In 1841, former President John Quincy Adams successfully argued before the Supreme Court in the Amistad case that captured African slaves should not be sent out of the country for trial.
"If the President has the power to do it in the case of Africans, and send them beyond seas for trial, he could do it by the same authority in the case of American citizens."
“An American resident—protected by a court order—was wrongfully deported to a prison in El Salvador. The U.S. government admits this was a mistake. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled he must be returned. Yet he remains in a foreign prison, and our government now claims it cannot bring him back.
This is not an error. It is a revelation.
The American taxpayer funds international prison contracts beyond our own legal reach. We fund ICE agents empowered to kidnap and deport. We fund a government that violates due process, then says its hands are tied. We fund a system that disregards law, morality, and the lives of its own people.
When a government uses our money to subvert our laws, what legitimacy remains?
This is not a partisan issue. This is not a technical glitch. This is a collapse of covenant between people and state.
Our government has quietly constructed mechanisms that allow it to operate outside the Constitution. It outsources accountability. It disobeys court rulings. It disappears people.
This is the architecture of authoritarianism—disguised in bureaucracy, rationalized by policy, and normalized by silence.
We must now ask the question that generations before us asked in darker times:
When a government becomes destructive of the rights it was created to protect, does it still deserve the consent of the governed?
We are not calling for chaos—we are calling for courage. The courage to rethink, to rebuild, and to remember that government is meant to serve the people, not disappear them.
If one man can be vanished and forgotten by the very nation that swore to protect him, then none of us are safe.
Normalized by all media even PBS who cover each transgression but don't dare to state the obvious. That is, the "what it all adds up to" - as did this good comment,
George, this is what is so disheartening. It would take so few people, just 15 Republicans. Three representatives and 12 senators. They could stop all of this. But there is only complicity and cowardice and greed.
GMAB! That might be what 'the rules say'.., but who we gonna call? Ghost busters? I mean the 'clown' has already been found guilty (by jurors) but is now a sitting president. Trump that. As a gentile people, our naïveté, meaning a lack of worldly experience, sophistication, or knowledge.., a simple-innocence, signifies a lack of awareness or understanding of the complexities and nuances of the world. I'm afraid we've had our time on the playground.
I agree, but who is going to bring this impeachment to fruition? The Magas will denounce it. They are more embedded with Trump now than they were post January 6.
My guess is that there might be a FEW House GOP who MIGHT stand up and be counted but I am not sure enough to actually impeach.
Regardless of whether an impeachment could be brought and succeed in the House, there is less than ZERO chance enough Senators would go along to reach the required 67 Senators to convict. Currently that would take 20 GOP Senators assuming all 47 Democrats stuck together. There is simply no universe where 20 GOP Senators would stand up against their party to post Trump.
And even if such an outrageous result could occur, what then? JD Vance? Does anyone think THAT would actually improve things?
Right now we are stuck between a very solid rock and a seemingly immovable hard place. This country, like it or not, and just like Germany in 1933, elected a madman along with his mad party. Once elected, bringing it down will be almost impossible before the next election assuming that even takes place.
We were all warned. Elections have consequences. Now we have to face those consequences and hope that we aren't already beyond any form of redemption.
He’s been impeached twice already (once for armed insurrection at the Capitol, which is a “what does it take?” scenario) and not given close to a fair trial in the Senate. There is no hope that this would go anywhere.
Right.., just like pissing into the wind. Once the pissing is done, what's next? Put a checkmark into 'the block'??. C'mon.., this SOB has already watched watched us libtards drenching ourselves in futility. Now, we have the whole office staff laughing at us., Re: Bukele.. "we've got space"...hahahahaaahahaaahaaa..!" We are one pathetic bunch. How long's it gonna be before this here "homegrown" forum of dissent (HCR) is taken off the air? Got a plan for that George? Sorry, George Baum.., juss sayin.
How do we bring him home?? How!? My heart is breaking for this man and his family. And I am blood boiling ENRAGED at the arrogant neo-Nazi psychopaths who had the audacity yesterday to say to the world they can’t do it, and they will not do it. They just told us, while laughing at us, that under this disgusting, fascist “regime” that no one in the United Stares of America is safe. NO ONE.
It takes a special kind of corrupt, soulless liar to say what Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Trump, and Bukele said audaciously from the Oval Office yesterday and Trump's got hundreds of 'em in his administration. I agree. If SCOTUS blinks now, no American is safe. Thanks for your post.
SCOTUS has already blinked. They gave Frump unlimited powers as long as whatever is done can be considered an ‘official’ act. Remember - if it can happen to your neighbor, it can happen to YOU!
So true! I'm afraid trump will take his executive power to go after Democrats and Independents just as Hitler's thugs went after Communists and Social Democrats after he became chancellor of Germany. I can only imagine how bad life will be if Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon start running the show while trump golfs his presidency away.
I think SCOTUS already blinked. This is not the SCOTUS that decided 9-0 that Nixon had to comply with the law. This decision LOOKS like a "lawful" one but it is really a 6-3 SCOTUS joining in the collective GOP laughter at the ignorance of us, not even recognizing that we've already been defeated.
As I have said before in these comments, this is going to get far worse before it gets any better.
George, I do agree. Gotta start a multi-pronged approach, as opposed to just talking about stuff. That together with finding where the goon-squad violates a law and taking them into court as well. But, just impeaching the jerk isn't going to do the trick. Question "their" authority, but don't go to jail doing it. I think that (questioning) is being donin many cases, we just don't hear enough about that.., OR how one might go about doing so. AOC serves as a good example as she tries to inform her constituents of their rights.
"Yesterday, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) requested a meeting with Bukele today “to discuss the illegal detention of my constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.” He said that he would travel to El Salvador this week if Abrego Garcia “is not home by midweek.” Senztor Van Hollen can do.
"Home grown"....! Seems such comments, Jessie, might be construed as being alien in nature and anti-government.., etc, etc. In other words, "home grown" evidence of dissent! And, that will not be tolerated. NO. No. No. Bukele, has "space" for you.., ka-clinkk! I'll be right there with you. We may be forbidden to speak with each other aswe mop and shine the floor.
Powerful and true. The descent into lawlessness has been going in for weeks now, but yesterday T and his toadies not only flaunted the rule of law but did it with impunity, and expressly in the presence of the media. They rubbed our noses in their lawlessness. As Robert Hubbell put it: "The one thing that will stop Trump is the American people taking to the streets to revoke the consent of the governed. ...The key is massive, sustained protests...."
That's what I was thinking. This dialogue helps a bit. I've been ricocheting between nausea and tears since watching clips of that meeting - the smugness as they delight in their power over....is a call for action.
Daniel, I posted elsewhere here (a bit tongue-in-cheek) that perhaps he should be prisoner-swapped for the alleged arsonist/wife-and-child-beater Balmer, if the convicted felon were truly eager to rid the country of nonproductives and violent thugs.
Daniel, we shouldn’t be looking for another way to get Garcia back in this country. There is an order in place issued unanimously by the US Supreme Court that orders the president to bring him home. Trump is defying that order. He has coerced the leader of El Salvador with $6,000,000 to help him defy the law. Trump and his lying co-conspirators should be apprehended and flown to the prison in El Salvador. This action wouldn’t be an “unfortunate mistake.” Mr. Garcia could return on Air Force One!
We have a checkered history with El Salvador. From AI
Challenges and Disputes:
There have been reports of the Salvadoran government refusing to extradite MS-13 gang leaders to the United States, despite extradition requests.
Some argue that the Salvadoran government may be protecting certain gang members, possibly in exchange for a reduction in violence.
This situation has led to tensions between the United States and El Salvador, with the U.S. government publicly pressuring El Salvador to extradite the gang leaders.
Key Points:
The extradition treaty provides a legal framework for transferring individuals to face justice in either country.
There are ongoing disputes and challenges related to the extradition of MS-13 gang leaders, with some reports suggesting that the Salvadoran government may be shielding certain individuals.
The situation has led to tensions between the two countries, with the U.S. government publicly pressuring El Salvador to comply with extradition requests
P.S. I did what you directed and gave your information to Garcia’s attorney. I then sent this “letter” (from Future Visions”) and he thanked me. Thought you should know.
The cabinet I believe….and obviously that band of sycophants and criminals would never have him removed. UNLESS they get a better deal from VP and his henchmen.
My comment? Need Feathers of hope to effecutate anything at this time. Need an impeachment trial. No election until 2026 and there's some question whether we will have one and if we do it won't be fixed.
As a practical matter, energy has to be directed to Republicans and at this point national security is our best chance, although opposition to tarriffs anfd to Musk and his Muskovites is growing among Congressional Republicans.
Where I live people are picketing my MAGAT Cuban American Congresswoman's office.
Such a truthful response. My hope is that enough Republicans in the House and Senate would adhere to it and assist Democrats in removing this scourge from office.
You must be drinking some kind of kool-aid LOL (although this is NOT a laughing matter). It takes 67 Senators to remove an impeached President. There are only 47 Democratic Senators.
Your essay needs to be shared more globally; hopefully with your representatives; newspapers and other social media. It exposes very serious "policies" in our name and with our money, as you wrote. And you pose a very important question. This is an excellent revelation.
And it should be remembered that the king we tossed out in 1781 didn't live in this county and had at best tangential connections to it. The colonies were a far remote place as far as most people in England were concerned. They were much more concerned about France than America.
Today it is OUR country and OUR government, not some far off king.
This is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder than when we declared independence.
Courts can go after the presenting attorneys: contempt of court can mean fines, jail time, and disbarring. First two could be hard to enforce, last one is out of government hands.
If we the people are not going to go down with a label like "America's Neville Chamberlains" we must insist that the egregious violation of ALL OF OUR RIGHTS going on now be stopped and punished. Trump must be impeached, and most of his cabinet forced out of office. He already has spoken of plans that look chillingly like Hitler's as he wound up in the launch of WWII. Where is the red line? I say it's already been crossed.
To me he crossed the line on January 6. Then there’s this new revelation:
“Jack Smith’s new document drop shows that the Trump Campaign PAID for travel, hotels, expenses and organizing efforts to bring outside Radical organizers to the Capital on January 6.
Trump and his lackeys planned the assault on our Capital”
All those in the Senate that refused to impeach him are enablers and are complicit in our present situation.
Biden should have instructed Merrick Garland to publicly and openly arrest Trump and throw his treasonous ass in jail on the day he was inaugurated, along with the rest of the scumbags in Congress who assisted. Right then and there, the cameras clicking, videos rolling, with a stern and serious public statement that TREASON was committed for all to see and we are a nation of laws and no one - NO ONE - is above the law. The J6 “committee” would have been a trial, not a reality TV spectacle, and his ass would be rotting in prison by now. Along with his fascist, traitorous cohorts.
Instead, we are living in a nightmare that we could have prevented.
I blame Biden and Garland for where we are RIGHT NOW.
After an attempted coup d’etat was committed on January 6th, by a former president who lost an election and perpetrated a lie, and our capital was attacked by a mob of his rabid lunatics, all incited by this man and his known cohorts in Congress, which was objectively and inarguably an unprecedented event in American history, those events called for revolutionary action. Not simply “acting normal.” That was an act of war. How do you not see that? It was clear as day to me then. As I watched it unfold in real time, and as I had witnessed for the months leading up to it.
I understand where you’re coming from, Jessie. AND attacking the people who are reading your comments and are slightly less incensed is really not helpful. In fact, it’s a stellar example of how the Left “eats its own.”
The courts are separate but the Justice department is PART of the Executive branch.
Biden followed the law but he let the law DRAG its feet. Biden and the Democrats leading us in 2021 desperately wanted Trump to just "go away". There was no fervent compulsion to put Trump in jail by most Democrats even if there should have been.
And as is often the case, justice delayed is justice denied. The wait meant that Jack Smith wasn't appointed until late 2022, almost 20 months after the attack on the Capitol.
By that time people were bored and distracted by other things. The Ukranian war. Slow rising inflation. Biden snoozed and we all "loozed".
I empathize, but let's all remember that, although Garland and Biden appear 'weak' when compared with the 'scintillating power' wielded by a dictator without regard for the rule of law, they acted within it. I think we need, now that it's starting to feel as if it's too late, to look toward Vaclev Havel and other leaders who clawed back democracy from dictatorial regimes much like the one we are suffering today. Or maybe the French Resistance to the Vichy government in WWII, if it comes to that. As in Winston Churchill's famous advice: "Never, never, never ever give up."
I saw January 6th as an act of war, quite frankly. Biden should have responded as such. That’s all.
But yes: Vaclav Havel is a wonderful example. I stood in that square in Prague back in 2019. And I wondered then if we’d one day have to do what they did. It appears that we do.
I have a little book called Power to the People by Vaclev Havel. Out of print but widely available used. Also read the similar little books on resistance before and after the fact by Timothy Snyder. An hour of your time, a lifetime of useful concrete suggestions.
I'd add the Norwegian resistance to the Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling government that Nazi Germany enabled as a puppet regime.
It occurred to me that I know little of who should be considered the leader of the Norwegian resistance other than that the Royal family of King Haakon VII had escaped eventually to England after the April 9, 1940 German invasion. Poland was the first surprise attack in 1939 but at least seems to have made Norway a bit better prepared as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_resistance_movement
"...Anticipating German efforts to capture the government, the entire Norwegian parliament (the Storting), the royal family, and cabinet hastily evacuated Oslo by train and car to Hamar and then on to Elverum, where an extraordinary session of parliament was called. In large part because of the presence of mind of the parliament's president C. J. Hambro, the Storting managed to pass an emergency measure (known as the Elverum Authorization) that gave full authority to the king and his cabinet until the Storting could convene again.
This gave King Haakon VII and the cabinet constitutional authority to reject the German emissary's ultimatum to accept the German invasion. Although there were several German attempts to capture or kill the King and the Norwegian government, they managed to evade these attempts and travelled through Norway's remote interior until leaving the country for London on the British heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire on 7 June.[1]...
...Reserving the constitutional legitimacy of the Norwegian government also undermined Vidkun Quisling's attempts at claiming the Norwegian government for himself. After Quisling had proclaimed his assumption of the government, several individuals on the Supreme Court took the initiative to establish an Administrative Council (Administrasjonsrådet) in an effort to stop him. This became a controversial initiative, in that the legitimate Norwegian government refused to give the council any legal backing, and the German authorities ended up disbanding it.
Initial defence
Although some politicians across the political spectrum had advocated strengthening the country's defence capabilities, a longstanding policy of disarmament following World War I had left the Norwegian military underfunded and undertrained by the late 1930s. As a result, forces in Southern Norway were largely unprepared for the German invasion, and the invading German army met little initial resistance.
There was also spirited defence seen at other locations, including Midtskogen, Hegra and Narvik but these were largely the result of improvised missions by isolated military units and irregular volunteers. The battles slowed the German advance by several days, allowing the Norwegian government to evade capture and conduct critical constitutional business..."
I do not want to seem to deny that any of this WW2 stuff is at least interesting but the situation is NOT the same.
We are not being invaded by an outside hostile country. We are dealing with our OWN government which, for better or worse, was elected by a majority of OUR people voting in the 2024 election.
And let's not forget the Danes, who all, after the Nazi invaders established themselves there and ordered all Jews (read any outgroup a fascist government chooses as a sacrifice to the gods of Zenophobia) had to wear armbands with a star of David, put on that armband themselves, thwarting the attempt to identify and deport Danish Jews to Black Earth sites and killing facilities in Poland and elsewhere. Like them, I feel ready to resist in any way I can until the bastards surrender in defeat.
It’s helpful to connect the dots. It’s not my fault you can’t see that the horrific, treasonous events of January 6th called for a REVOLUTIONARY act. Playing by the rules is why we’ve been metaphorically raped and sodimized by the fascist right wing. The Democrats failed to act. And here we are. Dots connected.
It’s vital that we take stock of, and understand how our democracy got hijacked. There was no show of strength or inspired pushback from the Attorney General, not to mention the appalling foot dragging.
Bullies take advantage of soft moments, and Garland/Biden offered him one on a silver platter.
What is important for us as we reflect on that time, is that we must learn the lesson to never drag our feet again and we must be aggressive in protecting our constitutional rights.
What would be a bit helpful is if Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dubya stood up for the values they upheld while in office and condemned the Trump/Heritage Foundation's coup d'état . Same goes for all the former living cabinet officers in these administrations.
Does Bill Barr give a sh#t? No he's too busy scaring Louisiana AG: "Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr warned Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Thursday against continuing to support dozens of lawsuits that target oil and gas companies for destruction of the state’s retreating coastline." (https://www.eenews.net/articles/bill-barr-bashes-louisianas-republican-ag-over-climate-suits).
We can spend a lot of time defending the high road but it's apparent that it's converged with the low road to take us over a cliff.
It's not blaming them. We were there too. It's pointing out how insidious the whole situation was. Let's see if we can't learn from that. That's how I see it. These discussions (posts) bring things back into focus.
When Trump got so upset that the secret service didn’t drive him to the Capitol on Jan 6, it confirmed for me that his plan was to walk into the rotunda like Il Duce, and take control.
I did not see the report or know about but if one read and researched carefully yes it was apparent and many folks involved are still in the mix of now.
Wo what is your plan for stopping it? We (well, most of us) agree that the red line has been crossed. But what is the plan? HOW do we stop the train wreck? Ideas?
Our former allies in NATO should declare the US a terrorist state and stop all travel to the US and trade. That might get the attention of some in the administration.
Every day I read about something they are doing my mind immediately jumps back to Lindsey Graham's statement in 2015, "If we elect Trump, he will destroy the republican party" or there abouts, what he left out was the destruction of the United States and democracy.
And now they are telling a private collage, Harvard Law that they have to eliminate DEI programs, screen international students who are supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism and ensure "viewpoint diversity" in its hiring, to promote American values, the hypocrisy of their actions is enough to make me want to throw up.
To the streets now in overwhelming numbers, fuck the price of eggs.
With full adherence. For as long as it takes. Have a good look at what happened in France in 1968. But then, De Gaulle was not an evil man, and he eventually bowed to the will of the people, who continued to love him until the end of his life, never forgetting how he led the Resistance..
At the very least, call your representatives, or call those who are doing something and support them. Politicians like votes. It is something. The poll numbers are starting to turn because of the tariffs. We don't want to wreck that with more militant obstruction at this point.
Militant obstruction or destruction would justify Trump's desire to activate the use of military forces against protestors and others. Be very, very careful here. He is already testing these waters and is not above using agent provocateurs to set things going in that direction. He is as bad as it gets and will only get 'badder' if he gets more power in his hands.
ha ha? I thought his wet-dreams were mainly about decapitating the likes of Justin Trudeau and any other good-looking world leader Melania ever mooned over in public. Or Big Macs with extra special sauce.
Into the streets is exactly what the administration now wants. Then he calls all participants ‘terrorists’ that can be sent to El Salvador ‘prisons’ that are also an excuse for lining the pockets of what’s-his-name, the dictator of ES. Invoking martial law will then be further destroying any semblance of justice, as there is now a thread left by courageous judges and some Democrats. And now Harvard. I wish I had the answer. I hope to be a part of the answer, so keep suggesting… keeping up political/economic pressure is one way…
Checking it now. Little I read indicates a spiritual approach, which I highly recommend and attempt to practice. We have the possibility to see ‘behind the veil’ so to speak and also to get help that’s not so obvious. I work with young people to develop their abilities to see more deeply and act more responsibly…
Dear me! If he keeps on this way he risks an even wider exposure of his depth of intellect. (HARVARD!!!! it's made me snigger, even if it's getting hard to laugh.) (And my law professor cousin was so respected at his Australian university because he'd taken a higher degree at Harvard... )
Disrupt. Obstruct. YES! Sabotage. NO! Sabotage brings us down to their low level, plus sabotage would "authorize violent retaliations." Disrupt. Obstruct. Peacefully continue to protest! Protest has been and will continue to cause Trump to "Stand-down and others to "Stand-up!"
Actually, I understood "sabotage" in this case as meaning non-violent acts of planned disruption rather than Molotov cocktails. Trump is the one who bandies the word "bloodbath" about.
The sooner the better. I am a simple very average person, one who is grateful for the freedoms for which our forefathers fought with their minds and hearts and fortunes. No one has the right to take our values...the laws fought for with great minds and devoted hearts. Those before us gave their lives, spilled their blood gave the limbs of their bodies, for freedom. How can we stand around and watch someone of such little character and no love or respect for this country just take away our freedoms? How can we allow this man who is in El Salvador due to OUR mistake....by the way... each of those human beings TAKEN have the right to a fair trial. The LAW proves whether they are each a criminal or not. They are each human beings created in the image of God...not just a number, not just an object. The fact that they were taken from the US to El Salvador by the order of our President does NOT make it OK! We are the USA!!! Our laws are to be administered fairly and properly . It is why we are who we are as a people...as one of the greatest nations in the world. With these actions, we have lost our credibility with the nations of the world.
Any one of us can be treated the same...do you question that??? Open your eyes, your mind and your heart.
This man has a wife and children. He is an American citizen with the rights and protections due an American citizen!!!!
It was heartbreaking to see the COWARDLY "leadership" sitting silently, watching Trump put on his "show of strength and control" before the leader of El Salvador. How pathetic!!!! I never imagined we would sink so low as Americans!!! Trump's PUPPETS responded at his command!!!! in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!
I empathize so much with your distress, even despair. I feel it too, and am living with a sick stomach and heavy heart all this time now. Each new attack on our laws, ideals, and protections makes all that worse. Of course, I realize, too, that our laws and ideals have never extended to everyone. We have not extended equality under the law much less equal opportunity to women, children, people of color, immigrants, Native Americans and others throughout our history. Yes, we have in our ideals been something of a Shining City on the Hill, but never have been a singular or unflawed one. Maybe we are getting something of a taste of our own (some of us, anyway) medicine. Which makes this an opportunity to create something better from here on out. But first we must take down those who, like Trump & Co., are so dangerous, so greedy, so cruel and heartless that they cannot be allowed to go on. If legal remedies fail us, we need to demonstrate, strike, anything that avoids martial law to do this. I write postcards, demonstrate, write and call my congressman and senators weekly. Maybe all these pebbles in the stream will begin to pile up and form the basis of a dam to stem this raging flood we're all being swept downstream by.
To me, it is so important that we do not do things which we can be arrested for, because that take us off the street, so to speak. We need to conduct our resistance in a intelligent manner. Not weak knee'd, but smart. Give that twit Noem and her horsemen reason to arrest you and she will. You're done! "Home Grown terrorist" is an ill-defined term, designed to fit as needed. There are other ways we can make our mis-givings (putting them mildly!!!) known. Some will require a sacrifice. Let's see what they might be. Confrontation is not out of the question at all, however, dying on the cross, only to be unheard is a waste. Use the courts while we have them. Support our legislators who are willing to stick their neck out. Let's get behind Harvard (hope it holds out). Come up with a 'surprise attack'.., meaning something which catches 1601 Pornhub Close off-guard. Use psychology. Refute the BS they are putting out. Personally, I'm waiting for the moment in the WH briefing room where a journalist tells that little 27 yr old mouthpiece to take her snotty demeaning remark(s) and shove em, and walk out the door.
I say, if you're going to engage in sticking your neck out in public, make sure someone has their phone out to film any goons who emerge out of the bushes, and that your videographer knows when and how to fade into the background and see the reel gets into the hands of someone who will get it widely viewed. Sometimes a single individual can grab attention in ways that mass protests can't. We ALL need to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to influence events without getting gulagged.
But we also MUST be supported by our representatives, who need to take emergency action, not just deliver a speech when it's their turn for a few minutes in Congress.
Yes, but not oncey-twicey. I write all three of mine weekly. So far, their replies have been late in coming and mainly non-committal. I went to a town hall meeting, too; ditto. But despite the tepid response, it's one of the only ways open to us to make ourselves known. I do think the combination of public and private protests may eventually embolden our elected representative to stand up themselves. Or maybe it's just that I hope so. But hope is better than despair. Without it, we are truly lost.
"We want to do homegrown criminals next.... The homegrowns." I can think of at least 1,600 homegrowns that were pardoned by the number 1 "homegrown criminal," DJT
I was rushing off to our protest in Freeport and didn't catch the unintentional extra "do" in the original post. Though slightly humorous, the extra "do" was removed.
In 1841, former President John Quincy Adams argued that if the U.S. government could send Africans overseas for trial, it could do the same to American citizens. That warning feels urgent today. During Trump’s presidency, many worried about attacks on immigrants, journalists, and political critics. In El Salvador, President Bukele has jailed thousands without trials, claiming it’s to fight crime. Adams's point still matters: when leaders get too much power over who stays, who speaks, or who gets a fair trial, everyone’s rights are at risk. Once the government can silence or remove one group, it can do the same to anyone. That’s why protecting basic rights for all people protects freedom for everyone.
I'm reminded that one of the two leading causes of the War of 1812 was "Impressment" of sailors on US ships by British effectively, "Press gangs" claiming they were only taking British citizens that were illegally avoiding service to their country. See https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/major-events/war-of-1812-overview/
John Quincy Adams was a Harvard man just like his father as were John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt; Rutherford B. Hayes and Barak Obama graduated from Harvard Law; George W. Bush from Harvard Business School. Harvard now is displaying the integrity, courage and patriotism of its famous sons.
is it conceivable that the Roberts Court as weak as it is will let this stand? If it does, then any legitimacy for the Roberts court is finished. Forever.
The legitimacy of the Robert’s Court was extinguished when declared that The Felon President was immune from prosecution for criminal acts committed while he is in the white house. The conservative majority, thanks to the unconstitutional blocking of President Obama’s nominee by Mousey Mitch, is corrupt, it is mendacious and it is guilty of creating the conditions that allow the Felon President to dismantle the laws and agencies of the country for his and his sycophants friends benefit and wealth.
It makes me physically ill to read the facts about the miscreant that was elected to be the leader of this once great country.
I am angry beyond words at the failure of his party to rein him in. They parrot his lies and laugh at maliciousness.
In four years the answer to are you better today than you were 4 years ago, the answer will most likely be a resounding NO!
Four years??? Can someone tell me what trump and his henchmen have done in the last 84 days to make "America great again"? Or to "keep America great"? Is there ANYTHING that has not been ruined, destroyed, demolished, poisoned, undone?
That was never the point, imo, that's just what they tell the gullible electorate. It looks from a distance as if there are two groups: one are the pathologically greedy, who think they are owed a slave-like worker force to make them rich, and the other are the psycho Sillicon Valley weirdos who believe, they are so superior to the rest of us, that they should have the power to rule, first the US, but long-term the world, I suppose.
I think the point was always to destroy current US society.
I don't think they believe they are superior to anyone else, but they are proving that they can get away with whatever they like. Like undisciplined under-ten year olds.
Wait a minute you didn’t call it gullible when Joe Biden got 13 million more votes than the God Barack Obama. When even back then as you’re hearing now, Joe Biden was essentially non compos mentis. We don’t really know who is running the White House ask Ron Klein. ? Oooops
So you didn't pick up that Trump admitted taking his third cognitive test as part of his recent physical examination? He still doesn't seem to realise that it's a test for dementia not intelligence; or to understand that the reason he's had to take it three times is because of concerns about his mental health. As far as we know, Biden has never taken such a test and a special counsel's report in February last year found no evidence of dementia, just the normal signs of senescence. Given the economic chaos that Trump has caused over the past week I'm not sure that it would be good news that he was given a clean bill of mental health. It would only prove that he's mad as a hatter. By the way, anyone who is taking medication for high cholesterol and blood pressure cannot seriously be described as 'fit'. Personally, I believe that Trump is an idiot. Anyone who holds the view that tariffs are a form of tax on the foreign states on whose goods they are imposed rather than American importers and consumers; and who thinks that the US should have trade surpluses with every country in the world, is clearly stupid beyond words.
In no way am I defending trump, and I am not a doctor, but I believe there are millions of people who take high blood pressure and cholesterol lowering meds to remain fit. Any doctors care to weigh in?
You know I love when you guys make these ethereal hypothetical ridiculous comparisons. Do your homework Barney would you please
But as has been said for all you empathy, caring people let’s bring them all back and move them in right next-door ten to a home let’s say. And then we’ll all pray that you don’t have a daughter.
If I were an illegal immigrant, I’d be concerned every day that I’m gonna get carded off back to my home country, which is what has been promised by other presidents as well Only now it’s against the law
Barack Obama deported 2 million during his presidency I didn’t hear an FN peep out of you during that entire time Bill Clinton was also very effective, not quite as well as Obama about deporting people back to their home country. But now that it’s Trump lol. Give me a break Barney
Yesterday, in a conversation about traveling, I said Americans will not be welcome in Europe. A retired Army Colonel just smiled and said this needed to happen. "Well, it may be a little extreme." I had to leave the room.
But why does it need to happen that Americans won't be welcome?! A smug smile isn't an answer. My neighbor shrugged when I said my retirement accounts were hurt shrugged and said, "Remember - buy low."
Sadly, this is what happens in fascistic countries. Fascism has as one important foundation the erosion of empathy. Although maybe your neighbour was always a tosser.
In fact, if you wanna be honest Marley, if you shut off your TV didn’t read the newspaper didn’t post here. You wouldn’t know a damn thing had changed in your life from day-to-day not one single thing. In the meantime, a lot has changed in the United States to bring us back to reality $36 trillion in debt that we’re trying to fix.
You'll find out soon enough when your mother's social security is cut, your treatment for cancer isn't forthcoming, a measles outbreak kills children in your town, your veterans can't get a new leg and when there's nobody to warn you of that hurricane on its way, or to pay for the clear-up of your town and the repair of your home.
By the way, let me send you a couple of links. I think you’ll enjoy.
Here’s a statement by Barack Obama. Barack Obama “Everyone knows that getting rid of the deficit will require some tough decisions, and that includes cutting back on billions of dollars in programs that a lot of people care about. What should be easy is getting rid of the pointless waste and stupid spending that doesn't benefit anybody. Waste we should be getting rid of, even if we didn't have a deficit.
And I’ll find you one by Clinton and Gore didn’t hear a peep out of anybody when Obama fired a half 1 million federal employees and deported 2 million illegals
Doge.gov. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. 84 days Marley 84 days he’s been in office. And he has done miracles in 84 days.
You’ve got 45 more months to go so be patient and watch everything come to fruition And change the channel to see about the fraud and waste and where it is. There are lists such as $20 million for Sesame Street in Iraq or millions of dollars to see how mice do in trans sexual relationships, etc.. go see the list
If there rally was so much fraud in the federal government, Rick, where are the prosecutions? There haven't been any because they have been lying about the levels of fraud, like the hundreds of thousands of dead people receiving benefits. The funding was for transgenic mice, you nitwit, not transsexual mice.
After well more than 40 years of Reaganomic deference to the very, very wealthy, is America better off? Anyone besides the very, very rich? What is the likelihood, on this trajectory, that our children will be?
Tough questions J L. Clinton, Obama and Biden made progress with health care and certainly the employment of people of color. But when it comes to wages and child care, the Republicans have done less than nothing.
"The minimum wage in Pennsylvania for 2025 is currently set at $7.25 per hour, which is the same as the federal minimum wage. There are ongoing discussions about increasing it to $15 per hour as part of the state's budget negotiations."
The Republicans claim that raising the Federal minimum wage to even $10 an hour will shutter businesses. If that's the case why do 30 of the 50 states have minimum wages of $10 or more and some are very red states like AR and MO.
Why is it the states with the lowest GDP and highest unemployment are stuck at $7.25 an hour?
I cannot verify it but someone wrote that when he applied for a job at Walmart, they automatically passed him papers on how to apply for SNAP. Corporations are increasingly palming off their costs; onto the public and the public purse.
Post Eisenhower Republicans have succeeded on shameless BS. The "Republican" Party requires you to reject the evidence of your eyes and of your ears even as they dismantle the Republic. I have lost track of how many Republicans have dismissed as irresponsible fantasy any effort to ease the cost of higher education for students, and yet the historic "GI Bill"; and yet formerly affordable state schools. A lot of things that were somehow doable in my youth are said to be impractical, if not communism from the pit of hell. And, especially for minorities and women I'm not speaking of "good old days".
A lot is now better, but no thanks to modern "Republicans" who are currently trying to undo that progress, especially of the social kind; the commonwealth. No thanks to the insatiable contingent of the very rich who yearn to be absolute monarchs. What has decidedly shifted, empirically, statistically shifted dramatically is the dynamics of public vs financial power, and whose interests our government prioritizes. Big breaks for Apple, for the poor, not so much. More impunity for some, much less liberty and justice overall.
Put those lies to sleep would you please MS Graham? In the big beautiful Bill that hopefully will come out no tax on tips no tax on overtime no tax on Social Security. Do you think that benefits the Rich in anyway?
Even Bill Maher realize the error of his estimates of Trump.
The mafioso just left the White House in January. Control of the courts control of the media control of Congress control of student loans and a demented president that everybody hid. And of course control of the border were 11,000 illegals came in every day and he lied to you and told you the borders were closed. And now only 70 a day are crossing.
Stop the pathetic whining, it's very unbecoming. You are the wealthiest country on earth with a severe wealth-distribution issue - but that is only and completely your problem, nothing at all to do with anybody outside. You will be surprised how little of a shxxt the rest of the world gives, we'll all just happily live and trade freely here outside - and watch the never ending soap opera that the US government is as entertainment.
Roberts is a cunning bugger. I reckon he's starting to rethink the 'Get Out Of Jail Free Card' he handballed to tRump back in July, gobsmacked like the rest of us, at how trigger-happy the wannabe dictator has become. The 9-0 vote in favor of facilitating Abrego Garcia's return home was no doubt an attempt to rein him in. As corrupt as Roberts is, I believe he's equally concerned with the public's 'perception' that the rule of law still exists in the Supreme Court and that he is seen upholding it. I doubt he'll remain passive.
On this I disagree, Kazz. Roberts, like Alito and Thomas, and probably Gorsuch, have all been promised something. What, we'll probably never truly know. But "the art of the deal" is at work with our so-called SC, and we are all going to pay a price for it. These are evil, evil people.
Kazz McKnight -- a parenthetical grammar remark. "Roberts" is not hyphenated. The Chief Justice's name is John Roberts. So, it is simply the Roberts Court.. (Forgive me, but couldn't stay silent on this.)
Panamakelley, I agree with all of your comment except the "mousey" nickname for McConnell. He is anything but a mouse. Physically, he most resembles a turtle.
But if we consider his behavior, then the only comparison is to a snake.
What did you say about the legitimacy of the court under Biden? Didn’t hear a peep out of you then. Hmmmmm no I don’t know what planet you’ve been on over the last four years inflation at 20% with food being unaffordable gas prices doubled mortgage rates times 2 1/2 inflation to 7 1/2% from 3% under Trump the border wide open. Crime out of control in many large cities, two wars and $250 billion to Ukraine for fueling the death of human beings instead of trying to prevent it.
So, according to you, everything Trump is doing is justified because of how you think things were when Biden was in office?
And none of what you say is true. America had the strongest economy in the world under Biden. Inflation was around 3%, the border was not (and never has been) “wide open,” mortgage rates were the lowest they had been in decades (I was able to refi ance my mortgage at less than 4%), gas prices were stable.
But all of this is beside the point. We’re talking about how this administration is openly flouting the rule of law on which our democracy is based. But I guess you’re not a fan of democracy, are you? If Trump picks up American citizens he seems are “unproductive” and sends them to El Salvador, you’re okay with that?
Every single thing you state is demonstrably false. You are the target of a misinformation campaign that has left you unable to tell fact from fiction. Quick, simple Google searches will dismantle your entire argument. If you can’t or won’t take the time to verify your version of things then you are not just misinformed, you are part of the problem.
If they had created a strong & unambigous statement, unlike the vague one they created, trump wouldn't have been able to try to twist its meaning. If they do not correct it, I think they will have lost their legitimacy.
And yet they continue to make rulings. How can that be? But I bet you’re happy about the 90 ruling on bringing on the legal alien criminal back to the United States. Maybe you have a spare bedroom he could stay with you.
You are just a silly troll, a cultist or a propagandist, I can't decide which. But, once again you provide the opportunity to introduce more facts into the discussion.
In today's letter, your posts offer features of Stalinism and Hitlerism, and demonstrate just how easy it can be to move from democracy to dictatorship if enormous numbers of citizens are cognitively impaired, deluded or just not paying attention.
Sandra, I just love to respond to posts like yours. Let me first address, the definition of a troll to those here. While I watch and read post after post from friends and people who know each other here on this thread day in and day out, communicating with each other enlightening each other on their perspectives etc…. I’ve never seen the word troll used.
But the minute you see or read a un opinion, contrary to yours and your beliefs he becomes a troll, especially when he gets a lot of posts that he feels compelled to respond to. Now I am a troll, but all the others who “hang out” here day after day they are not trolls.
Secondly, nor am I a cultist or a propagandist I am an independent thinker who makes up his mind after doing some research and listening to a variety of sources trying to make a point. The issue with this thread, unfortunately is that there’s only one point of view which by o- mission would relegate all the thought here to gullibility because there is no contrary research or Post being done to weigh the topic at hand.
Therefore, whatever is said here is taken as the gospel And it is not
Unfortunately, many of the people here seem to suffer deeply from a insurmountable case of Trump arrangement syndrome that is even backed up by surveys and polling done by your major liberal networks such as ABC NBC, CNN CBS and MSNBC and two major new sources, the Washington Post and the New York Times
Lastly, I would hate to have any of you as jurors. A juror has to be a levelheaded thinker, analyzing both sides of a story and determining the veracity of the story and integrating it with their own predetermined beliefs.
That is not happening here And so I’m OK with providing a contravening or alternative list of facts so that the people here could render a more fair and objective opinion
The Roberts Court committed hara kiri last year, when it declared a president above the law for everything done as president, which in effect means for everything, since Trump doesn't differentiate between state and private business. He isn't a king in the modern sense of the word (most kings these days are constitutional and have little power), he is a king in the Charles the First sense of the word.
Not the sentiments he expressed at trial, when he refused the authority of the High Court because he was king and no authority on earth could judge him.
Again, a telling of history that we all should be aware of. When religious leaders swear that my God gave them (king) tRump & all is well, I just want to puke! There will be hell to pay for those folks.
If you’re trying to get me to say that it doesn’t matter, I won’t, because I believe both matter, as the rule of law matters. But I find the comparison between helping young people against loan sharks and kidnapping people off the streets to send them without due process to foreign prisons completely grotesque.
Loan sharks? Omg…these people KNOWINGLY signed a commitment to pay back a loan…just like you signing mortgage documents. No different. No one forced them. And they chose who to borrow from …not MY NOR YOUR responsibility to pay it back with my/your tax dollars….ESPECIALLY when that is used to buy votes….how about better used to help the poor and more needy instead?
I wouldn’t attempt to get you to say anything…but
Btw. It’s sad when people buy into word bites and repeat them….like lemmings ….. The left picks its word of the day and off we go. “Chaos” “existential threat to democracy” ….”kidnapping”. he had his day(s) in immigration court. Both regular immigration court and then appeals court….he had a DEPORTATION ORDER AGAINST HIM….
He is a citizen of El Salvador….and if not for a lawyer telling the court he can’t be sent back home because a RIVAL GANG will kill him….he then pretends he wasnt in a gang. Ooooops.
The jury is out on due process in cases like his….read up
A deportation order is not a judicial document and can be opposed in court. Therefore due process was ignored. It's still being ignored.
As for your rant on student loans: you are addressing it to the wrong person. I live in a country where my tax euros pay for higher education, and we consider it not only normal, but civilised, virtuous and important for the competitiveness of the country. So yes, to me these people are loan sharks.
So I suppose you could choose to go to Oxford on your euro taxes? Just curious. You pay for it one way or the other you either have it taken out of your tax dollars and it gets subsidized by the government by using your tax dollars to do so or you pay for it personally. And I’m just getting started
Me say this again, so you don’t overlook it going to college is a voluntary activity there was nobody forces you to go to college you make that choice on your own and as such any loan you take out you take it on your own. I myself could not afford college, so I went to junior college for almost nothing, and saved up enough money in the two years of junior college, to pay for the balance of my education worked 40 hours and went to school at the same time.
I’ll get back to you with more in a second but I thought I’d post this just for your interest
A deportation order, also called a removal order, is a formal decision by immigration authorities that an individual must leave the United States. IT’S A LEGAL DOCUMENT that follows a process, often starting with a Notice to Appear (NTA), and can result in the individual being physically removed from the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
And by the way, under certain circumstances, you’re not deemed to be eligible for due process. And his circumstances fit the bill for being in eligible so what will happen is he will come back. Perhaps he will have a trial or hearing perhaps and will be sent right back to where he was in the first place. Home to his native country where he’s a citizen there. Waste of time and money.
Well, first of all if you don’t live here or you’re not a citizen of the US it takes a lot of nerve to judge how things work in other countries. And it just so happens that your tax euros are higher than our tax euros. And you know nothing about our student loan process obviously And I wouldn’t dare try to suggest how you run your third rate country
Contempt of court with jail time and/or fines. And then civil suits for damages resulting in financial or physical loss to the person or groups that were harmed.
But, I'm not a lawyer. Others are much better qualified to answer.
Theoretically, there are punishments that the Court can levy, but if the perpetrators choose to ignore the Court, what enforcement powers, if any, does the Court have?
They already gave up their authority by saying anything that is the PresidenT’s official business is legal. They became puppets of a vicious regime last July
The Roberts Court’s legacy is already cemented by its decision, Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593, 607 (2024), granting presidents virtually unlimited, unrestrained power. By declaring an “emergency” Trump continues to extend and broaden the scope of those already broad executive powers. Roberts has given us a dictator, plain and simple.
Trump makes terrible decisions and seems to believe it makes him so damned clever. If there was ever an instance in which Trump showed so much as an instant of uncalculated kindness, humility, or remorse. There is a lot of that in the former "Party of Lincoln" these days.
Yeah, virtually unrestrained power. Do you think he might need it being that every little tiny Podunk district judge is ruling against him as if they had power to run the country ? At least so on my arm had a brain enough to say we can’t let them do this because when the Democrats take power, it’ll be the same thing and shutting down government.
Hey Rick, did you read this piece from my book yet? Frightening, rights? No? Not frightened? And it is because you don't have the caqpacity to know what's going on. To quote: "You know something is happening but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" (Dylan)
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
Well no one doubts your imagination. Lol. Watched a few minutes of Gutfeld and he captures you perfectly. Gutfeld;s “Department of imaginary crises”. Funny as hell. Maybe a blood transfusion would help you. Get your body rid of all the TDS running through your veins.
I submit that SCOTUS became illegitimate in 1991 when Clarence Thomas was seated on the Supreme Court. It's possible that a sexual predator was appointed to SCOTUS prior to that year, but not despite public knowledge of such a disqualifying character flaw.
Yes according to the constitution Donald Trump is a duly elected president of the United States and is doing nothing differently than any other president other than he’s actually getting it done whatever he promised during his campaign is getting done. Like closing the border from 11,000 immigrants illegally crossing every day to only 70 illegally crossing every day.
I urge our congressional representatives to join Senator Van Hollen in traveling to that hell hole in El Salvador. If they can get in, they should be able to get Abrego Garcia out.
What is really preposterous is the insistence and supposed inability to get Abrego Garcia out of the hellhole prison. The notion is just not believable, it's as ridiculous as this sadistic, lawless regime is, and has been since January 20th...
Guess you don’t listen to the whole story Jorge as usual an immigration judge and an appellate immigration judge found him to be one of the leaders of MS 13.
But if you have a spare bedroom would be more than happy to move them in just hope you don’t have any daughters
Are you thinking that Ben Holland has any pullor control over Bukele?
When I keep urging many of you, which is really frustrating for me change the channel change it twice or three times and see what’s happening in the real world
There are five or six networks out there three of them who are very very recently sued for their lies and lost the suit. The ratings of these networks are also down due to their credibility, I would think
And one of the problems you have TD is that you wouldn’t be able to find Fox News or Newsmax or any other conservative news network with a map. So God forbid you ever become a juror.
US has already had a government appointee visit there (for a photo shoot) & return safely. A war would be the result if anyone of Van Hollen's group are hurt or killed.
Heather deftly quotes Pennsylvania's governor on how idiot violence threatens the country.
I say deftly because the entirety of the preceding notes on how Trump, Rubio, Vance, Bondi, and Miller also commit straightforward attacks on our country. Attacks including kidnapping, lying, and frontal assaults on our courts at the highest levels.
It's beyond astonishing -- though many here try to come up with apt adjectives for such unprecedented thuggery.
So Governor Shapiro gets the final word. The criminality from today's White House simply induces more of similar monstrosity around the country.
FL is bleeding foreigners who own property there, especially Canadians. Even the extreme far-right Villages is experiencing higher vacancy rates. And thousands of homeowners in FL can no longer find home owners insurance.
The Trump 2 recession is likely to hit FL and TX very hard.
In our present world, everything we understood to be true is no longer…up is down, light is dark, and allies are now adversaries. Before this regime took power, we used to negotiate with countries who imprisoned our people to bring them home. Now, those who hold power willingly feed innocent human beings into the mouths of foreign death camps.
What has this country become? The country my father fought for in WWI and we all believed would stand for what’s right, moral and protected by our Constitution … I sadly don’t recognize it anymore 😢🇺🇸
2 hours ago Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) left for El Salvador to personally seek the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the building trades apprentice. The entire Building Trades Union supports Garcia return home to his Family.
On continuing deportations, actionable facts have been collected by AP's Seung Min Kim & Marcos Aleman & reported out this evening 4/14/25 at 6:00 PM.
About 6 weeks ago starting in Mach 2025, Trump paid Bukele $6,000 000 to jail about 200 VENEZUELANs at CECOT.
I could comment to "follow the money" at this point but, I believe Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) & other Senators are way ahead of Trump, Pamela Bondi, Steve Miller & others. Any contractual agreement oral-or-written to pay $6 Million can be dissected.
Just Saturday, 4/13/2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated "10 more people" were disappeared to CECOT. No one to my knowledge has identified the "10 more people".
I will ask the question if no else will -- with all the abrupt admissions of intent to send
"Homegrowns" to foreign prisons -- are any of the "10 more people" United States citizens?
In any case who actually are the 10 recent deportees?
That event in the Oval Office yesterday has me terrified. We are one hair from a dictatorship. "Homegrowns" being snatched off the streets? That is us. And Americans standing there lied and laughed. I fully expect the Insurrection Act to be invoked next.
The only entity that can stop Trump is the legislature. By removing him from office. The legislature had a chance to do that already. Twice. It decided not to remove Trump from office because the Republican legislators knew that such an action would lead to the loss of their livelihood. They knew that a significant majority of white voters would make sure to vote them out of office. We are suffering this catastrophe because a 77 million American voters don’t give a damn about the rule of law.
Remember that he was elected by only a 1.4% majority. 1.7% voted for someone else. 15 million did not vote. Add in massive gerrymandering and voter suppression engineered by the Republicans for decades. Then there was the oligarch owned media that created a massive web of lies, disinformation while drowning out the Democrats' messaging. The cult of trump is approximately 33% of voters. The hispanics and black male voters were swayed for different reasons. Then there always the undercurrent of misogyny in this country that decries a woman President.
So as you can see not an easy answer to why he is here in all our worst nightmares.
Yes, but why would you assume the votes of non-voters, had they voted, would have broken differently from those of people who did vote? The default assumption has to be that they would have broken the same, but my guess is that people who didn’t bother to vote are more likely to fall in the willfully ignorant magat camp than the Democratic camp.
I was reminded today that one of the ways Hitler et al gained control over the Jews was to turn them into stateless people. The parallels aren't exact but it is the same mindset: the state has the right to declare who has rights and who doesn't. Terrifying stuff.
I don’t think there is much that can be done in the state we find ourselves in short of taking up arms which will lead to a lot of dead. Joe Biden failed us, watching what we are seeing each day, is the only logical conclusion.
I’m with you on being terrified and horrified. Why don’t you think we’re already in the soft opening of a dictatorship? Everyone is capitulating or being punished or, in the case of the Supreme Court, being defied and lied about. They cross line after line, doubling down with great speed. I’m wondering what democratic aspects you still see - it may give me some hope to see them too.
@Bryan Sean McKown - you may need to edit the date included in your comment.
This lawless and cruel regime is, in essence, creating mass graves. They are targeting people, denying due process, and making preparations to send the military against civilians and citizens. It can happen to any one of us.
The term is “due process”, troll, and anybody who is in the United States, legally or not, is entitled their time in front of a judge with legal representation. I roll my eyes at you. 🙄
Well, you better be careful because Biden didn’t do anything by himself. He had tons of assistance and assistants. I do believe he also actually disobeyed a federal court order or a Supreme Court order not to repay student loans. Ooooops
Chris Van Halen is weeks perhaps even months behind Trump. Did he attend the funeral of Nungaray or any of the victims of illegal criminals like the death of the mother of five children. Well, let’s see if there’s an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Where would you like to send them? Wanna send them to Ethiopia?
I am having a hard time seeing a way out of this. They have crossed the Rubicon.
I don’t believe we will see another real election. Not in 2026 or thereafter until we are rid of them. There will be show elections like in Russia, but no chance of ending the regime.
And it doesn’t begin or end with DT. It is an oligarchy. He could get abducted by aliens today and they would still be in power. As it is we are being subjugated and will remain that way until we figure out how to beat them.
There are no longer guardrails. If and when it comes to a civil war, we lose a frontal assault. They have all the weapons.
I have thought of the UN stepping in and Eurasia coming to our aid, as we did theirs 80 years ago. But in that case, it would be a world war with Russia and the United States as the axis. And who has all the nukes?
There is a way out, it just hasn’t come to us yet. I know I can’t see it.
It’s after midnight here and I can’t sleep. And I know I am not the only one…
Annabel, you have gone far to far down the rabbit hole of worry, jumping from one momentous event to the next as if each were inevitable. UN, nukes, no guardrails? Reacting with measured effective thoughtful action is what we need, not over or under reaction.
I am with Annabel. This is no rabbit hole. Listen to their words in the Oval Office. They have defied the Supreme Court with lies. They have courted a vile dictator and paid him to house and torture Americans. They have declared the right to "deport" any American ("homegrown") they want.
Over reaction? I fear the under reaction is the greater danger.
Americans should be in the streets tomorrow. But they won't. I am afraid this has to play all the way out.
Not an over-reaction to what is actually happening. This regime has no intention of obeying the courts or the legislative branch, on the rare occasion when either does its job. I am PAYING ATTENTION. And have been for a good many years.
I am not jumping around--I am listing then possible outcomes that can be imagined at this juncture. We can accept subjugation. We can protest, but it won't affect a regime that no longer needs public approval. And could easily become far too dangerous. The military could step in but that is a crap shoot.
There could be a civil war, but if so, at this point we would lose. The rest of the world could come to our aid but that too has logistical issues as noted above.
I think you are UNDER-REACTING to actual news. They grabbed a man off our streets and sent him to a concentration camp without due process, and now are working on sending "homegrowns" and imprisoning people for thought crimes.
You are, of course, welcome to your opinion, but you are wrong.
Annabel Ascher--Your insightful observations are respected, appreciated, and shared by many of us. Just as in the April 19, 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, many of us are trying--despite the odds--to figure out ways to fight as long as we can.
Protest, even saying NO in public, as Harvard University is doing, may inform/intimidate dominators, but the primary target is properly one another, informing, encouraging and uniting a focused and concerted response to attempts to impose control. A large part of political power is perceived legitimacy, and perceived legitimacy buoyed by lies and treachery is vulnerable, especially if too few play along. Everything could very well go straight to hell, but a lot of that depends on us. The big "us", in solidarity.
Guardrails? Such as? Where do you see any working effectively? What and how exactly do you see these people stopped when there are no consequences for them to fear?
@Crone at Large, Who is this in reply to? I have been saying for months that the guardrails are gone. I published two stacks about that very thing. Sadly, a good portion of the left leaning intelligentsia is still acting as if there are guardrails and all we have to do is keep one man, Trump, in check for just short of 4 more years then vote him out.
I say there is little chance of a real election. Only a Russian style burlesque of an election.
And it may not be "him". He could be long gone, but that will not wrest control from the regime, any more than impeaching and removing (another pipe dream). You have to go 20 levels down the order of succession to reach a non-MAGA. And the faces we see, except for Musk and Putin, are not the overlords. This is an oligarchy.
So you’re advocating ”Passive Submission” as the “best, Non-Violent” solution to the overthrow of our Government???? Good Luck with that…WOW I guess it takes all kinds!
I do whatever I can…at 80+ and not getting around very well anymore…but it’s what I’ve got to offer. I’ve contacted my Senators and House Representatives regarding many different issues/points. As well as, posting on Substack often. That said ….I’ve never gone “Gone Belly up to tRump and his toadies!” If I Insulted you or your friends with my comments regarding their position on “Passive Submission” that’s just too bad!
We’re both correct regarding who and what it takes. Have a nice day, if you can!
We are not here to goad, insult or ridicule. What we are here to do in this extreme crisis is to support each other. Given your age I would imagine you remember what it was like to pull together and save the Country. We need your support.
If there was ever justification for the old axiom, “Together we Stand, Divided we Fall” it’s now!! I have never seen such growing dismay, anxiety…Fear among Americans. It is not a time to turn on one another…we have mutual enemies enough. We have a lethal sickness at our core that will destroy America as we know it if not exorcised! Let’s all fight the good fight together!
No, you're not. I'm up at 0400 after a very troubled "sleep".
Edited to add: In spite of what the orange cat of 100panthers says, this is not an overreaction. I do not know the gender of that fellow reader, but this is classic "mansplaining" in my book.
Measured, thoughtful action to the abject power grab and lawlessness of this administration is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I keep thinking that only someone or thing as big and as powerful as Trump now is in America weighing in against him for forcefully is going to do the trick
That something is obviously not the Democratic Party. Nor "the voting public" for reasons mentioned. Nor Harvard University. Nor for that matter the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Hmmmmm....
That something I think would be the big Three American automakers, in an alliance with the UAW, and Boeing Corporation, and Lockheed Martin. And American Association of Aviation and Aerospace Workers, the whole bloody AFL-CIO, the Longdhoremans, the Teamsters, the Independent Truckers Association and the AAA, on AARP, United in calling for a big rig vehicle drive on DC that would tie it up the way Ottawa was tied up four years ago, and making it impossible for Elon Musk to get across town or Stephen Miller or Mike Johnson to get to work.
When the CEOs of the Big Three Stand up and say "He's gotta go", maybe it will happen. Plus add in their union leaders. And Boeing. And Lockheed. And maybe General Dynamics. Maybe GE. And Jamie Diamond for Citi Corp. A whose who lisr of powerful traditional business and labor leaders taking out a full page ad in the New York Times, and every other major American newspaper. And even the Times Picayune, saying "He's Gotta Go. It's Either Him or Us.". And we are going to tie up Washington until little Mike Johnson gets some courage and sees that it's done.
Maybe then. Not otherwise. Otherwise not until Trump destroys America and himself in the process, as he obviously intends. No other force will do it. Not the "force of public opinion". Not the generals. Not governors. Not street protesters. Not the federal courts. Not nothing.
" If we accept the idea that moving a person from one place to another undoes rights and disempowers the judiciary, we are endorsing the basic Nazism practice that enabled the killing of millions." Timothy Snyder
"If there were a map that showed democracy slipping into dictatorship, we would be at the spot marked “You are here.” We shouldn’t sugarcoat the danger. Due process matters to immigrants and Americans alike. When the presidency refuses to honor it, we are all in danger. Donald Trump could snap his fingers and secure Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. We all know that’s true, no matter what pretense this administration assumes." Joyce Vance
How about we focus on the message she is delivering. Joyce Vance is a respected Lawyer. We are at a supremely critical pass. One tiny misstep and we will not be voting in 2026. I honestly don't know what will save us at this time.
My overriding concern at this time is Americans ignoring the extreme seriousness of what is happening. Thanks for the note. We just need to keep each other real at this time. Take Care.
I’m not concerned about whether or not there will be elections or not. Even the most repressive regimes go through show elections in which -between voter suppression and predetermined results- the outcome is always predictable.
So now that trump and his associates have defied the ruling of the Supreme Court can we stop calling this a constitutional crisis and name it for the tyranny that it is!?! Can we finally admit that we are now being ruled by a dictator?
Use this spreadsheet to call/email/write any of our representatives as often as possible. Not just your own state reps, reach out to those in other states. Be as loud as you can and share this. Use your voice and make some “good trouble.”
Yes, and thank you, Mary. "Politics Girl" does a fine job.
We might recall, too, that the U.S. has just about always been funding dictators of the far right to terrorize their own people in all the countries of Central America.
The commanding general of the U.S. Marines 100 years ago, Major General Smedley Butler, expounded upon why the U.S. kept propping up the thugs. It was for the convenience of United Fruit and other major, Ivy-League-led U.S. companies who all wanted the rabble down there to be reduced to peonage better to profit those elites.
You can read about it in "Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire," by Jonathan M. Katz.
It only got worse, however, after that. Into our era the U.S. established its "School of the Americas" adjacent to Ft. Benning, Georgia -- where the U.S. trained the thugs' militia and secret police in all the finer points of disappearing people, torture, and lying PR. Better to enrich the governing thugs.
And our ill-educated on the far right cannot imagine why so many to this day crave exit from those banana republics, and entry into the very country that has always installed, subsidized, and trained the humanly worst in all the worst.
All very true, Phil, and pertinent to what our Nation has wrought and now become. As far back as the Monroe Doctrine, to all the chickenshit coups and regime changes in one Central American country after another and back again in a few more years.
Kissinger and Nixon gave Pinochet the push and support he needed to seize Chile for decades. Reagan and Co. funding the Contras while supplying Iran with weapons and shipments of cocaine to the U.S. while they incessantly squawked about the war on drugs. Our man in Panama, Noriega, propped up until he wasn't useful anymore.
Then there's the Caribbean and Haiti, probably the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, that has years of dictatorships and civil wars interspersed with hurricanes and earthquakes. Major General Smedley Butler had been there too on the island of Hispaniola. At the end of his career, as one of the most decorated soldiers in the United States Marines and in U.S. military history he said:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909–1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
He finally came to the realization that he had always been working for corporate interests and an oligarchical elite that have once again become so insatiated with greed, power and control that 90 years later, our freedom, constitutional rights and rule of law is now in unbelievable and dire jeopardy.
Yes genealogy of evil connecting at so many points is right, since it was during the George dubya Bush years, when he blundered into Iraq, that I first read Smedley Butler’s book ‘War is a Racket’.
I’ll be on the lookout for that biography you mentioned, thanks.
We don’t have many ill, educated on the far right what we have in our education system was ill educated children by the millions for the last 40 years
In 1979 when Jimmy Carter created the department of education, we were first in the world 30 years later we were 18th and now we’re 40th how do you like that direction? And now it cost us 10 times per student to what it cost us back then.
At a $36,000 cost per student six students could afford to hire two teachers at 85 or 90,000 each pay 10,000 for their retirement accounts and have two teachers for each students
WE ARE RESPECTED AROUND THE WORLD...but El Salvador won't release a prisoner if we ask them to?
TRUMP IS THE GREATEST NEGOTIATOR IN THE WORLD, THE ART OF THE DEAL...but he can't get the president of El Salvador to release a guy from prison even though we are paying them millions of dollars?
Thanks for posting this link. I had not read this Project Esther strategy before. It is unfortunate that Americans are not able to realize that people who are pro Palestinian just want to save the lives of innocent women and children who are being killed in Gaza while the IDF is trying to find the Hamas members who are hiding in tunnels.
Would you stop with the nonsense of the heritage foundation and project 25? This is not helping your party go from 36% approval rating four weeks ago to less than 20 today no leadership no leader, no organization, no agenda just violence and hate.
Ruth, I noticed that upon reading tonight’s comments, the process was MUCH swifter than usual….hahaha..I saw RS’s name and just swiped past his comments & the replies! I might actually get back to sleep soon…AND not fill my brain with useless clutter…yay!
Ruth, that’s not the question you should be asking. The question you should be asking is why there are more contradictory posts here because all I’ve seen here for months now is a bunch of lemmings communicating with each other with no pushback at all no fact, checking awareness from only seeing with one eye and hearing with one ear and it’s important because the people here should be like jurors, hearing both sides of the story in order to render a verdict and none of you were hearing both sides of the story. You’re only hearing the one you wanna hear. So much for free speech.
We are aware that Heather is not a politician, but a scholar first and foremost. She had been putting current events in a historical perspective. She has changed her approach now, because there are no real American historical parallels to what is going on these days.
She cites sources for everything she writes here.
You have no business assuming none of us reads anything else.
You are right. I have no business assuming anything,,,,,however the gullibility I have seen here indicates that many of the readers here don’t question or challenge her at all…and her sources are exactly that HER SOURCES…there are more than two sides to ANY source…many here believe unfounded fallacies and lies told by major media. And while both sides tell their stories, lately there have been some substantial wins of lawsuits against major liberal media for reporting these lies. CNN and msnbc as well as one of the “majors”…ie, the Russia hoax, the thin impeachments, the lawfare, the 51 storytellers about hunters laptop
AND THE MOST CONCERNING..THE COMPLETE COVERUP OF BIDENS DIMINISHED HEALTH AND MENTAL DECLINE which is now more than ever , revealing itself.
And all the “hate/TDS/EDS, causing the ridiculously misguided violence against Tesla….mostly owned by liberals as almost heavenly revered…as planet saving. As well as now three assasination attempts …with one being extremely SUSPECT…..cremation of the shooter?
As well I agree there are no historical comparisons to the past three or four presidential actions. Just too much, almost exclusively from the left side here.
I see this often here. Just “going with the flow”. I may end up posting contrary facts and sure enough some people. Call me a liar until they actually research and find that I’m telling the truth. There needs to be a balance for if there’s only one side of the story the readers are essentially defining gullibility
If you have credible resources, then use them. You are obviously releuctant to use sources. Don't just cry that posts rail against Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation. Those sources are quite available to all of us. Hateful projects are self-evident. I, for one, want a far less hateful world and want our country to be the "shining" example of it. Not the bully of the world.
Wait a minute did you say an insult to free speech? Can I tell you how many times I’ve been told to go F off or to get out of this thread? What the hell are you doing here you have no business here. We don’t wanna hear you go away. All from your left patrons of blessed free speech. Ha.
No, I don’t bother reading Heather’s speech. I read the first few lines, I know where she’s coming from and she’s always coming from left field to the lefties that are here appeasing them. Fsb? Well there’s plenty of TDS and Russian fear here enough for a lifetime.
Just so you understand, NBC ABC did a survey and suggested that 65% of Democrats would vote against the policy that’s popular with America if Trump proposed it 65%
80% of Americans believed that it’s not right to have men and women’s sports but every single Democrat, but two voted against the bill to protect women I’m here to try in a small way to level the playing field of all the haters here people that don’t read the alternative side of the story or don’t care for it at all, and dismiss it out of hand.
There is very little dissenting opinion here, and if you want to voice, your opinion, at least be a juror. Hear both sides of the story before you render one, not just illicit your hate expose almost on a daily basis by the left protest and violence against innocent people like burning Teslas or hating Elon Musk. Trump could’ve chosen anybody to head up those he could’ve chosen Ted Cruz. He could’ve chosen anybody from his cabinet then who would you attack the person or the project? The project was supported by Obama and Clinton FERVENTLY. So I’d be more than happy to have a rational conversation on any subject provided that we see both sides of the coin.
Forty years ago, the small yet populous country of El Salvador was ripped apart by what is still known simply as "La Guerra", i.e., the War, a terrible semi civil war between the ruling conservative parties long drunk on American investments and anti-communist theories, and the burgeoning left wing movements. The predecessor to Nayib Bukele in cruelty, while never President but head of the right wing ARENA Party, was a stone cold killer named Roberto D'Abuisson, who ordered the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in the middle of communion service at the Central Cathedral. St. Ronnie of Eureka turned a blind eye to this, as to the murder of Catholic nuns and thousands of poor farmers in the Salvadoran highlands, but at least Reagan didn't invite D'Abuisson to the White House.
I bring this up to demonstrate that the culture of right wing butchery in El Salvador has historical roots that run deep. I remember talking to a young woman in those years, among the first large group of Salvadoran exiles from La Guerra that began to populate Los Angeles, and when I mentioned some of the torture sites Joan Didion wrote in her book "Salvador", the look in her eye went from 0-60 on the terrified scale in seconds.
Nayib Bukele is a ghastly gangster of grotesque proportions, smug and pompous in his black turtleneck, joking with his patron Trump, caring not a whit for the humanity, decency and very lives of the many young men including Kilmar Abrego Garcia whose fate he holds in his dastardly hands, hands filled with filthy American taxpayer luchre, conveyed thereto from the little dictator's digits of Donald Trump.
To me, today's despicable disgrace characterizing the desecration of the Oval Office yet again by Trump, is even worse than that manifested during Zelensky's visit. Who among us could have foreseen in our worst nightmares, that an American President whose sworn, solemn constitutional duty is to execute the laws of the United States, and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, would ever so crudely and with such grisly jocularity, toss bon mots with a gangster dictator about outsourcing even more innocent human beings to a far off dungeon, never to appear again???
And from a historical perspective, this disgraceful day in the Oval Office was even more horrific, falling as it did on the 160th anniversary of the assassination of the President who did so much to bring so many under the protection of the very Constitution that Trump disdains.
As is his wont, Trump used this staged visit to convey his fake macho intimidation to the Courts of our Country, including the US Supreme Court, as he thumbed his nose at the oh-so-obvious orders to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return stateside. Judge Zinis should not only find Trump and his minions in contempt, but should order the Marshals to haul their asses before her to answer why they should not be put behind bars for refusing her direct orders.
This past Saturday, I joined many of my fellow Angelenos on the streets of our downtown so as to express our solidarity against the burgeoning oligarchy, and to listen to Senator Sanders and La Pasionaria herself, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak. Among the many souvenir and political buttons being sold was one that I would normally be loathe to wear, but purchase and wear it I did, feeling that these times are so dangerous and that the customary methods must be set aside for harsher ones, accompanied by harsher words.
NO ONE IS SAFE. Has the 14th amendment been deleted?
“We want to do homegrown criminals next…. The homegrowns.” Trump told Bukele. “You gotta build about five more places.” Bukele appeared to answer, “Yeah, we’ve got space.” “All right,” Trump replied.
Rather than being appalled, the people in the room—including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi—erupted in laughter.
In 1841, former President John Quincy Adams successfully argued before the Supreme Court in the Amistad case that captured African slaves should not be sent out of the country for trial.
"If the President has the power to do it in the case of Africans, and send them beyond seas for trial, he could do it by the same authority in the case of American citizens."
“When A Government Becomes Illegitimate”
(From “Future Visions” Substack newsletter)
“An American resident—protected by a court order—was wrongfully deported to a prison in El Salvador. The U.S. government admits this was a mistake. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled he must be returned. Yet he remains in a foreign prison, and our government now claims it cannot bring him back.
This is not an error. It is a revelation.
The American taxpayer funds international prison contracts beyond our own legal reach. We fund ICE agents empowered to kidnap and deport. We fund a government that violates due process, then says its hands are tied. We fund a system that disregards law, morality, and the lives of its own people.
When a government uses our money to subvert our laws, what legitimacy remains?
This is not a partisan issue. This is not a technical glitch. This is a collapse of covenant between people and state.
Our government has quietly constructed mechanisms that allow it to operate outside the Constitution. It outsources accountability. It disobeys court rulings. It disappears people.
This is the architecture of authoritarianism—disguised in bureaucracy, rationalized by policy, and normalized by silence.
We must now ask the question that generations before us asked in darker times:
When a government becomes destructive of the rights it was created to protect, does it still deserve the consent of the governed?
We are not calling for chaos—we are calling for courage. The courage to rethink, to rebuild, and to remember that government is meant to serve the people, not disappear them.
If one man can be vanished and forgotten by the very nation that swore to protect him, then none of us are safe.
This is our line in the sand.
Bring him home.
Then bring the system to account.”
https://substack.com/@futurevisions1/note/c-108720101
PLEASE SHARE with the media, your representatives, your family & friends.
Normalized by silence.
Normalized by all media even PBS who cover each transgression but don't dare to state the obvious. That is, the "what it all adds up to" - as did this good comment,
IMPEACH. Save our democracy!
George, this is what is so disheartening. It would take so few people, just 15 Republicans. Three representatives and 12 senators. They could stop all of this. But there is only complicity and cowardice and greed.
18 senators to get to a two-thirds majority.
😢😢😢
If impeached, he no longer has power over those fearful of his abuse of power.
GMAB! That might be what 'the rules say'.., but who we gonna call? Ghost busters? I mean the 'clown' has already been found guilty (by jurors) but is now a sitting president. Trump that. As a gentile people, our naïveté, meaning a lack of worldly experience, sophistication, or knowledge.., a simple-innocence, signifies a lack of awareness or understanding of the complexities and nuances of the world. I'm afraid we've had our time on the playground.
I agree, but who is going to bring this impeachment to fruition? The Magas will denounce it. They are more embedded with Trump now than they were post January 6.
Which House/Senate Republicans would impeach and convict
My guess is that there might be a FEW House GOP who MIGHT stand up and be counted but I am not sure enough to actually impeach.
Regardless of whether an impeachment could be brought and succeed in the House, there is less than ZERO chance enough Senators would go along to reach the required 67 Senators to convict. Currently that would take 20 GOP Senators assuming all 47 Democrats stuck together. There is simply no universe where 20 GOP Senators would stand up against their party to post Trump.
And even if such an outrageous result could occur, what then? JD Vance? Does anyone think THAT would actually improve things?
Right now we are stuck between a very solid rock and a seemingly immovable hard place. This country, like it or not, and just like Germany in 1933, elected a madman along with his mad party. Once elected, bringing it down will be almost impossible before the next election assuming that even takes place.
We were all warned. Elections have consequences. Now we have to face those consequences and hope that we aren't already beyond any form of redemption.
He’s been impeached twice already (once for armed insurrection at the Capitol, which is a “what does it take?” scenario) and not given close to a fair trial in the Senate. There is no hope that this would go anywhere.
Right.., just like pissing into the wind. Once the pissing is done, what's next? Put a checkmark into 'the block'??. C'mon.., this SOB has already watched watched us libtards drenching ourselves in futility. Now, we have the whole office staff laughing at us., Re: Bukele.. "we've got space"...hahahahaaahahaaahaaa..!" We are one pathetic bunch. How long's it gonna be before this here "homegrown" forum of dissent (HCR) is taken off the air? Got a plan for that George? Sorry, George Baum.., juss sayin.
Hard to disagree with you MR12A. I am still looking for any signs of intelligent functioning opposition here. I wonder if it is really too late.
Well said.
How do we bring him home?? How!? My heart is breaking for this man and his family. And I am blood boiling ENRAGED at the arrogant neo-Nazi psychopaths who had the audacity yesterday to say to the world they can’t do it, and they will not do it. They just told us, while laughing at us, that under this disgusting, fascist “regime” that no one in the United Stares of America is safe. NO ONE.
It takes a special kind of corrupt, soulless liar to say what Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Trump, and Bukele said audaciously from the Oval Office yesterday and Trump's got hundreds of 'em in his administration. I agree. If SCOTUS blinks now, no American is safe. Thanks for your post.
SCOTUS has already blinked. They gave Frump unlimited powers as long as whatever is done can be considered an ‘official’ act. Remember - if it can happen to your neighbor, it can happen to YOU!
So true! I'm afraid trump will take his executive power to go after Democrats and Independents just as Hitler's thugs went after Communists and Social Democrats after he became chancellor of Germany. I can only imagine how bad life will be if Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon start running the show while trump golfs his presidency away.
Alan, they are soulless ghouls. I am at the point where i just want someone to shoot the bastard. Or perhaps some could channel the Praetorian Guard.
I think SCOTUS already blinked. This is not the SCOTUS that decided 9-0 that Nixon had to comply with the law. This decision LOOKS like a "lawful" one but it is really a 6-3 SCOTUS joining in the collective GOP laughter at the ignorance of us, not even recognizing that we've already been defeated.
As I have said before in these comments, this is going to get far worse before it gets any better.
Jon Rosen, you could be right. I share your skepticism about what SCOTUS intended to say. "Facilitate" leaves room for doubt.
Oval Office needs to be deconstructed & fumigated.
This gentleman lives in my community. I'm going to investigate whether his family needs any financial support.
I'm sure they do. Perhaps a go fund me page?
I fear he will be murdered in that prison. We must act, we must organize, we must impeach.
George, I do agree. Gotta start a multi-pronged approach, as opposed to just talking about stuff. That together with finding where the goon-squad violates a law and taking them into court as well. But, just impeaching the jerk isn't going to do the trick. Question "their" authority, but don't go to jail doing it. I think that (questioning) is being donin many cases, we just don't hear enough about that.., OR how one might go about doing so. AOC serves as a good example as she tries to inform her constituents of their rights.
I have the same fear. And I live in DC so I don't have voting reps to call. But I need to do something.
I suspect the man is already not living.
It explains a lot about what's going on.
That’s a terrifying thought but I hope it’s more the legal implications of obeying the law that the Regime is trying to avoid.
I fear you’re right.
Funny I was okay until I saw your concurrence. Which made me cry
Extradition.
"Yesterday, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) requested a meeting with Bukele today “to discuss the illegal detention of my constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.” He said that he would travel to El Salvador this week if Abrego Garcia “is not home by midweek.” Senztor Van Hollen can do.
"Home grown"....! Seems such comments, Jessie, might be construed as being alien in nature and anti-government.., etc, etc. In other words, "home grown" evidence of dissent! And, that will not be tolerated. NO. No. No. Bukele, has "space" for you.., ka-clinkk! I'll be right there with you. We may be forbidden to speak with each other aswe mop and shine the floor.
Jessie - yes the LITERAL laughing. Cruelty as entertainment.
President Adams made a choice about removing people from our soil for trials. If he could,.....
Powerful and true. The descent into lawlessness has been going in for weeks now, but yesterday T and his toadies not only flaunted the rule of law but did it with impunity, and expressly in the presence of the media. They rubbed our noses in their lawlessness. As Robert Hubbell put it: "The one thing that will stop Trump is the American people taking to the streets to revoke the consent of the governed. ...The key is massive, sustained protests...."
Pamela, I'm offering this reply with complete kindness out of a desire to help. People frequently confuse the words, "flaunt" and "flout."
Flaunt means to show off with the intention of impressing a large audience.
Flout means to publicly disobey a law or disregard a tradition.
Ouch, you are correct. And I write for a living. That's what I get for commenting before my morning coffee.
Happens to the best of us. Drink up and have a great day.
Pamela, it happens all the time even to those who write all the time. I often comment here either before I have had a full cup or late at night.
I would say, they did both.
That's what I was thinking. This dialogue helps a bit. I've been ricocheting between nausea and tears since watching clips of that meeting - the smugness as they delight in their power over....is a call for action.
In this case I feel like both words are appropriate for what the regime is doing.
Thanks for the simple explanation.
The credit goes to “Future Visions” Substack.
Just subscribed, thank you, sister!
What about extradition?
Daniel, I posted elsewhere here (a bit tongue-in-cheek) that perhaps he should be prisoner-swapped for the alleged arsonist/wife-and-child-beater Balmer, if the convicted felon were truly eager to rid the country of nonproductives and violent thugs.
Daniel, we shouldn’t be looking for another way to get Garcia back in this country. There is an order in place issued unanimously by the US Supreme Court that orders the president to bring him home. Trump is defying that order. He has coerced the leader of El Salvador with $6,000,000 to help him defy the law. Trump and his lying co-conspirators should be apprehended and flown to the prison in El Salvador. This action wouldn’t be an “unfortunate mistake.” Mr. Garcia could return on Air Force One!
Yeah...but the USDC now has jurisdiction and can only do what it can do. I'd try extradition. On another site I said:
We have an extradition treaty with El Salvador. https://www.oas.org/ext/Portals/33/Files/TreatiesB/USA_biltreat_elsal_eng_1.pdf
We have a checkered history with El Salvador. From AI
Challenges and Disputes:
There have been reports of the Salvadoran government refusing to extradite MS-13 gang leaders to the United States, despite extradition requests.
Some argue that the Salvadoran government may be protecting certain gang members, possibly in exchange for a reduction in violence.
This situation has led to tensions between the United States and El Salvador, with the U.S. government publicly pressuring El Salvador to extradite the gang leaders.
Key Points:
The extradition treaty provides a legal framework for transferring individuals to face justice in either country.
There are ongoing disputes and challenges related to the extradition of MS-13 gang leaders, with some reports suggesting that the Salvadoran government may be shielding certain individuals.
The situation has led to tensions between the two countries, with the U.S. government publicly pressuring El Salvador to comply with extradition requests
__
I'd help pay for the fuel!
P.S. I did what you directed and gave your information to Garcia’s attorney. I then sent this “letter” (from Future Visions”) and he thanked me. Thought you should know.
Exactly!
You need the courts for that and the last time I checked trump had those in his pocket too.
Not all of them, right?
Daniel, who can implement the 25th amendment? And does it remove him from office?
The cabinet I believe….and obviously that band of sycophants and criminals would never have him removed. UNLESS they get a better deal from VP and his henchmen.
Forget it. Applies when the president is incapacidated. Might have worked when he was # 45. Not now.
All we have is Feathers of Hope. If we can get impeachment hearings. Call witnesses.
Daniel, they will use death star until he drops dead no matter how incapacitated he is.
What is your comment on this and who would prosecute?
https://open.substack.com/pub/ourcivicduty/p/the-us-constitution-requires-the
My comment? Need Feathers of hope to effecutate anything at this time. Need an impeachment trial. No election until 2026 and there's some question whether we will have one and if we do it won't be fixed.
As a practical matter, energy has to be directed to Republicans and at this point national security is our best chance, although opposition to tarriffs anfd to Musk and his Muskovites is growing among Congressional Republicans.
Where I live people are picketing my MAGAT Cuban American Congresswoman's office.
I love this comment and cross posted it.
"When a government uses our money to subvert our laws, what legitimacy remains?"
Since they are using (and stealing) OUR money, then we need to figure out how to starve them of it. We need economic saboteurs.
Such a truthful response. My hope is that enough Republicans in the House and Senate would adhere to it and assist Democrats in removing this scourge from office.
You must be drinking some kind of kool-aid LOL (although this is NOT a laughing matter). It takes 67 Senators to remove an impeached President. There are only 47 Democratic Senators.
Please do the math.
It does not "math".
Beautifully stated and, sadly, very true. Thank you, Marlo.
Again: When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. I wish RBG was here now. She'd kick some ass!
Marlo, thanks for posting this. I have posted it to my Facebook page.
Brilliant, clear, and right on brother.
Your essay needs to be shared more globally; hopefully with your representatives; newspapers and other social media. It exposes very serious "policies" in our name and with our money, as you wrote. And you pose a very important question. This is an excellent revelation.
This says it all. It is up to all of us to either accept or reject this form of government. To say nothing is to say everything.
Trump and El Salvador are building his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Guantanamo prisons.
Your Question was answered in the Declaration of Independence.
"... bring the system to account".
Exactly how do you plan on doing that, when every government institution is now the plaything of a convicted felon?
It took a Revolution to toss out the last king we had. I doubt that polite remonstrance will deal with the present despotic regime.
And it should be remembered that the king we tossed out in 1781 didn't live in this county and had at best tangential connections to it. The colonies were a far remote place as far as most people in England were concerned. They were much more concerned about France than America.
Today it is OUR country and OUR government, not some far off king.
This is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder than when we declared independence.
The innocent prisoner is probably dead or soon will be.
And now here we are, with Trump wanting to illegally deport American citizens. Judge Xinis needs to issue a contempt order ASAP.
Now John Roberts must face the monster he created, as I’m sure this will go back before the S.Ct.
Only a silver bullet or a stake through the heart.....
Sure, I agree. And just WHO is going to enforce it?
We the people need to enforce it. Sadly we can't count on the courts or the congress - it's up to us...otherwise we will be next!
The courts are doing what they can. Congress, though, is as useless as teats on a bull.
In my part of the country, we say, "... teats on a boar hog."
That seems more apropos of the group you're describing.
In my part of the country, it isn't "teats." I was being polite. :)
Courts can go after the presenting attorneys: contempt of court can mean fines, jail time, and disbarring. First two could be hard to enforce, last one is out of government hands.
The orangearangetang shrugged.
We are.
Exactly!!
If we the people are not going to go down with a label like "America's Neville Chamberlains" we must insist that the egregious violation of ALL OF OUR RIGHTS going on now be stopped and punished. Trump must be impeached, and most of his cabinet forced out of office. He already has spoken of plans that look chillingly like Hitler's as he wound up in the launch of WWII. Where is the red line? I say it's already been crossed.
To me he crossed the line on January 6. Then there’s this new revelation:
“Jack Smith’s new document drop shows that the Trump Campaign PAID for travel, hotels, expenses and organizing efforts to bring outside Radical organizers to the Capital on January 6.
Trump and his lackeys planned the assault on our Capital”
All those in the Senate that refused to impeach him are enablers and are complicit in our present situation.
Too little, too late.
The time to act was in 2021.
Swift, decisive action should have been taken.
Biden should have instructed Merrick Garland to publicly and openly arrest Trump and throw his treasonous ass in jail on the day he was inaugurated, along with the rest of the scumbags in Congress who assisted. Right then and there, the cameras clicking, videos rolling, with a stern and serious public statement that TREASON was committed for all to see and we are a nation of laws and no one - NO ONE - is above the law. The J6 “committee” would have been a trial, not a reality TV spectacle, and his ass would be rotting in prison by now. Along with his fascist, traitorous cohorts.
Instead, we are living in a nightmare that we could have prevented.
I blame Biden and Garland for where we are RIGHT NOW.
What a disgrace. What a downfall.
Biden followed the law. The Judiciary branch is separate from the Executive branch - something Trump refuses to acknowledge.
After an attempted coup d’etat was committed on January 6th, by a former president who lost an election and perpetrated a lie, and our capital was attacked by a mob of his rabid lunatics, all incited by this man and his known cohorts in Congress, which was objectively and inarguably an unprecedented event in American history, those events called for revolutionary action. Not simply “acting normal.” That was an act of war. How do you not see that? It was clear as day to me then. As I watched it unfold in real time, and as I had witnessed for the months leading up to it.
I understand where you’re coming from, Jessie. AND attacking the people who are reading your comments and are slightly less incensed is really not helpful. In fact, it’s a stellar example of how the Left “eats its own.”
It was worse than Shays' Rebellion, to me, since they were not seeking to overthrow the elected government, as the J6 crowd was trying to do.
The courts are separate but the Justice department is PART of the Executive branch.
Biden followed the law but he let the law DRAG its feet. Biden and the Democrats leading us in 2021 desperately wanted Trump to just "go away". There was no fervent compulsion to put Trump in jail by most Democrats even if there should have been.
And as is often the case, justice delayed is justice denied. The wait meant that Jack Smith wasn't appointed until late 2022, almost 20 months after the attack on the Capitol.
By that time people were bored and distracted by other things. The Ukranian war. Slow rising inflation. Biden snoozed and we all "loozed".
Money took care of that possibility.
I empathize, but let's all remember that, although Garland and Biden appear 'weak' when compared with the 'scintillating power' wielded by a dictator without regard for the rule of law, they acted within it. I think we need, now that it's starting to feel as if it's too late, to look toward Vaclev Havel and other leaders who clawed back democracy from dictatorial regimes much like the one we are suffering today. Or maybe the French Resistance to the Vichy government in WWII, if it comes to that. As in Winston Churchill's famous advice: "Never, never, never ever give up."
I saw January 6th as an act of war, quite frankly. Biden should have responded as such. That’s all.
But yes: Vaclav Havel is a wonderful example. I stood in that square in Prague back in 2019. And I wondered then if we’d one day have to do what they did. It appears that we do.
I have a little book called Power to the People by Vaclev Havel. Out of print but widely available used. Also read the similar little books on resistance before and after the fact by Timothy Snyder. An hour of your time, a lifetime of useful concrete suggestions.
I'd add the Norwegian resistance to the Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling government that Nazi Germany enabled as a puppet regime.
It occurred to me that I know little of who should be considered the leader of the Norwegian resistance other than that the Royal family of King Haakon VII had escaped eventually to England after the April 9, 1940 German invasion. Poland was the first surprise attack in 1939 but at least seems to have made Norway a bit better prepared as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_resistance_movement
"...Anticipating German efforts to capture the government, the entire Norwegian parliament (the Storting), the royal family, and cabinet hastily evacuated Oslo by train and car to Hamar and then on to Elverum, where an extraordinary session of parliament was called. In large part because of the presence of mind of the parliament's president C. J. Hambro, the Storting managed to pass an emergency measure (known as the Elverum Authorization) that gave full authority to the king and his cabinet until the Storting could convene again.
This gave King Haakon VII and the cabinet constitutional authority to reject the German emissary's ultimatum to accept the German invasion. Although there were several German attempts to capture or kill the King and the Norwegian government, they managed to evade these attempts and travelled through Norway's remote interior until leaving the country for London on the British heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire on 7 June.[1]...
...Reserving the constitutional legitimacy of the Norwegian government also undermined Vidkun Quisling's attempts at claiming the Norwegian government for himself. After Quisling had proclaimed his assumption of the government, several individuals on the Supreme Court took the initiative to establish an Administrative Council (Administrasjonsrådet) in an effort to stop him. This became a controversial initiative, in that the legitimate Norwegian government refused to give the council any legal backing, and the German authorities ended up disbanding it.
Initial defence
Although some politicians across the political spectrum had advocated strengthening the country's defence capabilities, a longstanding policy of disarmament following World War I had left the Norwegian military underfunded and undertrained by the late 1930s. As a result, forces in Southern Norway were largely unprepared for the German invasion, and the invading German army met little initial resistance.
There was also spirited defence seen at other locations, including Midtskogen, Hegra and Narvik but these were largely the result of improvised missions by isolated military units and irregular volunteers. The battles slowed the German advance by several days, allowing the Norwegian government to evade capture and conduct critical constitutional business..."
I do not want to seem to deny that any of this WW2 stuff is at least interesting but the situation is NOT the same.
We are not being invaded by an outside hostile country. We are dealing with our OWN government which, for better or worse, was elected by a majority of OUR people voting in the 2024 election.
And let's not forget the Danes, who all, after the Nazi invaders established themselves there and ordered all Jews (read any outgroup a fascist government chooses as a sacrifice to the gods of Zenophobia) had to wear armbands with a star of David, put on that armband themselves, thwarting the attempt to identify and deport Danish Jews to Black Earth sites and killing facilities in Poland and elsewhere. Like them, I feel ready to resist in any way I can until the bastards surrender in defeat.
Yes, blame Biden and Garland. That's REALLY helpful.
It’s helpful to connect the dots. It’s not my fault you can’t see that the horrific, treasonous events of January 6th called for a REVOLUTIONARY act. Playing by the rules is why we’ve been metaphorically raped and sodimized by the fascist right wing. The Democrats failed to act. And here we are. Dots connected.
It’s vital that we take stock of, and understand how our democracy got hijacked. There was no show of strength or inspired pushback from the Attorney General, not to mention the appalling foot dragging.
Bullies take advantage of soft moments, and Garland/Biden offered him one on a silver platter.
What is important for us as we reflect on that time, is that we must learn the lesson to never drag our feet again and we must be aggressive in protecting our constitutional rights.
What would be a bit helpful is if Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dubya stood up for the values they upheld while in office and condemned the Trump/Heritage Foundation's coup d'état . Same goes for all the former living cabinet officers in these administrations.
Does Bill Barr give a sh#t? No he's too busy scaring Louisiana AG: "Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr warned Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Thursday against continuing to support dozens of lawsuits that target oil and gas companies for destruction of the state’s retreating coastline." (https://www.eenews.net/articles/bill-barr-bashes-louisianas-republican-ag-over-climate-suits).
We can spend a lot of time defending the high road but it's apparent that it's converged with the low road to take us over a cliff.
Ha! Guess who's lining Bill's pockets?
It's not blaming them. We were there too. It's pointing out how insidious the whole situation was. Let's see if we can't learn from that. That's how I see it. These discussions (posts) bring things back into focus.
When Trump got so upset that the secret service didn’t drive him to the Capitol on Jan 6, it confirmed for me that his plan was to walk into the rotunda like Il Duce, and take control.
Where did you see that? Please share the link if you can.
I did not see the report or know about but if one read and researched carefully yes it was apparent and many folks involved are still in the mix of now.
Where can I read the doc?
Wo what is your plan for stopping it? We (well, most of us) agree that the red line has been crossed. But what is the plan? HOW do we stop the train wreck? Ideas?
Our former allies in NATO should declare the US a terrorist state and stop all travel to the US and trade. That might get the attention of some in the administration.
Every day I read about something they are doing my mind immediately jumps back to Lindsey Graham's statement in 2015, "If we elect Trump, he will destroy the republican party" or there abouts, what he left out was the destruction of the United States and democracy.
And now they are telling a private collage, Harvard Law that they have to eliminate DEI programs, screen international students who are supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism and ensure "viewpoint diversity" in its hiring, to promote American values, the hypocrisy of their actions is enough to make me want to throw up.
To the streets now in overwhelming numbers, fuck the price of eggs.
A NATIONAL STRIKE!
With full adherence. For as long as it takes. Have a good look at what happened in France in 1968. But then, De Gaulle was not an evil man, and he eventually bowed to the will of the people, who continued to love him until the end of his life, never forgetting how he led the Resistance..
INTO THE STREETS!
Nothing less, I'm afraid. Postcards and unanswered phone calls aren't achieving anything.
Yes there are but it is indeed a time for everything all at once.
They
At the very least, call your representatives, or call those who are doing something and support them. Politicians like votes. It is something. The poll numbers are starting to turn because of the tariffs. We don't want to wreck that with more militant obstruction at this point.
Militant obstruction or destruction would justify Trump's desire to activate the use of military forces against protestors and others. Be very, very careful here. He is already testing these waters and is not above using agent provocateurs to set things going in that direction. He is as bad as it gets and will only get 'badder' if he gets more power in his hands.
Trump has wet dreams about tuning the military on peaceful protesters. Sorry, had to go there.
ha ha? I thought his wet-dreams were mainly about decapitating the likes of Justin Trudeau and any other good-looking world leader Melania ever mooned over in public. Or Big Macs with extra special sauce.
Anne B -- Actually, I think calling our Representatives is the first thing to do.
And do often.
Start by speaking out at a weekly Saturday protest, that you convene. The next steps will reveal themselves as we go forward.
We march on!
Into the streets is exactly what the administration now wants. Then he calls all participants ‘terrorists’ that can be sent to El Salvador ‘prisons’ that are also an excuse for lining the pockets of what’s-his-name, the dictator of ES. Invoking martial law will then be further destroying any semblance of justice, as there is now a thread left by courageous judges and some Democrats. And now Harvard. I wish I had the answer. I hope to be a part of the answer, so keep suggesting… keeping up political/economic pressure is one way…
Peacefully and with joy into the streets. A la April 5
We need to sing more and wave the flag.
Reclaim Old Glory!
Read Feathers of Hope.
Checking it now. Little I read indicates a spiritual approach, which I highly recommend and attempt to practice. We have the possibility to see ‘behind the veil’ so to speak and also to get help that’s not so obvious. I work with young people to develop their abilities to see more deeply and act more responsibly…
I read yesterday that Harvard has refused to comply. Not true?
It is true about Harvard. Today T pulled millions away from them as punishment for not drinking his Koolaid!
Dear me! If he keeps on this way he risks an even wider exposure of his depth of intellect. (HARVARD!!!! it's made me snigger, even if it's getting hard to laugh.) (And my law professor cousin was so respected at his Australian university because he'd taken a higher degree at Harvard... )
Disrupt. Obstruct. YES! Sabotage. NO! Sabotage brings us down to their low level, plus sabotage would "authorize violent retaliations." Disrupt. Obstruct. Peacefully continue to protest! Protest has been and will continue to cause Trump to "Stand-down and others to "Stand-up!"
Obstruction causes disruption. That is our goal, and we re-build from there.
Sabotage is unnecessary, dangerous … and stupid. Don’t go there, and dont bring it here.
Substack, the opposition that held four million people marching in protest without one window or head getting smashed is what we are all about.
Read MLK’s speaches on no-violence. They will help wash away your need to engage in violent acts.
Actually, I understood "sabotage" in this case as meaning non-violent acts of planned disruption rather than Molotov cocktails. Trump is the one who bandies the word "bloodbath" about.
Leigh Horne,
The sooner the better. I am a simple very average person, one who is grateful for the freedoms for which our forefathers fought with their minds and hearts and fortunes. No one has the right to take our values...the laws fought for with great minds and devoted hearts. Those before us gave their lives, spilled their blood gave the limbs of their bodies, for freedom. How can we stand around and watch someone of such little character and no love or respect for this country just take away our freedoms? How can we allow this man who is in El Salvador due to OUR mistake....by the way... each of those human beings TAKEN have the right to a fair trial. The LAW proves whether they are each a criminal or not. They are each human beings created in the image of God...not just a number, not just an object. The fact that they were taken from the US to El Salvador by the order of our President does NOT make it OK! We are the USA!!! Our laws are to be administered fairly and properly . It is why we are who we are as a people...as one of the greatest nations in the world. With these actions, we have lost our credibility with the nations of the world.
Any one of us can be treated the same...do you question that??? Open your eyes, your mind and your heart.
This man has a wife and children. He is an American citizen with the rights and protections due an American citizen!!!!
It was heartbreaking to see the COWARDLY "leadership" sitting silently, watching Trump put on his "show of strength and control" before the leader of El Salvador. How pathetic!!!! I never imagined we would sink so low as Americans!!! Trump's PUPPETS responded at his command!!!! in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!
I empathize so much with your distress, even despair. I feel it too, and am living with a sick stomach and heavy heart all this time now. Each new attack on our laws, ideals, and protections makes all that worse. Of course, I realize, too, that our laws and ideals have never extended to everyone. We have not extended equality under the law much less equal opportunity to women, children, people of color, immigrants, Native Americans and others throughout our history. Yes, we have in our ideals been something of a Shining City on the Hill, but never have been a singular or unflawed one. Maybe we are getting something of a taste of our own (some of us, anyway) medicine. Which makes this an opportunity to create something better from here on out. But first we must take down those who, like Trump & Co., are so dangerous, so greedy, so cruel and heartless that they cannot be allowed to go on. If legal remedies fail us, we need to demonstrate, strike, anything that avoids martial law to do this. I write postcards, demonstrate, write and call my congressman and senators weekly. Maybe all these pebbles in the stream will begin to pile up and form the basis of a dam to stem this raging flood we're all being swept downstream by.
To me, it is so important that we do not do things which we can be arrested for, because that take us off the street, so to speak. We need to conduct our resistance in a intelligent manner. Not weak knee'd, but smart. Give that twit Noem and her horsemen reason to arrest you and she will. You're done! "Home Grown terrorist" is an ill-defined term, designed to fit as needed. There are other ways we can make our mis-givings (putting them mildly!!!) known. Some will require a sacrifice. Let's see what they might be. Confrontation is not out of the question at all, however, dying on the cross, only to be unheard is a waste. Use the courts while we have them. Support our legislators who are willing to stick their neck out. Let's get behind Harvard (hope it holds out). Come up with a 'surprise attack'.., meaning something which catches 1601 Pornhub Close off-guard. Use psychology. Refute the BS they are putting out. Personally, I'm waiting for the moment in the WH briefing room where a journalist tells that little 27 yr old mouthpiece to take her snotty demeaning remark(s) and shove em, and walk out the door.
I say, if you're going to engage in sticking your neck out in public, make sure someone has their phone out to film any goons who emerge out of the bushes, and that your videographer knows when and how to fade into the background and see the reel gets into the hands of someone who will get it widely viewed. Sometimes a single individual can grab attention in ways that mass protests can't. We ALL need to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to influence events without getting gulagged.
Call those in Congress: 202-224-3121
Tell them to push back at Trump and his policies, particularly the SAVE ACT and this budget bill (it will raise the debt)
Agree one hundred percent, Emily.
Unfortunately, not a citizen. If he comes back to the US, he's still subject to deportation.... to anyplace except El Salvador.
But we also MUST be supported by our representatives, who need to take emergency action, not just deliver a speech when it's their turn for a few minutes in Congress.
Otherwise, are they in fact representing you? and if not, why are they there, getting paid for what?
Yes, but not oncey-twicey. I write all three of mine weekly. So far, their replies have been late in coming and mainly non-committal. I went to a town hall meeting, too; ditto. But despite the tepid response, it's one of the only ways open to us to make ourselves known. I do think the combination of public and private protests may eventually embolden our elected representative to stand up themselves. Or maybe it's just that I hope so. But hope is better than despair. Without it, we are truly lost.
YES, see Feathers of Hope. Join the movement.
"We want to do homegrown criminals next.... The homegrowns." I can think of at least 1,600 homegrowns that were pardoned by the number 1 "homegrown criminal," DJT
I was rushing off to our protest in Freeport and didn't catch the unintentional extra "do" in the original post. Though slightly humorous, the extra "do" was removed.
In 1841, former President John Quincy Adams argued that if the U.S. government could send Africans overseas for trial, it could do the same to American citizens. That warning feels urgent today. During Trump’s presidency, many worried about attacks on immigrants, journalists, and political critics. In El Salvador, President Bukele has jailed thousands without trials, claiming it’s to fight crime. Adams's point still matters: when leaders get too much power over who stays, who speaks, or who gets a fair trial, everyone’s rights are at risk. Once the government can silence or remove one group, it can do the same to anyone. That’s why protecting basic rights for all people protects freedom for everyone.
I'm reminded that one of the two leading causes of the War of 1812 was "Impressment" of sailors on US ships by British effectively, "Press gangs" claiming they were only taking British citizens that were illegally avoiding service to their country. See https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/major-events/war-of-1812-overview/
John Quincy Adams was a Harvard man just like his father as were John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt; Rutherford B. Hayes and Barak Obama graduated from Harvard Law; George W. Bush from Harvard Business School. Harvard now is displaying the integrity, courage and patriotism of its famous sons.
Thank you for your wisdom.
The credit goes to the author. I provided a link.
is it conceivable that the Roberts Court as weak as it is will let this stand? If it does, then any legitimacy for the Roberts court is finished. Forever.
The legitimacy of the Robert’s Court was extinguished when declared that The Felon President was immune from prosecution for criminal acts committed while he is in the white house. The conservative majority, thanks to the unconstitutional blocking of President Obama’s nominee by Mousey Mitch, is corrupt, it is mendacious and it is guilty of creating the conditions that allow the Felon President to dismantle the laws and agencies of the country for his and his sycophants friends benefit and wealth.
It makes me physically ill to read the facts about the miscreant that was elected to be the leader of this once great country.
I am angry beyond words at the failure of his party to rein him in. They parrot his lies and laugh at maliciousness.
In four years the answer to are you better today than you were 4 years ago, the answer will most likely be a resounding NO!
Four years??? Can someone tell me what trump and his henchmen have done in the last 84 days to make "America great again"? Or to "keep America great"? Is there ANYTHING that has not been ruined, destroyed, demolished, poisoned, undone?
That was never the point, imo, that's just what they tell the gullible electorate. It looks from a distance as if there are two groups: one are the pathologically greedy, who think they are owed a slave-like worker force to make them rich, and the other are the psycho Sillicon Valley weirdos who believe, they are so superior to the rest of us, that they should have the power to rule, first the US, but long-term the world, I suppose.
I think the point was always to destroy current US society.
I don't think they believe they are superior to anyone else, but they are proving that they can get away with whatever they like. Like undisciplined under-ten year olds.
Wait a minute you didn’t call it gullible when Joe Biden got 13 million more votes than the God Barack Obama. When even back then as you’re hearing now, Joe Biden was essentially non compos mentis. We don’t really know who is running the White House ask Ron Klein. ? Oooops
So you didn't pick up that Trump admitted taking his third cognitive test as part of his recent physical examination? He still doesn't seem to realise that it's a test for dementia not intelligence; or to understand that the reason he's had to take it three times is because of concerns about his mental health. As far as we know, Biden has never taken such a test and a special counsel's report in February last year found no evidence of dementia, just the normal signs of senescence. Given the economic chaos that Trump has caused over the past week I'm not sure that it would be good news that he was given a clean bill of mental health. It would only prove that he's mad as a hatter. By the way, anyone who is taking medication for high cholesterol and blood pressure cannot seriously be described as 'fit'. Personally, I believe that Trump is an idiot. Anyone who holds the view that tariffs are a form of tax on the foreign states on whose goods they are imposed rather than American importers and consumers; and who thinks that the US should have trade surpluses with every country in the world, is clearly stupid beyond words.
In no way am I defending trump, and I am not a doctor, but I believe there are millions of people who take high blood pressure and cholesterol lowering meds to remain fit. Any doctors care to weigh in?
It is the electorate that believes these insane actions that is stupid.
WTF are you talking about? How will you feel if you are carted off to El Salvador if the next president in a Democrat?
You know I love when you guys make these ethereal hypothetical ridiculous comparisons. Do your homework Barney would you please
But as has been said for all you empathy, caring people let’s bring them all back and move them in right next-door ten to a home let’s say. And then we’ll all pray that you don’t have a daughter.
If I were an illegal immigrant, I’d be concerned every day that I’m gonna get carded off back to my home country, which is what has been promised by other presidents as well Only now it’s against the law
Barack Obama deported 2 million during his presidency I didn’t hear an FN peep out of you during that entire time Bill Clinton was also very effective, not quite as well as Obama about deporting people back to their home country. But now that it’s Trump lol. Give me a break Barney
Well, he's doing wonders for European unity (bar the traitor Orbán).
Yesterday, in a conversation about traveling, I said Americans will not be welcome in Europe. A retired Army Colonel just smiled and said this needed to happen. "Well, it may be a little extreme." I had to leave the room.
But why does it need to happen that Americans won't be welcome?! A smug smile isn't an answer. My neighbor shrugged when I said my retirement accounts were hurt shrugged and said, "Remember - buy low."
Sadly, this is what happens in fascistic countries. Fascism has as one important foundation the erosion of empathy. Although maybe your neighbour was always a tosser.
Americans who are openly opposing the current fascist takeover will be welcome here. The others should be prepared for some angry confrontations.
In fact, if you wanna be honest Marley, if you shut off your TV didn’t read the newspaper didn’t post here. You wouldn’t know a damn thing had changed in your life from day-to-day not one single thing. In the meantime, a lot has changed in the United States to bring us back to reality $36 trillion in debt that we’re trying to fix.
You'll find out soon enough when your mother's social security is cut, your treatment for cancer isn't forthcoming, a measles outbreak kills children in your town, your veterans can't get a new leg and when there's nobody to warn you of that hurricane on its way, or to pay for the clear-up of your town and the repair of your home.
But tax cuts for the wealthy are A Ok right Rick?
Sure close the border from 11,000 illegals coming in a day to 70 coming in a day how was that for starters?
Doge has uncovered at least $150 billion in fraud and waste. Which is exactly what Obama and Clinton said.
Prohibited men from participating in women’s sports. Which all women’s libbers should really appreciate.
Mortgage rates down below 6% for the first time in years.
Not bad for just 84 days
https://ycharts.com/indicators/30_year_mortgage_rate - not BELOW 6%
Let's see that list of $ 150 billion in fraud and waste. Every single item so far has been questionable or 'a mistake'.
By the way, let me send you a couple of links. I think you’ll enjoy.
Here’s a statement by Barack Obama. Barack Obama “Everyone knows that getting rid of the deficit will require some tough decisions, and that includes cutting back on billions of dollars in programs that a lot of people care about. What should be easy is getting rid of the pointless waste and stupid spending that doesn't benefit anybody. Waste we should be getting rid of, even if we didn't have a deficit.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/74365
And I’ll find you one by Clinton and Gore didn’t hear a peep out of anybody when Obama fired a half 1 million federal employees and deported 2 million illegals
So you mean you supported Obama’s efforts to reduce waste in government is that what I hear you saying, Rick?
https://www.keithhennessey.com/2011/07/09/last-grand-bargain/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/clinton-trump-federal-workers/
Doge.gov. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. 84 days Marley 84 days he’s been in office. And he has done miracles in 84 days.
You’ve got 45 more months to go so be patient and watch everything come to fruition And change the channel to see about the fraud and waste and where it is. There are lists such as $20 million for Sesame Street in Iraq or millions of dollars to see how mice do in trans sexual relationships, etc.. go see the list
If there rally was so much fraud in the federal government, Rick, where are the prosecutions? There haven't been any because they have been lying about the levels of fraud, like the hundreds of thousands of dead people receiving benefits. The funding was for transgenic mice, you nitwit, not transsexual mice.
All debunked.
Come back in 45 months and we'll compare notes
Funny how whenever I call it DOPE everyone knows what and who I'm talking about.
So what is your favorite KoolAid flavor?
You are out of touch with reality
🙄
After well more than 40 years of Reaganomic deference to the very, very wealthy, is America better off? Anyone besides the very, very rich? What is the likelihood, on this trajectory, that our children will be?
Tough questions J L. Clinton, Obama and Biden made progress with health care and certainly the employment of people of color. But when it comes to wages and child care, the Republicans have done less than nothing.
"The minimum wage in Pennsylvania for 2025 is currently set at $7.25 per hour, which is the same as the federal minimum wage. There are ongoing discussions about increasing it to $15 per hour as part of the state's budget negotiations."
The Republicans claim that raising the Federal minimum wage to even $10 an hour will shutter businesses. If that's the case why do 30 of the 50 states have minimum wages of $10 or more and some are very red states like AR and MO.
Why is it the states with the lowest GDP and highest unemployment are stuck at $7.25 an hour?
Who can live on $7.25 hour
no one
Pretty much the cost of a mediocre hamburger. At least where I live.
I cannot verify it but someone wrote that when he applied for a job at Walmart, they automatically passed him papers on how to apply for SNAP. Corporations are increasingly palming off their costs; onto the public and the public purse.
Post Eisenhower Republicans have succeeded on shameless BS. The "Republican" Party requires you to reject the evidence of your eyes and of your ears even as they dismantle the Republic. I have lost track of how many Republicans have dismissed as irresponsible fantasy any effort to ease the cost of higher education for students, and yet the historic "GI Bill"; and yet formerly affordable state schools. A lot of things that were somehow doable in my youth are said to be impractical, if not communism from the pit of hell. And, especially for minorities and women I'm not speaking of "good old days".
A lot is now better, but no thanks to modern "Republicans" who are currently trying to undo that progress, especially of the social kind; the commonwealth. No thanks to the insatiable contingent of the very rich who yearn to be absolute monarchs. What has decidedly shifted, empirically, statistically shifted dramatically is the dynamics of public vs financial power, and whose interests our government prioritizes. Big breaks for Apple, for the poor, not so much. More impunity for some, much less liberty and justice overall.
The US as a country is better off. But yes, as you intimate, the inequalities have grown exponentially, and have reached dangerous levels.
Put those lies to sleep would you please MS Graham? In the big beautiful Bill that hopefully will come out no tax on tips no tax on overtime no tax on Social Security. Do you think that benefits the Rich in anyway?
Even Bill Maher realize the error of his estimates of Trump.
Oh no - a few tiny, tiny crumbs for the undeserving great unwashed? How very generous of the Mafiosi.
The mafioso just left the White House in January. Control of the courts control of the media control of Congress control of student loans and a demented president that everybody hid. And of course control of the border were 11,000 illegals came in every day and he lied to you and told you the borders were closed. And now only 70 a day are crossing.
Stop the pathetic whining, it's very unbecoming. You are the wealthiest country on earth with a severe wealth-distribution issue - but that is only and completely your problem, nothing at all to do with anybody outside. You will be surprised how little of a shxxt the rest of the world gives, we'll all just happily live and trade freely here outside - and watch the never ending soap opera that the US government is as entertainment.
When he said it I knew he was lying to me audience
It lost its legitimacy when he established citizens united or as I like to call it citizens screwed.
Roberts is a cunning bugger. I reckon he's starting to rethink the 'Get Out Of Jail Free Card' he handballed to tRump back in July, gobsmacked like the rest of us, at how trigger-happy the wannabe dictator has become. The 9-0 vote in favor of facilitating Abrego Garcia's return home was no doubt an attempt to rein him in. As corrupt as Roberts is, I believe he's equally concerned with the public's 'perception' that the rule of law still exists in the Supreme Court and that he is seen upholding it. I doubt he'll remain passive.
On this I disagree, Kazz. Roberts, like Alito and Thomas, and probably Gorsuch, have all been promised something. What, we'll probably never truly know. But "the art of the deal" is at work with our so-called SC, and we are all going to pay a price for it. These are evil, evil people.
Roberts has lost his court. Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett mostly act as a bloc - and he’s just as often with them.
I hope he doesn’t.
Don't expect the Umpire to strike back. Roberts is a cosseted prick......
Kazz McKnight -- a parenthetical grammar remark. "Roberts" is not hyphenated. The Chief Justice's name is John Roberts. So, it is simply the Roberts Court.. (Forgive me, but couldn't stay silent on this.)
Oops, thanks Judith. I think that was the darn auto correct.
Kazz -- Don't you hate it when that happens!?! Happens to me usually only when I make comments on my cellphone. I read HCR only on my computer.
Really, based on ?
I'll believe it when I see it.
I think the legitimacy of this court dissolved when they perpetrated Citizens United.
Panamakelley, I agree with all of your comment except the "mousey" nickname for McConnell. He is anything but a mouse. Physically, he most resembles a turtle.
But if we consider his behavior, then the only comparison is to a snake.
Or maybe, rat.
Wait till you see the new footage coming out about the January 6 issue. Ooooops.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GO FIND SOME FRIENDS AND GET A LIFE/JOB.
The line was crossed and with it the legitimacy of SCOTUS at 201 SE sixth st in Ft Lauderdale many years ago.
What did you say about the legitimacy of the court under Biden? Didn’t hear a peep out of you then. Hmmmmm no I don’t know what planet you’ve been on over the last four years inflation at 20% with food being unaffordable gas prices doubled mortgage rates times 2 1/2 inflation to 7 1/2% from 3% under Trump the border wide open. Crime out of control in many large cities, two wars and $250 billion to Ukraine for fueling the death of human beings instead of trying to prevent it.
So, according to you, everything Trump is doing is justified because of how you think things were when Biden was in office?
And none of what you say is true. America had the strongest economy in the world under Biden. Inflation was around 3%, the border was not (and never has been) “wide open,” mortgage rates were the lowest they had been in decades (I was able to refi ance my mortgage at less than 4%), gas prices were stable.
But all of this is beside the point. We’re talking about how this administration is openly flouting the rule of law on which our democracy is based. But I guess you’re not a fan of democracy, are you? If Trump picks up American citizens he seems are “unproductive” and sends them to El Salvador, you’re okay with that?
God help us all.
One point I will dispute is that Biden was asleep at the border for at least 2 full years.
Probably true. But whoever was in charge was doing a lot better job than Trump.
Sorry, I misread your comment as “asleep at the wheel.”
As for the border, yes Biden was running an asylum open border. Not a good policy, I agree.
Every single thing you state is demonstrably false. You are the target of a misinformation campaign that has left you unable to tell fact from fiction. Quick, simple Google searches will dismantle your entire argument. If you can’t or won’t take the time to verify your version of things then you are not just misinformed, you are part of the problem.
If they had created a strong & unambigous statement, unlike the vague one they created, trump wouldn't have been able to try to twist its meaning. If they do not correct it, I think they will have lost their legitimacy.
Like the fourth estate, they felt they always need to waffle.
Absolutely correct Sunni. And then what?
At any rate, they seem to have lost their power.
Great point, but the Roberts court's legitimacy is long over.
And yet they continue to make rulings. How can that be? But I bet you’re happy about the 90 ruling on bringing on the legal alien criminal back to the United States. Maybe you have a spare bedroom he could stay with you.
You are just a silly troll, a cultist or a propagandist, I can't decide which. But, once again you provide the opportunity to introduce more facts into the discussion.
In today's letter, your posts offer features of Stalinism and Hitlerism, and demonstrate just how easy it can be to move from democracy to dictatorship if enormous numbers of citizens are cognitively impaired, deluded or just not paying attention.
For the non trolls/cultists/propagandists, if you haven't seen Timothy Snyder's latest Substack, it is a long-ish read but worth every second you spend - https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/state-terror?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=gfzoo
Sandra, I just love to respond to posts like yours. Let me first address, the definition of a troll to those here. While I watch and read post after post from friends and people who know each other here on this thread day in and day out, communicating with each other enlightening each other on their perspectives etc…. I’ve never seen the word troll used.
But the minute you see or read a un opinion, contrary to yours and your beliefs he becomes a troll, especially when he gets a lot of posts that he feels compelled to respond to. Now I am a troll, but all the others who “hang out” here day after day they are not trolls.
Secondly, nor am I a cultist or a propagandist I am an independent thinker who makes up his mind after doing some research and listening to a variety of sources trying to make a point. The issue with this thread, unfortunately is that there’s only one point of view which by o- mission would relegate all the thought here to gullibility because there is no contrary research or Post being done to weigh the topic at hand.
Therefore, whatever is said here is taken as the gospel And it is not
Unfortunately, many of the people here seem to suffer deeply from a insurmountable case of Trump arrangement syndrome that is even backed up by surveys and polling done by your major liberal networks such as ABC NBC, CNN CBS and MSNBC and two major new sources, the Washington Post and the New York Times
Lastly, I would hate to have any of you as jurors. A juror has to be a levelheaded thinker, analyzing both sides of a story and determining the veracity of the story and integrating it with their own predetermined beliefs.
That is not happening here And so I’m OK with providing a contravening or alternative list of facts so that the people here could render a more fair and objective opinion
That’s it
The Roberts Court committed hara kiri last year, when it declared a president above the law for everything done as president, which in effect means for everything, since Trump doesn't differentiate between state and private business. He isn't a king in the modern sense of the word (most kings these days are constitutional and have little power), he is a king in the Charles the First sense of the word.
I believe Charles the First came to regret the choices he made as King...but far too late for it to make a difference in his fate.
I doubt that tRump has any capacity for self-reflection.
Not the sentiments he expressed at trial, when he refused the authority of the High Court because he was king and no authority on earth could judge him.
https://liminalzone.substack.com/p/king-charles-i-and-donald-trump
Again, a telling of history that we all should be aware of. When religious leaders swear that my God gave them (king) tRump & all is well, I just want to puke! There will be hell to pay for those folks.
It's completely bonkers. Did you see Jon Stewart making fun of it on the Daily Show the other day? (Trump as Jesus, Moses, etc.)
I'm in bed by the time Jon is on TV. I will try to find & view.
And look what happened to Charles the First.
Yes: because the High Court dismissed his argument that he was above the law. Unfortunately, so far SCOTUS has said the opposite.
And what did the court do when Biden disobeyed their order not to pay back student loan loans with your tax dollars?
If you’re trying to get me to say that it doesn’t matter, I won’t, because I believe both matter, as the rule of law matters. But I find the comparison between helping young people against loan sharks and kidnapping people off the streets to send them without due process to foreign prisons completely grotesque.
Loan sharks? Omg…these people KNOWINGLY signed a commitment to pay back a loan…just like you signing mortgage documents. No different. No one forced them. And they chose who to borrow from …not MY NOR YOUR responsibility to pay it back with my/your tax dollars….ESPECIALLY when that is used to buy votes….how about better used to help the poor and more needy instead?
I wouldn’t attempt to get you to say anything…but
Btw. It’s sad when people buy into word bites and repeat them….like lemmings ….. The left picks its word of the day and off we go. “Chaos” “existential threat to democracy” ….”kidnapping”. he had his day(s) in immigration court. Both regular immigration court and then appeals court….he had a DEPORTATION ORDER AGAINST HIM….
He is a citizen of El Salvador….and if not for a lawyer telling the court he can’t be sent back home because a RIVAL GANG will kill him….he then pretends he wasnt in a gang. Ooooops.
The jury is out on due process in cases like his….read up
A deportation order is not a judicial document and can be opposed in court. Therefore due process was ignored. It's still being ignored.
As for your rant on student loans: you are addressing it to the wrong person. I live in a country where my tax euros pay for higher education, and we consider it not only normal, but civilised, virtuous and important for the competitiveness of the country. So yes, to me these people are loan sharks.
So I suppose you could choose to go to Oxford on your euro taxes? Just curious. You pay for it one way or the other you either have it taken out of your tax dollars and it gets subsidized by the government by using your tax dollars to do so or you pay for it personally. And I’m just getting started
Me say this again, so you don’t overlook it going to college is a voluntary activity there was nobody forces you to go to college you make that choice on your own and as such any loan you take out you take it on your own. I myself could not afford college, so I went to junior college for almost nothing, and saved up enough money in the two years of junior college, to pay for the balance of my education worked 40 hours and went to school at the same time.
I’ll get back to you with more in a second but I thought I’d post this just for your interest
A deportation order, also called a removal order, is a formal decision by immigration authorities that an individual must leave the United States. IT’S A LEGAL DOCUMENT that follows a process, often starting with a Notice to Appear (NTA), and can result in the individual being physically removed from the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
by the way, this college is not a mandate, but a choice. I thought I’d send you this little ditty that you might enjoy.
https://www.google.com/search?q=list+of+very+successful+people+who+didnt+graduate+college&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
And by the way, under certain circumstances, you’re not deemed to be eligible for due process. And his circumstances fit the bill for being in eligible so what will happen is he will come back. Perhaps he will have a trial or hearing perhaps and will be sent right back to where he was in the first place. Home to his native country where he’s a citizen there. Waste of time and money.
Well, first of all if you don’t live here or you’re not a citizen of the US it takes a lot of nerve to judge how things work in other countries. And it just so happens that your tax euros are higher than our tax euros. And you know nothing about our student loan process obviously And I wouldn’t dare try to suggest how you run your third rate country
I'm not sure what power to enforce its rulings the Court has.
Contempt of court with jail time and/or fines. And then civil suits for damages resulting in financial or physical loss to the person or groups that were harmed.
But, I'm not a lawyer. Others are much better qualified to answer.
Theoretically, there are punishments that the Court can levy, but if the perpetrators choose to ignore the Court, what enforcement powers, if any, does the Court have?
They already gave up their authority by saying anything that is the PresidenT’s official business is legal. They became puppets of a vicious regime last July
The Roberts Court’s legacy is already cemented by its decision, Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593, 607 (2024), granting presidents virtually unlimited, unrestrained power. By declaring an “emergency” Trump continues to extend and broaden the scope of those already broad executive powers. Roberts has given us a dictator, plain and simple.
A lot of emergencies lately. A lot of wars too! Trump is milking that one as well.
I bet Roberts wishes he could just drop through the floor. He knows his decision was a very bad one!
Trump makes terrible decisions and seems to believe it makes him so damned clever. If there was ever an instance in which Trump showed so much as an instant of uncalculated kindness, humility, or remorse. There is a lot of that in the former "Party of Lincoln" these days.
Yeah, virtually unrestrained power. Do you think he might need it being that every little tiny Podunk district judge is ruling against him as if they had power to run the country ? At least so on my arm had a brain enough to say we can’t let them do this because when the Democrats take power, it’ll be the same thing and shutting down government.
Hey Rick, did you read this piece from my book yet? Frightening, rights? No? Not frightened? And it is because you don't have the caqpacity to know what's going on. To quote: "You know something is happening but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" (Dylan)
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
Well no one doubts your imagination. Lol. Watched a few minutes of Gutfeld and he captures you perfectly. Gutfeld;s “Department of imaginary crises”. Funny as hell. Maybe a blood transfusion would help you. Get your body rid of all the TDS running through your veins.
I submit that SCOTUS became illegitimate in 1991 when Clarence Thomas was seated on the Supreme Court. It's possible that a sexual predator was appointed to SCOTUS prior to that year, but not despite public knowledge of such a disqualifying character flaw.
I shudder whenever I see that Brett Kavanaugh has put his name to something.
Not just the Roberts Court. The entire Supreme Court has rendered itself useless.
Gosh, you didn’t say that before Trump got an offer did you? Hmmmmm
According to who? You people actually think you you won the election in November wake up
According to the Constitution.
Yes according to the constitution Donald Trump is a duly elected president of the United States and is doing nothing differently than any other president other than he’s actually getting it done whatever he promised during his campaign is getting done. Like closing the border from 11,000 immigrants illegally crossing every day to only 70 illegally crossing every day.
Like keeping men out of women’s sports.
I thought Roberts court was finished long ago.
And our recourse?…..
I urge our congressional representatives to join Senator Van Hollen in traveling to that hell hole in El Salvador. If they can get in, they should be able to get Abrego Garcia out.
What is really preposterous is the insistence and supposed inability to get Abrego Garcia out of the hellhole prison. The notion is just not believable, it's as ridiculous as this sadistic, lawless regime is, and has been since January 20th...
We can't know if he is no longer alive. This case looks to me like a linch-pin.
Guess you don’t listen to the whole story Jorge as usual an immigration judge and an appellate immigration judge found him to be one of the leaders of MS 13.
But if you have a spare bedroom would be more than happy to move them in just hope you don’t have any daughters
But they might not be able to get back IN under this admin’s reign of organized crime.
There might come a time when US Senators are refused entry to the United States, but I don't think we've reached that point yet.
Are you thinking that Ben Holland has any pullor control over Bukele?
When I keep urging many of you, which is really frustrating for me change the channel change it twice or three times and see what’s happening in the real world
The "real" world of Fox News? Newsmax?
There are five or six networks out there three of them who are very very recently sued for their lies and lost the suit. The ratings of these networks are also down due to their credibility, I would think
And one of the problems you have TD is that you wouldn’t be able to find Fox News or Newsmax or any other conservative news network with a map. So God forbid you ever become a juror.
And CNN, who was recently sued and lost and MSNBC and Maddow and Hayes who were sued and lost and Stephanopoulos, who was sued and lost.
Two of those networks ratings are down 60% any idea why ? Maybe credibility.
US has already had a government appointee visit there (for a photo shoot) & return safely. A war would be the result if anyone of Van Hollen's group are hurt or killed.
Heather deftly quotes Pennsylvania's governor on how idiot violence threatens the country.
I say deftly because the entirety of the preceding notes on how Trump, Rubio, Vance, Bondi, and Miller also commit straightforward attacks on our country. Attacks including kidnapping, lying, and frontal assaults on our courts at the highest levels.
It's beyond astonishing -- though many here try to come up with apt adjectives for such unprecedented thuggery.
So Governor Shapiro gets the final word. The criminality from today's White House simply induces more of similar monstrosity around the country.
The violence was tacitly approved by the White House silence on the Shapiro terrorism act.
Yes. Vandalism of Teslas on the other hand? That deserves long prison terms.
If the attack was on Abbott in Texas, the T💩p sociopaths would jump on it in seconds. I’m not sure DeSantis would get the same attention, tho’
FL is bleeding foreigners who own property there, especially Canadians. Even the extreme far-right Villages is experiencing higher vacancy rates. And thousands of homeowners in FL can no longer find home owners insurance.
The Trump 2 recession is likely to hit FL and TX very hard.
In our present world, everything we understood to be true is no longer…up is down, light is dark, and allies are now adversaries. Before this regime took power, we used to negotiate with countries who imprisoned our people to bring them home. Now, those who hold power willingly feed innocent human beings into the mouths of foreign death camps.
What has this country become? The country my father fought for in WWI and we all believed would stand for what’s right, moral and protected by our Constitution … I sadly don’t recognize it anymore 😢🇺🇸
Trump and El Salvador are building his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Guantanamo prisons to aid in Republican illegality.
Let's call them what they are: concentration camps.
Enlightening, enraging, depressing. And still thankful to know.
Wednesday 4/16/25 Update:
2 hours ago Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) left for El Salvador to personally seek the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the building trades apprentice. The entire Building Trades Union supports Garcia return home to his Family.
******************************************************************************************
On continuing deportations, actionable facts have been collected by AP's Seung Min Kim & Marcos Aleman & reported out this evening 4/14/25 at 6:00 PM.
About 6 weeks ago starting in Mach 2025, Trump paid Bukele $6,000 000 to jail about 200 VENEZUELANs at CECOT.
I could comment to "follow the money" at this point but, I believe Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) & other Senators are way ahead of Trump, Pamela Bondi, Steve Miller & others. Any contractual agreement oral-or-written to pay $6 Million can be dissected.
Just Saturday, 4/13/2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated "10 more people" were disappeared to CECOT. No one to my knowledge has identified the "10 more people".
I will ask the question if no else will -- with all the abrupt admissions of intent to send
"Homegrowns" to foreign prisons -- are any of the "10 more people" United States citizens?
In any case who actually are the 10 recent deportees?
That event in the Oval Office yesterday has me terrified. We are one hair from a dictatorship. "Homegrowns" being snatched off the streets? That is us. And Americans standing there lied and laughed. I fully expect the Insurrection Act to be invoked next.
Is there nothing that can be done?
The only entity that can stop Trump is the legislature. By removing him from office. The legislature had a chance to do that already. Twice. It decided not to remove Trump from office because the Republican legislators knew that such an action would lead to the loss of their livelihood. They knew that a significant majority of white voters would make sure to vote them out of office. We are suffering this catastrophe because a 77 million American voters don’t give a damn about the rule of law.
Well it is a bit more complicated than that.
Remember that he was elected by only a 1.4% majority. 1.7% voted for someone else. 15 million did not vote. Add in massive gerrymandering and voter suppression engineered by the Republicans for decades. Then there was the oligarch owned media that created a massive web of lies, disinformation while drowning out the Democrats' messaging. The cult of trump is approximately 33% of voters. The hispanics and black male voters were swayed for different reasons. Then there always the undercurrent of misogyny in this country that decries a woman President.
So as you can see not an easy answer to why he is here in all our worst nightmares.
Take Care.
Actually over 87 million eligible voters did not vote in the 2024 general election.
https://election.lab.ufl.edu/2024-general-election-turnout/
Justin SG, your comment must be repeated ... that was eighty-seven (87) million eligible voters who did not vote.
Spot-on Link to UF's 'Election Lab' data & graphics 👀.
More than a 70% turnout in U.S. states along the border with Canada:
WA, MN, WI, MI, VT, NH, & Buddy & Heather's ME! ************
I sure hope those states do not decide to become Provinces 🇨🇦.
Yes, but why would you assume the votes of non-voters, had they voted, would have broken differently from those of people who did vote? The default assumption has to be that they would have broken the same, but my guess is that people who didn’t bother to vote are more likely to fall in the willfully ignorant magat camp than the Democratic camp.
Excellent precis.
I was reminded today that one of the ways Hitler et al gained control over the Jews was to turn them into stateless people. The parallels aren't exact but it is the same mindset: the state has the right to declare who has rights and who doesn't. Terrifying stuff.
“I don’t quite know what this trend should be called. #fascistporn?”
Carole Cadwalladr / “It’s not a prison, it’s a concentration camp. And she’s not an influencer, she’s the US Secretary of Homeland Security.”
https://substack.com/@carolecadwalla/note/c-104649435?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
It is fascism. Fascism is a house of horrors.
Her recent TED Talk was very powerful and worth watching.
This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOoT8AbkNE
Yes Barbara, elections that are not going to happen.
I don’t think there is much that can be done in the state we find ourselves in short of taking up arms which will lead to a lot of dead. Joe Biden failed us, watching what we are seeing each day, is the only logical conclusion.
https://www.tristansnell.com/p/the-ice-man-cometh?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2236040&post_id=161379513&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dv3vh&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email#:~:text=Upgrade%20to%20paid-,The%20ICE%20man%20cometh,-Trump%27s%20Gestapo%20is
and
https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/wrong-is-wrong-on-lawlessness-cruelty?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=289155&post_id=161385136&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dv3vh&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email#:~:text=Wrong%20is%20Wrong%3A%20On%20Lawlessness%2C%20Cruelty%2C%20and%20Clarity
and
https://snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=310897&post_id=161368782&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dv3vh&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email#:~:text=Upgrade%20to%20paid-,State%20Terror,-A%20brief%20guide
I’m with you on being terrified and horrified. Why don’t you think we’re already in the soft opening of a dictatorship? Everyone is capitulating or being punished or, in the case of the Supreme Court, being defied and lied about. They cross line after line, doubling down with great speed. I’m wondering what democratic aspects you still see - it may give me some hope to see them too.
@Bryan Sean McKown - you may need to edit the date included in your comment.
This lawless and cruel regime is, in essence, creating mass graves. They are targeting people, denying due process, and making preparations to send the military against civilians and citizens. It can happen to any one of us.
H/t Beverly Falls.
Illegals don’t deserve to process. They deserve to go back to their home. And keep crime elsewhere.
The term is “due process”, troll, and anybody who is in the United States, legally or not, is entitled their time in front of a judge with legal representation. I roll my eyes at you. 🙄
Great point. If I hire an assassin to commit unlawful acts, who is to be held responsible? Especially if I drive the victim to the assassins door?
Well, you better be careful because Biden didn’t do anything by himself. He had tons of assistance and assistants. I do believe he also actually disobeyed a federal court order or a Supreme Court order not to repay student loans. Ooooops
Chris Van Halen is weeks perhaps even months behind Trump. Did he attend the funeral of Nungaray or any of the victims of illegal criminals like the death of the mother of five children. Well, let’s see if there’s an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Where would you like to send them? Wanna send them to Ethiopia?
I am having a hard time seeing a way out of this. They have crossed the Rubicon.
I don’t believe we will see another real election. Not in 2026 or thereafter until we are rid of them. There will be show elections like in Russia, but no chance of ending the regime.
And it doesn’t begin or end with DT. It is an oligarchy. He could get abducted by aliens today and they would still be in power. As it is we are being subjugated and will remain that way until we figure out how to beat them.
There are no longer guardrails. If and when it comes to a civil war, we lose a frontal assault. They have all the weapons.
I have thought of the UN stepping in and Eurasia coming to our aid, as we did theirs 80 years ago. But in that case, it would be a world war with Russia and the United States as the axis. And who has all the nukes?
There is a way out, it just hasn’t come to us yet. I know I can’t see it.
It’s after midnight here and I can’t sleep. And I know I am not the only one…
Evil, narcissistic men have taken power, and your concern is real.
I, too, find myself flirting with your same thoughts.
Is there hope? Yes.
On a day where the darkness around us began to envelop me, I did some research on this.
Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, did research on what it takes in these moments.
She found that it takes 3.5 percent of the population to affect change. And non violent actions are the way to go.
3.5%! Hope!
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
@Mark In Colorado— yes, I have seen that too. And did a bit of digging.
What the study actually found is that 3.5% has worked in SOME cases and therefore MAY work. It is not a magic bullet.
In 47% of cases studied, the attempt still failed.
So, of course it is something to aspire to. And we keep up the non-violent protests as long as we can.
But it is not a guarantee, anymore than a civil war would be.
We all want to find a foolproof solution and there is none to be had.
Aye.
But it is a way to frame that each drop of rain can eventually produce a flood.
Keep calm and carry on.
Annabel, you have gone far to far down the rabbit hole of worry, jumping from one momentous event to the next as if each were inevitable. UN, nukes, no guardrails? Reacting with measured effective thoughtful action is what we need, not over or under reaction.
I am with Annabel. This is no rabbit hole. Listen to their words in the Oval Office. They have defied the Supreme Court with lies. They have courted a vile dictator and paid him to house and torture Americans. They have declared the right to "deport" any American ("homegrown") they want.
Over reaction? I fear the under reaction is the greater danger.
Americans should be in the streets tomorrow. But they won't. I am afraid this has to play all the way out.
Americans will be in the street on April 19.
Yes. I know. I went to the one on the 12th.
Where? No response from groups telling me of any 4/19 protests in WA.
Did you google it? Here's a link for my search for April 19 protest in WA state: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=April+19+protest+in+WA+state
I am not predicting where this goes. The this story is full of subplots and potential twists. We will all play some part one way or another.
Not an over-reaction to what is actually happening. This regime has no intention of obeying the courts or the legislative branch, on the rare occasion when either does its job. I am PAYING ATTENTION. And have been for a good many years.
I am not jumping around--I am listing then possible outcomes that can be imagined at this juncture. We can accept subjugation. We can protest, but it won't affect a regime that no longer needs public approval. And could easily become far too dangerous. The military could step in but that is a crap shoot.
There could be a civil war, but if so, at this point we would lose. The rest of the world could come to our aid but that too has logistical issues as noted above.
I think you are UNDER-REACTING to actual news. They grabbed a man off our streets and sent him to a concentration camp without due process, and now are working on sending "homegrowns" and imprisoning people for thought crimes.
You are, of course, welcome to your opinion, but you are wrong.
See you in the gulag...
Annabel Ascher--Your insightful observations are respected, appreciated, and shared by many of us. Just as in the April 19, 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, many of us are trying--despite the odds--to figure out ways to fight as long as we can.
Well said. Thank you.
Ironically, the next national action is April 19.
Heather will not miss that historical observation.
I'm a little surprised that there was no mention of April 14, 1865 in tonight's post.
Protest, even saying NO in public, as Harvard University is doing, may inform/intimidate dominators, but the primary target is properly one another, informing, encouraging and uniting a focused and concerted response to attempts to impose control. A large part of political power is perceived legitimacy, and perceived legitimacy buoyed by lies and treachery is vulnerable, especially if too few play along. Everything could very well go straight to hell, but a lot of that depends on us. The big "us", in solidarity.
Guardrails? Such as? Where do you see any working effectively? What and how exactly do you see these people stopped when there are no consequences for them to fear?
@Crone at Large, Who is this in reply to? I have been saying for months that the guardrails are gone. I published two stacks about that very thing. Sadly, a good portion of the left leaning intelligentsia is still acting as if there are guardrails and all we have to do is keep one man, Trump, in check for just short of 4 more years then vote him out.
I say there is little chance of a real election. Only a Russian style burlesque of an election.
And it may not be "him". He could be long gone, but that will not wrest control from the regime, any more than impeaching and removing (another pipe dream). You have to go 20 levels down the order of succession to reach a non-MAGA. And the faces we see, except for Musk and Putin, are not the overlords. This is an oligarchy.
So you’re advocating ”Passive Submission” as the “best, Non-Violent” solution to the overthrow of our Government???? Good Luck with that…WOW I guess it takes all kinds!
Have you been protesting? Have you been writing Congress? How about accumulating the abuses of power and telling people so they know.
No to all? "I guess it takes all kinds."
I do whatever I can…at 80+ and not getting around very well anymore…but it’s what I’ve got to offer. I’ve contacted my Senators and House Representatives regarding many different issues/points. As well as, posting on Substack often. That said ….I’ve never gone “Gone Belly up to tRump and his toadies!” If I Insulted you or your friends with my comments regarding their position on “Passive Submission” that’s just too bad!
We’re both correct regarding who and what it takes. Have a nice day, if you can!
We are not here to goad, insult or ridicule. What we are here to do in this extreme crisis is to support each other. Given your age I would imagine you remember what it was like to pull together and save the Country. We need your support.
If there was ever justification for the old axiom, “Together we Stand, Divided we Fall” it’s now!! I have never seen such growing dismay, anxiety…Fear among Americans. It is not a time to turn on one another…we have mutual enemies enough. We have a lethal sickness at our core that will destroy America as we know it if not exorcised! Let’s all fight the good fight together!
No, you're not. I'm up at 0400 after a very troubled "sleep".
Edited to add: In spite of what the orange cat of 100panthers says, this is not an overreaction. I do not know the gender of that fellow reader, but this is classic "mansplaining" in my book.
Measured, thoughtful action to the abject power grab and lawlessness of this administration is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I keep thinking that only someone or thing as big and as powerful as Trump now is in America weighing in against him for forcefully is going to do the trick
That something is obviously not the Democratic Party. Nor "the voting public" for reasons mentioned. Nor Harvard University. Nor for that matter the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Hmmmmm....
That something I think would be the big Three American automakers, in an alliance with the UAW, and Boeing Corporation, and Lockheed Martin. And American Association of Aviation and Aerospace Workers, the whole bloody AFL-CIO, the Longdhoremans, the Teamsters, the Independent Truckers Association and the AAA, on AARP, United in calling for a big rig vehicle drive on DC that would tie it up the way Ottawa was tied up four years ago, and making it impossible for Elon Musk to get across town or Stephen Miller or Mike Johnson to get to work.
When the CEOs of the Big Three Stand up and say "He's gotta go", maybe it will happen. Plus add in their union leaders. And Boeing. And Lockheed. And maybe General Dynamics. Maybe GE. And Jamie Diamond for Citi Corp. A whose who lisr of powerful traditional business and labor leaders taking out a full page ad in the New York Times, and every other major American newspaper. And even the Times Picayune, saying "He's Gotta Go. It's Either Him or Us.". And we are going to tie up Washington until little Mike Johnson gets some courage and sees that it's done.
Maybe then. Not otherwise. Otherwise not until Trump destroys America and himself in the process, as he obviously intends. No other force will do it. Not the "force of public opinion". Not the generals. Not governors. Not street protesters. Not the federal courts. Not nothing.
I’m not sleeping for shit either Ally, anyone that is paying even the slightest attention has to be troubled. 🤬
Me neither. I have had little good nights of sleep since the election.
Oh, I love it when you comment Ally. I thought the same thing. Quite possibly a man telling a woman to calm down and stop over-reacting.
Silly women :/
" If we accept the idea that moving a person from one place to another undoes rights and disempowers the judiciary, we are endorsing the basic Nazism practice that enabled the killing of millions." Timothy Snyder
"If there were a map that showed democracy slipping into dictatorship, we would be at the spot marked “You are here.” We shouldn’t sugarcoat the danger. Due process matters to immigrants and Americans alike. When the presidency refuses to honor it, we are all in danger. Donald Trump could snap his fingers and secure Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. We all know that’s true, no matter what pretense this administration assumes." Joyce Vance
This particular Vance for President!
How about we focus on the message she is delivering. Joyce Vance is a respected Lawyer. We are at a supremely critical pass. One tiny misstep and we will not be voting in 2026. I honestly don't know what will save us at this time.
Sorry to be so flippant. I meant my comment as a compliment to Joyce Vance's words.
My overriding concern at this time is Americans ignoring the extreme seriousness of what is happening. Thanks for the note. We just need to keep each other real at this time. Take Care.
Everyone take care & take care of others.
Be Safe All.
Yes indeed.
I’m not concerned about whether or not there will be elections or not. Even the most repressive regimes go through show elections in which -between voter suppression and predetermined results- the outcome is always predictable.
So now that trump and his associates have defied the ruling of the Supreme Court can we stop calling this a constitutional crisis and name it for the tyranny that it is!?! Can we finally admit that we are now being ruled by a dictator?
A bullet-less coup.
Certainly a crime in progress.
Keep being loud!
Use this spreadsheet to call/email/write any of our representatives as often as possible. Not just your own state reps, reach out to those in other states. Be as loud as you can and share this. Use your voice and make some “good trouble.”
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit
Megan, thank you for making “being loud” easier with your spreadsheet!
Thanks for using your voice right now!
Politics Girl did a great, if horrifying, YouTube video on this subject.
https://youtu.be/U1kPW5MGxQQ?si=FrESZJ7Z3Z2heI16
Yes, and thank you, Mary. "Politics Girl" does a fine job.
We might recall, too, that the U.S. has just about always been funding dictators of the far right to terrorize their own people in all the countries of Central America.
The commanding general of the U.S. Marines 100 years ago, Major General Smedley Butler, expounded upon why the U.S. kept propping up the thugs. It was for the convenience of United Fruit and other major, Ivy-League-led U.S. companies who all wanted the rabble down there to be reduced to peonage better to profit those elites.
You can read about it in "Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire," by Jonathan M. Katz.
It only got worse, however, after that. Into our era the U.S. established its "School of the Americas" adjacent to Ft. Benning, Georgia -- where the U.S. trained the thugs' militia and secret police in all the finer points of disappearing people, torture, and lying PR. Better to enrich the governing thugs.
And our ill-educated on the far right cannot imagine why so many to this day crave exit from those banana republics, and entry into the very country that has always installed, subsidized, and trained the humanly worst in all the worst.
All very true, Phil, and pertinent to what our Nation has wrought and now become. As far back as the Monroe Doctrine, to all the chickenshit coups and regime changes in one Central American country after another and back again in a few more years.
Kissinger and Nixon gave Pinochet the push and support he needed to seize Chile for decades. Reagan and Co. funding the Contras while supplying Iran with weapons and shipments of cocaine to the U.S. while they incessantly squawked about the war on drugs. Our man in Panama, Noriega, propped up until he wasn't useful anymore.
Then there's the Caribbean and Haiti, probably the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, that has years of dictatorships and civil wars interspersed with hurricanes and earthquakes. Major General Smedley Butler had been there too on the island of Hispaniola. At the end of his career, as one of the most decorated soldiers in the United States Marines and in U.S. military history he said:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909–1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
He finally came to the realization that he had always been working for corporate interests and an oligarchical elite that have once again become so insatiated with greed, power and control that 90 years later, our freedom, constitutional rights and rule of law is now in unbelievable and dire jeopardy.
I'm glad, horhai, you've got this choice quote from Smedley B.
Just amazing how the genealogy of evil so connects at so many points, in so many points of time.
Including piquantly enough, perhaps our record-setting evil of today.
Yes genealogy of evil connecting at so many points is right, since it was during the George dubya Bush years, when he blundered into Iraq, that I first read Smedley Butler’s book ‘War is a Racket’.
I’ll be on the lookout for that biography you mentioned, thanks.
We don’t have many ill, educated on the far right what we have in our education system was ill educated children by the millions for the last 40 years
In 1979 when Jimmy Carter created the department of education, we were first in the world 30 years later we were 18th and now we’re 40th how do you like that direction? And now it cost us 10 times per student to what it cost us back then.
At a $36,000 cost per student six students could afford to hire two teachers at 85 or 90,000 each pay 10,000 for their retirement accounts and have two teachers for each students
We have Schrödinger's President.
WE ARE RESPECTED AROUND THE WORLD...but El Salvador won't release a prisoner if we ask them to?
TRUMP IS THE GREATEST NEGOTIATOR IN THE WORLD, THE ART OF THE DEAL...but he can't get the president of El Salvador to release a guy from prison even though we are paying them millions of dollars?
I sure hope Sen. Van Hollen is able to retrieve his constituent and reunite him with his family.
Is everyone here aware of Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation's plan to deconstruct our universities, published October 2024? Right wing science fiction put to work and succeeding in getting foreign students deported. https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/project-esther-national-strategy-combat-antisemitism
Sen. Van Hollen is very brave to risk going to El Salvador and being imprisoned, the way things are going.
He’s a Showboat nothing else because nothing will come of it. You know it and I know it and he knows it.
Thanks for posting this link. I had not read this Project Esther strategy before. It is unfortunate that Americans are not able to realize that people who are pro Palestinian just want to save the lives of innocent women and children who are being killed in Gaza while the IDF is trying to find the Hamas members who are hiding in tunnels.
Exactly! This administration has succeeded in corrupting even antisemitism.
Would you stop with the nonsense of the heritage foundation and project 25? This is not helping your party go from 36% approval rating four weeks ago to less than 20 today no leadership no leader, no organization, no agenda just violence and hate.
Why are you bothering to post here?
Ruth, I noticed that upon reading tonight’s comments, the process was MUCH swifter than usual….hahaha..I saw RS’s name and just swiped past his comments & the replies! I might actually get back to sleep soon…AND not fill my brain with useless clutter…yay!
Ruth, he enjoys screaming into an echo chamber. Don’t let the mindless troll get to you. His cable must be out 🤣
Ruth, that’s not the question you should be asking. The question you should be asking is why there are more contradictory posts here because all I’ve seen here for months now is a bunch of lemmings communicating with each other with no pushback at all no fact, checking awareness from only seeing with one eye and hearing with one ear and it’s important because the people here should be like jurors, hearing both sides of the story in order to render a verdict and none of you were hearing both sides of the story. You’re only hearing the one you wanna hear. So much for free speech.
We are aware that Heather is not a politician, but a scholar first and foremost. She had been putting current events in a historical perspective. She has changed her approach now, because there are no real American historical parallels to what is going on these days.
She cites sources for everything she writes here.
You have no business assuming none of us reads anything else.
You are right. I have no business assuming anything,,,,,however the gullibility I have seen here indicates that many of the readers here don’t question or challenge her at all…and her sources are exactly that HER SOURCES…there are more than two sides to ANY source…many here believe unfounded fallacies and lies told by major media. And while both sides tell their stories, lately there have been some substantial wins of lawsuits against major liberal media for reporting these lies. CNN and msnbc as well as one of the “majors”…ie, the Russia hoax, the thin impeachments, the lawfare, the 51 storytellers about hunters laptop
AND THE MOST CONCERNING..THE COMPLETE COVERUP OF BIDENS DIMINISHED HEALTH AND MENTAL DECLINE which is now more than ever , revealing itself.
And all the “hate/TDS/EDS, causing the ridiculously misguided violence against Tesla….mostly owned by liberals as almost heavenly revered…as planet saving. As well as now three assasination attempts …with one being extremely SUSPECT…..cremation of the shooter?
As well I agree there are no historical comparisons to the past three or four presidential actions. Just too much, almost exclusively from the left side here.
I see this often here. Just “going with the flow”. I may end up posting contrary facts and sure enough some people. Call me a liar until they actually research and find that I’m telling the truth. There needs to be a balance for if there’s only one side of the story the readers are essentially defining gullibility
Thanks for offering your perspective.
If you have credible resources, then use them. You are obviously releuctant to use sources. Don't just cry that posts rail against Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation. Those sources are quite available to all of us. Hateful projects are self-evident. I, for one, want a far less hateful world and want our country to be the "shining" example of it. Not the bully of the world.
If you want balance and attention, why aren't you citing a source or two?
Why aren’t there more?
You're an insult to free speech. Do you actually read Heather's messages? Or are you just an FSB plant?
Wait a minute did you say an insult to free speech? Can I tell you how many times I’ve been told to go F off or to get out of this thread? What the hell are you doing here you have no business here. We don’t wanna hear you go away. All from your left patrons of blessed free speech. Ha.
No, I don’t bother reading Heather’s speech. I read the first few lines, I know where she’s coming from and she’s always coming from left field to the lefties that are here appeasing them. Fsb? Well there’s plenty of TDS and Russian fear here enough for a lifetime.
Just so you understand, NBC ABC did a survey and suggested that 65% of Democrats would vote against the policy that’s popular with America if Trump proposed it 65%
80% of Americans believed that it’s not right to have men and women’s sports but every single Democrat, but two voted against the bill to protect women I’m here to try in a small way to level the playing field of all the haters here people that don’t read the alternative side of the story or don’t care for it at all, and dismiss it out of hand.
There is very little dissenting opinion here, and if you want to voice, your opinion, at least be a juror. Hear both sides of the story before you render one, not just illicit your hate expose almost on a daily basis by the left protest and violence against innocent people like burning Teslas or hating Elon Musk. Trump could’ve chosen anybody to head up those he could’ve chosen Ted Cruz. He could’ve chosen anybody from his cabinet then who would you attack the person or the project? The project was supported by Obama and Clinton FERVENTLY. So I’d be more than happy to have a rational conversation on any subject provided that we see both sides of the coin.
Good Evening to All!
Forty years ago, the small yet populous country of El Salvador was ripped apart by what is still known simply as "La Guerra", i.e., the War, a terrible semi civil war between the ruling conservative parties long drunk on American investments and anti-communist theories, and the burgeoning left wing movements. The predecessor to Nayib Bukele in cruelty, while never President but head of the right wing ARENA Party, was a stone cold killer named Roberto D'Abuisson, who ordered the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in the middle of communion service at the Central Cathedral. St. Ronnie of Eureka turned a blind eye to this, as to the murder of Catholic nuns and thousands of poor farmers in the Salvadoran highlands, but at least Reagan didn't invite D'Abuisson to the White House.
I bring this up to demonstrate that the culture of right wing butchery in El Salvador has historical roots that run deep. I remember talking to a young woman in those years, among the first large group of Salvadoran exiles from La Guerra that began to populate Los Angeles, and when I mentioned some of the torture sites Joan Didion wrote in her book "Salvador", the look in her eye went from 0-60 on the terrified scale in seconds.
Nayib Bukele is a ghastly gangster of grotesque proportions, smug and pompous in his black turtleneck, joking with his patron Trump, caring not a whit for the humanity, decency and very lives of the many young men including Kilmar Abrego Garcia whose fate he holds in his dastardly hands, hands filled with filthy American taxpayer luchre, conveyed thereto from the little dictator's digits of Donald Trump.
To me, today's despicable disgrace characterizing the desecration of the Oval Office yet again by Trump, is even worse than that manifested during Zelensky's visit. Who among us could have foreseen in our worst nightmares, that an American President whose sworn, solemn constitutional duty is to execute the laws of the United States, and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, would ever so crudely and with such grisly jocularity, toss bon mots with a gangster dictator about outsourcing even more innocent human beings to a far off dungeon, never to appear again???
And from a historical perspective, this disgraceful day in the Oval Office was even more horrific, falling as it did on the 160th anniversary of the assassination of the President who did so much to bring so many under the protection of the very Constitution that Trump disdains.
As is his wont, Trump used this staged visit to convey his fake macho intimidation to the Courts of our Country, including the US Supreme Court, as he thumbed his nose at the oh-so-obvious orders to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return stateside. Judge Zinis should not only find Trump and his minions in contempt, but should order the Marshals to haul their asses before her to answer why they should not be put behind bars for refusing her direct orders.
This past Saturday, I joined many of my fellow Angelenos on the streets of our downtown so as to express our solidarity against the burgeoning oligarchy, and to listen to Senator Sanders and La Pasionaria herself, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak. Among the many souvenir and political buttons being sold was one that I would normally be loathe to wear, but purchase and wear it I did, feeling that these times are so dangerous and that the customary methods must be set aside for harsher ones, accompanied by harsher words.
It simply read---"FUCK DONALD TRUMP"
Indeed
"An impeachable offense." Among many.
NO ONE IS SAFE. Has the 14th amendment been deleted?
“We want to do homegrown criminals next…. The homegrowns.” Trump told Bukele. “You gotta build about five more places.” Bukele appeared to answer, “Yeah, we’ve got space.” “All right,” Trump replied.
Rather than being appalled, the people in the room—including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi—erupted in laughter.
Birds of a feather. Follow the (real) money.