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.....
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.....
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.
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.
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
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.
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:
-----------------------------------------------
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!