Sarah yes yes yes you’re dead on. THE EPSTEIN FILES. That’s the crime scene tape around our so-called democracy. Every time Trump lights another fire — tanks in D.C., Putin photo ops, ICE raids — suddenly the files vanish from the headlines. That ain’t coincidence, that’s choreography.
It’s like leftovers in the back of the fridge. You know it’s in there. It stinks. But they act like it doesn’t exist. That’s the Epstein files …rotting evidence they hope we’ll forget while they sell us a circus.
Professor Richardson laid it out plain: this isn’t about law or order, it’s about power through distraction. And Sarah, you just named the distraction they fear the most.
Here’s the TLDR:
Us: THE EPSTEIN FILES.
Them: Silence.
Us again, louder: THE EPSTEIN FILES.
But it can’t stop at comments. Pick up the phone, jam the inboxes, share Megan’s resource (bit.ly/Goodtrouble). Make it impossible for them to bury this story under another manufactured crisis.
And if you want to follow the receipts….the timelines, the cover-ups, the way this Epstein drama ties straight into today’s chaos — www.xplisset.com.
If Ukraine loses to Russia, then the EU will lose to Russia too, as Putin will clearly regroup and then go after other countries as well. That means that largest democratic group will be under attack which does not bode well for the US either.
Getting on Metro (DC’s subway system) after last Friday’s Washington Nationals game, the platform was crowded, as it usually is when thousands of people leave the game after the final out. But the Metro police were handling the situation, as they do after each of the 81 home games, concerts, and other events. Space on the platform is at a premium though, so the dozen or so Guardsmen and cops from federal agencies who were just standing their, like bumps on a log, weren’t being helpful, they were making matters worse. Your tax dollars at work, indeed.
Dave A, They were useless in LA as well as Heather notes when many of them did not re-up. I was glad to note that the R governor of Vermont declined to send any guard troops. Everything that this regime does is a waste of our tax dollars. I am trying to think of anything they have done to make the lives of ordinary people better and am coming up empty.
If they were only a waste of space it would be bad but there are things ‘we’ need done well each day as Americans, that farmers need, that businesses need, that affect people and their health, food security, retirement, our energy system, our transportation systems, all need attention. We need to keep modernizing our systems, building a better future, or we will not have one. Donny-John is more than a waste of space, he and his team are hurting/killing people well into the future!
Duhhh.....I know that. I was responding to what people were saying in the thread. I just wish people who support him would make some kind of assessment of how he has bettered their lives, aside from giving them carte blanche to be assholes and own the libs.
We live in a country where people say the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, all of our struggles, are just old news. Europeans have memories; Ukrainians have not forgotten Holodomor.
Hope there is enough of us to sustain a resurrection of democracy. Now I read that trump wants to eliminate mail in ballots and remove voting machines!! Is he just trying to overload the courts? Can the courts sustain these ongoing cases?
I would like to go to DC and just walk around in the evening looking for these gangs of whatever they are and just stare at them, and then ask them if they feel really stupid.
Donald J. Trump raped a 13 year old girl who accused him of such after tying her to a bed then slapping her face and threatening to harm her and her family. This is testimony from 2016 and stated in disposition of Michael Cohen. She subsequently withdrew her accusations after the threats were made. I will get source material and publish it as an add-on in my own publication. This beast is the most disturbing and disgusting piece of shit ever to walk the earth and now walks the happy of the White House.
He's cowed the universities. Extorted the elite law firms. More billions from suck-up acquiescent social media. More from cowardly legacy media. More from U.S. and world celebrities eager to fork over their moolah for their child rape cover. And the chief munitions makers keeping the Palestinian genocide armed, the people of Gaza starving, those in the West Bank under settler terror, and Netanyahu out of prison.
These forces have always , will always be. America’s decline has been evident, we’re often late to the ‘show’ , but we rally..that is key. I see the protests (👏) ..they will increase!
Were Epstein's victims only girls? I read that boys were also subjects. Are they also being silenced, or even more afraid to speak out? We can never stop until the truth is revealed and justice is served.
I thought I'd seen a reference to that fact, and tried to hunt it down to no avail. I asked here, but nobody had an answer. Wherever it was a saw it--and it could have been totally unfounded--the allegation was that Trump raping young boys would be the line in the sand for MAGA.
Bill, I read this testimony recently. Between sobbing and swearing, I thought that it should be required reading for every US voter. Thank you in advance for publishing it. If you would kindly publish the link in this thread, I will forward to my email list.
Something is going on between Trump and Putin. It is puzzling. I've always felt that Putin was blackmailing Trump with videos of Trump with underage girls in Moscow hotel rooms in the 1990's. But, what could have caused the abrupt ending? It has occurred to me that Trump now feels less pressure with the invention of AI. Trump could claim that the videos are not real but manufactured by AI. In any event, let's give Trump credit where credit is due: Trump has masterfully manipulated his base and the sycophantic cowards in Congress.
From where I sit, Trump and Putin spent enough time alone for an exchange of documents and information. I don't think the summit was ever about Ukraine. It's been about that 30 entirely private, utterly undiscoverable minutes. Ukraine was the excuse and another tin foil ball for the Epstein story were distractions. It ended abruptly because both men got what they came for and had better things to do. Trump's staff reactions might just indicate they didn't know.
The Russian hack of the US Court System just hit the news last week, the extent of of which seemed recently discovered (at least that they were in partitioned storage areas extracting documents). Access to the most sensitive documents appears to have been managed by moving them. A hastily arranged meeting happened. Who knows if it was to pass off those documents to continue bullying once venerable institutions that have caved like a house of cards. Or maybe those that didn't immediately supplicate.
There is zero doubt in my mind that those close associates of Putin who had mysterious "accidental deaths" in late 2022 was the result of info that Putin got from the classified documents that Trump stole and passed on to Putin. A similar meeting occurred in Helsinki where Trump confiscated the note-taker's records and ordered her to remain silent. Trump is a traitor. But the committed can't see it. It's not that surprising. Try to convince someone committed to a firm belief in a religion that there is no factual basis for the belief. It's not possible, or virtually impossible. Here in the U.S. the Christian Nationalist feelings held by some trumps everything else, including Trump's disgustedness. They tolerate him because he is their ticket to ending a democratic form of government, replaced by a theocracy. These people aren't rational. The only way to win is to out vote them, assuming that there will be elections. In late July 2024 Trump told those at a religious gathering that if he won the election there wouldn't be any more need for elections. That's exactly what they wanted to hear and Trump knew it.
But, back to the meeting - what do you think was decided upon? Putin walked away with something. What was it?
Those who know the players that showed up, mostly businessmen, know that the meeting was about getting rid of sanctions so Russian business could recuperate. The Russian economy is, by many reports, in tatters and on its' last leg. The meeting was not about peach in Ukraine.
Richard, I think Heather got to part of it in that death star cannot manage a full day. Also based on what Heather wrote, our delegation was not prepared for what happened.
Michele, I know that this is unfair of me, but: do you have any thoughts about what happened, what could have happened? Was Trump summarily dismissed by Putin?
Drugs will only keep him semi-coherent for so long. I’ve often felt his lateness to meetings is because they are waiting for those moments of coherence.
True -- but I hate when "masterfully" or "brilliantly" are applied to trump's campaigns, words and phrases which intoxicate his base, or successful deceptions.
I know that his manipulation of the haters is disgusting, but it's real. The two Univ. of Kansas professors nailed it with their study published in the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology," in Feb. 2018, entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" Hate is a core element, hatred for minorities, for immigrants, for women and gay rights advocates. Oklahoma has become the poster child of dumb-downed backward America.
Yes Linda. I’m in favor and I hope that individual nations begin a coordinated effort to send troops along with weapons which they have stated is being done. But Ukraine needs troops. 50,000 troops would be a message to send to Putin. And btw, Putin will never use the nuclear option because it would mean his sure demise.
We know what Russia did to Chechnya not once but in two brutal wars. The flattened Grozny killing hundreds of thousands. I have already asked why the west never complained so much and the only answer is that Chechnya is too far to the east and Ukraine is more European.
Putin has not had any alternative to the course he's been on for the past 25 years. Not getting that may prompt mass punishment for all of us for not sucking up to him and his madness as our orange diaper boy has been.
I’ve been concerned about a desperate Putin using tactical nukes for some time. He doesn’t want the war to drag on, Ukraine doesn’t want to give up stolen land, and Trump is a bumbling, amateur with no clue what he is doing. A bad mix. https://davea.substack.com/p/big-questions-about-little-nukes
Thank you Dave.... I ended feeling like a pariah on a different site because I expressed concerns about the possibility of nuclear war. Of course, NOBODY wants to think about this, especially as it would be a lose-lose situation for Ukraine and maybe other parts of Europe. But there is no bigger 'lose' possible than nuclear war. I think too many people have become complacent and have forgotten what the reality would be if there were an all-out war. And we can't just assume that Putin is bluffing or that he wants to live desperately enough to refrain from war if his dream of recreating the USSR is thwarted.
Get informed, those have proven to be largely duds. The Russian economy is smaller than that of Italy, and, California's is larger than Italy. Let that sink in. The EU alone has an economy that dwarfs Russia on its own, and, if you added ours and Canada's, it would make Russia's look signiifgant, Russia does not produce any finished products that the rest of the world wants or needs. It is a resource based economy, and, is dependent on oil, gas, and, mineral exports alone. We can argue how the west has used its power and resources all day long, but, there is no denying that power. Look at Russian demographics, there life expectancy is way lower than the west, and, if really strong sanctions were inforced, their economy would collapse. If you do not think so, go back to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90's, no one saw that coming, but, it did, because their feeble economy could not support their interventions in Afghanistan and other places. Only the west's thirst for cheap oil and gas, allowed Putin to rebuild some of that power, And, the collapse will come, if the west has the will to excercise a fraction of its power.
Any and all parcels going into Russia from the US and any other country should be checked to see if it has electronics or explosives, etc. Then an export tax should be levied on the sender of $100,000 a part. Most US companies like Nvidia are clever enough to send these components through multiple other countries before they get into Russia, but it is ridiculous that US companies are profiting from Putin's insane war.
If only MAGA could understand this seemingly simple concept. But there seems to be an inability to think about more than one thing at a time. Yes, we want peace. At the same time, surrender to achieve peace would have long term consequences, in addition to the horrors that would be inflicted on the Ukrainian people, including children.
Scandinavian countries are prepared. They have been updating their bomb shelters, updated their civilian preparedness information and I have seen that they are doing civilian preparedness training. I also know the story of how Finland fought off much bigger Russia during WW2. They did lose some land, but not much and made Russia wary of engaging them again. This is a piece I wrote in February called Germany Prepares for War Updated. https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/germany-prepares-for-war-updated?r=f0qfn
Since then the EU has told all EU households to have 3 days worth of emergency supplies on hand. I have started preparing my household for this. One of my biggest concerns is closing my ventilation to the outside in case of some sort of gas attack. I think it is wise to have gas masks on hand both in Europe and in the US. We know that Putin has been using gas, and if one goes to a protest in an increasingly armed US a gas mask might be wise to be wearing.
Europe is much stronger than Russia, so I don't think it would lose. But the risk of an attack is real, and the only question now is: if Russia attacks another European country, who will the neofascist GOP side with militarily? Europe or Russia?
I would not discount the power of a unified EU. Plus Canada remember. As they are doing, they seem to be retooling their expenses to put more towards military. Isn't that what the orange turd wanted from them?
I have long said that the EU doesn't understand that it is much stronger than it thinks it is. If Russia is to be subdued, EU must be in charge. They cannot, nor do they really need to anymore, rely on the US.
I think Europe has an assessment of what they need to defend both Ukraine and their own countries better than we do. At this point Europe has surpassed the amount of financial support they have provide Ukraine and we know that European countries are largely the havens that Ukrainians have chosen to go to. Even if Europe could win a war, they do not want a war or a wartime economy. They want Russia to end the war. As my friend told me Masha Gessen said, Putin has no reason to end the war and a lot of reasons not to. His entire economy is based on this war.
Meanwhile, Linda, Xi and his communist cadres in China sit pondering, waiting.
America with its current fascists (and underage girl serial rapists) remains with its orange cult leader and Putin, and the Chinese communists are free to take Taiwan.
The European democracies stand up to Putin, and the Chinese can take territory instead from the Russian east.
America? We? Us? No choices anymore. Our schools so caved to the testers that the only choices any yet have are those still saddled with learning that they, too, have no choices other than those the testers deign to allow. While the testers bank more, more billions in profits.
Europe is going down and the US is going down, it's the fall of the West. We better get used to the idea. We're about 10 - 12 % of the world's population and we're trying to dominate the whole planet. That comes to an end, like every empire eventually does.
The questions will be how fast things will change, how smart we are in negotiating our new role, how quickly we can adapt to a multi-polar world order.
I so hope for some smart people to win. Ibrahim Traore, President of Burkina Faso seems to be one of them.
Sarah, I/my entire family heartily agrees. There is no moment in our lives that we should give into the negative without a major effort first. And “giving in” to Trump or Putin would be a major mistake. Thank God the West never gave in to Hitler and his ilk. We cannot..we dare not!
The difference between the present and the 1940's is that America had a pro-Democracy government then. Some leaders in this country favored Hitler and Fascism, but our President sided with Britain and our Allies. Now our government and the President is complicit with the Fascists/Christian Nationalists. We must continue to protest and ask those with blinders to read all of history - not just their part in it.
I'm absolutely not despairing. New times are coming - or do you believe after a pandemic, a highly criminal leadership of the world's biggest super power and several wars things will just go back to "normal" whatever that was.
It's no good trying to ignore the global powershifts to keep oneself happy.
Keeping yourself happy by welcoming the Apocalypse Now of liberal democracies and a new Golden Age of dictators of a different stripe is exactly the stance of MAGA.
Sabine, your Substack profile page is utterly blank, so it's not possible to learn anything about you. I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that English is your second language. This would explain some of your syntax and unfortunate word choices.
But the list of restacks and shares on your page suggest that your worldview is actually one of gloom and doom.
So I have no choice but to argue with you and assert that neither Europe nor the U.S. are "going down." We are not "falling."
While it's true that Trump has sullied the reputation of the U.S. and we are no longer the apex of democracies, we are not failing as a democracy. Our status on the global stage has been lowered from "lead" to "supporting role," but we will not be cut from the production.
Lovers of democracy will prevail. We have to. Trump and his merry band of idiots will be removed and we will recover from our national illness. We may not emerge as the superpower we once were, but we will again be a good neighbor in the global community.
Meanwhile, the union of European nations is growing stronger. We applaud their rise to the moment.
Oh, so sorry for my bad English 😂😂😂 - how many languages do you speak and write in fairly fluently? For me it's 4 - but I'm sure for an American, a people known for its multi-lingual abilities, it must be a lot more.
Mine is probably blank too, because I created it totally by accident. I hit 'start writing' thinking it was for writing comments. Sabine may have done the same thing. I haven't been able to figure out how to un-create my substack.
"In July 2024, Traoré's government announced its intention to criminalise homosexuality in Burkina Faso.[28]
] In June 2024, four prominent Burkinabé journalists who had criticised the government were detained, with the government announcing several months later that three of the journalists had been forcibly conscripted into the Burkinabé military. In March 2025, an additional three journalists were detained and conscripted.[30]
As of February 2024, the number of deaths caused by Islamist violence had significantly increased since 2022.[34] According to experts and human rights watchdogs, violence has worsened since Traoré came to power.[35]
As Traoré entered Ouagadougou, the nation's capital, supporters cheered, some waving Russian flags.[41]
Russian troops, including the Wagner Group, were eventually deployed in Burkina Faso in January 2024.[44]"
Yes the west is going into a decline but so is the entire human race. America's withdrawal from leadership of the west was a big drop. The earth is over populated, the advanced societies are mineral starved and the food supply is declining. Buy any wild caught fish lately? Domesticated animals are taking over fertile space. Moon anyone?
Sabina, I just read in Anne Applebaum's book, "Autocracy,Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World" that there are more people in the world who want democracy than not.
Europe as a block is moving more to the right, but the right is not running Europe and the right has different goals in Europe than the right in the US. For one, the right is not necessarily aligned with Putin. Trump wants to join the Autocracy club of dictators that help each other maintain control over their countries while they rob their people blind. I don't think we are at a point of rolling over. In fact, we need to defund him. I have been suggesting a bill that says states are the sole tax collecting bodies. Let them all pay a fee for the collective militaries, but let states tax and spend.
Trump has three priorities for our money, all designed to rob us and increase his power:
1) billionaires
2) the military
3) ICE
States can up their taxes to include what we pay for federal and pool them if they want to invest together. However, they can supply health care, pension, child care, education, infrastructure, disaster relief, transportation etc... All the things that Trump is no longer going to supply us with. Like many countries with similar sized populations who often have smaller GDPs than US states and manage to supply all of this to their populations.
I may not be quite as optimistic, but in the main points of what should happen and what is happening in other countries, I agree with you.
However, I cannot see that the US will be forgiven for the incomprehensible atrocities it finances and supports in Gaza, just like Israel will not be forgiven by the vast majority of decent people on this planet. And just like Trump with the Epstein files, the entire US seems to try and sweep it under the carpet, "Move right along - nothing to see here"
What the US does to Palestine is no different to what Russia does to Ukraine - but it looks like there is a total lack of self-awareness, a thing that often surprises me about the US.
It doesn't matter to me anyway, I'm far away, our government finally seems to see that too close ties to the US may not be the best way to go after some public protests, and the thousands that will take to the streets this coming Sunday again will never forget who is ultimately responsible for the worst and most brutal ethnic cleansing in this century.
The US are not, and never have been "the good guys" imo, and looking at your brilliant choice in a president, I'm sure we all out here manage to achieve our inspirations for democracy completely without the help of the US, while wishing you much success in cleaning up your own mess.
When you say, "and looking at your brilliant choice in a president" I hope you do not mean that collectivity of Americans. The majority that voted put him in power. He won 79 mil votes, Kamala more like 75 mil. 93 mil. eligible voters did not vote, so that is not exactly a mandate. His polled rankings have dropped so that his approval rating is below 40%, including some people who voted for him, who had no idea.
I was in Germany yesterday morning, this morning I am waking up in the US, and trying to find German news about the meeting yesterday which I did. It seems that the Europeans have a lot of work to do to support Ukraine, and they have other allies in this as well like Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand. Ukraine and Europe are not alone.
We've all considered the possibility of a video of the president doing disgusting things with a child. G. Maxwell is the key. Why do you think he had her transferred to a cush prison? SHE is the on who can take Trump down. She knows where to bodies are buried. My prediction is that she is pardoned within two weeks. Donald must be scared shitless.
Well, no surprise still waiting your solution for the Russia Ukraine issue.
My thoughts are probably something around when hell freezes over
You’ve had all night to think about it and much longer to evaluate how Biden killed in an additional quarter of 1 million people by sending money there. In either event, I really don’t anticipate an answer from you. All you have is hate and criticism. Not the agenda items you might need in an upcoming election.
I’ve read so many of your post. It seems like that coming directly from a wanton madman. Just facts pal. You should try a few next time you post.
Joe Biden had the epstein files on his desk for a long time but had them for a year and right in front of his face “on his desk” in January 2024 a year before the election he could’ve buried Trump if there was anything there that would’ve done so. ALAS Biden did nothing!!! to start trying to figure out how that happened or why that happened and maybe you’ll wake up out of your stupor
Rick, what the hell is wrong with you, man? Every damn time somebody brings up the Epstein files, there you are, twisting yourself into a human pretzel to protect the people that oughta be sweating like pigs at a barbecue. Why? Huh? Why you defending these motherf**kers so hard? If you ain’t a pedophile, then why the hell do you sound like their f—ing lawyer?
And don’t give me that “just facts” bullsh*t. Facts are kids got trafficked. Facts are powerful men paid to keep it quiet. Facts are the same dudes screaming “save the children” at drag queens get real quiet when it’s billionaires on the list. That ain’t facts, Rick that’s cowardice wrapped in complicity.
Heather’s over here laying it out plain, shining daylight on the rot, and you—YOU—come stumbling in like, “Well actually, Biden had it on his desk.” Man, shut the f*ck up. You mad at Biden for not releasing it sooner, instead of mad at the bastards in the files? That’s like being pissed the smoke alarm didn’t beep loud enough while your whole damn house was on fire.
And let’s be real …..this ain’t just about pedophiles. It’s about treason. It’s about the same crew selling out kids in private while selling out the country in public. That’s the overlap, Rick. Trafficking and treason. They both depend on silence, on sellouts, and on fools willing to run cover while the rest of us choke on the stench.
So yeah, I said it. If you’re not one of them, stop sounding like one of them. And if you want the real receipts? I’m stacking ‘em brick by brick at www.xplisset.com.
We all have a perspective, but to me an actual troll is a hard-sell sales person who will say anything to get the sale, dissembling or diverting on every counterpoint. I have heard some lawyers, and certainly politicians do the same. It's a game, not a discussion.
Actually, Xplisset, it sounds like Poor Rick favors the release of the Epstein Files!! P Rick seems obsessed with Biden’s (apparent) “reluctance” which, to me, translates to “Biden should have released the Epstein Files!! Release them NOW, Dear President Trump!”
You didn’t grab the sarcastic irony of my comment, did you, X? We can shove P Rick’s Biden gripe back into Rick’s pie hole and force him to admit HE wants the Epstein Files released, too!
It was despicable and a blackmail scheme to keep it quiet. 1.5$billion dollars of funds wired through our BANKING SYSTEM. Someone should be looking into that.
Oh, by the way, the rumors are that Clinton visited 28 times. But those are just rumors. I have never seen the depths of ignorance by so many people that I do now. By the way, I hope you sold all your stock and your 401(k) investments in early April when the market tanked, and everybody here was excited about it. Since then, the Dallas up 7000 points of the S&P and the NASDAQ have hit record high after record high.
Please make sure that you’re spending your SNAP money appropriately because it’s been discovered that at least 25% of SNAP money is being spent on soda candy and chips.
Rick…bro. Do you hear yourself? You out here juggling Epstein flights, the stock market, and f*ckin’ candy bars like you’re running open mic night for fascist talking points. Pick a damn lane.
First off—28 times, rumors, blah blah. You know who did fly on Epstein’s plane? Trump’s whole oily crew. That’s in court records, not rumor mill. And guess what? Epstein didn’t have a “Democrat wing” on his island. He had a goddamn pedophile buffet for rich men in power, both parties, ALL of them. So when you keep bringing up Clinton like it’s some magic shield, you sound less like a truth-teller and more like a dude defending his favorite babysitter. You ain’t slick, Rick. You’re running interference for predators. That makes me wonder—why the hell you always bending over backwards to defend pedophiles?
Now the market. Ohhh the market! Bro, working families don’t eat NASDAQ points. You can’t fry up the S&P and serve it for dinner. That sht looks real nice in your 401(k) if you’re sitting on generational wealth. But when eggs cost more than fcking rent, you think a single mom gives a damn about your “record highs”? That’s like bragging you hit the lotto while everyone else is at the food bank.
And SNAP? SNAP?!? Rick, if you’re worried about poor people buying soda, maybe take a look at your billionaire buddies writing off yachts as “business expenses.” You mad ‘cause someone bought Skittles with a government card, while the Pentagon loses trillions in accounting errors. That’s trillions with a T, Rick. You can’t even picture that number without your head exploding.
So let me translate your whole comment: “Don’t look at Trump selling out democracy, look at the Doritos aisle at Walmart!” Man, get the f*ck outta here.
Heather’s over here documenting fascism in real time, and you’re yelling about gummy bears. That’s not just ignorant, that’s dangerous. You’re the noise machine fascists count on to distract the rest of us.
And here’s the punchline: We see through it, Rick. We’re not buying your deflections, your “oooops” routine, your candy bar crusade. You want the receipts? They’re at www.xplisset.com — brick by brick, truth by truth, the stuff you and your Fox crew can’t spin.
Obviously, you didn’t see the chart put out by a DNC staffer that was pulled down immediately because of the error they made I’ll see if I can find the link
He was trying to prove the prices have gone up under Trump, but unfortunately, he posted a graph that included the last five years.
And it showed price is going up 20% like climbing up a mountain when Biden first took office and kept rising the entire time he was in office and then Trump took over and diminished the increase substantially
And they had to pull it down immediately, but it was too late. Let me see if I could find it for you. Here you go.
And the worst thing for people like you is that you don’t have a clue not even a sniff of what 77 million people on the other side of the aisle actually think and how we’re celebrating every single day waking up with smiles on our faces optimistic looking so possibly into the future. Well everybody here is frustrated, angry depressed, pessimistic and hateful. Now, which group do you wanna belong to? Trump is the best president of your life so far.
Rick, my motherfuckin brotha from an alternate timeline…remember that alternate time line in Back To The Future 2 when everything went south and that business dude eerily similar to Trump had a firm grip on power?…so tell me did you really typed that whole Hallmark card for fascism with a straight face? Seventy-seven million people “smiling every day”? What the hell are they smiling at? book bans, women bleeding out in ER parking lots, kids doing active shooter drills, Black folks getting purged from the voter rolls? That’s not optimism, Rick, that’s sadism. That’s “I’m happy as long as someone else is suffering.” That ain’t joy, that’s cruelty with a MAGA bumper sticker.
And let’s talk about your “best president of your life.” Trump is the best president of your life the same way herpes is the best date you ever had — it keeps coming back, it burns, and you gotta lie about how you caught it. Best president? Man, the dude bankrupted casinos! You know how dumb you gotta be to bankrupt a casino? That’s like running out of oxygen in a f*cking oxygen tank.
You’re bragging about being on the “happy” side of the aisle while the rest of us are fighting like hell to keep our democracy breathing. Newsflash: fascists always look cheerful while the trains run on time — right up until the walls cave in. So no, I don’t envy your Kool-Aid smiles. I’d rather be pissed off and fighting for freedom than grinning like an idiot while the country burns.
And here’s the thing: history doesn’t remember the smiling bystanders. It remembers who stood the f*ck up. You can keep your fake joy, Rick. The rest of us? We’ll keep receipts, keep marching, and keep telling the truth until your whole “celebration” looks like the circus it is.
If you actually want to know what it looks like when people fight back with facts, fire, and zero fear? It’s over at www.xplisset.com. Bring sunscreen, Rick — ‘cause the heat is relentless.
Your self-righteousness is clouding your good judgment. You are having a conversation with yourself, and changing the entire public space accordingly. Taking somebody's bait is never a good idea. Think teaching opera to the pig, etc., how much time and energy is wasted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
This is the entire story of the black Sergeant commander of DC police sued the city for falsifying crime, statistics, and won the case don’t take my word for it. Take a look at the link.
Meet Charlotte Djossou, she's a Black former Sergeant with (DC) metro police, who accused the police of misclassifying offenses to deflate the districts crime statistics
She sued them and won.... the media ignored this.. as her claim was credible and proven credible
How do you say one more thing to you… everybody here is entitled to their opinion, and all personal analysis you’re entitled to yours I’m entitled to mine, but nothing is accomplished. Nothing is accomplished by complaining, whining, hating, and nothing is going to change with those kinds of actions. Bitching and moaning and protests are not the navigators, or the leaders that your need. Fact, most of your top leading , democratic advocates like Gilmore like James Carville like morning Joe, by Chris Matthews play, Chuck Todd, and even Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have chimed in in the positive, Strong left-wing leaders that have spoken for the party for years. Keep saying you’re not gonna lead with hate. your not gonna lead with protests you have to have an agenda!! and then you after you have an agenda if you can have a liter or two, but nothing will change unless you have an agenda, which would include solutions not complaints.
So…. Only thing that helps are solutions. That is why I’m asking you to come up with a solution and if it’s a good one, somehow will all pass it on won’t
Well, you have a vivid imagination, but no answers, so maybe empty suit fits guess what you’re just gonna have to deal with another 3 1/2 years of the country burning according to you sounds like a real happy life enjoy yourself and until you come up with a solution you’re just like I said
all blather
By the way, would you like a short list of all the people that had bankruptcies and managed to be extremely successful. Here’s a short list for you. Abraham Lincoln, PT, Barnum, Milton Hershey, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, henry Ford. Mike Tyson.. that’s just a short list.
But maybe if you can get people to pony up a little bit more for your sub stack you might get there as well.
We’re all still waiting for your infinite wisdom mr. empty suit
Well Sarah you ought to try the taste reality and realize that not everybody thinks like you in fact thank goodness only 2 to 4% of the Democrats think like this and only .5% of the major pop population of the US probably think like this you’re like the left of the left old school losers stuck in the mud how do people keep supporting the 20% issue or the 10% issue versus the 80 or 90% issue that Americans support. Perhaps you should start there
It’s sad, but the people here can’t even realize The Successes that we’re having.
Probably not aware of the 12 to 15 trillion dollars in new investment in America nor are you aware for example, that just the other day Apple put up $600 billion to decide to build all its iPhones here in America and that foreign car companies are spending millions of dollars on TV right now telling Americans that guess what guys we build the our cars in the US
Gee, Rickster. Going by the state of your comments the last couple of days, the fascist takeover of a democratic US is getting a bit stressful.
The Orange God with the birds nest crown has been charging the taxpayer tens of millions of dollars to a get a couple of rounds of golf in each week in an attempt to preserve what's left of his sanity. Do you think he might give you a free membership at the Mar-a-lago yoga studio to help you preserve yours?
If not, I recommend watching skinks running up and down a wall - brilliant for mindfulness and free of charge. 😉
Rick, settle down fer crissakes. The FBi was just one of "our" agencies that was part of the covrering up of the "Epstein Inc" back in early 2000. There was so much personal pleasure involved amongst so many persons with $$clout$$ that it was just a 'low noise level' event. And, those "young girls" (young back then) along with their families were co-opted in some un-disclosed manner to just let it go. And, let it go we did as well. No news was certainly good news. Simply swept under the rug. The fact that the island still blossomed as Epsteins private zoo with "G" in charge (or something) $$showsSS there was plenty of money in it. That "money" and those 'accounts' are the load Trump is hauling, even if he never banged one of em.
Rick, you're hoist on your own petard, as per usual. If there's nothing in those files about Trump (despite them being best friends while Epstein was busy assaulting minors); and if there is also incriminating evidence in the files about Democratic politicians and donors, as both Trump and Vance have suggested - then why haven't the files been released? Even the most bone-headed MAGA supporter has asked this question.
Well, here we are the king of the educated derelicts. Very weak what about him by the way and I sent you a really nice post about climate change and now once again your heat is boiling your head over so sit in a quiet room and see if you can calm down a little bit, but I wouldn’t take my blood pressure if I were you. I’m going out and play some golf today.
But regarding the epstein files as if they were in any way Jermaine to reality today Perhaps somebody knows you and didn’t want to mention that maybe your mother was there on the Island You therefore could be royalty lmao
Let’s just say Russell that you and I disagree on everything and have a nice day
And once again, Heather is not telling you the whole truth, given her an incorrect interpretation of the meeting and the follow.
SHe says we don’t have to worry about the sanctions. Perhaps you should tell your audience Heather that translates to 50% tariff on India because India’s buying oil from Russia. Just a small little detail, you leave out of every single post that you do if it doesn’t fit your narrative.
And unfortunately, for those who are not aware the only reason we are having an Ukraine Russia issue now is because of the actions of one William Jefferson Clinton when he was in office. One of only two major mistakes that he made during his presidency, which was a very good presidency.
But it’s so sad to see all the whiners, haters, frustrated, pessimists here
It’s not Trump‘s job to make peace there. He’s the mediator he’s only trying to help instead of sending $170 billion to Ukraine to help Kia with additional quarter of 1 million people. I’m actually shocked the liberals weren’t up in arms over that. He didn’t even attempt a peace deal
Rick, my man, you sound like you’re reading straight from the MAGA karaoke machine with that same old tune, just louder and more off-key.
Let’s be real: Heather isn’t “leaving out details.” She’s the only one digging them up. That’s why we’re even talking about Putin’s power play on U.S. soil instead of sleepwalking through it. She pulls receipts, not excuses. Big difference.
And this Clinton detour? Come on. That’s like blaming the guy who built the car because Trump drove it off a cliff. The crisis in Ukraine didn’t start with Bill in the ’90s. It’s happening right now because Trump is out here treating Putin like a prom date by rolling out red carpets, giving away desk statues, and calling it “peace.” If that’s mediation, then my grandma’s meatloaf is Michelin-star dining.
And about that “he’s just trying to help” line…brotha puh-leeeze. Trump’s “help” always comes with a price tag, and spoiler: the only one cashing in is Trump. If selling out allies and cozying up to dictators is your idea of peacemaking, then congratulations man, you’ve just redefined treason as customer service.
Heather isn’t peddling doom; she’s sounding the alarm. And history shows us alarms aren’t “pessimism”….they’re survival. You can ignore them and burn, or you can hear them and act. That’s the choice.
So here’s the truth: Heather’s work is the guardrail. Without her, folks like Trump drive us straight into the ditch. www.xplisset.com.
Please avoid the temptation to give this 3-year-old what he deserves. He is here only to get your goat, not for any other reason. Think of not giving him what he wants. Did I forget to mention he's here only to get your goat? Thank you for your attention to this matter....
Well, you sound more gullible than I have ever imagined if you think that Heather is posting the whole truth anytime she posts
Go back six months or so and see when the last time she used, Fox News or Oh and or any right leading link or podcast to tell her tale. Oooooops. She tells you half the story or no story at all
I’m kind of sick and tired of posting an example after example, like after Trump, close the deal with NATO, which was freaking brilliant however, I’m not even sure you know why and with the European Union, and with Japan the next day she talked about what was the cost of his jet. Omg. Lmfao.
Rick…you ever hear yourself talk? You sound like a dude bragging about his girlfriend while she’s cheating on him in the parking lot. “Oooops, Trump closed the deal with NATO, brilliant move!” Man, get the f*ck outta here. That wasn’t brilliance, that was a goddamn fire sale. He’s pawning off U.S. credibility like it’s a flat-screen TV he boosted from Walmart. And you clapping like a seal.
And don’t pull this “Heather don’t post the whole truth” bullsht. You know why she don’t cite Fox News? BECAUSE FOX NEWS IS THE CRIME SCENE, RICK. You don’t cite the fcking getaway driver as your expert witness. That’s like saying, “Well, the arsonist’s podcast had a different take on the fire.” Sit down.
And you keep rolling in here with “examples” like you’re Perry Mason, but it’s the same tired routine: twist the facts, add some “LMFAO” at the end like that makes it cute. Bro, if you gotta laugh your own ass off in every comment, maybe it’s ‘cause nobody else is.
Here’s the truth you can’t handle: Heather ain’t perfect, but she’s got more receipts in one post than Trump’s whole damn cabinet had in four years. And you can whine about jets, NATO, Japan, whatever the receipts still show Trump bending over for dictators, selling out allies, and leaving America broke, bloody, and begging for respect.
So yeah, Rick keep your “oooops.” Keep your Fox links. The rest of us are out here fighting fascism with facts, not memes and man-crushes on wannabe strongmen.
And if you want the FULL story, the sh*t you’re too scared to look at straight? I’m stacking it brick by brick at www.xplisset.com.
However, Turnberrry, did Mark do you ever hear yourself talk? All you do is complain never have a solution just to complain. I’ve been waiting for a day now to hear your solution to the problem that you think Trump can’t resolve. I don’t want rhetoric I don’t want reflection, and of course I will never hear from you as an answer specific to the question
Was that a theoretical, hypothetical, or an attempted analogy? lol
Well, when you post like that about NATO, you obviously are totally unaware of the brilliance of that move. One of the most incredible global negotiations in about 80 years? But you don’t have a clue not even a pimple of a clue, which is really sad for someone who is so verbose
So once again, we have great attempts at analogy and a wild imagination but why don’t you try some thing else for a change? Instead of meaningless, whining and complaining here’s an idea for you
IN YOU OBVIOUS INFINITE WISDOM, PLEASE. WITH A CHERRY ON TOP SHARE WITH GROUP HERE WHAT YOU WOULD DO ABOUR RUSSIA/UKRAINE ? It’s easy to complain pal but you don’t have a freaking clue. Where is here from you real soon OK? Don’t meander down equivocate don’t deflect just tell us all what you would do and how to solve the Russia Ukraine issue.
I’m also guessing by some of your other inferences that you might not even be an American that you might be living somewhere abroad because you have no clue and you’re totally out of touch with reality in the United States and as I said, in my earlier post you refused to become aware with what’s 77 million people probably more like 100 million now think, feel, and look forward to every single day.
So at this point, I am not going to respond to anything other than hearing your solution to the Russia Ukraine dilemma. Do that and we have something to talk about otherwise you’re just an empty suit.
Trump has closed no deal with NATO. They've promised to increase military spending to 5% of GDP by 2030, long after he's departed and they won't actually do it. By the way chum, the US spends only 3.4% of its GDP on the military.
Well, two takeaways from your post. First of all, he did it brilliantly whether they started to up the ante already but they did up their auntie to 2% except for Spain and the only reason I did that was because of the buffoon.
Most importantly, I sent you a really nice juicy analysis of global warming and climate change. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Clinton detour you gotta be kidding me you guys are supposed to be intelligent and good historian and apparently you’re neither. I’m not your errand boy and most people here including you apparently are too freaking lazy to even pick up a link and Google it and find out why Clinton is involved and what happened during his administration that caused exactly what we’re doing what we’re dealing with now.
Then you can also tell the crowd here why Putin attacked and took over Crimea while Obama sat around and did nothing and why Putin then attacked Ukraine wildfire decide around and did nothing except throw money at it, which killed another quarter of 1 million people. And is currently appearing to be killing thousands every week.
And I’m still wondering if you’re one of the people here can’t even negotiate their way up a toilet seat in the morning. If you do instead of trying to demean what Trump is doing which is awesome when Biden did nothing and Obama did nothing then you tell us that you’re incredibly detailed wisdom what would you do right now? Omg. I would love to hear this. Just try to keep it real and on planet earth, OK? What a loser
By the way, you should probably look up what the word Maga means. If you’re against that means you’re anti-American Maga simply means make America great again. A six grader could figure that out, but apparently you’re against that
Despite everyone salivating over finding a telephone list somewhere that includes Trump's name on it, the "Epstein Files" -- whatever that even is --- is ultimately yet another distraction, one more in a long line of rabid squirrels hurled our way --- from what is actually happening all around us: the authoritarian take-over of government, the banana republicanization of America. That is the true emergency -- the DefCon 1 that's already been reached -- and we must not lose sight of it.
And what a weird, bizarre authoritarianism it is. Incompetent to the core, administered by loonies who look as though they should be in straitjackets, rather than in power. We've had dumb presidents before. We've had crooks before. We've had political movements that went nowhere before, like the Know-Nothings and the America Firsters of the 1930s. We've certainly had our share of bad Congresses before. But we've never before had an overlapping Venn Diagram of a convicted, twice-impeached, psychotic, demented felon -- illiterate, incoherent, greedier than Midas, more insecure than any toddler, working hand-in-hand with a supine, spineless blob of complicit jelly for the political party which runs Congress and keeps giving him a pass to do whatever he wants. Then there are ithe grey cardinals behind the throne, pulling strings, subverting institutions, codes of conduct, laws, procedures, standards and norms. And I haven't even mentioned the blind, deaf and dumb Roberts Court that keeps saying 'as Your Grace pleases.'
Heather often reminds us of previous events in American history that do bear parallels to the current moment, in effect saying 'we've been here before.' But I am wondering if we've ever seen anything this horrific, this bad, this fast, all at once, without time to breathe.
I don't know about that. I think that's yet another false idol -- oh, THIS will take it all down. There have been so many episodes of "this will do the trick" beforehand and none of them have worked.
When he did his cruel, 4-year-old mocking a disabled reporter, I thought then 'the jig is up.' When he lied and lied about where Obama was born -- and it was obvious what a liar he was -- I thought 'time's over.' When he insulted veterans and John McCain, I thought 'surely this is it.' When the pussygrabbing tape spilled out into the open, I could have sworn his disgraceful, pockmarked 15 minutes of fame were up. When he got impeached twice and 7 people died on January 6, and he tried to choke a Secret Service agent to death, I thought 'now THIS is finally going to wake Republicans up from their toxic slumber.'
And there are other times when I thought that his criminal behavior would bring him down, and he's still in the Oval Office. Even criminal trials haven't brought him down. There are few solutions left: if the citizenry does not rise up in sufficient numbers, there will be only one.
I agree, ICTT. Unless the people sitting on their hands in the Capitol decide to make this whole shitstorm go away, nothing will happen. And I would suggest to you that the majority of the party in power is perfectly happy with what is happening, including the 35% of "true believers" who rationalize away any criticism of their Dear Leader despite their rabid lust for the Epstein Files to be revealed. The only good thing is that my utterly idiotic senators have shut up over the last few days, so they must be worried . . .
ICTT, when the ship of state has been blown to smithereens and people are drowning in a sea of despair, a normal act of survival is to cling to any piece of debris that happens to float by.
The "Epstein files" is one of those floating bits that we cling to. Most of us have already seen that nothing sticks to "Teflon Don," and his being exposed as a statutory rapist of underaged girls will undoubtedly not be any more effective than any of the other items on his long list of crimes and ethical infractions.
Our hope is that there are still enough Republicans who draw the line at child rape and will reconsider their blind allegiance to a party that condones such monstrous behavior, thereby tilting the next elections in favor of democracy.
Reader/Writer, I actually made the point in my comment that Trump's involvement in the Epstein scandal won't bring him down directly. As ICTT outlined above, an entire litany of crimes and ethics violations have not brought him down, so there's no reason to expect that his repeated statutory rape of minors will bring him down – not directly.
Yes, the evangelical and conservative Catholic wing of MAGA will overlook these crimes, same as all the others, thanks to bad theology. But as I previously stated, there surely must be conservatives in the nation who cannot look away from statutory rape. Given that Trump has wrecked the economy, compromised our security and turned our military on citizens, he has ruined the reputation of the Republican Party. Many conservatives may decide to "put the GOP in time out." The benefit from the Epstein scandal is changing the course of the midterms, not removing Trump.
Incidentally, I don't hold out much hope for the 25th. The REAL heads of state, Miller, Wiles, Vought, et al, are happy with a figurehead of diminished mental capacity. He decorates The Oval, plays architect, signs whatever they put in front of him, and stays out of their hair while they actually run the White House. They will leave him in place as long as they possibly can. The only possibility of a removal is after the midterms; then Vance will be eligible to run for two more terms. If he replaces Trump before the halfway point he can run only for one additional term.
Only because they are protected by our government. The US Israel and the UK use their intelligence communities to entrap men using sex with children and then black mail them for money and influence. We can see the felon child rapist doing this with universities, law firms, corporations and other countries. He's just a mobster. He learned this from Cohen and Epstein...and the CIA...
Only if we keep pounding on Trump by calling him a pedophile and a sex trafficker. We need to mimic the accusations of the victims and make sure their voices are believed and heard.
We need to hammer the fucking evangelicals including the Southern Baptist Convention and the Catholic Church who have turned a blind eye when their organizations harbor pedophiles and rapists.
9% of the Republicans that voted for Trump have backed away from supporting him already. These are die hard MAGAs many of whom claim to be Christians.
We ALL need to point out their hypocrisy and condemn their inaction when they try to cover-up for their criminal perversions.
Even if the Epstein files bring down $rump, or - more likely - when his dementia gets so bad he can’t be propped up any more - we will still need to deal with all the awful people he brought with him.
Including the kidnapping of Ukrainian children-so Putin can indoctrinate them, “raise” them to hate their country…Rump condones it…or he never would have let P set foot on our soil
It may or may not, but it's clear it makes His Callousness squirm. What is already public record about Trump's associations with Epstein at not trivial, and very few people can tolerate a child molester.
No. Authoritarian overreach is what will bring the whole kit and caboodle down. And, we’re watching it in real time.
Are we meeting the moment with the fierce resistance required? Some definitely are. Check out Free DC https://freedcproject.org/ We need everyone in the fight.
Totally disagree. This is exactly what patriarchy is, exactly how fascists operate. I can do what ever I want, rape children - fine, launder huge sums of money from Russian mobsters - fine, use the military against innocent people just trying to live their lives- fine. It's all the same to these monsters. Tear down the patriarchy - women and minorities - seize power for the psychopaths!
Right, Terry, and it looks like anyone who wants to beat, abduct, rape, or murder somebody can wear body armor, cover their faces, and use a nondescript vehicle. Nobody will interfere because people assume they are federal pigs doing their job.
You're far too kind stating that right-wing Congress pukes are just giving trump a pass. And that the Supreme Court is "blind, deaf, and dumb"
The GOP (fascist party) and right-wing SCOTUS Justices are all part of this fascist coup and will do whatever it takes for the coup to succeed.
These fascists haven't been hiding their treachery; they do whatever they please, using terrorist tactics to intimidate possible public and political opposition. The only "guard rail" left is the legal system, which is too slow to stop this disaster, and once a case reaches the SCOTUS, chances are the majority will side with the fascists.
I believe you are correct. I read your post and was impressed with the analysis thinking, “man, this guy is smart.” Went to your profile and subscribed. Thank you and o do believe we have never experienced this before.
Heather is our guard rail. Her letters of our spiraling downward trend are alarming. David Brooks, the conservative journalist for the NYT wrote a surprising piece that we need to do everything in our collective power to keep our Democracy. Hit the streets, write letters, or social media, hold a fundraiser for a progressive that will flip a Republican seat. Join Indivisible or 50501 or groups that support voting rights. Give to causes that will sue on behalf of our constitution, the environment, election integrity and campaign finance reform. These are real issues.
My biggest fear is that the mid-terms are getting rigged. The SAVE act that has passed the House requiring a passport if a woman takes her husband's name and is not the same last name as her birth certificate will disenfranchise 69 million voters. It is based on the lie that undocumented immigrants are voting in our elections. It is voter suppression and it's out in the open. Someone on this list posted the NPR article on this. Gerrymandering is real and I applaud with heartfelt thanks what Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing. Keep your eyes on the prize and flip the House. We need accountability with this regime and the President. The courts are still holding on, but we are holding on by a thread. This President has weaponized the DOJ against all the freedoms we hold dear. Our President is already asking for bogus investigations of his perceived enemies. Let's get real, 170.7 billion for border and ICE which is 3 times the size of the budget for the Marines will be turned on us. When Rumeysa Ozturk's only crime was writing an op-ed in her school paper and the judge ordered her to stay in MA our government ignored a court order, threw out Freedom of Speech and let her spend 16 weeks in detention without charging her and zero due process.
While driving through Cambridge, MA I saw a sign that summed it all up:
Yes, that's important, but we can't forget there is an overwhelming need to oppose this authoritarian takeover. Get involved, go to protests. A general strike is being planned for 2028. Organizing for that is crucial. I've written about the protests here in Los Angeles. Resistance can't just be rhetoric online or calling congress. We have to be in the streets.
General strike in 2028! Why not 2025, when we know it's needed? France's great general strike of 1968 was led by student protests and the whole country shut down in a matter of weeks. And it worked. Without bloodshed. Without mobile phones or internet. Radio played non-stop music, announcing every hour where army trucks would be for people who had to get from A to Z.
Takes a lot of time and infrastructure to do a sustained general strike. Keep in mind France had a powerful labor union movement that no longer exists in the U.S.. It has to be rebuilt. You can organize for it though. I encourage you too. Just google General strike 2028. Besides, that election will be a massive inflection point. All hands will need to be on deck.
Stop using big words you don’t understand like authoritarians.
If there was an authoritarian regime here, as you guys keep saying an auto craft, a dictator, or better yet even a king, let me see if I can straighten things out for you here
In countries there are AutoKratz or kings. You’re not allowed to have I know kings protest yet somehow you pulled it off and embarrassed yourself, which was forgotten the next day.
I agree with Sarah Brennan, THE EPSTEIN FILES cannot be repeated enough! Also, my thanks to H.C.R. for again slamming Trump for his trying to control the narrative away from what he is hiding. Trump will not roll out a red carpet or offer an "American Bald Eagle Desk Statue" for any of our allies. Why? All combined they do not have anything over Trump as does Putin and the Epstein files, that’s why. What could it be? Trump is a convicted felon of 34 counts of sexual assault, defamation, election interferences with business fraud. A nasty little boy. So is it sex; pee pee? But he is also convicted of tax fraud. A bad boy. Trump has also been charged with sedition, racketeering; espionage and obstruction of justice. All of which he did! Trump is an adolescent supervillain who can’t make-up his mind what he wants to be when he becomes an adult. Yet his actions show there is something in Putin’s files and the Epstein files that he is in a fit of terror over. Our national security is in deep trouble. Worst criminal in American history. How do we get a pathological lying, malignant narcissistic, sociopath to come to Jesus?
THE EPSTEIN FILES. THE EPSTEIN FILES. THE EPSTEIN FILES
and... TRUMP’S WAR ISN’T ABROAD, IT’S AT HOME
The most important part of this mess is not Trump bungling geopolitics with Putin, it’s his turning the U.S. military against Americans. Deploying Marines to Los Angeles and seizing control of D.C.’s police under false “crime” claims is pure authoritarian playbook. Trump is openly dismantling democracy while pardoning violent insurrectionists and importing killers for sport. Forget “law and order”—this is lawless power-grabbing. If Americans don’t see the domestic coup unfolding, they are sleepwalking into a police state.
The Ukrainian children who have been trafficked by Putin files too! That should be under discussion. However, Trump will not be amenable to protecting Ukraine if that is brought up because he does not want anything brought up that reminds people of the Epstein Files.
A friend of mine who lives in Berlin's husband is a diplomat in the German team. After talking Friday they left yesterday, so last minute. They want to be in Washington in plenty of time for the meeting today with a night's sleep under their belts. She has not seen much of her husband, whose area is US diplomacy since Trump took office I have noticed.
The US foreign policy is probably not a big concern of MAGA. The press is fickle to drop the Epstein Story. This is what Trump was counting on though. He can bring performative actions every day in order to distract this fickle crowd who also seem to have a short attention span. Oh well.
Linda, the press is hog-tied by their billionaire bosses. Reporters should apply to the Meidas Touch Network which is run on Substack. It is an independent online media organization run by 3 brothers, one of whom is a lawyer. They have displaced Joe Rogan as the number 1 podcasters and have scored interviewing very important people.
Also, the lawmakers will discuss the importance of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill seeking to release the records in the Epstein case, it added.
I'll see the lack of Epstein file reporting and raise with no more reporting on wholesale price inflation increase, rise of COVID cases, a CAT 5 hurricane, red stated agreeing to more congressional gerry manding, etc ....
Something we need to think about seriously: What is the distraction and what is the real thing we should be paying attention to. Go beyond Trump, who at the moment seems to be a cognitive declining front to hide the people actually running the country. What about the Project 2025 people and the Stephen Millers? Is a military takeover of Washington DC to distract us from the Epstein files, or are the Epstein files meant to distract us from the Christo-fascist takeover of the United States? No doubt everyone in the administration is lying about the files, but are those files the most serious issue? Given what is in the public record about Trump's long career of abuse, misogyny and even rape, what more do we really need to know? He should have been disqualified from ever being president way back at the Access Hollywood tapes and a hundred things since then. But people voted for him anyway and he is now president again, serving as the vessel for people who have wanted to take over the government for a long time. Stopping that is job one. We don't know what is truth and what is lies in what Trump and his minions have said about the files, but we do know for a fact that Trump and the people controlling him want to end democracy in America. Shouldn't we act first on what we do know?
It will be good to see civilized western European lead now join Zelensky with the mad bullies in the oval office….. I hope they all dress casually for their visit to the gold-plated Oval Office and ask about the Epstein Files and what it is that Putin has on him.
You can bet rubles to hamberders that as soon as Trump "invited" Zelenskyy to Washington, Zelenskyy responded along the lines of 'I come with my friends, or I don't come at all.' I'm absolutely certain it was not Trump's idea.
I'm going with the 'dazed and confused' explanation for why things ended abruptly. However it happened, Ukraine will fight on -- because there is no alternative. Sudetenland is not an alternative. Carving up Europe is not an alternative. Restoring the imperial "grandeur" of the Soviet Union is not an alternative. Failure is not an option.
In my view, in the final analysis, the only country that will be carved up is Russia. And Putin knows it. He is quickly running out of options. If that $335 B of Russian money is released to Ukraine, that will cause Putin to eliminate his colon all at once. If trumpie mafia insists on Ukraine gives up territory without any pushback from Zelensky and his friends, they are screwed. I doubt that the Europeans will allow that to happen.
There was some talk about Article 5 coming into play. I hope that that is not some kind of guarantee for Ukraine giving up territory. That agreement from 1994 with Russia, the US, the UK and Ukraine when Ukraine gave up its nukes to guarantee security for Ukraine went well, didn't it?
Agree with you, Michael -- and just want to stress how much.
The leaders of the western European democracies (and Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) all understand all too acutely well that Russia hates them having free countries, reviles them having the personal freedom that seems so sinful to all those bearded old Orthodox priests in their long skirts and clanking jewelry.
Russia (the U.S.S.R.) had all those purges of intellectuals in the 1930s. Murdered millions (as did Mao in the Cultural Revolution, as did Pol Pot in the early 1970s, and N. Korea since). But the Soviets continued murdering and imprisoning intellectuals, with Putin upping that recently. They really, really hate free thinking, personal, freely-human-based culture.
The orange fat Donald and all his white supremacist goons only provide another hate-filled ditto to these authoritarians. They hate democracy. Hate diversity. And they've got all the Peter Thiel-Zuckerberg-Vance-Bezos types with them.
American schools opened the sluices to this fascist/racist trend, alongside the good progress minorities have made, alongside the massive shift of wealth over the past half century to the ultra-billionaire beneficiaries of the death of humanities in schools and the rise of testing-for-zombies.
Schools, broken. Legacy media, cowardly elites. Social media, more hate platforms enriching billionaires.
The Epstein file? Gonna nail Putin's toady in the White House.
School testing! I knew once you started your long, somewhat predictable litany, beginning with "bearded Orthodox priests" (newsflash, many rabbis and some Roman priests also have beards), I'd find it. Couldn't resist, could you? Are you able to utter one sentence here without connecting whatever topic Heather had in mind with your personalized rabbit hole?
I've admitted I've benefitted financially and academically -- and benefitted very much -- from my own success with testing.
I don't otherwise detect in your other writings here any evidence of you being silo-limited, as testing arranges. You have no literacy in humanities -- which testing kills in all -- but yet you seem very much alive.
So why be bridled so at someone connecting the dots which you so revile seeing connected?
History will tell the story of the Horn Dog, a chubby aging New York play boy who, after a lifetime of failure highlighted by 6 bankruptcies managed to stay a player with the help of vast family wealth, become the “Star” of a quirky reality game show that attracted a following, doodle around in Russia with a beauty pageant that gave him a pass to walk backstage ogling half nude young women, hang out with bad boys in the company of the “baddest,” Jeffery Epstein, not caring, not knowing what a trail of evidence he left behind him until he somehow became the President of the United States of America where he ran a country based on his emotions and instincts for self preservation ultimately leaving a nation that thought of itself as #1 in the world, now bankrupt financially and morally as it watched in dumbfounded humiliation, along with the rest of the world on July 4, 2026, the totally unedited Golden Pee tapes courtesy of a collaboration between his former best friends, Elon Musk and Vlad Putin.
I hope a lot of protesters will accompany Zalensky.
Since the "you don't have the cards" Trump gaffe, Russia is bombed nightly, the Russian army is losing troops by death, injury, and defection, and the summer Russian initiative has stalled, if not thwarted. By bombing oil refineries and arms factories, Russia is on the verge of banktruptcy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=lmp4C1bRpiM
While the world’s focus is still on keeping Putin in a corner and turning their back on Trump’s alliance with Putin, at home we haven’t lost sight of the fact that none of Trump’s antics take away from his letting a disgusting pedophile is being allowed to have work breaks from a Texas prison, thanks to Trump’s high profile attorney.
It would become the only video of Trump worth seeing. That is why I doubt Trump will ever let us see the actual meeting but only a video of the group photo being taken.
Yet he has mentioned appeasing Vlad by giving him more and more of Ukraine's land. Plus actually making the cities of the USA look like Vlad is in charge here already.
Please folks - let's not make ourselves look smaller by focusing on the "Epstein files" - the European leaders and Presidents Zelenskyy and Trump have a lot of serious sorting to do here this week on matters that mean so much to people on the ground in Ukraine
Indeed, Phil. The pearl at the heart of the onion is whatever Putin has on our demented dictator. Once we peel back all of the layers and see it, it will explain all of what we’ve been putting up with from him for the past 10 years.
Also, the lawmakers will discuss the importance of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill seeking to release the records in the Epstein case, it added.
My prediction of trump's negotiations is that trump will stick to Putin's wishes. He will not agree to an American security guarantee, and that if any NATO country's military is attacked while in Ukraine, the US will not honor NATO's Article 5.
Due to the evisceration and take over of our national security by p2525/maga, I am not comfortable at all with with all that leadership in Washington. Trump should go to Europe.
A concern I hadn't considered. Hopefully, they will bring added security or at least heightened awareness. Surely, this regime wouldn't be so stupid as to do something to the leaders of Europe. Oh, wait - yes, yes they are.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Breaking News: The Kennedy Center had to cancel at the last minute Trump's remake of the play, "Pinocchio". The stage personnel explained they could not find a prosthetic nose that was long enough to account for Trump's lies in the First Act.
Megan just handed out the cheat codes, y’all. That spreadsheet? That’s a loaded clip. Call, write, email, protest , do the damn thing! You sitting at home scrolling, saying, “What can I do?” Well, Megan just slapped the phone in your hand and said: CALL SOMEBODY.
And Professor Richardson? She’s giving us the part CNN won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Trump ain’t fighting crime, he’s manufacturing crime like it’s a damn reality show. That ain’t law and order nah that’s lawlessness in uniform. That’s like an arsonist showing up to the blaze with a badge yelling, “Don’t worry folks, I’m here to save you!”
So let’s break it down:
• Heather says: This is authoritarian cosplay with live ammo.
• Megan says: Pick up the damn phone, light up their inbox, hit the streets.
• And I’m saying: DO IT. DO IT NOW. DO IT TOMORROW. DO IT UNTIL THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOUR VOICE.
Because fascism don’t fold from speeches alone. Fascism can at the damn very least start to fold when YOU jam the phone lines so hard they think it’s a damn telethon. When YOU hit the inbox so heavy their server starts smoking. When YOU show up so deep they need a drone to capture the crowd shot.
Heather gave you the diagnosis. Megan gave you the prescription. Now it’s on you ya’ll are you taking the medicine, or letting the disease win? www.xplisset.com
The most effective strategy against Dictators is massive public disobedience. That's what „Solidarność” did in Poland, that's what Democrats in Israel are doing, that's what turned around the Polish dictatorship from their path, and that's what Hungarians are doing to try to get their hard-earned freedom back. We need to smarten up and understand and implement "MASSIVE".
This is "MASSIVE": Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Israel to call for an end to the Gaza war and a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The largest crowd was seen in Tel Aviv's "Hostages Square" on Sunday, with the organisers saying the government's plans to seize control of Gaza City risked the lives of around 20 hostages still being held by Hamas.
A one-day national strike - part of wider protests - closed roads, offices and universities in some areas. Nearly 40 people were arrested during the day.
Yes, 5calls is amazing. I used it for a while and it’s listed at the top of my sheet along with other resources - Card Campaign, Action Network, ResistBot, Indivisible, and other how to take action sites. But I wanted to be able call beyond my state quicker than changing the state each time, as well as email after bed. All of the information on my sheet is on government sites, but not all in one place so I put it in one place to make it easier.
Wow, she’s back. Welcome to the team with all your well thought out well analyzed responses. I’ll have to ruminate over that answer for quite some time you know
You don’t have to do any of that you just have to have an agenda other than hate Trump…. even all your liberal pundits are calling you out Bill Maher, James Carville chuck Todd morning Joe and Chris Matthews couldn’t even believe that you’re trying to defend the indefensible. But you are and then you wonder why you keep losing
Heather's wisest here: hers on the madness in orange Donald.
In Timothy Snyder’s latest Substack (today’s), he has a great bit on madness, starting with "emotional deficits" – all those areas of life totally quite opposite U.S. schools' innocence of numbers, units, chronologies, real estate, abstractions, categories.
Anyone who's read much of Timothy Snyder knows how Putin and his eastern Orthodox priests live but in the faux religious plus oligarch greed for money. They demonize the secular West, hate its diversity, which they see as threatening their mysterious, magical, patriarchal, racially homogenous Mother Rus. These narratives for themselves and the world also lead them to murder, mass violence, and abduction of children.
But Heather has that Russian exact counterpart in the orange Donald's fantasies of the deep state whose government agencies all need to be cut. If not cut, his madness says, brown-skinned immigrants will swarm. Black cities will seethe, fester, explode. American needs his roaming I.C.E. and police state just as Russia needs its empire from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
It will be good to see civilized western European leaders now join Zelensky with the mad bullies in the oval office.
Every authoritarian regime requires one script, one set of dogma, one cohering menace, around which all life must center. This is so far from the innocence built into U.S. schooling, and the purported ease (machine-gradable, too!) by which that can be measured.
BS detection should be a major and consistent component of every school curriculum, and come with the caveat that the kids will call BS on us (as they will anyway, so we might as well come out and talk about it). Question everything. That's how the Renaissance and the Enlightenment came to flower (for both science AND the arts).
That WTF mindset produced The Declaration of Independence and reenergized experiments with representative democracy, organized around empirical methodologies, not someone's violently-enforced claim of holy writ. In reality, application of those principles was and remains highly uneven, but I think we have come a long way, even as the battle still rages.
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." - Lincoln
Violence is a very powerful tool, and sometimes cannot be avoided; as the last resort against military aggression, or against a dangerous social aggressor. That said, violence is like high explosives or chemotherapy; a destructive force to be used as wisely and sparingly as possible. Any idiot can pick up a rock and maim or kill, and life in a failed or despotic state tends toward nasty, brutish, and short. Minimized violence (or threats of violence) is the mark of a truly civil society.
It could be Jews, or any variant from a state religion, or any difference to paint people as unworthy and/or dangerous others. Tyranny always finds a scapegoat to deprive of rights, not only to distract from their exploitation but to discredit the egalitarian axioms behind equal rights and protections.
Don't be so sure. Trump is clearly a committed racist. Look how he denounced the Central Park Five. His base is driven by racism. I catalogued their violent rhetoric in the wake of the Mamdani victory, and that was very telling.
I agree he is a racist. I just don't think he really believes people of color are dangerous. This is about distraction while he deconstructs our government and hands power to the billionaires. It also has the added benefit right now of distracting from Epstein.
Bullies prey on the most vulnerable, whatever that vulnerability might be; racial prejudice or insufficiently world-wise teen girls. Elderly people are often exploited. Anyone with few financial resources. Anyone on the outs of mainstream public empathy. Theoretically patently unamerican, and unethical, including very much unchristian, and yet clear and present in every era, though some more than others.
How sick are you people? Where do you get this demented fluid in your brain? Yikes. And the more I read the more I understand how correct my analysis of most of you educated derelicts are
Willful ignorance is what I call it. So sad and unfortunately, TDS does not seem to be curable.
Every time you use the word racist, you might wanna look in the mirror and tell yourself how stupid you look. And you might want to check up on what he did during his first term for a black college that was going out of business not to mention all the things he’s trying to do for the black community right now.
Meet Charlotte djousouss , a former DC police Seargent commander Who was suspended and then who sued the department for editing\ misclassifying their crime statistics to make them look better and she just won a lawsuit against them, validating her claims.
Hollywood cast here’s what we’re gonna do since obviously none of you really seem to get it let’s take about 10 or 12 criminal illegals and buy them a home right next-door to yours. Sounds good? Did you see what happened when they brought in a couple busloads to the Vineyard?
The residents went crazy and bussedthem right out again. You are very fortunate that you have not had a issue with a criminal illegal for thousands of Americans have in the cases are well documented
No one is listening to nonsense when you come up with something like that. Biden brought in between 11 and 15 million illegals in this country and 1 million I’ve already left on their own and the rest are gradually leaving whether they like it or not. You’re lucky you’re not the mother of five that was killed, raped and left five children motherless Or many other cases like that and you guys are supposed to be the empathetic ones. pathetic
He may not believe they are dangerous, but he doesn't like how they look -- just like he doesn't like bad grass or bent road medians. He doesn't have the empathy to see them as human beings who are every bit as deserving of a good life as he believes himself to be.
No Phil, if you don’t think there is a deep state you’re in for a rude awakening coming up this summer. Russia hoax is deeper than you ever thought. Trump was never involved in any way, shape or form and it’s gonna get ugly.
"Media mentions of the Epstein Files have plummeted." Surprise, surprise. The mainstream media is failing us spectacularly, and has been doing so for decades. Somewhere in Russia they analyzed our weak spots and pinpointed the media as one institution that would fall without a fight. Thank goodness for alternative news sources, but we cannot take them for granted, either. I am working to help resurrect local news coverage and urge others to focus on this as a priority.
Mainstream media, Barbara, react to sensationalism.
The criminality which Jeffrey, Ghislaine, and Donald delighted in also extends to many other areas of our lives today. But you know, too, that connecting these dots requires imagination, humanities access, and other vital abilities which testing killed in the schools -- and which many even here on Heather's site resent hearing about.
"Trump posted on social media that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.” “All” is doing a lot of work in that sentence: it appears to mean Putin, with the possible agreement now of Trump."
Trump and the regime literally rolling out the red carpet for Putin. Donold fawning over and clapping, like a trained seal at a Russian circus, upon Putin's arrival. Donold and Vlad chumming it up and driving away together in the back of the presidential limousine, the Beast. So much obsequiousness that it might have been too much for anyone to manage for a full day.
All it took for Trump and his team to change the color in their faces was Putin showing poster size photos of children. Meeting ended.
Zelensky showing up this Monday with western leaders will fry brains in the White House. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The world is in a very dark place right now.
no one seems to recall or mention that the DC takeover was rolled out when that Doge stooge kid who calls himself Big Balls ( probably they're not..) cried that he was carjacked in DC (by a 14 and 15 year old, both unarmed)
sounds suspiciously staged, like the 'gunshot' to the ear that caused no bleeding.. just a photo op.. when his numbers were down..
any in the press see any connection? not that it matters anymore as we are now 'all in' on a police state..
Having been ambushed standing alone at his last White House visit, Zelenskyy is bringing powerful friends to stand with him this time. It will be interesting to see how the MAGA dopes on the White House and State Department staffs deal with the very real, and unified, diplomatic talent of the European leaders and their staffs.
Maybe Donny boy is the one who gets ambushed this time, in his own backyard.
I predict that Donny and his dopes will be wide-eyed and ashen-faced after Zelenskyy and his posse are finished with them today. Not even a quarter-inch coating of bronzer will conceal it.
" --- We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East -- part of Donbas -- and Putin simply used it as a [genocidal] springboard for a new attack."
Pending Judge Breyer Court Judgment after Newsom vs Trump Trial 3:25-cv-04870-CRB
As I posted earlier this Weekend, we are at hall hands on-deck moment accurately described by Professor Richardson. Whether Trump's last word was "bela" or "rosebud", like Citizen Kane Trump is broken. Our country & yes the world needs to hear Judge Charles Breyer's bench trial Judgment on the HSI-ICE occupation of Los Angeles California.
What would a Deep philosopher you turned out to be Jorge. It’s called truth. All Brian does is threaten reporting me to sub no matter if I say hi or if I make a point and it’s better if you stay out of other peoples conversations, especially you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
We will keep the Epstein Files in the News! Kudos to Newsom for his excellent trolling of Rump on X and other social media platforms. He and others need to keep on trolling!
Rump with his beliefs that he can “wing “diplomacy with Putin, has been outdone. Putin is a master at what he does with his KGB background. The world sees Rump being played. I am glad other world leaders are joining Zelinsky tomorrow.
What the hell is wrong with you people Joe Biden’s administration had the epstein files a year before Trump ran for office and if there was anything in there to implicate Trump, they would’ve buried him with it. WTF. Willful ignorance once again
“if we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflict.”
"Hitler is regarded as one of history’s great villains. So it’s easy to forget how slowly and reluctantly the worlds most powerful democracies mobilized to stop him. France and Britain did declare war on Germany two days after the invasion of Poland, but it would take them another eight months before they engaged in full-scale war with the Nazis. The United States wouldn’t join the war against Hitler until December 1941, a full two years after the war began. "
Do you know what you world leaders here that have a better solution….I haven’t heard one remark from any of you so called adults suggesting The way forward here all I hear is complaints and immature impulses and hate and zero understanding of negotiations at all. After all, he already has five piece deals/C-Spire under his belt, and only six months. I guess what guys Heather didn’t tell you about those. Ooooops
So let’s hear it smarties so-called educated folks here if you were president what would you do now this is going to be good. I better get a good supply of popcorn ready.
No, I’m retired but thanks for asking. This is a full-time pleasure trip for me. It’s like a vacation to la and That’s living 100’s of years ago in fantasy.
It’s the land of educated derelicts and willful ignorance. Great title for a Heather story.
You folks are not even paying attention to your own spokes people from the left side of the party, who keep telling you that All you have is hate Trump.
And you don’t even have any legitimate reasons that’s what’s the funniest thing of all.
You love bringing up historical references that have no bearing on life today and you live on patting each other on the back when you’re on the wrong side of the argument. Even your famous Democratic pundits and former leaders and left-wing commentators are saying you are defending the indefensible …. But you keep at it like a dog chewing on its own leg.
Meanwhile, ICE is using $50K signing bonuses, $60K student loan forgiveness, and vile, racist propaganda to create its own police state, courtesy of the Big Ugly Bill and our tax dollars. It’s appalling.
THE EPSTEIN FILES. THE EPSTEIN FILES. THE EPSTEIN FILES.
Sarah yes yes yes you’re dead on. THE EPSTEIN FILES. That’s the crime scene tape around our so-called democracy. Every time Trump lights another fire — tanks in D.C., Putin photo ops, ICE raids — suddenly the files vanish from the headlines. That ain’t coincidence, that’s choreography.
It’s like leftovers in the back of the fridge. You know it’s in there. It stinks. But they act like it doesn’t exist. That’s the Epstein files …rotting evidence they hope we’ll forget while they sell us a circus.
Professor Richardson laid it out plain: this isn’t about law or order, it’s about power through distraction. And Sarah, you just named the distraction they fear the most.
Here’s the TLDR:
Us: THE EPSTEIN FILES.
Them: Silence.
Us again, louder: THE EPSTEIN FILES.
But it can’t stop at comments. Pick up the phone, jam the inboxes, share Megan’s resource (bit.ly/Goodtrouble). Make it impossible for them to bury this story under another manufactured crisis.
And if you want to follow the receipts….the timelines, the cover-ups, the way this Epstein drama ties straight into today’s chaos — www.xplisset.com.
If Ukraine loses to Russia, then the EU will lose to Russia too, as Putin will clearly regroup and then go after other countries as well. That means that largest democratic group will be under attack which does not bode well for the US either.
Getting on Metro (DC’s subway system) after last Friday’s Washington Nationals game, the platform was crowded, as it usually is when thousands of people leave the game after the final out. But the Metro police were handling the situation, as they do after each of the 81 home games, concerts, and other events. Space on the platform is at a premium though, so the dozen or so Guardsmen and cops from federal agencies who were just standing their, like bumps on a log, weren’t being helpful, they were making matters worse. Your tax dollars at work, indeed.
Dave A, They were useless in LA as well as Heather notes when many of them did not re-up. I was glad to note that the R governor of Vermont declined to send any guard troops. Everything that this regime does is a waste of our tax dollars. I am trying to think of anything they have done to make the lives of ordinary people better and am coming up empty.
If they were only a waste of space it would be bad but there are things ‘we’ need done well each day as Americans, that farmers need, that businesses need, that affect people and their health, food security, retirement, our energy system, our transportation systems, all need attention. We need to keep modernizing our systems, building a better future, or we will not have one. Donny-John is more than a waste of space, he and his team are hurting/killing people well into the future!
I wonder how many in the non-deployed are also taking their exit opportunity.
I imagine quite a few. They dd not sign up to stand around.
Duhhh............It's not their goal to make our lives better; it's to strengthen the regime.
Duhhh.....I know that. I was responding to what people were saying in the thread. I just wish people who support him would make some kind of assessment of how he has bettered their lives, aside from giving them carte blanche to be assholes and own the libs.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-state-department-human-rights-report/683852/?gift=5oN3QGdnN1xgaDWfNrpiSq2k8Y9Bkfkez4ToxtBXveo
please read this!
I live in a blue state and blue county; protests have diminished significantly; protest fatigue; vacations; apathy; back to school responsibilities??
We live in a country where people say the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, all of our struggles, are just old news. Europeans have memories; Ukrainians have not forgotten Holodomor.
Yes, people have busy lives- less out for Saturday protest, but lots of us retirees! We're good for something!
Hope there is enough of us to sustain a resurrection of democracy. Now I read that trump wants to eliminate mail in ballots and remove voting machines!! Is he just trying to overload the courts? Can the courts sustain these ongoing cases?
I attended the No Kings in Brainerd MN. Volunteers in our age range did a magnificent job of maintaining rode in a crowd of 1500.
I don't know where you live, but in Maplewood-South Orange, New Jersey the fight is very strong led by SOMA Action. Google it.
Excellent! Go SOMA! Go Maplewood-South Orange, New Jersey!
Good God...I suppose that's how Hitler did it? Back to school duties, vacations, protest fatigue...
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQcpKkHDBQCpthsxFBfWrPgxFMW
I would like to go to DC and just walk around in the evening looking for these gangs of whatever they are and just stare at them, and then ask them if they feel really stupid.
You'd risk getting beaten up. I wouldn't advice it.
But, it "appears" crowd control was needed. Doesn't that serve the regime's purpose?
Yep - that’s why the euro leaders are converging on DC this week
Donald J. Trump raped a 13 year old girl who accused him of such after tying her to a bed then slapping her face and threatening to harm her and her family. This is testimony from 2016 and stated in disposition of Michael Cohen. She subsequently withdrew her accusations after the threats were made. I will get source material and publish it as an add-on in my own publication. This beast is the most disturbing and disgusting piece of shit ever to walk the earth and now walks the happy of the White House.
Not just the White House, Bill.
He's cowed the universities. Extorted the elite law firms. More billions from suck-up acquiescent social media. More from cowardly legacy media. More from U.S. and world celebrities eager to fork over their moolah for their child rape cover. And the chief munitions makers keeping the Palestinian genocide armed, the people of Gaza starving, those in the West Bank under settler terror, and Netanyahu out of prison.
The planning for all this was consistent.
So is ours.
The ship sinks .
I’m not on it, never was.
Yes it’s frustrating, when was it not.
These forces have always , will always be. America’s decline has been evident, we’re often late to the ‘show’ , but we rally..that is key. I see the protests (👏) ..they will increase!
We.Can.Do.This.
Phil Balla, you summarized the cesspool we are in. Where are the protests? This fascist administration is tightening the noose.
Were Epstein's victims only girls? I read that boys were also subjects. Are they also being silenced, or even more afraid to speak out? We can never stop until the truth is revealed and justice is served.
I thought I'd seen a reference to that fact, and tried to hunt it down to no avail. I asked here, but nobody had an answer. Wherever it was a saw it--and it could have been totally unfounded--the allegation was that Trump raping young boys would be the line in the sand for MAGA.
Those who came forward had their day in court a while ago and were awarded out of Epsteins many properties and holdings.
Bill...why isn't this huge news...I mean HUGE news?
Bill, as I remember it, both epstein and trump raped that girl at the same party. Thank you for mentioning that.
Cripes!
If there were such incriminating evidence in the Epstein files then why didn't Merrick Garland bring prosecutions?
Please, please, please find and release!!! But it must be disseminated broadly....beyond the substacks and podcasts. Thank you, Bill.
Bill, I read this testimony recently. Between sobbing and swearing, I thought that it should be required reading for every US voter. Thank you in advance for publishing it. If you would kindly publish the link in this thread, I will forward to my email list.
Yikes, Bill!!!
I’m gathering original transcripts.
Here ya go! https://open.substack.com/pub/katemanne/p/the-actual-conspiracy-theory-surrounding?r=1nxko&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
My God. Subscribing to you today Bill. Thanks for the heads-up.
You are making me 😊 blush.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4357335/doe-v-trump/
Try this.
Something is going on between Trump and Putin. It is puzzling. I've always felt that Putin was blackmailing Trump with videos of Trump with underage girls in Moscow hotel rooms in the 1990's. But, what could have caused the abrupt ending? It has occurred to me that Trump now feels less pressure with the invention of AI. Trump could claim that the videos are not real but manufactured by AI. In any event, let's give Trump credit where credit is due: Trump has masterfully manipulated his base and the sycophantic cowards in Congress.
From where I sit, Trump and Putin spent enough time alone for an exchange of documents and information. I don't think the summit was ever about Ukraine. It's been about that 30 entirely private, utterly undiscoverable minutes. Ukraine was the excuse and another tin foil ball for the Epstein story were distractions. It ended abruptly because both men got what they came for and had better things to do. Trump's staff reactions might just indicate they didn't know.
The Russian hack of the US Court System just hit the news last week, the extent of of which seemed recently discovered (at least that they were in partitioned storage areas extracting documents). Access to the most sensitive documents appears to have been managed by moving them. A hastily arranged meeting happened. Who knows if it was to pass off those documents to continue bullying once venerable institutions that have caved like a house of cards. Or maybe those that didn't immediately supplicate.
There is zero doubt in my mind that those close associates of Putin who had mysterious "accidental deaths" in late 2022 was the result of info that Putin got from the classified documents that Trump stole and passed on to Putin. A similar meeting occurred in Helsinki where Trump confiscated the note-taker's records and ordered her to remain silent. Trump is a traitor. But the committed can't see it. It's not that surprising. Try to convince someone committed to a firm belief in a religion that there is no factual basis for the belief. It's not possible, or virtually impossible. Here in the U.S. the Christian Nationalist feelings held by some trumps everything else, including Trump's disgustedness. They tolerate him because he is their ticket to ending a democratic form of government, replaced by a theocracy. These people aren't rational. The only way to win is to out vote them, assuming that there will be elections. In late July 2024 Trump told those at a religious gathering that if he won the election there wouldn't be any more need for elections. That's exactly what they wanted to hear and Trump knew it.
But, back to the meeting - what do you think was decided upon? Putin walked away with something. What was it?
Those who know the players that showed up, mostly businessmen, know that the meeting was about getting rid of sanctions so Russian business could recuperate. The Russian economy is, by many reports, in tatters and on its' last leg. The meeting was not about peach in Ukraine.
Richard, I think Heather got to part of it in that death star cannot manage a full day. Also based on what Heather wrote, our delegation was not prepared for what happened.
Michele, I know that this is unfair of me, but: do you have any thoughts about what happened, what could have happened? Was Trump summarily dismissed by Putin?
I think Donny just locked up, stage fright, maybe he looked into Putin’s soul and saw himself? Realized he has been played for ten years?!
That would scare the shit out of you…fear of Epstein is nothing compared to Manafort.
I hear they did bond on their mutual hate of Joe! WTF! BSC!
Drugs will only keep him semi-coherent for so long. I’ve often felt his lateness to meetings is because they are waiting for those moments of coherence.
True -- but I hate when "masterfully" or "brilliantly" are applied to trump's campaigns, words and phrases which intoxicate his base, or successful deceptions.
I know that his manipulation of the haters is disgusting, but it's real. The two Univ. of Kansas professors nailed it with their study published in the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology," in Feb. 2018, entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" Hate is a core element, hatred for minorities, for immigrants, for women and gay rights advocates. Oklahoma has become the poster child of dumb-downed backward America.
I am so glad of that, both their presence and the clear message their cohesion sends.
Yes Linda. I’m in favor and I hope that individual nations begin a coordinated effort to send troops along with weapons which they have stated is being done. But Ukraine needs troops. 50,000 troops would be a message to send to Putin. And btw, Putin will never use the nuclear option because it would mean his sure demise.
We know what Russia did to Chechnya not once but in two brutal wars. The flattened Grozny killing hundreds of thousands. I have already asked why the west never complained so much and the only answer is that Chechnya is too far to the east and Ukraine is more European.
Don't discount Putin discounting nukes, Bill.
Putin has not had any alternative to the course he's been on for the past 25 years. Not getting that may prompt mass punishment for all of us for not sucking up to him and his madness as our orange diaper boy has been.
I’ve been concerned about a desperate Putin using tactical nukes for some time. He doesn’t want the war to drag on, Ukraine doesn’t want to give up stolen land, and Trump is a bumbling, amateur with no clue what he is doing. A bad mix. https://davea.substack.com/p/big-questions-about-little-nukes
Thank you Dave.... I ended feeling like a pariah on a different site because I expressed concerns about the possibility of nuclear war. Of course, NOBODY wants to think about this, especially as it would be a lose-lose situation for Ukraine and maybe other parts of Europe. But there is no bigger 'lose' possible than nuclear war. I think too many people have become complacent and have forgotten what the reality would be if there were an all-out war. And we can't just assume that Putin is bluffing or that he wants to live desperately enough to refrain from war if his dream of recreating the USSR is thwarted.
He doesn't need nuclear weapons - he has hypersonic rockets against which, as far as I know, the West has so far no defence system.
Get informed, those have proven to be largely duds. The Russian economy is smaller than that of Italy, and, California's is larger than Italy. Let that sink in. The EU alone has an economy that dwarfs Russia on its own, and, if you added ours and Canada's, it would make Russia's look signiifgant, Russia does not produce any finished products that the rest of the world wants or needs. It is a resource based economy, and, is dependent on oil, gas, and, mineral exports alone. We can argue how the west has used its power and resources all day long, but, there is no denying that power. Look at Russian demographics, there life expectancy is way lower than the west, and, if really strong sanctions were inforced, their economy would collapse. If you do not think so, go back to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90's, no one saw that coming, but, it did, because their feeble economy could not support their interventions in Afghanistan and other places. Only the west's thirst for cheap oil and gas, allowed Putin to rebuild some of that power, And, the collapse will come, if the west has the will to excercise a fraction of its power.
And Russia has the backing of BRICS. And have you noticed that it's currently not the Russian population protesting in the streets their government?
Do you think you can talk the European - or for that matter - the American public into a war with Russia? What's your end game?
Bill, Chechnya is a republic of Russia. My recollection is that there was strong international condemnation of Russia's actions in Chechnya.
Right. Thought it was a country.
So did they, Bill, until Putin flattened them.
Any and all parcels going into Russia from the US and any other country should be checked to see if it has electronics or explosives, etc. Then an export tax should be levied on the sender of $100,000 a part. Most US companies like Nvidia are clever enough to send these components through multiple other countries before they get into Russia, but it is ridiculous that US companies are profiting from Putin's insane war.
If only MAGA could understand this seemingly simple concept. But there seems to be an inability to think about more than one thing at a time. Yes, we want peace. At the same time, surrender to achieve peace would have long term consequences, in addition to the horrors that would be inflicted on the Ukrainian people, including children.
So true, Linda! Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania - ALERT!! You’re next!!
... and Poland.
Yup, Stephanie - and Poland. Sad….
Scandinavian countries are prepared. They have been updating their bomb shelters, updated their civilian preparedness information and I have seen that they are doing civilian preparedness training. I also know the story of how Finland fought off much bigger Russia during WW2. They did lose some land, but not much and made Russia wary of engaging them again. This is a piece I wrote in February called Germany Prepares for War Updated. https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/germany-prepares-for-war-updated?r=f0qfn
Since then the EU has told all EU households to have 3 days worth of emergency supplies on hand. I have started preparing my household for this. One of my biggest concerns is closing my ventilation to the outside in case of some sort of gas attack. I think it is wise to have gas masks on hand both in Europe and in the US. We know that Putin has been using gas, and if one goes to a protest in an increasingly armed US a gas mask might be wise to be wearing.
Europe is much stronger than Russia, so I don't think it would lose. But the risk of an attack is real, and the only question now is: if Russia attacks another European country, who will the neofascist GOP side with militarily? Europe or Russia?
We know who Trump sides with. Doublespeak is Trump's middle name.
I would not discount the power of a unified EU. Plus Canada remember. As they are doing, they seem to be retooling their expenses to put more towards military. Isn't that what the orange turd wanted from them?
I have long said that the EU doesn't understand that it is much stronger than it thinks it is. If Russia is to be subdued, EU must be in charge. They cannot, nor do they really need to anymore, rely on the US.
I think Europe has an assessment of what they need to defend both Ukraine and their own countries better than we do. At this point Europe has surpassed the amount of financial support they have provide Ukraine and we know that European countries are largely the havens that Ukrainians have chosen to go to. Even if Europe could win a war, they do not want a war or a wartime economy. They want Russia to end the war. As my friend told me Masha Gessen said, Putin has no reason to end the war and a lot of reasons not to. His entire economy is based on this war.
Meanwhile, Linda, Xi and his communist cadres in China sit pondering, waiting.
America with its current fascists (and underage girl serial rapists) remains with its orange cult leader and Putin, and the Chinese communists are free to take Taiwan.
The European democracies stand up to Putin, and the Chinese can take territory instead from the Russian east.
America? We? Us? No choices anymore. Our schools so caved to the testers that the only choices any yet have are those still saddled with learning that they, too, have no choices other than those the testers deign to allow. While the testers bank more, more billions in profits.
Europe is going down and the US is going down, it's the fall of the West. We better get used to the idea. We're about 10 - 12 % of the world's population and we're trying to dominate the whole planet. That comes to an end, like every empire eventually does.
The questions will be how fast things will change, how smart we are in negotiating our new role, how quickly we can adapt to a multi-polar world order.
I so hope for some smart people to win. Ibrahim Traore, President of Burkina Faso seems to be one of them.
Rubbish. We’ll go down only if doomsayers like you (with all due respect) don’t get off your butts and DO NOT DESPAIR! CAMPAIGN NOT COMPLAIN!
Sarah, I/my entire family heartily agrees. There is no moment in our lives that we should give into the negative without a major effort first. And “giving in” to Trump or Putin would be a major mistake. Thank God the West never gave in to Hitler and his ilk. We cannot..we dare not!
The difference between the present and the 1940's is that America had a pro-Democracy government then. Some leaders in this country favored Hitler and Fascism, but our President sided with Britain and our Allies. Now our government and the President is complicit with the Fascists/Christian Nationalists. We must continue to protest and ask those with blinders to read all of history - not just their part in it.
I'm absolutely not despairing. New times are coming - or do you believe after a pandemic, a highly criminal leadership of the world's biggest super power and several wars things will just go back to "normal" whatever that was.
It's no good trying to ignore the global powershifts to keep oneself happy.
I believe when we come out on the other side of this, “normal” will be new, not the same old sh!t. It has to be.
Keeping yourself happy by welcoming the Apocalypse Now of liberal democracies and a new Golden Age of dictators of a different stripe is exactly the stance of MAGA.
And considering the mess we've made in the world perhaps it's not a bad thing...
Sabine, your Substack profile page is utterly blank, so it's not possible to learn anything about you. I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that English is your second language. This would explain some of your syntax and unfortunate word choices.
But the list of restacks and shares on your page suggest that your worldview is actually one of gloom and doom.
So I have no choice but to argue with you and assert that neither Europe nor the U.S. are "going down." We are not "falling."
While it's true that Trump has sullied the reputation of the U.S. and we are no longer the apex of democracies, we are not failing as a democracy. Our status on the global stage has been lowered from "lead" to "supporting role," but we will not be cut from the production.
Lovers of democracy will prevail. We have to. Trump and his merry band of idiots will be removed and we will recover from our national illness. We may not emerge as the superpower we once were, but we will again be a good neighbor in the global community.
Meanwhile, the union of European nations is growing stronger. We applaud their rise to the moment.
Your defeatist commentary is unhelpful.
dale, thank you for your clarity, sanity, and grace.
Oh, so sorry for my bad English 😂😂😂 - how many languages do you speak and write in fairly fluently? For me it's 4 - but I'm sure for an American, a people known for its multi-lingual abilities, it must be a lot more.
Sabine, I speak/write in only 3 languages, so clearly, you are far superior to me and all Americans you disdain for our ignorance.
Perhaps, you missed that I concluded language is not your problem. It's your attitude. You've confirmed my theory.
Mine is probably blank too, because I created it totally by accident. I hit 'start writing' thinking it was for writing comments. Sabine may have done the same thing. I haven't been able to figure out how to un-create my substack.
"In July 2024, Traoré's government announced its intention to criminalise homosexuality in Burkina Faso.[28]
] In June 2024, four prominent Burkinabé journalists who had criticised the government were detained, with the government announcing several months later that three of the journalists had been forcibly conscripted into the Burkinabé military. In March 2025, an additional three journalists were detained and conscripted.[30]
As of February 2024, the number of deaths caused by Islamist violence had significantly increased since 2022.[34] According to experts and human rights watchdogs, violence has worsened since Traoré came to power.[35]
As Traoré entered Ouagadougou, the nation's capital, supporters cheered, some waving Russian flags.[41]
Russian troops, including the Wagner Group, were eventually deployed in Burkina Faso in January 2024.[44]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Traoré
Let's wait till the Monday meeting in the oval office, Sabine.
Thanks in the meantime for word of the Burkina Faso leader you cite.
Phil, you might want to check out Ibrahim Traore, President of Burkina Faso for yourself.
For instance.
"As Traoré entered Ouagadougou, the nation's capital, supporters cheered, some waving Russian flags.[41]
Russian troops, including the Wagner Group, were eventually deployed in Burkina Faso in January 2024.[44]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Traoré
As my son always asks "Has the UN already rung today to ask for your advice?" 😉
What a great line. I'm going to use it!
We welcome all opinions here even those who may be mistaken in their own statements.
In theory, yes, Bill.
But in fact I never read a word of the vomiter of opinions with whom Xplisset has been engaging here today.
Phil, I assume that is Sender, since I blocked him and don't see it?
Xplisset is new here, someone needs to tell him about the resident troll.
Everyone else, for heaven's sake, JUST BLOCK IT. I say it, because I am convinced its a bot or somehow AI fueled.
The future will tell 😊
Yes the west is going into a decline but so is the entire human race. America's withdrawal from leadership of the west was a big drop. The earth is over populated, the advanced societies are mineral starved and the food supply is declining. Buy any wild caught fish lately? Domesticated animals are taking over fertile space. Moon anyone?
Sabina, I just read in Anne Applebaum's book, "Autocracy,Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World" that there are more people in the world who want democracy than not.
Europe as a block is moving more to the right, but the right is not running Europe and the right has different goals in Europe than the right in the US. For one, the right is not necessarily aligned with Putin. Trump wants to join the Autocracy club of dictators that help each other maintain control over their countries while they rob their people blind. I don't think we are at a point of rolling over. In fact, we need to defund him. I have been suggesting a bill that says states are the sole tax collecting bodies. Let them all pay a fee for the collective militaries, but let states tax and spend.
Trump has three priorities for our money, all designed to rob us and increase his power:
1) billionaires
2) the military
3) ICE
States can up their taxes to include what we pay for federal and pool them if they want to invest together. However, they can supply health care, pension, child care, education, infrastructure, disaster relief, transportation etc... All the things that Trump is no longer going to supply us with. Like many countries with similar sized populations who often have smaller GDPs than US states and manage to supply all of this to their populations.
I may not be quite as optimistic, but in the main points of what should happen and what is happening in other countries, I agree with you.
However, I cannot see that the US will be forgiven for the incomprehensible atrocities it finances and supports in Gaza, just like Israel will not be forgiven by the vast majority of decent people on this planet. And just like Trump with the Epstein files, the entire US seems to try and sweep it under the carpet, "Move right along - nothing to see here"
What the US does to Palestine is no different to what Russia does to Ukraine - but it looks like there is a total lack of self-awareness, a thing that often surprises me about the US.
It doesn't matter to me anyway, I'm far away, our government finally seems to see that too close ties to the US may not be the best way to go after some public protests, and the thousands that will take to the streets this coming Sunday again will never forget who is ultimately responsible for the worst and most brutal ethnic cleansing in this century.
The US are not, and never have been "the good guys" imo, and looking at your brilliant choice in a president, I'm sure we all out here manage to achieve our inspirations for democracy completely without the help of the US, while wishing you much success in cleaning up your own mess.
When you say, "and looking at your brilliant choice in a president" I hope you do not mean that collectivity of Americans. The majority that voted put him in power. He won 79 mil votes, Kamala more like 75 mil. 93 mil. eligible voters did not vote, so that is not exactly a mandate. His polled rankings have dropped so that his approval rating is below 40%, including some people who voted for him, who had no idea.
I was in Germany yesterday morning, this morning I am waking up in the US, and trying to find German news about the meeting yesterday which I did. It seems that the Europeans have a lot of work to do to support Ukraine, and they have other allies in this as well like Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand. Ukraine and Europe are not alone.
Thanks for sharing Megan's resource! I'm going to share this with my retirement organization and encourage a letter writing campaign.
Bravo! I am so glad she keeps reposting as some of us are terrible filers and i always appreciate seeing it again!
I restack it so I can always see it on my page.
Spot on my friend
Sure, that's probably the intention, however it's probably not the best idea to try and distract with a story that's even worse than the previous.
We've all considered the possibility of a video of the president doing disgusting things with a child. G. Maxwell is the key. Why do you think he had her transferred to a cush prison? SHE is the on who can take Trump down. She knows where to bodies are buried. My prediction is that she is pardoned within two weeks. Donald must be scared shitless.
Let’s see what happens when Khanna and Massie hold their press conference 9/3.
I think you are spot on!
You are absolutely right! THE EPSTEIN FILES!
Thank you. This is really well written. The call to action rings loudly.
Love it
Well, no surprise still waiting your solution for the Russia Ukraine issue.
My thoughts are probably something around when hell freezes over
You’ve had all night to think about it and much longer to evaluate how Biden killed in an additional quarter of 1 million people by sending money there. In either event, I really don’t anticipate an answer from you. All you have is hate and criticism. Not the agenda items you might need in an upcoming election.
I’ve read so many of your post. It seems like that coming directly from a wanton madman. Just facts pal. You should try a few next time you post.
Joe Biden had the epstein files on his desk for a long time but had them for a year and right in front of his face “on his desk” in January 2024 a year before the election he could’ve buried Trump if there was anything there that would’ve done so. ALAS Biden did nothing!!! to start trying to figure out how that happened or why that happened and maybe you’ll wake up out of your stupor
Rick, what the hell is wrong with you, man? Every damn time somebody brings up the Epstein files, there you are, twisting yourself into a human pretzel to protect the people that oughta be sweating like pigs at a barbecue. Why? Huh? Why you defending these motherf**kers so hard? If you ain’t a pedophile, then why the hell do you sound like their f—ing lawyer?
And don’t give me that “just facts” bullsh*t. Facts are kids got trafficked. Facts are powerful men paid to keep it quiet. Facts are the same dudes screaming “save the children” at drag queens get real quiet when it’s billionaires on the list. That ain’t facts, Rick that’s cowardice wrapped in complicity.
Heather’s over here laying it out plain, shining daylight on the rot, and you—YOU—come stumbling in like, “Well actually, Biden had it on his desk.” Man, shut the f*ck up. You mad at Biden for not releasing it sooner, instead of mad at the bastards in the files? That’s like being pissed the smoke alarm didn’t beep loud enough while your whole damn house was on fire.
And let’s be real …..this ain’t just about pedophiles. It’s about treason. It’s about the same crew selling out kids in private while selling out the country in public. That’s the overlap, Rick. Trafficking and treason. They both depend on silence, on sellouts, and on fools willing to run cover while the rest of us choke on the stench.
So yeah, I said it. If you’re not one of them, stop sounding like one of them. And if you want the real receipts? I’m stacking ‘em brick by brick at www.xplisset.com.
Perfect, Xplisset:
". . . cowardice wrapped in complicity."
"Facts are kids got trafficked. Facts are powerful men paid to keep it quiet."
" . . . the same dudes screaming 'save the children' at drag queens get real quiet when it's billionaires on the list."
" . . . the same crew selling out kids in private while selling out the country in public."
Hello Xavier... "sweating like pigs at a barbecue."?.... Priceless!!!
Ha ha ha! Glad that one landed man….sometimes the truth needs a lil……da dump….barbecue sauce lol.
Hello Xavier.... You Can WRITE... You have got Talent!!!
Brilliant. Who is this guy any way? A MAGA troll?
Yes, a MAGA troll.
We all have a perspective, but to me an actual troll is a hard-sell sales person who will say anything to get the sale, dissembling or diverting on every counterpoint. I have heard some lawyers, and certainly politicians do the same. It's a game, not a discussion.
Actually, Xplisset, it sounds like Poor Rick favors the release of the Epstein Files!! P Rick seems obsessed with Biden’s (apparent) “reluctance” which, to me, translates to “Biden should have released the Epstein Files!! Release them NOW, Dear President Trump!”
GTFOH !
You didn’t grab the sarcastic irony of my comment, did you, X? We can shove P Rick’s Biden gripe back into Rick’s pie hole and force him to admit HE wants the Epstein Files released, too!
It was despicable and a blackmail scheme to keep it quiet. 1.5$billion dollars of funds wired through our BANKING SYSTEM. Someone should be looking into that.
Oh, by the way, the rumors are that Clinton visited 28 times. But those are just rumors. I have never seen the depths of ignorance by so many people that I do now. By the way, I hope you sold all your stock and your 401(k) investments in early April when the market tanked, and everybody here was excited about it. Since then, the Dallas up 7000 points of the S&P and the NASDAQ have hit record high after record high.
Please make sure that you’re spending your SNAP money appropriately because it’s been discovered that at least 25% of SNAP money is being spent on soda candy and chips.
Rick…bro. Do you hear yourself? You out here juggling Epstein flights, the stock market, and f*ckin’ candy bars like you’re running open mic night for fascist talking points. Pick a damn lane.
First off—28 times, rumors, blah blah. You know who did fly on Epstein’s plane? Trump’s whole oily crew. That’s in court records, not rumor mill. And guess what? Epstein didn’t have a “Democrat wing” on his island. He had a goddamn pedophile buffet for rich men in power, both parties, ALL of them. So when you keep bringing up Clinton like it’s some magic shield, you sound less like a truth-teller and more like a dude defending his favorite babysitter. You ain’t slick, Rick. You’re running interference for predators. That makes me wonder—why the hell you always bending over backwards to defend pedophiles?
Now the market. Ohhh the market! Bro, working families don’t eat NASDAQ points. You can’t fry up the S&P and serve it for dinner. That sht looks real nice in your 401(k) if you’re sitting on generational wealth. But when eggs cost more than fcking rent, you think a single mom gives a damn about your “record highs”? That’s like bragging you hit the lotto while everyone else is at the food bank.
And SNAP? SNAP?!? Rick, if you’re worried about poor people buying soda, maybe take a look at your billionaire buddies writing off yachts as “business expenses.” You mad ‘cause someone bought Skittles with a government card, while the Pentagon loses trillions in accounting errors. That’s trillions with a T, Rick. You can’t even picture that number without your head exploding.
So let me translate your whole comment: “Don’t look at Trump selling out democracy, look at the Doritos aisle at Walmart!” Man, get the f*ck outta here.
Heather’s over here documenting fascism in real time, and you’re yelling about gummy bears. That’s not just ignorant, that’s dangerous. You’re the noise machine fascists count on to distract the rest of us.
And here’s the punchline: We see through it, Rick. We’re not buying your deflections, your “oooops” routine, your candy bar crusade. You want the receipts? They’re at www.xplisset.com — brick by brick, truth by truth, the stuff you and your Fox crew can’t spin.
Still waiting I’m sure the world can’t wait to hear your solution to the Russia Ukraine issue…
MAGA TROLL MAGA TROLL MAGA TROLL
Rick, that is probably true but have you seen the costs of fresh vegetables? If you have a limited budget you buy what fills your stomach.
Obviously, you didn’t see the chart put out by a DNC staffer that was pulled down immediately because of the error they made I’ll see if I can find the link
He was trying to prove the prices have gone up under Trump, but unfortunately, he posted a graph that included the last five years.
And it showed price is going up 20% like climbing up a mountain when Biden first took office and kept rising the entire time he was in office and then Trump took over and diminished the increase substantially
And they had to pull it down immediately, but it was too late. Let me see if I could find it for you. Here you go.
https://moneywise.com/news/economy/democrats-grocery-prices-social-media-blunder
So .... you ARE a pedophile? Changing subject won't help.
If I’m a pedophile, you appear to be a surviving child of thalidomide.
But you’ll need to try again… reach a little bit further down into your bag hate and desperation
Releasing the files would clear up some of that 'ignorance', wouldn't it? It wouldn't help much with your ignorance.
And the worst thing for people like you is that you don’t have a clue not even a sniff of what 77 million people on the other side of the aisle actually think and how we’re celebrating every single day waking up with smiles on our faces optimistic looking so possibly into the future. Well everybody here is frustrated, angry depressed, pessimistic and hateful. Now, which group do you wanna belong to? Trump is the best president of your life so far.
Deal with that
Rick, my motherfuckin brotha from an alternate timeline…remember that alternate time line in Back To The Future 2 when everything went south and that business dude eerily similar to Trump had a firm grip on power?…so tell me did you really typed that whole Hallmark card for fascism with a straight face? Seventy-seven million people “smiling every day”? What the hell are they smiling at? book bans, women bleeding out in ER parking lots, kids doing active shooter drills, Black folks getting purged from the voter rolls? That’s not optimism, Rick, that’s sadism. That’s “I’m happy as long as someone else is suffering.” That ain’t joy, that’s cruelty with a MAGA bumper sticker.
And let’s talk about your “best president of your life.” Trump is the best president of your life the same way herpes is the best date you ever had — it keeps coming back, it burns, and you gotta lie about how you caught it. Best president? Man, the dude bankrupted casinos! You know how dumb you gotta be to bankrupt a casino? That’s like running out of oxygen in a f*cking oxygen tank.
You’re bragging about being on the “happy” side of the aisle while the rest of us are fighting like hell to keep our democracy breathing. Newsflash: fascists always look cheerful while the trains run on time — right up until the walls cave in. So no, I don’t envy your Kool-Aid smiles. I’d rather be pissed off and fighting for freedom than grinning like an idiot while the country burns.
And here’s the thing: history doesn’t remember the smiling bystanders. It remembers who stood the f*ck up. You can keep your fake joy, Rick. The rest of us? We’ll keep receipts, keep marching, and keep telling the truth until your whole “celebration” looks like the circus it is.
If you actually want to know what it looks like when people fight back with facts, fire, and zero fear? It’s over at www.xplisset.com. Bring sunscreen, Rick — ‘cause the heat is relentless.
Your self-righteousness is clouding your good judgment. You are having a conversation with yourself, and changing the entire public space accordingly. Taking somebody's bait is never a good idea. Think teaching opera to the pig, etc., how much time and energy is wasted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
I'm enjoying this back and forth, regardless of how profane it has become.Exchange of opposing views in a public forum. THAT is democracy at work.
https://x.com/Chicago1Ray/status/1956162669800521925
This is the entire story of the black Sergeant commander of DC police sued the city for falsifying crime, statistics, and won the case don’t take my word for it. Take a look at the link.
Meet Charlotte Djossou, she's a Black former Sergeant with (DC) metro police, who accused the police of misclassifying offenses to deflate the districts crime statistics
She sued them and won.... the media ignored this.. as her claim was credible and proven credible
How do you say one more thing to you… everybody here is entitled to their opinion, and all personal analysis you’re entitled to yours I’m entitled to mine, but nothing is accomplished. Nothing is accomplished by complaining, whining, hating, and nothing is going to change with those kinds of actions. Bitching and moaning and protests are not the navigators, or the leaders that your need. Fact, most of your top leading , democratic advocates like Gilmore like James Carville like morning Joe, by Chris Matthews play, Chuck Todd, and even Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have chimed in in the positive, Strong left-wing leaders that have spoken for the party for years. Keep saying you’re not gonna lead with hate. your not gonna lead with protests you have to have an agenda!! and then you after you have an agenda if you can have a liter or two, but nothing will change unless you have an agenda, which would include solutions not complaints.
So…. Only thing that helps are solutions. That is why I’m asking you to come up with a solution and if it’s a good one, somehow will all pass it on won’t
I look forward to your solution.
Well, I’m heading in for the night. But you have all night now to come up with a solution for Russia Ukraine we’re all waiting with baited breath
Well, you have a vivid imagination, but no answers, so maybe empty suit fits guess what you’re just gonna have to deal with another 3 1/2 years of the country burning according to you sounds like a real happy life enjoy yourself and until you come up with a solution you’re just like I said
all blather
By the way, would you like a short list of all the people that had bankruptcies and managed to be extremely successful. Here’s a short list for you. Abraham Lincoln, PT, Barnum, Milton Hershey, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, henry Ford. Mike Tyson.. that’s just a short list.
But maybe if you can get people to pony up a little bit more for your sub stack you might get there as well.
We’re all still waiting for your infinite wisdom mr. empty suit
MAGA TROLL MAGA TROLL MAGA TROLL
See, Sarah -- it replies to you. Did you want that?
Well Sarah you ought to try the taste reality and realize that not everybody thinks like you in fact thank goodness only 2 to 4% of the Democrats think like this and only .5% of the major pop population of the US probably think like this you’re like the left of the left old school losers stuck in the mud how do people keep supporting the 20% issue or the 10% issue versus the 80 or 90% issue that Americans support. Perhaps you should start there
It’s sad, but the people here can’t even realize The Successes that we’re having.
Probably not aware of the 12 to 15 trillion dollars in new investment in America nor are you aware for example, that just the other day Apple put up $600 billion to decide to build all its iPhones here in America and that foreign car companies are spending millions of dollars on TV right now telling Americans that guess what guys we build the our cars in the US
Wonder why that is?
You’re a complete and total idiot if you actually believe that.
Gee, Rickster. Going by the state of your comments the last couple of days, the fascist takeover of a democratic US is getting a bit stressful.
The Orange God with the birds nest crown has been charging the taxpayer tens of millions of dollars to a get a couple of rounds of golf in each week in an attempt to preserve what's left of his sanity. Do you think he might give you a free membership at the Mar-a-lago yoga studio to help you preserve yours?
If not, I recommend watching skinks running up and down a wall - brilliant for mindfulness and free of charge. 😉
Rick, settle down fer crissakes. The FBi was just one of "our" agencies that was part of the covrering up of the "Epstein Inc" back in early 2000. There was so much personal pleasure involved amongst so many persons with $$clout$$ that it was just a 'low noise level' event. And, those "young girls" (young back then) along with their families were co-opted in some un-disclosed manner to just let it go. And, let it go we did as well. No news was certainly good news. Simply swept under the rug. The fact that the island still blossomed as Epsteins private zoo with "G" in charge (or something) $$showsSS there was plenty of money in it. That "money" and those 'accounts' are the load Trump is hauling, even if he never banged one of em.
Rick, you're hoist on your own petard, as per usual. If there's nothing in those files about Trump (despite them being best friends while Epstein was busy assaulting minors); and if there is also incriminating evidence in the files about Democratic politicians and donors, as both Trump and Vance have suggested - then why haven't the files been released? Even the most bone-headed MAGA supporter has asked this question.
Well, here we are the king of the educated derelicts. Very weak what about him by the way and I sent you a really nice post about climate change and now once again your heat is boiling your head over so sit in a quiet room and see if you can calm down a little bit, but I wouldn’t take my blood pressure if I were you. I’m going out and play some golf today.
But regarding the epstein files as if they were in any way Jermaine to reality today Perhaps somebody knows you and didn’t want to mention that maybe your mother was there on the Island You therefore could be royalty lmao
Let’s just say Russell that you and I disagree on everything and have a nice day
Nothing to say then?
And once again, Heather is not telling you the whole truth, given her an incorrect interpretation of the meeting and the follow.
SHe says we don’t have to worry about the sanctions. Perhaps you should tell your audience Heather that translates to 50% tariff on India because India’s buying oil from Russia. Just a small little detail, you leave out of every single post that you do if it doesn’t fit your narrative.
And unfortunately, for those who are not aware the only reason we are having an Ukraine Russia issue now is because of the actions of one William Jefferson Clinton when he was in office. One of only two major mistakes that he made during his presidency, which was a very good presidency.
But it’s so sad to see all the whiners, haters, frustrated, pessimists here
It’s not Trump‘s job to make peace there. He’s the mediator he’s only trying to help instead of sending $170 billion to Ukraine to help Kia with additional quarter of 1 million people. I’m actually shocked the liberals weren’t up in arms over that. He didn’t even attempt a peace deal
Rick, my man, you sound like you’re reading straight from the MAGA karaoke machine with that same old tune, just louder and more off-key.
Let’s be real: Heather isn’t “leaving out details.” She’s the only one digging them up. That’s why we’re even talking about Putin’s power play on U.S. soil instead of sleepwalking through it. She pulls receipts, not excuses. Big difference.
And this Clinton detour? Come on. That’s like blaming the guy who built the car because Trump drove it off a cliff. The crisis in Ukraine didn’t start with Bill in the ’90s. It’s happening right now because Trump is out here treating Putin like a prom date by rolling out red carpets, giving away desk statues, and calling it “peace.” If that’s mediation, then my grandma’s meatloaf is Michelin-star dining.
And about that “he’s just trying to help” line…brotha puh-leeeze. Trump’s “help” always comes with a price tag, and spoiler: the only one cashing in is Trump. If selling out allies and cozying up to dictators is your idea of peacemaking, then congratulations man, you’ve just redefined treason as customer service.
Heather isn’t peddling doom; she’s sounding the alarm. And history shows us alarms aren’t “pessimism”….they’re survival. You can ignore them and burn, or you can hear them and act. That’s the choice.
So here’s the truth: Heather’s work is the guardrail. Without her, folks like Trump drive us straight into the ditch. www.xplisset.com.
Xplicit you’re responses are brilliant but I think what we need to do now is freeze poor little MAGA troll Rick with silence…
You are sooo right. Back to my regularly scheduled programming.
Please avoid the temptation to give this 3-year-old what he deserves. He is here only to get your goat, not for any other reason. Think of not giving him what he wants. Did I forget to mention he's here only to get your goat? Thank you for your attention to this matter....
You are so right. Back to my regularly scheduled programming.
Keep in mind Sender doesn't write anything, he just speaks into a phone, no thinking involved,
But I’m so enjoying your come backs!
But he appreciates every response so much - like a little puppy, which makes him kind of endearing in a very perverted and weird way.
Uh...about as endearing as being in a crowded elevator when someone is projectile farting.
Well, you sound more gullible than I have ever imagined if you think that Heather is posting the whole truth anytime she posts
Go back six months or so and see when the last time she used, Fox News or Oh and or any right leading link or podcast to tell her tale. Oooooops. She tells you half the story or no story at all
I’m kind of sick and tired of posting an example after example, like after Trump, close the deal with NATO, which was freaking brilliant however, I’m not even sure you know why and with the European Union, and with Japan the next day she talked about what was the cost of his jet. Omg. Lmfao.
Rick…you ever hear yourself talk? You sound like a dude bragging about his girlfriend while she’s cheating on him in the parking lot. “Oooops, Trump closed the deal with NATO, brilliant move!” Man, get the f*ck outta here. That wasn’t brilliance, that was a goddamn fire sale. He’s pawning off U.S. credibility like it’s a flat-screen TV he boosted from Walmart. And you clapping like a seal.
And don’t pull this “Heather don’t post the whole truth” bullsht. You know why she don’t cite Fox News? BECAUSE FOX NEWS IS THE CRIME SCENE, RICK. You don’t cite the fcking getaway driver as your expert witness. That’s like saying, “Well, the arsonist’s podcast had a different take on the fire.” Sit down.
And you keep rolling in here with “examples” like you’re Perry Mason, but it’s the same tired routine: twist the facts, add some “LMFAO” at the end like that makes it cute. Bro, if you gotta laugh your own ass off in every comment, maybe it’s ‘cause nobody else is.
Here’s the truth you can’t handle: Heather ain’t perfect, but she’s got more receipts in one post than Trump’s whole damn cabinet had in four years. And you can whine about jets, NATO, Japan, whatever the receipts still show Trump bending over for dictators, selling out allies, and leaving America broke, bloody, and begging for respect.
So yeah, Rick keep your “oooops.” Keep your Fox links. The rest of us are out here fighting fascism with facts, not memes and man-crushes on wannabe strongmen.
And if you want the FULL story, the sh*t you’re too scared to look at straight? I’m stacking it brick by brick at www.xplisset.com.
You are sinking further into his morass, and fouling up the atmosphere for everyone else. Please let it go. It won't help.
I have to say, I'm enjoying your posts and skipping the Rickster's reactions AND I am getting some serious laughs in. THANK-YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However, Turnberrry, did Mark do you ever hear yourself talk? All you do is complain never have a solution just to complain. I’ve been waiting for a day now to hear your solution to the problem that you think Trump can’t resolve. I don’t want rhetoric I don’t want reflection, and of course I will never hear from you as an answer specific to the question
Was that a theoretical, hypothetical, or an attempted analogy? lol
Well, when you post like that about NATO, you obviously are totally unaware of the brilliance of that move. One of the most incredible global negotiations in about 80 years? But you don’t have a clue not even a pimple of a clue, which is really sad for someone who is so verbose
So once again, we have great attempts at analogy and a wild imagination but why don’t you try some thing else for a change? Instead of meaningless, whining and complaining here’s an idea for you
IN YOU OBVIOUS INFINITE WISDOM, PLEASE. WITH A CHERRY ON TOP SHARE WITH GROUP HERE WHAT YOU WOULD DO ABOUR RUSSIA/UKRAINE ? It’s easy to complain pal but you don’t have a freaking clue. Where is here from you real soon OK? Don’t meander down equivocate don’t deflect just tell us all what you would do and how to solve the Russia Ukraine issue.
I’m also guessing by some of your other inferences that you might not even be an American that you might be living somewhere abroad because you have no clue and you’re totally out of touch with reality in the United States and as I said, in my earlier post you refused to become aware with what’s 77 million people probably more like 100 million now think, feel, and look forward to every single day.
So at this point, I am not going to respond to anything other than hearing your solution to the Russia Ukraine dilemma. Do that and we have something to talk about otherwise you’re just an empty suit.
Trump has closed no deal with NATO. They've promised to increase military spending to 5% of GDP by 2030, long after he's departed and they won't actually do it. By the way chum, the US spends only 3.4% of its GDP on the military.
Well, two takeaways from your post. First of all, he did it brilliantly whether they started to up the ante already but they did up their auntie to 2% except for Spain and the only reason I did that was because of the buffoon.
Most importantly, I sent you a really nice juicy analysis of global warming and climate change. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Clinton detour you gotta be kidding me you guys are supposed to be intelligent and good historian and apparently you’re neither. I’m not your errand boy and most people here including you apparently are too freaking lazy to even pick up a link and Google it and find out why Clinton is involved and what happened during his administration that caused exactly what we’re doing what we’re dealing with now.
Then you can also tell the crowd here why Putin attacked and took over Crimea while Obama sat around and did nothing and why Putin then attacked Ukraine wildfire decide around and did nothing except throw money at it, which killed another quarter of 1 million people. And is currently appearing to be killing thousands every week.
And I’m still wondering if you’re one of the people here can’t even negotiate their way up a toilet seat in the morning. If you do instead of trying to demean what Trump is doing which is awesome when Biden did nothing and Obama did nothing then you tell us that you’re incredibly detailed wisdom what would you do right now? Omg. I would love to hear this. Just try to keep it real and on planet earth, OK? What a loser
MAGA TROLL MAGA TROLL MAGA TROLL
By the way, you should probably look up what the word Maga means. If you’re against that means you’re anti-American Maga simply means make America great again. A six grader could figure that out, but apparently you’re against that
Despite everyone salivating over finding a telephone list somewhere that includes Trump's name on it, the "Epstein Files" -- whatever that even is --- is ultimately yet another distraction, one more in a long line of rabid squirrels hurled our way --- from what is actually happening all around us: the authoritarian take-over of government, the banana republicanization of America. That is the true emergency -- the DefCon 1 that's already been reached -- and we must not lose sight of it.
And what a weird, bizarre authoritarianism it is. Incompetent to the core, administered by loonies who look as though they should be in straitjackets, rather than in power. We've had dumb presidents before. We've had crooks before. We've had political movements that went nowhere before, like the Know-Nothings and the America Firsters of the 1930s. We've certainly had our share of bad Congresses before. But we've never before had an overlapping Venn Diagram of a convicted, twice-impeached, psychotic, demented felon -- illiterate, incoherent, greedier than Midas, more insecure than any toddler, working hand-in-hand with a supine, spineless blob of complicit jelly for the political party which runs Congress and keeps giving him a pass to do whatever he wants. Then there are ithe grey cardinals behind the throne, pulling strings, subverting institutions, codes of conduct, laws, procedures, standards and norms. And I haven't even mentioned the blind, deaf and dumb Roberts Court that keeps saying 'as Your Grace pleases.'
Heather often reminds us of previous events in American history that do bear parallels to the current moment, in effect saying 'we've been here before.' But I am wondering if we've ever seen anything this horrific, this bad, this fast, all at once, without time to breathe.
Yes but it’s the Epstein files that will bring the whole kit and caboodle down my friend
I don't know about that. I think that's yet another false idol -- oh, THIS will take it all down. There have been so many episodes of "this will do the trick" beforehand and none of them have worked.
When he did his cruel, 4-year-old mocking a disabled reporter, I thought then 'the jig is up.' When he lied and lied about where Obama was born -- and it was obvious what a liar he was -- I thought 'time's over.' When he insulted veterans and John McCain, I thought 'surely this is it.' When the pussygrabbing tape spilled out into the open, I could have sworn his disgraceful, pockmarked 15 minutes of fame were up. When he got impeached twice and 7 people died on January 6, and he tried to choke a Secret Service agent to death, I thought 'now THIS is finally going to wake Republicans up from their toxic slumber.'
Yet here we are...
And there are other times when I thought that his criminal behavior would bring him down, and he's still in the Oval Office. Even criminal trials haven't brought him down. There are few solutions left: if the citizenry does not rise up in sufficient numbers, there will be only one.
I agree, ICTT. Unless the people sitting on their hands in the Capitol decide to make this whole shitstorm go away, nothing will happen. And I would suggest to you that the majority of the party in power is perfectly happy with what is happening, including the 35% of "true believers" who rationalize away any criticism of their Dear Leader despite their rabid lust for the Epstein Files to be revealed. The only good thing is that my utterly idiotic senators have shut up over the last few days, so they must be worried . . .
ICTT, when the ship of state has been blown to smithereens and people are drowning in a sea of despair, a normal act of survival is to cling to any piece of debris that happens to float by.
The "Epstein files" is one of those floating bits that we cling to. Most of us have already seen that nothing sticks to "Teflon Don," and his being exposed as a statutory rapist of underaged girls will undoubtedly not be any more effective than any of the other items on his long list of crimes and ethical infractions.
Our hope is that there are still enough Republicans who draw the line at child rape and will reconsider their blind allegiance to a party that condones such monstrous behavior, thereby tilting the next elections in favor of democracy.
But their jeebus says they’re forgiven, all gone, poof. This will not bring him down. It’s got to be the 25th Amendment.
Reader/Writer, I actually made the point in my comment that Trump's involvement in the Epstein scandal won't bring him down directly. As ICTT outlined above, an entire litany of crimes and ethics violations have not brought him down, so there's no reason to expect that his repeated statutory rape of minors will bring him down – not directly.
Yes, the evangelical and conservative Catholic wing of MAGA will overlook these crimes, same as all the others, thanks to bad theology. But as I previously stated, there surely must be conservatives in the nation who cannot look away from statutory rape. Given that Trump has wrecked the economy, compromised our security and turned our military on citizens, he has ruined the reputation of the Republican Party. Many conservatives may decide to "put the GOP in time out." The benefit from the Epstein scandal is changing the course of the midterms, not removing Trump.
Incidentally, I don't hold out much hope for the 25th. The REAL heads of state, Miller, Wiles, Vought, et al, are happy with a figurehead of diminished mental capacity. He decorates The Oval, plays architect, signs whatever they put in front of him, and stays out of their hair while they actually run the White House. They will leave him in place as long as they possibly can. The only possibility of a removal is after the midterms; then Vance will be eligible to run for two more terms. If he replaces Trump before the halfway point he can run only for one additional term.
It's the cover up. We know he and Epstein were BFF rapists. But the cover up is the crime.
Only because they are protected by our government. The US Israel and the UK use their intelligence communities to entrap men using sex with children and then black mail them for money and influence. We can see the felon child rapist doing this with universities, law firms, corporations and other countries. He's just a mobster. He learned this from Cohen and Epstein...and the CIA...
Only if we keep pounding on Trump by calling him a pedophile and a sex trafficker. We need to mimic the accusations of the victims and make sure their voices are believed and heard.
We need to hammer the fucking evangelicals including the Southern Baptist Convention and the Catholic Church who have turned a blind eye when their organizations harbor pedophiles and rapists.
9% of the Republicans that voted for Trump have backed away from supporting him already. These are die hard MAGAs many of whom claim to be Christians.
We ALL need to point out their hypocrisy and condemn their inaction when they try to cover-up for their criminal perversions.
The one thing that MAGA is against is Epstein. They can about nothing else.
Even if the Epstein files bring down $rump, or - more likely - when his dementia gets so bad he can’t be propped up any more - we will still need to deal with all the awful people he brought with him.
Including the kidnapping of Ukrainian children-so Putin can indoctrinate them, “raise” them to hate their country…Rump condones it…or he never would have let P set foot on our soil
It may or may not, but it's clear it makes His Callousness squirm. What is already public record about Trump's associations with Epstein at not trivial, and very few people can tolerate a child molester.
They already have. But from your keyboard to God's ears nonetheless..
I just hope I live long enough to see Trump go down. At 80 I'm fast running out of time.
You are absolutely correct!
No. Authoritarian overreach is what will bring the whole kit and caboodle down. And, we’re watching it in real time.
Are we meeting the moment with the fierce resistance required? Some definitely are. Check out Free DC https://freedcproject.org/ We need everyone in the fight.
Totally disagree. This is exactly what patriarchy is, exactly how fascists operate. I can do what ever I want, rape children - fine, launder huge sums of money from Russian mobsters - fine, use the military against innocent people just trying to live their lives- fine. It's all the same to these monsters. Tear down the patriarchy - women and minorities - seize power for the psychopaths!
Right, Terry, and it looks like anyone who wants to beat, abduct, rape, or murder somebody can wear body armor, cover their faces, and use a nondescript vehicle. Nobody will interfere because people assume they are federal pigs doing their job.
I think you are right. It’s never been this level of bad before.
Your most important post so far, to my mind.
I agree completely, Sarah.
You're far too kind stating that right-wing Congress pukes are just giving trump a pass. And that the Supreme Court is "blind, deaf, and dumb"
The GOP (fascist party) and right-wing SCOTUS Justices are all part of this fascist coup and will do whatever it takes for the coup to succeed.
These fascists haven't been hiding their treachery; they do whatever they please, using terrorist tactics to intimidate possible public and political opposition. The only "guard rail" left is the legal system, which is too slow to stop this disaster, and once a case reaches the SCOTUS, chances are the majority will side with the fascists.
I believe you are correct. I read your post and was impressed with the analysis thinking, “man, this guy is smart.” Went to your profile and subscribed. Thank you and o do believe we have never experienced this before.
Heather is our guard rail. Her letters of our spiraling downward trend are alarming. David Brooks, the conservative journalist for the NYT wrote a surprising piece that we need to do everything in our collective power to keep our Democracy. Hit the streets, write letters, or social media, hold a fundraiser for a progressive that will flip a Republican seat. Join Indivisible or 50501 or groups that support voting rights. Give to causes that will sue on behalf of our constitution, the environment, election integrity and campaign finance reform. These are real issues.
My biggest fear is that the mid-terms are getting rigged. The SAVE act that has passed the House requiring a passport if a woman takes her husband's name and is not the same last name as her birth certificate will disenfranchise 69 million voters. It is based on the lie that undocumented immigrants are voting in our elections. It is voter suppression and it's out in the open. Someone on this list posted the NPR article on this. Gerrymandering is real and I applaud with heartfelt thanks what Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing. Keep your eyes on the prize and flip the House. We need accountability with this regime and the President. The courts are still holding on, but we are holding on by a thread. This President has weaponized the DOJ against all the freedoms we hold dear. Our President is already asking for bogus investigations of his perceived enemies. Let's get real, 170.7 billion for border and ICE which is 3 times the size of the budget for the Marines will be turned on us. When Rumeysa Ozturk's only crime was writing an op-ed in her school paper and the judge ordered her to stay in MA our government ignored a court order, threw out Freedom of Speech and let her spend 16 weeks in detention without charging her and zero due process.
While driving through Cambridge, MA I saw a sign that summed it all up:
"Save our Constitution."
Again for those in the back….. 📢 Release the Epstein Files!!!!
Michael Wolff on Daily Beast, Epstein's biographer--says Epstein had a secret meeting with Putin in Moscow. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-circles-drop-f-bomb-after-failure-putin-summit-wolff/
MAGA is spinning the summit as a success. "Trump Circles Drop F-Bomb After ‘Failure’ Putin Summit: Wolff."
The Daily Beast has a spin off - Inside Trump's Head.
Perhaps that was Putin’s power on Alaska. He has copies!
I'm certain he does, among other things.
Yes, that's important, but we can't forget there is an overwhelming need to oppose this authoritarian takeover. Get involved, go to protests. A general strike is being planned for 2028. Organizing for that is crucial. I've written about the protests here in Los Angeles. Resistance can't just be rhetoric online or calling congress. We have to be in the streets.
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/p/a-word-from-los-angeles
Please everyone support my work and subscribe. Sorry to plug.
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/
General strike in 2028! Why not 2025, when we know it's needed? France's great general strike of 1968 was led by student protests and the whole country shut down in a matter of weeks. And it worked. Without bloodshed. Without mobile phones or internet. Radio played non-stop music, announcing every hour where army trucks would be for people who had to get from A to Z.
Takes a lot of time and infrastructure to do a sustained general strike. Keep in mind France had a powerful labor union movement that no longer exists in the U.S.. It has to be rebuilt. You can organize for it though. I encourage you too. Just google General strike 2028. Besides, that election will be a massive inflection point. All hands will need to be on deck.
Absolutely
Stop using big words you don’t understand like authoritarians.
If there was an authoritarian regime here, as you guys keep saying an auto craft, a dictator, or better yet even a king, let me see if I can straighten things out for you here
In countries there are AutoKratz or kings. You’re not allowed to have I know kings protest yet somehow you pulled it off and embarrassed yourself, which was forgotten the next day.
🙄
I agree with Sarah Brennan, THE EPSTEIN FILES cannot be repeated enough! Also, my thanks to H.C.R. for again slamming Trump for his trying to control the narrative away from what he is hiding. Trump will not roll out a red carpet or offer an "American Bald Eagle Desk Statue" for any of our allies. Why? All combined they do not have anything over Trump as does Putin and the Epstein files, that’s why. What could it be? Trump is a convicted felon of 34 counts of sexual assault, defamation, election interferences with business fraud. A nasty little boy. So is it sex; pee pee? But he is also convicted of tax fraud. A bad boy. Trump has also been charged with sedition, racketeering; espionage and obstruction of justice. All of which he did! Trump is an adolescent supervillain who can’t make-up his mind what he wants to be when he becomes an adult. Yet his actions show there is something in Putin’s files and the Epstein files that he is in a fit of terror over. Our national security is in deep trouble. Worst criminal in American history. How do we get a pathological lying, malignant narcissistic, sociopath to come to Jesus?
Trump loves dictators, even Communist Kim. I'd take that as a bad sign. His first wife said he keep a book of Hitler's speeches at his bedside.
THE EPSTEIN FILES. THE EPSTEIN FILES. THE EPSTEIN FILES
and... TRUMP’S WAR ISN’T ABROAD, IT’S AT HOME
The most important part of this mess is not Trump bungling geopolitics with Putin, it’s his turning the U.S. military against Americans. Deploying Marines to Los Angeles and seizing control of D.C.’s police under false “crime” claims is pure authoritarian playbook. Trump is openly dismantling democracy while pardoning violent insurrectionists and importing killers for sport. Forget “law and order”—this is lawless power-grabbing. If Americans don’t see the domestic coup unfolding, they are sleepwalking into a police state.
The Epstein files may just maybe be the thing that dethrones old Donnie, but he's not the problem.
Project 2025 is well underway, and we'd best be clear that the fall of the Mad King won't end it.
Jen, I think the EF's are the distraction to keep us from noticing the takeover of our democracy. P2025 is here.
The Ukrainian children who have been trafficked by Putin files too! That should be under discussion. However, Trump will not be amenable to protecting Ukraine if that is brought up because he does not want anything brought up that reminds people of the Epstein Files.
A friend of mine who lives in Berlin's husband is a diplomat in the German team. After talking Friday they left yesterday, so last minute. They want to be in Washington in plenty of time for the meeting today with a night's sleep under their belts. She has not seen much of her husband, whose area is US diplomacy since Trump took office I have noticed.
The US foreign policy is probably not a big concern of MAGA. The press is fickle to drop the Epstein Story. This is what Trump was counting on though. He can bring performative actions every day in order to distract this fickle crowd who also seem to have a short attention span. Oh well.
If more people remembered and connected enough of the dots, you would never see a modern Republican elected again.
Linda, the press is hog-tied by their billionaire bosses. Reporters should apply to the Meidas Touch Network which is run on Substack. It is an independent online media organization run by 3 brothers, one of whom is a lawyer. They have displaced Joe Rogan as the number 1 podcasters and have scored interviewing very important people.
Karl Rove said, under Bush, that the White House creates its own reality, and can change it in 30 minutes.
Roce should
Join E Jean Carroll’s campaign on 16 September!
#AcostaMustTestify
#FollowTheMoney
Senator Ron Wyden has been doing just that …
https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/as-trump-downplays-epstein-wyden-unveils-details-of-treasurys-undisclosed-epstein-file
https://www.newsweek.com/new-jeffrey-epstein-survivors-come-forward-2113463
Also, the lawmakers will discuss the importance of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill seeking to release the records in the Epstein case, it added.
if Putin had brought his Epstein Files to Alaska, Trump would have traded him Ukraine and Alaska for it.
He is an incoherent weakling wrapping himself in his own fantasies that only the delusional MAGAots still believe....embarrassing to be an American
Long Live UKRAINE
Not possible sadly. The only thing to do with psychopaths is get out of their way…OR IN THEIR WAY!
Mr Trump you make me sick
You and your microscopic….
I'll see the lack of Epstein file reporting and raise with no more reporting on wholesale price inflation increase, rise of COVID cases, a CAT 5 hurricane, red stated agreeing to more congressional gerry manding, etc ....
Yes! Everyone "Google" it several times a day. Please
Something we need to think about seriously: What is the distraction and what is the real thing we should be paying attention to. Go beyond Trump, who at the moment seems to be a cognitive declining front to hide the people actually running the country. What about the Project 2025 people and the Stephen Millers? Is a military takeover of Washington DC to distract us from the Epstein files, or are the Epstein files meant to distract us from the Christo-fascist takeover of the United States? No doubt everyone in the administration is lying about the files, but are those files the most serious issue? Given what is in the public record about Trump's long career of abuse, misogyny and even rape, what more do we really need to know? He should have been disqualified from ever being president way back at the Access Hollywood tapes and a hundred things since then. But people voted for him anyway and he is now president again, serving as the vessel for people who have wanted to take over the government for a long time. Stopping that is job one. We don't know what is truth and what is lies in what Trump and his minions have said about the files, but we do know for a fact that Trump and the people controlling him want to end democracy in America. Shouldn't we act first on what we do know?
That's the origin story to focus on. Where are the files and images?
It will be good to see civilized western European lead now join Zelensky with the mad bullies in the oval office….. I hope they all dress casually for their visit to the gold-plated Oval Office and ask about the Epstein Files and what it is that Putin has on him.
You can bet rubles to hamberders that as soon as Trump "invited" Zelenskyy to Washington, Zelenskyy responded along the lines of 'I come with my friends, or I don't come at all.' I'm absolutely certain it was not Trump's idea.
I'm going with the 'dazed and confused' explanation for why things ended abruptly. However it happened, Ukraine will fight on -- because there is no alternative. Sudetenland is not an alternative. Carving up Europe is not an alternative. Restoring the imperial "grandeur" of the Soviet Union is not an alternative. Failure is not an option.
In my view, in the final analysis, the only country that will be carved up is Russia. And Putin knows it. He is quickly running out of options. If that $335 B of Russian money is released to Ukraine, that will cause Putin to eliminate his colon all at once. If trumpie mafia insists on Ukraine gives up territory without any pushback from Zelensky and his friends, they are screwed. I doubt that the Europeans will allow that to happen.
There was some talk about Article 5 coming into play. I hope that that is not some kind of guarantee for Ukraine giving up territory. That agreement from 1994 with Russia, the US, the UK and Ukraine when Ukraine gave up its nukes to guarantee security for Ukraine went well, didn't it?
Agree with you, Michael -- and just want to stress how much.
The leaders of the western European democracies (and Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) all understand all too acutely well that Russia hates them having free countries, reviles them having the personal freedom that seems so sinful to all those bearded old Orthodox priests in their long skirts and clanking jewelry.
Russia (the U.S.S.R.) had all those purges of intellectuals in the 1930s. Murdered millions (as did Mao in the Cultural Revolution, as did Pol Pot in the early 1970s, and N. Korea since). But the Soviets continued murdering and imprisoning intellectuals, with Putin upping that recently. They really, really hate free thinking, personal, freely-human-based culture.
The orange fat Donald and all his white supremacist goons only provide another hate-filled ditto to these authoritarians. They hate democracy. Hate diversity. And they've got all the Peter Thiel-Zuckerberg-Vance-Bezos types with them.
American schools opened the sluices to this fascist/racist trend, alongside the good progress minorities have made, alongside the massive shift of wealth over the past half century to the ultra-billionaire beneficiaries of the death of humanities in schools and the rise of testing-for-zombies.
Schools, broken. Legacy media, cowardly elites. Social media, more hate platforms enriching billionaires.
The Epstein file? Gonna nail Putin's toady in the White House.
School testing! I knew once you started your long, somewhat predictable litany, beginning with "bearded Orthodox priests" (newsflash, many rabbis and some Roman priests also have beards), I'd find it. Couldn't resist, could you? Are you able to utter one sentence here without connecting whatever topic Heather had in mind with your personalized rabbit hole?
Why you so sensitive on this, ICTT?
I've admitted I've benefitted financially and academically -- and benefitted very much -- from my own success with testing.
I don't otherwise detect in your other writings here any evidence of you being silo-limited, as testing arranges. You have no literacy in humanities -- which testing kills in all -- but yet you seem very much alive.
So why be bridled so at someone connecting the dots which you so revile seeing connected?
Why are you so compulsively obsessed over this ONE issue -- is the real question. No, spare me, please. I really don't need to know.
Thank you! Spot on!!!
History will tell the story of the Horn Dog, a chubby aging New York play boy who, after a lifetime of failure highlighted by 6 bankruptcies managed to stay a player with the help of vast family wealth, become the “Star” of a quirky reality game show that attracted a following, doodle around in Russia with a beauty pageant that gave him a pass to walk backstage ogling half nude young women, hang out with bad boys in the company of the “baddest,” Jeffery Epstein, not caring, not knowing what a trail of evidence he left behind him until he somehow became the President of the United States of America where he ran a country based on his emotions and instincts for self preservation ultimately leaving a nation that thought of itself as #1 in the world, now bankrupt financially and morally as it watched in dumbfounded humiliation, along with the rest of the world on July 4, 2026, the totally unedited Golden Pee tapes courtesy of a collaboration between his former best friends, Elon Musk and Vlad Putin.
Many -- as per his bragging about it -- were fully naked, Andrea.
Michael Wollf wrote about -- and subsequently talked about his on his videos.
Solidarity!
I went to the edit function, Barbara (3 dots at text's upper right), and corrected my original.
I'd first included the typo of "civilized western European lead now join . . ." when it should have been "leaders."
I hope a lot of protesters will accompany Zalensky.
Since the "you don't have the cards" Trump gaffe, Russia is bombed nightly, the Russian army is losing troops by death, injury, and defection, and the summer Russian initiative has stalled, if not thwarted. By bombing oil refineries and arms factories, Russia is on the verge of banktruptcy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=lmp4C1bRpiM
And furthermore:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/136700089?utm_campaign=postshare_fan&utm_content=android_share
🤪
While the world’s focus is still on keeping Putin in a corner and turning their back on Trump’s alliance with Putin, at home we haven’t lost sight of the fact that none of Trump’s antics take away from his letting a disgusting pedophile is being allowed to have work breaks from a Texas prison, thanks to Trump’s high profile attorney.
I actually felt a teensy bit hopeful when I read about the European leaders who will be accompanying Zelensky. I applaud their solidarity.
It would become the only video of Trump worth seeing. That is why I doubt Trump will ever let us see the actual meeting but only a video of the group photo being taken.
He doesn't want to be know as the modern Neville Chamberlain. Which he would love to be to his hero Vlad.
Yet he has mentioned appeasing Vlad by giving him more and more of Ukraine's land. Plus actually making the cities of the USA look like Vlad is in charge here already.
Please folks - let's not make ourselves look smaller by focusing on the "Epstein files" - the European leaders and Presidents Zelenskyy and Trump have a lot of serious sorting to do here this week on matters that mean so much to people on the ground in Ukraine
You're exposing the silo ed you got, John -- the crucial connections which you can't see.
Indeed, Phil. The pearl at the heart of the onion is whatever Putin has on our demented dictator. Once we peel back all of the layers and see it, it will explain all of what we’ve been putting up with from him for the past 10 years.
#AcostaMustTestify
#FollowTheMoney
Senator Ron Wyden has been doing just that …
https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/as-trump-downplays-epstein-wyden-unveils-details-of-treasurys-undisclosed-epstein-file
https://www.newsweek.com/new-jeffrey-epstein-survivors-come-forward-2113463
Also, the lawmakers will discuss the importance of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill seeking to release the records in the Epstein case, it added.
That’s perfect. Murika’s Prayzedint and ashen faced toadies get emulsified by reality; an intervention by adults.
Oh, yes, please!
My prediction of trump's negotiations is that trump will stick to Putin's wishes. He will not agree to an American security guarantee, and that if any NATO country's military is attacked while in Ukraine, the US will not honor NATO's Article 5.
Due to the evisceration and take over of our national security by p2525/maga, I am not comfortable at all with with all that leadership in Washington. Trump should go to Europe.
A concern I hadn't considered. Hopefully, they will bring added security or at least heightened awareness. Surely, this regime wouldn't be so stupid as to do something to the leaders of Europe. Oh, wait - yes, yes they are.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Breaking News: The Kennedy Center had to cancel at the last minute Trump's remake of the play, "Pinocchio". The stage personnel explained they could not find a prosthetic nose that was long enough to account for Trump's lies in the First Act.
That would have to reach from here to the Moon, and halfway back.
You made me laugh!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Not if it's now the Trump Center.
Megan just handed out the cheat codes, y’all. That spreadsheet? That’s a loaded clip. Call, write, email, protest , do the damn thing! You sitting at home scrolling, saying, “What can I do?” Well, Megan just slapped the phone in your hand and said: CALL SOMEBODY.
And Professor Richardson? She’s giving us the part CNN won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Trump ain’t fighting crime, he’s manufacturing crime like it’s a damn reality show. That ain’t law and order nah that’s lawlessness in uniform. That’s like an arsonist showing up to the blaze with a badge yelling, “Don’t worry folks, I’m here to save you!”
So let’s break it down:
• Heather says: This is authoritarian cosplay with live ammo.
• Megan says: Pick up the damn phone, light up their inbox, hit the streets.
• And I’m saying: DO IT. DO IT NOW. DO IT TOMORROW. DO IT UNTIL THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOUR VOICE.
Because fascism don’t fold from speeches alone. Fascism can at the damn very least start to fold when YOU jam the phone lines so hard they think it’s a damn telethon. When YOU hit the inbox so heavy their server starts smoking. When YOU show up so deep they need a drone to capture the crowd shot.
Heather gave you the diagnosis. Megan gave you the prescription. Now it’s on you ya’ll are you taking the medicine, or letting the disease win? www.xplisset.com
The most effective strategy against Dictators is massive public disobedience. That's what „Solidarność” did in Poland, that's what Democrats in Israel are doing, that's what turned around the Polish dictatorship from their path, and that's what Hungarians are doing to try to get their hard-earned freedom back. We need to smarten up and understand and implement "MASSIVE".
This is "MASSIVE": Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Israel to call for an end to the Gaza war and a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The largest crowd was seen in Tel Aviv's "Hostages Square" on Sunday, with the organisers saying the government's plans to seize control of Gaza City risked the lives of around 20 hostages still being held by Hamas.
A one-day national strike - part of wider protests - closed roads, offices and universities in some areas. Nearly 40 people were arrested during the day.
Good for the sane Israelis!! Everyone has lost sight that the mission was to find the hostages. Bibi must be Hague’d to death and Donny must be also.
5Calls
https://5calls.org/
Yes, 5calls is amazing. I used it for a while and it’s listed at the top of my sheet along with other resources - Card Campaign, Action Network, ResistBot, Indivisible, and other how to take action sites. But I wanted to be able call beyond my state quicker than changing the state each time, as well as email after bed. All of the information on my sheet is on government sites, but not all in one place so I put it in one place to make it easier.
All you need is another gender until you get one you can call and protest and grape and bitch and moan all you want but hate is not a good navigator
Ahh, yes, grape; love 'em all, seeded and seedless.
😆😆
Wow, she’s back. Welcome to the team with all your well thought out well analyzed responses. I’ll have to ruminate over that answer for quite some time you know
Morning, Lynell! I have that app!
Me too!
Displaying as much as possible of the various photographs.
I love this comment so much ☺️ Thank you for making me smile!!
You don’t have to do any of that you just have to have an agenda other than hate Trump…. even all your liberal pundits are calling you out Bill Maher, James Carville chuck Todd morning Joe and Chris Matthews couldn’t even believe that you’re trying to defend the indefensible. But you are and then you wonder why you keep losing
And this is why I’ve posted it every day since early March. There are always new, enthusiastic people to see, use and share it 💜👏
I wanna hear from Republican Sens Roger Wicker; Rand Paul; Don Bacon, Chairman, House Armed Services Subcommittee.
https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2025/6/wicker-backs-bill-to-bankrupt-putin
'There Is One Man To Blame For This War': Roger Wicker ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6PJLdPjCAw
Everyone - ALL OF US - have a bounden duty to NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES ALL OVER SOCIAL MEDIA AND BEYOND!
Phew!!
Heather's wisest here: hers on the madness in orange Donald.
In Timothy Snyder’s latest Substack (today’s), he has a great bit on madness, starting with "emotional deficits" – all those areas of life totally quite opposite U.S. schools' innocence of numbers, units, chronologies, real estate, abstractions, categories.
Anyone who's read much of Timothy Snyder knows how Putin and his eastern Orthodox priests live but in the faux religious plus oligarch greed for money. They demonize the secular West, hate its diversity, which they see as threatening their mysterious, magical, patriarchal, racially homogenous Mother Rus. These narratives for themselves and the world also lead them to murder, mass violence, and abduction of children.
But Heather has that Russian exact counterpart in the orange Donald's fantasies of the deep state whose government agencies all need to be cut. If not cut, his madness says, brown-skinned immigrants will swarm. Black cities will seethe, fester, explode. American needs his roaming I.C.E. and police state just as Russia needs its empire from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
It will be good to see civilized western European leaders now join Zelensky with the mad bullies in the oval office.
"They demonize the secular West, hate its diversity, which they see as threatening..."
Diversity, genuine free speech, and most of all solidarity, chokes off the fuel for tyranny.
Yes, J L.
Every authoritarian regime requires one script, one set of dogma, one cohering menace, around which all life must center. This is so far from the innocence built into U.S. schooling, and the purported ease (machine-gradable, too!) by which that can be measured.
BS detection should be a major and consistent component of every school curriculum, and come with the caveat that the kids will call BS on us (as they will anyway, so we might as well come out and talk about it). Question everything. That's how the Renaissance and the Enlightenment came to flower (for both science AND the arts).
That WTF mindset produced The Declaration of Independence and reenergized experiments with representative democracy, organized around empirical methodologies, not someone's violently-enforced claim of holy writ. In reality, application of those principles was and remains highly uneven, but I think we have come a long way, even as the battle still rages.
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." - Lincoln
Violence is a very powerful tool, and sometimes cannot be avoided; as the last resort against military aggression, or against a dangerous social aggressor. That said, violence is like high explosives or chemotherapy; a destructive force to be used as wisely and sparingly as possible. Any idiot can pick up a rock and maim or kill, and life in a failed or despotic state tends toward nasty, brutish, and short. Minimized violence (or threats of violence) is the mark of a truly civil society.
And it’s all here on this thread.
from a troll known as Rick Sender
https://snyder.substack.com/p/common-sense-about-negotiations
Yes, Lynell, your link here goes to Timothy Snyder's Substack today.
So pleased to see/read Prof. Snyder writing again! Slava Ukraine!
I keep most of his blogs. Too priceless to delete. He is damn good!
I know. I was worried.
Trump doesn't believe brown people are dangerous - it's a ruse.
It could be Jews, or any variant from a state religion, or any difference to paint people as unworthy and/or dangerous others. Tyranny always finds a scapegoat to deprive of rights, not only to distract from their exploitation but to discredit the egalitarian axioms behind equal rights and protections.
Trump will continue to demonize Democrats and will soon start putting us in concentration camps, we are his real target.
If he can.
Don't be so sure. Trump is clearly a committed racist. Look how he denounced the Central Park Five. His base is driven by racism. I catalogued their violent rhetoric in the wake of the Mamdani victory, and that was very telling.
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/p/the-far-rights-violent-hateful-reaction
I agree he is a racist. I just don't think he really believes people of color are dangerous. This is about distraction while he deconstructs our government and hands power to the billionaires. It also has the added benefit right now of distracting from Epstein.
Bullies prey on the most vulnerable, whatever that vulnerability might be; racial prejudice or insufficiently world-wise teen girls. Elderly people are often exploited. Anyone with few financial resources. Anyone on the outs of mainstream public empathy. Theoretically patently unamerican, and unethical, including very much unchristian, and yet clear and present in every era, though some more than others.
How sick are you people? Where do you get this demented fluid in your brain? Yikes. And the more I read the more I understand how correct my analysis of most of you educated derelicts are
Willful ignorance is what I call it. So sad and unfortunately, TDS does not seem to be curable.
Every time you use the word racist, you might wanna look in the mirror and tell yourself how stupid you look. And you might want to check up on what he did during his first term for a black college that was going out of business not to mention all the things he’s trying to do for the black community right now.
You didn't feel his hatred, Laura, when he said, "They're eating the dogs and cats!"?
He was only repeating the news at the time Phil. He was mad that they were illegals in golfing a city, regardless of what they were eating
Illegals golfing in a city?! The horror!
https://x.com/chicago1ray/status/1956162669800521925?s=43
Meet Charlotte djousouss , a former DC police Seargent commander Who was suspended and then who sued the department for editing\ misclassifying their crime statistics to make them look better and she just won a lawsuit against them, validating her claims.
Hollywood cast here’s what we’re gonna do since obviously none of you really seem to get it let’s take about 10 or 12 criminal illegals and buy them a home right next-door to yours. Sounds good? Did you see what happened when they brought in a couple busloads to the Vineyard?
The residents went crazy and bussedthem right out again. You are very fortunate that you have not had a issue with a criminal illegal for thousands of Americans have in the cases are well documented
No one is listening to nonsense when you come up with something like that. Biden brought in between 11 and 15 million illegals in this country and 1 million I’ve already left on their own and the rest are gradually leaving whether they like it or not. You’re lucky you’re not the mother of five that was killed, raped and left five children motherless Or many other cases like that and you guys are supposed to be the empathetic ones. pathetic
Dangerous? No.
They are brown. That's enough for him.
And often poor, so of no use to a plutocrat.
He may not believe they are dangerous, but he doesn't like how they look -- just like he doesn't like bad grass or bent road medians. He doesn't have the empathy to see them as human beings who are every bit as deserving of a good life as he believes himself to be.
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
It could also be that he fears they will show up his stupidity and unattractiveness.
No Phil, if you don’t think there is a deep state you’re in for a rude awakening coming up this summer. Russia hoax is deeper than you ever thought. Trump was never involved in any way, shape or form and it’s gonna get ugly.
"Media mentions of the Epstein Files have plummeted." Surprise, surprise. The mainstream media is failing us spectacularly, and has been doing so for decades. Somewhere in Russia they analyzed our weak spots and pinpointed the media as one institution that would fall without a fight. Thank goodness for alternative news sources, but we cannot take them for granted, either. I am working to help resurrect local news coverage and urge others to focus on this as a priority.
Mainstream media, Barbara, react to sensationalism.
The criminality which Jeffrey, Ghislaine, and Donald delighted in also extends to many other areas of our lives today. But you know, too, that connecting these dots requires imagination, humanities access, and other vital abilities which testing killed in the schools -- and which many even here on Heather's site resent hearing about.
"Trump posted on social media that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.” “All” is doing a lot of work in that sentence: it appears to mean Putin, with the possible agreement now of Trump."
Pointed humor is best served dry.
"A high-stakes meeting with principals about a very real situation might have been too much for him to manage for a full day."
Apparently.
Trump and the regime literally rolling out the red carpet for Putin. Donold fawning over and clapping, like a trained seal at a Russian circus, upon Putin's arrival. Donold and Vlad chumming it up and driving away together in the back of the presidential limousine, the Beast. So much obsequiousness that it might have been too much for anyone to manage for a full day.
All it took for Trump and his team to change the color in their faces was Putin showing poster size photos of children. Meeting ended.
Zelensky showing up this Monday with western leaders will fry brains in the White House. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The world is in a very dark place right now.
Of course it is too much for Trumpster. It always has been. This negotiating behavior of the "World's Best Negotiator" 😂 is well known and documented.
Doing any job well is actual work.
no one seems to recall or mention that the DC takeover was rolled out when that Doge stooge kid who calls himself Big Balls ( probably they're not..) cried that he was carjacked in DC (by a 14 and 15 year old, both unarmed)
sounds suspiciously staged, like the 'gunshot' to the ear that caused no bleeding.. just a photo op.. when his numbers were down..
any in the press see any connection? not that it matters anymore as we are now 'all in' on a police state..
Has anyone else heard that jeanine pirro is trying to pass a law that says 14 year olds will be tried as adults in court?
Presumably addressing big balls situation?
And then that since 14 year olds are considered adults that they can be considered as "consenting adults" as far as the Epstein files are concerned??
Anyone have any information on that?
Is it true???
In Utah they reduced it to 13 when an 18 year old relative of a politician raped a 13 year old.
But of course.
I posted a comment in that regard last week. I asked if anyone else here thought that incident bore similiarity to Jesse Smolett.
Having been ambushed standing alone at his last White House visit, Zelenskyy is bringing powerful friends to stand with him this time. It will be interesting to see how the MAGA dopes on the White House and State Department staffs deal with the very real, and unified, diplomatic talent of the European leaders and their staffs.
Maybe Donny boy is the one who gets ambushed this time, in his own backyard.
May it be so!
I predict that Donny and his dopes will be wide-eyed and ashen-faced after Zelenskyy and his posse are finished with them today. Not even a quarter-inch coating of bronzer will conceal it.
Volodomyr Zelenskyy, 8/11/25:
" --- We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East -- part of Donbas -- and Putin simply used it as a [genocidal] springboard for a new attack."
************************************************************************************
Pending Judge Breyer Court Judgment after Newsom vs Trump Trial 3:25-cv-04870-CRB
As I posted earlier this Weekend, we are at hall hands on-deck moment accurately described by Professor Richardson. Whether Trump's last word was "bela" or "rosebud", like Citizen Kane Trump is broken. Our country & yes the world needs to hear Judge Charles Breyer's bench trial Judgment on the HSI-ICE occupation of Los Angeles California.
Bryan you seem to be the repetitive one trick pony.
Wow! What did the pot say to the kettle again?
What would a Deep philosopher you turned out to be Jorge. It’s called truth. All Brian does is threaten reporting me to sub no matter if I say hi or if I make a point and it’s better if you stay out of other peoples conversations, especially you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
We will keep the Epstein Files in the News! Kudos to Newsom for his excellent trolling of Rump on X and other social media platforms. He and others need to keep on trolling!
Rump with his beliefs that he can “wing “diplomacy with Putin, has been outdone. Putin is a master at what he does with his KGB background. The world sees Rump being played. I am glad other world leaders are joining Zelinsky tomorrow.
What the hell is wrong with you people Joe Biden’s administration had the epstein files a year before Trump ran for office and if there was anything in there to implicate Trump, they would’ve buried him with it. WTF. Willful ignorance once again
Worry not , Heather , NOBODY IS FORGETTING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES!
And yes, that DumbDump is forcing us into ALL CAPS!
Including Gavin Newsom, hod bless him!
We will all regret focusing on the Epstein matter like we have - every day life is marching on to the current important matters, leaving us behind
There will never be the satisfactory ending we imagine around the Epstein matter
Let us please move on together toward betterment of this world
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein
“if we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflict.”
"Hitler is regarded as one of history’s great villains. So it’s easy to forget how slowly and reluctantly the worlds most powerful democracies mobilized to stop him. France and Britain did declare war on Germany two days after the invasion of Poland, but it would take them another eight months before they engaged in full-scale war with the Nazis. The United States wouldn’t join the war against Hitler until December 1941, a full two years after the war began. "
https://www.vox.com/2014/9/1/6084029/hitlers-invasion-of-poland-explained
Hear hear! Say the English colleagues reading this....Hear Hear!
Fool us once...
Do you know what you world leaders here that have a better solution….I haven’t heard one remark from any of you so called adults suggesting The way forward here all I hear is complaints and immature impulses and hate and zero understanding of negotiations at all. After all, he already has five piece deals/C-Spire under his belt, and only six months. I guess what guys Heather didn’t tell you about those. Ooooops
So let’s hear it smarties so-called educated folks here if you were president what would you do now this is going to be good. I better get a good supply of popcorn ready.
Is this your full time job?
He seems to be a professional troll, yet he isn’t even very good at it. Just an annoying fly buzzing around the comment section.
Don't feed the bot
No, I’m retired but thanks for asking. This is a full-time pleasure trip for me. It’s like a vacation to la and That’s living 100’s of years ago in fantasy.
It’s the land of educated derelicts and willful ignorance. Great title for a Heather story.
You folks are not even paying attention to your own spokes people from the left side of the party, who keep telling you that All you have is hate Trump.
And you don’t even have any legitimate reasons that’s what’s the funniest thing of all.
You love bringing up historical references that have no bearing on life today and you live on patting each other on the back when you’re on the wrong side of the argument. Even your famous Democratic pundits and former leaders and left-wing commentators are saying you are defending the indefensible …. But you keep at it like a dog chewing on its own leg.
Right now, Ukraine 2025 = Poland 1939. We CANNOT let this happen!
First: South Carolina has been waiting since 1866 to march on Washington. No way it was giving that up.
Second: I suggest the Summit be referred to as the “War Criminal Kaffeeklatsch.”
What can I say, Parkin! You are so on target!
Meanwhile, ICE is using $50K signing bonuses, $60K student loan forgiveness, and vile, racist propaganda to create its own police state, courtesy of the Big Ugly Bill and our tax dollars. It’s appalling.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/ice-recruitment-tactics-trump-d4bc32cf
Not to mention $100,000 a year pay.
Bela? As in Lugosi? What, is Donny being sucked dry by a vampire or is that his new safe word?
Well Putin's name is Vlad, very creepy and seems like he might even live off of other people's blood.
Vlad the Impailer?