Well, folks, we are officially living in the twilight zone.
I had a lengthy online back and forth with some random trumper yesterday.
I posted that trump botched the handling of the pandemic, over one million people died, businesses crashed, the economy collapsed, prices went through the roof, blah, blah, blah.
He responded: those things never happened! He said it was all Biden’s fault.
I responded no, it was Trump’s fault because he was president in 2020.
He responded : how could it be Trump’s fault, he was only president for ONE MONTH IN 2020!😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳
I finally realized the ignorant trumper didn’t even know trump was the president in 2020!!!!!
He was absolutely convinced that Biden was president in 2020 and everything was BIDEN’S fault!
I had to explain to him the election didn’t happen until NOVEMBER of 2020 and Biden didn’t even take office until January, 2021.
With that stunning level of basic ignorance, we are dealing with people who don’t even know what the actual FACTS are, they have NO IDEA what the actual truth is, and what’s worse they don’t give a rat’s behind about any of it!
I was absolutely SHOCKED that this person had NO IDEA that trump was president while COVID was ravaging our country!
I have a sinking feeling our democracy is doomed. How are these ignorant NO information voters ever going to know the truth and what the actual facts are about anything that goes on in our democracy!!!
It was STUNNING to realize that half the voting population is absolutely CLUELESS about basic facts!😳😳😳😳😳😳
NO WONDER THEY KEEP VOTING FOR that pathological liar, psychopath and sociopath!! They don’t even know what’s actually happening in our country!!
Democrats are trying to campaign on policies and platforms; but voters who continue to vote for trump are so misinformed or outright ignorant that many don’t even know he was president in 2020 and botched the pandemic response so badly that over ONE MILLION people died, our economy crashed, thousands of jobs were lost, he LOST the 2020 election, incited an insurrection, etc.
Trumpers have been told NONE of those things happened, and if they did, it was all Biden’s fault!
If you try to tell a trumper those things happened on TRUMP’S WATCH, they will tell you you’re lying - NONE of those things
are true or Trump’s fault!
Even in the face of actual facts, statistics and video footage they WILL NOT be convinced otherwise.
How can ANY democratic candidate running for office ever be able to win their votes when trumpers are so WILLFULLY ignorant of basic facts, data and statistics and DETERMINED to stay that way!
The only media they listen to is FOX entertainment, and other radical right wing social media outlets that outright LIE to their audiences every day with IMPUNITY because they are not subject to any governmental oversight.
If this does not change, Democrats will continue to lose because MAGA supporters are completely disinterested in actual facts and believe “alternative facts” and outright lies are the ABSOLUTE truth!
The essential flaw I see in your comment is: “lengthy back and forth with some random Trumper”. Why in the name of all that is good would you WASTE your time doing that?!? There is absolutely NOTHING to be gained by dealing with a closeminded poster child for the Dunning Kruger Effect!
Robert Heinlein, the famous sci-fi writer, once said: “Never try to teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and you annoy the pig.” My apologies to pigs everywhere…. 🤣
I never, in my wildest dreams, would have expected a voter to be so ignorant as to not even know who was president in 2020! No wonder they blame Biden for everything!
To learn that these are the types of people who are voting for trump is SHOCKING!
They have no clue how dangerous trump is and what a sick, disgusting liar and sociopath he is.
This democracy may not survive because of the lying and brainwashing by republicans and the radical right wing media echo chamber and the utter ignorance on the part of trumpers who have voted for that loser 3 time, no matter the amount of harm and damage he has done to our democracy, to them and to the middle class!
Glad you saw it first hand! I have friends on Facebook that are (former) Republicans, center-right to my center-left, are from Texas, and have *many* so-called “friends” that are diehard Trump Cult members. I’ve learned, over time, that you can give them *every* reasonable argument, send them every link to responsible and unbiased reporting and more, and they either won’t read it or discount it as “left wing bias”.
I wouldn’t even call them “acquaintances”, as they’re FB “friends” of an *actual* friend IRL. I just try to help defend my center-right friends’ opinions, as I find myself agreeing on more and more subjects with them, as the concept of “center” in American politics is rapidly losing its meaning….
So, so, so dangerous what republicans and McConnell did to this country. They could have stopped him in his first term but they absolutely refused! They are more guilty than the voters!
Nice reminder of a very creative writer...it's been a long time since I've read anything by him: could you suggest a good book to get reacquainted with him?
I haven’t read him in AGES so I’m not your best resource for a recommendation, sadly. I’ve just found myself using that quote over and over again over the last 9+ years, as it’s never been *more* apropós…
Yup it’s hard to believe. My perception is simply those folks WANT to believe what they’ve been told. It’s less uncomfortable for them than facing reality & is 2024 not 1895.
I'm reminded of Stormy Daniels sitting in on Kimmel's show, and he's holding up the little orange mushroom that she said was the most accurate representation of the many choices she had.
I'm really sad I can't post the picture here. <sigh>
There are just a few points of interest occurring as we speak.
Establishing an illiberal democracy or an outright autocracy requires an energetic as well as a charismatic leader. Trump is elderly, lazy, undisciplined, and impulsive. His declining health is not going to magically disappear, and may have a sudden and dramatic downturn. A leader in that condition is not likely to be up to the task of overturning an entire system of government, even with the aid and promptings of his Project 2025 cohorts, Congressional lickspittles, and co-President Musk.
As regards President Musk, he is beginning to garner far too much attention with his antics. Trump doesn't like being upstaged, particularly if that upstaging indicates any weakness on his part. The rest of Trump's sycophants and courtiers are going to be nervous about Musk's saying something bad about THEM to DJT, and will be trying to knife him from behind so as to simplify the chaos.
J. D. Vance has been all-but-invisible throughout the current travails. It could be by design, but it may also be that he has been told to STFU and is following orders.
Starting out with a government shutdown even before taking office sets the stage for a stock market downturn, enraged travellers, disgruntled government employees, and a monumentally fumbled start to the term. If that pattern continues and includes tariffs, abandoning NATO, and other actions that isolate the US from the rest of the world, the midterms suddenly become MUCH more interesting to contemplate. If Trump doesn't make it that far, and Vance is sitting in the POTUS chair after having violated numerous laws and ethical standards (which I fully expect to see happen), impeachment and removal by two Democratic branches of Congress could conceivably even make Hakim Jeffries the president in two years. While that's a long shot that would be dependent upon several unrelated events, those events are already beginnning to align themselves.
I'm still hoping and probably in vain that Joe Biden, who is still our President will exercise his recently SCOTUS Approved Official Acts that are Immune from Prosecution! I'll let you use your imagination, but it should be noted that Trump's new BFF/Shot Caller Elon Musk is an existential threat to Our Democracy!
Hungary has a population of 9.676 million for Orban to control. The US has a population 345,426,571 million people to control. A bit more difficult I'd say.
In theory, that’s correct, but don’t forget he starts with at LEAST 77.4M of them that voted for him, likely 100M+ once you add in family members and those that didn’t vote, so subtract that from your total!
And with the right-wing media system that’s been in full control of the “narrative” for years, the vast majority of Americans don’t get REAL news or know what’s truly going on. FYI: I’m not just talking the obvious Fox/OAN/Newsmax, but your “local” Sinclair Broadcast Group television station (almost 200 of them in the major US media markets) or your “local” iHeart Media radio station (800+ of them across the US) that take their editorial content from their rightwing billionaire owners and put their words in the mouths of your “local” trusted news anchor.
And the MSM is weak sauce in comparison, parroting the rightwing talking points to be “relevant” and for clickthroughs and ad dollars. No matter what “story” Republicans and others try to spew about the “left wing media”, they are totally and laughably WRONG and out of touch with modern media. I sold high-tech to the largest media companies around the world for decades before retiring just a year ago, and I’ve seen it happen in real-time. Once the Fairness Doctrine died with Reagan, we took a wrong turn down this path and here we are: we don’t even share the same *facts* any more!
I don't think we can overstate the risk we face over the next 4 years. Even if our worst nightmares don't actually happen; we need to be ready if they do. Talking about what could happen will be necessary to potentially keep up with the chaos.
Can’t wait to read this oasis of sanity in the strangest time of my life. My parents did not prepare me for this and if they were still alive today would be devastated. We are Hungarian so my dad would be hit twice as hard
I am in Budapest right now, at the end of a Christmas market tour. Beautiful city, but I feel the shadow of authoritarianism because I know what the government is like. I’ll have to read this in full later.
I've been to Budapest at least 30 times. But, because of the neo-fascist government state NAZI Orban has created, I will never go back to Budapest again, will never spend one nickel in Hungary.
That said, while you are there, take the time to visit the giant indoor Market that is in District 9 (a couple of blocks away from Raday Utca (Utca = Street). Phenomenal place to hang out for a couple of hours and have lunch.
Please spread the word about Cruz & Crapo writing amendments stopping HR82/S597 after cloture was approved. This affects several million teachers,nurses, firefighters & police. SSFairnessAct.
I'm way ahead of you, as I'm already massively unimpressed with all the Dems and Republicans who have contributed to this nonsense. We need serious people in government, not lackeys to the oligarchs and cartels.
I enjoy your writing but decry having two subscriptions for one writing team. Are you employing ‘Status Quo’ as a teaser for “The
Big Picture”. I rarely comment; so obviously concerned. We are within a month of serious damage to our country, so will let it ride. The ‘news’ is awful but also awfully interesting.
I appreciate your input. There is no writing team for The Status Kuo however. It’s all me. I have my own proofreader / editor, who is a friend of mine.
The Big Picture is a team, of which I am a member. If you want to read my pieces there, you do need a separate subscription because it’s a different publication entirely from this one, for which I am one of the writers!
Jay’s allowed to collaborate with anyone he chooses and we’re all better for him doing so!
I believe that the articles he writes for The Big Picture (George Takei’s group) are available to free subscribers, as I believe are those that Todd Beeten writes with them as well, so I don’t think you need to pay for 2 subscriptions….
If the goal of one of our two major political parties, the GOP, is to systematically dismantle the guardrails of democracy, they are going all in. All one has to do is look at the playbook they are following--Project 2025. They believe a strongman as America's leader should be able to rule the electorate.
I was in Budapest, Hungary about 18 months ago and to the casual observer nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The real damage being done to their democratic form of governance was occurring in smoke filled back rooms amongst the political zealots. We now know what that is looking like in the lead up to Trump version 2.0.
Authoritarian rulers chip away at the foundations of democracy a little at a time until what was assumed to be normal is anything but. Trump and his cabal of sycophants' have laid their cards on the table and are calling our bluff. They are offering nothing but lies, false promises, and hate filled rhetoric, seeking to pit us against each other to achieve their means. Their propaganda campaign about pitting American's against each other--people of color, immigrants, religions, LGBTQ+, and transgender people, is what authoritarians do. They prey on the fears of people to achieve their means.
How do people who still believe a liberal democracy is in the best interest of ALL Americans? First, we stand up, and be heard speaking the truth. Authoritarians hate the truth. Peaceful civil disobedience by its people, along with a free press, are necessary to speak truth to power. They want their own narrative to be the truth.
I know we are hurting right now but we cannot give into the harm being done by those with ill intent. I mentioned ALL Americans because we are a nation of immigrants, regardless of race, creed or religious affiliation. Are we perfect? No, but we strive to be the a country that still believes the freedoms and opportunities we take for granted should not be something we will give away to would be authoritarians. In the immortal words of Nancy Reagan, "Just say No!"
The apparent incompetence of the incoming administration is unsettling and the role of tycoons in determining our fate is alarming. Surely we can do better?
Well, folks, we are officially living in the twilight zone.
I had a lengthy online back and forth with some random trumper yesterday.
I posted that trump botched the handling of the pandemic, over one million people died, businesses crashed, the economy collapsed, prices went through the roof, blah, blah, blah.
He responded: those things never happened! He said it was all Biden’s fault.
I responded no, it was Trump’s fault because he was president in 2020.
He responded : how could it be Trump’s fault, he was only president for ONE MONTH IN 2020!😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳
I finally realized the ignorant trumper didn’t even know trump was the president in 2020!!!!!
He was absolutely convinced that Biden was president in 2020 and everything was BIDEN’S fault!
I had to explain to him the election didn’t happen until NOVEMBER of 2020 and Biden didn’t even take office until January, 2021.
With that stunning level of basic ignorance, we are dealing with people who don’t even know what the actual FACTS are, they have NO IDEA what the actual truth is, and what’s worse they don’t give a rat’s behind about any of it!
I was absolutely SHOCKED that this person had NO IDEA that trump was president while COVID was ravaging our country!
I have a sinking feeling our democracy is doomed. How are these ignorant NO information voters ever going to know the truth and what the actual facts are about anything that goes on in our democracy!!!
It was STUNNING to realize that half the voting population is absolutely CLUELESS about basic facts!😳😳😳😳😳😳
NO WONDER THEY KEEP VOTING FOR that pathological liar, psychopath and sociopath!! They don’t even know what’s actually happening in our country!!
Wow
Democrats are trying to campaign on policies and platforms; but voters who continue to vote for trump are so misinformed or outright ignorant that many don’t even know he was president in 2020 and botched the pandemic response so badly that over ONE MILLION people died, our economy crashed, thousands of jobs were lost, he LOST the 2020 election, incited an insurrection, etc.
Trumpers have been told NONE of those things happened, and if they did, it was all Biden’s fault!
If you try to tell a trumper those things happened on TRUMP’S WATCH, they will tell you you’re lying - NONE of those things
are true or Trump’s fault!
Even in the face of actual facts, statistics and video footage they WILL NOT be convinced otherwise.
How can ANY democratic candidate running for office ever be able to win their votes when trumpers are so WILLFULLY ignorant of basic facts, data and statistics and DETERMINED to stay that way!
The only media they listen to is FOX entertainment, and other radical right wing social media outlets that outright LIE to their audiences every day with IMPUNITY because they are not subject to any governmental oversight.
If this does not change, Democrats will continue to lose because MAGA supporters are completely disinterested in actual facts and believe “alternative facts” and outright lies are the ABSOLUTE truth!
I've seen people question why OBAMA wasn't on top of the attacks on 9-11.
They have no clues...
Wow... no words.😪
The essential flaw I see in your comment is: “lengthy back and forth with some random Trumper”. Why in the name of all that is good would you WASTE your time doing that?!? There is absolutely NOTHING to be gained by dealing with a closeminded poster child for the Dunning Kruger Effect!
Robert Heinlein, the famous sci-fi writer, once said: “Never try to teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and you annoy the pig.” My apologies to pigs everywhere…. 🤣
I definitely had my eyes opened!
I never, in my wildest dreams, would have expected a voter to be so ignorant as to not even know who was president in 2020! No wonder they blame Biden for everything!
To learn that these are the types of people who are voting for trump is SHOCKING!
They have no clue how dangerous trump is and what a sick, disgusting liar and sociopath he is.
This democracy may not survive because of the lying and brainwashing by republicans and the radical right wing media echo chamber and the utter ignorance on the part of trumpers who have voted for that loser 3 time, no matter the amount of harm and damage he has done to our democracy, to them and to the middle class!
This is Proof Positive that the Right Wing inspired campaign to Dumb Down America has been a Huge Success!
Glad you saw it first hand! I have friends on Facebook that are (former) Republicans, center-right to my center-left, are from Texas, and have *many* so-called “friends” that are diehard Trump Cult members. I’ve learned, over time, that you can give them *every* reasonable argument, send them every link to responsible and unbiased reporting and more, and they either won’t read it or discount it as “left wing bias”.
Sigh.
I've discarded Right Wing acquaintances!
I wouldn’t even call them “acquaintances”, as they’re FB “friends” of an *actual* friend IRL. I just try to help defend my center-right friends’ opinions, as I find myself agreeing on more and more subjects with them, as the concept of “center” in American politics is rapidly losing its meaning….
So, so, so dangerous what republicans and McConnell did to this country. They could have stopped him in his first term but they absolutely refused! They are more guilty than the voters!
Nice reminder of a very creative writer...it's been a long time since I've read anything by him: could you suggest a good book to get reacquainted with him?
I haven’t read him in AGES so I’m not your best resource for a recommendation, sadly. I’ve just found myself using that quote over and over again over the last 9+ years, as it’s never been *more* apropós…
My personal favorite is "the door into summer", but you can't go wrong with any Heinlein
Thank you!
So many excellent novels by Heinlein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein
Thank you!
What's that saying..... "IGNORANCE IS BLISS"???
Yup it’s hard to believe. My perception is simply those folks WANT to believe what they’ve been told. It’s less uncomfortable for them than facing reality & is 2024 not 1895.
You can't fix Stupid!
Instead of saying "bend the knee" I think we should use the phrase "suck the mushroom."
Ok that’s funny
I'm reminded of Stormy Daniels sitting in on Kimmel's show, and he's holding up the little orange mushroom that she said was the most accurate representation of the many choices she had.
I'm really sad I can't post the picture here. <sigh>
And hopefully it's a Death Cap too!
Thank you for the prelude.
There are just a few points of interest occurring as we speak.
Establishing an illiberal democracy or an outright autocracy requires an energetic as well as a charismatic leader. Trump is elderly, lazy, undisciplined, and impulsive. His declining health is not going to magically disappear, and may have a sudden and dramatic downturn. A leader in that condition is not likely to be up to the task of overturning an entire system of government, even with the aid and promptings of his Project 2025 cohorts, Congressional lickspittles, and co-President Musk.
As regards President Musk, he is beginning to garner far too much attention with his antics. Trump doesn't like being upstaged, particularly if that upstaging indicates any weakness on his part. The rest of Trump's sycophants and courtiers are going to be nervous about Musk's saying something bad about THEM to DJT, and will be trying to knife him from behind so as to simplify the chaos.
J. D. Vance has been all-but-invisible throughout the current travails. It could be by design, but it may also be that he has been told to STFU and is following orders.
Starting out with a government shutdown even before taking office sets the stage for a stock market downturn, enraged travellers, disgruntled government employees, and a monumentally fumbled start to the term. If that pattern continues and includes tariffs, abandoning NATO, and other actions that isolate the US from the rest of the world, the midterms suddenly become MUCH more interesting to contemplate. If Trump doesn't make it that far, and Vance is sitting in the POTUS chair after having violated numerous laws and ethical standards (which I fully expect to see happen), impeachment and removal by two Democratic branches of Congress could conceivably even make Hakim Jeffries the president in two years. While that's a long shot that would be dependent upon several unrelated events, those events are already beginnning to align themselves.
I'm still hoping and probably in vain that Joe Biden, who is still our President will exercise his recently SCOTUS Approved Official Acts that are Immune from Prosecution! I'll let you use your imagination, but it should be noted that Trump's new BFF/Shot Caller Elon Musk is an existential threat to Our Democracy!
Biden and the Democrats are still operating inside the box, while Trump and the GOP have been way outside of it for quite some time.
Hungary has a population of 9.676 million for Orban to control. The US has a population 345,426,571 million people to control. A bit more difficult I'd say.
In theory, that’s correct, but don’t forget he starts with at LEAST 77.4M of them that voted for him, likely 100M+ once you add in family members and those that didn’t vote, so subtract that from your total!
And with the right-wing media system that’s been in full control of the “narrative” for years, the vast majority of Americans don’t get REAL news or know what’s truly going on. FYI: I’m not just talking the obvious Fox/OAN/Newsmax, but your “local” Sinclair Broadcast Group television station (almost 200 of them in the major US media markets) or your “local” iHeart Media radio station (800+ of them across the US) that take their editorial content from their rightwing billionaire owners and put their words in the mouths of your “local” trusted news anchor.
And the MSM is weak sauce in comparison, parroting the rightwing talking points to be “relevant” and for clickthroughs and ad dollars. No matter what “story” Republicans and others try to spew about the “left wing media”, they are totally and laughably WRONG and out of touch with modern media. I sold high-tech to the largest media companies around the world for decades before retiring just a year ago, and I’ve seen it happen in real-time. Once the Fairness Doctrine died with Reagan, we took a wrong turn down this path and here we are: we don’t even share the same *facts* any more!
Just for context, Los Angeles County has about the same population as Hungary.
I don't think we can overstate the risk we face over the next 4 years. Even if our worst nightmares don't actually happen; we need to be ready if they do. Talking about what could happen will be necessary to potentially keep up with the chaos.
Hoping he ends up like the next Mussolini. Hanging upside down by his feet in the town square.
Possibly after the second American Revolution which is on the Horizon!
Can’t wait to read this oasis of sanity in the strangest time of my life. My parents did not prepare me for this and if they were still alive today would be devastated. We are Hungarian so my dad would be hit twice as hard
I am in Budapest right now, at the end of a Christmas market tour. Beautiful city, but I feel the shadow of authoritarianism because I know what the government is like. I’ll have to read this in full later.
I've been to Budapest at least 30 times. But, because of the neo-fascist government state NAZI Orban has created, I will never go back to Budapest again, will never spend one nickel in Hungary.
That said, while you are there, take the time to visit the giant indoor Market that is in District 9 (a couple of blocks away from Raday Utca (Utca = Street). Phenomenal place to hang out for a couple of hours and have lunch.
Hi Jay,
It seems everyone uses the same clichés nowadays...
Isn't there any way to show deference to something besides to "bend the knee"?
And, doesn't power have any other adjustments besides manipulating the "levers of power"?
Thanks for your time...
add the LA Times to the list
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/la-times-patrick-soon-shiong-trump
Thank you for The Guardian. I think I need to subscribe to it, again.
Please spread the word about Cruz & Crapo writing amendments stopping HR82/S597 after cloture was approved. This affects several million teachers,nurses, firefighters & police. SSFairnessAct.
Call & email!
I'm way ahead of you, as I'm already massively unimpressed with all the Dems and Republicans who have contributed to this nonsense. We need serious people in government, not lackeys to the oligarchs and cartels.
I enjoy your writing but decry having two subscriptions for one writing team. Are you employing ‘Status Quo’ as a teaser for “The
Big Picture”. I rarely comment; so obviously concerned. We are within a month of serious damage to our country, so will let it ride. The ‘news’ is awful but also awfully interesting.
I appreciate your input. There is no writing team for The Status Kuo however. It’s all me. I have my own proofreader / editor, who is a friend of mine.
The Big Picture is a team, of which I am a member. If you want to read my pieces there, you do need a separate subscription because it’s a different publication entirely from this one, for which I am one of the writers!
Both are free of charge.
Jay’s allowed to collaborate with anyone he chooses and we’re all better for him doing so!
I believe that the articles he writes for The Big Picture (George Takei’s group) are available to free subscribers, as I believe are those that Todd Beeten writes with them as well, so I don’t think you need to pay for 2 subscriptions….
If the goal of one of our two major political parties, the GOP, is to systematically dismantle the guardrails of democracy, they are going all in. All one has to do is look at the playbook they are following--Project 2025. They believe a strongman as America's leader should be able to rule the electorate.
I was in Budapest, Hungary about 18 months ago and to the casual observer nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The real damage being done to their democratic form of governance was occurring in smoke filled back rooms amongst the political zealots. We now know what that is looking like in the lead up to Trump version 2.0.
Authoritarian rulers chip away at the foundations of democracy a little at a time until what was assumed to be normal is anything but. Trump and his cabal of sycophants' have laid their cards on the table and are calling our bluff. They are offering nothing but lies, false promises, and hate filled rhetoric, seeking to pit us against each other to achieve their means. Their propaganda campaign about pitting American's against each other--people of color, immigrants, religions, LGBTQ+, and transgender people, is what authoritarians do. They prey on the fears of people to achieve their means.
How do people who still believe a liberal democracy is in the best interest of ALL Americans? First, we stand up, and be heard speaking the truth. Authoritarians hate the truth. Peaceful civil disobedience by its people, along with a free press, are necessary to speak truth to power. They want their own narrative to be the truth.
I know we are hurting right now but we cannot give into the harm being done by those with ill intent. I mentioned ALL Americans because we are a nation of immigrants, regardless of race, creed or religious affiliation. Are we perfect? No, but we strive to be the a country that still believes the freedoms and opportunities we take for granted should not be something we will give away to would be authoritarians. In the immortal words of Nancy Reagan, "Just say No!"
The apparent incompetence of the incoming administration is unsettling and the role of tycoons in determining our fate is alarming. Surely we can do better?
Project 2025 is real and in motion. And party of it involves destroying the Us government
For some reason 'The Urantia Book' popped into mind...probably best to
let it continue on its way...
This is what I have been saying and should have been shouted in the streets PRIOR to the election!