Propaganda only has to win the moment. Evidence eventually outlasts the narrative.
The longer the gap between the two, the more public trust erodes. A healthy democracy depends on bringing evidence back to the center before false narratives are accepted as truth.
I disagree. Democracy depends on having educated voters, which is why the department of education was gutted and red states like Texas are defunding public schools and tainting curriculums with trash science. They know what they're doing: an uneducated citizen is an easily manipulated citizen.
Cap, thank you for that response. As a teacher, I saw how schools were divided between being upper class and disadvantaged. I taught in a disadvantaged district where we were often scrounging to find materials to meet our students' needs, often buying things with our own money. My nephew teaches in an upper-class district where he gets whatever he needs. I don't resent that he can give so much to his students; I resent that the teachers in my district about 30 miles away, but many thousands of dollars of community-average income gap away don't. The teachers I worked with and I were not upset about spending our money for our students, just angry that our state and federal governments couldn't help us more.
It blows my mind Ruth that you at times had to pay from your pocket for your students' needs, in the richest country in the world! Just as I am always in disbelief that not every American has health insurance provided by the Federal Government! Shame on us for all these shortcomings that really tell our story!
It's so commonly done that teachers get a special deduction on the first $300 each year by the IRS. (or at least they did.. hard telling what they have done with that now)
So they have been paying out of pocket for supplies for so long that even the government thought they needed a break. You will notice however that it's a mostly symbolic deduction at this point.
Thank you for your comment BLB, was not aware! It is appalling to me that our teachers have to even consider this! If we could just spend our money on those things that do indeed improve and upgrade our everyday citizens' lives, and not just the "well connected"!
Symbolic indeed!! A late friend of mine proudly boasted that his trip to Italy with his wife was covered by POINTS on his company credit card!! Somehow, as a teacher I was never able to accumulate enough points to take my wife to the beach for a day!
BLBBLB, yes, totally symbolic. Counting the books I bought for my students (we have no libraries in our district except in one of the high schools but no librarian), copy paper, pencils, notebooks, folders, and so on, I usually paid over $2,000 a year. I taught for 26 years. The math is incredible. I am grateful to Scholastic for having good books that are reasonably priced for teachers (they know how that works), and family and friends who helped out. I am not bragging, just informing. Many of my colleagues also spent significant amounts too. I don't regret a single penny because I know my students benefited because they told me they appreciated it.
You're kidding, Ligia, right? I was a college professor for 40 years and a year did not go by that I, like my elementary and secondary school colleagues, did not spend hundreds of dollars to supply students with things they needed and that I needed to educate them. This often included FEEDING them because they were often food insecure, especially grad students on TA wages. This has been going on for decades. The biggest difference in the last 10 years? The Felon, in his first maladministration, got rid of the unreimbursed business expense deduction for TEACHERS. Not for people who claim million-dollar yachts and planes as business expenses. Teachers. I now teach ballet at a professional school--high prestige, mediocre pay--and I cannot deduct the shoes, dance clothes, and Spotify subscription that I MUST have in order to do my job.
Linda, I worked in the catering department on the Stanford Campus in the mid 1980's. We commented that you could always tell when graduate students were at a function; they ate the garnish, and there were NEVER any "leftovers". Ever.
I also had a junior high math teacher who worked summers at our local Safeway. He had to.
Linda, you brought food too! I brought snack for my students every session. I tried to get ones that were healthy and didn't have gelatin (because sometimes the gelatin is made with pork), and not too much sugar. It was a challenge, but it did help keep them on task. I especially liked baking for them or bringing sliced cheese and crackers. Those were their favorites. I would still do that even if our state and federal governments gave us more resources. The snacks help with student bonding too.
Donald Trump never had to worry about where his next meal would come from. He never worried about having enough money to pay doctors or hospitals. As everything with Trump is personal, so is his lack of empathy with issues common to every day Americans.
It happened here in Douglas county, the richest county in Colorado, when chuckie Koch and his Heritage pals took over our school district 15 years ago. No more buses for after school activities kids, cuts to classroom supplies and freeze in teacher salaries and staffing. We got rid of them, then they came back, now we have actual educators but the corrupt county commissioners still play their thieving bribery ways. They don't allow citizen comment in meetings.
We were on defense after prayer was removed from public schools.
My personal favorite was when we had to sell part of one district to the Amish, who used 13 year old girls as teachers in the wake of Wisconsin v Yoder. We also had to provide parochial schools services for busing, and funding for special ed students, and provided "release time" for religious students.
Ligia, this is not uncommon. I paid for posters for the library and paid for the paint and a student to paint our office area. I did manage to get the district to pay for the whole library the next year. I also gave lots of free time in the summer as did many others in terms of using their own money and time. i had to beg for a decent chair....we all had government surplus. i did have a nice oak desk.
Ruth, you are correct. I am a retired secondary Texas teacher. I spent hundreds of dollars of my own money on supplies for my students each year, at the expense of my own children. Every single year.
In retrospect, I am ashamed for deciding to teach in a state that is so dismissive of its children and the teachers who teach and love them.
I'm also curious about what I've "heard" when it comes to teacher salaries in the US. Is it true that some are paid fairly for their work, and others receive pay that is near the poverty line? Are these individual state decisions, or districts (rich vs poor)? I don't get it, but I'm writing from Canada.
Property taxes per county are the major funder of schools in the US and therefore districts in wealthy areas are far more resourced than poorer areas. A lot of this scheme is due to deliberate efforts associated with racism. States can and do add support, but not all states. The federal Department of Education was designed to add support especially to schools in poor areas, but Trump and Co are destroying that.
Yes,teacher pay varies widely determined largely by state legislatures.Teachers in states with unions earn more. Florida ranks last in average teacher pay….56,600 K.
The starting Texas salary for teachers in fall of 2026 is $33,660 if you are in a district that pays the state minimum. However, Dallas ISD starting teachers make 68,000. Rural school districts pay much less - usually starting around 40,000. The individual districts set the pay scale for their employees. Texas can not have a teacher union and the pay scale represents the difference to states with a union.
Dorothy, I'm adding my confirmation to Laura Farkas's explanation. Here in Arkansas, where I've lived for many years, the state/local tax code is undetectably designed to enforce racism. Because only whites were originally landowners, real estate taxes are laughably low, thus shielding whites from taxes. However, regular sales tax is 10% or more, depending on locality, thereby shifting the tax burden to people who do not own real property, but must buy necessities like food, clothing and a car. The sales tax also applies to used cars, effectively taxing a vehicle every time it is sold.
School funding comes from property taxes, so students who live in affluent neighborhoods get more funding and better schools. However, regardless of local resources, all teachers in Arkansas are poorly paid, relying on personal money or crowdsourced funding to get the supplies they need for their students. This is over and above the compulsory "shopping lists" distributed by the school districts, which total $300 to $500 per student.*
Then, because Arkansas is a red state populated by mostly evangelicals, the legislature has decreed that public schools must split equal shares of funding with private, for-profit schools, thereby syphoning funds from struggling public schools to schools mostly operated by churches, where students receive mediocre education and heavy religious indoctrination.
This arrangement perpetuates the economic and educational disparity between the wealthy whites and impoverished Blacks and Latinos, as well as civic ignorance in favor of religious beliefs.
*I graduated from high school in the 1970s in Butler County, PA (yes, THAT Butler). At the time, the overwhelming majority of Butler's population were first- and second-generation immigrants who wanted better lives for their children than they had in their old countries. In response, they taxed themselves with a "working privilege tax" that was deducted from every paycheck in the county regardless of amount. No exemptions. 100% of the tax went to the school district. Consequently, the schools had everything they needed. There were no shopping lists for parents. Students just showed up and were supplied with all the supplies they required. Teachers were the highest paid in the region. Many held doctorates and were paid accordingly. It's probably not like that anymore, as education is no longer a priority in the U.S.
The average public school teacher salary in the United States is $74,495 per year, according to data from the National Education Association (NEA). Average starting salaries nationwide sit at approximately $48,112.
Yes, Dorothy, teacher salaries are uneven. In the state of Texas, where I taught, the state set a minimum salary schedule, and individual districts could, through their local school board, and to the base salary via a stipend. When I began teaching, teachers in that district received a very small stipend, but even with it, my two children qualified for free lunch (a federal program), so I filled out the paperwork. When I attempted to turn in the application, the school secretary took me to a private room, closed the door, and gently told me that yes, my children qualified and they would receive free lunch, but it would cost me my job. The administration would not hire me back when the current year's contract was up.
I asked her to shred the application, which she did.
Please don't be ashamed. My kids made it through Texas public schools because of teachers like you. For years, we bought classroom items for teachers' wish lists, contributed to school supply drives, paid other kids' lunch accounts. Both of my grandmothers retired with good teacher pensions after lifetimes in the Texas public schools. You should have been able to expect the same. Our state pols ruin everything. The current arrangement is no way to run an education system, but it would have been even worse for Texas children if you hadn't stayed with it. Thank you.
Terri, just keep in mind all those students for whom you made a difference, a kind teacher who actually cared about them and their families. Those kids might not have had that had you not been their teacher. Republicans and all members of Trumplandia care nothing for our children, so it really is up to us, the teachers, school staffs and other educators, doctors, nurses, and other medical people to do our best to help the children to become the best adults they can be. We already know what kind of people Abbott, Paxton, and the rest of that crowd in TX and other states are. Caring about our children, even their own is not anywhere close to a priority for them.
My daughter had the same experience. Her first teaching job was in a lower income district and since she was paid so miserably anyway, I spent hundreds each year to upfit her classroom with basic supplies. After 5 years, she moved to a wealthier district (Chapel Hill, NC) and when I asked her did she want to go supply shopping, she said the PTA gives each teacher $250 to buy supplies. So yes, the disparity is real. She has since left teaching, but that's another story.
Ruth, for a long time here in Oregon, local districts voted on budgets. Once we were two weeks late opening with students upset and some crying. We had a leaky building with buckets catching water when it rained and bad heating and no AC. My library had a south facing glass brick wall....remember those? Then we had a CA inspired property tax measure which passed and the state took over most of the funding. Fast forward to today and many districts do not have enough money and the local district is thinking of closing 6-8 elementary schools because of student population. Some of it is people afraid to send their children because of ICE. Nearly all districts have a budget deficit. Meanwhile the billionaire owned of the Trail Blazer wants millions in tax money to upgrade the arena despite all local budgets and the state budget suffering. More billionaires feeding at the public trough. Then there are fights over school board elections, some of which have become expensive. Right now in a city counsel election, the winner has been declared even though she may not have had the required residency in her ward. Not sure this one is over. And yes, she is a conservative.
I taught in Oakland CA. Middle school and elementary. I always had to buy my own materials for my classroom. Very little was supplied to teachers. We did get to make copies for free. I never was not going to pay for my supplies. Hundreds of dollars out of pocket and pay that wasn’t great. Teaching was what I wanted to do. To me that was funding my classroom and doing the best I could to reach all students. People think that a 6 th grade class students are all the same level. I had students that couldn’t read to gifted students. Meeting their needs was my primary concern.
Curriculum is a whole other topic. Trying to teach critical thinking skills and how to live in our community and world was a priority no matter what the subject.
Teaching is a big responsibility and I wish government would treat it as such.
I taught in what was known as a migrant school and the teachers used their own money to buy materials. I treasure those years of teaching as I am sure you do.
Diana, just as you say, I loved my job! I consider it my dream job. I just retired 5 years ago but go back to tutor. It took me 20 years after graduating from college to get the job and it was worth the wait because in the meantime, I learned so much more than I would have had I just become a classroom teacher right out of college.
Democracy also depends on 1) voters that have the time to pay attention to anything political, and 2) being able to make it to a polling place that is convenient or having the wherewithal to vote by mail or by some other means than in-person.
A single mother working 60 hours a week to make ends meet, has way different priorities and needs than those of us reading the Professor's daily newsletter.
Good point. Many people work on voting days, so they can't get away to vote. It should be a national holiday, but Republicans will never agree to that.
Even if it were to be a national holiday there would be people that have to work. Hospital workers for one. Firefighters. Police. You can’t shut down a country completely. Which is why I LOVE California and our mail in voting that is sent to ALL registered voters. Gives you the option to either go in person or vote by mail. We always vote by mail but sadly we don’t trust the post office any longer to deliver it properly so we drive it directly to our county registrar. And we do it early. Plus California has a text system where they confirm your vote has been received as well as counted. Every state should do what we do here.
gj, of course Republicans will never go along with election day as a holiday. Heck, they can't even accept Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 40 years later. They are having a heart attack over Juneteenth!
The Republicans are great at sound bites and outrage. "The brown people are eating the cats and dogs! It's the Democrats fault!" and "Democrats are Communists!" (a LOT of Republican voters are old enough to remember McCarthy - and still be frightened by the word)
What have the Democrats got to fight back with? The truth can take a LOT longer to explain. I sometimes watch "Parkergetajob" on youtube, when I feel like being depressed. The people on that come up with statements straight from Fox or Sinclair radio. And trying to explain in terms their obvious education levels could contend with would take a month.
"It was Joe Biden's fault" to people who are already disposed to dislike Joe Biden, is a lot easier and quicker to swallow than "This is the reason inflation is so high and getting higher."
No wonder trump is so desperate to end the war in Iran - it really is a GREAT soundbite for the Dems - "War bad - no gas - trump's fault."
people who are willing to believe a lie usually have a predisposition to so believe. an agenda that the lie fits...part of the predisposition can be the helplessness people feel in the face of so large a machine. who killed the Kennedys/MLK...? why Vietnam? what happened on 9/11? why has America been involved in so many invasions? where are the weapons of mass destruction...how was covid allowed to kill as many as it did? why Venezuela? what happened to the reflecting pool? these and other lies brought to you by your elected representatives and their 'help'. and you better do what they say or they'll ICE you.
The German people, as a whole, were not stupid, or uneducated. The reason the Nazis came to power in 1933 was that the economic conditions were so bad, it enabled the propaganda the Nazis pumped out to find acceptance in the general public.
Conditions in the US are nowhere near as bad, despite gas prices and inflation. However, this admin has five things going for it that the Germany Nazi party did not:
An uneducated electorate.
Social media
Television
A submissive media
A propaganda system that learned every thing Goebbels taught - and then "improved" upon it.
I was going to say "An already identified and established target for hatred" - but antisemitism was already well entrenched even before the Nazis came to power. The hatred for people of a different color - it's an equivalent.
lauriemcf, Trump lied even ab out this; he loves no one and nothing but himself. It is sad that those he was targeting "the uneducated," weren't even insulted. They weren't insulted either whenhe told them he didn't care about them, only wanted their votes. I guess when people are enthralled by an ignoramus, they no longer hear what he says. We have seen that throughout history. Those who are enthralled are rarely questioned as though they don't matter. They cearly are nearly irrelevant to the conman.
I often say that the most important result of any high school education should be "Informed Voters". We have had similar "quality reductions" in education here in Canada. I attribute that to the the Conservative Movement -- which is worldwide. I remember some of our Conservative political leaders in the sixties campaigning to re-orient schools toward "employment". I didn't understand at the time that some of those "airy-fairy" courses they wanted to eliminated were the very ones that produce a more thoughtful society, one that understands the value of "staying informed". At 85, I get it.
Back to my broken record, as HALF of US adults can't quite read at a 6th grade level. Hence the fool's statement that he ran as a Republican because it's a party full of stupid people.
Sadly, Texas is not the only state to be actively working on defunding public schools. Here in Ohio the Republicon legislators ignored three rulings by the Ohio Supreme to create a fair school funding formula that helped disadvanted districts with a low tax base. That was in place for one year, and Ohio Republican legislators decided they didn't like it and did not have to follow it. Now at least 30 school districts in Ohio have joined a lawsuit against funding private schools in Ohio with vouchers paid for with public taxes. It happens to be unconstitutional. My district failed to pass a levy in May and the district could not afford the $13,000 fee to join the lawsuit, so we raised the money with a GoFundMe campaign. Where there is a will there is a way!
"We are not a very smart people" is true BECAUSE of the horrible state of education in the US.
And it's not just a problem in red states. In blue states, teachers are focused on "validating the student" as an individual rather than transmitting all the wonderful things invented and discovered by the greatest minds of the past.
If students are told to identify with their "perspective", they can't learn critical thinking, and they don't value debating their opinions.
A democracy where citizens don't debate politics on a daily basis, from kitchen table to work floor, is a democracy that cannot but be replaced with fascism.
The MAGAs are home grown White Supremecists. It is hard to educate dedicated hate. The current cabal holding our nation hostage are mostly well educated rascists and child molesters. Those voting for them may not all be as well educated, but they are all rascist bullies.
Sadly, Texas is not the only state actively working to defund public schools. Here in Ohio Republicon legislators have ignored three Oh Supreme Court rulings that the current school funding was unconstitutional. Then a Fair School Funding Plan was put into place, and they decided after one year of that to ignore that, too.
A profile of Trump's voters was conducted by two Univ. of Kansas professors, David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley, entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" published in the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology" in Feb. 2018. In short, the study found Trump's voters to want Trump to crush the "undesirables," i.e., women's and gay rights advocates, immigrants, gays, transgender people and more. Are these people intelligent? Educated? Critical thinkers? Not in my assessment. They don't know what they don't know, in my experience. They're clueless. They know nothing about history, about dictatorships, and more. Nancy MacLean's book, "Democracy in Chains," (2017) does a great job of explaining how the Koch Bros. and other oligarchs managed to dupe ordinary citizens who ended up voting against their own best economic and social interests. An earlier book is Thomas Frank;s )What's the Matter with Kansas?" (2004) I should also mention Heather Cox Richardson's Book, "How the South Won the Civil War." (2020)
I would say that democracy depends on having informed voters, who can be of average intelligence. Just be informed, not propagandized, as one third of the electorate is by Fox "News" and other pits of disinformation. Ask questions!
Imagine if you will, this late in life, being the very personification of THE MOST visible failure on the world wide stage that is the current occupant of America's White House...... and the tragic comedy is that he doesn't know the world see's thru his lies.
no truths, all trumps
His hand picked advisors are idiots, not that he is listening, just blaming these witless co grifters.
Actually, Trump's followers are losing bigly financially. His stock is failing. Musk, for example, has lost billions this year. Tesla is down 30%. With that money, he could have bought out a domestic car manufacturer or two.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has invested roughly $26.7 billion across 30 equity or quasi-equity corporate deals, led by an $8.9 billion stake in Intel, a $400 million investment in MP Materials, and various funding agreements spanning quantum computing, minerals, and semiconductors.
There should be an investigation whether Trump, his family and close associates had insider info and invested before the public announcements....
There needs to be an investigation exactly who benefits.....
But
AI Overview
While exact individual constituent tracking data fluctuates daily, public market assessments indicate that approximately 35% to 40% of the stocks in the S&P 500 have lost money on a year-to-date basis in 2026.
Morningstar
Despite the broad benchmark index S&P 500 tracking a positive year-to-date return of roughly 9.4% as of late July 2026, the underlying market breadth remains highly concentrated. Heavyweights in the artificial intelligence, chip, and data center infrastructure sectors have disproportionately carried the index upward, while massive segments of the market—particularly consumer discretionary, software, and traditional consultancy—have lagged or dipped into negative territory.
I agree. I disagree with those who say Democracy depends on “intelligent” or “educated “ voters. I see and know many of those who are educated and intelligent who believe in and support trump and this administration. I have an adult son who suffered a brain infection at age 12 that has caused cognitive impairment to his “IQ”. As a result he completed school in “special ed” and is “disabled”.
So…not well “educated”. But he asks questions. He has a Trumper friend who has tried to influence him, but he does not agree with this friend. He has listened to both sides. He knows what character means. He knows what “loving your neighbor” means. He listens to some independent media. Also, I believe his faith plays a part. He knows right-from-wrong. Maybe it’s simpler than education and intelligence.
Bravo to your son, Deborah! Just knowing the Golden Rule gives all the guidelines to determine our vote. Education can give deeper insight on how to fix the issues, and the “education” need not be formal.
You don't need to be very intelligent to understand that Trump lies everytime he opens his mouth. It is his schtick. It's what he does and has always done.
"Intelligence" is not a simple word to define, though we all think we can recognize it when we encounter it.
Trump is a clever manipulator of already ideologically and morally
deficient people who were badly brought up. Racists, sexists, criminals, high tech billionaires, you know, we've all run into them at one time or another.
Trump himself is deficient in every possible way and easily manipulated by the brighter head-of-state narcissists and killers (Putin and Netanyahu come to mind).
We are all paying a steep price for some of us having taken him seriously, so it is up to all of us to resist, demonstrate, argue, be well informed and then VOTE, god damn it!
Say what you like, but Republican voters are smart enough to understand that voting is a strategic joint exercise in taking power. That uniting to dominate government is worth the compromise.
The specious rhetoric of 'the duopoly' serves to suppress and split what should be a united opposition vote. As do endless purity tests. You would think that by now - the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties would be clear. Not the absolute difference but the significant difference.
If you want to send the Democratic party a message then become the reliable base. It is how the right wing remade the Republican party in their own image.
I will vote but sad to say, I want to vote less and less. It's even crossed my mind not to vote, as disgust with most options increases. I see a few principled people who inspire confidence -- bold, authentic non-grifters needed. Too many have been groomed on the ways things get done in DC -- thinking of them shakes my head 'no'. So much to sort out! I need more of Baratunde Thurston's, "reimagining citizen as a verb", https://www.howtocitizen.com/. I, like many young people need to work to get by. Disheartening times.
ThankYou for your resistance. Especially in these times. Voting is a significant form of resistance.
There are many forms of voter suppression. We must resist all of them. Including despair and demoralization. And purity tests. We have a two party system. We have a binary choice. Sitting on our hands doesn't keep them clean.
Some friends and I had a discussion about our rep last night. We agreed he’d been a good county mayor, but when he got to DC, he changed—he succumbed. Now he will not hold town halls except occasionally by phone with the callers prevetted.
David, I agree! There are way more of US than there is of them. We MUST prevail is we want OUR country back. Time to get off the damn couch and take democracy seriously!!!
The literacy rate for the US is 79%. The number of people who can't read at at 6th grade level is 54% Over half of US residents can't read at a 6th grade level. This information is from the National Literacy Institute.
Add this while you're at it: According to the 2024 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka "the Nation's Report Card"), the most recent nationwide assessment of 12th graders:
Math: 22% of high school seniors are proficient.
Reading (English/reading): 35% are proficient.
These are the lowest levels in more than 20 years.
Thanks Julia, but something is missing. If 54%can’t read at the 6th grade level but the literacy rate is 79%, “literacy” doesn’t mean very much. A link might help!
I think you have plenty of smart people but sadly you have reached a critical mass of stupidity and there are dark forces in politics, business and the media seeking to exploit this.
Frank, I know many intelligent people that buy into the Trump propaganda. This is what frightens me, that the process of delivering the message “overcomes” rational and logical thinking; that there exists a defect in the the human condition that allows otherwise “smart” people to accept “the messages”
It is a provable fact that we are not overburdened with critical thinking as a practice. Intelligence, education, simply lazy or some combination - I don’t know.
Personally, I’m stumped by when to use a semicolon.
So true, Frank. And it shows in all the "small" things that are not being offered in the classrooms anymore. None of our current generation can read or write in cursive. So how will they be able to read any of our handwritten letters and notes and journals or even the originals of the Declaration of Independence or the bible? They also no longer teach driver's education in high schools and most of them obtained their driver's license without knowing anything other than the basics of stepping on the gas and turning the steering wheel. When one total idiot can hold the attention of an audience by shouting stupid stuff to them, all that comes to my mind is Hitler.
However…the upcoming generation, graduating college now, are not impressed with the 80 yr old ‘DICTATOR’. They KNOW he is ‘intelligence challenged’ and also misogynistic, which means at least apx half of them DO NOT LIKE TRUMP’S ATTITUDE. The other apx half see the ‘illegal’ war as a threat to their future.
The ‘young voters’ will not be ‘duped’ by whatever lies Trump & Co spin, and this is what the Orange Moron is worried about and becoming more & more testy!
Some real criminal activity will be attempted by the ‘Regime’ during the Midterm Elections, but, it already may not be ‘enough’ interference to swing the numbers for Trump. 🤞
Get ready for the ‘meltdown’, and Trump’s belligerent denials only an echo of Jan6/21 <<< a second chance for MAGAs to ‘WAKE UP’. 🙏
Democracy depends on having WISE voters. The fact that the country is sliding towards fascism indicates that too many voters are not sufficiently wise.
Exceptional intelligence is to a life what having a fast vehicle is to a journey. Wisdom is to a life what knowing the right direction is to a journey. What is the right direction? Saying you agree with "e pluribus unum" in your words and your actions.
I don't have to be going very fast in the right direction to know that the people going very fast in the opposite direction don't know where they're going.
I would agree/ disagree. It's not much WE are not smart. The occasional problem withour voting is that it isnot consistently applied. In this case, the second donald (use of lower case first name is intentional) term occured because a LOT of voters were absent and ware a part of the problem. The second term, by the way, was a decided loss by 7 million plus votes (fact). The fumble has been and is increasingly becoming recognized. My hope is it will not be repeated. Novembers general elections will dtermine November 2008 outcome. Unless the 25th Amendment come to fruition.
The Reflecting Swamp is both a perfect metaphor and an unexpected silver lining to a dreadful tale. Because NOBODY believed this lying, moronic criminal from the get-go. Then one of his chief handmaidens, primping and preening and bobbing and weaving with oh-so righteous indignation as she announced she had found the culprit at last!.....did an about face, forcing him to gaze at his own humiliated reflection. Whiny Baby Huey didn't much care for that because somewhere inside him, he knows -- ONE myth destroyed means others are getting in line, waiting to follow.
In truth, Rancid Mango Titanic is sinking. Listen carefully and the sound of scurrying little rat claws scampering out the nearest exits in search of what few life boats can be found deafens the ears. MAGA is now falling to pieces faster than you can crumble feta cheese over your cyclospora-infected mixed lettuce salad.... 🤮
A little at a time, and then in great chunks and splintering peels of blue paint, the fake patina covering up the lies, idiocies and inanities is finally blistering off. We must do everything we can think of to make the unravelling go even faster....Onto November!
Good call, "It's Come to This". And it should not go unnoticed that the "primping and preening, bobbing and weaving" handmaiden you refer to, is one of the original screaming Harpies of the Murdochian Ministry of Mendacity. For Jeanine Pirro to come out and state that she's dismissing the case, that the DOI gave her office b.s. instead of facts, is tantamount to saying that Despicable Don is full of what we all know him to be full of. She won't say that, and it will be interesting to see if she ends up face down in the very same reflecting pool, ala William Holden's character in "Sunset Blvd."
As I understand it, Pirro either could dismiss the case or face major humiliation and embarrassment from the defense revealing what shananigans went on with the grand jury that indicted the guy. Apparently the “expert” initially told the Grand Jury he had no idea of the dollar amount of the damage, then left the room only to come back and announce it was “over a $1,000” which, interestingly, was the amount needed for charges. This entire administration is despicable!
Can our former Olympian "water toucher" file a defamation case against say Fox News, Carolyn Leavitt, Pirro or others who defamed him maliciously and cruelly?
The damage was well over $1000 for this cluster-fuck of a no-bid installation. Maybe sue for $10 billion like Trump sued "we the people."
In David Hearn, Republican regime enforcers picked the wrong curious visitor to the Reflecting Pool. An American Olympian who was able to have the extraordinary lawyer Norm Eisen represent him. But what about the others who were unjustly cited, charged, arrested? Whatever the regime wrote them up as, it treated their curiosity to find out for themselves as insufferable and illegal resistance. We are not hearing about how the regime upended their lives. Legal representation to get even a clearly wrongful charge dismissed can easily cost $10,000.
James Comey can fight back the injustice of the sea-shell 86 47 photo case. But across the country, police are wrongly writing up people - fabricating narratives and distorting 'evidence' - to make them look like criminals, in order to suppress their peaceful protest and pave the way for their arrest. On the police's own initiative, at the demand of their government bosses, and of local vigilantes.
No act of resistance is too small, no person too insignificant, and no municipality lacking in Republican regime supporters eager to point the finger and demand retribution. As Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman recently said to Joyce Vance "It is more like Salem in 1693 than Philadelphia in 1776."
There was a saying during the Viet Nam protests, the equivalent of 'we are all Black people now.' (Referring to draft resister Muhammed Ali saying "No Vietnamese ever called me n-word.") I'd venture that many of us who were knowledgeable of and intellectually understood the injustices inflicted on Black Americans, are getting a more visceral understanding of systemic injustice in the United States.
And we have to remind people that Trump did this all on his own. There was nothing wrong with reflecting pool. He just needed something to deflect the Epstein files or the unnecessary war he started and blame Obama and Democrats for it.
Maybe people should also be reminded that Trump used to be a Democrat.
This hit oddly for me. Just before reading this letter I made a monetary donation to the group trying to support Haitians in nearby Springfield. In order avoid sending ICE into Springfield, many were ordered to appear at 8:00 am today, Sunday, at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in Cincinnati. This will continue next Sunday. Yes, there will be organized protestors there. I can’t imagine the fear they’re suffering.
Several Haitians in Springfield have received letters from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security telling them to go to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cincinnati field office for an “in-person check-in,” during which they are outfitted with ankle monitors, according to local advocates. This has started this weekend and will carry on… This eliminates those ICE agents to descend into Springfield like the ghouls and goons they are…
We are at the point in Germany in the late 1930’s where all the Jews were to report at the local locations to register themselves, versus the Brownshirts rounding them up.. Or in our own history during WWII, the Japanese loosing all and going to concentration camps and of course those times of slavery. Ankle monitors, seems close to the shackles worn by those slaves…
If you can donate — These are sites of Key organizations supporting the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio include the Haitian Support Center, the Haitian Community Alliance, and legal and aid groups like Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE).
ICTT, your message that “the MAGA Myth is crumbling” should be at the top of everyone’s comments whenever we speak to the daily atrocities committed by Trump, the lies that get uncovered and the invisible shame the Red Hats harbor in their “Lyin’ Eyes”
They can no longer hide them (hat tip Glenn Frey)
Sink the Myth. The reactor is nearing critical mass. Add fuel to the coming implosion
@ICTT, Enjoy reading your controlled and humorous outrage! I'm waiting for a call for a fatwa on this treasonous weasel...oh, wait, there is one on both thrump and net-a-yahoo.
There is a bigger story that came out yesterday that the pool revelations were meant to distract us from--Iranian hacking of water systems across multiple states. Trump says that it wasn't the Iranians; it was Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Cyberattacks on American infrastructure by a country we are at war with is getting the Trump fantasy treatment. That is a far bigger deal than a few million dollars of corruption and a catfight between Pirro and Burgum.
Initial Iranian attacks started in November of 2023 with a little test. An Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated hacking persona called "CyberAv3ngers" breached a water pressure booster station in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The hackers left a message reading "You have been hacked, down with Israel" because the compromised equipment was Israeli-made. The device was exposed directly to the internet with the default password "1111". No water supply was contaminated, but similar Unitronics devices were compromised at facilities across multiple US states and other countries. The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Administration (CISA) under Biden issued a security alert.
The Biden administration responded. In February 2024, the Treasury Department sanctioned six IRGC Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC) officials, including unit head Hamid Reza Lashgarian, for directing the campaign. In August 2024, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for information on the named individuals.
In February 2024, the Treasury Department sanctioned six IRGC Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC) officials, including unit head Hamid Reza Lashgarian, for directing the campaign. In August 2024, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for information on the named individuals.
New, more serious attacks began in 2026. CyberAv3ngers up their game beyond exploiting default passwords to deploying custom ICS malware ("IOCONTROL") and, from March 2026 onward, actively exploiting an unpatched authentication-bypass vulnerability in Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley controllers. A joint six-agency advisory (CISA AA26-097A) in April 2026 confirmed actual operational disruption and financial losses at US water, energy, and government-services victims, and a July 22 update expanded the warning to also cover Schneider Electric and Siemens equipment.
The hackers are now coupling their intrusions with a sophisticated propaganda campaign to spread fear. According to Domain Technologies, a cyber security firm, "This dual-track strategy of blending genuine industrial control systems (ICS) operations with fabricated claims is not early-phase immaturity that the group outgrew. It is a standing operational doctrine that persists alongside the group's increasingly sophisticated technical campaigns. When CyberAv3ngers claim a new compromise, organizations should look for corroborating technical evidence before treating the claim as confirmed."
That evidence of control capture of US municipal water systems came last week. Just days after the advisory, a coordinated attack hit more than 30-36 community water systems across Minnesota, disrupting automated controls and briefly taking a well/treatment facility offline in Braham, Minnesota for about two hours; some systems had to switch to manual operation and some areas saw water-pressure drops. Officials stressed drinking water was never contaminated or unsafe. The FBI subsequently confirmed similar incidents at water utilities in at least seven states, with Michigan and South Dakota also named alongside Minnesota and Wisconsin
US intelligence and state officials tentatively attributed the attacks to Iran, citing the absence of any ransom demand, the disruption-focused (not financially motivated) methods, and consistency with Iran's known playbook — though they emphasized this preliminary assessment could change and no group has publicly claimed responsibility.
So how did Trump respond? According to the NYTimes, he "publicly rejected the Iran attribution on July 31, instead blaming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, calling the state "grossly incompetent" and saying "Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota". Walz pushed back, saying Trump "knows exactly who is responsible" and that other states were hit too."
On August 1, Trump TACOed on further US military strikes on Iran "pending a possible nuclear deal." Interesting, after all of the tough talk on Thursday and Friday about planning major strikes on Iranian infrastructure.
The FBI and CISA are urging water utilities nationwide to disconnect programmable logic controllers that run equipment from the public internet and move to manual/segmented controls, though experts note the vulnerable equipment (especially Rockwell/Allen-Bradley controllers) is widely used, so more states may be quietly affected beyond the seven confirmed so far.
This is what modern warfare is. We are not safe because we are an ocean away from an enemy. That was proved 25 years ago with 9/11. But now, Iran doesn't need jihadists. It just needs hackers. Think about disrupting water flow to nuclear reactors, or opening dam flood gates.
The Trump regime has cut the CISA workforce by roughly a third since January 2025 (from about 3,400 employees), and the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director throughout Trump's second term.
You might want to tell your MAGA neighbors about how safe they can feel knowing how well Trump is protecting us.
Bombing civilian infrastructure - as the US is doing in Iran, Israel is doing in Gaza, and Russia is doing in Ukraine - is a war crime. As are cyber attacks on civilian infrastructure. Iran cannot easily bomb us, but they can bring the war home. It has long been known that cyberattacks were the looming front lines of asymmetrical or hybrid warfare. While Trump, Hegseth, and Republican legislators are fixated on old paradigms of kinetic warfare - manly men in big machines blowing things up at night to stage spectacular strikes.
Of course, as with effectively shutting down the US pandemic office before COVID, the Republican regime has effectively disabled, through defunding and understaffing, cybersecurity initiatives across the executive branch - in the build up to their war of whim against Iran.
One of the defects of autocratic regimes is replacing a system of experts providing accurate information, with a small group of ignorant sycophants. This is a hallmark of the Trump presidency - as propped up by Republicans.
Every single Republican on the ballot in November needs to be voted OUT! There are six or seven PA republicans who qualify to be voted out in November. Each of them voted yes on giving ICE billions of dollars to persecute anyone who is not white and then consistently makes “mistakes” in arresting US citizens. The majority of people being detained are NOT criminals. It is all about the cruelty against other human beings.
What about the Democratic Party members supporting the Gaza genocide? When Democratic Party incumbents/candidates take AIPAC money they are supporting genocide. Go to AIPAC Tracker.
Look at AIPAC spending over $40 MILLION on Stevens in the Michigan Senate primary. Remember that Schumer has said repeatedly his first allegiance is to Israel. The ICC has a warrant out for Netanyahu for crimes against humanity. The Democratic Party Leadership supports Netanyahu.
The Democratic Party Leadership has lost to djt twice, stood by while the MAGA movement took hold and is unable to rise up against the fascist in our White House. What makes people think they can protect us now when their first allegiance is to another Country? This is crazy stuff.
Let me ask you this. So if the Democratic Party Leadership and members of the Party continue to accept AIPAC money knowing full well about GAZA are they taking part in war crimes? As for myself I will not vote for any candidate receiving AIPAC money.
Another effect is the subjugation of the people. The compliance of the American people during this time is part of the nightmare. I see people doing mostly one thing as I go about my day; heads bent over a phone. I know they are being controlled by media.
Each of your well informed posts is an act of resistance.
Republicans embraced Orban. Hungarian voters across the political spectrum united to defeat Orban - with a former Orban official at the head of a center right party. A significant victory. Not a perfect solution.
We are too sick lin. What I see Schumer, the DCC and the other Party members doing in the Michigan Senate primary in collusion with AIPAC is deeply disturbing. The Democratic Party under Schumer and Jeffries is coming dangerously close to an autocratic style. Their relationship with Netanyahu is profoundly sullying the Democratic Party.
But we do and we don’t really because unlike a parliamentary system the national leadership is not tied to the legislative majority. A Democratic Congress will still have to deal with a Republican President for the next two years with his ability to veto legislation unchecked and with no real practical constraints on his power to nominate. Sure, a Democratic Senate could refuse to approve the nominee, but Trump would just put in an acting sycophant as he is threatening to do with Blanche.
No Democratic politician would commit to a 2028 nominee two years in advance so the opposition will be led by whoever is speaker of the House and (hopefully) Majority leader in the Senate. The people who would be best for those positions are not necessarily the person who would make the best presidential candidate.
We are pinning too much on the 2026 and 2028 elections. The American political cake continues to crumble and all we talk about is the election icing that will magically fix everything.
Georgia, Trump continues to demonstrate that he is no longer capable of comprehending much of anything. He blames whoever comes into his demented brain when he learns of a problem. Tim Walls ran against him with Kamala Harris, and his state, MN, showed the world what ICE really is, so his name is right on the tip of Trump's brain, one of the many of his foes names he can still remember and toss out. The list is getting shorter, which I suspect is the reason his white house toddler pool started getting Trump to tie his old hateful feelings about Communists to his arch enemy, Democrats. I am not sure which of the members of the toddler pool came up with that one, but it was perfect for Trump's limited mental abilities.
Somebody in the Trump regime got the Iranian's message and convinced Trump to TACO. I am sure Putin got in a word earlier in the week when Trump backtracked on the Patriot deal with Ukraine. Trump might have TACOed anyway to get the stock market to bounce since it is the first trading day of the month and there are a lot of automatic deposits to be invested in IRAs and pension plans to give the market a pop.
But I do think Trump probably needed quite a few diaper changes yesterday.
Paying hackers to disable infrastructure across much of the country is a lot cheaper than raining down ballistic missiles. You could probably do it for the cost of a handful of missiles if AI was harnessed to do the grunt work of testing for vulnerabilities and then writing the customized code.
TY again, and note please my apology to Tim Waltz for misspelling his name , which I -Ms No Proof-Read Sister am long guilty of…and in addition note “the list of complicity is now on ….page 47😉”
Ally, thanks again. How are you doing with the fires there? I’m concerned having family cabin in Bend and friends likely evacuated now in Washington (Spokane). Prayers for you all.🫶
I can’t tell anymore whether the insanity he’s displaying is part of the ever evolving Project 2025 plan or if they are now just letting him deteriorate more and more while they wait for the perfect moment to replace him by one means or another.
There are roughly 49,000–50,000 community water systems in the country, serving about 300+ million people according to the EPA. That’s a lot of systems to track to make sure they have updated their security software to remain resistant to cyber attacks.
It’s important that people realize that cyber attacks are asymmetric. AI bots can be relentless in probing for vulnerabilities and installing malware specific to the control units that are employed at a given site. The damage that can be created, for instance leaking pipes because of pressure bursts, require parts, heavy equipment and lots of manual labor and time to repair, and are expensive. With the Republicans’ profligate spending running up the national debt in times of rising interest rates, a massive attack on infrastructure can cause a major blow to the economy on top of the hit due to companies having to halt operations until the infrastructure repairs are complete.
Thanks, Georgia, for this in-depth overview of the latest "distraction" from tRump. It is interesting that the CISA workforce was one of the first to be cut. This at a time when cyber security should be at the top of any responsible organization's priorities...As for what voters choose to believe, also interesting that with the Internet, a vast world of information at a click, the only source chosen by many is Fox non-News. People just happy in their ignorance.
Fox is like the anti-news; as antimatter is antithetical to normal matter, thus is Fox "news" to normal news. It destroys brain cells, eliminating the capacity for rational, analytical, critical thought in its viewers, leaving behind only the emotions and cream cheese.
How do you do it Georgia? That was mind numbingly complex and yet you waltzed through it as though it was perfectly obvious. You continue to amaze me 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙏
Thanks so much for the compliment. I have always been curious. I have a doctorate in chemistry and worked for many years as a research scientist and supervisor, raised my daughter and then became a high school science teacher because I found that teenagers are the most interesting people because they are becoming abstract thinkers as their brains mature and reorganize. Now that I am long retired I still want to teach and keep my mind active. I went through three very hard years of brain fog and numbing fatigue with long haul after covid. I feel blessed to have my energy back and be able to think clearly again. As Heather keeps saying on her podcasts, we each have to be bringing our A game to the fight. This is my A game.
You go girl, you have one hell of an "A" game. You are so far ahead of me it's like we're not on the same planet. Your covid recovery is a blessing, something I would never say is true of every covid recovery. I read everything you write with relish because I always learn, at very close to 80 I find that I'm learning like a sponge soaking up water, I don't think I've ever been as excited about learning as I am now. If this country can be saved, and I think it can, it's going to take a lot of us with good hearts to lead the way.🙏🏻
Thank you for sharing this valuable information. This needs to be widely spread so municipalities & citizens can be aware. And just another reason to VOTE 🗳️💙 in November.
Yes, this is what modern warfare is, along with inexpensive drones doing major damage. It is not manliness, warheads, or testosterone-dependent! But it does require intelligence, much lacking in this administration.
Less of Hegseth’s gender and racial discrimination, for sure. I was mainly commenting on his lack of a relevant, coherent, modern military strategy - except for his insane, outdated belief that conflicts are solely won by macho fighting men with lots of testosterone, on the ground. Male or female we need smart, strategic thinkers with the ability to learn in today’s conflicts.
Georgia, thank you for this post! Also for citing your sources. I had no idea that this was going on. (Well, there are limits to what I can take in, but still!)
Georgia, thanks for the excellent summary and links. I wonder: were any very red states affected? If Texas and Florida have not been targeted, I’d suspect that, in the daily call between Putin and whoever answers the secret tie line in the WH these days, a deal was made.
Texas was hit in one of the earlier attacks, but the regime has not announced the entire list of seven states in the current attack—just those two in the post. Trump just wanted an excuse to piss on Walz and Walz pissed on him right back.
Agreed, the millions here, the billions there, the catfights, the failure to release the Epstein files in accordance with the law, the wasting of military materiel and soldier's lives, the existential threat to the elections scheduled for November and with them, American democracy - it's all grist to those mills which, as we all know, grind slowly, but grind EXCEEDINGLY fine.
Did he say Walz actually did it? My impression was that he said it was Tim's fault, in other words his incompetence, that allowed it to happen. Similar to the fraud cases.
That old saw about a lie being able to travel around the world while truth is putting its shoes on has never been more true in the age of social media; and more people in the US especially have never before been more receptive to lies and absurd conspiracy theories. When you add to that the fact that Americans have now twice elected the most egregiously mendacious and stupid president in history, you have a truly depressing state of affairs. You can't just wait for the house of cards to tumble of its own accord.
''The Reflecting Pool Finally Reflects Something Honest: How a Botched $14.7 Million Renovation Became a Felony, a Scapegoat, and a Perfect Portrait of Trump-Era Government''
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has finally done what it was designed to do: reflect the government standing over it.
The Trump administration spent roughly $14.7 million renovating the pool before America’s 250th birthday. The job was hurried. The new blue coating began peeling. Trump blamed vandals, because in his Washington, defective workmanship is apparently less believable than a vast conspiracy against decorative sealant.
Then federal prosecutors found their culprit: David Hearn, a 67-year-old, three-time Olympic canoeist who stopped during a bike ride and touched a loose piece of coating. He said it was already peeling and that he let go when a park worker told him to. Prosecutors nevertheless charged him with felony property destruction.
Jeanine Pirro’s office treated the loose coating as though Hearn had taken a chisel to Lincoln himself. The administration had its vandal, its prosecution, and its explanation for why a multimillion-dollar renovation was coming apart.
Unfortunately, the pool kept reflecting.
The Justice Department has now moved to dismiss the case after learning that the coating failure resulted from flawed installation during a rushed project. In other words, the suspect was not the cyclist. It was the contractor.
That sequence captures Trump-era governing with remarkable efficiency. Order something flashy. Demand it quickly. Ignore the obvious problems. Blame an enemy. Find someone to punish. Discover the facts only after the courtroom paperwork is filed.
The funniest detail is that this happened at the Reflecting Pool, a monument built around the concept of seeing what is actually there. Trump saw sabotage. Pirro saw a felony. Contractors saw an invoice. Everyone else saw paint falling off.
America paid nearly $15 million for the renovation, but the clearest result came free of charge: a perfect reflection of an administration more interested in assigning blame than accepting responsibility.
Per DAVID HEARD's Attorney, NORM EISEN. this AM "All legal remedies are being considered". Recall that David Heards was directly threatened of "10 years in prison".
Tump's Motion to the Court has already made a stunning admission against their own legal survival. Reading from the Trump-Piro's motion LIVE on MSNOW:S show "The Weekend":
"It is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism let alone to prove that fact beyond a reasonable doubt".
TRANSLATION: David Heard is innocent just like NORM EISEN advised Piro-the-Hack back on July. 10, 2026 over three (3) weeks ago!
And this is made extremely difficult when the propaganda and misinformation floods the zone daily! That’s their plan to make the public distrust government completely. Unfortunately, it may well be working.
In my opinion, it is up to us to follow the professor's and others' lead and flood that same zone with pro-democracy truths. Robert Hubbell, Joyce Vance, Jay Kuo, Marc Elias, Lucian Truscott, Brian Tyler Cohen, Barbara McQuade, Ben Wikler, Wajahat Ali, and many others you could name, come to mind.
It's difficult for most of us to flood the market with truths when algorhythms limit what people receive. For example, it's impossible to even send the MAGA group information, even if they would listen.
Kathryn, it seems to be working some places, and the white house toddler pool and their buddies will continue to do the distracting, but the propaganda isn't working as well. I am expecting something big to come along soon to distract folks from the Epstein Files, the Reflecting Pool, the water sabotage, Trump's failing brain and body, and the war. That concerns me!
It's certainly obvious that it will get big and ugly Ruth. All of this is about the Epstein files being contained and swept under the rug. It's quite simple if you can clear a path through the fog.
The opinion of a Substack/Facebook writer states this impression of DJTs irrational TS/BS screeds. (How much longer does the world need to put up with this lunacy? Doesn’t the 32% see the TRUTH?)
“The post that really set Donald Trump off this morning was one of his first of the day, when he attacked Jeanine Pirro, his own U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. This came after a late Friday motion to dismiss that Pirro had filed on the felony charge against David Hearn, the 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist who had been facing 10 years in prison for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. For weeks, Trump and his administration had insisted the damage was caused by “radical left” vandals. Trump himself claimed someone had cut a 300-foot gash in the lining with a knife, and Pirro had held a press conference saying she had “tremendous evidence” and would prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
But when the Department of the Interior finally turned over its documents, the truth proved it was all a lie. The lining had begun peeling almost immediately after installation, and the damage was the result of a botched job by the contractor on a no-bid contract from one of Trump’s own people. Pirro admitted in her court filing that the evidence did not support the charge and she dropped the case.”
It’s interesting how Pirro said one thing in public and another in court records. In my opinion she knew out of the gate what was false versus what was true. Public servants aren’t penalized for spewing falsehoods publicly but obvious falsehoods in legal documents is another thing. There are professional costs for doing that. Evidently, Pirro doesn’t want the threat of disbarment hanging over her head.
I heard a replay of her press conference in which she was quite firm about the case and what the evidence would show. That was pretty stupid given we now know she had almost nothing to go on. Apparently she didn’t take the time to investigate before holding a somewhat contentious presser (in her gravelly voice) and before presenting to a grand jury. So she got burned when it became quite obvious she had to evidence = no case. She may get burned again when Trump fires her, or at least starts demeaning her publicly.
The propaganda of the moment is devastating. People keep talking about public trust. I continue to worry instead about public give a s**t problem. Part of what got us here was the disinterest of the American voter in American politics.
No one wants to say the f word. When people can rise up, supported by the leaders of their party and fight back against a fascist government we will prevail.
Meanwhile the Democratic Party leadership is too busy supporting Netanyahu.
At this point, with Trump’s approval in the (green) “tank,” most American voters know that any blame he’s spewing is a lie and projects his guilt on others. So that gap between propaganda and defeat resounds like a percussion hammer of BS followed by disgrace.
My point is that Trump’s approval is getting very low and disapproval very high so that fewer voters are persuaded by the propaganda. Of course the worst cult followers aren’t part of the encouraging trends.
This is so true. Look how long it takes in every one of these cases that should give us the general picture of what has been going on. The WAR on Iran!! It's widening!.
The "false narratives" you mean the out and out LIES coming out of the poisoned mentally off person we STILL keep in the WH. This poison goes around the country before the LAW gets it pants on. And people drink it- let it be- turn away- shrug.
We only have one Norm Eisen. We have more but Eisen is out there boldly. The law is SO damn slow. Atty General Jeanine Pirro, a dedicated sycophant who did her sycophanting work on Fox- which got her the position thanks to the Republican Congress- should get DISBARRED AND lose her job as well from Trump's wrath. How dare her protect her rear end...and try hide it from getting big news.
May this BLOW UP further in the media and get us all seeing and seething especially the commentariat.
May it be a REVEAL of the larger picture- not only about a reflecting pool. May the pool reflect the TRUTH about the bobbling heads reflecting in it.
May the reflecting pool be representative of all else the DUPER in chief did, does, and will do as we keep this slow pace called the rule of law.
We are still a democracy, hanging in. But those of us partaking cannot keep it for the rest of us that are not.
Blow this one up. It truly reflects what is going on.
The regime also needs a huge group of stupid people were false narrative finds proper grounds to attach, regardles of how fast evidence is brought back. They also need a friendly media and there're plenty of them . Please Sr. Facciones, develop a vaccine against stupidity before it's too late....
It is easy to put blame on Trump and his administration. But it is after all voters who elected him. Blaming Trump is shifting the failure of voters on him. Why cannot we just accept this plain fact?
This is the signal event to underline the failure of criminal Donald's presidency.
Not the stupid, cruel, ongoing murderous ICE rampages against U.S. cities.
Not the cowardly withdrawal of active U.S. support for Ukraine fighting Donald's civilian-attacking friend Putin.
Not Donald's idiot support of criminal Netanyahu's full-bore-supremacist-greater-Israel project.
Not the ongoing cover-up of Donald's participation in Jeffrey and Ghislaine's trafficking of girls and young women to all the male whores of the world.
Donald yelled "vandals," and "communists" when it was plain to all that his own corrupt allies failed in their reckless damages to the reflecting pool.
Donald could -- did -- yell about the immigrants invading the U.S. in the 2024 national elections. His repeat yelling about vandals and Dems-all-turned-communist was a step too far, finally, in highlighting his continued corruptions with his continued fellow incompetents.
I wish I shared your optimism James. Too many people have been blinded by the MSM repeating the Trump BS ad nauseam. The billionaire owners of Fox, CBS, etc. don't care about whether they make a profit, only that they get their multi-million dollar tax breaks and impunity for their crimes and lies.
I blame Fox News for this mess with all its lies and propaganda. The money available in politics to gaslight the public and create false narratives is overwhelming. Congress is who failed us as a nation. It is up to the People!
Don't ignore FOR PROFIT social media. It's been repeatedly proven: content that angers or enrages viewers keeps them on the platform longer. Therefore, right-wing content (lies) is a much more powerful draw than Dems spouting facts.
Agree, GJ. But if the sheer stupidity of the Reflecting Pool fiasco hits home harder than the other disasters Phil recounts above it might help diminish the effects of that money a little 🤞
I'm afraid you're right. None of the substantive failures, to your lisr of which I would add the dismantling of the government and the war of choice against Iran, seems so likely to finally turn the tide against him. Sad, that we are so gullible and inattentive, but not at all surprising. For after all we elected him TWICE.
First, and most damaging, "we" permitted the schools to rid themselves of humanities and to become abjectly submissive to testing instead.
"We" permitted the growth of media industries -- legacy media (newspapers, magazines, and on-air broadcast stations), social media (all run by cynical, dehumanized billionaires, and techie media (hello, AI) with all involved bereft of any of the humanities that could have let us stay in touch with our fellow Americans massively damaged by our finance and offshoring elites.
I said "first," above, Lois, as if there might be a second causality as harmful as testing. Maybe it's the health care and big pharma industries turned over to profit-motive only. Maybe it's the fossil fuelers. (The U.S. still has no fast rail, still pushes automobile addiction, eight-lane, ten-lane highways, huge parking lagoons surrounding all shopping malls, neon-lit, fast-food and junk food franchises everywhere.)
But don't all possible 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. causalities also derive from our choices to turn schools all over to the dehumanized testing predators? (Life reduced for all only to A)-B)-C)-D) options with ever one correct answer only.)
It’s the twice part that gets me Stephen, the first time a lot of people were pissed about Hilary, but the second time after what we had seen him do when he had people who told him “no you can’t do that”, none of whom are around any more. Anyone can make a mistake, but when you do it twice it’s no longer a mistake, it’s what you intended to do all along.
I agree, and am of the opinion that many centrist Democrats continue to be in denial about the justifiable anger that many voters feel. Note the use of present tense. I am not speaking about the true “deplorables” constituting the hard core of MAGA, but rather the good hearted, hard working millions who have been increasingly left behind. With their increasingly virulent attacks on the environmentalists and social democrats they risk losing the great opportunity being presented to them in November.
One would think that the Democrats would have formulated a platform for the midterms so we would know what they pledge to do if they achieve majorities in both houses. A platform that would include ideas from people like Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani.
Pissed about Hilary?? She still won the popular vote by several million. Also, Trump and followers RELENTLESSLY shouted "Lock Her Up!" until the narrative stuck long enough to shave enough votes from a handful of swing states, leading to an electoral college win.
"Weave a fantasy story" then lie about having lied, then lie again, then try to prosecute based on lies, then fold like a cheap suit (but only after a lot of people work hard to push back, defend in Court, spend oodles of wasted time and money) -- a pissant president and his pissant cronies all bobbing and weaving on command -- yet the clown car blows up anyway.
The Reflecting Pool is but a tiny drop in the ocean of malfeasance, mayhem, murder, mismanagement, misappropriation and mischief these people try to drown us with every single day. We can stop them, but only if we turn out en masse in November.
Remember, it's not a "Trump" problem, it's a REPUBLICAN one.
It is a Republican engineered problem; the accomplishment of the long-time goal of the right-wing capture of the Supreme Court to corrupt political financing to make it possible for the ultra-rich to purchase politicians and ultimately government at all levels.
I gotta tell ya, ICTT, your first sentence here wowed me into thinking you were once again a truth-teller exposing that routine, oft-advanced fantasy in these LFAA posts about schools, their culpability for savaging humanities, by turning themselves "over to dehumanized testing predators" . . . Trump, Pirro, members of the Cabinet, are not the only liars in America. They can even be found in these pages which houses its own little nests of mendacity, prevarication, equivocation, duplicity, subterfuge, and too-oft-repeated canards. The only thing that is worse than such perseverations is the the Daily Beast's treatment savaging Troy Jackson, re-posted by Steve Schmidt yesterday, without bothering to check the facts. Win, lose or draw, I hope. Jackson sues both their asses for an easily preventable defamation.
What is it people have against Troy Jackson, I've no idea. I recently read in the NY Times that Jackson has "changed his mind" on certain issues over the years. O, the horror. O, the outrage.... It was only 1 in a multipart series of 'Democrats in Disarray' articles focusing on Maine. I don't get the point. He starts his race with +2, the same as Plattner did, with no place to go but up.
Well the sundowning grandpa is not one to let reality determine his beliefs.
Also:
“National Park Service were pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water.” I don’t do science but read a piece by a chemical engineer who said that pouring hydrogen peroxide into water creates free radicals which sink to the bottom and seek to bond with whatever is available. Like paint— Effectively making it an eco friendly paint stripper.
Hello KD... Longtime No Talk... Keep up with the Drama regarding the Todd Blanche Nomination... Seems that Blanche will find out that Everybody Is Expendable To DJT... It is not the Anti-Weaponization Fund, but the IRS Immunity for the Trump Crime Syndicate....
Good to hear from you, Apache! I've been watching the Blanche nomination with fascination. Why would Todd think that the orange sadist would be loyal to him, when the sadist has never once in his life shown loyalty to anyone? People are just Kleenex to the monster: use 'em, then throw 'em away.
Patrick Chappatte, a French cartoonist, posted a very clever cartoon. There are three panels. In the first, the orange sadist says, "Fire!" with his finger on the button. In the second, "Cease" and he's moved his finger. In the third, "Fire!" again with his short stubby finger on the button.
The loyalty of any of these people to The Grump is confounding. Sure they get what they want in the short term. But in the end he uses them like a toilet and kicks them to the curb when they are no longer useful, thrust back into the public space where they are no longer relevant or remotely acceptable as human beings.
They who screw unto others will, at any moment that might please them, screw unto you.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." -- Lincoln
I'm sure that trump intends to benefit from the fund too, no matter what he says to the press. He would probably end up with $1 billion of the $1,776 billion.
In fact , would anybody really be surprised to learn that trump is getting kickbacks from all the no compete contracts for all of the projects he is awarding?
And yet is part of a repetitive historical pattern. We humans are utterly amazing creatures, reaping benefits from an amazing, living planet. Yet we in aggregate are our own worst enemies. Not just that certainly, yet what portion of avoidable human suffering is directly or indirectly attributable to human hubris?
It seems like there is something we are not getting about aspects of our own human nature that if they ever served us some way, now threatens our quality of life and potentially, even continuation as a species. We seem to be running out of wiggle room to keep fighting the same battles over and over, and yet fight we must. It seems to me that we must re-evaluate and refocus our habitual strategies. Some things remain true, and solidarity and integrity have won battles in the past, but I think we need to encourage better social understandings of our own social behaviors.
“While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.”
– John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, Jul. 9, 1813.
Heather, love you to pieces -- but one quick (and weird) copy point to tuck into your file, from someone who was actually a writer and editor for an Olympic Committee long, long ago....
There is no such thing as a "former" Olympian. Olympians and Marines both operate by the rule that once you're in, you're in forever (even after death!). You are never a "former."
David Hearn is simply an Olympic canoeist. Was. Is. Will always be.
Do you really think he’s six? I taught three and four year old with Special Needs, with far more intellect. Basically, they were kinder to one another and followed the simple classroom rules. Perhaps, he and the other republicans should consider following the rule of law.
I suspect, that it asking to much from this crowd.
A script begging for a director, a main actor-heartthrob, some good David Horowitz-style sleuthing about whodunnit, some spokesbarbies to portray Karoline Spokesbarbie, a caricature cast as Jeanine Pirro, and a Greek chorus of giggling mice à la "Babe" singing the missing social commentary about fascism being a really stupid ideology....
As a U.S. taxpayer, I understand that although there are strong rules favoring competitive bidding, no-bid (sole-source) contracts are not illegal. They are permitted, but only under specific legal exceptions and with documented justification. However, it seems like the current administration goes out of its way to bend the rules to such a degree that the exception has become the rule.
Haliburton had no-bid contracts during the war in Iraq. I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Dick Cheney was the CEO of Haliburtan when he decided to be vice president. I wonder how many shares he was holding in Haliburtan at the time. Never ever trust a right-winger.
Fanatic right and left wingers, along with the fanatical religious crowd, pass into fanaticism when they suppose that people are definitely NOT to be considered equal in the eyes of the law; and that they themselves are in possession of an unalienable right to bully.
Trump would be a terrible poker player. He “tells” everything with bluster and bravado and then folds on the end. What a horrible example of leadership. He really need to shut up and just do his job but that’s impossible for this poor excuse for POTUS
“Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”
– John Adams
You would want a brain surgeon to know his or her stuff. Even a bus driver. All the more so for a president. We are not just a fan club: we are collectively charged with the responsibility for vetting the résumés for a nearly impossibly demanding job, and we inherently bear responsibilities for outcomes that affect not only us, but many, many others, even when we don't vote. It's a tough job but it's part of the deal if we want a republic.
His lawyer, Norm Eisen, says that they are reviewing all possible legal remedies, including referring Pirro to her bar association to get her licence removed.
It might be occurring to her how up the creek she will be if at some point Trump is not able or willing to protect her, thus her abandonment of Trump's wacko talking points.
Burgum and the president both hit back at Pirro's dismissal of the case. Having staked out their obviously absurd position that vandals struck Mr. Trump's pet project, they're not going to accept the truth; they are going to hang on to their lies about the reflecting pool since they serve to distract from the actual issues that concern us, such as the incomplete release of the Epstein Files including those that implicate Trump and the evident incompetence in the conduct of our war with Iran.
This pathetic and ultimately hilarious debacle is the ultimate metaphor for the entire tR🤮mp regime. It’s painful now, but we’ll look in the rearview mirror and laugh and laugh and laugh.
That and possibly deadly insurrection. Don't forget Jan 6 2021.
Or maybe the federal office holders refusing to accept the outcome of elections. Massive civil unrest with federal law enforcement agencies and the military obeying trumps orders to put down the opposition with what ever force necessary.
"Laugh and laugh and laugh" until you stop to think about the 14.5 million taxpayer dollars the incompetent contractor got while Hegseth is demanding billions more to help rearm the American military for wasted munitions.
Wasted munitions, but above all, waste of lives, troops and civilians, in this senseless conflict! As energy prices rise and further harm everyone struggling with lack of affordability, lack of good jobs, good healthcare, good housing, a moral government...
The “reflecting pool” is a signature symbol of Tempertantrump. Over pay on no- bid contracts to friends and family who probably give him back half the charge as a PAC donation. The project fails due to cutting costs and repair is required, which is an additional charge. Money laundering perfected.
Propaganda only has to win the moment. Evidence eventually outlasts the narrative.
The longer the gap between the two, the more public trust erodes. A healthy democracy depends on bringing evidence back to the center before false narratives are accepted as truth.
Democracy depends on having intelligent voters. The fact that our country is sliding towards fascism indicates that we are not a very smart people.
I disagree. Democracy depends on having educated voters, which is why the department of education was gutted and red states like Texas are defunding public schools and tainting curriculums with trash science. They know what they're doing: an uneducated citizen is an easily manipulated citizen.
Cap, thank you for that response. As a teacher, I saw how schools were divided between being upper class and disadvantaged. I taught in a disadvantaged district where we were often scrounging to find materials to meet our students' needs, often buying things with our own money. My nephew teaches in an upper-class district where he gets whatever he needs. I don't resent that he can give so much to his students; I resent that the teachers in my district about 30 miles away, but many thousands of dollars of community-average income gap away don't. The teachers I worked with and I were not upset about spending our money for our students, just angry that our state and federal governments couldn't help us more.
It blows my mind Ruth that you at times had to pay from your pocket for your students' needs, in the richest country in the world! Just as I am always in disbelief that not every American has health insurance provided by the Federal Government! Shame on us for all these shortcomings that really tell our story!
It's so commonly done that teachers get a special deduction on the first $300 each year by the IRS. (or at least they did.. hard telling what they have done with that now)
So they have been paying out of pocket for supplies for so long that even the government thought they needed a break. You will notice however that it's a mostly symbolic deduction at this point.
Thank you for your comment BLB, was not aware! It is appalling to me that our teachers have to even consider this! If we could just spend our money on those things that do indeed improve and upgrade our everyday citizens' lives, and not just the "well connected"!
Symbolic indeed!! A late friend of mine proudly boasted that his trip to Italy with his wife was covered by POINTS on his company credit card!! Somehow, as a teacher I was never able to accumulate enough points to take my wife to the beach for a day!
BLBBLB, yes, totally symbolic. Counting the books I bought for my students (we have no libraries in our district except in one of the high schools but no librarian), copy paper, pencils, notebooks, folders, and so on, I usually paid over $2,000 a year. I taught for 26 years. The math is incredible. I am grateful to Scholastic for having good books that are reasonably priced for teachers (they know how that works), and family and friends who helped out. I am not bragging, just informing. Many of my colleagues also spent significant amounts too. I don't regret a single penny because I know my students benefited because they told me they appreciated it.
Not anymore.
Yes for years now😮
You're kidding, Ligia, right? I was a college professor for 40 years and a year did not go by that I, like my elementary and secondary school colleagues, did not spend hundreds of dollars to supply students with things they needed and that I needed to educate them. This often included FEEDING them because they were often food insecure, especially grad students on TA wages. This has been going on for decades. The biggest difference in the last 10 years? The Felon, in his first maladministration, got rid of the unreimbursed business expense deduction for TEACHERS. Not for people who claim million-dollar yachts and planes as business expenses. Teachers. I now teach ballet at a professional school--high prestige, mediocre pay--and I cannot deduct the shoes, dance clothes, and Spotify subscription that I MUST have in order to do my job.
Linda, I worked in the catering department on the Stanford Campus in the mid 1980's. We commented that you could always tell when graduate students were at a function; they ate the garnish, and there were NEVER any "leftovers". Ever.
I also had a junior high math teacher who worked summers at our local Safeway. He had to.
Agree! Each year during winter holiday break, there is an appeal for funds to help homeless colllege students survive those days!
Outrageous Linda! Thank you for your contributions.
FYI: you just proved that Ligia is right ;-)
Linda, you brought food too! I brought snack for my students every session. I tried to get ones that were healthy and didn't have gelatin (because sometimes the gelatin is made with pork), and not too much sugar. It was a challenge, but it did help keep them on task. I especially liked baking for them or bringing sliced cheese and crackers. Those were their favorites. I would still do that even if our state and federal governments gave us more resources. The snacks help with student bonding too.
Donald Trump never had to worry about where his next meal would come from. He never worried about having enough money to pay doctors or hospitals. As everything with Trump is personal, so is his lack of empathy with issues common to every day Americans.
It happened here in Douglas county, the richest county in Colorado, when chuckie Koch and his Heritage pals took over our school district 15 years ago. No more buses for after school activities kids, cuts to classroom supplies and freeze in teacher salaries and staffing. We got rid of them, then they came back, now we have actual educators but the corrupt county commissioners still play their thieving bribery ways. They don't allow citizen comment in meetings.
And of course they're all republicans.
We were on defense after prayer was removed from public schools.
My personal favorite was when we had to sell part of one district to the Amish, who used 13 year old girls as teachers in the wake of Wisconsin v Yoder. We also had to provide parochial schools services for busing, and funding for special ed students, and provided "release time" for religious students.
Ligia, this is not uncommon. I paid for posters for the library and paid for the paint and a student to paint our office area. I did manage to get the district to pay for the whole library the next year. I also gave lots of free time in the summer as did many others in terms of using their own money and time. i had to beg for a decent chair....we all had government surplus. i did have a nice oak desk.
Unacceptable for the richest country in the world! I don't know what to say. This all leaves me beyond "angry".
Or Ligia, that children go to bed (if they own one!) hungry.
if they own one ✅
Ruth, you are correct. I am a retired secondary Texas teacher. I spent hundreds of dollars of my own money on supplies for my students each year, at the expense of my own children. Every single year.
In retrospect, I am ashamed for deciding to teach in a state that is so dismissive of its children and the teachers who teach and love them.
I'm also curious about what I've "heard" when it comes to teacher salaries in the US. Is it true that some are paid fairly for their work, and others receive pay that is near the poverty line? Are these individual state decisions, or districts (rich vs poor)? I don't get it, but I'm writing from Canada.
Property taxes per county are the major funder of schools in the US and therefore districts in wealthy areas are far more resourced than poorer areas. A lot of this scheme is due to deliberate efforts associated with racism. States can and do add support, but not all states. The federal Department of Education was designed to add support especially to schools in poor areas, but Trump and Co are destroying that.
Yes,teacher pay varies widely determined largely by state legislatures.Teachers in states with unions earn more. Florida ranks last in average teacher pay….56,600 K.
https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-student-spending-how-does-your-state-rank
The starting Texas salary for teachers in fall of 2026 is $33,660 if you are in a district that pays the state minimum. However, Dallas ISD starting teachers make 68,000. Rural school districts pay much less - usually starting around 40,000. The individual districts set the pay scale for their employees. Texas can not have a teacher union and the pay scale represents the difference to states with a union.
Dorothy, I'm adding my confirmation to Laura Farkas's explanation. Here in Arkansas, where I've lived for many years, the state/local tax code is undetectably designed to enforce racism. Because only whites were originally landowners, real estate taxes are laughably low, thus shielding whites from taxes. However, regular sales tax is 10% or more, depending on locality, thereby shifting the tax burden to people who do not own real property, but must buy necessities like food, clothing and a car. The sales tax also applies to used cars, effectively taxing a vehicle every time it is sold.
School funding comes from property taxes, so students who live in affluent neighborhoods get more funding and better schools. However, regardless of local resources, all teachers in Arkansas are poorly paid, relying on personal money or crowdsourced funding to get the supplies they need for their students. This is over and above the compulsory "shopping lists" distributed by the school districts, which total $300 to $500 per student.*
Then, because Arkansas is a red state populated by mostly evangelicals, the legislature has decreed that public schools must split equal shares of funding with private, for-profit schools, thereby syphoning funds from struggling public schools to schools mostly operated by churches, where students receive mediocre education and heavy religious indoctrination.
This arrangement perpetuates the economic and educational disparity between the wealthy whites and impoverished Blacks and Latinos, as well as civic ignorance in favor of religious beliefs.
*I graduated from high school in the 1970s in Butler County, PA (yes, THAT Butler). At the time, the overwhelming majority of Butler's population were first- and second-generation immigrants who wanted better lives for their children than they had in their old countries. In response, they taxed themselves with a "working privilege tax" that was deducted from every paycheck in the county regardless of amount. No exemptions. 100% of the tax went to the school district. Consequently, the schools had everything they needed. There were no shopping lists for parents. Students just showed up and were supplied with all the supplies they required. Teachers were the highest paid in the region. Many held doctorates and were paid accordingly. It's probably not like that anymore, as education is no longer a priority in the U.S.
Yes Dorothy,, it is true.
From Gemini:
The average public school teacher salary in the United States is $74,495 per year, according to data from the National Education Association (NEA). Average starting salaries nationwide sit at approximately $48,112.
Yes, Dorothy, teacher salaries are uneven. In the state of Texas, where I taught, the state set a minimum salary schedule, and individual districts could, through their local school board, and to the base salary via a stipend. When I began teaching, teachers in that district received a very small stipend, but even with it, my two children qualified for free lunch (a federal program), so I filled out the paperwork. When I attempted to turn in the application, the school secretary took me to a private room, closed the door, and gently told me that yes, my children qualified and they would receive free lunch, but it would cost me my job. The administration would not hire me back when the current year's contract was up.
I asked her to shred the application, which she did.
Dorothy, you are right about the disparities in teacher salaries. It really is appalling, but the worst are in RepublicAN STATES, AS ONE WOULD EXPECT.
Please don't be ashamed. My kids made it through Texas public schools because of teachers like you. For years, we bought classroom items for teachers' wish lists, contributed to school supply drives, paid other kids' lunch accounts. Both of my grandmothers retired with good teacher pensions after lifetimes in the Texas public schools. You should have been able to expect the same. Our state pols ruin everything. The current arrangement is no way to run an education system, but it would have been even worse for Texas children if you hadn't stayed with it. Thank you.
Terri, just keep in mind all those students for whom you made a difference, a kind teacher who actually cared about them and their families. Those kids might not have had that had you not been their teacher. Republicans and all members of Trumplandia care nothing for our children, so it really is up to us, the teachers, school staffs and other educators, doctors, nurses, and other medical people to do our best to help the children to become the best adults they can be. We already know what kind of people Abbott, Paxton, and the rest of that crowd in TX and other states are. Caring about our children, even their own is not anywhere close to a priority for them.
My daughter had the same experience. Her first teaching job was in a lower income district and since she was paid so miserably anyway, I spent hundreds each year to upfit her classroom with basic supplies. After 5 years, she moved to a wealthier district (Chapel Hill, NC) and when I asked her did she want to go supply shopping, she said the PTA gives each teacher $250 to buy supplies. So yes, the disparity is real. She has since left teaching, but that's another story.
Ruth, for a long time here in Oregon, local districts voted on budgets. Once we were two weeks late opening with students upset and some crying. We had a leaky building with buckets catching water when it rained and bad heating and no AC. My library had a south facing glass brick wall....remember those? Then we had a CA inspired property tax measure which passed and the state took over most of the funding. Fast forward to today and many districts do not have enough money and the local district is thinking of closing 6-8 elementary schools because of student population. Some of it is people afraid to send their children because of ICE. Nearly all districts have a budget deficit. Meanwhile the billionaire owned of the Trail Blazer wants millions in tax money to upgrade the arena despite all local budgets and the state budget suffering. More billionaires feeding at the public trough. Then there are fights over school board elections, some of which have become expensive. Right now in a city counsel election, the winner has been declared even though she may not have had the required residency in her ward. Not sure this one is over. And yes, she is a conservative.
I taught in Oakland CA. Middle school and elementary. I always had to buy my own materials for my classroom. Very little was supplied to teachers. We did get to make copies for free. I never was not going to pay for my supplies. Hundreds of dollars out of pocket and pay that wasn’t great. Teaching was what I wanted to do. To me that was funding my classroom and doing the best I could to reach all students. People think that a 6 th grade class students are all the same level. I had students that couldn’t read to gifted students. Meeting their needs was my primary concern.
Curriculum is a whole other topic. Trying to teach critical thinking skills and how to live in our community and world was a priority no matter what the subject.
Teaching is a big responsibility and I wish government would treat it as such.
I taught in what was known as a migrant school and the teachers used their own money to buy materials. I treasure those years of teaching as I am sure you do.
Diana, just as you say, I loved my job! I consider it my dream job. I just retired 5 years ago but go back to tutor. It took me 20 years after graduating from college to get the job and it was worth the wait because in the meantime, I learned so much more than I would have had I just become a classroom teacher right out of college.
Democracy also depends on 1) voters that have the time to pay attention to anything political, and 2) being able to make it to a polling place that is convenient or having the wherewithal to vote by mail or by some other means than in-person.
A single mother working 60 hours a week to make ends meet, has way different priorities and needs than those of us reading the Professor's daily newsletter.
Hello GC Loft, In many countries voting takes place on the weekends or is considered a holiday, so even people working long hours can vote.
Good point. Many people work on voting days, so they can't get away to vote. It should be a national holiday, but Republicans will never agree to that.
Even if it were to be a national holiday there would be people that have to work. Hospital workers for one. Firefighters. Police. You can’t shut down a country completely. Which is why I LOVE California and our mail in voting that is sent to ALL registered voters. Gives you the option to either go in person or vote by mail. We always vote by mail but sadly we don’t trust the post office any longer to deliver it properly so we drive it directly to our county registrar. And we do it early. Plus California has a text system where they confirm your vote has been received as well as counted. Every state should do what we do here.
Has it ever been on a ballot? I think it might be time to rethink referendums GC Loft!
gj, of course Republicans will never go along with election day as a holiday. Heck, they can't even accept Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 40 years later. They are having a heart attack over Juneteenth!
Sound bites.
The Republicans are great at sound bites and outrage. "The brown people are eating the cats and dogs! It's the Democrats fault!" and "Democrats are Communists!" (a LOT of Republican voters are old enough to remember McCarthy - and still be frightened by the word)
What have the Democrats got to fight back with? The truth can take a LOT longer to explain. I sometimes watch "Parkergetajob" on youtube, when I feel like being depressed. The people on that come up with statements straight from Fox or Sinclair radio. And trying to explain in terms their obvious education levels could contend with would take a month.
"It was Joe Biden's fault" to people who are already disposed to dislike Joe Biden, is a lot easier and quicker to swallow than "This is the reason inflation is so high and getting higher."
No wonder trump is so desperate to end the war in Iran - it really is a GREAT soundbite for the Dems - "War bad - no gas - trump's fault."
people who are willing to believe a lie usually have a predisposition to so believe. an agenda that the lie fits...part of the predisposition can be the helplessness people feel in the face of so large a machine. who killed the Kennedys/MLK...? why Vietnam? what happened on 9/11? why has America been involved in so many invasions? where are the weapons of mass destruction...how was covid allowed to kill as many as it did? why Venezuela? what happened to the reflecting pool? these and other lies brought to you by your elected representatives and their 'help'. and you better do what they say or they'll ICE you.
The German people, as a whole, were not stupid, or uneducated. The reason the Nazis came to power in 1933 was that the economic conditions were so bad, it enabled the propaganda the Nazis pumped out to find acceptance in the general public.
Conditions in the US are nowhere near as bad, despite gas prices and inflation. However, this admin has five things going for it that the Germany Nazi party did not:
An uneducated electorate.
Social media
Television
A submissive media
A propaganda system that learned every thing Goebbels taught - and then "improved" upon it.
I was going to say "An already identified and established target for hatred" - but antisemitism was already well entrenched even before the Nazis came to power. The hatred for people of a different color - it's an equivalent.
The Nazis promised to give Jews' property to party members.
Same for the Republican Party.
Recall that Trump said "I love the uneducated"
I don’t believe he thought to include himself . . .
lauriemcf, Trump lied even ab out this; he loves no one and nothing but himself. It is sad that those he was targeting "the uneducated," weren't even insulted. They weren't insulted either whenhe told them he didn't care about them, only wanted their votes. I guess when people are enthralled by an ignoramus, they no longer hear what he says. We have seen that throughout history. Those who are enthralled are rarely questioned as though they don't matter. They cearly are nearly irrelevant to the conman.
I often say that the most important result of any high school education should be "Informed Voters". We have had similar "quality reductions" in education here in Canada. I attribute that to the the Conservative Movement -- which is worldwide. I remember some of our Conservative political leaders in the sixties campaigning to re-orient schools toward "employment". I didn't understand at the time that some of those "airy-fairy" courses they wanted to eliminated were the very ones that produce a more thoughtful society, one that understands the value of "staying informed". At 85, I get it.
Back to my broken record, as HALF of US adults can't quite read at a 6th grade level. Hence the fool's statement that he ran as a Republican because it's a party full of stupid people.
Ralph, the sad thing is that the Republican Party/Trumplicans agreed with him!
😥
Sadly, Texas is not the only state to be actively working on defunding public schools. Here in Ohio the Republicon legislators ignored three rulings by the Ohio Supreme to create a fair school funding formula that helped disadvanted districts with a low tax base. That was in place for one year, and Ohio Republican legislators decided they didn't like it and did not have to follow it. Now at least 30 school districts in Ohio have joined a lawsuit against funding private schools in Ohio with vouchers paid for with public taxes. It happens to be unconstitutional. My district failed to pass a levy in May and the district could not afford the $13,000 fee to join the lawsuit, so we raised the money with a GoFundMe campaign. Where there is a will there is a way!
"We are not a very smart people" is true BECAUSE of the horrible state of education in the US.
And it's not just a problem in red states. In blue states, teachers are focused on "validating the student" as an individual rather than transmitting all the wonderful things invented and discovered by the greatest minds of the past.
If students are told to identify with their "perspective", they can't learn critical thinking, and they don't value debating their opinions.
A democracy where citizens don't debate politics on a daily basis, from kitchen table to work floor, is a democracy that cannot but be replaced with fascism.
The MAGAs are home grown White Supremecists. It is hard to educate dedicated hate. The current cabal holding our nation hostage are mostly well educated rascists and child molesters. Those voting for them may not all be as well educated, but they are all rascist bullies.
The underclass has been around for our entire history. 90% of MAGATs vote against their own economic and physical health.
All children left behind.
You're not disagreeing. You're both correct.
Exactly!
Sadly, Texas is not the only state actively working to defund public schools. Here in Ohio Republicon legislators have ignored three Oh Supreme Court rulings that the current school funding was unconstitutional. Then a Fair School Funding Plan was put into place, and they decided after one year of that to ignore that, too.
BAM!!!!
A profile of Trump's voters was conducted by two Univ. of Kansas professors, David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley, entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" published in the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology" in Feb. 2018. In short, the study found Trump's voters to want Trump to crush the "undesirables," i.e., women's and gay rights advocates, immigrants, gays, transgender people and more. Are these people intelligent? Educated? Critical thinkers? Not in my assessment. They don't know what they don't know, in my experience. They're clueless. They know nothing about history, about dictatorships, and more. Nancy MacLean's book, "Democracy in Chains," (2017) does a great job of explaining how the Koch Bros. and other oligarchs managed to dupe ordinary citizens who ended up voting against their own best economic and social interests. An earlier book is Thomas Frank;s )What's the Matter with Kansas?" (2004) I should also mention Heather Cox Richardson's Book, "How the South Won the Civil War." (2020)
I would say that democracy depends on having informed voters, who can be of average intelligence. Just be informed, not propagandized, as one third of the electorate is by Fox "News" and other pits of disinformation. Ask questions!
As it is said, "you can't make this shit up"....
Imagine if you will, this late in life, being the very personification of THE MOST visible failure on the world wide stage that is the current occupant of America's White House...... and the tragic comedy is that he doesn't know the world see's thru his lies.
no truths, all trumps
His hand picked advisors are idiots, not that he is listening, just blaming these witless co grifters.
SNL cold open will be a field day
Well the idiots are doing pretty well checking off the boxes in Project 2025 Paul. How do you explain that?
Actually, Trump's followers are losing bigly financially. His stock is failing. Musk, for example, has lost billions this year. Tesla is down 30%. With that money, he could have bought out a domestic car manufacturer or two.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has invested roughly $26.7 billion across 30 equity or quasi-equity corporate deals, led by an $8.9 billion stake in Intel, a $400 million investment in MP Materials, and various funding agreements spanning quantum computing, minerals, and semiconductors.
There should be an investigation whether Trump, his family and close associates had insider info and invested before the public announcements....
There needs to be an investigation exactly who benefits.....
But
AI Overview
While exact individual constituent tracking data fluctuates daily, public market assessments indicate that approximately 35% to 40% of the stocks in the S&P 500 have lost money on a year-to-date basis in 2026.
Morningstar
Despite the broad benchmark index S&P 500 tracking a positive year-to-date return of roughly 9.4% as of late July 2026, the underlying market breadth remains highly concentrated. Heavyweights in the artificial intelligence, chip, and data center infrastructure sectors have disproportionately carried the index upward, while massive segments of the market—particularly consumer discretionary, software, and traditional consultancy—have lagged or dipped into negative territory.
I agree. I disagree with those who say Democracy depends on “intelligent” or “educated “ voters. I see and know many of those who are educated and intelligent who believe in and support trump and this administration. I have an adult son who suffered a brain infection at age 12 that has caused cognitive impairment to his “IQ”. As a result he completed school in “special ed” and is “disabled”.
So…not well “educated”. But he asks questions. He has a Trumper friend who has tried to influence him, but he does not agree with this friend. He has listened to both sides. He knows what character means. He knows what “loving your neighbor” means. He listens to some independent media. Also, I believe his faith plays a part. He knows right-from-wrong. Maybe it’s simpler than education and intelligence.
I am thinking Deborah, your son has a good role model and teacher in his mom.
Bravo to your son, Deborah! Just knowing the Golden Rule gives all the guidelines to determine our vote. Education can give deeper insight on how to fix the issues, and the “education” need not be formal.
Exactly!!
You don't need to be very intelligent to understand that Trump lies everytime he opens his mouth. It is his schtick. It's what he does and has always done.
"Intelligence" is not a simple word to define, though we all think we can recognize it when we encounter it.
Trump is a clever manipulator of already ideologically and morally
deficient people who were badly brought up. Racists, sexists, criminals, high tech billionaires, you know, we've all run into them at one time or another.
Trump himself is deficient in every possible way and easily manipulated by the brighter head-of-state narcissists and killers (Putin and Netanyahu come to mind).
We are all paying a steep price for some of us having taken him seriously, so it is up to all of us to resist, demonstrate, argue, be well informed and then VOTE, god damn it!
Say what you like, but Republican voters are smart enough to understand that voting is a strategic joint exercise in taking power. That uniting to dominate government is worth the compromise.
The specious rhetoric of 'the duopoly' serves to suppress and split what should be a united opposition vote. As do endless purity tests. You would think that by now - the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties would be clear. Not the absolute difference but the significant difference.
If you want to send the Democratic party a message then become the reliable base. It is how the right wing remade the Republican party in their own image.
Trump is a legend in his own lunchbox.
Love this, Kazz! And it’s HD gold painted!
I will vote but sad to say, I want to vote less and less. It's even crossed my mind not to vote, as disgust with most options increases. I see a few principled people who inspire confidence -- bold, authentic non-grifters needed. Too many have been groomed on the ways things get done in DC -- thinking of them shakes my head 'no'. So much to sort out! I need more of Baratunde Thurston's, "reimagining citizen as a verb", https://www.howtocitizen.com/. I, like many young people need to work to get by. Disheartening times.
ThankYou for your resistance. Especially in these times. Voting is a significant form of resistance.
There are many forms of voter suppression. We must resist all of them. Including despair and demoralization. And purity tests. We have a two party system. We have a binary choice. Sitting on our hands doesn't keep them clean.
That is a good way to frame it, •lin.
Well said and thank you for the reminder — I know what you say is true.
Perhaps there are times when voting against is more the mission than voting for.
Yes, I might be growling as I mark those boxes.
Some friends and I had a discussion about our rep last night. We agreed he’d been a good county mayor, but when he got to DC, he changed—he succumbed. Now he will not hold town halls except occasionally by phone with the callers prevetted.
Many of his supporters didn't really take him seriously as far as policy is concerned. They voted for him because they think he "owns the libs."
And is a “successful businessman,” thanks to Mark Burnett.
I would settle for common sense derived from critical thinking.
If everyone insisted on objective proof, there would be no religion.
David, I agree! There are way more of US than there is of them. We MUST prevail is we want OUR country back. Time to get off the damn couch and take democracy seriously!!!
Either not very smart, or too ready to wear a blindfold, or a red hat, and follow the leader.
Even more crucial, well informed, and acting in good faith.
The literacy rate for the US is 79%. The number of people who can't read at at 6th grade level is 54% Over half of US residents can't read at a 6th grade level. This information is from the National Literacy Institute.
Fighting illiteracy may save us.
Add this while you're at it: According to the 2024 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka "the Nation's Report Card"), the most recent nationwide assessment of 12th graders:
Math: 22% of high school seniors are proficient.
Reading (English/reading): 35% are proficient.
These are the lowest levels in more than 20 years.
Stunning.
Thanks Julia, but something is missing. If 54%can’t read at the 6th grade level but the literacy rate is 79%, “literacy” doesn’t mean very much. A link might help!
I believe the illiterate level is third grade. National Literacy Institute has great data.
I think you have plenty of smart people but sadly you have reached a critical mass of stupidity and there are dark forces in politics, business and the media seeking to exploit this.
Frank, I know many intelligent people that buy into the Trump propaganda. This is what frightens me, that the process of delivering the message “overcomes” rational and logical thinking; that there exists a defect in the the human condition that allows otherwise “smart” people to accept “the messages”
I think it boils down to the fundamental belief in white superiority and a particular flavor of the Christian faith.
Certainly a contributing factor
It is a provable fact that we are not overburdened with critical thinking as a practice. Intelligence, education, simply lazy or some combination - I don’t know.
Personally, I’m stumped by when to use a semicolon.
So true, Frank. And it shows in all the "small" things that are not being offered in the classrooms anymore. None of our current generation can read or write in cursive. So how will they be able to read any of our handwritten letters and notes and journals or even the originals of the Declaration of Independence or the bible? They also no longer teach driver's education in high schools and most of them obtained their driver's license without knowing anything other than the basics of stepping on the gas and turning the steering wheel. When one total idiot can hold the attention of an audience by shouting stupid stuff to them, all that comes to my mind is Hitler.
Many also cannot tell time on an analog clock, either.
We were sliding toward fascism, but the tide has turned, as will be clear in November. What are you doing to make that happen?
Smart? Or lacking of education. I blame so much on social media. Let's get kids off their screens. Read and write again.
However…the upcoming generation, graduating college now, are not impressed with the 80 yr old ‘DICTATOR’. They KNOW he is ‘intelligence challenged’ and also misogynistic, which means at least apx half of them DO NOT LIKE TRUMP’S ATTITUDE. The other apx half see the ‘illegal’ war as a threat to their future.
The ‘young voters’ will not be ‘duped’ by whatever lies Trump & Co spin, and this is what the Orange Moron is worried about and becoming more & more testy!
Some real criminal activity will be attempted by the ‘Regime’ during the Midterm Elections, but, it already may not be ‘enough’ interference to swing the numbers for Trump. 🤞
Get ready for the ‘meltdown’, and Trump’s belligerent denials only an echo of Jan6/21 <<< a second chance for MAGAs to ‘WAKE UP’. 🙏
Democracy depends on having WISE voters. The fact that the country is sliding towards fascism indicates that too many voters are not sufficiently wise.
Exceptional intelligence is to a life what having a fast vehicle is to a journey. Wisdom is to a life what knowing the right direction is to a journey. What is the right direction? Saying you agree with "e pluribus unum" in your words and your actions.
I don't have to be going very fast in the right direction to know that the people going very fast in the opposite direction don't know where they're going.
I would agree/ disagree. It's not much WE are not smart. The occasional problem withour voting is that it isnot consistently applied. In this case, the second donald (use of lower case first name is intentional) term occured because a LOT of voters were absent and ware a part of the problem. The second term, by the way, was a decided loss by 7 million plus votes (fact). The fumble has been and is increasingly becoming recognized. My hope is it will not be repeated. Novembers general elections will dtermine November 2008 outcome. Unless the 25th Amendment come to fruition.
Sliding?
We are there.
The Reflecting Swamp is both a perfect metaphor and an unexpected silver lining to a dreadful tale. Because NOBODY believed this lying, moronic criminal from the get-go. Then one of his chief handmaidens, primping and preening and bobbing and weaving with oh-so righteous indignation as she announced she had found the culprit at last!.....did an about face, forcing him to gaze at his own humiliated reflection. Whiny Baby Huey didn't much care for that because somewhere inside him, he knows -- ONE myth destroyed means others are getting in line, waiting to follow.
In truth, Rancid Mango Titanic is sinking. Listen carefully and the sound of scurrying little rat claws scampering out the nearest exits in search of what few life boats can be found deafens the ears. MAGA is now falling to pieces faster than you can crumble feta cheese over your cyclospora-infected mixed lettuce salad.... 🤮
A little at a time, and then in great chunks and splintering peels of blue paint, the fake patina covering up the lies, idiocies and inanities is finally blistering off. We must do everything we can think of to make the unravelling go even faster....Onto November!
Good call, "It's Come to This". And it should not go unnoticed that the "primping and preening, bobbing and weaving" handmaiden you refer to, is one of the original screaming Harpies of the Murdochian Ministry of Mendacity. For Jeanine Pirro to come out and state that she's dismissing the case, that the DOI gave her office b.s. instead of facts, is tantamount to saying that Despicable Don is full of what we all know him to be full of. She won't say that, and it will be interesting to see if she ends up face down in the very same reflecting pool, ala William Holden's character in "Sunset Blvd."
Metaphorically speaking, of course
As I understand it, Pirro either could dismiss the case or face major humiliation and embarrassment from the defense revealing what shananigans went on with the grand jury that indicted the guy. Apparently the “expert” initially told the Grand Jury he had no idea of the dollar amount of the damage, then left the room only to come back and announce it was “over a $1,000” which, interestingly, was the amount needed for charges. This entire administration is despicable!
Can our former Olympian "water toucher" file a defamation case against say Fox News, Carolyn Leavitt, Pirro or others who defamed him maliciously and cruelly?
The damage was well over $1000 for this cluster-fuck of a no-bid installation. Maybe sue for $10 billion like Trump sued "we the people."
I hope that David Hearn sues Pirro for what was clearly a malicious prosecution and that the judge in the case refers her to the DC bar association.
In David Hearn, Republican regime enforcers picked the wrong curious visitor to the Reflecting Pool. An American Olympian who was able to have the extraordinary lawyer Norm Eisen represent him. But what about the others who were unjustly cited, charged, arrested? Whatever the regime wrote them up as, it treated their curiosity to find out for themselves as insufferable and illegal resistance. We are not hearing about how the regime upended their lives. Legal representation to get even a clearly wrongful charge dismissed can easily cost $10,000.
James Comey can fight back the injustice of the sea-shell 86 47 photo case. But across the country, police are wrongly writing up people - fabricating narratives and distorting 'evidence' - to make them look like criminals, in order to suppress their peaceful protest and pave the way for their arrest. On the police's own initiative, at the demand of their government bosses, and of local vigilantes.
No act of resistance is too small, no person too insignificant, and no municipality lacking in Republican regime supporters eager to point the finger and demand retribution. As Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman recently said to Joyce Vance "It is more like Salem in 1693 than Philadelphia in 1776."
There was a saying during the Viet Nam protests, the equivalent of 'we are all Black people now.' (Referring to draft resister Muhammed Ali saying "No Vietnamese ever called me n-word.") I'd venture that many of us who were knowledgeable of and intellectually understood the injustices inflicted on Black Americans, are getting a more visceral understanding of systemic injustice in the United States.
There's always her future tell-all memoir, "Donald Trump Is Full of Algae"
“Greenwater” seemed like a good name for what it eventually produced. Prophetic, even.
🤣
It is the saddest of commentary that Jeanine Pirro is more able to face reality and hard facts than the senile, demented “President”.
The Pool saga has offered a rich source of symbolism for the entire Trump presidency that been mined almost to the point of tedium.
And we have to remind people that Trump did this all on his own. There was nothing wrong with reflecting pool. He just needed something to deflect the Epstein files or the unnecessary war he started and blame Obama and Democrats for it.
Maybe people should also be reminded that Trump used to be a Democrat.
Sorry, I had to read your comment again. I was too busy researching where to get some dog and cat meat from Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. /s
This hit oddly for me. Just before reading this letter I made a monetary donation to the group trying to support Haitians in nearby Springfield. In order avoid sending ICE into Springfield, many were ordered to appear at 8:00 am today, Sunday, at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in Cincinnati. This will continue next Sunday. Yes, there will be organized protestors there. I can’t imagine the fear they’re suffering.
I did the same. Those poor folks need all the help they can get. They certainly won't get it from the likes of DeWeenie, or LaRose.
Several Haitians in Springfield have received letters from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security telling them to go to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cincinnati field office for an “in-person check-in,” during which they are outfitted with ankle monitors, according to local advocates. This has started this weekend and will carry on… This eliminates those ICE agents to descend into Springfield like the ghouls and goons they are…
We are at the point in Germany in the late 1930’s where all the Jews were to report at the local locations to register themselves, versus the Brownshirts rounding them up.. Or in our own history during WWII, the Japanese loosing all and going to concentration camps and of course those times of slavery. Ankle monitors, seems close to the shackles worn by those slaves…
https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/some-springfield-haitians-summoned-to-ice-office-outfitted-with-ankle-monitors/article_28a0c502-9007-590b-9afa-2aa27d7a0fdd.html
If you can donate — These are sites of Key organizations supporting the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio include the Haitian Support Center, the Haitian Community Alliance, and legal and aid groups like Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE).
https://haitiansupportcenter.org/
https://haitiancommunityalliance.org/
https://www.ablelaw.org/
Making some (German) Shepherd Pie? /s
Before they’re all sent back, you mean?
Bravo ICTT! One of your best comments. You write divinely.
You are most kind -- thank you.
ICTT, your message that “the MAGA Myth is crumbling” should be at the top of everyone’s comments whenever we speak to the daily atrocities committed by Trump, the lies that get uncovered and the invisible shame the Red Hats harbor in their “Lyin’ Eyes”
They can no longer hide them (hat tip Glenn Frey)
Sink the Myth. The reactor is nearing critical mass. Add fuel to the coming implosion
@ICTT, Enjoy reading your controlled and humorous outrage! I'm waiting for a call for a fatwa on this treasonous weasel...oh, wait, there is one on both thrump and net-a-yahoo.
One can only hope...
Thank you, ICTT. I always look for your cogent posts.
I dunno. I came across a bunch of folks--some on here---that believed the bullshit.
There is a bigger story that came out yesterday that the pool revelations were meant to distract us from--Iranian hacking of water systems across multiple states. Trump says that it wasn't the Iranians; it was Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Cyberattacks on American infrastructure by a country we are at war with is getting the Trump fantasy treatment. That is a far bigger deal than a few million dollars of corruption and a catfight between Pirro and Burgum.
Initial Iranian attacks started in November of 2023 with a little test. An Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated hacking persona called "CyberAv3ngers" breached a water pressure booster station in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The hackers left a message reading "You have been hacked, down with Israel" because the compromised equipment was Israeli-made. The device was exposed directly to the internet with the default password "1111". No water supply was contaminated, but similar Unitronics devices were compromised at facilities across multiple US states and other countries. The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Administration (CISA) under Biden issued a security alert.
https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-335a
The Biden administration responded. In February 2024, the Treasury Department sanctioned six IRGC Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC) officials, including unit head Hamid Reza Lashgarian, for directing the campaign. In August 2024, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for information on the named individuals.
In February 2024, the Treasury Department sanctioned six IRGC Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC) officials, including unit head Hamid Reza Lashgarian, for directing the campaign. In August 2024, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for information on the named individuals.
https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2024/02/treasury-sanctions-iranian-cyber-officials-tied-2023-water-system-hacks/393877/
New, more serious attacks began in 2026. CyberAv3ngers up their game beyond exploiting default passwords to deploying custom ICS malware ("IOCONTROL") and, from March 2026 onward, actively exploiting an unpatched authentication-bypass vulnerability in Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley controllers. A joint six-agency advisory (CISA AA26-097A) in April 2026 confirmed actual operational disruption and financial losses at US water, energy, and government-services victims, and a July 22 update expanded the warning to also cover Schneider Electric and Siemens equipment.
The hackers are now coupling their intrusions with a sophisticated propaganda campaign to spread fear. According to Domain Technologies, a cyber security firm, "This dual-track strategy of blending genuine industrial control systems (ICS) operations with fabricated claims is not early-phase immaturity that the group outgrew. It is a standing operational doctrine that persists alongside the group's increasingly sophisticated technical campaigns. When CyberAv3ngers claim a new compromise, organizations should look for corroborating technical evidence before treating the claim as confirmed."
https://www.tenable.com/blog/what-to-know-about-cyberav3ngers-the-irgc-linked-group-targeting-critical-infrastructure
That evidence of control capture of US municipal water systems came last week. Just days after the advisory, a coordinated attack hit more than 30-36 community water systems across Minnesota, disrupting automated controls and briefly taking a well/treatment facility offline in Braham, Minnesota for about two hours; some systems had to switch to manual operation and some areas saw water-pressure drops. Officials stressed drinking water was never contaminated or unsafe. The FBI subsequently confirmed similar incidents at water utilities in at least seven states, with Michigan and South Dakota also named alongside Minnesota and Wisconsin
US intelligence and state officials tentatively attributed the attacks to Iran, citing the absence of any ransom demand, the disruption-focused (not financially motivated) methods, and consistency with Iran's known playbook — though they emphasized this preliminary assessment could change and no group has publicly claimed responsibility.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/minnesota-it-officials-disclose-coordinated-cyberattack-more-than-30-local-water-2026-07-28/
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/fbi-warns-of-cyberattacks-on-water-systems-in-7-states-267611717585?playlist=mmlsnnd_bestofnbc-nnd
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/minnesota-water-cyberattack-iran.html
So how did Trump respond? According to the NYTimes, he "publicly rejected the Iran attribution on July 31, instead blaming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, calling the state "grossly incompetent" and saying "Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota". Walz pushed back, saying Trump "knows exactly who is responsible" and that other states were hit too."
On August 1, Trump TACOed on further US military strikes on Iran "pending a possible nuclear deal." Interesting, after all of the tough talk on Thursday and Friday about planning major strikes on Iranian infrastructure.
The FBI and CISA are urging water utilities nationwide to disconnect programmable logic controllers that run equipment from the public internet and move to manual/segmented controls, though experts note the vulnerable equipment (especially Rockwell/Allen-Bradley controllers) is widely used, so more states may be quietly affected beyond the seven confirmed so far.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/02/nx-s1-5917113/trump-says-hes-cancelling-iran-strikes-deal-pending
This is what modern warfare is. We are not safe because we are an ocean away from an enemy. That was proved 25 years ago with 9/11. But now, Iran doesn't need jihadists. It just needs hackers. Think about disrupting water flow to nuclear reactors, or opening dam flood gates.
The Trump regime has cut the CISA workforce by roughly a third since January 2025 (from about 3,400 employees), and the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director throughout Trump's second term.
You might want to tell your MAGA neighbors about how safe they can feel knowing how well Trump is protecting us.
Bombing civilian infrastructure - as the US is doing in Iran, Israel is doing in Gaza, and Russia is doing in Ukraine - is a war crime. As are cyber attacks on civilian infrastructure. Iran cannot easily bomb us, but they can bring the war home. It has long been known that cyberattacks were the looming front lines of asymmetrical or hybrid warfare. While Trump, Hegseth, and Republican legislators are fixated on old paradigms of kinetic warfare - manly men in big machines blowing things up at night to stage spectacular strikes.
Of course, as with effectively shutting down the US pandemic office before COVID, the Republican regime has effectively disabled, through defunding and understaffing, cybersecurity initiatives across the executive branch - in the build up to their war of whim against Iran.
One of the defects of autocratic regimes is replacing a system of experts providing accurate information, with a small group of ignorant sycophants. This is a hallmark of the Trump presidency - as propped up by Republicans.
Every single Republican on the ballot in November needs to be voted OUT! There are six or seven PA republicans who qualify to be voted out in November. Each of them voted yes on giving ICE billions of dollars to persecute anyone who is not white and then consistently makes “mistakes” in arresting US citizens. The majority of people being detained are NOT criminals. It is all about the cruelty against other human beings.
What about the Democratic Party members supporting the Gaza genocide? When Democratic Party incumbents/candidates take AIPAC money they are supporting genocide. Go to AIPAC Tracker.
Look at AIPAC spending over $40 MILLION on Stevens in the Michigan Senate primary. Remember that Schumer has said repeatedly his first allegiance is to Israel. The ICC has a warrant out for Netanyahu for crimes against humanity. The Democratic Party Leadership supports Netanyahu.
I have an issue with that as well. Just addressing one issue in this comment.
The Democratic Party Leadership has lost to djt twice, stood by while the MAGA movement took hold and is unable to rise up against the fascist in our White House. What makes people think they can protect us now when their first allegiance is to another Country? This is crazy stuff.
Let me ask you this. So if the Democratic Party Leadership and members of the Party continue to accept AIPAC money knowing full well about GAZA are they taking part in war crimes? As for myself I will not vote for any candidate receiving AIPAC money.
Another effect is the subjugation of the people. The compliance of the American people during this time is part of the nightmare. I see people doing mostly one thing as I go about my day; heads bent over a phone. I know they are being controlled by media.
The bottom line is we are vulnerable and we are screwed.
Each of your well informed posts is an act of resistance.
Republicans embraced Orban. Hungarian voters across the political spectrum united to defeat Orban - with a former Orban official at the head of a center right party. A significant victory. Not a perfect solution.
We have that option available to us.
We are too sick lin. What I see Schumer, the DCC and the other Party members doing in the Michigan Senate primary in collusion with AIPAC is deeply disturbing. The Democratic Party under Schumer and Jeffries is coming dangerously close to an autocratic style. Their relationship with Netanyahu is profoundly sullying the Democratic Party.
But we do and we don’t really because unlike a parliamentary system the national leadership is not tied to the legislative majority. A Democratic Congress will still have to deal with a Republican President for the next two years with his ability to veto legislation unchecked and with no real practical constraints on his power to nominate. Sure, a Democratic Senate could refuse to approve the nominee, but Trump would just put in an acting sycophant as he is threatening to do with Blanche.
No Democratic politician would commit to a 2028 nominee two years in advance so the opposition will be led by whoever is speaker of the House and (hopefully) Majority leader in the Senate. The people who would be best for those positions are not necessarily the person who would make the best presidential candidate.
We are pinning too much on the 2026 and 2028 elections. The American political cake continues to crumble and all we talk about is the election icing that will magically fix everything.
Georgia, Trump continues to demonstrate that he is no longer capable of comprehending much of anything. He blames whoever comes into his demented brain when he learns of a problem. Tim Walls ran against him with Kamala Harris, and his state, MN, showed the world what ICE really is, so his name is right on the tip of Trump's brain, one of the many of his foes names he can still remember and toss out. The list is getting shorter, which I suspect is the reason his white house toddler pool started getting Trump to tie his old hateful feelings about Communists to his arch enemy, Democrats. I am not sure which of the members of the toddler pool came up with that one, but it was perfect for Trump's limited mental abilities.
Somebody in the Trump regime got the Iranian's message and convinced Trump to TACO. I am sure Putin got in a word earlier in the week when Trump backtracked on the Patriot deal with Ukraine. Trump might have TACOed anyway to get the stock market to bounce since it is the first trading day of the month and there are a lot of automatic deposits to be invested in IRAs and pension plans to give the market a pop.
But I do think Trump probably needed quite a few diaper changes yesterday.
Paying hackers to disable infrastructure across much of the country is a lot cheaper than raining down ballistic missiles. You could probably do it for the cost of a handful of missiles if AI was harnessed to do the grunt work of testing for vulnerabilities and then writing the customized code.
TY again, and note please my apology to Tim Waltz for misspelling his name , which I -Ms No Proof-Read Sister am long guilty of…and in addition note “the list of complicity is now on ….page 47😉”
Patricia, the three dots on the right margin across from your name offer an "edit" function on most computers. It is hit and miss on my IOS devices.
I am a frequent user of said function, and a charter member of the "No Proofra-read Society"
Ally, thanks again. How are you doing with the fires there? I’m concerned having family cabin in Bend and friends likely evacuated now in Washington (Spokane). Prayers for you all.🫶
Still not quite correct—it’s Walz.
I can’t tell anymore whether the insanity he’s displaying is part of the ever evolving Project 2025 plan or if they are now just letting him deteriorate more and more while they wait for the perfect moment to replace him by one means or another.
There are roughly 49,000–50,000 community water systems in the country, serving about 300+ million people according to the EPA. That’s a lot of systems to track to make sure they have updated their security software to remain resistant to cyber attacks.
It’s important that people realize that cyber attacks are asymmetric. AI bots can be relentless in probing for vulnerabilities and installing malware specific to the control units that are employed at a given site. The damage that can be created, for instance leaking pipes because of pressure bursts, require parts, heavy equipment and lots of manual labor and time to repair, and are expensive. With the Republicans’ profligate spending running up the national debt in times of rising interest rates, a massive attack on infrastructure can cause a major blow to the economy on top of the hit due to companies having to halt operations until the infrastructure repairs are complete.
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-01/final_508_epa_reporttocongress_11-19-24_0.pdf
Excellent follow up with today’s post!
Thanks, Georgia, for this in-depth overview of the latest "distraction" from tRump. It is interesting that the CISA workforce was one of the first to be cut. This at a time when cyber security should be at the top of any responsible organization's priorities...As for what voters choose to believe, also interesting that with the Internet, a vast world of information at a click, the only source chosen by many is Fox non-News. People just happy in their ignorance.
Fox is like the anti-news; as antimatter is antithetical to normal matter, thus is Fox "news" to normal news. It destroys brain cells, eliminating the capacity for rational, analytical, critical thought in its viewers, leaving behind only the emotions and cream cheese.
TY Georgia. Not my first conclusion , but long ago knowing and moved back-to-the-woods.ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM lives on 🙌🎶☮️ .
How do you do it Georgia? That was mind numbingly complex and yet you waltzed through it as though it was perfectly obvious. You continue to amaze me 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙏
Thanks so much for the compliment. I have always been curious. I have a doctorate in chemistry and worked for many years as a research scientist and supervisor, raised my daughter and then became a high school science teacher because I found that teenagers are the most interesting people because they are becoming abstract thinkers as their brains mature and reorganize. Now that I am long retired I still want to teach and keep my mind active. I went through three very hard years of brain fog and numbing fatigue with long haul after covid. I feel blessed to have my energy back and be able to think clearly again. As Heather keeps saying on her podcasts, we each have to be bringing our A game to the fight. This is my A game.
You go girl, you have one hell of an "A" game. You are so far ahead of me it's like we're not on the same planet. Your covid recovery is a blessing, something I would never say is true of every covid recovery. I read everything you write with relish because I always learn, at very close to 80 I find that I'm learning like a sponge soaking up water, I don't think I've ever been as excited about learning as I am now. If this country can be saved, and I think it can, it's going to take a lot of us with good hearts to lead the way.🙏🏻
A+ game, Georgia!
Thank you for sharing this valuable information. This needs to be widely spread so municipalities & citizens can be aware. And just another reason to VOTE 🗳️💙 in November.
Yes, this is what modern warfare is, along with inexpensive drones doing major damage. It is not manliness, warheads, or testosterone-dependent! But it does require intelligence, much lacking in this administration.
Could not agree more. Sounds like we should have more women warriors, not less.
Less of Hegseth’s gender and racial discrimination, for sure. I was mainly commenting on his lack of a relevant, coherent, modern military strategy - except for his insane, outdated belief that conflicts are solely won by macho fighting men with lots of testosterone, on the ground. Male or female we need smart, strategic thinkers with the ability to learn in today’s conflicts.
Georgia, thank you for this post! Also for citing your sources. I had no idea that this was going on. (Well, there are limits to what I can take in, but still!)
OMG How remiss we are in knowing current information. Thank you!
Georgia, thanks for the excellent summary and links. I wonder: were any very red states affected? If Texas and Florida have not been targeted, I’d suspect that, in the daily call between Putin and whoever answers the secret tie line in the WH these days, a deal was made.
Texas was hit in one of the earlier attacks, but the regime has not announced the entire list of seven states in the current attack—just those two in the post. Trump just wanted an excuse to piss on Walz and Walz pissed on him right back.
Agreed, the millions here, the billions there, the catfights, the failure to release the Epstein files in accordance with the law, the wasting of military materiel and soldier's lives, the existential threat to the elections scheduled for November and with them, American democracy - it's all grist to those mills which, as we all know, grind slowly, but grind EXCEEDINGLY fine.
YES thanks!
Did he say Walz actually did it? My impression was that he said it was Tim's fault, in other words his incompetence, that allowed it to happen. Similar to the fraud cases.
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
W.B. Yeats "The Second Coming."
That old saw about a lie being able to travel around the world while truth is putting its shoes on has never been more true in the age of social media; and more people in the US especially have never before been more receptive to lies and absurd conspiracy theories. When you add to that the fact that Americans have now twice elected the most egregiously mendacious and stupid president in history, you have a truly depressing state of affairs. You can't just wait for the house of cards to tumble of its own accord.
''The Reflecting Pool Finally Reflects Something Honest: How a Botched $14.7 Million Renovation Became a Felony, a Scapegoat, and a Perfect Portrait of Trump-Era Government''
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has finally done what it was designed to do: reflect the government standing over it.
The Trump administration spent roughly $14.7 million renovating the pool before America’s 250th birthday. The job was hurried. The new blue coating began peeling. Trump blamed vandals, because in his Washington, defective workmanship is apparently less believable than a vast conspiracy against decorative sealant.
Then federal prosecutors found their culprit: David Hearn, a 67-year-old, three-time Olympic canoeist who stopped during a bike ride and touched a loose piece of coating. He said it was already peeling and that he let go when a park worker told him to. Prosecutors nevertheless charged him with felony property destruction.
Jeanine Pirro’s office treated the loose coating as though Hearn had taken a chisel to Lincoln himself. The administration had its vandal, its prosecution, and its explanation for why a multimillion-dollar renovation was coming apart.
Unfortunately, the pool kept reflecting.
The Justice Department has now moved to dismiss the case after learning that the coating failure resulted from flawed installation during a rushed project. In other words, the suspect was not the cyclist. It was the contractor.
That sequence captures Trump-era governing with remarkable efficiency. Order something flashy. Demand it quickly. Ignore the obvious problems. Blame an enemy. Find someone to punish. Discover the facts only after the courtroom paperwork is filed.
The funniest detail is that this happened at the Reflecting Pool, a monument built around the concept of seeing what is actually there. Trump saw sabotage. Pirro saw a felony. Contractors saw an invoice. Everyone else saw paint falling off.
America paid nearly $15 million for the renovation, but the clearest result came free of charge: a perfect reflection of an administration more interested in assigning blame than accepting responsibility.
> https://essayx.substack.com/p/the-reflecting-pool-finally-reflects
Once again your prose here strikes a chord. Thank you.
Sunday 8/2 Morning Update:
****************************
Per DAVID HEARD's Attorney, NORM EISEN. this AM "All legal remedies are being considered". Recall that David Heards was directly threatened of "10 years in prison".
Tump's Motion to the Court has already made a stunning admission against their own legal survival. Reading from the Trump-Piro's motion LIVE on MSNOW:S show "The Weekend":
"It is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism let alone to prove that fact beyond a reasonable doubt".
TRANSLATION: David Heard is innocent just like NORM EISEN advised Piro-the-Hack back on July. 10, 2026 over three (3) weeks ago!
Ugly Game Over on Trump's Own-Goal.
**************************************************************************************
Here is some news that is easy to Digest:
Incompetent Piro has dropped her BS charges against the former Olympian, David Heard, because the contractor "botched the pool job".
Apparently, Prio's case fell apart at the "seams".
The matter is not a cat fight. Malicious Prosecution? Intentional infliction of emotional distress upon David?
And this is made extremely difficult when the propaganda and misinformation floods the zone daily! That’s their plan to make the public distrust government completely. Unfortunately, it may well be working.
In my opinion, it is up to us to follow the professor's and others' lead and flood that same zone with pro-democracy truths. Robert Hubbell, Joyce Vance, Jay Kuo, Marc Elias, Lucian Truscott, Brian Tyler Cohen, Barbara McQuade, Ben Wikler, Wajahat Ali, and many others you could name, come to mind.
It's difficult for most of us to flood the market with truths when algorhythms limit what people receive. For example, it's impossible to even send the MAGA group information, even if they would listen.
I hammer away on individual's pages. They of course call MY stuff "utter garbage" and their stuff "provable truths." SMH.
Medhi Hassan, The Intercept, Zeteo, Pod Save America.
Morning, Lynell, and well said!!
The Greater Quiet | Steve Brodner | Substack
.https://stevebrodner.substack.com/.
THE deEP STATE : The political artwork of Michael de Adder | Substack
.https://deadder.substack.com/.
Black Man Spy - Malcolm Nance | Substack
.https://substack.com/@malcolmnance.
Kathryn, it seems to be working some places, and the white house toddler pool and their buddies will continue to do the distracting, but the propaganda isn't working as well. I am expecting something big to come along soon to distract folks from the Epstein Files, the Reflecting Pool, the water sabotage, Trump's failing brain and body, and the war. That concerns me!
And it will all come in time for the November elections Ruth. That has been the plan all along...
It's certainly obvious that it will get big and ugly Ruth. All of this is about the Epstein files being contained and swept under the rug. It's quite simple if you can clear a path through the fog.
God bless Katie Phang!
PHANG v. BLANCHE, 1:26-cv-01417 – CourtListener.comhttps://share.google/DYvRJjTVRAPz5K3gr
The opinion of a Substack/Facebook writer states this impression of DJTs irrational TS/BS screeds. (How much longer does the world need to put up with this lunacy? Doesn’t the 32% see the TRUTH?)
“The post that really set Donald Trump off this morning was one of his first of the day, when he attacked Jeanine Pirro, his own U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. This came after a late Friday motion to dismiss that Pirro had filed on the felony charge against David Hearn, the 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist who had been facing 10 years in prison for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. For weeks, Trump and his administration had insisted the damage was caused by “radical left” vandals. Trump himself claimed someone had cut a 300-foot gash in the lining with a knife, and Pirro had held a press conference saying she had “tremendous evidence” and would prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
But when the Department of the Interior finally turned over its documents, the truth proved it was all a lie. The lining had begun peeling almost immediately after installation, and the damage was the result of a botched job by the contractor on a no-bid contract from one of Trump’s own people. Pirro admitted in her court filing that the evidence did not support the charge and she dropped the case.”
Heather Delaney Reese
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BV7LpXLt2/?mibextid=wwXIfr
It’s interesting how Pirro said one thing in public and another in court records. In my opinion she knew out of the gate what was false versus what was true. Public servants aren’t penalized for spewing falsehoods publicly but obvious falsehoods in legal documents is another thing. There are professional costs for doing that. Evidently, Pirro doesn’t want the threat of disbarment hanging over her head.
I heard a replay of her press conference in which she was quite firm about the case and what the evidence would show. That was pretty stupid given we now know she had almost nothing to go on. Apparently she didn’t take the time to investigate before holding a somewhat contentious presser (in her gravelly voice) and before presenting to a grand jury. So she got burned when it became quite obvious she had to evidence = no case. She may get burned again when Trump fires her, or at least starts demeaning her publicly.
The propaganda of the moment is devastating. People keep talking about public trust. I continue to worry instead about public give a s**t problem. Part of what got us here was the disinterest of the American voter in American politics.
No one wants to say the f word. When people can rise up, supported by the leaders of their party and fight back against a fascist government we will prevail.
Meanwhile the Democratic Party leadership is too busy supporting Netanyahu.
At this point, with Trump’s approval in the (green) “tank,” most American voters know that any blame he’s spewing is a lie and projects his guilt on others. So that gap between propaganda and defeat resounds like a percussion hammer of BS followed by disgrace.
"most American voters" but not the significant part of them who watch Fox or OANN or Newsmax or Breitbart ...
My point is that Trump’s approval is getting very low and disapproval very high so that fewer voters are persuaded by the propaganda. Of course the worst cult followers aren’t part of the encouraging trends.
thank you Kelli, for all that you bring light upon. 🙏
As the old saying has it, the truth always catches up with the lie.
This is so true. Look how long it takes in every one of these cases that should give us the general picture of what has been going on. The WAR on Iran!! It's widening!.
The "false narratives" you mean the out and out LIES coming out of the poisoned mentally off person we STILL keep in the WH. This poison goes around the country before the LAW gets it pants on. And people drink it- let it be- turn away- shrug.
We only have one Norm Eisen. We have more but Eisen is out there boldly. The law is SO damn slow. Atty General Jeanine Pirro, a dedicated sycophant who did her sycophanting work on Fox- which got her the position thanks to the Republican Congress- should get DISBARRED AND lose her job as well from Trump's wrath. How dare her protect her rear end...and try hide it from getting big news.
May this BLOW UP further in the media and get us all seeing and seething especially the commentariat.
May it be a REVEAL of the larger picture- not only about a reflecting pool. May the pool reflect the TRUTH about the bobbling heads reflecting in it.
May the reflecting pool be representative of all else the DUPER in chief did, does, and will do as we keep this slow pace called the rule of law.
We are still a democracy, hanging in. But those of us partaking cannot keep it for the rest of us that are not.
Blow this one up. It truly reflects what is going on.
The regime also needs a huge group of stupid people were false narrative finds proper grounds to attach, regardles of how fast evidence is brought back. They also need a friendly media and there're plenty of them . Please Sr. Facciones, develop a vaccine against stupidity before it's too late....
It is easy to put blame on Trump and his administration. But it is after all voters who elected him. Blaming Trump is shifting the failure of voters on him. Why cannot we just accept this plain fact?
This is the signal event to underline the failure of criminal Donald's presidency.
Not the stupid, cruel, ongoing murderous ICE rampages against U.S. cities.
Not the cowardly withdrawal of active U.S. support for Ukraine fighting Donald's civilian-attacking friend Putin.
Not Donald's idiot support of criminal Netanyahu's full-bore-supremacist-greater-Israel project.
Not the ongoing cover-up of Donald's participation in Jeffrey and Ghislaine's trafficking of girls and young women to all the male whores of the world.
Donald yelled "vandals," and "communists" when it was plain to all that his own corrupt allies failed in their reckless damages to the reflecting pool.
Donald could -- did -- yell about the immigrants invading the U.S. in the 2024 national elections. His repeat yelling about vandals and Dems-all-turned-communist was a step too far, finally, in highlighting his continued corruptions with his continued fellow incompetents.
Whatever it takes to open eyes and rid our country of this cancer
I wish I shared your optimism James. Too many people have been blinded by the MSM repeating the Trump BS ad nauseam. The billionaire owners of Fox, CBS, etc. don't care about whether they make a profit, only that they get their multi-million dollar tax breaks and impunity for their crimes and lies.
I blame Fox News for this mess with all its lies and propaganda. The money available in politics to gaslight the public and create false narratives is overwhelming. Congress is who failed us as a nation. It is up to the People!
It's far beyond Faux Noise. It was the gateway drug to all the really "out there" fascist/racist/WCN propagandists
Yes Fox is the original sin.
Rush Limbaugh and Newt .... washed the salad greens with contaminated water...we now have the shits!
Don't ignore FOR PROFIT social media. It's been repeatedly proven: content that angers or enrages viewers keeps them on the platform longer. Therefore, right-wing content (lies) is a much more powerful draw than Dems spouting facts.
Agree, GJ. But if the sheer stupidity of the Reflecting Pool fiasco hits home harder than the other disasters Phil recounts above it might help diminish the effects of that money a little 🤞
Please enjoy my song:
Catman Bill Parody of Angie titled “Algae” June 22, 2026
Am E7
Algae, Algae
G F C (slide)Am
WHEN will those green clouds disappear?
Am E7
Algae, Algae
G F C(slide)Am
WHERE will it lead us from here?
Am G
With 16 million in their hands
F Am
And no morals in their plans
C G
And you can’t say we’re satisfied
Am E7
Algae, Algae
G F C(slide)Am
You can’t say we never tried
Am E7
Algae you’re so beautiful
G F C (slide)Am
But ain’t it time we said goodbye
Am E7
Algae I still love you
G F C (slide)Am
Remember all those nights we cried?
Am G
WHAT green scum has done to you
G F Am
Hydro peroxide won’t undo
C G
Let me whisper in your ear
Am E7
Algae, Algae
G F C (slide) Am
WHERE will it lead us from here?
Repeat instrumental
Thank you so much!!! It is not often people include the chords with their song parody lyrics. Will be playing this one later today.
Ya sing it.
Love this. I've got Steve Earl in my head
Beautiful.
I'm afraid you're right. None of the substantive failures, to your lisr of which I would add the dismantling of the government and the war of choice against Iran, seems so likely to finally turn the tide against him. Sad, that we are so gullible and inattentive, but not at all surprising. For after all we elected him TWICE.
Grievous, Stephen.
We've massive accounting of ourselves yet to do.
Huh? Whaddya mean ‘we’? I voted against him 3 times and sent money to the women.
Absolutely "we," Lois.
First, and most damaging, "we" permitted the schools to rid themselves of humanities and to become abjectly submissive to testing instead.
"We" permitted the growth of media industries -- legacy media (newspapers, magazines, and on-air broadcast stations), social media (all run by cynical, dehumanized billionaires, and techie media (hello, AI) with all involved bereft of any of the humanities that could have let us stay in touch with our fellow Americans massively damaged by our finance and offshoring elites.
I said "first," above, Lois, as if there might be a second causality as harmful as testing. Maybe it's the health care and big pharma industries turned over to profit-motive only. Maybe it's the fossil fuelers. (The U.S. still has no fast rail, still pushes automobile addiction, eight-lane, ten-lane highways, huge parking lagoons surrounding all shopping malls, neon-lit, fast-food and junk food franchises everywhere.)
But don't all possible 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. causalities also derive from our choices to turn schools all over to the dehumanized testing predators? (Life reduced for all only to A)-B)-C)-D) options with ever one correct answer only.)
It’s the twice part that gets me Stephen, the first time a lot of people were pissed about Hilary, but the second time after what we had seen him do when he had people who told him “no you can’t do that”, none of whom are around any more. Anyone can make a mistake, but when you do it twice it’s no longer a mistake, it’s what you intended to do all along.
I agree, and am of the opinion that many centrist Democrats continue to be in denial about the justifiable anger that many voters feel. Note the use of present tense. I am not speaking about the true “deplorables” constituting the hard core of MAGA, but rather the good hearted, hard working millions who have been increasingly left behind. With their increasingly virulent attacks on the environmentalists and social democrats they risk losing the great opportunity being presented to them in November.
One would think that the Democrats would have formulated a platform for the midterms so we would know what they pledge to do if they achieve majorities in both houses. A platform that would include ideas from people like Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani.
Pissed about Hilary?? She still won the popular vote by several million. Also, Trump and followers RELENTLESSLY shouted "Lock Her Up!" until the narrative stuck long enough to shave enough votes from a handful of swing states, leading to an electoral college win.
Yeah, Phil, after all his crimin’ he slips on a banana peel! Karma with a sense of humor…..
Has anyone watched "The Caine Mutiny" lately? It is Captain Queeg and the strawberries all over again.
You might be right even though it has been a huge distraction from those other things.
"criminal Netanyahu's full-bore-supremacist-greater-Israel project."
Criminal? Supremacist? What's that about?
"Weave a fantasy story" then lie about having lied, then lie again, then try to prosecute based on lies, then fold like a cheap suit (but only after a lot of people work hard to push back, defend in Court, spend oodles of wasted time and money) -- a pissant president and his pissant cronies all bobbing and weaving on command -- yet the clown car blows up anyway.
The Reflecting Pool is but a tiny drop in the ocean of malfeasance, mayhem, murder, mismanagement, misappropriation and mischief these people try to drown us with every single day. We can stop them, but only if we turn out en masse in November.
Remember, it's not a "Trump" problem, it's a REPUBLICAN one.
https://sylvestercat.substack.com/p/the-unibubbler-strikes-again
ICTT, "....it's a REPUBLICAN one." That's the message we need to hammer home in the mid-terms.
The billionaires are going to throw misinformation and disinformation at us about how fucked up every Democratic candidate or incumbent is.
And they are going to hit every media outlet they can including Russian if they still have Internet capabilities.
It is a Republican engineered problem; the accomplishment of the long-time goal of the right-wing capture of the Supreme Court to corrupt political financing to make it possible for the ultra-rich to purchase politicians and ultimately government at all levels.
So your string of alliterations spells "power".
I think it rather spells the end of power....at least I hope so.
Well caught!
I gotta tell ya, ICTT, your first sentence here wowed me into thinking you were once again a truth-teller exposing that routine, oft-advanced fantasy in these LFAA posts about schools, their culpability for savaging humanities, by turning themselves "over to dehumanized testing predators" . . . Trump, Pirro, members of the Cabinet, are not the only liars in America. They can even be found in these pages which houses its own little nests of mendacity, prevarication, equivocation, duplicity, subterfuge, and too-oft-repeated canards. The only thing that is worse than such perseverations is the the Daily Beast's treatment savaging Troy Jackson, re-posted by Steve Schmidt yesterday, without bothering to check the facts. Win, lose or draw, I hope. Jackson sues both their asses for an easily preventable defamation.
What is it people have against Troy Jackson, I've no idea. I recently read in the NY Times that Jackson has "changed his mind" on certain issues over the years. O, the horror. O, the outrage.... It was only 1 in a multipart series of 'Democrats in Disarray' articles focusing on Maine. I don't get the point. He starts his race with +2, the same as Plattner did, with no place to go but up.
Spot on 🎯
“the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”
Well the sundowning grandpa is not one to let reality determine his beliefs.
Also:
“National Park Service were pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water.” I don’t do science but read a piece by a chemical engineer who said that pouring hydrogen peroxide into water creates free radicals which sink to the bottom and seek to bond with whatever is available. Like paint— Effectively making it an eco friendly paint stripper.
(Laughter)
Hmmm ... needs some more Free Radicals ... a lot more.
Hey wait, remember when Donny heard “asylum seekers,” and said migrants were coming from mental hospitals?
Are all his socialist communist vandals just free radicals?
I just might put that on my protest sign...
Free the Radicals!!
He is a sick, sick, sick man. That he is one of the most powerful humans on earth is enough to stop one in one's tracks. It's truly beyond belief.
Hello KD... Longtime No Talk... Keep up with the Drama regarding the Todd Blanche Nomination... Seems that Blanche will find out that Everybody Is Expendable To DJT... It is not the Anti-Weaponization Fund, but the IRS Immunity for the Trump Crime Syndicate....
Good to hear from you, Apache! I've been watching the Blanche nomination with fascination. Why would Todd think that the orange sadist would be loyal to him, when the sadist has never once in his life shown loyalty to anyone? People are just Kleenex to the monster: use 'em, then throw 'em away.
Hello KD... Good Analogy... Though You Are Being Nice... Let's Hope that this latest Ceasefire holds in this Idiotic Iran War...
(Just sent you a message)
Patrick Chappatte, a French cartoonist, posted a very clever cartoon. There are three panels. In the first, the orange sadist says, "Fire!" with his finger on the button. In the second, "Cease" and he's moved his finger. In the third, "Fire!" again with his short stubby finger on the button.
The loyalty of any of these people to The Grump is confounding. Sure they get what they want in the short term. But in the end he uses them like a toilet and kicks them to the curb when they are no longer useful, thrust back into the public space where they are no longer relevant or remotely acceptable as human beings.
They who screw unto others will, at any moment that might please them, screw unto you.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." -- Lincoln
Wow! That's a POWERFUL statement by Lincoln! I'm surprised I haven't read it before. Going to post on my substack.
Ah! Toilet paper. That is a far more appropriate word.
Hello Chris... 'Toilet Paper'... A more appropriate Analogy for 'Diaper Don'...
I'm sure that trump intends to benefit from the fund too, no matter what he says to the press. He would probably end up with $1 billion of the $1,776 billion.
In fact , would anybody really be surprised to learn that trump is getting kickbacks from all the no compete contracts for all of the projects he is awarding?
Surprised? Heck no!
And yet is part of a repetitive historical pattern. We humans are utterly amazing creatures, reaping benefits from an amazing, living planet. Yet we in aggregate are our own worst enemies. Not just that certainly, yet what portion of avoidable human suffering is directly or indirectly attributable to human hubris?
It seems like there is something we are not getting about aspects of our own human nature that if they ever served us some way, now threatens our quality of life and potentially, even continuation as a species. We seem to be running out of wiggle room to keep fighting the same battles over and over, and yet fight we must. It seems to me that we must re-evaluate and refocus our habitual strategies. Some things remain true, and solidarity and integrity have won battles in the past, but I think we need to encourage better social understandings of our own social behaviors.
“While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.”
– John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, Jul. 9, 1813.
Another superb quote. By any chance are you an historian, like HCR?
I hope Mr. Hearn sues the government - and trump - and wins a huge amount of money.
Maybe the first to get a payout from that infamous slush fund Trump is still wishing to preserve!
I thought of that, too.
No, they won't reward anyone truly harmed by the weaponization of the law.
Fraud, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress among other causes of action.
Heather, love you to pieces -- but one quick (and weird) copy point to tuck into your file, from someone who was actually a writer and editor for an Olympic Committee long, long ago....
There is no such thing as a "former" Olympian. Olympians and Marines both operate by the rule that once you're in, you're in forever (even after death!). You are never a "former."
David Hearn is simply an Olympic canoeist. Was. Is. Will always be.
Interesting Sara. I've already messed that up a couple of times today. Thanks for the info.
This permanent six year old persistent ignoramus is such a damned embarrassment.
Hi TC in LA,
Do you really think he’s six? I taught three and four year old with Special Needs, with far more intellect. Basically, they were kinder to one another and followed the simple classroom rules. Perhaps, he and the other republicans should consider following the rule of law.
I suspect, that it asking to much from this crowd.
My older granddaughter is 4 -- and she definitely has more intellect - as well as a strong sense of right vs wrong.
Hi lauriemcf,
Yes, so is my nine year old granddaughter.
Greenwater Services: You couldn't come up with a better name if you tried. Is there an AI Hollywood screenwriter coming up with this stuff?
A script begging for a director, a main actor-heartthrob, some good David Horowitz-style sleuthing about whodunnit, some spokesbarbies to portray Karoline Spokesbarbie, a caricature cast as Jeanine Pirro, and a Greek chorus of giggling mice à la "Babe" singing the missing social commentary about fascism being a really stupid ideology....
Monty Python writers wouldn't believe the idiocy in the whole debacle of the green turning pool repaired by Greenwater Services!
Monty Q: "The Geeks will inherit the Earth?"
I hope NOT!
Monty Python character in the crowd on the Mount deadpan: "Did he say the Greeks will inherit the Earth?"
😆
Trump said he would drain the swamp. Not an environmentally responsible thing to do of course, but this one was of his own making.
As a U.S. taxpayer, I understand that although there are strong rules favoring competitive bidding, no-bid (sole-source) contracts are not illegal. They are permitted, but only under specific legal exceptions and with documented justification. However, it seems like the current administration goes out of its way to bend the rules to such a degree that the exception has become the rule.
Haliburton had no-bid contracts during the war in Iraq. I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Dick Cheney was the CEO of Haliburtan when he decided to be vice president. I wonder how many shares he was holding in Haliburtan at the time. Never ever trust a right-winger.
Fanatic right and left wingers, along with the fanatical religious crowd, pass into fanaticism when they suppose that people are definitely NOT to be considered equal in the eyes of the law; and that they themselves are in possession of an unalienable right to bully.
"Repeat a lie often enough [and loudly enough] and it becomes the truth". - Josef Goebbels
Miller and his henchmen understand this basic rule of propaganda.
Cohen and Bannon coached him on that strategy too.
Trump would be a terrible poker player. He “tells” everything with bluster and bravado and then folds on the end. What a horrible example of leadership. He really need to shut up and just do his job but that’s impossible for this poor excuse for POTUS
You're asking too much of him. The actual job is too hard for someone with his skill set.
100% true. I have high expectations for POTUS. MAGA’s are very low. Just be a racist and they’re fine
“Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”
– John Adams
You would want a brain surgeon to know his or her stuff. Even a bus driver. All the more so for a president. We are not just a fan club: we are collectively charged with the responsibility for vetting the résumés for a nearly impossibly demanding job, and we inherently bear responsibilities for outcomes that affect not only us, but many, many others, even when we don't vote. It's a tough job but it's part of the deal if we want a republic.
Maybe that’s why his casinos all failed? I’ve heard it’s said the house always wins, but he couldn’t even manage to do that.
It’s almost impossible to bankrupt a casino. He’s done it multiple times. Successful businessman my ass ! ! !
Stealing the profits, call the theft a loss, declare bankruptcy, walk a way richer.
Rinse and repeat.
Yep, that explains it.
I've got three queens and you don't!!!
(but then they're really Threes, or maybe two cards and burger receipt).
I'm hoping that Hearn sues for vindictive prosecution. $1,776,000.00 should suffice!
His lawyer, Norm Eisen, says that they are reviewing all possible legal remedies, including referring Pirro to her bar association to get her licence removed.
It might be occurring to her how up the creek she will be if at some point Trump is not able or willing to protect her, thus her abandonment of Trump's wacko talking points.
I’ve been wondering how much his legal fees have been.
Burgum and the president both hit back at Pirro's dismissal of the case. Having staked out their obviously absurd position that vandals struck Mr. Trump's pet project, they're not going to accept the truth; they are going to hang on to their lies about the reflecting pool since they serve to distract from the actual issues that concern us, such as the incomplete release of the Epstein Files including those that implicate Trump and the evident incompetence in the conduct of our war with Iran.
This pathetic and ultimately hilarious debacle is the ultimate metaphor for the entire tR🤮mp regime. It’s painful now, but we’ll look in the rearview mirror and laugh and laugh and laugh.
If we survive this terrible era, that is. It's going to be a long, hard, ugly next 90+ days...
Yep! The period between the November election and the swearing-in ceremony will display lots of looting and shenanigans!
That and possibly deadly insurrection. Don't forget Jan 6 2021.
Or maybe the federal office holders refusing to accept the outcome of elections. Massive civil unrest with federal law enforcement agencies and the military obeying trumps orders to put down the opposition with what ever force necessary.
"Laugh and laugh and laugh" until you stop to think about the 14.5 million taxpayer dollars the incompetent contractor got while Hegseth is demanding billions more to help rearm the American military for wasted munitions.
Julius, I hope to live long enough that I can laugh, and that the tears I shed at times weren't shed in vain.
Wasted munitions, but above all, waste of lives, troops and civilians, in this senseless conflict! As energy prices rise and further harm everyone struggling with lack of affordability, lack of good jobs, good healthcare, good housing, a moral government...
David,
I'm still not laughing about "W" and Dick Cheney.
I’m not either Jim. Or Reagan. But it takes dark humor to survive.
Movie material? Tonight’s column is a good start. Maker could have US rolling in the aisles.
The “reflecting pool” is a signature symbol of Tempertantrump. Over pay on no- bid contracts to friends and family who probably give him back half the charge as a PAC donation. The project fails due to cutting costs and repair is required, which is an additional charge. Money laundering perfected.