to your state.

and people had the same reaction about my governor, Tim Walz. I told the staff at Madam T’s Wax Museum that they better get started on the next new exhibit of interest: President Harris and Vice President Walz. They laughed and gave me thumbs up!

It was the last stop of both the Titanic and the Lusitania, it is a little south of Cork City. If you ever make it back, it is a must see. There is an emigration museum which, although small was quite thought provoking. It was the opposite of Ellis Island, it is where many families last saw each other before leaving for America or Australia.

In the north, near Belfast is Derry, the home of John Hume, the Nobel Peace prize winner for his work ending “the troubles”.

I am due another trip soon. Dublin is like any major city, but, once outside, the people the hospitality and culture are the best.

Last edited Fri Oct 11, 2024, 06:40 PM - Edit history (1)

The question "how anyone in their right mind could support Trump" isn't that tough. It is the result of more than four decades of systematic brainwashing. The brainwashing predates the rise of Rush Limbaugh in the mid-80's, but that marks a turning point that was accelerated with the rise of FOX News in the early 90's.

We are contending with a vast, far-right extremist, multibillion-dollar decentralized network of talk radio, think tanks, podcasters, and other "influencers," with FOX News as the behemoth at the center of a firehose of falsehoods that is brainwashing an ever-growing proportion of the American population.

If we don't take this on as a nation and figure out how to reach and deprogram people, we will keep losing them to a cult that is on track to becoming a majority force.

I lost my mother-in-law to FOX News in the early 2000's when she moved to Florida and started watching what "everyone" watched: FOX News. A formerly active Democrat, highly-intelligent woman (passed the bar at a time when women were unicorns in the profession) started spouting the hateful propaganda. She never recovered.

People across this country have lost friends and family to the brainwashing. Formerly loving, kind people brainwashed into a set of beliefs that leave them alienated from any sense of connection to their own government and eager to utterly destroy hard-won programs and policies that have improved their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens; beliefs that leave them hating those of us who believe our government and public institutions are ours to shape and can be wielded for our collective benefit.

We need more documentaries like the one below; more attention on the stories of people indoctrinated into the far-right cult and the pain of those they leave behind; more stories from “recovering” extremists.

I think it would benefit us to shift away from the “us” vs. “them” mentality and get real about how this is affecting us personally. I’m not sure why, but I think that is a key to actually digging ourselves out of this. I think we need a greater emphasis on the pain we are suffering as individuals -- and as a nation -- as we lose people to the cult created by the extremist right propaganda machine. Rational debate of the facts isn’t getting us anywhere. This is a social phenomenon. We are social creatures. Either throwing up our hands, because we are unable to fathom “them” or returning “their” hateful rhetoric about "us" with our own hateful rhetoric about "them” is not going to get us out of this.

I tend to agree with them because it’s difficult to accept that we have so many people worshipping such a rotten human being.

there just can't understand how Americans support the mango monster.

in 2019, thank god before covid. I went alone, I am mostly Irish and I wanted to meet the people so stayed in small B & B's nothing fancy all over and took train to Belfast from Derry and had a friend give me a tour of the peace wall and she had me sign it. Told me the story from someone involved of all that happened years ago.

I didn't rent a car, took trains, public bus and ferries. I met hundreds of lovely Irish folks. Trump was president at the time and none of them got it. I met a lot of people from UK.

Favorite music place Dingle and Westport. Favorite quiet space, I stayed a week at Inishmaan the middle Aran Island where only 150 live almost no tourists and they speak Gaelic only a few speak English. I was at a small B & B there run by the sweetest people, was able to walk around the whole Island, hardly any roads.

I stayed in far northern regular Ireland near coast on a sheep farm for a week.

These experiences and more will be with me forever.

Balina the town I found out Joe went to after I was there, had a small forest with trails and tiny fairy houses in the trees leading to a castle. So magical. I stayed in a small place behind a catholic church which was the one Joe visited later.

I am the type of person who plans my travel so I have real experiences.

One of the first towns I stayed at was Donegal, loved it. Was walking a few miles to B & B outside the city and as I was only 1/2 mile away a woman stopped and insisted on giving me a ride. I hadn't hitched hiked since the 70's but felt immediately that she was no threat. She invited me to a clothing swap party next day and I went having tea and wine sitting in a country house with 6 women laughing our heads off at trying each other's clothes on.

To me that party and sitting in a small pub listening to this old man reciting poetry is how I remember Ireland.

good music, good times... I'd love to go again. I just feel comfortable there. And I'm not Irish!!!!
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Ireland sounds.. TY!