The wheels are coming off the orange clown car. Virginia just secured the midterms and protected our sacred democracy. Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together every weekend at protests: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
I wish I could share in the notion that “the wheels are coming off.” In my mind, I see the wounded animal getting boxed in a corner & becoming even more dangerous and aggressive. Stand by for more lies & accusations against any Dem or a candidate or representative that remembered what it was to be a republicans & not a maga.
TJ, I, too am concerned with the "wounded" demented animal. It is clear Trump has no idea what is going on and just pumps out words he remembers, often using the same word for a few days, then dropping it until it comes to him again: obliterate, traitorous for example. I am also concerned that 35% of Americans according to polls still just love their Baby Donnie and think he is doing "a good job," when he clearly is not. I think Trump's handlers: Miller, Musk, Vought, Vance, etc. will work on Trump even more to get their Naziesque actions and words into the politisphere so Trump's pathetic supporters will continue to think Trump has a clue and he is worthy of anyone's loyalty or support of any kind. I wonder how many deaths it will take before Repubs know that "too many people have died. The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind" (Bob Dylan
Trump loves superlatives. I agree 35% is an excruciatingly slow drop. The people around Trump are propping him up when they could be instrumental in bringing him down. But they have no incentive to do so since Trump is working for them. So it's not just Trump, if it ever was. Trump collects opportunists... various kinds. And he consolidates it all--it's like a machine. Until it breaks down- or we break it it keeps on, one thing after another. They know where to hit.
Potter, just as I read Donald's quotes in HCR's Letter, I noted the repeated use of "very." With Donald, nothing is ever just what it is. It's always "very" whatever he describes. This is a juvenile attempt at verbal one-upmanship. We expect this of a Third-grader, not of a head of state.
As dementia claims more of Donald's mind, it will delete even more words from his vocabulary.
In my search for a reliable source to cite, I found that most of the articles describing Donald's vocabulary loss were datelined 2024!! Before U.S. voters elected him! I do not consider HuffPost to be reliably neutral, but this is the most recent article on the subject.
Dale- thanks. Trump uses some words and phrases repeatedly- superlatives, hyperbolic language-cut to repeats due his aging brain and his emotional needs, in a manner that shows he is convinced that he can convince people... "like we have never seen before" "fake news". His delivery is something to analyze as well...the tone, a calm "sing song" with a body sway, showing his conviction/authority. Usually there are nodding heads in his back-up group.. a performance. I recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_Donald_Trump#:~:text=Trump's%20scenic%20construction%20(introduction%20of,advancing%20age%20and%20cognitive%20decline.
Scroll down to the more current rhetoric.
The list of references and sources are "like I have never seen" in such an article.
Also I like what I have heard from George Lakoff, retired professor of linguistics.. I have not read his "Understanding Trump" which was 10 years ago and I don't know how it stands up but will check it. This is a very interesting subject.
Potter, you are right that it isn't just Trump. We know that because Trump can actually organize nothing, not even his thoughts. He has been worked by others for decades because his brain does not function well beyond using his money to get whatever he wants no matter who is harmed. He is still doing that and a lot of folks are helping out their Baby Donnie, a child-man who never had to grow up in more than body. We need to figure out who are most in charge, then start targeting them whenever possible to let us all know who they are and how we can stop them.
Trump is following the Roy Cohn playbook. Never acknowledge a mistake, always attack. Cohn, Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s closeted homosexual hatchet man, died of AIDS while battling the IRS over unpaid taxes. He vowed he’d never pay what he owed, and he didn’t. Daddy Trump made Cohn Donald’s mentor in order to “tougher him up.” Didn’t really work. Just turned Cadet Bonespurs a whiny little bitch.
This is what I just can't comprehend. Thirty five percent think all is just fine! Who ARE they? What is wrong with the perception of such a large percentage of our population? Sorry, I fail to find that number anything to celebrate.
Sharon, you are right; this is disturbing. I find nothing in the 35% approval to celebrate except that some of us are truly standing against this childish monster and his toddler pool!.
This is entirely correct, and the most significant threat we face heading into the midterms. Trump and his cohort of sycophants are terrified of a House with a significant Democratic majority. They’ve heard the promises of investigations (some already underway). They’ve heard the anger in the land. They know the Furies are coming for them, and they will do everything they can to avoid those snake-haired ladies. Trump himself is increasingly unhinged and there are few if any limits to which he will not go to save his hide.
The essential question now is when or whether the Republicans in congress will come to understand that their fear of his retribution would be entirely unfounded if they stand together and simply honor the congressional oaths they took. Democrats and a rapidly increasing number of Americans stand fully ready to assist.
Those are all entirely justifiable fears, but by no means not all of them. Trump has already proven entirely willing to incite domestic violence in order to further his agenda, including using that violence as an excuse to put the American military into American cities. As we approach the midterms, the possibility of his using the violence his own actions have incited to control elections only increases. He is also clearly willing to use his captive DOJ and FBI to attempt to influence those elections through intimidation of several times.
Agree! I am trying to stay positive but it is harder every day.
And what was this about Trump being stopped from nuking Iran by C/JCS Gen Cain??? Saw several prominent "creators" on Twitter mentioning this, but nothing in the news - so not sure if it is true.
Anyway, the guy is DANGEROUS and like that "wounded animal" he will become more so as time goes on.
If it is true, we then owe a great deal to Dan Cain for standing his ground. This is a guy that we said had no business being Chief of Staff for the armed forces. Apparently, his reputation of "raising cane" worked against Trump this time around. Other than the little I read about him prior to Trump's second go 'round at this job, Cain was supposedly not grounded enough to handle the Chief of Staff position. Has he finally seen what we all have known about Trump? Apparently, he may have well matured in his role. Let's hope that is the case.
Good morning, Riad. We can hope. Now we have a new secretary of the navy who is a total nut who believes in witches among other things. Interestingly, he is an immigrant whose family fled a war zone. Immigrants are OK I guess if they kiss death star's rear enough. Frankly, I wish someone would frag Pete the drunk.
Why does anyone give a shit about anything RS has to say? Most of us have blocked him when he first started posting his lies and BS. If you want to block him/her/they/them hit the '...' to the right of his handle.
Always astonished at how many out there who can't/won't take that simple advice and thereby force the rest of us to use the scroll mechanism and completely forget what the thread of the conversation was...
Donna, the popular online expression is: "Don't feed the troll!"
Trolls do not expect to change anyone's mind. They exist for two reasons:
1. Human trolls seek to draw attention to themselves, because they are ignored in real life.
2. Both human and bot trolls seek to derail the conversation off-topic. This side-thread now stands as the perfect example of a troll's success. Unfortunately, if we don't discuss trolls occasionally, they continue to operate.
He (Sender) is indeed a virulent supporter of all things maga. He spends a lot of time convincing us that his false views are true. Some people are just under the influence of bad ideas. And all that anger tells us that something is wrong with the world. But as Noam Chomsky said - no one will put truth in your mind, you have to discover it for yourself.....
Like others have said, I forget about him. I think it would be hilarious if NOBODY ever answered him, ever! I used to compare him to the (dating myself here) landline heavy breather back in the day. The entire idea was to get their jollies by scaring or riling people up. Who answers unknown calls anymore? So they have to resort to SOMETHING.
I appreciate Substacks and webpages that monitor the comments prior to having them posted to the public. However, she gets so many comments it would probably be too difficult to do so.
On a podcast of about a week or so ago, I was listening to the tape a few days after. It was while she was doing it live, and she stopped to answer a comment someone must have posted on FB regarding "why are there so many trolls here today?"
She said that she just ignores them, and she said there were so many BECAUSE THEY ARE SCARED.
I haven't seen much about lil' Ricky on here of late, so I am imagining he's squirming at her reporting of the MAGA flailing, and so he's lashing out.
Mr. Sender is a sad and pathetic man who apparently has no one from whom to get positive attention in his life. He therefor seeks the negative attention he gets here because otherwise he would get no attention at all.
I tried having civil discourse with him and eventually he became personally venomous. I no longer respond to him. If no one here ever did respond to him, perhaps he would go elsewhere.
Actually I did attempt to have a thoughtful discussion with Sender and he responded rather politely, but totally missed all my points. He couldn't debate competently or address any issue I raised with a counter argument. He merely continued in his vein of maga-speak.
Eventually, with me, he became personal and insulting when I pointed out that he never actually addressed what HCR had written.
In London's Hyde Park they have a thing called "Speaker's Corner", where speeches have been made and debates have taken place. Quite frequently, people stand there and just rant. Sender reminds me of that place.
Frankly this discussion isn't worth the time it takes to read. Like others have said rs is just a rabbit hole going nowhere.
For what it's worth I read an article recently published in Live Science written by Tina Ghose about David Gross, a renowned nuclear physicist. Ghose goe into detail about this gentleman's credentials and accomplishments. The take away of the article? That Mr. Gross believes that we will kill ourselves within the next 50 years with nuclear weapons. He makes a much better argument for his reasoning than I ever could. But I couldn't help agree with him. If the US voters can put an absolute idiot as stupid and inept in charge of the worlds strongest military with an entire political party so complicit that they have given away the power of checks and balances to this pile of pig shit, he makes a valid point. Mr. Gross requalified his position and says he actually believes no one will live longer than 35 years. When you look at the power the world is letting putin, netanyahu , trump, xi, north korea as well as all the terrorist groups have, I, for one, have a hard time arguing against his point. Maybe chew on that instead of rs.
those are the people who need our support. The onslaught is coming, but we can defend against it if we stand together in massive numbers and vote the trash out of office.
Can't trust them. Who in this administration is "minding the store," except for those allowing money to flow out to war, Trump construction projects, and "gilding the lily" of a briar patch of an Oval Office? Where is the oversight capable of stopping an authoritarian takeover? Steve Bannon, your day needs to be done. Crazed definitions of the Democrats? Turn around, white eyes. Go to the movies on May 1 and take a good hard look at ANIMAL FARM. Where do you see yourself?
Yes, TJB ... If HCR's readers haven't heard, the weaponized DOJ has just gone after the Southern Poverty Law Center, as reported by Joyce Vance. The U.S. Government is becoming more nazi-like and less democratic daily now.
Joyce Alene Vance (born July 22, 1960) is an American lawyer who served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She was one of the first five U.S. attorneys, and the first female U.S. attorney, nominated by President Barack Obama.
I agree -- I'm not so sure either. These MAGA supporters are so deeply in love with Trump, or terrified of him, that they'd be honored to drink his toilet water. They just dig their heels more deeply into the mess going on and won't admit that everything isn't going well at all.
Part of Trump’s current poll numbers is that many people who once supported Republicans and Trump have tired of his constant, obvious lies and the constant cowardice of the Republican Congress.
Trump’s projection of HIS weakness and HIS low IQ onto anyone he has a beef with is telling. It is so repetitive that it is obvious that these deficits are his obsession about himself, the things that he hates most about himself.
"Virginia just secured the midterms and protected our sacred democracy."
The midterms are not secure until we Get Out The Vote to Vote Blue No Matter Who for a 2026 Blue Wave. There is much work to do and a short time to get our work done. With plenty of time for Republican sabotage.
We do not have a sacred democracy. We have a secular democratic republic -a constitutional federal representative democracy which by law is separated from the absolutisms of religious creed and irrational habits of mind of religious belief.
Bannon is right to be frightened. Americans want accountability for the corruption and repayment for the money the entire Trump family has stolen from the American people. The theft and fraud is beyond imagination.
Prove it. What has the billionaire "stolen" and what proof do you have? I've never met a billionaire who needed to steal anything, which is another reason why Trump is certainly not corrupt. Biden and his family were the most corrupt, the most anti-American administration in our short history.
I hope your surgery was a success and your recovery is easy. If you were under anesthesia at all, that brain fog can last quite a while. I have tested and experienced this particular theory numerous times.
Mary, we have a friend who, for the first time, voted for a democrat in northern NY. I guess once a Republican, is not always a Republican (hopefully).
Stephanie, our next door neighbor was a local R pol when some of them were still sane. He can't stand what Rs have become and supports Ds while he is registered an a I.
Though born and sometimes raised in Montana your comment made me realize that although I love its inhabitants I doubt these days I know where it is. It was so sad to say goodbye to to Mike and Maureen and Max and so many more influential individuals. Nowadays I mourn even the loss of K. Ross Toole the rancher/history professor who reminded us where we came from and how it could guide us. I can see the border from my Idaho living room window and feel surrounded by doubt.
And the Democrat's biggest mistake has always been assuming victory before the votes are cast, let alone counted. Anybody remember why President Hillary Clinton didn't have to campaign in PA, WI, and MI?
We are a constitutional republic-repeat after me-constitutional republic. What the heck is a "secular democratic republic," just a new lie to pretend we are something other than what we are? Democrats sure like to make things up out of thin air and pretend they are true. Republican sabotage? That's funny, if it wasn't for cheating and Democratic fraud the Dems would never win anything with their reality challenging "ideas". And a complete lack of morals by opening our border and the chaos and crime that it caused. You are morally bankrupt as is the entire Democratic party.
Yes, the United States is legally and constitutionally a secular democratic republic. It has no official state religion, and the Constitution (specifically the First Amendment and Article VI) mandates a separation of church and state, prohibiting religious tests for public office and guaranteeing freedom of religion.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
+5
Key aspects of this structure include:
Constitutional Secularism: The U.S. Constitution is a secular document that does not mention Christianity or God. The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion, while Article VI bans religious tests.
Democratic Republic: The nation is a representative democracy (republic) where officials are elected by the people to govern, rather than a direct democracy or a theocracy.
Secured the midterms? They friggin cheated and disenfranchised 45% of their citizens. How would the Dems feel, if they were almost half of a state and were relegated to one and only one representative? They would self immolate themselves. More like Marxism than democracy when a governor lies about what she stands for and then turns around and supports every far left garbage idea when she wins. It's called the good old bait and switch. Lie lie a rug and pretend you are something you are not. God, what a feckless cheater and liar the new governor is.
Although VA. did pass the referendum, it passed only by approximately 3 percentage points. As they say: "the win was ugly, but we'll take it." The fact that voters would buy the republican lies of "damaging the State" if one voted yes, made it so enough people from the "NO" side voted to make it close. The hypocrisy is simply unreal when those voting "no" fully well knew that none of us would be here if Trump had not started the ball rolling in commanding Texas governor Abbott to fudge the district lines in order to get more House seats in Texas. Employing Governor Spanberger's and President Obama's own words in quoting them that redistricting is wrong, previous to this, was also the height of hypocrisy. The third hypocritical assertion was to show black families in "black districts" who they said would suffer watering down their voting powers. We know that republicans have worked hard to disengage black voting; all one has to do is look at Georgia. We stood firm, although I did wish that we had won that referendum by a double-digit margin.
How do you have the ignorance and literally a stupidity of trying to credit left-wing zealots first of all as journalist and second of all with any credibility whatsoever
Tonight there was a pole that went out there was some research done and apparently, for example, 73% of Google searches result in a left-wing leaning response
Yahoo was 95 five with 1% representing the Republicans and the same with Microsoft. Same shit different day. You need to change the channel and you need to change your own world. Just like Michael Jackson song man in the mirror if you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make that change.
Dude, take your own advice. Change the channel to something other than Faux, Newsmax, or OANN. And look at yourself in the mirror. And for this upcoming(?) "America Reads the Bible" event, read Matthew 25.
Rick's been trolling HCR's column for quite a while now. Remember, a troll is one who posts a deliberately inflammatory comment in the hope of getting an emotional response, which he can then respond to. The idea is to get as many replies as possible. That's how their standings in trolldom are configured. It's best to just let him and those like him, stew in their own juices.
Thx for the info. I've been reading "Letters from an American" since before Substack existed (as far as I knew, anyway), but I don't often read the Substack comments -- my bad, that. As a longtime fan of Pharyngula, I'm familiar with trolls. -- I don't think (I may be wrong, and if I'm wrong it's not the first time, not even the 1001st time -- hell, I voted for Mitch McConnell in 1984) I've given Ricky any pretext for some glib reply that would allow him to pat himself on the back for "owning that dumbass lib from f*****g Kentucky."
Joe, I’m not a liberal so I don’t put people in a cubbyhole just because of a personal trait like skin color or race or ethnicity or where they’re from like the liberals do and that’s why you projected that which is evidence that you should take a look at yourself
Everybody is an individual… Hilary got her ass kicked because of her basket of the deplorables comment. You can’t cubbyhole people and you can’t judge them by one or two sentences and think that you know everything about them
And by the way, I was a huge Bill Clinton supporter voted for him twice and would do it again, even though he behaved a little bit inside the White House And then lied about it but worse, he had two major fuck ups …and one that we are still dealing with today that has killed 1 million human beings and is still going on today.
It’s only about policies] and laws that they enact. Because those are the only things that affect Americans all over the country until they are overturned or end on their own schedule
By the way, Joe, I don’t think you could find Fox News with channel on your tv with a guide dog. And the minute Liberals like you start talking shit about Fox… I already know you have no clue what you’re talking about
Fox News channel has a cable channel has The top 14 TV show shows in primetime the highest viewership in primetime of every other cable network and you’re gonna love this one more viewers than MS now and CNN combined. And do you know why that is?
That’s because the public got sick of all the lies and distortions of most of the networks here Fox is even beating out ABC NBC and CBS in many primetime day parts.
The saddest thing is that the other day there were three stories that were told by Fox that came from other organizations which Fox quoted specifically and accurately And the three networks that you most adore, we’re trying to tell the same story and lied and distorted the story and Fox was the only one who got it right
Go look for the story about the IOC, not allowing transgender women to participate in women’s Olympic and you will find the three distortions or more and lies with the headlines by CNN I believe it was ABC in CBS, but I can’t recall
And lastly, Mr. Sharp, when you ignore hearing the whole story, you ignore reality And Heather doesn’t tell you the whole story here she tells you what she wants you to hear half through some of the truth or no truth at all by deflecting to an alternate story that doesn’t cover another Trump win
I would love to see you as a defendant in a courtroom one day
And these threads would be the prosecution and they would tell their story and then people like you and other others here would send it right to the jury without even hearing the defensive side of the story, which is what you do when you don’t watch Fox or Newsmax or any of the right wing leaning channel
And then you would be guilty And then perhaps you would wake up
You’re not that familiar with trolls you’re only familiar with somebody who you can call a troll because they disagree with you and they back it up with facts,
evidence, and proof and illustrations as well. People post 10 and 20 times a day here with the same gullibility as a cult of lemmings they’re never called trolls
As long as I’ve been here, here’s what I’ve determined. All I receive are insults and accusations. In fact, a dog sniffing other dog’s ass will extract more factual information than any human from the threads here. Not a fact in sight. Just a lot of irrational hate
Well, maybe so, but his type of trolling is usually unpaid. The paid trollers are in North Korea, Russia, China, Vietnam and Iran. But in any case, whether he's paid or not, he needs replies and the more replies he gets, the more he can respond to, and therefore "earn" more money. In my opinion (and I'm not a professional), Ricky is a lot like Trump, he does it for the attention. He wants people to notice him and to know who he is. In that, he has succeeded.
Julius what you just said there is Just another distortion to try to save face. First of all as I explained to Mr. Sharp, there are people that post 30 and 40 times a day here constantly and they’re never called a troll the only time you signify. Somebody is a troll when they say things that you don’t agree with… And they actually have the audacity that the temerity to actually support their post with links and fax versus people like you or apparently like Mr. Sharp just make accusations without backup.
I am not a Trump fan I am a Trump policy fan and I am a Trump policy fan big-time and maybe you haters will catch on one of these days that it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House it only matters what policies and laws they enact that affect every American
And Trump’s policies are working, brilliantly all over the world
If you would’ve taken Joe Biden’s name and put it behind some of Trump’s policies I would be cheering for Joe Biden
But if you CAN IMAGINE that it was the one that allowed in 11 to 20,000,000 illegals to enter the US and it wasn’t Joe Biden…. think to yourself how you would really feel especially if TRUMP LIED about it oooops.
Excellent point, Matthew 25: 34-46, the even-as-you-do-it-unto-the-least-of-these section. Frances Perkins, FDR's Sec. of Labor and the person most responsible for our having Social Security had this theory of government: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to facilitate the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life." Trump's white Christian nationalist supporters (21st century KKK, aka MAGA) can't grasp the reality of the situation owing to a blind spot, what the ancient Greeks called amathia, i.e., willful ignorance.
Well, let me introduce you to joe who doesn’t like facts. Here’s a flash for you people that are getting excited about the midterms. The midterms were a foregone conclusion from January 20, 2025. And you guys are supposed to be the ones that know and study history!! The intelligence of the left has been totally overrated. But the hate and deviousness of the left has been totally underrated
Why don't you ever cite your sources for the frankly fantastical statistics you constantly produce here? There has been some extensive research on social media platforms, for example, but it doesn't support what you are alleging. Try reading it.
Have you noticed that every time they mention right wing groups, they mention far right wing groups Go ask my hate to say it, but go ask search engine on both sides of the aisle. What percent of the answers that you received from Google come from left-wing sources such as Wikipedia, for example. Consensus is 73%. They said
In addition, I believe it was Microsoft that is the worst in allowing right wing, leaning sources to provide input and there at about 1% of the total input on the Microsoft search engine. About 90% of all the largest media companies that are available to be seen in America are all left wing organizations. They support Democrats they serve they vote Democrats, including their staff and employees, including EDUCATORS, PSYCHATRISTS, ACCIDENT ATTORNEYS systems, including our teachers, including ALMOST every single union. Those are the numbers go validate them yourself.
And you can feel free to insult me all you want no problem at all just back it up with some facts some evidence not from some far distant, Leslie website pull it out of your ass. At least it comes from you.
That’s all you’re almost impossible. You never answer a question when you come back, you never come back with a fact. All you do is deny, without
Supporting your nonsense. I have warned you and I have told you I’ll let New York Times. You’re too dense. You’re too hateful to understand what negotiating is and that words don’t matter only thing that matters are actions. Not only do you critique my fantastical statistics. Well, I’m gonna open your link and see what it says, but once again, make it relevant, russell trying to get in the game
Do you know the one thing not one not even one stupid, ignorant liberal, has even thought to mention this in all the post in here. I asked gentleman from Canada today what to England/Great Britain. , Germany, Italy, and Japan, have in common?
Rick, Trump isn't negotiating with Iran - he's setting out demands and backing them up with threats of further war crimes and even genocide. Iran doesn't trust the Trump administration because on two previous occasions they launched surprise attacks on Iran during negotiations, both of which were unlawful. US forces have even killed children. More than 3,000 people have been killed in US and Israeli bombings. That's far more than Iran and its proxies have killed in terrorist attacks.
By the way, you are also wrong about the JCPOA. Iran didn't start enriching uranium far beyond the levels needed for civilian use until long after Trump withdrew the US from that agreement. Get your facts right.
If want to be taken seriously here, cite your sources, don't just rant.
Russians have a folk saying -- "a fire in a whorehouse in the middle of an earthquake." Something like that. Kakistocracy on a saltine cracker indeed (with apologies to saltines).
You know, pal nothing is over till it’s over and you should learn that and you obviously haven’t. Because you liberals are only about process never about results.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable.
Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re fucking stupid
it hard for you to see Trump the racist, rapist fruadster, murderer criminal in true light. Biden had immigration under control by the end of his term , Biden left a strong ecomony, Israel is a terroist state, Biden was pulled into with Gaza but had the sense not to go to war with Iran. Biden built infrastructure, supported clean energy.Obama deal with Iran eliminated 97% of their enrichment. Get your facts straight, we are tired of people like you with their head up their ass , Tucker admitted it what say you?
I said people can insult me all they want just provide support for the results. Just support, evidence, fax proof you know those pesky little things that they require in a court room.
AND HERE IS WHAT I MEAN BY YOU NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION.
I asked you what would happen if a foreign power sunk your entire military fleet. Which, by the way, is a fucking joke you have 66 ships of which Many are out of service. Which is less than half of what he Iran HAD… and about 130 military aircraft, not including helicopters and other service vehicles. So if a foreign power came in and sunk your entire military fleet and disabled 130 planes. Would you call that aggressor a taco? Laughing my fucking ass off, and you wonder why Trump keeps pushing NATO to increase their percentage towards their own protection.
As far as I know, my government in the UK doesn't have any current plans to start illegal wars in the Middle East and frankly I'm rather glad of that. Your president by contrast has started a war he doesn't know how to end. Today, within a matter of hours, Iran has attacked three tankers in the Gulf and siezed two others, aping the American piracy. On Saturday you were arguing that the war had ended. So why are still spending $2bn a day on maintaining a blockade?
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has warned of an impending global food catastrophe if the war continues, especially with the likelihood of a strong El Nino event later this year.
I can't imagine anybody who'd waste time looking shit like this up, but so be it. It comes from the Dictionary of Russian Obscenities published way back in the early 1970s at Harvard, I think (also subtitled 'Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Russian But Were Afraid to Ask'). I read it myself 50 years ago on mimeographed paper. I couldn't care less what a trained robot says to you, or to me.
Hear, hear. I’ve been using the slant eye on those using AI for the most surface of inquiries. The amount of misinformation contained in its answers has shown it to be not very reliable. Two cases in point off the top of my head: AI says an immunosuppressive condition I have can be controlled by diet, ( it can’t) and it told me using an herbicide I was considering was quite safe for use around tomatoes. It isn’t. And the links don’t work.
And now you know why there’s so much concern about the huge and vast amount of electricity used for AI. Because people are saying please and thank you and asking inane questions. They could look up on their own through a normal search engine. Sorry Albert, we don’t mean to pile on but think about it, if you don’t use AI you aren’t scooping up resources
Thank you Charlie for not being disrespectful of clowns. As another 'Charlie' famously said, "I remain one thing & one thing only and that is a clown".
The "Little Tramp" was a genius of costume with his huge oversize shoes, Bowler hat & cane. Chaplin did not have any orange hair.
But, my favorite clown in the town that grew up in, Woodland Hills California, was Buster Keaton with his pliable face that seemingly could take any shape & his magician's slight of hand & body.
What's cool about JAMS rules & regs is that are accessible on-line. One of JAMS ruses is that to get to know how man times your adversary has participated JAMS' mediations - the entire history including any binding Arbitrations.
Spoiler Alert: I have had 18 successful mediations at JAMS since 1990.
Two (2) Defendants appeared but, advised they actually wanted to settle.
(1) 1 party paid my client the full limits of their "E&O" policy in the first 5 minutes.
(2) I had to start my direct examination of the other defendant. I pummeled the Defendant for 1/2 hour at which time the Mediator told opposing counsel we should "go down the hall" to settle. That Defendant also paid my client full insuranceliability limits.
That settlement was reported in Jury Verdicts Weekly because I used the former President of the CA Home Inspector's Organization to crucify my opponent's woeful inspector.
Welcome aboard the American Ship of State, now being steered by a man who treats foreign policy like improvised fan fiction and domestic policy like a grievance livestream. One minute he is promising peace with Iran, the next he is staging Strongman Bible Theater, as if holding up Scripture can mask the smell of overheating wires behind the walls.
Meanwhile, the hunt for election fraud barrels onward with the conviction of a man accusing the family dog of hacking the thermostat. Records are demanded, conspiracies inflated, and facts treated like dangerous contraband. Poll numbers slide, prices climb, and the message from above remains the same: do not trust your eyes, your bank account, or the groaning sound coming from the national foundation.
On Capitol Hill, the razor-thin majority is functioning less like a governing coalition and more like a folding card table with one leg missing. Even some loyalists are beginning to wobble. A few have started to realize that outrage is not a power source, and performance does not keep the lights on.
But performance is the whole apparatus. The prop Bible, the manufactured enemies, the synthetic heroics, the endless declarations of greatness, while the structure visibly sags. It is all designed to keep the crowd distracted long enough not to ask why the walls are cracking.
This is not leadership. It is a collapsing set pretending the applause means the building is still standing.
"Welcome aboard the American Ship of State, now being steered by a man who treats foreign policy like improvised fan fiction and domestic policy like a grievance livestream."
May I use the most foul words in the English language as well as a bunch in Italian to describe a most repugnant piece of stinking crapola to ever ooze out of a vagina only to stink humanity with such odious behavior? May I?
Yes they are. These people are not deserving of respect. We have a Kakistocratic-oligarchic-plutocracy! These are all Greek curse words as far as their application to a society goes. And, to make it worse, Wajeed Ali said there is chatter on the Saudi internet that the Republican Guard may have staged a coup against the new leadership and are holding the new Ayatollah and his cabinet in captivity while they run the country and the war. They profit off of war through their investments, and will not be inclined to come to the table to discuss peace. Let us hope that a resounding trouncing of the Republicans in Congress in the midterms can open up the doors to peace talks if this happens. It is not clear that this is the case, because Iran is a closed door to information.
The nuke discussion has to be had and it is concerning. If Trump becomes sick enough that he needs to be hospitalized for an extended period of time, will JD Vance take over? Will Vance's sick boss Peter Thiel decide to use nukes in the world to control countries? Look out Europe. Look out former allies.
I recommend deplatforming US tech as much as you can, and learning to use alternatives that will not be selling your data to this government and others.
Reported 4 times(so far) as a violator of the current Terms of Use (TOU) under law chosen by Substack Inc not me nor any community member. Noteworthy that Substack Inc agrees the TOU also binds the Platform as a matter of contract law.
It's not enough to report or block him, every reader must simply ignore his posts and most of all DO NOT REPLY. He's gotten some replies today, which he usually doesn't. Every reply to him triggers a reply from him and trashes this substack. Please, readers, STOP REPLYING.
As a libertarian, I feel he has the right to troll all he wants to. We don't have to acknowledge his existence. As I said to Joe Sharp, :
" Rick's been trolling HCR's column for quite a while now. Remember, a troll is one who posts a deliberately inflammatory comment in the hope of getting an emotional response, which he can then respond to. The idea is to get as many replies as possible. That's how their standings in trolldom is configured. It's best to just let him and those like him, stew in their own juices."
I may be 1 of the few "Readers" that has actually taken Substack Inc to JAMS mediation on any TOU or federal law issue.
I have long advocated a restatement of digital law to halt damage to users in its many forms.
Some states such as California have statutory law that has been effective since 1/1/2020, the "CCPA", the California Consumer Privacy Act. A CA agency enforces the law NOT the consumer.
Substack Inc used to be my SF neighbor less than 2 blocks from my Montgomery Street law firm. CA has a STATE right of Privacy in its CA constitution with new case law developing in the courts in the real world that Heather posts about.
Specific legal actions can be Has been taken taken today.
Brianne, you’ve been talking this shit for as long as I’ve been here
The problem is you’re like all the other left-wingers that Tout free speech and can’t stand it. All you do is kind of shut off free speech and try not to let anybody hear, but you don’t want him to hear
And frankly, the worst thing for a liberal is Not to be in control. And you are an exemplary sample of that What liberals are not a control they go absolutely bat shit
You know for an attorney you should probably read the constitution may be an even the first amendment. Ever since I said the first word you didn’t agree with you’ve been reporting me without cause. What are you so afraid of?
Yeah Charlie.., and when we finally happen to entertain one of those "clowns" at a Hearing where Elizabeth Warren offers them the 'aside question' : Did Der Leader lose the 2020 election, and they respond in the affirmative...., we'll put a new meaning to the word loco-motive.
''If They Had to Sideline the President, He Shouldn’t Be There''
One rumor remains unverified. Another report is harder to dismiss. But together they expose the deeper scandal: a presidency so unstable that exclusion itself begins to sound plausible. This commentary examines what it means when the commander in chief starts to look like the most dangerous person in the room. https://essayx.substack.com/p/if-they-had-to-sideline-the-president
The wheel might be coming off the MAGA bus, but Donald Trump and his incompetent team are still in charge and doing real damage in environmentally, economically, militarily, judicially,
In some ways, yes, Heather's got it exactly: "the wheels are coming off."
Clear records, however, also show Donald’s trail of murder, criminality, and recklessness continuing at home and abroad:
1) his 1,000s of ICE thugs still paid to terrorize across the land;
2) his Long Dong Clarence court still ensuring monarch him immune to law;
3) his madness raising prices for working class Americans in groceries, gas, diesel, housing, health care and day care;
4) his gulag of concentration camps yet proceeding across the U.S.;
5) his ALEC and Heritage Foundation yet gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, and suppressing votes from black, brown, and native American communities; and
6) his yet covering up for the elites who raped the underage girls, their money laundering for Putin, arms dealing for Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, and other Persian Gulf despots, and opioids killing millions of our fellow Americans.
The wheels are coming off the orange clown car. Virginia just secured the midterms and protected our sacred democracy. Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together every weekend at protests: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
This is how stupid and ignorant you get Trump would need to have a Gulag or a concentration camp if Biden didn't let millions of illegals across the border, including hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals. That's who's in the Gulag and they shouldn't even be in the Gulag. They should be right back where they came from. OK now you're over three that's a strike up, but I'm gonna go for a grand slam dunk here.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
The only one that thinks that the bus that the wheels are coming off, is Heather, the wacko and the less than 2% of Democrats here. The administration couldn’t be stronger and continuous to gain power every single day and that’s why you get angry or every single day and more desperate every single day
Do you want to talk about the Supreme Court that the Democrats have been in control of? We're almost 100 years more or less and now that you're not in control we're going apeshit you poor deer will get used to it because America had to live with the liberal side of the Supreme Court for too long now now you know what we've had to deal with. And they're doing a great job too because when you're not in control, you go apeshit that's exactly what you should be doing right now. Going apeshit for the righteousness of the best Supreme Court in 100 years.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid
And he's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing purging the purging the voter role so that only citizens are on it Jerry Mandarin to try to catch up with 40 years of the northeast having zero representation by Republicans. And I see by your end of the last post that you were a pure racist. Shame on you, Bill. Everybody's equal pal, equal equal equal equal not special but equal got that. ?
Now anytime you'd like to throw a factor to a board here feel free, but you can't and you won't because you don't have any. With you hear my next post.
The only person to cover it up for Jeffrey Epstein was Joseph Biden who had the Epstein files on his desk for four years. It did nothing with them not a damn thing. So you keep dreaming so far all they have is Clinton Gates, and Summers who from what I understand are all Democrats oops.
OK, let's pick your bullshit apart one at a time thousands of ice age and doing exactly what they did during the Obama administration but nobody complained back then because Obama the God was president. There was no pushback by radical sanctuary cities, protect protecting radicals and criminals. Not only Obama pull people from their homes and their businesses, but he also was kind enough to build the cages the children. Mind you you'll see the nice pictures of that so there's number one and I think I'll continue.
You're on a really good hallucinatory drug. There's no doubt in my mind because you have no proof of backup of anything you just printed. Unless you'd like to post it here which you won't because there isn't any. It's all in your hateful head and you embarrass yourself every time you come out with it without any proof evidence or those pesky little things they call facts.
You know, I don’t think Heather could be any more deceptive if she tried. And I don’t think Heather could negotiate herself out of a paper bag or a gossamer web.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
“The Iranians didn’t appreciate [Trump] negotiating through social media and making it appear as if they had signed off on issues they hadn’t yet agreed to..."
Yet something else Iran's negotiating team has in common with about 100 million of us....
Axios has a long summary of the current state of "regime change" in Iran. The Revolutionary Guard is in charge and is limiting access to Khamenei. The civil authorities have been sidelined.
So as with all things, Trump has made the situation far worse for the Iranian people and for the possibility of an early resolution to the war with a regime change that now has the fanatics in charge.
The IRGC was created after 1979 to preserve the Islamic Republic and the "ideals of the revolution." Iran’s constitution gives it an “ideological mission of jihad in God’s way,” defined as extending the sovereignty of God’s law globally. It is not a normal military group. It is rigidly loyal to the clerical system of velayat‑e faqih (rule of the jurist), to the Supreme Leader who is treated as having religious authority comparable to the Prophet,and to the Shia Imams in official indoctrination texts.
Does anyone think that members of the American military in the Middle East are safer today? Does anyone think the risk of a jihadist attack here in the US is less today?
Hello Georgia.. I would Worry about Iranian Cyber-Attacks using their Tools, as well as Russian, North Korean. and Chinese Tools, especially since CISA, and the FBI have been gutted... Seems that DJT's grasp of what most people call Reality is slipping further... Did you hear DJT on CNBC this Morning?... Seems that the Iranian IRGC is impervious to DJT's Reality (Not!) Show Slobbering Bullying Tactics...
I agree 100%. Cyberattacks on financial systems can be enormously destabilizing, especially if timed to coincide with markets that are disconnected from economic realities.
Trump has painted a target on our backs, and we have lots of vulnerabilities. I am worried by North Korea’s missile tests and what China is going to try, as Trump has moved US forces out of the Pacific to Iran. I think France, the UK, Japan, and Australia have to reposition in the Pacific to provide deterrence. But that will be a lot harder with Trump having destroyed our allies’ trust in us.
Georgia, I like your comments always. However, because of the troll who fills HCRs comment page with nonsense, replying to himself in between insulting anyone so foolish as to reply to him, I’ve been hoping Substack would start adding limits: no more than, say, 5 comments to one Substack essay, no more than, say, 1000 words per total comments. It could be done with software. After all, people can have their own Substack. Commenting is fine, sharing knowledge and insights is wonderful, and yes readers can block whoever we want,But.
HCR has that one troll and a few legitimate snd thoughtful people who, nevertheless, may take up too much space in the comments. Some limits would help. Anyone approaching the limits would be free to direct readers to their own substack.
Thanks for the feedback. I think there is a solution.
I believe that anyone who takes the time to reply to me deserves a response because I learn a lot from those people. They help me refine my thinking, especially when people challenge what I am saying. It comes from a career in science. Explanations get refined from open conversations.
You can easily condense those conversations by clicking on the vertical line from the profile picture on any reply in a thread. I do it frequently when a thread morphs into a different topic. It gets rid of the clutter.
Thanks, Georgia. I agree 100% about the benefits of replying to reply-ers. Condensing is OK, but I tend to skim and scroll down. I do, however, hope that there's a way for Substack to keep trolls from writing 29 lengthy comments. (One time I counted that many, and saw that he used 2 similar names - that is, aliases - each with its own substack.) I haven't noticed your comments exceeding 5 but I haven't counted. Maybe your average on HCR is higher? The max could be raised some and would still be less than the troll's.
As to 1000 words (~ 4 typed pages in old-fashioned double-spaced Courier 12 with 1" margins): that seems like enough for one person's total comments. I doubt you exceed that very often, either. Your post above, per Word, is 187 words. You may get to 1000 total from time to time, and if so, the max could be raised. But I am still proposing that trolls - as well as a few very smart people with real ideas, insights and knowledge - can limit the volume of comments on other people's substacks and direct their readers to their own pages for extended interactions.
RJM, there is a simple way to deal with trolls, while preserving the valuable information that is shared in the comments, whether or not it exceeds your arbitrary limits.
Click on the troll's avatar, which takes you to the troll's Substack home page. Near the top of the page are buttons to "Subscribe," "Message" and an ellipsis (...). Click on the ellipsis and choose "Block" from the drop-down. The troll will magically disappear from the conversations you read, while allowing the rest of us to benefit from the important – if sometimes lengthy – information Georgia and others share.
This whole presidency and war has been administered via social media. What an incompetent bunch of fools they are-albeit very destructive with their big boy manly toys of destruction. Someone needs to take them away and put the little brats in a locked corner.
Not one of my family members in rural North Carolina will know Trump is considering using money from the U.S. Treasury to shore up the finances of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which have been hurt by the Iran war. In particular they will not know Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who controls the sovereign wealth of the United Arab Emirates, has directed hundreds of millions to Trump personally, buying 49% of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial and investing $2 billion of WLF’s USD1 stablecoin. But.. my family members in NC will hear and believe Trumps comments about how the Dems are to blame for the war in Iran.
Apache, did you know that there was a vigilante killer in Mexico who killed rapists and called herself "Diana, Hunter of Bus Drivers"? There was a spate of bus drivers committing serial rapes and she decided to do something about it.
My Huntress definitely has Diana/Artemis qualities. All killing in my books is down to her. But she's not wrong....
Craig: The horrible thing about that is that the Dictator On Day One (acronym DODO)’s motto is Try and Stop Me. He’d pardon any loyalist sent to the slammer by a state prosecution. ICE could descend on the jail and liberate the crony-convict to make the pardon stick. Or something. And he could abolish the Supreme Court if it balked. (And how big is that “if”?) Why would he respect the Constitution on this one thing?
Bannon is just as lethal -if not more- than trump. Trump is the puppet for others. Thats why even though he’s batshit crazy, he remains in office. He’s a front. The corruption at the heart of the Epstein Files begins to reveal the trans-national interweaving of criminal underworld with colluding national and corporate “leaders”. The network is vast and obscured. That is by design. Bannon is a manipulator for this network. He needs to be disempowered.
So I started thinking about this and how we spend our time. We spend 95% of our time Trump bashing and 5% promoting the policies of the Dems. We are caught in the Trump trap.
I think we need to make a compelling case that we have excellent leadership and policies. Biden did great things and the Dems just dumped him. I do not need a pole to tell me what to think and campaign on. 1. Democracy and the Dems repeated attempts in maintaining democracy. 2. Prosecution for those that lie on TV and social media, the FCC does not regulate cable. Dominion voting machine was a good case. Like to see more of that. 3. Publish honest info about the demise a public schools and how private schools are just making money for the rich. If you own a charitable foundation that owns a private school when you sell that school, you don’t pay any capital gains taxes and why you want it you don’t pay any property taxes. In North Carolina we have given over $1 billion in vouchers to private schools. I don’t hear anybody campaigning on public schools in the honesty about how the Republicans are trying to destroy them.
Bringing it up might sow doubt and gradual skepticism that allows curiosity to gradually build and open to different information? (emphasis on gradual)
First off it’s a Democratic parties’s responsibility to reach them not mine. The point I’m trying to make is the Democratic Party is not reaching Rural America.
Sandra, I think we are in the midst of losing our democracy due to the attitude you just mentioned Sandra. I believe it is all our responsibility to protect and fight for keeping our democracy and rights.
Yes, we vote these people into office; we also have to check them to make sure they are holding our best interests at heart. Kinda like we check our bank balances from time to time to make sure we haven't been robbed.
The DNC is not reaching people in my neighbourhood so I try to pick up the slack.
Sylvia, what happens in my world is they question my sources and quote theirs, which ooze of MAGA propaganda. The garbage they believe only reenforces my belief that they are stark, raving idiots.
Sandra, you don't have to be in a rural area to be ignorant of Trump's atrocities! My family lives in Chicago and neighboring suburbs, and some of them just aren't interested in politics, as opposed to the many of us who read A LOT. After discovering one of my remaining living siblings didn't vote in 2024, and the other voted for Trump (over the price of eggs, no joke) I discovered it was due to ignorance.
I discovered HCR from a friend, and so I started forwarding her to other folks. One sister lacks a computer or internet access, so I actually print it out daily, and give her a weeks worth at a time.
Others here are familiar with this resource, and perhaps you might consider forwarding it to your family as well?
Belle of the Ranch puts three short videos a day on YouTube. They are generally about 4 minutes long each. She is a nurse and veteran, and she and her team know their stuff. Apparently plenty of MAGA watch her as well, as she will report on comments and questions she gets, and she'll even read some real insulting ones she received, and answer them.
There are so many good pundits out there, but I admit that I can't listen to hours of podcasts a day! She breaks issues down into small chunks easy to follow.
If you enjoy her daily ones, twice a week she does longer formats of about 10-15 minutes, on YouTube also. It is "The Roads with Belle"
This is the sad state of "reality" in America today. I'm hoping Trump's sarcophagus will soon be rolled out, he'll be cemented inside and the World never has to hear from him again. The sarcophagus will rest in Mar a Lago like Elvis in Graceland (no insult to lovers of rock n roll intended)
It turns out, after all, that regime change is critically necessary to enable even the most basic resolution of the current conflict. It's just that . . . the regime change is needed more desperately in Washington than it is in Tehran!
Indeed. The only bus that's losing its wheels is the US-bus. The ChristoNazis are continuing to triumph. In fact, they just destroyed our most powerful civil rights organization: https://apnews.com/article/southern-poverty-law-center-criminal-investigation-db7fdcf9baa0d1b24b8f1e1f2cebc0be?user_email=e72e7137fe6cf09f434b4234223ed439a7bda75191bf5fbb046317f8fa97fb36 And they don't give a tinker's damn about the polls. Why? Because no matter what atrocities the ChristoNazis inflict on us, no matter how despicably they poll, there's nobody anywhere in this failed and defeated nation -- say again (nobody) -- with the courage and law-enforcement powewr to stop them before the US-bus is not merely de-wheeled but totally reduced to scrap and most of its occupants enslaved, imprisoned or executed.
Loren, I have been donating to them since Trump was elected the first time. I simply do not believe what is being alleged is true. All kinds of ways to spin things.
Carol, I assume the charges are Trumped up, pun intended. But that doesn't matter. The principals will be convicted, the Robbers Court will uphold the convictions and the Southern Poverty Law Center will go the way of Reconstruction. End of story.
No prophet, Brian; I merely refuse to deny the magnitude of our defeat, including the all-important extent to which the ChristoNazis control the judiciary -- and therefore (using the techniques pioneered by Hitler and his Original Nazis), have conquered our (failed) nation. https://link.apnews.com/view/696ab5d77319816240122965qzlhd.9u9a/76b7e256
SPLC is not destroyed! These corrupt people are attacking it. This is probably the best fund raising event that SPLC has ever had. I am sending another donation as I am sure many others will. This is one good way to resist the fascists and that is available to every citizen who wants to save our democracy.
Loren, this is nothing other than a malicious use of the legal system. I hope that cooler heads will prevail. Do I trust that will happen? Not enough to bet money on it.
Hey, Ally, enjoying an occasional pass through HCR's discussion 'pool.' A week ago I retired from public service for the third time since 1996, but not before sending off to 60 DC Dem 'leaders' a 9000+ word planning analysis modeling for them what THEY should have been doing since November 5, 2024, Evidence collected in those seventeen months made it clear to me, in their pronouncements or their fund-raising ads, they do not know what their goals for America or what the stakes are in support of the Republic. They're just too deep in their own weeds. Two-thirds of the document keys to the regime's misdeeds, as they impact specified provisions of the original Constitution. I address them in the context of the stakes in the coming midterm elections, the tasks needing to be undertaken thereafter to perform the oversight responsibilities leading up to the 2028 Presidential election. The new President and the new Congress will be seated in 2029 and a dozen years following thereafter (roughly parallel to the dozen it took 250 years ago to get from the Declaration to the Constitution) will likely be required to address the challenges Trump has revealed to what the founders gave us circa 1788. The essay isn't as polished as I would have liked; nearing the end my word processing ap went rogue on me reformatting unbidden the entire 19-page production. I felt obliged to send it 'as it was' rather than wait any longer.
After reading Paul Krugman’s Substack about the Hungarian attempt to shed Orbán, I wonder if we can manage the same. “Strike Day” on May first will tell US a lot about what we are brave enough to do. If millions do no shopping, no one shows up at school, and even thousands do not go to work, coupled with VA’s vote today, it will certainly send a message. Resistance, in any form on 5/1 will be heard in DC. Indivisible promised US this, and today’s disapproval percentages suggest that perhaps we may not sink further into the oligarchic morass.
Not to rain on any parades, but last night's Virginia vote was already that message Republican Congresscritters were hoping they would never hear. That particular bell came through loud and clear because it came in the form of votes. What they think about boycotts -- if they even notice -- is harder to pinpoint.
I think "it depends", and what we message to each other, but there are a lot of unused votes out there that need using. We're in "all hands on deck" need of participation.
ITCTT, I wager they do notice, however, they try to erase blow off asap. I believe actions are priorities for each of us vs the nazigang. I’ll certainly be encouraging people here to boycott plus May 1st. I NEVER EVER GIVE UP because that’s what the nazigang want more than anything. They sow fear and as far as I see, have been quite effective at it. FEAR= false evidence appearing real. The brave person is not he or she who does not feel afraid, but he or she who conquers that fear.
We are at the point where resistance has to be continuous to shut down the economy and have an impact. A one day strike will be completely ignored as trump continues to spew his deranged mind here and globally. It is sickening. Also, "friends" and/or family who voted for and support this madman and his "Liquor Cabinet" should be shunned. No rationalizing, just walk away. They don't have basic human decency and are just as evil as the monsters occupying the former 3 branches of our government!
This will likely be the first—practice for ones to come. Like the rallies, they should increase in frequency and numbers. They don’t preclude daily work. They just get US together.
There are lessons that will be learned from Magyar’s electoral overthrow of Victor Orban by both Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats are looking for a model for how to win at the midterms. The Republicans are looking for how to minimize their losses
Democrats can’t allow themselves to be caught up in euphoria. Magyar is not a progressive, and he stayed clear of social issues, with tight messaging focused on Orban’s corruption and its economic impact on the average Hungarian. He was not engaging the left. Democrats cannot do that. The oligarchs will not easily let go of control—they are far more powerful here, with vastly more money to spend on influencing the outcome.
If Democrats want to start looking for a model presidential candidate for 2028, they might want to look to Canada and Carney to see what a competent technocrat can accomplish.
Republicans are going to put the Orban loss under a microscope to understand what went wrong and how they can avoid it happening here. Orban was not prepared for a blowout. He bowed out to allow the “he was not really an autocrat” fiction to gain traction, so he could keep open the slim possibility of a return to power. He can look to Trump for a model of how to engineer a return from a stint in the wilderness.
While Rs may lose both the House and the Senate in the midterms, it is unlikely that Democrats will win veto-proof majorities in both houses, allowing Rs to stall legislative reform. What Rs won't be able to do is cause new legislative damage. Their window of opportunity is closing rapidly.
The Rs best strategy will be trying to force through voter-suppression bills ahead of the midterms in state legislatures and in Congress. The pressure to push through the SAVE America Act will return, along with some temporary workaround of the filibuster in the Senate. If they want to have a chance in 2028, they need to blunt the 2026 blue wave. They can’t afford to let the filibuster go entirely because they will soon be in the minority. A “Madman Trump” who vetoes everything strategy may work as long as Trump is in office, but they have to hedge against the risk that Trump will leave office early because his mental deterioration will make him intolerably erratic to his oligarch puppetmasters.
My biggest fear regarding the Senate is that Alito and/or Thomas are replaced with other christo-nazis that will continue to ignore long time precedents like Roe and birth right citizenship and continue to give Trump whatever he asks for in the shadow docket.
Agreed. Cruz and Lee are being bruited as the replacements of choice for Thomas and Alito. But they can’t be filibustered thanks to rules changes 10 years ago. So it only takes 50 with JD as the deciding vote. I don’t think there is any way to stop that now that there are articles in the press about Republicans losing the Senate at the midterms. It would be Republican political malpractice if they didn’t do it.
But will their egos allow it? Will vulnerable Senators support such blatant manipulation? If they retire, I would expect the action to happen only after the loss of the Senate, if that’s our future.
The ones retiring are McConnell, Daines, Lummis, Ernst, and Tillis. All have supported hard-right SCOTUS nominees in the past. There is an informal "collegiality" rule in the Senate that you don't block the nomination of a fellow Senator.
There are currently 53 R Senators, so it would take 4 R votes against a Trump choice to tank a nomination since JD would vote for the nominee to break the tie. If DINO Fetterman voted for the nominee, it would take 5 Rs to vote against.
Tuberville is a sixth Senator not running for re-election, but he is running for Governor of Alabama with 63% support, so he would toe the party line.
John Cornyn is running for re-election but is in a primary run-off with Ken Paxton on May 26. If he loses in the primary, he might flip.
So the odds don't look good for hanging up a R SCOTUS nominee.
Polymarket says there is a 40% chance that Alito will retire by the end of 2026 for what it is worth.
Trump always could make it harder and nominate Aileen Cannon...
"After reading Paul Krugman’s Substack about the Hungarian attempt to shed Orbán ... I wonder if we can manage the same."
The Hungarian success in defeating Orbán. Getting out the vote of broad coalition united to shed their government of Orbanism. We can manage this when those in the AntiDemocratic Leftish Wing stop helping elect antidemocratic Republicans.
Joe Sharp, can you enlarge on how we got rid of Hoover? Thinking about Coxey’s Army, which was the opposite of MAGA as far as I know. My limited understanding is that there was no equivalent to an army of pardoned insurrectionists nor gulags-in-waiting in 1932.
A big shout-out to Virginia's voters tonight. The New York Times confidently called the race for "yes" a done deal even as "no" votes were in the lead for more than two hours. Its benchmark (how each county would vote in a close race given past results and pre-election polling) showed "yes" ahead by 6 percentage points) -- a sign of the revulsion voters feel toward Trump and Abbott playing cutesy with redistricting elsewhere. Yet another Blue Wave marker.
Some people out there are actually doing their homework.
Looks like Richmond and surrounding counties helped push this over the finish line. I worked the polls in Richmond during early voting and yesterday and turnout was heavy in both. There’s still those court cases sitting before the state Supreme Court, but would the judiciary actually overturn the will of the voters? We’ll see…..
Happy Earth Day to all! A posthumous message from the late Jane Goodall during an interview with philanthropist Dax Dasilva in Tanzania last July, after being asked how to stay hopeful and engaged despite so many simultaneous ecological, political, economic, military, social and moral challenges. Her answer?
Thanks! I wanted to acknowledge Earth Day as well and HCR did do a great video with her cartoonist friend. Lots of hard things have happened. Lots of hard work as well. We still are here. I think of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and his preface. Also Melville’s passage in Moby Dick about the Catskill Eagle.We all can do something today .
And just in time for Earth Day, oil magnate Charles Koch's bagman Leonard Leo funneling millions to the denial of climate science and deregulation of polluting industries.
"GOP Lawmakers Passing Bills to Shield Oil Companies From Climate Lawsuits —
ProPublica examined lobbying records across 25 states, federal tax disclosures for more than a dozen organizations and notes from other closed-door strategy sessions among ALEC members and found that several Leo-supported groups are part of a national strategy to give legal immunity to companies for their climate emissions.
Since 2021, Leo has been deploying a $1.6 billion gift through a series of nonprofits and other organizations that obscure the source and the recipients of donations — so-called dark money groups. Much of that money has been routed through a nonprofit judicial advocacy group Leo founded — now called The 85 Fund — which both receives and disseminates Leo’s funding. Many of these nonprofits are increasingly focused on issues related to climate change."
lin+ I have been thinking about the Iran issue, and thought to myself IF Trump had a brain cell in that noggin, he's tell the middle east to pound sand and he'd push green energy here.
But, he has no brain cells left, and he's trying to get as much $$ in his pockets as possible. Why?--he sure doesn't look like he has much time left on this earth? All the money in the world isn't going to save him.
Maybe if Speaker Johnson has a few more no good very bad days (apologies to Judith Viorst), he'll step down from the Speakership and then step down from Congress. And if not, in the aftermath of the midterms, we'll have a new speaker anyway. And maybe even enough new Senators that we can start proceedings on another impeachment. As the saying goes, third time is a charm...
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -- Lincoln
Keep up the pressure - Tell Congress we see Trump’s erratic behavior. Be LOUD! We deserve better 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
I haven't done a "scientific" survey, but off the top of my head, I've been noticing FOTUS sycophant Rep. Tom Barrett (Republican from Michigan's 7th District) has been pumping out e-newsletters WAY more frequently than he did a few months ago. Half of the content is misleading, and he ignores the big issues of the day, but I at least like to think he's starting to feel nervous about the midterms. 🤞🏼
My MAGA Rep has done the same, completely ignoring Epstein and Iran, touting the benefits of the Big Ugly Bill. Oh well, his district was just thoroughly gerrymandered. Buh bye Rob, if the courts hold.
If you can get a certain individual to comment and other Readers to engage him, you're at the top. Boy, has he stunk up the Letter today as I read in chronological order this morning.
I just reread the Declaration of Independence. I usually read it whenever I give a talk to high school or university students. Normally I don’t iterate on the list of 18 grievances against the King of Britain in the Declaration. But this time I did.
If you haven’t read the Declaration lately, you should and once you read past that all men are created equal, read those 18 grievances and you will find they are the same concerns against tyranny that our current king whattabe is committing. NO KINGS
The old proverb that says"a bully is always a coward" comes to mind when Stephen Bannon is in the spotlight. To be fair the bully quote could easily be modified to say 'always insecure.' Regardless, the omniscient Mr. Bannon describes Dems as demons when there is no one more demonic than he, with his illiberal theories, dark anarchist predictions and grifting. But as the tables slowly turn, it is easy to sense Bannon's fear that the chickens have come home to roost.
I hope Trump gets tired of winning soon because all we hear is whining. He’s trying to change the mindset of a civilization that has been around for thousands of years when he needs to bend the knee. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
I'd use the simile of a flaming clown car if it weren't disrepectful of clowns, who are legitimate artists. This is a kakistocracy.
The wheels are coming off the orange clown car. Virginia just secured the midterms and protected our sacred democracy. Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together every weekend at protests: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
I wish I could share in the notion that “the wheels are coming off.” In my mind, I see the wounded animal getting boxed in a corner & becoming even more dangerous and aggressive. Stand by for more lies & accusations against any Dem or a candidate or representative that remembered what it was to be a republicans & not a maga.
TJ, I, too am concerned with the "wounded" demented animal. It is clear Trump has no idea what is going on and just pumps out words he remembers, often using the same word for a few days, then dropping it until it comes to him again: obliterate, traitorous for example. I am also concerned that 35% of Americans according to polls still just love their Baby Donnie and think he is doing "a good job," when he clearly is not. I think Trump's handlers: Miller, Musk, Vought, Vance, etc. will work on Trump even more to get their Naziesque actions and words into the politisphere so Trump's pathetic supporters will continue to think Trump has a clue and he is worthy of anyone's loyalty or support of any kind. I wonder how many deaths it will take before Repubs know that "too many people have died. The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind" (Bob Dylan
Trump loves superlatives. I agree 35% is an excruciatingly slow drop. The people around Trump are propping him up when they could be instrumental in bringing him down. But they have no incentive to do so since Trump is working for them. So it's not just Trump, if it ever was. Trump collects opportunists... various kinds. And he consolidates it all--it's like a machine. Until it breaks down- or we break it it keeps on, one thing after another. They know where to hit.
Potter, just as I read Donald's quotes in HCR's Letter, I noted the repeated use of "very." With Donald, nothing is ever just what it is. It's always "very" whatever he describes. This is a juvenile attempt at verbal one-upmanship. We expect this of a Third-grader, not of a head of state.
As dementia claims more of Donald's mind, it will delete even more words from his vocabulary.
In my search for a reliable source to cite, I found that most of the articles describing Donald's vocabulary loss were datelined 2024!! Before U.S. voters elected him! I do not consider HuffPost to be reliably neutral, but this is the most recent article on the subject.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ty-cobb-donald-trump-conduct_n_69e1fad6e4b0555d213acbfb
Dale- thanks. Trump uses some words and phrases repeatedly- superlatives, hyperbolic language-cut to repeats due his aging brain and his emotional needs, in a manner that shows he is convinced that he can convince people... "like we have never seen before" "fake news". His delivery is something to analyze as well...the tone, a calm "sing song" with a body sway, showing his conviction/authority. Usually there are nodding heads in his back-up group.. a performance. I recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_Donald_Trump#:~:text=Trump's%20scenic%20construction%20(introduction%20of,advancing%20age%20and%20cognitive%20decline.
Scroll down to the more current rhetoric.
The list of references and sources are "like I have never seen" in such an article.
Also I like what I have heard from George Lakoff, retired professor of linguistics.. I have not read his "Understanding Trump" which was 10 years ago and I don't know how it stands up but will check it. This is a very interesting subject.
Potter, you are right that it isn't just Trump. We know that because Trump can actually organize nothing, not even his thoughts. He has been worked by others for decades because his brain does not function well beyond using his money to get whatever he wants no matter who is harmed. He is still doing that and a lot of folks are helping out their Baby Donnie, a child-man who never had to grow up in more than body. We need to figure out who are most in charge, then start targeting them whenever possible to let us all know who they are and how we can stop them.
Superlatively Trump is the Most dependable liar to pass the bar, er buck. I would hate to precede him in a conversation.
We need to stop hoping to get the 35% to see the light. We just need to win.
Trump is following the Roy Cohn playbook. Never acknowledge a mistake, always attack. Cohn, Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s closeted homosexual hatchet man, died of AIDS while battling the IRS over unpaid taxes. He vowed he’d never pay what he owed, and he didn’t. Daddy Trump made Cohn Donald’s mentor in order to “tougher him up.” Didn’t really work. Just turned Cadet Bonespurs a whiny little bitch.
Yes we are living in the "Eve of Destruction."
This is what I just can't comprehend. Thirty five percent think all is just fine! Who ARE they? What is wrong with the perception of such a large percentage of our population? Sorry, I fail to find that number anything to celebrate.
Sharon, you are right; this is disturbing. I find nothing in the 35% approval to celebrate except that some of us are truly standing against this childish monster and his toddler pool!.
This is entirely correct, and the most significant threat we face heading into the midterms. Trump and his cohort of sycophants are terrified of a House with a significant Democratic majority. They’ve heard the promises of investigations (some already underway). They’ve heard the anger in the land. They know the Furies are coming for them, and they will do everything they can to avoid those snake-haired ladies. Trump himself is increasingly unhinged and there are few if any limits to which he will not go to save his hide.
The essential question now is when or whether the Republicans in congress will come to understand that their fear of his retribution would be entirely unfounded if they stand together and simply honor the congressional oaths they took. Democrats and a rapidly increasing number of Americans stand fully ready to assist.
I still fear voter suppression, tampering with voting machines and those in the electoral college engaging in some kind of back room cheating.
Those are all entirely justifiable fears, but by no means not all of them. Trump has already proven entirely willing to incite domestic violence in order to further his agenda, including using that violence as an excuse to put the American military into American cities. As we approach the midterms, the possibility of his using the violence his own actions have incited to control elections only increases. He is also clearly willing to use his captive DOJ and FBI to attempt to influence those elections through intimidation of several times.
Yes, he has made those threats. I'm hoping our local law enforcement will intervene. I'm hoping.......
Agree! I am trying to stay positive but it is harder every day.
And what was this about Trump being stopped from nuking Iran by C/JCS Gen Cain??? Saw several prominent "creators" on Twitter mentioning this, but nothing in the news - so not sure if it is true.
Anyway, the guy is DANGEROUS and like that "wounded animal" he will become more so as time goes on.
Bryan, I saw this too and I hope that it is true, but who knows.
Hi Michele.
If it is true, we then owe a great deal to Dan Cain for standing his ground. This is a guy that we said had no business being Chief of Staff for the armed forces. Apparently, his reputation of "raising cane" worked against Trump this time around. Other than the little I read about him prior to Trump's second go 'round at this job, Cain was supposedly not grounded enough to handle the Chief of Staff position. Has he finally seen what we all have known about Trump? Apparently, he may have well matured in his role. Let's hope that is the case.
Good morning, Riad. We can hope. Now we have a new secretary of the navy who is a total nut who believes in witches among other things. Interestingly, he is an immigrant whose family fled a war zone. Immigrants are OK I guess if they kiss death star's rear enough. Frankly, I wish someone would frag Pete the drunk.
For example -- see the comment by Rick Sender, immediately preceding yours. At least in my "oldest first" listing of comments.
Why does anyone give a shit about anything RS has to say? Most of us have blocked him when he first started posting his lies and BS. If you want to block him/her/they/them hit the '...' to the right of his handle.
In addition to blocking, PLEASE STOP REPLYING TO HIM! No matter how dumb or offensive his comment is, please, readers, don't reply to him.
Always astonished at how many out there who can't/won't take that simple advice and thereby force the rest of us to use the scroll mechanism and completely forget what the thread of the conversation was...
Donna, the popular online expression is: "Don't feed the troll!"
Trolls do not expect to change anyone's mind. They exist for two reasons:
1. Human trolls seek to draw attention to themselves, because they are ignored in real life.
2. Both human and bot trolls seek to derail the conversation off-topic. This side-thread now stands as the perfect example of a troll's success. Unfortunately, if we don't discuss trolls occasionally, they continue to operate.
He (Sender) is indeed a virulent supporter of all things maga. He spends a lot of time convincing us that his false views are true. Some people are just under the influence of bad ideas. And all that anger tells us that something is wrong with the world. But as Noam Chomsky said - no one will put truth in your mind, you have to discover it for yourself.....
I did just that - block him and he magically disappeared if only that work with the rest of the bunch
Or in life generally!! 🪄🪄🪄
I have no way of blocking. I have the following options:
copy link
restack
collapse
report
How do I block?
You have to go to his page. That’s where the block option is.
I blocked RS so long ago that I forgot what his name was until I read your comment. I so appreciate NOT seeing his asinine comments.
Me, too, LInda!
Same with me!
OMG I never respond to Sender's posts. I usually respond "return to sender!"
He's still here?
I blocked him ages ago. LOL
Miselle, I am seeing comments about Sender, but thankfully, not his posts. So I must have blocked him.
Like others have said, I forget about him. I think it would be hilarious if NOBODY ever answered him, ever! I used to compare him to the (dating myself here) landline heavy breather back in the day. The entire idea was to get their jollies by scaring or riling people up. Who answers unknown calls anymore? So they have to resort to SOMETHING.
I appreciate Substacks and webpages that monitor the comments prior to having them posted to the public. However, she gets so many comments it would probably be too difficult to do so.
On a podcast of about a week or so ago, I was listening to the tape a few days after. It was while she was doing it live, and she stopped to answer a comment someone must have posted on FB regarding "why are there so many trolls here today?"
She said that she just ignores them, and she said there were so many BECAUSE THEY ARE SCARED.
I haven't seen much about lil' Ricky on here of late, so I am imagining he's squirming at her reporting of the MAGA flailing, and so he's lashing out.
That's interesting. I can't figure out how to block but I don't see his comments either.
Mr. Sender is a sad and pathetic man who apparently has no one from whom to get positive attention in his life. He therefor seeks the negative attention he gets here because otherwise he would get no attention at all.
I tried having civil discourse with him and eventually he became personally venomous. I no longer respond to him. If no one here ever did respond to him, perhaps he would go elsewhere.
Actually I did attempt to have a thoughtful discussion with Sender and he responded rather politely, but totally missed all my points. He couldn't debate competently or address any issue I raised with a counter argument. He merely continued in his vein of maga-speak.
Eventually, with me, he became personal and insulting when I pointed out that he never actually addressed what HCR had written.
In London's Hyde Park they have a thing called "Speaker's Corner", where speeches have been made and debates have taken place. Quite frequently, people stand there and just rant. Sender reminds me of that place.
Frankly this discussion isn't worth the time it takes to read. Like others have said rs is just a rabbit hole going nowhere.
For what it's worth I read an article recently published in Live Science written by Tina Ghose about David Gross, a renowned nuclear physicist. Ghose goe into detail about this gentleman's credentials and accomplishments. The take away of the article? That Mr. Gross believes that we will kill ourselves within the next 50 years with nuclear weapons. He makes a much better argument for his reasoning than I ever could. But I couldn't help agree with him. If the US voters can put an absolute idiot as stupid and inept in charge of the worlds strongest military with an entire political party so complicit that they have given away the power of checks and balances to this pile of pig shit, he makes a valid point. Mr. Gross requalified his position and says he actually believes no one will live longer than 35 years. When you look at the power the world is letting putin, netanyahu , trump, xi, north korea as well as all the terrorist groups have, I, for one, have a hard time arguing against his point. Maybe chew on that instead of rs.
Sender? Is he still around? I blocked him ages ago. Don’t waste your time, just block him.
He is a troll that feeds on attention. Without attention, he doesn’t exist.
Sender doesn't engage in conversation but in soliloquy.
Democrats tend to celebrate too soon. The wheels are not off yet.
I thought the wheels were coming off during his first term. Apparently this moving calamity doesn’t require wheels.
those are the people who need our support. The onslaught is coming, but we can defend against it if we stand together in massive numbers and vote the trash out of office.
Can't trust them. Who in this administration is "minding the store," except for those allowing money to flow out to war, Trump construction projects, and "gilding the lily" of a briar patch of an Oval Office? Where is the oversight capable of stopping an authoritarian takeover? Steve Bannon, your day needs to be done. Crazed definitions of the Democrats? Turn around, white eyes. Go to the movies on May 1 and take a good hard look at ANIMAL FARM. Where do you see yourself?
Yes, TJB ... If HCR's readers haven't heard, the weaponized DOJ has just gone after the Southern Poverty Law Center, as reported by Joyce Vance. The U.S. Government is becoming more nazi-like and less democratic daily now.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/investigating-the-good-guys
Dale, I have seen several reports about this. We have donated to them for a long time.
I probably shouldn't type this in public, but I have a hunch that Marc Elias is another target on the "hit list."
A lot is going to happen in the next six months – none of it good.
Sadly, I agree. A wounded animal can run on three legs and does. Did you read Joyce Vance this morning?
Who is Joyce Vance? What did she write about?
In many ways she is Dr, Richardson’s legal counterpart in this struggle. Her Civil Discourse is essential reading.
Mary Geddry is also essential reading IMO.
Thank you!
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/investigating-the-good-guys?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thanks to you too Dave!
My spiritual advisor on all matters legal.
'spiritual' and 'legal' not often found in the same chain of thought...
Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance | Substack
.https://joycevance.substack.com/.
Joyce Alene Vance (born July 22, 1960) is an American lawyer who served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She was one of the first five U.S. attorneys, and the first female U.S. attorney, nominated by President Barack Obama.
Oh yes, now I remember her--I read something fantastically smart by her a couple months ago. I must go sign up for yet another Substack...
She wrote about the SPLC .
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/investigating-the-good-guys?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true
I agree -- I'm not so sure either. These MAGA supporters are so deeply in love with Trump, or terrified of him, that they'd be honored to drink his toilet water. They just dig their heels more deeply into the mess going on and won't admit that everything isn't going well at all.
Human beings have such a grand capacity for denial.
https://thomhartmann.substack.com/p/trumps-morbidly-rich-machine-is-crushing-cca?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
The wheels are clearly coming off but weirdly that’s not slowing the bus down yet.
Part of Trump’s current poll numbers is that many people who once supported Republicans and Trump have tired of his constant, obvious lies and the constant cowardice of the Republican Congress.
Trump’s projection of HIS weakness and HIS low IQ onto anyone he has a beef with is telling. It is so repetitive that it is obvious that these deficits are his obsession about himself, the things that he hates most about himself.
"Virginia just secured the midterms and protected our sacred democracy."
The midterms are not secure until we Get Out The Vote to Vote Blue No Matter Who for a 2026 Blue Wave. There is much work to do and a short time to get our work done. With plenty of time for Republican sabotage.
We do not have a sacred democracy. We have a secular democratic republic -a constitutional federal representative democracy which by law is separated from the absolutisms of religious creed and irrational habits of mind of religious belief.
Bannon is right to be frightened. Americans want accountability for the corruption and repayment for the money the entire Trump family has stolen from the American people. The theft and fraud is beyond imagination.
I want him to shut the F UP! Horrible pimple pock man. Also a PEDOPHILE...EW EW EW
Well...that's tellin' him! But he does seem to exude some sickly dysfuntion.
"...exude some sickly dysfunction." You win the internet today. That assessment is pure gold!
I don't think he is frightened, he is calling the goons out.
That’s exactly why he’s calling out the goons because he is scared.
Prove it. What has the billionaire "stolen" and what proof do you have? I've never met a billionaire who needed to steal anything, which is another reason why Trump is certainly not corrupt. Biden and his family were the most corrupt, the most anti-American administration in our short history.
Amen lin and thanks for all of your efforts in helping the Graham Platner campaign and other work you do.
And ThankYou!
HCDC is gearing up and I expect good GOTV organization after the primaries. (They won't campaign for any specific candidate until then.)
HCDC?
(If I should know that, excuse me. I had unexpected surgery last week and find my brain slow to interpret.)
I hope your surgery was a success and your recovery is easy. If you were under anesthesia at all, that brain fog can last quite a while. I have tested and experienced this particular theory numerous times.
Oh, my error. I am sorry.
Hancock County Democratic Committee - the Blue bright spot in Maine CD2 (which has gone for Trump 3 times.)
Hope your recovery, MLM, is swift and painless. Your words, opinions are of enormous life-changing importance.
Once a Nazi, always a Nazi
Mary, we have a friend who, for the first time, voted for a democrat in northern NY. I guess once a Republican, is not always a Republican (hopefully).
Stephanie, our next door neighbor was a local R pol when some of them were still sane. He can't stand what Rs have become and supports Ds while he is registered an a I.
Graham Platner is not and never was a Nazi.
As we say here, Maine is Moxie Not N*zi.
And so is Platner.
Yes well.. then be thankful you won't have to vote for him as I doubt you know where Maine is.
I will do so gladly.
Though born and sometimes raised in Montana your comment made me realize that although I love its inhabitants I doubt these days I know where it is. It was so sad to say goodbye to to Mike and Maureen and Max and so many more influential individuals. Nowadays I mourn even the loss of K. Ross Toole the rancher/history professor who reminded us where we came from and how it could guide us. I can see the border from my Idaho living room window and feel surrounded by doubt.
Well said lin. This blue dot in rural Virginia is happy this morning and hoping our courts uphold the vote. Meanwhile we get back to work!
Virginia's vote on redistricting only won 51% to 49% - not exactly a mandate. There's still a lot of red there.
In voting even small numbers count.
We must wait on any appeal.
And the Democrat's biggest mistake has always been assuming victory before the votes are cast, let alone counted. Anybody remember why President Hillary Clinton didn't have to campaign in PA, WI, and MI?
Please don't lump all Democrats.
Hillary Clinton ran an arrogantly stupid campaign. Building bridges to nowhere in Texas and not mending fences with Black voters in swing states.
I wasn't intentionally lumping them, and used the Clinton campaign as an example of embarrassingly bad judgement. I'm not sure where you got that.
"And the Democrat's biggest mistake has always been assuming victory before the votes are cast, let alone counted. "
Sounds like 'lumping' to me.
Unless you actually meant the Democrat's singular and not Democrats' plural.
We are a constitutional republic-repeat after me-constitutional republic. What the heck is a "secular democratic republic," just a new lie to pretend we are something other than what we are? Democrats sure like to make things up out of thin air and pretend they are true. Republican sabotage? That's funny, if it wasn't for cheating and Democratic fraud the Dems would never win anything with their reality challenging "ideas". And a complete lack of morals by opening our border and the chaos and crime that it caused. You are morally bankrupt as is the entire Democratic party.
Yes, the United States is legally and constitutionally a secular democratic republic. It has no official state religion, and the Constitution (specifically the First Amendment and Article VI) mandates a separation of church and state, prohibiting religious tests for public office and guaranteeing freedom of religion.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
+5
Key aspects of this structure include:
Constitutional Secularism: The U.S. Constitution is a secular document that does not mention Christianity or God. The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion, while Article VI bans religious tests.
Democratic Republic: The nation is a representative democracy (republic) where officials are elected by the people to govern, rather than a direct democracy or a theocracy.
Ignore this troll.
It's a great day.
Virginia Supreme Court still has to rule on the legality of this move. It ain’t over til it’s over.
Secured the midterms? They friggin cheated and disenfranchised 45% of their citizens. How would the Dems feel, if they were almost half of a state and were relegated to one and only one representative? They would self immolate themselves. More like Marxism than democracy when a governor lies about what she stands for and then turns around and supports every far left garbage idea when she wins. It's called the good old bait and switch. Lie lie a rug and pretend you are something you are not. God, what a feckless cheater and liar the new governor is.
Although VA. did pass the referendum, it passed only by approximately 3 percentage points. As they say: "the win was ugly, but we'll take it." The fact that voters would buy the republican lies of "damaging the State" if one voted yes, made it so enough people from the "NO" side voted to make it close. The hypocrisy is simply unreal when those voting "no" fully well knew that none of us would be here if Trump had not started the ball rolling in commanding Texas governor Abbott to fudge the district lines in order to get more House seats in Texas. Employing Governor Spanberger's and President Obama's own words in quoting them that redistricting is wrong, previous to this, was also the height of hypocrisy. The third hypocritical assertion was to show black families in "black districts" who they said would suffer watering down their voting powers. We know that republicans have worked hard to disengage black voting; all one has to do is look at Georgia. We stood firm, although I did wish that we had won that referendum by a double-digit margin.
How do you have the ignorance and literally a stupidity of trying to credit left-wing zealots first of all as journalist and second of all with any credibility whatsoever
Tonight there was a pole that went out there was some research done and apparently, for example, 73% of Google searches result in a left-wing leaning response
Yahoo was 95 five with 1% representing the Republicans and the same with Microsoft. Same shit different day. You need to change the channel and you need to change your own world. Just like Michael Jackson song man in the mirror if you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make that change.
Dude, take your own advice. Change the channel to something other than Faux, Newsmax, or OANN. And look at yourself in the mirror. And for this upcoming(?) "America Reads the Bible" event, read Matthew 25.
Rick's been trolling HCR's column for quite a while now. Remember, a troll is one who posts a deliberately inflammatory comment in the hope of getting an emotional response, which he can then respond to. The idea is to get as many replies as possible. That's how their standings in trolldom are configured. It's best to just let him and those like him, stew in their own juices.
Thx for the info. I've been reading "Letters from an American" since before Substack existed (as far as I knew, anyway), but I don't often read the Substack comments -- my bad, that. As a longtime fan of Pharyngula, I'm familiar with trolls. -- I don't think (I may be wrong, and if I'm wrong it's not the first time, not even the 1001st time -- hell, I voted for Mitch McConnell in 1984) I've given Ricky any pretext for some glib reply that would allow him to pat himself on the back for "owning that dumbass lib from f*****g Kentucky."
Yes, Ricky is trying but he's way too wordy to succeed as a troll.
Joe, I’m not a liberal so I don’t put people in a cubbyhole just because of a personal trait like skin color or race or ethnicity or where they’re from like the liberals do and that’s why you projected that which is evidence that you should take a look at yourself
Everybody is an individual… Hilary got her ass kicked because of her basket of the deplorables comment. You can’t cubbyhole people and you can’t judge them by one or two sentences and think that you know everything about them
And by the way, I was a huge Bill Clinton supporter voted for him twice and would do it again, even though he behaved a little bit inside the White House And then lied about it but worse, he had two major fuck ups …and one that we are still dealing with today that has killed 1 million human beings and is still going on today.
It’s only about policies] and laws that they enact. Because those are the only things that affect Americans all over the country until they are overturned or end on their own schedule
By the way, Joe, I don’t think you could find Fox News with channel on your tv with a guide dog. And the minute Liberals like you start talking shit about Fox… I already know you have no clue what you’re talking about
Fox News channel has a cable channel has The top 14 TV show shows in primetime the highest viewership in primetime of every other cable network and you’re gonna love this one more viewers than MS now and CNN combined. And do you know why that is?
That’s because the public got sick of all the lies and distortions of most of the networks here Fox is even beating out ABC NBC and CBS in many primetime day parts.
The saddest thing is that the other day there were three stories that were told by Fox that came from other organizations which Fox quoted specifically and accurately And the three networks that you most adore, we’re trying to tell the same story and lied and distorted the story and Fox was the only one who got it right
Go look for the story about the IOC, not allowing transgender women to participate in women’s Olympic and you will find the three distortions or more and lies with the headlines by CNN I believe it was ABC in CBS, but I can’t recall
And lastly, Mr. Sharp, when you ignore hearing the whole story, you ignore reality And Heather doesn’t tell you the whole story here she tells you what she wants you to hear half through some of the truth or no truth at all by deflecting to an alternate story that doesn’t cover another Trump win
I would love to see you as a defendant in a courtroom one day
And these threads would be the prosecution and they would tell their story and then people like you and other others here would send it right to the jury without even hearing the defensive side of the story, which is what you do when you don’t watch Fox or Newsmax or any of the right wing leaning channel
And then you would be guilty And then perhaps you would wake up
You’re not that familiar with trolls you’re only familiar with somebody who you can call a troll because they disagree with you and they back it up with facts,
evidence, and proof and illustrations as well. People post 10 and 20 times a day here with the same gullibility as a cult of lemmings they’re never called trolls
As long as I’ve been here, here’s what I’ve determined. All I receive are insults and accusations. In fact, a dog sniffing other dog’s ass will extract more factual information than any human from the threads here. Not a fact in sight. Just a lot of irrational hate
If Putin's paying him, Julius, "emotional response" may be beside the point.
Just time logged in, or sheer quantity of trolldom.
Well, maybe so, but his type of trolling is usually unpaid. The paid trollers are in North Korea, Russia, China, Vietnam and Iran. But in any case, whether he's paid or not, he needs replies and the more replies he gets, the more he can respond to, and therefore "earn" more money. In my opinion (and I'm not a professional), Ricky is a lot like Trump, he does it for the attention. He wants people to notice him and to know who he is. In that, he has succeeded.
Exactly.
Julius what you just said there is Just another distortion to try to save face. First of all as I explained to Mr. Sharp, there are people that post 30 and 40 times a day here constantly and they’re never called a troll the only time you signify. Somebody is a troll when they say things that you don’t agree with… And they actually have the audacity that the temerity to actually support their post with links and fax versus people like you or apparently like Mr. Sharp just make accusations without backup.
I am not a Trump fan I am a Trump policy fan and I am a Trump policy fan big-time and maybe you haters will catch on one of these days that it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House it only matters what policies and laws they enact that affect every American
And Trump’s policies are working, brilliantly all over the world
If you would’ve taken Joe Biden’s name and put it behind some of Trump’s policies I would be cheering for Joe Biden
But if you CAN IMAGINE that it was the one that allowed in 11 to 20,000,000 illegals to enter the US and it wasn’t Joe Biden…. think to yourself how you would really feel especially if TRUMP LIED about it oooops.
Ricky, what you said to me was not an explanation; it was a mere assertion.
You refer to him as the best president ever and then you claim that you're not a fan. Thats just ridiculous, Rick.
Excellent point, Matthew 25: 34-46, the even-as-you-do-it-unto-the-least-of-these section. Frances Perkins, FDR's Sec. of Labor and the person most responsible for our having Social Security had this theory of government: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to facilitate the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life." Trump's white Christian nationalist supporters (21st century KKK, aka MAGA) can't grasp the reality of the situation owing to a blind spot, what the ancient Greeks called amathia, i.e., willful ignorance.
Well, let me introduce you to joe who doesn’t like facts. Here’s a flash for you people that are getting excited about the midterms. The midterms were a foregone conclusion from January 20, 2025. And you guys are supposed to be the ones that know and study history!! The intelligence of the left has been totally overrated. But the hate and deviousness of the left has been totally underrated
🙄
Why don't you ever cite your sources for the frankly fantastical statistics you constantly produce here? There has been some extensive research on social media platforms, for example, but it doesn't support what you are alleging. Try reading it.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695825000339
Have you noticed that every time they mention right wing groups, they mention far right wing groups Go ask my hate to say it, but go ask search engine on both sides of the aisle. What percent of the answers that you received from Google come from left-wing sources such as Wikipedia, for example. Consensus is 73%. They said
In addition, I believe it was Microsoft that is the worst in allowing right wing, leaning sources to provide input and there at about 1% of the total input on the Microsoft search engine. About 90% of all the largest media companies that are available to be seen in America are all left wing organizations. They support Democrats they serve they vote Democrats, including their staff and employees, including EDUCATORS, PSYCHATRISTS, ACCIDENT ATTORNEYS systems, including our teachers, including ALMOST every single union. Those are the numbers go validate them yourself.
And you can feel free to insult me all you want no problem at all just back it up with some facts some evidence not from some far distant, Leslie website pull it out of your ass. At least it comes from you.
You haven't cited any numbers or any sources for that rant. You never do.
That’s all you’re almost impossible. You never answer a question when you come back, you never come back with a fact. All you do is deny, without
Supporting your nonsense. I have warned you and I have told you I’ll let New York Times. You’re too dense. You’re too hateful to understand what negotiating is and that words don’t matter only thing that matters are actions. Not only do you critique my fantastical statistics. Well, I’m gonna open your link and see what it says, but once again, make it relevant, russell trying to get in the game
Do you know the one thing not one not even one stupid, ignorant liberal, has even thought to mention this in all the post in here. I asked gentleman from Canada today what to England/Great Britain. , Germany, Italy, and Japan, have in common?
I will read your link right now
Rick, Trump isn't negotiating with Iran - he's setting out demands and backing them up with threats of further war crimes and even genocide. Iran doesn't trust the Trump administration because on two previous occasions they launched surprise attacks on Iran during negotiations, both of which were unlawful. US forces have even killed children. More than 3,000 people have been killed in US and Israeli bombings. That's far more than Iran and its proxies have killed in terrorist attacks.
By the way, you are also wrong about the JCPOA. Iran didn't start enriching uranium far beyond the levels needed for civilian use until long after Trump withdrew the US from that agreement. Get your facts right.
If want to be taken seriously here, cite your sources, don't just rant.
I just read 2 Chronicles 7:11–22. Is Trump God or Solomon?
I must confess I don’t quite understand the point he was trying to make.
Get out of bed on the wrong side again, Ricky?
Hey Rick.
That's really good advice from Michael Jackson. You should follow it.
Rick, this may help: https://www.talkspace.com/
Russians have a folk saying -- "a fire in a whorehouse in the middle of an earthquake." Something like that. Kakistocracy on a saltine cracker indeed (with apologies to saltines).
"Kakistocracy on a saltine cracker ... "
Something like the old Putin on the Ritz (with apologies to Fred Astaire and Mel Brooks.)
Oh that one stinks
LOL
pretty funny, putin on the ritz...thanks.
https://mindsitenews.org/2026/03/30/no-kings-protest-marchers-raise-mental-health-their-own-and-trumps-in-biting-and-humorous-ways/
You know, pal nothing is over till it’s over and you should learn that and you obviously haven’t. Because you liberals are only about process never about results.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable.
Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re fucking stupid
it hard for you to see Trump the racist, rapist fruadster, murderer criminal in true light. Biden had immigration under control by the end of his term , Biden left a strong ecomony, Israel is a terroist state, Biden was pulled into with Gaza but had the sense not to go to war with Iran. Biden built infrastructure, supported clean energy.Obama deal with Iran eliminated 97% of their enrichment. Get your facts straight, we are tired of people like you with their head up their ass , Tucker admitted it what say you?
What did you say about people insulting you?
I said people can insult me all they want just provide support for the results. Just support, evidence, fax proof you know those pesky little things that they require in a court room.
AND HERE IS WHAT I MEAN BY YOU NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION.
I asked you what would happen if a foreign power sunk your entire military fleet. Which, by the way, is a fucking joke you have 66 ships of which Many are out of service. Which is less than half of what he Iran HAD… and about 130 military aircraft, not including helicopters and other service vehicles. So if a foreign power came in and sunk your entire military fleet and disabled 130 planes. Would you call that aggressor a taco? Laughing my fucking ass off, and you wonder why Trump keeps pushing NATO to increase their percentage towards their own protection.
As far as I know, my government in the UK doesn't have any current plans to start illegal wars in the Middle East and frankly I'm rather glad of that. Your president by contrast has started a war he doesn't know how to end. Today, within a matter of hours, Iran has attacked three tankers in the Gulf and siezed two others, aping the American piracy. On Saturday you were arguing that the war had ended. So why are still spending $2bn a day on maintaining a blockade?
Air fares have gone up by nearly 25%.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crr14qplxe8o
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has warned of an impending global food catastrophe if the war continues, especially with the likelihood of a strong El Nino event later this year.
https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao--protracted-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-could-turn-into-global-agrifood-catastrophe/en?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2026-04-22&utm_campaign=Cropped+Global+food+catastrophe+BECCS+emissions+UK+solar+farm+controversy
The International Monetary Fund has warned of the risks of a global recession.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/14/iran-war-global-recession-imf-uk-growth-forecasts-oil-prices
Even in the US, gasoline prices are 33% higher than they were before the US started the war. Food and energy price increases will follow.
Do you live in some kind of news vacuum, Rick, where all this just passes you by unnoticed?
https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5249x3500+0+0/resize/2000/quality/85/format/webp/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F86%2F7d%2F8ecf879f48038db6f0ab38a06438%2Fseattle-kuow-farmer-megan06.JPG.
Did you know that I study by the WIC foundation noted that people that attended the first no Kingsmark all had a mental illness of some kind
Yeah, and Fred Flintstone has the saying also just as erudite and prescient. Yabba dabba doooo
Yes, the wheels are coming off of Heather’s car. She is being exposed as nothing more than a hater.
Every accusation by you is a confession.
https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5463x3642+0+0/resize/2000/quality/85/format/webp/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F02%2F6d%2F589cc87e43d1b731c0cc03bb000f%2F20251018-ksm-nokings-1.jpg
What's to love about any of this, Rick?
Stick with the advice from Michael Jackson you quoted.
The saying is Russian. I’m sure other cultures have their less earthy equivalents.
I think the Canadians also have a similar saying,
"Like Trump in the White House on January 6."
⬆️🤣🤣🤣👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
you gotta throw in some maple syrup or something.... 😄
...in a bowl of old poutine.
I can't imagine anybody who'd waste time looking shit like this up, but so be it. It comes from the Dictionary of Russian Obscenities published way back in the early 1970s at Harvard, I think (also subtitled 'Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Russian But Were Afraid to Ask'). I read it myself 50 years ago on mimeographed paper. I couldn't care less what a trained robot says to you, or to me.
Hear, hear. I’ve been using the slant eye on those using AI for the most surface of inquiries. The amount of misinformation contained in its answers has shown it to be not very reliable. Two cases in point off the top of my head: AI says an immunosuppressive condition I have can be controlled by diet, ( it can’t) and it told me using an herbicide I was considering was quite safe for use around tomatoes. It isn’t. And the links don’t work.
And now you know why there’s so much concern about the huge and vast amount of electricity used for AI. Because people are saying please and thank you and asking inane questions. They could look up on their own through a normal search engine. Sorry Albert, we don’t mean to pile on but think about it, if you don’t use AI you aren’t scooping up resources
Thank you Charlie for not being disrespectful of clowns. As another 'Charlie' famously said, "I remain one thing & one thing only and that is a clown".
The "Little Tramp" was a genius of costume with his huge oversize shoes, Bowler hat & cane. Chaplin did not have any orange hair.
But, my favorite clown in the town that grew up in, Woodland Hills California, was Buster Keaton with his pliable face that seemingly could take any shape & his magician's slight of hand & body.
I love brilliant, high functioning clowns.🙏
Wait a minute … didn’t you see “Poltergeist?” Clowns …. No-o-o. 😳
https://i0.wp.com/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/10/TS5_1408-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1
Brian, I’m reporting you…. how dare you offend the people that offend the clowns. Lmao. Let me show you the clowns
What's cool about JAMS rules & regs is that are accessible on-line. One of JAMS ruses is that to get to know how man times your adversary has participated JAMS' mediations - the entire history including any binding Arbitrations.
Spoiler Alert: I have had 18 successful mediations at JAMS since 1990.
Two (2) Defendants appeared but, advised they actually wanted to settle.
(1) 1 party paid my client the full limits of their "E&O" policy in the first 5 minutes.
(2) I had to start my direct examination of the other defendant. I pummeled the Defendant for 1/2 hour at which time the Mediator told opposing counsel we should "go down the hall" to settle. That Defendant also paid my client full insuranceliability limits.
That settlement was reported in Jury Verdicts Weekly because I used the former President of the CA Home Inspector's Organization to crucify my opponent's woeful inspector.
Welcome aboard the American Ship of State, now being steered by a man who treats foreign policy like improvised fan fiction and domestic policy like a grievance livestream. One minute he is promising peace with Iran, the next he is staging Strongman Bible Theater, as if holding up Scripture can mask the smell of overheating wires behind the walls.
Meanwhile, the hunt for election fraud barrels onward with the conviction of a man accusing the family dog of hacking the thermostat. Records are demanded, conspiracies inflated, and facts treated like dangerous contraband. Poll numbers slide, prices climb, and the message from above remains the same: do not trust your eyes, your bank account, or the groaning sound coming from the national foundation.
On Capitol Hill, the razor-thin majority is functioning less like a governing coalition and more like a folding card table with one leg missing. Even some loyalists are beginning to wobble. A few have started to realize that outrage is not a power source, and performance does not keep the lights on.
But performance is the whole apparatus. The prop Bible, the manufactured enemies, the synthetic heroics, the endless declarations of greatness, while the structure visibly sags. It is all designed to keep the crowd distracted long enough not to ask why the walls are cracking.
This is not leadership. It is a collapsing set pretending the applause means the building is still standing.
"Welcome aboard the American Ship of State, now being steered by a man who treats foreign policy like improvised fan fiction and domestic policy like a grievance livestream."
This!
ThankYou.
May I use the most foul words in the English language as well as a bunch in Italian to describe a most repugnant piece of stinking crapola to ever ooze out of a vagina only to stink humanity with such odious behavior? May I?
Since you are being timid Bill, I'll do it for you: the most foul words in the English language now a days are Trump-Vance.
Madonna putanna stronzo biscaracco merda tutti sompon like dat.
Im glad you regained your confidence Bill....👍😝
Yes, you may. “Ooze out of a vagina.” As a mother myownself, I only wish he had “oozed.”
Yes they are. These people are not deserving of respect. We have a Kakistocratic-oligarchic-plutocracy! These are all Greek curse words as far as their application to a society goes. And, to make it worse, Wajeed Ali said there is chatter on the Saudi internet that the Republican Guard may have staged a coup against the new leadership and are holding the new Ayatollah and his cabinet in captivity while they run the country and the war. They profit off of war through their investments, and will not be inclined to come to the table to discuss peace. Let us hope that a resounding trouncing of the Republicans in Congress in the midterms can open up the doors to peace talks if this happens. It is not clear that this is the case, because Iran is a closed door to information.
The nuke discussion has to be had and it is concerning. If Trump becomes sick enough that he needs to be hospitalized for an extended period of time, will JD Vance take over? Will Vance's sick boss Peter Thiel decide to use nukes in the world to control countries? Look out Europe. Look out former allies.
I recommend deplatforming US tech as much as you can, and learning to use alternatives that will not be selling your data to this government and others.
https://european-alternatives.eu/
Trump brings one word to my mind: Egomaniac.
As well as kleptocracy, hypocrisy, aristocracy, fuckupcracy....
AMEN
Hey Charlie, too bad you’re missing the best presidency of your life. But don’t worry you’ll catch up
Reported 4 times(so far) as a violator of the current Terms of Use (TOU) under law chosen by Substack Inc not me nor any community member. Noteworthy that Substack Inc agrees the TOU also binds the Platform as a matter of contract law.
It's not enough to report or block him, every reader must simply ignore his posts and most of all DO NOT REPLY. He's gotten some replies today, which he usually doesn't. Every reply to him triggers a reply from him and trashes this substack. Please, readers, STOP REPLYING.
Rick Sender may violate the TOU, but he is virtually illiterate, so I wonder if ANYONE pays any attention to his babbling.
As a libertarian, I feel he has the right to troll all he wants to. We don't have to acknowledge his existence. As I said to Joe Sharp, :
" Rick's been trolling HCR's column for quite a while now. Remember, a troll is one who posts a deliberately inflammatory comment in the hope of getting an emotional response, which he can then respond to. The idea is to get as many replies as possible. That's how their standings in trolldom is configured. It's best to just let him and those like him, stew in their own juices."
Point well taken. I agree that he has the right to troll, we have the right to respond. But that does not mean that it is wise or effective to do so.
Well said.
Thank you Barry.
I may be 1 of the few "Readers" that has actually taken Substack Inc to JAMS mediation on any TOU or federal law issue.
I have long advocated a restatement of digital law to halt damage to users in its many forms.
Some states such as California have statutory law that has been effective since 1/1/2020, the "CCPA", the California Consumer Privacy Act. A CA agency enforces the law NOT the consumer.
Substack Inc used to be my SF neighbor less than 2 blocks from my Montgomery Street law firm. CA has a STATE right of Privacy in its CA constitution with new case law developing in the courts in the real world that Heather posts about.
Specific legal actions can be Has been taken taken today.
https://mindsitenews.org/2026/03/30/no-kings-protest-marchers-raise-mental-health-their-own-and-trumps-in-biting-and-humorous-ways/
Brianne, you’ve been talking this shit for as long as I’ve been here
The problem is you’re like all the other left-wingers that Tout free speech and can’t stand it. All you do is kind of shut off free speech and try not to let anybody hear, but you don’t want him to hear
And frankly, the worst thing for a liberal is Not to be in control. And you are an exemplary sample of that What liberals are not a control they go absolutely bat shit
You know for an attorney you should probably read the constitution may be an even the first amendment. Ever since I said the first word you didn’t agree with you’ve been reporting me without cause. What are you so afraid of?
Yeah Charlie.., and when we finally happen to entertain one of those "clowns" at a Hearing where Elizabeth Warren offers them the 'aside question' : Did Der Leader lose the 2020 election, and they respond in the affirmative...., we'll put a new meaning to the word loco-motive.
https://mindsitenews.org/2026/03/30/no-kings-protest-marchers-raise-mental-health-their-own-and-trumps-in-biting-and-humorous-ways/
I refer him to a dumpster fire on a hobo train heading straight for a nuclear plant.
Oh gosh what a nice thing to say! Thank you. Feeling much better, compared to this time last week 😷🤒
''If They Had to Sideline the President, He Shouldn’t Be There''
One rumor remains unverified. Another report is harder to dismiss. But together they expose the deeper scandal: a presidency so unstable that exclusion itself begins to sound plausible. This commentary examines what it means when the commander in chief starts to look like the most dangerous person in the room. https://essayx.substack.com/p/if-they-had-to-sideline-the-president
The wheel might be coming off the MAGA bus, but Donald Trump and his incompetent team are still in charge and doing real damage in environmentally, economically, militarily, judicially,
In some ways, yes, Heather's got it exactly: "the wheels are coming off."
Clear records, however, also show Donald’s trail of murder, criminality, and recklessness continuing at home and abroad:
1) his 1,000s of ICE thugs still paid to terrorize across the land;
2) his Long Dong Clarence court still ensuring monarch him immune to law;
3) his madness raising prices for working class Americans in groceries, gas, diesel, housing, health care and day care;
4) his gulag of concentration camps yet proceeding across the U.S.;
5) his ALEC and Heritage Foundation yet gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, and suppressing votes from black, brown, and native American communities; and
6) his yet covering up for the elites who raped the underage girls, their money laundering for Putin, arms dealing for Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, and other Persian Gulf despots, and opioids killing millions of our fellow Americans.
The wheels are coming off the orange clown car. Virginia just secured the midterms and protected our sacred democracy. Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together every weekend at protests: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
Once is enough.
Yes, Public Servant, Virginia's done it,
as California has, too --
as Bernie, A.O.C., Ossoff, and Graham Platner can all attend our working class red states,
& not keep hiding, money-raising, & dunning, dunning only amid the safe, safe blue.
This is how stupid and ignorant you get Trump would need to have a Gulag or a concentration camp if Biden didn't let millions of illegals across the border, including hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals. That's who's in the Gulag and they shouldn't even be in the Gulag. They should be right back where they came from. OK now you're over three that's a strike up, but I'm gonna go for a grand slam dunk here.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
The only one that thinks that the bus that the wheels are coming off, is Heather, the wacko and the less than 2% of Democrats here. The administration couldn’t be stronger and continuous to gain power every single day and that’s why you get angry or every single day and more desperate every single day
Do you want to talk about the Supreme Court that the Democrats have been in control of? We're almost 100 years more or less and now that you're not in control we're going apeshit you poor deer will get used to it because America had to live with the liberal side of the Supreme Court for too long now now you know what we've had to deal with. And they're doing a great job too because when you're not in control, you go apeshit that's exactly what you should be doing right now. Going apeshit for the righteousness of the best Supreme Court in 100 years.
I didn't think anyone remembered long don
He had his reckless arrogance back then, when Biden gave him a pass.
Ignoring a decent woman's clear testimony against him.
I listened to all of Anita Hill's testimony -- shame on them for confirming Thomas.
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid
I did. 🤮
Who could forget "Long Dong Silver" as he called himself (according to testimony).
Interesting!! https://edition.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/07/05/billpress.column/
"Long Dong" Clarence?
He wishes.
https://deadline.com/2026/04/cable-news-ratings-march-first-quarter-2-1236771252/.
And he's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing purging the purging the voter role so that only citizens are on it Jerry Mandarin to try to catch up with 40 years of the northeast having zero representation by Republicans. And I see by your end of the last post that you were a pure racist. Shame on you, Bill. Everybody's equal pal, equal equal equal equal not special but equal got that. ?
Now anytime you'd like to throw a factor to a board here feel free, but you can't and you won't because you don't have any. With you hear my next post.
The only person to cover it up for Jeffrey Epstein was Joseph Biden who had the Epstein files on his desk for four years. It did nothing with them not a damn thing. So you keep dreaming so far all they have is Clinton Gates, and Summers who from what I understand are all Democrats oops.
OK, let's pick your bullshit apart one at a time thousands of ice age and doing exactly what they did during the Obama administration but nobody complained back then because Obama the God was president. There was no pushback by radical sanctuary cities, protect protecting radicals and criminals. Not only Obama pull people from their homes and their businesses, but he also was kind enough to build the cages the children. Mind you you'll see the nice pictures of that so there's number one and I think I'll continue.
You're on a really good hallucinatory drug. There's no doubt in my mind because you have no proof of backup of anything you just printed. Unless you'd like to post it here which you won't because there isn't any. It's all in your hateful head and you embarrass yourself every time you come out with it without any proof evidence or those pesky little things they call facts.
Let me run it by you for a second in my next post
Heather, you're living in fantasyland and you're lying to your absolutely lying to your patrons here here's the latest results
Trump's approval is exactly the same as it was the back in 2018. Ooooops 84% favorability then and 84% favorability today.
Oh no, and the NASDAQ hit another new high boo-hoo.
Russell, it’s called policies. It’s not personal it’s laws and policies that affect Americans not a man’s name. Except with these haters. Like you.
Here. To all. You Fox fans. A comparison in readings between Fox, CNN and MSN. I’m sorry faux.
https://deadline.com/2026/04/cable-news-ratings-march-first-quarter-2-1236771252/
You know, I don’t think Heather could be any more deceptive if she tried. And I don’t think Heather could negotiate herself out of a paper bag or a gossamer web.
Lololololololololol. Hey Phil, you should try to do something that you’re good at this isn’t it?
Donald Trump is protecting your democracy better than any president in the last 50 years don’t you love how Biden protected your democracy by letting 20 million illegals in in the country how’s that protect protection? Or bi Obama allowing Iran to cheat on the JCPOA and increase its enrichment by three times the allowable. Yeah Yeah, there’s your protection pal you know your people are really good at sounding intelligent but you’re stupid and trying as hard as you can to be ignorant
“The Iranians didn’t appreciate [Trump] negotiating through social media and making it appear as if they had signed off on issues they hadn’t yet agreed to..."
Yet something else Iran's negotiating team has in common with about 100 million of us....
Axios has a long summary of the current state of "regime change" in Iran. The Revolutionary Guard is in charge and is limiting access to Khamenei. The civil authorities have been sidelined.
So as with all things, Trump has made the situation far worse for the Iranian people and for the possibility of an early resolution to the war with a regime change that now has the fanatics in charge.
The IRGC was created after 1979 to preserve the Islamic Republic and the "ideals of the revolution." Iran’s constitution gives it an “ideological mission of jihad in God’s way,” defined as extending the sovereignty of God’s law globally. It is not a normal military group. It is rigidly loyal to the clerical system of velayat‑e faqih (rule of the jurist), to the Supreme Leader who is treated as having religious authority comparable to the Prophet,and to the Shia Imams in official indoctrination texts.
Does anyone think that members of the American military in the Middle East are safer today? Does anyone think the risk of a jihadist attack here in the US is less today?
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/22/trump-iran-war-power-struggle-ceasefire
https://institute.global/insights/geopolitics-and-security/beyond-borders-expansionist-ideology-irans-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps
Hello Georgia.. I would Worry about Iranian Cyber-Attacks using their Tools, as well as Russian, North Korean. and Chinese Tools, especially since CISA, and the FBI have been gutted... Seems that DJT's grasp of what most people call Reality is slipping further... Did you hear DJT on CNBC this Morning?... Seems that the Iranian IRGC is impervious to DJT's Reality (Not!) Show Slobbering Bullying Tactics...
I agree 100%. Cyberattacks on financial systems can be enormously destabilizing, especially if timed to coincide with markets that are disconnected from economic realities.
Trump has painted a target on our backs, and we have lots of vulnerabilities. I am worried by North Korea’s missile tests and what China is going to try, as Trump has moved US forces out of the Pacific to Iran. I think France, the UK, Japan, and Australia have to reposition in the Pacific to provide deterrence. But that will be a lot harder with Trump having destroyed our allies’ trust in us.
Yes, Apache, especially in light of the Trump regime's elimination of the experts who can detect and defend against cyber attacks.
https://industrialcyber.co/regulation-standards-and-compliance/trump-administration-dismantles-csrb-leaves-future-of-cybersecurity-oversight-in-question/
Georgia, I like your comments always. However, because of the troll who fills HCRs comment page with nonsense, replying to himself in between insulting anyone so foolish as to reply to him, I’ve been hoping Substack would start adding limits: no more than, say, 5 comments to one Substack essay, no more than, say, 1000 words per total comments. It could be done with software. After all, people can have their own Substack. Commenting is fine, sharing knowledge and insights is wonderful, and yes readers can block whoever we want,But.
HCR has that one troll and a few legitimate snd thoughtful people who, nevertheless, may take up too much space in the comments. Some limits would help. Anyone approaching the limits would be free to direct readers to their own substack.
Thanks.
It's true. Brevity is the soul of wit and all that.
Thanks for the feedback. I think there is a solution.
I believe that anyone who takes the time to reply to me deserves a response because I learn a lot from those people. They help me refine my thinking, especially when people challenge what I am saying. It comes from a career in science. Explanations get refined from open conversations.
You can easily condense those conversations by clicking on the vertical line from the profile picture on any reply in a thread. I do it frequently when a thread morphs into a different topic. It gets rid of the clutter.
Thanks, Georgia. I agree 100% about the benefits of replying to reply-ers. Condensing is OK, but I tend to skim and scroll down. I do, however, hope that there's a way for Substack to keep trolls from writing 29 lengthy comments. (One time I counted that many, and saw that he used 2 similar names - that is, aliases - each with its own substack.) I haven't noticed your comments exceeding 5 but I haven't counted. Maybe your average on HCR is higher? The max could be raised some and would still be less than the troll's.
As to 1000 words (~ 4 typed pages in old-fashioned double-spaced Courier 12 with 1" margins): that seems like enough for one person's total comments. I doubt you exceed that very often, either. Your post above, per Word, is 187 words. You may get to 1000 total from time to time, and if so, the max could be raised. But I am still proposing that trolls - as well as a few very smart people with real ideas, insights and knowledge - can limit the volume of comments on other people's substacks and direct their readers to their own pages for extended interactions.
RJM, there is a simple way to deal with trolls, while preserving the valuable information that is shared in the comments, whether or not it exceeds your arbitrary limits.
Click on the troll's avatar, which takes you to the troll's Substack home page. Near the top of the page are buttons to "Subscribe," "Message" and an ellipsis (...). Click on the ellipsis and choose "Block" from the drop-down. The troll will magically disappear from the conversations you read, while allowing the rest of us to benefit from the important – if sometimes lengthy – information Georgia and others share.
To answer your questions, No and No
This whole presidency and war has been administered via social media. What an incompetent bunch of fools they are-albeit very destructive with their big boy manly toys of destruction. Someone needs to take them away and put the little brats in a locked corner.
Not one of my family members in rural North Carolina will know Trump is considering using money from the U.S. Treasury to shore up the finances of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which have been hurt by the Iran war. In particular they will not know Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who controls the sovereign wealth of the United Arab Emirates, has directed hundreds of millions to Trump personally, buying 49% of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial and investing $2 billion of WLF’s USD1 stablecoin. But.. my family members in NC will hear and believe Trumps comments about how the Dems are to blame for the war in Iran.
If we don't find some way of addressing Faux "news" we are never going to get our country back.
Hello Alexandra.. Don't Forget Steve Bannon... Bannon should be Tried for Sedition, and Treason....
Let’s add a state charge that Trump can’t annul.
Craig - 100%. That's going to have to be the case for every one of these criminals.
Hello Alexandra... Just looked at your 'Titles'... They are about 'Moons'... Should we call you 'Diana", the Huntress?...
Apache, did you know that there was a vigilante killer in Mexico who killed rapists and called herself "Diana, Hunter of Bus Drivers"? There was a spate of bus drivers committing serial rapes and she decided to do something about it.
My Huntress definitely has Diana/Artemis qualities. All killing in my books is down to her. But she's not wrong....
John Brown was hanged in 1859 for treason against. . . Virginia.
Craig: The horrible thing about that is that the Dictator On Day One (acronym DODO)’s motto is Try and Stop Me. He’d pardon any loyalist sent to the slammer by a state prosecution. ICE could descend on the jail and liberate the crony-convict to make the pardon stick. Or something. And he could abolish the Supreme Court if it balked. (And how big is that “if”?) Why would he respect the Constitution on this one thing?
We had it Jan 6. Even his own people turned against him. And then when the republicans threatened back we let go
Bannon is just as lethal -if not more- than trump. Trump is the puppet for others. Thats why even though he’s batshit crazy, he remains in office. He’s a front. The corruption at the heart of the Epstein Files begins to reveal the trans-national interweaving of criminal underworld with colluding national and corporate “leaders”. The network is vast and obscured. That is by design. Bannon is a manipulator for this network. He needs to be disempowered.
One more reason to cancel Spotify.
Apache, didn't sb already spend time in prison?
So I started thinking about this and how we spend our time. We spend 95% of our time Trump bashing and 5% promoting the policies of the Dems. We are caught in the Trump trap.
Thank you, Sandra! Your observation shines a light on the way comments among HCR readers go consistently.
It would be such a relief if readers would turn the focus to what they’re doing to help us win.
I have thought that millions of times. But how?
I think we need to make a compelling case that we have excellent leadership and policies. Biden did great things and the Dems just dumped him. I do not need a pole to tell me what to think and campaign on. 1. Democracy and the Dems repeated attempts in maintaining democracy. 2. Prosecution for those that lie on TV and social media, the FCC does not regulate cable. Dominion voting machine was a good case. Like to see more of that. 3. Publish honest info about the demise a public schools and how private schools are just making money for the rich. If you own a charitable foundation that owns a private school when you sell that school, you don’t pay any capital gains taxes and why you want it you don’t pay any property taxes. In North Carolina we have given over $1 billion in vouchers to private schools. I don’t hear anybody campaigning on public schools in the honesty about how the Republicans are trying to destroy them.
Sad, but true. (Both the news, and the fact that the people who need to hear it, will not.)
What happens when you try telling them about it? They will never believe you, I guess…
Bringing it up might sow doubt and gradual skepticism that allows curiosity to gradually build and open to different information? (emphasis on gradual)
First off it’s a Democratic parties’s responsibility to reach them not mine. The point I’m trying to make is the Democratic Party is not reaching Rural America.
Sandra, I think we are in the midst of losing our democracy due to the attitude you just mentioned Sandra. I believe it is all our responsibility to protect and fight for keeping our democracy and rights.
Yes, we vote these people into office; we also have to check them to make sure they are holding our best interests at heart. Kinda like we check our bank balances from time to time to make sure we haven't been robbed.
The DNC is not reaching people in my neighbourhood so I try to pick up the slack.
Sylvia, what happens in my world is they question my sources and quote theirs, which ooze of MAGA propaganda. The garbage they believe only reenforces my belief that they are stark, raving idiots.
Sorry about your family. We can only try to persuade family, with no assurance of success.
Sandra, you don't have to be in a rural area to be ignorant of Trump's atrocities! My family lives in Chicago and neighboring suburbs, and some of them just aren't interested in politics, as opposed to the many of us who read A LOT. After discovering one of my remaining living siblings didn't vote in 2024, and the other voted for Trump (over the price of eggs, no joke) I discovered it was due to ignorance.
I discovered HCR from a friend, and so I started forwarding her to other folks. One sister lacks a computer or internet access, so I actually print it out daily, and give her a weeks worth at a time.
Others here are familiar with this resource, and perhaps you might consider forwarding it to your family as well?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0apyNEjvpQ
Belle of the Ranch puts three short videos a day on YouTube. They are generally about 4 minutes long each. She is a nurse and veteran, and she and her team know their stuff. Apparently plenty of MAGA watch her as well, as she will report on comments and questions she gets, and she'll even read some real insulting ones she received, and answer them.
There are so many good pundits out there, but I admit that I can't listen to hours of podcasts a day! She breaks issues down into small chunks easy to follow.
If you enjoy her daily ones, twice a week she does longer formats of about 10-15 minutes, on YouTube also. It is "The Roads with Belle"
Please give it a listen.
🤬😥🤬😥🤬😥🤬😥🤬
This is the sad state of "reality" in America today. I'm hoping Trump's sarcophagus will soon be rolled out, he'll be cemented inside and the World never has to hear from him again. The sarcophagus will rest in Mar a Lago like Elvis in Graceland (no insult to lovers of rock n roll intended)
Response: Isaiah 6 : 9-13
What an adept description of 1/3 of the country. The echo chamber of MAGA.
It turns out, after all, that regime change is critically necessary to enable even the most basic resolution of the current conflict. It's just that . . . the regime change is needed more desperately in Washington than it is in Tehran!
Indeed. The only bus that's losing its wheels is the US-bus. The ChristoNazis are continuing to triumph. In fact, they just destroyed our most powerful civil rights organization: https://apnews.com/article/southern-poverty-law-center-criminal-investigation-db7fdcf9baa0d1b24b8f1e1f2cebc0be?user_email=e72e7137fe6cf09f434b4234223ed439a7bda75191bf5fbb046317f8fa97fb36 And they don't give a tinker's damn about the polls. Why? Because no matter what atrocities the ChristoNazis inflict on us, no matter how despicably they poll, there's nobody anywhere in this failed and defeated nation -- say again (nobody) -- with the courage and law-enforcement powewr to stop them before the US-bus is not merely de-wheeled but totally reduced to scrap and most of its occupants enslaved, imprisoned or executed.
Sure. The SPLC is run by idiots and will be taken down by the highly competent MAGA DOJ... /s
And Marc Elias would like a word.
Loren, I have been donating to them since Trump was elected the first time. I simply do not believe what is being alleged is true. All kinds of ways to spin things.
Carol, I assume the charges are Trumped up, pun intended. But that doesn't matter. The principals will be convicted, the Robbers Court will uphold the convictions and the Southern Poverty Law Center will go the way of Reconstruction. End of story.
I didn't realize you were a prophet, LOL!!!
No prophet, Brian; I merely refuse to deny the magnitude of our defeat, including the all-important extent to which the ChristoNazis control the judiciary -- and therefore (using the techniques pioneered by Hitler and his Original Nazis), have conquered our (failed) nation. https://link.apnews.com/view/696ab5d77319816240122965qzlhd.9u9a/76b7e256
SPLC is not destroyed! These corrupt people are attacking it. This is probably the best fund raising event that SPLC has ever had. I am sending another donation as I am sure many others will. This is one good way to resist the fascists and that is available to every citizen who wants to save our democracy.
You liked the "ad" as per below to Ally. Send me an e-mail address and I'll get it to you, too. gideonse@midmaine.com
Loren, this is nothing other than a malicious use of the legal system. I hope that cooler heads will prevail. Do I trust that will happen? Not enough to bet money on it.
Hey, Ally, enjoying an occasional pass through HCR's discussion 'pool.' A week ago I retired from public service for the third time since 1996, but not before sending off to 60 DC Dem 'leaders' a 9000+ word planning analysis modeling for them what THEY should have been doing since November 5, 2024, Evidence collected in those seventeen months made it clear to me, in their pronouncements or their fund-raising ads, they do not know what their goals for America or what the stakes are in support of the Republic. They're just too deep in their own weeds. Two-thirds of the document keys to the regime's misdeeds, as they impact specified provisions of the original Constitution. I address them in the context of the stakes in the coming midterm elections, the tasks needing to be undertaken thereafter to perform the oversight responsibilities leading up to the 2028 Presidential election. The new President and the new Congress will be seated in 2029 and a dozen years following thereafter (roughly parallel to the dozen it took 250 years ago to get from the Declaration to the Constitution) will likely be required to address the challenges Trump has revealed to what the founders gave us circa 1788. The essay isn't as polished as I would have liked; nearing the end my word processing ap went rogue on me reformatting unbidden the entire 19-page production. I felt obliged to send it 'as it was' rather than wait any longer.
I'd love to read it!! (formatted or not)
E-mail me your e-mail and I'll get it to you. gideonse@midmaine.com
Done
After reading Paul Krugman’s Substack about the Hungarian attempt to shed Orbán, I wonder if we can manage the same. “Strike Day” on May first will tell US a lot about what we are brave enough to do. If millions do no shopping, no one shows up at school, and even thousands do not go to work, coupled with VA’s vote today, it will certainly send a message. Resistance, in any form on 5/1 will be heard in DC. Indivisible promised US this, and today’s disapproval percentages suggest that perhaps we may not sink further into the oligarchic morass.
Not to rain on any parades, but last night's Virginia vote was already that message Republican Congresscritters were hoping they would never hear. That particular bell came through loud and clear because it came in the form of votes. What they think about boycotts -- if they even notice -- is harder to pinpoint.
I think "it depends", and what we message to each other, but there are a lot of unused votes out there that need using. We're in "all hands on deck" need of participation.
ITCTT, I wager they do notice, however, they try to erase blow off asap. I believe actions are priorities for each of us vs the nazigang. I’ll certainly be encouraging people here to boycott plus May 1st. I NEVER EVER GIVE UP because that’s what the nazigang want more than anything. They sow fear and as far as I see, have been quite effective at it. FEAR= false evidence appearing real. The brave person is not he or she who does not feel afraid, but he or she who conquers that fear.
ICCT: This should be only the first boycott. Repetition just might get attention.
Sending wishes -- from your keyboard to God's ears.
ICTT, do you think they’ll send in the Brown Shirts to break up the strike?
We are at the point where resistance has to be continuous to shut down the economy and have an impact. A one day strike will be completely ignored as trump continues to spew his deranged mind here and globally. It is sickening. Also, "friends" and/or family who voted for and support this madman and his "Liquor Cabinet" should be shunned. No rationalizing, just walk away. They don't have basic human decency and are just as evil as the monsters occupying the former 3 branches of our government!
Like is for your use of the term "Liquor Cabinet". That is a gem.
I saw that on a post on Borowitz!
"We are at the point where resistance has to be continuous to shut down the economy and have an impact."
Leftish claptrap.
Guaranteed that shutting down the economy would have the impact of cementing a Republican victory.
This will likely be the first—practice for ones to come. Like the rallies, they should increase in frequency and numbers. They don’t preclude daily work. They just get US together.
Anne Appelbaum had an insightful post today on the Hungarian election
https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/goulash-authoritarianism
There are lessons that will be learned from Magyar’s electoral overthrow of Victor Orban by both Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats are looking for a model for how to win at the midterms. The Republicans are looking for how to minimize their losses
Democrats can’t allow themselves to be caught up in euphoria. Magyar is not a progressive, and he stayed clear of social issues, with tight messaging focused on Orban’s corruption and its economic impact on the average Hungarian. He was not engaging the left. Democrats cannot do that. The oligarchs will not easily let go of control—they are far more powerful here, with vastly more money to spend on influencing the outcome.
If Democrats want to start looking for a model presidential candidate for 2028, they might want to look to Canada and Carney to see what a competent technocrat can accomplish.
Republicans are going to put the Orban loss under a microscope to understand what went wrong and how they can avoid it happening here. Orban was not prepared for a blowout. He bowed out to allow the “he was not really an autocrat” fiction to gain traction, so he could keep open the slim possibility of a return to power. He can look to Trump for a model of how to engineer a return from a stint in the wilderness.
While Rs may lose both the House and the Senate in the midterms, it is unlikely that Democrats will win veto-proof majorities in both houses, allowing Rs to stall legislative reform. What Rs won't be able to do is cause new legislative damage. Their window of opportunity is closing rapidly.
The Rs best strategy will be trying to force through voter-suppression bills ahead of the midterms in state legislatures and in Congress. The pressure to push through the SAVE America Act will return, along with some temporary workaround of the filibuster in the Senate. If they want to have a chance in 2028, they need to blunt the 2026 blue wave. They can’t afford to let the filibuster go entirely because they will soon be in the minority. A “Madman Trump” who vetoes everything strategy may work as long as Trump is in office, but they have to hedge against the risk that Trump will leave office early because his mental deterioration will make him intolerably erratic to his oligarch puppetmasters.
My biggest fear regarding the Senate is that Alito and/or Thomas are replaced with other christo-nazis that will continue to ignore long time precedents like Roe and birth right citizenship and continue to give Trump whatever he asks for in the shadow docket.
Agreed. Cruz and Lee are being bruited as the replacements of choice for Thomas and Alito. But they can’t be filibustered thanks to rules changes 10 years ago. So it only takes 50 with JD as the deciding vote. I don’t think there is any way to stop that now that there are articles in the press about Republicans losing the Senate at the midterms. It would be Republican political malpractice if they didn’t do it.
But will their egos allow it? Will vulnerable Senators support such blatant manipulation? If they retire, I would expect the action to happen only after the loss of the Senate, if that’s our future.
The ones retiring are McConnell, Daines, Lummis, Ernst, and Tillis. All have supported hard-right SCOTUS nominees in the past. There is an informal "collegiality" rule in the Senate that you don't block the nomination of a fellow Senator.
There are currently 53 R Senators, so it would take 4 R votes against a Trump choice to tank a nomination since JD would vote for the nominee to break the tie. If DINO Fetterman voted for the nominee, it would take 5 Rs to vote against.
Tuberville is a sixth Senator not running for re-election, but he is running for Governor of Alabama with 63% support, so he would toe the party line.
John Cornyn is running for re-election but is in a primary run-off with Ken Paxton on May 26. If he loses in the primary, he might flip.
So the odds don't look good for hanging up a R SCOTUS nominee.
Polymarket says there is a 40% chance that Alito will retire by the end of 2026 for what it is worth.
Trump always could make it harder and nominate Aileen Cannon...
This all goes without saying, and has often been repeated. But doesn’t account for human nature. Ginsberg was bitten by the same snake.
"After reading Paul Krugman’s Substack about the Hungarian attempt to shed Orbán ... I wonder if we can manage the same."
The Hungarian success in defeating Orbán. Getting out the vote of broad coalition united to shed their government of Orbanism. We can manage this when those in the AntiDemocratic Leftish Wing stop helping elect antidemocratic Republicans.
Why do you speak of Hungary's "attempt" to shed Orbán? It turned out pretty much like the USA's "attempt" to shed Herbert Hoover in 1932.
Joe Sharp, can you enlarge on how we got rid of Hoover? Thinking about Coxey’s Army, which was the opposite of MAGA as far as I know. My limited understanding is that there was no equivalent to an army of pardoned insurrectionists nor gulags-in-waiting in 1932.
Did you see Paul Krugman’s lengthy account?
A big shout-out to Virginia's voters tonight. The New York Times confidently called the race for "yes" a done deal even as "no" votes were in the lead for more than two hours. Its benchmark (how each county would vote in a close race given past results and pre-election polling) showed "yes" ahead by 6 percentage points) -- a sign of the revulsion voters feel toward Trump and Abbott playing cutesy with redistricting elsewhere. Yet another Blue Wave marker.
Some people out there are actually doing their homework.
Looks like Richmond and surrounding counties helped push this over the finish line. I worked the polls in Richmond during early voting and yesterday and turnout was heavy in both. There’s still those court cases sitting before the state Supreme Court, but would the judiciary actually overturn the will of the voters? We’ll see…..
Happy Earth Day to all! A posthumous message from the late Jane Goodall during an interview with philanthropist Dax Dasilva in Tanzania last July, after being asked how to stay hopeful and engaged despite so many simultaneous ecological, political, economic, military, social and moral challenges. Her answer?
"Just do something."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYtb_e8Vr8&ra=m.
Thanks! I wanted to acknowledge Earth Day as well and HCR did do a great video with her cartoonist friend. Lots of hard things have happened. Lots of hard work as well. We still are here. I think of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and his preface. Also Melville’s passage in Moby Dick about the Catskill Eagle.We all can do something today .
And just in time for Earth Day, oil magnate Charles Koch's bagman Leonard Leo funneling millions to the denial of climate science and deregulation of polluting industries.
"GOP Lawmakers Passing Bills to Shield Oil Companies From Climate Lawsuits —
ProPublica examined lobbying records across 25 states, federal tax disclosures for more than a dozen organizations and notes from other closed-door strategy sessions among ALEC members and found that several Leo-supported groups are part of a national strategy to give legal immunity to companies for their climate emissions.
Since 2021, Leo has been deploying a $1.6 billion gift through a series of nonprofits and other organizations that obscure the source and the recipients of donations — so-called dark money groups. Much of that money has been routed through a nonprofit judicial advocacy group Leo founded — now called The 85 Fund — which both receives and disseminates Leo’s funding. Many of these nonprofits are increasingly focused on issues related to climate change."
.https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-alec-leonard-leo-lawsuits-fossil-fuel-oil-gas-immunity.
lin+ I have been thinking about the Iran issue, and thought to myself IF Trump had a brain cell in that noggin, he's tell the middle east to pound sand and he'd push green energy here.
But, he has no brain cells left, and he's trying to get as much $$ in his pockets as possible. Why?--he sure doesn't look like he has much time left on this earth? All the money in the world isn't going to save him.
Jane Goodall is a legend!
Maybe if Speaker Johnson has a few more no good very bad days (apologies to Judith Viorst), he'll step down from the Speakership and then step down from Congress. And if not, in the aftermath of the midterms, we'll have a new speaker anyway. And maybe even enough new Senators that we can start proceedings on another impeachment. As the saying goes, third time is a charm...
🤞🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞to your last sentence.
He thinks he's appointed by God. But the midterms ARE coming.
Many a tyrant has made such claims.
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -- Lincoln
I wish!
I doubt he'd willingly step down.
Keep up the pressure - Tell Congress we see Trump’s erratic behavior. Be LOUD! We deserve better 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Comments/reactions help keep this bumped ✊
I haven't done a "scientific" survey, but off the top of my head, I've been noticing FOTUS sycophant Rep. Tom Barrett (Republican from Michigan's 7th District) has been pumping out e-newsletters WAY more frequently than he did a few months ago. Half of the content is misleading, and he ignores the big issues of the day, but I at least like to think he's starting to feel nervous about the midterms. 🤞🏼
My MAGA Rep has done the same, completely ignoring Epstein and Iran, touting the benefits of the Big Ugly Bill. Oh well, his district was just thoroughly gerrymandered. Buh bye Rob, if the courts hold.
I’m sure they’re extremely nervous about midterms based on what’s been happening!
Thank you, Megan.
Thank you Megan!
If you can get a certain individual to comment and other Readers to engage him, you're at the top. Boy, has he stunk up the Letter today as I read in chronological order this morning.
I’m sure I know who that certain reader is. Maybe one day he’ll wake up and realize
I just reread the Declaration of Independence. I usually read it whenever I give a talk to high school or university students. Normally I don’t iterate on the list of 18 grievances against the King of Britain in the Declaration. But this time I did.
If you haven’t read the Declaration lately, you should and once you read past that all men are created equal, read those 18 grievances and you will find they are the same concerns against tyranny that our current king whattabe is committing. NO KINGS
The old proverb that says"a bully is always a coward" comes to mind when Stephen Bannon is in the spotlight. To be fair the bully quote could easily be modified to say 'always insecure.' Regardless, the omniscient Mr. Bannon describes Dems as demons when there is no one more demonic than he, with his illiberal theories, dark anarchist predictions and grifting. But as the tables slowly turn, it is easy to sense Bannon's fear that the chickens have come home to roost.
Same as always, "Every Republican accusation is a statement of intent."
⬆️🎯👏🏼
You mean the coward or the Taco that just annihilated Iran pretty much that guy. ?
I hope Trump gets tired of winning soon because all we hear is whining. He’s trying to change the mindset of a civilization that has been around for thousands of years when he needs to bend the knee. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
Is there a prediction market for whether Trump will be able to read that much without talking about his ballroom?
Someone's gonna make a pile of money...or bitcoins...or whatever...
I mean there's about 370 words. That's an awful lot to read in one sitting without some commercial breaks.
I wondered how he's going to get through, both the reading AND the inability to stay on script!
Damn straight, Bannon - we're going to nail all of you traitor scum. You in particular are going to "get yours."
Great summary of the current situation. Thank you Dr. Richardson!