In a conversation with Greg Sargent of the New Republic published today, writer Amanda Marcotte called out an important moment in White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s first press conference yesterday.
I doubt Trump "misunderstands" information, like his statement about turning on the water, the way the rest of us do. I worked for a compulsive liar and was married to a man who lied to make himself look good. These two didn't misunderstand anything; lies worked because they were easy, convenient, useful, and rarely challenged. Even if Trump understands about the water event, he got more attention and political points by lying about it.
Update: Gitmo is already an immigrant “detention facility.”:
From WaPo:
“ U.S. government agencies and private contractors have used facilities at Guantánamo Bay to detain asylum seekers and refugees for several decades, rights groups say . In 1994, for instance, President Bill Clinton resumed … use of the Guantánamo base for processing Haitian refugees and later ordered Cuban asylum seekers…to be held there.
“Last year, the International Refugee Assistance Project released a report accusing the U.S.-run Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo Bay, or GMOC, of detaining migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean countries throughout its history. Many of those refugees are intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard at sea and then “detained indefinitely in prison-like conditions without access to the outside world,” often “with little to no transparency or accountability,” the report said. “These refugees are forced to endure this treatment until a third country agrees to accept them for resettlement, even if they have family in the United States,” it said, adding that the process can take years.”
Guantanamo at its peak housed some 700 or so terrorism detainees.
Yes. DJT tells the truth when telling the truth serves DJT.
I tell the truth, or a lie, or I stay silent depending on which of the three does the greatest good and the least harm.
We need to stop focusing on who is a liar and who is a truth teller. We need to start focusing on who cares for others and who cares only for themselves.
Or maybe keep our focus on the facts, not the truth, because the truth is relative: Philosophically, truth has been explored through various theories:
• Correspondence Theory: Truth is the alignment between thought or language and a mind-independent reality. For example, a statement is true if it accurately describes the world.
• Coherence Theory: Truth is determined by the consistency and logical coherence of a set of beliefs or propositions.
• Pragmatist Theory: Truth is what works in practice or has practical utility.
• Deflationary Views: These argue that truth is not a substantial property but rather a linguistic or logical convenience (e.g., saying “It is true that snow is white” adds no new information beyond “Snow is white”).
Even in Science, and "Laws of Nature" truth is relative and may change with space and time, so also with other truths. The concept of gravity...need I say more?
Truth is relative. Here some more examples
1. Contextual Nature of Truth: Truth is dependent on context, culture, or perspective. For example, a statement like “It is raining” is true if it reflects the weather in a specific location (e.g., New York) but false in another (e.g., Cairo) at the same time.
2. Subjective Experiences: Some truths are based on personal beliefs or subjective experiences, such as preferences or opinions. For instance, “This food tastes good” is relative to the individual making the statement.
3. Cultural and Social Relativity: Truths about morality, customs, or values often vary across cultures and societies. What one group considers ethical or true might not hold for another.
You know, if I cared about Donald Trump and wanted his administration to succeed, then I'd think twice about setting him up as Russell Vought's Project 2025 crash test dummy. I mean, the illegal firings, unconstitutional funding freeze, and the federal workforce Schedule F f*ck-up.
With friends like Vought ...
Russell Vought, Stephen Miller
Trump's twisted TweedleDee and TweedleDum.
We need a 2025 Pinky and the Brain. The original was for Bush-Cheney. Trump-Musk has such possibilities
Well, both, and I think they may be part of the same thing. I think love and truth go hand in hand, and here I mean deep, vulnerable. If you know you will never wear a sweater granny knit for you, it might be kind to equivocate.
One way to attempt to measure who cares for others and who doesn’t is this: who, when someone succeeds and flourishes, is happy for them, and who is disturbed by that success?
Still, few will admit to being disturbed by the success of another.
In the 2024 Biden/Trump Presidential debate, Trump lied FOUR times in his four sentences.
"We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had never done so well. Every – everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us."
And the lame stream media said Trump won the debate. The Philadelphia Inquirer, as you recall, called out Trump for telling over 30 unique lies during the debate. But Trump repeats the same tired lies again and again within the same appearance and keeps repeating them for years on end.
Hello Gary... You are Correct... However DJT won the Performance by using his Forceful 'Gish Gallop'... Joe Biden lost because he appeared Dumbstruck, and Feeble... Kamala, a Practiced Criminal Prosecutor, did better... She was debating a Felon after All....
Yes Jon!!..so is "felon". Continuing to label him as a felon does nothing for me. Tell me, what's it do for you? I know.., pretty-much obvious to me, that dog just doesn't hunt. Just like "lies". If you live up north, you know all that lies and felon shouting didn't amount to a yellow-hole in the snow. Neither did two impeachments. Question now should be: How do we employ a strategy which will work.., how do we turn this loss into a gain? Keep some dog bones handy. Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot.
That's too easy to answer Apache. For someone that start lying before waking up and finish about 2 hours after falling asleep, the answer is..... maybe .
It seems so unlike Donnie to say anything NUTS, being the stable genius that he is. BTW, he doesn't care how many detainees the place will accommodate. He'll cram in as many as he can because he DOES NOT CARE about human beings.
gonna be expensive to do this... to contain all these "criminal scum" ... someone they have to show that "millions and millions" of undocumented immigrants are "criminal" even though stats don't remotely back this up.
Frank.., exactly. And this stuff must be told to the American People. And examples of the ill-effects given.., over and over. Spin it. Quit calling him a felon. Instead, take examples of orders he has given which have resulted in extreme duress of some family.., spin it! Use a white"christian" family that looks like one of them.., spin it. Don't use a trans person, don't use a hispanic or asian family, don't use a same sex marriage family. They won't carry the weight we need to throw in the President's face..., we've got to SPIN IT. We have to present the consequences of his edicts, dumb as they actually are. The White House briefing room was the perfect place to have done that. FAIL FAIL FAIL. Now "he" has (the) Killer in there. Yeah.. KL. The 27 yr old young lady with the cross on her necklace..in our face! Can you dig it?
Make that "Death Camp". The first thing I thought of was Auschwitz. Why? It's remote, private and secure from prying eyes. It is demonstrably possible to do horrible things to people there without causing a public outcry, as demonstrated by every administration starting with George W Bush.
Later camps will be set up on military bases or at private prisons domestically to cut costs.
I thought the same thing Stephen. He is following the 1930's nazi anti-jew playbook. Do a little research on the initial legal measures taken against Jews in Germany during the 1930s and some interesting(and haunting) patterns will show up.
We have a great deal to be ashamed of doing. That we LOST this doggone election, largely over relatively low-noise-level (albeit worthwhile) initiatives, which I need-not mention, is what is sickening to me. I mean, so much of the good that Biden et al put in place, being dismissed or held in contempt is rattling. Treating the 'goings on' at Guantanamo AND our border being just business as usual? C'mon.., a Nation ostensibly under God? Under the influence, OUI.., of something FUBAR is more like it. And MAGA? We've been headed downhill since we lost Ike. Perhaps, this election is where we turn things. We're at the bottom. Can the situation get worse? Yes, but we're at the bottom. You want to see an actual picture of US? Look at the photos of Gaza, that's US my friends. A nuclear war would just mean more debris to clean up.., we're at the bottom.
Just like the Nazi’s. Create places where the law does not exist, so followers can break it. Condition them to cruelty there, so they will be ready when called to break the law here.
Kazz, my thoughts exactly as I noted when I just posted Heather's letter this am. I happened upon a MAGA on another thread yesterday and he was busy spewing the exact opposite of what is true. The rest of the people on the thread weren't having it and I just looked and he has not answered.
Me, too. I realized that because he repeated the lies so often to convince me and others, he truly began to believe the fabrications himself.
I also think felon47 is so insulated from real life, I seriously doubt he knows people find him laughable, disgusting, sickening, nauseating. Who is going to show him or tell him in his golden little circle? My guess? His handlers lie to him as much as he lies to we the people. Sick all around.
Me too --sociopaths have no moral compass and will do anything and say anything to get what they want. They also tend to prey on intelligent and accomplished women because they perceive that "winning" them makes them more powerful. Also, they absolutely hate women. That said, I suspect that the Orange Felon in Chief hasn't even read more than a tiny handful of (since his hands are tiny it has to be a very tiny handful) these executive orders and he is being fed lines by the likes of Stephen Himmler (oops-Miller).
Let's pay our attention to what policy that will hurt ordinary voters most and how to stop it. IMO, so far rescinding Bide's prescription drug cap is the one. How many voters are feeling pain from it? Next coming is the tax cut for the wealthy combined with cuts for safetey net. How can we stop this? How can we alert MAGA voters? Any suggestion? Including lies? How about Trump is financing tax cut by raising tarrifs against Canada and Mexico?
Hiro, I hate to sound like a Negative Nancy, but you cannot alert MAGAts to anything. They are so steeped in the mis and dis information they thrive on from their preferred "information" sources that they will not be able to hear what you are warning them about. I just had a sparring session with my "favorite" former sergeant (he of the "if a woman asks for an abortion of the baby she just birthed, the doctor has to kill it because she wants an abortion and that is legal" fame) about the $50 million the US spent on condoms to Gaza; not to be outdone, he also relayed the "kid identifying as a cat has cat boxes in the school restrooms; said kid attacked another kid who got in trouble for defending himself" story yesterday. He did walk back the school story, which ended up being a fight between two middle school boys (whoda thunk there'd be a fight there???) but is holding steady on the $50 Million on condoms to Gaza.
Just no way to reach them, that I can see. And I've been trying since 2010.
We don't have to convince MAGA. Which is good, because it's a cult, and convincing doesn't work. But MAGA is not close to 50%. We only need to keep steady, and the facts will show up in people's lives. Egg prices, e.g. And tariffs will increase prices.
Me too...and she was also a narcissist...and became an elected official...much in common with Trump...just glad she never got beyond City Council before her crash & burn.
He doesn't understand. He claimed that the Central Valley was not 'natural' because the state authorities had been cutting off the water. The entire Central Valley Project is not 'natural' - the dam, the canals, the aqueducts and the pumps are all man-made. So is the environmental damage the Project has caused: the decline in salmon populations, the flooding of tribal lands and historical sites; the pollution of groundwater reserves and waterways. Moreover, it's a federal not a state project.
Understanding demands some intellectual capacity. Lying only needs the ability to contradict, and to make up whatever fanciful explanation occurs to the liar at the time. Our challenge is how to overcome the gullibility of those who believe the lies.
Stephen Miller is the most cringey person ever. His firehose of lies when being "interviewed" by Jake Tapper was pure Miller - he got more and more ramped up -- and he was spinning the truth so fast I thought he'd fly into orbit. And (petty alert) that "smile" yech.
He plays to an audience of one person, like the rest of sycophants Trump has surrounded himself with, but he does it better than anyone else - just look at the roadside kill that the Trump juggernaut has left behind.
Please allow me to add: "Our challenge is how to overcome the gullibility of those who believe the lies"...and that is through exploring "facts" together. However, any MAGA folks with whom I have tried to walk down that path to a common "Truth" soon see that their "Beliefs" are crumbling. For example, my own MAGAts profess (and provide me with "proof" that every word in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is the Truth. When you then read the book they give you it starts with (I paraphrase): "If you believe that the Bible is written by men under divine influence, then it contains only the truth". Duuuuuuh, well of course.
So for example, cINO MAGAts are very happy to have a discussion about "truth" to prove their points, but will not engage, for long in a discussion of facts, and again, if they do, they quickly move back to their truth.
So it is, in my opinion not a matter of intellectual capacity, some/many are very smart/wiley, but rather an unwillingness to engage in joint fact finding including the facts that might make their "truth" clearly relative.
So what? MAGAts must "Believe" in order to take Trumps rhetoric/lies for truth, and giving up on those beliefs would be devastating for them. Which means that they need to be faced with an even more devastating outcome if they are to engage with you, or even consider changing their truths. Trying to do that is, in my experience, futile. In my opinion, one can only hope to "sow some fact seeds" for the future (difficult at best) which might be remembered.
So What? Our Media approach by a restructured DNC needs to include (Very Loudly and simply) constant repeats of those facts and their projections, so that when MAGAts actually see the fact occur, they may question their "truths".
Yes, you can well say that "evangelical" contortions to prove scripture inerrancy produces minds which can swallow prejudices and biases without a hiccup, firehosed by Fox et al of course.
The Bible illustrates from the beginning to the end that we are naturally most likely to do what we want to do depending on the circumstance.
It also proves that 9 times out of 10 due to our selfish choices and limited intelligence not to mention lack of compassion or concern for others, we cause more troubles that once again allow us to resort to some type of lying or fighting or method to control...etc. to prove that our choice can be condoned.
Because of this reality, I believe our hearts long for a way out of this seemingly impossible self-made "prison". Although rather than a "prison" some like to escape into a group where everyone believes the same...truth and lies are all mixed together into an acceptable form ie "yes we are superior" , "we can never be controlled", rather "we will be the force in control". We never need say "we are sorry" or I apologize for expanding a lie even if it displaces thousands of people and affects the health of our global family. We don't care. We are increasing our wealth and power....so we lose a few children who will die of hunger....so half of our globe will have no stable home or possibility of education or medical facility to treat sickness, disease , injury .....so what if nations are practically destroyed by natural disasters...unless of course I may lose out on taking their rich natural resources for myself!!!
Because this is the reality of who we are.....upon that realization....many of us realize we need something beyond ourselves....thus a faith.
Sadly this powerful sanctuary of "imperfect" faith is not a cult if genuine.
The undeserved love given to me is also with the responsibility to love the unlovable, to feed the hungry, to assist in healing those who suffer inside their beings or outside...to care for creation....the possibilities are unending.
Those under the current administration wearing their big crosses may call themselves "Christian" but my eyes and ears and heart reveal something quite different. "Truth will out."
Thanks for that interesting essay, Emily. I'm not so sure it's too wise to overdwell on "selfish" issues, i don't hunt myself down morally for taking care of myself in my routine daily life, and i suspect that's broadly true for many if not most of us, even the religious die hards. But when it comes to ideology or some broad social advantage, or undue wealth inequality, things sure do have a way of piling up!
bruce, thanks for your comment here. Your report of dealing with CINO MAGAts is spot on, and much more... mature... than mine have been. "...not a matter of intellectual capacity, some/many are very smart/wiley, but rather an unwillingness to engage in joint fact finding including facts that might make their "truth" clearly relative."
I think we all to some extent suppress or ignore painful or inconvenient truths - we could hardly remain sane if we didn't. Mark Lilla has explored this theme in his entertaining book 'Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know'. Also, I fear that gullibility alone does not fully explain the admittedly astonishing durablity of Trump's persuasive power over a substantial section of the US population.
That's true, no doubt, but it doesn't explain all. The support for Trump includes the disillusioned and the desperate. One of the indicted J6 people, Michael 'Whip' Simmons. a former Blackwater security operative who provided security for the Oath Keepers said he never voted because no matter who is in power, nothing ever changed in the neighbourhood. Of course, he ought to have included Trump's first term administration in this censure. Somehow, MAGA always seem to exclude him when blame is being apportioned. America is the most unequal society amongst democracies and the adverse consequences on people's health and well-being are well-documented (for example, in Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson's book 'The Spirit Level').
Agreed, no one has a total crystal ball, but the education thing is a major indicator who who support Maga style Republicans. It wasn't always quite so that way. Thanks for the story on Michael Simmons. Agreed on the unequal society comment.
The people who believe and those who just LIKE what he's doing as they probably elected him to "shake up the government". As long as it doesn't affect them, then the details don't really matter.
Much of the damage was caused by hydraulic mining long before the Water Projects. Outlawing that industrial technique was one of the earliest significant environmental laws in the country, but the legacy of the human-caused disaster lives on, including the reduced salmon spawning habitat, the ongoing flooding, contaminated water, etc.
Not to make excuses for California or Trump's ignorance, but California should be split into multiple states, but at least two. I lived in Northern CA and. Southern CA wanted the water from the Sierras. I'm not sure how that has played out, but it seems more likely the US will split into multiple countries than CA into multiple states. The same is true of TX, NY and FL.
It has crossed my mind more than once that the ultimate solution would be to divide the United States in half - let the MAGA states enjoy their beloved conspiracy theories, abortion bans, unregulated gun ownership, white supremacy, zero education, zero health-care and zero social safety net - and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
I live in the South of MLK Jr., Andrew Young, Jimmy Carter, Raphael Warnock, Bryan Stevenson, and a number of people throughout who aren't in the camp of Marjorie Taylor Green and others of her ilk. We'd appreciate an erasure of suggestions "we, the people" should be dropped from the rolls of citizens of the United States of America.
Red States Want to Secede? Go Ahead. Make Our Day.
Nearly 1 million Americans have signed petitions calling for secession including over 100,000 in Texas and over 50,000 in Georgia. So, here's a response.
(A poll from Public Policy Polling reports that 25 percent of Republicans would like their state to secede from the Union. Nearly 1 million Americans have signed petitions calling for secession including over 100,000 in Texas and over 50,000 in Georgia. So, cribbing from a viral email that's been making its way around the internet in the spirit of fair use and adding my own evil satiric thoughts, here's a response.)
So some of you patriotic Americans in Red States are so mad that a Kenyan, Muslim, socialist black man got elected President of the USA for a second time that you want to demonstrate your patriotism by seceding from the United States of American? Go ahead. Make our day.
But be careful what you wish for. Here's how it could go down, and it might not be so pretty for you after all is said and done.
We would get the West Coast, all of the Northeast and the upper Midwest.
You would get Texas, Oklahoma and all the former slave states.
We would keep Hawaii too, the foreign country with warm water and beautiful beaches where Barack Hussein Obama was born without a birth certificate.
You can have Alaska and stare at Russia from your front porches.
To be fair, we may have to split up some states.
You get North Florida. We get South Florida. After all, what would you want with all those gay people in South Beach and old Jews in Miami?
We get North Virginia. You get South Virginia. To be fair, we'll let you keep the University of Virginia. Go Cavaliers! Plus you need at least one place to educate some leaders who believe in science.
But Austin, Atlanta and New Orleans get to be their own Blue city/states, sort of like West Berlin before the Wall came down. We'll even pay to move the capital of Texas from Austin to W's hometown of Midland, where as one native recently put it, "There used to be one Democrat in town, but I think she died".
We might even merge with Canada. That way we get single-payer healthcare, solvent banks, the Royal Canadian Mounties, and Ryan Gosling (eat your hearts our Red-nation women).
To sum up briefly:
We get Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z and Beyonce. You get Ted Nugent and Meatloaf.
Plus Willie Nelson gets to park his bus anywhere he likes in the Blue America.
We get Elizabeth Warren. You get Todd Aiken. (Hey, we'll even keep Chris Christie. He's too large to move, anyway.)
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get the New York Philharmonic. You get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
We get Oprah. You get Paula Deen.
And Blue America will have an easy repatriation policy for the ancestors of slaves still stuck in the former Confederate states, as well as a path to citizenship for undocumented workers and their children from both Red and Blue America who have worked hard/studied hard and put down roots. We'll even have a 21st century version of "40 acres and a mule" with education, job training and work at a fair wage for those who need it. (But here's a warning: good luck getting your crops picked, your kids asses wiped, and your pools cleaned without a bunch of low-paid undocumented workers.)
Any Red-nation NBA team that wants to gets to move to a Blue state city without its own team. Hey, how about them World Champion Pittsburgh Thunder?
And the New York Jets will send you back Tim Tebow for a player to be named later.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get backwoods crystal meth labs.
We get Intel, Microsoft and Apple. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to pay your fair share for once.
Speaking of all those federal taxes you love to hate. Most of it comes from us and goes to you. So stop talking nonsense about how "It's our money, not the government's money". Of the 19 states that send more money to Washington than they get back in benefits, 14 are Blue. And of 31 states that get more money back from the Feds than they pay in taxes, 23 are Red. It's not your money. It's our f**cking money. So from here on out, you can pay for your own damn roads and bridges.
Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate? It's Taxachusetts, the first state to recognize gay marriage. Think that's some aberration? How about this? 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are in the Blue states. And where are the highest divorce rates? 10 of the top 10 are Red.
But gay people getting married is going to ruin the family for you? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own.
So we get a bunch of happy families, straight and gay. You get a bunch of single moms and deadbeat dads.
With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve Texas wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92 percent of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, and Bob Jones University.
So, as we said at the start. You want to secede? Go ahead. Make our Day. But be careful what you wish for. You might not be so happy if you actually got it. If you ask nicely, we might even take you back.
I think about that too, but even my so-called blue state of NY has an enormous number of MAGAs, especially in the rural communities like the one where I live.
I’ve had the opportunity to live in California. It truly could be its own country. It has the fifth largest economy in the world. And every miserable, poor, poorly educated state in the USA reaps benefits from federal taxes paid by Californians and other hard working states they seem to love to hate. Their ignorance is part of what makes for bad governance to thrive
I’ve lived in 11 states, California now and for the longest as an adult. The protections California has in place for its people is so much better than any other state but the right wing that live here can’t see it. They’re the grass is greener in a red state people. Look how many ran to Florida and suddenly can’t afford insurance and have zero protections.
When we lived in Austin there were a lot of people who had moved from California and wished they never had. Homeowners found that the house they bought with loose building codes had endless problems. When I went house shopping prices were almost the same as buying in California. We moved back to San Diego after 2 years of brutal heat in Austin and have never been happier.
Yes but a project built to support most of the fresh food we eat every day. Not saying that's right but hard to change a system this big overnight. Grow your own organic garden, buy local.
Montana Channing, one solution could include desalination systems along the CA coast. There have been fears of damage to the ocean ecosystems, but research shows that these impacts can be and are controlled in practice.
More than just California's Central Valley on the table here, important as agricultural food supply from the Valley has become. Civilization, in its entirety, is "manmade", we're suffering the effects of scale.
My brother was a liar. He was one of the people I have known in my life who you could look in the eye, and if you didn't know he was lying, you wouldn't be able to tell. You had to know something about the situation to ascertain the truth. Most people telegraph lies in their eyes. That is helpful, but habitual liars don't. I think Mr. Trump has lied all his life. Mr. Vance isn't as good a liar, but he is doing it to.
He’s younger, smarter, and more radically ideological. He will be president soon, right after Trump appoints successors for Alito and Thomas, thereby entrenching the Trump judiciary for decades to come.
No one has ever tried the simple confrontation of Trump in public. No reporter has yet stood up to him and said in a thoroughly public setting the simple words: "Stop lying to us. What you just said is a lie, you know it's a lie, and you are a pathological liar."
Yeah, I know, he'll whine about how rude or unfair the reporter is. The reporter needs to be prepared to respond with, "What's rude is someone who thinks they can 'just grab' women by the '-------'. I am saying you are a liar and just make garbage up."
I would love to see someone say the hell with supposed "journalistic ethics" whatever that even means at this point given that said ethics seem to have given a large assist in putting our republic on life support, and just say to his face very publicly that he is a liar and to stop taking everyone for rubes by spewing whatever excreta his demons defecate into his head - and then press home the point like a pit bull by calling out whatever nonsense constituted his response.
CNN has laid off many and instructed its remaining to be polite, go easy on the orange felon.
MSNBC's Joe and Mika made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lardo to kiss the ass.
L.A. Times and Washington Post billionaire owners have been censorious with their papers to please the money-hungry criminal/rapist/fraud (whom they gifted a million bucks each).
U.S. K-12 still has no humanities, but stranglehold by the billionaires' standardized testing.
Youth in even the best universities are no longer able to read whole books -- so pernicious has been the standardized testers' modeling of short snippets only.
Phil I DO like a lot of what you say but when you spout nonsense someone has to call you on it.
"Youth in even the best universities are no longer able to read whole books. "
What kind of BS is THAT? Just to check it out I went to the library at UC Berkeley and was assured that they have several hundred thousand books, all intact in full, no edits or truncations and all available to be checked out by any UCB student.
And anyone who wants to can use project Gutenberg online to read almost a million complete books FOR FREE including ancient philosophy, plays, semimodern (up to the early 1920s) fiction and so much more.
What you stated is just crap. Many modern day students may not WANT to read whole books but that is NOT because anyone is preventing them from doing so.
Please try to get your criticisms punctuated with actual facts.
I never said "anyone is preventing" students from reading whole books. What I said was "Youth in even the best universities are no longer able to read whole books."
In Japan, where I live, this has been going on a long time. Minae Mizumura noted it some years ago -- how in Japanese high schools there are virtually none where any teacher asks any student to read any book in full ("The Fall of Language in the Age of English," Columbia U Press, 2016).
It's a phenomenon due to standardized testing, and to social media, both putting priorities outside of humanities.
Jon, we have so many amazing choices of who and what we read and listen to. Unfortunately, the corporate media is fueled by greed. They depend on advertising dollars to enrich their bottom line. FOX allows the "my pillow guy" to say and do outrageous things because he gives them so much revenue.
And Bezos and Musk want the tax cut. If the renewal of the tax cuts wasn't looming Trump would have promised them even more tax cuts. And on this he must deliver.
But, I do agree with Ned that millions of people choose to read or listen to Trump and his BS than to pick up a book and read it.
Thank you, Gary. The inter-net and social media are a big distraction for me, reducing my willingness to concentrate. 🤫
What offended me most about that butt-ugly inauguration was the pusillanimous techsters standing beneath the statue of General/ President Grant, an under-estimated leader who broke one oligarchy and worked very hard to stem its ugly legacy. 🤢
Below, how oligarchy works (for F.B.) and why social media really like being 'information platforms (sic, more likely sick) as opposed to news outlets. (Written elsewhere.) ✍️
Jon, you are right in the particulars - plenty of access to books. But I took early retirement from the college classroom because no matter how great the works, I just - and my colleagues could not - get students to read them. Damn, I had the best subject going and was good at presenting it: I had gladiators, gods, and Caligula . . . I had the transition of republic to dictatorship. Could I get students to read a thing?
Instead, I got complaints about making them - quelle horreur - read.
Yeah, there is all the great literature of the world online - I gave away my library before moving to France and depend on resources like Perseus at MIT so I don't need to re-purchase Classics which I read in the original daily. What Balla means is what I and my colleagues have been experiencing in the classroom - when I started my career students read. At the end?
I couldn't compete with the goddam iphone and video games - thousands of dollars and privilege and they were throwing it away on scrolling and mindless button pushing.
"What you stated is just crap." Ah, your fine inter-personal skills hard at work again. Glad to see that I am not the only object of your affexion. 😉
Seriously, ¿did you research out how many of those library books were checked out and how often? 🫣
¿Any trend analysis on use by project Gutenberg over time spent with each book as a proxy guesstimate of portion of text read? 💡
Admittedly, it is challenging to pin down whether whole books are read. 🤔
Nevertheless, volume of books or text fails to answer Phil's point. 🛑
I have found it harder to read a whole book than I used to; ageing does not explain that emerging limitation; I still read books, but doing so tries the patience. 😳
One last question, hot-shot: ¿do you deem audio-books as legitimate as 'aural' reading? I do, though they are more time-consuming. 🙂
The problem with audio-books for me is that, unless I am really interested subject matter (e.g., Chernow's biography of President / General Grant), I tend to pay less attention due to multi-tasking. 😵
Jon, I think Phil meant that students no longer have the stamina, training and desire to read whole books. That they are, without these things, not able to read whole books. As an undergraduate, I took a law course, and I went through a laborious period of learning how to get through the reading of cases. It got easier, but there was a learning curve for sure.
Young people today are on their phone, and not reading much. There is hope, though. A professor at my old school, one who talks to the kids about this topic, and who has his small-class students put their phones in their backpacks, reports that 100% of his students want to be on their phones less. It's a dependency, if not an addiction.
I can tell you this is not the case in every school. My daughter and her class are just finishing up reading “The Book Thief.” Granted, she goes to an international school here in the United States, and I’m glad of that.
Likewise, Christina. My kids read plenty of entire books in school. My oldest was reading Harry Potter in first grade, and he flew from there, in and out of school.
That being said, I don’t disagree that voracious readers are few and far between - but that isn’t new. We have access to so many ways to “read” books now. I’m a housewife, and audiobooks mean that I can read all day long. It’s excellent.
How many youth, even in the ordinary universities, do you know?
Honestly, even when I was in university we didn’t read whole books. Textbooks aren’t novels, not meant to be read front to back like one of HCR’s books (for example).
Claiming they are unable is demeaning and short-sighted.
I've been saying for years journalists/interviewers need to call out the lies immediately and very publicly. There is nothing more infuriating when a journalist asks a question and the response is an outright lie and the reporter, just writes it down, nods their head and says nothing!!
Throughout time, technological advancements and pivotal events (we're in one right now!) have triggered disruptions, reshaping entire industries in unforeseen ways. Substack (launched in 2017 and helped immensely by Heather's Letters) has provided an alternative to mainstream media, prompting an exodus of journalists from traditional newspapers to establish independent outlets on the platform.
While the current landscape is chaotic and rapidly evolving (nothing less than a firehose!), Substack represents an interesting chapter in the reinvention of the Fourth Estate. As journalism navigates this transition, there is hope (and evidence) that it will emerge as a stronger, more reliable force in truth to power.
"No one has ever tried the simple confrontation of Trump in public". What is your source? 'cause I have different info.
Unless you can show sources with facts, your premise is false. In fact, numerous reporters and journalists have confronted Donald Trump in public settings, challenging his statements and behavior. For example:
• CNN’s Jim Acosta had multiple heated exchanges with Trump, including one where Trump called him “fake news” and refused to answer his questions. Acosta’s press pass was even revoked after a confrontation during a press conference in 2018.
• During the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference in 2024, ABC News’ Rachel Scott and other moderators directly challenged Trump’s claims and rhetoric, which included falsehoods and attacks on their questions.
• In various press conferences, reporters have fact-checked and pushed back against Trump’s statements in real-time, such as NPR identifying 162 falsehoods in a single news conference.
These examples demonstrate that reporters have publicly confronted Trump on numerous occasions.
So What? Dear political friend, my contradiction of you is not to show anything other than: We need the DNC to engage in a constant blast of Media Noise on Facts about and what will happen in the near future that will devastate each MAGAt when it happens. Simply calling Trump lier does nothing to change the MAGAt "Truth".
During the Presidential debate last September, I think Kamala did a good job calling out Donold's never ending rapid fire falsehoods. She conveyed just how insane his rantings were with facial expressions and hand gestures showing her incredulity at his torrent of lies.
CNN already got rid of their one reporter, Jim Acosta, who would do that “speak truth to power”. Our mainstream media is just folding completely and normalizing this “President”. We would have been better off electing a monkey.
I just left a comment on the White House comment line, basically saying just that regarding his press conference about the DCA airline crash. He just made up so much shit and out and out lied about who the FAA hires, ATC hires, DEI, and the previous administration all the way back to Obama. He is totally disgusting and his press conference was so inappropriate! Every time he speaks, I just want to throw up! Instead….I called the comment line.
I think it's a waste of time this back and forth arguments about trump knowing or not what he is talking about etc. That's a distraction. Everything he does it's a distraction. Nothing he says makes sense and that's a distraction amplified by Fox and the media. He is being paid to do that job by the 1%, the billionaires, the Proyect 2025 ideological group.
We have to concentrate on counteract the policies being implemented, very loudly and truthful 24/7 , we have to understand the consequences of those policies, how will affect negatively all of us, how it will be a point of no return if fully established and start a massive campaign of information. Please don't buy into the circus show, don't get distracted.
It felt very powerful yesterday when all our noise and lighting up the capitol phone banks caused him to reverse his illegal freeze on public money. Keep it up folks.
Susan, I loved your reply but nothing is that simple, should be something more powerful than lighting up the phone banks because of a public discontentment. They are so determined to follow the script that I don't trust anything they say or do much less caring about public reaction.
Ricardo, continuing your point, it’s time for Dems and Americans of all parties to re-energize and reorganize. It’s time to get out of our states of depression and unite with FORCE AND A PLAN! I, for one, am drowning in fundraising texts/emails from every Dem group in the nation. We need LEADERSHIP to organize us and focus our efforts. Current Dem groups may mean well, but they seem to operate in their own narrow self-interests, PRIMARILY TO RAISE MONEY. We need leadership to help us focus our donations of money and time. TIME TO WAKE UP AND RE-ENGAGE!
It's true Stanley but those current democrats groups is the only thing we have as front line, that's why we have to pressure them. It's not much but they, while doing a better job as opposing party, will buy some time to get aggressively organized.
It might be a crazy idea but I would love to see Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama and President Obama going out filling the gap between lies and reality in the maga messaging machine.
Yes! Where is this messaging? Why is all of legacy and most of non tradition media wrapped up in only telling and fact checking the lies? Where is the messaging of the truth AND consequences? I’m all over Substack and can’t find it.
Sorry Kathleen for the frustration you are going through. Hope is temporary. For now,and given the avalanche of "presidential" decrees, clearly cruel and illogical implementation of Proyect 2025, we should relay on our first responders ,legislators and party leaders and pressure them to speak lauder, constantly, trustfully, with facts at hand till we can articulate a common front and a clear message and strategy.
Ned, Trump does know he is lying when he is lying. And he knows he is telling the truth when he is telling the truth. And he lies, or he tells the truth, or he says nothing depending on what he thinks will help Trump. Trump is not nuts. He is selfish.
James, Trump is cray-cray and getting worse. How many people would be dumb enough to defund most of the government (or put it on hold)?
He fucked up big time with this one, and we all know that he will blame Biden for it. Obviously, he has no one that will keep him from doing stupid things like he did in his first term, so this is just one of many fuck ups we will all have to endure over the next four years (unless he dies).
Gary, being selfish and being cray-cray are two phrases expressing the same meaning. Selfish people benefit from unselfish people in the short term, but give them enough power, and they will benefit from the social system until they weaken it to the point that they destroy themselves.
I thought I said that, James. Dr Bandy X. Lee laid that to rest for me when I asked her, in effect, ¿does Trump's mental impairment relieve him of moral responsibility?
The good Dr Lee answered decisively, to paraphrase, "No, Trump's particular impairment does not relieve him of moral responsibility for his behavior and lies. Socio / psychopaths apparently know they are lying and know that their behavior is wrongful."
Ned, I agree with Dr. Lee's analysis in large part because I trust her expertise, and even though I don't agree with her approach. We need more experts in different fields who are willing to learn from and cooperate with other experts in different fields. We don't need more people who think their expertise and success in one field makes them an expert in every field. Maybe it's me who has the wrong approach. I'm just identifying what I perceive to be the obstacle that she's put in the way of her success.
For example, don't imply to experts in the political arena that they need to be listen to you whereas you don't need to listen to them.
When a premise begins with a lie (a weak foundation) intending to harm and divide, and when the liars know they are lying, any further listening is mostly to make note of their projections in order to know what they are doing or intend to do.
I agree. A grownup who acts like a child doesn't suddenly start acting like a grownup. The maturation process is a long an winding road. And, as Fredrick Douglass put it, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
I also worked for a serial liar many years ago. It was so bad that we couldn’t tell where the truth ended and the lies began and visa versa. It caused me to seek professional help. Luckily, I decided that no job was worth it.
The sociopath was trained by Roy Kohn, Roy’s Rules of Public Relations
1. Attack attack attack
2. Admit nothing, deny everything
3. Even in defeat, claim victory
As a sociopath, Donnie can’t help himself, he lies because he is ignorant of facts and can’t process information. So, he gets called out on the lie. See above. Just one of many pathways to the above.
It’s got to have some very bad consequences for the masses.
The question is not whether someone is a truth teller or a liar. Those are merely symptoms. The question is whether someone cares or doesn’t care. Someone who cares about “me, myself, and I” will choose the truth, a lie, or silence depending on what they believe will benefit them. Someone who cares about others will choose the truth, a lie, or silence depending on what they believe will do the greatest good and the least harm.
"You simply tell them, and they believe you" —it’s that easy. But this illusion only holds until reality hits home. Eventually, Trump supporters will come to see that there’s nothing in this game for them, that it’s rigged in favor of the 1%ers. Slowly, they’ll begin to realize they’re sitting in a pot of water that’s heating up by the minute. The question is: will they wake up before they’re boiled alive?
Am important distinction because the outrageousness of the lies have caused some in the media to paint Trump as stupid. This is a dangerous miscalculation. He is not stupid, but he is very good at what he does; lie, manipulate, grift.
Meanwhile, Maine news this morning is reporting ICE detention of a documented 18 year old girl at the Cumberland County jail. She will likely be released, eventually, but the threat and fear will remain. That's called terrorism. Make no mistake that the Administration is terrorizing Americans and documented migrants alike. The only cover they have for the failures thus far is to blame the Biden administration for ordering culling of bird flu infected chicken flocks.
Next up: bird flu milk and infected chicken in your freezer and that clown RFK at the head of the response.
THERE ARE A FEW THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE DEMS.
BUT, I TRUST THEM WITH OUR CONSTITUTION.
“No matter the incompetencies of the Trump presidency, Marcotte notes, it appears the answer will be: You might not like what we’re doing, but don’t you hate Democrats more?”
My head is spinning. Our food bank now has the clients waiting inside the church. I now notice vehicles with government seals. I watch in disbelief a Dr. Phil being part of a round up.
This country, and others, have gone mad. Mad against human rights. Mad against democracy.
And for what reason? One guy that put this all in place to avoid jail.
A narcissist.
And those in countries of authoritarian leaders, are the people really better? Do we have citizens flocking to other countries for a better life? To Russia, North Korea, Hungary, South America.
I guess that amazes me the most. To the red hats, see if you are better off in two years. With work, with savings, with health benefits, with your children’s education.
And if it’s not, don’t listen to the Republicans blaming others. Blame yourself for voting this lunatic in a second time.
NO, NO,NO!... "apparently misunderstanding" is not what Trump did. Call a spade a spade. TRUMP SPEWED BULLSHIT AGAIN claiming that the military turned on the water to Southern California. Just like today, TRUMP SPEWED BULLSHIT AGAIN claiming that the US spent $50 million on condoms for Gaza.
This 👆 is how honest journalism should expose Trump's never-ending lies.
"Lies, lies and nothing but lies. It will collapse and crumble." - Alexei Navalny
A truly SAD commentary on our New Times/MAGA/administration. Lies rule the day, the night, and everything in between. All of these people know exactly what they are doing. They even wrote the book so none of the "lesser intelligent" denizens would miss the intent. This is all according to disgustingly well thought-out plans. RESIST!!!
I suspect Trump and serial liars see no difference btwn truth and lies. Reagan told the same inaccurate stories over and over, even after being told they were inaccurate; he believed the points he made with the stories were more important than accuracy (Reagan, by Max Boot). And now, in an age of extreme disinformation from Fox, X, and almost-every Republican in Congress, “There’s no such thing as truth. What we say becomes truth,” (from an old NYX Magazine Section article).
''True MAGA is buying the lies the administration is selling—Fox News Channel pundit Jesse Watters suggested Gazans were using condoms as balloons to float explosives into Israel—but it is possible Nixon’s system of polarization is reaching the end of its rope.''
“in a social media post today by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) that the Senate should confirm Trump’s deeply problematic nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because “no Cabinet nominee could damage the political future of Democrats more than RFK.””
I thought I had seen everything. But the blatant partisanship at the expense of the health and lives of the American people is deeply, deeply disturbing.
Scott, I agree that it is disturbing, and I know that us saying it is disturbing is not helping. If anyone knows what will help, please say something. If nobody else knows what will help, I have something to say.
I identify as a scientist. I see myself as a member of the scientific community. I think the scientific community can do a lot more than what it is doing now. I think we as a community can start acting more like scientists. I think other communities can do more as well, but someone needs to start, and why not us?
What I mean by acting more like scientists takes a bit of explanation. For anyone interested in what I have to say, or for anyone just interested in science in general, read my latest Substack newsletter. It's an essay, but it's only about 1,200 words.
Better yet, subscribe. I do not charge a subscription fee. I don’t want your money. I just want us to make the world a better place.
The entire “hearing” process is a joke. Each senator gets 7 minutes to ask questions and when they ask for more than one hearing opportunity the GOP answer is always NO.
The partisanship displayed in these hearings is disgusting. None of those congress critters deserve their positions…they have violated their oaths by just appeasing the Felon in Chief and jeapordizing the health, welfare, and security of the American people. Such an embarrassment to their offices and to we the people.
That stupid comment is just the tip of the iceberg of their lack of concern for their own constituents is shocking. What these monkeys don't understand is that when their cultist wake up and realize that they are constantly being lied to and being duped they will vote Democratic en-mass.
Their politics is now a team sport, they don't want to govern, they want power, and they want to hurt anyone not on their team. It's all bread and circus for their base, and they aren't being punished electorally for it or financially so they will keep doing it. Maybe one day the American people will give a shit, I'm not holding my breath though.
It’s hard not to fixate on the Christian cross dangling from Leavitt’s neck as she lies to the media and announces policies that impose cruelty and harm on millions of people. How she and her colleagues sleep at night is beyond me.
Karoline Leavitt... She lives in the Self-Referential Right-Wing Info-Sphere.... I have watched Her, She is a Smooth Operator... I Guess that DJT has found his New 'Baghdad Bob'...
Exactly my thought the first time I saw her, reminded me of Baghdad Bob (Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf), and the Lord Haw-Haw types (William Joyce being the most well known).
Then there is Sarah Huckabee Sanders who replaced Sean Spicer early in the 1st Trump circus. I have trouble believing she will last as long (almost 2 years).
The obvious nod to the Christian Nationalist by wearing that humongous cross aside, she is rude. Perhaps she was trying to be funny when she made snarky statements with a sarcastic tone, but I believe the young woman is just rude. Surely her parents didn't raise her to be that nasty.
Thanks as always professor Richardson for your tireless efforts.
In light of the fiasco over Trump's attempt to shut down the federal government by appropriating funds that are not his to appropriate, and given his likely attempt to do so again, here is a great post by Professor Juan Cole this morning on what government bureaucrats can do to gum up the malfeasance of the Musk-Trump regime. Alert any friends you have in targeted federal offices.
The ones that I have talked to are Scared & Upset... Allegedly that was instigated by Elon Musk... It has not thought thru... Sorta like Tesla Cars, which are the most Dangerous on the Road, and Sloppy in Execution...
Indeed there are. We bought a 2023 Chevy Bolt. We took advantage of Mr. Biden's 7500 dollar break on the price. We ended up paying $23K for it. I love that car. It's so fast and fun to drive. I have to get behind people doing the speed limit because if not I just speed along. It's hard to know how fast the car is moving because there's no engine noise or vibration. Fun, fun car.
I have been watching since 7pm. My heart for everyone is so crushed, so broken.
The Con idiotically put something on his shit site about how the helicopter could’ve gone up higher in the air! Doesn’t know WTF he’s talking about! I had to stop watching after the press conference. Another very sad day for our country where innocent people suffer.
I believe we flew the same approach on the 17th since I saw Bolling AFB (now Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling) and a right turn in our path seemed more parallel to the shore (like an portion of an approach to Runway 1/35 with a jog to the right before turning left for Runway 33/15 (which allowed seeing the Washington Monument). I withheld comment until I saw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouDAnO8eMf8
That treats the early (factual) information much better than Trump's trying to imply it because of "DEI" hiring (as it seems they are trying to alienate and get rid of the best along with whoever else they can to make room for far less competent loyalists).
A sample of the needs to communicate and coordinate need to be kept up like they did with ATC actually riding in the fight deck like a commenter mentioned at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAWl-pyivk
"...Musk called for Whitaker’s resignation in September after the FAA chief proposed fining Musk’s company SpaceX over $600,000 in civil penalties for failing to follow license requirements during two launches in 2023. Whitaker told a congressional panel at the time that fines were “the only tool we have to get compliance on safety matters.”
The tech CEO and fascism enthusiast repeatedly attacked Whitaker from his X account, claiming in one post that the FAA was “harassing SpaceX.” Musk also replied to an X poster who said the FAA “should not exist” and attacked Whitaker for preventing his goal of colonizing Mars..."
It seems larger than Trump/Musk; if you missed this revelation, it is definitely worth a look. Vance appears to play a much bigger part in all this, which kind of explains his staying in the background while Muskrump distracts us.
What if 10% of the Federal work force were to accept Trump's offer, for instance 10% of the air traffic controllers. Yesterday's airline disaster shows us that our skies would be even more dangerous if 1) a large number of air traffic controller positions were vacant in any major city. And besides, Robert Reich says there is no money for this "program" anyway.
To avoid a civil war, push-back has to be stiff and resolute. And it has to continue that way. The petition for Caliporno to secede is welcome; it likely will not come to fruition -- at least, I hope not -- but a resolute initiation of the referendum in four years surely sends as message to Trump. 🥳
The idea of states counter-impounding taxes due to D.C. to secure disaster relief funds and block grants mandated for them but in danger of being impounded and, where applicable, to avoid subsidizing red states is a resolute push-back. It will likely not occur -- at least, I hope not -- but pursuing it with vigor will shock and awe the M.A.G.A.s.🛑
On the immigration front, I would like to see secure borders, mainly to keep the very nasty narco-traficantes out of the U.S. or, preferably, in jail. President Macho Mouth is seeking to turn Guantánamo Bay into a detention (likely holding) camp for 30,000 migrants. Of course, the Trumpanzee is going after the easy targets: families who contribute to local economies and are peaceable. But drug war-lords? Nope. 🤢
Or maybe the reality is that the Buchanan-promoted GOP practice of lies and division has been so successful that there's no longer a country that can be unified and healed. The lack of a common set of decent values or even a broadly accepted truth has just gone too far. We are literally in 2 separate political worlds with mutual animosity and conflicting aspirations.
This maybe True until a National Cathartic Event happens like a '9/11', or a "Pearl Harbor'... Then the Herd/People will gather with the 'Horns Outward'... Personally I would prefer Mandatory National Service... It works for some European Countries... It works for the Israelis...
Dear Ned - what a great idea for states to claw back the tax money from the federal government that they would have otherwise recieved from FEMA or from grants.
Thank you, L.! Hopefully, it will not come to breaking the A.B.H. wire transfer links into the I.R.S. or D.o.Treasury. Risks of violent consequences exist. The risk is worth it because Trump is counting on the rest of us to acquiesce to threats, often implicit, in his sweeping statements and law-breaking.
So, pushing back, hard, is crucial. Above all, any course taken can not be a bluff; if the states threaten actions, they must be prepared to do them and face the consequences.
What concerns me most is what happens to the funds impounded. Can they be channelled into, say, supporting and organizing the new paramilitary force created spontaneously by the Trumpanzee with the 06jan21 gangsters? I do not know, but it is a sobering possibility.
Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that she would tell the truth. That was the first lie. She’s following the pattern of previous Trump press secretaries.
I'm messing up the technology management here but I'm trying to share something my cousin wrote. She is an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts.."Monday I took a call nobody wants to take. A former client called as she was leaving the ICE office alone, after arriving with her adult daughter “for her ankle bracelet to be removed.” That is what ICE said when they called her in that morning. Instead, she arrived and was arrested and detained and her mother left, alone and hysterical. Her mother still does not know where she was taken. The daughter who was detained has a pending asylum case, a social security number, authorization to work, a job, and a U.S. citizen spouse. I have yet to locate the daughter as her information does not return any results in the ICE detainee locator." I thought you might find this useful.
I double dog dare anyone who can read Hitler’s section on the “big lie” in Mein Kampf (James Murphy translation) and deny that repubs have followed his path for decades. I posted that section often when I could and people ignore at our peril.
I've been telling people on Substack to read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as quickly as possible to gain some insight on what would likely happen if/when Trump got back into power.
This is truly horrifying. This should be a lead story in every paper. So frightening. I will email my representatives in Congress today! (Lleni Carr’s post)
Where are the strong established voices to challenge this foolishness? Where’s Liz Candy? Where’s Kamala Harris? Democrats aren’t the problem, their trepidation is.
We’re depending on donny hump’s niece & Kennedy’s cousin to rouse the constituency! Isn’t there a Democrat that can stand up & raise Hell????
There are at least 76 million Americans who resolutely refuse to listen to any reality-based message. The only thing that interests them is shit that Republicans are flooding the zone with. They certainly will not listen to any message delivered by a member of the party that wants the government to treat black Americans and other marginalized groups fairly. The people who were throwing spitballs in the back of the classroom while you were sitting on the front row trying to learn to the lessons are now the ones electing the US government, and people like Felon47 are what you get when spitball-throwing, willfully ignorant, white SOBs are choosing “leaders” of your country.
Actually. Dems shouldn't try to change the minds of MAGAs but instead energize the Democrats and Independents through constant hammering on the unconstitutional and evil decrees spewing from The Felon's mouth.
They need to display publicly EVERY DAY that they are not afraid of the Reprobate-in-Chief, and by doing so, help folks who are immobilized by fear or exhaustion to decide to fight back. If they cannot do that, we will have to do it ourselves and put our reps on notice. Remind them about 2026.
The DNC should try to energize the ~37% that didn't Vote... Reach out to focus on Broad-Based Issues that affect the most People such as Cost-Of-Living, and Child-Care...
Yeah.... They are the 'Screw-Ups' that never learned anything after 6th Grade, and miss their Human-Automaton Jobs... Wait until they realize, if they ever do, that the 'Tech Bros' will use A.I., 3D Printing, and Robotics to Kill off most of those Jobs... Then they will want Big Government to Save them... By that Time, the Orange Messiah will have been Gone to his Just Rewards....
I believe half of the 76 million (the ones that weren't going to the rallies, and just never believed anything like what happened in 1933 Germany, could happen here), may be getting a rude awakening. It is pretty late in the game to realize it, but I do hope they wise up soon.
I was a toddler military dependent in Munich Germany from 1947 to 1950, during the Nuremberg Trials and the Berlin Airlift.
One of the most often repeated lessons from my mother is that we should never believe it couldn't happen here, as she often included that Hitler was more popular in Germany than Franklin Roosevelt was here (up to Pearl Harbor).
The America Nazis and America First types, especially, got their wake up call with Pearl Harbor. Who else thought we would never need that lesson repeated?
How I miss the days when I could access basic news without having to choose which podcasts, Substacks or channels to pay for with my time and money. I pay for six trusted Substacks and I have trouble giving them attention, and money. No wonder Fox seems like the best option for some. It is crap but it is the one-stop shop for all the answers to all questions. I know better but Fox is free, everywhere, and entertaining for some. Al was a force in the Senate, now he is another voice among a scattered field. Sanity is hard to find, afford, and trust. MSNBC served for awhile. Ditched them after Joe and Mika went rogue.
I cannot thank you enough for slogging through the crap being thrown at us, and summarizing what is most important. Thank you. It truly is a firehose. My only remaining question tonight is what did Eric Adams do, besides kiss the ring, to get the favorable treatment it sounds like is coming and, how will NYC voters respond? And, oh yeah, those egg prices . . . .
Ice Queen; that’s how I would characterize that new spokesperson for the Trump White House. Whew! I could not believe how classless and rude she was when I heard her.
He's aiming for a pardon, which Trump may be willing to give, to use it as another bludgeon against Democrats. Adams is more than willing to join the political victim club.
Having watched Mmes Leavitt, Bondi, and Loeffler on C-span over the past ten days, I have one name for these beautiful blondes in senior positions: ditzkrieg. They are geniuses when stacked up with Messrs Kennedy, Trump, Hegseth, and Patel. Senator Blubbershill (Repulsivon of Alabummer) should go back to coaching football; but first be checked for a head injury.
I have been brought to task on the ditzkrieg remark. My apologies. The lowest form of humor got the better of me. In fact, unfortunately, (state) Att'y Gen'l Bondi is quite intelligent; that does not bode well for the independence of the D.o.J.
Senator Loeffler handled her testimony quite well and her reception was bi-partisan; my memories of her as a Senator had not disposed me well toward her. Senator Markey hit the D.E.I. question hard, not the Senator herself.
Ms Leavitt is an unknown quantity in a position, as Trump's Minister of Propaganda, that will tend to be short-lived by any occupant.
Donald Trump is going to continue to wrack up victory after victory unless the Democrats grow a set and take him on. Democrats can begin their comeback by doing what Yale historian Timothy Snyder suggests and form a shadow cabinet that dogs the GOP and the president at every turn. With the mainstream press cowed and the Republicans’ social media advantages, unless Democrats throw caution to the wind and continuously, and relentlessly, call out the president and his flunkies in congress flooding the same zone with truth that the right has flooded with shit we’re going to get no where. All lame justifications for their behavior aside, Republicans voters are, as Hillary Clinton said, “deplorable”. They knew what and whom they were voting for and they cast their ballots for Trump anyway because they’re meaner than shit, more committed to making people suffer than trying to link arms with those they disagree with to make this a better country. For this element cruelty is the point no matter what cost them to deliver it. But if the Democrats can make it clear to the millions of Americans who chose not to vote on November 5 that they have their backs we might just have a chance of turning them out and saving what’s left of our democratic society.
Jim, these are not victories. The handling of the freeze on federal grants and loans was an unmitigated disaster. The suspension of foreign aid is another in the making. The summary dismissal of experienced prosecutors in the DoJ is another example. The bizarre email to federal staff offering them an inducement to resign yet another. With each decision he takes, Trump is effectively diminishing the competence of his own administration and this will lead to chaos. This is likely to continue until minds in Congress and the government begin to turn to the mid-term elections and that's when panic will set in. Trump has been bequeathed a sound economy by Biden, just as he has inherited his wealth from his father, and he will squander this advantage, just as he has squandered his inheritance over and over again with crazy schemes, like running casinos as non-profits.
I disagree with you about the funding freeze being a disaster. People all over the country pushed back against the funding freeze. They called, wrote their senators and representatives. I’m sure the switch board was overwhelmed. The people resisted and Trump backed down. I think that was a good start of resistance and a victory.
What you've described sounds to me like a disaster for the administration. Even more so after Karoline Leavitt's tweet. Jim was talking about victories for Trump.
If only Biden didn't give them the opening by lying about his health, immigration and Israel. He should have marketed the good economic policies better and not shut out Elon Musk they way he did. Trump is Biden's legacy.
Russel: I take your point(s) regarding the policy implications of Donald Trump’s actions but I disagree about what they represent. They may not be victories from the standpoint of policy but they are from the perspective of politics. Trump has always understood that there is a performance aspect to being president that people respond to and he’s good at filling that role. Whether he plays his part for good or ill is irrelevant. Behaving as he does establishes himself as a leader who gets things done. The American public loves simplicity. Donald Trump provides that. He gives voters simple, easy, explanations for why they are living in a world of shit and then demonstrates that he’s doing something about it. Moreover, when things go awry Trump never has to own it because the entire rightwing noise machine kicks into gear and blames it all on Joe Biden or DEI ( Trump is blaming todays air tragedy in D.C. on DEI). The sad thing is that Americans are so poorly educated, disengaged, or simply so hopelessly cruel, that they buy it. It may very well be that these bad decisions ultimately do him in. I certainly would like to see that outcome. My only hope is that it happens before it’s too late.
Of course, you're quite right, Jim. But what happens if the price of eggs isn't reduced? How long will people continue to accept his 'explanations' that it's always somebody else's fault. The other factor is that when you're in government shit happens - things that you haven't anticipated that can disrupt your agenda and which cannot be ignored. Last time with Trump it was the pandemic and his response was catastrophic - first outright denial, then trivialising the problem, then blaming the Chinese and even accusing healthcare workers of stealing masks to distract from his government's alarming lack of preparation, then peddling quack cures and conspiracy theories before finally taking credit for the development of vaccines. He's unable to cope with a crisis and this time he's surrounding himself with spectacularly unqualified lackeys. How can this possibly end well for him?
Well said. Let us hope that none of this ends well for this waste of humanity and everyone who has enabled him. Let us also hope that when it does, it doesn’t create a vortex we all get sucked into.
You need to stop worrying about the Democrats and do something to support them. All your carping on the wrong people is the problem. A positive Democratic message makes a difference.
No matter how forceful Democrats may be or how effective the message, reaching people who don't pay attention or won't listen to truth may be insurmountable.
Meanwhile, the media is caving with the speed of the Hadron Collider. Meta/Zuckerberg forks over $25M to Tr-mp’s trumped up lawsuit over being banned from FB following Jan. 6. ABC/Disney hands over $15M+; Bezos and Soon-Shiong pull Harris endorsements and buy over-the-top inaugural balls. Now CBS is said to be contemplating offering a settlement in Tr-mp’s $10 Billion suit over “election interference” (cuz they interviewed Harris). Crypto lights up the web, dark and otherwise. Eric Adams and Menendez bark like circus seals hoping to be tossed a shiny little pardon fish.
While this carnival plays on, PrezMusk continues to infiltrate and twist the digital tendrils of the entire US govt. — demonstrating that he can summon each and every federal employee with a single, universal email blast. He can suck virtually any governmental website into a black hole from which no light can escape. It’s all a giant video game to him, with bragging rights for his cheating.
All the steps Dr. Richardson lays out as to how to RESIST are urgent and vital. So is developing a liberal democracy version of AI that can take its own digital gloves off for this fight. The media have largely surrendered to oligarchy. The rest of us have to carry on and there is no time to waste.
Step one: blind people with chaos while you neuter the free press. Step two: continue chaos how some ever so blindness continues as you rig the electoral system in less than two years to guarantee that you stay in power.
Lies, fantasy -- all ruling the Republicans today.
This where there is nothing personal in life. No history.
This is the message U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse delivers to his amnesiac colleagues – all the Republicans – in the U.S. Senate today:
Sen. Whitehouse condemns Republicans for their “Trump-servience” in Light of Trump’s Jan 6 Pardons
Jan. 6, 2021, however, was personal for them. They were then scared, offended at the Trump thugs endangering them all. Why have all the Republicans forgotten those feelings, lost that history?
Answer: billionaires profit at scrubbing out the personal, voiding history. Their social media algorithms steer the masses to hate, vitriol, sensationalism. Their standardized testing scrubs the personal, drops history so abstractions, categories, 1-2-3 linearity rule instead.
Good for historian Heather chopping at history’s tangled vines. Good for Sheldon Whitehouse who remembers the emotions of that day. Pity how elites pander to fantasy history, floating the fat orange felon’s criminality.
The worst part of the tech broligarchy at the inauguration was that they were standing under the statue of President Grant -- a man who broke one oligrachy and worked hard to advance the prospects of freed blacks.
Karoline Leavitt is cut from the same dishonest cloth as Stephen Miller and other archpropagandists deployed by Trump, the main difference being she has the Fox anchor vibe originated by Roger Ailes.
The “brilliance” of Trump’s first 10 days, if you can call it that, is the flooding the zone with so many EOs, many outrageous, illegal and profoundly stupid, is that we cannot keep up with all of them and feel overwhelmed and exhausted. There are so many that we don’t know which ones to attack. This keeps our attention away from the profoundly incompetent cabinet nominees being questioned by the Senate . The first week feels like a year.
"Slashing the federal funding that supports ordinary Americans will make it easier to fund federal contracts and further tax cuts for the wealthy. With that tradeoff so visible in 2025, will “owning the Libs” still be worth it?"
It seems it will be hard to blame these cuts on Biden when Trump fucks up and has to rescind one of his Fascist memos.
The thing about a memo to Federal departments is that the memo itself doesn't break any laws. Only if the departments with hold funds authorized by Congress is a law broken.
I doubt Trump "misunderstands" information, like his statement about turning on the water, the way the rest of us do. I worked for a compulsive liar and was married to a man who lied to make himself look good. These two didn't misunderstand anything; lies worked because they were easy, convenient, useful, and rarely challenged. Even if Trump understands about the water event, he got more attention and political points by lying about it.
Had to respond because I was once married to a serial liar, as well. There is little hope for them, as I learned the hard way.
Lying can also take the form of repackaging ie ‘detention centre’ at Guantanamo Bay should read ‘concentration camp’ at Guantanamo Bay.
Update: Gitmo is already an immigrant “detention facility.”:
From WaPo:
“ U.S. government agencies and private contractors have used facilities at Guantánamo Bay to detain asylum seekers and refugees for several decades, rights groups say . In 1994, for instance, President Bill Clinton resumed … use of the Guantánamo base for processing Haitian refugees and later ordered Cuban asylum seekers…to be held there.
“Last year, the International Refugee Assistance Project released a report accusing the U.S.-run Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo Bay, or GMOC, of detaining migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean countries throughout its history. Many of those refugees are intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard at sea and then “detained indefinitely in prison-like conditions without access to the outside world,” often “with little to no transparency or accountability,” the report said. “These refugees are forced to endure this treatment until a third country agrees to accept them for resettlement, even if they have family in the United States,” it said, adding that the process can take years.”
Guantanamo at its peak housed some 700 or so terrorism detainees.
Does DJT ever tell the Truth?
You know whenever Trump is lying because his mouth is moving.
Also When He Is Playing The 'Air-Accordion'...
Even when he is chewing?
Yes. DJT tells the truth when telling the truth serves DJT.
I tell the truth, or a lie, or I stay silent depending on which of the three does the greatest good and the least harm.
We need to stop focusing on who is a liar and who is a truth teller. We need to start focusing on who cares for others and who cares only for themselves.
Or maybe keep our focus on the facts, not the truth, because the truth is relative: Philosophically, truth has been explored through various theories:
• Correspondence Theory: Truth is the alignment between thought or language and a mind-independent reality. For example, a statement is true if it accurately describes the world.
• Coherence Theory: Truth is determined by the consistency and logical coherence of a set of beliefs or propositions.
• Pragmatist Theory: Truth is what works in practice or has practical utility.
• Deflationary Views: These argue that truth is not a substantial property but rather a linguistic or logical convenience (e.g., saying “It is true that snow is white” adds no new information beyond “Snow is white”).
Even in Science, and "Laws of Nature" truth is relative and may change with space and time, so also with other truths. The concept of gravity...need I say more?
Truth is relative. Here some more examples
1. Contextual Nature of Truth: Truth is dependent on context, culture, or perspective. For example, a statement like “It is raining” is true if it reflects the weather in a specific location (e.g., New York) but false in another (e.g., Cairo) at the same time.
2. Subjective Experiences: Some truths are based on personal beliefs or subjective experiences, such as preferences or opinions. For instance, “This food tastes good” is relative to the individual making the statement.
3. Cultural and Social Relativity: Truths about morality, customs, or values often vary across cultures and societies. What one group considers ethical or true might not hold for another.
You know, if I cared about Donald Trump and wanted his administration to succeed, then I'd think twice about setting him up as Russell Vought's Project 2025 crash test dummy. I mean, the illegal firings, unconstitutional funding freeze, and the federal workforce Schedule F f*ck-up.
With friends like Vought ...
Russell Vought, Stephen Miller
Trump's twisted TweedleDee and TweedleDum.
We need a 2025 Pinky and the Brain. The original was for Bush-Cheney. Trump-Musk has such possibilities
https://youtu.be/VMxX_AlUzOQ?si=ygjN45jaUdklt0T-
Well, both, and I think they may be part of the same thing. I think love and truth go hand in hand, and here I mean deep, vulnerable. If you know you will never wear a sweater granny knit for you, it might be kind to equivocate.
One way to attempt to measure who cares for others and who doesn’t is this: who, when someone succeeds and flourishes, is happy for them, and who is disturbed by that success?
Still, few will admit to being disturbed by the success of another.
well.... that's a key point on that distinction, James.
In the 2024 Biden/Trump Presidential debate, Trump lied FOUR times in his four sentences.
"We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had never done so well. Every – everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us."
And the lame stream media said Trump won the debate. The Philadelphia Inquirer, as you recall, called out Trump for telling over 30 unique lies during the debate. But Trump repeats the same tired lies again and again within the same appearance and keeps repeating them for years on end.
Hello Gary... You are Correct... However DJT won the Performance by using his Forceful 'Gish Gallop'... Joe Biden lost because he appeared Dumbstruck, and Feeble... Kamala, a Practiced Criminal Prosecutor, did better... She was debating a Felon after All....
And they wonder why poor Biden was stunned into quasi-silence.
lie, repeat, lie, repeat
No.
Not on purpose anyway.
The phrase “Trump lies” is redundant.
Yes Jon!!..so is "felon". Continuing to label him as a felon does nothing for me. Tell me, what's it do for you? I know.., pretty-much obvious to me, that dog just doesn't hunt. Just like "lies". If you live up north, you know all that lies and felon shouting didn't amount to a yellow-hole in the snow. Neither did two impeachments. Question now should be: How do we employ a strategy which will work.., how do we turn this loss into a gain? Keep some dog bones handy. Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot.
🎯
Nope, narcissist never do.
He's done very well for himself through dishonesty. Why would he change course?
That's too easy to answer Apache. For someone that start lying before waking up and finish about 2 hours after falling asleep, the answer is..... maybe .
uhhhh. no.
Oh hell no!
No.
NO
It seems so unlike Donnie to say anything NUTS, being the stable genius that he is. BTW, he doesn't care how many detainees the place will accommodate. He'll cram in as many as he can because he DOES NOT CARE about human beings.
gonna be expensive to do this... to contain all these "criminal scum" ... someone they have to show that "millions and millions" of undocumented immigrants are "criminal" even though stats don't remotely back this up.
Frank.., exactly. And this stuff must be told to the American People. And examples of the ill-effects given.., over and over. Spin it. Quit calling him a felon. Instead, take examples of orders he has given which have resulted in extreme duress of some family.., spin it! Use a white"christian" family that looks like one of them.., spin it. Don't use a trans person, don't use a hispanic or asian family, don't use a same sex marriage family. They won't carry the weight we need to throw in the President's face..., we've got to SPIN IT. We have to present the consequences of his edicts, dumb as they actually are. The White House briefing room was the perfect place to have done that. FAIL FAIL FAIL. Now "he" has (the) Killer in there. Yeah.. KL. The 27 yr old young lady with the cross on her necklace..in our face! Can you dig it?
And I'm sure, no media allowed. Not a good look for the world to see children in the miserable conditions for this narcissitsic sociopathic king.
Make that "Death Camp". The first thing I thought of was Auschwitz. Why? It's remote, private and secure from prying eyes. It is demonstrably possible to do horrible things to people there without causing a public outcry, as demonstrated by every administration starting with George W Bush.
Later camps will be set up on military bases or at private prisons domestically to cut costs.
I thought the same thing Stephen. He is following the 1930's nazi anti-jew playbook. Do a little research on the initial legal measures taken against Jews in Germany during the 1930s and some interesting(and haunting) patterns will show up.
We have a great deal to be ashamed of doing. That we LOST this doggone election, largely over relatively low-noise-level (albeit worthwhile) initiatives, which I need-not mention, is what is sickening to me. I mean, so much of the good that Biden et al put in place, being dismissed or held in contempt is rattling. Treating the 'goings on' at Guantanamo AND our border being just business as usual? C'mon.., a Nation ostensibly under God? Under the influence, OUI.., of something FUBAR is more like it. And MAGA? We've been headed downhill since we lost Ike. Perhaps, this election is where we turn things. We're at the bottom. Can the situation get worse? Yes, but we're at the bottom. You want to see an actual picture of US? Look at the photos of Gaza, that's US my friends. A nuclear war would just mean more debris to clean up.., we're at the bottom.
Yes but now Cuba is a terrorist country. Maybe other terrorist countries will be willing to take our immigrants.
Just like the Nazi’s. Create places where the law does not exist, so followers can break it. Condition them to cruelty there, so they will be ready when called to break the law here.
Kazz, my thoughts exactly as I noted when I just posted Heather's letter this am. I happened upon a MAGA on another thread yesterday and he was busy spewing the exact opposite of what is true. The rest of the people on the thread weren't having it and I just looked and he has not answered.
And I am sure would be secluded with maga employees. Terrifying thought.
Conveniently out of sight of the American public, too.
Exactly
yep
Me, too. I realized that because he repeated the lies so often to convince me and others, he truly began to believe the fabrications himself.
I also think felon47 is so insulated from real life, I seriously doubt he knows people find him laughable, disgusting, sickening, nauseating. Who is going to show him or tell him in his golden little circle? My guess? His handlers lie to him as much as he lies to we the people. Sick all around.
Where did he get his little blonde mouthpiece from?
Anne-Louise, she's one of my fine state of NH's ignoble products, unfortunately.
Oh. Ah.
I was certain she had been lifted from one of the couches at Fox Spews.
Me too --sociopaths have no moral compass and will do anything and say anything to get what they want. They also tend to prey on intelligent and accomplished women because they perceive that "winning" them makes them more powerful. Also, they absolutely hate women. That said, I suspect that the Orange Felon in Chief hasn't even read more than a tiny handful of (since his hands are tiny it has to be a very tiny handful) these executive orders and he is being fed lines by the likes of Stephen Himmler (oops-Miller).
Ach du Himmler!
Mme Luccarini, I woke late wondering why I felt as if I live in Germany 1930’s. I’m in Chicago so not surprised at the feeling.
Likewise. Some men lie just for the heck of it. It’s a compulsion.
Trump's whole modus operandi is lies and money. He delights in his own lies, and getting away with them. His power over others.
See Rachel Maddow on the subject of the Trump family crest.
Anne Louise, what does she say about it?
She laughs and laughs - tells the whole story. If I can find a link I'll send it. No, this is the best I can do. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-mar-a-lago-crest-a-scam-new-york-times-finds_n_592c6f40e4b053f2d2ad7e75
Rachel has the latest detail, which is that instead of just "Trump" at the bottom, it
says "Donald Trump" (instead of "gravitas)
Rose, it's true. But it's not limited to men. I offer Karoline Leavitt as an example, among others.
Or the alternative facts of Kelly Anne Conway…
“Nothing is true, and anything is possible” Peter pomeserov
I agree that some humans lie just for the heck of it. It’s a compulsion.
It truly is another reality not easily changed.
Let's pay our attention to what policy that will hurt ordinary voters most and how to stop it. IMO, so far rescinding Bide's prescription drug cap is the one. How many voters are feeling pain from it? Next coming is the tax cut for the wealthy combined with cuts for safetey net. How can we stop this? How can we alert MAGA voters? Any suggestion? Including lies? How about Trump is financing tax cut by raising tarrifs against Canada and Mexico?
Hiro, I hate to sound like a Negative Nancy, but you cannot alert MAGAts to anything. They are so steeped in the mis and dis information they thrive on from their preferred "information" sources that they will not be able to hear what you are warning them about. I just had a sparring session with my "favorite" former sergeant (he of the "if a woman asks for an abortion of the baby she just birthed, the doctor has to kill it because she wants an abortion and that is legal" fame) about the $50 million the US spent on condoms to Gaza; not to be outdone, he also relayed the "kid identifying as a cat has cat boxes in the school restrooms; said kid attacked another kid who got in trouble for defending himself" story yesterday. He did walk back the school story, which ended up being a fight between two middle school boys (whoda thunk there'd be a fight there???) but is holding steady on the $50 Million on condoms to Gaza.
Just no way to reach them, that I can see. And I've been trying since 2010.
We don't have to convince MAGA. Which is good, because it's a cult, and convincing doesn't work. But MAGA is not close to 50%. We only need to keep steady, and the facts will show up in people's lives. Egg prices, e.g. And tariffs will increase prices.
Me too...and she was also a narcissist...and became an elected official...much in common with Trump...just glad she never got beyond City Council before her crash & burn.
Me too Susan
Here is the expert class on CA water crates by one of my favorite GIS geographers!!!
https://www.youtube.com/live/W42WB4gO6j0?si=lv2_75k-hwlOTbDT
He doesn't understand. He claimed that the Central Valley was not 'natural' because the state authorities had been cutting off the water. The entire Central Valley Project is not 'natural' - the dam, the canals, the aqueducts and the pumps are all man-made. So is the environmental damage the Project has caused: the decline in salmon populations, the flooding of tribal lands and historical sites; the pollution of groundwater reserves and waterways. Moreover, it's a federal not a state project.
Understanding demands some intellectual capacity. Lying only needs the ability to contradict, and to make up whatever fanciful explanation occurs to the liar at the time. Our challenge is how to overcome the gullibility of those who believe the lies.
Goebbels showed them the way
Stephen Miller is just as vile as Goebbels. Fortunately, he is also ugly so his future as an elected politician isn't likely.
Stephen Miller is the most cringey person ever. His firehose of lies when being "interviewed" by Jake Tapper was pure Miller - he got more and more ramped up -- and he was spinning the truth so fast I thought he'd fly into orbit. And (petty alert) that "smile" yech.
lol, serious, but you got a laugh from me, laurie
He plays to an audience of one person, like the rest of sycophants Trump has surrounded himself with, but he does it better than anyone else - just look at the roadside kill that the Trump juggernaut has left behind.
I would have thought the same of Trump. Ugly from the soul.
Isn’t he though, his ugly goes to the bone
Is anybody as vile and ugly as Bannon? In fact these ugly bastards are as passionate for their evil as Goebbels was. And he was no pretty boy.
He ran with it!
Please allow me to add: "Our challenge is how to overcome the gullibility of those who believe the lies"...and that is through exploring "facts" together. However, any MAGA folks with whom I have tried to walk down that path to a common "Truth" soon see that their "Beliefs" are crumbling. For example, my own MAGAts profess (and provide me with "proof" that every word in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is the Truth. When you then read the book they give you it starts with (I paraphrase): "If you believe that the Bible is written by men under divine influence, then it contains only the truth". Duuuuuuh, well of course.
So for example, cINO MAGAts are very happy to have a discussion about "truth" to prove their points, but will not engage, for long in a discussion of facts, and again, if they do, they quickly move back to their truth.
So it is, in my opinion not a matter of intellectual capacity, some/many are very smart/wiley, but rather an unwillingness to engage in joint fact finding including the facts that might make their "truth" clearly relative.
So what? MAGAts must "Believe" in order to take Trumps rhetoric/lies for truth, and giving up on those beliefs would be devastating for them. Which means that they need to be faced with an even more devastating outcome if they are to engage with you, or even consider changing their truths. Trying to do that is, in my experience, futile. In my opinion, one can only hope to "sow some fact seeds" for the future (difficult at best) which might be remembered.
So What? Our Media approach by a restructured DNC needs to include (Very Loudly and simply) constant repeats of those facts and their projections, so that when MAGAts actually see the fact occur, they may question their "truths".
Yes, you can well say that "evangelical" contortions to prove scripture inerrancy produces minds which can swallow prejudices and biases without a hiccup, firehosed by Fox et al of course.
Frank Loomer,
The Bible illustrates from the beginning to the end that we are naturally most likely to do what we want to do depending on the circumstance.
It also proves that 9 times out of 10 due to our selfish choices and limited intelligence not to mention lack of compassion or concern for others, we cause more troubles that once again allow us to resort to some type of lying or fighting or method to control...etc. to prove that our choice can be condoned.
Because of this reality, I believe our hearts long for a way out of this seemingly impossible self-made "prison". Although rather than a "prison" some like to escape into a group where everyone believes the same...truth and lies are all mixed together into an acceptable form ie "yes we are superior" , "we can never be controlled", rather "we will be the force in control". We never need say "we are sorry" or I apologize for expanding a lie even if it displaces thousands of people and affects the health of our global family. We don't care. We are increasing our wealth and power....so we lose a few children who will die of hunger....so half of our globe will have no stable home or possibility of education or medical facility to treat sickness, disease , injury .....so what if nations are practically destroyed by natural disasters...unless of course I may lose out on taking their rich natural resources for myself!!!
Because this is the reality of who we are.....upon that realization....many of us realize we need something beyond ourselves....thus a faith.
Sadly this powerful sanctuary of "imperfect" faith is not a cult if genuine.
The undeserved love given to me is also with the responsibility to love the unlovable, to feed the hungry, to assist in healing those who suffer inside their beings or outside...to care for creation....the possibilities are unending.
Those under the current administration wearing their big crosses may call themselves "Christian" but my eyes and ears and heart reveal something quite different. "Truth will out."
Thanks for that interesting essay, Emily. I'm not so sure it's too wise to overdwell on "selfish" issues, i don't hunt myself down morally for taking care of myself in my routine daily life, and i suspect that's broadly true for many if not most of us, even the religious die hards. But when it comes to ideology or some broad social advantage, or undue wealth inequality, things sure do have a way of piling up!
bruce, thanks for your comment here. Your report of dealing with CINO MAGAts is spot on, and much more... mature... than mine have been. "...not a matter of intellectual capacity, some/many are very smart/wiley, but rather an unwillingness to engage in joint fact finding including facts that might make their "truth" clearly relative."
Well said, Bruce.
Typical cult trap, why Ike a wanted proof for future generations.
I think we all to some extent suppress or ignore painful or inconvenient truths - we could hardly remain sane if we didn't. Mark Lilla has explored this theme in his entertaining book 'Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know'. Also, I fear that gullibility alone does not fully explain the admittedly astonishing durablity of Trump's persuasive power over a substantial section of the US population.
Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but Maga has worked best on less educated citizens. Statistical statement of course.
That's true, no doubt, but it doesn't explain all. The support for Trump includes the disillusioned and the desperate. One of the indicted J6 people, Michael 'Whip' Simmons. a former Blackwater security operative who provided security for the Oath Keepers said he never voted because no matter who is in power, nothing ever changed in the neighbourhood. Of course, he ought to have included Trump's first term administration in this censure. Somehow, MAGA always seem to exclude him when blame is being apportioned. America is the most unequal society amongst democracies and the adverse consequences on people's health and well-being are well-documented (for example, in Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson's book 'The Spirit Level').
My ex- bff is the smartest woman I have known, she’s hooked. No logic, no where
Agreed, no one has a total crystal ball, but the education thing is a major indicator who who support Maga style Republicans. It wasn't always quite so that way. Thanks for the story on Michael Simmons. Agreed on the unequal society comment.
Cults have been with us for ever, rarely to the extent that Rupert has managed…
It’s the belief in egg price reduction that gets me between despair and laughter. And worrying desperately about our education system.
This needs to be a core mission now, to request of our neighbors to be extremely discerning about where they are getting their information.
Good luck with that. My neighbors will not hear a bad word about their beloved "Fox entertainment."
So well expressed, Betsy.
good luck with that gullibility, Betsy, and I share your sentiment.
The people who believe and those who just LIKE what he's doing as they probably elected him to "shake up the government". As long as it doesn't affect them, then the details don't really matter.
MAGA = Make Americans Gullible Again
(just like t-rump and company have been continuing to do for the last 8+ years)
Much of the damage was caused by hydraulic mining long before the Water Projects. Outlawing that industrial technique was one of the earliest significant environmental laws in the country, but the legacy of the human-caused disaster lives on, including the reduced salmon spawning habitat, the ongoing flooding, contaminated water, etc.
Not to make excuses for California or Trump's ignorance, but California should be split into multiple states, but at least two. I lived in Northern CA and. Southern CA wanted the water from the Sierras. I'm not sure how that has played out, but it seems more likely the US will split into multiple countries than CA into multiple states. The same is true of TX, NY and FL.
It has crossed my mind more than once that the ultimate solution would be to divide the United States in half - let the MAGA states enjoy their beloved conspiracy theories, abortion bans, unregulated gun ownership, white supremacy, zero education, zero health-care and zero social safety net - and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
I live in the South of MLK Jr., Andrew Young, Jimmy Carter, Raphael Warnock, Bryan Stevenson, and a number of people throughout who aren't in the camp of Marjorie Taylor Green and others of her ilk. We'd appreciate an erasure of suggestions "we, the people" should be dropped from the rolls of citizens of the United States of America.
I have often wished that Lincoln had just cut the "The South" loose in 1860.
I've felt the same for a long time - who needs them.
Yes, maybe secession is the answer.I would have to move to a blue state but would happily do so.
do you expect "the other 50 million" or so Dems to do likewise?
And migrate say 50 million or so "democrats" from these states? just to where, Guantanamo?
Red States Want to Secede? Go Ahead. Make Our Day.
Nearly 1 million Americans have signed petitions calling for secession including over 100,000 in Texas and over 50,000 in Georgia. So, here's a response.
(A poll from Public Policy Polling reports that 25 percent of Republicans would like their state to secede from the Union. Nearly 1 million Americans have signed petitions calling for secession including over 100,000 in Texas and over 50,000 in Georgia. So, cribbing from a viral email that's been making its way around the internet in the spirit of fair use and adding my own evil satiric thoughts, here's a response.)
So some of you patriotic Americans in Red States are so mad that a Kenyan, Muslim, socialist black man got elected President of the USA for a second time that you want to demonstrate your patriotism by seceding from the United States of American? Go ahead. Make our day.
But be careful what you wish for. Here's how it could go down, and it might not be so pretty for you after all is said and done.
We would get the West Coast, all of the Northeast and the upper Midwest.
You would get Texas, Oklahoma and all the former slave states.
We would keep Hawaii too, the foreign country with warm water and beautiful beaches where Barack Hussein Obama was born without a birth certificate.
You can have Alaska and stare at Russia from your front porches.
To be fair, we may have to split up some states.
You get North Florida. We get South Florida. After all, what would you want with all those gay people in South Beach and old Jews in Miami?
We get North Virginia. You get South Virginia. To be fair, we'll let you keep the University of Virginia. Go Cavaliers! Plus you need at least one place to educate some leaders who believe in science.
But Austin, Atlanta and New Orleans get to be their own Blue city/states, sort of like West Berlin before the Wall came down. We'll even pay to move the capital of Texas from Austin to W's hometown of Midland, where as one native recently put it, "There used to be one Democrat in town, but I think she died".
We might even merge with Canada. That way we get single-payer healthcare, solvent banks, the Royal Canadian Mounties, and Ryan Gosling (eat your hearts our Red-nation women).
To sum up briefly:
We get Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z and Beyonce. You get Ted Nugent and Meatloaf.
Plus Willie Nelson gets to park his bus anywhere he likes in the Blue America.
We get Elizabeth Warren. You get Todd Aiken. (Hey, we'll even keep Chris Christie. He's too large to move, anyway.)
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get the New York Philharmonic. You get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
We get Oprah. You get Paula Deen.
And Blue America will have an easy repatriation policy for the ancestors of slaves still stuck in the former Confederate states, as well as a path to citizenship for undocumented workers and their children from both Red and Blue America who have worked hard/studied hard and put down roots. We'll even have a 21st century version of "40 acres and a mule" with education, job training and work at a fair wage for those who need it. (But here's a warning: good luck getting your crops picked, your kids asses wiped, and your pools cleaned without a bunch of low-paid undocumented workers.)
Any Red-nation NBA team that wants to gets to move to a Blue state city without its own team. Hey, how about them World Champion Pittsburgh Thunder?
And the New York Jets will send you back Tim Tebow for a player to be named later.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get backwoods crystal meth labs.
We get Intel, Microsoft and Apple. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to pay your fair share for once.
Speaking of all those federal taxes you love to hate. Most of it comes from us and goes to you. So stop talking nonsense about how "It's our money, not the government's money". Of the 19 states that send more money to Washington than they get back in benefits, 14 are Blue. And of 31 states that get more money back from the Feds than they pay in taxes, 23 are Red. It's not your money. It's our f**cking money. So from here on out, you can pay for your own damn roads and bridges.
Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate? It's Taxachusetts, the first state to recognize gay marriage. Think that's some aberration? How about this? 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are in the Blue states. And where are the highest divorce rates? 10 of the top 10 are Red.
But gay people getting married is going to ruin the family for you? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own.
So we get a bunch of happy families, straight and gay. You get a bunch of single moms and deadbeat dads.
With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve Texas wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92 percent of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, and Bob Jones University.
So, as we said at the start. You want to secede? Go ahead. Make our Day. But be careful what you wish for. You might not be so happy if you actually got it. If you ask nicely, we might even take you back.
I think about that too, but even my so-called blue state of NY has an enormous number of MAGAs, especially in the rural communities like the one where I live.
I’ve had the opportunity to live in California. It truly could be its own country. It has the fifth largest economy in the world. And every miserable, poor, poorly educated state in the USA reaps benefits from federal taxes paid by Californians and other hard working states they seem to love to hate. Their ignorance is part of what makes for bad governance to thrive
I’ve lived in 11 states, California now and for the longest as an adult. The protections California has in place for its people is so much better than any other state but the right wing that live here can’t see it. They’re the grass is greener in a red state people. Look how many ran to Florida and suddenly can’t afford insurance and have zero protections.
When we lived in Austin there were a lot of people who had moved from California and wished they never had. Homeowners found that the house they bought with loose building codes had endless problems. When I went house shopping prices were almost the same as buying in California. We moved back to San Diego after 2 years of brutal heat in Austin and have never been happier.
State autonomy was always high on the Republican agenda, although you'd never have guessed this from the autocratic way Trump is behaving.
Are you saying we should split up states rather than split up huge businesses?
Yes but a project built to support most of the fresh food we eat every day. Not saying that's right but hard to change a system this big overnight. Grow your own organic garden, buy local.
Think ecological zones, not states….
Montana Channing, one solution could include desalination systems along the CA coast. There have been fears of damage to the ocean ecosystems, but research shows that these impacts can be and are controlled in practice.
I thought most of the fresh stuff was imported from Mexico.
More than just California's Central Valley on the table here, important as agricultural food supply from the Valley has become. Civilization, in its entirety, is "manmade", we're suffering the effects of scale.
My brother was a liar. He was one of the people I have known in my life who you could look in the eye, and if you didn't know he was lying, you wouldn't be able to tell. You had to know something about the situation to ascertain the truth. Most people telegraph lies in their eyes. That is helpful, but habitual liars don't. I think Mr. Trump has lied all his life. Mr. Vance isn't as good a liar, but he is doing it to.
Vance is as unscrupulously ambitious as tffg, just younger.
Vance is definitely unscrupulous in many ways.
His slip in the debate with Tim Walz says it all. “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,”
Eyeliner. Why does JD go so heavy on the eyeliner? He is the Vancing Queen!
I posit that it’s tattooed. But Usha claims it’s just thick eyelashes. Of course she’s probably abused.
I hear that she is ambitious.
She should have married a man that wouldn’t hold her back. He will never allow her out of his shadow.
And he has a "new" ideology which allows him to lie: Identitarianism.
He’s also a misogynist and vicious bully. Have you seen him denigrate every female reporter? Slime of the earth.
He’s younger, smarter, and more radically ideological. He will be president soon, right after Trump appoints successors for Alito and Thomas, thereby entrenching the Trump judiciary for decades to come.
Ouch! But, alas, probably true.
Spot on!
VERY BIG POINT, Laurie. I am tempted to write Trump off as nuts. He knows he is lying. Thank you for stiffening my back-bone a bit!
No one has ever tried the simple confrontation of Trump in public. No reporter has yet stood up to him and said in a thoroughly public setting the simple words: "Stop lying to us. What you just said is a lie, you know it's a lie, and you are a pathological liar."
Yeah, I know, he'll whine about how rude or unfair the reporter is. The reporter needs to be prepared to respond with, "What's rude is someone who thinks they can 'just grab' women by the '-------'. I am saying you are a liar and just make garbage up."
I would love to see someone say the hell with supposed "journalistic ethics" whatever that even means at this point given that said ethics seem to have given a large assist in putting our republic on life support, and just say to his face very publicly that he is a liar and to stop taking everyone for rubes by spewing whatever excreta his demons defecate into his head - and then press home the point like a pit bull by calling out whatever nonsense constituted his response.
Jim Acosta did and CNN ditched him.
Jim Acosta is now on Substack and I’m hoping he feels liberated. He’s very brave…
Now he has freedom and a fraction of the audience. Substacks are a fractured response to a juggernaut
And he was escorted from the press room and lost his white house press pass.
And, he won't miss a step! See my comment above.
You know the opposite is happening, Philoctetes.
CNN has laid off many and instructed its remaining to be polite, go easy on the orange felon.
MSNBC's Joe and Mika made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lardo to kiss the ass.
L.A. Times and Washington Post billionaire owners have been censorious with their papers to please the money-hungry criminal/rapist/fraud (whom they gifted a million bucks each).
U.S. K-12 still has no humanities, but stranglehold by the billionaires' standardized testing.
Youth in even the best universities are no longer able to read whole books -- so pernicious has been the standardized testers' modeling of short snippets only.
Phil I DO like a lot of what you say but when you spout nonsense someone has to call you on it.
"Youth in even the best universities are no longer able to read whole books. "
What kind of BS is THAT? Just to check it out I went to the library at UC Berkeley and was assured that they have several hundred thousand books, all intact in full, no edits or truncations and all available to be checked out by any UCB student.
And anyone who wants to can use project Gutenberg online to read almost a million complete books FOR FREE including ancient philosophy, plays, semimodern (up to the early 1920s) fiction and so much more.
What you stated is just crap. Many modern day students may not WANT to read whole books but that is NOT because anyone is preventing them from doing so.
Please try to get your criticisms punctuated with actual facts.
Here's one piece, Jon, from three months ago on students' declining reading:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/
And another on why students "are struggling to read full books":
https://theweek.com/education/college-students-read-books
I never said "anyone is preventing" students from reading whole books. What I said was "Youth in even the best universities are no longer able to read whole books."
In Japan, where I live, this has been going on a long time. Minae Mizumura noted it some years ago -- how in Japanese high schools there are virtually none where any teacher asks any student to read any book in full ("The Fall of Language in the Age of English," Columbia U Press, 2016).
It's a phenomenon due to standardized testing, and to social media, both putting priorities outside of humanities.
So your phrase “no longer able” doesn’t mean not capable? We only read whole books in literature classes.
Hey, Phil, thanks for these three articles, including that of Ms Ravitch cited below. 🤝💡✌🏽
Jon, we have so many amazing choices of who and what we read and listen to. Unfortunately, the corporate media is fueled by greed. They depend on advertising dollars to enrich their bottom line. FOX allows the "my pillow guy" to say and do outrageous things because he gives them so much revenue.
And Bezos and Musk want the tax cut. If the renewal of the tax cuts wasn't looming Trump would have promised them even more tax cuts. And on this he must deliver.
But, I do agree with Ned that millions of people choose to read or listen to Trump and his BS than to pick up a book and read it.
Thank you, Gary. The inter-net and social media are a big distraction for me, reducing my willingness to concentrate. 🤫
What offended me most about that butt-ugly inauguration was the pusillanimous techsters standing beneath the statue of General/ President Grant, an under-estimated leader who broke one oligarchy and worked very hard to stem its ugly legacy. 🤢
Below, how oligarchy works (for F.B.) and why social media really like being 'information platforms (sic, more likely sick) as opposed to news outlets. (Written elsewhere.) ✍️
Jon, you are right in the particulars - plenty of access to books. But I took early retirement from the college classroom because no matter how great the works, I just - and my colleagues could not - get students to read them. Damn, I had the best subject going and was good at presenting it: I had gladiators, gods, and Caligula . . . I had the transition of republic to dictatorship. Could I get students to read a thing?
Instead, I got complaints about making them - quelle horreur - read.
Yeah, there is all the great literature of the world online - I gave away my library before moving to France and depend on resources like Perseus at MIT so I don't need to re-purchase Classics which I read in the original daily. What Balla means is what I and my colleagues have been experiencing in the classroom - when I started my career students read. At the end?
I couldn't compete with the goddam iphone and video games - thousands of dollars and privilege and they were throwing it away on scrolling and mindless button pushing.
Hell with it.
"What you stated is just crap." Ah, your fine inter-personal skills hard at work again. Glad to see that I am not the only object of your affexion. 😉
Seriously, ¿did you research out how many of those library books were checked out and how often? 🫣
¿Any trend analysis on use by project Gutenberg over time spent with each book as a proxy guesstimate of portion of text read? 💡
Admittedly, it is challenging to pin down whether whole books are read. 🤔
Nevertheless, volume of books or text fails to answer Phil's point. 🛑
I have found it harder to read a whole book than I used to; ageing does not explain that emerging limitation; I still read books, but doing so tries the patience. 😳
One last question, hot-shot: ¿do you deem audio-books as legitimate as 'aural' reading? I do, though they are more time-consuming. 🙂
The problem with audio-books for me is that, unless I am really interested subject matter (e.g., Chernow's biography of President / General Grant), I tend to pay less attention due to multi-tasking. 😵
I love audio books.....have listened to over 400 in past 10 years, mostly while hiking and climbing.
Here's Diane ("The Language Police") Ravitch, Jon on this controversy:
https://dianeravitch.net/2019/07/08/ariel-sacks-teach-whole-books-or-excerpts/
Thank you. I was going to respond similarly but your explanation says it all.
Jon, I think Phil meant that students no longer have the stamina, training and desire to read whole books. That they are, without these things, not able to read whole books. As an undergraduate, I took a law course, and I went through a laborious period of learning how to get through the reading of cases. It got easier, but there was a learning curve for sure.
Young people today are on their phone, and not reading much. There is hope, though. A professor at my old school, one who talks to the kids about this topic, and who has his small-class students put their phones in their backpacks, reports that 100% of his students want to be on their phones less. It's a dependency, if not an addiction.
I don't think Phil said that they have no access to books, Jon. Read what he said about standardized testing.
Thank you, Doug, for zeroing in one of Jon's many fallacies.
Jon -
So between Phil's post 8 hours ago and yours 7 hours ago you went to the UC library to talk to a librarian about banned books? At 11pm?
Talk about BS.
Stolen from a meme:
1992: Humanities are useless. Study STEM.
2002: Humanities are useless. Study STEM.
2012: Humanities are useless. Study STEM.
2022: Why are Nazis suddenly about to take over?
I can tell you this is not the case in every school. My daughter and her class are just finishing up reading “The Book Thief.” Granted, she goes to an international school here in the United States, and I’m glad of that.
Likewise, Christina. My kids read plenty of entire books in school. My oldest was reading Harry Potter in first grade, and he flew from there, in and out of school.
That being said, I don’t disagree that voracious readers are few and far between - but that isn’t new. We have access to so many ways to “read” books now. I’m a housewife, and audiobooks mean that I can read all day long. It’s excellent.
How many youth, even in the ordinary universities, do you know?
Honestly, even when I was in university we didn’t read whole books. Textbooks aren’t novels, not meant to be read front to back like one of HCR’s books (for example).
Claiming they are unable is demeaning and short-sighted.
I've been saying for years journalists/interviewers need to call out the lies immediately and very publicly. There is nothing more infuriating when a journalist asks a question and the response is an outright lie and the reporter, just writes it down, nods their head and says nothing!!
Throughout time, technological advancements and pivotal events (we're in one right now!) have triggered disruptions, reshaping entire industries in unforeseen ways. Substack (launched in 2017 and helped immensely by Heather's Letters) has provided an alternative to mainstream media, prompting an exodus of journalists from traditional newspapers to establish independent outlets on the platform.
While the current landscape is chaotic and rapidly evolving (nothing less than a firehose!), Substack represents an interesting chapter in the reinvention of the Fourth Estate. As journalism navigates this transition, there is hope (and evidence) that it will emerge as a stronger, more reliable force in truth to power.
"No one has ever tried the simple confrontation of Trump in public". What is your source? 'cause I have different info.
Unless you can show sources with facts, your premise is false. In fact, numerous reporters and journalists have confronted Donald Trump in public settings, challenging his statements and behavior. For example:
• CNN’s Jim Acosta had multiple heated exchanges with Trump, including one where Trump called him “fake news” and refused to answer his questions. Acosta’s press pass was even revoked after a confrontation during a press conference in 2018.
• During the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference in 2024, ABC News’ Rachel Scott and other moderators directly challenged Trump’s claims and rhetoric, which included falsehoods and attacks on their questions.
• In various press conferences, reporters have fact-checked and pushed back against Trump’s statements in real-time, such as NPR identifying 162 falsehoods in a single news conference.
These examples demonstrate that reporters have publicly confronted Trump on numerous occasions.
So What? Dear political friend, my contradiction of you is not to show anything other than: We need the DNC to engage in a constant blast of Media Noise on Facts about and what will happen in the near future that will devastate each MAGAt when it happens. Simply calling Trump lier does nothing to change the MAGAt "Truth".
Good points, Bruce; many thanks.
Kamela Harris did. And she almost won.
Kamela Harris is braver and more experienced at confrontation than most journalists and , sadly, most Dems.
As the great Lawrence O’Donnell has said-a lie is not an answer .
During the Presidential debate last September, I think Kamala did a good job calling out Donold's never ending rapid fire falsehoods. She conveyed just how insane his rantings were with facial expressions and hand gestures showing her incredulity at his torrent of lies.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/harris-trump-debate-kamala-face-memes-legend.html
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/kamala-harris-s-meme-worthy-debate-reactions-to-trump-s-dog-eating-comment-win-trends-she-mastered-101726038528287.html
Every word you just said, Philoctetes.
CNN already got rid of their one reporter, Jim Acosta, who would do that “speak truth to power”. Our mainstream media is just folding completely and normalizing this “President”. We would have been better off electing a monkey.
Where are the Democratic politicians who will stand up to Trump's face and shout, "You lie!" like a certain person did to then President Obama?
I just left a comment on the White House comment line, basically saying just that regarding his press conference about the DCA airline crash. He just made up so much shit and out and out lied about who the FAA hires, ATC hires, DEI, and the previous administration all the way back to Obama. He is totally disgusting and his press conference was so inappropriate! Every time he speaks, I just want to throw up! Instead….I called the comment line.
I think it's a waste of time this back and forth arguments about trump knowing or not what he is talking about etc. That's a distraction. Everything he does it's a distraction. Nothing he says makes sense and that's a distraction amplified by Fox and the media. He is being paid to do that job by the 1%, the billionaires, the Proyect 2025 ideological group.
We have to concentrate on counteract the policies being implemented, very loudly and truthful 24/7 , we have to understand the consequences of those policies, how will affect negatively all of us, how it will be a point of no return if fully established and start a massive campaign of information. Please don't buy into the circus show, don't get distracted.
It felt very powerful yesterday when all our noise and lighting up the capitol phone banks caused him to reverse his illegal freeze on public money. Keep it up folks.
Nicely done Susan; thank you 'muchly'.
Susan, I loved your reply but nothing is that simple, should be something more powerful than lighting up the phone banks because of a public discontentment. They are so determined to follow the script that I don't trust anything they say or do much less caring about public reaction.
Ricardo, continuing your point, it’s time for Dems and Americans of all parties to re-energize and reorganize. It’s time to get out of our states of depression and unite with FORCE AND A PLAN! I, for one, am drowning in fundraising texts/emails from every Dem group in the nation. We need LEADERSHIP to organize us and focus our efforts. Current Dem groups may mean well, but they seem to operate in their own narrow self-interests, PRIMARILY TO RAISE MONEY. We need leadership to help us focus our donations of money and time. TIME TO WAKE UP AND RE-ENGAGE!
It's true Stanley but those current democrats groups is the only thing we have as front line, that's why we have to pressure them. It's not much but they, while doing a better job as opposing party, will buy some time to get aggressively organized.
It might be a crazy idea but I would love to see Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama and President Obama going out filling the gap between lies and reality in the maga messaging machine.
Thanks for your reply 👍
Yes! Where is this messaging? Why is all of legacy and most of non tradition media wrapped up in only telling and fact checking the lies? Where is the messaging of the truth AND consequences? I’m all over Substack and can’t find it.
Sorry Kathleen for the frustration you are going through. Hope is temporary. For now,and given the avalanche of "presidential" decrees, clearly cruel and illogical implementation of Proyect 2025, we should relay on our first responders ,legislators and party leaders and pressure them to speak lauder, constantly, trustfully, with facts at hand till we can articulate a common front and a clear message and strategy.
It's not much but it's a beginning.
Thanks for your reply.
Ned, Trump does know he is lying when he is lying. And he knows he is telling the truth when he is telling the truth. And he lies, or he tells the truth, or he says nothing depending on what he thinks will help Trump. Trump is not nuts. He is selfish.
James, Trump is cray-cray and getting worse. How many people would be dumb enough to defund most of the government (or put it on hold)?
He fucked up big time with this one, and we all know that he will blame Biden for it. Obviously, he has no one that will keep him from doing stupid things like he did in his first term, so this is just one of many fuck ups we will all have to endure over the next four years (unless he dies).
Gary, being selfish and being cray-cray are two phrases expressing the same meaning. Selfish people benefit from unselfish people in the short term, but give them enough power, and they will benefit from the social system until they weaken it to the point that they destroy themselves.
I thought I said that, James. Dr Bandy X. Lee laid that to rest for me when I asked her, in effect, ¿does Trump's mental impairment relieve him of moral responsibility?
The good Dr Lee answered decisively, to paraphrase, "No, Trump's particular impairment does not relieve him of moral responsibility for his behavior and lies. Socio / psychopaths apparently know they are lying and know that their behavior is wrongful."
Yes. They are proud of their bad-assedness. They are attracted to others who have the same qualities.
Ned, I agree with Dr. Lee's analysis in large part because I trust her expertise, and even though I don't agree with her approach. We need more experts in different fields who are willing to learn from and cooperate with other experts in different fields. We don't need more people who think their expertise and success in one field makes them an expert in every field. Maybe it's me who has the wrong approach. I'm just identifying what I perceive to be the obstacle that she's put in the way of her success.
For example, don't imply to experts in the political arena that they need to be listen to you whereas you don't need to listen to them.
When a premise begins with a lie (a weak foundation) intending to harm and divide, and when the liars know they are lying, any further listening is mostly to make note of their projections in order to know what they are doing or intend to do.
I agree. A grownup who acts like a child doesn't suddenly start acting like a grownup. The maturation process is a long an winding road. And, as Fredrick Douglass put it, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
Malignant narcissist sociopath.
Ned, Trump's lying Is a feature and not a bug. And besides, his lies are just "alternate facts." /S
I also worked for a serial liar many years ago. It was so bad that we couldn’t tell where the truth ended and the lies began and visa versa. It caused me to seek professional help. Luckily, I decided that no job was worth it.
The sociopath was trained by Roy Kohn, Roy’s Rules of Public Relations
1. Attack attack attack
2. Admit nothing, deny everything
3. Even in defeat, claim victory
As a sociopath, Donnie can’t help himself, he lies because he is ignorant of facts and can’t process information. So, he gets called out on the lie. See above. Just one of many pathways to the above.
It’s got to have some very bad consequences for the masses.
The question is not whether someone is a truth teller or a liar. Those are merely symptoms. The question is whether someone cares or doesn’t care. Someone who cares about “me, myself, and I” will choose the truth, a lie, or silence depending on what they believe will benefit them. Someone who cares about others will choose the truth, a lie, or silence depending on what they believe will do the greatest good and the least harm.
"You simply tell them, and they believe you" —it’s that easy. But this illusion only holds until reality hits home. Eventually, Trump supporters will come to see that there’s nothing in this game for them, that it’s rigged in favor of the 1%ers. Slowly, they’ll begin to realize they’re sitting in a pot of water that’s heating up by the minute. The question is: will they wake up before they’re boiled alive?
Am important distinction because the outrageousness of the lies have caused some in the media to paint Trump as stupid. This is a dangerous miscalculation. He is not stupid, but he is very good at what he does; lie, manipulate, grift.
Meanwhile, Maine news this morning is reporting ICE detention of a documented 18 year old girl at the Cumberland County jail. She will likely be released, eventually, but the threat and fear will remain. That's called terrorism. Make no mistake that the Administration is terrorizing Americans and documented migrants alike. The only cover they have for the failures thus far is to blame the Biden administration for ordering culling of bird flu infected chicken flocks.
Next up: bird flu milk and infected chicken in your freezer and that clown RFK at the head of the response.
THERE ARE A FEW THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE DEMS.
BUT, I TRUST THEM WITH OUR CONSTITUTION.
“No matter the incompetencies of the Trump presidency, Marcotte notes, it appears the answer will be: You might not like what we’re doing, but don’t you hate Democrats more?”
My head is spinning. Our food bank now has the clients waiting inside the church. I now notice vehicles with government seals. I watch in disbelief a Dr. Phil being part of a round up.
This country, and others, have gone mad. Mad against human rights. Mad against democracy.
And for what reason? One guy that put this all in place to avoid jail.
A narcissist.
And those in countries of authoritarian leaders, are the people really better? Do we have citizens flocking to other countries for a better life? To Russia, North Korea, Hungary, South America.
I guess that amazes me the most. To the red hats, see if you are better off in two years. With work, with savings, with health benefits, with your children’s education.
And if it’s not, don’t listen to the Republicans blaming others. Blame yourself for voting this lunatic in a second time.
NO, NO,NO!... "apparently misunderstanding" is not what Trump did. Call a spade a spade. TRUMP SPEWED BULLSHIT AGAIN claiming that the military turned on the water to Southern California. Just like today, TRUMP SPEWED BULLSHIT AGAIN claiming that the US spent $50 million on condoms for Gaza.
This 👆 is how honest journalism should expose Trump's never-ending lies.
"Lies, lies and nothing but lies. It will collapse and crumble." - Alexei Navalny
A truly SAD commentary on our New Times/MAGA/administration. Lies rule the day, the night, and everything in between. All of these people know exactly what they are doing. They even wrote the book so none of the "lesser intelligent" denizens would miss the intent. This is all according to disgustingly well thought-out plans. RESIST!!!
It’s what sociopaths do with impunity.
“It’s not a lie if you believe it”.
George Constaza, circa 1990. Hero of all magas
I suspect Trump and serial liars see no difference btwn truth and lies. Reagan told the same inaccurate stories over and over, even after being told they were inaccurate; he believed the points he made with the stories were more important than accuracy (Reagan, by Max Boot). And now, in an age of extreme disinformation from Fox, X, and almost-every Republican in Congress, “There’s no such thing as truth. What we say becomes truth,” (from an old NYX Magazine Section article).
And the entire MAGA base does the same:
- Pulled Quote -
''True MAGA is buying the lies the administration is selling—Fox News Channel pundit Jesse Watters suggested Gazans were using condoms as balloons to float explosives into Israel—but it is possible Nixon’s system of polarization is reaching the end of its rope.''
“in a social media post today by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) that the Senate should confirm Trump’s deeply problematic nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because “no Cabinet nominee could damage the political future of Democrats more than RFK.””
I thought I had seen everything. But the blatant partisanship at the expense of the health and lives of the American people is deeply, deeply disturbing.
Depending on where he spends his time the Senator may be one of the first to suffer.
They don’t care about their constituents. For decades ots about tax cuts for their donors, and at all costs.
A house of ill repute?
They have been wallowing in the muck for decades, why is anyone surprised
Tuberville isn't afraid or ashamed to say the quiet things out loud. Who is going to call him out for it? Fox News or News Max -- hardly.
Scott, I agree that it is disturbing, and I know that us saying it is disturbing is not helping. If anyone knows what will help, please say something. If nobody else knows what will help, I have something to say.
I identify as a scientist. I see myself as a member of the scientific community. I think the scientific community can do a lot more than what it is doing now. I think we as a community can start acting more like scientists. I think other communities can do more as well, but someone needs to start, and why not us?
What I mean by acting more like scientists takes a bit of explanation. For anyone interested in what I have to say, or for anyone just interested in science in general, read my latest Substack newsletter. It's an essay, but it's only about 1,200 words.
Better yet, subscribe. I do not charge a subscription fee. I don’t want your money. I just want us to make the world a better place.
Here's the link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-156030405
I'm heading over to your substack NOW. Thank you!!
How could he ever have been a winning college football coach ? He is so dumb !
The entire “hearing” process is a joke. Each senator gets 7 minutes to ask questions and when they ask for more than one hearing opportunity the GOP answer is always NO.
The partisanship displayed in these hearings is disgusting. None of those congress critters deserve their positions…they have violated their oaths by just appeasing the Felon in Chief and jeapordizing the health, welfare, and security of the American people. Such an embarrassment to their offices and to we the people.
That stupid comment is just the tip of the iceberg of their lack of concern for their own constituents is shocking. What these monkeys don't understand is that when their cultist wake up and realize that they are constantly being lied to and being duped they will vote Democratic en-mass.
Their politics is now a team sport, they don't want to govern, they want power, and they want to hurt anyone not on their team. It's all bread and circus for their base, and they aren't being punished electorally for it or financially so they will keep doing it. Maybe one day the American people will give a shit, I'm not holding my breath though.
It’s hard not to fixate on the Christian cross dangling from Leavitt’s neck as she lies to the media and announces policies that impose cruelty and harm on millions of people. How she and her colleagues sleep at night is beyond me.
Dana Milbank characterized that cross as appropriate for warding off vampires.
Doesn’t seem to be working for cabinet choices.
It's a standard prop for right wing women in the spotlight, like an identifying logo.
I’ve noticed that too. MTG wears one too. It’s signaling “they’re in the club”…wink-wink. Such a show of Christian hypocrisy!
No conscience, no where. These professed christians ran me off years ago.
I can't run if I want to be with my grandchildren, as is probably the case with many of us. We are blackmailed. SUCKS big!
Exactly.
Yep; you and many others.
It got so bad for me that they ran me right out of religion entirely into humanism. I've never looked back.
Karoline Leavitt... She lives in the Self-Referential Right-Wing Info-Sphere.... I have watched Her, She is a Smooth Operator... I Guess that DJT has found his New 'Baghdad Bob'...
Exactly my thought the first time I saw her, reminded me of Baghdad Bob (Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf), and the Lord Haw-Haw types (William Joyce being the most well known).
Then there is Sarah Huckabee Sanders who replaced Sean Spicer early in the 1st Trump circus. I have trouble believing she will last as long (almost 2 years).
The obvious nod to the Christian Nationalist by wearing that humongous cross aside, she is rude. Perhaps she was trying to be funny when she made snarky statements with a sarcastic tone, but I believe the young woman is just rude. Surely her parents didn't raise her to be that nasty.
If she were kind and courteous, she couldn’t be a MAGAt.
She was smug, rude and snarky. Reminds me of Nancy Mace earrings.
As she is a MAGAt and her whole being is Me Me Me, from her viewpoint it is an upside down Cross...you know what that means
The cross hanging from her neck and her not burning is reason #47 I'm don't believe God is real...
Thanks as always professor Richardson for your tireless efforts.
In light of the fiasco over Trump's attempt to shut down the federal government by appropriating funds that are not his to appropriate, and given his likely attempt to do so again, here is a great post by Professor Juan Cole this morning on what government bureaucrats can do to gum up the malfeasance of the Musk-Trump regime. Alert any friends you have in targeted federal offices.
https://www.juancole.com/2025/01/predecessor-sabotage-against.html
Thank you, Philoctetes. Federal workers may being pushing back, hopefully en masse, as per Joyce Carol Vance's fine essay. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/how-to-push-back
The ones that I have talked to are Scared & Upset... Allegedly that was instigated by Elon Musk... It has not thought thru... Sorta like Tesla Cars, which are the most Dangerous on the Road, and Sloppy in Execution...
One other point about Teslas - expensive.
That is true... So many other Good Cars for the same $$$ or less....
Indeed there are. We bought a 2023 Chevy Bolt. We took advantage of Mr. Biden's 7500 dollar break on the price. We ended up paying $23K for it. I love that car. It's so fast and fun to drive. I have to get behind people doing the speed limit because if not I just speed along. It's hard to know how fast the car is moving because there's no engine noise or vibration. Fun, fun car.
You’re confusing Joyce Carol Oates, the author, with Joyce Vance, the lawyer.
Good stuff.
- Don't be complicit! Resist, unify and organize.
Garrett, please direct your comment to the DNC! 🙏
And don’t just blame the GOP. Focus on the better future we are trying to pull out of the hat here
A commercial American Airlines just crashed in Washington as it was hit from behind by a Black Halk helicopter.
I have been watching since 7pm. My heart for everyone is so crushed, so broken.
The Con idiotically put something on his shit site about how the helicopter could’ve gone up higher in the air! Doesn’t know WTF he’s talking about! I had to stop watching after the press conference. Another very sad day for our country where innocent people suffer.
Condolences for the family and friends of those who perished in the crash.
I believe we flew the same approach on the 17th since I saw Bolling AFB (now Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling) and a right turn in our path seemed more parallel to the shore (like an portion of an approach to Runway 1/35 with a jog to the right before turning left for Runway 33/15 (which allowed seeing the Washington Monument). I withheld comment until I saw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouDAnO8eMf8
That treats the early (factual) information much better than Trump's trying to imply it because of "DEI" hiring (as it seems they are trying to alienate and get rid of the best along with whoever else they can to make room for far less competent loyalists).
A sample of the needs to communicate and coordinate need to be kept up like they did with ATC actually riding in the fight deck like a commenter mentioned at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAWl-pyivk
They don't need people like Musk effectively getting the head of the FAA to retire two years early as decribed at https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/faa-got-rid-of-its-leader-before-dc-plane-crash-thanks-to-elon-musk/ar-AA1y8u7I
"...Musk called for Whitaker’s resignation in September after the FAA chief proposed fining Musk’s company SpaceX over $600,000 in civil penalties for failing to follow license requirements during two launches in 2023. Whitaker told a congressional panel at the time that fines were “the only tool we have to get compliance on safety matters.”
The tech CEO and fascism enthusiast repeatedly attacked Whitaker from his X account, claiming in one post that the FAA was “harassing SpaceX.” Musk also replied to an X poster who said the FAA “should not exist” and attacked Whitaker for preventing his goal of colonizing Mars..."
Has Musk paid the fines? Will they be enforced, Jim?
The latest information is that it was close to head on. Right forward side from the jet crew's viewpoint.
It seems larger than Trump/Musk; if you missed this revelation, it is definitely worth a look. Vance appears to play a much bigger part in all this, which kind of explains his staying in the background while Muskrump distracts us.
https://youtu.be/wqWBM5Zs6YI?si=HK_wwOfH7aiimZY5
What if 10% of the Federal work force were to accept Trump's offer, for instance 10% of the air traffic controllers. Yesterday's airline disaster shows us that our skies would be even more dangerous if 1) a large number of air traffic controller positions were vacant in any major city. And besides, Robert Reich says there is no money for this "program" anyway.
"You might not like what we’re doing, but don’t you hate Democrats more?" No, I don't! What I hate more is the Republicans fueling more hate...
To avoid a civil war, push-back has to be stiff and resolute. And it has to continue that way. The petition for Caliporno to secede is welcome; it likely will not come to fruition -- at least, I hope not -- but a resolute initiation of the referendum in four years surely sends as message to Trump. 🥳
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/california-will-put-secession-back-map-2024-12-20/
The idea of states counter-impounding taxes due to D.C. to secure disaster relief funds and block grants mandated for them but in danger of being impounded and, where applicable, to avoid subsidizing red states is a resolute push-back. It will likely not occur -- at least, I hope not -- but pursuing it with vigor will shock and awe the M.A.G.A.s.🛑
On the immigration front, I would like to see secure borders, mainly to keep the very nasty narco-traficantes out of the U.S. or, preferably, in jail. President Macho Mouth is seeking to turn Guantánamo Bay into a detention (likely holding) camp for 30,000 migrants. Of course, the Trumpanzee is going after the easy targets: families who contribute to local economies and are peaceable. But drug war-lords? Nope. 🤢
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-will-instruct-homeland-security-pentagon-prepare-migrant-facility-2025-01-29/
Lastly, ". . . . but it is possible Nixon’s system of polarization is reaching the end of its rope." Man, oh, man, I hope so! 🤞
Or maybe the reality is that the Buchanan-promoted GOP practice of lies and division has been so successful that there's no longer a country that can be unified and healed. The lack of a common set of decent values or even a broadly accepted truth has just gone too far. We are literally in 2 separate political worlds with mutual animosity and conflicting aspirations.
This maybe True until a National Cathartic Event happens like a '9/11', or a "Pearl Harbor'... Then the Herd/People will gather with the 'Horns Outward'... Personally I would prefer Mandatory National Service... It works for some European Countries... It works for the Israelis...
No, NanceeM, it's all just one world.
Where the dehumanized rule, where none has any language to reference the arts in touch with full individuals, that's all just one zombie world.
My exact fear.
Dear Ned - what a great idea for states to claw back the tax money from the federal government that they would have otherwise recieved from FEMA or from grants.
Thank you, L.! Hopefully, it will not come to breaking the A.B.H. wire transfer links into the I.R.S. or D.o.Treasury. Risks of violent consequences exist. The risk is worth it because Trump is counting on the rest of us to acquiesce to threats, often implicit, in his sweeping statements and law-breaking.
So, pushing back, hard, is crucial. Above all, any course taken can not be a bluff; if the states threaten actions, they must be prepared to do them and face the consequences.
What concerns me most is what happens to the funds impounded. Can they be channelled into, say, supporting and organizing the new paramilitary force created spontaneously by the Trumpanzee with the 06jan21 gangsters? I do not know, but it is a sobering possibility.
This will be an endless rehash of the "Blame the Dems" game...
- egg prices went up? Blame the Dems
- a helicopter crashed? Blame the Dems
- California went up in flames? Blame the Dems
- the economy crashes? Blame the Dems
- the rich built their fortresses and are keeping you out? Blame the Dems
- your wife divorced you? Blame the Dems
- your little MAGA willy went limp? Blame the Dems.
Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that she would tell the truth. That was the first lie. She’s following the pattern of previous Trump press secretaries.
Not even sure if she understands her lies, poor dear is simply dumb as they come.
The best liars believe in the truth of what they say.
There it is !
She’s another Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
She knows
Remember, "kristin," Anita Loos wrote the book on what gentlemen prefer.
Apples and oranges Phil; First of all, 'gentlemen' does not apply in this case. Also, Anita herself was a brunette.
Nah.. she's smooth as they come.
Sad
I'm messing up the technology management here but I'm trying to share something my cousin wrote. She is an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts.."Monday I took a call nobody wants to take. A former client called as she was leaving the ICE office alone, after arriving with her adult daughter “for her ankle bracelet to be removed.” That is what ICE said when they called her in that morning. Instead, she arrived and was arrested and detained and her mother left, alone and hysterical. Her mother still does not know where she was taken. The daughter who was detained has a pending asylum case, a social security number, authorization to work, a job, and a U.S. citizen spouse. I have yet to locate the daughter as her information does not return any results in the ICE detainee locator." I thought you might find this useful.
Good grief! Horrid! Half of the country voted for Nazis. They just didn’t know it but oh, they’ll figure it out when it hits home!
They did indeed, but so many say stop with that comparison. I’ll scream it louder…
Please do!!
I double dog dare anyone who can read Hitler’s section on the “big lie” in Mein Kampf (James Murphy translation) and deny that repubs have followed his path for decades. I posted that section often when I could and people ignore at our peril.
I've been telling people on Substack to read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as quickly as possible to gain some insight on what would likely happen if/when Trump got back into power.
Only 30% of US adults voted for Donald and JD. 70% did not.
Not voting is voting with ignorance and without effort.
Marlene, those who voted for ffpotus knew exactly what they were voting for and wanted it with all their alleged hearts.
What a horrifying tragedy! I live in Mass. and will check the local paper to see if it was reported. My heart goes out to that Mom and her daughter.
Cruelty is the point. No other reason.
Chaos
This is truly horrifying. This should be a lead story in every paper. So frightening. I will email my representatives in Congress today! (Lleni Carr’s post)
I don’t know that publicity will help these particular people. I’ll ask my cousin.
Where are the strong established voices to challenge this foolishness? Where’s Liz Candy? Where’s Kamala Harris? Democrats aren’t the problem, their trepidation is.
We’re depending on donny hump’s niece & Kennedy’s cousin to rouse the constituency! Isn’t there a Democrat that can stand up & raise Hell????
There are at least 76 million Americans who resolutely refuse to listen to any reality-based message. The only thing that interests them is shit that Republicans are flooding the zone with. They certainly will not listen to any message delivered by a member of the party that wants the government to treat black Americans and other marginalized groups fairly. The people who were throwing spitballs in the back of the classroom while you were sitting on the front row trying to learn to the lessons are now the ones electing the US government, and people like Felon47 are what you get when spitball-throwing, willfully ignorant, white SOBs are choosing “leaders” of your country.
Actually. Dems shouldn't try to change the minds of MAGAs but instead energize the Democrats and Independents through constant hammering on the unconstitutional and evil decrees spewing from The Felon's mouth.
They need to display publicly EVERY DAY that they are not afraid of the Reprobate-in-Chief, and by doing so, help folks who are immobilized by fear or exhaustion to decide to fight back. If they cannot do that, we will have to do it ourselves and put our reps on notice. Remind them about 2026.
The DNC should try to energize the ~37% that didn't Vote... Reach out to focus on Broad-Based Issues that affect the most People such as Cost-Of-Living, and Child-Care...
Yeah.... They are the 'Screw-Ups' that never learned anything after 6th Grade, and miss their Human-Automaton Jobs... Wait until they realize, if they ever do, that the 'Tech Bros' will use A.I., 3D Printing, and Robotics to Kill off most of those Jobs... Then they will want Big Government to Save them... By that Time, the Orange Messiah will have been Gone to his Just Rewards....
I believe half of the 76 million (the ones that weren't going to the rallies, and just never believed anything like what happened in 1933 Germany, could happen here), may be getting a rude awakening. It is pretty late in the game to realize it, but I do hope they wise up soon.
I was a toddler military dependent in Munich Germany from 1947 to 1950, during the Nuremberg Trials and the Berlin Airlift.
One of the most often repeated lessons from my mother is that we should never believe it couldn't happen here, as she often included that Hitler was more popular in Germany than Franklin Roosevelt was here (up to Pearl Harbor).
The America Nazis and America First types, especially, got their wake up call with Pearl Harbor. Who else thought we would never need that lesson repeated?
5th grade bullies rule and are the heroes that magat’s children look up to.
Spot on, Rex. They only want their confirmation bias pablum.
Democrats are doing their job. Your job is to support them so they can be elected. Please try.
Al could but Kristen Gillibrand helped ditch him.
Al Franken has his own podcast now. So regularly doing good, apt interviews.
How I miss the days when I could access basic news without having to choose which podcasts, Substacks or channels to pay for with my time and money. I pay for six trusted Substacks and I have trouble giving them attention, and money. No wonder Fox seems like the best option for some. It is crap but it is the one-stop shop for all the answers to all questions. I know better but Fox is free, everywhere, and entertaining for some. Al was a force in the Senate, now he is another voice among a scattered field. Sanity is hard to find, afford, and trust. MSNBC served for awhile. Ditched them after Joe and Mika went rogue.
Yes, where is Kamala Harris? Why is she being so quiet? This is not a rhetorical question….
I cannot thank you enough for slogging through the crap being thrown at us, and summarizing what is most important. Thank you. It truly is a firehose. My only remaining question tonight is what did Eric Adams do, besides kiss the ring, to get the favorable treatment it sounds like is coming and, how will NYC voters respond? And, oh yeah, those egg prices . . . .
Ice Queen; that’s how I would characterize that new spokesperson for the Trump White House. Whew! I could not believe how classless and rude she was when I heard her.
He's aiming for a pardon, which Trump may be willing to give, to use it as another bludgeon against Democrats. Adams is more than willing to join the political victim club.
Absolutely Susan; Thanks doesn't seem like enough some times.
Having watched Mmes Leavitt, Bondi, and Loeffler on C-span over the past ten days, I have one name for these beautiful blondes in senior positions: ditzkrieg. They are geniuses when stacked up with Messrs Kennedy, Trump, Hegseth, and Patel. Senator Blubbershill (Repulsivon of Alabummer) should go back to coaching football; but first be checked for a head injury.
I have been brought to task on the ditzkrieg remark. My apologies. The lowest form of humor got the better of me. In fact, unfortunately, (state) Att'y Gen'l Bondi is quite intelligent; that does not bode well for the independence of the D.o.J.
Senator Loeffler handled her testimony quite well and her reception was bi-partisan; my memories of her as a Senator had not disposed me well toward her. Senator Markey hit the D.E.I. question hard, not the Senator herself.
Ms Leavitt is an unknown quantity in a position, as Trump's Minister of Propaganda, that will tend to be short-lived by any occupant.
Donald Trump is going to continue to wrack up victory after victory unless the Democrats grow a set and take him on. Democrats can begin their comeback by doing what Yale historian Timothy Snyder suggests and form a shadow cabinet that dogs the GOP and the president at every turn. With the mainstream press cowed and the Republicans’ social media advantages, unless Democrats throw caution to the wind and continuously, and relentlessly, call out the president and his flunkies in congress flooding the same zone with truth that the right has flooded with shit we’re going to get no where. All lame justifications for their behavior aside, Republicans voters are, as Hillary Clinton said, “deplorable”. They knew what and whom they were voting for and they cast their ballots for Trump anyway because they’re meaner than shit, more committed to making people suffer than trying to link arms with those they disagree with to make this a better country. For this element cruelty is the point no matter what cost them to deliver it. But if the Democrats can make it clear to the millions of Americans who chose not to vote on November 5 that they have their backs we might just have a chance of turning them out and saving what’s left of our democratic society.
Jim, these are not victories. The handling of the freeze on federal grants and loans was an unmitigated disaster. The suspension of foreign aid is another in the making. The summary dismissal of experienced prosecutors in the DoJ is another example. The bizarre email to federal staff offering them an inducement to resign yet another. With each decision he takes, Trump is effectively diminishing the competence of his own administration and this will lead to chaos. This is likely to continue until minds in Congress and the government begin to turn to the mid-term elections and that's when panic will set in. Trump has been bequeathed a sound economy by Biden, just as he has inherited his wealth from his father, and he will squander this advantage, just as he has squandered his inheritance over and over again with crazy schemes, like running casinos as non-profits.
I disagree with you about the funding freeze being a disaster. People all over the country pushed back against the funding freeze. They called, wrote their senators and representatives. I’m sure the switch board was overwhelmed. The people resisted and Trump backed down. I think that was a good start of resistance and a victory.
What you've described sounds to me like a disaster for the administration. Even more so after Karoline Leavitt's tweet. Jim was talking about victories for Trump.
Blame Biden is all they have to do. Rupert will magnify the lie on every TV in the land
If only Biden didn't give them the opening by lying about his health, immigration and Israel. He should have marketed the good economic policies better and not shut out Elon Musk they way he did. Trump is Biden's legacy.
Russel: I take your point(s) regarding the policy implications of Donald Trump’s actions but I disagree about what they represent. They may not be victories from the standpoint of policy but they are from the perspective of politics. Trump has always understood that there is a performance aspect to being president that people respond to and he’s good at filling that role. Whether he plays his part for good or ill is irrelevant. Behaving as he does establishes himself as a leader who gets things done. The American public loves simplicity. Donald Trump provides that. He gives voters simple, easy, explanations for why they are living in a world of shit and then demonstrates that he’s doing something about it. Moreover, when things go awry Trump never has to own it because the entire rightwing noise machine kicks into gear and blames it all on Joe Biden or DEI ( Trump is blaming todays air tragedy in D.C. on DEI). The sad thing is that Americans are so poorly educated, disengaged, or simply so hopelessly cruel, that they buy it. It may very well be that these bad decisions ultimately do him in. I certainly would like to see that outcome. My only hope is that it happens before it’s too late.
Of course, you're quite right, Jim. But what happens if the price of eggs isn't reduced? How long will people continue to accept his 'explanations' that it's always somebody else's fault. The other factor is that when you're in government shit happens - things that you haven't anticipated that can disrupt your agenda and which cannot be ignored. Last time with Trump it was the pandemic and his response was catastrophic - first outright denial, then trivialising the problem, then blaming the Chinese and even accusing healthcare workers of stealing masks to distract from his government's alarming lack of preparation, then peddling quack cures and conspiracy theories before finally taking credit for the development of vaccines. He's unable to cope with a crisis and this time he's surrounding himself with spectacularly unqualified lackeys. How can this possibly end well for him?
Russell:
Well said. Let us hope that none of this ends well for this waste of humanity and everyone who has enabled him. Let us also hope that when it does, it doesn’t create a vortex we all get sucked into.
You need to stop worrying about the Democrats and do something to support them. All your carping on the wrong people is the problem. A positive Democratic message makes a difference.
Acquiescence will doom Dems,
No matter how forceful Democrats may be or how effective the message, reaching people who don't pay attention or won't listen to truth may be insurmountable.
Meanwhile, the media is caving with the speed of the Hadron Collider. Meta/Zuckerberg forks over $25M to Tr-mp’s trumped up lawsuit over being banned from FB following Jan. 6. ABC/Disney hands over $15M+; Bezos and Soon-Shiong pull Harris endorsements and buy over-the-top inaugural balls. Now CBS is said to be contemplating offering a settlement in Tr-mp’s $10 Billion suit over “election interference” (cuz they interviewed Harris). Crypto lights up the web, dark and otherwise. Eric Adams and Menendez bark like circus seals hoping to be tossed a shiny little pardon fish.
While this carnival plays on, PrezMusk continues to infiltrate and twist the digital tendrils of the entire US govt. — demonstrating that he can summon each and every federal employee with a single, universal email blast. He can suck virtually any governmental website into a black hole from which no light can escape. It’s all a giant video game to him, with bragging rights for his cheating.
All the steps Dr. Richardson lays out as to how to RESIST are urgent and vital. So is developing a liberal democracy version of AI that can take its own digital gloves off for this fight. The media have largely surrendered to oligarchy. The rest of us have to carry on and there is no time to waste.
You have been paying attention
Step one: blind people with chaos while you neuter the free press. Step two: continue chaos how some ever so blindness continues as you rig the electoral system in less than two years to guarantee that you stay in power.
Lies, fantasy -- all ruling the Republicans today.
This where there is nothing personal in life. No history.
This is the message U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse delivers to his amnesiac colleagues – all the Republicans – in the U.S. Senate today:
Sen. Whitehouse condemns Republicans for their “Trump-servience” in Light of Trump’s Jan 6 Pardons
Jan. 6, 2021, however, was personal for them. They were then scared, offended at the Trump thugs endangering them all. Why have all the Republicans forgotten those feelings, lost that history?
Answer: billionaires profit at scrubbing out the personal, voiding history. Their social media algorithms steer the masses to hate, vitriol, sensationalism. Their standardized testing scrubs the personal, drops history so abstractions, categories, 1-2-3 linearity rule instead.
Good for historian Heather chopping at history’s tangled vines. Good for Sheldon Whitehouse who remembers the emotions of that day. Pity how elites pander to fantasy history, floating the fat orange felon’s criminality.
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" redux.
The worst part of the tech broligarchy at the inauguration was that they were standing under the statue of President Grant -- a man who broke one oligrachy and worked hard to advance the prospects of freed blacks.
The haven't forgotten, they have submitted.
Green helps people forget, algorithms make them proud of their ignorance
Karoline Leavitt is cut from the same dishonest cloth as Stephen Miller and other archpropagandists deployed by Trump, the main difference being she has the Fox anchor vibe originated by Roger Ailes.
Another liar
Sigh. The MAGAts I know would let Trump piss on their legs and believe him if he told them it was rain. They are beyond delusional.
The “brilliance” of Trump’s first 10 days, if you can call it that, is the flooding the zone with so many EOs, many outrageous, illegal and profoundly stupid, is that we cannot keep up with all of them and feel overwhelmed and exhausted. There are so many that we don’t know which ones to attack. This keeps our attention away from the profoundly incompetent cabinet nominees being questioned by the Senate . The first week feels like a year.
Pulled quote -
"Slashing the federal funding that supports ordinary Americans will make it easier to fund federal contracts and further tax cuts for the wealthy. With that tradeoff so visible in 2025, will “owning the Libs” still be worth it?"
It seems it will be hard to blame these cuts on Biden when Trump fucks up and has to rescind one of his Fascist memos.
The thing about a memo to Federal departments is that the memo itself doesn't break any laws. Only if the departments with hold funds authorized by Congress is a law broken.