The president is weaponizing the Justice Department, just as predicted. And the Supreme Court gave him immunity. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything.
How many years are we going to stand by and allow Fox News and Newsmax to spew such awful inaccuracies? We can quote great leaders and complain about Trump but until we get to the Crux of the problem there will be one trump after another.
1. Strong Democratic Leaders
2. Cable News Channels held accountable for reporting misinformation
3 Limiting campaign contributions .
We continue to treat the symptoms without stomping out the disease.
Will there always be sources that tell people what they need/want to hear? We all tend to want our biases confirmed. The difference is that one source is appealing to shared values like truth and justice and supporting democracy, the other appeals to hate and fear with misinformation that the perpetrators know is wrong, but for the sake of maintaining audience and profit, they will lie anyway.
The FCC regulates broadcasting and outlets that lie should not get licenses.
The Fox Dominion case should have been an object lesson -- lie at their peril. Republications of Trump lies without a disclaimer should make them liable.
Daniel, your statement is 100% true. However, I'm afraid its principle was operable 20 years ago, but not now. Today, we live in a world of "alternative facts," where Donald Trump and his henchmen are empowered to decide what is truth and what is not.
Under Donald's control, none of our regulating agencies and commissions can be trusted to make fair and just decisions. I hate it, but that's where we are.
Takes challenges but the FCC process remains viable.
A principal enabler like Fox is still exposed for literally billions via civil litigation. Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion after the company said the network spread false claims about them rigging the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.
Fox also has a massive pending shareholder derivitive suit. Plaintiffs allege that Fox News’ leadership breached its fiduciary duties by adopting a business model that promoted or endorsed defamation by failing to establish systems or practices to minimize defamation risk despite the known risk of liability, including broadcasting false claims about election technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic USA.
That's all good. But is the FCC pulling any broadcast licenses as a result of these legal actions?
It's not the same, but I'm reminded of Mitch McConnell's refusal to convict in Trump's J6 impeachment, claiming that justice should come from the judicial system, which in turn, failed miserably.
I was unaware that the Murdochian Ministry of Mendacity was facing a significant shareholder derivative suit, Daniel. That's good news, and thanks for the 411. (I think I just dated myself).
BTW, your O. Henry/ Herb Caen-ish moniker is a good one
I think we should use the same tactics the Rs use. For example, start a bunch of lawsuits in courts with liberal leaning judges. Two topics would be Citizens United and the presidential immunity. Move them through the court system up to the Supreme Court. This could generate a lot of publicity and would prove action to the voters. It also puts the Rs on defense. Pick out some books that favor the Rs call them out for banning. Go after churches that do politics. Revoke their tax exemptions.
Currently, Dems are always whining about things done by Rs. That doesn't generate support.
So cable is not public airways and as such there is limited ‘regulation’, part of the trick played on us is we thought we had a role while in truth these floodgates were left open…radio on the other hand continues to be the sewer, as does local TV under Sinclair’s blatant one-sided right wing propaganda.
And much of this is the regulation foisted on us by Newt and Bill, allowed the consolidation and changes in ownership rules of multiple media sources in an area, that means that when there is a storm in our town no local am radio station has local folks to go live and help deal with the crisis.
In 1987, St. Ronnie of Eureka eliminated the Fairness Doctrine. Less than ten years later, the Prince of Darkness himself, Rupert Murdoch, enabled Jaaba the Hutt, Roger Ailes to bring Fox News to the airwaves.
This is true, Mara. Yet the original federal legislation regulating first radio, then television was expanded to cover cable, even though sending signals through cable wire is not "broadcasting" via airwaves
Yes, Harvey. In the 1930s in was as awful as maybe it is today. Father Coughlin lied that German Jews were not being prosecuted and that led to the restriction on those refugees being allowed to emigrate to the US, and thus murdered in Germany or another of the countries Hitler had overcome.
"The difference is that one source is appealing to shared values like truth and justice and supporting democracy, the other appeals to hate and fear..."
Not knowing who the "other one is" the challenge is that is how FOX viewers also see it.
FOX viewers see themselves speaking the truth, men are men and women are women; abortion is murder; the left threatens democracy with its resistance to voter fraud measures; AOC and Omar spew hate painting Trump supporters with a broad brush as Nazis; leftists justifying the actions of Hamas by calling the Palestinians victims of a Jewish genocide; MSNBC stokes fear and hatred and lies (they just lost a lawsuit regarding this); Gen Z toying with Socialism, etc.
I don't agree with them but I understand them.
"You can say it just as good. You're right from your side. I'm right from mine."
The got sued over reporting a whistleblower's report that turnout to be false. Price for not verifying sources. Very different from reporting things that are known to be false.
You are correct, I agree that there is a difference between being journalistically lazy and knowingly reporting false information. An act of commission can be worse than an act of omission. Yet they still stoked fear and hatred knowing they were negligent. To be clear I agree with you, but I can understand how the other side sees it. They were so anxious to say something derogatory they did not do their due diligence and tainted their own reputation. How can viewer know any report is accurate or trueful? I don't watch either one. I stick with NPR and PBS, but I know even they have agendas.
NPR & PBS seem to have a strong bias toward the truth/facts, which is perceived to be liberal. The real problem is that when a story is selected by its very nature it can be seen as biased. Reporting that some Americans are getting deported as a simple fact can be seen as left bias.
Obama is a good man that made some serious mistakes - as has been pointed out. “Playing nice” was one of them.
We need leadership that enjoys playing rough.
With that in mind I point out that California, the state, has started manufacturing and distributing medicine at cost. Starting with Nalocone right now. Next on the list is insulin.
Excellent assessment, David. I'm sure that Obama felt he was walking a tightrope as the first Black president; I also believe that he was more focused on that than what he needed to do as president. (Sidebar: I think he was the best representative of the Republican party since Eisenhower. Just think of what he could have done in the first two years with majorities in both houses of Congress).
Kudos to California for manufacturing Naloxone; it saves so many lives.
Obamacare was actually invented by the Heritage Foundation and first put into place by governor Romney. Obama must have thought there was no way Republicans could disparage it. But that’s exactly what the did.
Obama’s first bid mistake was to surround himself with people from the Clinton administration.
If the Supreme Court caves to Sideshow Don for 2028 and allows him to run for a 3rd term, that is Pres. Obama's chance to make good on his mistakes and run against him
I wouldn’t vote for any ex-president or vice president or person who ran for president, based on the fact that not one of them (with the exception of Barack Obama a little teeny weenie speech he made) has come out against Trump, has come out against what this administration doing to our democracy. Hillary has given a few interviews. None of them have responded with the passion that we need i.e. none of them have acted like real RE AL leaders. Instead they’re enjoying their retirement paid by us. I am somewhat pissed about this. I would not vote for any of them now, and I voted for all of them. I am somewhat pissed about this as you can tell.
I think you have to buy it directly from the state. Maybe do a search online.
BTW, if I remember correctly it was a couple years ago Newsom announced that California would be making and distributing insulin. This was BEFORE the price cap put on by the Feds. Suddenly big Pharma was losing the fifth largest market on the planet. That is what got the deal passed by the Feds. California played rough.
The same thing with Biden and even though republicans didn’t have the Senate majority they pulled that one jerk could stop things routinely too often. No military promotions because they don’t have the skills to work on a bipartisan basis. Democrats should be using those tools on all of Trumps garbage.
When I read these events taking place, my brain is rattled and steam billows from my ears. And this all means that I can’t say what I’m thinking for various reasons. Because some of it would be illegal and others would be exercising the blame game about who is to blame for this incredible time.
It’s Deja Vu all over again as I recall every f-Ing day a new crisis. He suffers from child neglect and paternal abuse and his only ambition it to grab the gold at any chance and destroy everything good in the world. He needs to destroy in order to feel good. And on the other side, a once 200 year old president who suffered ole people’s syndrome and lost to the most destructive person ever in the history of this land.
That's the problem, as Obama did, to play nice, always by the book. We are looking down the abyss now. Are we still going to play nice? Hopefully this teaches us a lesson to apply, if we ever have another opportunity.
We recently returned from two weeks exploring Singapore. We came home in amazement; talking to many locals, it seems the most civilized society we’ve encountered. The Wikipedia essay mentions the US objection to them not having a « free press » but their former president explained that « free » can lead to the propaganda we have here. Lee Kwan Yew was more philosopher king than US media would allow. Asia will fill the vacuum created by our ignorance, IMHO.
Seems to me, you are implying we should not have a <free> press. Should I be content with what fearless leader, and oligarch-owned media tell us what the truth is?
It was Ronald Reagan who ended the fairness doctrine.
And it never applied to cable networks; the government could deny the broadcast networks their license to broadcast over the public airwave frequency if they didn't comply with the rules.
Ronald Reagan was a significant step towards the fascist reality we are living today.
What I read on Wikipedia about the fairness doctrine just now. Obama did decline and stated that the fairness doctrine did not address the issues presented by the present day media outlets. I believe he was hoping for something more intensive that would address all of the issues for, the license of both broadcasting and cable and Internet media. This is just my opinion of what I gathered in the article.
I read an article a year or so ago that explained why the Fairness Doctrine wasn’t re-established. I had to do with the internet and complexities of free speech. I would think they could still come up with something when it comes to news. Like defining a news show as requiring verifiable facts backing up opinions, or again to present both sides. Hopefully this will be addresses after we wrestle our democracy back and correct all the weaknesses…install American Democracy 2.0.
We really ought to seriously consider reviving the Fairness Doctrine though it would probably not work very well since broadcast is so much less of our media world these days. We could regulate Broadcast because the government owns the airwaves, but online info is mostly on privately owned platforms.
Still it seems to me that we should be able to do something about hate speech and misinformation. How are the Europeans handling it? They seem to be better at it than we are.
I don't see why the government couldn't regulate privately-owned platforms... there are regulations on privately-owned businesses. Now that over-air TV is a pretty small share of most people's media diet, we need a new regulation that covers ALL media platforms.
Even when we had the Fairness Doctrine, it only applied to broadcast TV. Never applied to cable. And that’s where all the bias really is. Where the problems are.
“How many years are we going to stand by and allow Fox News and Newsmax to spew such awful inaccuracies?”
How many? I don’t know, but I do know that this catastrophe is likely to continue as long as 60% of white voters, 70% of white working class voters, and 80% of white evangelical voters continue to vote for Republican candidates.
I was lucky to stumble across the vid. 🙂 Yes, watching people slip into a black-hole of fear and power must be painful. 💔 Thank you, Cindy, for responding to me. 🤝🏻
Yes, at some point Faux needs to be held accountable…I keep hoping that one of kids will take over and actually return to journalism, rather than dealing drugs.
Led by 1, which we have and had, but then didn't Vote for enough.
Biden's amazing teams (esp FTC, imho) were tackling monopolies like super heroes, and strengthening Truth in reporting was being studied. Part of the "finish the job" agenda that was blown up by Netanyahu (and Dems blind loyalty, as related to Number 3)
and by hubrism and too many old school Dems in the party higherups.
Sadly, I think we saw what many of us feared from the start, that MISOGYNY is at Least as powerful as RACISM in the US, and perhaps needs to be examined within the Democratic Party, not just entirely blamed on the awful Repo culture.
Where were the men standing up for women at the Women's March? After Dodd?
In NOV 2024?
But while we face that sad truth, we must, as always, follow the money, and how it is corrupting Both parties.
Russel, the scumbag president will pardon them as long as they keep playing elephant in a crystal shop. That's the deal. No consequences, other than getting richer.
Only for federal crimes not for civil contempt. It wouldn't be a great look for one's AG and head of FBI to be fined for contempt of court. That's probaby unlikely to happen.
There was an unusual case involving contempt proceedings against an ICE agent in Boston who had arrested a man in the middle of a trial outside the courtroom. A federal judge later dismissed the contempt case after an application by the DA, but it appears the DA had known about the arrest and had failed to inform the court. So we're now seeing both the FBI and local prosecutors being drawn into immigration enforcement. What's next? -
Not for state offenses, which should be filed by the states effected by the criminal acts she and the dept. commit in trumps name. All these offenses effect citizens in the states, and if the AG's in them can charge and convict (giving due process, of course), trump is powerless to pardon.
Well, we could see the intimidation of judges; president's cronies buying up the news media; pseudo laws; organized crime coordinated by the govt; unleashed conspiracy theories; norms ill-defined making them vulnerable; no more checks and balances. Did I leave anything out?
Yes Stephanie, you left all the rest out but for you to name all the cruel, illegal, and indecent acts this regime is committing will be impossible in a lifetime. I do appreciate your intention. :)
Get in the streets. Write to and call your congresspersons; join an Indivisible group or form one. (All you have to do is input “Indivisible.” The national organization was based on a paper put together in 2015 (the day after the first election of DT). There are thousands of chapters. Members do meetings, marches and rallies, organize phone banks, write postcards to voters, and work for Justice in states that neighbor their own.
Indeed - it all needs to be accomplished. I've been writing, calling, demonstrating, joined the League of Women Voters, and the local Democratic Chapter. I will check out indivisible - thanks for that suggestion.
You can read the full complaint at PBS Case No. 25-M-397 captioned U.S.A. v. Hannah C. Dugan but, the real prosecutors-in-interest are Donald J. Tump, Kash Patel & Pamela Bondi (Trump 2.0). Kash's operative identified on the pleadings is Special FBI Agent, LINDSAY S.
As a former trial attorney, I always look for real or possible percipient witnesses:
I will not go through my entire list of actual witnesses.
(1) An actual witnesses is "JUDGE A" mentioned but, not identified in Pamela Bondi's complaint; (2) The suspect's Attorney and his involvement in the Timeline, tick tock tick tock.🕰; (3) The FBI agent(s) who orchestrated the Show Bust of the Judge outside the Courthouse.
Possible witnesses are (1) the Presiding Judge or her/his Representatives in the Milwaukee County Courthouse. (2) Judge Dugan & the ICE Agent(s) outside her courtroom "speaking with the Presiding Judge".
I expect the Judge to challenge the pleading in Law & Motion hearings if WISCONSIN does not have a freedom of speech statute: See, Wisconsin Constitution Article 1, Section 3: "Every person may freely speak, write & publish her sentiments on all subjects ....
No more sympathy to my relatives and friends who voted the monster in; they knew what they were signing up for . . . and they got it. Now, we are all getting it. 💔
Troubling this show-trial-&-tribulation of the Milwaukee judge and deportation of a child who is, per the government of laws embodied in the Constitution, a citizen of this country. 😳
Recalling the race riots of the 1960s: kids, stay home and study, especially your Civics. Parents, go get a gun and prepare for civil war. 😢
Strange that I trust the statements of a publicly declared adversary of my country (i.e., China) more than I do the statements of my own government. 🤢
Trump being at the top of his game is like a fly being atop a smoking pile of dog-Pootin. 🥳
Trump is the monster created by the Supreme Court with the immunity decision. The Supreme Court is now the monster created by the fascist GOP and their ultra-rich Oligarch sponsors, and the GOP has been anti-democracy for a very long time. Otherwise, they would have worked all these decades to strengthen our democracy, not constantly working to undermine and sabotage the ability of every citizen to a free and fair vote. They are wholly owned by the ultra-rich and carry out a strategy to stack the legal system with Judges and Supreme Court Justices who will strip the public of the benefits we all deserve from the society and the government that we as a country have invested in for 250 years.
As trumps poll numbers continue to fall, the right-wing will grow more and more dangerous.
The ultra-rich and power-hungry fascist GOP knows that if they don't take total power over the country now and destroy our democracy, they will lose more power as the population grows ever more diverse.
They are already using terror tactics to intimidate businesses; collages, and now they are beginning to terrorize the courts.
Everybody should expect the fascists to be more violent as this fascist GOP President and Congress lose popularity, it will be bloody and deadly.
The word “could” can be amended to present and future tense: “what is and will go wrong?” It’s ALL wrong. It’s in action now and the courts have no enforcement mechanism. The demons defy the court orders, so here we are.
In essence, the Supremely Corrupted Court and the Republican traitors to the Constitution in the Senate put a known criminal back out on the street and told the police they couldn't touch him. Pretty simple what was going to happen.
Trump calling himself “honest” is the height of paradox.
Things are falling apart as Ari Melber of MSNBC pointed out.
Pam Bondi is way too political to be even close to fair.
The goals of Project 2025 are being achieved even as the courts and public opinion are doing their collective best to stop it. We can”t afford the rest of Trump’s term as we watch our institutions and structures being torn apart.
Speaking of liars, were I a gambling man, which I am not, I would bet vast sums that Trump grants the arch-fabilist George Santos a full pardon...and maybe even gives him a job in the regime.
While Doge screws the elderly people out of their meager SS payments by marking their database records as dead, why aren't they instead looking at all of the Medicare/Medicaid fraud going on?
Trump commuted or pardoned several major Medicare/Medicaid fraudsters during his first term - Alfonso Antonio Costa, Todd Farha, William Kale, Duncan Fordham, Judith Negron, Phil Esformes, Daniela Gozes-Wagner, Salomon Melgan. They defrauded the system out of over $2 billion. Judith Negron was ordered to pay $87 million in restitution and the administration forgave the rest of it in the commutation.
There are at least a dozen other fraudsters who he either pardoned or commuted their sentences.
Talk about low hanging fruit. Many of these health care fraudster are stealing tens of millions of dollars (Senator Rick Scott stole at least $400 million as well) so you can bet the government can claw back way more than they can get from a few SS recipients.
I read that the claimed DOGE savings of $160 however many dollars cost $149 of those same dollars. It was late last night and I don’t remember the exact numbers but basically ass his chaos has so far cost us almost what he claims he saved. Millions, billions, he just makes numbers up if you read Judd Legume.
My former boss, now deceased, owned an advertising agency and had a side hustle producing professional cooking competitions. I created the promotional materials for these competitions. When we developed prospectuses for sponsors, he would give me numbers for crowd size, economic impact, etc. I would always ask him, "Are these real numbers or promoter numbers?"
He would just grin.
Muskrat is not a business leader. He's a promoter.
OMG - I think you're right -- I'm glad I didn't think of this yesterday when I saw he'd been sentenced, so that I had a few hours of being happy justice had been done.
(I chose the CBC link because I no longer regard monopoly-owned U.S. mainstream media as at all credible. Long before Trump it had become the world's first privately owned, for-profit version of Josef Goebbels' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.)
Nah ya got that mixed up. John Adam’s ain’t gay. He/She was Trans. Started off as a lesbian, then transitioned to a dude and had sex with babes thus curing himself of being a lesbian. Understand now? ( sorry I am so overwhelmed and frustrated. My sarcasm just kicked in). Thank you Mr. Katz once again
No, not in this administration ! While George Santos was awaiting sentencing he really bulked up. Very un Pete Hegseth looking. Can’t have the likes of him in the Oval Office. Not with our svelte President. If the interview in Time magazine is not enough and his appearance in Rome in a blue suit at the Pope’s funeral doe not prove that he is totally out of touch with everyday polite behavior we can watch, with horror the behavior of the people he has appointed and who are supposedly advising him.
If someone can cite one good idea this man has had, one good policy, one good interview, one true golf score please respond to this.
Exactly. The goals of Project 2025 are to turn the US into a White Supremacist Christian Nationalist Theocracy along the lines of Afghanistan and Iran for Islam. Yesterday on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's Substack Religion Prof. Althea Butler said that this battle has to be fought by middle aged and older White folks. She did not feel that Tesla protests and Hands Off marches are the way to go. She is endorsing the 11 million people General Strike.
The US is extremely dangerous for people with Black and Brown skin, immigrants, trans, LGBTQ+, women of child bearing years, any woman, judges, lawyers, journalists, activists, academics, students, and any other group they choose to pick on, like Blue State Governors and Mayors and courts.
My mom was born in Germany the year after Hitler came to power. Then her family was divided in two as the DDR built its wall. I grew up hearing about what life under fascism was like and don't know how far this will go in the US. One thing is there are a lot of incompetent people carrying it out, but still, they are also accomplishing a lot because someone has figured out how to void the Constitution.
I think people need to start figuring out their red lines. If you are middle aged+, native born and White, then you probably won't be one of the first they will come after, unless you are in one of the categories I listed above.
No. But they will cut our medical and social security and erase our pensions. I understand what you are saying, but it’s not just the Christofascists we are dealing with here. We have the Yarvin-inspired billionaires who are into control by data, eugenics, and removal of ‘unproductive people’ by death or (as Trump is quoted in HCR’s 4/14 letter) deportation.
We have to fight but it is not ever going to be risk free for dissident voices—even for the demographic of white seniors.
Heather I get that, but really, I agree with Dr. Butler that it is the safest group under this president.
While I have brown skin, I did not leave for this alone. I moved to a country that has a lower cost of living and guaranteed health care in my retirement. I have asthma and the air and water are cleaner. Those are considerations for me as well.
Here is an article in my local Chicago neighborhood paper about my former employer, and my husbands current employer, the University of Chicago and how the Trump administration is affecting them financially.
Yes. I also realize that the Yarvin, Musk, Thiel types have their plans, and have stolen all of our data so they can do nefarious things to the country as a whole. I am hearing discussions of what those might be. They can destroy our credit, steal our identities, steal from us, blackmail, etc... Those who voted for Trump have clearly not enough knowledge of how much damage they did to themselves. In fact, being undocumented has its advantages in a nation where the president lets crooks steal all our data, in that they will just have a lot less data to work with. I hated that my daughter had to file taxes for the first time because she has now given those criminals and conmen access to her routing information and bank account. Most of that money does not stay in the US, because she is a student here in Germany, but still, I wish she has zero data in the US, because they can ruin her life financially.
It’s almost impossible to escape being part of data in this day and age. We are under that ‘thumb.’
I have been in conversation with Canadians and our former Allies on other platforms and they are so angry and hateful at this version of the US. I understand and I do share about the protests and the minority that the 2024 vote actually represented (and the very probable hacking in some Swing State districts—see Election Truth Alliance data on YouTube). But mostly I advise them to keep a vigilant eye on ‘their own backyards’ because the antidemocratic forces are at work there as well. Russian disinformation and manipulation through social media has had a lot to do with it, was an actor in the Brexit vote, the right wing anti-immigration wave in Western nations —and even in the conflicts leading to the waves of refugees. Culture wars in Hungary were co-opted to create a dictator upon whom FOX media doted. And dark money by the billionaires fueled these divisions as well. We are a uniquely wealthy target nation but the forces that have compromised us are at work abroad. I advise them to strengthen their laws, not to rely on decorum or unwritten protocols, and to mind the media.
As regards the TechBro agenda, every day Thiel and the others are getting more involved, more contracts, more access. I found this an informative listen (though-ads are a pain). https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no?feature=shared
Thanks for the link Heather. These people are so crazy. I have read Project 2025, but not the Butterfly Revolution. I guess I should read it. Joanna does a great job of putting these two groups, The Tech Bros, and the Christian Nationalists at the Heritage Foundation together.
In the EU there is a Digital Security Act since 2022. It does not address the behaviors of these tech bros, but the behaviors of their tech products. It supports research into the effects. This should be included in that. I wrote two pieces on research on the influence of X and TikTok on the German elections. Here is the second one.
Yes. But, given that they are the largest provider of health care to people in medicaid in the Chicago area, losing those patients will really hurt their bottom line and will obviously effect the level of care. I have wonderful doctors with them, many of whose children I have taught, so they have taken especially good care of me.
Useful advice well presented by Ms. Weide, whom we should all thank. I would add three points:
(1)- Ignore the desperate attempts to attribute the election of Trump to well-meaning ignorance or naivety; the Trump voters' true intent was not MAGA but MAHA: Maximize America's Hatefulness Again. A lynch-mob-minded rabble Infinitely more vile than any "basket of deplorables," they knew exactly what they were doing, and as an NYT focus group recently revealed, they are celebrating Trump's atrocities with sadistic relish. They are as venomous as cobras, as predatory as sharks, as dangerous as rabid bears.
(2)- Emotionally difficult though it may be, especially for those without military training, picture what will happen to you and yours if -- or because you're reading the alternative press, more likely when -- the MAGAstapo kicks in your door. Apply the military's seven Ps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. Assess your physical and emotional state, shape your response accordingly, and practice its details until they become instinctive.
(3)-Another axiom to remember in these times is Lev Bronstein's, this from Tsarist Russia in1905: "In every gathering of three revolutionaries, there is at least one agent of the Okhrana."
Loren, you describe the hatefulness of this group very well. I don't know whether you read Andra Watkins, but when my Democrats Abroad bookclub read The Project 2025 document, we referred to her a lot to gain understanding of the Christian Nationalist Agenda. She is really explaining what we are seeing now as a CN takeover of the country. She herself escaped her CN upbringing and it has led a lifetime of trauma. I feel so concerned for people who have not read P2025, and do not know what CN is. Religious Prof Althea Butler said on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's Zoom meeting yesterday, that she does not see these CNs as expecting Christ to return to the earth any time soon. This is why they are taking over everything. So, whatever their differing end of days beliefs are, they are not preparing for that now, but for taking over and imposing their religion on everyone else. Now Andra Watkins has explained that CNs who are part of the New Apostolic Reformation, believe that everyone on the planet has to follow CN behavior for them to be able to return, because God is not coming to save them until everyone behaves the way he wants. In their view, that means heterosexual marriage and breeding for White people. The rest of us will be gotten rid of. They have merged with the White Power nation long enough that it is hard to distinguish the two, other than that the CNs do not have militias.
I like the 7 Ps. I know several Substacks that are advocating one be ready for survival in a warlike situation. I am starting to prepare. I have a supplies list and will make sure to have these things on hand. I also have a meet up plan for my daughter and a shelter in place plan for her. We know that people like Thiel and Bezos, Zuckerberg have their luxury Bunkers. I think Thiel's is in New Zealand.
As for the agent thing. I am reading The Illegals by Shawn Walker which is about the Russian deep cover spy program. It is interesting how ineffective they are given the amount of energy they put into them, in part because their leadership is so short sighted and paranoid. Many got put to death because of this paranoia. That is the danger for American spies now too.
Linda...I'm a gentrification-exiled New Yorker born of an intellectual family, my first-generation father boarding-school educated in New England, my paternal grandparents British subjects, my birth-mother one of the first three women graduated from Michigan State College in urban planning and landscape architecture. We moved from the City to Jacksonville, Fla, in 1943 on behalf the war effort; my father would eventually be the equivalent of a deputy regional director for the War Production Board and its successor the War Assets Administration. During my first month in our Jacksonville residence, in the locked playground of a gated St. Johns River apartment complex, three older Southron boys tried to kill me by holding me upside-down and burying my head in the sandbox. They did this because I "talked funny" and "looked like a kike." I was three; they were six and seven; I survived only because a six-year-old neighbor girl grabbed a child-sized garden hoe, beat my attackers and sent them home bleeding and screaming for their mothers. The girl was the daughter of a naval officer who was one of my father's colleagues; she had befriended me in that protective way older girls sometimes befriend younger boys, and we remained close friends and constant companions until the navy sent her father to Europe in 1947.
To reduce a long and rather complex story to a single sentence, familial dysfunction and divorce left me with my father, a wonderful stepmother, a childhood, adolescence and post-military young adulthood spent al;most entirely involuntarily in the South, during which I repeatedly experienced the vengeful, sadistically bigoted hatred I first encountered in that Jacksonville sandbox. Years later I would encounter it again in Bellingham, Seattle and the rural Pacific Northwest, exemplifying its venomous metastasis -- chiefly by Christianity -- from the South to eventually contaminate the entire nation.
As to why I was a hate-magnet, it's pretty much explained here: https://www.dispatchesfromdystopia.net/2013/09/press-censorship-lessons-from-ralph-nader-and-a-knoxville-atrocity.html I was raised Marxian by my father, who was enlightened by the Crash of '29, which bounced him from Montreal's McGill University; his pre-Hitler-Stalin-Pact party membership got him purged from the federal government in late 1947, whereupon we were reduced from a new Lincoln family to a used Plymouth family. My public activism began c. 1957 with post-Sputnik formal debate on behalf the Soviet approach to education; military service (Regular Army) was 1959-1962, 16 months in Korea,
honorable discharge 1965. Post-military formal activism includes the Southern Civil Rights Movement (see above link), also the Anti-Vietnam War, Alternative Press and Back-to-the-Land movements, rural-agricultural-commune and abortion-clinic defense, Occupy, the fight for the $15 minimum wage; and a lot of propagation both of socialism and Gaian paganism, which I see as a dynamic symbiosis. So, yeah, I'm no doubt on the List, probably on more than one.
Were I not 85 years old and diagnosed as terminally ill, I'd have already taken advantage of whatever emigration privileges are afforded me as the grandson of British subjects and happily departed this abominable "Unified Reich." I frankly envy those of you who yet have that option.
I agree Greg. Here is a link to her Substack. She has been 🚍 y explaining what is going on in terms of the government now implementing their plan to turn the US into a Christian Nationalist Theocracy and how to understand Anti-Christian Bias from the point of view of both CNs and the US government under Trump. https://andrawatkins.substack.com/
Right now I am reading that and Timothy Snyder's On Freedom, which my Political Book Club is reading after reading Jefferson Cowie's Freedom's Dominion. These men are talking about two different types of Freedom. We have arranged for Cowie to speak to Democrats Abroad, but everyone is welcome to sign up. It is free.
All of you miss psy ops. Hate can be traced to Jungian collective subconscious fear of the "other." Some people were inundated with disinformation. IMHO the power of the "men in womens' sports" trope was highly effective is some demographics.
Some people were too frightened to vote. Bomb threats, threats to election workers.....
If one (1) person was intimidated, it was a crime.
There are probems with the count in swing states. “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”― Joseph Stalin
Could you give more detail about why Althea Butler feels Hands Off protests are ineffective? What is the method(s) by which middle aged and older white people need to protest?
She did not say. She implied that they are not going to do the serious work of turning the government around. I still think that these protests have several effects.
1) They let the Judges who have been ruling against Trump and his administration know that the people are behind them by being quite visible. In light of what happened to the judge yesterday, I think this is very important, and people should hit the streets now over this.
2) It lets the fascists know that the people are aware of what they are doing and don't like it.
3) In the case of the Tesla protests it has taken away wealth from Musk, and forced him to have to step back from his DOGE stuff, although that is kind of too late.
4) It develops community around protest, and taking on the local may topple the national. It is good to be in an organized group right now for action. My political group is a support group as much as it is anything else. We need support right now.
I was looking at Butler's Substack after the talk,
but did not have time to read through much to see whether she explains this in more detail there. I do think that the 11 million is evidence based at making a shift, because that represents a large group of people, 3.5% of the population. I think contacting her would be the best way to find out what she thinks.
Thanks for taking the time to expand. I agree with your points; that’s why I was puzzled. To see such large and continuing protests in This country has not occurred since Vietnam. These build community and tell politicians we are not happy.
I was a history major, and still enjoy learning about history as does my physicist husband. My understanding is that things change because of all of the different things that go on. It is the people who are pushing for change, the people who are resisting it, the people who are using violence, the people who are using peace, money, people in other countries, the effects of the world on the situation. All of that leads to change. We can do so too.
Seems to me there’s always someone who wants everyone else to jump on their particular bandwagon, and feel compelled to denigrate what others are doing. This is not helpful. We need many people taking many different actions, using different tactics, pursuing different strategies in order to win.
And none of these approaches will bring instant results. It takes time to build a successful nationwide resistance. Let’s don’t insult anyone’s non-violent efforts. Yes, a general strike will be a big step forward. Yes, it takes time to build the capacity to pull it off successfully.
Yes, Tesla Takedowns are working, rattling the billionaires and growing in numbers and broadening the impact. There is no need to shoot ourselves in the foot by disparaging what others are contributing to the fight.
If Australian cartoonists glanced in the AG's direction, they'd have a field day. Because of the ultra-famous ocean beach near Sydney Harbor Heads, the word "Bondi" (pronounced Bon-dye) conjures up a muscular lifesaver in scanty beach attire and a swimmer's cap tied under the prominent chin.
A German cartoonist has had a field day with Hegseth and Signal.
First a comic where a Hausfrau, leaning on a broom is telling someone that she is on Hegseth's Signal chat. She then says, "you wouldn't believe who he is going to bomb next."
The next evening a comic where a group of old women are sitting at a card table, and one is holding up her tablet and asking the rest what they want to know because she claims she is on Hegseth's Grannie's Signal Chat. The implication being that Hegseth is so lose with info and his Signal security that some anonymous woman is on his chat group, and that he tells his grandma all of the defense secrets too, because he is so loose lipped.
And yet they are… either the powers that be or the powers that are need to be clearly defined, a struggle of epic consequences for the world is in play . Trump’s being brought down may be the first notice to the rest of the authoritarian regimes noted ‘on the rise’ …demise.
The only good news in this Mad Carnival: AG Bondi calling the Wisconsin judge "deranged" is slander and therefore actionable. I hope the judge sues immediately, because in a courtroom, judges can have anyone leave the room through any door she wants, and therefore not derangement.
No. Presidents are the most public of public figures in the world, meaning it's almost impossible to slander or libel a president. The AG slandered a local judge in Wisconsin, who is a public figure technically but so minor that a jury might rule that Bondi went beyond reasonableness and slandered her legally.
At a minimum, Bondi impaired the Justice Dept's case against the judge by potentially tainting the jury pool. Good. Bondi and Patel will hopefully drown in their cesspool of sh-t.
I'd love to agree, but this is an issue with our First Amendment and free speech. The judge is a public figure and Bondi is arguing the judge's interpretation of the law is deranged. It would be difficult to win such a case. Perhaps we need better slander laws as Canada and the UK have.
Thanks for this, Gary, appreciated. You may be right--Bondi didn't specifically say "You are deranged, Judge." Bondi clearly meant this judge, but she may not have been specific enough to meet a slander standard. Then again, who knows what a local jury, no friend of Power beating up "their" judge, might rule?
The public vs private is more interesting. I'd argue that an obscure local judge might technically be a public figure but Bondi's nationally televised smear was so far above and beyond legitimate it made the smear actionable. At least a county jury and the Wisconsin Supreme Court might buy that argument, even if the U.S. Supreme Court might rule otherwise. But then we're back to Square One: is calling a judge or judges "deranged" enough of a smear to be slander?
The Trump Crime Family certainly is pressure-testing every institution in America, from Washington to state circuit courts.
It was also a false arrest. They had an administrative warrant , she told them to come back with a judicial warrant. They had no legal grounds for the arrest and if there is a trial I suspect it will blow up in their faces. They may drop the charges to avoid this but she should sue Kash Patel and Pam Bondi in federal court.
I'm unsure on the administrative vs. judicial warrants, Andrew. I read yesterday that the feds need a judicial to arrest in a "private" courthouse space like courtrooms, but can get by with an administrative in "public" courthouse areas like hallways. I dunno. In any case, yes, I'd like to see Democratic money fund a lawsuit by this judge against Bondi and Ka$h. Of course, this lawless Trump crime family will have this guy in a foreign concentration camp by tomorrow.
My mind went where yours went, Shane. I think a legal action might spend a lot of time exploring the definition of a public figure. I'm not a lawyer, but Gary's comment struck me as mis-applying the "public figure" designation to the judge, citations notwithstanding.
One detail might work against her. Rather than being appointed, she was elected to the circuit court judgeship, which means she probably campaigned for the position. A campaign would make her more "public" than an anonymous jurist who was appointed without fanfare.
Sad to say in our system once you campaign and run for an election you're pretty much fair game. Understand I don't like it, it would be nice to think people could be civil, but I'm afraid Trump put an end to that.
She is a public figure only if a jury agrees she is a public figure, and a local jury (and state appellate judges) may well decide she's not a public figure because they're furious Pam Bondi called "their" judge names. Hard to tell how this one would go if taken to court, but if the judge can get someone to back her suit financially, I say go for it. If nothing else it hits Bondi with a legal club, which is not a bad thing in and of itself.
It's sad to see the lack of civility. It's not just disagreeing, it's the constant childish personal attacks. They don't disagree with the way the judge handled the situation, it's that she's deranged.
Yes, Trump is surprised by the idea that our country is governed by the rule of law. Yes, the courts have ruled against the Trump administration, just as they ruled against him when he contested the 2020 election.. But he escaped any consequences of those decisions, and I do not see that the legal loses then or now are more than losses on paper. I do not understand how the rulings of the courts will be enforced or how any of the illegal acts of this administration will be reversed.
"The British government is still less entitled to the style of an empire. It is a limited monarchy. If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition be just, the British constitution is nothing more nor less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. " - John Adams
Trump aspires to be a "off with their heads" style of king; prior to the Magna Carta, let alone the Declaration of Independence.
The federal law enforcement apparatus -- now the MAGAstapo -- is what it is not because of last November's election, but because it was methodically infiltrated by Christonazis and their allies in anticipation of the voters' hateful reduction of the Republic to the Unified Reich and Trump's emergence as its Fuhrer. The same infiltration campaign has turned all state and local law enforcement -- reinforced by various vigilante militias -- into Trump's obedient sturmabteilung; hence its 100-percent cooperation with the MAGAstapo. Meanwhile the oath-breaking military, also infiltrated and subjugated for Trump by Christonazis, cravenly refuses its sworn duty to defend the Constitution "against all enemies foreign and domestic." And the longstanding U.S. policy of "Better Dead than Red" -- the stated intent to literally destroy the world rather than surrender -- means there will never be rescue from without. Thus, as you say, there is absolutely no possibility the rulings of the courts will ever be enforced, which tragically reduces them to meaningless babble.
Loren, THIS, then, according to your last sentence, is indeed The End?
No.., no. Not by a long shot. Please excuse my ignorance, but.
The Documents that have been written, signed, and placed on the wall for all to see, and for which we all have agreed, by remaining on these here shores, make up the framework we must operate under. Simply, if one does not like what has been written, agreed to and signed..., one may leave.
Clearly, "The Documents" do not allow for what is going on. Period. Thus, the "law" has been broken. Our ability to express that fact is limited by our vocabulary.
Never-the-less, we remain a civilized society as shown by our behavior during this time of duress. But, this is not the fall of Rome, but close.
The 'Court of public opinion' does not displace the wording in those "Documents". No. They will prevail in the long run, if we remain "civil", which we will.....
Right now, this president is actually in contempt, in the Court of public Opinion, but not yet, in any 'court of law'. However, that is going to change, but it will take some time. The aberrant espousings of "supreme" Court are not in keeping with the framework established for This nation (should one want to remain here).
The who would violate "the Frameworek" are of a different mindset from those who came here 350 years ago. and put things together.
That's my rant for this morning. So, "This" will stop.
MadRussian12A, I think it is possible – and actual – that both you and Loren are correct in your appraisals. However, neither of your conclusions is guaranteed. We are about to witness a war waged by christofascists, liberal democrats (small D) and a previously unmentioned group, the oligarchic technocrats.
Each of these three groups has immense power, and while I'm not qualified to predict how, I am certain the war will be terrifying. Its appearance will be nothing like any war we've previously seen.
Liberal democrats have the advantage of having been here first, but that leads to complacency. Christofascists have been planning their takeover for decades; they are a distinct, unpopular minority, but this doesn't matter if they control the levers of power. The small group of oligarchic technocrats are the Johnny-come-latelys, but their control of finance and data could give them the winning hand.
Currently, the christofascists and technocrats are in league, but their objectives are incompatible, so there will be an eventual split between them.
The outcome of this impending war will determine the future of the U.S. and everyone who lives here. Many will not survive.
The technocrat fascist Oligarchs and the white Christian nationalist Oligarchs are in league and have successfully manipulated our democracy to install the Roberts Supreme Court.
The Roberts Supreme Court has undermined our democracy by deciding that the ultra-rich have more free speech than all other Americans because money is speech (Citizens United), and with unlimited and unregulated dark money, they were able to buy politicians, the Presidency, and install three white Christian nationalist Justices. We are either going to lose our democracy, or we are going to have to fight to regain our democracy and oust all of the fascist GOP from our government and never allow them political power again.
Dale...One more comment: the nurdly Übermenschen -- the Ayn-Rand-vicious elitists you properly call the "oligarchic technocrats" (and, yes, we could use the terms interchangeably) -- have been around since the early '70s; my initial contacts with them were in academia, where I was both adjunct faculty (in photography and journalism) and a financially retarded undergrad too old to court the co-eds. I say "nurdly" (the spelling intensifies the pejorative), but there were an equal number of their ilk in environmental studies, the environmentalists and the computer-science nurds united by three morally imbecilic convictions: that human survival demanded extermination of about 90 percent of the (working class) population; that we of the working class are "too hopelessly stupid" for democracy to be anything more than slow-motion suicide; and that they alone were destined by evolution to be the rulers of the world. The Eric Pianka hypothesis -- unfortunately weaponized by Randite fanatics (see https://reason.com/2006/04/03/to-save-the-planet-kill-90-per/) , and thus dismissed as conspiracy theorizing -- merely happened to express the Übermenschen's topmost intent. As does the Trumpite triumph.
Loren, I don't doubt your timing as to the emergence of the "Übermenschen," which does not conflict with my observation of the rising christofascists.
If you've read any of my other comments, you know that I was born into and brought up in evangelicalism. I remember this history.
White evangelicals, previously known as Puritans, Quakers, etc. had had outsized influence over American culture and governance since white Europeans invaded North America. Their influence continued through The Great Depression until the 1940s-50s, when consumerism and affluence increased. This new prosperity allowed Americans to pursue leisure activities, which often conflicted with church attendance. This rang the first alarm bell with evangelical leaders. In those early days, they thought and preached about returning the U.S. back to "the Christian nation" (myth) it once was.
It was during this period that women were choosing careers over childbearing and becoming increasingly independent and "disobedient."
The 1960s brought Madeline Murray O'Hair's school prayer lawsuit, the "sexual revolution," the women's liberation and racial equality movements, all of which promoted concepts that were anathema to evangelicalism. The leaders panicked and began forming strategies to "retake" the U.S.
Evangelicals began conducting seminars teaching their followers how to run for office at all levels of government. They formed summer youth camps where young evangelicals were indoctrinated with Christian nationalism.
About that time, Republican operatives identified evangelicals as a powerful, easily manipulated voting bloc and formed alliances with evangelical leaders like Billy Graham and others. Needing a wedge issue to "separate the sheep from the goats," GOP strategists settled on gay rights or abortion. Ultimately, they chose abortion, as most Christians already hated gay men anyway, so there was no divisiveness to exploit. The rest is, as they say, history.
That's why I believe the U.S. christofascist movement predates the oligarchal technocratic movement.
Dale...I most assuredly agree, and I apologize if sloppy prosody led you to believe otherwise. Indeed -- experiencing these decades of oppression mostly as a working journalist who was necessarily a (mostly closeted) Marxian -- I would go so far as to say the embryonic form of Christonazism was brought to the Americas by Columbo the Contaminator himself and most assuredly was debarked at Plymouth Rock as well. (My paternal lineage traces to 11th Century Scotland; my earliest paternal ancestors came here from England in about 1630; Mary Blisse -- a prosperous Connecticut farmer who mothered 11 children and was envied both for her vast, curative knowledge of matriarchal European folk medicine and friendship with First Nations folk, beat a witchcraft rap in Boston c. 1648 or so. But my people were Loyalists during the war for independence and were forcibly deported in 1789. My father, 1910 birth-date in Lowell, Mass., was my first paternal relative born here since the 1789 ouster.)
Congratulations on surviving fundamentalism. I'm loving this entire conversation, but other obligations now mandate I sign off, though I'll certainly be back -- Goddess willing an the creek don't rise -- sometime this evening.
Thank you; I am looking at the probabilities based on the present-day intentions and capabilities of the warring factions, and on that basis, no other outcome is possible. Nevertheless, capabilities can be changed by operational blunders; for example, the Wehrmacht was omnipotent until Hitler in a Fuhrer-frenzy countermanded his generals' intent to delay attacking the Soviet Union until 1948. Given the comparable arrogance of Kaiser Elon,, Fuhrer Trump and the nurdly Übermenschen that sustain them, similar circumstances could obtain.
But I doubt that will happen; two of the determinants are fixed conditions, unchangeable by anything short of the total collapse of modern civilization. One is the combination of technological omnipotence and sadistic moral imbecility by which the U.S. terrorizes the world into Americanized submission, which again boils down to capability (ecogenocidal extinction of all planetary life by thermonuclear and biological weaponry) and intention ("Better Dead than Red"). The other is the comforting but demonstrably false notion We the People are capable of liberating ourselves.
"Better Dead than Red" -- the policy of destroying the world to avoid acknowledging defeat -- comes straight from Hitler. After it became clear he would lose the war, It's what he said he'd do, had he the power. Given its origin and the fawning hero-worship of Hitler-as-Messiah by Trump, his Christonazi/Neoconfederate rabble and their nurdly Übermenschen enablers, it would be suicidal to disregard.
Our national inability to liberate ourselves also reduces to the common denominators of capability and intention. Since 1865, the U.S. has repeatedly proven it is incapable of effectively resisting internal oppression. Five examples should suffice. These are: the bipartisan destruction of the New Deal; the nullification of the Equal Rights Amendment; the bipartisan failure to achieve recognition of health care as a human right rather than a privilege of wealth; the bipartisan destruction of affordable education; and now --under Trump ad nauseam -- the methodical repeal of every humanitarian gain We the People ever achieved. In the context of such conclusively proven inability, stated intentions -- including anti-Trump judicial decrees -- are meaningless.
The magnitude and character of our inability to resist is demonstrated by the instantaneous collapse of the U.S. anti-war movement following abolition of the draft, which proves the movement was motivated more by cowardice than humanitarian principle. The dynamics of our inability to resist, the product of decades of psychological conditioning, are glaringly obvious in the collapse of Occupy: long before it was attacked from without,, it was breaking apart within. The cause was identity-politics hatefulness intensified by neoliberalism-induced self-obsession. This symbiosis -- a social malignancy for which there is no cure -- fulfills its oppressive purpose by permanently obstructing evolution of the solidarity and discipline essential for (effective) resistance. And atop that there is the irremediable racism of the white Moronic Majority: 77 percent of all U.S. Caucasians, according to the post-Katrina Pew Poll. Hence the only "change we can believe in" is that things will get worse. Infinitely so.
Thank you for pointing out just how diminished and demented he really is right now. It clearly shows that he is losing. We must not let this moment pass, though, because we will continue to slide into fascism even though he is nuts unless we stop him.
It is a fantasy of mine that some exceedingly expert hackers take up against some of these TechBros and corrupt/ expose some of their enterprises as they have allowed DOGE to do to our private, public and financial data. Where is ‘anonymous?’ Were they citizens of our former allies? There is very convincing evidence of hacked swing state elections in 2024 (look up Election Truth Alliance) and until that is resolved, if there are legit 2026 elections (doubtful if we keep on this trajectory) we cannot be confident of the outcomes.
I don't understand why so many people seem to believe that trump alone is responsible for the nightmare we are experiencing right now.
This is the ultimate goal of many decades of right-winger businessmen, the investor class, and white Christian nationalists who believe that they should rule over the majority. They never believed that the workers should be paid livable wages or expect a safe workplace.
"This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon 'moderation' in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Ike did not fully grasp the power of modern mass media.
I have argued repeatedly via my own blog and on very many threads elsewhere (including on other sites in substack), that Trump is the fulfillment of the bipartisan, multi-generation Bankers' Plot, the financial aristocracy's 1933 scheme to make the U.S. a satellite of Nazi Germany, the perpe-traitors of which Congress granted the carte-blanche approval of de facto immunity. While the evidence is mostly circumstantial, the historical progression is terrifyingly undeniable: first the immunity; then the aristocratic co-optation of U.S. Christianity; IBM's technological enabling of the first Holocaust; the post-Stalingrad embrace of Original Nazi war criminals; the 1947 onset of the postwar purge of Marxians, socialists, intellectuals and creatives that exploded into the McCarthy persecutions; the state murders of the Rosenbergs; the decade of political murders that followed the murders of Medgar Evers and President Kennedy; LBJ's Tonkin Gulf betrayal and the subsequent function of the "Democratic" (sic) Party as the Fifth Column of the "Republican" (sic) Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party -- all this treason, treachery, deceitfulness and death culminating in the Democrats' carefully scripted, thus plausibly-deniable scheme to throw the 2024 election to Trump followed by their abject post-election surrender. Anywhere but here in Moron Nation, such a glaring sequence of betrayals would have long ago sparked a revolution. But never here. Not now; not ever.
“We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you're going to have honest men like me.”
He “honestly” believes that.
Rhetorical question: Why is Time magazine giving this man a dignified platform with softball questions? The same reason why I haven’t opened a Time magazine in forty years.
Yup. Corporate media survives on advertising revenue, not subscriptions. Depending on the type of media, advertising rates are based entirely on circulation or audience share. The larger their audience, the greater the demand for advertising and the higher the rates charged.
Corporate media quickly learned that Donald Trump attracts ears and eyeballs, whether from ardent fans or critics trying to keep up with his antics. More Trump equals higher ad revenue. More than anything, the wall-to-wall press coverage gave Trump his first presidency, kept him front-of-mind even after he lost, and gave him his second presidency.
Even independent journalism, such as Substack, while not ad-supported, succumbs to "the Trump effect" for audience share.
There was another disturbing part of the Bondi interview where she made the assumption that accused = guilty when speaking of the immigrant before Judge Dugan. She called him a criminal, then went on to mutter about being just as concerned for his victims as we are for the criminal. There is a hatred of the 'other' in this administration which I find appalling. It is, for me, one of the most disturbing aspects of who they are as a group.
This regime shows us everyday just how greedy, power-hungary, and twisted that they are. I'm still amazed at how many people think that his base is any different. They have always been there, but frontman trump has given them permission to show themselves publicly and proudly. Cruelty is their red meat.
I am reminded yet again of how clarifying your letters are in the swirl of all that transpires in a day in these chaotic, distressing times. Reading you settles my mind because of the clarity you provide that ties together and connects the themes and meaning behind the events that have occurred. Invariably I feel a sense of calm knowing that I have a grasp of the whole rather than being pulled in every direction all at once by the varying accounts that are out there. Your opening sentence frames that understanding:
"Today’s major stories must be seen in the context of President Donald Trump’s dramatic losses in court and his plummeting poll numbers."
What an absolutely terrifying moment. That interview showed a deranged lunatic clearly not in control of his faculties. It showed a moron who didn’t even get the point made about the rule of law v. the rule of men. It showed a liar making up bullshit faster than he could breathe.
Pam Bondi clearly missed her calling as a spokesperson for the Rev. Jim Jones in Guyana ordering his followers to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced kool-aid.
What is the deal with these ghastly, cruel, stupid, desperate people? What draws them to all this chaotic ugliness? How could anybody be dumb enough to think this has anything to do with “greatness”?
The gleaming crosses hanging on chains around the necks of most of these people should be your first clue.
There are several kinds of religion in the world. Some are based on a personal journey to enlightenment, some based on community and some based on exclusion or "othering."
White evangelicals fall into the last category. They believe that their way is the only right way, the only "good" way. Any other way is "evil." They dwell in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament) where an angry Jehovah repeatedly smites people who defy him. They interpret the Bible literally and treat it like an instruction manual for daily living – except for the parts that are inconvenient, which they ignore; these inconvenient passages vary by sect. For evangelicals, the Bible, their preachers and any other persons ordained by their preachers are the only authorities to be followed, and they must be followed without question.
In short, if you are not a patriarchal, white, Bible-thumping heterosexual, you are evil and deserve whatever smiting comes your way.
In my own mind, I had not conceptualized three such distinctive approaches to spirt. A seeker searching for ultimate truth and purpose, a community of shared searchers in service toward themselves and others -- both feel natural --- an integral part of the human experience of God. But how does one find spirit by excluding others? It makes no sense. It's like the tree insisting it's better than the dirt it came from.Yet it exists, doesn't it? I think Jesus called people like this 'whited sepulchers of death and decay.'
Corbin, if you start with the premise that the Judeo-Christian deity came from the same source as Norse, Greek, Roman, Muslim and other gods – the imaginations of old men sitting around fires – then Western religions "make no sense" in any case.
But some religions are more beneficial than others. Some provide answers to unanswerable questions that ease the minds of their followers, whether or not those answers are true or verifiable. Some religions motivate followers to be kind and generous, creating community and peace.
To my mind, evangelicalism – and its mirror, extremist Islam – are neither sensible nor beneficial. Both foster nothing but fear, and fear allowed to get out of control begets hate, which in turn, produces violence.
Incidentally, when Jesus made the "whited sepulcher" comment to the scribes and Pharisees, he knew what he was talking about because he himself was a Pharisee. Being literate, the scribes and Pharisees were prone to focus on "the letter of the law" rather than the spirit. Jesus was familiar with this fault among his peers and was warning them against it.
The same warning applies to evangelicals who weaponize the Bible to attack those with whom they disagree.
Don't forget the radical Catholic Opus Die, which has played a massive role in the makeup of today's Supreme Court.
I believe that people have always been easily manipulated by people who claim to know why bad things happen in their lives. And many of those people found that they could manipulate others by saying that if you jump through all the hoops just right, God will favor you, now kiss my ring and give me your money.
He repeats the big lie just like Adolf said. I love America and I will save it. Just keep up the patriotic blather and maybe that lightening strike will happen. Better hurry because the destruction will win while the “saving” is a mirage. But maybe it will be up to real truth tellers if we can multiply them like the destroyers have multiplied the lies. As chump said, repeat the lie you want people to believe three times, and it’s done. Adolf never said it better, only first. That quip about being honest was a knee slapper. And the MAGAts rejoice.
May be brakes be applied quickly, the P2025 plans are already being implemented. The barbarian is already on the throne, but his horns are showing and his nose grows by leaps and bounds…
A new arrival inside the Pearly Gates is being led by St. Peter down a long corridor toward heaven. On the walls are millions of devices that resemble clocks but have only one hand. Some hands have barely moved from the "noon" position and others are slowly creeping around the dial. The new arrival asks, "What are these devices?"
St. Peter answers, "They're lie detectors. Every time someone on earth tells a lie, the hand on their dial moves one notch."
The new arrival continues walking, and scrutinizes the devices, ponders for a few moments, then asks, "Where is Donald Trump's lie detector?"
St. Peter replies, "Oh, God took Trump's into his living room. He's using it as a ceiling fan."
In an interview in “Sun,” Sept 12, 2005, chump was quoted as saying “you never blame yourself. You have to blame something else. Of you do something bad, never, ever blame yourself.” The one true statement, always. And it’s just what we teach our children, huh?
Meanwhile trump is pushing hard to force a surrender deal on Ukraine and preparing to welcome a genocidal dictator back into the warm embrace of normalised relations with the USA. The world is watching and will remember.
John Stewart's latest interview is of Rory Stewart (former British Cabinet member and diplomat, amongst other things). It's a really interesting interview and poignant at one point as Rory discusses his admiration and affection for the US he worked with not terribly long ago - https://youtu.be/at-smySDPNU?feature=shared
Yesterday, Senator Grassley of Iowa spoke out in favor of Ukraine. For example, according to Politico, “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned President Donald Trump that Russia was ‘playing America’ on Friday, asking him to punish the country for attacking Ukraine amid ceasefire negotiations”.
I did not know about 2022 law. Does that not make Trumps ‘final offer’ deal illegal? Or does the craven Supreme Court ruling that nothing POTUS does in office is illegal overrule?
The president is weaponizing the Justice Department, just as predicted. And the Supreme Court gave him immunity. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything.
How many years are we going to stand by and allow Fox News and Newsmax to spew such awful inaccuracies? We can quote great leaders and complain about Trump but until we get to the Crux of the problem there will be one trump after another.
1. Strong Democratic Leaders
2. Cable News Channels held accountable for reporting misinformation
3 Limiting campaign contributions .
We continue to treat the symptoms without stomping out the disease.
Will there always be sources that tell people what they need/want to hear? We all tend to want our biases confirmed. The difference is that one source is appealing to shared values like truth and justice and supporting democracy, the other appeals to hate and fear with misinformation that the perpetrators know is wrong, but for the sake of maintaining audience and profit, they will lie anyway.
The FCC regulates broadcasting and outlets that lie should not get licenses.
The Fox Dominion case should have been an object lesson -- lie at their peril. Republications of Trump lies without a disclaimer should make them liable.
Daniel, your statement is 100% true. However, I'm afraid its principle was operable 20 years ago, but not now. Today, we live in a world of "alternative facts," where Donald Trump and his henchmen are empowered to decide what is truth and what is not.
Under Donald's control, none of our regulating agencies and commissions can be trusted to make fair and just decisions. I hate it, but that's where we are.
Takes challenges but the FCC process remains viable.
A principal enabler like Fox is still exposed for literally billions via civil litigation. Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion after the company said the network spread false claims about them rigging the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.
Fox also has a massive pending shareholder derivitive suit. Plaintiffs allege that Fox News’ leadership breached its fiduciary duties by adopting a business model that promoted or endorsed defamation by failing to establish systems or practices to minimize defamation risk despite the known risk of liability, including broadcasting false claims about election technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic USA.
That's all good. But is the FCC pulling any broadcast licenses as a result of these legal actions?
It's not the same, but I'm reminded of Mitch McConnell's refusal to convict in Trump's J6 impeachment, claiming that justice should come from the judicial system, which in turn, failed miserably.
They will also not report it when they lose. So those who think fox is a source of news wont know, just as they don't know about the settlement.
I keep sending heathers Letters to those I know watch fox. I doubt they read them but that's on them. They had the truth and refused to think.
I was unaware that the Murdochian Ministry of Mendacity was facing a significant shareholder derivative suit, Daniel. That's good news, and thanks for the 411. (I think I just dated myself).
BTW, your O. Henry/ Herb Caen-ish moniker is a good one
And speaking out against the lies has to be part of protests.
I do believe the Fox & Newsmax reporters are fed T's koolaid before they read the upcoming 'news' they will be reporting on.
I think we should use the same tactics the Rs use. For example, start a bunch of lawsuits in courts with liberal leaning judges. Two topics would be Citizens United and the presidential immunity. Move them through the court system up to the Supreme Court. This could generate a lot of publicity and would prove action to the voters. It also puts the Rs on defense. Pick out some books that favor the Rs call them out for banning. Go after churches that do politics. Revoke their tax exemptions.
Currently, Dems are always whining about things done by Rs. That doesn't generate support.
Great idea. I think it's possible to "fight fire with fire" without stooping to the R's level of lies and distortions.
The Fox Dominion case *should* have put them out of business....
So cable is not public airways and as such there is limited ‘regulation’, part of the trick played on us is we thought we had a role while in truth these floodgates were left open…radio on the other hand continues to be the sewer, as does local TV under Sinclair’s blatant one-sided right wing propaganda.
And much of this is the regulation foisted on us by Newt and Bill, allowed the consolidation and changes in ownership rules of multiple media sources in an area, that means that when there is a storm in our town no local am radio station has local folks to go live and help deal with the crisis.
Soros inc is starting to amass competition in broadcast radio and TV.
?
Maybe that is a good plan- have to post disclaimers every time they show unverified information & downright lies. Hit them in the bank account.
In 1987, St. Ronnie of Eureka eliminated the Fairness Doctrine. Less than ten years later, the Prince of Darkness himself, Rupert Murdoch, enabled Jaaba the Hutt, Roger Ailes to bring Fox News to the airwaves.
We've been slip sliding away ever since
Daniel, LOL...St Ronnie of Eureka!
Thanks for that, Michele! I trot that line out whenever I see some old school Republican friends, just to get them fired up
Lol... At least your moniker is 'PG'
Cable news is not technically "broadcasting." Therein lies a problem with licensing controls.
This is true, Mara. Yet the original federal legislation regulating first radio, then television was expanded to cover cable, even though sending signals through cable wire is not "broadcasting" via airwaves
Thanks for updating me. I really want to be up to 1A date on this. Will scrounge accordingly. :)
Hmm: I'm wondering about how lawsuits could be brought forward.
Neither is yelling "Fire" in crowded theater. Sigh.... we have so much work to do.
P.S. I do get your point and it's sage.
Yes, Harvey. In the 1930s in was as awful as maybe it is today. Father Coughlin lied that German Jews were not being prosecuted and that led to the restriction on those refugees being allowed to emigrate to the US, and thus murdered in Germany or another of the countries Hitler had overcome.
FCC doesn't regulate Fox News, CNN, NPR, and other networks. Only broadcast stations get oversight because they are licensed by the agency.
Mixed opinions here... Could we gain opinion of specialized legal experts ?
"The difference is that one source is appealing to shared values like truth and justice and supporting democracy, the other appeals to hate and fear..."
Not knowing who the "other one is" the challenge is that is how FOX viewers also see it.
FOX viewers see themselves speaking the truth, men are men and women are women; abortion is murder; the left threatens democracy with its resistance to voter fraud measures; AOC and Omar spew hate painting Trump supporters with a broad brush as Nazis; leftists justifying the actions of Hamas by calling the Palestinians victims of a Jewish genocide; MSNBC stokes fear and hatred and lies (they just lost a lawsuit regarding this); Gen Z toying with Socialism, etc.
I don't agree with them but I understand them.
"You can say it just as good. You're right from your side. I'm right from mine."
~Bob Dylan, One Too Many Mornings.
The got sued over reporting a whistleblower's report that turnout to be false. Price for not verifying sources. Very different from reporting things that are known to be false.
You are correct, I agree that there is a difference between being journalistically lazy and knowingly reporting false information. An act of commission can be worse than an act of omission. Yet they still stoked fear and hatred knowing they were negligent. To be clear I agree with you, but I can understand how the other side sees it. They were so anxious to say something derogatory they did not do their due diligence and tainted their own reputation. How can viewer know any report is accurate or trueful? I don't watch either one. I stick with NPR and PBS, but I know even they have agendas.
NPR & PBS seem to have a strong bias toward the truth/facts, which is perceived to be liberal. The real problem is that when a story is selected by its very nature it can be seen as biased. Reporting that some Americans are getting deported as a simple fact can be seen as left bias.
If my memory is correct, I think Obama, when he had the choice about the Fairness Doctrine for media, chose not to reenact that law.
Our leaders have abetted or neglected to create our reality, as we readers of HCR observe. A long but necessary struggle is here.
Obama is a good man that made some serious mistakes - as has been pointed out. “Playing nice” was one of them.
We need leadership that enjoys playing rough.
With that in mind I point out that California, the state, has started manufacturing and distributing medicine at cost. Starting with Nalocone right now. Next on the list is insulin.
THIS IS A BIG F—-ING DEAL.
Excellent assessment, David. I'm sure that Obama felt he was walking a tightrope as the first Black president; I also believe that he was more focused on that than what he needed to do as president. (Sidebar: I think he was the best representative of the Republican party since Eisenhower. Just think of what he could have done in the first two years with majorities in both houses of Congress).
Kudos to California for manufacturing Naloxone; it saves so many lives.
Obamacare was actually invented by the Heritage Foundation and first put into place by governor Romney. Obama must have thought there was no way Republicans could disparage it. But that’s exactly what the did.
Obama’s first bid mistake was to surround himself with people from the Clinton administration.
Obama was a villain to so many just because of melanin. He really couldn’t do anything BUT play by the rules.
I am SO happy to be a Californian! And to have grown up here.
I left for Colorado long ago ( but wasn't going to go back to Kansas ever). Wish I hadn't.
If the Supreme Court caves to Sideshow Don for 2028 and allows him to run for a 3rd term, that is Pres. Obama's chance to make good on his mistakes and run against him
All due respect to Obama I’d like to see us move on. Gavin Newsom, Jeff Merkley, AOC or Katie Porter
I wouldn’t vote for any ex-president or vice president or person who ran for president, based on the fact that not one of them (with the exception of Barack Obama a little teeny weenie speech he made) has come out against Trump, has come out against what this administration doing to our democracy. Hillary has given a few interviews. None of them have responded with the passion that we need i.e. none of them have acted like real RE AL leaders. Instead they’re enjoying their retirement paid by us. I am somewhat pissed about this. I would not vote for any of them now, and I voted for all of them. I am somewhat pissed about this as you can tell.
Yes, that Naxalone will be capped at $24 but I haven’t seen it on the store shelves yet. The old one at $50 is still out at my pharmacy.
I think you have to buy it directly from the state. Maybe do a search online.
BTW, if I remember correctly it was a couple years ago Newsom announced that California would be making and distributing insulin. This was BEFORE the price cap put on by the Feds. Suddenly big Pharma was losing the fifth largest market on the planet. That is what got the deal passed by the Feds. California played rough.
That would be UCK that’s missing 🤷♂️
lol! I just spewed my coffee out my nose!
Thank you for that clarification. I would have spent the day contemplating the blanks! Humor, I need a bucket these days!
It's Congress that makes laws and Mitch made sure Obama couldn't do much.
Mitch and confederates declared that ‘Obama would pass NOTHING’….
We reap what we sow…..
The same thing with Biden and even though republicans didn’t have the Senate majority they pulled that one jerk could stop things routinely too often. No military promotions because they don’t have the skills to work on a bipartisan basis. Democrats should be using those tools on all of Trumps garbage.
Indeed…. Thanks
Not quite: check out a fuller history for contex, etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine
And Heather has explained this both in letters and in her politics chats.
Lately? I may not have been following her long enough! If you happen to come across a good Letter or Chat covering that, I'd love a link to it!
Will do. I may even do some digging today.
Thank You, Pax.
When I read these events taking place, my brain is rattled and steam billows from my ears. And this all means that I can’t say what I’m thinking for various reasons. Because some of it would be illegal and others would be exercising the blame game about who is to blame for this incredible time.
It’s Deja Vu all over again as I recall every f-Ing day a new crisis. He suffers from child neglect and paternal abuse and his only ambition it to grab the gold at any chance and destroy everything good in the world. He needs to destroy in order to feel good. And on the other side, a once 200 year old president who suffered ole people’s syndrome and lost to the most destructive person ever in the history of this land.
Seems to me your 2nd paragraph Is a blame game
That's the problem, as Obama did, to play nice, always by the book. We are looking down the abyss now. Are we still going to play nice? Hopefully this teaches us a lesson to apply, if we ever have another opportunity.
We recently returned from two weeks exploring Singapore. We came home in amazement; talking to many locals, it seems the most civilized society we’ve encountered. The Wikipedia essay mentions the US objection to them not having a « free press » but their former president explained that « free » can lead to the propaganda we have here. Lee Kwan Yew was more philosopher king than US media would allow. Asia will fill the vacuum created by our ignorance, IMHO.
Seems to me, you are implying we should not have a <free> press. Should I be content with what fearless leader, and oligarch-owned media tell us what the truth is?
It was Ronald Reagan who ended the fairness doctrine.
And it never applied to cable networks; the government could deny the broadcast networks their license to broadcast over the public airwave frequency if they didn't comply with the rules.
Ronald Reagan was a significant step towards the fascist reality we are living today.
Reagan was the master gaslighted. And we still paying the consequences.
What I read on Wikipedia about the fairness doctrine just now. Obama did decline and stated that the fairness doctrine did not address the issues presented by the present day media outlets. I believe he was hoping for something more intensive that would address all of the issues for, the license of both broadcasting and cable and Internet media. This is just my opinion of what I gathered in the article.
I read an article a year or so ago that explained why the Fairness Doctrine wasn’t re-established. I had to do with the internet and complexities of free speech. I would think they could still come up with something when it comes to news. Like defining a news show as requiring verifiable facts backing up opinions, or again to present both sides. Hopefully this will be addresses after we wrestle our democracy back and correct all the weaknesses…install American Democracy 2.0.
"defining a news show as requiring verifiable facts backing up opinions"... or, at least, verifiable evidence. This seems like a no-brainer to me.
We really ought to seriously consider reviving the Fairness Doctrine though it would probably not work very well since broadcast is so much less of our media world these days. We could regulate Broadcast because the government owns the airwaves, but online info is mostly on privately owned platforms.
Still it seems to me that we should be able to do something about hate speech and misinformation. How are the Europeans handling it? They seem to be better at it than we are.
First Amendment is important, but not absolute.
I don't see why the government couldn't regulate privately-owned platforms... there are regulations on privately-owned businesses. Now that over-air TV is a pretty small share of most people's media diet, we need a new regulation that covers ALL media platforms.
Was Obama President in 1987? That's when the Fairness Doctrine was rescinded.
That was Reagan.
It was called the fairness doctrine. We need that or something like that right now!
Even when we had the Fairness Doctrine, it only applied to broadcast TV. Never applied to cable. And that’s where all the bias really is. Where the problems are.
Well if these issues are left unaddressed, they just won't wither away, instead they go in search of more radical answers.
Cable News Channels held accountable for reporting misinformation!!!
“How many years are we going to stand by and allow Fox News and Newsmax to spew such awful inaccuracies?”
How many? I don’t know, but I do know that this catastrophe is likely to continue as long as 60% of white voters, 70% of white working class voters, and 80% of white evangelical voters continue to vote for Republican candidates.
"Limiting campaign contributions" and once again listing amounts and those who made them.
It's not news, it's entertainment.
There are strong people standing, mainly prosecutors and Judges at this point. 😇 The network is too loosely knit. 💪🏿 https://youtu.be/MdIUrmH-ypY
Thank you for the connection. How much pain she must be in, now knowing what a former friend & co- worker has become. She is great to listen too.
I was lucky to stumble across the vid. 🙂 Yes, watching people slip into a black-hole of fear and power must be painful. 💔 Thank you, Cindy, for responding to me. 🤝🏻
Yes, at some point Faux needs to be held accountable…I keep hoping that one of kids will take over and actually return to journalism, rather than dealing drugs.
Thank you for your clear and concise point. I agree and would add “ strong democratic leaders and citizens “
Start with number 3 But how to get there?
Then 2,
Led by 1, which we have and had, but then didn't Vote for enough.
Biden's amazing teams (esp FTC, imho) were tackling monopolies like super heroes, and strengthening Truth in reporting was being studied. Part of the "finish the job" agenda that was blown up by Netanyahu (and Dems blind loyalty, as related to Number 3)
and by hubrism and too many old school Dems in the party higherups.
Sadly, I think we saw what many of us feared from the start, that MISOGYNY is at Least as powerful as RACISM in the US, and perhaps needs to be examined within the Democratic Party, not just entirely blamed on the awful Repo culture.
Where were the men standing up for women at the Women's March? After Dodd?
In NOV 2024?
But while we face that sad truth, we must, as always, follow the money, and how it is corrupting Both parties.
Sandra, yours is one of a few constructive opinions expressed in this platform. We must reduce complaints drastically that will not lead to solutions.
didn't there used to be this "00" agent to protect us from tyrants?
They didn't give Bondi or Patel immunity.
Russel, the scumbag president will pardon them as long as they keep playing elephant in a crystal shop. That's the deal. No consequences, other than getting richer.
Did Donald Trump say he is an honest man?? Then I'm Taylor Swift.
"There is growing evidence that Trump is not functioning as a president should." What?? People are JUST realizing this? Sad and scary
45-47 doesn’t even function like a decent human being.
Donald Trump is a bloviating ignoramus with delusions of grandeur and that's the nicest thing that can be said about him.
He is just a festering monstrous cancer destroying everything. I call him death star for a reason.
Yeah, that was rich:
“We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you're going to have honest men like me.”
I really think his brain will have rotted to orange pulp before he can run for his third term.
But would you want to depend on that? Remember, he doesn't pardon everyone and the list of roadkill he's left behind him is a lengthy one.
Ricardo, nicely put about the elephant in the crystal shop. I now have an image.
🫡
Trump has the power to pardon them all.
Only for federal crimes not for civil contempt. It wouldn't be a great look for one's AG and head of FBI to be fined for contempt of court. That's probaby unlikely to happen.
There was an unusual case involving contempt proceedings against an ICE agent in Boston who had arrested a man in the middle of a trial outside the courtroom. A federal judge later dismissed the contempt case after an application by the DA, but it appears the DA had known about the arrest and had failed to inform the court. So we're now seeing both the FBI and local prosecutors being drawn into immigration enforcement. What's next? -
https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/04/14/ice-agent-contempt-boston-foley
Not for state offenses, which should be filed by the states effected by the criminal acts she and the dept. commit in trumps name. All these offenses effect citizens in the states, and if the AG's in them can charge and convict (giving due process, of course), trump is powerless to pardon.
Lock them up anyway. It will take time before they get out. Let them feel the fear and anger.
Well, we could see the intimidation of judges; president's cronies buying up the news media; pseudo laws; organized crime coordinated by the govt; unleashed conspiracy theories; norms ill-defined making them vulnerable; no more checks and balances. Did I leave anything out?
Yes Stephanie, you left all the rest out but for you to name all the cruel, illegal, and indecent acts this regime is committing will be impossible in a lifetime. I do appreciate your intention. :)
Well I was on my way to the gym so time was of the essence:)
Get in the streets. Write to and call your congresspersons; join an Indivisible group or form one. (All you have to do is input “Indivisible.” The national organization was based on a paper put together in 2015 (the day after the first election of DT). There are thousands of chapters. Members do meetings, marches and rallies, organize phone banks, write postcards to voters, and work for Justice in states that neighbor their own.
Indeed - it all needs to be accomplished. I've been writing, calling, demonstrating, joined the League of Women Voters, and the local Democratic Chapter. I will check out indivisible - thanks for that suggestion.
So I guess the question is, can our courts stand up to a felon who the Supreme Court has fundamentally said can’t be held accountable to the law?
You can read the full complaint at PBS Case No. 25-M-397 captioned U.S.A. v. Hannah C. Dugan but, the real prosecutors-in-interest are Donald J. Tump, Kash Patel & Pamela Bondi (Trump 2.0). Kash's operative identified on the pleadings is Special FBI Agent, LINDSAY S.
As a former trial attorney, I always look for real or possible percipient witnesses:
I will not go through my entire list of actual witnesses.
(1) An actual witnesses is "JUDGE A" mentioned but, not identified in Pamela Bondi's complaint; (2) The suspect's Attorney and his involvement in the Timeline, tick tock tick tock.🕰; (3) The FBI agent(s) who orchestrated the Show Bust of the Judge outside the Courthouse.
Possible witnesses are (1) the Presiding Judge or her/his Representatives in the Milwaukee County Courthouse. (2) Judge Dugan & the ICE Agent(s) outside her courtroom "speaking with the Presiding Judge".
I expect the Judge to challenge the pleading in Law & Motion hearings if WISCONSIN does not have a freedom of speech statute: See, Wisconsin Constitution Article 1, Section 3: "Every person may freely speak, write & publish her sentiments on all subjects ....
Thank you, Bryan. As always, your comments are enlightening.
Thank you Bryan..
No more sympathy to my relatives and friends who voted the monster in; they knew what they were signing up for . . . and they got it. Now, we are all getting it. 💔
Troubling this show-trial-&-tribulation of the Milwaukee judge and deportation of a child who is, per the government of laws embodied in the Constitution, a citizen of this country. 😳
Recalling the race riots of the 1960s: kids, stay home and study, especially your Civics. Parents, go get a gun and prepare for civil war. 😢
Strange that I trust the statements of a publicly declared adversary of my country (i.e., China) more than I do the statements of my own government. 🤢
Trump being at the top of his game is like a fly being atop a smoking pile of dog-Pootin. 🥳
Trump is the monster created by the Supreme Court with the immunity decision. The Supreme Court is now the monster created by the fascist GOP and their ultra-rich Oligarch sponsors, and the GOP has been anti-democracy for a very long time. Otherwise, they would have worked all these decades to strengthen our democracy, not constantly working to undermine and sabotage the ability of every citizen to a free and fair vote. They are wholly owned by the ultra-rich and carry out a strategy to stack the legal system with Judges and Supreme Court Justices who will strip the public of the benefits we all deserve from the society and the government that we as a country have invested in for 250 years.
As trumps poll numbers continue to fall, the right-wing will grow more and more dangerous.
The ultra-rich and power-hungry fascist GOP knows that if they don't take total power over the country now and destroy our democracy, they will lose more power as the population grows ever more diverse.
They are already using terror tactics to intimidate businesses; collages, and now they are beginning to terrorize the courts.
Everybody should expect the fascists to be more violent as this fascist GOP President and Congress lose popularity, it will be bloody and deadly.
They will never willingly give up power now.
The word “could” can be amended to present and future tense: “what is and will go wrong?” It’s ALL wrong. It’s in action now and the courts have no enforcement mechanism. The demons defy the court orders, so here we are.
The "president" is a criminal extortionist under Putin's thumb - the American people need to realize this
100%. Just about everything!!
I'm thinking his immunity should be only if he's following the constitution and the rule of law.
In essence, the Supremely Corrupted Court and the Republican traitors to the Constitution in the Senate put a known criminal back out on the street and told the police they couldn't touch him. Pretty simple what was going to happen.
Four years amount to 1460 days, say 1500. We have just endured 100 days. Can we endure 1400 days more? I do not think the country can live that long.
Trump calling himself “honest” is the height of paradox.
Things are falling apart as Ari Melber of MSNBC pointed out.
Pam Bondi is way too political to be even close to fair.
The goals of Project 2025 are being achieved even as the courts and public opinion are doing their collective best to stop it. We can”t afford the rest of Trump’s term as we watch our institutions and structures being torn apart.
"Trump calling himself “honest” is the height of paradox."
But as the epitome of a shameless liar, not unexpected.
Speaking of liars, were I a gambling man, which I am not, I would bet vast sums that Trump grants the arch-fabilist George Santos a full pardon...and maybe even gives him a job in the regime.
While Doge screws the elderly people out of their meager SS payments by marking their database records as dead, why aren't they instead looking at all of the Medicare/Medicaid fraud going on?
Trump commuted or pardoned several major Medicare/Medicaid fraudsters during his first term - Alfonso Antonio Costa, Todd Farha, William Kale, Duncan Fordham, Judith Negron, Phil Esformes, Daniela Gozes-Wagner, Salomon Melgan. They defrauded the system out of over $2 billion. Judith Negron was ordered to pay $87 million in restitution and the administration forgave the rest of it in the commutation.
There are at least a dozen other fraudsters who he either pardoned or commuted their sentences.
Talk about low hanging fruit. Many of these health care fraudster are stealing tens of millions of dollars (Senator Rick Scott stole at least $400 million as well) so you can bet the government can claw back way more than they can get from a few SS recipients.
Gary, I assume yours is a rhetorical question. Proposing that members of a crime syndicate prosecute fellow members of a crime syndicate?
"That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq_1l316ow8
I read that the claimed DOGE savings of $160 however many dollars cost $149 of those same dollars. It was late last night and I don’t remember the exact numbers but basically ass his chaos has so far cost us almost what he claims he saved. Millions, billions, he just makes numbers up if you read Judd Legume.
My former boss, now deceased, owned an advertising agency and had a side hustle producing professional cooking competitions. I created the promotional materials for these competitions. When we developed prospectuses for sponsors, he would give me numbers for crowd size, economic impact, etc. I would always ask him, "Are these real numbers or promoter numbers?"
He would just grin.
Muskrat is not a business leader. He's a promoter.
Well as long as we're not gambling, I would bet that Trump has no idea who John Adams was.
OMG - I think you're right -- I'm glad I didn't think of this yesterday when I saw he'd been sentenced, so that I had a few hours of being happy justice had been done.
I don't think Trump can pardon someone convicted under state laws, only federal. 🤔
Santos was convicted under federal law. (See for example,https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-santos-prison-sentence-1.7518551 ) Thus Trump can indeed pardon him, which I suspect he'll do in some way that minimizes public notice.
(I chose the CBC link because I no longer regard monopoly-owned U.S. mainstream media as at all credible. Long before Trump it had become the world's first privately owned, for-profit version of Josef Goebbels' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.)
Loran, I think the only reason he got charged was because he stole from the big donor Republicans, so in this case, I think he's stuck in prison.
Except he is gay?
Who, John Adams?
Nah ya got that mixed up. John Adam’s ain’t gay. He/She was Trans. Started off as a lesbian, then transitioned to a dude and had sex with babes thus curing himself of being a lesbian. Understand now? ( sorry I am so overwhelmed and frustrated. My sarcasm just kicked in). Thank you Mr. Katz once again
(Gasp!!!)
Sandra, I'll wager he's a straight guy pretending to be gay.
No, not in this administration ! While George Santos was awaiting sentencing he really bulked up. Very un Pete Hegseth looking. Can’t have the likes of him in the Oval Office. Not with our svelte President. If the interview in Time magazine is not enough and his appearance in Rome in a blue suit at the Pope’s funeral doe not prove that he is totally out of touch with everyday polite behavior we can watch, with horror the behavior of the people he has appointed and who are supposedly advising him.
If someone can cite one good idea this man has had, one good policy, one good interview, one true golf score please respond to this.
PUCK:(
Exactly. The goals of Project 2025 are to turn the US into a White Supremacist Christian Nationalist Theocracy along the lines of Afghanistan and Iran for Islam. Yesterday on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's Substack Religion Prof. Althea Butler said that this battle has to be fought by middle aged and older White folks. She did not feel that Tesla protests and Hands Off marches are the way to go. She is endorsing the 11 million people General Strike.
The US is extremely dangerous for people with Black and Brown skin, immigrants, trans, LGBTQ+, women of child bearing years, any woman, judges, lawyers, journalists, activists, academics, students, and any other group they choose to pick on, like Blue State Governors and Mayors and courts.
My mom was born in Germany the year after Hitler came to power. Then her family was divided in two as the DDR built its wall. I grew up hearing about what life under fascism was like and don't know how far this will go in the US. One thing is there are a lot of incompetent people carrying it out, but still, they are also accomplishing a lot because someone has figured out how to void the Constitution.
That is why I wrote this in November.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/a-plan-b-for-catastrophe?r=f0qfn
I think people need to start figuring out their red lines. If you are middle aged+, native born and White, then you probably won't be one of the first they will come after, unless you are in one of the categories I listed above.
No. But they will cut our medical and social security and erase our pensions. I understand what you are saying, but it’s not just the Christofascists we are dealing with here. We have the Yarvin-inspired billionaires who are into control by data, eugenics, and removal of ‘unproductive people’ by death or (as Trump is quoted in HCR’s 4/14 letter) deportation.
We have to fight but it is not ever going to be risk free for dissident voices—even for the demographic of white seniors.
Heather I get that, but really, I agree with Dr. Butler that it is the safest group under this president.
While I have brown skin, I did not leave for this alone. I moved to a country that has a lower cost of living and guaranteed health care in my retirement. I have asthma and the air and water are cleaner. Those are considerations for me as well.
Here is an article in my local Chicago neighborhood paper about my former employer, and my husbands current employer, the University of Chicago and how the Trump administration is affecting them financially.
https://www.hpherald.com/evening_digest/u-of-c-leaders-warn-of-financial-fallout-from-trump-administration-moves/article_9ebf1f18-18f6-4903-80a6-94b07343684b.html?utm_source=hpherald.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Flists%2Fevening-digest%2F%3F-dc%3D1745625604&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
Yes. I also realize that the Yarvin, Musk, Thiel types have their plans, and have stolen all of our data so they can do nefarious things to the country as a whole. I am hearing discussions of what those might be. They can destroy our credit, steal our identities, steal from us, blackmail, etc... Those who voted for Trump have clearly not enough knowledge of how much damage they did to themselves. In fact, being undocumented has its advantages in a nation where the president lets crooks steal all our data, in that they will just have a lot less data to work with. I hated that my daughter had to file taxes for the first time because she has now given those criminals and conmen access to her routing information and bank account. Most of that money does not stay in the US, because she is a student here in Germany, but still, I wish she has zero data in the US, because they can ruin her life financially.
It’s almost impossible to escape being part of data in this day and age. We are under that ‘thumb.’
I have been in conversation with Canadians and our former Allies on other platforms and they are so angry and hateful at this version of the US. I understand and I do share about the protests and the minority that the 2024 vote actually represented (and the very probable hacking in some Swing State districts—see Election Truth Alliance data on YouTube). But mostly I advise them to keep a vigilant eye on ‘their own backyards’ because the antidemocratic forces are at work there as well. Russian disinformation and manipulation through social media has had a lot to do with it, was an actor in the Brexit vote, the right wing anti-immigration wave in Western nations —and even in the conflicts leading to the waves of refugees. Culture wars in Hungary were co-opted to create a dictator upon whom FOX media doted. And dark money by the billionaires fueled these divisions as well. We are a uniquely wealthy target nation but the forces that have compromised us are at work abroad. I advise them to strengthen their laws, not to rely on decorum or unwritten protocols, and to mind the media.
As regards the TechBro agenda, every day Thiel and the others are getting more involved, more contracts, more access. I found this an informative listen (though-ads are a pain). https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no?feature=shared
Thanks for the link Heather. These people are so crazy. I have read Project 2025, but not the Butterfly Revolution. I guess I should read it. Joanna does a great job of putting these two groups, The Tech Bros, and the Christian Nationalists at the Heritage Foundation together.
In the EU there is a Digital Security Act since 2022. It does not address the behaviors of these tech bros, but the behaviors of their tech products. It supports research into the effects. This should be included in that. I wrote two pieces on research on the influence of X and TikTok on the German elections. Here is the second one.
Part 2
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/did-bots-and-right-wing-media-platforms-b88?r=f0qfn
Thank you for the links!
Linda, thank you for that. My husband ended his career (in financial IT, not a professor) at U of Chgo. I have forwarded it to him.
Miselle, we are in this together. Glad if anything I post is helpful.
In Solidarity!! ✌🏽
Both my parents were patients at UChi at different times. Very good care.
Yes. But, given that they are the largest provider of health care to people in medicaid in the Chicago area, losing those patients will really hurt their bottom line and will obviously effect the level of care. I have wonderful doctors with them, many of whose children I have taught, so they have taken especially good care of me.
I've been wondering if 'unproductive people' means those who are retired.
Useful advice well presented by Ms. Weide, whom we should all thank. I would add three points:
(1)- Ignore the desperate attempts to attribute the election of Trump to well-meaning ignorance or naivety; the Trump voters' true intent was not MAGA but MAHA: Maximize America's Hatefulness Again. A lynch-mob-minded rabble Infinitely more vile than any "basket of deplorables," they knew exactly what they were doing, and as an NYT focus group recently revealed, they are celebrating Trump's atrocities with sadistic relish. They are as venomous as cobras, as predatory as sharks, as dangerous as rabid bears.
(2)- Emotionally difficult though it may be, especially for those without military training, picture what will happen to you and yours if -- or because you're reading the alternative press, more likely when -- the MAGAstapo kicks in your door. Apply the military's seven Ps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. Assess your physical and emotional state, shape your response accordingly, and practice its details until they become instinctive.
(3)-Another axiom to remember in these times is Lev Bronstein's, this from Tsarist Russia in1905: "In every gathering of three revolutionaries, there is at least one agent of the Okhrana."
Loren, you describe the hatefulness of this group very well. I don't know whether you read Andra Watkins, but when my Democrats Abroad bookclub read The Project 2025 document, we referred to her a lot to gain understanding of the Christian Nationalist Agenda. She is really explaining what we are seeing now as a CN takeover of the country. She herself escaped her CN upbringing and it has led a lifetime of trauma. I feel so concerned for people who have not read P2025, and do not know what CN is. Religious Prof Althea Butler said on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's Zoom meeting yesterday, that she does not see these CNs as expecting Christ to return to the earth any time soon. This is why they are taking over everything. So, whatever their differing end of days beliefs are, they are not preparing for that now, but for taking over and imposing their religion on everyone else. Now Andra Watkins has explained that CNs who are part of the New Apostolic Reformation, believe that everyone on the planet has to follow CN behavior for them to be able to return, because God is not coming to save them until everyone behaves the way he wants. In their view, that means heterosexual marriage and breeding for White people. The rest of us will be gotten rid of. They have merged with the White Power nation long enough that it is hard to distinguish the two, other than that the CNs do not have militias.
I like the 7 Ps. I know several Substacks that are advocating one be ready for survival in a warlike situation. I am starting to prepare. I have a supplies list and will make sure to have these things on hand. I also have a meet up plan for my daughter and a shelter in place plan for her. We know that people like Thiel and Bezos, Zuckerberg have their luxury Bunkers. I think Thiel's is in New Zealand.
As for the agent thing. I am reading The Illegals by Shawn Walker which is about the Russian deep cover spy program. It is interesting how ineffective they are given the amount of energy they put into them, in part because their leadership is so short sighted and paranoid. Many got put to death because of this paranoia. That is the danger for American spies now too.
Linda...I'm a gentrification-exiled New Yorker born of an intellectual family, my first-generation father boarding-school educated in New England, my paternal grandparents British subjects, my birth-mother one of the first three women graduated from Michigan State College in urban planning and landscape architecture. We moved from the City to Jacksonville, Fla, in 1943 on behalf the war effort; my father would eventually be the equivalent of a deputy regional director for the War Production Board and its successor the War Assets Administration. During my first month in our Jacksonville residence, in the locked playground of a gated St. Johns River apartment complex, three older Southron boys tried to kill me by holding me upside-down and burying my head in the sandbox. They did this because I "talked funny" and "looked like a kike." I was three; they were six and seven; I survived only because a six-year-old neighbor girl grabbed a child-sized garden hoe, beat my attackers and sent them home bleeding and screaming for their mothers. The girl was the daughter of a naval officer who was one of my father's colleagues; she had befriended me in that protective way older girls sometimes befriend younger boys, and we remained close friends and constant companions until the navy sent her father to Europe in 1947.
To reduce a long and rather complex story to a single sentence, familial dysfunction and divorce left me with my father, a wonderful stepmother, a childhood, adolescence and post-military young adulthood spent al;most entirely involuntarily in the South, during which I repeatedly experienced the vengeful, sadistically bigoted hatred I first encountered in that Jacksonville sandbox. Years later I would encounter it again in Bellingham, Seattle and the rural Pacific Northwest, exemplifying its venomous metastasis -- chiefly by Christianity -- from the South to eventually contaminate the entire nation.
As to why I was a hate-magnet, it's pretty much explained here: https://www.dispatchesfromdystopia.net/2013/09/press-censorship-lessons-from-ralph-nader-and-a-knoxville-atrocity.html I was raised Marxian by my father, who was enlightened by the Crash of '29, which bounced him from Montreal's McGill University; his pre-Hitler-Stalin-Pact party membership got him purged from the federal government in late 1947, whereupon we were reduced from a new Lincoln family to a used Plymouth family. My public activism began c. 1957 with post-Sputnik formal debate on behalf the Soviet approach to education; military service (Regular Army) was 1959-1962, 16 months in Korea,
honorable discharge 1965. Post-military formal activism includes the Southern Civil Rights Movement (see above link), also the Anti-Vietnam War, Alternative Press and Back-to-the-Land movements, rural-agricultural-commune and abortion-clinic defense, Occupy, the fight for the $15 minimum wage; and a lot of propagation both of socialism and Gaian paganism, which I see as a dynamic symbiosis. So, yeah, I'm no doubt on the List, probably on more than one.
Were I not 85 years old and diagnosed as terminally ill, I'd have already taken advantage of whatever emigration privileges are afforded me as the grandson of British subjects and happily departed this abominable "Unified Reich." I frankly envy those of you who yet have that option.
Loren, Thank you for sharing. Take care of yourself.
Thank you.
Andra does such good work. If you want yo understand the CN movement go to her. Worthy of support, in my view.
I agree Greg. Here is a link to her Substack. She has been 🚍 y explaining what is going on in terms of the government now implementing their plan to turn the US into a Christian Nationalist Theocracy and how to understand Anti-Christian Bias from the point of view of both CNs and the US government under Trump. https://andrawatkins.substack.com/
Yep. I subscribe. Important work here.
Yo! Needs to be to....up there...
I just heard about The Illegals yesterday. Looking forward to reading it.
Right now I am reading that and Timothy Snyder's On Freedom, which my Political Book Club is reading after reading Jefferson Cowie's Freedom's Dominion. These men are talking about two different types of Freedom. We have arranged for Cowie to speak to Democrats Abroad, but everyone is welcome to sign up. It is free.
https://www.democratsabroad.org/freedom_or_power_the_fight_over_america_s_future
All of you miss psy ops. Hate can be traced to Jungian collective subconscious fear of the "other." Some people were inundated with disinformation. IMHO the power of the "men in womens' sports" trope was highly effective is some demographics.
Some people were too frightened to vote. Bomb threats, threats to election workers.....
If one (1) person was intimidated, it was a crime.
There are probems with the count in swing states. “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”― Joseph Stalin
Could you give more detail about why Althea Butler feels Hands Off protests are ineffective? What is the method(s) by which middle aged and older white people need to protest?
She did not say. She implied that they are not going to do the serious work of turning the government around. I still think that these protests have several effects.
1) They let the Judges who have been ruling against Trump and his administration know that the people are behind them by being quite visible. In light of what happened to the judge yesterday, I think this is very important, and people should hit the streets now over this.
2) It lets the fascists know that the people are aware of what they are doing and don't like it.
3) In the case of the Tesla protests it has taken away wealth from Musk, and forced him to have to step back from his DOGE stuff, although that is kind of too late.
4) It develops community around protest, and taking on the local may topple the national. It is good to be in an organized group right now for action. My political group is a support group as much as it is anything else. We need support right now.
I was looking at Butler's Substack after the talk,
https://profantheabutler.substack.com/
but did not have time to read through much to see whether she explains this in more detail there. I do think that the 11 million is evidence based at making a shift, because that represents a large group of people, 3.5% of the population. I think contacting her would be the best way to find out what she thinks.
Thanks for taking the time to expand. I agree with your points; that’s why I was puzzled. To see such large and continuing protests in This country has not occurred since Vietnam. These build community and tell politicians we are not happy.
I have a hard time with people announcing that there is only one right way to do a thing. We can all do a little something and create change.
I was a history major, and still enjoy learning about history as does my physicist husband. My understanding is that things change because of all of the different things that go on. It is the people who are pushing for change, the people who are resisting it, the people who are using violence, the people who are using peace, money, people in other countries, the effects of the world on the situation. All of that leads to change. We can do so too.
I am just seeing that Anand Giridharadas has The General Strike as his heading today and has links to videos of both Robert Reich and Labor Leader Sarah Nelson talking about it this week. He prefaces that by telling us that Conservative commentator David Brooks is promoting it too. https://open.substack.com/pub/anandwrites/p/general-strike?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Good question! I've seen a lot of fellow grey-hairs, many of whom are ostensibly retired. How do we "strike" in this context?
I am also wondering about this.
Seems to me there’s always someone who wants everyone else to jump on their particular bandwagon, and feel compelled to denigrate what others are doing. This is not helpful. We need many people taking many different actions, using different tactics, pursuing different strategies in order to win.
And none of these approaches will bring instant results. It takes time to build a successful nationwide resistance. Let’s don’t insult anyone’s non-violent efforts. Yes, a general strike will be a big step forward. Yes, it takes time to build the capacity to pull it off successfully.
Yes, Tesla Takedowns are working, rattling the billionaires and growing in numbers and broadening the impact. There is no need to shoot ourselves in the foot by disparaging what others are contributing to the fight.
If Australian cartoonists glanced in the AG's direction, they'd have a field day. Because of the ultra-famous ocean beach near Sydney Harbor Heads, the word "Bondi" (pronounced Bon-dye) conjures up a muscular lifesaver in scanty beach attire and a swimmer's cap tied under the prominent chin.
A German cartoonist has had a field day with Hegseth and Signal.
First a comic where a Hausfrau, leaning on a broom is telling someone that she is on Hegseth's Signal chat. She then says, "you wouldn't believe who he is going to bomb next."
The next evening a comic where a group of old women are sitting at a card table, and one is holding up her tablet and asking the rest what they want to know because she claims she is on Hegseth's Grannie's Signal Chat. The implication being that Hegseth is so lose with info and his Signal security that some anonymous woman is on his chat group, and that he tells his grandma all of the defense secrets too, because he is so loose lipped.
And yet they are… either the powers that be or the powers that are need to be clearly defined, a struggle of epic consequences for the world is in play . Trump’s being brought down may be the first notice to the rest of the authoritarian regimes noted ‘on the rise’ …demise.
But is not evil either the yin or yang..of choice
The only good news in this Mad Carnival: AG Bondi calling the Wisconsin judge "deranged" is slander and therefore actionable. I hope the judge sues immediately, because in a courtroom, judges can have anyone leave the room through any door she wants, and therefore not derangement.
But "Sleepy Joe Biden, the worst president this country has ever seen" isn't slander, and actionable?
No. Presidents are the most public of public figures in the world, meaning it's almost impossible to slander or libel a president. The AG slandered a local judge in Wisconsin, who is a public figure technically but so minor that a jury might rule that Bondi went beyond reasonableness and slandered her legally.
At a minimum, Bondi impaired the Justice Dept's case against the judge by potentially tainting the jury pool. Good. Bondi and Patel will hopefully drown in their cesspool of sh-t.
I'd love to agree, but this is an issue with our First Amendment and free speech. The judge is a public figure and Bondi is arguing the judge's interpretation of the law is deranged. It would be difficult to win such a case. Perhaps we need better slander laws as Canada and the UK have.
https://www.bdblaw.com/defamation-of-public-figure-vs-private-figure/
https://www.bing.com/search?q=uk%20slander%20laws%20public%20persons&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=uk%20slander%20laws%20public%20persons&sc=0-30&sk=&cvid=8AF94701FE214160B253BE23FDEC96D1
Thanks for this, Gary, appreciated. You may be right--Bondi didn't specifically say "You are deranged, Judge." Bondi clearly meant this judge, but she may not have been specific enough to meet a slander standard. Then again, who knows what a local jury, no friend of Power beating up "their" judge, might rule?
The public vs private is more interesting. I'd argue that an obscure local judge might technically be a public figure but Bondi's nationally televised smear was so far above and beyond legitimate it made the smear actionable. At least a county jury and the Wisconsin Supreme Court might buy that argument, even if the U.S. Supreme Court might rule otherwise. But then we're back to Square One: is calling a judge or judges "deranged" enough of a smear to be slander?
The Trump Crime Family certainly is pressure-testing every institution in America, from Washington to state circuit courts.
It was also a false arrest. They had an administrative warrant , she told them to come back with a judicial warrant. They had no legal grounds for the arrest and if there is a trial I suspect it will blow up in their faces. They may drop the charges to avoid this but she should sue Kash Patel and Pam Bondi in federal court.
I'm unsure on the administrative vs. judicial warrants, Andrew. I read yesterday that the feds need a judicial to arrest in a "private" courthouse space like courtrooms, but can get by with an administrative in "public" courthouse areas like hallways. I dunno. In any case, yes, I'd like to see Democratic money fund a lawsuit by this judge against Bondi and Ka$h. Of course, this lawless Trump crime family will have this guy in a foreign concentration camp by tomorrow.
My mind went where yours went, Shane. I think a legal action might spend a lot of time exploring the definition of a public figure. I'm not a lawyer, but Gary's comment struck me as mis-applying the "public figure" designation to the judge, citations notwithstanding.
One detail might work against her. Rather than being appointed, she was elected to the circuit court judgeship, which means she probably campaigned for the position. A campaign would make her more "public" than an anonymous jurist who was appointed without fanfare.
Sad to say in our system once you campaign and run for an election you're pretty much fair game. Understand I don't like it, it would be nice to think people could be civil, but I'm afraid Trump put an end to that.
She is a public figure only if a jury agrees she is a public figure, and a local jury (and state appellate judges) may well decide she's not a public figure because they're furious Pam Bondi called "their" judge names. Hard to tell how this one would go if taken to court, but if the judge can get someone to back her suit financially, I say go for it. If nothing else it hits Bondi with a legal club, which is not a bad thing in and of itself.
I'm not arguing. In fact, as a layman, I agree. Just "thinking out loud."
Cool, nice to have agreement on social media :-) Thanks, Dale.
It's sad to see the lack of civility. It's not just disagreeing, it's the constant childish personal attacks. They don't disagree with the way the judge handled the situation, it's that she's deranged.
"The Trump Crime Family certainly is pressure-testing every institution in America, from Washington to state circuit courts." I agree.
Yes, Trump is surprised by the idea that our country is governed by the rule of law. Yes, the courts have ruled against the Trump administration, just as they ruled against him when he contested the 2020 election.. But he escaped any consequences of those decisions, and I do not see that the legal loses then or now are more than losses on paper. I do not understand how the rulings of the courts will be enforced or how any of the illegal acts of this administration will be reversed.
"The British government is still less entitled to the style of an empire. It is a limited monarchy. If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition be just, the British constitution is nothing more nor less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. " - John Adams
Trump aspires to be a "off with their heads" style of king; prior to the Magna Carta, let alone the Declaration of Independence.
I have the same question. I've written on my substack blog tubacalc that the Justice Department needs to be independent of the Executive Branch.
The federal law enforcement apparatus -- now the MAGAstapo -- is what it is not because of last November's election, but because it was methodically infiltrated by Christonazis and their allies in anticipation of the voters' hateful reduction of the Republic to the Unified Reich and Trump's emergence as its Fuhrer. The same infiltration campaign has turned all state and local law enforcement -- reinforced by various vigilante militias -- into Trump's obedient sturmabteilung; hence its 100-percent cooperation with the MAGAstapo. Meanwhile the oath-breaking military, also infiltrated and subjugated for Trump by Christonazis, cravenly refuses its sworn duty to defend the Constitution "against all enemies foreign and domestic." And the longstanding U.S. policy of "Better Dead than Red" -- the stated intent to literally destroy the world rather than surrender -- means there will never be rescue from without. Thus, as you say, there is absolutely no possibility the rulings of the courts will ever be enforced, which tragically reduces them to meaningless babble.
Loren, THIS, then, according to your last sentence, is indeed The End?
No.., no. Not by a long shot. Please excuse my ignorance, but.
The Documents that have been written, signed, and placed on the wall for all to see, and for which we all have agreed, by remaining on these here shores, make up the framework we must operate under. Simply, if one does not like what has been written, agreed to and signed..., one may leave.
Clearly, "The Documents" do not allow for what is going on. Period. Thus, the "law" has been broken. Our ability to express that fact is limited by our vocabulary.
Never-the-less, we remain a civilized society as shown by our behavior during this time of duress. But, this is not the fall of Rome, but close.
The 'Court of public opinion' does not displace the wording in those "Documents". No. They will prevail in the long run, if we remain "civil", which we will.....
Right now, this president is actually in contempt, in the Court of public Opinion, but not yet, in any 'court of law'. However, that is going to change, but it will take some time. The aberrant espousings of "supreme" Court are not in keeping with the framework established for This nation (should one want to remain here).
The who would violate "the Frameworek" are of a different mindset from those who came here 350 years ago. and put things together.
That's my rant for this morning. So, "This" will stop.
MadRussian12A, I think it is possible – and actual – that both you and Loren are correct in your appraisals. However, neither of your conclusions is guaranteed. We are about to witness a war waged by christofascists, liberal democrats (small D) and a previously unmentioned group, the oligarchic technocrats.
Each of these three groups has immense power, and while I'm not qualified to predict how, I am certain the war will be terrifying. Its appearance will be nothing like any war we've previously seen.
Liberal democrats have the advantage of having been here first, but that leads to complacency. Christofascists have been planning their takeover for decades; they are a distinct, unpopular minority, but this doesn't matter if they control the levers of power. The small group of oligarchic technocrats are the Johnny-come-latelys, but their control of finance and data could give them the winning hand.
Currently, the christofascists and technocrats are in league, but their objectives are incompatible, so there will be an eventual split between them.
The outcome of this impending war will determine the future of the U.S. and everyone who lives here. Many will not survive.
The technocrat fascist Oligarchs and the white Christian nationalist Oligarchs are in league and have successfully manipulated our democracy to install the Roberts Supreme Court.
The Roberts Supreme Court has undermined our democracy by deciding that the ultra-rich have more free speech than all other Americans because money is speech (Citizens United), and with unlimited and unregulated dark money, they were able to buy politicians, the Presidency, and install three white Christian nationalist Justices. We are either going to lose our democracy, or we are going to have to fight to regain our democracy and oust all of the fascist GOP from our government and never allow them political power again.
Dale...One more comment: the nurdly Übermenschen -- the Ayn-Rand-vicious elitists you properly call the "oligarchic technocrats" (and, yes, we could use the terms interchangeably) -- have been around since the early '70s; my initial contacts with them were in academia, where I was both adjunct faculty (in photography and journalism) and a financially retarded undergrad too old to court the co-eds. I say "nurdly" (the spelling intensifies the pejorative), but there were an equal number of their ilk in environmental studies, the environmentalists and the computer-science nurds united by three morally imbecilic convictions: that human survival demanded extermination of about 90 percent of the (working class) population; that we of the working class are "too hopelessly stupid" for democracy to be anything more than slow-motion suicide; and that they alone were destined by evolution to be the rulers of the world. The Eric Pianka hypothesis -- unfortunately weaponized by Randite fanatics (see https://reason.com/2006/04/03/to-save-the-planet-kill-90-per/) , and thus dismissed as conspiracy theorizing -- merely happened to express the Übermenschen's topmost intent. As does the Trumpite triumph.
Loren, I don't doubt your timing as to the emergence of the "Übermenschen," which does not conflict with my observation of the rising christofascists.
If you've read any of my other comments, you know that I was born into and brought up in evangelicalism. I remember this history.
White evangelicals, previously known as Puritans, Quakers, etc. had had outsized influence over American culture and governance since white Europeans invaded North America. Their influence continued through The Great Depression until the 1940s-50s, when consumerism and affluence increased. This new prosperity allowed Americans to pursue leisure activities, which often conflicted with church attendance. This rang the first alarm bell with evangelical leaders. In those early days, they thought and preached about returning the U.S. back to "the Christian nation" (myth) it once was.
It was during this period that women were choosing careers over childbearing and becoming increasingly independent and "disobedient."
The 1960s brought Madeline Murray O'Hair's school prayer lawsuit, the "sexual revolution," the women's liberation and racial equality movements, all of which promoted concepts that were anathema to evangelicalism. The leaders panicked and began forming strategies to "retake" the U.S.
Evangelicals began conducting seminars teaching their followers how to run for office at all levels of government. They formed summer youth camps where young evangelicals were indoctrinated with Christian nationalism.
About that time, Republican operatives identified evangelicals as a powerful, easily manipulated voting bloc and formed alliances with evangelical leaders like Billy Graham and others. Needing a wedge issue to "separate the sheep from the goats," GOP strategists settled on gay rights or abortion. Ultimately, they chose abortion, as most Christians already hated gay men anyway, so there was no divisiveness to exploit. The rest is, as they say, history.
That's why I believe the U.S. christofascist movement predates the oligarchal technocratic movement.
Dale...I most assuredly agree, and I apologize if sloppy prosody led you to believe otherwise. Indeed -- experiencing these decades of oppression mostly as a working journalist who was necessarily a (mostly closeted) Marxian -- I would go so far as to say the embryonic form of Christonazism was brought to the Americas by Columbo the Contaminator himself and most assuredly was debarked at Plymouth Rock as well. (My paternal lineage traces to 11th Century Scotland; my earliest paternal ancestors came here from England in about 1630; Mary Blisse -- a prosperous Connecticut farmer who mothered 11 children and was envied both for her vast, curative knowledge of matriarchal European folk medicine and friendship with First Nations folk, beat a witchcraft rap in Boston c. 1648 or so. But my people were Loyalists during the war for independence and were forcibly deported in 1789. My father, 1910 birth-date in Lowell, Mass., was my first paternal relative born here since the 1789 ouster.)
Congratulations on surviving fundamentalism. I'm loving this entire conversation, but other obligations now mandate I sign off, though I'll certainly be back -- Goddess willing an the creek don't rise -- sometime this evening.
Thank you; I am looking at the probabilities based on the present-day intentions and capabilities of the warring factions, and on that basis, no other outcome is possible. Nevertheless, capabilities can be changed by operational blunders; for example, the Wehrmacht was omnipotent until Hitler in a Fuhrer-frenzy countermanded his generals' intent to delay attacking the Soviet Union until 1948. Given the comparable arrogance of Kaiser Elon,, Fuhrer Trump and the nurdly Übermenschen that sustain them, similar circumstances could obtain.
But I doubt that will happen; two of the determinants are fixed conditions, unchangeable by anything short of the total collapse of modern civilization. One is the combination of technological omnipotence and sadistic moral imbecility by which the U.S. terrorizes the world into Americanized submission, which again boils down to capability (ecogenocidal extinction of all planetary life by thermonuclear and biological weaponry) and intention ("Better Dead than Red"). The other is the comforting but demonstrably false notion We the People are capable of liberating ourselves.
"Better Dead than Red" -- the policy of destroying the world to avoid acknowledging defeat -- comes straight from Hitler. After it became clear he would lose the war, It's what he said he'd do, had he the power. Given its origin and the fawning hero-worship of Hitler-as-Messiah by Trump, his Christonazi/Neoconfederate rabble and their nurdly Übermenschen enablers, it would be suicidal to disregard.
Our national inability to liberate ourselves also reduces to the common denominators of capability and intention. Since 1865, the U.S. has repeatedly proven it is incapable of effectively resisting internal oppression. Five examples should suffice. These are: the bipartisan destruction of the New Deal; the nullification of the Equal Rights Amendment; the bipartisan failure to achieve recognition of health care as a human right rather than a privilege of wealth; the bipartisan destruction of affordable education; and now --under Trump ad nauseam -- the methodical repeal of every humanitarian gain We the People ever achieved. In the context of such conclusively proven inability, stated intentions -- including anti-Trump judicial decrees -- are meaningless.
The magnitude and character of our inability to resist is demonstrated by the instantaneous collapse of the U.S. anti-war movement following abolition of the draft, which proves the movement was motivated more by cowardice than humanitarian principle. The dynamics of our inability to resist, the product of decades of psychological conditioning, are glaringly obvious in the collapse of Occupy: long before it was attacked from without,, it was breaking apart within. The cause was identity-politics hatefulness intensified by neoliberalism-induced self-obsession. This symbiosis -- a social malignancy for which there is no cure -- fulfills its oppressive purpose by permanently obstructing evolution of the solidarity and discipline essential for (effective) resistance. And atop that there is the irremediable racism of the white Moronic Majority: 77 percent of all U.S. Caucasians, according to the post-Katrina Pew Poll. Hence the only "change we can believe in" is that things will get worse. Infinitely so.
T certainly got more than his share of due process.
Exactly.
Thank you for pointing out just how diminished and demented he really is right now. It clearly shows that he is losing. We must not let this moment pass, though, because we will continue to slide into fascism even though he is nuts unless we stop him.
And acknowledge the role and teach some manners to the power behind the throne; some of the most wealthy people on the planet.
It is a fantasy of mine that some exceedingly expert hackers take up against some of these TechBros and corrupt/ expose some of their enterprises as they have allowed DOGE to do to our private, public and financial data. Where is ‘anonymous?’ Were they citizens of our former allies? There is very convincing evidence of hacked swing state elections in 2024 (look up Election Truth Alliance) and until that is resolved, if there are legit 2026 elections (doubtful if we keep on this trajectory) we cannot be confident of the outcomes.
We need to celebrate and protect legitimate whistleblowers.
They have not fared well under Trump. It seems ‘in America, right matters’ no longer applies…
I don't understand why so many people seem to believe that trump alone is responsible for the nightmare we are experiencing right now.
This is the ultimate goal of many decades of right-winger businessmen, the investor class, and white Christian nationalists who believe that they should rule over the majority. They never believed that the workers should be paid livable wages or expect a safe workplace.
Eisenhower in 1954:
"This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon 'moderation' in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Ike did not fully grasp the power of modern mass media.
I have argued repeatedly via my own blog and on very many threads elsewhere (including on other sites in substack), that Trump is the fulfillment of the bipartisan, multi-generation Bankers' Plot, the financial aristocracy's 1933 scheme to make the U.S. a satellite of Nazi Germany, the perpe-traitors of which Congress granted the carte-blanche approval of de facto immunity. While the evidence is mostly circumstantial, the historical progression is terrifyingly undeniable: first the immunity; then the aristocratic co-optation of U.S. Christianity; IBM's technological enabling of the first Holocaust; the post-Stalingrad embrace of Original Nazi war criminals; the 1947 onset of the postwar purge of Marxians, socialists, intellectuals and creatives that exploded into the McCarthy persecutions; the state murders of the Rosenbergs; the decade of political murders that followed the murders of Medgar Evers and President Kennedy; LBJ's Tonkin Gulf betrayal and the subsequent function of the "Democratic" (sic) Party as the Fifth Column of the "Republican" (sic) Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party -- all this treason, treachery, deceitfulness and death culminating in the Democrats' carefully scripted, thus plausibly-deniable scheme to throw the 2024 election to Trump followed by their abject post-election surrender. Anywhere but here in Moron Nation, such a glaring sequence of betrayals would have long ago sparked a revolution. But never here. Not now; not ever.
“We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you're going to have honest men like me.”
He “honestly” believes that.
Rhetorical question: Why is Time magazine giving this man a dignified platform with softball questions? The same reason why I haven’t opened a Time magazine in forty years.
I had no idea Time Magazine still existed!
Cream puff "journalism" in business to sell advertising space.
Yup. Corporate media survives on advertising revenue, not subscriptions. Depending on the type of media, advertising rates are based entirely on circulation or audience share. The larger their audience, the greater the demand for advertising and the higher the rates charged.
Corporate media quickly learned that Donald Trump attracts ears and eyeballs, whether from ardent fans or critics trying to keep up with his antics. More Trump equals higher ad revenue. More than anything, the wall-to-wall press coverage gave Trump his first presidency, kept him front-of-mind even after he lost, and gave him his second presidency.
Even independent journalism, such as Substack, while not ad-supported, succumbs to "the Trump effect" for audience share.
Pusillanimous Press.
Had to check Merriam-Webster on this one, J L:)
I got carried away with alliteration.
See more commentary here (free to read):
https://criticalread.substack.com/p/the-pushback-trump-should-have-gotten
Excellent piece. Thank you.
This interview by Time spotlights how deranged trump is.
Because their oligarchy owners order them to.
Good question
There was another disturbing part of the Bondi interview where she made the assumption that accused = guilty when speaking of the immigrant before Judge Dugan. She called him a criminal, then went on to mutter about being just as concerned for his victims as we are for the criminal. There is a hatred of the 'other' in this administration which I find appalling. It is, for me, one of the most disturbing aspects of who they are as a group.
This regime shows us everyday just how greedy, power-hungary, and twisted that they are. I'm still amazed at how many people think that his base is any different. They have always been there, but frontman trump has given them permission to show themselves publicly and proudly. Cruelty is their red meat.
Power-hungry.. not hungary..
I am reminded yet again of how clarifying your letters are in the swirl of all that transpires in a day in these chaotic, distressing times. Reading you settles my mind because of the clarity you provide that ties together and connects the themes and meaning behind the events that have occurred. Invariably I feel a sense of calm knowing that I have a grasp of the whole rather than being pulled in every direction all at once by the varying accounts that are out there. Your opening sentence frames that understanding:
"Today’s major stories must be seen in the context of President Donald Trump’s dramatic losses in court and his plummeting poll numbers."
Thank you again and again!
What an absolutely terrifying moment. That interview showed a deranged lunatic clearly not in control of his faculties. It showed a moron who didn’t even get the point made about the rule of law v. the rule of men. It showed a liar making up bullshit faster than he could breathe.
Pam Bondi clearly missed her calling as a spokesperson for the Rev. Jim Jones in Guyana ordering his followers to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced kool-aid.
What is the deal with these ghastly, cruel, stupid, desperate people? What draws them to all this chaotic ugliness? How could anybody be dumb enough to think this has anything to do with “greatness”?
The gleaming crosses hanging on chains around the necks of most of these people should be your first clue.
There are several kinds of religion in the world. Some are based on a personal journey to enlightenment, some based on community and some based on exclusion or "othering."
White evangelicals fall into the last category. They believe that their way is the only right way, the only "good" way. Any other way is "evil." They dwell in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament) where an angry Jehovah repeatedly smites people who defy him. They interpret the Bible literally and treat it like an instruction manual for daily living – except for the parts that are inconvenient, which they ignore; these inconvenient passages vary by sect. For evangelicals, the Bible, their preachers and any other persons ordained by their preachers are the only authorities to be followed, and they must be followed without question.
In short, if you are not a patriarchal, white, Bible-thumping heterosexual, you are evil and deserve whatever smiting comes your way.
In my own mind, I had not conceptualized three such distinctive approaches to spirt. A seeker searching for ultimate truth and purpose, a community of shared searchers in service toward themselves and others -- both feel natural --- an integral part of the human experience of God. But how does one find spirit by excluding others? It makes no sense. It's like the tree insisting it's better than the dirt it came from.Yet it exists, doesn't it? I think Jesus called people like this 'whited sepulchers of death and decay.'
Corbin, if you start with the premise that the Judeo-Christian deity came from the same source as Norse, Greek, Roman, Muslim and other gods – the imaginations of old men sitting around fires – then Western religions "make no sense" in any case.
But some religions are more beneficial than others. Some provide answers to unanswerable questions that ease the minds of their followers, whether or not those answers are true or verifiable. Some religions motivate followers to be kind and generous, creating community and peace.
To my mind, evangelicalism – and its mirror, extremist Islam – are neither sensible nor beneficial. Both foster nothing but fear, and fear allowed to get out of control begets hate, which in turn, produces violence.
Incidentally, when Jesus made the "whited sepulcher" comment to the scribes and Pharisees, he knew what he was talking about because he himself was a Pharisee. Being literate, the scribes and Pharisees were prone to focus on "the letter of the law" rather than the spirit. Jesus was familiar with this fault among his peers and was warning them against it.
The same warning applies to evangelicals who weaponize the Bible to attack those with whom they disagree.
Don't forget the radical Catholic Opus Die, which has played a massive role in the makeup of today's Supreme Court.
I believe that people have always been easily manipulated by people who claim to know why bad things happen in their lives. And many of those people found that they could manipulate others by saying that if you jump through all the hoops just right, God will favor you, now kiss my ring and give me your money.
Blind faith, yeah, that's the ticket.
He repeats the big lie just like Adolf said. I love America and I will save it. Just keep up the patriotic blather and maybe that lightening strike will happen. Better hurry because the destruction will win while the “saving” is a mirage. But maybe it will be up to real truth tellers if we can multiply them like the destroyers have multiplied the lies. As chump said, repeat the lie you want people to believe three times, and it’s done. Adolf never said it better, only first. That quip about being honest was a knee slapper. And the MAGAts rejoice.
May be brakes be applied quickly, the P2025 plans are already being implemented. The barbarian is already on the throne, but his horns are showing and his nose grows by leaps and bounds…
If he stood near a polygraph, it would burst into flames.
Reminds me of a joke I read somewhere.
A new arrival inside the Pearly Gates is being led by St. Peter down a long corridor toward heaven. On the walls are millions of devices that resemble clocks but have only one hand. Some hands have barely moved from the "noon" position and others are slowly creeping around the dial. The new arrival asks, "What are these devices?"
St. Peter answers, "They're lie detectors. Every time someone on earth tells a lie, the hand on their dial moves one notch."
The new arrival continues walking, and scrutinizes the devices, ponders for a few moments, then asks, "Where is Donald Trump's lie detector?"
St. Peter replies, "Oh, God took Trump's into his living room. He's using it as a ceiling fan."
In an interview in “Sun,” Sept 12, 2005, chump was quoted as saying “you never blame yourself. You have to blame something else. Of you do something bad, never, ever blame yourself.” The one true statement, always. And it’s just what we teach our children, huh?
Meanwhile trump is pushing hard to force a surrender deal on Ukraine and preparing to welcome a genocidal dictator back into the warm embrace of normalised relations with the USA. The world is watching and will remember.
John Stewart's latest interview is of Rory Stewart (former British Cabinet member and diplomat, amongst other things). It's a really interesting interview and poignant at one point as Rory discusses his admiration and affection for the US he worked with not terribly long ago - https://youtu.be/at-smySDPNU?feature=shared
Yesterday, Senator Grassley of Iowa spoke out in favor of Ukraine. For example, according to Politico, “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned President Donald Trump that Russia was ‘playing America’ on Friday, asking him to punish the country for attacking Ukraine amid ceasefire negotiations”.
If you’re from Iowa, contact Grassley’s office (call 202-224-3744 in DC or write https://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact/questions-and-comments ) and Thank him. Also, ask for more of this.
Others in red states: contact your GOP senators and chide them for not being as brave/moral as Grassley.
Note: Congress passed a law in 2022 that makes it illegal for the US to recognize Crimea or other captured Ukrainian land as Russian.
I did not know about 2022 law. Does that not make Trumps ‘final offer’ deal illegal? Or does the craven Supreme Court ruling that nothing POTUS does in office is illegal overrule?
Biggest laugh of the day: Trump describing himself as honest!
I needed that!
That was a laugh out loud moment for me too and reminded me of this snippet - https://youtube.com/shorts/sXfHM4wahco?feature=shared
What a bunch of word salad coming out of Trump's mouth.
Indigestible.
That "Time" interview. Absolutely - something else. . .
And they said BIDEN was demented?
The President of America is the man in charge of just about THE most powerful country in the world.
And today, that man is - Donald Trump.
That is a truly horrifying thought.
Slings and arrow of outrageous fortune. I hope I live to see a more comforting turn of fate.
2029 seems like a distant star.
Oh the humanity.
Oh, the gag reflex. /s