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I, too, admire Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and all other humans who do not find the intense pressure to succumb to the racist ultra MAGA Republican creed enough to compromise their integrity. Integrity is not a political strategy. It rises far above that. And at the start and end of the day, it is what we are left with that matters.

Salud, TC. Excellent analysis as always.

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I haven't heard much about Liz Cheney's chances for reelection this fall. I guess her chances are pretty slim?

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I think not as slim as the MAGAts think. Most of the Democats in Wyoming have no chance of electing a candidate, so they will vote for her as a thumb in the eye of the MAGAts, which with the non-Trump Rs still left, could give her a run for the money.

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This is hopeful news; well, compared to the alternatives. Thanks, TC.

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Just to report: I had the opportunity several weeks ago to drive through Wyoming. I saw one (and only one) political sign against Liz Cheney. I was on the I-80 corridor, so I wasn't in any residential areas.

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Thanks for this essay, TC. I had seen the usage of "Stochastic Terrorism" pop up this week, and I had a general idea of what it meant. This is gold.

As someone who is not male, I do not understand a lot of the dominant thought processes about being male, one of which seems to be a need to "belong with others of like mind". I know that my Dad's friends/co-workers were all members of the Elks, the Eagles, were Masons, or other (in that day) exclusionary groups. I asked my Dad (with the innocence of a 10 year old who was learning the hard way about being "different") why he didn't belong to any of those groups. His reply "I didn't need a clubhouse when I was 10, and I don't need one when I'm 50." He was a WWII AAC Veteran who was a meteorologist. He spent 3 years stateside in San Francisco, and the last part of his service in the China-Burma Theatre setting up the stations that enabled the planes to fly "over the hump." He said the Army taught him a lot, and one of them was that "clubs" were not for him.

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The first time I heard the term "stochastic terrorism" and "agitprop" was while listening to Greg Olear's podcast interview several days ago with author of the book "American Fascism," Brynn Tannehill. Ms Tannehill has a B.S. in computer science, earning her "wings" in 1999 as a Naval aviator.

The podcast is 1hr40min long, but goes by quickly as the conversation between them is fascinating.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democracy-game-with-brynn-tannehill/id1553506699?i=1000561004338

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Thanks for the link. I am going to bookmark that and listen to it on my travels today. I am heading back to Crescent City with my sister-in-law to help my father-in-law's wife (she's my age and we have agreed that she is not my mother-in-law 😜, rather my friend) as she gets him placed in a memory care facility.

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founding

Oh, what a tough trip. I've been there. It's that farewell at the door for the trip back that will break your heart.

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Oh, wow, Ally. Hope all goes well for all of you.

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Thank you. It is a tough time. He lives in remote Del Norte (CA) county; no hospice, no senior center, no resources for them. We're hoping we can get him into a place in Brookings, OR.

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Good luck with all that - doing this stuff is hard.

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Perfect jigsaw puzzle accompaniment! Thanks Lynell!

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Yes, as Ally says, "This is gold" TC. Thanks!

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TC, I appreciated your definition of 'Stochastic Terrorism'. It was clear; I could feel its programmatic strength and understand why it works. How to instill fear, charge it up, so that the fear not only occupies your brain and lies in bed with you. No, no, no! Put fear into action, make it yours from weak to strong.

replace, supplant, supersede

In human terms, The Fear is powerized - automatized and atomized.

My mind flipped to Buffalo. The price of power over humanity. The dead, the wounded, their connections, the police, and the armored eighteen year-old programmed to kill human beings darker than himself. He killed their smiles, their thoughts and the goals they had. Look at him. What did he replace?

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He "replaced" peace with violence, love with hate, hope with fear. We need to replace Republicans with Democrats, and Tucker Carlsons with Walter Cronkites.

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MaryPat, I think of that young man as a void - a hole that had been dug, so that conscience, reason and morality have been completely perverted. I cannot think another way because the darkness is total. It is impossible for me to formulate the human being who is there. Yes, he's a human being, so psychologically/emotionally mutilated, I am unable to go beyond that.

MaryPat, Withal, I am always so glad to see you. You come with affection, commonsense, deep care, humor, steadiness and support. Thank you, friend.

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Thank you Fern. And I can honestly send all those kind words right back atcha! Thank you, too, for your powerful insights. Yes, this boy had to have been abused and used and then indoctrinated. You have brought back memories of my years as a maternal and child health nurse, making joint protective services visits with a social worker to families "at risk." One house was so bad that when I got to my home I didn't even try to launder my clothes, but threw them, with my shoes, into the trash. Then there are the families where everything looks fine, maybe a little too perfect. We don't know (yet) what kind of environment this young murderer grew up in, but I hope we all eventually can learn from it, and prevent any child from ever becoming, as you describe, a moral void.

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From the description of his parents (both civil engineers, civil service in NY state, father a Democrat, mother a Republican, both with little/no political involvement though father is in the State Employees Assn., they sound like typical white bread unaware types. The kid talked about how he duped them in his "diary."

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Oh, that is so sad, and exactly the goal of "The Evil Empire." My sister, a Democratic activist, is struggling now with her daughter, a recent summa cum laude grad from Notre Dame. The Federalist Society et al had 4 years to groom her for the cult, and succeeded far beyond my sister's nightmares. ND indoctrinates a more sophisticated type of violence, but surely just as deadly.

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MaryPat, the family's desperation and lack of influence with your niece's poisoning absolutely captures the depth of the white supremacy/fascistic/autocratic embed here. I feel your disquiet. Most horrible - so sorry.

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Guesses about the young man are probably useless but questions matter. Neglect, and early signs of psychological issues occur to me. I will check about siblings...sometimes family members, in addition to his parents, teachers and others in his circle (if he belonged to one) may offer suggestions. Friends?

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There's a good article on him, quoting from his "diary" at the WaPo. He had few friends. However, when he published his "diary" for others to read 30 minutes before carrying out the act, none of those "invited" to read it thought to turn him in or warn the authorities.

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P.S. My horrific experience with that abusive and neglectful family in the filthy home helped to launch my career in political advocacy. Our Republican state senator lived on the same road (albeit on the rich end) as they did. He was opposing legislation to fund "Infant Support Services" for home visits by our county health departments. A wise lobbyist (who later hired me) said, "The difference between a Republican and a Democrat was real world experience." Since the children had already been placed with good families, and the house had been sterilized, I couldn't take him on a tour. But I could tell him the story, very graphically. After that, my senator made sure that bill, and anything else we asked for, passed. Sadly, today, too many of our elected Republicans suffer from the same moral void as the young murderer.

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History, politics, conscience and experience are crucial to our understanding. Thank you, MaryPat.

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I think that it is your experiences and others - medical, professional, family and lay people who need to conscientiously provide ways to stop the spread of this poison as well as the treatment of the sick. The fields of medicine, media, business, technology, political, social science, national security and law enforcement will have important input.

To make a final point, this young man and the others, while dark voids to me, they are not empty. People of such active hatred are releasing venom all over this land.

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I don’t mean to be silly here, but as I read this post, TC, all I could think of was the movie, The Lion King. The parallels are not perfect; we don’t have a king, yet at least. However, in the Lion King, the leader was replaced by violent means ( stampede) set off by “foreign henchman (hyenas) of an aggrieved wannabe leader (Scar). Under Scar’s “leadership”, the Prideland goes to hell in a hand basket, and life becomes miserable for all.

There is no little Simba in waiting to save us today. We have to save ourselves and do the hard work necessary to get democracy voters out in the midterms.

Today’s post paints a scary picture of our current reality. The Claremont fellow you mentioned is peddling racist bs. We did not arrive at this place overnight, but we have very little time to get it together to save democracy.

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No silliness to be seen anywhere in this.

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founding

Talk more to the rising next gens. They are my “Simba”.

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Yes. See Lynell's VOX article at LFAA on Future Generations Commissions in European Governments.

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Thank you, Jenn. Not silly at all, if you ask me.

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This edition of "Fine Mess" deserves wide distribution. I will share it with my modest crew.

I have been listening to Kayyem for years. Her explanation is excellent. It assigns responsibility very well.

Anyone poo pooing the idea that fascism has a grip on the White Mind should read your letter of today.

But I fear that there will be many more Buffaloes. The GRT promoters have figured out a formula to ensnare the ignorant, the angry and disenfranchised. Of course, it is the uber rich that are using them as tools to retain their power and money. Peter Thiel being a poster boy.

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Thanks - post away! You and everyone else.

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again, Tom, you hit one out of the ballpark. as I read, I do what I usually do when I'm reading horrible things written by horrible people, which is to start an argument with each of what are laughably referred to as "talking points." but these quotes you've provided have defeated me utterly. every single one of them is so toxic ON TOP of being so absolutely moronic that if I took on every one of them in any kind of systematic way, 1) it would take all day and 2) it would ruin the day. and you've done more than an excellent job of showing just how foul they are. every time I read one of these hate screeds, it changes my physiology in a really horrible way and also makes me want to embrace the heinous things I'm (as one of these leftie jews) being accused of. yes, I'd like THEM to be replaced (by just about anything else). I could go on, but I 'm sure everybody gets the picture.

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You are very definitely not the only person who goes through that. I'm not Jewish, and *I* want to join the cabal that's busy replacing these people. :-)

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As much as we've known hatred and death as often as it happens as close it comes to countries, communities our house; it is always old and new shocking, unbelievable and painful as it courses through and never goes away. Shalom, David.

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Terrific piece, Tom. You nailed it.

My question to the Replacement assholes is "how do you define indigenous people? Your replacement of them is fine."

Those scared, stupid, gullible, willfully stupid and casually cruel fuckwits are low hanging fruit for the oligarchs in this country who really run things ( no, not a Jewish cabal lie), but a country owned and operated by mega corporations who decide everything from media to meals that the highest court in the land defines as people ( see Citizens United and yesterday little blow job to Ted Cruz).

Politicians bought and paid for, K Street a revolving door.

Poll after poll after poll show the vast majority of Americans want pro choice, gun control, etc.

Anybody with a brain knows not one fucking thing will change after all the mass shootings in this country this past weekend with Buffalo as the latest in domestic terrorism.

For the Hell of it, I would love Democratic leadership in both houses to put to a vote and condemn white supremacy and the Buffalo massacre. Each one of those 535 members go on record.

Then the Democrats seize that and hammer it home 24/7. Of course I'm high. That will never happen.

Fuck Amerikkka

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Thanks for this essay, TC. It is an important piece that should be broadcast far and wide.

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Nail. Head. Hit.

While digesting this piece I was distracted by my subconscious salivating over some schadenfreude with an aftertaste of irony, triggered by today's reality of white supremacists agitating against a "Great Replacement" using terms such as "native born Americans" when they are standing on the dust and bones of "replaced" Native Americans.

The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the sons. (I'm not a god-botherer, but some truisms are universal.)

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"God-botherer"! She doesn't mind! But I get better responses and action from The Great Irish Tea Party (which predates the caustic Republican one by decades) in the Sky."

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The Claremont clown’s rant displays almost no knowledge of the country he purports to reform. The notion that immigrants don’t use the American language is utterly untrue and the best proof is the disappearance of dozens of foreign language newspapers in cities like New York with large immigrant populations. They began to disappear before the Second World War and had completely folded by the Sixties for the most (The Forward stopped publishing its Yiddish edition in the 1990s) and all for the same reason - the next generation spoke English exclusively.

As for culture, I remember seeing Sikh guys at Shea Stadium in the Seventies. The turbans made them easy to spot. American art, including music, movies and television is still our biggest export. Long exposed to Louis Armstrong, Elvis, Paul Newman, Dolly Parton and “Friends” 21st Century immigrants arrive far more Americanized than their predecessors of the 19th Century. And they bring tandoori chicken and pad Thai with them.

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Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

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TC, without a doubt, this is one of your best. I have posted it on both FB and Twitter and now I think I'll back to Twitter and amplify it by sending it to MSNBC. I KNOW someone over there reads you (there are no coincidences and sometimes your ideas - maybe even your words - crop up in their analysis of various and sundry.) This one needs to be discussed widely.

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YES! I have shared too, with exerpts.

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Had not heard the term before. You have me thinking. Could become tgf defense if he comes to trial or the prosecution's case. Stochastic Guilt, the acts and rhetoric of deceitful manipilation that culminate in violence perpetrated by secondary actors. Sentence guidelines: 10% of prison time to be served consecuitively with each accused perpetrator convicted of violence.

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TY, TC. Exponential increase in this since 1170, (HenryII &Becket) due to realtime, ubiquitous social media. It seems to me that in our day of weaponized, coded communication the "act" of terrorism cannot be confined to the "acolyte soldier" receivers but also to the speakers ....both become terrorists, don't they?? Free Speech collisions ahead!! Thank you.

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Wow! This explains so much. Thank you for this excellent informative piece!!

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Interesting stochastic reflection. Found this quote by following links in the Kathleen Belew, NYT article re " great replacement" theory to Renaud Camus. He lives in a 14th century castle in France and his early writing used the phrase ( also followed by Marine Le Pen, et al).....

“He [Renaud Camus] should become aware that in our universe, where everything happens in real time, what you say from the position of an aesthete or a writer, can instantly be transformed into a gun and bullets,” said the expert [Jean Ives Camus], who is not related to Renaud Camus."

Lots of Camus running around in France!!!!

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And appropos of Beau, he mentions that the gun crowd, which he blames entirely for the gun control mess we find ourselves in at the moment, insists on buying the AR15 because it is very close to the gun the military uses today (the M16 rifle or M4 carbine). But the army has just picked a new rifle to replace the M16 and M4 for our front line combat troops, and he is concerned that the gun nuts will start buying the civilian version of that weapon, which is already being offered to civilians years ahead of the army's getting them. Here's the thing - the new rifle, the XM5, uses an enhanced new type of ammunition that causes far more damage to victims than the existing 5.56mm AR round. Use of this new rifle in crimes will change the gun control debate when people see what the new powerful bullets will do. The new ammunition, known as the .277 SIG 'Fury', is actually more powerful down-range than the old 7.62mm NATO M14 battle rifle..... It was designed to penetrate military body armor at extended ranges, and domestically the police will be hopelessly outmatched once these hit the market..... Welcome to West World.

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