[Quotes/highlights:] “Money—as arrayed against music, passion, & social movements—is especially more powerful in a situation where the people have been put in financial jeopardy because of the prosperity of the rich.”
“I do not believe it is a coincidence that in those days money wielded by the wealthy had less power to persuade & people were less easily bought than today.”
“I was drawn to looking into those commonly accepted truisms—truth-sounding but not true; let us call them ‘obvious truths.’ *Not* true but sounding true: Think of how correct it must have sounded at one time to hear that the Earth is flat.”
“These untruthy truisms arise out of the American Republicans’ disciplined, relentless, persistent, cohesive 50-year campaign to gain advantage & wealth for their benefactor corporations & the ‘filthy rich’ thru totally concocted untruths,..”
“…which [untruths, concocted by Republicans at the behest of their benefactor corporations & the Filthy Rich] are introduced carefully, slowly & therefore invisibly, over time….”
“These untruths are introduced carefully, slowly & therefore invisibly, over time, one by one, with persistent, relentless repetition replacing reason or rational persuasion,..”
“…as part of a coordinated comprehensive campaign whose goal is the creation of an American mind eroded of rationality & confused &made fertile & desperately receptive to these fabrications of the Republicans seamlessly portrayed as truths.”
“& this mind is to be shepherded by the exact & strategic use of misinformation specifically targeted & measured for the achievement of specific ends.”
“This seeding of minds is to work dialectically with their campaign to physically & financially weaken the American public with the simultaneous & equally slow & meticulous & precisely timed introduction of policies….”
“This introduction of policies, which though not invisible are cleverly packaged, is to be perfectly timed to confuse the obvious step-by-step, year-by-year connections of these policies & their cumulative increasingly successful results.”
“These results are the castration of the American...of Americans in general—except for the Filthy Rich & the Republican leadership which are their lackey public faces.”
“So, the intent of this long campaign, employing ‘obvious truths’ as munitions, is the crippling of Americans’ power in particular to resist even the inexorable increase in the clearly felt suffering heaped upon them as these years went by.”
“…what we have is Americans’ power monkey wrenched through policies directed at them & sustained by ‘obvious truths’ pushed by Republicans whose purpose is to diminish people, to reduce their power,…
“…[Republicans whose purpose is to diminish people, to reduce their power,] & ultimately to bring [Americans] down financially while raising the wealthies higher.”
“These specific objectives are also to be brought to fruition thru a massively funded, all inclusive, & strategically targeted campaign to financially weaken the American public thru incremental changes in national fiscal policy…”
“…as well as—note this—in national culture. National policy changes are to be achieved through the simultaneous & equally slow, meticulous, & precisely timed introduction of policy initiatives.”
“& [these national policy changes pushed by the Filthy Rich] are to be perfectly timed to confuse the obvious step-by-step, year-by-year connections of these policies & their cumulative, increasingly successful results.”
“…those sought for results include the emasculation of the average American thru sabotage of her or his powers to act in an effective way in any & all aspects of their lives.”
“To be achieved at the same time is the fortification of the power & wealth of the Filthy Rich puppeteers & their lackey public faces in the Republican Party.”
“Instrumental in strengthening the wealthy class of insidious directors is the weakening of the remainder of the population’s abilities. & in particular & ultimately the intention is to cobble the ordinary person’s power…”
“…[to cobble our power] to get out from under or to alleviate for very long the inexorable increase in their clearly felt suffering as the years go by. For this suffering & the helplessness about it is crucial to the directors’ success.”
“…the key to all this being brought about is the creation of an American consciousness clouded in fog & confusion & thus forgetful of its past as a point of comparison.”
“In this way splintered...we’re talking about the American mind...splintered, & disintegrated, it is desperate for something however irrational to which to cling.”
“I also went thru a time, during Nixon, when there were nationally broadcast investigations of the corruption of an administration & when folks involved in conspiracies went to jail.”
“Among other high-ranking corrupters & criminals who were imprisoned, we actually had the Attorney General of the U. S. under Nixon, John Mitchell, indicted for his crimes during Watergate & forced to serve 19 mos. in jail.”
“Yet in more recent times, we had the installation of W Bush over Al Gore in the presidential election of 2000 when, as it was soon determined, it was Gore who had won—both the popular & electoral counts.”
“Despite this [reversal of 2000 election], there was no pushback by Democrats, no investigations, no lawsuits, no marching in the streets or ‘storming’ something or other. America slept. Its media encouraged it; its Democrats let it slumber.”
“…the corruption [under W. Bush] was so rampant it was like on a daily basis we were hearing things that in a former time—the 60s, the 50s, anytime—would have caused the W to be tossed out on his ear.”
“Around that same time, 2015, we saw Republicans take over the Supreme Court by refusing to do their Constitutional obligation in approving a Supreme Court Justice, when Antonin Scalia died.”
“Subsequently we watched a goober president [Trump], beholden to a Russian oligarchy, as he not only benefited himself & his cronies financially through his (stolen) office…”
“While Trump tightened the screws on people’s ability to complain, attacking the press & removing freedom of speech in all kinds of ways, including removing net neutrality,..”
“For years this went on, with only a handful of Democrats calling for impeachment, while the rest of them, along with society, put their heads under their pillows hoping it would all somehow, please, just go away.”
“The Democrats under Speaker Pelosi only went forward with 2 articles of impeachment, in December 2019, after 3 years of Trumpian destruction. Pelosi, w Obama, held back from investigating W. Bush after Obama attained the presidency in 2009.”
“That kid-glove approach to Republican corruption [Pelosi] continued with Trump by waiting so long & then holding her fire with only 2 out of 82 violations.”
“Nevertheless, each time of hesitation & lack of boldness by Democrats has had dire consequences...with even more of that on the horizon. (Note to Merrick Garland.)”
“…in former times, people came together in solidarity & sameness of purpose to right obvious wrongs, or the like. Morality & personality might affect how one viewed those wrongs & events, yet the facts about them were held in common.”
“Folks had clearly identifiable rallying points visible to the great masses of Americans. These things were talked about in the newspapers, on TV, there was no denying what was obvious.”
“Notice the stark contrast with the media today, which is rife with outright lies—Trump’s ‘stolen election’ lies; Bill Barr’s lies to cover up the Mueller report; the insanity around a Hillary pizzagate pedophilia ring & emails;”
“Obama’s citizenship; Hunter Biden’s laptop; & anything said by or associated with Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Breitbart, or QAnon. We have virtually all of Fox News spewing lies, hatred, & discontent.”
“We have right-wing social media in the form of Truth Social, & right-wing news outlets, Newsmax & OANN, doing Fox one better in calling for civil war & violence—all of it based on abject bald-faced lying & intentional distortion of facts.”
“[Marjorie Taylor Greene] & others are still claiming the storming of the Capitol was done by Antifa, even as she seeks to support the insurrectionists in prison—who she acknowledges are all Trump supporters.”
“And they know they are lying, too. Sidney Powell, a lawyer who headed Trump’s stolen election fraud, was sued for defamation by Dominion Corporation, who manufactures the voting machines she claimed were involved in the conspiracy.”
“[Sidney Powell] had conducted a weekslong campaign to invalidate the results of the 2020 election based on spurious accusations & wild conspiracy theories. In her lawyer’s statement defending her...it is acknowledged none of that was true…”
“&—excuse anyone for daring to believe any of these charlatans—in their filing, they claim, ‘No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact….’”
“Tucker Carlson had the same defense when he was called out on his lies as well. He along with Fox News were sued for slander by Dominion Corporation, & what was his defense?”
“[Tucker Carlson’s] lawyers shamelessly put out that, you can’t expect to literally believe the words that come out of Carlson’s mouth. You can’t make this stuff up. Seriously, we are supposed to know that Carlson & folks like Sean Hannity…”
“…& Laura Ingraham—who are believed by millions of Fox followers, some of whom subsequently participated in an insurrection to overthrow the U.S. government—are merely making stuff up; that it is all for ‘entertainment’ value…”
“& how much ‘fun’ was it for people to die in the insurrection & for children to be slaughtered wantonly in schools as a consequence of Fox News lying on behalf of Trump & the NRA.”
“How is progress possible if even the courts will allow slander, lies, defamation & major misinformation to flood American minds, with the mere caveat, ‘Let the viewer beware’?”
“…it was determined that what was to be allowed into one’s body should not infect or poison one, & the [Food & Drug Administration] was created. Yet, when it comes to what is allowed into America’s minds, all license is allowed…”
“…[when it comes to what is allowed into America’s minds, all license is allowed] for its poisoning with hateful & vile untruths from major media & its figures.”
“We can easily trace such wide-scale deception to the lies being told about Vietnam by Democrats under Johnson, but especially by Republican Nixon & his administration.”
“We see it progressing during the W. Bush years where intentional misrepresentation of facts—lies, the one esp about wmd’s in Iraq—led to a war & over a million casualties.”
“And how can we do something about the epidemic of mass shootings—many of which are having our children slaughtered even as we watch, helplessly—when lies like those of Alex Jones, saying Sandy Hook was staged,…”
“…[how can we do something about the epidemic of mass shootings when lies like those of Alex Jones, saying Sandy Hook was staged,] are allowed to infect the minds of Americans, weakened by years of Fox News & NRA influence.”
“If those consequences of intentional dishonesty are not severe enough for you, consider over one million Americans dead from Covid. It was allowed to get that high as a result of the lying Trump & the Republicans did..."
“…over one million Americans dead from Covid. It was allowed to get that high as a result of the lying Trump & the Republicans did about the vaccine & about mask use.”
“During his presidential campaign in 2016, Trump famously said, ‘I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue & shoot somebody & wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?’”
“[Trump] said that while mimicking firing a gun with his fingers. Little did we know he’d still be walking free after pulling the trigger on one million faces.”
“…look what it took to get Obama elected: 8 long years of Bush! Look what it took to get Biden & the Democrats back behind the wheel again in 2020: 4 years of comprehensive trashing of American institutions & rights…”
“…[4 years of comprehensive trashing of American institutions & rights] by an out-of-control baby of a man, operating out of instructions from a foreign power...& doing it in open & clear view of the world. Wow.”
“The ‘filthy rich’ are the would-be puppet-masters, the deciders & initiators of the events that have been witnessed so widely, including by the masses.”
“Crucially, they needed to know the perpetrators of unhappy happenings; it needed to be clearly pointed out who were those responsible for the wrongs universally observed & condemned.”
“These things known, the result could be the massive gathering of intentions, a movement, perhaps a great social movement, united in purpose, against the observed wrong,..”
“…seeking justice on the perpetrators & some sort of social or cultural change that might possibly or would definitely prevent future events of the same or similar sort of wrongness.”
“But when things aren’t obvious & you have massive lies being told & you have comprehensive, pervasive media exposure to those lies—those untruths in direct conflict with people’s own observations—people can get confused.”
“…as a consequence of this massive orchestration of the media, education, & all information systems in America by a mean-spirited, greedy, & murderous conservative elite—the minute daily elements of our American way of life..."
“…[as a consequence of this massive orchestration by a mean-spirited, greedy, & murderous conservative elite] the minute daily elements of our American way of life were orchestrated for ends not our own.”
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “We see the fifty-year invisible ‘family’ revealed—the ‘community’ that surrounded all Americans & affected every aspect of their lives,..”
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “We saw the beginnings of cultural enlightening & progress during Clinton’s term in the Nineties. In retrospect it was a colorful time; it was an enthusiastic time.”
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “*It’s a Wonderful Life* is beloved & timeless, no doubt, because it reassures an entire generation & all those who have had to give up their dreams for whatever reason that their sacrifices were for a higher good…”
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “…we are beginning to see a metaphor for psychological realities & that ‘following the script’ has a broader meaning for a choice that everyone must make in life in growing up,..”
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “…[the 60s Generation] were biding their time, waiting—sometimes hopeless that it would ever arrive—for a reversing of the pendulum & a return in society to the ideals & visions of a better world…”