While you're at it, say a little prayer for DJT, Vladimir Putin, Xijin Ping, Kim Jong Un, and any other despots you can think of. It appears that God is trying to remind us to love our enemies, and contrition is better than demolition.
Trumpās sympathy for Putin is stronger than Trumpās support for American Citizens!
Trump wants to exhibit his military and police control rather than his loyalty to all Americansā¦ scary as hell now that they will be carrying weapons and lowering requirements for national guard members!
He sold himself to Russia under Gorbachev, back in the 80s, when Putin was still a hungry wolf in the KGB. He's owned by Russia, not the American people. He wants to be like Stalin (although he probably doesn't know anything about Stalin).
You called it -- it's an intense, difficult summer and, yes, we are at a pivotal point now. Much appreciation for David Cay Johnston, Gil Duran and several others! Heather Cox Richardson, you might consider including David Cay Johnston in one of your "Politics Chats" types of Facebook live/YouTube conversations. He's a favorite guest on many podcasts and cable networks based on his expertise re: Donald, as he calls him, in addition to journalism, law, tax and economic policy and more. If he's not yet hit your radar screen, that might be because he's now teaching full-time at RIT after a lifetime as an award-winning journalist (Pulitzer Prize winner for his economics and tax column at The New York Times) and author of many best-selling books.
We desperately need someplace that we can all come together, plan and execute our resistence. Those of us who can see (and keep up with) what the Trump regime is doing, needs places where we can broadcast it.
And most of all, we need some place where we can pool our money to have the most impact in the coming year. Otherwise we are just chickens with our heads cut off running hither and yon. The Democfatic Party isn't that place (though Newsom may change that) and Substack is not poving to be that place because we simply can't afford to have paid subscriptions to every stellar content provider. How are wegoing to react except with hand wringing when he sends troops to Chicago?
I am going to local rallies and posting my photo with my signs on Facebook. I am trying to get my facebook "friends" as well as my real friends used to the idea that it is perfectly normal and even fun to go to protests. Indivisible is stepping in quite a bit, but we need it to scale up to millions.
On Friday, Trump ordered the shutdown of a $4 billion offshore wind farm that is almost compltely built and would power 350,000 homes by next year on the vaguest "national security" grounds. He is using his centralized and massive power to do these things. Someone please tell me, how do we fight back?
Thank you for your comment. I believe Will Rogers said he was not a member of any organized party ā he was a Democrat. It seems to me that most people who get involved do so via Indivisible and/or MoveOn and similar groups but, if they donāt know how to get involved, if they start at Indivisible.org and MoveOn.org, via networking, theyāll find lots of other, smaller, perhaps more local groups and opportunities as well. At the same time, letās do what we can to take care of ourselves ā sleep, eating well, exercise (especially for stress management), and, overall, using positive coping strategies rather than ones that can be detrimental, including recreation and time in community with other people.
Here we are, America, at the tail end of August, and the Trump White House is treating the Constitution like a cocktail napkin at Mar-a-Lago. Forget subtlety. Forget the pretense of law. They are raiding John Bolton, of all people, as if the man is a cartel kingpin instead of a cranky neocon with bad mustaches and worse ideas. If even Bolton, a right-wing hawk who despises Putin, isnāt safe from Trumpās vengeance tour, then who is?
This isnāt about justice. Itās about showing everyone whoās boss. Trump is turning the FBI into his personal goon squad, the Justice Department into a circus, and the military into an occupying force for blue cities. You donāt have to be a scholar of authoritarianism to see what is happening. George Conway, who caught the Bolton raid on video, called it what it is: the beginning of a coup.
And what do we get from Trump in the middle of all this? A giddy show-and-tell of a signed photo from Vladimir Putin, like a lovesick teenager clutching a yearbook scribble. While groceries skyrocket and people beg for relief, the president plays autocrat cosplay with real guns, real raids, and real consequences.
Make no mistake: the coup is not creeping. Itās strutting down Pennsylvania Avenue in broad daylight.
Professor Richardson, your map is clear. The dawn Bolton raid reads as a warning, not a document check. Same day, the White House guts foreign-influence tracking and fires the DIA chief. Clear out the referees before the next play.
The capital show is the set piece. Crime sits near a 30-year low and we still see uniforms staged at monuments. Arm 2,000 Guard, float more, flirt with longer deployments. Not safety. Control.
Abroad, the signal matches the script. Russia bombs a U.S. factory in Ukraine and snubs a summit; inside the Oval, a Putin photo flashed for the cameras. No not policy. Allegiance theater.
The legal cudgel swings next: probes of Schiff, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, while a Texas loyalistās mortgages skate. Maxwell quotes are waved around while the Epstein files miss another deadline. People want groceries, no Medicaid/SNAP cuts, and the files not a circus. Then comes the boast: a 10% stake in Intel and āmore to come.ā That chills markets and rewards loyalty.
Name it plain: retribution is policy; capital control is the set; the law is a stick; the files are the paper they fear. If you must lock rooms to pass maps, you didnāt win the argument. You stole the room.
One step today: call your House member and demand a written, dated statement opposing political payback by federal law enforcement and naming a release schedule for the Epstein files. Californians, circle Nov 4 for the counter-map. Elsewhere, fuel the Texas VRA Ā§2 case. For newsrooms: lead with a weekly ledger crime trend,
Wow! Thanks for highlighting what Timothy Snyder said about fascism! That is precisely what we have here and now. Besides an insatiable lust for absolute power, total support from all the Republicans elites (state legislatures and governors, representatives and senators, judges at every level, a well-packed SCROTUS (Supreme Republican Court of the United States; plus a majority of crazy rich billionaires and their media networks; evangelicals brought up on widely promulgated āChristianā educational materials, and a global network of corporations, dictatorships and targets for mineral extractionā¦.. they have written off the more āliberalā as well as āconservativeā average people as having no value or civil rights as human beings! If youāre not 100% supportive of Every Single Thing that comes out of his mouth, you are a Traitor and not in alignment with his divine imperial majesty! Kiss the ring or die harshly!
Prof. Richardson is again on point. These are other and continuing steps by the regime to stomp out anything like the democratic process. They do nothing but lie, cheat, and steal. Retribution and power grabs are the rule of the current regime. If DC is the roadmap to controlling the country, then we can see how we will be policed in our cities and towns, not to protect us but to intimidate all.
"I am nigh unto 84, an AF vet in intelligence service during the 1960s, serving in S. Korea when JFK was killed, and in Japan when the Pueblo naval security vessel was boarded by NK forces. I am acutely aware of the insecurity most, if not all, Americans are feeling at this troubled time. I am also aware of the contretemps that you were personally affected by the events surrounding your attempts to thwart the authoritarian moves that D. C. was making in the decision by our President to invoke the federal forces to quell yclept "riots" in LA in July, 2025.
"I am now asking you as my Senator to submit a written statement dated and signed that reflects your opposition to any further authoritarian inroads that our President is making in the bevy of actions he has taken and ordered taken in (a) the search of John Bolton's house without probable cause and (b) the similarly ordered presence of the National Guard from other states to Washington, D. C. as a naked threat to the 'balance of power' principles enunciated in our Constitution. As an actor in an earlier attempt to silence you by this President's actors which affected you personally, I expect you to know what we, the people of California, think your position should be in this matter. I hope that you will consider issuing such a statement denouncing Mr. Trump's constant improper, outlandish and out-of-order actions which seem to be now occurring daily.
"I also hope that you will endeavor to ascertain whether other Senators would join you in so opposing this continuing stream of unauthorized presidential actions, which are manifestations of the President's inability and/or unwillingness to obey the Constitution's mandate of the "separation-of-powers" doctrine. I have read Timothy Snyder's works that deal with authoritarianism, namely, "The Road to Unfreedom", "On Tyranny" and "Black Earth", as well as others. If you do nothing, I feel that it will be too late to stop this train from leaving the tracks if the legislative branch does not exercise its constitutionally-created powers to restrain an out-of-control would-be (remember, "I alone can fix it"?) autocrat.
We should consider a big change in our resistance to the Trump administration. Being a super narcissist, he doesn't care what anybody says about his failings. But more importantly, he is cognitively impaired, or as Ms. Richardson has so aptly put it, "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." He is NOT the sole author of his evil deeds. He isn't capable of that complexity. Instead, he simply listens to his MAGA team and thinks, "Oh, that's a good idea."
It's just a matter of time before his own team takes him down and replaces him with someone who has even more malice in his heart and more intelligence to implement control over the country. (Could it be someone who has access to the Epstein files? I can't think of another issue that MAGA voters care about.) By that time, the skeleton of authoritarianism will already be in place and ready for full execution. (Pardon my pun.)
So who in the administration would Agatha Christie include in her list of likely suspects in this scheme? J.D. Vance? Susie Wiles? Stephen Miller? Russell Vought? Pam Bondi? Todd Blanche? Tulsi Gabbard? Laura Loomer (personal advisor)? Kristi Noem? Kash Patel? Chris Wright? Pete Hegseth (useful idiot)? Howard Lutnik? Scott Bessent? Tom Homan? Mike Huckabee (who has no use for Palestinians)? Lee Zeldin? Melanie Trump (reluctant wife)? Honestly, some of these people scare me more than Trump does.
Like Trump but less visibly, these people are acting with impunity. Maybe it's time to start protesting against and telling some of these people, "WE SEE YOU, AND WE DON'T WANT YOUR BAD INFLUENCE IN OUR GOVERNMENT."
I believe Miller has way to much influence on tRump with Patel to back them up along with gastopo Barbie and cheerleader Bannon to prop them all up with the maga base.
I am glad that Heather mentioned Timothy Snyder; I am almost through the fourth of five books I ordered and highly recommend that each person who cares about the legacy that our 250th anniversary is all about run, not walk, to the nearest online bookstore, read reviews of and order "On Tyranny", "The Road to Unfreedom", "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump", Black Earth" and others of his 23 books on the state of affairs surrounding the ever-present phenomenon of "authoritarianism" and the forms it takes in all governments.
Someone on this list asked what we do. We call our senators and representatives, we e-mail them, we if possible get off our couch--or whatever and protest! NO KINGS!! We ask as many tough questions as we can. We dare not be inactive at all! They're coming for all of us!
He *thinks* it's a "retribution presidency?!" He lives for vengeance, and bullying. He's in the position to do that - being King of America. Plus he gets all the money. There's nothing to "think" about.
Two things. I think the āballroomā is a planned arsenal, barracks, staging area for 2028. AND I think the move against mail in ballots is a tactic to allow voter intimidation, esp in southern states.
Sadly, I have NO theories about his adoration of Putin.
Thank you, Heather. I caught your great interview with Jim Acosta Friday. So helpful. Robert Reich offers 5 things we can all do now...call our representatives in Congress (he suggests 5calls.org); keep asking for and attending town halls; join peaceful protests with Indivisible, 50501, ACLU, etc.; boycott corporations that have sold out (like Tesla, Amazon, Home Depot, etc.); protect the vulnerable in your community; and find community. See How to Stop Trump's Second Coup (https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/how-to-stop-trumps-second-coup-the?r=kv2jk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false). Thank you, Heather.
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 ā¤ļøāš©¹š¤š
While you're at it, say a little prayer for DJT, Vladimir Putin, Xijin Ping, Kim Jong Un, and any other despots you can think of. It appears that God is trying to remind us to love our enemies, and contrition is better than demolition.
No can do I guess Iām just not a good enough person
I have 3 beautiful sisters and they all say the same thing. āIām so ugly.ā
If it IS broke, fix it!
Trumpās sympathy for Putin is stronger than Trumpās support for American Citizens!
Trump wants to exhibit his military and police control rather than his loyalty to all Americansā¦ scary as hell now that they will be carrying weapons and lowering requirements for national guard members!
We N0 longer live in a democracyā¦ā¦..
He sold himself to Russia under Gorbachev, back in the 80s, when Putin was still a hungry wolf in the KGB. He's owned by Russia, not the American people. He wants to be like Stalin (although he probably doesn't know anything about Stalin).
None of this is normal. Where is corporate media?? Trump is as crazy as a bag of rats š in a meth lab.
Trump gets closer and closer to autocracy. Scary thoughts.
Trump is sick. Both physically and mentally. Many say heās dying, the problem is, trump
Isnāt our real problem, it is the ones who are really running the show. Does anyone believe that when trump is gone the problem will be gone?
You called it -- it's an intense, difficult summer and, yes, we are at a pivotal point now. Much appreciation for David Cay Johnston, Gil Duran and several others! Heather Cox Richardson, you might consider including David Cay Johnston in one of your "Politics Chats" types of Facebook live/YouTube conversations. He's a favorite guest on many podcasts and cable networks based on his expertise re: Donald, as he calls him, in addition to journalism, law, tax and economic policy and more. If he's not yet hit your radar screen, that might be because he's now teaching full-time at RIT after a lifetime as an award-winning journalist (Pulitzer Prize winner for his economics and tax column at The New York Times) and author of many best-selling books.
We desperately need someplace that we can all come together, plan and execute our resistence. Those of us who can see (and keep up with) what the Trump regime is doing, needs places where we can broadcast it.
And most of all, we need some place where we can pool our money to have the most impact in the coming year. Otherwise we are just chickens with our heads cut off running hither and yon. The Democfatic Party isn't that place (though Newsom may change that) and Substack is not poving to be that place because we simply can't afford to have paid subscriptions to every stellar content provider. How are wegoing to react except with hand wringing when he sends troops to Chicago?
I am going to local rallies and posting my photo with my signs on Facebook. I am trying to get my facebook "friends" as well as my real friends used to the idea that it is perfectly normal and even fun to go to protests. Indivisible is stepping in quite a bit, but we need it to scale up to millions.
On Friday, Trump ordered the shutdown of a $4 billion offshore wind farm that is almost compltely built and would power 350,000 homes by next year on the vaguest "national security" grounds. He is using his centralized and massive power to do these things. Someone please tell me, how do we fight back?
Thank you for your comment. I believe Will Rogers said he was not a member of any organized party ā he was a Democrat. It seems to me that most people who get involved do so via Indivisible and/or MoveOn and similar groups but, if they donāt know how to get involved, if they start at Indivisible.org and MoveOn.org, via networking, theyāll find lots of other, smaller, perhaps more local groups and opportunities as well. At the same time, letās do what we can to take care of ourselves ā sleep, eating well, exercise (especially for stress management), and, overall, using positive coping strategies rather than ones that can be detrimental, including recreation and time in community with other people.
THE COUP IS BEING TELEVISED
Here we are, America, at the tail end of August, and the Trump White House is treating the Constitution like a cocktail napkin at Mar-a-Lago. Forget subtlety. Forget the pretense of law. They are raiding John Bolton, of all people, as if the man is a cartel kingpin instead of a cranky neocon with bad mustaches and worse ideas. If even Bolton, a right-wing hawk who despises Putin, isnāt safe from Trumpās vengeance tour, then who is?
This isnāt about justice. Itās about showing everyone whoās boss. Trump is turning the FBI into his personal goon squad, the Justice Department into a circus, and the military into an occupying force for blue cities. You donāt have to be a scholar of authoritarianism to see what is happening. George Conway, who caught the Bolton raid on video, called it what it is: the beginning of a coup.
And what do we get from Trump in the middle of all this? A giddy show-and-tell of a signed photo from Vladimir Putin, like a lovesick teenager clutching a yearbook scribble. While groceries skyrocket and people beg for relief, the president plays autocrat cosplay with real guns, real raids, and real consequences.
Make no mistake: the coup is not creeping. Itās strutting down Pennsylvania Avenue in broad daylight.
Professor Richardson, your map is clear. The dawn Bolton raid reads as a warning, not a document check. Same day, the White House guts foreign-influence tracking and fires the DIA chief. Clear out the referees before the next play.
The capital show is the set piece. Crime sits near a 30-year low and we still see uniforms staged at monuments. Arm 2,000 Guard, float more, flirt with longer deployments. Not safety. Control.
Abroad, the signal matches the script. Russia bombs a U.S. factory in Ukraine and snubs a summit; inside the Oval, a Putin photo flashed for the cameras. No not policy. Allegiance theater.
The legal cudgel swings next: probes of Schiff, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, while a Texas loyalistās mortgages skate. Maxwell quotes are waved around while the Epstein files miss another deadline. People want groceries, no Medicaid/SNAP cuts, and the files not a circus. Then comes the boast: a 10% stake in Intel and āmore to come.ā That chills markets and rewards loyalty.
Name it plain: retribution is policy; capital control is the set; the law is a stick; the files are the paper they fear. If you must lock rooms to pass maps, you didnāt win the argument. You stole the room.
One step today: call your House member and demand a written, dated statement opposing political payback by federal law enforcement and naming a release schedule for the Epstein files. Californians, circle Nov 4 for the counter-map. Elsewhere, fuel the Texas VRA Ā§2 case. For newsrooms: lead with a weekly ledger crime trend,
Paper wins. Always. www.xplisset.com
Wow! Thanks for highlighting what Timothy Snyder said about fascism! That is precisely what we have here and now. Besides an insatiable lust for absolute power, total support from all the Republicans elites (state legislatures and governors, representatives and senators, judges at every level, a well-packed SCROTUS (Supreme Republican Court of the United States; plus a majority of crazy rich billionaires and their media networks; evangelicals brought up on widely promulgated āChristianā educational materials, and a global network of corporations, dictatorships and targets for mineral extractionā¦.. they have written off the more āliberalā as well as āconservativeā average people as having no value or civil rights as human beings! If youāre not 100% supportive of Every Single Thing that comes out of his mouth, you are a Traitor and not in alignment with his divine imperial majesty! Kiss the ring or die harshly!
Prof. Richardson is again on point. These are other and continuing steps by the regime to stomp out anything like the democratic process. They do nothing but lie, cheat, and steal. Retribution and power grabs are the rule of the current regime. If DC is the roadmap to controlling the country, then we can see how we will be policed in our cities and towns, not to protect us but to intimidate all.
Why doesnāt the National Guard (they are state militia NOT national ) refuse to do rumpās dirty tricks?? Are they all magas?
I submitted this to Senator Padilla just now:
"I am nigh unto 84, an AF vet in intelligence service during the 1960s, serving in S. Korea when JFK was killed, and in Japan when the Pueblo naval security vessel was boarded by NK forces. I am acutely aware of the insecurity most, if not all, Americans are feeling at this troubled time. I am also aware of the contretemps that you were personally affected by the events surrounding your attempts to thwart the authoritarian moves that D. C. was making in the decision by our President to invoke the federal forces to quell yclept "riots" in LA in July, 2025.
"I am now asking you as my Senator to submit a written statement dated and signed that reflects your opposition to any further authoritarian inroads that our President is making in the bevy of actions he has taken and ordered taken in (a) the search of John Bolton's house without probable cause and (b) the similarly ordered presence of the National Guard from other states to Washington, D. C. as a naked threat to the 'balance of power' principles enunciated in our Constitution. As an actor in an earlier attempt to silence you by this President's actors which affected you personally, I expect you to know what we, the people of California, think your position should be in this matter. I hope that you will consider issuing such a statement denouncing Mr. Trump's constant improper, outlandish and out-of-order actions which seem to be now occurring daily.
"I also hope that you will endeavor to ascertain whether other Senators would join you in so opposing this continuing stream of unauthorized presidential actions, which are manifestations of the President's inability and/or unwillingness to obey the Constitution's mandate of the "separation-of-powers" doctrine. I have read Timothy Snyder's works that deal with authoritarianism, namely, "The Road to Unfreedom", "On Tyranny" and "Black Earth", as well as others. If you do nothing, I feel that it will be too late to stop this train from leaving the tracks if the legislative branch does not exercise its constitutionally-created powers to restrain an out-of-control would-be (remember, "I alone can fix it"?) autocrat.
"God bless you for your work on our behalf."
Phil Johnson
AF 11384275
We should consider a big change in our resistance to the Trump administration. Being a super narcissist, he doesn't care what anybody says about his failings. But more importantly, he is cognitively impaired, or as Ms. Richardson has so aptly put it, "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." He is NOT the sole author of his evil deeds. He isn't capable of that complexity. Instead, he simply listens to his MAGA team and thinks, "Oh, that's a good idea."
It's just a matter of time before his own team takes him down and replaces him with someone who has even more malice in his heart and more intelligence to implement control over the country. (Could it be someone who has access to the Epstein files? I can't think of another issue that MAGA voters care about.) By that time, the skeleton of authoritarianism will already be in place and ready for full execution. (Pardon my pun.)
So who in the administration would Agatha Christie include in her list of likely suspects in this scheme? J.D. Vance? Susie Wiles? Stephen Miller? Russell Vought? Pam Bondi? Todd Blanche? Tulsi Gabbard? Laura Loomer (personal advisor)? Kristi Noem? Kash Patel? Chris Wright? Pete Hegseth (useful idiot)? Howard Lutnik? Scott Bessent? Tom Homan? Mike Huckabee (who has no use for Palestinians)? Lee Zeldin? Melanie Trump (reluctant wife)? Honestly, some of these people scare me more than Trump does.
Like Trump but less visibly, these people are acting with impunity. Maybe it's time to start protesting against and telling some of these people, "WE SEE YOU, AND WE DON'T WANT YOUR BAD INFLUENCE IN OUR GOVERNMENT."
I believe Miller has way to much influence on tRump with Patel to back them up along with gastopo Barbie and cheerleader Bannon to prop them all up with the maga base.
I am glad that Heather mentioned Timothy Snyder; I am almost through the fourth of five books I ordered and highly recommend that each person who cares about the legacy that our 250th anniversary is all about run, not walk, to the nearest online bookstore, read reviews of and order "On Tyranny", "The Road to Unfreedom", "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump", Black Earth" and others of his 23 books on the state of affairs surrounding the ever-present phenomenon of "authoritarianism" and the forms it takes in all governments.
Someone on this list asked what we do. We call our senators and representatives, we e-mail them, we if possible get off our couch--or whatever and protest! NO KINGS!! We ask as many tough questions as we can. We dare not be inactive at all! They're coming for all of us!
So what do we do? We know all this. We are watching it in realtime.
He *thinks* it's a "retribution presidency?!" He lives for vengeance, and bullying. He's in the position to do that - being King of America. Plus he gets all the money. There's nothing to "think" about.
Two things. I think the āballroomā is a planned arsenal, barracks, staging area for 2028. AND I think the move against mail in ballots is a tactic to allow voter intimidation, esp in southern states.
Sadly, I have NO theories about his adoration of Putin.
Keep up your good work. Thank you. Jeanne Kinney
I think it will happen way before 2028.
Scary as hell is right!
Thank you, Heather. I caught your great interview with Jim Acosta Friday. So helpful. Robert Reich offers 5 things we can all do now...call our representatives in Congress (he suggests 5calls.org); keep asking for and attending town halls; join peaceful protests with Indivisible, 50501, ACLU, etc.; boycott corporations that have sold out (like Tesla, Amazon, Home Depot, etc.); protect the vulnerable in your community; and find community. See How to Stop Trump's Second Coup (https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/how-to-stop-trumps-second-coup-the?r=kv2jk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false). Thank you, Heather.