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Thomas Friedman Opinion: How to Stop Trump and Prevent Another Jan. 6
rfenst Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
NYT Opinion: Thomas L. Friedman

On Christmas morning, I woke up early and flipped on CNN, where I found the newscaster toggling among three news stories — two really depressing ones and an amazingly uplifting one.

The first depressing story was the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The other was the looming anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Both the threat from the virus and the distorted beliefs about the attack on the Capitol were being fueled by crackpot conspiracy theories circulated by Facebook, Fox News and Republican politicians.

But then there it was — sandwiched between these two disturbing tales — a remarkable story of U.S. and global collaboration to reach a new scientific frontier.

It was the launch at 7:20 a.m. Christmas Day of the James Webb Space Telescope. According to NASA, “thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians” — from 306 universities, national labs and companies, primarily in the U.S., Canada and Europe — contributed “to design, build, test, integrate, launch and operate Webb.”

Thank you, Santa! What a gift to remind us that a level of trust to do big, hard things together is still alive on planet Earth. By operating from deep in space, Smithsonian magazine noted, “Webb will help scientists understand how early galaxies formed and grew, detect possible signatures of life on other planets, watch the birth of stars, study black holes from a different angle and likely discover unexpected truths.”

I love that phrase — unexpected truths. We have launched a space telescope that can peer far into the universe to discover — with joy — unexpected truths.

Alas, though, my joy is tempered by those two other stories, by the fact that here on Earth, in America, one of our two national parties and its media allies have chosen instead to celebrate and propagate alternative facts.

This struggle between those seeking unexpected truths — which is what made us great as a nation — and those worshiping alternative facts — which will destroy us as a nation — is THE story on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurgency, and for the coming year. Many people, particularly in the American business community, are vastly underestimating the danger to our constitutional order if this struggle ends badly.

If the majority of G.O.P. lawmakers continue to bow to the most politically pernicious “alternative fact” — that the 2020 election was a fraud that justifies empowering Republican legislatures to override the will of voters and remove Republican and Democratic election supervisors who helped save our democracy last time by calling the election fairly — then America isn’t just in trouble. It is headed for what scientists call “an extinction-level event.”

Only it won’t be a comet hurtling past the Webb telescope from deep space that destroys our democracy, as in the new movie “Don’t Look Up.”

No, no — it will be an unraveling from the ground up, as our country, for the first time, is unable to carry out a peaceful transfer of power to a legitimately elected president. Because if Donald Trump and his flock are able in 2024 to execute a procedural coup like they attempted on Jan. 6, 2021, Democrats will not just say, “Ah shucks, we’ll try harder next time.” They will take to the streets.

Right now, though, too many Republicans are telling themselves and the rest of us: “Don’t look up! Don’t pay attention to what is unfolding in plain sight with Trump & Company. Trump won’t be the G.O.P.’s candidate in 2024.”

Who will save us?

God bless Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republican House members participating on the Jan. 6 investigation committee. But they are not enough. Kinzinger is retiring and the G.O.P. leadership, on Trump’s orders, is trying to launch Cheney into deep space.

I think our last best hope is the leadership of the U.S. business community, specifically the Business Roundtable, led by General Motors C.E.O. Mary Barra, and the Business Council, led by Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella. Together those two groups represent the roughly 200 most powerful companies in America, with 20 million employees. Although formally nonpartisan, they lean center-right — but the old center-right, the one that believed in the rule of law, free markets, majority rule, science and the sanctity of our elections and constitutional processes.

Collectively, they are the only responsible force left with real leverage on Trump and the Republican lawmakers doing his bidding. They need to persuade their members — now — not to donate a penny more to any local, state or national candidate who has voted to dismantle the police or dismantle the Constitution.

Yes, that’s false equivalency. Nothing is as big as the Trump cult’s threat to our constitutional order. But it’s still relevant. For a lot of Americans, watching a smash-and-grab gang ransack their local mall and violent crime jump — and then seeing the far-left trying to delegitimize, defund or dismantle their police — is just as frightening as those trying to dismantle their Constitution on the Capitol mall.

I believe there are many Americans in the center-left and center-right who vigorously oppose both, and they think it’s a disgrace when progressives tell them not to worry about the first or when Trumpers tell them not to worry about the second.

When you take both seriously, many more people will listen to you on both. Individually, in their hometowns — like mine, Minneapolis — business leaders have effectively pushed back on dismantling the police. Now it is time for America’s business leaders to just as forcefully push back on the Trump Republicans trying to dismantle the Constitution.

Why should they risk alienating pro-Trump lawmakers who soon may control both the House and the Senate? Besides love of country?

Let me put it crassly: Civil wars are not good for business. I lived inside one in Lebanon for four years. Corporate America shouldn’t be lulled by 2021’s profits, because once a country’s institutions, laws, norms and unstated redlines are breached — and there is no more truth, only versions, and no more trust, only polarization — getting them back is almost impossible.

Can’t happen here? It sure can.

Rick Wilson, a longtime G.O.P. strategist opposed to Trump, recently described to The Washington Post what will happen if the campaign by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Trump cultists succeeds to get more Big Lie promoters elected in 2022 — and the G.O.P. takes the House or Senate or both: “We’re looking at a nihilistic Mad Max hellscape. It will be all about the show of 2024 to bring Donald Trump back into power.” He added, “They will impeach Biden, they will impeach Harris, they will kill everything.”

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said in a statement: “Major corporations were quick to condemn the insurrection and tout their support for democracy — and almost as quickly, many ditched those purported values by cutting big checks to the very politicians that helped instigate the failed coup attempt. The increasing volume of corporate donations to lawmakers who tried to overthrow the will of the people makes clear that these companies were never committed to standing up for democracy in the first place.”

The leaders of these companies are totally underestimating the chances that our democratic institutions will unravel. And if American democracy unravels, the whole world becomes unstable. That will not exactly be good for business, either.

Neutrality is not an option anymore. As Liz Cheney put it on Sunday: “We can either be loyal to Donald Trump or we can be loyal to the Constitution, but we cannot be both.”

So, my New Year’s wish is that item one on the agenda for the next meetings of both the Business Roundtable and the Business Council will be: Which side are we on?




Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist. He joined the paper in 1981, and has won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of seven books, including “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won the National Book Award.
ZRX1200 Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,599
I love a good propaganda piece in the morning.
rfenst Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
ZRX1200 wrote:
I love a good propaganda piece in the morning.

I'll bet you didn't even read it before commenting on it.
HockeyDad Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,130
Now I’m terrified of the Trump cultists!

To keep them from destroying democracy and a civil war we need to destroy democracy with a Democrat supermajority.
RayR Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,888
Thomas L. Friedman is NEOCON FREAK.
He gets a woody thinking about Liz Cheney.
He's aligned with those Lincoln Project degenerates.
Sunoverbeach Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,665
How do you make holy water?
Boil the hell out of it
DrMaddVibe Offline
#7 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,424
rfenst wrote:

On Christmas morning, I woke up early and flipped on CNN



I had to read that more than once.

What crazy **** spends Christmas morning watching tv... much less a channel devoted to garbage propaganda whose ratings can't beat PBS???

I started to read the rest of the article, and then it hit me that if it starts like that...I cannot place any seriousness or rational thought into it. This is some radical bottom feeder that can't or won't enjoy the holiday with family, opening gifts, getting ready for extended family and friends...not even enjoying a cup of coffee by the Christmas tree with the lights on and no more illumination....no. This guy...he's going to watch CNN. CNN.

If you ever think you have it rough in Life...at least you're not Thomas Friedman. That pathetic excuse of a man is depraved of Joy.
frankj1 Offline
#8 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,221
DrMaddVibe wrote:
I had to read that more than once.

What crazy **** spends Christmas morning watching tv... much less a channel devoted to garbage propaganda whose ratings can't beat PBS???

I started to read the rest of the article, and then it hit me that if it starts like that...I cannot place any seriousness or rational thought into it. This is some radical bottom feeder that can't or won't enjoy the holiday with family, opening gifts, getting ready for extended family and friends...not even enjoying a cup of coffee by the Christmas tree with the lights on and no more illumination....no. This guy...he's going to watch CNN. CNN.

If you ever think you have it rough in Life...at least you're not Thomas Friedman. That pathetic excuse of a man is depraved of Joy.

Um, maybe cuz he's Jewish and is killing time waiting for the only things open to actually open? Chinese food and a movie. Not coffee 'round the tree
rfenst Offline
#9 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
frankj1 wrote:
Um, maybe cuz he's Jewish and is killing time waiting for the only things open to actually open? Chinese food and a movie. Not coffee 'round the tree

First thing I do Christmas morning is wish all my Christian friends Merry Christmas. Then, it quickly devolves in to the most absolutely boring cable-TV day of the year for me. NOTHING on for me except basketball or football, which are fine. But, beyond that there is just nothing but the Christmas edition of every single TV show. Rebecca used to start baking with the kids early in the morning to stay busy, and then we would take the kids to the fire station to deliver a big tray of freshly baked cookies, cakes and candies to the folks who still have to work. Man, that was a long time ago... And, as long as it is not Shabbat, my brother actually volunteers for like a 36-hour Christmas-eve-and-day shift anywhere they need him at the local hospital, which is usually the ER, with the hope it is giving one or more people time off on their holiest day.
ZRX1200 Offline
#10 Posted:
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,599
When you’re trained to look for key words, phrases and phrasing you can speed read whale 💩 like this article….of course if you’re susceptible to it then you have an inherent and uncontrollable urge to read the whole thing.

YMMV
MACS Offline
#11 Posted:
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,774
HockeyDad wrote:
Now I’m terrified of the Trump cultists!

To keep them from destroying democracy and a civil war we need to destroy democracy with a Democrat supermajority.


Just like CA... and people are too fkn stupid to see it.
rfenst Offline
#12 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
ZRX1200 wrote:
When you’re trained to look for key words, phrases and phrasing you can speed read whale 💩 like this article….of course if you’re susceptible to it then you have an inherent and uncontrollable urge to read the whole thing.

YMMV

That's funny!
RayR Offline
#13 Posted:
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,888
TRUMP!Argh!

INSURRECTION!

WORST THREAT TO DUHMACRACY SINCE THE CIVIL WAR!
...OR MAYBE THAT WAS SOMETHIN ELSE, I FORGET
frankj1 Offline
#14 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,221
rfenst wrote:
First thing I do Christmas morning is wish all my Christian friends Merry Christmas. Then, it quickly devolves in to the most absolutely boring cable-TV day of the year for me. NOTHING on for me except basketball or football, which are fine. But, beyond that there is just nothing but the Christmas edition of every single TV show. Rebecca used to start baking with the kids early in the morning to stay busy, and then we would take the kids to the fire station to deliver a big tray of freshly baked cookies, cakes and candies to the folks who still have to work. Man, that was a long time ago... And, as long as it is not Shabbat, my brother actually volunteers for like a 36-hour Christmas-eve-and-day shift anywhere they need him at the local hospital, which is usually the ER, with the hope it is giving one or more people time off on their holiest day.

I thought I was replying to the doc about Thomas Friedman!
rfenst Offline
#15 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
frankj1 wrote:
I thought I was replying to the doc about Thomas Friedman!

So was I.
HockeyDad Offline
#16 Posted:
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,130
Gentlemen, gentlemen….let’s not lose sight of the fact that Thomas Friedman is an idiot.
rfenst Offline
#17 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
HockeyDad wrote:
Gentlemen, gentlemen….let’s not lose sight of the fact that Thomas Friedman is an idiot.

Right.
frankj1 Offline
#18 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,221
so...NOT Jewish?
Sunoverbeach Offline
#19 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,665
Now, now. Idiocy is neither excluded from nor exclusive to any particular subset of the human race. That Chit's universal
MACS Offline
#20 Posted:
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,774
frankj1 wrote:
so...NOT Jewish?


He's not like uh idiot... he IS, in fact, an idiot.
frankj1 Offline
#21 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,221
MACS wrote:
He's not like uh idiot... he IS, in fact, an idiot.

OK, I love this post!
ZRX1200 Offline
#22 Posted:
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,599
He might be Kinky though….
rfenst Offline
#23 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
I know!
Let's ask the Texas Jew Boys. They'll know for sure!
bgz Offline
#24 Posted:
Joined: 07-29-2014
Posts: 13,023
Who's Thomas Friedman?
izonfire Offline
#25 Posted:
Joined: 12-09-2013
Posts: 8,647
It’s not genocide if it’s death by party affiliation…
RayR Offline
#26 Posted:
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,888
bgz wrote:
Who's Thomas Friedman?


He has incurable TDS, his brain is Fried Man!
izonfire Offline
#27 Posted:
Joined: 12-09-2013
Posts: 8,647
RayR wrote:
He has incurable TDS, his brain is Fried Man!

And you have the gall to criticize anyone else’s joke???
If you had any feeling at all, the pain would kill you…
DrMaddVibe Offline
#28 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,424
RayR wrote:
TRUMP!Argh!

INSURRECTION!

WORST THREAT TO DUHMACRACY SINCE THE CIVIL WAR!
...OR MAYBE THAT WAS SOMETHIN ELSE, I FORGET




https://youtu.be/4iL42L0HewY
DrMaddVibe Offline
#29 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,424
frankj1 wrote:
Um, maybe cuz he's Jewish and is killing time waiting for the only things open to actually open? Chinese food and a movie. Not coffee 'round the tree



Got it.


So it's now Jewish tradition to spin a dreidel and then watch CNN.
rfenst Offline
#30 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
DrMaddVibe wrote:
Got it.


So it's now Jewish tradition to spin a dreidel and then watch CNN.

It always has been. If we didn't, who else would watch it? Hell, it's even one of the 613 Commandments Jews must obey.
Got it?
tonygraz Offline
#31 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2008
Posts: 20,247
So you are an anti-semite too ?










reponse to post # 29
bgz Offline
#32 Posted:
Joined: 07-29-2014
Posts: 13,023
rfenst wrote:
It always has been. If we didn't, who else would watch it? Hell, it's even one of the 613 Commandments Jews must obey.
Got it?


Rule #611

Thou shalt watch CNN.. it's there.
Speyside2 Offline
#33 Posted:
Joined: 11-11-2021
Posts: 2,384
DOC, #7 is lacking through and through. Christmas day is only December 25th to anyone who is not a Christian. Just another day.
RayR Offline
#34 Posted:
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,888
DrMaddVibe wrote:
https://youtu.be/4iL42L0HewY


Doesn't fit the contemporary Duhmacratic narrative, therefore must be buried in the dustbin of history and forgotten.
RayR Offline
#35 Posted:
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,888
izonfire wrote:
And you have the gall to criticize anyone else’s joke???
If you had any feeling at all, the pain would kill you…


So you saw what I did there, you batard!
No children's joke book was needed either.
HockeyDad Offline
#36 Posted:
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,130
rfenst wrote:
It always has been. If we didn't, who else would watch it? Hell, it's even one of the 613 Commandments Jews must obey.
Got it?


We took your rules and added even more!

Signed: the Roman Catholics
bgz Offline
#37 Posted:
Joined: 07-29-2014
Posts: 13,023
Sunoverbeach wrote:
How do you make holy water?


When hell freezes over, take a drill to it.
deadeyedick Offline
#38 Posted:
Joined: 03-13-2003
Posts: 17,087
Happy Anniversary to all those with an 1-D-10-T problem.Angel
Sunoverbeach Offline
#39 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,665
How did Darth Vader know what Luke got for Christmas?
He felt his presents
ZRX1200 Offline
#40 Posted:
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,599
Tony, did DMV call Christmas “Revenge of the Money Changers”???

Do you know what Jesus said when they pulled the stakes from his wrists?

MY ANKLES!!!!!!!
tonygraz Offline
#41 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2008
Posts: 20,247
The first I've heard of the Great Barrington Declaration. Apparently it was signed about 20 miles from my house.
frankj1 Offline
#42 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,221
DrMaddVibe wrote:
Got it.


So it's now Jewish tradition to spin a dreidel and then watch CNN.

Um, so this has nothing at all to do with my response to your missed target attack about Christmas for the Jewish columnist.

Instead of responding waaay off the track, try saying something like..."Oh didn't think of that. Never knew.
Guess I was wrong."

No one would laugh at you for a mistake. Unless it wasn't?
DrMaddVibe Offline
#43 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,424
frankj1 wrote:
Um, so this has nothing at all to do with my response to your missed target attack about Christmas for the Jewish columnist.

Instead of responding waaay off the track, try saying something like..."Oh didn't think of that. Never knew.
Guess I was wrong."

No one would laugh at you for a mistake. Unless it wasn't?



The only mistake made was you dragging Jewish vs Christian into the discussion.

The columnist didn't. I didn't. You did.
rfenst Offline
#44 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,304
This is, in essence, what you wrote. Pretty harsh stuff to accuse a Jew of- if you knew he was Jewish.

DrMaddVibe wrote:
... What crazy **** spends Christmas morning watching tv....

This is some radical bottom feeder that can't or won't enjoy the holiday with family, opening gifts, getting ready for extended family and friends...not even enjoying a cup of coffee by the Christmas tree with the lights on and no more illumination....no. This guy...he's going to watch CNN. CNN.

If you ever think you have it rough in Life...at least you're not Thomas Friedman. That pathetic excuse of a man is depraved of Joy.


Frank explained the guy was Jewish and that's why he doesn't celebrate Christmas the way you think he should. Then you replied:
Quote:
Got it. So it's now Jewish tradition to spin a dreidel and then watch CNN.

That could be taken by some as an insult given that spinning a dreidel is a religious custom and because you have strong negative views about CNN. Linking them together seems to suggest some type of automatic/Pavlovian activity akin maybe to Jew>Dreidel>CNN.

Knowing you personally, I don't think you meant any harm or insult. Herfing
delta1 Offline
#45 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,784
pretty sure those who don't think the actions of January 6 are serious would be outraged if Trump had won the election...

and Hillary claimed the election was stolen and urged her folks to storm the Capitol to prevent the certification of the election...

and pink hat wearing women, Antifa and BLM showed up and attacked the Capitol police, broke doors and windows, chased after and threatened law-makers before vandalizing and occupying the building for several hours...

yup...nothing to see here ...no biggee...no need to ID, arrest and charge any of them...

where have you gone, party of law and order, the Constitution and the rule of Law...
Sunoverbeach Offline
#46 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,665
Why did the scarecrow win an award?
He was outstanding in his field
frankj1 Offline
#47 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,221
rfenst wrote:
This is, in essence, what you wrote. Pretty harsh stuff to accuse a Jew of- if you knew he was Jewish.



Frank explained the guy was Jewish and that's why he doesn't celebrate Christmas the way you think he should. Then you replied:

That could be taken by some as an insult given that spinning a dreidel is a religious custom and because you have strong negative views about CNN. Linking them together seems to suggest some type of automatic/Pavlovian activity akin maybe to Jew>Dreidel>CNN.

Knowing you personally, I don't think you meant any harm or insult. Herfing

pretty much, yeah.
Dg west deptford Offline
#48 Posted:
Joined: 05-25-2019
Posts: 2,836
Jesus spun the driedel
Well, he was recorded as attending Hanukkah in Jerusalem.

He never woke up on his birthday (which was likely Sukot not the winter equinox) & wanted to consume leftist narrative.

I don't think DMV has any hate because he can't stomach his Christmas morning in such a way

Ymmv
Sunoverbeach Offline
#49 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,665
This would have been the spot for the tea joke. Gotta work harder at placement
DrMaddVibe Offline
#50 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,424
rfenst wrote:
This is, in essence, what you wrote. Pretty harsh stuff to accuse a Jew of- if you knew he was Jewish.



Frank explained the guy was Jewish and that's why he doesn't celebrate Christmas the way you think he should. Then you replied:

That could be taken by some as an insult given that spinning a dreidel is a religious custom and because you have strong negative views about CNN. Linking them together seems to suggest some type of automatic/Pavlovian activity akin maybe to Jew>Dreidel>CNN.

Knowing you personally, I don't think you meant any harm or insult. Herfing



Should've lead with your last sentence. Thanks, and I can count on you too.

All of that said...maybe doesn't constitute affiliation.. I have no idea what, if any, religion the quoted writer believes in. He brought Christmas into the fray. In keeping with Frank's notion, I mentioned the game to somehow loop in what he wanted to be in there and to make it...pardon the pun...kosher.

As for the rest...just no. Stop it.
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