On Rachel Maddow’s show today she said we’re already living under an authoritarian leader.
We have – it’s normal now – goon squads roaming America, arresting gardeners, construction workers, restaurant employees. Breaking the glass of parked car windows to pull out mothers of children inside. These are armed terror thugs. Wearing no badges or any other ID. In masks. Accountable to no law, no due process – only to the criminal in the White House.
This is normal. That criminal in the White House last year ran on mass fear of immigrants – on massive lies that they were eating the dogs and cats of normal American towns. Invaders. All here here to rape and murder.
77 million Americans voted for this reality show. So now the country lives under an unaccountable – immune from law – authoritarian criminal.
Some seem to be having second thoughts now, given that this same criminal is covering up his many years’ palling around with sex traffickers. He also for years immune to law, above our strictures about sex with underage children.
But he says no, no one can look into this sordid history of his. He’s the Leader, equivalent to Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Netanyahu, Sisi, Kim, Bukele, Bolsonaro, Mohammed bin Salman.
“In the cartoon caricature of an authoritarian state, there’s secret police, there’s prison camps, there’s the scapegoated enemy on whom all things must be blamed and against whom all things are justified” – Rachel Maddow.
To the extent that our society is not yet fully totalitarian is no thanks to any hesitation on the part of Trump, nor of the now ironically-labeled "Republican Party".
There hasn't been a "Republican Party" since 9/11. Not really. When W. allowed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon it was the beginning of the end of the party. The resulting, so called Patriot Act showed disregard for many of the Freedoms we enjoyed. And then W. nominated Roberts and Alito to SCOTUS which allowed the court to pass the ridiculous Citizen's United decision. And then the repeal of Roe totally ignored the 14th amendment. And then Leo, McConnell and Trump stole the deciding vote on SCOTUS which has allowed them to make anti-democratic political decisions with impunity.
An excellent summary. And the Citizens' United decision was the beginning of the end of our having a roughly egalitarian democracy. Now Musk can spend $250mio overtly to support Trump and all is well in the SCOTUS world. Roberts has sold us down the river.
Yup, Rickey, then Reagan “ran with it” both as CA governor & then POTUS….slip sliding away….these were the roots of the Mandate for Leadership (aka Project 2025). Been simmering a long long time…
Actually the entire U.S. ruling class has "been drifting this direction" -- FDR and fellow New Dealers the minority exceptions -- since the publication of "Mein Kampf." (Apropos which, note the 1933 Bankers' Plot and the de facto immunity that absolved the perpe-traitors and sustained their bipartisan, multi-generation scheming unto the final triumph of MAGAT-Führer Trump and his ecogenocidal rabble of fanatical Christonazis and vengeful Neoconfederates.)
Still having a hard time with McConnell denying Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court, yet allowing Trump's nominees to be rammed through, even though each nominee lied about how they would handle Roe V Wade when it came onto the docket. How does he sleep at night?
and being made up of fundamentally different core material than those of us who actually value freedom and fairness, knowing that the highest freedom is freedom from the harm of other's products and actions and knowing that fairness requires a good government.
The Clinton administration had warned the incoming Bush Team that there was "chatter" about a terrorist threat to America. Bush was caught flat footed. I have no idea if "9/11" could have been thwarted. But the guys who would fly those planes were getting trained right here in the good old USA.
Condaleeza Rice warned W. in August about planes but he was on vacation on his ranch "cutting brush" which was more important than keeping the country safe under his watch. Several FBI agents (mid-west and AZ) reported men taking lessons on flying planes but not taking off or landing, but these reports were not taken seriously. Isn't that what the FBI, CIA, LE are supposed to do? Be aware and report suspicious activity?
Bill you are so right about them getting trained here. And Bush was reading a book to school children. Correct me if I am wrong but he kept reading after his aide told him of the attack. i used to commute into D.C. for work. The PENTAGON looked like the gates of hell.
Geo. W. Bush was never anything more than a tool of fossil fuel.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, you could see it in his eyes -- he'd been reading to some school children when he got the word, and is eyes showed, yes, he'd known something was in the works, but he'd never known what.
The U.S. fossil fuel biggies, with their Saudi counterparts, were in on "something." U.S. intelligence had been flashing alarms. But no one anywhere knew the extent of what the fossil fuel syndicates were in on from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. to Russia.
This, when Donnie, whom they'd fix as U.S. president 16 years later, was still playing with the underage things Jeffrey, Ghislaine, and their paid-off pals were still supplying all their useful idiots.
Phil, you are talking about the rape of girl children by powerful men. They are not, were not, "underage things". This kind of pass by men who I thought knew better is unacceptable.
The president’s daily briefing as late as August 2011 warned of an attack orchestrated by bin Laden. There had purportedly been been earlier warnings. Nothing was done.
I believe something equally catastrophic could happen now. Trump Administration lackeys are all incompetent and I doubt would even risk his wrath and their jobs by telling him an attack was imminent, if such occurred today. And we all know he doesn’t give a sh!t about the American people.
Fossil that I am , me and many more ,moved back-to-the-land. It was the only way to protest quietly and thorough-in effect boycotting. These are simply comforts , simple walks which many can’t /couldn’t do. We worked jobs supporting them, wrote books to suggest little ways ,hints ‘how-to’ drop out, how to see the shiny object ‘getting rich’. We knew. Didn’t think it would take this long , the protest songs were/still are the writing between the lines..
They are all monsters and allowing any of them to run free and continue their monstrous actions is unacceptable. Just because Epstein is dead doesn’t mean they’ve stopped.
The WTC had been targeted as early as 1993, well ahead of W. Presumbably the intelligence in hand ahead of 9/11 was not acted on. All US dealing with the Middle East and oil is a complicated mess. But not buying willful destruction.
Hello Phil... Was there ever an adequate explanation when Osama bin Laden was allowed to slip the cordon around Tora Bora, or why no bin Laden Family Members were interrogated by the FBI when they were allowed to leave the USA during the one week no fly after the WTC attack?... GWB was warned, but he blew it off because he was playing Golf on Vacation...
"Geo. W. Bush was never anything more than a tool of fossil fuel." ...And a pliable tool of retribution for his daddy and pals. If you recall, it was broadcast (fact or myth) that Saddam Hussein had commissioned a team of assassins to kill HW Bush. *** Now, speaking of 'faux pas' here you see one by moi' no less. One could reason that I mean that HW Bush sought retribution; I don't feel that at all. HW struck me, or I want to believe via some of his actions, would not have spent American lives and treasure for the sake of his ego. GW, egged on by Cheney and the neocons would have.
In Ws defense, he was under Dick Cheney and Rummy's control early in his Presidentship. The fault really lies with those two a$$holes who knew there was a threat, and should have acted instead of putting their rightwing agenda as first priority. Partisanship over Country has always been the problem with Republicans.
I was living in France when W was elected. Not many months after the inauguration, there was an editorial comment in a leading newspaper: What are the Americans up to? We're not getting any news.
In the bright light of Adam Zarnowski's Jormunganr: A Study in Global Human Trafficking and Abolitionists Strategy seem to reveal the five electoral votes the "Village Idiot From Crawford Texas" won(?) may have resulted from tainted by vote tampering, SEE: "Major ES&S Scandals and Failures".
1997 was a year in which ES&S began as American Information Systems AIS which later merged with Business Records Corporation, BRC brought along it's own along it's on controversial history, including ballot mishandling allegations in Texas."
ES&S quickly became the dominant voting machine vendor in the U.S. through acquisitions.
Bill Clinton won 1992 and went on to win a second term. This maybe an indication vote tampering had arrived. Clinton hammered Bob Dole in the electoral vote category 379 vs 159. Clinton flew on the Lolita Express several time. I ain't saying, no I am saying this entire episode needs the immediate attention of all Americans. Research this a little there is lots here in Adam Zarnowski's effort to expose this.
Regardless GL you have the meat of this understood correctly IMHO.
You state “ There hasn't been a "Republican Party" since 9/11.”
No. What we see with Trump is the true face of the Republican Party. Nixon and Reagan gave and earlier glimpses. But Trump has torn off the band-aid to expose the wounded truth.
Patricia, I have often said (not here) that W was the GOP's "test dummy" to see if a manipulable idiot in the White House would work. He turned out to be proof-of-concept.
It doesn't matter if he knew; he wasn't running the show. His puppeteers stood to gain a lot of ground resulting from a catastrophic event. The attacks on 9/11 were a conveniently timed event that would provide opportunities to begin building an autocracy. The Patriot Act, increased NSA surveillance, black ops renditions and "enhanced interrogation" were all products of the Shrub's administration, foundations on which a future autocracy could be built.
At that time, the idiot Donald Trump was already on Russia's radar, thanks to his business interactions with Kremlin-connected Bratva. Corporate media has been complicit in leading us to believe that the Russia connection was only to the Trump campaign.
I submit that many GOP operatives were included in the operation. Since his "golden escalator ride," the same GOP names have kept popping up in the news. To this day, we don't know why Senators Richard Shelby, Steve Daines, John Thune, John Kennedy, Jerry Moran and John Hoeven and Rep. Kay Granger spent July 4, 2018 in Moscow. It seems an odd place to celebrate Independence Day.
Hillary Clinton was right about everything else. Why not her claim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy?"
The McCarthy period, Treason Trials..all earlier affidavits, Nazi, spy, MAGA , different name same game .. too. As even again history repeats and falls folly too, apparently we need reminding ever-so-often.
What exactly do you think they’re doing in concentration camps like Alligator Alcatraz?????? My family fled Germany in 1938 because of these same exact policies. The term Nazi comes from Nazionalismus-Nationalist. I am well aware of what I am saying. I’m sorry you are offended but I’m not sorry for speaking truth.
Hmmm, Loren, kinda think that DOES = MAGA….all of ‘em bottom of the bag ingredients in the MAGA-Milkshake….very bitter tasting & nothing “smoothie” about it.
For those of you that attend churches regularly, is there strong support for Trump? If so, is there anyone willing to point out that he is a Fascist dictator?
The support for Trump in the Southern Baptist Churches is solid. Franklin Graham is a proud supporter of Trump and regularly endorses him. This is one of the reasons I have left the church. The church is nothing more than a brainwashing means to control the masses. I have a friend who has gone from being a well-read, intelligent individual to a " I don't read anything anymore unless it is by Christian authors." She has begun to point out all that is not "Christ-like" every chance she gets.
Long, long ago, Franklin Graham sold his soul for a few pieces of gold. He follows in the long tradition of loving an authoritarian state over a true democracy where every vote counts, not just the votes of the preferred.
Very accurate, Linda! I have many friends and family members - several of them are devote Christians - who support Trump and his “efforts.”
“(Larry) Summers shot down Trump’s claim….” Yeah, I’d like to think so - but Trump has gotten his way. The same goes for his “attacks” on universities and newspapers and law firms, etc. Plus, most importantly, Joe and Jill Average MAGA American dancing in the streets. MAGA Governors are actively and openly rigging the system. Scary stuff, but ….
“(Paul) Krugman notes that as Trump’s popularity is disintegrating….” Yeah, I’d like to think so - but Trump is still getting his way. MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill are in Seventh Heaven. Yeah, maybe Larry and Paul and Bill and Ben (et al) are “up in arms,” but Ghislaine Maxwell is now resting comfortably in a low-security prison because the Bureau of Prisons can do that - even, apparently, for a convicted sex offender.
Joe and Jill (the MAGAns) believe this whole Epstein thing is rigged piece of Biden BS. And, it’s Obama’s fault, too. I don’t know MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill personally, but I have plenty of friends and relatives who do know MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill. Some of those friends and relatives are somewhat informed, while several others haven’t the foggiest idea about why the price of marshmallows is so sky high!
Let’s not lose sight of the FACT that MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill are our Fellow Americans.
Linda, as an evangelical Christian-turned-non-deist, I could write a book (I won't) expanding on your comment.
Most people, probably many here, have a high opinion of Billy Graham and imagine Franklin is a disappointment to his father. Billy was a racist homophobe who moderated his stance slightly in his dotage, but didn't change it. He was an absentee father who was a cold, domineering authoritarian when he was at home. His daughters have written about this.
Franklin is a product of his father, not a disappointment. As a youth, he rebelled against his father's abuse and left home. On his own, he abused substances and girls until he hit bottom. When he realized he had no marketable skills and no money, his father's lucrative preaching business looked pretty attractive. He cleaned up his act and returned to the family fold, where he was "anointed" to take over the family business. He's in it for the money and power, not to "save souls."
Golly! and she supports Franklin Graham??? Any person less 'christian" is hard to imagine. He is nothing but another grifter who saw his main chance to latch onto the money that his daddy was generating. He is a huge FRAUD!
GJ, what I see is a certain kind of church supporting death star. They want a theocracy and are absorbed by the second coming. I also know church goers who are doing the right thing, but attend more liberal churches. I defend them despite being raked over the coals by fundamentalist atheists.
Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, writer, mystic has said "The Evangelical support of Trump will be an indictment against its validity as a Christian movement for generations to come."
Add that to the thousands of crimes committed by Catholic priests and I would ask them this: "When did you stop following Jesus Christ and join the Dark Side?" And why?
I know some very fine people who are "church goers" and do good work helping in their communities. They are not MAGA.
What astounds me is that with some very few exceptions like John Pavlovitz I hear no outrage, no disgust that their faith is being used to HURT millions of people. I just don't understand the lack of pushback. A faith that teaches love has been hijacked by haters.
Yes, the southern Baptist convention is losing large numbers of members (especially women) as more and more folks who claim to be Christian have the scales fall from their eyes. ( Intolerance, clergy sex abuses, fiscal scandals, etc, ) Most churches, with the Pentecostal exception are losing membership. The big C church needs to change or die. I doubt these mega churches and huge cathedrals are what Jesus had in mind.
I don't know where or how I discovered him, but I subscribe to his daily CAC Newsletter. Rohr speaks plain honestly about Christian spirituality that I believe a lot of people who consider themselves "true Christians" would not like.
EDIT: anyone who is curious can check out CAC.org. Fr Rohr's letter today is very applicable to today's MAGA, as he talks about how people need to be emptied before they can be refilled. Perhaps the MAGA need to be totally disillusioned before they can open their minds to reality. Yeah--some never will, but we need to keep trying.
More like the lead dog of a husky sled. And too bad that you view him like that because he is now the alpha male on planet Earth. Leading by doing leading by acts leading with courage and you wanna talk about taco anymore let me hear you call him a taco. Let’s ask ayatollah Houmani if he’s a taco. Lol
Winning negotiation after negotiation with world leaders while Biden is still wondering where he is today. At least 75% of the problems we have today on the United States or Biden caused mainly through his open border policy, where he lied and told us the borders were secure and now Trump is having to focus on, not only closing the border, but getting those illegal criminals out of here as quickly as possible Hampered of course by all the people that are taking the side of illegal criminals over American citizens and you wonder why you’re losing ?
Dear Mr. Sender: (I think you might be a small time provocateur, with your whataboutisms, etc, enjoying seeing heads explode; that’s living rent free inside someone’s head.) I find it difficult to spar with you because you pick and choose a topic or policy from the opposing team, which you may conceptually or politically disagree with, but which had not broken or endangered the country. (I cite “W” whose policies did harm people, our treasury, all based on a lie which he got away with, while implementing tax breaks. What the US could have done with that money!!) Given the information I have at this time, I am not stupid or ill-informed. I think I am skeptical and evaluate critically what is being proposed by this administration. You believe, apparently, what is endorsed by your team. I know you want to be respected and listened to; we need to befriend you and consider your radicalized talk, although I doubt we can talk you out of the cult or klan. Ideology is fungible; identity is not, therefore your clinging to conspiracy theories or MAGA policies is consistent with one’s inability to engage in self-criticism. To destroy the government based on spurious claims of waste, fraud and abuse without evidence is highly irresponsible. If DOGE had gone into every department, evaluated where there was overlap or redundancy or not rehired a position when someone retired, that makes sense. To eliminate jobs of thousands of people whose livelihoods were destroyed or whose family was left without its significant wage earner, or an agency now devoid any expertise is irresponsible. (Do you know that Mr. Vought said that he hoped that when every government worker walked into his/her job s/he would feel sick to their stomach? Nice guy!) Government leaders who are best at deception succeed, who amplify lies and hire surrogates who repeat them - well it’s no way to run a country. Hopefully our democracy will endure the wreckage and the illusion. And we find a way back to a sense of pride in community, ability to be kind and patient and engage in intelligent and honest conversation……………
Stephanie, I wasn’t really responding to you. I was responding to a lady that asked me to better identify the things that Heather is saying incorrectly or that she’s not saying at all and that was what I was doing yesterday if I answered you by mistake.
My what about isms by the way are just factual analysis where you or your group over there makes a policy or a plan that is hypocritical in nature because your party has done the exact same thing and then when I tell you, they’ve done the exact same thing you call it or what about you guys as I’ve said, live at the corner intersection of hypocrisy and double standard
The problem with you is not that you’re not intelligent. The problem is that you’re ill-informed and here’s what I mean you have no idea what people on the right thing or feel and happy everybody that voted for Trump is right now you can read all the polls you want, but I’m in touch with real people every single day that that I associate with and no on both sides of the aisle by the way. So far, the economy is crushing it. The stock market is at record, highs most of Trump’s policies in fact, have not taken effect yet other than the tariffs, which are garnering dollars that are hopefully diminishing the deficit. If you would like to name me a policy or two, which you think is not working I’d be more than happy to respond so I’m not doing what aboutisms according to you
Feel free to talk about Mr. Vought in anyway you/d like. He was approved to take office and apparently was placed there by this administration so you have no call. You have no reason to call him out just like all the liars and the morons that said the border was secure and that Covid didn’t come from Wuhan and that Hunter’s laptop was bullshit. And now we’re finding out even more about all those hoaxes.
Our country is doing great just you don’t like it because you’re not in control. Let me repeat that we are doing great. You don’t like it because you’re not in control and let me give you an example of what I mean and then I’m hanging up.
There was a survey done by CNN and I have a copy of a photo but it won’t take here it ask Americans if they were proud of Of America or if they were proud of their country, depending upon who was in office at the time in the White House
Republicans were proud to be an American and happy with America at 85% approval rating if a republican was in the White House and 82% approval rating if a demo Democrat was in the White House
The ratings for Democrats being proud of America were at 85% if a democrat was in the White House, but only at 36% if a Republican was in the White House. You don’t get it. It’s all about control with you people and nothing more. You can’t get your way. All you do is whine and cry and protest and frustrate yourself for no reason whatsoever.
You’ve got 3 1/2 more years of this glorious presidency who will be remembered long after the idiots that ran before him like Biden ,Obama, the most divisive president in my life and both bush’s who love this country, but were morons
If you really wanna know how the right feels about it just watch Fox News for a month three hours at night the top rated shows on all of TV and now you’ll get a better picture of why everybody on the right is happy but you don’t wanna do that and I call it as I said before Wilful ignorance. Have a nice day.
Gift or bribe to the deity - trump. We've gone from a sphere of intelligent governance to a sphere of recklessness and dysfunction. All threaten the well-being of the republic.
What climate conflagration? Why are you worried AOC and all her scientific background and helpers give us only five more years to live so enjoy it while you can LMAO.
Here’s an idea for you JL worry about something you have any control over
My observation is that this group is primarily made up of boomers and older. We are highly informed on the daily destruction of our democracy. This can have an adverse effect on our lives if we don’t keep it in balance. Having knowledge also gives way to anxiety. There is not much we can do but use similar strategy to fight the demons of the day. And we should rethink our own failed concepts and mold them into successful strategies.
Bill, can’t say I know the mind of ALL the boomers, but—just my experience—my longtime friends, neighbors, immediate & extended family are the antithesis of the MAGA-ish. Of course, we were the rabble rousers and riff-raff of the 60-70’s civil rights & anti-war movement, and a bit later the environmental protection work, etc. But, as they say, “experience varies”!
Maybe Bill, but think of all the conspiracy and vigilante diatribes on the internet feeding frenzy that appears to be young people living a dreadful fantasy on line.
And now you see what I've been saying all along the Palestinians are getting tired of , which is the only problem remaining there of the sudden Gaza will bloom.
Bill, I'm telling you sometimes I'm so damn proud of you for having folks wake up and have a better perspective on life. Some of these people need to walk away from this post for a month go out and live their life and see the difference between enjoying what they have and reading All this negativity
What are you talking about Rick? These issues we fret over are very real. And very important to our lives, and especially our childrens' lives. Now and in the future. Pretty sure Germans in the mid 1930's could go outside and enjoy the feel of the sun on their faces.
James I’ve never met so many ignorant people as I’ve met here to be able to try to equate in any shape or form this country compared to the Germany of 1930s. If you walk outside today, there are 77 million voters who LOVE what’s happening every minute of every day but you’re just out of touch with those people completely and completely out of reality. This country is on an ascent to stardom once again. We are once again the leaders of the free world. And then a second I will respond to your other ridiculous remark.
As a matter of fact, 90% or more of Trump’s policies haven’t even been instituted yet and all you guys do is will be Ken be might be gonna be with your broken crystal balls and your Ouija boards
Rick, I have 7 more short stories being added to my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums.” After they have been included, would you like to buy another updated and new and improved book? I’ll let it know when it’s save to buy.
Give me a hint, Bill it might be worth it. I can turn over to Smithsonian's humor section. A.k.a., can you believe anybody actually said this stuff? Lol give me some examples of your new stories.
Let's see Rick. I do not recall the Biden adminstration instituting a project 2025 agenda. I do not recall the Biden adminstration trying to change reality 1984 style. And I do not recall the Biden administration giving every ally we have throughout the civilized world the middle finger, in deference to the world's authoritarians. Canada for instance (WTF??). I do not recall the Biden administration enabling Putin. I do not recall the Biden administration adopting a "tariff economy", which is slowly but surely fueling inflation and tanking our economy. I do not recall the Biden administration threatening our universities to change their educational curriculums to align with their agendas. I do not recall the Biden administration rounding up mass quantities of immigrants, illegal or no, and imprisoning them ala the Nazis and the gestapo. I do not recall the Biden administration totally abandoning US leadership in combating climate change, replacing with a "drill baby drill" policy. Shall I continue? Good god Rick - I have huge problems with your position here.
You know, James I feel remiss because I didn’t have time to fully express my remarked to your loss of memory comments.
Obviously, you’ve never owned a business or simply just don’t understand negotiation which Trump has won globally. Try that word for a second globally. To our own fault, we have been taken advantage of Trump has been saying everyone everyone’s been taking advantage of us, but it’s not true. We have allowed it to happen and now it’s straightening out. It’s called worldwide negotiation and he’s got the world buckling not shooting them the finger but negotiating in a winning sense because we have all the playing cards. And too many presidents have been too weak to play them.
We’ve already talked about Canada here so I won’t waste any further time but if you’d like to discuss Canada further, just mention it in your next missive.
You call it a tariff economy? Why should we be paying the world money/a tariff to be able to export our products when they won’t even allow our products in their country such as Japan. Well, they come into our country rent free. Probably haven’t noticed but many of the foreign car companies are now placing multimillion dollar ads on TV counting the fact that they’re now gonna be building more cars in America, which intern Mr. ignorance creates more jobs for who not the weak]lthy but the middle income class
To me you’re ignorance is astounding and your bipartisanship is so close minded that you must fit into that latest Pohl that said if Trump came up with the policy that helped almost all Americans 65% of Democrats would still vote against it because it came from Trump’s mouth. And if you guys don’t stop hating and lose your TDS, it’s only gonna get worse for you.
How many of your group is doubting a man like Man to run New York City into the ground like they’ve done to San Francisco Francisco and like Newsom has done to California. Las Vegas, where I happen to live has doubled in size due to the flight from California.
And if you call it, threatening our universities, why are you are universities seeing things and changing their tune like antisemitism and having to pay hundreds of million dollars in fines and correcting their unlawful ways we’re Jewish people are threatened on campus and restricted to certain areas of campus he’s not trying to regenerate their education per se. He’s trying to make campus is safe for everybody. Not to mention that you guys continue to forget that 90+ percent of all college level instructors happen to be Democrats so how much of an even balanced education are they getting? Yikes
The funniest and most hysterical of all your post is the one you don’t remember Biden rounding up illegals he rounded them up from all over the world to come here in order to get them to vote and there’s actually proof of that ..PROOF. THAT’S HOW MUCH IGNORANCE IS FOUND HERE
AND UNFORTUNATELY, FOR YOUR GROUP, WHAT I CALLED I HAVE GIVEN IT THE BLESSED NAME OF WILLFUL IGNORANCE. What I don’t wanna know won’t hurt me.
And if you use the word, Nazi one more time you can go straight to hell there is nothing closely resembling in any way shape or form that time in history today. When Trump starts lighting up hundreds of thousands and shooting them and dumping them in pits or placing them in ovens or starving them to death or gassing them to death you let me know. Why don’t you go to Alfi or Daho and lay down in one of the ovens or sleep in one of the unheated barracks during the winter? I can’t believe you morons highly educated Derelicts From what I can see
Feel free to have all kinds of problems with my positions here have at it. It’s a free country just you can’t deal with facts in reality you love dealing with what’s in a history book. What’s on a link rather than what’s on the street today itself… Trump‘s policies for the most part haven’t even taken affect yet and all you guys do is the following will be might be gonna be could cause might cause will impact with your broken down crystal balls, and dusty Ouija boards
America is rising from the ashes, and this country is now being realized, obviously from a many perspectives as a leader of the free world not to mention that Trump is now the alpha male on the planet
So go ahead and call him what do you call it toxic masculinity lololol
And it looks like this would be great. The Russian hoax is gonna come home to roost and destroy all the crap about him helping Putin are being involved with Putin in any way shape or form that you fools swallowed like the lemmings that you are.
Have a nice day we know at least 77 million are having a great day
And you on the left haven’t even figured out why you lost and Trump is back in office
Would you get off project 2025 and wake up and just see what’s happening in reality says nothing to do with project 2025 although there are many precepts in 2025 that makes sense such as let’s hear this one only citizens can vote. Would that be OK to institute? Not for the Democrats they tried to do it in New York and failed.
Looks like you sucked it all in all the BS that anybody could actually put out your swallowing it like a gullible lemming like most of the other people here.
Let me know when we’re able to predict the weather let alone climate
There is no such thing as a climate scientist. It’s called tomorrow and nobody knows what’s gonna happen. In fact, a couple of indicators of that were a huge, massive earthquake, and a volcanic eruption, which potentially could change everything in the weather patterns.
So tell me what the US has done in combating climate change?
Do you know what percentage of pollution is caused by the United States versus India or China? Why don’t you go out and burn some more Teslas see if that helps and I’ll get back to you later as I’m on vacation right now, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try to keep the insanity tamped down
A climate denier. More generally, you appear to be a science denier. Or maybe a bot? There is no sense arguing with people like that. Very sad Rick. You need not respond.
How appropriate. We should be heeding those words. It also makes me think of the movie Network, where the journalist is shouting, "I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!"
Unfortunately, Dan rather lost his job because he was not normal. He hated the republican so much he made a huge mistake and one of his newscast and lost his time slot forever
The recount in 2000 was a warning shot which media reacted to with a collective shrug and yawn. Which was the second warning shot of the sanewashing and gas lighting to come.
We're glad that Trump isn't any more intelligent than he is (or isn't). But his Heritage Foundation is, and they can hire the best tricksters. Obviously, a lot of Americans aren't that bright either - so democracy is a burden for those who want a fair society that isn't self destructive. But what a mess, and I hate politics more than ever!
I hate corruption. Politics can be cooperative and mutually beneficial, but power tends to corrupt. We are burdened with the need to ride herd on our representatives so that they don't just represent themselves, and/or wealth paymasters.
"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -- Lincoln
Even awareness is a form of power. I fear that for too long too many Democrats have used the strategy of go along to get along, rather than the riskier, yet more rewarding, role of leadership. By "smoothing over" smaller thefts of dignity, they have let much of their potential ammunition be stolen away. It's the corruption, and I won't say "stupid" but the more of it we tolerate the greater we are fools.
I look forward to this zoom Linda , have my alert alarm on (distracted my middle name)!
You Substack writers and commenters have stayed sanity.
And verily as history is fired or erased -a happening every great country becoming yet another authoritarian victim experiences- reason hung on , reality kept the decline self evident , and ruin ran roughshod until it wouldn’t anymore.
Whether it’s underground or whispered , stay the course loves…we will win ..eventually.
We had a very interesting conversation with my oncologist yesterday, in which I made the observation that in these trying times, a simple act of kindness and friendliness is in itself an effective form of defiance. He agreed.
Absolutely! We cannot fall into a stupor, accepting anything at all coming out of this White House as the new norm. We have to come together and fight back.
Dont sorry for her or me but she's queen of the castle and an extremely confident president and CEO of a major worldwide company and I was chairman of the board of that company in a different department.
Astounds me that this firing is the last straw. Guess if it didn’t affect the powers that be, it didn’t really matter. We have concentration camps full of innocent people! Innocent civilians! That didn’t give anybody the clue that we’re under a fascist dictatorship?!
with Trump and Vought, there will be more straws. The firing of the BLS head will not be the last.
It is very difficult to know how to combat those straws, and the authoritarian takeover of the government, to stop the straws and to reverse course, given that the voters (assisted by Musk) have given majorities to the spineless Republicans in both houses of Congress.
Don't leave out Miller, he's been around for some time now and apparently figured out how to manipulate very successfully. His hate for immigrants drips from hi pores.
But Musk didn’t win in Wisconsin and May not win again. And we hope that by now the price of eggs has been tied to climate change which Trump is doing all he can to hurry along (“drill, baby, drill”).
trump 1.0 was his testing ground ( remember concentration camps then!) to see what cruelty Americans will allow. And I'll add a society that doesn't protect their children after wave upon wave of gun violence is one that will allow for further cruelty. Despots know where the population is weak
Rachel has been warning for years, back when MAGAts were breaking the law. Now they make the laws. Who didn’t know this was coming on Nov 6. It just the speed that is brain-warping. Damn, who knew that propaganda paired with money was so powerful…
Even Rachel does not report the news. We wuz robbed. Needs to interview Adam Zarnowski.
“In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.”
Daniel, I have been following this story a bit. I have read "thiswillhold". I also have read an analysis by Michael Sellers (former CIA) that says that while there are facts about the mechanics of election software that are disturbing, there is not actual evidence of tampering. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened. But the facts are not there.
I also sent an email to Robert Hubbell (Today's Edition) asking his opinion, keeping in mind his long legal career. He said in a recent substack, that there is nothing provable there.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be vigilant for the 2026 election cycle. In fact, the controversy may shine a brighter light on processes.
Whether we were "robbed" or not doesn't get us where we need to go. IMO, it is to find the candidates at every level of government who will be part of our big tent of Economic Justice.
At the root of all these horror shows is the fact that income inequality has soured millions of Americans and too many have listened to the lies of MAGA.
Dems need to identify with the people whose real income has not budged in decades and whose expenses are impossible to meet. The entire financial structure of our society is geared to the rich and is sucking the rest of us dry. As much as I loved Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, they just didn't get it. That's how we were "robbed" of responsible governance. Dems were not listening.
1. Why Hubbell? He never prosecuted anyone. Ask a former prosecutor.
2. According to the Zarnoski Substack it was the software.
3. According to David Rodriguez, prior to Nov 2024 election, it was reported that there were nearly 18 million new registered voters in the US since the 2022 midterms. Yet that increase in registered voters appears to have completely vanished 'after' the Election. He says although there should around 186 million voters in 2024, the US Census Bureau is saying there were only 173,854,000 registered voters. https://polarshifteveryone.blogspot.com/2025/07/was-2024-election-rigged.html
4. The Greg Palast scenario doesn't include the software issue.
5. If one person was intimidated by psy ops, it is a state crime.
"who knew that propaganda paired with money was so powerful…"
We've seen it happen elsewhere, but I used to think (and was encouraged to think) that we, the people, held up a higher bar than this in the USA. That the horrors of history were gradually being retired to the past. Hubris I guess.
HCR quoted Lincoln a few months back:
"The idea of a small government that serves the needs of a few wealthy people, Lincoln warned in his era, is 'the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent.' ”
In answer to the question about what decent churches think, I am finding that most churches discount the Christian Nationalists. They discounted them when it was The Moral Majority back in the ‘80’s. So many people have left churches which is a shame because that is another place where we the people can shine a light. My church is great. Our. Congregation sees what is happening with open eyes and understands how this regime is antithetical to any form of Christianity.
Violence and persuasion are two ways to influence the behavior of others. Violence is quick and easy. Just about any creep can apply it with a gun, but it appears as many, often subtle, forms of coercion. According to what remains of the record, Jesus was not a violent man, inconveniencing money-changers was pretty much his limit, and yet "religion" and "Christianity" is historically tied to w wake of horrors. That's not the whole story, but certainly religion has been used around the world as a pretext for sociopathic violence, including genocide and slavery, and of course, greed. And a number of the most salient advocates of peace have been assassinated, Jesus included.
So my question is who stands for violence and who condemns it? I personally diverge from Jesus' counsel and would attack an attacker if there is reasonably no other mean of defense, but even that has a downside. "Love thy neighbor"? That's the element of Jesus' philosophy that the CINOs don't talk about, what Jesus claimed in his "Great Commandment". About the Sermon on the Mount. I don't think you have to believe in divinity to see wisdom in that, or the moral maturity. In a crap-storm of lies, I would like to hear more voices in concert condemning violence and for solidarity. Reverend Niemöller famously turned a "blind eye" to Hitler; and then they came for him.
Then there is the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, such an inspiring Lutheran pastor. He did not turn a blind eye and lost his life to the Nazis for it. But we live with his words still to this day. I found much comfort in his words after my husband died. But he had a lot to say about morality as well in regard to the likes of the Nazis.
Perhaps. And then there are those Christians May who feel that these are signs of the End of an Age/system of things as in Matthew 24:6 — You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places … “
And they may also recall Jesus telling his disciples that they are to be ‘no part of this (political) world, just as I am no part of this world.’ (This idea echoed in his ‘pay unto Caesar, Cesar’s things, and unto God, God’s things’).
Remaining apolitical wd allow them to concentrate on their main objective of carrying The Good News of the coming Kingdom of God - which wd provide mankind with everlasting peace … something human rulership will have proven for centuries unable to do.
We the people still have a voice and hopefully elections. I am hoping (as we all are) that this evil regime will implode. Let’s have another massive protest bigger than no kings! Certainly that should happen before Election Day this year.
Perhaps a "Liberty and Justice for All" rally. Really "for All". Is that not the axiomatic ethic around which what has been best about our nation was built? And presently, does that not suffer from vicious aggression?
Everybody who feels as you do should join and support the ACLU which ahs filed another class action lawsuit against ICE thugs. They are doing fantastic work!
I tuned in last night, not wanting to hear what she normally presents, a Pollyanna list of all the protests and how much they’re working, and pushback is working, and so on and so forth. And she delivered, calling it for what is. We are a fascist country now, it’s here and it’s real. It’s good that someone with her stature is finally telling it like it is.
What is likely to work always, so far as possible, is cognizant of what is. Protest has been part of that, but historically protest that results in a positive outcomes has been focused, disciplined, and persistent. Just raging in public is at best unproductive. It has to communicate and effectively hold a spotlight on the lies. Ultimately what overcomes oppression is solidarity, and protest is a form of that.
I'm sick at heart, Bill, at what the bastards having been organizing and doing.
Most, because of my abiding love for America's schools -- ancillary to that, schools of the world -- targeted for evisceration, first, with the Powell memo of Aug. 23, 1971.
When finally in jail all those many guilty, the complicit ..should listen to their repeated claims, and only those repeated claims. Their TV only replay protests, the walk backs, the rightful verdicts from indictments , their own incessant lies. Let them hear only the systematic waterboarding they spit conspiring to fool -which it did- what that has cost the world . Millionaires were made while trust was played , truth was denied, while integrity died.
Seeing Rachel Maddow last night and hearing her state unequivocally where we are just after attending a meeting of my local Indivisible chapter and a day of ICE sirens blaring, I am grateful to have, at 91, a meaningful way to fight back. Going to begin the Virginia postcards due late October, and hope for more blank cards to write for Florida.
Excellent commentary. You contributed much more terrifying detail....but being one who MUST expel my share of anger and continued disbelief that we have elected this "CLOWN" to fill the sacred seat of President of the United States of America...AGAIN!!!....I must continue....
Trump is a self-centered and corrupt human being backed by like minions!!!
His business dealings, the disrespect he has for women (girls) is dishonorable. He is not alone in such vices.
Many of our leaders have humbly surrendered their lives in service to this country and her people. Trump is in government for himself. Neither he nor his sons have served this country within the military. His use of his position as the "leader" of the United States of America is CRIMINAL!!!
He has gotten away with his life of selfishness and crime and his followers are mirroring his example....and they, so far along with Trump, have been protected.
As someone who deeply respects our neighbor, Mexico and its people...it infuriates me to see these hardworking, sacrificial men being rounded up and treated with such disrespect and cruelty!!! If Trump continues to try to control and ruin our government ....how many countries are going to place a restriction on how many American citizens they will receive???? Many Americans who have the finances have already made their exits!!!
This reminds me of Hitler's use of the prejudice many Germans had for the Jewish people at that time. He used the Jews...to divert attention from himself and the DICTATORSHIP he wanted to use over the German people by putting Jews as well as others in prisons to starve to death....or to be shot, poisoned, or burned in ovens!!!!
See similarities taking place within our country directed by the President and the Republican Party ie the use of Hispanic migrants ....few if any guilty of crimes....to divert attention from himself and his own real corruptions of the law. Prison time for which he deserves due to real convictions have been "overlooked" in order for him to be elected President of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!! He is an insult to those who have given their lives that we may exist as a free nation! And even NOW...he does what he does best, "lie" at the expense of our country: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!
God sees....His sight goes deep and He is eternal. Justice may be slow but justice will come...on earth or beyond.
As a former employee wrote “He can never be wrong,” and sycophants have restructured reality to make it appear so. Never thought it would work with my country, a haven for our ancestors and a country that was coming to grips with the failings of the past. He is just the seed of evil, money nourished the roots, and hate fertilized the most toxic plant ever exposed to sunlight. It’s the Kudzu of our time, with rhizomes beneath the surface popping up to strangle any hint of sanity.
The kudzu metaphor is apt (though in my yard, bamboo serves the same purpose). Let me take your metaphor a little further. There are two ways to get rid of these invasives. One is through poisoning, which risks the collateral damage of killing off good plants around it. The other is to turn the earth below it and tear out all the rhizomes. That is what I inceasingly see as our challenge in this time. There is no flipping of the switch back to the good old constitutionality days “when this is all over.” There is no coming back for the US Constitution; it has been demolished. We will need a new republic and new constitution that leaves behind the original sins of our nation’s founding, and centers justice for all. We may never get there as 50 states either, and that means those who believe in this new republic may have to go it alone. And that could mean once again declaring our independence from tyranny and being ready to fight for it. In short we need to turn over the soil of this republic and start anew.
The foundations were sound and avenues we left open to change, as the Founding Fathers knew that it would have to be adapted to new times. But there were assumptions around protocol and party formation and power that they made assumptions about and underestimated. That some of these lasted as formalities for so long is pretty amazing but the protocols buffered and then were dismantled the crash and burn despot they so dreaded. Any new iterations of our democracy we should adopt should be far clearer about maintaining separate powers and clarifications of certain terms.
It’s already burned down. This is about building something back from the rubble. Sure, there are some smoldering embers that give us short term hope for a day or two, but the reality is the American democracy that we once knew is gone. The guardrails have been removed and even if we put them back up, there is nothing stopping a future dictator from doing the same. The precedent has been set. If we want to be anything more than a banana republic for rest of this century, we have to face up to the task now of rebuilding it once this awful era is over.
All the guard rails have been removed, all the child-minders fired or committed suicide, even the court jesters languish in dungeons. All to make way for the interior decorators who specialize in faux gold chintz and brocade, the cement-mixers tasked with destroying Jackie Kennedy's Rose Garden. And every single Republican courtier and lady-in-waiting bot is going "as Your Grace pleases, as Your Grace pleases, as Your Grace Pleases...." as AI has programmed them all to....No, nothing is wrong at all. Why do you ask? 🤪
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Lady M, my mother was an accomplished artist in multiple media who was well-educated.
She once told me that as we age, our visual acuity declines, not just in our ability to perceive detail, but also in our ability to perceive color. Mild colorblindness, if you will. She said this is why elderly ladies who've always worn makeup often have "clown faces" with poorly matched base, too much blush and too much everything else. They are unable to see the subtleties of color, so they keep putting it on until they can see it.
At 79, Donald probably needs glasses, but he's too vain to wear them. Men are more susceptible to color-blindness than women. Even if his color perception was normal when he was young, he likely experiences age-related color challenges now. That would account for his over-application of bronzer and his failure to blend it around his jaw, ears and hairline. Of course, if your forehead continues all the way to the back of your head, it's hard to know where to stop.
His performance as prez is a rotten tomato, not an Oscar, but there are too many who have developed a taste for “rotten.” Critics have even signed on and yammer constantly about the exotic taste of evil after being stuck with the boring but decent Joe Biden. Same thing happened with Obama. He wore a tan suit. Not perfect, but that decency thing just has no flavor.
I think you're right, JD. Americans have been tantalised and titillated for years by TV and movies - now along come Twitter, FB and Instagram and they're REALLY hooked! Boredom, common sense, reality - all out the window in the search for that net adrenaline rush.
What we are seeing is proof that Trump is simply being a puppet for the project 2025 agenda. Along with all the facts that you have presented so clearly, there is his ongoing war on women which is definitely a project 2025 agenda. Trump‘s attacks on a conservative media outlet, such as the Wall Street Journal and its owner Robert Murdoch are virtually suicide as Murdoch not only owns the conservative of Wall Street Journal, but also the company that owns Fox News. His wild accusations are only proof that his aging brain is turning into mush. All of his policy agenda initiatives are further proof that he is simply a puppet of project 2025 agenda and his more outrageous personal actions such as the expansion of the West Wing ballroom and his personal acquisition of an aging 747 jet are simply the projections of the cancerous growth of his ego.
As Heather Cox Richardson has so eloquently stated in her recent video that internally, the Trump regime is crumbling and it is time to make plans for making a new government out of the rubble. We must seize this opportunity to bring forward a new and improved governance and economy.
Let the orange bastard escape the law. Retires to his Florida gold vulgarity.
Yes, I know. The law? That which rots in the hands of Alito, Clarence, John Roberts, plus the Leonard Leo clones?
Still, the deal: Vance leaves office. Trump appoints Kamala as V.P. Trump retires from the presidency.
It's all very sick. The U.S. is near totally depraved. Dems are nearly as totally stupid as Republicans as to how all lost their morality, their humanities, their humanity.
I agree Marc. It feels like we’re at a turning point. As the old systems show their cracks, we have a rare chance not just to repair but to reimagine. What kind of leadership truly serves the people? What kind of economy supports dignity, sustainability, and care?
This moment calls for courage and creativity. The future isn’t written yet, and we have a real role in shaping what comes next.
He is a “useful idiot” not just for Putin, but for the Project 2025 minions who have been installed in the apparatus of government and are now carrying out the Corporate Elite/White Christian Nationalist agenda. People hold out hope that there will be a backlash at the midterms, but I’m seriously beginning to wonder if there will be anything close to fair, unfettered elections. I suspect Trump will declare an emergency in order to void any results he does not like. Thanks a lot, Roberts Court.
With you there, Dave. I have zero hope about 2026 and whenever I read someone write or speak about a NOVEMBER 2026 election, I shake my head wondering how anyone sees how much has happened up to now from Jan 20th to August 5th and believe we are going to have anything resembling a free and fair election fifteen months from now.
Yeah, wait till it comes out that you were lied to for four years about Trump and Putin it's gonna be really difficult for you to unlearn the bullshit you were fed
As Grover Norquist said in the early 2000s, "We don't need an ideologue in the Oval Office, just someone to sign the legislation a republican dominated Congress sends over."
tRump is that guy and his staffing group approved by the Senate are the coop operators.
Me thinks the attack On Murdoch is just performance. The real battle there is between the Murdoch heirs. Lachlan will continue Fox if the old bastard has his way.
JD, you are absolutely correct. The ideal example to look at is TV studio wrestling (from whence "education secretary" Linda McMahon comes).
The "wrestlers" and their managers are part of a close-knit community of friends outside the ring. But on camera, these actors create fantastical stories, waging fierce wars of words to get their fans stirred up in a frenzy, cheering the "face" and booing the "heel." Inside the ring, they stage carefully choreographed moves that look dangerous but are actually harmless. Everyone involved takes their paycheck to the bank with a smile.
Dead giveaways that the "conflict" between Donald and Murdoch is fake is the dollar amount of Trump's demand. No court is ever going to award $10 billion in a frivolous lawsuit. It's just a big number to get the attention of the corporate media and their viewers. And the demand of a quick deposition of Murdoch because "he might die" is just a fanciful story to amp up the drama.
If the suit proceeds, it will be settled in the amount of a rounding error. Murdoch will rake in billions from advertising revenues and Donald will rake in millions from remaining in the limelight.
Go get a life Trump has nothing to do with prop 25 in fact, Biden instituted about a dozen things from the same testimonial it's about as generic as life
I'm not sure Murdoch is lucid any more. The other question is "how is the Wall Street Journal getting away with all of the Trump bashing stories when they are part of the Murdoch empire?"
They are emerging as less sane washing than The NY Times, MSNBC, WAPO, etc.
Yesterday, Stephanie Miller and John Fugelseng of Progress radio were talking about the 3 million plus votes that were not counted because the Republicans purged them from the voter roles. When they went to vote they were given provisional ballots or turned away. There is supposed to be a process that insures that the purged voters should really be purged, and of course, the Fascist Republicans ignored all of these laws with totally impunity. These votes were enough to deny Trump the Presidency.
What they are saying is, "My vote is more important than yours because I have an XY chromosome and my skin is white. In fact, your vote shouldn't count at all."
GJ, add to that, “In fact, I get to decide which votes to count.”
According to Trump, he is entitled to five extra Texas congressmen, and it is Democratic states which are gerrymandered.
Trump voters must have their fingers in their ears whenever he is talking. Or they would at last experience some What the Hell, like the rest of us. And Joe Biden was the demented old man?
It seems that the intent here is to say that had the 3 million votes that were thrown out been counted they would have absolutely DENIED him the presidency. Alas, they were thrown out and so here we are. The MAGA filth rigged all of this. Just as they absurdly and dramatically staged that Reichstag Fire style “shooting” in Butler PA. There was no “ear injury.” The fact that we accept that theater as truth is deeply disturbing. That was a farcical act through and through. This man is never held accountable or punished - EVER. It’s maddening, to the core.
According to the Zarnoski Substack, It was the software.
According to David Rodriguez, prior to Nov 2024 Election, it was reported that there were nearly 18 million new registered voters in the US since the 2022 Midterms. Yet that increase in registered voters appears to have completely vanished 'after' the election. He says although there should around 186 million voters in 2024, the US Census Bureau is saying there were only 173,854,000 registered voters. https://polarshifteveryone.blogspot.com/2025/07/was-2024-election-rigged.html
Matthew Dowd explained it correctly - liberals need to stop fighting these battles with one hand tied behind their backs- the UPPER hand. I think he was referencing the law and now the conservatives are legislating the law to make their law breaking moves legal. That was the purpose of OBBBA which then allowed them to legislate the actions of DOGE and make them legal.
Albert, I learned a hard lesson, tho being in a “blue” state my individual vote did not matter much in the state/overall count….but I chose to vote for Nader on principle in 2000 🤦🏻♀️…yeah, afterward I had to stand back and really look at the US’s electoral landscape and realize the way it’s currently constructed, voting 3rd party is a losing proposition, however righteous it might seem/be (of course SCOTUS put their thumbs on the scale big time). I will never (never have)“sit out” an election…local, state or federal, as I feel it’s my duty as a citizen to show up and choose the best candidate aligned with my values. I think what you said about Bernie is true & he sadly didn’t “course correct” until too late…same as in 2024 when so many sat out voting for Harris/Walz because she/they did not vociferously denounce the Israel/Gaza conflict (IMHO, she was between a rock and a hard place as the sitting VPOTUS). So we marshal our collective efforts toward the midterms in 2026….🤞maybe we can flip the House & maybe (?) make a dent in the Senate…..then keep our eyes on the prize in 2028.
I hear what you mean, Albert, but it chaps my ass that the power brokers play such games to manipulate the process. Even in my wee rural town there is a city council kerfuffle & move to recall several recently elected council (2024) members who, IMHO, have acted inappropriately on several issues….I “get” that newbies are learning the ropes, but when they double down on their sketchy actions…I draw the line. And I voted for several of them!!!! Went back and reread their candidate statements, but by their actions they don’t, in the end, match their pledges. I don’t want sleight of hand, nor magic tricks or ruses to win my vote, only to show true colors once in office….nope, don’t like it a bit.
I will paraphrase Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s book, “Strongmen,” because it’s early in the morning and I can’t find the exact page—something like the authoritarian playbook doesn’t have a chapter on failure because they never believe they’re going to fail. But they always do fail, eventually.
It’s now TIME to pull out all the stops, and that includes massive, massive, humongous crowds of people in the streets. We must rise up, beyond what we’ve already been doing.
It is indeed critical to think beyond today and tomorrow. Remember it was during the darkest of war days when Churchill and Roosevelt began planning for the post-world order. The United Nations, the World Bank, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the western alliance itself -- all concepts formed by minds working though the most fearful days of destruction and dislocation, convinced not just that they would win, but that we must not wait for victory to begin planning for what comes after.
Perhaps, Phil, you could avoid always circling back to the one issue you keep bringing up, again and again, as though it's the one and only magic elixir for everything. It's not like we haven't read these points before.
You, ICTT, talk of not waiting "for victory to begin planning for . . . after."
Can you name any major failure by our elites greater than the surrender of schools to testing?
I mean, something readily available for fixing -- as the Finns did in kicking testing out of the schools and instead putting all faith and power in teachers?
The other problems all show much greater complexities: the fossil fuel and suburban sprawl habits behind global warming; the greed of industrial food production behind the obesity epidemic; AR-15 sales behind U.S. penchant for mass murder; love of money by the rich behind their concerted schemes to grow the wealth gap; love of money by military contractors behind the growth of arms dealing including all the dictators and terror groups; love of money behind all the opioid epidemic; and love of youth behind all the international sex trafficking.
So many intractable problems, ICTT.
But the one most obviously solvable -- testing's power over all education, the total lack of humanities anymore by self-satisfied elites -- and all you can say is yeah, we know?
We must also plan for life after Trump and MAGA, for soon they will all be history. If you wish to look beyond the current slaughterhouse mentality of the Trump administration and see some good directions for the future, check out the Crisis and Transition Substack.
Sounds like without "neohumanism" there is NO humanism:
"Neohumanism provides humanity with a new social outlook, one that does not separate but unites us, one that does not breed discrimination, chauvinism and domination but that promotes universal respect. And the neohumanist outlook is not confined to human society but extends to the entire web of planetary life — and to any life beyond our planet."
And time to put our energy and creativity into strengthening the various pillars of our democratic government (as suggested by Indivisible's One Million Rising trainings): Business, Labor, Faith, Education, Civil Service, Military/Police, Courts, Political Parties/PACs, Media, etc.
"Also today, Casey Gannon of CNN reported that two of Epstein’s victims have filed letters with the court expressing outrage at the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, suggesting that the department was protecting wealthy men at the expense of the victims."
Which, of course, they have. It's exactly what our Neo-Republican "representatives" are paid to do. And, do they ever.
Those young girls were "party favors" for the men who were involved in massive criminal activities...Ghislaine's father, Epstein, all the connections, right down to Trump.
How much does Ghislaine know about the financial crimes?
Is her low security prison less secure for her life?
There ARE people who know facts and are connecting the dots..
Meanwhile, real problems, real issues, real challenges lie out there waiting to be addressed by somebody, anybody --- war, peace, global security, climate change, cyber warfare, AI, you name it. None of them have a thing to do with Jeffrey Epstein, Rosie O'Donnell, Charlamagne (either one), Hannibal Lecter, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, or any of the other weird little hobgoblins, ghosties and things that go bump in the night in that empty, rancid cantaloupe mush passing for his brains, filled with petty, pissy, imagined slights and vendettas so tiny you need a microscope to see them. Donald Trump and his glass menagerie of fake causes...
Though I've been nauseated so many times already I can't count, I didn't start to get really afraid until he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That may be one of the worst events in American history. It has implications that will reverberate for decades -- the official mark of a banana republic. And It got followed within an hour by perhaps the second worst event in American history -- every Republican around him, in his Cabinet, in the House, in the Senate, going right along with that yessir, nope, nothin' to see here. Not one dissent, not a peep, not even a furrowed-brow "concern" from Susan Collins.
If you study history carefully, it's never really the Mussolinis, the Hitlers, the Caligulas, the Pol Pots and other assorted murderers, looney-tunes, psychopaths and twisted misfits, as much as it's their satraps, their wormtongues and supporters, their henchmen and apologists, their official kumquats, their appointees, their grey cardinals behind the throne to be terrified of.
So Missouri's very own idiot's delight, "Senator" Eric Sch[m[]itt (the m is silent) has suddenly become diligence itself in terms of showing up on Fox and Newsmax and sending absolutely stultifyingly stupid emails to his constituents exulting in the cruelty he supports and claiming "help" for Missourians that is no help at all. He was overlooked in favor of the Stepford Wives the Felon chose for his Attny Gen and DHS head but my assumption is that he is figuring that one of the two--if not both--will be shown the door quite soon. Since the Felon loves to fire women and is seemingly more reluctant to attack cis white men (fired Janet Yellen; threatens but doesn't fire Powell; fired all the women and Black people on the Joint Chiefs but not the white men--this is a clear pattern), Sch[m]itt might have a chance but he really is one of the dumbest humans on the planet.
Oh Heather. You're late tonight, but no problem. I'm wide awake, lying in abject fear for this country. Firing the statistician won't magically make the economy better. We won't get accurate numbers, but we'll know the truth every time we go to the grocery store. I just rushed and bought a new washer and dryer even though my laundry space is under repair and not yet available, because prices will go up. They actually already are.
They should, We the Public seem to have an astonishingly short memory. Is there something in the water? (besides the usual "forever" chemicals and microplastic?)
My remaining brain cell still cling to some impressions from a era when the great preponderance of the American public held right-wing dictators in very low esteem. .
JL, I've mentioned this lack of memory in the comments several times, in reference to COVID. No joking here, I am ASTOUNDED at how quickly people have forgotten it--and it's only been a few years!
It's so depends doesn't it. Sometimes the hard way is the only way to learn. sometimes it's tragic. In my teens I had the privilege to go to a dream summer camp (now it's condominiums) at fully 9000 ft in the Colorado Rockies. A lot of the activities involved horses, and I had never ridden; so I got a couple of books from the library and asked my parted to take me to a riding stable. Mostly the horse ignored my wishes and tried to scrape me off against trees. Once on a horse at the camp, with real instruction, I quickly got "the feel" for it.
Also, innovation often involves noticing what others have not, and there are many historical illustrations of that one. It's not just our power to notice, that makes our actions fruitful, it's what occurs to us to notice both in spontaneous and disciplined ways. Give the average person a $1500 camera and a innovative professional photographer one of those cheap disposable cameras they used to make, and my guess is that latter would still be more likely to produce an intriguing portfolio that average. All of which is a long-winder way to say, it's not just that we notice, but what we notice, and what use we make of it. Do we teach that sufficiently in school? I don't think we do because it's "kryptonite" for those who would be king. And whether persistence is the mark of a fool or a hero is also situational, Hard-headedness included.
And yeah, like combing and examining an airplane crash, there are so many lesson we might have learned from the Pandemic that went largely unheeded, including the role of pernicious, sociopathic political corruption.
Yup. I can see the "finish line" on the horizon (or is it right next door?) and a wake of lessons unheeded behind me; with no doubt more to come. I keep working at it though.
The outrage many are now expressing, the second thoughts of those who voted for this miscreant, do little to stop the train of governnent speeding toward catastophe. Guardrails have been failing. Gov. Abbott is invoking a law to oust the Democrats from their duly elected office in a move that shreds democracy even before impkementing his corrupt gerrymandered map that tRump demands. Outrage is not enough to unseat and undo authoritarisnism. The examples of democratic dismantling of authoritarian regimes do exist. But they are few and often it is violence that overthrows such regimes. I confess to feeling highly alarmed.
How this regime ends is a terrifying thought filled with too few details too few are willing to contemplate. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about that. Our media is mum, yet the facts are pretty stark. It wasn't new elections that removed Hitler's legitimacy, but the utter capitulation of Germany, its land divided by four external powers, its cities in ruins, its agriculture disrupted, millions turned into homeless refugees, its children starving, a big Soviet flag over the Reichstag.... And it wasn't until two atomic bombs annihilated two cities in Japan that the Emperor himself, on his own literally, told his people "we must now bear the unbearable, we must now endure the unimaginable."
The novel “It Can’t Happen Here” is based on reporting in 1930s Europe by author Sinclair Lewis’s journalist wife. In the end, the country is divided into unstable fiefdoms. There IS no truly United States.
Dave, I have posted a link to this several times in the past; it discusses/researches the roots of the “divide” amongst Americans. It is from Nationhood Lab, part of the Pell Center at Slave Regina Univ: https://nationhoodlab.org/a-balkanized-federation/ There are links to more in-depth study and references the book American Nations. Time will tell if we remain as a union or instead create new nations w/in our prior boundaries.
Fascinating. Thanks, Barbara. The descriptions of each of the "nations" seem to jive with impressions lodged somewhere in the memory. There is much to study in these maps.
Barbara, American Nations is a book EVERYONE here should read! It is crazy that much of today's politics were formed because of as little as a few dozen people in a particular area who arrived several hundred years ago. Really amazing book.
He wants to wreck our economy. This is willful! They want a fire sale for all the spoils of this effort for the billionaire boys club that circles around this regime. I am disgusted that this is what our country has devolved to. The lowest of the low -MAGA ruined our nation and we didn’t do enough to stop them because we tried to play by polite rules that they ran right over.
I don't really think Trump "wants to wreck our economy." I think he wants to do exactly what the OBBB does, which is, to continue funneling assets to the richest Americans especially himself.
I don't really understand how much is enough for Trump and his oligarch buddies. I mean, you have a yacht or two, several jets, many homes that you occasionally visit, ownership of monopolies like Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Microsoft, etc., and you own Congress, SCOTUS and the Presidency.
Trump is so fucking ignorant that he actually believes that his insane tariffs merry-go-round will make him and his buddies wealthier.
The short-term wealth is much more attractive than the long-term hurt. Especially when you have been inoculated. The one vaccine they approve of, since the hurt part is for others…
GJ, I've had the same thought. I recall reading that everyone "has a number" which means there is an amount of assets that is "enough". I've wondered about how some people can't possibly ever have "enough"
Years ago, I became friends with a woman who lived in our middle class neighborhood. She lived in the house she grew up in, after her parents moved to another house. As we gradually became close friends, little things were revealed to me that indicated she was quite wealthy. No, that is inaccurate--her parents were very wealthy. (I estimate upon her parents' demise, she inherited an 8 figure inheritance. I started to mentally tabulate over the years as stories came out, and I am very confident in my estimate).
Even she apparently didn't realize how much she had until he passed. Funny how, once all this money flowed into her hands, she became a Trump supporter!
I agree -- he's like a wounded animal in a corner - or a toddler upending his soup in a tantrum -- out of control with rage and desperate to show how powerful he is and get his way.
This has been my thought exactly as you've stated. The rich just want to get richer and they'll do whatever it takes, destroying our democracy along the way.
“[Economist Paul] Krugman notes that as Trump’s popularity is disintegrating, he appears to be ramping up his attempts to destroy American democracy.”
As Trump’s popularity is shrinking, why the continued deafening silence by congressional Republicans? Where are the party delegations to the White House demanding Trump cut the crap, get right, or get out before the midterm elections?
Are there even going to be midterm elections?
The Republican Party is far more responsible for the continuing destruction of our, OUR, democracy than the psychopath and his sycophants and minions in the White House.
I think there will be midterms, but there also will be a slew of lawsuits claiming Democrat wins/Trumpublican losses were “rigged.” Even if the courts prove that the races were fair, Trump will continue denying that they were and will simply refuse to acknowledge the incoming congress. He’ll claim some sweeping “emergency” power and will insist that the current congress remain, citing the need for “stability” in light of the allegedly “disputed” election results. I recognize that all of this is well beyond his authority, but thanks to the Roberts Court, it is well within his discretion, given the virtual blanket immunity he now enjoys.
The Guardians of Pedophiles is beholden to Project 2025 just as are six of the nine members of SCOTUS. Now we have Bove and Pirro as confirmed judges. This doesn’t end anytime soon. November 2026 is much too far away to hope that we make change then.
From tanking his own businesses including casinos and a "university".. his pinnacle will be tanking an entire economy. With or without real measures being reported.
It strikes me that Maxwell's move to a not-so-secure facility is allowing easier access to those wishing to permanently silence her. If she's going to lie in exchange for a pardon, what's the benefit of allowing the stain of a pardon on the record?
Republicans sure love them some pedophiles, sex traffickers and sexual deviants.
And yet, 89% of Republicans still support Trump.
What do they think he will do for them? He lied about bringing down the price of groceries on day 1, people are losing their homes, businesses and health care. Rural hospitals are starting to close and yet, they are so fucking stupid, they think that Trump and his Republican cronies have nothing to do with it.
Maxwell is a child molester. She drove around schools at the end of the school day, hunting for "pretty" girls. She targeted low income areas, looking for girls whose families were under great stress, and pretended she could help them. She groomed them into being ok with massages of old rich guys, then hand jobs, then blow jobs, then intercourse. They thought this was ok little by little because she was a nice lady and they were so young and destabilized and desperate for money. Maxwell sometimes participated. They were passed around like napkins. Traumatized. Thrown away. This woman is a monster. The president is protecting her. Maybe going to pardon her? Hell no. The stories of these girls need to be told. "Child sex trafficker" does not do it. People need to know. Thanks, Heather, for staying on this.
If only someone had given us a clue, a sign, any indication, that a second Trump administration would result in a blitzkrieg, resulting in the complete dismantling of 249 years of democratic governance, maybe we wouldn't be in the situation we find ourselves today.
Oh, wait.... They put it in a nine hundred page project manual.
I can't wait to see what Project 2026 will bring? (sarcasm)
Welcome to the second season of, "Destroying Democracy"!
A Manuel that should have stirred the conscience’s of our smartest people in the land. Oh wait, they wrote it. Could it be that they are not the smartest people. Let’s ask AI…Seems that they have deferred to the dumbest man in the land, at least temporarily…
It would seem this LFAA has properly identified a preamble to the U.S. Constitution that was written in invisible ink: "Protecting wealthy men at the expense of the victims."
Yes, that sounds about right. Especially in the era of the criminal elect and Pam "Bribe Me" Bondi.
Very true GJ. I suspect when the Constitutional framers looked around the room at the convention, all they saw were wealthy white men -and thus, "We the People".
On Rachel Maddow’s show today she said we’re already living under an authoritarian leader.
We have – it’s normal now – goon squads roaming America, arresting gardeners, construction workers, restaurant employees. Breaking the glass of parked car windows to pull out mothers of children inside. These are armed terror thugs. Wearing no badges or any other ID. In masks. Accountable to no law, no due process – only to the criminal in the White House.
This is normal. That criminal in the White House last year ran on mass fear of immigrants – on massive lies that they were eating the dogs and cats of normal American towns. Invaders. All here here to rape and murder.
77 million Americans voted for this reality show. So now the country lives under an unaccountable – immune from law – authoritarian criminal.
Some seem to be having second thoughts now, given that this same criminal is covering up his many years’ palling around with sex traffickers. He also for years immune to law, above our strictures about sex with underage children.
But he says no, no one can look into this sordid history of his. He’s the Leader, equivalent to Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Netanyahu, Sisi, Kim, Bukele, Bolsonaro, Mohammed bin Salman.
“In the cartoon caricature of an authoritarian state, there’s secret police, there’s prison camps, there’s the scapegoated enemy on whom all things must be blamed and against whom all things are justified” – Rachel Maddow.
To the extent that our society is not yet fully totalitarian is no thanks to any hesitation on the part of Trump, nor of the now ironically-labeled "Republican Party".
There are no Republican Party left J L, its the maga party now.
There hasn't been a "Republican Party" since 9/11. Not really. When W. allowed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon it was the beginning of the end of the party. The resulting, so called Patriot Act showed disregard for many of the Freedoms we enjoyed. And then W. nominated Roberts and Alito to SCOTUS which allowed the court to pass the ridiculous Citizen's United decision. And then the repeal of Roe totally ignored the 14th amendment. And then Leo, McConnell and Trump stole the deciding vote on SCOTUS which has allowed them to make anti-democratic political decisions with impunity.
An excellent summary. And the Citizens' United decision was the beginning of the end of our having a roughly egalitarian democracy. Now Musk can spend $250mio overtly to support Trump and all is well in the SCOTUS world. Roberts has sold us down the river.
"Roberts has sold us down the river"- yes, exactly as he was intended to do.
Rest in peace, John McCaine...you...and your shining light of integrity are
sorely missed.
Yes indeed! His leadership is sorely missed.
They have been drifting this direction since the Lewis Powell Memo and the John Birch Society.
Yup, Rickey, then Reagan “ran with it” both as CA governor & then POTUS….slip sliding away….these were the roots of the Mandate for Leadership (aka Project 2025). Been simmering a long long time…
Reagan and his people were the crack in the wall…of course the GE sales person would be the right’s future.
It goes back to allowing lobbyists and PACs to flood the political scene with money (bribes). That all needs to be eliminated.
Actually the entire U.S. ruling class has "been drifting this direction" -- FDR and fellow New Dealers the minority exceptions -- since the publication of "Mein Kampf." (Apropos which, note the 1933 Bankers' Plot and the de facto immunity that absolved the perpe-traitors and sustained their bipartisan, multi-generation scheming unto the final triumph of MAGAT-Führer Trump and his ecogenocidal rabble of fanatical Christonazis and vengeful Neoconfederates.)
Still having a hard time with McConnell denying Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court, yet allowing Trump's nominees to be rammed through, even though each nominee lied about how they would handle Roe V Wade when it came onto the docket. How does he sleep at night?
Mona, I count McConnell as being as culpable for what we have now as any other R monster. He knew what he was doing.
I agree! McConnell, did us in!
Ditto Mona. Self delusion, and living within a self-affirming echo chamber or silo as some call it.
and being made up of fundamentally different core material than those of us who actually value freedom and fairness, knowing that the highest freedom is freedom from the harm of other's products and actions and knowing that fairness requires a good government.
Here! Here! That old, lost in the woods, so-called "public servant" needs to be retired.
"When W. allowed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon..."?
The Clinton administration had warned the incoming Bush Team that there was "chatter" about a terrorist threat to America. Bush was caught flat footed. I have no idea if "9/11" could have been thwarted. But the guys who would fly those planes were getting trained right here in the good old USA.
Condaleeza Rice warned W. in August about planes but he was on vacation on his ranch "cutting brush" which was more important than keeping the country safe under his watch. Several FBI agents (mid-west and AZ) reported men taking lessons on flying planes but not taking off or landing, but these reports were not taken seriously. Isn't that what the FBI, CIA, LE are supposed to do? Be aware and report suspicious activity?
Yes. A friend recognized one of the highjackers as a student in one of her classes at the NJ Institute of Technology.
Bill you are so right about them getting trained here. And Bush was reading a book to school children. Correct me if I am wrong but he kept reading after his aide told him of the attack. i used to commute into D.C. for work. The PENTAGON looked like the gates of hell.
Geo. W. Bush was never anything more than a tool of fossil fuel.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, you could see it in his eyes -- he'd been reading to some school children when he got the word, and is eyes showed, yes, he'd known something was in the works, but he'd never known what.
The U.S. fossil fuel biggies, with their Saudi counterparts, were in on "something." U.S. intelligence had been flashing alarms. But no one anywhere knew the extent of what the fossil fuel syndicates were in on from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. to Russia.
This, when Donnie, whom they'd fix as U.S. president 16 years later, was still playing with the underage things Jeffrey, Ghislaine, and their paid-off pals were still supplying all their useful idiots.
Underage things, Mr. Balla? The many victims of Epstein, Maxwell, Trump, etc. were children, not things.
Phil, you are talking about the rape of girl children by powerful men. They are not, were not, "underage things". This kind of pass by men who I thought knew better is unacceptable.
The president’s daily briefing as late as August 2011 warned of an attack orchestrated by bin Laden. There had purportedly been been earlier warnings. Nothing was done.
I believe something equally catastrophic could happen now. Trump Administration lackeys are all incompetent and I doubt would even risk his wrath and their jobs by telling him an attack was imminent, if such occurred today. And we all know he doesn’t give a sh!t about the American people.
We NEVER learn our lesson.
Fossil that I am , me and many more ,moved back-to-the-land. It was the only way to protest quietly and thorough-in effect boycotting. These are simply comforts , simple walks which many can’t /couldn’t do. We worked jobs supporting them, wrote books to suggest little ways ,hints ‘how-to’ drop out, how to see the shiny object ‘getting rich’. We knew. Didn’t think it would take this long , the protest songs were/still are the writing between the lines..
They are all monsters and allowing any of them to run free and continue their monstrous actions is unacceptable. Just because Epstein is dead doesn’t mean they’ve stopped.
The WTC had been targeted as early as 1993, well ahead of W. Presumbably the intelligence in hand ahead of 9/11 was not acted on. All US dealing with the Middle East and oil is a complicated mess. But not buying willful destruction.
Hello Phil... Was there ever an adequate explanation when Osama bin Laden was allowed to slip the cordon around Tora Bora, or why no bin Laden Family Members were interrogated by the FBI when they were allowed to leave the USA during the one week no fly after the WTC attack?... GWB was warned, but he blew it off because he was playing Golf on Vacation...
"Geo. W. Bush was never anything more than a tool of fossil fuel." ...And a pliable tool of retribution for his daddy and pals. If you recall, it was broadcast (fact or myth) that Saddam Hussein had commissioned a team of assassins to kill HW Bush. *** Now, speaking of 'faux pas' here you see one by moi' no less. One could reason that I mean that HW Bush sought retribution; I don't feel that at all. HW struck me, or I want to believe via some of his actions, would not have spent American lives and treasure for the sake of his ego. GW, egged on by Cheney and the neocons would have.
In Ws defense, he was under Dick Cheney and Rummy's control early in his Presidentship. The fault really lies with those two a$$holes who knew there was a threat, and should have acted instead of putting their rightwing agenda as first priority. Partisanship over Country has always been the problem with Republicans.
I was living in France when W was elected. Not many months after the inauguration, there was an editorial comment in a leading newspaper: What are the Americans up to? We're not getting any news.
In the bright light of Adam Zarnowski's Jormunganr: A Study in Global Human Trafficking and Abolitionists Strategy seem to reveal the five electoral votes the "Village Idiot From Crawford Texas" won(?) may have resulted from tainted by vote tampering, SEE: "Major ES&S Scandals and Failures".
1997 was a year in which ES&S began as American Information Systems AIS which later merged with Business Records Corporation, BRC brought along it's own along it's on controversial history, including ballot mishandling allegations in Texas."
ES&S quickly became the dominant voting machine vendor in the U.S. through acquisitions.
Bill Clinton won 1992 and went on to win a second term. This maybe an indication vote tampering had arrived. Clinton hammered Bob Dole in the electoral vote category 379 vs 159. Clinton flew on the Lolita Express several time. I ain't saying, no I am saying this entire episode needs the immediate attention of all Americans. Research this a little there is lots here in Adam Zarnowski's effort to expose this.
Regardless GL you have the meat of this understood correctly IMHO.
You state “ There hasn't been a "Republican Party" since 9/11.”
No. What we see with Trump is the true face of the Republican Party. Nixon and Reagan gave and earlier glimpses. But Trump has torn off the band-aid to expose the wounded truth.
Does the Iran-Contra episode ring a bell?
Do you think, GL….he knew ? W. that is?
Patricia, I have often said (not here) that W was the GOP's "test dummy" to see if a manipulable idiot in the White House would work. He turned out to be proof-of-concept.
It doesn't matter if he knew; he wasn't running the show. His puppeteers stood to gain a lot of ground resulting from a catastrophic event. The attacks on 9/11 were a conveniently timed event that would provide opportunities to begin building an autocracy. The Patriot Act, increased NSA surveillance, black ops renditions and "enhanced interrogation" were all products of the Shrub's administration, foundations on which a future autocracy could be built.
At that time, the idiot Donald Trump was already on Russia's radar, thanks to his business interactions with Kremlin-connected Bratva. Corporate media has been complicit in leading us to believe that the Russia connection was only to the Trump campaign.
I submit that many GOP operatives were included in the operation. Since his "golden escalator ride," the same GOP names have kept popping up in the news. To this day, we don't know why Senators Richard Shelby, Steve Daines, John Thune, John Kennedy, Jerry Moran and John Hoeven and Rep. Kay Granger spent July 4, 2018 in Moscow. It seems an odd place to celebrate Independence Day.
Hillary Clinton was right about everything else. Why not her claim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy?"
Dale, thank you for this detailed analysis. I can certainly see W as the test dummy. Yes, HRC was right about everything.
The McCarthy period, Treason Trials..all earlier affidavits, Nazi, spy, MAGA , different name same game .. too. As even again history repeats and falls folly too, apparently we need reminding ever-so-often.
Thank you Dale. Great points 🫶
Much of what you say dovetails with many of my instincts Dale. "Test dummy" is a great characterization - kudo's.
Who knows what he “knew”? But he was warned.
That much we do know.
Exactly correct Ricardo; there is ONLY the maga party & their quiet cowards.
Silence is complicity. They are ALL Nazis.
THE NAZI's MURDERED 6,000,000 JEWS.
WHAT A DISGUSTING SLEAZY POST.
What exactly do you think they’re doing in concentration camps like Alligator Alcatraz?????? My family fled Germany in 1938 because of these same exact policies. The term Nazi comes from Nazionalismus-Nationalist. I am well aware of what I am saying. I’m sorry you are offended but I’m not sorry for speaking truth.
I had renamed them in 2018 the FPA - Fascists PArty of AmeirKa
I've been calling them the "RepubliKKKans".
MAGA Party.
No, it is the Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party, and the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party is its Fifth Column.
Hmmm, Loren, kinda think that DOES = MAGA….all of ‘em bottom of the bag ingredients in the MAGA-Milkshake….very bitter tasting & nothing “smoothie” about it.
Got a little TRUMP DERRANGEMENT SYNDROME?
Maybe your posts are why the Democrats have 30% approval rating
"Alternate facts", aka lies, not welcomed here.
That would be the Maggot Party IMHO
That would be the GOP (Guardians Of Pedophiles)
😄
For those of you that attend churches regularly, is there strong support for Trump? If so, is there anyone willing to point out that he is a Fascist dictator?
The support for Trump in the Southern Baptist Churches is solid. Franklin Graham is a proud supporter of Trump and regularly endorses him. This is one of the reasons I have left the church. The church is nothing more than a brainwashing means to control the masses. I have a friend who has gone from being a well-read, intelligent individual to a " I don't read anything anymore unless it is by Christian authors." She has begun to point out all that is not "Christ-like" every chance she gets.
Long, long ago, Franklin Graham sold his soul for a few pieces of gold. He follows in the long tradition of loving an authoritarian state over a true democracy where every vote counts, not just the votes of the preferred.
The so-called Christians DON'T preach or practice The Beatitudes...so here we are a nation on the brink of desolation!
Very accurate, Linda! I have many friends and family members - several of them are devote Christians - who support Trump and his “efforts.”
“(Larry) Summers shot down Trump’s claim….” Yeah, I’d like to think so - but Trump has gotten his way. The same goes for his “attacks” on universities and newspapers and law firms, etc. Plus, most importantly, Joe and Jill Average MAGA American dancing in the streets. MAGA Governors are actively and openly rigging the system. Scary stuff, but ….
“(Paul) Krugman notes that as Trump’s popularity is disintegrating….” Yeah, I’d like to think so - but Trump is still getting his way. MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill are in Seventh Heaven. Yeah, maybe Larry and Paul and Bill and Ben (et al) are “up in arms,” but Ghislaine Maxwell is now resting comfortably in a low-security prison because the Bureau of Prisons can do that - even, apparently, for a convicted sex offender.
Joe and Jill (the MAGAns) believe this whole Epstein thing is rigged piece of Biden BS. And, it’s Obama’s fault, too. I don’t know MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill personally, but I have plenty of friends and relatives who do know MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill. Some of those friends and relatives are somewhat informed, while several others haven’t the foggiest idea about why the price of marshmallows is so sky high!
Let’s not lose sight of the FACT that MAGA Joe and MAGA Jill are our Fellow Americans.
How they have turned their back on the word printed in red of the King James version.
Linda, as an evangelical Christian-turned-non-deist, I could write a book (I won't) expanding on your comment.
Most people, probably many here, have a high opinion of Billy Graham and imagine Franklin is a disappointment to his father. Billy was a racist homophobe who moderated his stance slightly in his dotage, but didn't change it. He was an absentee father who was a cold, domineering authoritarian when he was at home. His daughters have written about this.
Franklin is a product of his father, not a disappointment. As a youth, he rebelled against his father's abuse and left home. On his own, he abused substances and girls until he hit bottom. When he realized he had no marketable skills and no money, his father's lucrative preaching business looked pretty attractive. He cleaned up his act and returned to the family fold, where he was "anointed" to take over the family business. He's in it for the money and power, not to "save souls."
The opiate of the masses.
Golly! and she supports Franklin Graham??? Any person less 'christian" is hard to imagine. He is nothing but another grifter who saw his main chance to latch onto the money that his daddy was generating. He is a huge FRAUD!
GJ, what I see is a certain kind of church supporting death star. They want a theocracy and are absorbed by the second coming. I also know church goers who are doing the right thing, but attend more liberal churches. I defend them despite being raked over the coals by fundamentalist atheists.
Does she notice “not Christ-like” behavior by Trump and his administration? If she does, it must keep her busy.
Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, writer, mystic has said "The Evangelical support of Trump will be an indictment against its validity as a Christian movement for generations to come."
Add that to the thousands of crimes committed by Catholic priests and I would ask them this: "When did you stop following Jesus Christ and join the Dark Side?" And why?
I know some very fine people who are "church goers" and do good work helping in their communities. They are not MAGA.
What astounds me is that with some very few exceptions like John Pavlovitz I hear no outrage, no disgust that their faith is being used to HURT millions of people. I just don't understand the lack of pushback. A faith that teaches love has been hijacked by haters.
Ditto, Glenis, the Republicans now in Congress who stay silent in apparent “support” of his actions. A stain that won’t wash out.
Wow! That’s a really powerful indictment from Fr Rohr.
Yes, the southern Baptist convention is losing large numbers of members (especially women) as more and more folks who claim to be Christian have the scales fall from their eyes. ( Intolerance, clergy sex abuses, fiscal scandals, etc, ) Most churches, with the Pentecostal exception are losing membership. The big C church needs to change or die. I doubt these mega churches and huge cathedrals are what Jesus had in mind.
I don't know where or how I discovered him, but I subscribe to his daily CAC Newsletter. Rohr speaks plain honestly about Christian spirituality that I believe a lot of people who consider themselves "true Christians" would not like.
EDIT: anyone who is curious can check out CAC.org. Fr Rohr's letter today is very applicable to today's MAGA, as he talks about how people need to be emptied before they can be refilled. Perhaps the MAGA need to be totally disillusioned before they can open their minds to reality. Yeah--some never will, but we need to keep trying.
Amen brother. They have literally made a deal with the devil. Fu_k them all.
Exactly correct Albert.
The maggots minions eating the flesh of American democracy!
trump is like a dog leaving his mark on a tree with his pee - his vindictiveness and evil are everywhere; and his grand ballroom - whorehouse chic.
More like the lead dog of a husky sled. And too bad that you view him like that because he is now the alpha male on planet Earth. Leading by doing leading by acts leading with courage and you wanna talk about taco anymore let me hear you call him a taco. Let’s ask ayatollah Houmani if he’s a taco. Lol
Winning negotiation after negotiation with world leaders while Biden is still wondering where he is today. At least 75% of the problems we have today on the United States or Biden caused mainly through his open border policy, where he lied and told us the borders were secure and now Trump is having to focus on, not only closing the border, but getting those illegal criminals out of here as quickly as possible Hampered of course by all the people that are taking the side of illegal criminals over American citizens and you wonder why you’re losing ?
Dear Mr. Sender: (I think you might be a small time provocateur, with your whataboutisms, etc, enjoying seeing heads explode; that’s living rent free inside someone’s head.) I find it difficult to spar with you because you pick and choose a topic or policy from the opposing team, which you may conceptually or politically disagree with, but which had not broken or endangered the country. (I cite “W” whose policies did harm people, our treasury, all based on a lie which he got away with, while implementing tax breaks. What the US could have done with that money!!) Given the information I have at this time, I am not stupid or ill-informed. I think I am skeptical and evaluate critically what is being proposed by this administration. You believe, apparently, what is endorsed by your team. I know you want to be respected and listened to; we need to befriend you and consider your radicalized talk, although I doubt we can talk you out of the cult or klan. Ideology is fungible; identity is not, therefore your clinging to conspiracy theories or MAGA policies is consistent with one’s inability to engage in self-criticism. To destroy the government based on spurious claims of waste, fraud and abuse without evidence is highly irresponsible. If DOGE had gone into every department, evaluated where there was overlap or redundancy or not rehired a position when someone retired, that makes sense. To eliminate jobs of thousands of people whose livelihoods were destroyed or whose family was left without its significant wage earner, or an agency now devoid any expertise is irresponsible. (Do you know that Mr. Vought said that he hoped that when every government worker walked into his/her job s/he would feel sick to their stomach? Nice guy!) Government leaders who are best at deception succeed, who amplify lies and hire surrogates who repeat them - well it’s no way to run a country. Hopefully our democracy will endure the wreckage and the illusion. And we find a way back to a sense of pride in community, ability to be kind and patient and engage in intelligent and honest conversation……………
Stephanie, I wasn’t really responding to you. I was responding to a lady that asked me to better identify the things that Heather is saying incorrectly or that she’s not saying at all and that was what I was doing yesterday if I answered you by mistake.
My what about isms by the way are just factual analysis where you or your group over there makes a policy or a plan that is hypocritical in nature because your party has done the exact same thing and then when I tell you, they’ve done the exact same thing you call it or what about you guys as I’ve said, live at the corner intersection of hypocrisy and double standard
The problem with you is not that you’re not intelligent. The problem is that you’re ill-informed and here’s what I mean you have no idea what people on the right thing or feel and happy everybody that voted for Trump is right now you can read all the polls you want, but I’m in touch with real people every single day that that I associate with and no on both sides of the aisle by the way. So far, the economy is crushing it. The stock market is at record, highs most of Trump’s policies in fact, have not taken effect yet other than the tariffs, which are garnering dollars that are hopefully diminishing the deficit. If you would like to name me a policy or two, which you think is not working I’d be more than happy to respond so I’m not doing what aboutisms according to you
Feel free to talk about Mr. Vought in anyway you/d like. He was approved to take office and apparently was placed there by this administration so you have no call. You have no reason to call him out just like all the liars and the morons that said the border was secure and that Covid didn’t come from Wuhan and that Hunter’s laptop was bullshit. And now we’re finding out even more about all those hoaxes.
Our country is doing great just you don’t like it because you’re not in control. Let me repeat that we are doing great. You don’t like it because you’re not in control and let me give you an example of what I mean and then I’m hanging up.
There was a survey done by CNN and I have a copy of a photo but it won’t take here it ask Americans if they were proud of Of America or if they were proud of their country, depending upon who was in office at the time in the White House
Republicans were proud to be an American and happy with America at 85% approval rating if a republican was in the White House and 82% approval rating if a demo Democrat was in the White House
The ratings for Democrats being proud of America were at 85% if a democrat was in the White House, but only at 36% if a Republican was in the White House. You don’t get it. It’s all about control with you people and nothing more. You can’t get your way. All you do is whine and cry and protest and frustrate yourself for no reason whatsoever.
You’ve got 3 1/2 more years of this glorious presidency who will be remembered long after the idiots that ran before him like Biden ,Obama, the most divisive president in my life and both bush’s who love this country, but were morons
If you really wanna know how the right feels about it just watch Fox News for a month three hours at night the top rated shows on all of TV and now you’ll get a better picture of why everybody on the right is happy but you don’t wanna do that and I call it as I said before Wilful ignorance. Have a nice day.
Another delusional liberal. My God there’s so many of you. change the channel for goodness sakes.
Gift or bribe to the deity - trump. We've gone from a sphere of intelligent governance to a sphere of recklessness and dysfunction. All threaten the well-being of the republic.
Perhaps ruthless works better....
Just think of ALL he has accomplished in only 1/8th of his term.
Imagine what a Great America we will have at the end of the 7/8th left.
Yep, he has accomplished an incredible amount and only six months.
Assuming he is not just allowed to break it all now. Of course the climate conflagration continues to burn.
What climate conflagration? Why are you worried AOC and all her scientific background and helpers give us only five more years to live so enjoy it while you can LMAO.
Here’s an idea for you JL worry about something you have any control over
My observation is that this group is primarily made up of boomers and older. We are highly informed on the daily destruction of our democracy. This can have an adverse effect on our lives if we don’t keep it in balance. Having knowledge also gives way to anxiety. There is not much we can do but use similar strategy to fight the demons of the day. And we should rethink our own failed concepts and mold them into successful strategies.
Bill, can’t say I know the mind of ALL the boomers, but—just my experience—my longtime friends, neighbors, immediate & extended family are the antithesis of the MAGA-ish. Of course, we were the rabble rousers and riff-raff of the 60-70’s civil rights & anti-war movement, and a bit later the environmental protection work, etc. But, as they say, “experience varies”!
Right on!
✊✌🏼👍
Maybe Bill, but think of all the conspiracy and vigilante diatribes on the internet feeding frenzy that appears to be young people living a dreadful fantasy on line.
And now you see what I've been saying all along the Palestinians are getting tired of , which is the only problem remaining there of the sudden Gaza will bloom.
Getting tired of Hamas
Bill, I'm telling you sometimes I'm so damn proud of you for having folks wake up and have a better perspective on life. Some of these people need to walk away from this post for a month go out and live their life and see the difference between enjoying what they have and reading All this negativity
What are you talking about Rick? These issues we fret over are very real. And very important to our lives, and especially our childrens' lives. Now and in the future. Pretty sure Germans in the mid 1930's could go outside and enjoy the feel of the sun on their faces.
James I’ve never met so many ignorant people as I’ve met here to be able to try to equate in any shape or form this country compared to the Germany of 1930s. If you walk outside today, there are 77 million voters who LOVE what’s happening every minute of every day but you’re just out of touch with those people completely and completely out of reality. This country is on an ascent to stardom once again. We are once again the leaders of the free world. And then a second I will respond to your other ridiculous remark.
As a matter of fact, 90% or more of Trump’s policies haven’t even been instituted yet and all you guys do is will be Ken be might be gonna be with your broken crystal balls and your Ouija boards
Rick, I have 7 more short stories being added to my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums.” After they have been included, would you like to buy another updated and new and improved book? I’ll let it know when it’s save to buy.
Give me a hint, Bill it might be worth it. I can turn over to Smithsonian's humor section. A.k.a., can you believe anybody actually said this stuff? Lol give me some examples of your new stories.
AFP. American Fascist Party.
AFP. American fascist party.
Nothing like a true partisan hater that can't think for themselves
Like Biden's administration was really a pleasant experience ?
Let's see Rick. I do not recall the Biden adminstration instituting a project 2025 agenda. I do not recall the Biden adminstration trying to change reality 1984 style. And I do not recall the Biden administration giving every ally we have throughout the civilized world the middle finger, in deference to the world's authoritarians. Canada for instance (WTF??). I do not recall the Biden administration enabling Putin. I do not recall the Biden administration adopting a "tariff economy", which is slowly but surely fueling inflation and tanking our economy. I do not recall the Biden administration threatening our universities to change their educational curriculums to align with their agendas. I do not recall the Biden administration rounding up mass quantities of immigrants, illegal or no, and imprisoning them ala the Nazis and the gestapo. I do not recall the Biden administration totally abandoning US leadership in combating climate change, replacing with a "drill baby drill" policy. Shall I continue? Good god Rick - I have huge problems with your position here.
You know, James I feel remiss because I didn’t have time to fully express my remarked to your loss of memory comments.
Obviously, you’ve never owned a business or simply just don’t understand negotiation which Trump has won globally. Try that word for a second globally. To our own fault, we have been taken advantage of Trump has been saying everyone everyone’s been taking advantage of us, but it’s not true. We have allowed it to happen and now it’s straightening out. It’s called worldwide negotiation and he’s got the world buckling not shooting them the finger but negotiating in a winning sense because we have all the playing cards. And too many presidents have been too weak to play them.
We’ve already talked about Canada here so I won’t waste any further time but if you’d like to discuss Canada further, just mention it in your next missive.
You call it a tariff economy? Why should we be paying the world money/a tariff to be able to export our products when they won’t even allow our products in their country such as Japan. Well, they come into our country rent free. Probably haven’t noticed but many of the foreign car companies are now placing multimillion dollar ads on TV counting the fact that they’re now gonna be building more cars in America, which intern Mr. ignorance creates more jobs for who not the weak]lthy but the middle income class
To me you’re ignorance is astounding and your bipartisanship is so close minded that you must fit into that latest Pohl that said if Trump came up with the policy that helped almost all Americans 65% of Democrats would still vote against it because it came from Trump’s mouth. And if you guys don’t stop hating and lose your TDS, it’s only gonna get worse for you.
How many of your group is doubting a man like Man to run New York City into the ground like they’ve done to San Francisco Francisco and like Newsom has done to California. Las Vegas, where I happen to live has doubled in size due to the flight from California.
And if you call it, threatening our universities, why are you are universities seeing things and changing their tune like antisemitism and having to pay hundreds of million dollars in fines and correcting their unlawful ways we’re Jewish people are threatened on campus and restricted to certain areas of campus he’s not trying to regenerate their education per se. He’s trying to make campus is safe for everybody. Not to mention that you guys continue to forget that 90+ percent of all college level instructors happen to be Democrats so how much of an even balanced education are they getting? Yikes
The funniest and most hysterical of all your post is the one you don’t remember Biden rounding up illegals he rounded them up from all over the world to come here in order to get them to vote and there’s actually proof of that ..PROOF. THAT’S HOW MUCH IGNORANCE IS FOUND HERE
AND UNFORTUNATELY, FOR YOUR GROUP, WHAT I CALLED I HAVE GIVEN IT THE BLESSED NAME OF WILLFUL IGNORANCE. What I don’t wanna know won’t hurt me.
And if you use the word, Nazi one more time you can go straight to hell there is nothing closely resembling in any way shape or form that time in history today. When Trump starts lighting up hundreds of thousands and shooting them and dumping them in pits or placing them in ovens or starving them to death or gassing them to death you let me know. Why don’t you go to Alfi or Daho and lay down in one of the ovens or sleep in one of the unheated barracks during the winter? I can’t believe you morons highly educated Derelicts From what I can see
Feel free to have all kinds of problems with my positions here have at it. It’s a free country just you can’t deal with facts in reality you love dealing with what’s in a history book. What’s on a link rather than what’s on the street today itself… Trump‘s policies for the most part haven’t even taken affect yet and all you guys do is the following will be might be gonna be could cause might cause will impact with your broken down crystal balls, and dusty Ouija boards
America is rising from the ashes, and this country is now being realized, obviously from a many perspectives as a leader of the free world not to mention that Trump is now the alpha male on the planet
So go ahead and call him what do you call it toxic masculinity lololol
And it looks like this would be great. The Russian hoax is gonna come home to roost and destroy all the crap about him helping Putin are being involved with Putin in any way shape or form that you fools swallowed like the lemmings that you are.
Have a nice day we know at least 77 million are having a great day
And you on the left haven’t even figured out why you lost and Trump is back in office
Would you get off project 2025 and wake up and just see what’s happening in reality says nothing to do with project 2025 although there are many precepts in 2025 that makes sense such as let’s hear this one only citizens can vote. Would that be OK to institute? Not for the Democrats they tried to do it in New York and failed.
Looks like you sucked it all in all the BS that anybody could actually put out your swallowing it like a gullible lemming like most of the other people here.
Let me know when we’re able to predict the weather let alone climate
There is no such thing as a climate scientist. It’s called tomorrow and nobody knows what’s gonna happen. In fact, a couple of indicators of that were a huge, massive earthquake, and a volcanic eruption, which potentially could change everything in the weather patterns.
So tell me what the US has done in combating climate change?
Do you know what percentage of pollution is caused by the United States versus India or China? Why don’t you go out and burn some more Teslas see if that helps and I’ll get back to you later as I’m on vacation right now, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try to keep the insanity tamped down
A climate denier. More generally, you appear to be a science denier. Or maybe a bot? There is no sense arguing with people like that. Very sad Rick. You need not respond.
Also, Ruth Ben-Ghiat points out where this step of firing the CLS will lead.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/how-authoritarians-cook-the-books?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
It can lead to nothing good. These are not normal times. These are not normal times. These are not normal times.
We should hesitate to embrace what Trump is doing as the new norm, and remind ourselves that These are not normal times!
Dan Rather wrote that just after the inauguration of Trump 1: "This is not normal, folks This isn't normal!"
Dan Rather, Anne-Louise, grew up in an America where schools still used books.
Good books: novels, memoirs, histories, and more, much more.
How appropriate. We should be heeding those words. It also makes me think of the movie Network, where the journalist is shouting, "I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!"
https://youtu.be/D-VF24H4Xrc?si=MsF0o9zd4nlYh1P8
Unfortunately, Dan rather lost his job because he was not normal. He hated the republican so much he made a huge mistake and one of his newscast and lost his time slot forever
Has been true since 2000, but, Lordy, the game looked the same. It just that the cheating was more subtle.
The recount in 2000 was a warning shot which media reacted to with a collective shrug and yawn. Which was the second warning shot of the sanewashing and gas lighting to come.
Exactly, and I thought that was as low as they would go. Silly me…
They never fail to disappoint, do they.
No, in fact they escalate beyond any expectation for political activity. Guess more should have noticed.
We're glad that Trump isn't any more intelligent than he is (or isn't). But his Heritage Foundation is, and they can hire the best tricksters. Obviously, a lot of Americans aren't that bright either - so democracy is a burden for those who want a fair society that isn't self destructive. But what a mess, and I hate politics more than ever!
I hate corruption. Politics can be cooperative and mutually beneficial, but power tends to corrupt. We are burdened with the need to ride herd on our representatives so that they don't just represent themselves, and/or wealth paymasters.
"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -- Lincoln
The Democrats are lame, and the Republicans are against us. Our organization is through our comedians. We have awareness, but no power.
Even awareness is a form of power. I fear that for too long too many Democrats have used the strategy of go along to get along, rather than the riskier, yet more rewarding, role of leadership. By "smoothing over" smaller thefts of dignity, they have let much of their potential ammunition be stolen away. It's the corruption, and I won't say "stupid" but the more of it we tolerate the greater we are fools.
Such an indictment for our citizens. I thought cults were for morons
I look forward to this zoom Linda , have my alert alarm on (distracted my middle name)!
You Substack writers and commenters have stayed sanity.
And verily as history is fired or erased -a happening every great country becoming yet another authoritarian victim experiences- reason hung on , reality kept the decline self evident , and ruin ran roughshod until it wouldn’t anymore.
Whether it’s underground or whispered , stay the course loves…we will win ..eventually.
We had a very interesting conversation with my oncologist yesterday, in which I made the observation that in these trying times, a simple act of kindness and friendliness is in itself an effective form of defiance. He agreed.
See how ? Thank you, Janet. 🫶 Health be to your body as sturdy as your words.
Absolutely! We cannot fall into a stupor, accepting anything at all coming out of this White House as the new norm. We have to come together and fight back.
As my friend's keep pointing out to me, we need a critical mass of 11 million people to go out and march.
Hesitate bigly.
He who hesitates...
Yeah, Linda and the Democrats never ever cook the books. Where do you see the crap that's gonna be coming out about the Russia hoax
Return to Sender -- go live rent free in someone else's head....
I'm very happy and comfortable in my own head thank you for the invite
As are most levelheaded American
You obviously don't understand the phrase: it means stay out of others' head....
Or to say it another way: you are making people miserable at no expense to you...
And your poor wife has to put up with your misogyny. I don't know how she does it.
Dont sorry for her or me but she's queen of the castle and an extremely confident president and CEO of a major worldwide company and I was chairman of the board of that company in a different department.
Two intelligent, competent level-headed people
Astounds me that this firing is the last straw. Guess if it didn’t affect the powers that be, it didn’t really matter. We have concentration camps full of innocent people! Innocent civilians! That didn’t give anybody the clue that we’re under a fascist dictatorship?!
with Trump and Vought, there will be more straws. The firing of the BLS head will not be the last.
It is very difficult to know how to combat those straws, and the authoritarian takeover of the government, to stop the straws and to reverse course, given that the voters (assisted by Musk) have given majorities to the spineless Republicans in both houses of Congress.
Don't leave out Miller, he's been around for some time now and apparently figured out how to manipulate very successfully. His hate for immigrants drips from hi pores.
And think about his hate is bolstered by billions of taxpayer dollars for him to spend.
John, I was going to reply the same -- there are no "last straws", just ss there is no bottom, only a spiral ramp into the abyss.
But Musk didn’t win in Wisconsin and May not win again. And we hope that by now the price of eggs has been tied to climate change which Trump is doing all he can to hurry along (“drill, baby, drill”).
trump 1.0 was his testing ground ( remember concentration camps then!) to see what cruelty Americans will allow. And I'll add a society that doesn't protect their children after wave upon wave of gun violence is one that will allow for further cruelty. Despots know where the population is weak
Rachel has been warning for years, back when MAGAts were breaking the law. Now they make the laws. Who didn’t know this was coming on Nov 6. It just the speed that is brain-warping. Damn, who knew that propaganda paired with money was so powerful…
Even Rachel does not report the news. We wuz robbed. Needs to interview Adam Zarnowski.
“In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.”
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/ex-cia-whistleblower-the-nsa-audited
Did Trump admit that Musk stole Pennsylvania?
Daniel, I have been following this story a bit. I have read "thiswillhold". I also have read an analysis by Michael Sellers (former CIA) that says that while there are facts about the mechanics of election software that are disturbing, there is not actual evidence of tampering. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened. But the facts are not there.
I also sent an email to Robert Hubbell (Today's Edition) asking his opinion, keeping in mind his long legal career. He said in a recent substack, that there is nothing provable there.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be vigilant for the 2026 election cycle. In fact, the controversy may shine a brighter light on processes.
Whether we were "robbed" or not doesn't get us where we need to go. IMO, it is to find the candidates at every level of government who will be part of our big tent of Economic Justice.
At the root of all these horror shows is the fact that income inequality has soured millions of Americans and too many have listened to the lies of MAGA.
Dems need to identify with the people whose real income has not budged in decades and whose expenses are impossible to meet. The entire financial structure of our society is geared to the rich and is sucking the rest of us dry. As much as I loved Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, they just didn't get it. That's how we were "robbed" of responsible governance. Dems were not listening.
1. Why Hubbell? He never prosecuted anyone. Ask a former prosecutor.
2. According to the Zarnoski Substack it was the software.
3. According to David Rodriguez, prior to Nov 2024 election, it was reported that there were nearly 18 million new registered voters in the US since the 2022 midterms. Yet that increase in registered voters appears to have completely vanished 'after' the Election. He says although there should around 186 million voters in 2024, the US Census Bureau is saying there were only 173,854,000 registered voters. https://polarshifteveryone.blogspot.com/2025/07/was-2024-election-rigged.html
4. The Greg Palast scenario doesn't include the software issue.
5. If one person was intimidated by psy ops, it is a state crime.
6. Did Trump admit that Musk stole Pennsylvania?
Trump even thanked Musk: https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-trump-talking-about-elon-musk-knowing-about-voting-computers/5150057
Jessica Denson has been compiling other experts.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFcdKlXn3-cQJT3UkacF0OL_tOleHoHWm
break the , then change the law to make it legal. Tends to happen in every democracy downfall.
In process, deliberately and with malice
"who knew that propaganda paired with money was so powerful…"
We've seen it happen elsewhere, but I used to think (and was encouraged to think) that we, the people, held up a higher bar than this in the USA. That the horrors of history were gradually being retired to the past. Hubris I guess.
HCR quoted Lincoln a few months back:
"The idea of a small government that serves the needs of a few wealthy people, Lincoln warned in his era, is 'the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent.' ”
Someone who did not know chose not to know, or believe.
I agree
In answer to the question about what decent churches think, I am finding that most churches discount the Christian Nationalists. They discounted them when it was The Moral Majority back in the ‘80’s. So many people have left churches which is a shame because that is another place where we the people can shine a light. My church is great. Our. Congregation sees what is happening with open eyes and understands how this regime is antithetical to any form of Christianity.
I am sure you are right, but your church members need to get more vocal about what they see with their open eyes.
Violence and persuasion are two ways to influence the behavior of others. Violence is quick and easy. Just about any creep can apply it with a gun, but it appears as many, often subtle, forms of coercion. According to what remains of the record, Jesus was not a violent man, inconveniencing money-changers was pretty much his limit, and yet "religion" and "Christianity" is historically tied to w wake of horrors. That's not the whole story, but certainly religion has been used around the world as a pretext for sociopathic violence, including genocide and slavery, and of course, greed. And a number of the most salient advocates of peace have been assassinated, Jesus included.
So my question is who stands for violence and who condemns it? I personally diverge from Jesus' counsel and would attack an attacker if there is reasonably no other mean of defense, but even that has a downside. "Love thy neighbor"? That's the element of Jesus' philosophy that the CINOs don't talk about, what Jesus claimed in his "Great Commandment". About the Sermon on the Mount. I don't think you have to believe in divinity to see wisdom in that, or the moral maturity. In a crap-storm of lies, I would like to hear more voices in concert condemning violence and for solidarity. Reverend Niemöller famously turned a "blind eye" to Hitler; and then they came for him.
Then there is the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, such an inspiring Lutheran pastor. He did not turn a blind eye and lost his life to the Nazis for it. But we live with his words still to this day. I found much comfort in his words after my husband died. But he had a lot to say about morality as well in regard to the likes of the Nazis.
They are vocal.
Perhaps. And then there are those Christians May who feel that these are signs of the End of an Age/system of things as in Matthew 24:6 — You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places … “
And they may also recall Jesus telling his disciples that they are to be ‘no part of this (political) world, just as I am no part of this world.’ (This idea echoed in his ‘pay unto Caesar, Cesar’s things, and unto God, God’s things’).
Remaining apolitical wd allow them to concentrate on their main objective of carrying The Good News of the coming Kingdom of God - which wd provide mankind with everlasting peace … something human rulership will have proven for centuries unable to do.
What, pay your taxes? Blaspheme.
Yes, Jesus advocated renouncing a stratified society, and was murdered for it, as was Lincoln. As was MLK.
We the people still have a voice and hopefully elections. I am hoping (as we all are) that this evil regime will implode. Let’s have another massive protest bigger than no kings! Certainly that should happen before Election Day this year.
Get those church members out there!
Perhaps a "Liberty and Justice for All" rally. Really "for All". Is that not the axiomatic ethic around which what has been best about our nation was built? And presently, does that not suffer from vicious aggression?
I cannot predict my reaction if I ever drive down a street and find a hooded thug dragging a screaming woman. In that case, my car is my weapon.
Everybody who feels as you do should join and support the ACLU which ahs filed another class action lawsuit against ICE thugs. They are doing fantastic work!
I tuned in last night, not wanting to hear what she normally presents, a Pollyanna list of all the protests and how much they’re working, and pushback is working, and so on and so forth. And she delivered, calling it for what is. We are a fascist country now, it’s here and it’s real. It’s good that someone with her stature is finally telling it like it is.
Pretty stark reporting, that was.
What is likely to work always, so far as possible, is cognizant of what is. Protest has been part of that, but historically protest that results in a positive outcomes has been focused, disciplined, and persistent. Just raging in public is at best unproductive. It has to communicate and effectively hold a spotlight on the lies. Ultimately what overcomes oppression is solidarity, and protest is a form of that.
Cheeses creepers… you must have a buzzer that goes off when Heather breaks a story, lol. You’re one of the first to post.
There's nothing to lol lately Bill.
lol.
😅
I'm sick at heart, Bill, at what the bastards having been organizing and doing.
Most, because of my abiding love for America's schools -- ancillary to that, schools of the world -- targeted for evisceration, first, with the Powell memo of Aug. 23, 1971.
On liberty falls the daunting burden of organizing cats. Plutocrats can simply do so with a bank transfer.
#PublicHealthHaiku
Keep eyes wide open /
Mobilize forces for justice /
This isn't over.
Wish more people/everyone everywhere would listen to Rachel Maddow!!!!!
I love Rachel. SO figgin' smart. But, her style of delivery drives me nuts.
When finally in jail all those many guilty, the complicit ..should listen to their repeated claims, and only those repeated claims. Their TV only replay protests, the walk backs, the rightful verdicts from indictments , their own incessant lies. Let them hear only the systematic waterboarding they spit conspiring to fool -which it did- what that has cost the world . Millionaires were made while trust was played , truth was denied, while integrity died.
🎶Bye Bye American Pie …🎶 ….<<heavy sigh>>
Seeing Rachel Maddow last night and hearing her state unequivocally where we are just after attending a meeting of my local Indivisible chapter and a day of ICE sirens blaring, I am grateful to have, at 91, a meaningful way to fight back. Going to begin the Virginia postcards due late October, and hope for more blank cards to write for Florida.
Thanks Phil for relaying the Maddow's summary of our autocratic state.
Phil Balla,
Excellent commentary. You contributed much more terrifying detail....but being one who MUST expel my share of anger and continued disbelief that we have elected this "CLOWN" to fill the sacred seat of President of the United States of America...AGAIN!!!....I must continue....
Trump is a self-centered and corrupt human being backed by like minions!!!
His business dealings, the disrespect he has for women (girls) is dishonorable. He is not alone in such vices.
Many of our leaders have humbly surrendered their lives in service to this country and her people. Trump is in government for himself. Neither he nor his sons have served this country within the military. His use of his position as the "leader" of the United States of America is CRIMINAL!!!
He has gotten away with his life of selfishness and crime and his followers are mirroring his example....and they, so far along with Trump, have been protected.
As someone who deeply respects our neighbor, Mexico and its people...it infuriates me to see these hardworking, sacrificial men being rounded up and treated with such disrespect and cruelty!!! If Trump continues to try to control and ruin our government ....how many countries are going to place a restriction on how many American citizens they will receive???? Many Americans who have the finances have already made their exits!!!
This reminds me of Hitler's use of the prejudice many Germans had for the Jewish people at that time. He used the Jews...to divert attention from himself and the DICTATORSHIP he wanted to use over the German people by putting Jews as well as others in prisons to starve to death....or to be shot, poisoned, or burned in ovens!!!!
See similarities taking place within our country directed by the President and the Republican Party ie the use of Hispanic migrants ....few if any guilty of crimes....to divert attention from himself and his own real corruptions of the law. Prison time for which he deserves due to real convictions have been "overlooked" in order for him to be elected President of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!! He is an insult to those who have given their lives that we may exist as a free nation! And even NOW...he does what he does best, "lie" at the expense of our country: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!
God sees....His sight goes deep and He is eternal. Justice may be slow but justice will come...on earth or beyond.
Guardians Of P*dophiles. GOP. Rich and Depraved.
Guardians of Pedophiles. Excellent, LuciaRegan!
Guardians of Privilege.
Gullible, Obtuse, Poltroons. (I had to look up Poltroons: Utter Cowards) No good for a protest sign, but the others are!
“ and the official data is starting to confirm that he was wrong and they were right”
And that is the core of the problem. NOBODY is going to tell te orange troll-baby that he is wrong!
As a former employee wrote “He can never be wrong,” and sycophants have restructured reality to make it appear so. Never thought it would work with my country, a haven for our ancestors and a country that was coming to grips with the failings of the past. He is just the seed of evil, money nourished the roots, and hate fertilized the most toxic plant ever exposed to sunlight. It’s the Kudzu of our time, with rhizomes beneath the surface popping up to strangle any hint of sanity.
The kudzu metaphor is apt (though in my yard, bamboo serves the same purpose). Let me take your metaphor a little further. There are two ways to get rid of these invasives. One is through poisoning, which risks the collateral damage of killing off good plants around it. The other is to turn the earth below it and tear out all the rhizomes. That is what I inceasingly see as our challenge in this time. There is no flipping of the switch back to the good old constitutionality days “when this is all over.” There is no coming back for the US Constitution; it has been demolished. We will need a new republic and new constitution that leaves behind the original sins of our nation’s founding, and centers justice for all. We may never get there as 50 states either, and that means those who believe in this new republic may have to go it alone. And that could mean once again declaring our independence from tyranny and being ready to fight for it. In short we need to turn over the soil of this republic and start anew.
The foundations were sound and avenues we left open to change, as the Founding Fathers knew that it would have to be adapted to new times. But there were assumptions around protocol and party formation and power that they made assumptions about and underestimated. That some of these lasted as formalities for so long is pretty amazing but the protocols buffered and then were dismantled the crash and burn despot they so dreaded. Any new iterations of our democracy we should adopt should be far clearer about maintaining separate powers and clarifications of certain terms.
that's what Steve Bannon has always wanted. Burn it all down.
It’s already burned down. This is about building something back from the rubble. Sure, there are some smoldering embers that give us short term hope for a day or two, but the reality is the American democracy that we once knew is gone. The guardrails have been removed and even if we put them back up, there is nothing stopping a future dictator from doing the same. The precedent has been set. If we want to be anything more than a banana republic for rest of this century, we have to face up to the task now of rebuilding it once this awful era is over.
I agree, the digging first Dems
Well put JD.
Good one, the kudzu of our times!
Raised in the South, it’s very familiar to me. The damage is real
We have to be the goats who keep it in check, because those roots are imbedded in the darker aspects of human nature and will out.
Goats can really make a difference, chomp, chomp
All the guard rails have been removed, all the child-minders fired or committed suicide, even the court jesters languish in dungeons. All to make way for the interior decorators who specialize in faux gold chintz and brocade, the cement-mixers tasked with destroying Jackie Kennedy's Rose Garden. And every single Republican courtier and lady-in-waiting bot is going "as Your Grace pleases, as Your Grace pleases, as Your Grace Pleases...." as AI has programmed them all to....No, nothing is wrong at all. Why do you ask? 🤪
The important part is this: the legacy media knows something special is happening here. And they can no longer pretend otherwise.
That’s because of you.
Your voice. Your action. Your power.
You’re showing the world what happens when people come together, unapologetically, to fight for democracy and truth.
So we just want to say thank you — and congratulations. You are making a massive difference. Your voice is too loud to ignore.
Are you ready to take this to the next level? Now is the time to keep growing. To keep rising. To keep proving them wrong. To keep your voice front and center.
Here’s what you can do right now:
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So, neither the Peace Nobel Prize for him nor the Economy Nobel Prize.....so what left.....maybe an Oscar for best actor?
Well, he certainly won't get one for "Best make-up artist"!
Thank you for that Lady, I'm still chuckling.
More like “Most make-up award”
Ba-dum *tsss! That one's brilliant, Lady Emsworth!
🤭
Lady M, my mother was an accomplished artist in multiple media who was well-educated.
She once told me that as we age, our visual acuity declines, not just in our ability to perceive detail, but also in our ability to perceive color. Mild colorblindness, if you will. She said this is why elderly ladies who've always worn makeup often have "clown faces" with poorly matched base, too much blush and too much everything else. They are unable to see the subtleties of color, so they keep putting it on until they can see it.
At 79, Donald probably needs glasses, but he's too vain to wear them. Men are more susceptible to color-blindness than women. Even if his color perception was normal when he was young, he likely experiences age-related color challenges now. That would account for his over-application of bronzer and his failure to blend it around his jaw, ears and hairline. Of course, if your forehead continues all the way to the back of your head, it's hard to know where to stop.
Thank you for this, explains a lot
Thank you for some laughter this morning.
Love it Lady!!!!😂
His performance as prez is a rotten tomato, not an Oscar, but there are too many who have developed a taste for “rotten.” Critics have even signed on and yammer constantly about the exotic taste of evil after being stuck with the boring but decent Joe Biden. Same thing happened with Obama. He wore a tan suit. Not perfect, but that decency thing just has no flavor.
I think you're right, JD. Americans have been tantalised and titillated for years by TV and movies - now along come Twitter, FB and Instagram and they're REALLY hooked! Boredom, common sense, reality - all out the window in the search for that net adrenaline rush.
I like boredom in government actions. Circuses are for clowns. Oh wait…
Naw, Ricardo, but he’s a shoe-in for a Razzie Award!!!!
😅
That's as likely as the other two.
Pretending competence is a good skill, but his presentations are so ridiculous and smack of a carnival barker that I’d go for Elmer Gantry instead.
No one is going to tell the orange troll-baby that he is wrong because Republicans made sure no one possesses the legal authority to do so.
Absolutely true. It seems that this administration is made by narcissists, for narcissists.
What we are seeing is proof that Trump is simply being a puppet for the project 2025 agenda. Along with all the facts that you have presented so clearly, there is his ongoing war on women which is definitely a project 2025 agenda. Trump‘s attacks on a conservative media outlet, such as the Wall Street Journal and its owner Robert Murdoch are virtually suicide as Murdoch not only owns the conservative of Wall Street Journal, but also the company that owns Fox News. His wild accusations are only proof that his aging brain is turning into mush. All of his policy agenda initiatives are further proof that he is simply a puppet of project 2025 agenda and his more outrageous personal actions such as the expansion of the West Wing ballroom and his personal acquisition of an aging 747 jet are simply the projections of the cancerous growth of his ego.
As Heather Cox Richardson has so eloquently stated in her recent video that internally, the Trump regime is crumbling and it is time to make plans for making a new government out of the rubble. We must seize this opportunity to bring forward a new and improved governance and economy.
Yes. Yes. Yes!
Definitely Marc, if the Manchurian vice president, next in line to be president allows......
Maybe, Ricardo, time for a deal.
Let the orange bastard escape the law. Retires to his Florida gold vulgarity.
Yes, I know. The law? That which rots in the hands of Alito, Clarence, John Roberts, plus the Leonard Leo clones?
Still, the deal: Vance leaves office. Trump appoints Kamala as V.P. Trump retires from the presidency.
It's all very sick. The U.S. is near totally depraved. Dems are nearly as totally stupid as Republicans as to how all lost their morality, their humanities, their humanity.
I agreed with everything you said Phil but why Florida? I live in Florida.....don't do that to me please!!!!😅
I agree Marc. It feels like we’re at a turning point. As the old systems show their cracks, we have a rare chance not just to repair but to reimagine. What kind of leadership truly serves the people? What kind of economy supports dignity, sustainability, and care?
This moment calls for courage and creativity. The future isn’t written yet, and we have a real role in shaping what comes next.
He is a “useful idiot” not just for Putin, but for the Project 2025 minions who have been installed in the apparatus of government and are now carrying out the Corporate Elite/White Christian Nationalist agenda. People hold out hope that there will be a backlash at the midterms, but I’m seriously beginning to wonder if there will be anything close to fair, unfettered elections. I suspect Trump will declare an emergency in order to void any results he does not like. Thanks a lot, Roberts Court.
With you there, Dave. I have zero hope about 2026 and whenever I read someone write or speak about a NOVEMBER 2026 election, I shake my head wondering how anyone sees how much has happened up to now from Jan 20th to August 5th and believe we are going to have anything resembling a free and fair election fifteen months from now.
How I see it, ad nauseam
Yeah, wait till it comes out that you were lied to for four years about Trump and Putin it's gonna be really difficult for you to unlearn the bullshit you were fed
As Grover Norquist said in the early 2000s, "We don't need an ideologue in the Oval Office, just someone to sign the legislation a republican dominated Congress sends over."
tRump is that guy and his staffing group approved by the Senate are the coop operators.
Me thinks the attack On Murdoch is just performance. The real battle there is between the Murdoch heirs. Lachlan will continue Fox if the old bastard has his way.
JD, you are absolutely correct. The ideal example to look at is TV studio wrestling (from whence "education secretary" Linda McMahon comes).
The "wrestlers" and their managers are part of a close-knit community of friends outside the ring. But on camera, these actors create fantastical stories, waging fierce wars of words to get their fans stirred up in a frenzy, cheering the "face" and booing the "heel." Inside the ring, they stage carefully choreographed moves that look dangerous but are actually harmless. Everyone involved takes their paycheck to the bank with a smile.
Dead giveaways that the "conflict" between Donald and Murdoch is fake is the dollar amount of Trump's demand. No court is ever going to award $10 billion in a frivolous lawsuit. It's just a big number to get the attention of the corporate media and their viewers. And the demand of a quick deposition of Murdoch because "he might die" is just a fanciful story to amp up the drama.
If the suit proceeds, it will be settled in the amount of a rounding error. Murdoch will rake in billions from advertising revenues and Donald will rake in millions from remaining in the limelight.
Dementia.
https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2022/01/dementia.html
Go get a life Trump has nothing to do with prop 25 in fact, Biden instituted about a dozen things from the same testimonial it's about as generic as life
I'm not sure Murdoch is lucid any more. The other question is "how is the Wall Street Journal getting away with all of the Trump bashing stories when they are part of the Murdoch empire?"
They are emerging as less sane washing than The NY Times, MSNBC, WAPO, etc.
MSNBC “sanewashing?” Are you kidding us, GJ? They bring the reality every single day. No “sanewashing” at MSNBC.
Yesterday, Stephanie Miller and John Fugelseng of Progress radio were talking about the 3 million plus votes that were not counted because the Republicans purged them from the voter roles. When they went to vote they were given provisional ballots or turned away. There is supposed to be a process that insures that the purged voters should really be purged, and of course, the Fascist Republicans ignored all of these laws with totally impunity. These votes were enough to deny Trump the Presidency.
What they are saying is, "My vote is more important than yours because I have an XY chromosome and my skin is white. In fact, your vote shouldn't count at all."
GJ, add to that, “In fact, I get to decide which votes to count.”
According to Trump, he is entitled to five extra Texas congressmen, and it is Democratic states which are gerrymandered.
Trump voters must have their fingers in their ears whenever he is talking. Or they would at last experience some What the Hell, like the rest of us. And Joe Biden was the demented old man?
" ... enough to hand Trump the presidency..." I think you mean (alas).
It seems that the intent here is to say that had the 3 million votes that were thrown out been counted they would have absolutely DENIED him the presidency. Alas, they were thrown out and so here we are. The MAGA filth rigged all of this. Just as they absurdly and dramatically staged that Reichstag Fire style “shooting” in Butler PA. There was no “ear injury.” The fact that we accept that theater as truth is deeply disturbing. That was a farcical act through and through. This man is never held accountable or punished - EVER. It’s maddening, to the core.
That's the Greg Palast scenario.
According to the Zarnoski Substack, It was the software.
According to David Rodriguez, prior to Nov 2024 Election, it was reported that there were nearly 18 million new registered voters in the US since the 2022 Midterms. Yet that increase in registered voters appears to have completely vanished 'after' the election. He says although there should around 186 million voters in 2024, the US Census Bureau is saying there were only 173,854,000 registered voters. https://polarshifteveryone.blogspot.com/2025/07/was-2024-election-rigged.html
Jessica Denson has been compiling other experts.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFcdKlXn3-cQJT3UkacF0OL_tOleHoHWm
Let’s not forget, Albert, that Hillary DID win the popular vote in 2016….often wonder where we’d be now as a country if she’d been in office. Sigh.
And where would we be if Gore had won? Republicans cheat to win. Nixon, Reagan, GW Bush, tRump.
Frustrating, yeah???? And yet if “we” do the same to win, don’t we just become what we abhor???? Rock meets hard place.
Matthew Dowd explained it correctly - liberals need to stop fighting these battles with one hand tied behind their backs- the UPPER hand. I think he was referencing the law and now the conservatives are legislating the law to make their law breaking moves legal. That was the purpose of OBBBA which then allowed them to legislate the actions of DOGE and make them legal.
Albert, I learned a hard lesson, tho being in a “blue” state my individual vote did not matter much in the state/overall count….but I chose to vote for Nader on principle in 2000 🤦🏻♀️…yeah, afterward I had to stand back and really look at the US’s electoral landscape and realize the way it’s currently constructed, voting 3rd party is a losing proposition, however righteous it might seem/be (of course SCOTUS put their thumbs on the scale big time). I will never (never have)“sit out” an election…local, state or federal, as I feel it’s my duty as a citizen to show up and choose the best candidate aligned with my values. I think what you said about Bernie is true & he sadly didn’t “course correct” until too late…same as in 2024 when so many sat out voting for Harris/Walz because she/they did not vociferously denounce the Israel/Gaza conflict (IMHO, she was between a rock and a hard place as the sitting VPOTUS). So we marshal our collective efforts toward the midterms in 2026….🤞maybe we can flip the House & maybe (?) make a dent in the Senate…..then keep our eyes on the prize in 2028.
I hear what you mean, Albert, but it chaps my ass that the power brokers play such games to manipulate the process. Even in my wee rural town there is a city council kerfuffle & move to recall several recently elected council (2024) members who, IMHO, have acted inappropriately on several issues….I “get” that newbies are learning the ropes, but when they double down on their sketchy actions…I draw the line. And I voted for several of them!!!! Went back and reread their candidate statements, but by their actions they don’t, in the end, match their pledges. I don’t want sleight of hand, nor magic tricks or ruses to win my vote, only to show true colors once in office….nope, don’t like it a bit.
I will paraphrase Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s book, “Strongmen,” because it’s early in the morning and I can’t find the exact page—something like the authoritarian playbook doesn’t have a chapter on failure because they never believe they’re going to fail. But they always do fail, eventually.
It’s now TIME to pull out all the stops, and that includes massive, massive, humongous crowds of people in the streets. We must rise up, beyond what we’ve already been doing.
It is indeed critical to think beyond today and tomorrow. Remember it was during the darkest of war days when Churchill and Roosevelt began planning for the post-world order. The United Nations, the World Bank, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the western alliance itself -- all concepts formed by minds working though the most fearful days of destruction and dislocation, convinced not just that they would win, but that we must not wait for victory to begin planning for what comes after.
Where’s our Ike. Cults need to be rooted out. Deprogramming was an Ike strategy as well as military victory.
Maybe with schools where the teachers are in charge?
And testing with its impersonality conceits absent.
Perhaps, Phil, you could avoid always circling back to the one issue you keep bringing up, again and again, as though it's the one and only magic elixir for everything. It's not like we haven't read these points before.
You, ICTT, talk of not waiting "for victory to begin planning for . . . after."
Can you name any major failure by our elites greater than the surrender of schools to testing?
I mean, something readily available for fixing -- as the Finns did in kicking testing out of the schools and instead putting all faith and power in teachers?
The other problems all show much greater complexities: the fossil fuel and suburban sprawl habits behind global warming; the greed of industrial food production behind the obesity epidemic; AR-15 sales behind U.S. penchant for mass murder; love of money by the rich behind their concerted schemes to grow the wealth gap; love of money by military contractors behind the growth of arms dealing including all the dictators and terror groups; love of money behind all the opioid epidemic; and love of youth behind all the international sex trafficking.
So many intractable problems, ICTT.
But the one most obviously solvable -- testing's power over all education, the total lack of humanities anymore by self-satisfied elites -- and all you can say is yeah, we know?
I like your hopeful thinking
We must also plan for life after Trump and MAGA, for soon they will all be history. If you wish to look beyond the current slaughterhouse mentality of the Trump administration and see some good directions for the future, check out the Crisis and Transition Substack.
https://crisistransition.substack.com/p/neohumanism-foundation-for-a-new
Ohio Rep. Greg Landsman is also giving good thought to directions for our future:
https://bsky.app/profile/socalmom.bsky.social/post/3lupoqmvmtc22
(H/T Marlene)
Thank you for posting the link to Landsman.
That was the most seriously uplifting narrative from one of our legislators I’ve read in MONTHS!
Thank you Ellie Kona again for your always smart praxis.
Thanks for the link, Ellie. Excellent road map.
thank you, marc nevas, for that link -
…’interconnectedness is the fundamental nature of life. Life is a holistic web of existence.’
Sounds like without "neohumanism" there is NO humanism:
"Neohumanism provides humanity with a new social outlook, one that does not separate but unites us, one that does not breed discrimination, chauvinism and domination but that promotes universal respect. And the neohumanist outlook is not confined to human society but extends to the entire web of planetary life — and to any life beyond our planet."
Thank You, Marc.
Akin to Buddhism
And time to put our energy and creativity into strengthening the various pillars of our democratic government (as suggested by Indivisible's One Million Rising trainings): Business, Labor, Faith, Education, Civil Service, Military/Police, Courts, Political Parties/PACs, Media, etc.
That is the only thing that puts the fear of God in President Trump and his cabinet of enablers Pamela. We must keep pushing forward.
I think they’re going to get fired up, honestly.
Hunger was a big part of what brought down the emperors of Rome.
"Also today, Casey Gannon of CNN reported that two of Epstein’s victims have filed letters with the court expressing outrage at the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, suggesting that the department was protecting wealthy men at the expense of the victims."
Which, of course, they have. It's exactly what our Neo-Republican "representatives" are paid to do. And, do they ever.
.
The mother of Prince Andrew of England paid 15 million dollars to keep her son out of court.
And Trump pays what? Presidential pardons for the perpetrators is the norm (Jan 6th)
Nothing to see here folks.
JL, on the Epstein sordid saga, I strongly recommend Charlier Sykes very recent, candid, podcast with TARA PALMERI.
Tara has helped & traveled with Epstein Victims (plural) including ANNIE FARMER & VIRGINIA GIUFFRE who committed suicide earlier this year.
Justice for Maxwell - Epstein Victims --- no more self-harm!
"Charlier Sykes very recent, candid, podcast with TARA PALMERI"?
This one?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tara-palmeri-epstein-maxwell-and-the-survivors-fight/id1794683063?i=1000720678542
Those young girls were "party favors" for the men who were involved in massive criminal activities...Ghislaine's father, Epstein, all the connections, right down to Trump.
How much does Ghislaine know about the financial crimes?
Is her low security prison less secure for her life?
There ARE people who know facts and are connecting the dots..
Meanwhile, real problems, real issues, real challenges lie out there waiting to be addressed by somebody, anybody --- war, peace, global security, climate change, cyber warfare, AI, you name it. None of them have a thing to do with Jeffrey Epstein, Rosie O'Donnell, Charlamagne (either one), Hannibal Lecter, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, or any of the other weird little hobgoblins, ghosties and things that go bump in the night in that empty, rancid cantaloupe mush passing for his brains, filled with petty, pissy, imagined slights and vendettas so tiny you need a microscope to see them. Donald Trump and his glass menagerie of fake causes...
Though I've been nauseated so many times already I can't count, I didn't start to get really afraid until he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That may be one of the worst events in American history. It has implications that will reverberate for decades -- the official mark of a banana republic. And It got followed within an hour by perhaps the second worst event in American history -- every Republican around him, in his Cabinet, in the House, in the Senate, going right along with that yessir, nope, nothin' to see here. Not one dissent, not a peep, not even a furrowed-brow "concern" from Susan Collins.
If you study history carefully, it's never really the Mussolinis, the Hitlers, the Caligulas, the Pol Pots and other assorted murderers, looney-tunes, psychopaths and twisted misfits, as much as it's their satraps, their wormtongues and supporters, their henchmen and apologists, their official kumquats, their appointees, their grey cardinals behind the throne to be terrified of.
So Missouri's very own idiot's delight, "Senator" Eric Sch[m[]itt (the m is silent) has suddenly become diligence itself in terms of showing up on Fox and Newsmax and sending absolutely stultifyingly stupid emails to his constituents exulting in the cruelty he supports and claiming "help" for Missourians that is no help at all. He was overlooked in favor of the Stepford Wives the Felon chose for his Attny Gen and DHS head but my assumption is that he is figuring that one of the two--if not both--will be shown the door quite soon. Since the Felon loves to fire women and is seemingly more reluctant to attack cis white men (fired Janet Yellen; threatens but doesn't fire Powell; fired all the women and Black people on the Joint Chiefs but not the white men--this is a clear pattern), Sch[m]itt might have a chance but he really is one of the dumbest humans on the planet.
It seems as though there's a large supply of "dumbest humans on the planet" in the Republican House and Senate.
Love your last paragraph, from one who suffers unending nausea from the news
Oh Heather. You're late tonight, but no problem. I'm wide awake, lying in abject fear for this country. Firing the statistician won't magically make the economy better. We won't get accurate numbers, but we'll know the truth every time we go to the grocery store. I just rushed and bought a new washer and dryer even though my laundry space is under repair and not yet available, because prices will go up. They actually already are.
People will be longing for the old ‘Bidenomics’…
They should, We the Public seem to have an astonishingly short memory. Is there something in the water? (besides the usual "forever" chemicals and microplastic?)
My remaining brain cell still cling to some impressions from a era when the great preponderance of the American public held right-wing dictators in very low esteem. .
Regarding if there's something in the water LG, if you expect an honest answer, ask the EPA......yeah, right.
Wasn't the saying "We don't make deals with dictators" from that era?
Yes, although it kinda depended on the dictator. We really clobbered more than one just before I was born.
JL, I've mentioned this lack of memory in the comments several times, in reference to COVID. No joking here, I am ASTOUNDED at how quickly people have forgotten it--and it's only been a few years!
I’d like to think, but like my Momna used to tell me, “you hard-headed girl, you have to learn things the hard way.’
It's so depends doesn't it. Sometimes the hard way is the only way to learn. sometimes it's tragic. In my teens I had the privilege to go to a dream summer camp (now it's condominiums) at fully 9000 ft in the Colorado Rockies. A lot of the activities involved horses, and I had never ridden; so I got a couple of books from the library and asked my parted to take me to a riding stable. Mostly the horse ignored my wishes and tried to scrape me off against trees. Once on a horse at the camp, with real instruction, I quickly got "the feel" for it.
Also, innovation often involves noticing what others have not, and there are many historical illustrations of that one. It's not just our power to notice, that makes our actions fruitful, it's what occurs to us to notice both in spontaneous and disciplined ways. Give the average person a $1500 camera and a innovative professional photographer one of those cheap disposable cameras they used to make, and my guess is that latter would still be more likely to produce an intriguing portfolio that average. All of which is a long-winder way to say, it's not just that we notice, but what we notice, and what use we make of it. Do we teach that sufficiently in school? I don't think we do because it's "kryptonite" for those who would be king. And whether persistence is the mark of a fool or a hero is also situational, Hard-headedness included.
And yeah, like combing and examining an airplane crash, there are so many lesson we might have learned from the Pandemic that went largely unheeded, including the role of pernicious, sociopathic political corruption.
My Momma never expounded on that but I appreciate your "deep dive" that is so on target. Lessons unheeded, Lordy, the waste, every nanosecond.
Yup. I can see the "finish line" on the horizon (or is it right next door?) and a wake of lessons unheeded behind me; with no doubt more to come. I keep working at it though.
As do I, but I fear that so many don’t activate many brain cells. Do I recall “A brain is a terrible thing to waste.”
They are already Dutch, they are....😞
Next Trump will fire God. For bad weather.
The outrage many are now expressing, the second thoughts of those who voted for this miscreant, do little to stop the train of governnent speeding toward catastophe. Guardrails have been failing. Gov. Abbott is invoking a law to oust the Democrats from their duly elected office in a move that shreds democracy even before impkementing his corrupt gerrymandered map that tRump demands. Outrage is not enough to unseat and undo authoritarisnism. The examples of democratic dismantling of authoritarian regimes do exist. But they are few and often it is violence that overthrows such regimes. I confess to feeling highly alarmed.
How this regime ends is a terrifying thought filled with too few details too few are willing to contemplate. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about that. Our media is mum, yet the facts are pretty stark. It wasn't new elections that removed Hitler's legitimacy, but the utter capitulation of Germany, its land divided by four external powers, its cities in ruins, its agriculture disrupted, millions turned into homeless refugees, its children starving, a big Soviet flag over the Reichstag.... And it wasn't until two atomic bombs annihilated two cities in Japan that the Emperor himself, on his own literally, told his people "we must now bear the unbearable, we must now endure the unimaginable."
The novel “It Can’t Happen Here” is based on reporting in 1930s Europe by author Sinclair Lewis’s journalist wife. In the end, the country is divided into unstable fiefdoms. There IS no truly United States.
Dave, I have posted a link to this several times in the past; it discusses/researches the roots of the “divide” amongst Americans. It is from Nationhood Lab, part of the Pell Center at Slave Regina Univ: https://nationhoodlab.org/a-balkanized-federation/ There are links to more in-depth study and references the book American Nations. Time will tell if we remain as a union or instead create new nations w/in our prior boundaries.
Fascinating. Thanks, Barbara. The descriptions of each of the "nations" seem to jive with impressions lodged somewhere in the memory. There is much to study in these maps.
Barbara, American Nations is a book EVERYONE here should read! It is crazy that much of today's politics were formed because of as little as a few dozen people in a particular area who arrived several hundred years ago. Really amazing book.
Thank You, Barbara.
Chump and P2025 were counting on the awareness coming after it’s too late to stop or even slow the train. Our MSM was in cahoots with Fox it seems.
Exactly. Outrage is not enough. It's like writing a strongly worded letter - it does nothing.
He wants to wreck our economy. This is willful! They want a fire sale for all the spoils of this effort for the billionaire boys club that circles around this regime. I am disgusted that this is what our country has devolved to. The lowest of the low -MAGA ruined our nation and we didn’t do enough to stop them because we tried to play by polite rules that they ran right over.
I don't really think Trump "wants to wreck our economy." I think he wants to do exactly what the OBBB does, which is, to continue funneling assets to the richest Americans especially himself.
I don't really understand how much is enough for Trump and his oligarch buddies. I mean, you have a yacht or two, several jets, many homes that you occasionally visit, ownership of monopolies like Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Microsoft, etc., and you own Congress, SCOTUS and the Presidency.
Trump is so fucking ignorant that he actually believes that his insane tariffs merry-go-round will make him and his buddies wealthier.
The short-term wealth is much more attractive than the long-term hurt. Especially when you have been inoculated. The one vaccine they approve of, since the hurt part is for others…
There is no enough.
GJ, I've had the same thought. I recall reading that everyone "has a number" which means there is an amount of assets that is "enough". I've wondered about how some people can't possibly ever have "enough"
Years ago, I became friends with a woman who lived in our middle class neighborhood. She lived in the house she grew up in, after her parents moved to another house. As we gradually became close friends, little things were revealed to me that indicated she was quite wealthy. No, that is inaccurate--her parents were very wealthy. (I estimate upon her parents' demise, she inherited an 8 figure inheritance. I started to mentally tabulate over the years as stories came out, and I am very confident in my estimate).
Even she apparently didn't realize how much she had until he passed. Funny how, once all this money flowed into her hands, she became a Trump supporter!
I agree -- he's like a wounded animal in a corner - or a toddler upending his soup in a tantrum -- out of control with rage and desperate to show how powerful he is and get his way.
This has been my thought exactly as you've stated. The rich just want to get richer and they'll do whatever it takes, destroying our democracy along the way.
“[Economist Paul] Krugman notes that as Trump’s popularity is disintegrating, he appears to be ramping up his attempts to destroy American democracy.”
As Trump’s popularity is shrinking, why the continued deafening silence by congressional Republicans? Where are the party delegations to the White House demanding Trump cut the crap, get right, or get out before the midterm elections?
Are there even going to be midterm elections?
The Republican Party is far more responsible for the continuing destruction of our, OUR, democracy than the psychopath and his sycophants and minions in the White House.
I think there will be midterms, but there also will be a slew of lawsuits claiming Democrat wins/Trumpublican losses were “rigged.” Even if the courts prove that the races were fair, Trump will continue denying that they were and will simply refuse to acknowledge the incoming congress. He’ll claim some sweeping “emergency” power and will insist that the current congress remain, citing the need for “stability” in light of the allegedly “disputed” election results. I recognize that all of this is well beyond his authority, but thanks to the Roberts Court, it is well within his discretion, given the virtual blanket immunity he now enjoys.
The Guardians of Pedophiles is beholden to Project 2025 just as are six of the nine members of SCOTUS. Now we have Bove and Pirro as confirmed judges. This doesn’t end anytime soon. November 2026 is much too far away to hope that we make change then.
GOP; Guardians of Pedophiles.
Very good!
From tanking his own businesses including casinos and a "university".. his pinnacle will be tanking an entire economy. With or without real measures being reported.
It strikes me that Maxwell's move to a not-so-secure facility is allowing easier access to those wishing to permanently silence her. If she's going to lie in exchange for a pardon, what's the benefit of allowing the stain of a pardon on the record?
The conversation at the coffee shop on Sunday morning was, “Is Maxwell going to be pardoned or is she going to be Epsteined?”
Republicans sure love them some pedophiles, sex traffickers and sexual deviants.
And yet, 89% of Republicans still support Trump.
What do they think he will do for them? He lied about bringing down the price of groceries on day 1, people are losing their homes, businesses and health care. Rural hospitals are starting to close and yet, they are so fucking stupid, they think that Trump and his Republican cronies have nothing to do with it.
Yes but they get to 'own the libs' which is what some of them live for!!!
Maxwell is a child molester. She drove around schools at the end of the school day, hunting for "pretty" girls. She targeted low income areas, looking for girls whose families were under great stress, and pretended she could help them. She groomed them into being ok with massages of old rich guys, then hand jobs, then blow jobs, then intercourse. They thought this was ok little by little because she was a nice lady and they were so young and destabilized and desperate for money. Maxwell sometimes participated. They were passed around like napkins. Traumatized. Thrown away. This woman is a monster. The president is protecting her. Maybe going to pardon her? Hell no. The stories of these girls need to be told. "Child sex trafficker" does not do it. People need to know. Thanks, Heather, for staying on this.
I sure am, but I hope every single magat pays for their decision to support the racist rapist demented felon.
If only someone had given us a clue, a sign, any indication, that a second Trump administration would result in a blitzkrieg, resulting in the complete dismantling of 249 years of democratic governance, maybe we wouldn't be in the situation we find ourselves today.
Oh, wait.... They put it in a nine hundred page project manual.
I can't wait to see what Project 2026 will bring? (sarcasm)
Welcome to the second season of, "Destroying Democracy"!
A Manuel that should have stirred the conscience’s of our smartest people in the land. Oh wait, they wrote it. Could it be that they are not the smartest people. Let’s ask AI…Seems that they have deferred to the dumbest man in the land, at least temporarily…
Thank you Professor Richardson.
It would seem this LFAA has properly identified a preamble to the U.S. Constitution that was written in invisible ink: "Protecting wealthy men at the expense of the victims."
Yes, that sounds about right. Especially in the era of the criminal elect and Pam "Bribe Me" Bondi.
"We the wealthy white men" instead of "We the People"?
Very true GJ. I suspect when the Constitutional framers looked around the room at the convention, all they saw were wealthy white men -and thus, "We the People".