My reaaction to the Fauci hearing was sadness. Fauci, one of the world's foremost epidemiologists, has made enormously distinguished contributions to his field and his country, in fact, the world. For him to end up, at 85, being harangued and insulted by hysterical, lying, amoral, cretinous ignoramuses, is shocking, and the entire country should be ashamed.
Very well put! Thats what I was thinking as I looked at his calm stalwart face yesterday. He was a hero during COVID. He had to walk the ‘sane’ line between Covid and Trump!
But nonetheless you could see the hurt in his face. Dealing with the likes of Hawley is not his forte, he's a scientist and facts are his playing field. God damn these repubs.
They're still trying to pin blame for Trump's disastrous handling of COVID. If they can blame Fauci and China, then the 1.2 million Americans who died can't be blamed on Trump/GOP policies, right?
Hawley is a fact as well..humanity is composed of Hawley's and such like. Fauci was steadfast and it was admirable to see. He has many many on his side.
I couldn't stop laughing when I read Hawley's comment about Fauci's reasons for taking the 5th. I understand why too many GOP are sensitive to saying something the boss will disagree with, but to declare as an admission of guilt the very same tactic that his boss has employed is risible. As a Yale law graduate, I am sure that Hawley knows well why Fauci declined to answer the committee's questions, and his pandering to the Chief is deeply disappointing.
I welcome this opportunity to look back at what really happened during those early days of Covid, who is to blame for how many deaths. The denials, the misinformation,
I could go on. But these people are not smart at all. We just need to fight back.
The bright side is that, since there is no God and likely not something called karma (invented to keep peasants from wishing ill on their masters)…we don’t have to wish away our rage at these boodlers, warmongers, racists and disgusting God-pesterers. We can feel what we feel.
Yes you could see the hurt in his face. I echo that and so many others do too since Trump. This is a different country than I thought. There are the Fauci's and the Paul's Hawley's and Trump supporters.. and Trump himself elected twice even after how regarding Covid, he handled, mishandled, shamed himself and the country and then has the nerve to take credit for Operation Warp Speed.
Fauci has too much integrity, respect for the truth and for science, and concern for the public's welfare to have allowed Trump's false statements and dangerous "remedies" to go unchallenged. Now he's paying the price. First he was forced into unplanned retirement; now Congressional Republicans are trying to get him to say something that disagrees with his diary entries or previous statements so they can charge him with lying to Congress (which is why his attorney counseled him to plead the Fifth Amendment). He does not deserve this abuse. He deserves to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
I live in the U.K., though I was living in the U.S. until 4 years ago, and Dr. Fauci, who is a month older than me, is a hero in my eyes. I don’t quite get how those cretins in Congress got access to his diary. It’s appalling to me that they are using his private thoughts to persecute him just because he had the temerity to disagree with their “dear leader”.
Frankly, any assessment of Fauci and Trump could only be settled one way. Fauci is the sane man. Trump, driven by toxic narcissism and astounding ignorance would be identified as bordering on insanity. Unfortunately, it's only gotten worse since 2020!
Has anyone heard one word yet from your Democratic representative(s) defending Fauci and attacking Ron Paul and his Republcan cohorts who carried out this pathetic media circus?
I will never forget the shambolic White House Covid Task Force meetings where President Trump tried to convince the country that everything was for the best in this best of all possible countries. This link is from one such meeting at the height of the pandemic in 2020:
Fauci then was the only voice on the realities of the pandemic that the public believed. Pence, Birx, Trump all assured us, like Pangloss, that death rates were declining even as the SARSCoV2 virus spread across the United States. Dr. Fauci is being persecuted to cover up from Trump’s colossal failure of leadership during that time. The truth is that we lost more people to the virus per capita than any other civilized nation on earth and more per capita than many much poorer nations. And that was due to Trump and the incompetent people he appointed during the pandemic into positions of power!
Indeed Ken! The voting public hadn’t forgotten those Covid Task Force briefings in which Trump displayed his frantic desire to obfuscate the lethality of the epidemic and his administration’s incapability to respond to it!
Which is why the “hearing” yesterday was such a bizarre choice from a tactical perspective if you expect to have a reasonably fair election in three months. It revived memories of just how awful the Trump 1.0 Covid response was with only three months before the midterms. If they were going to revive memories they worked so hard to suppress in 2024, they could have chosen something more benign like the border wall. It was a policy failure, but it was more of a silly failure than a tragic one.
I suspect everything is about deflecting, but they've been wrong on so many things; they have no successes to deflect to....so they go back in history and look for ways to pin it on Biden. What is tragic is that there are still people who don't see them for what they are. Ron Johnson and his "mass suicides" nonsense, for example.....
Agree. Part of it is, they were [still] angry and upset about the pandemic and the disruptions it caused and they wanted someone to blame. Dr. Fauci was a convenient scapegoat for them. It is easier for these senators and Trump administration officials to shout insults than to do the hard work of preparing the country for the next pandemic.
Now, after repeatedly threatening criminal prosecution, they want to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress for invoking his absolute Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself. He appeared in response to the subpoena, which was all that was required. He was not required to answer gotcha questions.
Unlike testimony from so-called department secretaries whose 'answer' to any question is to not answer the question and then insult the questioner, which I'm sure follows trump's instructions.
Ironically Fauci was against many of the policies they blame him for. For example, he was strongly against a vaccine ID.
In a reality based world, if there is something to criticize Fauci for, it was that he took to laissez-faire an approach to the pandemic, eschewing the more authoritarian decisions the rest of the world made, such as the UK, for example, where travel between areas was heavily restricted.
The brilliant part of Fauci's approach was that he listened to the epidemiologist/sociologists and was able to read the room. China had the lowest death rate of all places - even though it started there. But there is no way you could get the US population to accept what that would take.
The response had to be a calibration of competing interests. The pathetic and frightening thing was how hard it was to get Trump and the rest of the administration to not sabotage the efforts to reduce the deaths. Simple facts about reducing potential exposures were denied. Fake treatments were peddled (because certain persons had invested in them) - even though the science clearly was not there.
Shocked at what I read this morning and saw yesterday evening on Bloomberg. Dr Fauci was a guiding light during COVID, for everyone who had access to US TV. I remember his reaction in the White House press room when Trump asked if injected bleach would cure COVID. He hung his head and bit his lip. The man deserves sainthood, and a peaceful retirement. Every American should be ashamed at the way he is being treated.
I don't think I would have gotten into medical school, so tend to hold physicians in awe. What amazes me are the oddball ones who become wacky conservatives.
I don't find it amazing at all. They master one very difficult field and become instantly convinced that because they're that smart, their opinions on *everything* must be high-value. Standard-issue human arrogance.
You see this every time wingnuts shove a list of "scientists who don't believe in climate change" - and not a single one of them is a climate scientist. Or "scientists who don't believe in evolution," and not a single one of them's an evolutionary biologist.
I think the category of stupidity should be enlarged to include dementia. Trump is an old, very sick individual who has dementia, not of the Alzheimer type (he still remembers his enemies) but cortical dementia nonetheless. This is associated with disinhibition, one aspect of which is the inability to suppress the urge to believe in what you want. In the the demented individual this goes a step further: believing that what you want to believe has actually happened.
It is conventional wisdom that Trump lies about the 2020 election, however a case can be made that Trump truly believes that he won it - because of his advanced dementia. Look, he has been given the MOCA three times for Chrissakes. That's a test for dementia. His doctors know something that they're not talking about. The 47th needs the 25th......
Overall I agree but the Dotard has been too consistent in his ideas (eg tariffs) over the past 50 years to make dementia the primary problem here. The difference is the public. He used to be trotted out on talk shows as a type of sideshow freak filler between A-listers. It looks like that and The Apprentice exposure resulted in the public accepting his foolishness.
BTW, a recent study suggests people (especially men) who watch the most TV experience the greatest brain shrinkage as they age. If true it could explain why earlier pre-TV generations ultimately rejected authoritarianism.
The Tennessee schools I attended were not integrated until I was in the 12th grade. The Trailways bus station had segregated restrooms. In the late '70s, the city of Marietta, Georgia successfully prevented the extension of the Atlanta subway into their turf because they didn't want it to be easy for black people to get there. In the late '80s, I discovered that New Jersey realtors were still "red-lining" black buyers, trying to keep them out of "white" neighborhoods.
Corey Booker’s parents, both IBM executives, experienced red lining when they tried to buy a home in a NJ suburb. Luckily a group working against these practices with the help of a civil rights attorney.
It was mindful of how they treated Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of cameras back in the early days of Trump's 2nd term. I'll never forget how Vance and Trump attacked him....it was one of the most awful things I witnessed happening in Government.
Yes, they break all moral codes. Part of the fascist playbook. Leave us all shocked and ashamed while they gut our democracy and turn Gaza into a resort.
Remember Galileo being put on trial by the Church when he said the Earth was not the centre of the Universe? That’s what Fauci’s hearing reminded me of.
I’ve read the Portuguese are getting fed up with cost of living increases resulting from relatively well off expats relocating there. In June 2026 Greg Bovino (formerly the face of CBP cruelty) attended a far-right “remigration” conference there, which may indicate the fascists sense an opportunity among the Portuguese population.
I thought the hearing was great. Fauci telling the "hysterical, lying, amoral, cretinous ignoramuses" to stick it. We both know this is bullshit and I'm not playing.
It was a disgraceful performance, carried out by despicable men. Yet I remember a USA where politeness and urbanity was the normal in public affairs. The descent is shocking.
They create conspiracies to try to get nincompoops to vote against their own interests based on this kind of manufactured fear and rage. This is to provide something else besides the war and economy (and the planet burning and flooding) for FOX to talk about.
It is not a coincidence that this hearing grilling Dr. Fauci happened right before the GDP report was due out today.
People simply seem to care more when they do this to a man.
The flurry of nonsense and feigned outrage accelerates leading up to an election and this is all this is about - whipping up the vote from the ignorant for the midterms.
Obama used to call it the "silly season" but I do not think it is funny at all because people believe in this nonsense.
Congress and the Fed Government employees are technically employees of the people of the USA, so we should hold them to a higher standard, just like any boss would.
It should be illegal to lie in such a way when it concerns matters regarding one's official capacity - or the job they are elected to do as government employees.
We should not let our employees get away with this and there should be big fines for members of congress as well as the administration when they do this.
Now, their personal lives are another matter as well as anything related to national security, but other than that, the public should be able to sue, via class action, for the harm caused by intentionally misinforming the public.
The harm is that it makes government non-functional when they do this. A democracy relies on an informed public while acting in the capacity of their jobs as our employees.
Just think of how many have died believing in all of the GOP's nonsense and then add in that they are now curtailing important heath research based on a lot of this nonsense, as well. Add in the GOP lies about climate change and they have pretty much doomed the entire human race and that is a BFD.
Side note : Does anyone deep down not believe in their hearts and souls that the tipping point is already here with all of the wild fires and permafrost melting? If this is the case, the natural catastrophes will accelerate exponentially faster than we anticipate from here on out unless massive intervention and way to actually remove these climate warming gasses is found and implemented ASAP. The fact that we did not address this before it was too late, is all due to the GOP and that is a fact. All that carbon and methane being released has to be in excess of any man made efforts to curtail one might expect at this point.
If there is a cliamte expert reading here, please tell me I am wrong.
I'm not the scientist you requested, but in parallel with your observations as well as the intentional undoing of wind farms, fields of solar panels, EV supports and active construction of "data centers" -- we're there. For an indepth read, see Martha Ture.
Rand Paul and his Senate Committee are a disgrace. I thought Dr. Fauci had excellent legal advice when he took the Fifth on everything. Anything perceived as an error or contradiction would be jumped on as proof that Fauci is lying - about everything. It looked to me like a "Star Chamber!"
We should be erecting statues to Dr. Fauci! Instead, Trump and the rest of the delusional buffoons of the Right are trying to throw the man in jail.
I guess it's just one more thing to add to the list of mortifications Trump and his cabal of degenerate toadies have inflicted on this country, as if the list wasn't already long enough. I'm sure there'll be more.
100% this! In hindsight and with better data, a different path we coulda, shoulda taken might now be clear. That doesn't mean scientists and humanitarians like Dr F did anything wrong. Free of legal harassment, Dr Fauci himself would describe what can now be understood that couldn't at the time! The assignment was to use data and experience to judge and advise. Dr Fauci understood his role did that ethically and professionally. Move on America .... let's focus on being well prepared for the next pandemic. Or on actual crimes being committed in plain sight currently.
Paul’s right, and it’s worse than most people want to admit. This isn’t spin anymore. Spin at least respects the audience enough to lie convincingly. What we’re watching is a movement that’s stopped bothering to make the lies plausible, because plausibility was never the point. The point was always submission. Can you say the sun didn’t shine yesterday and get the room to nod along? That’s not persuasion. That’s a loyalty test.
This is a different animal than garden-variety political lying. The Fauci hearing wasn’t oversight, it was liturgy. The blackout that never happened, the grocery ID that doesn’t exist, the wildfire smoke blamed on Canadian raking habits — none of it needs to be true. It only needs to be repeated by the right people in front of the right cameras until repetition does the work truth used to do.
The scary part isn’t that they believe it. It’s that belief stopped being the requirement. Compliance is the requirement. And a party that requires compliance instead of belief isn’t really a party anymore. It’s something else, and Orwell already gave us the vocabulary for what to call it.
A while back, someone on the right - and it might have been Grover Norquist - said, "Reality is whatever we decide it is." And sure enough, that statement has sadly proved to be true. There are still millions who believe every word Trump says about everything regardless of how blatantly untrue it might be - the first paragraph of Dr. Krugman's post being only a partial list.
"If believing something suits MAGA’s prejudices and interests, they don’t hesitate: they simply insist that it’s true. They routinely dismiss scientific and statistical evidence, but they don’t stop there. They’re perfectly willing to deny reality even if the truth is staring them in the face."
This is a human frailty pumped up on steroids by the era of Donald Trump. Millions of people have decided that critical thinking is just too hard and too uncomfortable, and it's easier to be part of a cultish mob, told what to think and whom to hate.
It's depressing that hate comes easier than love, despite all the lessons of the New Testament.
We are an intelligent species and can find compromise. Our system of government was built for that, and did quite well till it was bulldozed by the fascist bullies.
The most successful way to lie (under normal circumstances) is to be adjacent to the truth. They have had years to push that line further and further, and watch people move right along with them. Some truly believe their own righteousness. Some are corrupt or power hungry regardless of the consequences. Some fear not going along whether that might be losing access or actual targeting and threats. Some are just weak. Some probably don’t care and just blow with the wind. When it comes to the electorate…some are ignorant or stupid. Some lack the actual capacity or skills for critical thinking, others are too lazy to engage it, and some actively work against it. Some fear change, the unknown, or the work they may have to do to adjust. Some straight up hate - women, non-whites, other religion, the educated, the enlightened, people with compassion for fellow humans, fill in the blank. And of course there are the true believers. All of it comes together to look like this. No one is actually better off. Certainly not “everyday” Americans or the rest of the regular folks around the world. But not even the people at the top are better off, as some have experienced already. Some know, can see and feel it, but continue with the game as long as possible. These kinds of governments are dog eat dog. No one trusts anyone. Everyone is constantly maneuvering. The very things that allow them to gain power are eventually the very things that also destroy them from within. It’s ultimately unsustainable (though no telling when the collapse will happen). Unfortunately the damage done is still very vast and very real. It takes decades to rebuild.
Conservatives don’t like the reality of a democratic pluralistic America so they had to go and create their own version of reality. They built their own media, schools, and even their own twisted version of christianity. Their version isn’t popular with most of the population, so they are trying to force it upon us. Part of this requires them to pretend that this reality is already true, a fake it till you make it attitude that some probably believe because they have beef doing it for so long. And they live in a circular world where everyone else acts the same way. Watching them debase themselves before dear leader is so grotesque and obvious that it exposes their behavior to the rest of the reality based population.
The only actual "conservatives" left — where they can do any good, at least (especially with all the de-partied 'Never'Trumpers since Maladministration 1.0) — are Republican-appointed judges who recognize how utterly bad-faith, mean-spirited, and unconstitutional the current U.S. Executive branch has become.
Let's Biden keep Top Secret documents in his garage he took while Vice President, without authority, even after his ghost writer wrote his book. Gets a pass as being too feebleminded to stand trial for doing that.
But, no issue with him continuing on as auto-pen President of the US.
Trump, even though he was President, gets armed assault at his home in Florida - with the real chance to have the FBI doing a shootout with the Secret Service on the property. All while FBI is under illegally drawn up orders of the DOJ's improperly (illegally) appointed Special Councilor... all names on these docs avowed Trump haters.
Trump said he was taking the jobs to clear out the Swamp.
Well… basically life starts to centre on weather the emergency room in the regional hospital is going to close because of a budget short fall, or monitoring the non-critical surgery waitlist takes up a lot of time too as your hip goes slowly to bone on bone…
Socialism is a fun idea, but it does have some downsides.
I assume you’re an American. You can still leave you know. I’m just saying… I left decades ago.
There are different forms of socialism but for this blog will use the form of democratic socialism advocated by Socialist parties in Western Europe.
For example, Nordic countries where government spending is between 40-50% of GDP. This brand of socialism believes in:
Redistribution of income and wealth through a progressive tax system and welfare state.
Ownership of key public sector utilities, such as gas, electricity, water, railways.
Private enterprise and private ownership of other industries.
Free health care and free public education provided by direct taxation.
Support for trade unions / minimum wages/labour market regulations to protect workers
Government regulation of monopolies, housing market, environment.
From a Google AI Search:
“The primary downsides to socialism revolve around:
1.. Economic inefficiency,
2.. Reduced individual incentives, and
3.. Central planning challenges.
While intended to promote equality, critics argue that the systemic lack of market mechanisms can severely hinder innovation and lower overall living standards.
The Economic Calculation Problem
Distorted price signals:
Without a free market, a central authority must dictate prices.
“A main problem in socialist economies... is that when government determines the prices of goods and services, the informative and allocative functions of prices are suppressed” as noted by ScienceDirect.
Chronic shortages:
Bureaucrats cannot accurately aggregate consumer data. This lack of real-time supply-and-demand tracking frequently results in shortages of basic goods.
(Standing in line for milk, bread, eggs, cheese… toilet paper …. - just ask any Glasnost emigrant from back in the 1970's through 1990's)
No bankruptcy mechanism:
Unproductive or failing state-run enterprises rarely go out of business.
Resources remain trapped in inefficient areas rather than moving to new industries.
Reduced Incentives and Innovation
Lower labor motivation:
High progressive taxation or uniform wealth distribution means individuals cannot fully keep the fruits of their extra labor.
This structure can lead to decreased workplace productivity and general stagnation.
Stifled entrepreneurship:
When potential profits are heavily taxed or absorbed by the state, fewer citizens take the financial risk to start new businesses.
Loss of "Creative Destruction":
Capitalism thrives on newer, better ideas replacing obsolete ones.
Socialism often prioritizes protecting existing state jobs over introducing disruptive, progressive technologies.
Governance and Liberty Risks
Concentration of bureaucratic power:
To manage production and redistribute resources, power must be heavily consolidated into the hands of government officials.
Historically, this has expanded state control and limited personal and political freedoms.
Capital flight:
High wealth and corporate taxes can cause wealthy citizens and entrepreneurs to relocate to more capital-friendly countries, ultimately reducing the domestic tax base.
Rationed public services:
In heavily state-funded sectors like healthcare, structural budget caps often replace price competition, resulting in long waiting lists or the rationing of non-urgent care.
To Dr. Krugman's "partial list" of Trump's blatant untruths I have to add Trump's repeated claim that the US is raking so much money because "foreign countries are paying tariffs". Sorry, but the truth is tariffs are paid by US consumers and not foreign sellers.
As far as I can tell, under Trump most of tariffs are not addressing actual issues and therefore most of them are actually just a tax on US consumers to offset government revenues lost by corporate and income tax cuts.
This isn't new. It goes back at least to the Dubya's regime. Remember them dismissing the reality based community and saying that they create their own reality. We can even trace it back to Newt Gingrich getting rid of the Congressional technology office because facts got in the way of his agenda. The Rs have been waging a war on reality for decades. Once again Trump is not an aberration. He is the culmination of 50 years of movement Conservatism which always has been an anti-democratic movement.
50 years and counting… it’s a tailored form of mass delusion. History is filled with such events. From Man, charging canon fire machine guns through minefields and Bob wire, to the many and varied “pogroms,” to burning people at the stake…
The list is long…
Yet amidst all this there is truth, caring kindness, and love.
It's hard enough to define a cat, but like the issue at hand, it's not necessary for substack readers to do so when there are acknowledged authorities who discuss these things.
Simply refer to nyt article of 10/23/24, about how one of the most senior and respected American authorities on fascism - Robert Paxton (and of course there are others) - articulated revised views on this subject, holding that trumpism and other worldwide phenomena of the last few years do indeed constitute fascism.
This is why i'm asking what fascism is, because nobody has a good definition.
Sending me to a left wing professional cultist is not getting me to the answer of what fascism is.
Dr. Timothv Schneider's lecture series is nothing more than the big tent.Where you're already underneath it?And he's just pulling you in closer.
How do I know this?I just didn't inquiry to find out who doctor timothy schneider is.
Google AI returned:
Dr. Timothy Snyder is an American historian and Yale professor whose political leanings are broadly center-left, liberal-democratic, and fiercely anti-authoritarian.
This month, he released public lecture installments from his course titled "Hitler and Stalin Today," which explore the historical roots of totalitarianism, nationalism, and fascism.
Result: you don't have to be on a college campus today to be indoctrinated.
Timmy boy has a Timmy boy has a predisposition against the political right.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 5th edition (2022) defines fascism as "A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism". Its second definition is, "Oppressive, dictatorial control". Nothing there tick a few boxes for you, Bob?
The rejection of reality is enforced by the strong threat of being arrested and imprisoned if you disagree or even question what is said or done in the totalitarian cult of Trump supported by MAGA Republicans (the 60 million who approve of everything Trump does) and safety exists in compliance and being an enthusiastic member of the cult. Death threats and actual violence include murders. ICE and MAGA violence are key parts of forced compliance.
This was the inevitable end point for the Republican party. When the only policy outcome you offer your constituents is oligarchy - something that by its fundamental nature is unpopular with the vast majority of people - you have to dissemble, mislead and deceive. This has been true of the modern Republican party since the John Birch society. It was only a matter of time until the lies compounded to the point where it became Orwellian.
I sometimes wonder, as I listen to Trump lie to me and then change the lie the next day, whether he is even consciously lying, or whether he actually believes whatever is coming from his mouth at the moment.
I’d like to suggest that the whole populace of people who invent what they believe and then believe what they invent and use it to create policy and as a basis for rights/no rights—without concrete, real scientific evidence, take that vaunted trip to Mars much sooner than predicted! That or perhaps the singeing clime far far below us. I’m sure they’ll recognize Dear Leader’s soulmate in the management of that clime.
Absolutely! AND the contempt of court over not producing the other 3 million Epstein files! This is about compliance and what happens when you don't shut up and follow the leader. We could all be the next Fauci.
Well, trumshit did say that repigs are the stupidest voters, where you merely have to repeat anything over and over , even if it is a lie, that they will believe it . The sole reason he switched to the dumb red side to run for President cuz he knew he didn't stand a chance with the leftists side
Fortunately, the VOTERS—most of them, anyway, and apparently by too big a margin for the GOP to gerrymander its way out—aren’t buying it. Things seemed dark & hopeless for progressives before, like in 1859, 1911, and 1931–but voters changed things in the subsequent election. Most particularly in 1932. Most people—even most liberals—don’t appreciate how economically & socially unequal, corrupt, and undemocratic America was before that election. But after it, everything changed over the course of a generation. If we beat the oligarchs before, we can do it again. And it doesn’t take a violent revolution—just a mental one. And polls seem to indicate one is coming—Dems have a substantial advantage in the generic ballot, and most polls that ask the question have Kamala winning a do-over—clear buyer’s remorse. If we all fight, then this will not be the end, but the cusp of a new beginning.
Unfortunately for your talking point, I looked at the 1932 election and the fallout and outcome from that.
And it is not the rosy picture you paint.
You want to go after oligarchs, hard-and-fast?
That is an extremely bad mistake.
Which was outlined by that 1932 election. And the economic outfall that occurred after it all the way up through the 2021 stimulus payments given to people during covid, which caused inflation.
You remember Democrat fueled inflation?
Back in 2022, when it was at 9% for the year. Cumulative inflation for Biden's term in office was 22%.
In both cases, the Democrat leadership for all, raized prices of goods and services in this country to economic levels that we suffer under today.
The salaries did not follow that.
And people had to get new jobs which removed them from industries that collapsed because of covid.
Now, because of democrat pushed minimum wages of up to fifteen dollars an hour in some communities, fast food restaurants are going out of business.
So starter jobs for kids in high school or those coming out of high school and going into college are fewer and further between.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency faced significant criticism for policies that exacerbated racial inequality, restricted civil liberties, and expanded executive power.
Key Shortfalls
Japanese-American Internment:
Forced 120,000 citizens into camps via Executive Order 9066.
Exclusion of Black Americans:
Excluded domestic and agricultural workers from New Deal benefits.
Court-Packing Plan:
Attempted to pack the Supreme Court, damaging his political capital.
(Shades of 1930's in 2026)
Refugee Turn-Backs:
Denied entry to Jewish refugees fleeing Europe on the MS St. Louis.
Economic Relapse:
Triggered the "Roosevelt Recession" in 1937 by prematurely cutting spending.
Anti-Lynching Inaction:
Refused to support federal anti-lynching legislation to appease Southern Democrats.
The 1937 recession severely delayed recovery from the Great Depression and altered federal fiscal policy for decades.
It proved that cutting government stimulus too early could stall an economy. Albeit, an economy built on Government handouts.
Immediate Damage
Production Drop:
Industrial output plummeted by over 30% in months.
Unemployment Spike:
Joblessness surged from 14.3% back up to 19.0%.
Stock Crash:
The market lost roughly 50% of its value.
Long-Term Impact
1. Shifted Economic Theory
Keynesianism Adopted:
It legitimized John Maynard Keynes's theories on deficit spending.
Permanent Stimulus:
Government accepted that it must spend money during downturns.
(1930's echoed in today's COVID Stimulus payments = 22% inflation. - Dems NEVER LEARN)
2. Delayed Full Recovery
Extended Depression:
Economic recovery was pushed back by several years.
War Dependency:
Full employment was only achieved through World War II mobilization.
3. Institutional Changes
Reserve Requirements:
The Federal Reserve learned to manage bank reserves more cautiously.
Monetary Guardrails:
Central banking policies were rewritten to prevent sudden credit freezes.
Why It Happened
Premature Spending Cuts:
FDR tried to balance the budget too early.
Monetary Tightening:
The Federal Reserve doubled bank reserve requirements.Tax Increases:
The new Social Security payroll tax reduced consumer spending power.
Applied massive, sustained stimulus to avoid the 1937 trap, though it later contributed to post-pandemic inflation.
Long before Orwell wrote, the founding rules for the Jesuit order in the mid-16th century said the same thing. I'm paraphrasing, but these rules actually say something like "if the pope says something is black, and you think it's white, it's actually black." Total unthinking devotion to whoever was pope was part of their order.
The Republican Party has become the most powerful and dangerous hate group in the world. And while I don’t want to believe it, I can’t avoid the thought that the party’s recent red-baiting is less about persuading voters and more about inciting violence.
Insightful, as always. It seems 50 years of defunding education has consequences. A frightening percentage of the American population does not understand the scientific method — the most basic system we have for delineating fact from fiction.
The USA has the highest percentage of illiterate people of all the developed countries…. More than 15%, against an average of 3 to 5% for the others. 😭😭😭
Defunding education, replacing science with « faith » and politics with entertainment (showman Trump is very useful for the Project 2025 and the oligarchs because he focuses all attention on himself while the others implement step by step the dismantling of democracy.
What a stupid idea because the net result is that those who didn’t manage will at every turn feel more and more left behind. Whereas if they were repeating the class, they would have been able to catch up.
PK: "I have some idea of how this happened: It involves a confluence of big-money corruption, crony capitalism, religious fanaticism, and the ever-present forces of racism and sexism."
All exponentially heightened through social media.
Not just social media. The mindless stuff on TV started the dumbing down. I was young, but I remember the thoughtful discussion of how TV ought to be used. Like usual, the capitalists convinced everyone that it should be used to ‘grow the economy’ to ‘make our country stronger’. So now I hope we can start to learn that money alone turns into self destruction.
Just as the WaPo has been. The other day they were soliciting reader's comments on a care home that was banned from having happy hours with alcohol. Next week it may ask for people's favorite cat videos.
I was one of literally hundreds of thousands of people who cancelled their WaPo subscription on the same day in October 2024, and it sounds as if I've missed nothing since.
There's lots of money to be made from corruption, religious fanaticism, xenophobia and racism. And if the side effect of supplying the product destroys the country, so what? The "customer" is always right.
With respect to the MAGA claim about vaccines, I like Christopher Penn's comment, "Just remember that given the abundance of neurodivergent people in science, it's far more likely that autism causes vaccines."
Heather Cox Richardson cites a raft of polling this morning that suggests we may be on the brink of an awakening. Much trump support has slipped into the 20’s. Between gas prices, wildfires, excruciating summer temps, even the MAGAs seem to be coming awake to the negative impact of this administration.
The problem is that doesn't get through to the maga fans. So there's no corrective nature to the data: they simply don't believe that data. Essentially "if I believe Trump is doing a good job, he's doing a good job."
This will be a really big issue for America going forward. In the UK there are climate emergency deniers, but most of us don't take any notice of them in the context of weather we've never seen before and brush fires breaking out in places that have never had a brush fire before. I'm not saying we are geniuses, I'm saying we have basic observational skills, and no air conditioning to mitigate The horror of an incredibly hot day. I mean, we're talking about it, and may make a decision eventually, but for now we just know it's really hot. And it wasn't when we were children. And the heat didn't cost the country a billion pounds in lost work when we were kids. So there's that.
America in my experience is in love with air conditioning to the degree that people very rarely seem to turn it off even in buildings that don't need it: in the UK if there is air conditioning (or heating) they are turned off or on dependent on the weather and time of year. This is useful to remind us that the weather keeps changing, generally in a bad way. Britain is the land of low expectations: we expect most politicians to be useless, we expect it to take an age to get anything done and so on. As a result we notice things. That's useful. But fundamentally I think that something really wrong with your educational system. And I'm not overly impressed with ours. But most of this stuff is not a matter of debate it's a matter of fact settled many decades ago. Blaming Anthony Faucci for covid is the work of lunatics, and by "lunatics" I mean people who should be locked up for their own safety as they apparently can't navigate the world with any reliability.
You can see comment after comment from people who say things like "Trump has done a lot of great things and is a great president but on (this one issue that directly impacts me/my finances) he's wrong."
And it took 10 years for this awakening, one that I reached at the golden escalator and all I knew was that he had a reputation of being a crooked businessman, the host of a BS reality TV show that I never watched, and that he used gold and white marble to excess
I had my awakening as I watched the republican debates before the 2020 election. I was horrified at Trump’s behavior, thinking “this guy will never go anywhere .” Then I was horrified that republicans chose him as their candidate. And I continue to be horrified every single day by Trump and the GOP. I’m 75 and before Trump, a loyal Republican and conservative. Voting for Hilary was my first vote for a Democrat. Since then I have never voted for a Republican. And never will. I now skew to the progressive side! I wish more Republicans would have had an the same awakening.
I IDd as Rep back then and I liked McCain. He'd be considered a "normie" today - a missing or silent species.
I generally view VPs as nothing more than background figures. Yes, a bit of a pause considering that Palin could have been prez had McCain keeled over.
The golden escalator moment was when I walked away from that party. This was bolstered by a lots of reading about how we got so sideways in our governance - obscene amounts of money that distort policy; shift the balance away from labor toward capital.
I just saw an interview with Rich Logis, a former Trump activist, and found it quite interesting. He said two things that I think are key. First, he said his…enthusiasm, his support was driven by rage. He was constantly angry about something or someone and it fueled him. Second, the way he realized that and began to let the rage subside was that he diversified his news sources. It’s like handling a spooked animal. We have to coax the ones who’ve gotten caught up in the rage baiting and fear mongering back to reality. Some level of realization is happening. People have taken down their Trump flags and leave their hats in the closet. I think many are finally seeing what *he* is. The question is, can they see how far that rot has bled into the R party? Can they change their votes to root out the rot? That I’m not so sure about. That is still their weakness. It’s not “just” Trump. Whether they went along maliciously, dutifully, or out of fear, the Republican Party has become a party of fascism.
In his final book Alexei Navalny commented on how lies had become the modus operandi of the Russian state. Putin would not even tell the whoppers of Trump and these guys. Everyday feels like I’m living inside a dystopia.
Superbly well expressed. I read or listen to Republican politicians and I ask, do they really believe the right wing nonsense they spew, or do they say it because they think their voters are so dumb as to believe it? And which of those answers is worse? I also often say that it would be easy to dismiss Republican politicians and the preponderance of their voters as just "stupid"--really easy.
Our friends who watch Fox News don't hear anything bad about Trump. They never heard about the Trump Meme coins and the fancy dinner for the bug spenders. They live in their comfortable, fact free universe.
We can't. These kind of people love the simple life, where they can switch off their conscience without remorse. Where everything is either white or black, right or wrong, Trump or communist, live or die. Until one day of course when their complacency hurts them personally, something about the regime that doesn't compute. But then it's probably too late.
If not Fox viewers (and not counting bribe payers), just who is it that buys Tr meme coins? I can't cut Fox viewers any slack. If anything, they see MORE of their fearless leader than others. I DO at least think viewership is down, though. They're getting tired of winning.
The Orwell quote, I believe, is from “Homage to Catalonia,” and it’s more complete version is this: “This kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. After all, the chances are that those lies, or at any rate similar lies, will pass into history…The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ - well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five - well, two and two are five.”
Welcome to the nightmare world of 1984. Is there a way of waking up from this?
I would love to know if George Orwell himself actually expected the US to be the definitive real life version of 1984. Because I had always thought it was Stalin and the USSR we saw in his novel. But I would guess that totalitarianism looks the same no matter the jacket (or hat) it wears.
As a matter of fact, the first real implementation of « 1984 » was the Cultural Revolution 1965-1978 in China, and the Kim Il Sun regime in North Korea (perpetuated by the son Kim Jon Il and grandson Kim Jong Un) and now of course in China ´s Xi Jinping. Stalin and Putin in comparison are just apprentices.
You can deny reality...create your own version of truth...but the universe doesn't care. A house of cards is still a house of cards and when one card is disturbed, it all comes down. Stalinistic trials and purges will result... well, we see that already... what's next?
Basically, fair comment, though I have to say that Dr. Fauci's diaries make for painful reading. Anyway, the past 25 years, and especially the reigns of Bush II and the Donald, have pretty much convinced me that America is on the way out and nothing can be done about it. It won't happen in my lifetime, but one can see it taking shape on the horizon.
My guess is that almost every diary in which a person tries to convey how they are feeling will be cringy to read one day. I started one and it didn't last long for that reason. It's criminal that Fauci has been dragged through the mud this way. He's a hero, Trump is the opposite. He was able to write a diary, Trump can only fill social media with sludge.
When I was in college, I wrote to my mother every other day (before Ma Bell was disbanded). After she died, I found a box under her bed full of my letters. I read a couple - OMG they were so cringe. Yet she treasured them. They helped her; writing them helped me. We missed each other. I am appalled that what was helpful to Dr. Fauci during a time of intense stress is now public.
Forget the diary. They should be hauling the Epstein files into daylight instead. It is a deliberate waste of time while Blanche is talking his way out of trouble and onto power
I'm not sure about that. I've always enjoyed diaries published as books (at least if the diarist interests me), although granted those go through an editing process before publication. I think Dr. Tony stuck around too long and became too enamored with his own image and accomplishments. The one thing that really interests me is whether Covid was the product of a lab rather than a wet market, and whether the US was in some way helping research done in a lab in Communist China.
"The summer cold is a different animal. A means, ugly animal ! It hits you in the summer, when you've got a lot to loose !!"
Im sure there is plenty to read on this subject that is not hidden from public view.
COVID 19 stands for Corona Virus of 2019. Its a certain type of virus. The common cold virus. Nothing exotic or new to the world. And COVID 19 was just a bit different. Viruses change.
Go for it ! Let us all know what you learn about it !
Voting Cheeto Jesus in for a second run at destroying the country pretty much indicated that the game is up. A whole bunch of people who have literally no idea what "what's the worst thing that can happen" looks like, voted to get a look at what the worst thing that can happen looks like.
I caught one interview with him right after his second win when he made the comment that ‘Elon is good with these zeros and ones’. And I thought….there it is. They manipulated the numbers.
Fauci had no choice but to plead the fifth. The Kangaroo Court hearing is only there to provide evidence for the weaponised DoJ to prosecute and imprison him. This could be a serious hearing from responsible politicians. The US doesn’t do that any more.
My reaaction to the Fauci hearing was sadness. Fauci, one of the world's foremost epidemiologists, has made enormously distinguished contributions to his field and his country, in fact, the world. For him to end up, at 85, being harangued and insulted by hysterical, lying, amoral, cretinous ignoramuses, is shocking, and the entire country should be ashamed.
A bit of ‘light in the darkness’.
Dr Fauci has held the line against tyranny (God bless him). He shows America how to behave.
Regards,
Anthony
Very well put! Thats what I was thinking as I looked at his calm stalwart face yesterday. He was a hero during COVID. He had to walk the ‘sane’ line between Covid and Trump!
But nonetheless you could see the hurt in his face. Dealing with the likes of Hawley is not his forte, he's a scientist and facts are his playing field. God damn these repubs.
God damn their treason for all posterity.
Hear! Hear!
They're still trying to pin blame for Trump's disastrous handling of COVID. If they can blame Fauci and China, then the 1.2 million Americans who died can't be blamed on Trump/GOP policies, right?
For hating the people, for destroying the country.
Hawley is a fact as well..humanity is composed of Hawley's and such like. Fauci was steadfast and it was admirable to see. He has many many on his side.
I couldn't stop laughing when I read Hawley's comment about Fauci's reasons for taking the 5th. I understand why too many GOP are sensitive to saying something the boss will disagree with, but to declare as an admission of guilt the very same tactic that his boss has employed is risible. As a Yale law graduate, I am sure that Hawley knows well why Fauci declined to answer the committee's questions, and his pandering to the Chief is deeply disappointing.
I welcome this opportunity to look back at what really happened during those early days of Covid, who is to blame for how many deaths. The denials, the misinformation,
I could go on. But these people are not smart at all. We just need to fight back.
Who else remembers Hawley running through the halls of Congress like a scared rabbit on 1/6?
I'd agree with that only there is no god. I do wish there was such a thing as karma, which would get them all in the end!
The bright side is that, since there is no God and likely not something called karma (invented to keep peasants from wishing ill on their masters)…we don’t have to wish away our rage at these boodlers, warmongers, racists and disgusting God-pesterers. We can feel what we feel.
Yes, but I hope Fauci knows he did well. He has been called upon to show them and us something more.
Yes you could see the hurt in his face. I echo that and so many others do too since Trump. This is a different country than I thought. There are the Fauci's and the Paul's Hawley's and Trump supporters.. and Trump himself elected twice even after how regarding Covid, he handled, mishandled, shamed himself and the country and then has the nerve to take credit for Operation Warp Speed.
Dr. Fauci had the temerity to contradict Trump in public, which, I'm sure, the vengeful one has not forgotten.
YES!
Fauci has too much integrity, respect for the truth and for science, and concern for the public's welfare to have allowed Trump's false statements and dangerous "remedies" to go unchallenged. Now he's paying the price. First he was forced into unplanned retirement; now Congressional Republicans are trying to get him to say something that disagrees with his diary entries or previous statements so they can charge him with lying to Congress (which is why his attorney counseled him to plead the Fifth Amendment). He does not deserve this abuse. He deserves to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
I live in the U.K., though I was living in the U.S. until 4 years ago, and Dr. Fauci, who is a month older than me, is a hero in my eyes. I don’t quite get how those cretins in Congress got access to his diary. It’s appalling to me that they are using his private thoughts to persecute him just because he had the temerity to disagree with their “dear leader”.
No doubt Trump will try to take his pension away.
Frankly, any assessment of Fauci and Trump could only be settled one way. Fauci is the sane man. Trump, driven by toxic narcissism and astounding ignorance would be identified as bordering on insanity. Unfortunately, it's only gotten worse since 2020!
Has anyone heard one word yet from your Democratic representative(s) defending Fauci and attacking Ron Paul and his Republcan cohorts who carried out this pathetic media circus?
Excellent point, probably not in the DNC playbook to bring up Covid.
The weird theater of an 85 year old scientist and oddball Rand was rehash of Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.
Zero help for Americans, just more quivers for Repug PR.
I will never forget the shambolic White House Covid Task Force meetings where President Trump tried to convince the country that everything was for the best in this best of all possible countries. This link is from one such meeting at the height of the pandemic in 2020:
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-31/#:~:text=Q%C2%A0%C2%A0%C2%A0-,Thank%20you%2C%20Mr.%20President,the%20states%20are%20doing?
Fauci then was the only voice on the realities of the pandemic that the public believed. Pence, Birx, Trump all assured us, like Pangloss, that death rates were declining even as the SARSCoV2 virus spread across the United States. Dr. Fauci is being persecuted to cover up from Trump’s colossal failure of leadership during that time. The truth is that we lost more people to the virus per capita than any other civilized nation on earth and more per capita than many much poorer nations. And that was due to Trump and the incompetent people he appointed during the pandemic into positions of power!
The ineffective response to the pandemic was a major reason Trump lost in 2020! For real 😄
Indeed Ken! The voting public hadn’t forgotten those Covid Task Force briefings in which Trump displayed his frantic desire to obfuscate the lethality of the epidemic and his administration’s incapability to respond to it!
And look what they did in 2024.....memories are short.
Which is why the “hearing” yesterday was such a bizarre choice from a tactical perspective if you expect to have a reasonably fair election in three months. It revived memories of just how awful the Trump 1.0 Covid response was with only three months before the midterms. If they were going to revive memories they worked so hard to suppress in 2024, they could have chosen something more benign like the border wall. It was a policy failure, but it was more of a silly failure than a tragic one.
I suspect everything is about deflecting, but they've been wrong on so many things; they have no successes to deflect to....so they go back in history and look for ways to pin it on Biden. What is tragic is that there are still people who don't see them for what they are. Ron Johnson and his "mass suicides" nonsense, for example.....
Love the Candide tribute there, Joanna!
Agree. Part of it is, they were [still] angry and upset about the pandemic and the disruptions it caused and they wanted someone to blame. Dr. Fauci was a convenient scapegoat for them. It is easier for these senators and Trump administration officials to shout insults than to do the hard work of preparing the country for the next pandemic.
Now, after repeatedly threatening criminal prosecution, they want to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress for invoking his absolute Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself. He appeared in response to the subpoena, which was all that was required. He was not required to answer gotcha questions.
jim jordan has defied his subpeona
IOKIYAR. IACIYAD.
Unlike testimony from so-called department secretaries whose 'answer' to any question is to not answer the question and then insult the questioner, which I'm sure follows trump's instructions.
Ironically Fauci was against many of the policies they blame him for. For example, he was strongly against a vaccine ID.
In a reality based world, if there is something to criticize Fauci for, it was that he took to laissez-faire an approach to the pandemic, eschewing the more authoritarian decisions the rest of the world made, such as the UK, for example, where travel between areas was heavily restricted.
The brilliant part of Fauci's approach was that he listened to the epidemiologist/sociologists and was able to read the room. China had the lowest death rate of all places - even though it started there. But there is no way you could get the US population to accept what that would take.
The response had to be a calibration of competing interests. The pathetic and frightening thing was how hard it was to get Trump and the rest of the administration to not sabotage the efforts to reduce the deaths. Simple facts about reducing potential exposures were denied. Fake treatments were peddled (because certain persons had invested in them) - even though the science clearly was not there.
Exactly
Shocked at what I read this morning and saw yesterday evening on Bloomberg. Dr Fauci was a guiding light during COVID, for everyone who had access to US TV. I remember his reaction in the White House press room when Trump asked if injected bleach would cure COVID. He hung his head and bit his lip. The man deserves sainthood, and a peaceful retirement. Every American should be ashamed at the way he is being treated.
So true! Well said.
Hear, hear!!
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
though in the case of people like Rand Paul and Bernie Moreno, it's not sincere ignorance, it's staged ignorance - but very real stupidity.
I don't think I would have gotten into medical school, so tend to hold physicians in awe. What amazes me are the oddball ones who become wacky conservatives.
I don't find it amazing at all. They master one very difficult field and become instantly convinced that because they're that smart, their opinions on *everything* must be high-value. Standard-issue human arrogance.
You see this every time wingnuts shove a list of "scientists who don't believe in climate change" - and not a single one of them is a climate scientist. Or "scientists who don't believe in evolution," and not a single one of them's an evolutionary biologist.
We can say the same for lawyers.
"No city is large enough to support one lawyer. No town is too small to support two." - Mark Twain.
It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves. Franz Kafka, The Trial
I think the category of stupidity should be enlarged to include dementia. Trump is an old, very sick individual who has dementia, not of the Alzheimer type (he still remembers his enemies) but cortical dementia nonetheless. This is associated with disinhibition, one aspect of which is the inability to suppress the urge to believe in what you want. In the the demented individual this goes a step further: believing that what you want to believe has actually happened.
It is conventional wisdom that Trump lies about the 2020 election, however a case can be made that Trump truly believes that he won it - because of his advanced dementia. Look, he has been given the MOCA three times for Chrissakes. That's a test for dementia. His doctors know something that they're not talking about. The 47th needs the 25th......
New Bumper Sticker!
The 47th needs the 25th!
25 47 or 86 47.
Either works for me.
My new sign for this week’s protest!
Overall I agree but the Dotard has been too consistent in his ideas (eg tariffs) over the past 50 years to make dementia the primary problem here. The difference is the public. He used to be trotted out on talk shows as a type of sideshow freak filler between A-listers. It looks like that and The Apprentice exposure resulted in the public accepting his foolishness.
BTW, a recent study suggests people (especially men) who watch the most TV experience the greatest brain shrinkage as they age. If true it could explain why earlier pre-TV generations ultimately rejected authoritarianism.
I agree he's stupid, but the dementia is something additional.
Sixty years ago, school histories had happy slaves in the wonderful ante-bellum South. At least one of my elementary schools was segregated.
The Tennessee schools I attended were not integrated until I was in the 12th grade. The Trailways bus station had segregated restrooms. In the late '70s, the city of Marietta, Georgia successfully prevented the extension of the Atlanta subway into their turf because they didn't want it to be easy for black people to get there. In the late '80s, I discovered that New Jersey realtors were still "red-lining" black buyers, trying to keep them out of "white" neighborhoods.
Corey Booker’s parents, both IBM executives, experienced red lining when they tried to buy a home in a NJ suburb. Luckily a group working against these practices with the help of a civil rights attorney.
One of my favorites!!
It was mindful of how they treated Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of cameras back in the early days of Trump's 2nd term. I'll never forget how Vance and Trump attacked him....it was one of the most awful things I witnessed happening in Government.
Yes, they break all moral codes. Part of the fascist playbook. Leave us all shocked and ashamed while they gut our democracy and turn Gaza into a resort.
Remember Galileo being put on trial by the Church when he said the Earth was not the centre of the Universe? That’s what Fauci’s hearing reminded me of.
I wasn't there personally, but I've read about it! Ha.
It was like a show trial. American politics looks very disrupt from this side of the Atlantic
You are fortunate to be on the other side. Even my Republican sister is talking about where else we could move to!
I've read that Portugal is kind to expats, and we found it to be a lovely place to visit. Learning the language will be a chore.
I’ve read the Portuguese are getting fed up with cost of living increases resulting from relatively well off expats relocating there. In June 2026 Greg Bovino (formerly the face of CBP cruelty) attended a far-right “remigration” conference there, which may indicate the fascists sense an opportunity among the Portuguese population.
Good to know. It's hard to keep up. I recall that our tour guide in Lisbon said that rents in the center of town were quite high.
My brother and SIL love Portugal! Sadly, I am probably too old to learn the language...
trump took away his security protection
Exactly and I am pissed at people like the young Turks Cenk Uyghur for believing this anti Fauci nonsense 😡
I thought the hearing was great. Fauci telling the "hysterical, lying, amoral, cretinous ignoramuses" to stick it. We both know this is bullshit and I'm not playing.
He should remain silent in the hearings and calmly take no part, and let the ‘attack dogs’ snarl and yowl.
From what I've read, that's pretty much what he did.
It was a disgraceful performance, carried out by despicable men. Yet I remember a USA where politeness and urbanity was the normal in public affairs. The descent is shocking.
Benghazi - remember?
This is what the GOP do, and all they ever do.
They create conspiracies to try to get nincompoops to vote against their own interests based on this kind of manufactured fear and rage. This is to provide something else besides the war and economy (and the planet burning and flooding) for FOX to talk about.
It is not a coincidence that this hearing grilling Dr. Fauci happened right before the GDP report was due out today.
People simply seem to care more when they do this to a man.
The flurry of nonsense and feigned outrage accelerates leading up to an election and this is all this is about - whipping up the vote from the ignorant for the midterms.
Obama used to call it the "silly season" but I do not think it is funny at all because people believe in this nonsense.
Congress and the Fed Government employees are technically employees of the people of the USA, so we should hold them to a higher standard, just like any boss would.
It should be illegal to lie in such a way when it concerns matters regarding one's official capacity - or the job they are elected to do as government employees.
We should not let our employees get away with this and there should be big fines for members of congress as well as the administration when they do this.
Now, their personal lives are another matter as well as anything related to national security, but other than that, the public should be able to sue, via class action, for the harm caused by intentionally misinforming the public.
The harm is that it makes government non-functional when they do this. A democracy relies on an informed public while acting in the capacity of their jobs as our employees.
Just think of how many have died believing in all of the GOP's nonsense and then add in that they are now curtailing important heath research based on a lot of this nonsense, as well. Add in the GOP lies about climate change and they have pretty much doomed the entire human race and that is a BFD.
Side note : Does anyone deep down not believe in their hearts and souls that the tipping point is already here with all of the wild fires and permafrost melting? If this is the case, the natural catastrophes will accelerate exponentially faster than we anticipate from here on out unless massive intervention and way to actually remove these climate warming gasses is found and implemented ASAP. The fact that we did not address this before it was too late, is all due to the GOP and that is a fact. All that carbon and methane being released has to be in excess of any man made efforts to curtail one might expect at this point.
If there is a cliamte expert reading here, please tell me I am wrong.
I'm not the scientist you requested, but in parallel with your observations as well as the intentional undoing of wind farms, fields of solar panels, EV supports and active construction of "data centers" -- we're there. For an indepth read, see Martha Ture.
Rand Paul and his Senate Committee are a disgrace. I thought Dr. Fauci had excellent legal advice when he took the Fifth on everything. Anything perceived as an error or contradiction would be jumped on as proof that Fauci is lying - about everything. It looked to me like a "Star Chamber!"
We should be erecting statues to Dr. Fauci! Instead, Trump and the rest of the delusional buffoons of the Right are trying to throw the man in jail.
I guess it's just one more thing to add to the list of mortifications Trump and his cabal of degenerate toadies have inflicted on this country, as if the list wasn't already long enough. I'm sure there'll be more.
Gods, I wish I was Canadian!
100% this! In hindsight and with better data, a different path we coulda, shoulda taken might now be clear. That doesn't mean scientists and humanitarians like Dr F did anything wrong. Free of legal harassment, Dr Fauci himself would describe what can now be understood that couldn't at the time! The assignment was to use data and experience to judge and advise. Dr Fauci understood his role did that ethically and professionally. Move on America .... let's focus on being well prepared for the next pandemic. Or on actual crimes being committed in plain sight currently.
..it's not as if there is an intent to consider the facts: it's a ruse and poorly enacted
Paul’s right, and it’s worse than most people want to admit. This isn’t spin anymore. Spin at least respects the audience enough to lie convincingly. What we’re watching is a movement that’s stopped bothering to make the lies plausible, because plausibility was never the point. The point was always submission. Can you say the sun didn’t shine yesterday and get the room to nod along? That’s not persuasion. That’s a loyalty test.
This is a different animal than garden-variety political lying. The Fauci hearing wasn’t oversight, it was liturgy. The blackout that never happened, the grocery ID that doesn’t exist, the wildfire smoke blamed on Canadian raking habits — none of it needs to be true. It only needs to be repeated by the right people in front of the right cameras until repetition does the work truth used to do.
The scary part isn’t that they believe it. It’s that belief stopped being the requirement. Compliance is the requirement. And a party that requires compliance instead of belief isn’t really a party anymore. It’s something else, and Orwell already gave us the vocabulary for what to call it.
A while back, someone on the right - and it might have been Grover Norquist - said, "Reality is whatever we decide it is." And sure enough, that statement has sadly proved to be true. There are still millions who believe every word Trump says about everything regardless of how blatantly untrue it might be - the first paragraph of Dr. Krugman's post being only a partial list.
"If believing something suits MAGA’s prejudices and interests, they don’t hesitate: they simply insist that it’s true. They routinely dismiss scientific and statistical evidence, but they don’t stop there. They’re perfectly willing to deny reality even if the truth is staring them in the face."
This is a human frailty pumped up on steroids by the era of Donald Trump. Millions of people have decided that critical thinking is just too hard and too uncomfortable, and it's easier to be part of a cultish mob, told what to think and whom to hate.
It's depressing that hate comes easier than love, despite all the lessons of the New Testament.
We are an intelligent species and can find compromise. Our system of government was built for that, and did quite well till it was bulldozed by the fascist bullies.
The most successful way to lie (under normal circumstances) is to be adjacent to the truth. They have had years to push that line further and further, and watch people move right along with them. Some truly believe their own righteousness. Some are corrupt or power hungry regardless of the consequences. Some fear not going along whether that might be losing access or actual targeting and threats. Some are just weak. Some probably don’t care and just blow with the wind. When it comes to the electorate…some are ignorant or stupid. Some lack the actual capacity or skills for critical thinking, others are too lazy to engage it, and some actively work against it. Some fear change, the unknown, or the work they may have to do to adjust. Some straight up hate - women, non-whites, other religion, the educated, the enlightened, people with compassion for fellow humans, fill in the blank. And of course there are the true believers. All of it comes together to look like this. No one is actually better off. Certainly not “everyday” Americans or the rest of the regular folks around the world. But not even the people at the top are better off, as some have experienced already. Some know, can see and feel it, but continue with the game as long as possible. These kinds of governments are dog eat dog. No one trusts anyone. Everyone is constantly maneuvering. The very things that allow them to gain power are eventually the very things that also destroy them from within. It’s ultimately unsustainable (though no telling when the collapse will happen). Unfortunately the damage done is still very vast and very real. It takes decades to rebuild.
Just cuz it's worked for YEARS w the red staters does NOT mean the rest of us are, or will be, as easily to confuse!
Conservatives don’t like the reality of a democratic pluralistic America so they had to go and create their own version of reality. They built their own media, schools, and even their own twisted version of christianity. Their version isn’t popular with most of the population, so they are trying to force it upon us. Part of this requires them to pretend that this reality is already true, a fake it till you make it attitude that some probably believe because they have beef doing it for so long. And they live in a circular world where everyone else acts the same way. Watching them debase themselves before dear leader is so grotesque and obvious that it exposes their behavior to the rest of the reality based population.
The only actual "conservatives" left — where they can do any good, at least (especially with all the de-partied 'Never'Trumpers since Maladministration 1.0) — are Republican-appointed judges who recognize how utterly bad-faith, mean-spirited, and unconstitutional the current U.S. Executive branch has become.
Grover Nordquist is public enemy numero uno, not Anthony Fauci.
I wonder what the reality of a Communist, no Constitution, packed Supreme Court and cancelled Bill of Rights world would be like.
You'll find out if the DoJ isn't cleaned up.
The swamps enforcer.
Let's Biden keep Top Secret documents in his garage he took while Vice President, without authority, even after his ghost writer wrote his book. Gets a pass as being too feebleminded to stand trial for doing that.
But, no issue with him continuing on as auto-pen President of the US.
Trump, even though he was President, gets armed assault at his home in Florida - with the real chance to have the FBI doing a shootout with the Secret Service on the property. All while FBI is under illegally drawn up orders of the DOJ's improperly (illegally) appointed Special Councilor... all names on these docs avowed Trump haters.
Trump said he was taking the jobs to clear out the Swamp.
He's still wrestling Gaters.
do you ever fact check any little piece of Fox generated drivel that come out of your mind? just curious.
Well… basically life starts to centre on weather the emergency room in the regional hospital is going to close because of a budget short fall, or monitoring the non-critical surgery waitlist takes up a lot of time too as your hip goes slowly to bone on bone…
Socialism is a fun idea, but it does have some downsides.
I assume you’re an American. You can still leave you know. I’m just saying… I left decades ago.
Well said.
Here is some data that backs that:
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/147271/economics/pros-and-cons-of-socialism/
Pros and Cons of Socialism
13 September 2025 by Tejvan Pettinger
There are different forms of socialism but for this blog will use the form of democratic socialism advocated by Socialist parties in Western Europe.
For example, Nordic countries where government spending is between 40-50% of GDP. This brand of socialism believes in:
Redistribution of income and wealth through a progressive tax system and welfare state.
Ownership of key public sector utilities, such as gas, electricity, water, railways.
Private enterprise and private ownership of other industries.
Free health care and free public education provided by direct taxation.
Support for trade unions / minimum wages/labour market regulations to protect workers
Government regulation of monopolies, housing market, environment.
From a Google AI Search:
“The primary downsides to socialism revolve around:
1.. Economic inefficiency,
2.. Reduced individual incentives, and
3.. Central planning challenges.
While intended to promote equality, critics argue that the systemic lack of market mechanisms can severely hinder innovation and lower overall living standards.
The Economic Calculation Problem
Distorted price signals:
Without a free market, a central authority must dictate prices.
“A main problem in socialist economies... is that when government determines the prices of goods and services, the informative and allocative functions of prices are suppressed” as noted by ScienceDirect.
Chronic shortages:
Bureaucrats cannot accurately aggregate consumer data. This lack of real-time supply-and-demand tracking frequently results in shortages of basic goods.
(Standing in line for milk, bread, eggs, cheese… toilet paper …. - just ask any Glasnost emigrant from back in the 1970's through 1990's)
No bankruptcy mechanism:
Unproductive or failing state-run enterprises rarely go out of business.
Resources remain trapped in inefficient areas rather than moving to new industries.
Reduced Incentives and Innovation
Lower labor motivation:
High progressive taxation or uniform wealth distribution means individuals cannot fully keep the fruits of their extra labor.
This structure can lead to decreased workplace productivity and general stagnation.
Stifled entrepreneurship:
When potential profits are heavily taxed or absorbed by the state, fewer citizens take the financial risk to start new businesses.
Loss of "Creative Destruction":
Capitalism thrives on newer, better ideas replacing obsolete ones.
Socialism often prioritizes protecting existing state jobs over introducing disruptive, progressive technologies.
Governance and Liberty Risks
Concentration of bureaucratic power:
To manage production and redistribute resources, power must be heavily consolidated into the hands of government officials.
Historically, this has expanded state control and limited personal and political freedoms.
Capital flight:
High wealth and corporate taxes can cause wealthy citizens and entrepreneurs to relocate to more capital-friendly countries, ultimately reducing the domestic tax base.
Rationed public services:
In heavily state-funded sectors like healthcare, structural budget caps often replace price competition, resulting in long waiting lists or the rationing of non-urgent care.
To Dr. Krugman's "partial list" of Trump's blatant untruths I have to add Trump's repeated claim that the US is raking so much money because "foreign countries are paying tariffs". Sorry, but the truth is tariffs are paid by US consumers and not foreign sellers.
As far as I can tell, under Trump most of tariffs are not addressing actual issues and therefore most of them are actually just a tax on US consumers to offset government revenues lost by corporate and income tax cuts.
Then WE need to do much better counter-messaging!!!!!!
I think it was Steve Bannon. Sure sounds like something he would say.
Rumsfeld and Grover N (are either of them still alive?) both spouted such.
Reality begs to differ.
This isn't new. It goes back at least to the Dubya's regime. Remember them dismissing the reality based community and saying that they create their own reality. We can even trace it back to Newt Gingrich getting rid of the Congressional technology office because facts got in the way of his agenda. The Rs have been waging a war on reality for decades. Once again Trump is not an aberration. He is the culmination of 50 years of movement Conservatism which always has been an anti-democratic movement.
50 years and counting… it’s a tailored form of mass delusion. History is filled with such events. From Man, charging canon fire machine guns through minefields and Bob wire, to the many and varied “pogroms,” to burning people at the stake…
The list is long…
Yet amidst all this there is truth, caring kindness, and love.
Even scientific ingenuity.
trumpism = fascism
I bet you can't define fascism and show how that's aligned with Donald Trump!
It's hard enough to define a cat, but like the issue at hand, it's not necessary for substack readers to do so when there are acknowledged authorities who discuss these things.
Simply refer to nyt article of 10/23/24, about how one of the most senior and respected American authorities on fascism - Robert Paxton (and of course there are others) - articulated revised views on this subject, holding that trumpism and other worldwide phenomena of the last few years do indeed constitute fascism.
Easy to align fascism with trump. Perhaps you should read Dr. Timothy Schneider's chapter this month which will provide with knowledge😎
This is why i'm asking what fascism is, because nobody has a good definition.
Sending me to a left wing professional cultist is not getting me to the answer of what fascism is.
Dr. Timothv Schneider's lecture series is nothing more than the big tent.Where you're already underneath it?And he's just pulling you in closer.
How do I know this?I just didn't inquiry to find out who doctor timothy schneider is.
Google AI returned:
Dr. Timothy Snyder is an American historian and Yale professor whose political leanings are broadly center-left, liberal-democratic, and fiercely anti-authoritarian.
This month, he released public lecture installments from his course titled "Hitler and Stalin Today," which explore the historical roots of totalitarianism, nationalism, and fascism.
Result: you don't have to be on a college campus today to be indoctrinated.
Timmy boy has a Timmy boy has a predisposition against the political right.
What's what professor at yale does not?
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 5th edition (2022) defines fascism as "A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism". Its second definition is, "Oppressive, dictatorial control". Nothing there tick a few boxes for you, Bob?
Define Facism without using the word facism or Trump.
You still have not done that.
Instead of pointing me to an obscure Left cultist, try again.
If you are not in line with the encyclopedia, you will buy any line of swill. Won't you?
The rejection of reality is enforced by the strong threat of being arrested and imprisoned if you disagree or even question what is said or done in the totalitarian cult of Trump supported by MAGA Republicans (the 60 million who approve of everything Trump does) and safety exists in compliance and being an enthusiastic member of the cult. Death threats and actual violence include murders. ICE and MAGA violence are key parts of forced compliance.
This was the inevitable end point for the Republican party. When the only policy outcome you offer your constituents is oligarchy - something that by its fundamental nature is unpopular with the vast majority of people - you have to dissemble, mislead and deceive. This has been true of the modern Republican party since the John Birch society. It was only a matter of time until the lies compounded to the point where it became Orwellian.
It’s called a cult.
"worse than most people want to admit"
I can't even fathom how anyone left of MAGA ever imagined anything was remotely okay once all the cabinet picks short of Gaetz were confirmed.
I sometimes wonder, as I listen to Trump lie to me and then change the lie the next day, whether he is even consciously lying, or whether he actually believes whatever is coming from his mouth at the moment.
I’d like to suggest that the whole populace of people who invent what they believe and then believe what they invent and use it to create policy and as a basis for rights/no rights—without concrete, real scientific evidence, take that vaunted trip to Mars much sooner than predicted! That or perhaps the singeing clime far far below us. I’m sure they’ll recognize Dear Leader’s soulmate in the management of that clime.
Absolutely! AND the contempt of court over not producing the other 3 million Epstein files! This is about compliance and what happens when you don't shut up and follow the leader. We could all be the next Fauci.
Well, trumshit did say that repigs are the stupidest voters, where you merely have to repeat anything over and over , even if it is a lie, that they will believe it . The sole reason he switched to the dumb red side to run for President cuz he knew he didn't stand a chance with the leftists side
Fortunately, the VOTERS—most of them, anyway, and apparently by too big a margin for the GOP to gerrymander its way out—aren’t buying it. Things seemed dark & hopeless for progressives before, like in 1859, 1911, and 1931–but voters changed things in the subsequent election. Most particularly in 1932. Most people—even most liberals—don’t appreciate how economically & socially unequal, corrupt, and undemocratic America was before that election. But after it, everything changed over the course of a generation. If we beat the oligarchs before, we can do it again. And it doesn’t take a violent revolution—just a mental one. And polls seem to indicate one is coming—Dems have a substantial advantage in the generic ballot, and most polls that ask the question have Kamala winning a do-over—clear buyer’s remorse. If we all fight, then this will not be the end, but the cusp of a new beginning.
Unfortunately for your talking point, I looked at the 1932 election and the fallout and outcome from that.
And it is not the rosy picture you paint.
You want to go after oligarchs, hard-and-fast?
That is an extremely bad mistake.
Which was outlined by that 1932 election. And the economic outfall that occurred after it all the way up through the 2021 stimulus payments given to people during covid, which caused inflation.
You remember Democrat fueled inflation?
Back in 2022, when it was at 9% for the year. Cumulative inflation for Biden's term in office was 22%.
In both cases, the Democrat leadership for all, raized prices of goods and services in this country to economic levels that we suffer under today.
The salaries did not follow that.
And people had to get new jobs which removed them from industries that collapsed because of covid.
Now, because of democrat pushed minimum wages of up to fifteen dollars an hour in some communities, fast food restaurants are going out of business.
So starter jobs for kids in high school or those coming out of high school and going into college are fewer and further between.
1932 Election fallout:
Core Failures and Criticisms
Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency faced significant criticism for policies that exacerbated racial inequality, restricted civil liberties, and expanded executive power.
Key Shortfalls
Japanese-American Internment:
Forced 120,000 citizens into camps via Executive Order 9066.
Exclusion of Black Americans:
Excluded domestic and agricultural workers from New Deal benefits.
Court-Packing Plan:
Attempted to pack the Supreme Court, damaging his political capital.
(Shades of 1930's in 2026)
Refugee Turn-Backs:
Denied entry to Jewish refugees fleeing Europe on the MS St. Louis.
Economic Relapse:
Triggered the "Roosevelt Recession" in 1937 by prematurely cutting spending.
Anti-Lynching Inaction:
Refused to support federal anti-lynching legislation to appease Southern Democrats.
The 1937 recession severely delayed recovery from the Great Depression and altered federal fiscal policy for decades.
It proved that cutting government stimulus too early could stall an economy. Albeit, an economy built on Government handouts.
Immediate Damage
Production Drop:
Industrial output plummeted by over 30% in months.
Unemployment Spike:
Joblessness surged from 14.3% back up to 19.0%.
Stock Crash:
The market lost roughly 50% of its value.
Long-Term Impact
1. Shifted Economic Theory
Keynesianism Adopted:
It legitimized John Maynard Keynes's theories on deficit spending.
Permanent Stimulus:
Government accepted that it must spend money during downturns.
(1930's echoed in today's COVID Stimulus payments = 22% inflation. - Dems NEVER LEARN)
2. Delayed Full Recovery
Extended Depression:
Economic recovery was pushed back by several years.
War Dependency:
Full employment was only achieved through World War II mobilization.
3. Institutional Changes
Reserve Requirements:
The Federal Reserve learned to manage bank reserves more cautiously.
Monetary Guardrails:
Central banking policies were rewritten to prevent sudden credit freezes.
Why It Happened
Premature Spending Cuts:
FDR tried to balance the budget too early.
Monetary Tightening:
The Federal Reserve doubled bank reserve requirements.Tax Increases:
The new Social Security payroll tax reduced consumer spending power.
Applied massive, sustained stimulus to avoid the 1937 trap, though it later contributed to post-pandemic inflation.
How did we EVER pull out of this Deep Dive?
Government spent huge amounts in World War II.
~ Which we "Eased" into the "Arsenal of Democracy" by instituting a non-combatant supporter stand Lend Lease first, which bankrupted England.
~ And then ramped up for our eventual entry into the war.
Long before Orwell wrote, the founding rules for the Jesuit order in the mid-16th century said the same thing. I'm paraphrasing, but these rules actually say something like "if the pope says something is black, and you think it's white, it's actually black." Total unthinking devotion to whoever was pope was part of their order.
💫💫💫💫💫💫
The Republican Party has become the most powerful and dangerous hate group in the world. And while I don’t want to believe it, I can’t avoid the thought that the party’s recent red-baiting is less about persuading voters and more about inciting violence.
A chorus of castrati not unlike NK
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=842940278572814
Yes they are even trying to enlist FEMA against domestic terrorists (antifa and other leftist groups)
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
They’re following a playbook.
Insanity -Just look at the Design Job or Destruction of The People White House-I’m tired of this Craziness 💩🤬—Go Vote it Out✅🙏🏼👞
Insightful, as always. It seems 50 years of defunding education has consequences. A frightening percentage of the American population does not understand the scientific method — the most basic system we have for delineating fact from fiction.
I live in a ‘low rent’ area in my city… and I can say that a frightening % of America can’t even read.
The USA has the highest percentage of illiterate people of all the developed countries…. More than 15%, against an average of 3 to 5% for the others. 😭😭😭
Defunding education, replacing science with « faith » and politics with entertainment (showman Trump is very useful for the Project 2025 and the oligarchs because he focuses all attention on himself while the others implement step by step the dismantling of democracy.
The idea of automatically promoting kids, even those that are failing, in order to keep the age groups together did the most damage.
What a stupid idea because the net result is that those who didn’t manage will at every turn feel more and more left behind. Whereas if they were repeating the class, they would have been able to catch up.
Yes, and learning from different age groups is VERY good for socialization.
Agree 👍🏻
PK: "I have some idea of how this happened: It involves a confluence of big-money corruption, crony capitalism, religious fanaticism, and the ever-present forces of racism and sexism."
All exponentially heightened through social media.
Not just social media. The mindless stuff on TV started the dumbing down. I was young, but I remember the thoughtful discussion of how TV ought to be used. Like usual, the capitalists convinced everyone that it should be used to ‘grow the economy’ to ‘make our country stronger’. So now I hope we can start to learn that money alone turns into self destruction.
Just as the WaPo has been. The other day they were soliciting reader's comments on a care home that was banned from having happy hours with alcohol. Next week it may ask for people's favorite cat videos.
I was one of literally hundreds of thousands of people who cancelled their WaPo subscription on the same day in October 2024, and it sounds as if I've missed nothing since.
Oh, that's sad.
There's lots of money to be made from corruption, religious fanaticism, xenophobia and racism. And if the side effect of supplying the product destroys the country, so what? The "customer" is always right.
November will be great. Cheer up, this is almost over.
With respect to the MAGA claim about vaccines, I like Christopher Penn's comment, "Just remember that given the abundance of neurodivergent people in science, it's far more likely that autism causes vaccines."
Use the Soap and Water method-Vote 💩🗳️👞🤬✅Out
Good point.
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
Numbers don’t lie. That’s the power of community and cooperation. And it can change the entire world !
Heather Cox Richardson cites a raft of polling this morning that suggests we may be on the brink of an awakening. Much trump support has slipped into the 20’s. Between gas prices, wildfires, excruciating summer temps, even the MAGAs seem to be coming awake to the negative impact of this administration.
The problem is that doesn't get through to the maga fans. So there's no corrective nature to the data: they simply don't believe that data. Essentially "if I believe Trump is doing a good job, he's doing a good job."
This will be a really big issue for America going forward. In the UK there are climate emergency deniers, but most of us don't take any notice of them in the context of weather we've never seen before and brush fires breaking out in places that have never had a brush fire before. I'm not saying we are geniuses, I'm saying we have basic observational skills, and no air conditioning to mitigate The horror of an incredibly hot day. I mean, we're talking about it, and may make a decision eventually, but for now we just know it's really hot. And it wasn't when we were children. And the heat didn't cost the country a billion pounds in lost work when we were kids. So there's that.
America in my experience is in love with air conditioning to the degree that people very rarely seem to turn it off even in buildings that don't need it: in the UK if there is air conditioning (or heating) they are turned off or on dependent on the weather and time of year. This is useful to remind us that the weather keeps changing, generally in a bad way. Britain is the land of low expectations: we expect most politicians to be useless, we expect it to take an age to get anything done and so on. As a result we notice things. That's useful. But fundamentally I think that something really wrong with your educational system. And I'm not overly impressed with ours. But most of this stuff is not a matter of debate it's a matter of fact settled many decades ago. Blaming Anthony Faucci for covid is the work of lunatics, and by "lunatics" I mean people who should be locked up for their own safety as they apparently can't navigate the world with any reliability.
Yes but they have to fill up their gas guzzlers at some point to go to their gun shows so even the hard core MAGAts are getting mad at him 😁
You can see comment after comment from people who say things like "Trump has done a lot of great things and is a great president but on (this one issue that directly impacts me/my finances) he's wrong."
Weirdly, Fauci’s main accuser, Rand Paul, is a doctor himself.
And it took 10 years for this awakening, one that I reached at the golden escalator and all I knew was that he had a reputation of being a crooked businessman, the host of a BS reality TV show that I never watched, and that he used gold and white marble to excess
I had my awakening as I watched the republican debates before the 2020 election. I was horrified at Trump’s behavior, thinking “this guy will never go anywhere .” Then I was horrified that republicans chose him as their candidate. And I continue to be horrified every single day by Trump and the GOP. I’m 75 and before Trump, a loyal Republican and conservative. Voting for Hilary was my first vote for a Democrat. Since then I have never voted for a Republican. And never will. I now skew to the progressive side! I wish more Republicans would have had an the same awakening.
i am curious. Didn't Sarah Palin at least cause you to consider voting for Obama?
I IDd as Rep back then and I liked McCain. He'd be considered a "normie" today - a missing or silent species.
I generally view VPs as nothing more than background figures. Yes, a bit of a pause considering that Palin could have been prez had McCain keeled over.
The golden escalator moment was when I walked away from that party. This was bolstered by a lots of reading about how we got so sideways in our governance - obscene amounts of money that distort policy; shift the balance away from labor toward capital.
those applauding his descent were paid
Maybe. Trump has a long history of reneging on his promises.
Here's hoping..
Yes, this is positive. Positivity turns the tide and heals. We need to heal all these masked Americans who are willing to work and kill for ICE.
I just saw an interview with Rich Logis, a former Trump activist, and found it quite interesting. He said two things that I think are key. First, he said his…enthusiasm, his support was driven by rage. He was constantly angry about something or someone and it fueled him. Second, the way he realized that and began to let the rage subside was that he diversified his news sources. It’s like handling a spooked animal. We have to coax the ones who’ve gotten caught up in the rage baiting and fear mongering back to reality. Some level of realization is happening. People have taken down their Trump flags and leave their hats in the closet. I think many are finally seeing what *he* is. The question is, can they see how far that rot has bled into the R party? Can they change their votes to root out the rot? That I’m not so sure about. That is still their weakness. It’s not “just” Trump. Whether they went along maliciously, dutifully, or out of fear, the Republican Party has become a party of fascism.
and HC bankruptcies.
Pkidd, the worst problem is hunger, because when people are angry and hungry enough, they have a Bastille day.
In his final book Alexei Navalny commented on how lies had become the modus operandi of the Russian state. Putin would not even tell the whoppers of Trump and these guys. Everyday feels like I’m living inside a dystopia.
Because you are!
Yes, I read his last book. I honor Navalny. He showed us how to live with integrity. He was courageous!🕯️❤️🕯️
Median reading level in Russia is about 8th grade, compared to 6th grade in the US.
And Russia has a smaller standard deviation.
Putin needs to tell better lies.
Superbly well expressed. I read or listen to Republican politicians and I ask, do they really believe the right wing nonsense they spew, or do they say it because they think their voters are so dumb as to believe it? And which of those answers is worse? I also often say that it would be easy to dismiss Republican politicians and the preponderance of their voters as just "stupid"--really easy.
Our friends who watch Fox News don't hear anything bad about Trump. They never heard about the Trump Meme coins and the fancy dinner for the bug spenders. They live in their comfortable, fact free universe.
Not sure how we can change that.
We can't. These kind of people love the simple life, where they can switch off their conscience without remorse. Where everything is either white or black, right or wrong, Trump or communist, live or die. Until one day of course when their complacency hurts them personally, something about the regime that doesn't compute. But then it's probably too late.
If not Fox viewers (and not counting bribe payers), just who is it that buys Tr meme coins? I can't cut Fox viewers any slack. If anything, they see MORE of their fearless leader than others. I DO at least think viewership is down, though. They're getting tired of winning.
Reality therapy! Like they give to old people in the nursing homes!
I think they say it to avoid Trump and his minions turning on them, complete with death threats.
The Orwell quote, I believe, is from “Homage to Catalonia,” and it’s more complete version is this: “This kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. After all, the chances are that those lies, or at any rate similar lies, will pass into history…The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ - well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five - well, two and two are five.”
Welcome to the nightmare world of 1984. Is there a way of waking up from this?
I would love to know if George Orwell himself actually expected the US to be the definitive real life version of 1984. Because I had always thought it was Stalin and the USSR we saw in his novel. But I would guess that totalitarianism looks the same no matter the jacket (or hat) it wears.
As a matter of fact, the first real implementation of « 1984 » was the Cultural Revolution 1965-1978 in China, and the Kim Il Sun regime in North Korea (perpetuated by the son Kim Jon Il and grandson Kim Jong Un) and now of course in China ´s Xi Jinping. Stalin and Putin in comparison are just apprentices.
It is rather amazing regarding the similarities of various totalitarian states!
Vote D 😄
Yes, and let’s fine tune the Constitution.
By these terms I am a communist, and proud to be one.
Reality is a mirror. MAGAites can only see it as a window into a non-existent past.
You can deny reality...create your own version of truth...but the universe doesn't care. A house of cards is still a house of cards and when one card is disturbed, it all comes down. Stalinistic trials and purges will result... well, we see that already... what's next?
A Good Day to Protect Democracy and Vote 🗳️ BS Out
Yup. Mother Nature will bite your a$$ in the end--
Basically, fair comment, though I have to say that Dr. Fauci's diaries make for painful reading. Anyway, the past 25 years, and especially the reigns of Bush II and the Donald, have pretty much convinced me that America is on the way out and nothing can be done about it. It won't happen in my lifetime, but one can see it taking shape on the horizon.
My guess is that almost every diary in which a person tries to convey how they are feeling will be cringy to read one day. I started one and it didn't last long for that reason. It's criminal that Fauci has been dragged through the mud this way. He's a hero, Trump is the opposite. He was able to write a diary, Trump can only fill social media with sludge.
When I was in college, I wrote to my mother every other day (before Ma Bell was disbanded). After she died, I found a box under her bed full of my letters. I read a couple - OMG they were so cringe. Yet she treasured them. They helped her; writing them helped me. We missed each other. I am appalled that what was helpful to Dr. Fauci during a time of intense stress is now public.
Forget the diary. They should be hauling the Epstein files into daylight instead. It is a deliberate waste of time while Blanche is talking his way out of trouble and onto power
Exactly, and I’m really disappointed by people like Cenk Uyghur for not realizing this fact
I'm not sure about that. I've always enjoyed diaries published as books (at least if the diarist interests me), although granted those go through an editing process before publication. I think Dr. Tony stuck around too long and became too enamored with his own image and accomplishments. The one thing that really interests me is whether Covid was the product of a lab rather than a wet market, and whether the US was in some way helping research done in a lab in Communist China.
Very early diaper don was jealous of Dr. Fauci—his knowledge and leadership because it showed him up! He was out to get him.
I do remember that, very true.
"The summer cold is a different animal. A means, ugly animal ! It hits you in the summer, when you've got a lot to loose !!"
Im sure there is plenty to read on this subject that is not hidden from public view.
COVID 19 stands for Corona Virus of 2019. Its a certain type of virus. The common cold virus. Nothing exotic or new to the world. And COVID 19 was just a bit different. Viruses change.
Go for it ! Let us all know what you learn about it !
YES! 🫶🏻
Voting Cheeto Jesus in for a second run at destroying the country pretty much indicated that the game is up. A whole bunch of people who have literally no idea what "what's the worst thing that can happen" looks like, voted to get a look at what the worst thing that can happen looks like.
I caught one interview with him right after his second win when he made the comment that ‘Elon is good with these zeros and ones’. And I thought….there it is. They manipulated the numbers.
There is no evidence of vote counting fraud.
It is a lie circulated to make D's think there is no point in voting.
Why are you helping Trump?
A Good day to Protect Democracy Our Democracy -Go VOTE—this BS Out🗳️💩👞🙏🏼✅☮️🇨🇦I love Canada 🍁
Fauci had no choice but to plead the fifth. The Kangaroo Court hearing is only there to provide evidence for the weaponised DoJ to prosecute and imprison him. This could be a serious hearing from responsible politicians. The US doesn’t do that any more.
I give him props for taking the fifth not chugging a fifth 😁