This morning, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management acting director Charles Ezell sent a memo to the heads of departments and agencies.
Years ago GOP darling Grover Norquist stated (and I paraphrase) "I want a government so small I can drown it in a bathtub". It was never about the size. It was always about weakness. Years of attacks on the guardrails of democracy so gravely weakened the United States so that it is now run by an unelected South African billionaire and a felon who is a Russian puppet.
No foreign adversary or extremist organization could inflict the horrific damage that has put the United States into a very weakened and fragile state. We are being destroyed at the intersection of extreme wealth and willful ignorance.
When is press going to stop characterizing Trump’s gaslighting as "he made false statements". The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic and of the People, which should be the Democrats new slogan. Make no mistake, they are our enemy. They are trying to take away from us our constitutional Republic.
Rickey, I am wondering what this new branch of the KKK's costume and handshake will be. Trump won't want to shake any of their hands and who would want to get close to him except when they have to perform their ritual smooching of the grand dinosaur's nether regions?
Hand mask,,, use the hand mask per Kimmel show!! Haha …gloves of course. I was thinking you were going to mention the size of his hands lol and the hand masks as Kimmel calls them would make them look larger.. I don’t mean to belittle the significance of kkk and the cabinet meaning… I am sick over all of this…and just as ‘sick’ by the supporters… idu how this country turned to someone like trump
It's a mistake to concentrate our and the press attention on Musk rather than the real guilty person. When finally Musk if fire, after completing all the destruction the scumbag president would be held as a savior and a hero.
Ricardo, I wonder what Toddler-Musk's revenge will be when Toddler-Trump tries to dump him. I know the reason Trump picked Musk was not his choice, but the choice of his handlers hoping their Baby Donnie would come out looking like some kind of hero. Unfortunately, Trump's dementia will not permit much heroism, particularly if Democrats carefully, skillfully point it out and put it out that Trump will eventually dump Musk after the damage is already done. Trump does not have either the skill or the will to save anyone, not even himself this time.
The problem is the base doesn’t care how mentally compromised Trump is or how many of his best appointees he fires. They’re here for the hate and retribution. Musk admitted he turned to supporting the right wing crazies for retribution because his child is trans. He’s going to take his feelings of personal failure out on everyone else by siding with the haters.
Unelected President Musk held his first cabinet meeting and the media should word it that way. The figurehead of this country couldn’t even stay awake.
Project 2025 was overtly telegraphed before the election and trump's intentions were crystal clear, which half of Americans chose to ignore. Elon Musk was not part of the deal and not one lawmaker will dare lift a finger and do something about his burgeoning presence despite constituent outrage. There is only one hope--that the outrage fuels voter turnout in the midterms, democrats seize the House and the Senate and somehow find their courage, and trump/musk are impeached and thrown out of office the very next day. Oh, and take back their spending power....
What about publicly aligning with Putin and throwing Ukraine to the curb? Cutting funds to US AID is the worst--taking critical food from starving people so that trillions can be handed off to the rich. What about EPA and USDA? Doesn't trump and his menagerie care about the water they drink and what they eat? It's all so embarrassing and evil. I'm praying for some karma....
The midterms aren't going to help us. Trump will use the playbook of every tyrant, like Orban and Putin, and see to it that the votes are counted in his favor. Look for another Republican House and Senate. Remember, it doesn't matter who votes, it's who counts the votes. That's why the last election was so important. We won't have fair elections again, unless there is a revolution.
As terrifying as what you propose is, I wouldn't put anything past this regime, including martial law. People are showing agitation. Just wait until they finish deporting people and these MAGAs begin to experience food scarcity. That'll do it! I don't understand why frustrated Americans can't be inspired by the South Koreans when their new president declared martial law. People took to the streets immediately and lawmakers got out of bed and scaled fence to rush to the assembly to reverse martial law and impeach him. Does martial law and food scarcity have to happen here to get people mobilized?
Yes! That's my hope and dreams too. ThEY HAVE TO BE STOPPED. And, Dems hopefully are busy selecting and grooming they're nominee to run our country and repair the damage that has been done. Or Nation IS strong enough to overcome the attempted takeover we are at present witness of. We are a Great Nation after all.
I admire Chris Murphy who is doing something--I am not from CT but hoped he would run for President--alas the Dems really mishandled the election. I also disagree with James Carvell--we can't just lay low--we have got to get started with plans for the midterms--I still believe we can have elections but we have to be dealing with things now---so scary about the SCOTUS and the Legislative Branch abdicating what the Constitution says--they are not now involved in checks and balances.
Just the same polls for the Dems remain dismyl, with general dissatisfaction across the board including those who voted for them in Nov. Townhalls turn out against Dem "inaction". Meanwhile the Trump executive tample over congressionally funded agencies and policies with no Republican resistance whatsoever, who wrap themselves in a false mandate so extremists can run rampant across every federal agency. Will the courts put on any brakes? Not so far.
Frank, I am not sure exactly what voters expect Dem pols to do. I see videos of them speaking out and being called out of order. I see them trying to get into various government departments. I see them doing for their constituents what they can. Everyday I see a post at the end of the day which lists what Ds both nationally and at the state level have done. Short of what some sort of military action, what is there to do. Btw, alt national parks published a list of all the things people are not allowed to bring when cleaning out their desks. It is a long list and ends with chloroform. The courts, unfortunately move slowly and so they have put on some temporary brakes which death star and muskrat are ignoring. My husband and I both think there is a big explosion coming, but don't know what. One person told me she had heard that the country would go completely dark. And the key in your post is no R resistance. They voted for their budget with all the cuts despite what they heard at their town halls. Someone needs to stand up and say I am Sparticus and then a whole lot more of them will.
Republicans are hiding in fear. As long as trump can keep the republicans in line and he will, the democrats can't do much. The republicans are in charge of everything. The big question is, will there be another free election?
Very true Michele. The explanation you think may come after the implementation of the budget they just passed despite all the warnings they had during the town halls meetings. People, even people that voted for them, will feel the pain, specially if they finally realized that the pain they feel will benefit the 1% of the population but not them. Thanks.
Well said Ruth, the end of toddler # 2 will come and we should keep on pushing him out but at the same time we have to keep pointing out who is the real responsible on the daily basis to deny toddlers #1 the glory of doing the will of the people. He has the ability to quizze people like lemons and throw them into the garbage. That's the destiny of all serving the scumbag.
Thanks Ricardo. You are right that we need to keep making it clear who is really responsible. Toddler-Musk is just another tool for Toddler-boss-Trump and his handlers just want to be where the power is even if they are not of value beyond their immediate service to Toddler-Trump. They know he is deteriorating, but would lose their prized position if they told the truth, a truth that a lot of people already know, but the Trumpers and Trumpettes haven't figured it out yet. Heck, they couldn't remember how bad things were in 2020 and kept thinking they were doing better than rather than in 2024. How is it some people prefer to be oblivious? I don't get it. That is why we need to be constantly but carefully reminding them of what life could have been had they not voted for an old man with dementia just because he was white and male, and had a lout mouth. (he is beginning to lose that quality).
What you are wondering about how some people prefer to be oblivious is called stupidity and there's no cure for that. However, there's a portion of the scumbag president's voters that went along by being misinformed or didn't pay enough attention. We have to reach them when they start asking if the pain they and their families are feeling it's because of their bad choice.
I we get them with a clear and short message, they might jump the fence and vote right next time.
Ruth, it will take some time for most of the cult to realize the truth. While some of them who have lost money have figured it out, a lot of them still want to own libs and be as hateful as they want to be. An auto body shop located in a small community near here has a post which is how is 2025 treating you. I took a peek at the comments and as i expected lots of MAGA are just peachy keen. And they will be, until somehow they are personally affected and actually blame death star and his minions.
That is precisely the point. Trump doesn’t have the skill or the will. Heritage Foundation & Vought are ruling through their puppet Trump. It is Musk who does have the skill. And he has power that Trump just keeps on giving him more of. Musk needs to go back to Tesla…it’s in trouble and needs him.
You are right Virginia. JD Vance is much worse than Mu$k, a toddler trying to show how powerful and super rich he is and trying to get even richer. Vance, the Manchurian Candidate, is well spoken and brain washed and controlled by ideologist Peter Thiel that bought a senate position for him in Ohio. Just remember Vance's speech in Germany where he explicitly supported the local nazi party. What do we have to lose if we allow him to be trump's successor?
Isn't it ironic that in this maga moment in history two immigrants control the US government? Forgot to mention another immigrant, Rupert Murdock 😏
Ricardo. He may be worse, but he does not have whatever hold death star has over the cult. I actually would like all of them to be taken out a la Gary's post yesterday.
Thiel and Musk both were raised in the apartheid culture of South Africa. Apartheid officially ended in SA in 1990 and Musk moved to Canada in 1989. He was 17 at the time and moved to avoid the compulsory draft. Thiel's family left SA for Cleveland when he was 9 years old.
Dear Virginia - you ask a good question, how do we shed Putin and Vance? I watched a bit of the cabinet meeting and it reminded me of the Putin video of his "cabinet" meeting immediately following his invasion of Ukraine. Except for Putin, it was a very scary time for the meeting participants. It could be defenestration (formal definition) for any member who spoke out against Putin's invasion. Same for the participants in Trump's first cabinet meeting. Yikes, I think we're living in Russia!
L. Murphy. I have been waiting for someone to be tossed out a window although I keep wishing it would be muskrat's arrogant minions. It is clear that they are all afraid.
I agree with Ricardo Grinbank. Musk is doing the horrible dirty work, will be blamed and fired, and Trump will look good to his zombie followers. My 87 year old mother said this to me a few weeks ago, so other people are thinking this as well as you, Ricardo. I am so upset! Thanks professor Richerson and Mr Grinbank, for making everything clear to us .
Musk already has power but is very greedy. He will raid our Treasury for his own ventures such as SpaceX. He is a visionary and is looking for a bigger payout.
Right you are, Kazz! And even at most IKEA outlets, in spite of the mind numbing layouts and the accompanying parking wars, the cabinets are not nearly as monochromatic.
I will eschew commenting on the stark unconstitutionality and clear anti-democratic actions emanating from this ghastly Administration, as others herein have done a fine job doing same.
I simply point out the following: What grown ass American woman or man would serve in a cabinet purposed not to provide reasonable and experience based objective advice to the President, but one whose clear purpose under the Mango Mussolini is to serve as a Politburo-esque backdrop/cheering section for his every word and move?!? How low do you have to value yourself and your self-esteem to be part of such a "stomach-churning" (good phrase, Kazz) exercise?!? I'm looking at you, Brooke Rollins. And you, little Marco. And you, Pam "What Trump University?!?" Bondi. And on, and on.
Also, isn't there a dress code for cabinet meetings?!? Musk wears a f***ing MAGA baseball cap to a cabinet meeting?!? As he's not even a cabinet member, why the hell is he even there?!?
Finally, with apologies to the truly great and now sadly late Roberta Flack, every time I see Musk's mug now, I must admit I'm singing softly to myself,
When is press going to stop characterizing Trump’s gaslighting as "he made false statements". The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic and of the People, which should be the Democrats new slogan. Make no mistake, they are our enemy. They are trying to take away from us our constitutional Republic.
When the Convicted Orange Felon said that “the enemy is within”, it wasn’t a warning, but a promise… Rump sold American democracy to the highest bidder: Darth Musk - for a mere 290 million dollars.
As always, Donny-boy tried to play with the big boys and be "a real smart businessman", only to get played by an even bigger boy... As you said: 290 million dollars is pretty cheap for someone who wanted to buy absolute rulership over America. For Muskolini, this is peanuts: he makes more money in the time he takes a piss.
Yep, that was the deal: Vlad helped Rump ascend the throne of America, and in return, Rump has to give him Ukraine and pull the US out of NATO, making the way free for Vlad's invasion of Europe.
It's even more frustrating that still too many people go like "nooo, that's just rumours to make Putin look evil" or "nooo, it can't be that bad". Damn it, it might even be worse: who knows if Vlad threw a couple of assassinations in the mix? Killing off political enemies is a core business of him, after all, and Donny-boy would very much like to see at least a couple of people die.
I watched a good portion of the Trump cabinet meeting and most of it was devoted to money expenditures. That cabinet meeting makes clear Trump's sole focus in life is money, period.
Trump rounded off the meeting by observing: “The country’s got bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run.” (Bloated, fat, disgusting, incompetent. . . .Projecting again, Donald?)
Yet as Jon Stewart noted this week on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Doge will not touch the $3bn in subsidies given to oil and gas companies, a hedge fund loophole worth $1.3bn a year, or the $2tn given to defence contractors to build a fighter jet that will soon be obsolete.
DOGE is the Department Of Grabbing Everything. Musk will bleed the US treasury (and, by extension, the American tax payers) dry - that's what they meant by "draining the swamp"...
When is press going to stop characterizing Trump’s gaslighting as "he made false statements". The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic and of the People, which should be the Democrats new slogan. Make no mistake, they are our enemy. They are trying to take away from us our constitutional Republic.
Right you are. I would go one step further: it's no less than an assault on our reality. The worst weapons of mass destruction aren't nuclear weapons, but "social" media.
So interesting to see so many foreign citizens take such a nasty interest in America domestic politics. Brit, Aussie, Dutch guy in Germany. What will you do when that lawfare conviction is reversed in Orange Man’s favor?
The Heritage Foundation / Vought is so delusional about how the GOP hid their Trojan Horse called ‘Project 2025’. The MAGA voter would deny that Trump was running under a regime change…they were intoxicated with their racism and misogyny and claim Trump was supporting his ‘Agenda 47’ on his website.
Our State legislators are in office, and my volunteering with Sierra Club is harder this year, because we are writing Testimonies for environmental issues, while a reckless Wrecking Crew is in office.
So volunteer where ever you can to hold on to your sanity and fight for our Democracy back. We really need to replace the mainstream media with Substack. Or their k1ss@ss biased disinformation will repeat what brought down 2024 like last year. Thoughts?
Me too! It’s the least I can do at this time as a new resident to this great state. Hate that muskox is putting his $$ into this Supreme Court race. Nasty ads. We have to get our communities activated. And yes, thank you to HCR! And to Substack, for letting our voices be heard.
My recollection is that the Trojan Horse was a great big thing and that the danger lay in what was concealed inside. The authors of Project 2025 made no effort to conceal what they were doing and Democrats warned of its contents often during the election campaign. Trump merely affected diffidence, but there were no angry denials from his campaign about its relationship with Project 2025 and support for its aims. Indeed, the objectives and policies set out in Project 2025, albeit never quite so starkly laid out before in any public document, have long been on the right's wishlist.
Thank you for the work you are doing. At present we must defend, support others on the front lines, pursue every special election, and build toward 2026 and beyond.
Small, weak America is not so much a threat to the world, and then no one will listen to Trump outside or inside the country, or Musk. Musk has now aligned himself with destroying a nation. Who will invite that in to their own country?
As Trump destroys the US, he destroys his own power. Interesting that Olga Lautman and Zev Shalev talk about how Trump could turn the US military against Ukraine and help the Russians in response to a listener comment on their podcast today.
I have been saying that Trump will sell the US military to the highest bidder as mercenaries. Will they go along with that? Is there anything in the constitution that says we cannot switch allies as they do in Orwell's 1984?
While Europe is insisting on American military support for Ukraine as is Zelenskiy, the sooner they all accept that they need European troops instead the better off they will be. Zelenskiy's people have been using their soldiers who are now the best trained military in Europe. They have not had American feet on the ground. Europe needs to figure out how to up their military numbers. They cannot offer uni tuition in Germany where I live because there is no tuition, but they could offer living expenses. The other choice is the draft. This is an article I wrote looking at the election results and who I think will be for or against that.
Thank you Linda. To be clear -Heritage, the criminal-elect, and the GOP seek to destroy the guardrails and protections of an (aspirational) democracy. The US is strong militarily. The justice system remains strong (although gravely corrupted by Bondi, Patel, the so-called "Supreme Court" and "judges" like Aileen Cannon.
The weakening Norquist spoke of, and this extreme group of domestic terrorists have implemented are purely in the protections formerly provided by the Federal Government when the Oath of Office was taken with moderate seriousness, not as a punchline to a joke.
George, the US is strong, but as Project 2025 gets implemented it will not be so strong. The first chapter that my Political reading group read was the one on the Dept of Education. That in and of itself is a formula for turning the US into a third world country. I can picture it after having taught in an international school in the Dominican Republic right after graduate school. In fact, living there for a year gave me good insights into what living in a third world country is like, and right now I see those elements there. A third world country, and an illiberally ruled country does not stay strong for long. So, how much can be staved off we shall see if it is not destroyed beyond recognition.
So far, the international relationships are being rewritten so that the US is aligned now with autocratic loser nations. Orban's Hungary is not a model to follow. They are the second poorest country in Europe.
Then there is the destruction of our education system, which is already lagging in many ways because is two tiered. The private and the public education, or that for the wealthy differs from that for the poor. Already there will not be educational supports for children with special education needs. It will be very difficult for parents.
Getting rid of federal workers means nothing is going to function well, and people will probably have to use bribes to get things done. Sucking the funding out of medical research, and big insurances like Medicare and Medicaid means that hospitals will close down and doctors will be available. Many treatments will no longer exist. If you rely on God and God alone to heal your illnesses you might be fine with this, but otherwise you are going to want health care.
The US will have tariffs on imports, but may no longer be able to produce enough food to feed the American people. That is losing farm subsidies, USAID contracts and immigrant workers will hit them hard. Etc...
So, these things will weaken the USA. No way that it has a dictator, who is ignoring the courts about unfreezing money, and doing their own thing. As for safety, the military is being purged of competent leadership and Russias military is an example of one where loyalty trumps common sense. Then there is the Intelligence community, which is losing the people who know what they are doing. What intel is Trump getting now? The Intel that Putin wants him to have? I do not see that as strong. Trump is rapidly destroying all of the things that make us strong.
As I heard it, only the future profits on mining projects that have not yet begun will be what Trump gets. In many cases it is too hard to extract the minerals to be profitable.
“Loyalty trumps common sense” is so succinct , Linda. It encapsulates the long dance of ‘elites’ inept focus , totally missing the principle of our forefather’s brilliance and constitutional goal.
Equality for all.
It is where I fall ,as a writer , to adequately pen the need ‘bringing the least to a common sense level’ vs pointedly using them as an excuse to exclude our basic tenant- that being- ‘caring for the needs of the whole’.
Be it a town, a country, the world..there is where we have lost common sense to greed…
Very true Linda. Heritage, the Criminal-elect, and his MAGA/GOP sycophants simply want blind obedient hyper-consumers. The last thing they want is a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged “woke” society questioning privatization, “trickle-down” economics, tax cuts for the wealthy, and who will pay for the growing debt.
rickey, I truly wish we could limit both the length of campaign seasons, and the amount of money that can be donated. What a huge mistake was made letting corporations donated millions!
I see all the amount of junk mail that comes in my house, and immediately goes in the recycle bin---I don't trust that stuff, I'd rather look at the candidates official websites, or recall their prior actions--and think of all the GOOD that could have been achieved with those $$$.
That extortionist pledge demanded of any Republican who wanted to seek office had me turning against my old party when it cost GHW Bush a second term. To me, GHW Bush (41) had started adjusting taxes appropriately upward so Clinton could continue to build upon the trend with a bit more that eventually produced the first surplus. (Reagan had also taken about 30% of his excessive tax cuts back though he wouldn't let anyone call them tax increases)
I had left the party before the first surplus (same time Elizabeth Warren left the party). To me the coming surplus was from some Bush 41 and more Clinton appropriate tax policy.
Interesting pipeline into current thinking in Germany. There are over a million Ukrainians living in Germany. Why? Not home fighting the Russians? How is Germany going to pay for rearming? Have you spoken to any Ukrainians about Zelensky?
Raymond, Did you expect women, children, and elders to stay in Ukraine to fight the Russians? Thankfully, there are many Germans who understand their plight.
We have Ukrainian relatives living in Germany. We have not talked of late. The last Ukrainian person I had a conversation with here, did not speak German or English and we had a strange very challenging conversation about the bus using our cell phones to translate. It was laborious, but we had camaraderie! It was not a format that lent itself to talking about politics. It was hard to understand what was being said. The software on our phones was not so good.
Yes, there are about 1. 2 million Ukrainians here. Mostly women, children and old men. They were allowed to leave. I see a lot of Ukrainian mom's and children on the buses or trams as I go around the city. Actually, there are more Russians in Germany than Ukrainians because they after the wall came down, all people in the former Soviet Union who could prove German ancestry was allowed to immigrate here. Thus, we get a lot of Russiophiles in the voting.
Germany is not sure yet how it will pay for rearming. First of all Germany needs to have a government. That will happen after the first and third place parties hash out a deal. Merz is hoping to be done by Easter, and it is not clear if a budget can be passed by then. However, I heard a politician saying last night that the extra money approved for the military would still go a long way. Another German politician who was formerly with NATO says that Germany should not count on the US for anything, and needs to move on from that idea. So, how will Germany pay for it? Either by raising the debt break by claiming it is an emergency, which a whole lot of Germans are reluctant to do, including as I understand, Merz; or they can cut social programs to pay for it. Still, even if they build up weapons where will the soldiers come from? Here is an article I wrote looking at this situation post the election.
Thank you for replying.Production, in this case, is more important than troops. This has become an electronics war. Drones , jamming, fly-by-wire drones to avoid jamming, satellite navigation, a real day by day rat race. The king of electronics design and production is Elon Musk.
Be that as it may, Russians have troops on the ground which requires Ukraine to do so too. According to Timothy Snyder and others Ukraine has really upped the drone technology and the robots they use too. Elon did not finish engineering school, I believe he had a year. He does not do the designing those who work for him do. So, what do you mean when you say King? Being discussed right now is that his AI is not as good as that of others so he has access to their data, their patents, trade secrets and he can monetize that. What Elon Musk is king of is thieving.
Yes, "those that work for him" is right. He can't even code. His talent is in assembling the right people to do the right project. Zelensky expects to make two million drones this year. Are they the right ones? Is two million enough?
I believe Vought said that he wants the federal worker to feel sick on his way to work in the morning. I guess to demonstrate why it's important to eviscerate the government worker.
His hate is inexhaustible. This and his other statements reflect a really pernicious, evil mother fucker......
Poor morale in the federal workforce - among those who are still employed, anyway - could cause all sorts of problems. Oligarchs don't understand the potential impact of unhappy workers.
So true Stephanie. And when you think of all of the Criminal-elect sycophants who pledge their complete fealty to the narcissist king, his shillbilly VP, and his imbecile billionaire -hating the idea of Federal government while pretending to serve never works out very well for anyone.
People, remember, Republicans have a way - an experienced way of “f_ing” things up…Hoover and the Great Depression, Bush/Cheney and The Great Recession and yes, there were others!!!
Others like Reagan and the 40 year con job of neoliberalism that that began with the Powell memo. It gave us unsustainable wealth inequality, the rise of the billionaire class, and deregulation that contributed to financial collapses and global warming. Education budgets were gutted along with the middle class, the result being the ignorant and gullible MAGA base. With Trump we face full-on fascist White Christian nationalist authoritarianism, but it is a continuation of the collapse that has been going on for the last half century or so.
I think, Philip, the gutting of ed happened worse in higher ed.
It was ALEC (courtesy of the Powell memo, as you cite) that through the 1970s got all the U.S. state legislatures seriously to reduce funding. This crippled tenure. Brought in the mass of gypsy scholars as indentured contingent labor. And set millions of student in crippling debt to fat banks.
Yes, it was strangulation time in K-12, too -- death by the standardized testers.
U.S. Ivy League grads floated the old Soviet nomenklatura, who produced Putin, who now has his fat orange puppet engaged in rape on a scale vastly beyond the many women he raped when he was a mere casino and other biz bankrupt.
I saw this as a social worker where Ohio programs like the Bureau of of Children with Medical Handicaps was stripped bare of what it once had been. Even Bill Moyers failed to describe this type of stripping away of support. The saddest things is that even rich folk like Molly Briwn saw the nerds abd areas tried to rectify some of the problems. The bureau was crated by usually white rich females but they saw the need of others and felt a moral and social obligation to change the system and help children and families. Now most people do not know the names of chance Hamilton, Ida Cannon, Edna Jane Hunter and Abby May Alcott. Jacob Riis has two parks named after him but who knows about his photographic journalism? We need these types of folks unfortunately again. Strong and bold and with a solid moral center.
HCR reminds us of this history. When you look at every economic downturn, the conservatives were in power. One of the most egregious re-wrties of history is the conservative think tanks claiming that the New Deal prevented the economic recovery. They claim that the government programs prevented (without evidence) the private sector from bouncing back. They totally ignore that the government programs invested in many of those legacy companies (fossil fuel and others) giving them a leg up when they were about to close. They like to blame the government for inflation when they put more money in circulation, and that might be the case in other countries, but not here.
You are right and you and I both know that, but for the multitude of maggots their votes were based on hate for "different" people, not economic issues other than maybe eggs. So, now they are going to find out and, in some cases, already are like farmers in the heartland and the USAID market gone. FAFO is upon us all now.
Remember tomorrow is a day to buy nothing from retail with more days coming in March and April.
The resistance starts on 2/28 and hopefully grows or at least this part of it.
Doug G, I keep asking same question. I understand Trump due to his malignant narcissism and low IQ. I understand MAGAs due their their reliance on Fox and misinformation from other sources. BUT, I really do not understand why Republican Congress remains silent as a bloc. Are they really so beholden to oligarchs? Do they really have nothing else to do in their lives, making them so fearful of a primary?
Rep. Eric Swalwell says that it is fear for their physical safety for themselves and their families.
He himself spent more than $1 million in the past two and a half years on security. He was a manager in Trump’s second impeachment trial, and has filed a lawsuit against Trump and Don, Jr.
Maybe Swalwell has experienced it, but I’m truly doubtful that the entire Republican Party has experienced this level of physical threat. If they have, they need to gather and identify effective solutions. Cowardice is staying nothing, doing nothing, and allowing threats to continue.
Saying nothing when threatened with violence makes no sense to me. What do they do when they are threatened with being threatened? Not many are exactly profiles in courage.
Because they are weak cowards who are afraid to stand up for the Constitution. Money and power is more important to them. After MTG spent the last Congress trying to reduce the salaries of Biden’s appointees now she wants to take away the salaries of federal workers because she claims they’re not doing their jobs. Funny how she never wants to take away the salaries of her fellow GOP who do nothing but threaten salaries and bring up ridiculous impeachments. They’re a worthless lot and refuse to do anything for the country.
As long as they are well-compensated and can take care of the Mellon’s, Thiel’s, Musk’s, and Bezos’ -most of them are unlikely to make a sound.
Can you imagine the outrage if Harris/Walz won the election and President Harris spent her first month in office signing 100’s of Executive Orders including expanding the Supreme Court, impeaching Thomas and Alito, transferring the felon to a SuperMax prison, and freezing the assets of Musk and others who have been funding political and judicial attacks on the United States?
I was thinking yesterday about how all of this started….it started with Reagan and Norquist. For over forty years we’ve let them lie and cheat while Democrats played by the rules. I hate to be one of those saying it, but we/they played too nice. And now here we are.
Very true Cheri. I often think we continue to bring “Robert’s Rules of Order” to a knife fight. And you may already know one of the best documents to read to understand the history (preceding Reagan by a few years) is the Lewis Powell Memo issued on August 23, 1971.
No historian here, but after reading Jayne Mayer’s critically acclaimed Dark Money” I believe it could be said that it “started” with the embarrassingly fringe right wing failed presidential bid of the Charles Koch 1977. From that defeat emerges a Libertarian party movement funded by the fossil fuel Koch sons’ billions that stealthily polished their image and planned a long range attack on the democratic system by a multi pronged approach to developing disciples among law students etc, funding campus recruiting and support organizations on campuses across the country that would stand fiercely against liberal social norms exploding from that time in the 70’s and on. But as HCR often points out, the war between equality and “property rights” was never really put to rest. Of course, Reagan was a stooge who fed the lions. (imho)
Norquist also said in the early 2000s "We don't need an ideologue as president, just someone that will sign whatever Congress sends over. We have the legislative power to write the bills." They thought GW Bush would be that guy and he almost was, then came the Russian mole.
So true. All those billions spent preparing the US for a nuclear attack or a ground invasion, when all that was needed to bring the US down was the Internet (created by the US) and a bunch of lying sacks of shite. What a waste. Had we spent all that money on education, maybe we wouldn't be watching our country die. Ah, well, spilt milk.
Very true Gail. I frequently write that any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society. All three pillars have been assailed for generations.
George, while it APPEARS our form of government is being destroyed, it has actually been converted into the largest system of organized corruption the world has yet seen. It is being rearranged to serve the interests of the top 0.001% of our population, the multi-billionaire club for whom the rest of us are expected to submit because we have been fed the line that government run like a business would be vastly more efficient since Ronald Reagan was in office in the 1980’s. This has been the triumph of propaganda over facts which has been deployed and perpetrated with renewed force since the Citizens United decision by the SCOTUS. In the end it ALL serves the corrupting influence of money and who has most of it, the top 0.001%. The government we now see evolving is the corrupt creation of that top 0.001% whose money has spoken so loudly it has drowned out facts, history and the truth.
I would be challenged to agree more John. A well-educated, informed, and engaged society would initially laugh at the thought of trickle-down “economics” and then start putting some of the proponents in prison for attempted fraud. It has been horrifying to try to prevent what has transpired since, at very least, the Powell memo of 1971.
Democrats should boycott the president’s appearance before the joint session of congress. It’s just going to be a too long high school pep rally for all that is wrong. Not attending would be against what is expected, as if anything that is happening now comes close to any kind of norm.
They could have their own rally outside.
Democrats need to stop playing by the rules and using words only. Musk must be stopped.
I agree. Democrats stick with decorum while the orange traitor destroys the Constitution and American lives. It's time to take the gloves off and put a stop to it. Republicans found ways to skirt the Constitution, Democrats need to find ways to uphold and enforce it. The American public is being screwed over by this administration and will back those trying to do the right thing. And there's power in our numbers. It's time to boycott all things trump, musk and republican. Put them out of business.
One thing Heather said in this week’s chat that stayed with me: stop blaming Democrats. Not that they’re not in the mix, but this is up to US to resolve.
I do blame some of them. There are those who use their positions to retain power and grow wealthier. But there are many who actually do their jobs and work for their constituents. I support them, although at this point, we have to support all of them. Those who are just 'coasting along' can be replaced by earnest candidates willing to put the American public first, and they need to be informed of this. But it really is up to American citizens to get involved and stay involved. This is how a Democracy thrives. If citizens ignore their responsibility, it dies.
Sorry I disagree. Dems have been weak, ineffectual and lacking of a coherent message probably for the last 45 years, since I started paying attention to politics when I was 20. Get it together dems, get mad, find a way to reach people, here's a clue - go left!
Wait, wait. The Democrats stayed together in the House for the budget vote. I imagine those in the Senate have plans also. Maybe we should send letters of thanks to them.
Call them to thank them for doing their jobs. Call them often and tell them what you think, what you want, and be specific. They are there to represent what we want, remember? Calling or writing is a good thing.
I wholeheartedly agree with the “Stop placing blame on the Democrats”. They raised a massive fund for the election of Harris, but how can they be expected to counter the $290 Million ad budget of the richest person in the world. The blame right now lies solely on the Congress and its blind fealty to DonOld and his Project 2025 agenda, along with the SOCTUS edict that ELON and his ilk can buy their way to dictatorship and the demise of our Constitutional Republic.
Had Chuck Schumer called a vote, the U.S. Senate could have enforced Article 14, Section Three of the U.S. Constitution.
I didn't see or hear "this week's chat" with Heather urging us to "stop blaming Democrats."
She knows I do blame them. They're totally illiterate as to our great humanities. So many novels, memoirs, essays, biographies, histories, films, and other arts available as testimony to what has been going on.
So when I cite Dem impotence, even if I am always one of the first to comment, she moves my comment down, down, down, so other commenters can see real criticism from me about as easily as they can now from that of Joy Reid, Mehdi Hasan, Alex Wagner, and all those of color MSNBC has been firing and downgrading.
She doesn't "move (your) comment down" Phil. It's the computer algorithm. The comments with the most likes always are on top, and replies to those are also arranged underneath their originating comment, also ranked by likes.
If your comment is moving down, it's just because other people liked other comments more. Don't get paranoid. You're better than that.
Phil, as the "Education/Humanities Prophet," you should be better acquainted with how the Substack comment utility works. At the top of the comment section of every Substack is a button that triggers a drop-down menu where the user can choose the order in which to read the comments. "Top first" is the default, unless the Substack author changes it. Other options to select are "Newest first" and "Oldest first."
If your comment fails to receive the most "likes," it is going to gradually "slide" down in the listing of comments. Heather is far too busy to manipulate the comment listing order.
Do you really think Heather comes out here and organizes which comments are placed where? Now you’re blaming her for something because you feel you’re not getting enough attention?
MSNBC is no better than other MSM out to make a boatload of money, with no backbone for standing up against the threats of the traitor-in-chief. The "B" in their name certainly does not stand for bravery.
Look, I am going to participate. But I wonder what this economic blackout will achieve. What is its purpose? Seems like it is just venting. We need much more strategic action.
It was a great moment for the youngest member of Congress! As he was present for the Marjorie Douglas fiasco, he is most definitely entitled to tell idiot Comey to let him talk.
Ever listen to Progress Radio? It's like Fox News only for Democrats. Sure, they do a lot of MAGA and white Christian Nationalist bashing, but all of the host bring on Democrat Senators, Congress people, strategists and take call ins.
A lot of people scoff at call-ins, but Rush Limbaugh lived by the call-ins and he had the largest nationwide audience of any of the radio hosts for decades. A lot of the callers have solutions to problems instead of just the constant bashing you get on Fox News.
No, I have not heard of progress radio. Maybe you should provide more details. Solutions to problems would be a welcome change from these substack columns (I don’t mean yours, Heather) that I am spending way too much time scrolling through. I’m not quite sure what I am looking for. I understand people feel the need to warn us, and, especially people who have studied deeply, the subject of tyranny and the transition to it. You have succeeded in scaring us all but now action is needed.!! When your “likes” get up in the thousands you will know that you have tapped into that energy that needs to be awakened. Mostly I think I am gripped by a paralysis maybe stemming from the fact that my daily life is not yet being affected. I’m kind of in suspended animation to see if they really are going to steal our social security money — yes that is basically it. I find people are avoiding talking about politics, too. My neighbors don’t want to talk about it and neither do people in clubs that I belong to.
This unbelievable experience of witnessing the descent of tyranny on my own country has given me a new perspective on what happened in Germany. (the USA, beacon of democracy!! I can only begin to imagine what the millions of immigrants who came here because they were fleeing tyranny must be going through!) There were people who fought that, too, but it was futile. And then a very ugly monster grew out of it. Every male in my family of my Fathers generation fought in WW2. If my father were alive, he would be 112 now. So those guys are all gone. I’m pretty sure this would not be happening if they were alive. In two generations of great abundance and living in a peaceful corner of the world, we have forgotten what it is to deal with such enemies of the people.
Yes, there comes a point when reading more doom and gloom is just paralyzing. Our nervous systems are all in high alert for exactly what we do not know. We are all being primed for health problems at this rate and that's not useful to the country or ourselves. So I read these letters mostly every day, but sometimes I allow a break from it. I look for hopeful positive takes on news as well (Hopium, Chop Wood Carry Water) and try to do 3 or 4 things a week to contribute to our country (call or write a representative, make a donation, sign a petition). Then I take care of myself by listening to a meditation, talking to people I love not about politics, painting, writing, living my life. Strength comes from self-care and balance, not worrying 24/7. May we all find power and peace.
That is exactly what I am doing. Have a history of PTSD and tend to be hypervigilant which is exhausting. Staying informed every single day, but also engaging with like-minded family and friends, getting back to daily art/creative pursuits, and best of all spending lots of time with my first newborn granddaughter. When I am with her all the ever-present insanity evaporates. We all need to take care of ourselves in order to maintain the energy and resolve to resist as much as possible!
THE 24 HOUR ECONOMIC BLACKOUT - We, the people, need to wield our power! On FRIDAY February 28th do not make any purchases anywhere - not online or in-store. Do not use Credit or Debit Cards. If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message. If they don't listen (they won't) WE WILL ESCALATE. More here: https://jointhepeoplesunion.com/.
Sadly, nobody under 40 listens to talk radio anymore. We need to be shouting from the rooftops using billboards, ads in movie theaters, spots on TikTok, ads on YouTube, even adverts in the local “weekly shopper”. The audience that we want to reach doesn’t give a flock about OpEds in the Post or Times.
I started listening a few months ago. I can take it only in small amounts. I realized, with one overstatement I can’t now remember, that this is how people get radicalized—on our side. This must be how Faux News does it, day after day.
Totally agree. SIRIUS XM CHANNEL 127 is, I think, the channel you’re talking about.
Think about the amount of time working tradesmen spend listening to radio from their trucks.
Listening to SIRIUS XM CHANNEL 127 is powerful in the opposite direction. Somewhere in-between is the way forward. Aren’t Unaffiliated/Independent registered voters about equal in number to Democrats and Republicans? We need to know what we don’t know…
I had a notion that when the inevitable standing ovations start occuring from the Republicans, the Dems can stand as well & turn their backs on the podium & start singing the National Anthem or another patriotic tune. That way they are not 'maligning or insulting' trump, they are glorifying America!
Recall the stunts that the GOP (esp MTG!) pulled? Walking around with a giant white balloon, wearing a MAGA hat? I made this suggestion to an aide of Moskowitz as he likes to cause good trouble: I suggested that since the GOP want to strip seniors of their lifelines, he should provide the visual that reportedly drove Frances Perkins to push FDR--grandmothers digging in trash cans to eat. I said Jared should come dressed in tatters with a small trashcan filled with food, and snack out of it while in session. Perhaps kindly offer to share with some GOP members.
The question is: HOW. I get it. I get what's happening. What I don't get is ow to stop it. For sure Democrats are too "nice" and are playing by the rules. I believe in the rule of law, but that, obviously, is not working. Your idea is not a bad one. Maybe a mass protest outside would actually get media attention.
We are focusing too much on Musk while the scumbag president is the responsible for the chaos being unleashed. Musk will be gone one day and the scumbag would say, I didn't know anything about Musk .
Recall the stunts that the GOP (esp MTG!) pulled? Walking around with a giant white balloon, wearing a MAGA hat? I made this suggestion to an aide of Moskowitz as he likes to cause good trouble: I suggested that since the GOP want to strip seniors of their lifelines, he should provide the visual that reportedly drove Frances Perkins to push FDR--grandmothers digging in trash cans to eat. I said Jared should come dressed in tatters with a small trashcan filled with food, and snack out of it while in session. Perhaps kindly offer to share with some GOP members.
It's now 10:27 AM. I'm back. Yesterday I moved to fire the NYTimes from my Inbox each day effect immediately. My reasons were four. The publication of the puff piece on the altered life of the convicted insurrectionist known as the "pink hat lady" who brought an ice axe to Trump's party July 6 who Trump then pardoned immediately after his inauguration, which the NYT published omitting any possibility of reflecting reader comments, but made sure to tell MAGAt readers how they they could order reprints broke any sense of trust i had remaining. PLUS when I felt something else was "not right" yesterday I ended up counting the headline entries and discovered it was fewer than forty. I made query here of HRC's audience of whether I should continue subscribing ro NYT. I got sympathy but little advice. Concluding that in its own terms, NYT had demonstrated its own failure to offer "all the news fit to print," I called yesterday to cancel.
And they wouldn't let me! My on line efforts failed, . . .because of their "policies" respecting cancellation. They 'require' two pieces of data from a customer. I had only one they'd accept -- my e-mail address. When I said you have my name, too (...oh.h.h.h) I was told that didn't count. I'd need to provide my account number by going on line and looking at some kind of data set they maintain. I said, no, I won't do that to quit, left the site I was on, called my credit card company and told them effectively immediately not to accept any NYT charges effective immediately. Done and done.
Within minutes I received a query from NYT as to the quality of the service I'd been given. I told them, among other things and in much greater detail, that it was the first time in my 89 years that "I had an inkling of what involuntary servitude might feel like." Henceforth, I will depend on HRC, who has been serving me far better than the NYT. There's a weight off my shoulders and a sense of righteousness in my heart.
File this under "EACH ONE OF US DOES WHAT WE CAN."
How is being uninformed doing what you can? HCR is great but she doesn't cover all the news. Yes the trad media is biased but they have always been. Retreating to an echo chamber of liberal discontent is not going to serve you well in the end.
Well, this is a particularly weird response to what I wrote. Well, not so much weird as dripping in irony when one factors in the overall tone. I took the money I saved by booting the Times and plowed it right back into another Substack account (wincing only a little when I realized some unwashed idjut out their might see it as my supporting a Vance [tic]). What is NOT going to serve anyone in America (including all those billionaires drunk on a tasty new power,) is when our democracy goes belly-up because of the difficult challenge of transforming back to constitutional understandings and behaviors.
(Oh, my! I just read your last line again and realized you might be referring to HCR's Substack. FYI, I'm one of those conservatives who's bent on preserving the liberal values and most demanding intentions which guided the founding.)
I read mine this AM @ 7:45 AM (now 9:47 AM) just before breakfast to say here I'm breaking off the comments for whatever time it takes to draft and post my take on a very personal step I took yesterday. Back soon.
Personally I applaud your responses and efforts. Be advised that this page gets it's fair share of trolls along with those opposed to democracy; Some remain silent and just do opposition research; Others pollute the space with their opposite opinions. If you stick around and read the community on a regular basis, you'll soon realize who you can have meaningful discussions with and those you should avoid even trying to chat with.
Thank you for your kind and generous response. I just wrote a much longer post to you, but lost it for reasons a total mystery to me (but associated with long COVID which has severely hampered me in complex linear responses like conversing in Substack medium which is totally foreign to me. Again, many thanks.
Better yet if you want more readers put it in small effective quotes on social media. Scholarly Americans enjoy and have time for long emails and books. The majority of voters learn from social media
Better yet, those small effective quotes should be put on billboards in selected areas of the country, payed for by the Democratic Party and the message should be change with every damaging policy being implemented. Lynne Lew brought the idea of billboards yesterday and I thank it's a very effective and economical way to reach a lot of people having second thoughts and might jump the fence. Definitely we need more voters.
Outdoor billboard advertising can be effective, but it's tricky to create and deploy. Here are the industry best practices:
1. Must be read and understood in 2.3 seconds or less.
2. Based on #1, maximum number of words is 6.
3. Accompanying graphic or image must be bold and eye-catching.
4. If billboard structure is located at an intersection, word count can be doubled.
Most political issues don't lend themselves to 6-word messages.
Billboards, especially those in high-traffic, desirable locations are difficult to access. They are typically contracted by advertisers for 6 months or a year. Available boards are available only for a full month, as owners will change them only once a month.
If these challenges can be overcome, billboards are very effective. Reach can be multiplied if the board is so catchy or controversial, other media photograph it and rebroadcast it, such as the "swastikar" panel.
I love Ann Telnaes! I agree that she's a genius with a single image. Still, a billboard would be a challenge, even for her. The "letterslot" shape, for starters. Also, most of Telnaes' cartoons, while profound, often require a bit of study – more than 2.3 seconds – to appreciate the full meaning of her work.
😂 We dumped our swasticar for a beautiful Mini Countryman EV. In the first week you could clearly notice how many faults there were with the Tesla, including the lack of mileage you could get out of the battery. Not as advertised.
I’d like a magnetic bumper sticker that says I upgraded my swasticar.
I wonder if the Professor has talked about syndicated like one letter a week or a review of her previous week's letters. Being under contract with Boston College may limit how she can publish. Or perhaps Substack could place ads in the major newspapers, YouTube, X, Blue Sky, etc. She has a incredible following at this point, but there's millions of people that are unfamiliar with her work.
I like it your 5 Bullet Points! You get a Gold Star for your work for this week. It is obvious that you are important to the organiziation & you can keep your job for this week but be ready next week you may have show 10 bullet points, you know show that you are earning your keep!
It used to be fun to be among the first responders in the middle of the night. Now it's better to get good sleep. How Dr. Richardson keeps up this pace of work and her own equilibrium is beyond me.
The idea that Trump and Musk are concerned about waste and fraud is like believing a drug addict is trying to end drug trafficking. They are the ones who've helped put us in debt. Trump is responsible for 25% of the national debt. Musk is receiving billions in government contracts. If Republicans were truly worried about the waste and fraud, these two would be the last people anyone would listen too. Instead, the GOP has embraced the two con artists with open arms. Shameful.
I predict that when the firings are done, that a lot of the work that was formerly done by government agencies will be handed over to outside contractors and we will be spending even more on the cost of government. 2025 is definitely a ruse to have even more people (like Musk) get super rich on the backs of American taxpayers. We already have given Musk control over STARLINK and our space program. That alone gives him way more power than his money does as we saw when he shut off STARLINK to the Ukrainians. Is this what we want???? We will be decades cleaning up the mess that they are making.
Like the prison system, Accuweather, etc. The Federal prison system is a great example of how contractors screw us over and cost us way more than when it was run by Uncle Sam. And the USPS is the same. Many of the rural carriers are contractors instead of Federal employees. And the USPS under Trump's boy DeJoy SUCKS.
Get prepared for the shared costs to become your costs. All of the families that depend on elder care facilities for their parents will need to prep for their elders to return to their homes.
Back about 20 or so years ago, my mother in law had a stroke. I won't elaborate on her much, but she was a hoarder as bad as you see on the television show. It totally soured her relationship with her two children, their spouses and her grandchildren.
She was in a nursing home for over a year, her two next strokes each returned her to nursing care, that third stroke left her wheelchair bound and on a feeding tube.
Without Medicaid, she would have needed nursing care that we would have had to provide. Our home would needed to have been remodeled to accommodate a wheelchair/bedbound woman. And I would have had to either hire full time care, or quit my job (while also putting three kids through college).
She never owned a home or had a lot of money, only what she inherited from her own mother. We were told to prepay her funeral (which infuriated her when she found out, but she was comatose for about 2 weeks post brain surgery). We were also told to apply for Medicaid when her assets got down to $35K which came very quickly when the level of care cost over $8000/month. My husband HAND DELIVERED the paperwork to the office, and it still got lost. He resubmitted it, and it took FIFTEEN MONTHS till it was approved. In the meantime, we'd get calls from the home's accounting dept asking about the status, not quite dunning us, but not exactly friendly, either. (That is another story). When they'd get her in her wheelchair, she had quite the upper body strength and guile--she got "transferred" (ie, kicked out) of one nursing home probably due to her stealing from the other residents and otherwise causing problems. (Got some visitor to get her cigarettes and set herself on fire.)
THANK GOD for Medicaid, as I don't know how our family and our marriage would have survived this period of about 8 years.
I'm so sorry to hear that Miselle. The percentage of caregivers for people over 65 is close to 50% which is kind of shocking to me. But, I have several friends that have been through the horrors you went through both with parents and spouses.
My wife is and always has been a progressive, but she's ready for Trump to tear it all down. If it takes 20 years to rebuild it, then so be it.
I went through similar tragedies Miselle, but dragged out through over a thirty some year period that eventually took me down and at the end of it all, I'm left disabled and a family destroyed. I held out long enough to get my 2 daughters through school and on to what should be promising careers as my lone salve, but my spouse and I are screwed.
I'm sorry to hear that. Hoarding is a mental illness, and I've come across several other hoarders over the years. Those people were not mean or nasty, and some recognized they had a problem, but my m.i.l. was simply awful to my husband. He was always patient and kinder to her than she deserved, but it ruined their relationship. No surprise that his only sibling moved over 2000 miles away.
My dad was a hoarder. Whenever one of us 3 kids came to visit, my mom would sneak out to our cars with some of his "treasures."
My dad would be livid when he went looking for some junkyard trinket but my mom just let it roll off.
When my mom died we brought in a dumpster and tossed out about 90% of his stuff. It took a couple of weeks because he also collected coins and stashed cash here and there. I'm sure some valuables were tossed but we spent a couple of weeks hauling stuff from the house to the dumpster.
Many hoarders are collectors and have valuable stuff that can be sold at auction. It seemed like the families where the kids decided to auction off their parents stuff or have a tag sale ended up having fewer quarrels about getting slighted.
Mom and Dad were not hoarders, but my disabled and pain med addicted sister moved in to help Dad care for Mom, who had early onset Alzheimer's, was a hoarder.
To be absolutely clear, privatization of government is the BIGGEST LIE the CONservatives throw out there. Common sense shows that is pure BS. How can a group that seeks profit first over service ever deliver better service? IT does not happen.
Correct. Because they really don't care how good the service is. They only care how much they can milk the system to enrich themselves. They are vampires.
Umm. Perhaps our "health" system is the perfect example of profit over people.
It has become a diabolical state of the art disaster - a failing to deliver scheme to enrich a few and cause suffering for many.
There is a place for private enterprise in the production of goods and some services. But health, education, protecting the environment and the government overseeing such belongs in the hands of the people.
One of the great hypocrisies of the politicians pitching private enterprise is that they fail to learn from the competition. As an old business guy, I know that when your competitor does something well, you look into it - and maybe adapt that way of doing things to your own enterprise. Business 101.
If the head of HHS wanted to do something smart from a business person's perspective, he would listen to experts from 10 other nations that have healthcare systems that deliver universal coverage at half of what we spend. Take the best ideas they have and adapt them to the American public. Since, Congress is now completely sidelined, he could ask Musk to implement it. /s
But even if he wanted to do something that revolutionary, the oligarchs who are pulling the strings would derail it right away. Hillary tried. How hopeful and naive the Clintons were on this subject.
Anyone with an ounce of empathy, a grain of "Christian spirit", the tiniest amount good business sense or GOOD WILL - ANY independent evaluator who looked at our healthcare mess would have to say: "Scrap this and start from scratch. A few people are making a lot of money while a lot of people suffer and die."
Not sure which is greater - the obscene wealth sucked from society or the cruelty.
"Correct. Because they really don't care how good the service is. They only care how much they can milk the system to enrich themselves. They are vampires"
Yes. It also occurs to me that with Starlink and access not just to personal data but corporate, military, and governmental data the DOGE crew may eventually be able to stop communications at will, screw up supply chains, and deploy military forces anywhere in the country at will. Musk is pulling off a huge and complex theft with Presidential sponsorship.
Carol, exactly. The tactics of Herbert Hoover on steroids. And the resulting "Hoovervilles" will have to be called "Mumpvilles" to tar the two people most responsible.
Umm. We did not "give" Musk control of Starlink He created the company and owns it. Ditto for Space-X. He created a space company with a risk-taking mindset that has succeeded in outclassing NASA in launch management. Those successes, though, have gone to his head. It's a shame, since, done right, his approach could have been used to improve some government operations in a controlled and kind manner, instead of the chainsaw horror show we're witnessing.
Beat them at their own game. The Democrats need to get busy talking about their successes and what they could do a better job instead just beating up Trump get us nowhere.
The "GOP" is responsible from some pretty nasty situations right now, and apparently more to come. They need to be made to wear them. We need to be smart about messages of both a more appealing future and the many things that are a genuine threat. What is most likely to cut through the fog(?)
I like what Carville wrote yesterday. Democrats aren't in power. Republicans control ALL branches of government, but are sitting idly by as dodgy DOGE and the Muskrats implement Project 2025 and the Trump Musk revenge tour. We're witnessing a coup done more quickly than Hitler did in Hitler's first 53 days. They've only been at this a month. And I can't understand why Vance wasn't angry that his name tag at the cabinet table didn't have his name. It only read Vice President. Wonder if that was where Musk was supposed to be sitting.
It's purposeful idle sitting the Republicans in Congress are doing. Musk is doing what they want to do and are constrained by having to please their voters. Their voters voted for race and sex hatred and their own economic gain. What they're getting, through Musk and Vought, is economic pain with the race and sex hatred. Apparently the two go together. Who knew. As they're figuring it out they're yelling at their elected representatives, but it's too late. Be careful what you wish for.
Heather didn't mention the really big next thing in the executive order on implementing DOGE. Trump is going to sell off all "non-essential" real property--think all of those empty office buildings, National parks, government-owned land, mineral and water rights...
The oligarchs get fantastic deals, Trump gets cash for his sovereign wealth fund, but of course he will say he is paying down the debt...
a page right out of Milton Friedman's free market philosophy. Friedman was sent to various countries that the U.S. threw out the democratically elected leadership in South America and then again to Moscow after the Soviet break-up. When you check out what happened in those countries, the government resources were sold off in a fire sale, pennies on the dollar. As a real estate guy you can see his strategy and we, the people, will get screwed.
Actually, we already have a "wealth fund;" there is a need to understand the power of fiat currency to fund democracy. See this documentary for an intro: "Finding the Money," Stephanie Kelton.
"You are beyond the looking glass like Alice and the Red Queen..." Funker Vogt, Red Queen. I feel like the world has slipped into a parallel universe as of the third week in January.
I have a good friend who works for the federal government. She is in IT protecting SNAP benefits. She has been there for 16 years. I watched her do whatever it took to protect those benefits during government shutdowns and threatened shutdowns. She lost her job yesterday. I’m gutted for her.
I'm so sorry she has become another victim of this maladministration. I have no words for this evisceration of what was our government, which despite its flaws over 240+ years was at least based on the unspoken assumption of the rule of law, and democracy.
Oh this gets worse. There are so many jobs posted in the private sector that aren’t even real openings. As well she told me yesterday that there were 5 suicides by federal workers that they are aware of this past week. What do we do? I live in Florida. I have taxation without representation.
I don't get it. All that slashing and burning of useful programs and the people who execute them. Trying to throw the country 50, 60 years back in time. The pushing of Christian nationalism items on the agenda. The offensiveness of the US government towards their allies and other parts of the world (shuttering USAID, Gaza). The pulling out if the Paris Agreement (saying climate change is a hoax, so f*** nature). The open flirting with dictators. The silencing or numbing of the press. And so on.
Doesn't it seem obvious that even though the people who don't (want to) pay attention will notice? What does this administration suppose will happen? That people who will lose so many things they take for granted now, will cheer them on? While slowly but surely they figure out the enormous inequality in wealth. The immense grifting that is taking place.
Civil uprising seems unavoidable at some point. I can't see otherwise. What then? They're gonna turn the police, military against their own people? Who they've been robbing? Who the 🤬 wants this? This administration must see that it's heading that way with how they are acting and grabbing power, effectively killing the democracy. Don't they? I just don't get it.
I'm submitting a letter to our local paper this week suggesting that Christians and Oligarchs follow the teachings in the Bible and tithe. At least 40 times, the Bible talks about tithing. Can you imagine if all of the oligarchs donated money like Mackenzie Scott has? Much of her wealth is in stocks, but in spite of her giving away billions every year, she is often wealthier at the end of the year than at the start.
Elon Musk scoffs are "do gooders" like Ms. Scott. Let's all start shaming people into tithing, especially the "trustifarians" who haven't worked a day in their life or missed a meal.
"Civil uprising seems unavoidable at some point. I can't see otherwise. What then?"
Self-fulfilling propositions. What Republicans have been working for since Nixon.
This is what Republican religious extremists are praying for. Apocalypse Now. Where we see problems to be solved, they see The End Times.
This is what Republican domestic terrorists are pushing for. Apocalypse Now. A replay of the Civil War where they win.
This is what Republican authoritarians are scheming for. Apocalypse Now. An excuse to proclaim martial law. To
replace civilian government with military rule and suspend civilian legal processes - including elections - for military powers.
Republicans have a Third Term Project. The slogan is "Trump 2028 ... and beyond." From the floor in Congress they've started speaking of the 'OBiden administration 'as a precedent for a third term.
Republicans want to effectively end
our secular constitutional representative government based on equality before the law, equal representation, the separation of church and state.
They have explicitly stated that they prefer a bloodless coup as in Hungary, but are not adverse to violence.
No, you got it! You really 'got it'! The destruction of the administrative state, followed by the destruction of democracy & the absolute gutting of the first amendment is on the block. So, you really do get it!
Wilma, I sympathize but I don't think you have actually observed the people who voted for this. They are fed a steady diet of lies, obfuscations, and idiocies and believe that "owning the libs" is what is happening. Back during the election campaigns a poll of voters were asked if they preferred a totalitarian regime to a democratic one. A majority of Rethuglicans said yes. Now, I doubt they understand what those words mean, but the feverish love of a dictator is what has driven many a military takeover, fascist regime, and authoritarian rule. Did people rise up in Uganda two years ago when the government made it a crime punishable by death to be gay? No. And yet they had experienced all the awfulness of Idi Amin just a couple of decades ago. These days fascism doesn't creep: it gallops.
Look at what the chief convicted criminal said today at his cabinet meeting: “This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting.”
As to the nature of that convicted criminal, wannabe Putin, we could add “imbecilic face with orange make-up caked-on,” “obesity waddling,” and such a sick “fried, fast food diet as modeling even more sick fatness.”
We’re in a crisis: that convicted criminal toadying to the world’s worst autocracies, killing alliances with our longest-loyal democracies, and having his apartheid South African rich-bro crony cripple the U.S. government.
What’s MSNBC doing? Firing, removing from prime time all the (too honest?) people of color hosts it can.
Maybe ad hominem is the best we can do. Dems got so shellacked in the recent elections – they so out of touch with our millions-of-jobs-offshored, abandoned working classes, they so OK with U.S. funding Gaza genocide – we who can may need to up our derision at out of touch elites getting more out of touch while the vulgar and corrupt entrench.
There's a way to get back in touch with workers: embrace the zero waste movement. Build new zero waste infrastructure everywhere there used to be landfills. Make conservation fun. Put reuse at the head of the line; recycling next, then composting and way at the end, wasting. Make the Resource Recovery Parks destinations, with quirky architecture and plenty of places for people to hang out. Turn waste into wealth. Zero Waste is where progressive meets conservative: progressive because done well, zero waste is labor-intensive; conservative because it ends the age of waste.
Dan, I would add to that food waste. My husband and I both came from modest upbringings where a meal out was a treat. We've done well for ourselves, and do like to eat out perhaps once a week. We like to frequent two mom & pop local places where the portions are generous. We are both amazed at both the amount of food people order, and the amount they leave behind. I routinely see perhaps two people order quantities that would feed a family of four, and leave behind half of it.
I can understand that perhaps someone new to the venue wouldn't know the portion sizes. Still, each place has a large carryout business and you can take leftovers home. (One even has containers stacked at a counter.) I would agree that not all food will travel well, but much of it does. I've found an airfryer to be the perfect appliance for reheating a lot of food.
I recall my parents saying "clean your plate; there are people starving in Africa." They had lived through the great depression and experienced real deprivation, and taught me that waste was a sin. That's real waste, not the phony excuse
given for removing good workers from jobs illegally.
I love this. What a great sense of community this project would deliver along with the obvious benefits. I remember when to be "conservative" meant conserving. I think conserving natural resources, money, health, general welfare - all good.
But I would not use the word anymore. The old school "Conservatives" are dead or afraid of being killed for speaking out. No, "conservative" now means oligarchy, brutality, anarchy, destruction of our world, betrayal of our friends.
And there is great profit in producing all this waste. And the profiteers are now in charge of every branch of the government. "Waste" is the ENGINE of profit.
There are examples of your "conservation" practices in other countries. But "conservatives" will claim that they are left wing examples of losing our freedom. Freedom - to wreck the planet?
It's hard to square the championing of Luigi Mangione and anti-elitism with anyone liking what is being done in the current administration. I feel like there should be a reckoning, but will it be in time and will it tear the country apart?
“Look at what the chief convicted criminal said today at his cabinet meeting: “This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting.”
Always projection with donold…
Almost like he asked the mirror, mirror and it shown the reflection of him, bloated and fat and disgusting yet somehow had gotten the country and now it does have that image cast onto it.
Perhaps I haven't paid enough attention in the past, or it's just because his mug is everywhere now, but I think "what is up with Elon's face"?? He looks bloated to me. I've wondered if he's had filler injected that has shifted.
I read someplace that he had a cosmetic reconstruction surgery to his lower jaw and has utilized hair plugs to conceal his receding hairline. He almost sounds to me as if he's trying to imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger with his diction and pronunciation..
It's not quite accurate to say "Dems got so shellacked" in the last election. In fact, Trump won by the thinnest margin, and he won a plurality, not a majority. That means more people voted against him than for him. The House Republicans have a 1-vote majority. The Senate did flip. So Dems lost, for many reasons, not least clueless strategy. But it's not quite as bad as being shellacked. Being steamrollered in the aftermath, that's accurate.
We are not only ignoring climate change, but abetting, raising profits for its fossil fuel biggies.
We are condoning the fascists of the Clarence court who push their ideology confining women to the past and Christo-nationalist-fascists to world rule.
Effing Dems effed us all thanks to all the schools that taught them never ever notice the great American arts that see people hurt and also see the bastards that do the hurting.
Gee Phil. Much as I find Mump disgusting, I disagree with almost everything you said. In my opinion, it's you who is out of touch and part of the reason not enough Democrats came out to vote for Harris.
This is what James Carville said in the NYT. Totally disagree. We waited 4 years to convict Jan 6. Time is now.
“With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat”
Musk/Trump fired thousands of federal park system employees and they eliminated all of the seasonal employees for 2025. Acadia National Park hires about 150 seasonal workers each year. The park CAN NOT operate without them. Almost 4 million visitors come to the park every year bringing in about $650 million to the local economy.
So Musk/Trump were willing to trade around $4 million in salaries for these 150 workers for the loss of $650 million to the local economy. Of course, this is just one park. We're talking tens of billions of dollars in lost revenues vs a few hundred million in expenses at the most.
Potentially lost? USAID delivers peanut paste to children who are starving and nearly dead. Access to women's health care saves tens of thousands of lives annually. Access to TB meds as well, and condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. I could go on but why? A vote for this was itself a hate crime.
I say "potentially" because I don't have direct material evidence of DOGE caused deaths, although, barring intervention, that would be certain. The sociopathic cruelty is self-evident. Such glaring doublethink on the part of self-proclaimed "Christians", or anyone with an ounce of compassion, would support this. We have to viscerally connect the sociopaths to the actual victims. The testimony of those who suffer and those who serve, as old-school un-in-bedded journalism revealed the cruelty and pointlessness of the Vietnam War.
As was the election of 1980. We have been living Big Lies for decades, and now it outshouts Vox Populi as billionaires increasingly own the forum. Together we stand, divided we fall.
There will be no free and fair elections with this administration, going forward, so the midterms become irrelevant
If the Jan 6th insurrection was with a REAL ELECTION ...trump isn't leaving = ie putin
This Judicial is now Kash Patel with Bongino ( KGB style ) and the military, with new Obeying/Loyal Generals to be named....and NO JAG JUDICIARY BACK UP = ie Russia
The ( acting only ) Senate / Government is only to give the administration the money they need...but until today and trumps new EO ! does the Senate become an unnecessary waste of money too ??
? trump and musk visit Fort Knox....for real ... why is that ? We know there IS a reason
trump told us, our democratic allies, and the world, he is clearly aligned now with putin
Every US government department has now been accessed and compromised and some, non functional
I think we NEED NO FURTHER PROOF...NOT ONE MORE THING...it is 95% autocratic now
Yes, we still have the Judiciary holding ...but will it survive SCOTUS is the last leg (test) on the 3 legged stool .... ie the Constitution's safety net of the devision of power from Senate / Judicial/ Administration...
Yes unthinkable
Today we have a five alarm fire bell ........it's ringing ........
Let's be clear - there will be elections, but like Hungary and Russia, there will be nothing fair. Greg Palast has posted on it. The structure to block their opponents from voting is in the SAVE Act. I have written my senators and reps and they see no problem as i expected them to see. In The Power Worshipers (Katherine Stewart) the religious right teaches the women and girls that when they get to vote they must vote like their husbands or they are sinning.
The upcoming election will be a test. If it's a sham (as I expect), there may well be no point in voting in 2028. It will be an obvious sham if the GOP massively sweeps the election.
The more this hits social media the better. No criticism of Trump just the facts Jack
Before Trump took office, the number of people employed by the U.S. government was at about the same level it was 50 years ago, although the U.S. population has increased by about two thirds. What has increased dramatically is spending on private contractors, who take profits from their taxpayer-funded contracts. HCR
The 24 Hour Economic Blackout - FRIDAY February 28th
For one day we show them who really holds the power. Do not make any purchases. Do not shop online, or in-store. Nowhere! Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non essential spending.
The point of the exercise is to give this administration a swift and noticeable kick in the economics!! The economy will not plummet ... that is not the point. It should be a demonstration of solidarity and 'rebuke'!
Thank you Professor Richardson.
Years ago GOP darling Grover Norquist stated (and I paraphrase) "I want a government so small I can drown it in a bathtub". It was never about the size. It was always about weakness. Years of attacks on the guardrails of democracy so gravely weakened the United States so that it is now run by an unelected South African billionaire and a felon who is a Russian puppet.
No foreign adversary or extremist organization could inflict the horrific damage that has put the United States into a very weakened and fragile state. We are being destroyed at the intersection of extreme wealth and willful ignorance.
tRump's first cabinet meeting was stomach-churningly gross - a room full of frat boys. There are better cabinets at IKEA.
the new version of the KKK
When is press going to stop characterizing Trump’s gaslighting as "he made false statements". The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic and of the People, which should be the Democrats new slogan. Make no mistake, they are our enemy. They are trying to take away from us our constitutional Republic.
Rickey, I am wondering what this new branch of the KKK's costume and handshake will be. Trump won't want to shake any of their hands and who would want to get close to him except when they have to perform their ritual smooching of the grand dinosaur's nether regions?
Please, Ruth, don't place those images in my mind. Mysleep is disturbed enough
It would include the MAGA hat and the new phrase something about Trump is king, and fixed everything.
Hand mask,,, use the hand mask per Kimmel show!! Haha …gloves of course. I was thinking you were going to mention the size of his hands lol and the hand masks as Kimmel calls them would make them look larger.. I don’t mean to belittle the significance of kkk and the cabinet meaning… I am sick over all of this…and just as ‘sick’ by the supporters… idu how this country turned to someone like trump
This country didn’t “turn to” someone like Trump. Trump cheated. He didn’t count all the votes.
It's a mistake to concentrate our and the press attention on Musk rather than the real guilty person. When finally Musk if fire, after completing all the destruction the scumbag president would be held as a savior and a hero.
Ricardo, I wonder what Toddler-Musk's revenge will be when Toddler-Trump tries to dump him. I know the reason Trump picked Musk was not his choice, but the choice of his handlers hoping their Baby Donnie would come out looking like some kind of hero. Unfortunately, Trump's dementia will not permit much heroism, particularly if Democrats carefully, skillfully point it out and put it out that Trump will eventually dump Musk after the damage is already done. Trump does not have either the skill or the will to save anyone, not even himself this time.
The problem is the base doesn’t care how mentally compromised Trump is or how many of his best appointees he fires. They’re here for the hate and retribution. Musk admitted he turned to supporting the right wing crazies for retribution because his child is trans. He’s going to take his feelings of personal failure out on everyone else by siding with the haters.
Unelected President Musk held his first cabinet meeting and the media should word it that way. The figurehead of this country couldn’t even stay awake.
Project 2025 was overtly telegraphed before the election and trump's intentions were crystal clear, which half of Americans chose to ignore. Elon Musk was not part of the deal and not one lawmaker will dare lift a finger and do something about his burgeoning presence despite constituent outrage. There is only one hope--that the outrage fuels voter turnout in the midterms, democrats seize the House and the Senate and somehow find their courage, and trump/musk are impeached and thrown out of office the very next day. Oh, and take back their spending power....
Several things were not telegraphed: removing funding from starving Sudanese, taking over Treasury payments, gathering personal data from SS.
What about publicly aligning with Putin and throwing Ukraine to the curb? Cutting funds to US AID is the worst--taking critical food from starving people so that trillions can be handed off to the rich. What about EPA and USDA? Doesn't trump and his menagerie care about the water they drink and what they eat? It's all so embarrassing and evil. I'm praying for some karma....
The midterms aren't going to help us. Trump will use the playbook of every tyrant, like Orban and Putin, and see to it that the votes are counted in his favor. Look for another Republican House and Senate. Remember, it doesn't matter who votes, it's who counts the votes. That's why the last election was so important. We won't have fair elections again, unless there is a revolution.
As terrifying as what you propose is, I wouldn't put anything past this regime, including martial law. People are showing agitation. Just wait until they finish deporting people and these MAGAs begin to experience food scarcity. That'll do it! I don't understand why frustrated Americans can't be inspired by the South Koreans when their new president declared martial law. People took to the streets immediately and lawmakers got out of bed and scaled fence to rush to the assembly to reverse martial law and impeach him. Does martial law and food scarcity have to happen here to get people mobilized?
Yes! That's my hope and dreams too. ThEY HAVE TO BE STOPPED. And, Dems hopefully are busy selecting and grooming they're nominee to run our country and repair the damage that has been done. Or Nation IS strong enough to overcome the attempted takeover we are at present witness of. We are a Great Nation after all.
I admire Chris Murphy who is doing something--I am not from CT but hoped he would run for President--alas the Dems really mishandled the election. I also disagree with James Carvell--we can't just lay low--we have got to get started with plans for the midterms--I still believe we can have elections but we have to be dealing with things now---so scary about the SCOTUS and the Legislative Branch abdicating what the Constitution says--they are not now involved in checks and balances.
Just the same polls for the Dems remain dismyl, with general dissatisfaction across the board including those who voted for them in Nov. Townhalls turn out against Dem "inaction". Meanwhile the Trump executive tample over congressionally funded agencies and policies with no Republican resistance whatsoever, who wrap themselves in a false mandate so extremists can run rampant across every federal agency. Will the courts put on any brakes? Not so far.
Frank, I am not sure exactly what voters expect Dem pols to do. I see videos of them speaking out and being called out of order. I see them trying to get into various government departments. I see them doing for their constituents what they can. Everyday I see a post at the end of the day which lists what Ds both nationally and at the state level have done. Short of what some sort of military action, what is there to do. Btw, alt national parks published a list of all the things people are not allowed to bring when cleaning out their desks. It is a long list and ends with chloroform. The courts, unfortunately move slowly and so they have put on some temporary brakes which death star and muskrat are ignoring. My husband and I both think there is a big explosion coming, but don't know what. One person told me she had heard that the country would go completely dark. And the key in your post is no R resistance. They voted for their budget with all the cuts despite what they heard at their town halls. Someone needs to stand up and say I am Sparticus and then a whole lot more of them will.
Republicans are hiding in fear. As long as trump can keep the republicans in line and he will, the democrats can't do much. The republicans are in charge of everything. The big question is, will there be another free election?
Very true Michele. The explanation you think may come after the implementation of the budget they just passed despite all the warnings they had during the town halls meetings. People, even people that voted for them, will feel the pain, specially if they finally realized that the pain they feel will benefit the 1% of the population but not them. Thanks.
Will said! Thank you
Well said Ruth, the end of toddler # 2 will come and we should keep on pushing him out but at the same time we have to keep pointing out who is the real responsible on the daily basis to deny toddlers #1 the glory of doing the will of the people. He has the ability to quizze people like lemons and throw them into the garbage. That's the destiny of all serving the scumbag.
Thanks for your reply 👍
Thanks Ricardo. You are right that we need to keep making it clear who is really responsible. Toddler-Musk is just another tool for Toddler-boss-Trump and his handlers just want to be where the power is even if they are not of value beyond their immediate service to Toddler-Trump. They know he is deteriorating, but would lose their prized position if they told the truth, a truth that a lot of people already know, but the Trumpers and Trumpettes haven't figured it out yet. Heck, they couldn't remember how bad things were in 2020 and kept thinking they were doing better than rather than in 2024. How is it some people prefer to be oblivious? I don't get it. That is why we need to be constantly but carefully reminding them of what life could have been had they not voted for an old man with dementia just because he was white and male, and had a lout mouth. (he is beginning to lose that quality).
What you are wondering about how some people prefer to be oblivious is called stupidity and there's no cure for that. However, there's a portion of the scumbag president's voters that went along by being misinformed or didn't pay enough attention. We have to reach them when they start asking if the pain they and their families are feeling it's because of their bad choice.
I we get them with a clear and short message, they might jump the fence and vote right next time.
Thanks for your reply 👍
Ruth, it will take some time for most of the cult to realize the truth. While some of them who have lost money have figured it out, a lot of them still want to own libs and be as hateful as they want to be. An auto body shop located in a small community near here has a post which is how is 2025 treating you. I took a peek at the comments and as i expected lots of MAGA are just peachy keen. And they will be, until somehow they are personally affected and actually blame death star and his minions.
That is precisely the point. Trump doesn’t have the skill or the will. Heritage Foundation & Vought are ruling through their puppet Trump. It is Musk who does have the skill. And he has power that Trump just keeps on giving him more of. Musk needs to go back to Tesla…it’s in trouble and needs him.
Even Putin will not be able to save the husk, but Vance is no better and has Afrikaner Thiel behind him. It’s how do we shed both Putin and Vance?
You are right Virginia. JD Vance is much worse than Mu$k, a toddler trying to show how powerful and super rich he is and trying to get even richer. Vance, the Manchurian Candidate, is well spoken and brain washed and controlled by ideologist Peter Thiel that bought a senate position for him in Ohio. Just remember Vance's speech in Germany where he explicitly supported the local nazi party. What do we have to lose if we allow him to be trump's successor?
Isn't it ironic that in this maga moment in history two immigrants control the US government? Forgot to mention another immigrant, Rupert Murdock 😏
Ricardo. He may be worse, but he does not have whatever hold death star has over the cult. I actually would like all of them to be taken out a la Gary's post yesterday.
Thiel and Musk both were raised in the apartheid culture of South Africa. Apartheid officially ended in SA in 1990 and Musk moved to Canada in 1989. He was 17 at the time and moved to avoid the compulsory draft. Thiel's family left SA for Cleveland when he was 9 years old.
Thank you, Mr Bauman, for more facts about the two racists. I only knew 2 British escapees from the Boers.
Dear Virginia - you ask a good question, how do we shed Putin and Vance? I watched a bit of the cabinet meeting and it reminded me of the Putin video of his "cabinet" meeting immediately following his invasion of Ukraine. Except for Putin, it was a very scary time for the meeting participants. It could be defenestration (formal definition) for any member who spoke out against Putin's invasion. Same for the participants in Trump's first cabinet meeting. Yikes, I think we're living in Russia!
L. Murphy. I have been waiting for someone to be tossed out a window although I keep wishing it would be muskrat's arrogant minions. It is clear that they are all afraid.
At this point, Europe feels that the US is allied with Putin, and the recent UN vote shows that.
I agree with Ricardo Grinbank. Musk is doing the horrible dirty work, will be blamed and fired, and Trump will look good to his zombie followers. My 87 year old mother said this to me a few weeks ago, so other people are thinking this as well as you, Ricardo. I am so upset! Thanks professor Richerson and Mr Grinbank, for making everything clear to us .
Musk already has power but is very greedy. He will raid our Treasury for his own ventures such as SpaceX. He is a visionary and is looking for a bigger payout.
Today got Starlink for the FAA. Will he cancel it as he did for the Ukrainians at a very hot point in the Russian invasion?
Wouldn't put it past him.
Appreciate your reply Elizabeth 😁
So true Ricardo that is how it will play out. This man is a mastermind of deceit.
Thanks for your reply Molly 😉
The Leopard has got to be Trump’s animal totem …never changes his spots, right? That his MO!
Trump , the hero, best ever..the legend …especially in his own mind .
There are better cabinets at IKEA - that is a good one!!
Funny if not were tragic.
Right you are, Kazz! And even at most IKEA outlets, in spite of the mind numbing layouts and the accompanying parking wars, the cabinets are not nearly as monochromatic.
I will eschew commenting on the stark unconstitutionality and clear anti-democratic actions emanating from this ghastly Administration, as others herein have done a fine job doing same.
I simply point out the following: What grown ass American woman or man would serve in a cabinet purposed not to provide reasonable and experience based objective advice to the President, but one whose clear purpose under the Mango Mussolini is to serve as a Politburo-esque backdrop/cheering section for his every word and move?!? How low do you have to value yourself and your self-esteem to be part of such a "stomach-churning" (good phrase, Kazz) exercise?!? I'm looking at you, Brooke Rollins. And you, little Marco. And you, Pam "What Trump University?!?" Bondi. And on, and on.
Also, isn't there a dress code for cabinet meetings?!? Musk wears a f***ing MAGA baseball cap to a cabinet meeting?!? As he's not even a cabinet member, why the hell is he even there?!?
Finally, with apologies to the truly great and now sadly late Roberta Flack, every time I see Musk's mug now, I must admit I'm singing softly to myself,
"The First Time ever I punched your face"
Fantastic post. Realism meets funny. Thank you.
When is press going to stop characterizing Trump’s gaslighting as "he made false statements". The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic and of the People, which should be the Democrats new slogan. Make no mistake, they are our enemy. They are trying to take away from us our constitutional Republic.
Just think of the mean boys from the Dark Dojo in Karate Kid
Yes. They are the cliché bad boy gang from every B-grade movie.
This is hilarious and I'm stealing it! Thanks!
Well said!
And I thought that I actually caught the flu. My stomach is turning for many reasons.
thanks for that chuckle I had reading your last sentence. I needed that!
Some are sicker and thicker than others.
The Cabinet of Mean Boyz
https://youtu.be/GW2x195NAQo?si=G5Zxv-SJxMF3eWQH
When the Convicted Orange Felon said that “the enemy is within”, it wasn’t a warning, but a promise… Rump sold American democracy to the highest bidder: Darth Musk - for a mere 290 million dollars.
The price has increased from 30 pieces of silver. How’s that for inflation?
Perfectly coherent with the inflation of the egos of Rump and Muskolini...
NL, note the scumbag president is demanding to get paid in eggs rather than silver. That's a good deal 👌!!!!!
Pretty cheap and quite a deal. Probably the best deal of his corrupt career…
As always, Donny-boy tried to play with the big boys and be "a real smart businessman", only to get played by an even bigger boy... As you said: 290 million dollars is pretty cheap for someone who wanted to buy absolute rulership over America. For Muskolini, this is peanuts: he makes more money in the time he takes a piss.
..made Time Mag to boot!
...and let's not forget-he's promised Putin to help destroy Ukraine (and probably multiple other European countries will fall to Russia as well.)
Yep, that was the deal: Vlad helped Rump ascend the throne of America, and in return, Rump has to give him Ukraine and pull the US out of NATO, making the way free for Vlad's invasion of Europe.
This is exactly "the deal" and it's so frustrating that you don't hear it over and over so people will get it!!
It's even more frustrating that still too many people go like "nooo, that's just rumours to make Putin look evil" or "nooo, it can't be that bad". Damn it, it might even be worse: who knows if Vlad threw a couple of assassinations in the mix? Killing off political enemies is a core business of him, after all, and Donny-boy would very much like to see at least a couple of people die.
it was his confession.
Exactly.
I watched a good portion of the Trump cabinet meeting and most of it was devoted to money expenditures. That cabinet meeting makes clear Trump's sole focus in life is money, period.
From the Guardian:
Trump rounded off the meeting by observing: “The country’s got bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run.” (Bloated, fat, disgusting, incompetent. . . .Projecting again, Donald?)
Yet as Jon Stewart noted this week on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Doge will not touch the $3bn in subsidies given to oil and gas companies, a hedge fund loophole worth $1.3bn a year, or the $2tn given to defence contractors to build a fighter jet that will soon be obsolete.
“This is where the real money is,” Stewart said.
DOGE is the Department Of Grabbing Everything. Musk will bleed the US treasury (and, by extension, the American tax payers) dry - that's what they meant by "draining the swamp"...
His sole focus in life is HIM.
Nikita Kruschev once said "We will bury you." Took a little longer than he thought, but here we are.
So it is...
When is press going to stop characterizing Trump’s gaslighting as "he made false statements". The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic and of the People, which should be the Democrats new slogan. Make no mistake, they are our enemy. They are trying to take away from us our constitutional Republic.
Right you are. I would go one step further: it's no less than an assault on our reality. The worst weapons of mass destruction aren't nuclear weapons, but "social" media.
He had already sold US to Putin. Don’t think he’ll live to see Trump Tower Moscow though.
He'll expire long before he also realizes his dream of a Gaza Rivera. What a dope.
I think he will, because things are moving very fast now, but he won't be able to enjoy it for long.
And trump keep the change.
And Putin.
I figured out Musk bought the Oval Office for .0625% of his "worth." Not even 1%!!! And it's probably lower with every passing day.
So interesting to see so many foreign citizens take such a nasty interest in America domestic politics. Brit, Aussie, Dutch guy in Germany. What will you do when that lawfare conviction is reversed in Orange Man’s favor?
The Heritage Foundation / Vought is so delusional about how the GOP hid their Trojan Horse called ‘Project 2025’. The MAGA voter would deny that Trump was running under a regime change…they were intoxicated with their racism and misogyny and claim Trump was supporting his ‘Agenda 47’ on his website.
Our State legislators are in office, and my volunteering with Sierra Club is harder this year, because we are writing Testimonies for environmental issues, while a reckless Wrecking Crew is in office.
So volunteer where ever you can to hold on to your sanity and fight for our Democracy back. We really need to replace the mainstream media with Substack. Or their k1ss@ss biased disinformation will repeat what brought down 2024 like last year. Thoughts?
Think and act locally. Converse with real people. Believe in the Republic.
Heather Cox Richardson is local.
Excellent advice to get through each day.
Thank you for working with Sierra Club. I am writing postcards to WI voters at the moment, fighting a Skum attempt to take over the WI Supreme Court.
Me too! It’s the least I can do at this time as a new resident to this great state. Hate that muskox is putting his $$ into this Supreme Court race. Nasty ads. We have to get our communities activated. And yes, thank you to HCR! And to Substack, for letting our voices be heard.
I too am writing postcards for WI.
My recollection is that the Trojan Horse was a great big thing and that the danger lay in what was concealed inside. The authors of Project 2025 made no effort to conceal what they were doing and Democrats warned of its contents often during the election campaign. Trump merely affected diffidence, but there were no angry denials from his campaign about its relationship with Project 2025 and support for its aims. Indeed, the objectives and policies set out in Project 2025, albeit never quite so starkly laid out before in any public document, have long been on the right's wishlist.
Thank you for the work you are doing. At present we must defend, support others on the front lines, pursue every special election, and build toward 2026 and beyond.
Small, weak America is not so much a threat to the world, and then no one will listen to Trump outside or inside the country, or Musk. Musk has now aligned himself with destroying a nation. Who will invite that in to their own country?
As Trump destroys the US, he destroys his own power. Interesting that Olga Lautman and Zev Shalev talk about how Trump could turn the US military against Ukraine and help the Russians in response to a listener comment on their podcast today.
https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/breaking-trump-caves-in-ukraine-deal?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=382626&post_id=158009552&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=f0qfn&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I have been saying that Trump will sell the US military to the highest bidder as mercenaries. Will they go along with that? Is there anything in the constitution that says we cannot switch allies as they do in Orwell's 1984?
While Europe is insisting on American military support for Ukraine as is Zelenskiy, the sooner they all accept that they need European troops instead the better off they will be. Zelenskiy's people have been using their soldiers who are now the best trained military in Europe. They have not had American feet on the ground. Europe needs to figure out how to up their military numbers. They cannot offer uni tuition in Germany where I live because there is no tuition, but they could offer living expenses. The other choice is the draft. This is an article I wrote looking at the election results and who I think will be for or against that.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/friedrich-merz-the-untested-incoming
Thank you Linda. To be clear -Heritage, the criminal-elect, and the GOP seek to destroy the guardrails and protections of an (aspirational) democracy. The US is strong militarily. The justice system remains strong (although gravely corrupted by Bondi, Patel, the so-called "Supreme Court" and "judges" like Aileen Cannon.
The weakening Norquist spoke of, and this extreme group of domestic terrorists have implemented are purely in the protections formerly provided by the Federal Government when the Oath of Office was taken with moderate seriousness, not as a punchline to a joke.
George, the US is strong, but as Project 2025 gets implemented it will not be so strong. The first chapter that my Political reading group read was the one on the Dept of Education. That in and of itself is a formula for turning the US into a third world country. I can picture it after having taught in an international school in the Dominican Republic right after graduate school. In fact, living there for a year gave me good insights into what living in a third world country is like, and right now I see those elements there. A third world country, and an illiberally ruled country does not stay strong for long. So, how much can be staved off we shall see if it is not destroyed beyond recognition.
So far, the international relationships are being rewritten so that the US is aligned now with autocratic loser nations. Orban's Hungary is not a model to follow. They are the second poorest country in Europe.
Then there is the destruction of our education system, which is already lagging in many ways because is two tiered. The private and the public education, or that for the wealthy differs from that for the poor. Already there will not be educational supports for children with special education needs. It will be very difficult for parents.
Getting rid of federal workers means nothing is going to function well, and people will probably have to use bribes to get things done. Sucking the funding out of medical research, and big insurances like Medicare and Medicaid means that hospitals will close down and doctors will be available. Many treatments will no longer exist. If you rely on God and God alone to heal your illnesses you might be fine with this, but otherwise you are going to want health care.
The US will have tariffs on imports, but may no longer be able to produce enough food to feed the American people. That is losing farm subsidies, USAID contracts and immigrant workers will hit them hard. Etc...
So, these things will weaken the USA. No way that it has a dictator, who is ignoring the courts about unfreezing money, and doing their own thing. As for safety, the military is being purged of competent leadership and Russias military is an example of one where loyalty trumps common sense. Then there is the Intelligence community, which is losing the people who know what they are doing. What intel is Trump getting now? The Intel that Putin wants him to have? I do not see that as strong. Trump is rapidly destroying all of the things that make us strong.
Brava, Linda! The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Today worrying about Zelenskyy’s safety coming to Putin/Skum/DT country.
I hope Zelenskyy doesn't give Trump his country's wealth!
As I heard it, only the future profits on mining projects that have not yet begun will be what Trump gets. In many cases it is too hard to extract the minerals to be profitable.
Zelenskyy is not a fool, not a traitor.
Yes... What a huge mistake that would be!!
“Loyalty trumps common sense” is so succinct , Linda. It encapsulates the long dance of ‘elites’ inept focus , totally missing the principle of our forefather’s brilliance and constitutional goal.
Equality for all.
It is where I fall ,as a writer , to adequately pen the need ‘bringing the least to a common sense level’ vs pointedly using them as an excuse to exclude our basic tenant- that being- ‘caring for the needs of the whole’.
Be it a town, a country, the world..there is where we have lost common sense to greed…
Very true Linda. Heritage, the Criminal-elect, and his MAGA/GOP sycophants simply want blind obedient hyper-consumers. The last thing they want is a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged “woke” society questioning privatization, “trickle-down” economics, tax cuts for the wealthy, and who will pay for the growing debt.
No one will have the $$ to be hyper-consumers once everyone is too busy merely surviving.
Linda--yes.
Grover became a punchline to a joke long ago.
never forget he got all the GOP to sign the no new taxes pledge with the promise of being primaried.
rickey, I truly wish we could limit both the length of campaign seasons, and the amount of money that can be donated. What a huge mistake was made letting corporations donated millions!
I see all the amount of junk mail that comes in my house, and immediately goes in the recycle bin---I don't trust that stuff, I'd rather look at the candidates official websites, or recall their prior actions--and think of all the GOOD that could have been achieved with those $$$.
That extortionist pledge demanded of any Republican who wanted to seek office had me turning against my old party when it cost GHW Bush a second term. To me, GHW Bush (41) had started adjusting taxes appropriately upward so Clinton could continue to build upon the trend with a bit more that eventually produced the first surplus. (Reagan had also taken about 30% of his excessive tax cuts back though he wouldn't let anyone call them tax increases)
I had left the party before the first surplus (same time Elizabeth Warren left the party). To me the coming surplus was from some Bush 41 and more Clinton appropriate tax policy.
Though I will never go back to my old party of 5 generations (anymore than ancestors would go back to being Whigs after 1854), I did appreciate finally seeing some push back on Norquist as described at https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/11/26/165944895/gop-push-back-on-no-tax-norquist-less-than-meets-the-eye
Well said, Linda
Weak congressmen and women… eventually they will wonder why the job was so key when soon, they too, will belong
To “the lesser of us” with no power to stop him
Interesting pipeline into current thinking in Germany. There are over a million Ukrainians living in Germany. Why? Not home fighting the Russians? How is Germany going to pay for rearming? Have you spoken to any Ukrainians about Zelensky?
Raymond, Did you expect women, children, and elders to stay in Ukraine to fight the Russians? Thankfully, there are many Germans who understand their plight.
Lots of women and children staying in Gaza. Hamas has more volunteers than they can train. Palestinians have belief,Ukrainians maybe not so much.
Palestinians cannot leave Gaza. It is a penal colony
You are a stupid man.
We have Ukrainian relatives living in Germany. We have not talked of late. The last Ukrainian person I had a conversation with here, did not speak German or English and we had a strange very challenging conversation about the bus using our cell phones to translate. It was laborious, but we had camaraderie! It was not a format that lent itself to talking about politics. It was hard to understand what was being said. The software on our phones was not so good.
Yes, there are about 1. 2 million Ukrainians here. Mostly women, children and old men. They were allowed to leave. I see a lot of Ukrainian mom's and children on the buses or trams as I go around the city. Actually, there are more Russians in Germany than Ukrainians because they after the wall came down, all people in the former Soviet Union who could prove German ancestry was allowed to immigrate here. Thus, we get a lot of Russiophiles in the voting.
Germany is not sure yet how it will pay for rearming. First of all Germany needs to have a government. That will happen after the first and third place parties hash out a deal. Merz is hoping to be done by Easter, and it is not clear if a budget can be passed by then. However, I heard a politician saying last night that the extra money approved for the military would still go a long way. Another German politician who was formerly with NATO says that Germany should not count on the US for anything, and needs to move on from that idea. So, how will Germany pay for it? Either by raising the debt break by claiming it is an emergency, which a whole lot of Germans are reluctant to do, including as I understand, Merz; or they can cut social programs to pay for it. Still, even if they build up weapons where will the soldiers come from? Here is an article I wrote looking at this situation post the election.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/friedrich-merz-the-untested-incoming?r=f0qfn
However, before the election I updated my piece on Germany going to War.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/germany-prepares-for-war-updated?r=f0qfn
Thank you for replying.Production, in this case, is more important than troops. This has become an electronics war. Drones , jamming, fly-by-wire drones to avoid jamming, satellite navigation, a real day by day rat race. The king of electronics design and production is Elon Musk.
Be that as it may, Russians have troops on the ground which requires Ukraine to do so too. According to Timothy Snyder and others Ukraine has really upped the drone technology and the robots they use too. Elon did not finish engineering school, I believe he had a year. He does not do the designing those who work for him do. So, what do you mean when you say King? Being discussed right now is that his AI is not as good as that of others so he has access to their data, their patents, trade secrets and he can monetize that. What Elon Musk is king of is thieving.
Yes, "those that work for him" is right. He can't even code. His talent is in assembling the right people to do the right project. Zelensky expects to make two million drones this year. Are they the right ones? Is two million enough?
Somr Ukrainians have already returned home.
Umm, there were or are U.S. soldiers in nearby countries, training.
I believe Vought said that he wants the federal worker to feel sick on his way to work in the morning. I guess to demonstrate why it's important to eviscerate the government worker.
His hate is inexhaustible. This and his other statements reflect a really pernicious, evil mother fucker......
Poor morale in the federal workforce - among those who are still employed, anyway - could cause all sorts of problems. Oligarchs don't understand the potential impact of unhappy workers.
So true Stephanie. And when you think of all of the Criminal-elect sycophants who pledge their complete fealty to the narcissist king, his shillbilly VP, and his imbecile billionaire -hating the idea of Federal government while pretending to serve never works out very well for anyone.
People, remember, Republicans have a way - an experienced way of “f_ing” things up…Hoover and the Great Depression, Bush/Cheney and The Great Recession and yes, there were others!!!
Others like Reagan and the 40 year con job of neoliberalism that that began with the Powell memo. It gave us unsustainable wealth inequality, the rise of the billionaire class, and deregulation that contributed to financial collapses and global warming. Education budgets were gutted along with the middle class, the result being the ignorant and gullible MAGA base. With Trump we face full-on fascist White Christian nationalist authoritarianism, but it is a continuation of the collapse that has been going on for the last half century or so.
I think, Philip, the gutting of ed happened worse in higher ed.
It was ALEC (courtesy of the Powell memo, as you cite) that through the 1970s got all the U.S. state legislatures seriously to reduce funding. This crippled tenure. Brought in the mass of gypsy scholars as indentured contingent labor. And set millions of student in crippling debt to fat banks.
Yes, it was strangulation time in K-12, too -- death by the standardized testers.
U.S. Ivy League grads floated the old Soviet nomenklatura, who produced Putin, who now has his fat orange puppet engaged in rape on a scale vastly beyond the many women he raped when he was a mere casino and other biz bankrupt.
I saw this as a social worker where Ohio programs like the Bureau of of Children with Medical Handicaps was stripped bare of what it once had been. Even Bill Moyers failed to describe this type of stripping away of support. The saddest things is that even rich folk like Molly Briwn saw the nerds abd areas tried to rectify some of the problems. The bureau was crated by usually white rich females but they saw the need of others and felt a moral and social obligation to change the system and help children and families. Now most people do not know the names of chance Hamilton, Ida Cannon, Edna Jane Hunter and Abby May Alcott. Jacob Riis has two parks named after him but who knows about his photographic journalism? We need these types of folks unfortunately again. Strong and bold and with a solid moral center.
WE might be beyond the WCNA, and into a "state capture" that is indeed radical. WHat Mush did/is doing is original.
HCR reminds us of this history. When you look at every economic downturn, the conservatives were in power. One of the most egregious re-wrties of history is the conservative think tanks claiming that the New Deal prevented the economic recovery. They claim that the government programs prevented (without evidence) the private sector from bouncing back. They totally ignore that the government programs invested in many of those legacy companies (fossil fuel and others) giving them a leg up when they were about to close. They like to blame the government for inflation when they put more money in circulation, and that might be the case in other countries, but not here.
You are right and you and I both know that, but for the multitude of maggots their votes were based on hate for "different" people, not economic issues other than maybe eggs. So, now they are going to find out and, in some cases, already are like farmers in the heartland and the USAID market gone. FAFO is upon us all now.
Remember tomorrow is a day to buy nothing from retail with more days coming in March and April.
The resistance starts on 2/28 and hopefully grows or at least this part of it.
This is no longer about Conservatism or Right-wing ideology. It is too radical a break.
So why is the Republican Congress silent, when their Article 1 functions are being taken away?
Doug G, I keep asking same question. I understand Trump due to his malignant narcissism and low IQ. I understand MAGAs due their their reliance on Fox and misinformation from other sources. BUT, I really do not understand why Republican Congress remains silent as a bloc. Are they really so beholden to oligarchs? Do they really have nothing else to do in their lives, making them so fearful of a primary?
Rep. Eric Swalwell says that it is fear for their physical safety for themselves and their families.
He himself spent more than $1 million in the past two and a half years on security. He was a manager in Trump’s second impeachment trial, and has filed a lawsuit against Trump and Don, Jr.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/republicans-trump-threats
Maybe Swalwell has experienced it, but I’m truly doubtful that the entire Republican Party has experienced this level of physical threat. If they have, they need to gather and identify effective solutions. Cowardice is staying nothing, doing nothing, and allowing threats to continue.
Saying nothing when threatened with violence makes no sense to me. What do they do when they are threatened with being threatened? Not many are exactly profiles in courage.
Right, if you were doing a good job for the people in your district why would you be afraid of being primaried?
I agree, but propaganda against you and the fear of violence might be a bigger reason.
If you cower and refuse to do the right thing the bullies will just continue because they see that it’s working.
Exactly.
Because they are weak cowards who are afraid to stand up for the Constitution. Money and power is more important to them. After MTG spent the last Congress trying to reduce the salaries of Biden’s appointees now she wants to take away the salaries of federal workers because she claims they’re not doing their jobs. Funny how she never wants to take away the salaries of her fellow GOP who do nothing but threaten salaries and bring up ridiculous impeachments. They’re a worthless lot and refuse to do anything for the country.
I sent an email to Susan Collins asking that very question today. I'm not expecting a response...
As long as they are well-compensated and can take care of the Mellon’s, Thiel’s, Musk’s, and Bezos’ -most of them are unlikely to make a sound.
Can you imagine the outrage if Harris/Walz won the election and President Harris spent her first month in office signing 100’s of Executive Orders including expanding the Supreme Court, impeaching Thomas and Alito, transferring the felon to a SuperMax prison, and freezing the assets of Musk and others who have been funding political and judicial attacks on the United States?
I was thinking yesterday about how all of this started….it started with Reagan and Norquist. For over forty years we’ve let them lie and cheat while Democrats played by the rules. I hate to be one of those saying it, but we/they played too nice. And now here we are.
Very true Cheri. I often think we continue to bring “Robert’s Rules of Order” to a knife fight. And you may already know one of the best documents to read to understand the history (preceding Reagan by a few years) is the Lewis Powell Memo issued on August 23, 1971.
I wrote about it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/bomdia/p/confidential-memorandum-94fbf68970c8?r=1p3r9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
No historian here, but after reading Jayne Mayer’s critically acclaimed Dark Money” I believe it could be said that it “started” with the embarrassingly fringe right wing failed presidential bid of the Charles Koch 1977. From that defeat emerges a Libertarian party movement funded by the fossil fuel Koch sons’ billions that stealthily polished their image and planned a long range attack on the democratic system by a multi pronged approach to developing disciples among law students etc, funding campus recruiting and support organizations on campuses across the country that would stand fiercely against liberal social norms exploding from that time in the 70’s and on. But as HCR often points out, the war between equality and “property rights” was never really put to rest. Of course, Reagan was a stooge who fed the lions. (imho)
Correct. "wealth" + "willful ignorance". No, I am not "thrilled" not at all.
Boycott FRIDAY 2/28/25!
Norquist also said in the early 2000s "We don't need an ideologue as president, just someone that will sign whatever Congress sends over. We have the legislative power to write the bills." They thought GW Bush would be that guy and he almost was, then came the Russian mole.
Thanks Rickey -they have most certainly demonstrated that in the race to the bottom -there isn’t one.
Wealth, ignorance and cruelty.
So true. All those billions spent preparing the US for a nuclear attack or a ground invasion, when all that was needed to bring the US down was the Internet (created by the US) and a bunch of lying sacks of shite. What a waste. Had we spent all that money on education, maybe we wouldn't be watching our country die. Ah, well, spilt milk.
Very true Gail. I frequently write that any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society. All three pillars have been assailed for generations.
George, while it APPEARS our form of government is being destroyed, it has actually been converted into the largest system of organized corruption the world has yet seen. It is being rearranged to serve the interests of the top 0.001% of our population, the multi-billionaire club for whom the rest of us are expected to submit because we have been fed the line that government run like a business would be vastly more efficient since Ronald Reagan was in office in the 1980’s. This has been the triumph of propaganda over facts which has been deployed and perpetrated with renewed force since the Citizens United decision by the SCOTUS. In the end it ALL serves the corrupting influence of money and who has most of it, the top 0.001%. The government we now see evolving is the corrupt creation of that top 0.001% whose money has spoken so loudly it has drowned out facts, history and the truth.
I would be challenged to agree more John. A well-educated, informed, and engaged society would initially laugh at the thought of trickle-down “economics” and then start putting some of the proponents in prison for attempted fraud. It has been horrifying to try to prevent what has transpired since, at very least, the Powell memo of 1971.
https://open.substack.com/pub/bomdia/p/confidential-memorandum-94fbf68970c8?r=1p3r9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
The enemy is within - a confession
The Enemy Within...
Thanks Daniel -That would be a great title for an article!
https://open.substack.com/pub/bomdia/p/the-enemy-within
Wonder if Grover is happy with the muskrat. Betcha he is orgasmic…
Can’t unsee that. :)
Bletch
Democrats should boycott the president’s appearance before the joint session of congress. It’s just going to be a too long high school pep rally for all that is wrong. Not attending would be against what is expected, as if anything that is happening now comes close to any kind of norm.
They could have their own rally outside.
Democrats need to stop playing by the rules and using words only. Musk must be stopped.
I agree. Democrats stick with decorum while the orange traitor destroys the Constitution and American lives. It's time to take the gloves off and put a stop to it. Republicans found ways to skirt the Constitution, Democrats need to find ways to uphold and enforce it. The American public is being screwed over by this administration and will back those trying to do the right thing. And there's power in our numbers. It's time to boycott all things trump, musk and republican. Put them out of business.
One thing Heather said in this week’s chat that stayed with me: stop blaming Democrats. Not that they’re not in the mix, but this is up to US to resolve.
I do blame some of them. There are those who use their positions to retain power and grow wealthier. But there are many who actually do their jobs and work for their constituents. I support them, although at this point, we have to support all of them. Those who are just 'coasting along' can be replaced by earnest candidates willing to put the American public first, and they need to be informed of this. But it really is up to American citizens to get involved and stay involved. This is how a Democracy thrives. If citizens ignore their responsibility, it dies.
Justvstop. If you are going to be holier than thou, just stop. Your precious political purity is one of the reasons we are in this mess.
This sounds like a "bitchy" comment.
Lol....
Sorry I disagree. Dems have been weak, ineffectual and lacking of a coherent message probably for the last 45 years, since I started paying attention to politics when I was 20. Get it together dems, get mad, find a way to reach people, here's a clue - go left!
Wait, wait. The Democrats stayed together in the House for the budget vote. I imagine those in the Senate have plans also. Maybe we should send letters of thanks to them.
Call them to thank them for doing their jobs. Call them often and tell them what you think, what you want, and be specific. They are there to represent what we want, remember? Calling or writing is a good thing.
Go left. Yeah, right, another delusional progressive waiting for St. Bernie to save Murica.
I wholeheartedly agree with the “Stop placing blame on the Democrats”. They raised a massive fund for the election of Harris, but how can they be expected to counter the $290 Million ad budget of the richest person in the world. The blame right now lies solely on the Congress and its blind fealty to DonOld and his Project 2025 agenda, along with the SOCTUS edict that ELON and his ilk can buy their way to dictatorship and the demise of our Constitutional Republic.
Had Chuck Schumer called a vote, the U.S. Senate could have enforced Article 14, Section Three of the U.S. Constitution.
I didn't see or hear "this week's chat" with Heather urging us to "stop blaming Democrats."
She knows I do blame them. They're totally illiterate as to our great humanities. So many novels, memoirs, essays, biographies, histories, films, and other arts available as testimony to what has been going on.
So when I cite Dem impotence, even if I am always one of the first to comment, she moves my comment down, down, down, so other commenters can see real criticism from me about as easily as they can now from that of Joy Reid, Mehdi Hasan, Alex Wagner, and all those of color MSNBC has been firing and downgrading.
She doesn't "move (your) comment down" Phil. It's the computer algorithm. The comments with the most likes always are on top, and replies to those are also arranged underneath their originating comment, also ranked by likes.
If your comment is moving down, it's just because other people liked other comments more. Don't get paranoid. You're better than that.
Really..........
Phil, as the "Education/Humanities Prophet," you should be better acquainted with how the Substack comment utility works. At the top of the comment section of every Substack is a button that triggers a drop-down menu where the user can choose the order in which to read the comments. "Top first" is the default, unless the Substack author changes it. Other options to select are "Newest first" and "Oldest first."
If your comment fails to receive the most "likes," it is going to gradually "slide" down in the listing of comments. Heather is far too busy to manipulate the comment listing order.
Do you really think Heather comes out here and organizes which comments are placed where? Now you’re blaming her for something because you feel you’re not getting enough attention?
Phil, I read this chronologically “Oldest first”. You are always at the top.
MSNBC is no better than other MSM out to make a boatload of money, with no backbone for standing up against the threats of the traitor-in-chief. The "B" in their name certainly does not stand for bravery.
Well, I see Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell (sp) as pretty straight-standing.
Would you rather see it go away? I find it to be the best programming on TV! We need MSNBC and are lucky to have them!
Participate in the Economic Blackout on Feb 28th.
I'd like to see this moved to every 6th of every month.
Look, I am going to participate. But I wonder what this economic blackout will achieve. What is its purpose? Seems like it is just venting. We need much more strategic action.
Fl Rep Maxwell Frost says screw decorum! “Grifter In Chief” Go, Maxwell !!,
https://www.wesh.com/article/rep-maxwell-frost-barred-speaking-house-oversight-committee/63925287
It was a great moment for the youngest member of Congress! As he was present for the Marjorie Douglas fiasco, he is most definitely entitled to tell idiot Comey to let him talk.
Great idea(s)!
Better yet when they don’t go blast some truths about why Dems are better. Promote policy and solutions. Stop beating up trump and promote Dems.
Ever listen to Progress Radio? It's like Fox News only for Democrats. Sure, they do a lot of MAGA and white Christian Nationalist bashing, but all of the host bring on Democrat Senators, Congress people, strategists and take call ins.
A lot of people scoff at call-ins, but Rush Limbaugh lived by the call-ins and he had the largest nationwide audience of any of the radio hosts for decades. A lot of the callers have solutions to problems instead of just the constant bashing you get on Fox News.
No, I have not heard of progress radio. Maybe you should provide more details. Solutions to problems would be a welcome change from these substack columns (I don’t mean yours, Heather) that I am spending way too much time scrolling through. I’m not quite sure what I am looking for. I understand people feel the need to warn us, and, especially people who have studied deeply, the subject of tyranny and the transition to it. You have succeeded in scaring us all but now action is needed.!! When your “likes” get up in the thousands you will know that you have tapped into that energy that needs to be awakened. Mostly I think I am gripped by a paralysis maybe stemming from the fact that my daily life is not yet being affected. I’m kind of in suspended animation to see if they really are going to steal our social security money — yes that is basically it. I find people are avoiding talking about politics, too. My neighbors don’t want to talk about it and neither do people in clubs that I belong to.
This unbelievable experience of witnessing the descent of tyranny on my own country has given me a new perspective on what happened in Germany. (the USA, beacon of democracy!! I can only begin to imagine what the millions of immigrants who came here because they were fleeing tyranny must be going through!) There were people who fought that, too, but it was futile. And then a very ugly monster grew out of it. Every male in my family of my Fathers generation fought in WW2. If my father were alive, he would be 112 now. So those guys are all gone. I’m pretty sure this would not be happening if they were alive. In two generations of great abundance and living in a peaceful corner of the world, we have forgotten what it is to deal with such enemies of the people.
Yes, there comes a point when reading more doom and gloom is just paralyzing. Our nervous systems are all in high alert for exactly what we do not know. We are all being primed for health problems at this rate and that's not useful to the country or ourselves. So I read these letters mostly every day, but sometimes I allow a break from it. I look for hopeful positive takes on news as well (Hopium, Chop Wood Carry Water) and try to do 3 or 4 things a week to contribute to our country (call or write a representative, make a donation, sign a petition). Then I take care of myself by listening to a meditation, talking to people I love not about politics, painting, writing, living my life. Strength comes from self-care and balance, not worrying 24/7. May we all find power and peace.
That is exactly what I am doing. Have a history of PTSD and tend to be hypervigilant which is exhausting. Staying informed every single day, but also engaging with like-minded family and friends, getting back to daily art/creative pursuits, and best of all spending lots of time with my first newborn granddaughter. When I am with her all the ever-present insanity evaporates. We all need to take care of ourselves in order to maintain the energy and resolve to resist as much as possible!
Totally agree. And congratulations on your granddaughter!
Solutions to problems require daily actions.Jess Craven offers suggestions.⬇️
https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-225-1a4?
THE 24 HOUR ECONOMIC BLACKOUT - We, the people, need to wield our power! On FRIDAY February 28th do not make any purchases anywhere - not online or in-store. Do not use Credit or Debit Cards. If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message. If they don't listen (they won't) WE WILL ESCALATE. More here: https://jointhepeoplesunion.com/.
Thank you so much for your comment. You have described my experience so well which I could not.
Sadly, nobody under 40 listens to talk radio anymore. We need to be shouting from the rooftops using billboards, ads in movie theaters, spots on TikTok, ads on YouTube, even adverts in the local “weekly shopper”. The audience that we want to reach doesn’t give a flock about OpEds in the Post or Times.
But, oh, those truckers are listening.
Could we write on the subway walls?
And tenement halls.
I started listening a few months ago. I can take it only in small amounts. I realized, with one overstatement I can’t now remember, that this is how people get radicalized—on our side. This must be how Faux News does it, day after day.
Totally agree. SIRIUS XM CHANNEL 127 is, I think, the channel you’re talking about.
Think about the amount of time working tradesmen spend listening to radio from their trucks.
Listening to SIRIUS XM CHANNEL 127 is powerful in the opposite direction. Somewhere in-between is the way forward. Aren’t Unaffiliated/Independent registered voters about equal in number to Democrats and Republicans? We need to know what we don’t know…
That is better than Fox, which bashes without giving any solutions.
Democratic Senators.
I had a notion that when the inevitable standing ovations start occuring from the Republicans, the Dems can stand as well & turn their backs on the podium & start singing the National Anthem or another patriotic tune. That way they are not 'maligning or insulting' trump, they are glorifying America!
I posted this above:
Recall the stunts that the GOP (esp MTG!) pulled? Walking around with a giant white balloon, wearing a MAGA hat? I made this suggestion to an aide of Moskowitz as he likes to cause good trouble: I suggested that since the GOP want to strip seniors of their lifelines, he should provide the visual that reportedly drove Frances Perkins to push FDR--grandmothers digging in trash cans to eat. I said Jared should come dressed in tatters with a small trashcan filled with food, and snack out of it while in session. Perhaps kindly offer to share with some GOP members.
America the Beautiful, all verses:
https://www.purpleheart.org/static/forms/AmericaTheBeautiful.pdf
The question is: HOW. I get it. I get what's happening. What I don't get is ow to stop it. For sure Democrats are too "nice" and are playing by the rules. I believe in the rule of law, but that, obviously, is not working. Your idea is not a bad one. Maybe a mass protest outside would actually get media attention.
Pressure. Keep them under massive pressure, from their colleagues to every citizen.
We are focusing too much on Musk while the scumbag president is the responsible for the chaos being unleashed. Musk will be gone one day and the scumbag would say, I didn't know anything about Musk .
Attend, don't rise when he arrives, allow him to the stand and just as he begins to speak, all stand and leave.
Recall the stunts that the GOP (esp MTG!) pulled? Walking around with a giant white balloon, wearing a MAGA hat? I made this suggestion to an aide of Moskowitz as he likes to cause good trouble: I suggested that since the GOP want to strip seniors of their lifelines, he should provide the visual that reportedly drove Frances Perkins to push FDR--grandmothers digging in trash cans to eat. I said Jared should come dressed in tatters with a small trashcan filled with food, and snack out of it while in session. Perhaps kindly offer to share with some GOP members.
Dems should take their seats…. Then stand together and walk out as DT enters. That way the Rs can’t fill the empty seats beforehand.
Do you think Musk will speak for him there too?
This is like watching an abusive relationship.
“You’re happy, right? We’re SO HAPPY.”
(Uncomfortable pause)
“Smile for the cameras fellas. Remember, you’re happy, RIGHT?”
Remember the placard - "The beatings will continue until morale improves."
So is the PINO saying -
"The terminations will continue until the government runs well."
“So that is how democracy dies… With thunderous applause.” - Queen Amidala in Star Wars I : The Phantom Menace
Too bad not a set of ovaries in the room...
The world wrestling woman was there.
The Dakota woman who killed her dog was there (killed her goats, too -- love those guns).
And the plant of the murderers Putin and Assad was there.
Good analogy.
1) Thank you for this important information, Professor.
2) please compile books of your letters. Perhaps one for every year.
3) Note to self. Stop reading these before I go to bed.
4) Note to everyone - please share this letter broadly.
5) thank you, Professor.
I read HCR's letters around 5:30 in the morning, while drinking a strong cup of coffee -- I wouldn't dare read before bed -- I'd never sleep!!!
Me too.
Same
It's now 10:27 AM. I'm back. Yesterday I moved to fire the NYTimes from my Inbox each day effect immediately. My reasons were four. The publication of the puff piece on the altered life of the convicted insurrectionist known as the "pink hat lady" who brought an ice axe to Trump's party July 6 who Trump then pardoned immediately after his inauguration, which the NYT published omitting any possibility of reflecting reader comments, but made sure to tell MAGAt readers how they they could order reprints broke any sense of trust i had remaining. PLUS when I felt something else was "not right" yesterday I ended up counting the headline entries and discovered it was fewer than forty. I made query here of HRC's audience of whether I should continue subscribing ro NYT. I got sympathy but little advice. Concluding that in its own terms, NYT had demonstrated its own failure to offer "all the news fit to print," I called yesterday to cancel.
And they wouldn't let me! My on line efforts failed, . . .because of their "policies" respecting cancellation. They 'require' two pieces of data from a customer. I had only one they'd accept -- my e-mail address. When I said you have my name, too (...oh.h.h.h) I was told that didn't count. I'd need to provide my account number by going on line and looking at some kind of data set they maintain. I said, no, I won't do that to quit, left the site I was on, called my credit card company and told them effectively immediately not to accept any NYT charges effective immediately. Done and done.
Within minutes I received a query from NYT as to the quality of the service I'd been given. I told them, among other things and in much greater detail, that it was the first time in my 89 years that "I had an inkling of what involuntary servitude might feel like." Henceforth, I will depend on HRC, who has been serving me far better than the NYT. There's a weight off my shoulders and a sense of righteousness in my heart.
File this under "EACH ONE OF US DOES WHAT WE CAN."
A
How is being uninformed doing what you can? HCR is great but she doesn't cover all the news. Yes the trad media is biased but they have always been. Retreating to an echo chamber of liberal discontent is not going to serve you well in the end.
Well, this is a particularly weird response to what I wrote. Well, not so much weird as dripping in irony when one factors in the overall tone. I took the money I saved by booting the Times and plowed it right back into another Substack account (wincing only a little when I realized some unwashed idjut out their might see it as my supporting a Vance [tic]). What is NOT going to serve anyone in America (including all those billionaires drunk on a tasty new power,) is when our democracy goes belly-up because of the difficult challenge of transforming back to constitutional understandings and behaviors.
(Oh, my! I just read your last line again and realized you might be referring to HCR's Substack. FYI, I'm one of those conservatives who's bent on preserving the liberal values and most demanding intentions which guided the founding.)
I read mine this AM @ 7:45 AM (now 9:47 AM) just before breakfast to say here I'm breaking off the comments for whatever time it takes to draft and post my take on a very personal step I took yesterday. Back soon.
Personally I applaud your responses and efforts. Be advised that this page gets it's fair share of trolls along with those opposed to democracy; Some remain silent and just do opposition research; Others pollute the space with their opposite opinions. If you stick around and read the community on a regular basis, you'll soon realize who you can have meaningful discussions with and those you should avoid even trying to chat with.
Thank you for your kind and generous response. I just wrote a much longer post to you, but lost it for reasons a total mystery to me (but associated with long COVID which has severely hampered me in complex linear responses like conversing in Substack medium which is totally foreign to me. Again, many thanks.
Me Too Laurie!
Better yet if you want more readers put it in small effective quotes on social media. Scholarly Americans enjoy and have time for long emails and books. The majority of voters learn from social media
Better yet, those small effective quotes should be put on billboards in selected areas of the country, payed for by the Democratic Party and the message should be change with every damaging policy being implemented. Lynne Lew brought the idea of billboards yesterday and I thank it's a very effective and economical way to reach a lot of people having second thoughts and might jump the fence. Definitely we need more voters.
Outdoor billboard advertising can be effective, but it's tricky to create and deploy. Here are the industry best practices:
1. Must be read and understood in 2.3 seconds or less.
2. Based on #1, maximum number of words is 6.
3. Accompanying graphic or image must be bold and eye-catching.
4. If billboard structure is located at an intersection, word count can be doubled.
Most political issues don't lend themselves to 6-word messages.
Billboards, especially those in high-traffic, desirable locations are difficult to access. They are typically contracted by advertisers for 6 months or a year. Available boards are available only for a full month, as owners will change them only once a month.
If these challenges can be overcome, billboards are very effective. Reach can be multiplied if the board is so catchy or controversial, other media photograph it and rebroadcast it, such as the "swastikar" panel.
Talented artists can do a lot with a single image, like Ann Telnaes who was fired from the (once great) Washington Post.
I love Ann Telnaes! I agree that she's a genius with a single image. Still, a billboard would be a challenge, even for her. The "letterslot" shape, for starters. Also, most of Telnaes' cartoons, while profound, often require a bit of study – more than 2.3 seconds – to appreciate the full meaning of her work.
Billboards in rural areas, and bus stop signage in urban areas.
Have you seen this “swasticar ad” against Elon?
https://www.tiktok.com/@everyonehateselon/video/7474961006171540758
😂 We dumped our swasticar for a beautiful Mini Countryman EV. In the first week you could clearly notice how many faults there were with the Tesla, including the lack of mileage you could get out of the battery. Not as advertised.
I’d like a magnetic bumper sticker that says I upgraded my swasticar.
I do not have any social media accounts, but I have friends who do exactly that.
It's a good idea, thanks for posting that.
I wonder if the Professor has talked about syndicated like one letter a week or a review of her previous week's letters. Being under contract with Boston College may limit how she can publish. Or perhaps Substack could place ads in the major newspapers, YouTube, X, Blue Sky, etc. She has a incredible following at this point, but there's millions of people that are unfamiliar with her work.
I found her, thanks to a friend who forwarded a letter of hers very, very early on. This friend forwarded it to at least 4 others.
I, in turn, forwarded it to 3 others. We should all do this.
I'm happy to hear that the Medias Network on youtube is now BIGGER than Joe Rogan!
I like it your 5 Bullet Points! You get a Gold Star for your work for this week. It is obvious that you are important to the organiziation & you can keep your job for this week but be ready next week you may have show 10 bullet points, you know show that you are earning your keep!
It used to be fun to be among the first responders in the middle of the night. Now it's better to get good sleep. How Dr. Richardson keeps up this pace of work and her own equilibrium is beyond me.
Love your list! And try switching to reading it in the morning! It gives you energy for the day!!
Don’t believe your eyes and ears. Just believe me.
Trump tells so many lies that when he might say something that is true, it is challenging to believe him.
Musk is not popular and that may lead to his downfall.
The cabinet meeting was reminiscent of Stalinist Soviet Union.
Don’t believe your eyes and ears. Just believe me.
It was their final, most essential command.
Musk is gut churning. You can take Musk out of Apartheid. but you can't take Apartheid out of Musk.
But most voters do not care Joe many lies he tells and their is no broad rebuttal.
It’s a playbook as old as humans
The idea that Trump and Musk are concerned about waste and fraud is like believing a drug addict is trying to end drug trafficking. They are the ones who've helped put us in debt. Trump is responsible for 25% of the national debt. Musk is receiving billions in government contracts. If Republicans were truly worried about the waste and fraud, these two would be the last people anyone would listen too. Instead, the GOP has embraced the two con artists with open arms. Shameful.
I predict that when the firings are done, that a lot of the work that was formerly done by government agencies will be handed over to outside contractors and we will be spending even more on the cost of government. 2025 is definitely a ruse to have even more people (like Musk) get super rich on the backs of American taxpayers. We already have given Musk control over STARLINK and our space program. That alone gives him way more power than his money does as we saw when he shut off STARLINK to the Ukrainians. Is this what we want???? We will be decades cleaning up the mess that they are making.
Like the prison system, Accuweather, etc. The Federal prison system is a great example of how contractors screw us over and cost us way more than when it was run by Uncle Sam. And the USPS is the same. Many of the rural carriers are contractors instead of Federal employees. And the USPS under Trump's boy DeJoy SUCKS.
Get prepared for the shared costs to become your costs. All of the families that depend on elder care facilities for their parents will need to prep for their elders to return to their homes.
Back about 20 or so years ago, my mother in law had a stroke. I won't elaborate on her much, but she was a hoarder as bad as you see on the television show. It totally soured her relationship with her two children, their spouses and her grandchildren.
She was in a nursing home for over a year, her two next strokes each returned her to nursing care, that third stroke left her wheelchair bound and on a feeding tube.
Without Medicaid, she would have needed nursing care that we would have had to provide. Our home would needed to have been remodeled to accommodate a wheelchair/bedbound woman. And I would have had to either hire full time care, or quit my job (while also putting three kids through college).
She never owned a home or had a lot of money, only what she inherited from her own mother. We were told to prepay her funeral (which infuriated her when she found out, but she was comatose for about 2 weeks post brain surgery). We were also told to apply for Medicaid when her assets got down to $35K which came very quickly when the level of care cost over $8000/month. My husband HAND DELIVERED the paperwork to the office, and it still got lost. He resubmitted it, and it took FIFTEEN MONTHS till it was approved. In the meantime, we'd get calls from the home's accounting dept asking about the status, not quite dunning us, but not exactly friendly, either. (That is another story). When they'd get her in her wheelchair, she had quite the upper body strength and guile--she got "transferred" (ie, kicked out) of one nursing home probably due to her stealing from the other residents and otherwise causing problems. (Got some visitor to get her cigarettes and set herself on fire.)
THANK GOD for Medicaid, as I don't know how our family and our marriage would have survived this period of about 8 years.
I'm so sorry to hear that Miselle. The percentage of caregivers for people over 65 is close to 50% which is kind of shocking to me. But, I have several friends that have been through the horrors you went through both with parents and spouses.
My wife is and always has been a progressive, but she's ready for Trump to tear it all down. If it takes 20 years to rebuild it, then so be it.
Yikes!
I went through similar tragedies Miselle, but dragged out through over a thirty some year period that eventually took me down and at the end of it all, I'm left disabled and a family destroyed. I held out long enough to get my 2 daughters through school and on to what should be promising careers as my lone salve, but my spouse and I are screwed.
I'm sorry to hear that. Hoarding is a mental illness, and I've come across several other hoarders over the years. Those people were not mean or nasty, and some recognized they had a problem, but my m.i.l. was simply awful to my husband. He was always patient and kinder to her than she deserved, but it ruined their relationship. No surprise that his only sibling moved over 2000 miles away.
My dad was a hoarder. Whenever one of us 3 kids came to visit, my mom would sneak out to our cars with some of his "treasures."
My dad would be livid when he went looking for some junkyard trinket but my mom just let it roll off.
When my mom died we brought in a dumpster and tossed out about 90% of his stuff. It took a couple of weeks because he also collected coins and stashed cash here and there. I'm sure some valuables were tossed but we spent a couple of weeks hauling stuff from the house to the dumpster.
Many hoarders are collectors and have valuable stuff that can be sold at auction. It seemed like the families where the kids decided to auction off their parents stuff or have a tag sale ended up having fewer quarrels about getting slighted.
Mom and Dad were not hoarders, but my disabled and pain med addicted sister moved in to help Dad care for Mom, who had early onset Alzheimer's, was a hoarder.
I am so sorry. What an awful situation.
It was really incredibly awful.
Speaking of the prison system, privatizing parts and more and more of it has been a boon for folks like Jeff Sessions.
To be absolutely clear, privatization of government is the BIGGEST LIE the CONservatives throw out there. Common sense shows that is pure BS. How can a group that seeks profit first over service ever deliver better service? IT does not happen.
Correct. Because they really don't care how good the service is. They only care how much they can milk the system to enrich themselves. They are vampires.
Umm. Perhaps our "health" system is the perfect example of profit over people.
It has become a diabolical state of the art disaster - a failing to deliver scheme to enrich a few and cause suffering for many.
There is a place for private enterprise in the production of goods and some services. But health, education, protecting the environment and the government overseeing such belongs in the hands of the people.
One of the great hypocrisies of the politicians pitching private enterprise is that they fail to learn from the competition. As an old business guy, I know that when your competitor does something well, you look into it - and maybe adapt that way of doing things to your own enterprise. Business 101.
If the head of HHS wanted to do something smart from a business person's perspective, he would listen to experts from 10 other nations that have healthcare systems that deliver universal coverage at half of what we spend. Take the best ideas they have and adapt them to the American public. Since, Congress is now completely sidelined, he could ask Musk to implement it. /s
But even if he wanted to do something that revolutionary, the oligarchs who are pulling the strings would derail it right away. Hillary tried. How hopeful and naive the Clintons were on this subject.
Anyone with an ounce of empathy, a grain of "Christian spirit", the tiniest amount good business sense or GOOD WILL - ANY independent evaluator who looked at our healthcare mess would have to say: "Scrap this and start from scratch. A few people are making a lot of money while a lot of people suffer and die."
Not sure which is greater - the obscene wealth sucked from society or the cruelty.
"Correct. Because they really don't care how good the service is. They only care how much they can milk the system to enrich themselves. They are vampires"
See: Private Equity
Yes.
Rickey, logic doesn't work with them.
Yes. It also occurs to me that with Starlink and access not just to personal data but corporate, military, and governmental data the DOGE crew may eventually be able to stop communications at will, screw up supply chains, and deploy military forces anywhere in the country at will. Musk is pulling off a huge and complex theft with Presidential sponsorship.
Carol, exactly. The tactics of Herbert Hoover on steroids. And the resulting "Hoovervilles" will have to be called "Mumpvilles" to tar the two people most responsible.
Umm. We did not "give" Musk control of Starlink He created the company and owns it. Ditto for Space-X. He created a space company with a risk-taking mindset that has succeeded in outclassing NASA in launch management. Those successes, though, have gone to his head. It's a shame, since, done right, his approach could have been used to improve some government operations in a controlled and kind manner, instead of the chainsaw horror show we're witnessing.
Did he create those companies or buy what someone else created?
A hall of mirrors. Nothing is as it seems…or should be. Makes my head and my heart hurt. What next??
Beat them at their own game. The Democrats need to get busy talking about their successes and what they could do a better job instead just beating up Trump get us nowhere.
The "GOP" is responsible from some pretty nasty situations right now, and apparently more to come. They need to be made to wear them. We need to be smart about messages of both a more appealing future and the many things that are a genuine threat. What is most likely to cut through the fog(?)
It's really hard to talk about rebuilding your house, when it is engulfed in flames.
Carry water AND stop the arsonists. That's two different departments but they work together.
Great analogy.
I like what Carville wrote yesterday. Democrats aren't in power. Republicans control ALL branches of government, but are sitting idly by as dodgy DOGE and the Muskrats implement Project 2025 and the Trump Musk revenge tour. We're witnessing a coup done more quickly than Hitler did in Hitler's first 53 days. They've only been at this a month. And I can't understand why Vance wasn't angry that his name tag at the cabinet table didn't have his name. It only read Vice President. Wonder if that was where Musk was supposed to be sitting.
It's purposeful idle sitting the Republicans in Congress are doing. Musk is doing what they want to do and are constrained by having to please their voters. Their voters voted for race and sex hatred and their own economic gain. What they're getting, through Musk and Vought, is economic pain with the race and sex hatred. Apparently the two go together. Who knew. As they're figuring it out they're yelling at their elected representatives, but it's too late. Be careful what you wish for.
Pretty clear to me. Cleptocracy.
Oligo-klepto-fascio-kakistocracy.
Da. (Russian for jawohl).
Trump et al are pikers. Tax cheats. Grifters. Psychological projection -- they don't trust honest people.
Can we add plutocracy?
Sure. Guess it is a bit more specific than oligarchy...
Exactly Carolyn. All of the above.
Heather didn't mention the really big next thing in the executive order on implementing DOGE. Trump is going to sell off all "non-essential" real property--think all of those empty office buildings, National parks, government-owned land, mineral and water rights...
The oligarchs get fantastic deals, Trump gets cash for his sovereign wealth fund, but of course he will say he is paying down the debt...
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/p/trump-sells-america
a page right out of Milton Friedman's free market philosophy. Friedman was sent to various countries that the U.S. threw out the democratically elected leadership in South America and then again to Moscow after the Soviet break-up. When you check out what happened in those countries, the government resources were sold off in a fire sale, pennies on the dollar. As a real estate guy you can see his strategy and we, the people, will get screwed.
Well now I think Woody has a few things to say about who those lands really belong to. Among others.
Guthrie indeed.
Thank you. That clarification was needed.
Yes, "sovereign wealth fund" and its dark cloud “Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.” Nathan Tankus has a new piece out, no paywall:
https://www.crisesnotes.com/a-scam-built-atop-an-accounting-gimmick-wrapped-in-bullshit-why-visiting-fort-knox-is-not-about-selling-gold-but-is-about-buying-bitcoin/
Actually, we already have a "wealth fund;" there is a need to understand the power of fiat currency to fund democracy. See this documentary for an intro: "Finding the Money," Stephanie Kelton.
Now FREE on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrje-m01kI8
"You are beyond the looking glass like Alice and the Red Queen..." Funker Vogt, Red Queen. I feel like the world has slipped into a parallel universe as of the third week in January.
I have a good friend who works for the federal government. She is in IT protecting SNAP benefits. She has been there for 16 years. I watched her do whatever it took to protect those benefits during government shutdowns and threatened shutdowns. She lost her job yesterday. I’m gutted for her.
I'm so sorry she has become another victim of this maladministration. I have no words for this evisceration of what was our government, which despite its flaws over 240+ years was at least based on the unspoken assumption of the rule of law, and democracy.
Oh this gets worse. There are so many jobs posted in the private sector that aren’t even real openings. As well she told me yesterday that there were 5 suicides by federal workers that they are aware of this past week. What do we do? I live in Florida. I have taxation without representation.
The fake job postings have been a thing for decades. I discovered that for myself back in the early 2000s when I was job hunting in my 40s.
It is the data they are after. She would have been one that stood in the way.
Bingo! And she would have! She said that doges infiltration into our computer systems is the largest computer hack in world history.
That is just awful.
I don't get it. All that slashing and burning of useful programs and the people who execute them. Trying to throw the country 50, 60 years back in time. The pushing of Christian nationalism items on the agenda. The offensiveness of the US government towards their allies and other parts of the world (shuttering USAID, Gaza). The pulling out if the Paris Agreement (saying climate change is a hoax, so f*** nature). The open flirting with dictators. The silencing or numbing of the press. And so on.
Doesn't it seem obvious that even though the people who don't (want to) pay attention will notice? What does this administration suppose will happen? That people who will lose so many things they take for granted now, will cheer them on? While slowly but surely they figure out the enormous inequality in wealth. The immense grifting that is taking place.
Civil uprising seems unavoidable at some point. I can't see otherwise. What then? They're gonna turn the police, military against their own people? Who they've been robbing? Who the 🤬 wants this? This administration must see that it's heading that way with how they are acting and grabbing power, effectively killing the democracy. Don't they? I just don't get it.
I'm submitting a letter to our local paper this week suggesting that Christians and Oligarchs follow the teachings in the Bible and tithe. At least 40 times, the Bible talks about tithing. Can you imagine if all of the oligarchs donated money like Mackenzie Scott has? Much of her wealth is in stocks, but in spite of her giving away billions every year, she is often wealthier at the end of the year than at the start.
Elon Musk scoffs are "do gooders" like Ms. Scott. Let's all start shaming people into tithing, especially the "trustifarians" who haven't worked a day in their life or missed a meal.
They want to pick who and where their donations go. They want to make sure their money goes to only those who "deserve" the help by their definition.
"Civil uprising seems unavoidable at some point. I can't see otherwise. What then?"
Self-fulfilling propositions. What Republicans have been working for since Nixon.
This is what Republican religious extremists are praying for. Apocalypse Now. Where we see problems to be solved, they see The End Times.
This is what Republican domestic terrorists are pushing for. Apocalypse Now. A replay of the Civil War where they win.
This is what Republican authoritarians are scheming for. Apocalypse Now. An excuse to proclaim martial law. To
replace civilian government with military rule and suspend civilian legal processes - including elections - for military powers.
Republicans have a Third Term Project. The slogan is "Trump 2028 ... and beyond." From the floor in Congress they've started speaking of the 'OBiden administration 'as a precedent for a third term.
Republicans want to effectively end
our secular constitutional representative government based on equality before the law, equal representation, the separation of church and state.
They have explicitly stated that they prefer a bloodless coup as in Hungary, but are not adverse to violence.
John Birch Society
Exactly so.
Make the Ages Dark Again (and follow the money).
JL, Rachel Maddow ran an interesting feature on Bubonic Plague last night. You might enjoy it!
No, you got it! You really 'got it'! The destruction of the administrative state, followed by the destruction of democracy & the absolute gutting of the first amendment is on the block. So, you really do get it!
Wilma, I sympathize but I don't think you have actually observed the people who voted for this. They are fed a steady diet of lies, obfuscations, and idiocies and believe that "owning the libs" is what is happening. Back during the election campaigns a poll of voters were asked if they preferred a totalitarian regime to a democratic one. A majority of Rethuglicans said yes. Now, I doubt they understand what those words mean, but the feverish love of a dictator is what has driven many a military takeover, fascist regime, and authoritarian rule. Did people rise up in Uganda two years ago when the government made it a crime punishable by death to be gay? No. And yet they had experienced all the awfulness of Idi Amin just a couple of decades ago. These days fascism doesn't creep: it gallops.
When the military starts policing protests, we will see how that goes. The times they are a-changin'.
Look at what the chief convicted criminal said today at his cabinet meeting: “This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting.”
As to the nature of that convicted criminal, wannabe Putin, we could add “imbecilic face with orange make-up caked-on,” “obesity waddling,” and such a sick “fried, fast food diet as modeling even more sick fatness.”
We’re in a crisis: that convicted criminal toadying to the world’s worst autocracies, killing alliances with our longest-loyal democracies, and having his apartheid South African rich-bro crony cripple the U.S. government.
What’s MSNBC doing? Firing, removing from prime time all the (too honest?) people of color hosts it can.
Maybe ad hominem is the best we can do. Dems got so shellacked in the recent elections – they so out of touch with our millions-of-jobs-offshored, abandoned working classes, they so OK with U.S. funding Gaza genocide – we who can may need to up our derision at out of touch elites getting more out of touch while the vulgar and corrupt entrench.
There's a way to get back in touch with workers: embrace the zero waste movement. Build new zero waste infrastructure everywhere there used to be landfills. Make conservation fun. Put reuse at the head of the line; recycling next, then composting and way at the end, wasting. Make the Resource Recovery Parks destinations, with quirky architecture and plenty of places for people to hang out. Turn waste into wealth. Zero Waste is where progressive meets conservative: progressive because done well, zero waste is labor-intensive; conservative because it ends the age of waste.
Dan, I would add to that food waste. My husband and I both came from modest upbringings where a meal out was a treat. We've done well for ourselves, and do like to eat out perhaps once a week. We like to frequent two mom & pop local places where the portions are generous. We are both amazed at both the amount of food people order, and the amount they leave behind. I routinely see perhaps two people order quantities that would feed a family of four, and leave behind half of it.
I can understand that perhaps someone new to the venue wouldn't know the portion sizes. Still, each place has a large carryout business and you can take leftovers home. (One even has containers stacked at a counter.) I would agree that not all food will travel well, but much of it does. I've found an airfryer to be the perfect appliance for reheating a lot of food.
I recall my parents saying "clean your plate; there are people starving in Africa." They had lived through the great depression and experienced real deprivation, and taught me that waste was a sin. That's real waste, not the phony excuse
given for removing good workers from jobs illegally.
I love this. What a great sense of community this project would deliver along with the obvious benefits. I remember when to be "conservative" meant conserving. I think conserving natural resources, money, health, general welfare - all good.
But I would not use the word anymore. The old school "Conservatives" are dead or afraid of being killed for speaking out. No, "conservative" now means oligarchy, brutality, anarchy, destruction of our world, betrayal of our friends.
And there is great profit in producing all this waste. And the profiteers are now in charge of every branch of the government. "Waste" is the ENGINE of profit.
There are examples of your "conservation" practices in other countries. But "conservatives" will claim that they are left wing examples of losing our freedom. Freedom - to wreck the planet?
Bet them at their own game. Cut and paste HCR in small amounts all over the internet. And give positive facts about Dems
There are many people like Andrew Lennox:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/veteran-affairs-doge-firing-va-elon-musk-military-cuts/
that people need to hear more from.
Right. Nobody elected Musk. He meets the definition of ultra vires.
Due process doesn't even enter into what they are up to. It's a coup by the executive branch.
Unitary executive. Brought to us by people like Roberts and the Fedralist Society. See Joyce Vance this morning. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/when-they-come-for-the-judges?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=zc69i&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
It's hard to square the championing of Luigi Mangione and anti-elitism with anyone liking what is being done in the current administration. I feel like there should be a reckoning, but will it be in time and will it tear the country apart?
This ends only one way. We all need to get our minds around that.
“Look at what the chief convicted criminal said today at his cabinet meeting: “This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting.”
Always projection with donold…
Almost like he asked the mirror, mirror and it shown the reflection of him, bloated and fat and disgusting yet somehow had gotten the country and now it does have that image cast onto it.
Perhaps I haven't paid enough attention in the past, or it's just because his mug is everywhere now, but I think "what is up with Elon's face"?? He looks bloated to me. I've wondered if he's had filler injected that has shifted.
I read someplace that he had a cosmetic reconstruction surgery to his lower jaw and has utilized hair plugs to conceal his receding hairline. He almost sounds to me as if he's trying to imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger with his diction and pronunciation..
It's not quite accurate to say "Dems got so shellacked" in the last election. In fact, Trump won by the thinnest margin, and he won a plurality, not a majority. That means more people voted against him than for him. The House Republicans have a 1-vote majority. The Senate did flip. So Dems lost, for many reasons, not least clueless strategy. But it's not quite as bad as being shellacked. Being steamrollered in the aftermath, that's accurate.
We are betraying our democracy allies, Celia.
We are giving aid and comfort to global monsters.
We are restoring systemic rascism.
We are not only ignoring climate change, but abetting, raising profits for its fossil fuel biggies.
We are condoning the fascists of the Clarence court who push their ideology confining women to the past and Christo-nationalist-fascists to world rule.
Effing Dems effed us all thanks to all the schools that taught them never ever notice the great American arts that see people hurt and also see the bastards that do the hurting.
every accusation is his confession. Bloated, fat, disgusting.
Gee Phil. Much as I find Mump disgusting, I disagree with almost everything you said. In my opinion, it's you who is out of touch and part of the reason not enough Democrats came out to vote for Harris.
This is what James Carville said in the NYT. Totally disagree. We waited 4 years to convict Jan 6. Time is now.
“With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat”
I think Dems must speak now. Not wait.
Musk/Trump fired thousands of federal park system employees and they eliminated all of the seasonal employees for 2025. Acadia National Park hires about 150 seasonal workers each year. The park CAN NOT operate without them. Almost 4 million visitors come to the park every year bringing in about $650 million to the local economy.
So Musk/Trump were willing to trade around $4 million in salaries for these 150 workers for the loss of $650 million to the local economy. Of course, this is just one park. We're talking tens of billions of dollars in lost revenues vs a few hundred million in expenses at the most.
some private company is ready to step up and cost us more.
We are facing a clear and present danger. Lives are being damaged and potentially lost as we speak.
Potentially lost? USAID delivers peanut paste to children who are starving and nearly dead. Access to women's health care saves tens of thousands of lives annually. Access to TB meds as well, and condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. I could go on but why? A vote for this was itself a hate crime.
I say "potentially" because I don't have direct material evidence of DOGE caused deaths, although, barring intervention, that would be certain. The sociopathic cruelty is self-evident. Such glaring doublethink on the part of self-proclaimed "Christians", or anyone with an ounce of compassion, would support this. We have to viscerally connect the sociopaths to the actual victims. The testimony of those who suffer and those who serve, as old-school un-in-bedded journalism revealed the cruelty and pointlessness of the Vietnam War.
Your contributions here are deeply appreciated . . .
The 2016 election and January 6 were both "clear and present dangers," and we failed to meet them. 😔 We're paying the price.
As was the election of 1980. We have been living Big Lies for decades, and now it outshouts Vox Populi as billionaires increasingly own the forum. Together we stand, divided we fall.
I differ with Mr. Carville. His assumption is that free and fair elections will be held. If the Dems roll over, they'll never come back.
Free and fair elections are always in need of our collective protection. Especially now.
Didn’t trump just remove the person that oversees elections.
My reality for today is :
There will be no free and fair elections with this administration, going forward, so the midterms become irrelevant
If the Jan 6th insurrection was with a REAL ELECTION ...trump isn't leaving = ie putin
This Judicial is now Kash Patel with Bongino ( KGB style ) and the military, with new Obeying/Loyal Generals to be named....and NO JAG JUDICIARY BACK UP = ie Russia
The ( acting only ) Senate / Government is only to give the administration the money they need...but until today and trumps new EO ! does the Senate become an unnecessary waste of money too ??
? trump and musk visit Fort Knox....for real ... why is that ? We know there IS a reason
trump told us, our democratic allies, and the world, he is clearly aligned now with putin
Every US government department has now been accessed and compromised and some, non functional
I think we NEED NO FURTHER PROOF...NOT ONE MORE THING...it is 95% autocratic now
Yes, we still have the Judiciary holding ...but will it survive SCOTUS is the last leg (test) on the 3 legged stool .... ie the Constitution's safety net of the devision of power from Senate / Judicial/ Administration...
Yes unthinkable
Today we have a five alarm fire bell ........it's ringing ........
Let's be clear - there will be elections, but like Hungary and Russia, there will be nothing fair. Greg Palast has posted on it. The structure to block their opponents from voting is in the SAVE Act. I have written my senators and reps and they see no problem as i expected them to see. In The Power Worshipers (Katherine Stewart) the religious right teaches the women and girls that when they get to vote they must vote like their husbands or they are sinning.
The upcoming election will be a test. If it's a sham (as I expect), there may well be no point in voting in 2028. It will be an obvious sham if the GOP massively sweeps the election.
The more this hits social media the better. No criticism of Trump just the facts Jack
Before Trump took office, the number of people employed by the U.S. government was at about the same level it was 50 years ago, although the U.S. population has increased by about two thirds. What has increased dramatically is spending on private contractors, who take profits from their taxpayer-funded contracts. HCR
Jesus take the wheel, is all I can say. Happy to be in France these days. Damned happy.
Good lord me too. Might be applying for political refugee status when all is said and done.
TOMORROW!!
The 24 Hour Economic Blackout - FRIDAY February 28th
For one day we show them who really holds the power. Do not make any purchases. Do not shop online, or in-store. Nowhere! Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non essential spending.
The point of the exercise is to give this administration a swift and noticeable kick in the economics!! The economy will not plummet ... that is not the point. It should be a demonstration of solidarity and 'rebuke'!
JOIN US!!
My household is all in.
What else? (Did you replenish your supply???)
Working on the resupply.