You know what Americans aren’t talking about very much today after Trump’s threat to detonate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) this week and his threat this morning to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota?
This is what a power grab looks like when it’s panicking. Threaten the Insurrection Act, flood Minnesota, and then try to hide the paper trail by pulling the state investigators away. And while the country is watching Renee Good, they want to change the subject to “gangs,” to “terror,” to anything but the record.
But hey listen truth is a stubborn thing. A judge says those U.S. attorneys are there illegally. Congress moves to put an independent monitor on the Epstein files. The Senate forces the J6 plaque into the light. The public turns on ICE by the numbers. Even the mask slips in public because when you can’t persuade, you curse.
So let the cameras roll. Let the receipts stack. Let the witnesses keep showing up.
Because we are not asking permission to be free. We are not asking permission to remember. We are not asking permission to tell the truth. www.xplisset.com
All true and well said, but it isn’t just a power grab. It’s also deflection – and, sadly, quite effective. As Heather underscores in her opening paragraph.
Mainstream Media’s mono-manic focus on one or two issues at a time, in a way that eclipses just about everything else, is a huge problem for American democracy. It has allowed Trump, like a maestro, to shift focus away from issues that he finds bothersome (such as the Epstein files) – and to dominate the news cycle.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
He (DonOLD) went on to say that he had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
Why don't any of the MSM talking heads EVER ask DonOLD what they have accomplished. They haven't accomplished anything except huge tax cuts for the oligarchs.
And who was the judge that granted the search warrant of the WAPO journalist and based on what reasons?
The judge should be impeached or disbarred if there wasn't proper probable cause.
What trump has accomplished is to fill the courts with law suits over his wrong doings, costing the tax payers God knows how much, kidnap a leader of a sovereign country, piss off NATO enough for them to send troops to Greenland, wrecked the East Wing of the White House ( our house) and we all know the list goes on and on. But, I get what you're saying, Has there been anything he's done that has been constructive?
Meanwhile, neofascist tech billionaires managed to infiltrate government computers and install the spy system on ordinary, law-abiding Americans that they'll need to move to the next stage of neofascism in the US.
That IS one of the biggest and underreported accomplishments of the GOP in their first year of full control of DC.
I believe either he has dirt on them or theatens them and their families or gives them lots of cash! After all he is a mob boss. He learned from the best of them! How we ended up with this guy...I will never know! It breaks my heart.
Per Ali Vital of "Way to Early" who broadcasts her MSNow show at 2 AM Pacific.
Per Ali Vitali based on "records from emergency services released yesterday [1/15/26]".
Emergency 911 Calls "flooded in starting at 9:38 AM continued for 1 hour."
Upon arrival at the ER at 9:42 AM "paramedics reported she still had an "irregular heart beat".
Upon arrival at the ER Renee Good had four (4) apparent gunshots NOT one (1). "Two (2) on the right side of her chest, a 3rd on her Left arm and a possible 4th on her head."
The trajectory of these four (4) bullets can easily be traced.
So 4 shots NOT 3 killed Renee Good. Fact: "Resuscitation efforts did not end until 10 AM".
I don't listen to any interviews of trump people. There's no point. Its impossible to force any truth out of them and I don't like toxic garbage being dumped into my brain.
The only thing I can publish is this repeated letter and I urge all of you to contact your respective governors and modify it to your state. We need activate our long dormant historic state's rights which of course is an irony because the old time racists invoked this in another time period.
An open Letter to Governor Lamont: Will You Activate the Connecticut National Guard to Protect Residents of Connecticut?
Commentary by Bill DiMauro Katz
The Supreme Court recently ruled that Texas could gerrymander its congressional districts in order to elect a full slate of republican candidates which is in violation of the 14th and 15th amendments. The effect of this rule is to further erode rights of citizens to elect representatives.
States do have significant historic rights embedded in their constitutions. The American Revolution was founded on rebellion against an oppressive central authority and in the 18th century, it was England. Today, the nation has elected a rogue authoritarian leader that states must come to terms with. This tyrannical government can be invisible to the unwary or to those who are informed of current events, realize that our system of federal governance is for now, not representative of the people. The federal government has moved toward tyrannical behavior and will continue unabated until state governments begin protecting its residents. ICE agents (and border patrol and other federal police agencies) in the form of jack-booted and hooded thugs are routinely arresting and dragging screaming residents from the streets.
If the U.S. Supreme Court can grant extreme power to states to gerrymander, then states certainly have rights to protect its residents. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Governor Lamont, will you authorize and activate the Connecticut State and National Guard to protect Connecticut residents?
Recently at a local NRZ meeting, I posed the question of protection of residents to our police chief but he seemed confused over the issue. He was not the person in authority to address this although ultimately, state and local army and police should work in tandem to protect residents.
Will you advise our Connecticut National Guard to be prepared to protect our residents from obvious extra judicial federal overreach? By assuming the lead in this response to a threatening federal government, Connecticut could take the lead and become a model for other states to follow. (Donald's Vanity Tantrums)
In Indiana we have Braun....Trump's buddy...he is just like Trump....and conned a lot of Hoosiers. He is equal too Trump. He lies like so they say a dog. He is burning our once great state down....inch by inch...and we have those that voted for him and Trump....falling for their lies!
Instead of mid term elections let's have an impeachment. The French knew what to do with kings. Where are all the counter voices. The "Great Distraction" makes me dizzy , angry, and I am running out of coffee, which is getting very expensive.
No George, coffee and a cup of coffee is still cheap. Go to Costco and buy packs of coffee and every month there is one roaster on sale. I buy enough for a half a year and when I make coffee of course in my home, it costs about .13 cents a cup. And when I leave home I fill up a cup for the road.
I'm curious as to why none of the journalists asked Trump what he meant by “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.” He has stated that more than once. Why isn't anyone challenging him on that assertion?
Caroline Leavitt: “The president was simply joking,” she insisted. “He was saying, ‘We are doing such a great job, we are doing everything the American people thought. Maybe we should just keep rolling.’ But he was speaking facetiously.”
She was challenged by Andrew Feinberg, a reporter with The Independent, who said: “Americans for generations have fought and died for democracy, for this democracy. Are you saying that the president finds the idea of canceling elections funny?” Andrew, were you in the room?” Leavitt bit back. “No, you weren’t.”
“I was in the room. I heard the conversation, and only someone like you would take that so seriously and pose it as a question in that way.”
I’m not at all surprised that Leavitt would answer in this way. Trump’s defense of such outrageous statements has always centered around the response of “I was just joking.” Leavitt, of course is just following orders as that has always been the playbook in how to answer embarrassing statements. I am thankful to you for relating this fact, and Andrew Feinberg for challenging Leavitt. This administration has been caught in so many lies, none of them would know the truth if it hit them broadside. It’s the same old story as when Trump said he knew nothing about Project 2025. Lies and deceitfulness is all 45 and 47 is good for: nothing else.
Why don't they ask? The mainstream media has failed us. Lower or discard your expectations that they are in the fight for democracy. Independent media is where the fight --and has been for several years now.
Greg Olear's substack on Trump's horrific sexual activities with 12 and 13 year old girls are what Trump is trying desperately to bury. Greg wrote a 3-part series about it on his substack.
Wow, Olear has done Pulitzer worthy work in the research to follow the money, though with large doses of hypotheticals. People await full release of the Epstein Files perhaps in anticipation of smoking gun evidence of sexual misconduct by key figures, but the business enterprise of trafficking the victims was the infrastructure, along with subsequent geopolitical operations. Olear raises the possibility that the trafficking business may have been inherited in some form and still be operating, just as Epstein appeared to have inherited it from Robert Maxwell. The 4 installations are a riveting read.
Murders plural. 123 dead in Venezuela murdered by illegal military action ordered by Kegsbreath. Trump has a bizarre unnatural obsession with oil, tariffs, gold, dictators and young women. Of course, when he and Elon shut down USAID they starved thousands which may actually be the most cruel thing he has done.
And EVERY REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN doesn't have the kahunas to stand up to him.
Extrajudicial Caribbean boat killings, Venezuela killings to kidnap Maduro, at least 37 died by ICE, and more...Prof. Timothy Snyder talks about the trump regime's death squads:
Rev. I suspect you are right about those files. Now that the DOJ has gone through at least a bunch of those files, they know just what they are dealing with. Unfortunately, our Pammy Bondi, Trump's pseudomommy can't seem to do the right thing because it would likely mean that she would lose her job of protecting her Baby Donnie. If she has half the brains her law school thought she had, she would know that she is wrong and acting illegally, but she does not seem to care one bit and neither does anyone else in the toddler pool. They are working with a criminal, and just can't seem to let him go because they know which side of their bread the money butter is on and it is not on the side of the truth. That's why We the People need to stand with the truth at every turn.
We all know about the child ra]e. The only thing that could possibly be worse are snuff tapes, and if that's not the case, you would think, with all the rumors, if that's not true he would release them to prove that rumor false.
Kathy, snuff tapes would outrage Democrats and Independents, but Donald doesn't care about their opinions. He cares only about maintaining the loyalty of his own cult members, who would probably shrug and say the snuff sex was consensual so the victims got what they signed up for.
Donald would be humiliated and lose his fans if they found out he'd engaged in homosexual activities, which is a lot more plausible, given Donald's lifelong efforts to convince the public – and his daddy – that he's a "raging heterosexual."
Interesting article, Miselle. I confess that I stopped reading about 3/4 of the way through, because it seemed to venture away from what's plausible. However, I'll stipulate that with Donald, anything is possible.
It's true that lots of Southern boys are nicknamed "Bubba," which is Southern baby-talk for "brother." But it's significant that Bill Clinton's familiar nickname was Bubba. (I doubt anyone calls him that anymore.)
The Mark Epstein email rings true for me because Clinton and I used to patronize the same Chinese restaurant 7 blocks east of my apartment in downtown Little Rock when he was governor. When we happened to meet there, he always gave me the once-over from head to toe for a moment that was longer than normal or comfortable. I've always had the impression that "Bubba" wasn't too concerned about the gender of the person he was with, as long as he was being serviced.
There’s a snuff tape story out there that names the prez, with a witness who says he was trafficked. No idea if it’s credible. My first reaction was internet hoax. But…
Credible? Probably given his current penchant for murdering civilians in international waters, or while kidnapping Maduro, or while his ICE thugs terrorize Minneapolis . . .
And of course, Kathy, I and all of us know, that you know that, the ship had sailed long ago. Time laced with the deafening silence has all but fully proven this issue.
Still, the elected Republicans are caving to Trump. Five Senators said they the Senate should have its say about Venezuela, but then 2 caved under pressure. That left Vance, who has become a Nazi advocate, to decide.
I believe that the Epstein files will bring about trump's demise. After being silenced for decades the survivors have finally found their voice and have banded together. Some have said that if the files are not released in due time they will name names. Believe me, these women are not going away....
They won't disappear. The GOP today IS neofascist. It wants to find excuses to put more brown shirts on the street. They love Trump because he's so good at inventing new distractions so that we collectively stay focused on him rather than understand what the GOP is truly wanting and doing, right now, day after day.
Yes, HCR brought up Epstein because all these diversions are making it obvious Trump is desperate to hide the files. The thing about Epstein to me is Trump is known for never doing the deed himself but getting others to do it for him. Could it be that Trump got Epstein to build the Island of Child Rape? I recall reading that some of the Epstein files disclosed how Trump flew in Epstein's jet more than prior records show. That is consistent with Trump not wanting his big jet with "TRUMP" painted on it anywhere near the airport used to get over to their Island of Child Rape. Bottom line, when we get back to talking about Epstein the name Trump must be in every sentence that the name Epstein appears in.
Deflection and distraction is what trump does best, and he certainly is doing his best to keep us occupied with things other than those pesky Epstein files. Greenland? Iceland?
This is not about the Epstein Files anymore klutt, its about the next midterms election.......and subsequent. Be aware while pushing for the full release of the files...
It very much needs to be about the Epstein files as I believe they hold the key for removing these creeps from government office. Public defamation and repudiation both here at home and across the world. Final solution.
Oh I completely agree with that as well. He knows if there is an election, Democrats are going to win the House and retain the Senate. He knows he will be impeached which is the reason he doesn't want an election and will do everything he can to continue to make a mess of things before that happens. You are right on point.
It is the Epstein files. He has no immunity for those crimes as others of power and greed feel the same, they can lose it all. Everything else is deflection, stop elections, murder and injury of innocent citizens performing their first amendment rights. Release ALL the Epstein files.
I'm still hoping some enterprising reporter will dig into a possible connection between Trump's beauty pageants and "excess" contestants who may have been offloaded to Jeffrey Epstein's massage parlors. All those young, pretty girls who just wanted to be famous someday...
Trump owned and managed those pageants during the same decades he was best friends with Jeff.
Thank goodness for the senate democrats working behind the scenes to force oversight of the Epstein files non-compliance. And the public has not forgotten about them. Good smart people are not letting trump turn the spotlight away completely.
More and more people are getting wise to his patterns of asserting dominance. More courts are refusing to give government lawyers the benefit of the doubt.
More young men are turning away and more Hispanics as well.
He's thrashing and flailing around like a rampaging animal slowly being driven into a corner. Still plenty of power to cause a lot of damage, but more and more people working together to contain him.
We must move to disarm ICE. There is no logical reason for them to be armed. They are not ever shot at and if they were they should stop what they are doing and call the state and local police to take care of it. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/disarm-ice?r=3m1bs
Like a "maestro", Trump is conducting an orchestra that is slowly refusing to play his tune. When the orchestra establishes some form of disbandment, the audience either leaves willingly but disgustingly, or defiantly wants their money back. Trump et. al., his stage crew of deviants and deplorables, aka, Noem, Bovino, Patel, Miller, and the rest will find themselves without a job or likely prospects in the future: and all because they decided to follow "orders" instead of the Constitution of the United States. History has a way of repeating itself: it was only approximately 61 years ago that the Nuremberg trials ascended into our history. One would think that warning in itself would be enough for these cretins to pay attention. Apparently not. Let the chips fall where they may.
An aside: you may want to watch Preet Bahara interview Rahm Imanuel on youtube. He may be running for president. It was an excellent!! discussion. I was, and I think you will be, quite impressed - even hopeful.
I do not follow legacy media, which is no longer mainstream, since more and more people get all of their information from social media and more and more of those of us follow independent media.
Relying on the NYT for information as a few of my friends do, means they are constantly sharing articles with me on information I have already read elsewhere, and often with more depth, or daring to posit ideas the NYT would never entertain.
Xplisset. I am glad Congress is moving to put an independent monitor on the Epstein Files. I would love to see that person be Jack Smith.
I am also glad that the heckler got a Go-Fund-Me. People should be boycotting Ford cars until they reinstate him. Picketing Ford like Tesla would be a good idea now. Hope there is enough in the Go-Fund-Me for the man to get a lawyer and sue Ford for being wrongfully laid off. They were wise not to fire him.
Also, the Meidas report, Lev Parnas, Dean Blundell, Zev Shalev have been reporting on the Epstein case, keeping it in people's minds just as Heather Cox Richardson is doing here.
As for Greenland, Europe is sending troops there under the auspices of showing Trump they have enough troops to defend Greenland from those who would attack it, but the truth is that :
One, European leaders are adults and cannot imagine that Trump is emotionally not an adult.
Two, they are going to prepare to defend from the US troops even if they don't hope to win. Hope all of the other NATO countries will join them, though I would not count on Hungary, Slovakia or Slovenia. They are too friendly with Russia right now.
The presence of European military ships and troops open up the possibility that, if the Orange Painted Goon is stupid enough to order in an 'Occupation Force' there will be a military confrontation. The CinC from Denmark will politely invite them to re-embark and go home, and the US CinC will have to either stand down, or start shooting. The Danes are not standing alone either. They already have German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian and soon, British ships and people already there, or on the way, and France is stepping in as well. Either way, the US will be on its own, and I suspect Canada may well join the European forces.
Oh, and don't forget that if the OPG is that stupid, all US Bases will be closed right across Europe, and the forces sent 'home'. Their equipment, probably not as the invasion would be a de facto declaration of war on Europe, so all troops here, would be regarded as enemy or prisoners of war. I can only hope that your own generals move and quietly remove the threat.
Our military is not going to attack the people they have been working with for the last 80 years, we are embedded in communities all over Europe. The NATO allies are doing the right thing in moving available troops to Greenland, Petty Boy and his department of war is not going to attack Europe, this is all a convenient distraction from the Epstein case, as is ICE in Minnesota. The MSM which doesn’t seem to be able to walk and chew gum is following the next biggest thing. Epstein and whatever he did with him and all of those young girls is what he’s terrified about, if he lives long enough, doubtful, it could put him in prison, and he knows it. So he’ll babble about Greenland, which he probably actually does want, and ICE is all over the news, crowding out Epstein. The spineless senate repugnantkins who are responsible for this debacle, are not completely brain dead and can read the tea leaves, they are calculating like crazy to see if the ship is really going to sink before they jump off, the thing is that the winds of change are blowing it farther and farther from any safe harbor, if they had done their jobs, just like we have done throughout our lives, none of this would be happening.
Heather said in last night’s chat that someone who parks billions in another country, in this case Qatar, and whose money is controlled only by him is (1) someone stealing our country’s money for himself and (2)ensuring he has LOTS of money at his disposal if/when he flees the US. Typical dictator sh!t.
Yes. I did not miss Trump telling us that he was going to not only steal Venezuelan oil, but also not put the money gotten from it in US banks. He is 100% kleptocrat, in our country that is increasingly a Plutocracy, and definitely a Kakisocracy if we look at who is in the party in power!
The issue with all of this though, is that it forces people or countries to waste valuable money.
Is Mark Kelley going to be found guilty of treason and hung? Most are highly skeptical but it's forcing him to hire lawyers, with money he might not have. Elissa Slotkin is now in a similar situation and doesn't have the resources that Kelley has. trump is trying to financially break the people he's attacking and it might just work.
We're asked to donate to legal funds, we're asked to donate to food banks, we're asked to donate to families caught up in his immigration nightmare, we're asked to donate to Amnesty International US! To donate to American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and beyond.
I'm not complaining, these are all noble or necessary protections, but each penny we send takes money away from donations for a candidate's election, which they'll desperately need to fight this administration and their deep pockets. The lawsuits take needed funding away from other essential programs. Most of us have limited resources and can't keep spending an ever larger amount of money to finance this all.
This is typical of how he wore down the contractors he stiffed. he's a mob boss and knows all the moves to cripple those who dare to oppose him. And that's a huge problem.
Have to agree with what you say there, but with Hegseth, I'm hedging my bets. He's stupid enough to try to order it. Hopefully there'll be a roomful of generals who'll tell him 'No' ...
Patrick, the ground beneath your hope that there will be a room full of generals who say "no" is eroding.
Blasting fishing boats out of the water "because I said so" is not the act of an officer weighing the legality of the orders. Disguising a military aircraft to look like a commercial airliner is not the act of an officer weighing the legality of the orders.
Those officers could have – and should have – said "no." But they didn't.
Dick, I am not sure about all US military members, but I know US military members who will not be attacking Germany, the country where I am living. I have career military cousins here in Germany, and they are married to German women and have German children. They are not attacking the country of their wives, children and cousins without Germany attacking the US first.
There are not a lot of Americans in Germany, maybe 120,000. Still, most of the Americans I know here are not in support of the Trump government.
Europe could effectively " blockade" all U.S. bases. Cut all communications and movement to and from the base. Anyone moving outward could be arrested,held and detained. Quite provocative, but could get the Joint Chiefs to consider and amend their position.
Don't forget the Netherlands has also sent troops. As a Dutch person I was glad to see this. Although I usually take a pacifist stance, the orange menace doesn't respond to reason or diplomacy so the only thing that he does take note of is force and resistance. It's the way to defeat bullies in the long run. He and his sycophants will pay in the end.
I’m American. I’m 72 and I’m ready to join the Gray Panther Brigade and when Donald Trump next visits Greenland, as a unit we will turn our backs to the president bend over and let out farts heard round the world.
Pam, I hear quite regularly from my Ds just to keep constituents informed about what they are doing and hearing from their constituents at town halls, meeting with groups, etc.
Michele, you are correct to mention your Dems, but while I receive regular updates, this is a first time for me to complain about the Dems collectively. I know how diminished their role is at the moment, but their voices seem also to be diminished. This concern may come from my increasing fear of my own lack of “power” in this current chaos
Pam, I am truly tired of this. I would suggest that they do not get national coverage a lot of the time. For example, one of the D Oregon reps is one of three sponsoring the impeachment bill, which will probably go nowhere because Ds are in the minority. One can hope they can persuade some Rs. Our state Ds are busy trying to fend off federal nonsense and the Sec. of State just won a court case protecting the data of Oregon voters. My position is that they are doing what they can.
If that happens and it comes to blows with us in Europe, that’s when Putin stabs us in the back while we are confronting the USA. Meanwhile Dems say not a lot.
Patrick, I wrote this piece the other day about Germany sending war ships to Iceland. Some people told me I was spreading fake news, but I stand by my German sources, like the German military newsletter.
Anyone military that participates in a military or Federal attack on Greenland should be courtmartialed for obeying an illegal order as Kelly, Slotkin and others have pointed out. Hopefully, someday, the personnel that have killed over 200 Venezuelans will be court martialed for murderi. Of course, Trump's entire incompetent cabinet should be impeached. Very few of the cabinet members or other Senate approved appointments received a single vote from the Democratic Senators. They all knew and complained about their inability to do anything other than kiss Trump's shit smeared ass.
There have been 35 strikes by the US with 123 killed on the boats in the Caribbean.
This from a Google search-
Venezuela (Official Claim): Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Interior Minister, stated over 100 people were killed, including Maduro's security, in the U.S. raid.
United States (Official Assessment): U.S. officials assessed approximately 75 people died, including Venezuelan and Cuban forces and civilians.
Cuba (Official Confirmation): Cuba confirmed 32 of its security personnel were killed, leading to national mourning.
Other Reports: Some Venezuelan officials cited by The New York Times mentioned around 80 total deaths, including civilians and foreign operatives.
This action was illegal, but you can bet that Congress will do NOTHING about prosecuting the crime. IMPEACH KEGSBREATH NOW!!!!
Greenland focus takes the eyes off Russia and Eastern Europe. By NATO resources being pushed away from Europe, Putin has better opportunity to do what he wants.
Come to think of it, I remember the siege/distraction of Khe Sanh began on Jan 21, 1968, followed 2 days later by the capture of the USS Pueblo by North Korea. Tet 68 started 30/31 Jan for us in Saigon, but the attacks to the north were a day early (seemingly because North Vietnam used a different calendar), so we had many expecting attacks, at least at Long Thanh North, where I had driven up to and back from on the afternoon of the 30th.
Having traveled through much of Vietnam and Thailand, we thought the attack was sort of a last gasp and heard later reports that the VC/PAVN thought they had lost 80,000 men and the war. By the time we learned of the rescue of the SF at the overrun Lang Vei camp, we were ready to help take on even Chinese and North Korean troops if they had sent troops.
Thank you. The George Washington of Vietnam (how many Americans remember that he was at Versailles in 1919 trying to be free of French colonial dominance?) did have an answer for the West. Sadly it was Russia.
I was baffled for so many years about why Truman changed FDR's efforts to end colonial domination of countries until the Ken Burns series on Vietnam claimed it was due to Charles de Gaulle threatening to side with the Soviets if he didn't support keeping (at least Vietnam) under French control.
I 'd heard my wife's grandfather was reputed to have been with the O.S.S. and a liaison to Lord Mountbatten, then the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. I didn't think much of it until I overheard the start of a phone call from Harry Truman, and found out more about his long time friendship with Harold Ickes (who my mother-in-law said had visited so often that she thought he was an uncle).
That gave me some faint hope he could explain why Truman had turned the other way from what FDR was intending to do. He offered no enlightenment on the subject, though.
I'm still pretty much in the dark about what could have been.
And maybe China getting closer to Taiwan. Only idiots don’t understand the risks involved here. And even greater idiots (thinking of Little Marco and Witkoff) think they’re going to talk their way out of the mess.
He's in a powerful union. They will do the suing. He won't need to spend a penny. My husband worked for a union shop with a powerful national umbrella union. The company is terrified of them. This incident has garnered international attention. Boycotting would be great. We haven't bought any domestic vehicle since 1996 so we can't help you there but the only thing these power hungry industries care about is money.
Just a note: the Union will not allow the worker to lose his job. With the money raised for him though his days on the assembly line may be in his rear view mirror.
Robert Hubbell also provides excellent, insightful commentary in his "Today's Edition" Substack. I read him even before Heather every morning and urge everyone here to subscribe to him as well (it's free!).
I am a paying subscriber of both. I have not gotten to him yet, because I have had a full day today, which I am going to cap off with joining Ruth Ben-Ghiat's weekly Zoom meeting for paying subscribers, which is always worthwhile.
Linda- I am so sick of Epstein taking attention away from all else. Not that it should not be part of this all. But there is a limit to how many balls we out here can keep in the air at once.. or how much "bandwidth" we have out here. Thankfully we have people working on getting TrumpBondi to comply with the law. As I just wrote to explisset above if our worse suspicions are found to be true, or even worse than that- which I think so ( this is international and not just pedophilia) we cannot get rid of Trump this way. Maybe he will lose some MAGA and knee jerk Republicans when it comes time to vote, but in the meantime he cannot be impeached over this. Trump can be prosecuted after he leaves office if the law still applies- along with a lot of other crimes. But while he is president whatever is in Epstein will not end his presidency. It may eat at some of his support but so will a lot else he is doing and *actually destroying* daily. Do you know differently?
The Epstein affair may not be grounds for removal of Trump himself, but if he is clearly exposed as the debauched criminal we believe he is it may finally make it impossible for the Republicans in Congress to continue to defend him. Their guilt by association will be a sledge hammer wielded by the opposition.
It is grounds for removal as are so many other things. We don't need any more grounds, we already have them. We just need politicians that represent our interests to do it.
Jane- this "affair" is indirect and a hope more distant than what is actually going on. Trump has been and is so exposed as the debauched criminal he is already. The hope, like so much else he is doing, actually doing now ( including ICE directly threatening us more each day) is that THIS will be the thing that finally does it, the tipping point. You are depending on the conscience of people who have not yet woken to get revolted by Epstein and push their Congresspeople, or to vote for a Democrat Godforbid. They will say fake news or rationalize or shrug. You are depending on Republicans in Congress not defending Trump because of what is in the Epstein Files when they already are, can, should, shrug about all else continuing every day. The "all else" is the elephant in this room wrecking us. That is not to say we should forget about Epstein. But Epstein has now become a way to turn our attention away from the assault daily. What I hear now is the opposite:i.e. all that is happening now: this storm, this wrecking ball is turning our attention away from Epstein. What!!! ???
Potter, Trump always makes people sick and tired of being sick and tired. I remember how I was feeling halfway into his first go around. Everyone need a break from the constant chaos, as well as his robbing us blind and destroying the US.
You sound like you are trying to talk me out of jumping off a ledge. I dreaded the moment he was reelected. And my attention would be usurped this much. I could not believe that our electorate would even make it close.. could not believe that Kamala was so hard for so many people to vote for.. could not believe that Godforbid a Republican not be able to vote for a Democrat, would rather vote for this or sit home... that..people would not be able to vote for a woman, and "of color". This has been an awakening about the vulnerability of people to hate and misinformation. I learned how much I care and how much others do too. We cannot have a democracy though and I am questioning the premise of this experiment if we just care about the economy. We definitely do not want this autocracy, tyranny,oligarchy, a Christian nationalist country. Most of us do not. This kills everything we are about. And now it's up to us to exert the will of the majority. I do not know how... We depend on elections working..... so far. That I believe in as we have experienced the pain enough to get out and vote. There are more of us. I believe that. It should be an overwhelming mandate to defeat this... not soon enough.
Potter, why would you jump off a ledge instead of just leaving the US? I am in Germany right now. Germany is having its own problems, like each country does, but it is a break from being in the full force of the US regime.
Entirely believable and I don't care if it is not because essentially thisis what is happening. ICE is lawless and we have seen a lot worse that is absolutely real.
No, but I am also on several Political chat groups and have been hearing plenty of what ICE is doing. I was witness to the effects of ICE in Chicago in the Summer and Fall.
Linda, I believe people should have been boycotting Ford long before yesterday. The company has papered over their history to preserve sales, but the history is still there. Henry Ford is lauded by many because he paid employees double the going rate for autoworkers, but that pay came at a cost to personal liberties.
The affordable Model T wan't produced so every American could have access to transportation; it was a marketing decision to enlarge Ford's customer base and make him wealthy. In fact, everything Henry did was to enrich himself.
Ford had a "Social Department" that stuck its nose into employees' personal lives to make sure they didn't engage in any behavior of which Henry disapproved.
Ford was an avowed antisemite who bought the Dearborn newspaper so he could publish conspiracy theories castigating Jews for all the problems in the U.S. Henry Ford and Elon Musk would have been best friends.
Ford Motor Company has moderated its positions on many topics, but it is still too involved with Republican politics, as evidenced by its hosting Donald Trump for a publicity tour.
If our (former) allies can cooperate in defending Greenland, a move I applaud, perhaps they can also take the next step - placing sanctions on the Trump regime and his family.
- Canceling of the midterm elections (or simply shooting the people who dare to vote for ‘leftist insurrectionists’j;
- The rounding up of journalists who criticize The Orange Goblin King and his cult;
- The shooting of people who protest the ICE Gestapo;
- The military rounding up No Kings demonstrations;
And last but not least, the Orange F*ckturd going to war with NATO over Greenland, thus starting World War III (because Putin won’t waste such an opportunity and will join the fray against Europe) just to divert attention away from the Trump-Epstein files - and simply because he CAN.
The Republicans need the mid-terms as much as the Democrats. Some states have primaries as early as March. Both Parties have invested millions already. In addition to one third of the Senate and all of the US House, thousands of state and local elections take place. Without the mid-terms, years of chaos would ensue. The Republicans know this. They also know the blame for it all would fall squarely on them.
Those republicans cower in fear over the traitor-in-chief, but don't they realize they have more to fear at the hands of American citizens? trump will not be there to support or help them if they lose their elections. When they are out, they are no longer useful and will realize they were used by a maniac, lying just to gain the advantage, just like the maga fools were lied to just for their votes, He actually told them that while campaigning yet they laughed it off as one of his pathetic attempts at humor. How many are laughing now?
No. They just carry on with what they have and put politically chosen replacements where there are gaps. Anyway, show me how Congress and the Senate are necessary? They have been useless for the past year, who needs the vast expense of an election or politicians when you have an Orange Dictator and his Cabal of Criminals running the show. He sends them all home, and with the willing participation of the Supporting Third, the acquiescence of the Inert Third, the rest can be quickly controlled.
Eyes open is a necessary survival skill, but alarmism is counterproductive. Robert Hubbell addresses elections and Insurrection Act with a voice of reason:
MLM, I don't have social media, so thanks for doing that.
I have been putting the below link in the comment area for a few days. When I read it, I was so upset, I had to take breaks. It's quite long, and it is VERY GRAPHIC, but what it alleges about Trump is exactly what I thought of back a few months ago, when I thought "WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE SO BAD THAT HE'S THIS AFRAID?"
I believe Greg Olear is a reputable journalist.
I truly believe that if what this substack alleges Trump did, it would absolutely 100%-ly take him down.
So let Trump invoke the Insurrection Act. Let's have at it, the act is specific as to what the military can and cannot do. If Trump orders them to do something illegally, as in establishing martial law, then maybe we'll se if Kelly's message got through.
Dutch Mike, in my view, it is not helpful to project into our future the worst-case scenario. What it does has two results: plunging people into despair thinking what's the use? or, getting people so riled up and angry that they want to rebel violently to stop this from happening. We cannot afford either response. I am of the belief that the energy we project into the future matters tremendously. Yes, things are worse now that many of us could have imagined, but surely, we are reaching a tipping point. It may be taking longer than we thought it would, but we cannot give up on getting through this and reclaiming our democracy, knowing that we have to safeguard our future by making drastic changes to ensure this can never happen again and to make our country a better union. Dr. Richardson has pointed out so many parallels to harsh times our country has endured before this (and other countries who have as well). You are right that we may not make it this time, as we are a young country, but we also quite possibly MAY make it! We are a unique country in so many ways, and it is worth doing what we can to save it. Ben Franklin certainly gave us this warning when he was asked if we had a monarchy or a republic. He said, " a republic if you can keep it." I, for one, am putting all my energy towards visualizing the best-case scenario, that we CAN keep it. The more energy put towards that end, the better for all of us.
Carol, today, for the first time in a week, I’m believing your conclusion again. Some days I cannot see past the idiocy because of the constant ICE sirens I am hearing in downtown Chicago.
My heart goes out to you, Virginia. The ICE sirens must be horrifying to hear. It is no wonder you feel defeated at times. Thanks for communicating with me. We all learn from each other.
Carol, I congratulated Dutch Mike today, reminded that he doesn’t mince words. As we are not in MN’s cold, faced with armed (how’s “Irregulars” for polite?) masked overpaid undertrained Irregulars, we can write the minds we cannot speak in Minnesota’s cold. The bravery and patience of the observers there is worthy of the medals they will never receive.
Virginia, it is true that Dutch Mike does not mince words. Although I am not in cold MN experiencing first-hand what is happening there, I am certainly not naive about the horrors being perpetrated on innocent people by the Trump regime and how illegal everything is that is being done. I agree that many who are resisting are exhibiting bravery and patience, without expecting a reward for their actions. Their courage is a wonderful example of what we all can do to keep our republic. More suffering is likely, yes, but we the people will eventually overcome.
Carol, thank you for articulating so well the deleterious results of projecting the "worst-case scenario" into our future. And as to our efforts of resistance and creating a better future, the "best-case scenario," we can't score if we don't take the shot.
I'm not saying you should stop your fight. Actually, seen from a point of justice, you simply can't! But you DO have to realize what you're up against. One of the most important things in the art of war is: never underestimate your enemy. In this respect: you should never underestimate the orange dirtbag's sheer malice and cruelty. THAT is what you are really up against.
Those Epstein files must reveal Trump and Epstein and friends have done some really horrible things to girls and boys. Money laundering and now stealing money from the oil companies who just wanted payback for equipment they left when thrown out of Venezuela. Trump sold the oil and is trying to hide 500 million in Quatar. Same Quatar who gave him a airplane ✈️ and he promised to defend? Tell that man to grab his sons and go defend it himself. We refuse more FOREVER WARS and no one believes in his wars and we are not going to fight our allies.
"Those Epstein files must reveal Trump and Epstein and friends have done some really horrible things to girls and boys."
Oh, they absolutely do. The Orange Goblin King is going to war with Venezuela and Denmark to distract from them. The evidence must be really incriminating, even for the guy who "could shoot someone on fifth avenue in broad daylight and still not go to jail"...
I don't know if that's a compliment, but I'm warning you, that Orange F*ckturd will destroy planet Earth and every living being just for his own enjoyment. There is absolutely no limit to his malice... It is that malice what you as American citizens are up against... You have to be ready for that.
Then you'd better be ready, because it's just like Mike McMillan said: if the dirtbag tells us he's going to do an awful thing, he's actually does it. He always tells us up front what havoc he is going to wreak. And be aware: his malice knows no bounds. He will even destroy planet Earth and all living beings on it if he gets the chance - just to satisfy his desire for cruelty, and to get attention. "Look, daddy! I destroyed Mother Earth! Can I get your attention now?"
Drumpf and his Administration routinely break the law and violate the constitution. SCOTUS doesn’t simply step in. My impression is that members of Congress must first bring suit on behalf of their constituents.
The problem seems to be twofold al a minimum. First, some members of Congress must file suits and bring them before SCOTUS. SCOTUS may act or perhaps half act by returning the suit to a lower court. When members of Congress are reluctant to act, it seems their constituents should sue them for their inaction regardless of party, regardless of State.
It seems like not enough groups of constituents are going after their Representatives and Senators. Writing, phoning and marching are powerful endeavours. But grassroots led public suits against Representatives and Senators seems to be less than one would expect under the circumstances.
I must be missing something or be entirely mistaken.
Maybe it’s the media like cbs, WaPo and NYT that have been taken over by the right wing that are limiting the conversation, but the amount of the illegality that donthecon commits daily is just amazing. There ought to be a prominent daily list. But let’s stop for a minute and focus on the illegality of his second election, which was NOT free and fair. Bomb threats closed dozens of voting places. Media reported results even before west coast polls closed, voters were wrongly kept from voting. Recently, a poll worker woman who destroyed votes was pardoned. Pardoned Jan6 rioters are ready to cause chaos. Democrats need to prepare. Vote early if you can. And candidates, DO NOT CONCEED EARLY. That was Kamala’s only mistake.
I agree that the Supreme Court is complicit in this, and the issue has to be brought before them and place in their court, maybe an "emergency hearing"? The number of calls and letters seems to create no change in the behavior of our Reps. The Dem leadership is not acting equal to the problem, so maybe a class action is what we need.
The Dem leadership, hit with the results of trickle down (no middle class funds and money at the top goes to Puppy Shooter’s Enabler—where is our Aristophanes when we need him?—no insult to our favorite comedians intended) is doing its rules-bound best to check the flood of garbage while trying to limit the damage
The only thing you're missing is sight of the imaginative damage done to all whose schools they attended lacked focus on the human, the humanities.
They came out equipped with policy abstractions, policy stats, policy wonk language. But no more human centers than those who took over Walker Percy's town in "The Thanatos Syndrome," or took over Don Siegel's town in his 1956 (classic) version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
America was taken over by the imaginatively crippled testing zombies long before we ever got their next generation goons, thugs, insurrectionists, and murderers.
Oh my Walker Percy! He was a very interesting writer. The South has produced so many! Faulkner, Welty, McUllers, O’Conner , Price, Wolfe, and Hurston, Gaines, Morrison, Angelo, and all have this gothic thread that is woven in so many ways but holds on to the evil that was around in many different ways.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
My first point in the case of Renee Good. Her rights as a human person were violated as articulated in our Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-
My second point. The illegal killing of Renee Good by police agents of our federal government requires that We the People alter that government.
-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We the People must organize to peacefully create the changes necessary to "effect their Safety and Happiness.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
I'v read that 42%(?) of those polled couldn't care less if trump is a pedophile. Let that number sink in. The cult isn't going anywhere. They'll just morph into a different name and latch onto the next cult leader who plays them like a fiddle on their single issue vote of choice: abortion, immigration, trans, gay, feminism, guns, "woke". None of this goes away when trump is either deposed (removed) or dies. Fifty eight percent don't support trump. Our goal is to get them all to vote.
I beleive that number is based on the assumptions of the cult is that all he did was diddle girl children (and in my professional experience, a surprising number of those folks are girl child diddlers themselves); they are not really prepared for what is actually in those files. Death penalty stuff if it happened in Florida.
Will Trump's panic go so far as to illegally cancel elections? We know he has enough loyalists to pull it off, all the way to SCOTUS. Schumer and Jeffries need to get out in front of Trump and speak loudly and clearly to pro-democracy groups: cancelling the November election is one more thing that is not legal and will not be tolerated.
''America, Please Ignore the Fire While We Repaint the Smoke Alarm''
While the fire spreads, leaders argue over who set off the alarm. This satire cuts through distraction to show how power disables warnings, reframes dissent as danger, and calls chaos order. A darkly funny, clear-eyed look at what happens when silence becomes policy...
Well, trump punishes the citizens and rewards his servants (his cabinet) by making them the instruments of his retribution. He is piling up battered bodies and thinking it is wonderful. I guess this is what he means when Heather quoted him as saying he has "accomplished" so much?
Eleanor, the issue has become the source of the information that people choose to utilize. There is a huge amount of propaganda from both within and without (Russia, are you listening? "Da") that people who support this regime are consuming with relish. They are also conditioned to believe that what we are consuming as news is also propaganda. To be fair, every person must be a discerning consumer of news and check sources; I would say the ratio is (generously) 80-20 with "our side" having the "20".
Ally, how many are watching MSNOW? I check CNN, which does fairly well with news, but have given up on every other source. The “two sides” version is NOT useful if one side is lies. I did academic research for years, know how to weigh
Information, and prefer as much intelligent commentary as possible.
Thank you, Ally. As a retiree from Fairfax County VA Public Schools I recall that in my years of teaching government and politics, including AP, I never shied away from critical thinking skills learned with content. Adoption of Standards of Learning I do believe moved curriculum away from that into more rote learning [would enjoy being corrected]. Newspapers back then were valued tools. Today I read NYTimes and Washington Post but appreciate especially Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce White Vance. Network news as well as MS NOW and CNN with some News Nation are included but talking heads and no solutions, or courage/grit, and wordy entries do not engage. Who will help us to understand how we as a nation got to this place, and resolve to never again?
It's a power grab that could easily work at this point. Maybe it's just posturing and deflection, but I see every sign that Trump intends to capture absolute power indefinitely, and I'm not sure what can stop him. His cooperation with the courts, partial at best, will soon come to an end, and he will invoke the Insurrection Act as soon as possible. Unless the US military resists him, that will be that. If the military splits, it will be civil war. My position is, it's always been worse than we imagined from Trump, and that will not change.
Boils down to complacency..people still get on with their lives if they are not in the jaws of ICE. NIMBY. The truth means nothing if we are not ACTING on it in more than a piddling way. The plaque?
The Epstein Files--if we get them somehow, will be a distraction, a "million" pages of it and *it will not get rid of Trump* for us. Yes this stalling defies the law.. so what? It's a pretense that they will eventually comply. Maybe. Yes it might peel away some MAGA...those who have not guessed already what is in them. And then what? How many of this MAGA will let bygones be bygones when the alternative is voting for a Democrat Godforbid.
And the "biggy" suspicion- that Trump himself was a pedophile or involved in Epstein's international "business", sex trafficking, threatening VIP's turns out to be less of a suspicion and more true.. then what???
*Trump is immune from prosecution until he leaves office* for a past crime... and he will leave office one way or another.. but not until then.
Hello Xavier.... DJT, who cannot Plan, Read, Write, Govern, or be Truthful, is a Tyrant in the Original Greek Sense... Pray for Divine Intervention, Force Majere, Soon...
Xplisset, you seem to be usurping many of Heather's very well written columns with all to frequent "first position" response in her "comment" section . The is not "Jeopardy" where the first to push the button gets to win some prize money.
Your comments are thoughtful and well written but often generic and not to Heather's letters from an american focus, as if pre written, copied, and in the ready to "paste" to get first place.
We the readers typically read most if not every comment, to feel the pulse of growing outrage with our current world situation, and then make comment.
Paul, Substack offers two ways to view comments: "Top" or "Newest First." The default is "Top." You can set your preference at the very top of the comments list. Substack defines "top" as the comment that draws the most activity. Best I can tell, the algorithm gives more weight to responses than to "likes."
That said, an early poster is more likely to have their comment rise to the top by virtue of its having been "out there" longer than other comments – thereby drawing more responses – rather than a late arrival like me, who joins the conversation at least 8 hours after it started.
I share your implied frustration with this arrangement. The conversation is thoughtful (mostly), but sometimes veers off the topic that was originally presented in HCR's Letter. As a result, a topical comment I'd like to offer would seem weirdly off-topic and there's no place to insert it in the conversation that has taken a different direction.
As I've written before, "the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness." When a conversation starts among intelligent, thinking people, one person's tangential thought can take the conversation in a completely different direction.
Still, I rather interact with smart people than stupid people.
How do we get Heather to run for President, or is that just my sanity trying to prevail? Is she much too honest and historically knowledgeable to be elected?
Also, what is that immature cloisonne dork pin that rump is now wearing of his skanky suit coat? What a fucking thin skinned child!
I'm going to order a Nobel Peace Prize from Amazon and mount it on a golf cart
Paul, you've surely noted that after about 3 hours of initial comments that provoke conversations (like this one, for example), those who comment later do not provoke nearly as many conversations.
Exhibit A is Megan's persistent posting of her contact sheets and the request for comments to keep it "near the top" (Substack's default setting is "Top" first, rather than "Oldest" or "Newest". The ONLY one of hers that was at the "top" was yesterday (or the day before, days run together) was one that involved a troll and those who engaged the troll.
This is a Substack issue, not one of other Readers trying to "usurp" the Professor.
Likes from readers determine position in the thread not who posts first. I was not the first response. Those who were got outvoted. This is more Democracy then Jeopardy as you are alleging.
Xplisset, after posting my prior comment (reply to Paul above) I did indeed just go to upgrade my subscription to your Substack to "paid".
I've been reading you for awhile now--not all of them all the way through, I confess. (They can be LONG, but I do admire and appreciate the hard work you put into them!) I could, but I can't, spend the entire day reading about this regime!
Digital communication such as this can't convey nuances either good or bad, and perhaps because we're all worn out, misunderstandings happen. In the last six months or so, I've noticed disagreements on here turn into full out wars, with insults hurled. SOMETIMES, they're justified (ie; trolls) and I've engaged thus, against my better judgement. I appreciate that you calmly answered Paul and didn't (as my mom used to say) get your hackles up.
Keep up the good work. Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you.
The "ranking" comes from the number of "likes" and comments. I have personally noticed if I happen to be online right when her Letter drops, and I am among the first of say, 20 or so comments, it seems that people are more likely to see those and hit "like" or respond.
I have been reading Heather for probably 5 years. I wish I could read all or even most of the comments, but it would take me at least 3 hours. I've been guilty of spending 2 hours all too often. I now tend to scan for names I have grown familiar with, and Xplisset is one of them. As an aspiring novelist, I quite enjoy his writing. He has a fresh, honest voice. And as a white female, I appreciate the viewpoint a black, male, retired law enforcement officer gives us.
I read Heather for awhile before I committed to subscription. I don't know how many paid subscribers Xplisset has to his Substack (well worth reading!) as I know when he first appeared on the Letters here, he was struggling to get to 50.
Yes, give the middle finger to working class America. And protect goons, murderers, rapists.
For the last category, Lisa Phillips appeared today on Michael Popok’s Legal AF, on a new Epstein twist.
That is, new to her, and new to us – thanks to Jamie Raskin, who put the pieces together, and has since contacted some major universities.
It seems the finest and most expensive east coast schools were eager recipients of Jeffrey Epstein money, for his paying full tuition – in fact, more than full (but that’s another angle). Congressman Raskin was asking, now 25 years later, what none of the universities asked then: how could Jeffrey have had so many “nieces” for so many years, for so many elite schools, for whom he was paying so much?
Lisa Phillips knew something strange was going on then. But she had no idea how the pieces connected, other than, in return for certain services at certain NYC mansions, many, many girls got modeling gigs, and many got elite educations, or both.
Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal Christonazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
I hope your days are yet filled with various rewards from a good, long life, Loren.
In better proportion than that of the unbelievable betrayals we all see from the many surging, unrepentant racists, fascists, misogynists, thieves, and murderers.
Thanks Loren, "after I am no more" is a powerful reminder that none of us knows how our words and deeds will live on after our bodies change form. A favorite quote by Alice Walker, "Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise". Passing the torch is a good metaphor for human community.
Wow! That is really grim! That poor girl being tied down then raped by that Orange Orc, and then by E. Both hitting her in the face to shut up her screaming.
Louise, from the lawsuit Loren provides (above) on Donald's behavior:
"Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted."
Was this in 1994, as the lawsuit claims, or was it another time, with E. Jean Carroll on the receiving end of rape?
Or was it in the oval office last year, with Donald and his sycophant Vance attacking Ukrainian President Zelensky, pressuring him to do whatever Donald and his boss Putin want?
Or was it laughing with Billy Bush how he could grab them by the pussy?
Or was it in the legal deposition that famous men for thousands of years could always do what they wanted with women? They let you, if you're famous.
Or was it among the many times in his first term when Donald was bragging how as president he could do whatever he wanted?
Or was it last week, when he lied about Renee Good and the entire scenario where his thug Jonathan Ross on many videos by many there plainly showed that thug's cold-blooded murder of her -- as if he could ever lie about facts, given how he's done that during his entire criminal career?
... Just because I haven't told you lately, I consider your full presence here a gift Phil. Hard lessons learned in my life demand that I speak my mind without delay. One never knows when their last day comes. Learned and act accordingly, the hard way, to nearly perishing; A struggle that continues to this day. ~Shalom~
Some who are very outspoken here -- and witty, possessed of high-flying English -- very much instead defend our schools' status quo. K-12 and "higher."
They succeeded, they feel, so can see no damages from a pedagogical status quo now void of humanities and based near totally on testing only.
Trouble is, among testing's main conceits, linear causality forecloses on seeing the overlapping, often contradictory, complicated, nuanced, and serendipitous other causalities which humanities rely on, and the status quo excludes.
Loren , I just read the horrifying Lawsuit filed by Jane Doe in 2016. Did she drop it then, due to threats? Did she go into hiding? Is she alive? I am sorry to not be aware of what happened to her. There is so much happening and such a cover up of the Epstein files, I can’t keep up. Thank you for putting this out there.
Thank you. I decided at age 14, 1954, to become a journalist because -- raised by a Marxian father (and soon to begin a lifetime embrace of Marxism myself) -- I realized journalism was the only way a non-ruling-class person could possibly foster humanitarian change in the ever-more-viciously capitalist United States. By late in my 16th year I had my first newspaper job -- part-time copyboy and sports stringer at The Grand Rapids (Michigan) Herald. Apart from the unavoidable interregnum of the three years I spent fulfilling my military obligation (1959-1962), that's been my focus ever since.
Loren, Please know I found your words and life story inspiring. I am moving forward in my life with your phrase 'after I am no more' to share with others, who like me, hope also to leave behind some small inspiration, just as you are doing. Wishing you a bright and restful transformation in your travels.
I've said this to others here; And identically share the same sentiments with you Loren.
"... Just because I haven't told you lately, I consider your full presence here a gift Loren. Hard lessons learned in my life demand that I speak my mind without delay. One never knows when their last day comes. Learned and act accordingly, the hard way, to nearly perishing; A struggle that continues to this day. ~Shalom~
Proceed with extreme caution, but these interviews with victim Sascha Riley, a decorated member of the US Military (Army, I think), in which he details what happened to him as an 11-year old and others at the hands of these depraved miscreants are beyond most humans emotional capacity to process. I have a close friend who spent many years working as a therapist with victims of childhood sexual trauma. The trauma is twofold, and compounding, for most of these victims lives: the assault trauma itself is the first horrific part, but the continual trauma of betrayal by those who didn’t believe, and didn’t protect them builds and amplifies itself over time. The horror of it defies words. If you struggled with the details of the Jane Doe lawsuit, you probably should not listen to these. I have only heard pieces of it from others who did, and I have lost sleep for the past few nights over it. However, I share this here to say that if even a small part of this can be corroborated, the Jane Doe case, horrifying itself, pales in comparison. It would be unsurprising to discover that anyone who knew about this, directly or indirectly, would have been threatened (or the lives of their loved ones threatened) for decades, or simply “disappeared” outright. Remember that rare moment of self-reflection a few months ago when Dump said, shaking his head, that he didn’t think he’d be going to heaven? https://open.substack.com/pub/lisevoldeng/p/dont-worry-boys-are-hard-to-find?r=mxwjc&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
It’s mind boggling (Sascha’s story) but then it seems Epstein had something for everyone. Potentially many of his clients didn’t even know about some of the services offered. I hope it’s not true for the sake of those survivors, but I fear it might be.
Also, Marcia, recommend most highly that original classic, Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita."
Yes, the opening gimmick, the middle-aged male narrator's silliness, distracts, offends.
But somewhere after the girl, the victim, turns a year older (becomes 14 or 15 -- she's lost track), she begins to go into retreat, withdrawal from herself and the world. It's a clinically arresting account of how youngsters far, far from full brain development just cannot be expected to piece together their assaults, their being used by their much older adult predators.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
Inside info reveals the middle finger affair might have *** (Very likely been_) been mostly theater, providing 'free advertisement' for fascism adoring FMC and their knee-bent union. There has long been no solidarity in those ranks, who differ greatly with their 'leaders' (?). ~source protected
The UAW isn't a bent knee union. There are a lot of auto workers who work at parts manufacturers spun off from the Big Three that are not unionized. Those seem to be the ones who are more likely to support Trump. I admit I haven't talked to a large number of Union Members, but the ones I have talked to hate Trump! I think that story may have been planted as disinformation. I watched the local news the day this happened here in Michigan. The Union came out with a very strong statement to the press saying their legal team was on the case to get the worker reinstated and that an employer didn't have the right to restrict free speech in the workplace! Beware, there are many sources that are anti-union! Especially Fascists like Trump and friends, not to mention the car companies themselves!
He may, Jay Jay Eh, feel "a little less shielded & all powerful."
Trouble is, I think his having been delusional all his life -- he's always lied -- signals he's always felt powerful. Still does. Cannot even begin to see how Putin has him on a string. Has no comprehension how his conceits willy-nilly have him constantly lying -- so ever-lying words float the narrative in his fatuous head.
I blame our corporate media for having succored him. All those elite bastards who for all their years in schools governed by testing, who came out thus with zero equipment in any humanities to ground them to reality. And this failure to be grounded in personal exigencies let them all be led by their noses by this industrial scale liar -- by this guaranteed rapist of underage girls, money launderer for all Putin's worst.
Dead, spot on my friend. The enormity of the actual conspiracy completely boggles even the sanest mind. I know; And have some degree of certainty that you do as well. Bravo !
Ehh, everyone's 'palm gets greased' in these sort of actual conspiracies Jay, Jay. *Notably: It takes considerable fore planning and effort to not only create any "Go Fund Me" campaign, it takes far longer to reap the rewards. *So, 'How' on earth was this accomplished, start to yield in less than one day ? Does that 'connect' for you ?
I’m not familiar with it, but apparently it was TWO fund-me’s at work.
BTW, the ICE-man who shot Good … also had a Fund-Me … and is apparently a millionaire … altho I haven’t researched & confirmed that beyond one google glance.
It's not likely you'll find iron clad proof of that I reveal from an inside source; It's how they cover their tracks so well and just how they've all operated for-ever under the radar.
The modeling gigs brings to the forefront that Melania worked illegally when she first came to the U.S. and then was introduced to Trump by Epstein. Is that who Trump et.al. is trying protect by slow walking the release??
The Epstein scandal has to remain front and centre. Here's a link to the case brought against Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein in the NYSD by a Jane Doe in July 2016 - 6 months into his first presidency.
Before they seized power, all during the election cycle, the Democrats warned over and over again about the real danger of an authoritarian Christo-fascist regime.
After the evil night of November 5th, we heard that message modified with “things to look out for” and “how to tell if the country is turning fascist”.
We also heard a chorus of “we are winning in the lower courts, so we are winning” and “HIS numbers are tanking, so we are winning.”
This was against a backdrop of loss after loss. Some severe. The DOGE purge and data theft. The concentration camps. The big ugly bill. The shutdown. The refusal to release Epstein files. Attacking cities with ICE and federal troops. Invading Venezuela and upsetting the world order by threatening Greenland. And, gunning down citizens on the street. Now, house to house searches with brutal violence and destruction of property.
What I said right from the start upset people who did not want to see it— first of all, it is not a HIM, it is a they. DT is a monstrosity, but, in the end, irrelevant.
A consortium of members of the Epstein Class have seized the federal government of the United States.
Second: they ignore the ruling of any court that goes against them. And poll numbers only count in a democracy. If you intend to rule by force the consent of the governed is irrelevant.
Anyone with decent observational skills and a reasonable knowledge of history could SEE the fascism in full bloom on day one, and could predict the outcome.
My prediction was war. We are not fully at war, civil or otherwise, quite yet.
If you don't enjoy staring into the abyss, then may I calmly suggest you don't.
A million things out there to do, campaigns to enlist behind, groups to support financially, lawsuits to understand and support (and contrary to your assertion, Trump is losing more and more of them, and actually obeying many, such as the departure of the Guard from Illinois) -- and a late-night gift: a federal judge just rebuffed the Justice Department's backhanded attempt to seize California's voting records), referenda to back (such as California's Proposition 50, which not only passed but survived a Republican attempt to destroy it in federal court), causes to continue marching for, and above all, mid-terms to organize for, voter outreach to be conducted to capitalize on this dangerous moment where the beginning cracks of MAGA must be widened until they're unstoppable.
Yes, there will be mid-terms. Yes, they will be flawed and yes, there may will be intimidation and brute force, perhaps, but there will still be mid-terms. Elections are not in their hands, but in the hands of 50 individual Secretaries of State and of Washington DC.
So if you really want to, choose to focus on what's to be done, rather than on a chasm of fear which just turns people to stone. The latter, plus 5 bucks, will get you a cup of coffee somewhere. They'll even throw in a swizzle stick for free. Beyond that, I don't know what else it gets you. If you're lucky -- if we're lucky, smart and self-disciplined -- our efforts toward the former may actually end up changing the arc of history in the way we all seek.
Yes ICTT. And the word that jumped off the page for me is 'self-disciplined'. That would be a good starting point for many of us. When my kids were teenagers they loved a song called The Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson. I just looked up the lyrics. I would say that the message from that song works now as it did then and as it would have in the 60's. I think it tells us that it's always the poor that bear the burden when our country is failing. When we don't start with the man in the mirror, or think about who it is that fights our wars, we fail. This is a country worth saving, and it needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up.
Charitable and true Justin. I for one live in abject poverty, SS alone (for now) owing in part to the "Orange iL Duce" and the "coalition" that supports and empowers it. Daily I / we have to make those unimaginable trade-offs, like prescriptions or food in support of the household. It's just not my style to bitch, piss and moan; Other folks have their crosses they may bear. Count this as a blunt matter-of-fact revelation that the hurt is truth and is being borne - in reality, even by some herein.
Thank you for the calming and resolute tone. There are reports from all over Virginia’s blue cities that ICE is there. (Williamsburg!?) I’m trying not to anticipate chaos when Abigail Spanberger is sworn in tomorrow.
Soon-to-be Governor Spanberger is on the record for stating that ICE won’t get away with breaking Virginia’s laws. On a related note; “Although immigration had been one of Trump’s strongest positions, now only 20–30% of Americans favor the way ICE is enforcing Trump’s immigration policies.” ONLY! 20-30%….incredible. I’d love to know what the citizens of real first-world countries think of these goons and their tactics were this happening in their countries. I doubt you’d find many with an approval rate that high.
OMG how I long to serve her (Spanberger) ! The D.C. environs and northern Virginia are my second (in my heart_) home. I've relatives *(meant s, plural) there that live like "pickets" surrounding D.C,
r' added) 'like'. I have loved and been loved by Virginians - also but seldom suffered their scorn / anger. Full admission: I have made at least one or two mistakes in my too long lifetime. Lol ~
Lol, Virginian tracing back to 17th C, husband is a Virginia Native American. I get it. I’ve a deep love for the state. I guess the mistakes we’ve all made weren’t irredeemable. We’re still upright!
FYI Gail, following up you 'like'. I have loved and been loved by Virginians - also but seldom suffered their scorn / anger. Full admission: I have made at least one or two mistakes in my too long lifetime. Lol ~
You make a vital point. Stay involved: Research your candidates, organize and Vote!
Good mental health probably requires us to vent our frustrations now and again - they are real and must be acknowledged. However, maintaining an echo chamber of fear and anger is not a solution to the problems causing our unease.
There are those today who seek to divide us for selfish purposes, but they are not the majority, and the divisions they have sown are built on lies – a fundamental one being that those who disagree with them politically, those who do not look like them, and those who do not share their religious beliefs, are the enemy – evil, untrustworthy and determined to wreck the Union. One constructive thing we can do to counter these ideas is acknowledge and support efforts underway to mend the injuries to our polity.
Noted below are two resources – one a coalition of organizations determined to create opportunities to rehumanize our political interactions. The other is a discussion of findings from the 2020 book (The Upswing) by Shaylyn Romney Garrett and Robert D. Putnam about when, since the end of the 19th century until recently, our country was more or less cohesive and when it was not - and why.
I love that you're here with us, whether or not you care to know. My resounding alarm though as I wonder about one you might or might not know who used to post here:
I wonder, "Just where in hell is SB Lewis when we need him most" ? Not to annoy, but for civil commentary (all factual) and comforting presence ?
*Furthermore the heartfelt worry that the "Lion" might now be too feeble to protect his lunch money. "Wondering / musing" just now if 'anything' responds to prayers..
It's Come to This: NOWHERE have I suggested dropping out or becoming comatose. OF COURSE there is work to be done. The sane people of this country HAVE been doing all they can for a long time.
But we are capable of doing and using our awareness at the same time. My comment is a REPORT. Nothing we have tried so far has actually stopped them and it is coming to a head in this midterm year. Being AWARE of reality is good and necessary. It helps with forming a strategy, which is imperative in this situation.
Not everyone can fight. Some are too old, handicapped, parents of young children, or just too broken. We need to plan for those people too, for their safety. Right now, real humans are getting hurt. More will follow.
As to the midterms, how they play out, and even whether they happen at all depends on what we do NOW, and if it works or not.
Saying that what we have done so far has not worked so far is not a criticism. It is a fact. Of course we are throwing ourselves into this. That does not mean we will win. Bad things happen all the time and always have. Your crystal ball doesn't do any more than mine. CAN we win? YES. But it is not a foregone conclusion.
I am certain most like your version of reality. But I am sure of mine and will keep observing events and trying to make sense of them. If and when the tide turns in our favor I will be hollering from the rooftops. That day is not today.
"Saying that what we have done so far has not worked so far is not a criticism. It is a fact."
Your statement as a "fact" is a stultifying over-statement. You make valid statements about the Epstein Class and naming the problem, but the expose and resistance work continues to build for fixing the problem, making a better future, creating a more perfect union. Exercising our muscles makes them stronger. We learn from our experiences how to become more effective. We are engaging more people to become involved. Like Timothy Snyder says, "we can't each do everything, but everyone has to do SOME thing."
Ellie--And I have repeated till my face turns blue--YES, DO ALL THE THINGS. Because each has value. I am not addressing whether we should resist or not--OF COURSE WE MUST.
I am reporting as to actual conditions and likely outcomes as things stand now. So far, we have done all kinds of things. So far, nothing has worked and the regime grows stronger. The atrocities worse.
Maybe some of the things already being done will work but just haven't had enough time. But we don't know which ones, or if this is even true. Maybe the winning strategy has not been thought of yet, or implemented. My suggestion is that we AS A MOVEMENT need to regroup and develop a secondary strategy.
This says nothing about continuing to do whatever it is you are already doing on the chance that it just hasn't been long enough or hard enough.
I get to have whatever opinions I have, and to express them. Other people think differently, as is their right. They too are entitled to an opinion. Nothing I write here stops anyone for an instant from doing what they believe will make a difference. And that is as it should be.
I get such a feeling of deja vu for the 60’s. Protests violently put down, political outrage, lies, etc. It ended then when R Senators decided their guy (Nixon) had to go. What’s it going to take this time?
Politicians of old are gone, replaced by MAGAts, deliberately and with more malice than most suspected. The turncoats (like Graham) joined with the recruited cult to magatize our world.
Honestly JL, it's disappointing the numbers that aren't noticing. I was on a well heeled females FB today that is absolutely oblivious, proudly but falsely claiming "I'm not a political person."
If "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is going to be more than an empty slogan (and I'm afraid that for many people it is) it is simply irresponsible to vote on major matters without due diligence (at least reading and contemplating the voters pamphlet) and finding some reliable "news") and abstaining from doing so dilutes the odds of collective wisdom. In some circumstances it can enable disasters.
"Just because you do not take an interest in politics, doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you" - Pericles
MRich...I liked you for the "what's it going to take," but the disorders of the '60s -- which I both covered and participated in (sometimes simultaneously) -- were a kindergarten squabble compared to what obtains now. In the quest for analogies, this is much more like what I have read -- and what Holocaust survivors told me -- about the destruction of the Weimar Republic.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
It's going to take all who can to call our representatives and let them know we are not asleep and not afraid. Spineless politicians will blow with the wind. If we stay aware and guard our sanity and keep holding up the truth, they will turn. Bit by bit, drop by drop. Take care of yourselves, everybody, and make your calls.
I assumed nothing, as I saw one guardrail after another under attack and fall. Thank James Baker, Mitch, the Tea Party (racist to the core), and my ex-bff who wanted the SC that we have. Bill Moyers would not be surprised as he sniffed this out as Rupert started to smell.
Georgia— I still hear Democrats who are surprised and upset that this bunch of Republicans puts party above all and votes in lockstep. They think that there must be at least one moderate who hates this. And maybe there is but they won’t do anything about it.
Look! the face-eating leopards are eating faces! Shocking.
"Nebraska Republican Don Bacon has blasted President Donald Trump’s talk of taking over Greenland, branding the idea "utter buffoonery" and warning it could spark bipartisan impeachment efforts—underscoring deepening GOP fractures over Trump’s foreign policy brinkmanship."
Meanwhile, European troops began arriving in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support for Denmark, even as talks between Copenhagen, Nuuk and Washington underscored a “fundamental disagreement” over the future of the Arctic island, the Associated Press reported.
Daniel--We absolutely should not give up. We need to understand what is happening right now and then figure out the best places to push for change. Congress is not a monolith even if MAGA is trying to make it seem that way.
Observation is how we find the weak points in the wall.
I am in complete agreement. Earlier this week, I decided to pull out the application for a firearms ID card and license to carry that I printed some months ago. I haven't had a weapon in my hands in fifty-five years, and I don't intend to buy any right away. But I want the legal ability to do so. Because I have a suspicion that a year from now I'll be part of the underground.
My prediction was that if Trump got reelected, it would mean the end of Western civilization. Everyone said “Naaah, it won’t be that bad, he’s just president, he can’t just do everything he wants.” Hoo boy. I really wish I was wrong, but so far, we’re well on track. Turns out there is absolutely no match for the power of denial.
I disagree. He can’t cancel the midterms, they are run by the states. Our military is not large enough for him to unleash en masse against the cities even if the military brass goes along, which I doubt. 30% may be loud but the 70% aren’t powerless.
“first of all, it is not a HIM, it is a they. DT is a monstrosity, but, in the end, irrelevant.”
Yes, this! I’ve long said that DT could repent today of all the sins he’s committed and nothing would change. Between the “Epstein class” and their puppets in positions of power, reclaiming and strengthening our democratic republic is going to be a long, hard-fought battle.
"....“first of all, it is not a HIM, it is a they. " By heavens, you have 'it' in a nutshell. I've lost count how many times I've restated "it's a coalition. The looney just isn't that smart on his own."
In my opinion, the Billionaire Tech Bros’ power grab is complete. If anyone thinks there will be any elections anymore in the US, you are badly mistaken. And IF there WOULD be any elections, the results wouldn’t matter anyway: the Orange F*ckturd will dismiss them anyway, and set the military on anyone who disagrees. Nope, the nice times are over. If you keep playing by the rules, you cannot defeat a cheater who denies those rules.
Nobody can be 100% sure of the future unless the sun is literally burning out.
But there is pattern recognition and it runs strong in me. I am AuDHD and many of us have that trait.
I want to be wrong, but so far I have a lot of evidence that my observations are correct and very little that I am wrong.
I can see a very few other pathways but all of them depend on circumstances that are uncontrollable and most rely on massive group cooperation which will be difficult to achieve.
So let’s say I am as sure as anyone can be about anything.
I agree with you. I think we have moved from a slow coup timeline to a fast one.
I think Trump wants to have troops in the streets ahead of the March 3 start of the primary season, and while it is still cold outside.
He has already told us that he is ready to invoke the Insurrection Act, and that he doesn't think we need to have midterms just yesterday (Remember the "vote for me and you won't ever have to vote again" promise to evangelicals before the election?) And he warned us he would only be constrained by his "own morality, his own mind." That was just over a week ago.
On the leftmost thread line in my post, I attached the text of the Insurrection Act and the Brennan Center's views on ways to constrain a President once it is invoked.
Impeachment is basically it. And conviction in the Senate takes 2/3 majority...
How easy will it be to face down ICE and CBP goons carrying military weapons, making $200,000 a year, and self-selected for cruelty?
Like you, I have been correct about way too much. It’s eerie to see how so many just now acknowledge what some have been warning for a decade, or much longer re Rupert. Who said, prediction is hard, especially about the future. But history provides clues that if known and “Sherlocked,” would have more of an impact. Instead, we wind up reliving the worst impulses of the most dangerous animal.
I don't expect to be alive a year from now, but like my father before me, I too "have been correct about way too much"; pattern-recognition was unquestionably my greatest asset as an investigative reporter, and it enabled me to scoop the world on a number of local, state and federal stories -- the biggest of which was exposing the heroin-addiction epidemic inflicted on the nation by the Vietnam War. It also enabled me to read the indications accurately enough to recognize the nazification of the nation two decades before it became undeniable. That said, I'll preface what follows by quoting Ms. Ascher that "(n)obody can be 100% sure of the future." But I am in complete agreement with her estimate; everything I see tells me that by 2027, we'll be at war -- civil war here in the "Unified Reich," World War III or its immediate precursor elsewhere, the international conflict triggered by the Christonazi Regime's invasive quest for lebensraum in Canada, Europe and Latin America. Of course I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see how the Regime's fanatically ecogenocidal bellicosity at home and abroad could have any other outcome. As to who would win, I'd say that will be determined by whether the world's humanitarian alliance can cobble together the technological miracles to prevent the Regime from acting on its Hitler-originated Better-Dead-Than-Red policy and literally destroying the planet with the world's largest and most deadly CBR arsenal.
(It is a bit of an aside, but I'd suggest anyone interested in the foundational socioeconomic and cultural origins of the divisiveness that led to our denouement read "Cultural Regions of the United States" [Raymond D. Gastil, University of Washington Press: 1975].)
.... And there it is Annabel; We, you and I plus some unknown number of 'others' are so afflicted. I identify with you more than you might be willing to believe or accept; But we are without a doubt. Yet, somehow we've endured. I can think of nothing I'd like better than to spend some time conversing with you privately. Such would be off topic herein, consuming more time and energy, and alas, few if any could relate, much less understand. Mutuality would prove to be a grand 'shortcut' in terms of relating; Moreover, kinship might prove grand. I'll seek means. Brava ~
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
Totally agree. Too few, even on Substack, want to see how skillful he is. And, as you well note, the polls don’t matter. Even Richardson misses this reality.
Since some are concerned that bad news may demotivate people, I can address that. First of all, people in general are tough enough to keep going in the face of setbacks IF it is important enough. This is.
And yes, there are people who can't handle this situation psychologically. They should skip being aware and informed and protect their mental health. These are people who would truly be demotivated if they pay attention to the news. And they are excused from that part. Plenty of people are watching. If a person is handicapped we would not expect them to fight ICE. Nor should we expect the highly sensitized to be inundated with reports of destruction. The people I know who have this psychological makeup ARE doing things. They make phone calls. They send post cards. They campaign for Democrats. They NEVER have too look into the abyss. That is my job, and the job of those like me.
What do I actually DO, besides foresee terrible trouble? I am not so interested in the national fight beyond watching it carefully and reporting events. My efforts are with the local. If we are to win in the long term, we need strong communities and economic justice. So my beat is trying to start a community garden in my poor inner-city neighborhood. Rehabbing a 140 year old duplex I call The Shambles, with an eye to an urban permaculture micro-farm. I write a stack to help food challenged folks eat better. And if/when war comes, I mean for this house to be a haven.
There are many ways to be part of the resistance. Being old, handicapped, neurodivergent, or economically enslaved does not preclude making a contribution. If you can't stand the news, if it makes you sick or paralyzes you--please just turn it off and scroll past any posts that look like bad news. Just keep doing your positive actions. There are enough of us to watch, record, and report.
Annabel, it just now occurred to me as I was responding to GJ Loft, a valuable resource here with us, that you would absolutely identify with a thought I left with him to 'chew on.' It's a quotation / aphorism that I 'own' in my life, heart, entire being, stated well by another, restated here - paraphrased from memory. GJ is a numbers guy; He may have to 'chew' awhile; I don't you'll have to. ( -;
" An aphorism perhaps by a wise soul that I deeply relate and agree with, by Rabindranath Tagore, paraphrased from memory and profound pain:"
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it."
Release the files! Let Congress hear you! They need to enforce compliance with the law that was passed! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊ New eyes seeing this means new ripples for change 🤞
Thank you again, Megan, for all your work in creating this spreadsheet and keeping it updated, so that We the People can continue to reach out to news organizations and our legislators quickly and easily and make our voices heard.
It is more critical than ever, with a deranged and morally bankrupt "president" losing control, as we all know that a cornered trapped animal is when it's most dangerous. His oligarch cronies are no doubt feeling the pressure to loot as much as possible before their puppet's strings get cut.
As Dr. Heather wrote:
Yesterday, in an interview with Reuters, Trump complained about the common pattern in the U.S. that the party of a president who wins an election then loses seats in the midterms, and suggested he didn’t want to be in that position. “It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said. He went on to say that he had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
He said that before the 2024 election, this may be the last election you ever need to have because things will be so great, or some such tripe. Only he meant it.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
I agree! I just sent some messages to the Oversight Committee asking them how they were going to enforce releasing the documents and asked how long past the deadline as allowed.
I plan to rest extra this weekend! Zero plans except a kid birthday party. However my 2 year old just came down with a cold and after waking up crying 5 times in the first 3.5 hours being awake, I am now tucked in the recliner with her sleeping on my shoulder hoping I can sleep here as well for a while ❤️🩹🤞
It doesn't matter what we call about. There is so much to choose from! Just call, and call. Keep the heat on. Let them know we are not asleep and not afraid.
In the midst of great moral cowardice coming from Minnesota Republicans and Fortune 500 companies based there, some officials truly deserve standing ovations. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is at the top of that list for me.
"Progressives" (a sort of dumb label in this case) had no use for him when he would not publicly support the defunding of police after 2020. His reasoning was sound, but his own left community, enraged at police abuse, would not hear of anything that did not sound like whatever the crowd wanted at that point. He was often marginalized by those he supported the most. His views were nuanced in ways they preferred to ignore.
It was his voice, even more than that of Governor Waltz, that led the clarion call of morality after Renee Good was killed. "ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis." Nothing could have been less ambiguous. And the simplest message to those who would disrupt order in the name of opposition: "Do not take the bait. You aren't helping anybody." Except perhaps Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, who can scarcely contain their glee at any disorder which benefits them.
It's one thing to be a Governor and former candidate for Vice-President, complete with whatever implicit power that implies. It's quite another to be a lone Mayor warning other mayors..."you're next." I salute Mayor Frey -- and tens of thousands of Minnesotans not taking that bait -- for their steadfast, sorely tested courage today.
Fun fact: Mayor Frey’s dad was my chiropractor for many years in Northern VA where they are all from. Dr. Frey retired about a year ago. Both mom and dad are proud of him but they worry about his safety daily. He's had to navigate Minneapolis through George Floyd and now this, taking slings and arrows from both sides. That he still stands is a testament to his integrity, toughness (before becoming mayor he was a near-Olympian marathoner), and love for his adopted home.
Thank you, ICTT, for lauding Mpls Mayor Jacob Frey. Not only did he stand up against the call to defund the police but seared into my memory is his presence at the George Floyd corner when the protesters demanded that Frey agree with them about defunding the police. He said No and walked through the crowd and left while they jeered. That's courage. Over the murder of Renee Good, his fierce address to ICE ("get the f*** out of Mpls") felt to me like what we needed at that moment: a David facing Goliath. Righteous fury well aimed.
Thanks. I did not know much about Frey. "Defund the Police," one of the most well-meaning but stupid slogans of all time. It says a lot about Frey that he would take a stand against what the leftist crowd wanted.
Ah, rpasea, I thought today perhaps some enterprising person/sculptor/creator would make/produce/market a caricature garden Kristi GNome….you know, one you could place “just so” in the yard to be of “relief” use for passing male canines. Just a thought. 🤷🏻♀️
And it comes with various accessories like a Barbie doll: over-large cowboy hat, crash helmet, body armor, hair extensions, exaggerated puffy rictus, bovver boots, etc.
Trump continues to do what Bannon always said he would do: flood the zone with shit. This is the media equivalent of the Gish gallop debate technique, for which there is no civilized defense. I don’t know how the legit media should handle this, but I’m pretty sure it’s not splashing his picture everywhere, asking him questions and broadcasting his shit-flood responses, and generally following his every finger-twitch. The legit media need to somehow focus on a narrative that convinces any semi-rational person paying attention that Trump is failing in every way to govern beneficially for any cohort in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter, outside the realm of the obscenely wealthy, where he distributes the portion of the grift, graft, and corruption that doesn’t go directly into his pockets.
It is shocking indeed that after so many years of the con, the dodge, the graft and the grift, they still have not figured out the most basic way to present the obvious. The New York Times practically creamed in its pants at the thought of sitting around Trump in the Oval Office, pens in hand, to listen to every bit of argle-bargle and babble-bibble to spew out of that demented, sadistic, brutish little piehole in love only with its own voice and the sight of rapt listeners trying to cue into every incoherent syllable.
You expect our media to stop the “shiny object” reporting. Looking out the window Went out when Rupert showed others how much money was in “entertainment news.” Walter would have been canned.
This is an important point. Compared to the newspapers and broadcast reportage of the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s and early '80s, mainstream journalism today -- The New York Times included -- reads like the movie-star mags of the '50s. It is so laden with celebrity gossip and lifestyle garbage, its actual news content is maybe about a tenth of what it was when I was part of the working press, 1956-1959 and 1962-1986. Obviously moronic media and Moron Nation are mutually reinforcing, with the resultant symbiosis spiraling ever-deeper into abyssal ignorance, so there's absolutely no rational hope for reversing the trend without truly radical intervention, initially to reverse the dumber-is-better/"ignorance-is-strength" ethos of neoliberal capitalist governance and its inevitable fascist successor, which will remain impossible until capitalism itself is permanently overthrown.
I so agree. I grew up with my parents watching Huntley/Brinkley. When I was 12 or so, we visited Chicago - and my Dad somehow arranged for us to watch one of their live broadcasts. The studio staff brought out 4 metal folding chairs for our family to sit on and my sister and I were cautioned to be very quiet during the broadcast. There was no cable news then -- just the main networks. No Jesse Waters, no Sean Hannity, no Murdoch as yet - just reporters and anchors trying to honestly convey the news.
Huntley-Brinkley was the weekday evening household ritual in my high school years, 1954-1958, and I will never forget David Brinkley's rightfully caustic coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention, which I managed to see most of, though at the time I worked nights as the news editor of the Morristown, N.J. Daily Record.
We generally watch the first 20-30 minutes of Nicole Wallace, who has done an admirable job of holding the line. And then, once it turns to endless commentary we switch off.
Yes, I do think journalism should take the high road, and I think many journalists would br inclined to do that if the industry had not been taken over by people who, to make oodles more money, cater to lazy louts who seek entertainment rather than edification. Of course, the louts have always been the vast majority of the population, but the adults in the room were mostly in charge. It all comes back to the 77 million people who voted for Trump. Their lack of basic decency is what makes shiny-object news so immensely profitable.
I am convinced the 77 million are a new subspecies, somehow genetically engineered to be utterly devoid of both empathy and our species' preservative instinct for love, the latter replaced with a reflexive, infinitely more powerful instinct for hatred. Ergo: Homo sapiens inhumanus.
(Another example of how patriarchy -- especially its derivative capitalism -- is the cosmic equivalent of smallpox-contaminated blankets.)
I think most if not all of us have a lazy lout side to us, that distracts from the work of a usable mental map of reality. Is it not self-evident that we are far less likely to get what we want with a badly flawed or inadequate understanding. Evidence based, here you are reality is not necessarily easy to sort out and not always pleasing, but honesty seems to be the best policy.
If we make life changing decisions on poor information, we are likely to experience poor outcomes. No? And while task of building sound understanding of our circumstances is never complete, to the degree we neglect it we are fools (and who has never been fooled?). If we allow "news" to consistently show us BS or inconsequential glitter, then all we will C will be BS, and time's a wastin'.
I put this up before, but if you missed it, it seems to offer a better path:
Every day I get petitions to sign to tell my Senators and Rep to impeach one or the other of those folks. There are articles of impeachment filed for most, maybe all, of them. Also, there is a new move by Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie to impose daily penalties on Pam Bondi for not releasing the total of the Epstein files.
On another topic, a friend who teaches journalism at Columbia was amazed that Natanson didn't keep all of her devices locked away at her office. My friend was aghast at the action of the regime, but also amazed that Natanson left herself and her files so vulnerable.
This Khanna/Massie move makes me wonder, if fines imposed, are they personal to her—as in self-pay—or would any taxpayer funds be used? Asking cuz I have no clue.
It wasn't clear to me in what I read who would pay the penalties. I'm guessing that Ro Khanna would want Pam Bondi to pay rather than the taxpayers, but again, I don't recall having read any details.
It also isn't clear to me if Machado gave Trump the monetary award that goes with the Nobel Peace Prize, but I'm guessing that she didn't.
Well, that may be Trump's intention, but it will be our fault if he succeeds. The good folks in Minnesota and elsewhere in the USA need to keep the pressure on, nonviolently, until our members of Congress decide to get involved.
I still believe a consumers' strike, targeted at oligarch-owned industries and services would be extremely useful.
Violence is upon us. What you ask for now is martyrs, saints, and victims. In my world when someone violently accosts one, one knocks them on their ass. They Issholes have openly overstepped their charter with violence and murder. They no longer hide under one of trumps fat rolls, or behind bondees skirts. You cannot expect to stem the tide of retribution that is a whisker away in angry black thunder clouds. The lightning show is going to spill out into our streets. We need to slap these bastards to their knees.
I share your frustration but talking about perpetrating violence can prepare your mind to accept doing violence. I think even throwing fireworks and snowballs can normalize responding with violence. We must not do that! Don’t gin up their violence, either. Adults in the room are needed.
Like Rex said, “there is no civilized defense” what’s that old saying? One if by land…two if by sea? I say sharpen your knives because if we are going to eat them we’ll need to gut them first. I never did tolerate trophy hunters. If that is too gnarly what do you expect from a bastard child no one ever claimed. Best I can come up with as angry as I am. Meat is so high priced now I hope I can get a license for hunting Iceholes. I wonder what smoked Icehole tastes like anyway. My grandfather used to put out a delicious smoked heart sandwich. My guess is Iceholes don’t have hearts so maybe liver and onions will suffice.
<><><> ““He did not have a great reputation in the neighborhood as a kid,” Haberman said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
One of several accounts from Trump’s early childhood included the story of a mother who found the would-be president pelting rocks at her son’s crib in her Queens backyard.” <> From an interview by Aiden Connelly -
The problem is that the pace of Trump's power grab is accelerating. He knows he will lose power at the midterms. He has to normalize troops in the streets before then.
I think we will see the Insurrection Act invoked within a few days. He has already warned us that he may invoke it, and he has said there may not need to be midterms. And that he will only be constrained by his own morality. He has not been making many idle threats lately.
The president does not need congressional approval to invoke the Insurrection Act. The law grants the president unilateral authority to deploy federal troops or federalize the National Guard domestically under specific conditions outlined in 10 U.S.C. §§ 251-255, without prior legislative consent.
Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature (or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened), call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.
Section 252: Use of Militia and Armed Forces to Enforce Federal Authority
Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.
Section 253: Interference with State and Federal Law
The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it—
(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
Section 254: Proclamation to Disperse
Whenever the President considers it necessary to use the militia or the armed forces under this chapter, he shall, by proclamation, immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time.
Section 255: Guam and Virgin Islands Included as "State"
For purposes of this chapter, "State" includes Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Below is what the Brennan Center says about what Congress can do to exert control on a president AFTER the Insurrection Act is invoked. As you read the list, think about how likely any of these options would be enacted in the current Congress, and, if enacted, how likely Trump would be constrained by them.
Once the Insurrection Act is invoked, Congress does not gain any special new operational power over how the president uses the military, but it retains all of its ordinary constitutional powers: legislation, appropriations, oversight, and—at the extreme—impeachment.
Constitutional baseline
The Insurrection Act is a statute enacted by Congress under its Article I power “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”
The president’s authority to deploy federal forces domestically under the Act is therefore delegated statutory power layered on top of the Article II commander‑in‑chief role.
Amend or repeal the statute: Congress can pass legislation narrowing, conditioning, or repealing the Insurrection Act, including adding consultation requirements, time limits, or substantive standards; past reform proposals have included 14‑day limits without explicit congressional authorization.
Control funding: Through appropriations riders, Congress can restrict or condition the use of funds for specific deployments or troop uses, even while the Act remains on the books.
Oversight and political checks
Congress can hold hearings, demand documents and testimony, and investigate whether the factual predicates for invoking the Act (e.g., “impracticable” enforcement of federal law, deprivation of constitutional rights) really exist.
Members can use resolutions of disapproval, censure, or other non‑binding measures to create political pressure and help frame any future statutory changes.
Judicial and state‑level interplay
Congress itself does not adjudicate the legality of a particular invocation, but its statutes frame what courts review if states, individuals, or organizations challenge the deployment in litigation.
Congress can also create or clarify causes of action and standards of review for courts to apply when the Insurrection Act is used, thereby indirectly constraining presidential discretion.
Extreme remedies
If Congress concludes that the president’s use of the Insurrection Act constitutes a serious abuse of power—such as using troops to thwart lawful elections or suppress protected political activity—it can initiate impeachment and removal proceedings as the ultimate check.
Even short of impeachment, the continual threat of cutting off funds, amending the Act, or exposing abuses through aggressive oversight remains Congress’s primary leverage once the Act has already been invoked.
In today's post, Robert Hubbell has argued that it wouldn't be so bad if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act.
He relies on the following interpretation of what the law says Trump can have the troops do:
"Deploy federal troops to enforce federal law to the extent that federal and state officials ARE UNABLE TO DO." He is making the critical assumption that Trump would act within the law once he invoked the act. He won't. He will do exactly what he has done time and time again over the last year: ignore the law, and let the lower courts rule against him and have the appeals courts stay the lower courts with his actions unchecked, and let it take a year to wend its way up to the Supreme Court on the merits.
Hubbell says,"The two powers noted above are not inconsequential and can be abused by Trump. But those powers are also narrowly circumscribed by statute, limitations that are enforceable by federal courts. Moreover, in invoking the Insurrection Act, the president must act “within a permitted range of honest judgment.”" Who will judge whether Trump's actions are "within a permitted range of honest judgment". He has already told us that he will be constrained only by his own morality and his own mind. Will SCOTUS? How, exactly, will the courts enforce their ruling if it goes against Trump? Who will enforce it?
Hubbell then argues, "In sum, invoking the Insurrection Act does not mean that federal troops will swoop into Minneapolis and 'take over' state and city government functions. Instead, federal troops will assist existing law enforcement and judicial authorities to enforce federal law—here, federal immigration law. That scenario likely means that federal troops will form a “protected zone” around ICE agents as they seek to locate and detain immigrants subject to deportation." The reality will be that the National Guard and military will be standing behind the ICE and CBP shock troops, who, because they are so well paid and self-selected for cruelty, will not question orders and will be loyal to Trump. The protection of Renee Nicole Good's murderer by the DOJ means they have a get out of jail free card.
Hubbell goes on to say, "It is likely that federal courts will conclude that there is no insurrection that obstructs the implementation of federal law. Indeed, the fact that ICE continues to detain and arrest immigrants is proof that there is no insurrection within the meaning of the Insurrection Act. The fact that peaceful protesters are in the vicinity as ICE conducts its operations does not mean that federal law cannot be enforced—a prerequisite for implementation of the Act." Hubbell is making another assumption here--that once the troops are deployed, the lines of command will be clear and military leadership will respect their oath to the Constitution. But what if some don't? Much of the command structure has been replaced over the last year. The attacks on Senator Kelly have made it into an argument over what constitutes an illegal order. What was once clear is now cloudy.
The bottom line is that we can no longer assume that our systems will work as Hubbell expects. I pray every day that it will, that there will be enough righteous people of integrity left in government to act. But the last year has driven many of those out.
We have a year's worth of experience with Trump and his "act first and see what you can get away with" lawlessness. The lawlessness has not often been constrained.
I read about Cameron sexton meeting with Stephen Miller just this week. Another tennessee rep said "tennessee will be first ". I feel the abyss is ogling. I can't decide if they think tennesseeans will comply because so many are maga here; or if they think there will be violent resistance that will give them reason for the insurrection act.
My take on the Chamberlains amongst us is that they need to set a trigger point. Say in one month how many dead’s are they willing to countenance like the Quislings in the Republican Congress before they are willing to stoop to violent remedial action. Why does the police force not protect citizens now? I dropped this in your column because you are a thinker. People respect your wisdom. People like me are prone to confrontational solutions to violence.
According to Sec of Agriculture Brooke Rollins as she puts it about “eating real food” and sticking to the new guidelines. Rollins said, “We've run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for ‘a piece of chicken’, ‘a piece of broccoli’, ‘a corn tortilla’ and ‘one other thing’. And so, there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money,” Rollins told NewsNation… Now Brooke Rollins estimated wealth is approximately a mere $15 million. So ask yourself when was the last time good ole Brooke visited the local grocery store pushing that wired cart down the aisles with the squeaky, wonky wheel?
One piece of chicken. Hmm is that a leg or a breast? One piece of broccoli. Now let’s all make sure we get only “one” floret of broccoli hitting that plate. A corn tortilla damn what’s the tariff price increase on that one, cause those Mexican made ones are way better than any others. And what is the “one other thing”? … a small cherry tomato or is it tap water maybe…
Damn…. private jets, tax breaks, caviar and gala events at Barf-a-Largo for all of us — but for you, one piece of broccoli and a corn tortilla and ICE beating the crap out of all Americans and off to the concentration camp - Maybe if we all just ate a-half of a tortilla ICE would stand down and go away there Brooke.
Speaker Mike Johnson said the
Epstein file disclosures must be limited in order to "make sure we don't do permanent damage to the political system." Johnson just admitted that the Republican/MAGA political system is just so full of Pedos.
Find the hypocrisy rather rich that Comer is screaming for Bill and Hillary Clinton to be arrested for denying a Congressional subpoena. It has been 1,324 days since Gym Jordan defied that same Congressional subpoena..
That piece of broccoli is doing some heavy nutritional lifting. I wonder if she actually read her talking point before she walked into the Oval Office??
TJ, LOL again about Johnson limiting the Epstein file disclosures to make sure we don’t do permanent damage to the political system. He must live in a world of alternative facts. It just boggles theming that he doesn’t see how he himself has been in the forefront of doing permanent damage to the political system. 😱
He was the inspiration for Elmer Gantry, Elizabeth. I also get your point about non- violent means of protest. I’m trying to figure out how to spray the gestapo with gasoline now and passing out fusees to the crowds in case they are attacked. I have been attacked by grizzly bears 13 times now and never had to shoot. Fusees are a big part of my survival. I think we need deterrence that backs them off. I have successfully used a pitchfork but now they have carte blanc to shoot us. Funny how much we have berated the various militias for taking up arms against the government. Ironic that it is the federal government that has become the monster. They used to warn us that feds would come for us, drag us from our homes, pull us out of our cars, beat and shoot us to death. Interesting.
That's about the proportion of USians who believe in authoritarianism when it suits their purposes which tends to be tied up with fears, so it's probably good news as crazy as that sounds.
Not sure what's "good news" about that, scared people behave irrationally, often do terrible and brutal things. It already is difficult to follow why a third of the people in the arguably richest and definitely heaviest armed country in the world live in fear.
Sandra, there are a number of studies about the brain of conservatives and liberals. Interesting….the data is not definitive, but the question remains if it is “hardwired” vs “learned” influences and if they could possibly be modulated with experience 🤷🏻♀️…here is one article from a magazine (I chose this vs “scholarly” research for readability): Psychology Today (April 2011) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201104/conservatives-big-on-fear-brain-study-finds
Brain research is always to be taken with a grain of salt because the development of the brain is so much a spiral — wiring is caused by both genetics and learning. The wiring can be changed by learning and then the changes go on to be the basis for more learning and more wiring changes. So you can have abused children going on to be abusers, or you can have abused children going on to be great parents. It is really amazing how a family that looks like a great family can produce wonderful children who grow into wonderful adults, or the same family can produce nasty, dangerous children who grow into nasty, dangerous adults. But it is important to keep in view the fact that even adult humans can undergo a sudden enlightenment and change completely. Not all will, but it is always possible.
That’s it E. The bad guys need to “undergo a sudden enlightenment”. OMG, what if we combine the gasoline with the fusees? Don’t you see that would result in a complete change. Sudden Enlightenment! Okay okay, I know, I’m sorry. Truly sorry. The bears would try to get you but after two fusees they honest to Dog, gave up and sauntered off.
We have trouble. It doesn’t matter what the courts decide because DT and his goons in Washington and on the streets are just gonna do whatever they want! They don’t care what the law says. They don’t care what judges say. They don’t care what the people say. The fact that charges are not going to be brought against the man that shot Michelle Good tells us everything we need to know. They are going to rule by force and they don’t care what we say. I just pray to God that we still have midterm elections, and we take back the house and Senate, which may have to be done with the police to get them to leave. This is just sickening.
No white American male behaves like MAGA without having first been severely abused in childhood. MAGA men hate themselves and they hate their lives. Hatred is their primary motivator. They project that hatred outward. They become abusers. The same is true of their Chosen One, their false god, their orange-tinted, bloated Golden Calf. Trump’s goal is to demoralize the Left. We must not let that happen. We must always be in a state of confident resistance.
Inherently depraved patriarchy is egomaniacal and destructive. MAGA men cannot and will not willfully relinquish their position as top dog. MAGA men operate from a place of sexual insecurity, which is key to understanding the right-wing tendency toward misogyny, pedophilia and homophobia. The MAGA substitute for social and sexual impotence is anger and violence.
There's a British psychiatrist following US politics and he discusses exactly these things in his videos drawing on his clinical knowledge and experience. He has released a video explaining the moment he thinks Ross decided to kill Rene - https://youtu.be/3tR3jPRYEsQ?si=1OXqKCUrTuklPBKR
Greg, this is not true across the board. There are certainly many who have been abused who become abusers, but there are also abused children who grow up to be wonderful adults and great parents. The deepest mysteries dwell in the human heart, and when all else is known, the human mind and heart will still be a great mystery. Don’t write them off.
Dear Dr. Cox Richardson, thank you for all that you do! Albeit extremely depressing, the clarity of your summaries and depth of your insights are remarkably helpful in keeping track of the real issues in the swirl of chaos that is this administration.
I really think everyone needs to help keep the Epstein files front and center. It’s so telling that what shook Trump the most was the lone voice of a worker calling him a pedophile protector. One way or another, we should all join that chorus!
All of this escalation - taking Maduro, invading Minnesota, threatening to invade Greenland, break NATO, invoke the Insurrection Act- is diversion, Trump’s time-honored strategy when under attack. And the Epstein files, in which he figures prominently, are the thing he’s trying to avoid. He’ll willingly destroy democracy to save his own skin. Sick *%-!*
Like Epstein his own party will probably have him commit suicide. I think that would be okay with the jackals in the cabinet. Then we could get on with the transition to a full blown dictatorial nation. We could have a triumviral dictatorship both satisfying ambition and avoiding responsibility for the necessary “adjustment.” Most of the current Republican officeholders will have to be repatriated to minimize the danger of their popularity. Also their significant holdings make them the most attractive targets.
Yeah, Scott, total radio silence….I, too, wonder why. Briefly turned on the TV to MS Now moments ago and heard a field reporter state that Renee Good may have been shot 4, not 3, times….huh? Not quite ready for a full news immersion, nor heard—at the moment—any documentation of details/proof. Gotta get my sign ready for tomorrow’s action at the county courthouse and then prepare for my House of Rep’s (his district is huge & mostly rural) town hall on Sunday on how to stop offshore oil drilling on the CA northcoast (where I live).
I hate to say this Barbara, but I have been stalked by both bears and wolves who circle you seemingly assessing the risk of attack. The circle narrows when they commit to attack. Otherwise they break off and move to a safe distance to see what response if any you have. This man closed in and made the decision to go for the kill as he drew his weapon and came in shooting. He stalked her deliberately. He is a disturbed son of a bitch rushing to get a kill. I have put down dogs bears and coyotes in broad daylight as they move in on newborn calves and flocks of sheep. He is a predator and we would put him down just as relentlessly. I doubt Renee was his first kill. He will kill again.
This is what a power grab looks like when it’s panicking. Threaten the Insurrection Act, flood Minnesota, and then try to hide the paper trail by pulling the state investigators away. And while the country is watching Renee Good, they want to change the subject to “gangs,” to “terror,” to anything but the record.
But hey listen truth is a stubborn thing. A judge says those U.S. attorneys are there illegally. Congress moves to put an independent monitor on the Epstein files. The Senate forces the J6 plaque into the light. The public turns on ICE by the numbers. Even the mask slips in public because when you can’t persuade, you curse.
So let the cameras roll. Let the receipts stack. Let the witnesses keep showing up.
Because we are not asking permission to be free. We are not asking permission to remember. We are not asking permission to tell the truth. www.xplisset.com
All true and well said, but it isn’t just a power grab. It’s also deflection – and, sadly, quite effective. As Heather underscores in her opening paragraph.
Mainstream Media’s mono-manic focus on one or two issues at a time, in a way that eclipses just about everything else, is a huge problem for American democracy. It has allowed Trump, like a maestro, to shift focus away from issues that he finds bothersome (such as the Epstein files) – and to dominate the news cycle.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
He (DonOLD) went on to say that he had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
Why don't any of the MSM talking heads EVER ask DonOLD what they have accomplished. They haven't accomplished anything except huge tax cuts for the oligarchs.
And who was the judge that granted the search warrant of the WAPO journalist and based on what reasons?
The judge should be impeached or disbarred if there wasn't proper probable cause.
What trump has accomplished is to fill the courts with law suits over his wrong doings, costing the tax payers God knows how much, kidnap a leader of a sovereign country, piss off NATO enough for them to send troops to Greenland, wrecked the East Wing of the White House ( our house) and we all know the list goes on and on. But, I get what you're saying, Has there been anything he's done that has been constructive?
Meanwhile, neofascist tech billionaires managed to infiltrate government computers and install the spy system on ordinary, law-abiding Americans that they'll need to move to the next stage of neofascism in the US.
That IS one of the biggest and underreported accomplishments of the GOP in their first year of full control of DC.
And he continues to lie about, well, everything, and his MAGA hoards are AOK with this.
I believe either he has dirt on them or theatens them and their families or gives them lots of cash! After all he is a mob boss. He learned from the best of them! How we ended up with this guy...I will never know! It breaks my heart.
Trump/MAGA lies about RENEE GOOD also:
Per Ali Vital of "Way to Early" who broadcasts her MSNow show at 2 AM Pacific.
Per Ali Vitali based on "records from emergency services released yesterday [1/15/26]".
Emergency 911 Calls "flooded in starting at 9:38 AM continued for 1 hour."
Upon arrival at the ER at 9:42 AM "paramedics reported she still had an "irregular heart beat".
Upon arrival at the ER Renee Good had four (4) apparent gunshots NOT one (1). "Two (2) on the right side of her chest, a 3rd on her Left arm and a possible 4th on her head."
The trajectory of these four (4) bullets can easily be traced.
So 4 shots NOT 3 killed Renee Good. Fact: "Resuscitation efforts did not end until 10 AM".
Prosecute the Perp.
No, of course not. All he knows how to do is destroy everything he can get his hands on.
NO
I don't listen to any interviews of trump people. There's no point. Its impossible to force any truth out of them and I don't like toxic garbage being dumped into my brain.
The only thing I can publish is this repeated letter and I urge all of you to contact your respective governors and modify it to your state. We need activate our long dormant historic state's rights which of course is an irony because the old time racists invoked this in another time period.
An open Letter to Governor Lamont: Will You Activate the Connecticut National Guard to Protect Residents of Connecticut?
Commentary by Bill DiMauro Katz
The Supreme Court recently ruled that Texas could gerrymander its congressional districts in order to elect a full slate of republican candidates which is in violation of the 14th and 15th amendments. The effect of this rule is to further erode rights of citizens to elect representatives.
States do have significant historic rights embedded in their constitutions. The American Revolution was founded on rebellion against an oppressive central authority and in the 18th century, it was England. Today, the nation has elected a rogue authoritarian leader that states must come to terms with. This tyrannical government can be invisible to the unwary or to those who are informed of current events, realize that our system of federal governance is for now, not representative of the people. The federal government has moved toward tyrannical behavior and will continue unabated until state governments begin protecting its residents. ICE agents (and border patrol and other federal police agencies) in the form of jack-booted and hooded thugs are routinely arresting and dragging screaming residents from the streets.
If the U.S. Supreme Court can grant extreme power to states to gerrymander, then states certainly have rights to protect its residents. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Governor Lamont, will you authorize and activate the Connecticut State and National Guard to protect Connecticut residents?
Recently at a local NRZ meeting, I posed the question of protection of residents to our police chief but he seemed confused over the issue. He was not the person in authority to address this although ultimately, state and local army and police should work in tandem to protect residents.
Will you advise our Connecticut National Guard to be prepared to protect our residents from obvious extra judicial federal overreach? By assuming the lead in this response to a threatening federal government, Connecticut could take the lead and become a model for other states to follow. (Donald's Vanity Tantrums)
Thank you.
In Indiana we have Braun....Trump's buddy...he is just like Trump....and conned a lot of Hoosiers. He is equal too Trump. He lies like so they say a dog. He is burning our once great state down....inch by inch...and we have those that voted for him and Trump....falling for their lies!
Come to Connecticut. We want you. We are nutmeggers.
-CIRCUS-
Donald Trump, the chaos czar,
Divides with tweets, ignites the bizarre.
Fear his fuel, facts his foe,
Ignorance staged for this mighty show.
Truth takes cover, reason flees,
Sycophants applaud with unquestioned ease.
A circus crowned in red and gold,
Where lies are bought and truth is sold.
Facts in a cage, dressed up for display,
Spun by bloggers, then carted away.
Truth on the block, going once, going twice,
Sold to the bidder with power and vice.
Cheers from the crowd, lies earn their crest,
A wink from the dealer, a nod from the press.
The gavel drops, the circus rolls on,
Leaving reason a void, and chaos spawned.
I would give this a 9.5 out of 10
Thank you kindly.
Instead of mid term elections let's have an impeachment. The French knew what to do with kings. Where are all the counter voices. The "Great Distraction" makes me dizzy , angry, and I am running out of coffee, which is getting very expensive.
It's not a solution. Just as it wasn't in France.
The problem is not Trump. Vance will be much much worse. The problem is a neofascist GOP.
Impeah all of the crooked Republicans!
No George, coffee and a cup of coffee is still cheap. Go to Costco and buy packs of coffee and every month there is one roaster on sale. I buy enough for a half a year and when I make coffee of course in my home, it costs about .13 cents a cup. And when I leave home I fill up a cup for the road.
I'm curious as to why none of the journalists asked Trump what he meant by “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.” He has stated that more than once. Why isn't anyone challenging him on that assertion?
Caroline Leavitt: “The president was simply joking,” she insisted. “He was saying, ‘We are doing such a great job, we are doing everything the American people thought. Maybe we should just keep rolling.’ But he was speaking facetiously.”
She was challenged by Andrew Feinberg, a reporter with The Independent, who said: “Americans for generations have fought and died for democracy, for this democracy. Are you saying that the president finds the idea of canceling elections funny?” Andrew, were you in the room?” Leavitt bit back. “No, you weren’t.”
“I was in the room. I heard the conversation, and only someone like you would take that so seriously and pose it as a question in that way.”
I’m not at all surprised that Leavitt would answer in this way. Trump’s defense of such outrageous statements has always centered around the response of “I was just joking.” Leavitt, of course is just following orders as that has always been the playbook in how to answer embarrassing statements. I am thankful to you for relating this fact, and Andrew Feinberg for challenging Leavitt. This administration has been caught in so many lies, none of them would know the truth if it hit them broadside. It’s the same old story as when Trump said he knew nothing about Project 2025. Lies and deceitfulness is all 45 and 47 is good for: nothing else.
Jeanine Pirro’s signature perhaps? Yes, impeached and disbarred.
Why don't they ask? The mainstream media has failed us. Lower or discard your expectations that they are in the fight for democracy. Independent media is where the fight --and has been for several years now.
? For whom did he accomplish 'much' ? That's the pertinent question.
GJ Lift. Exactly!
One is only left to imagine how damaging the Epstein files are that Trump would rather take the heat for a murder
You might wish to read this (it's long) article from Greg Olear's Substack
<<WARNING IT HAS GRAPHIC CONTENT>>
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
Greg Olear's substack on Trump's horrific sexual activities with 12 and 13 year old girls are what Trump is trying desperately to bury. Greg wrote a 3-part series about it on his substack.
Wow, Olear has done Pulitzer worthy work in the research to follow the money, though with large doses of hypotheticals. People await full release of the Epstein Files perhaps in anticipation of smoking gun evidence of sexual misconduct by key figures, but the business enterprise of trafficking the victims was the infrastructure, along with subsequent geopolitical operations. Olear raises the possibility that the trafficking business may have been inherited in some form and still be operating, just as Epstein appeared to have inherited it from Robert Maxwell. The 4 installations are a riveting read.
Really horrific, isn't it?
Murders plural. 123 dead in Venezuela murdered by illegal military action ordered by Kegsbreath. Trump has a bizarre unnatural obsession with oil, tariffs, gold, dictators and young women. Of course, when he and Elon shut down USAID they starved thousands which may actually be the most cruel thing he has done.
And EVERY REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN doesn't have the kahunas to stand up to him.
Extrajudicial Caribbean boat killings, Venezuela killings to kidnap Maduro, at least 37 died by ICE, and more...Prof. Timothy Snyder talks about the trump regime's death squads:
https://youtu.be/ex3aO4lwfTg?si=aRw2PpqpIhV9yDzD
Thanks. (I think).
And I believe he murdered Epstein to keep him quiet! Maxwell could be next....
Rev. I suspect you are right about those files. Now that the DOJ has gone through at least a bunch of those files, they know just what they are dealing with. Unfortunately, our Pammy Bondi, Trump's pseudomommy can't seem to do the right thing because it would likely mean that she would lose her job of protecting her Baby Donnie. If she has half the brains her law school thought she had, she would know that she is wrong and acting illegally, but she does not seem to care one bit and neither does anyone else in the toddler pool. They are working with a criminal, and just can't seem to let him go because they know which side of their bread the money butter is on and it is not on the side of the truth. That's why We the People need to stand with the truth at every turn.
Actually, I believe I heard she has been involved in the Epstein cases for years.....
“Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.”
“Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.”
From the Lord Acton Quote Archive
We all know about the child ra]e. The only thing that could possibly be worse are snuff tapes, and if that's not the case, you would think, with all the rumors, if that's not true he would release them to prove that rumor false.
Kathy, snuff tapes would outrage Democrats and Independents, but Donald doesn't care about their opinions. He cares only about maintaining the loyalty of his own cult members, who would probably shrug and say the snuff sex was consensual so the victims got what they signed up for.
Donald would be humiliated and lose his fans if they found out he'd engaged in homosexual activities, which is a lot more plausible, given Donald's lifelong efforts to convince the public – and his daddy – that he's a "raging heterosexual."
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
Interesting article, Miselle. I confess that I stopped reading about 3/4 of the way through, because it seemed to venture away from what's plausible. However, I'll stipulate that with Donald, anything is possible.
It's true that lots of Southern boys are nicknamed "Bubba," which is Southern baby-talk for "brother." But it's significant that Bill Clinton's familiar nickname was Bubba. (I doubt anyone calls him that anymore.)
The Mark Epstein email rings true for me because Clinton and I used to patronize the same Chinese restaurant 7 blocks east of my apartment in downtown Little Rock when he was governor. When we happened to meet there, he always gave me the once-over from head to toe for a moment that was longer than normal or comfortable. I've always had the impression that "Bubba" wasn't too concerned about the gender of the person he was with, as long as he was being serviced.
There’s a snuff tape story out there that names the prez, with a witness who says he was trafficked. No idea if it’s credible. My first reaction was internet hoax. But…
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
I believe that Greg Olear is considered to be reputable.
Oh shit!
Credible? Probably given his current penchant for murdering civilians in international waters, or while kidnapping Maduro, or while his ICE thugs terrorize Minneapolis . . .
or that he was involved in the business...
And of course, Kathy, I and all of us know, that you know that, the ship had sailed long ago. Time laced with the deafening silence has all but fully proven this issue.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
Still, the elected Republicans are caving to Trump. Five Senators said they the Senate should have its say about Venezuela, but then 2 caved under pressure. That left Vance, who has become a Nazi advocate, to decide.
John Thune is as bad as Speaker Johnson.
I think we need to stop calling these politicians Republicans, and call them what the are; the American Fascist Party, or AFP.
I believe that the Epstein files will bring about trump's demise. After being silenced for decades the survivors have finally found their voice and have banded together. Some have said that if the files are not released in due time they will name names. Believe me, these women are not going away....
They won't disappear. The GOP today IS neofascist. It wants to find excuses to put more brown shirts on the street. They love Trump because he's so good at inventing new distractions so that we collectively stay focused on him rather than understand what the GOP is truly wanting and doing, right now, day after day.
Yes, HCR brought up Epstein because all these diversions are making it obvious Trump is desperate to hide the files. The thing about Epstein to me is Trump is known for never doing the deed himself but getting others to do it for him. Could it be that Trump got Epstein to build the Island of Child Rape? I recall reading that some of the Epstein files disclosed how Trump flew in Epstein's jet more than prior records show. That is consistent with Trump not wanting his big jet with "TRUMP" painted on it anywhere near the airport used to get over to their Island of Child Rape. Bottom line, when we get back to talking about Epstein the name Trump must be in every sentence that the name Epstein appears in.
As they say, "you betcha".
I think the brown shirts are out there in mass as a distraction from the Epstein issue.
I post the court transcripts widely - all social and media social spots. Simple discipline once tried out.
According to one victim there are snuff films also in the evidence somewhere. Likely other undocumented unalivings as well.
You got that right dear Rev. George
Deflection and distraction is what trump does best, and he certainly is doing his best to keep us occupied with things other than those pesky Epstein files. Greenland? Iceland?
This is not about the Epstein Files anymore klutt, its about the next midterms election.......and subsequent. Be aware while pushing for the full release of the files...
It very much needs to be about the Epstein files as I believe they hold the key for removing these creeps from government office. Public defamation and repudiation both here at home and across the world. Final solution.
Oh I completely agree with that as well. He knows if there is an election, Democrats are going to win the House and retain the Senate. He knows he will be impeached which is the reason he doesn't want an election and will do everything he can to continue to make a mess of things before that happens. You are right on point.
Um…Democrats have to WIN the Senate majority before they can retain anything.
Yes they do.
Yep, look up "Boys are hard to find" on Substack. It's so much worse than we could even imagine.
That is what has me so worried.
It is the Epstein files. He has no immunity for those crimes as others of power and greed feel the same, they can lose it all. Everything else is deflection, stop elections, murder and injury of innocent citizens performing their first amendment rights. Release ALL the Epstein files.
-CIRCUS-
Donald Trump, the chaos czar,
Divides with tweets, ignites the bizarre.
Fear his fuel, facts his foe,
Ignorance staged for this mighty show.
Truth takes cover, reason flees,
Sycophants applaud with unquestioned ease.
A circus crowned in red and gold,
Where lies are bought and truth is sold.
Facts in a cage, dressed up for display,
Spun by bloggers, then carted away.
Truth on the block, going once, going twice,
Sold to the bidder with power and vice.
Cheers from the crowd, lies earn their crest,
A wink from the dealer, a nod from the press.
The gavel drops, the circus rolls on,
Leaving reason a void, and chaos spawned.
I hear that Australia has lots of "rare" earth minerals, and a left wing government, so maybe they will his next fantasy distraction.
I'm still hoping some enterprising reporter will dig into a possible connection between Trump's beauty pageants and "excess" contestants who may have been offloaded to Jeffrey Epstein's massage parlors. All those young, pretty girls who just wanted to be famous someday...
Trump owned and managed those pageants during the same decades he was best friends with Jeff.
We are all hoping for that, "big leak", no pun intended. The Epstein files are the key to everything that is happening.
Great connection! Saw films of DT in Moscow (2013) wondering if Putin would come to his beauty pageant there. (It’s why I believe the Steele dossier.)
Thank goodness for the senate democrats working behind the scenes to force oversight of the Epstein files non-compliance. And the public has not forgotten about them. Good smart people are not letting trump turn the spotlight away completely.
More and more people are getting wise to his patterns of asserting dominance. More courts are refusing to give government lawyers the benefit of the doubt.
More young men are turning away and more Hispanics as well.
He's thrashing and flailing around like a rampaging animal slowly being driven into a corner. Still plenty of power to cause a lot of damage, but more and more people working together to contain him.
We must move to disarm ICE. There is no logical reason for them to be armed. They are not ever shot at and if they were they should stop what they are doing and call the state and local police to take care of it. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/disarm-ice?r=3m1bs
Like a "maestro", Trump is conducting an orchestra that is slowly refusing to play his tune. When the orchestra establishes some form of disbandment, the audience either leaves willingly but disgustingly, or defiantly wants their money back. Trump et. al., his stage crew of deviants and deplorables, aka, Noem, Bovino, Patel, Miller, and the rest will find themselves without a job or likely prospects in the future: and all because they decided to follow "orders" instead of the Constitution of the United States. History has a way of repeating itself: it was only approximately 61 years ago that the Nuremberg trials ascended into our history. One would think that warning in itself would be enough for these cretins to pay attention. Apparently not. Let the chips fall where they may.
An aside: you may want to watch Preet Bahara interview Rahm Imanuel on youtube. He may be running for president. It was an excellent!! discussion. I was, and I think you will be, quite impressed - even hopeful.
I do not follow legacy media, which is no longer mainstream, since more and more people get all of their information from social media and more and more of those of us follow independent media.
Relying on the NYT for information as a few of my friends do, means they are constantly sharing articles with me on information I have already read elsewhere, and often with more depth, or daring to posit ideas the NYT would never entertain.
Xplisset. I am glad Congress is moving to put an independent monitor on the Epstein Files. I would love to see that person be Jack Smith.
I am also glad that the heckler got a Go-Fund-Me. People should be boycotting Ford cars until they reinstate him. Picketing Ford like Tesla would be a good idea now. Hope there is enough in the Go-Fund-Me for the man to get a lawyer and sue Ford for being wrongfully laid off. They were wise not to fire him.
Also, the Meidas report, Lev Parnas, Dean Blundell, Zev Shalev have been reporting on the Epstein case, keeping it in people's minds just as Heather Cox Richardson is doing here.
As for Greenland, Europe is sending troops there under the auspices of showing Trump they have enough troops to defend Greenland from those who would attack it, but the truth is that :
One, European leaders are adults and cannot imagine that Trump is emotionally not an adult.
Two, they are going to prepare to defend from the US troops even if they don't hope to win. Hope all of the other NATO countries will join them, though I would not count on Hungary, Slovakia or Slovenia. They are too friendly with Russia right now.
https://youtu.be/Qk28mVrzirk?si=t8ENnY90g9T5dxFc
The presence of European military ships and troops open up the possibility that, if the Orange Painted Goon is stupid enough to order in an 'Occupation Force' there will be a military confrontation. The CinC from Denmark will politely invite them to re-embark and go home, and the US CinC will have to either stand down, or start shooting. The Danes are not standing alone either. They already have German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian and soon, British ships and people already there, or on the way, and France is stepping in as well. Either way, the US will be on its own, and I suspect Canada may well join the European forces.
Oh, and don't forget that if the OPG is that stupid, all US Bases will be closed right across Europe, and the forces sent 'home'. Their equipment, probably not as the invasion would be a de facto declaration of war on Europe, so all troops here, would be regarded as enemy or prisoners of war. I can only hope that your own generals move and quietly remove the threat.
Our military is not going to attack the people they have been working with for the last 80 years, we are embedded in communities all over Europe. The NATO allies are doing the right thing in moving available troops to Greenland, Petty Boy and his department of war is not going to attack Europe, this is all a convenient distraction from the Epstein case, as is ICE in Minnesota. The MSM which doesn’t seem to be able to walk and chew gum is following the next biggest thing. Epstein and whatever he did with him and all of those young girls is what he’s terrified about, if he lives long enough, doubtful, it could put him in prison, and he knows it. So he’ll babble about Greenland, which he probably actually does want, and ICE is all over the news, crowding out Epstein. The spineless senate repugnantkins who are responsible for this debacle, are not completely brain dead and can read the tea leaves, they are calculating like crazy to see if the ship is really going to sink before they jump off, the thing is that the winds of change are blowing it farther and farther from any safe harbor, if they had done their jobs, just like we have done throughout our lives, none of this would be happening.
Heather said in last night’s chat that someone who parks billions in another country, in this case Qatar, and whose money is controlled only by him is (1) someone stealing our country’s money for himself and (2)ensuring he has LOTS of money at his disposal if/when he flees the US. Typical dictator sh!t.
Yes. I did not miss Trump telling us that he was going to not only steal Venezuelan oil, but also not put the money gotten from it in US banks. He is 100% kleptocrat, in our country that is increasingly a Plutocracy, and definitely a Kakisocracy if we look at who is in the party in power!
The issue with all of this though, is that it forces people or countries to waste valuable money.
Is Mark Kelley going to be found guilty of treason and hung? Most are highly skeptical but it's forcing him to hire lawyers, with money he might not have. Elissa Slotkin is now in a similar situation and doesn't have the resources that Kelley has. trump is trying to financially break the people he's attacking and it might just work.
We're asked to donate to legal funds, we're asked to donate to food banks, we're asked to donate to families caught up in his immigration nightmare, we're asked to donate to Amnesty International US! To donate to American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and beyond.
I'm not complaining, these are all noble or necessary protections, but each penny we send takes money away from donations for a candidate's election, which they'll desperately need to fight this administration and their deep pockets. The lawsuits take needed funding away from other essential programs. Most of us have limited resources and can't keep spending an ever larger amount of money to finance this all.
This is typical of how he wore down the contractors he stiffed. he's a mob boss and knows all the moves to cripple those who dare to oppose him. And that's a huge problem.
“Mob boss” indeed; and I too have conflicting emotions about $$$ donations to worthy causes…they are ALL worthy causes, including election campaigns.
Carol, mafia don is one of my names for him.
Have to agree with what you say there, but with Hegseth, I'm hedging my bets. He's stupid enough to try to order it. Hopefully there'll be a roomful of generals who'll tell him 'No' ...
Who is in charge in the Pentagon who have clear minds and trusting their training and experience to stand up to 47's demands?
Patrick, the ground beneath your hope that there will be a room full of generals who say "no" is eroding.
Blasting fishing boats out of the water "because I said so" is not the act of an officer weighing the legality of the orders. Disguising a military aircraft to look like a commercial airliner is not the act of an officer weighing the legality of the orders.
Those officers could have – and should have – said "no." But they didn't.
You can picture kegsbreath talking about “war fighting “ and throwing beer cans. 🙄
Dick, I am not sure about all US military members, but I know US military members who will not be attacking Germany, the country where I am living. I have career military cousins here in Germany, and they are married to German women and have German children. They are not attacking the country of their wives, children and cousins without Germany attacking the US first.
There are not a lot of Americans in Germany, maybe 120,000. Still, most of the Americans I know here are not in support of the Trump government.
Montagne. You are right on all counts. t-rump can not allow the midterm election.
Europe could effectively " blockade" all U.S. bases. Cut all communications and movement to and from the base. Anyone moving outward could be arrested,held and detained. Quite provocative, but could get the Joint Chiefs to consider and amend their position.
Don't forget the Netherlands has also sent troops. As a Dutch person I was glad to see this. Although I usually take a pacifist stance, the orange menace doesn't respond to reason or diplomacy so the only thing that he does take note of is force and resistance. It's the way to defeat bullies in the long run. He and his sycophants will pay in the end.
I’m American. I’m 72 and I’m ready to join the Gray Panther Brigade and when Donald Trump next visits Greenland, as a unit we will turn our backs to the president bend over and let out farts heard round the world.
I hope somebody gets that on video.
Yes, my apologies I forgot that they are part of the 'Coalition of the Willing'--and Mijnheer Rutte of course!
Yes…where, oh where are the Dems! Except for sending out txt 24/7 asking for money, we hear not a peep.
Pam, I hear quite regularly from my Ds just to keep constituents informed about what they are doing and hearing from their constituents at town halls, meeting with groups, etc.
Michele, you are correct to mention your Dems, but while I receive regular updates, this is a first time for me to complain about the Dems collectively. I know how diminished their role is at the moment, but their voices seem also to be diminished. This concern may come from my increasing fear of my own lack of “power” in this current chaos
Pam, I am truly tired of this. I would suggest that they do not get national coverage a lot of the time. For example, one of the D Oregon reps is one of three sponsoring the impeachment bill, which will probably go nowhere because Ds are in the minority. One can hope they can persuade some Rs. Our state Ds are busy trying to fend off federal nonsense and the Sec. of State just won a court case protecting the data of Oregon voters. My position is that they are doing what they can.
If that happens and it comes to blows with us in Europe, that’s when Putin stabs us in the back while we are confronting the USA. Meanwhile Dems say not a lot.
We can only hope that his Ukrainian adventure has left him vulnerable.
Economically it has already.
Nor our Military leaders who have participated in illegal acts. Which Military leader was in charge of the 'capture' in Venezuela? Sloppy job too.
Sue, my Ds say quite a lot. They are doing what they can while in the minority.
Not true.
Patrick, I wrote this piece the other day about Germany sending war ships to Iceland. Some people told me I was spreading fake news, but I stand by my German sources, like the German military newsletter.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/germany-sends-ships-to-greenland?r=f0qfn
It was on ZDF yesterday, that the Bundes Marine was preparing to send one, possibly two frigates.
In my article I wrote about the Saxon being send on January 6, to replace the Berlin, which had been there for 5 months before that.
Are you saying another ship is going? I saw a plane with soldiers from the Bunderwehn landing in Greenland in DW news today as well.
Hooray for you and everyone else who is thinking ahead of Puppy Shooter’s Enabler. (I had to think fast, but it’s an epithetical start.)
Boo
Anyone military that participates in a military or Federal attack on Greenland should be courtmartialed for obeying an illegal order as Kelly, Slotkin and others have pointed out. Hopefully, someday, the personnel that have killed over 200 Venezuelans will be court martialed for murderi. Of course, Trump's entire incompetent cabinet should be impeached. Very few of the cabinet members or other Senate approved appointments received a single vote from the Democratic Senators. They all knew and complained about their inability to do anything other than kiss Trump's shit smeared ass.
Nobody is talking much about the 32 Cubans killed in Venezuela, then add them to the 35 people killed on small boats in the Caribbean.
And it seems Gaza and Ukraine are old news, ugh.
There have been 35 strikes by the US with 123 killed on the boats in the Caribbean.
This from a Google search-
Venezuela (Official Claim): Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Interior Minister, stated over 100 people were killed, including Maduro's security, in the U.S. raid.
United States (Official Assessment): U.S. officials assessed approximately 75 people died, including Venezuelan and Cuban forces and civilians.
Cuba (Official Confirmation): Cuba confirmed 32 of its security personnel were killed, leading to national mourning.
Other Reports: Some Venezuelan officials cited by The New York Times mentioned around 80 total deaths, including civilians and foreign operatives.
This action was illegal, but you can bet that Congress will do NOTHING about prosecuting the crime. IMPEACH KEGSBREATH NOW!!!!
Yes, like I said!
They will not only be breaking US law, but international law as well, and the NATO treaty.
My concern is this, Linda:
Greenland focus takes the eyes off Russia and Eastern Europe. By NATO resources being pushed away from Europe, Putin has better opportunity to do what he wants.
In Vietnam I always looked for where the real attack would come from since the first action was almost always a diversion.
[this had 6 likes before I added material I'm moving to a reply, in case not all would like the addition]
[added material]
Come to think of it, I remember the siege/distraction of Khe Sanh began on Jan 21, 1968, followed 2 days later by the capture of the USS Pueblo by North Korea. Tet 68 started 30/31 Jan for us in Saigon, but the attacks to the north were a day early (seemingly because North Vietnam used a different calendar), so we had many expecting attacks, at least at Long Thanh North, where I had driven up to and back from on the afternoon of the 30th.
Having traveled through much of Vietnam and Thailand, we thought the attack was sort of a last gasp and heard later reports that the VC/PAVN thought they had lost 80,000 men and the war. By the time we learned of the rescue of the SF at the overrun Lang Vei camp, we were ready to help take on even Chinese and North Korean troops if they had sent troops.
Thank you. The George Washington of Vietnam (how many Americans remember that he was at Versailles in 1919 trying to be free of French colonial dominance?) did have an answer for the West. Sadly it was Russia.
I was baffled for so many years about why Truman changed FDR's efforts to end colonial domination of countries until the Ken Burns series on Vietnam claimed it was due to Charles de Gaulle threatening to side with the Soviets if he didn't support keeping (at least Vietnam) under French control.
I 'd heard my wife's grandfather was reputed to have been with the O.S.S. and a liaison to Lord Mountbatten, then the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. I didn't think much of it until I overheard the start of a phone call from Harry Truman, and found out more about his long time friendship with Harold Ickes (who my mother-in-law said had visited so often that she thought he was an uncle).
That gave me some faint hope he could explain why Truman had turned the other way from what FDR was intending to do. He offered no enlightenment on the subject, though.
I'm still pretty much in the dark about what could have been.
Very important, European Troops in Greenland NOW, not after trump sends his thugs into the country!
But watch out for Russia using the distraction to threaten NATO and Ukraine from the other side
And maybe China getting closer to Taiwan. Only idiots don’t understand the risks involved here. And even greater idiots (thinking of Little Marco and Witkoff) think they’re going to talk their way out of the mess.
He's in a powerful union. They will do the suing. He won't need to spend a penny. My husband worked for a union shop with a powerful national umbrella union. The company is terrified of them. This incident has garnered international attention. Boycotting would be great. We haven't bought any domestic vehicle since 1996 so we can't help you there but the only thing these power hungry industries care about is money.
Just a note: the Union will not allow the worker to lose his job. With the money raised for him though his days on the assembly line may be in his rear view mirror.
Robert Hubbell also provides excellent, insightful commentary in his "Today's Edition" Substack. I read him even before Heather every morning and urge everyone here to subscribe to him as well (it's free!).
I am a paying subscriber of both. I have not gotten to him yet, because I have had a full day today, which I am going to cap off with joining Ruth Ben-Ghiat's weekly Zoom meeting for paying subscribers, which is always worthwhile.
Linda- I am so sick of Epstein taking attention away from all else. Not that it should not be part of this all. But there is a limit to how many balls we out here can keep in the air at once.. or how much "bandwidth" we have out here. Thankfully we have people working on getting TrumpBondi to comply with the law. As I just wrote to explisset above if our worse suspicions are found to be true, or even worse than that- which I think so ( this is international and not just pedophilia) we cannot get rid of Trump this way. Maybe he will lose some MAGA and knee jerk Republicans when it comes time to vote, but in the meantime he cannot be impeached over this. Trump can be prosecuted after he leaves office if the law still applies- along with a lot of other crimes. But while he is president whatever is in Epstein will not end his presidency. It may eat at some of his support but so will a lot else he is doing and *actually destroying* daily. Do you know differently?
The Epstein affair may not be grounds for removal of Trump himself, but if he is clearly exposed as the debauched criminal we believe he is it may finally make it impossible for the Republicans in Congress to continue to defend him. Their guilt by association will be a sledge hammer wielded by the opposition.
It is grounds for removal as are so many other things. We don't need any more grounds, we already have them. We just need politicians that represent our interests to do it.
Jane- this "affair" is indirect and a hope more distant than what is actually going on. Trump has been and is so exposed as the debauched criminal he is already. The hope, like so much else he is doing, actually doing now ( including ICE directly threatening us more each day) is that THIS will be the thing that finally does it, the tipping point. You are depending on the conscience of people who have not yet woken to get revolted by Epstein and push their Congresspeople, or to vote for a Democrat Godforbid. They will say fake news or rationalize or shrug. You are depending on Republicans in Congress not defending Trump because of what is in the Epstein Files when they already are, can, should, shrug about all else continuing every day. The "all else" is the elephant in this room wrecking us. That is not to say we should forget about Epstein. But Epstein has now become a way to turn our attention away from the assault daily. What I hear now is the opposite:i.e. all that is happening now: this storm, this wrecking ball is turning our attention away from Epstein. What!!! ???
Potter, Trump always makes people sick and tired of being sick and tired. I remember how I was feeling halfway into his first go around. Everyone need a break from the constant chaos, as well as his robbing us blind and destroying the US.
You sound like you are trying to talk me out of jumping off a ledge. I dreaded the moment he was reelected. And my attention would be usurped this much. I could not believe that our electorate would even make it close.. could not believe that Kamala was so hard for so many people to vote for.. could not believe that Godforbid a Republican not be able to vote for a Democrat, would rather vote for this or sit home... that..people would not be able to vote for a woman, and "of color". This has been an awakening about the vulnerability of people to hate and misinformation. I learned how much I care and how much others do too. We cannot have a democracy though and I am questioning the premise of this experiment if we just care about the economy. We definitely do not want this autocracy, tyranny,oligarchy, a Christian nationalist country. Most of us do not. This kills everything we are about. And now it's up to us to exert the will of the majority. I do not know how... We depend on elections working..... so far. That I believe in as we have experienced the pain enough to get out and vote. There are more of us. I believe that. It should be an overwhelming mandate to defeat this... not soon enough.
Potter, why would you jump off a ledge instead of just leaving the US? I am in Germany right now. Germany is having its own problems, like each country does, but it is a break from being in the full force of the US regime.
Did you see this?
https://substack.com/@tomhoefling/note/c-199823136?r=x4y22&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action\
Entirely believable and I don't care if it is not because essentially thisis what is happening. ICE is lawless and we have seen a lot worse that is absolutely real.
No, but I am also on several Political chat groups and have been hearing plenty of what ICE is doing. I was witness to the effects of ICE in Chicago in the Summer and Fall.
Linda, I believe people should have been boycotting Ford long before yesterday. The company has papered over their history to preserve sales, but the history is still there. Henry Ford is lauded by many because he paid employees double the going rate for autoworkers, but that pay came at a cost to personal liberties.
The affordable Model T wan't produced so every American could have access to transportation; it was a marketing decision to enlarge Ford's customer base and make him wealthy. In fact, everything Henry did was to enrich himself.
Ford had a "Social Department" that stuck its nose into employees' personal lives to make sure they didn't engage in any behavior of which Henry disapproved.
Ford was an avowed antisemite who bought the Dearborn newspaper so he could publish conspiracy theories castigating Jews for all the problems in the U.S. Henry Ford and Elon Musk would have been best friends.
Ford Motor Company has moderated its positions on many topics, but it is still too involved with Republican politics, as evidenced by its hosting Donald Trump for a publicity tour.
If our (former) allies can cooperate in defending Greenland, a move I applaud, perhaps they can also take the next step - placing sanctions on the Trump regime and his family.
Sanctions, boycotts and tariffs. Canada has taken steps away from the US as Dean Blundell pointed out yesterday and today.
https://open.substack.com/pub/deanblundell/p/maga-killer-mark-carney-just-rewired?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Get ready, Xplisset, because here it comes:
- Canceling of the midterm elections (or simply shooting the people who dare to vote for ‘leftist insurrectionists’j;
- The rounding up of journalists who criticize The Orange Goblin King and his cult;
- The shooting of people who protest the ICE Gestapo;
- The military rounding up No Kings demonstrations;
And last but not least, the Orange F*ckturd going to war with NATO over Greenland, thus starting World War III (because Putin won’t waste such an opportunity and will join the fray against Europe) just to divert attention away from the Trump-Epstein files - and simply because he CAN.
The Republicans need the mid-terms as much as the Democrats. Some states have primaries as early as March. Both Parties have invested millions already. In addition to one third of the Senate and all of the US House, thousands of state and local elections take place. Without the mid-terms, years of chaos would ensue. The Republicans know this. They also know the blame for it all would fall squarely on them.
Those republicans cower in fear over the traitor-in-chief, but don't they realize they have more to fear at the hands of American citizens? trump will not be there to support or help them if they lose their elections. When they are out, they are no longer useful and will realize they were used by a maniac, lying just to gain the advantage, just like the maga fools were lied to just for their votes, He actually told them that while campaigning yet they laughed it off as one of his pathetic attempts at humor. How many are laughing now?
Steve. Thanks for keeping a cool head. We don't need to dig a deeper rabbit hole to go down.
No. They just carry on with what they have and put politically chosen replacements where there are gaps. Anyway, show me how Congress and the Senate are necessary? They have been useless for the past year, who needs the vast expense of an election or politicians when you have an Orange Dictator and his Cabal of Criminals running the show. He sends them all home, and with the willing participation of the Supporting Third, the acquiescence of the Inert Third, the rest can be quickly controlled.
How do the Republicans need the mid-terms? Trump has essentially installed a one-party-system. "They never need to vote again," was the promise.
Eyes open is a necessary survival skill, but alarmism is counterproductive. Robert Hubbell addresses elections and Insurrection Act with a voice of reason:
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/addressing-misconceptions-about-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Every time one sees something to give one hope that the Sane might rise up, that hope is dashed by the inertia of so many.
Thank you for this link, Ellie
I posted to my FB page and urged people to subscribe.
MLM, I don't have social media, so thanks for doing that.
I have been putting the below link in the comment area for a few days. When I read it, I was so upset, I had to take breaks. It's quite long, and it is VERY GRAPHIC, but what it alleges about Trump is exactly what I thought of back a few months ago, when I thought "WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE SO BAD THAT HE'S THIS AFRAID?"
I believe Greg Olear is a reputable journalist.
I truly believe that if what this substack alleges Trump did, it would absolutely 100%-ly take him down.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
So let Trump invoke the Insurrection Act. Let's have at it, the act is specific as to what the military can and cannot do. If Trump orders them to do something illegally, as in establishing martial law, then maybe we'll se if Kelly's message got through.
Dutch Mike, in my view, it is not helpful to project into our future the worst-case scenario. What it does has two results: plunging people into despair thinking what's the use? or, getting people so riled up and angry that they want to rebel violently to stop this from happening. We cannot afford either response. I am of the belief that the energy we project into the future matters tremendously. Yes, things are worse now that many of us could have imagined, but surely, we are reaching a tipping point. It may be taking longer than we thought it would, but we cannot give up on getting through this and reclaiming our democracy, knowing that we have to safeguard our future by making drastic changes to ensure this can never happen again and to make our country a better union. Dr. Richardson has pointed out so many parallels to harsh times our country has endured before this (and other countries who have as well). You are right that we may not make it this time, as we are a young country, but we also quite possibly MAY make it! We are a unique country in so many ways, and it is worth doing what we can to save it. Ben Franklin certainly gave us this warning when he was asked if we had a monarchy or a republic. He said, " a republic if you can keep it." I, for one, am putting all my energy towards visualizing the best-case scenario, that we CAN keep it. The more energy put towards that end, the better for all of us.
Carol, today, for the first time in a week, I’m believing your conclusion again. Some days I cannot see past the idiocy because of the constant ICE sirens I am hearing in downtown Chicago.
Thank you.
My heart goes out to you, Virginia. The ICE sirens must be horrifying to hear. It is no wonder you feel defeated at times. Thanks for communicating with me. We all learn from each other.
Carol, I congratulated Dutch Mike today, reminded that he doesn’t mince words. As we are not in MN’s cold, faced with armed (how’s “Irregulars” for polite?) masked overpaid undertrained Irregulars, we can write the minds we cannot speak in Minnesota’s cold. The bravery and patience of the observers there is worthy of the medals they will never receive.
Virginia, it is true that Dutch Mike does not mince words. Although I am not in cold MN experiencing first-hand what is happening there, I am certainly not naive about the horrors being perpetrated on innocent people by the Trump regime and how illegal everything is that is being done. I agree that many who are resisting are exhibiting bravery and patience, without expecting a reward for their actions. Their courage is a wonderful example of what we all can do to keep our republic. More suffering is likely, yes, but we the people will eventually overcome.
Carol, thank you for articulating so well the deleterious results of projecting the "worst-case scenario" into our future. And as to our efforts of resistance and creating a better future, the "best-case scenario," we can't score if we don't take the shot.
I'm not saying you should stop your fight. Actually, seen from a point of justice, you simply can't! But you DO have to realize what you're up against. One of the most important things in the art of war is: never underestimate your enemy. In this respect: you should never underestimate the orange dirtbag's sheer malice and cruelty. THAT is what you are really up against.
Those Epstein files must reveal Trump and Epstein and friends have done some really horrible things to girls and boys. Money laundering and now stealing money from the oil companies who just wanted payback for equipment they left when thrown out of Venezuela. Trump sold the oil and is trying to hide 500 million in Quatar. Same Quatar who gave him a airplane ✈️ and he promised to defend? Tell that man to grab his sons and go defend it himself. We refuse more FOREVER WARS and no one believes in his wars and we are not going to fight our allies.
"Those Epstein files must reveal Trump and Epstein and friends have done some really horrible things to girls and boys."
Oh, they absolutely do. The Orange Goblin King is going to war with Venezuela and Denmark to distract from them. The evidence must be really incriminating, even for the guy who "could shoot someone on fifth avenue in broad daylight and still not go to jail"...
Dutch Mike, I’ve never known you to mince words, and these are particularly whole food.😁
I don't know if that's a compliment, but I'm warning you, that Orange F*ckturd will destroy planet Earth and every living being just for his own enjoyment. There is absolutely no limit to his malice... It is that malice what you as American citizens are up against... You have to be ready for that.
Dutch Mike, we cannot let him and his mafia destroy US.
C’mon dude. All this drama isn’t helping anyone. We have all heard the threats.
Then you'd better be ready, because it's just like Mike McMillan said: if the dirtbag tells us he's going to do an awful thing, he's actually does it. He always tells us up front what havoc he is going to wreak. And be aware: his malice knows no bounds. He will even destroy planet Earth and all living beings on it if he gets the chance - just to satisfy his desire for cruelty, and to get attention. "Look, daddy! I destroyed Mother Earth! Can I get your attention now?"
Drumpf and his Administration routinely break the law and violate the constitution. SCOTUS doesn’t simply step in. My impression is that members of Congress must first bring suit on behalf of their constituents.
The problem seems to be twofold al a minimum. First, some members of Congress must file suits and bring them before SCOTUS. SCOTUS may act or perhaps half act by returning the suit to a lower court. When members of Congress are reluctant to act, it seems their constituents should sue them for their inaction regardless of party, regardless of State.
It seems like not enough groups of constituents are going after their Representatives and Senators. Writing, phoning and marching are powerful endeavours. But grassroots led public suits against Representatives and Senators seems to be less than one would expect under the circumstances.
I must be missing something or be entirely mistaken.
Maybe it’s the media like cbs, WaPo and NYT that have been taken over by the right wing that are limiting the conversation, but the amount of the illegality that donthecon commits daily is just amazing. There ought to be a prominent daily list. But let’s stop for a minute and focus on the illegality of his second election, which was NOT free and fair. Bomb threats closed dozens of voting places. Media reported results even before west coast polls closed, voters were wrongly kept from voting. Recently, a poll worker woman who destroyed votes was pardoned. Pardoned Jan6 rioters are ready to cause chaos. Democrats need to prepare. Vote early if you can. And candidates, DO NOT CONCEED EARLY. That was Kamala’s only mistake.
It's spelled See BS now
Much better! Thanks for letting me know. 👍🏻👏🏼👊🏼
Have you got a better term for a hand-me-down Nobel peace prize?
Ah yes...for that travesty, it's got to be renamed the War is Peace prize...
Yes—Because up is down and crazy is sane. 👏🏼🤩🙏🏻 Now, a rename of the sleazy hockey team and their golden stick.
Made me giggle.
I agree that the Supreme Court is complicit in this, and the issue has to be brought before them and place in their court, maybe an "emergency hearing"? The number of calls and letters seems to create no change in the behavior of our Reps. The Dem leadership is not acting equal to the problem, so maybe a class action is what we need.
The Dem leadership, hit with the results of trickle down (no middle class funds and money at the top goes to Puppy Shooter’s Enabler—where is our Aristophanes when we need him?—no insult to our favorite comedians intended) is doing its rules-bound best to check the flood of garbage while trying to limit the damage
A regular person hardly has enough money to think about suing.
Go Fund Them!
You've got the scenario fine, Bill.
The only thing you're missing is sight of the imaginative damage done to all whose schools they attended lacked focus on the human, the humanities.
They came out equipped with policy abstractions, policy stats, policy wonk language. But no more human centers than those who took over Walker Percy's town in "The Thanatos Syndrome," or took over Don Siegel's town in his 1956 (classic) version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
America was taken over by the imaginatively crippled testing zombies long before we ever got their next generation goons, thugs, insurrectionists, and murderers.
Oh my Walker Percy! He was a very interesting writer. The South has produced so many! Faulkner, Welty, McUllers, O’Conner , Price, Wolfe, and Hurston, Gaines, Morrison, Angelo, and all have this gothic thread that is woven in so many ways but holds on to the evil that was around in many different ways.
Have you been in touch with Democracy Docket, Bill Pierce? Marc Elias could probably give you an answer.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
It's past time to hold Bondi in contempt of congress for not releasing the Epstein files.
I agree Reverend, pull off the band-aid and release the files.
Dozens of women have already testified that Trump is a pedophile and sexual predator. In fact, a judge even said that in his ruling against Trump.
My first point in the case of Renee Good. Her rights as a human person were violated as articulated in our Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-
My second point. The illegal killing of Renee Good by police agents of our federal government requires that We the People alter that government.
-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We the People must organize to peacefully create the changes necessary to "effect their Safety and Happiness.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
I'v read that 42%(?) of those polled couldn't care less if trump is a pedophile. Let that number sink in. The cult isn't going anywhere. They'll just morph into a different name and latch onto the next cult leader who plays them like a fiddle on their single issue vote of choice: abortion, immigration, trans, gay, feminism, guns, "woke". None of this goes away when trump is either deposed (removed) or dies. Fifty eight percent don't support trump. Our goal is to get them all to vote.
I beleive that number is based on the assumptions of the cult is that all he did was diddle girl children (and in my professional experience, a surprising number of those folks are girl child diddlers themselves); they are not really prepared for what is actually in those files. Death penalty stuff if it happened in Florida.
Will Trump's panic go so far as to illegally cancel elections? We know he has enough loyalists to pull it off, all the way to SCOTUS. Schumer and Jeffries need to get out in front of Trump and speak loudly and clearly to pro-democracy groups: cancelling the November election is one more thing that is not legal and will not be tolerated.
''America, Please Ignore the Fire While We Repaint the Smoke Alarm''
While the fire spreads, leaders argue over who set off the alarm. This satire cuts through distraction to show how power disables warnings, reframes dissent as danger, and calls chaos order. A darkly funny, clear-eyed look at what happens when silence becomes policy...
https://essayx.substack.com/p/america-please-ignore-the-fire-while
Well, trump punishes the citizens and rewards his servants (his cabinet) by making them the instruments of his retribution. He is piling up battered bodies and thinking it is wonderful. I guess this is what he means when Heather quoted him as saying he has "accomplished" so much?
An educated populace is key. Why should anyone listen and seek to be informed before making decisions? Doesn't the Constitution instill that notion?
Eleanor, the issue has become the source of the information that people choose to utilize. There is a huge amount of propaganda from both within and without (Russia, are you listening? "Da") that people who support this regime are consuming with relish. They are also conditioned to believe that what we are consuming as news is also propaganda. To be fair, every person must be a discerning consumer of news and check sources; I would say the ratio is (generously) 80-20 with "our side" having the "20".
Ally, how many are watching MSNOW? I check CNN, which does fairly well with news, but have given up on every other source. The “two sides” version is NOT useful if one side is lies. I did academic research for years, know how to weigh
Information, and prefer as much intelligent commentary as possible.
Their sources are Faux, OAN, Praeger U and other "influencers".
Thank you, Ally. As a retiree from Fairfax County VA Public Schools I recall that in my years of teaching government and politics, including AP, I never shied away from critical thinking skills learned with content. Adoption of Standards of Learning I do believe moved curriculum away from that into more rote learning [would enjoy being corrected]. Newspapers back then were valued tools. Today I read NYTimes and Washington Post but appreciate especially Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce White Vance. Network news as well as MS NOW and CNN with some News Nation are included but talking heads and no solutions, or courage/grit, and wordy entries do not engage. Who will help us to understand how we as a nation got to this place, and resolve to never again?
Trumps reaction to being called exactly what he is shows beyond any doubt that the Epstein files are uppermost in his mind 24 x 7.
It's a power grab that could easily work at this point. Maybe it's just posturing and deflection, but I see every sign that Trump intends to capture absolute power indefinitely, and I'm not sure what can stop him. His cooperation with the courts, partial at best, will soon come to an end, and he will invoke the Insurrection Act as soon as possible. Unless the US military resists him, that will be that. If the military splits, it will be civil war. My position is, it's always been worse than we imagined from Trump, and that will not change.
Boils down to complacency..people still get on with their lives if they are not in the jaws of ICE. NIMBY. The truth means nothing if we are not ACTING on it in more than a piddling way. The plaque?
The Epstein Files--if we get them somehow, will be a distraction, a "million" pages of it and *it will not get rid of Trump* for us. Yes this stalling defies the law.. so what? It's a pretense that they will eventually comply. Maybe. Yes it might peel away some MAGA...those who have not guessed already what is in them. And then what? How many of this MAGA will let bygones be bygones when the alternative is voting for a Democrat Godforbid.
And the "biggy" suspicion- that Trump himself was a pedophile or involved in Epstein's international "business", sex trafficking, threatening VIP's turns out to be less of a suspicion and more true.. then what???
*Trump is immune from prosecution until he leaves office* for a past crime... and he will leave office one way or another.. but not until then.
Yes; Panicking and gaining FREE press time by doing and stating outrageous, dangerous things ~ !
Hello Xavier.... DJT, who cannot Plan, Read, Write, Govern, or be Truthful, is a Tyrant in the Original Greek Sense... Pray for Divine Intervention, Force Majere, Soon...
Xplisset, you seem to be usurping many of Heather's very well written columns with all to frequent "first position" response in her "comment" section . The is not "Jeopardy" where the first to push the button gets to win some prize money.
Your comments are thoughtful and well written but often generic and not to Heather's letters from an american focus, as if pre written, copied, and in the ready to "paste" to get first place.
We the readers typically read most if not every comment, to feel the pulse of growing outrage with our current world situation, and then make comment.
thank you for your insights.
Paul, Substack offers two ways to view comments: "Top" or "Newest First." The default is "Top." You can set your preference at the very top of the comments list. Substack defines "top" as the comment that draws the most activity. Best I can tell, the algorithm gives more weight to responses than to "likes."
That said, an early poster is more likely to have their comment rise to the top by virtue of its having been "out there" longer than other comments – thereby drawing more responses – rather than a late arrival like me, who joins the conversation at least 8 hours after it started.
I share your implied frustration with this arrangement. The conversation is thoughtful (mostly), but sometimes veers off the topic that was originally presented in HCR's Letter. As a result, a topical comment I'd like to offer would seem weirdly off-topic and there's no place to insert it in the conversation that has taken a different direction.
As I've written before, "the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness." When a conversation starts among intelligent, thinking people, one person's tangential thought can take the conversation in a completely different direction.
Still, I rather interact with smart people than stupid people.
thank you one and all.
How do we get Heather to run for President, or is that just my sanity trying to prevail? Is she much too honest and historically knowledgeable to be elected?
Also, what is that immature cloisonne dork pin that rump is now wearing of his skanky suit coat? What a fucking thin skinned child!
I'm going to order a Nobel Peace Prize from Amazon and mount it on a golf cart
Paul, you've surely noted that after about 3 hours of initial comments that provoke conversations (like this one, for example), those who comment later do not provoke nearly as many conversations.
Exhibit A is Megan's persistent posting of her contact sheets and the request for comments to keep it "near the top" (Substack's default setting is "Top" first, rather than "Oldest" or "Newest". The ONLY one of hers that was at the "top" was yesterday (or the day before, days run together) was one that involved a troll and those who engaged the troll.
This is a Substack issue, not one of other Readers trying to "usurp" the Professor.
Likes from readers determine position in the thread not who posts first. I was not the first response. Those who were got outvoted. This is more Democracy then Jeopardy as you are alleging.
Xplisset, after posting my prior comment (reply to Paul above) I did indeed just go to upgrade my subscription to your Substack to "paid".
I've been reading you for awhile now--not all of them all the way through, I confess. (They can be LONG, but I do admire and appreciate the hard work you put into them!) I could, but I can't, spend the entire day reading about this regime!
Digital communication such as this can't convey nuances either good or bad, and perhaps because we're all worn out, misunderstandings happen. In the last six months or so, I've noticed disagreements on here turn into full out wars, with insults hurled. SOMETIMES, they're justified (ie; trolls) and I've engaged thus, against my better judgement. I appreciate that you calmly answered Paul and didn't (as my mom used to say) get your hackles up.
Keep up the good work. Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you.
🙏
And to you, good sir: 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
The "ranking" comes from the number of "likes" and comments. I have personally noticed if I happen to be online right when her Letter drops, and I am among the first of say, 20 or so comments, it seems that people are more likely to see those and hit "like" or respond.
I have been reading Heather for probably 5 years. I wish I could read all or even most of the comments, but it would take me at least 3 hours. I've been guilty of spending 2 hours all too often. I now tend to scan for names I have grown familiar with, and Xplisset is one of them. As an aspiring novelist, I quite enjoy his writing. He has a fresh, honest voice. And as a white female, I appreciate the viewpoint a black, male, retired law enforcement officer gives us.
I read Heather for awhile before I committed to subscription. I don't know how many paid subscribers Xplisset has to his Substack (well worth reading!) as I know when he first appeared on the Letters here, he was struggling to get to 50.
I am going to Subscribe to him right now.
Yes, give the middle finger to working class America. And protect goons, murderers, rapists.
For the last category, Lisa Phillips appeared today on Michael Popok’s Legal AF, on a new Epstein twist.
That is, new to her, and new to us – thanks to Jamie Raskin, who put the pieces together, and has since contacted some major universities.
It seems the finest and most expensive east coast schools were eager recipients of Jeffrey Epstein money, for his paying full tuition – in fact, more than full (but that’s another angle). Congressman Raskin was asking, now 25 years later, what none of the universities asked then: how could Jeffrey have had so many “nieces” for so many years, for so many elite schools, for whom he was paying so much?
Lisa Phillips knew something strange was going on then. But she had no idea how the pieces connected, other than, in return for certain services at certain NYC mansions, many, many girls got modeling gigs, and many got elite educations, or both.
Pretty sure only the tip of the iceberg....
For a more detailed study of an iceberg that could sink the Trumptanic, here's the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal Christonazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
I hope your days are yet filled with various rewards from a good, long life, Loren.
In better proportion than that of the unbelievable betrayals we all see from the many surging, unrepentant racists, fascists, misogynists, thieves, and murderers.
Thanks Loren, "after I am no more" is a powerful reminder that none of us knows how our words and deeds will live on after our bodies change form. A favorite quote by Alice Walker, "Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise". Passing the torch is a good metaphor for human community.
Wow! That is really grim! That poor girl being tied down then raped by that Orange Orc, and then by E. Both hitting her in the face to shut up her screaming.
Louise, from the lawsuit Loren provides (above) on Donald's behavior:
"Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted."
Was this in 1994, as the lawsuit claims, or was it another time, with E. Jean Carroll on the receiving end of rape?
Or was it in the oval office last year, with Donald and his sycophant Vance attacking Ukrainian President Zelensky, pressuring him to do whatever Donald and his boss Putin want?
Or was it laughing with Billy Bush how he could grab them by the pussy?
Or was it in the legal deposition that famous men for thousands of years could always do what they wanted with women? They let you, if you're famous.
Or was it among the many times in his first term when Donald was bragging how as president he could do whatever he wanted?
Or was it last week, when he lied about Renee Good and the entire scenario where his thug Jonathan Ross on many videos by many there plainly showed that thug's cold-blooded murder of her -- as if he could ever lie about facts, given how he's done that during his entire criminal career?
Yes.
... Just because I haven't told you lately, I consider your full presence here a gift Phil. Hard lessons learned in my life demand that I speak my mind without delay. One never knows when their last day comes. Learned and act accordingly, the hard way, to nearly perishing; A struggle that continues to this day. ~Shalom~
Thank you for saying, D4N.
Some who are very outspoken here -- and witty, possessed of high-flying English -- very much instead defend our schools' status quo. K-12 and "higher."
They succeeded, they feel, so can see no damages from a pedagogical status quo now void of humanities and based near totally on testing only.
Trouble is, among testing's main conceits, linear causality forecloses on seeing the overlapping, often contradictory, complicated, nuanced, and serendipitous other causalities which humanities rely on, and the status quo excludes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igAy544qG0k
Katie Johnson & Michael Cohen
Loren , I just read the horrifying Lawsuit filed by Jane Doe in 2016. Did she drop it then, due to threats? Did she go into hiding? Is she alive? I am sorry to not be aware of what happened to her. There is so much happening and such a cover up of the Epstein files, I can’t keep up. Thank you for putting this out there.
My guess -- and that is all it is -- is she found sanctuary in a better country.
Hope that is true
Loren, I believe what you have linked is what is referred to in the Greg Olear Substack ("Prevail") that I have been linking on the forum here.
It is long, and graphic, so full warning to those who might wonder what could be SO BAD that Trump is this scared.
In the last six months or so, I've noticed disagreements on here turn into full out wars.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
Loren, I appreciate your efforts at a time when you deservedly could opt out. Thank you.
Thank you. I decided at age 14, 1954, to become a journalist because -- raised by a Marxian father (and soon to begin a lifetime embrace of Marxism myself) -- I realized journalism was the only way a non-ruling-class person could possibly foster humanitarian change in the ever-more-viciously capitalist United States. By late in my 16th year I had my first newspaper job -- part-time copyboy and sports stringer at The Grand Rapids (Michigan) Herald. Apart from the unavoidable interregnum of the three years I spent fulfilling my military obligation (1959-1962), that's been my focus ever since.
Loren, Please know I found your words and life story inspiring. I am moving forward in my life with your phrase 'after I am no more' to share with others, who like me, hope also to leave behind some small inspiration, just as you are doing. Wishing you a bright and restful transformation in your travels.
Thank you.
Thank you for posting this -- it's truly horrific.
I've said this to others here; And identically share the same sentiments with you Loren.
"... Just because I haven't told you lately, I consider your full presence here a gift Loren. Hard lessons learned in my life demand that I speak my mind without delay. One never knows when their last day comes. Learned and act accordingly, the hard way, to nearly perishing; A struggle that continues to this day. ~Shalom~
Proceed with extreme caution, but these interviews with victim Sascha Riley, a decorated member of the US Military (Army, I think), in which he details what happened to him as an 11-year old and others at the hands of these depraved miscreants are beyond most humans emotional capacity to process. I have a close friend who spent many years working as a therapist with victims of childhood sexual trauma. The trauma is twofold, and compounding, for most of these victims lives: the assault trauma itself is the first horrific part, but the continual trauma of betrayal by those who didn’t believe, and didn’t protect them builds and amplifies itself over time. The horror of it defies words. If you struggled with the details of the Jane Doe lawsuit, you probably should not listen to these. I have only heard pieces of it from others who did, and I have lost sleep for the past few nights over it. However, I share this here to say that if even a small part of this can be corroborated, the Jane Doe case, horrifying itself, pales in comparison. It would be unsurprising to discover that anyone who knew about this, directly or indirectly, would have been threatened (or the lives of their loved ones threatened) for decades, or simply “disappeared” outright. Remember that rare moment of self-reflection a few months ago when Dump said, shaking his head, that he didn’t think he’d be going to heaven? https://open.substack.com/pub/lisevoldeng/p/dont-worry-boys-are-hard-to-find?r=mxwjc&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
It’s mind boggling (Sascha’s story) but then it seems Epstein had something for everyone. Potentially many of his clients didn’t even know about some of the services offered. I hope it’s not true for the sake of those survivors, but I fear it might be.
Also, Marcia, recommend most highly that original classic, Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita."
Yes, the opening gimmick, the middle-aged male narrator's silliness, distracts, offends.
But somewhere after the girl, the victim, turns a year older (becomes 14 or 15 -- she's lost track), she begins to go into retreat, withdrawal from herself and the world. It's a clinically arresting account of how youngsters far, far from full brain development just cannot be expected to piece together their assaults, their being used by their much older adult predators.
"Iceberg dead ahead".
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
Inside info reveals the middle finger affair might have *** (Very likely been_) been mostly theater, providing 'free advertisement' for fascism adoring FMC and their knee-bent union. There has long been no solidarity in those ranks, who differ greatly with their 'leaders' (?). ~source protected
Apparently the Union wants to protect the worker.
The worker’s 2 Go Fund Me campaign has ended with $80,000. !!
Not $80K but rather in excess of $800,000 or 800K before they chose to shut down the GoFundMe as that was more than enough.
I also believe it was about 30,000 contributors.
Correct Kirk. 'Go Suppoort Him" worked very well!
See above to JAY JAY, Dirk ↑
Thanks — a WHOPPER by any other measure. Got my zeros mixed up!
Wonder how many years he can coast on that ‘salary replacement’? 🤣
*Do see the above friend.*
Remember, Jay Jay, Eh, for simple (or any other) edits, corrections:
1) click on the three dots to upper right of text;
2) click on "edit";
3) make the changes you like;
4) click "save."
I myself err often. Some simple typos. Some more substantive.
See above to JAY JAY, Dirk ↑
A nice takeaway was had by all. That's how it works. Awesome when a plan works out. Meanwhile, public consumption of bs.
1. I’m happy to see an example (for all) that calling Trump out doesn’t necessarily lead to death & dishonor.
2. Glad that Trump may feel a little less shielded & all-powerful.
3. Good that some of Trump’s possibly more ethical supporters see another unpleasant side of him … he’s chipping away at his own support base, daily.
The UAW isn't a bent knee union. There are a lot of auto workers who work at parts manufacturers spun off from the Big Three that are not unionized. Those seem to be the ones who are more likely to support Trump. I admit I haven't talked to a large number of Union Members, but the ones I have talked to hate Trump! I think that story may have been planted as disinformation. I watched the local news the day this happened here in Michigan. The Union came out with a very strong statement to the press saying their legal team was on the case to get the worker reinstated and that an employer didn't have the right to restrict free speech in the workplace! Beware, there are many sources that are anti-union! Especially Fascists like Trump and friends, not to mention the car companies themselves!
Yes, I wasn’t certain about that … seems like a tangled web of sorts.
You are wrong Louise. They are most certainly knee- bent. I 'own' evidence.
He may, Jay Jay Eh, feel "a little less shielded & all powerful."
Trouble is, I think his having been delusional all his life -- he's always lied -- signals he's always felt powerful. Still does. Cannot even begin to see how Putin has him on a string. Has no comprehension how his conceits willy-nilly have him constantly lying -- so ever-lying words float the narrative in his fatuous head.
I blame our corporate media for having succored him. All those elite bastards who for all their years in schools governed by testing, who came out thus with zero equipment in any humanities to ground them to reality. And this failure to be grounded in personal exigencies let them all be led by their noses by this industrial scale liar -- by this guaranteed rapist of underage girls, money launderer for all Putin's worst.
Phil, "succored him" is so, so accurate. Thank you.
Dead, spot on my friend. The enormity of the actual conspiracy completely boggles even the sanest mind. I know; And have some degree of certainty that you do as well. Bravo !
In the ‘succoring him’ dept both the rich/educated & the poor/uneducated have had their go. I find it difficult to paint with too broad a brush there.
Jay Jay correçt.
Do not delude yourself via the 'feel good' "narrative" Jay.
I think $800,000.
Ehh, everyone's 'palm gets greased' in these sort of actual conspiracies Jay, Jay. *Notably: It takes considerable fore planning and effort to not only create any "Go Fund Me" campaign, it takes far longer to reap the rewards. *So, 'How' on earth was this accomplished, start to yield in less than one day ? Does that 'connect' for you ?
I’m not familiar with it, but apparently it was TWO fund-me’s at work.
BTW, the ICE-man who shot Good … also had a Fund-Me … and is apparently a millionaire … altho I haven’t researched & confirmed that beyond one google glance.
It's not likely you'll find iron clad proof of that I reveal from an inside source; It's how they cover their tracks so well and just how they've all operated for-ever under the radar.
It also revealed it to be such a stubby, sickly, little chode of a finger as is the petulant lunatic that it belongs to.
Made me look, horhai, thank you. Chode indeed.
Me, too! LOL
Sending you a DM in a moment, Ally, regarding another issue.
🤣🤣🤣.....##mealso !
🤣🤣🤣.....##mealso !
🤣 chode
🤣🤣🤣.....##mealso !
Digging for Webster's rescue here ! 🤣🤣🤣.....##mealso !
The modeling gigs brings to the forefront that Melania worked illegally when she first came to the U.S. and then was introduced to Trump by Epstein. Is that who Trump et.al. is trying protect by slow walking the release??
Wow. How many of these “nieces” have found jobs with government officials or even the West Wing?
The Epstein scandal has to remain front and centre. Here's a link to the case brought against Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein in the NYSD by a Jane Doe in July 2016 - 6 months into his first presidency.
https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
It was later withdrawn because she was being intimidated by the plaintiffs' goons.
Nobody enjoys peering into the abyss.
Before they seized power, all during the election cycle, the Democrats warned over and over again about the real danger of an authoritarian Christo-fascist regime.
After the evil night of November 5th, we heard that message modified with “things to look out for” and “how to tell if the country is turning fascist”.
We also heard a chorus of “we are winning in the lower courts, so we are winning” and “HIS numbers are tanking, so we are winning.”
This was against a backdrop of loss after loss. Some severe. The DOGE purge and data theft. The concentration camps. The big ugly bill. The shutdown. The refusal to release Epstein files. Attacking cities with ICE and federal troops. Invading Venezuela and upsetting the world order by threatening Greenland. And, gunning down citizens on the street. Now, house to house searches with brutal violence and destruction of property.
What I said right from the start upset people who did not want to see it— first of all, it is not a HIM, it is a they. DT is a monstrosity, but, in the end, irrelevant.
A consortium of members of the Epstein Class have seized the federal government of the United States.
Second: they ignore the ruling of any court that goes against them. And poll numbers only count in a democracy. If you intend to rule by force the consent of the governed is irrelevant.
Anyone with decent observational skills and a reasonable knowledge of history could SEE the fascism in full bloom on day one, and could predict the outcome.
My prediction was war. We are not fully at war, civil or otherwise, quite yet.
Stay tuned…
If you don't enjoy staring into the abyss, then may I calmly suggest you don't.
A million things out there to do, campaigns to enlist behind, groups to support financially, lawsuits to understand and support (and contrary to your assertion, Trump is losing more and more of them, and actually obeying many, such as the departure of the Guard from Illinois) -- and a late-night gift: a federal judge just rebuffed the Justice Department's backhanded attempt to seize California's voting records), referenda to back (such as California's Proposition 50, which not only passed but survived a Republican attempt to destroy it in federal court), causes to continue marching for, and above all, mid-terms to organize for, voter outreach to be conducted to capitalize on this dangerous moment where the beginning cracks of MAGA must be widened until they're unstoppable.
Yes, there will be mid-terms. Yes, they will be flawed and yes, there may will be intimidation and brute force, perhaps, but there will still be mid-terms. Elections are not in their hands, but in the hands of 50 individual Secretaries of State and of Washington DC.
So if you really want to, choose to focus on what's to be done, rather than on a chasm of fear which just turns people to stone. The latter, plus 5 bucks, will get you a cup of coffee somewhere. They'll even throw in a swizzle stick for free. Beyond that, I don't know what else it gets you. If you're lucky -- if we're lucky, smart and self-disciplined -- our efforts toward the former may actually end up changing the arc of history in the way we all seek.
Myself, I'm going with the former.
Yes ICTT. And the word that jumped off the page for me is 'self-disciplined'. That would be a good starting point for many of us. When my kids were teenagers they loved a song called The Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson. I just looked up the lyrics. I would say that the message from that song works now as it did then and as it would have in the 60's. I think it tells us that it's always the poor that bear the burden when our country is failing. When we don't start with the man in the mirror, or think about who it is that fights our wars, we fail. This is a country worth saving, and it needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up.
Charitable and true Justin. I for one live in abject poverty, SS alone (for now) owing in part to the "Orange iL Duce" and the "coalition" that supports and empowers it. Daily I / we have to make those unimaginable trade-offs, like prescriptions or food in support of the household. It's just not my style to bitch, piss and moan; Other folks have their crosses they may bear. Count this as a blunt matter-of-fact revelation that the hurt is truth and is being borne - in reality, even by some herein.
Thank you for the calming and resolute tone. There are reports from all over Virginia’s blue cities that ICE is there. (Williamsburg!?) I’m trying not to anticipate chaos when Abigail Spanberger is sworn in tomorrow.
Soon-to-be Governor Spanberger is on the record for stating that ICE won’t get away with breaking Virginia’s laws. On a related note; “Although immigration had been one of Trump’s strongest positions, now only 20–30% of Americans favor the way ICE is enforcing Trump’s immigration policies.” ONLY! 20-30%….incredible. I’d love to know what the citizens of real first-world countries think of these goons and their tactics were this happening in their countries. I doubt you’d find many with an approval rate that high.
OMG how I long to serve her (Spanberger) ! The D.C. environs and northern Virginia are my second (in my heart_) home. I've relatives *(meant s, plural) there that live like "pickets" surrounding D.C,
And I believe her, John. Knowing how performative much of his governance has been I’d not be surprised if he tries to make a statement l
No doubts in my mind. On the other hand, I'd hope to see it as a grave error to stir Virginian passions. I know..
FYI Gail, following up *your - (
r' added) 'like'. I have loved and been loved by Virginians - also but seldom suffered their scorn / anger. Full admission: I have made at least one or two mistakes in my too long lifetime. Lol ~
Lol, Virginian tracing back to 17th C, husband is a Virginia Native American. I get it. I’ve a deep love for the state. I guess the mistakes we’ve all made weren’t irredeemable. We’re still upright!
FYI Gail, following up you 'like'. I have loved and been loved by Virginians - also but seldom suffered their scorn / anger. Full admission: I have made at least one or two mistakes in my too long lifetime. Lol ~
Thank you. Pack a lunch because there is much work to be doing.
OMG, Are you of British origin.. lol. The 'classic' understatement. Touche ~
Thank you, ICTT.
Beautiful sentence: "If you don't enjoy staring into the abyss, then may I calmly suggest you don't."
You make a vital point. Stay involved: Research your candidates, organize and Vote!
Good mental health probably requires us to vent our frustrations now and again - they are real and must be acknowledged. However, maintaining an echo chamber of fear and anger is not a solution to the problems causing our unease.
There are those today who seek to divide us for selfish purposes, but they are not the majority, and the divisions they have sown are built on lies – a fundamental one being that those who disagree with them politically, those who do not look like them, and those who do not share their religious beliefs, are the enemy – evil, untrustworthy and determined to wreck the Union. One constructive thing we can do to counter these ideas is acknowledge and support efforts underway to mend the injuries to our polity.
Noted below are two resources – one a coalition of organizations determined to create opportunities to rehumanize our political interactions. The other is a discussion of findings from the 2020 book (The Upswing) by Shaylyn Romney Garrett and Robert D. Putnam about when, since the end of the 19th century until recently, our country was more or less cohesive and when it was not - and why.
National coalition to promote dialogue: https://www.listenfirstproject.org/listen-first-coalition
Also worthwhile: Robert Putnam, Ph.D: The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfOH5xKNYeE
Thanks for the links.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, ICTT. You have stated it all so well. "Changing the arc of history in the way we all seek” YES!
I love that you're here with us, whether or not you care to know. My resounding alarm though as I wonder about one you might or might not know who used to post here:
I wonder, "Just where in hell is SB Lewis when we need him most" ? Not to annoy, but for civil commentary (all factual) and comforting presence ?
*Furthermore the heartfelt worry that the "Lion" might now be too feeble to protect his lunch money. "Wondering / musing" just now if 'anything' responds to prayers..
It's Come to This: NOWHERE have I suggested dropping out or becoming comatose. OF COURSE there is work to be done. The sane people of this country HAVE been doing all they can for a long time.
But we are capable of doing and using our awareness at the same time. My comment is a REPORT. Nothing we have tried so far has actually stopped them and it is coming to a head in this midterm year. Being AWARE of reality is good and necessary. It helps with forming a strategy, which is imperative in this situation.
Not everyone can fight. Some are too old, handicapped, parents of young children, or just too broken. We need to plan for those people too, for their safety. Right now, real humans are getting hurt. More will follow.
As to the midterms, how they play out, and even whether they happen at all depends on what we do NOW, and if it works or not.
Saying that what we have done so far has not worked so far is not a criticism. It is a fact. Of course we are throwing ourselves into this. That does not mean we will win. Bad things happen all the time and always have. Your crystal ball doesn't do any more than mine. CAN we win? YES. But it is not a foregone conclusion.
I am certain most like your version of reality. But I am sure of mine and will keep observing events and trying to make sense of them. If and when the tide turns in our favor I will be hollering from the rooftops. That day is not today.
"Saying that what we have done so far has not worked so far is not a criticism. It is a fact."
Your statement as a "fact" is a stultifying over-statement. You make valid statements about the Epstein Class and naming the problem, but the expose and resistance work continues to build for fixing the problem, making a better future, creating a more perfect union. Exercising our muscles makes them stronger. We learn from our experiences how to become more effective. We are engaging more people to become involved. Like Timothy Snyder says, "we can't each do everything, but everyone has to do SOME thing."
Ellie--And I have repeated till my face turns blue--YES, DO ALL THE THINGS. Because each has value. I am not addressing whether we should resist or not--OF COURSE WE MUST.
I am reporting as to actual conditions and likely outcomes as things stand now. So far, we have done all kinds of things. So far, nothing has worked and the regime grows stronger. The atrocities worse.
Maybe some of the things already being done will work but just haven't had enough time. But we don't know which ones, or if this is even true. Maybe the winning strategy has not been thought of yet, or implemented. My suggestion is that we AS A MOVEMENT need to regroup and develop a secondary strategy.
This says nothing about continuing to do whatever it is you are already doing on the chance that it just hasn't been long enough or hard enough.
I get to have whatever opinions I have, and to express them. Other people think differently, as is their right. They too are entitled to an opinion. Nothing I write here stops anyone for an instant from doing what they believe will make a difference. And that is as it should be.
I get such a feeling of deja vu for the 60’s. Protests violently put down, political outrage, lies, etc. It ended then when R Senators decided their guy (Nixon) had to go. What’s it going to take this time?
Politicians of old are gone, replaced by MAGAts, deliberately and with more malice than most suspected. The turncoats (like Graham) joined with the recruited cult to magatize our world.
By and large Modern Republicans are corrupt as hell. I'm hoping enough people notice. Their perfidy can be used against them.
Honestly JL, it's disappointing the numbers that aren't noticing. I was on a well heeled females FB today that is absolutely oblivious, proudly but falsely claiming "I'm not a political person."
If "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is going to be more than an empty slogan (and I'm afraid that for many people it is) it is simply irresponsible to vote on major matters without due diligence (at least reading and contemplating the voters pamphlet) and finding some reliable "news") and abstaining from doing so dilutes the odds of collective wisdom. In some circumstances it can enable disasters.
"Just because you do not take an interest in politics, doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you" - Pericles
MAGA is what they want you to THINK they are. They are NAZIs, and much more dangerous than their 1930's predecessors.
The Senate vote today was 51-50.
3 republicans went with Dems & JD had to add his vote …
MRich...I liked you for the "what's it going to take," but the disorders of the '60s -- which I both covered and participated in (sometimes simultaneously) -- were a kindergarten squabble compared to what obtains now. In the quest for analogies, this is much more like what I have read -- and what Holocaust survivors told me -- about the destruction of the Weimar Republic.
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
Amen and Hallalulah!
It's going to take all who can to call our representatives and let them know we are not asleep and not afraid. Spineless politicians will blow with the wind. If we stay aware and guard our sanity and keep holding up the truth, they will turn. Bit by bit, drop by drop. Take care of yourselves, everybody, and make your calls.
People assumed that there would still be checks and balances. One house of Congress would be there to act as a check on an out-of-control President.
It wasn't just that Trump won, it was when those last few Republican House seats were won.
My district NJ07 was one.
I assumed nothing, as I saw one guardrail after another under attack and fall. Thank James Baker, Mitch, the Tea Party (racist to the core), and my ex-bff who wanted the SC that we have. Bill Moyers would not be surprised as he sniffed this out as Rupert started to smell.
Georgia— I still hear Democrats who are surprised and upset that this bunch of Republicans puts party above all and votes in lockstep. They think that there must be at least one moderate who hates this. And maybe there is but they won’t do anything about it.
Look! the face-eating leopards are eating faces! Shocking.
If we give up, not going to get any bipartisan support.
Republican Signals Support for Trump Impeachment
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-signals-support-for-trump-impeachment-11364569
"Nebraska Republican Don Bacon has blasted President Donald Trump’s talk of taking over Greenland, branding the idea "utter buffoonery" and warning it could spark bipartisan impeachment efforts—underscoring deepening GOP fractures over Trump’s foreign policy brinkmanship."
Meanwhile, European troops began arriving in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support for Denmark, even as talks between Copenhagen, Nuuk and Washington underscored a “fundamental disagreement” over the future of the Arctic island, the Associated Press reported.
Daniel--We absolutely should not give up. We need to understand what is happening right now and then figure out the best places to push for change. Congress is not a monolith even if MAGA is trying to make it seem that way.
Observation is how we find the weak points in the wall.
I am in complete agreement. Earlier this week, I decided to pull out the application for a firearms ID card and license to carry that I printed some months ago. I haven't had a weapon in my hands in fifty-five years, and I don't intend to buy any right away. But I want the legal ability to do so. Because I have a suspicion that a year from now I'll be part of the underground.
👍✊✊✊
Start stocking up on ammo, then, because THAT is going to become a scarce commodity real soon!
My prediction was that if Trump got reelected, it would mean the end of Western civilization. Everyone said “Naaah, it won’t be that bad, he’s just president, he can’t just do everything he wants.” Hoo boy. I really wish I was wrong, but so far, we’re well on track. Turns out there is absolutely no match for the power of denial.
Perhaps not the end of "Western" civilisation, but certainly the breaking of the "American Hegemony" and the crumbling of the United States Empire.
The only thing that might restore your country now, is maybe a military coup.. voting certainly isn’t going to help.
He’s gonna use a ginned up reason to invoke some kind of martial law, to cancel the mid terms. He’s already hinted that.
One thing about the Bastard, when he tells you he’s going to do an awful thing, he generally does it.
I disagree. He can’t cancel the midterms, they are run by the states. Our military is not large enough for him to unleash en masse against the cities even if the military brass goes along, which I doubt. 30% may be loud but the 70% aren’t powerless.
Oh, but you don't doubt that he and they will try... ?
They’ve tried a lot that has failed.
Lol.... Have you witnessed failure preventing 'anything', including repeating mistakes ? 😅 ?
“first of all, it is not a HIM, it is a they. DT is a monstrosity, but, in the end, irrelevant.”
Yes, this! I’ve long said that DT could repent today of all the sins he’s committed and nothing would change. Between the “Epstein class” and their puppets in positions of power, reclaiming and strengthening our democratic republic is going to be a long, hard-fought battle.
"....“first of all, it is not a HIM, it is a they. " By heavens, you have 'it' in a nutshell. I've lost count how many times I've restated "it's a coalition. The looney just isn't that smart on his own."
The $upreme Court has plutocrat fingerprints all over it, save for the few brave holdouts.
In my opinion, the Billionaire Tech Bros’ power grab is complete. If anyone thinks there will be any elections anymore in the US, you are badly mistaken. And IF there WOULD be any elections, the results wouldn’t matter anyway: the Orange F*ckturd will dismiss them anyway, and set the military on anyone who disagrees. Nope, the nice times are over. If you keep playing by the rules, you cannot defeat a cheater who denies those rules.
Annabel, I'm so grateful you're active here and elsewhere, and importantly, keeping the scores. Brava ~
are you sure about that…
Nobody can be 100% sure of the future unless the sun is literally burning out.
But there is pattern recognition and it runs strong in me. I am AuDHD and many of us have that trait.
I want to be wrong, but so far I have a lot of evidence that my observations are correct and very little that I am wrong.
I can see a very few other pathways but all of them depend on circumstances that are uncontrollable and most rely on massive group cooperation which will be difficult to achieve.
So let’s say I am as sure as anyone can be about anything.
I agree with you. I think we have moved from a slow coup timeline to a fast one.
I think Trump wants to have troops in the streets ahead of the March 3 start of the primary season, and while it is still cold outside.
He has already told us that he is ready to invoke the Insurrection Act, and that he doesn't think we need to have midterms just yesterday (Remember the "vote for me and you won't ever have to vote again" promise to evangelicals before the election?) And he warned us he would only be constrained by his "own morality, his own mind." That was just over a week ago.
On the leftmost thread line in my post, I attached the text of the Insurrection Act and the Brennan Center's views on ways to constrain a President once it is invoked.
Impeachment is basically it. And conviction in the Senate takes 2/3 majority...
How easy will it be to face down ICE and CBP goons carrying military weapons, making $200,000 a year, and self-selected for cruelty?
This.
“Cry Beloved Country”…..to use the name of the 1948 novel….the sentiment of the title burns heavy in me with what we are experiencing here.
oh yes. Cry the Beloved Country -- so much so.
Like you, I have been correct about way too much. It’s eerie to see how so many just now acknowledge what some have been warning for a decade, or much longer re Rupert. Who said, prediction is hard, especially about the future. But history provides clues that if known and “Sherlocked,” would have more of an impact. Instead, we wind up reliving the worst impulses of the most dangerous animal.
Ditto.
I don't expect to be alive a year from now, but like my father before me, I too "have been correct about way too much"; pattern-recognition was unquestionably my greatest asset as an investigative reporter, and it enabled me to scoop the world on a number of local, state and federal stories -- the biggest of which was exposing the heroin-addiction epidemic inflicted on the nation by the Vietnam War. It also enabled me to read the indications accurately enough to recognize the nazification of the nation two decades before it became undeniable. That said, I'll preface what follows by quoting Ms. Ascher that "(n)obody can be 100% sure of the future." But I am in complete agreement with her estimate; everything I see tells me that by 2027, we'll be at war -- civil war here in the "Unified Reich," World War III or its immediate precursor elsewhere, the international conflict triggered by the Christonazi Regime's invasive quest for lebensraum in Canada, Europe and Latin America. Of course I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see how the Regime's fanatically ecogenocidal bellicosity at home and abroad could have any other outcome. As to who would win, I'd say that will be determined by whether the world's humanitarian alliance can cobble together the technological miracles to prevent the Regime from acting on its Hitler-originated Better-Dead-Than-Red policy and literally destroying the planet with the world's largest and most deadly CBR arsenal.
(It is a bit of an aside, but I'd suggest anyone interested in the foundational socioeconomic and cultural origins of the divisiveness that led to our denouement read "Cultural Regions of the United States" [Raymond D. Gastil, University of Washington Press: 1975].)
* Do you perchance converse with some others here privately ? Perhaps Ally ? I do.
.... And there it is Annabel; We, you and I plus some unknown number of 'others' are so afflicted. I identify with you more than you might be willing to believe or accept; But we are without a doubt. Yet, somehow we've endured. I can think of nothing I'd like better than to spend some time conversing with you privately. Such would be off topic herein, consuming more time and energy, and alas, few if any could relate, much less understand. Mutuality would prove to be a grand 'shortcut' in terms of relating; Moreover, kinship might prove grand. I'll seek means. Brava ~
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
Totally agree. Too few, even on Substack, want to see how skillful he is. And, as you well note, the polls don’t matter. Even Richardson misses this reality.
As Nietzsche said, "When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you"...
Since some are concerned that bad news may demotivate people, I can address that. First of all, people in general are tough enough to keep going in the face of setbacks IF it is important enough. This is.
And yes, there are people who can't handle this situation psychologically. They should skip being aware and informed and protect their mental health. These are people who would truly be demotivated if they pay attention to the news. And they are excused from that part. Plenty of people are watching. If a person is handicapped we would not expect them to fight ICE. Nor should we expect the highly sensitized to be inundated with reports of destruction. The people I know who have this psychological makeup ARE doing things. They make phone calls. They send post cards. They campaign for Democrats. They NEVER have too look into the abyss. That is my job, and the job of those like me.
What do I actually DO, besides foresee terrible trouble? I am not so interested in the national fight beyond watching it carefully and reporting events. My efforts are with the local. If we are to win in the long term, we need strong communities and economic justice. So my beat is trying to start a community garden in my poor inner-city neighborhood. Rehabbing a 140 year old duplex I call The Shambles, with an eye to an urban permaculture micro-farm. I write a stack to help food challenged folks eat better. And if/when war comes, I mean for this house to be a haven.
There are many ways to be part of the resistance. Being old, handicapped, neurodivergent, or economically enslaved does not preclude making a contribution. If you can't stand the news, if it makes you sick or paralyzes you--please just turn it off and scroll past any posts that look like bad news. Just keep doing your positive actions. There are enough of us to watch, record, and report.
Perfectly put.
Annabel, it just now occurred to me as I was responding to GJ Loft, a valuable resource here with us, that you would absolutely identify with a thought I left with him to 'chew on.' It's a quotation / aphorism that I 'own' in my life, heart, entire being, stated well by another, restated here - paraphrased from memory. GJ is a numbers guy; He may have to 'chew' awhile; I don't you'll have to. ( -;
" An aphorism perhaps by a wise soul that I deeply relate and agree with, by Rabindranath Tagore, paraphrased from memory and profound pain:"
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it."
- Rabindranath Tagore
Release the files! Let Congress hear you! They need to enforce compliance with the law that was passed! Be extremely loud!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊ New eyes seeing this means new ripples for change 🤞
Thank you again, Megan, for all your work in creating this spreadsheet and keeping it updated, so that We the People can continue to reach out to news organizations and our legislators quickly and easily and make our voices heard.
It is more critical than ever, with a deranged and morally bankrupt "president" losing control, as we all know that a cornered trapped animal is when it's most dangerous. His oligarch cronies are no doubt feeling the pressure to loot as much as possible before their puppet's strings get cut.
As Dr. Heather wrote:
Yesterday, in an interview with Reuters, Trump complained about the common pattern in the U.S. that the party of a president who wins an election then loses seats in the midterms, and suggested he didn’t want to be in that position. “It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said. He went on to say that he had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
He said that before the 2024 election, this may be the last election you ever need to have because things will be so great, or some such tripe. Only he meant it.
Trump most certainly grates.
He is really nervous about the midterms! Let's make every R politician nervous. Call your reps.
Thank you, Megan … a thousand thanks offered in deep gratitude.
I appreciate your support so much Bill!
Let's get back to Epstein! Then Trump’s brown shirts will disappear... I suspect money laundering with Russians and sex trafficking are in those files. Get the files!
Amen!
I agree! I just sent some messages to the Oversight Committee asking them how they were going to enforce releasing the documents and asked how long past the deadline as allowed.
Go Meg go ! Remember to rest.
I plan to rest extra this weekend! Zero plans except a kid birthday party. However my 2 year old just came down with a cold and after waking up crying 5 times in the first 3.5 hours being awake, I am now tucked in the recliner with her sleeping on my shoulder hoping I can sleep here as well for a while ❤️🩹🤞
Thank You, Megan.
I am sharing and sharing your amazing spreadsheet, Megan. Thank you.
Thank you so much for helping share it!
Thank you for your tenacity-very inspirational!
Thank you, Megan!
It doesn't matter what we call about. There is so much to choose from! Just call, and call. Keep the heat on. Let them know we are not asleep and not afraid.
YES! To all of that!
Thank you Megan for your tireless work!
Thanks, as always.
In the midst of great moral cowardice coming from Minnesota Republicans and Fortune 500 companies based there, some officials truly deserve standing ovations. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is at the top of that list for me.
"Progressives" (a sort of dumb label in this case) had no use for him when he would not publicly support the defunding of police after 2020. His reasoning was sound, but his own left community, enraged at police abuse, would not hear of anything that did not sound like whatever the crowd wanted at that point. He was often marginalized by those he supported the most. His views were nuanced in ways they preferred to ignore.
It was his voice, even more than that of Governor Waltz, that led the clarion call of morality after Renee Good was killed. "ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis." Nothing could have been less ambiguous. And the simplest message to those who would disrupt order in the name of opposition: "Do not take the bait. You aren't helping anybody." Except perhaps Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, who can scarcely contain their glee at any disorder which benefits them.
It's one thing to be a Governor and former candidate for Vice-President, complete with whatever implicit power that implies. It's quite another to be a lone Mayor warning other mayors..."you're next." I salute Mayor Frey -- and tens of thousands of Minnesotans not taking that bait -- for their steadfast, sorely tested courage today.
Fun fact: Mayor Frey’s dad was my chiropractor for many years in Northern VA where they are all from. Dr. Frey retired about a year ago. Both mom and dad are proud of him but they worry about his safety daily. He's had to navigate Minneapolis through George Floyd and now this, taking slings and arrows from both sides. That he still stands is a testament to his integrity, toughness (before becoming mayor he was a near-Olympian marathoner), and love for his adopted home.
Hear! Hear!
Here, here, over and over again…
Thank you, ICTT, for lauding Mpls Mayor Jacob Frey. Not only did he stand up against the call to defund the police but seared into my memory is his presence at the George Floyd corner when the protesters demanded that Frey agree with them about defunding the police. He said No and walked through the crowd and left while they jeered. That's courage. Over the murder of Renee Good, his fierce address to ICE ("get the f*** out of Mpls") felt to me like what we needed at that moment: a David facing Goliath. Righteous fury well aimed.
Thanks. I did not know much about Frey. "Defund the Police," one of the most well-meaning but stupid slogans of all time. It says a lot about Frey that he would take a stand against what the leftist crowd wanted.
I am an old white guy who hopes like hell I live long enough to see the entire administration behind bars. Or to meet the same fate as Noem's dog.
Ah, rpasea, I thought today perhaps some enterprising person/sculptor/creator would make/produce/market a caricature garden Kristi GNome….you know, one you could place “just so” in the yard to be of “relief” use for passing male canines. Just a thought. 🤷🏻♀️
And it comes with various accessories like a Barbie doll: over-large cowboy hat, crash helmet, body armor, hair extensions, exaggerated puffy rictus, bovver boots, etc.
Just a thought, maybe, but a darned funny one.
There are lots of old white guys who share your aspiration.
Trump continues to do what Bannon always said he would do: flood the zone with shit. This is the media equivalent of the Gish gallop debate technique, for which there is no civilized defense. I don’t know how the legit media should handle this, but I’m pretty sure it’s not splashing his picture everywhere, asking him questions and broadcasting his shit-flood responses, and generally following his every finger-twitch. The legit media need to somehow focus on a narrative that convinces any semi-rational person paying attention that Trump is failing in every way to govern beneficially for any cohort in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter, outside the realm of the obscenely wealthy, where he distributes the portion of the grift, graft, and corruption that doesn’t go directly into his pockets.
It is shocking indeed that after so many years of the con, the dodge, the graft and the grift, they still have not figured out the most basic way to present the obvious. The New York Times practically creamed in its pants at the thought of sitting around Trump in the Oval Office, pens in hand, to listen to every bit of argle-bargle and babble-bibble to spew out of that demented, sadistic, brutish little piehole in love only with its own voice and the sight of rapt listeners trying to cue into every incoherent syllable.
While examples of significant journalism remains, it seemed to me that the momentum of the press went from watchdog to lap dog with Reagan.
An impartial in-depth history of media consolidations since ronnie's day might illuminate with useful data JL. Just mentioning...
And anti-antitrust. Plutocracy is not the solution, it's the problem; and always has been.
Exactly, pukifying
You expect our media to stop the “shiny object” reporting. Looking out the window Went out when Rupert showed others how much money was in “entertainment news.” Walter would have been canned.
This is an important point. Compared to the newspapers and broadcast reportage of the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s and early '80s, mainstream journalism today -- The New York Times included -- reads like the movie-star mags of the '50s. It is so laden with celebrity gossip and lifestyle garbage, its actual news content is maybe about a tenth of what it was when I was part of the working press, 1956-1959 and 1962-1986. Obviously moronic media and Moron Nation are mutually reinforcing, with the resultant symbiosis spiraling ever-deeper into abyssal ignorance, so there's absolutely no rational hope for reversing the trend without truly radical intervention, initially to reverse the dumber-is-better/"ignorance-is-strength" ethos of neoliberal capitalist governance and its inevitable fascist successor, which will remain impossible until capitalism itself is permanently overthrown.
I so agree. I grew up with my parents watching Huntley/Brinkley. When I was 12 or so, we visited Chicago - and my Dad somehow arranged for us to watch one of their live broadcasts. The studio staff brought out 4 metal folding chairs for our family to sit on and my sister and I were cautioned to be very quiet during the broadcast. There was no cable news then -- just the main networks. No Jesse Waters, no Sean Hannity, no Murdoch as yet - just reporters and anchors trying to honestly convey the news.
Huntley-Brinkley was the weekday evening household ritual in my high school years, 1954-1958, and I will never forget David Brinkley's rightfully caustic coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention, which I managed to see most of, though at the time I worked nights as the news editor of the Morristown, N.J. Daily Record.
It’s one reason I don’t watch much TV any more. There is no information anywhere.
We generally watch the first 20-30 minutes of Nicole Wallace, who has done an admirable job of holding the line. And then, once it turns to endless commentary we switch off.
Yes, I do think journalism should take the high road, and I think many journalists would br inclined to do that if the industry had not been taken over by people who, to make oodles more money, cater to lazy louts who seek entertainment rather than edification. Of course, the louts have always been the vast majority of the population, but the adults in the room were mostly in charge. It all comes back to the 77 million people who voted for Trump. Their lack of basic decency is what makes shiny-object news so immensely profitable.
I am convinced the 77 million are a new subspecies, somehow genetically engineered to be utterly devoid of both empathy and our species' preservative instinct for love, the latter replaced with a reflexive, infinitely more powerful instinct for hatred. Ergo: Homo sapiens inhumanus.
(Another example of how patriarchy -- especially its derivative capitalism -- is the cosmic equivalent of smallpox-contaminated blankets.)
I think most if not all of us have a lazy lout side to us, that distracts from the work of a usable mental map of reality. Is it not self-evident that we are far less likely to get what we want with a badly flawed or inadequate understanding. Evidence based, here you are reality is not necessarily easy to sort out and not always pleasing, but honesty seems to be the best policy.
If we make life changing decisions on poor information, we are likely to experience poor outcomes. No? And while task of building sound understanding of our circumstances is never complete, to the degree we neglect it we are fools (and who has never been fooled?). If we allow "news" to consistently show us BS or inconsequential glitter, then all we will C will be BS, and time's a wastin'.
I put this up before, but if you missed it, it seems to offer a better path:
https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/finland-has-been-world-leader-media-literacy-many-years-children-young-kindergarten-age-are
Impeach!
Impeach Kristy Noem
Impeach Hegseth
Impeach Marco Rubio
Impeach RFK Jr.
Indict!
Convict!
Expel!
Protest Non-Violently
Demonstrate Non-Violently
Rally Non-Violently
Educate!
Vote!
Every day I get petitions to sign to tell my Senators and Rep to impeach one or the other of those folks. There are articles of impeachment filed for most, maybe all, of them. Also, there is a new move by Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie to impose daily penalties on Pam Bondi for not releasing the total of the Epstein files.
On another topic, a friend who teaches journalism at Columbia was amazed that Natanson didn't keep all of her devices locked away at her office. My friend was aghast at the action of the regime, but also amazed that Natanson left herself and her files so vulnerable.
This Khanna/Massie move makes me wonder, if fines imposed, are they personal to her—as in self-pay—or would any taxpayer funds be used? Asking cuz I have no clue.
It wasn't clear to me in what I read who would pay the penalties. I'm guessing that Ro Khanna would want Pam Bondi to pay rather than the taxpayers, but again, I don't recall having read any details.
It also isn't clear to me if Machado gave Trump the monetary award that goes with the Nobel Peace Prize, but I'm guessing that she didn't.
But ya gotta know he’d want BOTH!
Ya don't always get what ya want...even if you're the wannabe dictator.
🤞
The number of examples of constitutional violations ratchets up every single day.
Any one of yesterday's would have caused massive demonstrations.
Trump has succeeded in normalizing chaos.
When chaos is normalized, the troops are called in.
He has already warned us.
Well, that may be Trump's intention, but it will be our fault if he succeeds. The good folks in Minnesota and elsewhere in the USA need to keep the pressure on, nonviolently, until our members of Congress decide to get involved.
I still believe a consumers' strike, targeted at oligarch-owned industries and services would be extremely useful.
Violence is upon us. What you ask for now is martyrs, saints, and victims. In my world when someone violently accosts one, one knocks them on their ass. They Issholes have openly overstepped their charter with violence and murder. They no longer hide under one of trumps fat rolls, or behind bondees skirts. You cannot expect to stem the tide of retribution that is a whisker away in angry black thunder clouds. The lightning show is going to spill out into our streets. We need to slap these bastards to their knees.
I share your frustration but talking about perpetrating violence can prepare your mind to accept doing violence. I think even throwing fireworks and snowballs can normalize responding with violence. We must not do that! Don’t gin up their violence, either. Adults in the room are needed.
Yes! We have the beautiful example of Martin Luther King.
Like Rex said, “there is no civilized defense” what’s that old saying? One if by land…two if by sea? I say sharpen your knives because if we are going to eat them we’ll need to gut them first. I never did tolerate trophy hunters. If that is too gnarly what do you expect from a bastard child no one ever claimed. Best I can come up with as angry as I am. Meat is so high priced now I hope I can get a license for hunting Iceholes. I wonder what smoked Icehole tastes like anyway. My grandfather used to put out a delicious smoked heart sandwich. My guess is Iceholes don’t have hearts so maybe liver and onions will suffice.
DavidHerrick see the Jan 20 2026 2pm #RemoveTheRegime walkout #50501 protest
It is important that is a success. We have to do whatever we can as soon as we can to say no to the Insurrection Act
But that would bankrupt Amazon, hahaha
Americans weep
Murakins leap high with joy
Criminality
Democracy fights
to save it’s own life in strife
caused by the mad king
Throwing rocks at child
stuck outside in a playpen
Evil still abides
<><><> ““He did not have a great reputation in the neighborhood as a kid,” Haberman said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
One of several accounts from Trump’s early childhood included the story of a mother who found the would-be president pelting rocks at her son’s crib in her Queens backyard.” <> From an interview by Aiden Connelly -
October 17, 2022
Updated August 07, 2023
The problem is that the pace of Trump's power grab is accelerating. He knows he will lose power at the midterms. He has to normalize troops in the streets before then.
I think we will see the Insurrection Act invoked within a few days. He has already warned us that he may invoke it, and he has said there may not need to be midterms. And that he will only be constrained by his own morality. He has not been making many idle threats lately.
The president does not need congressional approval to invoke the Insurrection Act. The law grants the president unilateral authority to deploy federal troops or federalize the National Guard domestically under specific conditions outlined in 10 U.S.C. §§ 251-255, without prior legislative consent.
*****************************************************************************************
Here is the full text of the act:
Section 251: Federal Aid for State Governments
Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature (or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened), call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.
Section 252: Use of Militia and Armed Forces to Enforce Federal Authority
Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.
Section 253: Interference with State and Federal Law
The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it—
(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
Section 254: Proclamation to Disperse
Whenever the President considers it necessary to use the militia or the armed forces under this chapter, he shall, by proclamation, immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time.
Section 255: Guam and Virgin Islands Included as "State"
For purposes of this chapter, "State" includes Guam and the Virgin Islands.
******************************************************************************************
Below is what the Brennan Center says about what Congress can do to exert control on a president AFTER the Insurrection Act is invoked. As you read the list, think about how likely any of these options would be enacted in the current Congress, and, if enacted, how likely Trump would be constrained by them.
Once the Insurrection Act is invoked, Congress does not gain any special new operational power over how the president uses the military, but it retains all of its ordinary constitutional powers: legislation, appropriations, oversight, and—at the extreme—impeachment.
Constitutional baseline
The Insurrection Act is a statute enacted by Congress under its Article I power “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”
The president’s authority to deploy federal forces domestically under the Act is therefore delegated statutory power layered on top of the Article II commander‑in‑chief role.
Amend or repeal the statute: Congress can pass legislation narrowing, conditioning, or repealing the Insurrection Act, including adding consultation requirements, time limits, or substantive standards; past reform proposals have included 14‑day limits without explicit congressional authorization.
Control funding: Through appropriations riders, Congress can restrict or condition the use of funds for specific deployments or troop uses, even while the Act remains on the books.
Oversight and political checks
Congress can hold hearings, demand documents and testimony, and investigate whether the factual predicates for invoking the Act (e.g., “impracticable” enforcement of federal law, deprivation of constitutional rights) really exist.
Members can use resolutions of disapproval, censure, or other non‑binding measures to create political pressure and help frame any future statutory changes.
Judicial and state‑level interplay
Congress itself does not adjudicate the legality of a particular invocation, but its statutes frame what courts review if states, individuals, or organizations challenge the deployment in litigation.
Congress can also create or clarify causes of action and standards of review for courts to apply when the Insurrection Act is used, thereby indirectly constraining presidential discretion.
Extreme remedies
If Congress concludes that the president’s use of the Insurrection Act constitutes a serious abuse of power—such as using troops to thwart lawful elections or suppress protected political activity—it can initiate impeachment and removal proceedings as the ultimate check.
Even short of impeachment, the continual threat of cutting off funds, amending the Act, or exposing abuses through aggressive oversight remains Congress’s primary leverage once the Act has already been invoked.
******************************************************************************************
End of Brennan Center Analysis
I no longer think we are in a slow Viktor Orban-style coup. I think we are in fast coup territory.
And that requires a whole different level of response.
In today's post, Robert Hubbell has argued that it wouldn't be so bad if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act.
He relies on the following interpretation of what the law says Trump can have the troops do:
"Deploy federal troops to enforce federal law to the extent that federal and state officials ARE UNABLE TO DO." He is making the critical assumption that Trump would act within the law once he invoked the act. He won't. He will do exactly what he has done time and time again over the last year: ignore the law, and let the lower courts rule against him and have the appeals courts stay the lower courts with his actions unchecked, and let it take a year to wend its way up to the Supreme Court on the merits.
Hubbell says,"The two powers noted above are not inconsequential and can be abused by Trump. But those powers are also narrowly circumscribed by statute, limitations that are enforceable by federal courts. Moreover, in invoking the Insurrection Act, the president must act “within a permitted range of honest judgment.”" Who will judge whether Trump's actions are "within a permitted range of honest judgment". He has already told us that he will be constrained only by his own morality and his own mind. Will SCOTUS? How, exactly, will the courts enforce their ruling if it goes against Trump? Who will enforce it?
Hubbell then argues, "In sum, invoking the Insurrection Act does not mean that federal troops will swoop into Minneapolis and 'take over' state and city government functions. Instead, federal troops will assist existing law enforcement and judicial authorities to enforce federal law—here, federal immigration law. That scenario likely means that federal troops will form a “protected zone” around ICE agents as they seek to locate and detain immigrants subject to deportation." The reality will be that the National Guard and military will be standing behind the ICE and CBP shock troops, who, because they are so well paid and self-selected for cruelty, will not question orders and will be loyal to Trump. The protection of Renee Nicole Good's murderer by the DOJ means they have a get out of jail free card.
Hubbell goes on to say, "It is likely that federal courts will conclude that there is no insurrection that obstructs the implementation of federal law. Indeed, the fact that ICE continues to detain and arrest immigrants is proof that there is no insurrection within the meaning of the Insurrection Act. The fact that peaceful protesters are in the vicinity as ICE conducts its operations does not mean that federal law cannot be enforced—a prerequisite for implementation of the Act." Hubbell is making another assumption here--that once the troops are deployed, the lines of command will be clear and military leadership will respect their oath to the Constitution. But what if some don't? Much of the command structure has been replaced over the last year. The attacks on Senator Kelly have made it into an argument over what constitutes an illegal order. What was once clear is now cloudy.
The bottom line is that we can no longer assume that our systems will work as Hubbell expects. I pray every day that it will, that there will be enough righteous people of integrity left in government to act. But the last year has driven many of those out.
We have a year's worth of experience with Trump and his "act first and see what you can get away with" lawlessness. The lawlessness has not often been constrained.
The pace of Trump's actions is accelerating.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/addressing-misconceptions-about-the
Hubbell is an insurance lawyer. Enuf said.
I read about Cameron sexton meeting with Stephen Miller just this week. Another tennessee rep said "tennessee will be first ". I feel the abyss is ogling. I can't decide if they think tennesseeans will comply because so many are maga here; or if they think there will be violent resistance that will give them reason for the insurrection act.
My take on the Chamberlains amongst us is that they need to set a trigger point. Say in one month how many dead’s are they willing to countenance like the Quislings in the Republican Congress before they are willing to stoop to violent remedial action. Why does the police force not protect citizens now? I dropped this in your column because you are a thinker. People respect your wisdom. People like me are prone to confrontational solutions to violence.
Thank you Professor HCR
According to Sec of Agriculture Brooke Rollins as she puts it about “eating real food” and sticking to the new guidelines. Rollins said, “We've run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for ‘a piece of chicken’, ‘a piece of broccoli’, ‘a corn tortilla’ and ‘one other thing’. And so, there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money,” Rollins told NewsNation… Now Brooke Rollins estimated wealth is approximately a mere $15 million. So ask yourself when was the last time good ole Brooke visited the local grocery store pushing that wired cart down the aisles with the squeaky, wonky wheel?
One piece of chicken. Hmm is that a leg or a breast? One piece of broccoli. Now let’s all make sure we get only “one” floret of broccoli hitting that plate. A corn tortilla damn what’s the tariff price increase on that one, cause those Mexican made ones are way better than any others. And what is the “one other thing”? … a small cherry tomato or is it tap water maybe…
Damn…. private jets, tax breaks, caviar and gala events at Barf-a-Largo for all of us — but for you, one piece of broccoli and a corn tortilla and ICE beating the crap out of all Americans and off to the concentration camp - Maybe if we all just ate a-half of a tortilla ICE would stand down and go away there Brooke.
Speaker Mike Johnson said the
Epstein file disclosures must be limited in order to "make sure we don't do permanent damage to the political system." Johnson just admitted that the Republican/MAGA political system is just so full of Pedos.
Find the hypocrisy rather rich that Comer is screaming for Bill and Hillary Clinton to be arrested for denying a Congressional subpoena. It has been 1,324 days since Gym Jordan defied that same Congressional subpoena..
The piece of chicken is a nugget.
That piece of broccoli is doing some heavy nutritional lifting. I wonder if she actually read her talking point before she walked into the Oval Office??
I like the ones with the big stems. I peel them then cut 'em into smaller pieces. Freeze the peelings for stock later.
I like broccoli soup but the regime wouldn't approve of it - two vegetables for starters.
I grew broccoli once but when I found all the worms we fed the crop tp the chickens. Then we ate the chickens. Best broccoli ever.
TJ, LOL again about Johnson limiting the Epstein file disclosures to make sure we don’t do permanent damage to the political system. He must live in a world of alternative facts. It just boggles theming that he doesn’t see how he himself has been in the forefront of doing permanent damage to the political system. 😱
He was the inspiration for Elmer Gantry, Elizabeth. I also get your point about non- violent means of protest. I’m trying to figure out how to spray the gestapo with gasoline now and passing out fusees to the crowds in case they are attacked. I have been attacked by grizzly bears 13 times now and never had to shoot. Fusees are a big part of my survival. I think we need deterrence that backs them off. I have successfully used a pitchfork but now they have carte blanc to shoot us. Funny how much we have berated the various militias for taking up arms against the government. Ironic that it is the federal government that has become the monster. They used to warn us that feds would come for us, drag us from our homes, pull us out of our cars, beat and shoot us to death. Interesting.
Johnson the littlest Nazi is suddenly worried about damaging the political system. Whooeee!
Still shocking that about 1 in 3 (!!!) USians are supporting the Orange.
That's about the proportion of USians who believe in authoritarianism when it suits their purposes which tends to be tied up with fears, so it's probably good news as crazy as that sounds.
Not sure what's "good news" about that, scared people behave irrationally, often do terrible and brutal things. It already is difficult to follow why a third of the people in the arguably richest and definitely heaviest armed country in the world live in fear.
That's about the proportion of voters thought to be Trump's base so although it's horrific, it's bad news for Trump.
Sandra, there are a number of studies about the brain of conservatives and liberals. Interesting….the data is not definitive, but the question remains if it is “hardwired” vs “learned” influences and if they could possibly be modulated with experience 🤷🏻♀️…here is one article from a magazine (I chose this vs “scholarly” research for readability): Psychology Today (April 2011) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201104/conservatives-big-on-fear-brain-study-finds
Brain research is always to be taken with a grain of salt because the development of the brain is so much a spiral — wiring is caused by both genetics and learning. The wiring can be changed by learning and then the changes go on to be the basis for more learning and more wiring changes. So you can have abused children going on to be abusers, or you can have abused children going on to be great parents. It is really amazing how a family that looks like a great family can produce wonderful children who grow into wonderful adults, or the same family can produce nasty, dangerous children who grow into nasty, dangerous adults. But it is important to keep in view the fact that even adult humans can undergo a sudden enlightenment and change completely. Not all will, but it is always possible.
That’s it E. The bad guys need to “undergo a sudden enlightenment”. OMG, what if we combine the gasoline with the fusees? Don’t you see that would result in a complete change. Sudden Enlightenment! Okay okay, I know, I’m sorry. Truly sorry. The bears would try to get you but after two fusees they honest to Dog, gave up and sauntered off.
Thank-you Barbara - very kind of you. Yes, I did a some reading of scholarly literature a little while ago because I was a bit sceptical.
True. But, now LESS than 33%
endlessly shocking.
We have trouble. It doesn’t matter what the courts decide because DT and his goons in Washington and on the streets are just gonna do whatever they want! They don’t care what the law says. They don’t care what judges say. They don’t care what the people say. The fact that charges are not going to be brought against the man that shot Michelle Good tells us everything we need to know. They are going to rule by force and they don’t care what we say. I just pray to God that we still have midterm elections, and we take back the house and Senate, which may have to be done with the police to get them to leave. This is just sickening.
Renee Good
No white American male behaves like MAGA without having first been severely abused in childhood. MAGA men hate themselves and they hate their lives. Hatred is their primary motivator. They project that hatred outward. They become abusers. The same is true of their Chosen One, their false god, their orange-tinted, bloated Golden Calf. Trump’s goal is to demoralize the Left. We must not let that happen. We must always be in a state of confident resistance.
Inherently depraved patriarchy is egomaniacal and destructive. MAGA men cannot and will not willfully relinquish their position as top dog. MAGA men operate from a place of sexual insecurity, which is key to understanding the right-wing tendency toward misogyny, pedophilia and homophobia. The MAGA substitute for social and sexual impotence is anger and violence.
No argument here. I knew many as teens who are now full grown horrors. You must teach your children well. Or their misdeeds become our nightmares
Hi Greg, im sure you’re right, but the psychological reasons these fuckers are , who they are, isn’t all that important to me.
What’s most urgent is for we “ non fuckers” to learn how to fight fire with fire.
Psychologically, it’s the only thing they understand .
Use gasoline. Throw cigarettes.
Jordan Peterson fits right in here. He appeals to men who had terrible father relations. He is a Republican cult guy.
There's a British psychiatrist following US politics and he discusses exactly these things in his videos drawing on his clinical knowledge and experience. He has released a video explaining the moment he thinks Ross decided to kill Rene - https://youtu.be/3tR3jPRYEsQ?si=1OXqKCUrTuklPBKR
Well worth the watching. Thanks, Sandra.
Greg, this is not true across the board. There are certainly many who have been abused who become abusers, but there are also abused children who grow up to be wonderful adults and great parents. The deepest mysteries dwell in the human heart, and when all else is known, the human mind and heart will still be a great mystery. Don’t write them off.
Dear Dr. Cox Richardson, thank you for all that you do! Albeit extremely depressing, the clarity of your summaries and depth of your insights are remarkably helpful in keeping track of the real issues in the swirl of chaos that is this administration.
I really think everyone needs to help keep the Epstein files front and center. It’s so telling that what shook Trump the most was the lone voice of a worker calling him a pedophile protector. One way or another, we should all join that chorus!
I hope the brave soul has adequate security…
All of this escalation - taking Maduro, invading Minnesota, threatening to invade Greenland, break NATO, invoke the Insurrection Act- is diversion, Trump’s time-honored strategy when under attack. And the Epstein files, in which he figures prominently, are the thing he’s trying to avoid. He’ll willingly destroy democracy to save his own skin. Sick *%-!*
Like Epstein his own party will probably have him commit suicide. I think that would be okay with the jackals in the cabinet. Then we could get on with the transition to a full blown dictatorial nation. We could have a triumviral dictatorship both satisfying ambition and avoiding responsibility for the necessary “adjustment.” Most of the current Republican officeholders will have to be repatriated to minimize the danger of their popularity. Also their significant holdings make them the most attractive targets.
Any word on the evidence that convinced a judge to sign such an unprecedented search warrant?
🤷🏻♀️ dunno…perhaps it has sensitive info in the evidence that can’t be shared with the public…just a guess.
It’s just that we haven’t heard…at all.
Yeah, Scott, total radio silence….I, too, wonder why. Briefly turned on the TV to MS Now moments ago and heard a field reporter state that Renee Good may have been shot 4, not 3, times….huh? Not quite ready for a full news immersion, nor heard—at the moment—any documentation of details/proof. Gotta get my sign ready for tomorrow’s action at the county courthouse and then prepare for my House of Rep’s (his district is huge & mostly rural) town hall on Sunday on how to stop offshore oil drilling on the CA northcoast (where I live).
Why is it they didn’t just disable the car?
To sensible and not macho enough perhaps.
I hate to say this Barbara, but I have been stalked by both bears and wolves who circle you seemingly assessing the risk of attack. The circle narrows when they commit to attack. Otherwise they break off and move to a safe distance to see what response if any you have. This man closed in and made the decision to go for the kill as he drew his weapon and came in shooting. He stalked her deliberately. He is a disturbed son of a bitch rushing to get a kill. I have put down dogs bears and coyotes in broad daylight as they move in on newborn calves and flocks of sheep. He is a predator and we would put him down just as relentlessly. I doubt Renee was his first kill. He will kill again.