The image of National Guard troops, some of them from as far away as Louisiana and Mississippi, in Washington, D.C., spreading mulch around the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin and picking up trash, illustrates that President Donald J.
When will the mainstream news report that the Trump administration is a domestic terrorist organization doing everything it can to make sure Americans suffer and die? This is the greatest story of my 70 year long life. Greater than Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, or the financial fraud that brought NYC to the brink of bankruptcy. WHERE ARE THE HEADLINES???
I get why a malignant narcissist would plot an authoritarian takeover. Even so, much of what they do just seems like reckless sabotage. Like vandalism by a cruel foreign invader. And the MAGA's love it. It's absolutely nuts. The saying is that Hitler made the trains run on time. Other than his tools of intimidation, Trump seems to want to see nothing to run at all.
A lot of it is just too stupid for words. This alone should give us hope. Seemingly designed to produce the greatest outrage in the shortest time possible. Yet still crickets from Thune and Speaker Bobblehead.
And I'm not sure Mussolini ever did make the trains run on time in Italy.
Susan Collins attempted to do a ribbon cutting of a ridiculously long repaving of a short section of US 1 in Searsport, ME.
She was shouted down like Circie (sp) on Game of Thrones with "SHAME SHAME SHAME." She shouted to the hecklers (almost everyone there) to "show some respect."
Someone shouted back, "We respect them, but we don't respect you."
Collins heads the Appropriation committee but is good buddies with Leo and the other theocrats so here is a big "FUCK YOU" to her as well.
GJ. glad to know that Susie Q was heckled as she deserves to be. It is my hope that every time one of the aiders and abettors shows up in public, there are boos and jeers. Our very own Lori suck up, Secretary of Labor, used her praise time at the Cabinet Meeting, to call for Portland to be invaded by jackboots. If she shows her face in Oregon, I hope people are ready to boo and jeer her.
I live in Rome, it is our second home. Mussolini could not do much because Italians did not, do not, and will not listen to or obey any politician telling them what to do. Even Mussolini himself admitted, "It is useless because they are Italians." To all the knee benders in our country, it should be a lesson.
I used to have a Professor -- a Soviet émigré who ended up in Rome. He often said 'nothing works at all in Russia, and nothing really works as it should in Italy.' The difference being that if you don't keep the trains running on time and prepare for the winter in Italy, you'll be uncomfortable and inconvenienced. In Russia, you'll just die (and millions often do). And to compensate for the trains not running on time and the government collapsing every other year or so, the food is always marvelous, the wine delectable, the people and landscape beautiful (in Italy, that is).
I live in Japan and am always amazed that even if a train is one or two minutes late, an apology is announced over the loudspeaker. When I went to France, the bullet train was 30 minutes late and no apology or explanation at all. I was astounded. In Japan, the cleaning crew cleans the bulletin train in seven minutes and bows to the passengers waiting to get on. How can I live any where else?
A bunch people bullied or bullies as kids who never quite got around to growing up. Now they are acting out like brats. Shakespeare nailed in Richard III's soliloquy:
They are ALL incompetent fools. I have many former co-workers (computer programmers) that are working as contractors for the Federal Government.
At least most of them are reasonably competent but they are likely no better than the full time programmers Uncle Sam has on the payroll. The difference is that the oligarchs profit off of each programmer they place and the programmer makes at least $10k more than the government workers each.
Back when I was an aerospace tech writer an acquaintance that worked at Northrop on the B-2 tech manuals that I believe broke new ground in interactive electronic tech manuals was very concerned about losing his job as the entire aerospace industry in California made huge cutbacks (5 or 6 years after the Cold War ended). He did indeed lose the job and was really distraught at the time.
I didn't see him until a year later at a professional society meeting where he seemed much happier. He explained that he had been hired by another contractor who had picked up the contract to continue the work on those manuals, but from a separated location. I believe he said the original sub contractor couldn't effectively manage the coordination required, so another subcontractor replaced them early but still kept him on the job eventually successfully arguing that he had to be on site. He was thrilled to report that he ended up back at the same desk he had under Northrop but now at twice his previous pay (not to mention the new overhead of the new subcontractor's cut).
In my case, I stuck with my company through a period when you could be selected to work 1 or 2 days a week and get either 4 or 3 days of unemployment benefits. It was the only time in my 79 years I ever accepted unemployment, and I only did so to finish the contract delivery of the tech manual for which the government could withhold 20% of the contract value if not delivered (though my main concern was for the end users that needed the best data they could get). I did a brief stint as a contract tech writer (at twice the pay) to make some updates to that manual but refused to take on new work for another company some of our engineers had gone to.
That company couldn't supply accurate schematics and other engineering information and I had seen what happened when HP's manual division had provided great outlines and format but couldn't get the same complete information that had made their manuals the best I had used for many years of service.
The fallacy in the logic of President Reagan was that people from the private sector had an innate drive for efficiency. That implied an inbred profit motive; that view overlooked the impact of an incentive structure.
My dad, uncle and two aunts worked for Uncle Sam for over 30 years each. My uncle was a mailman that walked 5 swing routes for most of his career. My aunt was a nurse in the VA system and my dad was a clerk for the IRS. I'm sure the Republicans would love to contract these jobs, but they aren't going to find anyone that did a better job in these positions.
The moronic Republicans don't understand how many technical jobs there are in the government, like engineers, meteorologists, lawyers, accountants, etc. To them everyone is round widget that can be forced into a square hole.
The problem with the incentive structures were that some produced false economies. A logistics engineer I worked with had been a contractor reorganizing the engineering drawings on launch facilities for the space shuttle at Cape Kennedy after they cut back on all the work after the Apollo Program. The drawings were just dumped in a trailer in random order and substitute parts used to replace originals weren't well documented. He got them back in order and most of the changes properly posted but when he went to Vandenberg to try the same with the supposed to be second shuttle launch site they were so incomplete and disorganized that they never finished the shuttle launch site for polar orbits that the military wanted the space shuttle to become capable of.
Cape Kennedy is ideal for more equatorial orbits that benefit from the earth rotation adding about 1,000 mph going east (would be 1,000 nautical miles at the equator). Those orbits cover most of the inhabited world but don't cover the north and south poles. if they tried to launch westward from Cape Kennedy they would have to make up for the loss of the 1,000 mph added by launching eastward and add another 1,000 mph to match the needed speed to achieve orbit. I believe that shifted the supposed savings of the reusable shuttle, using "cheaper" expendable rockets.
Now we have reusable Space X rockets that solve a lot of problems but have not yet shown me they have a realistic plan to land on the moon or Mars the way the two part Lunar Module did with the descent stage not destroying so much of the landing spot that the lower stage couldn't become the launch pad for an upper stage. If they try it with a large rocket without a suitable launch pad, I'd expect it to blast as much debris back into the ascent engines that could lead to the failure like the first one in Texas. It really isn't that amazing what you can do if you ignore risks and are willing to throw more money at making another plan (without having to pay for all the damage your more careless plans caused.
Have you ever read Daughter of Tine by Josephine Tey? His remains found in a parking lot abd a burial took place several years ago. For those who have any knowledge of scoliosis and kyphosis or interest PBS did a remarkable program in his orthopedic issues. Shakespeare and or his stable of writers portrayed him for the times they all lived in. I really don’t think on him much except for the drama and his cry for his kingdom for a horse.
Yeah, I was think of that book as well as Tey's fellow Canadian T.B. Costain's take of Richard III. The former presented a persuasive case and the latter characterized Richard III's relationship with his brother, Edward V, as a devoted younger sibling, like Senator Kennedy with President Kennedy.
I've long been convinced that there's absolutely nothing new about Donald Trump that hasn't already been covered by The Emperor's New Clothes, any Shakespearean tragedy/history and the Holocaust. He is the culmination of what happens when you don't read history -- starting with fairy tales on down.
HIs cult, on the other hand, is a tougher nut to crack.
Great! Same thought crossed my mind about Shakespeare comic books, too, Gary. At least there would be something to put in Trump's presidential library.
It is embarrassing the way the leaders of the United States of America, bow to a corrupt "want a be" Dictator. As they focus on pleasing this "place holder" of a "leader".....the world turns.
They are feeding their children and grandchildren to the monster "GREED" who is never full, never satisfied....didn't your parents teach you better???? How do you live with yourselves....everyone sees you and we will each and all be harmed by YOUR decisions. The lives of our children and the future of our grandchildren will be better or worse through your decisions.
Are we going to be great or will we surrender to fear, loss, intimidation...etc.
So many of our friends have been encouraged by our example in the past. They have seen our support against self-serving leaders in the past but now..."self-serving" to the max is what our leaders have become!
Those who are fighting for the freedoms for which our forefathers died and suffered are the true Americans ....and I see you : male, female, EVERY HUMAN BEING...no matter how you identify yourself!!!...we are Americans together.
We must protect this amazing nation!
Firefighters!!! THANK YOU!!! This "thankless" job is difficult. You face the possibility of death each day you serve.....each day you work to protect this great land of beauty...this great land that feeds us....provides water for us.....
And to the women who wear their fake crosses....when you die, God is the judge...not a bunch of blind so called Christians who never read God's WORD or if they do are not listening to the HOLY SPIRIT to guide them into truth.
I can hear your "worshipers" as they watch you speak..."O, look at that sweet child report for our President...see that cross...she is one of us...
" Satan is laughing so hard!!! "YEP, ONE MORE FOR ME....I always have room for one more for ME....HELL!!!!...the pretty blonds always get those fools!!!! ...and those "crosses" complete the deal... my very own President "LAWLESS" ..."BOSS" ...."WE'LL MAKE A DEAL WITH SATAN"......Trump...TOGETHER, WE FINISH THE DEAL!!! .....ie the great USA exchanges Freedom for a Dictatorship!
Who thought it would be so easy and with a President ie DICTATOR such as Americans chose!!!
America is lost, but don't worry, I, the evil one have found you...I, the evil one have captured you.
He goes to hell and is met by Satan. Satan tells Trump hell is at full capacity. But, Trump can choose to replace one of three current residents.
Satan shows Trump three doors and tells him he gets to pick who he will replace.
They look behind the first door. It's Mao picking the same patch of rice over and over again.
Trumps says no thanks and they move onto Door Two.
Behind Door Two is Stalin eternally breaking the same rocks with a pick axe over and over again.
Trump again declines seeing that is work, something he's never done.
Satan opens the third door and it's Bill Clinton sitting in the Oval office behind the Resolute Desk. Under the desk in Monica Lewinsky, doing what Monica is famous for, over and over again.
Trump immediately says, "This is it! I'm good with this."
To which Satan says, "OK Monica you're free to go."
It's just a joke. I don't think there is a hell. In the afterlife anyway, not the one we're living through now.
Not only are the Guard being taken from their day jobs and families but they already had duties in their own state now abandoned that DonOLD can pick on as not being run right. It truly IS 1984
Do not forget, HE is the distraction. Our attention needs to be on the Heritage Foundation members of this administration. The Voghts, Millers who pull the strings.
Rickey, one of the first things I learned as a fresh new jail deputy was "When something draws your attention, look beyond it to see what is really going on."
But you’ll see, in a matter of months, when these ignorant followers feel the wrath themselves, of their livelihoods threatened, how they will turn on Trump, Musk, Vought, and their Repub leaders. It’s already happening with farmers in rural communities. They’re turning up at town halls. It will only be a matter of time when these feckless leaders will be gunned down.
“The image of National Guard troops, some of them from as far away as Louisiana and Mississippi, in Washington, D.C., spreading mulch around the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin and picking up trash, illustrates that President Donald J. Trump’s insistence that he needed troops to crack down on violent crime in the nation’s capital was always a cover for an authoritarian takeover.”
Dismantling all government systems, using police tactics to intimidate people in the street, and firing career public service personnel puts the country in the position of having no recourse when Donald drags people off to jail, kicks them out of work, or uses his position to stuff the coffers of himself, his family, and his corporate toadies with public money.
He is making a sham show of preventing “violent” crime, but White Collar Crime has become his Standard Operating Procedure as head of government. Economic Crme is apparently something to brag about, not prevent.
Better watch it Kristen or a MAGA Karen might get hit with a real “truth”. I was going to point out that trains were Benito’s bag, not Shitler’s, but I like to keep it simple. Thanks Kristin,
Actually it was Mussolini who (allegedly) "made the trains run on time." The German trains, even then, were global models of dependability and efficiency.
As at 85 I am old enough to remember, this was -- in the years immediately after the war -- the commonplace defense of the Italians' infatuation with Il Duce, whom they later overthrew and hung by the heels. Raised in a left-leaning family, of course I knew it to be hyperbole. But I admittedly erred in my (hasty) omission of the adverb "allegedly," which I have inserted by way of correction. Thank you.
What’s is shocking is the willingness of so many (all?) in the GOP to just bend over to his will…as he gleefully pillages our great country. The smiles, and then their shock when their constituents push back! The GOP are the brown shirts.
Keep pushing! His poll numbers are terrible and inflation from the tariffs is only starting to show. Let your representatives know that you are paying attention.
What we need are poll numbers for every Republican in office. They’re the ones that can be re-elected indefinitely and hold all the power. They’re needed to be taken down.
Not sure how many people were taking trains 80 years ago and still alive now to know that trains ran on time. If Hitlers trains ran on-time they were only those going to the concentration/death camps.
Hello Margaret.... DJT is notoriously Lazy... DJT doesn't want to Govern, DJT wants to Dictate at a Whim unimpeded... DJT never Plans, DJT just wants to Perform on a Whim for the Cameras...
Apache, And now a puppet to a monstrous cabal who keep him stirred up while he deteriorates before our eyes and the country does as well. Lots of people who voted for death star are going to find out that the federal help they counted on is no longer there if they haven't already. This is already ridiculous. Your house and property are endangered by a wildfire and ICE shows up to check the crew and arrests a couple of them. And who in the hell will want to visit DC.
Also, do not forget DJT has a mental illness that goes untreated and is DUMB as a rock! He is NOT a smart person, as he claims, and CERTAINLY NOT a genius, as he's also claimed. He's a blithering idiot with the nuclear codes; that should trouble ALL OF US!
The right-wingers are destroying the infrastructure of the federal government purposely. All services that used to benefit the public good have been decimated and all the funding that the trump and his fascist co-conspirators, the GOP (fascist party), are going to the ultra-rich.
Federal taxes will stay the same, and rise, and everybody except the top 1% will lose 99% of the services we paid for; they have stolen all the money already assigned by Congress over the last seven months.
Make America Sick Again is the slogan that fits the HHS under trump and bobby jr. In fact it looks like they are actively working to kill us.
It is now possible for the Social Security administration to reach in to your bank accounts without going to court to prove that you have been over paid. Does anybody know if there is a class action suit to protect our savings from government overreach? Do you trust trump, Musk, or any right-winger not to rob you blind? I sure don't. Even with all of the protests we have had, it appears that most people have no idea what is going on. If they did, they would be up in arms about it today.
I believe that with the deportation policy, the tariff policies, the agencies gutted of funds and employees, the economy will break catastrophically within the following year. It is almost too late to stop this coup.
Americans have been lulled into thinking our government will continue to function as it always has, regardless of which Party is in power. Generally, they pay NO ATTENTION to what the government is doing unless and until it hits them personally. Most of the people I know who are busy raising their families are simply not paying any attention to politics; they are either too busy or simply don't think there's anything to worry about bc there never has been before. How do we engage these folks? The time to act is NOW lest it be too late! Once gone, it will take DECADES (if EVER) to return things to "normal,"
But DESTROY GOVERNMENT? Professor Richardson just exposed that old and tired Republican line about private contractors being more efficient than civil servants for the lie it is. The private pro-bono contractor Nazi Elon, friend of Nazi Felon, is “Exhibit A” with his DOGE “willy-nilly” job cutting resulting in a Federal government nightmare.
Why we wonder is Trump closing down the Federal government but for the military he misuses replacing deported Home Depot day workers? As Maya Angelou is quoted as having said in another context, "You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been." In the past the Trump Grifter Organization had been raking in millions swindling admission to the Trump University (RIP), boxes of Trump Steaks (RIP), and even now hawking crappy Made In China "God Bless the USA" Bibles. But now Trump shenanigans have grown Bigly thus it’s reasonable to suspect where Trump is going is public corruption with conversion being involved. For example, God only knows how many tens or hundreds of billions of dollars or more Trump has banked off shore from the sales of his $TRUMP alone and for what in exchange? I say Trump is selling the U.S.A. to the highest bidder. Consider that Putin wants more than just the Ukraine never becoming a member of NATO. Putin want’s the U.S.A. out of NATO as well. Trump’s past rhetoric includes saying U.S. support for NATO allies is conditional on their defense spending and he would "encourage" Russia "to do whatever the hell they want" to NATO countries that were not meeting their defense spending goals. This year Trump also has considered moving a major portion of U.S. forces from Europe to Asia thus signaling a reduced U.S. focus on European security. Under Biden the U.S. passed a law that a U.S. president cannot unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from NATO without approval from Congress. But Trump now owns Congress. Will DOGE soon look into the $567 million cost of being a member of NATO in 2024 and the approximately $860 billion cost for the our global military obligations? I say Trump will pull us out of NATO which will allow Putin to do whatever the hell he wants in Europe and Trump will laugh all the way to the bank as global security is deeply at risk.
Before there was NATO other countries banded together to fight power-hungry foes. The U.S. under tRump thinks they can bully the World. The U.S. is not the World. Putin is having a very hard time with courageous Ukraine. Many other countries support Ukraine and NATO. Nobody, including most Americans despise bullies. Right now this U.S. administration is extremely unpopular nationally and internationally. Its deal-making is not helping anyone. Its government cannot function properly with all its cuts. RESIST!
I am in awe of Zelensky, his family, his bravery, his determination.
He will not stop because his love of freedom for the population of Ukraine will not subside. He is giving his life!!! He exists to keep Ukraine free !!!
Zelensky knows and respects Ukraine's history. We see so much in its buildings built in the past and now being damaged by Putin! We see children and older citizens being terribly wounded or killed.
Zelensky does not love Ukraine because of any treasure that may be hidden in its territory. He loves the people who make Ukraine great and that is every person. He admires the men on the front line and their families. He pushes on for each one of them!
He is determined that citizens will be able to work or return to work without fear, children can safely attend schools and are taught truth not government imposed lies! He wants to see families reunited.
Something true, and something important, Americans know FREEDOM IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR!!!! As Americans we must continue to support Ukraine!!!
I am grateful for every country supporting Ukraine. If we do not continue supporting Ukraine...we are saying we too want to be controlled by a government that tells us who to vote for, what our children will be taught ..by a few ...for the power of a few through "brainwashing".
Currently, very important and capable persons are being "kicked out" of their jobs of care and supervision of our waterways, the inspection of chemicals used on our crops, transportation systems, what we can see on TV or hear on the radio...etc.
I will never forget the person who rented land on our farm who used dangerous poisons....I suppose to kill insects and/or weeds. Our fish pond was covered afterward with dead fish. It was a horrible site!!
Is this another reminder that Trump is an ignorant "leader" and does not care or is so mentally lacking that he has no clue concerning the consequences of forcing important inspectors who keep us safe out of their jobs...just for more money to put into his pockets and the pockets of his greedy minions.
Yes, I will continue participating in each march in which I am able but protest without action will not stop the disasters supported by the current Republican Party as well as foreign forces who are eager to profit off our demise!
Thank you ZELENSY for showing us what a true leader looks like!!!!
Yes to everything in your comment. Zelensky is a hero!!! Europe especially recognizes this!!! Plus, MAGA, as Prof Richardson has mentioned, is despised for its attacks on democracy, environment, health, education! We'll keep on being vocal, active in the courts and in the streets! I'm in Canada but as a U.S. citizen, I am vocal as hell!!!
Every person in any capacity of government who has stood up to him and told the TRUTH has been fired or removed from their jobs w/pay (for now). He is creating fear and chaos in every department of government ON PURPOSE to destroy it! Let's be clear. NONE of these actions are for the BENEFIT of Americans! They are ALL for the benefit of a select few of wealthy folks...the 1% that will OWN US ALL if we don't act NOW! We MUST do more than peacefully protest, but WHAT?!
Ayesha, I am seeing that rather than "most" Americans despising bullies, they are both idolizing and becoming them, at least in the MAGAt world. I think that, in their minds, bully = power.
George McFly to the white courtesy phone, please.*
*Sort of an obscure reference to the second "Back to the Future" movie. Earlier this month, reference was made that the Biff Tannen character was used to model ffpotus.
We read similar threads! If only the film was real! And you Michael J Fox has been so brave in dealing with his disability. He is going to be in another show which I find amazing.
MAGA is NOT most Americans! They got in by a very small margin and that due to heavy gerrymandering. Check the numbers. Also due to millions who did not vote.
The mess left by Trump's heroes like Hitler (whom he wanted to have similarly loyal generals as) needs to sink in, few realize the massive needs.
"In 1947, the United Nations’ recently created Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was caring for 6,795,000 displaced Europeans in 762 camps. Yes, we had refugee camps in Europe in 1945. And the US alone – and this is before the Marshall Plan, before NATO – was spending $10 billion dollars a year on that, on caring for those refugees."
See 1949 Europe on the ropes - NATO’s Anxious Birth
"...World War Two left behind a terrible legacy which even today it takes a great deal of imagination as well as historical knowledge to fully comprehend.
Let me just give you some statistics. In World War Two 36.5 million Europeans were killed. That is the equivalent of the total population of France in 1939. Nineteen million of those were civilians. It doesn’t also of course incorporate all of those who died from natural causes or all of the babies that were not born. The death toll created an enormous imbalance between men and women. In the Soviet Union in 1945, there were 20 million more women than men. In 1946, in the German suburb of Triptal, there were only left 181 adult men between the ages of 19 and 21, but there were 1105 women. A whole generation of Germans including for example Gerhardt Schroeder, the former German Chancellor, were brought up by their moms. There were no dads around. They were either incarcerated in the Soviet Union or had died in the war. There were many orphans. In Berlin in 1945 there were 53,000 lost children wandering the streets, 49,000 orphans in Czechoslovakia, 80,000 in the Netherlands and as many as 200,000 in Poland. Those who did survive were underfed. The calorie intake in Vienna was only about 800 calories a day in 1945. The infant mortality in Austria four times the 1938 rate. In the British zone of Berlin, in December 1945, the death rate of children equalled one in four. The calorie intake in Germany was about 2,500 calories in 1941. It had gone down to around 1000 calories in 1946 and as everybody knows rationing was a very big feature of the post-war years.
The other issue is displaced people. I mean we’ve heard a lot about ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, ethnic cleansing after World War Two was infinitely worse. Stalin and Hitler between them managed to uproot 80 million people in Europe between 1939 and 1945. Thirteen million Germans were expelled from Central and Eastern Europe after the war. In 1947, the United Nations’ recently created Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was caring for 6,795,000 displaced Europeans in 762 camps. Yes, we had refugee camps in Europe in 1945. And the US alone – and this is before the Marshall Plan, before NATO – was spending $10 billion dollars a year on that, on caring for those refugees.
Another issue, the damage to infrastructure. Twenty-five million homeless people in the Soviet Union, 20 million homeless people in Germany, Hamburg alone had half a million homeless people in 1945. If you look at the level of destruction, again even today these figures still strike me as incredible. 70,000 villages, 1700 towns, 32,000 factors, 40,000 miles of railway track destroyed in the Soviet Union alone. France, which suffered of course far less physical damage than the Soviet Union, still lost half a million homes. I could carry on talking about the wastage of agricultural land or even a country like Norway, again which suffered little war damage, still lost 14 % of its industrial capital. These awesome statistics of course could be repeated almost ad infinitum when you talk about World War Two.
Sometimes indeed it’s better to give you just a sort of a quotation from an observer at the time that sums up the situation. Here is Hamilton Fish – lovely name Hamilton Fish – who was the editor of the US Foreign Affairs magazine. He described his impressions of Europe in July 1947. “There is too little of everything. Too few trains, trams, buses and automobiles to transport people to work on time, let alone to take them on holiday. Too little flour to make bread without adulterants, and even so, not enough bread to provide energies for hard labour. Too little paper for newspapers to report more than a fraction of the world’s news. Too little seed for planting and too little fertiliser to nourish it. Too few houses to live in and not enough glass to supply them with window panes. Too little leather for shoes, wool for sweaters, gas for cooking, cotton for diapers, sugar for jam, fats for frying, milk for babies, soap for washing...”
You are correct re their intelligence. Of course, intelligence can be applied for good or evil, as you know. Of the many, too many, who did not vote in last U.S. election, there are probably various reasons (too much in-fighting in Congress, general apathy re politics, wrongly assuming their vote didn't matter, etc.). I will bet more of them will be voting going forward, and not for this mess.
Albert, I agree. I am especially perplexed by the destruction of the emergency weather warning systems. How does it benefit them for people to die in tornadoes and hurricanes that they didn’t know were coming? It’s insane.
Its ALL about making government FAIL so people won't ever be PROgovernment again. When hurricanes and tornadoes level cities and towns, NO ONE will come to help them save the locals. Trump says the STATES should help them. All the while, HE'S STEALING the money Congress voted for to provide for such emergencies, and NOTHING is being done about it! This destruction of our norms must be STOPPED NOW! How?
Big differences between Putin and Trump, Putin knows what he is doing, he fears nothing or no one, he is "KGB" through and through. He is a warrior. He is fearless. He knows his opposition...he has studied the situation. He takes nothing for granted. He has long term goals and he is patient.
He takes really good care of himself...he is prepared!
Trump certainly CARES ABOUT PUTIN! THAT fact is OBVIOUS. WHAT does that man have on him? What has Putin promised Trump in return for destroying America, its people, its government, its economy? King of the oligarchs?
I'm not going to bother to read past "that old tired" private contractors line (which is correct)! Quit wasting time complaining about T***p and the Republicans (who I hate as much or worse than anyone else in these comments) and start asking hard questions about how we got here!
Traumatized by Reagan’s landslides the neoliberal stooges in the DLC teed up Bill Clinton to declare "the era of Big Government is over", kick Unions to the curb, align with Newt Gingrich to “end Welfare as we know it” (among about a dozen other hard-right policy outrages that should have made Democratic voters' heads explode… spoiler alert - they didn’t) and put the Democratic Party SOLIDLY in bed with Wall St., Silicon Valley and Corporate/OnePercent BigDonors the last 30+ years straight while regular Americans got the crumbs that dropped off the neoliberal “Third Way” triangulation table with Republicans in Congress and every Democratic voter I know cheered it on and…
We’ve been on a glide-path to Authoritarianism and Oligarchy ever since!!!
And the best the Democrats can do now is “Vote Blue No Matter Who” for the Moderate Centrist candidates who won’t rock the boat… instead of fighting for the American people!!! Just look at ALL the comments on this post... how much blaming the Republicans (which they DESERVE) are people going to do before the look in the mirror and admit...
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS DONE NOTHING TO CONFRONT REPUBLICANS AND FIGHT BACK since the party made the choice I describe above!!!
Vote Democrat Lockstep. There are only two teams on the field. Everyone else is just a streaker trying to steal the show for $$, Bernie included; especially the Green party which is actually a wing of the Republican party.
WHAT?!? There are only two viable political parties in the United States!?! Wow… I didn’t know that. Thanks for reminding me what a waste of time it is to try to smarten people up on social media!!!
My point is that Democrats like you have sat by for decades and watch the Democrats do NOTHING but collaborate with the Republicans building the mess we are in now! Yes we ONLY have TWO viable parties (wow… what a news flash) and we have no control over the Republicans and the only thing we CAN control is making the Democrats fight back against them and… Democrats have been doing NOTHING but rolling over and showing their soft underbelly for 30 years… while YOU have been cheering them on!!! It’s as responsible for the mess we are in as any T***p voter!
I agree with you, Albert. "There are only two teams in the field."
And there are so many issues! I want to pick one and call my Reps today (doesn't matter if they are all Republican and doesn't matter which issue). I am going to thank my Senators for voting to restore funding for DC, and give my Congressional Rep a hard time for not taking it up. We simply must let them know we are paying attention and not numb.
I think the bigger thing to focus on is how we go on from here. We can’t change history but we can change the future. I wish I had answers. There are Democrats working for change, don’t ignore them or dismiss them. Support them. Write them thank you letters, tell them you think they’re moving in the right direction and encourage them to convince their colleagues to do the same. Then write those not on board and point them in the direction of those who are working on changes.
Remember..........he is only the spokesperson/salesman for our oligarchs. First they/ Leo "privatized" the SCOTUS. The rest is history - if we allow it. Keep fighting.
I really think he wants to be in charge if the United States. He thinks of himself as a brilliant CEO.
He wants to hire and fire people like it’s a TV show.
He wants respect, but doesn’t understand that it is earned. He wants to control everything. That’s how his narcissistic personality works.
He’s so narcissistic, that he thinks he deserves all this attention, praise, and honor.
He wants all the prizes that the world hands out. The Peace Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors. He doesn’t want to earn them, he just wants them because in his mind he deserves them.
He is weak and fears being exposed for that, but no one wants to call him weak. He fears being exposed as a coward, but no one wants to call him that. He is a fraud, but no one wants to call him that. Then there are the complicit members of this administration that pretend how great he is and no one calls them out for their lies and cowardice. When was the last time any media person ever looked across the table at Bessett or Lutrick and said "All of these economic ideas have been tried before and the results lead to the Great Republican Depression of the 1930s, so why are we trying them again?" I would be happy to hear any Sunday morning show ask that question. I would love for the to on the editorial page of every newspaper. It would be great if the Wall Street Journal asked it. I have written all three of my Congressional reps and asked them that question - crickets.
His governance is so irrational that it has to be either incompetence or irrationality. Or possibly intentional. I think I see Stephen Miller's finger prints on it.
IMO it is doubtful Trump has any cash in a bank. Trump loves Gold for three reasons. First it is the color of Urine. Second it holds value. Finally, during the Great Depression, people referred to cash as king because most who had cash beforehand deposited it in banks which failed. Trump is selling the U.S. for a mountain of gold.
As the value of the US dollar decreases, the value of Trump's crypto increases. Congress, especially Democrats, should not have voted to pass the GENIUS Act (crypto bill). It fails to adequately regulate crypto. The only safe form of crypto is CBDCs -- central bank digital currencies -- i.e., in the US, if we were more functional than now, that'd be stable coins issued by the Federal Reserve as authorized by Congress. Without adequate regulation, Trump and others can continue to enrich themselves but the cost is policy that makes our economy and the world's economy even less stable than it would've been with responsible crypto regulations in place. The budget bill, being the largest transfer of wealth upwards and so much more, will most likely cause a significant recession according to trusted economists.
Remember, it's not just Trump - it's the Republican Party and the authors of Project 2025. Their goal is the destruction of our government and multi-ethnic society only to be replaced by a white Christian theocratic autocracy.
Don’t forget the real culprits: the 77 million Americans who voted, with malice aforethought, for a malicious thug whose calling card says “cruelty is the point.” We will find out a little over a year from now whether any significant fraction of those louts have sufficient decency to vote for Democrats.
I hope people remember that Trump is the public distracting puppet and that although the statement snd actions related to his blatant narcissism are a useful shiny penny and provide much fodder for those of us on Substack, he is not controlling the scenarios that we see being played out every day in the media. So much is directed by those connected to Project 2025 ( some players we know like Vought and Miller, snd many remain hidden behind the scenes). And it is all rubber stamped by Republican members of Congress any number of whom COULD break ranks and stop the whole shenanigan. But they don’t. So rather than saying -Trump called out the National Guard or Trump insulted Zelensky or Trump is building a fancy new ballroom, we need to be saying the GOP is insulting Zelensky or the Congress is sending the Guard to DC and Chicago or the Republican members of the Congress are hiding the truth in the Epstein case. Because if they rose up and did their duty to America, they could have and even now can throw a tremendous load of sand in the destructive actions going on here, and reveal what is going on in the decimation of our government and of T heir future. The law of unintended consequences will make itself know. States which get hammered by this fall’s weather for lack of a robust NOAA and FEMA will point their fingers at their self serving congresspeople. Their own houses will be washed away. Their own children will contract measles snd die. Their own identities will be sold on the dark web and their bank accounts emptied. They will go down with the ship of state for lack of doing their job and serving the people. STAND UP!
Well, he wants to maintain an economy that fills his bank account with cash … Eventually, he’s going to put the country on the same economic footing Putin has created in Russia … Even Putin's oligarchs have to stash their money outside of their country … their own country’s economy is in the toilet.
Trump is definitely doing to the US what he did to those casinos in Atlantic City.
There is a lovely comedy and later film called You Can’t Take It With You. Apparently many of these folks never saw or experienced that wonderful 1930’s screwball comedy. To all our great dismay and regret.
After 6 bankruptcies, dozens of shuttered businesses and the brains of a turnip, he really is incapable of doing much thinking at all.
Trump has never for even a single second, thought about doing anything for anyone but himself. He still thinks that Putin will someday allow him to build a Trump tower or at least keep quiet about all of the sex trafficking Trump and Epstein did using Russian banks.
Your last sentence says it ALL. "or at least keep quiet about all of the sex trafficking Trump & Epstein did USING RUSSIAN BANKS". AND THAT AMERICA IS WHY PUTIN HAS HIM BY THE BALLS.
IMHO, Russia as has been "grooming" Trump since the late 1980s. They are masters at playing the long game. It's their use of him as a high-class money launderer that allowed him to create and maintain the illusion of success. Putin has the receipts from back then but he doesn't need them because he's a Trump whisperer who knows the power he has and uses it judiciously. None of this intersects with Epstein.
The difference is that he's oblivious to it. In one of HCR's recent videos she points out that his handlers are keeping him focused on the surface things he's comfortable with: building and decorating.
He is Putinizing us.. Cement his own control. Gain access to the economic returns and funnel them to his personal bank account. Dismantle any chance that governmental and legal steps can stand in his way. Become the unchallenged ruler, like Putin. But he is not as smart, experienced in international strategy, or as knowledgeable in spy craft and subterfuge as Putin is.
Trump and every Republican since Richard Nixon. Small government - get rid of bloat - fire those Civil servants who waste taxpayer money - give to the wealthy so they can trickle down some crumbs to the rest of us - Repeal the Affordable Care Act, Repeal Roe vs. Wade, Savor GUNS and keep prayers handy. This is not Trump alone. These are Republicans who have fought the American People and Democracy their entire lives. Including Bill Cassidy. Especially Bill Cassidy.
I disagree. The dumpty trumpty WANTS the chaos to destroy everything so he can become (obstensibly) king by ‘rescuing’ the country and receive the accolades that he deserves. Horses deserve clean stalls but they still shit there.
Respectfully, I disagree. I think “out in the street” protests do not have the effect they once did. Why? Because politicians don’t care. They ate t afraid because they are mostly safely gerrymandered. Those protests used to scare politicians to listen to their constituents. Also, major news was three channels and would cover these thoroughly.
Now it’s maybe thirty seconds. And for every clip of peaceful protesters, there’s 1000 on social media of violence, whether it was doctored or was clipped in from something that happened years ago.
I look at the women March….one million, completely peaceful and then what happened…? Reproductive rights stripped and women fired Willy nilly as DEI hires.
And we are in more dangerous territory now. The guardsmen are armed BECAUSE Stephen Miller wants blood in the streets. Blood in the streets is grounds for a national emergency and a federal take over. That’s the goal. Take over universities, take over the monetary system, take over the media and take over cities that do not agree with you in order to take or prevent their voting you out. If guardsmen and ICE agents are telling firefighters, judges and policemenr to go pond sand, what are they going to do to a 21 year old kid screaming in their face? I’m guessing knock him down and then what? I’m guessing a crows would naturally react and them what be fired upon?
What has seem to work in 2025 is a combination of what Newsom and Pritzker are doing. But it needs expansion. We need a Newsomesque version of Miller, Vought, Vance, Theil….we need something (and not just Newsom) to draw attention to the absurdity of what is happening. We also need great speakers like Priyzker to bring in the serious without losing people who have a 20 second attention span.
This is not the sixties. This is 2025 and we need to adapt. I don’t want to see kids and the elderly or union workers shot in the streets. These people not only hope for that, they have their fingers in the trigger. Maybe start mind fucking theme into turning on each other. I don’t know. But in the street has backfired into Americans only seeing looting and shit lit on fire. We simply don’t see the peaceful protests being broadcast and it has yet to produce results.
"We simply don’t see the peaceful protests being broadcast and it has yet to produce results."
Simply because the legacy media are blacking out protests does not mean they are not effective. See Tesla protests and the results. See Erica Chenoweth's research on mass movements. See the long, long history of protests and their results. Look at the magnitude of protests occurring in Europe.
The protests in the sixties were very effective and have long served as a model for non-violent intervention by a population.
As to getting shot. There is an informal consensus among blacks that participating in street protests would indeed raise the level of a protest to a riot. I invite you to read the information posted by Indivisible and other very credible organizations on how to maintain a peaceful protest.
In fact you might want to read up on the organizations protesting all across this Country right now. I have been in the streets protesting since the Vietnam War. There is a spirit and patriotism there that is so compelling.
And finally. I salute my hat to the millions of Americans and the peoples of other Countries who day in and day out get up out of their chairs, leave the safety of their homes and take to the streets in passionate support of their beliefs. It is a humbling thing to witness.
If you haven't already protested I recommend you find a protest on Labor Day.
This isnt true. And if anything this is something written by a strategic troll because it may seem thoughtful yet it is not. Many people are deriving momentum for continued action by showing up at marches. This is good. Also, the videos and images that do go out not only to our nation but to the rest of the world illustrate that the people overwhelmingly are not approving of the government actions. Should at some point other countries find they need to step in, it will be because they DO see the protests. Stop being a troll.
I am so far from being a troll. I am emphatically for democracy and 1000% against Trump and the people who are his puppeteers.
My point and my sincerest apologies that I didn’t make it more clear or articulate it better is we should protest against all of this. I just disagree that in the streets type protests are not the best way to go and do t seem to be the most effective in THIS America in THIS era in 2025. What worked in 1965 simply doesn’t work as well in 2025. We are also dealing with an entirely different beast in the MAGA party. Maybe Nixon wouldn’t have batted an eyelash if citizens were gunned down during a protest but the Congress of 1965, the SCOTUS of 1965 and most important
Y the citizenry of 1965 would have given a damn. So would have the majority of the Republican Party. We cannot say the same about any of those entities in 2025.
But that doesn’t mean I think we should roll over. Democrats lost because they didn’t adjust to the times they are living in. Boycotting Tesla and hitting these people in e only place they care about….the pocket has been successful. Making fun of Trump like Newsom has done has FINALLY grabbed the attention our resistance so desperately needs.
All I’m saying is that I think a million consumers saying they are not going to buy a single item for a weekend or a week has proven more effective than marching in the streets and potentially being arrested, maimed or losing the middle of America our side needs. I just think if you want a politician to pay attention in 2025, picketing his office will pale in comparison to boycotting the businesses of his largest donors.
And I’d add….another problem. I don’t have to nor I should have to pass a purity test on my commitment to democracy and called a troll because I have a different opinion on how to effectively combat this fascism.
Approximately 60% of Americans do not approve of Trump's presidency. IOW, the word is out on the street about what Trump is doing. So the problem is not so much that the mainstream media is not reporting what is going on, but rather that there doesn't seem to be leadership to do anything about it. Even Newsom and Pritzker are reacting, not forging ahead.
That’s been my big complaint for a while now…WHERE are our leaders? We the People are angry and ready to fight, but WHAT exactly do we do? We need leadership! Instead, crickets!
I’ll be out there in the streets on Labor Day but exactly WHAT does that accomplish except to show how many oppose this regime. It doesn’t stop them from doing anything! I just read the House passed a bill to allow access to our National Forests for logging! Cutting of old growth trees and destroying habitats for many endangered species just to give his rich friends MORE PROFITS! Or how about ICE arresting firefighters in the act of fighting a wild fire! How does protests stop THAT?
"Though it defies consensus, between 1900 and 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts. Attracting impressive support from citizens that helps separate regimes from their main sources of power, these campaigns have produced remarkable results, even in the contexts of Iran, the Palestinian Territories, the Philippines, and Burma."
They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement, information and education, and participator commitment. Higher levels of participation then contribute to enhanced resilience, a greater probability of tactical innovation, increased opportunity for civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for the regime to maintain the status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents’ erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. They find successful nonviolent resistance movements usher in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, this book originally and systematically compares violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, Chenoweth and Stephan find violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.
Vietnam was a totally different era; the rules have all changed now.
This administration is all about instilling FEAR in us so we cowar in our homes typing on social media. They don't LISTEN to us; they do
EXACTLY what they want, when they want. I like peaceful protests for no other reason than it reinforces my OWN commitment to FIGHT BACK...I get teary-eyed at every protest to see my fellow Americans DOING SOMETHING! So, Barbara, I concede your point, but assert we still need MORE!
Like where is Schumer? I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel betrayed. United we stand, etc. etc. I have trust in Oregon’s people in the senate, and my representative in the house, but how many don’t? A huge number I think. How can we vote for people we can’t depend on, we just can’t take the lesser of two evils—lesser and greater, they’re still evil. And how do we hold them accountable? A certain number of town halls should be required for all people in Congress, and all precincts should be covered with everyone invited. None of the ass kissers only. And no walking off stage—they need to have the balls or tits to face their constituents!
The most accurate response to the "where are our leaders" question is this:
The Democratic Party, terrified of opposition from below, is seeking to chloroform the population about the real state of American democracy. The Democrats fear that exposing the true character of Trump’s coup and the social conditions that underlie it would encourage mass opposition that they cannot control.
I disagree as well. The Republicans are in control of the Federal government, not the Democrats. The Democrats are doing everything they can but they can't change what they don't control without violence.
If you substitute "the Corporate media" and "the Republican Party" for Democrat Party I could almost agree.
Disagree at will; that does not alter the "Democratic" (sic) Party's seven-decade history of political betrayals that prove its true post-JFK function was to serve the "Republican" (sic) Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party as its Fifth Column. Start with the Tonkin-Gulf incident (if not with 22 November 1963 and its aftermath, the Warren Commission included); then there's Carter's Christian misogyny and sneaky neoliberalism; next the Clintons' multiple betrayals (hers the bogus, intended-to-fail healthcare scam, notably rewarded in 1996 -- look it up, if you dare -- by maximum payoffs from the insurance cartel); then after those knives in our backs, the presidency of Barack the Betrayer, whose "change we can believe in" is the most malicious (and the most ironically revealing) Big Lie in U.S. presidential history; next the Biden-Harris denouement, complete with entirely rational NYT-caliber speculation the Democrats were deliberately throwing the election; and finally -- the terminal punctuation on our national epitaph -- Schumer's unconditional surrender.
Argue to your heart's content, you cannot erase the memories or alter the terrible truths of these historical events, some of which I covered for local newspapers, all of which I followed closely.
As to why the Democrats behave as they do, the WSWS analysis is the only hypothesis that addresses all the variables, whether economic (the plutocracy's zero-tolerance ownership of the party); political (the party's desperate, anti-New-Deal fear -- and absolute suppression -- of its tiny progressive minority); or sociological (the party's tacitly genocidal hostility to the non-collegiate and lower-income populations, including the cast-off "surplus workers" targeted in response to the party's owners' oft-expressed fear they'll rise up in [unmanageable] rebellion). In which context, note the zero-tolerance theocracy imposed by the [plutocracy-supported] Christonazi rebellion makes those victims entirely manageable.
The Rev Sharpton said the Democrats and Independent candidates need to focus on affordability.
Trump promised on DAY ONE to lower grocery prices. They've only gone up even more. Gasoline and electricity are spiking. Rents have been spiking across the country. Hundreds of businesses have gone bankrupt or been forced to layoff employees.
Most of the Trump voters actually believed that Trump gives a shit about them. 10 years and they still haven't figured out that he is a fucking moron and the world's greatest liar.
With the decimation of FEMA as well as reductions to the National Weather Service, etc. and the silencing of the Corp for Public Broadcasting, perhaps this country's wakeup call will be the sound of people shouting "Help!!!" when the next Katrina strikes, and thousands are dead, hundreds of thousands or more are displaced, and there is no federal response. Perhaps then the true effects of this grossly corrupt incompetence will be felt and recognized.
(Personally, I'm rooting for a targeted asteroid, which would give us a better chance of erasing the trumperror.)
Yes, they do. But leaders--whether they be organizers, candidates, or educators--are still needed. I think that when people don't have strong civic education, when a law was needed to guarantee the right to time off on Election Day in order to vote, when our highly materialistic lifestyle virtually demands two-earner households, and more, then a focus or rallying point is needed.
Most of my friends *are* protesting, writing letters, calling Congress, showing up at town meetings, etc. They are not the lazy sideliners that you portray by this statement. But what all of these individual and group efforts need to combat the feeling of helplessness is a central rallying point with a voice, a face, and a presence. And we need it quickly.
Problem is, five decades of conditioning in the neoliberal rat maze and seven decades of the Democrats' "change-we-can-believe-in" political betrayals have -- exactly as our masters intended -- utterly destroyed the We-the-People consciousness that once enabled most of us to set aside our doctrinal differences and unite in the common humanitarian endeavor that, despite stubborn enclaves of perpetual racist and misogynist hatred, was nevertheless the true essence of American exceptionalism. Which -- tragically (and again as our masters intended) -- has enabled our true exceptionalism to be forever undone by the unspeakably vile triumph of Donald the Destroyer and his Christonazi/Neoconfederate rabble.
Largely because of the exemplary influence of my Marxian father, I have been an activist since my 17th year, am now an activist at age 85 and will remain an activist until I am no more. Though the obviously irremediable Christonazification of a huge, mostly white-male-supremacist segment of the U.S. 99.9 Percent into what amounts to a permanent lynch mob disproves the Marxian definition of the "working class" as the sole source of liberation, I remain convinced that some variant of socialism is our species' only path out of the ecogenocidal barbarism of capitalism.
Yet like Ms. Mullen, I recognize I am part of a minuscule minority of activists in a vastly larger, permanently subjugated population that is both contemptibly craven and hopelessly fragmented. And I know its fatal inability to achieve the solidarity and discipline required for effective resistance will never be healed. It is made permanent by the resistance-killing combination of identity politics, the self-obsessed me-first/fuck-you survivalism bred by neoliberalism and the instinctive distrust of leadership spawned by the above-referenced betrayals -- the very factors that destroyed the Occupy Movement from within.
Even so, like the defenders of Wake Island and Fortress Brest, we must fight on; our species' humanitarian honor demands it.
Many influences-many beyond the reach of politics. The advent of computer technology which promised so much has been wildly destructive. Our addictions to the screen have left us muddled and easily manipulated. We are unable to focus for very long, not long enough to study the issues of the day or even care past what we have been programmed to believe is the evening news. We are depressed and don't know why. Our separation from nature has hardened us. We are more cruel as a result. We don't have a personal spirituality and wonder about that fact sometimes.
Despite all this I will always believe that humans are inherently wonderful and are able to rise to any occasion. We are going to find ourselves in this moment. We will prevail.
Muffled by the kowtowing bilionaire MSM ownerhip. Can't make waves for all those reasons. WAPO and LA Times in paticular. All the rest are far right propagnda. You, Steve, sure know the names of those RW outlets that blanket rural America.
You'd be surprised at how progressive Tulsa World newspaper is. Not perfect. But not Fox News. Tulsa and OKC are surprisingly progressive cities. Tulsa is home to the Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie Museums. Will Rogers too.
Jess Piper has written about the right wing media in rural areas. Farmers in their tractors and harvesters listen to right wing radio stations because that’s what they can get. Then at church they hear right wing preachers, so lots of rural folks get marinated in lies and disinformation. Fox “News” has done so much damage to this country.
That farmer that was in the clip circulating last week was plenty unhappy. I see reports of food rotting in the farms. They might be at a tipping point.
I am not surprised. There are many progressive pockets but the vast majority of media out there is rightwing slanted Sinclair and others like it. Look who wins the elections in those states.
Block the road now. Too much is at risk to wait! Mobilize Blue state National Guards when threatened. The invasion of one state by another is a call to state Governors to mobilize their National Guards to resist an UNLAWFUL assault. The U.S. military should not accept UNLAWFUL orders. The sooner we get this over with, the better. This confrontation is coming. It is coming! We are stronger now than we will be tomorrow. The confrontation is not a battle or a war. It is a standoff at the State borders. We know TACO. Also, the gerrymander fight is on. There is a new playbook. The old rules have been struck down by the Supreme Court. We need to change the gears here as fast as possible for deadly PREEMPTIVE strikes. Newsom has moved out on this already. Who is next? Hochul. Where are you? NO EXCUSE! Change your state Constitution. Pritzker. What are you doing?
Morning Joe seems very watered down since Joe and Mika bent the knee to lick trumps anal orifice.
When Joe was commenting on the latest school shooting, he went into a long diatribe and in the end wondered why "some in Congress" won't take action to curb gun violence. Everybody knows that the right-wing is responsible for blocking gun regulation and should be held responsible for every mass shooting. Joe also commenting about the Pentagon blocking Ukraine from striking inside Russia and went on and on about the dept of Defense, but not a word about trump being responsible.
Joe and Mika have been positive about trumps invasion of Dem run city's in blue states.
One of the current characters in a British 'cold case' series I'm watching is an opinion talking head, who has a one minute segment that skews conspiracy theory, called "Mel's Minute". During a runthrough, her producer chastises her for sharing too much of HER opinion. He says, "Our viewers don't want YOUR opinion. They want to hear THEIR opinion; that's why they watch us."
And I thought, that's Fox! That's their secret sauce! They give their audience the 'news' they want to hear, which is their own twisted take on world events. What my old boss used to call a "BFO-Blinding Flash of the Obvious".
///The "greatest story" indeed. Speaking as the investigative reporter, city editor, news editor, picture editor and editor-in-chief I once was, a proper lead follows:///
Ironically on the eve of its 250th year, the United States of America's federal government is no more, replaced by a modern variant of the despotism that provoked its rebellious birth.
President Donald Trump and his cabal of theocracy-minded Christonazi/Neoconfederate officials -- given absolute power in 2024 by a small, ecogenocide-minded majority of mostly white male U.S. voters -- have fulfilled the foremost promise by which the so-called Republican Party's candidate won reelection.
Eight months into their reign, Trump and his regime have effectively dismantled the 249-year-old federal government and nullified its 236-year old constitution, destroying the nation's former political infrastructure beyond any possibility of restoration. Its replacement, though still taking shape, appears to be closely modeled after the regimes of Adolph Hitler and Chile's Augusto Pinochet.
Meanwhile the magnitude of the destruction approaches that which would have been inflicted by nuclear attack, albeit -- in obvious service to the victors' financial masters -- with none of the physical ruin such bombing would have inflicted.
Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson's summary of the devastation is the first comprehensive damage estimate to escape the regime's increasingly prohibitive censorship. Her report includes several examples of the tyrannies taking shape following the regime's methodical slaying of governance by law.
(pickup first graf xxx letters from an american xxx The image of National Guard troops xxx)
The American oligarch class has been working toward this day for over 100 years. 8 months is only the tip of the iceberg. They have almost succeeded several times in our history. Maybe this time they will make Democracy go away - but we, the people, will fight them every step of the way.
This -- as I know from my years in the South and rural Washington state -- is literally true, and what prevents so many of us from mobilizing an adequate response is that, being civilized humanitarians, we simply cannot comprehend the genuinely infinite, purposefully ecogenocidal magnitude of their hatred, vindictiveness and sadism.
This country is run by billionaires who are actually monsters. They don’t care about us people. In fact they would like us to mostly die so they can even have more money to themselves. They think with AI and robots they can do everything they need to maintain themselves and the few that they want around. To get rid of these odious parasites it’s gonna take a whole lot of work and a lot of bravery. So far, I’m just not seeing it…
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 ❤️🩹🤍💙
Makes me sad I’m now sleeping (back to a teacher schedule lol) when she posts her letters so I can jump in the comments right away. But I’ll keep at it!
I think the list you made of separate events are actually one much longer story that leads right up to now. Along the way it has been noted that certain headlines and, at bottom, the freedoms of the press have been deemed inconvenient.
In alignment with this Administration’s Magic 8 Ball … er, um, I mean policy agenda ( it’s not this Administration’s goal to have either fixed or clearly stated policies, the public must be kept guessing. To this end, which is neither there nor here, the Administration has established a non-specific agenda of strict policy support. It is located on an undisclosed flotation device to be found sometime on one of the Capitol waterways along with the Magic 8 Ball).
TOTALLY. If this isn’t domestic terrorism, I don’t know what is. Thankfully the scales have fallen from my republican (faux news-watching) brother’s eyes, but the few who have awakened are not enough. Those who KNOW AND HAVE THE POWER TO DO SO should grab this villain, clap him in irons, and physically remove him. This is insane that he can continue to do what he does. When he says “I can do whatever I want to do,” he’s not kidding. And so far, it’s true.
THEATER OF CONTROL: HOW TRUMP’S MANUFACTURED CRISIS THREATENS DEMOCRACY
The mulch-spreading National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. are not beautifying the city, they are staging a photo op for authoritarian power. Trump claimed he needed troops to fight crime, yet crime is at a 30-year low. This was never about safety. It is about spectacle—soldiers where park employees once stood, federal muscle where local autonomy once ruled.
The defunding of Washington, D.C.’s budget, the gutting of the National Park Service, and now the takeover of Union Station all show the same strategy: break public systems, then declare them failed. Once weakened, federal loyalists swoop in, presenting their control as order. Meanwhile, essential agencies like FEMA, CDC, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are hollowed out, stripped of expertise, and punished for speaking truth. This is not reform. It is retribution and a power grab.
The danger could not be clearer. Civil service is being dismantled, data security compromised, public broadcasting silenced, and health agencies politicized. Trump’s war is not on crime, but on democracy itself.
The solution requires urgency. Congress must reassert oversight. Whistleblowers must be protected. State governments and cities must form coalitions to resist federal overreach. And the public must refuse to normalize soldiers with rakes and brooms parading as governance. Democracy survives only if we expose the theater of control for what it is: the rehearsal of dictatorship.
Yes, insane, U.S. gun violence. Stop it. Take the steps Australia took.
But maybe U.S. elites prefer insanity. Look at Washington D.C., where U.S. national guard troops, sent as if to answer reputed emergency of out-of-control crime everywhere, in fact have nothing better to do than pick up trash.
Chris Hayes, covering this, had to laugh. The fool Donald administration fired 180 of its 200 D. C. park service personnel – so it does face growing debris, litter, and trash problems, but all simply owing to Donald's insanity.
It’s not funny how kids keep getting shot dead in American schools, churches, and other public spaces. But there are virtually no grown-ups among U.S. elites. So no one will do what Australia did. Gun buybacks. Tighter licensing laws. Stricter storage regulations. It’s insane the U.S. won’t take the steps that will stop the mass murders, the repeating slaughter of children.
Heather, this letter is the most important warning sign of America’s decline to a fascist
regime that Hitler would greatly admire!
Putin must be celebrating (if not actually orchestrating) Trump’s latest decisions as you enumerated in tonight’s letter. It’s almost as if he demanded that Trump enact these decisions in payment for Putin’s help in rigging the elections!
The truly horrible result of his actions is that his supporters can’t see the forest through the trees of his and his evil , deceitful cabinets’ lies because of their own fears and prejudices.
Mary, regarding Putin orchestrating the scumbag president's decisions isn't an "if", it's a fact. No wonder we are having the devastating consequences we are going through. And it will get much worse.
The US probably can't look to 1990s Australia for the answer. Australia just didn't have the gun culture the US has, nor did it have the number of guns the US has. The gun lobby and various politicians have tried incredibly hard to shift Australians to accept widespread gun ownership but they continue to resist.
Interestingly, the Australian Prime Minister who oversaw the change to gun law is now an avid Trump fan and keen to see Australia become a MAGA outpost. I wonder if he'd sacrifice the lives and safety of Australian school children to see it happen?
John Howard is NOT a fan of Trump; he stated very clearly that were he an American, he would not vote for him due to his attempt to overturn the election
Thank-you Fay. My brain used Trump and MAGA interchangeably and that's not accurate. Better to say he has been in favour of the MAGAfication of Australian politics than a Trump fan boy.
Hello Phil... The highest Rate of Adult Gun-ownership in the 1st World is in Switzerland... 1 out of 3 I believe... Switzerland is also one of the safest Countries... The USA can learn from Switzerland...
I think Switzerland has so many guns because every adult or at least every male adult is required to be in the military for some amount of time even if they aren’t leaving home so of course they have weapons. But absolutely correct that they get training etc. But they don’t have the culture of macho gun swing that we do.
If gun ownership actually resulted in low crime rates, don’t you think the gun manufacturers would have convinced our government to arm (and train) every adult in the country?
Hello Cindy.... This is a fraught topic which is why I started this thread... Being a 'Heyoka', I had to do it... Murder is Sickness, and attacking others is a lack of self-control.... The licensing of Firearms of Firearms in Switzerland, and Japan are tightly controlled, and they have strict. Background Checks that include talking to Family Members, and Neighbors... Mental-Cases are not allowed to have Firearms... The Mass-Shooters should have never been allowed to possess Firearms... There should have been Intervention... Having lived in Utah, which is a very Safe State, it is because of strong Families, and Social Structures, it is because of these things, and not because of 1/2 of the Adults, Men & Women, have C-C Permits...
13 years ago, at Sandy Hook Elementary 21 5- and 6-year old children were slaughtered in their classrooms. Gun sales skyrocketed immediately afterwards. That was this country’s response to the mass murder of little kids. When it comes to guns, we are too goddam insane to do the right thing.
Oh, they (referring to your "citizens" part here) talk a good game about caring, but when they deny health care to pregnant women and refuse any common sense gun laws, they are definitely lost.
They are trumps buddy's!!! And, they have trump in their Pockets!!! They gave BILLIONS TO HELP him Win the president Election!!!! Amongst other companies 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Agree 100pct. I blame weak politicians on all sides of the aisle. They take lobbyist money for themselves and reelection campaigns, but they bankrupt their morals. Our political landscape, on a human level, is loathesome and disgusting.
I have noticed that Chris Hayes often laughs, I guess out of irony, but it gets on my nerves. There is nothing to snicker about, we are in dire trouble and our country will likely fail very soon.
Hi ICTT, I copied and pasted below a comment from Phil Balla to me a couple of days ago in response to my troll comments:
“Look at the time stamps. There's no way one troll could oneself issue simultaneously so many posts as does this single moniker which is evidently rather a much larger giddy team of AI English techies Putin is paying.”
So, Rick Sender, by that logic, DT has presided over the fastest, most pervasive increase in crime rates in American (and probably world) history. Crime rates in LA and Chicago were at least at a 4 year low, and in D.C. they were at a 30 year low. DT even noted that himself a few weeks ago. Now, all these places and more have turned into dystopian hell-scapes - all within a few short weeks under DT's watch.
I know you will use all sorts of questionable "facts" and extreme interpretations of them to refute this. You will also engage in ad hominem to try and belittle me personally. You will flood this forum with your super-human posting ability. I accept this. Still, do you refute that America's cities have turned into hell-scapes under DT's watch? If not, why send the National Guard and US Military units? Why repeatedly mention it to the media? Why do any of this? I know why, do you? Also, what did you have for breakfast?
In California, a $900 theft is typically a misdemeanor because the felony threshold is set at $950. This was established by Proposition 47, which voters passed in 2014. However, recent legal changes allow prosecutors to charge some repeat offenders with a felony, even if the value of the stolen goods is below this threshold. By the way, steve this was going on for three or four years. They only recently changed the law because businesses were fleeing and closing.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser initially expressed fear of President Donald Trump’s plan to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital, but its clear success made her change her mind.
After Trump announced his plans to deploy National Guard troops and assume oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to tackle rising crime in Washington, D.C., Bowser warned such a crackdown would be "unsettling and unprecedented."
However, the mayor admitted at a press conference on Wednesday that the federal surge has made a noticeable impact on one of America's most famously dangerous cities.
At the briefing, Bowser displayed a chart crediting the influx of FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Park Police and Capitol Police with bolstering MPD’s efforts and declared, "We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city."
Are you suggesting crime has spiked under trump? Holy crap. South chicago has been a hell hole since the sixties. I lived in LA FOR THIRTY YEARS AND LIME THE MILLION THAT HAVE LEFT/fled THERE DUE TO LIBERAL DEM POLICIES ITS BEEN CRUMBLING
Cali has soent more than 30 billion taxpayer dollars on illegals AS HAS NY Food shelter and medical treatment while Ttere are a quarter million homeless and CITIZENS. Do yiu know that up intil recently you could steal. Ap to 900 dollars from a store and not be prosecuted.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE DC mayor thanking trump today? Nope
In just two weeks viole t crime down 50% and the 500 carjacking of the past year down 88%. Lmao. You AND YIUR PARTY continue to lose. And why. Defending the indefensible.
Good luck holding all the cognitive dissonance, Rick Sender. for the past 20 - 30 years, crime rates were shrinking under both Republican AND Democratic administrations. According to right-wing pundits and officials, suddenly, under DT, crime has erupted everywhere, all at once. I have friends and relatives in D.C., some of whom have lived there for decades. In our conversations, they paint a very different picture that the one you are touting . As far as stealing up to $900.00 with no consequences, how do you know this? Have you tried it? If not, who are you referring to, DT, Stephen Miller? Big Balls? Also, you still have not answered my last question, what did you have for breakfast?
So this is the nail in your coffin. Google California’s law about $900 of theft and WTFU. When I keep saying to you guys, here’s things you don’t know and here’s things that Heather’s not telling you and here’s facts that you have no idea or going on around you because you’re stuck here well, here’s one of them go google it have a good time
https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto-legal-california This is just like not knowing that New York attempted to get non-citizens to vote 800,000 of them and only the Supreme Court of New York stopped it. The city Council approved it. Most of your readers here had no clue and thought it was a lie.
By the way, you haven't heard all the cognitive dissonance of the fact that they're finding out that major cities are also fudging their crime statistics changing felonies to misdemeanor so that the crime stats look better and in DC it's already come out and now there's an investigation one lady actually sued the dept for doing it and one her suit and another was released for exposing it.
You should probably know that a lot of the liberals that just left the Democrat party to come to the Republicans, which was illustrated in the New York Times article you've lost 4 1/2 million voters have come because they've been victims of crime. So nobody gives a shit if crime has come down. Tim and the police aren't doing their job doesn't matter what the crime rate is. It could always be better.
4 1/2 million voters for the New York Times read it and weep
With all the discussion back and forth for the past six months about the outrageous actions taken by the Trump regime, no one is pointing out loudly that the whole purpose of this maladministration is to detroy this Nation for the benefit of the industrial oligarchs and Putin in particular.
THIS IS A COUP. The do over of the failed 1939 one led by the GOP to back Hitler.
My impression is that it was not so much the "GOP" backing Hitler but some number of the morbidly rich. But now they own the party. Back in the Gilded Age, the Democrats were playing laisszez faire.
If you go through Rachel Madow's "ULTRA" podcast, you see that Senator Robert Taft was one of the ringleaders busted and tried for that crime, as well as many other Congressmen. The mistrial was declared at the end of WWII and Truman, for the sake of "Healing" told the DOJ to not retry the case and put all the evidence and court records in the National Archives, where it is waiting for the sycophants ripping up our government today to detroy all of it. Robert Taft was the head of the GOP. The same GOP doing it's best to pull it off now. They have been at it since FDR signed the legislation that became the New Deal. Think about that.
Rachel Maddow's book 'Prequel' also goes into further detail about the fascist sympathizers, Nazi supporters and insurrectionists scheming and allying against America even before our entry into World War II. Prominent people, like Charles Lindbergh and his wife, and organizations like the America First movement, were fascist/Nazi sympathizers. There were also even more nefarious Nazi aligned/supported militias like the Silver Legion of America, the American White Guard, the Christian Front(Father Coughlin's group), and the propaganda operation of George Viereck. The book was inspired by her 'Ultra' podcast. Really outstanding research and writing, as well as eye opening.
"Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule."
I did not have time to go into all the gory details. The point is that all the educated and knowledgeable noise we hear today totally ignores the history of the big business GOP Hoovers working, scheming to destroy the New Deal from day one. Henry Ford was Hitler's idol and vice versa. His Detroit newspaper was Nazi propaganda.
Rachel's efforts were totally ignored by the corporate leadership of the "Democratic" Party.
This Miller dude that heads the DNC is an out of touch imbecile asshole. Don't get me started on Schumer. Durban and Jeffries, et al.
Most of the top U.S. banks and corporations invested in the industries controlled by Hitler's Waffen SS: Alcoa, A.T.&T., Chase Manhattan, Coca Cola, Dow Chemical, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Kodak, Standard Oil, Woolworth's.
One reason they all flocked to fascism was the fact that nearly all their heads attended schools of the Ivy League. Patricians then just naturally thought it proper that those of their class align with rich, genteel "good Germans" of similar class who just happened to head all their chief industries.
J L Graham, It is the whole right wing, they have been working for this coup for decades.
I'm sure that after the country fails, they will tell you they are innocent. This history is all documented; if you hurry you can probably research it before they rewrite that history. All right-wingers must be held responsible and kicked to the curb never to hold political office again.
Good grassroots news from the legal system today. The administration hasn't been able to indict Sandwich Guy on a felony charge. Grand juries have rejected four attempts to do so.
The courts are not failing us. Perhaps the Supreme Court, with its Trump loving members are, but other federal & state court decisions have gone against the Trump admin. Subscribe to The Democracy Docket. Learn how Marc Elias and his intrepid crew of lawyers have many lawsuits pending in the courts right now.!
Actually, the courts are the only ones not failing us right now.
The administration will take the most critical cases to the Supreme Court and the corrupt six are all in on the coup. If only they had the integrity of most of the lower courts.
Herb, I agree with your list, but I might make it a bullet list rather than a numbered list. I could argue that corporate media failed us first, resulting in voters failing us. But who knows? It's a perfect storm of failures, and in the maelstrom, it's hard to know which came first.
No, it’s up to the people that just won the last election and that’s exactly what they’re doing we the people you just don’t know that they exist because you think everything that you know you know better. The only difference is you’re only unhappy when you’re not in control.
My first thought was that this news is all very grim, and it is. However, it is also heartening because all of these people were resisting tyranny. And at great personal cost. Together we must all resist, in whatever way we can, from wherever we are.
A rich you don’t have to resist anything. All you have to do is come up with an agenda for all Americans, which after nine months of wondering why the hell you lost you still don’t have one.
In his resignation letter today, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis set an example for those refusing to be cowed. “The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning,” he wrote. “My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud.”
Thank you so much, Heather, for detailing the $1 billion budget freeze-out the rapacious, hate-filled Republican House is trying to exact on Washington DC -- a city these loonies absolutely despise -- perhaps because we so strongly despise THEM! Their contempt for the Senate --- which overrode their idiocy by a unanimous voice vote back during the Big Ugly Bill -- is just as real.
Everything about these people is about control using any false, trumped-up (so to speak), absurd, non-credible pretext they can think of. National Guard here are fighting trash, not crime -- because this was never about crime to begin with. And a take-over of Union Station? Please. Not even during World War II, when FDR was actually using Union Station to regularly travel to and from Hot Springs, Georgia was Union Station "taken over." Again, the silliness of it all tells you everything you need to know about 'why.'
Yet today, another grand jury refused to proceed with a request by the Attorney for DC for a felony prosecution against an honorable veteran with a string of distinguished service medals for his 'assault with a deli weapon' -- hurling a Subway sandwich at an officer in protest. This was after Jeanine Pirro got THREE 'no bills' (a grand jury said NO three times in a row) for her attempted incompetent, malicious prosecution of a a woman who was photographing the arraignment of "known gang members" at the DC jail and their remanding to ICE. (I've never heard of a prosecutor failing three times in a row to win a grand jury's approval for the same case. It just doesn't happen). Pirro is now re-filing this as a misdemeanor charge (akin to using the FBI to arrest Metro fare-jumpers).
On another positive, yet under-reported note, in one Capitol Hill neighborhood the day before yesterday, ICE made an attempted raid on a house complete with unmarked cars, masked men, SWAT teams -- the whole kit and caboodle. They were not disrupting a terrorist plot, of course, and residents along Constitution Avenue (appropriately named) came outside to jeer and shout, banging pots and pans and telling them where they can all go. Similar protests have occurred along the densely populated 14th Street NW area.
We have no voice in Congress here in occupied Washington, but we still have voices on the street and trust me -- we are putting them to good use. We could use everyone's support in that.
Thank you, ICTT. It is crucial to morale to hear the good stuff. When the FBI went to Bolton's house, a neighbor wearing a "Trump is a national disgrace" T shirt was interviewed by the press.
For sanity, decency, best and most-needed step forward: free American teachers.
Donald is going away sometime. He’s poisoned America, but the deeper causes for poisoning will continue. Unless and until we take one major step – for teachers. Give them autonomy. Let them focus on personal, discursive essay writing, civics, the reading of whole novels, histories, biographies, and other books – combinations thereof.
That teachers have this freedom, testing must go. It’s not just bad because it distorts every curriculum, but because of how it lies about people. Its stress on impersonal logic amounts to perseveration: a view of humankind as if all need be neutered for easier corporate grasping.
Donald and his Project 2025 banshees seek to manipulate us. Earlier having raised alarums of some deep state, they deepened it, have begun a police state, concentration camps, masked and heavily-armed thugs roaming streets and grabbing many to disappear them.
American teachers can remedy this. Free them. Let them teach whole books. Nurture essaying kids’ personal concerns in their communities. Take walks in nature, go to museums, and discuss this in class, then write essays applying skills to cite, credit, praise what others well saw or said.
Yes, we’ve been had by dehumanized elites. Let’s trust in our teachers for much better.
Phil, Project 2025 is the fascist manifesto. It's purpose. I believe, is to to perpetuate a way of life for America that is not dependent on Trump being around, although he's already left the building in my opinion.
It is an evil conspiracy run and funded by the Oligarchs, white christian nationalists will control the population by enforcing their theocracy, and the GOP (fascist party) has already made great strides to secure that outcome. The ultra-rich will actually be in control of the country.
And it’s good to know that fascism still lives in the United States but it’s not in the White House and it’s not guiding anything that Trump does because you remember Trump is King King. Don’t listen to anybody they do whatever they want to do themselves so nice. Try their Herbie. Yeah tell you how he left the building. He left the building with car jacking down 88% violent crime down 50% and the mayor of DC finally coming to our census today and thanking him profusely for making the streets of Washington DC safer.
You remember a guy named Chris Matthews, their herb Chris Matthew said he can’t believe the Democrats are actually trying to defend the defensible when they try to fight the crime fighter. Yikes sickening
77 million voted for police state, underage girl rape by Donald's pals, Gestapo-ICE goons, pussy grabbing ("If you're famous, they let you do it"), hate algorithms, evangelical Rapture genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, red carpet for Putin, continued lifelong stay on court for corrupt, corrupt Long Dong Clarence, testing, testing, testing only in schools, and killing of democracy as putrescent Donald and his Project 2025 banshees intend.
Phil, can you also get behind project-based learning as in, for example (not limited to): building models of structures and environments, field trips followed by mapping that integrates with GIS (geographic information systems), monitored composting, t-shirt making as activism, you-name-it. Whole body learning and doing in teams with graphical assessments as well as nurturing minds. And yes, all you say, especially writing!
Yes, no doubt that will work wonders for the 2026 mid-terms. It will literally stop every attempt to subvert registration and derail mail-in voting dead in its tracks. And I'm sure it will prevent the next Republican state legislature from gerrymandering 7-8 more Congressional seats as well..... 🤪
Heather, many thanks for tonight's article, and we are grateful how you keep a very difficult substack up and running in our current chaos of greed, power and cruelty.
The article below is dedicated to Jim Pattiz substack title... link at the bottom.
[ We Were the Country That Protected Things ]
"There was a time when America led the world in environmental protection. When we passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Then along came an administration with no interest in the good, no respect for the law, and no intention of honoring what came before. And now the whole facade has collapsed.
And the last unspoiled places in America are now wide open to roads, mines, pipelines, and destruction. All of it done quickly. Quietly. Often illegally. With no one in power willing to stop it.
We assumed that new presidents would build on the progress of the past, not bulldoze it. That agencies would carry out their missions in good faith.
And now we’re watching decades of hard fought progress unravel in real time — not because the public demanded it, but because a small group of wealthy ideologues decided it was their turn to rule. And no one stopped them. That’s how you lose a country.
Is This All There Is?
You’d be forgiven for asking: where’s the outrage? Why isn’t this front-page news every day? Why do so many people seem exhausted, numb, or convinced there’s nothing we can do?
How did we become a country where the president can ignore laws, fire watchdogs, declare fake emergencies, and override Congress — and nobody does a damn thing?
You can’t replant a 1,000-year-old forest. You can’t un-poison a watershed. You can’t bring back a species, or its vanished habitat, no matter what some fantasy biotech pitch claims.
While we moved on, they kept grinding — lobbying, litigating, stacking the courts, waiting for the moment they could take it all back.
And somewhere along the way, we started thinking it was someone else’s job to protect what matters. That the courts would stop it. That Congress would intervene. That the press would sound the alarm. That someone, anyone, would step in before it went too far.
If the US had been conquered by a foreign power, these are exactly the steps they would take to secure their control. This is the scariest of a series of very scary HCR posts. Holy shit!
I am horrified by the detail in the planning that Heather describes in today's Letter for the potential government control over Washington. Independent media reports skew heavily to a picture of the administration as a pack of destructive losers and the depths of their stupidity and Trump's disintegration. Corporate media are blind. But someone in the administration is doing one hell of a job of readying DC for a permanent military takeover.
Controlling Union Station, weakening DC's finances to force cuts in city services, and then bringing in the National Guard with a permanent excuse to take on those responsibilities so that they are entrenched ahead of time is terrifying. Trump's minions seem to be preparing to cut off the city--the continuing issue of too few air traffic controllers at the Washington airports could be an excuse for military air traffic controllers to be brought in.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Trump take over the Metro system, which is funded primarily by the DC city government, Maryland, and Virginia. The Metro is in financial trouble. Fares only contribute 22% of its budget, and with Congress cutting funding to DC, there has to be an impact on its contribution to the Metro. As service degrades, it will provide a reason for the military to take it over.
Seizing access to the capital allows an authoritarian leader or regime to control government institutions, communications, and symbols of state authority, which are essential for legitimizing and consolidating power. Controlling the capital has provided both real and symbolic leverage, as it enables the regime to project authority and suppress rivals efficiently.
This is not "overreach." It is not about Trump not wanting to see trash out of the window of the Beast. This follows the authoritarian handbook. to a T.
It should also be noted that a workforce decimated by fear, retribution, and politicization becomes completely demoralized. An incompetent and inexperienced Trump sycophant appointed to “lead” an agency they plan to destroy from within, coupled with firing notices, shifts the mindset of every individual into economic anxiety, uncertainty, and fear -each of which kills morale and efficiency.
Installing loyalists to the criminal elect instead of the public good and mission is a betrayal of the public trust and all of us (regardless of political affiliation).
While Trump, Vance, the greedy billionaires supporting them in order to accumulate more wealth while stealing our now and our future, and the architects of Project 2025 are all elements of a dehumanizing criminal conspiracy destroying the United States for retribution and profit.
Putin and other adversaries couldn’t be happier with what continues to unfold unabated by any in the GOP who mouth words like “rule of law” while aiding, abetting, and participating in the crimes waged against all of us.
I'm trying to understand why they think they can wreck everything political without wrecking the still-functioning economy. The rich can probably protect their wealth, but we should think there will be a great many very unhappy people whose lives have suddenly become precarious.
Thanks David. I think out of chaos and despair, Trump’s billionaires see speculative opportunity. Every time Trump threatened tariffs short-sellers made millions. Every time he recanted the market rose and the wealth holdings of insiders soared.
According to Elon Musk -if we have not accumulated billions we are what he has termed NPC’s (non-player characters). We are just detritus in his reality to be scraped off of his boot.
To your point if those whose anger, frustration, and generational economic despair becomes focused on the handful of people stealing from all of us (instead of who Fox News gleefully tells them to blame and hate) there will be a reckoning. It is still a big if, however, each trip to the grocery store, each higher utility bill, and each layoff notice brings us closer to the tipping point.
David, as an extension of that thought, I have been wracking my brain with the question of what the super-rich think they are going to do with their wealth if all the people who make the stuff they sell and make the stuff they buy are dead.
What good is having billions of dollars if there's nothing to spend it on? And there will be nothing if all the "little people" who make the economy possible have died of starvation or disease, whether it be in their homes, on the street or in concentration camps.
Dale, your observations are very close to what I have been thinking. The attitudes of the relatively few people who hold the majority of the wealth in the nation comes across as pathological disregard for a very large percentage of our population. Instead of consideration for the lives of real people, the grizzilionaires seem to regard our reality as a simple board game of Monopoly -- no flesh and blood, no hunger or thirst -- just a spreadsheet or an accounting ledger.
Oh! Rest assured that the obscenely rich have protected their wealth. That is exactly why they can hold themselves above the reality of the everyday lives of the population of this country. They do not have to care.
Why the [bleep] aren't there tens of millions of people in the streets right now standing up TO the Trump Mob Regime and FOR our Constitution, laws, public servants, and the public services they provide for We The People? Why the [bleeping bleep] have there not been periodic and ongoing general strikes? These thugs respond only to equivalent shows of force. Their paymasters respond only to disruptions in their gravy train. We MUST ACT!
Cindy, when you read the response to the ICE agent to a firefighter requesting to say farewell to their colleagues being arrested in Washington State, you have the reason and why it's so hard to actually act.
Play cynic. Play bright boy. (I've never known women to be so eager to feign sophistication and worldliness like this -- though some like Anita Loos knew how to lampoon men for their helpless theatricality, and some like Joan Didion knew how to see the criminal and mass murderous contexts around other boys who could never grow up.)
Nan, in addition to fear, many Americans – probably a majority – are living paycheck to paycheck. In (too) many cases, they are working two jobs just to keep the bills paid and still have a few minutes with their families. They do not have the "luxury" of taking time to protest, nor do they have a financial backstop to carry them through a work stoppage that would likely result in their losing their jobs. America is a "wealthy" nation, but the affluent are not the majority.
It does seem inevitable that the gravy train will be disrupted as a consequence of their actions. I think if they don't cease and desist their campaign of wreckage of our society, a great many people are going to become very unhappy.
There hasn’t been a general strike, but there are protests every single day all over the country, and always more being planned. There’s a big march coming up from Philadelphia to DC. It’s called the “We Are America March”, and it starts on September 6th. Here’s the link: https://www.weareamericamarch.com/
Thank you for posting the link. I participate regularly in the protests in my area. I'm about 1200 miles away from Philly, but my daughter and her SO are there. I'll pass it along in case it's not already on their list.
I will be visiting the Congressional Black Caucus convention on September 25/26 for a performance and I will not be silent and I will tell any national guard troops to go the fuck home and stop pretending to be obeying stupid orders.
But I think you can be polite. They all already know it's fools, louts, gnomes, and knaves who ordered them to leave their homes, families, friends, and jobs.
Also, note: they'll be wearing their names clearly on their uniforms -- unlike the strutting goons of I.C.E., Proud Boys, Three-Percenters, Oath Keepers.
$1.1 million/ day. But considering Trump paid his Mar-a-lago ‘gold guy’ how much to gild 2 ‘quality’ $58 Home Depot filigree appliqués for the Oval Fireplace, someone is likely getting fleeced. Likely us , yet again.
When will the mainstream news report that the Trump administration is a domestic terrorist organization doing everything it can to make sure Americans suffer and die? This is the greatest story of my 70 year long life. Greater than Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, or the financial fraud that brought NYC to the brink of bankruptcy. WHERE ARE THE HEADLINES???
I get why a malignant narcissist would plot an authoritarian takeover. Even so, much of what they do just seems like reckless sabotage. Like vandalism by a cruel foreign invader. And the MAGA's love it. It's absolutely nuts. The saying is that Hitler made the trains run on time. Other than his tools of intimidation, Trump seems to want to see nothing to run at all.
A lot of it is just too stupid for words. This alone should give us hope. Seemingly designed to produce the greatest outrage in the shortest time possible. Yet still crickets from Thune and Speaker Bobblehead.
And I'm not sure Mussolini ever did make the trains run on time in Italy.
Susan Collins attempted to do a ribbon cutting of a ridiculously long repaving of a short section of US 1 in Searsport, ME.
She was shouted down like Circie (sp) on Game of Thrones with "SHAME SHAME SHAME." She shouted to the hecklers (almost everyone there) to "show some respect."
Someone shouted back, "We respect them, but we don't respect you."
Collins heads the Appropriation committee but is good buddies with Leo and the other theocrats so here is a big "FUCK YOU" to her as well.
more of this please!
GJ. glad to know that Susie Q was heckled as she deserves to be. It is my hope that every time one of the aiders and abettors shows up in public, there are boos and jeers. Our very own Lori suck up, Secretary of Labor, used her praise time at the Cabinet Meeting, to call for Portland to be invaded by jackboots. If she shows her face in Oregon, I hope people are ready to boo and jeer her.
I live in Rome, it is our second home. Mussolini could not do much because Italians did not, do not, and will not listen to or obey any politician telling them what to do. Even Mussolini himself admitted, "It is useless because they are Italians." To all the knee benders in our country, it should be a lesson.
I'm Italian and I believe rules are made for breaking and I hate anyone telling me what to do lol. Go Italians!
Purobi, it should be. Instead they are petulant children "Don't tell me what to to! I'll put my hand on that burner if I want to!"
this
I used to have a Professor -- a Soviet émigré who ended up in Rome. He often said 'nothing works at all in Russia, and nothing really works as it should in Italy.' The difference being that if you don't keep the trains running on time and prepare for the winter in Italy, you'll be uncomfortable and inconvenienced. In Russia, you'll just die (and millions often do). And to compensate for the trains not running on time and the government collapsing every other year or so, the food is always marvelous, the wine delectable, the people and landscape beautiful (in Italy, that is).
The trains, at least those I took, seemed to run on time in Japan. But then, the Japanese seem to like to make ordinary things into an art.
I live in Japan and am always amazed that even if a train is one or two minutes late, an apology is announced over the loudspeaker. When I went to France, the bullet train was 30 minutes late and no apology or explanation at all. I was astounded. In Japan, the cleaning crew cleans the bulletin train in seven minutes and bows to the passengers waiting to get on. How can I live any where else?
Kristin Newton,
These wonderful Japanese characteristics are "in breed". I admire them.
"Grace" is more often given within our less precise countries. and unfortunately needed by less precise persons as myself.
Japan is also the cleanest country I’ve ever been to. Not so much as a cigarette butt on the ground.
This made me smile.
Those trains in Japan are awesome. When they’re really crowded the white gloved porters gently push them in so more fit and the doors close.
"And I'm not sure Mussolini ever did make the trains run on time in Italy."
A fallacy somehow used to justify fascism.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/loco-motive/
but he told the people they did, and many believed him. Just like now, prices are down, wages are up and gas is $1.99 a gallon.
Not much is done on time in Italy. It’s a laidback sensibility.
It's Come to This,
Trump has made us an embarrassment to the world and we have made our "friends" more vulnerable to our enemies.
A bunch people bullied or bullies as kids who never quite got around to growing up. Now they are acting out like brats. Shakespeare nailed in Richard III's soliloquy:
"And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,"
They are ALL incompetent fools. I have many former co-workers (computer programmers) that are working as contractors for the Federal Government.
At least most of them are reasonably competent but they are likely no better than the full time programmers Uncle Sam has on the payroll. The difference is that the oligarchs profit off of each programmer they place and the programmer makes at least $10k more than the government workers each.
What a great system. /S
Back when I was an aerospace tech writer an acquaintance that worked at Northrop on the B-2 tech manuals that I believe broke new ground in interactive electronic tech manuals was very concerned about losing his job as the entire aerospace industry in California made huge cutbacks (5 or 6 years after the Cold War ended). He did indeed lose the job and was really distraught at the time.
I didn't see him until a year later at a professional society meeting where he seemed much happier. He explained that he had been hired by another contractor who had picked up the contract to continue the work on those manuals, but from a separated location. I believe he said the original sub contractor couldn't effectively manage the coordination required, so another subcontractor replaced them early but still kept him on the job eventually successfully arguing that he had to be on site. He was thrilled to report that he ended up back at the same desk he had under Northrop but now at twice his previous pay (not to mention the new overhead of the new subcontractor's cut).
In my case, I stuck with my company through a period when you could be selected to work 1 or 2 days a week and get either 4 or 3 days of unemployment benefits. It was the only time in my 79 years I ever accepted unemployment, and I only did so to finish the contract delivery of the tech manual for which the government could withhold 20% of the contract value if not delivered (though my main concern was for the end users that needed the best data they could get). I did a brief stint as a contract tech writer (at twice the pay) to make some updates to that manual but refused to take on new work for another company some of our engineers had gone to.
That company couldn't supply accurate schematics and other engineering information and I had seen what happened when HP's manual division had provided great outlines and format but couldn't get the same complete information that had made their manuals the best I had used for many years of service.
The fallacy in the logic of President Reagan was that people from the private sector had an innate drive for efficiency. That implied an inbred profit motive; that view overlooked the impact of an incentive structure.
Private contractors=fewer public servants=fewer union members.
My dad, uncle and two aunts worked for Uncle Sam for over 30 years each. My uncle was a mailman that walked 5 swing routes for most of his career. My aunt was a nurse in the VA system and my dad was a clerk for the IRS. I'm sure the Republicans would love to contract these jobs, but they aren't going to find anyone that did a better job in these positions.
The moronic Republicans don't understand how many technical jobs there are in the government, like engineers, meteorologists, lawyers, accountants, etc. To them everyone is round widget that can be forced into a square hole.
The problem with the incentive structures were that some produced false economies. A logistics engineer I worked with had been a contractor reorganizing the engineering drawings on launch facilities for the space shuttle at Cape Kennedy after they cut back on all the work after the Apollo Program. The drawings were just dumped in a trailer in random order and substitute parts used to replace originals weren't well documented. He got them back in order and most of the changes properly posted but when he went to Vandenberg to try the same with the supposed to be second shuttle launch site they were so incomplete and disorganized that they never finished the shuttle launch site for polar orbits that the military wanted the space shuttle to become capable of.
Cape Kennedy is ideal for more equatorial orbits that benefit from the earth rotation adding about 1,000 mph going east (would be 1,000 nautical miles at the equator). Those orbits cover most of the inhabited world but don't cover the north and south poles. if they tried to launch westward from Cape Kennedy they would have to make up for the loss of the 1,000 mph added by launching eastward and add another 1,000 mph to match the needed speed to achieve orbit. I believe that shifted the supposed savings of the reusable shuttle, using "cheaper" expendable rockets.
Now we have reusable Space X rockets that solve a lot of problems but have not yet shown me they have a realistic plan to land on the moon or Mars the way the two part Lunar Module did with the descent stage not destroying so much of the landing spot that the lower stage couldn't become the launch pad for an upper stage. If they try it with a large rocket without a suitable launch pad, I'd expect it to blast as much debris back into the ascent engines that could lead to the failure like the first one in Texas. It really isn't that amazing what you can do if you ignore risks and are willing to throw more money at making another plan (without having to pay for all the damage your more careless plans caused.
Yeah, I never understood the logic of that, either. Unless money is saved through fewer hours worked by contractors.
That fits Stephen Miller to a tee.
At least Richard was honest about it.
Have you ever read Daughter of Tine by Josephine Tey? His remains found in a parking lot abd a burial took place several years ago. For those who have any knowledge of scoliosis and kyphosis or interest PBS did a remarkable program in his orthopedic issues. Shakespeare and or his stable of writers portrayed him for the times they all lived in. I really don’t think on him much except for the drama and his cry for his kingdom for a horse.
Yeah, I was think of that book as well as Tey's fellow Canadian T.B. Costain's take of Richard III. The former presented a persuasive case and the latter characterized Richard III's relationship with his brother, Edward V, as a devoted younger sibling, like Senator Kennedy with President Kennedy.
Yes, Richard III may well have been framed by Henry VII; not the case here.
Bang on. You only wish our legacy media reporters read Shakespeare to report on motive when the spokesweasels start in with their gaslighting.
Many of Shakespeare's works warn of the dire results from the lust for power,
Julius Caesar, Richard III, MacBeth, King Lear, Coriolanus, etc.
If only they made comic book versions for Trump to look at.
I've long been convinced that there's absolutely nothing new about Donald Trump that hasn't already been covered by The Emperor's New Clothes, any Shakespearean tragedy/history and the Holocaust. He is the culmination of what happens when you don't read history -- starting with fairy tales on down.
HIs cult, on the other hand, is a tougher nut to crack.
Fairy tales such as The New Testament, Koran and Book of Mormon?
Gary Pudup,
Remember, Trump doesn't read.
Thus comic book versions...although someone will still need to read them to him.
You may find this book to be interesting https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-time-cure/202408/the-psychology-of-shakespeare
Great! Same thought crossed my mind about Shakespeare comic books, too, Gary. At least there would be something to put in Trump's presidential library.
I wonder if they'll put the comic books in the same room as the porn magazines?
Gary Pudup,
Do you really think those are the type of comic books Trump would choose to read?
No. :)
Gary Pudup, and It's Come This,
It is embarrassing the way the leaders of the United States of America, bow to a corrupt "want a be" Dictator. As they focus on pleasing this "place holder" of a "leader".....the world turns.
They are feeding their children and grandchildren to the monster "GREED" who is never full, never satisfied....didn't your parents teach you better???? How do you live with yourselves....everyone sees you and we will each and all be harmed by YOUR decisions. The lives of our children and the future of our grandchildren will be better or worse through your decisions.
Are we going to be great or will we surrender to fear, loss, intimidation...etc.
So many of our friends have been encouraged by our example in the past. They have seen our support against self-serving leaders in the past but now..."self-serving" to the max is what our leaders have become!
Those who are fighting for the freedoms for which our forefathers died and suffered are the true Americans ....and I see you : male, female, EVERY HUMAN BEING...no matter how you identify yourself!!!...we are Americans together.
We must protect this amazing nation!
Firefighters!!! THANK YOU!!! This "thankless" job is difficult. You face the possibility of death each day you serve.....each day you work to protect this great land of beauty...this great land that feeds us....provides water for us.....
And to the women who wear their fake crosses....when you die, God is the judge...not a bunch of blind so called Christians who never read God's WORD or if they do are not listening to the HOLY SPIRIT to guide them into truth.
I can hear your "worshipers" as they watch you speak..."O, look at that sweet child report for our President...see that cross...she is one of us...
" Satan is laughing so hard!!! "YEP, ONE MORE FOR ME....I always have room for one more for ME....HELL!!!!...the pretty blonds always get those fools!!!! ...and those "crosses" complete the deal... my very own President "LAWLESS" ..."BOSS" ...."WE'LL MAKE A DEAL WITH SATAN"......Trump...TOGETHER, WE FINISH THE DEAL!!! .....ie the great USA exchanges Freedom for a Dictatorship!
Who thought it would be so easy and with a President ie DICTATOR such as Americans chose!!!
America is lost, but don't worry, I, the evil one have found you...I, the evil one have captured you.
A joke...
Trump dies.
He goes to hell and is met by Satan. Satan tells Trump hell is at full capacity. But, Trump can choose to replace one of three current residents.
Satan shows Trump three doors and tells him he gets to pick who he will replace.
They look behind the first door. It's Mao picking the same patch of rice over and over again.
Trumps says no thanks and they move onto Door Two.
Behind Door Two is Stalin eternally breaking the same rocks with a pick axe over and over again.
Trump again declines seeing that is work, something he's never done.
Satan opens the third door and it's Bill Clinton sitting in the Oval office behind the Resolute Desk. Under the desk in Monica Lewinsky, doing what Monica is famous for, over and over again.
Trump immediately says, "This is it! I'm good with this."
To which Satan says, "OK Monica you're free to go."
It's just a joke. I don't think there is a hell. In the afterlife anyway, not the one we're living through now.
They all act like they’re still in middle school.
Boy, do I agree with that, Maureen.
Actually wrote about this a few weeks ago:
https://open.substack.com/pub/mscary/p/when-politics-resembles-a-middle?r=446u9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
As I said on your substack, Maureen, notwithstanding the deluge of information coming through social media and substack, your essay is jewel.
Thank you so much, Ned!
The marvelous book Tyrant by Stephen Greenblatt about tyrants in Shakespeare expound on your quote. Their playback is as stale as history.
Not only are the Guard being taken from their day jobs and families but they already had duties in their own state now abandoned that DonOLD can pick on as not being run right. It truly IS 1984
Do not forget, HE is the distraction. Our attention needs to be on the Heritage Foundation members of this administration. The Voghts, Millers who pull the strings.
Rickey, one of the first things I learned as a fresh new jail deputy was "When something draws your attention, look beyond it to see what is really going on."
Too many Americans have been happy to buy the GOP lies, dating back to Reagsn that government is the problem.
My disappointment in my fellow Americans grows every day.
But you’ll see, in a matter of months, when these ignorant followers feel the wrath themselves, of their livelihoods threatened, how they will turn on Trump, Musk, Vought, and their Repub leaders. It’s already happening with farmers in rural communities. They’re turning up at town halls. It will only be a matter of time when these feckless leaders will be gunned down.
Sure hope so!
Trump’s hatred of weeds and litter requires FORCE
“I AM IN CONTROL. TYFYATTM!!!”
“The image of National Guard troops, some of them from as far away as Louisiana and Mississippi, in Washington, D.C., spreading mulch around the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin and picking up trash, illustrates that President Donald J. Trump’s insistence that he needed troops to crack down on violent crime in the nation’s capital was always a cover for an authoritarian takeover.”
Dismantling all government systems, using police tactics to intimidate people in the street, and firing career public service personnel puts the country in the position of having no recourse when Donald drags people off to jail, kicks them out of work, or uses his position to stuff the coffers of himself, his family, and his corporate toadies with public money.
He is making a sham show of preventing “violent” crime, but White Collar Crime has become his Standard Operating Procedure as head of government. Economic Crme is apparently something to brag about, not prevent.
The trains didn't run on time, that's myth. Trump wants to destroy the rule of law and take democracy with it.
Mussolini and On-Time Trains | Snopes.com
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/loco-motive/
Better watch it Kristen or a MAGA Karen might get hit with a real “truth”. I was going to point out that trains were Benito’s bag, not Shitler’s, but I like to keep it simple. Thanks Kristin,
Chris
Actually it was Mussolini who (allegedly) "made the trains run on time." The German trains, even then, were global models of dependability and efficiency.
Mussolini and On-Time Trains | Snopes.com
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/loco-motive/
No he didn’t!
As at 85 I am old enough to remember, this was -- in the years immediately after the war -- the commonplace defense of the Italians' infatuation with Il Duce, whom they later overthrew and hung by the heels. Raised in a left-leaning family, of course I knew it to be hyperbole. But I admittedly erred in my (hasty) omission of the adverb "allegedly," which I have inserted by way of correction. Thank you.
The answer is a question: What Would Putin Do?
What’s is shocking is the willingness of so many (all?) in the GOP to just bend over to his will…as he gleefully pillages our great country. The smiles, and then their shock when their constituents push back! The GOP are the brown shirts.
Keep pushing! His poll numbers are terrible and inflation from the tariffs is only starting to show. Let your representatives know that you are paying attention.
What we need are poll numbers for every Republican in office. They’re the ones that can be re-elected indefinitely and hold all the power. They’re needed to be taken down.
Reckless sabotage is what malignant narcissists do.
Not sure how many people were taking trains 80 years ago and still alive now to know that trains ran on time. If Hitlers trains ran on-time they were only those going to the concentration/death camps.
Reported Mussolini was the ‘great’ train master! Tragically the monster Eichmann made the death trains run!
Don't let them wear you down!
As my late father often said, "nulle bastardo carburendum."
1000 likes!
And everything else, apparently. Certainly government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Hello Margaret.... DJT is notoriously Lazy... DJT doesn't want to Govern, DJT wants to Dictate at a Whim unimpeded... DJT never Plans, DJT just wants to Perform on a Whim for the Cameras...
A playboy entrusted with the fates of millions.
Apache, And now a puppet to a monstrous cabal who keep him stirred up while he deteriorates before our eyes and the country does as well. Lots of people who voted for death star are going to find out that the federal help they counted on is no longer there if they haven't already. This is already ridiculous. Your house and property are endangered by a wildfire and ICE shows up to check the crew and arrests a couple of them. And who in the hell will want to visit DC.
He loves the attention .. thrives on it .. and wants to keep grabbing the money. That’s all that matters to the guy.
But the Project 2025 crowd aren’t lazy.
Also, do not forget DJT has a mental illness that goes untreated and is DUMB as a rock! He is NOT a smart person, as he claims, and CERTAINLY NOT a genius, as he's also claimed. He's a blithering idiot with the nuclear codes; that should trouble ALL OF US!
Chaos is a strategy. MAGA leadership has implemented this strategy.
weird, since there is nothing remotely clean about Trump.
The right-wingers are destroying the infrastructure of the federal government purposely. All services that used to benefit the public good have been decimated and all the funding that the trump and his fascist co-conspirators, the GOP (fascist party), are going to the ultra-rich.
Federal taxes will stay the same, and rise, and everybody except the top 1% will lose 99% of the services we paid for; they have stolen all the money already assigned by Congress over the last seven months.
Make America Sick Again is the slogan that fits the HHS under trump and bobby jr. In fact it looks like they are actively working to kill us.
It is now possible for the Social Security administration to reach in to your bank accounts without going to court to prove that you have been over paid. Does anybody know if there is a class action suit to protect our savings from government overreach? Do you trust trump, Musk, or any right-winger not to rob you blind? I sure don't. Even with all of the protests we have had, it appears that most people have no idea what is going on. If they did, they would be up in arms about it today.
I believe that with the deportation policy, the tariff policies, the agencies gutted of funds and employees, the economy will break catastrophically within the following year. It is almost too late to stop this coup.
Americans have been lulled into thinking our government will continue to function as it always has, regardless of which Party is in power. Generally, they pay NO ATTENTION to what the government is doing unless and until it hits them personally. Most of the people I know who are busy raising their families are simply not paying any attention to politics; they are either too busy or simply don't think there's anything to worry about bc there never has been before. How do we engage these folks? The time to act is NOW lest it be too late! Once gone, it will take DECADES (if EVER) to return things to "normal,"
Excactly!
But DESTROY GOVERNMENT? Professor Richardson just exposed that old and tired Republican line about private contractors being more efficient than civil servants for the lie it is. The private pro-bono contractor Nazi Elon, friend of Nazi Felon, is “Exhibit A” with his DOGE “willy-nilly” job cutting resulting in a Federal government nightmare.
Why we wonder is Trump closing down the Federal government but for the military he misuses replacing deported Home Depot day workers? As Maya Angelou is quoted as having said in another context, "You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been." In the past the Trump Grifter Organization had been raking in millions swindling admission to the Trump University (RIP), boxes of Trump Steaks (RIP), and even now hawking crappy Made In China "God Bless the USA" Bibles. But now Trump shenanigans have grown Bigly thus it’s reasonable to suspect where Trump is going is public corruption with conversion being involved. For example, God only knows how many tens or hundreds of billions of dollars or more Trump has banked off shore from the sales of his $TRUMP alone and for what in exchange? I say Trump is selling the U.S.A. to the highest bidder. Consider that Putin wants more than just the Ukraine never becoming a member of NATO. Putin want’s the U.S.A. out of NATO as well. Trump’s past rhetoric includes saying U.S. support for NATO allies is conditional on their defense spending and he would "encourage" Russia "to do whatever the hell they want" to NATO countries that were not meeting their defense spending goals. This year Trump also has considered moving a major portion of U.S. forces from Europe to Asia thus signaling a reduced U.S. focus on European security. Under Biden the U.S. passed a law that a U.S. president cannot unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from NATO without approval from Congress. But Trump now owns Congress. Will DOGE soon look into the $567 million cost of being a member of NATO in 2024 and the approximately $860 billion cost for the our global military obligations? I say Trump will pull us out of NATO which will allow Putin to do whatever the hell he wants in Europe and Trump will laugh all the way to the bank as global security is deeply at risk.
Before there was NATO other countries banded together to fight power-hungry foes. The U.S. under tRump thinks they can bully the World. The U.S. is not the World. Putin is having a very hard time with courageous Ukraine. Many other countries support Ukraine and NATO. Nobody, including most Americans despise bullies. Right now this U.S. administration is extremely unpopular nationally and internationally. Its deal-making is not helping anyone. Its government cannot function properly with all its cuts. RESIST!
Ayesha Mohid,
I am in awe of Zelensky, his family, his bravery, his determination.
He will not stop because his love of freedom for the population of Ukraine will not subside. He is giving his life!!! He exists to keep Ukraine free !!!
Zelensky knows and respects Ukraine's history. We see so much in its buildings built in the past and now being damaged by Putin! We see children and older citizens being terribly wounded or killed.
Zelensky does not love Ukraine because of any treasure that may be hidden in its territory. He loves the people who make Ukraine great and that is every person. He admires the men on the front line and their families. He pushes on for each one of them!
He is determined that citizens will be able to work or return to work without fear, children can safely attend schools and are taught truth not government imposed lies! He wants to see families reunited.
Something true, and something important, Americans know FREEDOM IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR!!!! As Americans we must continue to support Ukraine!!!
I am grateful for every country supporting Ukraine. If we do not continue supporting Ukraine...we are saying we too want to be controlled by a government that tells us who to vote for, what our children will be taught ..by a few ...for the power of a few through "brainwashing".
Currently, very important and capable persons are being "kicked out" of their jobs of care and supervision of our waterways, the inspection of chemicals used on our crops, transportation systems, what we can see on TV or hear on the radio...etc.
I will never forget the person who rented land on our farm who used dangerous poisons....I suppose to kill insects and/or weeds. Our fish pond was covered afterward with dead fish. It was a horrible site!!
Is this another reminder that Trump is an ignorant "leader" and does not care or is so mentally lacking that he has no clue concerning the consequences of forcing important inspectors who keep us safe out of their jobs...just for more money to put into his pockets and the pockets of his greedy minions.
Yes, I will continue participating in each march in which I am able but protest without action will not stop the disasters supported by the current Republican Party as well as foreign forces who are eager to profit off our demise!
Thank you ZELENSY for showing us what a true leader looks like!!!!
Yes to everything in your comment. Zelensky is a hero!!! Europe especially recognizes this!!! Plus, MAGA, as Prof Richardson has mentioned, is despised for its attacks on democracy, environment, health, education! We'll keep on being vocal, active in the courts and in the streets! I'm in Canada but as a U.S. citizen, I am vocal as hell!!!
Every person in any capacity of government who has stood up to him and told the TRUTH has been fired or removed from their jobs w/pay (for now). He is creating fear and chaos in every department of government ON PURPOSE to destroy it! Let's be clear. NONE of these actions are for the BENEFIT of Americans! They are ALL for the benefit of a select few of wealthy folks...the 1% that will OWN US ALL if we don't act NOW! We MUST do more than peacefully protest, but WHAT?!
Emily, tRump doesn't care. He trives on hatred, retribution, hurting others. He doesn't care.
Ayesha, I am seeing that rather than "most" Americans despising bullies, they are both idolizing and becoming them, at least in the MAGAt world. I think that, in their minds, bully = power.
George McFly to the white courtesy phone, please.*
*Sort of an obscure reference to the second "Back to the Future" movie. Earlier this month, reference was made that the Biff Tannen character was used to model ffpotus.
We read similar threads! If only the film was real! And you Michael J Fox has been so brave in dealing with his disability. He is going to be in another show which I find amazing.
MAGA is NOT most Americans! They got in by a very small margin and that due to heavy gerrymandering. Check the numbers. Also due to millions who did not vote.
The mess left by Trump's heroes like Hitler (whom he wanted to have similarly loyal generals as) needs to sink in, few realize the massive needs.
"In 1947, the United Nations’ recently created Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was caring for 6,795,000 displaced Europeans in 762 camps. Yes, we had refugee camps in Europe in 1945. And the US alone – and this is before the Marshall Plan, before NATO – was spending $10 billion dollars a year on that, on caring for those refugees."
See 1949 Europe on the ropes - NATO’s Anxious Birth
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_139301.htm
"...World War Two left behind a terrible legacy which even today it takes a great deal of imagination as well as historical knowledge to fully comprehend.
Let me just give you some statistics. In World War Two 36.5 million Europeans were killed. That is the equivalent of the total population of France in 1939. Nineteen million of those were civilians. It doesn’t also of course incorporate all of those who died from natural causes or all of the babies that were not born. The death toll created an enormous imbalance between men and women. In the Soviet Union in 1945, there were 20 million more women than men. In 1946, in the German suburb of Triptal, there were only left 181 adult men between the ages of 19 and 21, but there were 1105 women. A whole generation of Germans including for example Gerhardt Schroeder, the former German Chancellor, were brought up by their moms. There were no dads around. They were either incarcerated in the Soviet Union or had died in the war. There were many orphans. In Berlin in 1945 there were 53,000 lost children wandering the streets, 49,000 orphans in Czechoslovakia, 80,000 in the Netherlands and as many as 200,000 in Poland. Those who did survive were underfed. The calorie intake in Vienna was only about 800 calories a day in 1945. The infant mortality in Austria four times the 1938 rate. In the British zone of Berlin, in December 1945, the death rate of children equalled one in four. The calorie intake in Germany was about 2,500 calories in 1941. It had gone down to around 1000 calories in 1946 and as everybody knows rationing was a very big feature of the post-war years.
The other issue is displaced people. I mean we’ve heard a lot about ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, ethnic cleansing after World War Two was infinitely worse. Stalin and Hitler between them managed to uproot 80 million people in Europe between 1939 and 1945. Thirteen million Germans were expelled from Central and Eastern Europe after the war. In 1947, the United Nations’ recently created Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was caring for 6,795,000 displaced Europeans in 762 camps. Yes, we had refugee camps in Europe in 1945. And the US alone – and this is before the Marshall Plan, before NATO – was spending $10 billion dollars a year on that, on caring for those refugees.
Another issue, the damage to infrastructure. Twenty-five million homeless people in the Soviet Union, 20 million homeless people in Germany, Hamburg alone had half a million homeless people in 1945. If you look at the level of destruction, again even today these figures still strike me as incredible. 70,000 villages, 1700 towns, 32,000 factors, 40,000 miles of railway track destroyed in the Soviet Union alone. France, which suffered of course far less physical damage than the Soviet Union, still lost half a million homes. I could carry on talking about the wastage of agricultural land or even a country like Norway, again which suffered little war damage, still lost 14 % of its industrial capital. These awesome statistics of course could be repeated almost ad infinitum when you talk about World War Two.
Sometimes indeed it’s better to give you just a sort of a quotation from an observer at the time that sums up the situation. Here is Hamilton Fish – lovely name Hamilton Fish – who was the editor of the US Foreign Affairs magazine. He described his impressions of Europe in July 1947. “There is too little of everything. Too few trains, trams, buses and automobiles to transport people to work on time, let alone to take them on holiday. Too little flour to make bread without adulterants, and even so, not enough bread to provide energies for hard labour. Too little paper for newspapers to report more than a fraction of the world’s news. Too little seed for planting and too little fertiliser to nourish it. Too few houses to live in and not enough glass to supply them with window panes. Too little leather for shoes, wool for sweaters, gas for cooking, cotton for diapers, sugar for jam, fats for frying, milk for babies, soap for washing...”
You are correct re their intelligence. Of course, intelligence can be applied for good or evil, as you know. Of the many, too many, who did not vote in last U.S. election, there are probably various reasons (too much in-fighting in Congress, general apathy re politics, wrongly assuming their vote didn't matter, etc.). I will bet more of them will be voting going forward, and not for this mess.
Albert, I agree. I am especially perplexed by the destruction of the emergency weather warning systems. How does it benefit them for people to die in tornadoes and hurricanes that they didn’t know were coming? It’s insane.
Its ALL about making government FAIL so people won't ever be PROgovernment again. When hurricanes and tornadoes level cities and towns, NO ONE will come to help them save the locals. Trump says the STATES should help them. All the while, HE'S STEALING the money Congress voted for to provide for such emergencies, and NOTHING is being done about it! This destruction of our norms must be STOPPED NOW! How?
Also White, they are looting the federal government to give the top One percent our hard earned money.
I’m aware.
Albert R. Killackey, Esq.,
Big differences between Putin and Trump, Putin knows what he is doing, he fears nothing or no one, he is "KGB" through and through. He is a warrior. He is fearless. He knows his opposition...he has studied the situation. He takes nothing for granted. He has long term goals and he is patient.
He takes really good care of himself...he is prepared!
I agree. Trump only cares and thinks about money and Putin knows that. That is our problem in a nut shell.
Trump certainly CARES ABOUT PUTIN! THAT fact is OBVIOUS. WHAT does that man have on him? What has Putin promised Trump in return for destroying America, its people, its government, its economy? King of the oligarchs?
I'm not going to bother to read past "that old tired" private contractors line (which is correct)! Quit wasting time complaining about T***p and the Republicans (who I hate as much or worse than anyone else in these comments) and start asking hard questions about how we got here!
Traumatized by Reagan’s landslides the neoliberal stooges in the DLC teed up Bill Clinton to declare "the era of Big Government is over", kick Unions to the curb, align with Newt Gingrich to “end Welfare as we know it” (among about a dozen other hard-right policy outrages that should have made Democratic voters' heads explode… spoiler alert - they didn’t) and put the Democratic Party SOLIDLY in bed with Wall St., Silicon Valley and Corporate/OnePercent BigDonors the last 30+ years straight while regular Americans got the crumbs that dropped off the neoliberal “Third Way” triangulation table with Republicans in Congress and every Democratic voter I know cheered it on and…
We’ve been on a glide-path to Authoritarianism and Oligarchy ever since!!!
And the best the Democrats can do now is “Vote Blue No Matter Who” for the Moderate Centrist candidates who won’t rock the boat… instead of fighting for the American people!!! Just look at ALL the comments on this post... how much blaming the Republicans (which they DESERVE) are people going to do before the look in the mirror and admit...
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS DONE NOTHING TO CONFRONT REPUBLICANS AND FIGHT BACK since the party made the choice I describe above!!!
Vote Democrat Lockstep. There are only two teams on the field. Everyone else is just a streaker trying to steal the show for $$, Bernie included; especially the Green party which is actually a wing of the Republican party.
WHAT?!? There are only two viable political parties in the United States!?! Wow… I didn’t know that. Thanks for reminding me what a waste of time it is to try to smarten people up on social media!!!
My point is that Democrats like you have sat by for decades and watch the Democrats do NOTHING but collaborate with the Republicans building the mess we are in now! Yes we ONLY have TWO viable parties (wow… what a news flash) and we have no control over the Republicans and the only thing we CAN control is making the Democrats fight back against them and… Democrats have been doing NOTHING but rolling over and showing their soft underbelly for 30 years… while YOU have been cheering them on!!! It’s as responsible for the mess we are in as any T***p voter!
I agree with you, Albert. "There are only two teams in the field."
And there are so many issues! I want to pick one and call my Reps today (doesn't matter if they are all Republican and doesn't matter which issue). I am going to thank my Senators for voting to restore funding for DC, and give my Congressional Rep a hard time for not taking it up. We simply must let them know we are paying attention and not numb.
There is only one party committed to democracy and it includes Berny and he is superior to most of the Democratic Party.
I think the bigger thing to focus on is how we go on from here. We can’t change history but we can change the future. I wish I had answers. There are Democrats working for change, don’t ignore them or dismiss them. Support them. Write them thank you letters, tell them you think they’re moving in the right direction and encourage them to convince their colleagues to do the same. Then write those not on board and point them in the direction of those who are working on changes.
AMEN TO THAT POST!
omg Margaret-Rose Stringer… you are a genius!!!
It is the whole right-wing, not just trump!
Remember..........he is only the spokesperson/salesman for our oligarchs. First they/ Leo "privatized" the SCOTUS. The rest is history - if we allow it. Keep fighting.
I really think he wants to be in charge if the United States. He thinks of himself as a brilliant CEO.
He wants to hire and fire people like it’s a TV show.
He wants respect, but doesn’t understand that it is earned. He wants to control everything. That’s how his narcissistic personality works.
He’s so narcissistic, that he thinks he deserves all this attention, praise, and honor.
He wants all the prizes that the world hands out. The Peace Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors. He doesn’t want to earn them, he just wants them because in his mind he deserves them.
He is weak and fears being exposed for that, but no one wants to call him weak. He fears being exposed as a coward, but no one wants to call him that. He is a fraud, but no one wants to call him that. Then there are the complicit members of this administration that pretend how great he is and no one calls them out for their lies and cowardice. When was the last time any media person ever looked across the table at Bessett or Lutrick and said "All of these economic ideas have been tried before and the results lead to the Great Republican Depression of the 1930s, so why are we trying them again?" I would be happy to hear any Sunday morning show ask that question. I would love for the to on the editorial page of every newspaper. It would be great if the Wall Street Journal asked it. I have written all three of my Congressional reps and asked them that question - crickets.
His governance is so irrational that it has to be either incompetence or irrationality. Or possibly intentional. I think I see Stephen Miller's finger prints on it.
Miller is trump's puppeteer along with the evil men in Project 2025
But it puzzles my why they still let him appear in public and news conferences when his dementia shows up more and more. When will they hide him away?
IMO it is doubtful Trump has any cash in a bank. Trump loves Gold for three reasons. First it is the color of Urine. Second it holds value. Finally, during the Great Depression, people referred to cash as king because most who had cash beforehand deposited it in banks which failed. Trump is selling the U.S. for a mountain of gold.
As the value of the US dollar decreases, the value of Trump's crypto increases. Congress, especially Democrats, should not have voted to pass the GENIUS Act (crypto bill). It fails to adequately regulate crypto. The only safe form of crypto is CBDCs -- central bank digital currencies -- i.e., in the US, if we were more functional than now, that'd be stable coins issued by the Federal Reserve as authorized by Congress. Without adequate regulation, Trump and others can continue to enrich themselves but the cost is policy that makes our economy and the world's economy even less stable than it would've been with responsible crypto regulations in place. The budget bill, being the largest transfer of wealth upwards and so much more, will most likely cause a significant recession according to trusted economists.
Most of all he wants money. You where he has been and know where he is going.
Remember, it's not just Trump - it's the Republican Party and the authors of Project 2025. Their goal is the destruction of our government and multi-ethnic society only to be replaced by a white Christian theocratic autocracy.
Don’t forget the real culprits: the 77 million Americans who voted, with malice aforethought, for a malicious thug whose calling card says “cruelty is the point.” We will find out a little over a year from now whether any significant fraction of those louts have sufficient decency to vote for Democrats.
I dont really like that, but I totally agree
I hope people remember that Trump is the public distracting puppet and that although the statement snd actions related to his blatant narcissism are a useful shiny penny and provide much fodder for those of us on Substack, he is not controlling the scenarios that we see being played out every day in the media. So much is directed by those connected to Project 2025 ( some players we know like Vought and Miller, snd many remain hidden behind the scenes). And it is all rubber stamped by Republican members of Congress any number of whom COULD break ranks and stop the whole shenanigan. But they don’t. So rather than saying -Trump called out the National Guard or Trump insulted Zelensky or Trump is building a fancy new ballroom, we need to be saying the GOP is insulting Zelensky or the Congress is sending the Guard to DC and Chicago or the Republican members of the Congress are hiding the truth in the Epstein case. Because if they rose up and did their duty to America, they could have and even now can throw a tremendous load of sand in the destructive actions going on here, and reveal what is going on in the decimation of our government and of T heir future. The law of unintended consequences will make itself know. States which get hammered by this fall’s weather for lack of a robust NOAA and FEMA will point their fingers at their self serving congresspeople. Their own houses will be washed away. Their own children will contract measles snd die. Their own identities will be sold on the dark web and their bank accounts emptied. They will go down with the ship of state for lack of doing their job and serving the people. STAND UP!
I live for the day Mar a Lago is wiped out by a hurricane.
Hear, hear! You called it, Janice.
Bravo!!!
Well, he wants to maintain an economy that fills his bank account with cash … Eventually, he’s going to put the country on the same economic footing Putin has created in Russia … Even Putin's oligarchs have to stash their money outside of their country … their own country’s economy is in the toilet.
Trump is definitely doing to the US what he did to those casinos in Atlantic City.
Someone should tell Trump that there is no Brinks truck following the hearse.
He can't pay off Satan.
There is a lovely comedy and later film called You Can’t Take It With You. Apparently many of these folks never saw or experienced that wonderful 1930’s screwball comedy. To all our great dismay and regret.
Mel Brooks? No, Frank Capra. I’ve seen it many times.
Bingo. But Satan only wants his soul. Ka-ching.. he clearly has that.
There are oligarchs on Long Island who are buying land, land, land.
I'm not so sure he wants to destroy the government so much as those around him do.
After 6 bankruptcies, dozens of shuttered businesses and the brains of a turnip, he really is incapable of doing much thinking at all.
Trump has never for even a single second, thought about doing anything for anyone but himself. He still thinks that Putin will someday allow him to build a Trump tower or at least keep quiet about all of the sex trafficking Trump and Epstein did using Russian banks.
Your last sentence says it ALL. "or at least keep quiet about all of the sex trafficking Trump & Epstein did USING RUSSIAN BANKS". AND THAT AMERICA IS WHY PUTIN HAS HIM BY THE BALLS.
Could be!
IMHO, Russia as has been "grooming" Trump since the late 1980s. They are masters at playing the long game. It's their use of him as a high-class money launderer that allowed him to create and maintain the illusion of success. Putin has the receipts from back then but he doesn't need them because he's a Trump whisperer who knows the power he has and uses it judiciously. None of this intersects with Epstein.
And in that case, apparently, he’s allowing them to do so. Where is the difference?
The difference is that he's oblivious to it. In one of HCR's recent videos she points out that his handlers are keeping him focused on the surface things he's comfortable with: building and decorating.
That makes sense, doesn't it?
and with the approval of the republicans.
DUH!!!!! He's staying out of PRISON and feeding Daddy Vladdy everything he wants. He was compromised decades ago.
His assault on government seems senseless, irrational. What is his goal?
He is Putinizing us.. Cement his own control. Gain access to the economic returns and funnel them to his personal bank account. Dismantle any chance that governmental and legal steps can stand in his way. Become the unchallenged ruler, like Putin. But he is not as smart, experienced in international strategy, or as knowledgeable in spy craft and subterfuge as Putin is.
Trump and every Republican since Richard Nixon. Small government - get rid of bloat - fire those Civil servants who waste taxpayer money - give to the wealthy so they can trickle down some crumbs to the rest of us - Repeal the Affordable Care Act, Repeal Roe vs. Wade, Savor GUNS and keep prayers handy. This is not Trump alone. These are Republicans who have fought the American People and Democracy their entire lives. Including Bill Cassidy. Especially Bill Cassidy.
I disagree. The dumpty trumpty WANTS the chaos to destroy everything so he can become (obstensibly) king by ‘rescuing’ the country and receive the accolades that he deserves. Horses deserve clean stalls but they still shit there.
Labor Day Protests come out one and all. BillKatz@substract.com
Respectfully, I disagree. I think “out in the street” protests do not have the effect they once did. Why? Because politicians don’t care. They ate t afraid because they are mostly safely gerrymandered. Those protests used to scare politicians to listen to their constituents. Also, major news was three channels and would cover these thoroughly.
Now it’s maybe thirty seconds. And for every clip of peaceful protesters, there’s 1000 on social media of violence, whether it was doctored or was clipped in from something that happened years ago.
I look at the women March….one million, completely peaceful and then what happened…? Reproductive rights stripped and women fired Willy nilly as DEI hires.
And we are in more dangerous territory now. The guardsmen are armed BECAUSE Stephen Miller wants blood in the streets. Blood in the streets is grounds for a national emergency and a federal take over. That’s the goal. Take over universities, take over the monetary system, take over the media and take over cities that do not agree with you in order to take or prevent their voting you out. If guardsmen and ICE agents are telling firefighters, judges and policemenr to go pond sand, what are they going to do to a 21 year old kid screaming in their face? I’m guessing knock him down and then what? I’m guessing a crows would naturally react and them what be fired upon?
What has seem to work in 2025 is a combination of what Newsom and Pritzker are doing. But it needs expansion. We need a Newsomesque version of Miller, Vought, Vance, Theil….we need something (and not just Newsom) to draw attention to the absurdity of what is happening. We also need great speakers like Priyzker to bring in the serious without losing people who have a 20 second attention span.
This is not the sixties. This is 2025 and we need to adapt. I don’t want to see kids and the elderly or union workers shot in the streets. These people not only hope for that, they have their fingers in the trigger. Maybe start mind fucking theme into turning on each other. I don’t know. But in the street has backfired into Americans only seeing looting and shit lit on fire. We simply don’t see the peaceful protests being broadcast and it has yet to produce results.
"We simply don’t see the peaceful protests being broadcast and it has yet to produce results."
Simply because the legacy media are blacking out protests does not mean they are not effective. See Tesla protests and the results. See Erica Chenoweth's research on mass movements. See the long, long history of protests and their results. Look at the magnitude of protests occurring in Europe.
The protests in the sixties were very effective and have long served as a model for non-violent intervention by a population.
As to getting shot. There is an informal consensus among blacks that participating in street protests would indeed raise the level of a protest to a riot. I invite you to read the information posted by Indivisible and other very credible organizations on how to maintain a peaceful protest.
In fact you might want to read up on the organizations protesting all across this Country right now. I have been in the streets protesting since the Vietnam War. There is a spirit and patriotism there that is so compelling.
And finally. I salute my hat to the millions of Americans and the peoples of other Countries who day in and day out get up out of their chairs, leave the safety of their homes and take to the streets in passionate support of their beliefs. It is a humbling thing to witness.
If you haven't already protested I recommend you find a protest on Labor Day.
Please you cannot compare the current USA to Europe. Europe is still a democracy and is not run by a sociopath and his arrogant thugs.
Can nonviolent struggle defeat a dictator? This database emphatically says yes
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/01/can-nonviolent-struggle-defeat-a-dictator-this-database-emphatically-says-yes/#:~:text=Can%20nonviolent%20struggle%20defeat%20a%20dictator%3F%20This%20database%20emphatically%20says%20yes
and
Why Protests Threaten Dictatorships but Make Democracies Stronger
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/16/why-protests-threaten-dictatorships-but-make-democracies-stronger/#:~:text=Why%20Protests%20Threaten%20Dictatorships%20but%20Make%20Democracies%20Stronger
Thank you
This isnt true. And if anything this is something written by a strategic troll because it may seem thoughtful yet it is not. Many people are deriving momentum for continued action by showing up at marches. This is good. Also, the videos and images that do go out not only to our nation but to the rest of the world illustrate that the people overwhelmingly are not approving of the government actions. Should at some point other countries find they need to step in, it will be because they DO see the protests. Stop being a troll.
I am so far from being a troll. I am emphatically for democracy and 1000% against Trump and the people who are his puppeteers.
My point and my sincerest apologies that I didn’t make it more clear or articulate it better is we should protest against all of this. I just disagree that in the streets type protests are not the best way to go and do t seem to be the most effective in THIS America in THIS era in 2025. What worked in 1965 simply doesn’t work as well in 2025. We are also dealing with an entirely different beast in the MAGA party. Maybe Nixon wouldn’t have batted an eyelash if citizens were gunned down during a protest but the Congress of 1965, the SCOTUS of 1965 and most important
Y the citizenry of 1965 would have given a damn. So would have the majority of the Republican Party. We cannot say the same about any of those entities in 2025.
But that doesn’t mean I think we should roll over. Democrats lost because they didn’t adjust to the times they are living in. Boycotting Tesla and hitting these people in e only place they care about….the pocket has been successful. Making fun of Trump like Newsom has done has FINALLY grabbed the attention our resistance so desperately needs.
All I’m saying is that I think a million consumers saying they are not going to buy a single item for a weekend or a week has proven more effective than marching in the streets and potentially being arrested, maimed or losing the middle of America our side needs. I just think if you want a politician to pay attention in 2025, picketing his office will pale in comparison to boycotting the businesses of his largest donors.
And I’d add….another problem. I don’t have to nor I should have to pass a purity test on my commitment to democracy and called a troll because I have a different opinion on how to effectively combat this fascism.
Yay! Best comment of the day Bill.
Many protests cooking for Labor Day Weekend.
People can type in Protests in my town" or protests on Labor Day" to locate a protest that is in your area.
Approximately 60% of Americans do not approve of Trump's presidency. IOW, the word is out on the street about what Trump is doing. So the problem is not so much that the mainstream media is not reporting what is going on, but rather that there doesn't seem to be leadership to do anything about it. Even Newsom and Pritzker are reacting, not forging ahead.
That’s been my big complaint for a while now…WHERE are our leaders? We the People are angry and ready to fight, but WHAT exactly do we do? We need leadership! Instead, crickets!
We are the Leaders. WE can stand around waiting for someone, anyone, to come save us or we the people can stand up, take control and fight back.
Watch what happens when millions are in the streets Labor Day. The skirmishes against ICE by we the people have severely dampened ICE recruitments.
We are more nimble, less hampered by the weight of governing or distracted by public opinions as our elected officials are.
There are more of us than them. We will prevail. Go to the streets.
I’ll be out there in the streets on Labor Day but exactly WHAT does that accomplish except to show how many oppose this regime. It doesn’t stop them from doing anything! I just read the House passed a bill to allow access to our National Forests for logging! Cutting of old growth trees and destroying habitats for many endangered species just to give his rich friends MORE PROFITS! Or how about ICE arresting firefighters in the act of fighting a wild fire! How does protests stop THAT?
"Though it defies consensus, between 1900 and 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts. Attracting impressive support from citizens that helps separate regimes from their main sources of power, these campaigns have produced remarkable results, even in the contexts of Iran, the Palestinian Territories, the Philippines, and Burma."
They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement, information and education, and participator commitment. Higher levels of participation then contribute to enhanced resilience, a greater probability of tactical innovation, increased opportunity for civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for the regime to maintain the status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents’ erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. They find successful nonviolent resistance movements usher in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, this book originally and systematically compares violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, Chenoweth and Stephan find violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.
https://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/civil-resistance-what-everyone-needs-to-know#:~:text=MEDIA%20%26%20COMMENTARY-,Civil%20Resistance%3A%20What%20Everyone%20Needs%20to%20Know,-Erica%20Chenoweth.
It worked on the Vietnam War, it worked ejecting Musk from DC and it damaged Tesla. Read Erica Chenoweth's work on mass movements.
Vietnam was a totally different era; the rules have all changed now.
This administration is all about instilling FEAR in us so we cowar in our homes typing on social media. They don't LISTEN to us; they do
EXACTLY what they want, when they want. I like peaceful protests for no other reason than it reinforces my OWN commitment to FIGHT BACK...I get teary-eyed at every protest to see my fellow Americans DOING SOMETHING! So, Barbara, I concede your point, but assert we still need MORE!
Like where is Schumer? I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel betrayed. United we stand, etc. etc. I have trust in Oregon’s people in the senate, and my representative in the house, but how many don’t? A huge number I think. How can we vote for people we can’t depend on, we just can’t take the lesser of two evils—lesser and greater, they’re still evil. And how do we hold them accountable? A certain number of town halls should be required for all people in Congress, and all precincts should be covered with everyone invited. None of the ass kissers only. And no walking off stage—they need to have the balls or tits to face their constituents!
The most accurate response to the "where are our leaders" question is this:
The Democratic Party, terrified of opposition from below, is seeking to chloroform the population about the real state of American democracy. The Democrats fear that exposing the true character of Trump’s coup and the social conditions that underlie it would encourage mass opposition that they cannot control.
Source: "World Socialist Web Site," 27 August 2025. (https://www.wsws.org/en?redirect=true)
I disagree as well. The Republicans are in control of the Federal government, not the Democrats. The Democrats are doing everything they can but they can't change what they don't control without violence.
If you substitute "the Corporate media" and "the Republican Party" for Democrat Party I could almost agree.
I disagree completely.
Disagree at will; that does not alter the "Democratic" (sic) Party's seven-decade history of political betrayals that prove its true post-JFK function was to serve the "Republican" (sic) Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party as its Fifth Column. Start with the Tonkin-Gulf incident (if not with 22 November 1963 and its aftermath, the Warren Commission included); then there's Carter's Christian misogyny and sneaky neoliberalism; next the Clintons' multiple betrayals (hers the bogus, intended-to-fail healthcare scam, notably rewarded in 1996 -- look it up, if you dare -- by maximum payoffs from the insurance cartel); then after those knives in our backs, the presidency of Barack the Betrayer, whose "change we can believe in" is the most malicious (and the most ironically revealing) Big Lie in U.S. presidential history; next the Biden-Harris denouement, complete with entirely rational NYT-caliber speculation the Democrats were deliberately throwing the election; and finally -- the terminal punctuation on our national epitaph -- Schumer's unconditional surrender.
Argue to your heart's content, you cannot erase the memories or alter the terrible truths of these historical events, some of which I covered for local newspapers, all of which I followed closely.
As to why the Democrats behave as they do, the WSWS analysis is the only hypothesis that addresses all the variables, whether economic (the plutocracy's zero-tolerance ownership of the party); political (the party's desperate, anti-New-Deal fear -- and absolute suppression -- of its tiny progressive minority); or sociological (the party's tacitly genocidal hostility to the non-collegiate and lower-income populations, including the cast-off "surplus workers" targeted in response to the party's owners' oft-expressed fear they'll rise up in [unmanageable] rebellion). In which context, note the zero-tolerance theocracy imposed by the [plutocracy-supported] Christonazi rebellion makes those victims entirely manageable.
The Rev Sharpton said the Democrats and Independent candidates need to focus on affordability.
Trump promised on DAY ONE to lower grocery prices. They've only gone up even more. Gasoline and electricity are spiking. Rents have been spiking across the country. Hundreds of businesses have gone bankrupt or been forced to layoff employees.
Most of the Trump voters actually believed that Trump gives a shit about them. 10 years and they still haven't figured out that he is a fucking moron and the world's greatest liar.
With the decimation of FEMA as well as reductions to the National Weather Service, etc. and the silencing of the Corp for Public Broadcasting, perhaps this country's wakeup call will be the sound of people shouting "Help!!!" when the next Katrina strikes, and thousands are dead, hundreds of thousands or more are displaced, and there is no federal response. Perhaps then the true effects of this grossly corrupt incompetence will be felt and recognized.
(Personally, I'm rooting for a targeted asteroid, which would give us a better chance of erasing the trumperror.)
Maybe if those 60% of unhappy Americans got up out of their chairs, put down their phones and took to the streets change would begin to happen.
Protests work.
Yes, they do. But leaders--whether they be organizers, candidates, or educators--are still needed. I think that when people don't have strong civic education, when a law was needed to guarantee the right to time off on Election Day in order to vote, when our highly materialistic lifestyle virtually demands two-earner households, and more, then a focus or rallying point is needed.
Most of my friends *are* protesting, writing letters, calling Congress, showing up at town meetings, etc. They are not the lazy sideliners that you portray by this statement. But what all of these individual and group efforts need to combat the feeling of helplessness is a central rallying point with a voice, a face, and a presence. And we need it quickly.
We need millions in the streets. 90% of the people I know whether at work, neighbors or friends do not protest or have any political activity.
I do not know your friends. How could I comment on them?
This is a group moment. A "We the people" moment.
Problem is, five decades of conditioning in the neoliberal rat maze and seven decades of the Democrats' "change-we-can-believe-in" political betrayals have -- exactly as our masters intended -- utterly destroyed the We-the-People consciousness that once enabled most of us to set aside our doctrinal differences and unite in the common humanitarian endeavor that, despite stubborn enclaves of perpetual racist and misogynist hatred, was nevertheless the true essence of American exceptionalism. Which -- tragically (and again as our masters intended) -- has enabled our true exceptionalism to be forever undone by the unspeakably vile triumph of Donald the Destroyer and his Christonazi/Neoconfederate rabble.
Largely because of the exemplary influence of my Marxian father, I have been an activist since my 17th year, am now an activist at age 85 and will remain an activist until I am no more. Though the obviously irremediable Christonazification of a huge, mostly white-male-supremacist segment of the U.S. 99.9 Percent into what amounts to a permanent lynch mob disproves the Marxian definition of the "working class" as the sole source of liberation, I remain convinced that some variant of socialism is our species' only path out of the ecogenocidal barbarism of capitalism.
Yet like Ms. Mullen, I recognize I am part of a minuscule minority of activists in a vastly larger, permanently subjugated population that is both contemptibly craven and hopelessly fragmented. And I know its fatal inability to achieve the solidarity and discipline required for effective resistance will never be healed. It is made permanent by the resistance-killing combination of identity politics, the self-obsessed me-first/fuck-you survivalism bred by neoliberalism and the instinctive distrust of leadership spawned by the above-referenced betrayals -- the very factors that destroyed the Occupy Movement from within.
Even so, like the defenders of Wake Island and Fortress Brest, we must fight on; our species' humanitarian honor demands it.
Many influences-many beyond the reach of politics. The advent of computer technology which promised so much has been wildly destructive. Our addictions to the screen have left us muddled and easily manipulated. We are unable to focus for very long, not long enough to study the issues of the day or even care past what we have been programmed to believe is the evening news. We are depressed and don't know why. Our separation from nature has hardened us. We are more cruel as a result. We don't have a personal spirituality and wonder about that fact sometimes.
Despite all this I will always believe that humans are inherently wonderful and are able to rise to any occasion. We are going to find ourselves in this moment. We will prevail.
Muffled by the kowtowing bilionaire MSM ownerhip. Can't make waves for all those reasons. WAPO and LA Times in paticular. All the rest are far right propagnda. You, Steve, sure know the names of those RW outlets that blanket rural America.
You'd be surprised at how progressive Tulsa World newspaper is. Not perfect. But not Fox News. Tulsa and OKC are surprisingly progressive cities. Tulsa is home to the Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie Museums. Will Rogers too.
Literally every city in Texas is blue -- even Dallas is a solid periwinkle. This image of 'red state' bulwark is mostly bushwa for the deplorables.
Sinclair media owns most of the radio and TV stations out in the boonies.
Jess Piper has written about the right wing media in rural areas. Farmers in their tractors and harvesters listen to right wing radio stations because that’s what they can get. Then at church they hear right wing preachers, so lots of rural folks get marinated in lies and disinformation. Fox “News” has done so much damage to this country.
That farmer that was in the clip circulating last week was plenty unhappy. I see reports of food rotting in the farms. They might be at a tipping point.
I am not surprised. There are many progressive pockets but the vast majority of media out there is rightwing slanted Sinclair and others like it. Look who wins the elections in those states.
Block the road now. Too much is at risk to wait! Mobilize Blue state National Guards when threatened. The invasion of one state by another is a call to state Governors to mobilize their National Guards to resist an UNLAWFUL assault. The U.S. military should not accept UNLAWFUL orders. The sooner we get this over with, the better. This confrontation is coming. It is coming! We are stronger now than we will be tomorrow. The confrontation is not a battle or a war. It is a standoff at the State borders. We know TACO. Also, the gerrymander fight is on. There is a new playbook. The old rules have been struck down by the Supreme Court. We need to change the gears here as fast as possible for deadly PREEMPTIVE strikes. Newsom has moved out on this already. Who is next? Hochul. Where are you? NO EXCUSE! Change your state Constitution. Pritzker. What are you doing?
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/gerrymander-fight?r=3m1bs
Morning Joe seems very watered down since Joe and Mika bent the knee to lick trumps anal orifice.
When Joe was commenting on the latest school shooting, he went into a long diatribe and in the end wondered why "some in Congress" won't take action to curb gun violence. Everybody knows that the right-wing is responsible for blocking gun regulation and should be held responsible for every mass shooting. Joe also commenting about the Pentagon blocking Ukraine from striking inside Russia and went on and on about the dept of Defense, but not a word about trump being responsible.
Joe and Mika have been positive about trumps invasion of Dem run city's in blue states.
One of the current characters in a British 'cold case' series I'm watching is an opinion talking head, who has a one minute segment that skews conspiracy theory, called "Mel's Minute". During a runthrough, her producer chastises her for sharing too much of HER opinion. He says, "Our viewers don't want YOUR opinion. They want to hear THEIR opinion; that's why they watch us."
And I thought, that's Fox! That's their secret sauce! They give their audience the 'news' they want to hear, which is their own twisted take on world events. What my old boss used to call a "BFO-Blinding Flash of the Obvious".
Unforgotten. I’m watching. Art imitating life.
///The "greatest story" indeed. Speaking as the investigative reporter, city editor, news editor, picture editor and editor-in-chief I once was, a proper lead follows:///
Ironically on the eve of its 250th year, the United States of America's federal government is no more, replaced by a modern variant of the despotism that provoked its rebellious birth.
President Donald Trump and his cabal of theocracy-minded Christonazi/Neoconfederate officials -- given absolute power in 2024 by a small, ecogenocide-minded majority of mostly white male U.S. voters -- have fulfilled the foremost promise by which the so-called Republican Party's candidate won reelection.
Eight months into their reign, Trump and his regime have effectively dismantled the 249-year-old federal government and nullified its 236-year old constitution, destroying the nation's former political infrastructure beyond any possibility of restoration. Its replacement, though still taking shape, appears to be closely modeled after the regimes of Adolph Hitler and Chile's Augusto Pinochet.
Meanwhile the magnitude of the destruction approaches that which would have been inflicted by nuclear attack, albeit -- in obvious service to the victors' financial masters -- with none of the physical ruin such bombing would have inflicted.
Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson's summary of the devastation is the first comprehensive damage estimate to escape the regime's increasingly prohibitive censorship. Her report includes several examples of the tyrannies taking shape following the regime's methodical slaying of governance by law.
(pickup first graf xxx letters from an american xxx The image of National Guard troops xxx)
The American oligarch class has been working toward this day for over 100 years. 8 months is only the tip of the iceberg. They have almost succeeded several times in our history. Maybe this time they will make Democracy go away - but we, the people, will fight them every step of the way.
Thoroughly depressing....
Here's what I don't understand--doesn't it occur to these goons that this carnage of medical oversight and FEMA aid response affects them as well?
It won't unless and until they are impacted personally. Then, predictably, they will be told it is "Biden's fault" and they will believe it.
Some people say that they will endure as long as the people they hate suffer more.
This -- as I know from my years in the South and rural Washington state -- is literally true, and what prevents so many of us from mobilizing an adequate response is that, being civilized humanitarians, we simply cannot comprehend the genuinely infinite, purposefully ecogenocidal magnitude of their hatred, vindictiveness and sadism.
This country is run by billionaires who are actually monsters. They don’t care about us people. In fact they would like us to mostly die so they can even have more money to themselves. They think with AI and robots they can do everything they need to maintain themselves and the few that they want around. To get rid of these odious parasites it’s gonna take a whole lot of work and a lot of bravery. So far, I’m just not seeing it…
Reach out and tell news organizations.
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 ❤️🩹🤍💙
Thank you Megan for doing this daily. You are very much appreciated.
Makes me sad I’m now sleeping (back to a teacher schedule lol) when she posts her letters so I can jump in the comments right away. But I’ll keep at it!
Thanks, as always, Megan.
Share this:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thiswillhold/p/she-won-they-didnt-just-change-the?r=2lgce&utm_medium=ios
Steve Bant, Maybe it's time to listen to Chris Armitage...It's time to DEPORT REPUBLICANS.
"We can deport them from the functioning economy."
https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/deport-republicans-a-practical-guide?r=kxzps&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
The legacy media was bought by oligarchs. Oligarchs hate Democracy. These were the same people lined up like birds on a wire at trump's inauguration.
We need to continue to create our own megaphones.
Substack and YouTube!!
I think the list you made of separate events are actually one much longer story that leads right up to now. Along the way it has been noted that certain headlines and, at bottom, the freedoms of the press have been deemed inconvenient.
In alignment with this Administration’s Magic 8 Ball … er, um, I mean policy agenda ( it’s not this Administration’s goal to have either fixed or clearly stated policies, the public must be kept guessing. To this end, which is neither there nor here, the Administration has established a non-specific agenda of strict policy support. It is located on an undisclosed flotation device to be found sometime on one of the Capitol waterways along with the Magic 8 Ball).
Bill, we would stand a better chance if the corrupt class clowns actions were determined by a Magic 8-Ball.
"Ask later"
Like, in two weeks?
🙄
Just quoting the magic 8-ball
That’s part of Trump’s strategy: he’s taking over mainstream media.
Fortunately, he is so clueless that he doesn't realize that most people don't read, listen to or watch the lame stream corporate media any more.
I'm more concerned about him taking over US Steel and Intel because everything he touches DIES.
TOTALLY. If this isn’t domestic terrorism, I don’t know what is. Thankfully the scales have fallen from my republican (faux news-watching) brother’s eyes, but the few who have awakened are not enough. Those who KNOW AND HAVE THE POWER TO DO SO should grab this villain, clap him in irons, and physically remove him. This is insane that he can continue to do what he does. When he says “I can do whatever I want to do,” he’s not kidding. And so far, it’s true.
I am 74 - and I agree completely -- where are the headlines?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/health/cdc-monarez-kennedy-vaccines.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
At least it’s something. But you’re right, it’s astonishing how they’re ignoring the fact that the house is on fire.
THEATER OF CONTROL: HOW TRUMP’S MANUFACTURED CRISIS THREATENS DEMOCRACY
The mulch-spreading National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. are not beautifying the city, they are staging a photo op for authoritarian power. Trump claimed he needed troops to fight crime, yet crime is at a 30-year low. This was never about safety. It is about spectacle—soldiers where park employees once stood, federal muscle where local autonomy once ruled.
The defunding of Washington, D.C.’s budget, the gutting of the National Park Service, and now the takeover of Union Station all show the same strategy: break public systems, then declare them failed. Once weakened, federal loyalists swoop in, presenting their control as order. Meanwhile, essential agencies like FEMA, CDC, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are hollowed out, stripped of expertise, and punished for speaking truth. This is not reform. It is retribution and a power grab.
The danger could not be clearer. Civil service is being dismantled, data security compromised, public broadcasting silenced, and health agencies politicized. Trump’s war is not on crime, but on democracy itself.
The solution requires urgency. Congress must reassert oversight. Whistleblowers must be protected. State governments and cities must form coalitions to resist federal overreach. And the public must refuse to normalize soldiers with rakes and brooms parading as governance. Democracy survives only if we expose the theater of control for what it is: the rehearsal of dictatorship.
Yes, insane, U.S. gun violence. Stop it. Take the steps Australia took.
But maybe U.S. elites prefer insanity. Look at Washington D.C., where U.S. national guard troops, sent as if to answer reputed emergency of out-of-control crime everywhere, in fact have nothing better to do than pick up trash.
Chris Hayes, covering this, had to laugh. The fool Donald administration fired 180 of its 200 D. C. park service personnel – so it does face growing debris, litter, and trash problems, but all simply owing to Donald's insanity.
It’s not funny how kids keep getting shot dead in American schools, churches, and other public spaces. But there are virtually no grown-ups among U.S. elites. So no one will do what Australia did. Gun buybacks. Tighter licensing laws. Stricter storage regulations. It’s insane the U.S. won’t take the steps that will stop the mass murders, the repeating slaughter of children.
Stop it, the mass murder of little kids.
Or letting kids (and others) die of disease and starvation by cancelling aid.
Heather, this letter is the most important warning sign of America’s decline to a fascist
regime that Hitler would greatly admire!
Putin must be celebrating (if not actually orchestrating) Trump’s latest decisions as you enumerated in tonight’s letter. It’s almost as if he demanded that Trump enact these decisions in payment for Putin’s help in rigging the elections!
The truly horrible result of his actions is that his supporters can’t see the forest through the trees of his and his evil , deceitful cabinets’ lies because of their own fears and prejudices.
Mary, regarding Putin orchestrating the scumbag president's decisions isn't an "if", it's a fact. No wonder we are having the devastating consequences we are going through. And it will get much worse.
Mary "because of their own fears and prejudices." Yes. That is perhaps the greatest irony of all.
The US probably can't look to 1990s Australia for the answer. Australia just didn't have the gun culture the US has, nor did it have the number of guns the US has. The gun lobby and various politicians have tried incredibly hard to shift Australians to accept widespread gun ownership but they continue to resist.
Interestingly, the Australian Prime Minister who oversaw the change to gun law is now an avid Trump fan and keen to see Australia become a MAGA outpost. I wonder if he'd sacrifice the lives and safety of Australian school children to see it happen?
The American Founders, Sandra, looked to many cultures, many histories.
We could well afford that imaginative reach in these contrarily cesspool times.
The American founders never imagined a Congress populated by such pathetic, spineless sycophants.
John Howard is NOT a fan of Trump; he stated very clearly that were he an American, he would not vote for him due to his attempt to overturn the election
Thank-you Fay. My brain used Trump and MAGA interchangeably and that's not accurate. Better to say he has been in favour of the MAGAfication of Australian politics than a Trump fan boy.
Peter Dutton learnt the hard way that Australians want nothing to do with MAGA
Hello Phil... The highest Rate of Adult Gun-ownership in the 1st World is in Switzerland... 1 out of 3 I believe... Switzerland is also one of the safest Countries... The USA can learn from Switzerland...
Yet Switzerland requires permits, mandatory training, restricts assault rifles amongst other things.
A better comparison would be domestically amongst states.
States with lax gun laws have significantly higher rates of gun violence than states with stricter gun laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_Switzerland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_death_and_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state
I think Switzerland has so many guns because every adult or at least every male adult is required to be in the military for some amount of time even if they aren’t leaving home so of course they have weapons. But absolutely correct that they get training etc. But they don’t have the culture of macho gun swing that we do.
Then there's this, the Swiss women face an unusually high domestic violence rate, including being murdered with those guns.
Their overall murder rate is relatively low, but the rate of femicide is higher than most.
That's one reason the Swiss government started to require all those militia firearms must be locked up.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/domestic-violence-in-switzerland-the-suffering-behind-the-stats/49000468
Another thing to look at is the suicide rate by guns in states or countries where gun ownership percentage is high.
If gun ownership actually resulted in low crime rates, don’t you think the gun manufacturers would have convinced our government to arm (and train) every adult in the country?
Hello Cindy.... This is a fraught topic which is why I started this thread... Being a 'Heyoka', I had to do it... Murder is Sickness, and attacking others is a lack of self-control.... The licensing of Firearms of Firearms in Switzerland, and Japan are tightly controlled, and they have strict. Background Checks that include talking to Family Members, and Neighbors... Mental-Cases are not allowed to have Firearms... The Mass-Shooters should have never been allowed to possess Firearms... There should have been Intervention... Having lived in Utah, which is a very Safe State, it is because of strong Families, and Social Structures, it is because of these things, and not because of 1/2 of the Adults, Men & Women, have C-C Permits...
I would guess many would think Utah safer than say New York State, yes?
Yet the gun violence rate in Utah is 3 times that of NYS.
We seem to think Western states are safer the "hell-hole" Eastern states, and counter intuitively they are not.
Why? Lax gun laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_death_and_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state
They're trying...
Isn't the population of Switzerland required to participate in the military and firearms are distributed to the citizens by their government?
Maybe it is Sweden I'm thinking about.
“Stop it, the mass murder of little kids.”
13 years ago, at Sandy Hook Elementary 21 5- and 6-year old children were slaughtered in their classrooms. Gun sales skyrocketed immediately afterwards. That was this country’s response to the mass murder of little kids. When it comes to guns, we are too goddam insane to do the right thing.
If citizens do not care about the health and well-being of its children, they (referring to both “citizens” and “children”) are irrevocably lost.
Oh, they (referring to your "citizens" part here) talk a good game about caring, but when they deny health care to pregnant women and refuse any common sense gun laws, they are definitely lost.
The Republican politicians won’t stop the violence by banning combat weapons because they take money from the NRA and gun manufacturers.
I wrote this about two years ago. Nothing has changed. Nothing!
It's the Huge companies that own the Guns!!!
They are trumps buddy's!!! And, they have trump in their Pockets!!! They gave BILLIONS TO HELP him Win the president Election!!!! Amongst other companies 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Agree 100pct. I blame weak politicians on all sides of the aisle. They take lobbyist money for themselves and reelection campaigns, but they bankrupt their morals. Our political landscape, on a human level, is loathesome and disgusting.
I have noticed that Chris Hayes often laughs, I guess out of irony, but it gets on my nerves. There is nothing to snicker about, we are in dire trouble and our country will likely fail very soon.
So phil, as usual, you guys come out of the woodwork with your gun s
Let’s see if I have this right if guns kill people, then pencils, misspell words
Automobiles cause accidents, and spoons make people fat.
OK, I’ve got it straight now.
And by the way, when an armed criminal with an illegal weapon comes to attack you, are you gonna defend yourself with a spoon?
BS Troll. Folks, don't respond to this troll. We haven't yet been able to get rid of him. Russia bot
Yep. He needs attention. Don't give it to him.
I always skip R Sender. he can't spell or think and is he real?
Sick Render
I skip him, too, Elizabeth. Automatic delete.
Except, maybe I err when I say "him." It's probably part of a team of Putin techies, all operating under the same moniker.
Yup, by my observations over the past 10 months or so, Rick Sender is a bot.
I don't think he's a Russia bot. He appears to be a true gobsmacking idiot -- the genui-wine article. A bot would at least try to be smart.
Hi ICTT, I copied and pasted below a comment from Phil Balla to me a couple of days ago in response to my troll comments:
“Look at the time stamps. There's no way one troll could oneself issue simultaneously so many posts as does this single moniker which is evidently rather a much larger giddy team of AI English techies Putin is paying.”
What do you think?
So, Rick Sender, by that logic, DT has presided over the fastest, most pervasive increase in crime rates in American (and probably world) history. Crime rates in LA and Chicago were at least at a 4 year low, and in D.C. they were at a 30 year low. DT even noted that himself a few weeks ago. Now, all these places and more have turned into dystopian hell-scapes - all within a few short weeks under DT's watch.
I know you will use all sorts of questionable "facts" and extreme interpretations of them to refute this. You will also engage in ad hominem to try and belittle me personally. You will flood this forum with your super-human posting ability. I accept this. Still, do you refute that America's cities have turned into hell-scapes under DT's watch? If not, why send the National Guard and US Military units? Why repeatedly mention it to the media? Why do any of this? I know why, do you? Also, what did you have for breakfast?
In California, a $900 theft is typically a misdemeanor because the felony threshold is set at $950. This was established by Proposition 47, which voters passed in 2014. However, recent legal changes allow prosecutors to charge some repeat offenders with a felony, even if the value of the stolen goods is below this threshold. By the way, steve this was going on for three or four years. They only recently changed the law because businesses were fleeing and closing.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser initially expressed fear of President Donald Trump’s plan to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital, but its clear success made her change her mind.
After Trump announced his plans to deploy National Guard troops and assume oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to tackle rising crime in Washington, D.C., Bowser warned such a crackdown would be "unsettling and unprecedented."
However, the mayor admitted at a press conference on Wednesday that the federal surge has made a noticeable impact on one of America's most famously dangerous cities.
At the briefing, Bowser displayed a chart crediting the influx of FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Park Police and Capitol Police with bolstering MPD’s efforts and declared, "We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city."
He is a genuinely stupid man.
Only lefties live in dystopia.
Are you suggesting crime has spiked under trump? Holy crap. South chicago has been a hell hole since the sixties. I lived in LA FOR THIRTY YEARS AND LIME THE MILLION THAT HAVE LEFT/fled THERE DUE TO LIBERAL DEM POLICIES ITS BEEN CRUMBLING
Cali has soent more than 30 billion taxpayer dollars on illegals AS HAS NY Food shelter and medical treatment while Ttere are a quarter million homeless and CITIZENS. Do yiu know that up intil recently you could steal. Ap to 900 dollars from a store and not be prosecuted.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE DC mayor thanking trump today? Nope
In just two weeks viole t crime down 50% and the 500 carjacking of the past year down 88%. Lmao. You AND YIUR PARTY continue to lose. And why. Defending the indefensible.
Good luck holding all the cognitive dissonance, Rick Sender. for the past 20 - 30 years, crime rates were shrinking under both Republican AND Democratic administrations. According to right-wing pundits and officials, suddenly, under DT, crime has erupted everywhere, all at once. I have friends and relatives in D.C., some of whom have lived there for decades. In our conversations, they paint a very different picture that the one you are touting . As far as stealing up to $900.00 with no consequences, how do you know this? Have you tried it? If not, who are you referring to, DT, Stephen Miller? Big Balls? Also, you still have not answered my last question, what did you have for breakfast?
So this is the nail in your coffin. Google California’s law about $900 of theft and WTFU. When I keep saying to you guys, here’s things you don’t know and here’s things that Heather’s not telling you and here’s facts that you have no idea or going on around you because you’re stuck here well, here’s one of them go google it have a good time
https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto-legal-california This is just like not knowing that New York attempted to get non-citizens to vote 800,000 of them and only the Supreme Court of New York stopped it. The city Council approved it. Most of your readers here had no clue and thought it was a lie.
By the way, you haven't heard all the cognitive dissonance of the fact that they're finding out that major cities are also fudging their crime statistics changing felonies to misdemeanor so that the crime stats look better and in DC it's already come out and now there's an investigation one lady actually sued the dept for doing it and one her suit and another was released for exposing it.
You should probably know that a lot of the liberals that just left the Democrat party to come to the Republicans, which was illustrated in the New York Times article you've lost 4 1/2 million voters have come because they've been victims of crime. So nobody gives a shit if crime has come down. Tim and the police aren't doing their job doesn't matter what the crime rate is. It could always be better.
4 1/2 million voters for the New York Times read it and weep
I eat liberals for breakfast every morning by the dozens
With all the discussion back and forth for the past six months about the outrageous actions taken by the Trump regime, no one is pointing out loudly that the whole purpose of this maladministration is to detroy this Nation for the benefit of the industrial oligarchs and Putin in particular.
THIS IS A COUP. The do over of the failed 1939 one led by the GOP to back Hitler.
My impression is that it was not so much the "GOP" backing Hitler but some number of the morbidly rich. But now they own the party. Back in the Gilded Age, the Democrats were playing laisszez faire.
If you go through Rachel Madow's "ULTRA" podcast, you see that Senator Robert Taft was one of the ringleaders busted and tried for that crime, as well as many other Congressmen. The mistrial was declared at the end of WWII and Truman, for the sake of "Healing" told the DOJ to not retry the case and put all the evidence and court records in the National Archives, where it is waiting for the sycophants ripping up our government today to detroy all of it. Robert Taft was the head of the GOP. The same GOP doing it's best to pull it off now. They have been at it since FDR signed the legislation that became the New Deal. Think about that.
Rachel Maddow's book 'Prequel' also goes into further detail about the fascist sympathizers, Nazi supporters and insurrectionists scheming and allying against America even before our entry into World War II. Prominent people, like Charles Lindbergh and his wife, and organizations like the America First movement, were fascist/Nazi sympathizers. There were also even more nefarious Nazi aligned/supported militias like the Silver Legion of America, the American White Guard, the Christian Front(Father Coughlin's group), and the propaganda operation of George Viereck. The book was inspired by her 'Ultra' podcast. Really outstanding research and writing, as well as eye opening.
"Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule."
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721028/prequel-by-rachel-maddow/
I did not have time to go into all the gory details. The point is that all the educated and knowledgeable noise we hear today totally ignores the history of the big business GOP Hoovers working, scheming to destroy the New Deal from day one. Henry Ford was Hitler's idol and vice versa. His Detroit newspaper was Nazi propaganda.
Rachel's efforts were totally ignored by the corporate leadership of the "Democratic" Party.
This Miller dude that heads the DNC is an out of touch imbecile asshole. Don't get me started on Schumer. Durban and Jeffries, et al.
Excellent podcast by Maddow - both part 1 & part 2
Maybe more of a class thing then, JL.
Most of the top U.S. banks and corporations invested in the industries controlled by Hitler's Waffen SS: Alcoa, A.T.&T., Chase Manhattan, Coca Cola, Dow Chemical, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Kodak, Standard Oil, Woolworth's.
One reason they all flocked to fascism was the fact that nearly all their heads attended schools of the Ivy League. Patricians then just naturally thought it proper that those of their class align with rich, genteel "good Germans" of similar class who just happened to head all their chief industries.
So much money to be made too...the corporate bottom line trumps ethics...
Hello Horhai.... "trumps" ethics?... Ha, Ha, Ha.... Good one...
Quite an oxymoron too…
The "Love of Money".
J L Graham, It is the whole right wing, they have been working for this coup for decades.
I'm sure that after the country fails, they will tell you they are innocent. This history is all documented; if you hurry you can probably research it before they rewrite that history. All right-wingers must be held responsible and kicked to the curb never to hold political office again.
Yes. Just ask, "What Would Putin Do?"
No one?
I think HCR is at least one.
First, the voters failed us.
Then, Congress failed us.
Then, corporate media failed us.
Then, the courts failed us.
No co-equal branches of government.
No separation of powers.
No habeas corpus.
No right to peacefully protest.
Welcome to fascist America.
Help is NOT on the way.
It's up to us,
We the People!
Good grassroots news from the legal system today. The administration hasn't been able to indict Sandwich Guy on a felony charge. Grand juries have rejected four attempts to do so.
The courts are not failing us. Perhaps the Supreme Court, with its Trump loving members are, but other federal & state court decisions have gone against the Trump admin. Subscribe to The Democracy Docket. Learn how Marc Elias and his intrepid crew of lawyers have many lawsuits pending in the courts right now.!
Actually, the courts are the only ones not failing us right now.
The administration will take the most critical cases to the Supreme Court and the corrupt six are all in on the coup. If only they had the integrity of most of the lower courts.
Herb, I agree with your list, but I might make it a bullet list rather than a numbered list. I could argue that corporate media failed us first, resulting in voters failing us. But who knows? It's a perfect storm of failures, and in the maelstrom, it's hard to know which came first.
Full circle, We the People are the voters. Culpable and powerful.
No, it’s up to the people that just won the last election and that’s exactly what they’re doing we the people you just don’t know that they exist because you think everything that you know you know better. The only difference is you’re only unhappy when you’re not in control.
More BS troll
My first thought was that this news is all very grim, and it is. However, it is also heartening because all of these people were resisting tyranny. And at great personal cost. Together we must all resist, in whatever way we can, from wherever we are.
People will need to keep up that bravery in the next few years, because it's going to get a lot harder.
-Mathew
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/
A rich you don’t have to resist anything. All you have to do is come up with an agenda for all Americans, which after nine months of wondering why the hell you lost you still don’t have one.
BS troll
In his resignation letter today, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis set an example for those refusing to be cowed. “The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning,” he wrote. “My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud.”
HEAR, HEAR!!
Thank you so much, Heather, for detailing the $1 billion budget freeze-out the rapacious, hate-filled Republican House is trying to exact on Washington DC -- a city these loonies absolutely despise -- perhaps because we so strongly despise THEM! Their contempt for the Senate --- which overrode their idiocy by a unanimous voice vote back during the Big Ugly Bill -- is just as real.
Everything about these people is about control using any false, trumped-up (so to speak), absurd, non-credible pretext they can think of. National Guard here are fighting trash, not crime -- because this was never about crime to begin with. And a take-over of Union Station? Please. Not even during World War II, when FDR was actually using Union Station to regularly travel to and from Hot Springs, Georgia was Union Station "taken over." Again, the silliness of it all tells you everything you need to know about 'why.'
Yet today, another grand jury refused to proceed with a request by the Attorney for DC for a felony prosecution against an honorable veteran with a string of distinguished service medals for his 'assault with a deli weapon' -- hurling a Subway sandwich at an officer in protest. This was after Jeanine Pirro got THREE 'no bills' (a grand jury said NO three times in a row) for her attempted incompetent, malicious prosecution of a a woman who was photographing the arraignment of "known gang members" at the DC jail and their remanding to ICE. (I've never heard of a prosecutor failing three times in a row to win a grand jury's approval for the same case. It just doesn't happen). Pirro is now re-filing this as a misdemeanor charge (akin to using the FBI to arrest Metro fare-jumpers).
On another positive, yet under-reported note, in one Capitol Hill neighborhood the day before yesterday, ICE made an attempted raid on a house complete with unmarked cars, masked men, SWAT teams -- the whole kit and caboodle. They were not disrupting a terrorist plot, of course, and residents along Constitution Avenue (appropriately named) came outside to jeer and shout, banging pots and pans and telling them where they can all go. Similar protests have occurred along the densely populated 14th Street NW area.
We have no voice in Congress here in occupied Washington, but we still have voices on the street and trust me -- we are putting them to good use. We could use everyone's support in that.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-170917645
Did the disruption work? Did said storm troopers leave empty handed?
This I do not know.
They did not leave empty handed.
But the struggle must be made.
Thank you, ICTT. It is crucial to morale to hear the good stuff. When the FBI went to Bolton's house, a neighbor wearing a "Trump is a national disgrace" T shirt was interviewed by the press.
For sanity, decency, best and most-needed step forward: free American teachers.
Donald is going away sometime. He’s poisoned America, but the deeper causes for poisoning will continue. Unless and until we take one major step – for teachers. Give them autonomy. Let them focus on personal, discursive essay writing, civics, the reading of whole novels, histories, biographies, and other books – combinations thereof.
That teachers have this freedom, testing must go. It’s not just bad because it distorts every curriculum, but because of how it lies about people. Its stress on impersonal logic amounts to perseveration: a view of humankind as if all need be neutered for easier corporate grasping.
Donald and his Project 2025 banshees seek to manipulate us. Earlier having raised alarums of some deep state, they deepened it, have begun a police state, concentration camps, masked and heavily-armed thugs roaming streets and grabbing many to disappear them.
American teachers can remedy this. Free them. Let them teach whole books. Nurture essaying kids’ personal concerns in their communities. Take walks in nature, go to museums, and discuss this in class, then write essays applying skills to cite, credit, praise what others well saw or said.
Yes, we’ve been had by dehumanized elites. Let’s trust in our teachers for much better.
Phil, Project 2025 is the fascist manifesto. It's purpose. I believe, is to to perpetuate a way of life for America that is not dependent on Trump being around, although he's already left the building in my opinion.
He will be unhistory in a very short time.
It is an evil conspiracy run and funded by the Oligarchs, white christian nationalists will control the population by enforcing their theocracy, and the GOP (fascist party) has already made great strides to secure that outcome. The ultra-rich will actually be in control of the country.
And it’s good to know that fascism still lives in the United States but it’s not in the White House and it’s not guiding anything that Trump does because you remember Trump is King King. Don’t listen to anybody they do whatever they want to do themselves so nice. Try their Herbie. Yeah tell you how he left the building. He left the building with car jacking down 88% violent crime down 50% and the mayor of DC finally coming to our census today and thanking him profusely for making the streets of Washington DC safer.
You remember a guy named Chris Matthews, their herb Chris Matthew said he can’t believe the Democrats are actually trying to defend the defensible when they try to fight the crime fighter. Yikes sickening
BS troll
That Sender idiot is just so… I dunno.. fucked.. absolutely insane..
77 million, Mike.
77 million voted for police state, underage girl rape by Donald's pals, Gestapo-ICE goons, pussy grabbing ("If you're famous, they let you do it"), hate algorithms, evangelical Rapture genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, red carpet for Putin, continued lifelong stay on court for corrupt, corrupt Long Dong Clarence, testing, testing, testing only in schools, and killing of democracy as putrescent Donald and his Project 2025 banshees intend.
There is one thing I would like to add back to our elementary schools: phonics. Okay, maybe two things: phonics and sentence diagramming.
Third thing: civics in 7th or 8th grade
And I think everyone should have to pass a basic civics test before they can register vote.
Phil, can you also get behind project-based learning as in, for example (not limited to): building models of structures and environments, field trips followed by mapping that integrates with GIS (geographic information systems), monitored composting, t-shirt making as activism, you-name-it. Whole body learning and doing in teams with graphical assessments as well as nurturing minds. And yes, all you say, especially writing!
Yes, no doubt that will work wonders for the 2026 mid-terms. It will literally stop every attempt to subvert registration and derail mail-in voting dead in its tracks. And I'm sure it will prevent the next Republican state legislature from gerrymandering 7-8 more Congressional seats as well..... 🤪
Long-term, ICTT, differs from the short term where you can stick to cynicism.
In the long term, we're all dead, Phil.
Thank you, Joni Ernst.
Feel free to talk about school reform with her. Some of us have things to do.
Agreed, and we also have to somehow inform the public, on a tighter time scale.
Donald is not looking well.
The 2025 Labor Day weekend is two days away.
Heather, many thanks for tonight's article, and we are grateful how you keep a very difficult substack up and running in our current chaos of greed, power and cruelty.
The article below is dedicated to Jim Pattiz substack title... link at the bottom.
[ We Were the Country That Protected Things ]
"There was a time when America led the world in environmental protection. When we passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Then along came an administration with no interest in the good, no respect for the law, and no intention of honoring what came before. And now the whole facade has collapsed.
And the last unspoiled places in America are now wide open to roads, mines, pipelines, and destruction. All of it done quickly. Quietly. Often illegally. With no one in power willing to stop it.
We assumed that new presidents would build on the progress of the past, not bulldoze it. That agencies would carry out their missions in good faith.
And now we’re watching decades of hard fought progress unravel in real time — not because the public demanded it, but because a small group of wealthy ideologues decided it was their turn to rule. And no one stopped them. That’s how you lose a country.
Is This All There Is?
You’d be forgiven for asking: where’s the outrage? Why isn’t this front-page news every day? Why do so many people seem exhausted, numb, or convinced there’s nothing we can do?
How did we become a country where the president can ignore laws, fire watchdogs, declare fake emergencies, and override Congress — and nobody does a damn thing?
You can’t replant a 1,000-year-old forest. You can’t un-poison a watershed. You can’t bring back a species, or its vanished habitat, no matter what some fantasy biotech pitch claims.
While we moved on, they kept grinding — lobbying, litigating, stacking the courts, waiting for the moment they could take it all back.
And somewhere along the way, we started thinking it was someone else’s job to protect what matters. That the courts would stop it. That Congress would intervene. That the press would sound the alarm. That someone, anyone, would step in before it went too far.
But there is no one else.
It’s us. Or no one."
—Jim
We Were the Country That Protected Things
Jim Pattiz and More Than Just Parks
Substack | Aug 06, 2025
https://open.substack.com/pub/morethanjustparks/p/we-were-the-country-that-protected?r=kxzps&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
If the US had been conquered by a foreign power, these are exactly the steps they would take to secure their control. This is the scariest of a series of very scary HCR posts. Holy shit!
I feel the same way. Very, very scary.
If a foreign country had taken over, we would have put up much, much more resistance.
My t-shirt today couldn't be more apt. I bought it before the election and it reads, 'It's Kamala or chaos'. This is not sustainable.
I am horrified by the detail in the planning that Heather describes in today's Letter for the potential government control over Washington. Independent media reports skew heavily to a picture of the administration as a pack of destructive losers and the depths of their stupidity and Trump's disintegration. Corporate media are blind. But someone in the administration is doing one hell of a job of readying DC for a permanent military takeover.
Controlling Union Station, weakening DC's finances to force cuts in city services, and then bringing in the National Guard with a permanent excuse to take on those responsibilities so that they are entrenched ahead of time is terrifying. Trump's minions seem to be preparing to cut off the city--the continuing issue of too few air traffic controllers at the Washington airports could be an excuse for military air traffic controllers to be brought in.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Trump take over the Metro system, which is funded primarily by the DC city government, Maryland, and Virginia. The Metro is in financial trouble. Fares only contribute 22% of its budget, and with Congress cutting funding to DC, there has to be an impact on its contribution to the Metro. As service degrades, it will provide a reason for the military to take it over.
Seizing access to the capital allows an authoritarian leader or regime to control government institutions, communications, and symbols of state authority, which are essential for legitimizing and consolidating power. Controlling the capital has provided both real and symbolic leverage, as it enables the regime to project authority and suppress rivals efficiently.
This is not "overreach." It is not about Trump not wanting to see trash out of the window of the Beast. This follows the authoritarian handbook. to a T.
This is an important subject for our attention, Georgia; thanks for your analysis.
Georgia, I see this, too, and it’s very frightening indeed…
Call your representatives. Let them know you are paying attention. A call takes less than 2 minutes.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
It should also be noted that a workforce decimated by fear, retribution, and politicization becomes completely demoralized. An incompetent and inexperienced Trump sycophant appointed to “lead” an agency they plan to destroy from within, coupled with firing notices, shifts the mindset of every individual into economic anxiety, uncertainty, and fear -each of which kills morale and efficiency.
Installing loyalists to the criminal elect instead of the public good and mission is a betrayal of the public trust and all of us (regardless of political affiliation).
While Trump, Vance, the greedy billionaires supporting them in order to accumulate more wealth while stealing our now and our future, and the architects of Project 2025 are all elements of a dehumanizing criminal conspiracy destroying the United States for retribution and profit.
Putin and other adversaries couldn’t be happier with what continues to unfold unabated by any in the GOP who mouth words like “rule of law” while aiding, abetting, and participating in the crimes waged against all of us.
I often wonder how Vladimir Putin manages to wake up every morning without simply asphyxiating from laughter.
Maybe the criminal elect has a plan after all.
I'm trying to understand why they think they can wreck everything political without wrecking the still-functioning economy. The rich can probably protect their wealth, but we should think there will be a great many very unhappy people whose lives have suddenly become precarious.
Thanks David. I think out of chaos and despair, Trump’s billionaires see speculative opportunity. Every time Trump threatened tariffs short-sellers made millions. Every time he recanted the market rose and the wealth holdings of insiders soared.
According to Elon Musk -if we have not accumulated billions we are what he has termed NPC’s (non-player characters). We are just detritus in his reality to be scraped off of his boot.
To your point if those whose anger, frustration, and generational economic despair becomes focused on the handful of people stealing from all of us (instead of who Fox News gleefully tells them to blame and hate) there will be a reckoning. It is still a big if, however, each trip to the grocery store, each higher utility bill, and each layoff notice brings us closer to the tipping point.
Trump will blame Biden and the right-wing will believe it.
David, as an extension of that thought, I have been wracking my brain with the question of what the super-rich think they are going to do with their wealth if all the people who make the stuff they sell and make the stuff they buy are dead.
What good is having billions of dollars if there's nothing to spend it on? And there will be nothing if all the "little people" who make the economy possible have died of starvation or disease, whether it be in their homes, on the street or in concentration camps.
Dale, your observations are very close to what I have been thinking. The attitudes of the relatively few people who hold the majority of the wealth in the nation comes across as pathological disregard for a very large percentage of our population. Instead of consideration for the lives of real people, the grizzilionaires seem to regard our reality as a simple board game of Monopoly -- no flesh and blood, no hunger or thirst -- just a spreadsheet or an accounting ledger.
Oh! Rest assured that the obscenely rich have protected their wealth. That is exactly why they can hold themselves above the reality of the everyday lives of the population of this country. They do not have to care.
Why the [bleep] aren't there tens of millions of people in the streets right now standing up TO the Trump Mob Regime and FOR our Constitution, laws, public servants, and the public services they provide for We The People? Why the [bleeping bleep] have there not been periodic and ongoing general strikes? These thugs respond only to equivalent shows of force. Their paymasters respond only to disruptions in their gravy train. We MUST ACT!
Why? Because people are scared. Why do you think many commenters on this post are not using their full names? Fear.
Cindy, when you read the response to the ICE agent to a firefighter requesting to say farewell to their colleagues being arrested in Washington State, you have the reason and why it's so hard to actually act.
Also, Cindy, some just like to play.
Play cynic. Play bright boy. (I've never known women to be so eager to feign sophistication and worldliness like this -- though some like Anita Loos knew how to lampoon men for their helpless theatricality, and some like Joan Didion knew how to see the criminal and mass murderous contexts around other boys who could never grow up.)
Nan, in addition to fear, many Americans – probably a majority – are living paycheck to paycheck. In (too) many cases, they are working two jobs just to keep the bills paid and still have a few minutes with their families. They do not have the "luxury" of taking time to protest, nor do they have a financial backstop to carry them through a work stoppage that would likely result in their losing their jobs. America is a "wealthy" nation, but the affluent are not the majority.
Some are living paycheck to paycheck from their own SSA. Scary indeed .
It does seem inevitable that the gravy train will be disrupted as a consequence of their actions. I think if they don't cease and desist their campaign of wreckage of our society, a great many people are going to become very unhappy.
There hasn’t been a general strike, but there are protests every single day all over the country, and always more being planned. There’s a big march coming up from Philadelphia to DC. It’s called the “We Are America March”, and it starts on September 6th. Here’s the link: https://www.weareamericamarch.com/
Thank you for posting the link. I participate regularly in the protests in my area. I'm about 1200 miles away from Philly, but my daughter and her SO are there. I'll pass it along in case it's not already on their list.
I'm getting a sinking feeling that most won't wake up until it's done.
I can't bring myself to "like" this, but I acknowledge its sagacity.
I will be visiting the Congressional Black Caucus convention on September 25/26 for a performance and I will not be silent and I will tell any national guard troops to go the fuck home and stop pretending to be obeying stupid orders.
LABOR DAY PROTESTS COME OUT ONE AND ALL!!!
Good for you for speaking to them, Bill.
But I think you can be polite. They all already know it's fools, louts, gnomes, and knaves who ordered them to leave their homes, families, friends, and jobs.
Also, note: they'll be wearing their names clearly on their uniforms -- unlike the strutting goons of I.C.E., Proud Boys, Three-Percenters, Oath Keepers.
Yes you are absolutely correct. I want to con in them not make them enemies.
Let's refer to them as The National Guardeners.
Good one! Too bad their services are being abused when it’s hurricane and fire season.
Soon they’ll be working at Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s other properties.
😂. We should add Jeff, that by design, they are extremely expensive gardeners. We can do better, we must do better.
$1.1 million/ day. But considering Trump paid his Mar-a-lago ‘gold guy’ how much to gild 2 ‘quality’ $58 Home Depot filigree appliqués for the Oval Fireplace, someone is likely getting fleeced. Likely us , yet again.
Heather, a cheap and fake guy, surrounded himself with cheap, fake decoration. He is always pretending to be what he is not. Thanks for your reply 👍
Sad