“The coup is still rolling”

That was Beto O’Rourke, talking to Lawrence O’Donnell tonight on MSNBC. O’Rourke has joined the growing chorus for the resignation of seditionist Senators Cruz and Hawley, the impeachment and expulsion of Trump, and a more robust U.S. democracy. All well and good. But in the meantime, the new Confederates are unrepentant (except coup clowns like the one who posed with a shit-eating grin carrying off Speaker Pelosi’s office sign, who has expensively lawyered up — thanks to his doctor wife — and is now pleading for mercy. Some brave freedom fighter.) There are plans for pro-Trump uprisings across America on Inauguration Day. And you have to forgive combat veterans like Rep. Jason Crow (D-Co.) for not having complete faith in capital security on Jan. 20. Crow had to hunker down in the House gallery during the mob riot, reassuring terrified fellow House members and wondering urgently if he needed to take a gun off one of the nervous Capitol officers and get ready to start shooting.

And so it’s come to this, America. To weaponized rebellion against U.S. democracy and the rule of law. The liberal class is understandably outraged, as are most Americans. CNN’s Chris Cuomo. Don Lemon and Jake Tapper, the Washington Post, The New Republic, Atlantic all demand a swift and devastating justice for the Trump cabal and the army of right-wing extremists. But their demands are late in coming. Meanwhile, Time magazine (which is still a bastion of conventional thought under tech mogul owner Marc Benioff, but now features deeply-reported features) includes a very disturbing article about the Azov Battalion, a white supremacist militia in Ukraine which has used Facebook to recruit thousands of Americans and other foreigners into its military-training programs.

After 9/11, the media and the national security state became violently incensed about Al Qaeda and other militant Islamists, focusing their wrath on their financing, training and political support systems. Only now is this wrath finally being directed at white nationalist terrorism — a much bigger threat to domestic tranquility than angry Islamists — and their political enablers.

I welcome the rising anger within the media and the Democratic Party about the combatants who consider them enemies of the people. The danger to democracy is real and it’s growing.

But Trumpism did not fall from the sky. It has burst from its chrysalis after decades of contempt and neglect by the liberal elites. Will these special media reports and Congressional investigations also examine the many ways that the liberal establishment sold out the nation’s “deplorables” and made then fight and die in calamitous wars, from the phony Gulf of Tonkin to the phony WMD of Saddam Hussein.

It’s important to note that a number of those at the “spear tip” of the Capitol invasion were military veterans, including Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot and killed while trying to be the first one through a shattered Congressional chamber window. How much of a breeding ground for neofascism has our military culture become, with its endless wars for senseless reasons?

We need a reckoning in this country, alright — but one much deeper than the New York Times or Chuck Schumer has in mind.

Welcome to the Show

I’m going to tell you all about the David Talbot Show… but let me preface this welcome with a few spontaneous remarks. I’m nearing 70 and the world we dreamed about when we were young seems further away than ever. We’re locked down, we’re struggling to make ends meet, we know people who got sick, we know people who died, most of today’s political passion seems to belong to people who want to tear down democracy to make America great again, and meanwhile the rich get richer while we get… well, you know what we get.

But we have each other. We have this campfire. And we don’t need Facebook or Twitter or any other tech giant to bring us together in its glow.

So, let’s learn together and give us each other strength and inspiration. And tell each other about books and music and films and TV shows and podcasts that have changed our lives. Let’s get outraged about what America has become, but let’s also discuss ways to change it for the better. And let’s now and then make each other laugh.

 And now, what to expect from the Show…

The David Talbot Show is a radical break from journalism as usual. Independent commentators and reporters are keeping the free press alive, as the media juggernauts of the right and center-left keep most of the public in their corporate grip. The David Talbot Show rejects the lockstep thinking of Fox News and their far-right competitors, as well as the liberal conformity of the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and the other bullhorns for the U.S. establishment and national security state.

It's not that these liberal newspapers and news channels are bastions of fake news. They employ many fine reporters – some of whom worked for me at Salon years ago – and publish important stories on a daily basis. But their journalism – especially about Washington power – often needs to be interpreted, or “dissected” as the late, great Danny Schecter, “The News Dissector,” put it.

The David Talbot Show will present people and ideas that challenge conventional wisdom. And it’s not just a site for hot air. Our bracing viewpoints will be backed by research and facts, and will often be rooted in historical analysis.

American democracy is broken, after years of assaults and betrayals from within by powerful elites. The David Talbot Show will expose this treachery and light the path toward a national renewal.

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