Shortly before midnight last night, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its initial findings from a study it undertook last July when it asked eight large companies to turn over information about the data they collect about consumers, product sales, and how the surveillance the companies used affected consumer prices.
As a family doctor I’ll have to work 100,000 more years to catch up to the meaningless cryptocurrency heist that a convicted felon made in 1 night. But 25 billion won’t be enough to even put a dent in the catastrophic losses an H5N1 pandemic would bring. So as a lowly family doctor that our society financially values at just a tiny fraction of a convicted felon-autocrat, at least I know where I stand.
Where do you stand? Infinitesimal fraction like me, despite your life’s work adding up to something that makes the world a better place?
Oh well, speaking of bird flu pandemics, here’s how I’m gauging it and sort of prepping:
You rate yourself too low. Our family doctor was the life blood of our family. Even into our now old age we will still invoke his name with fondness, wistfullness and respect. The peace of mind Drs. Quaife and Hellmann brought my parents was worth billions.
You have real gold. He has fool's gold. A life well lived in service to others and in harmony with ones own best instincts, is priceless.
In this country this sometimes seems like the consolation prize, since success seems to equal money. It doesn't.
Money, or the safety and opportunity that money can buy, are important. No argument. Just don't forget the other part.
As the saying goes, nobody on their deathbed says they regret not spending more time at work. They also don't say they wish they were dying with more money in the bank.
Thanks Barbara! I felt the same way about my family doc growing up, Dr. Chianese. Wonderful human being and doctor. My grandfather was also a kind, astute country doc... so with those two role models I had no choice in the matter of specialities ;)
After two fruitless impeachment in Trump 1.0, unless there is a HUGE Republican outpouring of interest to take Trump down, I would personally argue against another impeachment. Without 2/3 of the Senate willing to vote for conviction and removal from office, we are just wasting valuable resources and time.
Instead I would hope we can use the levers of power to coerce some modified behavior as Trump ages. I wouldn't hold my breath but i would try.
And even if he was taken down, Vance would be President, something I almost fear more than Trump. Right now the main advantage that MAGA has is the Trump cult of personality. It is POSSIBLE that is all there really is and when Trump finally disappears from the scene, some sense of normalcy will return.
Letting Vance take the reins of power might be worse that having Trump around and then disappear.
The fruitless comment is exactly what Pelosi saw in the first one. She knew there was no way in hell the republicans would do the right thing. She aw a great opportunity in the second one, but once again McConnell delayed the process just thing enough to sway the fence sitters even though he believed that tRump was guilty, but still found a reason to not support the vote that would have stopped this from happening.
I say this again, democrats need to start talking about the enemy - republicans- like the republicans talk about them - the enemy of America. They have all the proof, it is called the upper hand.
Always understand that Trump thinks like a mafia Don. He has no morals nor ideology nor ethics. He will do things that are questionably popular. I drove into Manhattan yesterday for the March. My van was charged $15.00 Trump will try to remove this fee enacted for environmental reasons. Trump will also activate deportations not to the extent he said. Just enough to satisfy those who elected him on that issue. and most did. The democrats will probably fight against deportations. It will be an unpopular fight to make. And in my opinion, the democrats will sacrifice their popularity on this issue. I’m not arguing morals on this issue only the political ramifications of it.
Red states are already asking trump not to deport THEIR immigrants; they have (suddenly?) realized what it would do to their economies. Blue states knew this and voted against trump; so it makes perfect sense (to red states) to start deportation there.
It's essentially the good ole boy network, on steroids.
Little over the top huh Billy boy ? Yet he amassed a hotel t chain and Golf course chain and the United States Congress actually even gave them the United States post office to turn into a hotel and he did a magnificent job.
You guys need to find a different loser to pick on
Well, then, Bill, you should be doubly scared since he’s a mafia boss, and he has the baton. He will deport everybody he can who shouldn’t be here and you should realize that Bill and you know they shouldn’t be here and if they had raped one of your children were killed one of your relatives you would feel exactly the same way.
History gets ugly when hate speech prevails and someone, politicians, enough of us (where is "the church"?) need to call it out, and affirm due process. The immigration problem isn't simple, but like McCarthy hearing of old, the targets are primarily pawns in the demagogues' game. As for Tr***, It seems that Mexico's check for his Great Wall is still in the mail.
Tell the truth, and don't pussyfoot. Many politicians have saved that revelation for their retirement speech; but we need that candor now. Like Fritz Hollings with his comment that "the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic, is money: Money, money, money." Truer words were never spoken, yet we looked the other way, or just cast our eyes down, as our republic was increasing sold on the auction block, and constitutional scholars replaced with auctioneers. Now we face a crisis.
The Trump impeachments were not fruitless. Justice demanded that they be initiated, if only to visibly declare that boundaries of law and decency had been empirically violated. The worst thing we do is to surrender in advance, to not even bother to formally call out and record the violation. That's part of what got us here. It's been said that the longest journey begins with a single step.
McConnell and the DNC have a huge responsibility in the demize of our country that we are experiencing now-the coup that is killing USA. I don't know that talking about the enemy will get us out of this (or only talking about the enemy). That perpetuates the division. My prayer is that he/they will show who they are and the way will be clear for an inspirational movement. The truth is, we may have to go down-way down- for a grass roots revolution to rise up and create a better Next-America. I am hanging a tattered flag tomorrow.
Why is it that 99% of the people on this sub stack blog are always negative in advance. I can’t even have the patience to wait and see. Sad.
We would have very little of this problem had the border remain closed. We wouldn’t have spent $150 billion of money only to have to have a doubled to get rid of it. It’s like inviting a disease of criminals and then wondering why we have to get rid of them. Just because you Democrats wanted to have some additional voters. And do it illegally.
He made a YUGE mistake. He said publicly that he did not think the dangerous Jan 6 insurrectionists should be pardoned. He has been sidelined. Actually that's perfect. Like Pence, the Felon will diminish him so badly that the likelihood of Vance winning the presidency in 4 years will be highly questionable.
I think he was sidelined before that but them they let him out and he created hate all over again. MAGA never liked him but took him in order to get Trump, never considering the old man’s age and mental status.
Hey JAN, you haven’t thought this through very thoroughly
Trump will relinquish the rains to Vance in three years and if the country is in good shape, and Van keeps it that way for a year guess what his chances of winning after that will be.
The 25th will never be fully enacted, Ally, at least not in this go round. Remember it takes a majority of the CAbinet (TRUMP'S cabinet) to invoke and then 2/3 of both the House and Senate to keep a VP in power as President. Do you think the DEMOCRATS (who still hold close to 50% of both the House AND Senate are going to go along with an poster of Trump in favor of Vance?
Unless it actually looks like Trump is seriously considering going completely off the rails with some kind of nuclear threat, no sane Democrat is going to agree to oust Trump in favor of the far more dangerous Vance, his statements concerning the Jan 6 rioters not withstanding.
Trump is a known if somewhat deluded quantity. Vance is a real wild card, in the pocket of a true oligarch, Peter Thiel, and that is a far more serious threat to longterm US stability than Trump.
Vance could be a lot worse than Trump. First, he is slick. He is young and clever. If he manages to complete the coup, he could establish a dictatorship for decades.
I don’t think Theil has the dependence on government contracts that Musk has. That makes Theil more dangerous. Where would Musk be without those contracts? Just a puny drug addict with plastic surgery and hair plugs that likes to bully everyone and tell those that don’t fall at his feet to fck off.
"Some sense of normalcy will return." And you are certain of this sir how? Please help us readers out here as to how you have come to be certain of this as fact. Mostly, I've come to be very careful about what goes into my mouth, as well as what comes out of my mouth. Oh sure, I stumble plenty, but yours is quite a bold claim as pure fact indeed!
Did you read the HCR's piece about "Shock and Awe"? The conclusion was that "Shock and Awe" sounds so good, but is very, very difficult to pull off. Requires a clueless and weak enemy and superb intelligence and execution. None of those preconditions are in place here. It has already been walked back, before Trump is even in. Celebrate this!
I didn't read it but am familiar with the concept. I have seen opinions that we may not end up with shock and awe, but death by a million little cuts, all the while framed in a way that the base is still enamored.
He has Musk - and all the other billionaires for money and he has legislative sycophants, media, social media, much it the press, and he has SCOTUS … impeachment goes no where… democracy gets no where and beyond whining, without major civic disruption and Dems that do more than ask for money and complain, I am not sure what we have left.
Do you actually READ anyone's comments, sir? My comment very clearly said that "it is possible ... that a real sense of normalcy would return". I also mentioned that I have no conviction that this is going to happen but I am sure it will be worse if Vance takes over.
Vance? Jon, it's the Indian religio-cultural history which resides in that household that might be given thought. A class-based system of values that aren't about to change. But, one thing I think one could say about the red-blanket that shrouded this election.., those folks prefer seeing the ten commandments plastered on walls as their mating call, rather than allah jakbar. IMHO
Trump apparently has charisma, at least to his fan club of voters. JD Vance has NOTHING like that—maybe the opposite of charisma (whatever that is). I think MAGA will suffer bc it’s really a cult and the cult leader won’t be around,
ML.., I'd disagree, and on the most-shallow of terms.., Vance is photogenic, just like tRump. He's certainly American-enough in appearance, and like our girl Swift, the photo-teams know their job well (or risk losing it!). The Faux-factor will be in full force when his time comes. It was there with Reagan and it's surely been a driving force for the guy who just got the job. All he needs to do is 'play' the part.
"The Trump cult of personality" - Conservative political journalist Tim Alberta said many years ago that the power source in all this craziness was Trump. No one can replace what Trump is. In Alberta's book "American Carnage," that was the conclusion. Whew. It was a good and horrifying book, detailing Trump's craziness. It's one of the very few political books I have ever read. And that conclusion has been foundational in keeping me grounded.
Daniel, I doubt it.. the two impeachments were vital to America on the world stage. And, to my sanity. In spite of Faux and all the other media-atts America was alive and exercising the freedoms for which we have fought. But, the appearance was still weak. Nancy Pelosi, and her photo-team do deserve respect. The MAGAtts were just empowered in the end. Then, the 90+ court-cases became just another "hard act to follow" for his fan-club as he strode across stage after stage. Yeah.. as in 'staged' rally after staged rally. He is definitely having his day. As Americans, Democrats or whatever, we're going to keep things together.., "one cut at a time". Rome, must not burn. LA? History! Learn from it.
Disagree! As Jack Smith wrote in his report, though no trial or conviction, it was important to indict to acknowledge the rule of law and set precedent for history. In this Gilded Age of Grift, not saying anything about a $25B grift undermines our democracy and sets a bad precedent. Impeachment and acquittal merely says 'GOP cronies played politics' but the world was informed of the wrong doings.
I don't disagree with a potential indictment if there is a chance for a conviction. But impeachment is a different animal and when you impeach and lose, the opposition claims victory. If you KNOW you are going to lose, then you are just posing and I hate posing on both sides. Just my view of course. You are entitled to disagree.
I agree with you here. To impeach him again and lose again not only allows them to claim victory but provides fodder for the next election...if there is one.
Here's what I see, Carolyn.., he's "a family man" in MAGA-ville. So if he ascribes to "family values".., per se, meaning: He professes to be a Christian(?); doesn't want his daughter sharing the 'Womens room' with non-women..; speaks to marriage as being between two oppositely-wired humans like his parents..; and has polished his skills to dodge shit-hole questions..; he will be given the golden ring. His wife Usha, will see to it.., do not underestimate her. I may be dreaming, but at the moment i'm out here plowing snow so I can get in my driveway.
Hey John, we’ve already assumed that Trump is going to hand off the presidency in three years rather than four so Vance won’t need an election for his first one year and if he does a good job or maintains what Trump is done eight more years for Vance shouldn’t be a problem. You have Nice day.
John, that’s all you do is waste your time on impeachment. It’s actually sickening. Do you realize the last four years were the worst four years in recent American history. This last guy and his demented state ruined this country so badly damaged it’s credibility so badly within its own self and yet it will only take 12 to 15 months to rectify it all. Without even delving into his presidency, the historians of all it already rated Biden as the second worst president of all time. That doesn’t mean that on many issues he wasn’t first. What’s gonna cost us to repair our lives domestically. That’s assuming the Republicans don’t screw it up as they normally do internally fighting within themselves, but if they don’t, this, Crunchyroll turn around quicker and be once again the leader of the free world and the be admiration of everyone.
If you understand the psychiatry behind what is wrong with all of them you would understand that this is even more fruitless. Our only hope is voters. Education, and elevating the truth far above their lies. This needs to be done at EVERY local level. We really need to elevate historians like Snyder and Ben-Ghiat and the many others and people like Robert Jay Lifton, James Gilligan’s, Bandy Lee and make their knowledge go viral instead of the shitty rhetoric of evil greedy bastards
John and that’s probably exactly what’s gonna happen. Trump is gonna run the country and hopefully very well for three years and at that point with all the optimism and success abounding will hand it off to JD Vance and resign JD Vance automatically becomes president and then can run in the next election and hopefully be president for another eight years
Every time someone “buys” coins from the company, he gets 80% of the revenue. So, he’s already cashing in. And, the prospectus says he is going to increase the number of “coins” (i.e. a string of digits) from 200 Million to 1 Billion over the next three years.
I appreciate your positive vibe! But a third impeachment won’t stop him, so we need to get busy finding enough Senators to convict him if that should occur. I find comfort in knowing he can’t help but commit more crimes on a regular basis. Our DOJ is impotent, but maybe, just maybe, the public will wake up? Maybe he should have waited to do the crypto, so he is “immune”.
I am not sure there is a right or wrong answer on how to proceed, but one thing for sure works, repeated information continually loud and strong until the unfortunate MAGA supporters believe it as truth and turn away. This is how we got MAGA and now we need to start to turn the table. The oligarchs will begin eating each other soon as they operate on greed and power and they all want to be greedier and more powerful than the next guy.
So, the company “issued” 200 million $$Trump “tokens” (which, remember, is just a string of crypto digits). His crypto buds and the MAGA faithful bought some, then pumped and pumped them up from (an imaginary) $20 per token to $72 (now apparently less because of the MELANIA grift coin announced Sunday). per token — hence the overnight “billionaire-ism” - ‘cuz most of the “coins” still sit on the balance sheet. (The company says it will “create” 800M more coins over the next three years.) This appears to be one of the largest pump and dump. grift machines ever built.
People have nothing but impeachment on the brain. The first two were worthless you think the third one is gonna be worth anything. ? It’s just your struggles with reality trying to face reality. The Democrats are in disarray and hopefully they will stay that way in the next 12 years.
They will use every tech expert and state run election they can buy to keep that from happening. They have no desire for decency or country just an unquenchable and desperate need for more power
Thank you for your efforts to stave off a H5N1 pandemic. Based on how trump handled the covid pandemic and his upcoming administration, I'm scared. What are we supposed to inject in ourselves this time, whiskey?
but surely there are votes to be secured (not obtained, they have them already) in places like Kentucky and Tennessee by doing something that will stimulate whisky and bourbon sales.
John, when those secured voters realize what they had voted for when they feel the pain in their pockets and cuts in their social security system , automatically sales of whiskey and bourbon are going to increase dramatically in those states. Rest assured John 😁
The fact that so many people willingly accepted the vaccines speaks volumes about the intelligence level of the masses. Mountains of evidence confirm they were neither safe nor effective. Millions will now suffer and die early due to various cancers, respiratory, blood clots and heart issues among others due to these vaccines. The more you took the more the odds are stacked against you. Seven states are now in litigation against Pfizer. It’s to the point people should have to admit how many vaccines/boosters they took before one should bother to try and have rational conversation. Many still don’t realize the mRNA “vaccine” passes the blood brain barrier perhaps affecting logic and reasoning. Yet people still line up willingly taking more. Sad
Are you kidding? Leave your echo chamber for two minutes and you’ll find a plethora of information regarding all this. I’m truly sorry you were duped in first place, but at this point ignorance is anything but bliss. If you care at all about your own health and the rest of humanity you’ll educate yourself. Callling me names does not invalidate the truth.
You are still not telling us how you formed your opinion. What publications? Name the published studies. Name the agencies. Name the university or labs. Name the researchers and to whom they submitted their work for peer review.
Thank you for that, Ryan. It's a shame you'll never know how many lives you might have saved simply by writing and publishing that. Then again, even if it was only one - great work!
Thanks Lady E! Once I had the time to start writing again back in 2022, I do think some of my letters about Covid broke through barriers in terms of vaccination, treatment, and other Covid skepticism. Really really hoping H5N1 does not become another "opportunity" for writing about evidence based prevention and treatment....
As a backyard chicken farmer and retired family doc I can't wait for a vaccine. I'd love to immunize my girls, too. The price of eggs is minimal compared to good chicken feed, but the girls are endlessly entertaining which will be useful over the next 2 years.
Why do we never hear about what people can do proactively to prevent colds and flu? High doses of Vitamin C esp libosomal which stays in the body longer along with D3 and zinc have kept me healthy for many years. Also lots of fresh fruits and veggies, soups and stews made from scratch not garbage from a can, getting to bed early and getting some exercise out side in fresh air, just a half hour walk is ok. And for goodness sake wash your hands - a lot!
Unfortunately so many people can’t even afford the fresh fruits and vegetables. Then vitamins and supplements are completely out for them. Next up, it’s necessary to work even with contagious flu’s, colds or viruses.
Healthcare is so ignored in this country that we just spread diseases. But that’s okay as long as they’re not immigrants.
I wonder if the cost or ignorance. Are fruit and vegetables really more expensive than processed food? Think about what a bunch of bananas, potatoes, or a cauliflower costs compared to Fruit Loops, soda, and chips. Food desserts may be a problem but Terry has a point.
Do you really think they’re buying fruit loops, soda and chips? I spend a lot of money on fresh produce every week. I could get much more food if I bought the boxes of Mac & cheese, hamburger helper and other quick and easy meals in boxes and cans. It amazes me when I check out with a few servings of potatoes, celery, broccoli, green beans and Brussels sprouts and a half gallon of milk for $50. That doesn’t last 2 people a week. I cook a lot of dried beans and rice.
Do you really grocery shop? You can afford those things and have an education. Do you go down the food aisles the underpaid are forced to shop in? Fresh fruit is $2.50 a pound. That’s 2 or 3 apples.
You’re comparing apples and oranges. It’s not fruit loops , soda and chips if you’re trying to feed a family. It’s rice, beans and perhaps some ground beef. Or the aforementioned boxed mac and cheese. And let’s not forget food deserts, where the $1.00 7-11 hot dog is king.
Do you think America got obese on apples? I'm agreeing with Terry, watch your diet. Processed foods, sodas, and boxed mac and cheese pound for pound aren't any less expensive than unprocessed foods. BTW, I mentioned food deserts....and instead of boxed mac and cheese it's cheaper to buy and sauce and make it. See for yourself next time you shop.
As many as who want to - it’s not that expensive just requiring intention and attention. And a hell of a lot cheaper than eating shit processed foods and taking drugs…
Take a walk in the grocery store and compare the prices to make meals from processed vs. fresh foods. I had a foreign exchange student from Norway here that came home from his first week at school saying he tried somebody’s instant Mac & cheese. I walked him down the boxed food aisle and show him that boxes that feed 4 could be had for 25 cents on sale and many use water that can’t afford milk, or even the crappiest milk in the case.
And what is the nutritional value of that? Calories does not equal nutrition...this is the problem with western medicine- they don't think nutrition matters...just look at the garbage they feed people in hospitals
Just read your h5n1 Substack. Excellent info, thank you! And as a fellow writer, I admire your style. The letter was well structured. I felt as if I was sitting across from "my doc".
One of the issues that lights me up is how undervalued our "family doctors" are. We are lucky to have a wonderful one. She is a proactive detective! But she hasn't taken new patients in years. Nor have most of her colleagues. Too many patients and not enough docs. And we live in an affluent area.
I suspect that one big reason is that primary care doesn't pay as well as specialties - like surgery. That is wrong.
You guys are our first line of defense. You are doing the triage. You should be paid the most! Having primary care docs and good NPs to assist should be a "Human Right" in the richest nation to have ever existed!
Instead too many rely on "minute clinics" (which are filling the void) and of course, the expensive ERs.
Our Dr. Cohen KNOWS us. She can therefore guide us without over-medicating. But she also focuses on prevention rather than just being a repair shop. We need more like you and her.
I look forward to your comments and now your posts. Now, off to buy masks and TP!
No one like to hear doctors gripe about pay, since we still make more than the average blue collar professional (though I try to wear scrub tops and no white coat ;)
But whenever I consider the hundreds of millions professional athletes routinely get these days, and the billions that grifters cashing in on the presidency can now command overnight... it just feels like any of griping about salaries that are orders of magnitude smaller are just being crabs in the bucket.
We need to level the inequality, target the crabbers.
Doctor Ryan, I am 70+ years old and can no longer list US presidents in order, but I still remember vividly the family doctor who came to my bedside when I was 5 years old and had the measles and chickenpox at the same time. My eyes had pox blisters and had to be bandaged so I couldn't scratch them and cause scarring, so I didn't see him until his last visit when he removed them. I saw an angel - Doctor Blackwell of Wilmette, Illinois in 1958.
And I too will mention my doctor from birth into my 30s: my uncle, my godfather, a surrogate father, the man who once told me I could stop by his office anytime for a chat, Dr James V Calio. No one of course, can take his place.
Omg both at the same time and in your eyes. I had both but at different times and I still recall scratching until blood was drawn. Today I take any and all vaccines. My friend who is a MAGA once told me she would never take a vaccine and that her sweet baby Jesus would save her. So of course I wrote a song to her. Here it is momentarily. Titled, “Vaccine for Veronica.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Enog4QCDQ After she heard my song to her, she screamed at me. But at least I got a song out of it, lol. That is what songwriters hope for, a decent song.
I wish you were in San Francisco and I can be your patient. Our PCP retired in December. My husband was fortunately refered by his Uro-oncologist to a young PCP but I have no such luck. Now I have no PCP. Hopefully I will not get sick until I can find a new PCP. You and your kind are extremely valuable for humanity.
We went through a similar thing 2-3 years ago. Our PCP was a "new to the practice" doc 35 years ago when she became our PCP. This was a group that had been formed by and was managed by primarily GP's. Pre-pandemic (roughly 2016, give or take a year) they sold to Optum, which has morphed into United Health Care. I recall that in about 2018 or 2019 during my annual exam, my PCP commented that it was becoming more and more expected that she would spend a 30 minute block burning warts off of 3 people rather than spending 30 minutes helping an elderly patient figure out what prescriptions were working in opposition to each other. This Doc was an excellent diagnostician (she found my breast cancer in a screening exam and diagnosed my gall bladder issue in about 3 minutes).
She retired mid-pandemic and was replaced by a young doctor, who is planning to stay with this group. We were both able to sign on with this new doc; I have many friends whose doctors have left this group (they have 4 or 5 offices in the metro area) and who cannot find a new PCP.
I was spoiled growing up. My doctor was my uncle and godfather. But I recall him complaining how he had so many Medicare or old patients and this restricted his income. I know usually don’t keep a doctor longer than a few years before I leave out of frustration. We have a horrible way of medical practice in this country. I may apply for Italian citizenship that will give me access to the European Union. Good luck to you I feel your pain.
a lot of Canadian docs found their incomes went up when public medicine came in, in the 1960s, because all their bills were being paid. They didn't have to worry about patients who could not pay, or who needed a discount, or who wanted (in rural areas) to pay in produce.
Lucky that moving abroad is viable for you. Neither my wife's nor my relatives were recent enough immigrants to qualify under any country's programs. Does that mean I'll be needing to seek asylum?
Thank you Dr. Ryan, I read you often, and will pony up today in support of your life's work, as you refer to your life's calling. A huge, yet subtle difference exists between a man's life's work, versus his job. I came to realize this fact ave way through my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist. There are "quiet quitters" in the health care profession at all levels, and to be treated by one unknowingly can have catastrophic consequences. As a news reporter in Key West told me once, "so, that's the news, and if you don't like it go out and make some good news of your own! Now, let me go find my piggy bank and help you raise those billions Doctor. I want to talk about another physician I met more recently named "Doctor You". You, being me!
Many Thanks Jim! The upgraded subscription is a thrill, kind of like being a little business owner, with said business crafted around one's passion and purpose. If these folks can make billions, we should at least be supporting people like HCR and the many others I too subscribe to on Substack and financially support. Keep in touch and ask any questions after any posts that you might have. So true about the "quiet quitters." I'm going to remember that and keep fighting it personally.
You rate yourself too low. I have been screaming in the wind about this in regards to the devastating affects on poultry farms and wild birds and other wildlife because viruses in animals are precursors to transmission to humans. This is the Pattern for years. Cowpox and smallpox. Ebola from monkeys to humans. COVID-19 from perhaps bats to humans. We need to address it at the sources as much as once it reaches humans. Truthfully the so-called wealth of crypto can be destroyed with an errant computer program released in an instant but not any disease caused by virus. We don't know how to do that part yet totally. Force the gains of computing wealth to finance the search for the solution to virus's sway or wipe them out legally.
Thank you thank you! Perhaps if more family doctors spoke out on all of these subjects, that would help to prevent more infections. But there are fewer and fewer students going into family medicine - at least from what I've heard and read.
Thanks for educating those of us that will listen!
Thanks, Dr.McCormick, for including the link to your substack article. It was great, informative reading. I'm glad I took the time to read it. I am grateful for you and all the other excellent doctors out there who are just trying to do the best for their patients, like my primary care physician in Denver who, when we talked about the possibility of RFK Jr taking over H & H, said she would just continue to do good, science-based, medicine. Thank you.
It's not Trump - it's Project 2025. The protections afforded by government regulatory agencies are exactly what Project 2025 puts an end to. Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought, is Trump's nominee for Director, Office of Management and Budget. Vought claims the independence Congress has given administrative agencies is theft of presidential power - and he'll fix that. By expanding executive authority including: defunding by impoundment of congressional appropriations to fund regulatory agencies and compromising independence through Schedule F which puts the civil service under the president's control.
Previously, Republicans had been content with, or constrained to: legislative depredations such as tax schemes predominantly benefitting ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations; judicial decisions such as Chevron gutting the regulatory authority of government agencies; and cabinet members opposed to agency missions. Now Republicans are making a two pronged attack on the United States government itself - 1) putting a president above the law and folding all executive authority into the person of the president, making demagogue Donald Trump the first American tyrant and 2) making Congress handmaiden to the incorrigible kleptocrats of the fantastical DOGE. Instead of a balance of powers and oversight - fealty and obeisance, consent and complicity.
While GOP Project 2025's goal of repurposing our democratic republic as a Christian Nationalist state is not merely window dressing, imposing religious creed on civic society and parading puffery patriotism are only part of the story. The purpose behind the performance is perpetuation of economic and environmental injustice through consolidation of wealth and deregulation of industry.
We are witnessing the capture and decimation of the entire apparatus of government. What Mike Johnson calls the totalitarian administrative state, we call the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as independent agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Election Commission, Federal Reserve, Internal Revenue Service, Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Social Security Administration - to name a few for example.
The proper role of the OMB is to help improve administrative management, develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and reduce unnecessary burdens on the public and provide continuity across changes of party and administration. Senate approved positions include the Director, Deputy Director, the Deputy Director of Management, and administrators of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, and Office of Federal Financial Management.
But if your goal is to dominate the United States government, put it at the whim of an autocrat and to the benefit of his cronies, then Russell Vought is your man in the OMB.
Thank you. Government is a perpetual process not a fixed principle. Democracy dies when we assume it has been finally achieved through a lazy belief in a superstitious fetishisation of change perceived as Progress. Unfortunately, financial corruption and its iniquities has been flourishing in high places in plain sight for decades within capitalist structured democracies, safe under the invisibility created by this childlike belief system. To excise this cruel canker, weakening the heart of the Enlightenment Project, we all need to actively rethink how and why and what we think. MAGA is a terrified mass reaction to the death of a false American Dreamtime which can only ever deliver more disappointment and despair 🐈⬛
I've been in Kathmandu and the only river I can navigate with a catamaran was full of ashes from a public, open crematorium....maybe floating on a doggy bag in another country?
I very much agree. Perhaps it's a matter of personal preference, but I would use the word "childish" in this case over "childlike". For me, childish is inappropriately juvenile behavior, while there a some aspects of children we struggle to retain, and can be admirable, even in adults who are emotional adults.
Sen Ron Wyden post regarding House Budget Committee Republican memo.Among proposals is eliminating Head Of Household status that benefits “unmarried individuals with children” and repealing deduction for mortgage interest.
ThankYou. News we can use. Exactly the diligent attention to detail we need. You demonstrate how we readers can honor HCR by emulating her good work and being citizen journalists here in the Comments section.
In 2016 I said, over and again, that if the best we can do is make fun of Trump then he'll laugh his way into the White House.
Thank you. lin• . As you list in your 4th paragraph, listing administrative agencies that keep our democracy on track and identifying the RepubliKKKan buzzwords of "totalitarian administrative state" is the crux of what this administration hopes to impose on this nation in the name of freedom. Utter garbage, say I.
Well put, Lin. Most of the President-elect’s appointments are buffoonish cartoon characters who couldn’t plan their way out of a paper bag. But Vought is dangerous. He understands how policy is made and how seemingly innocuous, non-attention grabbing changes are actually seismic in reorienting the nation’s priorities. He is as deep-state as deep-state can be. And he is going to get confirmed, which means it is our responsibility to watch him like a hawk and shine a bright light on his every move.
Almost all of Trump's nominees will be 'operationally' dangerous, in that they are inexperienced, ignorant, and ideologically opposed to good government. Vought in OMB is systemically dangerous - his depredations go beyond dismantling the entire regulatory apparatus and repurposing the bureaucracy for the Charles Koch et al extremist agenda. Vought wants to undo separation of powers for Trump to say L'etat c'est moi and Apres moi le deluge.
Excellent comment. Your list of agencies demonstrates again what the morons who support “deregulation” ignorantly cast aside. These “regulations,” for the most part, are what keep us healthy, safe, and secure. They regulate our air, water, medicines, healthcare processes, air, rail, bus, car, elevator, and other transportation, communication, construction, energy supply, labor practices, consumer practices, banking, finance, stock market, insurance, just a host of other requirements, without which society could not function.
My only bit of relief re: Vought was an article published after he left P25, which described his previous tenure as “wandering around with crazy ideas and no idea how anything worked.” I’ll have to find it. His road to the position was bizarre.
OK, stop the nonsense. Trump doesn’t govern nor run a business through a pattern. He runs it from experience and gut. And if you’ll come along for the ride, everyone will be very happy at the end of his four years except if you relinquish this power in three years hand it over to Vance things are going well. Van has eight more years. Then you might not be so happy.
It apparently got to my house the other day and we are currently in South Vietnam. We have a few more stops and we’re going through Hong Kong and back home and when I get there, I will pick it up.
Please don’t be discouraged if I don’t agree with 12 words in it, but I am gonna look at it
How many bankruptcies? How many cities, businesses stiffed for non-payment? How many associates paying the price for coming along for the ride? Maybe I'm totally missing the point of your post?
You know for a bunch of smart people there’s a lot of ignorant people here a. I’ll give you a short list really quick Henry Ford H.J. Heinz, Abraham Lincoln, Steve Jobs, just a few of the people that have had bankruptcy before. It’s not how many you have. It’s how many you come back from and there’s a lot more list of people that you probably adore that. Add to that list. What I find here is nothing more than a bunch of haters needless haters. Enjoy yourselves we on the other hand will be actually thrilled starting tomorrow for the next 8 to 12 years.
It's one thing to bluster, threaten and stomp around. It is a completely other matter to be able to finnesse the wheels of Government to get it done. People will also rise up. For example. The border czar? He is already backing down on the Chicago raid.
Do not forget more people voted against him than voted for him. And millions of them are really, really angry about the election.
I have taken heart in the little things. The little mini-revolts such as Michelle Obama skipping the inauguration and the former Presidents skipping the lunch afterwards.
It seems that Michelle's dicto "when they fly low ,we fly high" didn't work, as expected. Hope that a "million little mini- revolts" works much better if million of us participate . Thanks Barbara ,we would be proud to participate.
I couldn't agree more Barbara, thanks for the reminder. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi and all the others boycotting the Snake-Oil-Salesman's Convention are voting with their feet. These are small wins and big courageous acts. Nothing is set in stone. May the push-back be ruthless and outrageously fabulous.
...and taking tremendous heat from the right for 'breaking with protocol,' while Melania can refuse Jill Biden's traditional invitation to lunch at the White House - also protocol, and none on the right even raising an eyebrow.
Being more direct, Trump is terrible at governing and if he follows either his own personal instincts or Project 2025, he is going to turn the US into a third world country like Hungary the second poorest country in Europe, although Hungary is much safer than the US. On the Global Peace Scale the US is at 132.
Hungary is at 14. I suspect the US is not going to be closer to 14 with Trump in charge. Right now there are at least 20 African nations that are safer than the US. So, in addition to the measures that Heather mentions that Trump is about to inherit, the global peace index is another measure that will probably be worse.
I’m glad I’m not a member of all these people that are basically as negative a human being as possible. Caring your negativity like that will only results in a negative results. Hitch a ride and you’ll be happy. Stay negative and you’ll fall behind and you’ll only have yourself to blame.
Can you read it? Good. Tell you what I had. I did have a stroke a stroke of luck that Donald Trump is back in the White House and let the bumbler in charge is no longer there. Just reading an article today about how hard they tried to get him out of the White House. Stop him from running and actually heard. He used to take a Teleprompter to private homes to do a fundraiser. That’s about all you need to know.
Linda- I learned recently that Hungary is a country with a population around 10 million and encompassing 36,000 square miles. Doesn’t this put Orban’s “accomplishments” on a rather tiny scale? For context, Los Angeles County has a comparable population to Hungary. It’s our job to make sure the incoming administration is thwarted. We can do that if we focus on action and don’t stay trapped in our own echo chambers.
So the Inauguration is being Indoors so that only a few hundred can see it? DJT's Minions will be left out in the Cold, if Lucky, they can see DJT driven by surrounded by his Praetorian Guard... The Symbolism Is Epic... Only the Megadonors will actually be inside the Capital... The DJT Zombies should Get Smart... They Don't Count...
I googled “number of inaugurations held indoor “ and it said up to this point only Ronald Reagan’s in 1985. Is that possible that in our whole history that’s the only other one? I guess the precedent for the public to view the swearing-in outweighs the discomfort of the President. Puts Trump’s weeny decision even in a worse light.
If I wasn't a God skeptic, I would think God is going to town with signs of His/Her disapproval. I won't be surprised if it rains frogs or lightning strikes the Capital! And there's an earthquake! Just please, God - no more fire!
Yeah, you could sure count on the house California Democrats to handle those fires huh? Take away $117 million a budget be understaffed run out of water. Next election is gonna be fun to watch.
I'm keeping up Rick. My main concern is if we are going to have a midterm election in two years. They are going to have two years to manipulate the system as they are doing in North Carolina and Wisconsin to render elections irrelevant or manufacture a situation that would justify to declare a state of emergency or similar. And that scenario will apply on subsequent election dates. My "hope" is that before that happens, and given the bad side effects of the project 2025 on the general population and with little help from us, it's going to be a backwash of such a proportion that it would be unstoppable. Talking about hope 🤞
Wait a minute Ricardo you’re actually telling me that you don’t think that 13 million votes disappeared this time around that were here the last time around and that’s not election manipulation. Come on man. ?
Why don’t you read Project 25 and see if there are some basic precepts in there that are basic to democracy. He didn’t write it. He didn’t author it. He didn’t approve it. He had nothing to do with it. There are a number of precepts in there like the way we hold elections, holding people accountable for their voting, etc. which are very important. Here’s what I suggest for you make a list of all the things in there and see how many Trump designates appropriate then come back and talk.
"And, of course, there will be lies. Big lies, small lies, clever lies and obvious lies. As dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned in 1974 about the Soviet Union, “the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.” So too here, it will be a pillar of Donald Trump’s second term." Democracy Docket, today
Rick's comment epitomises what is dividing this country. He says "you’re in the middle of . . . . . . a cult full of nothing but hate, closed eyes closed ears and hate." (I corrected his poor grammar)
And in response, Liberals say ""you’re in the middle of . . . . . . a cult full of nothing but hate, closed eyes closed ears and hate."
It's a situation you often see with children. "You're stupid!" "No, YOU'RE stupid!" To resolve it with children, someone in authority needs to explain that either both parties are a little bit right and compromise is needed BY BOTH, or that one party is indeed wrong, and should apologise.
Unfortunately, we don't seem to have any recognised overall authority in this country. Seem to remember it used to be the Supreme Court. . .
Wow, and now we have a psychiatrist on board you need to go back to school. You’re so wrong. I live in the day I live in the time I revel in the moment and I can’t wait till tomorrow.
Nope but nice. Try money is important because it brings a better quality of life. If you prefer to live in squalor, it’s your choice. If you prefer to be wealthy, it’s also your choice. All depends upon your work ethic. Your choice. Life is a due to yourself proposition.
Lady all the words on the page mean nothing actions from DC mean everything. Almost every single action from the last administration brought us worse off than we were before. Now there is light at the end of the tunnel you can close your eyes and pretend it’s not there or you can join us and be successful and optimistic. Try that for a change.
Penny , you might realize why you lost this election that I’m not as silly as I sound. And you for the next at least four years, but probably 12 are going to be the silly ones. Love of country support of your president until he makes a mistake. Criticize if you like and that’s all we’ve been doing for the last four years with Duke cause and just cause.
Perhaps you missed it peny but 48 of the 50 states in this country became redder than the election previous.
However, a few weeks after January 6 2021 and, among other crimes, the plan was to hang Mile Pence, Biden was outdoors. Didn't your cult want to kill him?
You know it’s amazing that you guys don’t even own a mirror every single one of you on here almost to a person is a troll the difference. Is you all agree with each other. As if your decision and your opinion is the only correct one so you can commiserate with one another. Unfortunate many people don’t agree with you and as soon as they do, they’re called a troll which I take as a badge of honor in this particular case.
Well, Barney did any harm come to Mike Pence? And you better be careful when you mention the word cult because you may not know, but you’re in the middle of one in my estimation. A cult full of nothing but hate, closed the eyes closed the ears and hate.
Whatever happened to Mike Pence, and he’s still alive by the way is a self-inflicted wound.
First attempt -staged, Set up from the start - we would have a parade of the wounded ear out there and he would have auctioned off the blow off piece. The report would have been earth shattering. None of it happened. Worse, once of his died. This was proof of :I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and would not lose any support." How you feel now rick? Sucker? As Mark Twain I believe stated "You can never convince a conned man he has been conned, because pride would never allow."
Second attempt - hardly an attempt. SS catches things like that all the time.
Tell you what why don’t we take target practice on your ear and see how good of a shooter we are what a ridiculous ridiculous comment.
The only pride you’re missing pal, unfortunately is pride in your country
Between you and all the people that follow you, you might think about living elsewhere. This is your country now and if Trump play cards right it’ll be this country for the next 12 years.
The Senate and the House are ceding their authority in the checks and balances to the presidency. Such a situation is EXACTLY what the founders did NOT want. The stupid and the spineless in Congress are ignoring Rick Wilson’s words, “Everything Trump touches dies.” A traitor, a fraud, a criminal; they know he is each of those things. Yes, their dishonor will remain.
I know a fair number of former Republicans that are very reluctant to admit it. It takes a while to earn enough trust from them to admit it. There are many more who will admit it, though.
Well, T has made hate, anger and vengeance fashionable. People delight in his savagery; they root against good news and against innocent people to be punished. This can't be good for the country...!
''Trump has always understood the importance of visuals and has worked hard to project an image of an invincible leader. Moving the inauguration indoors takes away that image, though, and people who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them.'' [Us: speak the truth and highlight his insecurities]
"But once the news leaked of the plan[to start deportations in Chicago] and undermined the “shock and awe” the administration wanted, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said the team was reconsidering it.'' [Us: Speak the truth and expose their plans]
Everyone and everything has an Achilles' Heel, a weakness—a vulnerable point that, when exposed, can bring about a downfall or significant challenges. Recognizing this in ourselves or others should be a priority in the coming weeks and months.
No it does nothing of the kind. It just makes him less vulnerable to idiots that want to shoot him. Well, apparently everybody are almost everybody on this blog. We have found your weakness. It’s called love of America and Donald J Trump. You just can’t seem to put the two together. Very sad.
Well, he may not be a convicted felon much longer than what are you gonna say? Did you support Bill Clinton? Did you support John Kennedy? Did you support Gary Hart? Did you support Anthony Weiner? Would you like a longer list? I’ll be more than happy to show you what a hypocrite you are.
Whataboutism distracts from accountability by deflecting criticism with irrelevant comparisons. Pointing to others like Clinton or Kennedy doesn’t excuse current wrongdoing or answer the issue at hand. It's a tactic to dodge responsibility and shift focus, but accountability isn’t erased by someone else’s actions. Stay on topic—deflection doesn’t change facts or absolve bad behavior.
Actually, it’s an illustration of hypocrisy by the left they love pointing out defects of people on the right without looking in their own house. No, it doesn’t absolve behavior. I am totally on topic and tomorrow. I’ll be on topic for at least the next four years if not the next 12.
Well won’t you be dismayed when his conviction is overturned. Not to mention if I were you he was NOT convicted of rape. So be careful you don’t fall onto cnn;s error. It could cost you more than you can afford.
JL, I think rather than "looking for" is partially right; for some it is all they can comprehend. With respect to the press, that horse has done left the barn, leaving entertainment as the only "redeeming social value" remaining to it. I'm not sure how redeeming that particular activity is, at this point, especially when the influence of AI is tossed into the mix.
The educated and informed know the difference. I would select my doctor on his experience, qualifications and knowledge, not his flashy personality or entertaining abilities.
My young, uneducated Vietnamese nail technician said about President Biden, “He can’t even walk.” We need to educate those who do not know, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt couldn’t walk but he was one of our top 3 greatest presidents.
I was curious if "ungovernment" is a word. Probably not. I did see it was used referring to government by Trump and friends back in 2016. It's basically unprecedented that people seek jobs in a government to keep it from governing. I was always curious why Reagan wanted so badly to become president when he said in his inaugural "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem". It is pretty clear that this crop of cowboys are taking the jobs to get richer than they already are. Government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy.
When serious hurt sets in, minds will change. Just how long that will take, who knows? But I think it will be sooner than later. In the meantime, support the lawyers on the front lines, and continue to spread the facts.
Thank you, Heather. I feel like I just got the real news, in perspective. I hope you can continue your excellent coverage of what really seems to matter most. I am dipping a toe into Contrarian and have subscribed, but it feels like they are generating more than I have time and mental energy to consume, right now. So, please continue your Letters!
I think a lot of it is because, rather like the stopper coming out of a well shaken bottle, Rubin feels freed from the restrictions imposed by the Post over the last couple of years. I think that , with a little encouragement from subscribers, things will calm down after a while. The Post writers were encouraged to write long screeds - this new type of reporting requires brevity. See The Meidas Touch (even if the MT is a bit shout-y)
I feel the same way, Vickie. Yet, when I think back to the time when all that was available was a hard copy of either the Times or WaPo or any one of a number of other newspapers, we could choose which columns we wanted to read and left the rest unread. Admittedly, that is harder to do when each "column" comes to our inboxes in drips and drabs!
Come on in ... the water in the The Contrarian is just fine.
Fact Check: TRUE. The Contrarian output is quantitatively high. I "shared" just three (3) of the first salvo over to family members which included 1 interview by JEN RUBIN of a familiar law Professor.👍
I will soon be able to tell if The Contrarian uses algorithms to direct "incoming" to my personal tastes. : ---)
Vickie, I agree. On Joyce Vance's recommendation, I subscribed to The Contrarian, expecting it to be a modern, online version of a newspaper, with multiple "articles" per issue. It's not that. It seems to be a blend of podcast, talk show and columns released in rapid-fire succession. I think Rubin, Eisen, et al jumped into it quickly, hoping to maintain income continuity. Hopefully, they'll sort it out and make it a valuable source of news and insight.
I also subscribed to Conrrarian and agree, they are sending too many small articles. I hope they revise and redesign their platform to become more newspaper style and less multi-substack.
Quite right Vickie, some times I just pass by Contrarian because of time and a little bit of confusion. I feel HCR's letters summarizes and concentrate where we are and what's going on clearly.
I agree. I tried to see if there was a setting to limit Contrarian to one email a day but could not find it. It’s overwhelming even though its important
I subscribed to The Contrarian, but I turned off the email notifications. I have the link saved, and treat it as a menu of essays rather than every one being a must-read.
I was worrying about the number of postings from the Contrarian too but then decided they are like a newspaper. You don't have to read every article. Of course HCR is a no brainer. I save her for last every day so I can savor every word.
I'll repeat a brief essay written by the brilliant Rebecca Solnit, for us to keep in mind over the next 4+ years of chaos, corruption and cruelty:
"They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is."
And I truly apologize for giving him so much oxygen . I KNOW in my Mind it is a waste of time. Sometimes my Heart takes over and I just have to TRY to reach them. So far I am batting a thousand in failure. Again, apologies.
Oh, we have a fellow reader who has conversed with him and can provide information that he is really a person. What I have noted is that he sounds exactly like my former work cohort that extoll all of the things they have been promised and swear that I will not be harmed by this administration's actions. Complete and utter garbage; their disinformation sources have them believing the sky is green, the grass is blue, and bleach is safe to drink.
It has repeatedly argued that "deregulation" of business is necessary to stimulate "innovation", yet while we certainly have witnessed innovation in the last few decades, a lot of technical innovation is now being used, or so it appears, to the detriment or disadvantage of ordinary citizens. A science and technology freak since before I began kindergarten, I generally felt in those well-regulated bad old days, that technology was there to serve the public, of which I was a part; yet now I feel a lot of it is working against me; to pick my pocket, violate my privacy, or manipulate me in some objectionable way.
Moreover, I have an increasing sense that a government and a society of, by and for the people is leaving us behind, while ***** like Zuck and Musk and their wealthy peers and clients, make more and more of the decisions that impact us all.
If you survey The 20th Century, you can see a great many scientific and technical firsts; Relativity. decoded DNA, transistors and silicon wafer CPUs, The Moon shot, heart transplants, and on and on, that occurred with much tighter civic control over industry. Discovery and invention continues to this day. The primary difference I notice in the age of De-regulated "innovation" is the increasing emergence of tech, methods, and extended consequences that seem a disservice to me as well as our society as a whole.
Because we see and understand that the power mongers are in full swing and are looking to destroy our Great Experiment. They want to Rule, not to Govern.
The innovators have been attacking the Republic always, especially after the New Deal rescued the Republic from the Great Depression. The innovators are pikers.
JL, I have recently been semi-binge watching the TV series "Person of Interest." It is fiction, of course, but portrays how techno-surveillance could be used to benefit innocent people. It also warns of how it could be abused in the hands of the wrong people. In this (or any) instance, the wrong people are the U.S. government under the control of soulless megalomaniacs. I'm not sure your mind would be eased, but you might like watching the series.
The 20th century government seems to have taken too much time off after WW II. Maybe the People should have taken ownership of that innovation? The socialism scares kept us from being diligent.
My wife shops online as a hobby. She noticed the difference in prices depending on who in our household was shopping for the same item several years ago. She has taken evasive action by using multiple account names and verifying prices by asking friends to look up an item in another part of the US.
She has saved us thousands of dollars. Yeah, Walmart and Home Depot among other's are fucking us over.
I've noticed that for quite some time... prices have changed dynamically while I am shopping on- line. We've been surveilled by marketing firms for forty years or more - one of my first accounts as an IBM systems engineer was doing just that back in '85. Big brother? He's been around since the '60s.
The MAGAts don’t even know there is a Consumer Financial Protection Board, nor what it does, kind of like they didn’t know the ACA is Obamacare. The CFPB is intended to protect consumers against financial businesses from preying on consumers with things like junk fees and high interest rates. The MAGAt cult would not believe such a board exists, but yet they will believe Dems and the government can control the weather, like where hurricanes strike.
Rohit Chopra at CFPB, Lina Khan at FTC and Jonathan Kanter at AG anti-trust division are the bright spot in the last days of the current administration! Thank you for your work of applying and enforcing the current regulatory law that is on the books to our behalf. And thanks to Elizabeth Warren for her influence to get these good people into the administration. Also, Matt Stoller at BIG should be more widely supported for the good work he is doing there. Great work by all!
It’s the same thing in California. I’ve lived in 11 states, built homes in 3 of them and looked to buy in Texas. Just on the home buying and building front California offers so many protections it’s amazing. New Hampshire says, oh we have a building code but if you try to get the builder to follow it, or sue for their failures, we’ll ignore it and say that’s what the majority of builders do and those codes are meaningless. Along with the number of contractors like electricians and plumbers that don’t needs to be licensed.
But Republicans complain about these protections and laws because it’s more expensive for them.
So you think Trump controls all these business entities huh? I wish more of these people here would think for themselves see what they witness evaluate what they witness join the crowd and become successful for the next four years. Rather than in withdrawal.
Did you READ Heather’s Letter? Did you not understand the utter CORRUPTION that she listed? Or do you just believe your fairy tale that she just made it all up and it is hyperbolic ‘fake news?” She does ALWAYS provide Footnotes. You could check some of them out and “do you research” that you folks love to spout.
Yes, I read it and that’s Heather‘s interpretation and she’s welcome to it. She also chooses her own footnotes. Peny why don’t you wait to see what happens instead of judging negatively in advance? Trump is not even an office yet and already people are up in arms. You don’t even wait to see the results of any actions yet to happen. I called that negative in advance and it’s useless and it’s self-defeating and self-destructive.
“MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of [Trump] moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”
Yes, that captures it beautifully. If you are not rich, white, straight, Christian, and preferably male, you are Out In The Cold. This is no longer your country, if it ever was. If you are an ordinary citizen and voted for Trump, enjoy your imaginary gravy train or your bitterness and blood lust for vengeance for a little while longer. It is just that, imaginary, and you are soon to get punched in the face with any number of harsh realities. You are about to get fucked over, and fucked over hard, again and again. That's very bad, but what's even worse is that you, out of hatefulness or willful ignorance or short-sighted selfishness, dragged us, who have been pointing out the innumerable treacheries, dishonesties, corruptions, bigotries, and barbarities for years now, into your disaster too.
pts, my usual litany is "white, male, Christian, cisgendered, heteronormative". I like your words of "imaginary gravy train /bitterness and blood lust for vengeance"; it is precisely what is fed by the disinformation stream.
Had a recent engagement over on Facebook; a friend (former co-worker, recently retired) who shared a post regarding the LA fire. Apparently there is a hunk of disinformation that fire assistance* was coming from Oregon and Washington that was turned away at the California border due to "failing California vehicle emission standards." He posted a link to this disinformation and said "This is not true. If this is where you are getting your news, you are being lied to." I had thanked him for my post (I have two friends who have responded from rural Oregon agencies and had no trouble at all getting to LA); his reply was "I know that. My wife is there now with her agency."
Amazing that anyone could be dumb enough to believe that garbage when a fire pouring dangerous fumes into the air would be way more damaging than vehicle emissions.
Plus California has never stopped vehicles from driving in from states without the same regulations.
I'm guessing many people won't put cause and effect together but will just be even angrier people trapped in their zero-sum thinking when the government-provided support services for their special-needs child are cut off, the medication their elderly parent needs doubles in price but Medicaid benefits are cut, food prices rise significantly because of tariffs and the shortage of farm labor, etc. etc.
' "I never thought they'd eat _my_ face," sobbed the woman shortly after voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party. '
He’s the president of the United States. And he will be lifting all boats, despite your protestations to the contrary. Get on board or get left behind.
Well, if you’re pro-American, then you should be pro your president and you should support your president until you have a reason not to support your president. And those that don’t support their president will find themselves worse off four years from now then if they did support their president so it’s your choice.
Rick, I've already have a reason not to support him. Many, in fact. Let's see, convicted of 34 felonies, 2x impeached, thousands of stolen classified docs, some not recovered, I could go on but find it revolting to rehash it.
But it's this statement of yours that is particularly revealing:
“And those that don’t support their president will find themselves worse off four years from now then if they did support their president so it’s your choice.”
So, in other words, get in line, support this guy or else. Now that's definitely not “pro-American”, as we have a First Amendment right to dissent. As Timothy Snyder says about tyrannical autocrats, “Do not obey in advance.”
Now that I know exactly where you stand, I have no wish to continue this conversation. Best of luck to you under the incoming regime. Goodbye for good.
oh and by the way, what’s gonna be your stand when the 34 felony counts get thrown out as they should’ve never been brought in the first place and I can’t believe people this intelligent as this actually are gullible enough to believe these charges and buy into the conviction, it’s actually sickening. Charges twisted into a possible case, bolstered by a porn star and a convicted perjurer. As soon as it reaches another court, it’ll be gone then what are you gonna stand on?
You can dissent all you want, but you lost an election and as Americans are supposed to support your president, but you don’t even support him even the day before he takes Office without even knowing what policies is going to enforce what laws he’s going to uphold until he’s actually done them
He will get rid of the criminal illegals first, which is something should’ve never happened and you all know that And that’s gonna cost a lot of money and there’s 1.4 million or already have deportation orders that are still here. As I said, I could go on and on, but why don’t you be rationally observant and go back and look at Trump administration accomplishments not the crap that the media tries to throw at you and tell you what he did but actually what he accomplished, despite Covid and despite the hate. Have a nice day
Ok Rick, I said I wouldn't continue but I'll grant trampy one accomplishment: Operation Warp Speed, to develop a Covid vaccine, but left it to Biden to distribute after 400,000 Americans died. Meanwhile, he stole ventilators and PPE from states -- our Gov Sununu had to hire a jet to go to China to pick up equipment, to keep 45's hand off it.
But that's the only accomplishment I see. No border wall, no infrastructure, no debt/deficit reduction, no end to fentanyl smuggling, no mew jobs (actually millions of lost jobs) etc. We could have led the world in reducing Covid mortality and illness stats but he first chose to ignore it because it would "hurt his numbers" and when it all broke open, thought that it could be done with bleach injections and strong light. And remember, the subsequent global supply chain disruptions caused the inflation we have since recovered from under Biden.
I'll leave it to you to name at least another concrete, measurable accomplishment. And if you say "tax relief", then you're either rich (and are now richer under Biden, if stock market returns are the measure (or believe the rich need assistance.) Only fools or the very rich think that he is going to help us -- he helps himself.
The 🕰 is ticking, Rick. I haven't seen your reply yet. Maybe it's because you can't find another measurable accomplishment? You'll soon be blocked, as I have better things to do.
Well, your first interpretation or interpolation of my writings is absolutely incorrect. I believe Trump is in office for a reason and he will heal a lot of what ails us a lot of what Biden caused. The Biden pregnancy was an absolute nightmare to behold because first of all The Man was non-compos Mentís for most of his presidency. Fact, I just read something today that he actually took a Teleprompter into private homes to do fundraisers holy crap.
The man lost his faculties a long time ago and that’s why your party you’re very own party dumped him by the wayside in an American Coup d’ etat. And rightfully so. But when you replaced him with a dingbat, you made it worse for yourself instead of taking your time and put up a electable candidate you gave us cackles who pretty much never earned a thing in her life.
Beyond that I just believe what I believe, and I believe that most of the people here are incorrect in their beliefs, assumptions, and anticipations. And I believe if you give a time the United States will rise like it hasn’t in years.
Trump did no such thing as tried to overthrow the presidency what a crock
1000 people unarmed are going to overthrow the government give me a break even you are smarter than that. In the meantime, I hope he pardon them all on day one because at the same time that was happening a couple billion dollars of damage and 25 policeman were dead because one man in Minneapolis died
By the way, no one is suggesting that the American system has died I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Pence was targeted by what? Pence was targeted by lack of loyalty. And pence was in part targeted because of personal ambition.
Nobody is putting themselves in debt to put Trump in the White House. What are you trying to infer? The economy is going to be stronger. The economy is going to be wealthier. People are going to be less taxed and freer
And I could spend too long on dealing with your post, but no one is blaming immigrants. This country is made up of immigrants it’s entirely made up of immigrants and their descendants. It’s the illegal term that is got Americans upset because they got an unfair advantage.
You might not realize it, but a majority of Americans don’t think like you and don’t think like this group. We see the upside of Trump’s policies of Trump’s vision of America for all Americans, and if you had bothered even to look at Trump administration accomplishments from his first term, you might understand a bit better but nobody here has ever done that. Further, if not for Covid, Donald Trump would just be leaving the White House now not coming back to it.
And this country fell into total decay and disarray during the Biden administration now evaluated as the second worst presidency in history, just above Richard Nixon And that’s generous so watch evaluate as things go with an open mind and an optimistic heart and brain There’s anything I see here that really counterproductive is the hate and pessimism and Trump hasn’t even taken Office yet
Just so you know, January 6 was a pimple. And hopefully the thousand people that were arrested on January 6 will be released within the next few days or coming days. In the meantime, the real damage to this country was done pretty much at the same time by the death of one black man named George Floyd. That was the real damage to this country two to $3 billion of damage. 25 policeman killed cities burnt to the ground cities occupied over what ? One drug induced convict, restrained by accident and died. And the country went apeshit.
And the most ironic thing is that the policeman was convicted. End of story.
Actually, you’re wrong on one count. He does have the support of most of the people and that’s why he’s going back to the White House. So let’s get that straight
It would take me quite a while to respond to the rest of your diatribe
And unfortunately, I’m here on a cruise touring Vietnam to see what happened when I was in college back then
I’m getting my approval writing from the voters. Maybe you should take a clue. And most of the people that voted for Harris didn’t vote for Harris. They voted against Trump Harris shouldn’t be anywhere near Washington DC. She’s a joke. She’s an absolute joke.
Had they put up a better candidate they might’ve had a chance.
She she would’ve been the least accomplished individual ever to reach the White House
In the meantime, Donald Trump is your president. Apparently he’s gonna put out a couple hundred executive orders on day one which will start the ball rolling back to normalcy in this country.
I see a bunch of educated D’Hair X were focusing on the wrong things and not on practical matters
Too many hypocrites here that gave people like Clinton and Kennedy, a pass, but hone in on Trump, who had a cacophony of BS thrown his way and very soon the 34 counts will go away as well. You won’t have a lake to stand on from that perspective and I can’t believe anyone actually believe those in the first place Key witnesses, a porn star and a convicted perjurer.
In the meantime, stand behind your president, stand behind your country and we will come out of the dorms left behind by this crazy bat shit moron, who just left, who actually needed a Teleprompter to do a fundraiser in a private home. Sickening.
And lastly, I bet there’s not one person here that even bother to see what Trump’s real record was when he was president and if not for Covid, he would just be leaving office now, not coming back to it as much as you wanna hate him
Google Trump administration accomplishments it’ll take you about an hour and a half to read. Maybe I’ll wake up because everyone on this block who seems to be an intellectual is closed minded
Gail, I found an answer in HCR's cite, The Big Newsletter:
"The reason these actions matter is because they are now in the courts, and the incoming administration will have to, like it or not, manage the casework. For some actions, like the PBM report release and the rule barring , the actions are bipartisan. For others, like the John Deere right-to-repair lawsuit, Trump’s incoming FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson issued a stinging objection to bringing the case.
Yet, while there is likely to be some backsliding on antitrust enforcement, it won’t be a return to the days of Bush/Obama. On John Deere, Ferguson probably will carry it forward, but if he doesn’t the suit was brought along with Minnesota and Illinois enforcers. More importantly, the days of libertarian control of policy are over. This week, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in her confirmation hearing gave a nod to antitrust and the incoming replacement for Kanter and Mekki, a respected lawyer named Gail Slater."
The Felon King and his Crime Family of Goons and Thugs are about to begin their assault on America. And it will be and is time to fight back..................... Remember he and his billionaire buddies are coming for your money - "The Oligarch’s Mission: Plunder our tax dollars by privatizing our government and selling-off agencies and public assets to the highest bidder, gutting regulations for corporations and rolling back protections for working people; and slashing taxes for the rich by cutting public programs."
Murray, will post here yet again my “oh no, not on my watch” fight song (a classic from the 80’s) & anthem to resistance…gives me boost-juice when I hear it: Jackson Browne’s ‘Til I Go Down’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw
I hope not too many people share your optimism lmao. There are millions of people who can’t wait for all his programs and policies to take affect. Here’s an idea why don’t you wait for the fax to come out instead of being negative in advance like most of the people here
I don’t understand why the various consumer protection agencies, etc, didn’t do this 2 years ago instead of 10 minutes before the end of the Biden administration. Can someone explain?
Millions of reasons...most of them green...is the cynical response...one true for a long time too.
But consumers protection agencies have been making some progress as reported in Matt Stoller's newsletter "BIG." Several of us have posted information from BIG here for over a year in comments. Glad to see him getting cited by Heather since then. https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-tiktok-problem-is-not-what-you
Sickening. I've seen more morally focused, intellectually engaged creatures at the bottom of a pond than those who voted for this. That said, today is the day I load up the cart, hitch the mule, and head up the hill to a fortified monastery, where the local bishop has promised us villagers some refuge.
I'm leaving this dirge attached to the door of my humble hut . . . perhaps I'll meet you again some day as I walk the cloister in meditation. Cowardly? Yes. But if you saw me you would see no hero . . .
January 19, 2025 CE.
And it is a bright fall day in 1180 BCE and the horse’s massive wooden head appears over the city’s towers while crouched and stifling the soldiers keep still . . .
And it is a sultry August day in 410 CE and outside Rome’s Porta Salaria Alaric and the city wait . . .
And the rains of the night have finally stopped this morning of October 25 in 1415, and the French look oh so gallant in their arms . . .
And it is partly cloudy this early evening of April 14, 1865 in Washington, and a man drinks in a saloon with a small revolver in his pocket . . .
And it is humid at 11:58 PM, June 21, 1941, as the generals of the Wehrmacht stare intently at the second hands on their watches . . .
And it is bitter cold, this January 19, today as Kalliope sits on a distant hill preparing to finish her work, glancing up occasionally, watching the once protecting gods desert their temples . . .
They are all waiting . . . waiting for the end . . .
And Biden just happens to offer some last-minute pardons with no surprise whatsoever the J6 committee and Anthony Fauci speaking of magically going away.
Thank goodness this isn’t the oldies Miss step that Adam Schiff has made and perhaps Trump will decide to involve himself in that or perhaps Kash Patel is more interested.
He'll just get up in front of the microphone with Mr Kennedy every morning and we'll have a re-run of the COVID routine. (Much later: scanning my e-mail list just now, I read "microwave" for "microphone". Eek, what am I thinking???)
That happens to me often. Price to pay for reading HCR letters 2 or 3 am EMT and trying to put together a comment way before my first coffee. At least after your comment Anne-Louise I don't feel so lonely. 😅
Well, look at all the crystal balls and Ouija boards. We have here today. Why don’t you ask yourself why all of a sudden three days before his inauguration? We have a quasi outbreak of bird flu and you don’t think the timing is prescient ?
Well, it might if you consider yourself a troll which you are just like all the rest of these people that post and post and post and post and answer and answer and answer and commiserate with each each other like lemmings you guys are the trolls. So you might just get a few obnoxious ones.
Will they tell us how we don’t need eggs or poultry? No eggs in Costco for the second week and none in Sprouts yesterday. I bought 3 dozen when I saw them last week. I know vegetarians have a way to make things without eggs but MAGA who puts up BS about Democrats banning beef will never go along with that.
Are egg producers holding back their product so they can release it when Trump takes office and claim he fixed it? Will we see a sudden glut and decrease in prices.
How does the bird flu spread among the chickens? If they’re housed indoors and never exposed to outside birds are they safe? Our zoo took all our birds off display or put the flamingos under a canopy.
I’ll tell you how we’re gonna handle it like the timing is a little awry and unusual.
But by the way answering Rachel’s comment earlier
So many hypocrites here so little time. The White House has been filled with sexual predators, almost exclusively Democrats. One are the worst sexual predators in history of the presidency was one of the best presidents of our lifetime
Thank goodness I’ve been an independent for 40 years and look at the entire body of work instead of focusing on one’s loins like you grotesque people seem to want to do. How sad.
Talk about people being literal I think your minds have a little cubbyholes in your brain and if And you find a way to cubbyhole people rather than look at their entire expanse of work product. How very sad And you’re supposed to be the liberals what a joke.
This brilliant writing points out that the sparkle of the latest oligarch surge has been quietly operating in the background all along. Nothing has really changed since the days of the military and industrial complex except that the preening has become more visible. I think they would have been smarter to keep it under the radar, but their egos and greed are getting the best of them. We are in for a miserable time. What’s the saying?…Rubbing salt in the wound?
As you said it’s no different than the time you’ve been experiencing for the last 30 years. The only difference is that now. Trump is the president so you want to take shots at him when he had nothing to do with where we got to today.
But he will improve it all. Following him now is the place to be not fighting him
Cryptocurrency on the cusp of becoming main stream! Mainstream for who? So I know very little about cryptocurrency but let's be honest isn't it all smoke & mirrors? Isn't it just another thing for people that already have more money than god to play with, control, manipulate, hype to get the crypto newcomer to invest? Invest what? Seems the only thing crypto is good for is money laundering & for stealing money from unsuspecting customers?
Sounds like something that's going to be right up the conman- in-chief alley. Smoke & mirrors to rid the gullible of their hard earned cash!
I propose that signs be installed in all major banks & on all entrances to big cities that says:
US for sale inquire within for prices.
This is going to be a long road of cheating, lying & cruelty brought to you by the felon, draftdodging, narcissist, mysoginist, & socio & psychopath in control of our government.
You lament, “ So I know very little about cryptocurrency but let's be honest isn't it all smoke & mirrors?”
I’m
No expert, but two important things about cryptocurrency I do know: 1. It is anonymous, and 2. It is untraceable. Those properties make crypto the currency of choice for mobsters, organized crime and human trafficking. It’s also handy if you want to bribe Trump or any other shady politician or businessman.
Exactly. Crypto is an invisible mobile tax haven. A currency tailormade for crooks and criminals as well as those who feel betrayed by their government and those refusing to pay tax from moral outrage at the failure of political representation. The question all past and present serving politicians should be asking themselves in response to its creation is when and how did they fall asleep at the wheel of governance and so engender so many who feel abandoned. Despair and rage can drive us all to do crazy things, like voting for a duplicitous raping felon to be head of the most powerful country on the planet.
“The Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Lina Khan and her team at the FTC did a superb job of exposing corruption at the corporate level aimed at the consumer. All companies are concerned with are quarterly sales and revenue at the expense of us. She was not loved by big business but i felt a bit protected with her watchful eye. Impt work.
And The Crypto Ball. It’s all so sick. No TV news here and Monday is only MLK Day.
TY HCR for this Letter. Important to know all the FTC, CFPB and other suits.
Trump is not as good at governing as he is at performance:"
Yet an entertaining show seems to be what way too many voters, as well as 'the press", seem to be looking for.
As a family doctor I’ll have to work 100,000 more years to catch up to the meaningless cryptocurrency heist that a convicted felon made in 1 night. But 25 billion won’t be enough to even put a dent in the catastrophic losses an H5N1 pandemic would bring. So as a lowly family doctor that our society financially values at just a tiny fraction of a convicted felon-autocrat, at least I know where I stand.
Where do you stand? Infinitesimal fraction like me, despite your life’s work adding up to something that makes the world a better place?
Oh well, speaking of bird flu pandemics, here’s how I’m gauging it and sort of prepping:
https://mccormickmd.substack.com/p/is-it-time-to-prep-for-an-h5n1-pandemic
You rate yourself too low. Our family doctor was the life blood of our family. Even into our now old age we will still invoke his name with fondness, wistfullness and respect. The peace of mind Drs. Quaife and Hellmann brought my parents was worth billions.
You have real gold. He has fool's gold. A life well lived in service to others and in harmony with ones own best instincts, is priceless.
In this country this sometimes seems like the consolation prize, since success seems to equal money. It doesn't.
Money, or the safety and opportunity that money can buy, are important. No argument. Just don't forget the other part.
As the saying goes, nobody on their deathbed says they regret not spending more time at work. They also don't say they wish they were dying with more money in the bank.
I wonder if Trump and his rich friends ever think about the parable of the richman and Lazarus.
I doubt they ever heard of it. God's on their side.
Thanks Barbara! I felt the same way about my family doc growing up, Dr. Chianese. Wonderful human being and doctor. My grandfather was also a kind, astute country doc... so with those two role models I had no choice in the matter of specialities ;)
Thank you for the H5N1 summary.
IF he cashes in any of the $25B, IF Dems take House and Senate-THEN Impeachment #3 January 2027?!?!
After two fruitless impeachment in Trump 1.0, unless there is a HUGE Republican outpouring of interest to take Trump down, I would personally argue against another impeachment. Without 2/3 of the Senate willing to vote for conviction and removal from office, we are just wasting valuable resources and time.
Instead I would hope we can use the levers of power to coerce some modified behavior as Trump ages. I wouldn't hold my breath but i would try.
And even if he was taken down, Vance would be President, something I almost fear more than Trump. Right now the main advantage that MAGA has is the Trump cult of personality. It is POSSIBLE that is all there really is and when Trump finally disappears from the scene, some sense of normalcy will return.
Letting Vance take the reins of power might be worse that having Trump around and then disappear.
The fruitless comment is exactly what Pelosi saw in the first one. She knew there was no way in hell the republicans would do the right thing. She aw a great opportunity in the second one, but once again McConnell delayed the process just thing enough to sway the fence sitters even though he believed that tRump was guilty, but still found a reason to not support the vote that would have stopped this from happening.
I say this again, democrats need to start talking about the enemy - republicans- like the republicans talk about them - the enemy of America. They have all the proof, it is called the upper hand.
Always understand that Trump thinks like a mafia Don. He has no morals nor ideology nor ethics. He will do things that are questionably popular. I drove into Manhattan yesterday for the March. My van was charged $15.00 Trump will try to remove this fee enacted for environmental reasons. Trump will also activate deportations not to the extent he said. Just enough to satisfy those who elected him on that issue. and most did. The democrats will probably fight against deportations. It will be an unpopular fight to make. And in my opinion, the democrats will sacrifice their popularity on this issue. I’m not arguing morals on this issue only the political ramifications of it.
Red states are already asking trump not to deport THEIR immigrants; they have (suddenly?) realized what it would do to their economies. Blue states knew this and voted against trump; so it makes perfect sense (to red states) to start deportation there.
It's essentially the good ole boy network, on steroids.
Oh my. Sadly I agree with this take. All attempts to protect the vulnerable have been fuel for MAGA and will continue to be.
Yep. Just like the wall he tried to build - And get Mexico to pay for it!
Little over the top huh Billy boy ? Yet he amassed a hotel t chain and Golf course chain and the United States Congress actually even gave them the United States post office to turn into a hotel and he did a magnificent job.
You guys need to find a different loser to pick on
Well, then, Bill, you should be doubly scared since he’s a mafia boss, and he has the baton. He will deport everybody he can who shouldn’t be here and you should realize that Bill and you know they shouldn’t be here and if they had raped one of your children were killed one of your relatives you would feel exactly the same way.
History gets ugly when hate speech prevails and someone, politicians, enough of us (where is "the church"?) need to call it out, and affirm due process. The immigration problem isn't simple, but like McCarthy hearing of old, the targets are primarily pawns in the demagogues' game. As for Tr***, It seems that Mexico's check for his Great Wall is still in the mail.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910/
Tell the truth, and don't pussyfoot. Many politicians have saved that revelation for their retirement speech; but we need that candor now. Like Fritz Hollings with his comment that "the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic, is money: Money, money, money." Truer words were never spoken, yet we looked the other way, or just cast our eyes down, as our republic was increasing sold on the auction block, and constitutional scholars replaced with auctioneers. Now we face a crisis.
The Trump impeachments were not fruitless. Justice demanded that they be initiated, if only to visibly declare that boundaries of law and decency had been empirically violated. The worst thing we do is to surrender in advance, to not even bother to formally call out and record the violation. That's part of what got us here. It's been said that the longest journey begins with a single step.
Bs at its finest.
McConnell and the DNC have a huge responsibility in the demize of our country that we are experiencing now-the coup that is killing USA. I don't know that talking about the enemy will get us out of this (or only talking about the enemy). That perpetuates the division. My prayer is that he/they will show who they are and the way will be clear for an inspirational movement. The truth is, we may have to go down-way down- for a grass roots revolution to rise up and create a better Next-America. I am hanging a tattered flag tomorrow.
Why is it that 99% of the people on this sub stack blog are always negative in advance. I can’t even have the patience to wait and see. Sad.
We would have very little of this problem had the border remain closed. We wouldn’t have spent $150 billion of money only to have to have a doubled to get rid of it. It’s like inviting a disease of criminals and then wondering why we have to get rid of them. Just because you Democrats wanted to have some additional voters. And do it illegally.
Where - and what - IS Vance? He seems to have been steamrollered by Musk. . .
He made a YUGE mistake. He said publicly that he did not think the dangerous Jan 6 insurrectionists should be pardoned. He has been sidelined. Actually that's perfect. Like Pence, the Felon will diminish him so badly that the likelihood of Vance winning the presidency in 4 years will be highly questionable.
I think he was sidelined before that but them they let him out and he created hate all over again. MAGA never liked him but took him in order to get Trump, never considering the old man’s age and mental status.
Hey JAN, you haven’t thought this through very thoroughly
Trump will relinquish the rains to Vance in three years and if the country is in good shape, and Van keeps it that way for a year guess what his chances of winning after that will be.
I strongly suspect that Vance is being well managed by Peter Thiel and being held for when the real power enacts the 25th Amendment.
The 25th will never be fully enacted, Ally, at least not in this go round. Remember it takes a majority of the CAbinet (TRUMP'S cabinet) to invoke and then 2/3 of both the House and Senate to keep a VP in power as President. Do you think the DEMOCRATS (who still hold close to 50% of both the House AND Senate are going to go along with an poster of Trump in favor of Vance?
Unless it actually looks like Trump is seriously considering going completely off the rails with some kind of nuclear threat, no sane Democrat is going to agree to oust Trump in favor of the far more dangerous Vance, his statements concerning the Jan 6 rioters not withstanding.
Trump is a known if somewhat deluded quantity. Vance is a real wild card, in the pocket of a true oligarch, Peter Thiel, and that is a far more serious threat to longterm US stability than Trump.
He's been put back in his charger until tomorrow.
Who cares? Vance has nothing of import to add to this disgusting mess.
I wouldn’t worry about it Miss Emsworth he’ll be around for another eight years at least and you’ll get used to knowing where he is
Vance could be a lot worse than Trump. First, he is slick. He is young and clever. If he manages to complete the coup, he could establish a dictatorship for decades.
Worse Vance is in the pocket of Peter Thiel, who is the REAL robber baron in this puzzle, even worse than Musk IMHO.
I don’t think Theil has the dependence on government contracts that Musk has. That makes Theil more dangerous. Where would Musk be without those contracts? Just a puny drug addict with plastic surgery and hair plugs that likes to bully everyone and tell those that don’t fall at his feet to fck off.
How can the worse be worse then the other worse, counselor?
"Some sense of normalcy will return." And you are certain of this sir how? Please help us readers out here as to how you have come to be certain of this as fact. Mostly, I've come to be very careful about what goes into my mouth, as well as what comes out of my mouth. Oh sure, I stumble plenty, but yours is quite a bold claim as pure fact indeed!
Did you read the HCR's piece about "Shock and Awe"? The conclusion was that "Shock and Awe" sounds so good, but is very, very difficult to pull off. Requires a clueless and weak enemy and superb intelligence and execution. None of those preconditions are in place here. It has already been walked back, before Trump is even in. Celebrate this!
I didn't read it but am familiar with the concept. I have seen opinions that we may not end up with shock and awe, but death by a million little cuts, all the while framed in a way that the base is still enamored.
He has Musk - and all the other billionaires for money and he has legislative sycophants, media, social media, much it the press, and he has SCOTUS … impeachment goes no where… democracy gets no where and beyond whining, without major civic disruption and Dems that do more than ask for money and complain, I am not sure what we have left.
Do you actually READ anyone's comments, sir? My comment very clearly said that "it is possible ... that a real sense of normalcy would return". I also mentioned that I have no conviction that this is going to happen but I am sure it will be worse if Vance takes over.
Vance? Jon, it's the Indian religio-cultural history which resides in that household that might be given thought. A class-based system of values that aren't about to change. But, one thing I think one could say about the red-blanket that shrouded this election.., those folks prefer seeing the ten commandments plastered on walls as their mating call, rather than allah jakbar. IMHO
Trump apparently has charisma, at least to his fan club of voters. JD Vance has NOTHING like that—maybe the opposite of charisma (whatever that is). I think MAGA will suffer bc it’s really a cult and the cult leader won’t be around,
I must be immune to charisma. I’m not taken in by sales people either.
What is the opposite of charismatic? [Thanks Google]
repellant hideous objectionable off-putting disagreeable grisly ghastly uninviting beastly
Take your pick. or all them. I would take repellant or beastly
ML.., I'd disagree, and on the most-shallow of terms.., Vance is photogenic, just like tRump. He's certainly American-enough in appearance, and like our girl Swift, the photo-teams know their job well (or risk losing it!). The Faux-factor will be in full force when his time comes. It was there with Reagan and it's surely been a driving force for the guy who just got the job. All he needs to do is 'play' the part.
He have any tattoo's?
"The Trump cult of personality" - Conservative political journalist Tim Alberta said many years ago that the power source in all this craziness was Trump. No one can replace what Trump is. In Alberta's book "American Carnage," that was the conclusion. Whew. It was a good and horrifying book, detailing Trump's craziness. It's one of the very few political books I have ever read. And that conclusion has been foundational in keeping me grounded.
If he declares an emergency (tommorrow), we won't have any levers of power left.
As president elect, since he acqired that gelt due to his status, it could be the property of the United States of America. https://www.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/Documents/5FE0762193B1824085258C0C0082A92F/$FILE/Nominee%20Financial%20Disclosure%20Review%20During%20Presidential%20Transitions.pdf
The purpose of impeachment has been to highlight the alleged wrongdoing. Could be It has effectively slowed the rate of harm.....
Daniel, I doubt it.. the two impeachments were vital to America on the world stage. And, to my sanity. In spite of Faux and all the other media-atts America was alive and exercising the freedoms for which we have fought. But, the appearance was still weak. Nancy Pelosi, and her photo-team do deserve respect. The MAGAtts were just empowered in the end. Then, the 90+ court-cases became just another "hard act to follow" for his fan-club as he strode across stage after stage. Yeah.. as in 'staged' rally after staged rally. He is definitely having his day. As Americans, Democrats or whatever, we're going to keep things together.., "one cut at a time". Rome, must not burn. LA? History! Learn from it.
Says the Russian.
Disagree! As Jack Smith wrote in his report, though no trial or conviction, it was important to indict to acknowledge the rule of law and set precedent for history. In this Gilded Age of Grift, not saying anything about a $25B grift undermines our democracy and sets a bad precedent. Impeachment and acquittal merely says 'GOP cronies played politics' but the world was informed of the wrong doings.
I don't disagree with a potential indictment if there is a chance for a conviction. But impeachment is a different animal and when you impeach and lose, the opposition claims victory. If you KNOW you are going to lose, then you are just posing and I hate posing on both sides. Just my view of course. You are entitled to disagree.
I agree with you here. To impeach him again and lose again not only allows them to claim victory but provides fodder for the next election...if there is one.
Maybe, but I don't think he has the backing, the personality or the respect that Trump has garnered (unwarranted).
Here's what I see, Carolyn.., he's "a family man" in MAGA-ville. So if he ascribes to "family values".., per se, meaning: He professes to be a Christian(?); doesn't want his daughter sharing the 'Womens room' with non-women..; speaks to marriage as being between two oppositely-wired humans like his parents..; and has polished his skills to dodge shit-hole questions..; he will be given the golden ring. His wife Usha, will see to it.., do not underestimate her. I may be dreaming, but at the moment i'm out here plowing snow so I can get in my driveway.
Who is this Vance you speak of?
I'm taking this question seriously Norie I apologize if it was intended as a joke. Vance is the incoming (incoming) Vice President to Trump.
JD Vance, author of the book Hillbilly Elegy.
Hard right GOP, very inexperienced in government.
Jon.., she/he/her/him/them/whatevah, knows that.,,:)))
Hey John, we’ve already assumed that Trump is going to hand off the presidency in three years rather than four so Vance won’t need an election for his first one year and if he does a good job or maintains what Trump is done eight more years for Vance shouldn’t be a problem. You have Nice day.
John, that’s all you do is waste your time on impeachment. It’s actually sickening. Do you realize the last four years were the worst four years in recent American history. This last guy and his demented state ruined this country so badly damaged it’s credibility so badly within its own self and yet it will only take 12 to 15 months to rectify it all. Without even delving into his presidency, the historians of all it already rated Biden as the second worst president of all time. That doesn’t mean that on many issues he wasn’t first. What’s gonna cost us to repair our lives domestically. That’s assuming the Republicans don’t screw it up as they normally do internally fighting within themselves, but if they don’t, this, Crunchyroll turn around quicker and be once again the leader of the free world and the be admiration of everyone.
If you understand the psychiatry behind what is wrong with all of them you would understand that this is even more fruitless. Our only hope is voters. Education, and elevating the truth far above their lies. This needs to be done at EVERY local level. We really need to elevate historians like Snyder and Ben-Ghiat and the many others and people like Robert Jay Lifton, James Gilligan’s, Bandy Lee and make their knowledge go viral instead of the shitty rhetoric of evil greedy bastards
John and that’s probably exactly what’s gonna happen. Trump is gonna run the country and hopefully very well for three years and at that point with all the optimism and success abounding will hand it off to JD Vance and resign JD Vance automatically becomes president and then can run in the next election and hopefully be president for another eight years
Good luck to all you haters
Every time someone “buys” coins from the company, he gets 80% of the revenue. So, he’s already cashing in. And, the prospectus says he is going to increase the number of “coins” (i.e. a string of digits) from 200 Million to 1 Billion over the next three years.
Impeachment is mana to his supporters. He has millions of uninformed followers who are willing to die before admitting their mistakes.
I appreciate your positive vibe! But a third impeachment won’t stop him, so we need to get busy finding enough Senators to convict him if that should occur. I find comfort in knowing he can’t help but commit more crimes on a regular basis. Our DOJ is impotent, but maybe, just maybe, the public will wake up? Maybe he should have waited to do the crypto, so he is “immune”.
I am not sure there is a right or wrong answer on how to proceed, but one thing for sure works, repeated information continually loud and strong until the unfortunate MAGA supporters believe it as truth and turn away. This is how we got MAGA and now we need to start to turn the table. The oligarchs will begin eating each other soon as they operate on greed and power and they all want to be greedier and more powerful than the next guy.
So, the company “issued” 200 million $$Trump “tokens” (which, remember, is just a string of crypto digits). His crypto buds and the MAGA faithful bought some, then pumped and pumped them up from (an imaginary) $20 per token to $72 (now apparently less because of the MELANIA grift coin announced Sunday). per token — hence the overnight “billionaire-ism” - ‘cuz most of the “coins” still sit on the balance sheet. (The company says it will “create” 800M more coins over the next three years.) This appears to be one of the largest pump and dump. grift machines ever built.
Scotus will stop any impeachment - and at least of few of them will also get rich from it.
Yeah, how’s that worked for you so far? Lmfao and if you guys keep this up by 2027, there may not be any Democrats left.
People have nothing but impeachment on the brain. The first two were worthless you think the third one is gonna be worth anything. ? It’s just your struggles with reality trying to face reality. The Democrats are in disarray and hopefully they will stay that way in the next 12 years.
They will use every tech expert and state run election they can buy to keep that from happening. They have no desire for decency or country just an unquenchable and desperate need for more power
I think you're too optimistic, but I very much hope I'm wrong!
Thank you for your efforts to stave off a H5N1 pandemic. Based on how trump handled the covid pandemic and his upcoming administration, I'm scared. What are we supposed to inject in ourselves this time, whiskey?
Don't think so Sophia, bleach worked so well during the Covid pandemic that there's no reason to change to whiskey 😉
but surely there are votes to be secured (not obtained, they have them already) in places like Kentucky and Tennessee by doing something that will stimulate whisky and bourbon sales.
Tennessee’s governor and its senators, and at least one of its representatives (mine) are already full MAGA. You should hear them slaver over tfg.
John, when those secured voters realize what they had voted for when they feel the pain in their pockets and cuts in their social security system , automatically sales of whiskey and bourbon are going to increase dramatically in those states. Rest assured John 😁
But whiskey also offers an anesthetic quality....
No better than bleach, I know by personal experience. 🤪
Whiskey would certainly be an improvement over ivermectin! 🤣🤣🤣 Thank you for the suggestion.
The fact that so many people willingly accepted the vaccines speaks volumes about the intelligence level of the masses. Mountains of evidence confirm they were neither safe nor effective. Millions will now suffer and die early due to various cancers, respiratory, blood clots and heart issues among others due to these vaccines. The more you took the more the odds are stacked against you. Seven states are now in litigation against Pfizer. It’s to the point people should have to admit how many vaccines/boosters they took before one should bother to try and have rational conversation. Many still don’t realize the mRNA “vaccine” passes the blood brain barrier perhaps affecting logic and reasoning. Yet people still line up willingly taking more. Sad
Not just a troll, but a lying one at that. Where’d you find this bull crap observation?
Are you kidding? Leave your echo chamber for two minutes and you’ll find a plethora of information regarding all this. I’m truly sorry you were duped in first place, but at this point ignorance is anything but bliss. If you care at all about your own health and the rest of humanity you’ll educate yourself. Callling me names does not invalidate the truth.
You are still not telling us how you formed your opinion. What publications? Name the published studies. Name the agencies. Name the university or labs. Name the researchers and to whom they submitted their work for peer review.
You can’t because they don’t exist.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50376-z
Thank you for that, Ryan. It's a shame you'll never know how many lives you might have saved simply by writing and publishing that. Then again, even if it was only one - great work!
Thanks Lady E! Once I had the time to start writing again back in 2022, I do think some of my letters about Covid broke through barriers in terms of vaccination, treatment, and other Covid skepticism. Really really hoping H5N1 does not become another "opportunity" for writing about evidence based prevention and treatment....
As a backyard chicken farmer and retired family doc I can't wait for a vaccine. I'd love to immunize my girls, too. The price of eggs is minimal compared to good chicken feed, but the girls are endlessly entertaining which will be useful over the next 2 years.
Backyard chicken farmer and retired family doc - both sound like future goals to look forward to and drive towards!!
Why do we never hear about what people can do proactively to prevent colds and flu? High doses of Vitamin C esp libosomal which stays in the body longer along with D3 and zinc have kept me healthy for many years. Also lots of fresh fruits and veggies, soups and stews made from scratch not garbage from a can, getting to bed early and getting some exercise out side in fresh air, just a half hour walk is ok. And for goodness sake wash your hands - a lot!
Unfortunately so many people can’t even afford the fresh fruits and vegetables. Then vitamins and supplements are completely out for them. Next up, it’s necessary to work even with contagious flu’s, colds or viruses.
Healthcare is so ignored in this country that we just spread diseases. But that’s okay as long as they’re not immigrants.
I wonder if the cost or ignorance. Are fruit and vegetables really more expensive than processed food? Think about what a bunch of bananas, potatoes, or a cauliflower costs compared to Fruit Loops, soda, and chips. Food desserts may be a problem but Terry has a point.
Do you really think they’re buying fruit loops, soda and chips? I spend a lot of money on fresh produce every week. I could get much more food if I bought the boxes of Mac & cheese, hamburger helper and other quick and easy meals in boxes and cans. It amazes me when I check out with a few servings of potatoes, celery, broccoli, green beans and Brussels sprouts and a half gallon of milk for $50. That doesn’t last 2 people a week. I cook a lot of dried beans and rice.
Do you really grocery shop? You can afford those things and have an education. Do you go down the food aisles the underpaid are forced to shop in? Fresh fruit is $2.50 a pound. That’s 2 or 3 apples.
You’re comparing apples and oranges. It’s not fruit loops , soda and chips if you’re trying to feed a family. It’s rice, beans and perhaps some ground beef. Or the aforementioned boxed mac and cheese. And let’s not forget food deserts, where the $1.00 7-11 hot dog is king.
Here are some facts,
https://www.henryford.com/blog/2023/09/ultra-processed-foods#:~:text=Research%20suggests%20that%20between%2060,beverages%20that%20are%20highly%20processed.
Do you think America got obese on apples? I'm agreeing with Terry, watch your diet. Processed foods, sodas, and boxed mac and cheese pound for pound aren't any less expensive than unprocessed foods. BTW, I mentioned food deserts....and instead of boxed mac and cheese it's cheaper to buy and sauce and make it. See for yourself next time you shop.
Somewhat anecdotal, from a science perspective, but also, how many people live, or have the ability to live, like you do?
As many as who want to - it’s not that expensive just requiring intention and attention. And a hell of a lot cheaper than eating shit processed foods and taking drugs…
Take a walk in the grocery store and compare the prices to make meals from processed vs. fresh foods. I had a foreign exchange student from Norway here that came home from his first week at school saying he tried somebody’s instant Mac & cheese. I walked him down the boxed food aisle and show him that boxes that feed 4 could be had for 25 cents on sale and many use water that can’t afford milk, or even the crappiest milk in the case.
And what is the nutritional value of that? Calories does not equal nutrition...this is the problem with western medicine- they don't think nutrition matters...just look at the garbage they feed people in hospitals
Hey Ryan,
Just read your h5n1 Substack. Excellent info, thank you! And as a fellow writer, I admire your style. The letter was well structured. I felt as if I was sitting across from "my doc".
One of the issues that lights me up is how undervalued our "family doctors" are. We are lucky to have a wonderful one. She is a proactive detective! But she hasn't taken new patients in years. Nor have most of her colleagues. Too many patients and not enough docs. And we live in an affluent area.
I suspect that one big reason is that primary care doesn't pay as well as specialties - like surgery. That is wrong.
You guys are our first line of defense. You are doing the triage. You should be paid the most! Having primary care docs and good NPs to assist should be a "Human Right" in the richest nation to have ever existed!
Instead too many rely on "minute clinics" (which are filling the void) and of course, the expensive ERs.
Our Dr. Cohen KNOWS us. She can therefore guide us without over-medicating. But she also focuses on prevention rather than just being a repair shop. We need more like you and her.
I look forward to your comments and now your posts. Now, off to buy masks and TP!
Much appreciated Bill!
No one like to hear doctors gripe about pay, since we still make more than the average blue collar professional (though I try to wear scrub tops and no white coat ;)
But whenever I consider the hundreds of millions professional athletes routinely get these days, and the billions that grifters cashing in on the presidency can now command overnight... it just feels like any of griping about salaries that are orders of magnitude smaller are just being crabs in the bucket.
We need to level the inequality, target the crabbers.
Doctor Ryan, I am 70+ years old and can no longer list US presidents in order, but I still remember vividly the family doctor who came to my bedside when I was 5 years old and had the measles and chickenpox at the same time. My eyes had pox blisters and had to be bandaged so I couldn't scratch them and cause scarring, so I didn't see him until his last visit when he removed them. I saw an angel - Doctor Blackwell of Wilmette, Illinois in 1958.
And I too will mention my doctor from birth into my 30s: my uncle, my godfather, a surrogate father, the man who once told me I could stop by his office anytime for a chat, Dr James V Calio. No one of course, can take his place.
Omg both at the same time and in your eyes. I had both but at different times and I still recall scratching until blood was drawn. Today I take any and all vaccines. My friend who is a MAGA once told me she would never take a vaccine and that her sweet baby Jesus would save her. So of course I wrote a song to her. Here it is momentarily. Titled, “Vaccine for Veronica.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Enog4QCDQ After she heard my song to her, she screamed at me. But at least I got a song out of it, lol. That is what songwriters hope for, a decent song.
Godbless, Paula. Love this poetic vignette!
I wish you were in San Francisco and I can be your patient. Our PCP retired in December. My husband was fortunately refered by his Uro-oncologist to a young PCP but I have no such luck. Now I have no PCP. Hopefully I will not get sick until I can find a new PCP. You and your kind are extremely valuable for humanity.
We went through a similar thing 2-3 years ago. Our PCP was a "new to the practice" doc 35 years ago when she became our PCP. This was a group that had been formed by and was managed by primarily GP's. Pre-pandemic (roughly 2016, give or take a year) they sold to Optum, which has morphed into United Health Care. I recall that in about 2018 or 2019 during my annual exam, my PCP commented that it was becoming more and more expected that she would spend a 30 minute block burning warts off of 3 people rather than spending 30 minutes helping an elderly patient figure out what prescriptions were working in opposition to each other. This Doc was an excellent diagnostician (she found my breast cancer in a screening exam and diagnosed my gall bladder issue in about 3 minutes).
She retired mid-pandemic and was replaced by a young doctor, who is planning to stay with this group. We were both able to sign on with this new doc; I have many friends whose doctors have left this group (they have 4 or 5 offices in the metro area) and who cannot find a new PCP.
I wish you luck.
Thank you Purobi! Love SF! But stuck here in Philly, for better and worse!
I was spoiled growing up. My doctor was my uncle and godfather. But I recall him complaining how he had so many Medicare or old patients and this restricted his income. I know usually don’t keep a doctor longer than a few years before I leave out of frustration. We have a horrible way of medical practice in this country. I may apply for Italian citizenship that will give me access to the European Union. Good luck to you I feel your pain.
a lot of Canadian docs found their incomes went up when public medicine came in, in the 1960s, because all their bills were being paid. They didn't have to worry about patients who could not pay, or who needed a discount, or who wanted (in rural areas) to pay in produce.
Did not know a person could still pay in produce. I am adding to my garden.
Lucky that moving abroad is viable for you. Neither my wife's nor my relatives were recent enough immigrants to qualify under any country's programs. Does that mean I'll be needing to seek asylum?
Thank you Dr. Ryan, I read you often, and will pony up today in support of your life's work, as you refer to your life's calling. A huge, yet subtle difference exists between a man's life's work, versus his job. I came to realize this fact ave way through my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist. There are "quiet quitters" in the health care profession at all levels, and to be treated by one unknowingly can have catastrophic consequences. As a news reporter in Key West told me once, "so, that's the news, and if you don't like it go out and make some good news of your own! Now, let me go find my piggy bank and help you raise those billions Doctor. I want to talk about another physician I met more recently named "Doctor You". You, being me!
Many Thanks Jim! The upgraded subscription is a thrill, kind of like being a little business owner, with said business crafted around one's passion and purpose. If these folks can make billions, we should at least be supporting people like HCR and the many others I too subscribe to on Substack and financially support. Keep in touch and ask any questions after any posts that you might have. So true about the "quiet quitters." I'm going to remember that and keep fighting it personally.
Hopefully this malignancy that’s taking office tomorrow will succumb to his mortality soon
All the money in the world isn’t gonna save him
Whewww!! Ryan.., I need a pill. Time to leave.
Is that the 'Red Pill', or 'Blue Pill'? ...
You rate yourself too low. I have been screaming in the wind about this in regards to the devastating affects on poultry farms and wild birds and other wildlife because viruses in animals are precursors to transmission to humans. This is the Pattern for years. Cowpox and smallpox. Ebola from monkeys to humans. COVID-19 from perhaps bats to humans. We need to address it at the sources as much as once it reaches humans. Truthfully the so-called wealth of crypto can be destroyed with an errant computer program released in an instant but not any disease caused by virus. We don't know how to do that part yet totally. Force the gains of computing wealth to finance the search for the solution to virus's sway or wipe them out legally.
Thank you thank you! Perhaps if more family doctors spoke out on all of these subjects, that would help to prevent more infections. But there are fewer and fewer students going into family medicine - at least from what I've heard and read.
Thanks for educating those of us that will listen!
Thanks, Dr.McCormick, for including the link to your substack article. It was great, informative reading. I'm glad I took the time to read it. I am grateful for you and all the other excellent doctors out there who are just trying to do the best for their patients, like my primary care physician in Denver who, when we talked about the possibility of RFK Jr taking over H & H, said she would just continue to do good, science-based, medicine. Thank you.
Such a basic and good goal, I'm going to tape that to my wall. We must all just keep on.
"Trump is not as good at governing as he is at performance:" That's not saying very much at all.
It's not Trump - it's Project 2025. The protections afforded by government regulatory agencies are exactly what Project 2025 puts an end to. Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought, is Trump's nominee for Director, Office of Management and Budget. Vought claims the independence Congress has given administrative agencies is theft of presidential power - and he'll fix that. By expanding executive authority including: defunding by impoundment of congressional appropriations to fund regulatory agencies and compromising independence through Schedule F which puts the civil service under the president's control.
Previously, Republicans had been content with, or constrained to: legislative depredations such as tax schemes predominantly benefitting ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations; judicial decisions such as Chevron gutting the regulatory authority of government agencies; and cabinet members opposed to agency missions. Now Republicans are making a two pronged attack on the United States government itself - 1) putting a president above the law and folding all executive authority into the person of the president, making demagogue Donald Trump the first American tyrant and 2) making Congress handmaiden to the incorrigible kleptocrats of the fantastical DOGE. Instead of a balance of powers and oversight - fealty and obeisance, consent and complicity.
While GOP Project 2025's goal of repurposing our democratic republic as a Christian Nationalist state is not merely window dressing, imposing religious creed on civic society and parading puffery patriotism are only part of the story. The purpose behind the performance is perpetuation of economic and environmental injustice through consolidation of wealth and deregulation of industry.
We are witnessing the capture and decimation of the entire apparatus of government. What Mike Johnson calls the totalitarian administrative state, we call the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as independent agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Election Commission, Federal Reserve, Internal Revenue Service, Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Social Security Administration - to name a few for example.
The proper role of the OMB is to help improve administrative management, develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and reduce unnecessary burdens on the public and provide continuity across changes of party and administration. Senate approved positions include the Director, Deputy Director, the Deputy Director of Management, and administrators of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, and Office of Federal Financial Management.
But if your goal is to dominate the United States government, put it at the whim of an autocrat and to the benefit of his cronies, then Russell Vought is your man in the OMB.
https://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-risks-of-schedule-f-for-administrative-capacity-and-government-accountability/
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-to-combat-the-dangers-of-project-2025/
Thank you. Government is a perpetual process not a fixed principle. Democracy dies when we assume it has been finally achieved through a lazy belief in a superstitious fetishisation of change perceived as Progress. Unfortunately, financial corruption and its iniquities has been flourishing in high places in plain sight for decades within capitalist structured democracies, safe under the invisibility created by this childlike belief system. To excise this cruel canker, weakening the heart of the Enlightenment Project, we all need to actively rethink how and why and what we think. MAGA is a terrified mass reaction to the death of a false American Dreamtime which can only ever deliver more disappointment and despair 🐈⬛
Cats of the world unite.
KITTY!! KITTIES!
I've been in Kathmandu and the only river I can navigate with a catamaran was full of ashes from a public, open crematorium....maybe floating on a doggy bag in another country?
You’re supposed to flee across the oceans in a catamaran
I'm allergic to them 🤧. What should I do Bill?
Purchase a catamaran and flee to Katmandu.
I very much agree. Perhaps it's a matter of personal preference, but I would use the word "childish" in this case over "childlike". For me, childish is inappropriately juvenile behavior, while there a some aspects of children we struggle to retain, and can be admirable, even in adults who are emotional adults.
Sen Ron Wyden post regarding House Budget Committee Republican memo.Among proposals is eliminating Head Of Household status that benefits “unmarried individuals with children” and repealing deduction for mortgage interest.
https://bsky.app/profile/wyden.senate.gov/post/3lfxljgdobc24?
This!
ThankYou. News we can use. Exactly the diligent attention to detail we need. You demonstrate how we readers can honor HCR by emulating her good work and being citizen journalists here in the Comments section.
In 2016 I said, over and again, that if the best we can do is make fun of Trump then he'll laugh his way into the White House.
That was a hair-on-fire eye opener! Thanks Sen. Ron Wyden!
Kathy, as I was repeating myself many times, brace yourself Americans and buckle up!!!!
Wow! That is sure to help the economy. NOT!
Don't fret it.., Bondi's tits will calm him down. Tulsi is next.., they're his concubines. Ernst.., not so much.
4 AM and I’m laugh my ass off.
Thank you. lin• . As you list in your 4th paragraph, listing administrative agencies that keep our democracy on track and identifying the RepubliKKKan buzzwords of "totalitarian administrative state" is the crux of what this administration hopes to impose on this nation in the name of freedom. Utter garbage, say I.
Freedom is Slavery.
Well put, Lin. Most of the President-elect’s appointments are buffoonish cartoon characters who couldn’t plan their way out of a paper bag. But Vought is dangerous. He understands how policy is made and how seemingly innocuous, non-attention grabbing changes are actually seismic in reorienting the nation’s priorities. He is as deep-state as deep-state can be. And he is going to get confirmed, which means it is our responsibility to watch him like a hawk and shine a bright light on his every move.
Almost all of Trump's nominees will be 'operationally' dangerous, in that they are inexperienced, ignorant, and ideologically opposed to good government. Vought in OMB is systemically dangerous - his depredations go beyond dismantling the entire regulatory apparatus and repurposing the bureaucracy for the Charles Koch et al extremist agenda. Vought wants to undo separation of powers for Trump to say L'etat c'est moi and Apres moi le deluge.
The “sausage,” as it were
Excellent comment. Your list of agencies demonstrates again what the morons who support “deregulation” ignorantly cast aside. These “regulations,” for the most part, are what keep us healthy, safe, and secure. They regulate our air, water, medicines, healthcare processes, air, rail, bus, car, elevator, and other transportation, communication, construction, energy supply, labor practices, consumer practices, banking, finance, stock market, insurance, just a host of other requirements, without which society could not function.
They are troublesome to wealthy Masters of The Universe.
Yes
P25 is already underway. They have been working on it for several years. Now they are back, count on it.
I saw the sneer that concluded one of his responses. It was truly unconscionable.
My only bit of relief re: Vought was an article published after he left P25, which described his previous tenure as “wandering around with crazy ideas and no idea how anything worked.” I’ll have to find it. His road to the position was bizarre.
OK, stop the nonsense. Trump doesn’t govern nor run a business through a pattern. He runs it from experience and gut. And if you’ll come along for the ride, everyone will be very happy at the end of his four years except if you relinquish this power in three years hand it over to Vance things are going well. Van has eight more years. Then you might not be so happy.
Trump’s guy led him to squander Daddy Fred’s money.
Hahahaha. Read my book.📕
It apparently got to my house the other day and we are currently in South Vietnam. We have a few more stops and we’re going through Hong Kong and back home and when I get there, I will pick it up.
Please don’t be discouraged if I don’t agree with 12 words in it, but I am gonna look at it
How many bankruptcies? How many cities, businesses stiffed for non-payment? How many associates paying the price for coming along for the ride? Maybe I'm totally missing the point of your post?
You know for a bunch of smart people there’s a lot of ignorant people here a. I’ll give you a short list really quick Henry Ford H.J. Heinz, Abraham Lincoln, Steve Jobs, just a few of the people that have had bankruptcy before. It’s not how many you have. It’s how many you come back from and there’s a lot more list of people that you probably adore that. Add to that list. What I find here is nothing more than a bunch of haters needless haters. Enjoy yourselves we on the other hand will be actually thrilled starting tomorrow for the next 8 to 12 years.
It's one thing to bluster, threaten and stomp around. It is a completely other matter to be able to finnesse the wheels of Government to get it done. People will also rise up. For example. The border czar? He is already backing down on the Chicago raid.
Do not forget more people voted against him than voted for him. And millions of them are really, really angry about the election.
I have taken heart in the little things. The little mini-revolts such as Michelle Obama skipping the inauguration and the former Presidents skipping the lunch afterwards.
It seems that Michelle's dicto "when they fly low ,we fly high" didn't work, as expected. Hope that a "million little mini- revolts" works much better if million of us participate . Thanks Barbara ,we would be proud to participate.
We have to be willing to use the mud wrestling, make the GOP learn we can play hardball also.
We will prevail.
I couldn't agree more Barbara, thanks for the reminder. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi and all the others boycotting the Snake-Oil-Salesman's Convention are voting with their feet. These are small wins and big courageous acts. Nothing is set in stone. May the push-back be ruthless and outrageously fabulous.
Here's a sample from Randy Rainbow: https://youtu.be/BmrNhbn8KI8
...and taking tremendous heat from the right for 'breaking with protocol,' while Melania can refuse Jill Biden's traditional invitation to lunch at the White House - also protocol, and none on the right even raising an eyebrow.
As I understand it, now that the shindig has moved inside none of the former presidents, with the exception of the Biden’s, will be in attendance.
Really. I did not know that. He is a coward.
Being more direct, Trump is terrible at governing and if he follows either his own personal instincts or Project 2025, he is going to turn the US into a third world country like Hungary the second poorest country in Europe, although Hungary is much safer than the US. On the Global Peace Scale the US is at 132.
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/
Hungary is at 14. I suspect the US is not going to be closer to 14 with Trump in charge. Right now there are at least 20 African nations that are safer than the US. So, in addition to the measures that Heather mentions that Trump is about to inherit, the global peace index is another measure that will probably be worse.
More like Russia.
I’m glad I’m not a member of all these people that are basically as negative a human being as possible. Caring your negativity like that will only results in a negative results. Hitch a ride and you’ll be happy. Stay negative and you’ll fall behind and you’ll only have yourself to blame.
Rick writes like he's had a stroke.
Rick writes like AI.
He uses a mic.
Rick is neither. I voice text everything. And now I’m going to voice shout everything now that Trump is back in the White House.
Can you read it? Good. Tell you what I had. I did have a stroke a stroke of luck that Donald Trump is back in the White House and let the bumbler in charge is no longer there. Just reading an article today about how hard they tried to get him out of the White House. Stop him from running and actually heard. He used to take a Teleprompter to private homes to do a fundraiser. That’s about all you need to know.
Linda- I learned recently that Hungary is a country with a population around 10 million and encompassing 36,000 square miles. Doesn’t this put Orban’s “accomplishments” on a rather tiny scale? For context, Los Angeles County has a comparable population to Hungary. It’s our job to make sure the incoming administration is thwarted. We can do that if we focus on action and don’t stay trapped in our own echo chambers.
I thought that was a delightful bit of understatement.
Give it time. It's too early 😴
That doesn't say much about his voters.
But it says everything to millions of ignorant voters. 😤
Well, everybody is entitled to their incorrect opinion
Including you.
Unfortunately, you may not have seen the election results. You got it wrong
So the Inauguration is being Indoors so that only a few hundred can see it? DJT's Minions will be left out in the Cold, if Lucky, they can see DJT driven by surrounded by his Praetorian Guard... The Symbolism Is Epic... Only the Megadonors will actually be inside the Capital... The DJT Zombies should Get Smart... They Don't Count...
I googled “number of inaugurations held indoor “ and it said up to this point only Ronald Reagan’s in 1985. Is that possible that in our whole history that’s the only other one? I guess the precedent for the public to view the swearing-in outweighs the discomfort of the President. Puts Trump’s weeny decision even in a worse light.
If I wasn't a God skeptic, I would think God is going to town with signs of His/Her disapproval. I won't be surprised if it rains frogs or lightning strikes the Capital! And there's an earthquake! Just please, God - no more fire!
Yeah, you could sure count on the house California Democrats to handle those fires huh? Take away $117 million a budget be understaffed run out of water. Next election is gonna be fun to watch.
He may be worried about shrinkage, speaking of 'weeny'...
I have known 'Hard Men'... 'City Boy DJT' is no 'Hard Man'...
Or perhaps one more assassination attempt. Hmmmmmm
If informed, the millions of maga voters might, I repeat, might start getting second thoughts,assuming they one before.
Assuming that they can Think, and they have taken the 'Red Pill'...
Ricardo one can always hope. But it takes more than hope to get results and we’re going to get results. So keep up or get left behind your choice.
I'm keeping up Rick. My main concern is if we are going to have a midterm election in two years. They are going to have two years to manipulate the system as they are doing in North Carolina and Wisconsin to render elections irrelevant or manufacture a situation that would justify to declare a state of emergency or similar. And that scenario will apply on subsequent election dates. My "hope" is that before that happens, and given the bad side effects of the project 2025 on the general population and with little help from us, it's going to be a backwash of such a proportion that it would be unstoppable. Talking about hope 🤞
Wait a minute Ricardo you’re actually telling me that you don’t think that 13 million votes disappeared this time around that were here the last time around and that’s not election manipulation. Come on man. ?
Why don’t you read Project 25 and see if there are some basic precepts in there that are basic to democracy. He didn’t write it. He didn’t author it. He didn’t approve it. He had nothing to do with it. There are a number of precepts in there like the way we hold elections, holding people accountable for their voting, etc. which are very important. Here’s what I suggest for you make a list of all the things in there and see how many Trump designates appropriate then come back and talk.
"And, of course, there will be lies. Big lies, small lies, clever lies and obvious lies. As dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned in 1974 about the Soviet Union, “the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.” So too here, it will be a pillar of Donald Trump’s second term." Democracy Docket, today
By "he" I assume you are talking about felon 34 right? Definitely I'm not making any list or coming back to talk, specifically to you.
You can always hope.
Well, as I said earlier, if there hadn’t been at least two attempts on his life, he might be less tempted to bring it indoors.
Go away sir. You are falling on deaf ears over here. You just sound silly to us.
Rick's comment epitomises what is dividing this country. He says "you’re in the middle of . . . . . . a cult full of nothing but hate, closed eyes closed ears and hate." (I corrected his poor grammar)
And in response, Liberals say ""you’re in the middle of . . . . . . a cult full of nothing but hate, closed eyes closed ears and hate."
It's a situation you often see with children. "You're stupid!" "No, YOU'RE stupid!" To resolve it with children, someone in authority needs to explain that either both parties are a little bit right and compromise is needed BY BOTH, or that one party is indeed wrong, and should apologise.
Unfortunately, we don't seem to have any recognised overall authority in this country. Seem to remember it used to be the Supreme Court. . .
Rick epitomises the conservative trait - every accusation is their confession.
If you were as successful as me Ricky you wouldn’t have a problem with Trump In all avenues of life. Take that as my confession.
Wow, and now we have a psychiatrist on board you need to go back to school. You’re so wrong. I live in the day I live in the time I revel in the moment and I can’t wait till tomorrow.
All that matters anymore is money, money, money. Steal as much as you can and screw everything in the process...
Nope but nice. Try money is important because it brings a better quality of life. If you prefer to live in squalor, it’s your choice. If you prefer to be wealthy, it’s also your choice. All depends upon your work ethic. Your choice. Life is a due to yourself proposition.
Lady all the words on the page mean nothing actions from DC mean everything. Almost every single action from the last administration brought us worse off than we were before. Now there is light at the end of the tunnel you can close your eyes and pretend it’s not there or you can join us and be successful and optimistic. Try that for a change.
It’s been resolved. There was an election. Maybe you missed it.
Penny , you might realize why you lost this election that I’m not as silly as I sound. And you for the next at least four years, but probably 12 are going to be the silly ones. Love of country support of your president until he makes a mistake. Criticize if you like and that’s all we’ve been doing for the last four years with Duke cause and just cause.
Perhaps you missed it peny but 48 of the 50 states in this country became redder than the election previous.
However, a few weeks after January 6 2021 and, among other crimes, the plan was to hang Mile Pence, Biden was outdoors. Didn't your cult want to kill him?
Do NOT feed the troll.
Sorry - could not resist.
You know it’s amazing that you guys don’t even own a mirror every single one of you on here almost to a person is a troll the difference. Is you all agree with each other. As if your decision and your opinion is the only correct one so you can commiserate with one another. Unfortunate many people don’t agree with you and as soon as they do, they’re called a troll which I take as a badge of honor in this particular case.
Well, Barney did any harm come to Mike Pence? And you better be careful when you mention the word cult because you may not know, but you’re in the middle of one in my estimation. A cult full of nothing but hate, closed the eyes closed the ears and hate.
Whatever happened to Mike Pence, and he’s still alive by the way is a self-inflicted wound.
The only Hate we have is for folks trying to destroy our Country, Constitution and, last but most important, OUR FREEDOM.
Well welcome to Trump Landia. Where freedom is king.
First attempt -staged, Set up from the start - we would have a parade of the wounded ear out there and he would have auctioned off the blow off piece. The report would have been earth shattering. None of it happened. Worse, once of his died. This was proof of :I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and would not lose any support." How you feel now rick? Sucker? As Mark Twain I believe stated "You can never convince a conned man he has been conned, because pride would never allow."
Second attempt - hardly an attempt. SS catches things like that all the time.
Tell you what why don’t we take target practice on your ear and see how good of a shooter we are what a ridiculous ridiculous comment.
The only pride you’re missing pal, unfortunately is pride in your country
Between you and all the people that follow you, you might think about living elsewhere. This is your country now and if Trump play cards right it’ll be this country for the next 12 years.
Not to mention the one dead husband and the two others wounded. Oooooops
Bread and circuses, just like in the good old days in the Roman Colosseum.
Where is the Praetorian Guard when You need them? Like the Roman Senate, the U.S. Senate is becoming a Powerless Debating Society...
The Senate and the House are ceding their authority in the checks and balances to the presidency. Such a situation is EXACTLY what the founders did NOT want. The stupid and the spineless in Congress are ignoring Rick Wilson’s words, “Everything Trump touches dies.” A traitor, a fraud, a criminal; they know he is each of those things. Yes, their dishonor will remain.
Hello Jenn... I hope that as a Country We Can Recover from this... Else, the Alternatives could be very Ugly...
A-OK.
Betsy, bread, circus and billions of dollars. Just to complete the picture. 😤
Or manipulated into believing they want…
If they change their minds when they see what they get, will they admit it?
That takes courage, something they have little of.
Herd mentality.
I know a fair number of former Republicans that are very reluctant to admit it. It takes a while to earn enough trust from them to admit it. There are many more who will admit it, though.
Well, T has made hate, anger and vengeance fashionable. People delight in his savagery; they root against good news and against innocent people to be punished. This can't be good for the country...!
Well unfortunately, we’re the one that’s gonna be receiving the good news from now on so why don’t you join us and Revel in our success?
Even as a "performer" he "ain't all that great".
Neither is most TV.
- Pulled Quotes -
[MAGA's and Trump's Weak Points]
''Trump has always understood the importance of visuals and has worked hard to project an image of an invincible leader. Moving the inauguration indoors takes away that image, though, and people who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them.'' [Us: speak the truth and highlight his insecurities]
"But once the news leaked of the plan[to start deportations in Chicago] and undermined the “shock and awe” the administration wanted, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said the team was reconsidering it.'' [Us: Speak the truth and expose their plans]
Everyone and everything has an Achilles' Heel, a weakness—a vulnerable point that, when exposed, can bring about a downfall or significant challenges. Recognizing this in ourselves or others should be a priority in the coming weeks and months.
No it does nothing of the kind. It just makes him less vulnerable to idiots that want to shoot him. Well, apparently everybody are almost everybody on this blog. We have found your weakness. It’s called love of America and Donald J Trump. You just can’t seem to put the two together. Very sad.
Patriots, people who respect the Constitution and the rule of law have no respect for a convicted felon and serial abuser of women.
Well, he may not be a convicted felon much longer than what are you gonna say? Did you support Bill Clinton? Did you support John Kennedy? Did you support Gary Hart? Did you support Anthony Weiner? Would you like a longer list? I’ll be more than happy to show you what a hypocrite you are.
Whataboutism distracts from accountability by deflecting criticism with irrelevant comparisons. Pointing to others like Clinton or Kennedy doesn’t excuse current wrongdoing or answer the issue at hand. It's a tactic to dodge responsibility and shift focus, but accountability isn’t erased by someone else’s actions. Stay on topic—deflection doesn’t change facts or absolve bad behavior.
Actually, it’s an illustration of hypocrisy by the left they love pointing out defects of people on the right without looking in their own house. No, it doesn’t absolve behavior. I am totally on topic and tomorrow. I’ll be on topic for at least the next four years if not the next 12.
But .....but ......but but a jury of his peers convicted him, and not the others. Indeed he is a rapist and now a felon.
Well won’t you be dismayed when his conviction is overturned. Not to mention if I were you he was NOT convicted of rape. So be careful you don’t fall onto cnn;s error. It could cost you more than you can afford.
JL, I think rather than "looking for" is partially right; for some it is all they can comprehend. With respect to the press, that horse has done left the barn, leaving entertainment as the only "redeeming social value" remaining to it. I'm not sure how redeeming that particular activity is, at this point, especially when the influence of AI is tossed into the mix.
I see some good investigate reporting out there, but a lot less common than pre-Reagan.
Trump is a showman...I'll give him that...but ratings do not make a democracy function do they?
The educated and informed know the difference. I would select my doctor on his experience, qualifications and knowledge, not his flashy personality or entertaining abilities.
My young, uneducated Vietnamese nail technician said about President Biden, “He can’t even walk.” We need to educate those who do not know, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt couldn’t walk but he was one of our top 3 greatest presidents.
I was curious if "ungovernment" is a word. Probably not. I did see it was used referring to government by Trump and friends back in 2016. It's basically unprecedented that people seek jobs in a government to keep it from governing. I was always curious why Reagan wanted so badly to become president when he said in his inaugural "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem". It is pretty clear that this crop of cowboys are taking the jobs to get richer than they already are. Government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy.
When serious hurt sets in, minds will change. Just how long that will take, who knows? But I think it will be sooner than later. In the meantime, support the lawyers on the front lines, and continue to spread the facts.
"Yet an entertaining show seems to be what way too many voters, as well as 'the press", seem to be looking for."
Bread and circuses, bread and circuses, but light on the bread.
😢😰😡
Thank you, Heather. I feel like I just got the real news, in perspective. I hope you can continue your excellent coverage of what really seems to matter most. I am dipping a toe into Contrarian and have subscribed, but it feels like they are generating more than I have time and mental energy to consume, right now. So, please continue your Letters!
Your ardent admirer,
Vickie
This was the same way I felt after I read today's Letter. Excellent coverage of important topics that I might not otherwise have learned about.
Ditto here Vickie.
The Contrarian is overwhelming at the moment.
I think a lot of it is because, rather like the stopper coming out of a well shaken bottle, Rubin feels freed from the restrictions imposed by the Post over the last couple of years. I think that , with a little encouragement from subscribers, things will calm down after a while. The Post writers were encouraged to write long screeds - this new type of reporting requires brevity. See The Meidas Touch (even if the MT is a bit shout-y)
I Concur Lady Emsworth.
As do I.
Thank you, I love her so I’ll stick with it, just lag a bit
I feel the same way, Vickie. Yet, when I think back to the time when all that was available was a hard copy of either the Times or WaPo or any one of a number of other newspapers, we could choose which columns we wanted to read and left the rest unread. Admittedly, that is harder to do when each "column" comes to our inboxes in drips and drabs!
The Contrarian is staffed by refugees from WaPo & other 19th century formats. What is all that 'paper & ink' called? Oh yeah, "newspapers".
Users can & (I would add) MUST control incoming data. Not all authors are as brilliant as the real-time historian, Professor HCR.
I agree. I’m wanting to put at least 60% of my info gathering time on positive things that are a way forward. HCR summaries make this possible…..
Come on in ... the water in the The Contrarian is just fine.
Fact Check: TRUE. The Contrarian output is quantitatively high. I "shared" just three (3) of the first salvo over to family members which included 1 interview by JEN RUBIN of a familiar law Professor.👍
I will soon be able to tell if The Contrarian uses algorithms to direct "incoming" to my personal tastes. : ---)
Vickie, I agree. On Joyce Vance's recommendation, I subscribed to The Contrarian, expecting it to be a modern, online version of a newspaper, with multiple "articles" per issue. It's not that. It seems to be a blend of podcast, talk show and columns released in rapid-fire succession. I think Rubin, Eisen, et al jumped into it quickly, hoping to maintain income continuity. Hopefully, they'll sort it out and make it a valuable source of news and insight.
I also subscribed to Conrrarian and agree, they are sending too many small articles. I hope they revise and redesign their platform to become more newspaper style and less multi-substack.
Quite right Vickie, some times I just pass by Contrarian because of time and a little bit of confusion. I feel HCR's letters summarizes and concentrate where we are and what's going on clearly.
I don't enjoy the time of posting though. 💤💤💤
I agree. I tried to see if there was a setting to limit Contrarian to one email a day but could not find it. It’s overwhelming even though its important
I subscribed to The Contrarian, but I turned off the email notifications. I have the link saved, and treat it as a menu of essays rather than every one being a must-read.
I was worrying about the number of postings from the Contrarian too but then decided they are like a newspaper. You don't have to read every article. Of course HCR is a no brainer. I save her for last every day so I can savor every word.
Ditto —- I feel the same way
I am so impressed with all you children on here, wishing him a disease or pain. Children absolute children. Maybe you deserve what you got.
And so it begins.
I'll repeat a brief essay written by the brilliant Rebecca Solnit, for us to keep in mind over the next 4+ years of chaos, corruption and cruelty:
"They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is."
~Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark
She is a beacon, but can we ditch the MAGAt troll.
And I truly apologize for giving him so much oxygen . I KNOW in my Mind it is a waste of time. Sometimes my Heart takes over and I just have to TRY to reach them. So far I am batting a thousand in failure. Again, apologies.
I suggest the bots are just that. Not human, but AI generated.
I'm not sure there's a human behind the troll account to reach. Who can be sure anymore?
Oh, we have a fellow reader who has conversed with him and can provide information that he is really a person. What I have noted is that he sounds exactly like my former work cohort that extoll all of the things they have been promised and swear that I will not be harmed by this administration's actions. Complete and utter garbage; their disinformation sources have them believing the sky is green, the grass is blue, and bleach is safe to drink.
.......and measles will be not be back.
Thanks for that, sounds like my BFF’s son who blathers Sean Hannity non stop. He was obnoxious in 7th grade as well.
Obnoxious regardless. Just Fox creeping in here
Oh, cool! My Substack block function is working perfectly! I've been reading the comments here and didn't even realize the troll is still active.
He’s very impressed with himself. Good thing because nobody else is
Me too. It just pissed me off to read that garbage.
Dale- can you give us the instructions for blocking? Thank you!
No wonder big business loves Trump. They know he and his appointees love to con the people out of their hard-earned money just as much as they do.
How many MAGAs knew the FTC under Biden was doing so much to protect them financially?
It has repeatedly argued that "deregulation" of business is necessary to stimulate "innovation", yet while we certainly have witnessed innovation in the last few decades, a lot of technical innovation is now being used, or so it appears, to the detriment or disadvantage of ordinary citizens. A science and technology freak since before I began kindergarten, I generally felt in those well-regulated bad old days, that technology was there to serve the public, of which I was a part; yet now I feel a lot of it is working against me; to pick my pocket, violate my privacy, or manipulate me in some objectionable way.
Moreover, I have an increasing sense that a government and a society of, by and for the people is leaving us behind, while ***** like Zuck and Musk and their wealthy peers and clients, make more and more of the decisions that impact us all.
If you survey The 20th Century, you can see a great many scientific and technical firsts; Relativity. decoded DNA, transistors and silicon wafer CPUs, The Moon shot, heart transplants, and on and on, that occurred with much tighter civic control over industry. Discovery and invention continues to this day. The primary difference I notice in the age of De-regulated "innovation" is the increasing emergence of tech, methods, and extended consequences that seem a disservice to me as well as our society as a whole.
I don't think service to our society concerns them in the least.
It doesn’t, their desire to control does. Muskrat also needs to lay off the Special K, it’s messing with his mind.
"...a lot of technical innovation is now being used, or so it appears, to the detriment or disadvantage of ordinary citizens...
Should I wonder why my brain was screaming the thought, "NO S--T!" when reading those words?
Why are so many people here pessimists it’s really sad
Because we see and understand that the power mongers are in full swing and are looking to destroy our Great Experiment. They want to Rule, not to Govern.
Educate yourself and read my little red book.
The innovators have been attacking the Republic always, especially after the New Deal rescued the Republic from the Great Depression. The innovators are pikers.
Creative Crime.
To me as well…
JL, I have recently been semi-binge watching the TV series "Person of Interest." It is fiction, of course, but portrays how techno-surveillance could be used to benefit innocent people. It also warns of how it could be abused in the hands of the wrong people. In this (or any) instance, the wrong people are the U.S. government under the control of soulless megalomaniacs. I'm not sure your mind would be eased, but you might like watching the series.
https://tinyurl.com/3n2kr2wd
I’ve watched that series several times.
Most discoveries have been done using public funding (Internet, health, etc). We have a right to expect regulations on our investment.
Conservative platform
Lower taxes, deregulation
Cut nothing until we have no revenue. then balme spending.
The 20th century government seems to have taken too much time off after WW II. Maybe the People should have taken ownership of that innovation? The socialism scares kept us from being diligent.
My wife shops online as a hobby. She noticed the difference in prices depending on who in our household was shopping for the same item several years ago. She has taken evasive action by using multiple account names and verifying prices by asking friends to look up an item in another part of the US.
She has saved us thousands of dollars. Yeah, Walmart and Home Depot among other's are fucking us over.
I've noticed that for quite some time... prices have changed dynamically while I am shopping on- line. We've been surveilled by marketing firms for forty years or more - one of my first accounts as an IBM systems engineer was doing just that back in '85. Big brother? He's been around since the '60s.
Clever!!
The MAGAts don’t even know there is a Consumer Financial Protection Board, nor what it does, kind of like they didn’t know the ACA is Obamacare. The CFPB is intended to protect consumers against financial businesses from preying on consumers with things like junk fees and high interest rates. The MAGAt cult would not believe such a board exists, but yet they will believe Dems and the government can control the weather, like where hurricanes strike.
Rohit Chopra at CFPB, Lina Khan at FTC and Jonathan Kanter at AG anti-trust division are the bright spot in the last days of the current administration! Thank you for your work of applying and enforcing the current regulatory law that is on the books to our behalf. And thanks to Elizabeth Warren for her influence to get these good people into the administration. Also, Matt Stoller at BIG should be more widely supported for the good work he is doing there. Great work by all!
None. They are in their bubble of lies and disinformation. That is why we are where we are.
So the Felon 34 made 25 billions in a few hours shortly before being inaugurated.
How much money did you make ?
Buckle up America. Americans are getting poorer and "them" richer. They didn't waste a second. It's going to be a nightmare 😫
How many Americans period. Nothing was done to educate Americans on what was being done by FTC to protect US financially.
It’s the same thing in California. I’ve lived in 11 states, built homes in 3 of them and looked to buy in Texas. Just on the home buying and building front California offers so many protections it’s amazing. New Hampshire says, oh we have a building code but if you try to get the builder to follow it, or sue for their failures, we’ll ignore it and say that’s what the majority of builders do and those codes are meaningless. Along with the number of contractors like electricians and plumbers that don’t needs to be licensed.
But Republicans complain about these protections and laws because it’s more expensive for them.
So you think Trump controls all these business entities huh? I wish more of these people here would think for themselves see what they witness evaluate what they witness join the crowd and become successful for the next four years. Rather than in withdrawal.
Did you READ Heather’s Letter? Did you not understand the utter CORRUPTION that she listed? Or do you just believe your fairy tale that she just made it all up and it is hyperbolic ‘fake news?” She does ALWAYS provide Footnotes. You could check some of them out and “do you research” that you folks love to spout.
Rick Sender’s a robocall. Don’t answer the phone. Just hang up.
Yes, I read it and that’s Heather‘s interpretation and she’s welcome to it. She also chooses her own footnotes. Peny why don’t you wait to see what happens instead of judging negatively in advance? Trump is not even an office yet and already people are up in arms. You don’t even wait to see the results of any actions yet to happen. I called that negative in advance and it’s useless and it’s self-defeating and self-destructive.
“MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of [Trump] moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”
Yes, that captures it beautifully. If you are not rich, white, straight, Christian, and preferably male, you are Out In The Cold. This is no longer your country, if it ever was. If you are an ordinary citizen and voted for Trump, enjoy your imaginary gravy train or your bitterness and blood lust for vengeance for a little while longer. It is just that, imaginary, and you are soon to get punched in the face with any number of harsh realities. You are about to get fucked over, and fucked over hard, again and again. That's very bad, but what's even worse is that you, out of hatefulness or willful ignorance or short-sighted selfishness, dragged us, who have been pointing out the innumerable treacheries, dishonesties, corruptions, bigotries, and barbarities for years now, into your disaster too.
pts, my usual litany is "white, male, Christian, cisgendered, heteronormative". I like your words of "imaginary gravy train /bitterness and blood lust for vengeance"; it is precisely what is fed by the disinformation stream.
Had a recent engagement over on Facebook; a friend (former co-worker, recently retired) who shared a post regarding the LA fire. Apparently there is a hunk of disinformation that fire assistance* was coming from Oregon and Washington that was turned away at the California border due to "failing California vehicle emission standards." He posted a link to this disinformation and said "This is not true. If this is where you are getting your news, you are being lied to." I had thanked him for my post (I have two friends who have responded from rural Oregon agencies and had no trouble at all getting to LA); his reply was "I know that. My wife is there now with her agency."
Amazing that anyone could be dumb enough to believe that garbage when a fire pouring dangerous fumes into the air would be way more damaging than vehicle emissions.
Plus California has never stopped vehicles from driving in from states without the same regulations.
Holy smokes people are stupid.
Some of your cogent remarks could penitrate a few maga brains, other lost cultists still won't get it.🥺
Ya can lead a horse to water, etc. ...
I'm guessing many people won't put cause and effect together but will just be even angrier people trapped in their zero-sum thinking when the government-provided support services for their special-needs child are cut off, the medication their elderly parent needs doubles in price but Medicaid benefits are cut, food prices rise significantly because of tariffs and the shortage of farm labor, etc. etc.
' "I never thought they'd eat _my_ face," sobbed the woman shortly after voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party. '
Strap in, folks. The ride is about to begin. It will be a quick trip down at a dizzying pace; closing your eyes may help to prevent vomiting.
Or come along for the ride and be successful, optimistic, hopeful, and pro-American
Rick, actually I have been all of those things as well as many more. You seem to imply that I'm not, which is curious as you don't know me.
But I find your implication that I’m not “pro-American” to be especially risible. Goodbye, as in, goodbye.
He’s the president of the United States. And he will be lifting all boats, despite your protestations to the contrary. Get on board or get left behind.
Well, if you’re pro-American, then you should be pro your president and you should support your president until you have a reason not to support your president. And those that don’t support their president will find themselves worse off four years from now then if they did support their president so it’s your choice.
Rick, I've already have a reason not to support him. Many, in fact. Let's see, convicted of 34 felonies, 2x impeached, thousands of stolen classified docs, some not recovered, I could go on but find it revolting to rehash it.
But it's this statement of yours that is particularly revealing:
“And those that don’t support their president will find themselves worse off four years from now then if they did support their president so it’s your choice.”
So, in other words, get in line, support this guy or else. Now that's definitely not “pro-American”, as we have a First Amendment right to dissent. As Timothy Snyder says about tyrannical autocrats, “Do not obey in advance.”
Now that I know exactly where you stand, I have no wish to continue this conversation. Best of luck to you under the incoming regime. Goodbye for good.
oh and by the way, what’s gonna be your stand when the 34 felony counts get thrown out as they should’ve never been brought in the first place and I can’t believe people this intelligent as this actually are gullible enough to believe these charges and buy into the conviction, it’s actually sickening. Charges twisted into a possible case, bolstered by a porn star and a convicted perjurer. As soon as it reaches another court, it’ll be gone then what are you gonna stand on?
You can dissent all you want, but you lost an election and as Americans are supposed to support your president, but you don’t even support him even the day before he takes Office without even knowing what policies is going to enforce what laws he’s going to uphold until he’s actually done them
He will get rid of the criminal illegals first, which is something should’ve never happened and you all know that And that’s gonna cost a lot of money and there’s 1.4 million or already have deportation orders that are still here. As I said, I could go on and on, but why don’t you be rationally observant and go back and look at Trump administration accomplishments not the crap that the media tries to throw at you and tell you what he did but actually what he accomplished, despite Covid and despite the hate. Have a nice day
Ok Rick, I said I wouldn't continue but I'll grant trampy one accomplishment: Operation Warp Speed, to develop a Covid vaccine, but left it to Biden to distribute after 400,000 Americans died. Meanwhile, he stole ventilators and PPE from states -- our Gov Sununu had to hire a jet to go to China to pick up equipment, to keep 45's hand off it.
But that's the only accomplishment I see. No border wall, no infrastructure, no debt/deficit reduction, no end to fentanyl smuggling, no mew jobs (actually millions of lost jobs) etc. We could have led the world in reducing Covid mortality and illness stats but he first chose to ignore it because it would "hurt his numbers" and when it all broke open, thought that it could be done with bleach injections and strong light. And remember, the subsequent global supply chain disruptions caused the inflation we have since recovered from under Biden.
I'll leave it to you to name at least another concrete, measurable accomplishment. And if you say "tax relief", then you're either rich (and are now richer under Biden, if stock market returns are the measure (or believe the rich need assistance.) Only fools or the very rich think that he is going to help us -- he helps himself.
The 🕰 is ticking, Rick. I haven't seen your reply yet. Maybe it's because you can't find another measurable accomplishment? You'll soon be blocked, as I have better things to do.
Troll alert.
Well, your first interpretation or interpolation of my writings is absolutely incorrect. I believe Trump is in office for a reason and he will heal a lot of what ails us a lot of what Biden caused. The Biden pregnancy was an absolute nightmare to behold because first of all The Man was non-compos Mentís for most of his presidency. Fact, I just read something today that he actually took a Teleprompter into private homes to do fundraisers holy crap.
The man lost his faculties a long time ago and that’s why your party you’re very own party dumped him by the wayside in an American Coup d’ etat. And rightfully so. But when you replaced him with a dingbat, you made it worse for yourself instead of taking your time and put up a electable candidate you gave us cackles who pretty much never earned a thing in her life.
Beyond that I just believe what I believe, and I believe that most of the people here are incorrect in their beliefs, assumptions, and anticipations. And I believe if you give a time the United States will rise like it hasn’t in years.
Trump did no such thing as tried to overthrow the presidency what a crock
1000 people unarmed are going to overthrow the government give me a break even you are smarter than that. In the meantime, I hope he pardon them all on day one because at the same time that was happening a couple billion dollars of damage and 25 policeman were dead because one man in Minneapolis died
By the way, no one is suggesting that the American system has died I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Pence was targeted by what? Pence was targeted by lack of loyalty. And pence was in part targeted because of personal ambition.
Nobody is putting themselves in debt to put Trump in the White House. What are you trying to infer? The economy is going to be stronger. The economy is going to be wealthier. People are going to be less taxed and freer
And I could spend too long on dealing with your post, but no one is blaming immigrants. This country is made up of immigrants it’s entirely made up of immigrants and their descendants. It’s the illegal term that is got Americans upset because they got an unfair advantage.
You might not realize it, but a majority of Americans don’t think like you and don’t think like this group. We see the upside of Trump’s policies of Trump’s vision of America for all Americans, and if you had bothered even to look at Trump administration accomplishments from his first term, you might understand a bit better but nobody here has ever done that. Further, if not for Covid, Donald Trump would just be leaving the White House now not coming back to it.
And this country fell into total decay and disarray during the Biden administration now evaluated as the second worst presidency in history, just above Richard Nixon And that’s generous so watch evaluate as things go with an open mind and an optimistic heart and brain There’s anything I see here that really counterproductive is the hate and pessimism and Trump hasn’t even taken Office yet
Just so you know, January 6 was a pimple. And hopefully the thousand people that were arrested on January 6 will be released within the next few days or coming days. In the meantime, the real damage to this country was done pretty much at the same time by the death of one black man named George Floyd. That was the real damage to this country two to $3 billion of damage. 25 policeman killed cities burnt to the ground cities occupied over what ? One drug induced convict, restrained by accident and died. And the country went apeshit.
And the most ironic thing is that the policeman was convicted. End of story.
Actually, you’re wrong on one count. He does have the support of most of the people and that’s why he’s going back to the White House. So let’s get that straight
It would take me quite a while to respond to the rest of your diatribe
And unfortunately, I’m here on a cruise touring Vietnam to see what happened when I was in college back then
I’m getting my approval writing from the voters. Maybe you should take a clue. And most of the people that voted for Harris didn’t vote for Harris. They voted against Trump Harris shouldn’t be anywhere near Washington DC. She’s a joke. She’s an absolute joke.
Had they put up a better candidate they might’ve had a chance.
She she would’ve been the least accomplished individual ever to reach the White House
In the meantime, Donald Trump is your president. Apparently he’s gonna put out a couple hundred executive orders on day one which will start the ball rolling back to normalcy in this country.
I see a bunch of educated D’Hair X were focusing on the wrong things and not on practical matters
Too many hypocrites here that gave people like Clinton and Kennedy, a pass, but hone in on Trump, who had a cacophony of BS thrown his way and very soon the 34 counts will go away as well. You won’t have a lake to stand on from that perspective and I can’t believe anyone actually believe those in the first place Key witnesses, a porn star and a convicted perjurer.
In the meantime, stand behind your president, stand behind your country and we will come out of the dorms left behind by this crazy bat shit moron, who just left, who actually needed a Teleprompter to do a fundraiser in a private home. Sickening.
And lastly, I bet there’s not one person here that even bother to see what Trump’s real record was when he was president and if not for Covid, he would just be leaving office now, not coming back to it as much as you wanna hate him
Google Trump administration accomplishments it’ll take you about an hour and a half to read. Maybe I’ll wake up because everyone on this block who seems to be an intellectual is closed minded
Can the Trump administration come in & stop any of this progress in 2 days? I hope not. Thank you for so much information, educational.
Gail, my question exactly..along with, why did they wait til now?
Gail, I found an answer in HCR's cite, The Big Newsletter:
"The reason these actions matter is because they are now in the courts, and the incoming administration will have to, like it or not, manage the casework. For some actions, like the PBM report release and the rule barring , the actions are bipartisan. For others, like the John Deere right-to-repair lawsuit, Trump’s incoming FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson issued a stinging objection to bringing the case.
Yet, while there is likely to be some backsliding on antitrust enforcement, it won’t be a return to the days of Bush/Obama. On John Deere, Ferguson probably will carry it forward, but if he doesn’t the suit was brought along with Minnesota and Illinois enforcers. More importantly, the days of libertarian control of policy are over. This week, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in her confirmation hearing gave a nod to antitrust and the incoming replacement for Kanter and Mekki, a respected lawyer named Gail Slater."
Thank you.
The Felon King and his Crime Family of Goons and Thugs are about to begin their assault on America. And it will be and is time to fight back..................... Remember he and his billionaire buddies are coming for your money - "The Oligarch’s Mission: Plunder our tax dollars by privatizing our government and selling-off agencies and public assets to the highest bidder, gutting regulations for corporations and rolling back protections for working people; and slashing taxes for the rich by cutting public programs."
Murray, will post here yet again my “oh no, not on my watch” fight song (a classic from the 80’s) & anthem to resistance…gives me boost-juice when I hear it: Jackson Browne’s ‘Til I Go Down’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw
Love Jackson Browne.
You might want to ask Darryl Hannah how she feels about him Anne-Louise, he may have had a good song but that may be the only thing good about him. 💥
Not too many entertainers' private (?) lives bear scrutiny. Music is what interests me.
Great jam Barb...
I hope not too many people share your optimism lmao. There are millions of people who can’t wait for all his programs and policies to take affect. Here’s an idea why don’t you wait for the fax to come out instead of being negative in advance like most of the people here
Nobody said it better Murray, you might be Smart. 😁
I don’t understand why the various consumer protection agencies, etc, didn’t do this 2 years ago instead of 10 minutes before the end of the Biden administration. Can someone explain?
Millions of reasons...most of them green...is the cynical response...one true for a long time too.
But consumers protection agencies have been making some progress as reported in Matt Stoller's newsletter "BIG." Several of us have posted information from BIG here for over a year in comments. Glad to see him getting cited by Heather since then. https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-tiktok-problem-is-not-what-you
Sickening. I've seen more morally focused, intellectually engaged creatures at the bottom of a pond than those who voted for this. That said, today is the day I load up the cart, hitch the mule, and head up the hill to a fortified monastery, where the local bishop has promised us villagers some refuge.
I'm leaving this dirge attached to the door of my humble hut . . . perhaps I'll meet you again some day as I walk the cloister in meditation. Cowardly? Yes. But if you saw me you would see no hero . . .
January 19, 2025 CE.
And it is a bright fall day in 1180 BCE and the horse’s massive wooden head appears over the city’s towers while crouched and stifling the soldiers keep still . . .
And it is a sultry August day in 410 CE and outside Rome’s Porta Salaria Alaric and the city wait . . .
And the rains of the night have finally stopped this morning of October 25 in 1415, and the French look oh so gallant in their arms . . .
And it is partly cloudy this early evening of April 14, 1865 in Washington, and a man drinks in a saloon with a small revolver in his pocket . . .
And it is humid at 11:58 PM, June 21, 1941, as the generals of the Wehrmacht stare intently at the second hands on their watches . . .
And it is bitter cold, this January 19, today as Kalliope sits on a distant hill preparing to finish her work, glancing up occasionally, watching the once protecting gods desert their temples . . .
They are all waiting . . . waiting for the end . . .
Welcome 🐈⬛🥷
You are a gifted writer.
How are Trump and his flunkies going to handle the bird flu? Decree that it doesn't exist?
“It will just magically go away”
By Easter, like COVID.
Donnie will claim it’s the Easter Bunny stealing all the eggs, “who can control that? I sure can’t”
Since it's bird flu, "go" will become "fly."
And Biden just happens to offer some last-minute pardons with no surprise whatsoever the J6 committee and Anthony Fauci speaking of magically going away.
Thank goodness this isn’t the oldies Miss step that Adam Schiff has made and perhaps Trump will decide to involve himself in that or perhaps Kash Patel is more interested.
Wrong Ted, it's going to be resolved by JFK Jr.
RFK Jr, Ricardo?
He'll just get up in front of the microphone with Mr Kennedy every morning and we'll have a re-run of the COVID routine. (Much later: scanning my e-mail list just now, I read "microwave" for "microphone". Eek, what am I thinking???)
That happens to me often. Price to pay for reading HCR letters 2 or 3 am EMT and trying to put together a comment way before my first coffee. At least after your comment Anne-Louise I don't feel so lonely. 😅
(Laughter, with my first coffee)
Well, look at all the crystal balls and Ouija boards. We have here today. Why don’t you ask yourself why all of a sudden three days before his inauguration? We have a quasi outbreak of bird flu and you don’t think the timing is prescient ?
I hope it gets a few obnoxious trolls first…
Me too. I wonder if he was a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader?
🤣
Well, it might if you consider yourself a troll which you are just like all the rest of these people that post and post and post and post and answer and answer and answer and commiserate with each each other like lemmings you guys are the trolls. So you might just get a few obnoxious ones.
Bleach
Will they tell us how we don’t need eggs or poultry? No eggs in Costco for the second week and none in Sprouts yesterday. I bought 3 dozen when I saw them last week. I know vegetarians have a way to make things without eggs but MAGA who puts up BS about Democrats banning beef will never go along with that.
Are egg producers holding back their product so they can release it when Trump takes office and claim he fixed it? Will we see a sudden glut and decrease in prices.
How does the bird flu spread among the chickens? If they’re housed indoors and never exposed to outside birds are they safe? Our zoo took all our birds off display or put the flamingos under a canopy.
I’ll tell you how we’re gonna handle it like the timing is a little awry and unusual.
But by the way answering Rachel’s comment earlier
So many hypocrites here so little time. The White House has been filled with sexual predators, almost exclusively Democrats. One are the worst sexual predators in history of the presidency was one of the best presidents of our lifetime
Thank goodness I’ve been an independent for 40 years and look at the entire body of work instead of focusing on one’s loins like you grotesque people seem to want to do. How sad.
Talk about people being literal I think your minds have a little cubbyholes in your brain and if And you find a way to cubbyhole people rather than look at their entire expanse of work product. How very sad And you’re supposed to be the liberals what a joke.
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Easy they are going to blame the democrats....and they already control the media....imagine.
Better question is how is it that three days before his inauguration we have bird flu.
Couldn’t they figure out something more novel to try to destroy him? But it won’t work.
This brilliant writing points out that the sparkle of the latest oligarch surge has been quietly operating in the background all along. Nothing has really changed since the days of the military and industrial complex except that the preening has become more visible. I think they would have been smarter to keep it under the radar, but their egos and greed are getting the best of them. We are in for a miserable time. What’s the saying?…Rubbing salt in the wound?
No need for under the radar any more, they rule, come Monday.
As you said it’s no different than the time you’ve been experiencing for the last 30 years. The only difference is that now. Trump is the president so you want to take shots at him when he had nothing to do with where we got to today.
But he will improve it all. Following him now is the place to be not fighting him
A convicted felon? NEVER!
I guess finding leakers to let the news out before the official announcements might be a great strategy.
Cryptocurrency on the cusp of becoming main stream! Mainstream for who? So I know very little about cryptocurrency but let's be honest isn't it all smoke & mirrors? Isn't it just another thing for people that already have more money than god to play with, control, manipulate, hype to get the crypto newcomer to invest? Invest what? Seems the only thing crypto is good for is money laundering & for stealing money from unsuspecting customers?
Sounds like something that's going to be right up the conman- in-chief alley. Smoke & mirrors to rid the gullible of their hard earned cash!
I propose that signs be installed in all major banks & on all entrances to big cities that says:
US for sale inquire within for prices.
This is going to be a long road of cheating, lying & cruelty brought to you by the felon, draftdodging, narcissist, mysoginist, & socio & psychopath in control of our government.
Disgusting don't you think?
You lament, “ So I know very little about cryptocurrency but let's be honest isn't it all smoke & mirrors?”
I’m
No expert, but two important things about cryptocurrency I do know: 1. It is anonymous, and 2. It is untraceable. Those properties make crypto the currency of choice for mobsters, organized crime and human trafficking. It’s also handy if you want to bribe Trump or any other shady politician or businessman.
Exactly. Crypto is an invisible mobile tax haven. A currency tailormade for crooks and criminals as well as those who feel betrayed by their government and those refusing to pay tax from moral outrage at the failure of political representation. The question all past and present serving politicians should be asking themselves in response to its creation is when and how did they fall asleep at the wheel of governance and so engender so many who feel abandoned. Despair and rage can drive us all to do crazy things, like voting for a duplicitous raping felon to be head of the most powerful country on the planet.
Unregulated cryptocurrency is going to be our economic downfall.
I don’t know about economic downfall. But certainly it fuels any amount of unsavory economic activity.
Want Trump to do you or your economic or ideological a favor, PSU him with crypto and no one else need know.
Gee, I wonder how they got government permission to do x, y or z?
“The Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
It was never the survival of the fittest, but the survival of the most adaptable to change.
"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”… said the Red Queen to Alice.
Isn't it what felon 34 sells all the time, smoke and mirrors? Otherwise how do you think he got the votes to be king?
Lina Kahn is one of my heroes.
Lina Khan and her team at the FTC did a superb job of exposing corruption at the corporate level aimed at the consumer. All companies are concerned with are quarterly sales and revenue at the expense of us. She was not loved by big business but i felt a bit protected with her watchful eye. Impt work.
And The Crypto Ball. It’s all so sick. No TV news here and Monday is only MLK Day.
TY HCR for this Letter. Important to know all the FTC, CFPB and other suits.