Ice is becoming more violent. I saw where ice ran a vehicle through a crowd of protestors and a guy was thrown off the hood of the vehicle and later told reporters that he was bleeding all over the place. Be careful no violence we will have our moment and get justice. I think what goes around comes around and we can go after them the same way they have gone after us. The first would be Trump and his regime then the J6ers that were pardoned by Trump.
Wow! “Moral injury” is an insightfully framed diagnosis of what so many of us are experiencing. I agree with the need to take action, rather than to wallow. I look forward to reading your recommendations for action.
Moral injury is one way of looking at it. Moral insult another - a slap in the face of ordinary citizens who expected some reciprocal respect from the institutions they were asked to support. Those institutions - the Presidency, Supreme Court, Congress, federal authorities, so-called Fourth Estate - have disrespected the faith people once invested in them. It's time the people slapped back.
Very much loooking forward to your next essay. Naming, feeling and honoring our moral injury is very important in this inhumane time, however not responding with some action is even more devastating for me to consider.
David! Knockout piece. Literally. I’m sitting in our kitchen unable to get up from the harsh truths you write. I’ve written and posted my own attempts to cope by reminding us of our historic place in world civilization and pointing out how cavalierly we are trashing it—which just gets deeper. Depression, yes! With me it’s mainly how Blythe and clueless we are. Here in Palm Springs surrounded by smart and accomplished folks, I get blank looks when trying to have a conversation about our peril. No one wants to engage with this. Your writing is a light in a very dark place. I feel like Floyd Collins may have felt when he understood that no help would be coming. Larry
Thanks, Larry. It means a lot coming from you. And I can tell you that I have the same problem here with the incrementalists and the institutionalists and the go-along, get-along crowd. Too many people keep shrugging off this situation as business as usual. Wherever we are, we’ve got to try to get the truth out to as many people who will listen. Your guy LBJ was no saint…but he would have cracked a few heads and gotten Dems to do something…anything.
Thank you. You've explained what is afflicting us well. Moral Injury. In his first go round. I would post, Every day is worse than the one before. This time the actions are more depraved. I just started reading, "The Kindly Ones" by Jonathan Littell, it's grotesque. I can only read a few pages a day, but having read "Neighbors" by Jan Gross and "The Plunderers" by Daniel Unowsky I know grotesque is a place people will go. This regime lives in the ideal of inciting the grotesque. Cruelty is their goal. I am looking forward to your next essay and thank you again for shedding light on our souls. This past weekend my family and I visited Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty it did help as a reminder of what we are fighting for.
Suppose all of our thinking has been trained for right-brain thinking which has caused the left-brain to be incapacitated. Soul thinking is a left-brain activity that has gotten very little play in our culture. Can it be that we are left-brain dead enough to cause such immoral behavior ?
David, I have been reading and following you for almost a decade now first with Deep State Radio and as a columnist. Your work and insights on national security are invaluable as well as shedding light on the problems of the day. Thank you for being one of the ma y voices who remain undeterred and courageous.
The question is why whether we have already crossed the Rubicon and that even elections in 2026 mid trend I fear will not be free and fair and we still do not have a paper trail from the last election, which defied belief in so many ways) and there are those who are trying to do forensics on that.
If we have crossed that threshold already, I fear we could descend into the abyss…a hot civil war. As there are so many guns and ammo easily accessible.
What do you offer that would work better and still be legal? Protests in the streets show dissatisfaction with the status quo but will not get the greedy, power hungry, and narcissistic to voluntarily give up control and they DO HAVE CONTROL CURRENTLY. A military couop or French Revolution is hardly a desirable alternative.
I thought I had no illusions about the U.S.'s so-called democracy, but the onset of Trump II showed me I was wrong. Are "we the people" capable of coming to terms with how we got here? Can we reckon with the flaws that have been there since (before) the founding and have grown progressively worse since the mid-1960s? Are we willing, in short, to look our past in the eye and finally address the twin evils of racism and unregulated capitalism? Since I'm 74, there's no way I'll live to see the culmination of such a process, but (being in good health) I do hope to see its beginning.
The only way we can keep big money and corrupt politicians out of the process is by making it a Private Assembly and by invitation only because the Constitution otherwise says that it can only be changed by state legislatures!!!! Poliotiocioans. So which would you prefer? I have tried to do my homework and see how we can do this and avoid having it taken over by BIASED CORRUPT GREEDY MONEY AND POLITICIANS. year so being an observer of our government, our Constitution and our politics and research went into writing the book. These are not crazy ideas pulled out of my butt.
Must of the people I know said they were ready to pile after the bill passed in the House. I want to know what threats people in Congress received and how much arm-twisting and fear-mi Geri f they were subjected to. And if it was bad. why isn’t that illegal?
And when are Dems going to get leadership that understands and masters social media . Newsom seems to be only one that truly has a grip. . The word has to get out. Collective rebuke is necessary. Everyone wants to know how to stop this and there is a whole lot of inertia in the masses despite all the protests .
Oh, David, the last week has been really awful. I had a realization this morning about which I hesitate to write, because it is so crazy, so I'm going to research it before I say anything else. I'm going to look at the cover of the New Yorker and look up Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin before I say anything else, but I think you know how I feel about the climate crisis not being reversible... I will say that if AI corrects any more of my correct spelling, I may just give up the computer for good. My love to you.
Okay, I have done some actual thinking, possibly incoherent, but it's the best I can do at the moment.
This country is in thrall to an oligarchy of billionaires, at least some of whom do not believe in a democratic or republican form of government. They believe in a one party dictatorship and some look to Nazi Germany as a guide. They do not believe in government as an entity to help its citizens if necessary, although they appear to think the citizens should support the oligarchs financially. But they apparently do believe, as I do, in the climate crisis, and that the most important final result will be massive starvation. Therefore, apparently they are attempting to reduce the population before we come to this point, without abortion or birth control. Getting rid of people by climate driven natural disasters is one of the ways of which they're thinking. Hence, getting rid of EVs, continuing to spend money on oil companies, ending FEMA and anything that might help disaster relief. No early warning systems of climate disasters. Reducing the quality of public education comes to mind. This sort of thing culminates in things like flooding in Texas, hurricanes in inland North Carolina, fires anywhere but California. No aid for blue states, and especially no aid for red states. Give them until 2050 and the population should really start to drop and the red states will be unlivable due to the climate. All these big estates in rural areas being constructed now (not in the South, apparently) will be where the small group of American oligarchs will live. Apparently AI will be doing much of the work (not spelling, I hope.) It just seems to me that we're headed only one way, to environmental extinction, at least in North America. These people have no interest in survival for anyone except themselves, and they're proceeding apace. I didn't go into the problems we face (magas, ICE budget, etc.) because I don't see how we can overcome them. I'm wrong, right??? I didn't go into the problems Europe might face, like the collapse of the AMOC.
I have been thinking much the same. I was working with a climate crisis group in NZ and remember a meeting when people were grappling with the question of "why are they doing this" (gov't and oligarchs, Peter Thiel has been messing with NZ for 15 years or so), and I suddenly replied with "they want us all dead- there are too many of us" and the room went entirely still as that sank in. I hadn't known I was thinking that until I said it.
Yes, I know that NZ gave Thiel citizenship. Frankly, I'd revoke it. I've been thinking this for a few months (maybe we're on the same timeline?) I don't know how NZ is doing on the 2030 climate change guidelines, but California, along with the Nordic countries, has already hit them. No one else has. But I think we need to leave the USA in order to survive. However no one in state government seems to think of it, and my state assemblywoman and senator couldn't think without a donation and suggestions about what to do from property developers. Don't even think about my city councilwoman. This is Berkeley and I grew up here. These people moved here as adults... My main focus since 2017 has been that my son does not die of starvation. In 2017 I told him I'd be happy for him to marry, but I didn't want grandchildren (this is me, who had been buying baby/toddler clothes for several years...) because I thought that that would be the end result of the climate crisis--not enough food for people. I keep thinking I must be crazy, or am I saying the quiet part out loud? But I'm big on consequences, and to me, the consequences of the climate crisis are that we won't have enough food. No rain, too much rain, it just won't be good. Berkeley and Alameda County and California have been good about conserving water and preparing for the crisis, but I don't think it will be enough. We have solar, a storage battery, and two EVs, plus a big garden and fruit trees, but it's not enough. Take care of yourself.
Thank you. We share the same home setup, too. (Solar, battery, 2 EVs and a garden with fruit trees and vege.) It's not easy to revoke citizenship although that has been suggested. He built a huge bunker near Queenstown but apparently, since the council there has rejected his plans to start building bunkers for other bazillionaires, he's been withdrawing from NZ on his own. Self deportation? In other news, we also have a coalition led parliament at the moment and it's right -> far right in makeup. The furthest right deputy prime minister has ties to the Atlas group and trained with the people who created Project 2025. They've got some seriously bad plans up before parliament right now. We do have an actual king but he's got cancer and hasn't been here in a few years. The prince of Wales pops over now and then. We were cheering Charles on with his support to Canada too.
So NZ is the/a place Thiel is planning to which he can retreat for refuge when the climate crisis gets overwhelming. Very interesting... After we get our electric stove, the next thing is water storage (500 gallon barrels) to catch water coming off the roof when it rains. Our county provides information on this--I already attended a zoom webinar on this. Is there anything else you can think of?
Excellent read, thank you, it helps a bit to know there’s a name for how we are feeling and mostly, that others feel it to
Ice is becoming more violent. I saw where ice ran a vehicle through a crowd of protestors and a guy was thrown off the hood of the vehicle and later told reporters that he was bleeding all over the place. Be careful no violence we will have our moment and get justice. I think what goes around comes around and we can go after them the same way they have gone after us. The first would be Trump and his regime then the J6ers that were pardoned by Trump.
Wow! “Moral injury” is an insightfully framed diagnosis of what so many of us are experiencing. I agree with the need to take action, rather than to wallow. I look forward to reading your recommendations for action.
Moral injury is one way of looking at it. Moral insult another - a slap in the face of ordinary citizens who expected some reciprocal respect from the institutions they were asked to support. Those institutions - the Presidency, Supreme Court, Congress, federal authorities, so-called Fourth Estate - have disrespected the faith people once invested in them. It's time the people slapped back.
Moral injury! That does resonate with me- thank you for this David. I had never heard of it.
Very much loooking forward to your next essay. Naming, feeling and honoring our moral injury is very important in this inhumane time, however not responding with some action is even more devastating for me to consider.
David! Knockout piece. Literally. I’m sitting in our kitchen unable to get up from the harsh truths you write. I’ve written and posted my own attempts to cope by reminding us of our historic place in world civilization and pointing out how cavalierly we are trashing it—which just gets deeper. Depression, yes! With me it’s mainly how Blythe and clueless we are. Here in Palm Springs surrounded by smart and accomplished folks, I get blank looks when trying to have a conversation about our peril. No one wants to engage with this. Your writing is a light in a very dark place. I feel like Floyd Collins may have felt when he understood that no help would be coming. Larry
Thanks, Larry. It means a lot coming from you. And I can tell you that I have the same problem here with the incrementalists and the institutionalists and the go-along, get-along crowd. Too many people keep shrugging off this situation as business as usual. Wherever we are, we’ve got to try to get the truth out to as many people who will listen. Your guy LBJ was no saint…but he would have cracked a few heads and gotten Dems to do something…anything.
Thank you. You've explained what is afflicting us well. Moral Injury. In his first go round. I would post, Every day is worse than the one before. This time the actions are more depraved. I just started reading, "The Kindly Ones" by Jonathan Littell, it's grotesque. I can only read a few pages a day, but having read "Neighbors" by Jan Gross and "The Plunderers" by Daniel Unowsky I know grotesque is a place people will go. This regime lives in the ideal of inciting the grotesque. Cruelty is their goal. I am looking forward to your next essay and thank you again for shedding light on our souls. This past weekend my family and I visited Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty it did help as a reminder of what we are fighting for.
Suppose all of our thinking has been trained for right-brain thinking which has caused the left-brain to be incapacitated. Soul thinking is a left-brain activity that has gotten very little play in our culture. Can it be that we are left-brain dead enough to cause such immoral behavior ?
David, I have been reading and following you for almost a decade now first with Deep State Radio and as a columnist. Your work and insights on national security are invaluable as well as shedding light on the problems of the day. Thank you for being one of the ma y voices who remain undeterred and courageous.
The question is why whether we have already crossed the Rubicon and that even elections in 2026 mid trend I fear will not be free and fair and we still do not have a paper trail from the last election, which defied belief in so many ways) and there are those who are trying to do forensics on that.
If we have crossed that threshold already, I fear we could descend into the abyss…a hot civil war. As there are so many guns and ammo easily accessible.
Thank you so very much for your kind words of wisdom David.
What do you offer that would work better and still be legal? Protests in the streets show dissatisfaction with the status quo but will not get the greedy, power hungry, and narcissistic to voluntarily give up control and they DO HAVE CONTROL CURRENTLY. A military couop or French Revolution is hardly a desirable alternative.
I thought I had no illusions about the U.S.'s so-called democracy, but the onset of Trump II showed me I was wrong. Are "we the people" capable of coming to terms with how we got here? Can we reckon with the flaws that have been there since (before) the founding and have grown progressively worse since the mid-1960s? Are we willing, in short, to look our past in the eye and finally address the twin evils of racism and unregulated capitalism? Since I'm 74, there's no way I'll live to see the culmination of such a process, but (being in good health) I do hope to see its beginning.
The only way we can keep big money and corrupt politicians out of the process is by making it a Private Assembly and by invitation only because the Constitution otherwise says that it can only be changed by state legislatures!!!! Poliotiocioans. So which would you prefer? I have tried to do my homework and see how we can do this and avoid having it taken over by BIASED CORRUPT GREEDY MONEY AND POLITICIANS. year so being an observer of our government, our Constitution and our politics and research went into writing the book. These are not crazy ideas pulled out of my butt.
Must of the people I know said they were ready to pile after the bill passed in the House. I want to know what threats people in Congress received and how much arm-twisting and fear-mi Geri f they were subjected to. And if it was bad. why isn’t that illegal?
And when are Dems going to get leadership that understands and masters social media . Newsom seems to be only one that truly has a grip. . The word has to get out. Collective rebuke is necessary. Everyone wants to know how to stop this and there is a whole lot of inertia in the masses despite all the protests .
Oh, David, the last week has been really awful. I had a realization this morning about which I hesitate to write, because it is so crazy, so I'm going to research it before I say anything else. I'm going to look at the cover of the New Yorker and look up Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin before I say anything else, but I think you know how I feel about the climate crisis not being reversible... I will say that if AI corrects any more of my correct spelling, I may just give up the computer for good. My love to you.
Okay, I have done some actual thinking, possibly incoherent, but it's the best I can do at the moment.
This country is in thrall to an oligarchy of billionaires, at least some of whom do not believe in a democratic or republican form of government. They believe in a one party dictatorship and some look to Nazi Germany as a guide. They do not believe in government as an entity to help its citizens if necessary, although they appear to think the citizens should support the oligarchs financially. But they apparently do believe, as I do, in the climate crisis, and that the most important final result will be massive starvation. Therefore, apparently they are attempting to reduce the population before we come to this point, without abortion or birth control. Getting rid of people by climate driven natural disasters is one of the ways of which they're thinking. Hence, getting rid of EVs, continuing to spend money on oil companies, ending FEMA and anything that might help disaster relief. No early warning systems of climate disasters. Reducing the quality of public education comes to mind. This sort of thing culminates in things like flooding in Texas, hurricanes in inland North Carolina, fires anywhere but California. No aid for blue states, and especially no aid for red states. Give them until 2050 and the population should really start to drop and the red states will be unlivable due to the climate. All these big estates in rural areas being constructed now (not in the South, apparently) will be where the small group of American oligarchs will live. Apparently AI will be doing much of the work (not spelling, I hope.) It just seems to me that we're headed only one way, to environmental extinction, at least in North America. These people have no interest in survival for anyone except themselves, and they're proceeding apace. I didn't go into the problems we face (magas, ICE budget, etc.) because I don't see how we can overcome them. I'm wrong, right??? I didn't go into the problems Europe might face, like the collapse of the AMOC.
I have been thinking much the same. I was working with a climate crisis group in NZ and remember a meeting when people were grappling with the question of "why are they doing this" (gov't and oligarchs, Peter Thiel has been messing with NZ for 15 years or so), and I suddenly replied with "they want us all dead- there are too many of us" and the room went entirely still as that sank in. I hadn't known I was thinking that until I said it.
Yes, I know that NZ gave Thiel citizenship. Frankly, I'd revoke it. I've been thinking this for a few months (maybe we're on the same timeline?) I don't know how NZ is doing on the 2030 climate change guidelines, but California, along with the Nordic countries, has already hit them. No one else has. But I think we need to leave the USA in order to survive. However no one in state government seems to think of it, and my state assemblywoman and senator couldn't think without a donation and suggestions about what to do from property developers. Don't even think about my city councilwoman. This is Berkeley and I grew up here. These people moved here as adults... My main focus since 2017 has been that my son does not die of starvation. In 2017 I told him I'd be happy for him to marry, but I didn't want grandchildren (this is me, who had been buying baby/toddler clothes for several years...) because I thought that that would be the end result of the climate crisis--not enough food for people. I keep thinking I must be crazy, or am I saying the quiet part out loud? But I'm big on consequences, and to me, the consequences of the climate crisis are that we won't have enough food. No rain, too much rain, it just won't be good. Berkeley and Alameda County and California have been good about conserving water and preparing for the crisis, but I don't think it will be enough. We have solar, a storage battery, and two EVs, plus a big garden and fruit trees, but it's not enough. Take care of yourself.
Thank you. We share the same home setup, too. (Solar, battery, 2 EVs and a garden with fruit trees and vege.) It's not easy to revoke citizenship although that has been suggested. He built a huge bunker near Queenstown but apparently, since the council there has rejected his plans to start building bunkers for other bazillionaires, he's been withdrawing from NZ on his own. Self deportation? In other news, we also have a coalition led parliament at the moment and it's right -> far right in makeup. The furthest right deputy prime minister has ties to the Atlas group and trained with the people who created Project 2025. They've got some seriously bad plans up before parliament right now. We do have an actual king but he's got cancer and hasn't been here in a few years. The prince of Wales pops over now and then. We were cheering Charles on with his support to Canada too.
So NZ is the/a place Thiel is planning to which he can retreat for refuge when the climate crisis gets overwhelming. Very interesting... After we get our electric stove, the next thing is water storage (500 gallon barrels) to catch water coming off the roof when it rains. Our county provides information on this--I already attended a zoom webinar on this. Is there anything else you can think of?