As a naturalized citizen, my perception of the US has changed tremendously. This government is just like all other countries enveloped with corruption-money talks. The gaslighting to the world is too much for me and the populace believe everything the corrupted media reported. Such a downer! I’ll probably go back to my old country. Same corruption everywhere - I’d rather be with my people.
There are lies, there is theft and there is the Grand Theft. Each lie covers up the truth and creates a space for the overreach of power to steal a part of our political inheritance. The Grand Theft is the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act that shifted the power from us to the House of Representatives and from there to the Presidency. The 1929 Act froze the number of congressional districts to 435. As the country grew our political power became reduced to a quarter of what it was in 1929 and a sixth of what our democratic allies citizens enjoy. Since 1929, the US federal budget has grown 115 times (adjusted for inflation). With the same number of House members today we had in 1929, the challenge of managing our federal growth had been "outsourced" to the Executive branch and the Presidency. Our loss of power and access has consequences in our daily lives and how we relate to or chose not to relate to the actions of our government. The less it is ours, it seems, the less we are willing to accept responsibility for our government's actions.
Again, I have to say it: it's not WE. It's THEY. I'm not certain you could pay me or anyone else who reads Terry's blog enough to start a useless war for an unsubstantiated reason, or to lie about it after the fact. Trump takes such actions without thinking or caring, but then, that's his playbook in brief. Far worse, he has his coterie of sycophants who are eager to grease the wheels to his every wish and whim. In so doing, Trump has started a war he almost certainly has no idea how to end.
The madness continues apace, and I honestly wonder if a midterm election blue tsunami will alter anything.
War is bipartisan.Empire requires it and it is profitable. We have no anti war “ choices” to vote for. That will never be permitted. They will not allow us to vote away their wealth , and war is a fabulous wealth transfer of our tax money to the wealthiest.
I think we ceded control when we allowed the tax brackets to fall to the point where amassing wealth on an unprecedented scale gave rise to the billionaire class. Reestablishing such taxes would be a solution ... IF it could be accomplished, but you're right. The one percent won't let that happen.
And the hell of it is that we were warned about this ages ago:
Trump is a pathological liar and much that I have read and researched online about him is aligned with why he is one and how his actions correlate with this behavior. I personally think it will ultimately be his demise, but we’ll see. This has been horrific for our country and us.
Yes we must work overtime to counter this hateful, unwise, treacherous man, lest his psychology become imprinted on our national psychology, forever. His ethos is repugnant and must be resisted and ultimately, neutralized.
"The civic disposition to ask what actually happened before whose side are you on is not natural to us. It must be cultivated. It must carried by institutions—by schools, churches, newspapers, families, by the unspoken expectation among neighbors that we all have to do the hard work of discerning what is true from what is a lie because that is what citizens in a free republic do."
I grew up in the late fifties/sixties and was taught that propaganda was a tool used by other countries. For a long time, I thought that was true, but, particularly, finally learned that our government is as adept at propaganda as is Russia, or any other country. It has become more apparent since Trump's first term and this term, in which the true believers are fully in sync with the lies, is the worst. Up is down and down is up. Lies are truth and truth is lies.
Our work to counter this has barely begun and it is clear it will continue to worsen. We need to dedicate ourselves to the effort – indeed, in my opinion, nothing is more important.
Thank you for always being a clear, strong voice for our country, Terry.
Thank you, Terry, for pointing out the children. Their lives were important and it’s a tragedy that they are forgotten or ignored. The children are our future. I personally don’t believe a word that comes out of this administration’s mouth. Frankly when it comes to any war, going back to Vietnam (in my recollection), the leaders lied to either cover up something or to push something they knew was illegal, unethical, or immoral (or all 3). I recently rewatched “Shock and Awe” about the fabricated reasons we invaded Iraq and it’s a reminder that there are warmongers in every generation. (And I realize that the movie was probably embellished but it did a good job highlighting the importance of journalists who didn’t buy into the government narrative.) Independent journalism is vital , now more than ever.
Small d democracy is hard. It requires an educated populace. They are trying to prevent that. Many of us are exhausted by the daily barrage of lies and the horror of what this administration has done to our government. Each travesty seems worse than the one before. I live in a state with a democratic governor, but ruled by a conservative legislature that is complicit in destroying our way of life. My US representative was a clerk for Jesse Helms. I write him consistently, but it all seems to no avail. Both my US senators are Republican, and with Thom Tillis retiring, I was hoping he would standup to his brethren, but those instances have been few and far between. It seems like such an unsurmountable battle to overcome all of the lies and tactics that our own government has
inflicted upon its citizenry, yet, we do not have the option to quit. Democracy requires that we the people remain engaged. I am grateful for your continued efforts to keep us informed and inspired.
This is a really profound indictment of the current state of our electorate. It bothers me that when the mainstream media cover the war, they dwell on the "suffering" of Americans who are paying more at the gas pump. As if this were the only--or the most important--effect of our war of choice. I agree we need to demand truth when an administration is lying to us constantly. But we also need to attend to the truths in plain sight if we choose to see them: 1.2 million people displaced from their homes in Lebanon; roughly 3000-3500 people killed in Iran and 2800 in Lebanon--400 of whom were children; millions of people suffering in Southeast Asia because of a lack of gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel; millions of farmers at risk of bankruptcy because of lack of access to fertilizer; multi-millions of humans at risk of starvation in the next 12 months; hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths caused by our cancellation of USAID; brave Ukranians continuing to suffer daily assaults and civilian deaths from Russian aggressors while our president aims to do everything possible to aid Putin and hogtie Ukraine; I could go on . . . . . I feel utterly ashamed to be a voting citizen of this country in this moment. But I'm not claiming that the 2024 election was "rigged" or that some 78 million fellow-citizens are traitors or enemies. I see us fracturing because we no longer take the time and care to cultivate and advance the values that (at least aspirationally) have supposedly bound us together as a country since our founding. Instead we have become addicted to our need to be entertained and pacified and to finding the quick and easy route to financial success even if it is achieved through exploitation, cheating, gambling, conning, or outright theft. Our nation is very sick. Voting out all the Republicans will open the door to our possible healing. But it's not going to be a short or easy road back to health.
Very well written. As you have so elegantly stated - this is what I cannot understand: Trump lies, and it is so obvious. He contradicts himself constantly. How do any Americans take him seriously?
I no longer believe a solitary word that ANY Republican says. It starts with Trump but it doesn't end with him. We Democrats must stand for truth and justice against stiff blowhard winds. Thanks, Terry, for keeping us in the truth loop.
Who are we is right. What has happened to us? And you’re right, Terry, it’s not just the lies that Trump spews out every day but it’s the fact that people believe it. That’s the scary part.
As a naturalized citizen, my perception of the US has changed tremendously. This government is just like all other countries enveloped with corruption-money talks. The gaslighting to the world is too much for me and the populace believe everything the corrupted media reported. Such a downer! I’ll probably go back to my old country. Same corruption everywhere - I’d rather be with my people.
There are lies, there is theft and there is the Grand Theft. Each lie covers up the truth and creates a space for the overreach of power to steal a part of our political inheritance. The Grand Theft is the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act that shifted the power from us to the House of Representatives and from there to the Presidency. The 1929 Act froze the number of congressional districts to 435. As the country grew our political power became reduced to a quarter of what it was in 1929 and a sixth of what our democratic allies citizens enjoy. Since 1929, the US federal budget has grown 115 times (adjusted for inflation). With the same number of House members today we had in 1929, the challenge of managing our federal growth had been "outsourced" to the Executive branch and the Presidency. Our loss of power and access has consequences in our daily lives and how we relate to or chose not to relate to the actions of our government. The less it is ours, it seems, the less we are willing to accept responsibility for our government's actions.
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒? 𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒?
Again, I have to say it: it's not WE. It's THEY. I'm not certain you could pay me or anyone else who reads Terry's blog enough to start a useless war for an unsubstantiated reason, or to lie about it after the fact. Trump takes such actions without thinking or caring, but then, that's his playbook in brief. Far worse, he has his coterie of sycophants who are eager to grease the wheels to his every wish and whim. In so doing, Trump has started a war he almost certainly has no idea how to end.
The madness continues apace, and I honestly wonder if a midterm election blue tsunami will alter anything.
War is bipartisan.Empire requires it and it is profitable. We have no anti war “ choices” to vote for. That will never be permitted. They will not allow us to vote away their wealth , and war is a fabulous wealth transfer of our tax money to the wealthiest.
I think we ceded control when we allowed the tax brackets to fall to the point where amassing wealth on an unprecedented scale gave rise to the billionaire class. Reestablishing such taxes would be a solution ... IF it could be accomplished, but you're right. The one percent won't let that happen.
And the hell of it is that we were warned about this ages ago:
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚 – 𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙, 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝.
-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Thank you for your intelligent clarity because it helps us to know we are not crazy.
Trump is a pathological liar and much that I have read and researched online about him is aligned with why he is one and how his actions correlate with this behavior. I personally think it will ultimately be his demise, but we’ll see. This has been horrific for our country and us.
https://debbiepetrina.substack.com/p/liar-liar-pants-on-fire
So sad. So depressing. I feel helpless and exhausted.
Yes we must work overtime to counter this hateful, unwise, treacherous man, lest his psychology become imprinted on our national psychology, forever. His ethos is repugnant and must be resisted and ultimately, neutralized.
"The civic disposition to ask what actually happened before whose side are you on is not natural to us. It must be cultivated. It must carried by institutions—by schools, churches, newspapers, families, by the unspoken expectation among neighbors that we all have to do the hard work of discerning what is true from what is a lie because that is what citizens in a free republic do."
On target.
This ^^^^ 100%
I grew up in the late fifties/sixties and was taught that propaganda was a tool used by other countries. For a long time, I thought that was true, but, particularly, finally learned that our government is as adept at propaganda as is Russia, or any other country. It has become more apparent since Trump's first term and this term, in which the true believers are fully in sync with the lies, is the worst. Up is down and down is up. Lies are truth and truth is lies.
Our work to counter this has barely begun and it is clear it will continue to worsen. We need to dedicate ourselves to the effort – indeed, in my opinion, nothing is more important.
Thank you for always being a clear, strong voice for our country, Terry.
Thank you, Terry, for pointing out the children. Their lives were important and it’s a tragedy that they are forgotten or ignored. The children are our future. I personally don’t believe a word that comes out of this administration’s mouth. Frankly when it comes to any war, going back to Vietnam (in my recollection), the leaders lied to either cover up something or to push something they knew was illegal, unethical, or immoral (or all 3). I recently rewatched “Shock and Awe” about the fabricated reasons we invaded Iraq and it’s a reminder that there are warmongers in every generation. (And I realize that the movie was probably embellished but it did a good job highlighting the importance of journalists who didn’t buy into the government narrative.) Independent journalism is vital , now more than ever.
And now reporters are being fired or made to quit if they report the truth.
Peter Arnett of CNN tried to report factually on the Iraq war and I believe was fired for it.
But humans sleep better at night and can look in the mirror when they speak truth.
Thank you for not letting this reality die. There needs to be accountability for the horrible murder of innocent children!
Small d democracy is hard. It requires an educated populace. They are trying to prevent that. Many of us are exhausted by the daily barrage of lies and the horror of what this administration has done to our government. Each travesty seems worse than the one before. I live in a state with a democratic governor, but ruled by a conservative legislature that is complicit in destroying our way of life. My US representative was a clerk for Jesse Helms. I write him consistently, but it all seems to no avail. Both my US senators are Republican, and with Thom Tillis retiring, I was hoping he would standup to his brethren, but those instances have been few and far between. It seems like such an unsurmountable battle to overcome all of the lies and tactics that our own government has
inflicted upon its citizenry, yet, we do not have the option to quit. Democracy requires that we the people remain engaged. I am grateful for your continued efforts to keep us informed and inspired.
I am in shock, daily. The reality that our leaders have such a a skewed framework of morality sickens me.
Ditto, personified!!
This is a really profound indictment of the current state of our electorate. It bothers me that when the mainstream media cover the war, they dwell on the "suffering" of Americans who are paying more at the gas pump. As if this were the only--or the most important--effect of our war of choice. I agree we need to demand truth when an administration is lying to us constantly. But we also need to attend to the truths in plain sight if we choose to see them: 1.2 million people displaced from their homes in Lebanon; roughly 3000-3500 people killed in Iran and 2800 in Lebanon--400 of whom were children; millions of people suffering in Southeast Asia because of a lack of gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel; millions of farmers at risk of bankruptcy because of lack of access to fertilizer; multi-millions of humans at risk of starvation in the next 12 months; hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths caused by our cancellation of USAID; brave Ukranians continuing to suffer daily assaults and civilian deaths from Russian aggressors while our president aims to do everything possible to aid Putin and hogtie Ukraine; I could go on . . . . . I feel utterly ashamed to be a voting citizen of this country in this moment. But I'm not claiming that the 2024 election was "rigged" or that some 78 million fellow-citizens are traitors or enemies. I see us fracturing because we no longer take the time and care to cultivate and advance the values that (at least aspirationally) have supposedly bound us together as a country since our founding. Instead we have become addicted to our need to be entertained and pacified and to finding the quick and easy route to financial success even if it is achieved through exploitation, cheating, gambling, conning, or outright theft. Our nation is very sick. Voting out all the Republicans will open the door to our possible healing. But it's not going to be a short or easy road back to health.
Very well written. As you have so elegantly stated - this is what I cannot understand: Trump lies, and it is so obvious. He contradicts himself constantly. How do any Americans take him seriously?
I no longer believe a solitary word that ANY Republican says. It starts with Trump but it doesn't end with him. We Democrats must stand for truth and justice against stiff blowhard winds. Thanks, Terry, for keeping us in the truth loop.
Who are we is right. What has happened to us? And you’re right, Terry, it’s not just the lies that Trump spews out every day but it’s the fact that people believe it. That’s the scary part.