Sasha, I am telling you the issue is so large, pervasive, and nauseating I can barely stand to think about it. The idea that one political party has grown to powerful as to be able to control - or TRY to control - speech and thought itself..... it boggles the mind. I'm a pretty smart guy and I'm almost struggling to accept it.
There are some blessings here.
1) Let us thank God that the very tool that allowed for the consolidation of such power is also allowing for a pushback. Yes the conservative media/culture machine isn't nearly as powerful. The DailyWire isn't Disney. BUT they are growing.
If this has happened during the time of 3 networks and the nightly news, we'd all be under their spell right now. It would literally be 1984.
2) On the ground, people are waking up. R's won the popular vote by a decent amount.
3) Media trust is at a record low. That ain't coming back. Ever.
4) God bless Elon Musk. The man has brains, balls, and a ton of cash. He better be careful crossing the street.....
I don't think it's a coincidence that Elon chose (so far) Taibbi and Weiss to release this information, and during the rollout Friday, Sasha and Glenn were both commenting over the three hour process.
I believe Elon is aware that the Fourth Estate is broken on both sides, and that Substack holds the key to save journalism, which is essential to maintain our Democracy. I'd take Taibbi/Weiss/Stone/Greenwald over Woodward/Bernstein any time.
Bravo, Sasha! Just wow! I was 20 when Watergate broke. I’ve asked many friends, that are extremely invested in the left narrative, who worship NYTimes and WAPO what their opinion on the current situation is? These are friends that are 65 and older, protested the Vietnam War, remember “4 Dead in Ohio”, fought “Big Brother”, Woodstock, and UC Berkeley was the bastion of free speech. What do they say, they hate Trump, literally and figuratively. They go apoplectic. These are creative people and they have lost all discernment. I have moved on. Thank you, so much for your awesome succinct writing.
Interesting. You have no friends who actually fought in the war and weren't all that thrilled about all of the crap going on in the country, and who voted OVERWHELMINGLY for Nixon?
My Father was a WW2 veteran. I'm a boomer. I have no idea if they voted for Nixon. LBJ escalated Vietnam and it was a Democratic administration we were protesting against. Interesting. I have friends that protested the war, joined the PeaceCorps and today they are all in on Ukraine, pro war, etc. Have another who fought in Vietnam, has a Purple Heart and suffers form exposure to agent Orange, (leukemia) and is totally invested in left narrative. In 2020, I asked a friend to convince me to vote for Biden with examples of past accomplishments, the answer simply was, "no, I can't" and she sent me a stump speech, which ironically, (listening to it today) is all lies. End of conversation.
You are a treasure, Sasha, and this is why. Essays like this that educate and motivate by revealing the stakes so clearly.
I veer between optimism and pessimism. I fear the “massive power alliance” that is being exposed and that you are describing. But as quietly as that tyranny took hold to rig the 2020 election, they will not let go quietly. They brag about what they did. The Left is equal parts ruthless and self-righteous.
You are also correct that the result of that tyranny is the disenfranchisement and disillusionment of a strong plurality of voters. I fear what happens if that plurality feels there is no hope through the electoral process and rises up in ways that make 1/6 seem quaint. I fear even worse Roosevelt’s worst case of doing nothing.
Is there a middle ground? I hope. This Twitter dump is part of that hope. Elon Musk is part of that hope. Independent voices here on Substack (like Greenwald, Weiss, and Taibbi) are part of that hope.
And you are part of that hope, Sasha. Thank you for your tireless and selfless efforts. Truly appreciated!
"As Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”"
The problem is you're putting your hope in people whose political survival depends on doing nothing. Democrats are not the only beneficiaries of this new fascist, totalitarian state. Establishment Republicans are as well.
But other than that, I don't know how you felt about Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, or Edward Snowden, but this sort of tactic was also used on them. What they were saying was totally true. In any sane age, we'd want to know. Yet, with the blessing of the majority of the population and nearly all politicians on all sides, they were persecuted. We didn't get here overnight. We got here by, as a society, prizing "right think" over truth, and we've been doing it for a while.
I am a former soldier who has been to war for this country and having a night job is as a volunteer firefighter - neither is as important as this work you are doing, Sasha.
We are not 'nearing a Civil War', we are nearing another Revolutionary War as we are an occupied People right now. It is taking risks like this(and Taibbi, Greenwald, etc.) that will help to avoid actual war.
The 2018 election ballot harvesting was the test case(California... every bad idea originates in Cali), 2020 was the deployment, and 2022 was the verification.
Bravo, dear, and to all those that have opened their eyes and minds.
The battle now is against the FBI, CIA, NYT, WAPO and NYC elite. Odds of real Americans winning ain’t good. Btw, I served and others on this site like Sam did also. Unfortunately Trump was not able to drain the swamp and those slimy creatures are now more alert than before.
Not all of them. Many are armed and fighters too. But "The pen is mightier than the sword" and "Light dispels darkness". We need more education and to be outspoken about that education, so we can dispense light. More offense and less defense. Conservative principals WORK and are BETTER.
For example: Children need a male parent and a female parent. It's nature's and the Creator's ingenious design: Fathers push and encourage their children to take more chances, to keep at it even if they are uncomfortable, to not be afraid; Mothers offer comfort and a 'safe haven' for their children, wanting to protect them, plus they give emotion feedback, reflection and insight. Of course, Mothers also do what Fathers do and Fathers often do what Mothers do, but overall, they parent differently and children need BOTH to become fully functioning mature adults.
Another example: The Creator's natural design is that humans are bound to other humans when they are physically close and this is partly done by the release of oxytocin, a hormone the "glues" a person to the other person in the brain, which happens to a much larger degree in females than in males (a good thing too, as it binds the new mother to their newborn by way of the cuddling, holding and nursing the new born) and when a physical relationship ends, it's like a Bandaid being ripped off the heart of the female, especially (to varying degrees - each person is different), so a single female (and to a small extent, a male) having many sex partners is a recipe for anxiety and heartache.
Truths like these, and others, need to be talked about all the time, instead of ONLY counteracting whatever the latest atrocity, lie, action the Democrat leftist's take.
Interesting article Sasha, but I find it very ironic that you missed the FBI connection. Woodward and Bernstein weren't "digging" for the story, they were serving as a conduit for Associate FBI Director Mark Felt, who hated Nixon because he had passed him over for the role of FBI Director. He used Woodward and Bernstein to "get" Nixon. Incidentally, in the mind of many of us who were adults back then, the break-ins were justified. The United States was involved in a war and some on the Left were actively supporting North Vietnam and the Communists. Their actions were traitorous. It is believed that Nixon knew that Felt was leaking information to the media. In short, nothing has changed. The FBI has become a power in itself and they use the media to spread their propaganda. As for Nixon's "crimes," they existed primarily in the minds of Democrats. The issue was whether Nixon knew about the burglaries. The 18-minute gap on the tape is believed to have contained a discussion of the burglaries. FYI, there was no requirement for presidents to tape their conversations. The existence of the tapes was unknown until Alexander Butterfield blabbed. Democrats then made a "crime" of erasing tapes no one had even known existed.
Nixon may have been paranoid, but he was a good president. He had the support of the American people and was responsible for some of the most important events of the time, particularly the thawing of relations with Russia and China. He wasn't running teenage girls in and out of the White House like some of his successors and predecessors and he wasn't profiting financially from the office. He came to power at the height of a war Democrats started - then was hated for it when he was actually pulling out. Clueless college students - led by professional agitators - went wild anytime he did anything that might keep their communist idols from winning the war. The Cambodian incursion is a good example. Those of us actually there at the time applauded the move and were mystified when we learned that college kids (who had draft deferments) were protesting a move that saved the lives of many of those they had gone to high school with.
The reality is that the current events are nothing but a continuation of the 1960s. Democrats saw an opportunity to increase the role of the media as propagandists and to use certain government agencies for their own political purposes, as they did in 1963
Hey Sam, I really appreciate the insights you often share. In my Irish Catholic neighborhood almost have the guys went into the military in the 60’s and early 70’s. It is reasonable to protest war; but those that supported the enemy are still despised here.
I was very young back then, but wasn't there a large amount of vote fraud, including a few people going to jail as punishment for it, that got JFK in office when he ran against Nixon? Maybe Nixon's campaign thought the DNC was going to do it again and that's why they broke in to the DNC headquarters?
I don't know for sure about the 1960 election as far as people going to jail, but there was definitely fraud, particularly in Texas and Illinois. The Chicago Mob was working for Kennedy and they did a lot, including registering people in the graveyard to vote. The Nixon campaign and the White House had a lot of reasons to want to look at the DNC records due to the antiwar activism of some prominent Democrats, including George McGovern. After the POWs were released, Air Force Colonel Leo Thorsness, told McGovern that the North Vietnamese loved him and his actions prolonged the war. The irony is that Mark Felt knew about all this but he hated Nixon so much he was willing to ignore the Democrat's activities and go after Nixon. He was later tried and convicted for illegal activities - and President Nixon testified on his behalf.
The Democrats know they cannot run Biden or Harris in 2024. Biden is too old. Harris can't win dog catcher unopposed. You can't run Mayor Pete because he's gay and most of America will never vote for him because of that (which is absurd in my opinion, but whatever)
Rep. Ro Khanna who worked for Obama coincidentally appears on Bill Maher's final episode of the 2022 season and has a great showing/platform where he appears to be a level headed Democratic centrist who thinks the far left goes too far and America is a great country we all should love which aligns with more of today's voters than the "let's tear it all down!" lunatics on the left.
Even Maher goes on to tell Khana to run and that because he's Indian he checks all the progressive boxes the Democratic Party needs checked since the Dems will never nominate a straight white man again.
Khana also reveals how his grandfather was imprisoned with Gandhi because he supported/marched with him during his appearance with Maher which is sure to add more credibility to the national audience watching who has no idea who Ro Khanna is.
Then this Twitter leak comes out and makes only one Democrat appear to have to integrity -- Rep. Ro Khanna
What a coincidence.
Meet the next President in 2024, kids. His name is Ro Khanna.
I like him. But I think what would be better is a more bi-partisan pairing. The thing I'm realizing now is that everything the Bernie people accused the DNC of is right. There is an establishment and they choose the nominee. They just pretend the people have a choice but they don't. The money, the media and twitter chooses their pick. The Bernie thing was a rare flash of actual democracy at work. They have to choose Harris. If they don't there will be a massive rift in the party. They will lose their Black voters. They might lose women. And that right there is their whole coalition. Biden will run because deep down he knows this. Also as we saw in 2022 and 2020 he doesn't have to really do anything. He can just sit there. The machine will do it all for him. Provided there is a GOP candidate they can scare the citizenry with.
Both the RNC and DNC are private corporations - and we ain't in them. Shun them and activate locally and get involved to keep the groomer and racist freaks out of our schools and city councils.
I think what we need to watch out for is the Dem "machine" beginning to discredit Harris more and more so they don't lose the Black and Female voters they think they will offend by passing her over. I don't think she has a chance in a general election. She's completely unlikable. More than Hillary ever was.
The one who actually is going to get help here (I think) is Trump because the Democrats want him to be the candidate because they think he'll offend so many he can't win. I doubt there will be any indictments or any kind of push to legally bar him from running for President -- he's who they want to face. Facing DeSantis or Youngkin probably scares the crap out of them. Biden or Harris debating one of those 2 would be a catastrophic for the party.
And I still have this eerie feeling we're being prepped for Khanna. Maher basically gave him the platform to introduce himself to his audience and get them excited. He did that for Mayor Pete you'll recall (and it helped) but Pete's personal life is a non-starter for too many folks out there. And I think that's ludicrous personally. I also think it's sad that the Democrats act like they own the Black Vote and are so proud of that but that's precisely the voting block that would never give someone like Pete a chance because he's gay.
Bernie was right -- he blew the lid off a lot of this and then kind of demurred which I hate -- he's the actual disruptor and he was going to change the Democratic Party if they didn't pull those shenanigans to prop Hillary up over him. I think if the party learned any lesson there it's that forcing a candidate over the one who had enthusiasm and momentum is what loses elections. It's why I think they're going to either destroy or appoint VP Harris to some face saving thing and get her out of the elections.
I agree that it looks like they are prepping Ro Khama candidacy. I do have a question for you, respectfully. You seem convinced that Mayor Pete is a non-starter and that people won’t vote for him simply because he’s gay. Isn’t it possible that many won’t vote for him because mayor of South Bend (pop 103,000) qualifies him to run for mayor of Indianapolis, not the Presidency?
I disagree with that part of the comment. I actually think the fight in the future is going to be between Pete and DeSantis. I don't know about 2024 but ultimately those two are going to be the leaders of each side. Pete repping the identitarians and DeSantis repping the fight against them. Not against gay marriage or gay people but against the "woke" religion.
Identitarian for sure. I believe Mayor Pete is a very smart man. I also believe that if he were straight, nobody outside of Indiana would have heard of him, at least at this point in his career.
I'm convinced that people won't vote for Pete because he's gay because we saw it in the primaries in 2020. Pete had momentum, but then the knock against him was "the black vote" would not support him. For the record, I wrote in Pete's name for President in 2020 because I could not vote for Trump or Biden. That said, I do not think this country will be okay with a Gay couple living in the White House. If he cannot capture the black voters in the Democratic party and he's going to offend people who are offended by homosexuality, I don't see the path for him to win.
But I voted for him once. I might again depending on who he opposes and what kind of showing they make and policies they support. A Pete vs DeSantis would be quite interesting to me.
And Trump got elected President with less government experience than Pete. Trump did a good job outside of his horrific personality and childish ways. I don't want another 4 years of Trump, but if my choice is Trump vs Biden or Harris, I will vote Trump this time although being a NY'er my vote is meaningless since my state is reflexively Democratic.
I liked Pete like I liked all Democrats, before they lost their mind with the Great Awokening. But voting for them now means that's our future. And I can't vote for that. I can't vote for a movement that thinks kids decide their gender before puberty. I can't vote for a movement that believes white kids are oppressors. I can't vote for a movement that has destroyed everything that I love - journalism, art, cinema, science. So I won't vote for any of them unless a reasonable one emerges.
By the way Pete was, to me, like the "gay Obama." On the Left we're always looking for saviors or religious leaders like JFK, then Obama. In the new Left, they need to believe they are making history, re-ordering the hierarchy. So Pete was the "Gay Obama." They thought for a time that Kamala Harris was the "female Obama" but that has turned out not to be true.
Obama was a unicorn. Right person, right time. But what has become of the Left now is something I think needs major pushback against. I don't want them to win the Fourth Turning. God help us if they do.
I agree with you, Sasha. My enthusiasm for Pete has waned once it was clear he quit the primary and made a deal with Biden that led to his current appointment. I do feel as if he sold out to the party which I didn't feel he would during primary season. He didn't need to sell out. He was getting a lot of big money contributions without being the favored pony in the party. I think he was speaking to a lot of people in 2020 that saw him as a way out of where we were headed.
Now? I don't feel the same. Reading about how he and Harris and their spouses are besties infuriates me about as much as Biden naming Harris VP after she called him a racist in a debate and then sold t-shirts with her soundbite slogan on it the next morning to all the idiots who bought into that farce.
I think Pete debating DeSantis would be quite interesting to behold. I also believed in 2020 if Pete were the nominee and debated Trump and Trump (predictably) made fun of him being gay, Pete would've won the Presidency because Independents would've flocked to him.
But yes, all Democrats have lost their mind. It was actually my initial point about Khanna -- he's been around but he's suddenly being thrust onto a national stage with the reputation that he's not a wokester. I don't buy it. It all seems too convenient. From the Maher appearance to the emails of his that Elon leaked that made him look like a hero instead of a Democratic operative. I know this sounds all conspiracy theory and I hate that, but that's where we are right now -- I can't trust anything that comes out that party. I think they know they need a plan B to Biden and I think Khanna may be it. Again, no coincidence he shows up with the messaging that would appeal to most voters at this point in time with a Obama connection. And he's not a white guy. He's got Democratic bonafides.
We live in an era of ballot stuffing. Enough ballots with correct results will show up at key places and boom! President Harris. Wholesale vote getting is where the future is., not candidate quality.
I am brought back to the events of Watergate. First, in Nixon’s second term, the administrative state shared him - especially the military-industrial complex. They leaked info on VP Agnew that would discredit him for tax fraud and corruption. After he was gone, the democratic majority house (in their constitutional duty) picked VP Ford - knowing he would be a bad candidate for the GOP in the next presidential election. Then the deep state gets the ball rolling on Nixon (deep throat) unfortunately, the president recorded himself secretly and the exposure of that lead to Ford's Presidency; deeply damaging the GOP across the board until (and some might say through) Reagan.
Could we see history repeating itself only with a GOP house? An interesting thought experiment.
In the interest of accuracy, the 25th Amendment, which had been ratified six years prior to Agnes’s resignation, applies to the case of a vacancy in the Vice Presidency. The appointment of a new VP is made by the President, not the House, but is subject to ratification by a majority vote of BOTH houses of Congress. Agnew was appointed by Nixon. Obviously he had to appoint someone who would be acceptable to a Democratic Congress, but the House did not choose Agnew.
Similarly if a VP vacancy occurred now, Biden, not the GOP majority House would make the selection
Could it be that "most Americans" wouldn't vote for Mayor Pete far more because he's wholly unqualified than because he's gay? You don' give your fellow countrymen very much credit
What's odd is that people here don't seem to realize that Khanna and Buttigieg are despised among the Bernie crowd for being sellouts, warmongers, and beholden to the MIC. *Josh Hawley* could outflank them from the *left.*
One has to wonder why MSM journalists spew vitriol at "the richest man in the world" but have nothing to say about the second and third richest men in the world.
Either Zuckerberg and Bezos run a very tight ship with the journalists in their pocket or they're not guilty of being successful self-made African-American immigrants.
As the Washington Post, for reasons now obscure, still proclaims in its masthead "Democracy dies in darkness".
PS: Bravo Matt Taibbi, Sasha Stone, Bari Weiss, Glen Greenwald! True journalists to the core!
And Substack which allows them to thrive when other media cancelled them.
My concern is what is going to change now that we ‘know’.
My concern is that’s going to be the big ‘nothing’ burger.
We’ve known about their behavior for years and they only get more brazen because they are never punished for this behavior.
I love that people are sharing proof and a lot of this just isn’t speculating anymore but now what?
What is the tangible action or actions to remedy this problem once and for all? I’m simply tired of talking about it and expecting the co-opted R’s to do something about it. In many cases, they are just as complicit as the demented D’s.
I’m simply not convinced the current generation of R’s has the capacity or will to do what needs to be done to save the Republic. It’s truly a mixed bag, given how many boomers and Silents are still holding on to power. If the power balance was in favor of the under 60 crowd, I’d have a bit more hope. But my generation (X) and the millennials aren’t fully in charge of the party yet. That’s a huge problem, given the older generations would rather ‘be right’ and appease than fight Leftists. That’s just the practical reality we are dealing with.
Keeping Elon and everyone reporting on this story in prayer. Sadly, exposure of corruption is a threat to those brave enough to bring it to light. Godspeed.
I was going to cancel the WSJ subscription I've had since my undergrad days if they still hadn't acknowledged this story by today. While it didn't make the front page, they did publish it on as an editorial board article.
Here's the first three paragraphs:
-----------------------------------------------
The first is that Mr. Musk would do the country a favor by releasing the documents all at once for everyone to inspect. So far he’s dribbled them out piecemeal through journalist Matt Taibbi’s Twitter feed, which makes it easier for the media to claim they can’t report on documents because they can’t independently confirm them.
A second point is an huzzah for Rep. Ro Khanna, the California progressive Democrat, who warned Twitter in 2020 about the free-speech implications and political backlash of censoring the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. That was good advice, even if Twitter didn’t take it.
A third point is the confirmation of the central role that former spies played in October 2020 in framing the Hunter Biden story in a way that made it easier for Twitter and Facebook to justify their censorship.
You wrote: As Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Totally agree! What is the right thing?
- Be clear that the Dem is the worst evil and Republican (the much less evil) is the ally in this fight.
- Vote and do not afraid to tell people (family, friends and neighbors) what you have learned and did: the reason the Dem politicians are in power is they have been able to fool enough people; therefore, the more citizens are informed the better chance we can turn it around.
- Support or join organizations that share the same goals
As much as I agree with so much of what you say here I think you're all wrong about Watergate, especially given what is known today that wasn't then.
Watergate wasn't fearless journalists doggedly seeking truth. It was clueless cub reporters being spoon fed the narrative(s) to pursue by a deep state handler; Associate FBI Director Mark Felt. The cub reporters have been replaced by David Ignatius and many others today but the result is the same.
Watergate wasn't the opposite of "Russiagate" or the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story. It was the blueprint for them. It established how the deep state through manipulation of a compliant media could not only control the narrative but even take down a duly elected sitting President. Though in this age of corrupt legacy and social media, the media have gone from being witless dupes to enthusiastic co-conspirators.
This is what a real "threat to democracy" looks like!
This is correct. Everyone should read Victor Lasky's book, "It Didn't Start with Watergate" for a less mythologized overview. While it has its faults (the 1977 review in Reason Magazine is quite critical, but fair), it's closer to the truth than what 99% of Americans believe they know about those events.
Same guy who said FDR, L. Johnson and JFK wiretapped their opponents during elections? I looked up the guy in questions seemed like he hated every single democrat out there.
Sasha, I am telling you the issue is so large, pervasive, and nauseating I can barely stand to think about it. The idea that one political party has grown to powerful as to be able to control - or TRY to control - speech and thought itself..... it boggles the mind. I'm a pretty smart guy and I'm almost struggling to accept it.
There are some blessings here.
1) Let us thank God that the very tool that allowed for the consolidation of such power is also allowing for a pushback. Yes the conservative media/culture machine isn't nearly as powerful. The DailyWire isn't Disney. BUT they are growing.
If this has happened during the time of 3 networks and the nightly news, we'd all be under their spell right now. It would literally be 1984.
2) On the ground, people are waking up. R's won the popular vote by a decent amount.
3) Media trust is at a record low. That ain't coming back. Ever.
4) God bless Elon Musk. The man has brains, balls, and a ton of cash. He better be careful crossing the street.....
Thank God for Substack.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Elon chose (so far) Taibbi and Weiss to release this information, and during the rollout Friday, Sasha and Glenn were both commenting over the three hour process.
I believe Elon is aware that the Fourth Estate is broken on both sides, and that Substack holds the key to save journalism, which is essential to maintain our Democracy. I'd take Taibbi/Weiss/Stone/Greenwald over Woodward/Bernstein any time.
Thank you Sasha.
Totally agree: Stone/Greenwald/Weiss/Taibbi over Woodward/Bernstein any day.
Yes, Elon must be very careful. He’s going up against a crew that, as they’ve demonstrated in the last 2 years, the ends justify the means.
Bravo, Sasha! Just wow! I was 20 when Watergate broke. I’ve asked many friends, that are extremely invested in the left narrative, who worship NYTimes and WAPO what their opinion on the current situation is? These are friends that are 65 and older, protested the Vietnam War, remember “4 Dead in Ohio”, fought “Big Brother”, Woodstock, and UC Berkeley was the bastion of free speech. What do they say, they hate Trump, literally and figuratively. They go apoplectic. These are creative people and they have lost all discernment. I have moved on. Thank you, so much for your awesome succinct writing.
Interesting. You have no friends who actually fought in the war and weren't all that thrilled about all of the crap going on in the country, and who voted OVERWHELMINGLY for Nixon?
My Father was a WW2 veteran. I'm a boomer. I have no idea if they voted for Nixon. LBJ escalated Vietnam and it was a Democratic administration we were protesting against. Interesting. I have friends that protested the war, joined the PeaceCorps and today they are all in on Ukraine, pro war, etc. Have another who fought in Vietnam, has a Purple Heart and suffers form exposure to agent Orange, (leukemia) and is totally invested in left narrative. In 2020, I asked a friend to convince me to vote for Biden with examples of past accomplishments, the answer simply was, "no, I can't" and she sent me a stump speech, which ironically, (listening to it today) is all lies. End of conversation.
You are a treasure, Sasha, and this is why. Essays like this that educate and motivate by revealing the stakes so clearly.
I veer between optimism and pessimism. I fear the “massive power alliance” that is being exposed and that you are describing. But as quietly as that tyranny took hold to rig the 2020 election, they will not let go quietly. They brag about what they did. The Left is equal parts ruthless and self-righteous.
You are also correct that the result of that tyranny is the disenfranchisement and disillusionment of a strong plurality of voters. I fear what happens if that plurality feels there is no hope through the electoral process and rises up in ways that make 1/6 seem quaint. I fear even worse Roosevelt’s worst case of doing nothing.
Is there a middle ground? I hope. This Twitter dump is part of that hope. Elon Musk is part of that hope. Independent voices here on Substack (like Greenwald, Weiss, and Taibbi) are part of that hope.
And you are part of that hope, Sasha. Thank you for your tireless and selfless efforts. Truly appreciated!
"As Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”"
The problem is you're putting your hope in people whose political survival depends on doing nothing. Democrats are not the only beneficiaries of this new fascist, totalitarian state. Establishment Republicans are as well.
But other than that, I don't know how you felt about Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, or Edward Snowden, but this sort of tactic was also used on them. What they were saying was totally true. In any sane age, we'd want to know. Yet, with the blessing of the majority of the population and nearly all politicians on all sides, they were persecuted. We didn't get here overnight. We got here by, as a society, prizing "right think" over truth, and we've been doing it for a while.
I am a former soldier who has been to war for this country and having a night job is as a volunteer firefighter - neither is as important as this work you are doing, Sasha.
We are not 'nearing a Civil War', we are nearing another Revolutionary War as we are an occupied People right now. It is taking risks like this(and Taibbi, Greenwald, etc.) that will help to avoid actual war.
The 2018 election ballot harvesting was the test case(California... every bad idea originates in Cali), 2020 was the deployment, and 2022 was the verification.
Bravo, dear, and to all those that have opened their eyes and minds.
The battle now is against the FBI, CIA, NYT, WAPO and NYC elite. Odds of real Americans winning ain’t good. Btw, I served and others on this site like Sam did also. Unfortunately Trump was not able to drain the swamp and those slimy creatures are now more alert than before.
Remember, those people are soyboys at best who piss their pants if confronted publicly.
Not all of them. Many are armed and fighters too. But "The pen is mightier than the sword" and "Light dispels darkness". We need more education and to be outspoken about that education, so we can dispense light. More offense and less defense. Conservative principals WORK and are BETTER.
For example: Children need a male parent and a female parent. It's nature's and the Creator's ingenious design: Fathers push and encourage their children to take more chances, to keep at it even if they are uncomfortable, to not be afraid; Mothers offer comfort and a 'safe haven' for their children, wanting to protect them, plus they give emotion feedback, reflection and insight. Of course, Mothers also do what Fathers do and Fathers often do what Mothers do, but overall, they parent differently and children need BOTH to become fully functioning mature adults.
Another example: The Creator's natural design is that humans are bound to other humans when they are physically close and this is partly done by the release of oxytocin, a hormone the "glues" a person to the other person in the brain, which happens to a much larger degree in females than in males (a good thing too, as it binds the new mother to their newborn by way of the cuddling, holding and nursing the new born) and when a physical relationship ends, it's like a Bandaid being ripped off the heart of the female, especially (to varying degrees - each person is different), so a single female (and to a small extent, a male) having many sex partners is a recipe for anxiety and heartache.
Truths like these, and others, need to be talked about all the time, instead of ONLY counteracting whatever the latest atrocity, lie, action the Democrat leftist's take.
Interesting article Sasha, but I find it very ironic that you missed the FBI connection. Woodward and Bernstein weren't "digging" for the story, they were serving as a conduit for Associate FBI Director Mark Felt, who hated Nixon because he had passed him over for the role of FBI Director. He used Woodward and Bernstein to "get" Nixon. Incidentally, in the mind of many of us who were adults back then, the break-ins were justified. The United States was involved in a war and some on the Left were actively supporting North Vietnam and the Communists. Their actions were traitorous. It is believed that Nixon knew that Felt was leaking information to the media. In short, nothing has changed. The FBI has become a power in itself and they use the media to spread their propaganda. As for Nixon's "crimes," they existed primarily in the minds of Democrats. The issue was whether Nixon knew about the burglaries. The 18-minute gap on the tape is believed to have contained a discussion of the burglaries. FYI, there was no requirement for presidents to tape their conversations. The existence of the tapes was unknown until Alexander Butterfield blabbed. Democrats then made a "crime" of erasing tapes no one had even known existed.
Nixon may have been paranoid, but he was a good president. He had the support of the American people and was responsible for some of the most important events of the time, particularly the thawing of relations with Russia and China. He wasn't running teenage girls in and out of the White House like some of his successors and predecessors and he wasn't profiting financially from the office. He came to power at the height of a war Democrats started - then was hated for it when he was actually pulling out. Clueless college students - led by professional agitators - went wild anytime he did anything that might keep their communist idols from winning the war. The Cambodian incursion is a good example. Those of us actually there at the time applauded the move and were mystified when we learned that college kids (who had draft deferments) were protesting a move that saved the lives of many of those they had gone to high school with.
The reality is that the current events are nothing but a continuation of the 1960s. Democrats saw an opportunity to increase the role of the media as propagandists and to use certain government agencies for their own political purposes, as they did in 1963
Hey Sam, I really appreciate the insights you often share. In my Irish Catholic neighborhood almost have the guys went into the military in the 60’s and early 70’s. It is reasonable to protest war; but those that supported the enemy are still despised here.
I was very young back then, but wasn't there a large amount of vote fraud, including a few people going to jail as punishment for it, that got JFK in office when he ran against Nixon? Maybe Nixon's campaign thought the DNC was going to do it again and that's why they broke in to the DNC headquarters?
I don't know for sure about the 1960 election as far as people going to jail, but there was definitely fraud, particularly in Texas and Illinois. The Chicago Mob was working for Kennedy and they did a lot, including registering people in the graveyard to vote. The Nixon campaign and the White House had a lot of reasons to want to look at the DNC records due to the antiwar activism of some prominent Democrats, including George McGovern. After the POWs were released, Air Force Colonel Leo Thorsness, told McGovern that the North Vietnamese loved him and his actions prolonged the war. The irony is that Mark Felt knew about all this but he hated Nixon so much he was willing to ignore the Democrat's activities and go after Nixon. He was later tried and convicted for illegal activities - and President Nixon testified on his behalf.
Follow me if you will:
The Democrats know they cannot run Biden or Harris in 2024. Biden is too old. Harris can't win dog catcher unopposed. You can't run Mayor Pete because he's gay and most of America will never vote for him because of that (which is absurd in my opinion, but whatever)
Rep. Ro Khanna who worked for Obama coincidentally appears on Bill Maher's final episode of the 2022 season and has a great showing/platform where he appears to be a level headed Democratic centrist who thinks the far left goes too far and America is a great country we all should love which aligns with more of today's voters than the "let's tear it all down!" lunatics on the left.
Even Maher goes on to tell Khana to run and that because he's Indian he checks all the progressive boxes the Democratic Party needs checked since the Dems will never nominate a straight white man again.
Khana also reveals how his grandfather was imprisoned with Gandhi because he supported/marched with him during his appearance with Maher which is sure to add more credibility to the national audience watching who has no idea who Ro Khanna is.
Then this Twitter leak comes out and makes only one Democrat appear to have to integrity -- Rep. Ro Khanna
What a coincidence.
Meet the next President in 2024, kids. His name is Ro Khanna.
I like him. But I think what would be better is a more bi-partisan pairing. The thing I'm realizing now is that everything the Bernie people accused the DNC of is right. There is an establishment and they choose the nominee. They just pretend the people have a choice but they don't. The money, the media and twitter chooses their pick. The Bernie thing was a rare flash of actual democracy at work. They have to choose Harris. If they don't there will be a massive rift in the party. They will lose their Black voters. They might lose women. And that right there is their whole coalition. Biden will run because deep down he knows this. Also as we saw in 2022 and 2020 he doesn't have to really do anything. He can just sit there. The machine will do it all for him. Provided there is a GOP candidate they can scare the citizenry with.
Both the RNC and DNC are private corporations - and we ain't in them. Shun them and activate locally and get involved to keep the groomer and racist freaks out of our schools and city councils.
Bravo Sasha.
I think what we need to watch out for is the Dem "machine" beginning to discredit Harris more and more so they don't lose the Black and Female voters they think they will offend by passing her over. I don't think she has a chance in a general election. She's completely unlikable. More than Hillary ever was.
The one who actually is going to get help here (I think) is Trump because the Democrats want him to be the candidate because they think he'll offend so many he can't win. I doubt there will be any indictments or any kind of push to legally bar him from running for President -- he's who they want to face. Facing DeSantis or Youngkin probably scares the crap out of them. Biden or Harris debating one of those 2 would be a catastrophic for the party.
And I still have this eerie feeling we're being prepped for Khanna. Maher basically gave him the platform to introduce himself to his audience and get them excited. He did that for Mayor Pete you'll recall (and it helped) but Pete's personal life is a non-starter for too many folks out there. And I think that's ludicrous personally. I also think it's sad that the Democrats act like they own the Black Vote and are so proud of that but that's precisely the voting block that would never give someone like Pete a chance because he's gay.
Bernie was right -- he blew the lid off a lot of this and then kind of demurred which I hate -- he's the actual disruptor and he was going to change the Democratic Party if they didn't pull those shenanigans to prop Hillary up over him. I think if the party learned any lesson there it's that forcing a candidate over the one who had enthusiasm and momentum is what loses elections. It's why I think they're going to either destroy or appoint VP Harris to some face saving thing and get her out of the elections.
I agree that it looks like they are prepping Ro Khama candidacy. I do have a question for you, respectfully. You seem convinced that Mayor Pete is a non-starter and that people won’t vote for him simply because he’s gay. Isn’t it possible that many won’t vote for him because mayor of South Bend (pop 103,000) qualifies him to run for mayor of Indianapolis, not the Presidency?
I disagree with that part of the comment. I actually think the fight in the future is going to be between Pete and DeSantis. I don't know about 2024 but ultimately those two are going to be the leaders of each side. Pete repping the identitarians and DeSantis repping the fight against them. Not against gay marriage or gay people but against the "woke" religion.
Identitarian for sure. I believe Mayor Pete is a very smart man. I also believe that if he were straight, nobody outside of Indiana would have heard of him, at least at this point in his career.
I'm convinced that people won't vote for Pete because he's gay because we saw it in the primaries in 2020. Pete had momentum, but then the knock against him was "the black vote" would not support him. For the record, I wrote in Pete's name for President in 2020 because I could not vote for Trump or Biden. That said, I do not think this country will be okay with a Gay couple living in the White House. If he cannot capture the black voters in the Democratic party and he's going to offend people who are offended by homosexuality, I don't see the path for him to win.
But I voted for him once. I might again depending on who he opposes and what kind of showing they make and policies they support. A Pete vs DeSantis would be quite interesting to me.
And Trump got elected President with less government experience than Pete. Trump did a good job outside of his horrific personality and childish ways. I don't want another 4 years of Trump, but if my choice is Trump vs Biden or Harris, I will vote Trump this time although being a NY'er my vote is meaningless since my state is reflexively Democratic.
I liked Pete like I liked all Democrats, before they lost their mind with the Great Awokening. But voting for them now means that's our future. And I can't vote for that. I can't vote for a movement that thinks kids decide their gender before puberty. I can't vote for a movement that believes white kids are oppressors. I can't vote for a movement that has destroyed everything that I love - journalism, art, cinema, science. So I won't vote for any of them unless a reasonable one emerges.
By the way Pete was, to me, like the "gay Obama." On the Left we're always looking for saviors or religious leaders like JFK, then Obama. In the new Left, they need to believe they are making history, re-ordering the hierarchy. So Pete was the "Gay Obama." They thought for a time that Kamala Harris was the "female Obama" but that has turned out not to be true.
Obama was a unicorn. Right person, right time. But what has become of the Left now is something I think needs major pushback against. I don't want them to win the Fourth Turning. God help us if they do.
I agree with you, Sasha. My enthusiasm for Pete has waned once it was clear he quit the primary and made a deal with Biden that led to his current appointment. I do feel as if he sold out to the party which I didn't feel he would during primary season. He didn't need to sell out. He was getting a lot of big money contributions without being the favored pony in the party. I think he was speaking to a lot of people in 2020 that saw him as a way out of where we were headed.
Now? I don't feel the same. Reading about how he and Harris and their spouses are besties infuriates me about as much as Biden naming Harris VP after she called him a racist in a debate and then sold t-shirts with her soundbite slogan on it the next morning to all the idiots who bought into that farce.
I think Pete debating DeSantis would be quite interesting to behold. I also believed in 2020 if Pete were the nominee and debated Trump and Trump (predictably) made fun of him being gay, Pete would've won the Presidency because Independents would've flocked to him.
But yes, all Democrats have lost their mind. It was actually my initial point about Khanna -- he's been around but he's suddenly being thrust onto a national stage with the reputation that he's not a wokester. I don't buy it. It all seems too convenient. From the Maher appearance to the emails of his that Elon leaked that made him look like a hero instead of a Democratic operative. I know this sounds all conspiracy theory and I hate that, but that's where we are right now -- I can't trust anything that comes out that party. I think they know they need a plan B to Biden and I think Khanna may be it. Again, no coincidence he shows up with the messaging that would appeal to most voters at this point in time with a Obama connection. And he's not a white guy. He's got Democratic bonafides.
We live in an era of ballot stuffing. Enough ballots with correct results will show up at key places and boom! President Harris. Wholesale vote getting is where the future is., not candidate quality.
I am brought back to the events of Watergate. First, in Nixon’s second term, the administrative state shared him - especially the military-industrial complex. They leaked info on VP Agnew that would discredit him for tax fraud and corruption. After he was gone, the democratic majority house (in their constitutional duty) picked VP Ford - knowing he would be a bad candidate for the GOP in the next presidential election. Then the deep state gets the ball rolling on Nixon (deep throat) unfortunately, the president recorded himself secretly and the exposure of that lead to Ford's Presidency; deeply damaging the GOP across the board until (and some might say through) Reagan.
Could we see history repeating itself only with a GOP house? An interesting thought experiment.
In the interest of accuracy, the 25th Amendment, which had been ratified six years prior to Agnes’s resignation, applies to the case of a vacancy in the Vice Presidency. The appointment of a new VP is made by the President, not the House, but is subject to ratification by a majority vote of BOTH houses of Congress. Agnew was appointed by Nixon. Obviously he had to appoint someone who would be acceptable to a Democratic Congress, but the House did not choose Agnew.
Similarly if a VP vacancy occurred now, Biden, not the GOP majority House would make the selection
Excellent clarification.
Could it be that "most Americans" wouldn't vote for Mayor Pete far more because he's wholly unqualified than because he's gay? You don' give your fellow countrymen very much credit
What's odd is that people here don't seem to realize that Khanna and Buttigieg are despised among the Bernie crowd for being sellouts, warmongers, and beholden to the MIC. *Josh Hawley* could outflank them from the *left.*
One has to wonder why MSM journalists spew vitriol at "the richest man in the world" but have nothing to say about the second and third richest men in the world.
Either Zuckerberg and Bezos run a very tight ship with the journalists in their pocket or they're not guilty of being successful self-made African-American immigrants.
As the Washington Post, for reasons now obscure, still proclaims in its masthead "Democracy dies in darkness".
PS: Bravo Matt Taibbi, Sasha Stone, Bari Weiss, Glen Greenwald! True journalists to the core!
And Substack which allows them to thrive when other media cancelled them.
Keep it coming, Sasha. Good stuff.
My concern is what is going to change now that we ‘know’.
My concern is that’s going to be the big ‘nothing’ burger.
We’ve known about their behavior for years and they only get more brazen because they are never punished for this behavior.
I love that people are sharing proof and a lot of this just isn’t speculating anymore but now what?
What is the tangible action or actions to remedy this problem once and for all? I’m simply tired of talking about it and expecting the co-opted R’s to do something about it. In many cases, they are just as complicit as the demented D’s.
I’m simply not convinced the current generation of R’s has the capacity or will to do what needs to be done to save the Republic. It’s truly a mixed bag, given how many boomers and Silents are still holding on to power. If the power balance was in favor of the under 60 crowd, I’d have a bit more hope. But my generation (X) and the millennials aren’t fully in charge of the party yet. That’s a huge problem, given the older generations would rather ‘be right’ and appease than fight Leftists. That’s just the practical reality we are dealing with.
Keeping Elon and everyone reporting on this story in prayer. Sadly, exposure of corruption is a threat to those brave enough to bring it to light. Godspeed.
Sasha, you absolutely crushed it...again!
How do you do this, piece after piece?
Who ever this Fourth Turning's Grey Champion turns out to be, he/she needs your voice.
A stunning way you put this together...so glad you postponed your Friday posting, and collected your thoughts into this multimedia masterpiece.
I was going to cancel the WSJ subscription I've had since my undergrad days if they still hadn't acknowledged this story by today. While it didn't make the front page, they did publish it on as an editorial board article.
Here's the first three paragraphs:
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The first is that Mr. Musk would do the country a favor by releasing the documents all at once for everyone to inspect. So far he’s dribbled them out piecemeal through journalist Matt Taibbi’s Twitter feed, which makes it easier for the media to claim they can’t report on documents because they can’t independently confirm them.
A second point is an huzzah for Rep. Ro Khanna, the California progressive Democrat, who warned Twitter in 2020 about the free-speech implications and political backlash of censoring the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. That was good advice, even if Twitter didn’t take it.
A third point is the confirmation of the central role that former spies played in October 2020 in framing the Hunter Biden story in a way that made it easier for Twitter and Facebook to justify their censorship.
Christopher Wray, the FBI Director needs to be fired NOW
You wrote: As Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Totally agree! What is the right thing?
- Be clear that the Dem is the worst evil and Republican (the much less evil) is the ally in this fight.
- Vote and do not afraid to tell people (family, friends and neighbors) what you have learned and did: the reason the Dem politicians are in power is they have been able to fool enough people; therefore, the more citizens are informed the better chance we can turn it around.
- Support or join organizations that share the same goals
- Run for the local/national offices.
As much as I agree with so much of what you say here I think you're all wrong about Watergate, especially given what is known today that wasn't then.
Watergate wasn't fearless journalists doggedly seeking truth. It was clueless cub reporters being spoon fed the narrative(s) to pursue by a deep state handler; Associate FBI Director Mark Felt. The cub reporters have been replaced by David Ignatius and many others today but the result is the same.
Watergate wasn't the opposite of "Russiagate" or the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story. It was the blueprint for them. It established how the deep state through manipulation of a compliant media could not only control the narrative but even take down a duly elected sitting President. Though in this age of corrupt legacy and social media, the media have gone from being witless dupes to enthusiastic co-conspirators.
This is what a real "threat to democracy" looks like!
This is correct. Everyone should read Victor Lasky's book, "It Didn't Start with Watergate" for a less mythologized overview. While it has its faults (the 1977 review in Reason Magazine is quite critical, but fair), it's closer to the truth than what 99% of Americans believe they know about those events.
Same guy who said FDR, L. Johnson and JFK wiretapped their opponents during elections? I looked up the guy in questions seemed like he hated every single democrat out there.
Except there is not and never was Democracy its just a set of rules we follow.
Well some of us do...
Always been the case see prohibition era