Thank you both. Completely agree. An analogy. Many in this administration are serial adulterers. What do cheating spouses and partners do, they lie. Why? Because they don’t want to be left. They want to control the outcome and the other person through deceit. It’s a sign of weakness and insecurity. They lie and gaslight and withhold so their partner doesn’t have the whole truth. They deny their partner the opportunity to make decisions for themselves by having the facts. This is exactly Trump, to a T. He is denying reality so no one has the ability to think and make decisions for themselves that would otherwise be information that they would reject out of self preservation and security and the belief that they deserve better. He is cheating on the entire country. Musk. Vance. Bondi. Hegseth. Rubio. They are all cheating on the country, on us, individually and collectively, gaslighting, lying, deceiving to get and have what they want. And what they want is not beneficial to us. It is only beneficial to them.
HCR says the change has to come from us. In the Chicago Tribune (conservative/Republican/business-minded in orientation—but tempered by liberal Chicago), there are eleven reader letters published on President’s Day, nine of which reject Trump’s leadership. They call out the “mockery of the Constitution” (common phrase these days), Trump’s “ignorant and distasteful decisions,” including attacking health sciences research, the rise of unelected oligarchs, Vice President’s “bad faith” dismissal of judicial review, and the meaning of a felony when Trump is a felon (comment on prominent Illinois politician Mike Madigan recently being convicted of corruption). Ten of the letters were from suburban readers and beyond. The letter I wrote as a Chicagoan responded to a recent op-ed by Paul Vallas defending Trump’s intent to eliminate the Department of Education. Vallas most recently ran for Chicago mayor and has led the Chicago Public Schools. I linked to Jen Rubin’s interview with Andrew Weissmann on the mass firings at the FBI and to HCR’s letter of November 16 on motivations for eliminating the DOE (a great counterpoint to Vallas’ description of the DOE). Key idea: our public schools and the federal government are forces for progress. We need to understand Vallas’ call for state and local control in the context of educational history (Brown vs Board of Education) and the current scrubbing of words like diversity and equity from use in our federal government. The Tribune letters as a group spoke to Jen’s three reminders from last Monday: Musk-Trump are subverting the Constitution, real people are getting hurt, and Republicans are the problem. Thank you for helping inform me so I could push back on the “there’s no problem” message of Paul Vallas. I feel like celebrating. I did something—got a letter published in my local newspaper with links to your work—was one of nine others speaking out. Yay!
The lies of all of the previous presidents put together wouldn't come close to the total of lies that have been uttered by the current president. You'd be comparing a bathtub full of water to Lake Superior. I don't think he even knows what truth is any longer, or as my father used to say: "he couldn't hit truth in the ass with a snow shovel."
Loved your comment Elaine. This is a president that kep lying for at least 2 hours after falling asleep and starts lying again 1 hour before waking up. Poor guy, so little break in between. 😄
Nixon lied and had to leave office. Johnson lied and had to retire. But Carter told the truth and was voted out because Reagan, “The Great Communicator,” told stories that weren’t true, but people liked those stories better than the truth.
Trump’s entire life has been based around exaggerations, distortions, and lies. The basis for everything he is doing now is the Big Lie that He was the one who was unfairly prosecuted. Now he, and everyone who joins his administration has to join the gaslighting of the country by persecuting the people who prosecuted him for his obvious crimes. It is also becoming more obvious again that Trump is, and always has been, Putin’s Puppy. We don’t know how much support, or how Putin has helped him, or how many other Republicans have been helped by Russia, but turning the US Government into a Russian Republic is part of the Trump/Musk/Putin agenda.
ALL the elected republicans, and everyone who remains in his administration has to agree to those lies. This is so dangerous because most of those people know they are giving up not only their own honesty and integrity, they are giving up our country, and the health and safety of all of us who live here, in Palestine and Ukraine.
Speak up, join, fund, write, post, do everything you can to wake up the apathetic, confused, and misinformed. as Trump said " “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Great exchange! There is such truth in Heather's parting thought - that we must hunger for and literally demand the qualities we need (integrity; honesty; compassion) in a future president, thereby calling forth and literally creating that public image, forming it out of our great need. Wonderful insight! Thank you!
It’s startling the acceptance of lying by anyone but especially our leaders. Must say it’s fascinating to see what’s going on in a historical perspective
Regarding presidents lying to we the people, sometimes the lying is specially damaging, perverse and capable of altering the future of the whole world and history. The case at hand is trump's denial of any knowledge of Proyect 2025 or any of their participants. When he lied, he did so because he knew the consequences of implementing such a policies would be very detrimental for we the people and was afraid of losing the election. Now we are starting to feel the consequences of a BIG lie.
Don't ever forget what on some levels may be his biggest lie, that Bob Woodward uncovered in Rage,
that the Covid-19 virus would not be bad, in March of 2020, when he absolutely knew otherwise. Has anyone calculated how many hundreds of thousands of people may have needlessly died because of his f**king obsession with "appearances?
Reality, you might be right but we don't know the full consequences of lying about Proyect 2025. Scores of people died because trump manipulation of Covid information, a form of lying, for sure. Proyect 2025 implementation it's already producing victims around the world, and it's only the beginning.
In any case we are on the same page and thanks for your reply 👍
This is my concern too. The power and technical ability of the Elon Musks to compromise our voting systems has me quite concerned. I don't see any Congresspeople or officials in this administration or the people behind Project 2025, Heritage foundation etc- behind the scenes conservatives who have systematically plotted to hijack our country to get us where we find ourselves today, that will stand up to try and protect free and fair elections. Dismantling them is part of their game plan. It is also on the state level w gerrymandering, and we know the majority of supreme court is just as corrupt as all of the others. So lying and turning a blind eye to the truth is all their way of life. The possibility for free and fair elections seem very compromised in this moment.
I would have loved to have the opportunity to have Heather Cox Richardson as one of my professors. She is absolutely fabulous. I love what all of you are doing to keep us truthfully informed and centered. Keep it up!
So good to hear that others wonder why all this lying is just being accepted instead of always called out. It really makes no sense to let the Republicans just get by with it. Always enjoy Heather Cox Richardson. And glad to have been recently introduced to Jen Rubin and The Contrarian. Thank y'all.
I am a subscriber, but I never get alerts for new post and videos from The Contrarian anymore, although I get alerts for all my other substack subscriptions. Is there a way to fix that?
I just got an alert today, so we will see if it is fixed. I sent them an email as avoided on substack fixes so that my email and theirs would be in the familiar address category, however nothing was in spam, so beats me.
We Dems need a Fox News, the propaganda channel the far right extremists have. They lie constantly and puff it up and dress it in truth’s clothes. MSNBC, nice try. But, it is just not lying enough. We have to fight fire with fire. Truth, Justice and the American way hasn’t worked. Obviously.
But they really need to call it as it is and say, he's LYING again, he's a FASCIST, he's DESTROYING the country, he's DANGEROUS, etc. They are always too careful not to offend, or something. We could really use more forceful simple words to call out every lie and dangerous anti-democratic thing they are doing.
Agreed. I’m thinking the target audience wouldn’t be Dem mainliners but fringe on both sides, the “Do-Your-Research,” conspiracy looneys and middle roadies, to chip away at the cognitive dissonance, give MAGATs something to hang their red hats on. I never watch Fox News, and Trumpers never watch Rachel and Co. Just suggesting a way to span the chasm.
I agree that Dems need a show, or shows, that have the sexy appeal of a Fox News Liars Show, but with true stories, ones that will speak in clear and simple terms to the Americans who don't know what a tariff is, or an oligarch, or any other vocabulary words beyond their experience. On camera talent should be yelling about the price of eggs, and the school vouchers that our taxes pay for that fund religious private schools and their tennis courts and horseback riding lessons. They should be talking about planes falling out of the sky and crashing into each other, ectopic pregnancies killing women because there isn't any abortion care any more, Bird Flu menacing the country with no hope for a vaccine or medical help (thanks RFK JR.), and on and on. I deeply believe that Dems need some media savvy producers to create shows that people will watch, understand, and be activated against our now incredibly corrupt federal government. There are enough true horrors to broadcast without resorting to lies.
I agree that we need a Faux News channel, but rather than lies, it must do what they do and provide ENTERTAINMENT. Unfortunately that's what American citizens want. Nothing complicated. Maybe some soap operas and car races along with comedy and cooking shows. All of these can provide openings into the real world issues if we have a staff of excellent writers and producers.
All of these billionaires and every one of them completely devoid of the two most valuable assets in this world. Wisdom and character cannot be bought at any price. You either have them or you don’t.
I have heard that one many times. And there is the one that we are marxists. And there is the one that school vouchers will cure the education problems in this country. And the one about how Trump is so good at transactional deals. And many more. Thing is I am the same person (who once was even a Republican!) and I have the same priorities and beliefs (in democracy ) I have always had. The people run the country by voting in their legislature and a president. The government should follow the constitution and laws and be fair. The three branches should have equal power and checks and balances. So when we ask for that suddenly we are bad guys?
Excellent, thank you both. Can Democracy and honesty survive in an AI/ Techno world when public access to truthful investigative media is so limited. I share The Contrarian as much as possible. But it is not reaching those outside of the choir...
Thank you both. Completely agree. An analogy. Many in this administration are serial adulterers. What do cheating spouses and partners do, they lie. Why? Because they don’t want to be left. They want to control the outcome and the other person through deceit. It’s a sign of weakness and insecurity. They lie and gaslight and withhold so their partner doesn’t have the whole truth. They deny their partner the opportunity to make decisions for themselves by having the facts. This is exactly Trump, to a T. He is denying reality so no one has the ability to think and make decisions for themselves that would otherwise be information that they would reject out of self preservation and security and the belief that they deserve better. He is cheating on the entire country. Musk. Vance. Bondi. Hegseth. Rubio. They are all cheating on the country, on us, individually and collectively, gaslighting, lying, deceiving to get and have what they want. And what they want is not beneficial to us. It is only beneficial to them.
You've nailed it.
Spot on! Thank you!
This!! Can I pls share?
Amen Collin
HCR says the change has to come from us. In the Chicago Tribune (conservative/Republican/business-minded in orientation—but tempered by liberal Chicago), there are eleven reader letters published on President’s Day, nine of which reject Trump’s leadership. They call out the “mockery of the Constitution” (common phrase these days), Trump’s “ignorant and distasteful decisions,” including attacking health sciences research, the rise of unelected oligarchs, Vice President’s “bad faith” dismissal of judicial review, and the meaning of a felony when Trump is a felon (comment on prominent Illinois politician Mike Madigan recently being convicted of corruption). Ten of the letters were from suburban readers and beyond. The letter I wrote as a Chicagoan responded to a recent op-ed by Paul Vallas defending Trump’s intent to eliminate the Department of Education. Vallas most recently ran for Chicago mayor and has led the Chicago Public Schools. I linked to Jen Rubin’s interview with Andrew Weissmann on the mass firings at the FBI and to HCR’s letter of November 16 on motivations for eliminating the DOE (a great counterpoint to Vallas’ description of the DOE). Key idea: our public schools and the federal government are forces for progress. We need to understand Vallas’ call for state and local control in the context of educational history (Brown vs Board of Education) and the current scrubbing of words like diversity and equity from use in our federal government. The Tribune letters as a group spoke to Jen’s three reminders from last Monday: Musk-Trump are subverting the Constitution, real people are getting hurt, and Republicans are the problem. Thank you for helping inform me so I could push back on the “there’s no problem” message of Paul Vallas. I feel like celebrating. I did something—got a letter published in my local newspaper with links to your work—was one of nine others speaking out. Yay!
Thx for the tip on Vallas' letter. Native Chicagoan here.
GO YOU! That's the way, and keep it up. Push back, keep pushing. Writing letters is a great way to keep questions in the current minds and times.
Yay indeed! This is how change gets going ....
The lies of all of the previous presidents put together wouldn't come close to the total of lies that have been uttered by the current president. You'd be comparing a bathtub full of water to Lake Superior. I don't think he even knows what truth is any longer, or as my father used to say: "he couldn't hit truth in the ass with a snow shovel."
Loved your comment Elaine. This is a president that kep lying for at least 2 hours after falling asleep and starts lying again 1 hour before waking up. Poor guy, so little break in between. 😄
Nixon lied and had to leave office. Johnson lied and had to retire. But Carter told the truth and was voted out because Reagan, “The Great Communicator,” told stories that weren’t true, but people liked those stories better than the truth.
Trump’s entire life has been based around exaggerations, distortions, and lies. The basis for everything he is doing now is the Big Lie that He was the one who was unfairly prosecuted. Now he, and everyone who joins his administration has to join the gaslighting of the country by persecuting the people who prosecuted him for his obvious crimes. It is also becoming more obvious again that Trump is, and always has been, Putin’s Puppy. We don’t know how much support, or how Putin has helped him, or how many other Republicans have been helped by Russia, but turning the US Government into a Russian Republic is part of the Trump/Musk/Putin agenda.
ALL the elected republicans, and everyone who remains in his administration has to agree to those lies. This is so dangerous because most of those people know they are giving up not only their own honesty and integrity, they are giving up our country, and the health and safety of all of us who live here, in Palestine and Ukraine.
Speak up, join, fund, write, post, do everything you can to wake up the apathetic, confused, and misinformed. as Trump said " “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Well said.
Great exchange! There is such truth in Heather's parting thought - that we must hunger for and literally demand the qualities we need (integrity; honesty; compassion) in a future president, thereby calling forth and literally creating that public image, forming it out of our great need. Wonderful insight! Thank you!
It’s startling the acceptance of lying by anyone but especially our leaders. Must say it’s fascinating to see what’s going on in a historical perspective
Regarding presidents lying to we the people, sometimes the lying is specially damaging, perverse and capable of altering the future of the whole world and history. The case at hand is trump's denial of any knowledge of Proyect 2025 or any of their participants. When he lied, he did so because he knew the consequences of implementing such a policies would be very detrimental for we the people and was afraid of losing the election. Now we are starting to feel the consequences of a BIG lie.
Don't ever forget what on some levels may be his biggest lie, that Bob Woodward uncovered in Rage,
that the Covid-19 virus would not be bad, in March of 2020, when he absolutely knew otherwise. Has anyone calculated how many hundreds of thousands of people may have needlessly died because of his f**king obsession with "appearances?
Reality, you might be right but we don't know the full consequences of lying about Proyect 2025. Scores of people died because trump manipulation of Covid information, a form of lying, for sure. Proyect 2025 implementation it's already producing victims around the world, and it's only the beginning.
In any case we are on the same page and thanks for your reply 👍
Will we ever have free and fair elections again so we can elect a president that doesn't lie? They are working hard at ensuring we don't.
This is my concern too. The power and technical ability of the Elon Musks to compromise our voting systems has me quite concerned. I don't see any Congresspeople or officials in this administration or the people behind Project 2025, Heritage foundation etc- behind the scenes conservatives who have systematically plotted to hijack our country to get us where we find ourselves today, that will stand up to try and protect free and fair elections. Dismantling them is part of their game plan. It is also on the state level w gerrymandering, and we know the majority of supreme court is just as corrupt as all of the others. So lying and turning a blind eye to the truth is all their way of life. The possibility for free and fair elections seem very compromised in this moment.
The gerrymandering in TX is so bad that my votes rarely even count other than in local elections.
What an America Treasure HCR is!!!
Amen
I would have loved to have the opportunity to have Heather Cox Richardson as one of my professors. She is absolutely fabulous. I love what all of you are doing to keep us truthfully informed and centered. Keep it up!
So good to hear that others wonder why all this lying is just being accepted instead of always called out. It really makes no sense to let the Republicans just get by with it. Always enjoy Heather Cox Richardson. And glad to have been recently introduced to Jen Rubin and The Contrarian. Thank y'all.
I am a subscriber, but I never get alerts for new post and videos from The Contrarian anymore, although I get alerts for all my other substack subscriptions. Is there a way to fix that?
Good point Pipand, because of no alerts,
I missed a few programs.
Pls Jen, try to fix that. Thanks Pipand and Jen.
I just got an alert today, so we will see if it is fixed. I sent them an email as avoided on substack fixes so that my email and theirs would be in the familiar address category, however nothing was in spam, so beats me.
Much of the new posts and vids are linked in the morning and afternoon summaries.
We Dems need a Fox News, the propaganda channel the far right extremists have. They lie constantly and puff it up and dress it in truth’s clothes. MSNBC, nice try. But, it is just not lying enough. We have to fight fire with fire. Truth, Justice and the American way hasn’t worked. Obviously.
Dems like and need facts, so it would not work.
But they really need to call it as it is and say, he's LYING again, he's a FASCIST, he's DESTROYING the country, he's DANGEROUS, etc. They are always too careful not to offend, or something. We could really use more forceful simple words to call out every lie and dangerous anti-democratic thing they are doing.
Agreed. I’m thinking the target audience wouldn’t be Dem mainliners but fringe on both sides, the “Do-Your-Research,” conspiracy looneys and middle roadies, to chip away at the cognitive dissonance, give MAGATs something to hang their red hats on. I never watch Fox News, and Trumpers never watch Rachel and Co. Just suggesting a way to span the chasm.
I agree that Dems need a show, or shows, that have the sexy appeal of a Fox News Liars Show, but with true stories, ones that will speak in clear and simple terms to the Americans who don't know what a tariff is, or an oligarch, or any other vocabulary words beyond their experience. On camera talent should be yelling about the price of eggs, and the school vouchers that our taxes pay for that fund religious private schools and their tennis courts and horseback riding lessons. They should be talking about planes falling out of the sky and crashing into each other, ectopic pregnancies killing women because there isn't any abortion care any more, Bird Flu menacing the country with no hope for a vaccine or medical help (thanks RFK JR.), and on and on. I deeply believe that Dems need some media savvy producers to create shows that people will watch, understand, and be activated against our now incredibly corrupt federal government. There are enough true horrors to broadcast without resorting to lies.
No, we don’t need to lie. We DO need to do a much better job of fact checking and calling out their lies, in real time with proof.
We need truth not our side’s propaganda.
I agree that we need a Faux News channel, but rather than lies, it must do what they do and provide ENTERTAINMENT. Unfortunately that's what American citizens want. Nothing complicated. Maybe some soap operas and car races along with comedy and cooking shows. All of these can provide openings into the real world issues if we have a staff of excellent writers and producers.
All of these billionaires and every one of them completely devoid of the two most valuable assets in this world. Wisdom and character cannot be bought at any price. You either have them or you don’t.
One can learn, but does not when already convinced that by virtue of being wealthy one is brimming with sagacity & ready to save the world.
Me: "Look, he didn't tell you the truth, again!"
My Republican friends: "Yeah, they all lie. Your guys do, too. My guy is just honest about it."
I have heard that one many times. And there is the one that we are marxists. And there is the one that school vouchers will cure the education problems in this country. And the one about how Trump is so good at transactional deals. And many more. Thing is I am the same person (who once was even a Republican!) and I have the same priorities and beliefs (in democracy ) I have always had. The people run the country by voting in their legislature and a president. The government should follow the constitution and laws and be fair. The three branches should have equal power and checks and balances. So when we ask for that suddenly we are bad guys?
Excellent, thank you both. Can Democracy and honesty survive in an AI/ Techno world when public access to truthful investigative media is so limited. I share The Contrarian as much as possible. But it is not reaching those outside of the choir...