Merrick Garland, Chris Wray, DeJoy, Biden ...all are failing.
Biden is worst of the bunch with Fist bumps to MBS and bear hugs to the internationally lawless Netanyahu.
Biden has increased our national jeopardy by ignoring international law instead of rebuilding it.
George Carlin’s clip is making the rounds again about how he gave up on the human race and felt happier knowing there was nothing left to do to stop America from circling the drain.
Several clearheaded powerful Black women are unfairly carrying the American spirit. We all know who they are. And they are taking no BS.
For the moment they are my only inspiration. The rest of the country deserves a middle finger.
Biden is a magician, faced with an opposition that is Looney Tunes, he has managed to accomplish something. I am voting for Joe Biden. We should never forget that 70 million votes were cast for a TV watching, golfing, loud mouth, lazy bigot. We have all those maga voters to claim the title of worst of the bunch.
Of course I’m voting for Joe Biden. But he’s a disgrace for abandoning rule of law. Does rule of law mean absolutely nothing to people anymore? How can you just give him a pass as he ignores his rule? It really is astonishing at this point. The impunity is disgraceful.
Sarah has repeated listed Biden’s violations of international law as passed by US Congress including the laws against supplying arms to states engaged in indiscriminate bombing campaigns such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, supporting unlawful campaigns against Yemen.
Biden has expressed full American support to cover up crimes of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud regarding investigations of his direct role in torture and murder of an American journalist.
Biden thumbed his nose at those screaming for accountability for the WILLFUL crimes of 1000 bankers during the financial crisis during the Obama years and after.
Biden supported Eric Holder for Atty gen at DOJ who promised not to pursue crimes of Bush : the illegal Black Op tortures and water boardings, the illegal roles of corporations promoting government lies about WMD in Iraq..
Biden installed in his DOJ - with McConnell’s HELP ! - a known IGNORER OF RULE OF LAW the lightweight edging on buffoon MERRICK GARLAND, who has been useless. His best buddy is the MOB LAWYER Jaime Gorelick who represents Jared Kushner!
What did Jared Kushner know? And when did he know it when he took $2 billion from MBS four years ago? What was that payoff for? Do you really think Merrick Garland is going to investigate this? Not at this point. And you know why? Because he’s buddy buddy with these mobsters of this international crime syndicate.
Biden knew all of this. It is extremely useful to Biden to have someone at DOJ who does not have the strength or courage to run the department the way it should be run.
Yes, Biden is lawless. Do I hope he wins the election against Trump? Absolutely.but there are no rose colored glasses on me. This nation has a lot of work to do to fix this country. And Biden is not gonna be part of that solution in the end.
The same could be said for all recent Presidents , not one of them has clean hands, this does not excuse his behavior, but it may condemn myself and every voter who accepts corruption and lawlessness as inevitable. A good democracy requires an alert and active citizenry and we lack that. You are right, both Garland and Biden allowed at least a year to be wasted.
No. I’m not kidding. Biden has fully embraced lawlessness and impunity in ALL of his foreign policy - and domestically he has looked away as Merrick Garland and Chris Wray SLEEP!!
Thank you for saying this. You kept me from never reading anything by this author again! We should be so damned lucky if "Biden is the worst of the bunch." A whole helluva lot worse and we just may find out how much in November!!!
It’s not about those people. It’s the platform. Written by the donors. The illusion of choice is damn near ubiquitous in this politically ignorant social politics schizophrenic non-functional Third World shit hole.
They are completely bipartisan behind closed doors and are nothing more than conspiring partners along with the donors in a trans global crime syndicate raping the planet of its resources and sharing the ill-gotten booty.
Tribalism is fucked. No matter the color of your tribe.
If you think slightly better than an ongoing criminal enterprise is good government, you should stay out of the whole fucking process
If you don’t understand the secret to winning elections is always advocating for the best practice policy and implementing it when possible. Then you really shouldn’t even broach the subject let alone show up to a polling booth.
The sand salesman in the desert is not as worthless as American citizens political opinions.
What if? What is the Democratic Party constituents had sense enough to understand that the best candidate and the most delectable candidate is always the same person. What if, the constituency actually understood proper policy in stopped consenting to insulting tokens. What if the entire consistency saw through their transparent bullshit like the dog and pony show of the drug price reduction. What if the party supporters I never read and comprehended the platform? I mean what do you have, the toad had wings it wouldn’t pop its ass minute hop. What if at least one of the two party constituencies had any political science acumen? Well we might be at least a second world country....
There’s really no statistical significance difference and the path very well could be better with Trump. I mean people are so suckered by Joe Biden soft spoken polite narrative of disingenuous bullshit he is not going to hasten the reckoning. We might as well bring it on.
For those that have gone this deep into this particular rabbit hole, I deleted the previous comment that led to this ^ diatribe (you probably figured that out, already). I apologize for name-calling which is always the lowest low. As I said above, I usually just don’t engage, I’ve learned that it’s fruitless. I refuse to be cynical, though, that plays into the chaos that some folks desire. I may not like the choices, but Biden is the only one at this juncture. That point has been made clear again, and discouraging my trip to the polls is a win for the naysayers that appear to truly want a torn-down house. Stay hopeful, or we almost all lose.
I got some more news for you if you want to be political scientist free we’re getting exactly the fucking government we deserve. Consenting to Coconspiring Trans mobile crime syndicate as somehow non-bipartisan honest broker political parties? Shutting out all other parties you know because that’s what honest brokers do for you shut the fuck up with your whole Britain bullshit stupid Democratic Party constituents piss me off far more than ignorant empty mouth breathing GOP supporters been most of y’all went to college she should’ve been exposed to the idea of respecting professionals. Let the political scientists do political science. do somebody who doesn’t do it would be far out of bounds speaking with confidence on the subject. Thanks for being a posterboy of why we can’t have anything nice.
Your political acumen is nonexistent if you are insinuating that Elizabeth Warren would loose Donald Trump. A not yet rotten dead skunk would beat Donald Trump.
If you’re gonna suck DNC cock and corporate donor Fallas, at least close the fucking door man I don’t want to see it !
That bullshit narrative is why you could never nominate a legitimate candidate. Because you’re all focus on what the fucking opposition is doing and saying. The very last thing any constituent should be wasting time or energy on pick your sole duty should be demanding quality policy from your party. You are not worthy of my engagement. Say hello to Felicia for me. Ciao
Because there’s inhabited inside you a spiritual cry for OUR DEMOCRACY I NEVER GET ENOUGH OF!
After November 8 2016, You were the first writer I found who put into words my complete dread, labeled, categorized, and explained in unerring detail the EXTREME VISCERAL REACTION, the impending sense of doom, I had to learning that thing had won the election,...
As your prophecies continued to pile up & MM continued to fail the American People only made it more devastating.
We all would be wise to both listen AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, ACT as each of us can to make the choices that provide us, our children and grandchildren, the opportunities to avert COMPLETE DISASTER!
Absolutely love your writing. Powerful, elegant, beautiful - and always full of compassion for what can and should be. When the notice of a new piece from you hits my email I run to it. As a 73 year old African-American in the last third of his life now more than ever I appreciate truth telling down to it's bones. As appropriate, I'm still sending friends copies of your 2016 article in the Correspondent, This is how to be your own light in the Age of Trump. It's as relevant today as it was then - even as we recognize and battle the corruption and failure of our judicial, legal, political, and media institutions. As a matter of fact my suggestion would be that you do a refreshed version based on the failures and wisdom gleamed over the past eight years of witness and get it in as wide of a circulation as possible. With what's potentially coming and what's here people will need to know how to care for themselves.
Finally, there seems to be a despair bubbling up in some of the comments. I would say, don't go there in any permanent way. Momentarily, yes, but don't stay there. One of my friends recently said, "I'll fight these dark hearted fools until Hell freezes over, then I'll fight them on the ice." To that I say, AMEM. None of us know yet what that looks like, but we continue to need folks like you to shed the light. Thanks for being who you are.
And again, I shake my head and nod, yet again, at your insight. Here are a few of my favs from this essay:
• I am in Iowa but there is no way I’ll cover the caucuses. I don’t care who wins.
I already know who lost, and it’s me. And you. And the rest of us.
• He has spawned boring clones, a chain of dolls cut from tracing paper, flat pale demagogue ghosts. The fringes were pulled to the center, the center was pulled to the right, and every politician sounds like Trump because they think his impunity is contagious. They think it’s something you can catch, like covid, only instead of killing you, it kills the rest of the country, so there is more left for you to steal.
• 2024 is our first post-coup (which never ended), post-covid (which never ended), post-truth (which never ended, because I’m still telling it to you whether you want to hear it or not) election.
•The 2024 election is a pale horse race for the American political apocalypse. You cannot run against an existential threat three times. The third time you are just living inside one and not admitting it.
The Civil War never ended. It just went cold. The fascists running Wall Street attempted a coup against FDR. They tried again in 2020. Pretty much every corporation in the country is funding the fascists for lower/no taxes and no health, safety, or environmental regulations. The Tories are selling off the UK to the corporations as I type this. Charter cites, freeports, and SEZs. It's coming to the US, too. Biden is a neoliberal capitalist and he's pro profit and anti choice. He's a practicing Catholic and abortions make him queasy. He's gone around Congress to supply bombs to Israel and bomb Yemen.
As the late, great George Carlin once said, "It's a big club and you ain't in it."
This is a fantastic read. I am a professor and try to inform all my students about the realities of American life as presently constructed. I am typically met with blank stares and, increasingly, hostility. Sometimes I consider giving up but it is comforting to know that a group (albeit small) of people, share my observations and sentiments. I am not sure what to do with this realization but I just wanted to share it.
Wow! As a longtime history & political science freak, I’m blown away with your words! I must read them again to clear my head! Thank you,Sarah, for stirring the pot!
Amen to this! The 2024 election feels like a total joke, and a facade of a democracy. I have lost total interest in following the chatter about it. But I do still care about civic engagement, even beyond the ballot box. I think that’s what will usher in true democracy again, because we need it.
Excellent, as usual! I really like "The Usual Place". You may have made me not care who wins the election also, the situation in Gaza has made me numb.
Wow, just wow, how you write to tear life out of this dead poll. I relish the sentences. I remember flat boring Iowa from 1969 when we were driving through it, my parents and my sisters in a Mercury where the back window could scroll down. That it contains the marvels you describe i learn only now. I did peruse a fascinating encyclopedia back then at friends of my mother we visited. So i know there are treasures hidden there, before all.
I hear the winds blowing through your soul. You are not alone in your despair or wondering. Thank you for putting words in this strange limbo, we are living in.
Can't think of anyone else whose searing insights have so often conjured the endlessly quotable Thomas Stearns E. in response. It's not easy to be so clever and so genuine at the same time, to speak such damning truths with such irresistible wit. It's a gift that you have and maybe even a greater one that you share with us, however trying the giving must (at least sometimes) be for the giver. "[W]ere we led all that way/ For Birth or Death?" The answer is yes, and gratefully so. Thank you, Sarah. https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi
Well said. And dire.
I’m giving up for now.
Merrick Garland, Chris Wray, DeJoy, Biden ...all are failing.
Biden is worst of the bunch with Fist bumps to MBS and bear hugs to the internationally lawless Netanyahu.
Biden has increased our national jeopardy by ignoring international law instead of rebuilding it.
George Carlin’s clip is making the rounds again about how he gave up on the human race and felt happier knowing there was nothing left to do to stop America from circling the drain.
Several clearheaded powerful Black women are unfairly carrying the American spirit. We all know who they are. And they are taking no BS.
For the moment they are my only inspiration. The rest of the country deserves a middle finger.
Right there with you. We're being slow walked into an autocracy.
“Biden is the worst of the bunch.” Are you kidding me??
Biden is a magician, faced with an opposition that is Looney Tunes, he has managed to accomplish something. I am voting for Joe Biden. We should never forget that 70 million votes were cast for a TV watching, golfing, loud mouth, lazy bigot. We have all those maga voters to claim the title of worst of the bunch.
Of course I’m voting for Joe Biden. But he’s a disgrace for abandoning rule of law. Does rule of law mean absolutely nothing to people anymore? How can you just give him a pass as he ignores his rule? It really is astonishing at this point. The impunity is disgraceful.
“Biden is abandoning the rule of law.” What are you referring to?
Sarah has repeated listed Biden’s violations of international law as passed by US Congress including the laws against supplying arms to states engaged in indiscriminate bombing campaigns such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, supporting unlawful campaigns against Yemen.
Biden has expressed full American support to cover up crimes of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud regarding investigations of his direct role in torture and murder of an American journalist.
Biden thumbed his nose at those screaming for accountability for the WILLFUL crimes of 1000 bankers during the financial crisis during the Obama years and after.
Biden supported Eric Holder for Atty gen at DOJ who promised not to pursue crimes of Bush : the illegal Black Op tortures and water boardings, the illegal roles of corporations promoting government lies about WMD in Iraq..
Biden installed in his DOJ - with McConnell’s HELP ! - a known IGNORER OF RULE OF LAW the lightweight edging on buffoon MERRICK GARLAND, who has been useless. His best buddy is the MOB LAWYER Jaime Gorelick who represents Jared Kushner!
What did Jared Kushner know? And when did he know it when he took $2 billion from MBS four years ago? What was that payoff for? Do you really think Merrick Garland is going to investigate this? Not at this point. And you know why? Because he’s buddy buddy with these mobsters of this international crime syndicate.
Biden knew all of this. It is extremely useful to Biden to have someone at DOJ who does not have the strength or courage to run the department the way it should be run.
Yes, Biden is lawless. Do I hope he wins the election against Trump? Absolutely.but there are no rose colored glasses on me. This nation has a lot of work to do to fix this country. And Biden is not gonna be part of that solution in the end.
This is why I say elections are Sophie's choices.
The nature of empire/power is inherently dirty.
Elections are Sophie's choices.
Then do THAT work! Stop talking
The same could be said for all recent Presidents , not one of them has clean hands, this does not excuse his behavior, but it may condemn myself and every voter who accepts corruption and lawlessness as inevitable. A good democracy requires an alert and active citizenry and we lack that. You are right, both Garland and Biden allowed at least a year to be wasted.
No. I’m not kidding. Biden has fully embraced lawlessness and impunity in ALL of his foreign policy - and domestically he has looked away as Merrick Garland and Chris Wray SLEEP!!
Public Fist bump to Bonesaw MBS! that is like kissing The Godfather’s ring!!!!
Yes, that makes him the worst of these Democrats. Biden is sworn to uphold the Constitution.
Thank you for saying this. You kept me from never reading anything by this author again! We should be so damned lucky if "Biden is the worst of the bunch." A whole helluva lot worse and we just may find out how much in November!!!
Totally agree
It’s not about those people. It’s the platform. Written by the donors. The illusion of choice is damn near ubiquitous in this politically ignorant social politics schizophrenic non-functional Third World shit hole.
They are completely bipartisan behind closed doors and are nothing more than conspiring partners along with the donors in a trans global crime syndicate raping the planet of its resources and sharing the ill-gotten booty.
Tribalism is fucked. No matter the color of your tribe.
If you think slightly better than an ongoing criminal enterprise is good government, you should stay out of the whole fucking process
If you don’t understand the secret to winning elections is always advocating for the best practice policy and implementing it when possible. Then you really shouldn’t even broach the subject let alone show up to a polling booth.
The sand salesman in the desert is not as worthless as American citizens political opinions.
So then when Trump wins the election how do Biden and the Democrats benefit?
What is their payoff?
What if? What is the Democratic Party constituents had sense enough to understand that the best candidate and the most delectable candidate is always the same person. What if, the constituency actually understood proper policy in stopped consenting to insulting tokens. What if the entire consistency saw through their transparent bullshit like the dog and pony show of the drug price reduction. What if the party supporters I never read and comprehended the platform? I mean what do you have, the toad had wings it wouldn’t pop its ass minute hop. What if at least one of the two party constituencies had any political science acumen? Well we might be at least a second world country....
There’s really no statistical significance difference and the path very well could be better with Trump. I mean people are so suckered by Joe Biden soft spoken polite narrative of disingenuous bullshit he is not going to hasten the reckoning. We might as well bring it on.
Been a long time since I engaged… now I remember why.
For those that have gone this deep into this particular rabbit hole, I deleted the previous comment that led to this ^ diatribe (you probably figured that out, already). I apologize for name-calling which is always the lowest low. As I said above, I usually just don’t engage, I’ve learned that it’s fruitless. I refuse to be cynical, though, that plays into the chaos that some folks desire. I may not like the choices, but Biden is the only one at this juncture. That point has been made clear again, and discouraging my trip to the polls is a win for the naysayers that appear to truly want a torn-down house. Stay hopeful, or we almost all lose.
I got some more news for you if you want to be political scientist free we’re getting exactly the fucking government we deserve. Consenting to Coconspiring Trans mobile crime syndicate as somehow non-bipartisan honest broker political parties? Shutting out all other parties you know because that’s what honest brokers do for you shut the fuck up with your whole Britain bullshit stupid Democratic Party constituents piss me off far more than ignorant empty mouth breathing GOP supporters been most of y’all went to college she should’ve been exposed to the idea of respecting professionals. Let the political scientists do political science. do somebody who doesn’t do it would be far out of bounds speaking with confidence on the subject. Thanks for being a posterboy of why we can’t have anything nice.
Your political acumen is nonexistent if you are insinuating that Elizabeth Warren would loose Donald Trump. A not yet rotten dead skunk would beat Donald Trump.
If you’re gonna suck DNC cock and corporate donor Fallas, at least close the fucking door man I don’t want to see it !
That bullshit narrative is why you could never nominate a legitimate candidate. Because you’re all focus on what the fucking opposition is doing and saying. The very last thing any constituent should be wasting time or energy on pick your sole duty should be demanding quality policy from your party. You are not worthy of my engagement. Say hello to Felicia for me. Ciao
Wherever You are at, STAY!
Because there’s inhabited inside you a spiritual cry for OUR DEMOCRACY I NEVER GET ENOUGH OF!
After November 8 2016, You were the first writer I found who put into words my complete dread, labeled, categorized, and explained in unerring detail the EXTREME VISCERAL REACTION, the impending sense of doom, I had to learning that thing had won the election,...
As your prophecies continued to pile up & MM continued to fail the American People only made it more devastating.
We all would be wise to both listen AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, ACT as each of us can to make the choices that provide us, our children and grandchildren, the opportunities to avert COMPLETE DISASTER!
Absolutely love your writing. Powerful, elegant, beautiful - and always full of compassion for what can and should be. When the notice of a new piece from you hits my email I run to it. As a 73 year old African-American in the last third of his life now more than ever I appreciate truth telling down to it's bones. As appropriate, I'm still sending friends copies of your 2016 article in the Correspondent, This is how to be your own light in the Age of Trump. It's as relevant today as it was then - even as we recognize and battle the corruption and failure of our judicial, legal, political, and media institutions. As a matter of fact my suggestion would be that you do a refreshed version based on the failures and wisdom gleamed over the past eight years of witness and get it in as wide of a circulation as possible. With what's potentially coming and what's here people will need to know how to care for themselves.
Finally, there seems to be a despair bubbling up in some of the comments. I would say, don't go there in any permanent way. Momentarily, yes, but don't stay there. One of my friends recently said, "I'll fight these dark hearted fools until Hell freezes over, then I'll fight them on the ice." To that I say, AMEM. None of us know yet what that looks like, but we continue to need folks like you to shed the light. Thanks for being who you are.
Thank you very much! And excellent advice
And again, I shake my head and nod, yet again, at your insight. Here are a few of my favs from this essay:
• I am in Iowa but there is no way I’ll cover the caucuses. I don’t care who wins.
I already know who lost, and it’s me. And you. And the rest of us.
• He has spawned boring clones, a chain of dolls cut from tracing paper, flat pale demagogue ghosts. The fringes were pulled to the center, the center was pulled to the right, and every politician sounds like Trump because they think his impunity is contagious. They think it’s something you can catch, like covid, only instead of killing you, it kills the rest of the country, so there is more left for you to steal.
• 2024 is our first post-coup (which never ended), post-covid (which never ended), post-truth (which never ended, because I’m still telling it to you whether you want to hear it or not) election.
•The 2024 election is a pale horse race for the American political apocalypse. You cannot run against an existential threat three times. The third time you are just living inside one and not admitting it.
The Civil War never ended. It just went cold. The fascists running Wall Street attempted a coup against FDR. They tried again in 2020. Pretty much every corporation in the country is funding the fascists for lower/no taxes and no health, safety, or environmental regulations. The Tories are selling off the UK to the corporations as I type this. Charter cites, freeports, and SEZs. It's coming to the US, too. Biden is a neoliberal capitalist and he's pro profit and anti choice. He's a practicing Catholic and abortions make him queasy. He's gone around Congress to supply bombs to Israel and bomb Yemen.
As the late, great George Carlin once said, "It's a big club and you ain't in it."
https://youtu.be/-54c0IdxZWc?si=jMABLFkXrLTIuNv1
Love Carlin’s quote!
Me too.
This is a fantastic read. I am a professor and try to inform all my students about the realities of American life as presently constructed. I am typically met with blank stares and, increasingly, hostility. Sometimes I consider giving up but it is comforting to know that a group (albeit small) of people, share my observations and sentiments. I am not sure what to do with this realization but I just wanted to share it.
Wow! As a longtime history & political science freak, I’m blown away with your words! I must read them again to clear my head! Thank you,Sarah, for stirring the pot!
Thank you. It's all posturing to mark time before their inevitable submission to the demon they pretend to reject.
Amen to this! The 2024 election feels like a total joke, and a facade of a democracy. I have lost total interest in following the chatter about it. But I do still care about civic engagement, even beyond the ballot box. I think that’s what will usher in true democracy again, because we need it.
Agree!
Sarah, I feel like your exceptional, gut punching substack articles are vignettes leading up to your new book, The Last American Road Trip.
Thank you for giving language to ~the heartbreak that is the current state of the human condition~ motions vaguely at everything.
Excellent, as usual! I really like "The Usual Place". You may have made me not care who wins the election also, the situation in Gaza has made me numb.
Wow, just wow, how you write to tear life out of this dead poll. I relish the sentences. I remember flat boring Iowa from 1969 when we were driving through it, my parents and my sisters in a Mercury where the back window could scroll down. That it contains the marvels you describe i learn only now. I did peruse a fascinating encyclopedia back then at friends of my mother we visited. So i know there are treasures hidden there, before all.
I hear the winds blowing through your soul. You are not alone in your despair or wondering. Thank you for putting words in this strange limbo, we are living in.
A stunningly good piece of writing… tragic in many ways, but for me it’s also hopeful.
Thanks!
"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year . . . "
Can't think of anyone else whose searing insights have so often conjured the endlessly quotable Thomas Stearns E. in response. It's not easy to be so clever and so genuine at the same time, to speak such damning truths with such irresistible wit. It's a gift that you have and maybe even a greater one that you share with us, however trying the giving must (at least sometimes) be for the giver. "[W]ere we led all that way/ For Birth or Death?" The answer is yes, and gratefully so. Thank you, Sarah. https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi