Fire needs to be fought with fire here. "Flood the zone" is a game two can play. The elected leader is a petty, petty individual. But that individual is also a media creature. Media creatures have strengths, but they also have many exploitable weaknesses, namely the need to turn their attention toward whichever story seems biggest in any given media cycle.
When attention turns, effort/energy divides. Physics dictates that once attention is turned to a new concern that the energy placed on the previous concern must be reduced. As new concerns reveal themselves in a media cycle, energy around any previous concern can be reduced. Keep this up and energy eventually becomes divided and frittered away.
How best can the opposition similarly "Flood the zone"?
Thank you, Dan, as always, for somehow finding the words that can offer some hope. This Firehose madness is a real test for those of us who had hoped for so much better for our country...I will do my best to read and re-read what you have just written and maybe it will help me endure this madness. As a retired Civics teacher with 33 years in the classroom, this time is particular wrenching...I just hope those thousands of students that I taught about how government is supposed to work remembered those lessons and did NOT vote for this man. We must start righting the ship in 2026.
To be disappointed by The Felon-in-Chief would require expecting better from him in the first place. Having a living memory of his party’s worst since 1972, that was never(and IS never) going to happen. Hearing my late girlfriend’s WWII veteran father compare him in advance to Hitler confirmed my advance recognition of the smell of evil.
Need I say more?
Being a veteran and having several other veterans in the family, including my Mom and 3 of her siblings, guess what the odds are of the Maggot and his MAGATS daunting me.
I read Dan, Heather C Richardson, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, Meidas etc.
I listen to Bernie Sanders, and our legislators in the fight.
I call my senators and reps regularly. Thank them for doing what they do. And ask them to oppose what is necessary. They need to hear from us A LOT!!
And then I go about my day: work, walking in nature, music… things that bring me joy.
I meditate in the AM.
I do my best to not let the chaos and hate consume my day. Some days it’s hard. Some days it’s easier. We can’t let them win.
And I remind myself that the civil rights leaders faced death and physical abuse and they kept going. I look to those heroes and heroines to give me strength.
I wanted to share another travesty which is being overlooked by the press. A lifelong friend of mine whose brother worked for the USAID sent the below email. He helped save lives in the Middle East and Africa his entire life and up until now was acted to fill in when necessary. Below is the email he sent to my friend.
"Things are not good here in Washington with the new Administration. The day after the inauguration, goon squads showed up at all federal government agencies, rounding up all staff of any DEIA offices, taking away their badges, escorting them out of the office and putting them on "administrative leave" (with pay for now).
Then yesterday USAID received an official written order to immediately "stop work" on all USAID projects worldwide. That includes even life-saving humanitarian assistance; food aid may continue, but not support for emergency health, water, shelter, etc. The stop work order includes tens-of-thousands of projects, including funding to UN agencies, NGOs, contractors, local groups. There is to be a review of each project to ensure that it is in line with the policies of the new Administration and with "American values" (neither of those are spelled out). Obviously, there is also a hiring freeze and budget freeze. This is initially for 90 days, though I have no idea how they can review all the projects within that time. The only exemption is aid to Israel.
As you can imagine, there is huge consternation and concern -- to say nothing of depression -- within USAID staff, as well as retirees like myself. And our concern is also for all our partners who are implementing our projects, and finally -- most importantly -- for the people who were depending on our support around the world.
It's been a black day here in Washington. I was expecting it to be bad with this new Administration, but not this bad! And it has not made the news, even on NPR (just learned that it was a headline on BBC). Way down the list in the Washington Post online, there is an article talking about a “pause” ordered for several federal government agencies, including USAID."
If anyone on the Democratic side (or merely the small-d democratic side) is genuinely interested in pushing back and fighting for the founding principles, I strongly recommend that they give up the addictive drug of saying vicious things about Maga voters ("they're a cult! they're stupid! they're racist! they're evil! we're good, they're bad!"), and recognize one cold, hard, plain truth: that if the Democrats had not turned their backs ordinary working class Americans back in the Clinton 1990s they wouldn't be a defanged, meaningless opposition, out of power and out of ideas in this time of clear and present danger.
Back then Democrats were confident that if they just went Republican-Lite, and allied themselves with some Wall Street nabobs, a few political action groups, and those nice young tech billionaires, then they could dispense with the old FDR coalition. Bill Clinton may have played populist good ol' boy, but he gave away the store to Wall Street.
That left tens of millions of ordinary working Americans feeling abandoned and undefended: ripe for the picking. The Republicans figured out how to pick them.
Want to end this nightmare? Start by reaching out to your Maga neighbors instead of sneering at them and thinking up ugly things to say about them. We won't save the republic if ordinary folks don't make common cause. But by all means: if it makes your heart happy to call them names and feel superior to them, then that's your priority, and you'd might as well carry on. For all the good it will do.
You are correct. We must get through the next four years while building strength and an organization to protect our democracy. Trump and the republican party are controlled by billionaires and corporations that feed money to their desires. He is a puppet and a clown. The Bs use him because they realize he has the cult following necessary to obtain majority of votes in our election system. If the votes were not necessary, they would drop him immediately.
Unfortunately the news media is controlled by the Bs/ They have retreated from good reporting due to the potential loss of money. The Bs own the method of communication around the entire world. They didn’t spend their money to lose it or preach the truth, only run a business.
It is up to the citizens to come together to resist the present. Unfortunately, the Democratic party doesn’t seem to have a strong leader. Kamala proved the average person will provide enough funds to match the Bs but their management and strategic skills seem to be lacking.
Fire needs to be fought with fire here. "Flood the zone" is a game two can play. The elected leader is a petty, petty individual. But that individual is also a media creature. Media creatures have strengths, but they also have many exploitable weaknesses, namely the need to turn their attention toward whichever story seems biggest in any given media cycle.
When attention turns, effort/energy divides. Physics dictates that once attention is turned to a new concern that the energy placed on the previous concern must be reduced. As new concerns reveal themselves in a media cycle, energy around any previous concern can be reduced. Keep this up and energy eventually becomes divided and frittered away.
How best can the opposition similarly "Flood the zone"?
Thank you Dan. As always, your letters bring hope, logic and clarity to this crazy situation.
Thank you, Dan, as always, for somehow finding the words that can offer some hope. This Firehose madness is a real test for those of us who had hoped for so much better for our country...I will do my best to read and re-read what you have just written and maybe it will help me endure this madness. As a retired Civics teacher with 33 years in the classroom, this time is particular wrenching...I just hope those thousands of students that I taught about how government is supposed to work remembered those lessons and did NOT vote for this man. We must start righting the ship in 2026.
To be disappointed by The Felon-in-Chief would require expecting better from him in the first place. Having a living memory of his party’s worst since 1972, that was never(and IS never) going to happen. Hearing my late girlfriend’s WWII veteran father compare him in advance to Hitler confirmed my advance recognition of the smell of evil.
Need I say more?
Being a veteran and having several other veterans in the family, including my Mom and 3 of her siblings, guess what the odds are of the Maggot and his MAGATS daunting me.
Thank you, Dan Rather!
To keep my sanity:
I read Dan, Heather C Richardson, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, Meidas etc.
I listen to Bernie Sanders, and our legislators in the fight.
I call my senators and reps regularly. Thank them for doing what they do. And ask them to oppose what is necessary. They need to hear from us A LOT!!
And then I go about my day: work, walking in nature, music… things that bring me joy.
I meditate in the AM.
I do my best to not let the chaos and hate consume my day. Some days it’s hard. Some days it’s easier. We can’t let them win.
And I remind myself that the civil rights leaders faced death and physical abuse and they kept going. I look to those heroes and heroines to give me strength.
I wanted to share another travesty which is being overlooked by the press. A lifelong friend of mine whose brother worked for the USAID sent the below email. He helped save lives in the Middle East and Africa his entire life and up until now was acted to fill in when necessary. Below is the email he sent to my friend.
"Things are not good here in Washington with the new Administration. The day after the inauguration, goon squads showed up at all federal government agencies, rounding up all staff of any DEIA offices, taking away their badges, escorting them out of the office and putting them on "administrative leave" (with pay for now).
Then yesterday USAID received an official written order to immediately "stop work" on all USAID projects worldwide. That includes even life-saving humanitarian assistance; food aid may continue, but not support for emergency health, water, shelter, etc. The stop work order includes tens-of-thousands of projects, including funding to UN agencies, NGOs, contractors, local groups. There is to be a review of each project to ensure that it is in line with the policies of the new Administration and with "American values" (neither of those are spelled out). Obviously, there is also a hiring freeze and budget freeze. This is initially for 90 days, though I have no idea how they can review all the projects within that time. The only exemption is aid to Israel.
As you can imagine, there is huge consternation and concern -- to say nothing of depression -- within USAID staff, as well as retirees like myself. And our concern is also for all our partners who are implementing our projects, and finally -- most importantly -- for the people who were depending on our support around the world.
It's been a black day here in Washington. I was expecting it to be bad with this new Administration, but not this bad! And it has not made the news, even on NPR (just learned that it was a headline on BBC). Way down the list in the Washington Post online, there is an article talking about a “pause” ordered for several federal government agencies, including USAID."
With the confirmation of Peter H. by the Senate CI A is now the acronym for: Currently Intoxicated Administrator.
Appreciate you more day by day.
Thanks Dan, for helping me from falling off the cliff! Your wisdom is so comforting.
Thank you, Dan and Team Steady.
And amen.
Thank you for including Rebecca Solnit. Wonderful human reminds us we can join her in optimism and keep
On trucking.
That was a great quote by Rebecca. Thank you , Mr. Rather.
Thank you yet again, Mr. Rather. You and Tim Snyder are my guiding lights.
If anyone on the Democratic side (or merely the small-d democratic side) is genuinely interested in pushing back and fighting for the founding principles, I strongly recommend that they give up the addictive drug of saying vicious things about Maga voters ("they're a cult! they're stupid! they're racist! they're evil! we're good, they're bad!"), and recognize one cold, hard, plain truth: that if the Democrats had not turned their backs ordinary working class Americans back in the Clinton 1990s they wouldn't be a defanged, meaningless opposition, out of power and out of ideas in this time of clear and present danger.
Back then Democrats were confident that if they just went Republican-Lite, and allied themselves with some Wall Street nabobs, a few political action groups, and those nice young tech billionaires, then they could dispense with the old FDR coalition. Bill Clinton may have played populist good ol' boy, but he gave away the store to Wall Street.
That left tens of millions of ordinary working Americans feeling abandoned and undefended: ripe for the picking. The Republicans figured out how to pick them.
Want to end this nightmare? Start by reaching out to your Maga neighbors instead of sneering at them and thinking up ugly things to say about them. We won't save the republic if ordinary folks don't make common cause. But by all means: if it makes your heart happy to call them names and feel superior to them, then that's your priority, and you'd might as well carry on. For all the good it will do.
You are correct. We must get through the next four years while building strength and an organization to protect our democracy. Trump and the republican party are controlled by billionaires and corporations that feed money to their desires. He is a puppet and a clown. The Bs use him because they realize he has the cult following necessary to obtain majority of votes in our election system. If the votes were not necessary, they would drop him immediately.
Unfortunately the news media is controlled by the Bs/ They have retreated from good reporting due to the potential loss of money. The Bs own the method of communication around the entire world. They didn’t spend their money to lose it or preach the truth, only run a business.
It is up to the citizens to come together to resist the present. Unfortunately, the Democratic party doesn’t seem to have a strong leader. Kamala proved the average person will provide enough funds to match the Bs but their management and strategic skills seem to be lacking.
Thank you Dan. You get me through this travesty we are living right now. You and my dog.