A correction: I must have been tripping last night when I wrote about the border checkpoints. While the U.S. has been detaining people at the U.S. border with Canada. The Canadians have not (to my knowledge) detained anyone outside of routine security procedures. The U.S., however, continues to amp up its regime of screening for reasons related to political speech and views. I edited that section to more accurately reflect what I was trying to say. This is what happens when you write at 11pm at night after working all day. lol.
Appreciate the correction. I was just trying to find some Canadian sources reporting this. You've saved me moving on to US sources, and a loss of time in rabbit holes
Yeah like I said… I must have been trippin. lol. I read that this Morning and went…. Dude what were you trying to say here… lol! What I meant was what the US CBP was doing in Washington with stopping people and what happened with detaining several Canadians at the border checkpoint in Maine and NY. For whatever reason in my fever dream of writing last night I wrote what I wrote. lol.
You just need some sleep, not an editor! It is not "compliance" to take care of your own basic needs ..... please get a little sleep because I, for one, need to read your work. And I don't want to think it is wearing you out to do this.
Thanks for the correction and I thank you just as much for your outrage, Bill. And FYI, I’ll sing the backup chorus of “don’t buy tapper’s fucking book!” Just what we need - a former presidential scapegoat !!!! like we don’t have good sense and have completely soured the milk of human kindness… Yeah, fuck Jake Tapper
Memo to Jake Tapper: As If. As if the past 50 years of subversive erosion, unprecedented corruption of the body politic, daily misdirection and misrepresentation by public and private media, social derangement via toxic distractions, etc., 'never even happened.' Maybe, Jake, you're just cashing in on the moolah to be grifted, like everyone else, by playing the Simpleton's Blame Game. Maybe you feel the need to put money in some offshore account so you can escape the hellhole our country is rapidly imploding into. Who knows. But thanks and no thanks, dude.
Glad you're 'back'. You are the only voice I have a paid subscription to on Substack, precisely because you have a deep enough theoretical understanding and experiential background of policies, programs, politics and institutions to go beyond the noise. Your irreverence and humour, and what Im beginning to think of as 'tales from the crypt' are an added bonus
I am deeply offended and bothered that you think nothing happened as a result of the Worcester situation. As someone who was literally there for four straight days of community response, I assure you, there was not radio silence. People gathered and protested in sheer outrage until the city council had the gall to wuss out of a physical meeting because they didn't want to face the music. The mayor said some anodyne things that riled people up further.
We did not ignore what happened to us. This has tipped off a surge of demands to the Massachusetts state to not just "not help ICE," but to actively push back on them.
Just one thing to say. This numb mind, the silence in the face of trauma is also due to the fact that there is no clear alternative. This reminds me of times in the Emergency Department when we were faced with a case where we did everything we could and the guy is still dying, in fact, will be dead in a few minutes. It's not like TV. Rather don't scream don't pull some last ditch fantasy out of our asses, we all stand there numb, not having anything left to do. This is actually where we are now because we all know that protests aren't going to change this future. We all know that we don't have the leverage to wake up congress or to de MAGAify both houses. We all know that enough of them are just getting rich with insider trading deals and pure selfishness reflecting the fact that we have been electing the wrong kind of person for decades on both sides of the isle. And, now we are watching our country on the ropes and we simply don't know how to fix it. Fight Fight Fight is all we hear but we don't hear plans that will work or specifically how this fight is to be carried out. Just that 3.5% of us have to get in the streets and then What? Trump and P-2025 will fold? Come on, NO one believes that. So we are numb not just because of the barrage but because we got no leader, no plan, and despite it all dwindling hope. Just looking for honesty. I hope someone blasts me for it with a plan that I don't know about.
I am feeling the same way. My posts have been who in the Democratic Party, Governors, Congresspersons, Senators are going to step forward to lead and present a plan. I am but one person out in a very red wilderness feeling pretty hopeless about this all. So no blast from me. You and I can wait and see if anyone blasts the both of us.
Good timing on this. It's a needed wake up call. From my perspective, living & working most of my 72 years in dense, old, Northeast inner-cities, The US, despite a veneer with modern conveniences for many people, is in fact quickly becoming ghettoized, with a large population segment addicted to the matrix of mainstream & social medias, hate podcasters, & hate radio jocks as a barbiturate. Massive infusion of grass roots, local level, face-to face communication and cooperation of mutually beneficial projects, aka civil society is needed in order to break down the manufactured hatred and suspicion that's been building up for 54 years. <> The work and writing of US History Professor, Heather Cox Richardson is a concise illustration of true history and objective analysis of current sociopolitical action being used by defenders of democracy in opposition to the devious lies being used as propaganda by the hegemonic hate and fear freaks mentioned above . Does anyone have a list of organizations effectively using Heather's information framed to reach persuadable former 47 voters? They, in league with all democracy defenders are the people most able to scare the fecal matter out of so-called Congressional Republicans allowing 47, $Billionaire malignancy and Putin to rapidly dismantle democracy. It may be that recall elections of sympathetic state and local officials in Republican controlled states who are going along with unconstitutional action hurting their constituents could be powerful leverage to start a real defense of the constitution trend among Republicans in Congress. <> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptIcert_Ra8&list=PL4-oCE2y-CrH61_NEUFfCCDd8Q3jFXZwJ&index=5
Great analysis. There is a war between fictive realities (I’m thinking of Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities) in information and social contact zones that has ripped our real life social networks away from us, increasing its noisiness and impact. I feel overwhelmed, flooded, and uncertain of decisions and measures I need to take. Getting safe, a sense of safety, but not even sure what that means anymore. Digital detox is always helpful, I guess, but when it is your job…
Thank you for bringing up Benedict Anderson. I studied him in grad school, and think of that book often over the last 10 years. That and everything written by Hannah Arendt.
William, The Long Memo was the first publication I read when I landed on Substack, and I signed up immediately. Your sense of moral outrage was sharp, honest, and completely unignorable. It still is.
Reading this, though, it’s not just outrage anymore. It feels like moral injury. That slow erosion that sets in when the alarms keep going off, but nothing changes. When you see the wrong, name the wrong, shout about the wrong… and still nothing changes. I’ve just written about it, trying to name what it does to us. How it weighs down the nervous system, makes you question whether you’re the one going numb.
But you’re not going numb. This piece proves it. You still feel it, and managed to make something from it. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing this with non-subscribers. It's an excellent piece. As I read about it and thought about highly important issues occurring with such rapidity that we become numb and performative in the process. I could not help but think about mass shootings and gun control. Thoughts and prayers.
You lost me at the slavish fawning over Genocide Joe Biden..even as someone who HAS prostate cancer, I say FUCK JOE BIDEN, former Senator "Credit Card", and I have less sympathy for him than he did for the patients in the cancer hospitals in Gaza which were bombed with his approval. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits, that fucking ghoul.
A correction: I must have been tripping last night when I wrote about the border checkpoints. While the U.S. has been detaining people at the U.S. border with Canada. The Canadians have not (to my knowledge) detained anyone outside of routine security procedures. The U.S., however, continues to amp up its regime of screening for reasons related to political speech and views. I edited that section to more accurately reflect what I was trying to say. This is what happens when you write at 11pm at night after working all day. lol.
Appreciate the correction. I was just trying to find some Canadian sources reporting this. You've saved me moving on to US sources, and a loss of time in rabbit holes
Yeah like I said… I must have been trippin. lol. I read that this Morning and went…. Dude what were you trying to say here… lol! What I meant was what the US CBP was doing in Washington with stopping people and what happened with detaining several Canadians at the border checkpoint in Maine and NY. For whatever reason in my fever dream of writing last night I wrote what I wrote. lol.
It happens. I need an editor.
You just need some sleep, not an editor! It is not "compliance" to take care of your own basic needs ..... please get a little sleep because I, for one, need to read your work. And I don't want to think it is wearing you out to do this.
you have supportive readers looking out for you, the man who can see around corners.
Thanks for the correction and I thank you just as much for your outrage, Bill. And FYI, I’ll sing the backup chorus of “don’t buy tapper’s fucking book!” Just what we need - a former presidential scapegoat !!!! like we don’t have good sense and have completely soured the milk of human kindness… Yeah, fuck Jake Tapper
Memo to Jake Tapper: As If. As if the past 50 years of subversive erosion, unprecedented corruption of the body politic, daily misdirection and misrepresentation by public and private media, social derangement via toxic distractions, etc., 'never even happened.' Maybe, Jake, you're just cashing in on the moolah to be grifted, like everyone else, by playing the Simpleton's Blame Game. Maybe you feel the need to put money in some offshore account so you can escape the hellhole our country is rapidly imploding into. Who knows. But thanks and no thanks, dude.
Glad you're 'back'. You are the only voice I have a paid subscription to on Substack, precisely because you have a deep enough theoretical understanding and experiential background of policies, programs, politics and institutions to go beyond the noise. Your irreverence and humour, and what Im beginning to think of as 'tales from the crypt' are an added bonus
Could NOT agree more, although I do subscribe to @christinemerser’s Substacks too!
I am deeply offended and bothered that you think nothing happened as a result of the Worcester situation. As someone who was literally there for four straight days of community response, I assure you, there was not radio silence. People gathered and protested in sheer outrage until the city council had the gall to wuss out of a physical meeting because they didn't want to face the music. The mayor said some anodyne things that riled people up further.
We did not ignore what happened to us. This has tipped off a surge of demands to the Massachusetts state to not just "not help ICE," but to actively push back on them.
Just one thing to say. This numb mind, the silence in the face of trauma is also due to the fact that there is no clear alternative. This reminds me of times in the Emergency Department when we were faced with a case where we did everything we could and the guy is still dying, in fact, will be dead in a few minutes. It's not like TV. Rather don't scream don't pull some last ditch fantasy out of our asses, we all stand there numb, not having anything left to do. This is actually where we are now because we all know that protests aren't going to change this future. We all know that we don't have the leverage to wake up congress or to de MAGAify both houses. We all know that enough of them are just getting rich with insider trading deals and pure selfishness reflecting the fact that we have been electing the wrong kind of person for decades on both sides of the isle. And, now we are watching our country on the ropes and we simply don't know how to fix it. Fight Fight Fight is all we hear but we don't hear plans that will work or specifically how this fight is to be carried out. Just that 3.5% of us have to get in the streets and then What? Trump and P-2025 will fold? Come on, NO one believes that. So we are numb not just because of the barrage but because we got no leader, no plan, and despite it all dwindling hope. Just looking for honesty. I hope someone blasts me for it with a plan that I don't know about.
I am feeling the same way. My posts have been who in the Democratic Party, Governors, Congresspersons, Senators are going to step forward to lead and present a plan. I am but one person out in a very red wilderness feeling pretty hopeless about this all. So no blast from me. You and I can wait and see if anyone blasts the both of us.
Can’t believe I have to live through this shit show. Also, fuck Jake Tapper.
AND Joe Biden. And Trump, most of Congree and the Senate...the whole fecking passel of them are abysmally incompetent.
Noisy comment.
Good timing on this. It's a needed wake up call. From my perspective, living & working most of my 72 years in dense, old, Northeast inner-cities, The US, despite a veneer with modern conveniences for many people, is in fact quickly becoming ghettoized, with a large population segment addicted to the matrix of mainstream & social medias, hate podcasters, & hate radio jocks as a barbiturate. Massive infusion of grass roots, local level, face-to face communication and cooperation of mutually beneficial projects, aka civil society is needed in order to break down the manufactured hatred and suspicion that's been building up for 54 years. <> The work and writing of US History Professor, Heather Cox Richardson is a concise illustration of true history and objective analysis of current sociopolitical action being used by defenders of democracy in opposition to the devious lies being used as propaganda by the hegemonic hate and fear freaks mentioned above . Does anyone have a list of organizations effectively using Heather's information framed to reach persuadable former 47 voters? They, in league with all democracy defenders are the people most able to scare the fecal matter out of so-called Congressional Republicans allowing 47, $Billionaire malignancy and Putin to rapidly dismantle democracy. It may be that recall elections of sympathetic state and local officials in Republican controlled states who are going along with unconstitutional action hurting their constituents could be powerful leverage to start a real defense of the constitution trend among Republicans in Congress. <> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptIcert_Ra8&list=PL4-oCE2y-CrH61_NEUFfCCDd8Q3jFXZwJ&index=5
This makes total sense. It’s hard to keep up a sense of urgency for a prolonged period.
Great analysis. There is a war between fictive realities (I’m thinking of Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities) in information and social contact zones that has ripped our real life social networks away from us, increasing its noisiness and impact. I feel overwhelmed, flooded, and uncertain of decisions and measures I need to take. Getting safe, a sense of safety, but not even sure what that means anymore. Digital detox is always helpful, I guess, but when it is your job…
Thank you for bringing up Benedict Anderson. I studied him in grad school, and think of that book often over the last 10 years. That and everything written by Hannah Arendt.
William, The Long Memo was the first publication I read when I landed on Substack, and I signed up immediately. Your sense of moral outrage was sharp, honest, and completely unignorable. It still is.
Reading this, though, it’s not just outrage anymore. It feels like moral injury. That slow erosion that sets in when the alarms keep going off, but nothing changes. When you see the wrong, name the wrong, shout about the wrong… and still nothing changes. I’ve just written about it, trying to name what it does to us. How it weighs down the nervous system, makes you question whether you’re the one going numb.
But you’re not going numb. This piece proves it. You still feel it, and managed to make something from it. Thank you.
Glad to see your voice back on the page.
Cannot thank you enough for your insights and SO HAPPY you are back - PLEASE continue to share your thoughts.
As sad as it sounds, it's a Canadian thing not to have a sense of urgency until it's too late
Please keep writing! We need your voice. Screw Tapper.
Ugh.
Thanks for sharing this with non-subscribers. It's an excellent piece. As I read about it and thought about highly important issues occurring with such rapidity that we become numb and performative in the process. I could not help but think about mass shootings and gun control. Thoughts and prayers.
You lost me at the slavish fawning over Genocide Joe Biden..even as someone who HAS prostate cancer, I say FUCK JOE BIDEN, former Senator "Credit Card", and I have less sympathy for him than he did for the patients in the cancer hospitals in Gaza which were bombed with his approval. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits, that fucking ghoul.