately realized (and never had the dream again btw).
Am still gobsmacked that he’s still at a 36% approval rating. Find this so mind numbing that have no idea what they are seeing in their worlds so appeasing. It’s a clown show within a clown show from these 36%..
I keep asking myself “Self, at what % Presidential approval rating, will GOP politicians jump the USS MAGA?”
I cannot fathom the horror of the two people clinging to a piece of wreckage offshore of Venezuela in the middle of the night. They were survivors until they weren’t. No investigation. No trial. Nothing…..
I cannot help but wonder what the operator on the demolition hoe at the East Wing felt when the foreman gave him his orders…..
I do not know at what point in time so many of us became the monsters….
Good lord Mary! Your ability to keep all the threads straight is astounding. I want to say I feel better but actually I’m just gobsmacked by the sheer gravity of the news. Yet your words also shine a tiny glimmer of light showing a way forward. Hoping for war crimes investigations and accountability. Clear skies in Ashland this morning but stupidly cold. We all just carry on.
Your best column yet, I think. Inspirational but scary, too...
Oh how I wish I doubted it's as bad as Mary said.
Excellent piece. Let's hope this does not become part of an obituary for the US. What is the way forward? Actual adherence (which has been AWOL for the last few years) to the Constitution? A Velvet Revolution a la Václav Havel? A Nuremberg-like tribunal (see Rebecca Gordon, American Nuremberg (about the post-911 criminals))?
Another BRAVO moment, Mary🙏🙏🙏
I have a slightly different response to the haunting question of why Trump's base is so base. Suppose you're a MAGA guy who can't hold a job or get a date. Your friends and family might think you a loser, but Trump paints a different picture. For one thing, you've got white skin and male genitalia, things that have been devalued over the past few decades, but not anymore. You have American citizenship, something Trump's gold and platinum cards for foreigners have helpfully valued to be worth at least a million. Trump also punishes his enemies and helps his supporters, so as a loyal member of Team Trump, your card isn't just platinum. It's at least diamond.
This, at least, would explain why MAGA supporters continue to back a man who, by conventional economic measures, is making their lives worse. Trump may be raising their grocery prices and taking away their health care, but he's making them feel better about themselves. And that apparently trumps everything.
"Adam Kinzinger released a video that lays out the stakes with remarkable clarity. The “kill everybody” directive, if issued, is not a close call. It’s illegal. It’s immoral"
This illegal boat strike on "suspected" narco-terrorists is going to have serious legs. Reports are coming out that the occupants in the boat were simple fishermen whose families were being held hostage and threatened with death. If the first strike wasn't as war crime, shooting the survivors certainly is. They weren't just survivors -- they were witnesses!
https://jaywilson1.substack.com/p/kill-them-kill-them-all?r=10sd39
It's also a perfect example for the so-called "Seditious Video" put out by six democrats where Trump threatened them with execution.
https://jaywilson1.substack.com/p/when-ignorance-becomes-a-capital?r=10sd39
After 88 years of living next to what was thought of as a trustworthy big brother during which we always relied on it to DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING, I now tremble at the daily news coming from
what we always secretly feared..........clowns are scary.
The cruel joke was a recurrent dream I woke from for many years , disassociated from reality, scared, confused. I thought over the years it would reveal the conflict I fought . It was premonition. Again.
And here we are.
I thought how do people get so duped to think because their bomb is bigger than others ..they win ?!!!! The answer came when I realized -overhearing a conversation at the annual fall Fest we had- the men folk all standing around the fire were discussing theirs….who had the biggest …….yea bomb ..or was that a gun? oh maybe it was ‘something else’.
It was a moment I understood all things …better than I immediately realized (and never had the dream again btw).
Why can’t we all just get along?
Because ..”I got the biggest bomb”?
😬
Because the vast majority of global decisions are made by men.
Am still gobsmacked that he’s still at a 36% approval rating. Find this so mind numbing that have no idea what they are seeing in their worlds so appeasing. It’s a clown show within a clown show from these 36%..