Dear friends across the Atlantic (and everywhere else), please don't forget the many of us over here who did not and would never vote for these men. Never. It's an endless challenge to express how it feels to be in the middle of this mess as an ordinary person without platform, resources, or power -- most immediately in the midst of this spectacular display of gangsterish bullying -- and then to see our media's bothsideserism righteously critique the bad boys and then offer as "analysis" that Zelensky lost his cool and call the whole meeting "contentious" or some similarly civilized adjective, when what it really was is nothing but thuggish.
Right! The title set my hackles up - "not my president" and all that. American's are not bad people. My daughter, doing a semester abroad visited Bristol and was verbally attacked by some guy when he heard her accent. She deeply apposes what is going on in the US right now, and had to defend herself.
I agree that America is going through an authoritarian take over, and screaming at people never helps. Thank you Carole et al for the work you're doing and the resources you are sharing.
I hope your daughter's defence made him suitably ashamed he picked on the wrong kind of American.
The trouble is that overseas, America's actions don't carry the nuance you are seeking. America now takes action based on the decisions of Trump. And unless you renounce your citizenship (please don't) America represents you. Trump was elected by the majority of your voters so maybe you can understand how someone might react emotionally when meeting an adult American. It is more than a fifty:fifty chance that person voted for this mess. If Americans are not bad people then why is this happening at all would be a logical rejoinder to your claim. I know that's simplistic, but that is how people look at the world. Nuance is lost.
Last week, there was a great interview with an American soldier who has been fighting on the Ukrainian frontline since 2022. He had a recent confrontation:
"I almost got in a fist fight with a Yook soldier in a town a bit SW of here... But, no hard feelings. The guy was drunk, burned-out, pissed, and felt betrayed. It is, after all, his home. I just happened to be a handy target. "
actually he was elected by a plurality, combined with the silence of those who didn't vote (many of whom were--ill-advisedly but understandably--not voting out of horror at US support of Israel's conduct in Gaza) but either way, everything you say is part of the challenge of being here now as an American -- can we leave the country? let alone renounce citizenship? You say please don't, and then? absorb the anger, yes, and also remind the world that half of us are alone here and hope you won't abandon us to the monsters -- or do Americans who among other things try to welcome refugees become unwelcome refugees ourselves? Nuance is one thing, individual lives are more, and bullying and namecalling from any side for any reason and any generalizing attacks (on "us," on "them" etc.) are wrong, not only humanely, but strategically/tactically too. The headline and conversation don't namecall or bully but they do (and the conversation they start) ask us here to recognize that we ourselves are now collateral damage,
You ask for understanding, even excusing the withholding of votes and say you are collateral damage, yet don't show understanding of why people are angry at all Americans. That anonymous American soldier fighting in Ukraine gets it. I hope you do someday. Only you, Americans, can fix this. And you will have the thanks of the world if you do.
I'm sorry you read me that way. I have understood the many ways the world has reason to be angry at the US for many decades. Nothing has been as bad as this and yes, many of us do feel powerless in ways we have not felt powerless before, maybe because the abuse and violence are so visible and ugly, powerful, close to home and impossible to ignore. Maybe we've been lulled by the pendulum of our politics. But now we have good reason to feel stuck and grieving and angry and hopeless too. Only we can fix this? I would like to know how. (Has any country fixed its own fascism on its own from the inside?) All over the US (and the world) people are trying in many ways to stand up to this disaster, including political leaders here who are in fact speaking up (despite all the "where are the Democrats?" hand-wringing). But it's hard to see a path forward. And this rise of fascism isn't happening only in the US, which is part of my point. If critics of the harmful regimes dump the non-supporters of the harmful regimes into the same bundle with the harmful regimes, how can there be a sustainable opposition strong enough to make a difference?
This is a problem created by and needs to be solved by *white* Americans. Until they can have some sort of reconciliation with how this country was created and all the harm it has caused we’ll continue down this path. That being said far rightism is on the rise all over the world.
To the extent that white Americans are still the majority of the citizens in the U.S. yes, you are correct that 'they' need to solve it. However, success in solutions probably requires that 'we' realize any prejudices we have WILL be used to divide us, distract us, and prevent us from working together. We need all citizens of all varieties. No matter if you are a purple 'insert your least liked religious group here' 'insert your least liked party here' 'insert your least liked gender identity here'. And we citizens of the U.S. may need the help of world citizens to succeed. Please forgive the lecture tone, but I am so so aware that in America we are being manipulated all the time to mistrust and disrespect each other.
Yeah, it's about talking to one another and hearing what the other person is saying. I really listen to people as if they are right to find their PoV and have a conversation with these people. I talked a bit with some Trump supporters first time round and it was interesting to try and find the real WHY they were voting for him. Some of it was because the bottom line for them was he was anti-abortion. That was the reason, that was the line they wouldn't cross. I have my British passport still, and we made sure our kids have them too! My work, I think, helps people, so I have no plans yet on abandoneing ship!
Nuance is very much lost. I was a bit pissed at this guy having a go at my daughter, but she's very emotionally intelligent so had a smart conversation with him. Hoping he will think a bit about it.
JUST IMAGINE RUSSIA RULING THE UNITED STATES. IMAGINE THAT POWER IN THE HANDS OF PUTIN and GREEDY DONALD TRUMP.
I told everyone not to vote for him.
Trump has vowed to make his daughter President after him. He went on to marry her to a very rich Jewish family. Am I the only one who realised he wants no more elections after his daughter succeeds. HENCE THE GROWING RELATIONSHIP WITH PUTIN. In light of the above If this happens, and he has already vaguely mentioned the USA should be running the Middle East. We are in trouble, he is amassing powerful support from foreign powers. What he doesn't realise is the Arabs would rather blow up those oil wells. Dummy Trump is a dangerous, pompous, I'll educated President. I am thinking about Zelensky, he was never going to get the support of the USA, because Donald Trump sees the USA as his own to do as he wants. The Jewish nation want the Midsle East and all that oil for themselves. All these arguments I read, I ask the government's to dismantle most of that warhead sitting in the heart of the Middle East. WORLD WAR 3 WILL MAKE THIS PLANET UNINHABITABLE. PUTIN FINDS IT AMUSING THAT THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD IS OPEN TO BRIBES FOR POWER.
Jason Stanley - "You don't even have to be political. Just do the things you're supposed to do."
That is the most simple, direct, and beneficial advice I've heard as it relates to what we can do as individuals.
Resistance to the now openly unified transnational crime syndicates - who enjoy nation state status, otherworldly military prowess, unthinkable technological capabilities, bottomless financial resources, a just-big-enough base of dipshit believers, and "leadership" as sick as any in human history - will be a heavy lift.
*But it's doable, one act of integrity at a time.*
I have been telling people that what we are living through is similar to when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, except this time the attack was coordinated from within by Trump with the help of Fox News and now Musk and Peter Thiel and JD Vance. But this is all Putin‘s plan… his dream come true scenario.
I feel so sad for the World War II generation of which my parents were proud members. I also feel a great debt of gratitude to Ukraine for what you just pointed out… Their president’s visit to the Oval Office is the seismic shock Europe needed to experience.
For years I have dreamed of a future aligned with the visions of “one world living in peace” that launched the United Nations and was advanced philosophically by thinkers such as Buckminster Fuller. But I now see that this future will not be achieved until the humanity gets to the other side of this fascist threat. God help us succeed in getting there.
Thank you for including the transcript, I almost never listen to podcasts, but will often read quite a long and slightly approximate transcript. Thanks, it was very interesting.
My country is a clear and present danger to the world. I feel zero loyalty to the regime in charge. My respect is for the U.S. Constitution and all those who are resisting.
Australian PM has also stated our commitment to Ukraine and President Zelensky, and announced a $1.3 billion contribution to their war effort. We are a long way from Europe and have relied on American defence alliance via AUKUS to protect us from threats. A previous far right PM grifted us in a deal with the US for nuclear submarines, we’ll never get, but Trump is sure to demand the billions he’ll regard us as owing for past protection just as he’s done for NATO. The joke is he doesn’t even know what AUKUS is. I fear we are too far from our allies to rely on help if we are invaded. I just hope they’ll remember we’ve always stepped up to support them when needed. With Trump’s move to authoritarianism I feel like we’ve been betrayed and abandoned a long way from home.
We in Aotearoa-NZ stand with our Australian cousins but as colonial settler states like USA and Canada, we look within at he unfinished business of conciliation with peoples whose very language is part of the land. "The last shall be first" as that anti-imperialist born in Bethlehem a while ago was reported as teaching.
We know that whatever lessons for "liberté, egalité and sobriety" define this (thanks Carol) post Mafia-cosplay moment, world view will be central. Even as we resist we must gather in our affinity groups around what we love and are ready to live for as never before. Book Refs. On Freedom by Timothy Snyder 2024; The Freedom Paradox - Towards a post-secular ethics by Clive Hamilton 2008 (a founder of The Australia Institute).
Nate Hagens gently calls the reality check of political and economic "the Great Simplification" (podcast). Joanna Macy earlier anticipated "the great unraveling" and anyone looking back from 22nd Century would see "the great turning" prefigured right here on Carol's platform and others, like Rachel Donald's "Planet: Critical" and her new "Planet: coordinate".
Active hope is in the air, alongside manufactured despair.
Social movements for survival strengthen as comms are transmitted and critical response priorities noted to hold the line. Communicative Street Action and judicial initiatives are important in 2025. Mutual aid and affinity group networks will nurture "active hope" and "give peace a chance".
A pro-social, life-centred approach to social organisation and "Earth Community" in the West doesn't have to look far for experts in surviving what Vanessa Marchado de Oliveira calls Modernity/coloniality.
Behold the survival wisdom of local mutual- aid/community organizers in cities, prisons and reservations.
Degrowth/consumer boycotts and decolonisation movements which boomed in the more equal 70s shifted to survival mode as Cult of Neoliberalism entered from stage right in 1980 with the Reagan coalition incorporating Made-in- America Christian Nationalism and its sidekick Christian Xionism. And now, 45 years later, before we reach the Xenith of the incumbent Mump regime, Liberty expects every person to know and do what they can, not what they can't.
I think the outcome of our upcoming Federal Election will determine who we will stand with. Dutton has made it clear he wishes to emulate and align with Trump and Putin.
Has there been an upwelling of support for Ukraine in the last few days? If so, do you think it will influence the outcome of the election? That's already happening in Canada, but then Trump spent his first few days in office belittling Canada.
Polls show Australians are for Ukraine but I don’t think it will influence their votes in the upcoming Australian elections. It appals me that people are so welded to particular parties and take so little interest in politics at home and abroad.
Hopefully Dutton will lose his seat to independent Ellie Smith. Howard and Frydenberg lost in their LNP electorates when given the choice of an alternative candidate demonstrating a strong commitment to looking after their communities. Michaela Cash initially claimed Dutton would be like Trump and Dutton said he’d initiate a DOGE like entity for Australia but Trump and Musk’s bad press seems to have dampened their pursuit of this line. I think the bottom line is we would ultimately have to align ourselves with the United Kingdom. Like it or not, we are still part of the Commonwealth and regard Charles as our king.
Hardly far left. And what does left mean anyway? Any country that actually provides affordable health care, a welfare safety net for its citizens, a fair minimum wage that enables its working citizens to afford housing, energy and living costs. A country where workers taxes pay for these services and don’t end up in the pockets of people running these same services for profit not for people. A country that doesn’t hand over its mineral and forestry resources to individuals who make millions a day and pay little to no taxes. But instead see those resources as their country’s assets and return a fair share of these profits to take care of their country and its citizens. What does far right mean? Mass homelessness, people dying because they can’t afford health care, 1% of billionaires being richer than the other 99% and getting tax brakes? There’s no left and right, just political parties who care for their citizens and others who only care for themselves. By its policies we can see where Canada and Trudea stand, and it’s not just with their mates.
I called it a Russian coup during the 2016 election bc of a fantastic Russian history professor in the early 90s as an undergrad. I also warned about nazis in the woodwork and MAGA as domestic terrorism well before Jan 6. I spoke about the threat and scamminess of Big Tech at an academic conference 2 months ago and no one listened. People just don't know how to connect the dots. I'm glad to know that I am not the only one with this string board in my brain.
Here's what's next. Musk has acquired the largest database in the world, US.gov. Literally walked right in with no security clearance. He now has huge leverage and will prob force a takeover of OpenAI. His recent over the top offer for the buy out was a favor. That will make his crappy AI scale pretty far even for the usual limitations. But the real concern is Peter Thiel his buddy, who specializes in surveillance tech. Let that soak in a minute.
As an American, I'm in complete agreement with you. I've been following your work since you first reported on Cambridge Analytica and Brexit. I know this is not a popular idea, but is any international journalist covering Elon Musk's hacking of the 2024 election for Trump? So many cyber security experts and statisticians wrote Duty to Warn letters to the Harris campaign, and just crickets. I even heard from a friend who worked on Hillary's campaign that Harris' people were specifically warned about a suspicious voting pattern known as the Russian Tail. Again, nothing. Perhaps it's because of the 2020 Stop the Steal campaign the Dems just will not address the issue. However, I think that approach is too cautious, especially considering that the result is handing over our government to fascists. There are a couple of statistics groups working on the hacking of the 2024 election. One, Election Truth Alliance (ETA), was formed December 24, 2024, probably after realizing the Dems were doing nothing to address the issue. ETA has done a few videos now where statisticians discuss the evidence for hacking. They say next they need access to the vote results in order to match the votes with the vote tabulators. I'm sure you saw Trump's speech two days before the inauguration, where he thanked Elon for his "help" with the vote-counting machines (the vote tabulators). I'm hoping international journalists will review the evidence they've produced. If this election is not legitimate, it needs to be called out. Thank you for all your work.
Only person doggedly pursuing voting crime is Greg Palast. He has The Suppression & Purge Numbers. From reviewing genuine information. But now, to what avail? He was, before the election, if not directly rebuffed then politely ignored by both Biden administration & Harris campaign.
Yes, I've long admired Greg Palast's work on voter suppression and purging. I've been a Dem for fifty years, and this is the first time I have felt utterly betrayed by them for doing nothing, especially considering that the result is handing over our government to fascists. Election Truth Alliance is new, but they are doing important work on vote machine hacking. The GOP has found many ways to subvert our elections! Another way the GOP has subverted the vote is through the noise machine they have built over the decades -- Reagan allowing Murdoch's propaganda machine to take over the airwaves, allowing Sinclair to purchase 200 radio stations across our heartland, and the military allowing Fox to play on military bases non-stop. Not distinguishing between First Amendment rights and propaganda. Dems have not built their own communication platform, nor have they attempted to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan threw out. It's hard to compete with the media when it is so completely skewed to GOP lies. The big question: why does Dem leadership stick their head in the sand? Do they think that if they question the results that they've stooped to the level of MAGA? Do they think voters will lose faith in our election system if they request to verify the results? All absurd (the old "if they go low, we go high" mantra). Their lack of action in respect to defending our votes makes me feel for the first time in my life that my vote means nothing.
I do not have time to write everything I could say about this all. But, the Democrats straight up have practiced appeasement. You give an inch you buy a minute then you've got to give a foot but you only buy another minute so then you give up a yard and then .... until progressives retake the party leadership I'm afraid we can't get very far. Yet in the House of Representatives it is scant few seats that the progressive's need to become the majority of the party in the house. Which means they could then secure leadership of the party in the house.That will be a start. But we may already be finished.
As an American incredulously watching the pillars of our society crumble, I find we are desperately needing clear language to describe what is happening. Americans lack imagination to believe their government could be calculatedly imploded. We have been gaslit since Reagan. So the quality of the gaslighting is at psy-ops level now. The “Flood the Zone with Shit” technique is trying to break our minds. I found helpful the phrase warning us to “never lose sight of the fact that this is a far-right autocratic takeover." That is a succinct description of what I have witnessed. Thank You. We need the words. And I emphatically agree that “access journalism” is the slippery slope to hell.
To me this set of valid & informed opinions is valuable but sadly it is also too late.
What I see in the mainstream media is a culture in writing & reporting that was biased against reporting traits of powerful & influential ‘nasty’ people as being just that.
The falseness of reassurance that fascists weren’t actually fascists or genocidal nazi’s weren’t that either is shown by its manifestations.
TruMusk & their gang are fascists, in every way that fascists are.
And Netanyahu et al have shown that colonisation by extreme force & mass murder of civilians has worked to achieve their aims. That their genocide was militarily & politically nourished by ‘nice’ Joe Bidens administration as a primer for Trump, is the most telling truth of my comment here.
We have to honestly look at the backdrop here.
Why did these cancerous lumps appear & grow on the skin of democracy and be ignored as mere moles?
Why too has the greatest mortal threat to modern humans ever in our history, (climate & ecological collapse) been ignored during a period of mostly global peace, so has now reached a same level of lethality to human peaceful enjoyment of life, as has fascism?
These two apocalyptic riders have both ridden slowly into town together!
Now they are here what do their intended victims choose to do with the little time remaining to act against them at speed and at scale to contain them?
That's more than little unfair on the many reporters including Carole who have for many years been doing exactly what you say did not happen. They have exposed "powerful & influential ‘nasty’ people" again and again. Maybe you should point at the people, especially voters, who could have paid attention but did not.
Thank you for your commitment to this work. Much appreciated. I agree about the journalists sharing "both sides" when one side is blatantly lying to us and gaslighting us. It's so frustrating - call it what it is, a coup! Someone else said weeks ago that if this was happening in another country US journalists would call it a coup.
I also love what you said about access - I have been thinking about this, too. And you are one of the first I have seen to share this observation. It's bullshit access anyway. But if journalists get anonymous or other scoops this admin has already talked about punishing them. Or discrediting the stories as he always does. People just have to be brave but it's getting tricky.
The only ones being disrespectful were Trump and Vance. So fkng disgusting. This reminds me of Jan6, part 2 — I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. So sickening and gaslighting.
How about this. There's no real opposition because there's no organization. There's no organization because there's no leadership. OK. How could we ... if ONE large media organ took it upon itself to LEAD a vast protest. Boston Globe? MSNBC? Chicago Tribune? Just one .... It could be a big enough push to start something up.
Dear friends across the Atlantic (and everywhere else), please don't forget the many of us over here who did not and would never vote for these men. Never. It's an endless challenge to express how it feels to be in the middle of this mess as an ordinary person without platform, resources, or power -- most immediately in the midst of this spectacular display of gangsterish bullying -- and then to see our media's bothsideserism righteously critique the bad boys and then offer as "analysis" that Zelensky lost his cool and call the whole meeting "contentious" or some similarly civilized adjective, when what it really was is nothing but thuggish.
Right! The title set my hackles up - "not my president" and all that. American's are not bad people. My daughter, doing a semester abroad visited Bristol and was verbally attacked by some guy when he heard her accent. She deeply apposes what is going on in the US right now, and had to defend herself.
I agree that America is going through an authoritarian take over, and screaming at people never helps. Thank you Carole et al for the work you're doing and the resources you are sharing.
I'm sorry that happened to your daughter - it is inexcusable. Please remmber that, as all Americans are not the same, nor are all Brits.
But you recognise that the title doesn’t refer to YOU, or your daughter? You’re sounding a little ‘not all men’
I hope your daughter's defence made him suitably ashamed he picked on the wrong kind of American.
The trouble is that overseas, America's actions don't carry the nuance you are seeking. America now takes action based on the decisions of Trump. And unless you renounce your citizenship (please don't) America represents you. Trump was elected by the majority of your voters so maybe you can understand how someone might react emotionally when meeting an adult American. It is more than a fifty:fifty chance that person voted for this mess. If Americans are not bad people then why is this happening at all would be a logical rejoinder to your claim. I know that's simplistic, but that is how people look at the world. Nuance is lost.
Last week, there was a great interview with an American soldier who has been fighting on the Ukrainian frontline since 2022. He had a recent confrontation:
"I almost got in a fist fight with a Yook soldier in a town a bit SW of here... But, no hard feelings. The guy was drunk, burned-out, pissed, and felt betrayed. It is, after all, his home. I just happened to be a handy target. "
https://ukrainevolunteer297689472.wordpress.com/2025/02/26/it-is-complicated-even-to-me-sometimes-it-is-wonderful-some-times-incomprehensible/
And that was with someone who was clearly putting his life on the line for Ukraine.
actually he was elected by a plurality, combined with the silence of those who didn't vote (many of whom were--ill-advisedly but understandably--not voting out of horror at US support of Israel's conduct in Gaza) but either way, everything you say is part of the challenge of being here now as an American -- can we leave the country? let alone renounce citizenship? You say please don't, and then? absorb the anger, yes, and also remind the world that half of us are alone here and hope you won't abandon us to the monsters -- or do Americans who among other things try to welcome refugees become unwelcome refugees ourselves? Nuance is one thing, individual lives are more, and bullying and namecalling from any side for any reason and any generalizing attacks (on "us," on "them" etc.) are wrong, not only humanely, but strategically/tactically too. The headline and conversation don't namecall or bully but they do (and the conversation they start) ask us here to recognize that we ourselves are now collateral damage,
You ask for understanding, even excusing the withholding of votes and say you are collateral damage, yet don't show understanding of why people are angry at all Americans. That anonymous American soldier fighting in Ukraine gets it. I hope you do someday. Only you, Americans, can fix this. And you will have the thanks of the world if you do.
I'm sorry you read me that way. I have understood the many ways the world has reason to be angry at the US for many decades. Nothing has been as bad as this and yes, many of us do feel powerless in ways we have not felt powerless before, maybe because the abuse and violence are so visible and ugly, powerful, close to home and impossible to ignore. Maybe we've been lulled by the pendulum of our politics. But now we have good reason to feel stuck and grieving and angry and hopeless too. Only we can fix this? I would like to know how. (Has any country fixed its own fascism on its own from the inside?) All over the US (and the world) people are trying in many ways to stand up to this disaster, including political leaders here who are in fact speaking up (despite all the "where are the Democrats?" hand-wringing). But it's hard to see a path forward. And this rise of fascism isn't happening only in the US, which is part of my point. If critics of the harmful regimes dump the non-supporters of the harmful regimes into the same bundle with the harmful regimes, how can there be a sustainable opposition strong enough to make a difference?
This is a problem created by and needs to be solved by *white* Americans. Until they can have some sort of reconciliation with how this country was created and all the harm it has caused we’ll continue down this path. That being said far rightism is on the rise all over the world.
To the extent that white Americans are still the majority of the citizens in the U.S. yes, you are correct that 'they' need to solve it. However, success in solutions probably requires that 'we' realize any prejudices we have WILL be used to divide us, distract us, and prevent us from working together. We need all citizens of all varieties. No matter if you are a purple 'insert your least liked religious group here' 'insert your least liked party here' 'insert your least liked gender identity here'. And we citizens of the U.S. may need the help of world citizens to succeed. Please forgive the lecture tone, but I am so so aware that in America we are being manipulated all the time to mistrust and disrespect each other.
Yeah, it's about talking to one another and hearing what the other person is saying. I really listen to people as if they are right to find their PoV and have a conversation with these people. I talked a bit with some Trump supporters first time round and it was interesting to try and find the real WHY they were voting for him. Some of it was because the bottom line for them was he was anti-abortion. That was the reason, that was the line they wouldn't cross. I have my British passport still, and we made sure our kids have them too! My work, I think, helps people, so I have no plans yet on abandoneing ship!
Nuance is very much lost. I was a bit pissed at this guy having a go at my daughter, but she's very emotionally intelligent so had a smart conversation with him. Hoping he will think a bit about it.
JUST IMAGINE RUSSIA RULING THE UNITED STATES. IMAGINE THAT POWER IN THE HANDS OF PUTIN and GREEDY DONALD TRUMP.
I told everyone not to vote for him.
Trump has vowed to make his daughter President after him. He went on to marry her to a very rich Jewish family. Am I the only one who realised he wants no more elections after his daughter succeeds. HENCE THE GROWING RELATIONSHIP WITH PUTIN. In light of the above If this happens, and he has already vaguely mentioned the USA should be running the Middle East. We are in trouble, he is amassing powerful support from foreign powers. What he doesn't realise is the Arabs would rather blow up those oil wells. Dummy Trump is a dangerous, pompous, I'll educated President. I am thinking about Zelensky, he was never going to get the support of the USA, because Donald Trump sees the USA as his own to do as he wants. The Jewish nation want the Midsle East and all that oil for themselves. All these arguments I read, I ask the government's to dismantle most of that warhead sitting in the heart of the Middle East. WORLD WAR 3 WILL MAKE THIS PLANET UNINHABITABLE. PUTIN FINDS IT AMUSING THAT THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD IS OPEN TO BRIBES FOR POWER.
Other you displaying your anti-semitism, you have some points.
I would also add - as sad and angry as I feel - that right now I agree; America (the political/financial/colonial) is not your friend. Nor is it mine.
Jason Stanley - "You don't even have to be political. Just do the things you're supposed to do."
That is the most simple, direct, and beneficial advice I've heard as it relates to what we can do as individuals.
Resistance to the now openly unified transnational crime syndicates - who enjoy nation state status, otherworldly military prowess, unthinkable technological capabilities, bottomless financial resources, a just-big-enough base of dipshit believers, and "leadership" as sick as any in human history - will be a heavy lift.
*But it's doable, one act of integrity at a time.*
I have been telling people that what we are living through is similar to when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, except this time the attack was coordinated from within by Trump with the help of Fox News and now Musk and Peter Thiel and JD Vance. But this is all Putin‘s plan… his dream come true scenario.
I feel so sad for the World War II generation of which my parents were proud members. I also feel a great debt of gratitude to Ukraine for what you just pointed out… Their president’s visit to the Oval Office is the seismic shock Europe needed to experience.
For years I have dreamed of a future aligned with the visions of “one world living in peace” that launched the United Nations and was advanced philosophically by thinkers such as Buckminster Fuller. But I now see that this future will not be achieved until the humanity gets to the other side of this fascist threat. God help us succeed in getting there.
Thank you for including the transcript, I almost never listen to podcasts, but will often read quite a long and slightly approximate transcript. Thanks, it was very interesting.
Same here. Reading is quicker than listening.
Reading is quicker than listening, provided the verbal was not just acoustically transcribed by a machine!
My country is a clear and present danger to the world. I feel zero loyalty to the regime in charge. My respect is for the U.S. Constitution and all those who are resisting.
Great. Well-said. Only Americans can now fix America.
Yes, I agree, sadly.
Australian PM has also stated our commitment to Ukraine and President Zelensky, and announced a $1.3 billion contribution to their war effort. We are a long way from Europe and have relied on American defence alliance via AUKUS to protect us from threats. A previous far right PM grifted us in a deal with the US for nuclear submarines, we’ll never get, but Trump is sure to demand the billions he’ll regard us as owing for past protection just as he’s done for NATO. The joke is he doesn’t even know what AUKUS is. I fear we are too far from our allies to rely on help if we are invaded. I just hope they’ll remember we’ve always stepped up to support them when needed. With Trump’s move to authoritarianism I feel like we’ve been betrayed and abandoned a long way from home.
We in Aotearoa-NZ stand with our Australian cousins but as colonial settler states like USA and Canada, we look within at he unfinished business of conciliation with peoples whose very language is part of the land. "The last shall be first" as that anti-imperialist born in Bethlehem a while ago was reported as teaching.
We know that whatever lessons for "liberté, egalité and sobriety" define this (thanks Carol) post Mafia-cosplay moment, world view will be central. Even as we resist we must gather in our affinity groups around what we love and are ready to live for as never before. Book Refs. On Freedom by Timothy Snyder 2024; The Freedom Paradox - Towards a post-secular ethics by Clive Hamilton 2008 (a founder of The Australia Institute).
Nate Hagens gently calls the reality check of political and economic "the Great Simplification" (podcast). Joanna Macy earlier anticipated "the great unraveling" and anyone looking back from 22nd Century would see "the great turning" prefigured right here on Carol's platform and others, like Rachel Donald's "Planet: Critical" and her new "Planet: coordinate".
Active hope is in the air, alongside manufactured despair.
Social movements for survival strengthen as comms are transmitted and critical response priorities noted to hold the line. Communicative Street Action and judicial initiatives are important in 2025. Mutual aid and affinity group networks will nurture "active hope" and "give peace a chance".
A pro-social, life-centred approach to social organisation and "Earth Community" in the West doesn't have to look far for experts in surviving what Vanessa Marchado de Oliveira calls Modernity/coloniality.
Behold the survival wisdom of local mutual- aid/community organizers in cities, prisons and reservations.
Degrowth/consumer boycotts and decolonisation movements which boomed in the more equal 70s shifted to survival mode as Cult of Neoliberalism entered from stage right in 1980 with the Reagan coalition incorporating Made-in- America Christian Nationalism and its sidekick Christian Xionism. And now, 45 years later, before we reach the Xenith of the incumbent Mump regime, Liberty expects every person to know and do what they can, not what they can't.
I think the outcome of our upcoming Federal Election will determine who we will stand with. Dutton has made it clear he wishes to emulate and align with Trump and Putin.
Has there been an upwelling of support for Ukraine in the last few days? If so, do you think it will influence the outcome of the election? That's already happening in Canada, but then Trump spent his first few days in office belittling Canada.
Polls show Australians are for Ukraine but I don’t think it will influence their votes in the upcoming Australian elections. It appals me that people are so welded to particular parties and take so little interest in politics at home and abroad.
Hopefully Dutton will lose his seat to independent Ellie Smith. Howard and Frydenberg lost in their LNP electorates when given the choice of an alternative candidate demonstrating a strong commitment to looking after their communities. Michaela Cash initially claimed Dutton would be like Trump and Dutton said he’d initiate a DOGE like entity for Australia but Trump and Musk’s bad press seems to have dampened their pursuit of this line. I think the bottom line is we would ultimately have to align ourselves with the United Kingdom. Like it or not, we are still part of the Commonwealth and regard Charles as our king.
Isn't Canada a country that should be belittled for it's far left Government and the total looser Trudeau?
Hardly far left. And what does left mean anyway? Any country that actually provides affordable health care, a welfare safety net for its citizens, a fair minimum wage that enables its working citizens to afford housing, energy and living costs. A country where workers taxes pay for these services and don’t end up in the pockets of people running these same services for profit not for people. A country that doesn’t hand over its mineral and forestry resources to individuals who make millions a day and pay little to no taxes. But instead see those resources as their country’s assets and return a fair share of these profits to take care of their country and its citizens. What does far right mean? Mass homelessness, people dying because they can’t afford health care, 1% of billionaires being richer than the other 99% and getting tax brakes? There’s no left and right, just political parties who care for their citizens and others who only care for themselves. By its policies we can see where Canada and Trudea stand, and it’s not just with their mates.
I called it a Russian coup during the 2016 election bc of a fantastic Russian history professor in the early 90s as an undergrad. I also warned about nazis in the woodwork and MAGA as domestic terrorism well before Jan 6. I spoke about the threat and scamminess of Big Tech at an academic conference 2 months ago and no one listened. People just don't know how to connect the dots. I'm glad to know that I am not the only one with this string board in my brain.
Here's what's next. Musk has acquired the largest database in the world, US.gov. Literally walked right in with no security clearance. He now has huge leverage and will prob force a takeover of OpenAI. His recent over the top offer for the buy out was a favor. That will make his crappy AI scale pretty far even for the usual limitations. But the real concern is Peter Thiel his buddy, who specializes in surveillance tech. Let that soak in a minute.
Thank you for providing a blunt assessment of the ongoing crisis that US media continues to evade...excellent interview.
The denial is widespread in the populace, though no one is in more denial than Democratic leadership.
Thank you for all of your hard work! It is so important ❤️
Its a hard listen when you refer to Elon Musk as ‘Elon’. He is after all the one who openly wielded the nazi salute…
I can only refer to him as the space-Nazi or the muskRat.
As an American, I'm in complete agreement with you. I've been following your work since you first reported on Cambridge Analytica and Brexit. I know this is not a popular idea, but is any international journalist covering Elon Musk's hacking of the 2024 election for Trump? So many cyber security experts and statisticians wrote Duty to Warn letters to the Harris campaign, and just crickets. I even heard from a friend who worked on Hillary's campaign that Harris' people were specifically warned about a suspicious voting pattern known as the Russian Tail. Again, nothing. Perhaps it's because of the 2020 Stop the Steal campaign the Dems just will not address the issue. However, I think that approach is too cautious, especially considering that the result is handing over our government to fascists. There are a couple of statistics groups working on the hacking of the 2024 election. One, Election Truth Alliance (ETA), was formed December 24, 2024, probably after realizing the Dems were doing nothing to address the issue. ETA has done a few videos now where statisticians discuss the evidence for hacking. They say next they need access to the vote results in order to match the votes with the vote tabulators. I'm sure you saw Trump's speech two days before the inauguration, where he thanked Elon for his "help" with the vote-counting machines (the vote tabulators). I'm hoping international journalists will review the evidence they've produced. If this election is not legitimate, it needs to be called out. Thank you for all your work.
We in the UK have seen that proof of wholesale fraud is worthless.
Both major political parties looked away while their Tory client media barked incessantly at faked stories about Corbyn.
It was a visible and discussion avoided stitch up by both.
Yet it came from corrruption of processes and blatant lying by its wealthy backers. So it succeeded while a so called good majority did nothing.
So badly trained for personal accountability, so cowardly self serving, so short sightedly stupid are modern ‘civilised humans’
More like herd animals that deny their trip to the abbatoir will come so do not think for themselves or revolt!
It literally will cost us our Earth.
Agree. In the end, it comes down to psychopathic greed and, as you say, a compliant herd.
Only person doggedly pursuing voting crime is Greg Palast. He has The Suppression & Purge Numbers. From reviewing genuine information. But now, to what avail? He was, before the election, if not directly rebuffed then politely ignored by both Biden administration & Harris campaign.
Yes, I've long admired Greg Palast's work on voter suppression and purging. I've been a Dem for fifty years, and this is the first time I have felt utterly betrayed by them for doing nothing, especially considering that the result is handing over our government to fascists. Election Truth Alliance is new, but they are doing important work on vote machine hacking. The GOP has found many ways to subvert our elections! Another way the GOP has subverted the vote is through the noise machine they have built over the decades -- Reagan allowing Murdoch's propaganda machine to take over the airwaves, allowing Sinclair to purchase 200 radio stations across our heartland, and the military allowing Fox to play on military bases non-stop. Not distinguishing between First Amendment rights and propaganda. Dems have not built their own communication platform, nor have they attempted to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan threw out. It's hard to compete with the media when it is so completely skewed to GOP lies. The big question: why does Dem leadership stick their head in the sand? Do they think that if they question the results that they've stooped to the level of MAGA? Do they think voters will lose faith in our election system if they request to verify the results? All absurd (the old "if they go low, we go high" mantra). Their lack of action in respect to defending our votes makes me feel for the first time in my life that my vote means nothing.
I do not have time to write everything I could say about this all. But, the Democrats straight up have practiced appeasement. You give an inch you buy a minute then you've got to give a foot but you only buy another minute so then you give up a yard and then .... until progressives retake the party leadership I'm afraid we can't get very far. Yet in the House of Representatives it is scant few seats that the progressive's need to become the majority of the party in the house. Which means they could then secure leadership of the party in the house.That will be a start. But we may already be finished.
As an American incredulously watching the pillars of our society crumble, I find we are desperately needing clear language to describe what is happening. Americans lack imagination to believe their government could be calculatedly imploded. We have been gaslit since Reagan. So the quality of the gaslighting is at psy-ops level now. The “Flood the Zone with Shit” technique is trying to break our minds. I found helpful the phrase warning us to “never lose sight of the fact that this is a far-right autocratic takeover." That is a succinct description of what I have witnessed. Thank You. We need the words. And I emphatically agree that “access journalism” is the slippery slope to hell.
To me this set of valid & informed opinions is valuable but sadly it is also too late.
What I see in the mainstream media is a culture in writing & reporting that was biased against reporting traits of powerful & influential ‘nasty’ people as being just that.
The falseness of reassurance that fascists weren’t actually fascists or genocidal nazi’s weren’t that either is shown by its manifestations.
TruMusk & their gang are fascists, in every way that fascists are.
And Netanyahu et al have shown that colonisation by extreme force & mass murder of civilians has worked to achieve their aims. That their genocide was militarily & politically nourished by ‘nice’ Joe Bidens administration as a primer for Trump, is the most telling truth of my comment here.
We have to honestly look at the backdrop here.
Why did these cancerous lumps appear & grow on the skin of democracy and be ignored as mere moles?
Why too has the greatest mortal threat to modern humans ever in our history, (climate & ecological collapse) been ignored during a period of mostly global peace, so has now reached a same level of lethality to human peaceful enjoyment of life, as has fascism?
These two apocalyptic riders have both ridden slowly into town together!
Now they are here what do their intended victims choose to do with the little time remaining to act against them at speed and at scale to contain them?
That's more than little unfair on the many reporters including Carole who have for many years been doing exactly what you say did not happen. They have exposed "powerful & influential ‘nasty’ people" again and again. Maybe you should point at the people, especially voters, who could have paid attention but did not.
Thank you for your commitment to this work. Much appreciated. I agree about the journalists sharing "both sides" when one side is blatantly lying to us and gaslighting us. It's so frustrating - call it what it is, a coup! Someone else said weeks ago that if this was happening in another country US journalists would call it a coup.
I also love what you said about access - I have been thinking about this, too. And you are one of the first I have seen to share this observation. It's bullshit access anyway. But if journalists get anonymous or other scoops this admin has already talked about punishing them. Or discrediting the stories as he always does. People just have to be brave but it's getting tricky.
The only ones being disrespectful were Trump and Vance. So fkng disgusting. This reminds me of Jan6, part 2 — I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. So sickening and gaslighting.
How about this. There's no real opposition because there's no organization. There's no organization because there's no leadership. OK. How could we ... if ONE large media organ took it upon itself to LEAD a vast protest. Boston Globe? MSNBC? Chicago Tribune? Just one .... It could be a big enough push to start something up.