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There Are Some Political Issues Where Mainstream Press Attention Only Hurts. We Think About Activism As Being This Generic Model Of Consciousness-raising, Then Hopefully Media Attention, Attraction Of New People To Your Cause, Building Public Support For Your Cause, Then Decision-makers Reacting To That Change In Public Opinion. That's True For Some Types Of Activism, But It Is Not True For All Of Them.

-Rachel Maddow

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There Are Some Political

Rachel Maddow

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There Are Some Political Issues Where Mainstream Press Attention Only Hurts. We Think About Activism As Being This Generic Model Of Consciousness-raising, Then Hopefully Media Attention, Attraction Of New People To Your Cause, Building Public Support For Your Cause, Then Decision-makers Reacting To That Change In Public Opinion. That's True For Some Types Of Activism, But It Is Not True For All Of Them.

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Silencing The U.s. State Department, Putting A Friend Of Vladimir Putin`s In Charge At The U.s. State Department, Who Stands By Quietly While The State Department Gets Hollowed Out, Gets Gutted, That`s A Dream For The Russian Government, Right? That`s A Dream For Putin.

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I'm Undoubtedly A Liberal, Which Means That I'm In Almost Total Agreement With The Eisenhower-era Republican Party Platform.

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There`s A Reason People Pause Their Lives To Engage In Political Activism And Pressure Their Local Political Leaders. Because As A Whole, Even If You Can`t Identify Any One Instance, As A Whole Pressure Works And Sometimes It Starts With Something As Simple As Pushing The Button On The Intercom.

Who Knows If John Mccain Could Have Won That Presidential Campaign [2008] In Any Circumstances When George W. Bush The Outgoing Republican President Had A 22 Percent Approval Rating.

Approval Rating

The Single Best Thing About Honesty Is That It Requires No Follow-up.

I Realized I Was Gay When I Was A Teenager And I Couldn't Imagine What It Meant To Be A Gay Adult. I Just Did The Next Thing That Seemed Right, And That Led Me From Activism To Media To The Kind Of Media I'm In Now. But I Like Where I've Ended Up.

One Of The Manifestations Of Depression For Me Is That I Lose My Will. And I Thereby Lose My Ability To Focus. I Don't Think I'll Ever Have The Day-to-day Consistency In My Performance That Something Like This American Life Has. If I'm Not Depressed And I'm On And I Can Focus And I Can Think Through Something Hard And Without Interruption And Without Existential Emptiness That Comes From Depression, That Gives Me - Not Mania. But I Exalt. I Exalt In Not Being Depressed.

Who Knows What Exactly Changed Tom Cotton`s Mind. I Mean, Maybe It Was That Woman Who Said Her Husband Was Dying And Only Alive Thanks To The Affordable Care Act. Maybe It Was The Young Woman On Your Right Side Of Your Screen Who Said That Without The Treatment She Could Only Receive Through The Affordable Care Act She Herself Would Be Dead.

I Wish Every Republican Wanted To Impeach [jeorge W.] Bush , But People Don't Agree With This. He's Stating A Fact About What He Believes.

The Day After The Republican Convention Ended, There Was Another Political Bomb That Was Dropped On The U.s. Presidential Election [2016] From Russia. The Day After The Republican Convention Ended, Right Before The Democratic Convention Began We Got What U.s. Intelligence Agencies Believed To Be The Next Big Russian Incursion Into Our Election. We Got The First Wikileaks Dump.

Oswald Mosley`s Movement, It Was A Big Movement. It Was Obviously Anti-immigrant, Anti-semitic, It Was Populist. Mosley Wanted To Replace The Parliamentary System Of Government In Britain With A Government That Was Based On Business Interests, That Was Based On The Idea That Business Interests Were The Real Interests Of That Country And Business Interests. And Reorganizing The Government To Serve Business Interests, That Would Be A Way To Get Stuff Done Faster And More Efficiently.

Here In The United States, When The Term "fascist" Gets Used, It`s Either Talking About Other Countries, Ancient History Or It`s Used As A Sort Of Insult, Right, A Sort Of Generic Right Wing Epithet That People Use To Criticize Politicians Who Are At Most On The Edge Of Mainstream American Political Thought.

If You Want To Make The Government Take A Religious Side, Then Make The Case, It Should Be Christian Republic.

If You Have To Hire Paid Actors To Impersonate People Who Politically Support You, People Don't Actually Natively Politically Support You. You Are Not A Political Animal That Exists In Nature.

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The Democratic Party Likes To Remind People That The Russian Force Around That Was Very Strong, Remarkably Strong.

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When Vladimir Putin Runs Up Against American Power And American Criticism And American Leadership That Reminds Him Of What Russia Isn`t, When He Runs Up Against People Who He Worries Are Funding His Dissidents Or Supporting Protests Against Him, When He Runs Up Against Criticism Of The Way He Runs His Own Country, What He`s Running Up Against Is The State Department.

Donald Trump Removed All Doubt. He Is Running For President As A Fascist Demagogue.

Pentagon Dollars Are Essentially Seen As A Different Kind Of Funding That Doesn't Have To Stand For Itself And Make An Argument For Itself In The House Of Congress.

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I Will Say That Bernie Sanders Are The Opposite End Of The Spectrum From Donald Trump. We See Him Leading Right Now In The Republican Party In An Intractable Way.

The More You Push Back On Donald [trump], Whether You`re In The Media Or Whether You Are In The Gop Establishment, The Stronger His Base Of Support Comes.

Sarah Palin Is Backing In Be To Republican Presidential Politics In A Big Way With A Big High Profile Endorsement Decision.that Is, I Think, Probably Going To Cause A Lot Of Upset In One Particular Part Of The Republican Establishment.

The John Podesta Wikileaks Dump Came Just About One Hour After The "access Hollywood" Tape Was Published. The "i Like To Grab Them By The P-word" Tape, One Hour After That Came Out Is When Wikileaks Dropped The First Tranche Of John Podesta E-mails Hacked By The Russians.

Hopefully Life Is Long. Do Stuff You Will Enjoy Thinking About And Telling Stories About For Many Years To Come. Do Stuff You Will Want To Brag About.

Given How We Know Russia Feels About The State Department, Seeing What`s Happening To The State Department Under This Current [donald Trump] Administration Is Worrying And Raises All Sorts Of Questions About The Connections Between This Current Administration And Russia.

I Don't Want To Be President. Like, "today Your Job Is Libya, Japan, Unemployment, The Government Shutdown - Oh, And By The Way, Yemen, Syria And Jordan. That's Your Job Today. And You'd Better Get It Right."

Sarah Palin Uses Me As A Laugh Line In Her Stump Speeches. If You're Willing To Turn Me Into A Joke, You Should Also Be Willing To Talk To Me.

After Donald Trump`s Ban All Muslims Proposal, Candidate Jeb Bush Reacted By Calling Mr. Trump Unhinged. However, That Would Be The Same Jeb Bush Who Says We Should Only Allow Refugees Into This Country Who Are Christians.

Every Popular Zillion Dollar Sport Has Its Share Of Personal Scandals Around The Sport And Its Leadership.

These Are Career Non-partisan Apolitical Staffers With A Combined 150 Years Of Experience At The State Department Gone, Just Like That Right Off The Top [right After Secretary Rex Tillerson Was Sworn In].

[tom Cotton] Is Seen As A Real Rising Star In The Republican Party. He`s The Youngest Member Of The United States Senate, Routinely Described As An Up And Comer.

Marine Le Pen Is More Careful Than Her Dad Was About Saying Things Like Denying The Holocaust, Right? But It`s The Same Politics. It`s The Same Modern Anti Anti-immigrant, Anti-and The Semitic, Xenophobic Authoritarian Modern Pseudo-fascism.

Fascist Is Not Just An Epithet. Fascist Is A Proper Noun That Means A Specific Thing. It`s A Real Thing. It`s Not Always Referring To Ancient History.

Ridding Iraq Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction. That Was The Whole Idea, Right? That‘s Why We Went. I Am Reluctant To Let That Fact Disappear Down The Memory Hole, Because If — As The War Ends, Or At Least Starts To End — If, At This Time, The History Of The War Is Written As Us Going There To Topple The Regime Of A Bad Man When That Frankly Isn‘t Why Were Told That We Were Going There — Aren‘t We Still At Risk Of Making This Horrific Mistake Again? And, Aren‘t We Letting The People Who Foisted The Wmd Idea On Us, Not Many Years Ago, Aren‘t We Sort Of Letting Them Get Away With It?

If You're Someone People Count On, Particularly In Difficult Moments, That's A Sign Of A Life Lived Honorably.

The [donald] Trump Administration Got Rid Of The Number One And Number Two Most Senior People Ahead Of [dan Fried] In The Foreign Service, So That Did Make Him The Most Senior Person Still Standing - But Now He`s Out, Too.

I Recommend Sports, I Don't Recommend Gambling.

I Would Like To Be A Polyglot.

I`m Not Sure, But [russia] Might Be Happy To See This Guy [dan Fried] Exiting Stage Left.

The [donald] Trump Folks Chose Not To Keep [dan Fried] On. He Was Actually - I Said He Was Actually The Third-most Senior Diplomat In The Foreign Service.

It Is Hard To Know What Sarah Palin Means In Republican Politics Anymore.

After [donald] Trump And His Campaign Manager Both Initially Denied Having Anything To Do With The Platform Change, A Trump Campaign Official Now Admits That The Campaign Pushed To Soften The Russian Language In The Platform. It Says It Was Done Specifically At Trump`s Request.

Russian Language

I Don't Think About People Watching Me On Tv. I Think It Would Stress Me Out.

Senator [tom Cotton] Got A Ton Of Blowback. He Became The Star Of Fake Missing Person`s Signs, Encouraging Folks To Call If They Saw Him And Also To Call Him And Ask Why He Had Been Missing While His Constituents Were Looking For Him.

I Have This Belief That Donald Trump Keeps Floating The Idea That He Will Quit The Party And Run As An Independent If The Republican Party Does Not Treat Him Fairly.

The Issues Which Mattered To Me As An Activist, Mainly Things Like Prison Reform And Aids, Have Less Of A Chance Of Getting Covered On My Show Than Things I Don't Have A Personal Interest In. It's Because I Don't Trust My Antenna About Being A Good Storyteller On Those Subjects, Because I Know A Lot And Therefore Lose Touch With What The Average Person Might Find Interesting About Them.

Two Committees In The House Were Up All Night Long Trying To Get A Version Of The Repeal Of The Affordable Care Act Passed. House Republicans Are Just Fighting Tooth And Nail To Pass It In The House, To Try To Get It Into The Senate, To Try To Make It Then So That The Senate Will Get On Board. But You Know Who One Of The Republican Senators Is Who`s Not On Board With This Anymore? Senator Tom Cotton.

I Still Think Of Myself As The New Kid.

Ben Carson Also Denounced [donald] Trump`s Ban All Muslims Proposal Saying We Do Not And Would Not Advocate Being Selective On One`s Religion.

Nigel Farage, Even If You Don`t Follow British Politics, He`s A British Politician But You May Recognize Him From His Frequent Visits To The United States, For Example, His Time At Trump Tower. You May Recognize Him From His Time On The Campaign Trail With Donald Trump.

The [donald] Trump Campaign Turned On A Dime Instantly As Soon As Those Wikileaks Dumps Started.

When Conservatives Crusade Against Government While They Are Trying To Be Appointed To Head The Government, I Think That's Weird!

Senator [tom] Cotton And His Fellow Lawmakers Are Back In D.c. And Republicans Are Split, They Are Divided About What To Do With The Repeal To Feel Affordable Care Act. That`s Topic That Senator Cotton Was Really Berated For At That Town Hall Event That Almost Did Not Happen.

If You Want To Achieve Immortality, See What You Can Do About Getting Yourself Turned Into A Pentagon Program.

Russian Government Was In Contact With Multiple [donald] Trump Campaign Sources While They Were Doing [attacks]. Russian Nemesis In The American Government, U.s. State Department, Cia, Are Not Faring Well Since Donald Trump Came To Power.

Don't Focus On What I'm Wearing. Focus On What's Coming Out Of My Face.

The American Public Has Been Delicately Insulated From The Actuality Of Our Ongoing Wars. While A Tiny Fraction Of Men And Women Fighting Our Wars Are Deploying Again And Again, Civilian Life Remains Pretty Much Isolated In Cost-free Complacency.

Marco Rubio Calling [donald] Trump`s Ban All Muslims Proposal, Quote, "offensive And Outlandish," It`s The Same Rubio Who Was One Upping Trump`s Promise To Shut Down Mosques. Mr. Rubio Was Saying He Would Shut Down Not Just Mosques But Any Place Where Muslims Might Be Radicalized - Cafes, Diners, Any Place.

I Have A File Of Letters And Bits Of Ephemera From Friends Who Have Died. I Have Had Lots Of Friends Who Died Of Aids.

Lots Of Friends

Fascist Political Gatherings Tend To Encourage Or At Least Expect A Little Violence Around The Edges, Particularly Against Counter Protesters.

Right After Secretary [rex] Tillerson Was Sworn In, Four Of The Top Career Diplomats At The Department Were Told Their Services Were No Longer Needed.

Russia And [vladimir] Putin`s Antipathy Toward Hillary Clinton From Her Time As Secretary Of State, Russia`s Antipathy And Loathing And Fear Of The U.s. State Department In General, Those Two - Those Things That We Know About Russia They Put A Worrying Cast Over How Successfully The New Administration Here Has Hollowed Out And Emptied Out The U.s. State Department In Just The Few Weeks Since Then Been In Charge.

For The Same Work, Dudes Get Paid More.

But There's A Reason That We Have Different Laws For Juveniles Than We Do For Adults. And It's Because Kids Are Not Liable For The Things They Do In The Way That Adults Are, Because We Think That Kids Are Different.

The Downside Of Playing Dumb Is That You Sound Dumb.

It Is About Something Personal And Specific, Because When The John Mccain Campaign In 2008 Decided To Elevate Sarah Palin From Total Obscurity To Make Her His Vice Presidential Running Mate, They Knew They Were Making A Big Strategic Gamble.they Knew They Were Taking A Big Risk And It Turned Out In The End To Be A Bad Choice. It Hurt John Mccain`s Chances.

The New [donald Trump] Administration May Not Want The Benefit Of [dan Fried] Expertise In Terms Of Figuring Out What Russia Is Up To With Us Right Now But I Do. I Mean, We Can All Benefit From It As A Country As We Figure Out What`s Going On Right Now With This Presidency And With Russia In Particular.

With The Republican Party`s Presidential Front-runner Proposing That All Muslims Should Be Banned From Entering The United States, That Perhaps There Ought To Be A National Registry Of Muslims, That We Ought To Looking Into Muslims Having To Carry Government Id Cards That State Their Religion, Now, The Word Fascist Is Being Used To Describe This Ascending And Leading Republican Politician.

It Makes Sense In That Environment That You Would Hold On In The U.s. Government To The People Who Know Their Way Around This Particular Block.

Humans Are Ambitious And Rational And Proud. And We Don't Fall In Line With People Who Don't Respect Us And Who We Don't Believe Have Our Best Interests At Heart. We Are Willing To Follow Leaders, But Only To The Extent That We Believe They Call On Our Best, Not Our Worst.

It's Not Just The Small-potatoes Post-9/11 Homeland Spending That Feels A Little Off Mission. It's The Big-ticket Stuff Too.

If You Took A Cracked Pot And You Cracked That Cracked Pot, You'd Be Approaching The Level Of Cracked Pottery We Are Talking About Here.

I Don't Have Any Option. I'm Not Going To Be Less Gay Or More Pretty. I Can't Try To Have Less Personality Or Fewer Controversial Opinions.

Six Months After 9/11, Jean-marie Le Pen Was Almost Elected President Of France. There Were A Number Of Leaders And A Number Of Parties Running In The French National Elections That Year In The Spring Of 2002. But It Ended Up Being Not Just A Shock Across France, And Not Just A Shock Across Europe. But It Ended Up Being Almost A Worldwide Shock When In The Spring Of 2002, Jean-marie Le Pen Came In Second In Those National Elections. That Put Him In A Two-man Runoff For The Presidency Of France, Spring Of 2002.

What I`m Starting To Think Of As The Mythical Beast Of The Republican Establishment, Which Is The Sort Of Inchoate Idea That We Keep Talking About What They`re Going To Do And It Never Seems To Have Much Impact Or Be Manifest In Very Visible Ways, Obviously, It Is One Thing For Donald Trump To Have Taken A Shot Like He Did Early In His Campaign At John Mccain, Calling Him Not A War Hero.

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