House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was in New York City today, trying to calm jitters among investors by explaining to members of the New York Stock Exchange that the Republicans will not allow the government to default on its debts even as he insisted that the Republican Party must use the debt ceiling to enact legislative policies it can’t win through normal political negotiations.
John Kelly described Trump in his book as "the most determinedly ignorant person I ever met." The entire rest of the party, office holders to voters are determined to publicly celebrate their malicious, malevolent moron ignorance.
And L’Trump hid both his high school AND his college transcripts... made the two schools commit to secrecy... TFG is ashamed of his record... will be charged again and again and US pinheads will ultimately awaken to his lack of character and record, find him guilty many times, sentencing will involve isolation for life. Think Napoleon.
Trump is fraud personified. I would not ask him for the time of day. He mostly has gotten as far as he has because he is shielded by money; first his inheritance and then by the assistance of those with money and power agendas themselves who find in him an utterly shameless useful idiot to do their dirty work for them.
In the words of Seth Meyers, if not for Fred Trump's money, Donald would be known today as the second-best mattress salesman at a furniture store in Queens.
I would certainly wonder what was up. Truth is like anti-matter to Trump. When he comes in contact with it, he typically explodes. I suspect that were he confronted with a critical mass of truth-tellers, he might vanish in a firestorm of pure greed and hatred.
He knows how to work with imaginary numbers, adding them to his income when applying for a loan and subtracting them for the IRS, so he must have some rudimentary math skills. He also manages to wring as much money as possible to his personal benefit from fans and taxpayers. Surely learned something at his father's knee.
Racism’s last gasp? We only wish. Trump is undoubtedly running.. runs to grift. For staggering amounts. Donations pay. DeSantis should fade. In his flame out phase. Raping libraries. Schools. Maybe he’ll try the Senate. Biden will run. His campaign manager suggests Harris in 2028. Likely win in 2024, last season for him. No stars to follow. None stand out, save Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, for sheer class. America has no leadership. Our best are in business. Boring. With nothing to say. Running is risky. Politicians risk it all. Crowds tempt the depressed. As do schools. Uvalde. New Town. And movie halls: Colorado. Stores: Buffalo, so many. Avoid crowds. Playgrounds. Sweet Sixteen parties. High school gymnasium basketball. Happy places are targets for our depressed. The racist GOP seeks that chaos. Martial law. Dictatorship. Admires Viktor Orban. Putin. Justice Clarence Thomas’s billionaire benefactor openly admires Adolf Hitler. Trump admires Putin. The uneducated threatened white trash of America’s illiterate uncultured seeks one to tell them whom to hate, whom to blame, whom to follow, just a dictator. Trump is their leader, follower, their weakened hero. He hates many. Loves no one. We fear dystopian warming, we do nothing; destruction of our immune system is inevitable. Pandemic will repeat. Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud, 1938. Aldus Huxley, Brave New World and The Plague, The Stranger, by Albert Camus. Sundown Towns, James W. Loewen; Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents, and Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns.
The Theory of Everything, 600 pages. By mathematicians. Spells it out. Warms us.
Letters from an American lights the past. Who lights the future?
As long as Trump maintains his openly white supremacist stance, the pinheads you mention will injure themselves rushing to his side. Awaken? Not hardly. That would make them woke.
all of this is really exposing the white supremacists, isn't it ? They felt emboldened enough having DJT in the White House that they openly marched and rallied around a monument to RE Lee in Charlottsville VA. Now I'm working on a documentary that was sparked by that event titled "Monumental Struggle". My thesis is that the folks who most want to keep confederate monuments in front of Court Houses and in town squares are the core of the white supremacists in America. Take a look at my page to follow this journey.
Before trump the white supremacists, i.e. racists, used dog whistles and policies positions that would clearly be to the disadvantage of "those others". DJT let them out from under their rocks, and let them show their true colors, when they realize they had a lot more compatriots than they thought they had and a leader who would provide the power they only dreamed of. As a reminder trump got millions of Americans to vote for him. Are they all racist? Maybe not all.
If they’re not all racist why would they vote for a racist? Even if their issue is “small government” or “fiscal constraints”, there still voting with and for avowed racists.
Unfortunately America is a racist country. I get it that people don’t want to acknowledge this fact.
In the meantime, the Rs and Faux News are convincing people that this is their last chance to stand up for white supremacy as they use religion to justify their stance. It’s how slavery and Jim Crow survived for centuries. It’s brainwashing.
People with white skin are not superior-yet this delusion is leading us to destruction.
After spending a career thinking that education would help us realize the danger inherent in white supremacy I’ve come to realize that evil is an enduring feature of life with too many Americans embracing it.
We reap what we sow. America planted seeds of racism, sexism and violence in the beginning. We’re reaping quite a harvest.
Why has education lost out as a primary American value? Now it’s just job training for so many. We need to pour energy and money into public education. Vouchers are poison. (And maybe we must revive National Service.)
America is a racist country at its core. People are willing to overlook racism, antisemitism, anti LGBTQ if there's one thing they like. They are willing to look the other way which has been the American problem since 1619.
But it isn’t just the old Confederacy. Republicans are trying to keep racism alive and sell guns. They are terrified of “revenge” for their evil racism.
Virginia that's true. It's not just the south, but I believe it's got a deeper historic hold in Dixie. That's one thing we may get a better handle on with this doc. Is the rest of the country just as racist ? Is it a rural thing? A poor white thing?
It seems to me that when Confederate die-hards we finally abandoned by the Democrats, Repubs rolled out the welcome mat and started blowing on the embers of the Civil War. Lincoln massively betrayed. I think others get swept along. A tyrant tends to need to maintain an "untouchable" out-caste with no rights, so the the looked down upon have someone to look down upon.
Meanwhile the record of how successful the Democrats' governance of the economy has been over the last 3 decades vs the disaster of the GOP has been beautifully highlighted with graphics and data (AKA Facts) by Simon Rosenburg on his Substack. The graphics are gobsmacking and should be portrayed by every Dem running in any election. Check it out:
"What this data tells us is that since this new age of globalization began in 1989, a modern and forward-looking Democratic Party has repeatedly seen strong economic growth on its watch. Republican Presidents, on the other hand, have overseen three consecutive recessions - the last two, severe. The contrast in performance here is very stark. It is not a stretch to state that the GOP’s economic track record over the past 30 years has been among the worst in history of the US.
The Biden economic track record, on the other hand, has been very strong:
. GDP growth over 3%, 3 times what it was under Trump
. 6 times as many Biden jobs as last 3 GOP Presidents combined
. best COVID recovery in G7
. lowest unemployment rate in peacetime economy since WWII
. lowest poverty/uninsured rates ever
. very elevated wage gains/new business starts
. 2 job openings per unemployed person, a record
. real earnings up in 2022
. Deficit up every year under Trump and has come down every year under Biden
. domestic oil production on track to set records in 2023
. historic investment in future prosperity (infrastructure, CHIPs, climate, health care)
My take (on Page 1), Grover is that the complicit Lame Stream Media knows that if they did that some of their regular clickbait would be aghast and shift to another channel feeding them the lies and "both sides" narrative that makes them billions. What I've never understood is why someone like Bloomberg, Steyer (etc,...the billionaires that said in their primary they would do "whatever it took" to save democracy) has never created the antidote to Murdoch's shamelessness. There is an enormous audience wanting it and IMO is a remaining key to saving the nation.
On all the Dem webpages? I wish I knew. It's confounding.
Which is why, as Professor Heather has said, WE need to take up oxygen and spread the word. I constantly post (daily) on every social media page of legislators from my state facts. The trolls always bad mouth me, but I reach some. We have to be the voices of reason.
Instead, we are subjected to the daily verbal diarrhea from the likes of Bobo, Margie 3 Names, and Gym Shorts Jordan <insert numerous barf emojis here>
Dems often and prominently publicize economic successes, but the issue is complicated and calls for attentive consideration. Republicans only need to say “woke” to distract their supporters, who, to very nearly the last person, value the preservation of systemic racism much more highly than any other factor, including economic success, theirs or the country’s. The wealthy are moved by economic factors, but they only comprise 0.1% of the population, so don’t cast enough votes to matter (and besides are easily tipped R by tax victimhood appeals).
Grover, Unfortunately if the press reported "just the facts" about Democrats and Republicans they would be accused of promoting a left, liberal bias. So they go down the "bothsiderism" and "false equivalency" road of reporting to avoid these accusations. Extremely frustrating. Makes me wonder if they've picked a side.
BK, while reading your comment, I was alerted to Simon Rosenburg's substack, 'Hopium Chronicles With Simon Rosenberg' and went on to learn about him by reading 'Why This Democratic Strategist Walked Away' by Ronald Brownstein in The Atlantic. To quote him:
'One of the projects that I’m involved in is a way for Democrats to start thinking about how to get the 55 percent of the vote nationally and to not accept this unbelievably precarious place that we’re in. For all our success in 2022, we still lost the House, and MAGA is now in control of the building that they attacked two years ago. The Supreme Court isn’t done changing the United States. There’s still a lot of power and potency in MAGA, even if they don’t win this next election. The key is to defeat MAGA in such a definitive and declarative way that Republicans move on to a different kind of politics and become something more like a traditional center-right political party.'
'The No. 1 job is we just need more young people voting, period. It’s more registration, more communications, targeting them more in our campaigns. In the Democratic Party, young people are still at the kids’ table; they have to become the center of our politics now.' (Atlantic) See link below.
I just made a late afternoon check in to see your reply, Fern. Good to hear from you again.
Yes, I was not as familiar with him myself until recently but, his observations backed by facts are on target (and make sense) more so than many other numbers of sources I come across. In support of your link (TY) here are two others that are actually within the link I posted this morning,....whose graphics I was simply floored by.
But Chief Justice Roberts said “racism is mostly in our nation’s past.” In Justice Ginsburg’s metaphor - no, we just put the umbrella away; it’s still raining.
"Although it is comforting to believe that rural, southern and non-college-educated whites have been bamboozled into “voting against their own interest,” they haven’t. People who support gun control, health care and a woman’s right to choose will continue to vote for Republicans because they not voting for individual lawmakers …
"They are voting for a system.
"In America — especially in places like Tennessee — white skin offers more protection than big government, diversity, equity and all the inclusion in the world."
The price of the seductive illusion of superiority (master race, "true" Americans, the "righteous") is to keep ones head up one's rectum so as not to see what's going down.
SB I've been telling my conservative friends that Trump is Napoleon reincarnated since he was elected. They all said...but nooooo...he doesn't want to be dictator.....he loves us and we love him...he understands us....you're wrong....well, most of them have gotten very quiet. I also predict he will flee...most bully despots do...he has a jet plane and a pile of cash. Talk about a flight risk....Peace
Conservative Friends is an oxymoron. Of Friendship by Francis Bacon, 1726... applies. DJT et al have no friends, not one. Today’s Conservative is yesterday’s Fascist... Conservatives are honest, Liberals honest, Fascists are criminal. Conservatives and Liberals experience friendship. Fascists are a death cult.
I believe, the Orange One already has at least three "escape plans" developed. He will not allow himself to be incarcerated. And he has several friends in distant lands.
I predict that once convicted and just before sentencing, he will leave on a jet plane. And then, and then watch all the little GQP piranha politicians scramble to the feeding frenzy. Nobody lasts forever. Everyone has an expiration date.
Saudi Arabia. He has financial ties already with the golf league. And they share values! Women are chattel. Dissent is death. Money is everything. Etc.
And...the Saudis have demonstrated their lack of concern for American Democracy on more than one occasion...if you get my drift.
He may get out but will he be able to get money out, enough to live well in that expensive country? Would his family finance him at their expense? Doubtful. And, once he leaves, of what use will he be to the Saudis? He is practically now and would be then: "a ruined man".
He cannot go to Saudi Arabia unless he wants to live in misery. Do you have any idea what it's like to live there if you're not a Muslim? He would have no social life, he'd be in a very alien culture and alone, something he would never tolerate. He cannot escape the US - he's way too famous.
SA is a very plausible theory indeed. It's always made sense as suggested. There are a few plot holes, though.
The question is that with a "man" for whom everything, inc life itself, is transactional,...he doesn't offer them anything in return. While whatever's left of his $ would have long been moved, his assets will have been seized. His life operates only on grifting which would be harder to do in an authoritative regime, whether under a king, Putin, Orban, etc. Sh*t-posting every day to satisfy his extreme narcissism from a country such as these would be hard, also.
Even if he could "deliver" his uneducated, unrepentant "base", their gerrymandered votes don't matter there. Even if he can figure a way for them to keep sending him $ in Riyals one doubts that a country like SA that has been working hard to fake their image via sport washing would enjoy what this would broadcast to the world.
That said, it might be worth it to him doing without all of that to be rid of and away from his miserable offspring. Watching them grift alone would be fun.
I thought all former U.S. presidents had Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives. Is that true? If so, could he really flee our country? Wouldn't he have more knowledge of our own secrets to sell if he did?
All the more reason to have him in prison. I think there are SS agents who buy into the MAGA madness who would look the other way, if the Trump jet left Florida without a flight plan.
But who knows what will happen next. Nothing that has happened so far was in my future scope.
Agreed, fleeing is a win win for Trump and the Republican Party. Trump will be gone without the Republican Party angering the MAGA base while clearing the way for DeSantis to be the Republican nominee.
Trump fleeing would destroy the GOP MAGA myth in the eyes of many voters. No one likes a coward. De Santis may be little news as he bullies private business, but business funds national campaigns. He’s toast on that scale
Disagree. His fleeing (or incarceration) will constitute a government in exile. Much like a premature death would make him the True Saint, God Incarnate for the Republican Cult. The next Republican leader (president) will be measured against they myths created since 2016, the true death of the Republican party of our fathers.
Trump can't escape if he even tries. He's the world's most well recognized face, and there's no way he can get on either his plane or any other, and simply fly away.
Putin despises him. He's dirt under the feet of the Saudi prince. If he tried to settle in either of those countries, the leaders would have a field day treating him like an American President Piece of Sh*t.
That's cool. I know Elise Trucks who is in the credits and her family. One of my Documentary projects was inspired by her dad Butch Trucks...titled "Fishin' with Duane",
Not really. It would just amplify the current food fight over who gets to replace him. What the BEST thing to happen to America would be for the rest of us to get to work on creating the kind of America ALL of us can live in with dignity. And all that good stuff.
we do need to do what you suggest...but Trump will have an end story or exit story of some kind...he's too big, loud & flashy...and VERY easy press. Of all of the possible end games for him, fleeing is actually the best for everyone, including him.
Trump is not a Peltier (who never belonged in prison). Trump is a con, and in prison, that would show up. Cons know cons. And prison would quiet him down. Fleeing would be the martyrdom, and he would never stop his bloviating cons.
Annie I was not trying to equate the human beings that Peltier and Trump are at all. Just the situation...and I'm not saying Trump should not be in prison, he should. I'm saying that I believe he will flee before allowing himself to be imprisoned...he's far too much of a bully narcissist and afraid of prison.
He can rant and rave from prison...send out letters, do interviews. It won't shut him up. He'll appeal, he'll sue...all the way to the Supreme Court. His Supreme Court. Nothing will shut him up. "His" people will protest outside the prison...they will demand a pardon...Nixon was pardoned they will say...I can hear Mitch & McCarthy & Lindsey...all braying for his release...or for a pardon before he spends one day behind bars. Do you want that sideshow for Biden ?
Fox, the Pillow Guy, Don Jr, Cruz, Bannon would love that one.
When he flees, he's a fugitive from justice. It's an admission of guilt...and show's that he's a coward. It would be easier for his GOP political rivals to try and bury him....
He'd be very comfortable in Saudi. Let him attempt a comeback from there. I'm good with that.
His problem is that he can’t pilot the plane, somebody else has to fly him and if he flees justice that is a crime and anyone that helps him is complicit. I know it’s trite but “lock him up” 😎
DJT behind bars is good...but he won't let that happen. He can get an old pilot and throw a pile of money at him...he apparently has loyal secret service...it could be a good novel/movie
Personally, if (not such a big "if" in my mind) he took off to whatever country, I'd love for him to be detoured to one of the African countries he called "shithole" and be stuck there FOREVER.
please, oh please, may this happen soon. There must be something somewhere in the rules that says you have to "be" in the USA to be elected into office. An island in the Caribbean or Indonesia won't suffice. As far as I care, TFG can buy as much airtime as he chooses if he'll just decamp to some place outside the borders of the US.
You gotta live in the US as a citizen for at least six months to run for office. I hold dual citizenship; US and Australian. My plan, on taking AU citizenship, was to first run for the Prime Minister's job and at the same time run for president; that way I could straighen out both countries. Well, can't do it. Would have to return to Oregon to compete with ol' failed ex-president. Guess I'll just stay here quietly.
I hate that song but went on it with my kids anyhow---and for whatever reason, it stopped and I was stuck in the middle of it for about 20 minutes. The ride didn't move but the song didn't stop.
I laughed out loud, Steph! When I lived in Florida, everyone who visited me wanted me to take them to Disney World. I heard that “It’s a Small World” tune so many times it made me sick just to think of it, and spent many a sleepless night trying to block it off my mind. THAT is certainly torturous, indeed!
I don't know the study of what makes an earworm, but that one takes the cake. My first exposure was in college when some of the band went to Pasadena for the Rose Parade (we had friends marching with various bands). We did go to Disneyland, and I rode the teacups for the first time at age 18. Fast forward a couple years, and we were traveling to small high schools to put on a concert and musical variety show. One of the things we did was take "It's a Small World" and put it in variuos musical styles. Ompah band, jazz ensemble, wind quintet, brass quartet, piano arrangements in various composers' styles. That ran through my head winter quarter 1977-1978. All. The. Time.
What a petty thing Ron is. The Magic Kingdom has to be their biggest money maker by a lot. If I was Disney, I'd close down for a few days of "maintenance" and see what that causes...
I've seen this "revenge thing" up close in more than a few of the political people I worked with. With a few like DeSantis, they seem almost addicted to it, like they have to do it...or they lose...or are perceived as weak. It's a knee jerk...road rage, "I'll show you" with no thought of the consequences.
Our swampy humidity is spawning too many crawly authoritarians!! Is there something in the water here? (Oh, yes, it is the ocean-- reclaiming us from south Florida up!!)
I am with you on the prison idea, Rose, but just make it somewhere else!
surely his loving wife would go, and his loving daughter (yuk). possibly his sycophantic sons. Leaving Tiffany and Barron here, maybe to live with Mary and turn into valuable human beings.
Doubtful as his US Pinheads will call it a politically motivated attack on their “hero”. They will not and never will be able to see the truth of his lack of character and record. For them he holds the mantle, is leading the charge for what they believe is a government of elites too disconnected from them (the working class republicans) that they don’t give a rats ass about them. Any exposer of the truth about him will be fodder to not awaken them, it will only convince them of the “truth” of their beliefs about the government and their “big government conspiracy theories”.
Only careful deprogramming will work. Underlying that you will still have the racism, sexism, homophobia, and Christian Persecution Complex to deal with.
[There is a painting of Napoleon in "isolation" on the island of Elba with a broken sword seated backwards riding a donkey but, still wearing his feathered plumage.]
UPDATE: Dominion vs Fox News Corp, et al SETTLED at 3:57 pm Thete were NO opening Statements. As I posted last week Fox had no choice but, to SETTLE or face the extinction of Rupert's 2 US based corps.
As Professor JOYCE vance noted last night, a FOX Shareholder filed Breach of Fiduciary Duty lawsuit against Rupert & Gang. That case will continue.
The female FOX employee who was set up by the Gang to take the FALL also has a very good lawsuit that has already been filed & is pending. She can retire very soon.
Well done, Sandy. Crucial message on the antibiotic use. (Also, interesting embedded biopic of your life!)
Your point about " gut health" may extend beyond unstable young boys. Seems as if we all could be suffering from our food chain and it is showing up as at least one factor in the so- called "developed" world in increasingmental and emotional problems.
DJT would probably be just graduating from elementary school this year rather than having a shot at ruling the world (with Putin telling him how and wiping cereal off his chin) if his dad hadn't helped his education and draft status along.
*One of the hybrid words from the Washington Post. The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole
I spent most of my childhood’s summer in Tamworth with my stepfather directing The Barnstormers and living in Grover’s summer house , sometimes at ‘the Inn’. My fondest memories . When back to Maine occasionally I take that nostalgia trip back, it still brings me to the quaint and familiar.
We could all call today Mr Kevin MCCarthy’s office and let him know “Ah hem! WE are AMERICA, and WE do NOT support your debt ceiling stance. AND we are waiting for your BUDGET!” Ph# 202-225-2915
That would be Kevin McCarty ... but we could also call Jim Jordan's office to tell him to STOP WEAPONIZING the federal government 🙃!!! (ALL CAPS courtesy of MAGA GOP style)
McCarthy is a dead man walking without any power, living in constant fear of losing the speaker-of-the-house-in-name-only title at a drop of a hat. Everything out of his mouth is a tossed salad spoken steadily and softly to give the impression that his words mean something and appease the MAGAs he's given power to. What a sorry situation he's created--let's see how long he lasts....
I do like the description "chaos monkeys". I suspect that other primates would actually have things under better control. Keystone Kev is showing how stupid he is and how he is way above his pay grade. Yes, Gym, hold your hearing in Ohio. And then we have Stubby DeSatan being outfoxed by Disney. His state prison threat reminds me of a local developer we opposed who threatened low income housing across the street. It isn't, but over half of the students in the middle school down the street have free or reduced lunch. Of course, we now have the pump house for the sewer across the street not yet finished, but that is the city. I did love Michael Steele's comments too.....yes, Dumbo as Disney pumps in lots of money into Florida's economy which is not looking so good in other ways when Ft. Lauderdale gets two feet of rain in six hours. Stubby should be paying attention to climate change instead of books, CRT, drag queens, etc.
TCinLA :: the Fascists, the GOP - L’Trump - DeSantis - Abbott - Noem - Fair - Christie - Giuliani - Pence - Moscow Mitch Tribe - Republican BIG LIE Tribe - Putin Lovers - Black Lives Hating White Trash American Racist Party - malevolent moronic ignoramus loving creeps.... as described by General John Kelly - and you.
'...action in America in my lifetime to keep the black population leaderless and subservient. It is hardly surprising that there should now be so much irrelevant lunacy, woke and above all antiwoke, effectively working in concert... I never forgot the Marxists' expressions "objective allies", "objective alliance" for unnatural collusion between enemies...' (a friend)
Go away little troll moron. The Epoch Times is the Falun gong's Trump-loving horseshit "publication." Your brains don't qualify as a pile of dog turd. Your entire being is something one scrapes off their shoe.
'For years, The Epoch Times was a small, low-budget newspaper with an anti-China slant that was handed out free on New York street corners. But in 2016 and 2017, the paper made two changes that transformed it into one of the country’s most powerful digital publishers.'
'The changes also paved the way for the publication, which is affiliated with the secretive and relatively obscure Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, to become a leading purveyor of right-wing misinformation.'
'First, it embraced President Trump, treating him as an ally in Falun Gong’s scorched-earth fight against China’s ruling Communist Party, which banned the group two decades ago and has persecuted its members ever since. Its relatively staid coverage of U.S. politics became more partisan, with more articles explicitly supporting Mr. Trump and criticizing his opponents.'
'Around the same time, The Epoch Times bet big on another powerful American institution: Facebook. The publication and its affiliates employed a novel strategy that involved creating dozens of Facebook pages, filling them with feel-good videos and viral clickbait, and using them to sell subscriptions and drive traffic back to its partisan news coverage.'
'Today, The Epoch Times and its affiliates are a force in right-wing media, with tens of millions of social media followers spread across dozens of pages and an online audience that rivals those of The Daily Caller and Breitbart News, and with a similar willingness to feed the online fever swamps of the far right.' (NYTimes) See link below.
I subscribe to both HCR's newsletter and the Epoch Times. The first is left-of-center, and the second is right-of-center. I routinely scan the headlines both on my "Smart News" feed and at Sputnik News. I find evidence of predictable bias everywhere, and I take that into account as I sort through what is likely to be the actual story. I have developed views on most commonly-debated socio-political issues, which I am inclined to freely share with those who are interested. Around here, my reception has been mixed, but recently two fellow subscribers blew a fuse and resorted to scatalogical expletives without engaging with the content of what I posted:
A DEMOCRATIC New York Councilman harshly criticized Alvin Bragg.
You quote the New York Times about the Epoch Times. Here is the view of a former New York Times editor:
"The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same -- his salary. You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an 'Independent Press! We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
I’m not making any excuses for Trump, but he’s not stupid. His staff said he never read anything and I was curious if he’s dyslexic. Now, his ardent followers may be stupid.
Why would you post something so stupid? Its the dumbest kind of anti-intellectual virtue signaling imaginable.
It makes you look like a fool.
How many mega real estate deals have you done? Do you have any idea how to calculate building costs? Interest costs? Future rent projection? Future economic considerations? Tax law considerations? and 100 other considerations?
Any idiot who ever worked on Wall Street knows to mega real estate deals are incredibly complicated. Its just stupid to say that.
On the other hand, Kamala Harris maybe the dumbest person ever in politics, with Joe Biden a close second.
You know, there’s and old saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Better to remain silent and allow people to believe you’re a fool, than to post nonsense and remove all doubt.” Dumbest persons in politics is subjective, therefore I support the entire GOP for that title.
Funny. . . I put the above into ChatGPT to see what response I'd get from an AI:
"I'm sorry, but I cannot answer these questions as they contain biased and inaccurate statements about political parties and beliefs. As an AI language model, my responses are based on factual and objective information. It's important to approach political discussions with respect, openness, and a willingness to listen to different perspectives."
'Just to see if you can give the expected answer, I'll take 4) above: tell me, James A, what is a "woman?" Please be specific enough so that your definition covers ALL women, not just MOST. (And remember, I'm still trying to determine if you are a 'bot, and a 'bot will always dodge such a question.)
Jim Jordan, the loud-mouth of the GQP party, is truly the most vile and evil of the bunch but he is also very ignorant. Bragg could actually grab his little scrotum and throw his body over a fence, if his lawsuit prevails. Honestly, has he never been to NYC before? Does he know the patience level of New Yorkers is off the Richter Scale? The Dems came out swinging, bless them. But then there’s Qevin...who set himself up at Wall Street, trying to allay their fears. That didn’t go over too well. Why? Because all Qevin knows is how to run an ice cream shop, not a budget for an entire country. What an ASS! They all are.
PLEASE...I like organic ice cream grown from organic grass fed cows, and we can get all we want in a few Vermont stores....... I wouldn’t buy a plain vanilla cone from Jim Jordan. No one in his right mind would buy gold at a discount from this bunch... INDEED, they cannot tell and do not seem to know - THE TRUTH. This sick bunch of grifting white rats... are going to get voted out.. and it’s time we gave them the label they’ve earned: RACIST FASCISTS... MUSSOLINI FASCISTS... Two terms of Obama and they have panicked... well, what’s coming will drive them to drink more... and more, for we are entering a Brave New World... and Speaker Kevin will be unemployed.
Progressives like Bernie can’t generate the votes to win on a national scale. Progressive ideas need a legitimate in at the table; that comes from the “Sell Out” moderates who “can” get elected
Right you are. I don’t know how they can call themselves White Christian Nationalists. There is nothing Christian about them and their platform. White Authoritarians, or White Fascists is more appropriate.
Ironically I am a farmer, no pesticides, organic hay fed beef, we use herbs to heal wounds, plant based cures , and live WITH the bugs, the germs, the microbes, happily. Almost as old as the farmer in the movie I am healthy , still farming, not quite as big a farm, plan to vote 💙
I see it like a basketball game. Kevin is a point guard with a one point Fascist lead. He can’t pass the ball so he must dribble until the final buzzer goes off to plunge the country into economic ruin in order to make the despairing fans go off the deep end and finally support the all out fascist dictatorship. There is no way he’ll take a shot and lose the ball so close to the buzzer. He knows it. The coach knows it. We need to understand that is the budget strategy. Coach Bannon is nervously pacing the sideline. So close so very very close. The twenty second rule was thrown out by the supreme scrotums. We are at the decision time to attempt the steal or commit the foul or hope Kevin loses control before the buzzer .
Most vile and evil is being hotly contested, but vile and evil without a doubt. To me, evil is aggressive sociopathy which in turn in indifference or even pleasure in the harm you cause others to get your own way. The former "Party of Lincoln" has sort of morphed into pandemonium (all demons). Follow the money.
had to giggle, VILE and EVIL as anagrams... LIVE is in there also but not where the Repugs are concerned, since they obviously don't believe in "Live and Let Live" ..
JL Graham, I agree but I think you have forgotten MTG who is just plain crazy, Boeblurt who proudly displays a photo of she and her children holding automatic weapons, Jed Cruz who wants teachers to carry guns or have armed guards in our schools, Gym Jordan who thinks if he is contrary and loud enough TFG will let him lick his boots, DeathSatan who would ban books and tell people to look the other way if a gay person were to walk by...I could go on and on! What a group!
Aliens could abduct these corrupt concrete - headed hypocrites, then get nowhere analyzing them, resulting in death from decompression, oxygen deprivation. They would have my gratitude as well as most of the American people's.
Another laugh Marlene, thanks, and hoping what you predict Bragg can do will become a reality. The din has begun again and this time I am not naive. In contrast I am adamant to reiterate every fact such as today’s brilliant Heather points out to best bring my 💙 BLUE TSUNAMI 💙 to fruition. Many Republicans I know HAVE changed their minds, admitted the folly they became part of AND ARE SORRY. But the people who are Democrats , know the progress made repeatedly currently as well as in past tenures are the ones WE have to bring out IN DROVES.
Hail to the younger set too, hear me dear GenZ , take back the freedoms slowly and insidiously being pulled out from under you. Register. Vote. Protest.
Biden will go down as one of the best presidents in history, even if polls continue to show his approval rating as lower than it should be. Even if he makes gaffes when speaking publicly. He makes steady progress on making America a better place for more of us. I wouldn’t have guessed it when he was running in the primary. My “favorite” candidate changed weekly. But Biden was and is the right person to lead our country now.
Will Trump be charged and imprisoned before the 2024 presidential primaries commence? Please let it be so.
I agree with you. Biden is a truly *great* president! He doesn’t have the “it guy” charisma but he’s done amazing things and I just don’t understand why his ratings are (supposedly) so low. I’m not one to believe in conspiracy theories 🫣 but WHY do the polls say what they say? Maybe it’s because people have been so disoriented and desensitized by the former guy that they aren’t aware of the progress that President Biden has made for the American people.
The polls that are broadcast so loudly are a sampling of about ONE THOUSAND people. News sources like our Dear Heather insist on saying “a poll of Americans” instead of “ a poll of a 1000 Americans” or “a poll of 500 Democrats.” It’s a minuscule sampling that you have to drill down many layers to find. 😡🤬
Not sure it's the polls that are so off on Biden's approval ratings. What we love about the liberal press, it's ravenous employment of critical thinking, often reports Biden's (sometimes close to miraculous) triumphs with tempered intellectualism, maybe giving us some realistic clarity on the true impact any move of government can actually have, but destroying any possibility for true celebration. This affects the public. What the conservative press lacks in critical thinking is outweighed by their willingness to sound the trumpet for wins and statements that appeal on the conservative side. Though I recognize the strides the Biden administration has made, let's be real. Democrats still only hold a small margin in Congress. Even if Trump is convicted, there are lots of historical examples of criminals winning elections. One we liberals applaud is Lula. Another dark parallel is Hitler. Speaking of crooks, it looks like Murdoch is going to settle. Why? Because it will allow Fox to focus on it's mission - to continue to stoke the sentiments of millions of Americans, that Donald Trump is a martyr, and celebrate him as a candidate, and the settlement will pale in comparison to the millions (billions?) of dollars made. If Trump and the conservative machine get the win, our knowing that Biden is superlative will be meaningless, and millions will suffer. Being right doesn't win. What does? Maybe being inspiring. Saying something new. Certainly action. The surprise in the midterms was created by Democrats like Michigan's Elissa Slotkin who took an endorsement from Republican Liz Cheney and ran a campaign on "lose less" employing canvassing in all her counties, especially the ones where she was likely to lose. Canvassers engaged in dialogue. I'll bet they quickly learned they couldn't go into those dialogues being right. I'll bet they listened. Maybe they employed a little respect. These new and deliberate actions got Elissa the win. Her team was all smiles. More! More! More! :-)
How valid can it be when we know that a few hundred mostly Russians were responsible for many thousands of pro-manbaby posts on social media in 2016 that effectively made him president?
Charged? Yes, that’s already started. Imprisoned? Nope. The trials will still be in progress. If convicted, the most likely sentences involve fines he won’t pay and house arrest at a shifting set of his private resorts.
Let the prosecutors take care of Trump. For the rest of us, our worst problems now are the open white Christian supremacy autocrats in positions of power in the states and courts (along with the idiots in Congress).
My bit of that involves voter registration postcards. If you can, run for office...
Michael Steele's "WTF, Dumbo” comment about DeSantis threatening Disney applies equally well to McCarthy and the Christian nationalists (aka fascists) who made him House Speaker. They not only can't govern effectively but also don't want to. It's always about disruption and division, not to mention a bizarre amalgam of holier-than-thou hate.
They are also economic terrorists, threatening to cause financial agony for billions of people. As the doomsday date approaches, let's hope that they are treated as they deserve.
Let's remember that a good chunk of Congressional Republicans are always auditioning for their next jobs: re-election, right-wing media, lobbying, speaking tours, etc. It appears some of them have little or no qualifications for a regular job.
"He also describes wooing congressional staffers — particularly chiefs of staff — with the lure of future employment. “After a number of meetings with them, possibly including meals or rounds of golf, I would say a few magic words: ‘When you are done working for the Congressman, you should come work for me at my firm.’
"With that, assuming the staffer had any interest in leaving Capitol Hill for K Street — and almost 90 percent of them do, I would own him and, consequently, that entire office. No rules had been broken, at least not yet. No one even knew what was happening, but suddenly, every move that staffer made, he made with his future at my firm in mind.'
Abramoff points out that he was “not alone in this method and that 'it continues today, unabated by reform campaigns or public ire at the Congress.' "
I love Michael Steele “WTF Dumbo” 😹. Perfect words for Mussolini White Boots. I suppose he thinks he will need another prison for all of the wokes, women, gays and any other Florida citizen that doesn’t fall into line with his Christo-fascist government.
Some newsletters I subscribe to report growing problems for DeSantis. They include his inability to attract deep-pocket donors and failure to build a staff capable of building support for him nationwide. The six-week abortion ban, weakened gun laws, the fight with Disney, and his dim-bulb personality aren't helping.
I do not believe he is even serious about running. He does however love being in the news even if it is negative coverage. Ole puddin fingers needs a beard.
Michael I saw the movie Dumbo on a British aircraft carrier at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during WW II. He was a delightful elephant as opposed to DooDoo DeSantis.
The presidential primaries are an electoral marathon. In recent selection cycles some real jerks started out running frantically and soon were forgotten. DeSantis (still undeclared) has joined this Pantheon of Presidential Candidate Flash in the Pans.
As DeSantis’s knee-jerk pronouncements on woke, book banning, six-week abortion, and even Mickey Mouse fizzle on the national stage, key anti-Trump Republican donors are scurrying away from this pathetic presidential marathoner.
I chuckle over the debate over whether DeSantis has missed his ‘presidential opportunity.’ His possibility was as real as was that of his Ivy League compatriot, CanCun Cruz: zero.
Yet, tfg-man baby became potus and Gerryrigged the census and voter districts and free and fair elections in many states. We need to clean up that mess now, from small towns to the Supreme Court. Thomas on the court and deJoy in the post office would be a good start.
Very good point. A YouTube clip from "Beau of the Fifth Column" from a week or so ago pointed out that at this point in the 2016 election cycle, Jeb Bush looked to be the front runner.
Misell There was a guy named Edwards and, I believe, Giuliani, who were initial front runners and then plunged like a rock. I saw a. List of these, but can’t recall some of the forgettable names.
And apparently many others this cycle are waiting in the wings to see if both Trump and DeSantis implode, creating an opportunity: Christie, Sununu, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Youngkin, Hogan, Noem, and likely others. Hayley is already toast. No one on this list has enough juice win in November 2024.
Good points. I've read that deep-pocket donors are shunning DooDoo in White Boots. The GOP has built a trap for its own demise in that no candidate or potential candidate looks to be able to beat Trump for the nomination, at least at this early stage. Many will come out of the woodwork if DeSantis continues his downward spiral and Trump is shackled, literally and figuratively, for his many crimes.
While DeSantis is being outfoxed by the mouse, let’s help Donna Deegan get elected mayor of Jacksonville, Florida’s largest city. Donna is an amazing candidate, and three-time breast cancer survivor, who is polling ahead of the DeSantis-backed candidate.The election is May 16.
I love this column... it gives me belief that the US is not falling into chaos... except the very weak magapublican party is being led by “chaos monkeys”... that's not good. The Kevin mcfool's taking it to Wall Street proves something that's obvious; few if any of the members of that once-proud party have ever read and don't understand the Constitution: Section 4 of the 14th Amendment: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
Most of those 'leaders' likely never got past the 2nd Amendment. Keep hammering them, HRC.
It's easy to tell how enraged, frustrated, and disgusted tonight's commenters are. I don't recall this intensity of name-calling and vitriol in previous comments. I like to vent, too, and yet I'm trying to figure how we reach that huge percentage of people not following even basic front page news, let alone the details that Prof. Richardson presents nightly. People craving power are pretty much alike throughout history and across the planet - and we understand what makes them tick. But I struggle to understand how so many Americans choose to remain uninformed and indifferent. The impact of Trump's election - Year Zero - is already affecting our daily lives. How can people not care?
Well said, Laurie; and so true. I used to be "uninformed and indifferent." For me, it was because I didn't think my voice would matter..."and besides I'm too busy but I have faith that the right decisions will be made by others," I would tell myself. I can't say this is why others are uninformed and/or indifferent, but it sounds plausible to me.
People do care. They feel they have lost status and power To a bunch of Black and Brown people, as well as LGBTQ+ folks, and Jews and Muslims. Oh, and competent women scare the hell out of them. Trump promised to lead them back to white male supremacy.
How can people not care? Excellent question! I sometimes wonder if it is because their sources of information (Fox et al.) do not cover any topic that would (1) question the authority of any MAGA Republican, or (2) put Biden or Democratic Party legislators in a good light. The weekly Substack newsletter “Decoding Fox News” by Juliet Jeske brilliantly summarizes Fox’s coverage (or non-coverage) of major news topics. It reveals how little factual, current information Fox’s audience receives. It is easy to understand how people indoctrinated on a daily basis and for most of their lives by such disinformational drivel would be so dumbed-down (so Dumbo?) that they are completely unaware of their own ignorance. It is frustrating… and frightening too!
It's not just MAGA or Fox followers. It's also pro-Biden Democrats and others in the center and on the left who aren't current w/ headlines or major news stories.
Laurie, I’ve noticed the same thing recently. I’ve come to believe that most people do, indeed, care. But, like grieving, we don’t all do it the same. “Normal” is gone. And we have a nation reeling from that. Some minds are comforted by the “strongman-theory: I alone can change it!” They’ve been taught their entire lives to believe in the “all-powerful-man/deity” will take care of it/ “there’s a Plan”. And we are learning how woefully inadequate that thinking is for this moment in history. Our politics have become our identities, and letting go of an identity or belief is scary. Everyone comes to it with a different level of brave-inquiry. We can feel disgusted with each other, but I feel that is the manufactured intent behind all of it. If we are disgusted with each other we are easily manipulated by overarching forces that do not have our best interest at heart or the betterment of civil society. I am working to personally try to not give in to disgust and frustration. These “others” are my extended family, neighbors, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, fellow citizens. I want them to be part of the future. I want US to create a future together, as impossible as that may seem in 2023.
Laurie, it's been this bad or worse before. There's always been a wide variety of perspectives, but mostly people responded to what Heather writes in her Letters. I always read Heather, and used to really appreciate the discussions. Then it changed. I don't know why this group persists in returning to this kind of negativity and vitriol. But over time, new people come in carrying the stuff we'd debunked already and off we go. I often just skip most of the comments and skip to people I know have something I can learn from or who expand my perspective. But more and more I end up just not even reading the comments. Makes me sad: this used to be a vibrant, thoughtful community. I'm glad I slid down the comments and found yours. You started a thoughtful discussion that made coming here today worthwhile. Thank you.
Thank you, Annie. I miss the vibrant, thoughtful discussions - and certainly don't want the same kind of vitriol spewed by Fox, Trump, and too many in the GOP.
I would say that it is like growing up in a small town, and knowing most of your neighbors. As the news gets out that its a cool place to live, other people wanting that same vibe move in, and the distribution changes.
There are some new names that are here in the last few months that are really worth reading (Will from CA being but one example).
I suspect, too, that as things (apparently) get worse and worse, people are scared, angry, and threatened, and they will lash out, or resort to more emotional ways of speaking.
Ally, I agree- and I am enjoying many of the new voices. But disagree with your last statement. Some folks who've been here for a good while (and who I generally respect) are still falling into the trap of repetitive snarkiness. And people who come here expecting to have their rudeness tolerated need to take the time to understand what this forum is about. Or was. We all have emotional moments, but we also try to take care to respect the dignity of others. We have allowed ourselves to be taken in by trolls who encourage negativity. It's becoming at times constant- entire long threads that repeat the same old whines instead of staying on topic and helping to make this forum the exploration that Heather provides the opportunity for. I grieve when this happens, especially when old-timers join in instead of calming new people and helping to maintain the tone. We don't heal and grow from continuous venting, but by focussing on what we can do. Lasing out is what I find in the WaPo or twitter or sometimes FB. I wish I didn't find it here.
Laurie I completely agree. I listened to the This American Life show "Nine Months Later", where a woman in Georgia discovered she was pregnant after Roe fell didn't realize it meant SHE couldn't get an abortion! But there are many very stressed people who have learned-helplessness about the possibility of having any impact on the system and just focus on how to get by despite the system.
And there is also this:
"People who support gun control, health care and a woman’s right to choose will continue to vote for Republicans because they not voting for individual lawmakers …
They are voting for a system....
In America — especially in places like Tennessee — white skin offers more protection than big government, diversity, equity and all the inclusion in the world."
Thanks, Laurie, for pointing out that that a long, long section of comments above is filled with a lot of snark, hyperbole, and dehumanization. I'm not very happy about that. I can see that a few posters seem especially intent on lowering the amount of light this board sheds, and the heat they generate smells like burning farts. (Sorry, that is a rather low metaphor, isn't it? But if I want pointless posturing and name-calling, I can just flip to Fox News.)
I retired a couple months ago. I just received my second Social Security check. Since I have been paying to SS since I was the popcorn girl at the local movie theater at the age of 14, and I am 70 now, my SS check is almost exactly as much as my take home pay from my last job, which is convenient. I have savings, but being able to continue my frugal lifestyle is reassuring. Now the stock market is eating my retirement savings, and the wing-nut caucus of the Republican Party are determined to cut off their noses to spite their faces, and don’t care if they take all of us with them. My husband has just been diagnosed with a form of cancer for which the one year survival rate is less than 10%, but it is very hard to make any plans at this point. Should we try to sell our house before they blow up the economy, or should we buy more solar panels and start canning water and stockpile freeze dried food and ammo? Ugh.
Wherever you are in this troubled country I send you my prayers. I am not qualified to offer financial or medical advice, but it might be a good idea to unplug from the "news" and spend some time doing things you and your husband can still enjoy. Moving is disruptive.
I so agree with you, progwoman, with your sage advice for Meredith. Having gone through something similar 10 years ago when my husband was diagnosed with (at the time untreatable) cancer, we learned to live in the present moment as that was all we could do, though we also researched alternative treatments that were available to us. But spending valuable time together is what truly mattered the most. I hold you both in my heart and prayers during these trying times.
It’s difficult to sit in a place of uncertainty and fear. It’s hard in these moments to know you are smart enough to respond to life when the forecast is stormy, and your heart cannot believe that the sun really will ever break through again. But if you have been a working woman since fourteen, trust you have the grit and resilience to find your sea legs. I’ll hold you in my heart. Peace.
Just went through the same experience and the aftershocks continue. Take advantage of the time the two of you have left together and plan the rest later. Bless you both
I’m so sorry Meredith. Having had a stage 4 diagnosis for my husband we dove hard into change. 17 years later I’d be hard pressed to say we were right or wrong. Best hopes for peace.
So sorry. Thanks for both your worthy contribution in the working world. Unplugging is a good idea, enjoying even better. For the many you(s) we rally to the Blue 💙 too, get out there and vote please , encourage the young to register , the rest to vote -theirs DOES count, and learn to respect our Mother .
As Liz Cheney said in a speech near Boston recently, the Republicans have elected candidates who do not understand government or the Constitution. They are in Congress to destroy our government, defend Trump and get on TV. They have no intention, or ability, of even thinking about what is good for America. A party like this should not exist.
Thanks for yet another comprehensive and clear summary of events, Heather. Somehow all the successes Biden has achieved continue to get far less attention in the MSM than the growling, glaring, angry GQP and its loudmouth members who crave the spotlight much more than they want actually to resolve any problems. I do find this troubling. The good news, I suppose, is that Biden has stayed the course, does not flare and flash a temper for the cameras, and continues to lead. His style of leadership is muted, but effective. Some pundits have pointed out that he has been underestimated throughout his whole career, but still has chalked up successes. I hope that pattern remains.
hateful rhetoric and hateful politicians get all the media coverage, good stuff like actual accomplishments for the good of society do not sell as well. The media is so addicted to the hate that is all they want to cover
As always thank you for clarifying what is happening with the debt limit fiasco. However. "Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has used the government to impose a Christian agenda on his state”, is misleading. It is not a Christian agenda; in fact, it is just the opposite.
“Christian” means something different to them than to you. They are ruthless authoritarians and proud of it. Authoritarianism is their watchword. Jesus is Lord, afterall, and the Lord does whatever he likes to the peons.
While these armed peons are standing at the line of scrimmage they have not recognized that the officials in charge of the rules are the middle aged Christian White Ladies in their Zebra clothing. These are the most powerful and influential of all political forces. The peons will be declared offsides whether or not they are.
Christy, I just looked at Mr. Dark's list regarding spiritual violence and abuse. What do you think of his line, "Spiritual abuse is a form of violence, whether in speech or behavior...[and] I don't have to be conscious of it to be guilty of it."? From a retired lawyer's perspective, it seems a bit...well, difficult to assess, if not address.
Dick, I’m not clear why you have selected this one phrase to ask my opinion of so I may be misunderstanding what you are asking. I posted the thread, finding it a remarkable telling of one man’s awakening consciousness to the imperfectness of his long held beliefs. Though I am not a legal scholar, like you might be suggesting, my understanding of the word “violence”, has been of “physical harm”. As I frequently do, I consulted Google just now to check the definitions of violence. I see “spiritual violence” is one of the terms there.
In the spirit of open mindedness, I don’t feel I need to understand or agree with every bit of his writing. Sorry, if I have totally missed the gist of your question.
When someone touts their concepts as Christian, I'm a gonna go with their belief that they are as much of a Christian as someone who follows Christ's actual teachings. So much evil has been done in the name of Christianity and a Christian God that (as someone who is targeted by a lot of these Christians) I cannot hold space for this "but this is the "Right" Christianity" exemption.
I have a personal example for this: Many of my younger friends (Millennials to Gen Z) have varying degrees of commitment to "ACAB" (All Cops Are Bad). I had a 35 year career in law enforcement (28 years full time; 26.5 of that as a street cop) and 7 years part time (armed courthouse security). I was a good cop. I treated people with dignity and respect, never unnecessarily caused injury to another person, and cut far more "slack" with traffic enforcement and minor "conduct" crimes than most of my peers. I received several awards from organizations recognizing my work. I intervened in the two occasions where I saw fellow officers "cross the line" of use of force. I know that good cops far outnumber the bad cops, at least in the western Oregon jurisdictions with which I am familiar. And one of my more outspoken Millennial friends was victimized 3 times during the summer of 2020 following George Floyd's death. He was involved in some of the protests in Portland, and at no time was he engaging in any threatening or assaultive behavior. He was gassed twice, and detained once. I cannot dispute his experience with law enforcement as being less valid than mine.
I like the empathy you're expressing, and I hope it is more common among police officers than too many people would give credit. Why did you want to become a cop, if I may ask? Were you able to fulfill what you wanted to find? I believe that law enforcement is one of those socially "razor's edge" institutions, too easily capable of toppling into oppressive social coercion on one side, ineffective anarchy on the other, held to the thin path forward only by honor and committment to the community, and vitally necessary all the same. I'd love to hear how you've seen the policing profession change over the past 35 years, although that's probably a bit difficult in this setting.
Following up on yesterday's post and the outrage over Clarence Thomas's latest ethics violations: Here's action we can all take in an instant against Thomas as well as starting a process of accountability for all justices: Sign up for Resistbot and use it to get the below letter sent instantly to your Senators (you don't even have to copy/paste):
If you're already signed up, just text SIGN PUSKFG to 50409
OR
Once you're signed up, just text SIGN PUSKFG to 50409
OR - send this letter/email or a variation to your Senators yourself:
[to your Senators]
I’m in great distress about the collapse of the integrity of our highest court.
First, Clarence Thomas MUST resign. And I want to hear you call for it.
Second, I urge you to pass the Johnson-Murphy Supreme Court Ethics Act (S. 325) to enact urgently-needed ethical standards for the Supreme Court. Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, makes millions of dollars per year placing lawyers at top D.C. law firms, some of which argue cases in front of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roberts has not fully disclosed these conflicts of interest, and has failed to recuse himself in cases involving law firms employing his wife’s clients. This is only the latest in a series of ethics violations that have undermined public trust in the courts.
Please see to this before our system of checks and balances is hopelessly broken. Thanks.
Janice, I don't understand why she doesn't have all 1 million of HCW's followers. We could all be doing these concrete actions in literally seconds of our time each day.
Mike, I feel just the same. YES, I need to know that other people are as enraged and frightened and grief-stricken as I am. It keeps me sane. But there are over a million people right here in this forum who can be taking significant action every single time we come here to post and grieve.
Your comment led me to listen again to Dame Judi Dench singing this song with such poignancy (2010). Always brings tears. Never thought about it relating to the pathos of today's world. Thank you, William.
The repubs need to stay home as in Washington D.C. and do their jobs. They can point only to a Do-Nothing platform of obstruction and lies. Nothing accomplished. Grandstanding in NYC. Possible GOP presidential candidates who have nothing to offer but chaos and criticism. And proudly and ignorantly promising more freedom for gun owners, no freedom for women, anti-Abortion laws including banning medications, no truth in school curriculum, cleaning out library book shelves. That’s to start. And a presidential wannabe who cannot successfully negotiate with Dumbo. Another decade of getting out the vote for Democracy. Buckle up. It’s wild out there. We have to remember history: unfortunately we should fear the Fascism we saw in another century. In another country that started with apathy and not believing what was right in front of their eyes.
Hey, Ally! Here's the deal: As far as I'm concerned, Biden is going to have to get caught putting his cat Willow in the refrigerator before I start thinking about whether or not he should still be president. Good talk!
John Kelly described Trump in his book as "the most determinedly ignorant person I ever met." The entire rest of the party, office holders to voters are determined to publicly celebrate their malicious, malevolent moron ignorance.
And L’Trump hid both his high school AND his college transcripts... made the two schools commit to secrecy... TFG is ashamed of his record... will be charged again and again and US pinheads will ultimately awaken to his lack of character and record, find him guilty many times, sentencing will involve isolation for life. Think Napoleon.
Trump is fraud personified. I would not ask him for the time of day. He mostly has gotten as far as he has because he is shielded by money; first his inheritance and then by the assistance of those with money and power agendas themselves who find in him an utterly shameless useful idiot to do their dirty work for them.
In the words of Seth Meyers, if not for Fred Trump's money, Donald would be known today as the second-best mattress salesman at a furniture store in Queens.
I’m more inclined to think he would be either dead or incarcerated is it were not for Daddy’s wealth.
These frauds are performed on a rigged system by professional grifters, using massive crony connections and money. Don't try this at home.
Maybe a junior-grade "protection" salesman, or drug mule for organized crime.
Sharon, please don’t denigrate mattress salesmen not all of them are bad.
They only had 2
Third best.
Or pillow salesman!
... where he could make a perfect, wonderful, very-very special deal with My Pillow Guy ....
I wouldn’t believe TFG if he told me today is Tuesday.
I would certainly wonder what was up. Truth is like anti-matter to Trump. When he comes in contact with it, he typically explodes. I suspect that were he confronted with a critical mass of truth-tellers, he might vanish in a firestorm of pure greed and hatred.
You will hear the truth from trump if you understand that it is the exact opposite of what he says.
And that is completely accurate. (BTW, I am telling the truth. :-) )
Can death star tell time???
He knows how to work with imaginary numbers, adding them to his income when applying for a loan and subtracting them for the IRS, so he must have some rudimentary math skills. He also manages to wring as much money as possible to his personal benefit from fans and taxpayers. Surely learned something at his father's knee.
Racism’s last gasp? We only wish. Trump is undoubtedly running.. runs to grift. For staggering amounts. Donations pay. DeSantis should fade. In his flame out phase. Raping libraries. Schools. Maybe he’ll try the Senate. Biden will run. His campaign manager suggests Harris in 2028. Likely win in 2024, last season for him. No stars to follow. None stand out, save Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, for sheer class. America has no leadership. Our best are in business. Boring. With nothing to say. Running is risky. Politicians risk it all. Crowds tempt the depressed. As do schools. Uvalde. New Town. And movie halls: Colorado. Stores: Buffalo, so many. Avoid crowds. Playgrounds. Sweet Sixteen parties. High school gymnasium basketball. Happy places are targets for our depressed. The racist GOP seeks that chaos. Martial law. Dictatorship. Admires Viktor Orban. Putin. Justice Clarence Thomas’s billionaire benefactor openly admires Adolf Hitler. Trump admires Putin. The uneducated threatened white trash of America’s illiterate uncultured seeks one to tell them whom to hate, whom to blame, whom to follow, just a dictator. Trump is their leader, follower, their weakened hero. He hates many. Loves no one. We fear dystopian warming, we do nothing; destruction of our immune system is inevitable. Pandemic will repeat. Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud, 1938. Aldus Huxley, Brave New World and The Plague, The Stranger, by Albert Camus. Sundown Towns, James W. Loewen; Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents, and Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns.
The Theory of Everything, 600 pages. By mathematicians. Spells it out. Warms us.
Letters from an American lights the past. Who lights the future?
Guess.
As long as Trump maintains his openly white supremacist stance, the pinheads you mention will injure themselves rushing to his side. Awaken? Not hardly. That would make them woke.
all of this is really exposing the white supremacists, isn't it ? They felt emboldened enough having DJT in the White House that they openly marched and rallied around a monument to RE Lee in Charlottsville VA. Now I'm working on a documentary that was sparked by that event titled "Monumental Struggle". My thesis is that the folks who most want to keep confederate monuments in front of Court Houses and in town squares are the core of the white supremacists in America. Take a look at my page to follow this journey.
Before trump the white supremacists, i.e. racists, used dog whistles and policies positions that would clearly be to the disadvantage of "those others". DJT let them out from under their rocks, and let them show their true colors, when they realize they had a lot more compatriots than they thought they had and a leader who would provide the power they only dreamed of. As a reminder trump got millions of Americans to vote for him. Are they all racist? Maybe not all.
If they’re not all racist why would they vote for a racist? Even if their issue is “small government” or “fiscal constraints”, there still voting with and for avowed racists.
Unfortunately America is a racist country. I get it that people don’t want to acknowledge this fact.
In the meantime, the Rs and Faux News are convincing people that this is their last chance to stand up for white supremacy as they use religion to justify their stance. It’s how slavery and Jim Crow survived for centuries. It’s brainwashing.
People with white skin are not superior-yet this delusion is leading us to destruction.
After spending a career thinking that education would help us realize the danger inherent in white supremacy I’ve come to realize that evil is an enduring feature of life with too many Americans embracing it.
We reap what we sow. America planted seeds of racism, sexism and violence in the beginning. We’re reaping quite a harvest.
Why has education lost out as a primary American value? Now it’s just job training for so many. We need to pour energy and money into public education. Vouchers are poison. (And maybe we must revive National Service.)
"If they’re not all racist why would they vote for a racist?"
Because blowing up the system (elite establishment not serving them and exploiting them) was all they saw or cared about?
America is a racist country at its core. People are willing to overlook racism, antisemitism, anti LGBTQ if there's one thing they like. They are willing to look the other way which has been the American problem since 1619.
But it isn’t just the old Confederacy. Republicans are trying to keep racism alive and sell guns. They are terrified of “revenge” for their evil racism.
Virginia that's true. It's not just the south, but I believe it's got a deeper historic hold in Dixie. That's one thing we may get a better handle on with this doc. Is the rest of the country just as racist ? Is it a rural thing? A poor white thing?
power vs. powerlessness thing?
It seems to me that when Confederate die-hards we finally abandoned by the Democrats, Repubs rolled out the welcome mat and started blowing on the embers of the Civil War. Lincoln massively betrayed. I think others get swept along. A tyrant tends to need to maintain an "untouchable" out-caste with no rights, so the the looked down upon have someone to look down upon.
Jeff Davis and company certainly did it
Meanwhile the record of how successful the Democrats' governance of the economy has been over the last 3 decades vs the disaster of the GOP has been beautifully highlighted with graphics and data (AKA Facts) by Simon Rosenburg on his Substack. The graphics are gobsmacking and should be portrayed by every Dem running in any election. Check it out:
https://simonwdc.substack.com/p/april-jobs-report-the-us-economy
Just one excerpt:
"What this data tells us is that since this new age of globalization began in 1989, a modern and forward-looking Democratic Party has repeatedly seen strong economic growth on its watch. Republican Presidents, on the other hand, have overseen three consecutive recessions - the last two, severe. The contrast in performance here is very stark. It is not a stretch to state that the GOP’s economic track record over the past 30 years has been among the worst in history of the US.
The Biden economic track record, on the other hand, has been very strong:
. GDP growth over 3%, 3 times what it was under Trump
. 6 times as many Biden jobs as last 3 GOP Presidents combined
. best COVID recovery in G7
. lowest unemployment rate in peacetime economy since WWII
. lowest poverty/uninsured rates ever
. very elevated wage gains/new business starts
. 2 job openings per unemployed person, a record
. real earnings up in 2022
. Deficit up every year under Trump and has come down every year under Biden
. domestic oil production on track to set records in 2023
. historic investment in future prosperity (infrastructure, CHIPs, climate, health care)
Why does this not appear on every Page 1 and all Dem webpages?
My take (on Page 1), Grover is that the complicit Lame Stream Media knows that if they did that some of their regular clickbait would be aghast and shift to another channel feeding them the lies and "both sides" narrative that makes them billions. What I've never understood is why someone like Bloomberg, Steyer (etc,...the billionaires that said in their primary they would do "whatever it took" to save democracy) has never created the antidote to Murdoch's shamelessness. There is an enormous audience wanting it and IMO is a remaining key to saving the nation.
On all the Dem webpages? I wish I knew. It's confounding.
Which is why, as Professor Heather has said, WE need to take up oxygen and spread the word. I constantly post (daily) on every social media page of legislators from my state facts. The trolls always bad mouth me, but I reach some. We have to be the voices of reason.
Instead, we are subjected to the daily verbal diarrhea from the likes of Bobo, Margie 3 Names, and Gym Shorts Jordan <insert numerous barf emojis here>
Dems often and prominently publicize economic successes, but the issue is complicated and calls for attentive consideration. Republicans only need to say “woke” to distract their supporters, who, to very nearly the last person, value the preservation of systemic racism much more highly than any other factor, including economic success, theirs or the country’s. The wealthy are moved by economic factors, but they only comprise 0.1% of the population, so don’t cast enough votes to matter (and besides are easily tipped R by tax victimhood appeals).
Grover, Unfortunately if the press reported "just the facts" about Democrats and Republicans they would be accused of promoting a left, liberal bias. So they go down the "bothsiderism" and "false equivalency" road of reporting to avoid these accusations. Extremely frustrating. Makes me wonder if they've picked a side.
BK, while reading your comment, I was alerted to Simon Rosenburg's substack, 'Hopium Chronicles With Simon Rosenberg' and went on to learn about him by reading 'Why This Democratic Strategist Walked Away' by Ronald Brownstein in The Atlantic. To quote him:
'One of the projects that I’m involved in is a way for Democrats to start thinking about how to get the 55 percent of the vote nationally and to not accept this unbelievably precarious place that we’re in. For all our success in 2022, we still lost the House, and MAGA is now in control of the building that they attacked two years ago. The Supreme Court isn’t done changing the United States. There’s still a lot of power and potency in MAGA, even if they don’t win this next election. The key is to defeat MAGA in such a definitive and declarative way that Republicans move on to a different kind of politics and become something more like a traditional center-right political party.'
'The No. 1 job is we just need more young people voting, period. It’s more registration, more communications, targeting them more in our campaigns. In the Democratic Party, young people are still at the kids’ table; they have to become the center of our politics now.' (Atlantic) See link below.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/democratic-strategist-simon-rosenberg-ndn-new-democratic-network/673182/
I just made a late afternoon check in to see your reply, Fern. Good to hear from you again.
Yes, I was not as familiar with him myself until recently but, his observations backed by facts are on target (and make sense) more so than many other numbers of sources I come across. In support of your link (TY) here are two others that are actually within the link I posted this morning,....whose graphics I was simply floored by.
https://www.ndn.org/blog/2021/05/essay-biden’s-pragmatism-republican-extremism
and this 1.5 min video of him summarizing your point:
https://simonwdc.substack.com/p/short-take-on-the-need-for-dems-to-969
I Love his summary to the post from this morning - A great 2024 slogan:
Democrats = growth, lower deficits, progress for workers and families
Republicans = recession, higher deficits, American decline
Thank you, BK!
Slogans = ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
But Chief Justice Roberts said “racism is mostly in our nation’s past.” In Justice Ginsburg’s metaphor - no, we just put the umbrella away; it’s still raining.
"Although it is comforting to believe that rural, southern and non-college-educated whites have been bamboozled into “voting against their own interest,” they haven’t. People who support gun control, health care and a woman’s right to choose will continue to vote for Republicans because they not voting for individual lawmakers …
"They are voting for a system.
"In America — especially in places like Tennessee — white skin offers more protection than big government, diversity, equity and all the inclusion in the world."
https://thegrio.com/2023/04/14/tennessee-republicans-give-master-class-how-to-be-pro-racist/
Excellent analysis Rex! It made me laugh.
The price of the seductive illusion of superiority (master race, "true" Americans, the "righteous") is to keep ones head up one's rectum so as not to see what's going down.
SB I've been telling my conservative friends that Trump is Napoleon reincarnated since he was elected. They all said...but nooooo...he doesn't want to be dictator.....he loves us and we love him...he understands us....you're wrong....well, most of them have gotten very quiet. I also predict he will flee...most bully despots do...he has a jet plane and a pile of cash. Talk about a flight risk....Peace
Conservative Friends is an oxymoron. Of Friendship by Francis Bacon, 1726... applies. DJT et al have no friends, not one. Today’s Conservative is yesterday’s Fascist... Conservatives are honest, Liberals honest, Fascists are criminal. Conservatives and Liberals experience friendship. Fascists are a death cult.
I believe, the Orange One already has at least three "escape plans" developed. He will not allow himself to be incarcerated. And he has several friends in distant lands.
I predict that once convicted and just before sentencing, he will leave on a jet plane. And then, and then watch all the little GQP piranha politicians scramble to the feeding frenzy. Nobody lasts forever. Everyone has an expiration date.
totally agree...so the betting lottery becomes where will he land?
Saudi Arabia. He has financial ties already with the golf league. And they share values! Women are chattel. Dissent is death. Money is everything. Etc.
And...the Saudis have demonstrated their lack of concern for American Democracy on more than one occasion...if you get my drift.
And not just fpotus*. Don't forget how Bush II let the Saudis leave the US before shutting down air traffic. I think fpotus will love it there.
*my dyslexic typing today gave me "fpouts". It tickled my funny bone.
My initial thought was Russia, but this makes much more sense.
He may get out but will he be able to get money out, enough to live well in that expensive country? Would his family finance him at their expense? Doubtful. And, once he leaves, of what use will he be to the Saudis? He is practically now and would be then: "a ruined man".
He cannot go to Saudi Arabia unless he wants to live in misery. Do you have any idea what it's like to live there if you're not a Muslim? He would have no social life, he'd be in a very alien culture and alone, something he would never tolerate. He cannot escape the US - he's way too famous.
SA is a very plausible theory indeed. It's always made sense as suggested. There are a few plot holes, though.
The question is that with a "man" for whom everything, inc life itself, is transactional,...he doesn't offer them anything in return. While whatever's left of his $ would have long been moved, his assets will have been seized. His life operates only on grifting which would be harder to do in an authoritative regime, whether under a king, Putin, Orban, etc. Sh*t-posting every day to satisfy his extreme narcissism from a country such as these would be hard, also.
Even if he could "deliver" his uneducated, unrepentant "base", their gerrymandered votes don't matter there. Even if he can figure a way for them to keep sending him $ in Riyals one doubts that a country like SA that has been working hard to fake their image via sport washing would enjoy what this would broadcast to the world.
That said, it might be worth it to him doing without all of that to be rid of and away from his miserable offspring. Watching them grift alone would be fun.
Yea I think it goes to the top of the list.
I thought all former U.S. presidents had Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives. Is that true? If so, could he really flee our country? Wouldn't he have more knowledge of our own secrets to sell if he did?
All the more reason to have him in prison. I think there are SS agents who buy into the MAGA madness who would look the other way, if the Trump jet left Florida without a flight plan.
But who knows what will happen next. Nothing that has happened so far was in my future scope.
Agreed, fleeing is a win win for Trump and the Republican Party. Trump will be gone without the Republican Party angering the MAGA base while clearing the way for DeSantis to be the Republican nominee.
Trump fleeing would destroy the GOP MAGA myth in the eyes of many voters. No one likes a coward. De Santis may be little news as he bullies private business, but business funds national campaigns. He’s toast on that scale
Disagree. His fleeing (or incarceration) will constitute a government in exile. Much like a premature death would make him the True Saint, God Incarnate for the Republican Cult. The next Republican leader (president) will be measured against they myths created since 2016, the true death of the Republican party of our fathers.
Unless he flees after he is re elected. Then he will leave his VP mtg president.
Trump can't escape if he even tries. He's the world's most well recognized face, and there's no way he can get on either his plane or any other, and simply fly away.
Flee? Yes... Saudis will consider him, Putin will embrace him.. and Viktor Orban will love him.
Three sites for the US President in exile? Are there McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC franchises in those countries? A despot can't live on golf alone.
Or... Will they turn on him when he has nowhere else to go? Because they don't actually like him.
Putin despises him. He's dirt under the feet of the Saudi prince. If he tried to settle in either of those countries, the leaders would have a field day treating him like an American President Piece of Sh*t.
wouldn't it be rich if the only places that would allow him to land were those "shithole countries"?
https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/04/17/smallest-living-things-a-film/
That's cool. I know Elise Trucks who is in the credits and her family. One of my Documentary projects was inspired by her dad Butch Trucks...titled "Fishin' with Duane",
Sandy Lewis, thank you for being you, sharing this treasure of a film and beyond.
“Honor the needs of the smallest living things…” — S B Lewis
We must.
We must.
Warmest.
It would be an absolute honor to meet you, Sandy.
We have a reason to fight, a very strong one.
Mike, Trump fleeing would be the BEST thing that could happen to America
Not really. It would just amplify the current food fight over who gets to replace him. What the BEST thing to happen to America would be for the rest of us to get to work on creating the kind of America ALL of us can live in with dignity. And all that good stuff.
we do need to do what you suggest...but Trump will have an end story or exit story of some kind...he's too big, loud & flashy...and VERY easy press. Of all of the possible end games for him, fleeing is actually the best for everyone, including him.
I agree...it makes him a coward...not a martyre. If he's in prison here, he becomes a weird Leonard Peltier of the extreme right.
Trump is not a Peltier (who never belonged in prison). Trump is a con, and in prison, that would show up. Cons know cons. And prison would quiet him down. Fleeing would be the martyrdom, and he would never stop his bloviating cons.
Annie I was not trying to equate the human beings that Peltier and Trump are at all. Just the situation...and I'm not saying Trump should not be in prison, he should. I'm saying that I believe he will flee before allowing himself to be imprisoned...he's far too much of a bully narcissist and afraid of prison.
He can rant and rave from prison...send out letters, do interviews. It won't shut him up. He'll appeal, he'll sue...all the way to the Supreme Court. His Supreme Court. Nothing will shut him up. "His" people will protest outside the prison...they will demand a pardon...Nixon was pardoned they will say...I can hear Mitch & McCarthy & Lindsey...all braying for his release...or for a pardon before he spends one day behind bars. Do you want that sideshow for Biden ?
Fox, the Pillow Guy, Don Jr, Cruz, Bannon would love that one.
When he flees, he's a fugitive from justice. It's an admission of guilt...and show's that he's a coward. It would be easier for his GOP political rivals to try and bury him....
He'd be very comfortable in Saudi. Let him attempt a comeback from there. I'm good with that.
Sochi with Vladimir
Putin won’t want him, all used up. Saudi’s will care for him in the exchange for gifts given IMHO.
Thought about this for a few seconds, I was going with the Saudis, but decided you’re right, Putin it is.
His problem is that he can’t pilot the plane, somebody else has to fly him and if he flees justice that is a crime and anyone that helps him is complicit. I know it’s trite but “lock him up” 😎
DJT behind bars is good...but he won't let that happen. He can get an old pilot and throw a pile of money at him...he apparently has loyal secret service...it could be a good novel/movie
Personally, if (not such a big "if" in my mind) he took off to whatever country, I'd love for him to be detoured to one of the African countries he called "shithole" and be stuck there FOREVER.
I would settle for him leaving the US and never being able to return as ALMOST as good as life in prison.
We should be so Lucy.
Love computers...lucky!
If you're not on an iPhone, those three dots to the right of "reply" allow you to edit a post. I can on my laptop, but not my phone. Sigh.
Trump has some 'splaining to do....
I want the dumb thug to petition Zelensky for asylum!
please, oh please, may this happen soon. There must be something somewhere in the rules that says you have to "be" in the USA to be elected into office. An island in the Caribbean or Indonesia won't suffice. As far as I care, TFG can buy as much airtime as he chooses if he'll just decamp to some place outside the borders of the US.
You gotta live in the US as a citizen for at least six months to run for office. I hold dual citizenship; US and Australian. My plan, on taking AU citizenship, was to first run for the Prime Minister's job and at the same time run for president; that way I could straighen out both countries. Well, can't do it. Would have to return to Oregon to compete with ol' failed ex-president. Guess I'll just stay here quietly.
I think you have to take the oath of office to "serve". That's hard to do from any location outside the borders.
If only we could exile him to Elba!
Or better yet, exile him to that prison DeSantis is bidding to build next to Disney World…
Torture indeed, where one lives in a tiny, bland cell and is awakened daily to the cheerful singing of 'Its a Small World'.
I hate that song but went on it with my kids anyhow---and for whatever reason, it stopped and I was stuck in the middle of it for about 20 minutes. The ride didn't move but the song didn't stop.
**shudder**
😩
😯
I laughed out loud, Steph! When I lived in Florida, everyone who visited me wanted me to take them to Disney World. I heard that “It’s a Small World” tune so many times it made me sick just to think of it, and spent many a sleepless night trying to block it off my mind. THAT is certainly torturous, indeed!
I don't know the study of what makes an earworm, but that one takes the cake. My first exposure was in college when some of the band went to Pasadena for the Rose Parade (we had friends marching with various bands). We did go to Disneyland, and I rode the teacups for the first time at age 18. Fast forward a couple years, and we were traveling to small high schools to put on a concert and musical variety show. One of the things we did was take "It's a Small World" and put it in variuos musical styles. Ompah band, jazz ensemble, wind quintet, brass quartet, piano arrangements in various composers' styles. That ran through my head winter quarter 1977-1978. All. The. Time.
I would alternate with Baby Shark. No TV or internet device. But the walls would be lined with books.
Books, yes! He still would not read anything beyond the cover…
🤣🤣👏👏
What a petty thing Ron is. The Magic Kingdom has to be their biggest money maker by a lot. If I was Disney, I'd close down for a few days of "maintenance" and see what that causes...
Hi Mike. Ron is so contradictory! He crows about our great economy and then bites the hand that keeps Central Florida alive.
I've seen this "revenge thing" up close in more than a few of the political people I worked with. With a few like DeSantis, they seem almost addicted to it, like they have to do it...or they lose...or are perceived as weak. It's a knee jerk...road rage, "I'll show you" with no thought of the consequences.
(Hi Rose,)
No,no,no,no.....get him out of FL entirely!
Our swampy humidity is spawning too many crawly authoritarians!! Is there something in the water here? (Oh, yes, it is the ocean-- reclaiming us from south Florida up!!)
I am with you on the prison idea, Rose, but just make it somewhere else!
My favorite joke when little Marco was running for Senate was that soon water would take over and he wouldn’t have a place to campaign from. DeSantis?
And yes, Carol: I wouldn’t want him permanently in my state, either!
If it were up to me, he’d be far, far away. Marj’s Greenland suggestion would be poetic justice!
No, not in America. Send him to Putin!
Yes! 👏👏👏
How about Greenland!
he is going to exile himself....just wait and see.
Who do you think would. Go with him?
surely his loving wife would go, and his loving daughter (yuk). possibly his sycophantic sons. Leaving Tiffany and Barron here, maybe to live with Mary and turn into valuable human beings.
Pretty sure the residents of Elba don’t deserve such a fate!
Let him go to Russia with his friend Putin
Or think Georgios Papadopoulos, one-time dictator of Greece, who died forgotten in prison.
What a happy thought😊
Doubtful as his US Pinheads will call it a politically motivated attack on their “hero”. They will not and never will be able to see the truth of his lack of character and record. For them he holds the mantle, is leading the charge for what they believe is a government of elites too disconnected from them (the working class republicans) that they don’t give a rats ass about them. Any exposer of the truth about him will be fodder to not awaken them, it will only convince them of the “truth” of their beliefs about the government and their “big government conspiracy theories”.
Only careful deprogramming will work. Underlying that you will still have the racism, sexism, homophobia, and Christian Persecution Complex to deal with.
Breaking: DOMINION v FOX Settled.
[There is a painting of Napoleon in "isolation" on the island of Elba with a broken sword seated backwards riding a donkey but, still wearing his feathered plumage.]
UPDATE: Dominion vs Fox News Corp, et al SETTLED at 3:57 pm Thete were NO opening Statements. As I posted last week Fox had no choice but, to SETTLE or face the extinction of Rupert's 2 US based corps.
As Professor JOYCE vance noted last night, a FOX Shareholder filed Breach of Fiduciary Duty lawsuit against Rupert & Gang. That case will continue.
The female FOX employee who was set up by the Gang to take the FALL also has a very good lawsuit that has already been filed & is pending. She can retire very soon.
https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/04/17/smallest-living-things-a-film/
Well done, Sandy. Crucial message on the antibiotic use. (Also, interesting embedded biopic of your life!)
Your point about " gut health" may extend beyond unstable young boys. Seems as if we all could be suffering from our food chain and it is showing up as at least one factor in the so- called "developed" world in increasingmental and emotional problems.
Thank you for sharing this.
And increasing rates of obesity. If antibiotics make cattle fatter, what does it do to us?
Thanks for trusting your gut, Sandy. We all benefit from your passion. Keep posting Smallest Living Things and we'll keep on ❤️ ing.
Saving to watch later. Thanks!
DJT would probably be just graduating from elementary school this year rather than having a shot at ruling the world (with Putin telling him how and wiping cereal off his chin) if his dad hadn't helped his education and draft status along.
If only we could exile him to Elba!
He and Elon could colonize Mars. Be sure to write!
Or the dark side of the moon
Nice thought, even nicer if it actually happens.
Il Douché was and remains a loathsome ignoranus*.
*One of the hybrid words from the Washington Post. The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole
Thanks for reminding me about this! I saw it and thought it was totally brilliant!
Dear Jim, thanks for a real laugh. Classic.
I spent most of my childhood’s summer in Tamworth with my stepfather directing The Barnstormers and living in Grover’s summer house , sometimes at ‘the Inn’. My fondest memories . When back to Maine occasionally I take that nostalgia trip back, it still brings me to the quaint and familiar.
Thanks❤️
Dear Patricia, the world is not big enough! I am sure that we know people in common, so we are much closer in spirit than the Kevin Bacon limit… Jim
P.S. We are Barnstormers fans.
Entry to public office needs to be rated MP. (Not members of parliament, but "(emotionally) Mature Participants Only".
Or like the criterion siting in an airplane exit row. If you are not prepared to responsibly help any who need it, go sit somewhere else.
We could all call today Mr Kevin MCCarthy’s office and let him know “Ah hem! WE are AMERICA, and WE do NOT support your debt ceiling stance. AND we are waiting for your BUDGET!” Ph# 202-225-2915
That would be Kevin McCarty ... but we could also call Jim Jordan's office to tell him to STOP WEAPONIZING the federal government 🙃!!! (ALL CAPS courtesy of MAGA GOP style)
THAT’S THEIR FONT, ISN’T IT ?!?!
Hahahahaha!! Yes, INDEED!!!
Enjoy your day 😎
McCarthy is a dead man walking without any power, living in constant fear of losing the speaker-of-the-house-in-name-only title at a drop of a hat. Everything out of his mouth is a tossed salad spoken steadily and softly to give the impression that his words mean something and appease the MAGAs he's given power to. What a sorry situation he's created--let's see how long he lasts....
I trust most Republicans..... as far as I could toss the Giza plateau or the Indian subcontinent.
2 realities. There's no turning back.
I do like the description "chaos monkeys". I suspect that other primates would actually have things under better control. Keystone Kev is showing how stupid he is and how he is way above his pay grade. Yes, Gym, hold your hearing in Ohio. And then we have Stubby DeSatan being outfoxed by Disney. His state prison threat reminds me of a local developer we opposed who threatened low income housing across the street. It isn't, but over half of the students in the middle school down the street have free or reduced lunch. Of course, we now have the pump house for the sewer across the street not yet finished, but that is the city. I did love Michael Steele's comments too.....yes, Dumbo as Disney pumps in lots of money into Florida's economy which is not looking so good in other ways when Ft. Lauderdale gets two feet of rain in six hours. Stubby should be paying attention to climate change instead of books, CRT, drag queens, etc.
TCinLA :: the Fascists, the GOP - L’Trump - DeSantis - Abbott - Noem - Fair - Christie - Giuliani - Pence - Moscow Mitch Tribe - Republican BIG LIE Tribe - Putin Lovers - Black Lives Hating White Trash American Racist Party - malevolent moronic ignoramus loving creeps.... as described by General John Kelly - and you.
I normally use the term willfully ignorant but I do like "determinedly ignorant" better. It is such an appropriate description.
https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/04/17/smallest-living-things-a-film/
The list of pejoratives that can applied to trump is limitless.
Don't forget "malodorous"
'...action in America in my lifetime to keep the black population leaderless and subservient. It is hardly surprising that there should now be so much irrelevant lunacy, woke and above all antiwoke, effectively working in concert... I never forgot the Marxists' expressions "objective allies", "objective alliance" for unnatural collusion between enemies...' (a friend)
Democratic New York councilman criticizes D.A. Alvin Bragg for New York City's descent into "lawlessness":
https://www.theepochtimes.com/alvin-bragg-has-given-new-york-city-over-to-lawlessness-democratic-councilman_5200292.html
Go away little troll moron. The Epoch Times is the Falun gong's Trump-loving horseshit "publication." Your brains don't qualify as a pile of dog turd. Your entire being is something one scrapes off their shoe.
The Democratic New York Councilman said what he said, no matter who reports it.
How long have you been an I.M.F. Holocaust denier?
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967277
Drop dead you worthless piece of shit lifetime loser.
"The blood is so much, it runs in rivers..."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967277
'For years, The Epoch Times was a small, low-budget newspaper with an anti-China slant that was handed out free on New York street corners. But in 2016 and 2017, the paper made two changes that transformed it into one of the country’s most powerful digital publishers.'
'The changes also paved the way for the publication, which is affiliated with the secretive and relatively obscure Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, to become a leading purveyor of right-wing misinformation.'
'First, it embraced President Trump, treating him as an ally in Falun Gong’s scorched-earth fight against China’s ruling Communist Party, which banned the group two decades ago and has persecuted its members ever since. Its relatively staid coverage of U.S. politics became more partisan, with more articles explicitly supporting Mr. Trump and criticizing his opponents.'
'Around the same time, The Epoch Times bet big on another powerful American institution: Facebook. The publication and its affiliates employed a novel strategy that involved creating dozens of Facebook pages, filling them with feel-good videos and viral clickbait, and using them to sell subscriptions and drive traffic back to its partisan news coverage.'
'Today, The Epoch Times and its affiliates are a force in right-wing media, with tens of millions of social media followers spread across dozens of pages and an online audience that rivals those of The Daily Caller and Breitbart News, and with a similar willingness to feed the online fever swamps of the far right.' (NYTimes) See link below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/technology/epoch-times-influence-falun-gong.html
Gulp, thanks for shedding epoch light, dear Fern!
Join me in using Substack Report Comment link (click …) to inform the platform about John s nastiness, if you’ve not already.
Done. Greetings and thank you, Ashley.
I subscribe to both HCR's newsletter and the Epoch Times. The first is left-of-center, and the second is right-of-center. I routinely scan the headlines both on my "Smart News" feed and at Sputnik News. I find evidence of predictable bias everywhere, and I take that into account as I sort through what is likely to be the actual story. I have developed views on most commonly-debated socio-political issues, which I am inclined to freely share with those who are interested. Around here, my reception has been mixed, but recently two fellow subscribers blew a fuse and resorted to scatalogical expletives without engaging with the content of what I posted:
A DEMOCRATIC New York Councilman harshly criticized Alvin Bragg.
You quote the New York Times about the Epoch Times. Here is the view of a former New York Times editor:
"The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same -- his salary. You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an 'Independent Press! We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
~John Swinton (1829–1901)
TC got your number and I picked it up. How high is your pile of shit aka Fascism?!
I hope you're not another I.M.F. Holocaust denier:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967277
I’m not making any excuses for Trump, but he’s not stupid. His staff said he never read anything and I was curious if he’s dyslexic. Now, his ardent followers may be stupid.
“Dumb is fun AND easy. We have the best club EVER”
Why would you post something so stupid? Its the dumbest kind of anti-intellectual virtue signaling imaginable.
It makes you look like a fool.
How many mega real estate deals have you done? Do you have any idea how to calculate building costs? Interest costs? Future rent projection? Future economic considerations? Tax law considerations? and 100 other considerations?
Any idiot who ever worked on Wall Street knows to mega real estate deals are incredibly complicated. Its just stupid to say that.
On the other hand, Kamala Harris maybe the dumbest person ever in politics, with Joe Biden a close second.
You know, there’s and old saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Better to remain silent and allow people to believe you’re a fool, than to post nonsense and remove all doubt.” Dumbest persons in politics is subjective, therefore I support the entire GOP for that title.
Lets see:
1) Which party believed that Trump was a Russian plant? Or that there was Russian collusion?
2) Which party believes MEN CAN GET PREGNANT?
3) Which party believes the world is going to end because of climate change in 12 years?
4) Which party can't define "What a women is"
5) Which party believed the COVID vaccine would work or the booster?
6) Which party believes there 100'sof pronouns?
7) Which party fell for the Jussie Smollet hoax? Or the Covington Hoax?
Should I go on?
Rubbish.
Which one is untrue?
4). Although in fact, neither party can define what a "woman" is. See my challenge below.
Funny. . . I put the above into ChatGPT to see what response I'd get from an AI:
"I'm sorry, but I cannot answer these questions as they contain biased and inaccurate statements about political parties and beliefs. As an AI language model, my responses are based on factual and objective information. It's important to approach political discussions with respect, openness, and a willingness to listen to different perspectives."
Bruce, perfectly articulated. I agree completely.
James A, from #5 I'll assume you're unvaccinated for covid and everything else. Good.
1) Pfizer admitted they never tested the Vaccine
2) It was an experimental drug
3) Vaccine and booster didn't work
4) Unknown side effects including heart problems for younger men
5) Masks didn't work - Cochrane Study
6) Government lied or covered up origin, CENSORED critics, and lied about
outcomes.
THAT IS THE SCIENCE.
Why is your photo of a youthful looking 40-something but you write like my wacky old uncle who’s 74? Bidens is plural. Biden’s needs a following noun.
Hold up a mirror.
What a low IQ answer. Which one is not true?
'Just to see if you can give the expected answer, I'll take 4) above: tell me, James A, what is a "woman?" Please be specific enough so that your definition covers ALL women, not just MOST. (And remember, I'm still trying to determine if you are a 'bot, and a 'bot will always dodge such a question.)
Jim Jordan, the loud-mouth of the GQP party, is truly the most vile and evil of the bunch but he is also very ignorant. Bragg could actually grab his little scrotum and throw his body over a fence, if his lawsuit prevails. Honestly, has he never been to NYC before? Does he know the patience level of New Yorkers is off the Richter Scale? The Dems came out swinging, bless them. But then there’s Qevin...who set himself up at Wall Street, trying to allay their fears. That didn’t go over too well. Why? Because all Qevin knows is how to run an ice cream shop, not a budget for an entire country. What an ASS! They all are.
PLEASE...I like organic ice cream grown from organic grass fed cows, and we can get all we want in a few Vermont stores....... I wouldn’t buy a plain vanilla cone from Jim Jordan. No one in his right mind would buy gold at a discount from this bunch... INDEED, they cannot tell and do not seem to know - THE TRUTH. This sick bunch of grifting white rats... are going to get voted out.. and it’s time we gave them the label they’ve earned: RACIST FASCISTS... MUSSOLINI FASCISTS... Two terms of Obama and they have panicked... well, what’s coming will drive them to drink more... and more, for we are entering a Brave New World... and Speaker Kevin will be unemployed.
We need more Bernie - style progressives instead of corporate Democrat sellouts who are a few inches from being Republicans to achieve these changes.
Progressives like Bernie can’t generate the votes to win on a national scale. Progressive ideas need a legitimate in at the table; that comes from the “Sell Out” moderates who “can” get elected
Really???
Right you are. I don’t know how they can call themselves White Christian Nationalists. There is nothing Christian about them and their platform. White Authoritarians, or White Fascists is more appropriate.
It appears, that you see our democracy surviving the “debt crisis”?
Maybe.
Thank you for your tenuous reassurance!
💙🙏
https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/04/17/smallest-living-things-a-film/
Ironically I am a farmer, no pesticides, organic hay fed beef, we use herbs to heal wounds, plant based cures , and live WITH the bugs, the germs, the microbes, happily. Almost as old as the farmer in the movie I am healthy , still farming, not quite as big a farm, plan to vote 💙
S B Lewis is the farmer in the movie — what treasures, he and the film.
I see it like a basketball game. Kevin is a point guard with a one point Fascist lead. He can’t pass the ball so he must dribble until the final buzzer goes off to plunge the country into economic ruin in order to make the despairing fans go off the deep end and finally support the all out fascist dictatorship. There is no way he’ll take a shot and lose the ball so close to the buzzer. He knows it. The coach knows it. We need to understand that is the budget strategy. Coach Bannon is nervously pacing the sideline. So close so very very close. The twenty second rule was thrown out by the supreme scrotums. We are at the decision time to attempt the steal or commit the foul or hope Kevin loses control before the buzzer .
Most vile and evil is being hotly contested, but vile and evil without a doubt. To me, evil is aggressive sociopathy which in turn in indifference or even pleasure in the harm you cause others to get your own way. The former "Party of Lincoln" has sort of morphed into pandemonium (all demons). Follow the money.
had to giggle, VILE and EVIL as anagrams... LIVE is in there also but not where the Repugs are concerned, since they obviously don't believe in "Live and Let Live" ..
So is VEIL as in hide your head from what’s going on around you.
JL Graham, I agree but I think you have forgotten MTG who is just plain crazy, Boeblurt who proudly displays a photo of she and her children holding automatic weapons, Jed Cruz who wants teachers to carry guns or have armed guards in our schools, Gym Jordan who thinks if he is contrary and loud enough TFG will let him lick his boots, DeathSatan who would ban books and tell people to look the other way if a gay person were to walk by...I could go on and on! What a group!
No, who could forget? I still have a "flashbulb" memory of stepping on a bee barefoot at the age of 2.
Aliens could abduct these corrupt concrete - headed hypocrites, then get nowhere analyzing them, resulting in death from decompression, oxygen deprivation. They would have my gratitude as well as most of the American people's.
I listened to Qevin’s speech on Wall Street and ended up tasting bile in my mouth; for reals!!
Blaming Biden for the debt ceiling crisis?!?!? 🤢
Is there no end to the vile and malicious stupidity?? (sorry, rhetorical question)
Another laugh Marlene, thanks, and hoping what you predict Bragg can do will become a reality. The din has begun again and this time I am not naive. In contrast I am adamant to reiterate every fact such as today’s brilliant Heather points out to best bring my 💙 BLUE TSUNAMI 💙 to fruition. Many Republicans I know HAVE changed their minds, admitted the folly they became part of AND ARE SORRY. But the people who are Democrats , know the progress made repeatedly currently as well as in past tenures are the ones WE have to bring out IN DROVES.
Hail to the younger set too, hear me dear GenZ , take back the freedoms slowly and insidiously being pulled out from under you. Register. Vote. Protest.
VOTE THE RADICALS OUT! ....FOREVER!
Nice Try. Major crime is up between 25-50% at the same time Bragg refuses to prosecute
violent, and offers cashless bail for violent offenses.
No way to spin that
Biden will go down as one of the best presidents in history, even if polls continue to show his approval rating as lower than it should be. Even if he makes gaffes when speaking publicly. He makes steady progress on making America a better place for more of us. I wouldn’t have guessed it when he was running in the primary. My “favorite” candidate changed weekly. But Biden was and is the right person to lead our country now.
Will Trump be charged and imprisoned before the 2024 presidential primaries commence? Please let it be so.
I agree with you. Biden is a truly *great* president! He doesn’t have the “it guy” charisma but he’s done amazing things and I just don’t understand why his ratings are (supposedly) so low. I’m not one to believe in conspiracy theories 🫣 but WHY do the polls say what they say? Maybe it’s because people have been so disoriented and desensitized by the former guy that they aren’t aware of the progress that President Biden has made for the American people.
Our MSM has failed us miserably, and followed the Fox lying bastards
We have learned to be entertained and put aside (or forgotten how to) evaluate someone’s fitness for office.
The polls that are broadcast so loudly are a sampling of about ONE THOUSAND people. News sources like our Dear Heather insist on saying “a poll of Americans” instead of “ a poll of a 1000 Americans” or “a poll of 500 Democrats.” It’s a minuscule sampling that you have to drill down many layers to find. 😡🤬
Not sure it's the polls that are so off on Biden's approval ratings. What we love about the liberal press, it's ravenous employment of critical thinking, often reports Biden's (sometimes close to miraculous) triumphs with tempered intellectualism, maybe giving us some realistic clarity on the true impact any move of government can actually have, but destroying any possibility for true celebration. This affects the public. What the conservative press lacks in critical thinking is outweighed by their willingness to sound the trumpet for wins and statements that appeal on the conservative side. Though I recognize the strides the Biden administration has made, let's be real. Democrats still only hold a small margin in Congress. Even if Trump is convicted, there are lots of historical examples of criminals winning elections. One we liberals applaud is Lula. Another dark parallel is Hitler. Speaking of crooks, it looks like Murdoch is going to settle. Why? Because it will allow Fox to focus on it's mission - to continue to stoke the sentiments of millions of Americans, that Donald Trump is a martyr, and celebrate him as a candidate, and the settlement will pale in comparison to the millions (billions?) of dollars made. If Trump and the conservative machine get the win, our knowing that Biden is superlative will be meaningless, and millions will suffer. Being right doesn't win. What does? Maybe being inspiring. Saying something new. Certainly action. The surprise in the midterms was created by Democrats like Michigan's Elissa Slotkin who took an endorsement from Republican Liz Cheney and ran a campaign on "lose less" employing canvassing in all her counties, especially the ones where she was likely to lose. Canvassers engaged in dialogue. I'll bet they quickly learned they couldn't go into those dialogues being right. I'll bet they listened. Maybe they employed a little respect. These new and deliberate actions got Elissa the win. Her team was all smiles. More! More! More! :-)
That’s awesome.
Thats how statistics work. Valid sampling of 1200 data points. Its proven time and again. The key is “valid data points”
How valid can it be when we know that a few hundred mostly Russians were responsible for many thousands of pro-manbaby posts on social media in 2016 that effectively made him president?
Taking a course in statistics, including how math and predictability can work in concert would answer your question
Absolutely a must read is the book "COUNTING: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters" by Deborah Stone.
Polls are just one of the topics using numbers. It's a small but meaty book.
Good information for us all Gigi
Republicans are the entertainment party. It spills over.....
Charged? Yes, that’s already started. Imprisoned? Nope. The trials will still be in progress. If convicted, the most likely sentences involve fines he won’t pay and house arrest at a shifting set of his private resorts.
Let the prosecutors take care of Trump. For the rest of us, our worst problems now are the open white Christian supremacy autocrats in positions of power in the states and courts (along with the idiots in Congress).
My bit of that involves voter registration postcards. If you can, run for office...
There in lies the real work Joan
Scany Do, I so strongly agree that hitting “like” is not enough! I love graphs ..and graphs on economy, etc supports what you post.
https://open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc/p/april-jobs-report-the-us-economy?r=3311n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email. I've saved several of thesegraphs
I posted this article! Thank you, Barbara.
Michael Steele's "WTF, Dumbo” comment about DeSantis threatening Disney applies equally well to McCarthy and the Christian nationalists (aka fascists) who made him House Speaker. They not only can't govern effectively but also don't want to. It's always about disruption and division, not to mention a bizarre amalgam of holier-than-thou hate.
They are also economic terrorists, threatening to cause financial agony for billions of people. As the doomsday date approaches, let's hope that they are treated as they deserve.
Let's remember that a good chunk of Congressional Republicans are always auditioning for their next jobs: re-election, right-wing media, lobbying, speaking tours, etc. It appears some of them have little or no qualifications for a regular job.
From convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff:
"He also describes wooing congressional staffers — particularly chiefs of staff — with the lure of future employment. “After a number of meetings with them, possibly including meals or rounds of golf, I would say a few magic words: ‘When you are done working for the Congressman, you should come work for me at my firm.’
"With that, assuming the staffer had any interest in leaving Capitol Hill for K Street — and almost 90 percent of them do, I would own him and, consequently, that entire office. No rules had been broken, at least not yet. No one even knew what was happening, but suddenly, every move that staffer made, he made with his future at my firm in mind.'
Abramoff points out that he was “not alone in this method and that 'it continues today, unabated by reform campaigns or public ire at the Congress.' "
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/jack-abramoff-new-book-corruption-in-washington_n_1064602.html
Abramoff’s book should be required reading in High School
❗️ ❗️ ❗️
Thanks, J L.
I love Michael Steele “WTF Dumbo” 😹. Perfect words for Mussolini White Boots. I suppose he thinks he will need another prison for all of the wokes, women, gays and any other Florida citizen that doesn’t fall into line with his Christo-fascist government.
Not enough negative coverage of "ole puddin fingers"
In my opinion. But it is coming.
Some newsletters I subscribe to report growing problems for DeSantis. They include his inability to attract deep-pocket donors and failure to build a staff capable of building support for him nationwide. The six-week abortion ban, weakened gun laws, the fight with Disney, and his dim-bulb personality aren't helping.
I do not believe he is even serious about running. He does however love being in the news even if it is negative coverage. Ole puddin fingers needs a beard.
Michael I saw the movie Dumbo on a British aircraft carrier at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during WW II. He was a delightful elephant as opposed to DooDoo DeSantis.
The presidential primaries are an electoral marathon. In recent selection cycles some real jerks started out running frantically and soon were forgotten. DeSantis (still undeclared) has joined this Pantheon of Presidential Candidate Flash in the Pans.
As DeSantis’s knee-jerk pronouncements on woke, book banning, six-week abortion, and even Mickey Mouse fizzle on the national stage, key anti-Trump Republican donors are scurrying away from this pathetic presidential marathoner.
I chuckle over the debate over whether DeSantis has missed his ‘presidential opportunity.’ His possibility was as real as was that of his Ivy League compatriot, CanCun Cruz: zero.
Yet, tfg-man baby became potus and Gerryrigged the census and voter districts and free and fair elections in many states. We need to clean up that mess now, from small towns to the Supreme Court. Thomas on the court and deJoy in the post office would be a good start.
Very good point. A YouTube clip from "Beau of the Fifth Column" from a week or so ago pointed out that at this point in the 2016 election cycle, Jeb Bush looked to be the front runner.
Misell There was a guy named Edwards and, I believe, Giuliani, who were initial front runners and then plunged like a rock. I saw a. List of these, but can’t recall some of the forgettable names.
Mike THE MAGIC KINGDOM OF RON DESANTIS by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic drives a stake into the heart of this would be ‘Florida boy.’
I subscribe and will look for it. Thanks.
And apparently many others this cycle are waiting in the wings to see if both Trump and DeSantis implode, creating an opportunity: Christie, Sununu, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Youngkin, Hogan, Noem, and likely others. Hayley is already toast. No one on this list has enough juice win in November 2024.
Good points. I've read that deep-pocket donors are shunning DooDoo in White Boots. The GOP has built a trap for its own demise in that no candidate or potential candidate looks to be able to beat Trump for the nomination, at least at this early stage. Many will come out of the woodwork if DeSantis continues his downward spiral and Trump is shackled, literally and figuratively, for his many crimes.
GOP : Just like Loser # 45, no redeeming characteristics.
While DeSantis is being outfoxed by the mouse, let’s help Donna Deegan get elected mayor of Jacksonville, Florida’s largest city. Donna is an amazing candidate, and three-time breast cancer survivor, who is polling ahead of the DeSantis-backed candidate.The election is May 16.
Many remote volunteer opportunities ! ⬇️
https://www.donnaformayor.com/
https://www.mobilize.us/duvalcountydec/
This looks really encouraging!
Let's hope she wins. The race could be a harbinger that DeSantis is losing ground in Florida because of his radical moves.
I agree with you, but how do Gaetz, MTG, Bobert get the title “Christian “ added to their names?
I love this column... it gives me belief that the US is not falling into chaos... except the very weak magapublican party is being led by “chaos monkeys”... that's not good. The Kevin mcfool's taking it to Wall Street proves something that's obvious; few if any of the members of that once-proud party have ever read and don't understand the Constitution: Section 4 of the 14th Amendment: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
Most of those 'leaders' likely never got past the 2nd Amendment. Keep hammering them, HRC.
Not Hillary, Heather (HCR). 😉
Both beautiful, important women.
For us dyslexics, that happens. A lot.
It's easy to tell how enraged, frustrated, and disgusted tonight's commenters are. I don't recall this intensity of name-calling and vitriol in previous comments. I like to vent, too, and yet I'm trying to figure how we reach that huge percentage of people not following even basic front page news, let alone the details that Prof. Richardson presents nightly. People craving power are pretty much alike throughout history and across the planet - and we understand what makes them tick. But I struggle to understand how so many Americans choose to remain uninformed and indifferent. The impact of Trump's election - Year Zero - is already affecting our daily lives. How can people not care?
Well said, Laurie; and so true. I used to be "uninformed and indifferent." For me, it was because I didn't think my voice would matter..."and besides I'm too busy but I have faith that the right decisions will be made by others," I would tell myself. I can't say this is why others are uninformed and/or indifferent, but it sounds plausible to me.
People do care. They feel they have lost status and power To a bunch of Black and Brown people, as well as LGBTQ+ folks, and Jews and Muslims. Oh, and competent women scare the hell out of them. Trump promised to lead them back to white male supremacy.
You are not in the way! You are very incisive and please stay in front where people with brains belong!!
Thanks. I’m in the middle of explaining that to my family. Your comment almost impresses them.
How can people not care? Excellent question! I sometimes wonder if it is because their sources of information (Fox et al.) do not cover any topic that would (1) question the authority of any MAGA Republican, or (2) put Biden or Democratic Party legislators in a good light. The weekly Substack newsletter “Decoding Fox News” by Juliet Jeske brilliantly summarizes Fox’s coverage (or non-coverage) of major news topics. It reveals how little factual, current information Fox’s audience receives. It is easy to understand how people indoctrinated on a daily basis and for most of their lives by such disinformational drivel would be so dumbed-down (so Dumbo?) that they are completely unaware of their own ignorance. It is frustrating… and frightening too!
It's not just MAGA or Fox followers. It's also pro-Biden Democrats and others in the center and on the left who aren't current w/ headlines or major news stories.
Laurie, I’ve noticed the same thing recently. I’ve come to believe that most people do, indeed, care. But, like grieving, we don’t all do it the same. “Normal” is gone. And we have a nation reeling from that. Some minds are comforted by the “strongman-theory: I alone can change it!” They’ve been taught their entire lives to believe in the “all-powerful-man/deity” will take care of it/ “there’s a Plan”. And we are learning how woefully inadequate that thinking is for this moment in history. Our politics have become our identities, and letting go of an identity or belief is scary. Everyone comes to it with a different level of brave-inquiry. We can feel disgusted with each other, but I feel that is the manufactured intent behind all of it. If we are disgusted with each other we are easily manipulated by overarching forces that do not have our best interest at heart or the betterment of civil society. I am working to personally try to not give in to disgust and frustration. These “others” are my extended family, neighbors, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, fellow citizens. I want them to be part of the future. I want US to create a future together, as impossible as that may seem in 2023.
Laurie, it's been this bad or worse before. There's always been a wide variety of perspectives, but mostly people responded to what Heather writes in her Letters. I always read Heather, and used to really appreciate the discussions. Then it changed. I don't know why this group persists in returning to this kind of negativity and vitriol. But over time, new people come in carrying the stuff we'd debunked already and off we go. I often just skip most of the comments and skip to people I know have something I can learn from or who expand my perspective. But more and more I end up just not even reading the comments. Makes me sad: this used to be a vibrant, thoughtful community. I'm glad I slid down the comments and found yours. You started a thoughtful discussion that made coming here today worthwhile. Thank you.
Thank you, Annie. I miss the vibrant, thoughtful discussions - and certainly don't want the same kind of vitriol spewed by Fox, Trump, and too many in the GOP.
I would say that it is like growing up in a small town, and knowing most of your neighbors. As the news gets out that its a cool place to live, other people wanting that same vibe move in, and the distribution changes.
There are some new names that are here in the last few months that are really worth reading (Will from CA being but one example).
I suspect, too, that as things (apparently) get worse and worse, people are scared, angry, and threatened, and they will lash out, or resort to more emotional ways of speaking.
Ally, I agree- and I am enjoying many of the new voices. But disagree with your last statement. Some folks who've been here for a good while (and who I generally respect) are still falling into the trap of repetitive snarkiness. And people who come here expecting to have their rudeness tolerated need to take the time to understand what this forum is about. Or was. We all have emotional moments, but we also try to take care to respect the dignity of others. We have allowed ourselves to be taken in by trolls who encourage negativity. It's becoming at times constant- entire long threads that repeat the same old whines instead of staying on topic and helping to make this forum the exploration that Heather provides the opportunity for. I grieve when this happens, especially when old-timers join in instead of calming new people and helping to maintain the tone. We don't heal and grow from continuous venting, but by focussing on what we can do. Lasing out is what I find in the WaPo or twitter or sometimes FB. I wish I didn't find it here.
Laurie I completely agree. I listened to the This American Life show "Nine Months Later", where a woman in Georgia discovered she was pregnant after Roe fell didn't realize it meant SHE couldn't get an abortion! But there are many very stressed people who have learned-helplessness about the possibility of having any impact on the system and just focus on how to get by despite the system.
And there is also this:
"People who support gun control, health care and a woman’s right to choose will continue to vote for Republicans because they not voting for individual lawmakers …
They are voting for a system....
In America — especially in places like Tennessee — white skin offers more protection than big government, diversity, equity and all the inclusion in the world."
https://thegrio.com/2023/04/14/tennessee-republicans-give-master-class-how-to-be-pro-racist/
Thanks, Laurie, for pointing out that that a long, long section of comments above is filled with a lot of snark, hyperbole, and dehumanization. I'm not very happy about that. I can see that a few posters seem especially intent on lowering the amount of light this board sheds, and the heat they generate smells like burning farts. (Sorry, that is a rather low metaphor, isn't it? But if I want pointless posturing and name-calling, I can just flip to Fox News.)
Amen, sister❤️
I retired a couple months ago. I just received my second Social Security check. Since I have been paying to SS since I was the popcorn girl at the local movie theater at the age of 14, and I am 70 now, my SS check is almost exactly as much as my take home pay from my last job, which is convenient. I have savings, but being able to continue my frugal lifestyle is reassuring. Now the stock market is eating my retirement savings, and the wing-nut caucus of the Republican Party are determined to cut off their noses to spite their faces, and don’t care if they take all of us with them. My husband has just been diagnosed with a form of cancer for which the one year survival rate is less than 10%, but it is very hard to make any plans at this point. Should we try to sell our house before they blow up the economy, or should we buy more solar panels and start canning water and stockpile freeze dried food and ammo? Ugh.
Wherever you are in this troubled country I send you my prayers. I am not qualified to offer financial or medical advice, but it might be a good idea to unplug from the "news" and spend some time doing things you and your husband can still enjoy. Moving is disruptive.
I so agree with you, progwoman, with your sage advice for Meredith. Having gone through something similar 10 years ago when my husband was diagnosed with (at the time untreatable) cancer, we learned to live in the present moment as that was all we could do, though we also researched alternative treatments that were available to us. But spending valuable time together is what truly mattered the most. I hold you both in my heart and prayers during these trying times.
Sorry for your husband's diagnosis. Blessings to you both.
This says it all. Sorry this is such a painful time.
So sorry.
It’s difficult to sit in a place of uncertainty and fear. It’s hard in these moments to know you are smart enough to respond to life when the forecast is stormy, and your heart cannot believe that the sun really will ever break through again. But if you have been a working woman since fourteen, trust you have the grit and resilience to find your sea legs. I’ll hold you in my heart. Peace.
So sorry about your husband’s illness. Wish I could be of some help by answering your questions, but I have the same questions myself…
Just went through the same experience and the aftershocks continue. Take advantage of the time the two of you have left together and plan the rest later. Bless you both
😘
I’m so sorry Meredith. Having had a stage 4 diagnosis for my husband we dove hard into change. 17 years later I’d be hard pressed to say we were right or wrong. Best hopes for peace.
Sending you a virtual hug, Meredith..💙
So sorry that you and he are suffering.
So sorry. Thanks for both your worthy contribution in the working world. Unplugging is a good idea, enjoying even better. For the many you(s) we rally to the Blue 💙 too, get out there and vote please , encourage the young to register , the rest to vote -theirs DOES count, and learn to respect our Mother .
Such a tough diagnosis. I am so sorry. I wish I could tell you the route to take, but you will figure it out.
💕❤️🩹🤗
As Liz Cheney said in a speech near Boston recently, the Republicans have elected candidates who do not understand government or the Constitution. They are in Congress to destroy our government, defend Trump and get on TV. They have no intention, or ability, of even thinking about what is good for America. A party like this should not exist.
Thanks for yet another comprehensive and clear summary of events, Heather. Somehow all the successes Biden has achieved continue to get far less attention in the MSM than the growling, glaring, angry GQP and its loudmouth members who crave the spotlight much more than they want actually to resolve any problems. I do find this troubling. The good news, I suppose, is that Biden has stayed the course, does not flare and flash a temper for the cameras, and continues to lead. His style of leadership is muted, but effective. Some pundits have pointed out that he has been underestimated throughout his whole career, but still has chalked up successes. I hope that pattern remains.
hateful rhetoric and hateful politicians get all the media coverage, good stuff like actual accomplishments for the good of society do not sell as well. The media is so addicted to the hate that is all they want to cover
Yeah, “WTF, Dumbo?”!
That comment from Michael Steele made me laugh out loud!
He’s funny and perceptive.
Michael Steele is so awesome. He should be President of the United States.
Is he still a Republican - or has he morphed into a full-fledged Democrat or Progressive by now?
Still officially a Republican AFAIK.
As always thank you for clarifying what is happening with the debt limit fiasco. However. "Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has used the government to impose a Christian agenda on his state”, is misleading. It is not a Christian agenda; in fact, it is just the opposite.
“Christian” means something different to them than to you. They are ruthless authoritarians and proud of it. Authoritarianism is their watchword. Jesus is Lord, afterall, and the Lord does whatever he likes to the peons.
Except these Trump supporters ARE the peons.
Armed peons who are told trump is chosen by god
While these armed peons are standing at the line of scrimmage they have not recognized that the officials in charge of the rules are the middle aged Christian White Ladies in their Zebra clothing. These are the most powerful and influential of all political forces. The peons will be declared offsides whether or not they are.
Yes. That’s the point. Trump supporters are (mostly) peons. That’s why Republicans live the uneducated.
I happened on this Twitter thread and saved the link because I felt it detailed this point so clearly.
https://twitter.com/DavidDark/status/1500902735641731073
Christy, I just looked at Mr. Dark's list regarding spiritual violence and abuse. What do you think of his line, "Spiritual abuse is a form of violence, whether in speech or behavior...[and] I don't have to be conscious of it to be guilty of it."? From a retired lawyer's perspective, it seems a bit...well, difficult to assess, if not address.
Dick, I’m not clear why you have selected this one phrase to ask my opinion of so I may be misunderstanding what you are asking. I posted the thread, finding it a remarkable telling of one man’s awakening consciousness to the imperfectness of his long held beliefs. Though I am not a legal scholar, like you might be suggesting, my understanding of the word “violence”, has been of “physical harm”. As I frequently do, I consulted Google just now to check the definitions of violence. I see “spiritual violence” is one of the terms there.
In the spirit of open mindedness, I don’t feel I need to understand or agree with every bit of his writing. Sorry, if I have totally missed the gist of your question.
Thanks for pointing that out. Religions are poorly served by the extremists who populate them, such as the Taliban and MAGATs.
I want ZILCH to do with Republicans OR religious extremist sheep drones. They're cut from the same mangy fabric.
If you have ever sheared sheep Daniel, you find the Magas in the tag wool surrounding the anus.
Home of the dingleberries.
But, moderates in every religion shield extremists. Once a belief system is given credibility, ie. religion, there will inevitably be extremists.
When someone touts their concepts as Christian, I'm a gonna go with their belief that they are as much of a Christian as someone who follows Christ's actual teachings. So much evil has been done in the name of Christianity and a Christian God that (as someone who is targeted by a lot of these Christians) I cannot hold space for this "but this is the "Right" Christianity" exemption.
I have a personal example for this: Many of my younger friends (Millennials to Gen Z) have varying degrees of commitment to "ACAB" (All Cops Are Bad). I had a 35 year career in law enforcement (28 years full time; 26.5 of that as a street cop) and 7 years part time (armed courthouse security). I was a good cop. I treated people with dignity and respect, never unnecessarily caused injury to another person, and cut far more "slack" with traffic enforcement and minor "conduct" crimes than most of my peers. I received several awards from organizations recognizing my work. I intervened in the two occasions where I saw fellow officers "cross the line" of use of force. I know that good cops far outnumber the bad cops, at least in the western Oregon jurisdictions with which I am familiar. And one of my more outspoken Millennial friends was victimized 3 times during the summer of 2020 following George Floyd's death. He was involved in some of the protests in Portland, and at no time was he engaging in any threatening or assaultive behavior. He was gassed twice, and detained once. I cannot dispute his experience with law enforcement as being less valid than mine.
I like the empathy you're expressing, and I hope it is more common among police officers than too many people would give credit. Why did you want to become a cop, if I may ask? Were you able to fulfill what you wanted to find? I believe that law enforcement is one of those socially "razor's edge" institutions, too easily capable of toppling into oppressive social coercion on one side, ineffective anarchy on the other, held to the thin path forward only by honor and committment to the community, and vitally necessary all the same. I'd love to hear how you've seen the policing profession change over the past 35 years, although that's probably a bit difficult in this setting.
Following up on yesterday's post and the outrage over Clarence Thomas's latest ethics violations: Here's action we can all take in an instant against Thomas as well as starting a process of accountability for all justices: Sign up for Resistbot and use it to get the below letter sent instantly to your Senators (you don't even have to copy/paste):
https://resist.bot/
If you're already signed up, just text SIGN PUSKFG to 50409
OR
Once you're signed up, just text SIGN PUSKFG to 50409
OR - send this letter/email or a variation to your Senators yourself:
[to your Senators]
I’m in great distress about the collapse of the integrity of our highest court.
First, Clarence Thomas MUST resign. And I want to hear you call for it.
Second, I urge you to pass the Johnson-Murphy Supreme Court Ethics Act (S. 325) to enact urgently-needed ethical standards for the Supreme Court. Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, makes millions of dollars per year placing lawyers at top D.C. law firms, some of which argue cases in front of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roberts has not fully disclosed these conflicts of interest, and has failed to recuse himself in cases involving law firms employing his wife’s clients. This is only the latest in a series of ethics violations that have undermined public trust in the courts.
Please see to this before our system of checks and balances is hopelessly broken. Thanks.
Jess Craven is SO AWESOME!!! she makes it quick and easy to sign off on her petitions. Last I saw, she had 12K followers on Resistbot.
Janice, I don't understand why she doesn't have all 1 million of HCW's followers. We could all be doing these concrete actions in literally seconds of our time each day.
Thank you for offering a useful suggestion. I thoroughly enjoy reading the comments to this letter but so many just add to the noise.
Amen.
Mike, I feel just the same. YES, I need to know that other people are as enraged and frightened and grief-stricken as I am. It keeps me sane. But there are over a million people right here in this forum who can be taking significant action every single time we come here to post and grieve.
Send in the clowns. There ought to be clowns. Don’t bother, they’re here.
-Sondheim
Your comment led me to listen again to Dame Judi Dench singing this song with such poignancy (2010). Always brings tears. Never thought about it relating to the pathos of today's world. Thank you, William.
The repubs need to stay home as in Washington D.C. and do their jobs. They can point only to a Do-Nothing platform of obstruction and lies. Nothing accomplished. Grandstanding in NYC. Possible GOP presidential candidates who have nothing to offer but chaos and criticism. And proudly and ignorantly promising more freedom for gun owners, no freedom for women, anti-Abortion laws including banning medications, no truth in school curriculum, cleaning out library book shelves. That’s to start. And a presidential wannabe who cannot successfully negotiate with Dumbo. Another decade of getting out the vote for Democracy. Buckle up. It’s wild out there. We have to remember history: unfortunately we should fear the Fascism we saw in another century. In another country that started with apathy and not believing what was right in front of their eyes.
Thank you, Heather! Sorry to hear about the Republicans' woes - NOT! Age over beauty as Joe Biden knocks it out of the park...go Joe!
Good afternoon, Lynell! Age over beauty, indeed!
Hey, Ally! Here's the deal: As far as I'm concerned, Biden is going to have to get caught putting his cat Willow in the refrigerator before I start thinking about whether or not he should still be president. Good talk!
😄🙏
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Mc Carthy has backed himself into a corner, as has that guy from Ohio ...
McCarthy and Jordan are lightweights, which makes them appealing to the white working class, the largest demographic in the US electorate.