Time magazine’s interview with President-elect Donald Trump, published yesterday, revealed a man who was so desperate to be reelected to the presidency that he constructed a performance that he believed would woo voters, but who has no apparent plans for actual governance.
Stop listening to Trump. Stop reacting to everything he says he is going to do. Look at what he does. Keep an eye on the crimes that need investigation and prosecuting. Keep an eye on the nefarious policies he puts into place. But stop reacting to every stream of consciousness drivel that oozes from his reptilian brain.
Polio vaccines need to stay in place. Social Security and Medicare need protecting. Conflicts of interest and graft need to be catalogued, investigated, and prosecuted.
Stay focused on what is done and being done. Not on what is said.
I do not subscribe to any newspapers nor watch any network news. I cannot stand the sight or the voice of this disgusting person. He’s turned the presidency into a crime syndicate, and it’s revolting. I will continue to say out loud exactly how I feel about the Trump Crime Family.
He may have turned the Presidency into a Crime Family…but it was our extremely STUPID Voters who gave him the ability to do so!!!! Something the rest of us will have to bear through no fault of our own. Romania has got a lot on us…they annulled their mistake!!!
Bob, I get the frustration, and here is a pretty safe place to express it, but calling Trump voters stupid (the ordinary folks, not the cynical power grabbers who knew exactly what they were getting) is demeaning the very folks Democrats need to learn how to reach, and does not contribute, in fact works against, winning some of them over to vote Democrat.
For the rural and working folks, as well as young men and Latinos that voted for Trump, they only heard their podcasters, AM radio, and Trump's lies. Many lead paycheck to paycheck lives, which doesn't leave much room for exploring politics. On top of that, the GOP, in cahoots with Christian Nationalist leaders, has been courting these folks WHERE THEY LIVE for decades. If you look at a color map of Trump's win, most Blue states are near the east and west coasts, and most red states are between the two. It kind of gives some weight to the label, "coastal elites."
I follow Jess Piper (Missouri woman, a Dem in a real red state who writes of her experiences running for office in MO.) She says that Dems need to start recruiting and backing candidates for very local elections, school boards, councils, etc. Right now so many GOP candidates go uncontested, which means they're the only ones heard at the town halls and other local opportunities.
If a college educated Democrat feels even a little bit superior to high school educated Republicans who voted for Trump, and lumps them all together as stupid, that's energy working against what needs to be done to make real change. We need to make new Democrats... in areas many of us might not be comfortable in. But their neighbors are. And many of them are really good neighbors! And we need to reach them with the Democratic Story. Blessings,
Excellent points and very well stated. Thank you. AOC spoke to some of her constituents to explore how they voted for her and CFDT (my acronym for Cheeto, not hers). Her take was they didn’t listen to a lot of what he said except for the last sentence, “I will take care of you.” Despite all evidence to the contrary, that is the message they took home. Dems definitely need to be more active in local, county and state elections, especially in red states and share that message. Have kitchen table talks and share the ways they are working to better the lives of those struggling working 2+ jobs, putting food on the table, and decent housing, as well as those of us in the middle who are struggling to stay there.
Thank you Kathi, and thanks for the thoughts you added. I really think this has to be a movement, and I don't hear anyone outside of Jess saying ti clearly yet. I might try to reach Brian Tyler Cohen. He interviews a lot of folks and maybe he could get Jess to speak with him. Blessings,
The problem is not that Trump voters are necessarily stupid, but that they are disinformed and believe in an alternative reality. I have a colleague who throws around terms like "lawfare" and "deep state", neither of which are real. He also told me quite seriously that "the illegal immigrants have to go because they are a huge drag on our economy". The exact opposite is true.
I like my colleague. He's a good man who is kind to his girlfriend's two autistic sons and wept when one of his dogs died. He bought his elderly parents a house and under certain circumstances would give you the shirt off his back. That said, he believes whatever the right-wing media noise machine tells him.
Joel - I have family who would give the shirts off their backs to help me or others. As long as their skin is white. I disagree with the notion that most Trump voters are good people who have merely been mislead. Too much water has passed under the bridge since 2016. I think it is more likely that they know what they voted for. And that is a much more ominous problem for us than correcting disinformation.
Thank you Joel, these are exactly the stories we need to be telling one another to support this idea. And the Dems have to get better at messaging to rural and working folks. Unlike the GOP lies about immigrants and lgbtq+ etc., we have real things to tell them about how Dem policies improve lives.
I have some issues with this Terry. While I agree that somehow Democrats have to get through to more citizens, I am increasingly convinced that Trumpism is indeed what the majority of our citizens want. So I don't know how we can do that. They just are not interested in the equality-for-all purpose of "woke" for instance. It is human nature to hate on the "other", and only the more sophisticated societies have gotten this under control. Most people who voted for Trump take pride in denigrating "wokeness". These people have no interest in investing in the long term future of our country and the world, hence no interest in shouldering the near term costs of climate mitigation. A more sophisticated society has successfully educated its citizens on what needs to take place, and has taken the hard steps to do it. These people do not understand or tolerate regulations put in place to protect society from corporate producers who care not for them or us. All they care about is the size of their next paycheck. These people will rail and rail about high taxes, yet are willfully ignorant about what those taxes are paying for - things they should appreciate.
America's heritage of wilderness freedum is coming home to roost. Its longstanding disregard for expertise and intellect is increasingly penalizing us as an advanced nation in a world in bad need of more advanced nations. Democrats and their agenda, for a long time now, tries to combat this schtick. And we are losing.
I used to be in the camp where most Americans are regarded as basically ordinary good-hearted people. And all they need is to see the truth in things, and they will do the right thing. I am no longer in this camp. And because of this, I am at a loss what to do about it. Republicans on the other hand are nasty and evil enough to see this and take advantage of it. Shame on Americans.
Thanks so much for voicing this critical issue here so eloquently. Everyday on here I see comments (and insinuations by HCR) that people who voted for trump are “stupid” or “racist/ misogynistic” and that’s the only reason people could possibly have voted for him … yet many of them are SUFFERING economically as a result of historical levels of wealth inequality (now beyond those of the guilded age) - which you would never know from HCR’s continual drumbeat of “economic indicators are up.” They have legitimate grievances and did not feel “heard” by Dems, obviously, (who would if you’re continually told the economy is great and yet you can’t pay your bills, your children can’t buy or rent a home, etc). Time to put down the condescending attitudes of superiority and start to humbly LISTEN to people and be curious about their experiences. It’s the only way to win moving forward.
I follow Jess Piper, as well, and hope to hell we can take back our government. She's right--we have to start in the most local places. But how do we fight the insanity of the media and its influence?
I'm no political strategist, but I think you've just asked one of the most inportant question Dems can ask. And I hear a lot of ideas being talked about, but so far, no one else is saying, "Show up where they are and LISTEN!" Then I think we've got to show up where THEY listen with much better stories of how Dem policies affect their lives positively...or what will happen if GOP billionaires get their wishes. Kinda wish we'd been doing that all along.
Oh and there are lots of Trumpers in Clay County, Indiana and I am not one of them. I am considering buying the sticker! I have to get enough guts to put it on my SUV!
I think you're missing the underlying unhappiness and helplessness in the face of changes that they feel are beyond their control and do not favor their security. Manufacturing left, opioids arrived, and then Covid came. The intensity with which people fail to credit Covid for their economic woes still amazes me.
Here is an updated reply to my original Comment (12/13/2024) that brought quite a few comments of it’s own.
“Folks, Your right…I’m frustrated, as well as…mad, sad and very disappointed, so perhaps “stupid” wasn’t the appropriate description. It was much quicker to type than, ignorant of the real facts, uninformed, unaware, brainwashed, clueless, oppressed or any other number of other similar descriptions. Most importantly…any one that implies “dangerous to a democracy.” I say dangerous because how they voted went a long way towards giving our democracy away…Hopefully you’re able to remember or, perhaps were living under a rock the last time trump was in Office…he wasn’t going to leave so he incited an illegal insurrection…people died! So he brushed his hands off at the whole fiasco…and walked away. What do you think is going to happen this time…because he or a successor, isn’t going to leave!
You must realize?? the American Voter is, or WAS, our only line of defense against people the likes of trump and his sycophants. Another point…this is not about Political Parties, none of them are perfect. I prefer to vote the Candidate myself. Some of your suggestions for change are valid…but! they are generational changes…and we just ran out of time.
Incidentally, and only for a statistical prospective, the “likes” for my original comment are running ahead approximately10+ to 1! So?????
In closing…I sincerely hope that the total vote tabulation shows that something illegal took place negating the original results!”
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
No, I can't believe he penned that with his own thumb. His new word "honor" is missing. I suppose his fireside is fuelled by the cherry-wood chopped up by young George with his little hatchet.
Yes, Trump wants to be the authoritarian leader. But there is much more to this than that. Trump is destroying the country. Literally. The new cabinet members are both incompetent and announce they want to destroy their departments. Tariffs will raise prices on common products which will raise the cost of living for the lowest income people. Trump is freeing the Jan 6 prisoners who will be his private army. Expect a whole series of crises. Not to mention our efforts outside our borders going haywire.
Ask this question: who would have the interest, and stand to benefit the most, from this catastrophe? Putin. Putin hates the US. Always. With good reason. The US has been making trouble for Russia forever. Now we are in the digital age with so many nefarious ways to make trouble. No frontal attack is needed. Do you think Trump had more votes fair and square? No. And Elon Musk had a hand in that.
Look at every new Trump move and ask; would this make Putin happy? Would this cause Americans more problems? Yes.
I’m guessing by your post that you don’t agree with free speech. If you don’t like what I say, just block me or whatever you can do on the site I am relatively new to it. Someone sent me a stray email that got me here OK I soon noticed there is no opposing opinion on this website which means it’s kind of like a bubble So all I did is it and all I do is I have my thoughts you’re welcome to disagree with them. Hate them discard them or whatever. In the meantime, many people here need another perspective, but they’re not getting from outside the bubble. I have given the number of Californians this advice, and once they took it of actually worked to a great degree. Go spend some time with people and flyover country see what they think about California because you don’t see it from inside California and they were quite surprised and have mellowed since.
In fact, there’s one pretty famous actor who’s renowned left-wing liberal and his life that his mother was a schoolteacher and he had to do a film in Nebraska or Kansas something like that he had to spend a couple months shooting the movie when he left there he went these people are not what we thought they were so nice and friendly. They care about each other to help each other and not the dummies on the ogres we thought they were. And since then, he’s been much less vocal about his political bias. For whatever it’s worth
"“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act," signed by President Biden, on January 5, 2025.
Questioning Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi would be essentially letting them off the hook. In my opinion Adam Schiff home should be rated at 6 o’clock in the morning like they did to Roger Stone. And I would be willing to bet that Adam Schiff will receive a nice pardon, but I’m not sure that will still let him off the hook for what he did for 3 1/2 years with the Russia BS
We might be aware that there is a new offshoot of TDS and it’s called TRDS. Trump Russia derangement syndrome. Adam Schiff and Robert Mueller went down that road already and now where are they? Schiff is heading for a presidential pardon for his role in the Russia hoax. As is the January 6 committee for a number of issues, including hiding information, as well as the FBI for not disclosing the number of agents present during the January 6 event. Pay close attention to what’s gonna happen
Testing the option to "report" (in the 3 dots in the upper right) to reduce an undesired comment to a line that says "You reported this comment" (only on my screen), but leaves an option to "SHOW" the comment if I find the replies justify bothering to see more than can be deduced from the replies.
Update: The test works great, just "Report" the comment to clear up the clutter on your own screen, and perhaps do more of what Pete Buttigieg does in using Fox fool interviewers as an opening to tell the truth about any subject the interviewer dares to bring up.
I wouldn't waste time with less serious tit for tat replies, nor be constrained to just whats to distract us from.
What is an undesired comment ? one with which you don’t agree?
And I wouldn’t be bringing Pete Buttigieg into this conversation because it’s an embarrassment. Why don’t you just go check out his budgets when he was going to produce in the way of electric mail trucks and electric charging stations and the budgets there of ?
Learn how to spell. Raided is not spelled rated. If this is an open forum that you reached through an email from a friend, then so be it. I found my way here the same way. By and large, the comment stream here includes the views of intelligent people. Every now and then,some one lower on the IQ continuum sneaks in.
Kim, you obviously aren’t familiar with my posting. I voice text everything and I firmly believe that people here are intelligent enough to figure out the influence or the significance of the words. In other words, in this context, here, when I’m not being graded by an English professor
I believe Content over form all day long… I do a lot of posting on a number of different venues and I don’t have the time necessarily to type everything out and to spell check it. I have an excessively large vocabulary, and for the last 12 years have added two words a day to my vocabulary, in addition to what I had already amassed. So I apologize for the spelling punctuation syntax etc. it is evident that you knew what I meant and that’s my point. My apologies again
You mean like Trump's intended pardons for the J6 mob that followed his direction to attack the Capitol, threaten the life of his vice president, attempt to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results, and then knowingly lied for the last 2+ years about its being "stolen" from him? They'll all get let off the hook by this criminal, right?
I think you’re gonna find us more information comes out as it did the other day that there were 26 FBI agents buried in the crowd that shouldn’t have been there that entered property where they shouldn’t have entered, and in many cases allowed, permitted, and even video of the fact that they encourage people to enter the premises. And the FBI covered up their involvement. And I’ll be 26 people that are now been confirmed to be in the crowd. None of them were arrested. More to come on the exposure of Nancy Pelosi’s video with her daughter talking about it was her fault and she could’ve done more to prevent it.
Yes, and as I have explained, I voice text everything and I do a lot of this, so I don’t have time to go back and check it, but I believe that the folks on this particular blogger, smart enough for intelligent enough to figure out the Context or content. As I have said a number of times before contacts before form. I am not being graded by an English professor here so I apologize please forgive me but I’m sure you got the message
Indeed, a crime syndicate—though most syndicates boast more competent criminals. Some might assume Trump’s ability to avoid prison and ascend to the presidency reflects exceptional skill. In reality, his success relied heavily on luck and a system ripe for exploitation. By leveraging delays in justice and bending the rules, he avoided accountability. Now, his aim isn’t just survival—it’s dismantling the very system he manipulated to serve his own interests.
That is true. But the 18th century founders of our democracy made a considerable effort to give the Senate the responsibility and authority to keep the president from over riding the Constitution and becoming a king. Ensuring that presidential appointees to key government positions are well qualified for those jobs is a major part of that obligation. Of the 53 incoming Republican senators, do we not have at least 4 who will live up to those obligations and join the 47 Democrats to appose overtly unqualified appointees?
Sadly David, I don't think we do. Obviously we will have to wait and see, but I'm not optimistic. The blatant corruption is beyond belief. I can't stand to see what is to come of our great nation
David M. Clark: Those four have been threatened with losing their reelections. If they don't do what T says, they won't receive his party's support when it comes to reelection time.
Yeah, Eric trump braggs about the great business deals coming at them and President Biden was forced to pardon his son for no crime. In the meantime, while the trump crime syndicate is getting richer, the maga Congress says it will keep investigating Hunter Biden despite the presidential pardon.
Hunter Biden did commit a crime. But Republicans took the idea of a penalty way too far and aggressively prosecuted him for things other people would pay a fine for. That’s weaponization of our legal system. These same people expect Trump to do way worse and not even be brought to justice. The two standards of justice in this country.
Paid all his taxes. Never used the guy, his wife threw it away. No one else would have been prosecuted and they certainly would not have had Congressional committees investigating it and a special counsel for years investigating it. Biden was right. It was done because it was his son.
Biden was about as right as all of the ancestors that refused to comply with the unjust Fugitive Slave Act. Does Trump really want all of his worse pardons reversed? He may not mind but the stooges he pardoned might not like it.
Susan, I can't stand seeing him or hearing him either. We have given up national news and everything but the NYT because I like other things such as the puzzles, book review, science section, etc. Hubby still reads other parts of it, but I don't bother. I used to think the Bush crime family was bad, but they pale in comparison to this criminality led by mafia don.
This RS comment is simply short enough and innocent sounding enough for me to not to "Report" it to de-clutter just my screen. Knowing the intent of most of this sender's comments will find me using the "Report" option to at least clean the larger ones up from my screen, others may want to use the same option.
I do appreciate that doing so does not hide the responses which I do want to see, whether or not I want to see what RS comment they are replying to.
I hope this reply gives enough of a clue that would be respondents might look at a few more of the RS comments to see how many of them they like when they see a more complete picture of all the replies. I, myself, would have liked this reply if I hadn't see so many of the others.
Yes, without a doubt, RS is from "the other side." Right off the bat he took issue with the Black Lives Matter movement and justified the rise of the Tea Party, claiming that Obama was a racist. RS is enveloped in his own cocoon.
Yes, while he lectures us about not associating with the Trump supporters or being a part of their lives he’s here just to tell us all how wrong we are. Not once does he listen to what we’re are thinking or feeling to learn or consider our opinions, it’s simply to antagonize. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Actually selecting "Report" in the 3 dot area closes just that comment with an added option to Show it again with an option to Hide it but just on your own screen, no one else's. It has the advantage of leaving all the replies visible.
Clicking on the line below the commenter's name collapses all the replies below, leaving the comment, the opposite of the choice I prefer, "Report"(which I would prefer to be called "Hide from my Screen")
His right to free speech is preserved, but we have a personal option to effectively hide it on our own screens. To me, this is a bit like the people's microphone, used where bull horns were banned. It had the surprising advantage of people heartily repeating the words they appreciated for people further back in the crowd, but not so loudly for what they disagreed with or didn't find interesting enough. You had three minutes to see if the crowd was interested, and how interested. If they were really interested they would give you another three minutes. If not, you had to go to the back of the line before you got another three minutes
I learned a bit from speaking in three minute opportunities to get my points across and see if they could be tuned to what the crowd would be interested in. They wouldn't stop you from speaking but certainly did slow you down if you were just wasting their time.
He was president. For four ugly miserable years that ended in his total BS insurrection and encitement to riot at the Capitol. If we didn't have a Constitution that had virtually no obstacles to being President he would never get near the White House again. But sadly we have no legal way to stop him (enough US citizens were unable to see through his BS and his crimes and they elected him again... that election will live in infamy).
Please don't reply to me, you are wasting your time as I am no longer reading anything you write because you are a sadly deluded little pr**k who needs to get an education and grow up.
I didn’t ask you to read anything I write in the first place that’s your call
Even liberals and many Democrats in Congress made this comment.
If not for Covid, Donald Trump would be leaving the White House right now rather than returning. Regarding ending in infamy, it wouldn’t surprise me that Donald Trump will be named one of the best four or five presidents in American history by the time he’s done. And I hope you read my comments about the army navy game today. They both stated we’re on the battlefield to win a game but after that we’re brothers hopefully you’ll catch the inference.
Just go to three little 3 dots in the upper right corner and chose "Report." That will only block it on your screen and leave an option to "Show" if you want to expand it.
It does not hide the replies (an advantage which I like), but you can show it expanded again if you think it might help clarify a response.
So far it doesn't interfere with the commenter's ability to comment, though I do wonder if future ones will be blocked if too many nuisance comments are submitted by the same sender.
RS has at least made me more cautious in liking just any old comment, now checking that commenter's general history of comments are worthy of any likes. I might still "Like" a comment or two but will follow it with my own comment that the particular one looks reasonable and acceptable.
Jim - yes, you're right - research, research research. It's no longer wise to accept any old statement you see on line - even if the poster DOES claim to be a "Professor of Nuclear Physics", or whatever.
And I sent you a comment earlier. I gave you an honest answer to a question you ask and then you call me a bot well, I think you’re a fraud for doing that because I’m not a bot
Legacy is the wrong way to characterize media. They are functionally spouting corporate political rhetoric and policies. Example: lionizing the murdered UHC CEO is a strong message to suppress popular demand to reform for profit health coverage.
I don’t approve of murder, but the media seem to ignore the fundamental public sense that all of our institutions have failed us. The responses to the CEO’s death reflected people’s anger at arbitrary denials by their insurers, and the execs have enough money for excessive salaries and to use our premiums to contribute to politicians to preserve the status quo.
Oligarchy’s media. Corptocracy. Thats what we have in power regardless of who is in the WH. President Biden stood up to those special interest and succeeded for us, the middle class. That is why he lost. Because he was winning for us. Read other professors, HCR is just one of many. Read THE GUARDIAN, the Atlantic . watch Democracy Now.
HST said that republicans called anything that helped all the people “socialism.” Now it’s that vitriol on steroids and half the people agree. Enough that the vipers will be racing to the finish line before another election is even contemplated.
True, they label any government program as being "Socialism." I suppose that that could apply to the armed services as well. The Democrats need to learn reality and begin a new pitch. The Middle Class has disappeared and the oligarchs now want to take away their security in old age - Social Security and Medicare while grinding those at the very bottom into the dirt by reducing or eliminating Medicaid. What to do? Broadcast day after day, with rhythmic regularity, the fact that we need to hate this cruelty that is the cause of our despair and vote them out of office, if we still have a democracy. The lesson learned is that hate is a greater motivator than the presentation of objective facts. We've got to teach the vast majority to hate their oppressors.
If right-wing media isn't stopped, "they" will continue to win, and we will be lost. It may already be too late. Democrats need to build a media machine just as effective as the right's. That will involve buying up media companies and hiring the brightest young minds to figure out how to fight back effectively. And do this immediately!
There are some great articles on this subject by Michael Tomasky of the New Republic, who can say all this far better than I can.
The rest is smoke and mirrors designed to keep us distracted, so we won't see the real problem.
Robert Reich a few days ago wrote about four foundational stories that have influenced the direction of American society. IMO, that's key to how we can influence the zeitgeist.
Robert has seldom been right pretty much about anything he said having to do with economics or politics? In my opinion, he’s a borderline socialist belongs in another country because he believes in an another political philosophy that is not present nor popular in America. I think, if not for sub stack , his name would scant be heard again
Your Substack bio says you avoid or deny feelings and hate. Your comment suggests otherwise. Professor Reich is very popular and rose to prominence well before substack. Thanks for calling attention once more to the FACTS that he promotes govt FOR the PEOPLE... as well as BY and OF the People.
Please explain how you think the right wing media can be "stopped" without sacrificing the tenet of freedom of the press? Censorship of the media is something i have fought for decades and while I recognize that the right wing media possess a difficult problem I would not ever advocate censorship or "stopping" them which would make our side just like the right wing dictatorships that do that to liberal media.
We can pinpoint the moment when it turned. Chump was whining about Joe dropping out and then, almost overnight, the campaign turned to racism and misogyny with a vengeance, and muskrat appeared to seal the deal. It gave me whiplash. But the MSM was enthralled…but not enough to point out what was happening.
The misogynist placed in his cabinet, the first woman chief of staff in American political history and placed in the most important position in his cabinet also a female as Attorney General. He also has the most diverse cabinet including two Democrats and he didn’t even have to try.
By the way, you mistake equal justice for vengeance. If people lied about you if people defamed you if people created hoaxes about you then they deserve what’s coming to them which is nothing more than equal justice. And I think George Stephanopoulos is a great example.
I am also banned for life from the WAPO comment section for calling someone a "troll." This person or bot or whatever it was had been commenting without being called out by WAPO for several days in several different articles (sound familiar), I chose to call it a troll. Banned for life.
Last week the WAPO offered me a year's subscription for $13 and I ignored it as I do for The NY Times sniveling offers. And now that Paul Krugman has written his last column for The NY Times, I don't see any reason to return.
I'll stick with HCR, the Guardian and Rolling Stone. And, of course various Substack posts and Progress Radio.
I'm not banned, I just unsubscribed. HCR often quotes Jennifer Rubin, and that'll do. I won't be taking them up on any of their special offers either. Were it only $3 a year.
How about something centrist or at least right leaning so you get both sides of the story? You obviously won’t get it from the places you currently list imo
If anyone knows where Paul Krugman and others may be writing columns, please let us know here. Maybe a Substack? I just discovered MSNBC the other day and have been enjoying the late afternoon (east coast) program called White House something --lots of anti Trump guests on and very informative.
I’m permanently banned from WaPo after once stating I would take a crap on the Capital steps the day Trump is waked inside after eating a bucket of Kuntucky Fried Chicken. And I suggested that CNN would zoom in on my performance and interview me from jail.
I’ll ask them to let me back in and if they say yes, I won’t go.
I am from Kentucky. There are cities in Kentucky who vote Democrat. We have a Democratic Governor Beshear who was being mentioned as a VP possibility for Harris. I live in a City with a Democratic Mayor. My family have been Democrats for generations. Being a vegetarian, I don't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. Fried chicken is also used as a racist symbol. Could be why you got banned.
I would only resubscribe to WaPo if they fired the head of the Editorial Board and certain OpEd writers. Though thankful to HCR for quoting writers like Jennifer Rubin in her newsletter, I don’t have the stomach to read one more article that begins with his name. I also try to avoid seeing his face. Basically I want him gone from my headspace as much as possible while still paying attention to what is actually going on. I agree totally with other commenters here that say it is not worth paying attention to anything he says since it is all lies and simply meant to keep him in the news every day.
Bill. I gave you the respect of thinking about your comment in WaPo and giving you feedback. There was no judging or criticizing.
How about giving the acid comments, the mean knee jerk reactions a break? People in Dr. Richardson's site are like refugees. We need a break from hatred.
Medias Touch Network,an independent news org with ZERO outside financial investors, is shining the spotlight on the grift.Substack is a major part of their growth so subscribe(available for free), like or share. 📣
They’ve also hit over 5 billion YouTube views and getting more daily than Fox. Obviously MAGA people are not happy and delivering death threats ( via the cowardliness of the keyboard,of course) which only motivates MTN to keep growing the network.
Yes. Also consider finding sources of media that are not tied to the US, so that the US cannot shut them down. That includes not using X where Musk is gathering your data and manipulating you with algorithms.
Get a VPN so you can access things you want to if the government blocks them. Get your VPN on a non-US platform.
I donated to many Dem campaigns, including Harris too. But it just wasn’t enough when Musk gave him a quarter BILLION $$$ and other billionaires protected themselves by buying Trump’s support over protecting our country. And so many Rs and MAGAs believing things about Trump that just aren’t true. I will NOT take the blame for his win. I did what I could do.
Democrats had enough money this year. We didn't lose because of Melon Husk's sell-out to Trump. I don't know all of why we lost, but part of it was that we failed to appeal to groups who had been steadfast Democratic voters. Why did Harris get 7 1/2 million fewer votes than Biden in 2020? That was at least one vital reason for what happened.
Reasons that Kamala Harris lost should definitely be discussed. One of the reasons I think, contrary to what a lot of people say, is that she should have stood closer to Biden's record, not shunned it ---jobs, factories, climate protection, low unemployment, support for the ordinary little guy ----she spent a lot of time talking about pie in the sky things she would do when she became president instead of bragging about what Biden's administration accomplished.
Yep. For instance, on immigration, she labored when she said that the first bill the administration introduced was to fix the border problem, but it was clear that after that nothing material was done until 2024, with the bill Trump told Republicans to kill. She could and should have pointed out that there were a few other priorities from '21 to '24, and only so many hours in the day. But while she should have embraced what Biden did, she should also have admitted mistakes, like not paying enough attention to the southern border, and she should have taken responsibility for the errors she admitted.
But they are attracting morons who are not cult nuts, yet. Making the problems worse. Granted they are all vying for the Fox runner up, and have become truly the enemy of the people. Free speech has become the mantra for trolls, and the fools, and the vipers…
But Gwen, the legacy media is where Heather gets her information and summarizes it for us with a historians mind. Though flawed, it is the best source of news. We have to be active readers and listeners. To me, it looks like you're "throwing out the baby with the bath water."
There are certain news sites I avoid, like Fox, Newsmax and One America. I stopped using X. There are some that I'll seek out for certain topics, like international news sites.
Pruning out inflammatory channels, I found that TikTok and YouTube could be useful, but could be quite the time sinks.
Substacks like this one are great and I'm on here almost daily,
I get it, but I also think most Americans aren’t good critical thinkers and they’re being click-baited by deregulated corporations, not our once revered and trusted news. Heather doesn’t get a whole lot of her info from legacy media (nbc, cbs, abc) as she does from independent sources.
TV news is really not "legacy" media. Legacy media is the New York Times, the Associated Press and Reuters. TV news has rarely been worth watching except maybe PBS except maybe in major crises where they have r the money to deploy reporters.
Start taking notes, as Josh Marshall pointed out this morning. First promise already broken: he admits after promising to bring grocery prices down during the campaign that he can't. We can add that to the (falsely named) law and order party supporting Kash Patel who wants to break the FBI. Good luck stopping that next terrorist attack or investigating the growth of white supremacist terrorist organizations in the US.
Trump’s groupies are blissfully unaware that he is both the “deep state” and the “swamp.” These are both terms he uses to refer to governmental institutions he doesn’t personally control. I can guarantee that when he does bring them under his control, he will misuse them and get away with it. The SCOTUS majority has ignored 235 years of constitutional precedent and put Trump above the law. To paraphrase Frank Wilhoit’s comment, Trump is someone whom the law protects but does not bind, but ordinary citizens are persons whom the law binds but does not protect.
Kathy, excellent post. I see already that some of the people who run large concerns associated with ag, dairy, meat packing, and now corn and soy bean oil are now kvetching as their bottom lines will be affected. I am also certain that some who are not cult members, but rationalized their votes by food prices and feeling that they would not be affected, will soon rue the day. What interests me at this point is how much of all of this will actually happen. Even the attempts will create chaos, i fear.
Climate change is the ultimate factor in the price of eggs. Chickens have to eat decent food in order to lay decent eggs. Grain requires certain weather to grow and be harvested. I have seen wheat crop partially destroyed by bursts of rain that are typical of current weather patterns in some places. The war in Ukraine is destroying much of the grain that once fed Africa, and there are probably lots of stories about the price of eggs.
Virginia, indeed. Climate change is affecting us in ways people do not understand yet and is a factor in some of the immigration. I lived in Sierra Leone for three and half years. Rice was the main crop. One chicken barely was enough for one person and eggs....I can't even remember eating one there. This was in the 60s.
Philoctetes > Thank you for imput tonight. You were spot on. After I surfed thru all tonights comments, I circled back to give you Kudos. HCR has many good people in her orbit. ✅
Or…with no FBI, good luck finding the next shooter in a country awash in weapons and gun rights advocates. Looks like NOT defunding the police doesn’t apply to the FBI….or the Capitol Police for that matter
Virginia's lame duck MAGA Gov RedVest has threatened to withhold finding for local law enforcement agencies of localities that declare themselves Sanctuaries from using police and Sheriffs as extensions of ICE.
What a delightful group of posts here based on one of the most biased, outlandishly deceptive, pulling excerpts of remarks riddled with half truths , incorrect information , and over the top severely biased opinion.
I don’t even know where to begin. Even from her first paragraph, she emotes that Trump no longer has a plan for governance. I believe those were her words.
He has laid out specifically what his plans are, and Heather should know that because of how she describes the cabinet that he has chosen. He has even made public exactly what he’s gonna do on January 20. If you doubt that, please watch the interview on “MEET THE DEPRESSED” with Kristen Welker, which refutes much of what Heather writes in her letter
She claims that Trump was desperate for election in order to avoid his trials for his crimes. I believe is what she said I’ll have to go back and check, but I think that was the essence unfortunately there are no crimes left they’ve all been destroyed as they should’ve never been brought in the first place. And worse, new material came out yesterday and today about the January 6 event which brings into. Doubt , the work of the January 6 committee and the let’s call them lies OR omissions of their involvement
He made the statement many times that he wished Biden did a great job and then he wouldn’t feel compelled to run again however that was not the case. And the overwhelming election results confirm that when 49 of 50 states became redder to the utter chagrin of the liberals , Democrats, and Legacy media who have now lost about 40% of their audience for lying to the public for so long and towing the line of the Democrat party like lemmings.
And the Republicans managed to keep both the Senate and the house and won the popular vote, which hasn’t happened in over 20 years. Aka the Democrat coup de etat did not work . Imagine the people that said that Trump was a threat to democracy and yet the Democrats actually pulled off a coup in the United States of America just like they do in other autocratic/oligarch-run countries.
You wrote “What a delightful group of posts here based on one of the most biased, outlandishly deceptive, pulling excerpts of remarks riddled with half truths , incorrect information, and over the top severely biased opinion.”
Gotta hand it to you Rick, you are the absolute master of projection - attributing to others what you yourself do.
Well, TDS isn’t diagnosed in Republicans only in Democrats along with the newly found metastasized growth called TRDS Trump Russia derangement syndrome.
The Mega-Minds, the DOGE Brothers, want to abolish the FDIC... That would be Horrible... Conceivably, Millions could lose their Life-Savings... Don't forget that the Billionaires are Asset Diversified and Off-Shored...
I’m not a fan of crypto and I’m not a fan of anyone who is a single item voter. Presidency is a huge complex of issues. We shall see what happens with crypto it’s out of my control for sure.
I love the new to me benefit of being able to "Report" the RS comment you replied to. It hides the comment with a line that says, "You reported this comment," followed by an underlined option to "Show" it again (with an added option to "Hide" it again.
Its only affect is on your own screen, apparently, but I like it, and suggest others use the same option for themselves. You can also use the replies with that in mind, now aware that you can provide a clue to others to choose more carefully what they might to waste too much time on.
by the way, I’m 75 years old and I take one pill that I’ve been taking for 30 years for a hiatal hernia. So no medication’s to adjust. I’m sorry to say hope I didn’t disappoint you.
I’m in pretty good shape as well. Was an athlete my whole life scratch golfer never been one much for combat. Oral jousting is fine, but there’s no need for combat when people can discuss their ideas and thoughts. In an amicable way.
Quite an interesting statement there Apache. I saw a quote that pretty much mirrored my sentiments to what you say above. and here it is.
I don’t like Donald Trump. What I like is every one of his policies that lifted all boats during his administration Not many in this blog, if any of all have actually done the following Googled Trump administration, accomplishments, and see what you see Submiss what you like refute what you like but at least do it so you have an idea?
Rather deliberately swamped so many small boats and businesses, and overflowed so many inadequately built sea walls for the thousand year flood type events that are coming up to 3 times faster and can't realistically be covered by insurance at affordable prices.
R.S. I doubt that You have had a Elevated Security Clearance... Taking Classified Documents Home, and Obstructing Justice in order to Hide them invariably results in Prison Time... I also doubt that You have ever Served this Country in Uniform... I come from a Family that has been on this Continent for over 10.000 Years... Every Generation has sent it's Men to Fight For This Land...
Nope, I’ve never had a security clearance in government that is, but I have had one in private corporate business.
So can you please tell me why Joe Biden is not in prison he was actually worse than Trump. He had them in open boxes in his garage for about 10 years, but Mr.HUR said he was too feeble to stand trial, but he could be president of the United States at the same time lol. Kinda like Hillary was allowed not to stand trial.
And I’ve tried to learn the lesson not to assume anything and risk offending someone who is not due that offense. Served six years in the military here as a medic and a dialysis and an x-ray tech, but I never saw combat. Not sure what point you were trying to make.
Uncle Joe invited the FBI to his home when he discovered them... He did not try to hide them... Try Leading Men in Combat, and try explaining to their Families of those that don't return...
RS, You breathlessly declare “ So can you please tell me why Joe Biden is not in prison he was actually worse than Trump. He had them in open boxes in his garage for about 10 years,…”
Those were left over from when he was Vice president in the late 20th century in boxes packed by aides and not looked at since. He immediately turned them over when found in a search he has allowed as a matter of course.
Trump by contrast, intentionally took huge quantities of material that was not his to take, lied about having it at all, tried to hide it and intentionally violated court orders to hand it back to the rightful owners,!the American people as represented by the National Archives.
Hit and his report acted disgracefully and he, his actions and report were relegated to the trash heap.
If I were you, I would throw away that crystal ball and Ouija board and go buy yourself a new one. The one you Have is not working. I don’t need a dime Need a dime I’ve been a great success in my life and I’m very proud of what I’ve done. I probably created AT LEAST 1000 millionaires and 50,000 jobs. So GO On with your bad self. I could insult you as well, but I won’t. You’re doing that yourself.
My goodness. This guy must be paid on a dollar-per-comment basis. With all the time it takes to write these hundreds of comments every day, it’s impossible to have a real job besides…
You're right. Trump cultists want to be just like their idol: narcissistic, the center of attention, and grabbing money and pussies without any consequences.
Go back to listening to Fucx News. You'll never be able to admit to yourself how wrong you are. Sad. You lack the perspective needed to comment intelligently when the truth is spelled out right in front of you. I thank the universe everyday that I wasn't born dumb enough, insecure enough, hateful enough to have grown up to become one of those MAGATS. A buh-bye.
Well, that’s a pretty erudite and intelligent post. Temper temper.
Also pretty assumptive What I see in you is that you may be needing a mirror and a conscience. Perhaps some introspection. Try this first, but you won’t Trump administration accomplishments and I don’t know what I’m wrong about but are you saying that 77 million people are also wrong but the same people were right about Joe Biden the same dumb people People on the writer, not hateful and obviously you don’t follow the news or you would know that people on the right didn’t call Biden Hitler. They didn’t call him fascist. They attacked his policies, which had this country headed in the wrong direction and 68% of people agreed with that based on a CNN. Poll So let me say something since you won’t go Google that Trump accomplishments page try this
Minds are like parachutes they work better when they’re open
Wow, you must be writing from an alternate universe. Keep drinking that Trump Kool Aid. Enjoy your fantasy world, you are soon to be in for a very rude awakening. It amazes me that people like you have no clue that Trump cares about absolutely no one but himself. Whatever.
No one is going to win with this guy. He is full of delusions and projections. Nothing he has said is based on facts. Trump had no accomplishments in his first term and he knows it. He knows that the accusations against President Biden have been proven to be baseless and false. Trump clearly violated the Presidential Records Retention Act. May have violated the law against espionage based on some of the documents he retained. Stop wasting your time trying to have a serious conversation with him. He’ll undoubtedly will react to my comments. I won’t waste my time responding to him.
Oh, then again, I will tell you something Catherine that you won’t like and you won’t do but that you should to be a even minded person google Trump administration, accomplishments But you won’t do it because it might disrupt the feeling that Trump only cares for himself
What the hell does he need the presidency for? He’s got all the money in the world. He’s already been president got shot once got almost shot again law fair against him. That is now all gone the legacy media, calling him Hitler and fascist, etc. which didn’t work and was inappropriate And yet he ascended to the presidency once again Quite an accomplishment in of itself. The poor billionaire with hotels and golf course courses all over the world 22,000 employees social media website that’s worth 10 billion. And now supported by the richest man in the world that used to be a hero to the left when he was a Democrat and now they demonize him because he has an R in front of his name very sad indeed Elon Musk should be elected leader of the free world
Good advice Philoctetes. It's too emotionally draining to overreact to everything. Also its a firehose of bs. We need to focus on what they are actually doing, like the nominations and proposed policies, there is enough there. Clearly we've been focusing on character, words and what he says for a decade and we aren't winning anyone over, we have to try something different. All of us, from Adam Schiff to the person canvassing.
One of the Salient Characteristics of DJT is Impatience... This is still over a Month Away from Inauguration... From HCR: "Time magazine’s interview with President-elect Donald Trump, published yesterday, revealed a man who was so desperate to be reelected to the presidency that he constructed a performance that he believed would woo voters, but who has no apparent plans for actual governance.
Trump deliberately patterned the Republican National Convention where he accepted the party’s nomination for president on a professional wrestling event, even featuring a number of professional wrestlers. It appears now that the campaign itself was, similarly, a performance—possibly, as Tom Nichols of The Atlantic suggested, simply to avoid the threat of conviction in one of the many federal or state cases pending against him. In the Time interview, Trump called his campaign “72 Days of Fury.”
In Addition: "If there is one major continuity between Trump’s campaign and plans for his administration, it is that his focus on shock and performance, rather than the detailed work of governing, still plays well to the media."
Why is anybody surprised from DJT walking away from his promises? Did anyone believe that DJT took his Oath-Of-Office seriously to Uphold the Laws of Congress?... DJT is Predatory, and Opportunistic...
Net: Because of his Sycophantic Picks in the 'Power Branches' of the U.S. Gov., from Day One of Trump 2.0. expect 'Shock & Awe' Everyday... The 'Trump Show' is back... An Interesting note that reinforces what we already knew... Most of the U.S. is in a local News Desert that is not serviced by local Journalism... These places went 91% for DJT... They are mostly serviced by Right-Wing 'Bro-Casts, and Media... Remember over1/2 of the Country now doesn't Read, and Comprehend at a 6th Grade-Level, and can't do Basic Arithmetic... This Ignorance Is Getting Deadly...
Oh. That was a campaign? Those random ambles up and down the stage, pointing? the jokes? the songs? I thought he'd just given up because he knew he was beaten, but no, he knew that Musk had taken things in hand and there was no further problem with money. Or principles.
Hello Anne-Louise... Look at the Intended Audience... The Popular Vote that DJT won with was the smallest winning Percentage since Clinton '92... It is arguable that if RFK hadn't been bribed to join the DJT Campaign, DJT would have lost... Kamala should have Distanced herself from Joe Biden more... 'Gaza' may have cost her in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.... OBW: Have You Noticed That DJT Has Never Released His Medical Records? Maybe DJT Doesn't Think That He Has Much Time Left....
"The Popular Vote that DJT won with was the smallest winning Percentage since Clinton '92"
Done caring. That Trump could hand in the performance he did in his first term and run the campaign he ran and still get more than 25% of the vote is an indictment of America, not of Trump.
Between MAGA, a dumbed-down American populace, and NIMBY, that be... the right, the middle, and the rich! ...hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil...in that order.
I'll take "The Matrix for a $100, Alex."
"Red pill or blue pill" is a phrase originating from the film "The Matrix," signifying a choice between accepting a potentially unsettling truth ("red pill") or remaining in blissful ignorance ("blue pill") about reality; essentially, choosing to see the world as it truly is versus staying in a comfortable illusion.
Red Pill:
Represents the choice to uncover the truth, even if it is uncomfortable or challenging.
Blue Pill:
Represents the choice to remain in a comfortable state of ignorance, not seeking to know the deeper truth.
Question/Answer: Which will America choose, WOKE or SLEEP? Democracy or Autocracy?
I think there's still time to choose, tho not much.
Apache, I don’t think the orange smear actually thinks. He reacts. His little lying brain on shrinkage is a boomerang. He’s a dirty pink eraser.
What do we do to counter that other than wanting to throw it into a trash bin? I could go on but it’s a waste (sorry) of our time. I’m going to take my sorry a— to a political meeting on the 21st of this month to see what group actions are being planned here plus I’m continuing to keep making calls to our legislators in MA. 💐
Anne-Louise. All of the dumpsters playbook has torn us apart. We NEED to gather our hearts and souls to save this Country.
A thought I had a week ago is: if you are a criminal, multimillionaire, felon, womanizer, rapist, pedophile, druggie, alcoholic there is a job in the dumpster’s administration.
Obviously it wasn’t a campaign to you but apparently it was the 77 million Americans and 49 or 50 states that went redder. And even though musk was part of Trump’s campaign, Trump was out spent five to one.
What is significant about this election is the number of swing States (except Arizona) who elected him by the slimmest of margins but had significant wins in their State and Local races. People are really scratching their heads about this phenomena of people voting for a straight Democratic ticket and then switching to him. Also. those razor thins margins.
I will say it again. this election smells.
Watch Hakeem Jeffries allude to this fact in a Press Conference.
I agree, something not right with the swing states. They were pouring misinformation into every possible avenue using bots, trolls, AI, and who knows what else. Democrats need to build that same kind of media machine. But better, and truthful.
Absolutely. Aside from the media something is so off about the vote. It is unusual that so many people voted for the Democrats and them him. It is just not how people usually vote.
Barbara, lets not become the MAGA people with conspiracy led thinking about the vote. Some people also voted for Trump but no one else on the ballot, other people like to have a split government because they don't want anything to get done. If there was any fraud or tampering you don't think we'd hear about it from the Dem Governors who lead these states?
Thom Hartmann recently wrote about a red shift in election results vs exit polls. The exit polls used to be accurate but now republican votes (red shift) are higher by a small percentage which is all that’s needed to swing the state. He suggests that this has occurred in the USA since voting machines have become standard in most states. It’s not the Dominion system but another owned by right wing “Christians”.
I think Trump knows this occurs and rightly claims elections are rigged. In 2020 they didn’t rig them enough for him to win?
Whats funny is the misinformation, targeted ads and the fact that Democrats who won those elections ran very different campaigns from Harris. We need to maybe copy their strategy and realize that imposing national party purity test for down the ballot races doesn't work.
In Maine, the most of the rural vote is for Trump while much of the coastal vote went for Kamala. The Republicans put up a candidate for Congress that was a former Nascar driver that had no college education. And he was 30 years old and served in the legislature for two years only showing up over 1/2 the time. And he almost beat the incumbent.
I've lived in 10 states and voted in multiple cities or towns in many of them. He was, far and away the most unqualified Congressional candidate I have ever seen.
Many of the communities you mention have recently received high speed Internet for the first time. Maybe that will make a difference on how they vote because they will have access to information sources they've never had.
Although I can hope access to internet might give access to knowledge, I am highly doubtful the collective mindset will be swayed in coming elections here in rural Maine, as in many parts of rural US. Since the first clown car show I have been dismayed by constituents continued willful ignorance.
It all depends on which media they partake in. Rural folk tend to listen to Fox News and the like. They will NEVER hear the truth of anything from Fox. They simply don't know what we know. They will never know. The right- wing media is bigger than any other, right now. As long as this is the case, we will never win again...
You only hope he walks away from his promises, but to your utter chagrin it’s not gonna happen. If you watch the Kristen Welker interview you’ll see what he’s going to do day one and then the first hundred days are gonna be more impactful than anything you’ve ever seen because he realizes he doesn’t have time.
Now you should go watch his interview with Kristen Welker on meet the depressed. Were Trump answered every offensive question he was given
And I love when you people go this route, talking about the stupidity of the electorate Did the electorate become stupid before or after Biden’s presidency as he was elected by the same electorate. ? Yikes and oooops guess the ignorance wasn’t so deadly when they elected Biden. Sigh
Rick Sender seems to have taken the place of the elderly Sandy Lewis (a former Wall Streeter) who used to rant (and was nasty) on this site. Don't hear from him anymore. I guess, like Sandy, Mr. Sender is desperately trying to find relevance in his old age. It's nice to collapse :)
For your enlightenment Rick sender, you consume your “news” the way most everyone does…with an eye toward the viewpoints you choose and support. Your commentary is not special, nor especially factual, because you cherry pick your facts, or use strictly right wing leaning sources without fact checking what they are feeding you. That would require you to be open to, at the very least, to hearing other perspectives than what supports your biases. Sometimes people can even challenge themselves. However, I don’t suspect you are one of those folks just by the tone of your comments. They are frequently condescending and righteous in nature. Your opinions are not superior in this forum. Give it up.
Well, you said a lot there but you didn’t offer me any details. And I’m here reading everybody else’s posts. And then offering in many cases a different opinion. And if you’ll check, I received about 50 or 60 likes just the other day including today And it’s kind of funny because what I see a lot from the left side of the aisle is what I call projection and you know what I’m saying. Whatever they accuse you of this is exactly what they’re doing themselves. It is the liberal horde that wants to shut down free speech on X on Twitter on Facebook and you tube in the legacy media and the liberal newspaper such as The NY Times And WAPO etc. including here were many people have told me to go away. Which is fine. Zuckerberg even apologize to Trump for shutting down free-speech and “unintended bias” And a few other sites through Trump off them so that he wouldn’t be heard. They even kicked Trump off of Twitter
And here’s an interesting fact I don’t think he would realize. I have been using Google for quite some time, and then I started researching political information. Here is what I found and you should try it. After having severe difficulty finding a conservative link when I requested information from Google, I started realizing that almost all the first 5-6-7 pages of Google included links from liberal websites Such a CNN, MMSNC, etc. to include repetition of these websites on page after page before I was even able to reach a conservative or So-called conservative links
Finally, I tried something more generic. I googled Al Gore George Bush
That’s it that’s all I put into the browser. I got 16 pages into the responses and the links before I reached one conservative link, which happened to be Newsmax and about 10 links later Fox News appeared for the first time 216 links from the first link. Try it yourself. That’s what we call liberal bias. Some of the other links were almost laughable like the Cincinnati Gazette, or the Indianapolis dispatch for example, and I’m not quoting their exact names, but it was little tiny journals that you’ve never heard about. And then I googled where Fox News stands in viewership just to see where it might have fit in this link and it just so happened that Fox News was the third highest rated prime time viewership channel even though it’s a news channel so to speak and have the highest rated individual programs, and their nightly primetime lineup even though it’s on cable, including now moving into third place above ABC. And yet it took 16 pages and 216 previous links to get a link to them.
Axios is now carrying a story about the veracity of info above and what they have done to correct or have tried eliminate this bias.
Perhaps after you read this, you’re the one that might need to open your awareness
Fox is classified as “entertainment” per their own definition. Every source pretty much has its own leanings and is influenced by their ownership. I am tired of the division labels such as “right” and “left” create. That division does little to promote conversation and seeking solutions for this country’s issues. The people governing (Congress) do little listening to each side of the aisle and heaven forbid an individual steps outside the lines of their party’s box.
In your search for unbiased news sources did you stop to read anything along the way? Or did you just tell yourself “this is too liberal for me” and skip to your comfort zone.
Really Rick, who do we believe? What are we as citizens suppose to believe. Each side calls the other “liars” and when that happens we lose engaged citizens or create non-participants in their own governing.
The FBI having a few informants in the crowd on J6 did not make that event an FBI initiative. What we saw with our own eyes that day was a call to action by the sitting president. His words, which I heard with my own ears, were intentional and deliberate to play on the emotions of the crowd. The greater crime (IMHO) is a Congress that never held him accountable resulting in the greatest undermining of the rule of law this country has experienced since the civil war.
Sorry, and this will probably post before the rest, but it should be at the end the FBI lied and cover it up Its existence and presence there. Only three agents were supposed to be there at 23 went “”the FBI lied and cover it up its existence and presence there only three agents were supposed to be there and 23 went “” on their own so ostensibly no one knew they were there yet. None of the 26 were arrested?? .
Well, I certainly enjoyed that entertainment you provided this morning.
Much of what you said is true. But you’re still emoting histrionics that don’t need to be there. When all the evidence comes out about January 6, I think the left will be stunned with all the revelations although I’m guessing denial will sit in big time. There is video which you may or may not have seen which shows some agents on the ground actually pulling back the barriers to allow or even encourage the crowd to come in.
I also love the title that the left gives to the media defining. The stated purpose of this event was to overthrow The government.
And it shows you how badly TDS has taken hold 1000 innocent unarmed citizens going to overthrow the government of the United States ? I know you’re more rational than that and I know what you’re trying to say but hyperbole doesn’t cut it here in a case like this
I’m not sure if you’ve heard the video or see the video of Nancy Pelosi and her daughter which her daughter was filming where Nancy Pelosi said I should have and I could have done more to stop this and it’s my fault Did you see that video? Did you know that Donald Trump requested 10,000 troops that were turned down? Did you know that the mayor of Washington DC is Muriel browser refused to offer more help knowing what was coming?
Now let me compare that for a minute to what the left did when a white man put his Knee on a black man’s neck and accidentally killed him.
What ensued was a true insurrection Anywhere from three to $6 billion of damage 25 policeman dead cities burnt to the ground and taken over in case it’s like Seattle even a police precinct burnt to the ground
And the laughable end of the story is that the policeman was convicted for the crime Which he probably should have been despite the drugs and George Floyd’s body and the numerous criminal offenses he had committed in the past
Now here’s what I ask many folks like you who seem to be relatively levelheaded what if the policeman in question were black? What if George Floyd was white?
Ask yourself why right after the election that 40% of the viewers on CNN and MSNBC disappeared And another 15% disappeared when Joe and Mika went to visit Hitler in his own lair? Which leads me to the next story about ABC just settling a $15 million lawsuit with George Stephanopoulos for the same Reckless Rhetoric
It is beyond the pale for anyone in today’s society to accuse anyone that’s living today of anything that’s remotely akin to Adolf Hitler.
Do those people on this Substack blog who have suggested that he is still Hitler? I welcome them to come with me to Auschwitz and lie down in the ovens or enter the gas chambers or see the Video of millions of skeletal bodies And the huge piles of glasses and boots there.
This kind of vitriol is what is assisting in the renewal of antisemitism around the world And you’re worried about 1000 people that did very little damage to the capital and only protesting because the results of the election were so skewed and so unusual that they shouldn’t have been challenged or questioned And I’m not forgiving what happened on January 6 I’m only putting in perspective. Joe Biden, the semi cadaver who had no outstanding legislation in his career got 13 million more votes than Obama the God! And you don’t see that as an anomaly?
Al Gore insisted on a recount over a few hanging Chad’s Jill Stein went as far as having a recount in five states protesting the results of the election while the left cheered And Hillary Clinton is still be moaning. The fact that her election was stolen for her from her even today.
I welcome your feedback on my commentary And by the way, I get my news from many many sources, including Fox News, which is now the third highest rated TV primetime programming and it’s only a cable news statement and don’t take that one comment that was made in a courtroom defending a client as to what Fox News is They use that remark as courtroom drama, and nothing more If you’ll watch Fox News for a week, you’ll see a different perspective and a different news story than you’ll see on Legacy media But I also watch CNN MSNBC and I’m sitting here on this blog which is 98% left-wing jargon
Google political affiliation of journalist professors annual see that over 90% of that profession is registered as a democrat Then wonder why the news is actually skewed more than you imagine But the momentum is changing. 49 out of 50 states turned more red than they were before the election And a good modicum of that was due to a skewed informational panorama
Again and again this mantra is surfacing. Don’t repeat their words. Just …well I guess focus on their actions? I am not convinced. These words…snake tongued …have real world consequences when the snakes are in control. They hiss; we scuttle. Or at least the likes of Bezos, Zuck, and Morning Joe do and the ripples are real. Think about the unpapered immigrants, the cis gender teens, seniors dependent on social security. Words …their words…have repercussions.
But remember - this is the point: flood the zone with distractions so that we take our eyes off of the dangerous real world effects of policies they put into place. And we need to prioritize: transgender rights are vital, but deporting 10 million immigrants, if it starts to happen, or getting rid of polio vaccines, as RFK would like, will have far more dangerous and deleterious consequences. We cannot be distracted and as they flood the zone, need to prioritize. Full disclosure: I live in France so don't get my information from the now unreliable US media, but from European press which is far more diverse and with a tradition of criticism and intellectualism that simply does not exist in the US. To say everyone over here is appalled would be an understatement. The US will wear this election for generations like a ball and chain.
Philoctetes, As someone who resides in the States, I would suggest the folks viewing us from the outside not underestimate the power of the ever expanding resistance currently organizing under the auspices of seasoned and determined grassroots leaders who are showing us how to resist the infiltration of the MAGA agenda into our states and communities. Quoting two prominent leaders, “Our best chance to get through this era with some amount of democracy intact is to hang on until 2026 and win big in the midterms—breaking Trump’s hold on Congress and making sure election deniers and saboteurs aren’t in charge of the 2028 election. We’ve boiled it down to three big plays…” For more from these two former congressional aids, visit indivisible.org
Barbara get ready for a surprise somewhere past Trump’s halfway in his presidency that might even anoint his vice president in the White House for the next 12 years or so.
Actually, Barbara, I think it’s going the other way. If you succeeded in doing what his campaign promises was fighting back will be futile
And why would you fight back against the president? That’s doing a good job on behalf of American citizens? I come here and there’s so many people who are depressed and pessimistic and fatalistic and negative in advance. Patience… why don’t you see what he does instead of thinking of what he will or might do.
Trump is going to start off by screwing the farmers who voted for him. They won’t be able to sell their products abroad due to tariffs, and Trump will deport the people who pick their crops.
Kathy, the tariffs might even not have to happen. And by the way, if the tariffs don’t work, why did Joe Biden keep almost all of Trump’s and even added a few of his own. Tariffs do a number of things as they did to Canada and Mexico. It’s a negotiating tool. It helped to Mexico and Canada come to their senses about illegal immigrants crossing our border. And they got the message loud and clear without the tariff being imposed. If the people are here picking the crops are legal or have a temporary visa. They’ll stay exactly where they are. Maybe you’d like to talk to the mother of Lake and Riley or the 13-year-old who is raped and murdered by two Venezuelan gang members. ?
I thought Kennedy was one of the best presidents we’ve ever had, and it was the worst day of my life at that time when he was shot. But that doesn’t mean his personal life was any different than that of Donald Trump or Bill Clinton And somebody made the point of Trump giving positions in his administration and I thought of Bobby Kennedy. And that year was one of the worst years in political history, . Along with Martin Luther King, who most of the Democrats have forgotten.
Yes, I too am in Europe and have a variety of news sources. As Barbara points out, being geographically removed I am keenly aware that I have a an inadequate grasp of the groundswell in the US. I just have observed that the foreign press also must wrestle with the rhetoric from the Trump 2.0 team. I just don’t think that this messaging is meant to distract ….and I believe that the sticks and stones rhyme applies…these words can really hurt those who are in the cross hairs.
I split my time between the US and Germany. The Guardian is a fairly reliable source, but for issues concerning the struggle to maintain Constitutional Democracy, I would highly recommend Verfassungsblog. Much of their work is in German, but there is a great deal of solid material in English. https://verfassungsblog.de/
I agree 100 percent! The point is to distract so that people will take their eyes off the out and out stealing and graft that will be going on. Look to see where the infrastructure money to red states will end up. Look to see where already appropriated funds for a Biden cause will be transferred to a Musk/Trump slush fund. Remember how Trump tried to divert money from the Pentagon to his ineffectual Wall? The last time he was stopped for this type of thievery (you can bet he was getting some sort of kickback from the Wall contractor) by honest politicians and government workers. They will be gone or fired this time around.
Mona, exactly. Lawrence O’Donnell a week ago had the title of his news “Who is going to be the President” as he named all the people dumpster has put into place to run the country while he golf!”
What is it with you people that look so negatively in advance I’ve never seen anything like it put away your crystal balls and your Ouija boards and wait to see what happens because you have no other choice but to see what happens. Can tell you from my opinion he will be the most involved president in your lifetime.
Right now, we are trying to drink from a firehose of Trump's crazy to do what Philoctetes is suggesting.
We each have individual issues at the top of our "biggest fears" list. We need to keep track of those so we can start to oppose them most effectively.
The way to do that is to use a news consolidator like https://feedly.com/. You can search for specific topics and get to the original source, usually Reuters and AP. You can also look at White House press releases, C-SPAN, and the Congressional Record.
The chat capabilities here and on Bluesky may be the best way to develop micro-communities of interest and share what we have learned with others who have common hot-button issues.
This is the only way to avoid the selective filtering and slanted coverage of news that is now going on with the degradation of previous sources like the NYTimes and WaPo. Trump's performance is a cover and distraction from the real danger. We must combat the avalanche of changes that Project 2025 will try to implement. The real enemy is not Trump; it is those highly motivated implementers of the agenda from the truly unholy alliance of oligarchs and white Christian nationalists.
Another point. We need to add intelligent, well informed discussions to Substack, Bluesky and other burgeoning communities. I am glad to see Bluesky reacting quickly to trolls and disinformation. Dr. Richardson recommends ignoring trolls.
We need to make decisions now about how to participate in the opposition to Trump's agenda on the issues that are most important to us as individuals.
Two enlightening resources on what it means to be in the opposition as opposed to being in the resistance at the institutional level are by Tom Watson and Marc Elias.
So let’s see we’re all deciding to fight back in advance of what we think is gonna happen. Cool. Well thought out and designed thought process. I have never seen a group of people more negative in advance. Maybe you should be listening to Stephanie ruhle a little bit more. Can’t remember if she’s on the communist news network or if MSRIP network But she said Democrats need to stop the histrionics and start realizing that 80% of what they think is gonna happen never happens.
I’ve been writing about Project 2025 since the month it was released. The prior version was the basis for more than 70% of the legislative agenda in Trump’s first administration.
You can obfuscate and try to suck energy out of this forum all you want but you can’t hide the truth. The danger is real. People are dying and will die because of these policies. Life is going to be harder.
I won’t respond further to your continued trolling. I don’t think anyone else here should waste the energy either. Go peddle your bullshit back on the ever shrinking X. I am one lib you will not own.
First, why do you think X is shrinking? would you like to know why?
It’s really simple it’s people like you that don’t want to hear both sides of the story. Twitter used to be 69% Democrat 31% Republican now that it’s 50-50 blue sky is what we now call ex for cowards. You can just sit there and cry in your own misery, and have everybody commiserate with you. Do you see your social network called red sky anywhere? Nope
And Why the hell would you think I want to Own you?
Well, let’s see what was buried in project 25 like a strong military only citizens can vote. Hopefully we can all agree on that . It’s got some bad things I assume and it has some good things in it don’t pigeonhole it. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard there’s those two things that are there. And I get the people that I’ve been on this site for a while abhor project 2025. I guess I’ll have to familiarize myself with it a little bit more.
But it is not Trump’s playbook. Trump’s playbook is in his head and has been in his head since his first coming down the escalator, he doesn’t need help from project 25 or anyone else in that regard. Go watch the meet the press with Kirsten Welker where he answers. Every offensive question she asks.
I said to someone earlier, some people read the Bible some people don’t
I doubt that everyone that reads it believes everything in it. Project 25 is no different other than it may have some offensive things that I may disagree with as well and probably would. Because I said to someone else, you need to wait to see actions because actions speak a lot louder than words.
And to your utter chagrin, if not for Covid, Trump would be leaving office now not getting into it.
How can Heather write this article without mentioning Putin? Putin brags that he tilted the election and says he expects a quid pro quo!
Biden needs to report on Russian interference ASAP! We are the victims of the Russian war on the USA. An admission is dispositive and is actionalble and constitutes an emergency.
Philocetes, yes, stay focused on what he does. And when he “appoints” unqualified persons to cabinet positions, contact your senators in as many ways as possible to protest with the facts. If those in favor of the “appointments” let their wishes be known and we do not, the senators will believe that the majority of their constituents are in favor.
this guy you are replying to is spamming the comments section. If people stop replying to him he will be eliminated. There was another troll who everyone ignored and he eventually gave up.
And Louise I can’t stop laughing. I’m sorry. What are you gonna say when they all get approved? And after all the talk about recessed appointments when they probably won’t need any, maybe one.
So who are the people here that can determine whether his cabinet posts are unqualified? Any presidents here blogging ? Do you all imagine that Biden‘s cabinet and Obama‘s cabinet and bushes cabinet were the perfect people? And were qualified.? Wow. It’s the prerogative of any president to pick his choice of cabinet and to have him go through the process of approval advise and consent.
Joe Biden not only got approval of all the incompetents in his administration but got a lot of support from Republicans
"Stop listening to Trump!" I agree for your mental health." Watch what he does to destroy America!" I disgaree, beause you become so upset, depressed from hopelessness. "What can we do? Where is any hope? How can we fight?"
We can stop listening to trump, but he's got an army of billionaires and sick followers who have every intention of carrying out what he's said he will do. And WHO WILL STOP THEM? Not his Supreme Court and not his Congress. So, yeah, vaccines and Social Security and Medicare need protecting but WHO IS GOING TO DO THAT if his administration is filled with weak-willed (or just plain evil) yes men?
If everyone ignores his flame throwing and starve him of attention, I assure you he will do anything to receive the praise he lacked as a child. When you only have support of 31% of the country, you're not in the best place to bully the 69% who don't give a twit about you.
"If there is one major continuity between Trump’s campaign and plans for his administration, it is that his focus on shock and performance, rather than the detailed work of governing, still plays well to the media."
Absolutely. We will soon have a government that is functionally indistinguishable from the old fashioned Mafia. Except maybe that it is supported by “Christian” nationalists (an oxymoron for sure).
......drivel that oozes from his reptilian brain. A great line. Trump is an idiot savant. His genius is his ability to appeal to, as he has said, to the uneducated. Unless you have a financial stake in his presidency, you would have to have accepted all his BS as valid, which required zero critical thinking. I hope we survive to be able to rid us of this insanity in the next elections if we have any.
Yes, and also keep focusing on the positive world we want. At the core is a just energy transition which, when that fully occurs a lot of this bullshit will go away….
Here, yet again, are the second and third entries in a notebook I opened in November 2016, immediately after the election.
Both still seem actual.
By comparison, most of what I have written on the matter since then has been a waste of breath and the time has come to sign off.
*
GREAT AGAIN?
Democracy? Democracy? Where's that? I see only oligarchy.
Chances are DT will bankrupt oligarchy, as he’s bankrupted all he touches, and try for the only thing he (thinks he) understands: dictatorship.
But will the Republic survive the attempt?
*
SYRIA—DRESS REHEARSAL?
It all began, not with an armed uprising, but with protest demonstrations. As in Russia in 1905, it was the regime’s violent response that set fire to the powder keg.
Now here’s the question: is this war the dress rehearsal for what will befall whoever dares resist oligarchy?
*
We have now to concentrate on just being ourselves and staying true to ourselves, regardless of the antics of the merciless savages, mostly white, "whose warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions". Let us all have a care to preserve ourselves from their poison.
Farewell, then. I shall miss this civilized company.
To all, wishes for peace, freedom, lasting happiness!
Bankrupt all he touches, huh. I love when people start pointing that out. It’s pretty funny. A list of people who have gone bankrupt and become successful. Here’s a highlights. H.J. Heinz, Steve Jobs, PT Barnum Henry Ford, Walt Disney George Foreman Clarence, Saunders of Piggly Wiggly Milton Hershey. Oh, and Donald Trump.
All those people succeeded because they finally produced something of value. Except Trump. He has produced nothing of value. His business is convincing foolish people that he has what they want. Just send money. He is not a success in any real sense. And bankruptcy is just another of his ways of avoiding responsibility.
Well, Shall we compare your success and his there Martin which I don’t like to do normally, but since you like putting him down, here’s a glimpse
He has hotels and golf courses all over the world that Employ 22,000 people. He now has a social media platform worth over 10 billion.
He will have been President of the United States TWICE He has an exemplary family. They are now building yet another huge project in the Middle East, I believe in Dubai or nearby. And Congress itself gave Donald Trump rights to the US post office in DC and look what he’s done with that property.
Not to mention the early in his career, New York expended millions of dollars I’m trying to restore an ice-skating rink in Central Park and took them five or six years to fail. Donald Trump offered to do it with his own money and I believe it was about 6 to 8 months later the rink was built. And The Democrat mayor at the time couldn’t thank him enough Ed Koch. What a failure
What is so pathetic is that he was the idol of Hollywood when he had a D in front of his name but the second he put an R in front of his name he became a pariah
He is a felon. He is a fraud. He has committed sexual assault. And all the rest has been done with borrowed money. Loaned to him by people who have overlooked the fact that he has stiffed others by claiming bankruptcy. Becoming president does not make you a success. It just means that a lot of people, like yourself, have been fooled. Consider all our failed presidents. Did you drink bleach or shine bright lights up your rear end?
By the way, I am in my eighth decade and am quite happy with my life. I have been retired for twenty years and want for nothing. I will outlive my money. And I have not been judged a criminal and have not kept the legal profession employed to keep me out of prison. I am not justifiably hated by millions of people.
Just because, in this world without rules, he has achieved whatever he has, does not make him a person worthy of respect. He is scum.
So I’m reading your post again and I really can’t stop laughing. You are in so much denial. It’s really sad. And by the way, I think you got that statement about your money reversed. I think you mean your money will outlive you. Hmmm. Our money will long outlive us.
I’m guessing you voted for Bill Clinton who had much more of a checkered sexual past than Donald Trump could’ve ever imagined and lied about it Underoath. He paid $850,000 for an NDA. Had a 10 year affair, which was exposed a few weeks before he was elected anyway. And then he had sex in the White House while president and married, and with an employee, no less.
I’m glad you’re happy. I have a nice little saying on my desk it says minds are like umbrellas they work much better when they’re open. You take care of yourself you’ve earned what you got and you should be proud of that which I’m sure you are
And TDS is still curable. I didn’t tell you was necessary to respect him, but I want to say something to you that you might think about. If you really love America, watch the pre-game show of the army navy game today. It’s a it’s a battle on the football field, but you should hear the group of men and women and what they say Maybe you should take heed of that
They said we’re on the battlefield here and we’re trying to win but when the game is over, we’re both on the same side we love our country we’re brothers and sisters. Try that. And I have to also say that I feel somebody who is so sad. Abraham Lincoln said most people or as happy as a make up their minds to be. Maybe you hated him to go by the way I left out that he had also filed for bankruptcy
Well, I’m just a few years younger than you and I’m happy every day but I’m sorry to see you feel this way because everybody no matter what should support the president until there’s a reason not to and he’s not president yet and he did a great job the first time around. If not for Covid Donald Trump would be leaving the White House right now not going back in. One of the thing I’m feeling when I speak with people like this, I’m guessing that in your lifetime you never voted for anybody with an R in front of it just a guess. And if I’m right, that’s everything you need to know.
Also, how many of those people started out with a family fortune before claiming multiple bankruptcies? Trump is a TV billionaire, living on borrowed and donated cash, and the fools think he is for real.
Family Fortune is not 12 billion. He got a few million and converted that into an incredible Dynasty.
By the way, how do you handle a one in a century global virus that no one knew anything about?
And you do know that as many people died under the Biden administration has died under the Trumpass administration from Covid which is now shown that only about 30% of the people that died from Covid died from Covid. The REST died from complications of another disease they already had in their system.
I've asked many people here so your vast expertise of how to handle a once in a lifetime global virus. How would you have done it differently?
Liar Fraud Con Trump inherited $375-$400 Million from his Racist Kkkdaddy. If Fraud Trump had done nothing other than invest that money in stocks, he’d be worth ten times what he’s worth.
Trump is the ULTIMATE Fraud and Grifter.
Fraud Trump’s Resorts and Hotels are losers; but they ARE a very effective way to launder dirty money and bribes.
So now that you’ve been shown the truth about trumps wealth, tell us how you would’ve handled the Covid global pandemic differently as an armchair quarterback. lol
Oh, and I forgot to mention you're very own. Congress granted him the United States post office in Washington DC itself and look what he turned that into. I guess Congress is from Russia too. Lol
Actually, that was over 25 years. started out with 40 million from his dad but don't be jealous. He turned that 40 million into 15 billion but after reading your post I bet you could probably turn $40 into 20 in no time.
By the way, if you've read any of my posts, TDS has a new strain it's called TRDS and that hoax has been debunked over the years and those starting it jiust might be gifted some equal justice coming up
You on the other hand better put that hat and apron back on and get that back to your french fries customers are coming in.
“If not for Covid”. I agree with you that it probably cost him the election, but the fact that he completely screwed up the most serious test of his presidency is just more evidence of his utter incompetence.
Well, in the case of Joe Biden, whoever was running his administration, took care of it real well, but got Joe Biden not only kicked out of office, but lost an election for the Democrats that will last a long time
Trump is simply the real estate salesman he has been for his entire career -- always tell people what they want to hear. Tell them you are offerring the best ever. Promise them that all the features they desire are available or soon will be. Do not hesitate to lie or make things up or embellish what you actually have. Make everything "look good from the road." He did that as his campaign strategy, and now is selling control of the country to those willing to pay the price, and selling loyalty "insurance" to those not rich enough to buy part of the government. It will be a difficult first two years for the country, but his campaign lies are already being exposed, so the 2026 midterms are likely to put him and his cronies in very hot water as his supporters come to realize that they have been scammed.
The American people elected a con man who who only wants to stay out of jail and get back at his enemies. This is not a politician, but he is now in the Oval Office. This mistake by the voters (assisted by still un investigated machinations by Putin and the Republican Party that may have Altered the results of the election overall) will go down as the greatest tragedy in America since the start of the Civil War, if not greater 
“Mistake” doesn’t convey the magnitude of the error. Everyone who voted for Trump committed an unforgivable crime against humanity. Every last one of them is someone the world would be better off without. No exceptions.
You want them gone? You have no sympathy for the fact that they were victims of the longest running most sophisticated brain washing / dumbing down of America effort in history? Yes, we are all responsible for our actions. But if we are psychologically damaged by an intentional effort to reprogram our brains… Think of the motion picture The Matrix… then we really are not responsible for our actions. The evil forces in society are responsible.
These are the same people, “culture-wise,” who have been dragging us down for 400 years. They are not brainwashed. Theh know exactly what they want, namely continued systemic legal, economic, and political advantages over Americans with non-European ancestry.
I highly recommend you read Al Gore's 2007 book "The Assault on Reason" (which he updated in 2017). I know what it's like when gaslighting is part of your life 24/7, thanks to my viciously domineering father. I was saved from buying into his version of reality by television shows I watched as a child (in the 1960s). The American people have had no such alternative world presented to them that would save them. The people you refer to are the leaders of this effort. Al Gore writes about them. I recommend reading his book.
Rex, I saw a post yesterday from one of my former work cohort who was accusing Biden of "suddenly spending OUR money". I have seen nothing of the sort; I am wondering if it is a new bait from their "news" sources. I do not have the stomach to investigate further.
OUR money that OUR duly elected representatives voted on and passed for OUR benefit, i.e., IRA, CHIPS, child tax credit, etc etc. Nothing to investigate 🤗
All we can do at this point is hunker down, watch for windows of possible wins and take care of our families. I just can't bring myself right now to get psyched about the DNC and the National Democratic Party Leaders. The States' Democrats though did an amazing job.
We can do more than hunker down. We can build an alternative structure for society to use that is designed to show people a hopeful future is possible. While there are those in Congress and elsewhere whose full-time positions involve defeating Trump, the millions of us who are not specifically part of that defensive movement can spend our time building the foundation of the future society that will replace the current one. And I do mean replace. The current system of society is completely dysfunctional and primed to destroy. But there is an alternative if you research the pioneers of last century’s societal transformation movement. I am referring to Dr. R Buckminster Fuller, W Edwards, Deming, and Russell Ackoff. I’m also referring to Riane Eisler, who is still with us at age 94. These people have many students, including Amory Lovins and William McDonough, who can form the core intellectual framework for a world built on cooperation, peace and science instead of division hate and ignorance. This is the work I am now committed to. And I will be presenting a brief overview of my plan to the city leaders of Oklahoma City at a special meeting to determine the fate of the Gold Dome Building in downtown Oklahoma City on Monday.
I believe this is what we just tried to do Steve. Until the Leaders of the Democratic Party step aside and let new people lead the way forward the Democratic Party will keep thinking the same way and repeating the same mistakes. A sincere best of luck in Oklahoma!
What leaders do you think should step aside, the whole, the part, or the few? Perhaps a new party can come up with catchy slogans, handmaids and bumper stickers that say, "Free the January 6th 900." Look how well MAGA doing. Surely, the Dems can find new blood to compete with the likes of the permanently insane white cowboys running the GOP. The Dems have a messaging problem, not a personnel problem. imo
The older leader need to yield to the younger ones in the Democratic Party. There a bunch of them! We have a personal problem and a messaging problem. imo.
Thank you. I’ll post how my Oklahoma City project looks late Monday, after I meet with the civic leaders (including OKC’s mayor) at a public hearing on the Gold Dome’s future.
I believe recovery is possible. But only if people learn there is an alternative vision of the future possible. People need to learn a world built on cooperation science and love can replace the world built on division, ignorance, and hate.
I have a quote on my refrigerator: "Although attempting to bring about world peace through the internal transformation of individuals is difficult, it is the only way." - the Dalai Lama. I keep it there to remind me, and to laugh. I believe it. If true, then the only thing that matters is my state of mind. If I am in a peaceful state of mind, good. I will eventually affect someone else. If I am upset, then it's time to be kind to myself and settle down, take a walk, whatever. For what it's worth, this is Eckert Tolle teaching as well. The only thing that matters is your state of mind.
Not supremely evil, just a mob boss with no human characteristics. As an old dictionary described “trump’er.y. N.; deceit, fraud; anything calculated to deceive by false show; things worn out and of no value; worthless finery, intrinsically of little value…” Well, I would say more, but pretty descriptive and makes fools of many Americans who live in the shadow of human evil.
My resigned and bitter hope is that the next two years are NOT SO BAD as to damage the republic permanently but MORE THAN BAD ENOUGH to turn popular opinion away from Trump to catalyze much needed reforms for financial transparency of political contributions, not to mention promulgating strict limits on amounts of money contributed. 😱🤞🤬🖖🥳
EDIT: P.S., that would be the start of a much longer process of unravelling and redressing corruption.
His appointees to critical institutions like the DOJ and FBI will have a huge impact on how bad things will get. Here is clip from Democracy Dockett with congressman Dan Goldman that lays out how important it is that these appointments DO Not get approved.
Amen Ned! Democracy can survive grift, incompetence, lying and misinformation. As long as polio vaccine can be obtained, even if a bit harder and not mandated, we'll be ok. 'Investigating' opponents in the name of revenge weakens our democracy, but again it will survive so long as innocent people are not convicted. This guy is highly likely to trigger a recession, ok not good but we can survive it. I'd keep an eye on things that undermine/destroy the ability of our democracy to function. Those things are a bit harder to discern especially in 'real time'. E.g. Nixon sabotaging Muskie and other Dems, unknown at the time, may have changed history in an anti-democratic manner.
Most of us can survive a drop in the use of vaccines, but the mandated vaccines are often the ones covered by insurers and public health agencies. It takes a relatively modest drop in the percentage of those immunized, so called herd immunity, to unleash rounds of disease that can kill or permanently disable many people.
With Donald Trump, it's all about the show, it's all about the spectacle, it's all about the ratings – free of any thoughtful substance or, for that matter, any conscience whatsoever. Always has been. Always will be. To him, the con, the grift, the chaos and, of course, the suffocating, insatiable ego are paramount.
Far more than any public figure in this reader's memory, going as far back as the mid-1950s, Trump has orchestrated a dumbing down, coarsening and vulgarization of American life that previously had been unimaginable. But it's not that we weren't warned. In 1985, NYU Professor Neil Postman published the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." Although it was too early to cite Trump specifically, the emphasis was on our overall trivializing of what ought to be serious.
Author Aldous Huxley "believed with H. G. Wells that we are in a race between education and disaster, and he wrote continuously about the necessity of our understanding the politics and epistemology of media," Postman explained. "For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in 'Brave New World' was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."
Trump is a creature of media, ensuring the dominance of infotainment over credible journalism. The fact he was elected president not just once but twice doesn't speak well of America's prevailing values.
Gene, thanks for the reference to AH and HGW. This really does seem to describe the public sphere now, and it’s a good snapshot of the bulk of media consumed today …
“ what afflicted the people … was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."
One could extend this to an analogy of what and how we eat.
Thank you, Gene, for the reminders about Huxley and H.G. Wells. Of course, George Orwell is right up there beside them. When “show biz” is mistaken for journalism, a society goes off the rails…or just removes them. In the animal kingdom we talk about “flight, fight, or freeze.” Now is the time for “fight,” in all the nonviolent ways at hand, including calling out the media’s preference for style over substance.
What Comes to Mind: The Emperor Has No Clothes and Dorothy's discovery that the Wizard of Oz was literally a fraud, a little man hiding behind a curtain and using special effects to create an illusion of grandeur.
It’s kinda like we’re going to have some sort of “concept” of a government. This group of people are much scarier than the Wizard or a naked Emperor. Let’s bring back polio and diphtheria, dirty water, graft and chaos. It certainly sounds like a concept for a horror film.
The wizard in this case isn’t the insipid orange turd, he doesn’t have the intelligence to walk out the open door of a burning building, the man behind the throne is Rupert Murdoch who controls Fux News and their incessant promotion of the most despicable candidate for any office much less the presidency. Muck is running a close second to Murdoch and may ultimately replace him at the top. If you have any doubt about Murdoch’s power just look at how many of the unfit nominees have come from Fux.
My husband keeps saying”some good will come from this”. He hasn’t been wrong in 34 years. Trump’s first term was so awful, the real good that came from that was Joe Biden and ALL the good he miraculously created in 4 years for this country and the world. Let’s not forget that. Trump was created after wonderful Obama, and predictably again after Biden. Wealthy dark players want dark patsies. . It’s America’s pattern, so it seems. Let’s focus on great leaders to replace Trump and his kind in 2-4 years.And then again. There are plenty ready and willing.
I keep waiting for the public to say "enough is enough" and demand real change, but I have now been waiting for decades. I have not given up, and Trump seems bent on proving just how awful he can be. I hope he does not pull the whole "ship of state" down with him.
Meanwhile, who remembers the "Gilded Age"? It's been a secret in plain sight that the "Robber Barons" have been Striking Back for some time now. Monopolization of money and political power has menaced humanity for centuries, yet we strike at the branches rather than the roots. We as a society made hard won uneven progress it that direction in the last century with a resultant growing middle class and several moves toward broadening social justice, yet tossed much of that away for slick and misleading sloganeering.
Follow the money! It's The One Ring to Rule Them All.
Exactly. We saw fit to protect the integrity of elections in the last century and limit monopolies and inequality and the nation did not fall apart. Quite the reverse. Greed was never good*, that's what makes if greed. Greed is gain by depriving others.
* and yes, the line "Greed is good" was popularized by a fictional villain, but check financial press or right-wing commentary prior to the subprime crash where they embraced it as a motto.
I am not a believer, but I notice the Bible has a thing or two to say about narcissistic pursuit of wealth. This is the time of year we dust off the story of Scrooge; but even old scrooge, in the end, had a conscience. Cruel sociopaths don't. Weird how some of the worst of them attract a fanatical following.
Check this interactive map of all of Trump's 79 nominees including Kari Lake, Harmeet Dhillon and Kimberly Guilfoyle. Click on any face for details and links to more information. Search by name? Position nominated for? Connected to FOX? Is a major donor? Related to Trump? Billionaire? Who has been accused of sexual assault?
So this is what happens when maladjusted rich boys grow tired of their most common play toys…they then decide to move on to making America and Americans lives their new play toy?
Well. We knew it was going to be awful. So here we are. I haven't heard him speak in many years. I never follow mainstream media. Monitor how much of this nightmare you are willing to absorb on any given day.
TIME’S TRUMP, HITLER, & STALIN—NOT A POSITIVE THREESOME
I remember when TIME magazine was an essential read in the United States. It had a circulation of millions and, along with LIFE magazine, were must reads. Today they both have disappeared as significant publications. TIME MAN (PERSON) OF THE YEAR is a faint echo of what it was from 1927 to the 1980s.
It is not the anointing of the ‘best person’ of the year. Rather, it highlights the most ‘significant’ individual. Thus, Donald Trump joins Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
I find nothing surprising in Trump’s TIME interview. We knew who he was from his ART OF THE DEAL, THE APPRENTICE, and his cavalcade of lies, business failures, personal attacks, and treatment of his public life as a glittering, egotistical show unrooted in concern for anyone but himself.
His recent outlandish, fear-and-despair-founded presidential campaign was the frightful apex of the Donald Trump show. He was throwing out thoughts and ‘concepts’ with the same style in which, in anger, he would heave ketchup at his dining room wall.
As a citizen who had been a ‘sucker’ and almost a ‘loser’ for his country (and also s history professor from age 58-to-80), I had imagined that a president of the United States was concerned about governing and the welfare of the American people. WRONG, regarding Trump.
His only concern is himself. As indicated in his TIME interview, his presidential race was simply a sick, egotistical game in which, by hook or crook, he intended to win.
As president-elect, his lack of interest in governing is writ large. As reflected in PROJECT 2025, a roomful of his sycophants have provided a blueprint intended to transform our democracy into an authoritarian country.
Already the Supreme Court has become the ‘Stench Court.’ Trump’s intention to seek political revenge against those who have opposed him is reflected by appointees who would ravage the Justice Department and remove the ‘deep state’ from the FBI.
Trump has made a mountain full of campaign promises which he has absolutely no intention of fulfilling. Indeed, from the Time interview, it is clear that he seems unaware or concerned about these campaign promises.
His appointment of family and billionaires friends to government positions is the height of absurdity and disregard for the management of the United States of America. The naming of Donald Trump Jr.’s former girl friend as ambassador to Greece seems similar to Caligula naming his horse as Roman consul.
I am greatly concerned by how badly Trump and his gang can screw up the United States domestically and globally in the coming years. Clearly Trump doesn’t give a damn.Some of the ideological incompetents who he seeks to appoint to major positions can do great damage to the constitutional checks and balances that have been the bed rock of our country for well over 250 years.
America has survived dreadful periods in the past. For me, Trumpism is the worst since the Civil War.
WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO HOLD TRUMP AND HIS CRONIES RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THEY WILL BE TRYING TO DO TO OUR COUNTRY AND TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
With Heather as our North Star, let us fight and chip away at this Trumpmania and seek to get our ship of state back on a more positive course in the 2026 congressional elections.
Stalin TIME's Man of the Year, for 1939 and 1942. He fomented civil strife and national suffering, establishing a reign of terror which included mass arrests, executions and deportations. As well as cultivating a cult of personality. TIME described this public worship: "Joseph Stalin has gone a long way toward deifying himself while alive. No flattery is too transparent, no compliment too broad for him. He became the fountain of all Socialist wisdom". They might have included that in 1923 Stalin, previously an editor of the Communist newspaper Pravda (Truth), coined the term "desinformatsiya" for false information meant to deceive public opinion. Today we have Trump and his Truth Social. And his Soviet-style authoritarianism second hand from Stalin heir Vladimir Putin as recycled to the American Christian Nationalist GOP through KKK Grand Wizard, GOP gadfly, and Putin fanboy David Duke. Time might have directly designated "disinformation" as their Person of the Year for exerting the most influence on events of the year. After all, it's what helped put Trump in the driver's seat.
(Although, I'd have given it jointly to Yahya Sinwar and Bibi Netanyahu.)
Keith, I share your concern. I am waiting for my friends who are so anti-Biden to react to the awful things coming down the pike. I hope that they will clear their heads and join the fight, but there's an element of Neidermeyer's "Thank you sir, may I have another" to them that I fear is more dominant than any reasoned thought.
I was living in an isolated 150-year-old farmhouse. I subscribed to TIME. It was mile hike to retrieve the magazine from the roadside mailbox. I would then spend some quality time with a good cup of coffee beside a woodburning stove pouring over the writings.
Barbara Exactly my sentiments about the historic TIME—then a must read. Now I suspect that a few folks in a back room are trying to benefit from the name and past glory. A Nonthingburger.
So many excellent publications are now junk. Now I go to Substack, Bluesky and podcasts such as Meidas Touch. I miss the sound of evening newspaper being handled by my Father as he sat reading after dinner.
Barbara Some of my favorites: The Atlantic, including its daily articles; The Economist; THE WEEK (excellent for diverse survey of domestic and foreign press); New York Review of Books; The Guardian.
Barbara I cancelled my subscription to Tim Snyder. I thought his BLOODLANDS book on the Jewish genocide was superb. However, on
Substack I found that he pontificated too often and included a series of prerecording Yale student lectures. He reminded me of one of my Yale professors—bright, pontifical, and not really linked with audience.
For tyranny and Eastern European substance, I much prefer Anne Applebaum,
It was hard heating with wood and doing nothing but stoking stoves during blizzards but there were those moments...
I get to go back to some land. I am moving into a 240-year-old house sitting on 16 acres. This is a temporary stay and a gift of friends. A true miracle.
Anne Marie Well-informed Heatherites like you inspire me to write with zest at 4am. Then I go back to bed and am stunned in the morning to see what I have riffed onto Heather. On occasion I mumble something unladylike, but other times I find that a sleepy Keith thinks and writes better than wide awake. Thank four compression fractures of my lower back for my nocturnal scribbling.
I'm not religious, but I pray every night I'll wake up in the morning with my news feed announcing that Fatso Fatass at the fatal hamberder and is now laid out as the rotting corpse he is.
I actually did a similar thing—every morning I grabbed my phone, hoping that something had happened to him during the night. I guess it’s time to do it again.
The convicted criminal's shtick "still plays well to the media"?
Yes, but we're talking media who've all been to college, and so been stripped of any humanities to be in touch with any of the tens of millions who've been so hurt as they have been by the U.S. money classes.
We're also talking that convicted criminal deftly having played those tens of millions who all got their jobs offshored, their communities abandoned.
Billionaires line up, giving millions to the new king, hoping to curry favor. Ha ha, the joke’s on them. He will take their gold, frankincense, and myrrh and screw them all!
Why haven’t you commented on Time magazine choosing him as the man of the year? I was pretty shocked by that. Talk about propaganda! I haven’t looked at it. Was he just allowed to lie and lie and lie right there in time magazine?
I didn’t know that! I am still curious if he was allowed to lie lie lie and lie. I was curious enough to buy the magazine, except in the word town where I live, there is nowhere to buy it.
Stop listening to Trump. Stop reacting to everything he says he is going to do. Look at what he does. Keep an eye on the crimes that need investigation and prosecuting. Keep an eye on the nefarious policies he puts into place. But stop reacting to every stream of consciousness drivel that oozes from his reptilian brain.
Polio vaccines need to stay in place. Social Security and Medicare need protecting. Conflicts of interest and graft need to be catalogued, investigated, and prosecuted.
Stay focused on what is done and being done. Not on what is said.
Yup. And stop watching legacy media, stop interacting with them at all. This aberration is THEIR fault.
I do not subscribe to any newspapers nor watch any network news. I cannot stand the sight or the voice of this disgusting person. He’s turned the presidency into a crime syndicate, and it’s revolting. I will continue to say out loud exactly how I feel about the Trump Crime Family.
He may have turned the Presidency into a Crime Family…but it was our extremely STUPID Voters who gave him the ability to do so!!!! Something the rest of us will have to bear through no fault of our own. Romania has got a lot on us…they annulled their mistake!!!
Bob, I get the frustration, and here is a pretty safe place to express it, but calling Trump voters stupid (the ordinary folks, not the cynical power grabbers who knew exactly what they were getting) is demeaning the very folks Democrats need to learn how to reach, and does not contribute, in fact works against, winning some of them over to vote Democrat.
For the rural and working folks, as well as young men and Latinos that voted for Trump, they only heard their podcasters, AM radio, and Trump's lies. Many lead paycheck to paycheck lives, which doesn't leave much room for exploring politics. On top of that, the GOP, in cahoots with Christian Nationalist leaders, has been courting these folks WHERE THEY LIVE for decades. If you look at a color map of Trump's win, most Blue states are near the east and west coasts, and most red states are between the two. It kind of gives some weight to the label, "coastal elites."
I follow Jess Piper (Missouri woman, a Dem in a real red state who writes of her experiences running for office in MO.) She says that Dems need to start recruiting and backing candidates for very local elections, school boards, councils, etc. Right now so many GOP candidates go uncontested, which means they're the only ones heard at the town halls and other local opportunities.
If a college educated Democrat feels even a little bit superior to high school educated Republicans who voted for Trump, and lumps them all together as stupid, that's energy working against what needs to be done to make real change. We need to make new Democrats... in areas many of us might not be comfortable in. But their neighbors are. And many of them are really good neighbors! And we need to reach them with the Democratic Story. Blessings,
Excellent points and very well stated. Thank you. AOC spoke to some of her constituents to explore how they voted for her and CFDT (my acronym for Cheeto, not hers). Her take was they didn’t listen to a lot of what he said except for the last sentence, “I will take care of you.” Despite all evidence to the contrary, that is the message they took home. Dems definitely need to be more active in local, county and state elections, especially in red states and share that message. Have kitchen table talks and share the ways they are working to better the lives of those struggling working 2+ jobs, putting food on the table, and decent housing, as well as those of us in the middle who are struggling to stay there.
Thank you Kathi, and thanks for the thoughts you added. I really think this has to be a movement, and I don't hear anyone outside of Jess saying ti clearly yet. I might try to reach Brian Tyler Cohen. He interviews a lot of folks and maybe he could get Jess to speak with him. Blessings,
The problem is not that Trump voters are necessarily stupid, but that they are disinformed and believe in an alternative reality. I have a colleague who throws around terms like "lawfare" and "deep state", neither of which are real. He also told me quite seriously that "the illegal immigrants have to go because they are a huge drag on our economy". The exact opposite is true.
I like my colleague. He's a good man who is kind to his girlfriend's two autistic sons and wept when one of his dogs died. He bought his elderly parents a house and under certain circumstances would give you the shirt off his back. That said, he believes whatever the right-wing media noise machine tells him.
Joel - I have family who would give the shirts off their backs to help me or others. As long as their skin is white. I disagree with the notion that most Trump voters are good people who have merely been mislead. Too much water has passed under the bridge since 2016. I think it is more likely that they know what they voted for. And that is a much more ominous problem for us than correcting disinformation.
Thank you Joel, these are exactly the stories we need to be telling one another to support this idea. And the Dems have to get better at messaging to rural and working folks. Unlike the GOP lies about immigrants and lgbtq+ etc., we have real things to tell them about how Dem policies improve lives.
Yup, I try really hard to not call people stupid, it ends any ability to change minds
Exactly!
I have some issues with this Terry. While I agree that somehow Democrats have to get through to more citizens, I am increasingly convinced that Trumpism is indeed what the majority of our citizens want. So I don't know how we can do that. They just are not interested in the equality-for-all purpose of "woke" for instance. It is human nature to hate on the "other", and only the more sophisticated societies have gotten this under control. Most people who voted for Trump take pride in denigrating "wokeness". These people have no interest in investing in the long term future of our country and the world, hence no interest in shouldering the near term costs of climate mitigation. A more sophisticated society has successfully educated its citizens on what needs to take place, and has taken the hard steps to do it. These people do not understand or tolerate regulations put in place to protect society from corporate producers who care not for them or us. All they care about is the size of their next paycheck. These people will rail and rail about high taxes, yet are willfully ignorant about what those taxes are paying for - things they should appreciate.
America's heritage of wilderness freedum is coming home to roost. Its longstanding disregard for expertise and intellect is increasingly penalizing us as an advanced nation in a world in bad need of more advanced nations. Democrats and their agenda, for a long time now, tries to combat this schtick. And we are losing.
I used to be in the camp where most Americans are regarded as basically ordinary good-hearted people. And all they need is to see the truth in things, and they will do the right thing. I am no longer in this camp. And because of this, I am at a loss what to do about it. Republicans on the other hand are nasty and evil enough to see this and take advantage of it. Shame on Americans.
Shame on the bad guys.
Thanks so much for voicing this critical issue here so eloquently. Everyday on here I see comments (and insinuations by HCR) that people who voted for trump are “stupid” or “racist/ misogynistic” and that’s the only reason people could possibly have voted for him … yet many of them are SUFFERING economically as a result of historical levels of wealth inequality (now beyond those of the guilded age) - which you would never know from HCR’s continual drumbeat of “economic indicators are up.” They have legitimate grievances and did not feel “heard” by Dems, obviously, (who would if you’re continually told the economy is great and yet you can’t pay your bills, your children can’t buy or rent a home, etc). Time to put down the condescending attitudes of superiority and start to humbly LISTEN to people and be curious about their experiences. It’s the only way to win moving forward.
Yes, thanks for what you've added to the conversation about what Dems need to do. LISTEN is a great place to start!
I agree completely with your comment and am glad you said it, because sometimes I get caught up with frustration and forget to settle down.
I follow Jess Piper, as well, and hope to hell we can take back our government. She's right--we have to start in the most local places. But how do we fight the insanity of the media and its influence?
I'm no political strategist, but I think you've just asked one of the most inportant question Dems can ask. And I hear a lot of ideas being talked about, but so far, no one else is saying, "Show up where they are and LISTEN!" Then I think we've got to show up where THEY listen with much better stories of how Dem policies affect their lives positively...or what will happen if GOP billionaires get their wishes. Kinda wish we'd been doing that all along.
Oh and there are lots of Trumpers in Clay County, Indiana and I am not one of them. I am considering buying the sticker! I have to get enough guts to put it on my SUV!
I reckon your SUV will be proud to wear it.
I think you're missing the underlying unhappiness and helplessness in the face of changes that they feel are beyond their control and do not favor their security. Manufacturing left, opioids arrived, and then Covid came. The intensity with which people fail to credit Covid for their economic woes still amazes me.
Here is an updated reply to my original Comment (12/13/2024) that brought quite a few comments of it’s own.
“Folks, Your right…I’m frustrated, as well as…mad, sad and very disappointed, so perhaps “stupid” wasn’t the appropriate description. It was much quicker to type than, ignorant of the real facts, uninformed, unaware, brainwashed, clueless, oppressed or any other number of other similar descriptions. Most importantly…any one that implies “dangerous to a democracy.” I say dangerous because how they voted went a long way towards giving our democracy away…Hopefully you’re able to remember or, perhaps were living under a rock the last time trump was in Office…he wasn’t going to leave so he incited an illegal insurrection…people died! So he brushed his hands off at the whole fiasco…and walked away. What do you think is going to happen this time…because he or a successor, isn’t going to leave!
You must realize?? the American Voter is, or WAS, our only line of defense against people the likes of trump and his sycophants. Another point…this is not about Political Parties, none of them are perfect. I prefer to vote the Candidate myself. Some of your suggestions for change are valid…but! they are generational changes…and we just ran out of time.
Incidentally, and only for a statistical prospective, the “likes” for my original comment are running ahead approximately10+ to 1! So?????
In closing…I sincerely hope that the total vote tabulation shows that something illegal took place negating the original results!”
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
(From "Donald's Vanity Tantrums.")
No, I can't believe he penned that with his own thumb. His new word "honor" is missing. I suppose his fireside is fuelled by the cherry-wood chopped up by young George with his little hatchet.
Satire
What else is there left to us?
Yes, Trump wants to be the authoritarian leader. But there is much more to this than that. Trump is destroying the country. Literally. The new cabinet members are both incompetent and announce they want to destroy their departments. Tariffs will raise prices on common products which will raise the cost of living for the lowest income people. Trump is freeing the Jan 6 prisoners who will be his private army. Expect a whole series of crises. Not to mention our efforts outside our borders going haywire.
Ask this question: who would have the interest, and stand to benefit the most, from this catastrophe? Putin. Putin hates the US. Always. With good reason. The US has been making trouble for Russia forever. Now we are in the digital age with so many nefarious ways to make trouble. No frontal attack is needed. Do you think Trump had more votes fair and square? No. And Elon Musk had a hand in that.
Look at every new Trump move and ask; would this make Putin happy? Would this cause Americans more problems? Yes.
I really do suspect that Musk somehow got Trump more votes than he earned.
Bill, you could be a playwright. Lol
3 dots on right
shuts you up!
I’m guessing by your post that you don’t agree with free speech. If you don’t like what I say, just block me or whatever you can do on the site I am relatively new to it. Someone sent me a stray email that got me here OK I soon noticed there is no opposing opinion on this website which means it’s kind of like a bubble So all I did is it and all I do is I have my thoughts you’re welcome to disagree with them. Hate them discard them or whatever. In the meantime, many people here need another perspective, but they’re not getting from outside the bubble. I have given the number of Californians this advice, and once they took it of actually worked to a great degree. Go spend some time with people and flyover country see what they think about California because you don’t see it from inside California and they were quite surprised and have mellowed since.
In fact, there’s one pretty famous actor who’s renowned left-wing liberal and his life that his mother was a schoolteacher and he had to do a film in Nebraska or Kansas something like that he had to spend a couple months shooting the movie when he left there he went these people are not what we thought they were so nice and friendly. They care about each other to help each other and not the dummies on the ogres we thought they were. And since then, he’s been much less vocal about his political bias. For whatever it’s worth
Rick can post what he likes as long as it’s not vulgar. Also reporting just means that the comment is removed from your screen nothing more.
"“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act," signed by President Biden, on January 5, 2025.
Can you imagine? Sweet relief!
Did you substitute names from Goebbels tirades
Well done!!!
Questioning Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi would be essentially letting them off the hook. In my opinion Adam Schiff home should be rated at 6 o’clock in the morning like they did to Roger Stone. And I would be willing to bet that Adam Schiff will receive a nice pardon, but I’m not sure that will still let him off the hook for what he did for 3 1/2 years with the Russia BS
3 dots on the right.
Shuts you up ;)
No it only shuts you out.
Do you mean " the Russian BS" that likely swung the election to Trump in 2016 and possibly again in 2024?
Not possibly: not even probably; but actually.
We might be aware that there is a new offshoot of TDS and it’s called TRDS. Trump Russia derangement syndrome. Adam Schiff and Robert Mueller went down that road already and now where are they? Schiff is heading for a presidential pardon for his role in the Russia hoax. As is the January 6 committee for a number of issues, including hiding information, as well as the FBI for not disclosing the number of agents present during the January 6 event. Pay close attention to what’s gonna happen
Testing the option to "report" (in the 3 dots in the upper right) to reduce an undesired comment to a line that says "You reported this comment" (only on my screen), but leaves an option to "SHOW" the comment if I find the replies justify bothering to see more than can be deduced from the replies.
Update: The test works great, just "Report" the comment to clear up the clutter on your own screen, and perhaps do more of what Pete Buttigieg does in using Fox fool interviewers as an opening to tell the truth about any subject the interviewer dares to bring up.
I wouldn't waste time with less serious tit for tat replies, nor be constrained to just whats to distract us from.
What is an undesired comment ? one with which you don’t agree?
And I wouldn’t be bringing Pete Buttigieg into this conversation because it’s an embarrassment. Why don’t you just go check out his budgets when he was going to produce in the way of electric mail trucks and electric charging stations and the budgets there of ?
Ouch big time
Learn how to spell. Raided is not spelled rated. If this is an open forum that you reached through an email from a friend, then so be it. I found my way here the same way. By and large, the comment stream here includes the views of intelligent people. Every now and then,some one lower on the IQ continuum sneaks in.
Kim, you obviously aren’t familiar with my posting. I voice text everything and I firmly believe that people here are intelligent enough to figure out the influence or the significance of the words. In other words, in this context, here, when I’m not being graded by an English professor
I believe Content over form all day long… I do a lot of posting on a number of different venues and I don’t have the time necessarily to type everything out and to spell check it. I have an excessively large vocabulary, and for the last 12 years have added two words a day to my vocabulary, in addition to what I had already amassed. So I apologize for the spelling punctuation syntax etc. it is evident that you knew what I meant and that’s my point. My apologies again
Bill's post is satire.
More than a few folks here reminded me yesterday not to feed the troll RS.
Yes, we know and Bill and I have a special relationship I actually complimented him and told him that he could be a playwright. 😁
You mean like Trump's intended pardons for the J6 mob that followed his direction to attack the Capitol, threaten the life of his vice president, attempt to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results, and then knowingly lied for the last 2+ years about its being "stolen" from him? They'll all get let off the hook by this criminal, right?
I think you’re gonna find us more information comes out as it did the other day that there were 26 FBI agents buried in the crowd that shouldn’t have been there that entered property where they shouldn’t have entered, and in many cases allowed, permitted, and even video of the fact that they encourage people to enter the premises. And the FBI covered up their involvement. And I’ll be 26 people that are now been confirmed to be in the crowd. None of them were arrested. More to come on the exposure of Nancy Pelosi’s video with her daughter talking about it was her fault and she could’ve done more to prevent it.
He should be ‘rated”? I rate him highly.
Yes, and as I have explained, I voice text everything and I do a lot of this, so I don’t have time to go back and check it, but I believe that the folks on this particular blogger, smart enough for intelligent enough to figure out the Context or content. As I have said a number of times before contacts before form. I am not being graded by an English professor here so I apologize please forgive me but I’m sure you got the message
Troll alert.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna169571
BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT.
Proved a bot several times. Don't feed.
It's blocking the thread.
Indeed, a crime syndicate—though most syndicates boast more competent criminals. Some might assume Trump’s ability to avoid prison and ascend to the presidency reflects exceptional skill. In reality, his success relied heavily on luck and a system ripe for exploitation. By leveraging delays in justice and bending the rules, he avoided accountability. Now, his aim isn’t just survival—it’s dismantling the very system he manipulated to serve his own interests.
That is true. But the 18th century founders of our democracy made a considerable effort to give the Senate the responsibility and authority to keep the president from over riding the Constitution and becoming a king. Ensuring that presidential appointees to key government positions are well qualified for those jobs is a major part of that obligation. Of the 53 incoming Republican senators, do we not have at least 4 who will live up to those obligations and join the 47 Democrats to appose overtly unqualified appointees?
Sadly David, I don't think we do. Obviously we will have to wait and see, but I'm not optimistic. The blatant corruption is beyond belief. I can't stand to see what is to come of our great nation
If past performance is any indication, there will not be "at least 4" maga senators.
David M. Clark: Those four have been threatened with losing their reelections. If they don't do what T says, they won't receive his party's support when it comes to reelection time.
Yeah, Eric trump braggs about the great business deals coming at them and President Biden was forced to pardon his son for no crime. In the meantime, while the trump crime syndicate is getting richer, the maga Congress says it will keep investigating Hunter Biden despite the presidential pardon.
A dog will never relinquish his bone. They may resurrect Bengazi. Hate is the driver, revenge the goal. Apologies to dogs
Nah, Darrell Issa is busy wasting our tax dollars on Afghanistan now. He needs that to be Biden’s fault.
Maybe Trey Goudy and Jason Chaffetz can be lured back. They did one hell of a job with targeting an innocent woman, on and on and on
Hunter Biden did commit a crime. But Republicans took the idea of a penalty way too far and aggressively prosecuted him for things other people would pay a fine for. That’s weaponization of our legal system. These same people expect Trump to do way worse and not even be brought to justice. The two standards of justice in this country.
No crime RU kidding? Buying crack buying a gun cheating on taxes no crime? But he still needed a pardon.
Paid all his taxes. Never used the guy, his wife threw it away. No one else would have been prosecuted and they certainly would not have had Congressional committees investigating it and a special counsel for years investigating it. Biden was right. It was done because it was his son.
Biden was about as right as all of the ancestors that refused to comply with the unjust Fugitive Slave Act. Does Trump really want all of his worse pardons reversed? He may not mind but the stooges he pardoned might not like it.
I can't abide the sight or sound of Trump or Musk. They sicken me.
Susan, I can't stand seeing him or hearing him either. We have given up national news and everything but the NYT because I like other things such as the puzzles, book review, science section, etc. Hubby still reads other parts of it, but I don't bother. I used to think the Bush crime family was bad, but they pale in comparison to this criminality led by mafia don.
I feel the same way. Didn’t like him long before he ran for president. Smarmy!,,
He’s just ANOTHER angry white guy who can’t make it in society so he blames others.
He’s not president yet so don’t get ahead of yourself
This RS comment is simply short enough and innocent sounding enough for me to not to "Report" it to de-clutter just my screen. Knowing the intent of most of this sender's comments will find me using the "Report" option to at least clean the larger ones up from my screen, others may want to use the same option.
I do appreciate that doing so does not hide the responses which I do want to see, whether or not I want to see what RS comment they are replying to.
I hope this reply gives enough of a clue that would be respondents might look at a few more of the RS comments to see how many of them they like when they see a more complete picture of all the replies. I, myself, would have liked this reply if I hadn't see so many of the others.
Yes, without a doubt, RS is from "the other side." Right off the bat he took issue with the Black Lives Matter movement and justified the rise of the Tea Party, claiming that Obama was a racist. RS is enveloped in his own cocoon.
Yes, while he lectures us about not associating with the Trump supporters or being a part of their lives he’s here just to tell us all how wrong we are. Not once does he listen to what we’re are thinking or feeling to learn or consider our opinions, it’s simply to antagonize. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Just hit the 3 dots on RS's comment and collapse. It will close his/her/it comments and the ones in the same thread following.
Actually selecting "Report" in the 3 dot area closes just that comment with an added option to Show it again with an option to Hide it but just on your own screen, no one else's. It has the advantage of leaving all the replies visible.
Clicking on the line below the commenter's name collapses all the replies below, leaving the comment, the opposite of the choice I prefer, "Report"(which I would prefer to be called "Hide from my Screen")
His right to free speech is preserved, but we have a personal option to effectively hide it on our own screens. To me, this is a bit like the people's microphone, used where bull horns were banned. It had the surprising advantage of people heartily repeating the words they appreciated for people further back in the crowd, but not so loudly for what they disagreed with or didn't find interesting enough. You had three minutes to see if the crowd was interested, and how interested. If they were really interested they would give you another three minutes. If not, you had to go to the back of the line before you got another three minutes
I learned a bit from speaking in three minute opportunities to get my points across and see if they could be tuned to what the crowd would be interested in. They wouldn't stop you from speaking but certainly did slow you down if you were just wasting their time.
He was president. For four ugly miserable years that ended in his total BS insurrection and encitement to riot at the Capitol. If we didn't have a Constitution that had virtually no obstacles to being President he would never get near the White House again. But sadly we have no legal way to stop him (enough US citizens were unable to see through his BS and his crimes and they elected him again... that election will live in infamy).
Please don't reply to me, you are wasting your time as I am no longer reading anything you write because you are a sadly deluded little pr**k who needs to get an education and grow up.
I didn’t ask you to read anything I write in the first place that’s your call
Even liberals and many Democrats in Congress made this comment.
If not for Covid, Donald Trump would be leaving the White House right now rather than returning. Regarding ending in infamy, it wouldn’t surprise me that Donald Trump will be named one of the best four or five presidents in American history by the time he’s done. And I hope you read my comments about the army navy game today. They both stated we’re on the battlefield to win a game but after that we’re brothers hopefully you’ll catch the inference.
BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT.
Proved a bot several times. Don't feed.
It's blocking every HCR thread.
Just go to three little 3 dots in the upper right corner and chose "Report." That will only block it on your screen and leave an option to "Show" if you want to expand it.
It does not hide the replies (an advantage which I like), but you can show it expanded again if you think it might help clarify a response.
So far it doesn't interfere with the commenter's ability to comment, though I do wonder if future ones will be blocked if too many nuisance comments are submitted by the same sender.
RS has at least made me more cautious in liking just any old comment, now checking that commenter's general history of comments are worthy of any likes. I might still "Like" a comment or two but will follow it with my own comment that the particular one looks reasonable and acceptable.
Jim - yes, you're right - research, research research. It's no longer wise to accept any old statement you see on line - even if the poster DOES claim to be a "Professor of Nuclear Physics", or whatever.
And I sent you a comment earlier. I gave you an honest answer to a question you ask and then you call me a bot well, I think you’re a fraud for doing that because I’m not a bot
Legacy is the wrong way to characterize media. They are functionally spouting corporate political rhetoric and policies. Example: lionizing the murdered UHC CEO is a strong message to suppress popular demand to reform for profit health coverage.
I don’t approve of murder, but the media seem to ignore the fundamental public sense that all of our institutions have failed us. The responses to the CEO’s death reflected people’s anger at arbitrary denials by their insurers, and the execs have enough money for excessive salaries and to use our premiums to contribute to politicians to preserve the status quo.
Oligarchy’s media. Corptocracy. Thats what we have in power regardless of who is in the WH. President Biden stood up to those special interest and succeeded for us, the middle class. That is why he lost. Because he was winning for us. Read other professors, HCR is just one of many. Read THE GUARDIAN, the Atlantic . watch Democracy Now.
HST said that republicans called anything that helped all the people “socialism.” Now it’s that vitriol on steroids and half the people agree. Enough that the vipers will be racing to the finish line before another election is even contemplated.
True, they label any government program as being "Socialism." I suppose that that could apply to the armed services as well. The Democrats need to learn reality and begin a new pitch. The Middle Class has disappeared and the oligarchs now want to take away their security in old age - Social Security and Medicare while grinding those at the very bottom into the dirt by reducing or eliminating Medicaid. What to do? Broadcast day after day, with rhythmic regularity, the fact that we need to hate this cruelty that is the cause of our despair and vote them out of office, if we still have a democracy. The lesson learned is that hate is a greater motivator than the presentation of objective facts. We've got to teach the vast majority to hate their oppressors.
Instead they sign on, propaganda not only works, it makes the cult sacrosanct
Who is HST?
Sorry, Harry S. truman
Corporate media.
If right-wing media isn't stopped, "they" will continue to win, and we will be lost. It may already be too late. Democrats need to build a media machine just as effective as the right's. That will involve buying up media companies and hiring the brightest young minds to figure out how to fight back effectively. And do this immediately!
There are some great articles on this subject by Michael Tomasky of the New Republic, who can say all this far better than I can.
The rest is smoke and mirrors designed to keep us distracted, so we won't see the real problem.
Robert Reich a few days ago wrote about four foundational stories that have influenced the direction of American society. IMO, that's key to how we can influence the zeitgeist.
Robert has seldom been right pretty much about anything he said having to do with economics or politics? In my opinion, he’s a borderline socialist belongs in another country because he believes in an another political philosophy that is not present nor popular in America. I think, if not for sub stack , his name would scant be heard again
Your Substack bio says you avoid or deny feelings and hate. Your comment suggests otherwise. Professor Reich is very popular and rose to prominence well before substack. Thanks for calling attention once more to the FACTS that he promotes govt FOR the PEOPLE... as well as BY and OF the People.
Are you aware of Progress Radio. John Fugelseng and many others. It is brilliant and not whiny.
Please explain how you think the right wing media can be "stopped" without sacrificing the tenet of freedom of the press? Censorship of the media is something i have fought for decades and while I recognize that the right wing media possess a difficult problem I would not ever advocate censorship or "stopping" them which would make our side just like the right wing dictatorships that do that to liberal media.
Corporate media.
the nation came close to being saved for one brief moment.
We can pinpoint the moment when it turned. Chump was whining about Joe dropping out and then, almost overnight, the campaign turned to racism and misogyny with a vengeance, and muskrat appeared to seal the deal. It gave me whiplash. But the MSM was enthralled…but not enough to point out what was happening.
The misogynist placed in his cabinet, the first woman chief of staff in American political history and placed in the most important position in his cabinet also a female as Attorney General. He also has the most diverse cabinet including two Democrats and he didn’t even have to try.
By the way, you mistake equal justice for vengeance. If people lied about you if people defamed you if people created hoaxes about you then they deserve what’s coming to them which is nothing more than equal justice. And I think George Stephanopoulos is a great example.
It was happening so fast, one could barely catch their breath.
Which hopefully inspires a generation.
WaPo is very earnestly trying to entice former "commenters" back into the fold.
I am also banned for life from the WAPO comment section for calling someone a "troll." This person or bot or whatever it was had been commenting without being called out by WAPO for several days in several different articles (sound familiar), I chose to call it a troll. Banned for life.
Last week the WAPO offered me a year's subscription for $13 and I ignored it as I do for The NY Times sniveling offers. And now that Paul Krugman has written his last column for The NY Times, I don't see any reason to return.
I'll stick with HCR, the Guardian and Rolling Stone. And, of course various Substack posts and Progress Radio.
I wonder if FB and T would take me back. Banned four years ago for saying that chump was a Hitler wannabe. Piss on both…
JD, I recommend BlueSky instead of Twitter if you’re thinking of going back. Not one penny to that, that, uh, person.
Never, joined BSky recently. @JDinTX.bsky.social
I'm not banned, I just unsubscribed. HCR often quotes Jennifer Rubin, and that'll do. I won't be taking them up on any of their special offers either. Were it only $3 a year.
I also read (past tense) Catherine Rampell but I quit the WAPO almost a year ago.
I pay $4 per month for NYT. I don’t mind that price for Eva other news source.
You’re being robbed. $4 for lies and hyping Donny? NYT has become a rag paper. I unsubscribed 3 years ago
Me too!
How about something centrist or at least right leaning so you get both sides of the story? You obviously won’t get it from the places you currently list imo
If anyone knows where Paul Krugman and others may be writing columns, please let us know here. Maybe a Substack? I just discovered MSNBC the other day and have been enjoying the late afternoon (east coast) program called White House something --lots of anti Trump guests on and very informative.
I’m permanently banned from WaPo after once stating I would take a crap on the Capital steps the day Trump is waked inside after eating a bucket of Kuntucky Fried Chicken. And I suggested that CNN would zoom in on my performance and interview me from jail.
I’ll ask them to let me back in and if they say yes, I won’t go.
I am from Kentucky. There are cities in Kentucky who vote Democrat. We have a Democratic Governor Beshear who was being mentioned as a VP possibility for Harris. I live in a City with a Democratic Mayor. My family have been Democrats for generations. Being a vegetarian, I don't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. Fried chicken is also used as a racist symbol. Could be why you got banned.
Explain how the Paul’s kept getting elected in KY. Or McConnell.
Why would I need to do that?
Banned? for that? but did they publish it first, to see if circulation improved?
They published it then deleted. I wish I had screen shot it first. He will die before me and I will get my wish at his place of burial.
I would only resubscribe to WaPo if they fired the head of the Editorial Board and certain OpEd writers. Though thankful to HCR for quoting writers like Jennifer Rubin in her newsletter, I don’t have the stomach to read one more article that begins with his name. I also try to avoid seeing his face. Basically I want him gone from my headspace as much as possible while still paying attention to what is actually going on. I agree totally with other commenters here that say it is not worth paying attention to anything he says since it is all lies and simply meant to keep him in the news every day.
Bill this reads like hate speech. If you talk like this frequently then that got you banned.
Well gosh darn, it is hate speech. I hate Trump. So get me banned gere
Bill. I gave you the respect of thinking about your comment in WaPo and giving you feedback. There was no judging or criticizing.
How about giving the acid comments, the mean knee jerk reactions a break? People in Dr. Richardson's site are like refugees. We need a break from hatred.
Nah, too late
Hope the commenters wise up.
WaPo's latest blandishments are aimed specifically at the "commentariat". Sorry, but it didn't move me to re-subscribe.
Medias Touch Network,an independent news org with ZERO outside financial investors, is shining the spotlight on the grift.Substack is a major part of their growth so subscribe(available for free), like or share. 📣
They’ve also hit over 5 billion YouTube views and getting more daily than Fox. Obviously MAGA people are not happy and delivering death threats ( via the cowardliness of the keyboard,of course) which only motivates MTN to keep growing the network.
https://open.substack.com/pub/meidastouch/p/resistance-hq-bulletin-25-121224?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Grabs you didn’t notice eight or nine of trumps cabinet pics getting death threats either?
Sometimes you have to watch the circus to see when the flamethrower Burns himself.
AND not provide anything to put out the fire 🔥
Tempting, but I would put out the fire to protect as many as I could around him.
Yes. Also consider finding sources of media that are not tied to the US, so that the US cannot shut them down. That includes not using X where Musk is gathering your data and manipulating you with algorithms.
Get a VPN so you can access things you want to if the government blocks them. Get your VPN on a non-US platform.
Sorry, but in the end it is our fault. And I speak as one who gave a good deal of my limited supply of money and many hours to the Harris campaig.
I donated to many Dem campaigns, including Harris too. But it just wasn’t enough when Musk gave him a quarter BILLION $$$ and other billionaires protected themselves by buying Trump’s support over protecting our country. And so many Rs and MAGAs believing things about Trump that just aren’t true. I will NOT take the blame for his win. I did what I could do.
Democrats had enough money this year. We didn't lose because of Melon Husk's sell-out to Trump. I don't know all of why we lost, but part of it was that we failed to appeal to groups who had been steadfast Democratic voters. Why did Harris get 7 1/2 million fewer votes than Biden in 2020? That was at least one vital reason for what happened.
Reasons that Kamala Harris lost should definitely be discussed. One of the reasons I think, contrary to what a lot of people say, is that she should have stood closer to Biden's record, not shunned it ---jobs, factories, climate protection, low unemployment, support for the ordinary little guy ----she spent a lot of time talking about pie in the sky things she would do when she became president instead of bragging about what Biden's administration accomplished.
Yep. For instance, on immigration, she labored when she said that the first bill the administration introduced was to fix the border problem, but it was clear that after that nothing material was done until 2024, with the bill Trump told Republicans to kill. She could and should have pointed out that there were a few other priorities from '21 to '24, and only so many hours in the day. But while she should have embraced what Biden did, she should also have admitted mistakes, like not paying enough attention to the southern border, and she should have taken responsibility for the errors she admitted.
Jon, perhaps that’s not the question that you should be asking? Perhaps you should be asking how Biden got 13 more million votes than Obama. ?
But they are attracting morons who are not cult nuts, yet. Making the problems worse. Granted they are all vying for the Fox runner up, and have become truly the enemy of the people. Free speech has become the mantra for trolls, and the fools, and the vipers…
I have stopped.
But Gwen, the legacy media is where Heather gets her information and summarizes it for us with a historians mind. Though flawed, it is the best source of news. We have to be active readers and listeners. To me, it looks like you're "throwing out the baby with the bath water."
There are certain news sites I avoid, like Fox, Newsmax and One America. I stopped using X. There are some that I'll seek out for certain topics, like international news sites.
Pruning out inflammatory channels, I found that TikTok and YouTube could be useful, but could be quite the time sinks.
Substacks like this one are great and I'm on here almost daily,
I get it, but I also think most Americans aren’t good critical thinkers and they’re being click-baited by deregulated corporations, not our once revered and trusted news. Heather doesn’t get a whole lot of her info from legacy media (nbc, cbs, abc) as she does from independent sources.
TV news is really not "legacy" media. Legacy media is the New York Times, the Associated Press and Reuters. TV news has rarely been worth watching except maybe PBS except maybe in major crises where they have r the money to deploy reporters.
Just where do you get your news?????
Yes, it is.
Yes! They chase after, and adore anyone who gives them the highest clicks and ratings. And Trump exceeds everyone else in that department.
They are the eunuchs of this regime.
I have… completely
Addendum:
Start taking notes, as Josh Marshall pointed out this morning. First promise already broken: he admits after promising to bring grocery prices down during the campaign that he can't. We can add that to the (falsely named) law and order party supporting Kash Patel who wants to break the FBI. Good luck stopping that next terrorist attack or investigating the growth of white supremacist terrorist organizations in the US.
Trump’s groupies are blissfully unaware that he is both the “deep state” and the “swamp.” These are both terms he uses to refer to governmental institutions he doesn’t personally control. I can guarantee that when he does bring them under his control, he will misuse them and get away with it. The SCOTUS majority has ignored 235 years of constitutional precedent and put Trump above the law. To paraphrase Frank Wilhoit’s comment, Trump is someone whom the law protects but does not bind, but ordinary citizens are persons whom the law binds but does not protect.
Kathy, excellent post. I see already that some of the people who run large concerns associated with ag, dairy, meat packing, and now corn and soy bean oil are now kvetching as their bottom lines will be affected. I am also certain that some who are not cult members, but rationalized their votes by food prices and feeling that they would not be affected, will soon rue the day. What interests me at this point is how much of all of this will actually happen. Even the attempts will create chaos, i fear.
Climate change is the ultimate factor in the price of eggs. Chickens have to eat decent food in order to lay decent eggs. Grain requires certain weather to grow and be harvested. I have seen wheat crop partially destroyed by bursts of rain that are typical of current weather patterns in some places. The war in Ukraine is destroying much of the grain that once fed Africa, and there are probably lots of stories about the price of eggs.
Virginia, indeed. Climate change is affecting us in ways people do not understand yet and is a factor in some of the immigration. I lived in Sierra Leone for three and half years. Rice was the main crop. One chicken barely was enough for one person and eggs....I can't even remember eating one there. This was in the 60s.
My guesstimate is that at least half of all immigration is caused by climate change. Crops fail; people must eat. No one wants to be driven from home.
Well put
I'd agree but with the exception that swamps are not as bad as cesspools and should not be replaced with cesspools
Well said, Mr Wilhoit.
Philoctetes > Thank you for imput tonight. You were spot on. After I surfed thru all tonights comments, I circled back to give you Kudos. HCR has many good people in her orbit. ✅
Or…with no FBI, good luck finding the next shooter in a country awash in weapons and gun rights advocates. Looks like NOT defunding the police doesn’t apply to the FBI….or the Capitol Police for that matter
Virginia's lame duck MAGA Gov RedVest has threatened to withhold finding for local law enforcement agencies of localities that declare themselves Sanctuaries from using police and Sheriffs as extensions of ICE.
THAT is defunding the police.
And good luck finding CEO killers.
Will, Rupert report, if he won’t MSM won’t either. Dems have no megaphone. Or even ears
I'm old enough to remember when the FBI was the private army of J Edgar Hoover. Hoover used the FBI for minority and women and LGBTQ+ harassment.
What a delightful group of posts here based on one of the most biased, outlandishly deceptive, pulling excerpts of remarks riddled with half truths , incorrect information , and over the top severely biased opinion.
I don’t even know where to begin. Even from her first paragraph, she emotes that Trump no longer has a plan for governance. I believe those were her words.
He has laid out specifically what his plans are, and Heather should know that because of how she describes the cabinet that he has chosen. He has even made public exactly what he’s gonna do on January 20. If you doubt that, please watch the interview on “MEET THE DEPRESSED” with Kristen Welker, which refutes much of what Heather writes in her letter
She claims that Trump was desperate for election in order to avoid his trials for his crimes. I believe is what she said I’ll have to go back and check, but I think that was the essence unfortunately there are no crimes left they’ve all been destroyed as they should’ve never been brought in the first place. And worse, new material came out yesterday and today about the January 6 event which brings into. Doubt , the work of the January 6 committee and the let’s call them lies OR omissions of their involvement
He made the statement many times that he wished Biden did a great job and then he wouldn’t feel compelled to run again however that was not the case. And the overwhelming election results confirm that when 49 of 50 states became redder to the utter chagrin of the liberals , Democrats, and Legacy media who have now lost about 40% of their audience for lying to the public for so long and towing the line of the Democrat party like lemmings.
And the Republicans managed to keep both the Senate and the house and won the popular vote, which hasn’t happened in over 20 years. Aka the Democrat coup de etat did not work . Imagine the people that said that Trump was a threat to democracy and yet the Democrats actually pulled off a coup in the United States of America just like they do in other autocratic/oligarch-run countries.
I will continue a second post now
You wrote “What a delightful group of posts here based on one of the most biased, outlandishly deceptive, pulling excerpts of remarks riddled with half truths , incorrect information, and over the top severely biased opinion.”
Gotta hand it to you Rick, you are the absolute master of projection - attributing to others what you yourself do.
Surely 'believing your own bullshit' at the level of which MAGA cultists display is a diagnosable mental health condition.
Well, TDS isn’t diagnosed in Republicans only in Democrats along with the newly found metastasized growth called TRDS Trump Russia derangement syndrome.
Rick, what possible rationale could justify the movement of classified documents to Mar a Lago and the refusal to give them back?
Dream on
He now will commence dictating into his cell for the rest of the morning. Watch don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
Don’t feed the bot
Make that “comrade bot”
R.S. Maybe It It Is Time To Adjust Your Medications... If You Love DJT So Much., Put Your Money In His Crypto... Good Luck As We Said In Vietnam...
Cryptocurrency and its lack of regulation will cause Great Depression 2.0.
The Mega-Minds, the DOGE Brothers, want to abolish the FDIC... That would be Horrible... Conceivably, Millions could lose their Life-Savings... Don't forget that the Billionaires are Asset Diversified and Off-Shored...
I’m not a fan of crypto and I’m not a fan of anyone who is a single item voter. Presidency is a huge complex of issues. We shall see what happens with crypto it’s out of my control for sure.
I love the new to me benefit of being able to "Report" the RS comment you replied to. It hides the comment with a line that says, "You reported this comment," followed by an underlined option to "Show" it again (with an added option to "Hide" it again.
Its only affect is on your own screen, apparently, but I like it, and suggest others use the same option for themselves. You can also use the replies with that in mind, now aware that you can provide a clue to others to choose more carefully what they might to waste too much time on.
by the way, I’m 75 years old and I take one pill that I’ve been taking for 30 years for a hiatal hernia. So no medication’s to adjust. I’m sorry to say hope I didn’t disappoint you.
I'm Older Than You, And Still Combat Effective...
I’m in pretty good shape as well. Was an athlete my whole life scratch golfer never been one much for combat. Oral jousting is fine, but there’s no need for combat when people can discuss their ideas and thoughts. In an amicable way.
By the way, I got your post your last post but I couldn’t find it so I’m gonna respond here. Hopefully you’ll get it.
I didn’t think we were ever at war. I thought we were having a nice comfy conversation. Pax it is
Quite an interesting statement there Apache. I saw a quote that pretty much mirrored my sentiments to what you say above. and here it is.
I don’t like Donald Trump. What I like is every one of his policies that lifted all boats during his administration Not many in this blog, if any of all have actually done the following Googled Trump administration, accomplishments, and see what you see Submiss what you like refute what you like but at least do it so you have an idea?
Rather deliberately swamped so many small boats and businesses, and overflowed so many inadequately built sea walls for the thousand year flood type events that are coming up to 3 times faster and can't realistically be covered by insurance at affordable prices.
R.S. I doubt that You have had a Elevated Security Clearance... Taking Classified Documents Home, and Obstructing Justice in order to Hide them invariably results in Prison Time... I also doubt that You have ever Served this Country in Uniform... I come from a Family that has been on this Continent for over 10.000 Years... Every Generation has sent it's Men to Fight For This Land...
And brother, let us hope that Biden pardons Leonard Peltier.
EXCELLENT!!! I knew one of the FBI Agents that was on Pine Ridge at that time, 1/2 Lakota, and he thought that Leonard's Prosecution was unjust...
Nope, I’ve never had a security clearance in government that is, but I have had one in private corporate business.
So can you please tell me why Joe Biden is not in prison he was actually worse than Trump. He had them in open boxes in his garage for about 10 years, but Mr.HUR said he was too feeble to stand trial, but he could be president of the United States at the same time lol. Kinda like Hillary was allowed not to stand trial.
And I’ve tried to learn the lesson not to assume anything and risk offending someone who is not due that offense. Served six years in the military here as a medic and a dialysis and an x-ray tech, but I never saw combat. Not sure what point you were trying to make.
Uncle Joe invited the FBI to his home when he discovered them... He did not try to hide them... Try Leading Men in Combat, and try explaining to their Families of those that don't return...
RS, You breathlessly declare “ So can you please tell me why Joe Biden is not in prison he was actually worse than Trump. He had them in open boxes in his garage for about 10 years,…”
Those were left over from when he was Vice president in the late 20th century in boxes packed by aides and not looked at since. He immediately turned them over when found in a search he has allowed as a matter of course.
Trump by contrast, intentionally took huge quantities of material that was not his to take, lied about having it at all, tried to hide it and intentionally violated court orders to hand it back to the rightful owners,!the American people as represented by the National Archives.
Hit and his report acted disgracefully and he, his actions and report were relegated to the trash heap.
You crowed “ Nope, I’ve never had a security clearance in government that is, but I have had one in private corporate business.”
Of course you have - a king in the castle of your mind. . [guffaw, snicker, chuckle]
You addressed the wrong one.
Rick Sender, buy my book Donald’s Vanity Tantrums” and you will be rewarded with truth like you never saw before. And laugh like hell.
Bill, I just now picked up your book on Kindle. Looking forward to reading it. I am always looking for humor.
Bill keep at it. You’re wearing me thin lol
This guy pays money to come here and be a jackass.
How desperate is THAT?
Vermont Girl Just think of the amount of time he spends creating rebuttal here Its gotta be an AI Bot, probably paid for by Elmo
If I were you, I would throw away that crystal ball and Ouija board and go buy yourself a new one. The one you Have is not working. I don’t need a dime Need a dime I’ve been a great success in my life and I’m very proud of what I’ve done. I probably created AT LEAST 1000 millionaires and 50,000 jobs. So GO On with your bad self. I could insult you as well, but I won’t. You’re doing that yourself.
My goodness. This guy must be paid on a dollar-per-comment basis. With all the time it takes to write these hundreds of comments every day, it’s impossible to have a real job besides…
This is his entertainment. He loves the attention. He is similar to Trump. This man-child should not be entertained, period.
You're right. Trump cultists want to be just like their idol: narcissistic, the center of attention, and grabbing money and pussies without any consequences.
Go back to listening to Fucx News. You'll never be able to admit to yourself how wrong you are. Sad. You lack the perspective needed to comment intelligently when the truth is spelled out right in front of you. I thank the universe everyday that I wasn't born dumb enough, insecure enough, hateful enough to have grown up to become one of those MAGATS. A buh-bye.
Well, that’s a pretty erudite and intelligent post. Temper temper.
Also pretty assumptive What I see in you is that you may be needing a mirror and a conscience. Perhaps some introspection. Try this first, but you won’t Trump administration accomplishments and I don’t know what I’m wrong about but are you saying that 77 million people are also wrong but the same people were right about Joe Biden the same dumb people People on the writer, not hateful and obviously you don’t follow the news or you would know that people on the right didn’t call Biden Hitler. They didn’t call him fascist. They attacked his policies, which had this country headed in the wrong direction and 68% of people agreed with that based on a CNN. Poll So let me say something since you won’t go Google that Trump accomplishments page try this
Minds are like parachutes they work better when they’re open
The collapse function is a beautiful thing. Enjoy your hatred.
Thank you for noting the collapse function . . . I never paid attention before but is real handy today!!
Bravo. Collasped
I believe is free speech. Sadly yours is pure nonesense and babble.
3 dots to the right
Wow, you must be writing from an alternate universe. Keep drinking that Trump Kool Aid. Enjoy your fantasy world, you are soon to be in for a very rude awakening. It amazes me that people like you have no clue that Trump cares about absolutely no one but himself. Whatever.
No one is going to win with this guy. He is full of delusions and projections. Nothing he has said is based on facts. Trump had no accomplishments in his first term and he knows it. He knows that the accusations against President Biden have been proven to be baseless and false. Trump clearly violated the Presidential Records Retention Act. May have violated the law against espionage based on some of the documents he retained. Stop wasting your time trying to have a serious conversation with him. He’ll undoubtedly will react to my comments. I won’t waste my time responding to him.
Oh, then again, I will tell you something Catherine that you won’t like and you won’t do but that you should to be a even minded person google Trump administration, accomplishments But you won’t do it because it might disrupt the feeling that Trump only cares for himself
What the hell does he need the presidency for? He’s got all the money in the world. He’s already been president got shot once got almost shot again law fair against him. That is now all gone the legacy media, calling him Hitler and fascist, etc. which didn’t work and was inappropriate And yet he ascended to the presidency once again Quite an accomplishment in of itself. The poor billionaire with hotels and golf course courses all over the world 22,000 employees social media website that’s worth 10 billion. And now supported by the richest man in the world that used to be a hero to the left when he was a Democrat and now they demonize him because he has an R in front of his name very sad indeed Elon Musk should be elected leader of the free world
BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT BOT.
Proved a bot several times. Don't feed.
It's blocking every HCR thread.
Good advice Philoctetes. It's too emotionally draining to overreact to everything. Also its a firehose of bs. We need to focus on what they are actually doing, like the nominations and proposed policies, there is enough there. Clearly we've been focusing on character, words and what he says for a decade and we aren't winning anyone over, we have to try something different. All of us, from Adam Schiff to the person canvassing.
One of the Salient Characteristics of DJT is Impatience... This is still over a Month Away from Inauguration... From HCR: "Time magazine’s interview with President-elect Donald Trump, published yesterday, revealed a man who was so desperate to be reelected to the presidency that he constructed a performance that he believed would woo voters, but who has no apparent plans for actual governance.
Trump deliberately patterned the Republican National Convention where he accepted the party’s nomination for president on a professional wrestling event, even featuring a number of professional wrestlers. It appears now that the campaign itself was, similarly, a performance—possibly, as Tom Nichols of The Atlantic suggested, simply to avoid the threat of conviction in one of the many federal or state cases pending against him. In the Time interview, Trump called his campaign “72 Days of Fury.”
In Addition: "If there is one major continuity between Trump’s campaign and plans for his administration, it is that his focus on shock and performance, rather than the detailed work of governing, still plays well to the media."
Why is anybody surprised from DJT walking away from his promises? Did anyone believe that DJT took his Oath-Of-Office seriously to Uphold the Laws of Congress?... DJT is Predatory, and Opportunistic...
Net: Because of his Sycophantic Picks in the 'Power Branches' of the U.S. Gov., from Day One of Trump 2.0. expect 'Shock & Awe' Everyday... The 'Trump Show' is back... An Interesting note that reinforces what we already knew... Most of the U.S. is in a local News Desert that is not serviced by local Journalism... These places went 91% for DJT... They are mostly serviced by Right-Wing 'Bro-Casts, and Media... Remember over1/2 of the Country now doesn't Read, and Comprehend at a 6th Grade-Level, and can't do Basic Arithmetic... This Ignorance Is Getting Deadly...
Oh. That was a campaign? Those random ambles up and down the stage, pointing? the jokes? the songs? I thought he'd just given up because he knew he was beaten, but no, he knew that Musk had taken things in hand and there was no further problem with money. Or principles.
Hello Anne-Louise... Look at the Intended Audience... The Popular Vote that DJT won with was the smallest winning Percentage since Clinton '92... It is arguable that if RFK hadn't been bribed to join the DJT Campaign, DJT would have lost... Kamala should have Distanced herself from Joe Biden more... 'Gaza' may have cost her in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.... OBW: Have You Noticed That DJT Has Never Released His Medical Records? Maybe DJT Doesn't Think That He Has Much Time Left....
"The Popular Vote that DJT won with was the smallest winning Percentage since Clinton '92"
Done caring. That Trump could hand in the performance he did in his first term and run the campaign he ran and still get more than 25% of the vote is an indictment of America, not of Trump.
Between MAGA, a dumbed-down American populace, and NIMBY, that be... the right, the middle, and the rich! ...hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil...in that order.
I'll take "The Matrix for a $100, Alex."
"Red pill or blue pill" is a phrase originating from the film "The Matrix," signifying a choice between accepting a potentially unsettling truth ("red pill") or remaining in blissful ignorance ("blue pill") about reality; essentially, choosing to see the world as it truly is versus staying in a comfortable illusion.
Red Pill:
Represents the choice to uncover the truth, even if it is uncomfortable or challenging.
Blue Pill:
Represents the choice to remain in a comfortable state of ignorance, not seeking to know the deeper truth.
Question/Answer: Which will America choose, WOKE or SLEEP? Democracy or Autocracy?
I think there's still time to choose, tho not much.
Apache, I don’t think the orange smear actually thinks. He reacts. His little lying brain on shrinkage is a boomerang. He’s a dirty pink eraser.
What do we do to counter that other than wanting to throw it into a trash bin? I could go on but it’s a waste (sorry) of our time. I’m going to take my sorry a— to a political meeting on the 21st of this month to see what group actions are being planned here plus I’m continuing to keep making calls to our legislators in MA. 💐
Or his tax returns, or his college transcript or his high school transcript.
Anne-Louise. All of the dumpsters playbook has torn us apart. We NEED to gather our hearts and souls to save this Country.
A thought I had a week ago is: if you are a criminal, multimillionaire, felon, womanizer, rapist, pedophile, druggie, alcoholic there is a job in the dumpster’s administration.
Obviously it wasn’t a campaign to you but apparently it was the 77 million Americans and 49 or 50 states that went redder. And even though musk was part of Trump’s campaign, Trump was out spent five to one.
What is significant about this election is the number of swing States (except Arizona) who elected him by the slimmest of margins but had significant wins in their State and Local races. People are really scratching their heads about this phenomena of people voting for a straight Democratic ticket and then switching to him. Also. those razor thins margins.
I will say it again. this election smells.
Watch Hakeem Jeffries allude to this fact in a Press Conference.
I agree, something not right with the swing states. They were pouring misinformation into every possible avenue using bots, trolls, AI, and who knows what else. Democrats need to build that same kind of media machine. But better, and truthful.
Absolutely. Aside from the media something is so off about the vote. It is unusual that so many people voted for the Democrats and them him. It is just not how people usually vote.
Barbara, lets not become the MAGA people with conspiracy led thinking about the vote. Some people also voted for Trump but no one else on the ballot, other people like to have a split government because they don't want anything to get done. If there was any fraud or tampering you don't think we'd hear about it from the Dem Governors who lead these states?
Then I suggest you speak to H. Jeffries.
Exactly! Bewildering results, hopefully an explanation will be forthcoming.
I doubt it. The excellent news is that the Democrats have created very strong State Governments.
Thom Hartmann recently wrote about a red shift in election results vs exit polls. The exit polls used to be accurate but now republican votes (red shift) are higher by a small percentage which is all that’s needed to swing the state. He suggests that this has occurred in the USA since voting machines have become standard in most states. It’s not the Dominion system but another owned by right wing “Christians”.
I think Trump knows this occurs and rightly claims elections are rigged. In 2020 they didn’t rig them enough for him to win?
Whats funny is the misinformation, targeted ads and the fact that Democrats who won those elections ran very different campaigns from Harris. We need to maybe copy their strategy and realize that imposing national party purity test for down the ballot races doesn't work.
Hear here Apache. Excellent post.
In Maine, the most of the rural vote is for Trump while much of the coastal vote went for Kamala. The Republicans put up a candidate for Congress that was a former Nascar driver that had no college education. And he was 30 years old and served in the legislature for two years only showing up over 1/2 the time. And he almost beat the incumbent.
I've lived in 10 states and voted in multiple cities or towns in many of them. He was, far and away the most unqualified Congressional candidate I have ever seen.
Many of the communities you mention have recently received high speed Internet for the first time. Maybe that will make a difference on how they vote because they will have access to information sources they've never had.
Although I can hope access to internet might give access to knowledge, I am highly doubtful the collective mindset will be swayed in coming elections here in rural Maine, as in many parts of rural US. Since the first clown car show I have been dismayed by constituents continued willful ignorance.
It all depends on which media they partake in. Rural folk tend to listen to Fox News and the like. They will NEVER hear the truth of anything from Fox. They simply don't know what we know. They will never know. The right- wing media is bigger than any other, right now. As long as this is the case, we will never win again...
His only plan for governance is to suck up as much protection, wealth, and power for himself as he can. Governing was never on his radar.
You only hope he walks away from his promises, but to your utter chagrin it’s not gonna happen. If you watch the Kristen Welker interview you’ll see what he’s going to do day one and then the first hundred days are gonna be more impactful than anything you’ve ever seen because he realizes he doesn’t have time.
collapsed.
Why was CFDT Person of the Year??!!?!!?!
Now you should go watch his interview with Kristen Welker on meet the depressed. Were Trump answered every offensive question he was given
And I love when you people go this route, talking about the stupidity of the electorate Did the electorate become stupid before or after Biden’s presidency as he was elected by the same electorate. ? Yikes and oooops guess the ignorance wasn’t so deadly when they elected Biden. Sigh
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Rick Sender seems to have taken the place of the elderly Sandy Lewis (a former Wall Streeter) who used to rant (and was nasty) on this site. Don't hear from him anymore. I guess, like Sandy, Mr. Sender is desperately trying to find relevance in his old age. It's nice to collapse :)
For your enlightenment Rick sender, you consume your “news” the way most everyone does…with an eye toward the viewpoints you choose and support. Your commentary is not special, nor especially factual, because you cherry pick your facts, or use strictly right wing leaning sources without fact checking what they are feeding you. That would require you to be open to, at the very least, to hearing other perspectives than what supports your biases. Sometimes people can even challenge themselves. However, I don’t suspect you are one of those folks just by the tone of your comments. They are frequently condescending and righteous in nature. Your opinions are not superior in this forum. Give it up.
Well, you said a lot there but you didn’t offer me any details. And I’m here reading everybody else’s posts. And then offering in many cases a different opinion. And if you’ll check, I received about 50 or 60 likes just the other day including today And it’s kind of funny because what I see a lot from the left side of the aisle is what I call projection and you know what I’m saying. Whatever they accuse you of this is exactly what they’re doing themselves. It is the liberal horde that wants to shut down free speech on X on Twitter on Facebook and you tube in the legacy media and the liberal newspaper such as The NY Times And WAPO etc. including here were many people have told me to go away. Which is fine. Zuckerberg even apologize to Trump for shutting down free-speech and “unintended bias” And a few other sites through Trump off them so that he wouldn’t be heard. They even kicked Trump off of Twitter
And here’s an interesting fact I don’t think he would realize. I have been using Google for quite some time, and then I started researching political information. Here is what I found and you should try it. After having severe difficulty finding a conservative link when I requested information from Google, I started realizing that almost all the first 5-6-7 pages of Google included links from liberal websites Such a CNN, MMSNC, etc. to include repetition of these websites on page after page before I was even able to reach a conservative or So-called conservative links
Finally, I tried something more generic. I googled Al Gore George Bush
That’s it that’s all I put into the browser. I got 16 pages into the responses and the links before I reached one conservative link, which happened to be Newsmax and about 10 links later Fox News appeared for the first time 216 links from the first link. Try it yourself. That’s what we call liberal bias. Some of the other links were almost laughable like the Cincinnati Gazette, or the Indianapolis dispatch for example, and I’m not quoting their exact names, but it was little tiny journals that you’ve never heard about. And then I googled where Fox News stands in viewership just to see where it might have fit in this link and it just so happened that Fox News was the third highest rated prime time viewership channel even though it’s a news channel so to speak and have the highest rated individual programs, and their nightly primetime lineup even though it’s on cable, including now moving into third place above ABC. And yet it took 16 pages and 216 previous links to get a link to them.
Axios is now carrying a story about the veracity of info above and what they have done to correct or have tried eliminate this bias.
Perhaps after you read this, you’re the one that might need to open your awareness
Fox is classified as “entertainment” per their own definition. Every source pretty much has its own leanings and is influenced by their ownership. I am tired of the division labels such as “right” and “left” create. That division does little to promote conversation and seeking solutions for this country’s issues. The people governing (Congress) do little listening to each side of the aisle and heaven forbid an individual steps outside the lines of their party’s box.
In your search for unbiased news sources did you stop to read anything along the way? Or did you just tell yourself “this is too liberal for me” and skip to your comfort zone.
Really Rick, who do we believe? What are we as citizens suppose to believe. Each side calls the other “liars” and when that happens we lose engaged citizens or create non-participants in their own governing.
The FBI having a few informants in the crowd on J6 did not make that event an FBI initiative. What we saw with our own eyes that day was a call to action by the sitting president. His words, which I heard with my own ears, were intentional and deliberate to play on the emotions of the crowd. The greater crime (IMHO) is a Congress that never held him accountable resulting in the greatest undermining of the rule of law this country has experienced since the civil war.
Sorry, and this will probably post before the rest, but it should be at the end the FBI lied and cover it up Its existence and presence there. Only three agents were supposed to be there at 23 went “”the FBI lied and cover it up its existence and presence there only three agents were supposed to be there and 23 went “” on their own so ostensibly no one knew they were there yet. None of the 26 were arrested?? .
Well, I certainly enjoyed that entertainment you provided this morning.
Much of what you said is true. But you’re still emoting histrionics that don’t need to be there. When all the evidence comes out about January 6, I think the left will be stunned with all the revelations although I’m guessing denial will sit in big time. There is video which you may or may not have seen which shows some agents on the ground actually pulling back the barriers to allow or even encourage the crowd to come in.
I also love the title that the left gives to the media defining. The stated purpose of this event was to overthrow The government.
And it shows you how badly TDS has taken hold 1000 innocent unarmed citizens going to overthrow the government of the United States ? I know you’re more rational than that and I know what you’re trying to say but hyperbole doesn’t cut it here in a case like this
I’m not sure if you’ve heard the video or see the video of Nancy Pelosi and her daughter which her daughter was filming where Nancy Pelosi said I should have and I could have done more to stop this and it’s my fault Did you see that video? Did you know that Donald Trump requested 10,000 troops that were turned down? Did you know that the mayor of Washington DC is Muriel browser refused to offer more help knowing what was coming?
Now let me compare that for a minute to what the left did when a white man put his Knee on a black man’s neck and accidentally killed him.
What ensued was a true insurrection Anywhere from three to $6 billion of damage 25 policeman dead cities burnt to the ground and taken over in case it’s like Seattle even a police precinct burnt to the ground
And the laughable end of the story is that the policeman was convicted for the crime Which he probably should have been despite the drugs and George Floyd’s body and the numerous criminal offenses he had committed in the past
Now here’s what I ask many folks like you who seem to be relatively levelheaded what if the policeman in question were black? What if George Floyd was white?
Ask yourself why right after the election that 40% of the viewers on CNN and MSNBC disappeared And another 15% disappeared when Joe and Mika went to visit Hitler in his own lair? Which leads me to the next story about ABC just settling a $15 million lawsuit with George Stephanopoulos for the same Reckless Rhetoric
It is beyond the pale for anyone in today’s society to accuse anyone that’s living today of anything that’s remotely akin to Adolf Hitler.
Do those people on this Substack blog who have suggested that he is still Hitler? I welcome them to come with me to Auschwitz and lie down in the ovens or enter the gas chambers or see the Video of millions of skeletal bodies And the huge piles of glasses and boots there.
This kind of vitriol is what is assisting in the renewal of antisemitism around the world And you’re worried about 1000 people that did very little damage to the capital and only protesting because the results of the election were so skewed and so unusual that they shouldn’t have been challenged or questioned And I’m not forgiving what happened on January 6 I’m only putting in perspective. Joe Biden, the semi cadaver who had no outstanding legislation in his career got 13 million more votes than Obama the God! And you don’t see that as an anomaly?
Al Gore insisted on a recount over a few hanging Chad’s Jill Stein went as far as having a recount in five states protesting the results of the election while the left cheered And Hillary Clinton is still be moaning. The fact that her election was stolen for her from her even today.
I welcome your feedback on my commentary And by the way, I get my news from many many sources, including Fox News, which is now the third highest rated TV primetime programming and it’s only a cable news statement and don’t take that one comment that was made in a courtroom defending a client as to what Fox News is They use that remark as courtroom drama, and nothing more If you’ll watch Fox News for a week, you’ll see a different perspective and a different news story than you’ll see on Legacy media But I also watch CNN MSNBC and I’m sitting here on this blog which is 98% left-wing jargon
Google political affiliation of journalist professors annual see that over 90% of that profession is registered as a democrat Then wonder why the news is actually skewed more than you imagine But the momentum is changing. 49 out of 50 states turned more red than they were before the election And a good modicum of that was due to a skewed informational panorama
Again and again this mantra is surfacing. Don’t repeat their words. Just …well I guess focus on their actions? I am not convinced. These words…snake tongued …have real world consequences when the snakes are in control. They hiss; we scuttle. Or at least the likes of Bezos, Zuck, and Morning Joe do and the ripples are real. Think about the unpapered immigrants, the cis gender teens, seniors dependent on social security. Words …their words…have repercussions.
But remember - this is the point: flood the zone with distractions so that we take our eyes off of the dangerous real world effects of policies they put into place. And we need to prioritize: transgender rights are vital, but deporting 10 million immigrants, if it starts to happen, or getting rid of polio vaccines, as RFK would like, will have far more dangerous and deleterious consequences. We cannot be distracted and as they flood the zone, need to prioritize. Full disclosure: I live in France so don't get my information from the now unreliable US media, but from European press which is far more diverse and with a tradition of criticism and intellectualism that simply does not exist in the US. To say everyone over here is appalled would be an understatement. The US will wear this election for generations like a ball and chain.
Philoctetes, As someone who resides in the States, I would suggest the folks viewing us from the outside not underestimate the power of the ever expanding resistance currently organizing under the auspices of seasoned and determined grassroots leaders who are showing us how to resist the infiltration of the MAGA agenda into our states and communities. Quoting two prominent leaders, “Our best chance to get through this era with some amount of democracy intact is to hang on until 2026 and win big in the midterms—breaking Trump’s hold on Congress and making sure election deniers and saboteurs aren’t in charge of the 2028 election. We’ve boiled it down to three big plays…” For more from these two former congressional aids, visit indivisible.org
Barbara get ready for a surprise somewhere past Trump’s halfway in his presidency that might even anoint his vice president in the White House for the next 12 years or so.
Rick, Perhaps you’re the one who will be surprised as increasingly more people summon the power to fight back—and win.
Actually, Barbara, I think it’s going the other way. If you succeeded in doing what his campaign promises was fighting back will be futile
And why would you fight back against the president? That’s doing a good job on behalf of American citizens? I come here and there’s so many people who are depressed and pessimistic and fatalistic and negative in advance. Patience… why don’t you see what he does instead of thinking of what he will or might do.
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Trump is going to start off by screwing the farmers who voted for him. They won’t be able to sell their products abroad due to tariffs, and Trump will deport the people who pick their crops.
Kathy, the tariffs might even not have to happen. And by the way, if the tariffs don’t work, why did Joe Biden keep almost all of Trump’s and even added a few of his own. Tariffs do a number of things as they did to Canada and Mexico. It’s a negotiating tool. It helped to Mexico and Canada come to their senses about illegal immigrants crossing our border. And they got the message loud and clear without the tariff being imposed. If the people are here picking the crops are legal or have a temporary visa. They’ll stay exactly where they are. Maybe you’d like to talk to the mother of Lake and Riley or the 13-year-old who is raped and murdered by two Venezuelan gang members. ?
I hear Fox News "outrage".
To see the once-revered name of Kennedy in such a context!
I thought Kennedy was one of the best presidents we’ve ever had, and it was the worst day of my life at that time when he was shot. But that doesn’t mean his personal life was any different than that of Donald Trump or Bill Clinton And somebody made the point of Trump giving positions in his administration and I thought of Bobby Kennedy. And that year was one of the worst years in political history, . Along with Martin Luther King, who most of the Democrats have forgotten.
This reads like it was cobbled together from an FSB propaganda Playbook. Intentional or not.
Please do better.
Why do you talk to this guy? Dr. Richardson recommends ignoring trolls.
Lol but I don’t cobble. Better than what ? I’ve made my point you disagree. That’s fine with me. Have a nice evening.
Which European press outlets do you recommend? I already subscribe to The Guardian and the BBC.
Yes, I too am in Europe and have a variety of news sources. As Barbara points out, being geographically removed I am keenly aware that I have a an inadequate grasp of the groundswell in the US. I just have observed that the foreign press also must wrestle with the rhetoric from the Trump 2.0 team. I just don’t think that this messaging is meant to distract ….and I believe that the sticks and stones rhyme applies…these words can really hurt those who are in the cross hairs.
What media sources in Europe do you recommend? I follow BBC news but would like to follow other news outlets as well.
I split my time between the US and Germany. The Guardian is a fairly reliable source, but for issues concerning the struggle to maintain Constitutional Democracy, I would highly recommend Verfassungsblog. Much of their work is in German, but there is a great deal of solid material in English. https://verfassungsblog.de/
The Guardian.
The socialist BBC? because that’s the only one there is.
I agree 100 percent! The point is to distract so that people will take their eyes off the out and out stealing and graft that will be going on. Look to see where the infrastructure money to red states will end up. Look to see where already appropriated funds for a Biden cause will be transferred to a Musk/Trump slush fund. Remember how Trump tried to divert money from the Pentagon to his ineffectual Wall? The last time he was stopped for this type of thievery (you can bet he was getting some sort of kickback from the Wall contractor) by honest politicians and government workers. They will be gone or fired this time around.
It’s worse than Italy’s Berlusconi :/
I think the man is going to play a lot of golf and let his minions run riot.
Mona, exactly. Lawrence O’Donnell a week ago had the title of his news “Who is going to be the President” as he named all the people dumpster has put into place to run the country while he golf!”
What is it with you people that look so negatively in advance I’ve never seen anything like it put away your crystal balls and your Ouija boards and wait to see what happens because you have no other choice but to see what happens. Can tell you from my opinion he will be the most involved president in your lifetime.
I assume you mean trans gender teens?
By the way you hear Republicans attack transgender people, you would never know that transgender people are at most 1% of the American population.
Right now, we are trying to drink from a firehose of Trump's crazy to do what Philoctetes is suggesting.
We each have individual issues at the top of our "biggest fears" list. We need to keep track of those so we can start to oppose them most effectively.
The way to do that is to use a news consolidator like https://feedly.com/. You can search for specific topics and get to the original source, usually Reuters and AP. You can also look at White House press releases, C-SPAN, and the Congressional Record.
The chat capabilities here and on Bluesky may be the best way to develop micro-communities of interest and share what we have learned with others who have common hot-button issues.
This is the only way to avoid the selective filtering and slanted coverage of news that is now going on with the degradation of previous sources like the NYTimes and WaPo. Trump's performance is a cover and distraction from the real danger. We must combat the avalanche of changes that Project 2025 will try to implement. The real enemy is not Trump; it is those highly motivated implementers of the agenda from the truly unholy alliance of oligarchs and white Christian nationalists.
Another point. We need to add intelligent, well informed discussions to Substack, Bluesky and other burgeoning communities. I am glad to see Bluesky reacting quickly to trolls and disinformation. Dr. Richardson recommends ignoring trolls.
I think it is a Substack issue rather than a Writer issue.
We need to make decisions now about how to participate in the opposition to Trump's agenda on the issues that are most important to us as individuals.
Two enlightening resources on what it means to be in the opposition as opposed to being in the resistance at the institutional level are by Tom Watson and Marc Elias.
https://theliberaltomwatson.substack.com/p/goodbye-resistance-hello-opposition?r=doyg&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bChDPqBbbs
So let’s see we’re all deciding to fight back in advance of what we think is gonna happen. Cool. Well thought out and designed thought process. I have never seen a group of people more negative in advance. Maybe you should be listening to Stephanie ruhle a little bit more. Can’t remember if she’s on the communist news network or if MSRIP network But she said Democrats need to stop the histrionics and start realizing that 80% of what they think is gonna happen never happens.
I’ve been writing about Project 2025 since the month it was released. The prior version was the basis for more than 70% of the legislative agenda in Trump’s first administration.
You can obfuscate and try to suck energy out of this forum all you want but you can’t hide the truth. The danger is real. People are dying and will die because of these policies. Life is going to be harder.
I won’t respond further to your continued trolling. I don’t think anyone else here should waste the energy either. Go peddle your bullshit back on the ever shrinking X. I am one lib you will not own.
He already has made this site unbearable. Too many respond and he rejoices.
First, why do you think X is shrinking? would you like to know why?
It’s really simple it’s people like you that don’t want to hear both sides of the story. Twitter used to be 69% Democrat 31% Republican now that it’s 50-50 blue sky is what we now call ex for cowards. You can just sit there and cry in your own misery, and have everybody commiserate with you. Do you see your social network called red sky anywhere? Nope
And Why the hell would you think I want to Own you?
Well, let’s see what was buried in project 25 like a strong military only citizens can vote. Hopefully we can all agree on that . It’s got some bad things I assume and it has some good things in it don’t pigeonhole it. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard there’s those two things that are there. And I get the people that I’ve been on this site for a while abhor project 2025. I guess I’ll have to familiarize myself with it a little bit more.
But it is not Trump’s playbook. Trump’s playbook is in his head and has been in his head since his first coming down the escalator, he doesn’t need help from project 25 or anyone else in that regard. Go watch the meet the press with Kirsten Welker where he answers. Every offensive question she asks.
I said to someone earlier, some people read the Bible some people don’t
I doubt that everyone that reads it believes everything in it. Project 25 is no different other than it may have some offensive things that I may disagree with as well and probably would. Because I said to someone else, you need to wait to see actions because actions speak a lot louder than words.
And to your utter chagrin, if not for Covid, Trump would be leaving office now not getting into it.
How can Heather write this article without mentioning Putin? Putin brags that he tilted the election and says he expects a quid pro quo!
Biden needs to report on Russian interference ASAP! We are the victims of the Russian war on the USA. An admission is dispositive and is actionalble and constitutes an emergency.
See and here we have a victim, Daniel you’re back with TRDS.
Philocetes, yes, stay focused on what he does. And when he “appoints” unqualified persons to cabinet positions, contact your senators in as many ways as possible to protest with the facts. If those in favor of the “appointments” let their wishes be known and we do not, the senators will believe that the majority of their constituents are in favor.
It seems very unlikely that he'll appoint any qualified persons. Does he know any?
this guy you are replying to is spamming the comments section. If people stop replying to him he will be eliminated. There was another troll who everyone ignored and he eventually gave up.
Thanks for the info on the 3 dots to collapse the troll!
And Louise I can’t stop laughing. I’m sorry. What are you gonna say when they all get approved? And after all the talk about recessed appointments when they probably won’t need any, maybe one.
So who are the people here that can determine whether his cabinet posts are unqualified? Any presidents here blogging ? Do you all imagine that Biden‘s cabinet and Obama‘s cabinet and bushes cabinet were the perfect people? And were qualified.? Wow. It’s the prerogative of any president to pick his choice of cabinet and to have him go through the process of approval advise and consent.
Joe Biden not only got approval of all the incompetents in his administration but got a lot of support from Republicans
All vaccines need to stay place. Call your senators and congressman. Refuse RFK jr confirmation.
Better yet start putting out success of democrats and Biden. We will not win until we tell our story.
"Stop listening to Trump!" I agree for your mental health." Watch what he does to destroy America!" I disgaree, beause you become so upset, depressed from hopelessness. "What can we do? Where is any hope? How can we fight?"
The group 'Indivisible' has a game plan. Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1gSdFWIUpw41O5zbaxedVsr6Xik5XpPd9FwqvXYu40/preview?tab=t.0
This is a comprehensive document. Many thanks for sharing.
So you’re still at it posting stuff, but never respond when you find out that your posts need a lot more research
We can stop listening to trump, but he's got an army of billionaires and sick followers who have every intention of carrying out what he's said he will do. And WHO WILL STOP THEM? Not his Supreme Court and not his Congress. So, yeah, vaccines and Social Security and Medicare need protecting but WHO IS GOING TO DO THAT if his administration is filled with weak-willed (or just plain evil) yes men?
If everyone ignores his flame throwing and starve him of attention, I assure you he will do anything to receive the praise he lacked as a child. When you only have support of 31% of the country, you're not in the best place to bully the 69% who don't give a twit about you.
Well said. Thank You.
Greater minds than mine have said it first.
- Pulled Quote -
"If there is one major continuity between Trump’s campaign and plans for his administration, it is that his focus on shock and performance, rather than the detailed work of governing, still plays well to the media."
Good news? Maybe. What do you think?
Absolutely. We will soon have a government that is functionally indistinguishable from the old fashioned Mafia. Except maybe that it is supported by “Christian” nationalists (an oxymoron for sure).
Christian Nationalism AKA KKK.
......drivel that oozes from his reptilian brain. A great line. Trump is an idiot savant. His genius is his ability to appeal to, as he has said, to the uneducated. Unless you have a financial stake in his presidency, you would have to have accepted all his BS as valid, which required zero critical thinking. I hope we survive to be able to rid us of this insanity in the next elections if we have any.
Yes, and also keep focusing on the positive world we want. At the core is a just energy transition which, when that fully occurs a lot of this bullshit will go away….
Looks like the presidency is just Trump’s side gig—and governance takes a backseat to grift and chaos
Expecting anything other than chaos and division from a sociopath is what’s really crazy.
Here, yet again, are the second and third entries in a notebook I opened in November 2016, immediately after the election.
Both still seem actual.
By comparison, most of what I have written on the matter since then has been a waste of breath and the time has come to sign off.
*
GREAT AGAIN?
Democracy? Democracy? Where's that? I see only oligarchy.
Chances are DT will bankrupt oligarchy, as he’s bankrupted all he touches, and try for the only thing he (thinks he) understands: dictatorship.
But will the Republic survive the attempt?
*
SYRIA—DRESS REHEARSAL?
It all began, not with an armed uprising, but with protest demonstrations. As in Russia in 1905, it was the regime’s violent response that set fire to the powder keg.
Now here’s the question: is this war the dress rehearsal for what will befall whoever dares resist oligarchy?
*
We have now to concentrate on just being ourselves and staying true to ourselves, regardless of the antics of the merciless savages, mostly white, "whose warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions". Let us all have a care to preserve ourselves from their poison.
Farewell, then. I shall miss this civilized company.
To all, wishes for peace, freedom, lasting happiness!
Bankrupt all he touches, huh. I love when people start pointing that out. It’s pretty funny. A list of people who have gone bankrupt and become successful. Here’s a highlights. H.J. Heinz, Steve Jobs, PT Barnum Henry Ford, Walt Disney George Foreman Clarence, Saunders of Piggly Wiggly Milton Hershey. Oh, and Donald Trump.
All those people succeeded because they finally produced something of value. Except Trump. He has produced nothing of value. His business is convincing foolish people that he has what they want. Just send money. He is not a success in any real sense. And bankruptcy is just another of his ways of avoiding responsibility.
Well, Shall we compare your success and his there Martin which I don’t like to do normally, but since you like putting him down, here’s a glimpse
He has hotels and golf courses all over the world that Employ 22,000 people. He now has a social media platform worth over 10 billion.
He will have been President of the United States TWICE He has an exemplary family. They are now building yet another huge project in the Middle East, I believe in Dubai or nearby. And Congress itself gave Donald Trump rights to the US post office in DC and look what he’s done with that property.
Not to mention the early in his career, New York expended millions of dollars I’m trying to restore an ice-skating rink in Central Park and took them five or six years to fail. Donald Trump offered to do it with his own money and I believe it was about 6 to 8 months later the rink was built. And The Democrat mayor at the time couldn’t thank him enough Ed Koch. What a failure
What is so pathetic is that he was the idol of Hollywood when he had a D in front of his name but the second he put an R in front of his name he became a pariah
What a failure
He is a felon. He is a fraud. He has committed sexual assault. And all the rest has been done with borrowed money. Loaned to him by people who have overlooked the fact that he has stiffed others by claiming bankruptcy. Becoming president does not make you a success. It just means that a lot of people, like yourself, have been fooled. Consider all our failed presidents. Did you drink bleach or shine bright lights up your rear end?
By the way, I am in my eighth decade and am quite happy with my life. I have been retired for twenty years and want for nothing. I will outlive my money. And I have not been judged a criminal and have not kept the legal profession employed to keep me out of prison. I am not justifiably hated by millions of people.
Just because, in this world without rules, he has achieved whatever he has, does not make him a person worthy of respect. He is scum.
So I’m reading your post again and I really can’t stop laughing. You are in so much denial. It’s really sad. And by the way, I think you got that statement about your money reversed. I think you mean your money will outlive you. Hmmm. Our money will long outlive us.
I’m guessing you voted for Bill Clinton who had much more of a checkered sexual past than Donald Trump could’ve ever imagined and lied about it Underoath. He paid $850,000 for an NDA. Had a 10 year affair, which was exposed a few weeks before he was elected anyway. And then he had sex in the White House while president and married, and with an employee, no less.
I’m glad you’re happy. I have a nice little saying on my desk it says minds are like umbrellas they work much better when they’re open. You take care of yourself you’ve earned what you got and you should be proud of that which I’m sure you are
And TDS is still curable. I didn’t tell you was necessary to respect him, but I want to say something to you that you might think about. If you really love America, watch the pre-game show of the army navy game today. It’s a it’s a battle on the football field, but you should hear the group of men and women and what they say Maybe you should take heed of that
They said we’re on the battlefield here and we’re trying to win but when the game is over, we’re both on the same side we love our country we’re brothers and sisters. Try that. And I have to also say that I feel somebody who is so sad. Abraham Lincoln said most people or as happy as a make up their minds to be. Maybe you hated him to go by the way I left out that he had also filed for bankruptcy
Well, I’m just a few years younger than you and I’m happy every day but I’m sorry to see you feel this way because everybody no matter what should support the president until there’s a reason not to and he’s not president yet and he did a great job the first time around. If not for Covid Donald Trump would be leaving the White House right now not going back in. One of the thing I’m feeling when I speak with people like this, I’m guessing that in your lifetime you never voted for anybody with an R in front of it just a guess. And if I’m right, that’s everything you need to know.
Also, how many of those people started out with a family fortune before claiming multiple bankruptcies? Trump is a TV billionaire, living on borrowed and donated cash, and the fools think he is for real.
Family Fortune is not 12 billion. He got a few million and converted that into an incredible Dynasty.
By the way, how do you handle a one in a century global virus that no one knew anything about?
And you do know that as many people died under the Biden administration has died under the Trumpass administration from Covid which is now shown that only about 30% of the people that died from Covid died from Covid. The REST died from complications of another disease they already had in their system.
I've asked many people here so your vast expertise of how to handle a once in a lifetime global virus. How would you have done it differently?
C'mon be honest
“He got a few million”
LOL, Hi Boris, tell Vlad I said hello.
Liar Fraud Con Trump inherited $375-$400 Million from his Racist Kkkdaddy. If Fraud Trump had done nothing other than invest that money in stocks, he’d be worth ten times what he’s worth.
Trump is the ULTIMATE Fraud and Grifter.
Fraud Trump’s Resorts and Hotels are losers; but they ARE a very effective way to launder dirty money and bribes.
So now that you’ve been shown the truth about trumps wealth, tell us how you would’ve handled the Covid global pandemic differently as an armchair quarterback. lol
Oh, and I forgot to mention you're very own. Congress granted him the United States post office in Washington DC itself and look what he turned that into. I guess Congress is from Russia too. Lol
Actually, that was over 25 years. started out with 40 million from his dad but don't be jealous. He turned that 40 million into 15 billion but after reading your post I bet you could probably turn $40 into 20 in no time.
By the way, if you've read any of my posts, TDS has a new strain it's called TRDS and that hoax has been debunked over the years and those starting it jiust might be gifted some equal justice coming up
You on the other hand better put that hat and apron back on and get that back to your french fries customers are coming in.
“If not for Covid”. I agree with you that it probably cost him the election, but the fact that he completely screwed up the most serious test of his presidency is just more evidence of his utter incompetence.
Governance? Oh, that. Office staff are there to take care of that.
Well, in the case of Joe Biden, whoever was running his administration, took care of it real well, but got Joe Biden not only kicked out of office, but lost an election for the Democrats that will last a long time
Trump is simply the real estate salesman he has been for his entire career -- always tell people what they want to hear. Tell them you are offerring the best ever. Promise them that all the features they desire are available or soon will be. Do not hesitate to lie or make things up or embellish what you actually have. Make everything "look good from the road." He did that as his campaign strategy, and now is selling control of the country to those willing to pay the price, and selling loyalty "insurance" to those not rich enough to buy part of the government. It will be a difficult first two years for the country, but his campaign lies are already being exposed, so the 2026 midterms are likely to put him and his cronies in very hot water as his supporters come to realize that they have been scammed.
Make America Grift Again
Same as last time
Exactly!
👍
Hardest, working president in your lifetime watch and learn.
Remember when he said he wouldn’t be playing golf like Obama? Lies, lies, lies.
The American people elected a con man who who only wants to stay out of jail and get back at his enemies. This is not a politician, but he is now in the Oval Office. This mistake by the voters (assisted by still un investigated machinations by Putin and the Republican Party that may have Altered the results of the election overall) will go down as the greatest tragedy in America since the start of the Civil War, if not greater 
“Mistake” doesn’t convey the magnitude of the error. Everyone who voted for Trump committed an unforgivable crime against humanity. Every last one of them is someone the world would be better off without. No exceptions.
You want them gone? You have no sympathy for the fact that they were victims of the longest running most sophisticated brain washing / dumbing down of America effort in history? Yes, we are all responsible for our actions. But if we are psychologically damaged by an intentional effort to reprogram our brains… Think of the motion picture The Matrix… then we really are not responsible for our actions. The evil forces in society are responsible.
These are the same people, “culture-wise,” who have been dragging us down for 400 years. They are not brainwashed. Theh know exactly what they want, namely continued systemic legal, economic, and political advantages over Americans with non-European ancestry.
I highly recommend you read Al Gore's 2007 book "The Assault on Reason" (which he updated in 2017). I know what it's like when gaslighting is part of your life 24/7, thanks to my viciously domineering father. I was saved from buying into his version of reality by television shows I watched as a child (in the 1960s). The American people have had no such alternative world presented to them that would save them. The people you refer to are the leaders of this effort. Al Gore writes about them. I recommend reading his book.
Rex, I saw a post yesterday from one of my former work cohort who was accusing Biden of "suddenly spending OUR money". I have seen nothing of the sort; I am wondering if it is a new bait from their "news" sources. I do not have the stomach to investigate further.
OUR money that OUR duly elected representatives voted on and passed for OUR benefit, i.e., IRA, CHIPS, child tax credit, etc etc. Nothing to investigate 🤗
All we can do at this point is hunker down, watch for windows of possible wins and take care of our families. I just can't bring myself right now to get psyched about the DNC and the National Democratic Party Leaders. The States' Democrats though did an amazing job.
We can do more than hunker down. We can build an alternative structure for society to use that is designed to show people a hopeful future is possible. While there are those in Congress and elsewhere whose full-time positions involve defeating Trump, the millions of us who are not specifically part of that defensive movement can spend our time building the foundation of the future society that will replace the current one. And I do mean replace. The current system of society is completely dysfunctional and primed to destroy. But there is an alternative if you research the pioneers of last century’s societal transformation movement. I am referring to Dr. R Buckminster Fuller, W Edwards, Deming, and Russell Ackoff. I’m also referring to Riane Eisler, who is still with us at age 94. These people have many students, including Amory Lovins and William McDonough, who can form the core intellectual framework for a world built on cooperation, peace and science instead of division hate and ignorance. This is the work I am now committed to. And I will be presenting a brief overview of my plan to the city leaders of Oklahoma City at a special meeting to determine the fate of the Gold Dome Building in downtown Oklahoma City on Monday.
I believe this is what we just tried to do Steve. Until the Leaders of the Democratic Party step aside and let new people lead the way forward the Democratic Party will keep thinking the same way and repeating the same mistakes. A sincere best of luck in Oklahoma!
What leaders do you think should step aside, the whole, the part, or the few? Perhaps a new party can come up with catchy slogans, handmaids and bumper stickers that say, "Free the January 6th 900." Look how well MAGA doing. Surely, the Dems can find new blood to compete with the likes of the permanently insane white cowboys running the GOP. The Dems have a messaging problem, not a personnel problem. imo
The older leader need to yield to the younger ones in the Democratic Party. There a bunch of them! We have a personal problem and a messaging problem. imo.
Take care Nerisa.
Thank you. I’ll post how my Oklahoma City project looks late Monday, after I meet with the civic leaders (including OKC’s mayor) at a public hearing on the Gold Dome’s future.
Good. Looking forward to hearing how things went.
And I’m not at all confident that the US can recover from the assault.
I think we are permanently damaged.
I believe recovery is possible. But only if people learn there is an alternative vision of the future possible. People need to learn a world built on cooperation science and love can replace the world built on division, ignorance, and hate.
How do we combat the fatigue, disillusionment and fear that is so prevalent among Democrats at this time?
I have a quote on my refrigerator: "Although attempting to bring about world peace through the internal transformation of individuals is difficult, it is the only way." - the Dalai Lama. I keep it there to remind me, and to laugh. I believe it. If true, then the only thing that matters is my state of mind. If I am in a peaceful state of mind, good. I will eventually affect someone else. If I am upset, then it's time to be kind to myself and settle down, take a walk, whatever. For what it's worth, this is Eckert Tolle teaching as well. The only thing that matters is your state of mind.
Thank You.
After all I’ve seen, I’m seriously considering the possibility that Rump is the Antichrist…
Not supremely evil, just a mob boss with no human characteristics. As an old dictionary described “trump’er.y. N.; deceit, fraud; anything calculated to deceive by false show; things worn out and of no value; worthless finery, intrinsically of little value…” Well, I would say more, but pretty descriptive and makes fools of many Americans who live in the shadow of human evil.
I believe he is.
The descriptions sure seems to fit...
Nations go through this. We are either going to pull through to the other side right now or wait generations for change.
My resigned and bitter hope is that the next two years are NOT SO BAD as to damage the republic permanently but MORE THAN BAD ENOUGH to turn popular opinion away from Trump to catalyze much needed reforms for financial transparency of political contributions, not to mention promulgating strict limits on amounts of money contributed. 😱🤞🤬🖖🥳
EDIT: P.S., that would be the start of a much longer process of unravelling and redressing corruption.
His appointees to critical institutions like the DOJ and FBI will have a huge impact on how bad things will get. Here is clip from Democracy Dockett with congressman Dan Goldman that lays out how important it is that these appointments DO Not get approved.
https://youtu.be/k0QDFO_zB1U?si=Dr00b9GxERWF4UYd
Amen Ned! Democracy can survive grift, incompetence, lying and misinformation. As long as polio vaccine can be obtained, even if a bit harder and not mandated, we'll be ok. 'Investigating' opponents in the name of revenge weakens our democracy, but again it will survive so long as innocent people are not convicted. This guy is highly likely to trigger a recession, ok not good but we can survive it. I'd keep an eye on things that undermine/destroy the ability of our democracy to function. Those things are a bit harder to discern especially in 'real time'. E.g. Nixon sabotaging Muskie and other Dems, unknown at the time, may have changed history in an anti-democratic manner.
Most of us can survive a drop in the use of vaccines, but the mandated vaccines are often the ones covered by insurers and public health agencies. It takes a relatively modest drop in the percentage of those immunized, so called herd immunity, to unleash rounds of disease that can kill or permanently disable many people.
With Donald Trump, it's all about the show, it's all about the spectacle, it's all about the ratings – free of any thoughtful substance or, for that matter, any conscience whatsoever. Always has been. Always will be. To him, the con, the grift, the chaos and, of course, the suffocating, insatiable ego are paramount.
Far more than any public figure in this reader's memory, going as far back as the mid-1950s, Trump has orchestrated a dumbing down, coarsening and vulgarization of American life that previously had been unimaginable. But it's not that we weren't warned. In 1985, NYU Professor Neil Postman published the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." Although it was too early to cite Trump specifically, the emphasis was on our overall trivializing of what ought to be serious.
Author Aldous Huxley "believed with H. G. Wells that we are in a race between education and disaster, and he wrote continuously about the necessity of our understanding the politics and epistemology of media," Postman explained. "For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in 'Brave New World' was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."
Trump is a creature of media, ensuring the dominance of infotainment over credible journalism. The fact he was elected president not just once but twice doesn't speak well of America's prevailing values.
Gene, thanks for the reference to AH and HGW. This really does seem to describe the public sphere now, and it’s a good snapshot of the bulk of media consumed today …
“ what afflicted the people … was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."
One could extend this to an analogy of what and how we eat.
Thank you, Gene, for the reminders about Huxley and H.G. Wells. Of course, George Orwell is right up there beside them. When “show biz” is mistaken for journalism, a society goes off the rails…or just removes them. In the animal kingdom we talk about “flight, fight, or freeze.” Now is the time for “fight,” in all the nonviolent ways at hand, including calling out the media’s preference for style over substance.
re "the media's preference for style over substance":
That's indeed how we got here: corporate media's shameless normalization of Trump.
What Comes to Mind: The Emperor Has No Clothes and Dorothy's discovery that the Wizard of Oz was literally a fraud, a little man hiding behind a curtain and using special effects to create an illusion of grandeur.
It’s kinda like we’re going to have some sort of “concept” of a government. This group of people are much scarier than the Wizard or a naked Emperor. Let’s bring back polio and diphtheria, dirty water, graft and chaos. It certainly sounds like a concept for a horror film.
RFK, Jr. is not the man his father was, and he wants to make vaccine preventable disease great again.
He’s damaged and hateful, bad combo
The wizard in this case isn’t the insipid orange turd, he doesn’t have the intelligence to walk out the open door of a burning building, the man behind the throne is Rupert Murdoch who controls Fux News and their incessant promotion of the most despicable candidate for any office much less the presidency. Muck is running a close second to Murdoch and may ultimately replace him at the top. If you have any doubt about Murdoch’s power just look at how many of the unfit nominees have come from Fux.
My husband keeps saying”some good will come from this”. He hasn’t been wrong in 34 years. Trump’s first term was so awful, the real good that came from that was Joe Biden and ALL the good he miraculously created in 4 years for this country and the world. Let’s not forget that. Trump was created after wonderful Obama, and predictably again after Biden. Wealthy dark players want dark patsies. . It’s America’s pattern, so it seems. Let’s focus on great leaders to replace Trump and his kind in 2-4 years.And then again. There are plenty ready and willing.
I keep waiting for the public to say "enough is enough" and demand real change, but I have now been waiting for decades. I have not given up, and Trump seems bent on proving just how awful he can be. I hope he does not pull the whole "ship of state" down with him.
Meanwhile, who remembers the "Gilded Age"? It's been a secret in plain sight that the "Robber Barons" have been Striking Back for some time now. Monopolization of money and political power has menaced humanity for centuries, yet we strike at the branches rather than the roots. We as a society made hard won uneven progress it that direction in the last century with a resultant growing middle class and several moves toward broadening social justice, yet tossed much of that away for slick and misleading sloganeering.
Follow the money! It's The One Ring to Rule Them All.
We have to go back to taxing the oligarchs again and making their campaign finance bribery and dark money illegal.
Exactly. We saw fit to protect the integrity of elections in the last century and limit monopolies and inequality and the nation did not fall apart. Quite the reverse. Greed was never good*, that's what makes if greed. Greed is gain by depriving others.
* and yes, the line "Greed is good" was popularized by a fictional villain, but check financial press or right-wing commentary prior to the subprime crash where they embraced it as a motto.
Nicely said, J L. One ring to rule them all, indeed.
I am not a believer, but I notice the Bible has a thing or two to say about narcissistic pursuit of wealth. This is the time of year we dust off the story of Scrooge; but even old scrooge, in the end, had a conscience. Cruel sociopaths don't. Weird how some of the worst of them attract a fanatical following.
T’s term should be called “Trump Inc.” It’s always about the $$$ for him!!
The election of 2024 provides incontrovertible evidence that the U.S. is no longer a serious country.
Trump governs like Mad Magazine.
What, me worry?
Check this interactive map of all of Trump's 79 nominees including Kari Lake, Harmeet Dhillon and Kimberly Guilfoyle. Click on any face for details and links to more information. Search by name? Position nominated for? Connected to FOX? Is a major donor? Related to Trump? Billionaire? Who has been accused of sexual assault?
https://embed.kumu.io/bc8545ebfc1ab2db211d4bfd3d855b48#trump
Fox loves them, so does MSM now
So this is what happens when maladjusted rich boys grow tired of their most common play toys…they then decide to move on to making America and Americans lives their new play toy?
…and the Earth and all living creatures on it.
It’s not just us. Most living creatures can’t post…
Well. We knew it was going to be awful. So here we are. I haven't heard him speak in many years. I never follow mainstream media. Monitor how much of this nightmare you are willing to absorb on any given day.
TIME’S TRUMP, HITLER, & STALIN—NOT A POSITIVE THREESOME
I remember when TIME magazine was an essential read in the United States. It had a circulation of millions and, along with LIFE magazine, were must reads. Today they both have disappeared as significant publications. TIME MAN (PERSON) OF THE YEAR is a faint echo of what it was from 1927 to the 1980s.
It is not the anointing of the ‘best person’ of the year. Rather, it highlights the most ‘significant’ individual. Thus, Donald Trump joins Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
I find nothing surprising in Trump’s TIME interview. We knew who he was from his ART OF THE DEAL, THE APPRENTICE, and his cavalcade of lies, business failures, personal attacks, and treatment of his public life as a glittering, egotistical show unrooted in concern for anyone but himself.
His recent outlandish, fear-and-despair-founded presidential campaign was the frightful apex of the Donald Trump show. He was throwing out thoughts and ‘concepts’ with the same style in which, in anger, he would heave ketchup at his dining room wall.
As a citizen who had been a ‘sucker’ and almost a ‘loser’ for his country (and also s history professor from age 58-to-80), I had imagined that a president of the United States was concerned about governing and the welfare of the American people. WRONG, regarding Trump.
His only concern is himself. As indicated in his TIME interview, his presidential race was simply a sick, egotistical game in which, by hook or crook, he intended to win.
As president-elect, his lack of interest in governing is writ large. As reflected in PROJECT 2025, a roomful of his sycophants have provided a blueprint intended to transform our democracy into an authoritarian country.
Already the Supreme Court has become the ‘Stench Court.’ Trump’s intention to seek political revenge against those who have opposed him is reflected by appointees who would ravage the Justice Department and remove the ‘deep state’ from the FBI.
Trump has made a mountain full of campaign promises which he has absolutely no intention of fulfilling. Indeed, from the Time interview, it is clear that he seems unaware or concerned about these campaign promises.
His appointment of family and billionaires friends to government positions is the height of absurdity and disregard for the management of the United States of America. The naming of Donald Trump Jr.’s former girl friend as ambassador to Greece seems similar to Caligula naming his horse as Roman consul.
I am greatly concerned by how badly Trump and his gang can screw up the United States domestically and globally in the coming years. Clearly Trump doesn’t give a damn.Some of the ideological incompetents who he seeks to appoint to major positions can do great damage to the constitutional checks and balances that have been the bed rock of our country for well over 250 years.
America has survived dreadful periods in the past. For me, Trumpism is the worst since the Civil War.
WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO HOLD TRUMP AND HIS CRONIES RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THEY WILL BE TRYING TO DO TO OUR COUNTRY AND TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
With Heather as our North Star, let us fight and chip away at this Trumpmania and seek to get our ship of state back on a more positive course in the 2026 congressional elections.
Stalin TIME's Man of the Year, for 1939 and 1942. He fomented civil strife and national suffering, establishing a reign of terror which included mass arrests, executions and deportations. As well as cultivating a cult of personality. TIME described this public worship: "Joseph Stalin has gone a long way toward deifying himself while alive. No flattery is too transparent, no compliment too broad for him. He became the fountain of all Socialist wisdom". They might have included that in 1923 Stalin, previously an editor of the Communist newspaper Pravda (Truth), coined the term "desinformatsiya" for false information meant to deceive public opinion. Today we have Trump and his Truth Social. And his Soviet-style authoritarianism second hand from Stalin heir Vladimir Putin as recycled to the American Christian Nationalist GOP through KKK Grand Wizard, GOP gadfly, and Putin fanboy David Duke. Time might have directly designated "disinformation" as their Person of the Year for exerting the most influence on events of the year. After all, it's what helped put Trump in the driver's seat.
(Although, I'd have given it jointly to Yahya Sinwar and Bibi Netanyahu.)
https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019712_2019694_2019592,00.htmlb
Keith, I share your concern. I am waiting for my friends who are so anti-Biden to react to the awful things coming down the pike. I hope that they will clear their heads and join the fight, but there's an element of Neidermeyer's "Thank you sir, may I have another" to them that I fear is more dominant than any reasoned thought.
Remember he is adept at blame. He will blame the Democrats for everything that happens.
Indeed he will!
Once upon a time.
I was living in an isolated 150-year-old farmhouse. I subscribed to TIME. It was mile hike to retrieve the magazine from the roadside mailbox. I would then spend some quality time with a good cup of coffee beside a woodburning stove pouring over the writings.
Now. It is junk. Too bad.
Barbara Exactly my sentiments about the historic TIME—then a must read. Now I suspect that a few folks in a back room are trying to benefit from the name and past glory. A Nonthingburger.
So many excellent publications are now junk. Now I go to Substack, Bluesky and podcasts such as Meidas Touch. I miss the sound of evening newspaper being handled by my Father as he sat reading after dinner.
Barbara Some of my favorites: The Atlantic, including its daily articles; The Economist; THE WEEK (excellent for diverse survey of domestic and foreign press); New York Review of Books; The Guardian.
I like the Guardian, can't afford the Atlantic and will check out the Economist. I am always open to suggestions.
I was reading Timothy Snyder but he is a bit of a downer.
Barbara I cancelled my subscription to Tim Snyder. I thought his BLOODLANDS book on the Jewish genocide was superb. However, on
Substack I found that he pontificated too often and included a series of prerecording Yale student lectures. He reminded me of one of my Yale professors—bright, pontifical, and not really linked with audience.
For tyranny and Eastern European substance, I much prefer Anne Applebaum,
That's my dream life!
It was hard heating with wood and doing nothing but stoking stoves during blizzards but there were those moments...
I get to go back to some land. I am moving into a 240-year-old house sitting on 16 acres. This is a temporary stay and a gift of friends. A true miracle.
Good for you! I believe in miracles.
Me too! I visualized getting back to the land for many years.
That fits!
Should have been Putin as Man of the Year. He won the USA election.
Sheila I believe Putin was Man of Year in 2007, just as he was becoming 100% authoritarian.
Bravo, Keith! Another well written, informative post!
Anne Marie Well-informed Heatherites like you inspire me to write with zest at 4am. Then I go back to bed and am stunned in the morning to see what I have riffed onto Heather. On occasion I mumble something unladylike, but other times I find that a sleepy Keith thinks and writes better than wide awake. Thank four compression fractures of my lower back for my nocturnal scribbling.
Caligula's horse! Absolutely. Big teeth to boot (pun intended).
I'm not religious, but I pray every night I'll wake up in the morning with my news feed announcing that Fatso Fatass at the fatal hamberder and is now laid out as the rotting corpse he is.
I actually did a similar thing—every morning I grabbed my phone, hoping that something had happened to him during the night. I guess it’s time to do it again.
Unfortunately JD what’s his name is his life insurance policy
The convicted criminal's shtick "still plays well to the media"?
Yes, but we're talking media who've all been to college, and so been stripped of any humanities to be in touch with any of the tens of millions who've been so hurt as they have been by the U.S. money classes.
We're also talking that convicted criminal deftly having played those tens of millions who all got their jobs offshored, their communities abandoned.
Sure, the oligarchy now moves in.
Billionaires line up, giving millions to the new king, hoping to curry favor. Ha ha, the joke’s on them. He will take their gold, frankincense, and myrrh and screw them all!
That is what sociopaths do. It’s all a game.
Assuming they do not have United Health insurance, I'd suggest they get gonad transplants.
The next four years will be an era of graft, corruption, revenge, and deceit like nothing we have ever seen.
I have some concerns about censorship, especially informed writers like HCR. At this point, the corruption is at least open.
Why haven’t you commented on Time magazine choosing him as the man of the year? I was pretty shocked by that. Talk about propaganda! I haven’t looked at it. Was he just allowed to lie and lie and lie right there in time magazine?
"Man of the Year" doesn't always mean influential in a good way. Don't forget that Adolf Hitler was Man of the Year once.
Also, Stalin – twice.
I didn’t know that! I am still curious if he was allowed to lie lie lie and lie. I was curious enough to buy the magazine, except in the word town where I live, there is nowhere to buy it.
So we’re Clinton and Obama. Ooooops and I think you’ve been watching the view too much
I think HCR just did.