I have a lot less trouble being humble at this point. Life has had a habit of finding creative new ways of knocking the stuffing out of me throughout my 71 years. Like they say, "Want to hear the gods laugh? Make plans, oh human, make plans." I accept some of your points about the hubris of the left. But most of us, I'd wager, are not ideologue leftist philosophers, activists, nor academics, but just ordinary folks trying to live out the essence of Micah 6:8, "...act justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly...' with whatever big "G" or little "g" god we do (or don't) believe in—and to be the "good" neighbor to those we encounter, whoever they are, as we find them. How do we continue to do that now, when it looks like America has voted itself a despotic "mad king" possibly for life?
I **am** kind of ashamed of my fellow citizens—not for being conservative or religious, but for being gullible. Because DJT has had such a long shady history in American public life as exactly the opposite of everything you quoted Jesus about "The first being last, and the last being first." He is the perfect "anti-christ." It is as though Lucifer himself came out as "pro life" and evangelicals bought it, hook line and sinker and annointed and voted for him. He is so completely obvious.
In Trumpworld there is, and can only ever be one winner. I am seriously afraid that even those who voted for him will find out sooner or later that they are among the many losers. You speak of the next 50 years. That is longer than you and I (or Trump) will be alive. To accept a dark prognosis like that lying down, especially thinking about how it will affect subsequent generations, is going to be hard—and I am not just talking about rebelling, or anything like hat. But to see others needlessly suffer, galls ones sense of empathy and altruism. Just sayin'.
I agree with every single word, Ted. I come from an evangelical Fundamentalist background, so I get your references. Antichrist has been the image that has come to me again and again over these last 8 years. And that in trump world there is Only Ever One Winner. I spent the first day in tears and darkness. Yesterday I spent with my 5yo granddaughter, a bright spot. (Even though she had been praying that the bully wouldn't win.) She & Mommy had been putting Huge Effort into writing, licking shut, stamping, and mailing 615 letters to unregistered voters. So she was as in the know as a 5yo can be. Moreso, I expect. I'm not sure how she's processing this. But she Plays Hard. Gets out a whole lot of energy. Anyway, thank you for your comment.
No we are NOT being humble as Dems to these facists who are going to control every aspect of our life & take away our Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and Disability & Veteran’s Benefits - simply NO to humility as we will be the ones humbled enough by this theft of an election through purging votes & massive disinformation to Latino men so no F’n way - the GOP & Trump will be emptying the Federal Reserve & Fort Knox so take your lecture re greed & hubris to them - not us beaten down Dems who tried to protect everyone & we got screwed- you helped these psycho born agains grow their movement- so you bear a huge part of this Christo-fascist white supremacy movement- no damn way ! We are now a dictatorship ! It’s survival of the fittest & screw the assholes who voted for him when they ask for our help - simply they can Fuck Off !
I agree CatDski. Humility is unacceptable. Excuse my rant...
I will be damned if we humble ourselves yet again. Or take the high road yet again. We see how well that worked out.
At the risk of sounding too hokey, I quote Judge Judy, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." Adults get angry and swear when bad shit happens. Pollyannaism will get us nowhere.
I say NO to humility and YES to outrage and anger when our sitting duck government officials failed to protect us. From what you ask?
--our military, defense and intelligence operations have FAILED to protect us from, just to name about a dozen:
--devastating financial cyber attacks
--predatory and fraudulent business practices
--legalized theft from every single corporation in business today
--poisoning our pets and fellow humans with tainted food and medication,
--assasinations a la Putin style of opponents, journalists and whistle blowers
AND most of all, our leaders who we have raised money for over and over again HAVE FAILED US for the last decade Ruzzian political technology weapons AND phantom campaign propaganda directed at all of the different American voters based on their personal data flowing every so freely in the dark web and now out in the open.
WHO FUNDS the PHANTOM CAMPAIGNS to manipulate our politics and cause REGIME CHANGE? Who pays for these campaigns that spread disinformation that were first tested in Ukraine, then in other countries--most recently, the United States?
Oligarchs like Putin and Musk, that is who. They don't give a damn about countries. They only want to preserve their wealth and fantasies of their twisted world view.
These successful Ruzzian intelligence techniques or technologies, whatever you want to call them are quite successful. Many people were duped of every political affiliation, every age and gender. They were influenced into not voting for Harris or defrauded to vote for Trump by the lies that they orchestrated.
Our officials seem to be too arrogant or embarrassed to admit that they failed to stop or educate us about them.
They FAIL to do anything right now to stop this whole fascistic regime. NOW, our elected officials should be admitting their FAILURES to stop what they know and we know is a total disaster of an election cycle. Democrat officials have plenty of unfinished business to do and plenty of new strategies to enact NOW while they are still in office. They will be remembered harshly if they lay down and surrender to this criminality and hostile coup.
So, hell no, I will not go quietly or lay down for this to happen. I will put my body on the line and defend the same principles and country that my father, my uncles, my grandparents fought for since my family came to this country in the 1640's.
Fellow Americans will be joining me to stop them from ever setting foot in Washington, DC ever again.
Most certainly, I will be exercising my First and Second Amendment rights and will defend my fellow Americans, friends and family
This whole criminal Trump regime is obviously prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution to hold office. Period.
"—any person who has taken an oath to support and defend our Constitution and thereafter rebels against that sacred charter, either through overt insurrection or by giving aid or comfort to the Constitution’s enemies."
Hmm... "A jew on campus is not responsible for the last 3000 years of history," but pronouns are? Do you have any evidence for this thesis? Because from over here, it really looks like American democracy has been successfully hacked by an international crime syndicate headquartered in the Kremlin teamed up with a conniving pack of bratty billionaires. They may have leveraged resentment over pronouns as one among several culture war symbols, but do you really think Kamala would have won if she'd only thrown the queers under the bus? If that is your humble plan, the rest of us are going to look elsewhere for more courageous comrades.
The Democratic Party better get it together. The pro Palestine movement hurt Democrats and please don’t deny it. These people are wannabe terrorists at times. And so aggressive toward Jews.
The “Uncommitted Movement” was incredibly reckless and unwise. There was nothing humble about the behavior I’ve witnessed from American Muslims in this election. “Do it our way or we’re not gonna vote for the Democrat” was as arrogant as it gets.
I do wonder how many Harris votes were lost to that Uncommitted nonsense.
I have a trans friend who was pushing it hard, right up to the bitter end, saying she wouldn't vote and telling us we were going to get Trump and be sorry. Now she is leading workshops to help trans people prepare for the many punishments Trump has promised us. My rage burns white hot.
I agree with you but we can't fix stupid. I am concerned now with what the Democrats need to be doing now to stop this whole ridiculous farce of an election and investigate the phantom campaigns funded by Putin and Musk.
Democrats do your jobs NOW while you are still in power. We don't have to lay down and make their transition the slightest bit easy. In fact it should be downright ugly.
I spent many hours talking to protest voters online before the election. My experience was that they were radicalized by watching post after post of the horrors of the genocide unfolding in real time, then followed social media influencers who pounded on this issue every single day for a year. I spoke to each influencer warning them that their followers were losing site of the big picture. The DAY BEFORE the election, each of the three I followed pleaded with their followers to vote Harris. It was too late. The day after the election, at least one lost tens of thousands of followers, some hurling racist hate on their way out. I believe these influencers truly abhor what is happening in Gaza, but they also used this issue partly to build their followers/ subscribers and their personal sphere of influence, all the while being trolled by maga or Russian bots helping whip people into a frenzy of protest votes.
It was just as impossible to speak reason to the irrational action they were planning to take as it was speaking to trumpers. It nearly broke me. Some of them were in the most at risk groups of people who’ll be harmed by this admin. Crazy.
Sometimes people get emotional and mess up. I’m probably going to end up in the street before this is over. I was looking forward to Social Security and Medicare. This is very scary.
I’ve said they were democracy terrorists. And I’m very sympathetic ab Gaza, but I’m also a fully formed person committed to doing the least amount of harm. I damn well voted Harris.
Frank, the Republicans have made it a rallying call to accuse liberals of being uppity, arrogant, and insensitive to the needs of average working people. This is complete BS, because that is exactly what Republican administrations have brought us. They cut taxes for the rich, increase taxes on the middle class, continuously threaten to deprive us of our right to Medicare and Social Security, and have a unique way of causing economic chaos. If people cannot remember the first trump administration, then they should get their damn heads examined. The people Trump insults the most wound up voting for him. Democrats are always looking to better people’s lives. If individuals are so stupid and so out of touch as to not realize this, then they absolutely deserve what they just elected into office.
The intense pain of the next few years is going to be overwhelming for the very folks who hate people of color so much that they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a sane, accomplished woman instead of a felonious, pathologically lying, rapist and con man. Good luck to them and us.
You Frank STILL have a responsibility to hear for this trash heap! There is NOTHING for us. Frank, you have a passport, and you can scrape together some money. Go back to Europe. You support incrementalism, fine. But going left economically isn’t a bad thing. Your generation wasn’t allowing it. You LIED about the NHS. Your STUPID RICH FRIENDS MIGHT help you out, but that’s it. You need to stop hosting the leopard breeders and wake up.
Massive death from Donald when he takes away the constitution and social security i
won't be able to live without my diabetes meds that means no insulin which when my blood sugar rise to extreme highs I'll go into a coma and die at Trumps hands , thanks Donald, life is over ! May God Bless you all !
The evil Donald Trump has promised a lot of hateful things, but it’s not going to be as easy as he thinks to dismantle programs that have been part of our lives for 50 years or more. We need to counteract the votes of ignorant people who completely throw themselves under the bus by voting against their own interests, and in two years, we have a chance to put Democrats into the Senate and the House. Have faith that we will be able to do this.
We must demand that Democrats do something now. This whole thing was a sham election cycle. Putin has been orchestrating things far more than we are embarrassed to admit.
Hell, Trump and his minions Constitutionally have no right to hold office no matter what some kangaroo SCOTUS wants us to believe. We don't have to obey in advance.
Besides, according to these dipshits there is no rule of law right now anyhow. Why do we have to obey any sort of civility if they aren't going to. It is called self defense at this point. I will defend myself and my fellow Americans from any fascist take over.
There is a right and wrong on many issues. There is good and evil. What hubris does that acknowledgement or opposition require? How does hubris alone counter pure evil or fascism? Your premise sounds naive to me. Certainly we need to analyze how and why we failed. But, how does humility alone help us us effect change? You mention nothing else. Is it possible/likely that there was serious election fraud, Russian interference? Should there be an investigation?
Regarding Jesus, I’m disturbed that he condoned the most violent, misogynist, genocidal book ever written—The Old Testament. Its God is jealous and egomaniacal. Jesus never condemned the OT horrors.
I am also upset that Jesus referred to hell/eternal punishment more than anyone else in the bible—some say over 70 times. Even in his seemingly lovely Matthew 25, in verses 41, 46, he sends those who oppose him into eternal fire/eternal punishment. And, of course he claimed to be the only way to god, which I no longer believe.
I agree. We should investigate the phantom campaigns that Putin and the oligarchs have been foisting on us for the past 10 years. I demand that our Democratic officials, the CIA, the FBI, the Justice Department and our military do something about these attacks.
This is war against the American people and everyone acts like it's just an ordinary day, in an ordinary month in an ordinary year. Horse hooey!
Well said. Good to hear your voice again. I am glad to hear your willingness to look at what the voters are saying. That has been missing on the left. Though I’ve found a home with Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger who actually report what’s going on. From your old friend who doesn’t feel as guilty as you for helping launch your career back in the day. As I’ve said before watching your life has been a chance to see grace and growth work over the long term.
I have been extremely frustrated with the liberal media that almost completely ignores the role of religion in our politics. I acknowledge that there are many factors for the Trump win with inflation being number one but conservative religious groups are a factor in our elections as well and even in South American elections as Evangelicals/Charismatics grow and gain more power. I hear every reason under the sun for the Kamala loss but not one mention of conservative religious groups. I have even written to MSNBC to include some programming around religion. Why should the Right have a monopoly on religion? There are plenty of progressive religious groups that contribute to liberal politics. I understand many of us on the Left are either atheists or agnostics but I still believe in the message of Jesus which is an exceedingly liberal view. I’m sick of conservative religious groups having the corner on ethics and goodness. They say progressives are elitists and snobbish. Have you ever been around a conservative Christian? I agree though with being circumspect and humble about what we know, and believe that the more we know the less we know or are sure about anything.
You lost me on this one Frank One cannot be distracted by the They Them issue from either side It’s the violence of Religion that does allow humility to
As far as timing, this segment in time that is "Nov 6" is like society being dragged kicking and screaming to do serious self-reflection. That is, it's time for a break -- but there are no breaks.
But anyway. As I recall, America was dragged kicking and screaming by a splinter interest group NAMBLA, that wanted to legalize their rape of little boys. This group, I speculate, attached itself politically to a larger group that should have stayed away from endorsing such criminal goals. And not seeing, I speculate further, the underlying criminal goal, this larger group of gays and lesbians advacated for being treated as humans. A legitimate goal in a democratic republic.
But it was the way they did that, that was the problem. Having been poisoned by NAMBLA, and this is also speculation, this larger group took on a method of anti-discrimination that was more overtly, and in essence, namblean. Teaching "antidiscrim" in elementary and intermediate schools.
The problem, the massive problem? It was and is true that gay children are discriminated against in intermediate and high school to the point of suicide. That plainly is a societal problem.
But that is separate from "Nambla." That was -- if it happened -- a massively wrong move. Backed by empathy for suicided children, yes. But a strategy poisoned by a criminal group with criminal goals, I allege.
As this election proves, 50%+ of Americans don't want the wrong namblean strategy in their children's schools (among other things).
A simpler, more accurate, fight against suicide in intermediate and high school i.e. "bullying", would have been better and less "highjacked".
My speculation.
May America be as James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton dreamed.
I have a lot less trouble being humble at this point. Life has had a habit of finding creative new ways of knocking the stuffing out of me throughout my 71 years. Like they say, "Want to hear the gods laugh? Make plans, oh human, make plans." I accept some of your points about the hubris of the left. But most of us, I'd wager, are not ideologue leftist philosophers, activists, nor academics, but just ordinary folks trying to live out the essence of Micah 6:8, "...act justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly...' with whatever big "G" or little "g" god we do (or don't) believe in—and to be the "good" neighbor to those we encounter, whoever they are, as we find them. How do we continue to do that now, when it looks like America has voted itself a despotic "mad king" possibly for life?
I **am** kind of ashamed of my fellow citizens—not for being conservative or religious, but for being gullible. Because DJT has had such a long shady history in American public life as exactly the opposite of everything you quoted Jesus about "The first being last, and the last being first." He is the perfect "anti-christ." It is as though Lucifer himself came out as "pro life" and evangelicals bought it, hook line and sinker and annointed and voted for him. He is so completely obvious.
In Trumpworld there is, and can only ever be one winner. I am seriously afraid that even those who voted for him will find out sooner or later that they are among the many losers. You speak of the next 50 years. That is longer than you and I (or Trump) will be alive. To accept a dark prognosis like that lying down, especially thinking about how it will affect subsequent generations, is going to be hard—and I am not just talking about rebelling, or anything like hat. But to see others needlessly suffer, galls ones sense of empathy and altruism. Just sayin'.
I agree with every single word, Ted. I come from an evangelical Fundamentalist background, so I get your references. Antichrist has been the image that has come to me again and again over these last 8 years. And that in trump world there is Only Ever One Winner. I spent the first day in tears and darkness. Yesterday I spent with my 5yo granddaughter, a bright spot. (Even though she had been praying that the bully wouldn't win.) She & Mommy had been putting Huge Effort into writing, licking shut, stamping, and mailing 615 letters to unregistered voters. So she was as in the know as a 5yo can be. Moreso, I expect. I'm not sure how she's processing this. But she Plays Hard. Gets out a whole lot of energy. Anyway, thank you for your comment.
No we are NOT being humble as Dems to these facists who are going to control every aspect of our life & take away our Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and Disability & Veteran’s Benefits - simply NO to humility as we will be the ones humbled enough by this theft of an election through purging votes & massive disinformation to Latino men so no F’n way - the GOP & Trump will be emptying the Federal Reserve & Fort Knox so take your lecture re greed & hubris to them - not us beaten down Dems who tried to protect everyone & we got screwed- you helped these psycho born agains grow their movement- so you bear a huge part of this Christo-fascist white supremacy movement- no damn way ! We are now a dictatorship ! It’s survival of the fittest & screw the assholes who voted for him when they ask for our help - simply they can Fuck Off !
I agree CatDski. Humility is unacceptable. Excuse my rant...
I will be damned if we humble ourselves yet again. Or take the high road yet again. We see how well that worked out.
At the risk of sounding too hokey, I quote Judge Judy, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." Adults get angry and swear when bad shit happens. Pollyannaism will get us nowhere.
I say NO to humility and YES to outrage and anger when our sitting duck government officials failed to protect us. From what you ask?
--our military, defense and intelligence operations have FAILED to protect us from, just to name about a dozen:
--devastating financial cyber attacks
--predatory and fraudulent business practices
--legalized theft from every single corporation in business today
--poisoning our pets and fellow humans with tainted food and medication,
--assasinations a la Putin style of opponents, journalists and whistle blowers
AND most of all, our leaders who we have raised money for over and over again HAVE FAILED US for the last decade Ruzzian political technology weapons AND phantom campaign propaganda directed at all of the different American voters based on their personal data flowing every so freely in the dark web and now out in the open.
WHO FUNDS the PHANTOM CAMPAIGNS to manipulate our politics and cause REGIME CHANGE? Who pays for these campaigns that spread disinformation that were first tested in Ukraine, then in other countries--most recently, the United States?
Oligarchs like Putin and Musk, that is who. They don't give a damn about countries. They only want to preserve their wealth and fantasies of their twisted world view.
These successful Ruzzian intelligence techniques or technologies, whatever you want to call them are quite successful. Many people were duped of every political affiliation, every age and gender. They were influenced into not voting for Harris or defrauded to vote for Trump by the lies that they orchestrated.
Our officials seem to be too arrogant or embarrassed to admit that they failed to stop or educate us about them.
They FAIL to do anything right now to stop this whole fascistic regime. NOW, our elected officials should be admitting their FAILURES to stop what they know and we know is a total disaster of an election cycle. Democrat officials have plenty of unfinished business to do and plenty of new strategies to enact NOW while they are still in office. They will be remembered harshly if they lay down and surrender to this criminality and hostile coup.
So, hell no, I will not go quietly or lay down for this to happen. I will put my body on the line and defend the same principles and country that my father, my uncles, my grandparents fought for since my family came to this country in the 1640's.
Fellow Americans will be joining me to stop them from ever setting foot in Washington, DC ever again.
Most certainly, I will be exercising my First and Second Amendment rights and will defend my fellow Americans, friends and family
This whole criminal Trump regime is obviously prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution to hold office. Period.
"—any person who has taken an oath to support and defend our Constitution and thereafter rebels against that sacred charter, either through overt insurrection or by giving aid or comfort to the Constitution’s enemies."
Hmm... "A jew on campus is not responsible for the last 3000 years of history," but pronouns are? Do you have any evidence for this thesis? Because from over here, it really looks like American democracy has been successfully hacked by an international crime syndicate headquartered in the Kremlin teamed up with a conniving pack of bratty billionaires. They may have leveraged resentment over pronouns as one among several culture war symbols, but do you really think Kamala would have won if she'd only thrown the queers under the bus? If that is your humble plan, the rest of us are going to look elsewhere for more courageous comrades.
The Democratic Party better get it together. The pro Palestine movement hurt Democrats and please don’t deny it. These people are wannabe terrorists at times. And so aggressive toward Jews.
The “Uncommitted Movement” was incredibly reckless and unwise. There was nothing humble about the behavior I’ve witnessed from American Muslims in this election. “Do it our way or we’re not gonna vote for the Democrat” was as arrogant as it gets.
I do wonder how many Harris votes were lost to that Uncommitted nonsense.
I have a trans friend who was pushing it hard, right up to the bitter end, saying she wouldn't vote and telling us we were going to get Trump and be sorry. Now she is leading workshops to help trans people prepare for the many punishments Trump has promised us. My rage burns white hot.
I agree with you but we can't fix stupid. I am concerned now with what the Democrats need to be doing now to stop this whole ridiculous farce of an election and investigate the phantom campaigns funded by Putin and Musk.
Democrats do your jobs NOW while you are still in power. We don't have to lay down and make their transition the slightest bit easy. In fact it should be downright ugly.
I spent many hours talking to protest voters online before the election. My experience was that they were radicalized by watching post after post of the horrors of the genocide unfolding in real time, then followed social media influencers who pounded on this issue every single day for a year. I spoke to each influencer warning them that their followers were losing site of the big picture. The DAY BEFORE the election, each of the three I followed pleaded with their followers to vote Harris. It was too late. The day after the election, at least one lost tens of thousands of followers, some hurling racist hate on their way out. I believe these influencers truly abhor what is happening in Gaza, but they also used this issue partly to build their followers/ subscribers and their personal sphere of influence, all the while being trolled by maga or Russian bots helping whip people into a frenzy of protest votes.
It was just as impossible to speak reason to the irrational action they were planning to take as it was speaking to trumpers. It nearly broke me. Some of them were in the most at risk groups of people who’ll be harmed by this admin. Crazy.
Sometimes people get emotional and mess up. I’m probably going to end up in the street before this is over. I was looking forward to Social Security and Medicare. This is very scary.
FIGHT IT NOW. DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE. RAISE HELL.
DEMAND THE DEMOCRATIC OFFICIALS DO THEIR JOBS THAT WE GAVE THEM TONS OF MONEY TO DO.
As pessimistic as I am, I don’t think they’ll take away SS or Medicare. Their supporters want it, and they’ll want to appease them. I hope.
It will be interesting to see how the new administration reacts to the public backlash of their own supporters.
Added to the public backlash by the non fascist, non Trumper warriors. We are going to fight too.
Don't worry, you won't be unhoused for long once they sweep you up and send you to the tent camp. Maybe I'll see you there!
I’ve said they were democracy terrorists. And I’m very sympathetic ab Gaza, but I’m also a fully formed person committed to doing the least amount of harm. I damn well voted Harris.
This!
Thank you for your insightful commentary. I have so much to think about
I'm scared, Frank. I'm really scared for my family.
Do not obey in advance. You have agency and power.
Frank, the Republicans have made it a rallying call to accuse liberals of being uppity, arrogant, and insensitive to the needs of average working people. This is complete BS, because that is exactly what Republican administrations have brought us. They cut taxes for the rich, increase taxes on the middle class, continuously threaten to deprive us of our right to Medicare and Social Security, and have a unique way of causing economic chaos. If people cannot remember the first trump administration, then they should get their damn heads examined. The people Trump insults the most wound up voting for him. Democrats are always looking to better people’s lives. If individuals are so stupid and so out of touch as to not realize this, then they absolutely deserve what they just elected into office.
The intense pain of the next few years is going to be overwhelming for the very folks who hate people of color so much that they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a sane, accomplished woman instead of a felonious, pathologically lying, rapist and con man. Good luck to them and us.
You Frank STILL have a responsibility to hear for this trash heap! There is NOTHING for us. Frank, you have a passport, and you can scrape together some money. Go back to Europe. You support incrementalism, fine. But going left economically isn’t a bad thing. Your generation wasn’t allowing it. You LIED about the NHS. Your STUPID RICH FRIENDS MIGHT help you out, but that’s it. You need to stop hosting the leopard breeders and wake up.
Massive death from Donald when he takes away the constitution and social security i
won't be able to live without my diabetes meds that means no insulin which when my blood sugar rise to extreme highs I'll go into a coma and die at Trumps hands , thanks Donald, life is over ! May God Bless you all !
The evil Donald Trump has promised a lot of hateful things, but it’s not going to be as easy as he thinks to dismantle programs that have been part of our lives for 50 years or more. We need to counteract the votes of ignorant people who completely throw themselves under the bus by voting against their own interests, and in two years, we have a chance to put Democrats into the Senate and the House. Have faith that we will be able to do this.
I agree.
We must demand that Democrats do something now. This whole thing was a sham election cycle. Putin has been orchestrating things far more than we are embarrassed to admit.
Hell, Trump and his minions Constitutionally have no right to hold office no matter what some kangaroo SCOTUS wants us to believe. We don't have to obey in advance.
Besides, according to these dipshits there is no rule of law right now anyhow. Why do we have to obey any sort of civility if they aren't going to. It is called self defense at this point. I will defend myself and my fellow Americans from any fascist take over.
There is a right and wrong on many issues. There is good and evil. What hubris does that acknowledgement or opposition require? How does hubris alone counter pure evil or fascism? Your premise sounds naive to me. Certainly we need to analyze how and why we failed. But, how does humility alone help us us effect change? You mention nothing else. Is it possible/likely that there was serious election fraud, Russian interference? Should there be an investigation?
Regarding Jesus, I’m disturbed that he condoned the most violent, misogynist, genocidal book ever written—The Old Testament. Its God is jealous and egomaniacal. Jesus never condemned the OT horrors.
I am also upset that Jesus referred to hell/eternal punishment more than anyone else in the bible—some say over 70 times. Even in his seemingly lovely Matthew 25, in verses 41, 46, he sends those who oppose him into eternal fire/eternal punishment. And, of course he claimed to be the only way to god, which I no longer believe.
I agree. We should investigate the phantom campaigns that Putin and the oligarchs have been foisting on us for the past 10 years. I demand that our Democratic officials, the CIA, the FBI, the Justice Department and our military do something about these attacks.
This is war against the American people and everyone acts like it's just an ordinary day, in an ordinary month in an ordinary year. Horse hooey!
Well said. Good to hear your voice again. I am glad to hear your willingness to look at what the voters are saying. That has been missing on the left. Though I’ve found a home with Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger who actually report what’s going on. From your old friend who doesn’t feel as guilty as you for helping launch your career back in the day. As I’ve said before watching your life has been a chance to see grace and growth work over the long term.
I have been extremely frustrated with the liberal media that almost completely ignores the role of religion in our politics. I acknowledge that there are many factors for the Trump win with inflation being number one but conservative religious groups are a factor in our elections as well and even in South American elections as Evangelicals/Charismatics grow and gain more power. I hear every reason under the sun for the Kamala loss but not one mention of conservative religious groups. I have even written to MSNBC to include some programming around religion. Why should the Right have a monopoly on religion? There are plenty of progressive religious groups that contribute to liberal politics. I understand many of us on the Left are either atheists or agnostics but I still believe in the message of Jesus which is an exceedingly liberal view. I’m sick of conservative religious groups having the corner on ethics and goodness. They say progressives are elitists and snobbish. Have you ever been around a conservative Christian? I agree though with being circumspect and humble about what we know, and believe that the more we know the less we know or are sure about anything.
Exist So many people are dying in righteous wars, women and children are being abused with doctrine.
How can you step back and say that is a better way.
You lost me on this one Frank One cannot be distracted by the They Them issue from either side It’s the violence of Religion that does allow humility to
This is a brrrilliant summary. Thank you sir.
As far as timing, this segment in time that is "Nov 6" is like society being dragged kicking and screaming to do serious self-reflection. That is, it's time for a break -- but there are no breaks.
But anyway. As I recall, America was dragged kicking and screaming by a splinter interest group NAMBLA, that wanted to legalize their rape of little boys. This group, I speculate, attached itself politically to a larger group that should have stayed away from endorsing such criminal goals. And not seeing, I speculate further, the underlying criminal goal, this larger group of gays and lesbians advacated for being treated as humans. A legitimate goal in a democratic republic.
But it was the way they did that, that was the problem. Having been poisoned by NAMBLA, and this is also speculation, this larger group took on a method of anti-discrimination that was more overtly, and in essence, namblean. Teaching "antidiscrim" in elementary and intermediate schools.
The problem, the massive problem? It was and is true that gay children are discriminated against in intermediate and high school to the point of suicide. That plainly is a societal problem.
But that is separate from "Nambla." That was -- if it happened -- a massively wrong move. Backed by empathy for suicided children, yes. But a strategy poisoned by a criminal group with criminal goals, I allege.
As this election proves, 50%+ of Americans don't want the wrong namblean strategy in their children's schools (among other things).
A simpler, more accurate, fight against suicide in intermediate and high school i.e. "bullying", would have been better and less "highjacked".
My speculation.
May America be as James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton dreamed.
What the hell are you talking about?
Thank you