Interviewed following the Senate OK to the billionaire bill, Dan Goldman said “empathy.”
The Republicans do not have it. Not an ounce. Not an iota.
They have money – from the U.S. billionaire classes. They have rhetoric, so they can play-act sympathy for the millions of Americans they are shafting.
But their priorities come from no novels, memoirs, travel books, histories, essay collections, or biographies. Because American schools long ago stopped teaching such literacy, humanity.
So we have instead a country ruled by the cynical, the humanly out of touch, the skilled in packaging, abstracting, commercializing. And non-stop lying.
It is as Jen Psaki said last night. The cruelty isn't just the point, it's the priority. It's what's critical. It's what counts. So much that ICE is going to get $175 billion should this pile of cruelty, financial incoherence and slop become law.
Think how many school lunches $175 billion could have bought. Think of how many rural health centers could be supported or how many nurse practitioners could be hired to work in underserved communities.
Think how many precision drones could have helped Ukraine defend its cities, apartment buildings, power stations, orphanages, from Putin's daily bout of murder and mayhem. Think of the lost investments in cybersecurity and true crime-fighting against terrorism here and abroad. Think of the Plumpy'Nut food paste packages that might have kept tens of thousands more children in East Africa from starvation, the lives saved because HIV medications were still available and distributed by USAID.
Then visualize his late-night made-for-trash-TV cage-fighting Alligator Alcatraz swamp and Kristi Noem in her $80,000 Rolex with those eyes like a bride of Dracula standing under the moonlight in a billowing nightie awaiting the Prince of Darkness.
And the irony is that Marco Rubio was on a bipartisan team that came up with several fixes to the immigration system only to be smacked down by the Republicans in the Senate. Every time the Democrats have tried to fix even a tiny part of the immigration system, the Republicans have sabotaged the results.
Rubio has sold his soul to the devil. Many people are going to die, and there is not one Republican who cares one bit. None of them will do anything to assist their constituents, who are among the millions who will starve or die of untreated sickness. This is what has landed on Americas shores, no longer the 'land of the free and the home of the brave'.
For a current Republican to stand up for our country and against those who are stealing our rights and freedoms and causing sufferings to our older citizens or to those who have extraordinary difficulties just living day by day, or for our special needs children, it will take extraordinary courage!
Bravo to Tom Tillis! I know he will be working for this country even if he remains a Republican OR maybe he will work to start a new political party.
Now I'm reading that the dems' position on defunding the police is returning to haunt them. It's like Sisyphus - they make some progress with a few of their outspoken members, only to be disappointed and damaged by a regrettable statement.
The remaining members of the GOP caucus who are offended by concentration camps or selling gaudy merch are hiding out, fearful of FOX News bias-casters and Kristi Noem and her dogs.
Allegator Alcatraz in in Rep. Mario Diaz Balart's district. He is one of 3 Cuban Amenrican House Republicans who have been protesting Trump immigration policy. We have a Democratic majority. Immigration is certainly not the only issue, but many Republicans here are conflicted.
E.G. Billionaire Miami healthcare CEO Michael “Mike” B. Fernandez wrote the following open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and members of the Republican Cuban-American Miami-Dade congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar.
For decades, I have stood with you in defense of the freedoms we cherish, those we were denied in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one. I know what it means to flee tyranny. Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart. But like a growing number in our community,
I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting president of the United States.
I wish there was something in that bill about a dress code. Is she a Cabinet Secretary or the hostess at the local line dancing bar? Did one of the dogs she didn’t shoot eat her weave?
And Trump….look respectable….weating a 10,000 suit and a baseball hat with makeup running down your face as you literally talk jibberish is embarrassing.
Remember the many who left during Trump's first "reign"? There were numerous men and women in the Republican Party who left to run for positions of leadership in other areas, or removed themselves from politics altogether.
Remember the mobster like threats? Nothing has changed.
An independent Republican is a rare find under this administration.
Remember, too, Emily, the international schools for thugs.
Putin and his oligarchs, Iran and its mullahs, Xi and his cadres, Hungary's Orban and India's Modi and their nationalists -- they've all spent fortunes to turn Republican Americans into fellow ideologues, hackers for autocracy.
And America? Has its schools been so stellar that it has been able to reciprocate with programs that students around the world learn to see "others" as individuals, as becomes any decent democracy?
Or has America for decades just let its testing billionaires expand their rackets-for-profits?
I wouldn’t hold my breath. Republicans have become past masters of ‘suggesting’ they have questions about Trump’s policies. Then they either cave to his threats or get parts of those policies altered to their benefit. Look how the BBB got twisted into a pretzel for Lisa Murkowski so she could resell her soul for Trump.
we have to follow Heather's and Hubble's suggestions and fight like hell, call your reps even if you know they are voting against the bill, Congress men and women tally these calls and use them in arguments with their Republican enablers of trump's cruelty. Also vote and if possible campaign for Dems running in 2025 November elections as in New Jersey and Virginia. Send a strong message about our opposition to Republican candidates.
"line up like little soldiers"....I fear you are correct BUT I continue to ask why? I don't wanna!!!!!!
Have we lost so much connection with one another?
Have we forgotten who we are, "The Land of the Free BECAUSE of the brave"?
We fight for our country Not because we are brave but because we love our crazy , wonderful, beautiful country and its population of amazing people.....and we remember the sacrifices of those (red and yellow, black, brown and white) who gave and who give themselves for this country.
If it is any thing what happened in the Senate, these peo0ple will be pressured, bribed, insulted to the enth degree. Ms Alaska took a bribe-her state wouldn't suffer the rages of Medicaid cutting and some other things. Boy is she ever stupid. Republicans do not honor their promises.
And in 2016, when Felon47 emerged as a contender for and then winner of the Oval Office, and I posted on FB rather obvious parallels between him and the Fascists of the 1930's in Europe and America, folks told me I was exaggerating, that there was no call for such extreme comparisons.
Well, I wonder what those folks think now? Is Felon47 lawless enough, angry to the point of incoherence enough, lusting after power enough, and cruel enough? And are his MAGA toadies falling in line enough? Are his MAGA Masked Street Thugs brown-shirted enough? Is up now down enough? Day now night enough? How toxic does he have to be, how deranged and dangerous?
Larry, it is my opinion, based on watching what my cohort of retired cops are spouting, they do not see the parallel in any way, shape, or form. Disgusting. Sad. Disappointing.
Your cohort has not been reading, studying, and teaching lessons on the Holocaust and the rise of fascism since the 1970's as I have. Nor have they (most likely) visited several of the death camps as I have, nor been guided through Auschwitz by a survivor who became my friend.
Larry, as the expression goes, "it's complicated." But keeping in mind that 85% of Trump/MAGA faithful are evangelicals, their view of the comparison of Hitler vs. Trump is this: "Hitler was bad because he was persecuting the Jews, who were good*. Whereas, Trump is good because he's ridding the nation of brown people, who are bad."
*"Okay, Jews aren't really good because they refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, but the Bible says we have to be nice to them or God will punish us."
To Hitler, Jews were, at first, undesirable, then racially tainted, then not worthy of citizenship, then not human (vermin), then not worthy of life itself. Trump demeans brown people, "Mexican rapists," Spanish-speakers (as does Stephen Miller), non-whites generally. The South African Boers, however, were white though not persecuted, not experiencing genocide, not asylum seekers) and therefore were whisked into America and on a path to citizenship. It's not that complicated. Trump's daddy was a bigot and discriminated against Black people. Trump falsely exaggerates the criminality of brown immigrants, undocumented or documented, vetted or not vetted. He accuses them generally as gang members and murderers--in his eyes they are guilty regardless of their citizenship status.
As I had said earlier when he was elected, in order to save America we had to destroy it. By this i insinuated that the good generals, the General Milly types, had to temporarily take over the government declare martial law and prevent Trump thugs from taking office. It’s counterintuitive I get it. But that was the only hope. No one believed me. We are now at the gates of totalitarianism. It’s here. All my life I editorialized against gun ownership. Now I’m all but certain that the most lethal of weaponry will be necessary to defend myself. I was chatting with Capital police in my home state at our recent rally and I asked if they would stop hooded thugs of ICE and he told me no because it’s federal. So we cannot depend on state guards to protect us. I wrote a satire 6 years ago about such a revolt against democracy titled, “Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution.” It’s come to pass.
Likely they will follow orders as they always do. But there were traditional higher rank officers that took the oath verbatim but they are being replaced from the top on down. This is a well known playbook. We think it can’t happen here. We arise in the morning. Go take a crap brush our teeth have coffee. Go shopping as usual. Say hello to the familiar faces. But something is different. So as you leave Costco happy with Al, those discounts a quality products you just bought, you drive down a street and something looks strange. A woman is being dragged by armed masked thugs to a waiting truck. Hum… I wonder what that was about. Well, it’s not me so I’m not concerned. And you return home to prepare a home made pizza to eat with the family but somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder, “I wonder why that woman was being dragged in hand ties to a waiting vehicle. Hum… We’ll, she probably did something real bad. Honey would you pass me the parmesan cheese?”
Oh a side bar: I would rather go down fighting knowing I took a few with me. You know Patrick He ry suddenly comes to mind. “Give me liberty of give me death.” Death isn’t to be feared. Acceptance to dictatorship is.
Here is my short story. It's a bit lengthy and taken from my book, "Donald's Vanity Tantrums."
Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution
Short story satire)
Bill Katz
Feb 05, 2024
Fred Jackson was a proud rebel in The Great Northern Militia Alliance. He and his wife Ruth were often found hosting summer neighborhood barbecues. They easily found new supporters for the coming war to take back America. Fred stationed himself at the pit and handed out chicken legs drenched in homemade sauce to new, unsuspecting recruits -- kinda like a politician on election-day would do; promising a chicken in every pot. Talk of big government, guns and revolt would come later.
Fred and his cohorts believed themselves to be the direct Anglo-Saxon descendants of America's 18th century rabble-rousers who tossed bales of tea into Boston harbor after news of the British Stamp Act reached these shores. But tea-toddlers, they weren’t.
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He was proud of his new-found abilities to recruit and had recently been promoted by the Alliance to the rank of sergeant of his own local militia. Wasting no time consolidating resources, Fred collected everything from boxes of canned food to crates of assault weapons. All were discreetly stored away in basements and underground bunkers in his local neighborhood.
Strategic plans were soon under way as this historic moment arrived, the moment to take back America. A secret, unnamed Northern Alliance militia representative from high up the chain of command visited one evening to give a short pep talk to the men and their wives in the basement of Jackson's home.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mysterious commander said, “the time has come to act. We must stop the tyranny and treasonous actions of our government. Today we take action. We will starve the beast into submission. We will bring the entire nation to a screeching halt by whatever means are necessary. And we will unsteal the election. You know who I’m talking about; the great populist himself, codenamed, “PinkFatso.””
“Yep”… they screamed in unison, “save our leader, PinkFatso.”
He jabbered on like this awhile longer and then said something about how it was one's duty to avoid payment of taxes like they did in the Boston revolt.
A rebel in the audience was overheard mumbling that “maybe them damned liberals wouldn't be so bad if we could just shoot a few” as he cleaned and oiled his weapon. After the rousing speech ended, the mysterious speaker made way out of Fred's hatchway as quickly as he had arrived and was driven off into the night before anyone could ask questions.
The next day, Fred called for another drill. The basement was a good place to train without attracting attention. His supportive wife listened from upstairs as she tapped her foot to the muffled sounds of her husband's marching orders.
During the drill, Fred's wife heard her husband cry,
"Oh no, not again. I told you not to march forward in the cellar."
"Ruthy honey," Fred yelled from the basement, "Billy bumped into the wall again and now has a nose bleed. Quick, get me an ice pack."
One thing that should be noted about the division of labor between the men folk and their women; it was written in the Northern Militia Alliance's “Code of Conduct” that men would do the fighting and the women would play supportive roles – just like in the olden days of the founders. Their women were as important as Betsy Ross – who is thought to have sewn the first flag – was to the cause of revolt.
The country of Fred's birth was no longer recognizable to him. Waves of foreigners had migrated across the unprotected southern frontier. His leader had often spoken of building a really high wall to keep out the hordes. The government, Fred believed, was overrun with big-spending liberals and nanny-state socialists. Fred even thought that his own past president of the United States was born in another country.
“He wasn’t born here. You know he owes his allegiance to the United Nations,” cried Fred.
Encrypted communiques were now being sent and received with increasing frequency throughout the “Alliance.” The days of waiting had drawn to a close.
And so it came to pass. The militia teams began assembling. They gathered along every mountain pass and byway. They took positions beside bridges and waterways. Fred's platoon prepared to assault its assigned mountain. This really was only a big hill but these rebels had a tendency to magnify everything around them including the importance of they’re mission. Their watches were synchronized.
Sergeant Jackson finally gave the order to charge.
“CHARRRRRRGE!” he screamed.
The men began their long, wild, rickety-split charge to the top of the assigned hill. Fred held his assault rifle in the air with one hand, and with the other grabbed his pants before they slipped down below his protruding belly – an unfortunate victim of too many beer-drinking strategy sessions.
Well they whooped and hollered for so long that soon most of the militia troops were out of breath. By the time they reached the summit, the Sergeant could be heard cussing' (at no one in particular.) He wondered if he had rushed up the wrong hill. His GPS repeated, “recalculating... recalculating...” His phone vibrated on his belt and he quickly grabbed it and listened intently.
His head turned slowly downward as he stared at his mud-caked boots. His heart was pounding. He was breathing fast.
“Yes sir, I see. But when are we...? Win the hearts and minds, first? But...OK, I’ll inform the men.”
The sergeant ordered roll call and sadly told his men that not only did they seize the wrong hill, but the unseen generals had decreed that this was only a drill. The real revolution was yet to come but now, without the element of surprise. Dejected, they began to hobble down the green hill.
Then suddenly, Sergeant Jackson received another message. This time, he could hardly contain himself. Something new had just happened and word was spreading like wildfire. His fingers quivered as he responded:
“I’ll tell the men right away.” The Sergeant rallied the now exhausted rag-tag men around him and excitedly yelled,
“All hands to Burns, Oregon. The government is assaulting some ranchers. The Bunkerville boys from Nevada are leading the counter assault. I'll be driving out at first light if anyone needs a ride.”
Fred finally made it home in his Ford pick-up truck while still sweating from the long charge. His dear sweet Ruthy waited at the half-opened door as dusk settled in.
“Come in my hero. I made your favorite hot soup for you.”
Fred stumbled in and sat at their kitchen table and slurped down the refreshing food. He then went straight to bed without explaining anything to his worried wife about the disappointing details of the false deployment.
Fred dreamed about the new revolution soon to sweep the land of his birth – the land he hardly recognized any more. And he dreamed that his name would one day be enshrined 100 years from now, along the nearby interstate highway where he lived. The sign would read: “The Sergeant Fred Jackson Expressway: Named for a Patriot of The Second American Revolution Who Stood His Ground and Helped Take Back America.”
Then Fred farted and repositioned his head on the pillow as he slept like a baby all night long.
Immigrants are the "other" required to rally people to all sorts of heinous acts against other human beings. We are not immune to the horrors of mass killings and detention of the "other." We ARE Rwanda, we ARE Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Armenia, Cambodia.
Because racism and anti-immigrant screens have always been a winning issue for the GOP, because we are a nation of racists. We are a fear-filled, craven bunch of sick, hateful humanity.
1. Calling someone "babe" is condescending and diminishes the intended nobility of your statement.
2. Whether you like it or not, the rest of the world has a negative view of US right now. They do not make the distinction between hateful Americans and those of us who oppose inhumanity to our neighbors.
Around the world, there are Russians, Hungarians, Filipinos, North Koreans and citizens of many more dictatorships who are not monsters. But their leaders are.
To the rest of the world, WE are pariahs. WE cannot change that perception until WE change our leadership, and make that change permanent.
I thought Gayle was making reference to a Dylan lyric and took no condescending or diminishing intent toward the user with the "bitchbitcybitchy" handle.
Can we please stop playing into every argument the other side makes about us. We aren't snowflakes, we can oppose what's happening and still crack a joke or reference a song without hurting everyone's feelings. I would think most anyone reading "Letters" would be somewhat familiar with Dylan.
I also agree with Dale that the rest of the world does have a negative view of the US and that includes all of us that call this place home. HBR put out a management tip today basically encouraging companies to not support international business travel or if you do to be VERY careful.
Someone on here talked about the US being a marketing driven country and how some phrases that sound good at one point in time, bite people later. Like it or not we have to play the game and not run straight into their hands.
Dale, you misunderstand the use of "babe" in this context. I agree fully with your comments, but please don't get your knickers in a twist over a colloquialism. :-)
Rubio was chosen because he is weak, shows no backbone. He is truly pathetic.
There are two ways to get ahead showing backbone and integrity OR being weak and caving. Once the majority are swimming in a direction, outrageously cruel as it is, the weak cannot stand up to it; they are helpless. Murkowski is another example, pathetic. Her vote mattered a lot.
Trump is the pied piper of Evil getting a perverse charge out of cruelty, retribution and revenge, lawlessness using his power just augmented by the SCOTUS.
Too many of them reap the benefits of the a broken immigration system which lends itself to multiple abuses and exploitation of workers, so they or their donors can become rich. And of course, they have all those personal servants who i bet, will not be grabbed off the streets.
Public executions, on some sort of pay-per-view media, are next and about half the country will tune in. Bars will host watch parties for the bloodthirsty. They’ll even feature cocktails with “cute” names. Professor Richardson’s posts have become increasingly dark as events have unfolded, but I suspect the worst is yet to come. Our Democracy is on life support, but it isn’t Dying in Darkness. It’s being assaulted in broad daylight, thanks to people like Bezos, who put private gain before patriotism.
Bezos hasn't a clue what patriotism even means. The only things rattling around in his head are dollar signs. the only thing he is feeling is a self-satisfied ego trip over his splashy/trashy wedding to his new arm candy (evidently he prefers a plasticized bot to a real human woman).
You know women are always being held accountable for not presenting the right look - HOWEVER - you are correct about her. Everything about her face says - I don't know - surgery? And her waistline was exaggeratingly thin. I guess gorgeous is in the eyes of the beholder. I'm not fond of the beholder, either....
During recent administrations, we got only occasional snapshots of detainees in cages, because those unpleasant scenes risked causing public backlash against the practice. However, a sufficient portion of the American public has been radicalized, such that I expect Fox Entertainment to return often to the detention center in the Everglades, where they will amuse their viewers with scenes of brown prisoners languishing in misery. Jesse Watters will crack jokes nonstop as the camera pans across the cages.
They already have bare-knuckle boxing. For some reason, even the most self-proclaimed Christian men love watching it. Sick, greedy, power hungry caucasian men.
Way back, talk show host Phil Donahue tried to get a prison execution televised. He thought, if people saw how painful, cruel, and abhorrent a lethal injection was, they’d urge the end of capital punishment. He was barred from airing the segment because prison officials worried that it would rile up the inmates. Now, in our increasingly sick country, an execution is mere profit-making entertainment. I won’t be the least surprised if Trump erects big screens on the White House lawn so invited guests can enjoy the spectacle. After all, the Romans had the Colosseum.
Well.. regression to a primitive time and place and practice are the thoughts and actions of a fertile mind - one full of manure and bull shit, which will continue to grow more heinous and inhumane.
How much research could Musk have funded with the money he poured into the Trump campaign. It never even occurs to them to do something good with their money.
The ketamine might get him. “Common side effects of ketamine include dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, and hallucinations. More serious effects can include increased blood pressure, liver damage, and cognitive impairment, especially with long-term use or high doses.”—NIH.
Reminds me of Steve Jobs and his hubris. Foregoing traditional medicine for 9 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Finally I guess admitting that being able to program a computer doesn’t automatically qualify you as genius for every jib on the planet, including doctor.
And then after the delay and it spears to his liver, he got a transplant that of course was junk after less than 2 years. Should that have gone to someone else who wasn’t a billionaire but had a better prognosis and a belief in actual medicine?
I don’t believe for a second Tumo writes his Lie Anti social posts except the ones that sound like your five year old got a hold of the phone.
“Bomb Iran. I like trucks. ILIKE TRUCKS THAT GO VROOM. MUSK CAN GO TO SOUTH AFRICA AND DO DOOTY. DID YOU KNOW THAT ALLIGATORS HAVE TEETH. I DONT LIKE ALLIGATORS. OR SHARKS. WHEN I SHAMK MY BALL IN THE TALL GRASS, I MADE MY CADDIE GET IT AND THEN THROW IT AS FAR AS HE CAN IN YHE FAIRWAY. I WIN YOURNAMENTS, ALL THE BEST ONES. IF YOU DONT COME TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY TILLIS IM GOING TO TELL EVERYONE YOU DID NIMBER TWO IN YOUR o PANTS.” Thank you for your attention in this matter!
I do think Kristi Noem seems hell-bent on securing her special place in history. She seems to get off on cruelty, especially when the cruelty is directed at hispanic laborers, whether father of US Marines or not (as recently happened in California). As far as I can see, cruelty is a feature, not a flaw.
But why bother with all of that when there’s... merch?
The Republican Party is selling Alligator Alcatraz gear — t-shirts and hats — in black and camo. Yes, Florida now has a detention camp with merch. Totally normal. The gear, as offensive as it is, isn’t the point, though. It’s a sideshow.
The real focus should be on the callousness of our elected leaders as they joke and jest their way toward imprisoning people in a tent city in the Everglades. The country’s mass deportations are continuing, and they’re doing it our name. This is a moment of terrible seriousness, not a time for one-liners at the expense of human beings.
How can a woman with her kids at an immigration office for her scheduled checkin be an illegal alien? Men in black are grabbing people off the streets. Why don’t we hear about that like we heard about THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS. THEY’RE EATING THE CATS.
As J.D. Vance says it’s all minutiae. He didn’t think his lies about Springfield were minutiae but he sure thinks millions of people in this country starving are inconsequential. If you think we had a homeless problem before it will multiply and Republicans know it’s so awful for them they won’t implement it until after the mid-terms.
I just read the article; thank you for posting. (Really - Trump and DeSantis should be writing comic strips. They're missing their calling.) There are no benefit or values to their ideas. (Vocabulary words which never enter their personal lexicon anyway.) And the system created by Trump et al exacerbates their bad behavior. Well, the maga folks gave power to these people; I hope they blame themselves for supporting this power.
As someone who has visited FL many times, I know how the insects love to bite any & everyone. So, unless the 'guards' get fumigated, they risk the same diseases the prisoners will face if housed in tents. Temperature anyone? They'll be scraping prisoners off the hot cement & pavement.
And dogs. The most heavenly creatures on Earth. She fails to train them effectively and then when they don’t behave the way she wants them to, she kills them.
Here is the math. There are approx 50 million K-12 students in the US today. Assume breakfast and lunch at school cost $5 each (that is probably VERY high but let's go with that). There are approximately 200 school days per year.
50,000,000
x $10
x 200
= $100,000,000,000
One hundred billion dollars.
So the money allocated to ICE would pay for EVERY K-12 student in the US getting a $5 breakfast and lunch for every school day of the year. And there would still be $75 billion left over.
Well said. Personally, I honestly do not believe that the $50 billion earmarked for Trump’s big beautiful Wall, is going to build a Wall?
It’s a slush fund for Trump’s other priorities; building a personal Gestapo or Brown and Black shirts, to use for all his nefarious purposes; revenge and retribution.
Additionally, I’d also posit that the people they are hiring for ICE, are members of right-wing militias, hell bent on causing as much pain as possible for any undocumented, or anyone deemed hostile to Trump’s policies. These people are not being vetted properly; if at all!
And ironically, Trump is refusing to release more than $7 billion in funds Congress allocated for summer after school programs for at risk kids. Why? Because cruelty is the point, and is their mission.
So much for being the party that’s saving all our kids; although from what, I have no idea. That said, a good start would be to protect them from MAGA.
As for IceCube Barbi and the Trump “Alligator Alcatraz” Grift? Another fleecing of America to reward some of his biggest supporters; CoreCivic and GEO Group. Within two years we will have more people incarcerated for immigration misdemeanor’s, than we will have in our entire correctional system for violent felonies. Let that sink in (Police State)!
All this at a time when USAID is dead, our high education system in chaos, our scientific Crown Jewels (NIH and CDC) are on life support, and Trump and his cronies are about to kick 14 million off of healthcare, and millions more off of SNAP.
That said, many experts say there is no method to this madness; however, I disagree. This is exactly how to destroy democracy from within. Weaken all institutions, consolidate power, use the federal enforcement agencies as a personal cudgel, and build an invisible army of masked men in unmarked cars picking innocent bystanders off the street.
Creating fear and chaos is the goal, and keeping America paralyzed by fear, as well as in a state of constant confusion is how to keep the rest of us distracted from the truth; we may be closer to fascism than we think! IMHO..:)
The most telling part of the ICE budget is the LACK of funds for courts and judges. The goal to be detain with ZERO due process. And the numbers don’t line up. There aren’t enough immigrants to justify this amount. It will be turned on US citizens with improper avenues to receive due process.
Agreed, it’s deliberate. GEO Group and CoreCivic are two of Trump’s and the GOP’s biggest supporters. It’s their reward! In two years we will have more immigrants locked in internment camps for misdemeanors, than all of the convicted felons incarcerated in our state and federal prisons (1.8 million).
Trump intends to deport 15-20 million, most of whom will be detained for months before being deported. Let that sink in!
It will be interesting to see how many in Trumo world are invested in those companies.
How often they use insider trading to benefit themselves off of people’s misery. For the horrific crime of wanting a better oife and working their tail off, their actual body will be used for profit. Incarcerated and used as a tool to make money off holding them captive for a misdemeanor, doing a job nobody wanted, correct
Y following the rules to check in with the authorities and then snatched and warehoused with no due process or freedom and paid for by unsuspecting tax payers who would cringe if they woke up to the facts of where their money is going and who is profiting.
I can’t imagine the average tax payer would like to see their money taken from feeding a child with a single mother waitressing to make ends meet to hand over to Betsy DeBos vast portfolio to hold a guy who worked picking strawberries and did the right thing and showed up for a court hearing only to be snatched and held captive in alligator Alcatraz. That is our money using human beings to make a profit that will go to filthy rich shareholders in these private prisons.mi personally don’t want to contribute a nickel of my money to be redirected to the billionaire cabinet members and have that blood of some guys feeedom on my hands. Can’t imagine many Americans would.
Because that is what this is all about….the very few sucking up every tax dollar they can any way they can. Private insurers instead of Medicaid. Goes to the shareholders but will still be paid by us. Private retirement instead of social security…still paid by us. Private schools instead of public…still paid by us. All profits going to wealthy shareholders of these private companies. And all the losses dumped on us. And we’ll pay for that too.
And, just where exactly does he think he can send all of them? There is not enough spaces in the world &, at some point, other countries will refuse to take any more 'illegals' from the US.
Your opinion is very correct Robert. Unless a lot of reversals are forced on the admin soo, it won't take long to see the effects of the cuts to food & medical care. As I've said before, who are they going to get to pick up the dead bodies.
Apparently there’s no limit on the amount of money for building prisons and deporting people. But funds for feeding children are so limited that millions will go hungry at lunchtime.
And how long before their cruelty leads them to force the detainees to “ work for their detention” in labor camps awaiting deportation! Trump brings out the worst in people—or maybe their true nature. It’s getting more difficult to know who to trust anymore.
I remember during visits, seeing & watching the chain gangs in WV working on the roads & such. In the Heat. In the humidity. With the biting bugs. As a child, I was completely horrified!
Probably, their plan all along...force them to work the fields without pay. Make them slaves in America and abroad. This is gut-wrenching. America has no values.
It's so sad to realize that this makes sense in a sick kind of way, to get the economy to work without immigrant labor. But what kind of energy will be going into our food when it's being planted and picked with the horrible darkness of resentment rather than the light of hope for a better life? Unfortunately, the minds of the current reptilian leaders are incapable of experiencing this level of consciousness.
I bet those detainees would rather be working instead of locked up in cages in hot tents all day. They said hot meals 24/7. I’m guessing that’s for the staff. We’ve seen the crap they feed detainees, not allowed to change underwear for 10 days, no diapers or sanitary products. No chance at decent hygiene so disease will run rampant while they’re declaring they are teeming with disease when they grab them off the street.
You think WaPo will pray it? Or 60 minutes will do in depth analysis and reporting?
Those days are over. But hey…we always have Venice. The wardrobe changes, the longing for privacy in a place that literally gave us the word pappparazzi.
Where’s Melania? Eleanor Roosevelt was her husbands legs diving into coal mines. Jill Biden was by the side of Biden when he was ailing. Shouldn’t she be Trumps brain now that he’s lost his mind? Oh, that’s right. The checks have cleared, her anchor baby is firmly in position. Her work is done.
You don't have to be wealthy to have your tax cuts extended by this bill. All those who pay income taxes (50% of all of us) will have our current tax rates maintained, rather than increased. Dems had a chance to support Sen. Collins' amendment to put top rate for wealthy back at 39.6%. Only 4 Dems voted in favor of that.
Maybe because they knew it would never pass. A damn good idea from Senator Collin’s. . The senate wanted to change the corporate rate to 28% from 21%, still less than the existing 35% and would go a long way to saving health care. Repubs would not do it.
Watch today’s Maxwell Frost interview with Jen Psaki. The Dems in Congress have big plans😎🙏🏻
That’s a relief! We have to make sure it stays out. Thanks for the quick reply. It’s bad enough to find out there are chain gangs in Florida without thinking what would happen if he can’t be held in contempt. What the hell is wrong with these magats , especially the supposedly religious ones.
I forgot how it got taken out. I think it was already out before the Parliamentarian ruled, but she might have been the one who overruled that grotesque bit of performance worship of Donald Trump's behind. Nothing to do with budget reconciliation.
And those clean energy cuts are going to be devastating to labor.
Does the tip exemption apply to “gratuities” , formerly known as bribes to public officials Kavannaugh talked about? So now Clarence can start spending all the “tips” Crowe and Leo left on his dresser as non taxable earned tip income.
Great way to measure and spell out the cruelty of an incredibly narcissistic President Donald Trump. He betrays those who voted for him in rural communities and whose children are in schools. No wonder he said he loves the undereducated.
Sadly yes. Maybe you heard what Chris Murphy said — the Reps have given up on democracy — they only believe in strong man ( literally) power now. Shame on them.
The lying, the never-ending lying along with an uneducated base that believes all the lies. Because an orange clown-bully toddler was once on tv, they believe his lies, his hateful, racist, misogynistic lies; his greedy, narcissistic lies; they grovel at the feet of their false idol, all in the name of white christian nationalism. I am losing hope that there is any way to stop the sinking of trump’s America.
I agree Gwen. Plus the Republican Party voted in the worst, most inexperienced, most unqualified presidential cabinet ever. All loyalists who will follow the ever increasing SFB mentally and morally incompetent felon.
Beyond that, fake justice. Trump said Tuesday he would approve Florida’s plan to expedite deportations by having qualified National Guard members work as immigration judges.
Correct. It is a struggle that is worth it and we owe it to those who came before us to protect our freedom. We must protect it for now and the future.
Elizabeth, I and others are beginning to understand on a gut level how the civil rights marchers must have felt when all their protests seemed to have no effect against the hatred they saw daily. But the polls show that the Overton window (what is acceptable to the US public) of treating immigrants as vermin (much like blacks in the 1960’s) is shifting as people see the humanity of the people being rounded up. We need to keep telling the stories of the good people trying who are snatched out of their gardens and out of the courthouses as they obey the laws.
It’s true that the last election was far from free and fair due to the gerrymandering. That’s why local change is so important now, before the next election. Remember the fake electors!! That was a real thing and Colorado was right to try to keep Don-old-grump off the ballot.
Not really. They are focused on the immediate gain, not the long-term one. Out of fear, they voted to pass the bill. What happens next week or next month is beyond their rationality.
And they will pay at the ballot by es. Americans now understand what is happening to the Nation under Trump's MAGA. The Resistance is rising. The People rule.
They are in investing their political futures in a loser and narcissist who uses people and then throws them under the bus. We can count the bodies. Where is Rudy Giuliani today? Once the trusted and respected Chief Prosecutor in the highly respected Second Judicial District of New York who broke the back of the Mafia and as Mayor of New York, cleaned up the City's criminal environment, restoring it to safety and its life for residents and visitors. Whoever gets entwined in Trump's death grip, gets crushed.
Totally agree. I have worked with Hispanic immigrants in a parish setting and with persons working to help them through Pres. Reagan's Amnesty Program in 1986, attending English as a Second Language classes. They The great majority were kind, honest, hard-working, deeply devoted to family, respectful, law-abiding, had a deep Faith and Hope in God, taught their children to respect teachers and older adults, cared for the elderly, helped their neighbors, and believed in community. Donald Trump and his MAGA minions and Stephen Miller lie shamelessly and defame these good people who have more kindness and honesty than Trump and Miller together. One day, they will be held accountable to a Higher Power who has said, "Whatever you do to the least of these my Little ones you do to Me.". The Republicans' injustices to these good and loving people will be judged by the Lord Who is Love and does justice for the poor.
Until Faux News is shut down, the misinformation stream will not end. Those whose eyes are glued to the TV, watching and listening to the lies, will never know the damage that’s being done, until it happens to them. But they will already know who to blame: Democrats, immigrants and transgender people. That’s the setup.
Adam Kinzinger interviewed the man who started a movement to help people leave MAGA (leavingmaga.org). He said he had no idea of what else was happening in the country other what Fox reported until he started looking beyond it.
MLMinET: Thank you for the video on Leaving MAGA. It is very helpful. And thanks to Adam Kinzinger for doing this work, too.
It is hard to grasp that offering actual data to a MAGA supporter (i.e., offering what is normally called "facts") is not a useful tool. I am just going to have to believe the advice that facts are not the route to take.
I had grown tired of the admonition to try to "understand" them, but there doesn't seem to be another path. The fact is, I can't understand them. I can't understand the vote on the budget bill that is going to decimate so many lives or the Alligator Alcatraz or the ruination of Earth by stopping climate work. It's unbelievable.
So the job before us is to take a hard road, accept that we don't understand where this is coming from (despite our explanations for MAGA, it is not really understandable), and work on finding our way through the antagonism to the core needs of others. Their needs may be mine, as well... say, for instance, the need for love.
MLMinET...but let's be clear. No one makes anyone watch or listen to right-wing media. They choose to (at least initially) because what is being said resonates with them. It makes them feel good and feel right. Then once hooked it's brainwashing. I watched Adam's interview with Rich Logis too. He felt like he was in a community (his people) and it felt good. Read the testimonials under They Left MAGA. I havent gotten through them all, but I will. The spell seems to break once they get away from the right wing garbage.
That was an interesting broadcast. It reinforced every feeling I have about Fox News and other, even worse outlets. It's not "news" they're watching, it's a platform for indoctrinating fear and everything that goes with it. But how to get them to switch off the channel and start reading?
It's Come ... there is a massive segment of the U.S. population who are not going to read anything. As I've recently noted, I must be aware of this in my daily work. These non-readers offer many excuses for not reading, chief of which is "they don't have time." Indeed, reading requires undivided attention and as much time as the reader's aptitude enables.
By contrast, electronic media allow for "multitasking," even if that is eating one's dinner in front of the TV.
The only solution, as I see it, is to offer truthful content on electronic media that looks and feels like the untruthful media Americans are comfortable with. It's a solution not unlike Gabbard's idea of making intelligence reports look like Fox Entertainment's broadcasts for the minimally literate president.
You are, probably in more ways than your preference for reading. 😊 I'm in your tribe. I get so frustrated with Substackers who link me to their videos rather than providing a transcript. I can read faster than listening to people exchanging pleasantries, clearing their throats and umming their way through a dialogue.
All sentient beings are hurting along with you over this administration’s abuses and excesses. Please don’t lose hope, this is when we need you the most. And remember it’s always darkest just before dawn and a new day is coming. The cruelty will end. Work hard, love much.
Gwen, my hope is completely gone. I get exactly what you're saying. At this point, my 71 year old body is just waiting for the end to come. As a stroke survivor, I know that I am considered a taker by the magat crowd. Life really sucks right now...
I am re-reading 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury. Written seventy-two years ago, the ^book^ accurately foresees the cultural trends, societal violence, dumbing down of students.
All those science fiction books and movies actually portend the future, if we pay attention. Think of of mind control. It’s way beyond robots. We’re talking AI that takes 1984 into a new realm. And surely you’ve noticed it’s EVERYWHERE now, correcting words we type, requiring us to proofread everything carefully. Suggesting things to us from emails we write and ads we scan with our eyes. Show me your papers. Prove you are who you say you are. We have already stepped over some of these lines. Some of us were lead, most of us were pushed.
One of my doctors asked me if he could record our meeting with an AI app. I said no to that and followed up with a letter saying that I want it noted on my chart that I have opted out of their new system. Somebody from the office called me back and said they can’t do that. I have to opt out every time I’m there!
Good for you. I refuse to use our EMR's AI recording of visits. The recording goes "to the cloud" somewhere, and we are assured it is deleted after 7 days, no one else can access it during that time, blah, blah. Not believing it. Some of my colleagues are drinking the AI Kool Aid. Not me. Not taking any chance that my patients' privacy could be violated.
EDIT P.S., Jan D., I have only come recently to appreciate the value of well-written science fiction as a critique of current society and where it is headed. Thank you.
There are elements of 'Fahrenheit-451' that echo parts of '1984'. One is presenting one side of the story only to stymie debate; remind me of flooding the zone and monopolizing public discourse after the Citizens Benighted decision. Another is the rise of data dinks stuffing people's heads with quantified ephemera with utility without value..
I worry about Soylent Green! Although I do have to admit, when he decided to pack it in, that was a beautiful way to die. And thumprints to get into programs, and facial recognition, and when we were caring for our elderly parents, for some reason we began to get all kinds of ads for Depends and walkers. Now I get ads from crematoriums. (Unfortunately, that is beginning to make more and more sense!)
Ned...have you read Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents? Written in 1993 and 1998, respectively.
The plot: "Beginning in 2024, when society in the United States has grown unstable due to climate change, growing wealth inequality, and corporate greed,..."
Well if it makes you feel a little better, the pinnacle of my Sox fandom was 20 years ago. I hang on to the name because it was the Twitter handle I picked in 2009. I can’t believe that was 16 years ago!
Hey, I am from Pittsburgh. The Pirates have not won a pennant since 1979. No sympathy from me, pal. 😉
Seriously, my great Aunt Auga was a B.I.C. (Boston Irish Catholic). She was devout and suffering from extreme arthritis back in the late 1960s. Just before she died, Great Aunt Auga came to Pittsburgh to visit my Aunt and Dad. I spent some time with her. 😇
The fingers of my great aunt were doubled back in pain. She showed a grace, however, remaining up-beat. One source of her exemplary stoicism? The BoSox in general and 'Yaz' in particular. So, I have felt indebted to the RedSox for bringing happiness to a suffering older woman. 💛
Truly, I was very happy to see Boston win the World Series in 2004. And I am one of the few outside of New England who did not envy the Patriots, 🥳
I keep hoping against hope that what we are seeing is the last gasp of greed and desecration of what a human community is supposed to be. I am losing heart.
Ordered both books; many thanks, M. K. 🤝🏻 It will likely be a while before I get to them. 🤭 Too many books and too little time,🫨 even for a speed-reader like me (i.e., two hundred, eleven words per minute😉).
I am looking up the books now. The blurb on the 'Parable of the Sower' reminds me of 'The Secret Life of Bees' in a young heroine being sensitized to injustice around her that others take for granted. Projecting that into a tormenting future sounds intriguing, if depressing. Thank you for the recommendation, M. K.
EDIT P.S., M. K., I will order the book, but first I am reading 'The Feast of the Goat' by Mario Vargas Llosa, recommend by a mind for bigger than mine. Apparently the novel goes to the structure of authoritarianism.
Right there with you, Bobbie. Hard for me to admit now that, at times, I thought the same way forty years ago. Then others would remind me that, if I desired even a granule of wisdom, I had better listen to my elders, 'successes' and 'failures' alike.
Seems I had a lot of growing up to do; still growing up. I know when I will get there: when my organs are donated and my dust scattered. As I quote my long-gone father, "I had a late puberty like the ape." An absurd statement that makes all the sense in the world to me.
Ned, my dad wasn't always the easiest guy to get along with, but sometimes he was so profound, he would blow my mind. He said once to me, “Bobbie, I know a lot of good shit. All of which I didn't know at one time.” We're all dinosaurs. We're loaded with knowledge and experience. When we go, that's it. Sadly, I guess we're expendable.
George Takei was actor for the original crew of this series. As a boy, 25 years earlier, he and his family were among the 110,000 Japanese-Americans evicted from their homes and sent to camps in fear Americans had regarding them then.
"They Called Us Enemy" is the name of the manga novel he did on this.
They have no empathy because they were not taught it by their elders. And statistically .2 to 3.3% of the population are sociopaths. The are in the White House, the Republican Congress and the MAGA movement.. The Balinese culture here is not a reading culture, no travel books, novels, memoires, essays and they still have empathy and humanity.
There's a fair chance that all of us have known at least one. I think I know who they were in my lifetime. I still have a few knives in my back. They don't seem to go away.
Right on, Wendy. Just above your comment is an exchange between Bobby Pitkin and me about that subject. Being flawed, I am very grateful today that I had parents who drummed respect for elders -- one through discipline and the other through example.
The ethic grew with the practice. I could never delight too much in others mocking older people -- even those whom I disliked (e.g., President Nixon). Perhaps that enforced respect for older people, not always felt or expressed to be sure, planted a seed of empathy, a seed requiring constant watering even today.
Hello Dutch Mike... I worked in Tech for a long time though I was Educated in Humanities, as well as STEM... I was Professional Military as Well... That is a People Business... Many Techies are NERDS... They are on the Autism Spectrum... Big Tech, and Wall Street are running the Country... They are Notoriously Materialistic...
My first ‘career job’ was at a family manufacturing company. For 50 years we created value. We took raw materials and built product that was worth substantially more than the inputs.
Not to long ago I was talking to some high school students and I talked about the idea of ‘Value added production’ and all I saw were blank stares.
We have become a transactional economy where rents are taken, but precious little is created.
And all they do of any value is move piles of money from one pile to another... Money and power. At the top of the heap they are "Hoovering up" what is left of any legacy of the baby boom generation. They weren't satisfied making those greatest fortunes off of them; Now they want what's left. Where is the 'Soylent Green' machine for us walk into ? Maybe the next build in south Florida.
Thanks D4N... The 'Social Apps' have destroyed the Social Glue, and Social Contract... Wall Street has also destroyed much of the Foundations of the Economy... The USA cannot stand by itself economically anymore... This goes way beyond Simplistic DJT's Hallucinations... Corbin Trent had an Excellent Substack Post about this Today...
Apache, your words often shake me into a taller alertness that's energizing. Since your poem a while back, I noted in your profile that you're "'Heyoka' by Nature. I looked up "Heyoka". Now you've prompted me to imagine that the strains in the current Republican and Democratic parties dissolve into atrophy and that Heyoka forces attract masses towards a Highly Functional Serious Simplicity guided by the Constitution and Life-Affirming Light. Heyoka spirits partnering with Techies are NERDS devising methods to reverse-engineer the confusion and violence that's prevailing today.
Thank You Joan... Read Archie Lame Deer's, "Gift Of Power" for a Good Explanation of Heyoka Spirit... My Heyoka Spirit is Heavily Tempered by the Study, and Practice of Zen... The Current USA Duopoly of RNC/DNC is reaching the end of its viability, and something new must be created in order to address the Potential Disasters of Climate Change, and A.I. ... Change Is Constant, Tao is Supreme...
I'm insulted by your calling Trump a tech bro and Elon has devolved into a drug addict who is lucid a fraction of the time. Trump is nothing more than what Rex Tillerson called him in 2017 - "a fucking moron." He has already bankrupted thousands of companies in the US and has us on the precipice of a recession. And many economists and market experts already feel we are in a recession.
I would argue that many of the oligarchs are on the spectrum and I do agree that many techies are nerds having worked with thousands of techies over the past 50 years.
I've worked with companies large and small in 37 different states and 4 foreign countries and I am unaware of any of them on the spectrum. I have relatives that actually are on the spectrum and I am constantly amazed at how different their brains work. But they aren't cruel and hateful like the Republicans are.
I didn't call Trump a tech bro. He is absolutely "a fucking moron", but the tech bros like Musk and Thiel need him to do what he does. These Silicon Valley kazillionaires are running the show, not the Republicans. And once again, for the tech bros like Musk and Thiel, the people are mere resources (or "NPCs") for their great and divine plans. Cruelty may not be their point (whereas with Trump it's the entire point - he's just an 8-year-old school yard bully living his revenge fantasies), but their world view is devoid of any humanity - and this has a cruelty all in itself.
He is a skilled grifter. He's still asking and receiving feancet from his cult followers. He has extorted virtually everyone he targets, from corporations to countries to his cult.
IMHO he's in the nuclear business. Trying to sell Iran. During Trump #45, Kushner reportedly hawked a project aimed at sharing U.S. nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia, even over objections from senior U.S. national security officials. The potential beneficiaries of this project included Brookfield Asset Management, a firm that later provided financial assistance to the Kushner family's real estate business.
Post-Government Financial Ties: After leaving the White House, Kushner's investment firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This substantial investment, which followed a close working relationship between Kushner and the Crown Prince during the Trump administration, has fueled concerns about potential conflicts of interest and whether Kushner improperly benefited from his government position.
Saudi Arabia has publicly stated it would pursue nuclear weapons if Iran does, and the two countries are engaged in a complex web of regional politics and nuclear negotiations.
Hello Phil... Study the 7-Samurai Virtues... Compassion is one of them. Honesty, Sincerity are others.... DJT, his Cabal, and John Roberts are not Samurai... They are Demented, or Delusional...
And it shows also outside Congress -- in the over-the-top trashy and of-so- gaudy wedding of Bezos to the woman who has had endless work done on her face, body and hair. Screaming of wealth with no class. Citizens United, along with the absence of a rounded humanities education, opened the gold-plated floodgates to this cruel garbage.
We were warned repeatedly by every religion known to man since the beginning of time. God is a human construct. The wisdom of generations constructed God to be agape love for others.
“Because American schools long ago stopped teaching such literacy, humanity.”
Schools are a human construct. We get what we allow. Television screens and now digital screens play to fast moving and exciting action. Books can’t keep up. Conversations and histories shared can’t keep up. We get what we allow.
Phil, I'm not sure what schools you are in close contact with, but your statement about "no novels..." etc. is absolutely untrue in the hundreds of schools I've worked in as a consultant for twelve years. What is often not taught because it's been blocked by right wing MAGA enthusiasts is exactly the virtue you named: empathy, character traits, core democratic values like service and courage. Your energy is better served working to make that happen than broadly painting the incredibly hard-working people in our schools with a patently unfair criticism.
If schools have consultants in their budgets, such affluent, Debbie, may actually read.
For most of America, however, you can search online to read more careful reports of the many more being jettisoned by our growing-the-inequality-gap rich.
This hits hard. Empathy should be the foundation of leadership, not an afterthought. When policies are shaped without human stories, without understanding or care, we get exactly what we are seeing — decisions made for profit and power, not people. The erosion of literacy is not just academic; it is moral. And when we lose the habit of walking in someone else's shoes, we lose the soul of democracy. We have to reclaim it through education, through community, and by lifting up leaders who still remember what it means to feel.
The tax cut is still about 3% for each tax bracket, same as in 2017. The corporate tax cut is a different animal but as far as personal income tax goes hard to have it fairer than about the same raw % across tax brackets.
The *amount* of the cut is, for the poor family, quite possibly the difference between three decent-ish meals a day, and two cheap ones; and for the extremely rich person, chump change.
Meanwhile, they are taking away health care for 14 million people and cutting SNAP benefits for millions more. They are fucking over pretty much, everyone except for the oligarchs, many of whom are living off of generational wealth.
The problem is the $4 trillion that is getting added to the national debt and the cuts to research, the VA, SS, Medicaid, Medicare, USAID, etc. All they had to do was increase the corporate tax rate by 4%, bring back the AMT so that people like Bezos that pay 1.1% income taxes pay at least 15%, increase the tax rate for those making more than $400,000 a year and raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour.
But instead, they lied about helping everyone when we all know that the oligarchs are going to get the lion's share of the tax cuts.
When you are spending 7-10x the current $25 billion budget for ICE in one year, and those costs are expected to rise, NO ONE should be getting a tax cut.
The ICE budget is a travesty to be sure, but taking away health care benefits for around 14 million people not to mention all of the other cuts is criminal.
Look at the tax rates of your northern European countries, and the quality of life experienced by their citizens. NOW do your American tax analysis, and the comparable quality of life.
3% "across all tax brackets" is a regressive tax. 3% from an income of, say, $20,000 hits that household a lot harder than 3% from a household income of $200,000. To someone living on $20,000/year, (which amounts to about $1,667/month) $600 is a significant hit.
Any tax cut when the lowest 50% pay 2.3% of the total paid is going to be regressive, but that's because of the (agreed) great feature that the whole tax system is heavily progressive, as it should be.
What I fail to understand is why you want the people at the lower end to take the significant hit? Remember, that person's at $20k's taxes will *go up* by that much relative to today if this doesn't pass, until another change happens.
I DON'T want people at the lower end to take a big hit...that's why I was pointing out that an across the board 3% or any percent flat tax hits lower household income levels harder than it hits households with higher levels of incomes. Perhaps we are not on the same page.
I was thinking back to when Steve Forbes--a guy with all the charisma of a Ron DeSantis or a JD Vance ran for president. One of his cherished platform planks was making taxes "simpler" by a straight 17% flat tax on income--across the board, all income levels. His candidacy fizzled when it was revealed that he would save a a big pile of money if such a tax law went into effect...so I don't think we can be talking about the same thing.
The only way for people to not take that hit is for this bill to pass. The page we may not be on together is that this bill helps those low income earners, even if it helps higher income people even more. But that is the reality.
The two futures are this bill passes and their taxes stay low, or this bill fails to pass and their taxes go up by that much.
The utility of the tax cut goes down the more somebody earns.
For the bottom brackets $100 puts food on the table or pays for important prescriptions. For the top 1% they don’t defer consumption so saving on taxes is of little real meaning.
$ saved by highest earners don't go to consumption, true. they are however directly involved in putting $ on the table for lower income folks thru investment and job creation. for me and many others i know it works that way - every extra $ is invested in entrepreneurs not LVMH.
That is one of the persistent lies about supply side economics.
While some wealthy people will actively reinvest what studies have found is the vast majority like cartoon images of Scrooge McDuck, just add more dollars that sit in their vault.
One of the primary ways the wealthy avoid taxes is by borrowing against an asset (since it’s a loan it doesn’t get counted as income or capital gain)
Milton Friedman spent years talking about money supply and how it impacts economic growth, the problem with giving money to the rich is it becomes money stock. It become inactive.
Dollars in their vault are in the stock market. Stock market investments are in companies. Higher stock prices allow capital investment by those companies and equity sales by other stockholders, producing returns that are reinvested in new companies.
Income taxes AND corporate taxes were both cut in the 2017 TCJA. In the first full year the new tax structure applied, there was greater tax revenue despite the cuts which demonstrated this effect well.
You clearly have studied at the altar of supply siders. Sadly reality over the last 50 years have shown your claims to be false. Moneys don’t get reinvested. Maybe small amounts do, but the economic impact of $1,000 going to the top 1% is far less than if it goes to the bottom 1%.
Consider when financial firms have been bailed out over the last few decades. Without fail those funds get bonused out to partners…not reinvested.
You can argue all you want for supply side, it has been clearly demonstrated not to work.
Your link also says this, "Most tax rates were reduced under TCJA. However, the lowest tax rate of 10% was not. Taxpayers in the lowest bracket before and after the TCJA could be subject to a 10% tax...Households earning $450,000 or more receive about 45% of benefits from the TCJA. As you can see from the above examples, under the TCJA, those with higher incomes generally save more on taxes than taxpayers with lower incomes."
So, the Americans least able to pay got no tax cut under the TCJA. Conspicuous by its absence is any rule that the tax rate paid by the highest earners, those most able to pay, got no reduction in taxes. No, no rule like that was included in the TCJA. They receive a tax break of 3%. But it's "...hard to have it fairer than about the same raw % across tax brackets" I suppose you would say. I'd ask, "across which brackets?"
Oddly, the table of federal tax brackets begins with an income of $77,400, married, filing jointly. Why doesn't it include lower earners and top earners? The tax bracket table proposed for 2025 does show lower earners, but that's only visible if one happens to follow a link to a different article.
So, in the wonderful BBB, the very lowest earners get a tax break worth zero dollars while the somewhat higher earners get a break worth at least $14,400 and we can't tell from your Kiplinger article how much the highest earners would get.
Further, "Another benefit for wealthier taxpayers under the TCJA is the doubling of the federal estate tax exemption." That way, the hereditary aristocracy that Republicans favor is strengthened and accelerated.
Is it really "...hard to have it fairer than about the same raw % across tax brackets?"
Well it's still hard to have it fairer than equally done across brackets, it's just not equally done across brackets in this case. You showed it doesn't apply for lowest earners here I agree. It is fair to say that this would be fairer is lowest bracket also moved to 7%. This is only 90% fair since about 10% of households are in that bracket and see no benefit. Do you know if the other changes like tax credits helped them at all, which may have been considered why not to change that bracket?
I don't disagree. Just say that to argue against the cut - my beef is if one is lying about it by saying it's patently unfair, when in the context of a massively progressive system an equal % cut at each bracket level is relatively quite fair.
If you look at 2017 you also have to consider the huge reduction in SALT deductions. The ability to deduct State and Local tax payments (things like property tax or local income tax) went from unlimited to $10,000. This significantly outweighed any federal tax cut.
Ok the answer is in the deductions offered. Deductions generally went up 20% or more which greatly helps those in the 10% bracket.
With standard/personal deductions considered an individual making $14k: paid $360 in income tax before 2017, has paid $200 since and will pay zero if the 2025 version passes or $360 again if it does not.
I appreciate your capacity to articulate the dimensions of this disaster with such clarity. Can a protesting 3.5% of the US population -- 11 million people -- reverse this spiral down into Hell?
Thank you, Phil, for a WOWerful opener for last evening's comments. What you write reminds me of 'The Hollow Men' by T.S. Eliot. https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men
Many of the sharpest images in this Eliot classic go directly to the trenches of WWI.
The long slide to autocracy the U.S. has suffered in many ways resembles the decades-long complacency European elites sank into during all their prosperity just prior to "The Guns of August."
It's another Barbara Tuchman book, "The Proud Tower," which examines that profound somnolence of behalf of nearly all Europe's elites then.
I think we are already living in a police state. As an Alaskan, I am beyond furious, and disgusted with Murkowski. She made a comment after the vote, about how the bill is bad, and still needs work, but she voted for it. Oh and another part of her comment was that she knows " it will not advantage some people." I read that as code words for kill. She knows it will kill people, but as long as the oil companies can do what they want, she does not care.
If there's a single consolation in all this -- -and it is a VERY poor one at that -- it's that his people will suffer far more than I will in my blue bubble here in Washington DC, retired, educated, in reasonable health, owning my own home with savings, a natural-born American with access to high-quality medical care. The angel of death will largely spare me and mine, but his cult -- those in rural areas in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia, West Virginia, where huge swaths of the population are literally dependent on Medicaid, and the local business is healthcare -- his voting bloc --- well, that's another story.
I take no pleasure from saying so. I wasn't raised to seek the misfortune of others. But as sure as the sun rises in the east, his cult are going to get it in the face. Facts are facts.
But they've timed the real effect until after the midterms - so it won't be as big of an election issue - and if the Democrats should take back the Senate and the House the GOP will blame it on them. Though I would hope that if the Democrats return to the majority they could revoke this bill before it cuts too deep.
Only if we "get" to vote. Buckle up. The next attack (which is already well under way) is to either cancel elections all together, or make it so difficult to vote that many will not be able to. The midterms can't come soon enough - IF we even have them.
Oh, man, Laurie! I don't want anyone to suffer! There are many here who are in red states and can't leave for various reasons. They are going to hurt, too.
I guess we can all take a moment to feel angry and resentful and whatever...but please then, let it go. I know I might get called out on this (and I have had friends do so to me) but to me, hating on MAGA is too similar to hating on someone who is black, or gay, or Muslim, or an addict or whatever. I will agree, sadly, there are some people whoapparently can't be redeemed, but I HAVE to hope people can change! I admit, after the election, I was so shell-shocked, I told my husband that I could hardly make eye contact in the grocery store as I was thinking "are YOU one of THEM who voted for THAT?". It was a sickening feeling.
I will also admit to thinking not-very-nice thoughts when I pass the house that has an about 8x10 foot Trump flag plastered up near the roof (although the other 10 or so signs--yep, I counted them--have been taken down). Holding onto hate has never worked out well for my mental status.
Those are nice sentiments. But indeed, being MAGA is a choice. Recall that the average voter for Donald Trump is a 40-50 y.o. White male earning $65,000 per year. This is not the demographic of either haplessness or ignorance. Wanting people to suffer consequences is not hatred; it is in reality a wish for a useful learning experience. This is where we are.
Does anyone remember the parenting concept of "Tough Love"? It was allowing your children to accept the consequences of their actions/decisions. It is time for the childlike MAGAs to suffer the consequences of their decisions. Too bad, we have to suffer also in order to raise up half of the country who have failed to grow up, but that is what being a responsible adult is all about.
The ONLY thing that will stop this, is that love is greater than hate. Really. If 'they' are 'other' then we are doing the same thing just in a different flavor. Yes, it is infuriating, but we need to channel our energy into doing good not hating or "I-told-you-so-ing" or "let 'em rot-away-ing". What we really desire is that they wake the****up and reform themselves and what they have put in place. Only then will we get truly past this mess. We must work to that end. No matter how hard it is. This is the work of the ages, eh? It may take longer than we have lifetimes for unfortunately. But this work is what this planet needs most. I have worked with folks in the prisons who had done despicable things - truly horrid, and yet when they came to their senses, of their own accord wanting reformation into the program that I was a volunteer facilitator for, they learned deeply who they could be. They were eager to improve and work toward that end. I found it inspiring to learn from them and was easily able see them for the best that they were instead of defining them for the worst they had ever done. They brought a hard won wisdom that anchored their changes. Please do not let anyone EVER make you be the worst in you. It is not fulfilling, kind or constructive for you or anyone else. We have a lot of work to do. If we show such a kindness, they will eventually see it. I am sorry too, and very sad, looking for answers still, but determined that they will NOT get me to hate, use fear or intimidation, racism or greed to get ahead. It never works in the long run.
We need a very big majority to roll everything back. We saw what happened last time we were in the majority. Manchin and Sinema puts the brakes on needed reforms that would have prevented the current madness. Now it’s Fetterman and I bet another DINO emerges to stymie us and keep the Overton window moving right. It’s been happening for four decades…
Aren’t they trying to revoke all of Biden’s bills right now? And the ones not being revoked outright are just not receiving their funding. The power of the purse lies solely with Trump as Noem spends exponentially over her budget and doesn’t care.
He campaigned on promises that the Maggots would never need to vote again. Nobody paid attention. However, that is a single promise he will endeavor to fulfill.
I’ve been thinking they are some kind of death cult for some time and then that strange town hall with Joni Ernst saying “we’re all going to die someday” just confirmed it.
The entire South is going to get hammered since hurricanes, heat waves, fires, tornadoes, bomb cyclones, etc. are just going to keep getting worse and now that NOAA and National weather service has been slashed and doged they’ll be less prepared. FEMA is being repurposed for detention sites, hopefully not death camps for their cult.
I've seen some very sad looking dog kennels that would fare better in a severe storm than this janky concentration camp tent city the regime slapped together. And it's already taking on water 1 day after opening, just from a typical Florida storm passing over their swamp gulag!
You got that right. They can have "alternate facts" all they want, and they can misinform and twist numbers all they want, but the real FACT is bad things are coming for those who relied upon the social safety nets. Even the dullest among us must at some point, when facing some cuts, say "what does Biden have to do with this? This is Trump all the way."
Just like the Big Lie got repeated and repeated and repeated, and just as Trump manages to bring up his victimhood regardless of the point of discussion, so I am counting on ALL DEMOCRATS to constantly, continually hammer home THIS IS ON THE GOP. THIS IS ON THE GOP. THIS IS ON THE GOP. THIS IS ON THE GOP.
Miselle, they will not believe anything that is counter to the propaganda they consume from a firehose. Even as they are impacted by the cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, etc. they will still believe that it will not be the fault of anyone but the "other".
There is a time in each person's life that "compassion" was given. Some receive it as a gift that pushes them forward...to take one more step into one more day of life ....to hope for the ability to survive physically, mentally, emotionally. Compassion may mean forgiveness of a debt...not only a monetary debt.
My parents taught me never to be in financial debt....that debt makes us a slave to the one we owe and I have worked to keep that goal. However, I could not have accomplished that goal without their aid.
Our family faced turbulent, frightening times when my husband's father lost the business he started. We had to move to a humble dwelling. My husband worked multiple jobs, I worked as well. When our children were old enough, they also worked. Most of all, our children never complained. We worked together, we sacrificed together.
It is a blessing that together, as a country, we are able to help one another in difficult times. We can judge or we can just help. It is okay.
Well said. Thank You. I believe when the shock and fear wear off a bit people will find areas to help out. There will be, of course, people who choose not to help and that is ok also.
"If there's a single consolation in all this -- -and it is a VERY poor one at that -- it's that his people will suffer far more than I will..."
I am a proud Kentuckian. It breaks my heart that my sisters and brothers here will suffer. People in this State have been deprived of the means to be informed, educated and prosperous for generations. The massive oligarch media machine has indoctrinated people in a toxic stew of lies for years. I maintain this fact: people did not know what they were voting for.
Just one person suffering and dying is not a cause for even the tiniest amount of consolation. We are all going to get the opportunity in this Country to practice uncomfortable compassion. Touting one's good fortune over others misfortune is not going to rebuild America when this over. Calling these just facts is questionable. This is where the real test is. Are we going to join together or not?
My mother's family all came from Kentucky into what was then Indian Territory and soon to be the state of Oklahoma. They were all strong New Deal Democrats during the 1930s and long after (most of them, anyway). I come from those roots, I know something about that.
The ugliness Rush Limbaugh and other screaming blowhards have been steadily inculcating in small towns and rural areas toward people like me (urban, Democratic, educated, professional, gay) calling us "elites" (that was the least of their invectives) is an evil whose reverberations have only intensified. The cynical GOP got them to vote against their own economic self-interests. It used to be a joke ("what's the matter with Kansas?") By now it's a raging, roaring disease. Its hallmark is the racist-in-chief whose proxies go on Fox and other, even worse outlets to scream that Haitians are eating cats and dogs, to assert that little boys with vaginas are pouring across the Rio Grande to indoctrinate their grandchildren in critical race theory....When he talked like that, I laughed louder than Kamala did. And yet here we are.
Uncomfortable compassion has to go hand-in-hand with real introspection. It has to begin asking: 'how did we get here?' Uncovering the patterns, the threads, the method to the madness has to happen. I hope with all my heart it ends with the destruction of the modern Republican Party and its replacement with something else. It can't happen a minute too soon for all of us.
I wonder how the "carve out" exemption from cuts for Alaska was worded and how it will work. If the different ways in which ballots are counted from one county to the next can go e ride to an Equal Protection case determining the outcome of a presidential election, one would think this might give rise to something of the same. I understand these programs were not eliminated. They merely were cut. Those cuts were across the board. Except it seems in the case of Alaska.
How odd. These programs are administered as block grants to the States according to some apportionment formula. Did this formula get changed ? Is there now a "land mass" factor in it now ? Or did Murkowski get the Senate managers to agree to count one Alaska resident as ten New Yorkers in order to just get a bigger share of the pie ?? I wonder if Collins was offered the same deal ?
This bill I understand is loaded with unconstitutional treats for Trump. This will add to them. Talk about changes in law nongermane to spending. Obviously that is something Trump neither understands nor cares about. Neither do any Reports blocans in Congress how are either with him or surrendered to him. There will be a many court challenges. But then one of the aims of the bill is to bury the federal court system
You are right to note that differences between states will become more important as federal government is dismantled. Wealthier more prosperous states will be able absorb some of the loss. Others will not. This will provoke rivalries, aggravate regional prejudices, and give rise to separatist sentiment, paving the way to disintegration.
Murkowski really sold her people out. What a disappointment. When they drill, baby, drill her beautiful state of Alaska won't have any tourists . Glaciers are all ready melting , they will strip the forests for lumber and she is now the biggest contributor to Alaska's destruction.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts—-I was horrified by the senator’s inappropriately mild language as well. As does the word “concerned “ by some Congresspeople as used in conjunction with the issue of losing essential healthcare and food benefits.
Expect the concentration camps to fire up soon. A lot of “bad people” simply “need killing”, right? There won’t be a Democrat left to vote for in 2026 if the Orange Dictator has his way…
That thing about America being a hellscape? That wasn’t an observation of Trump, it was a promise…
Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem and Trump laughing about stealing our tax money for FEMA emergencies to use for building ICE racist cages…will the US Congress and the SCOTUS think this is funny, when Trump refuses FEMA support to Americans whose are struck by hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires.
Listen to the harsh reality from today’s
The Disaster That Just Passed the Senate | The Ezra Klein Show
It would take 377 years (at $1 million per hour) to pay off our $3.3 trillion deficit (without counting our interest being accrued).
Fact Check
* Interest accrual on the national debt is a significant factor: The calculation in the claim explicitly excludes the interest being accrued, which is a major component of the overall national debt burden. For example, the U.S. currently pays approximately $2.6 billion per day in interest.
It came to me recently that the reason the Right kept badmouthing FEMA under Biden was to set up the destruction of FEMA. I checked and that plan was outlined in Project 2025. That's why they have no compunctions about shifting FEMA funding to the concentration camps. Sickening..
good point MisTBlu, we really need our legacy media to help us grass roots volunteers by being full-time investigative news outlets that holds people and corporations accountable to support guardrails while bad actors manipulate the levers of power with OUR tax money.
“Actually not much of anything” Dutch Mike except, perhaps, the most successful grifter the United States has ever seen grow out of a nearly pure narcissistic personality!
There is a reporter in Jacksonville Florida named AG Gancarski that wrote a scathing column about jacksonville’s mayor when she said Trump was going to create concentration camps. She was warning people about it prior to election. Hope he is now eating crow. Such indignant lack of compassion for migrants. He claimed that no one else besides Jews could use the word concentration camp. Guess this generation is having their own round up humanity so they can be killed or put away for life. It is sick. We need to remember history and never repeat these atrocities.
"The facility will cost $450 million a year, which will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)."
I am sure the survivors of all the recent natural disasters and all the survivors of future disasters will be thrilled to learn that all that FEMA money is going to build prisons and not help them rebuild their lives.
How these sadistic MAGA fucks sleep at night is beyond me.
They sleep just fine. This is a “survival of the fittest” cult and they believe God has ordained them to do all of this to cleanse the Earth of the “unworthy.” They believe they are chosen to lead. They want women in the kitchen and bedroom, LGBTQ people in the closet, Jesus in the public schools, and people of color in their “place.”
Perhaps this fact - just one of SO many horrors in this bill - will help turn NC very blue. The folks who are still struggling to recover from an apocalypse of a flood just had their funding extension denied. That and the loss of minimal health care? This is a recipe for political reversal. But...so many will have to suffer and die before it happens.
Still, building concentration camps instead of houses for those who lost their homes? WTF?
Elon said that "...Empathy is the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.", dontcha know. Apparently the far-rightwingers have bought right into that "concept".
Our President and his leeches are basking in his power, as our country and its citizens are suffering day by day. There is no compassion for the needy....it is a foreign reality to this group of zombies.
There’s been so much talk about what Trump is doing. What do you do when your house is infested with rats. You call an exterminator. When dealing with vermin you don’t debate what to do, you do it. This is an all out war against the citizens of the US being waged by the morbidly rich and their sycophants. This tiny group is going to cow 300 million+ people? How about 50 million protesters in the streets. Time to get real.
In a country of 350 million it's not even close to what is needed to enact regime change, and make no mistake, that is exactly what will need to occur in the United States. It's not going to occur by voting, because they have all the levers of power now. Nothing short of a series of general strikes, which will bring on the inevitable confrontation with MAGA and its voters, will stop this slide into fascism.
What many people don't seem to understand about MAGA is they believe they are the *only* legitimate Americans, and they believe it is their duty, (most importantly, often their religious duty) to "protect" the United States from the rest of us. They're racist and bigoted, so they can't stand the idea of a non-white majority and civil rights for *everyone* and they're too stupid to understand social democracy isn't communism. They're 100% committed to their bigotry, racism and stupidity too. Not only can they not be reasoned with, they've always attempted to twist facts and reality into their preconcieved and preferred world view, largely formed during the 1950s and 60s anti-communist hysteria.
Honestly, Americans don't have the ability, and in some cases the political will, to do what's necessary. Americans failed at their last real chance in November 2024. Even if we did, Trump has the world's most powerful military at his command, and he *will* eventually attempt to use it illegally. That'll break the United States, but his voters will be cheering all along.
He has already used it illegally. Sending Marines into LA was unlawful, and the Marines know it and should hang their heads in shame for violating the UCMJ and following an unlawful order.
Kent State was a turning point in the 60’s. I hope that doesn’t happen again. If it does the military will be torn to pieces from within. The civil war was not a complete win. The oligarchs, traitors and racists went underground. They’ve been working to take over the country since then. This is a time of revolution and all indications are, we will overcome this attempt to create a fuedal system in America.
I think Kent State is already happening everyday in this country but since it’s not happening to white college kids protesting the war it is ignored and brushed aside. They are beating migrants for no reason, even attacking citizens just because of the color of their skin and they’re so terrified of losing to a Muslim they’re already threatening to deport him regardless of his citizenship. They’ll make sure they beat the shit out of him and violently throw him to the ground just like they did Senator Padilla.
I did not hear or see any mention today of how he misunderstood that last question about how long detainees would spend at alligator Alcatraz….He hates the real work of being president…
Hell yes. It is all beyond REAL. And yet we must do everything in our power to protest nicely.
We must make sure our attack on these morons is peaceful and polite and reeks of rationality. Yeah... just lay down and let them trample us and then disappear us and then be carried to detention in Alligator Alcatraz where the Oligarths pay a million bucks to watch us be devoured by Reptiles. because thay have nothing better to do. All while we make nice.
Thank you. We can either sit in hatred from what is happening, or we can take all that energy and fight back. I believe when the shock and fear have subsided people will come together and fight back.
Liked, because the indefatigable Dr. Richardson is willing to wade through all this depressing stuff so we don't have to. But the contents of today's letter are nauseating.
We are a Plutocracy. A country run by the rich for the rich, and unless we want to live in a police state, we need to be voting in more people like Mamdani. Of course he is a threat to Trump, because he represents the destruction of the neoliberal economic values that Trump is championing, and which go so well together with fascism. That is basically the only people who matter are the people he says matters. If you are wondering what your options are, I wrote "A 'Plan B' for Catastrophe" in November, but it still seems relevant.
Yesterday in my book club we were using the term Plutocratic-oligarchy. I think one can put these terms together in a variety of ways, and they are all describing the scourge that is upon us!
Mamdani is a great candidate. His faith is personal and sincere. I prefer that to many who claim to be Christian but display no love or compassion towards their fellow men or women of other faiths or those who claim no faith. One's faith is a living growing belief. Jesus never despised persons of faith unless they saw their faith as a tool to create hatred or division. Living faith was not created for that....we humans, in our mean and cruel natures have created these negative tools to be used for power, division, etc.
We do not know how to appreciate the blessing of diversity in this country. "Control" is NOT a description of the way true freedom works especially referring to someone's faith or "no faith". In my own faith...Christ loved me to Himself and He does not ever leave me. I am called to love also. It is not easy to love my fellow humans sometimes, especially when we are cruel. I have to fight against my own anger.
Evil persons know our prejudicial nature and they will use it for their personal gain against us. Don't let them!!!!
It is exactly as Jen Psaki said last night --- the cruelty isn't just the point, it's the priority.
The Constitution's 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The principle is to outlaw barbarism, to say nothing of derangement. Not a single reporter I'm aware of, not one Republican in the House or Senate, not any of that laughing, giggling pussy comitatus surrounding him bothered to point that out to him, to themselves. Not a single judge or justice warned him that his late-nite trash-TV cage-fighting, WWF impulses have no business being applied to the American prison system.
$165 billion for ICE. Not to fight terrorism, cybercrime, not to defend allies, bolster NATO, deter China from invading Taiwan --- but to build cutesy Bastilles in swamps, send thousands of masked toughs and bullies to arrest grandmothers picking figs in their front yards, make day laborers, cooks, builders and crop-pickers simply disappear. Back to El Salvador with you, or maybe South Sudan, or perhaps into alligator country in Florida, televised for the pleasure of his dumb cult. We don't care. We don't have to. The Supreme Court said so.
Not the America I grew up in. Not the America you or your children might have gone to war for. Not the republic our Founders envisioned. We cannot accept mindless cruelty as the new normal. We cannot watch while he removes the 8th Amendment, along with the 14th, along with Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 forbidding Emoluments, along with Clause 11 granting Congress the sole power to declare war.
Every Republican up for election who voted for this package of monstrosities and financial incoherence must be ousted next year. If we're lucky enough to still have our midterms, that is.
"Once a new system of detention facilities and ICE agents is established and the idea that a Republican president can legitimately attack his political opponents is accepted, a police state will be in place."
He is so close now, EcstaticRationalist, to having the funding for all his private prison camps.
I guess you saw, too, how a reporter asked him of the private prison in Florida, "is there an expected time frame that detainees will spend here?" This for Heather's final, long paragraph -- where the demented would-be-dictator just answered in a long, nonsense muddle about how he, the supreme narcissist, is just so loved, loved, loved.
All that comes to mind tonight about this big, not so beautiful mess is a quote from Winston Churchill… “This is the end of the beginning.” We haven’t seen the worst yet.
Dr. Frank C. Baxter: "Even now, man may be unwittingly changing the worlds climate through the waste products of his civilization. Due to our release through factories and automobiles every year of more than 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which helps air absorb heat from the sun, our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer."
Richard Carlson: "This is bad?"
Dr. Frank C. Baxter: "Well, it's been calculated a few degrees rise in the earths temperature would melt the polar ice caps. And if this happens, an inland sea would fill a good portion of the Mississippi valley. Tourists in glass bottom boats would be viewing the drowned towers of Miami through 150 feet of tropical water. For in weather, were not only dealing with forces of a far greater variety than even the atomic physicist encounters, but with life itself."
Yes, J L. We who were interested knew that the planet's fate was in our hands long, long ago. But the only science people were interested in focused on phones and big TVs. And instead of using our own rather amazing intelligence, now we are sucking enormous amounts of energy out of the grid to invent "new intelligence". We could be using what we had. But where's the pot of gold (public offering) in that?
For all the cruelty and legitimate resulting outrage of this fiscally irresponsible bill, it is still minor compared to the crimes against this planet - perpetrated by the elite AI energy sucking tech bros and fossil fuel fascists.
We are not at a tipping point. I believe we have already tipped irreversibly. The ice melt, the frequent "100 year" events, the floods, the fires. The heat wave in Europe right now! And perhaps the biggest one that most people ignore. The acidification of warming oceans - coral death. The fish nurseries of the planet (along with mangroves lost to development and rising tides) are in peril. Billions of people rely on the oceans for protein.
We are dooming ourselves. We have all the information we could possibly need to learn the truth - at our fingertips. But we would rather use them to play video games or switch streaming channels.
It was all there. In the science journals. And instead of addressing it we watched dystopian TV and films as if they weren't a warning shot, a preview, a chance to change.
We have tipped. What to do? It can't be reversed. But we don't have to make it worse! The money we are spending on prosecuting wars and punishing people could be redirected to Climate Catastrophe Mitigation and Adaptation. Major population centers need to begin a strategic withdrawal. Science needs to be the new religion.
The history of science is full of missed opportunities so the findings of these scientists (and others like John Tyndall and Svante Arrhenius) was overlooked for many years.
What's perhaps more significant was the recent discovery that the fossil fuel industry knew about the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions in the 1970s. However, instead of alerting the public they kept schtum and organised a campaign of disinformation and lobbying to secure the future of their businesses.
They are the real criminals in the story of climate change science and if there was any justice they would be going to prison instead of climate change protesters.
He actually joked about this dreadful complex which is being set up in a location with limited access, abysmal facilities and at extortionate cost (some $450m annually from the overstretched FEMA budget) during a Florida summer (although officials say that it has 24/7 air conditioning) and during hurricane season.
The lame joke is about three minutes into his rambling impromptu press conference.
Trump's "Alligator Alcatraz" and his envisioned chain of similar facilities looks like the American counterpart of the Warsaw ghetto imprisoning Jews after the Nazis invaded and conquered Poland <https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw>. It was just a short step from there to extermination chambers, and the hatred and cruelty burning so hot in Trump, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Pam Bondi, and the like in the Trump Reich make that next step almost inevitable here.
I wouldn’t bet that they will evacuate the political prisoners from the reptilian concentration camps. POtuS won’t even make an effort to take a Sharpie to a hurricane map.
>>>When Trump talks about undocumented migrants as being dangerous criminals, he appears to have bought into the fantasy that the U.S. is a hellscape.<<<
I'm sorry, Dr. Richardson, but this is a completely inaccurate statement. Trump has NOT bought into that fantasy. He created it. It is a bald-faced lie. He knows it, and right-wing media knows it. It's on a repeat loop, and they push this lie to ramp up fear, hatred and further Trump support from the xenophobic and ignorant MAGA cult that has become his steady base. This repetition and chain-jerking is how he keeps that base tightly bound, and how he can make good on threats to "primary" any member of federal or state legislatures who voice opposition, as just happened with Senator Thom Tillis.
Demonizing recent or unpopular immigrants, legal or not, has a long history here. The "Replacement Theory" was circulating before Trump decided to feature it. Modern Republicans make it up as they go, but are quick to pander to existing irrationality and prejudice.
I think, JL, “they” have long had a special catalog “Boogeyman Du Jour” from which to pick the most appropriate to the issue….from the relatively mild “Welfare Queen” to the “Murderers, Rapists, Insane Criminals”….all meant to foment fear in the impressionable.
Sadly I am forced to conclude that the United States is now lost. The passage of the Big Beautiful(ly Hideous) Bill in the Senate is the the lethal injection that will kill the US. The vengeful toddler in the White House has surrounded himself with psychopaths who hate everything decent and moral. The pleasure they derive from inflicting pain and misery on those they consider beneath them or undeserving is sickening.
I am subscribing because I suspect that it will not be long before this regime sends its thugs and corrupt law enforcers after you in order to silence all dissent and I do believe that you will need our support when that day comes.
Just one question please. What are you going to do if they go after HCR? Why don't you figure out something to do NOW? IF they go after her what are you going to do....protest? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I am sorry, I don't find your comment very helpful. Maybe I just don't understand what you plan to do to support Heather if that time ever comes 🤷♀️. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸😪
There isn't much I can do. I live in Europe, and have no option but to sit on the sidelines and watch a country and a people I once held in respect, plunge dow the same rabbit hole the Germans did in 1933. All I am able to do is subscribe, in the hope HCR can be supported if they go after her income. More to the point, what are YOU doing to save your country?
Well I think the thing is, sometimes I don't realize how far reaching these letters are and I thought it just sounded like you were giving up but from there what can you do? I agree. Me, I make phone calls I send emails, I have very long hours long discussions on Facebook comments with maga people and always come away saying, "why did I do that?" Because it's like they don't own a TV or any access to any news other than Fox or Newsmax and then I do it again and again. Physically I am disabled and mostly homebound. I cannot drive any longer. So mostly I try to engage online. Most of my family is Maga, so there is silence pretty much. Well I apologize if I sounded harsh or judgmental. I am limited as to what I can do but as I said, sometimes I forget that the whole world reads LETTERS. I am so concerned, as you alluded to and rightly so, for Heather, that I guess sometimes I feel like we need to hide her away in a bunker not just because of what she gives us but just because of who she is!!! Take care. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸😪
👍Well said, Linda, but if “they” come for Heather, they will be coming for scores more who are also speaking truth to power. And now with the data that DOGE has been Hoovering up, that may include all of US who post to any online forum or social media—just look at the examples of travelers who have their phones “searched” and if there are any negative comments or memes on it, the person may not be granted entry into the country…to the point that it has been advised to travel only with “burner phones”. “Show me your papers” time has come. Damn scary.
Can't even begin to sell them in the slightest what it would be like or would have been like in Germany during that time. You are right it is damn scary. Just started an audiobook called,The Light of Days.... it is about the women of the resistance in Germany and how many of them were teenage girls. And many of them were Jewish teenage girls who looked more Aryan so they could pass. They smuggled, they blew up Bridges, they seduced then murdered gestapo agents, all kinds of EXTREMELY scary things compared to what we are dealing with. What do we do if.....
And I also agree with what you mentioned about 1933. A couple of years ago I started listening to documentaries about the Holocaust and Hitler and I'm sure I have, between documentaries and survivor stories, easily listen to 100. I mention the similarities, even up until the timeline it took Hitler to get things done and I am always told no not really.. not that bad! Well "not that bad" is I am sure what most of Germany thought at first too. In fact with some of his programs, it seemed good. Autobahn and other projects created many jobs and started pulling Germany out of the horrible financial pit.... we don't even have that much. If this were Germany or if we're headed that way really, then the T4 program will take me away..🙄🤷♀️. Because after all, this government knows everything about everyone now thanks to DOGE. Email received in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago confirmed DOGE has access to everyone's Social Security data. I knew that was happening of course but when I read the list of all that encompasses, it's just about your whole life. (Of course now the boys are fighting again🙄🙄) sorry for my own Rabbit Trail.
Shudda read this comment first, Linda, before I replied to your upthread one….yeah, most social media sites/internet scrolling, etc., already “tracks” info about all of us, and now DOGE is just dipping deeper into things that were once “hands off”. I guess it “can happen here”.
I "liked" but not really at all if you get what I mean. The one thing I hold out about that extreme activity ever happening here is that Hitler's military for the most part, worshipped him and actually competed with each other to the point of murder even in order to get closer to him. I only hope and pray our military is not like that. They are given a PS to their oath right? They are allowed to disobey an illegal order. I read something pretty disturbing a little while ago. Not 100% sure because I have not been able to find it in writing tho I heard it a few times. At the military academies they are now allowed to read Mein Kampf but not Maya Angelou (DEI idiocy). God only knows what lies ahead. After all, El Presidente could be golfing and hit some wild shot that ricochets off a tree and nails him right in the forehead... course with him, it would go right through😂. So, there's always hope! Take care and be safe!
Linda, I visited Germany for the first time in 2012 and went to several museums in Koln/Bonn. I was struck by the similarities between the early 1930's Germany and 2012 America.
Interviewed following the Senate OK to the billionaire bill, Dan Goldman said “empathy.”
The Republicans do not have it. Not an ounce. Not an iota.
They have money – from the U.S. billionaire classes. They have rhetoric, so they can play-act sympathy for the millions of Americans they are shafting.
But their priorities come from no novels, memoirs, travel books, histories, essay collections, or biographies. Because American schools long ago stopped teaching such literacy, humanity.
So we have instead a country ruled by the cynical, the humanly out of touch, the skilled in packaging, abstracting, commercializing. And non-stop lying.
It is as Jen Psaki said last night. The cruelty isn't just the point, it's the priority. It's what's critical. It's what counts. So much that ICE is going to get $175 billion should this pile of cruelty, financial incoherence and slop become law.
Think how many school lunches $175 billion could have bought. Think of how many rural health centers could be supported or how many nurse practitioners could be hired to work in underserved communities.
Think how many precision drones could have helped Ukraine defend its cities, apartment buildings, power stations, orphanages, from Putin's daily bout of murder and mayhem. Think of the lost investments in cybersecurity and true crime-fighting against terrorism here and abroad. Think of the Plumpy'Nut food paste packages that might have kept tens of thousands more children in East Africa from starvation, the lives saved because HIV medications were still available and distributed by USAID.
Then visualize his late-night made-for-trash-TV cage-fighting Alligator Alcatraz swamp and Kristi Noem in her $80,000 Rolex with those eyes like a bride of Dracula standing under the moonlight in a billowing nightie awaiting the Prince of Darkness.
It's not the economy, stupid. It's the cruelty.
And the irony is that Marco Rubio was on a bipartisan team that came up with several fixes to the immigration system only to be smacked down by the Republicans in the Senate. Every time the Democrats have tried to fix even a tiny part of the immigration system, the Republicans have sabotaged the results.
Rubio has sold his soul to the devil. Many people are going to die, and there is not one Republican who cares one bit. None of them will do anything to assist their constituents, who are among the millions who will starve or die of untreated sickness. This is what has landed on Americas shores, no longer the 'land of the free and the home of the brave'.
Still hoping a few Republican House members come through. At least 20 Republican House members say they're opposed. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/us/politics/house-trump-policy-bill-republicans.html
I hold zero faith that any Republican will do the right thing and step up to the plate to help save our democracy. Hope I'm wrong.
Regardless, pressure them today.
Victoria,
For a current Republican to stand up for our country and against those who are stealing our rights and freedoms and causing sufferings to our older citizens or to those who have extraordinary difficulties just living day by day, or for our special needs children, it will take extraordinary courage!
Bravo to Tom Tillis! I know he will be working for this country even if he remains a Republican OR maybe he will work to start a new political party.
Now I'm reading that the dems' position on defunding the police is returning to haunt them. It's like Sisyphus - they make some progress with a few of their outspoken members, only to be disappointed and damaged by a regrettable statement.
Some have but not nearly enough.
The remaining members of the GOP caucus who are offended by concentration camps or selling gaudy merch are hiding out, fearful of FOX News bias-casters and Kristi Noem and her dogs.
Allegator Alcatraz in in Rep. Mario Diaz Balart's district. He is one of 3 Cuban Amenrican House Republicans who have been protesting Trump immigration policy. We have a Democratic majority. Immigration is certainly not the only issue, but many Republicans here are conflicted.
E.G. Billionaire Miami healthcare CEO Michael “Mike” B. Fernandez wrote the following open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and members of the Republican Cuban-American Miami-Dade congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar.
For decades, I have stood with you in defense of the freedoms we cherish, those we were denied in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one. I know what it means to flee tyranny. Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart. But like a growing number in our community,
I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting president of the United States.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article304271841.html#storylink=cpy
Protest to the Cuban American National Foundation https://www.canf.org/get-involved/contact-us
I wish there was something in that bill about a dress code. Is she a Cabinet Secretary or the hostess at the local line dancing bar? Did one of the dogs she didn’t shoot eat her weave?
And Trump….look respectable….weating a 10,000 suit and a baseball hat with makeup running down your face as you literally talk jibberish is embarrassing.
Unserious people for serious times.
Dead dogs
Daniel Solomon,
Remember the many who left during Trump's first "reign"? There were numerous men and women in the Republican Party who left to run for positions of leadership in other areas, or removed themselves from politics altogether.
Remember the mobster like threats? Nothing has changed.
An independent Republican is a rare find under this administration.
Remember, too, Emily, the international schools for thugs.
Putin and his oligarchs, Iran and its mullahs, Xi and his cadres, Hungary's Orban and India's Modi and their nationalists -- they've all spent fortunes to turn Republican Americans into fellow ideologues, hackers for autocracy.
And America? Has its schools been so stellar that it has been able to reciprocate with programs that students around the world learn to see "others" as individuals, as becomes any decent democracy?
Or has America for decades just let its testing billionaires expand their rackets-for-profits?
I wouldn’t hold my breath. Republicans have become past masters of ‘suggesting’ they have questions about Trump’s policies. Then they either cave to his threats or get parts of those policies altered to their benefit. Look how the BBB got twisted into a pretzel for Lisa Murkowski so she could resell her soul for Trump.
That doesn't mean you have to give up.
When times get tough......
we have to follow Heather's and Hubble's suggestions and fight like hell, call your reps even if you know they are voting against the bill, Congress men and women tally these calls and use them in arguments with their Republican enablers of trump's cruelty. Also vote and if possible campaign for Dems running in 2025 November elections as in New Jersey and Virginia. Send a strong message about our opposition to Republican candidates.
Charles Theisen -- Whom are you referring to when you say "Hubble"?
Please people, CALL THEM!!!
Daniel, they are often opposed for the wrong reasons, but at this point, I just want the thing to go down.
Twenty? They're just looking for more pork to their districts before their inevitable votes in favor.
Some represent majority Democratic districts in blue states. Some have donors that are adversely affected. Just need a few.
We need to keep up the pressure.
Dream on. When the time comes they'll line up like little soldiers.
David Johnston,
"line up like little soldiers"....I fear you are correct BUT I continue to ask why? I don't wanna!!!!!!
Have we lost so much connection with one another?
Have we forgotten who we are, "The Land of the Free BECAUSE of the brave"?
We fight for our country Not because we are brave but because we love our crazy , wonderful, beautiful country and its population of amazing people.....and we remember the sacrifices of those (red and yellow, black, brown and white) who gave and who give themselves for this country.
If it is any thing what happened in the Senate, these peo0ple will be pressured, bribed, insulted to the enth degree. Ms Alaska took a bribe-her state wouldn't suffer the rages of Medicaid cutting and some other things. Boy is she ever stupid. Republicans do not honor their promises.
All 20 0f them will kiss their death cult leader's behind and vote for this BS bill.
And in 2016, when Felon47 emerged as a contender for and then winner of the Oval Office, and I posted on FB rather obvious parallels between him and the Fascists of the 1930's in Europe and America, folks told me I was exaggerating, that there was no call for such extreme comparisons.
Well, I wonder what those folks think now? Is Felon47 lawless enough, angry to the point of incoherence enough, lusting after power enough, and cruel enough? And are his MAGA toadies falling in line enough? Are his MAGA Masked Street Thugs brown-shirted enough? Is up now down enough? Day now night enough? How toxic does he have to be, how deranged and dangerous?
Larry, it is my opinion, based on watching what my cohort of retired cops are spouting, they do not see the parallel in any way, shape, or form. Disgusting. Sad. Disappointing.
Your cohort has not been reading, studying, and teaching lessons on the Holocaust and the rise of fascism since the 1970's as I have. Nor have they (most likely) visited several of the death camps as I have, nor been guided through Auschwitz by a survivor who became my friend.
Larry, as the expression goes, "it's complicated." But keeping in mind that 85% of Trump/MAGA faithful are evangelicals, their view of the comparison of Hitler vs. Trump is this: "Hitler was bad because he was persecuting the Jews, who were good*. Whereas, Trump is good because he's ridding the nation of brown people, who are bad."
*"Okay, Jews aren't really good because they refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, but the Bible says we have to be nice to them or God will punish us."
To Hitler, Jews were, at first, undesirable, then racially tainted, then not worthy of citizenship, then not human (vermin), then not worthy of life itself. Trump demeans brown people, "Mexican rapists," Spanish-speakers (as does Stephen Miller), non-whites generally. The South African Boers, however, were white though not persecuted, not experiencing genocide, not asylum seekers) and therefore were whisked into America and on a path to citizenship. It's not that complicated. Trump's daddy was a bigot and discriminated against Black people. Trump falsely exaggerates the criminality of brown immigrants, undocumented or documented, vetted or not vetted. He accuses them generally as gang members and murderers--in his eyes they are guilty regardless of their citizenship status.
The incoherence in that passage that Heather closed with is mind-boggling.
Just as I thought and spewed before--The goons in this administration are hiring the pardoned insurrectionists. Why else would ICE wear masks?
Larry Levy,
"HORRORS!" but more is coming....the suggestion that his son, Eric take his place!!! Hell is here!!!! ...YES! "how deranged and dangerous"....
His minions are not joking!!!!
Ditto for Murkowski.
I’ve known Rubio since he started on national stage. What a joke - spineless and little. He ls such a hypocrite! Little and groveling.
I sense it time to arm for purposes of defense.
As I had said earlier when he was elected, in order to save America we had to destroy it. By this i insinuated that the good generals, the General Milly types, had to temporarily take over the government declare martial law and prevent Trump thugs from taking office. It’s counterintuitive I get it. But that was the only hope. No one believed me. We are now at the gates of totalitarianism. It’s here. All my life I editorialized against gun ownership. Now I’m all but certain that the most lethal of weaponry will be necessary to defend myself. I was chatting with Capital police in my home state at our recent rally and I asked if they would stop hooded thugs of ICE and he told me no because it’s federal. So we cannot depend on state guards to protect us. I wrote a satire 6 years ago about such a revolt against democracy titled, “Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution.” It’s come to pass.
Ultimately, it will come down to the military. Will they follow illegal orders or protect the people?
Likely they will follow orders as they always do. But there were traditional higher rank officers that took the oath verbatim but they are being replaced from the top on down. This is a well known playbook. We think it can’t happen here. We arise in the morning. Go take a crap brush our teeth have coffee. Go shopping as usual. Say hello to the familiar faces. But something is different. So as you leave Costco happy with Al, those discounts a quality products you just bought, you drive down a street and something looks strange. A woman is being dragged by armed masked thugs to a waiting truck. Hum… I wonder what that was about. Well, it’s not me so I’m not concerned. And you return home to prepare a home made pizza to eat with the family but somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder, “I wonder why that woman was being dragged in hand ties to a waiting vehicle. Hum… We’ll, she probably did something real bad. Honey would you pass me the parmesan cheese?”
Oh a side bar: I would rather go down fighting knowing I took a few with me. You know Patrick He ry suddenly comes to mind. “Give me liberty of give me death.” Death isn’t to be feared. Acceptance to dictatorship is.
Here is my short story. It's a bit lengthy and taken from my book, "Donald's Vanity Tantrums."
Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution
Short story satire)
Bill Katz
Feb 05, 2024
Fred Jackson was a proud rebel in The Great Northern Militia Alliance. He and his wife Ruth were often found hosting summer neighborhood barbecues. They easily found new supporters for the coming war to take back America. Fred stationed himself at the pit and handed out chicken legs drenched in homemade sauce to new, unsuspecting recruits -- kinda like a politician on election-day would do; promising a chicken in every pot. Talk of big government, guns and revolt would come later.
Fred and his cohorts believed themselves to be the direct Anglo-Saxon descendants of America's 18th century rabble-rousers who tossed bales of tea into Boston harbor after news of the British Stamp Act reached these shores. But tea-toddlers, they weren’t.
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He was proud of his new-found abilities to recruit and had recently been promoted by the Alliance to the rank of sergeant of his own local militia. Wasting no time consolidating resources, Fred collected everything from boxes of canned food to crates of assault weapons. All were discreetly stored away in basements and underground bunkers in his local neighborhood.
Strategic plans were soon under way as this historic moment arrived, the moment to take back America. A secret, unnamed Northern Alliance militia representative from high up the chain of command visited one evening to give a short pep talk to the men and their wives in the basement of Jackson's home.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mysterious commander said, “the time has come to act. We must stop the tyranny and treasonous actions of our government. Today we take action. We will starve the beast into submission. We will bring the entire nation to a screeching halt by whatever means are necessary. And we will unsteal the election. You know who I’m talking about; the great populist himself, codenamed, “PinkFatso.””
“Yep”… they screamed in unison, “save our leader, PinkFatso.”
He jabbered on like this awhile longer and then said something about how it was one's duty to avoid payment of taxes like they did in the Boston revolt.
A rebel in the audience was overheard mumbling that “maybe them damned liberals wouldn't be so bad if we could just shoot a few” as he cleaned and oiled his weapon. After the rousing speech ended, the mysterious speaker made way out of Fred's hatchway as quickly as he had arrived and was driven off into the night before anyone could ask questions.
The next day, Fred called for another drill. The basement was a good place to train without attracting attention. His supportive wife listened from upstairs as she tapped her foot to the muffled sounds of her husband's marching orders.
"Left...right...left...right...left...right...left...right."
During the drill, Fred's wife heard her husband cry,
"Oh no, not again. I told you not to march forward in the cellar."
"Ruthy honey," Fred yelled from the basement, "Billy bumped into the wall again and now has a nose bleed. Quick, get me an ice pack."
One thing that should be noted about the division of labor between the men folk and their women; it was written in the Northern Militia Alliance's “Code of Conduct” that men would do the fighting and the women would play supportive roles – just like in the olden days of the founders. Their women were as important as Betsy Ross – who is thought to have sewn the first flag – was to the cause of revolt.
The country of Fred's birth was no longer recognizable to him. Waves of foreigners had migrated across the unprotected southern frontier. His leader had often spoken of building a really high wall to keep out the hordes. The government, Fred believed, was overrun with big-spending liberals and nanny-state socialists. Fred even thought that his own past president of the United States was born in another country.
“He wasn’t born here. You know he owes his allegiance to the United Nations,” cried Fred.
Encrypted communiques were now being sent and received with increasing frequency throughout the “Alliance.” The days of waiting had drawn to a close.
And so it came to pass. The militia teams began assembling. They gathered along every mountain pass and byway. They took positions beside bridges and waterways. Fred's platoon prepared to assault its assigned mountain. This really was only a big hill but these rebels had a tendency to magnify everything around them including the importance of they’re mission. Their watches were synchronized.
Sergeant Jackson finally gave the order to charge.
“CHARRRRRRGE!” he screamed.
The men began their long, wild, rickety-split charge to the top of the assigned hill. Fred held his assault rifle in the air with one hand, and with the other grabbed his pants before they slipped down below his protruding belly – an unfortunate victim of too many beer-drinking strategy sessions.
Well they whooped and hollered for so long that soon most of the militia troops were out of breath. By the time they reached the summit, the Sergeant could be heard cussing' (at no one in particular.) He wondered if he had rushed up the wrong hill. His GPS repeated, “recalculating... recalculating...” His phone vibrated on his belt and he quickly grabbed it and listened intently.
His head turned slowly downward as he stared at his mud-caked boots. His heart was pounding. He was breathing fast.
“Yes sir, I see. But when are we...? Win the hearts and minds, first? But...OK, I’ll inform the men.”
The sergeant ordered roll call and sadly told his men that not only did they seize the wrong hill, but the unseen generals had decreed that this was only a drill. The real revolution was yet to come but now, without the element of surprise. Dejected, they began to hobble down the green hill.
Then suddenly, Sergeant Jackson received another message. This time, he could hardly contain himself. Something new had just happened and word was spreading like wildfire. His fingers quivered as he responded:
“I’ll tell the men right away.” The Sergeant rallied the now exhausted rag-tag men around him and excitedly yelled,
“All hands to Burns, Oregon. The government is assaulting some ranchers. The Bunkerville boys from Nevada are leading the counter assault. I'll be driving out at first light if anyone needs a ride.”
Fred finally made it home in his Ford pick-up truck while still sweating from the long charge. His dear sweet Ruthy waited at the half-opened door as dusk settled in.
“Come in my hero. I made your favorite hot soup for you.”
Fred stumbled in and sat at their kitchen table and slurped down the refreshing food. He then went straight to bed without explaining anything to his worried wife about the disappointing details of the false deployment.
Fred dreamed about the new revolution soon to sweep the land of his birth – the land he hardly recognized any more. And he dreamed that his name would one day be enshrined 100 years from now, along the nearby interstate highway where he lived. The sign would read: “The Sergeant Fred Jackson Expressway: Named for a Patriot of The Second American Revolution Who Stood His Ground and Helped Take Back America.”
Then Fred farted and repositioned his head on the pillow as he slept like a baby all night long.
Immigrants are the "other" required to rally people to all sorts of heinous acts against other human beings. We are not immune to the horrors of mass killings and detention of the "other." We ARE Rwanda, we ARE Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Armenia, Cambodia.
Because racism and anti-immigrant screens have always been a winning issue for the GOP, because we are a nation of racists. We are a fear-filled, craven bunch of sick, hateful humanity.
Please leave me out of your 'We'. That ain't me, babe, and never will be!
A couple points, Gayle:
1. Calling someone "babe" is condescending and diminishes the intended nobility of your statement.
2. Whether you like it or not, the rest of the world has a negative view of US right now. They do not make the distinction between hateful Americans and those of us who oppose inhumanity to our neighbors.
Around the world, there are Russians, Hungarians, Filipinos, North Koreans and citizens of many more dictatorships who are not monsters. But their leaders are.
To the rest of the world, WE are pariahs. WE cannot change that perception until WE change our leadership, and make that change permanent.
I thought Gayle was making reference to a Dylan lyric and took no condescending or diminishing intent toward the user with the "bitchbitcybitchy" handle.
Can we please stop playing into every argument the other side makes about us. We aren't snowflakes, we can oppose what's happening and still crack a joke or reference a song without hurting everyone's feelings. I would think most anyone reading "Letters" would be somewhat familiar with Dylan.
I also agree with Dale that the rest of the world does have a negative view of the US and that includes all of us that call this place home. HBR put out a management tip today basically encouraging companies to not support international business travel or if you do to be VERY careful.
Someone on here talked about the US being a marketing driven country and how some phrases that sound good at one point in time, bite people later. Like it or not we have to play the game and not run straight into their hands.
Dale, you misunderstand the use of "babe" in this context. I agree fully with your comments, but please don't get your knickers in a twist over a colloquialism. :-)
Same!!
Rubio was chosen because he is weak, shows no backbone. He is truly pathetic.
There are two ways to get ahead showing backbone and integrity OR being weak and caving. Once the majority are swimming in a direction, outrageously cruel as it is, the weak cannot stand up to it; they are helpless. Murkowski is another example, pathetic. Her vote mattered a lot.
Trump is the pied piper of Evil getting a perverse charge out of cruelty, retribution and revenge, lawlessness using his power just augmented by the SCOTUS.
Too many of them reap the benefits of the a broken immigration system which lends itself to multiple abuses and exploitation of workers, so they or their donors can become rich. And of course, they have all those personal servants who i bet, will not be grabbed off the streets.
Rubio is one of the orange victims. His political career is over once the orange blight is through with him!
Public executions, on some sort of pay-per-view media, are next and about half the country will tune in. Bars will host watch parties for the bloodthirsty. They’ll even feature cocktails with “cute” names. Professor Richardson’s posts have become increasingly dark as events have unfolded, but I suspect the worst is yet to come. Our Democracy is on life support, but it isn’t Dying in Darkness. It’s being assaulted in broad daylight, thanks to people like Bezos, who put private gain before patriotism.
Bezos hasn't a clue what patriotism even means. The only things rattling around in his head are dollar signs. the only thing he is feeling is a self-satisfied ego trip over his splashy/trashy wedding to his new arm candy (evidently he prefers a plasticized bot to a real human woman).
A plastic sex toy is the best he can do these days.
What a contrast to his first choice: 🤩 https://www.bystanderrevolution.org/
You know women are always being held accountable for not presenting the right look - HOWEVER - you are correct about her. Everything about her face says - I don't know - surgery? And her waistline was exaggeratingly thin. I guess gorgeous is in the eyes of the beholder. I'm not fond of the beholder, either....
During recent administrations, we got only occasional snapshots of detainees in cages, because those unpleasant scenes risked causing public backlash against the practice. However, a sufficient portion of the American public has been radicalized, such that I expect Fox Entertainment to return often to the detention center in the Everglades, where they will amuse their viewers with scenes of brown prisoners languishing in misery. Jesse Watters will crack jokes nonstop as the camera pans across the cages.
😔
They already have bare-knuckle boxing. For some reason, even the most self-proclaimed Christian men love watching it. Sick, greedy, power hungry caucasian men.
A not too preposterous scenario....
Way back, talk show host Phil Donahue tried to get a prison execution televised. He thought, if people saw how painful, cruel, and abhorrent a lethal injection was, they’d urge the end of capital punishment. He was barred from airing the segment because prison officials worried that it would rile up the inmates. Now, in our increasingly sick country, an execution is mere profit-making entertainment. I won’t be the least surprised if Trump erects big screens on the White House lawn so invited guests can enjoy the spectacle. After all, the Romans had the Colosseum.
Well.. regression to a primitive time and place and practice are the thoughts and actions of a fertile mind - one full of manure and bull shit, which will continue to grow more heinous and inhumane.
How much research could Musk have funded with the money he poured into the Trump campaign. It never even occurs to them to do something good with their money.
Maybe when he gets an incurable disease he'll care
The ketamine might get him. “Common side effects of ketamine include dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, and hallucinations. More serious effects can include increased blood pressure, liver damage, and cognitive impairment, especially with long-term use or high doses.”—NIH.
I hope he does get some incurable disease. Something that, even if he pours billions of dollars into curing, simply eludes the experts.
Perhaps a viral mutation which, a hundred years in the future will be named the muskelon virus.
Reminds me of Steve Jobs and his hubris. Foregoing traditional medicine for 9 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Finally I guess admitting that being able to program a computer doesn’t automatically qualify you as genius for every jib on the planet, including doctor.
And then after the delay and it spears to his liver, he got a transplant that of course was junk after less than 2 years. Should that have gone to someone else who wasn’t a billionaire but had a better prognosis and a belief in actual medicine?
I don’t believe for a second Tumo writes his Lie Anti social posts except the ones that sound like your five year old got a hold of the phone.
“Bomb Iran. I like trucks. ILIKE TRUCKS THAT GO VROOM. MUSK CAN GO TO SOUTH AFRICA AND DO DOOTY. DID YOU KNOW THAT ALLIGATORS HAVE TEETH. I DONT LIKE ALLIGATORS. OR SHARKS. WHEN I SHAMK MY BALL IN THE TALL GRASS, I MADE MY CADDIE GET IT AND THEN THROW IT AS FAR AS HE CAN IN YHE FAIRWAY. I WIN YOURNAMENTS, ALL THE BEST ONES. IF YOU DONT COME TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY TILLIS IM GOING TO TELL EVERYONE YOU DID NIMBER TWO IN YOUR o PANTS.” Thank you for your attention in this matter!
Ha Ha Ha!
Or how many years of operation for US AID. That was arguably our greatest defence against bad guys. Not Pete Hegseth and FOX bias-casters.
I do think Kristi Noem seems hell-bent on securing her special place in history. She seems to get off on cruelty, especially when the cruelty is directed at hispanic laborers, whether father of US Marines or not (as recently happened in California). As far as I can see, cruelty is a feature, not a flaw.
But why bother with all of that when there’s... merch?
The Republican Party is selling Alligator Alcatraz gear — t-shirts and hats — in black and camo. Yes, Florida now has a detention camp with merch. Totally normal. The gear, as offensive as it is, isn’t the point, though. It’s a sideshow.
The real focus should be on the callousness of our elected leaders as they joke and jest their way toward imprisoning people in a tent city in the Everglades. The country’s mass deportations are continuing, and they’re doing it our name. This is a moment of terrible seriousness, not a time for one-liners at the expense of human beings.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article309769945.html#storylink=cpy
How can a woman with her kids at an immigration office for her scheduled checkin be an illegal alien? Men in black are grabbing people off the streets. Why don’t we hear about that like we heard about THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS. THEY’RE EATING THE CATS.
As J.D. Vance says it’s all minutiae. He didn’t think his lies about Springfield were minutiae but he sure thinks millions of people in this country starving are inconsequential. If you think we had a homeless problem before it will multiply and Republicans know it’s so awful for them they won’t implement it until after the mid-terms.
I just read the article; thank you for posting. (Really - Trump and DeSantis should be writing comic strips. They're missing their calling.) There are no benefit or values to their ideas. (Vocabulary words which never enter their personal lexicon anyway.) And the system created by Trump et al exacerbates their bad behavior. Well, the maga folks gave power to these people; I hope they blame themselves for supporting this power.
I'm glad the article from the Miami Herald is being published!
As someone who has visited FL many times, I know how the insects love to bite any & everyone. So, unless the 'guards' get fumigated, they risk the same diseases the prisoners will face if housed in tents. Temperature anyone? They'll be scraping prisoners off the hot cement & pavement.
And dogs. The most heavenly creatures on Earth. She fails to train them effectively and then when they don’t behave the way she wants them to, she kills them.
A special circle of Hell awaits her.
Yes, but will history flatter her or demean her? But then who will be writing the history books? Any book that reveals the truth will be banned.
She'll go down like the evil that is, and stain on humanity.
What is Krusty Noem's ethnicity? With all the makeup on, sure don't have a clue what she really looks like except acne scars.
Here is the math. There are approx 50 million K-12 students in the US today. Assume breakfast and lunch at school cost $5 each (that is probably VERY high but let's go with that). There are approximately 200 school days per year.
50,000,000
x $10
x 200
= $100,000,000,000
One hundred billion dollars.
So the money allocated to ICE would pay for EVERY K-12 student in the US getting a $5 breakfast and lunch for every school day of the year. And there would still be $75 billion left over.
Think about that.
Un-f*cking-believable.
Well said. Personally, I honestly do not believe that the $50 billion earmarked for Trump’s big beautiful Wall, is going to build a Wall?
It’s a slush fund for Trump’s other priorities; building a personal Gestapo or Brown and Black shirts, to use for all his nefarious purposes; revenge and retribution.
Additionally, I’d also posit that the people they are hiring for ICE, are members of right-wing militias, hell bent on causing as much pain as possible for any undocumented, or anyone deemed hostile to Trump’s policies. These people are not being vetted properly; if at all!
And ironically, Trump is refusing to release more than $7 billion in funds Congress allocated for summer after school programs for at risk kids. Why? Because cruelty is the point, and is their mission.
So much for being the party that’s saving all our kids; although from what, I have no idea. That said, a good start would be to protect them from MAGA.
As for IceCube Barbi and the Trump “Alligator Alcatraz” Grift? Another fleecing of America to reward some of his biggest supporters; CoreCivic and GEO Group. Within two years we will have more people incarcerated for immigration misdemeanor’s, than we will have in our entire correctional system for violent felonies. Let that sink in (Police State)!
All this at a time when USAID is dead, our high education system in chaos, our scientific Crown Jewels (NIH and CDC) are on life support, and Trump and his cronies are about to kick 14 million off of healthcare, and millions more off of SNAP.
That said, many experts say there is no method to this madness; however, I disagree. This is exactly how to destroy democracy from within. Weaken all institutions, consolidate power, use the federal enforcement agencies as a personal cudgel, and build an invisible army of masked men in unmarked cars picking innocent bystanders off the street.
Creating fear and chaos is the goal, and keeping America paralyzed by fear, as well as in a state of constant confusion is how to keep the rest of us distracted from the truth; we may be closer to fascism than we think! IMHO..:)
The most telling part of the ICE budget is the LACK of funds for courts and judges. The goal to be detain with ZERO due process. And the numbers don’t line up. There aren’t enough immigrants to justify this amount. It will be turned on US citizens with improper avenues to receive due process.
Agreed, it’s deliberate. GEO Group and CoreCivic are two of Trump’s and the GOP’s biggest supporters. It’s their reward! In two years we will have more immigrants locked in internment camps for misdemeanors, than all of the convicted felons incarcerated in our state and federal prisons (1.8 million).
Trump intends to deport 15-20 million, most of whom will be detained for months before being deported. Let that sink in!
It will be interesting to see how many in Trumo world are invested in those companies.
How often they use insider trading to benefit themselves off of people’s misery. For the horrific crime of wanting a better oife and working their tail off, their actual body will be used for profit. Incarcerated and used as a tool to make money off holding them captive for a misdemeanor, doing a job nobody wanted, correct
Y following the rules to check in with the authorities and then snatched and warehoused with no due process or freedom and paid for by unsuspecting tax payers who would cringe if they woke up to the facts of where their money is going and who is profiting.
I can’t imagine the average tax payer would like to see their money taken from feeding a child with a single mother waitressing to make ends meet to hand over to Betsy DeBos vast portfolio to hold a guy who worked picking strawberries and did the right thing and showed up for a court hearing only to be snatched and held captive in alligator Alcatraz. That is our money using human beings to make a profit that will go to filthy rich shareholders in these private prisons.mi personally don’t want to contribute a nickel of my money to be redirected to the billionaire cabinet members and have that blood of some guys feeedom on my hands. Can’t imagine many Americans would.
Because that is what this is all about….the very few sucking up every tax dollar they can any way they can. Private insurers instead of Medicaid. Goes to the shareholders but will still be paid by us. Private retirement instead of social security…still paid by us. Private schools instead of public…still paid by us. All profits going to wealthy shareholders of these private companies. And all the losses dumped on us. And we’ll pay for that too.
There is a clear pathway to hell for such people!
And, just where exactly does he think he can send all of them? There is not enough spaces in the world &, at some point, other countries will refuse to take any more 'illegals' from the US.
That explains why I have a visceral cringe whenever a loud pick-up truck blows by.
Too funny…:)
Your opinion is very correct Robert. Unless a lot of reversals are forced on the admin soo, it won't take long to see the effects of the cuts to food & medical care. As I've said before, who are they going to get to pick up the dead bodies.
Apparently there’s no limit on the amount of money for building prisons and deporting people. But funds for feeding children are so limited that millions will go hungry at lunchtime.
And how long before their cruelty leads them to force the detainees to “ work for their detention” in labor camps awaiting deportation! Trump brings out the worst in people—or maybe their true nature. It’s getting more difficult to know who to trust anymore.
Trump has help. I’m sure the inestimable Stephen Miller is right there.
Miller is a stock holder and Palintr that has government contracts with ICE to provide tech to more accurately attract and detain immigrants.
So basically that 175 billion is being handed to Trump right hand man ….actually the guy whose hand is firmly holding the puppet up from behind.
You mean up his ass as holding him up from behind?
I think that's been the plan right along. In Russia "internal exile."
Not far from Allegator Alcatraz in a state prison where the state contracts out chain gangs.
I remember during visits, seeing & watching the chain gangs in WV working on the roads & such. In the Heat. In the humidity. With the biting bugs. As a child, I was completely horrified!
Probably, their plan all along...force them to work the fields without pay. Make them slaves in America and abroad. This is gut-wrenching. America has no values.
It's so sad to realize that this makes sense in a sick kind of way, to get the economy to work without immigrant labor. But what kind of energy will be going into our food when it's being planted and picked with the horrible darkness of resentment rather than the light of hope for a better life? Unfortunately, the minds of the current reptilian leaders are incapable of experiencing this level of consciousness.
I bet those detainees would rather be working instead of locked up in cages in hot tents all day. They said hot meals 24/7. I’m guessing that’s for the staff. We’ve seen the crap they feed detainees, not allowed to change underwear for 10 days, no diapers or sanitary products. No chance at decent hygiene so disease will run rampant while they’re declaring they are teeming with disease when they grab them off the street.
Oh, like poor houses used to do?
This essay should be distributed to newspapers, news outlets, Congress, podcasts, to any one, anywhere. It's powerful, accurate and meaningful....
You think WaPo will pray it? Or 60 minutes will do in depth analysis and reporting?
Those days are over. But hey…we always have Venice. The wardrobe changes, the longing for privacy in a place that literally gave us the word pappparazzi.
Where’s Melania? Eleanor Roosevelt was her husbands legs diving into coal mines. Jill Biden was by the side of Biden when he was ailing. Shouldn’t she be Trumps brain now that he’s lost his mind? Oh, that’s right. The checks have cleared, her anchor baby is firmly in position. Her work is done.
In the Nation's FACE:
⚫️ Extends Trump's tax cuts for💲wealthy
⚫️ $ 930 Billion in cuts to Medicaid
⚫️ $ 285 Billion in cuts to SNAP
⚫️. $157 Billion boost to 'military' spending
⚫️ $150Billion for ICE [Deftly parsed by HCR's LFAA today].
⚫️ $488 Billion cuts to clean energy cuts [except from Alaska to buy a Vote]
⚫️ $10 Billion for Mars 'Missions'
Shatters the Debt Ceiling threatening our collective Fiscal Future, if any.
Hat Tip & kudos to ALI VITALI's's production staff on 'Way to Early'
You don't have to be wealthy to have your tax cuts extended by this bill. All those who pay income taxes (50% of all of us) will have our current tax rates maintained, rather than increased. Dems had a chance to support Sen. Collins' amendment to put top rate for wealthy back at 39.6%. Only 4 Dems voted in favor of that.
Maybe because they knew it would never pass. A damn good idea from Senator Collin’s. . The senate wanted to change the corporate rate to 28% from 21%, still less than the existing 35% and would go a long way to saving health care. Repubs would not do it.
Watch today’s Maxwell Frost interview with Jen Psaki. The Dems in Congress have big plans😎🙏🏻
What about the section stopping courts from holding Donnie in contempt? Is that still in the bill?
No, it got taken out.
That’s a relief! We have to make sure it stays out. Thanks for the quick reply. It’s bad enough to find out there are chain gangs in Florida without thinking what would happen if he can’t be held in contempt. What the hell is wrong with these magats , especially the supposedly religious ones.
I forgot how it got taken out. I think it was already out before the Parliamentarian ruled, but she might have been the one who overruled that grotesque bit of performance worship of Donald Trump's behind. Nothing to do with budget reconciliation.
No. The Contempt power of a Court is a judicial function.
In California, contempt proceedings are deemed "Quasi Criminal" proceedings where the target defendant receives a high level of due process.
"Vot-a-Rama" proceedings are NOT even Trial ballons🎈🎈🎈🎈...
And those clean energy cuts are going to be devastating to labor.
Does the tip exemption apply to “gratuities” , formerly known as bribes to public officials Kavannaugh talked about? So now Clarence can start spending all the “tips” Crowe and Leo left on his dresser as non taxable earned tip income.
Great way to measure and spell out the cruelty of an incredibly narcissistic President Donald Trump. He betrays those who voted for him in rural communities and whose children are in schools. No wonder he said he loves the undereducated.
Sadly yes. Maybe you heard what Chris Murphy said — the Reps have given up on democracy — they only believe in strong man ( literally) power now. Shame on them.
Trump knifed us in our backs. I think we ought to get him the hell out of here. Will Bukele charge extra to take him?
🎯🎯🎯💯💯💯😢😢
Agree about Finland 100 percent.
The cruelty isn't the point or the priority. The point and the priority is a simple message: "Disagree with us and you will regret it."
The lying, the never-ending lying along with an uneducated base that believes all the lies. Because an orange clown-bully toddler was once on tv, they believe his lies, his hateful, racist, misogynistic lies; his greedy, narcissistic lies; they grovel at the feet of their false idol, all in the name of white christian nationalism. I am losing hope that there is any way to stop the sinking of trump’s America.
I agree Gwen. Plus the Republican Party voted in the worst, most inexperienced, most unqualified presidential cabinet ever. All loyalists who will follow the ever increasing SFB mentally and morally incompetent felon.
Beyond that, fake justice. Trump said Tuesday he would approve Florida’s plan to expedite deportations by having qualified National Guard members work as immigration judges.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article309792865.html#storylink=cpy
Does he still get to keep his workers at the golf resorts or do they bring in an alligator alley chain gang?
Their chains would mess up the greens.
Daniel Solomon -- Regretfully, in order to read your links to the Miami Herald, people have to have a paid subscription. No freebies.
Like that is what the people who joined the National Guard really want to do to support their country.
Agreed
Afree
Agree. Most unqualified admin since America started starting with taco down.
There is plenty of resistance and push back. Join us.
Correct. It is a struggle that is worth it and we owe it to those who came before us to protect our freedom. We must protect it for now and the future.
Elizabeth, I and others are beginning to understand on a gut level how the civil rights marchers must have felt when all their protests seemed to have no effect against the hatred they saw daily. But the polls show that the Overton window (what is acceptable to the US public) of treating immigrants as vermin (much like blacks in the 1960’s) is shifting as people see the humanity of the people being rounded up. We need to keep telling the stories of the good people trying who are snatched out of their gardens and out of the courthouses as they obey the laws.
Not to be overly nihilistic, but this is an entirely different era. The power to vote these thugs out of office is on death row.
Mark my words. They would not have voted for this monstrous bill if they thought there was any chance of being voted out of office.
It’s true that the last election was far from free and fair due to the gerrymandering. That’s why local change is so important now, before the next election. Remember the fake electors!! That was a real thing and Colorado was right to try to keep Don-old-grump off the ballot.
Not just gerrymandering but also voting machine manipulation. Remember how they always accuse others of what they themselves are doing.
Not really. They are focused on the immediate gain, not the long-term one. Out of fear, they voted to pass the bill. What happens next week or next month is beyond their rationality.
I respectfully disagree. They wouldn’t be where they are if that were true. All they ever focus on is remaining in power.
And they will pay at the ballot by es. Americans now understand what is happening to the Nation under Trump's MAGA. The Resistance is rising. The People rule.
They are in investing their political futures in a loser and narcissist who uses people and then throws them under the bus. We can count the bodies. Where is Rudy Giuliani today? Once the trusted and respected Chief Prosecutor in the highly respected Second Judicial District of New York who broke the back of the Mafia and as Mayor of New York, cleaned up the City's criminal environment, restoring it to safety and its life for residents and visitors. Whoever gets entwined in Trump's death grip, gets crushed.
As I have no doubt they will be, once they become irrelevant.
Totally agree. I have worked with Hispanic immigrants in a parish setting and with persons working to help them through Pres. Reagan's Amnesty Program in 1986, attending English as a Second Language classes. They The great majority were kind, honest, hard-working, deeply devoted to family, respectful, law-abiding, had a deep Faith and Hope in God, taught their children to respect teachers and older adults, cared for the elderly, helped their neighbors, and believed in community. Donald Trump and his MAGA minions and Stephen Miller lie shamelessly and defame these good people who have more kindness and honesty than Trump and Miller together. One day, they will be held accountable to a Higher Power who has said, "Whatever you do to the least of these my Little ones you do to Me.". The Republicans' injustices to these good and loving people will be judged by the Lord Who is Love and does justice for the poor.
Amen Elizabeth, amen.
Elizabeth, I agree. We will resist. I'm fighting for Democracy with all I've got!
Oh many are, but it feels like the tsunami of cruelty is outrunning us.
Elizabeth, I don't know about "plenty "of push back, but I do know we must continue to fight peacefully against these cruel S.O.B.s. WAKE UP AMERICA
Until Faux News is shut down, the misinformation stream will not end. Those whose eyes are glued to the TV, watching and listening to the lies, will never know the damage that’s being done, until it happens to them. But they will already know who to blame: Democrats, immigrants and transgender people. That’s the setup.
Adam Kinzinger interviewed the man who started a movement to help people leave MAGA (leavingmaga.org). He said he had no idea of what else was happening in the country other what Fox reported until he started looking beyond it.
MLMinET: Thank you for the video on Leaving MAGA. It is very helpful. And thanks to Adam Kinzinger for doing this work, too.
It is hard to grasp that offering actual data to a MAGA supporter (i.e., offering what is normally called "facts") is not a useful tool. I am just going to have to believe the advice that facts are not the route to take.
I had grown tired of the admonition to try to "understand" them, but there doesn't seem to be another path. The fact is, I can't understand them. I can't understand the vote on the budget bill that is going to decimate so many lives or the Alligator Alcatraz or the ruination of Earth by stopping climate work. It's unbelievable.
So the job before us is to take a hard road, accept that we don't understand where this is coming from (despite our explanations for MAGA, it is not really understandable), and work on finding our way through the antagonism to the core needs of others. Their needs may be mine, as well... say, for instance, the need for love.
It sounded like Rich Logis will talk with people who need help talking to others.
MLMinET...but let's be clear. No one makes anyone watch or listen to right-wing media. They choose to (at least initially) because what is being said resonates with them. It makes them feel good and feel right. Then once hooked it's brainwashing. I watched Adam's interview with Rich Logis too. He felt like he was in a community (his people) and it felt good. Read the testimonials under They Left MAGA. I havent gotten through them all, but I will. The spell seems to break once they get away from the right wing garbage.
Oh clearly it’s their own choice. But must be addictive if you read the stories of children who’ve weaned away elderly parents.
That was an interesting broadcast. It reinforced every feeling I have about Fox News and other, even worse outlets. It's not "news" they're watching, it's a platform for indoctrinating fear and everything that goes with it. But how to get them to switch off the channel and start reading?
It's Come ... there is a massive segment of the U.S. population who are not going to read anything. As I've recently noted, I must be aware of this in my daily work. These non-readers offer many excuses for not reading, chief of which is "they don't have time." Indeed, reading requires undivided attention and as much time as the reader's aptitude enables.
By contrast, electronic media allow for "multitasking," even if that is eating one's dinner in front of the TV.
The only solution, as I see it, is to offer truthful content on electronic media that looks and feels like the untruthful media Americans are comfortable with. It's a solution not unlike Gabbard's idea of making intelligence reports look like Fox Entertainment's broadcasts for the minimally literate president.
What a sad state of affairs...
Lots of people are not readers. I personally would rather read then watch TV but I think I’m unusual.
You are, probably in more ways than your preference for reading. 😊 I'm in your tribe. I get so frustrated with Substackers who link me to their videos rather than providing a transcript. I can read faster than listening to people exchanging pleasantries, clearing their throats and umming their way through a dialogue.
https://ohhthatsrich.substack.com is the exception ... and exceptional!
I'd rather be 'unusual' than addicted to bad media.
Cold Turkey!
Faux News watchers will need to be de- programmed & probably mental health drugs to slow their addiction.
Gwen,
All sentient beings are hurting along with you over this administration’s abuses and excesses. Please don’t lose hope, this is when we need you the most. And remember it’s always darkest just before dawn and a new day is coming. The cruelty will end. Work hard, love much.
I hope you’re right—that somehow this nightmare will end. I’m sick at least today and trying to h not to lose all hope.
The lies are not even credible, only MAGAts and greedy bastards buy the bullschittery
Gwen, we must never lose hope. We need to stand up, speak out, and resist. We can do this.
Gwen, my hope is completely gone. I get exactly what you're saying. At this point, my 71 year old body is just waiting for the end to come. As a stroke survivor, I know that I am considered a taker by the magat crowd. Life really sucks right now...
I am re-reading 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury. Written seventy-two years ago, the ^book^ accurately foresees the cultural trends, societal violence, dumbing down of students.
All those science fiction books and movies actually portend the future, if we pay attention. Think of of mind control. It’s way beyond robots. We’re talking AI that takes 1984 into a new realm. And surely you’ve noticed it’s EVERYWHERE now, correcting words we type, requiring us to proofread everything carefully. Suggesting things to us from emails we write and ads we scan with our eyes. Show me your papers. Prove you are who you say you are. We have already stepped over some of these lines. Some of us were lead, most of us were pushed.
One of my doctors asked me if he could record our meeting with an AI app. I said no to that and followed up with a letter saying that I want it noted on my chart that I have opted out of their new system. Somebody from the office called me back and said they can’t do that. I have to opt out every time I’m there!
Good for you. I refuse to use our EMR's AI recording of visits. The recording goes "to the cloud" somewhere, and we are assured it is deleted after 7 days, no one else can access it during that time, blah, blah. Not believing it. Some of my colleagues are drinking the AI Kool Aid. Not me. Not taking any chance that my patients' privacy could be violated.
Thank you! I now have even more facts in my arsenal for the next time this comes up.
Hear, here, Mr BoSox!
Thank you LHS! I'm retired from nursing & it sounds like none too soon!
Good grief!
Make that a double, Ally.
Thank you for the suggestion. Thus far, only my eye doc uses the system. I will say 'no' at my next appt!
Scary as sh*t1
Coercion, pure and simple.
EDIT P.S., Jan D., I have only come recently to appreciate the value of well-written science fiction as a critique of current society and where it is headed. Thank you.
There are elements of 'Fahrenheit-451' that echo parts of '1984'. One is presenting one side of the story only to stymie debate; remind me of flooding the zone and monopolizing public discourse after the Citizens Benighted decision. Another is the rise of data dinks stuffing people's heads with quantified ephemera with utility without value..
I worry about Soylent Green! Although I do have to admit, when he decided to pack it in, that was a beautiful way to die. And thumprints to get into programs, and facial recognition, and when we were caring for our elderly parents, for some reason we began to get all kinds of ads for Depends and walkers. Now I get ads from crematoriums. (Unfortunately, that is beginning to make more and more sense!)
Ah that hazards of life with many years, too many data and too little wisdom. https://youtu.be/W0q3Vh1Yr9Q
Ned...have you read Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents? Written in 1993 and 1998, respectively.
The plot: "Beginning in 2024, when society in the United States has grown unstable due to climate change, growing wealth inequality, and corporate greed,..."
I just bought Parable of the Sower for a trip, but haven’t started it yet.
Dammit, you set an example; I am coughing up the dough, too . . . due to a RedSock, no less. 😉
Well if it makes you feel a little better, the pinnacle of my Sox fandom was 20 years ago. I hang on to the name because it was the Twitter handle I picked in 2009. I can’t believe that was 16 years ago!
Hey, I am from Pittsburgh. The Pirates have not won a pennant since 1979. No sympathy from me, pal. 😉
Seriously, my great Aunt Auga was a B.I.C. (Boston Irish Catholic). She was devout and suffering from extreme arthritis back in the late 1960s. Just before she died, Great Aunt Auga came to Pittsburgh to visit my Aunt and Dad. I spent some time with her. 😇
The fingers of my great aunt were doubled back in pain. She showed a grace, however, remaining up-beat. One source of her exemplary stoicism? The BoSox in general and 'Yaz' in particular. So, I have felt indebted to the RedSox for bringing happiness to a suffering older woman. 💛
Truly, I was very happy to see Boston win the World Series in 2004. And I am one of the few outside of New England who did not envy the Patriots, 🥳
Reading Parable of the Sower and just read A Fever in the Heartland about the KKK 100 years ago, by Timothy Egan. So many parallels to our time.
I’ll check out that one. Thanks.
I keep hoping against hope that what we are seeing is the last gasp of greed and desecration of what a human community is supposed to be. I am losing heart.
Wow! I remember that now!!
ooo! I'll have to read. Amazing how so many written things speak to our present times.
Wow, I’d forgotten about that book, scary to see how well Butler predicted the future.
Ordered both books; many thanks, M. K. 🤝🏻 It will likely be a while before I get to them. 🤭 Too many books and too little time,🫨 even for a speed-reader like me (i.e., two hundred, eleven words per minute😉).
I am looking up the books now. The blurb on the 'Parable of the Sower' reminds me of 'The Secret Life of Bees' in a young heroine being sensitized to injustice around her that others take for granted. Projecting that into a tormenting future sounds intriguing, if depressing. Thank you for the recommendation, M. K.
EDIT P.S., M. K., I will order the book, but first I am reading 'The Feast of the Goat' by Mario Vargas Llosa, recommend by a mind for bigger than mine. Apparently the novel goes to the structure of authoritarianism.
I'm in fear of "Logan's Run". Senior citizens are of no use to this crowd.
Right there with you, Bobbie. Hard for me to admit now that, at times, I thought the same way forty years ago. Then others would remind me that, if I desired even a granule of wisdom, I had better listen to my elders, 'successes' and 'failures' alike.
Seems I had a lot of growing up to do; still growing up. I know when I will get there: when my organs are donated and my dust scattered. As I quote my long-gone father, "I had a late puberty like the ape." An absurd statement that makes all the sense in the world to me.
Ned, my dad wasn't always the easiest guy to get along with, but sometimes he was so profound, he would blow my mind. He said once to me, “Bobbie, I know a lot of good shit. All of which I didn't know at one time.” We're all dinosaurs. We're loaded with knowledge and experience. When we go, that's it. Sadly, I guess we're expendable.
With as close to a tear in my I as I can get these days, *Bobby, you are NOT expendable except in the minds of those who truly are. 😳💔😢
EDIT: please excuse the mis-spelling of your name, Bobby. 😳
Waiting for them to decide that the lead senior citizen is of no more use
This scene from 1968 is three minutes and change but says it all. https://youtu.be/EvusFZh3ubw (Star Trek; 'Patterns of Force'.)
As Jan Dorsett notes above, science fiction can be instructive until a society forgets the lessons of history.
Thank you, Ned, for the link.
George Takei was actor for the original crew of this series. As a boy, 25 years earlier, he and his family were among the 110,000 Japanese-Americans evicted from their homes and sent to camps in fear Americans had regarding them then.
"They Called Us Enemy" is the name of the manga novel he did on this.
You are welcome, Phil. Your kick-off comment kicked ass.
!!! ;)
A scary book!
They have no empathy because they were not taught it by their elders. And statistically .2 to 3.3% of the population are sociopaths. The are in the White House, the Republican Congress and the MAGA movement.. The Balinese culture here is not a reading culture, no travel books, novels, memoires, essays and they still have empathy and humanity.
Psychopaths through and through.
You are right! Psychopaths are known for their profound lack of empathy. Prevalence in general.population 1 to 4%.
There's a fair chance that all of us have known at least one. I think I know who they were in my lifetime. I still have a few knives in my back. They don't seem to go away.
Right on, Wendy. Just above your comment is an exchange between Bobby Pitkin and me about that subject. Being flawed, I am very grateful today that I had parents who drummed respect for elders -- one through discipline and the other through example.
The ethic grew with the practice. I could never delight too much in others mocking older people -- even those whom I disliked (e.g., President Nixon). Perhaps that enforced respect for older people, not always felt or expressed to be sure, planted a seed of empathy, a seed requiring constant watering even today.
Absolutely right. A couple of tech bros dominated by reductionist-materialstic machine thinking are ruling the country now.
Hello Dutch Mike... I worked in Tech for a long time though I was Educated in Humanities, as well as STEM... I was Professional Military as Well... That is a People Business... Many Techies are NERDS... They are on the Autism Spectrum... Big Tech, and Wall Street are running the Country... They are Notoriously Materialistic...
My first ‘career job’ was at a family manufacturing company. For 50 years we created value. We took raw materials and built product that was worth substantially more than the inputs.
Not to long ago I was talking to some high school students and I talked about the idea of ‘Value added production’ and all I saw were blank stares.
We have become a transactional economy where rents are taken, but precious little is created.
That diminishes all of us.
And all they do of any value is move piles of money from one pile to another... Money and power. At the top of the heap they are "Hoovering up" what is left of any legacy of the baby boom generation. They weren't satisfied making those greatest fortunes off of them; Now they want what's left. Where is the 'Soylent Green' machine for us walk into ? Maybe the next build in south Florida.
Thanks D4N... The 'Social Apps' have destroyed the Social Glue, and Social Contract... Wall Street has also destroyed much of the Foundations of the Economy... The USA cannot stand by itself economically anymore... This goes way beyond Simplistic DJT's Hallucinations... Corbin Trent had an Excellent Substack Post about this Today...
Thanks for the suggestion of Corbin Trent and his Substack!
Apache, your words often shake me into a taller alertness that's energizing. Since your poem a while back, I noted in your profile that you're "'Heyoka' by Nature. I looked up "Heyoka". Now you've prompted me to imagine that the strains in the current Republican and Democratic parties dissolve into atrophy and that Heyoka forces attract masses towards a Highly Functional Serious Simplicity guided by the Constitution and Life-Affirming Light. Heyoka spirits partnering with Techies are NERDS devising methods to reverse-engineer the confusion and violence that's prevailing today.
Thank You Joan... Read Archie Lame Deer's, "Gift Of Power" for a Good Explanation of Heyoka Spirit... My Heyoka Spirit is Heavily Tempered by the Study, and Practice of Zen... The Current USA Duopoly of RNC/DNC is reaching the end of its viability, and something new must be created in order to address the Potential Disasters of Climate Change, and A.I. ... Change Is Constant, Tao is Supreme...
I'm insulted by your calling Trump a tech bro and Elon has devolved into a drug addict who is lucid a fraction of the time. Trump is nothing more than what Rex Tillerson called him in 2017 - "a fucking moron." He has already bankrupted thousands of companies in the US and has us on the precipice of a recession. And many economists and market experts already feel we are in a recession.
I would argue that many of the oligarchs are on the spectrum and I do agree that many techies are nerds having worked with thousands of techies over the past 50 years.
I've worked with companies large and small in 37 different states and 4 foreign countries and I am unaware of any of them on the spectrum. I have relatives that actually are on the spectrum and I am constantly amazed at how different their brains work. But they aren't cruel and hateful like the Republicans are.
I didn't call Trump a tech bro. He is absolutely "a fucking moron", but the tech bros like Musk and Thiel need him to do what he does. These Silicon Valley kazillionaires are running the show, not the Republicans. And once again, for the tech bros like Musk and Thiel, the people are mere resources (or "NPCs") for their great and divine plans. Cruelty may not be their point (whereas with Trump it's the entire point - he's just an 8-year-old school yard bully living his revenge fantasies), but their world view is devoid of any humanity - and this has a cruelty all in itself.
He is a skilled grifter. He's still asking and receiving feancet from his cult followers. He has extorted virtually everyone he targets, from corporations to countries to his cult.
IMHO he's in the nuclear business. Trying to sell Iran. During Trump #45, Kushner reportedly hawked a project aimed at sharing U.S. nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia, even over objections from senior U.S. national security officials. The potential beneficiaries of this project included Brookfield Asset Management, a firm that later provided financial assistance to the Kushner family's real estate business.
Post-Government Financial Ties: After leaving the White House, Kushner's investment firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This substantial investment, which followed a close working relationship between Kushner and the Crown Prince during the Trump administration, has fueled concerns about potential conflicts of interest and whether Kushner improperly benefited from his government position.
https://democracyforward.org/work/uncovering-the-trump-administrations-efforts-to-bypass-congress-in-pursuit-of-deal-to-transfer-nuclear-technology-to-saudi-arabia/
Now, he's selling Iran. Trump administration exploring $30 billion civilian nuclear deal for Iran. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-exploring-30-billion-civilian-nuclear-deal-iran-rcna215679
Saudi Arabia has publicly stated it would pursue nuclear weapons if Iran does, and the two countries are engaged in a complex web of regional politics and nuclear negotiations.
Hello Phil... Study the 7-Samurai Virtues... Compassion is one of them. Honesty, Sincerity are others.... DJT, his Cabal, and John Roberts are not Samurai... They are Demented, or Delusional...
I bet many of them have read “Atlas Shrugged.”
And it shows also outside Congress -- in the over-the-top trashy and of-so- gaudy wedding of Bezos to the woman who has had endless work done on her face, body and hair. Screaming of wealth with no class. Citizens United, along with the absence of a rounded humanities education, opened the gold-plated floodgates to this cruel garbage.
The worship of a false God: 💵
We were warned repeatedly by every religion known to man since the beginning of time. God is a human construct. The wisdom of generations constructed God to be agape love for others.
“Because American schools long ago stopped teaching such literacy, humanity.”
Schools are a human construct. We get what we allow. Television screens and now digital screens play to fast moving and exciting action. Books can’t keep up. Conversations and histories shared can’t keep up. We get what we allow.
Phil, I'm not sure what schools you are in close contact with, but your statement about "no novels..." etc. is absolutely untrue in the hundreds of schools I've worked in as a consultant for twelve years. What is often not taught because it's been blocked by right wing MAGA enthusiasts is exactly the virtue you named: empathy, character traits, core democratic values like service and courage. Your energy is better served working to make that happen than broadly painting the incredibly hard-working people in our schools with a patently unfair criticism.
If schools have consultants in their budgets, such affluent, Debbie, may actually read.
For most of America, however, you can search online to read more careful reports of the many more being jettisoned by our growing-the-inequality-gap rich.
Evangelical preachers have lately declared having empathy a “sin.” Seriously.
And empathy and love replace the seven deadly sins? (Gluttonly, sloth, lust, greed wrath, envy and pride)?
This hits hard. Empathy should be the foundation of leadership, not an afterthought. When policies are shaped without human stories, without understanding or care, we get exactly what we are seeing — decisions made for profit and power, not people. The erosion of literacy is not just academic; it is moral. And when we lose the habit of walking in someone else's shoes, we lose the soul of democracy. We have to reclaim it through education, through community, and by lifting up leaders who still remember what it means to feel.
The tax cut is still about 3% for each tax bracket, same as in 2017. The corporate tax cut is a different animal but as far as personal income tax goes hard to have it fairer than about the same raw % across tax brackets.
https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/what-is-the-tcja
The *amount* of the cut is, for the poor family, quite possibly the difference between three decent-ish meals a day, and two cheap ones; and for the extremely rich person, chump change.
Meanwhile, they are taking away health care for 14 million people and cutting SNAP benefits for millions more. They are fucking over pretty much, everyone except for the oligarchs, many of whom are living off of generational wealth.
It's a strong argument in favor of extended cuts to point out that it keeps needed food on the plate of the less fortunate.
But I think your math is off as 3% of even $50k is $4 a day.
But $4 a day is $120 a month. That is significant for someone making $50K.
Sure it is... it just isn't the difference between three decent-ish meals a day and two cheap ones.
The problem is the $4 trillion that is getting added to the national debt and the cuts to research, the VA, SS, Medicaid, Medicare, USAID, etc. All they had to do was increase the corporate tax rate by 4%, bring back the AMT so that people like Bezos that pay 1.1% income taxes pay at least 15%, increase the tax rate for those making more than $400,000 a year and raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour.
But instead, they lied about helping everyone when we all know that the oligarchs are going to get the lion's share of the tax cuts.
Propublica says Bezos pays 23% on the basis that AMT would apply to, income. They say your 1% is based on using wealth as the denominator.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
When you are spending 7-10x the current $25 billion budget for ICE in one year, and those costs are expected to rise, NO ONE should be getting a tax cut.
The ICE budget is a travesty to be sure, but taking away health care benefits for around 14 million people not to mention all of the other cuts is criminal.
Well relative to now no one is.
Look at the tax rates of your northern European countries, and the quality of life experienced by their citizens. NOW do your American tax analysis, and the comparable quality of life.
It would make sense to pay more in taxes to have universal health care and other things like those countries. An interesting, quite different, topic.
3% "across all tax brackets" is a regressive tax. 3% from an income of, say, $20,000 hits that household a lot harder than 3% from a household income of $200,000. To someone living on $20,000/year, (which amounts to about $1,667/month) $600 is a significant hit.
Any tax cut when the lowest 50% pay 2.3% of the total paid is going to be regressive, but that's because of the (agreed) great feature that the whole tax system is heavily progressive, as it should be.
What I fail to understand is why you want the people at the lower end to take the significant hit? Remember, that person's at $20k's taxes will *go up* by that much relative to today if this doesn't pass, until another change happens.
I DON'T want people at the lower end to take a big hit...that's why I was pointing out that an across the board 3% or any percent flat tax hits lower household income levels harder than it hits households with higher levels of incomes. Perhaps we are not on the same page.
I was thinking back to when Steve Forbes--a guy with all the charisma of a Ron DeSantis or a JD Vance ran for president. One of his cherished platform planks was making taxes "simpler" by a straight 17% flat tax on income--across the board, all income levels. His candidacy fizzled when it was revealed that he would save a a big pile of money if such a tax law went into effect...so I don't think we can be talking about the same thing.
The only way for people to not take that hit is for this bill to pass. The page we may not be on together is that this bill helps those low income earners, even if it helps higher income people even more. But that is the reality.
The two futures are this bill passes and their taxes stay low, or this bill fails to pass and their taxes go up by that much.
The utility of the tax cut goes down the more somebody earns.
For the bottom brackets $100 puts food on the table or pays for important prescriptions. For the top 1% they don’t defer consumption so saving on taxes is of little real meaning.
$ saved by highest earners don't go to consumption, true. they are however directly involved in putting $ on the table for lower income folks thru investment and job creation. for me and many others i know it works that way - every extra $ is invested in entrepreneurs not LVMH.
Actually that’s not true.
That is one of the persistent lies about supply side economics.
While some wealthy people will actively reinvest what studies have found is the vast majority like cartoon images of Scrooge McDuck, just add more dollars that sit in their vault.
One of the primary ways the wealthy avoid taxes is by borrowing against an asset (since it’s a loan it doesn’t get counted as income or capital gain)
Milton Friedman spent years talking about money supply and how it impacts economic growth, the problem with giving money to the rich is it becomes money stock. It become inactive.
Dollars in their vault are in the stock market. Stock market investments are in companies. Higher stock prices allow capital investment by those companies and equity sales by other stockholders, producing returns that are reinvested in new companies.
Income taxes AND corporate taxes were both cut in the 2017 TCJA. In the first full year the new tax structure applied, there was greater tax revenue despite the cuts which demonstrated this effect well.
You clearly have studied at the altar of supply siders. Sadly reality over the last 50 years have shown your claims to be false. Moneys don’t get reinvested. Maybe small amounts do, but the economic impact of $1,000 going to the top 1% is far less than if it goes to the bottom 1%.
Consider when financial firms have been bailed out over the last few decades. Without fail those funds get bonused out to partners…not reinvested.
You can argue all you want for supply side, it has been clearly demonstrated not to work.
Your link also says this, "Most tax rates were reduced under TCJA. However, the lowest tax rate of 10% was not. Taxpayers in the lowest bracket before and after the TCJA could be subject to a 10% tax...Households earning $450,000 or more receive about 45% of benefits from the TCJA. As you can see from the above examples, under the TCJA, those with higher incomes generally save more on taxes than taxpayers with lower incomes."
So, the Americans least able to pay got no tax cut under the TCJA. Conspicuous by its absence is any rule that the tax rate paid by the highest earners, those most able to pay, got no reduction in taxes. No, no rule like that was included in the TCJA. They receive a tax break of 3%. But it's "...hard to have it fairer than about the same raw % across tax brackets" I suppose you would say. I'd ask, "across which brackets?"
Oddly, the table of federal tax brackets begins with an income of $77,400, married, filing jointly. Why doesn't it include lower earners and top earners? The tax bracket table proposed for 2025 does show lower earners, but that's only visible if one happens to follow a link to a different article.
So, in the wonderful BBB, the very lowest earners get a tax break worth zero dollars while the somewhat higher earners get a break worth at least $14,400 and we can't tell from your Kiplinger article how much the highest earners would get.
Further, "Another benefit for wealthier taxpayers under the TCJA is the doubling of the federal estate tax exemption." That way, the hereditary aristocracy that Republicans favor is strengthened and accelerated.
Is it really "...hard to have it fairer than about the same raw % across tax brackets?"
Well it's still hard to have it fairer than equally done across brackets, it's just not equally done across brackets in this case. You showed it doesn't apply for lowest earners here I agree. It is fair to say that this would be fairer is lowest bracket also moved to 7%. This is only 90% fair since about 10% of households are in that bracket and see no benefit. Do you know if the other changes like tax credits helped them at all, which may have been considered why not to change that bracket?
I am going to cut to the chase here…With the size of our debt why does anyone DESERVE a tax cut.
This bill adds between 3-5 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, this makes no sense at all.
It has been shown over and over Tax cuts do not drive growth. They do not pay for themselves.
You speak of fairness, but how is it fair to future generations to leave them in deeper debt?
I don't disagree. Just say that to argue against the cut - my beef is if one is lying about it by saying it's patently unfair, when in the context of a massively progressive system an equal % cut at each bracket level is relatively quite fair.
If you look at 2017 you also have to consider the huge reduction in SALT deductions. The ability to deduct State and Local tax payments (things like property tax or local income tax) went from unlimited to $10,000. This significantly outweighed any federal tax cut.
For people making $20k, not so much.
Ok the answer is in the deductions offered. Deductions generally went up 20% or more which greatly helps those in the 10% bracket.
With standard/personal deductions considered an individual making $14k: paid $360 in income tax before 2017, has paid $200 since and will pay zero if the 2025 version passes or $360 again if it does not.
A couple making $25k: paid $400 before 2017, has paid $100 since and will pay zero if the 2025 version passes or $400 again if it does not.
I appreciate your capacity to articulate the dimensions of this disaster with such clarity. Can a protesting 3.5% of the US population -- 11 million people -- reverse this spiral down into Hell?
I thought that number was pulled back to claim 5 million involved?
Thank you, Phil, for a WOWerful opener for last evening's comments. What you write reminds me of 'The Hollow Men' by T.S. Eliot. https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men
Thank you, Ned.
Many of the sharpest images in this Eliot classic go directly to the trenches of WWI.
The long slide to autocracy the U.S. has suffered in many ways resembles the decades-long complacency European elites sank into during all their prosperity just prior to "The Guns of August."
It's another Barbara Tuchman book, "The Proud Tower," which examines that profound somnolence of behalf of nearly all Europe's elites then.
Thank you for history, Phil. Tuition check is in the mail.
So true and sad
I think we are already living in a police state. As an Alaskan, I am beyond furious, and disgusted with Murkowski. She made a comment after the vote, about how the bill is bad, and still needs work, but she voted for it. Oh and another part of her comment was that she knows " it will not advantage some people." I read that as code words for kill. She knows it will kill people, but as long as the oil companies can do what they want, she does not care.
'I hated the bill. That's why I voted for it.' 🤪 How about just not voting for it then?
https://substack.com/home/post/p-167312522
If there's a single consolation in all this -- -and it is a VERY poor one at that -- it's that his people will suffer far more than I will in my blue bubble here in Washington DC, retired, educated, in reasonable health, owning my own home with savings, a natural-born American with access to high-quality medical care. The angel of death will largely spare me and mine, but his cult -- those in rural areas in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia, West Virginia, where huge swaths of the population are literally dependent on Medicaid, and the local business is healthcare -- his voting bloc --- well, that's another story.
I take no pleasure from saying so. I wasn't raised to seek the misfortune of others. But as sure as the sun rises in the east, his cult are going to get it in the face. Facts are facts.
But they've timed the real effect until after the midterms - so it won't be as big of an election issue - and if the Democrats should take back the Senate and the House the GOP will blame it on them. Though I would hope that if the Democrats return to the majority they could revoke this bill before it cuts too deep.
Only if we "get" to vote. Buckle up. The next attack (which is already well under way) is to either cancel elections all together, or make it so difficult to vote that many will not be able to. The midterms can't come soon enough - IF we even have them.
Thank you for this. I’ve been shouting into the whirlwind since before the 2024 election that their goal is to eliminate elections.
They have already started to eliminate elections.
The House will be won in this midterms, and this monster bill will be revoked. I'm fighting with everything I've got to make this happen
🤞
I still want all his supporters to suffer. Six rural hospitals in Nebraska will close and I no longer care. They did this to us.
Oh, man, Laurie! I don't want anyone to suffer! There are many here who are in red states and can't leave for various reasons. They are going to hurt, too.
I guess we can all take a moment to feel angry and resentful and whatever...but please then, let it go. I know I might get called out on this (and I have had friends do so to me) but to me, hating on MAGA is too similar to hating on someone who is black, or gay, or Muslim, or an addict or whatever. I will agree, sadly, there are some people whoapparently can't be redeemed, but I HAVE to hope people can change! I admit, after the election, I was so shell-shocked, I told my husband that I could hardly make eye contact in the grocery store as I was thinking "are YOU one of THEM who voted for THAT?". It was a sickening feeling.
I will also admit to thinking not-very-nice thoughts when I pass the house that has an about 8x10 foot Trump flag plastered up near the roof (although the other 10 or so signs--yep, I counted them--have been taken down). Holding onto hate has never worked out well for my mental status.
Black, gay, Muslim...those are not choices. MAGAts CHOSE who and what they are. May they all suffer the karma they SO deserve.
Im trying to be a better person.
If you don't know someone political leanings and they are hungry, do you deny them if you discover they think differently than you?
True Christianity is a hard row to hoe. I struggle all the time. I refuse to let MAGA steal my humanity.
Those are nice sentiments. But indeed, being MAGA is a choice. Recall that the average voter for Donald Trump is a 40-50 y.o. White male earning $65,000 per year. This is not the demographic of either haplessness or ignorance. Wanting people to suffer consequences is not hatred; it is in reality a wish for a useful learning experience. This is where we are.
Does anyone remember the parenting concept of "Tough Love"? It was allowing your children to accept the consequences of their actions/decisions. It is time for the childlike MAGAs to suffer the consequences of their decisions. Too bad, we have to suffer also in order to raise up half of the country who have failed to grow up, but that is what being a responsible adult is all about.
The ONLY thing that will stop this, is that love is greater than hate. Really. If 'they' are 'other' then we are doing the same thing just in a different flavor. Yes, it is infuriating, but we need to channel our energy into doing good not hating or "I-told-you-so-ing" or "let 'em rot-away-ing". What we really desire is that they wake the****up and reform themselves and what they have put in place. Only then will we get truly past this mess. We must work to that end. No matter how hard it is. This is the work of the ages, eh? It may take longer than we have lifetimes for unfortunately. But this work is what this planet needs most. I have worked with folks in the prisons who had done despicable things - truly horrid, and yet when they came to their senses, of their own accord wanting reformation into the program that I was a volunteer facilitator for, they learned deeply who they could be. They were eager to improve and work toward that end. I found it inspiring to learn from them and was easily able see them for the best that they were instead of defining them for the worst they had ever done. They brought a hard won wisdom that anchored their changes. Please do not let anyone EVER make you be the worst in you. It is not fulfilling, kind or constructive for you or anyone else. We have a lot of work to do. If we show such a kindness, they will eventually see it. I am sorry too, and very sad, looking for answers still, but determined that they will NOT get me to hate, use fear or intimidation, racism or greed to get ahead. It never works in the long run.
We need a very big majority to roll everything back. We saw what happened last time we were in the majority. Manchin and Sinema puts the brakes on needed reforms that would have prevented the current madness. Now it’s Fetterman and I bet another DINO emerges to stymie us and keep the Overton window moving right. It’s been happening for four decades…
Can you revoke a bill??? Now that’s hopeful!!! Hard to celebrate the 4th of July when you’re living in a police state😞
Aren’t they trying to revoke all of Biden’s bills right now? And the ones not being revoked outright are just not receiving their funding. The power of the purse lies solely with Trump as Noem spends exponentially over her budget and doesn’t care.
He campaigned on promises that the Maggots would never need to vote again. Nobody paid attention. However, that is a single promise he will endeavor to fulfill.
lauriemcf, it's always our fault. The repugnants know how to spin.
I’ve been thinking they are some kind of death cult for some time and then that strange town hall with Joni Ernst saying “we’re all going to die someday” just confirmed it.
The entire South is going to get hammered since hurricanes, heat waves, fires, tornadoes, bomb cyclones, etc. are just going to keep getting worse and now that NOAA and National weather service has been slashed and doged they’ll be less prepared. FEMA is being repurposed for detention sites, hopefully not death camps for their cult.
I doubt that the Alligator Auschwitz tent city will fare well in its first encounter with a south Florida hurricane.
I've seen some very sad looking dog kennels that would fare better in a severe storm than this janky concentration camp tent city the regime slapped together. And it's already taking on water 1 day after opening, just from a typical Florida storm passing over their swamp gulag!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLl4R3xub6y/
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/video-floridas-alligator-alcatraz-is-already-flooding-23543880
You got that right. They can have "alternate facts" all they want, and they can misinform and twist numbers all they want, but the real FACT is bad things are coming for those who relied upon the social safety nets. Even the dullest among us must at some point, when facing some cuts, say "what does Biden have to do with this? This is Trump all the way."
Just like the Big Lie got repeated and repeated and repeated, and just as Trump manages to bring up his victimhood regardless of the point of discussion, so I am counting on ALL DEMOCRATS to constantly, continually hammer home THIS IS ON THE GOP. THIS IS ON THE GOP. THIS IS ON THE GOP. THIS IS ON THE GOP.
Miselle, they will not believe anything that is counter to the propaganda they consume from a firehose. Even as they are impacted by the cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, etc. they will still believe that it will not be the fault of anyone but the "other".
The regime will blame Biden. People will believe this.
It's Come To This,
There is a time in each person's life that "compassion" was given. Some receive it as a gift that pushes them forward...to take one more step into one more day of life ....to hope for the ability to survive physically, mentally, emotionally. Compassion may mean forgiveness of a debt...not only a monetary debt.
My parents taught me never to be in financial debt....that debt makes us a slave to the one we owe and I have worked to keep that goal. However, I could not have accomplished that goal without their aid.
Our family faced turbulent, frightening times when my husband's father lost the business he started. We had to move to a humble dwelling. My husband worked multiple jobs, I worked as well. When our children were old enough, they also worked. Most of all, our children never complained. We worked together, we sacrificed together.
It is a blessing that together, as a country, we are able to help one another in difficult times. We can judge or we can just help. It is okay.
Well said. Thank You. I believe when the shock and fear wear off a bit people will find areas to help out. There will be, of course, people who choose not to help and that is ok also.
"If there's a single consolation in all this -- -and it is a VERY poor one at that -- it's that his people will suffer far more than I will..."
I am a proud Kentuckian. It breaks my heart that my sisters and brothers here will suffer. People in this State have been deprived of the means to be informed, educated and prosperous for generations. The massive oligarch media machine has indoctrinated people in a toxic stew of lies for years. I maintain this fact: people did not know what they were voting for.
Just one person suffering and dying is not a cause for even the tiniest amount of consolation. We are all going to get the opportunity in this Country to practice uncomfortable compassion. Touting one's good fortune over others misfortune is not going to rebuild America when this over. Calling these just facts is questionable. This is where the real test is. Are we going to join together or not?
My mother's family all came from Kentucky into what was then Indian Territory and soon to be the state of Oklahoma. They were all strong New Deal Democrats during the 1930s and long after (most of them, anyway). I come from those roots, I know something about that.
The ugliness Rush Limbaugh and other screaming blowhards have been steadily inculcating in small towns and rural areas toward people like me (urban, Democratic, educated, professional, gay) calling us "elites" (that was the least of their invectives) is an evil whose reverberations have only intensified. The cynical GOP got them to vote against their own economic self-interests. It used to be a joke ("what's the matter with Kansas?") By now it's a raging, roaring disease. Its hallmark is the racist-in-chief whose proxies go on Fox and other, even worse outlets to scream that Haitians are eating cats and dogs, to assert that little boys with vaginas are pouring across the Rio Grande to indoctrinate their grandchildren in critical race theory....When he talked like that, I laughed louder than Kamala did. And yet here we are.
Uncomfortable compassion has to go hand-in-hand with real introspection. It has to begin asking: 'how did we get here?' Uncovering the patterns, the threads, the method to the madness has to happen. I hope with all my heart it ends with the destruction of the modern Republican Party and its replacement with something else. It can't happen a minute too soon for all of us.
You are spot on. I'm here for this.
I wonder how the "carve out" exemption from cuts for Alaska was worded and how it will work. If the different ways in which ballots are counted from one county to the next can go e ride to an Equal Protection case determining the outcome of a presidential election, one would think this might give rise to something of the same. I understand these programs were not eliminated. They merely were cut. Those cuts were across the board. Except it seems in the case of Alaska.
How odd. These programs are administered as block grants to the States according to some apportionment formula. Did this formula get changed ? Is there now a "land mass" factor in it now ? Or did Murkowski get the Senate managers to agree to count one Alaska resident as ten New Yorkers in order to just get a bigger share of the pie ?? I wonder if Collins was offered the same deal ?
This bill I understand is loaded with unconstitutional treats for Trump. This will add to them. Talk about changes in law nongermane to spending. Obviously that is something Trump neither understands nor cares about. Neither do any Reports blocans in Congress how are either with him or surrendered to him. There will be a many court challenges. But then one of the aims of the bill is to bury the federal court system
You are right to note that differences between states will become more important as federal government is dismantled. Wealthier more prosperous states will be able absorb some of the loss. Others will not. This will provoke rivalries, aggravate regional prejudices, and give rise to separatist sentiment, paving the way to disintegration.
Qui bono ?
Murkowski really sold her people out. What a disappointment. When they drill, baby, drill her beautiful state of Alaska won't have any tourists . Glaciers are all ready melting , they will strip the forests for lumber and she is now the biggest contributor to Alaska's destruction.
She sells out repeatedly in fear of taco. She should be ousted. She is useless.
You know what to do in elections.
I called her office and said we would never forget her betrayal of the least of these
All those MAGAts who voted for the billionaire tax cut bill have blood on their hands.
Yes, that was some euphemism Murkowski used. "not advantage some people" = "screw over and kill some people".
We certainly are Karen.
No, we are realist.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts—-I was horrified by the senator’s inappropriately mild language as well. As does the word “concerned “ by some Congresspeople as used in conjunction with the issue of losing essential healthcare and food benefits.
Lisa has lost my vote and will never earn it back. Let’s hope for a strong opponent next election.
Work to kick her out. She sold out her responsibilities to the country for some weak concessions to help her own state.
Expect the concentration camps to fire up soon. A lot of “bad people” simply “need killing”, right? There won’t be a Democrat left to vote for in 2026 if the Orange Dictator has his way…
That thing about America being a hellscape? That wasn’t an observation of Trump, it was a promise…
Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem and Trump laughing about stealing our tax money for FEMA emergencies to use for building ICE racist cages…will the US Congress and the SCOTUS think this is funny, when Trump refuses FEMA support to Americans whose are struck by hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires.
Listen to the harsh reality from today’s
The Disaster That Just Passed the Senate | The Ezra Klein Show
https://youtu.be/7q7LwNuOTs4?si=7LJGEZh_pLj4KQ6M
It would take 377 years (at $1 million per hour) to pay off our $3.3 trillion deficit (without counting our interest being accrued).
Fact Check
* Interest accrual on the national debt is a significant factor: The calculation in the claim explicitly excludes the interest being accrued, which is a major component of the overall national debt burden. For example, the U.S. currently pays approximately $2.6 billion per day in interest.
It came to me recently that the reason the Right kept badmouthing FEMA under Biden was to set up the destruction of FEMA. I checked and that plan was outlined in Project 2025. That's why they have no compunctions about shifting FEMA funding to the concentration camps. Sickening..
good point MisTBlu, we really need our legacy media to help us grass roots volunteers by being full-time investigative news outlets that holds people and corporations accountable to support guardrails while bad actors manipulate the levers of power with OUR tax money.
Russell Vought 's solution for natural disasters is to force people to move, and to beg for secondhand clothing and moldy food from pseudo-christians.
Just as his Jesus would do /s/
Thank You JaKsaa....
More likely a forecast. He doesn't keep promises.
Yeah, you're right. He's not really a man of his word...
Actually, he's not much of a man, either.
Actually, he's not much of anything...
But he an attracts evil like a magnetar.
“Actually not much of anything” Dutch Mike except, perhaps, the most successful grifter the United States has ever seen grow out of a nearly pure narcissistic personality!
...and with that, the lowliest excuse for a human being the United States ever put forth...
He sure seems to be a first rate Klan/Nazi enabler.
It won't be him carrying it out, it will be the people he gives permission to release their fascist desires. They flock to his side.
Yeah, he won't do it himself, he's too much of a coward for that.
There is a reporter in Jacksonville Florida named AG Gancarski that wrote a scathing column about jacksonville’s mayor when she said Trump was going to create concentration camps. She was warning people about it prior to election. Hope he is now eating crow. Such indignant lack of compassion for migrants. He claimed that no one else besides Jews could use the word concentration camp. Guess this generation is having their own round up humanity so they can be killed or put away for life. It is sick. We need to remember history and never repeat these atrocities.
Trouble is, Trump never read a history book, and neither have his MAGA cultists. They simply don't care.
You are spot on….I have been worried about midterms since he got elected….
I just hope we are wrong ….
I'm convinced there won't be anymore elections. I _do_ hope I'm wrong, though, but remember, he promised just that in his campaign.
Yes he did…and nobody paid attention…
"The facility will cost $450 million a year, which will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)."
I am sure the survivors of all the recent natural disasters and all the survivors of future disasters will be thrilled to learn that all that FEMA money is going to build prisons and not help them rebuild their lives.
How these sadistic MAGA fucks sleep at night is beyond me.
They sleep just fine. This is a “survival of the fittest” cult and they believe God has ordained them to do all of this to cleanse the Earth of the “unworthy.” They believe they are chosen to lead. They want women in the kitchen and bedroom, LGBTQ people in the closet, Jesus in the public schools, and people of color in their “place.”
They threw Jesus to the curb decades ago, chump puts on his Pope garb and people bow down.
Yeah, and he even got the “golden calf” idol treatment with that larger than life “gold” statue of him that folks bowed down to and worshiped….🤮.
What would a malignant narcissist love more. The most powerful man in the world. With no humanity. Time cover coming up. Just like Adolf
And in place of a golden calf it is a golden toilet seat! (from what I have heard anyhow..)
🤣
Exactly. Read Jesus and John Wayne. It explains much about the MAGA white Christian evangelical nationalist rationale.
Perhaps this fact - just one of SO many horrors in this bill - will help turn NC very blue. The folks who are still struggling to recover from an apocalypse of a flood just had their funding extension denied. That and the loss of minimal health care? This is a recipe for political reversal. But...so many will have to suffer and die before it happens.
Still, building concentration camps instead of houses for those who lost their homes? WTF?
I hope those who voted for this horror are happy.
No decency.
Elon said that "...Empathy is the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.", dontcha know. Apparently the far-rightwingers have bought right into that "concept".
No, Elon, the fundamental weakness is that society has exalted sociopaths like you just because you are rich.
NO ONE likes you, Elon. NO ONE.
TL Mills,
Our President and his leeches are basking in his power, as our country and its citizens are suffering day by day. There is no compassion for the needy....it is a foreign reality to this group of zombies.
I feel like I need to throw up.
I’ve felt that way ever since he was announced the winner back in November.
November 2016.
James 🎯, November 2016 = Bad. November 2024 = Worse.
There’s been so much talk about what Trump is doing. What do you do when your house is infested with rats. You call an exterminator. When dealing with vermin you don’t debate what to do, you do it. This is an all out war against the citizens of the US being waged by the morbidly rich and their sycophants. This tiny group is going to cow 300 million+ people? How about 50 million protesters in the streets. Time to get real.
June 14th mass protest was 14.1 million people - it surpassed 5-million
In a country of 350 million it's not even close to what is needed to enact regime change, and make no mistake, that is exactly what will need to occur in the United States. It's not going to occur by voting, because they have all the levers of power now. Nothing short of a series of general strikes, which will bring on the inevitable confrontation with MAGA and its voters, will stop this slide into fascism.
What many people don't seem to understand about MAGA is they believe they are the *only* legitimate Americans, and they believe it is their duty, (most importantly, often their religious duty) to "protect" the United States from the rest of us. They're racist and bigoted, so they can't stand the idea of a non-white majority and civil rights for *everyone* and they're too stupid to understand social democracy isn't communism. They're 100% committed to their bigotry, racism and stupidity too. Not only can they not be reasoned with, they've always attempted to twist facts and reality into their preconcieved and preferred world view, largely formed during the 1950s and 60s anti-communist hysteria.
Honestly, Americans don't have the ability, and in some cases the political will, to do what's necessary. Americans failed at their last real chance in November 2024. Even if we did, Trump has the world's most powerful military at his command, and he *will* eventually attempt to use it illegally. That'll break the United States, but his voters will be cheering all along.
He has already used it illegally. Sending Marines into LA was unlawful, and the Marines know it and should hang their heads in shame for violating the UCMJ and following an unlawful order.
The warning lights are flashing. I hear you Chris Martin, but I cannot tell my grandsons that there is no hope.
Kent State was a turning point in the 60’s. I hope that doesn’t happen again. If it does the military will be torn to pieces from within. The civil war was not a complete win. The oligarchs, traitors and racists went underground. They’ve been working to take over the country since then. This is a time of revolution and all indications are, we will overcome this attempt to create a fuedal system in America.
I think Kent State is already happening everyday in this country but since it’s not happening to white college kids protesting the war it is ignored and brushed aside. They are beating migrants for no reason, even attacking citizens just because of the color of their skin and they’re so terrified of losing to a Muslim they’re already threatening to deport him regardless of his citizenship. They’ll make sure they beat the shit out of him and violently throw him to the ground just like they did Senator Padilla.
Did we fail...or were some of the voting machines in swing state counties subverted?
TL….there’s movement afoot about this…here is one that a quick ‘net search came up with (I can’t put my finger on the first article I read about this): https://www.morningstar.com/news/accesswire/1043441msn/voting-machine-details-requested-in-lawsuit-challenging-2024-election
Exactly. The writing was on the wall in November. Trump said exactly what he would do. https://davea.substack.com/p/november-6-2024-predictions
I did not hear or see any mention today of how he misunderstood that last question about how long detainees would spend at alligator Alcatraz….He hates the real work of being president…
And that's what you get
Where did you locate that estimate? Best estimate I can find is about 6 to 7 million...
Seems to vary. I removed it.
Thank you. I removed my inaccurate number of protesters.
Hell yes. It is all beyond REAL. And yet we must do everything in our power to protest nicely.
We must make sure our attack on these morons is peaceful and polite and reeks of rationality. Yeah... just lay down and let them trample us and then disappear us and then be carried to detention in Alligator Alcatraz where the Oligarths pay a million bucks to watch us be devoured by Reptiles. because thay have nothing better to do. All while we make nice.
And, Thats what YOU get.
Thank you. We can either sit in hatred from what is happening, or we can take all that energy and fight back. I believe when the shock and fear have subsided people will come together and fight back.
Liked, because the indefatigable Dr. Richardson is willing to wade through all this depressing stuff so we don't have to. But the contents of today's letter are nauseating.
We are a Plutocracy. A country run by the rich for the rich, and unless we want to live in a police state, we need to be voting in more people like Mamdani. Of course he is a threat to Trump, because he represents the destruction of the neoliberal economic values that Trump is championing, and which go so well together with fascism. That is basically the only people who matter are the people he says matters. If you are wondering what your options are, I wrote "A 'Plan B' for Catastrophe" in November, but it still seems relevant.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/a-plan-b-for-catastrophe?r=f0qfn
We are indeed a plutocracy. Someone on one of these Substacks used the term "Plutopia" to describe the US of 2025. I think that fits very nicely.
Yesterday in my book club we were using the term Plutocratic-oligarchy. I think one can put these terms together in a variety of ways, and they are all describing the scourge that is upon us!
Trumpism is a sort of perversion of classic neoliberalism, but the neoliberals paved the way for Trump.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/516698-the-free-market-manifesto-that-broke-america-and-led-to-trumpism/
They paved the way for Reagan and everyone since then.
A perversion of humanity.
Linda Weide,
Mamdani is a great candidate. His faith is personal and sincere. I prefer that to many who claim to be Christian but display no love or compassion towards their fellow men or women of other faiths or those who claim no faith. One's faith is a living growing belief. Jesus never despised persons of faith unless they saw their faith as a tool to create hatred or division. Living faith was not created for that....we humans, in our mean and cruel natures have created these negative tools to be used for power, division, etc.
We do not know how to appreciate the blessing of diversity in this country. "Control" is NOT a description of the way true freedom works especially referring to someone's faith or "no faith". In my own faith...Christ loved me to Himself and He does not ever leave me. I am called to love also. It is not easy to love my fellow humans sometimes, especially when we are cruel. I have to fight against my own anger.
Evil persons know our prejudicial nature and they will use it for their personal gain against us. Don't let them!!!!
Mamdami comes across as sincere and practical two great qualities. I wish him success and that his success encourages more like him.
It is exactly as Jen Psaki said last night --- the cruelty isn't just the point, it's the priority.
The Constitution's 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The principle is to outlaw barbarism, to say nothing of derangement. Not a single reporter I'm aware of, not one Republican in the House or Senate, not any of that laughing, giggling pussy comitatus surrounding him bothered to point that out to him, to themselves. Not a single judge or justice warned him that his late-nite trash-TV cage-fighting, WWF impulses have no business being applied to the American prison system.
$165 billion for ICE. Not to fight terrorism, cybercrime, not to defend allies, bolster NATO, deter China from invading Taiwan --- but to build cutesy Bastilles in swamps, send thousands of masked toughs and bullies to arrest grandmothers picking figs in their front yards, make day laborers, cooks, builders and crop-pickers simply disappear. Back to El Salvador with you, or maybe South Sudan, or perhaps into alligator country in Florida, televised for the pleasure of his dumb cult. We don't care. We don't have to. The Supreme Court said so.
Not the America I grew up in. Not the America you or your children might have gone to war for. Not the republic our Founders envisioned. We cannot accept mindless cruelty as the new normal. We cannot watch while he removes the 8th Amendment, along with the 14th, along with Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 forbidding Emoluments, along with Clause 11 granting Congress the sole power to declare war.
Every Republican up for election who voted for this package of monstrosities and financial incoherence must be ousted next year. If we're lucky enough to still have our midterms, that is.
"Once a new system of detention facilities and ICE agents is established and the idea that a Republican president can legitimately attack his political opponents is accepted, a police state will be in place."
He is so close now, EcstaticRationalist, to having the funding for all his private prison camps.
I guess you saw, too, how a reporter asked him of the private prison in Florida, "is there an expected time frame that detainees will spend here?" This for Heather's final, long paragraph -- where the demented would-be-dictator just answered in a long, nonsense muddle about how he, the supreme narcissist, is just so loved, loved, loved.
It’s always about “him”!!
All that comes to mind tonight about this big, not so beautiful mess is a quote from Winston Churchill… “This is the end of the beginning.” We haven’t seen the worst yet.
I'm sure there are many Americans who wish that Trump would stay in Florida.
Like 6ft under
Under water most likely, if the NOAA forecasts for the Atlantic hurricane season are correct.
From a science film produced by AT&T in 1958:
==================================================
Dr. Frank C. Baxter: "Even now, man may be unwittingly changing the worlds climate through the waste products of his civilization. Due to our release through factories and automobiles every year of more than 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which helps air absorb heat from the sun, our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer."
Richard Carlson: "This is bad?"
Dr. Frank C. Baxter: "Well, it's been calculated a few degrees rise in the earths temperature would melt the polar ice caps. And if this happens, an inland sea would fill a good portion of the Mississippi valley. Tourists in glass bottom boats would be viewing the drowned towers of Miami through 150 feet of tropical water. For in weather, were not only dealing with forces of a far greater variety than even the atomic physicist encounters, but with life itself."
Yes, J L. We who were interested knew that the planet's fate was in our hands long, long ago. But the only science people were interested in focused on phones and big TVs. And instead of using our own rather amazing intelligence, now we are sucking enormous amounts of energy out of the grid to invent "new intelligence". We could be using what we had. But where's the pot of gold (public offering) in that?
For all the cruelty and legitimate resulting outrage of this fiscally irresponsible bill, it is still minor compared to the crimes against this planet - perpetrated by the elite AI energy sucking tech bros and fossil fuel fascists.
We are not at a tipping point. I believe we have already tipped irreversibly. The ice melt, the frequent "100 year" events, the floods, the fires. The heat wave in Europe right now! And perhaps the biggest one that most people ignore. The acidification of warming oceans - coral death. The fish nurseries of the planet (along with mangroves lost to development and rising tides) are in peril. Billions of people rely on the oceans for protein.
We are dooming ourselves. We have all the information we could possibly need to learn the truth - at our fingertips. But we would rather use them to play video games or switch streaming channels.
It was all there. In the science journals. And instead of addressing it we watched dystopian TV and films as if they weren't a warning shot, a preview, a chance to change.
We have tipped. What to do? It can't be reversed. But we don't have to make it worse! The money we are spending on prosecuting wars and punishing people could be redirected to Climate Catastrophe Mitigation and Adaptation. Major population centers need to begin a strategic withdrawal. Science needs to be the new religion.
I think that accolade must go to Eunice Newton Foote in 1856.
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/first-paper-to-link-co2-and-global-warming-by-eunice-foote-1856/
Some credit must also go to Guy Callendar who was the first person to link anthropogenic emissions of CO2 to global warming.
https://theconversation.com/a-mild-mannered-biker-triggered-a-huge-debate-over-humans-role-in-climate-change-in-the-early-20th-century-170954
The history of science is full of missed opportunities so the findings of these scientists (and others like John Tyndall and Svante Arrhenius) was overlooked for many years.
What's perhaps more significant was the recent discovery that the fossil fuel industry knew about the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions in the 1970s. However, instead of alerting the public they kept schtum and organised a campaign of disinformation and lobbying to secure the future of their businesses.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/exxon-climate-change-global-warming-research
They are the real criminals in the story of climate change science and if there was any justice they would be going to prison instead of climate change protesters.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/30/un-expert-urges-criminalizing-fossil-fuel-disinformation-banning-lobbying
In a sinking electric boat, Christine, with ravenous circling sharks.
There are many Americans who just as soon someone had thrown him into the Everglades, while he, Noem and DeSadist were standing around yukking it up.
He actually joked about this dreadful complex which is being set up in a location with limited access, abysmal facilities and at extortionate cost (some $450m annually from the overstretched FEMA budget) during a Florida summer (although officials say that it has 24/7 air conditioning) and during hurricane season.
The lame joke is about three minutes into his rambling impromptu press conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pTFPVP9EFQ
Trump's "Alligator Alcatraz" and his envisioned chain of similar facilities looks like the American counterpart of the Warsaw ghetto imprisoning Jews after the Nazis invaded and conquered Poland <https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw>. It was just a short step from there to extermination chambers, and the hatred and cruelty burning so hot in Trump, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Pam Bondi, and the like in the Trump Reich make that next step almost inevitable here.
Likely the plan
I'd go so far as to say the intention.
I wouldn’t bet that they will evacuate the political prisoners from the reptilian concentration camps. POtuS won’t even make an effort to take a Sharpie to a hurricane map.
Sandra, if that comes to pass, and I fervently hope it doesn’t, their official response will be 🤷🏻♀️“oops!”.
>>>When Trump talks about undocumented migrants as being dangerous criminals, he appears to have bought into the fantasy that the U.S. is a hellscape.<<<
I'm sorry, Dr. Richardson, but this is a completely inaccurate statement. Trump has NOT bought into that fantasy. He created it. It is a bald-faced lie. He knows it, and right-wing media knows it. It's on a repeat loop, and they push this lie to ramp up fear, hatred and further Trump support from the xenophobic and ignorant MAGA cult that has become his steady base. This repetition and chain-jerking is how he keeps that base tightly bound, and how he can make good on threats to "primary" any member of federal or state legislatures who voice opposition, as just happened with Senator Thom Tillis.
Demonizing recent or unpopular immigrants, legal or not, has a long history here. The "Replacement Theory" was circulating before Trump decided to feature it. Modern Republicans make it up as they go, but are quick to pander to existing irrationality and prejudice.
I think, JL, “they” have long had a special catalog “Boogeyman Du Jour” from which to pick the most appropriate to the issue….from the relatively mild “Welfare Queen” to the “Murderers, Rapists, Insane Criminals”….all meant to foment fear in the impressionable.
So VOA was fake news (not) vs trumps real fake news to be broadcast overseas? I really am embarrassed for our nation.
“Fox News” for the rest of the world. That’s really depressing…..and sickening.
Sadly I am forced to conclude that the United States is now lost. The passage of the Big Beautiful(ly Hideous) Bill in the Senate is the the lethal injection that will kill the US. The vengeful toddler in the White House has surrounded himself with psychopaths who hate everything decent and moral. The pleasure they derive from inflicting pain and misery on those they consider beneath them or undeserving is sickening.
I am subscribing because I suspect that it will not be long before this regime sends its thugs and corrupt law enforcers after you in order to silence all dissent and I do believe that you will need our support when that day comes.
Just one question please. What are you going to do if they go after HCR? Why don't you figure out something to do NOW? IF they go after her what are you going to do....protest? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I am sorry, I don't find your comment very helpful. Maybe I just don't understand what you plan to do to support Heather if that time ever comes 🤷♀️. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸😪
There isn't much I can do. I live in Europe, and have no option but to sit on the sidelines and watch a country and a people I once held in respect, plunge dow the same rabbit hole the Germans did in 1933. All I am able to do is subscribe, in the hope HCR can be supported if they go after her income. More to the point, what are YOU doing to save your country?
Well I think the thing is, sometimes I don't realize how far reaching these letters are and I thought it just sounded like you were giving up but from there what can you do? I agree. Me, I make phone calls I send emails, I have very long hours long discussions on Facebook comments with maga people and always come away saying, "why did I do that?" Because it's like they don't own a TV or any access to any news other than Fox or Newsmax and then I do it again and again. Physically I am disabled and mostly homebound. I cannot drive any longer. So mostly I try to engage online. Most of my family is Maga, so there is silence pretty much. Well I apologize if I sounded harsh or judgmental. I am limited as to what I can do but as I said, sometimes I forget that the whole world reads LETTERS. I am so concerned, as you alluded to and rightly so, for Heather, that I guess sometimes I feel like we need to hide her away in a bunker not just because of what she gives us but just because of who she is!!! Take care. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸😪
👍Well said, Linda, but if “they” come for Heather, they will be coming for scores more who are also speaking truth to power. And now with the data that DOGE has been Hoovering up, that may include all of US who post to any online forum or social media—just look at the examples of travelers who have their phones “searched” and if there are any negative comments or memes on it, the person may not be granted entry into the country…to the point that it has been advised to travel only with “burner phones”. “Show me your papers” time has come. Damn scary.
Can't even begin to sell them in the slightest what it would be like or would have been like in Germany during that time. You are right it is damn scary. Just started an audiobook called,The Light of Days.... it is about the women of the resistance in Germany and how many of them were teenage girls. And many of them were Jewish teenage girls who looked more Aryan so they could pass. They smuggled, they blew up Bridges, they seduced then murdered gestapo agents, all kinds of EXTREMELY scary things compared to what we are dealing with. What do we do if.....
And I also agree with what you mentioned about 1933. A couple of years ago I started listening to documentaries about the Holocaust and Hitler and I'm sure I have, between documentaries and survivor stories, easily listen to 100. I mention the similarities, even up until the timeline it took Hitler to get things done and I am always told no not really.. not that bad! Well "not that bad" is I am sure what most of Germany thought at first too. In fact with some of his programs, it seemed good. Autobahn and other projects created many jobs and started pulling Germany out of the horrible financial pit.... we don't even have that much. If this were Germany or if we're headed that way really, then the T4 program will take me away..🙄🤷♀️. Because after all, this government knows everything about everyone now thanks to DOGE. Email received in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago confirmed DOGE has access to everyone's Social Security data. I knew that was happening of course but when I read the list of all that encompasses, it's just about your whole life. (Of course now the boys are fighting again🙄🙄) sorry for my own Rabbit Trail.
Shudda read this comment first, Linda, before I replied to your upthread one….yeah, most social media sites/internet scrolling, etc., already “tracks” info about all of us, and now DOGE is just dipping deeper into things that were once “hands off”. I guess it “can happen here”.
I "liked" but not really at all if you get what I mean. The one thing I hold out about that extreme activity ever happening here is that Hitler's military for the most part, worshipped him and actually competed with each other to the point of murder even in order to get closer to him. I only hope and pray our military is not like that. They are given a PS to their oath right? They are allowed to disobey an illegal order. I read something pretty disturbing a little while ago. Not 100% sure because I have not been able to find it in writing tho I heard it a few times. At the military academies they are now allowed to read Mein Kampf but not Maya Angelou (DEI idiocy). God only knows what lies ahead. After all, El Presidente could be golfing and hit some wild shot that ricochets off a tree and nails him right in the forehead... course with him, it would go right through😂. So, there's always hope! Take care and be safe!
Oooooooh…the “golf shot” heard ‘round the world, if only. Enthusiastic “golf clap”!
Linda, I visited Germany for the first time in 2012 and went to several museums in Koln/Bonn. I was struck by the similarities between the early 1930's Germany and 2012 America.
Well what do you think about how things are going here now then?
Even worse.
You read the situation perfectly.