Love is all around. For seven seasons, from fall 1970 to spring 1977, that's how THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW opened each week, with the theme "Love Is All Around." Not all theme songs have lyrics -- then or now.
And we can understand that. For example, what do you write for BREAKNG POINTS? "She's got a brain and he's got the herps, Krystal pairs up with the king of the twerps"? You can hum it and it's accurate -- as accurate as anything Saagar serves up on BREAKING POINTS -- but it wouldn't help pull in an audience.
Last week, the little twerp was offended by that his sexual master Donald Trump was being exposed for a Nazi fetish.
Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who served first under Trump as his secretary of homeland security, then as his chief of staff, delivered interviews this week in which he described his former boss as a fascist as well, offering up alternate descriptors of “authoritarian” and “dictator,” for the thesaurus-minded among readers. He also recalled that Trump “commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” a replay of a 2021 sound bite, and in another interview recalled Trump speaking wistfully of “Hitler’s generals,” resurfacing another old chestnut that made headlines in 2022 and subsequently appears to have vacated the population’s minds.
Kelly recalled asking for clarification that Trump meant Hitler’s generals, and upon receiving it, Kelly reminded Trump, “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” There have been two apparent assassination attempts on Trump in the past three months alone.
Trump's admiration of Hitler is so old-hat that his late ex-wife Ivana Trump revealed in a 1990 Vanity Fair article that Trump kept a collection of Hitler’s speeches, My New Order, in a cabinet beside his bed.
At DEFENSE ONE, James Kitfield noted:
As a coda to two decades covering the post-9/11 conflicts as a correspondent, I wrote a book in 2021 profiling the 25 Medal of Honor recipients from the nation’s longest wars. Theirs are stories of never surrendering despite harrowing odds, of facing death and finding the courage and faith not to be cowed, of wearing their profound scars -- both physical as well as mental -- like badges of honor. There is wisdom and warrior fierceness in those narratives, but also acts of profound tenderness and love. The common theme running throughout is troops united in a cause greater than themselves, caught in a brush with eternity and choosing to risk and even forfeit their own lives to save their brothers in arms. Their heroism and self-sacrifice is awe-inspiring, and explains why those privileged to lead them in combat consider these uniformed volunteers and their teammates America’s “New Greatest Generation.”
Donald Trump cannot fathom any of that.
As if we needed reminding, the former and possibly future commander-in-chief continues to prove in the crudest terms imaginable that he views the U.S. military from a deep well of incomprehension, not as a sacred trust to be honored by any leader, but rather as an instrument of self-aggrandizement and brute force. That was the message behind Trump’s recent description of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he has bestowed on supporters and major campaign donors, as “much better” than the Medal of Honor, because service members who receive the nation’s highest military honor have either “been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”
Militaries always have an irresistible allure to “wannabe dictators,” to borrow a phrase from Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump appointed Joint Chiefs chairman. Trump has made no secret of his yearning to deploy the active force onto the streets of America to strike fear into his domestic political opponents, who he chillingly called “the enemy from within” in a recent Fox interview. He has also repeatedly telegraphed his intention to use the military to quell a supposed crime wave in Democratic-led cities, and to conduct the largest deportation in our nation’s history of immigrants and “radical left thugs” that “live like vermin” inside the United States and are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Given Trump's Nazi-esque rhetoric, it’s not surprising -- yet still extraordinary -- that his former chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, recently confirmed that Trump repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler’s generals for their perceived blind loyalty, and wanted U.S. military leaders more in the mold of the German Wehrmacht under the Nazis. Nor is it surprising that Milley, now retired, has called his former boss the “most dangerous person to this country” and a “fascist to the core.”
Decades of covering the U.S. military as a reporter taught me that even retired generals and admirals are instinctively resistant to engaging in partisan politics. They have been inculcated from their first days as cadets or newly minted lieutenants with the principle that the military must stay above the partisan fray in a democracy and submit to civilian authority. Their leaders know that the nonpartisan nature of the U.S. military helps explain why it has long remained the nation’s most respected institution.
I also know from talking with many of Milley’s contemporaries, both on-the-record and privately, that they share his dire assessment, and genuinely fear for their country should Trump return to the Oval Office. That’s why so many of the most notable military and national security leaders of the past two decades of war have recently broken with long tradition to publicly warn that he is manifestly unfit to serve again as commander-in-chief. No fewer than 741 former high-ranking national security and military leaders -- including 233 general and flag officers, 15 four-star generals, and 10 former service secretaries -- recently signed a letter endorsing Kamala Harris for president. They warn that Trump is “too impulsive and ill-informed” to entrust with the world’s most powerful fighting force.
That's disturbing. And when the craven can't deny the disturbing charges, they work to distract.
So Donald's fan boy Saagar last week launched an attack on Gen Kelly and Saagar launched a defense of the Nazis. Trump likes Nazis? Well so what, Saagar insists, "I mean, by the way, I've tried to avoid this discussion but, you know, what's his name -- Kelly brought up like 'Oh, did you mean Bismarck's generals, did you mean the Kaiser's generals, did you mean Hitler's generals?' There is a discussion to be had about who the best generals were between Bismarck, Kaiser and Hitler or whatever. Don't forget Heinz Guderian was never prosecuted by the Nuremberg trials. He was the chief of staff of the Wehrmacht under Hitler."
Saagar's defending a War Criminal. No, he wasn't tried at Nuremberg. That's because the Americans captured him and he ratted out his fellow Nazis so the American government protected him and refused to turn him over to the governments of Poland or Russia -- both of which wanted to try him for War Crimes. There's no excuse for Saagar defending and justifying Guderian. There's no excuse for defending Nazis. That's not open to debate.
Is that what Saagar really wants BREAKING POINTS to be known as? An apologist for Hitler?
There's no excuse for the nonsense. Real stakes are at play in this election.
The economy? Julia Conley (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Recipients of the prestigious Nobel Prize for economics said in a letter Thursday that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has outlined an economic agenda that would be 'more sustainable and more equitable' than the policies proposed by Republican contender Donald Trump." Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) adds, "As Republican nominee Donald Trump advances proposals that would further enrich the wealthiest Americans and profitable corporations, an analysis published Wednesday found that Vice President Kamala Harris' tax policy agenda would on average hike taxes on the nation's top 1% while cutting them for every other income group."
It's a real issue. But the media's not interested in real issues. And besides, as Van Jones rightly pointed out last week on CNN, the media is administering an exam and "He gets to be lawless but she has to be flawless." Trump can and does say any nutty thing he wants, any racist thing he wants, but Kamala's the one they critique and come down on. Donald Trump states he wants to suspend the Constitution? And we get stuck with CNN's Dana Bash pooh-pahhing Kamala's plan for housing -- a plan that Dana never addresses or even summarizes. As Natasha S. Alford (GRIO) explained, "Van Jones' comments about the double standard between what is expected
of Harris and what Trump can get away with connects to a phenomenon
known as 'tightrope bias.'
Tightrope bias is defined as 'a narrow range of acceptable workplace
behavior for women, people of color and other marginalized groups,' which isn't applied to certain men in power."
Even without that very real bias, real issues are hard for the media because real issues require work and there's no one lazier than TV hosts passing themselves off as journalists.
Real issues? Healthcare?
In Clarkston, Georgia, last week, Kamala Harris spoke about healthcare:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom — for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do. (Applause.)
And we — we remember how we got here. Donald Trump hand-selected
three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that
they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he
intended. And now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with
a Trump abortion ban.
I don’t need to tell the folks here:
Except for Virginia, in every state in the South, including Georgia,
there is a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and
incest.
And let me tell you, the idea that someone who survives a crime of a
violation to their body would be told they don’t have the authority to
make a decision about what happens to their body next — that is
immoral. It is immoral. It is immoral. (Applause.)
And everybody here knows, one does not have to abandon their faith or
deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her
what to do. (Applause.) Not the government. If she chooses, she will
talk with her pastor, her priest, her rabbi, her imam, but not the
government, not some folks up in a state capitol telling her what to do
with her own body.
And notice, Donald Trump still refuses to even acknowledge the pain and the suffering he has caused.
He insists that, quote, “everybody” wanted for Roe v. Wade to be overturned —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — which is just a further example of how out of
touch the man is. Everybody wanted this? Women are being denied care
during miscarriages, some only being treated once they develop sepsis.
They didn’t want this.
Couples just trying to grow their family have been cut off in the middle of IVF treatments. They didn’t want this.
Women
have died because of these bans, including a young mother of a
six-year-old son right here in Georgia. Her family is here with us
tonight, and we speak her name: Amber Nicole Thurman. (Applause.)
And
you all have heard me say, look, I do believe Donald Trump to be an
unserious man, and the consequences of him ever being president again
are brutally serious.
And I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law. (Applause.) Proudly.
If you've missed it, the Gaza Freaks (people who don't really care about the Palestinians) dismiss this issue as "White woman wanting abortions." It's so much more than that and, as is always the case with US healthcare, it's women of color who bear the brunt of ROE V WADE being overturned. And they're the ones being arrested for miscarrying. Those are points the media refuses to recognize -- All Things Media Big and Small -- but they are points that Michelle Obama recognizes.
That's not the only aspect of Kamala's healthcare plan. Nancy J. Altman (COMMON DREAMS) explains another aspect:
Kamala Harris has a plan to expand Medicare to include home care. If Harris is elected president and signs her plan into law, it will be life-changing for millions of seniors and people with disabilities. Importantly, it builds upon President Franklin Roosevelt’s vision for a New Deal for the American people.
Vice President Harris should get enormous praise for her groundbreaking proposal. Long-term care is a looming challenge that’s barely getting discussed. Harris recognizes this challenge and is offering an important solution: Medicare At Home.
Harris’s Medicare At Home plan would expand economic security by creating a new universal benefit, in the grand tradition of President Franklin Roosevelt and his visionary Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins.
In 1934, President Roosevelt considered adopting a comprehensive cradle-to-grave program of economic security. Ultimately, he decided to start more slowly and incrementally with what became the Social Security Act of 1935, which, among many other achievements, created Social Security and unemployment insurance. He recognized that Social Security was too important to risk failure by beginning too ambitiously.
A decade later, in 1944, having just been elected for the fourth time, FDR built on this legacy by calling for an economic bill of rights in his State of the Union address. This so-called Second Bill of Rights would give every American the right to comprehensive economic security, including a first–rate education; guaranteed employment at a living wage – “enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation”; a decent home; “adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health”; as well as “adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment.”
He understood, as Vice President Harris does, that people want the right, the ability, and the assistance necessary to age in place, with dignity and independence. In a capitalist system like ours, where working families are dependent on wages, economic security requires insurance against the loss of those wages, which Social Security and Unemployment Insurance provide. That is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Economic security and a decent and dignified life also require getting the care you need, including home care.
Another serious issue is climate. Olivia Rosane (COMMON DREAMS) reports, "Saying that the upcoming U.S. presidential election could be the most important ever for the future of science, a group of 82 Nobel Prize winners in medicine, physics, chemistry, and economics signed an open letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris and warning against allowing former President Donald Trump to return to the Oval Office." Also on climate, Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) notes:
A coalition of leading U.S. environmental groups warned
Thursday that a third-party vote in next month's election could help
usher in climate disaster by improving Republican nominee Donald Trump's
chances of victory, a risk they said the planet can't afford as time
runs out to avert catastrophic warming.
Voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in the November 5 election is imperative because they represent "our best chance at making more progress over the next four years," 350 Action, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Climate Emergency Action, Earthjustice Action, Food and Water Action, Friends of the Earth Action, and other climate groups wrote in an open letter addressed to "potential supporters of Jill Stein or Cornel West."
As we've noted repeatedly in the last weeks, if the Democratic Party thought 'independent' media would help them -- THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, DEMOCRACY NOW!, IN THESE TIMES, etc, etc -- they were sadly mistaken. The racists and Gaza Freaks (and they can be -- and often are -- one and the same) have spent weeks and weeks trashing Kamala. At THE PROGRESSIVE, Joel A. Bowman Sr has an article written for another publication whose subheadline is "The GOP exploits Black Republicans to cover for its own racism."
Indeed. And so does THE PROGRESSIVE. They exploit a Black preacher to cover for their own racism. They trash Kamala constantly. She's on the cover of their latest print magazine. Right now, though? They're hoping it sales as little as every other issue of their rag. Because people picking it up are going to find articles praising her White male running mate Tim Walz but no praise for her. So, yeah, THE PROGRESSIVE is exploiting Black voices to cover for its own racism.
Eman Abdelhadi is a Gaza Freak and a professor. Mainly, she's a stupid person. Deeply, deeply stupid.
IN THESE TIMES elected to publish her stupidity:
Now they want our votes.
They say they have earned them by showing a little more empathy towards those poor Palestinians they happened to kill.
Vice President Harris, we hear your shift in tone.
But …
Your tone will not resurrect the dead.
Your tone will not shelter the living.
Your tone will not pull bombs out of the sky.
Your tone is not enough.
Genocide Joe would still be on the ticket if it were not for this
movement, for all of us. Our movement is one of the main reasons that
you are now the Democratic candidate for President in the most powerful
country on the planet.
You, Vice President Harris, get to run for office because we ousted your predecessor right here in these streets. But it was never just about him. It was about the 40,000 Palestinians he helped kill.
So much of the above is garbage. First, professor, you killed them. If you believe the US government killed 40,000 Palestinians -- she gave the speech in August -- then that is on you because you are a US citizen. So grasp that your hands -- by your own argument -- have blood on them. And, unlike Rachel Corrie, you haven't gone to Palestine and put any skin in the game. You're just another mouthy do-nothing.
But we appreciate your speech in that it made clear that there was nothing Kamala could do or say that would ever reach you. Gaza Freaks don't want to help the Palestinian people, they just want to feel morally superior. The deaths are worth it for the Gaza Freaks as long as they get to strike a pose.
Third, you didn't do s**t. What a liar you are.
Abandon Biden and Uncommitted? They did nothing.
That's not why Joe stepped aside. You're a damn liar, a cheap ass liar. And if people believed your lies, that's on them.
You didn't oust Joe Biden -- certainly not in the streets. You didn't do a damn thing. Big money donors did. We denied support for the campaign, we made clear that there would be no more money forthcoming. And we did that because of Joe's debate performance (for most, we did not join the push until Joe sat down for the ABC interview shortly after). It had nothing to do with Gaza.
You're a liar. You pretend to have power that you don't have and use that pretense to mislead others.
Gaza Freaks, .leaders like Eman Abdelhadi are liars. And if you doubt that at this late date, we probably can't persuade you otherwise but let's give it one try. At the end of her lousy speech, she insisted she would be out in the streets every day.
Well, it's weeks and weeks later, and not only has she not protested daily, she hasn't done anything. Truth be told, she never will. And maybe your idiots for listening to a woman who Tweeted on October 7th, "It's a morning of freedom."
You fell for a fake ass.
And that's easy to do these days with so many liars and whores out there.
Call the fluffer -- could that be worked into a theme song for Joe Rogan's podcast show? We wonder because, as a NEWSRADIO co-star pointed out to us recently, if it weren't for Viagra, his wind sock never would have gotten hard for a woman. Watching Joe is sad because he's so fat, ugly and bald. He's like Matt Taibbi but, unlike Matt, Joe did have a cute period -- back in the 90s.
He wasn't any smarter back then but he was happier. Bitter didn't set in until the pounds piled on and the hair fell off. He spent last week making nice with the Convicted Felon.
There wasn't a lie that Donald uttered that Joe didn't fall for. In fact, we're glad the interview didn't take place on COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE because we could just picture it ending in the back seat with Joe getting assaulted by Trump like so many women have.
Instead, Joe just sat there with puppy dogs eyes for Trump and open mouthed, saliva spilling out, as Trump lied and lied again. CNN's Daniel Dale counts 32 lies in the broadcast.
Our favorite lie? It's so difficult to choose. But Trump's lie about visiting Iraq especially stood out because Joe just nodded -- and groped himself? -- along.
Reality, Donald Trump visited Iraq only once during his four years as president. He snuck in the country for a three hour visit. While the visit suffered from time limitations, there was no cap on lies. As BBC NEWS reported in real time:
The president told the [US] soldiers he had secured a 10% wage increase for them, after learning their pay had been stagnant for "more than 10 years".
In fact armed forces personnel have received a pay rise in each of the past 10 years. The increase for 2019, approved by the president in August, will be 2.6%.
Joe Rogan is an uneducated idiot. And that's why we weren't surprised he just nodded along as Donald invented one 'historical' tale after another. But it didn't take an education -- higher or otherwise -- to know Donald was lying when he declared (yet again) that parents were dropping children off at school with one gender and then being shocked at after school pick up to discover the school had performed genital surgery on them. That has never once happened in this country and common sense is all that you needed to possess to grasp Trump was again lying. But Joe Rogan has no common sense.
While Rogan was letting one lie after another pass by, Black women have been noting how the so-called left publications and programs continue to dismiss, attack and degrade Kamala Harris, noting it all along. And last week, it finally surfaced in the corporate media. Van Jones, as noted earlier. And then there was another CNN moment when Charlamagne tha God and Angela Rye spoke with Anderson Cooper, see the TABITHA SPEAKS video below.
What's been talked about for weeks finally hit the corporate media and it did so without the help of DEMOCRACY NOW! or THE NATION -- two outlets owned and run by White women who grew up wealthy and who prefer to see Black women as mammies or maids -- but no one's supposed to notice that about Amy Goodman and Katrina vanden Heuvel.
Love is all around? In better times. In times when the country -- regardless of political party -- could be outraged by Richard Nixon's abuses. These days, it's not just Republicans who struggle to confront a criminal like Donald Trump -- it's also a lot of our left media, even more of our corporate media and Gaza Freaks and Greens.
