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author

If you want some real news, spend some time with this thread:

https://x.com/cabot_phillips/status/1847634453998293298

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10 hrs agoLiked by Chris Bray

This thread. Oh, my. I don't know what to say. I think I will donate to the veteran's group mentioned in the thread.

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author

Annie Dillard walking Tinker Creek. I wish I'd added that one to the list of surprises.

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Oct 19Liked by Chris Bray

Sherwood Anderson, Kenzaburo Oe and Paul Bowles was plenty (although I do prefer Bowles' short stories).

Leaving us with Lucinda Williams was a bonus. Happy trails.

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Oct 19Liked by Chris Bray

An American Childhood by Dillard was a great book.

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Oct 19Liked by Chris Bray

She wrote one of my favorite essays. It's lovely. You might enjoy: http://webs.anokaramsey.edu/beste/English1121/Assignments/Profile/Deathofamoth.htm

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7 hrs agoLiked by Chris Bray

Ah, but Annie Dillard was a real person not someone trying to be what she wasn't. I have loved her book for 30 years. Her view of the insect world! and the cosmos.

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author

It seems like that's the heart of the thing that's happening across the culture: being vs. seeming, living vs. "trying to be what she wasn't." I feel that in the air.

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Oct 19Liked by Chris Bray

I want to say something profound here. Something moving, inspiring and in as few words as possible. But that is not the skill set I was blessed with. So I'm just going to lay it out there.

I can't even remember how I found your stack. But ever since I did, I scan my mail several times daily, anxiously waiting for your next take on the moment. Your writing had been a stepping stone for me but also so much more. I've been inspired, educated and encouraged. You've made me laugh, cry, ponder, share. You give me hope. I also look so forward to the comments for this community for the same reasons. Most everyone in my circle sees what we see. But three days a week, I drive 25 miles to work and I find myself in a whole different country. Where virtually everyone is consumed with this mind virus. The misery and hate is palpable.i detest confrontation because when I'm angry I don't communicate well. I'm still addicted to a roof and food and I need my job for a little bit longer. So I tamp that shit down, stay out of the fray and laser focus on being the type of co worker that everyone loves to be around. I try to sincerely summon every bit of love and kindness I can muster and it sustains me. My patients have called me an angel four times this week( which may be more than the entire 35 years prior) . I am no angel, but if that's what they see when they spend a totally miserable 10 hours of their life with me, then I feel like I'm on the right track. I'm not losing my humanity. I'm making a connection with someone that would be shocked to know I am a deplorable,a filthy right wing extremist maga supporting Bible thumping gun toting intolerant racist fascist transphobic POS in "real life".

PLEASE don't disappear!!!!

Your writing is a beacon of hope and sanity for me and obviously for so many others here. It makes a difference. ( TOTALLY missed the goal of"as few words as possible, lol) Thank you, Chris. God bless you and your work .

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founding

Amen to all of it!

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I’ll second that amen.

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You write just fine, and from the heart. There's nothing in your post that needs to be changed.

Danny

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Wow Sue! You said a lot of something amazing here. That’s how so many of us feel about Chris’ words!

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Don’t forget there are many that are like you. We all act to a certain extent. It is great to be awakened though.

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Yes! Perfect!

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Amen.

Once a month I get a Chris bray notice and I am like “cool, open that first.” But it is just a subscription payment conflation, and I am like, darn… but it is the best money I spend.

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Well met, ma’am! Very well met!

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Missed the brevity goal, but bullseye on profound. Or at least truth.

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RNs are the best!

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Nailed it.

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I know the feeling

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I have an old college friend trying to convince me to read “The Christian Case Against Donald Trump” by Pastor Pat somebody-or-other. Same shit,

different day, another Trump-is-Hitler shouter. No thanks. He was already in office for 4 years and my life was much better than, groceries were affordable, my 401k was making money, and I felt safer and our borders felt slightly secure.

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author

The Hitler figure who produced...peace. How strange our first Hitler era was.

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Oct 19Liked by Chris Bray

I remember when that orange dictator felt that the states should be in charge of the "pandemic" response, because that was what the Constitution said - what a power hungry madman.

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founding

Orange Man Bad Bulimia will just get worse if he wins.

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It's only bad if someone listens to them.

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founding

I mean them. Regardless you're right, no need to listen to them.

They can't quit gorging on Orange Man Bad "comfort food" and then barfing it out for all to see...and then doing it all again

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“Oooh, that’s a bingo!” https://youtu.be/O5s3Oj2cPgc

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If you’re still looking, you might try “The Case for Trump” by historian Victor Davis Hanson, mainly because, well, Hanson. It’s not so much about Trump as why Trump. It was written in 2018, but the historical perspective is insightful.

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Victor Davis Hanson is one of the best!

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Agree!

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He updated it this year.

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Not a book I'd take to Nunavut.

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Truth & Falsities; He who wins can change history books.

My question is; What is the truth? Majority of corporate grubberment Pubic educated students were educated/propagandised/brainwashed on false historic events no different to Tavistock MS media.

What is the truth of history? We have been brainwashed that civil history dates back to something BC. Yet there is information that civilisation pre dates > 200,000 years.

What is the truth about human history?

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As Napoleon famously said, history is a passel of lies that people have collectively agreed to believe.

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"What is the truth about human history?"

Depends who you ask. Or what you read.

The answer is, as always, "We'll never know."

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Lots of disappointment out there. But there’s room for hope! Why don’t more Evangelicals vote? Many pastors of large Christian churches have been corrupted by the left. See Megan Basham’s book “Shepard’s For Sale” to see how. Basham is a culture writer for Daily Wire as well. Also many gun owners don’t vote. Ted Nugent tries in that area.

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^^^This!^^^

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My dear sweet 67-year-old neighbor, retired teacher, shuffles over with her glass of wine often, when she hears my wife and I on our patio. It doesn’t take long before she snaps into a rant about Trump. She is just regurgitating the bile she gets from her TV, which is always on. “Trump is a racist!” but she can’t give a reason why. “Trump hates women!” Blah, blah, blah. She goes into a trance and becomes another person. She cannot be reasoned with. Her two sons avoid her because of it. My wife and I try. She is a good person but her mind has literally been taken over.

I listen to am radio while I drive or work. Every news break is anti Trump propaganda bullshit. Every. Single. Story.

I don’t even like Trump. I tell my neighbor this and she scoffs and says bullshit. I insist I don’t but I can’t even tell her my reasons because my reasons would sound alien to her. But I have fought for unrigged elections for 24 years and I know that mainstream legacy media is the enemy of humanity. If the entire structure of every form of media is rabidly opposed to a man, you can bet I will vote for him.

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Just like during the height of the Covid scam, if an author was censored on social media, I wanted to read everything he/she wrote.

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I have a similar neighbor-lol, the sweetest old lady you could meet. One day I mentioned Trump’s name and it was like Bilbo Baggins changing faces - “I’d like to cut off his d*ck and put it where his head is!” I was just so dumbfounded I couldn’t believe she said it! 😅. Yep. It’s the TV all right. Can’t wait for the election to be over.

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Mad cow disease from the mRNA injections.

Danny

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That’s what my wife and I think. She was a lifelong Republican until Trump and she is multi jabbed even though me, my wife and her two sons tried to talk her out of it.

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There's a great book that examines what our brains have been through: "The Indoctrinated Brain," by Michael C. Nels. He talks about the role of the mRNA injections among many other factors. Fascinating and illuminating read.

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I had a similar convo with a dear, long-time, decidedly un-woke (but generally liberal) friend the other day. We were catching up nicely and then I said something like "yeah there really isn't a good outcome for this election, whichever way it goes" and suddenly, silence on the line. He then expressed in no uncertain terms what he'd like to see done to Trump, things I won't repeat here. I'm no Trump fan but was definitely taken aback. (To be fair, we moved on to other topics and then at the end of the conversation, he did apologize.)

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I must admit that reactions like your friend's make me more and more a "Trump fan."

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Right? I actually found myself starting to defend Trump.

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Same with my mother-in-law. She tells my wife she's afraid of what Trump will do if he's elected. Bizarre. Hmm, maybe similar to what he did the last time (only, please God, no more covid. Please!). So, no wars. Peace. Affordable groceries. Sanity in international relations. Only this time, let's have domestic peace (get a real AG). And maybe this time send JD Vance out to talk to the press. Unfortunately, also, if he wins this time, there will be more blood and fire in the streets. And the deranged press will be even more loud and deranged. I ignore them but for those who feed off that sh*t it'll just mean their brains get further zombified.

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Kamala was exactly the same during her interview with Brett. I noticed it when she went off about how Trump is going to kill his American followers. And was ranting about it. It occurred to me that she watches Rachel Maddow and gets her information from there.

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propaganda works. But it’s not just that something is repeated so often that it seems like it must be true. It’s also that there is no other story to challenge it. That’s why censorship is so important. How many stories have you heard about trump’s random acts of kindness? Or clips from him clowning with the very people who now call him Hitler? Or his award alongside Rosa Parks?

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Oct 19Liked by Chris Bray

Here's my prediction, watch for it!

One of them will write that Trump appeals to the worst in us.

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author

gasp

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Like

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Someone was president from 2017 to 2021. I don't remember who that was. Most of what I do remember from that time is the endless horror of Pussy Hats abandoned by the railroad sidings as the trains pulled away. I also have another memory (or is it a fantasy?) of being able to pay cash for our groceries. Was that ever true?

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I don't know if I believe you, Chris. I'd like to, but I have this sinking feeling that you are NOT superhuman and that like the rest of us poor suckers, you CAN'T LOOK AWAY.

18 days. Prove me wrong.

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founding

He won't be able to resist....lolol...exactly!

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I want to slap her upside the head. Trump doesn't reach the ankles of any of those, when it comes to speech-craft. His only saving grace is his natural buffoonery and being blunt so that he is entertaining.

All her three examples were rather good at public speaking, among the best of their time. Is she so much an ignoramus she confuses their politics with their technique?

First US-Irak war was if I remember correctly also when "embedded reporters" became the standard. The father of a friend of mine explained why: "They'll never make the mistakes they made during Vietnam, when photographers like me could roam freely and actually document what war looks like and what people do to each other." And the he refused to explain further, nor would he open his private, padlocked, filing cabinet where he kept those pictures (and not just from Vietnam, the guy had been in Kongo and other places too) that papers refused to publish.

My point: Can the practice of "embedded reporters" have contributed to, or even caused, what we see to day from US corporate media that they are acting as a part of a one-party state? Journalists and photographers back then protested vehemently against the military having control over where they could go and who they could speak with, both in the US (if I'm not misremembering) and elsewhere, and it mattered not what the political colour of whatever publication they worked: they all opposed any kind of government-adjacent control of content et c.

Does anything of this hodgepodge of memory-ideas match your experiences from that time?

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Conservatives in the UK are placing a lot of importance on Trump winning.....even our mainstream media has succumbed to TDS. But then it has a strong, skittle haired left wing bias, so no surprises there. Trump may be a deeply flawed human, but he's smart and sane.

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Have you listened to Tucker’s interview with Mark Halperin? Great conversation on politics and the presidential race. At least go to about the two hour mark where he forecasts the reaction to a Trump win. He sees the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/57iLLLG5JX2mqquhBklyPK?si=ezM38MTJQUWJPKGc0y_E2A&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A5L2ON33kXa2b7laBpCAgOI&t=7246

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founding

Randy, haven’t watched that one yet, but will. Tucker also sat with Harmeet Dillon, who thoroughly investigated the ho and her legal record. “I prosecuted hundreds of drug dealers” in KH speak actually translates to TEN cases in 10 years in Alameda Co. Not only is KH a liar, she is also one lazy……..Can’t quite use the word since I talk to Chris about his language all the time but you can fill in the blank!

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I watched that one as well (I confess to a man crush on Tucker 😂). Love Harmeet and am glad she is in charge of overseeing the election in AZ for the Republicans. She won’t let any sh*t happen without raising a ruckus.

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“One lazy” switch/twitch/witch?

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Rotate the "W" a quarter turn counterclockwise, draw a vertical line connecting the three points on the left and drop any letters before the newly created letter.

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Harmeet is brilliant & a talented knitter/crocheted. Excellent interview.

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It is a available also on YouTube and is riveting. Halperin is one of the last true journalists and is appalled at the disintegration of his profession. He still cannot wrap his mind around it.

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I’d love if you would make some more reading recommendations. I already plan to read all the books you mentioned in this piece!

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Like!

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Chris, Not overlooking your primary point, but observing that you were bored in your English class, and assigned extra work..... explains/proves that the talent you display is innate. Keep up the Good Work!! 👍

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Kelly was one of my favorite reporters/writers. He was killed when the vehicle he was riding in rolled over. Great loss for all of us, one of the few honest people covering that deep state war Bush launched to get even with Hussein for trying to assassinate his dad. And you're right about these totalitarians who now populate all of the msm, describing anyone who disagrees with them as Hitler, etc. They all can't be suffering from mad cow disease because of the prions they got from the mRNA injections: many are just insane naturally. My guess is that the uniparty members will use massive numbers of illegals/dead people/machine manipulations to gain votes, then dispute the election results, and refusing to certify the Republicans' wins. These writers you mention, and most all the rest of msm and most of the various institutions, will support all the chaos and we will be left with hoping some judges will adhere to the Constitution. Bill of Right, and stare decisis to overturn the many thefts. That's a pretty thin reed to rely on for any justice, as almost every judge and prosecutor, federal, state, and local, with "D" by their names, is not an officer of the court but are Democrat operators. It wouldn't surprise me if sometime in November/December that Biden resigns, collects all the pardons he and gangster family needs from President Harris, and the uniparty members refuse to seat Trump and many other "R"s. The "D"s are good at coup de tats, violent and otherwise. So, Chris, keep writing and we all should keep reading and praying for the Republic.

Danny Huckabee

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What is with the Atlantic? Their headlines have been so insane this election cycle, I’ve been taking screen grabs of them for when I need a laugh. They are Repo Man-level darkly hilarious. Get a grip, bitches. Really.

They’ve all become the AIDS Walk ribbon bully from Seinfeld.

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founding

Maybe every day of our lives has been April's Fools Day and "Ground Hog Day", rolled into one, all our lives....but we didn't notice it until The Scamdemic?

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What a depressing thought!

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Good point

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They always were!! You’ve just noticed it recently.

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I’m surviving the next three weeks by reading Joseph Heller and Hunter Thompson. I’m writing articles about a group of retired guys who run a glider school and my town’s upcoming macaroni and cheese festival.

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Oct 19·edited Oct 19

An excellent idea!

Thanks for the suggestion.

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Hats off and hand over heart for HST. Selah.

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