At last night’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump went on offense, seeming to try to set the terms for the upcoming midterm elections.
“Divisive, abusive, childish” in the words of David Frum in “The Atlantic” He meant both the man and the speech, but he might as well have added 'the whole shtick itself.' Tiresome, boring, utterly predictable — and predicted.
Writing about the SOTU speech, Frum continues: “it is as if the nation were being soaked by a torrential downpour, water rolling over umbrellas and into boats, soaking everyone’s clothes—and the leader whose job it is to lead them through the deluge insists that it is not raining at all, that in fact it is sunny, the sunniest day ever.” Indeed, we find ourselves in the middle of a hurricane, not a ‘golden age’ shining moment on a hill. To use the language of Carl Jung, we are gripped by our own shadow, which we refuse to own. It will haunt us until we claim it — and transform it into something else.
While Trump is a racist, a likely child sex predator, a dumb, creepy criminal and disingenuous liar, he’s managed to turn the country into something scarier still. Despite all evidence to the contrary, one-third the country thinks he’s really a bang-up guy telling it like just like it is, working himself to the bone to get it all done in spite of the “haters” and crazies who keep getting in his way. A cult and a spell — and a broken country.
Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024. It instituted an upside-down regime that deals only in falsehoods and caricatures. We know he doesn’t spend his time thinking about big problems, but plotting how to steal as much from as many as he can for as long as he can (how many now remember Hillary Clinton quoting John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who urged people to “do as much good as you can for as many as you can, for as long as you can”)? He spends sleepless nights rage-tweeting over the tiniest, pissiest of personal grievances and vendettas, churning out images of America totally disconnected from reality. No matter how many times he repeats it — to cheers and applause from Republican wormtongues too terrified to stop clapping, no matter what — white will never be black, down is not up, what’s wrong can never be right. Somehow we must right a republic where truth, honor, service and justice tinged with mercy prevail, powerful enough to replace the lies, vulgarity, greed and cruelty with something better.
Last night, Governor Spanberger summed up Democratic opposition in 18 minutes with her deft focus on “affordability" and corruption, asking 'is the President really working for you?' Perhaps this ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ focus will win us the midterms, I don’t know. But will it tackle the ghouls who keep us all locked in the upside-down place? If we're to change the spirit of the age into something better, we're going to have to take that beast head-on.
Despite everything, I remain optimistic that the whole Rube Goldberg contraption of lies, absurdities and grotesque caricatures these people want us to accept about ourselves is cracking down the middle. We must keep widening those cracks through resistance, humor, determination, organization, time, money and focus.
May we never give consent to scheming liars who claim a hurricane is really a bright, sunny day. Re-affirming reality remains the first step key shaking off the nightmares, changing the shadow curses into blessings, and accepting the work necessary to live responsibly in a democracy. May we all keep on keeping on until that particular battle’s won. Thanks, Heather and others for constantly reminding us of this.
Let's talk about that "Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024." While there are still many racists and neo-Nazis in the Maga camp, I still believe that there are more there as a result of the information bubbles, and a general tendency toward lazy non-critical thinking, which sadly, knows no political affiliation.
We've just got to do something about targeted advertising. The user profiling which is used to select and push content in order to hold attention spans longer, and thus increase the time available for advertising that is also targeted has dramatically reduced our exposure to alternate perspectives and narrowed the information flows that reach us. The Facebook Brexit experiment with Cambridge Analytica proved just how powerful this stuff is, and now we are living with its consequences here.
That's the "Somehow..." and we need to fix it.
It has been recognized right from the beginnings of the republic that the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech is not absolute. The classic example is the business of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. Speech that causes obvious and predictable harm is not protected. A way must be found to apply the standard set in the unanimous 1919 SCOTUS decision Schenck v. United States to impose some appropriate limits to this "clear and present danger."
Re: "Let's talk about that "Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024." - How are we ignoring the Russia-Russia-Russia interference? It skewed both elections, was investigated and proved to be TRUE. Sex perversion notwithstanding, interfering with the vote was crucial to tRump's wins. THIS is the enemy we must fight with all our might!
In fact, the ChristoNazis are (already) stealing our elections. Here in a vital Thom Hartmann exclusive is how the thievery is done, including credible statistical evidence showing that the ChristoNazis' purging of Blacks, Hispanics and white progressives from the 2024 voter rolls put Trump in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-q1lWsnlhg&t=5s (Election discussion starts at 9:09)
And, the fact that 'their actions' are either blatantly illegal or illegally carried out has got to be where THIS is stopped. There is little point in writing up new rules if the rules we have in place are IGNORED. Everywhere ICE goes it's MN all over again. Whose rules? ICE rules! Our courts are indeed overburdened by "THIS" and that is precisely a huge part of this circus. Yes.., OVERWHELM the COURTS. Der leader has all but made the statement that will end our democracy. But, if we don't wise up we're likely to be visited by a cry similar to "one if by land two if by sea", and it won't be Paul Revere.
And this is where even the excellent Spanberger response was lacking. I want “the vision thing” (GWB called it) to be appreciated by Dems and articulated positively in terms of practical options. Getting rid of Citizens United has to be a clear goal and part of a strategy to restore both democracy and an “economy that works for us”,
Pete Buttigieg articulates this need better than anyone IMHO. We can't just go pick up the broken pieces and scotch tape them back together again, because they weren't working the way they were supposed to, to begin with. We will have to do better.
It's Come to This, yes, we will need a new vision, touched by the old, but designed and affirmed for a world that is quite different from before with even more challenges, particularly our climate and environmental destruction. There are still the warmongers and criminals, but we need to concentrate more on making life better for the people of this nation and world, not just for those who have been permitted to become too powerful and too rich. A lot of people need to add to the ideas for that vision.
Its more than Citizen's United, and this is one of those things that I think liberals are being way way way too narrow in our focus about. The root SCOTUS decision upon which Citizens United is based is the head note to the 1886 Southern Pacific v. Santa Clara County decision which established that corporations are people under the law. That is very broad, and Citizens United is just a small part of it. The core concept needs to go.
Also, we need to require professional licensing of corporate board members and executives if the company is publicly traded. That can easily be done legislatively by setting up a national corporate chartering mechanism, and then giving corporations with such charters a significant tax advantage over those with state charters. The licensing must include an educational and testing requirement that includes an ethics component.
I have been thinking on a medical tumor board concept only bigger with a Teach In approach from the 1960’s and University of Michigan. Congress is a mud pit of ignorance and staffers come and go. One could create a new amendment with a review of literature you know from the old college expectations with new voices of those who have always been involved but throughly neglected. Art as well. A Congress rotating Court Jester.
I agree about Spanberger’s response. I like her but feel the response was to milk toast. I needed, wanted, to hear an Ocasio-Cortez, or a Telerico or Mandami.
Nanny Ann, thank you for referencing back to the comment that you are replying to (which appears to be on the correct path as well). The comments here have gotten a bit skewed. Good comments, all of them (so far) and excellent conversation.
Ally, substack putting comments all over the place drives me crazy and often leads to misunderstandings. This is why i always use the name of the poster to start my comments. And yes, good comments so far.
What even HCR doesn’t seem to adequately appreciate is the difference between emotion and thought. Trump voters were not lazy but motivated by emotions he stirred and for which facts are irrelevant. You may “know” it is racist to be afraid of a Black man walking behind you at night but you are still in the grip of fear until as was famously said he “whistles Vivaldi”. You fight fear of strangers with signs of intimacy and familiarity. You fight fear of crime with visible and accountable police officers you’ve met yourself. You fight fear of police with cameras on them, making as sure as possible they will be accountable to laws, public opinion, and moral censure.
The defense of masking ICE for example rests on rejecting moral censure as a form of legitimate pubic accountability. Calling it “doxxing” makes it sound like there is improper and dangerous visibility leading to violent targeted actions for the cops simply existing. Call out the defenders of ICE for the immoral actions they seek to protect from public scrutiny as well as from legal accountability.
Hillary made two colossal mistakes in 2016, one of which I think was understandable. Not fully recognizing the power and threat of targeted advertising that she faced was perhaps understandable. I really don't think it was until 2019 with the release by Netflix of "The Great Hack" that many people began to understand that power and how it was deliberately being used. As for her "deplorables" comment, that was just plain dumb on her part.
Nancy Ann, it continues to be my belief that ‘dire larder’ is in putting’s
pocket as a Russian asset. They have ‘a deal’; we know dire larder likes those best of all, (& “thank you for your attention to the matter”). I’m hoping the Poles have more than an inkling of this 🔗 link 🙏🏼
Again, what the Russians and others are doing is providing the awful content. The selective pushing of that content is done by the platform operators. It takes both.
BTW, the tools for generating fake video have gotten amazingly good. Alphabet claims that it is trying to filter that stuff out on its YouTube platform, but I don't believe that even a little bit.
I am not ignoring it. The Russians were one of the content providers. That content, along with stuff from other sources as well, is what is being selectively pushed based on user profiling.
We could get into some math models that support what went on. There is a critical importance to the stability of any complex system that key unifying attributes have a strong random component. In a representative democracy, one of the critical dependencies is an informed public. But how do you do that and not violate the free speech guarantee? Well, it turns out that precisely because information flows are a critical element in system stability, that those flows must have a strong random element. Before the 2008 election cycle, information flows did in fact have a strong randomized characteristic. They do not any more. If you want to read up on this topic, Google the phrase "Importance of randomness in system stability."
The math is VERY clear. If an element in a complex system is critical to the stability of that system, then that element must be randomized. Targeted advertising deliberately destroys that randomness. Also, just so we are clear on on the nature of these impacts, the leadership of both Facebook and Alphabet are very much aware of this, and they do it anyway because of the profits involved. Almost certainly the leadership at Microsoft is equally aware, and in their case since they have made a mess of their core non-gaming software businesses, they have become extremely dependent upon their ad revenue. These three companies gave us Trump.
I should ad that there are other participants in the targeted advertising business which are rapidly becoming as impactful in a negative way, the same as Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft. Amazon and Netflix are right in there too. Whether or not their senior leadership is aware of the impacts of what they are doing is less clear. Certainly they have talent on board that has experience at Alphabet (called Google at the time) where the technology was developed, and later deliberately seeded into Meta (called Facebook at the time).
The engineering leadership at Facebook even described their efforts as trying to develop the software equivalent of a knob that Zuckerberg could turn up or down based on the desired cash flow that would result. Of course, they turn turn it all the way up for maximum cash flow. The same is done at the other four companies as well.
I should have added that the impact of targeted advertising as done by Amazon is one step removed. They pay the search companies (Alphabet and Microsoft) to prioritize their ads. Netflix on the other hand is directly involved in content pushing, but probably in a way that is significantly less destructive of the randomness of information flows when compared to what Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft are doing.
Washington warned us about, as It's Come To This said, a "racist, a likely child sex predator, a dumb, creepy criminal and disingenuous liar" rising to power. Washington encouraged us to "unite in a common cause" to move this nation forward. HCR said, "That is our charge once more." Craig, you say "We've just got to do something about targeted advertising." IMO, the the worst form of "advertising" is at election time when we are bombarded with attack adds on television and online, paid for by independent expenditures by ultra-rich persons, Super PACs and "dark money" groups (nonprofit 501(c)(6) corporations that do not disclose their donors) and most coming from across State lines against a candidate in our State they don't want to win.
The Roberts 6 is our worst enemy because they are on a roll bombarding us with that kind of so-called jurisprudence. They began with their Citizen's United lie one year after Obama was sworn into Office. They freaked out because an African American moved into the White House. That means the Republican Party “Southern strategy” of appealing to racism against African Americans to increase political support among white voters in the South finally failed. We need to Unite and Amend our Constitution to stop those lies about our Constitution. Money is not speech. That is one of the many lies of the Court I discuss in my Memorandum to We The People posted at UnitedWeAmend.org.
In the Memorandum I list a few of the original values and “Truths” the United States was established upon. Next I list some major violations thereof by the Supreme Court and others. I conclude the only resolve we have is to Amend our Constitution and I provide comprehensive model amendment language: strong medicine for our badly wounded Republic. That is our charge, the dialogue, We the People need to unite and have Now.
And how likely, pray, do you think it is that the Constitution may be amended within, say, the next generation (30 years)? IMHO, the chance is precisely Zero.
Hell, it’s now more than 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment – and it is still not part of our Constitution.
That said, the quickest way to pass Amendments is through a so-called Constitutional Convention. However, I would strongly warn against this; there is a far stronger risk that such a convention would be co-opted by the wrong people, and that America instead would be burdened with a seriously worse Constitution!
Something that brings me a flicker of joy: Trump putting Vance on this finding fraud bullhockey.
Remember how the tides turned on ELON!? They had difficulty seating a jury in the lawsuit because he is so overwhelmingly hated! And I recall that people used to if not like Musk, at least admired him. Vance doesn't have many who like him already.
(not a lawyer, but a frequent witness in criminal court)
I think that there is enough of a smoking gun to merit a full scale investigation. Between voter purges and tally issues with some of the machines along with other allegations of fraud (looking at Arizona here) that were "investigated" with none found. I would dearly love to see a complete investigation of the states where there were votes for democratic candidates but no votes for Harris.
Members of the Georgia State Elections Board voted Wednesday to issue a formal letter of reprimand to Musk’s America PAC over the billionaire technocrat’s illegal scheme to get Trump elected. Georgia, a key battleground state in 2024, was the target of aggressive campaigning by Trump’s team.
+++++++++++++
“In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.”
— Adam Zarnowski, ex-CIA agent and author of Jörmungandr
Do you really think it couldn't have been stolen? That Putin didn't have the cyber allies to help things long? To engineer his winning of all the swing states?? There is something very smelly. Putin long ago found his puppet
Daniel, I do believe Trump did admit it, in fact several times as he kept thanking Musk for his help with the election, even before the election was complete. I do believe there was cheating in the 2024 election, just enough for Trump to get the presidency and some nobodys to win senate seats they neither deserved nor earned (Musk using AI algoriths to just barely win every single one of the "swing states). Dems were too worried that Trump and his Klan would accuse them of doing what Trump accused Dems of doing in 2020, which Dems did not do. Whatever Trump accuses others of doing, it is a guarantee that he and his buddies are doing it, and in a form far greater and more powerful than anything Trump's accusation would expose, even if it were true.
I agree, we're not going to have a Constitutional Convention that will fix anything. So, where to go? To our public schools and universities: start teaching critical thinking skills in the 6th grade. Teach comparative political systems, civics and history. Our problem is caused by functionally illiterate people going to the polls and casting votes for those that are doing them harm.
My 3yr old great granddaughter was here last week and I offered to let her take home a little cat figurine that sits on my desk. She looked at it, looked at me, looked at it, looked at me and finally said "Not at this time." 3YRS OLD! Needless to say I was rather stunned. I knew she was bright but, gee whiz! I could hear the little gears turning in her head and see it through her eyes. The cat has an odd, toothy grin and I could see that she just wasn't quite sure about it.
The state of education in this country is in a shambles. Waiting until kids are in the 6th grade is, at best, better than nothing I guess.
In my granddaughter's public elementary school in a very middle/working class neighborhood, each child was asked to pick a historical American character to study and make a presentation in the first person. We've been hearing about her research on Eleanor Roosevelt for months, and she was one of two students picked from her fifth grade to present to the whole school. It strikes me that this is a better way to learn history than the cut and dried recital of great men and their battles followed by multiple choice and matching questions that I had in elementary school. Of course, it's more work for teachers, but there are amazing electronic resources. She was able to access recordings of Mrs. Roosevelt speaking in her high-pitched, British educated voice. I plan to ask her who else she learned about.
THAT is an amazing experience. Fact is, it definitely can be the case. We have records of children who are/were brilliant: Mozart, Einstein, Picasso, John Stuart Mill, Bobby Fischer and a lot more.
Richard, I will never forget watching a clip after Trump won. They were interviewing people on the street and they stopped a youngish woman--maybe late 20s, early 30s?--who said she "used to watch The Apprentice" and said that "Trump is cool".
I've commented on here about how my sister voted for Trump twice. She was totally swayed by the price of eggs, I AM NOT JOKING. She hates politics and is an uninformed voter, but NOT any more! I spoon feed her a bit of politics every few days, and I print out the daily letter for her as she is 75 and lacks a computer. She's very, very nervous about the price of living right now. I am 100% she will never vote without being informed again.
Well, it's back to the application of critical thinking skills to issue assessment. Why did the price of eggs spike in 2023? It wasn't Biden or the Democrats. It was primarily caused by a severe outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu. Why the inflation rate going up after Covid 19? Supply chains around the world were adversely affected. The scarcity of goods causes the prices to rise. And then, there are those who believe because they want to believe. Is there a Heaven and a Hell, and a life everlasting following one's death? There is if one wants to believe it.
From the chapter on the Powell Memo in my Memorandum, "The Powell Memo rallied major corporations and the Chamber to create a Staff of Scholars who believe in the System. That idea grew into a collection of corporatists 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, as many voters tend to associate their admiration for individuals from sports or entertainment with support for those individuals’ involvement in shaping public policy." My Memorandum includes a few chapters on our history and more on how the corporatist did what they have done to our Constitution. Ask you sister to read my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Yes! This is the CRT American schools need – Critical Rational Thinking. And we need to do what you say. I do think, however, that we’re perhaps looking at a 30-year time horizon.
Yes, it's gonna take a lot of time - won't happen in my lifetime (I'm now 85) but we could start it now. We've got to get religion out of the curricula as anything other than comparative religion. HCR's book, "How the South Won the Civil War," [2020] is excellent. Our two main threats to our democracy? White Christian Nationalism and racism. MAGA is 221st century KKK and Trump is the Imperial Wizard.
100% correct. I agree with every word of you intelligent and knowing post. My wife, a retired California public school teacher, tells me critical thinking skills are integrated into the curriculum from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Your point about teaching comparative political systems, civics and history is beyond being simply important, it means everything to instill an understanding of who and what We the People can evolve to become compared to others. Our founders, knowing they were not perfect, included the power to amend the Constitution. Thus every propblem we face today is on us if we fail to unite and take action to amend. I discuss that in the last chapter of my Memorandum at UntedWeAmend.org
Your mistake is you totally ignore the times, the crises, we are living in. That is a major factor when it comes to change of the Constitution. In union organizing there is a saying, "A bad boss is a good union maker." That means that poor management—characterized by unfair treatment, disrespect, or unsafe conditions—is often the primary catalyst that drives workers to organize and form a union. Likewise, in Amendment organizing, the actions, longevity, or incapacitation of presidents deemed "bad," dangerous, or unfit have directly led to the ratification of several U.S. Constitutional Amendments, i.e., the 22nd Amendment (term limits) and the 25th Amendment (presidential disability and succession). Moreover, the U.S. escalation of the Vietnam War began in 1964/1965. Approximately 35,000 of the 58,202 American military personnel killed in the Vietnam War were aged 21 or younger. The 26th Amendment which changed the voting age from 21 or older to 18 or older was officially ratified on July 1, 1971, four years before the War ended in 1975. Thus your analysis of zero chance within the next 30 years is nonsensical: "voice of doom." Trump is a good Amendment maker. Every time he opens his mouth he rallies people to unite to amend. IOW, the time is ripe to amend. History proves it.
I wrote the Memorandum because as I read the proposed amendment introduced by Senator Adam Schiff, et, al., intended to address Citizens United, although I do not believe it to be their intention, I see a problem. The problem is that they use legal terms of art such as “...may regulate and impose...”, “...may regulate and enact...”, and “...shall have power to implement...” The problem with such language is that it allows Congress and the States to decide whether they “may” or “shall” not regulate, enact, or implement anything. Some people elected to Office may even read it as a way to profit from such decision making by doing nothing. I see those words as not being the rampart we must build but rather a gate which for a fee will be left wide open to mega-money in politics. Moreover, over the last 15 years since Citizens United the Court has continued to attack our Constitution and no other proposed amendment addresses these newer cases. My model amendment language is comprehensive to every attack on our Constitution by the Court and others. Also, the beautiful interpretation and application of the text of my Memorandum completed by Dale Rowett of LexiGraphics.pro is worth seeing at UnitedWeAmend.org.
When I argue for certain legislative approaches, I do not mean it to be an argument against attempting to amend. We should do both and I applaud your efforts in this regard Albert. That said, there are some things we could do legislatively that would be enormously helpful.
I agree 100%. Moreover, when uniting to amend it would be a good morale booster to win laws being made in different jurisdictions. Also participating in rallies for the different individual causes which are a part of the comprehensive amendment will sustain and bust unity. Anything that maintains unity is primary in a long battle.
I have no doubt the Roberst 6 will order call the law suits that follow thereafter p on an emergency appeal and declare all such laws unconstitutional. They will stand on prior Court made B.S. to support their corporatist fascist lie. In my Memorandum I explain the problem as in "...the text of "Pembina Consolidated Silver Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania," 25 U.S. 181 (1888), the Court held as to the Fourteenth Amendment, “Under the designation of person there is no doubt that a private corporation is included. Such corporations are merely associations of individuals united for a special purpose...” To put the Court’s analysis of law and facts in perspective the Court worked like a street hustler playing a fast shell game. They placed the non-transferable rights endowed in individual persons under shell #1, as if it were a pea. Then as they quickly moved the shells (words) around they steal the pea from shell #1, and load it under shell #2, an assembly of individuals now having rights transferred from, and distinguishable from, the individual attendees. Then finally they move the shells (words) a last time, steal the pea again and load it under shell #3, a State’s charter, a certificate of incorporation, a shield against lawsuits for its shareholders (individual attendees), now having equal protection of the laws the same as individual Americans endowed with natural rights. Imagine Chief Justice John Marshall in 1801, holding The Co. to be a person with equal protection of the laws. The Court probably would have been tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail by the Sons of Liberty. Chief Justice John Marshall, of course, never wrote such lies. The principles of the Enlightenment, including those articulated by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, had a profound impact on him. He also invited legal briefs and oral argument before deciding important matters and used constitutional law and principles to guide his sound decisions." Please open and download my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org .
Perhaps, but at some point, even some seemingly dense conservative jurists become appalled at the behavior of those with whom they have been keeping company. Many who liked the things Reagan did and who have been in total denial of the many horrible consequences, now seem to have found some limits to the nonsense of their compatriots. Every once in a while, I get the feeling that even George Will has come to his senses, at least partially. Roberts, Barrett, and Gorsuch each seem to be partially in that camp at times, although to differing degrees.
At the Beginning of February here in SW FLA we started getting “vote for me”ads touting “DT is backing this guy”. Must be 3 to 4 of the same ad-over and over each evening during Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy . I hate that we have several more months of this!
In our household we watch NO tv with ads, NONE, ZERO…period.
Ads of any kind make tv unwatchable…..yes sometimes my husband has to catch a ball game after it’s 30 mins in so he can FF thru the ads….but it’s the only way to sanely watch a broadcast event.
Thank goodness for apps with tons of ad free shows.
I have been time shifting for years, I never watch anything when it starts, I usually give it anywhere from a half to a full hour before I start, that way I never have to watch the commercials. I have YouTube TV set to record just about anything I might want to watch so I can watch it when I want.
Albert, you are indeed correct in your assessment that we are bombarded with ads! I so wish that our campaign season was limited!
I also wish there was an absolute LIMIT on amounts that could be spent on campaign mail! Every bit of junk that arrives in this house goes straight into the recycle bin. Am I guilty of adding to this problem, as I am a volunteer (on my dime!) postcard/letter writer? In a way, I think and hope not. The various organizations swear that handwritten cards ARE paid attention to.
I'd never heard of those volunteer opportunities until I read about them HERE, years ago, from Eli Kona. I've not always been happy with how my donations to the DNC get distributed, and by choosing which campaigns I write for, I can control that.
For those who don't know (Albert, you're pretty knowledgeable, so I assume you know this) postcards campaigns are going on all the time. There is a HUGE one happening RIGHT NOW! Hundreds of thousands of people in WI will receive a handwritten card in the election for a state supreme court judge--and we know these lower courts have been the ones that are working to save democracy! Can you help?
What I particularly like about this organization is your commitment is small--you need only promise to write 5 or 10 cards. You can do this in 30 minutes, seriously! While I like all postcarding, the commitment to write 100+ (along with supply the postage, and often the cards themselves) can be too much for someone with arthritic hands.
Every drop of water wears down a mountain. I know at times I've been so incredibly depressed that I have to step away from protesting and even reading the news--and I can stop to take a breath because I know YOU GUYS have got my back, and for that, I thank you.
I felt a surge of pride when Abigail Spanberger won, because I wrote lots of postcards to infrequent Democratic voters for Vote Forward during her campaign. The message didn't mention her name, only her goals vis a vis her opponent's. Some people just need a little reminding of election dates and polling places.
That is an outstanding idea. I like it as it is the speech of individual persons to individual persons. That is how it should be. However, the other side will counter it by printing out thousands of post cards looking like real individuals. Or worst actually pay people to do it. That is a problem I discuss in my Memorandum. In the model amendment I have a clause that would end the employment of people outside the official campaign thus ending Citizens United. believe if working within the Democratic party one can unite people to do such individual mailings.
Craig, you are right that we do need to do something about the messaging issues and the "1st Amendment" "Free Speech" challenge of people using it to do serious harm to others. The challenge is where we will draw the line. "We'll know it when we see it" isn't going to work when there is a cadre of folks who think whatever they say/write is fine but whatever YOU say isn't will make it difficult. When I "tell a lie" about someone, it is not the same as when a president, member of Congress, or someone in a high office says it because of the weight of their "authority" and the breadth of their coverage. We will need constitutional scholars, people who actually care for our nation and its people, all its people, to work out where the line must be drawn. We can no longer just let it up to our courts which are now filled with people who think their own opinion is what counts, not our Constitution and the people who would be harmed by their decisions.
Ruth, I think this is where AI will come in. A well regulated AI will be able to fact check in real time. Let’s face it, AI is here to stay. I visualize it being used for the highest and the best, and that is something we must keep our eyes on for the betterment of our Union (perhaps the saving of our Union).
Wonderful points. Information bubbles, targeted profiling and money-backed mega-advertising aren't found anywhere in the 1st Amendment, yet all were critical components of both 2016 and 2024. Reversing Citizens United has to be a part of what we aim for by constitutional amendment. As Pete Buttigieg once said, don't tell me we can't do that if we once passed a constitutional amendment forbidding you to drink a beer -- then another constitutional amendment to undo that one...
Craig, you are so right; the information "silos" where the MAGAt devotees get their "information" have absolutely created a cult where up is down and hot is cold. Another group being led by the ring in their nose are the Christian Nationists who salivate at the end times where they and only they are ascended to the kingdom of heaven, leaving the blacks, non-subservient women, and anyone in the LGBTQ+ community are doomed to the fires of hell.
Mary Ann Havas, he just says whatever he thinks (using that word loosely) will get him more power. He is completely untethered from the truth beyond that one thing. Why people still believe him is what I don’t understand. I love the metaphor of standing in a deluge and being told it is sunny.
Yes, Craig, agree. But the 2026 SCOTUS is not the 1919 SCOTUS. I am concerned that today it would "interpret" the standard to be more in line with seditious libel, the charge John Peter Zenger was acquited of in his 1735 trial. That jury believed Zenger's defense that telling the truth about an elected official was protected speech. Truth, "predictable harm," indeed any standard, seems to be a slippery concept these days.
Well said, he won by cheating with money and power-hungry Vlad lovers in the Republican traitors club. Rupert did plenty of puppeteering but Republican leadership invited him in, gave him their agenda, seeded the money for the money-making propaganda machine, and used divisive language to fool the fools and divide us all. Racism and misogyny at the core. It worked. I hate the actions of people I once loved. The government hates the people who believed in the promise. But the promise is now to the ruling subset. The rest of us be damned…
The oligarchs got their big prize with the OBBBA. They passed it early and included the funding of the ICE army of cruel and hateful thugs.
We are already being bombarded throughout ME with dark money ads for Susan Collins. They can't afford to lose her vote yet their every action turns us against them.
I recall that Sen. Collins has made some difficult votes. And in 2025 she proposed an increase in taxes on the very wealthy to help fund rural healthcare. Only 4 Democratic senators voted for it. Spineless of them.
The mob is way too well funded, we really need to get their filthy, dirty, dark money completely out of OUR politics. I've been thinking these past couple of years, what 250 will be like.. and this past year, it seems clear that we are meant to revisit our constitution. Every 250 years seems like a very reasonable schedule for such restoration. Maybe a little framing repair, some buttressing, some fleshing out.
Yeah, it’s like an big orange alarm bell isn’t it? Like no document could be designed to hold up to 250 years of history w/o dramatic maintenance or something. W/ the east-wing it’s almost too obvious.
So.., GJ what do you think. Will there be a strong Democrat and Independent turnout in the mid-terms here in Maine, or will the R'ss's roll that wagon into the creek?
I believe our turnout is typically higher than average. No reason to why it would be different, especially since Janet Mills limited term is up and we have to elect a new governor.
Me too. Maybe if the Democratic Party would somehow rise up from Mudville we'd get on the map. During the 4 year respite we were given (so well deserved) under Biden, the Republican Party "envelopment'ed"! I know, that's not a proper word. But, google it anyway. That's what the R'ss's Big Buck Behinds did to plaster their TEAM goal-posts everywhere..., and not winning was not spoken. Legitimately or by fraud.., they scored!. That very move is afoot here in Maine, today. The Big Behinds R Behind her. However.., "as Maine goes, so goes the nation". Let's put this one in the books.
But recall, too, the part where Donald boasted he didn’t need Congress. At that point House Speaker Johnson stood and applauded. All the Republicans did.
How could so many be so eager to be dominated by an egregious bully? What made what you call "the Republican traitors club"?
The answer came in the 1970s, when the new, Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and far-right others formed in the wake of the Powell memo – and set out first to rid schools of humanities, to consign what few might be left to neutered silos.
The newly-muscling moneyed classes had hated the 1960s whose arts in every field energized anti-war campaigns, feminism, civil rights, La Raza, and gay progress. The rich and the corporate wanted dutifully submissive schools instead, arts gone and priorities in place for hiring and tenure only for the most neutered and specialist, full-tilt silo careerism.
This engendered an attitude Timothy Snyder in his Substack today called “submission to hierarchy as the only kind of life.’
The new normalizing to “submission to hierarchy” brought about Donald – to join what you also here call the "power-hungry Vlad lovers." That is, Putin, Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, and all the other murderous dictators, plus all that Epstein class eager for the money laundering for the dictators and to rape the underage girls Donald’s pals supplied.
Heather near the end quotes Abigail Spanberger: "The scale of the corruption is unprecedented." But she also quotes her on more positive notes among the American people, 250 years ago and today, verily even in the context of so many corrupted elites, then as the founders foresaw, and now.
Oh my, that he said he didnt need them and they stood and cheered for that? (I intentionally did not watch this horror show-I already have trouble sleeping these days)
The egregiousness of that moment when Congress cheered its own loss of power will go down in the annals of history. Our forefathers never imagined such a moment. They would have been flabbergasted. How can this have happened? They are all up for election in November. Throw them out!
If you want more insomnia inducing information, watch Lawrence O'Donnell's monologue last night. The words "ongoing investigation" into the rape of a 13 year old are coupled with the non-release of information regarding the occupant of the offal office.
The GOP is now a mash up of the absolute monarchy of the Divine Right of Kings and the absolute infallibility of the . Papacy. And no wonder, Charles Koch bagman, tech bro ally, and religious extremist - Leonard Leo - has been instrumental in instituting the ChristoFascist state: Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Teneo Network, the Supreme Court, and a myriad of antidemocratic initiatives all have Leo's fingerprints all over them.
So much truth you write and so concisely. I discuss the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, etc. in the chapter on the Powell Memo Attack, in my Memorandum.
Phil, I don't recall that (I was, as usual, watching the director of the community band instead) but to hear of that makes me crazy. Applauding your own irrelevance and the destruction of the democracy in which you "serve"?????
but geez, JD...it sounds like, from your comment, these people EVER cared about 'the people'. like it was EVER about anything BUT 'the 1%'. how many times have they sent America's children to illegal, invasive wars to make them money while their OWN children are exempt? how many times have they killed people in that country for standing up to them...unions...protesters...
and how many times have they gotten away with assassinations and such?
It’s frightening what they, the billionaire class, get away with — we have forgotten about the Boeing whistleblower who was murdered, or Chandra Levy — remember her?, even Ivana Trump as she was preparing to testify. None of the wars we have sent our children to have been about freedom. We have murdered people all over the world in the name of money. We can’t even have clean water. It’s all marketing — when will we learn? We drink milk because of marketing. Women the world over were convinced to remove every last body hair, thanks to Gillette and marketing. We killed all the buffalo (to cause mass genocide) and worshipped the people who did it so much they have cities named after them. And the British followed our lead with the “potato famine”. People who hate Arabs in order to go to war over oil, and immigrants.. I can’t figure out why — forget how recently this country hated Germans and Italians. We are such a consumerist and over-retailed society, it is sick. We were so close — to an equal and educated society. But were we? If the events of the past week have done anything, it’s shown women exactly where we stand. They have ruined the world and stupid people are helping them do it.
Stephanie Bartelt, I read your note with interest and concern. There is so much negative stuff happening that to dwell on it makes your energy seep away. There are a lot of uplifting things in the world and I hope you will try to balance the negativity with some uplift. I hope you feel better soon. “None of the wars we have sent our children to have been about freedom.” It depends on how you look at WWII. Certainly the onslaught of ads in the last hundred years has taught Americans to believe anything. But in spite of these things there are people truly seeking the best for other people. Look at Minneapolis. Look at Chicago. If you just give in to the negativity, it strips off your energy and your expectations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t let it happen! Thanks!
You are so right, Elizabeth, about the onslaught — and my negative energy. Re: WW2, the US was unwillingly dragged into that one. And the result was we bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And here we are again. Minnesota is still being terrorized.. by our own government. One of their own MAGA state reps is trying to sell off the Boundary Waters wilderness to the highest mining bidder — a foreign country. Do not get me started on AI data centers, people arrested for peacefully protesting them, and the end of clean water as we know it. Industrial farming of the earth has destroyed the planet and tortured animals in the name of capitalism. I’m not even vegan. And the people who don’t care at all. My expectations are that humanity start being human, treating each other equally, and remembering that we live in the environment that we are destroying.
Elizabeth, yes we need to be able to hope. But we do need all the information we can get about the crimes we've been hurt by, have witnessed, are complicit in.
It’s not only hope I’m talking about. Taking action to work on these dire circumstances is the only way to keep this from spiraling down. If you let your mind give in to the negativity it all becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy. Trump and the 1% are counting on hopelessness to keep us “in our places.”
Elizabeth, one of the many things I despise about this administration is their ability to strip people of their empathy for others. Recall Elon saying having too much was a problem?
You are so right, Miselle! They don’t actually have the ability to strip empathy, though. No one can take away your empathy! The reason Elon would think empathy is bad is that it might make him think twice about being such a hog! The worst thing that can happen to some people is suddenly seeing what they have done! But then they can redeem themselves. Look at Andrew Carnegie.
Stephanie, apologies for already posting this in a couple places but you really ought to read this article of Greg Olear, tying Howard Lutnick into 9/11.
We should never forget that Trump, his efforts to legitimize white-male-supremacist racist and misogynistic genocide, the resultant ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making, To learn of the carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
Loren, if you haven't done so, read Rachel Maddow's books "Ultra" and "Prequel" for an excellent history of what you describe in you comment. They are also available as podcasts, if that is an easier platform.
Her latest is "Burn Order" on how the US interred Japanese citizens on the west coast following Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941. Well worth the time, and this particular podcast (not sure if it is in book form yet; it is much shorter than the other two tomes) certainly says "We've been here before. It wasn't good. Let's not do that again."
Greg Olear put this up a few days ago. It is a long article to read but--follow the money!--it is truly one of the scariest articles I have ever read. He's going all the way back to 9/11 on this and it chills me.
But they are on the cusp of killing SS and Medicaid and Medicare. Also of permanent power (as Meese predicted). No Repub will break ranks and survive. The consequences may come from Vlad’s playbook. Heroes are scarce…
Trump's plan to require the high-tech faction of the Trumpstein Plutocracy to build their own AI-powering electrical generation plants -- revealed during last night's SOTU event -- is sure to mobilize the financially oppressed to support his full-scale restoration of coal mining. This means not just the resumption of the destruction of our planetary motherland by strip mining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining . It includes the toxic re-pollution of the atmosphere by the cancer-causing fumes generated by burning coal and the ever-growing risk from heaps of toxic ash that caused the deadly flood of 2008, the worst-ever USian industrial spill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill . And because coal-fired generation is the cheapest way to produce electricity -- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/power-and-energy/coal-burning-power-plants-overview -- there is no question the profit-crazed sociopaths of the Silicon-Valley Trumpstein class will ignore coal's thoroughly documented ecogenocidal devastation and choose it over all other fuels. Such is capitalism in action -- abetted by a Moronic Majority that will (always) favor comfort and convenience over environmental protection.
Except it would be really dumb to plan to power your data centers with coal, when the next president and Congress could easily ban its use altogether, or restore clean air standards that would make burning coal illegal.
Agreed. Emphatically so. But given that the Silicon Valley Nazis actually own both major parties -- note for example Newsom's function as their puppet -- it's doubtful any such ban would ever be imposed. Note too how the Democrats have let the Republicans effectively neutralize TVA, which was formerly one of the most forceful protectors of the environment.
It's Our republic, we must fight for it and keep it...many took an oath to preserve, protect, uphold and defend the Constitution, rule of law and democracy...We the people, always striving to form a more perfect Union...so much work to be done to right the wrongs, repair the damage & destruction, but do it We must...
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men(& women), undergo the fatigues of supporting it". -Thomas Paine
The State of the Union is supposed to be a civic ritual. It is the one night when the presidency stands before the people, through their representatives, to account for power. It is not meant to feel like a rally in a packed arena, complete with villains, applause lines, and a rotating cast of scapegoats.
Yet what we witnessed was not governance but grievance. The speech leaned hard into the old authoritarian playbook. Manufacture crisis. Declare enemies. Present yourself as the only strongman capable of restoring order. Immigrants become invaders. Opponents become traitors. Journalists become saboteurs. Complex economic realities become the fault of a single, conveniently vulnerable group.
It is a familiar rhythm. First divide the nation into “real Americans” and everyone else. Then insist that dissent is disloyalty. Finally, wrap personal ambition in the language of destiny. The script practically writes itself.
And yet, here is the strange part. If this is a bid for dictatorship, it is oddly incompetent.
Effective dictators project inevitability. They exude disciplined control. They centralize power with quiet precision. What we saw instead was bluster without ballast. The performance demanded awe, but delivered insecurity. The message insisted on strength, but revealed a leader still obsessed with applause and grievance, still unable to govern without relitigating personal slights.
Authoritarianism thrives on fear and coherence. It requires institutions bent steadily to the will of the ruler. It demands strategic patience. What we have is improvisation. What we have is a man who wants the mythology of a strongman without the administrative competence to sustain it.
That does not make the moment harmless. Rhetoric matters. When a president normalizes the language of enemies within, it erodes the fragile trust that holds a pluralistic society together. When he treats constitutional ceremony as campaign theater, he lowers the ceiling of what the office is meant to be.
But it does suggest something important. Democracies do not fall only because a leader desires unchecked power. They fall when institutions collapse and citizens surrender. So far, the institutions creak, but they stand. The courts push back. The press investigates. Voters still argue in public.
If this is an attempted strongman era, it is one constantly tripping over its own ego. The danger is real. The execution is sloppy. And history shows that incompetence at dictatorship is not the same thing as immunity from damage. https://essayx.substack.com/
This one has me tripping, too. I can't get over what fuckups they all are -- incompetent, incoherent, inept, inefficient, WAY over their heads and often unable to find their own asses with both hands and a flashlight at high noon....
It tells us not how powerful they are, but how weak. Anybody watching that sickening performance by Klaus Bondi before Congress, paying close attention, saw her fear, not her resoluteness. The whole project hangs by thinner threads than most of us realize.
She was like a rat cornered. And about as attractive, which I hate to say as it sounds like I am judging her by her physical appearance, and that is not my personality.
The following is just odd ramblings which anyone have thoughts on, I"d like to hear. Regarding Bondi--I noticed in her Congress clown show, she had a lot of lines around her face. I was actually a bit surprised she hasn't gone for fillers or Botox!
I find much of the MAGA woman "look" to be odd--they are white nationalists, but (IMO) they attempt to create the large lips more common in women of color. I mentioned to my husband that the inflated plumped lips never look natural, and if you looks at a woman who was born with them (say Stacy Abrams) they look totally different than MAGA lips, and they fit her face.
Those filler inflated lips look like pool toys. I can't figure out what the appeal is, and pardon me for this, but I do wonder if they are attempting to make their lips look like labia??
Imagine him blaming immigrants for fraud (as if 73,000 of them put themselves in detention centers for $21M a day) and that J. D. Vance will fix the deficit overnight! My hometown high school students from Grand Blanc, Michigan, have had a tough year with the Mormon church fire and murders (from a Trump supporter), and losing classmates and their families through ICE detentions. When they fully participated in the recent national walkout, their principal fully supported them. I am heartened that young people are waking up to what is right.
I also am heartened as these students are listening and learning about what's right and wrong in the current political chaos. They are the hope for the future and many of them will soon be of voting age. There was recently a post in our neighborhood online app, neighborhood.com, condemning the actions of students participating in the National Walkout. The majority of people responding positively felt encouraged that young people were taking action. There were a number of people asking why are parents allowing this; that the students didn't know what they were protesting against; and that most students just wanted a 'free' day off from school. These students are practicing their freedom to speak, in that, there is a practical learning expreience.
Vivian T-You make a great point by highlighting the role of students. Remember it was students who helped to bring down the outward signs of Jim Crow including John Lewis who was a member of the STUDENT Non-violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC). There are many other examples of ways students can make a difference.
Writing in Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963, author Taylor Branch describes the students’ role. SNCC’s newsletter was called the Student Voice. Think about all of the students (White and Black) who joined the Freedom Rides and voter registration drives in the South. The Kent State students who lost their lives…and we have students now who care about the future of this nation and the world.
Thanks for bringing the importance of young activists to the forefront.
“0 democrats stood for the foundational principle of all government that leaders must serve citizens before invaders. Never has there been a more stunning moment in Congress.”
No, Mr. Miller.
What your followers are applauding is suspending the Constitutional right to DUE PROCESS of the law in order to persecute and abuse other human beings.
Joseph Goebbels would be proud of you, but no one else is.
It's Come to This! Truly, well-said! There are a few things even our media and Democrats don't want to admit to ourselves: Trump has dementia and it is not going to improve; it is possible Trump was on some kind of drug regiment that let him stand in front of Congress, even survivors of his sexual violence and blurt out nearly 2 hours of lies, insults, and utter BS; Republicans in general have decided to know as little as possible about our nation, its people, its history so they can bow to an ignoramus who has never had anything of value to offer anyone, a fraud from the moment he entered the public sphere; Trumpers and Trumpettes have hitched their wagon to someone who actually hates them and everyone else and proves it every day and seem to be OK with that hatred, while passing it on to their Republican voter base. Why our media refuses to acknowledge this set of truths is beyond comprehension. Trump was impeached for far lesser crimes in the past than he and his toddler pool have committed this time, but Republicans just can't seem to be able to do their job, to impeach, then remove this entire administration from office for their treason against the American people and the people of the world. We don't have to let them win anything. We do need to work really hard to protect our elections coming up because I bet our Little Elon and his AIers will again try to give elections to Trumpers and Trumpettes while Democrats sit back and say, there's nothing we can do about that; I believe there is a lot we can do!
When my wife was doing her doctoral work in Clinical Psychology, the DSM III-R was released. She and some of her cohort wrote some funny "diagnosis" disorders. They called their little pamphlet "DSM III R squared". One of their Personality Disorders was titled "Just Plain Nuts". That would certainly fit ffpotus.
The APA has decided finally to do a remake of the DSM. The WHO with the removal of our country also in flux. There needs to be a reckoning of the last fifty years. In the 1970’s it was never great but changes started to happen. However federal funding that was promised never happened. The burden fell to counties and each county did it in different ways. Some counties created fault lines between different groups. The concept of individual disease focused groups of medical issues looked good but more Big Pharma money and corporation versus the old Chronic Illness Center that had a team approach worked with the patients as a team and took on any chronic condition. It is totally forgotten now.
We need a new approach that incorporates trauma and other concerns in a multi dimensional and deep way for any human in crisis . The disbanding of community hospitals again never perfect but communication and networks versus private equity and hedge funds profit approach just has to be completely changed. Part of this was the creation of Emergency departments in the 1960’s again a good but the actual split between body , mind, heart, and soul created ongoing and deep havoc.
I read Frum's article in The Atlantic this morning regarding Trump's SOTU BS. Regarding Trump's lies, this was my letter to the Orlando Sentinel:
Editor: Regarding "Takeaways from Trump's State of the Union address" (2-25-2026), who, I wonder, believes his lies. For example, Trump claimed that he " inherited a nation in crisis" with a 'stagnant economy" but not according to the Wall Street Journal (4-12-2024) and The Economist (10-19-2024) both reporting that the Biden economy was "the envy of the world." The inflation rate, caused by the Pandemic, was down to 3.0%. The inflation rate in the U.S. during 2025, Trump's first year in his second term as president was 2.9%. The U.S. economy added approximately 2.2 million jobs in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, added to the 3.0 million jobs created in 2023. In 2025, the number of jobs created dropped to 181,000, a number equal to a monthly increase in 2024 under Pres. Biden. In his speech Trump said, "You caused that problem," blaming the Democrats. Thank you, yes we did.
My SOTU post game... I now regret that I was in-flight during the event because I missed Gov. Spanberger's response. Thank you Prof Heather and the rest of you that did listen and provided these insightful comments. I hope Gov Spanberger's word stick in people's minds for the long run.
I think you are right: that Trump and his gang are symptoms of something seriously wrong and evil with/in American society and culture. It has been there all along, all my long life at least. There is an industry that has grown up to feed this malign shadow of what we claim to be. Can we win in '26 and '28? I hope so. BUT the nation's dark side will always be there.
It HAS, indeed, come to this. I watched the whole performance of the Grifter-in-Chief, loudly fact-checking him as he spewed the predictable garbage about the opposition and self-glorification of himself. But the hysterical standing, clapping and cheers from the Republican side of the aisle literally sickened me. Their hysterical support for the most egregious lies…..
Your comments are always perfectly crafted and could have made a strong rebuttal to the SOTU (if they had more courage, the democrats could have said more). Thank you for your wisdom and articulate input. ❤️
I am grateful and energized after reading about a dozen responses, as many as time allowed, thank you all for your wise contributions. I went surfing social media yesterday. His base continue to see him as sent by God, the best President ever, that those people murdered in Minneapolis deserved to die. He has given permission for people to voice their belief in misogyny and racism and they are doing so without filters. I believe he and his sycophants are a source of evil. I also believe he and his minions have memorized and have masterfully inacted the authoritarian playbook. He is doing the thinking for people who are choosing for him to do it for them. I just do not know how to wake people up but I fear for the inability of so many to understand how they have been willingly had, as I fear for the consequences of their arrested thinking on themselves, their communities, the nation, and the world.
A POTUS who lies, cannot tell us the State of our Union.
But the best part of last night? The latest three Democratic wins in special elections in Maine and Pennsylvania, continuing a streak of overperformances and 26 red-to-blue flips since this jury-determined rapist, 34X-convicted felon, three-time popular vote-majority loser, twice-impeached traitor, and walking #EpsteinFiles redaction started his second term.
He does not even know enough about government to know what the state of the union is. I am reminded by Heather that Steve Miller is evil incarnate and we should be going after him.
the number of people you should be 'going after' is quite a few...it would take years and years of investigation and financial resources. of course, this is a large part of what they count on...witness Trump. with all the wrong that he's done for over half a CENTURY...how much time has he spent in jail...and those are his super powers. distraction/ stalling and lawyering up.
His foreign policy sucks too. I am just reading that while a delegation from Germany was supposed to be meeting at the Pentagon the Trump administration refused to meet with them except for the member of the AfD.
Linda-Using his son-in-law and friend who are real estate developers to act as serious diplomats is another issue. They’re likely more interested in deals they can make for the powerful than they are about national security.
The sexual victimization of terrorized children by the Trumpstein Cult is the immediate precursor of the terror the MAGAstapo is now unleashing on anyone who refuses to kowtow to the ChristoNazi theocracy. Thus the vital, know-our-enemy relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn by the plaintiff in response to credible death threats: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
For sure Syd. Russell is a sick ticket. Also the other Heritage Foundation drafters of Project 2025. Susie Wiles is another one who is pulling the Pygmalion strings so to speak.
Let's send them all to Russia, since they are doing the Kremlin's work for it.
But she is showing stress. She needs to take a few days off and rest up. She has been going non-stop for all this time and is visibly wearing down. The horrifying year we have just spent takes it out of people. Please, Dr. Richardson, take care of yourself.
Elizabeth, I respectfully disagree with your "diagnosis." Unlike most people who get in front of the camera, Dr. Richardson doesn't spackle on makeup and have help with setting lights to the most flattering angles. She maintains a busy schedule and doesn't have time for all that artifice.
But if you're paying attention, you know that she also takes time off when she wants to or needs to. Dr. Richardson is showing no more signs of "wear and tear" than the rest of us, which is, admittedly, more than normal, owing to the effects of the christofascist regime trying to drive the nation into oblivion.
Interesting, Dale. Sounds like you think showing signs of stress is somehow negative, and that my post shows that I’m not paying attention. It almost sounds as if you think I don’t understand how she presents herself. I have no idea what about my post made you think any of that. I actually am paying attention. I do know that she occasionally takes a night off. But she does three or four interviews many days as well as her regular Substacks, plus teaching. I also know that she is a human being, albeit a very superior human being, and that she is no spring chicken. So, I say caringly, Please, Dr. Richardson, take care of yourself. Not sure why this is problematic for you.
Elizabeth, I'll be direct. First, repeating a critic's words back to the critic with a slight twist is an old manipulator's trick. I'm not having it. Second, your original comment is insulting to Dr. Richardson, and that is problematic. Telling someone she looks tired and must take care of herself is a maternal-sounding remark that no one wants to hear (or read). Reminding us that "she's no spring chicken" simply adds insult to injury.
People who feign this kind of distraught "concern" for someone else typically do this as a form of virtue signaling meant to draw attention to themselves. Dr. Richardson is a grown woman, entirely capable of knowing her limits and taking care of herself without instructions from any of us.
I know how you meant it, Elizabeth, and I'm sure I'm not alone. I also thought that the unflappable Dr. Richardson seemed a bit more rattled than usual. I attributed it to the last-minute decision to act on Rebecca Solnit's suggestion of delivering her own SOTU, and the need to quickly reorganize her thoughts to fit that theme. I salute a fine effort, and I also hope and trust that HCR will take care of herself.
so if YOU realize this, how much resistance, which is alREAdy manifesting, do you think there will to the coming mid term elections? this is going to be an interesting year, in that respect alone...
Yes, Natalie! And no matter how much money Repub pacs or Musk threw at many of those elections, voters of all stripes picked candidates for Democracy! The MAGA base depicted at 30% since tRump elected has been steadily dwindling. People keep marching and organising to protect their neighbors. There is much fear in D.C. re mid-terms. People seeing through AI b.s. on social media, and all the lies out of White House. Voters of all stripes marching and voting...even those who didn't vote before. And let's not ignore the under-publicized Walk for Peace by buddhist monks from Texas to D.C. Who doesn't want peace and return of a kinder, strong, respectful nation? Thank you, Heather, for Your State of the Nation post and for always inspiring hope!
The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, along with the spike in terrorism of ICE through their mass abductions, human trafficking, and false imprisonment in for-profit concentration camps in January were an inflection point.
More and more of us are waking up to the power and agency we all have. We simply need to use it in sustained, nonviolent civil resistance against the "pillars of support" of this fascist regime (focusing on getting at least 3.5% of our us to join the opposition).
1) Protests/Marches (#NoKings is on March 28)
2) Non-cooperation, i.e., boycotts, and no work/school/shopping days
3) Mutual Aid (providing resources to your neighbors near and far)
So, so, SO many examples of the growing momentum against the racism, nativism, misogyny, and LGBTQ-hatred this regime of bullies for billionaires use to distract/divide us so that a wealthy, well-connected few don't have to pay what they owe, or be accountable for their price-gouging, pollution, and pedophilia!
Trump could have highlighted the gold medal performance of Alysa Liu. He could have noted that her father immigrated to the United States after the Tiananmen Square massacre. It’s a great American Dream story. But he chose to divide with citizen vs. invader talk. Sad, mad old man he is…
Most women have turned against Trump because Trump. realizes that most women feel love, empathy and compassion, something his loyal followers are incapable of.
The few women in Trump's administration that are all willing to commit terrible acts and even murder for their dear leader are just as narcissistic and mean spirited as Trump, Miller and the rest of the clowns.
The US Olympic team women won 67% of the US medals. Congratulations to ALL of the women because MAGAs are never going to.
any evidence for "most" women? Any more than the 60% or so of the population that does not like Trump? Are sex/gender-based polls available?
I don't know how any woman at all could like Trump, but I know of two - otherwise apparently sensible - women who voted for him in 2024... and a majority of white women voted for him in 2016, after the Access Hollywood tape was public.
Including my nieces who live in Floriduh. They have been brainwashed by the trad wife weirdos down there in the ritzy part of Orlando. It’s creepy stepford wife ville down there.
There have even been large numbers of protestors turning out at the Villages which used to poll around 98% for Trump and DeSantis. And it's not far from Orlando.
Result when I submitted your question to AI: “Recent polling shows a persistent gender gap in U.S. politics, with women favoring Democratic candidates and men leaning Republican. In the 2024 election, men favored Donald Trump by a 12-point margin, while women favored Kamala Harris by 7 points. Gen Z shows a widening, pronounced divide where women strongly favor Democrats and men are increasingly leaning toward Republicans.”
I have always been puzzled how any woman could vote for Trump given his lifelong disgusting treatment of women. I guess it's because I figured women would vote based on the way women would like us to view them, but many apparently have a misguided attraction to the violator/lawbreaker with faux power, the "Bonnie/Clyde" syndrome. I know it's not reasonable to expect one large group to vote as a block, but a sizeable subgroup of women voting for Trump defies sound reasoning.
I totally agree Thomas. I have always preferred the company of intelligent people. My wife and those of many of my friends is smarter than me and I continue to learn from her. So yes, I don't understand women that vote for Trump and I am befuddled as to why.
Thank you for being fair. If someone wants to slam the men's team, fine. But is it really so difficult to refine one's comment to say, "Those on the men's team who accepted the White House invitation...."? Brock Nelson, who is on my Avalanche team, did not attend. Neither did Jake Guentzel, Kyle Connor, Jake Oettinger, and Jackson LaCombe. Gold medal men.
The women athletes are finally getting the attention they deserve in so many different sports as well as many other male dominated fields like medicine, chemistry and journalism.
Women's basketball has it's stars as does volleyball. The Winter Olympics showcased so many amazing women from all over the world as well as here in the US.
Isn't it great, GJ? I love what you wrote. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is a true champion, too. And none of the women athletes needs some big, strong hockey guy to protect them.
“Where were their moms?”The 25 ice hockey team members are adult men who play for NHL professional teams. I believe the speaker-phone conversation with Trump happened during the locker room party where the chest-thumping Kash Patel was chugging beers with the team. Apparently, no one in the locker room was mature or sober enough to say something like “we’re really proud of the women’s team gold medal and you should be, too” especially knowing that the conversation was being videotaped.
While I did not choose to listen to Trump's speech, I did hear Spanberger and I too thought, how refreshing. In fact, I thought, here is someone I can see heading to the White House in the future. She is just what we need. Someone direct and to the point. Good for Virginia for choosing her. I am glad she gave the rebuttal speech. I don't think most people could stomach A Schumer or Jeffries right now.
Pete Buttigieg would have given a great rebuttal. MAGAs overlook the fact that Biden had the most qualified and competent cabinet in my lifetime from top to bottom. They just didn't brag about it. Here is what Pete was working on outside of his role in managing the FAA where there were NO airline incidents during his tenure.
Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Administration has already:
Announced $568 billion for over 66,000 projects across the country;
Started improvements on over 196,000 miles of roads and launched over 11,400 bridge repair projects, increasing safety and reconnecting communities across the country;
Replaced 367,000 lead pipes, benefitting nearly 1 million people, with funding continuing to be deployed for more replacements;
Provided funding to deploy over 4,600 American-made transit buses, more than doubling their number on America's roadways, and funded approximately over 8,900 clean school buses;
Delivered funding for over 580 port and waterway projects to strengthen supply chains, speed up the movement of goods, lower costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
Deployed investments in over 400 airport terminal projects to modernize and expand terminals—over 200 of which are under construction or complete;
Financed over 2,400 drinking water and wastewater projects across the country, including projects through the Indian Health Service that will deliver clean water to 100,000 Tribal households;
Launched over 6,000 projects to help communities build resilience to threats such as the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks;
Provided funding to over 400 states, tribes, and territories and launched over 100 projects to improve the resilience and reliability of America's electric grid and deliver cheaper and cleaner electricity—representing the largest single investment in electric transmission and distribution infrastructure in the history of the United States;
Funded nearly 2,400 projects for water recycling, storage, conservation, desalination, and other purposes to improve drought resilience across the West;
Removed hazardous fuel material from 18 million acres of land through the Infrastructure Law and other sources to protect communities from wildfires;
Plugged over 9,600 orphaned oil and gas wells to address legacy pollution;
Awarded funding to 95 previously unfunded Superfund projects, clearing a longstanding backlog of projects to clean up contaminated sites and advance environmental justice;
Provided funding to 180 programs that advance President Biden's Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal clean energy, climate, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities;
Created 940,000 construction jobs and construction employment is at a record high—higher than the previous peak before the Great Recession.
agreed that the 2024 campaign could have put a lot more emphasis on the team - even in Trump's first term, most of his appointees were clowns or worse. Biden's were all serious people. I doubt anyone would have foreseen just how bad this round would be.
After he left in January, Pete came up with the term that encapsulated all of this massive re-investment in America -- "the Big Deal" -- in perfect homage to the Democratic legacy that over a century has given us the New Deal, Fair Deal, the Great Society and New Frontier. All parts of a much bigger whole that defined who we are, all linked by a shared, practical optimism part and parcel of a larger American legacy.
And yet, I found myself wondering when I heard him speak about it -- why didn't the Biden people name this back THEN? Why didn't they advertise, why didn't they do some bragging when it was critical to brag? Though not in Joe Biden's nature to do things like that, in retrospect, you gotta wonder....
"Lifted is doing a lot of work in that sentence" has to be the politest, yet most underhanded of all true statements about him uttered in a long while.
Perhaps Trump meant “lifted” as in shoplifted, stolen. Used in a sentence: SNAP benefits were lifted from 2.4 million needy recipients and deposited into one of my offshore accounts.
JL, I agree with your comment and would add that "lifting" is slang for stealing, but to add further context, it's stealing right under the "mark's" nose while looking them in the eye. To put a finer point on it, it's pick-pocketing. Example: the pick-pocket "accidentally" bumps into the mark and "lifts" his wallet during the jostle.
In that context, that's exactly what Republicans did to SNAP recipients.
It's what contemporary "Republicans" mean by "The Invisible Hand", the "evil twin" of the one described by Adam Smith. I read in a travel book that sometimes when a heavy-handed pick pocket is caught in the act, they will start yelling "Thief! Thief!" and vanish in the confusion. Ultra-heavy handed MAGA seems to think that just yelling "Thief! Thief!" loudly enough and often enough, is sufficient to cloak what they are really up to. Unfortunately some of the people seem to be fooled pretty much all of the time.
ICYMI Gov. Abigail Spanberger did an excellent job of rebutting Trump’s SOTU Address. Did anyone notice how tense the two rows of US military generals/admirals looked during the speech. Here is a link to Gov. Spanberger’s response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LW0z0xQtc
Heather also gave her own SOTU. It is not as polished as Spanberger’s but she doesn’t have a staff of speech writers and she put her talk together on the spot. And what is important is that we can trust in everything that Heather says to be factual and informative:
I warned my Trump supporting family and friends that this 2nd term was not going to go well for America. They did not believe me. Now, finally they are starting to question his motives and capabilities. We have to give them a space to come to...a safe space to not be loyal to what they thought was the better choice, for whatever reasons they had at the time. They have to want to be with the real patriots and save our democracy. I have regretted voting for certain people and helping to elect them...keep that in mind. I am sure we all have chosen poorly at some time. There is one woman I have apologized to for helping her opponent get elected. Let's create the big tent that will save our ship of state.
Brandi Carlisle has a new song that she performed with Singing Resistance in Minnesota -- "it's ok to change your mind; you can join us any time." -- very good message I thought. https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVFqTSKjpg9/
Kathy that's wonderful. There is so much bashing going on. People make mistakes. I mean he is a snake oil salesman at heart. I think my Trump friends get confused when I still care about them. Good for you. I will make this available were I can.
Thanks, Mike. I share much applause in your humility, direction, and action. We can better navigate these difficult waters as a community. This year, we have noticed a steady increase in new members in our local community organizing groups. Included are faith and meditation leaders who also comment on the increased appetite of new members to feel inclusion and to build a more inclusive, loving, or at least a more forgiving community that spreads respect, kindness, and human support throughout the community.
In one exercise/meditation group I influence, we recently added a new member who was fleeing the MAGA world she inhabited. She reacted to a discussion about the mistake of ICE in targeting a community-driven population, such as Minneapolis. She admitted that she can seem harsh, but she came to our group not to discuss politics, but to find a quiet place. We listened and included her without criticism. I have to emphasize that it was not easy to accept her at first because "we" had become comfortable in "our" position and conversation. She has remained in our group, and now that we know her, she does not seem harsh. She has relaxed and shared, and we are more complete because of it. Christian literature talks of welcoming the "stranger". Buddhist literature speaks of building a raft that includes everyone to cross the swollen and troubled waters. And that is cool, but what do you do after you cross the troubled waters and have left the raft?
We are all in this together. We share the planet with everyone that's here. A lot of people live a very shallow life that's not very informed. They don't read, they don't watch documentaries or go to museums. They need help "getting it".
Mike, sadly, my retired cop former work cohort are not in agreement, and are doubling and tripling down on their investment in ffpotus. I don't know any other serious MAGA folks, but I have noticed that the highways in rural Oregon do have fewer signs of support (except, of course, for the ones who need to have eleventytwo flags on their .25 miles of pasture fence, alternating the national colors with t***p flags.
Hi Ally. Yea, I see fewer signs and flags out there...and if the polls are anywhere near accurate his core group just gets smaller...more and more defections from the ranks. This is the most critical period of American history I have lived through and that includes the Cuban Missile Crisis and the murders of JKK, RFK & MLK. Rural folks tend to be VERY independent...they don't like cities or city folk and apparently they believe their way of life is somehow under siege...which it is not. No Trans person is going to come take their gun.
Something we could also mention about Trump's State of the Union address was the arrest of Aliya Rahman, who attended the speech as guest of Minneapolis Congressmember Ilhan Omar. Last month, federal officers dragged Rahman out of her car despite her cries that she was disabled. The rough police handling badly injured her. Having her show up to Trump's address apparently embarrassed someone, because she was detained again, this time for standing up (I guess you have to stay seated unless you're applauding Trump), hauled once again to a police station, and not released until 4 a.m the following morning. Amy Goodman interviews Rahman on Democracy Now! Feb. 25, 2026.
Thank you Heather! This is a brilliant, inspiring piece giving us a path of hope and promise that we the People can choose the leaders that will work for us! In Solidarity!
I happened to be awake at 4am when HCR's Letter came in. Haven't gone back to sleep. I don't know how she maintains her sanity but thank goodness she does so the rest of us with at least a few functioning brain cells can maintain ours .....although I must say the theater of the absurd is fully consuming!
I've followed her from the beginning late 2019 having stumbled upon her Letter and telling my husband (a collector of historical newspapers and self-taught history buff) that he had to read this BC professor's newsletter. I've heard her speak in person twice (Feb. 2022 and Sept. 2023) and was able to shake her hand and talk to her at the first event (with Fiona Hill, Russian expert) when I babbled something to the effect that she had saved my life and that of my friends during trump's occupation of the WH! Brilliant yet so down-to-earth, and obviously survives on no sleep! Her Politics Chats, interviews, books, etc. are additional gifts that make us mere mortals continue to wonder how the heck she pulls it all together while also having a family and a life!
Well said Janet W. I like your descriptor, "Brilliant yet so down-to-earth".
2019 with Heather for me too. I suffered a traumatic TBI back in 2019 & was silent for the first 2 weeks on LFAA. Heather & the community, particularly Ally, Mary Pat, that New Yorker I miss so much & others.🙏
Heather and this community has been a consistently informed support system and collective voice, even when we individually might not be able to find the words, that none of us ever could have predicted but are eternally grateful!
I got to hear her in 2024 when she came to Portland (and met Karen RN in person!!) but never talked to her. She's been a beacon to me for nearly 10 years at this point.
Thank you Ally, very much. I mentioned to once Fern that I had visited Jimi Hendrix' grave in Seattle. Fern replied she was Woodstock 75 feet from Jimi brought up the Sun 🔆 with the Star Spangled Banner 🇺🇸 That's Fern McBride.
ditto...when i heard the SOTU was upcoming, i thought...'needn't bother...Heather's got it covered...'. and it's not like i trust most other people's interpretations...
“Whenever you hear one party pushing hard to change something about the rules of the political game (how easy it is to vote, how districts are drawn, who counts ballots) while the other party is fighting like hell to stop it, ask yourself three questions:
•Who benefits from the change?
•What specific problem is this supposed to fix?
•Who gets helped (and who gets blocked) once the change is in place?”
“One party is actively working to make voting harder, undermine confidence in elections, politicize election administration, and challenge election results it doesn’t like. The other party, for all its problems, isn’t trying to dismantle competitive elections or concentrate power with the President.
Democrats may be timid. They may be self-interested. They may be too slow to confront institutional decay. But they’re not trying to end democracy as we know it.” (full article in link)
‘What the Hell, Barb??!!’
HERE BE DRAGONS: WARNING SIGNS FROM THE EDGES OF DEMOCRACY
@barbarafwalter is a political scientist. She is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the University of California, San Diego and the author of How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them (2022).
“Trying to help Americans understand democratic erosion so they don’t panic, radicalize or give up. I study how democracies disappear, and how people fight back.”
Trump’s speech shows that simultaneously he is both the captain steering the ship and the iceberg. But he does serve a vital pupose. He is all that stands between the presidency and JD Vance.
AND(and i think this is VERY notable) he's helped pull back the curtain on the people who really run a/the govt, and how inCREdibly corrupt most govts are...
I posted this before but it is more relevant today than ever before. Just wanted to mention that I read a review of a book titled “Necessary Fiction.” The title got my attention. A quote “We all had lies we needed to tell ourselves and others if we were going to live well__there’s already a term for that type of lie: necessary fiction.” I have not read the book since I am buried in political bullschittery 24/7, nor do I know who wrote the review. I kept the quote as it seems so relevant to us as individuals and collectively in our hours of discontent. I thought about this as I read a letter to the editor of Fort Worth Star-Telegram extolling the virtues of Trump’s second term.
I have been guilty of creating necessary fictions in order to cope with trauma if all sorts and to make the unbearable bearable. Some may do this in order to justify the most egregious behaviors, done by them or to them. Anyway, seems that this country that we all claim to love, has engaged in some necessary fictions in our history in order to gain prominence, excuse the inexcusable, or to maintain the illusion of “being the good guy” on the world stage. Chump certainly admitted to such when he said that he “wanted to be a good boy.” Some of the lies we tell ourselves are harmless, therapeutic, toxic, and/or potentially fatal. There comes a time when one must sort the wheat from the chaff. Decide which lies we want to modify, which to double down on, and which to reject. Most republicans have already made that decision, it’s time for the rest of us.
BTW, why weren’t democrats prepared for the stunt of choice, us or the illegals. Surely you knew that such would be thrown at you. Why were you even there? Still thinking “politics as usual.”
The necessary fiction is an interesting concept. Thinking about how it applies to the midterms.
For the Republicans, given Mike Johnson's reminder that if they lose the majority in the House, Trump 2.0 is essentially over, as are many of their political careers, is the necessary fiction that they can keep the majority in both chambers?
Is it that they can pass whatever voting suppression measures they need, whether in red states or nationally, to be sure they win?
Is it that, while they maintain the majority in the Senate, they can ditch the filibuster as Trump has instructed them to do, so they can stop Democrats from having any powere they fix the system in their favor? It only takes a simple majority to change the filibuster rule.
Is it that, if they have to, they will send out their goons to polling places on election day in purple districts to intimidate voters to stay away?
Do they believe the necessary fiction that they can win by controlling the voting machines and electronic poll books when people physically show up to vote? They already have an election denier who controls voting machines and/or electronic poll books in 40 states.
Is it a necessary fiction that they can fail to remind people that their mail-in ballot is no longer postmarked on the day it goes in the mailbox, but potentially days later, so it wouldn't count? Would that work to give them the win?
Is it also a necessary fiction that the oligarchs, understanding the consequences of an early end to Trump 2.0, will throw billions of dollars into the election to corrupt the corruptible and spew false accusations at Democrats?
Is it a necessary fiction that they will have enough of those pieces fall into place to make it happen?
Or do they need all of the above?
Just thinking if they are feeling sufficiently motivated by the existential pressure.
Trump may be gone, but that leaves us with JD Vance. He is a total creature of Peter Thiel and that worries me a great deal because Thiel is on his own crazy mission to destroy democracies. He has the money and the databases and the government contracts to do it.
I wasn’t thinking Trump’s actually be gone, just neutralized to some degree. But I agree about the tech bros. I worked 10 years in a high tech company (helped get it off the ground tho I was administrative). The tech guys were, as we say here, eat up with themselves.
Necessary fiction is something we all live with every day of our lives; mostly to appease our loved ones; or at work; in a marriage or in parent/child relationships. However, when it is deceptive and spurious, people should expect to pay the price of their fabrications. I would like to see a much more in depth factual rebuttal for everything politicians say or do, (I know it would beat the purpose of being a politician) and I am convinced I am merely dreaming of a just world with fairness abound (maybe when one speaks untruths, their hair should stand up, or their face should turn green, or the Pinocchio effect should take charge) but I don't know where all the constant spinning of everything is leading humanity. I am almost always in total disbelief the way Karoline Levitt carries on without a shred of shame. It takes a special person to be able to lie with such ease. And it is not as if Democrats take no part in such mendacity. It is sickening.
I see hope with some in independent media who report the facts and are relentless. I like Lev Parnas, Harry Littman, Marc Elias, Joyce Vance. Olga Lautman’s Trump Tyranny Tracker is a fantastic daily summary broken down in to categories with a one paragraph “why it matters” for each story.
Right now I think Lautman is the best for identifying what’s important regarding Trump and serving it up without hype one article at a time in a quick to digest format.
Repubs are the masters of mendacity. Dems just don’t have the ruthless gene, these days anyway. Would love to see Levitt’s nose grow into a carrot. But alas, we must use our senses. Mine are acute. Some dead to the world
That definitely covers it. But as always, the devil is in the details.
I was surprised to learn that the anti-trans voting bill in Kansas with changing drivers licenses to reflect birth gender, if enacted nationwide, could affect 2 million adults.
Associated Press totals (via FOX 9): Trump 77,303,573 vs. Harris 75,019,257 → margin 2,284,316 votes.
And the Save Act disenfranchises married women to a great extent. Deliberate and ignored. Women and other targets must realize that they are in the crosshairs. I got my passport when I first heard of it. Very few in my area have a clue.
The potential consequences are enormous because they have a gloss of legitimacy. The fact that it is the only way to get voter suppression in blue states is what is driving Trump’s insistence with Thune. The Heritage “election integrity” score card shows that state legislation is in place in most red states already.
Trump wants the filibuster gone so he can do what he has to do before the midterms while he knows he still has a majority no matter how thin. He does not care about a future Democratic Congress screwing Republicans. He wants and needs this to be the last election ever. He has said that. If we haven’t learned to take him at his word by now, we are delusional. He may not win on every one of his pronouncements but you know he is going to try to jump the guardrails.
The filibuster only matters if you anticipate a two-party system in a future Senate. And that poses an intolerable risk of being held accountable for his crimes and corruption to Trump.
JD, prior to the speech, I read that some Democrats were boycotting the speech and at that moment, I wondered, "Why aren't ALL of them not showing up?"
As you suggest, anyone who's been paying attention would have known that he would use them as props. A total absence of Democrats at the show would have deprived Donald of a "set" in his performance.
I'm not bashing Democrats, but candidly observing, along with you, JD, that too many seem to be unaware that we are in abnormal times. Tradition and decorum simply are not operational in this era. When the river is within its bounds and the water is flowing at a lazy pace, one can paddle the canoe with nonchalance. But when the river is flooded and the current is raging, one must paddle with ferocity ... or drown.
Will we ever stop giving deference to obvious evil dressed up in emperor’s clothes. Giving respect where none earned. Saying “let’s move on” instead of “let’s fix this.” Glad Germany did it right. Ike showed the way. We have lost the way
The eyes can't see what the mind won't believe. Conversely people can be made to see things. Legal fictions abound. Citizens United was based on one. Was it necessary ? Many people deal all the time with abstractions, especially public figures. Their stock in trade is assertions that are incapable of being proven or disproven. Are they fiction ? We must ask that question before asking if they are necessary. But most often the reasoning proceeds in just the opposite direction. Take for instance this:
"We hold these truths to be self- evident: That man was created with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
The most disputed words in the English language “all men are created equal.” Necessary fiction serves many purposes. Society must agree on some major ones if strife is not constant.. maybe why all religions revere the Golden Rule, more or less. Necessary fiction is aspirational, is it not. The end is often blurry but comes into view as the script plays out…
About "foreign affairs" let us catch up courtesy of Reuters at 2:17 AM Eastern earlier today 2/26/26.
"A large Chinese DRONE has conducted regular flight over the South China Sea in recent months while transmitting FALSE transponder signals that made it appear to be other aircraft including a Belarussian cargo plane [and separately] a British Typhoon fighter jet".
If you have admissible facts post, but, please no speculation. But, welcome all to our brave new world.
“Divisive, abusive, childish” in the words of David Frum in “The Atlantic” He meant both the man and the speech, but he might as well have added 'the whole shtick itself.' Tiresome, boring, utterly predictable — and predicted.
Writing about the SOTU speech, Frum continues: “it is as if the nation were being soaked by a torrential downpour, water rolling over umbrellas and into boats, soaking everyone’s clothes—and the leader whose job it is to lead them through the deluge insists that it is not raining at all, that in fact it is sunny, the sunniest day ever.” Indeed, we find ourselves in the middle of a hurricane, not a ‘golden age’ shining moment on a hill. To use the language of Carl Jung, we are gripped by our own shadow, which we refuse to own. It will haunt us until we claim it — and transform it into something else.
While Trump is a racist, a likely child sex predator, a dumb, creepy criminal and disingenuous liar, he’s managed to turn the country into something scarier still. Despite all evidence to the contrary, one-third the country thinks he’s really a bang-up guy telling it like just like it is, working himself to the bone to get it all done in spite of the “haters” and crazies who keep getting in his way. A cult and a spell — and a broken country.
Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024. It instituted an upside-down regime that deals only in falsehoods and caricatures. We know he doesn’t spend his time thinking about big problems, but plotting how to steal as much from as many as he can for as long as he can (how many now remember Hillary Clinton quoting John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who urged people to “do as much good as you can for as many as you can, for as long as you can”)? He spends sleepless nights rage-tweeting over the tiniest, pissiest of personal grievances and vendettas, churning out images of America totally disconnected from reality. No matter how many times he repeats it — to cheers and applause from Republican wormtongues too terrified to stop clapping, no matter what — white will never be black, down is not up, what’s wrong can never be right. Somehow we must right a republic where truth, honor, service and justice tinged with mercy prevail, powerful enough to replace the lies, vulgarity, greed and cruelty with something better.
Last night, Governor Spanberger summed up Democratic opposition in 18 minutes with her deft focus on “affordability" and corruption, asking 'is the President really working for you?' Perhaps this ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ focus will win us the midterms, I don’t know. But will it tackle the ghouls who keep us all locked in the upside-down place? If we're to change the spirit of the age into something better, we're going to have to take that beast head-on.
Despite everything, I remain optimistic that the whole Rube Goldberg contraption of lies, absurdities and grotesque caricatures these people want us to accept about ourselves is cracking down the middle. We must keep widening those cracks through resistance, humor, determination, organization, time, money and focus.
May we never give consent to scheming liars who claim a hurricane is really a bright, sunny day. Re-affirming reality remains the first step key shaking off the nightmares, changing the shadow curses into blessings, and accepting the work necessary to live responsibly in a democracy. May we all keep on keeping on until that particular battle’s won. Thanks, Heather and others for constantly reminding us of this.
Let's talk about that "Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024." While there are still many racists and neo-Nazis in the Maga camp, I still believe that there are more there as a result of the information bubbles, and a general tendency toward lazy non-critical thinking, which sadly, knows no political affiliation.
We've just got to do something about targeted advertising. The user profiling which is used to select and push content in order to hold attention spans longer, and thus increase the time available for advertising that is also targeted has dramatically reduced our exposure to alternate perspectives and narrowed the information flows that reach us. The Facebook Brexit experiment with Cambridge Analytica proved just how powerful this stuff is, and now we are living with its consequences here.
That's the "Somehow..." and we need to fix it.
It has been recognized right from the beginnings of the republic that the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech is not absolute. The classic example is the business of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. Speech that causes obvious and predictable harm is not protected. A way must be found to apply the standard set in the unanimous 1919 SCOTUS decision Schenck v. United States to impose some appropriate limits to this "clear and present danger."
Re: "Let's talk about that "Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024." - How are we ignoring the Russia-Russia-Russia interference? It skewed both elections, was investigated and proved to be TRUE. Sex perversion notwithstanding, interfering with the vote was crucial to tRump's wins. THIS is the enemy we must fight with all our might!
In fact, the ChristoNazis are (already) stealing our elections. Here in a vital Thom Hartmann exclusive is how the thievery is done, including credible statistical evidence showing that the ChristoNazis' purging of Blacks, Hispanics and white progressives from the 2024 voter rolls put Trump in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-q1lWsnlhg&t=5s (Election discussion starts at 9:09)
And, the fact that 'their actions' are either blatantly illegal or illegally carried out has got to be where THIS is stopped. There is little point in writing up new rules if the rules we have in place are IGNORED. Everywhere ICE goes it's MN all over again. Whose rules? ICE rules! Our courts are indeed overburdened by "THIS" and that is precisely a huge part of this circus. Yes.., OVERWHELM the COURTS. Der leader has all but made the statement that will end our democracy. But, if we don't wise up we're likely to be visited by a cry similar to "one if by land two if by sea", and it won't be Paul Revere.
As Tim Snyder said recently, we cannot go back and recreate what there used to be; we will have to go forward and create anew....
And this is where even the excellent Spanberger response was lacking. I want “the vision thing” (GWB called it) to be appreciated by Dems and articulated positively in terms of practical options. Getting rid of Citizens United has to be a clear goal and part of a strategy to restore both democracy and an “economy that works for us”,
Pete Buttigieg articulates this need better than anyone IMHO. We can't just go pick up the broken pieces and scotch tape them back together again, because they weren't working the way they were supposed to, to begin with. We will have to do better.
It's Come to This, yes, we will need a new vision, touched by the old, but designed and affirmed for a world that is quite different from before with even more challenges, particularly our climate and environmental destruction. There are still the warmongers and criminals, but we need to concentrate more on making life better for the people of this nation and world, not just for those who have been permitted to become too powerful and too rich. A lot of people need to add to the ideas for that vision.
Yes, a new vision/ version is needed ICTT. "All the king's horses and all the king's men..."
Its more than Citizen's United, and this is one of those things that I think liberals are being way way way too narrow in our focus about. The root SCOTUS decision upon which Citizens United is based is the head note to the 1886 Southern Pacific v. Santa Clara County decision which established that corporations are people under the law. That is very broad, and Citizens United is just a small part of it. The core concept needs to go.
Also, we need to require professional licensing of corporate board members and executives if the company is publicly traded. That can easily be done legislatively by setting up a national corporate chartering mechanism, and then giving corporations with such charters a significant tax advantage over those with state charters. The licensing must include an educational and testing requirement that includes an ethics component.
You are correct Craig. LEARN from history when deciding what needs to be fixed.
I have been thinking on a medical tumor board concept only bigger with a Teach In approach from the 1960’s and University of Michigan. Congress is a mud pit of ignorance and staffers come and go. One could create a new amendment with a review of literature you know from the old college expectations with new voices of those who have always been involved but throughly neglected. Art as well. A Congress rotating Court Jester.
I agree about Spanberger’s response. I like her but feel the response was to milk toast. I needed, wanted, to hear an Ocasio-Cortez, or a Telerico or Mandami.
The exclusion of progressives by the "Democratic" (sic) Party is a wake-up call. Here is a real SOTU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2qpYkLZxeY
Nanny Ann, thank you for referencing back to the comment that you are replying to (which appears to be on the correct path as well). The comments here have gotten a bit skewed. Good comments, all of them (so far) and excellent conversation.
Ally, substack putting comments all over the place drives me crazy and often leads to misunderstandings. This is why i always use the name of the poster to start my comments. And yes, good comments so far.
What even HCR doesn’t seem to adequately appreciate is the difference between emotion and thought. Trump voters were not lazy but motivated by emotions he stirred and for which facts are irrelevant. You may “know” it is racist to be afraid of a Black man walking behind you at night but you are still in the grip of fear until as was famously said he “whistles Vivaldi”. You fight fear of strangers with signs of intimacy and familiarity. You fight fear of crime with visible and accountable police officers you’ve met yourself. You fight fear of police with cameras on them, making as sure as possible they will be accountable to laws, public opinion, and moral censure.
The defense of masking ICE for example rests on rejecting moral censure as a form of legitimate pubic accountability. Calling it “doxxing” makes it sound like there is improper and dangerous visibility leading to violent targeted actions for the cops simply existing. Call out the defenders of ICE for the immoral actions they seek to protect from public scrutiny as well as from legal accountability.
Hillary made two colossal mistakes in 2016, one of which I think was understandable. Not fully recognizing the power and threat of targeted advertising that she faced was perhaps understandable. I really don't think it was until 2019 with the release by Netflix of "The Great Hack" that many people began to understand that power and how it was deliberately being used. As for her "deplorables" comment, that was just plain dumb on her part.
Nancy Ann, it continues to be my belief that ‘dire larder’ is in putting’s
pocket as a Russian asset. They have ‘a deal’; we know dire larder likes those best of all, (& “thank you for your attention to the matter”). I’m hoping the Poles have more than an inkling of this 🔗 link 🙏🏼
Again, what the Russians and others are doing is providing the awful content. The selective pushing of that content is done by the platform operators. It takes both.
BTW, the tools for generating fake video have gotten amazingly good. Alphabet claims that it is trying to filter that stuff out on its YouTube platform, but I don't believe that even a little bit.
I am not ignoring it. The Russians were one of the content providers. That content, along with stuff from other sources as well, is what is being selectively pushed based on user profiling.
We could get into some math models that support what went on. There is a critical importance to the stability of any complex system that key unifying attributes have a strong random component. In a representative democracy, one of the critical dependencies is an informed public. But how do you do that and not violate the free speech guarantee? Well, it turns out that precisely because information flows are a critical element in system stability, that those flows must have a strong random element. Before the 2008 election cycle, information flows did in fact have a strong randomized characteristic. They do not any more. If you want to read up on this topic, Google the phrase "Importance of randomness in system stability."
The math is VERY clear. If an element in a complex system is critical to the stability of that system, then that element must be randomized. Targeted advertising deliberately destroys that randomness. Also, just so we are clear on on the nature of these impacts, the leadership of both Facebook and Alphabet are very much aware of this, and they do it anyway because of the profits involved. Almost certainly the leadership at Microsoft is equally aware, and in their case since they have made a mess of their core non-gaming software businesses, they have become extremely dependent upon their ad revenue. These three companies gave us Trump.
I should ad that there are other participants in the targeted advertising business which are rapidly becoming as impactful in a negative way, the same as Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft. Amazon and Netflix are right in there too. Whether or not their senior leadership is aware of the impacts of what they are doing is less clear. Certainly they have talent on board that has experience at Alphabet (called Google at the time) where the technology was developed, and later deliberately seeded into Meta (called Facebook at the time).
The engineering leadership at Facebook even described their efforts as trying to develop the software equivalent of a knob that Zuckerberg could turn up or down based on the desired cash flow that would result. Of course, they turn turn it all the way up for maximum cash flow. The same is done at the other four companies as well.
I should have added that the impact of targeted advertising as done by Amazon is one step removed. They pay the search companies (Alphabet and Microsoft) to prioritize their ads. Netflix on the other hand is directly involved in content pushing, but probably in a way that is significantly less destructive of the randomness of information flows when compared to what Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft are doing.
I don’t believe they actually changed votes. The Russians work through propaganda.
Washington warned us about, as It's Come To This said, a "racist, a likely child sex predator, a dumb, creepy criminal and disingenuous liar" rising to power. Washington encouraged us to "unite in a common cause" to move this nation forward. HCR said, "That is our charge once more." Craig, you say "We've just got to do something about targeted advertising." IMO, the the worst form of "advertising" is at election time when we are bombarded with attack adds on television and online, paid for by independent expenditures by ultra-rich persons, Super PACs and "dark money" groups (nonprofit 501(c)(6) corporations that do not disclose their donors) and most coming from across State lines against a candidate in our State they don't want to win.
The Roberts 6 is our worst enemy because they are on a roll bombarding us with that kind of so-called jurisprudence. They began with their Citizen's United lie one year after Obama was sworn into Office. They freaked out because an African American moved into the White House. That means the Republican Party “Southern strategy” of appealing to racism against African Americans to increase political support among white voters in the South finally failed. We need to Unite and Amend our Constitution to stop those lies about our Constitution. Money is not speech. That is one of the many lies of the Court I discuss in my Memorandum to We The People posted at UnitedWeAmend.org.
In the Memorandum I list a few of the original values and “Truths” the United States was established upon. Next I list some major violations thereof by the Supreme Court and others. I conclude the only resolve we have is to Amend our Constitution and I provide comprehensive model amendment language: strong medicine for our badly wounded Republic. That is our charge, the dialogue, We the People need to unite and have Now.
And how likely, pray, do you think it is that the Constitution may be amended within, say, the next generation (30 years)? IMHO, the chance is precisely Zero.
Hell, it’s now more than 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment – and it is still not part of our Constitution.
That said, the quickest way to pass Amendments is through a so-called Constitutional Convention. However, I would strongly warn against this; there is a far stronger risk that such a convention would be co-opted by the wrong people, and that America instead would be burdened with a seriously worse Constitution!
"Somehow this dumbass perspective won out in 2016 and 2024."
Actually, we wuz robbed. Did Trump admit Musk stole Pennsylvania?
And Putin Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2016.
The electoral college has to go
In the real world that will not happen in the lifetime of anyone now alive, or of their offspring.
Yes, yes, yes Jen! A useful tool in its day. NO more. The votes of the people are the only thing needed when deciding laws.
Something that brings me a flicker of joy: Trump putting Vance on this finding fraud bullhockey.
Remember how the tides turned on ELON!? They had difficulty seating a jury in the lawsuit because he is so overwhelmingly hated! And I recall that people used to if not like Musk, at least admired him. Vance doesn't have many who like him already.
Excellent point. Putting Vance from the frying pan into the fire. Let him burn in public opinion.
No. We lost. Face up to it. The election was not stolen. It just was not.
(not a lawyer, but a frequent witness in criminal court)
I think that there is enough of a smoking gun to merit a full scale investigation. Between voter purges and tally issues with some of the machines along with other allegations of fraud (looking at Arizona here) that were "investigated" with none found. I would dearly love to see a complete investigation of the states where there were votes for democratic candidates but no votes for Harris.
Here's what you, a lawyer should know. Trump has admitted it.
Turns Out There Was Voter Fraud in Georgia—by Elon Musk
The state board of elections found Musk’s PAC sent prefilled ballot applications.
https://newrepublic.com/post/206857/georgia-voter-fraud-elon-musk
Edith Olmsted February 20, 2026
Members of the Georgia State Elections Board voted Wednesday to issue a formal letter of reprimand to Musk’s America PAC over the billionaire technocrat’s illegal scheme to get Trump elected. Georgia, a key battleground state in 2024, was the target of aggressive campaigning by Trump’s team.
+++++++++++++
“In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.”
— Adam Zarnowski, ex-CIA agent and author of Jörmungandr
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/ex-cia-whistleblower-the-nsa-audited
I don't know how credible this is, but it should be investigated.
++++++++++++
Current case in WDPA. Election Truth Alliance v. SCHMIDT (1:25-cv-00329)
District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
Amended complaint. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71883352/parties/election-truth-alliance-v-schmidt/
++++++++++
Greg Palast allegation re voter intimidation
https://www.gregpalast.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won/
++++++
If one voter was initimidated, ikt's a crime under Pa law.
Do you really think it couldn't have been stolen? That Putin didn't have the cyber allies to help things long? To engineer his winning of all the swing states?? There is something very smelly. Putin long ago found his puppet
NO John!!! Sometimes change happens rapidly when the majority speak up & protest. I refuse to sit back & not protest. Go visit Eeyore.
Daniel, I do believe Trump did admit it, in fact several times as he kept thanking Musk for his help with the election, even before the election was complete. I do believe there was cheating in the 2024 election, just enough for Trump to get the presidency and some nobodys to win senate seats they neither deserved nor earned (Musk using AI algoriths to just barely win every single one of the "swing states). Dems were too worried that Trump and his Klan would accuse them of doing what Trump accused Dems of doing in 2020, which Dems did not do. Whatever Trump accuses others of doing, it is a guarantee that he and his buddies are doing it, and in a form far greater and more powerful than anything Trump's accusation would expose, even if it were true.
Not quite sure how what you’re saying here relates to my comment.
We actually won.
I agree, we're not going to have a Constitutional Convention that will fix anything. So, where to go? To our public schools and universities: start teaching critical thinking skills in the 6th grade. Teach comparative political systems, civics and history. Our problem is caused by functionally illiterate people going to the polls and casting votes for those that are doing them harm.
6TH GRADE???
My 3yr old great granddaughter was here last week and I offered to let her take home a little cat figurine that sits on my desk. She looked at it, looked at me, looked at it, looked at me and finally said "Not at this time." 3YRS OLD! Needless to say I was rather stunned. I knew she was bright but, gee whiz! I could hear the little gears turning in her head and see it through her eyes. The cat has an odd, toothy grin and I could see that she just wasn't quite sure about it.
The state of education in this country is in a shambles. Waiting until kids are in the 6th grade is, at best, better than nothing I guess.
In my granddaughter's public elementary school in a very middle/working class neighborhood, each child was asked to pick a historical American character to study and make a presentation in the first person. We've been hearing about her research on Eleanor Roosevelt for months, and she was one of two students picked from her fifth grade to present to the whole school. It strikes me that this is a better way to learn history than the cut and dried recital of great men and their battles followed by multiple choice and matching questions that I had in elementary school. Of course, it's more work for teachers, but there are amazing electronic resources. She was able to access recordings of Mrs. Roosevelt speaking in her high-pitched, British educated voice. I plan to ask her who else she learned about.
THAT is an amazing experience. Fact is, it definitely can be the case. We have records of children who are/were brilliant: Mozart, Einstein, Picasso, John Stuart Mill, Bobby Fischer and a lot more.
Richard, I will never forget watching a clip after Trump won. They were interviewing people on the street and they stopped a youngish woman--maybe late 20s, early 30s?--who said she "used to watch The Apprentice" and said that "Trump is cool".
I've commented on here about how my sister voted for Trump twice. She was totally swayed by the price of eggs, I AM NOT JOKING. She hates politics and is an uninformed voter, but NOT any more! I spoon feed her a bit of politics every few days, and I print out the daily letter for her as she is 75 and lacks a computer. She's very, very nervous about the price of living right now. I am 100% she will never vote without being informed again.
If I remember correctly, Trump seemed surprised that he won in 2016, and feeling unprepared for leading instead of attacking everything.
Well, it's back to the application of critical thinking skills to issue assessment. Why did the price of eggs spike in 2023? It wasn't Biden or the Democrats. It was primarily caused by a severe outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu. Why the inflation rate going up after Covid 19? Supply chains around the world were adversely affected. The scarcity of goods causes the prices to rise. And then, there are those who believe because they want to believe. Is there a Heaven and a Hell, and a life everlasting following one's death? There is if one wants to believe it.
From the chapter on the Powell Memo in my Memorandum, "The Powell Memo rallied major corporations and the Chamber to create a Staff of Scholars who believe in the System. That idea grew into a collection of corporatists 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, as many voters tend to associate their admiration for individuals from sports or entertainment with support for those individuals’ involvement in shaping public policy." My Memorandum includes a few chapters on our history and more on how the corporatist did what they have done to our Constitution. Ask you sister to read my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Yes! This is the CRT American schools need – Critical Rational Thinking. And we need to do what you say. I do think, however, that we’re perhaps looking at a 30-year time horizon.
Yes, it's gonna take a lot of time - won't happen in my lifetime (I'm now 85) but we could start it now. We've got to get religion out of the curricula as anything other than comparative religion. HCR's book, "How the South Won the Civil War," [2020] is excellent. Our two main threats to our democracy? White Christian Nationalism and racism. MAGA is 221st century KKK and Trump is the Imperial Wizard.
Need to start with parents CRT, first!
100% correct. I agree with every word of you intelligent and knowing post. My wife, a retired California public school teacher, tells me critical thinking skills are integrated into the curriculum from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Your point about teaching comparative political systems, civics and history is beyond being simply important, it means everything to instill an understanding of who and what We the People can evolve to become compared to others. Our founders, knowing they were not perfect, included the power to amend the Constitution. Thus every propblem we face today is on us if we fail to unite and take action to amend. I discuss that in the last chapter of my Memorandum at UntedWeAmend.org
Yes, yes and yes!!
Your mistake is you totally ignore the times, the crises, we are living in. That is a major factor when it comes to change of the Constitution. In union organizing there is a saying, "A bad boss is a good union maker." That means that poor management—characterized by unfair treatment, disrespect, or unsafe conditions—is often the primary catalyst that drives workers to organize and form a union. Likewise, in Amendment organizing, the actions, longevity, or incapacitation of presidents deemed "bad," dangerous, or unfit have directly led to the ratification of several U.S. Constitutional Amendments, i.e., the 22nd Amendment (term limits) and the 25th Amendment (presidential disability and succession). Moreover, the U.S. escalation of the Vietnam War began in 1964/1965. Approximately 35,000 of the 58,202 American military personnel killed in the Vietnam War were aged 21 or younger. The 26th Amendment which changed the voting age from 21 or older to 18 or older was officially ratified on July 1, 1971, four years before the War ended in 1975. Thus your analysis of zero chance within the next 30 years is nonsensical: "voice of doom." Trump is a good Amendment maker. Every time he opens his mouth he rallies people to unite to amend. IOW, the time is ripe to amend. History proves it.
I wrote the Memorandum because as I read the proposed amendment introduced by Senator Adam Schiff, et, al., intended to address Citizens United, although I do not believe it to be their intention, I see a problem. The problem is that they use legal terms of art such as “...may regulate and impose...”, “...may regulate and enact...”, and “...shall have power to implement...” The problem with such language is that it allows Congress and the States to decide whether they “may” or “shall” not regulate, enact, or implement anything. Some people elected to Office may even read it as a way to profit from such decision making by doing nothing. I see those words as not being the rampart we must build but rather a gate which for a fee will be left wide open to mega-money in politics. Moreover, over the last 15 years since Citizens United the Court has continued to attack our Constitution and no other proposed amendment addresses these newer cases. My model amendment language is comprehensive to every attack on our Constitution by the Court and others. Also, the beautiful interpretation and application of the text of my Memorandum completed by Dale Rowett of LexiGraphics.pro is worth seeing at UnitedWeAmend.org.
When I argue for certain legislative approaches, I do not mean it to be an argument against attempting to amend. We should do both and I applaud your efforts in this regard Albert. That said, there are some things we could do legislatively that would be enormously helpful.
I agree 100%. Moreover, when uniting to amend it would be a good morale booster to win laws being made in different jurisdictions. Also participating in rallies for the different individual causes which are a part of the comprehensive amendment will sustain and bust unity. Anything that maintains unity is primary in a long battle.
Wow! Sounds like damned if we do damned if we don't.
Yeah. Like the end of life as we know it no matter what. Like what the hell were the Framers thinking adding the Amendment clause to the Constitution?
Montana and CA will have items on their Nov ballots - "Corporate Powers" that will undo 'Citizens United'. If CA passes this bill it will be 'huge' and get more states doing the same thing. You can read about this here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1984&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
I have no doubt the Roberst 6 will order call the law suits that follow thereafter p on an emergency appeal and declare all such laws unconstitutional. They will stand on prior Court made B.S. to support their corporatist fascist lie. In my Memorandum I explain the problem as in "...the text of "Pembina Consolidated Silver Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania," 25 U.S. 181 (1888), the Court held as to the Fourteenth Amendment, “Under the designation of person there is no doubt that a private corporation is included. Such corporations are merely associations of individuals united for a special purpose...” To put the Court’s analysis of law and facts in perspective the Court worked like a street hustler playing a fast shell game. They placed the non-transferable rights endowed in individual persons under shell #1, as if it were a pea. Then as they quickly moved the shells (words) around they steal the pea from shell #1, and load it under shell #2, an assembly of individuals now having rights transferred from, and distinguishable from, the individual attendees. Then finally they move the shells (words) a last time, steal the pea again and load it under shell #3, a State’s charter, a certificate of incorporation, a shield against lawsuits for its shareholders (individual attendees), now having equal protection of the laws the same as individual Americans endowed with natural rights. Imagine Chief Justice John Marshall in 1801, holding The Co. to be a person with equal protection of the laws. The Court probably would have been tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail by the Sons of Liberty. Chief Justice John Marshall, of course, never wrote such lies. The principles of the Enlightenment, including those articulated by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, had a profound impact on him. He also invited legal briefs and oral argument before deciding important matters and used constitutional law and principles to guide his sound decisions." Please open and download my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org .
Perhaps, but at some point, even some seemingly dense conservative jurists become appalled at the behavior of those with whom they have been keeping company. Many who liked the things Reagan did and who have been in total denial of the many horrible consequences, now seem to have found some limits to the nonsense of their compatriots. Every once in a while, I get the feeling that even George Will has come to his senses, at least partially. Roberts, Barrett, and Gorsuch each seem to be partially in that camp at times, although to differing degrees.
At the Beginning of February here in SW FLA we started getting “vote for me”ads touting “DT is backing this guy”. Must be 3 to 4 of the same ad-over and over each evening during Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy . I hate that we have several more months of this!
In our household we watch NO tv with ads, NONE, ZERO…period.
Ads of any kind make tv unwatchable…..yes sometimes my husband has to catch a ball game after it’s 30 mins in so he can FF thru the ads….but it’s the only way to sanely watch a broadcast event.
Thank goodness for apps with tons of ad free shows.
I have been time shifting for years, I never watch anything when it starts, I usually give it anywhere from a half to a full hour before I start, that way I never have to watch the commercials. I have YouTube TV set to record just about anything I might want to watch so I can watch it when I want.
My husband does the same thing. In fact, the only time we watch commercials is at our annual Superbowl party where we play commercial bingo! 🤪
Albert, you are indeed correct in your assessment that we are bombarded with ads! I so wish that our campaign season was limited!
I also wish there was an absolute LIMIT on amounts that could be spent on campaign mail! Every bit of junk that arrives in this house goes straight into the recycle bin. Am I guilty of adding to this problem, as I am a volunteer (on my dime!) postcard/letter writer? In a way, I think and hope not. The various organizations swear that handwritten cards ARE paid attention to.
I'd never heard of those volunteer opportunities until I read about them HERE, years ago, from Eli Kona. I've not always been happy with how my donations to the DNC get distributed, and by choosing which campaigns I write for, I can control that.
For those who don't know (Albert, you're pretty knowledgeable, so I assume you know this) postcards campaigns are going on all the time. There is a HUGE one happening RIGHT NOW! Hundreds of thousands of people in WI will receive a handwritten card in the election for a state supreme court judge--and we know these lower courts have been the ones that are working to save democracy! Can you help?
postcardstovoters.org
What I particularly like about this organization is your commitment is small--you need only promise to write 5 or 10 cards. You can do this in 30 minutes, seriously! While I like all postcarding, the commitment to write 100+ (along with supply the postage, and often the cards themselves) can be too much for someone with arthritic hands.
Every drop of water wears down a mountain. I know at times I've been so incredibly depressed that I have to step away from protesting and even reading the news--and I can stop to take a breath because I know YOU GUYS have got my back, and for that, I thank you.
I felt a surge of pride when Abigail Spanberger won, because I wrote lots of postcards to infrequent Democratic voters for Vote Forward during her campaign. The message didn't mention her name, only her goals vis a vis her opponent's. Some people just need a little reminding of election dates and polling places.
That is an outstanding idea. I like it as it is the speech of individual persons to individual persons. That is how it should be. However, the other side will counter it by printing out thousands of post cards looking like real individuals. Or worst actually pay people to do it. That is a problem I discuss in my Memorandum. In the model amendment I have a clause that would end the employment of people outside the official campaign thus ending Citizens United. believe if working within the Democratic party one can unite people to do such individual mailings.
Albert, thank you for your time & thoughts. Nice to have someone who can take my racing, disorganized thoughts together in a cognizant manner.
Craig, you are right that we do need to do something about the messaging issues and the "1st Amendment" "Free Speech" challenge of people using it to do serious harm to others. The challenge is where we will draw the line. "We'll know it when we see it" isn't going to work when there is a cadre of folks who think whatever they say/write is fine but whatever YOU say isn't will make it difficult. When I "tell a lie" about someone, it is not the same as when a president, member of Congress, or someone in a high office says it because of the weight of their "authority" and the breadth of their coverage. We will need constitutional scholars, people who actually care for our nation and its people, all its people, to work out where the line must be drawn. We can no longer just let it up to our courts which are now filled with people who think their own opinion is what counts, not our Constitution and the people who would be harmed by their decisions.
Ruth, I think this is where AI will come in. A well regulated AI will be able to fact check in real time. Let’s face it, AI is here to stay. I visualize it being used for the highest and the best, and that is something we must keep our eyes on for the betterment of our Union (perhaps the saving of our Union).
Wonderful points. Information bubbles, targeted profiling and money-backed mega-advertising aren't found anywhere in the 1st Amendment, yet all were critical components of both 2016 and 2024. Reversing Citizens United has to be a part of what we aim for by constitutional amendment. As Pete Buttigieg once said, don't tell me we can't do that if we once passed a constitutional amendment forbidding you to drink a beer -- then another constitutional amendment to undo that one...
Craig, you are so right; the information "silos" where the MAGAt devotees get their "information" have absolutely created a cult where up is down and hot is cold. Another group being led by the ring in their nose are the Christian Nationists who salivate at the end times where they and only they are ascended to the kingdom of heaven, leaving the blacks, non-subservient women, and anyone in the LGBTQ+ community are doomed to the fires of hell.
Can’t the good guys use the same tools as the bad folks to to pierce those information bubbles?
Lazy, non-critical thinking for sure. That sums up how I've been trying to understand the support that this man gets from every day Americans like me.
Mary Ann Havas, he just says whatever he thinks (using that word loosely) will get him more power. He is completely untethered from the truth beyond that one thing. Why people still believe him is what I don’t understand. I love the metaphor of standing in a deluge and being told it is sunny.
Yes, Craig, agree. But the 2026 SCOTUS is not the 1919 SCOTUS. I am concerned that today it would "interpret" the standard to be more in line with seditious libel, the charge John Peter Zenger was acquited of in his 1735 trial. That jury believed Zenger's defense that telling the truth about an elected official was protected speech. Truth, "predictable harm," indeed any standard, seems to be a slippery concept these days.
Well said, he won by cheating with money and power-hungry Vlad lovers in the Republican traitors club. Rupert did plenty of puppeteering but Republican leadership invited him in, gave him their agenda, seeded the money for the money-making propaganda machine, and used divisive language to fool the fools and divide us all. Racism and misogyny at the core. It worked. I hate the actions of people I once loved. The government hates the people who believed in the promise. But the promise is now to the ruling subset. The rest of us be damned…
The oligarchs got their big prize with the OBBBA. They passed it early and included the funding of the ICE army of cruel and hateful thugs.
We are already being bombarded throughout ME with dark money ads for Susan Collins. They can't afford to lose her vote yet their every action turns us against them.
I hope ME votes her out. She is a spineless fraud.
I recall that Sen. Collins has made some difficult votes. And in 2025 she proposed an increase in taxes on the very wealthy to help fund rural healthcare. Only 4 Democratic senators voted for it. Spineless of them.
The mob is way too well funded, we really need to get their filthy, dirty, dark money completely out of OUR politics. I've been thinking these past couple of years, what 250 will be like.. and this past year, it seems clear that we are meant to revisit our constitution. Every 250 years seems like a very reasonable schedule for such restoration. Maybe a little framing repair, some buttressing, some fleshing out.
Yep, right after the race car rally down Pennsylvania Ave this summer. I am distraught our 250th anniversary will be with him in the WH. :-((
Yeah, it’s like an big orange alarm bell isn’t it? Like no document could be designed to hold up to 250 years of history w/o dramatic maintenance or something. W/ the east-wing it’s almost too obvious.
So.., GJ what do you think. Will there be a strong Democrat and Independent turnout in the mid-terms here in Maine, or will the R'ss's roll that wagon into the creek?
I believe our turnout is typically higher than average. No reason to why it would be different, especially since Janet Mills limited term is up and we have to elect a new governor.
Me too. Maybe if the Democratic Party would somehow rise up from Mudville we'd get on the map. During the 4 year respite we were given (so well deserved) under Biden, the Republican Party "envelopment'ed"! I know, that's not a proper word. But, google it anyway. That's what the R'ss's Big Buck Behinds did to plaster their TEAM goal-posts everywhere..., and not winning was not spoken. Legitimately or by fraud.., they scored!. That very move is afoot here in Maine, today. The Big Behinds R Behind her. However.., "as Maine goes, so goes the nation". Let's put this one in the books.
True all you say, JD.
But recall, too, the part where Donald boasted he didn’t need Congress. At that point House Speaker Johnson stood and applauded. All the Republicans did.
How could so many be so eager to be dominated by an egregious bully? What made what you call "the Republican traitors club"?
The answer came in the 1970s, when the new, Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and far-right others formed in the wake of the Powell memo – and set out first to rid schools of humanities, to consign what few might be left to neutered silos.
The newly-muscling moneyed classes had hated the 1960s whose arts in every field energized anti-war campaigns, feminism, civil rights, La Raza, and gay progress. The rich and the corporate wanted dutifully submissive schools instead, arts gone and priorities in place for hiring and tenure only for the most neutered and specialist, full-tilt silo careerism.
This engendered an attitude Timothy Snyder in his Substack today called “submission to hierarchy as the only kind of life.’
The new normalizing to “submission to hierarchy” brought about Donald – to join what you also here call the "power-hungry Vlad lovers." That is, Putin, Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, and all the other murderous dictators, plus all that Epstein class eager for the money laundering for the dictators and to rape the underage girls Donald’s pals supplied.
Heather near the end quotes Abigail Spanberger: "The scale of the corruption is unprecedented." But she also quotes her on more positive notes among the American people, 250 years ago and today, verily even in the context of so many corrupted elites, then as the founders foresaw, and now.
Oh my, that he said he didnt need them and they stood and cheered for that? (I intentionally did not watch this horror show-I already have trouble sleeping these days)
The egregiousness of that moment when Congress cheered its own loss of power will go down in the annals of history. Our forefathers never imagined such a moment. They would have been flabbergasted. How can this have happened? They are all up for election in November. Throw them out!
Exactly…simple words well penned , Elizabeth THANK YOU.
VOTE THE LIARS OUT!
The Epstein files are enough for me to never sleep again.
If you want more insomnia inducing information, watch Lawrence O'Donnell's monologue last night. The words "ongoing investigation" into the rape of a 13 year old are coupled with the non-release of information regarding the occupant of the offal office.
As I posted above, add THIS article if you want to stay up at night
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/howards-end
The GOP is now a mash up of the absolute monarchy of the Divine Right of Kings and the absolute infallibility of the . Papacy. And no wonder, Charles Koch bagman, tech bro ally, and religious extremist - Leonard Leo - has been instrumental in instituting the ChristoFascist state: Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Teneo Network, the Supreme Court, and a myriad of antidemocratic initiatives all have Leo's fingerprints all over them.
So much truth you write and so concisely. I discuss the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, etc. in the chapter on the Powell Memo Attack, in my Memorandum.
Phil, I don't recall that (I was, as usual, watching the director of the community band instead) but to hear of that makes me crazy. Applauding your own irrelevance and the destruction of the democracy in which you "serve"?????
INSANE!
but geez, JD...it sounds like, from your comment, these people EVER cared about 'the people'. like it was EVER about anything BUT 'the 1%'. how many times have they sent America's children to illegal, invasive wars to make them money while their OWN children are exempt? how many times have they killed people in that country for standing up to them...unions...protesters...
and how many times have they gotten away with assassinations and such?
It’s frightening what they, the billionaire class, get away with — we have forgotten about the Boeing whistleblower who was murdered, or Chandra Levy — remember her?, even Ivana Trump as she was preparing to testify. None of the wars we have sent our children to have been about freedom. We have murdered people all over the world in the name of money. We can’t even have clean water. It’s all marketing — when will we learn? We drink milk because of marketing. Women the world over were convinced to remove every last body hair, thanks to Gillette and marketing. We killed all the buffalo (to cause mass genocide) and worshipped the people who did it so much they have cities named after them. And the British followed our lead with the “potato famine”. People who hate Arabs in order to go to war over oil, and immigrants.. I can’t figure out why — forget how recently this country hated Germans and Italians. We are such a consumerist and over-retailed society, it is sick. We were so close — to an equal and educated society. But were we? If the events of the past week have done anything, it’s shown women exactly where we stand. They have ruined the world and stupid people are helping them do it.
Stephanie Bartelt, I read your note with interest and concern. There is so much negative stuff happening that to dwell on it makes your energy seep away. There are a lot of uplifting things in the world and I hope you will try to balance the negativity with some uplift. I hope you feel better soon. “None of the wars we have sent our children to have been about freedom.” It depends on how you look at WWII. Certainly the onslaught of ads in the last hundred years has taught Americans to believe anything. But in spite of these things there are people truly seeking the best for other people. Look at Minneapolis. Look at Chicago. If you just give in to the negativity, it strips off your energy and your expectations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t let it happen! Thanks!
You are so right, Elizabeth, about the onslaught — and my negative energy. Re: WW2, the US was unwillingly dragged into that one. And the result was we bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And here we are again. Minnesota is still being terrorized.. by our own government. One of their own MAGA state reps is trying to sell off the Boundary Waters wilderness to the highest mining bidder — a foreign country. Do not get me started on AI data centers, people arrested for peacefully protesting them, and the end of clean water as we know it. Industrial farming of the earth has destroyed the planet and tortured animals in the name of capitalism. I’m not even vegan. And the people who don’t care at all. My expectations are that humanity start being human, treating each other equally, and remembering that we live in the environment that we are destroying.
Elizabeth, yes we need to be able to hope. But we do need all the information we can get about the crimes we've been hurt by, have witnessed, are complicit in.
It’s not only hope I’m talking about. Taking action to work on these dire circumstances is the only way to keep this from spiraling down. If you let your mind give in to the negativity it all becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy. Trump and the 1% are counting on hopelessness to keep us “in our places.”
Elizabeth, one of the many things I despise about this administration is their ability to strip people of their empathy for others. Recall Elon saying having too much was a problem?
I will not let them take away my humanity!
You are so right, Miselle! They don’t actually have the ability to strip empathy, though. No one can take away your empathy! The reason Elon would think empathy is bad is that it might make him think twice about being such a hog! The worst thing that can happen to some people is suddenly seeing what they have done! But then they can redeem themselves. Look at Andrew Carnegie.
Stephanie, apologies for already posting this in a couple places but you really ought to read this article of Greg Olear, tying Howard Lutnick into 9/11.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/howards-end
He’s total scum.
They all are!
BTW Frau, just curious if you are any relation to the celebrated HLR frequent commenter, Bill Katz??
Unadulterated greed. Is that what it all comes down to?
What ever happened to Harlan Crow? There was an expose then nothing . Also The Bohemian Club as well. When news go silent I always wonder.
We should never forget that Trump, his efforts to legitimize white-male-supremacist racist and misogynistic genocide, the resultant ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making, To learn of the carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
Loren, if you haven't done so, read Rachel Maddow's books "Ultra" and "Prequel" for an excellent history of what you describe in you comment. They are also available as podcasts, if that is an easier platform.
Her latest is "Burn Order" on how the US interred Japanese citizens on the west coast following Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941. Well worth the time, and this particular podcast (not sure if it is in book form yet; it is much shorter than the other two tomes) certainly says "We've been here before. It wasn't good. Let's not do that again."
'The South shall rise again!'
That too, Isaac.
"American Interests"
Greg Olear put this up a few days ago. It is a long article to read but--follow the money!--it is truly one of the scariest articles I have ever read. He's going all the way back to 9/11 on this and it chills me.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/howards-end
He always chills me to the bone. An astute scholar who can weave intelligently and logically. Never miss him
👏👏👏👏👍👍💥
The country club Republicans accepted him if he promised tax cuts and lots of deregulation. He’s delivered for them.
But they are on the cusp of killing SS and Medicaid and Medicare. Also of permanent power (as Meese predicted). No Repub will break ranks and survive. The consequences may come from Vlad’s playbook. Heroes are scarce…
It doesn’t look good for sure. The tax cuts need to go (IMO, I’m Canadian, we pay higher taxes than you).
Some of us pay more than the richest among us. So said Warren Buffet about his employees
It’s crazy!
JD, you were a poet and didn't know it😉
Thank you for this thoughtful and moving comment!! We MUST keep on keeping on to defeat the dragons.
Trump's plan to require the high-tech faction of the Trumpstein Plutocracy to build their own AI-powering electrical generation plants -- revealed during last night's SOTU event -- is sure to mobilize the financially oppressed to support his full-scale restoration of coal mining. This means not just the resumption of the destruction of our planetary motherland by strip mining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining . It includes the toxic re-pollution of the atmosphere by the cancer-causing fumes generated by burning coal and the ever-growing risk from heaps of toxic ash that caused the deadly flood of 2008, the worst-ever USian industrial spill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill . And because coal-fired generation is the cheapest way to produce electricity -- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/power-and-energy/coal-burning-power-plants-overview -- there is no question the profit-crazed sociopaths of the Silicon-Valley Trumpstein class will ignore coal's thoroughly documented ecogenocidal devastation and choose it over all other fuels. Such is capitalism in action -- abetted by a Moronic Majority that will (always) favor comfort and convenience over environmental protection.
Except it would be really dumb to plan to power your data centers with coal, when the next president and Congress could easily ban its use altogether, or restore clean air standards that would make burning coal illegal.
Agreed. Emphatically so. But given that the Silicon Valley Nazis actually own both major parties -- note for example Newsom's function as their puppet -- it's doubtful any such ban would ever be imposed. Note too how the Democrats have let the Republicans effectively neutralize TVA, which was formerly one of the most forceful protectors of the environment.
Thank you ICTT, great post.
It's Our republic, we must fight for it and keep it...many took an oath to preserve, protect, uphold and defend the Constitution, rule of law and democracy...We the people, always striving to form a more perfect Union...so much work to be done to right the wrongs, repair the damage & destruction, but do it We must...
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men(& women), undergo the fatigues of supporting it". -Thomas Paine
I sighed while reading Common Sense by T Paine at 3am during another sleepless night.
The State of the Union is supposed to be a civic ritual. It is the one night when the presidency stands before the people, through their representatives, to account for power. It is not meant to feel like a rally in a packed arena, complete with villains, applause lines, and a rotating cast of scapegoats.
Yet what we witnessed was not governance but grievance. The speech leaned hard into the old authoritarian playbook. Manufacture crisis. Declare enemies. Present yourself as the only strongman capable of restoring order. Immigrants become invaders. Opponents become traitors. Journalists become saboteurs. Complex economic realities become the fault of a single, conveniently vulnerable group.
It is a familiar rhythm. First divide the nation into “real Americans” and everyone else. Then insist that dissent is disloyalty. Finally, wrap personal ambition in the language of destiny. The script practically writes itself.
And yet, here is the strange part. If this is a bid for dictatorship, it is oddly incompetent.
Effective dictators project inevitability. They exude disciplined control. They centralize power with quiet precision. What we saw instead was bluster without ballast. The performance demanded awe, but delivered insecurity. The message insisted on strength, but revealed a leader still obsessed with applause and grievance, still unable to govern without relitigating personal slights.
Authoritarianism thrives on fear and coherence. It requires institutions bent steadily to the will of the ruler. It demands strategic patience. What we have is improvisation. What we have is a man who wants the mythology of a strongman without the administrative competence to sustain it.
That does not make the moment harmless. Rhetoric matters. When a president normalizes the language of enemies within, it erodes the fragile trust that holds a pluralistic society together. When he treats constitutional ceremony as campaign theater, he lowers the ceiling of what the office is meant to be.
But it does suggest something important. Democracies do not fall only because a leader desires unchecked power. They fall when institutions collapse and citizens surrender. So far, the institutions creak, but they stand. The courts push back. The press investigates. Voters still argue in public.
If this is an attempted strongman era, it is one constantly tripping over its own ego. The danger is real. The execution is sloppy. And history shows that incompetence at dictatorship is not the same thing as immunity from damage. https://essayx.substack.com/
This one has me tripping, too. I can't get over what fuckups they all are -- incompetent, incoherent, inept, inefficient, WAY over their heads and often unable to find their own asses with both hands and a flashlight at high noon....
It tells us not how powerful they are, but how weak. Anybody watching that sickening performance by Klaus Bondi before Congress, paying close attention, saw her fear, not her resoluteness. The whole project hangs by thinner threads than most of us realize.
She was like a rat cornered. And about as attractive, which I hate to say as it sounds like I am judging her by her physical appearance, and that is not my personality.
The following is just odd ramblings which anyone have thoughts on, I"d like to hear. Regarding Bondi--I noticed in her Congress clown show, she had a lot of lines around her face. I was actually a bit surprised she hasn't gone for fillers or Botox!
I find much of the MAGA woman "look" to be odd--they are white nationalists, but (IMO) they attempt to create the large lips more common in women of color. I mentioned to my husband that the inflated plumped lips never look natural, and if you looks at a woman who was born with them (say Stacy Abrams) they look totally different than MAGA lips, and they fit her face.
Those filler inflated lips look like pool toys. I can't figure out what the appeal is, and pardon me for this, but I do wonder if they are attempting to make their lips look like labia??
You led me to Hamilton Burger's constant objection in "Perry Mason": incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial."
You are so right; fear leads them.
Well written. Thank you for a glimmer of hope.
Imagine him blaming immigrants for fraud (as if 73,000 of them put themselves in detention centers for $21M a day) and that J. D. Vance will fix the deficit overnight! My hometown high school students from Grand Blanc, Michigan, have had a tough year with the Mormon church fire and murders (from a Trump supporter), and losing classmates and their families through ICE detentions. When they fully participated in the recent national walkout, their principal fully supported them. I am heartened that young people are waking up to what is right.
I also am heartened as these students are listening and learning about what's right and wrong in the current political chaos. They are the hope for the future and many of them will soon be of voting age. There was recently a post in our neighborhood online app, neighborhood.com, condemning the actions of students participating in the National Walkout. The majority of people responding positively felt encouraged that young people were taking action. There were a number of people asking why are parents allowing this; that the students didn't know what they were protesting against; and that most students just wanted a 'free' day off from school. These students are practicing their freedom to speak, in that, there is a practical learning expreience.
Vivian T-You make a great point by highlighting the role of students. Remember it was students who helped to bring down the outward signs of Jim Crow including John Lewis who was a member of the STUDENT Non-violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC). There are many other examples of ways students can make a difference.
Writing in Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963, author Taylor Branch describes the students’ role. SNCC’s newsletter was called the Student Voice. Think about all of the students (White and Black) who joined the Freedom Rides and voter registration drives in the South. The Kent State students who lost their lives…and we have students now who care about the future of this nation and the world.
Thanks for bringing the importance of young activists to the forefront.
Just because the parents would have "taken a free day from school" without thought tells you all you need to know.
“0 democrats stood for the foundational principle of all government that leaders must serve citizens before invaders. Never has there been a more stunning moment in Congress.”
No, Mr. Miller.
What your followers are applauding is suspending the Constitutional right to DUE PROCESS of the law in order to persecute and abuse other human beings.
Joseph Goebbels would be proud of you, but no one else is.
👎👎👎Stephen Miller
👍👍👍Due process
It's Come to This! Truly, well-said! There are a few things even our media and Democrats don't want to admit to ourselves: Trump has dementia and it is not going to improve; it is possible Trump was on some kind of drug regiment that let him stand in front of Congress, even survivors of his sexual violence and blurt out nearly 2 hours of lies, insults, and utter BS; Republicans in general have decided to know as little as possible about our nation, its people, its history so they can bow to an ignoramus who has never had anything of value to offer anyone, a fraud from the moment he entered the public sphere; Trumpers and Trumpettes have hitched their wagon to someone who actually hates them and everyone else and proves it every day and seem to be OK with that hatred, while passing it on to their Republican voter base. Why our media refuses to acknowledge this set of truths is beyond comprehension. Trump was impeached for far lesser crimes in the past than he and his toddler pool have committed this time, but Republicans just can't seem to be able to do their job, to impeach, then remove this entire administration from office for their treason against the American people and the people of the world. We don't have to let them win anything. We do need to work really hard to protect our elections coming up because I bet our Little Elon and his AIers will again try to give elections to Trumpers and Trumpettes while Democrats sit back and say, there's nothing we can do about that; I believe there is a lot we can do!
Never concede to Trump's election fraud & insurrection...
Biden’s last year added 8X more jobs than the 1st year of Trump’s “Golden Age”.
The “I can do anything” Chosen One would by fiat change the plain language of the law & the constitution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fMiszTQZtY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdQq8PPTWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrUPaVFnM6g&t=14s Dem AGs on Legal AF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOy0RUNHZao Nils L No Kings...
Resist MAGA gangster, grifter authoritarianism! Vote Sane. #VoteBlue!
I think if anyone of us picked up the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders we would recognize Trump on nearly every page.
When my wife was doing her doctoral work in Clinical Psychology, the DSM III-R was released. She and some of her cohort wrote some funny "diagnosis" disorders. They called their little pamphlet "DSM III R squared". One of their Personality Disorders was titled "Just Plain Nuts". That would certainly fit ffpotus.
The APA has decided finally to do a remake of the DSM. The WHO with the removal of our country also in flux. There needs to be a reckoning of the last fifty years. In the 1970’s it was never great but changes started to happen. However federal funding that was promised never happened. The burden fell to counties and each county did it in different ways. Some counties created fault lines between different groups. The concept of individual disease focused groups of medical issues looked good but more Big Pharma money and corporation versus the old Chronic Illness Center that had a team approach worked with the patients as a team and took on any chronic condition. It is totally forgotten now.
We need a new approach that incorporates trauma and other concerns in a multi dimensional and deep way for any human in crisis . The disbanding of community hospitals again never perfect but communication and networks versus private equity and hedge funds profit approach just has to be completely changed. Part of this was the creation of Emergency departments in the 1960’s again a good but the actual split between body , mind, heart, and soul created ongoing and deep havoc.
Yes, indeed!
I knew some of those in grad school
I read Frum's article in The Atlantic this morning regarding Trump's SOTU BS. Regarding Trump's lies, this was my letter to the Orlando Sentinel:
Editor: Regarding "Takeaways from Trump's State of the Union address" (2-25-2026), who, I wonder, believes his lies. For example, Trump claimed that he " inherited a nation in crisis" with a 'stagnant economy" but not according to the Wall Street Journal (4-12-2024) and The Economist (10-19-2024) both reporting that the Biden economy was "the envy of the world." The inflation rate, caused by the Pandemic, was down to 3.0%. The inflation rate in the U.S. during 2025, Trump's first year in his second term as president was 2.9%. The U.S. economy added approximately 2.2 million jobs in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, added to the 3.0 million jobs created in 2023. In 2025, the number of jobs created dropped to 181,000, a number equal to a monthly increase in 2024 under Pres. Biden. In his speech Trump said, "You caused that problem," blaming the Democrats. Thank you, yes we did.
My SOTU post game... I now regret that I was in-flight during the event because I missed Gov. Spanberger's response. Thank you Prof Heather and the rest of you that did listen and provided these insightful comments. I hope Gov Spanberger's word stick in people's minds for the long run.
I think you are right: that Trump and his gang are symptoms of something seriously wrong and evil with/in American society and culture. It has been there all along, all my long life at least. There is an industry that has grown up to feed this malign shadow of what we claim to be. Can we win in '26 and '28? I hope so. BUT the nation's dark side will always be there.
Our poets warned us of Moloch and his slaves.
"You can full some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool al of the people all of the time."
A. Lincoln (First Republican President)
But W said that you can fool some all the time and those are the ones to concentrate on. The ditched Abe for W. Where repubs lost their way…
It HAS, indeed, come to this. I watched the whole performance of the Grifter-in-Chief, loudly fact-checking him as he spewed the predictable garbage about the opposition and self-glorification of himself. But the hysterical standing, clapping and cheers from the Republican side of the aisle literally sickened me. Their hysterical support for the most egregious lies…..
Your comments are always perfectly crafted and could have made a strong rebuttal to the SOTU (if they had more courage, the democrats could have said more). Thank you for your wisdom and articulate input. ❤️
Thank *you* for the kind words.
I am grateful and energized after reading about a dozen responses, as many as time allowed, thank you all for your wise contributions. I went surfing social media yesterday. His base continue to see him as sent by God, the best President ever, that those people murdered in Minneapolis deserved to die. He has given permission for people to voice their belief in misogyny and racism and they are doing so without filters. I believe he and his sycophants are a source of evil. I also believe he and his minions have memorized and have masterfully inacted the authoritarian playbook. He is doing the thinking for people who are choosing for him to do it for them. I just do not know how to wake people up but I fear for the inability of so many to understand how they have been willingly had, as I fear for the consequences of their arrested thinking on themselves, their communities, the nation, and the world.
A POTUS who lies, cannot tell us the State of our Union.
But the best part of last night? The latest three Democratic wins in special elections in Maine and Pennsylvania, continuing a streak of overperformances and 26 red-to-blue flips since this jury-determined rapist, 34X-convicted felon, three-time popular vote-majority loser, twice-impeached traitor, and walking #EpsteinFiles redaction started his second term.
He does not even know enough about government to know what the state of the union is. I am reminded by Heather that Steve Miller is evil incarnate and we should be going after him.
the number of people you should be 'going after' is quite a few...it would take years and years of investigation and financial resources. of course, this is a large part of what they count on...witness Trump. with all the wrong that he's done for over half a CENTURY...how much time has he spent in jail...and those are his super powers. distraction/ stalling and lawyering up.
His foreign policy sucks too. I am just reading that while a delegation from Germany was supposed to be meeting at the Pentagon the Trump administration refused to meet with them except for the member of the AfD.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-administration-favor-germany-far-right-washington-visit-afd/
This is wrong on so many levels.
Linda-Using his son-in-law and friend who are real estate developers to act as serious diplomats is another issue. They’re likely more interested in deals they can make for the powerful than they are about national security.
With this regime of bullies for billionaires—always, ALWAYS, follow the money.
The sexual victimization of terrorized children by the Trumpstein Cult is the immediate precursor of the terror the MAGAstapo is now unleashing on anyone who refuses to kowtow to the ChristoNazi theocracy. Thus the vital, know-our-enemy relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn by the plaintiff in response to credible death threats: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
Issac, his 'super powers' have been saturated with on-going strong exposure to kryptonite But, this is not Marvel Comics.
Don't forget Russell Vought! He's no peach either.
For sure Syd. Russell is a sick ticket. Also the other Heritage Foundation drafters of Project 2025. Susie Wiles is another one who is pulling the Pygmalion strings so to speak.
Let's send them all to Russia, since they are doing the Kremlin's work for it.
Be sure to listen to Heather's State of the Union at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_PnMMXlKXY
An incredible summary of the first year of the Trump administration.
But she is showing stress. She needs to take a few days off and rest up. She has been going non-stop for all this time and is visibly wearing down. The horrifying year we have just spent takes it out of people. Please, Dr. Richardson, take care of yourself.
Elizabeth, I respectfully disagree with your "diagnosis." Unlike most people who get in front of the camera, Dr. Richardson doesn't spackle on makeup and have help with setting lights to the most flattering angles. She maintains a busy schedule and doesn't have time for all that artifice.
But if you're paying attention, you know that she also takes time off when she wants to or needs to. Dr. Richardson is showing no more signs of "wear and tear" than the rest of us, which is, admittedly, more than normal, owing to the effects of the christofascist regime trying to drive the nation into oblivion.
Interesting, Dale. Sounds like you think showing signs of stress is somehow negative, and that my post shows that I’m not paying attention. It almost sounds as if you think I don’t understand how she presents herself. I have no idea what about my post made you think any of that. I actually am paying attention. I do know that she occasionally takes a night off. But she does three or four interviews many days as well as her regular Substacks, plus teaching. I also know that she is a human being, albeit a very superior human being, and that she is no spring chicken. So, I say caringly, Please, Dr. Richardson, take care of yourself. Not sure why this is problematic for you.
Elizabeth, I'll be direct. First, repeating a critic's words back to the critic with a slight twist is an old manipulator's trick. I'm not having it. Second, your original comment is insulting to Dr. Richardson, and that is problematic. Telling someone she looks tired and must take care of herself is a maternal-sounding remark that no one wants to hear (or read). Reminding us that "she's no spring chicken" simply adds insult to injury.
People who feign this kind of distraught "concern" for someone else typically do this as a form of virtue signaling meant to draw attention to themselves. Dr. Richardson is a grown woman, entirely capable of knowing her limits and taking care of herself without instructions from any of us.
HCR is young, healthy, and brilliant - and up for the fight. I am one who is eternally grateful for this!
I know how you meant it, Elizabeth, and I'm sure I'm not alone. I also thought that the unflappable Dr. Richardson seemed a bit more rattled than usual. I attributed it to the last-minute decision to act on Rebecca Solnit's suggestion of delivering her own SOTU, and the need to quickly reorganize her thoughts to fit that theme. I salute a fine effort, and I also hope and trust that HCR will take care of herself.
Thanks for that! A fine effort indeed!
HCR's sotu was the best! I dreamed how awesome it would be if she were actually our president!
It was fantastic
Red-to-Blue by historically large margins as well.
In every county in Virginia, even the ruby-red ones, where Abigail Spanberger just got elected Governor.
so if YOU realize this, how much resistance, which is alREAdy manifesting, do you think there will to the coming mid term elections? this is going to be an interesting year, in that respect alone...
On your meaning of 'you' Issac, I don't get your capitalization of YOU or the capitalization REA in the word 'already'?
I am not on Tic Tok.
"A POTUS who lies, cannot tell us the State of our Union.” That is exactly right. Thanks!
Yes, Natalie! And no matter how much money Repub pacs or Musk threw at many of those elections, voters of all stripes picked candidates for Democracy! The MAGA base depicted at 30% since tRump elected has been steadily dwindling. People keep marching and organising to protect their neighbors. There is much fear in D.C. re mid-terms. People seeing through AI b.s. on social media, and all the lies out of White House. Voters of all stripes marching and voting...even those who didn't vote before. And let's not ignore the under-publicized Walk for Peace by buddhist monks from Texas to D.C. Who doesn't want peace and return of a kinder, strong, respectful nation? Thank you, Heather, for Your State of the Nation post and for always inspiring hope!
The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, along with the spike in terrorism of ICE through their mass abductions, human trafficking, and false imprisonment in for-profit concentration camps in January were an inflection point.
More and more of us are waking up to the power and agency we all have. We simply need to use it in sustained, nonviolent civil resistance against the "pillars of support" of this fascist regime (focusing on getting at least 3.5% of our us to join the opposition).
1) Protests/Marches (#NoKings is on March 28)
2) Non-cooperation, i.e., boycotts, and no work/school/shopping days
3) Mutual Aid (providing resources to your neighbors near and far)
So, so, SO many examples of the growing momentum against the racism, nativism, misogyny, and LGBTQ-hatred this regime of bullies for billionaires use to distract/divide us so that a wealthy, well-connected few don't have to pay what they owe, or be accountable for their price-gouging, pollution, and pedophilia!
Great read here:
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/resisting-authoritarianism-how-to-activate-civil-societys-pillars-of-support/
Trump could have highlighted the gold medal performance of Alysa Liu. He could have noted that her father immigrated to the United States after the Tiananmen Square massacre. It’s a great American Dream story. But he chose to divide with citizen vs. invader talk. Sad, mad old man he is…
Most women have turned against Trump because Trump. realizes that most women feel love, empathy and compassion, something his loyal followers are incapable of.
The few women in Trump's administration that are all willing to commit terrible acts and even murder for their dear leader are just as narcissistic and mean spirited as Trump, Miller and the rest of the clowns.
The US Olympic team women won 67% of the US medals. Congratulations to ALL of the women because MAGAs are never going to.
any evidence for "most" women? Any more than the 60% or so of the population that does not like Trump? Are sex/gender-based polls available?
I don't know how any woman at all could like Trump, but I know of two - otherwise apparently sensible - women who voted for him in 2024... and a majority of white women voted for him in 2016, after the Access Hollywood tape was public.
And I know several woman recently told me they can't wait to vote for him in 2028. They laughed when I mentioned term limits. Fools.
Including my nieces who live in Floriduh. They have been brainwashed by the trad wife weirdos down there in the ritzy part of Orlando. It’s creepy stepford wife ville down there.
There have even been large numbers of protestors turning out at the Villages which used to poll around 98% for Trump and DeSantis. And it's not far from Orlando.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harry-enten-trump-midterms_n_6993c2fde4b0330fe9285673
Result when I submitted your question to AI: “Recent polling shows a persistent gender gap in U.S. politics, with women favoring Democratic candidates and men leaning Republican. In the 2024 election, men favored Donald Trump by a 12-point margin, while women favored Kamala Harris by 7 points. Gen Z shows a widening, pronounced divide where women strongly favor Democrats and men are increasingly leaning toward Republicans.”
Only evidence is what I've heard from Harry Enten talking about gender splits and age specific splits.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harry-enten-trump-midterms_n_6993c2fde4b0330fe9285673
I have always been puzzled how any woman could vote for Trump given his lifelong disgusting treatment of women. I guess it's because I figured women would vote based on the way women would like us to view them, but many apparently have a misguided attraction to the violator/lawbreaker with faux power, the "Bonnie/Clyde" syndrome. I know it's not reasonable to expect one large group to vote as a block, but a sizeable subgroup of women voting for Trump defies sound reasoning.
I totally agree Thomas. I have always preferred the company of intelligent people. My wife and those of many of my friends is smarter than me and I continue to learn from her. So yes, I don't understand women that vote for Trump and I am befuddled as to why.
Shame on those young male athletes for taking part in the BS. Where were their moms?
At least 4 of them boycotted the SOTU, 3 from Minnesota.
Good! I had not heard that.
Thank you for being fair. If someone wants to slam the men's team, fine. But is it really so difficult to refine one's comment to say, "Those on the men's team who accepted the White House invitation...."? Brock Nelson, who is on my Avalanche team, did not attend. Neither did Jake Guentzel, Kyle Connor, Jake Oettinger, and Jackson LaCombe. Gold medal men.
The women athletes are finally getting the attention they deserve in so many different sports as well as many other male dominated fields like medicine, chemistry and journalism.
Women's basketball has it's stars as does volleyball. The Winter Olympics showcased so many amazing women from all over the world as well as here in the US.
Isn't it great, GJ? I love what you wrote. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is a true champion, too. And none of the women athletes needs some big, strong hockey guy to protect them.
And all of the women are much faster than I am as well off or on their skis or skates.
“Where were their moms?”The 25 ice hockey team members are adult men who play for NHL professional teams. I believe the speaker-phone conversation with Trump happened during the locker room party where the chest-thumping Kash Patel was chugging beers with the team. Apparently, no one in the locker room was mature or sober enough to say something like “we’re really proud of the women’s team gold medal and you should be, too” especially knowing that the conversation was being videotaped.
So very predictable.
and why not? it's worked for him SO far...
Have seen his approval (NOT) polls Issac? They are "Going south like a duck in Winter".
While I did not choose to listen to Trump's speech, I did hear Spanberger and I too thought, how refreshing. In fact, I thought, here is someone I can see heading to the White House in the future. She is just what we need. Someone direct and to the point. Good for Virginia for choosing her. I am glad she gave the rebuttal speech. I don't think most people could stomach A Schumer or Jeffries right now.
Pete Buttigieg would have given a great rebuttal. MAGAs overlook the fact that Biden had the most qualified and competent cabinet in my lifetime from top to bottom. They just didn't brag about it. Here is what Pete was working on outside of his role in managing the FAA where there were NO airline incidents during his tenure.
Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Administration has already:
Announced $568 billion for over 66,000 projects across the country;
Started improvements on over 196,000 miles of roads and launched over 11,400 bridge repair projects, increasing safety and reconnecting communities across the country;
Replaced 367,000 lead pipes, benefitting nearly 1 million people, with funding continuing to be deployed for more replacements;
Provided funding to deploy over 4,600 American-made transit buses, more than doubling their number on America's roadways, and funded approximately over 8,900 clean school buses;
Delivered funding for over 580 port and waterway projects to strengthen supply chains, speed up the movement of goods, lower costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
Deployed investments in over 400 airport terminal projects to modernize and expand terminals—over 200 of which are under construction or complete;
Financed over 2,400 drinking water and wastewater projects across the country, including projects through the Indian Health Service that will deliver clean water to 100,000 Tribal households;
Launched over 6,000 projects to help communities build resilience to threats such as the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks;
Provided funding to over 400 states, tribes, and territories and launched over 100 projects to improve the resilience and reliability of America's electric grid and deliver cheaper and cleaner electricity—representing the largest single investment in electric transmission and distribution infrastructure in the history of the United States;
Funded nearly 2,400 projects for water recycling, storage, conservation, desalination, and other purposes to improve drought resilience across the West;
Removed hazardous fuel material from 18 million acres of land through the Infrastructure Law and other sources to protect communities from wildfires;
Plugged over 9,600 orphaned oil and gas wells to address legacy pollution;
Awarded funding to 95 previously unfunded Superfund projects, clearing a longstanding backlog of projects to clean up contaminated sites and advance environmental justice;
Provided funding to 180 programs that advance President Biden's Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal clean energy, climate, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities;
Created 940,000 construction jobs and construction employment is at a record high—higher than the previous peak before the Great Recession.
agreed that the 2024 campaign could have put a lot more emphasis on the team - even in Trump's first term, most of his appointees were clowns or worse. Biden's were all serious people. I doubt anyone would have foreseen just how bad this round would be.
Right, John Gregory. IF there had been more time for Kamala to run, we would have run. There is a good chance we win anyway, actually.
As much as I hate to say it, I do not see this country electing a woman any time soon.
After he left in January, Pete came up with the term that encapsulated all of this massive re-investment in America -- "the Big Deal" -- in perfect homage to the Democratic legacy that over a century has given us the New Deal, Fair Deal, the Great Society and New Frontier. All parts of a much bigger whole that defined who we are, all linked by a shared, practical optimism part and parcel of a larger American legacy.
And yet, I found myself wondering when I heard him speak about it -- why didn't the Biden people name this back THEN? Why didn't they advertise, why didn't they do some bragging when it was critical to brag? Though not in Joe Biden's nature to do things like that, in retrospect, you gotta wonder....
Beautiful post - thank you for reminding us of what a competent cabinet member can and should accomplish for we the people.
Best rebuttal speech in forever.
"Republicans cut food assistance from those people, so they are indeed off the rolls, but “lifted” is doing a lot of work in that sentence."
Of course, lifted is common slang for stealing, so, in that vein it could be argued that Trump spoke the truth; if such a thing is really possible.
"Lifted is doing a lot of work in that sentence" has to be the politest, yet most underhanded of all true statements about him uttered in a long while.
It was a close run thing there when I read that. But I did manage to swallow the coffee after reading it. Delightfully ornery that.
That’s for sure.
Indeed.
"Lifted" in the same sense that my cousin's house was lifted by a tornado a few years ago.
Perhaps Trump meant “lifted” as in shoplifted, stolen. Used in a sentence: SNAP benefits were lifted from 2.4 million needy recipients and deposited into one of my offshore accounts.
Kicked them to the curb is the slang term Donold meant.
*Evicted* and all belongs thrown to the curb is what this racist really meant.
JL, I agree with your comment and would add that "lifting" is slang for stealing, but to add further context, it's stealing right under the "mark's" nose while looking them in the eye. To put a finer point on it, it's pick-pocketing. Example: the pick-pocket "accidentally" bumps into the mark and "lifts" his wallet during the jostle.
In that context, that's exactly what Republicans did to SNAP recipients.
It's what contemporary "Republicans" mean by "The Invisible Hand", the "evil twin" of the one described by Adam Smith. I read in a travel book that sometimes when a heavy-handed pick pocket is caught in the act, they will start yelling "Thief! Thief!" and vanish in the confusion. Ultra-heavy handed MAGA seems to think that just yelling "Thief! Thief!" loudly enough and often enough, is sufficient to cloak what they are really up to. Unfortunately some of the people seem to be fooled pretty much all of the time.
"Like" isn't strong enough. I love your comment.
ICYMI Gov. Abigail Spanberger did an excellent job of rebutting Trump’s SOTU Address. Did anyone notice how tense the two rows of US military generals/admirals looked during the speech. Here is a link to Gov. Spanberger’s response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LW0z0xQtc
Heather also gave her own SOTU. It is not as polished as Spanberger’s but she doesn’t have a staff of speech writers and she put her talk together on the spot. And what is important is that we can trust in everything that Heather says to be factual and informative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LW0z0xQtc
Remember the No Kings rally on Saturday, March 28, 2026.
Thank you Fred
He’s a president like no one’s ever seen before. And we hope to never again.
I warned my Trump supporting family and friends that this 2nd term was not going to go well for America. They did not believe me. Now, finally they are starting to question his motives and capabilities. We have to give them a space to come to...a safe space to not be loyal to what they thought was the better choice, for whatever reasons they had at the time. They have to want to be with the real patriots and save our democracy. I have regretted voting for certain people and helping to elect them...keep that in mind. I am sure we all have chosen poorly at some time. There is one woman I have apologized to for helping her opponent get elected. Let's create the big tent that will save our ship of state.
Brandi Carlisle has a new song that she performed with Singing Resistance in Minnesota -- "it's ok to change your mind; you can join us any time." -- very good message I thought. https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVFqTSKjpg9/
Love Brandi Carlisle. A great voice out there...
That's excellent
Mike,in case you’re not aware you could share Leaving MAGA with them.
We empower people to leave MAGA and tell their stories.
We foster reconciliation with friends and family.
We develop movement leaders to help others leave.
https://leavingmaga.org/
Kathy that's wonderful. There is so much bashing going on. People make mistakes. I mean he is a snake oil salesman at heart. I think my Trump friends get confused when I still care about them. Good for you. I will make this available were I can.
Thanks, Mike. I share much applause in your humility, direction, and action. We can better navigate these difficult waters as a community. This year, we have noticed a steady increase in new members in our local community organizing groups. Included are faith and meditation leaders who also comment on the increased appetite of new members to feel inclusion and to build a more inclusive, loving, or at least a more forgiving community that spreads respect, kindness, and human support throughout the community.
In one exercise/meditation group I influence, we recently added a new member who was fleeing the MAGA world she inhabited. She reacted to a discussion about the mistake of ICE in targeting a community-driven population, such as Minneapolis. She admitted that she can seem harsh, but she came to our group not to discuss politics, but to find a quiet place. We listened and included her without criticism. I have to emphasize that it was not easy to accept her at first because "we" had become comfortable in "our" position and conversation. She has remained in our group, and now that we know her, she does not seem harsh. She has relaxed and shared, and we are more complete because of it. Christian literature talks of welcoming the "stranger". Buddhist literature speaks of building a raft that includes everyone to cross the swollen and troubled waters. And that is cool, but what do you do after you cross the troubled waters and have left the raft?
You are very patient Mike. My brother reminded me yesterday we should not judge a person by his worse act.
We are all in this together. We share the planet with everyone that's here. A lot of people live a very shallow life that's not very informed. They don't read, they don't watch documentaries or go to museums. They need help "getting it".
Mike, sadly, my retired cop former work cohort are not in agreement, and are doubling and tripling down on their investment in ffpotus. I don't know any other serious MAGA folks, but I have noticed that the highways in rural Oregon do have fewer signs of support (except, of course, for the ones who need to have eleventytwo flags on their .25 miles of pasture fence, alternating the national colors with t***p flags.
Hi Ally. Yea, I see fewer signs and flags out there...and if the polls are anywhere near accurate his core group just gets smaller...more and more defections from the ranks. This is the most critical period of American history I have lived through and that includes the Cuban Missile Crisis and the murders of JKK, RFK & MLK. Rural folks tend to be VERY independent...they don't like cities or city folk and apparently they believe their way of life is somehow under siege...which it is not. No Trans person is going to come take their gun.
Something we could also mention about Trump's State of the Union address was the arrest of Aliya Rahman, who attended the speech as guest of Minneapolis Congressmember Ilhan Omar. Last month, federal officers dragged Rahman out of her car despite her cries that she was disabled. The rough police handling badly injured her. Having her show up to Trump's address apparently embarrassed someone, because she was detained again, this time for standing up (I guess you have to stay seated unless you're applauding Trump), hauled once again to a police station, and not released until 4 a.m the following morning. Amy Goodman interviews Rahman on Democracy Now! Feb. 25, 2026.
Thank you Heather! This is a brilliant, inspiring piece giving us a path of hope and promise that we the People can choose the leaders that will work for us! In Solidarity!
I happened to be awake at 4am when HCR's Letter came in. Haven't gone back to sleep. I don't know how she maintains her sanity but thank goodness she does so the rest of us with at least a few functioning brain cells can maintain ours .....although I must say the theater of the absurd is fully consuming!
Heather is a remarkable real -time historian always posting in full historical context.
I've followed her from the beginning late 2019 having stumbled upon her Letter and telling my husband (a collector of historical newspapers and self-taught history buff) that he had to read this BC professor's newsletter. I've heard her speak in person twice (Feb. 2022 and Sept. 2023) and was able to shake her hand and talk to her at the first event (with Fiona Hill, Russian expert) when I babbled something to the effect that she had saved my life and that of my friends during trump's occupation of the WH! Brilliant yet so down-to-earth, and obviously survives on no sleep! Her Politics Chats, interviews, books, etc. are additional gifts that make us mere mortals continue to wonder how the heck she pulls it all together while also having a family and a life!
Well said Janet W. I like your descriptor, "Brilliant yet so down-to-earth".
2019 with Heather for me too. I suffered a traumatic TBI back in 2019 & was silent for the first 2 weeks on LFAA. Heather & the community, particularly Ally, Mary Pat, that New Yorker I miss so much & others.🙏
Heather and this community has been a consistently informed support system and collective voice, even when we individually might not be able to find the words, that none of us ever could have predicted but are eternally grateful!
Fern McBride! I miss her, Mike S, Dean Robertson, and several others that I cannot pull out of my memory.
I got to hear her in 2024 when she came to Portland (and met Karen RN in person!!) but never talked to her. She's been a beacon to me for nearly 10 years at this point.
Thank you Ally, very much. I mentioned to once Fern that I had visited Jimi Hendrix' grave in Seattle. Fern replied she was Woodstock 75 feet from Jimi brought up the Sun 🔆 with the Star Spangled Banner 🇺🇸 That's Fern McBride.
Agreed, Counselor!
Reading this was so much better than sitting through the SOTU. Thanks for saving me that pain.
ditto...when i heard the SOTU was upcoming, i thought...'needn't bother...Heather's got it covered...'. and it's not like i trust most other people's interpretations...
Ditto
“Whenever you hear one party pushing hard to change something about the rules of the political game (how easy it is to vote, how districts are drawn, who counts ballots) while the other party is fighting like hell to stop it, ask yourself three questions:
•Who benefits from the change?
•What specific problem is this supposed to fix?
•Who gets helped (and who gets blocked) once the change is in place?”
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/what-the-hell-barb?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
“One party is actively working to make voting harder, undermine confidence in elections, politicize election administration, and challenge election results it doesn’t like. The other party, for all its problems, isn’t trying to dismantle competitive elections or concentrate power with the President.
Democrats may be timid. They may be self-interested. They may be too slow to confront institutional decay. But they’re not trying to end democracy as we know it.” (full article in link)
‘What the Hell, Barb??!!’
HERE BE DRAGONS: WARNING SIGNS FROM THE EDGES OF DEMOCRACY
by Barbara F Walter
FEB 25 2026 | Substack
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/what-the-hell-barb?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
@barbarafwalter is a political scientist. She is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the University of California, San Diego and the author of How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them (2022).
“Trying to help Americans understand democratic erosion so they don’t panic, radicalize or give up. I study how democracies disappear, and how people fight back.”
Thank you for turning me on to Barbara F Walter’s Substack-now following her!
Trump’s speech shows that simultaneously he is both the captain steering the ship and the iceberg. But he does serve a vital pupose. He is all that stands between the presidency and JD Vance.
I welcome JD Vance. He is even loathed by most MAGAs. And his touchy feely relationship with Erica Kirk is just creepy. I hope it continues. /s
AND(and i think this is VERY notable) he's helped pull back the curtain on the people who really run a/the govt, and how inCREdibly corrupt most govts are...
Took the words right out of my mouth. He has shown us that we can never allow a con such as trump to be elected.
I posted this before but it is more relevant today than ever before. Just wanted to mention that I read a review of a book titled “Necessary Fiction.” The title got my attention. A quote “We all had lies we needed to tell ourselves and others if we were going to live well__there’s already a term for that type of lie: necessary fiction.” I have not read the book since I am buried in political bullschittery 24/7, nor do I know who wrote the review. I kept the quote as it seems so relevant to us as individuals and collectively in our hours of discontent. I thought about this as I read a letter to the editor of Fort Worth Star-Telegram extolling the virtues of Trump’s second term.
I have been guilty of creating necessary fictions in order to cope with trauma if all sorts and to make the unbearable bearable. Some may do this in order to justify the most egregious behaviors, done by them or to them. Anyway, seems that this country that we all claim to love, has engaged in some necessary fictions in our history in order to gain prominence, excuse the inexcusable, or to maintain the illusion of “being the good guy” on the world stage. Chump certainly admitted to such when he said that he “wanted to be a good boy.” Some of the lies we tell ourselves are harmless, therapeutic, toxic, and/or potentially fatal. There comes a time when one must sort the wheat from the chaff. Decide which lies we want to modify, which to double down on, and which to reject. Most republicans have already made that decision, it’s time for the rest of us.
BTW, why weren’t democrats prepared for the stunt of choice, us or the illegals. Surely you knew that such would be thrown at you. Why were you even there? Still thinking “politics as usual.”
The necessary fiction is an interesting concept. Thinking about how it applies to the midterms.
For the Republicans, given Mike Johnson's reminder that if they lose the majority in the House, Trump 2.0 is essentially over, as are many of their political careers, is the necessary fiction that they can keep the majority in both chambers?
Is it that they can pass whatever voting suppression measures they need, whether in red states or nationally, to be sure they win?
Is it that, while they maintain the majority in the Senate, they can ditch the filibuster as Trump has instructed them to do, so they can stop Democrats from having any powere they fix the system in their favor? It only takes a simple majority to change the filibuster rule.
Is it that, if they have to, they will send out their goons to polling places on election day in purple districts to intimidate voters to stay away?
Do they believe the necessary fiction that they can win by controlling the voting machines and electronic poll books when people physically show up to vote? They already have an election denier who controls voting machines and/or electronic poll books in 40 states.
Is it a necessary fiction that they can fail to remind people that their mail-in ballot is no longer postmarked on the day it goes in the mailbox, but potentially days later, so it wouldn't count? Would that work to give them the win?
Is it also a necessary fiction that the oligarchs, understanding the consequences of an early end to Trump 2.0, will throw billions of dollars into the election to corrupt the corruptible and spew false accusations at Democrats?
Is it a necessary fiction that they will have enough of those pieces fall into place to make it happen?
Or do they need all of the above?
Just thinking if they are feeling sufficiently motivated by the existential pressure.
It seems they may well be, based on Mike Johnson’s statement if Dems take both houses in the midterms, Trump’s term may be over. Let’s hope.
Trump may be gone, but that leaves us with JD Vance. He is a total creature of Peter Thiel and that worries me a great deal because Thiel is on his own crazy mission to destroy democracies. He has the money and the databases and the government contracts to do it.
I wasn’t thinking Trump’s actually be gone, just neutralized to some degree. But I agree about the tech bros. I worked 10 years in a high tech company (helped get it off the ground tho I was administrative). The tech guys were, as we say here, eat up with themselves.
Necessary fiction is something we all live with every day of our lives; mostly to appease our loved ones; or at work; in a marriage or in parent/child relationships. However, when it is deceptive and spurious, people should expect to pay the price of their fabrications. I would like to see a much more in depth factual rebuttal for everything politicians say or do, (I know it would beat the purpose of being a politician) and I am convinced I am merely dreaming of a just world with fairness abound (maybe when one speaks untruths, their hair should stand up, or their face should turn green, or the Pinocchio effect should take charge) but I don't know where all the constant spinning of everything is leading humanity. I am almost always in total disbelief the way Karoline Levitt carries on without a shred of shame. It takes a special person to be able to lie with such ease. And it is not as if Democrats take no part in such mendacity. It is sickening.
I see hope with some in independent media who report the facts and are relentless. I like Lev Parnas, Harry Littman, Marc Elias, Joyce Vance. Olga Lautman’s Trump Tyranny Tracker is a fantastic daily summary broken down in to categories with a one paragraph “why it matters” for each story.
Right now I think Lautman is the best for identifying what’s important regarding Trump and serving it up without hype one article at a time in a quick to digest format.
Thank you very much for this information Georgia. Starting to read Olga ...
Repubs are the masters of mendacity. Dems just don’t have the ruthless gene, these days anyway. Would love to see Levitt’s nose grow into a carrot. But alas, we must use our senses. Mine are acute. Some dead to the world
The necessary fiction is that they deserve what they have not earned.
That definitely covers it. But as always, the devil is in the details.
I was surprised to learn that the anti-trans voting bill in Kansas with changing drivers licenses to reflect birth gender, if enacted nationwide, could affect 2 million adults.
Associated Press totals (via FOX 9): Trump 77,303,573 vs. Harris 75,019,257 → margin 2,284,316 votes.
And the Save Act disenfranchises married women to a great extent. Deliberate and ignored. Women and other targets must realize that they are in the crosshairs. I got my passport when I first heard of it. Very few in my area have a clue.
The potential consequences are enormous because they have a gloss of legitimacy. The fact that it is the only way to get voter suppression in blue states is what is driving Trump’s insistence with Thune. The Heritage “election integrity” score card shows that state legislation is in place in most red states already.
Trump wants the filibuster gone so he can do what he has to do before the midterms while he knows he still has a majority no matter how thin. He does not care about a future Democratic Congress screwing Republicans. He wants and needs this to be the last election ever. He has said that. If we haven’t learned to take him at his word by now, we are delusional. He may not win on every one of his pronouncements but you know he is going to try to jump the guardrails.
The filibuster only matters if you anticipate a two-party system in a future Senate. And that poses an intolerable risk of being held accountable for his crimes and corruption to Trump.
All true, he is his only concern. Repubs are aligned with his evil, hence the cult mentality. Both get what they want
JD, prior to the speech, I read that some Democrats were boycotting the speech and at that moment, I wondered, "Why aren't ALL of them not showing up?"
As you suggest, anyone who's been paying attention would have known that he would use them as props. A total absence of Democrats at the show would have deprived Donald of a "set" in his performance.
I'm not bashing Democrats, but candidly observing, along with you, JD, that too many seem to be unaware that we are in abnormal times. Tradition and decorum simply are not operational in this era. When the river is within its bounds and the water is flowing at a lazy pace, one can paddle the canoe with nonchalance. But when the river is flooded and the current is raging, one must paddle with ferocity ... or drown.
Will we ever stop giving deference to obvious evil dressed up in emperor’s clothes. Giving respect where none earned. Saying “let’s move on” instead of “let’s fix this.” Glad Germany did it right. Ike showed the way. We have lost the way
The eyes can't see what the mind won't believe. Conversely people can be made to see things. Legal fictions abound. Citizens United was based on one. Was it necessary ? Many people deal all the time with abstractions, especially public figures. Their stock in trade is assertions that are incapable of being proven or disproven. Are they fiction ? We must ask that question before asking if they are necessary. But most often the reasoning proceeds in just the opposite direction. Take for instance this:
"We hold these truths to be self- evident: That man was created with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
Necessary fiction ?
The most disputed words in the English language “all men are created equal.” Necessary fiction serves many purposes. Society must agree on some major ones if strife is not constant.. maybe why all religions revere the Golden Rule, more or less. Necessary fiction is aspirational, is it not. The end is often blurry but comes into view as the script plays out…
About "foreign affairs" let us catch up courtesy of Reuters at 2:17 AM Eastern earlier today 2/26/26.
"A large Chinese DRONE has conducted regular flight over the South China Sea in recent months while transmitting FALSE transponder signals that made it appear to be other aircraft including a Belarussian cargo plane [and separately] a British Typhoon fighter jet".
If you have admissible facts post, but, please no speculation. But, welcome all to our brave new world.
YIKES!!!