The Senate’s passage of its version of the budget reconciliation bill yesterday sent House members rushing back to Washington today to debate passing what the Senate had sent them.
The self-appointed criminal despot now brags of his next criminal intentions.
At “Alligator Alcatraz” yesterday he smirked about the need of that swamp camp for native-born Americans also to be thrown, along with the thousands of peaceful, law-abiding immigrants his Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been rounding up in their terror raids now across police state U.S.A.
Also, the criminal despot disagrees with the citizens of New York City. They are apparently electing as mayor naturalized U.S. citizen Zohran Mamdani. No, says the fat man whom the Clarence court has ruled above all law. So he will take away that naturalization status – so his terror thugs can put Mr. Mamdani in that prison camp in the swamp.
In swfl, read tonight our AG (who, along with Desantis of gitmo torture fame, is proudly the architect of the Alligator Auschwitz plan) announced that hundreds of detainees would be moved there tonight-in spite of flooding conditions because of some rain we’ve had. I lived through hurricane Ian in a brick and mortar house and it was terrifying. With these conditions…I’m weeping…no words…
Jen, I'm horrified to read of what De Santis is doing to detainees, moving so many of them into this new place tonight, despite flooding due to heavy rains 😨😡
Joyce, I can’t “like” your comment but I’m in complete agreement with you. I’ve long held that Desantis is Mussolini to felon47’s Hitler and they are living up to that parallel. The inhumanity displayed…proudly displayed..and echoed by so many who cheer them on…if it weren’t for this community and others like this who provide a broader vision of sanity, I don’t know what I’d do. Florida has been the project 2025 Petri dish for years because of Desantis’ lack of decency. Years ago, he denied entry to a facility in Homestead where undocumented and unaccompanied youth were housed-we would bring supplies like clothing and hygiene essentials plus educational materials and comfort items-he changed former policies to deny us access. It was a ministry that mattered-and he said; “No.” I really can not imagine anymore how all of this will end…or how many will suffer because of the hatred on proud display. Cruelty is ALWAYS the point.
Jen Schaefer, thank you for another DeSantis horror story. If this part of our history survives for books, May he get one with chapters devoted to his resemblance to the worst of Nazi war criminals. I remember them well from childhood and am learning that civilization in America is a thin veil over stupidity/greed/cruelty. (Living in the French countryside for 10 years during the Iraq “situation” I thought of US as “the bad teenagers on the block.” Now we are the international criminals.
Virginia, thin veil indeed, a kind of veneer easily cast aside when death star gives carte blanche for cruelty. Right now I look around where I live and think this whole place is just falling apart and is full of huge cracks. It is the total disregard for others.
We meaning (democrats et al) dropped the ball. We chose a very old man who wanted to get his name in the books. And he fell into a fog during the debates and I will never forget that moment nor forgive him for being so selfish. He deprived us of even picking our nominee. I’m sorry y’all don’t like hearing this but it’s only the truth.
Get over it. Stop blaming Biden and telling us what Biden "wanted". (Didn't know you were inside his head.) If you want to blame someone for the mess we are in, cast your eyes toward the 77 million who looked at Trump, looked at Harris, and then said, yup, the twice-impeached convicted felon, serial sexual assaulter, conman, grifter, liar, dictator-wanna be is just alright with me.
The budget just passed. A sad day indeed. Rick sender will pop up as he said he would do one last time. I suppose I could wish him a quick journey to hades.
Kathy thank you for this excellent article, It is another example of this sickening transactional regime,, the pay to play and get rich at the not only the expense vut the suffering of the American people.
I think Miller, DeSantis, Trump, Noem, Homan, Bondi and others would be absolutely delighted if a huge hurricane hit "Alligator Alcatrez" and drowned large numbers of detainees. They would revel in the deaths of so many. And it is clear they do not have a plan for evacuating the place in the event of a hurricane approaching.
No, Wait! They should all be there for a publicity stunt when a storm hits. Do you know how to swim in swamp water? Noem's eyelashes would weigh her down. Bet the gators would bite & spit out the disgusting flesh of those listed above.
Does not surprise me at all. It’s in keeping with his fascist doctrine that is wholly and completely MAGA. There’s a special place in Hell for him and his ilk.
Kind of ironic, since DeSantis actually said that the Canadians (who own property and those who rent there annually) do not make a contribution to Florida's economy. The Everglade detainees do, however, contribute to Florida economy- because Trump is paying their rent in Florida. More irony by the way, the name Santis is a shortened form of the given name Santo, which means "saint" in Italian.
Exactly! Which is why Trump, when at odds with De Santis earlier, called him De Sanctimonious. For once, Trump had it right; then again, as I’ve stated before, Trump is no different than a broken clock: he’s right, only at the most, twice a day.
Ditto. Mini Me is ruining our sad beautiful state. And seeing Tiny D, PINO, and Cosplayer Noem LAUGHING as they stand next to the cages that will soon be holding men is sickening. I, too, weep.
It's tempting to toss all of those contemptuous bigots into a disgusting cage and laugh loudly at them. Maybe they would enjoy it. (Do unto others as you wish to have done to you.)
Whether it’s Auschwitz or whatever , these murders that hang waiting for just the right circumstances ( a heavier rain?..it’s gonna happen) are ,in indisputable fact,will be murder. And many heads should be jailed…OUTRIGHT JAILED FOR IT, President included.
The threat “ naturalized citizenship revoked and deported” first spoken or last enacted be also jail worthy…illegal actions are NOT…NOT MIND YA “official acts” but rather qualify as The Official Axe, stripped then ,the line of command, to.the.top. of ‘perpetraitors’.
Have we slipped into the ‘abyss of no return’ or are we just floundering in a sea of lies manipulated by the very body elected to enforce,protect, and enforce rules.
I’ve had enough of it.
Am I some back dirt-road dummy..who doesn’t fully understand what procedural courses should be? Or just one of them “Marxist Democrats” -As a family member (🙄) recently posted -perusing and inciting …the social media with lies and violence?
Well if the answer is no then….WTF is going on?
Because, if not - it’s clear unadulterated murder happening (and will continue) worldwide, under the guise of a suspected demented president ( like a fox) and fully complicit administration- allowed ( and aided ) by the highest court in America IS. No excuses!
Well maybe the answer is …correct …but it’s now become an AUTHORITARIAN COUNTRY, voted in( legally is still in question?) , in control, and nothing to be done about it…SUCKERS.
They really are trying to kill us (anyone who is not white and at least well-to-do, who disagrees with them, who is of a different religion, or no religion .....).
In less than six months, Bondi has taken herself near the bottom of the worst AG of all time list. She may own that dubious title outright in a couple more months.
I was hoping against hope that the tropical storm/hurricane headed to Florida would hit before they could move anyone in and wipe the place out. I[m not even sure they have a way to evacuate the employees when one comes but I’m sure they’ll leave the migrants there to die.
Now is the time to ask how our faith and values are calling us to act. Now is the time to email and call the offices of our representatives in Congress as the House moves toward the final vote on the reconciliation bill. This bill would decimate the clean energy tax credits at the heart of our nation's progress in combating climate change. Calls to congressional offices are especially needed in the following districts if you have friends or family members to whom you can forward this email:
• Rep. Bacon – NE-02
• Rep. Bresnahan - PA-08
• Rep. Ciscomani – AZ-06
• Rep. Fitzpatrick – PA-01
• Rep. Garbarino – NY-02
• Rep. Hurd – CO-03
• Rep. Joyce – OH-14
• Rep. Kiggans – VA-02
• Rep. Kim – CA-40
• Rep. LaLota – NY-01
• Rep. Lawler – NY-17
• Rep. Mackenzie - PA-07
• Rep. Malliotakis – NY-11
• Rep. Miller-Meeks – IA-01
• Rep. Newhouse – WA-04
• Rep. Nunn – IA-03
• Rep. Valadeo – CA-22
• Rep. Van Drew – NJ-02
• Rep. Wittman – VA-01
Constituents can call the offices of their representatives using the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. There are multiple reasons a representative might vote against the bill, including the impact on rural healthcare if Medicaid is slashed. Thus, a sample script might be:
My name is ______________, and I’m a constituent from ______________. As a person of faith, I’m morally outraged about the reconciliation bill. Whether it is slashing Medicaid or making cuts to SNAP, there are countless reasons to be upset with this bill. I am personally concerned with clean energy tax credits which have helped people across the country to lower their utility bills. We do not need the chaos and harm that this bill would inflict. I urge Rep. ______________ to vote against this bill.
The so-called Republican holdouts have folded and so the procedural vote has carried the House with only one Republican member, Pennsylvania's Brian Kirkpatrick voting with the Democrats. It seems likely they will fold again later today at the final vote and Trump will get his Bill.
It's interesting nevertheless that at his meeting with the holdout Republican House members yesterday, Trump appeared not to know that Medicaid was being affected by the cuts. Typically, the tax cuts are front-loaded and the SNAP work requirements will only come into effect after the midterms; while the main cuts to Medicaid are scheduled to take effect in 2028, perhaps too late for their full impact to be felt before the next general election.
Just so hung up with all the pomp, glitter & smiles & not listening to what anyone is really saying. Like your pets- they do have selective hearing because the truth physically hurts them!
Trump doesn't read. He doesn't listen. What is on his mind is himself. Although some of this does not go into effect until later - the raids, the terror is in effect NOW. And that is what is being funded and that is the RUSH. More $$ for ICE. And is it really ICE - or some goon in hooded black?!
It's 940 pages so it's a safe bet that he hasn't even bothered to get a copy on his desk. What he has done is promise not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or social security.
Russell, I can't help thinking these legislators are operating as if there will be no consequences for their actions. One thinks that they would worry about the electoral penalty of passing such a heinous bill. And yet, only Lisa Murkowski has expressed a weak-tea concern about the results of the bill, after she went ahead and voted "yea."
Donald utterly ignores Democrats and engages only with Republicans when he's whipping votes. Is he promising them that he will suspend the mid-terms through some trumped-up emergency? Is he promising to create a loophole, blessed by SCOTUS, whereby he can run for a third term because his first two were not consecutive?
Perhaps the delayed effects of this grotesque bill are merely an "insurance policy," in case Donald is unable to prevent the coming elections.
Murkowski got a two-year exemption from the food stamp requirements for her home state of Alaska as a condition of voting for the Bill and it's clear she didn't like being confronted about the Faustian pact she had made with Trump's minions.
It makes one wonder who else has managed to secure this sort of sordid deal. Tom Cole, chair of the powerful House Appropriations committee has been boasting that his state of Oklahoma will not suffer serious federal cuts.
I have tried to reach each of these, but with my 88005 zip code, my emails are not accepted. I've written letters to each of these to their HOME offices stating I am not a constituent, but what they vote on effects me - dramatically. I never get a response, of course, but I do think my letter gets tallied. Phone calls? Pissing in the wind?
I did the same in Pennsylvania. One of them disconnected my call when I said I was a Pennsylvanian, but not a constituent. So I called back and lied to get through.
Daniel thank you for this list. Give yourself the gift of Independence before the 4th arrives and call these representatives to not vote for the Billionaires Budget Bill. Creating a working class where the sick and disabled cannot get health care and children go hungry is not what America is about. As our Prof. Richardson has pointed out 150 Billion goes for Boarder and ICE. This money jails all of us who oppose Trump's authoritarian regime.
If you do not live in these Republican districts, look up a zip code in the district before calling. Keep the phones jammed against this anti-American bill.
I have called the IL house republicans, though I am not part of their district, and could only leave a voice message. Not sure if it got through or will make a difference.
Pope Leo has been scolding the Trump administration. I hope his condemnation filters down to the Fascist American Cardinals, Bishops and Priests. There are many of them and they need to bring their parishioners back to reality.
American citizens are being rounded up and put in Alligator Auschwitz without due process. What ever happened to "no cruel and unusual punishment."
“ … they need to bring their parishioners back to reality.” First of all, too many voted for Trump. Cal Dolan revels in being Trump’s bff. Second, too many bishops have lost whatever moral authority they had. OTOH, Pope Leo should pass the USCCB and speak to American Christians directly.
Please don't paint all religious leaders with the same brush. I know a number of them who are just as enraged as we are, and are actively working right along side of us in attempts to bring about change.
I'm not offended. Generalizations are not helpful, or accurate. There are a number of religions which are very active in fighting what this current administration does and working to effect change. I'm just saying to give credit where credit is due, instead of maligning all of them.
I'd be interested in knowing in particular which religions are very active in fighting what the current administration does/is doing? Do you know of any you could name, please?
There are some very skewed views from church leaders who have not chosen to speak the REAL truth of God. In those congregations, I can only ask that the true believers stand and walk out. I watched it happen in an evangelical church in FL. They were crying, humble & accepting of the love from others. Those 'churches' no longer exist!
I know Alligator Auschwitz is the real name, but I really think it's important to attach Miller's name to this hellscape. He is the architect of the whole immigration nightmare unleashed on America. I call it Miller's Wet Dream because that's what it is.
That’s so Gilbert and Sullivan rhythmically! Can’t remember which one, but maybe “Mikado.” Time to write the comedic aspect of Mitch. Might be able to make his party die laughing.
As horrific as it is, it can't be compared to Auschwitz at the moment. One of the things that helped people vote for Trump even though they weren't keen on him at all was the hyperbole from others who predicted what Trump was likely to do (eg. talk of Hitler) versus what people were seeing for themselves (an obnoxious, foul mouthed bully who they also (falsely) believed was a brilliant business man). Much better to be honest, especially as Trump's lies are revealing themselves through their consequences for people who voted for him.
Soon you won't care that you were right. You will be looking to learn from this very recent history to find messages that actually do reach people who care but don't have your intelligence and insight and have been conned.
Heather has mentioned her friends who don't pay attention to politics and she has a down to earth communication style and an incredibly effective way of explaining things that are new to people. That's a real sign of the magnitude of the communication job confronting the pro-democracy community.
Let me try to explain it another way. A lot of non-MAGAs who voted for Trump don't think about how something may evolve considering what's been going on, they look at the thing claimed and compare it to what they see and conclude hyperbole and partisanship and switch off. What most people know of Auschwitz is not what this sadistic place is, so calling it Auschwitz isn't helpful, especially when it can be called out for what it is right now which vast numbers of people will probably question.
Better to deal with the reality and have a chance to put a stop to things than having your prediction come true down the track when Miller and Trump have established their “network” of these things as Trump said. You won't even get a smidgen of pleasures when you say your I told you so.
Sandra, when the driver of the car you're riding in shows no indication of coming to a stop at a crossing where a speeding train is approaching, it is unacceptable to nonchalantly scold your fellow passengers for screaming "STOP!" simply because the collision hasn't yet happened.
We've all seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. It's ugly. Millions die.
I didn't say anything about being “nonchalant”. These sadists are calling the thing “Alligator Alcatraz”, and at the moment gangs of violent. armed, unidentified masked men are kidnapping people off the streets and this is where many of those kidnapping victims will be ‘housed’ without due process for years. And there will be deaths, many of them.
I don't, for one moment, believe people of goodwill (including non-Republican politicians) can't create such serious grassroots concern about the truth right now that its worth turning people off with what they will only consider hyperbole at this point.
We know that dismissal of the Hitler talk as hyperpartisanship is one of a number of reasons non-MAGA people voted for Trump and put the US in this position. Why repeat the mistake and help create the conditions for what you fear?
Sandra, of course you didn't use the word, "nonchalant" in your comment. I was characterizing the tone of your scold that we shouldn't use "Hitler talk."
Your comment is the first I've heard of "non-MAGA people voting for Trump because of Hitler talk." Color me skeptical.
I've been hearing it in focus groups - voters actually saying these things - voters who didn't like Trump but believed he was the best bet.
I'm not scolding. I'm just trying to be objective because it seems to me the country is probably now passed the time it can afford to make the same mistake - the intelligent and deeply caring people with insight need to learn from its very, very recent history and find effective communication tools.
Miselle, if you think it's time for the religious leaders to stand up to cruelty, you better find a comfortable chair to sit on because it might take a long time....too long.
Even though his father Billy Graham was an anti semetic, (which I did not know when as a child I attended the Billy Graham Crusades in Boston) he sure made the media pay attention to religion. Franklin Graham dealt with drug abuse & other problems. Dad loved him still. BUT, Franklin has made it public his anti Jewish views amongst his other views. He is but a sad relic of people that can & do spread the GOOD WORD of the Gospel. He needs to go the way of Baker, Swaggeart & others who were consumed by worldly passions. Sick people & sick that Franklin hasn't figured out that he needs to just go away/ private.
I’m in Florida and intend to keep fighting! Share from a Robert Hubbell/Today’s Edition reader.It took me just under half hour this morning to call using a short message. 💪💙🇺🇸
HH & ML
Democrats Delive
If you're as disgusted as I am about the MAGA Murder Bill, I've put together a list of vulnerable Republicans with their contact info and hyperlinks to their social media accounts, as well as phone and social media comment templates. (if you can't get through to their DC office, call their local office - can be found on their website.) And if you call now - you'll just get voicemail which makes it very fast. https://democratsdeliver.substack.com/p/we-ride-at-dawn-bitches?r=51f18
Mary Pat, my sympathies. I live in National Historic Printers Row Chicago listening to ICE sirens, writing postcards from TonyTheDemocrat in Atlanta, urging Democrats to vote. As there are so many votes being taken between now and November of ‘26, the writing helps keep me sane in this disaster. Having been part of the “War Effort” as a small child with three uncles overseas, in my “second childhood,” that so many of my fellow Americans are behaving like the “enemy,” is both sickening and terrifying. Auschwitz indeed!
You are aware the Catholic Church and the Board of the Methodist Church are under “investigation for criminally assisting migrants”. Catholic’s since January and Methodists since this post:
Miselle, we often hear psychoanalyst Theodor Reik's statement misquoted and misattributed: "It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes."
I think we have passed the rhyming stage and see Donald's murderous band of monsters playing from sheet music written by Hitler, himself. Nazi Germany was overwhelmingly Christian, 54% Protestant and 41% Roman Catholic.
Out of 75.4 million Deutsche Christens, only one clergyman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, stood up against Hitler, and he was hanged for it.
Today, of 343.6 million Americans, only 40% identify as Protestant and 19% as Roman Catholic. Of those 202.7 million Christians, 109.2 are evangelical and conservative Catholic, and they are totally on board with the Trump regime.
Based on those numbers, we can count on one hand the clergy who will speak out loudly against Trump, and we can expect only muffled objections from any religious denomination.
Deborah, if you'd read some of my comments over the past few months, you would get a pretty good picture of how it happens.
First of all, you'd need to disabuse yourself of the traditional definition of "christian." It is now a cultural term, not one that describes a follower of Jesus. For Trump's evangelicals, Jesus' name is something one attaches to the end of a prayer, like a wax seal, a talisman that is supposed to force God to comply with the requests and demands contained in the prayer.
Evangelicals prefer the angry God of the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament), who's constantly raging and smiting.
I do not disagree with you but I am unwilling to let the MAGA christians claim the term as their own any more than I am willing to let the far right claim the American flag as their exclusive symbol. Tomorrow morning I will raise the American flag to celebrate Independence Day but Saturday morning I will replace it with a flag that says Defend Democracy, which is what I am flying now.
Miselle, I TOTALLY agree with you on all counts! Democrats, Independents, progressives, former Republicans and others need some catchy phrases that will unite us. Horrifyingly, "Alligator Auschwitz" is spot on.
A visionary educator and Catholic priest gave a powerful speech saying that "Americans help each other. That's who we are as a nation." Indeed, our government was founded to protect and serve--not harm--us. I think we need to use the language of "help not harm." We need a rallying cry that speaks the truth and touches people's hearts to unite and galvanize us. As it implies all Americans and our neighbors, and the concept of mutual aid and basic human kindness, I like the slogans "Americans help each other" and "Harming Americans is wrong and unpatriotic." Yesterday someone in this group said that "we look out for each other." Yes! Let's spread that message of "help not harm" as an antidote to the destructive MAGA agenda.
The fact that we don't know for sure WHO they are is the problem. Law enforcement should not be unidentified to the public who it serves and who pays its salary.
Black water and other private security companies I fear may be part of this. Erik Price ran the company and they got into trouble but it seems he may and other be back in play. He has family ties to Amway like his sister Betsy Devoss.
Ok. Yes, they need to be identified so we can all see who these men actually are. Who knows? One of them may be a neighbor of your parents, or your sibling, or even yours.
When I was reading "It Can't Happen Here" a few months ago, I remember asking myself who would be the equivalent of the violent, lawless Minutemen in Sinclair Lewis's novel? I originally thought maybe the "proud boys". But as Miller, Noem, et al. ramped up the deportations, it became crystal clear to me: ICE agents are the Minutemen. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. It is eerily prescient of our times.
We really should all call our congresspeople and demand those thugs be required to show their face with no masks, have ID plainly visible, provide a warrant and follow a standard procedure for detaining ppl. We should get out the message and do this as a coordinated event, like at 10am on Monday we all call!
There isn't much difference between the oath breakers and the sociopaths who are drawn to law enforcement because of the possibility of abusing people. There is a significant percentage of law enforcement and military personnel who are happiest when demonstrations break out and they get the chance to beat some non-violent citizens.
Phil, do you have data that shows Oath Keepers and Shameful Boys being employed as ice thugs? I have wondered about that.
Yes, we have clearly gone down the shithole fast. I’m canceling my vending booths at conventions as an art dealer. No one is buying art these days. And no more purchases for me. Within a few short weeks, consumers will fell the effects of tariffs. All containers from China have stopped. This month will be the start of massive irregularities in consumer markets. My hunch.
Of course I do not have that data. No one does. The police state requires identities of all thugs working for the criminality to be hidden. No badges permitted. And masks to mask the thuggery.
No. No one who is alert to the situatiom would be surprised. BTW: Anyone who can print can write postcards to voters with TonyTheDemocrat to help Democrats win the thousands of local elections that will help improve conditions in the interim and teach the writers a lot of geography.🤣
Learning at this moment that Dems Party National chair is setting up ACTION for this interim period. (Sorry missed the message number.)
That's the spirit, Virginia. Professor Robert Reich pointed out some months ago that there are around 1,000 down-ticket elections at state and local level before the midterms. Run For Something encourages younger people to run in elections and they appear to have had some success in getting people elected (1,000 in 48 states since 2017).
I watched an ICE raid video recently and thought the same thing. A group of several “agents” were abducting a woman. All were masked, but only two had badges or clothing that said ICE. The rest were wearing street clothes and unmarked vests and helmets.
Maybe if the BBB passes they’ll have enough money to purchase uniforms? Don’t forget to include that snappy SS insignia on the jackets.
How many are not ICE agents at all but simply criminals spotting an easy entre into criming, all the potential victims (especially women) handed to them.
? Having lived in San Antonio in Purple Texas days, gazpacho was a summer treat. But getting the picture. Went to Dachau. At the exit, unforgettably: Santayana: “Those who forget the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them.”
Thank you; I've been looking for confirmation of this; actually for the claim of a bounty paid per person arrested. The search led me to the DHS/ICE employee website which reads like any "welcome to our fabulous company" complete with cute little graphics in their video of "your first day". It's absolute rubbish.
It is quite incredible, isn't it, especially as some of these scoundrels are now suing the government for what their lawsuits describes as:
"...a parade of horribles: egregious and systemic abuse of the legal
system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal. Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy...".
The lawsuit asserts that:
"In recognition of the corrupt and politically motivated persecution and
imprisonment of the Plaintiffs, the Trump administration has granted pardons and/or commuted the sentences of the Plaintiffs."
What's Trump going to do? If he instructs Bondi to resist the lawsuit, he's as much as admitting that his pardons were unjustified. You couldn't make this up. The administration opened the door by paying $5m to the family of Ashli Babbitt, the rioter who shot dead by a secret service agent.
I reposted first article on FB with this caption: ""Proud (Boy) Insurrectionists Invading Chicago on Trump's Command. Taking Hostages" [should be the title]"
Point of clarification. 'Alligator Alcatraz' is a marketing ploy with little basis in reality. First, look up pictures of Shark Valley in Everglades National Park. It is near this airport-detention center. Gators lie on the walkway as visitors (kids) walk by them, often violating the 20ft distance rule. (Gators can outrun humans anyways.) Gators eat mosquito fish, not big mammals. Second, pythons are incredibly hard to find and do not attack people, so if you see one as a few friends have, grab it by the head and kill it. Third, yeah poisonous snakes there, as in the deserts, mountains and all over the country. You can go on swamp tours in hip waders, there are platforms distributed in the Everglades for people to camp. Native Americans have lived there for 1,000s of years. So it's not a walk in Central Park, but open up the fence and people will just walk away. Think of the refugees that trekked through the jungles of the Amazon and Central America, especially if they now work in the agriculture or landscaping biz, ya really think they are afraid of Everglades National Park?
"Weird comment." I 2nd that Bill. I've lived through Florida summers where people come out of their air conditioned homes, get into their AC'd cars in their garage, drive to the air conditioned store and can't stand the 20 yard walk into the store. Most Floridians are heat averse and stay inside AC'd spaces. They don't give a damn about the alligators or snakes. They are just trying to survive the 110 degree heat index everyday.
ICE is rounding up American citizens and putting them in these camps with NO due process. And most of the non-citizens have no criminal record so WTF are we doing?
96% of the small native mammals to the Everglades are gone due to this invasive species that is destroying the ecosystem. It has no natural predators as it does in Asia. Park rangers kill them when they find them. State holds annual 'round ups' with prize money to kill them. Conservationists are trying to train alligators, using baby hatchlings, to eat them. See a python-kill it!
Bill, sometimes you have to pay attention to the impacts of the critters - and deal with them accordingly. However, I am given to understand that Burmese pythons are quite good eating - mind the bones.
Park Superintendent BBQed one up and sent sample to lab. Lab result came back 'do not eat this, extremely high in mercury'. Makes sense as a apex predator.
I believe Donnie is projecting his personal fears at us. A fussy urbanite like him probably imagines any place in Florida that isn't a golf course or a hotel resembles a dirty green hell-hole full of stinging jungle bugs and sneaky monsters with sharp teeth; "Red in tooth and claw". Worse than the Bronx, even! (Maybe it's like da Bronx with snakes! Yikes.)
Donnie likes to show the world just how inhumane and deeply sick he is and his “Christian” followers eat it up. Then they wonder why no one likes them.
Generally yes, but unpredictably so. One July 4th weekend, not a mosquito in sight! Park superintendent explained rains led to higher water levels which led to more mosquito fish who ate all the mosquito larvae. I know some boaters that spent a low tide in the mangroves at 10,000 Islands and had so many mosquito bites they had hives all over their body.
Thanks for the info...human beings who have had no trial but have just been grabbed from their home or at work or off the streets will be placed in large metal containers .
Neither family nor friends have been notified. They have been given no way to protect themselves.
If water rises or wind blows their container over or up or "around and around", will there be anyone who cares or will their captors evacuate to save themselves?
Will there be any method of cooling those cans they will be forced to live in?
Native Americans who live in this area are free to leave if their lives are in danger from strong storms.
There is quite a big difference in being confined in a can and being free to get out of harms way.
How about their family members and friends they will not be able to reach? How do you think their family and friends will think of who we are as a nation?
Except these containers are really just plastic tents. We’ve all seen how much of Trumpty Dumpty’s border wall has fallen over, one big storm and the place will be in shambles.
I am horrified by Trump, DeSantis, Noem, Miller et al, but I am most shocked by Marco Rubio. I never supported him (I'm a Democrat), but I did think he was a human being with a soul and a conscience. How wrong I was.
I felt the same - and now he is truly a hollow man with dead eyes and no soul. I previously figured him as a lightweight but at least one with a conscience -- but how easily he was bought.
He looks more and more miserable every day, but the sense of power is like a drug. This will show the world what kind of man he is, a man of principle or someone who doesn't want to give up his position no matter what. He has had his eye on the presidency for a long time. This stint should disqualify him.
We have enough information about the problem. Time to act. House Rs caved. The vote to move the Big Budget for Billionaires bill to a floor vote passed 219 to 213 with only one GOP no vote: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
It was Rep. Fitzpatrick whose creative constituents staged a die-in at his office, and then after voting Nay, he ran out of the House chamber to escape the pressurers.
Constituents of Republican House Representatives, call/email/fax (yes, fax). If you can't get through to their DC number, call their home district office. Short and to-the-point message is all that is necessary: Your name, zip code, subject of call (budget bill), and "I am urging Rep. _____ to vote NO on the budget bill."
Presumably there will be a phone bank through MoveOn.org to call constituents of targeted Republican House Representatives, as there was on July 2. They have a one hour training, though 20 minutes gives you all you need, especially if you've phone banked before. (Lots of volunteers who had never phone banked before but who stepped outside their comfort level and were bravely giving it a try!)
Message on social media. Adapt the wording to your own, if you like:
At his visit to the Alligator Alcatraz, Trump was asked by Fox News how long he expected detainees to remain at the camp and instead he blathered on about how he would like to spend more time in Florida.
The New York Times reports that an ex-FBI agent, Jared Wise, who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to kill police officers has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department Weaponisation Working Group looking to seek retribution against Trump's accusersin his criminal trials. He will act as an adviser to Ed Martin, Trump's new Pardon Attorney. Martin was Trump's nominee to be the interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (he had previously nominated him as chief of staff at the OMB) but he was forced to withdraw his nomination when it failed to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Trump's false claims about Mamdani's naturalisation in 2018, Jasmine Crockett shows that two can play at that game.
Yes, I live in Woods Hole MA, home to NOAA, USGS, Marine Biological Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Woodwell Climate Research -- I see it, feel it, and it's only the beginning. It's NOT the beginning of big money influences, those have been gradually and relentlessly taking root for a while.
The DOGE people are sacking scientists without any regard for the value of the work they do. The New Yorker had a story some weeks ago about a young scientist whose job was to maintain reference samples of raw earth minerals, exactly the sort of critical minerals the US economy and the government wants to bolster home-grown manufacturing in new industries. Labs from many different countries relied on her expertise. She was laid off by those ignorant scoundrels.
And NIH funding cuts, too! I'm an artist and gave a talk at NSF years ago -- within the Geosciences Directorate. I observed many issues with cross-disciplinary programs competing for established funding, which stifled collaboration and drove people to private industry. But this destructiveness to our shared future, to the potential of progress, and to see the disregard for human lives -- shaking my head in disbelief.
Russell, Melania it's really a genius. It took so little time for her to move from a bed in a little unremarkable town in Slovenia to a bed in the White House. How many other people do you think would accomplish such a result? She must have that "something" that makes her such an overachiever.....Think about it.
Ricardo, your comment reminds me of observations made by a former coworker, when we would notice a couple in which the woman was a stunning beauty on the arm of a gargoyle of a man. He would say, "How do you s'pose that happened?" and after a pause with a wink, "He must have something we can't see."
Of course, in Melania's case, any number of people have seen that something.
As about a jillion others have pointed out, had this been a script handed to some big Hollywood studio, it would have gotten laughed right out the door. A scenario about as believable as "Plan Nine from Outer Space," bad script, ugly, untalented acting, tacky lighting, cheesy sound effects. One Grade B Minus clunker on wheels. And that's before the scene where Tim Curry gets stoned to death when he tries to sing "I'm just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania..."
One garbage cult movie not made by Quentin Tarantino, much less Steven Spielberg.
I want to go on more with your scenario, "It's Come To This."
That is, all the things you play with are the things that drive Putin crazy about America. The freedom to be irreverent, especially. So many of our movies go for black humor, and wild humor, as if gays, people of color, uppity women, and more, more, more could live together.
This drives Putin and his long-skirted, heavily bejeweled, bearded Orthodox priests berserk. They see America imploding -- as they've not got the foggiest about what freedom really allows, opens, enjoins.
None of these dictators do. Certainly not our orange fat one with all his face paint and hair coiffure blow-over excesses.
Not just bejeweled, bejowled priests of the Orthodox Church who go nuts, but southern Baptists (still bejowled tho not bejeweled), shrieking Fundmentalists and their Bobblehead Speaker of the House who doesn't even have a bank account, let alone a sense of humor, much less a functioning spine.
Phil, if you want to know where Donald's inspiration for his coiffure comes from, check out the photo of Mary Ann Trump at the end of Tiedrich's recent column.
No you are not making this up. My book club was discussing the larger implications of the memo in the justice department about stripping naturalized US citizens of their citizenship this week. Here is what I wrote about our discussion. It will certainly affect us all.
I wish you were. But this sounds like the plan. I didn't rank Mamdani when I voted, but I feel quite optimistic about him as Mayor, and I hope that Cuomo (who yesterday called AOC "very extreme" ????) doesn't pull out a victory in the end by running as an Independent
Alas, Phil, you are not making this up. What absolutely beggars belief for me is how hysterical (and I never use that word as it means "womb disease" but it is apt for the mostly MEN who run the Dem machine in NYC) Democrats are being at the idea of an optimistic and rational non-Christian person of color with great ideas being elected. It is a real sign of the schizophrenia of our times that Mamdani is being vilified by his own party as poisonously as he is by the opposition. The concentration camp erected in Florida is a whole other order of horrific and the huge gift to Stepford wife Noem contained in the budget that the absolute morons in the House are about to pass will make her largely unassailable, financially at least. And the Dems? Now they wake up. My congressman, Emanuel Cleaver, has been largely silent until YESTERDAY, when he posted multiple messages on social media descrying the budget bill. Too little, too late. I admit to being flummoxed. We could have created a plan, a strategy, a series of To-Do lists way back LAST YEAR as a just-in-case-we-lose guarantee that the Dems could be nimble in confronting and attacking the galloping autocracy Stephen Miller and Russell Vought envisioned coming into fruition with their puppet's election. The ACLU already had legal briefs written in anticipation. Other organizations did the same. Not the Democratic Party. Their fecklessness placed us at an immediate disadvantage and we now pay the price. HCR's rim-shot coda to her letter made me smile, grimly, but it is true: if Nancy Pelosi had been in charge (she had been warning people all last year about this stuff) we would have been better equipped to engage in this battle.
And Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his attys have asked the judge that Kilmar be KEPT in Federal prison until his "trial", rather than released, as was the plan. The judge has assented. Why? Because ICE/DHS cannot be trusted not to grab Kilmar upon release and deport him illegally AGAIN. The criminal despot's minions do not believe in the rule of law.
Yes, Trump is fat. That's not the source of his cruelty. Your continued harping on appearance is childish, which is rich, considering your harping on humanities. I find myself wanting to ignore most of what you write, but yours was the 1st comment in my feed.
Your consistent need to write nonsense goes mostly ignored here but I hate to see people personally attacked just to be cruel. Since it was the first comment it seems you were looking for something to attach your nonsense and bullying to.
You obviously haven't read my posts. I subscribed to participate in this forum since September 2020. Lately, there are a few who keep repeating themselves, plus this fitum is becoming somewhat of an echo chamber. I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that I likely won't renew. Bye.
That July 4th deadline? Could it be because ICE has spent its entire yearly budget already, leaving nothing to cover July, August, September? Wouldn't it be a shame if all the ICE folks were laid off until October, when the new year's budget kicks in? Just asking..........
That planned ICE budget is $175 billion. What are they planning to do with it, invade Canada from one end to the other, dropping bunker-buster bombs every 50 miles?
NATO's entire civil order command and control budget is only about $7 billion. That giant sucking sound you hear is TENS of billions flying out of REAL border security in the face of terrorist threats, cybercrime, counterintelligence against foreign adversaries who are looking for new 9/11s.
Talk about an open invitation to every enemy we have out there. Come and get it. The salad bar is wide open....
It will be interesting when a masked vigilante group dressed in black with AR-15s kidnaps one of the Trump kids or grandkids. Except for Tiffany, they are all "birthright" citizens that can get deported to any country that will take them judging by what Trump has done so far. Ivanka and Melania had these "illegals" before they were naturalized American citizens so they are fair game in Trumpworld.
If someone is "orange" are they also people of color?
With the crooks and morons we have running Homeland Security,the military, and the State Department…..not to mention the clown who is CIC……we are sitting ducks for another 9/11.
ICE blew through their budget already then they should get DOGE'd for the fraud, waste and abuse in government that we've heard so much about. They're now an out of control phalanx of masked thugs that terrorize, brutalize, violently arrest and deport fellow Americans, the majority of which haven't done anything wrong to deserve such treatment. Shut ICE down and shutdown this disastrous bilious bogus bill. May Donold be disappointed and distraught with the death of this bill for our Independence Day.
Trump's failed Iranian mission cost us upwards of $700 million and his crappy parade another $50 million or so. How many fired SS clerks could they have kept or VA medical professionals if Trump quit wasting our money?
And now people are forgetting the $700 million to over a billion dollar bombing of Iran that likely set Iran back a few months. Why has no radiation been detected from any of the bombing sites? And why isn't anyone calling Trump out for the billions of OUR dollars that he is frivolously wasting because he is a cruel and ugly Fascist pig.
Definitely that (though I don’t believe for one second that this potus gives a rat’s a$$ whether a department has exceeded his budget - that pressure is coming from the sadists in DHS and on the Hill). He wants to put on another feckless, made-for-TV show of his signing it in the Oval on the 4th of July, the PIG.
Don’t pardon my cynicism. These thugs in ICE are not doing their terrorizing for the money. They would be willing to do it for free for the power and satisfaction of wiping out the “ vermin “.
Thiel, Yarvin, Musk, Vance, Leo, Vought….. the architects of Project 2025 and the unitary executive theory. And let’s not forget the puppet master in Moscow who wants nothing more than to see America destroy itself. “Grandpa Dimbulb” (I like that one!) doesn’t have the mental capacity to do any of this.
All while his vampire ghouls chortle with glee over the cruelty.
What have these billionaires done for this country?? Have any of them done research that has saved lives? Have they funded any research? We know of one billionaire family who are the cause of the opioid crisis in this country. Do they deserve this tax break? Does Bezos who just blew millions on a fantasy party for his new botoxed bimbo in Venice deserve this tax break? When he pays his employees too little and drives them like they are slaves? How about the Walmart family who pay employees so little that they qualify for food stamps….and does not offer any health insurance? Why would we even consider giving them a tax break?
Not just any old shitshow. A shitshow on wheels, complete with imminent war against Canada, Greenland, Denmark, the Falkland Islands, and made-for-trash-TV migrant cage-fighting bouts broadcast for the viewing pleasure of his nasty, demented cult.
Don't get distracted by this stuff. It is meant to be a cover for the dismantling of our Democracy. They are following the playbook of the manifesto Project 2025 page by page. If I was reading this happening in a historical narrative, it would be fascinating. In real time it is terrifying.
With respect. No, it is not. He has been a master at deflection and shiny objects for 10 years. Watch the pattern. Every single time he gets too close to serious jeopardy he throws something dramatic down and the media gobbles it up thereby leading the compliant public down one more rabbit hole. Meanwhile the behind-the-scenes guys like Vought, Miller, Leo, the Heritage people are cutting every Democracy cord in America.
We must, must regain and hold focus. This is a fight to salvage our Democratic form of Government. We must restore the 3 equal branches, revisit the Declaration of Independance and preserve free and fair elections.
As I remarked in a restack…. I agree:So, so much to unpack here. Some of us are hoping that this fails for reasons not related to the obscene transfer of resources away from the most in need to the most NOT in need; the Rs bending towards submission and those who have already sold their souls are NOT representing their constituents as they swore their …worthless? ….oaths to do; and Trump has now succeeded in ….if the tide towards compilation keeps flowing…turning one of the world’s great democratic projects into a mafia-esque crime drama….American Noir.
Modern House politicians dominate through outside fundraising. The path to power in the House is, sadly, how much money you raise for others so you can give to their campaigns to keep them in office. Pelosi wielded power through $$$. McCarthy wielded power through $$$.
Johnson has much less power because he came to office through a different route when the GOP ranks pushed back on that paradigm.
Prettier sausage-making when the reality was coercion through $$$ may not actually have been better.
We’ve known for years that Republicans can’t really govern. They can rule and run roughshod over the process but they can’t govern. Now it appears their fealty to Trump has turned the House into an extension of Trump’s clown car. What a cock-up!!
They aim not to govern but to dominate. Surely billionaires have the means to know that future generations will be besieged by today's excesses, but few of them seem to care. The nation can collapse into misery and chaos so long as they manage to stay at the top of the heap.
If any of you are from David Valadao’s district in California (Bakersfield, Delano, Kerns County) call his office and let him know why you want him to vote no and that you are someone who votes. His district has the highest percentage of Medicaid covered people in California and also many farmers who rely heavily on farm workers. He actually might be flippable.
That is a an outrageously lame comment about Nancy Pelosi. We need a new word for statesmanship just to describe her. I think if someone threw a pail of holy water at Johnson he would dissolve.
Thanks Alexandra... Nancy Pelosi is a Icon... To further her Legacy, she needs to Mentor a Successor... A Practical Person That Can Get Things Done... Didn't Nancy Get Obama Care Passed Among Many Other Things?...
Hakeem Jeffries is no Nancy Pelosi. He could learn a few things from Sen.(D-CT) Chris Murphy and Sen. (D-MD) Chris Van Hollen re: messaging and strategy. Telling the American people there's nothing we can do because we're in the minority came across as weak leadership. He's either too green or lacks something. AOC has more fire, energy and power than that. Nancy Pelosi has never come across as weak -- gracious yet determined. Meanwhile, Johnson can't manage nor to lead. He's a lapdog who does what he's told. It's no wonder House Republicans don't respect him.
Thanks DC Policy Geek... Since DJT has/is Breaking the Constitution... We Must Fight Fire With Fire... I nominate AOC, Jasmine Crockett, or another Firebrand... It will be Hard to undo the MAGA Damage... The World Does Not Wait...
Congressman Jamie Raskin called out Trump on the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, and Trump lashed back by calling the congressman nasty names like a 5th grader. When will anyone tell Trump to stop this behavior, Sigh 👀😮💨
If somebody tells you "Hurry! Do it NOW! Do it TODAY, Don't DELAY! Limited Time Offer! Operators are Standing By!" you know what you've literally been ordered to buy is almost assuredly worthless TRASH. And if it has the "Trump" label on it, there can be no doubt. If you don't know this, you've no business running a gas station, let alone serving as a member of Congress spending other people's money.
Considering he's an incurious, illiterate "fucking moron" in the words of his first Secretary of State, Trump might believe his own lies, but almost no Republicans in Congress do. Even Sad Lisa Murkowski is warning the House in her own bizarre, Stockholn Syndrome kind of way: 'don't do what I just did.'
A pile of cruel and expensive trash, paid for by the bottom fifth, meant only to reward the top 1%. There's no other reason for this incoherent pile of gibberish, ideological purity and viciousness. And no reason at all to hurry up and do it by July 4. None.
Make a loud noise. STOP THE SLOP. If you don't, they'll do what he wants. Your voice is the only thing stopping that.
Lisa Murkowski is so obviously not doing well. I believe fear for her personal safety is devouring her. She clearly stated in an interview that she was afraid of Donald Trump. I am sure she is not alone. I wish those people could come together, protect each other and take a stand. I believe this could help change things…
Pouring money into "Deputized Proud Boys" also known as ICE, concentration camps --also known as detention centers, deploying a lethal fighting force from the "Shores of Tripoli" to Los Angeles, suing any media outlet that dares to publish anything close to the truth, eliminating troublesome sections of the Constitution related to due process, freedom of speech (for international students), eviscerating funding for the advancement of science and public health, withholding funds from public education in order to remove factual accounts our racist and misogynist history, reversing climate action, and telling Putin to do what he wants in Europe, and Netanyahu to continue ethnic cleansing in Gaza -the Criminal elect, his group of incompetents, alcoholics, and sociopaths otherwise known as his Cabinet, and the GOP will ultimately do whatever the head of their crime family dictates.
"Let them hate us as long as they fear us" -is no longer reserved for U.S. Foreign Policy. We've pointed troops and are on the precipice of unleashing billions of dollars to turn the weapons on anyone in the United States who dissents.
This is rapidly becoming a dystopian nightmare. But I'm so glad that Merrick Garland doesn't look "too political" -so I guess that's the "silver lining".
After winning two world wars, emerging from the Great Depression, sending a man to the moon, presiding over the fall of communism and reinvesting in American infrastructure --- we now plunge straight into the reign of the Emperor Caligula, who tortured people to death and appointed a horse as one of his proconsuls...
Would much rather see Mr. Ed run DOD than the current drunk Trump installed, the ravaged, flesh-eaten, brain-consuming worm trying to ban all vaccines, the weird Dracula's daughter who heads Homeland Security. Every last one of them a failed science project blended with Keystone Kops or something.
Then Krusty Noem could focus on getting her daughter real estate licenses and keeping her purse from being stolen (again), brain worm can swim in wastewater to his heart’s content, and Pete can go back to Fox with a show exclusively sponsored by a Russian Vodka company.
Why the rush? I keep reading and hearing that lawmakers haven't had time even to read the bill, especially since the voting process is being rushed through a middle-of-the-night debate. While I am fundamentally opposed to almost all of the bill's provisions, Republican lawmakers should not adopt the attitude of voting to pass the bill with the intention of "fixing it" later. That approach is sloppy and absolutely unacceptable. Plus, as you noted, it's never going to happen.
THE question of questions. No reason whatever. None. Zip. Zilchy-poo. High pressure sales tactics by the sleaziest and slimiest used car salesman God ever created.
Trump wants to announce it with fireworks in the background - a TV moment. And I don't think they actually want people to read the bill -- because if they do, it might turn their stomachs too.
I think the administration's intention will be to deport people held in the Florida centre as quickly as possible as they continue to be willing to flout court rulings.
Methinks Republicans from swing states and swing districts are beginning to smell their own blood in the water come the 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s political magnetism is weakening as he grows more senile and demented. If the Big Ugly Bill (BUB) fails to pass “on time”, or, better yet, founders entirely due to party bickering and Mike Johnson’s utter lack of leadership, we will know that Trump’s time is ending. He won’t see it, but everyone else will.
As a former constituent who voted for Nancy Pelosi when she first ran and every election thereafter until I moved to Connecticut, I smirked at today’s closing comment. That woman had some real political chops!
Thanks, Professor Richardson, for your article. "Die already!" I shout at the television, but sadly, as many times as I've done it, nobody seems to be listening on the other end. How Trump doesn't know that the bill touches Medicaid, I find hard to believe, because even down the totem pole of journalistic sewer clowns, Faux News has been reporting that it does. Unless Trump has stopped watching that network and is now onto Newsmax, he has to be getting the basic information.
Republican incompetence combined with vindictive senility may sidetrack fascist authoritarianism but we should not count on it. Call, write, text, email, protest, demonstrate, and contact your Congressperson to vote against the BBBill, support Democrats, and vote Blue. There is work to be done and at least a year and a half to keep doing it.
The self-appointed criminal despot now brags of his next criminal intentions.
At “Alligator Alcatraz” yesterday he smirked about the need of that swamp camp for native-born Americans also to be thrown, along with the thousands of peaceful, law-abiding immigrants his Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been rounding up in their terror raids now across police state U.S.A.
Also, the criminal despot disagrees with the citizens of New York City. They are apparently electing as mayor naturalized U.S. citizen Zohran Mamdani. No, says the fat man whom the Clarence court has ruled above all law. So he will take away that naturalization status – so his terror thugs can put Mr. Mamdani in that prison camp in the swamp.
Am I making this up?
MAGA has loved them some catchy phrases. WE and all Democrats need to hammer this one home: it's Alligator Auschwitz.
I cannot believe our great
country has become so inhumane.
Its time for true Christian clergy---all religious leaders in fact--to stand up and call out this disgusting action.
In swfl, read tonight our AG (who, along with Desantis of gitmo torture fame, is proudly the architect of the Alligator Auschwitz plan) announced that hundreds of detainees would be moved there tonight-in spite of flooding conditions because of some rain we’ve had. I lived through hurricane Ian in a brick and mortar house and it was terrifying. With these conditions…I’m weeping…no words…
Jen, I'm horrified to read of what De Santis is doing to detainees, moving so many of them into this new place tonight, despite flooding due to heavy rains 😨😡
Joyce, I can’t “like” your comment but I’m in complete agreement with you. I’ve long held that Desantis is Mussolini to felon47’s Hitler and they are living up to that parallel. The inhumanity displayed…proudly displayed..and echoed by so many who cheer them on…if it weren’t for this community and others like this who provide a broader vision of sanity, I don’t know what I’d do. Florida has been the project 2025 Petri dish for years because of Desantis’ lack of decency. Years ago, he denied entry to a facility in Homestead where undocumented and unaccompanied youth were housed-we would bring supplies like clothing and hygiene essentials plus educational materials and comfort items-he changed former policies to deny us access. It was a ministry that mattered-and he said; “No.” I really can not imagine anymore how all of this will end…or how many will suffer because of the hatred on proud display. Cruelty is ALWAYS the point.
Jen Schaefer, thank you for another DeSantis horror story. If this part of our history survives for books, May he get one with chapters devoted to his resemblance to the worst of Nazi war criminals. I remember them well from childhood and am learning that civilization in America is a thin veil over stupidity/greed/cruelty. (Living in the French countryside for 10 years during the Iraq “situation” I thought of US as “the bad teenagers on the block.” Now we are the international criminals.
Virginia, thin veil indeed, a kind of veneer easily cast aside when death star gives carte blanche for cruelty. Right now I look around where I live and think this whole place is just falling apart and is full of huge cracks. It is the total disregard for others.
I firmly believe there is punishment here on earth and the list is LONG with those who deserve it.
We meaning (democrats et al) dropped the ball. We chose a very old man who wanted to get his name in the books. And he fell into a fog during the debates and I will never forget that moment nor forgive him for being so selfish. He deprived us of even picking our nominee. I’m sorry y’all don’t like hearing this but it’s only the truth.
Get over it. Stop blaming Biden and telling us what Biden "wanted". (Didn't know you were inside his head.) If you want to blame someone for the mess we are in, cast your eyes toward the 77 million who looked at Trump, looked at Harris, and then said, yup, the twice-impeached convicted felon, serial sexual assaulter, conman, grifter, liar, dictator-wanna be is just alright with me.
ABSURD.
All nonpartisan studies rank the Biden presidency near the top of all US presidents, in terms of achievements.
And FYI: ageism is immoral. It's that, combined with the kind of cynicism you're cultivating here that got us where we are today in the first place.
Time to wake up!
And, how is this helpful in this moment Bill? Live in the moment instead of trying to debate the past. It is over!
Mass murder.
Right! Mass murder. Who will do the Nuremberg Trials? The Germans this time.
The budget just passed. A sad day indeed. Rick sender will pop up as he said he would do one last time. I suppose I could wish him a quick journey to hades.
📣📣📣 Call out DeSantis and his corporate donor!
“Governor DeSantis is building “Alligator Alcatraz” with little oversight – and this big campaign donor is set to reap millions from it”
https://floridatrident.org/governor-desantis-is-building-alligator-alcatraz-with-little-oversight-and-this-big-campaign-donor-is-set-to-reap-millions-from-it/
Excelent article, thank you for the link!! Auschwitz is, indeed, profitable.
Kathy thank you for this excellent article, It is another example of this sickening transactional regime,, the pay to play and get rich at the not only the expense vut the suffering of the American people.
We’re entering hurricane season for south Florida. I’d say it’s crazy, but cruel and stupid is the point.
I think Miller, DeSantis, Trump, Noem, Homan, Bondi and others would be absolutely delighted if a huge hurricane hit "Alligator Alcatrez" and drowned large numbers of detainees. They would revel in the deaths of so many. And it is clear they do not have a plan for evacuating the place in the event of a hurricane approaching.
No, Wait! They should all be there for a publicity stunt when a storm hits. Do you know how to swim in swamp water? Noem's eyelashes would weigh her down. Bet the gators would bite & spit out the disgusting flesh of those listed above.
Does not surprise me at all. It’s in keeping with his fascist doctrine that is wholly and completely MAGA. There’s a special place in Hell for him and his ilk.
Kind of ironic, since DeSantis actually said that the Canadians (who own property and those who rent there annually) do not make a contribution to Florida's economy. The Everglade detainees do, however, contribute to Florida economy- because Trump is paying their rent in Florida. More irony by the way, the name Santis is a shortened form of the given name Santo, which means "saint" in Italian.
Exactly! Which is why Trump, when at odds with De Santis earlier, called him De Sanctimonious. For once, Trump had it right; then again, as I’ve stated before, Trump is no different than a broken clock: he’s right, only at the most, twice a day.
Great, puke. Devil is called a saint by some...
Insects, snakes, heat & humidity. How he thinks the guards will survive is beyond me!
Ditto. Mini Me is ruining our sad beautiful state. And seeing Tiny D, PINO, and Cosplayer Noem LAUGHING as they stand next to the cages that will soon be holding men is sickening. I, too, weep.
It's tempting to toss all of those contemptuous bigots into a disgusting cage and laugh loudly at them. Maybe they would enjoy it. (Do unto others as you wish to have done to you.)
See Rick Wilson's column on that topic (Lincoln project blog/podcast) - how the MAGA leaders will fare when their facilities are used for them.
L B, just toss them into the swamp.
Whether it’s Auschwitz or whatever , these murders that hang waiting for just the right circumstances ( a heavier rain?..it’s gonna happen) are ,in indisputable fact,will be murder. And many heads should be jailed…OUTRIGHT JAILED FOR IT, President included.
The threat “ naturalized citizenship revoked and deported” first spoken or last enacted be also jail worthy…illegal actions are NOT…NOT MIND YA “official acts” but rather qualify as The Official Axe, stripped then ,the line of command, to.the.top. of ‘perpetraitors’.
Have we slipped into the ‘abyss of no return’ or are we just floundering in a sea of lies manipulated by the very body elected to enforce,protect, and enforce rules.
I’ve had enough of it.
Am I some back dirt-road dummy..who doesn’t fully understand what procedural courses should be? Or just one of them “Marxist Democrats” -As a family member (🙄) recently posted -perusing and inciting …the social media with lies and violence?
Well if the answer is no then….WTF is going on?
Because, if not - it’s clear unadulterated murder happening (and will continue) worldwide, under the guise of a suspected demented president ( like a fox) and fully complicit administration- allowed ( and aided ) by the highest court in America IS. No excuses!
Well maybe the answer is …correct …but it’s now become an AUTHORITARIAN COUNTRY, voted in( legally is still in question?) , in control, and nothing to be done about it…SUCKERS.
Welcome to 1939 wasn’t just a cute dig.
They really are trying to kill us (anyone who is not white and at least well-to-do, who disagrees with them, who is of a different religion, or no religion .....).
In less than six months, Bondi has taken herself near the bottom of the worst AG of all time list. She may own that dubious title outright in a couple more months.
Not unlike how the Roberts Court has moved. It is our wretched fate to live in the time of what is now clearly the worst SC in American history.
I agree. I never thought this SC could beat the Taney Court to the bottom. It looks like they may be there.
Yes. John Roberts will be known as the Roger Taney of our time.
Jen, credit where credit is due, I'm pretty sure Jeff Tiedrich originated "Alligator Auschwitz."
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/republicans-are-making-concentration
Thx for that insight! I was simply passing it on-Jeff is awesome in his moniker-creations. Spot on!
You are correct. He did. I LOVE his columns. I posted it as I want to see it take hold.
I was hoping against hope that the tropical storm/hurricane headed to Florida would hit before they could move anyone in and wipe the place out. I[m not even sure they have a way to evacuate the employees when one comes but I’m sure they’ll leave the migrants there to die.
The employees are not valuable to anyone involved with this scheme.
What a sad fact that is.
I agree with your comment, Sharon, but I sure can’t “like” it!
Let's not use their talking points.
Let's absolutely call them to account.
You are right - our great country should not be so inhumane.
Rise up!
Here's a letter that's been circulating:
Dear Voters,
Now is the time to ask how our faith and values are calling us to act. Now is the time to email and call the offices of our representatives in Congress as the House moves toward the final vote on the reconciliation bill. This bill would decimate the clean energy tax credits at the heart of our nation's progress in combating climate change. Calls to congressional offices are especially needed in the following districts if you have friends or family members to whom you can forward this email:
• Rep. Bacon – NE-02
• Rep. Bresnahan - PA-08
• Rep. Ciscomani – AZ-06
• Rep. Fitzpatrick – PA-01
• Rep. Garbarino – NY-02
• Rep. Hurd – CO-03
• Rep. Joyce – OH-14
• Rep. Kiggans – VA-02
• Rep. Kim – CA-40
• Rep. LaLota – NY-01
• Rep. Lawler – NY-17
• Rep. Mackenzie - PA-07
• Rep. Malliotakis – NY-11
• Rep. Miller-Meeks – IA-01
• Rep. Newhouse – WA-04
• Rep. Nunn – IA-03
• Rep. Valadeo – CA-22
• Rep. Van Drew – NJ-02
• Rep. Wittman – VA-01
Constituents can call the offices of their representatives using the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. There are multiple reasons a representative might vote against the bill, including the impact on rural healthcare if Medicaid is slashed. Thus, a sample script might be:
My name is ______________, and I’m a constituent from ______________. As a person of faith, I’m morally outraged about the reconciliation bill. Whether it is slashing Medicaid or making cuts to SNAP, there are countless reasons to be upset with this bill. I am personally concerned with clean energy tax credits which have helped people across the country to lower their utility bills. We do not need the chaos and harm that this bill would inflict. I urge Rep. ______________ to vote against this bill.
The so-called Republican holdouts have folded and so the procedural vote has carried the House with only one Republican member, Pennsylvania's Brian Kirkpatrick voting with the Democrats. It seems likely they will fold again later today at the final vote and Trump will get his Bill.
It's interesting nevertheless that at his meeting with the holdout Republican House members yesterday, Trump appeared not to know that Medicaid was being affected by the cuts. Typically, the tax cuts are front-loaded and the SNAP work requirements will only come into effect after the midterms; while the main cuts to Medicaid are scheduled to take effect in 2028, perhaps too late for their full impact to be felt before the next general election.
Trump lies like a rug. Why anyone believes anything he says is beyond comprehension. MAGA has fallen for the biggest con job in American history.
Just so hung up with all the pomp, glitter & smiles & not listening to what anyone is really saying. Like your pets- they do have selective hearing because the truth physically hurts them!
Trump doesn't read. He doesn't listen. What is on his mind is himself. Although some of this does not go into effect until later - the raids, the terror is in effect NOW. And that is what is being funded and that is the RUSH. More $$ for ICE. And is it really ICE - or some goon in hooded black?!
It's 940 pages so it's a safe bet that he hasn't even bothered to get a copy on his desk. What he has done is promise not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or social security.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFl0K0DxZFU
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p4Nj8MwefEI
💯
He doesn't know what day it is let alone what's in the bill. I bet he knows when his next T-time is.
Happy Hour at McDonalds?
Russell, I can't help thinking these legislators are operating as if there will be no consequences for their actions. One thinks that they would worry about the electoral penalty of passing such a heinous bill. And yet, only Lisa Murkowski has expressed a weak-tea concern about the results of the bill, after she went ahead and voted "yea."
Donald utterly ignores Democrats and engages only with Republicans when he's whipping votes. Is he promising them that he will suspend the mid-terms through some trumped-up emergency? Is he promising to create a loophole, blessed by SCOTUS, whereby he can run for a third term because his first two were not consecutive?
Perhaps the delayed effects of this grotesque bill are merely an "insurance policy," in case Donald is unable to prevent the coming elections.
Murkowski got a two-year exemption from the food stamp requirements for her home state of Alaska as a condition of voting for the Bill and it's clear she didn't like being confronted about the Faustian pact she had made with Trump's minions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woICWzKPUs4&t=2s
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/01/trump-bill-murkowski-alaska-vote.html?msockid=13378ba6f3b860b635ee9e79f29f61ee
It makes one wonder who else has managed to secure this sort of sordid deal. Tom Cole, chair of the powerful House Appropriations committee has been boasting that his state of Oklahoma will not suffer serious federal cuts.
The “insurance policy” theory, Dale, seems plausible. Also likely people will have forgotten about cuts that haven’t taken place yet.
Russell, they might be cruel but not stupid.
It's stupid to be cruel.
Well let's hope that many of them end up with egg on their faces after the midterms.
The timing is the point. Take the money and run before people find out and get mad.
The images of the die-in at Fitzpatrick's office are worth taking a look at. I give giant kudos to the people who showed up to do that. https://buckscountybeacon.com/2025/07/photo-essay-hundreds-participate-in-die-in-at-congressman-brian-fitzpatricks-office-to-highlight-deadly-stakes-of-gop-budget/
I have tried to reach each of these, but with my 88005 zip code, my emails are not accepted. I've written letters to each of these to their HOME offices stating I am not a constituent, but what they vote on effects me - dramatically. I never get a response, of course, but I do think my letter gets tallied. Phone calls? Pissing in the wind?
Penny, I've sent more than a 150 postcards/letters to my senator, Dave McCormick, and I have yet to receive a response. He's a sycophant to the core.
All mail must be recorded as received to any politician!
Try to reach out to their constituents. Even those who claim they aren't political. This bill kills people.
As long as the people it kills remain anonymous, the killing won’t upset many of us very much.
If you MAIL the offices, it has to be recorded. Can't stop you!
thank you for this -- I will call all the NY reps on the list this morning
I did the same in Pennsylvania. One of them disconnected my call when I said I was a Pennsylvanian, but not a constituent. So I called back and lied to get through.
Daniel thank you for this list. Give yourself the gift of Independence before the 4th arrives and call these representatives to not vote for the Billionaires Budget Bill. Creating a working class where the sick and disabled cannot get health care and children go hungry is not what America is about. As our Prof. Richardson has pointed out 150 Billion goes for Boarder and ICE. This money jails all of us who oppose Trump's authoritarian regime.
If you do not live in these Republican districts, look up a zip code in the district before calling. Keep the phones jammed against this anti-American bill.
Independence? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOOQfGWt8Hc
I have called the IL house republicans, though I am not part of their district, and could only leave a voice message. Not sure if it got through or will make a difference.
Thanks Daniel.
Our country was never inhumane, some people were, and this past November "we" voted them to rule us. What a tragic mistake .
Alligator Auschwitz certainly sounds more apt. I will be using it henceforth.
Religious leaders? I don't think they know what they're there for.
Pope Leo has been scolding the Trump administration. I hope his condemnation filters down to the Fascist American Cardinals, Bishops and Priests. There are many of them and they need to bring their parishioners back to reality.
American citizens are being rounded up and put in Alligator Auschwitz without due process. What ever happened to "no cruel and unusual punishment."
“ … they need to bring their parishioners back to reality.” First of all, too many voted for Trump. Cal Dolan revels in being Trump’s bff. Second, too many bishops have lost whatever moral authority they had. OTOH, Pope Leo should pass the USCCB and speak to American Christians directly.
💯
GJ, just wait for one of those storms to hit South Florida and then you'l have in full view what is cruel and unusual punishment.....
Tragic and predictable and inevitable
At full capacity of 5 thousand I wonder how they would evacuate those poor souls to safety if there's a need. Hope they have contingency plans. 🤞
Pope Francis should have fired all the Amerian bishops when he was in charge.
Please don't paint all religious leaders with the same brush. I know a number of them who are just as enraged as we are, and are actively working right along side of us in attempts to bring about change.
Your point is well taken Maria and you are right. Don't feel offended by generalizations please.
I'm not offended. Generalizations are not helpful, or accurate. There are a number of religions which are very active in fighting what this current administration does and working to effect change. I'm just saying to give credit where credit is due, instead of maligning all of them.
I'd be interested in knowing in particular which religions are very active in fighting what the current administration does/is doing? Do you know of any you could name, please?
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/01/16/column-a-catholic-pastor-speaks-out-about-trump-some-parishioners-walk-out/
He used to be my pastor before he was moved to another parish.
He's the real deal.
There are some very skewed views from church leaders who have not chosen to speak the REAL truth of God. In those congregations, I can only ask that the true believers stand and walk out. I watched it happen in an evangelical church in FL. They were crying, humble & accepting of the love from others. Those 'churches' no longer exist!
I know Alligator Auschwitz is the real name, but I really think it's important to attach Miller's name to this hellscape. He is the architect of the whole immigration nightmare unleashed on America. I call it Miller's Wet Dream because that's what it is.
He may be the architect, but the real blame, I keep saying, goes back to Mitch McConnell. Remember Mitch? That is the BIG "Y" in the road.
“But they’ll get over it.” Yeah, death from lack of health care will definitely silence people. What a POS.
Yeah. And we're so gently reminded by Joni Ernst that we all die anyway.
No. The real blame lies with the 77 million Americans who voted for Trump.
Mitch McConnell is a symbol for the Republican “party.” Totally devoid of feeling for his fellow humans.
And the very model of hypocrisy.
That’s so Gilbert and Sullivan rhythmically! Can’t remember which one, but maybe “Mikado.” Time to write the comedic aspect of Mitch. Might be able to make his party die laughing.
Pirates of Penzance. How appropriate
As horrific as it is, it can't be compared to Auschwitz at the moment. One of the things that helped people vote for Trump even though they weren't keen on him at all was the hyperbole from others who predicted what Trump was likely to do (eg. talk of Hitler) versus what people were seeing for themselves (an obnoxious, foul mouthed bully who they also (falsely) believed was a brilliant business man). Much better to be honest, especially as Trump's lies are revealing themselves through their consequences for people who voted for him.
I “honestly “ believe that Alligator Auschwitz’s is accurate. I agree with Steve Schmidt. Many will die there, which I believe is the purpose.
But we were / are right about the felon rapist - he aspires to be a hitler - we can all see it with our very eyes if they're open...
Soon you won't care that you were right. You will be looking to learn from this very recent history to find messages that actually do reach people who care but don't have your intelligence and insight and have been conned.
Heather has mentioned her friends who don't pay attention to politics and she has a down to earth communication style and an incredibly effective way of explaining things that are new to people. That's a real sign of the magnitude of the communication job confronting the pro-democracy community.
Sandra, when you look at how Auschwitz started, as a detention center for the "undesirables" it makes sense.
Let me try to explain it another way. A lot of non-MAGAs who voted for Trump don't think about how something may evolve considering what's been going on, they look at the thing claimed and compare it to what they see and conclude hyperbole and partisanship and switch off. What most people know of Auschwitz is not what this sadistic place is, so calling it Auschwitz isn't helpful, especially when it can be called out for what it is right now which vast numbers of people will probably question.
Better to deal with the reality and have a chance to put a stop to things than having your prediction come true down the track when Miller and Trump have established their “network” of these things as Trump said. You won't even get a smidgen of pleasures when you say your I told you so.
Sandra, when the driver of the car you're riding in shows no indication of coming to a stop at a crossing where a speeding train is approaching, it is unacceptable to nonchalantly scold your fellow passengers for screaming "STOP!" simply because the collision hasn't yet happened.
We've all seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. It's ugly. Millions die.
I didn't say anything about being “nonchalant”. These sadists are calling the thing “Alligator Alcatraz”, and at the moment gangs of violent. armed, unidentified masked men are kidnapping people off the streets and this is where many of those kidnapping victims will be ‘housed’ without due process for years. And there will be deaths, many of them.
I don't, for one moment, believe people of goodwill (including non-Republican politicians) can't create such serious grassroots concern about the truth right now that its worth turning people off with what they will only consider hyperbole at this point.
We know that dismissal of the Hitler talk as hyperpartisanship is one of a number of reasons non-MAGA people voted for Trump and put the US in this position. Why repeat the mistake and help create the conditions for what you fear?
Sandra, of course you didn't use the word, "nonchalant" in your comment. I was characterizing the tone of your scold that we shouldn't use "Hitler talk."
Your comment is the first I've heard of "non-MAGA people voting for Trump because of Hitler talk." Color me skeptical.
I've been hearing it in focus groups - voters actually saying these things - voters who didn't like Trump but believed he was the best bet.
I'm not scolding. I'm just trying to be objective because it seems to me the country is probably now passed the time it can afford to make the same mistake - the intelligent and deeply caring people with insight need to learn from its very, very recent history and find effective communication tools.
I should have also mentioned the suffering of those detained who don't die. That suffering will be beyond what most of us can imagine.
Miselle, if you think it's time for the religious leaders to stand up to cruelty, you better find a comfortable chair to sit on because it might take a long time....too long.
Start with Franklin Graham.
Even though his father Billy Graham was an anti semetic, (which I did not know when as a child I attended the Billy Graham Crusades in Boston) he sure made the media pay attention to religion. Franklin Graham dealt with drug abuse & other problems. Dad loved him still. BUT, Franklin has made it public his anti Jewish views amongst his other views. He is but a sad relic of people that can & do spread the GOOD WORD of the Gospel. He needs to go the way of Baker, Swaggeart & others who were consumed by worldly passions. Sick people & sick that Franklin hasn't figured out that he needs to just go away/ private.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/01/16/column-a-catholic-pastor-speaks-out-about-trump-some-parishioners-walk-out/
He used to be my pastor, though he was moved to another parish.
He's the real deal.
I disagree. They already are. Please see my response above.
I’m in Florida and intend to keep fighting! Share from a Robert Hubbell/Today’s Edition reader.It took me just under half hour this morning to call using a short message. 💪💙🇺🇸
HH & ML
Democrats Delive
If you're as disgusted as I am about the MAGA Murder Bill, I've put together a list of vulnerable Republicans with their contact info and hyperlinks to their social media accounts, as well as phone and social media comment templates. (if you can't get through to their DC office, call their local office - can be found on their website.) And if you call now - you'll just get voicemail which makes it very fast. https://democratsdeliver.substack.com/p/we-ride-at-dawn-bitches?r=51f18
#PublicHealthHaiku
Building more ahead /
All around U.S., each state /
Concentration camps.
Time to act is now /
These camps perverting justice /
Will be filled in time.
One of Trump's new concentration camps is 50 miles from my house, middle of nowhere...
Mary Pat, my sympathies. I live in National Historic Printers Row Chicago listening to ICE sirens, writing postcards from TonyTheDemocrat in Atlanta, urging Democrats to vote. As there are so many votes being taken between now and November of ‘26, the writing helps keep me sane in this disaster. Having been part of the “War Effort” as a small child with three uncles overseas, in my “second childhood,” that so many of my fellow Americans are behaving like the “enemy,” is both sickening and terrifying. Auschwitz indeed!
#PublicHealthHaiku
Camps springing up /
Following horrid pattern /
Punishing dussent.
You’re right. We need to reframe these names they think are so clever.
I agree-keep wondering if their adding a gas shower and crematorium-seriously horrible stuff.
You are aware the Catholic Church and the Board of the Methodist Church are under “investigation for criminally assisting migrants”. Catholic’s since January and Methodists since this post:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/faith-groups-say-house-republicans-probe-into-immigration-work-violates-their-religious-freedom/ar-AA1Hqh29?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=971ce71716f04c419a2d207e1215c41b&ei=87
Or just a viewing stand for the alligator "wrestling" matches. I am suddenly feeling so nauseous.
#PublicHealthHaiku
Building more ahead /
All around U.S., each state /
Concentration camps.
Time to act is now /
These camps perverting justice /
Will be filled in time.
Miselle, we often hear psychoanalyst Theodor Reik's statement misquoted and misattributed: "It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes."
I think we have passed the rhyming stage and see Donald's murderous band of monsters playing from sheet music written by Hitler, himself. Nazi Germany was overwhelmingly Christian, 54% Protestant and 41% Roman Catholic.
Out of 75.4 million Deutsche Christens, only one clergyman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, stood up against Hitler, and he was hanged for it.
Today, of 343.6 million Americans, only 40% identify as Protestant and 19% as Roman Catholic. Of those 202.7 million Christians, 109.2 are evangelical and conservative Catholic, and they are totally on board with the Trump regime.
Based on those numbers, we can count on one hand the clergy who will speak out loudly against Trump, and we can expect only muffled objections from any religious denomination.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/01/16/column-a-catholic-pastor-speaks-out-about-trump-some-parishioners-walk-out/
Fr Bill was my pastor before he was transferred to another church. He's the real deal.
And btw, I can easily count a dozen Catholics who are not at all on board with Trump.
Regardless of being conservative, I do not see how any true "christian" can support DJT and his policies. Cognitive dissonance.
Deborah, if you'd read some of my comments over the past few months, you would get a pretty good picture of how it happens.
First of all, you'd need to disabuse yourself of the traditional definition of "christian." It is now a cultural term, not one that describes a follower of Jesus. For Trump's evangelicals, Jesus' name is something one attaches to the end of a prayer, like a wax seal, a talisman that is supposed to force God to comply with the requests and demands contained in the prayer.
Evangelicals prefer the angry God of the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament), who's constantly raging and smiting.
I do not disagree with you but I am unwilling to let the MAGA christians claim the term as their own any more than I am willing to let the far right claim the American flag as their exclusive symbol. Tomorrow morning I will raise the American flag to celebrate Independence Day but Saturday morning I will replace it with a flag that says Defend Democracy, which is what I am flying now.
Not "just" inhumane, a total nightmare, that I hope I will awake from before I die, so I can see my grand kids having the life I have hoped for them
Miselle, I TOTALLY agree with you on all counts! Democrats, Independents, progressives, former Republicans and others need some catchy phrases that will unite us. Horrifyingly, "Alligator Auschwitz" is spot on.
A visionary educator and Catholic priest gave a powerful speech saying that "Americans help each other. That's who we are as a nation." Indeed, our government was founded to protect and serve--not harm--us. I think we need to use the language of "help not harm." We need a rallying cry that speaks the truth and touches people's hearts to unite and galvanize us. As it implies all Americans and our neighbors, and the concept of mutual aid and basic human kindness, I like the slogans "Americans help each other" and "Harming Americans is wrong and unpatriotic." Yesterday someone in this group said that "we look out for each other." Yes! Let's spread that message of "help not harm" as an antidote to the destructive MAGA agenda.
That is a good name for it. I hope the press will use it.
Is THAT why those
creepy ICE thugs wear masks, bc they’re actually militia members instead of whatever original ICE cops were?
As soon as he freed all the January 6 rioters, my thoughts went to how he would use them for brown-shirting.
Fran B, my thought too. They behave like Mussolini’s and Hitler’s thugs.
The fact that we don't know for sure WHO they are is the problem. Law enforcement should not be unidentified to the public who it serves and who pays its salary.
Make it illegal for ICE to wear masks. That they have to show ID. And their cars have to have real license plates. Otherwise we are a police state.
We are a police state, if we are brown, black, red, yellow...
Or “other” in whatever way they define as “other”…
Black water and other private security companies I fear may be part of this. Erik Price ran the company and they got into trouble but it seems he may and other be back in play. He has family ties to Amway like his sister Betsy Devoss.
i think that is one of the qualifications - lawlessness
Ok. Yes, they need to be identified so we can all see who these men actually are. Who knows? One of them may be a neighbor of your parents, or your sibling, or even yours.
When I was reading "It Can't Happen Here" a few months ago, I remember asking myself who would be the equivalent of the violent, lawless Minutemen in Sinclair Lewis's novel? I originally thought maybe the "proud boys". But as Miller, Noem, et al. ramped up the deportations, it became crystal clear to me: ICE agents are the Minutemen. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. It is eerily prescient of our times.
I second the recommendation for “It Can’t Happen Here”
We really should all call our congresspeople and demand those thugs be required to show their face with no masks, have ID plainly visible, provide a warrant and follow a standard procedure for detaining ppl. We should get out the message and do this as a coordinated event, like at 10am on Monday we all call!
There isn't much difference between the oath breakers and the sociopaths who are drawn to law enforcement because of the possibility of abusing people. There is a significant percentage of law enforcement and military personnel who are happiest when demonstrations break out and they get the chance to beat some non-violent citizens.
Yes. That’s why.
Phil, do you have data that shows Oath Keepers and Shameful Boys being employed as ice thugs? I have wondered about that.
Yes, we have clearly gone down the shithole fast. I’m canceling my vending booths at conventions as an art dealer. No one is buying art these days. And no more purchases for me. Within a few short weeks, consumers will fell the effects of tariffs. All containers from China have stopped. This month will be the start of massive irregularities in consumer markets. My hunch.
Excellent query, Bill.
Of course I do not have that data. No one does. The police state requires identities of all thugs working for the criminality to be hidden. No badges permitted. And masks to mask the thuggery.
It would make a good pro investigation to discover.
Would anyone be surprised if it were true?
No. No one who is alert to the situatiom would be surprised. BTW: Anyone who can print can write postcards to voters with TonyTheDemocrat to help Democrats win the thousands of local elections that will help improve conditions in the interim and teach the writers a lot of geography.🤣
Learning at this moment that Dems Party National chair is setting up ACTION for this interim period. (Sorry missed the message number.)
That's the spirit, Virginia. Professor Robert Reich pointed out some months ago that there are around 1,000 down-ticket elections at state and local level before the midterms. Run For Something encourages younger people to run in elections and they appear to have had some success in getting people elected (1,000 in 48 states since 2017).
Maybe rep. Comer, Ky would initiate a Congressional Investigation about this important topic. Don't you think?....;)
I watched an ICE raid video recently and thought the same thing. A group of several “agents” were abducting a woman. All were masked, but only two had badges or clothing that said ICE. The rest were wearing street clothes and unmarked vests and helmets.
Maybe if the BBB passes they’ll have enough money to purchase uniforms? Don’t forget to include that snappy SS insignia on the jackets.
How many are not ICE agents at all but simply criminals spotting an easy entre into criming, all the potential victims (especially women) handed to them.
Like our "Michigan Militia"?
Secret police.
Aka Gestapo
Or gazpacho if you're poorly educated.
? Having lived in San Antonio in Purple Texas days, gazpacho was a summer treat. But getting the picture. Went to Dachau. At the exit, unforgettably: Santayana: “Those who forget the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them.”
However...
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/head-trump-immigration-plans-met-proud-boys-associate-deportations/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-proud-boys-oath-keepers-b2684422.html
Thank you; I've been looking for confirmation of this; actually for the claim of a bounty paid per person arrested. The search led me to the DHS/ICE employee website which reads like any "welcome to our fabulous company" complete with cute little graphics in their video of "your first day". It's absolute rubbish.
Great sleuthing, Russell John.
It is quite incredible, isn't it, especially as some of these scoundrels are now suing the government for what their lawsuits describes as:
"...a parade of horribles: egregious and systemic abuse of the legal
system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal. Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy...".
The lawsuit asserts that:
"In recognition of the corrupt and politically motivated persecution and
imprisonment of the Plaintiffs, the Trump administration has granted pardons and/or commuted the sentences of the Plaintiffs."
What's Trump going to do? If he instructs Bondi to resist the lawsuit, he's as much as admitting that his pardons were unjustified. You couldn't make this up. The administration opened the door by paying $5m to the family of Ashli Babbitt, the rioter who shot dead by a secret service agent.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/06/january-6-enrique-tarrio-lawsuit
Thank You (I think), Russell
I reposted first article on FB with this caption: ""Proud (Boy) Insurrectionists Invading Chicago on Trump's Command. Taking Hostages" [should be the title]"
It gets crazier. See my reply to Phil Balla.
No wonder, among other reasons, they need to pass this aberration bill ASAP.
Point of clarification. 'Alligator Alcatraz' is a marketing ploy with little basis in reality. First, look up pictures of Shark Valley in Everglades National Park. It is near this airport-detention center. Gators lie on the walkway as visitors (kids) walk by them, often violating the 20ft distance rule. (Gators can outrun humans anyways.) Gators eat mosquito fish, not big mammals. Second, pythons are incredibly hard to find and do not attack people, so if you see one as a few friends have, grab it by the head and kill it. Third, yeah poisonous snakes there, as in the deserts, mountains and all over the country. You can go on swamp tours in hip waders, there are platforms distributed in the Everglades for people to camp. Native Americans have lived there for 1,000s of years. So it's not a walk in Central Park, but open up the fence and people will just walk away. Think of the refugees that trekked through the jungles of the Amazon and Central America, especially if they now work in the agriculture or landscaping biz, ya really think they are afraid of Everglades National Park?
Weird comment. I don’t kill animals. I live along side of them.
"Weird comment." I 2nd that Bill. I've lived through Florida summers where people come out of their air conditioned homes, get into their AC'd cars in their garage, drive to the air conditioned store and can't stand the 20 yard walk into the store. Most Floridians are heat averse and stay inside AC'd spaces. They don't give a damn about the alligators or snakes. They are just trying to survive the 110 degree heat index everyday.
ICE is rounding up American citizens and putting them in these camps with NO due process. And most of the non-citizens have no criminal record so WTF are we doing?
96% of the small native mammals to the Everglades are gone due to this invasive species that is destroying the ecosystem. It has no natural predators as it does in Asia. Park rangers kill them when they find them. State holds annual 'round ups' with prize money to kill them. Conservationists are trying to train alligators, using baby hatchlings, to eat them. See a python-kill it!
Bill, sometimes you have to pay attention to the impacts of the critters - and deal with them accordingly. However, I am given to understand that Burmese pythons are quite good eating - mind the bones.
Park Superintendent BBQed one up and sent sample to lab. Lab result came back 'do not eat this, extremely high in mercury'. Makes sense as a apex predator.
Pythons are a dangerous invasive species ruining Florida's ecosystem, and eliminating the animals Floridian's live along side of.
No. Republicans are the greater menace and eliminating them should be the first on the to do list.
I believe Donnie is projecting his personal fears at us. A fussy urbanite like him probably imagines any place in Florida that isn't a golf course or a hotel resembles a dirty green hell-hole full of stinging jungle bugs and sneaky monsters with sharp teeth; "Red in tooth and claw". Worse than the Bronx, even! (Maybe it's like da Bronx with snakes! Yikes.)
“Nature!!!! Get it off me!!!” ;)
😁😁
We know he's petrified of sharks - probably thinks alligators and sharks are the same thing
Donnie likes to show the world just how inhumane and deeply sick he is and his “Christian” followers eat it up. Then they wonder why no one likes them.
point of clarification -- it's "venomous" snakes, not "poisonous"
The night bugs are fierce.
Generally yes, but unpredictably so. One July 4th weekend, not a mosquito in sight! Park superintendent explained rains led to higher water levels which led to more mosquito fish who ate all the mosquito larvae. I know some boaters that spent a low tide in the mangroves at 10,000 Islands and had so many mosquito bites they had hives all over their body.
100Panthers,
Thanks for the info...human beings who have had no trial but have just been grabbed from their home or at work or off the streets will be placed in large metal containers .
Neither family nor friends have been notified. They have been given no way to protect themselves.
If water rises or wind blows their container over or up or "around and around", will there be anyone who cares or will their captors evacuate to save themselves?
Will there be any method of cooling those cans they will be forced to live in?
Native Americans who live in this area are free to leave if their lives are in danger from strong storms.
There is quite a big difference in being confined in a can and being free to get out of harms way.
How about their family members and friends they will not be able to reach? How do you think their family and friends will think of who we are as a nation?
Maybe you need to wake up to reality.
Except these containers are really just plastic tents. We’ve all seen how much of Trumpty Dumpty’s border wall has fallen over, one big storm and the place will be in shambles.
True! They would need to evacuate during a hurricane.
You make it sound like a theme park.
So you are normalizing this obscenity? Please explain your point.
I am horrified by Trump, DeSantis, Noem, Miller et al, but I am most shocked by Marco Rubio. I never supported him (I'm a Democrat), but I did think he was a human being with a soul and a conscience. How wrong I was.
If he has an R after his name, all bets are off as to his humanity.
Sadly, in 2025, I think that's basically true.
I felt the same - and now he is truly a hollow man with dead eyes and no soul. I previously figured him as a lightweight but at least one with a conscience -- but how easily he was bought.
He looks more and more miserable every day, but the sense of power is like a drug. This will show the world what kind of man he is, a man of principle or someone who doesn't want to give up his position no matter what. He has had his eye on the presidency for a long time. This stint should disqualify him.
He’s in line to be deported too since he wasn’t born here. He won’t go against his master.
Ellen don't feel bad. I know a lot of Cuban Americans in Miami going through the same road as you and me.
Marco is the perfect example of a "little bitch"
We have enough information about the problem. Time to act. House Rs caved. The vote to move the Big Budget for Billionaires bill to a floor vote passed 219 to 213 with only one GOP no vote: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/02/politics/trumps-agenda-house-vote?utm_medium=social&utm_source=blueskyCNN&utm_content=2025-07-03T07:39:28
It was Rep. Fitzpatrick whose creative constituents staged a die-in at his office, and then after voting Nay, he ran out of the House chamber to escape the pressurers.
https://buckscountybeacon.com/2025/07/photo-essay-hundreds-participate-in-die-in-at-congressman-brian-fitzpatricks-office-to-highlight-deadly-stakes-of-gop-budget/
We know what to do:
Constituents of Republican House Representatives, call/email/fax (yes, fax). If you can't get through to their DC number, call their home district office. Short and to-the-point message is all that is necessary: Your name, zip code, subject of call (budget bill), and "I am urging Rep. _____ to vote NO on the budget bill."
Presumably there will be a phone bank through MoveOn.org to call constituents of targeted Republican House Representatives, as there was on July 2. They have a one hour training, though 20 minutes gives you all you need, especially if you've phone banked before. (Lots of volunteers who had never phone banked before but who stepped outside their comfort level and were bravely giving it a try!)
Message on social media. Adapt the wording to your own, if you like:
https://social.demcast.com/toolkit/MedicaidDayofAction-b428?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
We have yet another moment where now is a time for us to step out, step up, and be able to tell the next generations that we took action.
No, you're not, Phil.
At his visit to the Alligator Alcatraz, Trump was asked by Fox News how long he expected detainees to remain at the camp and instead he blathered on about how he would like to spend more time in Florida.
The New York Times reports that an ex-FBI agent, Jared Wise, who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to kill police officers has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department Weaponisation Working Group looking to seek retribution against Trump's accusersin his criminal trials. He will act as an adviser to Ed Martin, Trump's new Pardon Attorney. Martin was Trump's nominee to be the interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (he had previously nominated him as chief of staff at the OMB) but he was forced to withdraw his nomination when it failed to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Trump's false claims about Mamdani's naturalisation in 2018, Jasmine Crockett shows that two can play at that game.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/melania-trump-crockett-modeling-marriage-house-b2777273.html
So now Jasmine has blown open the country's social hierarchy of *arm candy power* in politics. I'm glad to learn about EB-1 visas.
I think that it's more likely that any 'Einsteins' you have will be looking for opportunities abroad with all the cuts to research, NOAA and the EPA.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343966/countries-boost-recruitment-of-american-scientists-amid-cuts-to-scientific-funding
Yes, I live in Woods Hole MA, home to NOAA, USGS, Marine Biological Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Woodwell Climate Research -- I see it, feel it, and it's only the beginning. It's NOT the beginning of big money influences, those have been gradually and relentlessly taking root for a while.
A Guardian analysis shows that most National Science Foundation grants have been cancelled in Democratic states.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/national-science-foundation-trump-cuts
The administration also appears to be reacting strongly to dissent, suspending 139 EPA employees.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/epa-employees-administrative-leave
The DOGE people are sacking scientists without any regard for the value of the work they do. The New Yorker had a story some weeks ago about a young scientist whose job was to maintain reference samples of raw earth minerals, exactly the sort of critical minerals the US economy and the government wants to bolster home-grown manufacturing in new industries. Labs from many different countries relied on her expertise. She was laid off by those ignorant scoundrels.
And NIH funding cuts, too! I'm an artist and gave a talk at NSF years ago -- within the Geosciences Directorate. I observed many issues with cross-disciplinary programs competing for established funding, which stifled collaboration and drove people to private industry. But this destructiveness to our shared future, to the potential of progress, and to see the disregard for human lives -- shaking my head in disbelief.
Russell, Melania it's really a genius. It took so little time for her to move from a bed in a little unremarkable town in Slovenia to a bed in the White House. How many other people do you think would accomplish such a result? She must have that "something" that makes her such an overachiever.....Think about it.
Well, whatever it is, Ricardo, Trump's not getting any of it judging by that weird anecdote about trophy wives he shared with the West Point cadets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u5qoQ0hNks
Ricardo, your comment reminds me of observations made by a former coworker, when we would notice a couple in which the woman was a stunning beauty on the arm of a gargoyle of a man. He would say, "How do you s'pose that happened?" and after a pause with a wink, "He must have something we can't see."
Of course, in Melania's case, any number of people have seen that something.
As about a jillion others have pointed out, had this been a script handed to some big Hollywood studio, it would have gotten laughed right out the door. A scenario about as believable as "Plan Nine from Outer Space," bad script, ugly, untalented acting, tacky lighting, cheesy sound effects. One Grade B Minus clunker on wheels. And that's before the scene where Tim Curry gets stoned to death when he tries to sing "I'm just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania..."
One garbage cult movie not made by Quentin Tarantino, much less Steven Spielberg.
I want to go on more with your scenario, "It's Come To This."
That is, all the things you play with are the things that drive Putin crazy about America. The freedom to be irreverent, especially. So many of our movies go for black humor, and wild humor, as if gays, people of color, uppity women, and more, more, more could live together.
This drives Putin and his long-skirted, heavily bejeweled, bearded Orthodox priests berserk. They see America imploding -- as they've not got the foggiest about what freedom really allows, opens, enjoins.
None of these dictators do. Certainly not our orange fat one with all his face paint and hair coiffure blow-over excesses.
Not just bejeweled, bejowled priests of the Orthodox Church who go nuts, but southern Baptists (still bejowled tho not bejeweled), shrieking Fundmentalists and their Bobblehead Speaker of the House who doesn't even have a bank account, let alone a sense of humor, much less a functioning spine.
Phil, if you want to know where Donald's inspiration for his coiffure comes from, check out the photo of Mary Ann Trump at the end of Tiedrich's recent column.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/iran-taunts-donny-your-mother-was
No you are not making this up. My book club was discussing the larger implications of the memo in the justice department about stripping naturalized US citizens of their citizenship this week. Here is what I wrote about our discussion. It will certainly affect us all.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/losing-your-us-citizenship?r=f0qfn
I wish you were. But this sounds like the plan. I didn't rank Mamdani when I voted, but I feel quite optimistic about him as Mayor, and I hope that Cuomo (who yesterday called AOC "very extreme" ????) doesn't pull out a victory in the end by running as an Independent
Alas, Phil, you are not making this up. What absolutely beggars belief for me is how hysterical (and I never use that word as it means "womb disease" but it is apt for the mostly MEN who run the Dem machine in NYC) Democrats are being at the idea of an optimistic and rational non-Christian person of color with great ideas being elected. It is a real sign of the schizophrenia of our times that Mamdani is being vilified by his own party as poisonously as he is by the opposition. The concentration camp erected in Florida is a whole other order of horrific and the huge gift to Stepford wife Noem contained in the budget that the absolute morons in the House are about to pass will make her largely unassailable, financially at least. And the Dems? Now they wake up. My congressman, Emanuel Cleaver, has been largely silent until YESTERDAY, when he posted multiple messages on social media descrying the budget bill. Too little, too late. I admit to being flummoxed. We could have created a plan, a strategy, a series of To-Do lists way back LAST YEAR as a just-in-case-we-lose guarantee that the Dems could be nimble in confronting and attacking the galloping autocracy Stephen Miller and Russell Vought envisioned coming into fruition with their puppet's election. The ACLU already had legal briefs written in anticipation. Other organizations did the same. Not the Democratic Party. Their fecklessness placed us at an immediate disadvantage and we now pay the price. HCR's rim-shot coda to her letter made me smile, grimly, but it is true: if Nancy Pelosi had been in charge (she had been warning people all last year about this stuff) we would have been better equipped to engage in this battle.
Hello Phil... Everyday DJT brings new Shame to the USA... Today the DoD paused Arms Shipments to Ukraine... Betrayal One Of The Worst Things To Do...
Just posted "Alligator Auschwitz" on fb, no explanation needed, all readers will get it. Thank You (sadly), Phil.
And Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his attys have asked the judge that Kilmar be KEPT in Federal prison until his "trial", rather than released, as was the plan. The judge has assented. Why? Because ICE/DHS cannot be trusted not to grab Kilmar upon release and deport him illegally AGAIN. The criminal despot's minions do not believe in the rule of law.
Yes, Trump is fat. That's not the source of his cruelty. Your continued harping on appearance is childish, which is rich, considering your harping on humanities. I find myself wanting to ignore most of what you write, but yours was the 1st comment in my feed.
Your consistent need to write nonsense goes mostly ignored here but I hate to see people personally attacked just to be cruel. Since it was the first comment it seems you were looking for something to attach your nonsense and bullying to.
You obviously haven't read my posts. I subscribed to participate in this forum since September 2020. Lately, there are a few who keep repeating themselves, plus this fitum is becoming somewhat of an echo chamber. I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that I likely won't renew. Bye.
To answer your question Phil, I wish you would making up your comment.
That July 4th deadline? Could it be because ICE has spent its entire yearly budget already, leaving nothing to cover July, August, September? Wouldn't it be a shame if all the ICE folks were laid off until October, when the new year's budget kicks in? Just asking..........
That planned ICE budget is $175 billion. What are they planning to do with it, invade Canada from one end to the other, dropping bunker-buster bombs every 50 miles?
NATO's entire civil order command and control budget is only about $7 billion. That giant sucking sound you hear is TENS of billions flying out of REAL border security in the face of terrorist threats, cybercrime, counterintelligence against foreign adversaries who are looking for new 9/11s.
Talk about an open invitation to every enemy we have out there. Come and get it. The salad bar is wide open....
It will be interesting when a masked vigilante group dressed in black with AR-15s kidnaps one of the Trump kids or grandkids. Except for Tiffany, they are all "birthright" citizens that can get deported to any country that will take them judging by what Trump has done so far. Ivanka and Melania had these "illegals" before they were naturalized American citizens so they are fair game in Trumpworld.
If someone is "orange" are they also people of color?
GJ, detail nanny here. Ivana was Donald's first imported wife. Ivanka is their "birthright" daughter.
The confusion is understandable. Donald has publicly expressed an interest in dating Ivanka.
Ah, you’ve arrived at the heart of things… yes, we’re left wide-open to foreign attack, both cyber and real 😭
Wise and gutsy perception
She needs that money for her cosplay stunts. Imagine most of it going to contractors that will send kickbacks to their private accounts.
With the crooks and morons we have running Homeland Security,the military, and the State Department…..not to mention the clown who is CIC……we are sitting ducks for another 9/11.
ICE blew through their budget already then they should get DOGE'd for the fraud, waste and abuse in government that we've heard so much about. They're now an out of control phalanx of masked thugs that terrorize, brutalize, violently arrest and deport fellow Americans, the majority of which haven't done anything wrong to deserve such treatment. Shut ICE down and shutdown this disastrous bilious bogus bill. May Donold be disappointed and distraught with the death of this bill for our Independence Day.
Trump's failed Iranian mission cost us upwards of $700 million and his crappy parade another $50 million or so. How many fired SS clerks could they have kept or VA medical professionals if Trump quit wasting our money?
That's the real reason - that and Grampa Dimbulb's ego to "own the libs" and sign this obscenity on July Fourth.
And now people are forgetting the $700 million to over a billion dollar bombing of Iran that likely set Iran back a few months. Why has no radiation been detected from any of the bombing sites? And why isn't anyone calling Trump out for the billions of OUR dollars that he is frivolously wasting because he is a cruel and ugly Fascist pig.
"Grampa Dimbulb" -- that's a good one! Thanks for the chuckle we all could use.
Sign up for TCinLA's Substack and you will be gifted with multitudes of magnificent "good ones!"
Robin, I second Mary Pat's suggestion. I get to be saltier there.
100%
Definitely that (though I don’t believe for one second that this potus gives a rat’s a$$ whether a department has exceeded his budget - that pressure is coming from the sadists in DHS and on the Hill). He wants to put on another feckless, made-for-TV show of his signing it in the Oval on the 4th of July, the PIG.
Exactly. Has nothing to do with the significance of the holiday, and everything to do with budget.
What kind of tantrum will Trump throw if the Big Ugly Bill doesn't pass the House before the fireworks begin?
Don’t pardon my cynicism. These thugs in ICE are not doing their terrorizing for the money. They would be willing to do it for free for the power and satisfaction of wiping out the “ vermin “.
Lovely idea! 💝
Hahahaha!
You know those rent-a-ICE dudes won't work for free. The balaclava and Big Gulp budget alone!
...should have put a woman in charge...
Thank you for all you do, Professor.
I can no longer bear to watch television news.
Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) points out this is all essentially being done for the benefit of 83 billionaires.
The global pandemic changed world events.
Expect a seismic shift in geopolitical reality before the United States Semiquincentennial.
Yes, we should have put a woman in charge. Both Clinton and Harris would have great as presidents.
Thanks Beverly, and Heather…
Here’s is an excellent read on how Peter Thiel is creating digital IDs on us all to be used for their nefarious 2025 agenda.
They’re all doing this and more for BLOOD MONEY!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/peter-thiel-palantir-threat-to-americans
Thiel, Yarvin, Musk, Vance, Leo, Vought….. the architects of Project 2025 and the unitary executive theory. And let’s not forget the puppet master in Moscow who wants nothing more than to see America destroy itself. “Grandpa Dimbulb” (I like that one!) doesn’t have the mental capacity to do any of this.
All while his vampire ghouls chortle with glee over the cruelty.
Yeah, I've hoped to see how it goes with a woman in the Oval Office. Not a Boebert or a MTG obviously, but why the hell not?
What have these billionaires done for this country?? Have any of them done research that has saved lives? Have they funded any research? We know of one billionaire family who are the cause of the opioid crisis in this country. Do they deserve this tax break? Does Bezos who just blew millions on a fantasy party for his new botoxed bimbo in Venice deserve this tax break? When he pays his employees too little and drives them like they are slaves? How about the Walmart family who pay employees so little that they qualify for food stamps….and does not offer any health insurance? Why would we even consider giving them a tax break?
This Republican bill is a travesty.
Through corruption
This is what happens when you let billionaire run the nation instead of the aggregated public.
"Reaganomics" in full flower.
Nice flourish at the end, HCR.
Not just any old shitshow. A shitshow on wheels, complete with imminent war against Canada, Greenland, Denmark, the Falkland Islands, and made-for-trash-TV migrant cage-fighting bouts broadcast for the viewing pleasure of his nasty, demented cult.
Don't get distracted by this stuff. It is meant to be a cover for the dismantling of our Democracy. They are following the playbook of the manifesto Project 2025 page by page. If I was reading this happening in a historical narrative, it would be fascinating. In real time it is terrifying.
The trouble is: it's ALL important. Takes nothing away from the terror. If anything, just accentuates it.
With respect. No, it is not. He has been a master at deflection and shiny objects for 10 years. Watch the pattern. Every single time he gets too close to serious jeopardy he throws something dramatic down and the media gobbles it up thereby leading the compliant public down one more rabbit hole. Meanwhile the behind-the-scenes guys like Vought, Miller, Leo, the Heritage people are cutting every Democracy cord in America.
We must, must regain and hold focus. This is a fight to salvage our Democratic form of Government. We must restore the 3 equal branches, revisit the Declaration of Independance and preserve free and fair elections.
Tell that to Canada or Denmark, or Ukraine. Two things can be true simultaneously. And OF COURSE we must restore the 3 equal branches, etc....
This.
https://www.telos.news/p/luttig-the-self-evident-truths-of-freedom#:~:text=The%20Self%2DEvident%20Truths%20of%20Freedom%E2%80%94and%20of%20Tyranny
As I remarked in a restack…. I agree:So, so much to unpack here. Some of us are hoping that this fails for reasons not related to the obscene transfer of resources away from the most in need to the most NOT in need; the Rs bending towards submission and those who have already sold their souls are NOT representing their constituents as they swore their …worthless? ….oaths to do; and Trump has now succeeded in ….if the tide towards compilation keeps flowing…turning one of the world’s great democratic projects into a mafia-esque crime drama….American Noir.
Here's how to keep fighting against the Big Ugly Bill.
https://kathleenweber.substack.com/p/the-hot-take-and-long-take
Nice work! Thank you!
Modern House politicians dominate through outside fundraising. The path to power in the House is, sadly, how much money you raise for others so you can give to their campaigns to keep them in office. Pelosi wielded power through $$$. McCarthy wielded power through $$$.
Johnson has much less power because he came to office through a different route when the GOP ranks pushed back on that paradigm.
Prettier sausage-making when the reality was coercion through $$$ may not actually have been better.
We’ve known for years that Republicans can’t really govern. They can rule and run roughshod over the process but they can’t govern. Now it appears their fealty to Trump has turned the House into an extension of Trump’s clown car. What a cock-up!!
They aim not to govern but to dominate. Surely billionaires have the means to know that future generations will be besieged by today's excesses, but few of them seem to care. The nation can collapse into misery and chaos so long as they manage to stay at the top of the heap.
More and more studies are coming out on how power (and great wealth) literally change the brain. I can believe it.
If any of you are from David Valadao’s district in California (Bakersfield, Delano, Kerns County) call his office and let him know why you want him to vote no and that you are someone who votes. His district has the highest percentage of Medicaid covered people in California and also many farmers who rely heavily on farm workers. He actually might be flippable.
That is a an outrageously lame comment about Nancy Pelosi. We need a new word for statesmanship just to describe her. I think if someone threw a pail of holy water at Johnson he would dissolve.
(High crackly voice) “He’s melting…..”. From your keyboard to God’s inbox. There is NOTHING of Christ in that pseudo-Christian.
If Jesus ever did appear, Johnson would be the one holding the hammer and nails.
Certainly this regime far more resembles the tormentors of Jesus rather than any aspect of the man himself. It's weird how things get so twisted.
100%-with a smirk on his face…😞
As with Bondi and Leavitt -- the bigger the cross, the bigger the lie. The more performative the "Christianity" the deeper the cruelty.
Hello Alexandra... Nancy Pelosi is a National Treasure... There should be a Statue of Her in a notable place...
Hi Apache. YES. It just had to be said.
Thanks Alexandra... Nancy Pelosi is a Icon... To further her Legacy, she needs to Mentor a Successor... A Practical Person That Can Get Things Done... Didn't Nancy Get Obama Care Passed Among Many Other Things?...
She mentored Hakeem Jeffries!
Hakeem Jeffries is no Nancy Pelosi. He could learn a few things from Sen.(D-CT) Chris Murphy and Sen. (D-MD) Chris Van Hollen re: messaging and strategy. Telling the American people there's nothing we can do because we're in the minority came across as weak leadership. He's either too green or lacks something. AOC has more fire, energy and power than that. Nancy Pelosi has never come across as weak -- gracious yet determined. Meanwhile, Johnson can't manage nor to lead. He's a lapdog who does what he's told. It's no wonder House Republicans don't respect him.
Thanks DC Policy Geek... Since DJT has/is Breaking the Constitution... We Must Fight Fire With Fire... I nominate AOC, Jasmine Crockett, or another Firebrand... It will be Hard to undo the MAGA Damage... The World Does Not Wait...
I agree -- but he was pretty good when he spoke yesterday -- more fire in the belly and more forceful.
Congressman Jamie Raskin called out Trump on the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, and Trump lashed back by calling the congressman nasty names like a 5th grader. When will anyone tell Trump to stop this behavior, Sigh 👀😮💨
Hello Vicki... DJT is Mentally, and Emotionally a 5th Grader... DJT is incorrigible...
If somebody tells you "Hurry! Do it NOW! Do it TODAY, Don't DELAY! Limited Time Offer! Operators are Standing By!" you know what you've literally been ordered to buy is almost assuredly worthless TRASH. And if it has the "Trump" label on it, there can be no doubt. If you don't know this, you've no business running a gas station, let alone serving as a member of Congress spending other people's money.
Considering he's an incurious, illiterate "fucking moron" in the words of his first Secretary of State, Trump might believe his own lies, but almost no Republicans in Congress do. Even Sad Lisa Murkowski is warning the House in her own bizarre, Stockholn Syndrome kind of way: 'don't do what I just did.'
A pile of cruel and expensive trash, paid for by the bottom fifth, meant only to reward the top 1%. There's no other reason for this incoherent pile of gibberish, ideological purity and viciousness. And no reason at all to hurry up and do it by July 4. None.
Make a loud noise. STOP THE SLOP. If you don't, they'll do what he wants. Your voice is the only thing stopping that.
Lisa Murkowski is so obviously not doing well. I believe fear for her personal safety is devouring her. She clearly stated in an interview that she was afraid of Donald Trump. I am sure she is not alone. I wish those people could come together, protect each other and take a stand. I believe this could help change things…
But - WHAT is she so afraid of?
I wish someone would stand up and bust trump one on his ugly fat snoot. Then maybe this illusion of him being "terrifying" would disappear. . .
Thank you Professor Richardson.
Pouring money into "Deputized Proud Boys" also known as ICE, concentration camps --also known as detention centers, deploying a lethal fighting force from the "Shores of Tripoli" to Los Angeles, suing any media outlet that dares to publish anything close to the truth, eliminating troublesome sections of the Constitution related to due process, freedom of speech (for international students), eviscerating funding for the advancement of science and public health, withholding funds from public education in order to remove factual accounts our racist and misogynist history, reversing climate action, and telling Putin to do what he wants in Europe, and Netanyahu to continue ethnic cleansing in Gaza -the Criminal elect, his group of incompetents, alcoholics, and sociopaths otherwise known as his Cabinet, and the GOP will ultimately do whatever the head of their crime family dictates.
"Let them hate us as long as they fear us" -is no longer reserved for U.S. Foreign Policy. We've pointed troops and are on the precipice of unleashing billions of dollars to turn the weapons on anyone in the United States who dissents.
This is rapidly becoming a dystopian nightmare. But I'm so glad that Merrick Garland doesn't look "too political" -so I guess that's the "silver lining".
"Oderint dum metuant."
After winning two world wars, emerging from the Great Depression, sending a man to the moon, presiding over the fall of communism and reinvesting in American infrastructure --- we now plunge straight into the reign of the Emperor Caligula, who tortured people to death and appointed a horse as one of his proconsuls...
A horse would be a welcome replacement for any of Orange Caligula’s cabal in this tyrannical reign of cruel idiocracy.
Would much rather see Mr. Ed run DOD than the current drunk Trump installed, the ravaged, flesh-eaten, brain-consuming worm trying to ban all vaccines, the weird Dracula's daughter who heads Homeland Security. Every last one of them a failed science project blended with Keystone Kops or something.
Mr. Ed —of course!
Then Krusty Noem could focus on getting her daughter real estate licenses and keeping her purse from being stolen (again), brain worm can swim in wastewater to his heart’s content, and Pete can go back to Fox with a show exclusively sponsored by a Russian Vodka company.
Perfect.
We only got the back part of the horse.
And it is trickling down on all of us.
Why the rush? I keep reading and hearing that lawmakers haven't had time even to read the bill, especially since the voting process is being rushed through a middle-of-the-night debate. While I am fundamentally opposed to almost all of the bill's provisions, Republican lawmakers should not adopt the attitude of voting to pass the bill with the intention of "fixing it" later. That approach is sloppy and absolutely unacceptable. Plus, as you noted, it's never going to happen.
THE question of questions. No reason whatever. None. Zip. Zilchy-poo. High pressure sales tactics by the sleaziest and slimiest used car salesman God ever created.
Why that isn't obvious to everyone I don't know.
We're definitely on the same page. It seems like that ultimate conman is also oblivious to the content of the latest draft!
Trump wants to announce it with fireworks in the background - a TV moment. And I don't think they actually want people to read the bill -- because if they do, it might turn their stomachs too.
You're probably right!
How will you pay $258,000,000,000 for ICE? Follow the money.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/02/billions-for-ice-paid-with-your-healthcare/
Save your healthcare call-in-script to your elected rep with one click auto dialer: How to create your own call to action
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/02/save-your-healthcare-call-in-script-to-your-elected-rep-with-one-click-auto-dialer-how-to-create-your-own-call-to-action/
Mapping Alligator Alley and the $400 million in FEMA funds that DeSantis diverted to build it just as hurricane season starts.https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/28/desantis-diverts-400-million-fema-funds-alligator-alcatraz-hurricane-season-map/
47 is building chain-link fenced-in concentration/murder camps,
but the "real estate developer" is not building even one house,
that I can tell,
for the national housing crisis.
We need Jimmy Carter back.
Last year, 12 people died in ICE detention facilities. This year, already 11 people have died.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5374028-migrant-deaths-in-ice-custody-canadian-citizen-florida/
I think the administration's intention will be to deport people held in the Florida centre as quickly as possible as they continue to be willing to flout court rulings.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/02/stateless-palestinian-woman-deportation-ward-sakeik
Methinks Republicans from swing states and swing districts are beginning to smell their own blood in the water come the 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s political magnetism is weakening as he grows more senile and demented. If the Big Ugly Bill (BUB) fails to pass “on time”, or, better yet, founders entirely due to party bickering and Mike Johnson’s utter lack of leadership, we will know that Trump’s time is ending. He won’t see it, but everyone else will.
As a former constituent who voted for Nancy Pelosi when she first ran and every election thereafter until I moved to Connecticut, I smirked at today’s closing comment. That woman had some real political chops!
Thanks, Professor Richardson, for your article. "Die already!" I shout at the television, but sadly, as many times as I've done it, nobody seems to be listening on the other end. How Trump doesn't know that the bill touches Medicaid, I find hard to believe, because even down the totem pole of journalistic sewer clowns, Faux News has been reporting that it does. Unless Trump has stopped watching that network and is now onto Newsmax, he has to be getting the basic information.
Trump says a lot of things. Hardly any of them ever true.
That’s the reality. He just continues to lie because it seems to work for him…
He'll just unsee and unhear the bits he doesn't like.
On the campaign trail he claimed he knew nothing about Project 2025. I guess he’s just a dumb blonde.
Republican incompetence combined with vindictive senility may sidetrack fascist authoritarianism but we should not count on it. Call, write, text, email, protest, demonstrate, and contact your Congressperson to vote against the BBBill, support Democrats, and vote Blue. There is work to be done and at least a year and a half to keep doing it.