It was apparent on Jan 6, 2021, that we were nearing the end of the line for our democracy. The fundamentals were all terribly broken, and it only took a concerted effort of the last 4 years by the regime now in control, without a powerful counter-offensive by those that were concerned about the survival of our country and Constitution -- to further erode what was left. Now, with their plan at an advanced stage, and with vast power in their hands, the question of what to do next? We need a legal and operational strategy forged by an emergency leadership team. We do not seem to have leadership. We have individual voices, such as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff, AOC, etc., but no universal plan of action. How can we launch a plan?
Wow, what a reminder, for me, that as a defense, in Trump's petitions to the SCOTUS, for Writ of Cert, in both the 14th Amendment disqualification issue, on CO's primary ballots, and the immunity issue that his defenses were the crimes he committed themselves. That and running out the clock.
1. In the petition, on his disqualification, his attorney, who clerked for Scalia, said I can promise mass chaos and violence if Trump is removed from the primary ballots, in CO, and elsewhere, as CO's Supreme Courts decision was he incited an insurrection.
His position, or defense, in his petition, was that an insurrection will ensue if you apply the applicable Amendment for disqualification for his incitement of an insurrection as already decided.
2. The immunity case, petition(s), for and against, Writ of Certs, were that semantically the Oath he took declares nothing to admit to "supporting" the constitution. That semantic is called a synonym.
Again, his Scalia attorney, laughed that yeah, my client is guilty, but immune, however his oath doesn't tie him down to supporting the rule of law, as a matter of semantics. Semantics are semantics. Arguments such as these are like believing 60 courts, with Trump appointed judges threw out his claims of a stolen election are false because Trump said so, are semantics to his base, but courts need evidence.
Call a spade a spade as Musk's own daughter said about his salute and his ideology which matches that of a fascist or Nazi.
Nazi, Bozo, Leon Elon, no matter the Semantics of this, it is the actions that are without doubt that of a dictionary, court of law, common sense, fascist or Nazi, as applied to Musk.
People considered Marxist as communists. They are not synonymous. Marxist is an ideology where communism is a form of government. These deceptions are used on the ill informed.
Trump sued, bullied, Disney over G. Stephanopoulis, quoting the language of federal judge Kaplan, almost verbatim. Capitulation but not defamation. Semantics.
One more analogy. I called R. E. Lee a sadist and a rapist. His estate provided his personal notes and diaries to an author who went on to write a book. Did he say, I, RE LEE, am a rapist or sadist? NO. I wasn't asked to defend calling him a sadist only calling him a rapist of his chattel slaves. Semantics. Continual rape is torture and is sadistic.
That was a confused person. If you speak in diaries to raping children, women, fathering illegitimate children by rape and that rape through submission of being soaked in brine water after lashing the skin off one's back it is clearly not a semantics issue but an action that allows one to discern, credibly, he was a sadist first and rape was one part of the whole.
We will see how much semantics is argued when people realize, in their working lives, they have no protections as the EEOC, NLRB, OSHA are gone or that, like in OHIO, the most welfare recipients are full time workers at Walmart, and won't receive benefits checks.
Go to use an ATM, or pay a bill by EFT, or access money at all can't. Semantics? Fuck might apply. I dunno.
There are peaceful protest marches in 50 States at 50 State Capitols tomorrow at 12 noon. Be there! If you can't be there, call out from work. If you can't call out from work, at least wear blue. Everybody needs to post about it to flood the system with the message: We Reject Project 2025!
Also, Stop The Steal - Stop Musk's illegal, unconstitutional hostile takeover of our government.
Add whatever messages that are important to you. This is an existential threat to our democracy, our rights, the rule of law and a functional federal government.
I grew up in South Africa and whilst I had never heard of Musk until a couple of decades ago through PayPal, I know that as white south africans we were taught to be racist and right wing through every system from the time we were born, even though we weren’t aware of it. I did not identify as racist, I thought myself to be compassionate and kind, but it was only when I returned to the UK that I realised how nuanced my internalised racism was. However, Musk was born into a family who were nazi sympathisers so not only did he have the indoctrination of the government but also the ramped up indoctrination of his family. Everything he has done since he bought twitter (and possibly before) has been from the nazi playbook. He once said he was a liberal and left South African because of its apartheid, I refute that completely. If anything, I would say they no longer wanted to be part of a South Africa that was clearly in the throes of removing apartheid. He has convinced a certain large cohort of people that they are “saving” the US, he has unlawfully seized control of government departments, he villifies “others”. Everything that nazism stood for and did, he is doing too. This is a nazi takeover if ever there was one. My only question is how come no-one is really standing up to this. Where is the outrage, the shock, the horror, the banging down of doors to remove him from his illegal takeover.
I provided evidence for that in the article. He’s not just a generic “Nazi”, he’s a Hitler admiring National Socialist actualizing great replacement theory and creating an entirely new generation of Nazis on his platform.
I’m open to this criticism but I think I have proven this point very well.
Bull. They are following Hitler's playbook chapter and verse. Concentration camps are being readied NOW. What do you think comes after that? Tariffs are being implemented NOW in order to raise money from the people ! to pay for the ever-lower taxes on the rich. WE are paying the bills, not Elon von Musk! Whole departments and programs are about to be privatized -- the great wet dream of the Republican Nazis! THEY are the offensive ones, not those of us who call it like it is!
I kinda realised that the author of this publication is very much politically aligned to one side.
I didn't realise that many of the readers of this publication are as well but I guess that was to be expected.
I personally am definitely not playing this game of "our side" (whatever it is) are the good guys and the "other side" are the devil reincarnate as BOTH are two cheeks of the same arse.
Elon Musk gives nazi salutes.His father names him after a book written by a nazi , he comes from a country that was once very right wing. He discriminates against blacks at his factories. He dislikes unions. Sounds like nazis in their early stage.
Seriously--We have been invaded. What they’re doing is NOT in the Constitution. We are being invaded like Ukraine was invaded. What did the Ukrainian people do?
Some fled. Some argued the finer points of freedom and whatever. But the people who held Ukraine in their hearts, stayed and fought.
We’re talking about WORDS when the Devil has taken over. We all know what we mean: what’s happening is the opposite of DEMOCRACY. The opposite of FREEDOM.
Absolutely no argument there but using the correct terms is still very important, especially when these are terms that invoke strong emotions amongst certain racial or religious groups.
You use the term "fascists" and "Nazis" interchangeably which is problematic imho.
I ABSOLUTELY agree that fascists taking over the government is very very (very!) bad but this did not start with Musk or Trump and is not something that happened only under one side of politics.
If we are talking about terminology then I think the use of the term "Fascist" is ABSOLUTELY warranted in this instance because what is happening DOES indeed meet the technical definition of fascism which is a merger of the state with corporate interests (a.k.a. corporatism).
You sound like Chomsky, for whom all sides are bad, all sides are fascist, all sides are terrorist, and for whom the only solution is syndicalist anarchy and communism, when in truth you can be sure of one true thing: there will always be bad, very bad people -- Hitler, for example. Musk, for example. Thiel, for example. Putin, for example. But not FDR. Not Biden. Not Raskin. Not Sheldon Whitehouse. And so on.
This is a "total" statement and is not accurate. Both are ABSOLUTELY evil totalitarian regimes but they are not the same "by definition".
For example:
Fascism believes in the corporatization of all elements to form an ‘Organic State’. For Fascists state was an unimportant element of their beliefs
Nazism emphasised on racism. The doctrine believed in the superiority of a state ruled by a particular race, in this case, the ‘Aryan’ race
Fascism believed in the class system and sought to preserve it for a better social order.
Nazism considered a class-based society a hindrance to racial unity and sought to eliminate it
Fascism considered the state as a means of advancing the goal of nationalism.
Nazism considered the state as a tool for the preservation and advancement of the master race.
I also found this commentary very spot on:
"In a moment when far-right nationalism has surged in countries across the globe, it can be hard to believe the terms Nazi and fascist have at times been used in a more lighthearted fashion. (Remember the Soup Nazi? It wasn’t that long ago.)
When a word’s meaning becomes more negative over time, it’s referred to as pejoration. The opposite–when a meaning is viewed in a more positive light over time–is called melioration. Word evolution like this is pretty common; some words even manage to go through both pejoration and melioration.
Fascist’s rehabilitation into the vernacular began much sooner than Nazis. The Oxford English Dictionary records metaphorical use of this word as early as 1945 to describe “someone intolerant or unduly coercive.” The term Nazi would follow suit, re-entering the common lexicon by the 1980s as shorthand for “people who are unbendingly and unfeelingly strict about something.”
Over the course of recent decades, Nazi (often spelled with a lowercase n) worked its way into everyday speech. A nazi became a figure of speech for anyone seen as extremely authoritarian. This use of nazi in that sense dates back to at least the 1950–60s, with self-styled surf nazis admitting their fanaticism for the waves. A grammar nazi is obsessively strict about formal rules of “grammar.” The phrase is recorded on a Usenet forum as early as 1990, five years before the TV sitcom Seinfeld featured its domineering Soup Nazi character.
It must be said that many people find the everyday use of these words (and especially that of Nazi) to be awkward at best and extremely insensitive at worst. Regardless of how strict or unyielding someone might seem, you might want to think twice before hurling the term fascist or Nazi at them at a time when many people are on edge about authoritarianism. Then again, if you encounter an actual fascist or Nazi … we’re not going to stop you from letting the insults fly."
I spent 20 years managing treasury for a billion dollar corporation. Seeing these 12 year olds come in and be granted full access is unconscionable. I’ll be at one of the 50 protests tomorrow. I know it may not help but when my grandchildren ask how I met the moment I don’t want to say I was just a keyboard warrior. Thanks Jim. You’re helping us all stay a little more sane these days❤️
It was apparent on Jan 6, 2021, that we were nearing the end of the line for our democracy. The fundamentals were all terribly broken, and it only took a concerted effort of the last 4 years by the regime now in control, without a powerful counter-offensive by those that were concerned about the survival of our country and Constitution -- to further erode what was left. Now, with their plan at an advanced stage, and with vast power in their hands, the question of what to do next? We need a legal and operational strategy forged by an emergency leadership team. We do not seem to have leadership. We have individual voices, such as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff, AOC, etc., but no universal plan of action. How can we launch a plan?
Wow, what a reminder, for me, that as a defense, in Trump's petitions to the SCOTUS, for Writ of Cert, in both the 14th Amendment disqualification issue, on CO's primary ballots, and the immunity issue that his defenses were the crimes he committed themselves. That and running out the clock.
1. In the petition, on his disqualification, his attorney, who clerked for Scalia, said I can promise mass chaos and violence if Trump is removed from the primary ballots, in CO, and elsewhere, as CO's Supreme Courts decision was he incited an insurrection.
His position, or defense, in his petition, was that an insurrection will ensue if you apply the applicable Amendment for disqualification for his incitement of an insurrection as already decided.
2. The immunity case, petition(s), for and against, Writ of Certs, were that semantically the Oath he took declares nothing to admit to "supporting" the constitution. That semantic is called a synonym.
Again, his Scalia attorney, laughed that yeah, my client is guilty, but immune, however his oath doesn't tie him down to supporting the rule of law, as a matter of semantics. Semantics are semantics. Arguments such as these are like believing 60 courts, with Trump appointed judges threw out his claims of a stolen election are false because Trump said so, are semantics to his base, but courts need evidence.
Call a spade a spade as Musk's own daughter said about his salute and his ideology which matches that of a fascist or Nazi.
Nazi, Bozo, Leon Elon, no matter the Semantics of this, it is the actions that are without doubt that of a dictionary, court of law, common sense, fascist or Nazi, as applied to Musk.
People considered Marxist as communists. They are not synonymous. Marxist is an ideology where communism is a form of government. These deceptions are used on the ill informed.
Trump sued, bullied, Disney over G. Stephanopoulis, quoting the language of federal judge Kaplan, almost verbatim. Capitulation but not defamation. Semantics.
One more analogy. I called R. E. Lee a sadist and a rapist. His estate provided his personal notes and diaries to an author who went on to write a book. Did he say, I, RE LEE, am a rapist or sadist? NO. I wasn't asked to defend calling him a sadist only calling him a rapist of his chattel slaves. Semantics. Continual rape is torture and is sadistic.
That was a confused person. If you speak in diaries to raping children, women, fathering illegitimate children by rape and that rape through submission of being soaked in brine water after lashing the skin off one's back it is clearly not a semantics issue but an action that allows one to discern, credibly, he was a sadist first and rape was one part of the whole.
We will see how much semantics is argued when people realize, in their working lives, they have no protections as the EEOC, NLRB, OSHA are gone or that, like in OHIO, the most welfare recipients are full time workers at Walmart, and won't receive benefits checks.
Go to use an ATM, or pay a bill by EFT, or access money at all can't. Semantics? Fuck might apply. I dunno.
There are peaceful protest marches in 50 States at 50 State Capitols tomorrow at 12 noon. Be there! If you can't be there, call out from work. If you can't call out from work, at least wear blue. Everybody needs to post about it to flood the system with the message: We Reject Project 2025!
Also, Stop The Steal - Stop Musk's illegal, unconstitutional hostile takeover of our government.
Add whatever messages that are important to you. This is an existential threat to our democracy, our rights, the rule of law and a functional federal government.
I grew up in South Africa and whilst I had never heard of Musk until a couple of decades ago through PayPal, I know that as white south africans we were taught to be racist and right wing through every system from the time we were born, even though we weren’t aware of it. I did not identify as racist, I thought myself to be compassionate and kind, but it was only when I returned to the UK that I realised how nuanced my internalised racism was. However, Musk was born into a family who were nazi sympathisers so not only did he have the indoctrination of the government but also the ramped up indoctrination of his family. Everything he has done since he bought twitter (and possibly before) has been from the nazi playbook. He once said he was a liberal and left South African because of its apartheid, I refute that completely. If anything, I would say they no longer wanted to be part of a South Africa that was clearly in the throes of removing apartheid. He has convinced a certain large cohort of people that they are “saving” the US, he has unlawfully seized control of government departments, he villifies “others”. Everything that nazism stood for and did, he is doing too. This is a nazi takeover if ever there was one. My only question is how come no-one is really standing up to this. Where is the outrage, the shock, the horror, the banging down of doors to remove him from his illegal takeover.
I was writing back to that Michael Ginsberg person who asked me how do I know
I think you are using the term "Nazi" a bit to liberally to the extent it is becoming offensive as you are hollowing out any meaning this word has.
You asked me for proof that Elon Musk is a Nazi?
I’m no expert but I do read a lot.
1. He gave two distinct Nazi salutes in public
2. He identifies with and lines the new German Nazi-friendly party
3. His maternal grandparents were staunch Nazis. His father says so in an interview . He was brought up with those beliefs
On and on.
Just read Jim’s columns.
Two plus two equals four no matter how confusing they want it to seem
I provided evidence for that in the article. He’s not just a generic “Nazi”, he’s a Hitler admiring National Socialist actualizing great replacement theory and creating an entirely new generation of Nazis on his platform.
I’m open to this criticism but I think I have proven this point very well.
This is conspiracy nonsense. Don’t spread that here.
Why is that "conspiracy nonsense"? There is nothing there but factual data
Feel free to verify for yourself.
Anyways, this is going nowhere. Moving on
Elon Musk is a verified Nazi. It’s not a liberal use. It’s to show people what is actually happening.
I was just about to write that. Thank you, Ruthy.
Bull. They are following Hitler's playbook chapter and verse. Concentration camps are being readied NOW. What do you think comes after that? Tariffs are being implemented NOW in order to raise money from the people ! to pay for the ever-lower taxes on the rich. WE are paying the bills, not Elon von Musk! Whole departments and programs are about to be privatized -- the great wet dream of the Republican Nazis! THEY are the offensive ones, not those of us who call it like it is!
I kinda realised that the author of this publication is very much politically aligned to one side.
I didn't realise that many of the readers of this publication are as well but I guess that was to be expected.
I personally am definitely not playing this game of "our side" (whatever it is) are the good guys and the "other side" are the devil reincarnate as BOTH are two cheeks of the same arse.
You do you.
He told the Germans to forget their past. Sounds like he was saying don’t learn from history.
Elon Musk gives nazi salutes.His father names him after a book written by a nazi , he comes from a country that was once very right wing. He discriminates against blacks at his factories. He dislikes unions. Sounds like nazis in their early stage.
Ukrainians had tasted authoritarianism. They knew. We have been spoiled by years of freedom. We don’t recognize when it’s taken away
"Ukrainians had tasted authoritarianism. "
Yep, including by their own President
Seriously--We have been invaded. What they’re doing is NOT in the Constitution. We are being invaded like Ukraine was invaded. What did the Ukrainian people do?
Some fled. Some argued the finer points of freedom and whatever. But the people who held Ukraine in their hearts, stayed and fought.
It’s really simple.
And clearly there’s only one answer: the People must fight back
We’re talking about WORDS when the Devil has taken over. We all know what we mean: what’s happening is the opposite of DEMOCRACY. The opposite of FREEDOM.
Absolutely no argument there but using the correct terms is still very important, especially when these are terms that invoke strong emotions amongst certain racial or religious groups.
So it's "both-sides-ism", is it? Fascism and democratic socialism are equally bad? Sounds like Chomsky on a bad night. I hope you wise up.
It’s not about political alignment. I have criticized both sides. It’s about fascists taking control of the government. You think that’s bad, right?
You use the term "fascists" and "Nazis" interchangeably which is problematic imho.
I ABSOLUTELY agree that fascists taking over the government is very very (very!) bad but this did not start with Musk or Trump and is not something that happened only under one side of politics.
If we are talking about terminology then I think the use of the term "Fascist" is ABSOLUTELY warranted in this instance because what is happening DOES indeed meet the technical definition of fascism which is a merger of the state with corporate interests (a.k.a. corporatism).
You sound like Chomsky, for whom all sides are bad, all sides are fascist, all sides are terrorist, and for whom the only solution is syndicalist anarchy and communism, when in truth you can be sure of one true thing: there will always be bad, very bad people -- Hitler, for example. Musk, for example. Thiel, for example. Putin, for example. But not FDR. Not Biden. Not Raskin. Not Sheldon Whitehouse. And so on.
All Nazis are fascists by definition. Musk in particular is a goose-stepping, Sieg Heil-ing National Socialist.
This is a "total" statement and is not accurate. Both are ABSOLUTELY evil totalitarian regimes but they are not the same "by definition".
For example:
Fascism believes in the corporatization of all elements to form an ‘Organic State’. For Fascists state was an unimportant element of their beliefs
Nazism emphasised on racism. The doctrine believed in the superiority of a state ruled by a particular race, in this case, the ‘Aryan’ race
Fascism believed in the class system and sought to preserve it for a better social order.
Nazism considered a class-based society a hindrance to racial unity and sought to eliminate it
Fascism considered the state as a means of advancing the goal of nationalism.
Nazism considered the state as a tool for the preservation and advancement of the master race.
I also found this commentary very spot on:
"In a moment when far-right nationalism has surged in countries across the globe, it can be hard to believe the terms Nazi and fascist have at times been used in a more lighthearted fashion. (Remember the Soup Nazi? It wasn’t that long ago.)
When a word’s meaning becomes more negative over time, it’s referred to as pejoration. The opposite–when a meaning is viewed in a more positive light over time–is called melioration. Word evolution like this is pretty common; some words even manage to go through both pejoration and melioration.
Fascist’s rehabilitation into the vernacular began much sooner than Nazis. The Oxford English Dictionary records metaphorical use of this word as early as 1945 to describe “someone intolerant or unduly coercive.” The term Nazi would follow suit, re-entering the common lexicon by the 1980s as shorthand for “people who are unbendingly and unfeelingly strict about something.”
Over the course of recent decades, Nazi (often spelled with a lowercase n) worked its way into everyday speech. A nazi became a figure of speech for anyone seen as extremely authoritarian. This use of nazi in that sense dates back to at least the 1950–60s, with self-styled surf nazis admitting their fanaticism for the waves. A grammar nazi is obsessively strict about formal rules of “grammar.” The phrase is recorded on a Usenet forum as early as 1990, five years before the TV sitcom Seinfeld featured its domineering Soup Nazi character.
It must be said that many people find the everyday use of these words (and especially that of Nazi) to be awkward at best and extremely insensitive at worst. Regardless of how strict or unyielding someone might seem, you might want to think twice before hurling the term fascist or Nazi at them at a time when many people are on edge about authoritarianism. Then again, if you encounter an actual fascist or Nazi … we’re not going to stop you from letting the insults fly."
https://www.dictionary.com/e/nazi-fascist/
They are not obeying the laws.
Why should we?
I spent 20 years managing treasury for a billion dollar corporation. Seeing these 12 year olds come in and be granted full access is unconscionable. I’ll be at one of the 50 protests tomorrow. I know it may not help but when my grandchildren ask how I met the moment I don’t want to say I was just a keyboard warrior. Thanks Jim. You’re helping us all stay a little more sane these days❤️
It will help
Thank you. I agree!!
Jim, you are the best. Knowledgeable teacher,, astute observer, caring heart, excellent writer. Our hearts are breaking. Yours, too.