Perfect! The immoral and amoral Trump leading the cult into “moral deregulation” … a path, seemingly, so easy for others to walk. And he beckons those beyond the cult.
Yes, and SOS Everyone ✨🕯️🗽⏰📜: As most of us have all been voters, donors &/or hard-working volunteers in many elections including Election 2024, please help get the word out about the crucial new work being done by the non-profit organization Election Truth Alliance (ETA) at: https://ElectionTruthAlliance.org/videos (the new website they have been building) including their urgent March 3 Audit Update, plus their other new updates on their channels on: YouTube (incl. co-founder Nathan Taylor's Dire Talks channel), Facebook, Substack, Twitter, etc. We across the U.S. & our allies all need & deserve to know why & how Kamala Harris & Tim Walz may have truly WON vs. lost #Election2024, incl. across the swing states.
Please therefore help ETA and its partners to #VerifyTheVote with urgent new paper trail audits that can still be done right now based on new "smoking guns" of vote manipulation they have been looking for and finding since November with election data they have been steadily gathering! I donated to ETA & am continuing to help get the word out as one of their new volunteers. Please help ETA,, to help them prove the specific vote manipulation that they strongly suspect with very good reason and data!
I, for one, am SICK and TIRED of the shaming that We the U.S. people as a whole voted for Trump when we may likely have NOT--had it not been for now increasingly-suspected cheating--and we were instead able to successfully overcome not just Trump Vance's terrible candidacy but also the infuriating voter suppression, disinformation, and election buying (due to the Supreme Courts 5-4 Citizens United decision to allow unlimited independent spending in elections) which Republicans have also hurt us American voters with for so long! Get Mad and Get Even: We can help ETA prove manipulation in some counties that will show Election 2024 was compromised overall which will help vindicate us U.S. voters and our populace who may then also become even more determined to stop Trump and turn his now more strongly suspected FAUX election around!
NEVER TRUST any election that Russia is extremely interested in and involved with as Putin's backers are suspected of cheating for him in elections all the time, including in other countries they want to control! Know that we are now all in this together worldwide now with other countries who are resisting Russia's new imperialist Axis that we should NOT be in. Let's help DEFEAT their WWIII on ALL our democracies and lives!
Rubio is an immigrant who is sending immigrants into torture in Honduras, Guantanamo and here in the US. What did he bring to the US from living in Cuba? An understanding of how to be a fascist.
Actually, Rubio was an anchor baby (as were his two older siblings). He was born in Miami in 1971 to parents who had fled Cuba in 1956. Neither of Rubio's parents were U.S. citizens at the time of Rubio's birth, but they applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1975.
Rubio has lied about his background. In October 2011, The Washington Post reported that Rubio's previous statements that his parents were forced to leave Cuba in 1959 (after Fidel Castro came to power) were falsehoods. His parents left Cuba in 1956, during the Batista regime.
Indeed we all should continue to resist Trumpism as best each of us can, and in the way each of us feels most appropriate. But we cannot defeat this oncoming train wreck without the assistance of Trump supporters as they come to realize that they’ve bought into probably the most successful con job ever perpetrated on the American people. Fortunately Trump and Musk and their coterie of sycophants are working hard to convince more and more of his supporters of just that. The proof? Among other evidence the fact that the RNC is advising Republican legislators to stop holding town-hall meetings because of the increasing blowback they are getting from their constituents. Typically, of course, Republicans are trying to blame Democrat ‘plants’ and other ’enemies within’ for all the mayhem.
We do need to get Trump supporters, or at least swing voters, to realize their error. Of course they don't read Substack authors so a new venue is needed-desperately.
There are many other such venues growing out of this maelstrom, indeed, so many that it hard to keep up with them, but we cannot count on Trumpists to view or to read them either, or to believe them if they do. Opposition to Trump usually serves only to strengthen his supporters’ belief in his invulnerability and his victimhood. In the end, Trumpism must kill itself from the inside out.
My trumplican relatives watch faux (owhich has some anti dumpft stories, apparently) and listen to crap on the car radio. They do not have that option when riding with me. We can add information in bits and pieces. Ruth Ben-Ghiat has marvelous writing.
A better ROR (return on resistance) is to somehow convince the millions who voted for Biden in 2020 but didn’t vote last year, and the many more who don’t vote that we need their help to save America.
In order to do that, they have to understand far better than many of them seem to do just what kind of a threat Trumpism is, and that the threat is more substantial than they seem to comprehend. Unfortunately too many of us seem to be fixated on the present moment and whatever grievances they have within it, rather than the larger issue of Constitutionality and the rule of law.
I couldn't say that any better! We may want to ensure that people are able to vote, with documentation as required by each state, since we are now back in Jim Crow times. Our Pacific Coast states all vote by mail, which is secure. No voter fraud to speak of. Most errors of that type are senior citizens signing on behalf of relatives unable to sign or in the hospital.
How did those Italian fascists not recover? Did they feel forever ashamed? Did they feel on the outside of civil society? Or were they forever defensively loyal to Il Duce, and unable to reckon with their own dehumanization?
I’m interested to know this too. My guess is as society “healed” and grew beyond the deception the syncophants were exiled societally if not physically and their betrayal was never allowed to be forgotten.
You might take a look at the Medici family in Florence, and their interregnum, so to speak, with Savonarola. That did not go well for the citizens, nor the censorious priest.
Let the reckoning begin. Love the take on Rubio, he wasn’t embarrassed at what they were doing to Zelenskyy, he was pissed because he wasn’t allowed to participate. Right on.
He wanted to get in on the prison-style rape but had to stand-by. He took his shot later, though. What's so astonishing, and in keeping with Ruth's theme, is that Democrats & liberal media accepted Rubio with such relief as a distinguished, respectable & "normal" cabinet pick for Secretary of State, 3rd in line to the Presidency! WTF were they thinking? Rubio has supported this amoral madness, international debacle & constitutional thugery at every opportunity. It's as if a substantial portion of people, even the ones who KNOW Trump is poison, will still smell the rotten meat AND GOBBLE IT UP! I concur with what Ruth is saying about the MAGA faithful being duped & cowed into submission, but we are still seeing Schumer & others cave; we see a decade-long Trump critic like Bill Maher essentially accept a ride from Ted Bundy, and then call him a congenial, rational, cheerful guy because he went 2 hours on the road without getting murdered. He had chianti & fava beans with Dr Lecter but didn't get his liver excised, so who that other face-eating guy is Bill just can't say. MSNBC daily & gleefully reports that Trump's popularity is "cratering" - - but his approval numbers on a variety of topics are still in the mid-40s. It's astonishing that they are THAT high, isn't it? So what's to celebrate? I mean, when they are below 30% we can feel some reassurance that MOST people MIGHT be coming their senses. But 44% approval of Trumpler is NOT encouraging news, so why does every MSNBC host try to convince us that it is? It's disturbing, period. Why not say so? There is much baffling weakness to be seen on both sides. I think it was Sen Sheldon Whitehouse who recently said that all it would take is for 5 GOP senators, and 7 or 8 House members to stand-up and this would be over. When Biden was president it took only TWO senators (and one timid AG) to gum things up for their own party, and to hamper & to obstruct the economic, moral & spiritual recovery from Trumpler 1.0 and Jan6. Who can be recruited to stand up from the other side? Are there ten more Murkowskis to be had? But let's get our own side fully calibrated for a start. Lesson #1 is: Marco Rubio is no bon-bon in a dung heap.
Murkowski has since proven herself to be a hollow, duped, selfish fool of epic and tragic proportions. Even Collins had the guts to say Fuck No! to the MAGA bill.
Thank you, Professor Ben-Ghiat, for your crystal clear analysis of the events unfolding before our eyes. The moral and ethical collapse of our society has occurred on at least one side of the spectrum. They have drunk the koolaid with pleasure. The guy means to destroy our freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom to redress the government in protest. He is defying court orders left and right and no one really seems to know what to do about it. We seem to be in the midst of an authoritarian coup. Thank you, Professor, for holding the lantern.
I’d rather feels like we need to stage a coup to overcome these circumstances. The Democrats have devoted the party to relying on political normalcy of the last 200+ years so this is all they know how to do. They have not been able to meet this moment, they have not brought in any changemakers, they don’t appear to understand that the party needs to be seriously reformed. They’ve taken on this job and must develop a new skill set much like all of us have to do in the real world.
God help us, we need to be active in the moment but we also need strong leaders! Where are our past presidents, representatives and senators? Where are the fired up leaders of the Democratic past?
That move by Chuck and company felt like a really hard blow and def left me feeling demoralized. However, I'm starting to see it as a backdrop for other dynamic individuals to shine even more brightly. It doesn't solve the issue by any means. But it's helping me not to feel quite as deflated.
I disagree. I think Schumer et. al did the right thing. This is a political gangsterism situation. I've said before, at the basic level fascism = political gangsterism. If you felt a strong need to confront some gangsters gathered and working out their next neighborhood crime, and let's just say they had access to only one weapon, which kind would you want? The analogy here; CR is a knife. Shutdown is a gun. Be patient. Don't add risk, it's already high. Seek the safest effective path and watch for the best opening then go hard and secure the guy with the knife first, then the others. Strength in numbers, try to wait until 5:00 a.m. when they are asleep. Plan the take down well, make it known we are legion and coming...eventually. That will tend to wear them out. All that. Schumer and the few others figured this out because they obviously better understand gangsterism and it's dynamics. Like a smart group of cops. There is no time bomb. It's not a movie. The damage they are planning to do over several months might have happened in a tenth of the time under shutdown conditions. And that could mean ten times as much pain and loss for the rest of us. We didn't get here over night, but through decades. It's going to take a long time to get through this. Unless you really want blood... then I guess there will be blood. But it's still going to take a long time, blood or not.
Schumer understands gangsterism? If that were true, he would have figured out how to deal with Trump long ago. All he really understands is the old way of doing things according to the norms of the Senate. Durbin is the same.
Right, you mean the Rs when they were in the minority against a fascist coup. Dude, this a whole new thing here. You been in close with gangs? Unfortunately I do have some real experience with that and recognize it. Dangerous stuff beyond anything we’ve seen yet in politics.
Possible. I prefer to see this as a way for Democratic leaders to stand up for rights, and keep government funded. Not ideal, but it will keep federal workers who have a job paid. No fun to lose housing and ability to buy groceries. I'm hoping Democratic leaders will follow up on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's lead. She shows what we can do better and take back the narrative. Patty, riposte. Charge!
Today my friend was discussing how to reapply for grant funding her husband will have to fly back from Europe for one day and then who knows if he will get funding. As we were discussing what would happen if he did not show, since in the past this has been done by Zoom meeting, what if someone is sick, or has a baby, or some other emergency, and she said, perhaps her husband should get a doctors note about stress. I told her no. It would draw attention to him, and they are a bunch of sadists. I said, if you want to understand how they will act of think, think of Nazis, the DDR and Soviet Russia. These references work for us because we both know about the Nazis from having German moms who were children then. I had family in the DDR, so I learned about that too. She is a professor of Russian language, who lived in the Soviet Union Russia when she was studying. Otherwise, just think what would a sadist do.
I have recently subscribed to new Substack by Canadian Dean Blundell. Today he was sharing what is going on with the new PM of Canada. There is a brief clip of him talking and it was a relief to listen to him because he sounds like an adult.
It reminded me of how I felt listening to the Munich Security Conference talks by people from other governments, and how clear headed and intelligent they seemed. Like adults. Not having all the answers. It made me realize how unused to adult talk one gets when one listens to the noise from US leaders and their followers. On a good day they sound like Jr. high school mean boys and girls, and more common is raging toddlers, or Kindergarteners. It made me realize how debasing it is to listen to them, and how it impedes my brain functioning. I have to avoid it more often.
That’s why I’ve stopped listening to Trump live recently. He’s just babbles and lies in a way that is so obvious, that I can’t tolerate it. I read what he says & does instead. It’s not much better, but I can tolerate easier.
Kat, I totally agree. I have listened to Trump speak directly 2 times during Covid, and then could not see any benefit to listening to such a buffoon. I did not listen to him at all in his first campaign, because I had seen about 2-5 minutes of him on the apprentice, read what a con man he was to people he owed money, and that is all I needed to know. My opinion of him his grown worse, but that is not surprising. I assume that is true of all thinking people. As we watch people jump ship just like they did the first time around, I think we are going to see more and more Trump MAGA rats ship jumping, as the people grow angrier and angrier at the truth of the matter with regards to the promises they believed he was making them.
Totally agree. I think I only saw part of one show of the apprentice myself. I’ve known for years that he was a very dishonest businessman, a conman & without many morals, etc. It shocked me that people actually revered him any way. I hope that everything going on has the MAGA people wake up & realize they’ve been conned, & that they will desert him in mass so we can get him out of office before the end of this term.
I don't know that it is so much that they have been asleep, as that they do not understand what is going on. I am a Deweyan teacher by experience and training. John Dewey believed that people learned through a set of experiences. He was all about people understanding themselves culturally and other cultures too as part of getting along. He felt that the role of the teacher was to guide students through experiences that helped them to be good citizens in a democracy.
Trump is reminding them of who he is, which they conveniently forgot due to racism and other -isms that they did not want to have a Black female president. (This makes him their best experiential teacher.) This latest election has shown how backwards the US is in terms of who they can elect to run the country. We see plenty of other countries who have women leaders at the helm. I remember how exhausted everyone was of Trump during Covid. That and the BLM marches with footage of him being murdered by police were good learning experiences on what is wrong with this country and hopes for a better day. Biden represented that. He went off track in the last election when he over focused on negatives like losing democracy because no one knew what that meant, nor what fascism is. Now, perhaps the media will report on it, or it will be like Russia and only report what the leader wants to hear. So, people are learning about it experientially. One does not need to say "fascism", or "democracy", one needs to say, "the billionaires get tax breaks that we have to pay. They are stripping all our supports away!"
The marches are getting less attention than one would have thought. I can imagine that they might not be mentioned on Fox unless there is something wrong. Interestingly enough the station Murdoch owns in England reports news very critical of Trump.
It's obvious to us, but 45% still think he's doing a good job. They gobble it up. Still don't distrust him yet. When Musk says people - - millions of people- really love Trump but are getting paid to protest, tens of millions of MAGAts nod in agreement. Of course, it's obvious that this is what Musk has done and would do; and that Musk can't see that WE see he's a childlike confabulator - - but MAGA will swallow it whole. All those millions of sign-painters are MAGA, too, just bought-off by Soros. It's gonna be a big boulder up a tall hill..
Thank you for this. It makes so much sense and gives me hope. I think most of us just want the good guy to win, so to speak. We want to see a return of decency and goodness toward our fellow humans. Thank you for the inspiration to keep going.
Is there something they can do to help others locally? Make or do something, raise food from seeds or donate them to schools and rehab programs to help the less fortunate?
In addition to other charity work in retirement, I am making lapel sized and larger Ukrainian flags. People who verbally respond have been curious and positive. Others look, may smile or be perplexed, and keep on moving. They start thinking, lol, and I've stood up for my Ukrainian students.
Good for you. Values, courage, and willingness to take risks will become more clear. Today, I made eight more large lapel Ukrainian flags (3" high by 4" wide) for fellow quilters. They promptly added them to their lapels, lanyards, and shirts. It's a quiet way for some seniors who aren't up to standing or marching in the cold to support Ukraine. Several will wear them to "Hamilton" tonight. As these flags multiply, support for Ukraine will be more visible. Another way to make people think about war, invasion, and which side of justice ⚖️ they will stand.
One t shirt I saw recently was worn by a middle aged man in camo pants and black t shirt that said F*ck ICE. Ahem. My first thought was, wouldn't that be too cold?
OMG ROTFLMAO 😂😂😂😂😂 Took about that long to collect what he meant. Oy vey.
I heard Trump say recently "the soul of democracy" as he described a made up threat he was defending against. I thought tear it all down but be sure to use the words of wisdom, said by Biden, "we are fighting for the soul of our country". I believe that to have meant what you just outlined.
People, voters, apparently didn't feel the same way or feel it due to who was conveying it. There is nothing worse than moral values, or norms, being touted as needing defending like those who have caused their erosion or collapse. The playbook is known.
I speak to some who just refuse to talk about politics. Some who just didn't and still do not understand the economy.
What I can't wrap my head around is what to do with DOGE. It can't be created by an EO. How does Musk have authority of any kind? If he does in the Executive he's violating the 1st, The Hatch Act, and sooo many other things.
No one voted for DOGE/Musk and Trump has no mandate. If he's openly declaring he's violating court orders along with the constitution what's the remedy? If there is one. I can't file a lawsuit.
The speech/rally at the DOJ, on Friday, was a weak man not a strongman.
He also received absolute immunity, for criminality, 45 days after being convicted on 34 felony counts of book cooking to influence the 2016 election. It was not a hush money trial.
How can I justify the SCOTUS, using civil immunity, a subpoena executive privilege example and a horrific interpretation of Hamilton's Fed 70, to respect the granting of this when this is the first case of its kind in our history? Hamilton didn't argue criminality for energy needed to faithfully execute the office of the Executive in Fed 70. I know they won't reverse but why aren't we asking. I believe many people think what he is doing is due to the immunity decision. It's not.
I'm afraid of 4/20 when Noem/Hegseth gives him the 90 day report on the border that he'll declare martial law.
Why on earth would even a bought and bribed SCOTUS give a felon criminal immunity after he's convicted for felonies, sexual assault, tax evasion, having Barr cover up so many things we now know about? Great experiment, if you're a staunch conservative, but not on a man like Trump.
I'd feel a lot better without MUSK/DOGE and his minions running amok. I hope there is something contesting this as a whole. I can only keep so informed but I do try!! I ask and ask.
When I type on my phone the grammar is a no-go. I just type. I'm so used to be character driven, but since leaving X, I have a much more considerate approach to my ramblings!
This is the playbook. I'm grateful for this community. It will slowly become infested, as well, unfortunately, but for now I just try to learn and read and appreciate all the feedback, I do receive.
Even if it is my content or my grammar, as both were lacking just a few short years ago, X and FB/META are made for all the wrong purposes except the almighty buck, or crypto, until the buck is dust!
I think this a particularly important essay. Here’s a quote that says it another way:
“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
Quotation: Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials
And here we had co-President Musk recently quoted as saying, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit. They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”
William & Suzanne - 🙏 Thanks so much! A corollary that I learned years ago was someone pointing out that power corrupts might be true; but, what power really does is reveal, *power reveals*.
Absolutely. People who've not been the recipients of human empathy in the first three years of life, may not develop the capacity to actually care about others. Strict, even physically and emotionally brutal child rearing was the norm in Germany for hundreds of years. That created a population of people who could be cruel without conscience. Captain Gilbert was observing the worst of the worst, beside Hitler, himself. He concluded, correctly, that in the absence of the capacity to empathize, there is no internal limit on the cruelty that can be inflicted on another human being. That's the situation we're in now with Trump...no capacity for empathy...no conscience at all. 😢
Out of the blue on a Sunday evening, Ruth sends us this letter. Thank the lord for Ruth. And all of you too. We have to believe. We can do this. Ruth is telling us that it is going to be difficult. Painful. We can’t do it alone. It takes all of us.
This is PERTINENT, necessary material for Democracy to save our Republic. Please take note, AOC, Hakeem Jeffries, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and unions. Bernie Sanders, Patty Murray,and probably Maria Cantwell know this stuff already, having seen (or read and studied) this play out in many countries throughout the 19th, 20th, and now the 21st centuries.
Puts me in mind of that guy who got his leg shortened.
Perfect! The immoral and amoral Trump leading the cult into “moral deregulation” … a path, seemingly, so easy for others to walk. And he beckons those beyond the cult.
Yes, and SOS Everyone ✨🕯️🗽⏰📜: As most of us have all been voters, donors &/or hard-working volunteers in many elections including Election 2024, please help get the word out about the crucial new work being done by the non-profit organization Election Truth Alliance (ETA) at: https://ElectionTruthAlliance.org/videos (the new website they have been building) including their urgent March 3 Audit Update, plus their other new updates on their channels on: YouTube (incl. co-founder Nathan Taylor's Dire Talks channel), Facebook, Substack, Twitter, etc. We across the U.S. & our allies all need & deserve to know why & how Kamala Harris & Tim Walz may have truly WON vs. lost #Election2024, incl. across the swing states.
Please therefore help ETA and its partners to #VerifyTheVote with urgent new paper trail audits that can still be done right now based on new "smoking guns" of vote manipulation they have been looking for and finding since November with election data they have been steadily gathering! I donated to ETA & am continuing to help get the word out as one of their new volunteers. Please help ETA,, to help them prove the specific vote manipulation that they strongly suspect with very good reason and data!
I, for one, am SICK and TIRED of the shaming that We the U.S. people as a whole voted for Trump when we may likely have NOT--had it not been for now increasingly-suspected cheating--and we were instead able to successfully overcome not just Trump Vance's terrible candidacy but also the infuriating voter suppression, disinformation, and election buying (due to the Supreme Courts 5-4 Citizens United decision to allow unlimited independent spending in elections) which Republicans have also hurt us American voters with for so long! Get Mad and Get Even: We can help ETA prove manipulation in some counties that will show Election 2024 was compromised overall which will help vindicate us U.S. voters and our populace who may then also become even more determined to stop Trump and turn his now more strongly suspected FAUX election around!
NEVER TRUST any election that Russia is extremely interested in and involved with as Putin's backers are suspected of cheating for him in elections all the time, including in other countries they want to control! Know that we are now all in this together worldwide now with other countries who are resisting Russia's new imperialist Axis that we should NOT be in. Let's help DEFEAT their WWIII on ALL our democracies and lives!
As to Rubio—the perfect MAGA DEI hire. No wonder he sulks. And Vance, weak voice chiming in hoping to be recognized.
Rubio is an immigrant who is sending immigrants into torture in Honduras, Guantanamo and here in the US. What did he bring to the US from living in Cuba? An understanding of how to be a fascist.
Actually, Rubio was an anchor baby (as were his two older siblings). He was born in Miami in 1971 to parents who had fled Cuba in 1956. Neither of Rubio's parents were U.S. citizens at the time of Rubio's birth, but they applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1975.
Rubio has lied about his background. In October 2011, The Washington Post reported that Rubio's previous statements that his parents were forced to leave Cuba in 1959 (after Fidel Castro came to power) were falsehoods. His parents left Cuba in 1956, during the Batista regime.
Wikipedia
Thank you for factual evidence!
You are welcome! I forgot to credit Wikipedia, must add 😬
Marco was born in the US. His parents came from Cuba.
The reason Vance wears more mascara than a Taliban is to compensate for his weak voice.
And the beard to hide his baby face. And he desperately wants attention from his two daddies.
Indeed we all should continue to resist Trumpism as best each of us can, and in the way each of us feels most appropriate. But we cannot defeat this oncoming train wreck without the assistance of Trump supporters as they come to realize that they’ve bought into probably the most successful con job ever perpetrated on the American people. Fortunately Trump and Musk and their coterie of sycophants are working hard to convince more and more of his supporters of just that. The proof? Among other evidence the fact that the RNC is advising Republican legislators to stop holding town-hall meetings because of the increasing blowback they are getting from their constituents. Typically, of course, Republicans are trying to blame Democrat ‘plants’ and other ’enemies within’ for all the mayhem.
We do need to get Trump supporters, or at least swing voters, to realize their error. Of course they don't read Substack authors so a new venue is needed-desperately.
There are many other such venues growing out of this maelstrom, indeed, so many that it hard to keep up with them, but we cannot count on Trumpists to view or to read them either, or to believe them if they do. Opposition to Trump usually serves only to strengthen his supporters’ belief in his invulnerability and his victimhood. In the end, Trumpism must kill itself from the inside out.
My trumplican relatives watch faux (owhich has some anti dumpft stories, apparently) and listen to crap on the car radio. They do not have that option when riding with me. We can add information in bits and pieces. Ruth Ben-Ghiat has marvelous writing.
A better ROR (return on resistance) is to somehow convince the millions who voted for Biden in 2020 but didn’t vote last year, and the many more who don’t vote that we need their help to save America.
In order to do that, they have to understand far better than many of them seem to do just what kind of a threat Trumpism is, and that the threat is more substantial than they seem to comprehend. Unfortunately too many of us seem to be fixated on the present moment and whatever grievances they have within it, rather than the larger issue of Constitutionality and the rule of law.
Yup. Encourage nonvoters to vote. Not voting says voting doesn't matter. VOTE early.
I couldn't say that any better! We may want to ensure that people are able to vote, with documentation as required by each state, since we are now back in Jim Crow times. Our Pacific Coast states all vote by mail, which is secure. No voter fraud to speak of. Most errors of that type are senior citizens signing on behalf of relatives unable to sign or in the hospital.
How did those Italian fascists not recover? Did they feel forever ashamed? Did they feel on the outside of civil society? Or were they forever defensively loyal to Il Duce, and unable to reckon with their own dehumanization?
I would guess they had cognitive dissonance, which is challenging, to say the least. Guilt likely played a part, for violating their own values.
I’m interested to know this too. My guess is as society “healed” and grew beyond the deception the syncophants were exiled societally if not physically and their betrayal was never allowed to be forgotten.
You might take a look at the Medici family in Florence, and their interregnum, so to speak, with Savonarola. That did not go well for the citizens, nor the censorious priest.
Let the reckoning begin. Love the take on Rubio, he wasn’t embarrassed at what they were doing to Zelenskyy, he was pissed because he wasn’t allowed to participate. Right on.
It’s really is all about MONEY & POWER. They are faulty humans.
He wanted to get in on the prison-style rape but had to stand-by. He took his shot later, though. What's so astonishing, and in keeping with Ruth's theme, is that Democrats & liberal media accepted Rubio with such relief as a distinguished, respectable & "normal" cabinet pick for Secretary of State, 3rd in line to the Presidency! WTF were they thinking? Rubio has supported this amoral madness, international debacle & constitutional thugery at every opportunity. It's as if a substantial portion of people, even the ones who KNOW Trump is poison, will still smell the rotten meat AND GOBBLE IT UP! I concur with what Ruth is saying about the MAGA faithful being duped & cowed into submission, but we are still seeing Schumer & others cave; we see a decade-long Trump critic like Bill Maher essentially accept a ride from Ted Bundy, and then call him a congenial, rational, cheerful guy because he went 2 hours on the road without getting murdered. He had chianti & fava beans with Dr Lecter but didn't get his liver excised, so who that other face-eating guy is Bill just can't say. MSNBC daily & gleefully reports that Trump's popularity is "cratering" - - but his approval numbers on a variety of topics are still in the mid-40s. It's astonishing that they are THAT high, isn't it? So what's to celebrate? I mean, when they are below 30% we can feel some reassurance that MOST people MIGHT be coming their senses. But 44% approval of Trumpler is NOT encouraging news, so why does every MSNBC host try to convince us that it is? It's disturbing, period. Why not say so? There is much baffling weakness to be seen on both sides. I think it was Sen Sheldon Whitehouse who recently said that all it would take is for 5 GOP senators, and 7 or 8 House members to stand-up and this would be over. When Biden was president it took only TWO senators (and one timid AG) to gum things up for their own party, and to hamper & to obstruct the economic, moral & spiritual recovery from Trumpler 1.0 and Jan6. Who can be recruited to stand up from the other side? Are there ten more Murkowskis to be had? But let's get our own side fully calibrated for a start. Lesson #1 is: Marco Rubio is no bon-bon in a dung heap.
Murkowski has since proven herself to be a hollow, duped, selfish fool of epic and tragic proportions. Even Collins had the guts to say Fuck No! to the MAGA bill.
Thank you, Professor Ben-Ghiat, for your crystal clear analysis of the events unfolding before our eyes. The moral and ethical collapse of our society has occurred on at least one side of the spectrum. They have drunk the koolaid with pleasure. The guy means to destroy our freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom to redress the government in protest. He is defying court orders left and right and no one really seems to know what to do about it. We seem to be in the midst of an authoritarian coup. Thank you, Professor, for holding the lantern.
Please check out my Substack Transformative Times.
I’d rather feels like we need to stage a coup to overcome these circumstances. The Democrats have devoted the party to relying on political normalcy of the last 200+ years so this is all they know how to do. They have not been able to meet this moment, they have not brought in any changemakers, they don’t appear to understand that the party needs to be seriously reformed. They’ve taken on this job and must develop a new skill set much like all of us have to do in the real world.
Yes!
God help us, we need to be active in the moment but we also need strong leaders! Where are our past presidents, representatives and senators? Where are the fired up leaders of the Democratic past?
Thank the Lord Biden is speaking out. I miss all the good & honorable Presidents so much!
It is difficult (but not impossible) to stay motivated when Shumer and 10 other Democrats acquiesce to the CR.
That move by Chuck and company felt like a really hard blow and def left me feeling demoralized. However, I'm starting to see it as a backdrop for other dynamic individuals to shine even more brightly. It doesn't solve the issue by any means. But it's helping me not to feel quite as deflated.
YES! AOC to the rescue!
My Senator Dirty-Dick- Durbin got a request from me for him to resign after he partook in that vote.
I disagree. I think Schumer et. al did the right thing. This is a political gangsterism situation. I've said before, at the basic level fascism = political gangsterism. If you felt a strong need to confront some gangsters gathered and working out their next neighborhood crime, and let's just say they had access to only one weapon, which kind would you want? The analogy here; CR is a knife. Shutdown is a gun. Be patient. Don't add risk, it's already high. Seek the safest effective path and watch for the best opening then go hard and secure the guy with the knife first, then the others. Strength in numbers, try to wait until 5:00 a.m. when they are asleep. Plan the take down well, make it known we are legion and coming...eventually. That will tend to wear them out. All that. Schumer and the few others figured this out because they obviously better understand gangsterism and it's dynamics. Like a smart group of cops. There is no time bomb. It's not a movie. The damage they are planning to do over several months might have happened in a tenth of the time under shutdown conditions. And that could mean ten times as much pain and loss for the rest of us. We didn't get here over night, but through decades. It's going to take a long time to get through this. Unless you really want blood... then I guess there will be blood. But it's still going to take a long time, blood or not.
Schumer understands gangsterism? If that were true, he would have figured out how to deal with Trump long ago. All he really understands is the old way of doing things according to the norms of the Senate. Durbin is the same.
Like you understood long ago and published a precise plan to counter? That’s great. Please forward at your earliest convenience.
What an elitist question! But the plan to counter is actually quite simple. It's the same one Republicans used when they were in the minority.
Right, you mean the Rs when they were in the minority against a fascist coup. Dude, this a whole new thing here. You been in close with gangs? Unfortunately I do have some real experience with that and recognize it. Dangerous stuff beyond anything we’ve seen yet in politics.
Possible. I prefer to see this as a way for Democratic leaders to stand up for rights, and keep government funded. Not ideal, but it will keep federal workers who have a job paid. No fun to lose housing and ability to buy groceries. I'm hoping Democratic leaders will follow up on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's lead. She shows what we can do better and take back the narrative. Patty, riposte. Charge!
I get it, but we don’t have to do the same thing.
Today my friend was discussing how to reapply for grant funding her husband will have to fly back from Europe for one day and then who knows if he will get funding. As we were discussing what would happen if he did not show, since in the past this has been done by Zoom meeting, what if someone is sick, or has a baby, or some other emergency, and she said, perhaps her husband should get a doctors note about stress. I told her no. It would draw attention to him, and they are a bunch of sadists. I said, if you want to understand how they will act of think, think of Nazis, the DDR and Soviet Russia. These references work for us because we both know about the Nazis from having German moms who were children then. I had family in the DDR, so I learned about that too. She is a professor of Russian language, who lived in the Soviet Union Russia when she was studying. Otherwise, just think what would a sadist do.
I have recently subscribed to new Substack by Canadian Dean Blundell. Today he was sharing what is going on with the new PM of Canada. There is a brief clip of him talking and it was a relief to listen to him because he sounds like an adult.
https://open.substack.com/pub/deanblundell/p/mark-carneys-bold-eu-pivot-building?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
It reminded me of how I felt listening to the Munich Security Conference talks by people from other governments, and how clear headed and intelligent they seemed. Like adults. Not having all the answers. It made me realize how unused to adult talk one gets when one listens to the noise from US leaders and their followers. On a good day they sound like Jr. high school mean boys and girls, and more common is raging toddlers, or Kindergarteners. It made me realize how debasing it is to listen to them, and how it impedes my brain functioning. I have to avoid it more often.
That's why I come to Substack!
Mic drop
That’s why I’ve stopped listening to Trump live recently. He’s just babbles and lies in a way that is so obvious, that I can’t tolerate it. I read what he says & does instead. It’s not much better, but I can tolerate easier.
Kat, I totally agree. I have listened to Trump speak directly 2 times during Covid, and then could not see any benefit to listening to such a buffoon. I did not listen to him at all in his first campaign, because I had seen about 2-5 minutes of him on the apprentice, read what a con man he was to people he owed money, and that is all I needed to know. My opinion of him his grown worse, but that is not surprising. I assume that is true of all thinking people. As we watch people jump ship just like they did the first time around, I think we are going to see more and more Trump MAGA rats ship jumping, as the people grow angrier and angrier at the truth of the matter with regards to the promises they believed he was making them.
Totally agree. I think I only saw part of one show of the apprentice myself. I’ve known for years that he was a very dishonest businessman, a conman & without many morals, etc. It shocked me that people actually revered him any way. I hope that everything going on has the MAGA people wake up & realize they’ve been conned, & that they will desert him in mass so we can get him out of office before the end of this term.
I don't know that it is so much that they have been asleep, as that they do not understand what is going on. I am a Deweyan teacher by experience and training. John Dewey believed that people learned through a set of experiences. He was all about people understanding themselves culturally and other cultures too as part of getting along. He felt that the role of the teacher was to guide students through experiences that helped them to be good citizens in a democracy.
Trump is reminding them of who he is, which they conveniently forgot due to racism and other -isms that they did not want to have a Black female president. (This makes him their best experiential teacher.) This latest election has shown how backwards the US is in terms of who they can elect to run the country. We see plenty of other countries who have women leaders at the helm. I remember how exhausted everyone was of Trump during Covid. That and the BLM marches with footage of him being murdered by police were good learning experiences on what is wrong with this country and hopes for a better day. Biden represented that. He went off track in the last election when he over focused on negatives like losing democracy because no one knew what that meant, nor what fascism is. Now, perhaps the media will report on it, or it will be like Russia and only report what the leader wants to hear. So, people are learning about it experientially. One does not need to say "fascism", or "democracy", one needs to say, "the billionaires get tax breaks that we have to pay. They are stripping all our supports away!"
The marches are getting less attention than one would have thought. I can imagine that they might not be mentioned on Fox unless there is something wrong. Interestingly enough the station Murdoch owns in England reports news very critical of Trump.
It's obvious to us, but 45% still think he's doing a good job. They gobble it up. Still don't distrust him yet. When Musk says people - - millions of people- really love Trump but are getting paid to protest, tens of millions of MAGAts nod in agreement. Of course, it's obvious that this is what Musk has done and would do; and that Musk can't see that WE see he's a childlike confabulator - - but MAGA will swallow it whole. All those millions of sign-painters are MAGA, too, just bought-off by Soros. It's gonna be a big boulder up a tall hill..
Thank you for this. It makes so much sense and gives me hope. I think most of us just want the good guy to win, so to speak. We want to see a return of decency and goodness toward our fellow humans. Thank you for the inspiration to keep going.
I tried talking with my closest family members today. They are afraid and will go along to get
along. I refuse to. I will resist with every bit of
my being. Thank you
Ruth; truth to power.
Is there something they can do to help others locally? Make or do something, raise food from seeds or donate them to schools and rehab programs to help the less fortunate?
In addition to other charity work in retirement, I am making lapel sized and larger Ukrainian flags. People who verbally respond have been curious and positive. Others look, may smile or be perplexed, and keep on moving. They start thinking, lol, and I've stood up for my Ukrainian students.
They are only thinking of
themselves at this point.
They don't want to be
known as any resistance
to anything that's
happening here, in
Ukraine, possibly
Canada or Greenland.
They're afraid of a knock
on their doors or loss of jobs/income. I say bring it! I will not obey in advance or submit.
Good for you. Values, courage, and willingness to take risks will become more clear. Today, I made eight more large lapel Ukrainian flags (3" high by 4" wide) for fellow quilters. They promptly added them to their lapels, lanyards, and shirts. It's a quiet way for some seniors who aren't up to standing or marching in the cold to support Ukraine. Several will wear them to "Hamilton" tonight. As these flags multiply, support for Ukraine will be more visible. Another way to make people think about war, invasion, and which side of justice ⚖️ they will stand.
One t shirt I saw recently was worn by a middle aged man in camo pants and black t shirt that said F*ck ICE. Ahem. My first thought was, wouldn't that be too cold?
OMG ROTFLMAO 😂😂😂😂😂 Took about that long to collect what he meant. Oy vey.
But that’s crazy. He doesn’t care about them. They will get hurt too.
Thank you for always giving us perspective.
I heard Trump say recently "the soul of democracy" as he described a made up threat he was defending against. I thought tear it all down but be sure to use the words of wisdom, said by Biden, "we are fighting for the soul of our country". I believe that to have meant what you just outlined.
People, voters, apparently didn't feel the same way or feel it due to who was conveying it. There is nothing worse than moral values, or norms, being touted as needing defending like those who have caused their erosion or collapse. The playbook is known.
I speak to some who just refuse to talk about politics. Some who just didn't and still do not understand the economy.
What I can't wrap my head around is what to do with DOGE. It can't be created by an EO. How does Musk have authority of any kind? If he does in the Executive he's violating the 1st, The Hatch Act, and sooo many other things.
No one voted for DOGE/Musk and Trump has no mandate. If he's openly declaring he's violating court orders along with the constitution what's the remedy? If there is one. I can't file a lawsuit.
The speech/rally at the DOJ, on Friday, was a weak man not a strongman.
He also received absolute immunity, for criminality, 45 days after being convicted on 34 felony counts of book cooking to influence the 2016 election. It was not a hush money trial.
How can I justify the SCOTUS, using civil immunity, a subpoena executive privilege example and a horrific interpretation of Hamilton's Fed 70, to respect the granting of this when this is the first case of its kind in our history? Hamilton didn't argue criminality for energy needed to faithfully execute the office of the Executive in Fed 70. I know they won't reverse but why aren't we asking. I believe many people think what he is doing is due to the immunity decision. It's not.
I'm afraid of 4/20 when Noem/Hegseth gives him the 90 day report on the border that he'll declare martial law.
Why on earth would even a bought and bribed SCOTUS give a felon criminal immunity after he's convicted for felonies, sexual assault, tax evasion, having Barr cover up so many things we now know about? Great experiment, if you're a staunch conservative, but not on a man like Trump.
I'd feel a lot better without MUSK/DOGE and his minions running amok. I hope there is something contesting this as a whole. I can only keep so informed but I do try!! I ask and ask.
Thanks Ruth!
Thank you for the lovely paragraphs!
Thanks for replying.
When I type on my phone the grammar is a no-go. I just type. I'm so used to be character driven, but since leaving X, I have a much more considerate approach to my ramblings!
This is the playbook. I'm grateful for this community. It will slowly become infested, as well, unfortunately, but for now I just try to learn and read and appreciate all the feedback, I do receive.
Even if it is my content or my grammar, as both were lacking just a few short years ago, X and FB/META are made for all the wrong purposes except the almighty buck, or crypto, until the buck is dust!
I think this a particularly important essay. Here’s a quote that says it another way:
“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
Quotation: Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials
And here we had co-President Musk recently quoted as saying, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit. They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”
Empathy, he said, has been “weaponized.”
I feel disdain for Elon Musk. He’s rich in dollars and poor in character. I’d take the reverse of that any day.
Me too.
William & Suzanne - 🙏 Thanks so much! A corollary that I learned years ago was someone pointing out that power corrupts might be true; but, what power really does is reveal, *power reveals*.
Yes indeed it does.
Musk is a sociopath, with nothing to offer our country & constitution of much value. Like Trump, it’s all about power & money & nothing more.
Absolutely. People who've not been the recipients of human empathy in the first three years of life, may not develop the capacity to actually care about others. Strict, even physically and emotionally brutal child rearing was the norm in Germany for hundreds of years. That created a population of people who could be cruel without conscience. Captain Gilbert was observing the worst of the worst, beside Hitler, himself. He concluded, correctly, that in the absence of the capacity to empathize, there is no internal limit on the cruelty that can be inflicted on another human being. That's the situation we're in now with Trump...no capacity for empathy...no conscience at all. 😢
Should be HS education.
Out of the blue on a Sunday evening, Ruth sends us this letter. Thank the lord for Ruth. And all of you too. We have to believe. We can do this. Ruth is telling us that it is going to be difficult. Painful. We can’t do it alone. It takes all of us.
And thank the lord for you, too, David. In this scary time, it is so nice to know there is an "us," that we are not alone.
This is PERTINENT, necessary material for Democracy to save our Republic. Please take note, AOC, Hakeem Jeffries, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and unions. Bernie Sanders, Patty Murray,and probably Maria Cantwell know this stuff already, having seen (or read and studied) this play out in many countries throughout the 19th, 20th, and now the 21st centuries.
And I have read Chuck Schumer's reason for voting as he did.
I would like to know if he spoke with his brother at the law firm who caved in to dumpft's anti legal machinations.
Chilling and terrifying today with a seasoning of hope for tomorrow…