They – the Republican traitors who lead it – know Trump is a convicted felon. Serial rapist. Multiple bankrupt. Lifelong business fraud. Out-and-out Putin asset. Syphilitic mad.
Destroy the U.S. economy as he tried Jan. 6 to destroy the democracy? Why not?
Long ago – with the Powell memo of 1971 – the destruction started with the crippling of American schools. Followed by the mass offshoring of U.S. working class jobs. Concluding with discourse poisoning by the social media billionaires (no counter by schools – remember, all earlier crippled).
So the fat, mad mob boss in the White House now does the bidding of the international oligarchs, Putin criminals, U.S. billionaire accomplices.
tRump's fantasies do not automatically materialize. Reality has other ideas, such as the power of the federal courts, the incremental rise of public dissent, and the successful turnout of voters at local elections. In fact, tRump n co's constant gobsmacking antics seem to be fuelling the average Joe to get up off the couch and do something. There's a lot to be hopeful for. Onwards and upwards.
Hello Kazz... I hope that You are Right... So far the US Congress has been intimidated, the Legal Profession is under Assault, oh Yeah, Crocodile Tears ;-).. Wisconsin has shown a Glimmer of Hope.. If So, Ultimately, We-The-People, have the Power... As I written earlier, during these Times, New Leaders will Arise... Cory Booker set an Excellent Example on April Fool's Day 2025... Chris Murphy, AOC, Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, and others have as Well... Time for the New... Out with the Old...
Hey Apache, I know I’m right! Rump’s playbook is to continually shock good people into being stunned rabbits. But he has underestimated what it takes for millions of people to realise their own power and use it. These are not minority issues, they affect absolutely everyone. He will crash and burn.
I anticipated this market crash and I shorted my investments meaning that as markets go down, I’ll make out like Jesse James after a bank heist and hope the horses have been adequately fed. Next stop Washington, Saturday. If Cory Booker can spend 25 hours of his life on his feet, I can spend 7 hours driving to add my voice providing threat of rain doesn’t get worse.
Following this thread makes it easy to understand your response. Supposedly Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake". That cake referred to the flour and water slurry bakers poured on the oven
after they swept out the floors the ovens, before putting the bread in to bake; something like today's teflon. I hope you, bill, chuck schumer enjoy your bread while the rest of us chew on our "cake."
But what worries me most is whether the country will survive until the next election. He is a manbaby stomping through the store sweeping his hands over shelves and breaking everything in his wounded, victim-fueled fantasies of our being pillaged and raped (what other kind of fantasies would we expect from him?). His enablers have their own nihilistic world views and cultural obsessions and he is their ticket to bringing those to fruition. How much will be gone before next year can give us opportunity to (maybe) stop him, or at least tie him up procedurally and (maybe) legislatively?
My comments may seem to be repetitive, but I am compelled to remind all of us that the actions we decry are attributed to Donald, but he is not the sole author.
Donald is learning-disabled, and that condition is now exacerbated by early onset dementia. His intellectual deficiency is offset by his monumental ego. He is mentally incapable of understanding the EOs he signs, but his handlers "explain" them to him, using justifications that impress him and appeal to his ego. No one should delude themselves into believing that Donald ever heard of the archaic laws that are being twisted to justify these destructive actions.
Donald is not the operator; he is the operand. He is the distraction while the real operators continue their reshaping of the U.S. virtually unnoticed.
What remains to be seen is whether we end up living in the world of The Handmaid's Tale or the world of Soylent Green.
The only means to avoiding either of those futures is to not only neutralize Donald, but also the operators who exploit him and the party that supports them.
Hello Dale... Thanks... Beware the 'Mar-A-Lago Accords'.... They were cooked up by the Oligarchs pre-Inauguration to essentially consolidate their Power, and Impoverish Us by Destroying the US Dollar... Remember the Oligarchs are 'Citizens-Of-The-World', and Internationally Diversified... The Russian Oligarchs are an example...
No argument here, Apache. But as I have previously noted, there are two forces at work. The oligarchs and the christofascists. The two groups are working together now to dismantle democracy, but their end objectives are very different. I predict there will be a showdown at some point soon, to determine whether we become a technocracy or a theocracy.
Well, with Peter Thiel pulling strings you get both!! But I agree. This is a game of thrones situation. On a global scale. Can we stop focusing on how the Dems are going to appeal to voters for the midterms? Ummm, those elections will be a farce. The administration is not going to follow judges orders from the lawsuits. He has his loyalists in place. This military coup is almost complete. Crash the markets, Martial law, switch us over to Trumps currency...surely that will go well. Good times
MLMinET, I am in no way excusing Donald. My point is that it's a mistake to focus our ire on him without acknowledging that he is merely the tool. Eliminating him would lot eliminate the threat to our democracy.
As such his angry tirades are starving killing destroying removing extinguishing threatening citizens not only here but around the world.
Our hope of what goes around comes around may take too long? So. In honor of democracy I pledge to be OUT THERE on Saturday no matter the weather or not!!
Let’s ‘hold hands’ across America to demonstrate an unbreakable chain of power against the man baby and his frightened followers! And thank the gods for Cory Booker’s strength and leadership.
His actions tell me that he is angry (A) at Americans for not re-electing him in 2020 (B) at the courts for trying him and finding him guilty for numerous crimes and (C) for so many noted journalists and politicians (Democrats mostly) for being critical of his policies, his chronic lying and his blatant ignorance. He claims to LOVE America but he sure doesn't love Americans!
Sandy, his anger was sparked long before he got into politics. In fact, it's inherited anger.
Fred Trump was an uneducated slumlord who grew up in the home of a pimp. Fred married an uneducated house cleaner. Together, they had 4 children, one of whom was Donald.
Fred managed to build considerable wealth by cheating his contractors and his tenants. He thought his wealth alone would usher him and his wife into the salons of NYC aristocracy. It did not, and this infuriated the Trumps.
Fred then sought an entrée into NYC society by setting up his son Donald as a cardboard real estate tycoon. But to paraphrase the old saying, "You can take a thug out of Queens, but you can't take Queens out of the thug."
New York society recognized Donald for the low-brow poser he is and they rejected him. Donald failed his family and he is still seething about it.
A lot of his cruelty is to show those uppity New Yorkers just who has the power, and who can make the lives of every American a living hell.
The hallmark of a narcissist is never never ever getting enough revenge. For a real or imagined slight.
I know this from personal experience. My ex died without updating his will for 15 years. During that time he amassed even more wealth, bought my daughter a dream house she couldn't afford but charged her a fraction of the rent, promised it to her.
He died in November, made sure I was uninvited to her wedding, and now his wifey is evicting her from her home.
There is no reason to drumpfs behavior, unless you consider vengefulness. He's not smart enough to know the word "retribution" but it resonates with him.
He does love Americans as long as they serve his purpose. He wanted to be a big player in the world game ( I think he may have even thought of himself as ruler of the world). To do that he needed to be elected president again. Goal accomplished, now ditch the farmers and workers and the regular everyday guys who trusted him and believed his promises and got him into office.
MLMinET…I was thinking of the same scene: an angry toddler having a tantrum and stomping through the store sweeping his hands over shelves and breaking it all. And he’s joined by a fellow toddler jumping around with a cheese hat, throwing money, and acting like a jack ass. When are Mike Johnson and other enablers going to wake up and show some leadership? Perhaps ordinary Americans have enough experience with toddlers and temper tantrums to say “HANDS OFF”! We have had enough!! See you all on the streets April 5!!
Johnson is fully awake. In fact, he is the "inside man" in league with the P2025 goons bent on remaking the U.S. into a theocracy. Johnson is the legislative rubber stamp needed to transform P2025's theory into reality.
Mike Luckovich has a cartoon labeled vandalism showing muskrat with a baseball bat destroying the different US government departments and then proclaiming “Government broke”. You can find it a www.ajc.com (Atlantic Journal)
But in the short term the shelves, the store remains. The foundation (i.e., the Constitution) endures. In the the long term (a very painful, hurtful and probably rather long time) lead by the new courageous forward-looking neo-[re]Founding Fathers. . . and now Mothers. . .we begin again, this time with blessing of experience and history of what to do and not do.
The only problem I see is that no one seems to have learned anything from history. I have the Russian invasion of Ukraine in mind. Hitler started that way, just a piece of Czechoslovakia, then the whole country, then the whole of Europe.
Hitler was allowed to start because of the policy of appeasement by Britain and France. There was no appeasement in the Ukraine invasion, only history which will be remembered. To wit: If Ukraine had neen a member of NATO (and before Trump existed and wanted to kill it per Putin's instructions), I believe there would have been no invasion. Appeasement is dead at the present (the existence of Trump could change history, of course.).
You are right about the appeasement part. From what bits and pieces I have been hearing, sounds like Russia wants to keep what they have stolen. We have taken it, so what are you going to do about it?
I hope you are right but the reality of our elections makes you wonder. We have had five women run for national office on our two major tickets and four times the voters have turned thumbs down.
This country is still a bit infantile when it comes to things like politics. Even on the "good" side of the aisle, we have suffered from those prejudices, the successes of women like Nancy Pelosi not withstanding.
That bias runs deep and when it is exploited as Trump has done both times against Clinton and Harris, he was victorious.
I will always remember how amazing it felt when the country decided to choose a black man for its leader. I despair that I may never get to feel the same with respect to a woman President.
Without the inaction of right-wing congresspeople, none of these catastrophic policies and the dismantling of the federal government would be possible.
I think the Republican/billionaire strategy is to crash the economy, buy up all the assets that come on the market for fire sale prices (it will be a "fire"), gut the gov't and then say to the hoi polloi, "see, the gov't doesn't work", then privatize Soc. Sec. (I don't like the abbreviation SS, reminiscent of something very bad), health care (more so than it is already), post office, etc. They have played the long game and much of it is coming to fruition.
Cory Booker is going to be on "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" on Monday night 4/7. I plan on watching for reaction from the crowd, I'm sure it will be through the roof, and it will be after the day of protest on 4/5. It should be uplifting.
Get out there this weekend and protest.
One other point I wanted to make is; I noticed the no tariffs on Russia comment by HCR and if anyone sees any Russian goods in a retail setting it should be called out for location and what the product is. No one should buy anything from that country, NO ONE. It would be right up his sleeve to start importing products from there.
Thank you for the article. I do not think many US citizens have any clue as to what we import from Russia. Or any other nations for that matter. Good lesson on trade.
If this mess does not get the pitchforks out en masse nothing will. If you have funds in the stock market you should be hugely pissed off!! It is time for MASSIVE PROTEST!!!! Our representatives, especially Republican need to ACT!!!
What Happened: Charles Cain and Tracy Price, the longtime heads of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit, are departing amid a broader exodus of officials following Trump’s order to pause anti-bribery enforcement.
Why It Matters: Their exit highlights the Trump’s continued dismantling of U.S. anti-corruption infrastructure. With enforcement frozen and leadership gutted, the U.S. is retreating from its global anti-bribery role, opening the door for corporate misconduct and corruption.
Source: Reuters
US Securities and Exchange Commission shakes up enforcement, exams units
What Happened: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is restructuring its enforcement and examination divisions, consolidating oversight under new deputy directors and slashing senior reporting lines.
Why It Matters: With key anti-bribery officials gone and hundreds of SEC staff exiting, the agency is being hollowed out just as Wall Street's power surges. This deregulation blitz guts corporate accountability and opens the door to political weaponization.
Schumer alone could have enforced the Constitution, Donald.
As majority leader of the U.S. Senate, he could have called for a vote on disqualifying Trump from public office. Article 14, Section Three clearly says he'd have been legally disqualified as insurrectionist by anything less than a 2/3 vote freeing him of disqualification in either house of Congress.
Others reading this link, Jon, will have no idea where you're coming from.
Your psychology, of course, must remain a mystery. But the Constitution is absolutely clear. Not even the Supreme Court can interfere. It's totally up to Congress to vote and uphold disqualification. Both houses must grant a 2/3 release from disqualification. So either house, having held the vote, and not granting the 2/3 necessary, will legally have enforced Article 14, Section Three.
You are just a total political idiot Phil. You can't even read something like the Constitution without screwing it up. It must be sad to be such a loser.
Not to mention your constant slurs against people because of their physical characteristics. Shame on you for your horrible despicable commentaries. Grow up.
Just to clarify for all those people you worry so much about, the Constitution requires that someone be adjudicated as an insurrectionist to be disqualified. Phil doesn't know what he is talking about. There is NO legal way for the Congress to just DECLARE someone unqualified to serve as President without either a conviction in s court of law or a impeachment AND conviction by the Senate.
It is sad that the Senate failed to do that to Trump but they didn't. Legally he is not disqualified from office.
Anyone telling you to the contrary, including Phil, is either lying outright or horribly deluded.
Though Article 14, Section Three nowhere contains the word "adjudicate," "adjudicated," or any other forms of that word.
Here it is, in its entirety:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
But how much time will we need to reassemble the government as we once knew it? Willl we all have to settle for a new norm of a diminishing press and checks and balances, hollowing out of the legal system, and a sad indifference to human suffering.....
Hopefully it will be renewed and refreshed. Government works rather silently and in the background when it works well. We notice it when it’s inefficient or intrusive or absent. We don’t notice the enemies who never attack us, or the poisons that never get in our water or air, the tainted food that doesn’t make us sick because it was stopped by the FDA. We don’t notice the corrupt politicians who dropped out of the race early because a journalist exposed him. We don’t notice the police who don’t kick down your door accidentally because they had to go get a warrant and doing that, realized they had a wrong address or name. But now some of those things are starting to fall apart. And we miss them. When we recover… we will be enthusiastic about ALL of government’s roles being fulfilled.
I have no idea. He is only 78 (I am 74 and I feel like I have 15 or more years left). So yeah, I think he will get to at least 82. But you are correct, life is all a crap shoot, anyway.
As for the Republic surviving, I have great faith (and remember with respect to faith, I have little LOL), but I do understand the risks. The thing is despite how awful Trump is, I think we fair worse with JD Vance in the driver's seat. I have confidence that Vance on his own wouldn't get elected, but if he manages to get sucked in to the office by succession, he might be able to win.
Thanks for getting back.... I sense that You are being Rational, for Better, for Worse... I watch DJT closely... He seems to be Deteriorating Rapidly... I was an accomplished UltraEndurance Athlete.... One gets the Sense of 'Who's-Next' during those events... I'll Wager that DJT will have a Mid-Year Health Crisis like DJT did in 2020...
A lot to be hopeful for? Ok. But if people had bothered to study history and had known that this was coming for over nine years, like my friends and I tried teaching other's online, then we wouldn't be here. I'm grateful people are finally fed to ... I'm appalled that it took this long
And now they’re working diligently to destroy our higher education institutions. Once they’re gone and the educated and intelligent are all in countries we’ve shunned and made enemies how long before we become a third world country that struggles to grow their own food? The educated will leave the U.S. where will the tech and financial institutions get the worker bees? None of this makes sense to me.
Well, Kazz, you would think his demise is a 'given' come the elections of 2026. That makes protecting our FREE AND FAIR elections the most important item on 'average Joe' and Americas' agenda. Together with the courts, possible help from the Senate, and the protection of our elections, we can put the treasonous republicans out to pasture and try to survive the last two years of the traitor-in-chief. So yes, there is a lot to be hopeful for. Like you say, onwards and upwards.
Unfortunately it was a "negative" resolution to REMOVE the tariffs Trump already imposed. And 3 GOP House members won't help much because Mike Johnson isn't even going to let it come up for a vote.
It was a big show of hands signifying nothing in reality.
Americans help each other. That's who we are as a nation. The more ordinary Americans, politicians, and leaders proclaim the basic human message that "Americans help each other," "Trump is harming Americans and that's NOT ok," and "When we help each other, life is better"--in speeches, signs, memes, and comments in social media, etc, the sooner we can empower ourselves and disempower Trusk. Every Trusk action harms our country and us. Unlike some other countries, our nation is designed to protect and serve us. When people rally around a simple unifying principle such as this, the public will come together across demographics and ideologies--making our collective power stronger and more effective. Please share this idea, and amplify it! ✊🏽✊🏿✊
Contact your Congress member and senators to vote against the SAVE act (HR 22). One provision requires a person registering to vote to present a certified birth certificate together with state-issued ID or a valid passport to register to vote. The name on the birth certificate needs to match the name on the ID. Many married women changed their last name when they married (69 million), so they could only vote if they had a passport. There is no provision to make up the deficit by showing a marriage certificate or government issued name change document
Let's hope you're right 🤞🏼. Let's also understand that Herr Tramp & co. use chaos and outrage as tools to distract from his ulterior motives. What might they be? I have no way of knowing, but my fear runs along the line of his cronies creating crypto-currency reserves that they effectively own, possibly financed with tax dollars, that see sudden exponential increases in value due to changes in government policies and the seemingly inevitable crash of the world's hard cash economy. I hope (again) that I'm wildly off base here. But it's hard to discount any underhanded objectives with this wrecking crew in power.
Kazz, just wait until trompy chills the ambitions of anybody running either against him or his supporters, by jailing them or threatening them or their families. We are likely in the darkening days of democracy's fading light. But the light isn't yet extinguished -- Congress and We The People must fight back to keep it lit.
trump's antics have certainly gotten my husband off the couch and that is really something since he is NOT an activist at all. If all goes well, he'll be joining me in the Hands Off rally. He even bought a special T-shirt for it!
I hope you’re right. Millions believe his lies, there’s no big push back publicly that he’s lying - his base & supporters don’t read anything that will convince them. They need a side by side chart - lie/reality.
The federal courts are doing their best - I’d like to know exactly which of their orders have actually been followed (yes, I know it’s a slow process - which makes it too late (“oopsie” ) as the el Salvador president said)
Kazz, what power of the federal courts. That criminal has already defied them and since he has immunity thanks to SCOTUS, those folks deported by accident are fucked. They're not members of a gang, just immigrants trying for a better life. Not here, not until DonOLD croaks.
I'll Repost This: "Why are We Surprised? DJT is the Supreme Wealth Destroyer... DJT is Simple-Minded, and his Dementia is getting Worse... DJT has squandered Billions of $, and has filed for Bankruptcy 6-Times... In the year 2000, the USA had a Balanced Budget, and was slated to payoff the National Debt by 2010... Then came GWB, his Forever-Wars & Tax-Cuts, then DJT's Tax-Cuts for the Wealthy... The Wealthy own the Corporations thru their Funds, and Stock Holdings... DJT was a 'Successful Businessman' only in a Simple-Minded Fantasy Reality Show.... DJT is the Perfect Orange Puppet for Putin, and Musk... Putin wants to Destroy the U.S. led Western-Order, Musk wants to Pillage the USG for his own Ends...
Note which Agencies have been Crushed by Musk... Keep an Eye on China... The Chinese play an extremely Long-Game, and they are are starting to Fight Back... Per Tom Freidman, Chinese Tech is starting to Eclipse American Tech... China does not have a Mad Orange Emperor in Charge....
I'm very concerned about cuts to the Social Security Administration and policy changes forcing disabled and elderly people to go into the ever dwindling offices to verify IDs. And they are shutting down the phone banks.
In 2025, an average of 26,000 US citizens who have worked their entire lives and contributed to SS become eligible for SS benefits. That's each business day.
It took my wife 3 1/2 months to apply and get her benefits accepted. She started the process right after the election because we knew Trump would fuck something up with SS. She was lucky. She received her first payment in March.
Congress bears the responsibility for letting this happen. And continue to happen. They all need to pay the price next year, but the stunning thing is voters go into the voting booth and RE-ELECT THEIR REPRESENTATIVES, regardless.
You are correct,MLM - Now it is in the hands of Congress and I would also add the Supreme Court (well, the entire court and legal system - which saw money-hungry law firms recently get down on their knees to Trump). OUR job - We, the People - is to speak up to our Senators and Representatives and our Governors, etc.
Trump wants other countries (except Russia) to pay their “fair share.” It’s always funny to hear Trump talking about OTHERS paying their “fair share” - NATO, Ukraine, Houthis, tariffs, defense stuff, border stuff, oil, gas, avocados…. since Trump is NOTORIOUS for not paying HIS “fair share” - construction materials and workers, charities he “owns,” taxes….
Can I hope there will be an "implosion" originating in the White House and eventually heard all over the world? Those 4 GOP members of the Senate who decided to oppose trump and work with the Dems give me a glimmer of what could happen if we stand together. Do it again, and again, and again. Tell him NO!
Impeachment isn’t going to happen I believe you know how to count as well as I, the senate confirmed the most unfit cabinet in the nation’s history, it isn’t even 3 months and we are seeing the results of that. The problem is that they all need to go, not just the insipid orange turd, and the only way to really do that would be through a coup, which would end our democracy. So we either have the patience of Job and wait the fuckers out, or we destroy the very thing we cherish the most, (to save it?). If the killing starts they have to know that every single one of them will be targeted, without exception. I’m not going to do it, my killing days are long over, but with 30 million assault weapons loose in the country, and as many lunatics as we seem to have, the results don’t look good.
Musk, in all his fawning over trump, is working for China. He plays one side off the other, with himself as the beneficiary of all the foul play. He has no allegiance to anything but himself, much like the orange traitor, and will destroy America if he can, taking anything of value when he goes, and then move on to another country.
Agreed Celeste. Everything is so transparent. Our elected representatives aren’t working on behalf of the American people. Why can’t our population see this. It’s apparent that Europe has a better handle on what’s happening to us than we do.
And MAGats say Donnie is just joking about a third term. They need to wake up. Putin is Donnie’s idol ( or worse) and gets “re-elected” every time. When do defenestrations start here?
If the losses in the stock market had been paid in taxes we'd be a lot closer to reducing the deficit. ALL the money poured into elections also seems like such a waste. Who likes all those angry commercials? At the same time DOGE's "computer experts" have made it impossible to log into the social security website. Can't wait for the debate on extending the tax cuts with the economy in shreds.
Agreed! There is plenty of money in the richest nation to have ever existed to allow every resident the basics of a decent life including housing, healthcare, food security and protections from industrial poisoning.
How about federally funded elections - with none of those ridiculous ads? Cap political contributions at $100.
We don't need tax cuts, of course. They had a negligible effect on the broad economy. But they did fund stock buy backs which made the rich richer - should be illegal, of course. Another con by the ruling gentry.
Tax the rich! Just like we did when Ike was president. CEOs still had great lives and the economy boomed.
Yesterday, I took Bill Katz's advice. Logged on to our Social Security accounts, printed out our docs including earnings and tax history. The system was OK for me...keep trying. EVERYONE should do this. Musk's boondoggle of converting the system from COBOL to new software in five months is bonkers. Designed to destroy so some private raiders can arrive to "save the day". Scam, scam, SCAM!
Chris Murphy nailed it. This project of destruction of agencies, systems and the economy writ large is a giant CON. "Private Equity" will arrive like hyenas to eat the carcass and run away. Americans will be dumpster diving to survive.
It appears that they plan to end federal income tax and fund the government with profits from tariffs (taxes paid mainly by the lowest 50% of the population.)
As I commented yesterday, this parallels the strategy employed by white landowners in the Southern states after the emancipation of the enslaved. Low or no state income tax which most benefits the wealthy is offset by high taxes levied elsewhere.
High sales tax disproportionately affects middle- and low-income citizens, while having a negligible effect on the wealthy.
As we have all heard, ad nauseam, tariffs are nothing more than sales taxes. They're taxes imposed at the port of entry, rather than the point of sale. Their pain will be borne by the working poor.
I'm no math expert but, these numbers from 'tariffs' will not run the government. Besides, do you really imagine the business owners are going to write checks to DC from tariff profits? I don't.
I'm sure you're right about the amount of tariff taxes would cover federal spending but according to HRC's letter this morning, before federal income taxes were introduced in 1913, tariffs were how they funded the government. And just a couple of weeks ago Secretary of Commerce Ludick commented during an interview "just imagine with all the profits from tariffs, we can end federal income tax." And trump continually said that "we are going to make so much money from implementing tariffs, we won't know what to do with it. Trillions and trillions."
I believe that the tariffs are charged when the goods enter the country, before they are delivered in country.
Love the "fat, mad, mob boss ..." as well. In my view the boss and his goons and folks like Mike Johnson are all 🦇🦇🦇💩💩💩🤯🤯🤯! Name calling offers some relief from the bleakness covering the landscape. But April 5 fast approaches. It's time to hit the streets.
there was a wonderful jazz musician, a saxophonist, who was referred to as "fathead" -- fadhead Newman, played with Ray Charles. So let's not give the sucker in the Yellow House such a good name.
Kathleen, printed and then made expanded (bigger) copies of the “Hands Off” small notice (copied from a local Facebook Indivisible group) & did added some bright colors and made sure the date/location/time was clearly visible and drove thru 3 nearby towns to post on public bulletin boards…had one nice conversation where the fellow said thanks for doing this & we chatted about the issues. Hard to tell how the turnout will be in my rural area…I know the Women’s March in ‘17 was the largest gathering/protest/march in Humboldt County’s history…maybe (?) this will top that…though the “gathering” area is not that large, so folks will have to be creative if multitudes (🤞) show up! My House of Rep Congressman Jared Huffman came and did a Town Hall this last Sunday and was overflowing, lively and I thought heartening (he’s got our backs & we have his). Folks there handed out small alerts about the 4/5 action. I hope, nationally, that attendance will hit it out of the ball park.
Kathleen Weber - outstanding post! I restacked, of course.
To all on this thread: I have too many Substack subscriptions! Which I can't possibly read thoroughly every day. But there are a few that I always fully read. Kathleen's is one of them.
As she says, "Hands Off" April 5th is indeed going to be "Woodstock" in scale - but across the world.
I have my sign made and I’m ready to go. I’m sure I’ll see one that says, “I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M STILL PROTESTING THIS SH*T!” But you know what? That’s what democracy is all about. Making your voice heard. (I think this one might eclipse the women’s march after PINO’s first go-round.)
I’ll be attending down here on my little island in the Keys. I have to admit to some apprehension. Harassment at other events required a sheriff to step in, with a diesel truck circling us spewing clouds of exhaust. Hoping for a good turnout, and happy to see it happening! Time to get out the markers!
“Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted. “The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now [close] to $30 trillion or $300,000 per family of four.”
CRASHING THE ECONOMY IS THE GOAL OF THE TRUMP REGIME... period. Why?
Because chaos creates opportunity—for the powerful.
Economic crashes create scapegoats: When people are hurting, they’re easier to manipulate. Blame immigrants, liberals, or “the deep state,” and you’ve got an angry base ready to back authoritarian solutions.
Crisis justifies power grabs: If the economy collapses under Trump’s watch, he and his loyalists can claim only they can fix it—by ignoring laws, suppressing votes, and dismantling democratic checks.
Wealth transfer in disguise: Crashes allow billionaires to buy up assets at fire-sale prices. The rich get richer while workers lose jobs, homes, and savings. That’s not a bug, it’s the plan.
Destroy public trust: Undermining institutions—media, courts, education, even the Fed—is easier when people are desperate. A collapsed economy fuels distrust in democracy, paving the way for authoritarianism.
This isn’t incompetence. It’s sabotage dressed up as populism.
Michael, I’ve been saying this exact sentiment to my husband. He continues to argue that Trump truly wants to succeed as President and may have the wrong solution but has good intentions. I think my husband is a good man who lacks the imagination of what Trump views as a successful presidency. That is, what makes Putin happy and puts money in Trump’s pocket is what is successful in his mind!
That's such a sharp and insightful way to put it. Your husband’s view reflects the hope that most people—even flawed leaders—want to do right by the country. But as you said, Trump’s definition of “success” is not rooted in public service. It’s power, wealth, and personal loyalty. If it pleases Putin or fattens his bank account, that is success to him. That moral disconnect is what many good people struggle to grasp—because they assume everyone plays by the same rules. But Trump never has.
Clare, except for sainthood, I can't imagine how you can manage a relationship with a Trumper. I couldn't do it.
Your hubs clearly hasn't attempted to learn anything about Donald, and what he's really about.
As you've suggested, all that matters to Donald is money. He also cares about loyalty, but that loyalty is unidirectional – in his direction – and that loyalty must put money in his bank account. When money is all that matters, quid pro quo is the only type of acceptable transaction.
Donald owes Putin, who is a racketeer. For loan bailouts, for election interference, for his escape from imprisonment, Donald must keep paying tribute to Putin, or lose it all. The cost is more than Donald can pay, so he has to extract payment from the American people, and that's what he's doing.
That's actually the premise underlying one of the Die Hard movies. Terrorists attempt to crash the markets by causing a "Fire Sale" (massive world wide sell off) in all the computer networks worldwide.
The effect that crippling schools has had is poisonous. Many Americans seem incapable of analytic thought on any level - Trump wires into the more primitive parts of their brains -- fear, greed, longing, hate. That he has taken an economy that was stable and the envy of the world and run it through the shredder is mind-blowing. And I find it even more mind-blowing that most elected Republicans are merely spectators.
This has been going on for a very long time. The very wealthy have continually attempted to manipulate the rest of us. It was behind the 1921 Crash which about ten years later was replicated again with the Crash that led to the Great Depression. This is nothing new, what is new for this age is the existence of the internet and social media to rapidly share news and also misinformation. There was misinformation then, but it was considerably more difficult to spread it rapidly.
Except, too, these Republicans are not merely spectators. They take government money to hold government positions only to use those positions to help their fat orange felon destroy democracy, destroy American alliances, and now destroy the American economy, too.
Add in all these co-conspirators, and we can only marvel at so much payback Putin is getting for whatever were his original investments in his favorite U.S. convicted criminal.
We cant overlook what social media and Fox entertainment has done in grabbing attention. There has been no need for critical thinking when screens provide a life of their own.
So what about a yard sign campaign against Trump/Musk/maga -
"LOVE THY NEIGHBOR" and then - "IMPEACH TRUMP" or "DEPORT MUSK" or "VOTE BLUE" or "NO TARIFFS". And the counter message "HATE THY NEIGHBOR" with "VOTE REPUBLICAN" etc. Put them in front of or close to the white Christian Nationalist churches, Southern Baptist Convention churches. And just for fun - next to the Ten Commandments in schools in OK, LA and AL.
We’ve had our Stop 🛑 Elon (very lonely) yard signs up for months here in MAGA-ville,Fl and received only + comments including some from Republicans.We also have US and Ukrainian flag and just ordered a Canadian garden flag.Please join us !!!
Good idea on the Canadian flag, Kathy. I just replaced my Ukrainian flag, and rather than the National Colors am flying a "planet" or "world" flag in its place.
William F. Buckley, Jr.; Grover Norquist; trickle down economics; New Gingrich; Rush Limbaugh; Phyllis Schlafly; Fox News; Rick Santorum; Josh Barro; Trump's nihilism - have all conspired to levy assaults on women, Blacks, poor people to advantage the rich - whom we now call the oligarchs. They have tried and continue to try to dynamite our economy and society.
Trump described the recent conviction of Marie Le Pen as "a very big deal". This might be because now as a convicted felon as well as being a immigrant-hating racist she has all the necessary attributes of a sucessful despot. In Trumpian terms, the future looks bright for her.
except that French law - with the enthusiastic support of Madame LePen in the recent past - bars convicted felons from public office. Too bad that did not apply to the American presidency, and that the Supreme Court declared part of the 14th Amendment inoperative, which would have barred insurrectionist Trump from office.
Phil, I have been mentioning this in several venues, and repeat here: if you want to know what is happening, follow the money. I assume that a whole bunch of billionaires and members of Congress are selling short--with the Felon obligingly producing market downturns that will make their profits higher--and engaging in insider trading, even though it is illegal for members of Congress to do both of these things. I would love to see some investment profit/loss statements of the Ghastly Oligarch Poophead (GOP) Enablers as a result of this insanity.
It started with Atwater’s Southern Plan to reelect Nixon and with organized opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. White men do not want to be equal with women and Black Americans; therefore, US didn’t get democracy when we had the chance. Today the extraterrestrials don’t want to be equal with the humans.
Trump is a man who neither understands history or economics. He also doesn’t understand the importance of allies to our safety, security and prosperity. How congress can be cowed by such an ignorant fool is appalling.
Trump thinks he can just bluff and brazen his way through anything, and so far he has with the aid of a plutocratic conspiracy. We will see how long this house of cards stands. The worrisome part is the scale of the "collateral damage".
I am on the front-line of that collateral damage, living as slimly as I do. What counts for me, as it does for you, J.L., is the attack on our republican governance. I remember in college, when I was speaking with a very bright fraternity bud well versed in philosophy and political theory, I said, "Mike, I can live with socialism, if it comes. Go after the democracy and I will fight."
Unfortunately, this is true. Trump is too ignorant to know why his policies won’t work, and he won’t listen to anyone who contradicts him. Musk claims economic hardships will be “temporary,” but he’s lying. They want to steal everything that they can by wrecking the economy and government, and they are well on their way to doing it.
Putin has had to maintain an army of around 300,000 soldiers and spies he dare not commit to the Ukraine front because they're needed to keep the peace at home (he's recently launched another conscription drive - the largest so far). He also has expensive security commitments in Chechnya and Belarus. Hungary is now the second poorest country in the EU due to fiscal punishments for its government's lawless behaviour. They're not great examples for America to follow, Gary!
Well no, I’m rather assuming the reverse. Because they won’t get said security, stability and guaranteed rule of law in the US anymore. Cowboy investors will come though :/
Oh, I see. I beg your pardon, Sophie. As you say, he would turn the entire country into a giant tax haven. However, given that he's just wiped $2.5 trillion off Wall Street that little scheme might have go on the back-burner for the time being.
Not only that, Putin had also briefly had North Korean soldiers there until Kim Jong-Un decided to pull them out, and Putin conscripted prisoners to serve as soldiers in Ukraine. I suspect he might have used ordinary convicts instead of political prisoners.
I understood that they had been withdrawn from the Kursk region after suffering heavy losses but that many remain in Russia. North Korea is also supplying large numbers of heavy artillery (including 9 million artillery shells) to Russia and being paid handsomely for them. In addition to giving their untried troops combat-ready experience (those that return alive anyway) they've also been promised ballistic missile technology and assistance in launching satellites. Russia seems to be somewhat sensitive on this issue because Korean soldiers captured by the Ukrainians were found to have been given fake Russian identities.
They don't really have mutual interests so a durable alliance is unlikely. Both Beijing and Moscow are sceptical about the Kim regime and neither is likely to aid North Korea’s nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programmes. In my view, the axis of evil thing doesn't work with these suspicious, hostile regimes like North Korea and Iran.
Unfortunately I think his policies are working. To destroy our country. We have to stop thinking there’s anything normal in his policies. They are not to help Americans (or anyone else). They are to ‘help’ him.
He understands bending over for Putin, though, and that's enough for Vlad. Trump think they are BFFs, but the Orange Clown is the laughing stock of the Russians: even THEY know that he's a hand puppet for Putin, with Vlad's arm so deep in his arse he can move Trump's mouth like he's Kermit the Frog.
I really feel sorry for you, JD. But we're going to live it as well, I'm afraid: when the American economy crashes, the rest of the Western world will follow suit. That's when Putin will launch his invasion of Europe...
I still think I’m in a majority, but the shock of how many drank the kool-aid is still astounding. Includes people that I have long admired and now feel are traitors. I have long been on the list of people who have not fallen for Repub bullschittery and most who know me know that. But some in my orbit changed so completely that I have been stunned. Or maybe they just took their masks off. Sometimes it takes evil in our midst to bare our souls.
Seems that fascists like to create chaos first, then have the solution because people want security more. As Franklin said, such people deserve neither. Sadly, America has that underbelly of generational hate added to the scapegoat mix. Scapegoats are critical as Jews can attest…
“Kirill Dmitriev: Putin's Messenger Arrives In Washington”
by Olga Lautman
.”What we’re witnessing is nothing short of a diplomatic heist — a sanctioned Kremlin insider escorted into the White House under the false flag of “peace,” while Trump’s envoy repeats Moscow’s propaganda, and the wife of Putin’s billionaire crony gets her sanctions quietly removed. This isn’t diplomacy. It’s the normalization of Russian influence in U.S. policymaking — not by hacking, but by handshakes, loopholes, and sham negotiations. It’s the public rehabilitation of war criminals and Kremlin enablers — all unfolding in plain sight, while the press chases distractions and Ukrainians continue dying under Russian fire.”
"Well, Liberation Day came and went — and, predictably, the market tanked, leading to more economic instability, and more uncertainty for hardworking Americans.
"What’s truly alarming?
"None of this is surprising — because we’ve seen this show before.
"Today, we’re talking about… washing machines — yes, really — because they’re a perfect example of what happens when bad economic policy meets political theater.
"In 2018, during the first Trump administration, a steep tariff was imposed on foreign-made washing machines. The result?
"The price of laundry equipment in the U.S. jumped by 34%, far outpacing inflation. Why?
"Because when tariffs reduce competition, American manufacturers often raise prices too — and consumers pay the price.
"Now, this administration is claiming that tariffs will bring back American manufacturing. But we’ve run that experiment, too. During the first Trump Administration, when tariffs were introduced (at a smaller level than now), the U.S. lost manufacturing jobs and businesses.
"Numbers don’t lie..
"Steep, across-the-board tariffs with no strategy behind them, don’t strengthen our economy — they destabilize it. They don’t lower prices — they raise them.
"We have an administration willing to gamble with our economy, and with the livelihoods of everyday working Americans."
I read that Trump, Putin and Xi have a agreement where Russia gets Ukraine, China gets Taiwan and the US gets Greenland. Yes, this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it is playing out in real time.
Do you think the alcoholic sexual predator Hogsbreath will lift a finger to help Taiwan or Ukraine?
Oh he does fully understand our allies mean protection for “ we the people “ just not for he the dictator. Putin is his dictator allie. That is why he wants to isolate USA from NATO countries.
They know they are screwed, they don’t have any ideas that upon examination would ever get a majority to support. Now that they have power, their every thought and action is focused on keeping it, by any means legal or illegal.
Can you update your comment to simply Trump neither understands . . . Saying he is a man discredits every other grownup - man, woman, non binary, dead, alive - he is a feckless, spineless, not fully developed and likely not planned embryo.
Obviously the US (and world) economy and society is waaaaaaay more complicated than in the 1700s. It's quite a balancing act to keep it even reasonably free of malfunctions.
by the ignorant (and increasingly demented) fool and the many thousands of his followers who make credible threats of violence against those who oppose him, including Republican congresspeople.
Don’t Republican lawmakers have stock portfolios? Are they content not only watching American society in general crumble, but their own personal fortunes as well?
Do something, you gutless, spineless cowards!
Mike Johnson has an overcooked noodle for a backbone. I sputter and spit trying to come up with terms to describe that weak, slimy bastard.
It’s going to rain in Connecticut on Saturday. I’m planning on getting wet.
401-Ks will tank and the ordinary investor will cash out losing much of their retirement money. But as George Bailey said in "It's a Wonderful Life." Potters not selling, Potters buying.
Watch what Warren Buffett does over the next 12 months. He's sitting on over $300 billion in liquid assets ready to pounce.
Republicans care about the stock market more than anything else (their own wealth not because it hurts others) so I’m totally baffled why they’re letting this happen. What’s the end game here?!
The thing is: do you have 100 million dollars lying around to buy a company at record-low price, and then cash massively on it as soon as stocks rise again? I don't. Billionaires do. The words "market crash" sound like "discount sale" in the ears of billionaires...
Then again, how long will you have to wait for that recovery? Maybe, until Trump dies, or maybe longer if the hillbilly and Keto take the reins and just do the same? Might die before the market comes back....
Sure. They have stock portfolios. And they have their brokers shorting sticks. They know exactly when to buy/sell because Trump announces the timing of his EO’s.
Yeah, Project 2025 is the master plan developed by Opus Die Catholic radical religious freaks in partnership with White Evangelicals to usher in their racist, misogynist totalitarian dictatorship.
Only white Christian nationalist men will be considered worthy of any rights and liberties.
Professor Richardson -- Thank you for your succinct summary and analysis. From my perspective as an expatriate American living permanently in Japan, I can confirm that this outrageous tariff announcement is already causing a great deal of anxiety in Japan. So far, the Japanese government has politely asked for an exemption, considering that the country is the largest foreign investor in the US, but to no avail. It also appears that the US trade surplus in services has not been factored into the calculations.
In any case, the Japanese are likely to respond with reciprocal tariffs and seek to develop trade alliances on more favorable terms with the rest of the world - especially China and the EU.
Both houses of Congress had better step up to correct this egregious miscalculation by the executive branch.
I'm in the EU and I believe that the same policy will be employed here. As a US expat, I have faithfully bought EU products, and I am not planning on returning to the US unless I absolutely have to. I am hoping for a termination by an angry MAGA or a heart attack, but with the 2025 plan having been implemented, and a mostly weak democratic party, I am not hopeful.
We absolutely MUST show up in massive numbers on APRIL 5 for the Hands Off protests. Our time is now. If not now, then when? Make your signs and get into the streets everywhere in the country on Saturday. Bring everyone you know.
I am terrified to look at my Schwab account tomorrow. I should have disinvested on 1/20/25. I am sick to my stomach. We could not be in worse shape if Vladimir Putin had been in the WH for the past two months. Apparently he has been. The destruction under this lunatic is incomprehensible except when he is viewed as an actual Russian asset who is determined to destroy America as fast as possible.
My broker has always insisted on 20-25% of his client's portfolios being invested in International stocks (funds) and since last summer has moved a portion of everyone's portfolio's to cash. Remember the words of George Bailey, "Potter's not selling, Potter's buying." (This is in no way intended as advice on what or how to invest.)
I tried talking to our advisor about doing that….he is a trumper as is my husband 😿. To no avail….I have never really considered our investments as “our” money anyway. It is just money others play with one way or another. So….if we lose everything, and it will hurt, it might just wake my husband, whom I love, up. It will be worth it if I get him back.
I'm not that optimistic. I've been basically in cash for a while now. I'd rather manage with what I have saved (and some small dividends) than risk losing it chasing more.
I can not hit "like". Putin is smiling from ear to ear. His boy is doing exactly what he is supposed to do. Destroy the United States of America. The corporate mediocracy is playing along like describing line drives or dunks in a world devoid of reality. What First Amendment? The money will be good putting out paid propaganda and no pesky "Journalists" to waste their money on.
And don't forget about him crashing the economy on purpose. _That_ is what his BFF Musk and Vance's puppet master Thiel want: a crash makes the rich even richer, and it makes ordinary people poor. And poor people don't protest or revolt. They are nice, obedient little slaves for His Grand Muskness, the new God of the World, to exploit.
I’m a European, Dutchie, just like you. And our region has had its share of bread riots - and revolutions - in the past. But yes, the US is long due one of those.
Ah, sorry for the confusion there. Yes, we had some riots & revolutions here; it is indeed high time for one in the US, to do away with the tech billionaire "nobility"...
Nailed it, Sophie. The main reason Kamala wasn't elected, is the centuries-old racism and misogyny still festering in American culture. The Confederacy was never abolished, it is still very much alive & kickin'.
I agree too…so many, um, bending over forward 🤮in obedience. Maybe they think people won’t remember this…and perhaps they are right nowadays w/ everyone’s face plastered to a screen.
What a harsh reality for households living paycheck to paycheck but also, particularly, seniors and those with disabilities on a fixed income….income that is now very much in doubt given the brutal pruning of the Soc Sec administration. Add those recently and soon to retire who are dependent on stock based private retirement accounts. While the prices go up their income is dwindling or disappearing. Add the cuts looming to Medicaid and Medicare and what a desperate Dickensian future outlook for the very young and the retired and the disabled.
KSC, unfortunately I think it's a terrible price we all have to pay so people would wake up from their stupor and finally act like "we tha people". Unbelievable that the regime is doing the work for us. At this point, I believe that the worse the better for that moment of awakening that would conduct to a real Liberation Day.
From his crypto shakedown to his nonstop pathological lying, the president proved once and for all time on "Liberation Day" that he is batshit crazy. I say to my MAGA friends, you broke it, you own it.
It's important to remember that 1/3 of U.S. voters did not want higher prices, massive layoffs (that are certain during a recession), greater economic insecurity, and the global dangers inherent in U.S. isolationism and nationalism.
Nevertheless, 1/3 voted for this and an additional 1/3 were complicit in their voting silence. While Senator Booker was heroic in his marathon speech about the criminal-elect, the GOP has pledged absolute fealty in most cases, even now working toward increasing the U.S. debt by $5 trillion in order to extend Trump/GOP trickle-down fraud tax cuts for corporations and their wealthiest benefactors like Musk, Thiel, Mellon, and others.
Thanks to 2/3 of the U.S. voting population we are now the "Pariah States of America".
I met a visiting journalist from Florida the other day at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo. I asked him how life was in Florida these days. He nearly turned green and said he is hoping to move to Japan as soon as possible to study Japanese. He said he used to assume the majority of Americans were good people but has become sadly disillusioned.
Thank you for sharing Kristin. Trump has unleashed hate, hostility, and violent behavior for all within his MAGA cult. His pardon of the violent J6 insurrectionists has fostered widespread license for domestic extremism and barbaric cruelty.
These undercurrents were always present in U.S. society -but properly hidden -like a virus.
Prior to Trump's reelection i saw more than one mainstream poll that indicate that a majority of the nation, even those who did not necessarily choose the Republican Party agreed that Republican's were more skilled at growing the economy than Democrats. It's total horsefeathers of course, but that seem to be the power of propaganda.
Elon Musk seems to have taken the pro-life theme to extraordinary lengths. He apparently has thirteen children and now wants to found a new nation on Mars. He might be interested in attending the Natal conference in Austin, Texas later this month, a gathering of eugenicists and race science believers who also want more babies (so long as they're white).
Seems to be the principal litmus test for caring about any family (such as immigrants whose children were seized, and in many cases never returned, at the border. That particular atrocity did not raise all that much of a national stink, because of, well, you know).
And even white babies who are born into poverty are often dismissed from being full valued by the GOP. Read the fine print.
The natalists are mostly also eugenicists (and I suspect incels) so they believe that only high-IQ individuals should be able to breed. Elon Musk has said that “if each successive generation of smart people has fewer kids, that’s probably bad.” He's obviously never heard of the statistical phenomena known as regression to the mean. There are so many things wrong with this belief that it's sometimes hard to know where to start. Firstly, IQ doesn't measure anything except test scores. There's no neurological evidence for anything remotely like what they call 'general intelligence'. Secondly, there's no evidence that intelligence, even so defined, is wholely or even mainly heritable in any easily identifiable sense. Finally, intelligence isn't immutable, as some race pseudoscientists have contended (the so-called Bell Curve). That's why we all have to go to school. Even if one were to assume that these people were the greatest gathering of geniuses ever assembled on the earth in one place and at one time, Donald Trump would be a very strange person for them to have identified as their leader, because he's dumbest president Americans have ever elected.
Don't forget the dismantling of FEMA as massive storms sweep the nation on a daily basis and the increase in infectious disease with the destruction of the CDC. So much is about to go wrong it's really scary.
And that, sir may be the tipping point (which we thought had been reached so many times before). When enough people suffer and die, the rebellion will include more than angry libs marching in the public square.
Average folks who never paid attention to politics will be very pissed off when the government isn't there to help - because MAGA and Musk disemboweled it. It wasn't Joe Biden who did this to America. It was the Oligarchs.
Watching my April 2nd Rachel Maddow program interviewing Dr. Kessler. Very ominous future due to firing of critical scientists, support staff, even one person who saved trump's life during COVID-19 when trump received life-saving medication. The repercussions of this dismantling of everything that we rely on is horrific.
Alas, while championing human rights in a good way, we retained a even more vicious analog to feudalism as slave agriculture. As Americas first really big big business, it an oligarchy even then. And it warped our progress toward justice and more perfect union, as does to this day. With Emancipation, oligarchy did not fade but morphed into "Jim Crow" and "Robber Barons". Since then was an era of improved opportunities and respect for minorities, women, workers, etc., and the middle class grew.
Then The Empire struck back;
and first they came for the gays and people of color...
I live in a region in which majors earthquakes are an expected eventuality. What then? And Nature often demonstrates more than ample powers to crush people like bugs; especially when we insult her every day.
Wow. I just now looked: and HCR’s page on Facebook is suddenly up to date. I had checked earlier this same day, and the most recent post was from 3/25.
I saw HCR page on Facebook is now updated. Many of us made noise and posted the letters! Let’s keep it up!
Listening to President Trump announce his tariffs it was so weird hearing him speak. He said the word “Groceries “ over and over again, like it was such a strange concept for him to grasp! Then saying “putting stuff in a bag “— if this is far fetched to him, it shows how out of touch he is to reality! I use grocery bags every week if not more. Really? This is so foreign to him?
Trump’s fascination with McKinley is also challenging for most of us to comprehend. I think it’s more about the “Guilded Age” with its fancy style, parties, gold, etc and his perception that life was so much better than anything rooted in a strong economy. This is his magical thinking. It’s bowing down to whoever he will bestow power and wealth on him. All this is appalling and goes against everything our country has built in our modern world. We deal in a global economy, we are interdependent and connected with countries throughout the world.
We must make sure it is President Trump is held responsible if the country goes into a recession. It will be Trump and the Republicans, they all must be blamed.
We are already in a recession, it's just not official yet. I wrote on Paul Krugman's comment that by 7/1 we will be in a recession because one of the requirements is 2 quarters of negative GDP which will only take place after 7/1.
Thank you for your update. I hope they are up for all Facebook users, but Heather mentioned in her Politics chat on Tuesday that she thought she was being shadowbanned. When this happens, only some users (probably very few) can see her posts. She said on Tuesday that she couldn't see her recent posts and neither could Buddy. I still have a Facebook account, but haven't logged in since January.
I couldn't find it on her page, but yesterday, I got a "notification" and was able to get it there. I posted it in a comment on my page. I just checked FB and her page is restored with posts but not Politics Chat.
Unfortunately, JD is no Theodore Roosevelt. That was dumb luck for the US that the Republicans made him the VEEP in 1901. And it was bad luck that in his exuberance after winning reelection in 1904 that Roosevelt said this would be his last term in office.
The depth of Trump's ignorance on economic matters is astounding. That ignorance is going to harm millions of people, people without the financial means to weather the coming tariff disaster. People in poverty will get poorer and homelessness will increase. People with lower incomes will join the ranks of the poor. Middle income Americans will join the ranks of lower income because their income will not meet their needs. Upper income people are likely move down to a middle income standard of living. The rich will be fine. That's how the trickle down economic theory actually works. Wealth doesn't trickle down. Poverty trickles down. MAGA worshippers are about to figure this out. The MAGA menace must be stopped.
There's a term that I think captures the Trump Reich: enshittification, a "term used to describe the pattern in which online products and services decline in quality over time" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification>. See also https://gizmodo.com/enshittification-is-officially-the-biggest-word-of-the-year-2000530173>. While originally applied to the tech industry, the term has, I think, broader application here as Trump and his cabal enshittify with lightning speed not just the federal government but society generally. Indeed, we could easily -- and justifiably -- rename DOGE as the "Department of Governmental Enshittification." Cf. Enshittocene <https://cybercultural.com/enshittocene/>.
Continuing from my comment on language framing yesterday, I found Gil Duran, on FrameLab mentioning Trump in
‘Framing Power: How Political Metaphors Shape Democracy’
Metaphors play a crucial role in shaping how we perceive the world. As such, they significantly impact our politics” (Jan 23 2025)
…”a New York Times headline that framed Trump’s actions as physical strength and dominance, ignoring his threats to the Constitution and democracy.
‘Trump Asserts a Muscular Vision of Presidential Power As He Takes Over.’
This headline from the New York Times applies a metaphor of physical strength and dominance – “muscular vision” – to our political system. The verb “asserts” then adds even more muscle to the frame. The headline also frames power as something Trump “takes.” All of it adds up to an image of Trump using physical power to dominate the political system.
The story itself explains how Trump is trying to once again define the presidency in ways that violate the laws, norms, and the Constitution. The first sentence describes Trump’s actions as “norm-breaking.” It depicts him as trying to claim “sweeping and inherent constitutional clout” for himself.
Such language gives Trump an advantage. It promotes his preferred frame of personal power. Further, it portrays him as a strongman flexing his “muscle,” asserting his dominance over American democracy. “Strong” is exactly how Trump wishes to be seen.
The NYT headline play into this framing. Worse, it erases the main issues of concern identified in the story: Trump’s efforts to overturn norms and challenge Constitution.
One bad headline isn’t the end of the world. Unfortunately, American journalism is full of bad headlines that unwittingly serve the purposes of authoritarianism. For example, when Trump tells a big lie, most headlines make a point of repeating the lie. It’s not necessarily because journalists want to help Trump lie. On the contrary: Most journalists have no idea how propaganda works and, therefore, do not understand the key role they play in helping propagandists spread lies.
Similarly, most journalists do not seem to think about the power of metaphors and the meanings they carry.
✅ If journalists don't get smarter about the effect of language and metaphors on the brain, they will be as responsible as anyone for the demise of American democracy.”
I so agree! Language and how we use it is our most powerful tool and headlines are especially important in our present day and age as Americans have developed a limited attention span. I hope someone at the Times happens upon your message.
The U.S. Congress – MAGA-mad – wanted a dictator.
They – the Republican traitors who lead it – know Trump is a convicted felon. Serial rapist. Multiple bankrupt. Lifelong business fraud. Out-and-out Putin asset. Syphilitic mad.
Destroy the U.S. economy as he tried Jan. 6 to destroy the democracy? Why not?
Long ago – with the Powell memo of 1971 – the destruction started with the crippling of American schools. Followed by the mass offshoring of U.S. working class jobs. Concluding with discourse poisoning by the social media billionaires (no counter by schools – remember, all earlier crippled).
So the fat, mad mob boss in the White House now does the bidding of the international oligarchs, Putin criminals, U.S. billionaire accomplices.
tRump's fantasies do not automatically materialize. Reality has other ideas, such as the power of the federal courts, the incremental rise of public dissent, and the successful turnout of voters at local elections. In fact, tRump n co's constant gobsmacking antics seem to be fuelling the average Joe to get up off the couch and do something. There's a lot to be hopeful for. Onwards and upwards.
Hello Kazz... I hope that You are Right... So far the US Congress has been intimidated, the Legal Profession is under Assault, oh Yeah, Crocodile Tears ;-).. Wisconsin has shown a Glimmer of Hope.. If So, Ultimately, We-The-People, have the Power... As I written earlier, during these Times, New Leaders will Arise... Cory Booker set an Excellent Example on April Fool's Day 2025... Chris Murphy, AOC, Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, and others have as Well... Time for the New... Out with the Old...
Hey Apache, I know I’m right! Rump’s playbook is to continually shock good people into being stunned rabbits. But he has underestimated what it takes for millions of people to realise their own power and use it. These are not minority issues, they affect absolutely everyone. He will crash and burn.
I anticipated this market crash and I shorted my investments meaning that as markets go down, I’ll make out like Jesse James after a bank heist and hope the horses have been adequately fed. Next stop Washington, Saturday. If Cory Booker can spend 25 hours of his life on his feet, I can spend 7 hours driving to add my voice providing threat of rain doesn’t get worse.
Love your work, Bill!
Following this thread makes it easy to understand your response. Supposedly Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake". That cake referred to the flour and water slurry bakers poured on the oven
after they swept out the floors the ovens, before putting the bread in to bake; something like today's teflon. I hope you, bill, chuck schumer enjoy your bread while the rest of us chew on our "cake."
Thanks Bill, courage begets courage. It’s contagious.
I'm gong in CT. DC by myself was way out of my comfort zone. I probably helped fund some of those port-o-potties though. :)
I”m with YOU, ‘Mad Joy Writer’!!!!! The ‘Comment’ part of Heather, gives me H O P E…. Thank YOU!
We can only hope!!!
From your keyboard to G*d’s screen, kazz, before too many casualties
But what worries me most is whether the country will survive until the next election. He is a manbaby stomping through the store sweeping his hands over shelves and breaking everything in his wounded, victim-fueled fantasies of our being pillaged and raped (what other kind of fantasies would we expect from him?). His enablers have their own nihilistic world views and cultural obsessions and he is their ticket to bringing those to fruition. How much will be gone before next year can give us opportunity to (maybe) stop him, or at least tie him up procedurally and (maybe) legislatively?
My comments may seem to be repetitive, but I am compelled to remind all of us that the actions we decry are attributed to Donald, but he is not the sole author.
Donald is learning-disabled, and that condition is now exacerbated by early onset dementia. His intellectual deficiency is offset by his monumental ego. He is mentally incapable of understanding the EOs he signs, but his handlers "explain" them to him, using justifications that impress him and appeal to his ego. No one should delude themselves into believing that Donald ever heard of the archaic laws that are being twisted to justify these destructive actions.
Donald is not the operator; he is the operand. He is the distraction while the real operators continue their reshaping of the U.S. virtually unnoticed.
What remains to be seen is whether we end up living in the world of The Handmaid's Tale or the world of Soylent Green.
The only means to avoiding either of those futures is to not only neutralize Donald, but also the operators who exploit him and the party that supports them.
Hello Dale... Thanks... Beware the 'Mar-A-Lago Accords'.... They were cooked up by the Oligarchs pre-Inauguration to essentially consolidate their Power, and Impoverish Us by Destroying the US Dollar... Remember the Oligarchs are 'Citizens-Of-The-World', and Internationally Diversified... The Russian Oligarchs are an example...
No argument here, Apache. But as I have previously noted, there are two forces at work. The oligarchs and the christofascists. The two groups are working together now to dismantle democracy, but their end objectives are very different. I predict there will be a showdown at some point soon, to determine whether we become a technocracy or a theocracy.
It's very difficult to "like" that comment
Well, with Peter Thiel pulling strings you get both!! But I agree. This is a game of thrones situation. On a global scale. Can we stop focusing on how the Dems are going to appeal to voters for the midterms? Ummm, those elections will be a farce. The administration is not going to follow judges orders from the lawsuits. He has his loyalists in place. This military coup is almost complete. Crash the markets, Martial law, switch us over to Trumps currency...surely that will go well. Good times
When you are the chief executive—of anything—there are NO excuses. You are the responsible person, no matter how many scheming underlings you have.
MLMinET, I am in no way excusing Donald. My point is that it's a mistake to focus our ire on him without acknowledging that he is merely the tool. Eliminating him would lot eliminate the threat to our democracy.
Spot on . Thank you.
MLMinET, Totally ‘a man baby’.
As such his angry tirades are starving killing destroying removing extinguishing threatening citizens not only here but around the world.
Our hope of what goes around comes around may take too long? So. In honor of democracy I pledge to be OUT THERE on Saturday no matter the weather or not!!
Let’s ‘hold hands’ across America to demonstrate an unbreakable chain of power against the man baby and his frightened followers! And thank the gods for Cory Booker’s strength and leadership.
Hello Samani... 'a man baby'.... Leave out the 'man'... More like an Evil Demented Child....
His actions tell me that he is angry (A) at Americans for not re-electing him in 2020 (B) at the courts for trying him and finding him guilty for numerous crimes and (C) for so many noted journalists and politicians (Democrats mostly) for being critical of his policies, his chronic lying and his blatant ignorance. He claims to LOVE America but he sure doesn't love Americans!
Sandy, his anger was sparked long before he got into politics. In fact, it's inherited anger.
Fred Trump was an uneducated slumlord who grew up in the home of a pimp. Fred married an uneducated house cleaner. Together, they had 4 children, one of whom was Donald.
Fred managed to build considerable wealth by cheating his contractors and his tenants. He thought his wealth alone would usher him and his wife into the salons of NYC aristocracy. It did not, and this infuriated the Trumps.
Fred then sought an entrée into NYC society by setting up his son Donald as a cardboard real estate tycoon. But to paraphrase the old saying, "You can take a thug out of Queens, but you can't take Queens out of the thug."
New York society recognized Donald for the low-brow poser he is and they rejected him. Donald failed his family and he is still seething about it.
A lot of his cruelty is to show those uppity New Yorkers just who has the power, and who can make the lives of every American a living hell.
Good analysis but I think the mental illness thst is narcissism has a lot to do with it.
None of them understand an oath.
Agree. He’s very angry AND sick.
He is a narcissistic sociopath.
The hallmark of a narcissist is never never ever getting enough revenge. For a real or imagined slight.
I know this from personal experience. My ex died without updating his will for 15 years. During that time he amassed even more wealth, bought my daughter a dream house she couldn't afford but charged her a fraction of the rent, promised it to her.
He died in November, made sure I was uninvited to her wedding, and now his wifey is evicting her from her home.
There is no reason to drumpfs behavior, unless you consider vengefulness. He's not smart enough to know the word "retribution" but it resonates with him.
He does love Americans as long as they serve his purpose. He wanted to be a big player in the world game ( I think he may have even thought of himself as ruler of the world). To do that he needed to be elected president again. Goal accomplished, now ditch the farmers and workers and the regular everyday guys who trusted him and believed his promises and got him into office.
MLMinET…I was thinking of the same scene: an angry toddler having a tantrum and stomping through the store sweeping his hands over shelves and breaking it all. And he’s joined by a fellow toddler jumping around with a cheese hat, throwing money, and acting like a jack ass. When are Mike Johnson and other enablers going to wake up and show some leadership? Perhaps ordinary Americans have enough experience with toddlers and temper tantrums to say “HANDS OFF”! We have had enough!! See you all on the streets April 5!!
Johnson is fully awake. In fact, he is the "inside man" in league with the P2025 goons bent on remaking the U.S. into a theocracy. Johnson is the legislative rubber stamp needed to transform P2025's theory into reality.
Mike Luckovich has a cartoon labeled vandalism showing muskrat with a baseball bat destroying the different US government departments and then proclaiming “Government broke”. You can find it a www.ajc.com (Atlantic Journal)
I don't think he'll live that long.
He’s like Rasputin or a sticky bouger (or however it’s spelled) that you can’t shake off.
Booger, I think is an apt description!
MlMnET, Oh nice, a sticky booger. LOL.
Like the one Elon's kid wiped on the Resolute desk?
Musk is president and Rasputin combined.
McKinley was shot and lasted 8 days.
Odd, isn't it? Trump loves those wonderful McKinley tariffs, but never mentions the reactions.
In pain.
And without a giant Kotex on his ear, poor thing. Or wherever they hit him. I think it was a gut shot.
Don, I don't think he will either, but he can do a lot of damage in the meantime.
Just heard a social worker friend who worked getting jobs and housing for the homeless. Will be let go because of loss of federal grant money.
But in the short term the shelves, the store remains. The foundation (i.e., the Constitution) endures. In the the long term (a very painful, hurtful and probably rather long time) lead by the new courageous forward-looking neo-[re]Founding Fathers. . . and now Mothers. . .we begin again, this time with blessing of experience and history of what to do and not do.
The only problem I see is that no one seems to have learned anything from history. I have the Russian invasion of Ukraine in mind. Hitler started that way, just a piece of Czechoslovakia, then the whole country, then the whole of Europe.
Hitler was allowed to start because of the policy of appeasement by Britain and France. There was no appeasement in the Ukraine invasion, only history which will be remembered. To wit: If Ukraine had neen a member of NATO (and before Trump existed and wanted to kill it per Putin's instructions), I believe there would have been no invasion. Appeasement is dead at the present (the existence of Trump could change history, of course.).
You are right about the appeasement part. From what bits and pieces I have been hearing, sounds like Russia wants to keep what they have stolen. We have taken it, so what are you going to do about it?
PS. The "shelves"" are the House and Senate, and the "store" = the Judiciary.
Got it now…
I think we'll have to elect a woman, finally, to fix this.
I hope you are right but the reality of our elections makes you wonder. We have had five women run for national office on our two major tickets and four times the voters have turned thumbs down.
This country is still a bit infantile when it comes to things like politics. Even on the "good" side of the aisle, we have suffered from those prejudices, the successes of women like Nancy Pelosi not withstanding.
That bias runs deep and when it is exploited as Trump has done both times against Clinton and Harris, he was victorious.
I will always remember how amazing it felt when the country decided to choose a black man for its leader. I despair that I may never get to feel the same with respect to a woman President.
And me too. I think we "have" to elect a woman to fix this so the the rest of the world thinks maybe we've changed.
We've been like this most of my adult life so I'm struggling with optimism.
How long can we keep our finger in that dike?
Without the inaction of right-wing congresspeople, none of these catastrophic policies and the dismantling of the federal government would be possible.
I think the Republican/billionaire strategy is to crash the economy, buy up all the assets that come on the market for fire sale prices (it will be a "fire"), gut the gov't and then say to the hoi polloi, "see, the gov't doesn't work", then privatize Soc. Sec. (I don't like the abbreviation SS, reminiscent of something very bad), health care (more so than it is already), post office, etc. They have played the long game and much of it is coming to fruition.
Cory Booker is going to be on "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" on Monday night 4/7. I plan on watching for reaction from the crowd, I'm sure it will be through the roof, and it will be after the day of protest on 4/5. It should be uplifting.
Get out there this weekend and protest.
One other point I wanted to make is; I noticed the no tariffs on Russia comment by HCR and if anyone sees any Russian goods in a retail setting it should be called out for location and what the product is. No one should buy anything from that country, NO ONE. It would be right up his sleeve to start importing products from there.
Damn, I hate that stupid MFer.
Bill I wondered what exactly do we import from Russia?
Neita, the biggest import is fertilizer.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports/russia
Thank you for the article. I do not think many US citizens have any clue as to what we import from Russia. Or any other nations for that matter. Good lesson on trade.
If this mess does not get the pitchforks out en masse nothing will. If you have funds in the stock market you should be hugely pissed off!! It is time for MASSIVE PROTEST!!!! Our representatives, especially Republican need to ACT!!!
From Trump Tyranny Tracker
Top Officials to Leave SEC's Anti-Bribery Unit
What Happened: Charles Cain and Tracy Price, the longtime heads of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit, are departing amid a broader exodus of officials following Trump’s order to pause anti-bribery enforcement.
Why It Matters: Their exit highlights the Trump’s continued dismantling of U.S. anti-corruption infrastructure. With enforcement frozen and leadership gutted, the U.S. is retreating from its global anti-bribery role, opening the door for corporate misconduct and corruption.
Source: Reuters
US Securities and Exchange Commission shakes up enforcement, exams units
What Happened: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is restructuring its enforcement and examination divisions, consolidating oversight under new deputy directors and slashing senior reporting lines.
Why It Matters: With key anti-bribery officials gone and hundreds of SEC staff exiting, the agency is being hollowed out just as Wall Street's power surges. This deregulation blitz guts corporate accountability and opens the door to political weaponization.
Source: Reuters
DJT can only Thrive In A Corrupt Universe.... Everything DJT Touches Dies...
That is why corporate business leaders were so happy with the outcome of the elections last November.
Schumer did his best to stop that from happening. I firmly believe he put protecting his $60,000,000 above his oath to uphold the US Constitution
Schumer alone could have enforced the Constitution, Donald.
As majority leader of the U.S. Senate, he could have called for a vote on disqualifying Trump from public office. Article 14, Section Three clearly says he'd have been legally disqualified as insurrectionist by anything less than a 2/3 vote freeing him of disqualification in either house of Congress.
False.
Just totally stupidly false.
Others reading this link, Jon, will have no idea where you're coming from.
Your psychology, of course, must remain a mystery. But the Constitution is absolutely clear. Not even the Supreme Court can interfere. It's totally up to Congress to vote and uphold disqualification. Both houses must grant a 2/3 release from disqualification. So either house, having held the vote, and not granting the 2/3 necessary, will legally have enforced Article 14, Section Three.
Regardless of your psychology.
You are just a total political idiot Phil. You can't even read something like the Constitution without screwing it up. It must be sad to be such a loser.
Not to mention your constant slurs against people because of their physical characteristics. Shame on you for your horrible despicable commentaries. Grow up.
Just to clarify for all those people you worry so much about, the Constitution requires that someone be adjudicated as an insurrectionist to be disqualified. Phil doesn't know what he is talking about. There is NO legal way for the Congress to just DECLARE someone unqualified to serve as President without either a conviction in s court of law or a impeachment AND conviction by the Senate.
It is sad that the Senate failed to do that to Trump but they didn't. Legally he is not disqualified from office.
Anyone telling you to the contrary, including Phil, is either lying outright or horribly deluded.
State of Colorado convicted him.
Though Article 14, Section Three nowhere contains the word "adjudicate," "adjudicated," or any other forms of that word.
Here it is, in its entirety:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
My guess is that nothing will. Trumpism is religion. Suffering increases the religious commitment of the faithful.
But how much time will we need to reassemble the government as we once knew it? Willl we all have to settle for a new norm of a diminishing press and checks and balances, hollowing out of the legal system, and a sad indifference to human suffering.....
Hopefully it will be renewed and refreshed. Government works rather silently and in the background when it works well. We notice it when it’s inefficient or intrusive or absent. We don’t notice the enemies who never attack us, or the poisons that never get in our water or air, the tainted food that doesn’t make us sick because it was stopped by the FDA. We don’t notice the corrupt politicians who dropped out of the race early because a journalist exposed him. We don’t notice the police who don’t kick down your door accidentally because they had to go get a warrant and doing that, realized they had a wrong address or name. But now some of those things are starting to fall apart. And we miss them. When we recover… we will be enthusiastic about ALL of government’s roles being fulfilled.
But Apache, DonOLD will be using live ammunition and doesn't give a fuck what the Constitution says.
Hello Montana... DJT is Demented, and is losing all Restraint... Let us Hope that DJT doesn't bring on Armageddon...
Take a look at what you are all saying.
And this is only day 75!!!
1385 days left to go.
Jon... Do You Think That DJT Will Last 1385 Days More? Do You Think That This Democratic Republic Will?
I have no idea. He is only 78 (I am 74 and I feel like I have 15 or more years left). So yeah, I think he will get to at least 82. But you are correct, life is all a crap shoot, anyway.
As for the Republic surviving, I have great faith (and remember with respect to faith, I have little LOL), but I do understand the risks. The thing is despite how awful Trump is, I think we fair worse with JD Vance in the driver's seat. I have confidence that Vance on his own wouldn't get elected, but if he manages to get sucked in to the office by succession, he might be able to win.
Thanks for getting back.... I sense that You are being Rational, for Better, for Worse... I watch DJT closely... He seems to be Deteriorating Rapidly... I was an accomplished UltraEndurance Athlete.... One gets the Sense of 'Who's-Next' during those events... I'll Wager that DJT will have a Mid-Year Health Crisis like DJT did in 2020...
Let’s go!!
A lot to be hopeful for? Ok. But if people had bothered to study history and had known that this was coming for over nine years, like my friends and I tried teaching other's online, then we wouldn't be here. I'm grateful people are finally fed to ... I'm appalled that it took this long
Wasn’t that part of the plan? To dumb down the masses in the 80’s through a wrought education system? I think it worked.
It might be, but, to be trite, none are so blind as those who will not see. And the power of becoming Fox-ed is astounding.
It was absolutely the plan, and it did work..
And now they’re working diligently to destroy our higher education institutions. Once they’re gone and the educated and intelligent are all in countries we’ve shunned and made enemies how long before we become a third world country that struggles to grow their own food? The educated will leave the U.S. where will the tech and financial institutions get the worker bees? None of this makes sense to me.
Yes, that truly beggars belief.
Well, Kazz, you would think his demise is a 'given' come the elections of 2026. That makes protecting our FREE AND FAIR elections the most important item on 'average Joe' and Americas' agenda. Together with the courts, possible help from the Senate, and the protection of our elections, we can put the treasonous republicans out to pasture and try to survive the last two years of the traitor-in-chief. So yes, there is a lot to be hopeful for. Like you say, onwards and upwards.
Last night 4 senate Republicans voted with the Democrats i a resdolution against Canadian tariffs.
It's possible we can have shared government. Need 3 House members. NOW. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
One step at a time, every time. Everyone, call your reps and tell them to hop on board!
Updated Thu, Apr 3 20259:33 AM EDT. CNBC
Dow craters 1,200 points, S&P 500 heads for worst drop in 2 years after Trump’s tariff rollout
Daniel, I was up just after six and my husband greeted me with the Stock Market numbers plummeting. It had been only a few minutes!
It might be too late as the Speaker has a day plan.
Unfortunately it was a "negative" resolution to REMOVE the tariffs Trump already imposed. And 3 GOP House members won't help much because Mike Johnson isn't even going to let it come up for a vote.
It was a big show of hands signifying nothing in reality.
With 3 votes Trump won't get his agenda.
With 9 votes, under house rules MAGA Mike has to permit votes on anything.
Americans help each other. That's who we are as a nation. The more ordinary Americans, politicians, and leaders proclaim the basic human message that "Americans help each other," "Trump is harming Americans and that's NOT ok," and "When we help each other, life is better"--in speeches, signs, memes, and comments in social media, etc, the sooner we can empower ourselves and disempower Trusk. Every Trusk action harms our country and us. Unlike some other countries, our nation is designed to protect and serve us. When people rally around a simple unifying principle such as this, the public will come together across demographics and ideologies--making our collective power stronger and more effective. Please share this idea, and amplify it! ✊🏽✊🏿✊
Fingers crossed, a rabbit foot in my pocket and I might even take up prayer!!
Contact your Congress member and senators to vote against the SAVE act (HR 22). One provision requires a person registering to vote to present a certified birth certificate together with state-issued ID or a valid passport to register to vote. The name on the birth certificate needs to match the name on the ID. Many married women changed their last name when they married (69 million), so they could only vote if they had a passport. There is no provision to make up the deficit by showing a marriage certificate or government issued name change document
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-save-act-overview-and-facts/
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/feb/17/tiktok-posts/save-act-would-make-it-harder-not-impossible-for-m/
Time for all women to apply for a passport then.
Let's hope you're right 🤞🏼. Let's also understand that Herr Tramp & co. use chaos and outrage as tools to distract from his ulterior motives. What might they be? I have no way of knowing, but my fear runs along the line of his cronies creating crypto-currency reserves that they effectively own, possibly financed with tax dollars, that see sudden exponential increases in value due to changes in government policies and the seemingly inevitable crash of the world's hard cash economy. I hope (again) that I'm wildly off base here. But it's hard to discount any underhanded objectives with this wrecking crew in power.
Kazz, just wait until trompy chills the ambitions of anybody running either against him or his supporters, by jailing them or threatening them or their families. We are likely in the darkening days of democracy's fading light. But the light isn't yet extinguished -- Congress and We The People must fight back to keep it lit.
April 5th, 2025: Hands Off!!!
We will soon see if the Supreme Court will stand with the Constitution or the ultra-rich Oligarchs.
If I were a betting man, my money would be on the oligarchs.
trump's antics have certainly gotten my husband off the couch and that is really something since he is NOT an activist at all. If all goes well, he'll be joining me in the Hands Off rally. He even bought a special T-shirt for it!
I hope you’re right. Millions believe his lies, there’s no big push back publicly that he’s lying - his base & supporters don’t read anything that will convince them. They need a side by side chart - lie/reality.
The federal courts are doing their best - I’d like to know exactly which of their orders have actually been followed (yes, I know it’s a slow process - which makes it too late (“oopsie” ) as the el Salvador president said)
Congress - no movement there.
I try my best to remain hopeful.
I hope so!
Kazz, what power of the federal courts. That criminal has already defied them and since he has immunity thanks to SCOTUS, those folks deported by accident are fucked. They're not members of a gang, just immigrants trying for a better life. Not here, not until DonOLD croaks.
Your word in God’s ear
Excelsior!
I'll Repost This: "Why are We Surprised? DJT is the Supreme Wealth Destroyer... DJT is Simple-Minded, and his Dementia is getting Worse... DJT has squandered Billions of $, and has filed for Bankruptcy 6-Times... In the year 2000, the USA had a Balanced Budget, and was slated to payoff the National Debt by 2010... Then came GWB, his Forever-Wars & Tax-Cuts, then DJT's Tax-Cuts for the Wealthy... The Wealthy own the Corporations thru their Funds, and Stock Holdings... DJT was a 'Successful Businessman' only in a Simple-Minded Fantasy Reality Show.... DJT is the Perfect Orange Puppet for Putin, and Musk... Putin wants to Destroy the U.S. led Western-Order, Musk wants to Pillage the USG for his own Ends...
Note which Agencies have been Crushed by Musk... Keep an Eye on China... The Chinese play an extremely Long-Game, and they are are starting to Fight Back... Per Tom Freidman, Chinese Tech is starting to Eclipse American Tech... China does not have a Mad Orange Emperor in Charge....
I'm very concerned about cuts to the Social Security Administration and policy changes forcing disabled and elderly people to go into the ever dwindling offices to verify IDs. And they are shutting down the phone banks.
In 2025, an average of 26,000 US citizens who have worked their entire lives and contributed to SS become eligible for SS benefits. That's each business day.
It took my wife 3 1/2 months to apply and get her benefits accepted. She started the process right after the election because we knew Trump would fuck something up with SS. She was lucky. She received her first payment in March.
I fear millions more won't be so lucky.
IMPEACH DONALD TRUMP! DEPORT ELON MUSK!
Congress bears the responsibility for letting this happen. And continue to happen. They all need to pay the price next year, but the stunning thing is voters go into the voting booth and RE-ELECT THEIR REPRESENTATIVES, regardless.
You are correct,MLM - Now it is in the hands of Congress and I would also add the Supreme Court (well, the entire court and legal system - which saw money-hungry law firms recently get down on their knees to Trump). OUR job - We, the People - is to speak up to our Senators and Representatives and our Governors, etc.
Trump wants other countries (except Russia) to pay their “fair share.” It’s always funny to hear Trump talking about OTHERS paying their “fair share” - NATO, Ukraine, Houthis, tariffs, defense stuff, border stuff, oil, gas, avocados…. since Trump is NOTORIOUS for not paying HIS “fair share” - construction materials and workers, charities he “owns,” taxes….
Can I hope there will be an "implosion" originating in the White House and eventually heard all over the world? Those 4 GOP members of the Senate who decided to oppose trump and work with the Dems give me a glimmer of what could happen if we stand together. Do it again, and again, and again. Tell him NO!
He must be impeached now! If the Republicans don't do it they must be ousted fast!
Margaret, neither of these options is even possible. So in light of that fact, we have to deal with other ways of trying to save the USA.
Impeachment isn’t going to happen I believe you know how to count as well as I, the senate confirmed the most unfit cabinet in the nation’s history, it isn’t even 3 months and we are seeing the results of that. The problem is that they all need to go, not just the insipid orange turd, and the only way to really do that would be through a coup, which would end our democracy. So we either have the patience of Job and wait the fuckers out, or we destroy the very thing we cherish the most, (to save it?). If the killing starts they have to know that every single one of them will be targeted, without exception. I’m not going to do it, my killing days are long over, but with 30 million assault weapons loose in the country, and as many lunatics as we seem to have, the results don’t look good.
Yes! We must act and demand our representatives fight for us
Musk, in all his fawning over trump, is working for China. He plays one side off the other, with himself as the beneficiary of all the foul play. He has no allegiance to anything but himself, much like the orange traitor, and will destroy America if he can, taking anything of value when he goes, and then move on to another country.
Agreed Celeste. Everything is so transparent. Our elected representatives aren’t working on behalf of the American people. Why can’t our population see this. It’s apparent that Europe has a better handle on what’s happening to us than we do.
And MAGats say Donnie is just joking about a third term. They need to wake up. Putin is Donnie’s idol ( or worse) and gets “re-elected” every time. When do defenestrations start here?
If the losses in the stock market had been paid in taxes we'd be a lot closer to reducing the deficit. ALL the money poured into elections also seems like such a waste. Who likes all those angry commercials? At the same time DOGE's "computer experts" have made it impossible to log into the social security website. Can't wait for the debate on extending the tax cuts with the economy in shreds.
Agreed! There is plenty of money in the richest nation to have ever existed to allow every resident the basics of a decent life including housing, healthcare, food security and protections from industrial poisoning.
How about federally funded elections - with none of those ridiculous ads? Cap political contributions at $100.
We don't need tax cuts, of course. They had a negligible effect on the broad economy. But they did fund stock buy backs which made the rich richer - should be illegal, of course. Another con by the ruling gentry.
Tax the rich! Just like we did when Ike was president. CEOs still had great lives and the economy boomed.
Yesterday, I took Bill Katz's advice. Logged on to our Social Security accounts, printed out our docs including earnings and tax history. The system was OK for me...keep trying. EVERYONE should do this. Musk's boondoggle of converting the system from COBOL to new software in five months is bonkers. Designed to destroy so some private raiders can arrive to "save the day". Scam, scam, SCAM!
Chris Murphy nailed it. This project of destruction of agencies, systems and the economy writ large is a giant CON. "Private Equity" will arrive like hyenas to eat the carcass and run away. Americans will be dumpster diving to survive.
Tax the rich!
It appears that they plan to end federal income tax and fund the government with profits from tariffs (taxes paid mainly by the lowest 50% of the population.)
As I commented yesterday, this parallels the strategy employed by white landowners in the Southern states after the emancipation of the enslaved. Low or no state income tax which most benefits the wealthy is offset by high taxes levied elsewhere.
High sales tax disproportionately affects middle- and low-income citizens, while having a negligible effect on the wealthy.
As we have all heard, ad nauseam, tariffs are nothing more than sales taxes. They're taxes imposed at the port of entry, rather than the point of sale. Their pain will be borne by the working poor.
I'm no math expert but, these numbers from 'tariffs' will not run the government. Besides, do you really imagine the business owners are going to write checks to DC from tariff profits? I don't.
I'm sure you're right about the amount of tariff taxes would cover federal spending but according to HRC's letter this morning, before federal income taxes were introduced in 1913, tariffs were how they funded the government. And just a couple of weeks ago Secretary of Commerce Ludick commented during an interview "just imagine with all the profits from tariffs, we can end federal income tax." And trump continually said that "we are going to make so much money from implementing tariffs, we won't know what to do with it. Trillions and trillions."
I believe that the tariffs are charged when the goods enter the country, before they are delivered in country.
I love “the fat, mad boss in the White House.” Perfect.
Fat, mad, and dangerous to know.
Yes!!!
Love the "fat, mad, mob boss ..." as well. In my view the boss and his goons and folks like Mike Johnson are all 🦇🦇🦇💩💩💩🤯🤯🤯! Name calling offers some relief from the bleakness covering the landscape. But April 5 fast approaches. It's time to hit the streets.
Love the emotacons!!
Yeah but do we really need to do the body-shaming? Mob boss in the White House is enough.
How about fathead? Lol
As to body shaming, Trump has no shame of any kind.
there was a wonderful jazz musician, a saxophonist, who was referred to as "fathead" -- fadhead Newman, played with Ray Charles. So let's not give the sucker in the Yellow House such a good name.
Indeed!!!!
Yup, Phil. Us geezers need to scream louder or just swim to Tahiti
Time to do something.
💥💥💥 DONT MISS “Hands Off” 🧨🧨🧨
🙋♂️🙋♀️🙋♂️ Gigantic nationwide demonstration! 🙋♂️🙋♀️🙋♂️
Saturday April 5 National “Hands Off” Day of Action
on the National Mall and 657 local demonstrations
Click this link to find a “Hands Off” demonstration near you.
https://handsoff2025.com/
Kathleen, printed and then made expanded (bigger) copies of the “Hands Off” small notice (copied from a local Facebook Indivisible group) & did added some bright colors and made sure the date/location/time was clearly visible and drove thru 3 nearby towns to post on public bulletin boards…had one nice conversation where the fellow said thanks for doing this & we chatted about the issues. Hard to tell how the turnout will be in my rural area…I know the Women’s March in ‘17 was the largest gathering/protest/march in Humboldt County’s history…maybe (?) this will top that…though the “gathering” area is not that large, so folks will have to be creative if multitudes (🤞) show up! My House of Rep Congressman Jared Huffman came and did a Town Hall this last Sunday and was overflowing, lively and I thought heartening (he’s got our backs & we have his). Folks there handed out small alerts about the 4/5 action. I hope, nationally, that attendance will hit it out of the ball park.
Thanks so much! You might want to read my Substack post on this strategy of demonstrations. https://kathleenweber.substack.com/p/demonstrations-go-big
Kathleen Weber - outstanding post! I restacked, of course.
To all on this thread: I have too many Substack subscriptions! Which I can't possibly read thoroughly every day. But there are a few that I always fully read. Kathleen's is one of them.
As she says, "Hands Off" April 5th is indeed going to be "Woodstock" in scale - but across the world.
I have my sign made and I’m ready to go. I’m sure I’ll see one that says, “I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M STILL PROTESTING THIS SH*T!” But you know what? That’s what democracy is all about. Making your voice heard. (I think this one might eclipse the women’s march after PINO’s first go-round.)
I’ll be attending down here on my little island in the Keys. I have to admit to some apprehension. Harassment at other events required a sheriff to step in, with a diesel truck circling us spewing clouds of exhaust. Hoping for a good turnout, and happy to see it happening! Time to get out the markers!
People can make simple, effective signs~~ hands off my body, hands off social security, etc. hands off our school system. Etc.
Please share and make plans to attend!
*sad laugh* I’m not sure that’s far enough away. I’m halfway to Tahiti (on the Big Island of Hawai’i) and even out here his impact is felt.
Can you scream in Russian, Ransom?
Isn't getting access to Putin about the only way of reaching his main U.S. toady?
ВЫПЛАТА
Somebody, bruce, paid, big-time, many times, in the past.
Now Putin & crew will recoup their investment.
-PULLED QUOTE-
“Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted. “The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now [close] to $30 trillion or $300,000 per family of four.”
CRASHING THE ECONOMY IS THE GOAL OF THE TRUMP REGIME... period. Why?
Because chaos creates opportunity—for the powerful.
Economic crashes create scapegoats: When people are hurting, they’re easier to manipulate. Blame immigrants, liberals, or “the deep state,” and you’ve got an angry base ready to back authoritarian solutions.
Crisis justifies power grabs: If the economy collapses under Trump’s watch, he and his loyalists can claim only they can fix it—by ignoring laws, suppressing votes, and dismantling democratic checks.
Wealth transfer in disguise: Crashes allow billionaires to buy up assets at fire-sale prices. The rich get richer while workers lose jobs, homes, and savings. That’s not a bug, it’s the plan.
Destroy public trust: Undermining institutions—media, courts, education, even the Fed—is easier when people are desperate. A collapsed economy fuels distrust in democracy, paving the way for authoritarianism.
This isn’t incompetence. It’s sabotage dressed up as populism.
Michael, I’ve been saying this exact sentiment to my husband. He continues to argue that Trump truly wants to succeed as President and may have the wrong solution but has good intentions. I think my husband is a good man who lacks the imagination of what Trump views as a successful presidency. That is, what makes Putin happy and puts money in Trump’s pocket is what is successful in his mind!
That's such a sharp and insightful way to put it. Your husband’s view reflects the hope that most people—even flawed leaders—want to do right by the country. But as you said, Trump’s definition of “success” is not rooted in public service. It’s power, wealth, and personal loyalty. If it pleases Putin or fattens his bank account, that is success to him. That moral disconnect is what many good people struggle to grasp—because they assume everyone plays by the same rules. But Trump never has.
Clare, except for sainthood, I can't imagine how you can manage a relationship with a Trumper. I couldn't do it.
Your hubs clearly hasn't attempted to learn anything about Donald, and what he's really about.
As you've suggested, all that matters to Donald is money. He also cares about loyalty, but that loyalty is unidirectional – in his direction – and that loyalty must put money in his bank account. When money is all that matters, quid pro quo is the only type of acceptable transaction.
Donald owes Putin, who is a racketeer. For loan bailouts, for election interference, for his escape from imprisonment, Donald must keep paying tribute to Putin, or lose it all. The cost is more than Donald can pay, so he has to extract payment from the American people, and that's what he's doing.
Yes, Dale, what an unbelievable ugly situation America has been into!!
That's actually the premise underlying one of the Die Hard movies. Terrorists attempt to crash the markets by causing a "Fire Sale" (massive world wide sell off) in all the computer networks worldwide.
The Russian asset put no tariffs on Russia. How much evidence does anyone need to realize the tRump is owned by Putin?
The effect that crippling schools has had is poisonous. Many Americans seem incapable of analytic thought on any level - Trump wires into the more primitive parts of their brains -- fear, greed, longing, hate. That he has taken an economy that was stable and the envy of the world and run it through the shredder is mind-blowing. And I find it even more mind-blowing that most elected Republicans are merely spectators.
This has been going on for a very long time. The very wealthy have continually attempted to manipulate the rest of us. It was behind the 1921 Crash which about ten years later was replicated again with the Crash that led to the Great Depression. This is nothing new, what is new for this age is the existence of the internet and social media to rapidly share news and also misinformation. There was misinformation then, but it was considerably more difficult to spread it rapidly.
Yes, appalling, Laurie.
Except, too, these Republicans are not merely spectators. They take government money to hold government positions only to use those positions to help their fat orange felon destroy democracy, destroy American alliances, and now destroy the American economy, too.
Add in all these co-conspirators, and we can only marvel at so much payback Putin is getting for whatever were his original investments in his favorite U.S. convicted criminal.
We cant overlook what social media and Fox entertainment has done in grabbing attention. There has been no need for critical thinking when screens provide a life of their own.
So what about a yard sign campaign against Trump/Musk/maga -
"LOVE THY NEIGHBOR" and then - "IMPEACH TRUMP" or "DEPORT MUSK" or "VOTE BLUE" or "NO TARIFFS". And the counter message "HATE THY NEIGHBOR" with "VOTE REPUBLICAN" etc. Put them in front of or close to the white Christian Nationalist churches, Southern Baptist Convention churches. And just for fun - next to the Ten Commandments in schools in OK, LA and AL.
We’ve had our Stop 🛑 Elon (very lonely) yard signs up for months here in MAGA-ville,Fl and received only + comments including some from Republicans.We also have US and Ukrainian flag and just ordered a Canadian garden flag.Please join us !!!
🇺🇸🇺🇦🇨🇦🪧
Good idea on the Canadian flag, Kathy. I just replaced my Ukrainian flag, and rather than the National Colors am flying a "planet" or "world" flag in its place.
William F. Buckley, Jr.; Grover Norquist; trickle down economics; New Gingrich; Rush Limbaugh; Phyllis Schlafly; Fox News; Rick Santorum; Josh Barro; Trump's nihilism - have all conspired to levy assaults on women, Blacks, poor people to advantage the rich - whom we now call the oligarchs. They have tried and continue to try to dynamite our economy and society.
Trump described the recent conviction of Marie Le Pen as "a very big deal". This might be because now as a convicted felon as well as being a immigrant-hating racist she has all the necessary attributes of a sucessful despot. In Trumpian terms, the future looks bright for her.
except that French law - with the enthusiastic support of Madame LePen in the recent past - bars convicted felons from public office. Too bad that did not apply to the American presidency, and that the Supreme Court declared part of the 14th Amendment inoperative, which would have barred insurrectionist Trump from office.
I'm sure that Trump would consider that a minor impediment.
Phil, I have been mentioning this in several venues, and repeat here: if you want to know what is happening, follow the money. I assume that a whole bunch of billionaires and members of Congress are selling short--with the Felon obligingly producing market downturns that will make their profits higher--and engaging in insider trading, even though it is illegal for members of Congress to do both of these things. I would love to see some investment profit/loss statements of the Ghastly Oligarch Poophead (GOP) Enablers as a result of this insanity.
Lock him up!!
You have summarized this so well.
It started with Atwater’s Southern Plan to reelect Nixon and with organized opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. White men do not want to be equal with women and Black Americans; therefore, US didn’t get democracy when we had the chance. Today the extraterrestrials don’t want to be equal with the humans.
Thank you for your clarity. Your final sentence says it all.
The serial rapist has just raped the entire world!
Trump is a man who neither understands history or economics. He also doesn’t understand the importance of allies to our safety, security and prosperity. How congress can be cowed by such an ignorant fool is appalling.
Trump thinks he can just bluff and brazen his way through anything, and so far he has with the aid of a plutocratic conspiracy. We will see how long this house of cards stands. The worrisome part is the scale of the "collateral damage".
Hmmm, JL, I wonder if he is truly dipped in Teflon*…sure seems like it.
*Teflon is associated with PFAS, a type of “forever chemical” which can have long lasting negative health effects. A-ha, so fitting.
If you are not a very well-off Trump supporter, you are collateral damage. This is considered de rigueur by Trump and colleagues.
I am on the front-line of that collateral damage, living as slimly as I do. What counts for me, as it does for you, J.L., is the attack on our republican governance. I remember in college, when I was speaking with a very bright fraternity bud well versed in philosophy and political theory, I said, "Mike, I can live with socialism, if it comes. Go after the democracy and I will fight."
Unfortunately, this is true. Trump is too ignorant to know why his policies won’t work, and he won’t listen to anyone who contradicts him. Musk claims economic hardships will be “temporary,” but he’s lying. They want to steal everything that they can by wrecking the economy and government, and they are well on their way to doing it.
It worked for Putin. It worked for Orban. And the worst is yet to come.
Putin has had to maintain an army of around 300,000 soldiers and spies he dare not commit to the Ukraine front because they're needed to keep the peace at home (he's recently launched another conscription drive - the largest so far). He also has expensive security commitments in Chechnya and Belarus. Hungary is now the second poorest country in the EU due to fiscal punishments for its government's lawless behaviour. They're not great examples for America to follow, Gary!
No, they’re terrible examples… except for the oligarchs and the autocrats.
Of course, now they can all come to the US. Trump's Gold Card is a snip at $1m a pop.
Investors need security, stability and rule of law.
Pirates not so much.
You're assuming, like Trump, that they will come to the US to invest in the US.
Well no, I’m rather assuming the reverse. Because they won’t get said security, stability and guaranteed rule of law in the US anymore. Cowboy investors will come though :/
Oh, I see. I beg your pardon, Sophie. As you say, he would turn the entire country into a giant tax haven. However, given that he's just wiped $2.5 trillion off Wall Street that little scheme might have go on the back-burner for the time being.
In all crashes there are vultures to pick up the pieces on the cheap. But it’s bad for everyone else.
Not only that, Putin had also briefly had North Korean soldiers there until Kim Jong-Un decided to pull them out, and Putin conscripted prisoners to serve as soldiers in Ukraine. I suspect he might have used ordinary convicts instead of political prisoners.
I understood that they had been withdrawn from the Kursk region after suffering heavy losses but that many remain in Russia. North Korea is also supplying large numbers of heavy artillery (including 9 million artillery shells) to Russia and being paid handsomely for them. In addition to giving their untried troops combat-ready experience (those that return alive anyway) they've also been promised ballistic missile technology and assistance in launching satellites. Russia seems to be somewhat sensitive on this issue because Korean soldiers captured by the Ukrainians were found to have been given fake Russian identities.
I wasn’t aware of this, but evidently Putin and Kim have some sort of deal making going on.
They don't really have mutual interests so a durable alliance is unlikely. Both Beijing and Moscow are sceptical about the Kim regime and neither is likely to aid North Korea’s nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programmes. In my view, the axis of evil thing doesn't work with these suspicious, hostile regimes like North Korea and Iran.
Orban just had to evacuate Budapest because of the demonstrations there. It never ends well for dictators.
I read a headline somewhere that Orban is in trouble in Hungary. The orange blight is on the wrong side of history!
I would call Trump an a**hole, except that some of my best friends are proctologists.
Unfortunately I think his policies are working. To destroy our country. We have to stop thinking there’s anything normal in his policies. They are not to help Americans (or anyone else). They are to ‘help’ him.
He understands bending over for Putin, though, and that's enough for Vlad. Trump think they are BFFs, but the Orange Clown is the laughing stock of the Russians: even THEY know that he's a hand puppet for Putin, with Vlad's arm so deep in his arse he can move Trump's mouth like he's Kermit the Frog.
You have watched the chump capitulation and I have lived it. America is the freak show of the world.
I really feel sorry for you, JD. But we're going to live it as well, I'm afraid: when the American economy crashes, the rest of the Western world will follow suit. That's when Putin will launch his invasion of Europe...
I’m old, it’s the young that will suffer most. This is not short-term evil.
No, it isn't... :(
He and other greedy bastards used hate and fear to fool the fools. Never knew we had so many. Rupert rooted them all out and to the voting booth.
Yes, all the nazis and other brown sh*t crawled out of their holes real fast when they saw the Orange Emperor coming...
I still think I’m in a majority, but the shock of how many drank the kool-aid is still astounding. Includes people that I have long admired and now feel are traitors. I have long been on the list of people who have not fallen for Repub bullschittery and most who know me know that. But some in my orbit changed so completely that I have been stunned. Or maybe they just took their masks off. Sometimes it takes evil in our midst to bare our souls.
It seems to be a standard retort or coping mechanism: as soon as things go bad, people run off to join the fascists. I don't know why that is, though.
Seems that fascists like to create chaos first, then have the solution because people want security more. As Franklin said, such people deserve neither. Sadly, America has that underbelly of generational hate added to the scapegoat mix. Scapegoats are critical as Jews can attest…
Not fooled Donald, complicit.
“Kirill Dmitriev: Putin's Messenger Arrives In Washington”
by Olga Lautman
.”What we’re witnessing is nothing short of a diplomatic heist — a sanctioned Kremlin insider escorted into the White House under the false flag of “peace,” while Trump’s envoy repeats Moscow’s propaganda, and the wife of Putin’s billionaire crony gets her sanctions quietly removed. This isn’t diplomacy. It’s the normalization of Russian influence in U.S. policymaking — not by hacking, but by handshakes, loopholes, and sham negotiations. It’s the public rehabilitation of war criminals and Kremlin enablers — all unfolding in plain sight, while the press chases distractions and Ukrainians continue dying under Russian fire.”
Read Olga Lautman’s SHOcKING article below:
https://open.substack.com/pub/olgalautman/p/kirill-dmitriev-putins-messenger
WHAT ADAM KINZINGER HAD TO SAY THIS A.M.
"Well, Liberation Day came and went — and, predictably, the market tanked, leading to more economic instability, and more uncertainty for hardworking Americans.
"What’s truly alarming?
"None of this is surprising — because we’ve seen this show before.
"Today, we’re talking about… washing machines — yes, really — because they’re a perfect example of what happens when bad economic policy meets political theater.
"In 2018, during the first Trump administration, a steep tariff was imposed on foreign-made washing machines. The result?
"The price of laundry equipment in the U.S. jumped by 34%, far outpacing inflation. Why?
"Because when tariffs reduce competition, American manufacturers often raise prices too — and consumers pay the price.
"Now, this administration is claiming that tariffs will bring back American manufacturing. But we’ve run that experiment, too. During the first Trump Administration, when tariffs were introduced (at a smaller level than now), the U.S. lost manufacturing jobs and businesses.
"Numbers don’t lie..
"Steep, across-the-board tariffs with no strategy behind them, don’t strengthen our economy — they destabilize it. They don’t lower prices — they raise them.
"We have an administration willing to gamble with our economy, and with the livelihoods of everyday working Americans."
Letting Trump shape economic policy is like being wheeled in to a major operation with a surgeon who is not a real doctor; only played one on TV.
I would still take Dr Kildare or Marcus Welby over Baron von Blimpoman any day.
His goal is to divide the world.
I read that Trump, Putin and Xi have a agreement where Russia gets Ukraine, China gets Taiwan and the US gets Greenland. Yes, this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it is playing out in real time.
Do you think the alcoholic sexual predator Hogsbreath will lift a finger to help Taiwan or Ukraine?
and he probably thinks that is a good deal. What a fool.
His goal is to cast the world asunder to prove his power.
His Goal is self-enrichment and personal power.
He understands the power Hitler wielded. It is his blueprint.
Oh he does fully understand our allies mean protection for “ we the people “ just not for he the dictator. Putin is his dictator allie. That is why he wants to isolate USA from NATO countries.
And what’s worse, he doesn’t care.
Ex-Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed that Trump called his supporters ‘basement dwellers'
They know they are screwed, they don’t have any ideas that upon examination would ever get a majority to support. Now that they have power, their every thought and action is focused on keeping it, by any means legal or illegal.
For Trump/Musk the only people who matter are billionaires. When will those who voted for him realize that they have been conned?
Can you update your comment to simply Trump neither understands . . . Saying he is a man discredits every other grownup - man, woman, non binary, dead, alive - he is a feckless, spineless, not fully developed and likely not planned embryo.
Understanding history and economics would require an ability to understand nuance and detail. T is not equipped with that ability.
Obviously the US (and world) economy and society is waaaaaaay more complicated than in the 1700s. It's quite a balancing act to keep it even reasonably free of malfunctions.
He sees himself as all powerful, like Putin et al. And he has sufficient power to bring out the worst in people, or scares them into capitulating.
by the ignorant (and increasingly demented) fool and the many thousands of his followers who make credible threats of violence against those who oppose him, including Republican congresspeople.
Don’t Republican lawmakers have stock portfolios? Are they content not only watching American society in general crumble, but their own personal fortunes as well?
Do something, you gutless, spineless cowards!
Mike Johnson has an overcooked noodle for a backbone. I sputter and spit trying to come up with terms to describe that weak, slimy bastard.
It’s going to rain in Connecticut on Saturday. I’m planning on getting wet.
If you're rich enough, you'll get even richer when a crash comes. Us ordinary people, not so much...
401-Ks will tank and the ordinary investor will cash out losing much of their retirement money. But as George Bailey said in "It's a Wonderful Life." Potters not selling, Potters buying.
Watch what Warren Buffett does over the next 12 months. He's sitting on over $300 billion in liquid assets ready to pounce.
Hard to hit the heart on this one, Gary. Sound advice.
Republicans care about the stock market more than anything else (their own wealth not because it hurts others) so I’m totally baffled why they’re letting this happen. What’s the end game here?!
They have enough cash to ride this out. If the market drops 50% they just wait until it recovers.
though there is no indication that Buffett supports Trump or his actions in any way.
He's a Democrat and always has been one. But he recognizes trends in the market and rarely leaves money on the table.
He doesn’t. But that won’t stop him from profiting from any fallout.
Some certainly will. Massive money at the very least cushions the consequences of national folly. Even if your are down to your last billion.
The thing is: do you have 100 million dollars lying around to buy a company at record-low price, and then cash massively on it as soon as stocks rise again? I don't. Billionaires do. The words "market crash" sound like "discount sale" in the ears of billionaires...
Some of them are no doubt already shorting the US economy.
Absolutely.
Then again, how long will you have to wait for that recovery? Maybe, until Trump dies, or maybe longer if the hillbilly and Keto take the reins and just do the same? Might die before the market comes back....
Not an unlikely scenario, that...
A lot more of us might die before the planet comes back, if ever (at least as life as we know it).
"The Shock Doctrine"
Sure. They have stock portfolios. And they have their brokers shorting sticks. They know exactly when to buy/sell because Trump announces the timing of his EO’s.
My recollection is that for the most part the 1% made out like bandits on the "Great Recession."
I wondered too if they are so up trump’s butt they were willing to sacrifice themselves and their families. Apparently they are.
The right-wing Congresspeople are complicit in the betrayal of the American people.
And the Constitution.
Then there is this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/karline-leavitt-trump-spiritual-revival-b2726877.html
Yeah, Project 2025 is the master plan developed by Opus Die Catholic radical religious freaks in partnership with White Evangelicals to usher in their racist, misogynist totalitarian dictatorship.
Only white Christian nationalist men will be considered worthy of any rights and liberties.
Professor Richardson -- Thank you for your succinct summary and analysis. From my perspective as an expatriate American living permanently in Japan, I can confirm that this outrageous tariff announcement is already causing a great deal of anxiety in Japan. So far, the Japanese government has politely asked for an exemption, considering that the country is the largest foreign investor in the US, but to no avail. It also appears that the US trade surplus in services has not been factored into the calculations.
In any case, the Japanese are likely to respond with reciprocal tariffs and seek to develop trade alliances on more favorable terms with the rest of the world - especially China and the EU.
Both houses of Congress had better step up to correct this egregious miscalculation by the executive branch.
I'm in the EU and I believe that the same policy will be employed here. As a US expat, I have faithfully bought EU products, and I am not planning on returning to the US unless I absolutely have to. I am hoping for a termination by an angry MAGA or a heart attack, but with the 2025 plan having been implemented, and a mostly weak democratic party, I am not hopeful.
We absolutely MUST show up in massive numbers on APRIL 5 for the Hands Off protests. Our time is now. If not now, then when? Make your signs and get into the streets everywhere in the country on Saturday. Bring everyone you know.
I am terrified to look at my Schwab account tomorrow. I should have disinvested on 1/20/25. I am sick to my stomach. We could not be in worse shape if Vladimir Putin had been in the WH for the past two months. Apparently he has been. The destruction under this lunatic is incomprehensible except when he is viewed as an actual Russian asset who is determined to destroy America as fast as possible.
My broker has always insisted on 20-25% of his client's portfolios being invested in International stocks (funds) and since last summer has moved a portion of everyone's portfolio's to cash. Remember the words of George Bailey, "Potter's not selling, Potter's buying." (This is in no way intended as advice on what or how to invest.)
I tried talking to our advisor about doing that….he is a trumper as is my husband 😿. To no avail….I have never really considered our investments as “our” money anyway. It is just money others play with one way or another. So….if we lose everything, and it will hurt, it might just wake my husband, whom I love, up. It will be worth it if I get him back.
😪
I'm not that optimistic. I've been basically in cash for a while now. I'd rather manage with what I have saved (and some small dividends) than risk losing it chasing more.
I can not hit "like". Putin is smiling from ear to ear. His boy is doing exactly what he is supposed to do. Destroy the United States of America. The corporate mediocracy is playing along like describing line drives or dunks in a world devoid of reality. What First Amendment? The money will be good putting out paid propaganda and no pesky "Journalists" to waste their money on.
And don't forget about him crashing the economy on purpose. _That_ is what his BFF Musk and Vance's puppet master Thiel want: a crash makes the rich even richer, and it makes ordinary people poor. And poor people don't protest or revolt. They are nice, obedient little slaves for His Grand Muskness, the new God of the World, to exploit.
Tell that to the millions of bread rioters throughout history.
Tell that to Musk. I'm still hoping you Americans get so angry, you'll drag him to the guillotine...
I’m a European, Dutchie, just like you. And our region has had its share of bread riots - and revolutions - in the past. But yes, the US is long due one of those.
Ah, sorry for the confusion there. Yes, we had some riots & revolutions here; it is indeed high time for one in the US, to do away with the tech billionaire "nobility"...
Will they, though? Or will the false mystique of the ‘American Dream’ and the real divisions of ancestral racism still prevail?
Nailed it, Sophie. The main reason Kamala wasn't elected, is the centuries-old racism and misogyny still festering in American culture. The Confederacy was never abolished, it is still very much alive & kickin'.
Must say I agree. Appalling.
I agree too…so many, um, bending over forward 🤮in obedience. Maybe they think people won’t remember this…and perhaps they are right nowadays w/ everyone’s face plastered to a screen.
Why I am re-reading 'Fahrenheit 451' sometime soon.
What a harsh reality for households living paycheck to paycheck but also, particularly, seniors and those with disabilities on a fixed income….income that is now very much in doubt given the brutal pruning of the Soc Sec administration. Add those recently and soon to retire who are dependent on stock based private retirement accounts. While the prices go up their income is dwindling or disappearing. Add the cuts looming to Medicaid and Medicare and what a desperate Dickensian future outlook for the very young and the retired and the disabled.
KSC, unfortunately I think it's a terrible price we all have to pay so people would wake up from their stupor and finally act like "we tha people". Unbelievable that the regime is doing the work for us. At this point, I believe that the worse the better for that moment of awakening that would conduct to a real Liberation Day.
From his crypto shakedown to his nonstop pathological lying, the president proved once and for all time on "Liberation Day" that he is batshit crazy. I say to my MAGA friends, you broke it, you own it.
When you say MAGA friends it sounds like such an oxymoron, an example of the old saying: with friends like that who needs enemies...
I've quit calling them "friends" and instead call them my former work cohort.
"LIBERATION DAY" is the day Kleptocrats celebrate liberating us from OUR money!
Thank you Professor Richardson.
It's important to remember that 1/3 of U.S. voters did not want higher prices, massive layoffs (that are certain during a recession), greater economic insecurity, and the global dangers inherent in U.S. isolationism and nationalism.
Nevertheless, 1/3 voted for this and an additional 1/3 were complicit in their voting silence. While Senator Booker was heroic in his marathon speech about the criminal-elect, the GOP has pledged absolute fealty in most cases, even now working toward increasing the U.S. debt by $5 trillion in order to extend Trump/GOP trickle-down fraud tax cuts for corporations and their wealthiest benefactors like Musk, Thiel, Mellon, and others.
Thanks to 2/3 of the U.S. voting population we are now the "Pariah States of America".
https://open.substack.com/pub/bomdia/p/the-pariah-states-of-america
I met a visiting journalist from Florida the other day at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo. I asked him how life was in Florida these days. He nearly turned green and said he is hoping to move to Japan as soon as possible to study Japanese. He said he used to assume the majority of Americans were good people but has become sadly disillusioned.
Thank you for sharing Kristin. Trump has unleashed hate, hostility, and violent behavior for all within his MAGA cult. His pardon of the violent J6 insurrectionists has fostered widespread license for domestic extremism and barbaric cruelty.
These undercurrents were always present in U.S. society -but properly hidden -like a virus.
This is a very good website for people who want to know more about the unvarnished history of the U.S.
If We Knew Our History - Zinn Education Project
https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/
Truth.
Prior to Trump's reelection i saw more than one mainstream poll that indicate that a majority of the nation, even those who did not necessarily choose the Republican Party agreed that Republican's were more skilled at growing the economy than Democrats. It's total horsefeathers of course, but that seem to be the power of propaganda.
So very true. Just as they are considered the party of “family values” and are “pro-life” (presumably right up until the forced birth).
Elon Musk seems to have taken the pro-life theme to extraordinary lengths. He apparently has thirteen children and now wants to found a new nation on Mars. He might be interested in attending the Natal conference in Austin, Texas later this month, a gathering of eugenicists and race science believers who also want more babies (so long as they're white).
(so long as they're white).
Seems to be the principal litmus test for caring about any family (such as immigrants whose children were seized, and in many cases never returned, at the border. That particular atrocity did not raise all that much of a national stink, because of, well, you know).
And even white babies who are born into poverty are often dismissed from being full valued by the GOP. Read the fine print.
The natalists are mostly also eugenicists (and I suspect incels) so they believe that only high-IQ individuals should be able to breed. Elon Musk has said that “if each successive generation of smart people has fewer kids, that’s probably bad.” He's obviously never heard of the statistical phenomena known as regression to the mean. There are so many things wrong with this belief that it's sometimes hard to know where to start. Firstly, IQ doesn't measure anything except test scores. There's no neurological evidence for anything remotely like what they call 'general intelligence'. Secondly, there's no evidence that intelligence, even so defined, is wholely or even mainly heritable in any easily identifiable sense. Finally, intelligence isn't immutable, as some race pseudoscientists have contended (the so-called Bell Curve). That's why we all have to go to school. Even if one were to assume that these people were the greatest gathering of geniuses ever assembled on the earth in one place and at one time, Donald Trump would be a very strange person for them to have identified as their leader, because he's dumbest president Americans have ever elected.
Total hypocrisy.
Don't forget the dismantling of FEMA as massive storms sweep the nation on a daily basis and the increase in infectious disease with the destruction of the CDC. So much is about to go wrong it's really scary.
And that, sir may be the tipping point (which we thought had been reached so many times before). When enough people suffer and die, the rebellion will include more than angry libs marching in the public square.
Average folks who never paid attention to politics will be very pissed off when the government isn't there to help - because MAGA and Musk disemboweled it. It wasn't Joe Biden who did this to America. It was the Oligarchs.
Watching my April 2nd Rachel Maddow program interviewing Dr. Kessler. Very ominous future due to firing of critical scientists, support staff, even one person who saved trump's life during COVID-19 when trump received life-saving medication. The repercussions of this dismantling of everything that we rely on is horrific.
Alas, while championing human rights in a good way, we retained a even more vicious analog to feudalism as slave agriculture. As Americas first really big big business, it an oligarchy even then. And it warped our progress toward justice and more perfect union, as does to this day. With Emancipation, oligarchy did not fade but morphed into "Jim Crow" and "Robber Barons". Since then was an era of improved opportunities and respect for minorities, women, workers, etc., and the middle class grew.
Then The Empire struck back;
and first they came for the gays and people of color...
Which, of course, is to say nothing of indigenous rights.
I live in a region in which majors earthquakes are an expected eventuality. What then? And Nature often demonstrates more than ample powers to crush people like bugs; especially when we insult her every day.
Wow. I just now looked: and HCR’s page on Facebook is suddenly up to date. I had checked earlier this same day, and the most recent post was from 3/25.
I saw HCR page on Facebook is now updated. Many of us made noise and posted the letters! Let’s keep it up!
Listening to President Trump announce his tariffs it was so weird hearing him speak. He said the word “Groceries “ over and over again, like it was such a strange concept for him to grasp! Then saying “putting stuff in a bag “— if this is far fetched to him, it shows how out of touch he is to reality! I use grocery bags every week if not more. Really? This is so foreign to him?
Trump’s fascination with McKinley is also challenging for most of us to comprehend. I think it’s more about the “Guilded Age” with its fancy style, parties, gold, etc and his perception that life was so much better than anything rooted in a strong economy. This is his magical thinking. It’s bowing down to whoever he will bestow power and wealth on him. All this is appalling and goes against everything our country has built in our modern world. We deal in a global economy, we are interdependent and connected with countries throughout the world.
We must make sure it is President Trump is held responsible if the country goes into a recession. It will be Trump and the Republicans, they all must be blamed.
It's possible that he has never shopped in a grocery store. Like for GHW Bush, it's like a strange and foreign land.
We are already in a recession, it's just not official yet. I wrote on Paul Krugman's comment that by 7/1 we will be in a recession because one of the requirements is 2 quarters of negative GDP which will only take place after 7/1.
I was corrected.
Yes we did.
Thank you for your update. I hope they are up for all Facebook users, but Heather mentioned in her Politics chat on Tuesday that she thought she was being shadowbanned. When this happens, only some users (probably very few) can see her posts. She said on Tuesday that she couldn't see her recent posts and neither could Buddy. I still have a Facebook account, but haven't logged in since January.
I closed my Facebook account. I use WhatsApp, and that’s because friends and family communicate through it.
I couldn't find it on her page, but yesterday, I got a "notification" and was able to get it there. I posted it in a comment on my page. I just checked FB and her page is restored with posts but not Politics Chat.
I watched Tuesday's Politics Chat on YouTube. HCR said she didn't post a notice about it on Facebook because of the FB issues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUR3qFTVK2k
True the posts after March 25 are back on her page except for April 1 — that one is still missing.
Ditto.
And no one in the White House has pointed out to this idjit that McKinley was assassinated?
Unfortunately, JD is no Theodore Roosevelt. That was dumb luck for the US that the Republicans made him the VEEP in 1901. And it was bad luck that in his exuberance after winning reelection in 1904 that Roosevelt said this would be his last term in office.
I'm reminded of the old joke in the 90's that if anyone shot Bush, SS had instructions to shoot Quayle.
McKinley was killed by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz.
The depth of Trump's ignorance on economic matters is astounding. That ignorance is going to harm millions of people, people without the financial means to weather the coming tariff disaster. People in poverty will get poorer and homelessness will increase. People with lower incomes will join the ranks of the poor. Middle income Americans will join the ranks of lower income because their income will not meet their needs. Upper income people are likely move down to a middle income standard of living. The rich will be fine. That's how the trickle down economic theory actually works. Wealth doesn't trickle down. Poverty trickles down. MAGA worshippers are about to figure this out. The MAGA menace must be stopped.
I'm thinking more a cascade than a trickle in this case.
There's a term that I think captures the Trump Reich: enshittification, a "term used to describe the pattern in which online products and services decline in quality over time" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification>. See also https://gizmodo.com/enshittification-is-officially-the-biggest-word-of-the-year-2000530173>. While originally applied to the tech industry, the term has, I think, broader application here as Trump and his cabal enshittify with lightning speed not just the federal government but society generally. Indeed, we could easily -- and justifiably -- rename DOGE as the "Department of Governmental Enshittification." Cf. Enshittocene <https://cybercultural.com/enshittocene/>.
Cory Doctorow has used this term frequently to describe what’s happening here.
Christina Amanpour's interview with Senator Chris Murphy (Democratic; Connecticut). This tariff scheiße may well be a Reichstag fire. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/Tv/video/amanpour-trump-tariffs-cory-booker-speech-senator-chris-murphy
Artie Shaw nailed a similar moment of despair in 1938.https://youtu.be/-vbghyhIZCk
🤠 Thanks HCR for another homerun news article.
Continuing from my comment on language framing yesterday, I found Gil Duran, on FrameLab mentioning Trump in
‘Framing Power: How Political Metaphors Shape Democracy’
Metaphors play a crucial role in shaping how we perceive the world. As such, they significantly impact our politics” (Jan 23 2025)
…”a New York Times headline that framed Trump’s actions as physical strength and dominance, ignoring his threats to the Constitution and democracy.
‘Trump Asserts a Muscular Vision of Presidential Power As He Takes Over.’
This headline from the New York Times applies a metaphor of physical strength and dominance – “muscular vision” – to our political system. The verb “asserts” then adds even more muscle to the frame. The headline also frames power as something Trump “takes.” All of it adds up to an image of Trump using physical power to dominate the political system.
The story itself explains how Trump is trying to once again define the presidency in ways that violate the laws, norms, and the Constitution. The first sentence describes Trump’s actions as “norm-breaking.” It depicts him as trying to claim “sweeping and inherent constitutional clout” for himself.
Such language gives Trump an advantage. It promotes his preferred frame of personal power. Further, it portrays him as a strongman flexing his “muscle,” asserting his dominance over American democracy. “Strong” is exactly how Trump wishes to be seen.
The NYT headline play into this framing. Worse, it erases the main issues of concern identified in the story: Trump’s efforts to overturn norms and challenge Constitution.
One bad headline isn’t the end of the world. Unfortunately, American journalism is full of bad headlines that unwittingly serve the purposes of authoritarianism. For example, when Trump tells a big lie, most headlines make a point of repeating the lie. It’s not necessarily because journalists want to help Trump lie. On the contrary: Most journalists have no idea how propaganda works and, therefore, do not understand the key role they play in helping propagandists spread lies.
Similarly, most journalists do not seem to think about the power of metaphors and the meanings they carry.
✅ If journalists don't get smarter about the effect of language and metaphors on the brain, they will be as responsible as anyone for the demise of American democracy.”
FrameLab | JAN 23, 2025 By GIL DURAN
https://www.theframelab.org/framing-power-how-political-metaphors-shape-democracy/
I so agree! Language and how we use it is our most powerful tool and headlines are especially important in our present day and age as Americans have developed a limited attention span. I hope someone at the Times happens upon your message.