Actually it's an Amazon Prime new series called, Terminal List, and is highly rated... so maybe not very good; these same viewers picked Trump!

I'm reading something now I rarely would read, a spy thriller.

But it is well written, just a couple of years ago, and it set in the now.

Here's a book review.... and when I looked it up it appears to be a popular tv or movie series. Didn't know that.

"Only the Dead" echoes real life, with the Russians on the march in Ukraine, and scheming to do worse still.

In fact, they're behind the plot that resulted in the assassination of the fictional American president " although I'm skeptical even an IED-like device could thwart "The Beast," the the president's souped up security vehicle "
and are planning to frame Iran for a suitcase nuclear weapon detonating off the shores of Israel to pull those two countries, and the U.S., into a wider war, thus allowing Russia to finish off Ukraine and China to take Taiwan."

Turns out Vlad didn't need the nuke to set this off, he had Trump instead.

- #7 A sci-fi novel?

Slaughterhouse 5?
#12 | Posted by A_Friend

Love that book still. And the movie.

The best we might hope for at this point could be that now is like France 250 years ago. Not attractive, but better than some of the other options.

(like Orwell)

The worst? How about Soylent Green?

A Perfect Storm of race-baiting, gender-bashing, and immigrant-blaming combined with unlimited Oligarch money to buy politicians, media, and voters?

That's Entertainment!

(also it's Russia, China, and North Korea)

The object seems to be Notoriety for it's own sake... and how one gets it isn't really important.

Which sounds to me like just about any US Corporation you could name.

Which may be what happens when there's Corporate Personhood for people to compete with in the Marketplace.

Hey, nuking Iran or losing the Mid-Term Elections and becoming Lame Donald Duck?

Easy choice for the Fuehrer in Chief... and it's what Vlad has always enjoyed; the US at war in the ME.

- liberation theology

You're in good company with the likes of Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, and Thom Hartmann, among others. Two of which also identify as Christians.

And in my opinion, JC his own self.

I also like Tom Holland on Cultural Christianity from his book Dominion, where he argues that Western civilization, secularism, and modern ethics are fundamentally shaped by a Christian moral framework; 2000 years of 'weathering' leaving progressives and liberals today sounding like Red Letter Jesus.

Often much to their dismay!

Becoming the Stranger
new on the The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel

DBT2

Thanks for the post... except for the assumption of the motivations of others, which you must know from your werk is a hazardous bidness .

"A return to sanity

In the 1930s through the 1960s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and JFK/LBJ put America back together after the First Republican Great Depression and built the largest and wealthiest middle class in the history of the world at the time.

Today, 45 years of Ayn Rand's ideas being put into practice by libertarian Republicans from Reagan to Bush to Trump have gutted the middle class, made a handful of oligarchs wealthier than any kings or Pharaohs in the history of the world, and brought a whole new generation of predators, hustlers, and grifters into the GOP.

And then there's Trump's war against Iran, his theft of Venezuela's oil and gold, his attacks on NATO and threats against Greenland, his cutting off weapons to Ukraine, his cashing in on the presidency in ways that clearly violate the Constitution, and his and the GOP's multiple efforts to rig our elections.

There's a popular meme going around the internet these days that says:

"If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat while most of the other monkeys starved, scientists would study that monkey to find out what the heck was wrong with it. When humans do it, we put them on the cover of Forbes."

If America is to survive as a functioning democratic republic, we must repudiate the "greed is good" ideology of Ayn Rand and libertarianism, get billionaires and their money out of politics, stop Trump and his lickspittles, and rebuild our civil institutions.

That starts with waking Americans up to the incredible damage that 45 years of Rand's writings and libertarian "Reagan Republicans" have done to this country and giving Congress to Democrats who'll actually investigate and prosecute these crimes against both democracy and our nation itself.

And that starts with checking your voter registration at vote.org and making a plan today to be sure your vote is both cast and counted.

Tag, we're it!"

- i'm surprised the boss man hasn't locked religion in with those other categories.

You still haven't said why he should...

Republicans are the ones rejecting the teachings of Jesus; they care nothing for the stranger, the immigrant, the poor, the downtrodden.... even what's happening to their neighbors and their own families with this corrupt government they've given us.

They instead suck up to the same kind of corrupt Gov that JC called hypocrites and much worse.

"Reporter Mark Ames documents how, back in the 1940s, a real estate lobbying group came up with the idea of creating a new political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money.

This new Libertarian Party would give an ideological and political cover to their goal of becoming government-free, and they developed an elaborate pretense of governing philosophy around it."

-

"In 1980, billionaire David Koch ran for vice president on the newly formed Libertarian Party ticket.

His platform included calls to privatize the Post Office, close public schools, give Medicare and Medicaid to big insurance companies, end food and housing support and all other forms of "welfare," deregulate all corporate oversight while shutting down the EPA and FDA, and selling off much of the federal government's land and other assets to billionaires and big corporations.

Reagan, who won that 1980 election, embraced this view in his inaugural address, saying, "[G]overnment is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

He then doubled down on the idea by beginning the systematic process of gutting and crippling governmental institutions that historically had supported working people and the middle class."

==

"The child-killer who inspired a movement
Reagan wasn't just echoing the Libertarian vision; he was also endorsing Ayn Rand's "Objectivist" view of the world, which traces its roots to a murderous psychopath in 1927.

Back in 2015, Donald Trump told USA Today's Kirsten Powers that his favorite book was Ayn Rand's raped-girl-decides-she-likes-it novel, "The Fountainhead."

"It relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions," he told Powers. "That book relates to ... everything."

Ayn Rand's novels have animated libertarian Republicans like former Speaker of the House of Representatives and current Fox News board member Paul Ryan, who required interns to read her books when they joined his staff.

Powers added, "He [Trump]," told her that he "identified with Howard Roark, the novel's idealistic protagonist who designs skyscrapers and rages against the establishment."

more at the thread link

"The model here is straightforward: government is something to be exploited for personal gain not public service, because government is essentially an evil thing.

So, load it up with incompetents, suck up as much money as you can, and leave the mess to the Democrats:

" Three Republican presidents borrowed over $35 trillion, put it all on the national credit card, just to hand all that money to the billionaires who fund their campaigns and sustain their lavish lifestyles.

" Republicans in Congress have thrown millions off of food stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid and refuse to fix Social Security or Medicare.

" Trump just discarded many of our pollution rules, a move that will lead to more cancers and asthma among our children.

" Bob Kennedy saluted putting cancer-causing chemicals on our food supply.

" Anything Putin wants from Trump he gets.

" They're selling off public lands and destroying our park system like there's no tomorrow, while rewriting America's history into a white supremacist fantasy.

" Miller's ICE goons are murdering Americans and getting away with it while imprisoning brown-skinned people without due process.

" Trump has made billions since becoming president through crypto scams and bets on his own war proclamations.

And that's just the beginning. Which is causing millions of Americans, scratching their heads in wonder, to ask:

"Where did this anti-American-government insanity come from, and how did it come to seize control of the entire Republican Party?"

It all started with the Libertarians:" MORE at the link

- I'm happy.
#42 | Posted by BillJohnson

Obviously that's the only thing that should matter to people; that they themselves are happy, and F everyone else if they can't take a joke.

Or if they dare speak in favor of doing anything about helping others not as fortunate as themselves.

Bev is just as bad; if you talk about inequality or fairness under the Law in this country, you must be a bum living in a van down by the river.

It's a longtime rwing thing, not being able to see past their own comfort.

JC actually talked a lot about those people.

shouldn't be off limits

Awww... Eberly is so offended at the very subject that he wants to Ban it.

Tell us what about this subject is irrelevant, 'nonsense crap'?

It seems to me that religion, or the lack thereof, as it affects our Gov and our lives should be off limits.

What is it.... whom is it that Rogers should fear 'scrutiny' from?

The Pope? For trying to buy his hat?

Methinks this just makes for the kind of thread where you can't focus on gossiping about your neighbors here and getting into prolonged cat fights with them. (see Rogers on, 'the bitchiest bitching bitches' that ruined his site)

Or is that too catty a thing to say?

1Nut knows what State Run Media is like where he's from, and that it supports a Corrupt Crony Capitalist faux-Communist Regime that will be demanding his DNA when he retires there.

He just thinks that showing his magnificent mind can own him some libs around here who have the temerity (look it up #2 Son) not to recognize his said magnificence.

just for fun:

"A Hidden Note at the End of Job Reveals His True Identity

Most people think Job is a timeless story about suffering...a righteous man, a cosmic wager, and a God who eventually shows up with no explanation. But there's a 2,200 year old note at the end of the oldest copies of Job that most people have never read.

And it changes everything about who Job was, when he lived, and why his story was written.

Job wasn't isolated from Israel's story. He was at the center of it."

- Permissiveness is destroying us.

Just the opposite actually, and obviously so; it's Authoritarianism that's hurting us most... it's a one side being much more open to disobeying both the Law and Respect for equality and the People in order to empower Dictators and their stooges.

Immigrants, illegal or the vast majority whom are here legally... have for decades been a Net Economic Plus for the US economy AND they commit less crimes per capital than do US Citizens, per the FBI and DHS.

Dreamers for sure; running from the corrupt countries the US fostered via corrupt corporations, unfair trade practices, and Chicago School Economics for decades, now hurried on by the climate change devastating their crops and economies... as if Corporations, and now Trump's Silent Takeover Invasion in places like Venezuela, weren't horrible enough treatment of a neighbor.

Wait until they find out that they aren't going to Heaven, but that Heaven is coming to them.

In the story, a prelude to that happening is the Church falling away from the faith much as it has done in this country... having traded Red Letter Jesus for Orange White Nationalists.

JT (obviously not to be confused with JC!) is pointing out the hypocrisy of our ruling class much like JC did his; the priests he called everything but white men (!) were both the religious and the secular rulers of his time in Israel.

That didn't stop him from running the bankers out of the Temple (and the Government), which is exactly what he did.

#46

has Been Dazed and Confused for so long it's not true...

That was Free Willy...

Musk and his ilk are buying politicians to write tax laws for them and give them lucrative Gov contracts.

They have usurped Gov of, by, and for the People, thanks mostly to Republicans who made Money Speech and Corporations Super Citizens.

Even some of the hardcore MAGA Base are leaving him.

It's lonely at the slop, er, I mean, top.