Tens of thousands of Minnesotans took to the streets today in bitter cold temperatures with wind chills of -20°F (–28°C) to protest the occupation of Minneapolis and St.
Powerful what Minnesota did today. Keep it up! Keep raising your voice. Be LOUD. We deserve better and together we can save our democracy ❤️🩹🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
1. More effective to protest to the four (4) Minnesota House Republicans rather than expose to allegations that the protests are riots. Pi ckedt their offices, homes, donors, etc. Protest Fox.
2. Meidas 2 pm. "Donald Trump is back in Washington, D.C., and he is clearly losing control. At the same time, a historic moment is taking shape across the United States. A general strike that began in Minnesota is now spreading to other parts of the country, with workers, nurses, and pro-democracy activists coordinating actions that we have not seen at this scale in roughly seventy years. The goal, shared openly by organizers, is to make this the largest general strike in modern U.S. history."
Re #4, the Trump/Epstein Pedo Files. The desperate attempts of the MAGAts to keep those out of the hands of the public has long since persuaded me that there is information in there that is really bad for Trump, and thus for the fascist Project 2025. Some of the rumors I've been hearing lately are truly hideous. I'd previously dismissed those as unlikely or fabrications, but the very intensity of the MAGAt reaction is starting to lend them credence in this not-unbiased observer's eyes.
Again the relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal Christonazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
Brava to Heather in her writing but I must diverge on one point. The founders understood freedom from tyranny to be freedom from paying tribute to the king. And liberty didn’t hardly facilitate de-enslavement of those enslaved. Indeed, most founders prospered by slavery and we should never ever try to excuse the expression, white wash this point. The great hope of the colonists were to build wealth by buying as many salves as could be afforded and working them in the fields.
Your last sentence ignores the effort of the founders to abolish slavery at the country's birth> Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration accused the king of "violating the sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people...captivating and carrying them into slavery." That was struck out by the reps for South Carolina and Georgia, whose signatures were vital to the military success of the colonies. But the southerners missed the key passage, on which Abraham Lincoln would later focus: 'all men are created equal...endowed by their creator...unalienable rights..."
It is all too common these days to trash the Framers, but while they were certainly flawed human beings and to some extent men of their times, what they bequeathed to us was utterly revolutionary.
Did they get it completely right? Of course not, and we should not have expected that they would. It was a first effort at a political and social reply to over four thousand years of top down rule. But they knew, as far too many of us seem to have forgetten, that buried in their blueprint was an extraordinary promise which they, for all that they didn’t do it themselves, left to us to finish or at least to continue to improve. That promise is the true nature of American exceptionalism - an unachievable goal but one which was, as Lincoln noted, “The great task remaining before us”.
An addendum: And certainly there is room for honest interpretation and mine is that the 1770s were a period of rebelling against the Stamp Act and/or not paying tribute in taxes. No taxation without representation you heard that line? By the 1850s, many and mostly northerners perhaps because the land was less amendable to large scale plantations, evolved a resistance to enslavement and hence the war between the states. Abe Lincoln’s own family linage owned slaves. His own great grandfather might have objected to his evolvement to endorse freedom for all humans.
Somewhat similar to the limitations of the Nuremberg trials.
The allies ended up not going too far into a country's history because they didn't want to open the curtains or look under the rugs of their own histories.
That isn't to say there weren't steps to prevent future abuses with things like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This was the essence of the Constitutional Convention that in order to preserve the Nation, compromise with the southern states and pushing the issue of slavery down the road was necessary. Ben Franklin talked about it often in his letters and struggled with it mightily as did others. Franklin evolved into an abolitionist eventually.
I guess you are correct in pointing out that in this time of horror for our country, we can never forget that bothsides-ism must be kept at the forefront, even if not so relevant to the moment of trying to protect our current laws and Constitutional order.
Can we all agree that the idea that “people who identify as progressives are good and people who identify as conservatives are bad” is as bad an idea as every other “divide and conquer” tactic? Can we all agree that the best partnership in the history of the human species is between a real progressive and a real conservative? Can we all agree that being a conservative in name only is bad, and so is being a progressive in name only?
In other words, can we all agree that the first Republican POTUS knew what he was talking about? And ... so does HCR!
James, an acquaintance of mine once said to me with incredulity, "So, you're a conservative liberal?"
Well, I guess I am. "To those that much has been given, much will be required." A paraphrase of Luke 12:48, to which my atheist parents were not aware, but taught this principle to their children.
I took this teaching as, "Beware of great wealth or fortune, for the costs are high." The costs are fragile friendships (based on money,) targeting by those who want what you have (persecution,) and distain by your fellow (wo)man for hoarding wealth.
In order to belong in a society, you must give back at least as much as you have been given. Otherwise, you are just a parasite. If you possess great intelligence, share it with others who will continue seeking scientific and philosophic endeavors long after you are dead.
Heather has, in her podcasts, talked about how you can INDEED be both liberal and conservative! The issue is, methinks, in today's culture, people have lost sight that a "conservative" in politics is not the same as "conservative" in cultural views.
As a recovering atheist, I can attest to the tendency of so-called scientists who treat challenges to their implicit assumptions the way I treat a mosquito landing on my forearm. Luke 12:48 is a logical conclusion of the first Christian principle of loving your neighbor and even (especially) your enemy. It's okay to assume the other person is wrong. It's not okay to leave your assumption untested. In other words, the language a person uses is the only way to tell the difference between a real scientist and a real Christian.
Actually can we all agree that the best partnership is between an American citizen and the essence of the promise of the Constitution?
In that sense, conservatism and progressivism are two sides of the same coin.
Continuing to divide the two is usually counterproductive in that it amplifies our all too human tendency to separate ourselves in to all sort of groups, mostly based on wholly illusory differences, and then peer at each other suspiciously over the boundaries we’ve thus created.
We agree that the best partnership is between an American citizen and the essence of the promise of the Constitution. We also agree that conservatism and progressivism are two sides of the same coin. However, dividing the two, like a hammer, is a tool. We can use the tools we have at hand to create something of lasting value or we can use them to hit other people over the head.
How-to instructions for creating something of value by using the "divide the two" tool:
Thank you. All prayers deeply appreciated. (Though I am not a Christian --am an agnostic, albeit with Gaian pagan leanings -- I very much believe in the power of focused thinking, which is what prayer is, and which I have seen work.) So again thanks to you and all others so inclined.
Loren, I love your definition of prayer. I've never seen it expressed that way, so succinct! I have a bulletin board by my desk where I have posted various inspirational messages to help me in my writing efforts. I will post that on it.
BTW, a dear nephew of mine is Pagan. I confess to asking his advice when one of my kids needed help I couldn't provide. I prayed AND lit a green candle, surrounded by a salt ring. Smote it be.
I keep praying, asking God to take TRUMP to judgement. Maybe I need to drag out the green candle.
You should read my book, The Divine Language of Coincidence, about the miracles I've experienced since the age of 19 that include two first-hand accounts of spontaneous healing. From my perspective these things cannot happen in our physical world without Divine Intelligence. I am praying for your healing....
Oops, my mistake: I assumed you Pam B were responding to U.S. ADOPTION OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS AS ADVISORS AND COMRADES AT ARMS which is now way below, as the Substack Nurds are trying to bury it down-thread.
Though the evidence for what follows is entirely circumstantial, it is at least arguable the (real) significance of the murder of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 22 November 1963 is that is the day the long-simmering bi-partisan Nazification scheme became fully operational. Note the eleven years of political murders that followed, ending with union activist Karen Silkwood in 1974, also the very obvious transformation of the Democratic Party from staunch defender of the New Deal to willing collaborator with the Republicans in its destruction, effectively serving as their Fifth Column.
Loren: Thanks for posting the link. It really reflects not only the violent natures of these 2 men, but also the arrogance and entitlement of the whole cabal. Those around the orange one (I don't like calling him a man because it would be insulting to men) are equally culpable for supporting and egging him on. I am close to your age and I hope we both can see the end of his days..
Hi Loren, I read the court document. It's is both chilling and disgusting. This info needs to be publicized everywhere. I'm not that tech savvy but I will try and get it out there. Thank you. You're a hero and I pray for your health and well being.
Loren, I accessed the link you provided last week and reread it today. I'm amazed that a child of 13 years was able to endure what Jane Doe did and survive. That Trump would attack this girl, then scream that he can do whatever he wants reflects his belief that his position and power allow his behavior in everything he does. This deranged monster and his ilk need to be held to account for what they perpetrated against these children/women, as well as what they're attempting to do to our country and the world order. The fact that they claim that their actions are sanctioned by God/Christ proves their hypocrisy and criminality. They MUST be stopped.
Don't know; my desktop (Firefox browser/Windows 11 operating system) has in its Application Menu a text-enlargement tool, though what I see on my monitor at 100 percent is large enough for me to read without glasses -- and after cataract surgery my close-up vision is nearly nonexistent (+3 reading glasses). Very sorry to hear of your difficulty, equally sorry I can't be more helpful.
Most assuredly. It's a public document, therefore presumably in the public domain. In any case, you don't need my permission as I'm not its originator; I merely picked it up from another Substacker -- to whom my belated thanks -- who posted it here on Dr. Richardson's site last month.
You are a hero. I had never seen the complaint. I have read it and passed it on to friends. Just awful. I am 84 and first generation. I never thought I would see what is happening and my parents who came to USA from Europe right before the war because they saw what was happening and believed so strongly in what they thought America stood for, would be horrified. I send you all my best.
Thank you. Given this complaint, I suspect the material the criminal Regime is criminally suppressing is so vile, its perpe-traitors fear its revelations will mobilize the entire country as Minnesota is mobilizing.
This morning my State Senator is hosting a town hall of sorts where everyone is invited to inform the constituents of our district about what is happening in the State Legislature. I am going to bring several copies of today's LFAA to distribute to attendees that haven't seen it today. Since it is a public building, I am going to leave copies around the building.
The professor has a great following, but what if we put out a free copy of selected newsletters in a stand with the real estate book and the free newspapers in the store entrances in our communities?. Would we reach additional people that aren't familiar with Substack or any of it's contributors?
Great idea. I cut off our address label and put our magazines at a nearby laundry mat. Such as the "Atlantic" , "New Yorker" "New Mexico Wild" :The Sun" ...I think adding selective printouts of Letters would be an excellent addition
Didn't know it is so available -- I'm truly a compu-moron -- so many thanks for the info. (To date my sharing of Dr. Richardson's vital reports has been by sending links, though -- alas -- even most of my former-activist friends are so depressed by what obtains they avoid the news as if it were a nest of venomous serpents.)
Gary, I agree with your recommendation, but it is a little unclear. As a former publisher of real estate magazines in multiple markets, I would caution against placing anything in displays of other publications. The publishers pay for those displays and must secure permission from the businesses and/or municipalities where their displays are located. Placing your own materials in their displays is a form of trespassing which probably wouldn't cause legal problems, but could provoke resentment, which doesn't help the cause.
Best to get your own displays or get permission from businesses to place copies at checkstands or other "neutral" spaces.
Like I posted earlier, I learn so much from the folks here! Thanks, Dale, for your insight. Maybe my suggestion (right below) would work for folks. Methinks, I might pick up a few pads of post-its today.
Additional note: When our distribution drivers found "foreign material" in our displays during their replenishment routes, they collected it and brought it back to the office where it was summarily tossed in the dumpster, causing the "trespassers" to waste their money.
At the NO KINGS rally, I was quite surprised at the number of folks I talked to who were unfamiliar with HCR!!
I know someone on here (sorry, can't recall your name whoever you are) leaves notes about democracy in random public spots. Maybe small notes on the order of "GET THE TRUE STORY! READ HEATHER COX RICHARDSON'S 'LETTER FROM AN AMERICAN' FIND HER ON SUBSTACK"
We could start a post-it-note brigade, leaving this stuck in public bathroom stalls, stuck on MAGA bumper-stickered cars, tucked inside menus, slipped into bestsellers displayed at the bookstore. I bet others here would have more suggestions of likely spots!
Great idea! But to be really useful, your sticky note should include the actual link to this Substack. My marketing experience tells me that (sorry) consumers are lazy. If you don't spoon-feed them the information they need, they won't bother to search. They'll need this:
The attempt to shield himself from the Epstein files is HUGE! He's willing to go to war over it. Foreign wars were one thing his base was seriously opposed to. But eventually it will all come out.
Right...you can't impose christian law on a nation whose leader has violated most of the Ten Commandments. It's time for maga supporters to recognize the boundless violations and egregious calamities perpetrated by our dear leader. The Christian piety supported by Voght is frankly genocidal and supports human suffering.
I am not assured that this information is accurate, as Anne P Mitchell Esq is very protective of access, but a purported transcript of a deposition from Virginia Guiffre names Alan Dershowitz Les Werner and Prince Andrew as her abusers, as well as a redacted name. It may be anyone, but one wonders if this one is trump. He is in the files thousands of times.
I suspect the MAGAts would find a way to excuse this too, though.
Beyond doubt, those files have been redacted into black, blank nothingness. The only witnesses to a portion of that history are those who were abused. They hesitate to say anything because it would be called here say. AND Teflon Don slithers on.
The cult absorbed, accepted and denied any and all of scumps moral transgressions. You and i could hope to peel off maybe 5% of its core enablers which is worth it but I've realized that most are beyond help. It 's really hard to swallow but this is who we are as humans . It's a constant problem.
James, read an interesting article yesterday about the Clintons refusing to appear over the Epstein files and risking a contempt of Congress. The author's point is that this can lead to discovery which would require the files.
Absolutely agree. Trump, and the other “electeds” have changed America’s standing in the entire world to keep them from their constituents. Meanwhile, Putin is smugly laughing his butt off.
Heather, again you’ve given another response to trumps daily nut job of lies and displaying himself as a lying narcissist that expects all of us to bow to him and kiss his ring. We can only hope we get the majority at midterms and impeach him, JD Vance and all his staff.
Trump is being shunned by the world's democracies after Davos. His authoritarianism and corruption are being called out by most of Europe.
Two groups have to turn against Trump to cleanse America of this rot: the majority of the American people and the oligarchs supporting him.
Minnesota is leading the revolt of the American people to preserve our rights and values and return to public integrity.
Now we have to show the oligarchs that it is in their vested interest to abandon him as well. That means a boycott and a general strike. A large part of the country will be snowed in. Don't buy on Amazon or use Kindle or Prime Video, use an alternate browser like DuckDuckGo instead of Chrome or Edge, and don't use Facebook or other Meta services, or any form of AI.
Except that I think that the oligarchy engineered the rise of Trump over several decades, and is the real power behind the throne. They may tire of Trump's many blunders, but I doubt they will abandon their despotic goals without massive public resistance. It happened here at least once before in the wake of the Gilded Age, but we let a lot of that work slip by decades of relinquishing the the rules to that made it harder for those who would be kings to work their will. It will, I think, take a massive shift of public focus to win back even those protections that we passively, when not eagerly, discarded.
I didn’t say it would be easy, but it is necessary.
AI MUST be regulated. Democracy won’t survive in an age of deep-fakes and truth distortion.
Personal privacy MUST be protected. Democracy does not survive in a surveillance state.
Wealth inequality MUST be reversed. A people cannot thrive if they can’t afford education and healthcare, when all basic needs are privatized and turned into profit centers and rationed for social engineering.
All of that is due to the rise of the oligarchs.
The only thing they will respond to is a hit to their bottom line.
Correct, unless we regulate A.I. "Democracy won’t survive in an age of deep-fakes and truth distortion." We are fighting to survive the age of "Reality TV Stars" with fakes and truth distortions.
Every Congressional candidate is up for reelection in 2026. Demand that every candidate host open town hall meetings especially incumbents.
If they are incumbents, picket their offices in your district demanding they meet with the people. If they do host a town hall make sure the local TV and other media attend with cameras.
And remember, even if your R representative is reasonable (is there such a person?), every.single.republican is as responsible for 47’s destruction as Trump is. Every single R on the ballot—every one—needs to be voted out for not stopping him and for not exercising their duty of oversight.
My Rep NJ07 R, Tom Kean, Jr., got over $1 Million from Musk’s PAC in the last election. He only shows up at Republican PR events. He has voice-only telephone “town halls” with questions clearly pre-written by his staff. A group demonstrates outside his office every Friday. His staff only allows 2 people in at a time into the office to write messages and he is never in.
He moved his office to the very far corner of the district, away from the population centers.
NJ07 was redistricted in 2022 by Dems to make Mikie Sherrill’s and other surrounding seats “safer”, and so Tom Malinowski, the incumbent D lost by a hair. Turned out they didn’t need to have done that. Jersey has a Dem machine that didn’t like Malinowski.
Georgia, I'm seeing AI as the new Facebook, and just as dangerous.
When I started building websites for clients 23 years ago, most of them said, "We need a Facebook page."
And I asked, "For what purpose? Are you planning to spend all day posting and responding? What are you going to do about posts that trash your business? Or are you planning to pay me to do that? Do you have that much money?"
Most of those businesses have allowed their Facebook pages to go dormant because it's a time-suck and money pit.
Everywhere I turn, I'm seeing businesses launching AI services. And so far, AI performance is abysmal. "AI slop" is exactly the right term.
I don't want to be a Luddite, but I suspect AI is going to be a colossal failure and our next catastrophic financial bubble.
You aren’t being a Luddite. It is incredibly dangerous because there are no guarantees that what we see is what actually happened. There is no longer a standard or presumption of objective truth.
It is going to flood the midterms and we are totally unprepared.
The complete changes in our commodified country run so deep and infect every day life that what you're talking about – and I agree it's what we should be aiming for – seems like it will only happen if we have a genuine revolution. That scares me because there are still about 40% of Americans, if you believe the accuracy of polls, who support at least most of what the Trump regime is doing. I'm not proposing revolution, I'm only wondering how else a massive realignment in this country will require.
Hello J L ... DJT turning on Jamie Dimon should be a Wake-Up Call for the Oligarchs.... In DJT's Accelerating Dementia there is no Loyalty to Anyone....
A general strike should also include determining if your broker supports MAGA or not. If they do, find a broker that hates what DonOLD is doing to our country and transfer (yes, you can transfer your funds without having to pay capital gains) your funds to a non-Fascist broker and/or fund manager.
Diversify you portfolio by investing in International stocks and funds. Most of them actually outperformed US stocks in 2025 according to Paul Krugman.
Unfortunately the plutocrats rule no matter what we do. I dumped Trump-enabling United Health Care for a new non-profit insuror and have already made what I hope will be my last-ever Amazon purchase, a tool I could not find anywhere else online. But because I am a home-bound cripple and must therefore shop entirely online -- the electric shopping carts Tacoma retailers begrudgingly provide for handicapped folks are miserly few in number, are (never) adequately recharged and thus at best are extremely unreliable -- I am stuck with avowedly Nazi Walmart, though every time I order from them -- and this is no exaggeration -- it feels as if I am crossing a picket line, something that in real life I have never done nor would ever do. But I thus far have found no alternative, and cost is always a determinant. (Because I'm a single male with no dependents, Barack the Betrayer slashed my food stamp allocation from $130 per month to $14 per month in 2011, and since the Obama rules still apply, I get a mere $24 per month now; my typical Trumpflated monthly grocery bill is about $180, give or take ten bucks depending on what long-term staples -- rice, potatoes, frozen vegetables, tea and coffee -- I have to replace.) Safeway is prohibitively expensive; since Kroger bought Fred Meyer, it cancels deliveries on whim and is therefore utterly undependable; Costco doesn't deliver, though I have friends who shop there for me during their once-per-month trips; neither does Winco, which is worker-owned and reasonably priced -- actually better than Wallowing NaziMart -- and Winco was of course my preference when I was ambulatory. So because I'm a cripple -- and because any notion our society was ever adequately handicap-accessible is just another "change-we-can-believe-in" lie (and also because you gotta be genuinely rich to buy the privilege of a motorized wheelchair) -- I'm forced to shop where my expenditures actually contribute money to the ChristoNazi cause and its ecogenocidal destruction of what used to be the United States. Yes I'm working to find an alternative, but so far no joy.
LOL. I called Chase on Wednesday to ask why my interest rate was not 10%. The CSR replied that they had heard nothing about the change. I explained that the president had mandated the cap. I told her that I want her overlords to know that I am disappointed that they are not following the mandate. When I asked if the president was lying, she laughed. She said that she would pass my comments up the line. Guess Jamie Dimon only follows the felons orders if they benefit him.
Hello, Apache; as always my salute and best regards. I am posting this material here rather above on J L Graham's, where it technically belongs, in an attempt to keep it from being buried down thread. Apropos the engineering of "the rise of Trump," I assembled this information to refute a post of radically erroneous history, but now realize it is a vital glimpse of the miasma from which ChristoNazism has grown, and I thus re-post it accordingly:
U.S. ADOPTION OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS AS ADVISORS AND COMRADES AT ARMS
In the fall of 1944, the United States and its allies launched a secret mission code-named Operation Paperclip. The aim was to find and preserve German weapons, including biological and chemical agents, but American scientific intelligence officers quickly realized the weapons themselves were not enough. https://www.npr.org/2014/02/15/275877755/the-secret-operation-to-bring-nazi-scientists-to-america
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Under Project Paperclip not only rocket scientists were recruited, but convicted war criminals– including doctors who had conducted medical atrocities on concentration camp inmates, such as: experiments with plague vaccines, experiments that force fed chemically altered seawater to starved Dachau concentration camp inmates…American democratic principles were subverted by officials who adopted the Nazi utilitarian philosophy which posits that the ends justify the means..."Nazi attitudes toward research on human subjects were imported and adopted by various U.S. officials."...MKULTRA, the notorious CIA mind control experiments with LSD and other chemical agents, were the brainchild of Nazi Paperclip scientists: https://ahrp.org/legacy-of-nazis-in-america/
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“The CIA and Nazi War Criminals”: National Security Archive (Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy) – complete bibliography, with every document hyperlinked (my gift to anyone research-minded enough to track the true origins of the ChristoNazi regime.) https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/index.htm
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See also PDF: “Useful Enemies: America’s Open Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals” (Richard Rashke, Delphinium Books: 2015)
I first heard of Operation Paperclip about five years ago when I picked up The German Wife, a book of historical fiction. It was a fabulous read, btw. One idea that struck me was the difficulty of the families of those German scientists in accepting/being accepted into American life and culture. In Huntsville people were asked to befriend the same people they had just fought in WWII.
Were there oligarchs at Davos, sure some can see that the greedy bottom line is a vanishing one with chump…. But he surely is transferring assets as fast as he can. Killing the goose that has laid the golden egg.
J L, I'd like to see you write more (just a ramble no one will hold you to) about this "massive shift of public focus" you say is needed. What would that look like? I see us in a big stretch between what is and the possibilities for otherwise, and there's so much inner work, outer organizing, and metabolizing the shock, horror, logical consequences, betrayals, and pain of witnessing while being mature and responsible to each other at this time. YES, we're seeing so many heroic humans. I wonder, how do we each become one?
In the county where I live, there is a nonprofit organization that has organized to provide trained observers. In case ICE shows up here, which they will. It happens that last night we had a potluck to be updated on what might be happening soon. Turns out there are 900 of us who have been trained who have tools like whistles, and vests, and are ready and willing to protect our immigrant friends neighbors, local workers. It took some smart local leaders to harness this desire to help and perhaps where you are you could help get that going too.
Excellent suggestions. Still don’t use Duck Duck Go, sounds amateurish. So does “Google” and Google is now ridiculously ad driven. The ad mania may eventually do in the business control of every aspect of our lives. There was a time when they didn’t insult our intelligence with every effort to sell or persuade.
DuckDuckGo has been my go-to for years. With all the silly names of things that we use daily: what's app, X (Twitter), Substack... not using a privacy tool that's effective because it has an "amateurish" name seems, well, like an amateurish kind of reason not to use it. Just sayin.
I recently had an interaction with my ISP: their site would not allow me to look at the pdf of the monthly statement. The advice they gave was to use Chrome (I use Safari, and DuckDuckGo). It solved the problem, but proved that the ISP's Web lackeys are woefully incompetent. Over my life in software development (since '64) I've become very thin-skinned when it comes to bad Web sites. A pox on all their houses.
Let's all join the Minneapolis moment for a National Strike. As Trump/Miller continue their Nazi brownshirt tactics, a broad based national strike is coming to cities all across America. This is how the Anti Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights movement went national. The country's ready. We know what to do!!
Marj, none of us knows whether we will have free and fair elections in November. I write postcards to voters with Indivisible (currently voters in FL) to get as many Democrats elected in as many states as possible.
Yes, we need candidates, but as assassinations are likely, we need to think of how to protect all candidates. Look at the Brown Shirts (Germany ‘20’s) and think of Gestapo (‘30’s, ‘40’s), remembering that the president of the United States is at war with many of US and has put together an army to get rid of all of those he does not want to rule over.
Meanwhile the more we can elect before 2026, people who believe in democracy, who are not racist, the better our chances of having fair and daily counted elections.
Georgia, I feel obliged to once again post the link to an invaluable website that has helped me make the correct shopping/buying decisions. Not every brand or business is in their database, but it is being expanded daily.
Also - please go to Stand With Minnesota - it is a “nice little data base,” which lists various organizations who are helpers from food banks to immigrant right agencies. Show your ❤️ today.
I understand the fight to uphold and enforce the constitution. But when we have a Supreme Court who gives our president complete immunity, and slow-walks important decisions and allows corporations to be people and takes away the right to bodily autonomy, then where is the hope and where do you take the fight?
There is something to see here a-- video taken by a bystander directly across the street from the murder of ALEX.
MN State Senator ERIN MURPHY confirmed that the victim, ALEX, was a RN, a Registered Nurse trying to help another person , a woman, at the time of the incident,
ALEX PREDDY only offered urgent care.
This trail attorney noted that KRISTI NOEM has already dropped the phrase "brandishing a gun" from her propaganda because that is a LIE.
Alex Pretty did not "brandish" a weapon FULL STOP.
Under Minnesota acriminal law evidentiary rules a lay persons' opinions bout "intent" are not allowed in Cou because like KRISTI NOEM they have no personal knowledge of the facts.
The State of Minnesota will have the "last word" on the direct examination of ICE shooter(s) who fired the 5 fatal shots at the trial of the Minnesota criminal indictment.
ICE OUT NOW!
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Saturday Morning 1/24/26 UPDATE:
Per Senator Amy Bouchar, this Saturday morning, there has been another shooting in Minneapolis. At least 5 shots by ICE shooters.
Per, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the victim has died. 🙏
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Minnesotans on Boycott Strike:
Loud Chant :"What do we want"
Answer" ICE OUT
"When do want it?'
Answer: NOW!
Reporter: "Why are you here in Sub-zero Weather?"
Minnesotan Answer: "it's not freezing - it's balmy". Said while wearing Arctic face protection. -- ( : ...)
Look up the General Strike of 1876, a piece of suppressed American history to keep the capitalists happy. 3/4 of the working people of America were on strike on July 4, 1876, the centennial of the Revolution.
This is the history I wish Heather had addressed today. Lincoln was citing ideals rather than reality as the historical basis of our nation. The reality included both slavery and genocide for the benefit of white settlement and profit. We shouldn’t look to the Nazis but to our own history to understand the “sides” forming today - our constitution provides a firm justification for continued growth toward justice and general strikes and other forms of popular resistance have always been need to keep the principles laid down there actually operational. We’ve been watching the Constitution be dismantled for quite some time now without being sufficiently shocked to fight back. But the frog is now out of the pot and not going back.
Nazis studied the Confederacy to learn about implementing their own racist policies. Today’s giant corporations like Amazon, Walmart, Google, Palantir, etc. are the plantations of our current age. Except the giant corporations are embedded in our society in ways that the enslavers could never do on their physical plantations.
The white supremacist creed is summed up in a quote from a white Marylander in the 1850s, as reported by Samuel Green, a former slave - he'd "rather go to hell and be damned than go to heaven with a n----r". In today's version, they would rather destroy America and its Constitution than share a better place with those who are not white.
(The quote was taken from an article in the current Smithsonian magazine - "The Life and Times of Samuel Green", by Victor Luckerson.)
Let's all join the Minneapolis moment for a National Strike. As Trump/Miller continue their Nazi brownshirt tactics, a broad based national strike is coming to cities all across America. This is how the Anti Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights movement went national. The country's ready. We know what to do!!
Very wise to establish the targets. Never focus on the people they put in the streets, they can't reason whatsoever. These fascist depend on profits being made and courts working to secure their ideas of "peace."
Thomas Payne published “The American Crisis, No. I,” in the cold of December 19, 1776. There he wrote "These are the times that try men's souls,...” He might say these Minnesota protesters are not simply “summer soldiers” or “sunshine patriots” but rather “deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
The news reports 100 Clergy members were arrested in Minneapolis. Real Patriots on the side of the American Revolution. I see #5 coming down the Pike. Now we will begin seeing hundreds of Bondi’s criminal cases going down in flames due to Jury Nullification. Trump's DOJ has ZERO veracity. In other words juries will take the oath with just as much meaning as Trump and the likes of Bondi had when they took their oath and then do their duty.
I also wonder if they're trying to cover up what they may be doing to our election systems. I assume that any elections that are done via the internet are vulnerable to Musk & co. We need to be vigilant.
I like #1 the best. Anyone with a senator or congress person from the party formally known as republicans in their state should turn up the heat. Until those law makers (what a joke to call them that) start feeling the heat, they will say "off the record" this is bad, then 'on the record' call the protesters terrorist.
First of all, where are the ICE agents staying in the cities they are raiding? Are they staying in Marriott properties or Hilton properties, etc.? We need to boycott any chain hotels that will host these thugs.
And wouldn't it be too bad, if the heat went out in the hotels they are staying at?
Like the newsletter said, "CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER"
I've been in the twin cities in January when it was below zero. Many of the parking lots have plug-ins for engine block heaters. Hopefully, ICE isn't smart enough to realize that.
Congress has been ineffective, it’s action in the streets by local people that is exposing and opposing lawless acts most effectively so far. This is all a dress rehearsal for the November elections when, as seems likely, ICE squads show up at critical polling places
Even before November...watch out for March mid-terms. Some states have important positions like governors to be elected. And, as far as talk about Vlad interfereing in electoral process, that's a negative vibe in an effort to dampen resistance. The admin is very concerned! tRump said if Repubs lose in mid-terms, he'll be impeached. RESIST!!!
I can't understand why 100% of the Dems in Congress are not taking action to outlaw any form of law enforcement to use of masks while on duty. What's up with letting this horrific practice continue?
Please go read the Constitution, Article I, Section 4, Daniel. It's the part that says setting the time and place of elections is strictly the the responsibility of the States, that the federal government has no role whatsoever. Should Dilbert & Miller try, Marc Elias will have them tied up in court so fast their tiny brains won't know what happened to them. Don't spread regime propaganda and misinformation.
I agree with you in principle, TC, but a couple of things deeply trouble me. Yes, states have the singular responsibility for setting the time and place of elections but as we’ve already seen, Red states have reduced the number of polling places in urban. (I.e., Blue) districts, resulting in hours-long waits to vote. They have also reduced the hours and locations where people can register to vote or contest their sudden removal from voter rolls. Most frightening to me, however, is the likelihood that ICE agents will be deployed on fabricated grounds at the places where particular groups of voters — no need to define them here, I’m sure — will go. Fear alone will suppress turnout: ICE agents will temporarily pull individuals from waiting lines on the pretense of checking their legal status. How long will this “check” take? Will “computer delays” slow things down? Will the released citizen even wan to get back in line to vote? Will other voters witness this and decide to leave before casting their votes? What can Democrats and other defenders of voting rights do in advance to prevent this kind of thing? I’ve served as a poll watcher at elections. I’m a short 76 year old guy. How much would my objections do to prevent a 6’5”, 200+ pound, armed agent from doing anything he wants? If I’m lucky he’ll laugh and turn away. More likely, he’ll detain me for obstructing or even assaulting him as a law officer. So I ask again: what can be done by the Democratic Party, ACLU, CREW, etc., to prevent this kind of assault on voting rights?
Just because they’ve been ineffective doesn’t mean we go silent their way. I don’t think we’ll see many big waves (like a major MAGA Congress member changing their opinions), however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently. I think we can cause ripples to push news organizations to be more honest and maybe even a bit accusatory about what’s happening. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
"Status Coup News interviewed a protester walking down the street holding a sign that said: “CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER..'"
Thank God for Minnesota humor. As needed on the barricades as strength, smarts and strategy, to say nothing of hot dish...🤣 AND a powerful reminder that the most vicious of authoritarians can and do make mistakes, and not just small ones. It happens all the time. The arrogance of pig-headed cruelty blinds itself to common sense, fails to anticipate reaction, never accounts for true resistance, fixating on the false, the absurd, the non-real.
This, then, our secret weapon: *they do not see it coming, but we do.*
Never underestimate the restorative power of tater tot casserole, simple goulash, or homemade chicken and noodles! I think Clausewitz or the not very tall French guy said something like this.....
''Racial Profiling, ICE, and the Quiet Collapse of Due Process in Maine''
What happened on a Portland street this week was not simply an immigration arrest. It was a public demonstration of how fragile constitutional protections become when enforcement is driven by identity instead of evidence.
A Cumberland County corrections recruit, legally employed, background checked, and authorized to work in the United States until 2029, was boxed in by federal agents in the East Bayside neighborhood and pulled from his car. Video shows him telling agents he worked for the sheriff’s office. That fact changed nothing. His car was left running. He was taken away. No public warrant was presented. No criminal charge was articulated. The justification, later relayed to the sheriff, was simply that he was “illegally in the country.”
That explanation is not probable cause. It is an assertion. And in this case, it was almost certainly filtered through racial profiling...
Thank you Megan for posting the spreadsheet. We can all let Congress know what we believe in.
I am focussed especially on the 5 Dems who crossed the line to Magaville. The puny excuse of avoiding another shutdown quivers under the footsteps of their constituents marching in protest.
A nationwide one day general strike to demonstrate that this GOP fascist movement will not succeed would be a good non-violent message from our majority of the population. The business community, especially the tech Oligarchy and big retailers need to suffer for their support for trump and the GOP's fascist movement. I would like to see most citizens boycott fascist friendly businesses until the threat is defeated.
I agree. I signed up for a general strike back in the summer and have the link to the website on the spreadsheet. I haven’t checked to see how many have signed up in a while
And everyone, when you make your calls, please don't forget the EPSTEIN FILES.
If you've seen my comments in the last week or so, you've already seen this, but if not, please take the time to read the allegations about Trump to understand WHY he's so scared!
It's long, and IT IS GRAPHIC. Please avoid if it will trigger you.
GREENLAND (priceless trolling of Trump and his insanity):
"If Russian ships are sailing freely around Greenland, Ukraine can help. We have the expertise and weapons to ensure that not one of those ships remains. They can sink near Greenland just as they do near Crimea."
Yes, he did begin with “If”. Think about this…Zelenskyy has endured the Russian onslaughts to his beloved country and its people for for almost 4 years, he has withstood the lies and ineptitude of the two-faced, power-mad, hustler that is Donald Trump during those years, and yet throughout, he’s kept his wits about him…he was mindful enough to preface his statement with “If”. (This statement was aimed at you, Mr. Netto.)
Have never doubted that…Project 2025 same , the greater coup long in the making . America, how long will you tolerate this..or have you given us all up?
If not then stand up and end this, codify the law, because those who betrayed us , you are STILL excusing
Would that it were simplicity itself. Two Houses of Congress simultaneously on both vaycay and staycay. Both absent without pause. Courts lost in the meander in the park, where parked many ‘decisions’. The States, some in solidarity act, but not quite enough, tho promise grows. Yet despite all this, the people ARE standing up.
I'm here in Minneapolis, and I'm a 3rd generation Holocaust survivor. I’m all too aware what people are capable of. The mantra of “Never Again” has never felt more prescient than right now in my own Country and here in Minnesota. I'm very proud of what my state accomplished today under dangerously frigid conditions. This is not an existential threat, it’s effecting everyone here. Businesses are closing, people aren’t leaving the house. It’s a very real waking nightmare. Everyone that's not MAGA needs to stop being shocked, and recognize the seriousness of this threat. We cannot do this alone.
It's nice to be praised for our bravery, but it'd be even nicer if we could get more substantial support. Like, from our reps in Congress. Cory Booker saying we need to train ICE better exemplifies what we DON'T need: weak-kneed appeasement.
I so agree. ICE will have to be abolished and at some point a new agency created - that will share the motto "protect and serve" rather than the current "intimidate and kidnap"
If we need an agency to deal with immigration issues, and we probably do, it has no business being armed to the teeth and masked up like a modern Gestapo as well as behaving like one. We need to end ICE and that includes their name, no more cute name for what they are doing.
I've written to all three of my congressional reps: the only solution to ICE's attacks on citizen and non-citizen alike is to abolish it. Completely. With nothing left but the records they keep of all the crimes they've committed. And the list of participants, for the obviously necessary trials to come.
Daniel, I am first generation as my parents were both victims of the Holocaust. My mom was from Berlin and my dad, Poland. Grateful they’re not alive to see all of this.
Thank you for your presence in these comments and for your existence and life, especially today. We are also proud of what your state accomplished today through its strike, persecution and opposition.
My mother was born in catholic northern Italy in 1925 and grew up during the era of Mussolini. Eventually Italy became allied with Germany. Her town supported the partisan resistance and in retaliation the nazi came into the area and rounded up all the teenagers, mostly girls, to be sent off to “work”. My mother and two of her sisters ended up in Auschwitz and eventually forced labor at Mauthausian. They all survived but most of their classmates didn’t.
Annabel, i believe that they are not attempting, they are DOING! They are banking on the fact that the judicial rulings are slower than their actions. Time and again, people are already deported before the ink is dry on a judge’s ruling.
I understand the need of rule of law to proceed carefully and methodically, but contrary to this regime's abuse of the word, there really is such a thing as an emergency, and it seems to me that blatant violations of the Constitution that clearly and presently result in profound and material harms present a true emergency, not only for the protection of unalienable rights of parties directly affected, but in defense of rule of law itself and the survival of republic itself.
If we expect soldiers to be aware of patently illegal orders and to risk the consequences of refusing to facilitate them, surely those who are most familiar with with the letter and precedents of law should also be aware and similarly alarmed.
And hopefully someday soon we can do a ‘lessons learned’ and ensure these blatantly corrupt systems such as our mostly UNsupreme justices are corrected
Sure hope some will even acknowledge they were hoodwinked. Seems it’s harder to get them to admit that than to get them to believe it in the first place. True of my bros…
It makes me crazy that during the hearing yesterday with Jack Smith, republicans were bent out of shape about phone logs being reviewed. What if their doors had been broken down and they were apprehended without a warrant, which is what they are doing to citizens throughout this country!!
Remember all the liberty b.s. about wearing a mask during a pandemic?? They stand for nothing but a lawless society.
As an aside, as we watched those hearings, my wife was angry at what they were doing; I had to tell her that it was all performative, and not in any way investigative. That night, Lawrence O'Donnell did a piece (can't remember if it was on his show or in the panel that evening) where he said that it used to be that a hearing was a fact-finding mission. It has now devolved into political theater.
Some of them accused Smith of spying on Republican members of Congress but the logs do not disclose the contents of those phone calls. It's shameful that this honest man's irreproachable integrity had to be exposed to this sort of ugly point-scoring exercise.
Hegseth has been sacking judge advocates general who are responsible for army discipline so that no one will oppose illegal orders given by him or Trump.
Stephen Miller recently instructed ICE agents that they have federal immunity for everything they do. I have no doubt that's what Hegseth is telling the military also.
The double strike on the Venezuelan boat (and that whole blockade) shows that the US military will do exactly what they're ordered to do, irrespective of the legality of their actions.
The former U.S. military has been reduced to Trump's private SS -- that is., a band of oath-breakers, as they shall henceforth be damned in the annals of infamy.
Certainly not the theme of "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Not the America I was taught to respect in school.
If America, 2005-26 was a movie, who would be the obvious "bad guys'? It's not a stretch to call the modern "GOP" agenda "evil".
Not a stretch to call conservative rascists and misogynists of every age evil. Different hats, same people. I appreciate the GOP and the government going so far out if thier way to make it clear that leaving survivors among the leadership of the confederacy after the civil war was one of America's most fundamental mistakes.
What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden." -- Lincoln
Sadly, there is ~35% of Americans that still DO NOT believe in the nation’s founding principles of equality and the rule of law. The rest of us are going to have to set aside our lesser disagreements if we’re going to take back our government.
I think of it as developing a common focus. We may share differing perspectives, but with eyes on a mutually agreed upon prize. A mutual identification of what most matters, including overall support for one another. E Pluribus Unum.
" To stir the masses, to appeal to their higher, better selves, to set them thinking for themselves, and to hold ever before them the ideal of mutual kindness and good will, based upon mutual interests, is to render real service to the cause of humanity." Eugene V. Debs
Nice, Mojave: "if we're going to take back our government."
Why is it so easy, why is it that, as you say, "35% of Americans" dismiss our "founding principles" and vitriolically instead embrace what Heather today concludes as "blood-and-oil radicalism"?
The answer is that those founding principles require a public not only tolerant of "others," but also skilled in the nuances and complications of seeing not just groups and stereotypes, but individuals.
As we go forward, our teachers can insist on they being the center of their schools, can celebrate their own choices in teaching youth some of the basic skills in seeing others, the burgeoning literacy of essay writing that unfolds these skills as it glories in the breadth of details, specifics on fellow students, fellow community members, fellow citizens and guests. Not only breadth, but depth, too, as teachers can lead students in the citing of the apt books they the teachers know and love for ways students can learn to embrace analogies.
The Bible, which so many MAGA's bang on about (Trump's even selling them), connects obsession with money with evil. and there is a lot of stuff there that does not square with what MAGA says and delivers.
What if some foreign menace was doing all the same stuff that Trump et al is doing"? Faking official photographs, tearing out verified historical exhibits, terrorizing legal citizens and residents? Putting "Dear Leader's" name on everything? Diverting the public's money to lavish and/or unwanted conceits, etc, etc. etc? And the regime sort of is foreign, no? In terms of the thoughts of our historical leading light? In terms of the Constitution?
Some of what you list is vulgarity, J L, others of it sheer and base criminality.
Greater problem is the mass of Americans schooled to stupefaction, anesthetization, insensitivity, blindness. Elite law schools have failed us, universities, mainstream media -- huge institutional failures in too many places.
We cannot blame the teachers. They have no allies in defending against the juggernauts the moneyed have in their push for testing and its dehumanizing conceits.
But we can celebrate and encourage the teachers to doing the things that they know matter -- not just obediently following admin and bureaucrats hooked on the most officious devices for managing, grouping, numbering, packaging, and assembly-lining.
Yes, J L: Donald is criminal, vulgar, a rapist, serial liar, friend to the moneyed pedophiles. Perhaps he a worse pedophile than all the rest of them.
But it's a massively rotten state -- a militarized, cruel police state -- we now inhabit. Due to Donald. But also due to too many passively adrift in a status quo that has excluded teachers from exercising their own better consciences.
I agree your sentiments but I'm not sure that I would be quoting a book depicting the arbitrary actions of a Bronze Age thunder god as a template for moral behaviour.
True, but it is an anthology, edited by organizational politics. The dominant message of the Gospels is one of kindness. Certainly key parts of them proscribe the very behaviors that Trump acts out so vaingloriously; contempt and cruelty to the most disadvantaged, obsession with greed, and entitlement to lie about and kill ones opponents. I consider Quakers, one of the least popular sects in the US as pretty much modeling that. I thought that Desmond Tutu modeled that. I am myself too self-serving, and (I tell myself) "practical" to follow, but I strongly admire their point of view, and consider them excellent neighbor. The Quaker American Friends Service Committee dispenses aid in disproportion to it's size, and puts its employees at risk helping people regardless of politics in war zones and natural disasters.
The "dark side" of religion claims inherent "God on our side" supremacy, is drawn to political subjugation, concentrated wealth and grandeur, and even historically to torture, slavery, and genocide; and yet we seem to take too little effort to distinguish between the two. They are virtual polar opposites.
Try mapping the "Sermon on the Mount", Beatitudes, or discussion of "the least of these" onto anything "MAGA:". It just won't fit.
And despite my years, for some reason I was shocked beyond belief when racism in particular virulently exploded in 2015. (Misogyny I experience in every job I ever had, so I knew it was alive and well, but at least it was kind of below the surface; now with P2025, it’s exploded too.)
MLM, the 2008 Democratic convention showed me that the racism took a back seat to misogyny. 2010 is the "starting point" for where we are today with "Operation RedMap."
I, too, have experienced the misogyny in any job I had that wasn't grocery or food service. 30+ years in law enforcement there was something just about every day. Some blatant, some subversive, and some simple oblivion.
I have experienced misogyny every day of my life. I was born in Portland, Oregon in 1962, moved with family to Rochester, NY in 1966, moved with family to Norwalk, CT in 1971, and moved myself to Dallas, TX in 1983. Being raised with 2 older brothers, I was constantly told I was "less than" for being a girl.
I learned the only way to "shut them up" was to be better than them in everything. Sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. My sharpshooting skills at age 16 shocked all the boys and the instructors (who were men.) I was described by high school teachers as "quietly determined." But when I moved to Texas at age 21, nothing could have prepared me for the gross misogyny ingrained in this southern state.
I kept quiet. I kept outperforming. I kept getting promoted. I avoided contact with the quintessential "good 'ol southern boys" as much as possible. I ignored so many horrific things said about me to my face from bigoted, ignorant, threatening men. And I remembered. And when I got the opportunity to "show them up," I did. Quietly. And they knew it. Most of them learned to leave me alone. Some didn't. So, they got a harder lesson the next time they 'effed with me. I cultivated friendships with men and women who liked and respected me for who I was.
I might have been born with an inherent knowing that I mattered as much as anyone else. I used to believe all of us were born knowing this. I no longer believe it. In my experience, most people who are secretly afraid they are inferior, try to extinguish that feeling by dominating others. There are tens of millions of Americans (including the vastly inferior regime) who believe they truly are "less than" and they only operate from a domination viewpoint. This is insanity and is shattering societal bonds everywhere in America now.
If you cannot restrain yourself from harming others, you have lost the privilege to live in a healthy society. Your sickness will spread until you are consumed by it. Too bad Maggots don't have enough of a heart and soul to know they are just equal to, and matter as much as, everyone else.
NO ONE IS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE. No one is lesser, either.
A quiet, yet intense, offering, Linda Nation, and good on you for posting it here. My own childhood experiences led me, unwittingly, through paths which ultimately led to the self-conscious realization in my twenties and thirties that the same kinds of deeply seated biases you encountered existed all around me and it was wrong, and what was I going to do about it. When I was invited to help address the inequities I was seeing, of many different kinds, I did.
Later in my administrative life I was able to do a lot more and I did, only to retire to pursue uncompensated public service, live through Trump's DEI dyspepsia and his unilateral veto of LBJ's civil rights legislation, and feel that I'd been keel-hauled, accomplishments I'd been long proud to have fostered summarily erased by an insensitive, cruel dolt. I wrote a letter to the current president of the institution I retired from expressing my dismay, my feeling of betrayal when he'd sent out a cheery, detailed announcement of destroying major advances I'd helped to create . I never received any response to it. (He effectively confirmed his complicity!) I was added to his Christmas card list last December. [I guess that's the best he could do! ;-(]
Keep your heart. Some battles have to be resumed again and again. Know that armor takes longer to put on at 90! But my fingers still obey me . . . and can support you in your righteous quest.
Thank you for your kind words. I must protect my heart and soul lest bitterness and rage infect my mind to the point where I begin fantasizing about shooting ICE in the legs, torso, head, etc. I'm kidding, I think.
Thank you, Linda. I remember one training class I was in, where there was performance of some skill (this was when our hands on force training was delivered by martial arts practitioners who believed their was of doing things was "the one, true way") and I got taken to task for successfully solving the problem but not doing it "right". I told the guy (they were all guys) "Ya know, Ginger Rogers was as good a dancer as Fred Astaire, she just did everything backwards and in high heels."
Ally, there's been only a handful of times in my life I've come up with the exact thing to say right at the moment. (I'm soooo good for hours after the event.)
I used to work with a guy who was ancillary to the lab. He loved to walk up behind people focused on their work and loudly say anything right in your ear to make you jump. (he was a real douche) Anyhow, he did this once as I was intently focused on pipetting a solution into blood samples. This could have totally ruined the batch I was working on and set results back hours.
I turned around, got this/close to his face (and he was 8 " taller than me) and very forcefully said "if you EVER do that again, I will kick your balls in so hard they'll look like hemorrhoids coming out of your ass!!"
He never did it again, and come to think of it, he didn't bother anyone when I was in sight.
It has to do with their education level, if you barely finished HS and were never exposed to a broad collegiate education, you might well be anchored in what you know, and you are supported in that view by FUX News and the other right wing sources of malcontent, who are getting very wealthy off your ignorance.
Cult thinking is a kind of mental malware, anchored to psychological appeals to ego and enforced with psychological and/or physical violence. The right to question is empowering, while suppression of free and fair inquiry is subjugating. That has a lot to do with the Enlightenment Era philosophies our all too human founders brought to their ideal of governance. It has to do with the scientific method and courtroom cross-examination. It matters not is the cult is religious or secular, left wing or right wing, the key is punishment of the questioner. Trump and his toadies do it every day. I think some of the afflicted have the potential to escape their mental-emotional prison, some not; and some already have.
Germany came a long way the days of the Third Reich and despite this outburst of naked racism, have we from colonial days total racist subjugation, Trump is currently dominant of the levers of governmental power, and I grieve to see so many government employees willing to do his bidding. Yet he is also not dominantly popular. I do not see the scale of adoring sea of fans that turned out for Hitler and Mussolini. At least, not yet.
He is willing to destroy a 250 year experiment, first of it's kind on this planet, destroy that experiment to protect himself from the consequences of his own actions, the abuses he committed against children. He has no idea what the word earn means, he only sees and takes. We must defeat this spoiled brat and take back what belongs to us and our children.
It's not that our founding ideals lacked precedent, but perhaps our government was the first major experiment with a democratic republic built from the ground up? In any case, the world took note of it. It's just nuts to throw that all away to please some egotistical #@%&$.
maybe the Francaises will come to our aid again. Their people took the same turn to democracy for a short period of time in 1884, after they watched and aided our forefathers/mothers. Maybe our current situation will help them in their struggle against the same forces we are fighting now in the USA. The MAGA/NeoNazi/Identitarian movement in Europe will also soon reach the 30% level in Germany and France as is MAGA in America. What then?
It would not surprise me that, given German and French recollections of WWII, both nations outlaw their burgeoning Nazi parties as the terrorist organizations they truly are. Nevertheless, I would expect most of the aid for Liberation to come from Canada and the United Kingdom, which is why I increasingly believe this -- which I originally posted as a fantasy -- genetically we Blisses are mostly Celt, and yet have kin in Canada and the British Isles -- could turn out be an accurate preview of a glorious day in some newly freed American city: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaNw28dSajo
Aye, Kinsman. Scots Irish on both sides, tempered with a bit of English and a smattering of other "mongrel" which I cannot trace. Never gave 23 and Me my info, so nothing there, thankfully.) I have no Canadian affiliations, but certainly wouldn't mind having them.
Aye, Kinswoman! My maternal grandfather was "Scotch Irish;" at least that's what I thought as a child when I heard that.
Scots Irish makes so much more sense. I did give 23 and Me my info; I am English, French, German, Irish, Scottish and Native American in that order. I don't care that they have my info. It proved useful to learn that I did not inherit my paternal grandmother's Parkinson's genetic markers.
Yes, U.S. government was true democracy built from ground up. A grand accomplishment! As a dual citizen of Canada and U.S., now living in Canada with my U.S. disabled vet spouse, I applaud resistance in Minnesota and everywhere else. The 35% still supporting the corrupt, pedophile in power have an unrealistic view of "America". Going forward, the flaws in govt (no term limits, POTUS above law, etc) that are now blatantly apparent, provide a clear map for change. For example, in parliamentary system in Canada, judges are basically elected by legal peers, not politicians. The 35% never look at the greater picture like what other countries do. They think the only right way is the "American" way. Instead of staring at their own navels, about time to take stock of their place in the world. No welcome committee for tRump when he finally landed in Davos. No allies of U.S. applauding his belligerent, vengeful, childish views. More importantly, all members of all branches of U.S. government, need to APPLY RULE OF LAW!
Or use it directly to control protests now and elections coming, while also attacking law-abiding non-citizens who are following every damn rule to regularize their status and getting nowhere. Even the “Dreamer” protection has been ended for kids trying to become citizens of this country they grew up in.
You can bet that all the data that exists in the SSA files is now stashed somewhere on a Palantir server, for use in whatever skulduggery the tech bros can imagine. I'll venture that Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and whoever runs Google nowadays has more information on you than you yourself.
Indeed much will be revealed when this administration faces its “Nuremberg trials,” but I think this should be reported on and made public as soon as possible. It’s likely as great a threat to our civil rights as the memo authorizing warrantless searches, which has been well-covered and had appalled people on both sides of the fence.
I am sickened by the regime’s behavior and heartened by the population’s repudiation and defense of their neighbors and the constitution. What a beautiful people and a beautiful sight.
This video of people dancing in the protest from Minneapolis warms the heart.
Unfortunately, hope won't get us out of this mess perpetrated by the Trumpolini revolutionaries and their enablers...including those who "hoped" that their unforgivable abstention from the 2024 vote wouldn't be of any harm.
"Unforgivable abstention" is one component of that component of the voting population. I have yet to see any numbers on people who could not vote due to any of the shenanigans at the state level; closing polling places, moving ballot collection drop boxes, removing voters from the rolls; I don't believe them to be a majority, but a significant number nonetheless.
OMG! That’s exactly what they want! Think that through for even half a second. No matter how many guns you have do you honestly think that as soon as the first idiot shoots an ICE idiot MARTIAL LAW and THE INSURRECTION ACT won’t be declared and all the civilian guns put together will be able to defeat the US military? Who btw will follow orders legal or not. I hope you and every other gun owner keeps your fantasies and your guns locked up at home.
I agree. It would not serve our progressive cause to turn violent now. But anger (anger is ALWAYS the result of perceived helplessness) is dramatically increasing as people feel more and more helpless. Violent expressions of helplessness and anger could easily get out of hand. My guns are safely secured. I’ve made a personal commitment to not sanction the possible use of violent resistance pending the accomplishment of a free and fair election in November. If Trumpists successfully cancel, delay or interfere with free and fair November midterm elections in America I will reconsider my position. That is my personal red line. If we cannot muster a decisive electoral rebuke of the current administration because we lacked the votes, then we have lost and must start again to build and nurture a coalition of resistance. If we lose the midterm elections because a corrupt and traitorous administration illegally engineered and imposed that loss on us… we will have passed through the gates of hell and there will be little else to do but violently resist. I struggle to speak these words - it is so painful to realize what has happened to us. Short of violent resistance I think there is more we could do to throw sand into the gears of the ICE machine. As someone said elsewhere in these comments, “Where do ICE agents stay when targeting a city?” Yes, where indeed. And don’t those fancy black vehicles have the same electronics as other vehicles these days? We could certainly use the help of a few good hackers right about now. Just sayin’…
Your math ain't mathing. 3 million members of the military versus 250 million civilians, more than a third of which are armed? And thats assuming every single member of tge military would be willing to follow orders to shoot civilians, and that people will keep letting them.
You arent wrong, Trump absolutely wants to declare the insurrection act, and get to pretend he's a dictator and round up his enemies and execute them on live TV and enact horrors on the American people.
What you dont realize is he will do that whether people resist or not. He will continue to attack America whether people fight back or not. He will overthrow the Constitution and declare himself the king whether people resist or not. The only difference is whether we let them choose the battlefield and set the condition of the conflict or not, and only an idiot fights the war his enemy wants.
You’re making a lot of assumptions 1. Everyone with a gun will follow who? You? Not likely, some people with guns like Trump and the republicans
2.Everyone will be organized? Not likely, everyone will think they know what’s best to do
3.Anyone in the military not following orders would most likely be shot on sight
4.Guns v. military equipment?
5.Think people with guns have the same amount of ammunition?
I’m sure there’s so many more things that won’t work - as much as we might like to think it would. The best we could hope for is it would just be harder and take a little longer that in places where citizens don’t have so many guns. Unless all governors starts taking control of their national guards and train them, make sure they’re loyal to the constitution and US citizens and not the current admin and they’ll be fighting Trumps military - see how confusing everything will be???
Actually I'm making none of those assumptions. I'm assuming that the chaos favors the most positive outcomes, whereas authoritarian hierarchys universally fail in the face of a uprisen population or civil war. Its the single most successful way to overthrow a dictatorship or autocracy.
Likewise, organization doesn't benefit the people, and the Trump administration can't even organize a pot luck, so I'm not concerned.
Guns vs Military Equipment: how long do you think that military equipment is going to keep working when no one is going to work making jet fuel, tank parts, etc. And again, 3 million people versus dozens of millions. They might have tanks at first, but they won't have them for long. Also note even the Israelis struggled for decades against an armed insurgency with the total backing of the US military.
5. Last year a man in Arizona was arrested with over 1000 long rifles and 300,000+ rounds of ammunition, which is more ammunition than the Marine Corps uses in a year. By almost double. Your average gun store has between 50 and 200 THOUSAND rounds in stock. How many guns stores do you think there are in America. Ammo will not be a problem.
As for why anyone would be loyal to the constitution, iots been made completely clear that the Constitution and the federal government it proposes has failed miserably, and Trump has spent the last ten years wiping his ass with it. It will end up being state by state on who wins and loses, and if you think any of the states who can't even keep a power grid working, or manage to run farms are going to beat the states where people make things like computers, cars, and airplanes, who outnumber them 4 to one I have a hell of a bridge to sell you.
The Conservatives lose the second civil war for the same reason as they lost the first one, because the cities have the industry, the money, and all the people, and no one is super enthusiastic about fighting to be a slave.
And yes, the individual states will be fighting the US military, briefly, before the people in the military decide they would rather fight for their HOMES than for Trump, Then it becomes state by state. Guess which states have the most people, the most money, the most guns, the most investment, the most industry.
If you guessed the blue ones that are the ones that contribute more to the federal government than the taker confederate states, than your education hasn't failed you.
Sometimes, I am tired and feel harried by the time I get to Dr Richardson's daily essay. The recall of American history, at these times, feels like an imposition on my little free time.🤭
Then I realize that, of course, that recall of history is very important -- especially to phlegmatic big-mouth like me. Why? Because I realize that we will triumph. 🗽
The country has been here before, and the right group prevailed in making the might group take the night train out of town. These essays hearten me. Thank you, Ma'am. 🫱🏻🫲🏽
FEW THINGS make police officers more uncomfortable than criticising other police officers. Yet when Mark Bruley, the chief of police in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, stepped up to the microphone at a press conference on January 20th, his distress was clear. He did not want to criticise all federal police, he stressed.
But he then came to the point. Residents of his city, including American citizens, are being stopped and hassled on the street “for no cause” by federal agents. He called this a civil-rights violation; all of those who have complained are not white. It “has to stop”, he said.
According to his account, one of his own police officers was stopped while off-duty. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents boxed her car in. With their weapons drawn they then demanded her immigration paperwork (though she is a citizen).
When she tried to record the incident, an agent knocked her phone out of her hand. The situation was only defused when they discovered she was a cop. They then left, although without apologising. “I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident,” said Mr Bruley. “But in fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have had similar incidents with their off-duty officers.”
His remarks, alongside those of perhaps a dozen Minneapolis area police chiefs, were a measure of how “Operation Metro Surge”, the federal immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities, has spiralled out of control. Since December some 3,000 federal agents have deployed to the city—dwarfing the scale of previous efforts in Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans.
According to polling by YouGov published on January 14th, 70% of Americans saw footage of Ms Good being killed. Over half now view ICE unfavourably. Mr Trump had previously called Ms Good a “professional agitator”; Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, called her a “domestic terrorist”. Even before the killing, opposition in the city was growing fast.
One group runs a daily live dispatch radio to direct protesters to follow federal agents, blow whistles and film. Other residents deliver food to immigrants hiding indoors and drive children with undocumented parents to school. Several school districts have started offering remote learning. Posters in business windows say that ICE agents are not welcome without a warrant.
These tactics appear to be hampering federal agents. At a press conference on January 20th Greg Bovino, a senior border patrol officer who has made himself the remorseless face of recent immigration operations, acknowledged their effectiveness. Protesters, whom he called “anarchists”, “rioters” and “agitators”, “are a bit better organised”, he said. It makes for “a difficult operating environment”.
Before the operation started, Democrats in Minnesota were under pressure because of a sprawling fraud scandal in which the state failed to make rudimentary checks on the recipients of government money. Seemingly as a result, on January 5th Tim Walz, the state governor, dropped his re-election bid. Mr Trump has complained on Truth Social that nobody is paying attention to the fraud allegations any longer.
Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, has his own theory for what is going on. “I speculate that what happened is that somebody high up in the Trump administration said ‘go to Minneapolis and arrest and deport a bunch of Somalis’.” But the vast majority of Somalis in Minneapolis are American citizens, he says, and so they are coming up empty. As a result federal agents are running around picking on protesters and people who look a bit foreign, many of whom turn out to be citizens.
The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to six Democratic officials in the state, including Mr Walz and Mr Frey, as part of an investigation into whether they improperly interfered with ICE. On January 21st a federal appeals court lifted restrictions on the use of tear gas on protesters. It is hardly a sign of retreat. ■
On top of that excellent summary by The Economist, there's one other point going on., When the demented piece of filth and cruelty in the White House gave that order to 'go to Minneapolis and arrest a bunch of Somalis,' nobody contradicted him. Nobody issued a peep of dissent. Nobody dared.
You can claim that's because he appointed them. But every other administration before this in history has been marked by fierce internal disagreements. Particularly in the modern era, White House Situation Rooms of the recent past have been filled with dissent, counterarguments, fiery debates. Great Presidents like Kennedy, Obama, Biden insisted on it. Tell me what I don't know, haven't thought about, failed to consider, etc. Help me think through what I want to do and why I want to do it.
This supine assembly of bobos, scalawags, drunks and moonbeams., by comparison, makes the Court of Henry VIII look like a hotbed of testicular fortitude.
Be clear about why, too. The moment the American electorate decided a cruel idiot who used words like "vermin" to characterize American citizens and those who want to become Americans deserved to sit in the Oval Office, while another third were too busy looking at Tik-Tok videos to even bother voting made this moment both predictable and predicted. That must never be forgotten. We have a great deal of "educating" ahead of us, not just getting a better government.
I hope you publish satire. Your knowledge put to service of our democracy with the humor that only an educated skeptic can celebrate makes my day, many days. Thank you. I agree with all that you say. Hitler and Stalin would call this Admin. "ideologically" efficient with the absence of debate. This article is long. One need *not read it all to get the lady's point. At first, I thought her thesis of a reversion to feudalism to be a bit far-fetched. Now I am not so sure it is. By the way, no expectation, on my part, of your reading this essay; I merely make it available.
Great essay. I loved the Rube Goldberg vid. You are hitting on the one thing utterly lacking these days: aspiration to be a better (wo)man. Without that, no republic can survive.
Ned, those first several paragraphs are what I am living through right now. I am a retired cop, and I am appalled by what I am seeing ICE do. I am not shy about sharing that stance on Facebook. The number of my retired cop cohort who see nothing wrong with what ICE is doing is absolutely disgusting to me.
In my opinion, they are being hugely influenced by the information regarding these events that they so willingly consume. My tell tale clue to this was when one of them sent me the video Ross had released to a conservative news outlet with the intent of justifying his actions. I had already seen the video from another source, and clearly heard Ross utter "Fucking bitch" as he walked away. The clip he sent me was missing that last little bit. When I called him on it, he denied it was there, or if it was, someone had added it.
I wish that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement shared your intellect and empathy. Sadly, in my experience most people involved in law enforcement are Sociopathic and love having the power to abuse the public with impunity.
Like the remarks of It's Come To This, I read your remarks carefully. Your perspective as a retired police-woman, which you have disclosed before, is important to me. Your sense of principled thinking and behavior inspires me.🫱🏻🫲🏽
As was said of President Lincoln's temperament twenty years after his death, "*Nothing discloses real character like the use of power . . . If you wish to know what a *[wo]man really is, give him *[or her] power."⚖️
As a practitioner, I am sure, and model of community policing, you handle that power and respect it for what it can be: a resource to be used wisely for the benefit of the larger community. That is what I miss these days; that sense of aspiration.🗽
Thank you for your kind words, Ned. I did try to bring that to every community I served, from Creswell (contract city) to Lane County (all 4600 square miles).
Every time I have it all figured out, literally, I walk into an empty elevator shaft, figuratively. When the stakes are those of the presidency, a wee-bit of insecurity is in order.
In sentiment, I have come to view these sub-stacks, most of which I can not read every day, have become the pamphleteers in the run-up to the American Revolution.
Most of us recited the Pledge of Allegiance when we were kids. Some of us recall the horror of the JFK assassination. These things mattered.
To now have such a vile creature as the face of America is, not just an utter disaster, of which the Founders warned us, but our own apparent lack of imagination.
Woe unto us that failed to forsee the possibility such a sea change could occur, and to have failed to fight against this abomination. Witness Minneapolis.
The oath of office does mean something! It’s unfortunate those currently in power took it without regard to its true meaning are incapable of living up to it. Their souls are devoid of any human compassion or even the most basic understanding of selflessness. I didn’t know much about Mr. Jack Smith until recently but if ever there was an example of a civil servant, he is it!
"Now the Trump administration is made up of radicals who are ignoring that Constitution and that Bill of Rights in their open attempt to create a white nationalist nation."
What the protester said was so powerful that it bears repeating.
"The protester compared ICE agents to the Ku Klux Klan, noting that both wore masks and raided immigrant communities. He went on: “You know, there’s like all this talk of revolution. We’re the counterrevolutionaries, right?”
He explained: “[T]here is a minority who is trying to create a post-law, orderless, lawless society, where their might makes right. And because, you know, they have guns and are willing to use them, they think they can suspend the Constitution, suspend habeas corpus…, suspend civil liberties, generally speaking.” "-from Prof Richardson's post today
I hope there is more commentary on Trump's remarks once again insulting people and their families who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The slug who now sits on his "throne" in the White House doesn't deserve to empty a bed pan for people who served their country and ours in a brutal war, many of whom were severely injured not to mention the hundreds upon hundreds who were killed. Trump's comments as usual were insulting and repulsive and divisive.
I have watched him for a long time, Jon. At some point Trumpolini will turn and run, but what of his hench-people? Steve Miller, Kristi Noem etc are true imbecilic followers, just like Goebbels, Speer, Göring, Himmler and the elite SS under them. But will they die for their folly. Maybe they are just too stupid to off themselves, but they may hold out in their bunkers for a while after Trumpolini and his wife have been strung up by the raging masses. Who knows?
"Lincoln was on solid historical ground when he reminded his fellow Americans that those trying to impose a new system of white nationalist oligarchy on the nation were the true radicals, while those defending equality were the conservatives." - HCR
Exactly! Why are today's "conservatives" labeled as such? Their warped view of the world seems pretty radical to me.
That word was hijacked by vipers. I used to read some conservative op-eds (gave up on insipid Buckley) and found some thoughtful commentary. That stopped in the 90’s as did any respect for the Gingrich gang of self-righteous “intellectual” bullies. Then came Murdoch, who stole conservative, patriotism, and Christianity for the lying party, previously respected as the “GOP.” Samuel Johnson said that patriotism was the last refuge of scoundrels. They certainly proved his point. Real patriotism is love of one’s country, not hate of others. Conservation is respect for the proven good, not redefining it into the opposite.
Mark, I think that "reactionary" is the word you're after; I'd always heard "radical left/reactionary right" as the two extremes of what we're muddling through with "liberal and conservative" definitions of current times.
I don’t understand why the governor doesn’t have Minnesota’s National Guard on the streets protecting the people who are being brutalized. He is still their commander; the Guard hasn’t been federalized. And the police should definitely be arresting some of these ICE agents who are breaking the law; they are not immune. Why, in god’s name, are they not using the power they have?
And unless Trumpolini backs down again (TACO) that is exactly what will happen, Nancy. And it will be a tragedy of immense proportions. Be assured that Trump will keep pushing until he is personally at risk...but then how will his Junta react?
The state and city authorities are doing what they can to keep the peace and to prevent Trump from having an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act which he would absolutely do if provoked.
Isn’t it bizarre and out of whack that on the one hand Trump is promoting his “Board of Peace” to world leaders… while at home in his very own country he is supporting ruthless ICE troops, breaking the law, attacking children and families, recently killing a woman, a mother. What a gigantic hypocrite. Let’s call him out on this. “Board of Peace,” led by whom?
Powerful what Minnesota did today. Keep it up! Keep raising your voice. Be LOUD. We deserve better and together we can save our democracy ❤️🩹🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Comments/reactions help keep this bumped ✊
1. More effective to protest to the four (4) Minnesota House Republicans rather than expose to allegations that the protests are riots. Pi ckedt their offices, homes, donors, etc. Protest Fox.
2. Meidas 2 pm. "Donald Trump is back in Washington, D.C., and he is clearly losing control. At the same time, a historic moment is taking shape across the United States. A general strike that began in Minnesota is now spreading to other parts of the country, with workers, nurses, and pro-democracy activists coordinating actions that we have not seen at this scale in roughly seventy years. The goal, shared openly by organizers, is to make this the largest general strike in modern U.S. history."
3. Get active. https://contrarian.substack.com/p/contrarian-calls-to-action-a14?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3719374&post_id=185441018&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=zc69i&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
4. Be mindful that the Epstein/Trump issue is the primary vulnerable underbelly of MAGA.
DOJ is in a massive coverup. Obstruction of justice?
Re #4, the Trump/Epstein Pedo Files. The desperate attempts of the MAGAts to keep those out of the hands of the public has long since persuaded me that there is information in there that is really bad for Trump, and thus for the fascist Project 2025. Some of the rumors I've been hearing lately are truly hideous. I'd previously dismissed those as unlikely or fabrications, but the very intensity of the MAGAt reaction is starting to lend them credence in this not-unbiased observer's eyes.
Again the relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal Christonazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
Everyone should read that document, as sickening as it is. I am so sorry she had to withdraw it -- but these are powerful and dangerous people.
Brava to Heather in her writing but I must diverge on one point. The founders understood freedom from tyranny to be freedom from paying tribute to the king. And liberty didn’t hardly facilitate de-enslavement of those enslaved. Indeed, most founders prospered by slavery and we should never ever try to excuse the expression, white wash this point. The great hope of the colonists were to build wealth by buying as many salves as could be afforded and working them in the fields.
Your last sentence ignores the effort of the founders to abolish slavery at the country's birth> Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration accused the king of "violating the sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people...captivating and carrying them into slavery." That was struck out by the reps for South Carolina and Georgia, whose signatures were vital to the military success of the colonies. But the southerners missed the key passage, on which Abraham Lincoln would later focus: 'all men are created equal...endowed by their creator...unalienable rights..."
It is all too common these days to trash the Framers, but while they were certainly flawed human beings and to some extent men of their times, what they bequeathed to us was utterly revolutionary.
Did they get it completely right? Of course not, and we should not have expected that they would. It was a first effort at a political and social reply to over four thousand years of top down rule. But they knew, as far too many of us seem to have forgetten, that buried in their blueprint was an extraordinary promise which they, for all that they didn’t do it themselves, left to us to finish or at least to continue to improve. That promise is the true nature of American exceptionalism - an unachievable goal but one which was, as Lincoln noted, “The great task remaining before us”.
An addendum: And certainly there is room for honest interpretation and mine is that the 1770s were a period of rebelling against the Stamp Act and/or not paying tribute in taxes. No taxation without representation you heard that line? By the 1850s, many and mostly northerners perhaps because the land was less amendable to large scale plantations, evolved a resistance to enslavement and hence the war between the states. Abe Lincoln’s own family linage owned slaves. His own great grandfather might have objected to his evolvement to endorse freedom for all humans.
Somewhat similar to the limitations of the Nuremberg trials.
The allies ended up not going too far into a country's history because they didn't want to open the curtains or look under the rugs of their own histories.
That isn't to say there weren't steps to prevent future abuses with things like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This was the essence of the Constitutional Convention that in order to preserve the Nation, compromise with the southern states and pushing the issue of slavery down the road was necessary. Ben Franklin talked about it often in his letters and struggled with it mightily as did others. Franklin evolved into an abolitionist eventually.
A very consequential political and economic failure to continue to support slavery.
I guess you are correct in pointing out that in this time of horror for our country, we can never forget that bothsides-ism must be kept at the forefront, even if not so relevant to the moment of trying to protect our current laws and Constitutional order.
I saved it Loren.
Jane Doe will ride again.
We have half the country and all of Europe with us.
This Nazi will roe the day he stepped on our revolution.
Can we all agree that the idea that “people who identify as progressives are good and people who identify as conservatives are bad” is as bad an idea as every other “divide and conquer” tactic? Can we all agree that the best partnership in the history of the human species is between a real progressive and a real conservative? Can we all agree that being a conservative in name only is bad, and so is being a progressive in name only?
In other words, can we all agree that the first Republican POTUS knew what he was talking about? And ... so does HCR!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
James, an acquaintance of mine once said to me with incredulity, "So, you're a conservative liberal?"
Well, I guess I am. "To those that much has been given, much will be required." A paraphrase of Luke 12:48, to which my atheist parents were not aware, but taught this principle to their children.
I took this teaching as, "Beware of great wealth or fortune, for the costs are high." The costs are fragile friendships (based on money,) targeting by those who want what you have (persecution,) and distain by your fellow (wo)man for hoarding wealth.
In order to belong in a society, you must give back at least as much as you have been given. Otherwise, you are just a parasite. If you possess great intelligence, share it with others who will continue seeking scientific and philosophic endeavors long after you are dead.
Heather has, in her podcasts, talked about how you can INDEED be both liberal and conservative! The issue is, methinks, in today's culture, people have lost sight that a "conservative" in politics is not the same as "conservative" in cultural views.
As a recovering atheist, I can attest to the tendency of so-called scientists who treat challenges to their implicit assumptions the way I treat a mosquito landing on my forearm. Luke 12:48 is a logical conclusion of the first Christian principle of loving your neighbor and even (especially) your enemy. It's okay to assume the other person is wrong. It's not okay to leave your assumption untested. In other words, the language a person uses is the only way to tell the difference between a real scientist and a real Christian.
Actually can we all agree that the best partnership is between an American citizen and the essence of the promise of the Constitution?
In that sense, conservatism and progressivism are two sides of the same coin.
Continuing to divide the two is usually counterproductive in that it amplifies our all too human tendency to separate ourselves in to all sort of groups, mostly based on wholly illusory differences, and then peer at each other suspiciously over the boundaries we’ve thus created.
We agree that the best partnership is between an American citizen and the essence of the promise of the Constitution. We also agree that conservatism and progressivism are two sides of the same coin. However, dividing the two, like a hammer, is a tool. We can use the tools we have at hand to create something of lasting value or we can use them to hit other people over the head.
How-to instructions for creating something of value by using the "divide the two" tool:
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-23-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=204412972
Wow, thank you. I didn't know this existed. Prayers for your comfort and peace in your final chapter. Looks like it's been an amazing life's book.
Thank you. All prayers deeply appreciated. (Though I am not a Christian --am an agnostic, albeit with Gaian pagan leanings -- I very much believe in the power of focused thinking, which is what prayer is, and which I have seen work.) So again thanks to you and all others so inclined.
Loren, I am sending reiki energy to you and always appreciate your thoughts. I love the idea of Gaian pagan leanings.
Loren, I love your definition of prayer. I've never seen it expressed that way, so succinct! I have a bulletin board by my desk where I have posted various inspirational messages to help me in my writing efforts. I will post that on it.
BTW, a dear nephew of mine is Pagan. I confess to asking his advice when one of my kids needed help I couldn't provide. I prayed AND lit a green candle, surrounded by a salt ring. Smote it be.
I keep praying, asking God to take TRUMP to judgement. Maybe I need to drag out the green candle.
You should read my book, The Divine Language of Coincidence, about the miracles I've experienced since the age of 19 that include two first-hand accounts of spontaneous healing. From my perspective these things cannot happen in our physical world without Divine Intelligence. I am praying for your healing....
Oops, my mistake: I assumed you Pam B were responding to U.S. ADOPTION OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS AS ADVISORS AND COMRADES AT ARMS which is now way below, as the Substack Nurds are trying to bury it down-thread.
Thank you. Combine the above history with the Bankers' Plot -- recommended links to follow -- and you'll see why I argue Trump is not only (not) an anomaly; he is the fulfillment of a scheme that dates back at least to the end of Reconstruction (1878) but did not gain national momentum until the advent of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany. https://www.npr.org/2012/02/12/145472726/when-the-bankers-plotted-to-overthrow-fdr also an older but still relevant Guardian report https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/trump-fdr-roosevelt-coup-attempt-1930s and finally the Wikipedia entry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot You need to read each of these texts to get an adequate picture of what happened -- that the plotters' ultimate intent was to make the U.S. a satellite of Nazi Germany.
Though the evidence for what follows is entirely circumstantial, it is at least arguable the (real) significance of the murder of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 22 November 1963 is that is the day the long-simmering bi-partisan Nazification scheme became fully operational. Note the eleven years of political murders that followed, ending with union activist Karen Silkwood in 1974, also the very obvious transformation of the Democratic Party from staunch defender of the New Deal to willing collaborator with the Republicans in its destruction, effectively serving as their Fifth Column.
When one descents into conspiracy theory, one tends to lose sight of historical reality.
Loren: Thanks for posting the link. It really reflects not only the violent natures of these 2 men, but also the arrogance and entitlement of the whole cabal. Those around the orange one (I don't like calling him a man because it would be insulting to men) are equally culpable for supporting and egging him on. I am close to your age and I hope we both can see the end of his days..
Hi Loren, I read the court document. It's is both chilling and disgusting. This info needs to be publicized everywhere. I'm not that tech savvy but I will try and get it out there. Thank you. You're a hero and I pray for your health and well being.
Thank you.
THANK YOU, LOREN!!
I've added my link to Greg Olear's PREVAIL Substack with his list of allegations against Trump above in another comment.
Bless you. Wishing you peace with the knowledge that you are making a difference. You have touched my heart deeply.
Thank you.
Loren, I accessed the link you provided last week and reread it today. I'm amazed that a child of 13 years was able to endure what Jane Doe did and survive. That Trump would attack this girl, then scream that he can do whatever he wants reflects his belief that his position and power allow his behavior in everything he does. This deranged monster and his ilk need to be held to account for what they perpetrated against these children/women, as well as what they're attempting to do to our country and the world order. The fact that they claim that their actions are sanctioned by God/Christ proves their hypocrisy and criminality. They MUST be stopped.
Loren is there anyplace else I can see that court document. When I click on your link the lettering is so small and hard to read.
Don't know; my desktop (Firefox browser/Windows 11 operating system) has in its Application Menu a text-enlargement tool, though what I see on my monitor at 100 percent is large enough for me to read without glasses -- and after cataract surgery my close-up vision is nearly nonexistent (+3 reading glasses). Very sorry to hear of your difficulty, equally sorry I can't be more helpful.
Found it Loren. Anyone who wants to read a copy with bigger text just has to Google DOE V TRUMP
That's ok....if there's a way to do it I will find it. Thank you Loren.
I read that too! He needs to hang by his toes......
May I repost the link on the Trump/Epstein lawsuit?
Most assuredly. It's a public document, therefore presumably in the public domain. In any case, you don't need my permission as I'm not its originator; I merely picked it up from another Substacker -- to whom my belated thanks -- who posted it here on Dr. Richardson's site last month.
You are a hero. I had never seen the complaint. I have read it and passed it on to friends. Just awful. I am 84 and first generation. I never thought I would see what is happening and my parents who came to USA from Europe right before the war because they saw what was happening and believed so strongly in what they thought America stood for, would be horrified. I send you all my best.
Thank you. Given this complaint, I suspect the material the criminal Regime is criminally suppressing is so vile, its perpe-traitors fear its revelations will mobilize the entire country as Minnesota is mobilizing.
Thank you.
If you're thanking me, you're most welcome.
This morning my State Senator is hosting a town hall of sorts where everyone is invited to inform the constituents of our district about what is happening in the State Legislature. I am going to bring several copies of today's LFAA to distribute to attendees that haven't seen it today. Since it is a public building, I am going to leave copies around the building.
The professor has a great following, but what if we put out a free copy of selected newsletters in a stand with the real estate book and the free newspapers in the store entrances in our communities?. Would we reach additional people that aren't familiar with Substack or any of it's contributors?
Great idea. I cut off our address label and put our magazines at a nearby laundry mat. Such as the "Atlantic" , "New Yorker" "New Mexico Wild" :The Sun" ...I think adding selective printouts of Letters would be an excellent addition
I have done similar in the past.
I have done this in the past in a variety of ways. So glad to see I was not doing those type actions all by myself.
I'm grateful that LFAA is available for printing and saving in PDF. Not many Substack creators do this.
Didn't know it is so available -- I'm truly a compu-moron -- so many thanks for the info. (To date my sharing of Dr. Richardson's vital reports has been by sending links, though -- alas -- even most of my former-activist friends are so depressed by what obtains they avoid the news as if it were a nest of venomous serpents.)
I know how they feel. It's grim.
Gary, I agree with your recommendation, but it is a little unclear. As a former publisher of real estate magazines in multiple markets, I would caution against placing anything in displays of other publications. The publishers pay for those displays and must secure permission from the businesses and/or municipalities where their displays are located. Placing your own materials in their displays is a form of trespassing which probably wouldn't cause legal problems, but could provoke resentment, which doesn't help the cause.
Best to get your own displays or get permission from businesses to place copies at checkstands or other "neutral" spaces.
Like I posted earlier, I learn so much from the folks here! Thanks, Dale, for your insight. Maybe my suggestion (right below) would work for folks. Methinks, I might pick up a few pads of post-its today.
Additional note: When our distribution drivers found "foreign material" in our displays during their replenishment routes, they collected it and brought it back to the office where it was summarily tossed in the dumpster, causing the "trespassers" to waste their money.
At the NO KINGS rally, I was quite surprised at the number of folks I talked to who were unfamiliar with HCR!!
I know someone on here (sorry, can't recall your name whoever you are) leaves notes about democracy in random public spots. Maybe small notes on the order of "GET THE TRUE STORY! READ HEATHER COX RICHARDSON'S 'LETTER FROM AN AMERICAN' FIND HER ON SUBSTACK"
We could start a post-it-note brigade, leaving this stuck in public bathroom stalls, stuck on MAGA bumper-stickered cars, tucked inside menus, slipped into bestsellers displayed at the bookstore. I bet others here would have more suggestions of likely spots!
😉😉😉
Great idea! But to be really useful, your sticky note should include the actual link to this Substack. My marketing experience tells me that (sorry) consumers are lazy. If you don't spoon-feed them the information they need, they won't bother to search. They'll need this:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
Hand-writing sticky notes could be labor-intensive, so there's a solution. Get custom-printed sticky notes. I work with Vistaprint.
https://www.vistaprint.com/stationery/stationery/sticky-notes
Incidentally, Goods Unite Us rates Vistaprint "100% Democrat."
You could also generate a QR code that directly connects people to the website.
EXCELLENT suggestion, Dale!
The attempt to shield himself from the Epstein files is HUGE! He's willing to go to war over it. Foreign wars were one thing his base was seriously opposed to. But eventually it will all come out.
Right...you can't impose christian law on a nation whose leader has violated most of the Ten Commandments. It's time for maga supporters to recognize the boundless violations and egregious calamities perpetrated by our dear leader. The Christian piety supported by Voght is frankly genocidal and supports human suffering.
I am not assured that this information is accurate, as Anne P Mitchell Esq is very protective of access, but a purported transcript of a deposition from Virginia Guiffre names Alan Dershowitz Les Werner and Prince Andrew as her abusers, as well as a redacted name. It may be anyone, but one wonders if this one is trump. He is in the files thousands of times.
I suspect the MAGAts would find a way to excuse this too, though.
Beyond doubt, those files have been redacted into black, blank nothingness. The only witnesses to a portion of that history are those who were abused. They hesitate to say anything because it would be called here say. AND Teflon Don slithers on.
“Slithers” is the appropriate verb.
Talk of hideous rumors, but limited minimal details, why?
The cult absorbed, accepted and denied any and all of scumps moral transgressions. You and i could hope to peel off maybe 5% of its core enablers which is worth it but I've realized that most are beyond help. It 's really hard to swallow but this is who we are as humans . It's a constant problem.
James, read an interesting article yesterday about the Clintons refusing to appear over the Epstein files and risking a contempt of Congress. The author's point is that this can lead to discovery which would require the files.
That is an interesting point that I never considered. I thought the Clintons were just giving the middle finger to this foul administration.
James, I hadn't either. But I like the idea of discovery and having been part of a law suit, I know how it goes.
There's definitely information in the Epstein files that is damaging to Trump., and possibly to other powerful GOP figures.
Release the Epstein files.
Absolutely agree. Trump, and the other “electeds” have changed America’s standing in the entire world to keep them from their constituents. Meanwhile, Putin is smugly laughing his butt off.
Amen!
Heather, again you’ve given another response to trumps daily nut job of lies and displaying himself as a lying narcissist that expects all of us to bow to him and kiss his ring. We can only hope we get the majority at midterms and impeach him, JD Vance and all his staff.
Trump is being shunned by the world's democracies after Davos. His authoritarianism and corruption are being called out by most of Europe.
Two groups have to turn against Trump to cleanse America of this rot: the majority of the American people and the oligarchs supporting him.
Minnesota is leading the revolt of the American people to preserve our rights and values and return to public integrity.
Now we have to show the oligarchs that it is in their vested interest to abandon him as well. That means a boycott and a general strike. A large part of the country will be snowed in. Don't buy on Amazon or use Kindle or Prime Video, use an alternate browser like DuckDuckGo instead of Chrome or Edge, and don't use Facebook or other Meta services, or any form of AI.
Except that I think that the oligarchy engineered the rise of Trump over several decades, and is the real power behind the throne. They may tire of Trump's many blunders, but I doubt they will abandon their despotic goals without massive public resistance. It happened here at least once before in the wake of the Gilded Age, but we let a lot of that work slip by decades of relinquishing the the rules to that made it harder for those who would be kings to work their will. It will, I think, take a massive shift of public focus to win back even those protections that we passively, when not eagerly, discarded.
I didn’t say it would be easy, but it is necessary.
AI MUST be regulated. Democracy won’t survive in an age of deep-fakes and truth distortion.
Personal privacy MUST be protected. Democracy does not survive in a surveillance state.
Wealth inequality MUST be reversed. A people cannot thrive if they can’t afford education and healthcare, when all basic needs are privatized and turned into profit centers and rationed for social engineering.
All of that is due to the rise of the oligarchs.
The only thing they will respond to is a hit to their bottom line.
Correct, unless we regulate A.I. "Democracy won’t survive in an age of deep-fakes and truth distortion." We are fighting to survive the age of "Reality TV Stars" with fakes and truth distortions.
Every Congressional candidate is up for reelection in 2026. Demand that every candidate host open town hall meetings especially incumbents.
If they are incumbents, picket their offices in your district demanding they meet with the people. If they do host a town hall make sure the local TV and other media attend with cameras.
* every Representative is up for re-election in 2026, and 1/3 of the Senators.
Let’s make sure every Senate candidate has to answer publicly if they will vote to convict T when he is impeached by the House!
And remember, even if your R representative is reasonable (is there such a person?), every.single.republican is as responsible for 47’s destruction as Trump is. Every single R on the ballot—every one—needs to be voted out for not stopping him and for not exercising their duty of oversight.
I’m fortunate to live in Vermont. This needs to happen in every state with Republicans in Congress.
My Rep NJ07 R, Tom Kean, Jr., got over $1 Million from Musk’s PAC in the last election. He only shows up at Republican PR events. He has voice-only telephone “town halls” with questions clearly pre-written by his staff. A group demonstrates outside his office every Friday. His staff only allows 2 people in at a time into the office to write messages and he is never in.
He moved his office to the very far corner of the district, away from the population centers.
NJ07 was redistricted in 2022 by Dems to make Mikie Sherrill’s and other surrounding seats “safer”, and so Tom Malinowski, the incumbent D lost by a hair. Turned out they didn’t need to have done that. Jersey has a Dem machine that didn’t like Malinowski.
Georgia, I'm seeing AI as the new Facebook, and just as dangerous.
When I started building websites for clients 23 years ago, most of them said, "We need a Facebook page."
And I asked, "For what purpose? Are you planning to spend all day posting and responding? What are you going to do about posts that trash your business? Or are you planning to pay me to do that? Do you have that much money?"
Most of those businesses have allowed their Facebook pages to go dormant because it's a time-suck and money pit.
Everywhere I turn, I'm seeing businesses launching AI services. And so far, AI performance is abysmal. "AI slop" is exactly the right term.
I don't want to be a Luddite, but I suspect AI is going to be a colossal failure and our next catastrophic financial bubble.
Regulate it before it kills us all.
You aren’t being a Luddite. It is incredibly dangerous because there are no guarantees that what we see is what actually happened. There is no longer a standard or presumption of objective truth.
It is going to flood the midterms and we are totally unprepared.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
AI will be our downfall if we don't regulate it.
The complete changes in our commodified country run so deep and infect every day life that what you're talking about – and I agree it's what we should be aiming for – seems like it will only happen if we have a genuine revolution. That scares me because there are still about 40% of Americans, if you believe the accuracy of polls, who support at least most of what the Trump regime is doing. I'm not proposing revolution, I'm only wondering how else a massive realignment in this country will require.
RIGHT ON Georgia! For those with doubts about the essential need to closely regulate AI please see Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus: https://www.overdrive.com/media/10382620/nexus
Hello J L ... DJT turning on Jamie Dimon should be a Wake-Up Call for the Oligarchs.... In DJT's Accelerating Dementia there is no Loyalty to Anyone....
A general strike should also include determining if your broker supports MAGA or not. If they do, find a broker that hates what DonOLD is doing to our country and transfer (yes, you can transfer your funds without having to pay capital gains) your funds to a non-Fascist broker and/or fund manager.
Diversify you portfolio by investing in International stocks and funds. Most of them actually outperformed US stocks in 2025 according to Paul Krugman.
Unfortunately the plutocrats rule no matter what we do. I dumped Trump-enabling United Health Care for a new non-profit insuror and have already made what I hope will be my last-ever Amazon purchase, a tool I could not find anywhere else online. But because I am a home-bound cripple and must therefore shop entirely online -- the electric shopping carts Tacoma retailers begrudgingly provide for handicapped folks are miserly few in number, are (never) adequately recharged and thus at best are extremely unreliable -- I am stuck with avowedly Nazi Walmart, though every time I order from them -- and this is no exaggeration -- it feels as if I am crossing a picket line, something that in real life I have never done nor would ever do. But I thus far have found no alternative, and cost is always a determinant. (Because I'm a single male with no dependents, Barack the Betrayer slashed my food stamp allocation from $130 per month to $14 per month in 2011, and since the Obama rules still apply, I get a mere $24 per month now; my typical Trumpflated monthly grocery bill is about $180, give or take ten bucks depending on what long-term staples -- rice, potatoes, frozen vegetables, tea and coffee -- I have to replace.) Safeway is prohibitively expensive; since Kroger bought Fred Meyer, it cancels deliveries on whim and is therefore utterly undependable; Costco doesn't deliver, though I have friends who shop there for me during their once-per-month trips; neither does Winco, which is worker-owned and reasonably priced -- actually better than Wallowing NaziMart -- and Winco was of course my preference when I was ambulatory. So because I'm a cripple -- and because any notion our society was ever adequately handicap-accessible is just another "change-we-can-believe-in" lie (and also because you gotta be genuinely rich to buy the privilege of a motorized wheelchair) -- I'm forced to shop where my expenditures actually contribute money to the ChristoNazi cause and its ecogenocidal destruction of what used to be the United States. Yes I'm working to find an alternative, but so far no joy.
LOL. I called Chase on Wednesday to ask why my interest rate was not 10%. The CSR replied that they had heard nothing about the change. I explained that the president had mandated the cap. I told her that I want her overlords to know that I am disappointed that they are not following the mandate. When I asked if the president was lying, she laughed. She said that she would pass my comments up the line. Guess Jamie Dimon only follows the felons orders if they benefit him.
Take your fun where you can!
Hello, Apache; as always my salute and best regards. I am posting this material here rather above on J L Graham's, where it technically belongs, in an attempt to keep it from being buried down thread. Apropos the engineering of "the rise of Trump," I assembled this information to refute a post of radically erroneous history, but now realize it is a vital glimpse of the miasma from which ChristoNazism has grown, and I thus re-post it accordingly:
U.S. ADOPTION OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS AS ADVISORS AND COMRADES AT ARMS
In the fall of 1944, the United States and its allies launched a secret mission code-named Operation Paperclip. The aim was to find and preserve German weapons, including biological and chemical agents, but American scientific intelligence officers quickly realized the weapons themselves were not enough. https://www.npr.org/2014/02/15/275877755/the-secret-operation-to-bring-nazi-scientists-to-america
=========
Under Project Paperclip not only rocket scientists were recruited, but convicted war criminals– including doctors who had conducted medical atrocities on concentration camp inmates, such as: experiments with plague vaccines, experiments that force fed chemically altered seawater to starved Dachau concentration camp inmates…American democratic principles were subverted by officials who adopted the Nazi utilitarian philosophy which posits that the ends justify the means..."Nazi attitudes toward research on human subjects were imported and adopted by various U.S. officials."...MKULTRA, the notorious CIA mind control experiments with LSD and other chemical agents, were the brainchild of Nazi Paperclip scientists: https://ahrp.org/legacy-of-nazis-in-america/
=========
“The CIA and Nazi War Criminals”: National Security Archive (Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy) – complete bibliography, with every document hyperlinked (my gift to anyone research-minded enough to track the true origins of the ChristoNazi regime.) https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/index.htm
=========
See also PDF: “Useful Enemies: America’s Open Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals” (Richard Rashke, Delphinium Books: 2015)
https://tinyurl.com/4tacsyk3
I first heard of Operation Paperclip about five years ago when I picked up The German Wife, a book of historical fiction. It was a fabulous read, btw. One idea that struck me was the difficulty of the families of those German scientists in accepting/being accepted into American life and culture. In Huntsville people were asked to befriend the same people they had just fought in WWII.
Hello Loren... Thanks for this Info... I Return Your Salute... I Won't Comment On Stephen Nazi Miller...
"... you know, basically, they’re attacking the whole Constitution.”
The GOP Roberts Court got there first. And are now working overtime to catch up with the GOP Trump administration & Project 2025 wrecking crew.
Were there oligarchs at Davos, sure some can see that the greedy bottom line is a vanishing one with chump…. But he surely is transferring assets as fast as he can. Killing the goose that has laid the golden egg.
If the 25th Amendment is invoked, we're still stuck with Vance. Much darkness ahead before the light.
J L, I'd like to see you write more (just a ramble no one will hold you to) about this "massive shift of public focus" you say is needed. What would that look like? I see us in a big stretch between what is and the possibilities for otherwise, and there's so much inner work, outer organizing, and metabolizing the shock, horror, logical consequences, betrayals, and pain of witnessing while being mature and responsible to each other at this time. YES, we're seeing so many heroic humans. I wonder, how do we each become one?
One kindness at a time.
I’d like to be less cynical about performative kindnesses. But maybe even those are helpful temporarily….
In the county where I live, there is a nonprofit organization that has organized to provide trained observers. In case ICE shows up here, which they will. It happens that last night we had a potluck to be updated on what might be happening soon. Turns out there are 900 of us who have been trained who have tools like whistles, and vests, and are ready and willing to protect our immigrant friends neighbors, local workers. It took some smart local leaders to harness this desire to help and perhaps where you are you could help get that going too.
That sounds great. Something like that has begun here, especially organized from churches. It seems existing organizations are sorting it out.
Heroes don’t have to be perfect people. Even though all of us are deeply imperfect, there are true heroes.
JL Graham,
Wise words and facts to support them.
I have never believed that Trump was the leader of this crooked chaos but chosen only as a useful tool.
When he was chosen as candidate for President prior to his first election,
I returned to the political party of my father who passed long ago and I am not looking back!!!!
Excellent suggestions. Still don’t use Duck Duck Go, sounds amateurish. So does “Google” and Google is now ridiculously ad driven. The ad mania may eventually do in the business control of every aspect of our lives. There was a time when they didn’t insult our intelligence with every effort to sell or persuade.
I use DuckDuckGo, both the search and now the browser. Much prefer it to edge and chrome.
DuckDuckGo has been my go-to for years. With all the silly names of things that we use daily: what's app, X (Twitter), Substack... not using a privacy tool that's effective because it has an "amateurish" name seems, well, like an amateurish kind of reason not to use it. Just sayin.
I recently had an interaction with my ISP: their site would not allow me to look at the pdf of the monthly statement. The advice they gave was to use Chrome (I use Safari, and DuckDuckGo). It solved the problem, but proved that the ISP's Web lackeys are woefully incompetent. Over my life in software development (since '64) I've become very thin-skinned when it comes to bad Web sites. A pox on all their houses.
Another Duck recommendation. I’m ready
Yes, JD! ADS are what stick in consumers’ brains and make them BUY…just say, “NO!”
We are a nation of addicts to trash tv, shopping highs, and the most toxic propaganda dressed up as a three-ring circus. With the ringMaster from hell
I haven't heard much about Firefox lately. I've been using "the Duck" for several months now.
Duck coming up, Google committed advertising suicide and thought we wouldn’t notice…
Let's all join the Minneapolis moment for a National Strike. As Trump/Miller continue their Nazi brownshirt tactics, a broad based national strike is coming to cities all across America. This is how the Anti Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights movement went national. The country's ready. We know what to do!!
Marj, none of us knows whether we will have free and fair elections in November. I write postcards to voters with Indivisible (currently voters in FL) to get as many Democrats elected in as many states as possible.
Yes, we need candidates, but as assassinations are likely, we need to think of how to protect all candidates. Look at the Brown Shirts (Germany ‘20’s) and think of Gestapo (‘30’s, ‘40’s), remembering that the president of the United States is at war with many of US and has put together an army to get rid of all of those he does not want to rule over.
Meanwhile the more we can elect before 2026, people who believe in democracy, who are not racist, the better our chances of having fair and daily counted elections.
Georgia, I feel obliged to once again post the link to an invaluable website that has helped me make the correct shopping/buying decisions. Not every brand or business is in their database, but it is being expanded daily.
https://www.goodsuniteus.com
The information this organization provides is eye-opening and extraordinarily helpful.
Wow, Dale! THANK YOU!
I just jotted this down to stick on my bulletin board.
This totally shows why I love this community so much.
Also - please go to Stand With Minnesota - it is a “nice little data base,” which lists various organizations who are helpers from food banks to immigrant right agencies. Show your ❤️ today.
We are turning into Iran....
I understand the fight to uphold and enforce the constitution. But when we have a Supreme Court who gives our president complete immunity, and slow-walks important decisions and allows corporations to be people and takes away the right to bodily autonomy, then where is the hope and where do you take the fight?
Saturday 1/24 Afternoon Minnesota Murder UPDATE:
*****************************************************
There is something to see here a-- video taken by a bystander directly across the street from the murder of ALEX.
MN State Senator ERIN MURPHY confirmed that the victim, ALEX, was a RN, a Registered Nurse trying to help another person , a woman, at the time of the incident,
ALEX PREDDY only offered urgent care.
This trail attorney noted that KRISTI NOEM has already dropped the phrase "brandishing a gun" from her propaganda because that is a LIE.
Alex Pretty did not "brandish" a weapon FULL STOP.
Under Minnesota acriminal law evidentiary rules a lay persons' opinions bout "intent" are not allowed in Cou because like KRISTI NOEM they have no personal knowledge of the facts.
The State of Minnesota will have the "last word" on the direct examination of ICE shooter(s) who fired the 5 fatal shots at the trial of the Minnesota criminal indictment.
ICE OUT NOW!
**********************************
Saturday Morning 1/24/26 UPDATE:
Per Senator Amy Bouchar, this Saturday morning, there has been another shooting in Minneapolis. At least 5 shots by ICE shooters.
Per, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the victim has died. 🙏
******************************
Minnesotans on Boycott Strike:
Loud Chant :"What do we want"
Answer" ICE OUT
"When do want it?'
Answer: NOW!
Reporter: "Why are you here in Sub-zero Weather?"
Minnesotan Answer: "it's not freezing - it's balmy". Said while wearing Arctic face protection. -- ( : ...)
Moral: Watch Minnesota in November!
I saw that too -- "it's balmy" -- spoken like a true Mid-Westerner!
What’s the expression? No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing..
Look up the General Strike of 1876, a piece of suppressed American history to keep the capitalists happy. 3/4 of the working people of America were on strike on July 4, 1876, the centennial of the Revolution.
This is the history I wish Heather had addressed today. Lincoln was citing ideals rather than reality as the historical basis of our nation. The reality included both slavery and genocide for the benefit of white settlement and profit. We shouldn’t look to the Nazis but to our own history to understand the “sides” forming today - our constitution provides a firm justification for continued growth toward justice and general strikes and other forms of popular resistance have always been need to keep the principles laid down there actually operational. We’ve been watching the Constitution be dismantled for quite some time now without being sufficiently shocked to fight back. But the frog is now out of the pot and not going back.
Nazis studied the Confederacy to learn about implementing their own racist policies. Today’s giant corporations like Amazon, Walmart, Google, Palantir, etc. are the plantations of our current age. Except the giant corporations are embedded in our society in ways that the enslavers could never do on their physical plantations.
The white supremacist creed is summed up in a quote from a white Marylander in the 1850s, as reported by Samuel Green, a former slave - he'd "rather go to hell and be damned than go to heaven with a n----r". In today's version, they would rather destroy America and its Constitution than share a better place with those who are not white.
(The quote was taken from an article in the current Smithsonian magazine - "The Life and Times of Samuel Green", by Victor Luckerson.)
Let's all join the Minneapolis moment for a National Strike. As Trump/Miller continue their Nazi brownshirt tactics, a broad based national strike is coming to cities all across America. This is how the Anti Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights movement went national. The country's ready. We know what to do!!
That was the year the Republicans stole the election. Rutherfraud B. Hayes.
Very wise to establish the targets. Never focus on the people they put in the streets, they can't reason whatsoever. These fascist depend on profits being made and courts working to secure their ideas of "peace."
Thomas Payne published “The American Crisis, No. I,” in the cold of December 19, 1776. There he wrote "These are the times that try men's souls,...” He might say these Minnesota protesters are not simply “summer soldiers” or “sunshine patriots” but rather “deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
The news reports 100 Clergy members were arrested in Minneapolis. Real Patriots on the side of the American Revolution. I see #5 coming down the Pike. Now we will begin seeing hundreds of Bondi’s criminal cases going down in flames due to Jury Nullification. Trump's DOJ has ZERO veracity. In other words juries will take the oath with just as much meaning as Trump and the likes of Bondi had when they took their oath and then do their duty.
Thank you Daniel! I want to copy your post and send it to all my friends! MOTIVATE, ORGANIZE and MOBILIZE!
I also wonder if they're trying to cover up what they may be doing to our election systems. I assume that any elections that are done via the internet are vulnerable to Musk & co. We need to be vigilant.
I like #1 the best. Anyone with a senator or congress person from the party formally known as republicans in their state should turn up the heat. Until those law makers (what a joke to call them that) start feeling the heat, they will say "off the record" this is bad, then 'on the record' call the protesters terrorist.
50,000 people took part in the march! In minus-20F.
First of all, where are the ICE agents staying in the cities they are raiding? Are they staying in Marriott properties or Hilton properties, etc.? We need to boycott any chain hotels that will host these thugs.
And wouldn't it be too bad, if the heat went out in the hotels they are staying at?
Like the newsletter said, "CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER"
I've been in the twin cities in January when it was below zero. Many of the parking lots have plug-ins for engine block heaters. Hopefully, ICE isn't smart enough to realize that.
Yes! Make ice as miserable as they are making the citizens!
Freeze ICE out!
good bumper sticker!
And MAGA still claims they were all paid. 😂
That’s awe inspiring!!
Congress has been ineffective, it’s action in the streets by local people that is exposing and opposing lawless acts most effectively so far. This is all a dress rehearsal for the November elections when, as seems likely, ICE squads show up at critical polling places
Even before November...watch out for March mid-terms. Some states have important positions like governors to be elected. And, as far as talk about Vlad interfereing in electoral process, that's a negative vibe in an effort to dampen resistance. The admin is very concerned! tRump said if Repubs lose in mid-terms, he'll be impeached. RESIST!!!
🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞
Count on it. They don’t plan to lose. Vlad won’t let it happen again
Don’t talk dirty.
I can't understand why 100% of the Dems in Congress are not taking action to outlaw any form of law enforcement to use of masks while on duty. What's up with letting this horrific practice continue?
@Spencer. We may never see elections.
The best tactic is jujitsu. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
Please go read the Constitution, Article I, Section 4, Daniel. It's the part that says setting the time and place of elections is strictly the the responsibility of the States, that the federal government has no role whatsoever. Should Dilbert & Miller try, Marc Elias will have them tied up in court so fast their tiny brains won't know what happened to them. Don't spread regime propaganda and misinformation.
Not if the courts are shuttered.
We need a few Congressional Republicans to cut this off....NOW!
I agree with you in principle, TC, but a couple of things deeply trouble me. Yes, states have the singular responsibility for setting the time and place of elections but as we’ve already seen, Red states have reduced the number of polling places in urban. (I.e., Blue) districts, resulting in hours-long waits to vote. They have also reduced the hours and locations where people can register to vote or contest their sudden removal from voter rolls. Most frightening to me, however, is the likelihood that ICE agents will be deployed on fabricated grounds at the places where particular groups of voters — no need to define them here, I’m sure — will go. Fear alone will suppress turnout: ICE agents will temporarily pull individuals from waiting lines on the pretense of checking their legal status. How long will this “check” take? Will “computer delays” slow things down? Will the released citizen even wan to get back in line to vote? Will other voters witness this and decide to leave before casting their votes? What can Democrats and other defenders of voting rights do in advance to prevent this kind of thing? I’ve served as a poll watcher at elections. I’m a short 76 year old guy. How much would my objections do to prevent a 6’5”, 200+ pound, armed agent from doing anything he wants? If I’m lucky he’ll laugh and turn away. More likely, he’ll detain me for obstructing or even assaulting him as a law officer. So I ask again: what can be done by the Democratic Party, ACLU, CREW, etc., to prevent this kind of assault on voting rights?
Daniel, by saying We "may" never see elections, you show how optimistic you are. ....actually it's much worse than that.
Don’t talk dirty.
Just because they’ve been ineffective doesn’t mean we go silent their way. I don’t think we’ll see many big waves (like a major MAGA Congress member changing their opinions), however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently. I think we can cause ripples to push news organizations to be more honest and maybe even a bit accusatory about what’s happening. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
Thank you, Megan. Thank you for the “Goodtrouble”.
"Status Coup News interviewed a protester walking down the street holding a sign that said: “CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER..'"
Thank God for Minnesota humor. As needed on the barricades as strength, smarts and strategy, to say nothing of hot dish...🤣 AND a powerful reminder that the most vicious of authoritarians can and do make mistakes, and not just small ones. It happens all the time. The arrogance of pig-headed cruelty blinds itself to common sense, fails to anticipate reaction, never accounts for true resistance, fixating on the false, the absurd, the non-real.
This, then, our secret weapon: *they do not see it coming, but we do.*
Never underestimate the restorative power of tater tot casserole, simple goulash, or homemade chicken and noodles! I think Clausewitz or the not very tall French guy said something like this.....
Minnesota Hot Dish!!!
''Racial Profiling, ICE, and the Quiet Collapse of Due Process in Maine''
What happened on a Portland street this week was not simply an immigration arrest. It was a public demonstration of how fragile constitutional protections become when enforcement is driven by identity instead of evidence.
A Cumberland County corrections recruit, legally employed, background checked, and authorized to work in the United States until 2029, was boxed in by federal agents in the East Bayside neighborhood and pulled from his car. Video shows him telling agents he worked for the sheriff’s office. That fact changed nothing. His car was left running. He was taken away. No public warrant was presented. No criminal charge was articulated. The justification, later relayed to the sheriff, was simply that he was “illegally in the country.”
That explanation is not probable cause. It is an assertion. And in this case, it was almost certainly filtered through racial profiling...
https://essayx.substack.com/p/racial-profiling-ice-and-the-quiet
A strong, well-drafted piece.
Thank you Megan for posting the spreadsheet. We can all let Congress know what we believe in.
I am focussed especially on the 5 Dems who crossed the line to Magaville. The puny excuse of avoiding another shutdown quivers under the footsteps of their constituents marching in protest.
Thank you Megan for your spreadsheet. I use it all the time.
In solidarity!
Thank you, fellow resistor sister 💪❤️💪
Thanks, Megan!
Thanks sooo much for this spreadsheet that you have been making available to all of us!!!!! Greatly appreciated! RESIST!!!!
In particular, call and write Schumer and tell him to step aside and let someone with a “backbone” lead the Senate.
A nationwide one day general strike to demonstrate that this GOP fascist movement will not succeed would be a good non-violent message from our majority of the population. The business community, especially the tech Oligarchy and big retailers need to suffer for their support for trump and the GOP's fascist movement. I would like to see most citizens boycott fascist friendly businesses until the threat is defeated.
I agree. I signed up for a general strike back in the summer and have the link to the website on the spreadsheet. I haven’t checked to see how many have signed up in a while
And everyone, when you make your calls, please don't forget the EPSTEIN FILES.
If you've seen my comments in the last week or so, you've already seen this, but if not, please take the time to read the allegations about Trump to understand WHY he's so scared!
It's long, and IT IS GRAPHIC. Please avoid if it will trigger you.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-519
How can I share this?
You can copy the Google sheets link when you’re viewing it, or use any of the following URLs (both are case sensitive) -
bit.ly/Goodtrouble
bit.ly/Nokings
Thank you for helping share it. I hope it helps us be extra loud.
GREENLAND (priceless trolling of Trump and his insanity):
"If Russian ships are sailing freely around Greenland, Ukraine can help. We have the expertise and weapons to ensure that not one of those ships remains. They can sink near Greenland just as they do near Crimea."
– President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine
Hello ArcticStones.... Priceless.... Slava Ukrainii!!!...
Slava Ukraini!
Heroyam Slava!!
Brilliant
Russian ships are not freely sailing around Greenland. Trump was lying.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-greenland-denmark-trump-arctic-security-russia-china-6346aa8e86be594e467e8cc18f98357b
Zelenskyy addresses that in a magnificently subtle way: the very first word in his statement is "If".
Yes, he did begin with “If”. Think about this…Zelenskyy has endured the Russian onslaughts to his beloved country and its people for for almost 4 years, he has withstood the lies and ineptitude of the two-faced, power-mad, hustler that is Donald Trump during those years, and yet throughout, he’s kept his wits about him…he was mindful enough to preface his statement with “If”. (This statement was aimed at you, Mr. Netto.)
Again. We must accept the FACT that whatever tRump says is a lie or he is projecting, which is the same thing.
Have never doubted that…Project 2025 same , the greater coup long in the making . America, how long will you tolerate this..or have you given us all up?
If not then stand up and end this, codify the law, because those who betrayed us , you are STILL excusing
Would that it were simplicity itself. Two Houses of Congress simultaneously on both vaycay and staycay. Both absent without pause. Courts lost in the meander in the park, where parked many ‘decisions’. The States, some in solidarity act, but not quite enough, tho promise grows. Yet despite all this, the people ARE standing up.
🙄
SLAVA Ukraine💙🇺🇦
Heroyam Slava!!
I'm here in Minneapolis, and I'm a 3rd generation Holocaust survivor. I’m all too aware what people are capable of. The mantra of “Never Again” has never felt more prescient than right now in my own Country and here in Minnesota. I'm very proud of what my state accomplished today under dangerously frigid conditions. This is not an existential threat, it’s effecting everyone here. Businesses are closing, people aren’t leaving the house. It’s a very real waking nightmare. Everyone that's not MAGA needs to stop being shocked, and recognize the seriousness of this threat. We cannot do this alone.
It's nice to be praised for our bravery, but it'd be even nicer if we could get more substantial support. Like, from our reps in Congress. Cory Booker saying we need to train ICE better exemplifies what we DON'T need: weak-kneed appeasement.
I so agree. ICE will have to be abolished and at some point a new agency created - that will share the motto "protect and serve" rather than the current "intimidate and kidnap"
A new agency is what Ro Khanna proposes. He says more in his interview on the Left Hook: https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/ro-khanna-on-the-epstein-files-ice
thank you Joan -- I was not aware of that.
If we need an agency to deal with immigration issues, and we probably do, it has no business being armed to the teeth and masked up like a modern Gestapo as well as behaving like one. We need to end ICE and that includes their name, no more cute name for what they are doing.
I've written to all three of my congressional reps: the only solution to ICE's attacks on citizen and non-citizen alike is to abolish it. Completely. With nothing left but the records they keep of all the crimes they've committed. And the list of participants, for the obviously necessary trials to come.
So disappointed in Booker
Ms. Goods killer is a ten year agent and trainer for the boarder patrol.
We need to abolish ICE. Training thugs won’t work with tris group.
Daniel, I am first generation as my parents were both victims of the Holocaust. My mom was from Berlin and my dad, Poland. Grateful they’re not alive to see all of this.
Time for all good men to come to the aid of Minneapolis
...and the other occupied cities in the USA.
Covers a lot of territory, doesn’t it
Arrrrrghghghghghghg
Sure does, Texas does insanity bigger and better since W foisted on the fools
Thank you for your presence in these comments and for your existence and life, especially today. We are also proud of what your state accomplished today through its strike, persecution and opposition.
You were first. Looks like Maine is next. RESIST!!
Never again!
So proud of Minnesota and people such as you, Daniel. You are the representative “We the People” in this crucial moment in our history.
Salud!
🗽💫✌🏽
My mother was born in catholic northern Italy in 1925 and grew up during the era of Mussolini. Eventually Italy became allied with Germany. Her town supported the partisan resistance and in retaliation the nazi came into the area and rounded up all the teenagers, mostly girls, to be sent off to “work”. My mother and two of her sisters ended up in Auschwitz and eventually forced labor at Mauthausian. They all survived but most of their classmates didn’t.
Tell us what we can do for you from afar.
What this regime is attempting is clearly UN-AMERICAN. Full stop.
Annabel, i believe that they are not attempting, they are DOING! They are banking on the fact that the judicial rulings are slower than their actions. Time and again, people are already deported before the ink is dry on a judge’s ruling.
I understand the need of rule of law to proceed carefully and methodically, but contrary to this regime's abuse of the word, there really is such a thing as an emergency, and it seems to me that blatant violations of the Constitution that clearly and presently result in profound and material harms present a true emergency, not only for the protection of unalienable rights of parties directly affected, but in defense of rule of law itself and the survival of republic itself.
If we expect soldiers to be aware of patently illegal orders and to risk the consequences of refusing to facilitate them, surely those who are most familiar with with the letter and precedents of law should also be aware and similarly alarmed.
Yes, they should be. So why AREN'T they?
Look at the decisions of the John Roberts Supreme Court and be afraid.
They are the deliberate “enemies of the state,” At least 3 of the 9.
And hopefully someday soon we can do a ‘lessons learned’ and ensure these blatantly corrupt systems such as our mostly UNsupreme justices are corrected
Imo to do this we need a Congress that will push the envelope, think outside the box, and tell Wall Street to take a hike.
Sure hope some will even acknowledge they were hoodwinked. Seems it’s harder to get them to admit that than to get them to believe it in the first place. True of my bros…
It makes me crazy that during the hearing yesterday with Jack Smith, republicans were bent out of shape about phone logs being reviewed. What if their doors had been broken down and they were apprehended without a warrant, which is what they are doing to citizens throughout this country!!
Remember all the liberty b.s. about wearing a mask during a pandemic?? They stand for nothing but a lawless society.
All performative nonsense.
As an aside, as we watched those hearings, my wife was angry at what they were doing; I had to tell her that it was all performative, and not in any way investigative. That night, Lawrence O'Donnell did a piece (can't remember if it was on his show or in the panel that evening) where he said that it used to be that a hearing was a fact-finding mission. It has now devolved into political theater.
Lawrence always broadcasts from the front row 😉
Some of them accused Smith of spying on Republican members of Congress but the logs do not disclose the contents of those phone calls. It's shameful that this honest man's irreproachable integrity had to be exposed to this sort of ugly point-scoring exercise.
Hegseth has been sacking judge advocates general who are responsible for army discipline so that no one will oppose illegal orders given by him or Trump.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5162069-pentagon-officers-fired/
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/02/24/people-are-very-scared-trump-administration-purge-of-jag-officers-raises-legal-ethical-fears.html
Stephen Miller recently instructed ICE agents that they have federal immunity for everything they do. I have no doubt that's what Hegseth is telling the military also.
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/ice-agents-federal-immunity-dhs-stephen-miller-b2900727.html
The double strike on the Venezuelan boat (and that whole blockade) shows that the US military will do exactly what they're ordered to do, irrespective of the legality of their actions.
The FBI has also been decimated. Here’s a (long) detailed accounting. No paywall. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/22/magazine/trump-kash-patel-fbi-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GlA.WUwg.Ecs0QShenkpL&smid=url-share
Thanks, Gail. This article was very interesting.
Patel seems to be treating the FBI as his own personal fiefdom requiring staff there to attend to his non-curricular activities.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kash-patel-fbi-director-premier-league-mi5-b2906211.html
His own personal concierge.
The former U.S. military has been reduced to Trump's private SS -- that is., a band of oath-breakers, as they shall henceforth be damned in the annals of infamy.
I don't know that we're fully there yet,, but we are well on the way, IMO.
I wouldn’t assume no one is resigning or requesting reassignment. But not conspicuously enough.
As in the article those requesting reassignment are being fired anyway.
I've got a band buddy who is a retired USMC JAG. She is appalled at what is happening with the military.
They are also counting on the six corrupt right-wing Justices on the Supreme Court to help them to overturn our democracy.
Is there some way the airports can refuse to let them land?
Great idea.
No. Most airports take Federal funding, which means they have to stay open to all.
😥😥😥they can’t close to ICE.
Certainly not the theme of "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Not the America I was taught to respect in school.
If America, 2005-26 was a movie, who would be the obvious "bad guys'? It's not a stretch to call the modern "GOP" agenda "evil".
Not a stretch to call conservative rascists and misogynists of every age evil. Different hats, same people. I appreciate the GOP and the government going so far out if thier way to make it clear that leaving survivors among the leadership of the confederacy after the civil war was one of America's most fundamental mistakes.
What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden." -- Lincoln
Better off for whom
Precisely.
It was Lincoln's Democratic Vice President who sabotaged Reconstruction.
Sadly, there is ~35% of Americans that still DO NOT believe in the nation’s founding principles of equality and the rule of law. The rest of us are going to have to set aside our lesser disagreements if we’re going to take back our government.
I think of it as developing a common focus. We may share differing perspectives, but with eyes on a mutually agreed upon prize. A mutual identification of what most matters, including overall support for one another. E Pluribus Unum.
" To stir the masses, to appeal to their higher, better selves, to set them thinking for themselves, and to hold ever before them the ideal of mutual kindness and good will, based upon mutual interests, is to render real service to the cause of humanity." Eugene V. Debs
Hear, hear!
Nice, Mojave: "if we're going to take back our government."
Why is it so easy, why is it that, as you say, "35% of Americans" dismiss our "founding principles" and vitriolically instead embrace what Heather today concludes as "blood-and-oil radicalism"?
The answer is that those founding principles require a public not only tolerant of "others," but also skilled in the nuances and complications of seeing not just groups and stereotypes, but individuals.
As we go forward, our teachers can insist on they being the center of their schools, can celebrate their own choices in teaching youth some of the basic skills in seeing others, the burgeoning literacy of essay writing that unfolds these skills as it glories in the breadth of details, specifics on fellow students, fellow community members, fellow citizens and guests. Not only breadth, but depth, too, as teachers can lead students in the citing of the apt books they the teachers know and love for ways students can learn to embrace analogies.
The Bible, which so many MAGA's bang on about (Trump's even selling them), connects obsession with money with evil. and there is a lot of stuff there that does not square with what MAGA says and delivers.
What if some foreign menace was doing all the same stuff that Trump et al is doing"? Faking official photographs, tearing out verified historical exhibits, terrorizing legal citizens and residents? Putting "Dear Leader's" name on everything? Diverting the public's money to lavish and/or unwanted conceits, etc, etc. etc? And the regime sort of is foreign, no? In terms of the thoughts of our historical leading light? In terms of the Constitution?
1984
You might like this.
https://theconversation.com/how-george-orwells-nineteen-eighty-four-predicted-the-global-power-shifts-happening-now-273122?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekender%20-%203653437321&utm_content=The%20Weekender%20-%203653437321+CID_43c6452557555cbd4df21443bb065cc9&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=How%20George%20Orwells%20Nineteen%20Eighty-Four%20predicted%20the%20global%20power%20shifts%20happening%20now
Some of what you list is vulgarity, J L, others of it sheer and base criminality.
Greater problem is the mass of Americans schooled to stupefaction, anesthetization, insensitivity, blindness. Elite law schools have failed us, universities, mainstream media -- huge institutional failures in too many places.
We cannot blame the teachers. They have no allies in defending against the juggernauts the moneyed have in their push for testing and its dehumanizing conceits.
But we can celebrate and encourage the teachers to doing the things that they know matter -- not just obediently following admin and bureaucrats hooked on the most officious devices for managing, grouping, numbering, packaging, and assembly-lining.
Yes, J L: Donald is criminal, vulgar, a rapist, serial liar, friend to the moneyed pedophiles. Perhaps he a worse pedophile than all the rest of them.
But it's a massively rotten state -- a militarized, cruel police state -- we now inhabit. Due to Donald. But also due to too many passively adrift in a status quo that has excluded teachers from exercising their own better consciences.
I agree your sentiments but I'm not sure that I would be quoting a book depicting the arbitrary actions of a Bronze Age thunder god as a template for moral behaviour.
A warlord.
The Bible also triesto rationalize human slavery.
The pathetic fascist white evangelical religion workshops the prosperity doctrine.
True, but it is an anthology, edited by organizational politics. The dominant message of the Gospels is one of kindness. Certainly key parts of them proscribe the very behaviors that Trump acts out so vaingloriously; contempt and cruelty to the most disadvantaged, obsession with greed, and entitlement to lie about and kill ones opponents. I consider Quakers, one of the least popular sects in the US as pretty much modeling that. I thought that Desmond Tutu modeled that. I am myself too self-serving, and (I tell myself) "practical" to follow, but I strongly admire their point of view, and consider them excellent neighbor. The Quaker American Friends Service Committee dispenses aid in disproportion to it's size, and puts its employees at risk helping people regardless of politics in war zones and natural disasters.
The "dark side" of religion claims inherent "God on our side" supremacy, is drawn to political subjugation, concentrated wealth and grandeur, and even historically to torture, slavery, and genocide; and yet we seem to take too little effort to distinguish between the two. They are virtual polar opposites.
Try mapping the "Sermon on the Mount", Beatitudes, or discussion of "the least of these" onto anything "MAGA:". It just won't fit.
It's such an appalling figure that 1/3 of the country is so stubbornly racist and misogynistic. they do not budge.
And despite my years, for some reason I was shocked beyond belief when racism in particular virulently exploded in 2015. (Misogyny I experience in every job I ever had, so I knew it was alive and well, but at least it was kind of below the surface; now with P2025, it’s exploded too.)
MLM, the 2008 Democratic convention showed me that the racism took a back seat to misogyny. 2010 is the "starting point" for where we are today with "Operation RedMap."
I, too, have experienced the misogyny in any job I had that wasn't grocery or food service. 30+ years in law enforcement there was something just about every day. Some blatant, some subversive, and some simple oblivion.
I have experienced misogyny every day of my life. I was born in Portland, Oregon in 1962, moved with family to Rochester, NY in 1966, moved with family to Norwalk, CT in 1971, and moved myself to Dallas, TX in 1983. Being raised with 2 older brothers, I was constantly told I was "less than" for being a girl.
I learned the only way to "shut them up" was to be better than them in everything. Sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. My sharpshooting skills at age 16 shocked all the boys and the instructors (who were men.) I was described by high school teachers as "quietly determined." But when I moved to Texas at age 21, nothing could have prepared me for the gross misogyny ingrained in this southern state.
I kept quiet. I kept outperforming. I kept getting promoted. I avoided contact with the quintessential "good 'ol southern boys" as much as possible. I ignored so many horrific things said about me to my face from bigoted, ignorant, threatening men. And I remembered. And when I got the opportunity to "show them up," I did. Quietly. And they knew it. Most of them learned to leave me alone. Some didn't. So, they got a harder lesson the next time they 'effed with me. I cultivated friendships with men and women who liked and respected me for who I was.
I might have been born with an inherent knowing that I mattered as much as anyone else. I used to believe all of us were born knowing this. I no longer believe it. In my experience, most people who are secretly afraid they are inferior, try to extinguish that feeling by dominating others. There are tens of millions of Americans (including the vastly inferior regime) who believe they truly are "less than" and they only operate from a domination viewpoint. This is insanity and is shattering societal bonds everywhere in America now.
If you cannot restrain yourself from harming others, you have lost the privilege to live in a healthy society. Your sickness will spread until you are consumed by it. Too bad Maggots don't have enough of a heart and soul to know they are just equal to, and matter as much as, everyone else.
NO ONE IS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE. No one is lesser, either.
A quiet, yet intense, offering, Linda Nation, and good on you for posting it here. My own childhood experiences led me, unwittingly, through paths which ultimately led to the self-conscious realization in my twenties and thirties that the same kinds of deeply seated biases you encountered existed all around me and it was wrong, and what was I going to do about it. When I was invited to help address the inequities I was seeing, of many different kinds, I did.
Later in my administrative life I was able to do a lot more and I did, only to retire to pursue uncompensated public service, live through Trump's DEI dyspepsia and his unilateral veto of LBJ's civil rights legislation, and feel that I'd been keel-hauled, accomplishments I'd been long proud to have fostered summarily erased by an insensitive, cruel dolt. I wrote a letter to the current president of the institution I retired from expressing my dismay, my feeling of betrayal when he'd sent out a cheery, detailed announcement of destroying major advances I'd helped to create . I never received any response to it. (He effectively confirmed his complicity!) I was added to his Christmas card list last December. [I guess that's the best he could do! ;-(]
Keep your heart. Some battles have to be resumed again and again. Know that armor takes longer to put on at 90! But my fingers still obey me . . . and can support you in your righteous quest.
Thank you for your kind words. I must protect my heart and soul lest bitterness and rage infect my mind to the point where I begin fantasizing about shooting ICE in the legs, torso, head, etc. I'm kidding, I think.
Thank you, Linda. I remember one training class I was in, where there was performance of some skill (this was when our hands on force training was delivered by martial arts practitioners who believed their was of doing things was "the one, true way") and I got taken to task for successfully solving the problem but not doing it "right". I told the guy (they were all guys) "Ya know, Ginger Rogers was as good a dancer as Fred Astaire, she just did everything backwards and in high heels."
Shut them right up.
Ally, there's been only a handful of times in my life I've come up with the exact thing to say right at the moment. (I'm soooo good for hours after the event.)
I used to work with a guy who was ancillary to the lab. He loved to walk up behind people focused on their work and loudly say anything right in your ear to make you jump. (he was a real douche) Anyhow, he did this once as I was intently focused on pipetting a solution into blood samples. This could have totally ruined the batch I was working on and set results back hours.
I turned around, got this/close to his face (and he was 8 " taller than me) and very forcefully said "if you EVER do that again, I will kick your balls in so hard they'll look like hemorrhoids coming out of your ass!!"
He never did it again, and come to think of it, he didn't bother anyone when I was in sight.
😁
It has to do with their education level, if you barely finished HS and were never exposed to a broad collegiate education, you might well be anchored in what you know, and you are supported in that view by FUX News and the other right wing sources of malcontent, who are getting very wealthy off your ignorance.
Unfortunately, there are some intelligent and educated Drumpfers. I don’t understand that.
Cult thinking is a kind of mental malware, anchored to psychological appeals to ego and enforced with psychological and/or physical violence. The right to question is empowering, while suppression of free and fair inquiry is subjugating. That has a lot to do with the Enlightenment Era philosophies our all too human founders brought to their ideal of governance. It has to do with the scientific method and courtroom cross-examination. It matters not is the cult is religious or secular, left wing or right wing, the key is punishment of the questioner. Trump and his toadies do it every day. I think some of the afflicted have the potential to escape their mental-emotional prison, some not; and some already have.
Germany came a long way the days of the Third Reich and despite this outburst of naked racism, have we from colonial days total racist subjugation, Trump is currently dominant of the levers of governmental power, and I grieve to see so many government employees willing to do his bidding. Yet he is also not dominantly popular. I do not see the scale of adoring sea of fans that turned out for Hitler and Mussolini. At least, not yet.
So heartbreakingly true.
That would be the third of Americans who want white Christian Nationalism to rule.
He is willing to destroy a 250 year experiment, first of it's kind on this planet, destroy that experiment to protect himself from the consequences of his own actions, the abuses he committed against children. He has no idea what the word earn means, he only sees and takes. We must defeat this spoiled brat and take back what belongs to us and our children.
Not just the spoiled brat, but all the members of Congress aid and abet him.
Especially the head vipers
until they don't...that time is coming
Like x 1000!!
It's not that our founding ideals lacked precedent, but perhaps our government was the first major experiment with a democratic republic built from the ground up? In any case, the world took note of it. It's just nuts to throw that all away to please some egotistical #@%&$.
maybe the Francaises will come to our aid again. Their people took the same turn to democracy for a short period of time in 1884, after they watched and aided our forefathers/mothers. Maybe our current situation will help them in their struggle against the same forces we are fighting now in the USA. The MAGA/NeoNazi/Identitarian movement in Europe will also soon reach the 30% level in Germany and France as is MAGA in America. What then?
1789
It would not surprise me that, given German and French recollections of WWII, both nations outlaw their burgeoning Nazi parties as the terrorist organizations they truly are. Nevertheless, I would expect most of the aid for Liberation to come from Canada and the United Kingdom, which is why I increasingly believe this -- which I originally posted as a fantasy -- genetically we Blisses are mostly Celt, and yet have kin in Canada and the British Isles -- could turn out be an accurate preview of a glorious day in some newly freed American city: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaNw28dSajo
Aye, Kinsman. Scots Irish on both sides, tempered with a bit of English and a smattering of other "mongrel" which I cannot trace. Never gave 23 and Me my info, so nothing there, thankfully.) I have no Canadian affiliations, but certainly wouldn't mind having them.
Aye, Kinswoman! My maternal grandfather was "Scotch Irish;" at least that's what I thought as a child when I heard that.
Scots Irish makes so much more sense. I did give 23 and Me my info; I am English, French, German, Irish, Scottish and Native American in that order. I don't care that they have my info. It proved useful to learn that I did not inherit my paternal grandmother's Parkinson's genetic markers.
THAT is a good reason for that test. Glad you don't have that.
Yes, U.S. government was true democracy built from ground up. A grand accomplishment! As a dual citizen of Canada and U.S., now living in Canada with my U.S. disabled vet spouse, I applaud resistance in Minnesota and everywhere else. The 35% still supporting the corrupt, pedophile in power have an unrealistic view of "America". Going forward, the flaws in govt (no term limits, POTUS above law, etc) that are now blatantly apparent, provide a clear map for change. For example, in parliamentary system in Canada, judges are basically elected by legal peers, not politicians. The 35% never look at the greater picture like what other countries do. They think the only right way is the "American" way. Instead of staring at their own navels, about time to take stock of their place in the world. No welcome committee for tRump when he finally landed in Davos. No allies of U.S. applauding his belligerent, vengeful, childish views. More importantly, all members of all branches of U.S. government, need to APPLY RULE OF LAW!
Aside from his arrested development, narcissism and dementia, this is all DISTRACTION from the Trump-Epstein files and Jack Smith’s investigation.
“‘Cause we have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”
In 1971 the FBI ended its COINTELPRO program, which collected data on activists, because it violated the First Amendment.
DHS agents have been taking images of everyone they encounter who challenges them.
How they operate their “nice little database” and what they are doing with that information needs to be thoroughly investigated.
That was part of the DOGE agenda. Now Peter Thiel Is in charge, I hear. Be very afraid
Agree. It was never about Waste, Fraud and Abuse. The sole purpose of DOGE was to mine our personal information.
And leak or sell it.
Or use it directly to control protests now and elections coming, while also attacking law-abiding non-citizens who are following every damn rule to regularize their status and getting nowhere. Even the “Dreamer” protection has been ended for kids trying to become citizens of this country they grew up in.
And fools bought their high and mighty bullschittery, goes down like chocolate poison
You can bet that all the data that exists in the SSA files is now stashed somewhere on a Palantir server, for use in whatever skulduggery the tech bros can imagine. I'll venture that Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and whoever runs Google nowadays has more information on you than you yourself.
Not to mention Musks Xai.
Integrated with the SSA database(s) which I just read have been leaked or hacked. Surprise.
and I have no doubt, it will be investigated, in due course...
Indeed much will be revealed when this administration faces its “Nuremberg trials,” but I think this should be reported on and made public as soon as possible. It’s likely as great a threat to our civil rights as the memo authorizing warrantless searches, which has been well-covered and had appalled people on both sides of the fence.
I just hope we get to that point without self immolation.
I am sickened by the regime’s behavior and heartened by the population’s repudiation and defense of their neighbors and the constitution. What a beautiful people and a beautiful sight.
This video of people dancing in the protest from Minneapolis warms the heart.
https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3md5ewqcqns22
Looking forward to ICE finding out that the fourth amendment can be legally defended by the second.
That might happen sooner than a lot of people think. I hope it doesn't.
Unfortunately, hope won't get us out of this mess perpetrated by the Trumpolini revolutionaries and their enablers...including those who "hoped" that their unforgivable abstention from the 2024 vote wouldn't be of any harm.
"Unforgivable abstention" is one component of that component of the voting population. I have yet to see any numbers on people who could not vote due to any of the shenanigans at the state level; closing polling places, moving ballot collection drop boxes, removing voters from the rolls; I don't believe them to be a majority, but a significant number nonetheless.
OMG! That’s exactly what they want! Think that through for even half a second. No matter how many guns you have do you honestly think that as soon as the first idiot shoots an ICE idiot MARTIAL LAW and THE INSURRECTION ACT won’t be declared and all the civilian guns put together will be able to defeat the US military? Who btw will follow orders legal or not. I hope you and every other gun owner keeps your fantasies and your guns locked up at home.
I agree. It would not serve our progressive cause to turn violent now. But anger (anger is ALWAYS the result of perceived helplessness) is dramatically increasing as people feel more and more helpless. Violent expressions of helplessness and anger could easily get out of hand. My guns are safely secured. I’ve made a personal commitment to not sanction the possible use of violent resistance pending the accomplishment of a free and fair election in November. If Trumpists successfully cancel, delay or interfere with free and fair November midterm elections in America I will reconsider my position. That is my personal red line. If we cannot muster a decisive electoral rebuke of the current administration because we lacked the votes, then we have lost and must start again to build and nurture a coalition of resistance. If we lose the midterm elections because a corrupt and traitorous administration illegally engineered and imposed that loss on us… we will have passed through the gates of hell and there will be little else to do but violently resist. I struggle to speak these words - it is so painful to realize what has happened to us. Short of violent resistance I think there is more we could do to throw sand into the gears of the ICE machine. As someone said elsewhere in these comments, “Where do ICE agents stay when targeting a city?” Yes, where indeed. And don’t those fancy black vehicles have the same electronics as other vehicles these days? We could certainly use the help of a few good hackers right about now. Just sayin’…
Your math ain't mathing. 3 million members of the military versus 250 million civilians, more than a third of which are armed? And thats assuming every single member of tge military would be willing to follow orders to shoot civilians, and that people will keep letting them.
You arent wrong, Trump absolutely wants to declare the insurrection act, and get to pretend he's a dictator and round up his enemies and execute them on live TV and enact horrors on the American people.
What you dont realize is he will do that whether people resist or not. He will continue to attack America whether people fight back or not. He will overthrow the Constitution and declare himself the king whether people resist or not. The only difference is whether we let them choose the battlefield and set the condition of the conflict or not, and only an idiot fights the war his enemy wants.
You’re making a lot of assumptions 1. Everyone with a gun will follow who? You? Not likely, some people with guns like Trump and the republicans
2.Everyone will be organized? Not likely, everyone will think they know what’s best to do
3.Anyone in the military not following orders would most likely be shot on sight
4.Guns v. military equipment?
5.Think people with guns have the same amount of ammunition?
I’m sure there’s so many more things that won’t work - as much as we might like to think it would. The best we could hope for is it would just be harder and take a little longer that in places where citizens don’t have so many guns. Unless all governors starts taking control of their national guards and train them, make sure they’re loyal to the constitution and US citizens and not the current admin and they’ll be fighting Trumps military - see how confusing everything will be???
Actually I'm making none of those assumptions. I'm assuming that the chaos favors the most positive outcomes, whereas authoritarian hierarchys universally fail in the face of a uprisen population or civil war. Its the single most successful way to overthrow a dictatorship or autocracy.
Likewise, organization doesn't benefit the people, and the Trump administration can't even organize a pot luck, so I'm not concerned.
Guns vs Military Equipment: how long do you think that military equipment is going to keep working when no one is going to work making jet fuel, tank parts, etc. And again, 3 million people versus dozens of millions. They might have tanks at first, but they won't have them for long. Also note even the Israelis struggled for decades against an armed insurgency with the total backing of the US military.
5. Last year a man in Arizona was arrested with over 1000 long rifles and 300,000+ rounds of ammunition, which is more ammunition than the Marine Corps uses in a year. By almost double. Your average gun store has between 50 and 200 THOUSAND rounds in stock. How many guns stores do you think there are in America. Ammo will not be a problem.
As for why anyone would be loyal to the constitution, iots been made completely clear that the Constitution and the federal government it proposes has failed miserably, and Trump has spent the last ten years wiping his ass with it. It will end up being state by state on who wins and loses, and if you think any of the states who can't even keep a power grid working, or manage to run farms are going to beat the states where people make things like computers, cars, and airplanes, who outnumber them 4 to one I have a hell of a bridge to sell you.
The Conservatives lose the second civil war for the same reason as they lost the first one, because the cities have the industry, the money, and all the people, and no one is super enthusiastic about fighting to be a slave.
And yes, the individual states will be fighting the US military, briefly, before the people in the military decide they would rather fight for their HOMES than for Trump, Then it becomes state by state. Guess which states have the most people, the most money, the most guns, the most investment, the most industry.
If you guessed the blue ones that are the ones that contribute more to the federal government than the taker confederate states, than your education hasn't failed you.
If you’re going to go down…….go down swinging
I totally freakin agree. I would love to see a few second amendment solutions to this problem.
I don’t condone violence. That said many states have enacted “stand your ground” laws in conjunction with the Castle Doctrine.
Exactly my sentiments.
What a fantastic scene! Thanks for this.
Yes.
Sometimes, I am tired and feel harried by the time I get to Dr Richardson's daily essay. The recall of American history, at these times, feels like an imposition on my little free time.🤭
Then I realize that, of course, that recall of history is very important -- especially to phlegmatic big-mouth like me. Why? Because I realize that we will triumph. 🗽
The country has been here before, and the right group prevailed in making the might group take the night train out of town. These essays hearten me. Thank you, Ma'am. 🫱🏻🫲🏽
FROM THE ECONOMIST
FEW THINGS make police officers more uncomfortable than criticising other police officers. Yet when Mark Bruley, the chief of police in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, stepped up to the microphone at a press conference on January 20th, his distress was clear. He did not want to criticise all federal police, he stressed.
But he then came to the point. Residents of his city, including American citizens, are being stopped and hassled on the street “for no cause” by federal agents. He called this a civil-rights violation; all of those who have complained are not white. It “has to stop”, he said.
According to his account, one of his own police officers was stopped while off-duty. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents boxed her car in. With their weapons drawn they then demanded her immigration paperwork (though she is a citizen).
When she tried to record the incident, an agent knocked her phone out of her hand. The situation was only defused when they discovered she was a cop. They then left, although without apologising. “I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident,” said Mr Bruley. “But in fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have had similar incidents with their off-duty officers.”
His remarks, alongside those of perhaps a dozen Minneapolis area police chiefs, were a measure of how “Operation Metro Surge”, the federal immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities, has spiralled out of control. Since December some 3,000 federal agents have deployed to the city—dwarfing the scale of previous efforts in Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans.
According to polling by YouGov published on January 14th, 70% of Americans saw footage of Ms Good being killed. Over half now view ICE unfavourably. Mr Trump had previously called Ms Good a “professional agitator”; Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, called her a “domestic terrorist”. Even before the killing, opposition in the city was growing fast.
One group runs a daily live dispatch radio to direct protesters to follow federal agents, blow whistles and film. Other residents deliver food to immigrants hiding indoors and drive children with undocumented parents to school. Several school districts have started offering remote learning. Posters in business windows say that ICE agents are not welcome without a warrant.
These tactics appear to be hampering federal agents. At a press conference on January 20th Greg Bovino, a senior border patrol officer who has made himself the remorseless face of recent immigration operations, acknowledged their effectiveness. Protesters, whom he called “anarchists”, “rioters” and “agitators”, “are a bit better organised”, he said. It makes for “a difficult operating environment”.
Before the operation started, Democrats in Minnesota were under pressure because of a sprawling fraud scandal in which the state failed to make rudimentary checks on the recipients of government money. Seemingly as a result, on January 5th Tim Walz, the state governor, dropped his re-election bid. Mr Trump has complained on Truth Social that nobody is paying attention to the fraud allegations any longer.
Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, has his own theory for what is going on. “I speculate that what happened is that somebody high up in the Trump administration said ‘go to Minneapolis and arrest and deport a bunch of Somalis’.” But the vast majority of Somalis in Minneapolis are American citizens, he says, and so they are coming up empty. As a result federal agents are running around picking on protesters and people who look a bit foreign, many of whom turn out to be citizens.
The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to six Democratic officials in the state, including Mr Walz and Mr Frey, as part of an investigation into whether they improperly interfered with ICE. On January 21st a federal appeals court lifted restrictions on the use of tear gas on protesters. It is hardly a sign of retreat. ■
On top of that excellent summary by The Economist, there's one other point going on., When the demented piece of filth and cruelty in the White House gave that order to 'go to Minneapolis and arrest a bunch of Somalis,' nobody contradicted him. Nobody issued a peep of dissent. Nobody dared.
You can claim that's because he appointed them. But every other administration before this in history has been marked by fierce internal disagreements. Particularly in the modern era, White House Situation Rooms of the recent past have been filled with dissent, counterarguments, fiery debates. Great Presidents like Kennedy, Obama, Biden insisted on it. Tell me what I don't know, haven't thought about, failed to consider, etc. Help me think through what I want to do and why I want to do it.
This supine assembly of bobos, scalawags, drunks and moonbeams., by comparison, makes the Court of Henry VIII look like a hotbed of testicular fortitude.
Be clear about why, too. The moment the American electorate decided a cruel idiot who used words like "vermin" to characterize American citizens and those who want to become Americans deserved to sit in the Oval Office, while another third were too busy looking at Tik-Tok videos to even bother voting made this moment both predictable and predicted. That must never be forgotten. We have a great deal of "educating" ahead of us, not just getting a better government.
I hope you publish satire. Your knowledge put to service of our democracy with the humor that only an educated skeptic can celebrate makes my day, many days. Thank you. I agree with all that you say. Hitler and Stalin would call this Admin. "ideologically" efficient with the absence of debate. This article is long. One need *not read it all to get the lady's point. At first, I thought her thesis of a reversion to feudalism to be a bit far-fetched. Now I am not so sure it is. By the way, no expectation, on my part, of your reading this essay; I merely make it available.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ABB12906CA345BBCA5049B544363D391/S0020818325101057a.pdf/further-back-to-the-future-neo-royalism-the-trump-administration-and-the-emerging-international-system.pdf
Why...your wish is my command, Ned.
https://sylvestercat.substack.com/p/small-is-not-beautiful
Great essay. I loved the Rube Goldberg vid. You are hitting on the one thing utterly lacking these days: aspiration to be a better (wo)man. Without that, no republic can survive.
Ned, those first several paragraphs are what I am living through right now. I am a retired cop, and I am appalled by what I am seeing ICE do. I am not shy about sharing that stance on Facebook. The number of my retired cop cohort who see nothing wrong with what ICE is doing is absolutely disgusting to me.
In my opinion, they are being hugely influenced by the information regarding these events that they so willingly consume. My tell tale clue to this was when one of them sent me the video Ross had released to a conservative news outlet with the intent of justifying his actions. I had already seen the video from another source, and clearly heard Ross utter "Fucking bitch" as he walked away. The clip he sent me was missing that last little bit. When I called him on it, he denied it was there, or if it was, someone had added it.
I wish that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement shared your intellect and empathy. Sadly, in my experience most people involved in law enforcement are Sociopathic and love having the power to abuse the public with impunity.
I disagree with the collective indictment of law enforcement; I certainly agree with your high esteem toward Ally.
Far too many, although certainly not all.
Like the remarks of It's Come To This, I read your remarks carefully. Your perspective as a retired police-woman, which you have disclosed before, is important to me. Your sense of principled thinking and behavior inspires me.🫱🏻🫲🏽
As was said of President Lincoln's temperament twenty years after his death, "*Nothing discloses real character like the use of power . . . If you wish to know what a *[wo]man really is, give him *[or her] power."⚖️
As a practitioner, I am sure, and model of community policing, you handle that power and respect it for what it can be: a resource to be used wisely for the benefit of the larger community. That is what I miss these days; that sense of aspiration.🗽
Thank you for your kind words, Ned. I did try to bring that to every community I served, from Creswell (contract city) to Lane County (all 4600 square miles).
Their “certainty” trumps any question. Don’t bother to ask or explain. We have all the answers, COMPLY
Every time I have it all figured out, literally, I walk into an empty elevator shaft, figuratively. When the stakes are those of the presidency, a wee-bit of insecurity is in order.
Isn’t that DefCon. I’m out of the loop but my stress level is definitely top tier
As is mine. It's Come To This has posted an essay that nails down many of my concerns-unto-fears-unto-terrors.
Not hard to imagine how it could turn out, at least for those who have a clue about history and humanity or lack thereof
Confirms my position in ways today’s news only doesn’t
Very hard to see what is happening, and happening so fast.
Very deliberate but substacks keep up if NYT and WaPo don’t even try
In sentiment, I have come to view these sub-stacks, most of which I can not read every day, have become the pamphleteers in the run-up to the American Revolution.
https://hackettpublishing.com/political-theory/tracts-of-the-american-revolution-1763-1776
Why is it that the oath of office means nothing?
Most of us recited the Pledge of Allegiance when we were kids. Some of us recall the horror of the JFK assassination. These things mattered.
To now have such a vile creature as the face of America is, not just an utter disaster, of which the Founders warned us, but our own apparent lack of imagination.
Woe unto us that failed to forsee the possibility such a sea change could occur, and to have failed to fight against this abomination. Witness Minneapolis.
God speed to every one of you - one and all.
The oath of office does mean something! It’s unfortunate those currently in power took it without regard to its true meaning are incapable of living up to it. Their souls are devoid of any human compassion or even the most basic understanding of selflessness. I didn’t know much about Mr. Jack Smith until recently but if ever there was an example of a civil servant, he is it!
"Now the Trump administration is made up of radicals who are ignoring that Constitution and that Bill of Rights in their open attempt to create a white nationalist nation."
Including "MAGA" infiltrated $COTUS.
What the protester said was so powerful that it bears repeating.
"The protester compared ICE agents to the Ku Klux Klan, noting that both wore masks and raided immigrant communities. He went on: “You know, there’s like all this talk of revolution. We’re the counterrevolutionaries, right?”
He explained: “[T]here is a minority who is trying to create a post-law, orderless, lawless society, where their might makes right. And because, you know, they have guns and are willing to use them, they think they can suspend the Constitution, suspend habeas corpus…, suspend civil liberties, generally speaking.” "-from Prof Richardson's post today
He needs to be named and applauded. Likely targeted already.
I hope there is more commentary on Trump's remarks once again insulting people and their families who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The slug who now sits on his "throne" in the White House doesn't deserve to empty a bed pan for people who served their country and ours in a brutal war, many of whom were severely injured not to mention the hundreds upon hundreds who were killed. Trump's comments as usual were insulting and repulsive and divisive.
I have watched him for a long time, Jon. At some point Trumpolini will turn and run, but what of his hench-people? Steve Miller, Kristi Noem etc are true imbecilic followers, just like Goebbels, Speer, Göring, Himmler and the elite SS under them. But will they die for their folly. Maybe they are just too stupid to off themselves, but they may hold out in their bunkers for a while after Trumpolini and his wife have been strung up by the raging masses. Who knows?
"Lincoln was on solid historical ground when he reminded his fellow Americans that those trying to impose a new system of white nationalist oligarchy on the nation were the true radicals, while those defending equality were the conservatives." - HCR
Exactly! Why are today's "conservatives" labeled as such? Their warped view of the world seems pretty radical to me.
That word was hijacked by vipers. I used to read some conservative op-eds (gave up on insipid Buckley) and found some thoughtful commentary. That stopped in the 90’s as did any respect for the Gingrich gang of self-righteous “intellectual” bullies. Then came Murdoch, who stole conservative, patriotism, and Christianity for the lying party, previously respected as the “GOP.” Samuel Johnson said that patriotism was the last refuge of scoundrels. They certainly proved his point. Real patriotism is love of one’s country, not hate of others. Conservation is respect for the proven good, not redefining it into the opposite.
Thanks for providing the historical context. Makes sense.
Cretins have been around a long time. Shakespeare knew them well. Ours have a louder bull horn
Correct. The story of our times really is quite old and has been told many times in the past.
Redefined way back, and it is on every electioneering sign for vipers. Propaganda works best on fools.
How true!
Mark, I think that "reactionary" is the word you're after; I'd always heard "radical left/reactionary right" as the two extremes of what we're muddling through with "liberal and conservative" definitions of current times.
Those descriptions do seem more accurate.
I don’t understand why the governor doesn’t have Minnesota’s National Guard on the streets protecting the people who are being brutalized. He is still their commander; the Guard hasn’t been federalized. And the police should definitely be arresting some of these ICE agents who are breaking the law; they are not immune. Why, in god’s name, are they not using the power they have?
Because... imagine ICE on one side of the street, and the National Guard on the other, guns raised... What happens then?
And unless Trumpolini backs down again (TACO) that is exactly what will happen, Nancy. And it will be a tragedy of immense proportions. Be assured that Trump will keep pushing until he is personally at risk...but then how will his Junta react?
Another person was just killed by ICE. I say train National Guard guns on the bastards, dare them to fire first, the sons of bitches.
The President will nationalize the national guard and the public will be left to fend for themselves.
This might have something to with it.
https://apnews.com/article/army-deployment-minnesota-immigration-insurrection-act-31a28c23045bfdb31b27f68507a68ca8
The state and city authorities are doing what they can to keep the peace and to prevent Trump from having an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act which he would absolutely do if provoked.
We really don't want to go there. It is the gateway to the Insurrection Act, and I suspect that is exactly what the plan is.
Isn’t it bizarre and out of whack that on the one hand Trump is promoting his “Board of Peace” to world leaders… while at home in his very own country he is supporting ruthless ICE troops, breaking the law, attacking children and families, recently killing a woman, a mother. What a gigantic hypocrite. Let’s call him out on this. “Board of Peace,” led by whom?
The furthest from peace that anyone could be.
He believes his own bullschitt and thinks we do too. Sadly, his handlers do as well.
Seems more apt that agent orange is Bored with Peace.