“For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, 'holds office'; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.” —John F. Kennedy
People, cities, sates, red blue & purple are taking specific tactical actions to stop ICE prisons. The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS) has returned to a 5 times a week format now in early 2026.
Rachel, on TRMS tonight, 2/16 on her show titled “The Fight Against ICE Expansion”. canvassed the entire country for political action trends as she often does.
On the attempted purchases of warehouses for ICE prisons in Hutchins, Texas at a site of a proposed ICE prison the property owner refused to rent to a now won't-be prison Warehouse. Ditto Kansas City, MO. Ditto Roxbury, Ditto South Jersey. Ditto El Paso.
We already know what grandest asshole on earth will try to do heading into the midterms. He will use any and all efforts to prevent Americans from voting; democratic districts, Black communities, brown communities, Native First Peoples. The handwriting is on the wall. Everyone must have a birth certificate and also preferably a passport. It takes awhile to apply for a passport. Do it now. Or you may not be able to cast your ballot.
Every state in the union should begin this task NOW. Not tomorrow. Now.
We must also make sure that voters know where to vote. Some states like Georgia have had oppressive laws forbidding passing out food and water to those standing at the poll. Here is a list of preparations to make. It’s not clear if that law has been amended. Just bring your own water and small bits of food.
Do not drink coffee on the day you go to vote. If you have to go to the bathroom you may lose your place in line. In fact, don’t eat except a few energy bars.
Take Imodium the night before so you don’t need to go to the bathroom.
Bring a water bottle with you and drink sparingly.
Do not wait to check on your voter status. Do it now and do it again in mid summer. They will try to close and change polling stations.
Bring a light weight folding chair with you when you go to the polls. They will make you wait so long you will think of leaving before casting your precious vote.
If you need an absentee ballot, do not wait until the last moment.
And tell everyone you know about these matters to work on NOW!
I have something important to report in my life and in my house today. The new kitty that I took in from the deep cold winter a month ago is having kittens as I tap. Kitty Katz has just now given birth to three little chirpers. I won’t be sleeping much tonight. I need to insure the little ones have access to mama’s nipples and that she has constant food repleshment. And I must say, this is a new chore for me but a pleasant one to have.
If mailing in a ballot, remember that the postmark date no longer reflects the date you mailed it. It now reflects the day that the envelope was processed, which could be days later. How easy would it be to skew the vote by having bags of mail sitting unopened in a post office sorting room?
Something to do today from Joyce Vance:
Take a stand today to protect your voting rights. Write to your Secretary of State telling them to refuse to accede to Federal interference in the elections.
Below is the list of election officials in every state. If you aren’t already, get familiar with yours. And make sure they know you’ll be watching how they handle the meeting on February 25. Call them or send them a letter in the next day or two, letting them know that you know Donald Trump isn’t entitled to “nationalize” our elections and you expect them to uphold the law.
lauriemcf, of course Collins will vote for the SAVE Act because she thinks it will get her re-elected when the people no longer want her. She lied about getting ICE out of Maine and approved Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court when she knew what he is and was. There is no reason anyone should want that Trumpette to be elected to anything. It may be a mental decline is catching up to her as it has our Baby Donnie.
I really want ME to move forward by sending Susan home. Janet Mills is a hated enemy of tdump for speaking back at him. Heaven forbid a woman dared to do so. If I was still a resident of ME, Collins would have been voted out long ago. So go ME, so goes the nation?
Many of you remember that in 1996 Susan Collins PROMISED that she would only serve in the Senate for 2 terms. This is now her 4th election where she is breaking that promise.
We Mainers should all be "CONCERNED" about her running for yet another term where she works for the Republican Party and the Oligarchs that run it.
Back in the day....when we were registered Democrats in Maine we sometimes voted a split ticket. Often supporting Snowe and Collins. There WAS a time when a Republican Senator could be viewed as a reasonable choice.
No longer. The Guardians of Pedophiles should all slink down into sink holes and storm drains in shame. It is astounding to me that they don't realize how awful, how disgusting their behavior will be viewed by future generations. Worse than Confederates. Legacies of horror.
I think highly of Olympia Snowe. She retired when she was still quite popular. The far right hated her for being too moderate. I felt like she represented the people of Maine and Susan Collins did for awhile, until Leonard Leo, Linda Bean and other far-right theocrats and racists got their claws into her.
Bill, I sometimes split my ticket here in Oregon when i could vote for people like Mark Hatfield. However, I will not vote for a R ever now as they are the party of death star. Even our neighbor, a former local R poll, is an I, and votes for Ds.
...and yet Collins is polling for another win. Beyond Downeast and coastal Southern Maine - in the interior lakes and mountains regions, she remains popular, as does Trump. I have no idea how to change the voting patterns in Maine although the continued downward slide of rural school districts may be a culprit.
In 2012, she was the 2nd most popular Senator in her own state just behind Bernie. She was polling at 80%. Sara Gideon who had almost no name recognition compared to Collins almost forced her into a ranked choice voting situation. A few thousands votes put Collins over 50%. And now she is polling worse and she is mostly backed by dark money PACs.
I think Platner can beat her if he pounds on her being an old white Washington insider. And Mills may be able to as well, but she is too old.
IMO the key to ousting Collins is key in on the 18-29 year olds. Trump is polling at 27% among this demographic that put him in office.
Fortunately, the Maine Secretary of State is a former ACLU attorney who hates Trump as much as most of us do. She is running for governor of Maine and has a reasonable shot against a really good field of Democrats.
The best hope in deep red states may be to push hard for the statewide offices--hoping the urban and suburban areas with Dems and independents will be enough to win. With the gerrymandering, the state legislatures may be a bridge too far.
But every elected office needs to have decent candidates running, especially for school boards and town councils and county offices which usually control the elections.
After the primaries, we should all register Republican. Then Trump can do his worst. Right now I'm registered Independent and ME allows me to vote in the primaries on either the Republican or Democratic primary ballot but not both.
Go to hear it from the horse’s mouth so to speak. Then write a letter declining whatever the Trumpian requests are made with a long justification from the State AG for the refusal.
We have just announced the brand spanking new Donald Trump Orchestra with its first production: Symphony in F-Major titled: "Rape of the Sabine Girls." This symphony will be performed every Friday and Saturday evening after cocktails and dinner is served at the new Donald Trump Restaurant featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken.
By popular demand, the stunning documentary, "Melania" will be shown as a teaser entree however tickets are going like hotcakes so please reserve in advance. This venue will continue through our 250th anniversary highlighting the greatest President on earth, President Donald John Trump.
Totally agree - they should be forming a shadow government with daily pronoucements and active resistance. As I have said before we have a giant problem - an evil Republican Party and a rudderless Democratic Party who, with a few exceptions, spend more time on social media fund raising than they do resisting. I am not happy with that party even as I am at war with the Maga Republican Party.
There are four different centrist Democratic groups writing platforms. I've been banging the drum for a shadow cabinet since the day after Trump was elected.
Excellent advice!!! We all have to be prepared for anything. So do judges who need to block any unconstitutional efforts by admin to prevent mail-in ballots by expats or anyone. Also judges need to prevent harassment at polling locations by ICE and others. Congrats to Kitty Katz and welcome to new kitties!
Thank you for your contribution and encouragement. I appreciate each suggestion and will check and double-check before it is time to cast my precious vote. It will be a vote for the freedoms that have cost the lives and health of many men and women before us. It will be a vote for the future of our children...that they may also live lives within the freedoms fought for before us and are daily being fought for ....and my vote will be to honor each and all who stand....especially those heroes currently facing threats!!!!
Bill, some really good advice. It would be great if such advice were plastered everywhere: social media, newspapers, pamphlets given out all over the place, and more. People should never have to go through voting experiences that would need that advice, but it is what losers do to make themselves win when the people don't want them. Good luck with the kittens!
In the past few weeks or so, we've had discussion here about putting little notes in public places for others to find. I've gotten some good suggestions, and someone linked this site to me:
info@cc4democracy.com This might be easiest for some to use. You can choose from various subjects. I really like them, and I'm awaiting printable postcards so I can print up some.
Frequent commentor Dale sent this if you want to print your own sticky notes to put in places where they can be seen:
Bill, such good advice to those who must stand in lines at polls. That crap of people being told to not hand out food & water is just so evil! Maybe there could be some sort of unmanned cart with water for those in line? Nuzzle those new little ones for me Bill? Good on you for the rescue.
Congratulations on being chosen by the Cat Distribution System to care for Mama Kitty and her three littles! In a few weeks you will be entertained non-stop by their antics. Get a food designed for nursing MomCats and the littles, which will be packed with the extra goodies needed.
I manage a polling precinct. We have no problem with folks taking potty breaks while they wait. That's up to their fellow voters and they've always been good about saving someone's place in line.
Georgia already has the Real ID process that you need to go through when you first get a license. We have long passed the need to prove before you can renew, as this was enacted more than a decade ago. You are required to bring a valid government issued photo ID to be able to vote. If you don't bring ID, or if you have other issues preventing you from casting a ballot, we will give you a provisional ballot and you have until Friday after the election to bring an appropriate resolution to the voting office and then your ballot will be counted.
Absolutely check your registration status before you go to the polls! Check at least a week early so that you will have time to resolve any issues and be marked eligible to vote. We would give you a provisional ballot otherwise, which does take extra time, and you will have to spend more time bringing the required documents to our voting office.
If it is at all possible in your state, VOTE EARLY! Georgia's polls are open two weekends as well as the 7am-7pm daily for three work week days prior to the election.
Please be polite to the poll workers. We have to come in hours before the polls open, and stay for hours afterwards. We would love to have you sign up to help us! Then you can see the careful checks and balances and chains of custody for your ballot.
Do you have a reference as to when TRMS is back on 5 times a week? According to upcoming TV guides, she continues on Monday evenings at 9 PM EST and then Jen Psaki is on Tu-Fr at the same time (before Laurence O'Donnell).
Bryan, RMS was increased to 5 nights (her former schedule) for the first 100 days of ‘Rump’s 2nd term & then back to her normal Monday night-only schedule after that.
Yes, you are correct.Rachel Maddow is on Monday nights although I wish she would go back to the 5 nights a week that she did during Trump’s first 100 days in office.
As Dr. Richardson noted in her podcast last week these are concentration camps. Let's make sure we drive that home. She said a concentration camp is where a concentration of people are being detained as opposed to a death camp such as we saw in WW2. Although, in my opinion, based on what we are hearing these camps are seeing torture and deaths.
We Michiganders are protesting the purchase of a warehouse in Romulus, Michigan, for use as a detention center, very close to Detroit Metro Airport. Our center in Baldwin already has deplorable conditions. People in the private facility become untraceable, and some conditions are dire. But where are the news coverage, the Red Cross, or the politicians who could expose the treatment?
Did he trademark "Trumpschwitz" to name his numerous "camps" or "Trumpenstein DC" to rename Washington DC as his personal District of Corruption?
He could apply for and receive patents on the "Process and Methods of Continuous Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel of Evil" a form of perpetual negitive energy.
Thank you for informing us of the "freedom loving, true Americans!" who stood up to the influence of money who "REFUSED TO RENT TOWARDS NOW "WON'T- BE" PRISON WAREHOUSES."
We are better than this and we need to WAKE UP and realize that what is taking place within our country due to corruption by our own citizens in powerful positions or by our enemies here and abroad supporting these acts of destruction to our foundations MUST BE STOPPED NOW!!!!! THE LONGER WE WAIT....THE DEEPER THE TENTACALS OF CORRUPTION TAKE HOLD!!!!
Don't be fooled....someone will come to your door or to the doors of our children.
We need to give the lives we have left for the future of our children and grandchildren and to encourage the power of freedom within our world.
Merrimack, New Hampshire. A town alongside Thoreau's river now the site of a burgeoning warehouse prison for children and their families who followed their different drummer.
From George Washington, first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen -- all the way down to His Rancid Eminence, first in grubbery, venality and fuckupery, the Trumpmenbashi of Lower Amerikastan...
Ah, ICTT, your “handle” kinda says it all. The USA has always had an aspirational vision…def a work in progress….but I never expected to see this roiling cesspit* in power and a large part (Congress) of the triad give up and bow down to the Greedy Grifter & his minions & family.
*I refuse to call it a swamp, cuz swamps are needed ecosystems,
Washington, Lincoln, and JFK would be ashamed of the Orange menace. Bad bunny’s love is stronger than trump’s hate. I wrote a poem inspired by his stunning performance, which reminded us of the beauty of diversity: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/bad-bunny-super-bowl-love
Washington had no college degree but was self-educated in geometry, trigonometry, surveying, military war tactics, agriculture, and politics. Washington’s resume included leading Virginia’s militia in the 1750s, against French forces and their Indigenous allies including tribes like the Shawnee and Delaware, and in 1776 becoming Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. At that time the name “Washington” was synonymous with “Independence.” No doubt that is why Washington sat as President of the Constitutional Convention. It is reasonable to conclude it is also why Madison and Morris framed the Constitution’s requirement to be a President in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, as only being thirty-five years old, natural born citizen, and live fourteen years within the country. After all, who at the Constitutional Convention would dare have told Washington he is not qualified to lead the country.
When Washington became President there were only four executive Departments: State, Treasury, War, and Attorney General (Justice). Today there are fifteen modern and very powerful executive Departments requiring special knowledge. The U.S. military alone has six official branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. Yet we have failed to amend our Constitution to secure our Government from the election of a reality TV celebrity who can say he is qualified because he was hatched in the USA 80 years ago. This is one of a couple of dozen major problems we need to mend by amending our Constitution. We begin by uniting and informing others of the problems we are in.
Albert, as one who is waiting waiting waiting for the ERA (passed by enough states) to be codified (dueling reasons why not), I’ve read that amending the Constitution is a lengthy process (see ERA), so not immediate fix to this issue, and that a Constitutional Convention is a double-edged sword—I was curious so read about the pros & cons some years back…who knew?!
I ended saying "We begin by uniting and informing others of the problems we are in." The lack of an ERA is one of them. Moreover, the main word in that sentence is "uniting." That allows us to address the problems of who should be sent to Congress and to the State Houses.
You make an important point about context. George Washington did not have a formal degree, but he built real competence over decades of service. By the time he presided over the Constitutional Convention, his reputation carried moral weight because it had been earned in war and restraint. You are also right that the modern executive branch is far more complex than the four original departments. The scale of today’s federal government would have been unimaginable in 1787. That raises serious questions about whether Article II’s minimal qualifications are still adequate for the world we inhabit. Constitutional amendment is deliberately difficult, but not impossible. If people believe structural reform is necessary, the work begins exactly where you say, with civic education, coalition building, and patient organizing. Durable change has always required both memory and majority support.
My words above are from a Memo to We the People I have written. It includes a five section amendment which addresses over two dozen problems caused by the Supreme Court and elected office holders. It will be posted soon to UnitedWeAmend.org which is under construction. Thereafter I will begin researching the modern methods for uniting Americans. Clearly the internet is a major factor: YouTube, Facebook, Substack, podcast, and more. I think the Powell Memo has a good idea which we can modify for our cause. First, create a Staff of Scholars who believe in the amendment . That idea can grow as it did after Powell into a collection of think tanks. Next the Powell Memo listed having a “Staff of Speakers” who would be of the “highest competency and would articulate the product of the scholars.” This concept evolved into the recruitment of celebrities into the political arena. They can reach out to the podcast and TV. As they do so they must also have a wish list of who should be elected now and what Bills must be introduced in Congress and the States. You hit the nail on it's head, "deliberately difficult, but not impossible." IMO, Trump is making that process a lot easier. Every time he opens his mouth it is a rally call for our cause. BTW, Section 5, of my model amendment is to repeal the Elector system, repeal the single executive being vested with all the modern powers of the executive Office, and diversify the executive Powers of fifteen Departments and more into seven executive Offices.
Excellent quotation from TriTorch, thank you. And this pretend President is a public servant, he works for us. When will that simple fact be brought to the fore, loudly, again and again? His nauseating narcissism is oddly grotesque and laughable.
I agree Cathy. I'm glad I didn't read this before I went to bed. Some of this I wouldn't have believed if it hadn't been written by HCR herself. I think Tie Rant and his whole dispicable gang belong in prison.
In my opinion, being educated does not necessarily mean having gone to a school of higher education. Andy Borowitz weighs in on some of our "uneducated" presidents. He says,
"My preference that politicians be educated probably brands me as an elitist. I’m fine with that. I consider myself the Ted Nugent of elitism. But being an elitist doesn’t make me a snob—hear me out, there’s a difference. When I say “educated,” I want politicians to have the knowledge required to do their jobs well, or at least not to get us all killed. I don’t care where, or even whether, a politician went to college. Harry Truman wasn’t a college graduate, and he probably took some solace in knowing that a predecessor of his, George Washington, wasn’t, either. It’s possible to become a great president with no more than twelve months of grade school—an educational background that Abraham Lincoln, being honest and all, would have had to disclose on LinkedIn.
"I don’t care much about the grades a politician got in school because they’re not a reliable predictor of governing ability. Franklin Delano Roosevelt somehow managed to lead the nation out of the Great Depression and to victory in World War II despite his C average, a GPA that today would keep him from getting an interview at McKinsey. What made Roosevelt a successful president, among other gifts, was his intellectual curiosity, which enabled him to absorb vast amounts of information necessary to resolve unprecedented crises. When severe drought created the Dust Bowl, he had a lot to learn; he couldn’t fall back on his high school experience at Model Dust Bowl. I want the president of the United States to be intellectually curious for a simple reason: I think the person running the country should be smarter than I am. We’ve just lived through the alternative, and it was only good for the liquor industry.
"How can we tell if a politician is intellectually curious? Reading habits are a good place to start. Truman might not have gone to college, but as a kid he tried to devour every library book in Independence, Missouri. As I profile presidents, I’ll examine how much they enjoyed, or even tolerated, the act of reading. Why? Well, there’s something called the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), an intelligence summary that, true to its name, lands on the president’s desk every day. It’s true to its name in another way: It’s literally brief, often just a page or two. Yet to some recent recipients it seemed like War and Peace."
For more from Andy, read his book "Profiles in Ignorance."
Lynell…yeah, street-smart or curious-smart….a “higher education” can provide much, but it def is not an end-all. Indeed many college students are NOT really interested and just going thru the motions (albeit expensive ones) because it’s “what you do”. No, just, no…if you ARE curious and openminded the combo can be chart topping and whet one’s appetite for lifelong knowledge/understanding. My granny (b. 1898) never went beyond grade school, but was curious and open minded and very well read. When she lost her vision in later years she arranged with an org for the blind to have books on LP albums sent to her & a little record player. She’d exclaim to me now and then “oh, I am reading the most interesting book”. She maintained a number of bookshelves with a wealth of books, many of which her daughters and grandkids freely borrowed and read. Seeing her, knowing her from such a young age showed me you don’t need advanced education to be educated!
Love the story of your grandmother. My grandmother never went to college - and after she and my grandfather lost their money in the 1929 crash and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, my grandmother audited classes -- particularly Shakespeare and poetry. She had always had help to do the cooking - but that was no longer possible, so she learned to be a great cook by watching Julia Child! And my Mom - at 80 and using a walker - was also a life-long learner and, despite how difficult it was for her to get there, went to the free Saturday Morning Physics classes offered by the University of Michigan. At 75, I now try to keep that legacy going!
How I would love to spend a day with her once again, so many questions I have now that I’m older, tho she shared much with us….she passed in 1997, just shy of her 100th birthday. I remember one time I traveled to stay with her for about a week or so in the mid-70’s and pulled a book to read from one of many on her shelves because the title spoke to my mood at the moment…”The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall. Whoa, did not expect to be reading a late 1920’s novel about at WWI lesbian ambulance driver! My opinion of my granny expanded exponentially! She had quite a ride…the ups and downs…and savored it all.
Hope that my nieces and nephew can think the same of me (although I do not own a copy of "The Well of Loneliness"; my vast LGBTQ collection does not contain that particular tome.
Being a *natural learner* is what drives people to learn from all sources, and obviously, that method can't duplicate the repertoire of traditional higher ed's offerings; fundamental innovation often comes from these natural learners. Watch for the pattern-seeking information gatherers who integrate what they learn, see everything in broad and narrow time contexts, are rooted in an anti-biased willingness to take in new information, and who observe natural world ecosystems. Most likely, those people will also understand reciprocity and therefore, will collaborate well.
I’ll be 80 this year and I feel like a sponge, I’m constantly learning things, all of my life I have been a voracious reader and there is so much I know so little about. I’m just starting Tim Snyder’s “Bloodlands” which has been sobering to say the least. The forces that begat WWII didn’t magically appear, they were products of choices that had been made decades before. The insipid orange turd in the WH is making choices that may reverberate well into the future. 🤬🤬🤬
I think you hit it on the head about intellectual curiosity. I’ve met lots of folks who are “learned” by virtue of having gone to the right school and parroted back what the professor wanted to hear on the exam as a transactional exercise to get the degree. Then the “knowledge” gets tossed aside because it’s no longer useful. Likewise I have known people who never graduated college yet continue to seek out knowledge. The key isn’t whether you have a few letters after your name. It’s whether you understand the truth that knowledge and wisdom are always a work in progress. The minute you think you’ve learned it all and have an unlimited right to pontificate and punish honest disagreement is the minute you start to die inside.
I don’t think this president has learned anything new in his entire adult life. He lives his life on the lower end of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and will never advance beyond that. True leaders should not only strive for higher purpose, they should also inspire those they lead to do the same. He does neither.
I agree. You can't learn History in grade school - they just don't teach it (some facts are right - hero fact are usually BS). I'm an austere situation, life skills will be the most important.
Yes but in the Dark Enlightenment the current Epstein Class is instituting, education is necessary only insofar as the progeny of the elite obscenely rich and entitled acquire it. The rest are ‘worker bees’ and education for them is a threat to authority. AI and robotics will make many of us expendable so cuts to health care and social security access and the crashing of pensions for many of us are just the ‘humane’ genocide put forth by Yarvin-subscribing billionaires. The new gulags are for free labor, for the ‘undesirables’ and dissidents, the disabled and the mentally ill, substance addicted,or homeless (who, as aFOX anchor blurted out, can choose to either work, or die).
Considering the sources here are Breitbart, The Epoch Times and Fox among other doubtful sources I think you’ve confirmed my impression of you as “troll” when you first popped up sounding suspiciously like AI.
I will never think of Oklahoma in the same way again. And the comment on that second item ("Good grief!!! How does she live on her own and not need to be constantly monitored for her own safety???") is the best I've seen in a long while. Thanks for some much needed humor.
I think it was the point in time when people started talking about "who would you want to have a beer with?" as a way to pick your president. It's one of the most important and hardest jobs in the world. Don't you want a smart president?
Thank you for "holding your office", Heather. Since I haven't had access to an English language library for about 40 years, I appreciate your publishing all these references. Ive saved many of your Letters. This one is suitable for framing.
Both times Trump won because of the degree of sexism in America. Thus we got the bad political leadership that we demanded and deserved. Our resolve is to Unite as ONE PEOPLE. Then we can do anything.
Albert, tonight I watched a vid of Hillary Clinton, as part of a panel of speakers, just bring the receipts in a (to me) scathing knowledge-based evaluation/observation of the current administration. Mic drop moment…she was fire. All I could think of was “if only….things could be so different” (I assume better), but no, we couldn’t elect—gasp!—a woman. Rinse. Repeat. ☹️🤬
I watched that on CSPAN... you are absolutely correct. We had a few real leaders at the Munich conference - but none of them were from the T**** criminal enterprise.
I don't know how to do it yet, even though it has been on my mind for over 40 years, but we need to inform We the People that our personal identity, our individual self-worth, being based upon a single set of physical attributes is misplaced. We the People in itself is another way of saying DEI being in control of the power to govern. We therefore need to inform ourselves that above all else we are all individual persons with equal rights; color of skin, genitalia, size and weight notwithstanding. Speaking with many about this problem over the last few decades it sometimes seems to me we are speaking different languages.
I do remember the Occupy Riverside group wanting to start a "shadow government" like the British, opposition party members having designated people to follow what the official minister or secretary of important entities were doing so that they would have the most up to date replacements available if a snap election or resignation. As I understood it, the shadow persons were not automatically the replacement, but were usually the best choice for immediate continued expertise and current awareness of time critical considerations.
A case in point, Liz Truss, in office for only 50 days (and lasting that long only because of the 10 days of mourning following the passing of Queen Elizabeth)
George Washington couldn't tell a lie. Abraham Lincoln fought to keep our country together. Now, we have a president who's trying to make himself rich off our tax dollars.
This President's Day, we wanted to make sure you heard how Common Cause is holding the current occupant of the White House to the same standards of integrity we would expect from any president – even if it means taking action in court.
Daniel, disgraced ex-reality star and convicted felon, Donald Trump is suing the United States government for billions of dollars.
Who’s on the other side of the courtroom, defending our tax dollars against Trump’s legally baseless personal cash grab?
You guessed it: President Donald Trump. The case is called Trump v. IRS – but the IRS reports up to him, so he’s literally playing both sides!
I’d be laughing… if it weren’t so deeply wrong. We can’t trust a President who spent the past year getting rich at your expense to defend us against his own lawsuit!
That’s why Common Cause is taking legal action. This afternoon, we filed a brief on behalf of our one million-plus members, taxpayers who need a government that defends our interests in court, not Donald Trump’s. [1]
And we’re backed up by a group of former IRS officials who are committed to the rule of law – a particularly brave act given how the President treats those who cross him publicly.
We’ve got a strong case: our justice system is supposed to have two sides making their best arguments – then we let the court decide. When both sides are working for the same person, then anyone who trusts the outcome is burying their head in the sand.
Don’t just take our word for it. Trump himself pointed out how absurd this is, wondering aloud how he’s “supposed to work out a settlement with myself.” [2]
Daniel, I think that’s a great question for the court!
We’re already stretching our legal resources to their limit. We’re battling in court to stop Trump’s DOJ from stealing your private voter data in 15 states and Washington D.C., to reverse rigged voting maps in North Carolina, and to block state laws meant to disenfranchise naturalized citizens.
But here’s what’s at stake if we lose or stay silent: Donald Trump – and anyone else who gains his favor – could sue our government for as much as they want. Then, the U.S. government will pay them off with our money while they laugh all the way to the bank.
If we let that kind of blatant corruption become “business as usual,” this will no longer be the kind of country I want to live in. We cannot normalize this sort of self-dealing or let this president make a joke out of our justice system.
We’ll be in touch as this case moves through the courts – but as one of the million-plus members who power everything we do, I wanted you to be the first to hear that we’ve taken action.
The actual quote from the inaugurating address is:
“For in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, holds office; every one of us is in a position of responsibility. And, in the final analysis, the success of our system of government depends upon the enthusiasm of our citizens in carrying out their responsibilities, and their willingness to participate in this process.”
I do not know where you got yours. The full text of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961) is available through the Library of Congress, Unless you put other parts of the speach or several soeaches together.
So we have reached the logical next step in the American experiment. Not constitutional reform. Not electoral reform. Not even basic plumbing reform. No, we have arrived at the rebranding phase of the republic.
Apparently, it is no longer enough to occupy the presidency. One must trademark it.
The news that representatives connected to Donald Trump filed applications to secure trademark rights tied to naming an airport after him feels less like governance and more like a deleted scene from a late capitalist parody. We used to name airports after public servants as a kind of civic memorial. Now we appear to be beta testing the idea of monetizing the runway before the paint dries.
Picture it. Air Force One taxis past a gift shop that sells commemorative “Official Presidential Landing” snow globes. Boarding passes feature a watermark of the trademark holder. The TSA politely reminds travelers that their carry-on items must comply with federal guidelines and brand integrity standards.
Welcome to the age of licensed democracy.
There was a time when the presidency at least maintained the pretense of being a public trust. We spoke in hushed tones about conflicts of interest. We had ethics lawyers who did not need to sit down with a flow chart and a whiteboard to explain why profiting off a public landmark while occupying the Oval Office might raise eyebrows. Now we are debating whether a sitting president’s private entity can secure intellectual property rights on civic infrastructure.
The founders did not foresee this. They worried about monarchs. They worried about standing armies. They worried about foreign entanglements. They did not think to include a clause that reads: “No person shall convert the Republic into a lifestyle brand.”
Yet here we are.
The trademark filing is not just a paperwork curiosity. It reflects a deeper shift in how power is understood. The line between public office and private enterprise has been steadily dissolving, like an ice cube in a glass of grift. If the presidency becomes an extension of a personal portfolio, then the country is no longer a republic in the classical sense. It becomes a platform.
Imagine the Cabinet meeting.
Secretary of Transportation: “Mr. President, we need to discuss infrastructure funding.”
President: “Have we secured the domain name for the tarmac?”
Secretary of State: “We are facing diplomatic tensions in Europe.”
President: “Is the European market open to franchising?”
This is satire, but only barely.
There is something almost poetic about trying to trademark an airport. Airports are transitional spaces. They are portals between departure and arrival. They are also public, shared, and collectively funded. To brand one in your own name while still holding office sends a message that the machinery of the state is not a common inheritance but a product line.
The symbolism writes itself. The runway becomes a revenue stream. The terminal becomes a marketing opportunity. The control tower becomes a metaphor.
Critics will say this is simply savvy business. That in America, entrepreneurship is not a sin. That we celebrate innovation. True. But there is a difference between selling sneakers and licensing the skyline. There is a difference between private enterprise and public power. When those lines blur, accountability evaporates.
If this trend continues, we may as well get ahead of it. Why stop at airports? Trademark the Lincoln Memorial. Install sponsored plaques on the Capitol steps. Offer tiered subscription packages for executive orders. “For premium members only, enjoy early access to foreign policy announcements.”
Perhaps the next inauguration will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony not just for the term, but for the merchandise line.
Of course, defenders will argue that critics are overreacting. That no harm has been done. That this is standard legal procedure. But harm is not only measured in dollars. It is measured in norms. In expectations. In the quiet understanding that some roles are sacred because they are public.
When that understanding erodes, cynicism fills the vacuum. Citizens begin to see governance as theater. Law becomes branding. Civic duty becomes a marketing slogan. And once people conclude that the system is merely a storefront, their investment in its integrity declines.
Democracy cannot thrive as a side hustle.
There is also the small matter of precedent. If a sitting president can pursue trademark rights tied to a public landmark, what stops future officeholders from pursuing similar arrangements? The logic is contagious. If one administration treats the state as an extension of personal enterprise, others may follow. Soon, the White House gift shop will require a licensing agreement.
Satire often exaggerates to make a point. The problem is that reality keeps catching up.
At its best, the presidency represents stewardship. A temporary guardianship over institutions that belong to everyone. At its worst, it becomes extraction. A chance to leverage influence for personal gain. The trademark filing leans uncomfortably toward the latter.
And so we are left with a question that feels absurd but is not: Is the presidency a public office or a branding opportunity?
If the answer drifts toward the second, then the rest of us become shareholders in a company we never agreed to join.
The runway lights blink. The plane descends. The wheels touch the ground.
And somewhere, in a quiet office, a lawyer checks the status of an application to own the name on the terminal.
Thank you for this quote from JFK! Hope Everybody assumes their responsibility and votes...no time for apathy. I hope too that the millions who didn't vote in past elections realize their mistake.
Out Here, but with the AI cheating that is now happening, we may not be getting what we deserve, but what the rich white men who never had to grow up want in their adolescent need to rule over something.
Of course, T has no idea words like Kennedy's exist- he doesn't read- and since T is an emotional cripple, he couldn't understand what it means to be a citizen involved together in keeping us responsible to each other & this country.
Well it seems I was suckered by SecState Rubio's polished delivery of his speech at the Munich Conference.🤭Shame on me.🤫Doctors Richardson and Kristol hit the bull's eye.✍️ I had dismissed the civilizational, racist crap as feeding the beast.😳I had ignored that statement that armies do not fight for abstractions.😯UGGG.🙄Fifty years ago, my father and I had a heated discussion over the Great Civil War.😠Dad thought the cataclysm represented an economic conflict.🤔I said that I could not see how people would would put their lives on the line for anything less than banning slavery; 🗽that tariffs may have created a tinder-box but slavery and -- as Dr Richardson would teach me much later -- the meaning of the Declaration of Independence lit the match.⚖️
That will only boost the disgusting renaming grifts. When Heather recalled his Mt. Rushmore dreams and mentioned its location in the “Black Hills,” I shuddered a little.
Washington, Lincoln, and JFK would be ashamed of the Orange menace. Bad bunny’s love is stronger than trump’s hate. I wrote a poem inspired by his stunning performance, which reminded us of the beauty of diversity: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/bad-bunny-super-bowl-love
While much of America struggles financially because of Trump's absurd, irrational policies, he's spending our money like a maniac. The federal deficit is soaring while he enriches himself. Do his supporters actually know about all his grifting at their expense? Doubtful. Long after he's dead, we will be paying the bill.
And yet, until recently, polls have indicated that a majority of Americans have considered Republicans better stewards of the American economy than Democrats. There seems to be a lot of people not paying very much attention. Maybe reality is becoming more intrusive?
Kathryn, the myth was started by (you guessed it) the media. Conservative Arthur Krock wrote for The New York Times. In an article profiling (and criticizing) Franklin D. Roosevelt, he described the administration as the "spend and tax" administration, quoting (misquoting?) Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration leader, Harry Hopkins.
Afterward, Krock and Hopkins had a published argument in letters to the editor in which Hopkins denied having said it. During that back-and-forth, the phrase got swapped to "tax and spend." The phrase was embraced by Republicans who hated FDR's "New Deal," and became a label GOP operatives attached to all Democrats, and still do.
I recall some media wag pointing out that the GWB administration was "Spend and Not Tax", launching massive tax cuts and two expensive wars (in terms of both dollars and lives) as a package deal. Republican's laissez faire policies precipitated The Great Recession, but Democrats did not want to rock the boat too much about it, and while the "GOP" suffered setbacks (such as scaled-up RomneyCare, aka ObamaCare) Republicans largely preserved their myths, and the public persuaded to ignore the Epstein Class behind the curtain. To this day many Democrats despise (brand as "extreme" and a discredit to the party) the gall of quasi-independent Bernie Sanders for insisting to point that that out.
Fox and their clones preach lies continually. After a few months their viewers become brainwashed and start repeating Republican lies. One recent example is the stories of the two murders by ICE.
Craig, did you see the statement by Jesse Watters that the "healthiest" thing we can do about the Epstein's atrocities is "to have a good laugh.", because those young girls are now adults and "the past is past."
FOX "news" people have no soul. Jesse Watters is a pit viper.
"OK liberal snowflakes. EXCUSE my inappropriate sense of humor. Look, no matter how many minors Epstein and his friends may have trafficked, they're all adults now. The past is past. The healthiest thing one can do is to have a good laugh about it."
Is this AI? Could be, but it sounds just like something that snake would say.
Jeff Tiedrich refers to Watters as Fox's "Found Object."
A loose definition of a found object is an item which no longer has any useful purpose that is incorporated into a piece of art.
I think Tiedrich implies that Watters is useless, so Fox puts him on camera as a set decoration.
I don't watch Fox, but Tiedrich occasionally includes Watters in his satire. From those clips, I conclude that Watters is an idiot obsessed with toxic masculinity, although he's about as masculine as a hot pink clutch purse. He's not worthy of being called a pit viper.
Yeah, the stats show the actual picture, but either folks don’t want to believe it, or they fall for the economic rhetoric that’s been around since Reagan. Humans are weird.
Very funny, Michael: "Do his supporters actually know about . . .?"
Remember, the richest of his supporters are right now -- as they have been for decades -- being covered, protected by Donald for all the underage girls they cynically merrily raped.
I had a convo with one of his supporters yesterday. It blew my mind. She told me she loved his policies. What policies, I asked. She changed the subject.
The 'whataboutism' was startling. She told me why she will vote for him a third time - because he was robbed of a term in 2020 and because the dems did not just shut up and let him rule for 4 years like the Republicans do when the dems win the presidency.
Michael, they only know what they are fed from Faux, NewsMax, and other propaganda sources. Not only do they know about it, they believe that it is reasonable and are on board with anything he does.
Sheila, we are already there. We just don't know it.
I lived in Oklahoma City when Penn Square Bank collapsed. It took with it Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust, and nearly took down Seattle First, Michigan National and Chase Manhattan Banks, and caused a ripple effect across the entire U.S. banking industry.
The bank was run by a bunch of numbskulls (not unlike the Trump regime) who were more interested in making a quick buck than fiduciary duty. They loaned money to oil prospectors who kept drilling dry wells. The prospectors would come back to the bank asking for more loans because "the next well will be the big one." The bank kept making bad loans hoping to recover their losses from the previous bad loans. Then they sold the bad loans to other banks, as mentioned above. The whole house of cards collapsed. When FDIC investigated, they found over 400 criminal activities, but only one of the bank executives went to prison.
The U.S. is Penn Square bank. Our creditors keep buying our debt, hoping to cover the debt they already bought. That global false hope is the only thing keeping us financially alive.
This makes me sick, sad and furious—all at the same time. I’m not sure which emotion is the strongest, but they all reflect the depraved state of this regime.
Because Congress….specifically those who have the majority…are bowing down to him (why, oh why?)…and not gonna perform the supposed “role” they SHOULD, along w/ the Judiciary, to be enough to clip his wings, but they’ve abdicated their duty, so it’s now up to US to keep doing what we’re doing and pushing back/resisting. I guess one good thing is that “we” are more aware & involved than we have been for a long time and it is stirring a collective groundswell across the nation…a reawakening of sorts. My fervent hope is that “we” come out the other side stronger and more untied. <—oops, make that “united”🤣
Yes I agree. I feel so discombobulated every day like I don’t even know what’s up or down anymore. I am sure that is all by design but it is not good for our collective mental well being.
The most common airport codes are IATA codes, which are three-letter codes used for ticketing and baggage handling, and ICAO codes, which are four-letter codes used for air traffic control and flight operations.
Unfortunately, North America's ICAO letter prefix is "K." So it would be KDJT. The letter "F" is assigned to Africa.
But there's nothing stopping the International Air Transport Association from assigning FDT to the airport, which would make it KFDT. More bad news: Renamed airports usually retain their old codes.
When Trump goes down in ignominy, I hope we put up a monument in DC where you can pay $1 to spit on his grave, $10 to piss on it, and $100 to leave a dump.
listen up, and listen well,I already purchased options on being the first to shit on his grave. I intend to get into the Guinness book of world records. You will need to take a number.
Might be an infrastructure problem…streets clogged with traffic to the venue, inadequate parking for the masses of people traveling from across the country…nay, across the world. Unlike his casinos, this would make money.
I think we are going to need national urinals in each of our states with his face molded into the porcelain as a target and his mouth in his signature O for the sit down commodes. There are millions to be made manufacturing them for the home market, there will be a huge demand for them.
And everyone, don’t forget to - Be LOUD. These are unprecedented times 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Take a stand today to protect your voting rights. Write to your Secretary of State telling them to refuse to accede to Federal interference in the elections.
Below is the list of election officials in every state. If you aren’t already, get familiar with yours. And make sure they know you’ll be watching how they handle the meeting on February 25. Call them or send them a letter in the next day or two, letting them know that you know Donald Trump isn’t entitled to “nationalize” our elections and you expect them to uphold the law.
We as a nation had naive confidence that common decency and tradition would be safeguards for democracy. I hope that Trump is remembered in legislation that addresses that misconception and ensures that we never see another Trump in high office again.
If You Live In A Red State Call Your Senators To Vote Against The SAVE Act: Attack On Voters
The SAVE Act before the Senate will disenfranchise at least 21million legitimate registered voters Please use your constituent influence and call your senators(202.224.3121) to demand they vote against this abomination of bill to screw over the American electorate Why do this?
The Republican Nazis with their SAVE Act you must provide documentary proof of citizenship — a U.S. passport, a birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, or a Real ID that specifically denotes citizenship
Your driver’s license? Doesn’t count The law also disenfranchises many female voters who have taken their husband’s name, requiring them to provide a birth certificate(many cannot locate theirs) or a passport(80% don’t have one) This amounts to nullifying registered voters
This coupled with a nationalized vigilante challenge(bit.ly/41UelTx) in their back pocket, the Nazis are putting a full scale assault on the American voter WE the People can fight this with awareness of this Nazi attempt and urging everyone of our friends, neighbors, relatives, and family to vote early to avoid being disenfranchised as a registered voter
Several other practical things to do. Volunteer to be a precinct worker yourself, or better yet a poll watcher. You don't need to be a resident of a state to be the latter. The DNC and other groups will soon offer info and mini-courses on how to do this. The need is tremendous.
Make certain your name you sign with is the one your county registrar has for you, down to the initial and the dot on the "i". If you insist on voting by mail, do so early. Better yet, vote early in one of your county's approved locations. Consider getting a passport (waiting time can be months) even though you shouldn't have to. Watch for changing voting places, fewer voting places on Election Day.
There is no chance the SAVE Act will get passed in the Senate in its current form now, but anticipate other types of abusive chickenshit likelier to arise. In purple areas, in places like Atlanta, you can set your watch to the coming feces flings. Forewarned is forearmed.
I was thrilled to get the call from the LACounty registrar's office asking if I'd be a poll worker again for the upcoming June primary! Of course, I said YES! And I'll be at the same polling place in a community library in a working class neighborhood, where I've been the last several elections. Can't wait 🤗
I volunteered to be a poll worker/watcher for the first time. I told them to put me where I am needed. I am a bit uncomfortable about this and plan to do it scared.
Better advice still. Call the Secretary of State's office in your state capital, and tell them to REFUSE to participate in the February 25 "invitation" by Trump's "FBI Election Executive" to "discuss preparations for the cycle" and other initiatives "in support of the 2026 midterm elections." You can read all about this backhanded act of subversion in Joyce Vance's Substack today. Remind your Secretary of State that state and local elections remain in THEIR hands -- as they always have -- and they are not required to "coordinate" with anybody else in order to hold them.
Prima facie evidence of the far likelier chickenshit than SAVE. They are searching for the least guarded backdoor to "Brad, Brad, I just need another 11,780 votes...." Don't wait until after the election to raise a stink.
Your Red State senators are not going to do that, and wasting your time trying to convince people who wouldn't know what Doing The Right Thing is if they tripped over it is as useless as Good Time Charlie Shumer going on CNN's State of the Union yesterday and saying the Democrat's ICE reform bill is so reasonable that "I am sure in the end the Republican party will have no choice but to join us in this" - thereby proving his stupidity, incompetence, and lack of qualification to be Minority Leader in the Senate. Republicans haven't "done the right thing because it's the right thing" in living memory (and I can remember quite a ways back, being old). The SAVE Act is going to die in the Senate because the Republican Senators know if they try to do the standing filibuster that the Democrats will do it to them while we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For The People Act. They are not going to mess with the filibuster in any way because it is their main line of defense against Democrats and progressive legislation when out of power. Stop buying the click-baiters on our side, who should all be thrown out of 10th floor windows without parachutes. (Which would get rid of 50% of the BS that is the internet). All those click-bait "strong democrats" who want you to sign some useless petition? That's so they can get your email and dun you for more money. They're all useless. And their BS about all the threats is worthless.
OK so don't do anything betting that what you do won't make any difference That's how Hitler came to power In the end you never know what will make a difference so you ACT on everything NEVER assume anything in politics As the old adage goes....the word assume translates that assuming means making an ass out you and me
Adding that their vote will be met with HUGE midterm backlash and the caller can say you will make sure that they will be no longer in office
Mr Secretary of HHS (he, who has revived measles in this country, and is responsible for a measles epidemic in Samoa that took the lives of 83 children, most under the age of 5), since you "are not afraid of any germs", let me introduce you to ebola, or polio, or smallpox, or tuberculosis, or a few others. Your sickness is not from germs, though.
He is an interesting case study. He seems to think having a hardy constitution is all that matters. Good breeding perhaps we could say. Yet every time he appears in the news he looks awful. Puffed out and and terribly worn. He is telling you why. He is an exhausted supposedly recovered drug addict. And having survived drug addiction he must feel that nothing can make him ill. So he beats his breast. But he is ill. He has just substituted one illness for another. Just look at him.
Leaving a ❤️ for the history in your column Professor but Substack needs a 🤮 or💩 or🤬 or🤯 for the grifter info. I would not fly in to or out of an airport with his name on it. And he has no right to keep that airplane being fixed up for him. 💰🤑
I wouldn't go into any building with the Trump name on it, there are probably 100 million Americans that feel the same way. Donold has been conniving and grifting for his entire vile and appalling existence, that's his real legacy. Putting his name on bibles, shoes, watches, any kind of schlock and any way that he can bilk more money out of people...And now he's tagging his name on buildings like the U.S. Institute of Peace, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and his goddamned 'ballroom'(hopefully never to be built). That awful name will be removed as soon as we are rid of this Trumpian regime.
I think they took his name off the Tower in NYC a few years ago. Maybe that’s what started this in his feeble brain. It’s so obvious he doesn’t care for anyone but himself and his money. Scrooge McDuck come to life. 💰🤑🤮🤥
The corruption is just astounding, so blatant and shameless. His lust for money and gold, the need to have gifts and prizes showered upon him, even wanting entire countries for himself. Does he really think he's going to get to take it all with him when he shuffles off this mortal coil?
We know he’s got a serious brain issue but what about the almost 100% of Repub legislators who support him and approved of the most idiotic cabinet in history?
There were Epstein file emails which implied Steve Bannon thought Trump needed 25th Amendment removal. I don’t remember the details or the date, but Epstein was still alive then.
I have NEVER called Washington National airport by any other name. Nobody is calling the Gulf of Mexico by the Orange Felon’s preferred name either. Trump will be remembered only as the stupidest thing that the US ever did. And I will bet that history will uncover the cheating that put him in office for this second time.
I was very unhappy when it was announced that Lincoln's Birthday (and effectively Washington's) were being sunk into a nebulous "Presidents Day". Both Washington and Lincoln deserve greater national attention. Washington and Lincoln were honored in my youth for what they accomplished. President's per se are a pretty mixed bag, and while we may be grateful for the accomplishments of a number of them, a national holiday that appears to honor the office as such seems logically subsidiary to a holiday honoring the Constitution, the authority that the likes of General Mark Milley formally pledged his allegiance to. " For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.” -- Thomas Paine
March 4th would have been my father's 90th birthday.
It also used to be presidential inauguration day.
From 1793 until 1933, March 4 was the traditional date for the United States presidential inauguration, chosen to allow sufficient time for votes to be counted and officials to travel to the capital. The date was shifted to January 20 by the 20th Amendment in 1933 to shorten the "lame-duck" period, making FDR's 1933 inauguration the last one held on March 4.
Thank you. I'll be using that daily until March 4. I hope the NCPC has some authority to stop this abomination, but I fear they do not - I don't think they were consulted before the bulldozers arrived for the destruction of the East Wing.
No, thank YOU! When I saw those nightmare machines taking literal bites out of the East Wing, I thought they looked like some sort of mechanized monsters from Jurassic Park. Not being able to think of anything else to do, I looked up The National Trust and signed up for communications from them. At least they should know that they are not alone.
My hope is that everyone who reads this will express their thoughts to NCPC.
I, too, was horrified watching this happen. Two things - what happened to the art and artifacts that were in the East Wing ? Apparently this was done in a fit of pique about the No Kings Day with no preparation, no permits, nothing. Did this monster machine chop up all the contents as well? And, if no permits, why can't the contractors who did this be prosecuted? Does anyone have information ?
Excellent questions. Sadly, I have no answers to offer. If I decided to spray paint my name on the Washington Monument I don't doubt that I'd promptly end up in jail. "Defacing a National Monument", perhaps? I hope someone is investigating these issues.
Frankly, the man is psychotic. He needs medication and admission to a psych unit. Meanwhile the press and his party ignore the craziness. Cmon folks. Let’s call it. He is mentally ill and I’m truly tired of reading commentary that does not address this.
Never underestimate a psychotic person's capacity for engaging in deliberate and purposefully conduct nor be dismissive of such a person.
Schumer deserves to have his ass kicked out of the United States Senate. Trump is doing it to him because it is what he deserves because he bent over to him. Under Schumer's leadership the Senate Democrats are now holding up funding for the rest of DHS because last summer he, and the rest of his leadership clique including Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, broke ranks with their own caucus on a cloture vote that allowed Trump's BBB to pass, giving him all that he wants from this session of Congress, including hugely increased funding for ICE (without conditions) for the next four years, and giant income tax cuts that will drive the nation in to bankruptcy by thst time. As a reward for having turned his coat Trump blocked funding for his most cherished public works project. And he is trying to show now that he has recovered his principles, Trump is now taunting him to remind him of that fact that he is a turncoat.
Query, who is of more danger: the psychopath, or the psychopath's funder and enabler ?
Dementia (and there are several forms) doesn't happen overnight; it occurs in stages. First the occasional memory lapses, confusion, misspeaking, etc. Later in the disease there is delusional thinking, crazy ideas not founded in reality. Finally, the physiological effects essentially shut down the body: difficulty with swallowing, respiration, heartbeat. DJT may have dementia (likely), he may have a psychotic disorder (unlikely), but he is well protected by cronies because his survival enables their continued grifting and unearned power. He gets a level of medical care most of us will never receive, and is probably more ill than any of us can see at present. But that path always ends the same way.
I do not think he is psychotic. I think he is a malignant narcissist, which is not a mental illness, but a characterological trait. He does not belong in a psych unit (among other things he'd try to do harm to other patients). He belongs in prison, for the rest of his life.
Trump will never allow a full medical exam of his faculties so there is no way to prove he’s mentally ill. We all can clearly see he’s not normal but then, there’s that proof thing.
It took an amazing confluence of circumstances, including the skillful use of media and social media, the backing of many ultra-rich donors who decdied that Trump would help them rule the world, and an old, faltering, inarticulate president who could not mount a vigorous campaign against him, to bring Trump back into power.
But Trump was ready. With a plan given to him by The Heritage Foundation, he set about to quickly destroy the functioning of the federal government so that Trump and his rich, crule, corrupt friends, could run the United States like Putin runs Russia.
Even though MAGA has taken control of almost all of the levels of power, inlcuding the Supreme Court, it seems as if The People are waking up. They stood up in Minnesota and Chicago. There are the brave women pushing the Epstein investigations and Trump, and we have lawyers, governors, state legislatures, hundreds of grass-roots organizations, are pulling together to save America. HCR has been ringing the bell every morning, but it's the voters of America who are now paying attention, and it is our country.
The thugs of ICE were sent to crush all opposition. Instead the opposite has happened. The oppostion is getting stronger. The truth is exposing lies. I hope we can build a better, freer, more just government out of Trump's destruction. I hope it happens without more bloodshed.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, stated that the ongoing "second American Revolution" would remain "bloodless" if the left allows it to be, implying that violence could occur if there is resistance. We have already seen the blood.
Not only did DJT adopt the "mandate" that the Heritage Foundation put in front of him, he put the architects and other adherents in his cabinet.
It is hard to imagine that even Charles Koch would be approving of this crop of White Supremacists and Christian Nationalists. But, here we are. Now we are seeing that Roberts, Vought, Miller, Homan and Karoline Leavitt who played a key role in shaping the messaging and communication strategies for Project 2025. As HCR pointed out last night, even Marco Rubio is on board along with JD in supporting the agenda and propping up the AfD and Viktor Orban while dressing down our allies.
I agree that people are coming around and resistance is getting stronger by the day. We all need to keep that momentum going and exploit any and all cracks and fissures we can. We are in the fight of our lives to save our democracy.
It’s just money. There is no other principle. Gluttony for money. It happens all the time. We dress it up. We caress it. We make love to it. We build temples to it. We heed its baying call. Look at the billionaires feeding at the trough of AI. LOOK AT ALL THE PROMISES OF COMPANIES PROFFERING BILLIONS, their long knives at work behind each others back. Most will buy sell buy sell buy sell sending forth their smokescreens. I think I will invest my billions in frogs. Maybe ducks. I think the disinherited will break out the guillotines. I believe we were born with shovels. I think our arms are getting tired. I set down my shovel. Traded it for my pitchfork. They might as well lose their whips and chains. I am angry and I am the majority. I damn well will not work for people I hate. I would rather starve. I know how to hate and so do horses and dogs who are mistreated.
The only point I'd disagree with, Oldandintheway, is that it took "skillful use of media... ." It was more a case that media folded, fell into place for him for the sale of clicks and profits. Media enabled him, for the sake of profits.
“For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, 'holds office'; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.” —John F. Kennedy
People, cities, sates, red blue & purple are taking specific tactical actions to stop ICE prisons. The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS) has returned to a 5 times a week format now in early 2026.
Rachel, on TRMS tonight, 2/16 on her show titled “The Fight Against ICE Expansion”. canvassed the entire country for political action trends as she often does.
On the attempted purchases of warehouses for ICE prisons in Hutchins, Texas at a site of a proposed ICE prison the property owner refused to rent to a now won't-be prison Warehouse. Ditto Kansas City, MO. Ditto Roxbury, Ditto South Jersey. Ditto El Paso.
Ditto other failed prisons.
This has been "HBN", the Hit Back News.
From yesterday's blog:
We already know what grandest asshole on earth will try to do heading into the midterms. He will use any and all efforts to prevent Americans from voting; democratic districts, Black communities, brown communities, Native First Peoples. The handwriting is on the wall. Everyone must have a birth certificate and also preferably a passport. It takes awhile to apply for a passport. Do it now. Or you may not be able to cast your ballot.
Every state in the union should begin this task NOW. Not tomorrow. Now.
We must also make sure that voters know where to vote. Some states like Georgia have had oppressive laws forbidding passing out food and water to those standing at the poll. Here is a list of preparations to make. It’s not clear if that law has been amended. Just bring your own water and small bits of food.
Do not drink coffee on the day you go to vote. If you have to go to the bathroom you may lose your place in line. In fact, don’t eat except a few energy bars.
Take Imodium the night before so you don’t need to go to the bathroom.
Bring a water bottle with you and drink sparingly.
Do not wait to check on your voter status. Do it now and do it again in mid summer. They will try to close and change polling stations.
Bring a light weight folding chair with you when you go to the polls. They will make you wait so long you will think of leaving before casting your precious vote.
If you need an absentee ballot, do not wait until the last moment.
And tell everyone you know about these matters to work on NOW!
I have something important to report in my life and in my house today. The new kitty that I took in from the deep cold winter a month ago is having kittens as I tap. Kitty Katz has just now given birth to three little chirpers. I won’t be sleeping much tonight. I need to insure the little ones have access to mama’s nipples and that she has constant food repleshment. And I must say, this is a new chore for me but a pleasant one to have.
If mailing in a ballot, remember that the postmark date no longer reflects the date you mailed it. It now reflects the day that the envelope was processed, which could be days later. How easy would it be to skew the vote by having bags of mail sitting unopened in a post office sorting room?
Something to do today from Joyce Vance:
Take a stand today to protect your voting rights. Write to your Secretary of State telling them to refuse to accede to Federal interference in the elections.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/context-matters-trump-administration
Below is the list of election officials in every state. If you aren’t already, get familiar with yours. And make sure they know you’ll be watching how they handle the meeting on February 25. Call them or send them a letter in the next day or two, letting them know that you know Donald Trump isn’t entitled to “nationalize” our elections and you expect them to uphold the law.
https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_current_secretaries_of_state_in_the_United_States
Susan Collins (She of the many "concerns") announced today that she will vote yes on the SAVE Act -- time for her to be voted out.
Long past time for her to be voted out. Long past.
completely agree -- long past.
lauriemcf, of course Collins will vote for the SAVE Act because she thinks it will get her re-elected when the people no longer want her. She lied about getting ICE out of Maine and approved Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court when she knew what he is and was. There is no reason anyone should want that Trumpette to be elected to anything. It may be a mental decline is catching up to her as it has our Baby Donnie.
I really want ME to move forward by sending Susan home. Janet Mills is a hated enemy of tdump for speaking back at him. Heaven forbid a woman dared to do so. If I was still a resident of ME, Collins would have been voted out long ago. So go ME, so goes the nation?
It's been more than past time to get rid of the combination weathervane and doormat that is Susan Collins.
T L, nicely put about Susie Q who is always concerned; that is, she is always concerned about getting reelected.
Nobody has ever accused Susan Collins of being courageous and doing the right thing.
I wonder what dirt Trump has on CeeCee (Concerned Collins)?
She is a disgrace
Feeling desperate,Suzy Q?
This in spite of the fact that the Maine voter I.D. Referendum in last year’s special election was defeated big time. She is oblivious.
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Be gone with her! She is just another ass kisser. Mills for ME!
Many of you remember that in 1996 Susan Collins PROMISED that she would only serve in the Senate for 2 terms. This is now her 4th election where she is breaking that promise.
We Mainers should all be "CONCERNED" about her running for yet another term where she works for the Republican Party and the Oligarchs that run it.
Back in the day....when we were registered Democrats in Maine we sometimes voted a split ticket. Often supporting Snowe and Collins. There WAS a time when a Republican Senator could be viewed as a reasonable choice.
No longer. The Guardians of Pedophiles should all slink down into sink holes and storm drains in shame. It is astounding to me that they don't realize how awful, how disgusting their behavior will be viewed by future generations. Worse than Confederates. Legacies of horror.
Speaking of pedos, I saw a clip this morning where Trump says—familiar words—he is “totally exonerated.”
I think highly of Olympia Snowe. She retired when she was still quite popular. The far right hated her for being too moderate. I felt like she represented the people of Maine and Susan Collins did for awhile, until Leonard Leo, Linda Bean and other far-right theocrats and racists got their claws into her.
Bill, I sometimes split my ticket here in Oregon when i could vote for people like Mark Hatfield. However, I will not vote for a R ever now as they are the party of death star. Even our neighbor, a former local R poll, is an I, and votes for Ds.
...and yet Collins is polling for another win. Beyond Downeast and coastal Southern Maine - in the interior lakes and mountains regions, she remains popular, as does Trump. I have no idea how to change the voting patterns in Maine although the continued downward slide of rural school districts may be a culprit.
In 2012, she was the 2nd most popular Senator in her own state just behind Bernie. She was polling at 80%. Sara Gideon who had almost no name recognition compared to Collins almost forced her into a ranked choice voting situation. A few thousands votes put Collins over 50%. And now she is polling worse and she is mostly backed by dark money PACs.
I think Platner can beat her if he pounds on her being an old white Washington insider. And Mills may be able to as well, but she is too old.
IMO the key to ousting Collins is key in on the 18-29 year olds. Trump is polling at 27% among this demographic that put him in office.
GJ, her 'memory' has been an issue for many years- she and tdump could share stories if they both could recall things.
I shall deliver my ballot directly to my town clerk’s office. Which is made easier, because I live five minutes’ walk away, if I go slowly.
Fortunately, the Maine Secretary of State is a former ACLU attorney who hates Trump as much as most of us do. She is running for governor of Maine and has a reasonable shot against a really good field of Democrats.
At the risk of being "off topic" I am reposting this comment from Paul Krugman's comment section today --
One pill looks like Donnie
And one pill looks like Vance
But the one that looks like Miller
Will make you shit your pants.
Go ask Kristi, if you get the chance!
From someone with the handle "Derelict".
;-) GJ.
Love it!!
Georgia Fisnaick,
I could not just Hit "like"!
Your comment and encouragement was that of a true and caring patriot.
Thank you....will comply!
Yes, thank you Georgia, I just finished reading Joyce. I will contact our Secretary of State today. NOW!
I am curious what others think. Should your Secretary of State go to this meeting? Or decline as one reader suggested.
Mine VOLUNTARILY turned over the state voter database. He’ll go and say, “sir, yes, sir!”
The best hope in deep red states may be to push hard for the statewide offices--hoping the urban and suburban areas with Dems and independents will be enough to win. With the gerrymandering, the state legislatures may be a bridge too far.
But every elected office needs to have decent candidates running, especially for school boards and town councils and county offices which usually control the elections.
After the primaries, we should all register Republican. Then Trump can do his worst. Right now I'm registered Independent and ME allows me to vote in the primaries on either the Republican or Democratic primary ballot but not both.
Go to hear it from the horse’s mouth so to speak. Then write a letter declining whatever the Trumpian requests are made with a long justification from the State AG for the refusal.
Georgia, our secretary of state here in Oregon is on this, but I am sure some will cooperate with this travesty.
What people will run into with the SAVE ACT
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DH4JEdwsL8_/
H/T the League of Conservation Voters
Soon to be a web site now that I secured the domain: DonaldTrumpJohnKennedyCenter.org
We have just announced the brand spanking new Donald Trump Orchestra with its first production: Symphony in F-Major titled: "Rape of the Sabine Girls." This symphony will be performed every Friday and Saturday evening after cocktails and dinner is served at the new Donald Trump Restaurant featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken.
By popular demand, the stunning documentary, "Melania" will be shown as a teaser entree however tickets are going like hotcakes so please reserve in advance. This venue will continue through our 250th anniversary highlighting the greatest President on earth, President Donald John Trump.
🤣
I'd stay clear of the whipped-cream deserts though. No telling what's in it.
I am buying my ticket NOW. I'll bring a folding chair and a bottle of water.
Damn it Bill! I'm not saying you're wrong, but where the F are the Dems in Congress? They should be screaming there heads off on this voting ID BS.
Why no sit down strike in the House of Reps? Why no tag-team filibuster in the Senate to bring the Fascist controlled Congress to a screeching halt?
They just seem to be collaborating with the Regime to bring about their own - and our - destruction.
Totally agree - they should be forming a shadow government with daily pronoucements and active resistance. As I have said before we have a giant problem - an evil Republican Party and a rudderless Democratic Party who, with a few exceptions, spend more time on social media fund raising than they do resisting. I am not happy with that party even as I am at war with the Maga Republican Party.
There are four different centrist Democratic groups writing platforms. I've been banging the drum for a shadow cabinet since the day after Trump was elected.
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/p/a-democratic-policy-initiative-gets
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/p/a-democratic-policy-initiative-is
Do something. I am.
There's no reason to be rude, BIll. But hey! You be you!
Here's Marc Elias' advice on election interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzgypBkIzPk
Rude you say? Have you no shame -S
Why do you assume he isn't 'doing something'?
Thank you Bill Katz for these important tips. And thank you for being such a kind soul with animals.
Excellent advice!!! We all have to be prepared for anything. So do judges who need to block any unconstitutional efforts by admin to prevent mail-in ballots by expats or anyone. Also judges need to prevent harassment at polling locations by ICE and others. Congrats to Kitty Katz and welcome to new kitties!
Bill Katz,
Thank you for your contribution and encouragement. I appreciate each suggestion and will check and double-check before it is time to cast my precious vote. It will be a vote for the freedoms that have cost the lives and health of many men and women before us. It will be a vote for the future of our children...that they may also live lives within the freedoms fought for before us and are daily being fought for ....and my vote will be to honor each and all who stand....especially those heroes currently facing threats!!!!
Who's in charge of the passport office?
/s
Bill, some really good advice. It would be great if such advice were plastered everywhere: social media, newspapers, pamphlets given out all over the place, and more. People should never have to go through voting experiences that would need that advice, but it is what losers do to make themselves win when the people don't want them. Good luck with the kittens!
That's just it, it won't be without US doing it.
In the past few weeks or so, we've had discussion here about putting little notes in public places for others to find. I've gotten some good suggestions, and someone linked this site to me:
info@cc4democracy.com This might be easiest for some to use. You can choose from various subjects. I really like them, and I'm awaiting printable postcards so I can print up some.
Frequent commentor Dale sent this if you want to print your own sticky notes to put in places where they can be seen:
https://www.vistaprint.com/promotional-products/writing-office/sticky-notes
Dale also provided a downloadable copy of a QR code which links to HCR's substack. I hope this link will work:
https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/08ff4TBtax7UHD38-iMcFV77A#HeatherCoxRichardsonSubstack
Leafleting and graffiti were tactics of The White Rose.
One day soon we may need a White Rose.
https://whiteroseinternational.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12980216603&gbraid=0AAAAABZ7CwWJaeXnurlof4XLQZ29k_Ta2&gclid=CjwKCAiAwNDMBhBfEiwAd7ti1FPLGZ-VJnNJs9Kq62V10BHsQrH-l-Wo2oZB13wh3LwDxPM0u0keDBoCvr0QAvD_BwE
Thank you for that link, Gary! You and I don't always agree on everything, but you always have good information to offer, and I appreciate that.
Great advice.
“Everyone must have a birth certificate and also preferably a passport. “
Sadly the cost ($$) to get a passport will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands if not millions of voters who cannot afford to get one.
Congrats, Grandpa Katz!
You warm my heart.
Bill, such good advice to those who must stand in lines at polls. That crap of people being told to not hand out food & water is just so evil! Maybe there could be some sort of unmanned cart with water for those in line? Nuzzle those new little ones for me Bill? Good on you for the rescue.
Congratulations on being chosen by the Cat Distribution System to care for Mama Kitty and her three littles! In a few weeks you will be entertained non-stop by their antics. Get a food designed for nursing MomCats and the littles, which will be packed with the extra goodies needed.
I manage a polling precinct. We have no problem with folks taking potty breaks while they wait. That's up to their fellow voters and they've always been good about saving someone's place in line.
Georgia already has the Real ID process that you need to go through when you first get a license. We have long passed the need to prove before you can renew, as this was enacted more than a decade ago. You are required to bring a valid government issued photo ID to be able to vote. If you don't bring ID, or if you have other issues preventing you from casting a ballot, we will give you a provisional ballot and you have until Friday after the election to bring an appropriate resolution to the voting office and then your ballot will be counted.
Absolutely check your registration status before you go to the polls! Check at least a week early so that you will have time to resolve any issues and be marked eligible to vote. We would give you a provisional ballot otherwise, which does take extra time, and you will have to spend more time bringing the required documents to our voting office.
If it is at all possible in your state, VOTE EARLY! Georgia's polls are open two weekends as well as the 7am-7pm daily for three work week days prior to the election.
Please be polite to the poll workers. We have to come in hours before the polls open, and stay for hours afterwards. We would love to have you sign up to help us! Then you can see the careful checks and balances and chains of custody for your ballot.
I don
t know where you got the news that Rachel is back to five nights a week, because she isn't doing that.
Tom as you know more than anybody, if you don't like the need you go out &;make the news.
Remember that KPFA sign off?
The TRMS will run 5 days a week for the next 100 days of Orange Menace 2.0.
Thanks TC for saving me from a lot of frustration trying to find Rachael when she's not there. How i wish it was true though.
Methinks perhaps folks are seeing the January 2025 date in their searches, forgetting we're 2 months into 2026.
Do you have a reference as to when TRMS is back on 5 times a week? According to upcoming TV guides, she continues on Monday evenings at 9 PM EST and then Jen Psaki is on Tu-Fr at the same time (before Laurence O'Donnell).
Thanks!
Come on guys -- make your own reality, it's all the rage.
Please don't create more chaos.
Words from an adult, thank you Susan. The republic is being torn apart and we are bickering about tv schedules.
:)
Bryan, RMS was increased to 5 nights (her former schedule) for the first 100 days of ‘Rump’s 2nd term & then back to her normal Monday night-only schedule after that.
Yes, you are correct.Rachel Maddow is on Monday nights although I wish she would go back to the 5 nights a week that she did during Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Agree….there is an overload of stuff for her to dive into to have her on 24/7!!!!
Bingo
As Dr. Richardson noted in her podcast last week these are concentration camps. Let's make sure we drive that home. She said a concentration camp is where a concentration of people are being detained as opposed to a death camp such as we saw in WW2. Although, in my opinion, based on what we are hearing these camps are seeing torture and deaths.
Correct Barbara Mullen. When I saw your name flat on my Google Pixel 8 cell phone, I sensed you would take my post deeper.
Thank you for not scolding me for my thought experiment about living in fictional realities. 🙏
We Michiganders are protesting the purchase of a warehouse in Romulus, Michigan, for use as a detention center, very close to Detroit Metro Airport. Our center in Baldwin already has deplorable conditions. People in the private facility become untraceable, and some conditions are dire. But where are the news coverage, the Red Cross, or the politicians who could expose the treatment?
I used to haul paper out of Romulus Michigan! Thx for the memory.
Did he trademark "Trumpschwitz" to name his numerous "camps" or "Trumpenstein DC" to rename Washington DC as his personal District of Corruption?
He could apply for and receive patents on the "Process and Methods of Continuous Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel of Evil" a form of perpetual negitive energy.
Trumpschwitz---let's honor the people who died in that WW2 camp and not adapt the name. thanks
Re Rachael
Please don't present fiction as fact. We don't need more confusion.
Bryan Sean McKown,
Thank you for informing us of the "freedom loving, true Americans!" who stood up to the influence of money who "REFUSED TO RENT TOWARDS NOW "WON'T- BE" PRISON WAREHOUSES."
We are better than this and we need to WAKE UP and realize that what is taking place within our country due to corruption by our own citizens in powerful positions or by our enemies here and abroad supporting these acts of destruction to our foundations MUST BE STOPPED NOW!!!!! THE LONGER WE WAIT....THE DEEPER THE TENTACALS OF CORRUPTION TAKE HOLD!!!!
Don't be fooled....someone will come to your door or to the doors of our children.
We need to give the lives we have left for the future of our children and grandchildren and to encourage the power of freedom within our world.
These would become concentration camps and we all know what happened there as well as what happened to the perps.
Happened?!?
And which of Trump’s friends will benefit when all those prisons are sold off?
Merrimack, New Hampshire. A town alongside Thoreau's river now the site of a burgeoning warehouse prison for children and their families who followed their different drummer.
ABSOLUTELY THE BEST NEWS EVER!!
This information about the SAVE ACT is from the League of Conservation Voters:
https://www.lcv.org/blog/the-save-act-status-it-passed-the-house-now-we-must-stop-it-in-the-senate/
Yay Rachel! And shout- outs to landlords who refuse to put profit over morality by refusing ICE's desire for maga- prisons.
Rachel is 5 times a week? What is TRMS?
From George Washington, first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen -- all the way down to His Rancid Eminence, first in grubbery, venality and fuckupery, the Trumpmenbashi of Lower Amerikastan...
Ah, ICTT, your “handle” kinda says it all. The USA has always had an aspirational vision…def a work in progress….but I never expected to see this roiling cesspit* in power and a large part (Congress) of the triad give up and bow down to the Greedy Grifter & his minions & family.
*I refuse to call it a swamp, cuz swamps are needed ecosystems,
Washington, Lincoln, and JFK would be ashamed of the Orange menace. Bad bunny’s love is stronger than trump’s hate. I wrote a poem inspired by his stunning performance, which reminded us of the beauty of diversity: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/bad-bunny-super-bowl-love
Washington had no college degree but was self-educated in geometry, trigonometry, surveying, military war tactics, agriculture, and politics. Washington’s resume included leading Virginia’s militia in the 1750s, against French forces and their Indigenous allies including tribes like the Shawnee and Delaware, and in 1776 becoming Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. At that time the name “Washington” was synonymous with “Independence.” No doubt that is why Washington sat as President of the Constitutional Convention. It is reasonable to conclude it is also why Madison and Morris framed the Constitution’s requirement to be a President in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, as only being thirty-five years old, natural born citizen, and live fourteen years within the country. After all, who at the Constitutional Convention would dare have told Washington he is not qualified to lead the country.
When Washington became President there were only four executive Departments: State, Treasury, War, and Attorney General (Justice). Today there are fifteen modern and very powerful executive Departments requiring special knowledge. The U.S. military alone has six official branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. Yet we have failed to amend our Constitution to secure our Government from the election of a reality TV celebrity who can say he is qualified because he was hatched in the USA 80 years ago. This is one of a couple of dozen major problems we need to mend by amending our Constitution. We begin by uniting and informing others of the problems we are in.
Albert, as one who is waiting waiting waiting for the ERA (passed by enough states) to be codified (dueling reasons why not), I’ve read that amending the Constitution is a lengthy process (see ERA), so not immediate fix to this issue, and that a Constitutional Convention is a double-edged sword—I was curious so read about the pros & cons some years back…who knew?!
I ended saying "We begin by uniting and informing others of the problems we are in." The lack of an ERA is one of them. Moreover, the main word in that sentence is "uniting." That allows us to address the problems of who should be sent to Congress and to the State Houses.
You make an important point about context. George Washington did not have a formal degree, but he built real competence over decades of service. By the time he presided over the Constitutional Convention, his reputation carried moral weight because it had been earned in war and restraint. You are also right that the modern executive branch is far more complex than the four original departments. The scale of today’s federal government would have been unimaginable in 1787. That raises serious questions about whether Article II’s minimal qualifications are still adequate for the world we inhabit. Constitutional amendment is deliberately difficult, but not impossible. If people believe structural reform is necessary, the work begins exactly where you say, with civic education, coalition building, and patient organizing. Durable change has always required both memory and majority support.
My words above are from a Memo to We the People I have written. It includes a five section amendment which addresses over two dozen problems caused by the Supreme Court and elected office holders. It will be posted soon to UnitedWeAmend.org which is under construction. Thereafter I will begin researching the modern methods for uniting Americans. Clearly the internet is a major factor: YouTube, Facebook, Substack, podcast, and more. I think the Powell Memo has a good idea which we can modify for our cause. First, create a Staff of Scholars who believe in the amendment . That idea can grow as it did after Powell into a collection of think tanks. Next the Powell Memo listed having a “Staff of Speakers” who would be of the “highest competency and would articulate the product of the scholars.” This concept evolved into the recruitment of celebrities into the political arena. They can reach out to the podcast and TV. As they do so they must also have a wish list of who should be elected now and what Bills must be introduced in Congress and the States. You hit the nail on it's head, "deliberately difficult, but not impossible." IMO, Trump is making that process a lot easier. Every time he opens his mouth it is a rally call for our cause. BTW, Section 5, of my model amendment is to repeal the Elector system, repeal the single executive being vested with all the modern powers of the executive Office, and diversify the executive Powers of fifteen Departments and more into seven executive Offices.
Excellent quotation from TriTorch, thank you. And this pretend President is a public servant, he works for us. When will that simple fact be brought to the fore, loudly, again and again? His nauseating narcissism is oddly grotesque and laughable.
And damnable. There is only one person in the entire universe that Trump really serves and cares about.
Yeah, JL, himself (as in what you meant!).
Too terrifying to laugh anymore.
I agree Cathy. I'm glad I didn't read this before I went to bed. Some of this I wouldn't have believed if it hadn't been written by HCR herself. I think Tie Rant and his whole dispicable gang belong in prison.
Is there a more glaring example of someone who should be fired for cause?
Yes, he and every member of congress
We the People need to aim a little higher. What so bad about getting educated? More Americans need to try it!
In my opinion, being educated does not necessarily mean having gone to a school of higher education. Andy Borowitz weighs in on some of our "uneducated" presidents. He says,
"My preference that politicians be educated probably brands me as an elitist. I’m fine with that. I consider myself the Ted Nugent of elitism. But being an elitist doesn’t make me a snob—hear me out, there’s a difference. When I say “educated,” I want politicians to have the knowledge required to do their jobs well, or at least not to get us all killed. I don’t care where, or even whether, a politician went to college. Harry Truman wasn’t a college graduate, and he probably took some solace in knowing that a predecessor of his, George Washington, wasn’t, either. It’s possible to become a great president with no more than twelve months of grade school—an educational background that Abraham Lincoln, being honest and all, would have had to disclose on LinkedIn.
"I don’t care much about the grades a politician got in school because they’re not a reliable predictor of governing ability. Franklin Delano Roosevelt somehow managed to lead the nation out of the Great Depression and to victory in World War II despite his C average, a GPA that today would keep him from getting an interview at McKinsey. What made Roosevelt a successful president, among other gifts, was his intellectual curiosity, which enabled him to absorb vast amounts of information necessary to resolve unprecedented crises. When severe drought created the Dust Bowl, he had a lot to learn; he couldn’t fall back on his high school experience at Model Dust Bowl. I want the president of the United States to be intellectually curious for a simple reason: I think the person running the country should be smarter than I am. We’ve just lived through the alternative, and it was only good for the liquor industry.
"How can we tell if a politician is intellectually curious? Reading habits are a good place to start. Truman might not have gone to college, but as a kid he tried to devour every library book in Independence, Missouri. As I profile presidents, I’ll examine how much they enjoyed, or even tolerated, the act of reading. Why? Well, there’s something called the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), an intelligence summary that, true to its name, lands on the president’s desk every day. It’s true to its name in another way: It’s literally brief, often just a page or two. Yet to some recent recipients it seemed like War and Peace."
For more from Andy, read his book "Profiles in Ignorance."
Lynell…yeah, street-smart or curious-smart….a “higher education” can provide much, but it def is not an end-all. Indeed many college students are NOT really interested and just going thru the motions (albeit expensive ones) because it’s “what you do”. No, just, no…if you ARE curious and openminded the combo can be chart topping and whet one’s appetite for lifelong knowledge/understanding. My granny (b. 1898) never went beyond grade school, but was curious and open minded and very well read. When she lost her vision in later years she arranged with an org for the blind to have books on LP albums sent to her & a little record player. She’d exclaim to me now and then “oh, I am reading the most interesting book”. She maintained a number of bookshelves with a wealth of books, many of which her daughters and grandkids freely borrowed and read. Seeing her, knowing her from such a young age showed me you don’t need advanced education to be educated!
Love the story of your grandmother. My grandmother never went to college - and after she and my grandfather lost their money in the 1929 crash and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, my grandmother audited classes -- particularly Shakespeare and poetry. She had always had help to do the cooking - but that was no longer possible, so she learned to be a great cook by watching Julia Child! And my Mom - at 80 and using a walker - was also a life-long learner and, despite how difficult it was for her to get there, went to the free Saturday Morning Physics classes offered by the University of Michigan. At 75, I now try to keep that legacy going!
Love your granny, Barbara!!
How I would love to spend a day with her once again, so many questions I have now that I’m older, tho she shared much with us….she passed in 1997, just shy of her 100th birthday. I remember one time I traveled to stay with her for about a week or so in the mid-70’s and pulled a book to read from one of many on her shelves because the title spoke to my mood at the moment…”The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall. Whoa, did not expect to be reading a late 1920’s novel about at WWI lesbian ambulance driver! My opinion of my granny expanded exponentially! She had quite a ride…the ups and downs…and savored it all.
She sounds amazing, Barbara!
Hope that my nieces and nephew can think the same of me (although I do not own a copy of "The Well of Loneliness"; my vast LGBTQ collection does not contain that particular tome.
Being a *natural learner* is what drives people to learn from all sources, and obviously, that method can't duplicate the repertoire of traditional higher ed's offerings; fundamental innovation often comes from these natural learners. Watch for the pattern-seeking information gatherers who integrate what they learn, see everything in broad and narrow time contexts, are rooted in an anti-biased willingness to take in new information, and who observe natural world ecosystems. Most likely, those people will also understand reciprocity and therefore, will collaborate well.
The more one knows, the wider his horizons. A love of learning requires no degree but it is a well-worn path that I’m glad I was able to take.
I’ll be 80 this year and I feel like a sponge, I’m constantly learning things, all of my life I have been a voracious reader and there is so much I know so little about. I’m just starting Tim Snyder’s “Bloodlands” which has been sobering to say the least. The forces that begat WWII didn’t magically appear, they were products of choices that had been made decades before. The insipid orange turd in the WH is making choices that may reverberate well into the future. 🤬🤬🤬
I think you hit it on the head about intellectual curiosity. I’ve met lots of folks who are “learned” by virtue of having gone to the right school and parroted back what the professor wanted to hear on the exam as a transactional exercise to get the degree. Then the “knowledge” gets tossed aside because it’s no longer useful. Likewise I have known people who never graduated college yet continue to seek out knowledge. The key isn’t whether you have a few letters after your name. It’s whether you understand the truth that knowledge and wisdom are always a work in progress. The minute you think you’ve learned it all and have an unlimited right to pontificate and punish honest disagreement is the minute you start to die inside.
I don’t think this president has learned anything new in his entire adult life. He lives his life on the lower end of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and will never advance beyond that. True leaders should not only strive for higher purpose, they should also inspire those they lead to do the same. He does neither.
Morning, Lynell! Excellent post. A thirst for knowledge is a trait to be cherished, and is no longer encouraged.
Amen Lynell.
I agree. You can't learn History in grade school - they just don't teach it (some facts are right - hero fact are usually BS). I'm an austere situation, life skills will be the most important.
You said it, this madness must go:
Kids sucking adult’ toes for a “fundraiser”: https://substack.com/@tritorch/note/c-105090609
Teachers in a cream licking contest: https://substack.com/@tritorch/note/c-104796896
All leads to:
28 Year Old Child Does Not Know You Can Use Lemons Off Lemon Trees
https://substack.com/@tritorch/note/c-114956134
Our future (the next generation) deserves and demands and requires much better…
Yes but in the Dark Enlightenment the current Epstein Class is instituting, education is necessary only insofar as the progeny of the elite obscenely rich and entitled acquire it. The rest are ‘worker bees’ and education for them is a threat to authority. AI and robotics will make many of us expendable so cuts to health care and social security access and the crashing of pensions for many of us are just the ‘humane’ genocide put forth by Yarvin-subscribing billionaires. The new gulags are for free labor, for the ‘undesirables’ and dissidents, the disabled and the mentally ill, substance addicted,or homeless (who, as aFOX anchor blurted out, can choose to either work, or die).
That's gross!
Ya think? Welcome to edukaton in Amerika.
Sheer pandemonium in Merika.
I have no idea how valid your clips are as the source is yourself, however I see it as no validation for pushing homeschooling over public education.
I think the “toes” one has a link to a news article about it. Regarding homeschooling, does this apply: https://tritorch.substack.com/p/demons-disguised-as-guardians-philanthropic
Considering the sources here are Breitbart, The Epoch Times and Fox among other doubtful sources I think you’ve confirmed my impression of you as “troll” when you first popped up sounding suspiciously like AI.
Uh, there are sources from the WHO, CNN, MSNBC, school board meetings, etc. If you have issues with specific reporting please list them
I will never think of Oklahoma in the same way again. And the comment on that second item ("Good grief!!! How does she live on her own and not need to be constantly monitored for her own safety???") is the best I've seen in a long while. Thanks for some much needed humor.
I think it was the point in time when people started talking about "who would you want to have a beer with?" as a way to pick your president. It's one of the most important and hardest jobs in the world. Don't you want a smart president?
Maybe we should start calling them “ death camps”?
I don't even want a president anymore.
Thank you for "holding your office", Heather. Since I haven't had access to an English language library for about 40 years, I appreciate your publishing all these references. Ive saved many of your Letters. This one is suitable for framing.
Both times Trump won because of the degree of sexism in America. Thus we got the bad political leadership that we demanded and deserved. Our resolve is to Unite as ONE PEOPLE. Then we can do anything.
Albert, tonight I watched a vid of Hillary Clinton, as part of a panel of speakers, just bring the receipts in a (to me) scathing knowledge-based evaluation/observation of the current administration. Mic drop moment…she was fire. All I could think of was “if only….things could be so different” (I assume better), but no, we couldn’t elect—gasp!—a woman. Rinse. Repeat. ☹️🤬
I watched that on CSPAN... you are absolutely correct. We had a few real leaders at the Munich conference - but none of them were from the T**** criminal enterprise.
I don't know how to do it yet, even though it has been on my mind for over 40 years, but we need to inform We the People that our personal identity, our individual self-worth, being based upon a single set of physical attributes is misplaced. We the People in itself is another way of saying DEI being in control of the power to govern. We therefore need to inform ourselves that above all else we are all individual persons with equal rights; color of skin, genitalia, size and weight notwithstanding. Speaking with many about this problem over the last few decades it sometimes seems to me we are speaking different languages.
So true, Albert, the drive to “control” rather than “cooperate” within a community, nation, world is a puzzlement to me…a different language indeed.
I wonder what would happen if the women in the USA developed a shadow government?
I do remember the Occupy Riverside group wanting to start a "shadow government" like the British, opposition party members having designated people to follow what the official minister or secretary of important entities were doing so that they would have the most up to date replacements available if a snap election or resignation. As I understood it, the shadow persons were not automatically the replacement, but were usually the best choice for immediate continued expertise and current awareness of time critical considerations.
A case in point, Liz Truss, in office for only 50 days (and lasting that long only because of the 10 days of mourning following the passing of Queen Elizabeth)
In my inbox yesterday:
George Washington couldn't tell a lie. Abraham Lincoln fought to keep our country together. Now, we have a president who's trying to make himself rich off our tax dollars.
This President's Day, we wanted to make sure you heard how Common Cause is holding the current occupant of the White House to the same standards of integrity we would expect from any president – even if it means taking action in court.
Daniel, disgraced ex-reality star and convicted felon, Donald Trump is suing the United States government for billions of dollars.
Who’s on the other side of the courtroom, defending our tax dollars against Trump’s legally baseless personal cash grab?
You guessed it: President Donald Trump. The case is called Trump v. IRS – but the IRS reports up to him, so he’s literally playing both sides!
I’d be laughing… if it weren’t so deeply wrong. We can’t trust a President who spent the past year getting rich at your expense to defend us against his own lawsuit!
That’s why Common Cause is taking legal action. This afternoon, we filed a brief on behalf of our one million-plus members, taxpayers who need a government that defends our interests in court, not Donald Trump’s. [1]
And we’re backed up by a group of former IRS officials who are committed to the rule of law – a particularly brave act given how the President treats those who cross him publicly.
We’ve got a strong case: our justice system is supposed to have two sides making their best arguments – then we let the court decide. When both sides are working for the same person, then anyone who trusts the outcome is burying their head in the sand.
Don’t just take our word for it. Trump himself pointed out how absurd this is, wondering aloud how he’s “supposed to work out a settlement with myself.” [2]
Daniel, I think that’s a great question for the court!
We’re already stretching our legal resources to their limit. We’re battling in court to stop Trump’s DOJ from stealing your private voter data in 15 states and Washington D.C., to reverse rigged voting maps in North Carolina, and to block state laws meant to disenfranchise naturalized citizens.
But here’s what’s at stake if we lose or stay silent: Donald Trump – and anyone else who gains his favor – could sue our government for as much as they want. Then, the U.S. government will pay them off with our money while they laugh all the way to the bank.
If we let that kind of blatant corruption become “business as usual,” this will no longer be the kind of country I want to live in. We cannot normalize this sort of self-dealing or let this president make a joke out of our justice system.
We’ll be in touch as this case moves through the courts – but as one of the million-plus members who power everything we do, I wanted you to be the first to hear that we’ve taken action.
Thanks for all you do,
The team at Common Cause
The actual quote from the inaugurating address is:
“For in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, holds office; every one of us is in a position of responsibility. And, in the final analysis, the success of our system of government depends upon the enthusiasm of our citizens in carrying out their responsibilities, and their willingness to participate in this process.”
I do not know where you got yours. The full text of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961) is available through the Library of Congress, Unless you put other parts of the speach or several soeaches together.
''Now Boarding: The United States of Brand™
A Satirical Commentary''
So we have reached the logical next step in the American experiment. Not constitutional reform. Not electoral reform. Not even basic plumbing reform. No, we have arrived at the rebranding phase of the republic.
Apparently, it is no longer enough to occupy the presidency. One must trademark it.
The news that representatives connected to Donald Trump filed applications to secure trademark rights tied to naming an airport after him feels less like governance and more like a deleted scene from a late capitalist parody. We used to name airports after public servants as a kind of civic memorial. Now we appear to be beta testing the idea of monetizing the runway before the paint dries.
Picture it. Air Force One taxis past a gift shop that sells commemorative “Official Presidential Landing” snow globes. Boarding passes feature a watermark of the trademark holder. The TSA politely reminds travelers that their carry-on items must comply with federal guidelines and brand integrity standards.
Welcome to the age of licensed democracy.
There was a time when the presidency at least maintained the pretense of being a public trust. We spoke in hushed tones about conflicts of interest. We had ethics lawyers who did not need to sit down with a flow chart and a whiteboard to explain why profiting off a public landmark while occupying the Oval Office might raise eyebrows. Now we are debating whether a sitting president’s private entity can secure intellectual property rights on civic infrastructure.
The founders did not foresee this. They worried about monarchs. They worried about standing armies. They worried about foreign entanglements. They did not think to include a clause that reads: “No person shall convert the Republic into a lifestyle brand.”
Yet here we are.
The trademark filing is not just a paperwork curiosity. It reflects a deeper shift in how power is understood. The line between public office and private enterprise has been steadily dissolving, like an ice cube in a glass of grift. If the presidency becomes an extension of a personal portfolio, then the country is no longer a republic in the classical sense. It becomes a platform.
Imagine the Cabinet meeting.
Secretary of Transportation: “Mr. President, we need to discuss infrastructure funding.”
President: “Have we secured the domain name for the tarmac?”
Secretary of State: “We are facing diplomatic tensions in Europe.”
President: “Is the European market open to franchising?”
This is satire, but only barely.
There is something almost poetic about trying to trademark an airport. Airports are transitional spaces. They are portals between departure and arrival. They are also public, shared, and collectively funded. To brand one in your own name while still holding office sends a message that the machinery of the state is not a common inheritance but a product line.
The symbolism writes itself. The runway becomes a revenue stream. The terminal becomes a marketing opportunity. The control tower becomes a metaphor.
Critics will say this is simply savvy business. That in America, entrepreneurship is not a sin. That we celebrate innovation. True. But there is a difference between selling sneakers and licensing the skyline. There is a difference between private enterprise and public power. When those lines blur, accountability evaporates.
If this trend continues, we may as well get ahead of it. Why stop at airports? Trademark the Lincoln Memorial. Install sponsored plaques on the Capitol steps. Offer tiered subscription packages for executive orders. “For premium members only, enjoy early access to foreign policy announcements.”
Perhaps the next inauguration will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony not just for the term, but for the merchandise line.
Of course, defenders will argue that critics are overreacting. That no harm has been done. That this is standard legal procedure. But harm is not only measured in dollars. It is measured in norms. In expectations. In the quiet understanding that some roles are sacred because they are public.
When that understanding erodes, cynicism fills the vacuum. Citizens begin to see governance as theater. Law becomes branding. Civic duty becomes a marketing slogan. And once people conclude that the system is merely a storefront, their investment in its integrity declines.
Democracy cannot thrive as a side hustle.
There is also the small matter of precedent. If a sitting president can pursue trademark rights tied to a public landmark, what stops future officeholders from pursuing similar arrangements? The logic is contagious. If one administration treats the state as an extension of personal enterprise, others may follow. Soon, the White House gift shop will require a licensing agreement.
Satire often exaggerates to make a point. The problem is that reality keeps catching up.
At its best, the presidency represents stewardship. A temporary guardianship over institutions that belong to everyone. At its worst, it becomes extraction. A chance to leverage influence for personal gain. The trademark filing leans uncomfortably toward the latter.
And so we are left with a question that feels absurd but is not: Is the presidency a public office or a branding opportunity?
If the answer drifts toward the second, then the rest of us become shareholders in a company we never agreed to join.
The runway lights blink. The plane descends. The wheels touch the ground.
And somewhere, in a quiet office, a lawyer checks the status of an application to own the name on the terminal.
https://essayx.substack.com/p/now-boarding-the-united-states-of
Thank you for this quote from JFK! Hope Everybody assumes their responsibility and votes...no time for apathy. I hope too that the millions who didn't vote in past elections realize their mistake.
Out Here, but with the AI cheating that is now happening, we may not be getting what we deserve, but what the rich white men who never had to grow up want in their adolescent need to rule over something.
Of course, T has no idea words like Kennedy's exist- he doesn't read- and since T is an emotional cripple, he couldn't understand what it means to be a citizen involved together in keeping us responsible to each other & this country.
Well it seems I was suckered by SecState Rubio's polished delivery of his speech at the Munich Conference.🤭Shame on me.🤫Doctors Richardson and Kristol hit the bull's eye.✍️ I had dismissed the civilizational, racist crap as feeding the beast.😳I had ignored that statement that armies do not fight for abstractions.😯UGGG.🙄Fifty years ago, my father and I had a heated discussion over the Great Civil War.😠Dad thought the cataclysm represented an economic conflict.🤔I said that I could not see how people would would put their lives on the line for anything less than banning slavery; 🗽that tariffs may have created a tinder-box but slavery and -- as Dr Richardson would teach me much later -- the meaning of the Declaration of Independence lit the match.⚖️
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/american-values-vs-maga-nihilism-rubio-munich-minnesota-ice-trump-declaration-independence-lincoln (Plus a gracious tribute to the Reverend Jesse Jackson [1941-2026].🙏🏾)
Disgusted but never shocked.
He can’t die soon enough. I awake every day awaiting the headline.
That will only boost the disgusting renaming grifts. When Heather recalled his Mt. Rushmore dreams and mentioned its location in the “Black Hills,” I shuddered a little.
Waking and the nightmare continues…:(
It is my daily prayer.🙏
I would like to say the same, but this time my disgust comes with a side serving of shock.
Washington, Lincoln, and JFK would be ashamed of the Orange menace. Bad bunny’s love is stronger than trump’s hate. I wrote a poem inspired by his stunning performance, which reminded us of the beauty of diversity: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/bad-bunny-super-bowl-love
While much of America struggles financially because of Trump's absurd, irrational policies, he's spending our money like a maniac. The federal deficit is soaring while he enriches himself. Do his supporters actually know about all his grifting at their expense? Doubtful. Long after he's dead, we will be paying the bill.
And yet, until recently, polls have indicated that a majority of Americans have considered Republicans better stewards of the American economy than Democrats. There seems to be a lot of people not paying very much attention. Maybe reality is becoming more intrusive?
People are being fed media poison. It sometimes is a slow killer, but the effects are immediate.
Ain't that the truth!
Yet historically our economy has done the best under Democrats by far! So why the myth that R’s are better fiscally?
Kathryn, the myth was started by (you guessed it) the media. Conservative Arthur Krock wrote for The New York Times. In an article profiling (and criticizing) Franklin D. Roosevelt, he described the administration as the "spend and tax" administration, quoting (misquoting?) Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration leader, Harry Hopkins.
Afterward, Krock and Hopkins had a published argument in letters to the editor in which Hopkins denied having said it. During that back-and-forth, the phrase got swapped to "tax and spend." The phrase was embraced by Republicans who hated FDR's "New Deal," and became a label GOP operatives attached to all Democrats, and still do.
I recall some media wag pointing out that the GWB administration was "Spend and Not Tax", launching massive tax cuts and two expensive wars (in terms of both dollars and lives) as a package deal. Republican's laissez faire policies precipitated The Great Recession, but Democrats did not want to rock the boat too much about it, and while the "GOP" suffered setbacks (such as scaled-up RomneyCare, aka ObamaCare) Republicans largely preserved their myths, and the public persuaded to ignore the Epstein Class behind the curtain. To this day many Democrats despise (brand as "extreme" and a discredit to the party) the gall of quasi-independent Bernie Sanders for insisting to point that that out.
Bigly lies
Fox and their clones preach lies continually. After a few months their viewers become brainwashed and start repeating Republican lies. One recent example is the stories of the two murders by ICE.
Craig, did you see the statement by Jesse Watters that the "healthiest" thing we can do about the Epstein's atrocities is "to have a good laugh.", because those young girls are now adults and "the past is past."
FOX "news" people have no soul. Jesse Watters is a pit viper.
WTF???
Ally, here's his post on X.
"OK liberal snowflakes. EXCUSE my inappropriate sense of humor. Look, no matter how many minors Epstein and his friends may have trafficked, they're all adults now. The past is past. The healthiest thing one can do is to have a good laugh about it."
Is this AI? Could be, but it sounds just like something that snake would say.
There is no excuse for inappropriate sense of humor. Ya even said it's "inappropriate" ya dimwit. 🤬
Jeff Tiedrich refers to Watters as Fox's "Found Object."
A loose definition of a found object is an item which no longer has any useful purpose that is incorporated into a piece of art.
I think Tiedrich implies that Watters is useless, so Fox puts him on camera as a set decoration.
I don't watch Fox, but Tiedrich occasionally includes Watters in his satire. From those clips, I conclude that Watters is an idiot obsessed with toxic masculinity, although he's about as masculine as a hot pink clutch purse. He's not worthy of being called a pit viper.
Yeah, the stats show the actual picture, but either folks don’t want to believe it, or they fall for the economic rhetoric that’s been around since Reagan. Humans are weird.
Very funny, Michael: "Do his supporters actually know about . . .?"
Remember, the richest of his supporters are right now -- as they have been for decades -- being covered, protected by Donald for all the underage girls they cynically merrily raped.
Recovery from Trump’s wanton spending and system damage will require much high taxes on the rich.
I had a convo with one of his supporters yesterday. It blew my mind. She told me she loved his policies. What policies, I asked. She changed the subject.
The 'whataboutism' was startling. She told me why she will vote for him a third time - because he was robbed of a term in 2020 and because the dems did not just shut up and let him rule for 4 years like the Republicans do when the dems win the presidency.
I needed a shower after that convo.
Sounds like my retired cop cohort.
What is a "convo?"
Michael, they only know what they are fed from Faux, NewsMax, and other propaganda sources. Not only do they know about it, they believe that it is reasonable and are on board with anything he does.
We are going to go after every penny he has gotten his filthy hands on with a vengeance including any interest.
He will bankrupt the country.
Sheila, we are already there. We just don't know it.
I lived in Oklahoma City when Penn Square Bank collapsed. It took with it Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust, and nearly took down Seattle First, Michigan National and Chase Manhattan Banks, and caused a ripple effect across the entire U.S. banking industry.
The bank was run by a bunch of numbskulls (not unlike the Trump regime) who were more interested in making a quick buck than fiduciary duty. They loaned money to oil prospectors who kept drilling dry wells. The prospectors would come back to the bank asking for more loans because "the next well will be the big one." The bank kept making bad loans hoping to recover their losses from the previous bad loans. Then they sold the bad loans to other banks, as mentioned above. The whole house of cards collapsed. When FDIC investigated, they found over 400 criminal activities, but only one of the bank executives went to prison.
The U.S. is Penn Square bank. Our creditors keep buying our debt, hoping to cover the debt they already bought. That global false hope is the only thing keeping us financially alive.
This makes me sick, sad and furious—all at the same time. I’m not sure which emotion is the strongest, but they all reflect the depraved state of this regime.
Robert Reich has been using the term “nauseous optimism” lately. Seems to fit.
Where will this go? When will this stop? He is making a mockery of our country. Is is so distasteful, so ugly, so morally corrupt. Enough already.
Because Congress….specifically those who have the majority…are bowing down to him (why, oh why?)…and not gonna perform the supposed “role” they SHOULD, along w/ the Judiciary, to be enough to clip his wings, but they’ve abdicated their duty, so it’s now up to US to keep doing what we’re doing and pushing back/resisting. I guess one good thing is that “we” are more aware & involved than we have been for a long time and it is stirring a collective groundswell across the nation…a reawakening of sorts. My fervent hope is that “we” come out the other side stronger and more untied. <—oops, make that “united”🤣
Fervent hope indeed! I’m very concerned for our nation if Dems dont take back Congress in November. I don’t think we will make it another three years!
I saw a cartoon, Kathryn, of one person saying to another that it’s been a really long year….the other replied “it’s been two weeks”. Sigh.
I wonder how quickly the conspiracy theorists will claim he was murdered.
Yes I agree. I feel so discombobulated every day like I don’t even know what’s up or down anymore. I am sure that is all by design but it is not good for our collective mental well being.
I hope they next demand Trumps name on airbags so I can vomit in them!
Is it possible to use a four-letter code for an airport, like "FDJT"?
Asking for a friend.
Ha, you’ve got A LOT of friends!!!!
DTMF already has a catchy tune to go with. ;)
Great idea, ICTT!!!
The most common airport codes are IATA codes, which are three-letter codes used for ticketing and baggage handling, and ICAO codes, which are four-letter codes used for air traffic control and flight operations.
Unfortunately, North America's ICAO letter prefix is "K." So it would be KDJT. The letter "F" is assigned to Africa.
But there's nothing stopping the International Air Transport Association from assigning FDT to the airport, which would make it KFDT. More bad news: Renamed airports usually retain their old codes.
Bet you're a lot of fun at parties....
LOL! I want this to happen! I'm just explaining why it won't. It just means we have to be more creative.
Now, drink your cocktail, eat some peanuts and get back to me with your new idea.
When Trump goes down in ignominy, I hope we put up a monument in DC where you can pay $1 to spit on his grave, $10 to piss on it, and $100 to leave a dump.
Donations go to paying off the national debt.
listen up, and listen well,I already purchased options on being the first to shit on his grave. I intend to get into the Guinness book of world records. You will need to take a number.
You got it! Shit #1!
Might be an infrastructure problem…streets clogged with traffic to the venue, inadequate parking for the masses of people traveling from across the country…nay, across the world. Unlike his casinos, this would make money.
I think we are going to need national urinals in each of our states with his face molded into the porcelain as a target and his mouth in his signature O for the sit down commodes. There are millions to be made manufacturing them for the home market, there will be a huge demand for them.
How ‘bout highway rest stops & sewer treatment plants?
🤣🤣🤣
Now, that's a good 'un, Christopher. I'd buy that airbag!
Air sickness bags, yes. Airbags, which deploy in vehicle crashes and save so many lives, are too useful to be tarnished with that name.
Early tonight! Thank you, as always!
And everyone, don’t forget to - Be LOUD. These are unprecedented times 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Comments/reactions help keep this bumped ✊
Take a stand today to protect your voting rights. Write to your Secretary of State telling them to refuse to accede to Federal interference in the elections.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/context-matters-trump-administration
Below is the list of election officials in every state. If you aren’t already, get familiar with yours. And make sure they know you’ll be watching how they handle the meeting on February 25. Call them or send them a letter in the next day or two, letting them know that you know Donald Trump isn’t entitled to “nationalize” our elections and you expect them to uphold the law.
https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_current_secretaries_of_state_in_the_United_States
Thanks again, Megan!
Thank you!
There is no doubt that Trump will be remembered.
We as a nation had naive confidence that common decency and tradition would be safeguards for democracy. I hope that Trump is remembered in legislation that addresses that misconception and ensures that we never see another Trump in high office again.
Legislation and an ongoing social epiphany such that we don't get fooled again. Not to this degree in any case.
"Have you no shame" today would be answered "WTF is that?"
If You Live In A Red State Call Your Senators To Vote Against The SAVE Act: Attack On Voters
The SAVE Act before the Senate will disenfranchise at least 21million legitimate registered voters Please use your constituent influence and call your senators(202.224.3121) to demand they vote against this abomination of bill to screw over the American electorate Why do this?
The Republican Nazis with their SAVE Act you must provide documentary proof of citizenship — a U.S. passport, a birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, or a Real ID that specifically denotes citizenship
Your driver’s license? Doesn’t count The law also disenfranchises many female voters who have taken their husband’s name, requiring them to provide a birth certificate(many cannot locate theirs) or a passport(80% don’t have one) This amounts to nullifying registered voters
This coupled with a nationalized vigilante challenge(bit.ly/41UelTx) in their back pocket, the Nazis are putting a full scale assault on the American voter WE the People can fight this with awareness of this Nazi attempt and urging everyone of our friends, neighbors, relatives, and family to vote early to avoid being disenfranchised as a registered voter
Several other practical things to do. Volunteer to be a precinct worker yourself, or better yet a poll watcher. You don't need to be a resident of a state to be the latter. The DNC and other groups will soon offer info and mini-courses on how to do this. The need is tremendous.
Make certain your name you sign with is the one your county registrar has for you, down to the initial and the dot on the "i". If you insist on voting by mail, do so early. Better yet, vote early in one of your county's approved locations. Consider getting a passport (waiting time can be months) even though you shouldn't have to. Watch for changing voting places, fewer voting places on Election Day.
There is no chance the SAVE Act will get passed in the Senate in its current form now, but anticipate other types of abusive chickenshit likelier to arise. In purple areas, in places like Atlanta, you can set your watch to the coming feces flings. Forewarned is forearmed.
Spend times doing these things and not falling prey to the click-baiters.
I was thrilled to get the call from the LACounty registrar's office asking if I'd be a poll worker again for the upcoming June primary! Of course, I said YES! And I'll be at the same polling place in a community library in a working class neighborhood, where I've been the last several elections. Can't wait 🤗
I volunteered to be a poll worker/watcher for the first time. I told them to put me where I am needed. I am a bit uncomfortable about this and plan to do it scared.
You'll have friends -- and thank you for your service!
thanks very much for your input
Better advice still. Call the Secretary of State's office in your state capital, and tell them to REFUSE to participate in the February 25 "invitation" by Trump's "FBI Election Executive" to "discuss preparations for the cycle" and other initiatives "in support of the 2026 midterm elections." You can read all about this backhanded act of subversion in Joyce Vance's Substack today. Remind your Secretary of State that state and local elections remain in THEIR hands -- as they always have -- and they are not required to "coordinate" with anybody else in order to hold them.
Prima facie evidence of the far likelier chickenshit than SAVE. They are searching for the least guarded backdoor to "Brad, Brad, I just need another 11,780 votes...." Don't wait until after the election to raise a stink.
Your Red State senators are not going to do that, and wasting your time trying to convince people who wouldn't know what Doing The Right Thing is if they tripped over it is as useless as Good Time Charlie Shumer going on CNN's State of the Union yesterday and saying the Democrat's ICE reform bill is so reasonable that "I am sure in the end the Republican party will have no choice but to join us in this" - thereby proving his stupidity, incompetence, and lack of qualification to be Minority Leader in the Senate. Republicans haven't "done the right thing because it's the right thing" in living memory (and I can remember quite a ways back, being old). The SAVE Act is going to die in the Senate because the Republican Senators know if they try to do the standing filibuster that the Democrats will do it to them while we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For The People Act. They are not going to mess with the filibuster in any way because it is their main line of defense against Democrats and progressive legislation when out of power. Stop buying the click-baiters on our side, who should all be thrown out of 10th floor windows without parachutes. (Which would get rid of 50% of the BS that is the internet). All those click-bait "strong democrats" who want you to sign some useless petition? That's so they can get your email and dun you for more money. They're all useless. And their BS about all the threats is worthless.
OK so don't do anything betting that what you do won't make any difference That's how Hitler came to power In the end you never know what will make a difference so you ACT on everything NEVER assume anything in politics As the old adage goes....the word assume translates that assuming means making an ass out you and me
Adding that their vote will be met with HUGE midterm backlash and the caller can say you will make sure that they will be no longer in office
Any other position is encouraging a dictatorship
Women don’t know or don’t believe it. It will assure Repub rule. Scream it from the rooftops
Mr Secretary of HHS (he, who has revived measles in this country, and is responsible for a measles epidemic in Samoa that took the lives of 83 children, most under the age of 5), since you "are not afraid of any germs", let me introduce you to ebola, or polio, or smallpox, or tuberculosis, or a few others. Your sickness is not from germs, though.
He is an interesting case study. He seems to think having a hardy constitution is all that matters. Good breeding perhaps we could say. Yet every time he appears in the news he looks awful. Puffed out and and terribly worn. He is telling you why. He is an exhausted supposedly recovered drug addict. And having survived drug addiction he must feel that nothing can make him ill. So he beats his breast. But he is ill. He has just substituted one illness for another. Just look at him.
He was videoed coming out of a tanning parlor.
The brain worm appears to be alive and well...seems to have taken over all of RFK Jr.'s mental capacities...
It may get all the others, but it won't get m....
Leaving a ❤️ for the history in your column Professor but Substack needs a 🤮 or💩 or🤬 or🤯 for the grifter info. I would not fly in to or out of an airport with his name on it. And he has no right to keep that airplane being fixed up for him. 💰🤑
Agreed
Ally, a shout-out to you for your constancy in supporting your fellow commenters.
Thanks for your kind words.
I wouldn't go into any building with the Trump name on it, there are probably 100 million Americans that feel the same way. Donold has been conniving and grifting for his entire vile and appalling existence, that's his real legacy. Putting his name on bibles, shoes, watches, any kind of schlock and any way that he can bilk more money out of people...And now he's tagging his name on buildings like the U.S. Institute of Peace, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and his goddamned 'ballroom'(hopefully never to be built). That awful name will be removed as soon as we are rid of this Trumpian regime.
How about a nationwide fleet of septic pump trucks named for him….um, Trump Pumps?
I couldn't even stand seeing his name on something like that, although this country should have flushed him several times when we had the chance.
If there is a Hell, another circle is awaiting him, opening up with his name on it.
I think they took his name off the Tower in NYC a few years ago. Maybe that’s what started this in his feeble brain. It’s so obvious he doesn’t care for anyone but himself and his money. Scrooge McDuck come to life. 💰🤑🤮🤥
The corruption is just astounding, so blatant and shameless. His lust for money and gold, the need to have gifts and prizes showered upon him, even wanting entire countries for himself. Does he really think he's going to get to take it all with him when he shuffles off this mortal coil?
We know he’s got a serious brain issue but what about the almost 100% of Repub legislators who support him and approved of the most idiotic cabinet in history?
There were Epstein file emails which implied Steve Bannon thought Trump needed 25th Amendment removal. I don’t remember the details or the date, but Epstein was still alive then.
https://youtube.com/@democracydocket?si=pKibCOtIUDUrLZL0
Mark Elias’s column about what Donnie plans to do for the midterms is shocking. And illegal.
I am so grateful to have found Marc Elias. How I would love to share a cuppa with him.
Same here. Joyce Vance and our Professor are in that category as well.
I have NEVER called Washington National airport by any other name. Nobody is calling the Gulf of Mexico by the Orange Felon’s preferred name either. Trump will be remembered only as the stupidest thing that the US ever did. And I will bet that history will uncover the cheating that put him in office for this second time.
Excellent reporting and insight, as usual, but the state of Presidents’ Day and the country grows more depressing by the day.
I was very unhappy when it was announced that Lincoln's Birthday (and effectively Washington's) were being sunk into a nebulous "Presidents Day". Both Washington and Lincoln deserve greater national attention. Washington and Lincoln were honored in my youth for what they accomplished. President's per se are a pretty mixed bag, and while we may be grateful for the accomplishments of a number of them, a national holiday that appears to honor the office as such seems logically subsidiary to a holiday honoring the Constitution, the authority that the likes of General Mark Milley formally pledged his allegiance to. " For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.” -- Thomas Paine
The National Trust for Historic Preservation provided this information via email:
"The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has opened public comments on the proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition to the White House.
Written comments are due March 4 at Noon ET."
Here is the link: https://savingplaces.org/public-comment-period-white-house-ballroom?utm_medium=email&utm_source=update
If you have something to say about Trump's desecration of the White House, here is your opportunity.
Thank you for this important link.
March 4th would have been my father's 90th birthday.
It also used to be presidential inauguration day.
From 1793 until 1933, March 4 was the traditional date for the United States presidential inauguration, chosen to allow sufficient time for votes to be counted and officials to travel to the capital. The date was shifted to January 20 by the 20th Amendment in 1933 to shorten the "lame-duck" period, making FDR's 1933 inauguration the last one held on March 4.
The motivation for that switch was Herbert Hoover's "lame duck" period where he did everything he could to stymie what Roosevelt could do.
Important link, for sure. Much appreciated, Louise!
Thanks much for the link Louise. My written comments have been submitted.
Thank you so much for this piece of important information!
Thank you. I'll be using that daily until March 4. I hope the NCPC has some authority to stop this abomination, but I fear they do not - I don't think they were consulted before the bulldozers arrived for the destruction of the East Wing.
No, thank YOU! When I saw those nightmare machines taking literal bites out of the East Wing, I thought they looked like some sort of mechanized monsters from Jurassic Park. Not being able to think of anything else to do, I looked up The National Trust and signed up for communications from them. At least they should know that they are not alone.
My hope is that everyone who reads this will express their thoughts to NCPC.
I, too, was horrified watching this happen. Two things - what happened to the art and artifacts that were in the East Wing ? Apparently this was done in a fit of pique about the No Kings Day with no preparation, no permits, nothing. Did this monster machine chop up all the contents as well? And, if no permits, why can't the contractors who did this be prosecuted? Does anyone have information ?
Excellent questions. Sadly, I have no answers to offer. If I decided to spray paint my name on the Washington Monument I don't doubt that I'd promptly end up in jail. "Defacing a National Monument", perhaps? I hope someone is investigating these issues.
Done! Thank you for the link.
Frankly, the man is psychotic. He needs medication and admission to a psych unit. Meanwhile the press and his party ignore the craziness. Cmon folks. Let’s call it. He is mentally ill and I’m truly tired of reading commentary that does not address this.
Never underestimate a psychotic person's capacity for engaging in deliberate and purposefully conduct nor be dismissive of such a person.
Schumer deserves to have his ass kicked out of the United States Senate. Trump is doing it to him because it is what he deserves because he bent over to him. Under Schumer's leadership the Senate Democrats are now holding up funding for the rest of DHS because last summer he, and the rest of his leadership clique including Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, broke ranks with their own caucus on a cloture vote that allowed Trump's BBB to pass, giving him all that he wants from this session of Congress, including hugely increased funding for ICE (without conditions) for the next four years, and giant income tax cuts that will drive the nation in to bankruptcy by thst time. As a reward for having turned his coat Trump blocked funding for his most cherished public works project. And he is trying to show now that he has recovered his principles, Trump is now taunting him to remind him of that fact that he is a turncoat.
Query, who is of more danger: the psychopath, or the psychopath's funder and enabler ?
Response: Yes. One immediate, the second lasting.
Dementia (and there are several forms) doesn't happen overnight; it occurs in stages. First the occasional memory lapses, confusion, misspeaking, etc. Later in the disease there is delusional thinking, crazy ideas not founded in reality. Finally, the physiological effects essentially shut down the body: difficulty with swallowing, respiration, heartbeat. DJT may have dementia (likely), he may have a psychotic disorder (unlikely), but he is well protected by cronies because his survival enables their continued grifting and unearned power. He gets a level of medical care most of us will never receive, and is probably more ill than any of us can see at present. But that path always ends the same way.
I do not think he is psychotic. I think he is a malignant narcissist, which is not a mental illness, but a characterological trait. He does not belong in a psych unit (among other things he'd try to do harm to other patients). He belongs in prison, for the rest of his life.
Trump will never allow a full medical exam of his faculties so there is no way to prove he’s mentally ill. We all can clearly see he’s not normal but then, there’s that proof thing.
It took an amazing confluence of circumstances, including the skillful use of media and social media, the backing of many ultra-rich donors who decdied that Trump would help them rule the world, and an old, faltering, inarticulate president who could not mount a vigorous campaign against him, to bring Trump back into power.
But Trump was ready. With a plan given to him by The Heritage Foundation, he set about to quickly destroy the functioning of the federal government so that Trump and his rich, crule, corrupt friends, could run the United States like Putin runs Russia.
Even though MAGA has taken control of almost all of the levels of power, inlcuding the Supreme Court, it seems as if The People are waking up. They stood up in Minnesota and Chicago. There are the brave women pushing the Epstein investigations and Trump, and we have lawyers, governors, state legislatures, hundreds of grass-roots organizations, are pulling together to save America. HCR has been ringing the bell every morning, but it's the voters of America who are now paying attention, and it is our country.
The thugs of ICE were sent to crush all opposition. Instead the opposite has happened. The oppostion is getting stronger. The truth is exposing lies. I hope we can build a better, freer, more just government out of Trump's destruction. I hope it happens without more bloodshed.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, stated that the ongoing "second American Revolution" would remain "bloodless" if the left allows it to be, implying that violence could occur if there is resistance. We have already seen the blood.
Not only did DJT adopt the "mandate" that the Heritage Foundation put in front of him, he put the architects and other adherents in his cabinet.
It is hard to imagine that even Charles Koch would be approving of this crop of White Supremacists and Christian Nationalists. But, here we are. Now we are seeing that Roberts, Vought, Miller, Homan and Karoline Leavitt who played a key role in shaping the messaging and communication strategies for Project 2025. As HCR pointed out last night, even Marco Rubio is on board along with JD in supporting the agenda and propping up the AfD and Viktor Orban while dressing down our allies.
I agree that people are coming around and resistance is getting stronger by the day. We all need to keep that momentum going and exploit any and all cracks and fissures we can. We are in the fight of our lives to save our democracy.
It’s just money. There is no other principle. Gluttony for money. It happens all the time. We dress it up. We caress it. We make love to it. We build temples to it. We heed its baying call. Look at the billionaires feeding at the trough of AI. LOOK AT ALL THE PROMISES OF COMPANIES PROFFERING BILLIONS, their long knives at work behind each others back. Most will buy sell buy sell buy sell sending forth their smokescreens. I think I will invest my billions in frogs. Maybe ducks. I think the disinherited will break out the guillotines. I believe we were born with shovels. I think our arms are getting tired. I set down my shovel. Traded it for my pitchfork. They might as well lose their whips and chains. I am angry and I am the majority. I damn well will not work for people I hate. I would rather starve. I know how to hate and so do horses and dogs who are mistreated.
The only point I'd disagree with, Oldandintheway, is that it took "skillful use of media... ." It was more a case that media folded, fell into place for him for the sale of clicks and profits. Media enabled him, for the sake of profits.
Too late about the bloodshed sadly, but I know what you mean….I hope so too.
It is just all so incredibly sick.