it is not them who are to blame, but us, who naively thought that there was no going back to the old ways. And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here.”
They rang familiar. Those same things are plainly happening here. We have direct government censorship. We have courts which pursue patently politicized and unfair prosecutions that utilize two differing standards, depending on the defendants polticial conformity.
I've argued back and forth about election fraud for some time, but here is the core reality: most of the Left, even if you could present absolutely unambiguous proof of fraud--and certainly many things are undeniable, such as the coordinated lies about Hunter's laptop told by elements of our government, and Zuckerbucks being used in likely illegal manners--THEY WOULD NOT CARE.
It took me a long time to realize this: when people are denying the obvious, it is not necessarily that they disagree, so much as that for their part they don't care, and for public presentation feel the need to lie about it.
All Communists believe in unfair and rigged election, for the simple reason that they don't believe in democracy. They USE the word democracy constantly, but if the sole intent of the whole thing was to never call anything by its proper name, it would look and act no differently.
I am not as disciplined about it as I would like, but the first question, in any debate about fraud, needs to be: if it could be proven to you, would it bother you?
Most Democrats would applaud fraud that serves their cause, because they view their ends as innately righteous, conservatives as inherently inimical to all things human, and that the ends therefore justify the means and meanness.
But of course "the ends justify the means" was the mantra of all Communists. They said "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet". But as Paul Johnson famously asked: where is the omelet? All the cruelty, lies and violence served only to perpetuate cruelty, lies and violence.
It's really an astonishing thing to behold how many otherwise outwardly apparently decent people are utterly unwilling to learn this obvious lesson; and who are thus perfectly happy to serve the causes of confining political prisoners in solitary, and watching them die, in the name of a greater Good that will never arrive. These are the "educated" ones, the humane ones, the vegan puppy lovers. Those people support EXACTLY what happened to Navalny, as long as it is done to someone they have been conditioned to view as their enemy.
Just as, indeed, many Russians no doubt said "good riddance" to Navalny, however he died.
You can't be an emotional child and operate coherently and usefully in this world. And the first task of an adult is to recognize that understanding takes work, that perfect confidence in your views is nearly always a reliable sign of profound ignorance, that fear of opposing views is a CERTAIN sign of profound ignorance, and that PEOPLE LIE, even people you have been trained to trust.
"Most Democrats would applaud fraud that serves their cause, because they view their ends as innately righteous"
It is very sad that this is so true. When Sam Harris admitted openly that he would not care if Hunter Biden had bodies in his basement, I felt both sickened and frightened.
I'm not a Trump fan, but the man is not "literally Hitler." Even if he were, it would still be wrong to cheat, lie, and commit election fraud to to "stop him."
I could excuse an assassin's bullet if Trump were "literally Hitler," but nothing can excuse destroying the fundamental principles of our country in the name of "saving democracy."
And yet, as you say, too many Democrats have embraced the idea that anything is permitted in the name of their goals.
John Adams remarked upon the futility of expecting the Constitution to be able to govern anything except "a moral and religious people." I am saddened, but not surprised.
Rasmussen's recent report (Found here: https://www.rmgresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Elite-One-Percent.pdf) titled "The Elite 1% and the Battle for the American Soul" makes very plain that this is at the very least a clear and present danger here in the US, or something already in place. There is a lot of chilling data in the report, but cogent to your comment, Rasmussen reports that of the elite 1% (defined as those with higher degree, making over $150k as a family, and living in urban areas) 35% "would rather cheat than lose an election". Of the 1% that is also "politically obsessed", 69% would rather cheat than lose an election.
Compare that to the rest of the country where only 7% would rather do so.
The elite echo-chamber bubbles that exist in our power centers have lost all moral moorings, and in their pragmatic pursuit of power are a very clear and present danger to this once great republic. I pray it is not too late.
Drewbacca: “Of the 1% that is also "politically obsessed", 69% would rather cheat than lose an election.” You mean to say, only 31% lied to the pollster?
But of course we cannot transcend ourselves. The de facto belief is that life has no purpose. That means that whatever purpose you choose from the hat has to be strong and pungent, and for most has to romanticize and incent hatred and violence.
And that's not a hard trick: you just hate the haters, and hurt the hurters. And if the haters are not haters and the hurters are not hurters: well, those inconvenient facts are just a lie away from disappearing. The people who tell the lies are your friends and benefactors, and everybody this side of the Gulag gets along swimmingly.
It is odd, though, that those utterly lacking the most basic moral courage should be so effusive in their praise for Navalny.
He was nothing like you. You are nothing like him. That is the truth.
If God is dead, then no one has anything to lose. Imagine living a life where there is no retribution to fear. You wouldn't suffer under a moral compass because, what's that good for? Chumps. Plunder and pillage your way through this mortal existence and let the chips fall where they may. This is what's happening, and this is what it looks like.
Nicos Kazantzakis begins THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST with God searching Israel for a man worthy of carrying His message to the world. Each time He does the man abandons all moral reason and becomes the biggest sinner possible, telling God (paraphrase), "look I'm not worthy of carrying this responsibility. Do it to someone else".
God isn't dead. It's simply that the relationship between God and mankind has evolved (C.G. Jung's ANSWER TO JOB). As the little bird in T.S. Eliot's FOUR QUARTETS observed: "human kind cannot Bear very much reality." Christianity exploded human consciousness and realigned mankind's relationship with the living Mystery. Human kind has entered a new age and the new consciousness is powerful. The evolution it is demanding of institutions and peoples terrifies self-interested avaricious tyranny and the bureaucrats that feed at its hand. We discuss the consequences of their desperation here every day.
The new woke/fascist iconoclasts (DNC/DEI/CCP/WEF/EU Davos), like all those who fear expanded human consciousness and freedom, are working overtime to make "we the people" forget who we are. But the imago Dei, informed by the incomprehensible mystery of the living universe we inhabit, cannot be destroyed. Americans are particularly troublesome because its founding documents contain an up front acknowledgement of this "creator".
In positive light--if that's possible--our willing investment here, in building a truth/fact reality might be the first step in removing the "beam" from our own eyes so we can see clearly to remove the "mote" from our brothers eye.
We have to admit, that like the Master himself, a corrupt, murderous tyranny could not make Navalny run.
Most Democrat voters hate Trump so much they know in their souls the election was manipulated in some way, but they think, deep down, it was for everyone's own good. I don't think they outright admit, "Yeah, we burned democracy at the stake to get our way" but to rationalize what they've done, they say it's all to the best.
They keep telling themselves that Trump is literally Hitler, which justifies anything to keep him out of office, including manipulating the 2020 election and trying to jail and bankrupt him with bogus criminal charges and civil suits.
I don’t think Democrat voters believe (deep down or on the surface) that the 2020 election was manipulated at all. On the contrary, they believe that their side was so obviously superior that there would be no cause for cheating. After all, everyone they know hates Trump, so how could he win?
The Russians are inured to cruelty. They have lived under brutal regimes for centuries. Every once in a while, some of these idiots march in support of Stalin.
We live in one of the most stable, free countries in the world. We have our flaws but who doesn't. Despite these flaws, this is still a great place to live and raise your children. However, if you look at what we are doing now, I believe, we may be on the brink of becoming a totalitarian police state.
Just look at the ever senile Joe. Anyone with a brain could see he was senile when the ran for president in 2000 yet the faithful turned out in droves to vote for him. And now, dozens powerful left wing pundits cruse the special prosecutors report on Joe's senile behavior.
It is all about power. They don't put the welfare of this country first, as a true patriot should. They put their quest for power and their ideology first.
To be fair, the same can be said about the MAGA lemmings. Trump is nutz and any sane person can see that.
In the past in some of presidential elections, I have held my nose and voted for what I thought was the least harmful moron to be president. This election if both Biden and Trump are the candidates, we are truly fucked.
The threat is not any mortal man. The threat is from what we have allowed the executive branch career bureaucrats to become. It cannot have been unintentional. Those bureaucrats just prefer Biden to Trump because Biden is so easy to deal with. And their opposition to Trump is why they exposed themselves. As evidenced by the Twitter files. So the choice is really between Trump and the bureaucrats. At least if they can't get him.through lawfare first. You can be assured ANY of the Democrats floated as Biden replacement will fall into line and do as told. As will Haley.
No there has to be someone better but I don't see anyone except Haley stepping up to the plate. Besides running for president, I have no opinion about Haley, except she is not Trump.
"Most Democrats would applaud fraud that serves their cause . . ." As my father always said, "Most people are only opposed to the corruption they are not a part of."
So well stated UF! I am stunned by the “formally educated” people in my own life who refuse to believe they could be lied to. They naively and arrogantly hold firm that they would “absolutely” know if they were being fooled. I hope I have the mercy to console them when the truth is revealed.
I will ask a simple question: if fraud could be proven to you, beyond both reasonable and unreasonable doubt, would you care? After all, your side is deeply marinated in the patent lie that Trump is a “fascist”. Would not eviscerating our democracy be rationally defensible if this were true?
yes, I would care. but it has been proven time, and time, and time again that no fraud took place. Instead, there are piles of evidence that Trump was the one trying to perpetrate fraud. In Georgia, pressuring them to "find" votes (What the hell does that even mean?!), the fake Wisconsin electors, hours of tapes and text messages between Bannon and trumps sons, and that entire gaggle of thieves.
But the GOP found nothing.....spent millions......found nothing.
So, not sure what kind of point you're trying to make, but it sounds like: Would you care if something that has not been proven actually is true even though we've investigated/examined it repeatedly and have found that it is not true.....but hypothetically, if it were, would you care?
And your side is deeply marinated in the patent lie of "Biden-Burisma Corruption" Unfortunately, for you, there is actual evidence available that proves that to be a lie.
Thank you for the reference to the Heritage Foundation database. I checked it out. As a former citizen of the USSR, a current citizen of the US, and former Republican, here are my thoughts on the subject. Americans use false equivalence of terms way too often, without understanding the terms. Voter fraud described by Navalny is very different from the fraud from HF database. Fraud by random citizens, some Republicans, some Democrats, but not impacting results of election, is part of normal democratic process, and nobody mentally normal on the left or the right would deny that it happens. Caught, convicted, moved on. There is no room here to describe the systematic, massive, pervasive fraud with zero judicial reprocussion by the rulers of the country in USSR or in modern Russia, yet you refer to both phenomena as voter fraud. Another one: Americans keep referring to our prison system as Gulag. While US prisons are not fun, the only thing in common are the walls on the perimier. I cringe each time I hear it, but it is impossible to explain to those who refuses to understand.
…but not impacting results…how can you be sure? In some counties in key states, it doesn’t take that many votes to change an outcome. Ballot harvesting is real.
Do we believe the Heritage foundation database is comprehensive? or the tip of the iceberg?
I know our prisons aren’t gulags, but we Americans set outselves up as so much better, then we put uncharged people in isolation for ages, and convict rioters to 10 yrs. in prison.
People being held because of their political beliefs is UnAmerican, and if unchecked we will have one day what the Soviets had. It is a question of degree, not kind.
And the national election was obviously stolen. One of the surest signs is that anyone who points this out is attacked and censored.
If anything like an honest investigation had been done anywhere the situation may be different, but none were, not even in Arizona.
I stand by all my claims, the substance of which is that OF COURSE we are the Soviet Union, but that we are the path to brcoming something like it.
70’s Liberals would have inderstood this. As it is, they have finally lost all semblance of principle.
My subscription finally ended last week. I’d been considering canceling because of the GenZ moderators and the diminished quality of the article. My annual renewal notice can with a 50% hike. I said “Nope”. Doubt I will miss it.
Sad thing is I read that paper for years from the time I was a kid commuting to my first job in New York. It was an excellent publication. Even handed and sober. Now it's unrecognizable. Run by zealots for zealots. The 280 clowns of the alleged "news" department, led by Becky Ballhaus and her merry band of Trump haters, turned the neww section into a running joke. And its just not worth paying for the editorial page.
I cancelled my subscription two years ago and to the NYT years before that. I read Miranda Devine and Michael Goodwin of the NY Post, but comments on that site are also being censored or "filtered out". Was that happening 5 years ago? I don't think so. If it's this bad now, where will we be in 2029?
Was just talking about their censorship yesterday! The nameless, faceless, tyrannical "moderators" that "reject" paying subscribers on a wokester whim.
I think this topic would make for a great expose by The Free Press. I saved many examples from last year, when they pulled about 20 of my comments on an article about the Bud Lite fiasco. I "violated community standards" because I "misgendered"! Haha!! I copied and pasted a lot of comments by others, too, who were getting kicked off the comment thread for daring to state that Dylan Mulvaney is NOT a woman. I have examples from other articles too, because I was getting tired of being censored for stating the truth, and particularly because at that time I was paying around $45/month!! And I've been a subscriber for 3 decades -- what an insult. So I cancelled my subscription and then was solicited endlessly to renew -- at $2/month! So that is my fee now, and so when I am cancelled it doesn't sting as much, but it's still so wrong.
I’ve been kicked out of nearly everywhere. The GroupThink is broad and deep, even though it is deeply at odds withbthe commkn sense truth that still animated most Americans.
All any Leftist would need to say it is to take any common sense position nearly anywhere and see how the Hive reacts. But on some level THEY KNOW. This is all based on a visceral fear they cannot own or acknowledge. They hate us BECAUSE they know we speak truth.
I guess they'll have to learn to remain terrified, or change sides. I have friends on the right and on the left, who say the most absurd things. Maybe most people are terrified of something, even if they don't know what it is.
Correction, if you say the 202 election was stolen they will censor you. If you bleat on about how the 2016 election was stolen by Putin your comment will stand.
I think that when a reality is soooo bad, most people have a difficult time wrapping their brains around it even when they are exposed to some shreds of truth, NCMaureen. It doesn't seem like it can be right to them and they tune it out and go about their business. Not in their morally advanced society! I suspect that is what was going on with many German citizens during the gas chamber times. The gas chambers made it so that people were not being murdered right in front of them - it was happening somewhere else in a medicalized/clinical way.
I began to understand this after watching the trans indoctrination and medicalization of children and young people in this country. Someday people will ask "How could that have happened? It was based on a belief system not science, so Frankenstein-like... there were no long term studies, so many profited off of it... It was taught to our children in school. Dissent was not allowed. We were encouraged to profess our allegiance with "pronouns". How did it become so widespread?"
Even though we know the truth, there are times we still question 'Is this for real? Or is it just me?' It's so surreal and actually huge that people don't want to mentally tackle it - especially when there are authorities telling them it's all great! It is a good!
The trans issue has highlighted just how non-confrontational and compliant most people actually are and I understand how the gas chambers happened in Germany now.
Just a point of reference the gas chambers were all in Poland and the average German citizen was just trying to survive the second terrible war in twenty-five years. The Nazis found plenty of support throughout Eastern and Western Europe except maybe tiny Denmark to carry out their Final Solution.
They definitely had alot of support - as does Gender Ideology in America. Then, as now, the doctors were even out ahead of the politicians who had to reign them in initially but then ran hard with it.
"U.S. Sex Reassignment Surgery Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Gender Transition (Male To Female, Female To Male), And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030"
The Left used to deny that children were medicalized. Now Frankensteining them is great in the service of GT.
‘Gender Theology: A regressive cult popularized in the 2010s and 2020s, which posited the body as an incidental meathousing for sacred inner ‘gender souls’. It practiced child sacrifice in the form of sterilization of gay and autistic children, where substantial body modification was performed to bring the child’s physicality into congruence with the ‘gender soul’. This became a powerful and influential religion - adherence was institutionally mandated and signaled by the ritualistic performance of believers stating ‘pronouns’ upon introduction. Non-believers were shunned and often ejected from main-stream society.‘
Listen to Tucker Carlson’s recent podcast with Mike Benz…jaw dropping. Also Honestly’s podcast with Dean Phillips…also eye opening. The government is 1000% meddling in elections.
I think Tucker is a political cuckold. He gives Putin a BJ with a very soft interview (though I suppose Putin was hard … ). And then Putin goes out and murders Navalny. Hard to take any thing Carlson does with any credibility.
Yeah, you didn't even watch the interview, did you? How is your absurdly abusive and disingenuous nonsense any different from all the claims made about Trump and Putin, when we now know that the whole story was concocted as a propagandistic lie by Democrats, presumably with Hillary's express personal approval?
Do you not care about Joe Biden taking bribes from Ukraine? From China? Are you not worried that the nuclear codes are ostensibly under the final control of someone whose most important decision most days is what flavor of ice cream he is going to eat to try and ease the symptoms of advanced dementia?
What stories? How about your own eyes? Get on Youtube just for the hell of it and marvel how sycophantic Trump is with Vladimir in Helsinki six or so years ago. It is the most obscene obsequious performance I have ever witnessed from any American politician (never mind LEADER) relative to an adversary. It was then I realized our beloved Donald was a national security risk to our country.
That is a subjective assessment. What is not subjective is that Bidens son was paid many millions of dollars by Ukrainians and the Chinese, despite lacking talent in everything but smoking crack and throwing money at hookers.
What is not subjective is that the FBI had AT LEAST 40 undercover agents at the Jan.6th protests, or that they identifued the pipe bomber nearly immediately and suporessed it.
Maybe we deserve the world being created for us. I dont, but you do, and you are a type that is quite common. I will be dragged down with the rest of you. Just FIRST. So be it, if that is the future.
Trump was our President. He did a good and honest job, in spite of partisan shrieking that is still going in. Biden is a crook whi has opened our nation to the militaries of every enemy we have.
Speaking and having something worth saying likewise.
To each our own worlds I suppose, me because I find a world filled with dull witted insipidity highly unattractive, and you because you are not capable of living in mine.
RBM… you usually seem to be a thoughtful guy, but your contempt of Carlson seems over the top. If you were criticizing his godawful interview with Andrew Tate or a few others where he failed to ask obvious questions it would make more sense to me. The Putin interview, however, was ballsy as hell and Carlson obviously knew he could have ended up sharing a cell with Gerskowicz. And the US State Department would have laughed with glee rather than trying to bring him home. That’s some badass journalism and the corporate media’s failure to have gotten the scoop exposes their propaganda mandate. And using the Putin Lover trope is the kind of cheap tactic that we would expect from WAPO. Carlson obviously knows and says that Putin is a ruthless dictator, but that he is obviously newsworthy. So why what is behind your unwillingness to give credit where it is due in this case? Just curious.
Well, however thoughtful I may be in reflective moments, my commentary in these parts is usually KevinDurant?-ish, but not nearly as sharp and funny.
I actually enjoy Carlson. I think he is modestly smart, but often full of himself (Limbaugh, RIP, used to call him E. Chatsworth Osborne, a fittingly preppie moniker). I like that he often goes against the grain of popular or main stream talking points and perspective. But he is, as I said, full of himself. I gave him kudos for getting the access to Putin, but thought he could have and should have done a much tougher interview. I suspect he was just pleased to be there. He sat for Putin's expected recitation of Ukrainian history from a Russian perspective - which is both expected and not unusual for a Russian. You got to know something about Russian mentality and sense of its own position in the world. Having sat for that unsurprising lecture shit, he could have pressed Putin much harder. He didn't.
No, there was not a chance that Carlson could have been "detained". Putin is just not that stupid. As America is developing a growing distrust of Ukrainian government leadership and awareness of the corruption that Biden's infinite support enables, the stupidest thing for Putin to do would have been to detain Carlson - A certain way for Biden to push through ever more Ukraine funding.
By the way, saying that my comment is akin to a WaPo piece, is kinda Biden-esque inversion of calling someone na ultraMAGA whatever. I don't think my comment, wicked though it might have been, deserved that! I didn't accuse Carlson of being in love with Putin - just that he fellated him. Whores do that. I didn't get much new info from the interview. I thought his wrap-up on Gerskowitz was good, but he failed to press - other than to say, let him go home with me. He should have parried Putin's claim on why he is in jail accused as a spy with a "Now wait, YOU know, as do the American people and the Russian people who are aware, that he is not a spy. You are holding him as a pawn. That is not how the leaders of respected countries behave. Yes, that would have angered Putin. So what? That is what true journalists do. Whores do not. Easy for me to say, I'm old, have lived my life, and would no doubt die in a gulag. But I'd have gotten my point across.
Thank you for refereal to the Mike Benz interview. If you listen again and note that from 10 mins to 11 mins, Benz explains the threat to NATO, the World Bank and the IMF, under threat from the rise of populist movememts like Brexit. At 11 mins, Tucker Carlson articulates a misreading, a misinterpretation, which Benz just lets slide. Tucker misinterprets the current history lesson, immediately defining the Brexit domino effect to mean that the big bad GOVERNMENT now sees the enemy as within, ie. like the Democrats, the mail-in ballots that helped elect Joe Biden - ie govt censorship.
Listeners appreciate the extent of the govt censorship industry. But let's remember the original fear of loss of unity among western allies rather than pointing to boogiemen amongst any group we disagree with.
My liberal friends, who are all women, are so emotionally connected to their beliefs that they simply cannot hear anything that contradicts their worldview. I had one almost begin to cry as I pressed her about Biden corruption - she couldn't handle anything that contradicted her comfort zone as it would put her into conflict with her peers.
Unsaint-- it's not just that "they don't care" it's that they are in favor of the LIES that help "their side" win!- Sorry-- I posted this way back- before I read so many others (including you) stating this basic sad fact!
Communism is a covert form of Tyranny. The cynicism and lies behind the slow capture of our freedom is truly arresting. It works quietly, providing a cover to those who have abandoned Truth and mean well. They, in the hands of the masterminds, are useful idiots. And they are great in number.
Yep. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And the only legitimate frame of political reference is the Republic, the Constitution and the free citizen.
"The virus of Freedom" & the attempt to develop a vaccine against it.
My favorite all-time quote:
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing- the last of all human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances- to choose one's own way"- Viktor Frankel, Man's Search For Meaning
Especially, "And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here." Smacked me right between my eyes.
Oh yes darkness awaits. The entire security state has been turned inward to those that protest too much. Be they a parent at a school board meeting or a citizen complaining of a rigged election. To me this is the left.
" the hypocrisy that serves as the very basis of their essence,"
The dark comedy of the elites and their media stooges pretending that Dear Leader is not a raving, senile grifter. This is what the USSR under Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko must have felt like. And still they shriek and threaten if we dare to say otherwise.
Not so much a chill but sadness. I saw all of these things happening across the “developed” world and realized that we have utterly failed to learn the lessons so painfully taught by those who fought and died for the freedom we take for granted today.
The words were excellent. And it was far easier to walk on the other side of the road and pretend it was not happening. The signs have been there for years. Really if you can, watch the BBC Putin v the West and you will see how Putin has played the West.
Also because I am really enjoying the book, read Moscow X by David McCloskey. McCloskey used to work as a CIA analyst. The book is about the deep corruption within the Russian state.
Thanks. I hope no one is deluded about Putin. He is evil. The world, history, is full of evil men. But America has to function in this world and not pretend we can change them. The best we can do is be our best selves and be a foil to their evil.
We have lost sight of our best selves. It grieves me. Rather than pointing fingers, we ought to be looking within. We are marching toward the worst practices of evil countries.
The governor of NY said that businesses in NY don’t need to worry about what was done to Trump because that judgment would only happen to him. She doesn’t even realize she declared unequal treatment of citizens is OK.
We are a country living in a glass house, throwing stones.
No. The best you can do is acknowledge that the Democrat Party is rotten to the core and vote accordingly. You can also argue that there will be no peace in the world until all borders are inviolable and all Conquest Ideologies are opposed. It is also helpful to always choose principle over principal.
The exchange of letters between the Jew Sharansky and the Christian Navalny is instructive.
We need a Third Party Lever to gut the rot of the Establishment! Both sides are Guilty of Corruption, unAccountability, and making decisions based on the good of themselves and NOT the citizens they represent.
We should change elections to auctions and anyone who wants to be a member of congress or the President, has to put themselves up for auction. The highest bidder will provide the politician to lead the nation and staff the congress. That way we will know who is running the country.
It’s shocking that people are trampled on by illegals who are provided with more than themselves, and yet continue to vote the same. It’s as if what is happening has nothing to do with elected leaders! They must be listening to Mayorkis take no blame for the results of the open border. How are people so stupid?
It is because Republicans can’t get the Stink of Trump off. Hard to take seriously a party lead by Trump, McConnell, Graham, and crew. Nikki Haley’s NeoCon bona fides don’t help. Tim Scott, Ramaswamy sucking up to Trump doesn’t help. They, like Democrats, just seek power, mostly for themselves. Just look at those (18?) Republicans who voted for the Border bill. Once the details were revealed the whoring of those 18 became visible. Republicans are as bad as Democrats.
Can someone tell me what was wrong with the border bill? Was it simply the fact that democrats and republicans crafted it together? What I’m hoping to hear are specifics on what was and wasn’t included in the bill.
I most definitely agree with you…still I would rather have a Republican elected instead of Biden. But that’s not going to happen…Biden will win and ultimately we will have “Harass” as our first female president. Mark my words, would that it were not so but the Red wave, once again, will not materialize.
We've had this convo before. Call up the RNC, maybe Mara Trump will answer the phone, and demand better candidates for God sakes! What do you expect with that complete and utter fraud called Santos there? He's gone and then what? The seven minutes I heard GOP candidate Pilip speak I realized she wasn't ready either. You want to replace fools? Stop nominating fools!
It's done on a local level so that's where the change has to be made. I keep hoping we'll get a decent candiddate to run against Himes. He's already been there too long.
Were concerned that it did not shut the border down until 5900 people per day had crossed into the country - also that it left lots of discretion to Mayorkas whether to enforce (and he has done nothing to enforce the law so far so no one trusts him) and also ii think it would hinder the next president from closing the borders - maybe??
Of course Putin is a murdering thug. We knew that decades ago with the murder of Litvinenko in your very own country. But the problem is not Putin. The problem is our own governments curtailing our freedoms to do and say what we please.
There are many problems. Some related and some not so related.
The US (and indeed the free world) must not go down the authoritarian/totalitarian route. And yes the basic rule of law(including innocent until proven guilty) is under threat. There are huge questions where some of the far left (and indeed the far right) has received its seed money from.
Weakening the US from within has long been a goal and the opposition if you will (China, Russia and Iran and its axis of resistance etc) doesn't care what means are used.
But for now in the West, there remains a rule of law.
Some people appear to have forgotten that Putin has never been a friend to the West.
Have we ever attempted to be a friend to him? It's certainly no lie that NATO has been expanded to include pretty much every nation in Western AND Eastern Europe, with the sole current exceptions of Belarus and Ukraine.
He's not a nice or good person, but neither is Joe Biden. Biden is keeping Americans in conditions as bad or worse than those described for Navalny, and on patently absurd pretexts.
NATO infringement is perhaps the largest issue in this war. It could have been avoided with negotiations. Putin is evil but he's not alone in this. There are many with blood on their hands.
It was tried in the early 2000s. Bush famously called Putin a man he could do business with. There was a period when Putin had no truck with Islamists and therefore they could make common cause.
The real turning point was the Colour Revolution in Georgia and of course Maidan in 2004. Then you have the Arab Spring...
Putin v the West is v interesting for the talking heads as it is possible to forget what was going on. The former French president Hollande is especially interesting.
The Owen Matthews book Overreach is also interesting -- giving the detailed history.
It basically ends on a v depressing note. Putin has to win or die. There is no coherent vision or Putinism -- really a sort of mumbo jumbo mix of religious ethno nationalism, huge fear of the West/foreign interference and of course kleptocracy. It is v likely when he goes, any illusions of stability in Russia will go as well.
But the US does not exist by the Stalinist NKVD proverb -- 'Your lack of criminal record is not to your credit. It is our flaw.'
In Russia, it is almost impossible not to be a criminal or to have broken the law in some way. Whether or not the law is enforced is up to the FSB and of course ultimately to the khozyain.
In the US, you do remain innocent until proven guilty (despite the best efforts of some -- see the infamous Smithsonian meme where it was proclaimed English Common Law should be destroyed as it was 'White Supremacy). The major contribution of ECL was innocent until proven guilty, along with the jury system.
It is not perfect and the law in the US and indeed Britain is broken for a number of reasons. However, it is much better than what currently exists in Russia or China.
Think again. It’s becoming the same in the US. Prosecutors overcharge to get plea bargains. Unless you have a lot of money for lawyers, you’re screwed.
"In the US, you do remain innocent until proven guilty"
That is already changing. If you are male and are accused of any kind of misbehavior toward a female, you are now considered guilty until proven innocent.
The NeoNazis who marched in TN at the weekend for example and their fellow travellers.
There was interesting passage in the Spies Lies and Algorithms book I read at Christmas time about how they had uncovered both the far right and far left begin financed. Some place in Texas I believe (going from memory here) If you want to sow chaos and confusion, you use both ends against the centralist middle.
Here is my question about those guys - who are they? Which of those particular guys do you consider part of the right and what makes them right? There is nothing in the Republican charter that approves of these guys - there is no consensus of approval by right leaning people. Do you know their names? Any idiot can throw a bag over his face and look like a moron. If you don’t know who they are can you really say they are on the right? No one on the right identifies with these people. How can you say they are representative?
I watch the BBC daily for news on Russia’s completely unjustified war against Ukraine. The BBC smears Trump as dishonestly and outlandishly as Carlson smears Zelensky. The BBC is worse than CNN and as bad as MSNBC.
This a documentary (now five part series), rather than the current news output. It covers from the early 2010s up to late last year. Trump actually comes off v well -- far better than Obama or Biden. Trump of course gave the Javelins to Ukraine where Obama refused. And without that intervention,. Ukraine would not have stood in 2022.
The BBC does suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome so it was interesting to see them give him credit. The talking heads on the series are fairly incredible.
One of the best places for news on Ukraine is the Institute of War's daily updates (complete with maps). I found them when I noticed the Telegraph was using the maps. They give a fairly in depth briefing. I also like their Iran briefing. Their twitter account has the latest: https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar
I tend not to listen to the BBC news these days as it is not good for my blood pressure. Stopped listening during Covid as they appeared to lose all sense of balance.
I was devastated listening to that episode. Mostly because most of the country will never hear it / the media will never report on it - and most of the country will live their lives just not knowing or caring.
The hair on my neck stood up. Yet those are the people screaming at freedom loving voters we are "Putin's Puppets" when they have debased the US and everything it stands for. The long, slow, incremental slide into totalitarianism.
I certainly did! I finished reading the Chang/Halliday biography of Mao recently and marked countless passages that sound like 2020s US—re-education, public shaming, etc.
We are in trouble. Rig the elections, influence the courts, stifle the courts, cheat in elementary schools.Give inflated grades. The child can't read and yet the developers of the programs and the administrators say they are good readers. The parents believe this, because everyone wants their child on the honor roll. Read what Nicki Neily has written on Parents Defending Education. She has gone before Congress. I am willing to go before Congress and tell the truth about what is going on in our elementary schools in our school district. I don't know if Congress would even care. It is all part of the plan of Dumbing Down America.
On all issues continued shock at the antics of the woke/fascist juggernaut when they obviously intend to continue the insanity doesn't serve us well. We have choices and voices. Education is a personal value. Value it and act on the value.
Yes. A very significant chill. We all know the moral center of America is shifting. Many remain in the battle to hang onto the freedoms proclaimed by our founders. And yet there is decay in our collective soul.
Rasmussen's recent report (Found here: https://www.rmgresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Elite-One-Percent.pdf) titled "The Elite 1% and the Battle for the American Soul" makes very plain that this is at the very least a clear and present danger here in the US, or something already in place. There is a lot of chilling data in the report, but cogent to your comment, Rasmussen reports that of the elite 1% (defined as those with higher degree, making over $150k as a family, and living in urban areas) 35% "would rather cheat than lose an election". Of the 1% that is also "politically obsessed", 69% would rather cheat than lose an election.
Compare that to the rest of the country where only 7% would rather do so.
The elite echo-chamber bubbles that exist in our power centers have lost all moral moorings, and in their pragmatic pursuit of power are a very clear and present danger to this once great republic. I pray it is not too late.
Thank you Bari for your amazing reporting! You are making this world a better place. Navalny's wife Julia just published a very moving video saying that she will continue his fight against Putin's regime. Unbelievably brave and amazing family!
The fate of Navalny is of less relevance to American citizens than the fates of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Can we please clean our own house before getting all worked up about the neighbor’s house? There is so much stunning information coming out right now about the US intelligence community’s involvement in recent elections (from Taibbi and Schellenberger for example) that isn’t being just covered well in the FP.
“ Thank you Bari for your amazing reporting! You are making this world a better place.” Sorry to burst your bubble, but Bari Weiss remains totally committed to the political beliefs of the left and will vote accordingly. She has found a way to make money by feeding moderates and conservatives what they want to hear, even though she herself doesn’t believe most if any of it.
I pretty much agreed with you until October 7; that the corpse in chief is kowtowing to the muslim refugees in MI for badly needed votes show that the left has a major split. I think Bari sees this now as, unlike the other failed PRO-crime democRAT policies, this directly effects her sense of self as a Jew. We'll see.
"Bari" relative to Jim (and other's here) comment that she, for all the lamenting about the left's failed policies, will, in the end, likely continue the insanity by continuing her support of those same politicians who foisted them upon us.
This will be controversial but I can't help but be concerned that we are sliding into what Russia currently is. The movement is from both the far right and the far left. We are trampling and tearing down the very institutions that protect our freedoms. We seem to have lost all trust and faith in our fellow man so that we can no longer listen to another point of view or perspective without going into attack mode. Maybe we can each start to trust and welcome that we get to be enriched by other opinions and thereby learn.
Bari's journalism is refreshing. We do not need to rate news outlets as our rating systems are mostly about whether we agree or not with the writing. If we rate on honesty or common sense or even quality of writing then The Free Press is #1. How I long for this style of Journalism!
Note that this articles includes copies of the exact letters!!! There is nothing to hide.
I respectfully disagree with your conclusions and would appreciate it if you would offer facts rather than accusations. Thank you for sharing your point of view and I don’t mean that in ironic or sarcastic tone.
Thank you for your politeness. I have been reading the FP daily since it launched. My comment was an opinion based on reading almost every article published, and the general tone of comments by regular readers. While there are occasional unbiased articles dealing with conservative issues and the articles about Israel and trans issues are excellent, the writers are mostly well known liberals/leftists, and the slant of most articles is to the left. More importantly, there is essentially no reporting on the "Biden crime family" and still massive bashing of Republicans in general and the former President specifically. The comments are where the articles are praised/ bashed and debated, along with refutation and questions about what is being ignored. I am not looking for a conservative or right wing publication, I am looking for fair and balanced reporting based on the real world, without political based opinion or snarky comments.
It’s called honest reporting. Not politically motivated journalism such as the likes of many on the left and right. The political motivation in reporting has become the norm to the extent which one resents transparent journalism. 😖
"And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here. " Why does that sound familiar?
Can I ask a simple question? Yes? Why does no one care that this EXACT THING is going on in Cuba, NOW? At this moment? The Cubans tried to revolt during COVID, when the collectivest jail cell they live in as a country got so small death and suffering seemed preferable to continuing to pretend that the whole country is not ruled by sadistic megalomaniacs.
Biden didn't care. The American press didn't care. The huge protests against the callousness and cruelty of their governments made in Cuba and Venezuela made no impressions on the American Left. Why not?
Does it bother you when people are kept in solitary confinement? How about Cuban dissidents, who were and as needed presumably still are kept in cells the size of dog cages, where they can't properly stand up or sit down, and which have only small slits that can be opened and closed for air? These things are designed to break peoples minds quickly and efficiently, and so terrorize people that they spend the rest of their lives shaking in silence.
No, there is no principle here. None. Bernie Sanders spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union when the KGB still ruled, and when Soviet agents were still trying to overthrow governments to create their own system of privation and privilege all around the world.
This is silly. Yes, Navalny is or was admirable. But let's not pretend that the American and European Left was not perfectly content with things when Solzhenitsyn was suffering the frozen North.
Dear God. It never end with you people. Your only reality is only EVER what is being put in front of your eyes at that moment. You have no memory, and lack the principles to create a future of your own.
It isn't. You're right. Those stories are unknown to any American who gets their "news" from any of the controlled and coordinated sources.
The point is that there are political prisoners everywhere in the world. This story is being run because some organized group is trying to induce enough hate for Russia that we are willing to support idiotic and destructive foreign policy that benefits a few at the expense of most of us. America is not as different from the old Soviet Union, particularly now, as we like to think. Putin himself said our media is so fully controlled that he would be unable even to get a story out, and he said that applies to both America and Europe. I can't speak to Europe, but all you have to do is watch one of those videos with hundreds of newscasters saying the EXACT SAME WORDS to understand that our system is corrupt, and that it is not all that hard keeping unwelcome stories out of nearly all of the press.
I like this website because SOMETIMES Bari bucks the trend, and shares stories that most of the rest of the mockingbird media won't touch. But as a mild paranoiac, who has earned every bit of his paranoia with extensive reading and considerable contemplation, I do wonder at times if Bari is just mild managed opposition, and that she received enough money from somebody to start this thing that they have the ability to tell her at times what her story is going to be, as here.
Navalny was a man of rare moral courage. No doubt. But it's impossible not to see this as damage control relative to Tucker's interview with Putin that none of its critics seem to be able to watch.
Right. The only viable rival of Putin, who was already poisoned by Putins perfectly democratic and law abiding regime in the past, died in prison specifically to distract everyone from the excellent Tuckers interview. How dare he!
When it existed, did you oppose Soviet Communism? Do you believe, with all of sane humanity, that the illegitimate regimes in Cuba and Venezuela are every bit as bad, if not worse, except in scale, as Russia now?
Are you aware that people are being held in AMERICA, right now, in conditions identical to or worse than those described by Navalny? Filthy cells, cold water, bad rations, solitary confinement, beatings? Would you care, if you did accept this fact as fact?
I abhorred communism and other autocratic regimes my whole adult life. What boggles my mind is that people who claim they abhor communism and support freedom and democracy fail to see that Putin's regime is trying to rebuild much of the evilness of the Soviet Union and more. Just because the democrats are against putin does not mean he is a good guy. People refuse to use their brains and end up either supporting or turning a blind eye to one of the vilest and most dangerous regimes on earth.
No one thinks Putin is a good guy. No one in the U.S. supports him. You are into buying the Left's propaganda that the Right loves Putin because they disagree about how the Democrats have dealt with Ukraine.
The question is “does the United States have a strategic interest in pursuing war for its own sake against Russia, in a war which can only end on one side in our defeat, and on the other with nuclear war.” The answer is obviously no.
And how dumb do you need to be to think the Soviet empire COULD be reconstituted, when most of it now belongs to NATO?
Length not required. Putin has spoken frequently and at length about the need to reconstitute Greater Russia. He has specifically identified several countries that “belong” to Russia. The greater risk to an ascendant Russian empire of course belongs to Europe, who in their foolishness thought war was over, or that the U.S. would protect them indefinitely. Neither is the case. The Europeans also fear a powerful Germany. It’s as if we’ve dialed back the clock about a century.
My opposition is to Democrats and their egregious foreign policies as regards Ukraine under the Biden and Obama administrations. I think those policies have strengthened Putin, strengthened his alliances, and placed the security of the West at considerable risk. I am a proponent of Ukraine. I am an opponent of a US proxy war there.
Or at least distract from it. It's like cats with lasers. Nobody even has to learn or believe anything, or make any new decisions. The purpose is served if we are NOT talking, say, about political prisoners being held HERE, in America, in solitary confinement just like what Navalny endured, without books, without hot water, WITH beatings, and in filth.
If Bari wants to join Gateway Pundit and do a story on THAT, I would be very impressed with her integrity and courage.
Good grief, Terence, get a clue. Carlson is hated because he exposes the venality of our government. Do you think he finds Putin admirable? The point he was making is that our own government is lying and incompetent. We know Putin runs a repressive and corrupt state. But we're trying to prevent ours from going down that path. And with people pretending that Biden is not senile, corrupt and repressive, we are not doing a very good job of it.
This is addressed to the original post in this thread by NCMaureen. (sometimes it's hard to follow long threads) This story has a backstory, i.e. the Putin regime murdered Nalvany. If your hypothesis is correct, that this story is all about discrediting the Tucker interview, then the logical supposition might be be that the Putin regime did not murder Nalvany. Nalvany's death, if at the hands of the Putin regime, did more to discredit Tucker's interview than any of the attacks on Tucker on X, on legacy media, and alternative media combined. After reading your comment and at first pushing back (in my mind), I took another step in my thinking. It does seem odd that Putin would have him murdered at this moment. If Putin didn't have him killed, who did? (I don't know have any answers, and I am not putting forth any "conspiracy theories," just your comment NCMaureen led me to this crazy question. )
No, I have no reason to think anyone but Putin had Navalny murdered. And the timing? It’s strong man Putin showing the West he doesn’t care what we think.
My other comment was how Biden and the media care about Navalny to the extent they can use his murder to discredit Tucker. Tucker embarrasses them, the way Rush Limbaugh used to. So Tucker must be destroyed.
Building upon and attempting to live inside a truth/fact based reality requires healing. Especially when combating the machinations of a scattershot sewer. The American psyche is shattered. We might be a little more forgiving of people working two jobs and fighting to keep a roof over their heads. People who can't spend eight hours a day on Substack. The only common denominator capable of grounding America in a healthy human reality is the American Constitution. Everything else is psyop. The Constitution is the only healing "third" available that can override manufactured psyop polarities and extract the solutions necessary to create the prosperous truth/fact reality Americans deserve.
Shock at the antics of thugs no longer serves us. Nor the endless cackling of the collective without the conscious presence of a grounded center. Likewise we need to willfully abandon the false narrative intentionally distorting and subverting the American national dialogue.
Thank you not only for obtaining these but for publishing them as well. It is yet another reminder of the fragility of this thing we call "freedom;" and, sadly, the predictability of events does not reduce their tragic nature.
I hope this can harden us, here in the West, against the increasing attempts to reduce and rearrange our freedoms "for the common good." We can allow absolutely no slack on this issue, regardless of which party/ideology is attempting it.
If you ever find your vigilance waning by leaning on that old saw of "it can't happen here," read these letters again.
Too late, it already has happened here. But will Bari publish letters from J6 prisoners who got 10 yrs for entering the capital through a door held open for them by the capital police?
Publish their letters? I dare not hope. Let's start with simply acknowledging their existence, and that the women who stormed Congress during Kavanaugh's proceedings were not arrested or charged at all.
No, we're seeing TFP decry Putin's political abuses while empowering the same abuses here in the USA.
How are we to defeat "Putin's evil" while our leaders are just like him?
The Free Press will never tell those stories - ever - like everything else that illuminates the injustice of the Biden administration it will be as though it never happened on this news site. You say to look for the good - I have looked for it here but I just don’t see it
What monumentally heroic men these Russian patriots are, and what vitally important communications they provided to the world. These letters should be included in every study of bravery in the face of brutal dictatorship, torture and death; should be required study in all our "woke" universities and among our frivolous political class. The line about the false belief that it is possible to "modernize authoritarianism" is a warning to all who put their faith in powerful leaders who offer simple solutions to complex problems (i.e. "Only I can save America!"). The world lost a true hero and a friend of freedom with the murder of Navalny. Thank you for publishing these important letters between two towering heroes of liberty.
I disagree. Arguably Churchill was indeed that kind of man. Ditto George Washington. Difficult times call for strong leaders. We are in very difficult tomes and it can get worse. So I am not opposed to someone who says I can fix this. The problem is not SAYING it, the problem is saying it and not MEANING it. Remember Biden's campaign promises that he was going to bring about unity? Because he is weak, exceedingly weak, all he did was solidify everyone into their bunkers. We have got to do better while we still can.
I'm not surprised that you support the Orange Haired Egomaniac who claims he will throw out the Constitution on day one of his Presidency, but if you think Trump is a strong man worthy of your loyalty, I remind you that he avoided the military draft by means of a doctor's note diagnosing heel spurs from an X-ray that no one has ever seen, and far from being a strong leader, Trump is a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully who enjoys grabbing women by their privates. He is a friend and admirer of dictators and enemies of the US, and he urged his jack-booted MAGA followers to attack our Capitol and overturn a legal election. If you really want a strong autocratic ruler who can get things done, I urge you to consider moving to Putin's Russia
And you’re a typical left wing nut who probably believes in global warming, transgenderism and Obama Marxism...MAGA! And I’m a Vietnam combat veteran and I don’t give one shit about your comments regarding heel, Spurs, Donald Trump, and the draft.
You seem to be suffering from PTSD and you have delusions that you know me and my political positions, but rather than tell you that you're so wrong, I'll just suggest that you seek help for your mental condition.
You really can’t handle push back, can you? And yet, you’re one of most verbose and accusatory on the thread. I think many readers have already figured you out.
Hey, here's a new thought. If my posts disturb you (and your friends) so much, I advise you not to read them. No one is holding a gun to your head to force you to read and respond to those posts, and I can assure you that I will not bother to read or respond to any of yours.
I am a believer in Lord Acton's observation about governments and political leaders that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." That's why I have no problem with a bumbling octogenarian as President, because, in our system of government, no individual leader, branch, agency, or office has total power or is meant to make all the decisions. Our Constitution purposely diffuses power for the very reason that Lord Acton mentions. You think decisive action is necessary; I believe that well thought-out and generally supported decisions are better and healthier for the wellbeing of our government and the liberties of our populace. Trump may think he has all the answers to our nation's troubles (I personally disagree with many of his solutions), but his desire to run the whole show from the White House and steamroll his plans through a compliant Congress and packed Supreme Court places our republic in jeopardy much like Julius Caesar's attempted takeover of the Roman republic, or Napoleon's of France, and Hitler of Germany (at least Napoleon and Hitler had military experience and did not dodge the draft). Even if Trump were a sane person, and I don't believe he is, I would oppose his Presidency for philosophical reasons mentioned above.
No. And that is not a logical conclusion from what I said. For too many reasons to explain.You don't think there are things that need to be fixed? Or do you not want those things fixed?
For me, again I date myself because imo it’s relevant, as a gen x-er; while awful and poignant- the letters aren’t shocking or illuminating.
The Cold War (Stalin and Mao) after Nazi Germany (Hitler) was not THAT LONG ago.
Why the shock? Why the fascination with these letters and this man? MILLIONS upon MILLIONS died under the leadership of the three …THREE MEN mentioned above. And we; the media and the West are obsessed with a few recent characters? And why?
IMO lack of education -period.
Wikipedia just about gushes with admiration for Mao; as if he’s Thomas Jefferson or George Washington or Mother Theresa.
The stories presented by the FP good. But for me there is NO shock value; no consideration of how we got here- no evaluation of why we are so surprised and also outraged (but are we really?)
We have BEEN HERE. WE collectively turn a blind eye and have politicians who know damn well the history and ideology and methodology of these nations annd those like them. And yet- we turn a blind eye for 100 years. And what about Cuba? Venezuela? Haiti? Mexico? What about the horrible human rights violations of our “partners” in Qatar? Saudi Arabia? Bahrain?
There is nothing surprising or shocking or NEW for us. And how sad history will continue to repeat itself because the WEST refuses to put morality and the values it says it’s for before money and greed.
Here's the reason why: the Left--which has gradually seized control of every institution in America--have always been admirers of Stalin and Mao. As we saw as a result of Oct7, they secretly admire Hitler.
The Left rejects the morality and values of the Enlightenment that our nation was built on. And they have--through a combination of indoctrination of the young and threatening the old with Cancellation or the label "evil"--convinced a sizable part of the American population that the Left's ideology is more "fair" and certainly important than any morality and values from the past.
When Democrats were screaming for the unvaccinated to be put in camps and refused medical treatment, those who were capable of waking up realized exactly how (and how easily) Hitler managed to seize the hearts and minds of Germans.
It stems in part from lack of education. Students today, if they know anything, know Jefferson kept slaves and FDR hid his paralysis and had a mistress. They don't know how many Northern soldiers died in the Civil War that freed the slaves. They are taught that Hitler was bad and started WWII and the US nuked two Japanese cities, but may learn little of the millions killed by Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other communists. Even the Holocaust isn't as widely known as it should be or we wouldn't have so many pro-Hamas, antisemetic rallies on campuses (and college president's who can't unequivocally condemn calls to kill all Jews, saying it depends on context).
It is worse than that. They are welcome to participate. I do not have a problem with that. I have a problem with letting those who participate in US capitalism buy US elections. Let's return US elections to US citizens! Overturn Citizens United. It is an abomination.
I support this wholeheartedly. Folks on my side of the aisle screech about picking up the votes of disillusioned Dems and independents to assure the win. I guess that is a short-term strategy for a win but it is just kicking the can down the road. Disillusioned Dems need to take their party back. It has to start at ground level with precinct activity. That is how the progs gained control of it to begin with.
"But in the current situation, it is not them who are to blame, but us, who naively thought that there was no going back to the old ways. And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here."
Russia has never known true freedom, true democracy, but then neither did Imperial Japan, Nor Der Kaiserzeit deutchland oder Der dritte Reich. It took a major war to change this.
In our Republic we’ve managed to create an amalgamation of Soviet philosophy with a philosophical darkness. They march in the streets & college campuses advocating hate. They destroy for failing to use the “correct” pronoun. We elect dung & expect a bed of roses! Be afraid. Do something.
I originally subscribed to TFP to stand with Bari after her shameful treatment by the NYT. This article exemplifies the immense value I have received in return. Thank you Bari - and the rest of the TFP staff - for your honest and insightful journalism. You are a beacon in a profession that has lost its way.
I do agree, and subscribed for same reason. I would, however, like it if she and TFP would shine this same light on the same things happening here in our own country under this administration. Specifically related to this is the treatment of the J6 prisoners being held for years withour bail or representation and/or sentenced to lengthy jail terms (10+ years!) for protesting and walking into the capitol through doors held open by the police. That's a canary in the coal mine if you are willing to look past the views of a certain tribe, and I wish Bari and team would be willing to do that.
May we now agree that moral relativism needs to be rejected at every turn, that there is indeed evil in the world and that measuring people on a good versus evil scale is not only appropriate but necessary? Unfortunately there are millions among us who bought into the moral relativism BS and parrot what they were taught in far too many schools and universities.
Great comment. I often summarize the two battles regarding civilization as 1) the religious v the secular, and 2) the globalists v those who desire national sovereignty. There is not uniformity as between these ( an atheist can still prefer sovereignty and there are religious globalists ) but there is a lot of overlap from what I have observed.
Yes, American goodness, if any of it can survive, depends on its support for "In God We Trust," whether or not one believes in the Judao-Christian God.
I agree. Judao-Christian values are exemplary rules to live by and are the foundation of the nation. Whether you believe in that God or not you abandon the principles at your own peril. And mine. And yours. And every one else's.
In Dante’s Inferno, the vestibule to the 9 circles of hell contained the anguished souls of the Uncommitted - those that never took sides. Those that, when faced with a choice of supporting good or evil, were too cowardly to commit to a side, that suggest “there are two sides to every story”. They do this purely for themselves, to hedge their morality, to always be able to say they are level-headed and give themselves a way out. There’s a reason Dante recognized this as purely selfish evil. They can look at the bodies of slaughtered Israeli children and offer that perhaps there was a reason for this. They can also look at slaughtered Ukrainians and say well maybe Nato expansion caused this, or whatever reason they choose to conjure.
It is as true now as it was 700 years ago - it is not virtuous to avoid calling evil what it is.
Thank you Bari and TFP for publishing these letters and giving voice to those who stand for freedom. May we continue to be inspired by them and others to stand up and no longer be silent ourselves.
Tucker’s point was that we need to understand the grievances and thought process of our self-proclaimed adversary. What reasonable person could disagree? As for Navalny, as long as we have hundreds of political prisoners who are being denied fair trials…I’m just not interested.
Decent people did not care during Putin's first invasion of Ukraine under Obama, because there wasn't a massive propaganda campaign telling them to.
Presumably, decent people ought to care about the horrors ongoing in the Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, and various parts of Africa, but Africans don't have the influence to get into our corrupt politics and be rewarded with hundreds of billions of dollars.
Also, there are a whole lot of people within the disputed parts of Ukraine - former soviet states - who disagree with the "completely unjustified" part.
If you're not willing to recognize the role of politics, dirty money, propaganda, and manipulation in this war, then at least please understand why people with a broader perspective don't find this quite as cut-and-dry as you do.
Unjustified in your opinion. But on this matter, I care more about Putin’s. Isn’t that the point? George III callously and cluelessly dismissed the colonists’ grievances and look at the result. You’ve got to listen with some level of curiosity.
I agree with your Carlson analysis. But not about Navalny. My heart grieves for political prisoners wherever they are, including ours. I think that the US cannot claim the moral high ground over Putin at this point, not that Putin is worthwhile.
I can disagree. Some people are not worth talking to. People like that include compulsive liars, sociopathic dictators whose only interest in maintaining power, mass murderers.
Putin already gave all of his reasons for invading Ukraine - his propaganda runs on RT and their TV all day long. He wrote an essay that you can read on the kremlin website about how Ukraine is a fake nation and has no right to a language or culture and other genocide musings. It’s freely available. His insights are neither valuable, honest, or accurate. Even if he only lied once (like when he blamed Poland for starting WW2 by not surrendering to the Nazis immediately, absolving Hitler of any responsibility), it already taints anything else he has to say.
Tucker could have made that a valuable interview by asking truly challenging questions. Why are you bombing civilian targets repeatedly? Why are all of your serious political opponents in jail or dead? Why have there been so many political assassinations under your regime? Why are you imprisoning journalists? What’s wrong with calling this a “war”? Why do you have a billion dollar palace when you have no official business dealings that would generate that level of wealth? Where did that money come from?
But instead he gave Putin a microphone and let him ramble on about a history thousands of historians (and all of Poland) can plainly contend, and marveled at how pretty Moscow is and how clean everything is. As if Putin would take him to tour the vast majority of not-Moscow-not-st Petersburg Russia that lives in abject poverty with no education, in filth, with no running water out in the middle of nowhere.
Could have been useful. Was definitely not. Some people are just not worth interviewing.
Tucker did not bother asking such questions as he rightly knew there was no point asking them. Likewise with asking Biden questions we’d like honest answers to. Sometimes one can learn much about someone by letting them talk without repeated interruptions. I learned a lot from Putin’s interview, about Putin. For one, he’s a formidable opponent. We need Trump.
Don’t you think it’s strange trump never has anything bad to say about Putin? He rips all of his even slight opponents to shreds - low energy Jeb, Ted Cruz has an ugly wife, I mean just destroys them. Never says a word about Putin except what a smart man he is. You don’t find that strange?
Reading this correspondence, one is reminded what real heroism is. It is not yelling inarticulated slogans at protests or death threats at a police officer; it's not vandalizing shops, intimidating a student walking on campus or banging on the car of a doctor trying to leave a Jewish hospital; it's not twerking for pre-schoolers in drag at a library, nor throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," nor sitting on a street blocking motorists. And it is not surgically lopping off or adding parts to young bodies that have deliberately and insidiously been broken inside. Both these men and many men and women who can choose to be silent but speak up against true evil in this world, they pay dearly with their freedom and sometimes with there lives. These people are heroes. Let us raise a glass or say a prayer for Alexei Navalny and other such exceptional, honorable human beings.
Thank you Bari for sharing these letters. It is deeply moving to read the words of two men of profound truth, courage and conviction in a world that seems to be so lacking in these virtues. I sit here pondering what does it mean for me as I watch the erosion of freedom that I am seeing and do nothing. By sharing these stories, you allow Navalny to continue to "influence the souls of millions of people worldwide."
it is not them who are to blame, but us, who naively thought that there was no going back to the old ways. And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here.”
Did anyone else get a chill reading these words?
They rang familiar. Those same things are plainly happening here. We have direct government censorship. We have courts which pursue patently politicized and unfair prosecutions that utilize two differing standards, depending on the defendants polticial conformity.
I've argued back and forth about election fraud for some time, but here is the core reality: most of the Left, even if you could present absolutely unambiguous proof of fraud--and certainly many things are undeniable, such as the coordinated lies about Hunter's laptop told by elements of our government, and Zuckerbucks being used in likely illegal manners--THEY WOULD NOT CARE.
It took me a long time to realize this: when people are denying the obvious, it is not necessarily that they disagree, so much as that for their part they don't care, and for public presentation feel the need to lie about it.
All Communists believe in unfair and rigged election, for the simple reason that they don't believe in democracy. They USE the word democracy constantly, but if the sole intent of the whole thing was to never call anything by its proper name, it would look and act no differently.
🎯
Germans denied the gas chambers too.
Heritage Foundation website maintains a database of election fraud convictions. Still, the left denies it happens.
I am not as disciplined about it as I would like, but the first question, in any debate about fraud, needs to be: if it could be proven to you, would it bother you?
Most Democrats would applaud fraud that serves their cause, because they view their ends as innately righteous, conservatives as inherently inimical to all things human, and that the ends therefore justify the means and meanness.
But of course "the ends justify the means" was the mantra of all Communists. They said "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet". But as Paul Johnson famously asked: where is the omelet? All the cruelty, lies and violence served only to perpetuate cruelty, lies and violence.
It's really an astonishing thing to behold how many otherwise outwardly apparently decent people are utterly unwilling to learn this obvious lesson; and who are thus perfectly happy to serve the causes of confining political prisoners in solitary, and watching them die, in the name of a greater Good that will never arrive. These are the "educated" ones, the humane ones, the vegan puppy lovers. Those people support EXACTLY what happened to Navalny, as long as it is done to someone they have been conditioned to view as their enemy.
Just as, indeed, many Russians no doubt said "good riddance" to Navalny, however he died.
You can't be an emotional child and operate coherently and usefully in this world. And the first task of an adult is to recognize that understanding takes work, that perfect confidence in your views is nearly always a reliable sign of profound ignorance, that fear of opposing views is a CERTAIN sign of profound ignorance, and that PEOPLE LIE, even people you have been trained to trust.
"Most Democrats would applaud fraud that serves their cause, because they view their ends as innately righteous"
It is very sad that this is so true. When Sam Harris admitted openly that he would not care if Hunter Biden had bodies in his basement, I felt both sickened and frightened.
I'm not a Trump fan, but the man is not "literally Hitler." Even if he were, it would still be wrong to cheat, lie, and commit election fraud to to "stop him."
I could excuse an assassin's bullet if Trump were "literally Hitler," but nothing can excuse destroying the fundamental principles of our country in the name of "saving democracy."
And yet, as you say, too many Democrats have embraced the idea that anything is permitted in the name of their goals.
I have always believed the rule of law was our surest protection against tyranny. It pains me no end to realize how wrong I was.
John Adams remarked upon the futility of expecting the Constitution to be able to govern anything except "a moral and religious people." I am saddened, but not surprised.
Only protection we have against tyranny is the 2A.
Rasmussen's recent report (Found here: https://www.rmgresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Elite-One-Percent.pdf) titled "The Elite 1% and the Battle for the American Soul" makes very plain that this is at the very least a clear and present danger here in the US, or something already in place. There is a lot of chilling data in the report, but cogent to your comment, Rasmussen reports that of the elite 1% (defined as those with higher degree, making over $150k as a family, and living in urban areas) 35% "would rather cheat than lose an election". Of the 1% that is also "politically obsessed", 69% would rather cheat than lose an election.
Compare that to the rest of the country where only 7% would rather do so.
The elite echo-chamber bubbles that exist in our power centers have lost all moral moorings, and in their pragmatic pursuit of power are a very clear and present danger to this once great republic. I pray it is not too late.
Drewbacca: “Of the 1% that is also "politically obsessed", 69% would rather cheat than lose an election.” You mean to say, only 31% lied to the pollster?
Trump lacks the genius to be a Hitler. He is a useful prop, a Trojan Horse.
A Trojan horse for whom?
Who are the inhabitants of the horse?
Thank you for such a beautiful summation. Well said.
And the underlying philosophy to these beliefs?
God is dead. And Man has become his own god.
But of course we cannot transcend ourselves. The de facto belief is that life has no purpose. That means that whatever purpose you choose from the hat has to be strong and pungent, and for most has to romanticize and incent hatred and violence.
And that's not a hard trick: you just hate the haters, and hurt the hurters. And if the haters are not haters and the hurters are not hurters: well, those inconvenient facts are just a lie away from disappearing. The people who tell the lies are your friends and benefactors, and everybody this side of the Gulag gets along swimmingly.
It is odd, though, that those utterly lacking the most basic moral courage should be so effusive in their praise for Navalny.
He was nothing like you. You are nothing like him. That is the truth.
If God is dead, then no one has anything to lose. Imagine living a life where there is no retribution to fear. You wouldn't suffer under a moral compass because, what's that good for? Chumps. Plunder and pillage your way through this mortal existence and let the chips fall where they may. This is what's happening, and this is what it looks like.
Navalny’s only heroism is that he makes Putin, and by extension, Tucker, look bad.
How's THAT working out?
Nicos Kazantzakis begins THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST with God searching Israel for a man worthy of carrying His message to the world. Each time He does the man abandons all moral reason and becomes the biggest sinner possible, telling God (paraphrase), "look I'm not worthy of carrying this responsibility. Do it to someone else".
God isn't dead. It's simply that the relationship between God and mankind has evolved (C.G. Jung's ANSWER TO JOB). As the little bird in T.S. Eliot's FOUR QUARTETS observed: "human kind cannot Bear very much reality." Christianity exploded human consciousness and realigned mankind's relationship with the living Mystery. Human kind has entered a new age and the new consciousness is powerful. The evolution it is demanding of institutions and peoples terrifies self-interested avaricious tyranny and the bureaucrats that feed at its hand. We discuss the consequences of their desperation here every day.
The new woke/fascist iconoclasts (DNC/DEI/CCP/WEF/EU Davos), like all those who fear expanded human consciousness and freedom, are working overtime to make "we the people" forget who we are. But the imago Dei, informed by the incomprehensible mystery of the living universe we inhabit, cannot be destroyed. Americans are particularly troublesome because its founding documents contain an up front acknowledgement of this "creator".
In positive light--if that's possible--our willing investment here, in building a truth/fact reality might be the first step in removing the "beam" from our own eyes so we can see clearly to remove the "mote" from our brothers eye.
We have to admit, that like the Master himself, a corrupt, murderous tyranny could not make Navalny run.
Most Democrat voters hate Trump so much they know in their souls the election was manipulated in some way, but they think, deep down, it was for everyone's own good. I don't think they outright admit, "Yeah, we burned democracy at the stake to get our way" but to rationalize what they've done, they say it's all to the best.
They keep telling themselves that Trump is literally Hitler, which justifies anything to keep him out of office, including manipulating the 2020 election and trying to jail and bankrupt him with bogus criminal charges and civil suits.
I don’t think Democrat voters believe (deep down or on the surface) that the 2020 election was manipulated at all. On the contrary, they believe that their side was so obviously superior that there would be no cause for cheating. After all, everyone they know hates Trump, so how could he win?
It's 20th Century A-Bomb pathology. Ideological utopianism exploited by avaricious malignant narcissism.
The Russians are inured to cruelty. They have lived under brutal regimes for centuries. Every once in a while, some of these idiots march in support of Stalin.
We live in one of the most stable, free countries in the world. We have our flaws but who doesn't. Despite these flaws, this is still a great place to live and raise your children. However, if you look at what we are doing now, I believe, we may be on the brink of becoming a totalitarian police state.
Just look at the ever senile Joe. Anyone with a brain could see he was senile when the ran for president in 2000 yet the faithful turned out in droves to vote for him. And now, dozens powerful left wing pundits cruse the special prosecutors report on Joe's senile behavior.
It is all about power. They don't put the welfare of this country first, as a true patriot should. They put their quest for power and their ideology first.
To be fair, the same can be said about the MAGA lemmings. Trump is nutz and any sane person can see that.
In the past in some of presidential elections, I have held my nose and voted for what I thought was the least harmful moron to be president. This election if both Biden and Trump are the candidates, we are truly fucked.
The threat is not any mortal man. The threat is from what we have allowed the executive branch career bureaucrats to become. It cannot have been unintentional. Those bureaucrats just prefer Biden to Trump because Biden is so easy to deal with. And their opposition to Trump is why they exposed themselves. As evidenced by the Twitter files. So the choice is really between Trump and the bureaucrats. At least if they can't get him.through lawfare first. You can be assured ANY of the Democrats floated as Biden replacement will fall into line and do as told. As will Haley.
Truly fucked is right, just like in 2020 and 2016. Choose between fresh dogshit and the old, dried white dog shit.
And nice use of "inured." There should be a picture of babushkas in the dictionary next to the word.
I’m sane and I see Trump as the only good answer.
No there has to be someone better but I don't see anyone except Haley stepping up to the plate. Besides running for president, I have no opinion about Haley, except she is not Trump.
"Most Democrats would applaud fraud that serves their cause . . ." As my father always said, "Most people are only opposed to the corruption they are not a part of."
So well stated UF! I am stunned by the “formally educated” people in my own life who refuse to believe they could be lied to. They naively and arrogantly hold firm that they would “absolutely” know if they were being fooled. I hope I have the mercy to console them when the truth is revealed.
Let'em take the pain.
Is this why Steve Bannon calls himself a Leninist? His idea of political victory matches Communist mantra perfectly.
Well said!
Great question you pose at the start of your comment!
https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud
I will ask a simple question: if fraud could be proven to you, beyond both reasonable and unreasonable doubt, would you care? After all, your side is deeply marinated in the patent lie that Trump is a “fascist”. Would not eviscerating our democracy be rationally defensible if this were true?
yes, I would care. but it has been proven time, and time, and time again that no fraud took place. Instead, there are piles of evidence that Trump was the one trying to perpetrate fraud. In Georgia, pressuring them to "find" votes (What the hell does that even mean?!), the fake Wisconsin electors, hours of tapes and text messages between Bannon and trumps sons, and that entire gaggle of thieves.
Sure. I would care.
But the GOP found nothing.....spent millions......found nothing.
So, not sure what kind of point you're trying to make, but it sounds like: Would you care if something that has not been proven actually is true even though we've investigated/examined it repeatedly and have found that it is not true.....but hypothetically, if it were, would you care?
And your side is deeply marinated in the patent lie of "Biden-Burisma Corruption" Unfortunately, for you, there is actual evidence available that proves that to be a lie.
Thank you for the reference to the Heritage Foundation database. I checked it out. As a former citizen of the USSR, a current citizen of the US, and former Republican, here are my thoughts on the subject. Americans use false equivalence of terms way too often, without understanding the terms. Voter fraud described by Navalny is very different from the fraud from HF database. Fraud by random citizens, some Republicans, some Democrats, but not impacting results of election, is part of normal democratic process, and nobody mentally normal on the left or the right would deny that it happens. Caught, convicted, moved on. There is no room here to describe the systematic, massive, pervasive fraud with zero judicial reprocussion by the rulers of the country in USSR or in modern Russia, yet you refer to both phenomena as voter fraud. Another one: Americans keep referring to our prison system as Gulag. While US prisons are not fun, the only thing in common are the walls on the perimier. I cringe each time I hear it, but it is impossible to explain to those who refuses to understand.
…but not impacting results…how can you be sure? In some counties in key states, it doesn’t take that many votes to change an outcome. Ballot harvesting is real.
Do we believe the Heritage foundation database is comprehensive? or the tip of the iceberg?
I know our prisons aren’t gulags, but we Americans set outselves up as so much better, then we put uncharged people in isolation for ages, and convict rioters to 10 yrs. in prison.
I see nothing wrong that some BLM rioters went to jail for 10 years. Do you?
And people who didn't commit the crime for which they were jailed for 30yrs, until the Innocence Project proved that they were falsely convicted.
People being held because of their political beliefs is UnAmerican, and if unchecked we will have one day what the Soviets had. It is a question of degree, not kind.
And the national election was obviously stolen. One of the surest signs is that anyone who points this out is attacked and censored.
If anything like an honest investigation had been done anywhere the situation may be different, but none were, not even in Arizona.
I stand by all my claims, the substance of which is that OF COURSE we are the Soviet Union, but that we are the path to brcoming something like it.
70’s Liberals would have inderstood this. As it is, they have finally lost all semblance of principle.
Thanks for your concise analysis. Every poster here would benefit from reading and re-reading it.
If you write in the WSJ comment section that you believe the election was stolen, they will censor your comment. The WSJ!
I was kicked off by their apparatchik censors a year ago. Another rag run by fools.
My subscription finally ended last week. I’d been considering canceling because of the GenZ moderators and the diminished quality of the article. My annual renewal notice can with a 50% hike. I said “Nope”. Doubt I will miss it.
Sad thing is I read that paper for years from the time I was a kid commuting to my first job in New York. It was an excellent publication. Even handed and sober. Now it's unrecognizable. Run by zealots for zealots. The 280 clowns of the alleged "news" department, led by Becky Ballhaus and her merry band of Trump haters, turned the neww section into a running joke. And its just not worth paying for the editorial page.
I cancelled my subscription two years ago and to the NYT years before that. I read Miranda Devine and Michael Goodwin of the NY Post, but comments on that site are also being censored or "filtered out". Was that happening 5 years ago? I don't think so. If it's this bad now, where will we be in 2029?
Yup. Why do you think mainstream media is trying to put Substack in the crosshairs? Too. Much. Freedom. Of. Speech. (by the “wrong” people)
Was just talking about their censorship yesterday! The nameless, faceless, tyrannical "moderators" that "reject" paying subscribers on a wokester whim.
I think this topic would make for a great expose by The Free Press. I saved many examples from last year, when they pulled about 20 of my comments on an article about the Bud Lite fiasco. I "violated community standards" because I "misgendered"! Haha!! I copied and pasted a lot of comments by others, too, who were getting kicked off the comment thread for daring to state that Dylan Mulvaney is NOT a woman. I have examples from other articles too, because I was getting tired of being censored for stating the truth, and particularly because at that time I was paying around $45/month!! And I've been a subscriber for 3 decades -- what an insult. So I cancelled my subscription and then was solicited endlessly to renew -- at $2/month! So that is my fee now, and so when I am cancelled it doesn't sting as much, but it's still so wrong.
I’ve been kicked out of nearly everywhere. The GroupThink is broad and deep, even though it is deeply at odds withbthe commkn sense truth that still animated most Americans.
All any Leftist would need to say it is to take any common sense position nearly anywhere and see how the Hive reacts. But on some level THEY KNOW. This is all based on a visceral fear they cannot own or acknowledge. They hate us BECAUSE they know we speak truth.
I doubt that they "know we speak the truth." Everyone believes that they know the truth.
Linda- NyT, or WSJ??
WSJ. Even wrote to Paul Gigot, the opinion page editor, but no response.
Without supplying proof, belief is meaningless. It's just another opinion.
And yet that opinion terrifies the Left.
I guess they'll have to learn to remain terrified, or change sides. I have friends on the right and on the left, who say the most absurd things. Maybe most people are terrified of something, even if they don't know what it is.
Correction, if you say the 202 election was stolen they will censor you. If you bleat on about how the 2016 election was stolen by Putin your comment will stand.
Yes...here it is.
https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud
Wow....I thought it would be 100% Democrats. Either way, doesn't happen on a large enough scale to be a major problem/issue.
I think that when a reality is soooo bad, most people have a difficult time wrapping their brains around it even when they are exposed to some shreds of truth, NCMaureen. It doesn't seem like it can be right to them and they tune it out and go about their business. Not in their morally advanced society! I suspect that is what was going on with many German citizens during the gas chamber times. The gas chambers made it so that people were not being murdered right in front of them - it was happening somewhere else in a medicalized/clinical way.
I began to understand this after watching the trans indoctrination and medicalization of children and young people in this country. Someday people will ask "How could that have happened? It was based on a belief system not science, so Frankenstein-like... there were no long term studies, so many profited off of it... It was taught to our children in school. Dissent was not allowed. We were encouraged to profess our allegiance with "pronouns". How did it become so widespread?"
Even though we know the truth, there are times we still question 'Is this for real? Or is it just me?' It's so surreal and actually huge that people don't want to mentally tackle it - especially when there are authorities telling them it's all great! It is a good!
The trans issue has highlighted just how non-confrontational and compliant most people actually are and I understand how the gas chambers happened in Germany now.
excellent analogy.
I know people who just can’t believe such evil is possible.
I tell them, Read history!
Just a point of reference the gas chambers were all in Poland and the average German citizen was just trying to survive the second terrible war in twenty-five years. The Nazis found plenty of support throughout Eastern and Western Europe except maybe tiny Denmark to carry out their Final Solution.
They definitely had alot of support - as does Gender Ideology in America. Then, as now, the doctors were even out ahead of the politicians who had to reign them in initially but then ran hard with it.
Pediatricians to the nation:
Dr. Richard Levine: https://www.leftyliars.com/why-rachel-levine-is-still-a-man/
Dr. Jason Rafferty: AAPlawsuit -
https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Ayala-v-AAP-Complaint_stamped.pdf
https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-american-academy-of-pediatrics-named-in-bombshell-detransitioner-lawsuit
The $$$$$$$$:
"U.S. Sex Reassignment Surgery Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Gender Transition (Male To Female, Female To Male), And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030"
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-sex-reassignment-surgery-market
Some relevant PITTs:
https://www.pittparents.com/p/eugenics-in-california-never-again
https://www.pittparents.com/p/echoes-of-eugenics-what-the-doctors
https://www.pittparents.com/p/lets-read-the-transgender-leviathan
The Left used to deny that children were medicalized. Now Frankensteining them is great in the service of GT.
‘Gender Theology: A regressive cult popularized in the 2010s and 2020s, which posited the body as an incidental meathousing for sacred inner ‘gender souls’. It practiced child sacrifice in the form of sterilization of gay and autistic children, where substantial body modification was performed to bring the child’s physicality into congruence with the ‘gender soul’. This became a powerful and influential religion - adherence was institutionally mandated and signaled by the ritualistic performance of believers stating ‘pronouns’ upon introduction. Non-believers were shunned and often ejected from main-stream society.‘
The Heritage Foundation is a propaganda machine. Their "database" is full of BS
They cite the actual cases. You call that BS?
Sorry must not fit “your truth”
Plenty of moderates and those who claim to be on the right also deny it. Idiots all.
Listen to Tucker Carlson’s recent podcast with Mike Benz…jaw dropping. Also Honestly’s podcast with Dean Phillips…also eye opening. The government is 1000% meddling in elections.
I think Tucker is a political cuckold. He gives Putin a BJ with a very soft interview (though I suppose Putin was hard … ). And then Putin goes out and murders Navalny. Hard to take any thing Carlson does with any credibility.
Yeah, you didn't even watch the interview, did you? How is your absurdly abusive and disingenuous nonsense any different from all the claims made about Trump and Putin, when we now know that the whole story was concocted as a propagandistic lie by Democrats, presumably with Hillary's express personal approval?
Do you not care about Joe Biden taking bribes from Ukraine? From China? Are you not worried that the nuclear codes are ostensibly under the final control of someone whose most important decision most days is what flavor of ice cream he is going to eat to try and ease the symptoms of advanced dementia?
Were you ever serious, or is this your peak?
Opps, another conversation degraded into name-calling.
What name calling?
Bullseye
What stories? How about your own eyes? Get on Youtube just for the hell of it and marvel how sycophantic Trump is with Vladimir in Helsinki six or so years ago. It is the most obscene obsequious performance I have ever witnessed from any American politician (never mind LEADER) relative to an adversary. It was then I realized our beloved Donald was a national security risk to our country.
That is a subjective assessment. What is not subjective is that Bidens son was paid many millions of dollars by Ukrainians and the Chinese, despite lacking talent in everything but smoking crack and throwing money at hookers.
What is not subjective is that the FBI had AT LEAST 40 undercover agents at the Jan.6th protests, or that they identifued the pipe bomber nearly immediately and suporessed it.
Maybe we deserve the world being created for us. I dont, but you do, and you are a type that is quite common. I will be dragged down with the rest of you. Just FIRST. So be it, if that is the future.
Trump was our President. He did a good and honest job, in spite of partisan shrieking that is still going in. Biden is a crook whi has opened our nation to the militaries of every enemy we have.
None of this is complicated.
Having one's ass on fire and having an opinion about having one's ass on fire are two separate things.
Speaking and having something worth saying likewise.
To each our own worlds I suppose, me because I find a world filled with dull witted insipidity highly unattractive, and you because you are not capable of living in mine.
Seems I struck a nerve, fella. I’ll send you some knee pads for you next session with Carlson
Not a fan or lies or liars. We seem to differ in this.
RBM… you usually seem to be a thoughtful guy, but your contempt of Carlson seems over the top. If you were criticizing his godawful interview with Andrew Tate or a few others where he failed to ask obvious questions it would make more sense to me. The Putin interview, however, was ballsy as hell and Carlson obviously knew he could have ended up sharing a cell with Gerskowicz. And the US State Department would have laughed with glee rather than trying to bring him home. That’s some badass journalism and the corporate media’s failure to have gotten the scoop exposes their propaganda mandate. And using the Putin Lover trope is the kind of cheap tactic that we would expect from WAPO. Carlson obviously knows and says that Putin is a ruthless dictator, but that he is obviously newsworthy. So why what is behind your unwillingness to give credit where it is due in this case? Just curious.
Well, however thoughtful I may be in reflective moments, my commentary in these parts is usually KevinDurant?-ish, but not nearly as sharp and funny.
I actually enjoy Carlson. I think he is modestly smart, but often full of himself (Limbaugh, RIP, used to call him E. Chatsworth Osborne, a fittingly preppie moniker). I like that he often goes against the grain of popular or main stream talking points and perspective. But he is, as I said, full of himself. I gave him kudos for getting the access to Putin, but thought he could have and should have done a much tougher interview. I suspect he was just pleased to be there. He sat for Putin's expected recitation of Ukrainian history from a Russian perspective - which is both expected and not unusual for a Russian. You got to know something about Russian mentality and sense of its own position in the world. Having sat for that unsurprising lecture shit, he could have pressed Putin much harder. He didn't.
No, there was not a chance that Carlson could have been "detained". Putin is just not that stupid. As America is developing a growing distrust of Ukrainian government leadership and awareness of the corruption that Biden's infinite support enables, the stupidest thing for Putin to do would have been to detain Carlson - A certain way for Biden to push through ever more Ukraine funding.
By the way, saying that my comment is akin to a WaPo piece, is kinda Biden-esque inversion of calling someone na ultraMAGA whatever. I don't think my comment, wicked though it might have been, deserved that! I didn't accuse Carlson of being in love with Putin - just that he fellated him. Whores do that. I didn't get much new info from the interview. I thought his wrap-up on Gerskowitz was good, but he failed to press - other than to say, let him go home with me. He should have parried Putin's claim on why he is in jail accused as a spy with a "Now wait, YOU know, as do the American people and the Russian people who are aware, that he is not a spy. You are holding him as a pawn. That is not how the leaders of respected countries behave. Yes, that would have angered Putin. So what? That is what true journalists do. Whores do not. Easy for me to say, I'm old, have lived my life, and would no doubt die in a gulag. But I'd have gotten my point across.
Yeah, I liked that..
corporate media has been denied access to Putin, it's not as if they have ignored him.
Wow - thanks - that was amazing:
"Everything You Need to Know about the Government’s Mass Censorship Campaign"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYSKaS-XtQ
Thank you for refereal to the Mike Benz interview. If you listen again and note that from 10 mins to 11 mins, Benz explains the threat to NATO, the World Bank and the IMF, under threat from the rise of populist movememts like Brexit. At 11 mins, Tucker Carlson articulates a misreading, a misinterpretation, which Benz just lets slide. Tucker misinterprets the current history lesson, immediately defining the Brexit domino effect to mean that the big bad GOVERNMENT now sees the enemy as within, ie. like the Democrats, the mail-in ballots that helped elect Joe Biden - ie govt censorship.
Listeners appreciate the extent of the govt censorship industry. But let's remember the original fear of loss of unity among western allies rather than pointing to boogiemen amongst any group we disagree with.
That dovetails well with Michael Shellenberger's recent posts on his substac, Public. https://public.substack.com/
Or simply read last week's Taibbi reports.
Does the FP have any obligations to the platform accountability and transparency agencies controlled by our US government? Serious question!
My liberal friends, who are all women, are so emotionally connected to their beliefs that they simply cannot hear anything that contradicts their worldview. I had one almost begin to cry as I pressed her about Biden corruption - she couldn't handle anything that contradicted her comfort zone as it would put her into conflict with her peers.
They want the world to be the benign, safe place it clearly isn’t. So they delude themselves and get mad at messengers speaking the truth.
She is pathetic, sorry.
Unsaint-- it's not just that "they don't care" it's that they are in favor of the LIES that help "their side" win!- Sorry-- I posted this way back- before I read so many others (including you) stating this basic sad fact!
THEY WOULD NOT CARE.
1000%.
Communism is a covert form of Tyranny. The cynicism and lies behind the slow capture of our freedom is truly arresting. It works quietly, providing a cover to those who have abandoned Truth and mean well. They, in the hands of the masterminds, are useful idiots. And they are great in number.
"The soul is forced to labor both day and night, both day and night." Otherwise there is no safe space.
Agree- yet I struggle to come up with an effective antidote. There has to be one.
There is no permanent antidote, that's why we "labor both day and night."
Yep. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And the only legitimate frame of political reference is the Republic, the Constitution and the free citizen.
Anither "chilling" metaphor-
"The virus of Freedom" & the attempt to develop a vaccine against it.
My favorite all-time quote:
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing- the last of all human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances- to choose one's own way"- Viktor Frankel, Man's Search For Meaning
Yes indeed I did.
Especially, "And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here." Smacked me right between my eyes.
Oh yes darkness awaits. The entire security state has been turned inward to those that protest too much. Be they a parent at a school board meeting or a citizen complaining of a rigged election. To me this is the left.
" the hypocrisy that serves as the very basis of their essence,"
Absolutely! I came to conclusion some time ago that systems may change names but power is the same.
The dark comedy of the elites and their media stooges pretending that Dear Leader is not a raving, senile grifter. This is what the USSR under Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko must have felt like. And still they shriek and threaten if we dare to say otherwise.
Not so much a chill but sadness. I saw all of these things happening across the “developed” world and realized that we have utterly failed to learn the lessons so painfully taught by those who fought and died for the freedom we take for granted today.
The words were excellent. And it was far easier to walk on the other side of the road and pretend it was not happening. The signs have been there for years. Really if you can, watch the BBC Putin v the West and you will see how Putin has played the West.
Also because I am really enjoying the book, read Moscow X by David McCloskey. McCloskey used to work as a CIA analyst. The book is about the deep corruption within the Russian state.
Thanks. I hope no one is deluded about Putin. He is evil. The world, history, is full of evil men. But America has to function in this world and not pretend we can change them. The best we can do is be our best selves and be a foil to their evil.
We have lost sight of our best selves. It grieves me. Rather than pointing fingers, we ought to be looking within. We are marching toward the worst practices of evil countries.
The governor of NY said that businesses in NY don’t need to worry about what was done to Trump because that judgment would only happen to him. She doesn’t even realize she declared unequal treatment of citizens is OK.
We are a country living in a glass house, throwing stones.
NC Maureen
No. The best you can do is acknowledge that the Democrat Party is rotten to the core and vote accordingly. You can also argue that there will be no peace in the world until all borders are inviolable and all Conquest Ideologies are opposed. It is also helpful to always choose principle over principal.
The exchange of letters between the Jew Sharansky and the Christian Navalny is instructive.
Yet still fools pull the D lever. The recent election on Long Island proved that ridding ourselves of these fools will be no easy task.
We need a Third Party Lever to gut the rot of the Establishment! Both sides are Guilty of Corruption, unAccountability, and making decisions based on the good of themselves and NOT the citizens they represent.
We should change elections to auctions and anyone who wants to be a member of congress or the President, has to put themselves up for auction. The highest bidder will provide the politician to lead the nation and staff the congress. That way we will know who is running the country.
It’s shocking that people are trampled on by illegals who are provided with more than themselves, and yet continue to vote the same. It’s as if what is happening has nothing to do with elected leaders! They must be listening to Mayorkis take no blame for the results of the open border. How are people so stupid?
It is because Republicans can’t get the Stink of Trump off. Hard to take seriously a party lead by Trump, McConnell, Graham, and crew. Nikki Haley’s NeoCon bona fides don’t help. Tim Scott, Ramaswamy sucking up to Trump doesn’t help. They, like Democrats, just seek power, mostly for themselves. Just look at those (18?) Republicans who voted for the Border bill. Once the details were revealed the whoring of those 18 became visible. Republicans are as bad as Democrats.
Can someone tell me what was wrong with the border bill? Was it simply the fact that democrats and republicans crafted it together? What I’m hoping to hear are specifics on what was and wasn’t included in the bill.
I hate to agree, but after all is said and done truth demands no other choice.
I most definitely agree with you…still I would rather have a Republican elected instead of Biden. But that’s not going to happen…Biden will win and ultimately we will have “Harass” as our first female president. Mark my words, would that it were not so but the Red wave, once again, will not materialize.
We've had this convo before. Call up the RNC, maybe Mara Trump will answer the phone, and demand better candidates for God sakes! What do you expect with that complete and utter fraud called Santos there? He's gone and then what? The seven minutes I heard GOP candidate Pilip speak I realized she wasn't ready either. You want to replace fools? Stop nominating fools!
It's done on a local level so that's where the change has to be made. I keep hoping we'll get a decent candiddate to run against Himes. He's already been there too long.
I think a lot of people
Were concerned that it did not shut the border down until 5900 people per day had crossed into the country - also that it left lots of discretion to Mayorkas whether to enforce (and he has done nothing to enforce the law so far so no one trusts him) and also ii think it would hinder the next president from closing the borders - maybe??
I sincerely apologize. I meant to say 5000 people. I am flawed in many ways but typing on my phone is just one of the many
Of course Putin is a murdering thug. We knew that decades ago with the murder of Litvinenko in your very own country. But the problem is not Putin. The problem is our own governments curtailing our freedoms to do and say what we please.
There are many problems. Some related and some not so related.
The US (and indeed the free world) must not go down the authoritarian/totalitarian route. And yes the basic rule of law(including innocent until proven guilty) is under threat. There are huge questions where some of the far left (and indeed the far right) has received its seed money from.
Weakening the US from within has long been a goal and the opposition if you will (China, Russia and Iran and its axis of resistance etc) doesn't care what means are used.
But for now in the West, there remains a rule of law.
Some people appear to have forgotten that Putin has never been a friend to the West.
Have we ever attempted to be a friend to him? It's certainly no lie that NATO has been expanded to include pretty much every nation in Western AND Eastern Europe, with the sole current exceptions of Belarus and Ukraine.
He's not a nice or good person, but neither is Joe Biden. Biden is keeping Americans in conditions as bad or worse than those described for Navalny, and on patently absurd pretexts.
NATO infringement is perhaps the largest issue in this war. It could have been avoided with negotiations. Putin is evil but he's not alone in this. There are many with blood on their hands.
It was tried in the early 2000s. Bush famously called Putin a man he could do business with. There was a period when Putin had no truck with Islamists and therefore they could make common cause.
The real turning point was the Colour Revolution in Georgia and of course Maidan in 2004. Then you have the Arab Spring...
Putin v the West is v interesting for the talking heads as it is possible to forget what was going on. The former French president Hollande is especially interesting.
The Owen Matthews book Overreach is also interesting -- giving the detailed history.
It basically ends on a v depressing note. Putin has to win or die. There is no coherent vision or Putinism -- really a sort of mumbo jumbo mix of religious ethno nationalism, huge fear of the West/foreign interference and of course kleptocracy. It is v likely when he goes, any illusions of stability in Russia will go as well.
Remember the hot mic moment when Obama told Putin he would have more flexibility after the election?
Anyway, neo-cons are bad, too.
Have you watched this one, MIchelle?
"Everything You Need to Know about the Government’s Mass Censorship Campaign"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYSKaS-XtQ
There remains a rule of law for some. Only some.
But the US does not exist by the Stalinist NKVD proverb -- 'Your lack of criminal record is not to your credit. It is our flaw.'
In Russia, it is almost impossible not to be a criminal or to have broken the law in some way. Whether or not the law is enforced is up to the FSB and of course ultimately to the khozyain.
In the US, you do remain innocent until proven guilty (despite the best efforts of some -- see the infamous Smithsonian meme where it was proclaimed English Common Law should be destroyed as it was 'White Supremacy). The major contribution of ECL was innocent until proven guilty, along with the jury system.
It is not perfect and the law in the US and indeed Britain is broken for a number of reasons. However, it is much better than what currently exists in Russia or China.
Think again. It’s becoming the same in the US. Prosecutors overcharge to get plea bargains. Unless you have a lot of money for lawyers, you’re screwed.
"In the US, you do remain innocent until proven guilty"
That is already changing. If you are male and are accused of any kind of misbehavior toward a female, you are now considered guilty until proven innocent.
"Novel legal theory" prosecutions defy the concept of the rule of law and are openly lauded in the US.
When you say, “indeed the far right” who do you mean?
The NeoNazis who marched in TN at the weekend for example and their fellow travellers.
There was interesting passage in the Spies Lies and Algorithms book I read at Christmas time about how they had uncovered both the far right and far left begin financed. Some place in Texas I believe (going from memory here) If you want to sow chaos and confusion, you use both ends against the centralist middle.
Here is my question about those guys - who are they? Which of those particular guys do you consider part of the right and what makes them right? There is nothing in the Republican charter that approves of these guys - there is no consensus of approval by right leaning people. Do you know their names? Any idiot can throw a bag over his face and look like a moron. If you don’t know who they are can you really say they are on the right? No one on the right identifies with these people. How can you say they are representative?
You mean you gotta watch everybody, all the time? Huh. I'd have to think that over.
But do these groups have any significant impact on our society? Compared to BLM and Antifa, what have these groups accomplished?
Michael Styles
I watch the BBC daily for news on Russia’s completely unjustified war against Ukraine. The BBC smears Trump as dishonestly and outlandishly as Carlson smears Zelensky. The BBC is worse than CNN and as bad as MSNBC.
This a documentary (now five part series), rather than the current news output. It covers from the early 2010s up to late last year. Trump actually comes off v well -- far better than Obama or Biden. Trump of course gave the Javelins to Ukraine where Obama refused. And without that intervention,. Ukraine would not have stood in 2022.
The BBC does suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome so it was interesting to see them give him credit. The talking heads on the series are fairly incredible.
One of the best places for news on Ukraine is the Institute of War's daily updates (complete with maps). I found them when I noticed the Telegraph was using the maps. They give a fairly in depth briefing. I also like their Iran briefing. Their twitter account has the latest: https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar
I tend not to listen to the BBC news these days as it is not good for my blood pressure. Stopped listening during Covid as they appeared to lose all sense of balance.
Shivers down my spine. Live not by lies: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/live-not-by-lies-solzhenitsyn-essay-bezmenov
Listen to Tucker Carlson’s recent podcast with Mike Benz…it’s worse than you can imagine.
I had to listen to it twice. My head was spinning from the first pass.
Us too!
I was devastated listening to that episode. Mostly because most of the country will never hear it / the media will never report on it - and most of the country will live their lives just not knowing or caring.
Yup, it tracked a lot of what Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi have been publishing on their Substack pages.
The hair on my neck stood up. Yet those are the people screaming at freedom loving voters we are "Putin's Puppets" when they have debased the US and everything it stands for. The long, slow, incremental slide into totalitarianism.
Stop sliding.
I certainly did! I finished reading the Chang/Halliday biography of Mao recently and marked countless passages that sound like 2020s US—re-education, public shaming, etc.
For an even closer look, I suggest "Freedom Swimmer," by Wai Chim.
I will check that out! Also, “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang
I couldn’t finish it. It sickened me too much.
We are in trouble. Rig the elections, influence the courts, stifle the courts, cheat in elementary schools.Give inflated grades. The child can't read and yet the developers of the programs and the administrators say they are good readers. The parents believe this, because everyone wants their child on the honor roll. Read what Nicki Neily has written on Parents Defending Education. She has gone before Congress. I am willing to go before Congress and tell the truth about what is going on in our elementary schools in our school district. I don't know if Congress would even care. It is all part of the plan of Dumbing Down America.
On all issues continued shock at the antics of the woke/fascist juggernaut when they obviously intend to continue the insanity doesn't serve us well. We have choices and voices. Education is a personal value. Value it and act on the value.
Yes. A very significant chill. We all know the moral center of America is shifting. Many remain in the battle to hang onto the freedoms proclaimed by our founders. And yet there is decay in our collective soul.
Physician heal thyself.
Was just about to post this exact comment. Makes me want to both vomit and cry.
Rasmussen's recent report (Found here: https://www.rmgresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Elite-One-Percent.pdf) titled "The Elite 1% and the Battle for the American Soul" makes very plain that this is at the very least a clear and present danger here in the US, or something already in place. There is a lot of chilling data in the report, but cogent to your comment, Rasmussen reports that of the elite 1% (defined as those with higher degree, making over $150k as a family, and living in urban areas) 35% "would rather cheat than lose an election". Of the 1% that is also "politically obsessed", 69% would rather cheat than lose an election.
Compare that to the rest of the country where only 7% would rather do so.
The elite echo-chamber bubbles that exist in our power centers have lost all moral moorings, and in their pragmatic pursuit of power are a very clear and present danger to this once great republic. I pray it is not too late.
thanks. great reference
Thank you Bari for your amazing reporting! You are making this world a better place. Navalny's wife Julia just published a very moving video saying that she will continue his fight against Putin's regime. Unbelievably brave and amazing family!
I weep for the Americans who have no idea of the cost of protesting in Russia against this murderous regime. RIP Alexei may God protect your family.
The fate of Navalny is of less relevance to American citizens than the fates of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Can we please clean our own house before getting all worked up about the neighbor’s house? There is so much stunning information coming out right now about the US intelligence community’s involvement in recent elections (from Taibbi and Schellenberger for example) that isn’t being just covered well in the FP.
“ Thank you Bari for your amazing reporting! You are making this world a better place.” Sorry to burst your bubble, but Bari Weiss remains totally committed to the political beliefs of the left and will vote accordingly. She has found a way to make money by feeding moderates and conservatives what they want to hear, even though she herself doesn’t believe most if any of it.
I pretty much agreed with you until October 7; that the corpse in chief is kowtowing to the muslim refugees in MI for badly needed votes show that the left has a major split. I think Bari sees this now as, unlike the other failed PRO-crime democRAT policies, this directly effects her sense of self as a Jew. We'll see.
Bari…?
"Bari" relative to Jim (and other's here) comment that she, for all the lamenting about the left's failed policies, will, in the end, likely continue the insanity by continuing her support of those same politicians who foisted them upon us.
Then at 86, I must have learned nothing, so at this point I'll just excuse myself, admitting I'll take the little bit I can get.
This will be controversial but I can't help but be concerned that we are sliding into what Russia currently is. The movement is from both the far right and the far left. We are trampling and tearing down the very institutions that protect our freedoms. We seem to have lost all trust and faith in our fellow man so that we can no longer listen to another point of view or perspective without going into attack mode. Maybe we can each start to trust and welcome that we get to be enriched by other opinions and thereby learn.
Bari's journalism is refreshing. We do not need to rate news outlets as our rating systems are mostly about whether we agree or not with the writing. If we rate on honesty or common sense or even quality of writing then The Free Press is #1. How I long for this style of Journalism!
Note that this articles includes copies of the exact letters!!! There is nothing to hide.
I respectfully disagree with your conclusions and would appreciate it if you would offer facts rather than accusations. Thank you for sharing your point of view and I don’t mean that in ironic or sarcastic tone.
Thank you for your politeness. I have been reading the FP daily since it launched. My comment was an opinion based on reading almost every article published, and the general tone of comments by regular readers. While there are occasional unbiased articles dealing with conservative issues and the articles about Israel and trans issues are excellent, the writers are mostly well known liberals/leftists, and the slant of most articles is to the left. More importantly, there is essentially no reporting on the "Biden crime family" and still massive bashing of Republicans in general and the former President specifically. The comments are where the articles are praised/ bashed and debated, along with refutation and questions about what is being ignored. I am not looking for a conservative or right wing publication, I am looking for fair and balanced reporting based on the real world, without political based opinion or snarky comments.
About Bari! Key fact I left out!
It’s called honest reporting. Not politically motivated journalism such as the likes of many on the left and right. The political motivation in reporting has become the norm to the extent which one resents transparent journalism. 😖
"And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here. " Why does that sound familiar?
Can I ask a simple question? Yes? Why does no one care that this EXACT THING is going on in Cuba, NOW? At this moment? The Cubans tried to revolt during COVID, when the collectivest jail cell they live in as a country got so small death and suffering seemed preferable to continuing to pretend that the whole country is not ruled by sadistic megalomaniacs.
Biden didn't care. The American press didn't care. The huge protests against the callousness and cruelty of their governments made in Cuba and Venezuela made no impressions on the American Left. Why not?
Does it bother you when people are kept in solitary confinement? How about Cuban dissidents, who were and as needed presumably still are kept in cells the size of dog cages, where they can't properly stand up or sit down, and which have only small slits that can be opened and closed for air? These things are designed to break peoples minds quickly and efficiently, and so terrorize people that they spend the rest of their lives shaking in silence.
No, there is no principle here. None. Bernie Sanders spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union when the KGB still ruled, and when Soviet agents were still trying to overthrow governments to create their own system of privation and privilege all around the world.
This is silly. Yes, Navalny is or was admirable. But let's not pretend that the American and European Left was not perfectly content with things when Solzhenitsyn was suffering the frozen North.
Dear God. It never end with you people. Your only reality is only EVER what is being put in front of your eyes at that moment. You have no memory, and lack the principles to create a future of your own.
How is Cuban situation or this Russians situation different from solitary confinement and beatings of j6 prisoners
?
It isn't. You're right. Those stories are unknown to any American who gets their "news" from any of the controlled and coordinated sources.
The point is that there are political prisoners everywhere in the world. This story is being run because some organized group is trying to induce enough hate for Russia that we are willing to support idiotic and destructive foreign policy that benefits a few at the expense of most of us. America is not as different from the old Soviet Union, particularly now, as we like to think. Putin himself said our media is so fully controlled that he would be unable even to get a story out, and he said that applies to both America and Europe. I can't speak to Europe, but all you have to do is watch one of those videos with hundreds of newscasters saying the EXACT SAME WORDS to understand that our system is corrupt, and that it is not all that hard keeping unwelcome stories out of nearly all of the press.
I like this website because SOMETIMES Bari bucks the trend, and shares stories that most of the rest of the mockingbird media won't touch. But as a mild paranoiac, who has earned every bit of his paranoia with extensive reading and considerable contemplation, I do wonder at times if Bari is just mild managed opposition, and that she received enough money from somebody to start this thing that they have the ability to tell her at times what her story is going to be, as here.
Navalny was a man of rare moral courage. No doubt. But it's impossible not to see this as damage control relative to Tucker's interview with Putin that none of its critics seem to be able to watch.
Agree with much.
I expect the fp was ashamed at having some guy they hired named peter whosis try and fail to bite Carlson’s ankle last week.
But I also doubt their article here, is a response to his report; if it is, it still matches his journalism, stride for stride.
Like I've lately been repeating a lot, it's the commenters that are keeping TFP what it barely is.
Bingo.
This story is being touted to discredit Tucker’s interview. That’s all.
Right. The only viable rival of Putin, who was already poisoned by Putins perfectly democratic and law abiding regime in the past, died in prison specifically to distract everyone from the excellent Tuckers interview. How dare he!
When it existed, did you oppose Soviet Communism? Do you believe, with all of sane humanity, that the illegitimate regimes in Cuba and Venezuela are every bit as bad, if not worse, except in scale, as Russia now?
Are you aware that people are being held in AMERICA, right now, in conditions identical to or worse than those described by Navalny? Filthy cells, cold water, bad rations, solitary confinement, beatings? Would you care, if you did accept this fact as fact?
I abhorred communism and other autocratic regimes my whole adult life. What boggles my mind is that people who claim they abhor communism and support freedom and democracy fail to see that Putin's regime is trying to rebuild much of the evilness of the Soviet Union and more. Just because the democrats are against putin does not mean he is a good guy. People refuse to use their brains and end up either supporting or turning a blind eye to one of the vilest and most dangerous regimes on earth.
No one thinks Putin is a good guy. No one in the U.S. supports him. You are into buying the Left's propaganda that the Right loves Putin because they disagree about how the Democrats have dealt with Ukraine.
I didn't see where BorninUSSR mentioned the right, or the propaganda that the Right loves Putin.
The question is “does the United States have a strategic interest in pursuing war for its own sake against Russia, in a war which can only end on one side in our defeat, and on the other with nuclear war.” The answer is obviously no.
And how dumb do you need to be to think the Soviet empire COULD be reconstituted, when most of it now belongs to NATO?
Feel free to answer at length.
Length not required. Putin has spoken frequently and at length about the need to reconstitute Greater Russia. He has specifically identified several countries that “belong” to Russia. The greater risk to an ascendant Russian empire of course belongs to Europe, who in their foolishness thought war was over, or that the U.S. would protect them indefinitely. Neither is the case. The Europeans also fear a powerful Germany. It’s as if we’ve dialed back the clock about a century.
My opposition is to Democrats and their egregious foreign policies as regards Ukraine under the Biden and Obama administrations. I think those policies have strengthened Putin, strengthened his alliances, and placed the security of the West at considerable risk. I am a proponent of Ukraine. I am an opponent of a US proxy war there.
I'll repeat what I've commented before, "The commies Joe McCarthy accused that weren't commies were Democrats."
Well, of course. McCarthy was a Republican and wasn't going to look in his own closet.
Herr, I meant that in snark at Democrats, exclusively.
Or at least distract from it. It's like cats with lasers. Nobody even has to learn or believe anything, or make any new decisions. The purpose is served if we are NOT talking, say, about political prisoners being held HERE, in America, in solitary confinement just like what Navalny endured, without books, without hot water, WITH beatings, and in filth.
If Bari wants to join Gateway Pundit and do a story on THAT, I would be very impressed with her integrity and courage.
The timing is interesting
NCMaureen
Good grief. Get a room.
Good grief, Terence, get a clue. Carlson is hated because he exposes the venality of our government. Do you think he finds Putin admirable? The point he was making is that our own government is lying and incompetent. We know Putin runs a repressive and corrupt state. But we're trying to prevent ours from going down that path. And with people pretending that Biden is not senile, corrupt and repressive, we are not doing a very good job of it.
Thanks for saying this out loud.
Many still don’t understand the import of Tucker’s interview.
This is addressed to the original post in this thread by NCMaureen. (sometimes it's hard to follow long threads) This story has a backstory, i.e. the Putin regime murdered Nalvany. If your hypothesis is correct, that this story is all about discrediting the Tucker interview, then the logical supposition might be be that the Putin regime did not murder Nalvany. Nalvany's death, if at the hands of the Putin regime, did more to discredit Tucker's interview than any of the attacks on Tucker on X, on legacy media, and alternative media combined. After reading your comment and at first pushing back (in my mind), I took another step in my thinking. It does seem odd that Putin would have him murdered at this moment. If Putin didn't have him killed, who did? (I don't know have any answers, and I am not putting forth any "conspiracy theories," just your comment NCMaureen led me to this crazy question. )
No, I have no reason to think anyone but Putin had Navalny murdered. And the timing? It’s strong man Putin showing the West he doesn’t care what we think.
My other comment was how Biden and the media care about Navalny to the extent they can use his murder to discredit Tucker. Tucker embarrasses them, the way Rush Limbaugh used to. So Tucker must be destroyed.
Building upon and attempting to live inside a truth/fact based reality requires healing. Especially when combating the machinations of a scattershot sewer. The American psyche is shattered. We might be a little more forgiving of people working two jobs and fighting to keep a roof over their heads. People who can't spend eight hours a day on Substack. The only common denominator capable of grounding America in a healthy human reality is the American Constitution. Everything else is psyop. The Constitution is the only healing "third" available that can override manufactured psyop polarities and extract the solutions necessary to create the prosperous truth/fact reality Americans deserve.
Shock at the antics of thugs no longer serves us. Nor the endless cackling of the collective without the conscious presence of a grounded center. Likewise we need to willfully abandon the false narrative intentionally distorting and subverting the American national dialogue.
Thank you not only for obtaining these but for publishing them as well. It is yet another reminder of the fragility of this thing we call "freedom;" and, sadly, the predictability of events does not reduce their tragic nature.
I hope this can harden us, here in the West, against the increasing attempts to reduce and rearrange our freedoms "for the common good." We can allow absolutely no slack on this issue, regardless of which party/ideology is attempting it.
If you ever find your vigilance waning by leaning on that old saw of "it can't happen here," read these letters again.
Too late, it already has happened here. But will Bari publish letters from J6 prisoners who got 10 yrs for entering the capital through a door held open for them by the capital police?
Publish their letters? I dare not hope. Let's start with simply acknowledging their existence, and that the women who stormed Congress during Kavanaugh's proceedings were not arrested or charged at all.
No, we're seeing TFP decry Putin's political abuses while empowering the same abuses here in the USA.
How are we to defeat "Putin's evil" while our leaders are just like him?
Neither was the cop who shot and killed Ashley Babbitt.
Oh I heard he saved countless lives that day. Countless!
Who knows how many people Ashley would have killed!
How about TFP do an interview with Babbit's husband, and ask him if Biden is empathetic and if the USA government has better character than Putin.
The Free Press will never tell those stories - ever - like everything else that illuminates the injustice of the Biden administration it will be as though it never happened on this news site. You say to look for the good - I have looked for it here but I just don’t see it
That is my question as well.
Yes, naturally this, along with the covid and "green" controls are exactly the types of things to which I am referring.
👍👍👍
It can absolutely happen here
What monumentally heroic men these Russian patriots are, and what vitally important communications they provided to the world. These letters should be included in every study of bravery in the face of brutal dictatorship, torture and death; should be required study in all our "woke" universities and among our frivolous political class. The line about the false belief that it is possible to "modernize authoritarianism" is a warning to all who put their faith in powerful leaders who offer simple solutions to complex problems (i.e. "Only I can save America!"). The world lost a true hero and a friend of freedom with the murder of Navalny. Thank you for publishing these important letters between two towering heroes of liberty.
I disagree. Arguably Churchill was indeed that kind of man. Ditto George Washington. Difficult times call for strong leaders. We are in very difficult tomes and it can get worse. So I am not opposed to someone who says I can fix this. The problem is not SAYING it, the problem is saying it and not MEANING it. Remember Biden's campaign promises that he was going to bring about unity? Because he is weak, exceedingly weak, all he did was solidify everyone into their bunkers. We have got to do better while we still can.
I'm not surprised that you support the Orange Haired Egomaniac who claims he will throw out the Constitution on day one of his Presidency, but if you think Trump is a strong man worthy of your loyalty, I remind you that he avoided the military draft by means of a doctor's note diagnosing heel spurs from an X-ray that no one has ever seen, and far from being a strong leader, Trump is a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully who enjoys grabbing women by their privates. He is a friend and admirer of dictators and enemies of the US, and he urged his jack-booted MAGA followers to attack our Capitol and overturn a legal election. If you really want a strong autocratic ruler who can get things done, I urge you to consider moving to Putin's Russia
I do not see it as a worthwhile use of my time to engage with the intellectually unarmed.
Hahaha
And you’re a typical left wing nut who probably believes in global warming, transgenderism and Obama Marxism...MAGA! And I’m a Vietnam combat veteran and I don’t give one shit about your comments regarding heel, Spurs, Donald Trump, and the draft.
You seem to be suffering from PTSD and you have delusions that you know me and my political positions, but rather than tell you that you're so wrong, I'll just suggest that you seek help for your mental condition.
You really can’t handle push back, can you? And yet, you’re one of most verbose and accusatory on the thread. I think many readers have already figured you out.
Hey, here's a new thought. If my posts disturb you (and your friends) so much, I advise you not to read them. No one is holding a gun to your head to force you to read and respond to those posts, and I can assure you that I will not bother to read or respond to any of yours.
That vituperative, unhinged personal attack was your idea of push back? You really need some psychiatric help.
I am a believer in Lord Acton's observation about governments and political leaders that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." That's why I have no problem with a bumbling octogenarian as President, because, in our system of government, no individual leader, branch, agency, or office has total power or is meant to make all the decisions. Our Constitution purposely diffuses power for the very reason that Lord Acton mentions. You think decisive action is necessary; I believe that well thought-out and generally supported decisions are better and healthier for the wellbeing of our government and the liberties of our populace. Trump may think he has all the answers to our nation's troubles (I personally disagree with many of his solutions), but his desire to run the whole show from the White House and steamroll his plans through a compliant Congress and packed Supreme Court places our republic in jeopardy much like Julius Caesar's attempted takeover of the Roman republic, or Napoleon's of France, and Hitler of Germany (at least Napoleon and Hitler had military experience and did not dodge the draft). Even if Trump were a sane person, and I don't believe he is, I would oppose his Presidency for philosophical reasons mentioned above.
You have not a clue.
So you want a credible dictator
No. And that is not a logical conclusion from what I said. For too many reasons to explain.You don't think there are things that need to be fixed? Or do you not want those things fixed?
For me, again I date myself because imo it’s relevant, as a gen x-er; while awful and poignant- the letters aren’t shocking or illuminating.
The Cold War (Stalin and Mao) after Nazi Germany (Hitler) was not THAT LONG ago.
Why the shock? Why the fascination with these letters and this man? MILLIONS upon MILLIONS died under the leadership of the three …THREE MEN mentioned above. And we; the media and the West are obsessed with a few recent characters? And why?
IMO lack of education -period.
Wikipedia just about gushes with admiration for Mao; as if he’s Thomas Jefferson or George Washington or Mother Theresa.
The stories presented by the FP good. But for me there is NO shock value; no consideration of how we got here- no evaluation of why we are so surprised and also outraged (but are we really?)
We have BEEN HERE. WE collectively turn a blind eye and have politicians who know damn well the history and ideology and methodology of these nations annd those like them. And yet- we turn a blind eye for 100 years. And what about Cuba? Venezuela? Haiti? Mexico? What about the horrible human rights violations of our “partners” in Qatar? Saudi Arabia? Bahrain?
There is nothing surprising or shocking or NEW for us. And how sad history will continue to repeat itself because the WEST refuses to put morality and the values it says it’s for before money and greed.
Here's the reason why: the Left--which has gradually seized control of every institution in America--have always been admirers of Stalin and Mao. As we saw as a result of Oct7, they secretly admire Hitler.
The Left rejects the morality and values of the Enlightenment that our nation was built on. And they have--through a combination of indoctrination of the young and threatening the old with Cancellation or the label "evil"--convinced a sizable part of the American population that the Left's ideology is more "fair" and certainly important than any morality and values from the past.
When Democrats were screaming for the unvaccinated to be put in camps and refused medical treatment, those who were capable of waking up realized exactly how (and how easily) Hitler managed to seize the hearts and minds of Germans.
Too many, however, remain hypnotized by the Left.
The disease of “fairness “ coupled with dismissal of history
It stems in part from lack of education. Students today, if they know anything, know Jefferson kept slaves and FDR hid his paralysis and had a mistress. They don't know how many Northern soldiers died in the Civil War that freed the slaves. They are taught that Hitler was bad and started WWII and the US nuked two Japanese cities, but may learn little of the millions killed by Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other communists. Even the Holocaust isn't as widely known as it should be or we wouldn't have so many pro-Hamas, antisemetic rallies on campuses (and college president's who can't unequivocally condemn calls to kill all Jews, saying it depends on context).
Fairness yes, this is a byproduct.
The sword is guilt.
Pure guilt.
"WEST refuses to put morality and the values it says it’s for before money and greed"
Our enemies know this. It's the Trojan Horse.
It is worse than that. They are welcome to participate. I do not have a problem with that. I have a problem with letting those who participate in US capitalism buy US elections. Let's return US elections to US citizens! Overturn Citizens United. It is an abomination.
Written by a man who lived through rather than heard about it in some classroom.
I disagree there are any politicians that know history, etc.
Great work, Bari!
Now why not share the letters of Julian Assange?
How about the political prisoners from January 6?
C'mon Bari!
C'mon team at the Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project!
The DPRP I like it!!
even sounds soviet
I support this wholeheartedly. Folks on my side of the aisle screech about picking up the votes of disillusioned Dems and independents to assure the win. I guess that is a short-term strategy for a win but it is just kicking the can down the road. Disillusioned Dems need to take their party back. It has to start at ground level with precinct activity. That is how the progs gained control of it to begin with.
Good boy! You picked up on "DPRP."
This really hit home:
"But in the current situation, it is not them who are to blame, but us, who naively thought that there was no going back to the old ways. And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here."
Yep. That one hit me, too. I only wish more people could see it happening here.
Russia has never known true freedom, true democracy, but then neither did Imperial Japan, Nor Der Kaiserzeit deutchland oder Der dritte Reich. It took a major war to change this.
In our Republic we’ve managed to create an amalgamation of Soviet philosophy with a philosophical darkness. They march in the streets & college campuses advocating hate. They destroy for failing to use the “correct” pronoun. We elect dung & expect a bed of roses! Be afraid. Do something.
Under the guise of tolerance no less.
I originally subscribed to TFP to stand with Bari after her shameful treatment by the NYT. This article exemplifies the immense value I have received in return. Thank you Bari - and the rest of the TFP staff - for your honest and insightful journalism. You are a beacon in a profession that has lost its way.
I do agree, and subscribed for same reason. I would, however, like it if she and TFP would shine this same light on the same things happening here in our own country under this administration. Specifically related to this is the treatment of the J6 prisoners being held for years withour bail or representation and/or sentenced to lengthy jail terms (10+ years!) for protesting and walking into the capitol through doors held open by the police. That's a canary in the coal mine if you are willing to look past the views of a certain tribe, and I wish Bari and team would be willing to do that.
Hear hear
Same.
May we now agree that moral relativism needs to be rejected at every turn, that there is indeed evil in the world and that measuring people on a good versus evil scale is not only appropriate but necessary? Unfortunately there are millions among us who bought into the moral relativism BS and parrot what they were taught in far too many schools and universities.
Evil is a religious concept. So it had to be denied.
“When there is no God, everything is permissible”. Interesting that a Russian, Dostoyevsky, wrote those words.
Acknowledging the existence of evil is what brought me to my faith in God. God is subtle. Satan is not.
Same here.
Great comment. I often summarize the two battles regarding civilization as 1) the religious v the secular, and 2) the globalists v those who desire national sovereignty. There is not uniformity as between these ( an atheist can still prefer sovereignty and there are religious globalists ) but there is a lot of overlap from what I have observed.
Yes, American goodness, if any of it can survive, depends on its support for "In God We Trust," whether or not one believes in the Judao-Christian God.
I agree. Judao-Christian values are exemplary rules to live by and are the foundation of the nation. Whether you believe in that God or not you abandon the principles at your own peril. And mine. And yours. And every one else's.
In Dante’s Inferno, the vestibule to the 9 circles of hell contained the anguished souls of the Uncommitted - those that never took sides. Those that, when faced with a choice of supporting good or evil, were too cowardly to commit to a side, that suggest “there are two sides to every story”. They do this purely for themselves, to hedge their morality, to always be able to say they are level-headed and give themselves a way out. There’s a reason Dante recognized this as purely selfish evil. They can look at the bodies of slaughtered Israeli children and offer that perhaps there was a reason for this. They can also look at slaughtered Ukrainians and say well maybe Nato expansion caused this, or whatever reason they choose to conjure.
It is as true now as it was 700 years ago - it is not virtuous to avoid calling evil what it is.
Thank you Bari and TFP for publishing these letters and giving voice to those who stand for freedom. May we continue to be inspired by them and others to stand up and no longer be silent ourselves.
Nothing new or shocking. It’s happened in history before - not that long ago.
It’s happening today in this very country. Too many Americans are somnamulant individuals to what’s going on.
Tucker’s point was that we need to understand the grievances and thought process of our self-proclaimed adversary. What reasonable person could disagree? As for Navalny, as long as we have hundreds of political prisoners who are being denied fair trials…I’m just not interested.
Mitchell Rapoport
On the eve of this completely unjustified war, Carlson callously and cluelessly said “nobody cares if Russia invades Ukraine”.
This statement defines Carlson. He is a nobody.
Decent people care.
Decent people did not care during Putin's first invasion of Ukraine under Obama, because there wasn't a massive propaganda campaign telling them to.
Presumably, decent people ought to care about the horrors ongoing in the Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, and various parts of Africa, but Africans don't have the influence to get into our corrupt politics and be rewarded with hundreds of billions of dollars.
Also, there are a whole lot of people within the disputed parts of Ukraine - former soviet states - who disagree with the "completely unjustified" part.
If you're not willing to recognize the role of politics, dirty money, propaganda, and manipulation in this war, then at least please understand why people with a broader perspective don't find this quite as cut-and-dry as you do.
Unjustified in your opinion. But on this matter, I care more about Putin’s. Isn’t that the point? George III callously and cluelessly dismissed the colonists’ grievances and look at the result. You’ve got to listen with some level of curiosity.
you're comparing Russia to the colonists?!
God almighty, it takes effort to be this confused
No, I am comparing methods of dealing with conflict. Do you get it yet?
I agree with your Carlson analysis. But not about Navalny. My heart grieves for political prisoners wherever they are, including ours. I think that the US cannot claim the moral high ground over Putin at this point, not that Putin is worthwhile.
You can't disagree unless, of course, you are Left.
I can disagree. Some people are not worth talking to. People like that include compulsive liars, sociopathic dictators whose only interest in maintaining power, mass murderers.
Putin already gave all of his reasons for invading Ukraine - his propaganda runs on RT and their TV all day long. He wrote an essay that you can read on the kremlin website about how Ukraine is a fake nation and has no right to a language or culture and other genocide musings. It’s freely available. His insights are neither valuable, honest, or accurate. Even if he only lied once (like when he blamed Poland for starting WW2 by not surrendering to the Nazis immediately, absolving Hitler of any responsibility), it already taints anything else he has to say.
Tucker could have made that a valuable interview by asking truly challenging questions. Why are you bombing civilian targets repeatedly? Why are all of your serious political opponents in jail or dead? Why have there been so many political assassinations under your regime? Why are you imprisoning journalists? What’s wrong with calling this a “war”? Why do you have a billion dollar palace when you have no official business dealings that would generate that level of wealth? Where did that money come from?
But instead he gave Putin a microphone and let him ramble on about a history thousands of historians (and all of Poland) can plainly contend, and marveled at how pretty Moscow is and how clean everything is. As if Putin would take him to tour the vast majority of not-Moscow-not-st Petersburg Russia that lives in abject poverty with no education, in filth, with no running water out in the middle of nowhere.
Could have been useful. Was definitely not. Some people are just not worth interviewing.
Tucker did not bother asking such questions as he rightly knew there was no point asking them. Likewise with asking Biden questions we’d like honest answers to. Sometimes one can learn much about someone by letting them talk without repeated interruptions. I learned a lot from Putin’s interview, about Putin. For one, he’s a formidable opponent. We need Trump.
Don’t you think it’s strange trump never has anything bad to say about Putin? He rips all of his even slight opponents to shreds - low energy Jeb, Ted Cruz has an ugly wife, I mean just destroys them. Never says a word about Putin except what a smart man he is. You don’t find that strange?
Tucker Carlson? Who said anything about him
Pretty strict, but okay.
Reading this correspondence, one is reminded what real heroism is. It is not yelling inarticulated slogans at protests or death threats at a police officer; it's not vandalizing shops, intimidating a student walking on campus or banging on the car of a doctor trying to leave a Jewish hospital; it's not twerking for pre-schoolers in drag at a library, nor throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," nor sitting on a street blocking motorists. And it is not surgically lopping off or adding parts to young bodies that have deliberately and insidiously been broken inside. Both these men and many men and women who can choose to be silent but speak up against true evil in this world, they pay dearly with their freedom and sometimes with there lives. These people are heroes. Let us raise a glass or say a prayer for Alexei Navalny and other such exceptional, honorable human beings.
Thank you Bari for sharing these letters. It is deeply moving to read the words of two men of profound truth, courage and conviction in a world that seems to be so lacking in these virtues. I sit here pondering what does it mean for me as I watch the erosion of freedom that I am seeing and do nothing. By sharing these stories, you allow Navalny to continue to "influence the souls of millions of people worldwide."