Burns, the filmmaker, was giving a commencement speech at Brandeis when he veered off topic to denounce Trump. Rubin, the columnist, thinks that was just wonderful.
Burns’s exhortation that “the kinship of the soul begins with your own at times withering self-examination” should sound an alarm for voters.... If voters on the right and left renounce “withering self-examination,” they at least might imagine how they would fancy a fascist regime under Trump.... Democracy defenders should hope the essence of Burns’s message reaches beyond Brandeis.... Biden’s message, like Burns’s, is simple: This is the existential choice of our time. There is nothing equal about this equation....
What should "democracy defenders" think of the Democrats' effort to fight Trump through the use of the criminal process? To say "there's nothing equal" is to suggest that this isn't a democratic process in which 2 candidates compete for the vote. It's an "existential choice" — some sort of apocalyptic battle. So, what does that mean — that you can use all weapons and fight any way that you can? Well, look around. We're already seeing "what happens when 'the checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.'" In this "picture," who is uglier?
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80 comments:
Brandeis coddles fascists. I know because they would show up in the cafe in our small office from time to time…Burns is unbelievable. He gets in little wars with his neighbors at his tony lake house in NH. The pettiest of the pettiest he is…
I pray his side loses bigly and they go crawl back under the rocks of their origins….
The best you can say for Burns is that he is an insulated, out-of-touch successful rich man who has no idea what is going on in an increasingly desperate country.
The anti-bigotry campaign long ago descended into madness.
Burns is one of the worst, the King of White Guilt. I’m friends with people in his production crew, including the musicians who write and produce the music. I refuse to watch Burns’ White Guilt extravaganzas. I’d rather sit through a sermon by some gay clown Episcopalian preacher.
The anti-bigotry crusade started going nuts with spoiled brat feminism, way back in the 1960s. Now, it’s nothing but Hate Whitey ranting, led by jackasses like Burns.
Everybody’s accusing everybody of some sort of sex crime or bigotry now. It’s a mass hysteria.
The fact a greatest ally like Jennifer Rubin is aligned with globalism should be a sufficient exposure of the ideology's moral bankruptcy. She and the rest her cabal are the moral superiors of absolutely no one.
As a Christian commencement speaker will add God to a speech, so a New Puritan will add Trump. Fear of him animates everything they do.
I say open your eyes before it is too late.
Joe Biden has been bribed by foreign countries. He’s let into the country over 10m illegal aliens. A free flow of drugs into the country. He’s triggered the worst inflation in decades and it will only get worse if he’s re-elected. Two wars on his watch. And his senility will only get worse.
None of the above is in dispute.
So, yes, it is an existential choice. More of the same and the complete destruction of America or a change.
As to Ken Burns, if I ever have trouble falling asleep, I just watch one of his documentaries for about five minutes.
The people yelling about threats to democracy are the biggest threats to democracy and the ones willing to destroy it to save it.
In the hungergames they would avox better men than ken burns
The left's hatred of Trump reminds me of Nazi German's hatred of Jews.
Ken Burns reminds me of Bruce Springsteen: Talented artists who took hyper-partisan political stances. I'll throw Leni Riefenstahl into the same mix. I'm using the past tense on purpose. None of them look good in retrospect. Yet their art will remain long after the silly artist is gone.
It isn’t hatred of Trump but of what he stands for and is trying to do. The problem is more people recognize the shite they’re pulling stinks, so they try to become more creative and ambitious. So no, it isn’t Trump per se. They’ll go after the next ones, too…
If voters on the right and left renounce “withering self-examination,” they at least might imagine how they would fancy a fascist regime under Trump....
Skip that painful experience of self-examination, just vote Biden because REASONS!
The Moe haircut is getting to Ken Burns,
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjI1OTkyNTQ1NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzYwNTk2Mw@@._V1_.jpg
Biden told us he has all the guns. All the weapons.
Burns places photographs that he didn't take over music that he didn't write and quotes text that he didn't write. He has no more insight into the Civil War than anyone else who has read on the subject. I wouldn't trust him to manage a baseball team or play sax in a jazz band either.
it’s amazing the way they project the defects of character and crimes of Biden on to Trump. Imagine how depressed they would be if they were ever forced to face the truth about what Joe Biden really is. Fear of that reckoning is Joe Biden’s biggest strength. The laptop might have come out before the 2016 primary, when Democrats could have chosen someone else, but the FBI sat on it because the fix was in for our war mongering resident of Pennsylvania Avenue. He was put in place to prosecute a war, and now the fuckup has created a colossus against us of Russia and China combined, which makes the USSR look puny. “You did it Joe!”
'the checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.'"
checks of conscience? Like the ones from the Ukraine? and China?
deformed picture of the soul is revealed?
pictures like?
sleeping with your baby sitter, and causing your wife to commit suicide by truck?
REPEATEDLY molesting your own daughter in the shower*? When she was an adolescent?
REPEATEDLY molesting most little girls you see?
RAPING your own staff
Which leader is it, that they were referring to?
molesting your own daughter in the shower* of course gadfly has REPEATEDLY told us that is "hot",
and that he wants to do it.. ALL THE TIME
Precisely because her emails revealed her eldritch self she lost thats why they prosecuting assange btw so this doesnt happen again
Ladies and Gentlemen ... may I present - the modern decadent Left.
Why does the Left hate Trump with their entire being? Why does he drive them crazy?
Is it the way he speaks? His treatment of woman? Or is it four years of peace and prosperity?
Chuck?
I say open your eyes before it is too late.
I speak with leftist friends on this from time to time. Get responses like "Trump is a bad person and a criminal, nothing he did as President was any good, he is racist and facist, etc." but never get any specific policy of his last presidency that they specifically object to (other than the Dobbs case - killing babies trumps all) - everything is a vague talking point with about as much depth as The View. They tell me that anyone who votes for Trump is either selfishly looking to improve their own bottom line or are simply stupid and hate America (not sure how you get to "hate America" when looking at a Trump rally crowd?). When I note that a very large chunk of Dem voters live on government money (handouts and/or government salaries) and are therefore equally guilty of voting in their own selfish interests, they have no real response but somehow it is "different." I ask what they like about Biden and get equally vague responses - no one can name a single thing Biden has done that has been even remotely beneficial. But nothing will penetrate their righteous armor. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Please any of the kennedys morning joke sherrod brown no they are very much the ike turner party
Ahh. Competitive fear mongering to see who gets the most attention.
Oh. Jennifer Rubin! In the olden days, one could simply say, "well, she's no neurosurgeon." But based upon what DEI has done at UCLA (https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-dei-does-to-a-medical-school/), maybe she will be able to take her 90 IQ points and pursue that career instead of spouting partisan hackery while pretending she's "conservative."
Meanwhile.. Back at the ranch..
🚨Ex-stripper and mother of Hunter Biden's estranged daughter to release tell-all book in August🚨
'Out of the Shadows: My Life Inside the Wild World of Hunter Biden'
As Trump has repeatedly said, they don't hate me, they hate you (the people supporting me).
As a pro-life Christian, I can watch the tyranny in real time. The latest is Letitia James going after a boat load of pro-life pregnancy centers across NY.
None of what the left say is true. Their fears are based on fantasy.
All of the lies and authoritarian rule are on THEIR SIDE. The radical modern democratic Soviet left.
I have friends that despise Trump and say weird things about him that I suppose they pick up from MSNBC and other MSM outlets. I just ignore it because there is no reasoning someone out of an opinion that they didn't reason themselves into. They despise Trump because the sources they trust: NYT, broadcast networks, MSNBC, etc tell them he is despicable. I think that's why he is gaining youth support, have you ever seen the ads on legacy media? Viagra and old people medicine for the most part. Young people don't trust the legacy media and don't watch it. Anyway, if you try to tell your liberal friends that Trump's policies are, for the most part, that of a anti-NAFTA Democrat in the 90s they will at best ignore you.
Get some new friends they would turn you in a midnight minute
Hysterical historian says what?
HISTORY LESSON for KEN BURNS
1. Trump actually was president for four years.
2. Let's "learn from the past" by examining what he did as president.
3. Trump did not start wars, or jail his opponents, nor did he end democracy as we know it.
4. So let's move on to self-examination.
5. What the fuck is wrong with you Ken that you fail to see the ugly souls ruining this country right in front of your fat face?
Jennifer Rubin quoting Ken Burns. Great.
What's next? Taylor Lorenz quoting Seth Rogen?
Fully ouroboros
Season 5 of VEEP covers the constitutional procedure that Trump followed on Jan 6, if some lawyer wants to bone up on it.
An episode where everything that could go wrong with the vote did go wrong.
Well they murdered peace ful protesters thag wasnt in the episode because the Court wouldnt hear the evidence because standing
Well they murdered peace ful protesters thag wasnt in the episode because the Court wouldnt hear the evidence because standing
Denouncing Trump at Brandeis. How courageous!
Ken Burns: A guy with one hit documentary series early in his career (The Civil War), and who then produced very slow and boring formula content after that. He provides a textbook example of a career that could not exist without government patronage. He is a pro-government partisan who suckled at the PBS teat for decades.
His photo should be added to dictionary definitions for "patronize":
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/patronize
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patronize
It must be comfy to know that you are conjoined with your opponents by mental illness. Politics makes strange enablers.
Ken Burns is inciting some loony to assassinate Trump, but he can be like Pilate and wash his hands of it.
Mr. Begley asks, "Why does the Left hate Trump with their entire being?"
He's no longer writing them checks. He's not a uniparty insider. He's proved he can't be bribed. He fights: Even alone he fights.
For those four reasons and other lesser ones he poses an existential threat to the Permanent Grift on which Washington thrives. Squishy members of both parties would not react so strongly to Trump if this were not so. He is like a catalyst that starts an unstoppable reaction in which they lose all sense of proportion or normalcy. Being unable to stop him by normal means has broken them. Broken people do the most heinous evil things and project their guilt onto their victims, always blaming the victim for "what you made me do."
We are all bearing witness to this eternal truth right now at this moment in history.
Like rachel maddow they will be silent toll the coast is clear
Allow me to translate (I speak Jive): "Fascism in the defense of 'our democracy' is good fascism."
Nazi's must Nazi. Its who they are.
If it ain’t “The Jeer Hunter” or “Raging Bullshit”, it’s “Moe, Larry, Cheese!”
Who will be the last DNC-Media soldier to say, "We had to burn the Republic down to save it"?
Ken Burns: A guy with one hit documentary series early in his career…
And I question how successful “The Civil War” would have been without his lucking onto the late Shelby Foote.
I recently read a bio of DeGaulle. He was hated by the left throughout his career. Before WWII, he wanted to establish two tank brigades and man them with professionals as opposed to conscript soldiers. The left vetoed that idea. They thought that he would use those battalions for a kind of Black Shirt march on Paris. Those battalions would have been invaluable in pushing back the Nazi Blitzkrieg but no go. The left were of the opinion that it was better to surrender to Hitler than to let a Hitler like figure like DeGaulle have power. There were three times during his life when DeGaulle voluntarily stepped away from power, but the left insisted that he was some kind of Fascist.....During the sixties, the noted philosopher and scumbag Sartre led and succeeded in the charge to oust DeGaulle from power. I think people are gradually coming around to the opinion that, all in all, DeGaulle was a better and and wiser man than Sartre, but during their lifetimes Sartre received far more respect and esteem among academics than DeGaulle....This is an imperfect analogy but Burns is to Trump what Sartre was to DeGaulle.
I don't pretend to understand the reason the Progressive Left has decided that Donald Trump is an 'existential threat to Democracy'. I do know that this thought has never occurred to me, personally, but then I have a habit of discarding what people say, in favor of watching what they do.
I've seen the Progressive reaction of unacknowledged bewilderment when asked to describe the specifics of Trump transgressions in detail, or when the various beneficial outcomes of the Trump Administration are pointed out. The thing is - sooner or later, you don't have to understand craziness. Sooner or later, it's going to occur to normal people that the existential threat, if there is one, is coming from people that are acting out deranged and dangerous behaviors and inflicting damage on other people with no coherent rationale, people that have done nothing wrong.
I love, love, love the way I get quizzed on 50 freakin' different pictures of motorcycles, bridges, and traffic lights. Why can't we click on pictures of nekkid women?
"Get some new friends they would turn you in a midnight minute"
That thought has occurred to me. Liberals also like to accuse Trump supporters of being fanatics and in a cult. (Chuck) Everyone I know who supports Trump is transactional about it. Trump promises policies that they approve of, and actually works on getting them enacted, fighting against not just the "loyal" opposition but the entrenched bureaucracy and large numbers of fellow Republicans. And quite often succeeding. From my point of view it seems like the people who oppose him that are acting cult like. As others have pointed out when you ask them what exactly Trump has done that upsets them you get vague accusations of moral defects. He's a grifter (Cookie), he is just doing it for his own ego and gratification, unlike every other politician in the history of the world who went into politics because it was a higher calling. They were all saints, Trump is the devil. WTH (Worse Than Hitler) Who cares why he is doing it?
The real root of what we are seeing now is that Technocratic, centralized government was instituted in the late 19th and early 20th century. Democracy was declared by the people in charge to be an inefficient and flawed was to make decisions. We needed a rule by "experts." That is Plato's Philosopher Kings. The brightest were to educated to rule in the interest of the people and because they were the "best and brightest" it was only right that they should rule. If you have studied any history you will see how this is one of the reasons that was advanced to justify the right of royalty and aristocracy to rule. Well its pretty evident at this point that the "best and brightest" are nitwits and grifters who gain their positions because they espouse the approved ideology. And with the breakdown of centralized control of the means of mass communication this is becoming more and more obvious.
"This is the existential choice of our time."
Isn't it always for progs? I mean, just yesterday DeNiro told us government might perish from this earth.
The way I do it, I love the art, and try not to pay attention to the artist's crimes and/or commencement speeches.
Burns Civil War Documentary was great. The baseball one was too much about NY.
But, but like many who come out from behind the curtain, Ken Burns is just another arrogant, elitist who hates the working class. He is no more an "expert" on democracy than a ditch digger. He's just a bigger asshole.
COVID destroyed our admiration for the "expert" and artistic class.
Blogger Never-Biden Never-Putin said...
Biden told us he has all the guns. All the weapons.
Not quite true but he would like to have them. That's why he is trying to take away the Texas ANG's F-16s
John Henry
"Why does the Left hate Trump with their entire being? Why does he drive them crazy?"
I have wondered about that myself. He's actually pretty much a 1975 Democrat. They liked him fine before he ran for President, and beat that HellSow Clinton. When you ask them, they tell you he wants to bring back slavery, or force women to have babies. I think what they really hate is you and me, not Trump. As he says, he's just in the way.
I think it is a sick, baseless presumption — unbecoming of a member of the legal profession — to assert that “Democrats” are prosecuting Trump, as a political action.
Jupiter: " I think what they really hate is you and me, not Trump. As he says, he's just in the way."
Ba-bing. I would only add that it's a mixture of hatred and contempt, with about 60% contempt to 40% hatred in the mix. If you don't see things their way, you are evil, stupid or both. After all, which side has all the credentials?
Chuck sez: "I think it is a sick, baseless presumption — unbecoming of a member of the legal profession — to assert that “Democrats” are prosecuting Trump, as a political action."
That's a pretty complicated statement, but I bet you can clarify it:
1. How many Republicans are members of the various teams prosecuting Trump, including judges?
2. How many Independents are members of the various teams prosecuting Trump, including judges?
3. How many Democrats are members of the various teams prosecuting Trump, including judges?
4. What law has Trump violated in his current NY court case? I'm referring to the one that the judge has stated doesn't need to be specified for the jury, in order to inflate his misdemeanor charge to a felony. Which, I am given to understand, is in violation of Constitutional Rights. Happy to hear your views on this one too. If a man can be tried and found guilty for violating a law that isn't named or described, then how would this be a 'legal' effort, rather than a 'political' one? Eager to hear why you think these things are 'baseless'. 'Unprecedented' is the term I think I would go for. 'Wrong' and 'extra-legal' are others.
@Chuck
Are you at least getting paid to say such ridiculous things?
@Aggie:
Well put.
I’d also like Chuck to explain “sick” but doubt he can.
Chuck said...
"I think it is a sick, baseless presumption — unbecoming of a member of the legal profession — to assert that “Democrats” are prosecuting Trump, as a political action."
Well. You're a moron. We take that into consideration. Have a sticker.
Mr. Begley asks, "Why does the Left hate Trump with their entire being?"
Because they are told to. Remember. Most of the left side of the Bell Curve is reserved for leftists. They aren't very bright so they need someone to tell them what to think. Any of dumbass Chucks posts whould tell you that.
Trump Degrangement Syndrome Derangement Syndrome.
Each of the four indictments of Trump are the product of grand jury decisions. Any Trump conviction in state or federal courts will be reviewed by appellate courts. Including Republican-dominated Georgia state courst and the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump will never, ever be imprisoned unjustly. If and when Trump goes to prison it will be because the criminal violations were proven -- in every imaginable real and legal way -- beyond a reasonable doubt.
I don't want to see Trump railroaded or cheated. I want to see Trump get convicted under circumstances that will leave Sean Hannity shaking his head in speechlessness.
Chuck said...
Trump Degrangement Syndrome Derangement Syndrome.
Each of the four indictments of Trump are the product of grand jury decisions
If there's something more deranged than pretending that a DC Grand Jury is going to make reasonable decisions about Trump, I've yet to encounter it.
Any Trump conviction in state or federal courts will be reviewed by appellate courts
The point of these trials is NOT to get a legitimate conviction, it's to get a "conviction" that can't be overturned before the election.
And even you are not so stupid or deranged not to realize that.
Which makes you both deranged, and a liar
Chuck: "I want to see Trump get convicted under circumstances that will leave Sean Hannity shaking his head in speechlessness."
Why is Sean Hannity's reaction important? Your typing illustrates the level you are working on, Chuck. He's just a TV guy. He's not even a news guy, he's just an entertainer for his base. Make a case for Hannity as an intellectual leader of the American right. Go ahead.
We'll wait.
Why is a TV guy that important? Is he just an avatar for those stupid people, like us? What lens are you watching this through? A life long Republican lens? If you care about Hannity, you watch a heck of a lot more Fox News than I do.
Chuck said...
What do you want? For your sticker. Sponge Bob or Power Rangers?
mezzrow said...
Chuck: "I want to see Trump get convicted under circumstances that will leave Sean Hannity shaking his head in speechlessness."
Why is Sean Hannity's reaction important? Your typing illustrates the level you are working on, Chuck. He's just a TV guy. He's not even a news guy, he's just an entertainer for his base. Make a case for Hannity as an intellectual leader of the American right. Go ahead.
We'll wait.
Why is a TV guy that important? Is he just an avatar for those stupid people, like us? What lens are you watching this through? A life long Republican lens? If you care about Hannity, you watch a heck of a lot more Fox News than I do.
Now that's a genuinely interesting comment. For no other reason than the use of the phrase, "intellectual leader of the American right" in a complete sentence.
I am very much interested in "intellectual leaders of the American right." Are there any, in TrumpWorld? I suppose somebody will say, "Victor Davis Hanson." Isn't VDH still saying he has yet to meet Trump? Who else? "Hugh Hewitt"? I admit to a soft spot for him because he was at Michigan Law when I was still an undergard. Trumpism has done nothing within the Republican party so much as strip it of all "intellectual leadership."
"Chuck" lays in with another slur on all Republicans who support Trump. His Democrat sympathies are too obvious. He can look at the state of the nation today and ignore 2017 to 2020 and think Biden is a good choice. I think Trump's only negative was the response to the Chinese flu, as it will be called in history. That was predicated by Fauci's lies and Trump's trust of Pence, who is a traitorous weasel.
Chuck said...
I think it is a sick, baseless presumption — unbecoming of a member of the legal profession — to assert that “Democrats” are prosecuting Trump, as a political action.
That's some world clsss stupid there, Chuck, esp. given that teh Biden team held a campaign rally outside trump's "trial".
I agree, I hope you're at least getting paid to write things that are that stupid
I agree, I hope you're at least getting paid to write things that are that stupid
=================================
this could be Chuck way of cospaly Hamas with generation difference
I've got a friend from high school days (we are now both in our early 80's) who refers to the Bad Orange Man as Trumpty Dumpty, has contempt for Alabama and Mississippi that he freely expresses (bigotry for lunch anyone). When inflation and Bidenomics is mentioned, he'll reply "I'm financially better off than at any point in my life."
That's an "I've got mine Jack" attitude and he is of course an ardent Biden supporter.
Why can't we click on pictures of nekkid women?
=================
has google defined women or nekkid?
make your deisre a federal case and see if you have standing at salute or flagging
Why can't we click on pictures of nekkid women?
=================
has google defined women or nekkid?
make your deisre a federal case and see if you have standing at salute or flagging
Each of the four indictments of Trump are the product of grand jury decisions. Any Trump conviction in state or federal courts will be reviewed by appellate courts. Including Republican-dominated Georgia state courst and the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump will never, ever be imprisoned unjustly.
And if all this were taking place right after the alleged offenses occurred - and within the statute of limitations for the alleged offenses, let's say - you might garner a more sympathetic reading, since in fact there aren't a lot of Trump true believers here. Most of us who will vote for him have one of two reasons for doing so: we liked his policies and actions, on balance, in his first term, irrespective of his... outsize personality. Or (or and/or), having seen what the American left is willing to do to delegitimize him and, out of their own mouths, anyone who might vote for him, we think a very loud message about elections and or constitutional Republic is called for.
So, the timing. Funny how he's running for president, and is ahead in the polls.
Funny, too, how these charges all appear to have to do with his supposed election interference.
Each of the four indictments of Trump are the product of grand jury decisions.
Yet the prosecutor said to the jury that Trump was "guilty of campaign violations" in closing remarks, which is not true, was not in the indictment and to my knowledge never presented to a grand jury. The judge IS tilting the scales of justice. You ARE seeing Trump railroaded. You DON'T know if he will be ordered to jail like Navarro was pending appeal.
What kind of spineless evil creature bases his opinion of a jury outcome on whether Sean Hannity reacts well to it? How about wanting a verdict that is fair and just? That's the American way.
It was inappropriate for Ken Burns to talk about politics. He was invited to speak about his personal experiences; not bash Trump.
I am astounded in the preumption of making judgements about Trump's soul - based on what? press reporting which Mr. Burns must know is a distorting mirror.
Skeptical Voter said...
When inflation and Bidenomics is mentioned, he'll reply "I'm financially better off than at any point in my life."
To which a proper response is "oh, so your'e an asshoel who doesn't care about anyone other than yourself? And you're proud of that?"
Narayanan said...
"has google defined women or nekkid? make your deisre a federal case and see if you have standing at salute or flagging...."
As Kinky Friedman once said, 'Naked' is when you don't have any clothes on. 'Nekkid' is when you don't have any clothes on, and you're up to something....
As others have pointed out when you ask them what exactly Trump has done that upsets them you get vague accusations of moral defects. ... he is just doing it for his own ego and gratification...
When Trump was in office, the economy was in good shape, inflation was low, gas prices were down, employment was up, lower and middle class workers were doing better, the country was energy independent, there were no new wars and the government wasn't taking political prisoners and holding show trials.
I'm good with that and if Trump wants to pat himself on the back for his efforts on that stuff, well- I don't give a flying fuck.
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