I doubt there's much daylight between the questions you ask and the questionnaires Trump's having people fill out to obtain jobs in the administration.
Excellent questions, which are unlikely to be asked.
The only people more in denial than Democratic leadership and Democratic strategists are political journalists.
With a handful of exceptions, legacy media fails or refuses to acknowledge, not just the perils rushing toward us, but the dangerous moment we're living through.
Republican politicians have abandoned any pretense of governing. Rights are being stripped away, state by state. Authoritarian experts have literally checked off the boxes as we spiral through the dictator's playbook.
Democrats appear to have no communications plan, surrogates, or strategy for combatting fascism.
The justice system clearly is unable to constrain Trump, yet legal pundits continue to pretend that the rule of law isn't splintering.
Anyone who thinks they won't be impacted by authoritarian rule is deluded. Wealth, skin color, sexual orientation, religion...none of that provides protection.
Most people equate democracy with gravity...they cannot imagine living without either. The refusal to break the glass, sound the alarms, and edicate the public is exactly how democracies are lost.
Even those who recognize that we're on the Titanic console themselves that the option remains to flee to another country. That option will be very expensive, very restricted, and about as friendly as we are to fleeing refugees.
We have an uninformed populace, complacent leadership, and a press corp in denial. I'm in Robert Kagan's camp.
The ENTIRE Legacy Media left has been protecting the left rather than investigating them, and the proof is how they covered up the Hunter Biden Laptop story to affect the 2020 election, covered up the lies about the Covid pandemic, covered up the story about Biden's censorship campaign violating the 1st amendment which has worked it's way ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT and simply focused on smearing Trump the entire time. This isn't journalism. It's authoritarian propaganda.
The 1st pillar of fascism is when the media is seized by the politicians, and we've been here for years now. It's the Left benefiting most from it, not the right and the right is simply a reaction to this deep step towards fascism from the left.
How about instead of patting yourselves on the backs, you do a step back and try to be a bit more objective.
"Over and over, no evidence has emerged for the most melodramatic media claims — torn out Panic Buttons and plots to kill Vice President Mike Pence or Mitt Romney. What we know for certain, as The Washington Post noted this week, is that “Despite warnings of violent plots around Inauguration Day, only a smattering of right-wing protesters appeared at the nation’s statehouses.” That does not sound like an ongoing insurrection, to put it mildly."
Yet 15 officers were hospitalized of the over 140 injured. Has Greenwald retracted his minimization of the violence, or corrected himself in any way?
Then Greenwald simply denies there was an insurrection, which defies reality. The convictions of seditionists tell another story.
Lots of people, usually along political lines but also some from the Left deny there was an "insurrection". BTW, in case you missed it, the "convictions of seditionists" are slowly being overturned. The entire weaponization of the DOJ in the last 4 years is unprecedented and still playing out. Justice, as they say, moves slowly.
"Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group who boasted that “we did this” as throngs of Donald Trump supporters violently breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, has been sentenced to 22 years for plotting to use violence to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Tarrio, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Tuesday. The decades-long punishment surpasses the previous record for longest prison sentence to date in Jan. 6 cases; Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was sentenced in May to 18 years behind bars, also for seditious conspiracy in connection with the violent riot."
"A former CrossFit instructor turned rioter who beat and dragged police while telling them they were “gonna die tonight” on Jan. 6 will not be sentenced this week as planned after new video emerged allegedly showing him assaulting a different police officer defending the U.S. Capitol from a mob of former President Donald Trump‘s supporters.
Jack Wade Whitton, of Georgia, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to attacking police at the Capitol, admitting he used a metal crutch to beat one officer before kicking another and then dragging the one he assaulted with the crutch down a flight of steps."
"A week after a judge deemed Kellye SoRelle mentally competent to stand trial, the former Oath Keepers attorney and onetime girlfriend to convicted seditionist and Oath Keepers leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes has pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election."
You are lost to ideological blindness. I figured as much. Facts that counter your perceptions are denied or minimized, such as making claims without evidence. Sedition convictions are being "overturned" (no citation). But the DOJ has been "weaponized," so the convictions are false. No, wait, but they're being overturned? Still weaponized? For you, it's only "weaponized" when you disagree with the convictions.
You completely evade my points. Greenwald was wrong. It was violent. 15 officers were hospitalized. 140 were injured. The evidence gathered by the January 6 committee--which I have no doubt you will deny as objective (consistent with your ideological blindness)--is overwhelming.
I'm personal, longtime friends with Bernie Sanders' campaign manager. The real problem Bernie had was that the networks would not televise his rallies, which were MONSTROUS. The media shunned him and instead focused on Clinton, because she is corrupt, bought and willing to do whatever it takes to win. They are doing the same to RFK, who will not gave enough facetime in front of the people to make a difference. If he did, he would win.
This is ridiculous and untrue. Your freedom has been tied up and destroyed by the Left, who are censoring public speech (see the lawsuit against Biden for censoring free speech and violating the 1st amendment), allowing insane Liberal voting procedures (no voter ID required in most Liberal areas), and creating multi million dollar smear campaigns to make any opposition look like dolts. The Liberals are quite literally the new world fascists and anyone objective who takes a step back can see it.
Perhaps I should have been more specific. We will lose our voice because we will lose the right to vote in a Presidential election. Trump and toadies will declare Presidential elections over; even if they proceed in 2028, he will refuse to leave office and wield the military to do it. We will lose freedom after the right claws all the power they can into the executive branch. They will bring Church back into State and we will eventually have our own Inquisition or Crusades. They will "make America great again" by sorting society into in groups (white, appearing hetero, married, male, rich) and out groups (nonwhite skin, LGBTQ, female, poor, secular, etc). In their quest to create "god's kingdom on earth" they will punish ALL who speak out agains the in group.
As amassing power corrupts politicians increasingly, they will migrate from advocating the nuclear family, worship, and morality toward punishing unmarried women, morality police, and genocide et al to keep the ingroup clean.
Biden has done nothing to suppress speech. Voters on the left try to shut down asshole speech in their circles, which is completely legal and their own use of free speech. Educated types might call this a social conscience - that thing that promotes professional and polite behavior in public, because it is good for the community and the raising of the children in that community.
I haven't noticed the GOP working toward any voting reforms whatsoever. Why do you think that is? You hear Trump or an acolyte talk about national voter ID, but is the GOP working on it? NOPE. Not at all. For the same reason the Senate GOP's did not want to add any language to funding Ukrain/Israel bill that would accomplish their "border reforms," that reason is that they don't want to improve or fix either of these things. They only want to maintain a narrative that everything is on fire, in order to keep voters like you fired up. If you really try to look deeper, you will see which party likes sheep, and which voting block is happy to swallow the narrative and repeat it.
There is more credibility to the Left 'stealing' the election by manipulating the public's decision through the curbing of free speech than there is to the narrative that Trump will stop elections.
Biden used his political power to suppress the Hunter Biden Laptop story.
Biden used his political power to spread misinformation about the pandemic and suppress truthful information.
Over 50% of people polled through generally decent polling have shown that they would not have voted for Biden if they'd known that the Hunter Biden story had been suppressed.
The threat to democracy is not someone trying to steal the ballet box. It's the suppression of truth and pushing of misinformation to manipulate public perception and manipulate the vote, and Biden has already been found guilty of doing that. These are things that the courts have heard and made decisions on. It's not a fabricated "conspiracy theory". It's an all out conspiracy.
"manipulate public perception" - isn't this exactly how politics works? And isn't this the goal of every word that comes out of Trump's mouth? I cannot read the pay-walled WaPo article. I will say that during a crisis, it is not helpful to have everything available to the public. We rely on experts and the government to have a greater ability and knowledge to sift through data and relevant information to construct policies and narratives designed to keep people safe. It is a little like what a parent does to get their kids to eat healthy. That may sound bad to you, but what have all the conspiracy theories accomplished for America?
We can vote out a Joe Biden that lies, manipulates, etc because he respects democracy. We will not be able to vote out a Trump no matter what he does. This is where we need to shake off the differences in right and left and see clearly. There is a reason that the public figures of the right whip culture war BS every time they are in front of a camera. It is to keep you mad and motivated to go vote Republican.
Politics works when you are given reasonably true information by the media so that you can make an informed decision. The entire point of journalism, as set out by the Founding Fathers, was to PROTECT the people from government corruption. The media is supposed to question authority, not support it. What has happened in the last few years is that the mainstream media has been captured rather than being used to inform the public about the corruption of the government, it has been used as a shield to protect the government.
I've just offered you absolute proof that your Government has lied to you ABOUT the truth. They pushed lies and suppressed truths, and you're still saying you should trust them? Wow.
With logic like that, you shouldn't even be allowed to vote.
WITHOUT FREE SPEECH YOU DON'T HAVE A DEMOCRACY AND WITHOUT A DEMOCRACY YOU CAN'T VOTE OUT A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT.
Stop seeing it in terms of Trump vs Biden. Turn your politics off and open your eyes. The last 3 years of the pandemic and the anti-Trump war has blinded people to what they've been doing and what they've been doing is the most terrifying thing that has happened in Democratic countries since the fall of communism.
And that's not an exaggeration.
If you can't get past the paywall use your internet skills. It's all out there for everyone to see.
Thank you for the exchange. It seems like we are both smart enough and open enough to have accomplished something, but we failed.
You appear to have a profound misunderstanding of the first amendment and the purpose of government in general and I hope as time goes by your views are continually informed by new information, experience, and perspective, as is expected from the nature of life itself. If one of us is mostly right and the other mostly wrong, this will become clear as events unfold. If I am the one mostly wrong, I will explore the errors in my logic. I hope you have a lovely Christmas surrounded by your favorite people.
I doubt there's much daylight between the questions you ask and the questionnaires Trump's having people fill out to obtain jobs in the administration.
Excellent questions, which are unlikely to be asked.
The only people more in denial than Democratic leadership and Democratic strategists are political journalists.
With a handful of exceptions, legacy media fails or refuses to acknowledge, not just the perils rushing toward us, but the dangerous moment we're living through.
Republican politicians have abandoned any pretense of governing. Rights are being stripped away, state by state. Authoritarian experts have literally checked off the boxes as we spiral through the dictator's playbook.
Democrats appear to have no communications plan, surrogates, or strategy for combatting fascism.
The justice system clearly is unable to constrain Trump, yet legal pundits continue to pretend that the rule of law isn't splintering.
Anyone who thinks they won't be impacted by authoritarian rule is deluded. Wealth, skin color, sexual orientation, religion...none of that provides protection.
Most people equate democracy with gravity...they cannot imagine living without either. The refusal to break the glass, sound the alarms, and edicate the public is exactly how democracies are lost.
Even those who recognize that we're on the Titanic console themselves that the option remains to flee to another country. That option will be very expensive, very restricted, and about as friendly as we are to fleeing refugees.
We have an uninformed populace, complacent leadership, and a press corp in denial. I'm in Robert Kagan's camp.
Is this a serious post?
The ENTIRE Legacy Media left has been protecting the left rather than investigating them, and the proof is how they covered up the Hunter Biden Laptop story to affect the 2020 election, covered up the lies about the Covid pandemic, covered up the story about Biden's censorship campaign violating the 1st amendment which has worked it's way ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT and simply focused on smearing Trump the entire time. This isn't journalism. It's authoritarian propaganda.
The 1st pillar of fascism is when the media is seized by the politicians, and we've been here for years now. It's the Left benefiting most from it, not the right and the right is simply a reaction to this deep step towards fascism from the left.
How about instead of patting yourselves on the backs, you do a step back and try to be a bit more objective.
A virtual casserole of fact-free, right-wing propaganda.
It's not possible to debate someone who cherry picks realities.
I agree. It's impossible to debate with someone like yourself who cherry picks their realities.
How the leftist media colluded to spread lies about J6, written by one of the foremost investigative journalists in the world.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-false-and-exaggerated-claims
Do I get an apology?
Greenwald wrote:
"Over and over, no evidence has emerged for the most melodramatic media claims — torn out Panic Buttons and plots to kill Vice President Mike Pence or Mitt Romney. What we know for certain, as The Washington Post noted this week, is that “Despite warnings of violent plots around Inauguration Day, only a smattering of right-wing protesters appeared at the nation’s statehouses.” That does not sound like an ongoing insurrection, to put it mildly."
Yet 15 officers were hospitalized of the over 140 injured. Has Greenwald retracted his minimization of the violence, or corrected himself in any way?
Then Greenwald simply denies there was an insurrection, which defies reality. The convictions of seditionists tell another story.
"Foremost investigative journalist" indeed!
Lots of people, usually along political lines but also some from the Left deny there was an "insurrection". BTW, in case you missed it, the "convictions of seditionists" are slowly being overturned. The entire weaponization of the DOJ in the last 4 years is unprecedented and still playing out. Justice, as they say, moves slowly.
"Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group who boasted that “we did this” as throngs of Donald Trump supporters violently breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, has been sentenced to 22 years for plotting to use violence to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Tarrio, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Tuesday. The decades-long punishment surpasses the previous record for longest prison sentence to date in Jan. 6 cases; Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was sentenced in May to 18 years behind bars, also for seditious conspiracy in connection with the violent riot."
https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-gets-longest-sentence-of-any-jan-6-defendant-for-plot-to-attack-capitol/
"A former CrossFit instructor turned rioter who beat and dragged police while telling them they were “gonna die tonight” on Jan. 6 will not be sentenced this week as planned after new video emerged allegedly showing him assaulting a different police officer defending the U.S. Capitol from a mob of former President Donald Trump‘s supporters.
Jack Wade Whitton, of Georgia, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to attacking police at the Capitol, admitting he used a metal crutch to beat one officer before kicking another and then dragging the one he assaulted with the crutch down a flight of steps."
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/jan-6-rioter-who-beat-dragged-police-sees-sentencing-delayed-again-as-footage-emerges-showing-alleged-separate-attack/
"A week after a judge deemed Kellye SoRelle mentally competent to stand trial, the former Oath Keepers attorney and onetime girlfriend to convicted seditionist and Oath Keepers leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes has pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election."
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/former-oath-keepers-attorney-and-girlfriend-to-convicted-jan-6-seditionist-to-plead-guilty/
You are lost to ideological blindness. I figured as much. Facts that counter your perceptions are denied or minimized, such as making claims without evidence. Sedition convictions are being "overturned" (no citation). But the DOJ has been "weaponized," so the convictions are false. No, wait, but they're being overturned? Still weaponized? For you, it's only "weaponized" when you disagree with the convictions.
You completely evade my points. Greenwald was wrong. It was violent. 15 officers were hospitalized. 140 were injured. The evidence gathered by the January 6 committee--which I have no doubt you will deny as objective (consistent with your ideological blindness)--is overwhelming.
I'm a classic liberal and personal friends with Bernie Sanders' campaign manager.
Here are some links to educate the ignorant.
How Biden violated the 1st amendment. The Washington Post is a good newspaper, isn't it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/08/5th-circuit-ruling-covid-content-moderation/
Hysterically long-winded, but easily ignorable.
I'm observing facts of reality and one clear fact of is that you are duplicitous. I'm sorry if you feel attacked by my objectivity. ;-)
I wish more people would see RFK Jr. as an option.
hahahaha no.
I'm personal, longtime friends with Bernie Sanders' campaign manager. The real problem Bernie had was that the networks would not televise his rallies, which were MONSTROUS. The media shunned him and instead focused on Clinton, because she is corrupt, bought and willing to do whatever it takes to win. They are doing the same to RFK, who will not gave enough facetime in front of the people to make a difference. If he did, he would win.
Liz Wolfe is a complete moron
A vote for today's Repubs gives up our voice and our freedom.
This is ridiculous and untrue. Your freedom has been tied up and destroyed by the Left, who are censoring public speech (see the lawsuit against Biden for censoring free speech and violating the 1st amendment), allowing insane Liberal voting procedures (no voter ID required in most Liberal areas), and creating multi million dollar smear campaigns to make any opposition look like dolts. The Liberals are quite literally the new world fascists and anyone objective who takes a step back can see it.
Perhaps I should have been more specific. We will lose our voice because we will lose the right to vote in a Presidential election. Trump and toadies will declare Presidential elections over; even if they proceed in 2028, he will refuse to leave office and wield the military to do it. We will lose freedom after the right claws all the power they can into the executive branch. They will bring Church back into State and we will eventually have our own Inquisition or Crusades. They will "make America great again" by sorting society into in groups (white, appearing hetero, married, male, rich) and out groups (nonwhite skin, LGBTQ, female, poor, secular, etc). In their quest to create "god's kingdom on earth" they will punish ALL who speak out agains the in group.
As amassing power corrupts politicians increasingly, they will migrate from advocating the nuclear family, worship, and morality toward punishing unmarried women, morality police, and genocide et al to keep the ingroup clean.
Biden has done nothing to suppress speech. Voters on the left try to shut down asshole speech in their circles, which is completely legal and their own use of free speech. Educated types might call this a social conscience - that thing that promotes professional and polite behavior in public, because it is good for the community and the raising of the children in that community.
I haven't noticed the GOP working toward any voting reforms whatsoever. Why do you think that is? You hear Trump or an acolyte talk about national voter ID, but is the GOP working on it? NOPE. Not at all. For the same reason the Senate GOP's did not want to add any language to funding Ukrain/Israel bill that would accomplish their "border reforms," that reason is that they don't want to improve or fix either of these things. They only want to maintain a narrative that everything is on fire, in order to keep voters like you fired up. If you really try to look deeper, you will see which party likes sheep, and which voting block is happy to swallow the narrative and repeat it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/08/5th-circuit-ruling-covid-content-moderation/
There is more credibility to the Left 'stealing' the election by manipulating the public's decision through the curbing of free speech than there is to the narrative that Trump will stop elections.
Biden used his political power to suppress the Hunter Biden Laptop story.
Biden used his political power to spread misinformation about the pandemic and suppress truthful information.
Over 50% of people polled through generally decent polling have shown that they would not have voted for Biden if they'd known that the Hunter Biden story had been suppressed.
The threat to democracy is not someone trying to steal the ballet box. It's the suppression of truth and pushing of misinformation to manipulate public perception and manipulate the vote, and Biden has already been found guilty of doing that. These are things that the courts have heard and made decisions on. It's not a fabricated "conspiracy theory". It's an all out conspiracy.
"manipulate public perception" - isn't this exactly how politics works? And isn't this the goal of every word that comes out of Trump's mouth? I cannot read the pay-walled WaPo article. I will say that during a crisis, it is not helpful to have everything available to the public. We rely on experts and the government to have a greater ability and knowledge to sift through data and relevant information to construct policies and narratives designed to keep people safe. It is a little like what a parent does to get their kids to eat healthy. That may sound bad to you, but what have all the conspiracy theories accomplished for America?
We can vote out a Joe Biden that lies, manipulates, etc because he respects democracy. We will not be able to vote out a Trump no matter what he does. This is where we need to shake off the differences in right and left and see clearly. There is a reason that the public figures of the right whip culture war BS every time they are in front of a camera. It is to keep you mad and motivated to go vote Republican.
No, this is not how politics works.
Politics works when you are given reasonably true information by the media so that you can make an informed decision. The entire point of journalism, as set out by the Founding Fathers, was to PROTECT the people from government corruption. The media is supposed to question authority, not support it. What has happened in the last few years is that the mainstream media has been captured rather than being used to inform the public about the corruption of the government, it has been used as a shield to protect the government.
I've just offered you absolute proof that your Government has lied to you ABOUT the truth. They pushed lies and suppressed truths, and you're still saying you should trust them? Wow.
With logic like that, you shouldn't even be allowed to vote.
WITHOUT FREE SPEECH YOU DON'T HAVE A DEMOCRACY AND WITHOUT A DEMOCRACY YOU CAN'T VOTE OUT A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT.
Stop seeing it in terms of Trump vs Biden. Turn your politics off and open your eyes. The last 3 years of the pandemic and the anti-Trump war has blinded people to what they've been doing and what they've been doing is the most terrifying thing that has happened in Democratic countries since the fall of communism.
And that's not an exaggeration.
If you can't get past the paywall use your internet skills. It's all out there for everyone to see.
Thank you for the exchange. It seems like we are both smart enough and open enough to have accomplished something, but we failed.
You appear to have a profound misunderstanding of the first amendment and the purpose of government in general and I hope as time goes by your views are continually informed by new information, experience, and perspective, as is expected from the nature of life itself. If one of us is mostly right and the other mostly wrong, this will become clear as events unfold. If I am the one mostly wrong, I will explore the errors in my logic. I hope you have a lovely Christmas surrounded by your favorite people.